John Gunter: Singing out. Thank you for your presence. As we mentioned new new members again, there there are so many of you that we haven't even known that long, but we are thankful that you are here. You're already a part of the family and for that, we are we are very grateful. Today, we come to the end of our invitation series.
I've I hope you've enjoyed it as we have kind of been preparing for the story. Again, next week, we'll be talking about kind of the importance of god's word and again, as we embark on the story is thirty one weeks and so for thirty one weeks, every class that we have, every sermon that we cover, every small group will in part, cover the same kinds of things. So everyone in here can talk to everyone else about what's going on in the story. And what I've experienced as I've done this in in two different churches is, though it's a it's more of a high level, we're not covering all And so, I pray and I hope you are praying for this to be life changing for people. That as we encounter the word of God, do you believe it to be alive and active?
You believe that church? That's what we say and that's what we read in scripture, but do we really believe that the word of God is alive and active in our life? And so that's what we're inviting people to. It's not to just come to us like we have all the answers but to invite people into the word of god, into the presence of god so that they may be changed not by us and hopefully, we have something to play in that and encouraging and walking alongside but they encounter the true and living God. Amen?
Amen. Begin this morning in Acts two and verse 42. Peter has just presented his sermon at the day of Pentecost where people are in awe that they are hearing in their own language from these redneck fishermen as it were trying to figure out how these redneck fishermen were able to speak in their language. And so they were they were in awe. They were in amazement of what God was doing.
I said in class this morning that can you can you imagine you know, if Valentin got up here and spoke the most beautiful sermon in Spanish, but you didn't understand it. It wouldn't mean anything to you, would you? Would it? Or if I was in a room full of Spanish speakers and I spoke the most beautiful sermon in English, it wouldn't mean anything. Well, they were in awe because they were hearing from these redneck fishermen that I'm sure had the accent wrong.
Maybe they had it perfectly but they're trying to figure out how is it that god is enabling them to speak in my language and so, we get from that event that there were 3,000 people that came to Christ that they were baptized right there. They understood the gospel message, what god was doing in their life, and sending Jesus to die for them that it says, 3,000 people were saved. Have any of you ever seen 3,000 people be saved? We're gonna have to take this down to the gulf, aren't we? Heath, your pool is no longer big enough.
And so I can't imagine being a part of that. How many of you have ever been to a large Christian conference or a youth event or a summer camp, church camp? Anybody been there before? Let me ask you, how exciting was it? Awesome.
Yeah. Do you remember the feeling you felt? Like, to me, this is the way I explain it. Everything feels right. I spent probably a week in the word of God, singing.
I love to sing. I've been singing with my brothers and sisters. We've been in the word. I feel like it's a mountaintop event. Now, are you able to keep that throughout your life?
Unfortunately, no. And for some of us, we got done with, church camp on Friday or Saturday. We came back to church Sunday and said, why are all these people so upset? Why are they not as excited about it as I am? And so, they didn't experience what you experienced, did they?
But part of that is, is that not all of life is going to be up at the mountain top, is it? We wish it were but if everything were at the mountain top, that would be normal, right? And every day would be normal and so when we get into the word today, we're gonna be talking about what what did normal life start to look like as the new church formed. Okay? You with me?
In Acts two verse 42, and they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Now, you see the word devoted. Devoted means kind of carrying on. I am deciding this is what I'm going to do. Have you devoted your your life to something?
Some of us devote our lives to different things. I coach soccer. I'm devoted to that. If I wasn't, they would say, get out of here. I don't want you.
Right? Are you devoted in a relationship? Are you devoted to a spouse? Can you imagine? Honey, I'm devoted to you.
Probably won't be around much but I'm devoted to you. It doesn't make sense within the context, right? Because devotion requires, I am choosing to to to put you first, right? I'm choosing to do this and and kind of put this as an important thing within my life. They devoted themselves to what?
The apostles teaching. That's great. And to the fellowship. That we come together, that we be together. I loved Wednesday night.
We all came together and bowled. Some of us way better than others. Tristan bowled like three games. I don't think he ever made it to a 100 if you added all of all his games together. And that's okay.
We're not gonna make fun of him for it. But that is part of our devotion that we can come together and we can share life. You may or may not know this, but our gatherings on Sunday, I love them. They are important and we need to do them. There's not enough time.
There's not enough structure within this gathering that I'm going to get to know you very well, is it? It's not how it's set up. I can see you. I'm like, oh, I'm glad they're here today. And as a preacher, I'll I'll tell you what what I experience a lot of times is I get done preaching, see brother so and so, oh, need to talk to them and I talk to someone and I look up and you're gone.
I don't know how fast y'all sprint out of here. But some of you, I think is like if I if John drops his eyes and doesn't make eye contact, I'm gone. But but this is not set up for that and so we have to make time to be together. In the early church, that's the important part of this this these passages here. They devoted themselves to apostles teaching and the fellowship to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
Now, the early church we know got together and ate meals together. Now, you can probably read into this the breaking of bread as lord's supper as well that they were remembering. Can you imagine being that that close to the day of Pentecost and not remembering, right? Was a part of what they were doing. That's probably a part of every conversation they had.
But they devoted themselves to this kind of fellowship. Why? Well, it's the same reason when you go to camp or you go to a conference and you're around like minded people, your life changes, doesn't it? If you don't think it does, think about going to your job. If you have a job that's I know I'm walking into something every time I go there.
That I'm around people that are gonna influence me the wrong way. Yeah. That I have to be strong or I could be carried into that. Yeah. Some of you, that's your existence.
Yeah. But imagine this is what your life is. That I have decided to be around the people who have the same goal, that we desire to be near God. We desire to love God and love each other. As Jesus said, the greatest commandments are.
Would your life change? Sure. Now, that doesn't mean what we should do is only surround ourselves with church folks and never go out of that. That's not what I'm saying here. But can you imagine if we had a stronger support system than even you feel now?
And I know I feel like this is the best this church has felt since I've been here in five years. It feels like a family. It feels like we are I can call anybody. We can get the even and some of you new folks I don't even know that long. I feel like we've we've talked enough now.
I I can call you. You will help and you would love to do so. And if we devote ourselves to being around one another, to building each other up, to breaking of bread, sitting around each other's table, to prayers, praying together, Can you imagine what God will build in this place? But often, we neglect those things, don't we? As we talked last week, how many of us have full schedules where we can't fit anything in?
We've devoted ourselves alright but it's to one thing or a thousand things that take us away from being able to do this. And so as we read about the early church, it's important to know this was their focus. Think about where Luke has placed this. Again, 3,000 people just came to Jesus and what you need to know from that is the next step was we're going to be together. We're going to eat together.
We're gonna pray together, we're gonna go over the teachings together and what we should be doing, how we should be honoring God with our lives, and that's what we wanna do, together. Now, later in the New Testament, the writer of Hebrews, talks to Christians and and Hebrews is is kind of known as a sermon. We don't know who the, the preacher was, in Hebrews, but we, as you read Hebrews and now that I've said that, next time you go read Hebrews, think about it. Oh, it does sound like a sermon. But he's talking to Christians who needed endurance.
Because again, life is not always peak of the mountain. We'd love it to be. But a lot of times you're walking through the valley. Right? I read Psalm 23 all the time.
And when I'm talking to like hospice patients and families, I say, you know, I love Psalm 23. We would love every day to be perfect. Psalm 23 does not says that say that. It says, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil because you're with me. Because not every day is perfect.
Not every day is I'd love to have that day again. Some days are I feel like I'm walking through the valley of the shadow of death, but I'm gonna do so with confidence, with strength because God is with me. But the writer of Hebrews is talking to people who need endurance, and in Hebrews 10 verse 23, he says, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. For he who promised is faithful, and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near. Now, I'm not exactly sure the timeline of when Hebrews was written and when the events of Acts were as far as the year and everything but I would imagine it's not that long, right?
Because life just tends to happen and some days or weeks, it feels like I, everything is going well and I'm doing well. I've surrounded myself with the right people. I've been encouraged. I've been an encouragement to others and some weeks, it's kinda fallen off. Yeah.
Fair. Fair to say. And so the writer of Hebrews sees that. He says, okay, hold fast to this confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful. Sometimes, you just need to remember just like Psalm twenty twenty three, things aren't going to be perfect but god is with me.
He is faithful. And it says, and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together. Because guess what? As you sit here this morning, most of you probably aren't plotting evil. I heard no amen, so maybe you are.
I don't know. Reevaluate. Next survey, are you plotting evil within the service? I'm guessing you're not. Now your mind could be on lunch.
Our minds stray and go elsewhere. Mine does the same thing. Thankfully, I'm preaching so I better not be doing that. Okay? So, when we're in the midst of others, again, focused on bringing glory to god, that does something for us, right?
It recenters us. It focuses us. It brings us into the place where we should be, and hopefully that carries out into the rest of the week. Okay? So don't neglect that.
Why? Because if you do, you can slowly become disconnected. You're wondering why things are changing, but you've disconnected yourself. I've told you the story before. I had a girl that I grew up with.
She was a few years younger than me. She came to me basically in tears, one Sunday morning, and she said, I don't feel like I belong here. I said, Why is that? She said, I don't have any friends. And that is sad, isn't it?
But I also know that every time the Amen is said, and maybe a little before, she's headed out the back. Gives no time for any connection, and then wonders why there's no connection. Sometimes all you need is somebody from the outside to say that and point it out. I wonder why I'm feeling that way. That's why things like therapy are are great things to have an outside perspective.
Sometimes it's very, very easy for someone else to say, well, here's why. Right? You ever been there before? And you go, why didn't I think of that? Yeah.
But sometimes what we're doing is we are neglecting the the most important thing we should be focusing on. That is coming together, encouraging one another. What you know, hopefully, you notice in that is not, I am coming together to build myself up and I make a name for myself. We come together to encourage. Did you, as you walked in the doors this morning, did you think, well, I hope this service is perfect or Imma throw a fit or did you think, how can I encourage someone this morning?
That's two different mindsets. A lot of times I walk into to places I think I need to be the encouragement and god humbles me and I get an encouragement from someone. I think I walked into a bad situation. Somebody's about to pass or something like that and I'm like, I need to be encouragement and I I try to do that but it would amazes me is what somebody with faith could do right back to me because that that situation was not too overwhelming for them because they have faith in the one who is faithful. Thank you, Lord, right?
Thank you, God. He is faithful. He can handle all of this. And he says, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of somebody, encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near. Now, I think we're not unique.
I think if as we look around within society, we shake our heads at times, don't we? I don't think we're unique in that. I think we've done that since Christ died. I think we've all looked around and gone, even the apostle Paul is like, the day you draw near right now, right? Because it looks bad and what am I gonna do with all this?
But he's saying, look around, you should see that, oh, well, all this stuff is not going exactly the way it should. Peace has not been restored. God has not taken over everything. You ought to be drawn together, drawing encouragement from one another and that's what we want to invite people into, right? Those of you who are new here felt something a little different here.
I think what you felt is an invitation, an opening, be a part of our family. I want you to be a part of this. That's why I'm big into small groups. We read about that here as they meet together, as they break bread, as they come into each other's home. There's something that shifts or changes when you sit around someone else's table and eat together and just have conversation.
I know on Wednesday nights, Madison is going to bring Chick fil A. I'm pretty sure she's got a schedule, and if she goes off of that schedule, her body shuts down or something. Don't know, but Chick fil A on Wednesdays. And I know that because she sat at my table so many times. And we've been able to form those relationships, that we understand one another, we know, all the things.
Some of y'all have some isms. I call some isms. You know, y'all call it that? Some some of you are real picky about food. I know some of your your likes and dislikes.
I met yesterday well, somebody's husband told me about their wife who they do not eat anything that has a bone in it. I'm not going to call names today because I've done that before and got in trouble. There are people in here that don't eat anything with bones in it. You take the meat off the bone, it's fine. Listen, I'm not going point at them so you can like make fun of But I know those things because we've eaten together.
We've sat around a meal, we've gotten to know each other on deeper than a surface level. And that sounds trivial, doesn't it? Who cares if you know what they eat, John, right? But once once you start forming those relationships with people, then you start sharing life, right? Then you start understanding what I'm dealing with, what you're dealing with, what those conversations tend to come up And all of a sudden, it's not just, Oh, I see a familiar face in that place.
Now we've got a history and now we've got this relationship built and now that I've shared some personal things, now they may be out of our small crowd. I don't know. They know what Katie feels like though now, right? Yeah. But now we have this deeper relationship that that binds us together and not just in friendship, but our friendship is is based upon faith in God, right?
I don't know about you but I need more and more people surrounding me that love god and love their neighbor. Yes? Yes. Amen. That's why when we're going through a series like this, we encourage you to invite.
I've been encouraging you to pray and invite and bring people in. Again, because somebody did that for you or your family. There's a as I mentioned several weeks ago, there is a faith family tree in your life, right? If you could trace it, okay? I go back through my parents.
My parents brought me to church. Well, who invited them? Grandparents were part of church. Somebody invited grandpa years ago to come to church. All of a sudden, he's a faithful member and here I am.
And that's what we're inviting people into, not just a one time conversion, but the the real work of living life together and changing family tree, to change outcomes of people's lives. Sometimes, that begins at work with a simple conversation. Clint is gonna miss here in a couple of weeks because he is attending the baptism of someone he's talked to at work, right? Praise God, church. Say amen.
Amen. Because Clint was open to having conversation. Now, he he was invited and and the guy hated to pull Clint away from his church. He but he didn't want him to be there. What an important, impactful day Clint's gonna get to attend that.
We have members here that Tyler started talking to at work. Just there. He didn't look for it, I don't think. Just the conversation happened. And so we should think about this is that often I think when we think of evangelism, we think of this set program and we're gonna do things this way or we're go knock on these doors and people are gonna cuss at me or whatever.
But a lot of evangelism is just being open, inviting, being a listening ear, and being someone that's just I I'm just trying to follow God and I have mistakes and I have issues in my life, but I'll walk with you. And that's the kind of people we need to be. But if we step away from this, we're gonna disconnect, and that's no longer the person that we will be. Back in Acts two and verse 43, it says, and all came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common, and they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need.
Now, this is important because to know all the needs that were going on, you have to be together, don't you? I mean, we can come together and and we live in a world of technology. I knew quickly last night that, you know, Silas had had an accident in seconds, or I was nowhere near any of that. And we live in a world where you can find out about a need, and we can get that out quickly. But think about living in such a way that we know each other personally, and it's not a need that I'm going to express but you know it because of the relationship that you have with me or that you know me well enough to I haven't said anything at all but something's different.
You ever known somebody something like that? Like, something's off. I need to talk to them. Yeah. And that happens as well.
And so we want to be people who are like this. And it says they had all things in common, and we don't like that at all. Because I like my stuff. I bought my stuff. Right?
I talked last week about how much I like going to estate sales, and sometimes I walk in there and I think, why do they have all this junk? And I know that if they walked in my house, they would say, why does he have all this junk? Because we like what we like. But think about, I like what I like and I have the stuff I like, but I understand you have a need and I'm willing to part with it because of my love for you. That's what they were experiencing here in the first as the as the church got started.
That I love you. I care for you. I will part with this stuff and and it feels bad. We we start talking about things like communism and things like that where it's almost a force. It is a force thing.
That's not what this was. This was all I have a decision to make and I am deciding for you. I'm gonna let it go for your sake. How better how how else could we show our love for someone? Now, we do get a couple chapters later the story of Ananias and Sapphira.
So, if you're wondering if this was ever forced, Luke gives you the story of Ananias and Sapphira and I remember what they did was they sold their land and thought, hey, we'll we'll do the same. We'll be a part of this. Everybody else is selling their stuff. We're gonna sell some land. We're gonna bring the money and what they did was is they said, here's all the money we got for the land.
When they had a pocket full of cash from the land as well. And, listen to this, while it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.
Ananias and Sapphira did this deed for self gratification, for self elevation. Look at what I did. That that was the whole motive. And Peter talking to him said, well, okay, you have lied not to man. You you try to deceive us but what you actually did was just lie to god.
You try to get some kind of spiritual, I don't know, spiritual blessing from this but he says, it was yours to give. You could have done whatever you wanted to. It was not forced. You decided to do this but you decided this is how you wanted to do it. Back in Acts two, again, in day by day attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people, and the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
Amen. Because what this is you see this again, and I've already mentioned now important. I believe it is to to eat together, to be in our homes together. It's kinda crazy to me. I grew up in a church that we we were very literal about everything.
Anybody else grew up in that church? Yeah. Literal about everything. But we didn't we didn't stress this as much. Eating in homes together.
I remember when I was young, we had a a couple of things over at our house, and I remember thinking how cool it was that, the kids were all out in the front yard playing, and the the, adults were in there gambling, probably. I don't know what they were doing. I was outside. I think they were playing Uno or Domino's or something. I have no idea what y'all are doing.
But then it kind of it kind of fell off over the years. And so what I have desired as an adult is to alright. Let's change that. Let's get together. And again, that's what you see.
If you are together, things come from this. Needs are met. We we come together. We we feel a part of the story and again, because of being all together, it says, praising god and having favor with all the people. Now, do you think everybody around was happy?
You've been around people long enough to know, no. Somebody was upset because everybody else was happy, Right? There's not enough drama. I'm upset. You know there was somebody like that.
But what they could see is there's something different about these people. Right? They are living together. They are they're sharing life together. And there's something different so that people are coming.
It says, and the lord added to their number day by day those who are being saved. No program, no door knocking campaign, just simple observance of this is different and I want to be a part of it. Now some of you have walked through the doors and that's fantastic. We are glad you're here. You saw something different.
But a lot of that is because the the the time and investment a lot of people in here have put with each other. Yes? Amen. Yeah. That that we're we're gonna have those conversations.
We're gonna meet for lunch or we're gonna, have small group or whatever it is, and we're gonna spend some time together. Some of you went and helped out some, some members this week moving, right? And everybody loves to move, especially upstairs. But Rebecca said, what time did you get there? 09:50 and you were home by 10:30, right?
Because if we come together, boy, we can accomplish a lot, can't we? Can you imagine if we all devoted ourselves just like this, what our church would look like? Now, by now, our picture is is bigger than a worship service. These people's faith is is is out there in the in the community. I think that's something we struggle with.
How do we get in the community? Well, I've you ever heard that before? We've said it. We as elders and ministers, how do we get in the community? Anybody not in the community this week?
Right? That's a real question. Anybody not in the community this week? Some of you just going to go home and shut your door and be done. I understand that.
If you're retired, I got it. But for most of us, we are in the community in some way, aren't we? And so, our task is when we go out in the community, we don't go as as weekday John versus Sunday John, right? We take our faith, we take our belief in god, we take the love of Christ to other people all week, don't we? And so that's what they're experiencing is that things are overflowing from this.
They're having favor with all the people and Paul makes this in first Corinthians, he makes a similar point addressing division of course. If you've been in our first Corinthians class, that's what we've we've gotten. In first Corinthians three five through seven, what then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants though through whom you believe as the lord assigned to Egypt.
I planted Apollos watered but god gave the growth. So, it says, so neither he who plants nor he who waters anything but only god who gives the group. We put so much pressure on ourselves for this, that I don't know enough to invite anyone, that later on down the road there's always this theoretical in the future when I know or when I've got this program or when I've got the right tool in my hand, then I will. Now, what Paul is addressing is they were aligning themselves with these people. He said, don't do that.
It is about god and so church, you invite, let God do the work. Can we do that? You don't have to have any pressure. Just invite listen. God has changed my life.
Come and see him. Does planting matter? Sure it does. It's not about who plants, but we ought to plant. Does watering matter?
Of course. But neither one of these creates the life or creates the growth that God creates. And so we introduce to God. I think this gives us a kind of a healthier, easier way to approach evangelism, church growth, and how we're going to get people in as you go and you invite. Now, back to the story because that's what we're preparing for.
This story is important. I hope you believe that. I hope you've ordered your book. If you haven't, get with me. You've got a couple of days, that's it.
We have some extras. But this is important, again, to connect us back to the Word of God. And as we connect to God, as we devote ourselves to teaching, to the Word of God, we connect back to each other as we all go through this stage of life for thirty one weeks, kids, adults, and everything. And from that outpouring, from that understanding, again, you said you believe the Word of God is alive and active, right? Let's see what God has prepared for us.
I want us to be a church that is praying, that is anticipating, that is hoping for God to do something miraculous and just exciting right here. You want that? Again, if you are here this morning, you are part of a new church. We have been in this place for five years, but we are still it feels like just a big old transition, doesn't it? And you're a part of it.
I consider everyone of you a founding member that we can be a part of this, And I I cannot imagine what God has has prepared for us if we do all of this. If we focus on him, if we go back to his word, and we spend time together encouraging one another. We cannot be a church of individuals just hoping for, I want the best out of this for me. Because guess what? You won't get it.
This church is not about just me. Every single one of us could probably in in the Houston area probably go find a church that better fits something about us. What you believe, how big it is. We all have just desires, don't we? I don't want a big church.
I want a medium church. I started to go to a church one time that changed my life and before I went there, one of my people back home said, I would not go to that church. We said, why? They're just trying to be a big church. I said, what does that mean?
No answer. We all have our our weird things, right? I am here speaking you today because I went to that church. So, there are places that will change your life and you could probably find one that more perfectly fits you and your beliefs. But what about giving it to God and saying, God, change me, change this church, we wanna follow you.
And we're just along for the ride. That'd be an exciting ride. And knowing God, it'd be a very uncomfortable one because he'd take us through some things we didn't ask for, didn't think we wanted, but man, as we went, we'd be changed and changed more into being people of his image. So again, next week, we're gonna talk about again the word being living and active and how important it is in our life. And so if you've been praying for someone, if you've had somebody in your mind to be asking, ask them now.
Because next week, what I'm gonna say is start reading for the sixteenth. We're gonna be in the story. We're gonna start the story of Genesis, and you're gonna receive a blessing. I promise you. And so this morning, I've got an invitation song.
We're gonna ask if you need the prayers of the church. If you haven't been baptized in the name of Jesus for remission of your sins, why not today? He said, we're about to have a pool party the next week. He said, listen, we're gonna be there anyway. If you're, if you're just wondering about baptism, you don't wanna inconvenience somebody or whatever your excuse is, that's an excuse.
He said, next week, we're all gonna be there anyway. Come get baptized. Put on Jesus. Begin that walk with him. Become a part of this church that is trying to walk together and I promise you, if you're listening, I promise you, we will not be perfect.
You can bet on it. Write it down right now. But what I promise you is that we're gonna try to get right back up there and follow Jesus. Yes? So if you have any needs this morning, would you come as we stand?