[0:00] enjoyed the service so far. That was a new song for many of us that Jared just let us in, but I think I'd heard it a couple times maybe on Christian radio, but I appreciate the atmosphere that it helped set for our service, the remainder of it. He really is worth it all, isn't he?
[0:17] All the getting up on Sunday morning, all the trying to not respond to one another in the flesh how we want to, trying to be led by the Spirit. He is worth all of it. We are in our final installment of our series on Christian community, the body of Christ, the family of God coming together in fellowship, and let's look by way of review back at some of these lessons from the early church that we have learned to be in community with one another. So I want to remind us before we dive into it of this quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the church is the church only when it exists for others.
[0:57] God did not establish his mighty, powerful, Spirit-filled church on earth to be a social club. We are not just to exist for ourselves and our own enjoyment. We are to exist for the glory of God, for God's purposes, and he has made his purposes very, very plain. We are to be a missional body, going back to the previous series that we finished a few weeks ago, being on mission for God to the community around us and to one another. So the church is the church when it exists for others.
[1:35] Acts chapter 2 and verse 42. Would you mind turning in the Word of God there with me? Acts chapter 2 and verse 42. We'll read it and then kind of recap what we have looked at the past few weeks.
[1:47] When you've arrived there in your Bible, would you mind joining us in standing if you're able to, if you're physically able, and we'll read this together out of Acts chapter 2 and verses 42 down through 47.
[2:08] I'm reading this one from the New Living Translation. It should be similar to what you have in front of you. Acts chapter 2 verses 42 through 47. Let's read it. All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship and to sharing in meals, including the Lord's Supper and to prayer. That's kind of been the keynote verse there for us as we've been looking, breaking down what exactly was this church like?
[2:34] What exactly did they do? What are the very practical ways that God moved in their community? And then we get to see the results of that in verses 43 through 47.
[2:44] A deep sense of awe came over them all and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. Man, we want to see God work in miraculous ways, don't we? Well, we've got to follow His recipe for that kind of success.
[2:59] And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. What an evidence of community. They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need.
[3:11] They worshiped together at the temple each day, met in homes for the Lord's Supper and shared their meals with great joy and generosity, all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people.
[3:24] And each day, the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved. What a picture. No wonder that movement lasted. No wonder that still in 2024, there are thousands and thousands of churches scattered around this globe still trying to follow what this movement started, what Jesus instituted.
[3:48] We follow Jesus, don't we? We've chosen the Jesus way. And that's what we're looking at here in Acts chapter 2, verses 42 through 47.
[3:58] So a couple of weeks ago, we looked at this truth. We study truth together. Kind of factor number one or ingredient number one in this recipe for how to have Christian community is we must study truth together.
[4:14] And our takeaway from that sermon was, will I commit to grow together? Grow together with my church community by studying truth together. And as we launched our discipleship groups that are now a weekend, we all kind of kicked them off last Sunday.
[4:30] And Sunday night, Monday night, Tuesday night, a couple different groups meeting. And then Wednesday night, we had five different groups going on studying truth together last week, as well as our Sunday school classes, as well as right here in the morning service and the things that we've already had going.
[4:46] Grow group that meets Sunday afternoon. There's a lot of different ways that we've already been trying to study truth together. And we're continuing to add to that. We fellowship together.
[4:58] A couple of weeks ago, we looked at this. We fellowship together. It's that word koinonia that we find in the Bible that means fellowship. And we broke that down. And our takeaway was, will I commit to partnering, partnership with my church community in fellowship together?
[5:15] Y'all please be seated. I'm so sorry. Sorry. We're a little bit out of order. Usually I read the Bible, I pray, and then you sit down. I understand that.
[5:27] I left the prayer part off because we're going to get to that in just a moment. And yeah, sorry about that. I just wanted to see what your all cardio levels are right now. Kidding with you.
[5:38] All right. So partnering with our church community together. Hey, I am amazed by the partnership that y'all just displayed by, well, they're still standing, so I guess I'll still stand. It's amazing.
[5:48] Somebody had to take the lead and say, okay. But fellowship together is a powerful, powerful force. And y'all, that's something that we cannot manufacture. You can't just create fellowship and see it happen.
[6:01] It has to really be born out of hearts coming together for the purpose of tearing down walls, learning more about each other, opening ourselves up.
[6:12] There's a layer of intimacy there. There's a layer of being willing to be hurt, being willing to be let down, or maybe even letting down someone else. But when we break down those walls, we can have Christian community by fellowshipping together.
[6:28] And then last Sunday, we talked about food. Talked about eating together. It was a lot of fun. And I can't tell you how many times later that week I had people from our church mentioning to me, hey, we're eating together.
[6:41] I just wanted to let you know at our D group on Wednesday night, we ate together and went to lunch with a family in our church right after the morning service. Said, you know, we talked about eating together. We should probably eat together. So it was great to talk about all the different instances in the Bible where Jesus would eat together with his disciples or with other people that were Jesus followers or even just in the community, publicans and sinners, the Bible calls them sometimes.
[7:06] But he knew that that fellowship is created when you eat together or break bread together. So the takeaway was, will I commit to unite with my church community by eating together?
[7:17] We do that in homes, gathering together with friends outside of our morning services, actually reaching across the aisle and saying, hey, would you like to come to dinner with me? Hey, I'd like to get to know you better. Hey, I'd like to become closer to you, my brother or sister in Christ.
[7:30] We also do that at our D groups. We have at least a snack. Sometimes I feel like what we had in our group on Wednesday night was a full meal. That was amazing. People brought stuff. The Clarks provided sandwiches.
[7:40] It was awesome. But we embrace that difficulty and that chore of providing food because it's worth it to eat together and the unity that comes from that.
[7:53] So today, the last one, we pray together. In some ways, you could say we saved the best for last. Back in Acts chapter 2 and verse 42, All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship and to sharing in meals and to, what's that word?
[8:16] Oh, y'all can do better than that. What's that word? Prayer. That's right. They devoted themselves to prayer. So let's pray right now.
[8:26] Our good, kind, loving God. We're able to come to you in the name of Jesus and we're able to cry out to you to teach us because we need it, God.
[8:42] We crave your truth. We crave your teaching. We crave your Holy Spirit's guidance. Because without it, we wander off.
[8:56] We go astray. We are led by our own desires. We're led by our own thinking, our own priorities. And we always end up somewhere you don't want us to be.
[9:11] And we find out that's somewhere we don't want to be either. So God, pull us back. Throughout the morning, throughout the afternoon, throughout the evening, even in the middle of the night when we're awakened by thoughts, I pray that you would pull us back to your side, your presence in prayer.
[9:34] Make us aware of you as we go throughout our day. We see the fruit of it. We know the promises that await us when we turn to you in prayer. So God, individually and together as a church, make us a community of prayer.
[9:50] In Jesus' name, amen. I want to share this quote from you from Bible teacher John Bloom. He said, We don't pray enough because we don't really believe it will do much good.
[10:02] Now, if I took a poll of the room, y'all would probably unanimously, I'm guessing, there might be a couple folks who would vote otherwise, but more than likely, we would get a unanimous vote that says, We believe prayer works.
[10:21] We believe God answers prayer. We believe that prayer can do a lot of good. But unfortunately, you and I don't live as though we believe that.
[10:33] Because if we did, then we would follow Paul's teaching that says, Pray without ceasing. But we cease, don't we?
[10:46] For those of you who are wondering what ceasing means, it just means stop, okay? It's okay, don't feel bad. Nobody uses that word a lot anymore. But pray without stopping.
[10:58] We stop, don't we? We hang up the phone, so to speak. People are like, what does this mean? It's the old kind of telephone, alright?
[11:09] They had a receiver here and a receiver here. Yeah, there you go. Got it. So yeah, we hang up the phone with God sometimes. Frequently. And oftentimes, we don't go to Him when we feel like things are okay.
[11:26] We go to Him when there's trouble. When there's problems. When all of a sudden, we're made aware of our need for God. It isn't that we suddenly needed God.
[11:36] We needed Him the whole time, didn't we? But sometimes, we become more aware, like flashing lights in front of us. Hey, you can't handle this. You need God.
[11:47] Well, you needed Him five minutes ago, but you still need Him now. Now you're just more aware of it. So the truth is, you and I live so much of the time as though prayer doesn't really do that much good.
[12:04] And even sometimes when we pray, doubt chokes that prayer. We'll say the words.
[12:17] Because somewhere in our brains, we believe that, yes, I do have faith that God is there. I do have faith that God loves me. I did give my life to Him.
[12:29] I do believe I'm His child. And so in my head, I know that I should pray, so I'm going to. But is it really going to make a difference? Is He really going to do what I need Him to do?
[12:42] Thankfully, He never promises to do what you believe you need Him to do. Thankfully, He promises to act for your good.
[12:56] Thankfully, He promises to bring all things together for your good and for His glory. So we have that promise.
[13:07] So number one, prayer is the key ingredient. When we're trying to live a life that's honoring to God, when we're trying to have healthy community in our church, healthy unity in our church, getting together because we all believe in the same God, in the same way of salvation, there is no other name under heaven whereby we can be saved except the name of Jesus.
[13:35] And if you and I believe that, then we can have unity. We can have community. We can disagree on other things. But if we all have chosen the Jesus way and we are asking God to lead us another step down that path, then you and I can come together in this community and worship and follow Jesus together.
[13:57] So the number one key ingredient to be able to do that is prayer. You and I have to be prayed up. We have to be protected by prayer. We have to be guided by prayer.
[14:08] We have to be led by prayer. We have to be motivated by prayer. We have to be tethered to prayer. We have to be founded in prayer, grounded in prayer, surrounded by prayer.
[14:22] So prayer is the key ingredient. Let's look at a couple different ideas about prayer. Luke emphasized the likely writer of the book of Acts, although there have been some other theologians that believe maybe somebody else wrote Acts, maybe it was Paul, maybe wrote part of it, maybe somebody else contributed others.
[14:42] We know that it was inspired by God and provided and preserved in our word of God for our benefit. So the author of Acts emphasized that this was a community of prayer.
[14:54] They did not act by gut feelings or intuition, but by Holy Spirit guidance, actively submitting to the Lord's direction in their lives.
[15:06] So prayer is the key ingredient. Throughout the book of Acts, throughout the book of Acts, we see different kind of prayer. We see both free and formal prayer. Sometimes this was a gathering of prayer.
[15:20] Sometimes it was formalized in a prayer, like we see the Lord's Prayer. We did a study on the Lord's Prayer a long time ago, earlier in this year. Feels like a long time ago.
[15:30] It wasn't that long ago in actuality. But the Lord's Prayer is this formal prayer that is laid out in Scripture. Is it wrong to pray the Lord's Prayer to God? Of course not.
[15:41] Jesus gave us those words as a model prayer for how to pray, a guideline for how to pray, not selfishly, not self-serving, but a prayer that's honoring to God.
[15:54] So there are formal prayers. There are also free prayers. There are prayers that we can just, when we don't know what to say, God helps us. The Bible even says sometimes that when we don't know the words to say, Jesus will step in and take over and pray on our behalf.
[16:13] Isn't it amazing to think that Jesus is praying for you? But that is a promise in the Word of God, that Jesus is praying for you. How many times have you asked somebody else to pray for me?
[16:26] Say, pray for me. I'm going through something right now. Anybody or am I the only one? Anybody? Yeah, right? We ask for prayer. Have you ever asked God for prayer? God, would you pray for me?
[16:38] Well, we know He is. Jesus is actively praying or interceding, interceding, just a kind of a fancy term for stepping in and praying for someone in a powerful way for a specific reason, interceding on their behalf.
[16:59] So there are free prayers and there are formal prayers. There are also public prayers and private prayers. There's an example of this back in one of the parables Jesus was talking about how there was the Pharisee standing there in the temple in the full view of everyone and He's giving this big flowery prayer and He's wanting all the attention to come on Him.
[17:19] Now that's not the only way to pray in public. And if you're praying in public to impress somebody else with your grasp of the English language or your grasp of the Bible or theology, then you're not really praying, you're just spouting off words.
[17:35] And that's not doing anything. It's not getting any higher than the ceiling, you know, just kind of bouncing right there. But then, by contrast, there was the sinner who didn't pray in public.
[17:48] In that moment, he didn't feel like he even could. He got alone by himself and quietly, where no one could hear, muttered the words, God, be merciful to me, a sinner.
[17:59] Sometimes those are the moments we need in private. It's just, God, I'm a mess. I know I'm a mess. Maybe my spouse has reminded me that I'm a mess, but I know I'm a mess, you know.
[18:13] And you know most of all, God, that I'm a mess and yet you love me anyway and I stand forgiven in your sight. So thank you for forgiving me. I'm claiming your mercy right now.
[18:24] I'm claiming your grace right now. I don't know what else to do. Sometimes praying in public is okay. Throughout the book of Acts and even in the New Testament, we see instances of public prayer.
[18:40] Sometimes it's one person praying. Sometimes it's many people praying at once. But public and private prayer. Public prayer should never be self-serving.
[18:53] Should never be pointing all the attention to me. It should always be pointing the attention to God. And then there's personal and corporate prayer. You could say individual and corporate prayer.
[19:06] Sometimes you might be praying just by yourself. Sometimes you might be praying together as a body of believers. Oftentimes in our church, we are led by someone on stage at the microphone praying.
[19:22] And that's still corporate prayer. It's corporate public prayer. Corporate just means together. We're doing it together. So both personal, private, individual, and also corporate, together, joint, unified prayer.
[19:41] I think there's something powerful about a group of Christians gathered together and all praying at the same time. Now, this church is not an advocate of speaking in tongues.
[19:56] And sometimes, if everybody's in the room shouting different words all together at the same time, that's chaos. And God is not a God of chaos. He's not a God of disorder. He's a God of order.
[20:09] But regardless of your view on some of these issues, you must understand that praying together creates a bond of unity.
[20:19] And it doesn't all have to be one person praying at a time. Sometimes it can be. Because sometimes we want to all listen to what that person is praying on our behalf or the behalf of our community together.
[20:32] But sometimes, we just need to lift our voices quietly to God at the same time and pray to Him. He's capable of hearing it all. He's not going to get confused. He's able to single out and understand and process and answer.
[20:45] And He knows in advance what's on our heart. He knows in advance what our prayers are going to be about. They prayed together. They prayed corporately.
[20:56] They prayed on their own. And they prayed without ceasing. The book of Acts, this early church, these early Christians that were joined together as God is launching the church, getting prepared to spread it around the whole globe, and we are an individual example of that today.
[21:16] This church prayed in the temple. This church prayed in homes. This church prayed as they walked along the road. They prayed as they encountered sick people. And the Bible says the prayer of faith can heal the sick.
[21:30] They prayed before they preached sermons. They prayed while they heard sermons. They prayed before they heard sermons. They prayed after the preaching was over.
[21:42] They prayed while they were being persecuted. They prayed while the devil was attacking. They prayed while they were being harmed.
[21:56] Literally, while their bodies were physically being assaulted, they lifted up prayers to God. They were a community of prayer. They prayed for each other.
[22:09] They prayed before they ate their food to give thanks. They prayed and they thanked Jesus for forgiving their sins. They prayed for their daily needs. And they praised God through songs of prayer.
[22:24] we could go on. We could give far more examples of how this church prayed. You don't walk far in the book of Acts without stumbling over the church praying.
[22:43] Can I talk to our members and regular attenders just for a moment? If you're a guest with us, don't feel unwanted. I just want to talk to this group just for a second. If you're unhappy, with anything about our church, could it be traced back to the fact that we are not as praying a church as we could be?
[23:07] Could it be that we must be more of a community of prayer? If you've got something against another sister or brother in Christ, you say, man, I just wish we were better in this area.
[23:21] I wish our church was better in this area. What if we took that to God? What if we fought the battle from our knees? Just like the song we sang earlier said.
[23:37] Martin Luther, one of the great fathers of our faith said this. Let me get back up there. Prayer is a strong wall and a fortress of the church.
[23:49] It is the godly Christian's weapon. Now, why would you call prayer a weapon? You're trying to harm somebody?
[24:00] No. But like it or not, you and I, as Jesus followers, are in a spiritual battle. And if you don't arm yourself for that battle, then you will suffer needless, not defeats, because God has already won the ultimate battle.
[24:19] He's already won the war. But you will take shots, you will take hits that you didn't have to take if you aren't armed for the battle. Earlier in the year, we went through Ephesians and we talked for a Sunday about the armor of God and putting on the full armor of God and arming yourself for that spiritual battle.
[24:41] Prayer is first and foremost when you're arming yourself for the battle. It is a strong wall. It's the fortress of the church.
[24:51] And if you need a weapon to fight back your own flesh, if you need a weapon to fight back the attacks of Satan, if you need a weapon to fight back those who seem to want nothing but your destruction, prayer is the godly Christian's weapon.
[25:09] Now, let's look at this. Acts chapter 4 verses 23 through 32. Would you turn over two chapters from Acts 2?
[25:21] Two chapters from Acts 2. We're looking at Acts chapter 4 verses 23 through 32. Y'all, we do not have time to show you all the texts, all the Bible passages from that list of examples of how the church prayed.
[25:38] There are so many, like we said before, you don't get very far in Acts before you encounter the church praying. So if we're looking at the book of Acts as a template for how God wanted this church to be and how he wants our church to be, then we've got to model ourselves after their community, how did they commit themselves to prayer?
[25:59] We see a huge example of that right here in Acts chapter 4 and verse 23. after they were released, talking about Peter and John, they had been arrested for preaching the name of Jesus and then because the authorities feared uprising from the people because the message was so popular and spreading so much, this saving message of Jesus, they released them and so after they released, Peter and John went to their own people and reported everything the chief priests and the elders had said to them.
[26:31] When they heard this, they raised their voices together to God. What did they do? They prayed. First thing they did was pray. Master, you are the one who made the heaven, the earth, and the sea and everything in them.
[26:44] You said through the Holy Spirit by the mouth of our father, David, your servant, why do the Gentiles rage and the people's plot futile things? Y'all, do you realize they went directly to the scripture?
[26:55] They prayed the scriptures back to God. What a powerful, effective way of praying. The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers assemble together against the Lord and against his Messiah.
[27:08] For in fact, in this city, both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel assembled together against your holy servant, Jesus, whom you anointed to do whatever your hand and your will had predestined to take place.
[27:24] They acknowledged God's sovereignty over it all. Said, God, you weren't surprised by any of this. We know that you predestined for Jesus to be killed.
[27:35] We know you predestined for us to be persecuted. It was your will. You allowed it to happen for your greater purposes. Verse 29. You ready? And now, Lord, consider their threats and grant that your servants may speak your word with all boldness while you stretch out your hand for healing and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant, Jesus.
[28:04] You know what they didn't pray for? The destruction of their enemies. They prayed for God's mighty purposes to be accomplished on this earth.
[28:18] They prayed for God's word to have favor. They prayed for people to be turned to the name of Jesus. That's what they prayed for.
[28:29] Verse 31. And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God boldly and the entire group of those who believed, verse 32, were of one heart and one mind and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own.
[28:52] They held everything in common. They were united by prayer. If you feel like there's fracture between you and another brother and sister in Christ, prayer can heal it.
[29:12] Uniting together, not over petty squabbles. Uniting together, not because I disagree in this area, you see it this way, I see it this way, uniting together by calling out to God together and saying, God, your will be done.
[29:32] God, your word have its way in this church and in this community. God, turn people to yourself and use me to do it.
[29:44] That's the Christian's weapon. We sang it just a moment ago, so when I fight, I'll fight on my knees. My hands lifted high because the battle belongs to you, God.
[29:58] But we don't do that, do we? We fight through emails. We fight through letters. We fight through social media posts. We fight by private conversations running down one another.
[30:12] We fight through gossip. We fight through anger. We fight through bitterness. We fight through resentment. We fight sometimes physically. But instead, God is waiting for us to turn to him and say, I'm going to use the weapon that he gave me to use.
[30:32] I'm going to use prayer. Because, believe it or not, God's a lot better at fighting his battles than you are. God's a lot better at fighting your battles than you are. So, if we need God to fight for us, we fall to our knees and we turn to him in prayer.
[30:49] And what does he promise? Exodus 14, 14, the Lord will fight for you. You need only to be still. You need to be still. You need to be quiet and let God fight for you.
[31:04] Psalm 46, 10, be still and know. I almost believe that carries the idea of remember. Be still and be aware. Remember and know that I'm God, not you.
[31:17] Not Sam Bunnell. Not a deacon. Not a trustee. Not a Sunday school teacher. There's no one in this church that is God. He alone is God.
[31:28] So, we have to be still and let him fight for us. We're going to be done. Y'all give me two minutes. Two minutes, alright?
[31:41] I don't want you to miss this. It's kind of the wrap up, the conclusion to our whole series here on community. the results of healthy community. We've seen the ingredients.
[31:56] We had eating together. We had studying truth together. We had fellowshipping together. And we had praying together. The results, we read it at the end of Acts chapter 2.
[32:08] All generosity, joy, and daily salvations. Those were the results when you combine those four ingredients into healthy community.
[32:21] Billy Graham, one of the greatest preachers we've ever seen in our day, said this, don't forget, without fuel, a fire grows cold. Well, of course, right? If you don't add fuel to a fire, it's going to die.
[32:32] And without the fuel of the Bible, prayer, and Christian fellowship, our faith grows cold. Church, can I suggest something to you? If you feel like your faith might be growing cold, it could be because you're missing the Bible, prayer, or Christian fellowship.
[32:49] Or if you're not sure that your faith is growing cold, but you're missing one of those areas in your life, I challenge you, see how much hotter your faith could burn for God if you prioritize the Bible, prayer, and Christian fellowship.
[33:06] All. Verse 43, back in Acts chapter 2 in verse 43, everyone was filled with awe, many wonders and signs were being performed through the apostles.
[33:17] This was truly awesome. We call all kinds of things awesome. We might say, you know, the Cowboys looked awesome when they played. I hope that happens again today. I'm not sure if it will.
[33:27] We'll see. They inevitably let you down by the end of the season. But what's truly awesome, we throw that word around so much, right? But what's truly awesome is our God.
[33:39] What's truly awesome is a community of believers from all different backgrounds and walks of life and belief systems and races and financial situations and all of this, all these differences, political opinions, et cetera, just coming together and praying together and uniting around the study of the word of God and crying out to God in prayer and fellowshipping together.
[34:03] That is awesome. And they were in awe when they saw how God moved. And then generosity. Right there throughout the rest of chapter two, we see all these instances where they were generous to one another.
[34:17] They didn't hold anything back. They weren't stingy. They shared whatever they had because that is how the Spirit of God led them. So there was great awe. There was generosity. And then there was joy.
[34:30] Now we have joy. She works in the office Monday through Thursday. And she brings great joy to all of us. But y'all, joy was permeating throughout this assembly.
[34:41] Verses 46 and 47. Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple, broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with joyful and sincere hearts.
[34:51] They enjoyed the favor of all the people. This was a community that was happy to be around each other. Do you think that for the first time in human history these people agreed on every single little issue in their life?
[35:03] Of course not. They were people just like the rest of us. They would have their petty squabbles but they set them aside because they were a community committed to being a community.
[35:15] So there was joy. And then there was daily salvations. Y'all, we've been having salvations in our church. Was it daily like the book of Acts? No. But God's still been giving us salvations in our church.
[35:29] We have one this week. She's going to come forward at the end of the service and introduce herself to you as a candidate for baptism in a few weeks. But listen y'all, God is moving in our church. We're seeing people saved.
[35:40] We're seeing people baptized. We're seeing people publicly choose the Jesus way. That's the fruit of community. That's the fruit of the Holy Spirit. And the more we commit ourselves to prayer, to fellowship, and to the study of the Word of God, we'll see more of that fruit.
[35:58] I wanted to show you this. Anybody recognize that? The old one there was have it your way for Burger King and now it's you rule. They're both kind of saying the same thing, aren't they?
[36:10] You're in charge. You do what you think is best for you. Can I remind you that that runs completely opposite to God's commandments. That might work at Burger King and that's great if you want to customize your hamburger.
[36:24] But in the kingdom of God, you don't rule. I don't rule. God rules. We must follow His ingredients if we want to see a healthy community of believers in this church.
[36:37] We must recommit ourselves to His way. If you cling to your life, you will lose it. If you give up your life for me, you will find it.
[36:49] So, our takeaway will be done. My two minutes turned into six. Apologize. This is it. Last one. And we're going to start a brand new series next Sunday on Be a Disciple.
[37:03] Very excited about that. Healthy community will only bear its fruit in our church if we individually recommit ourselves or maybe commit for the first time to what?
[37:15] To prayer, to God's word, and to true fellowship together. Folks, you might not realize it, but if you have a spirit of disunity in your heart, you might be holding up the work of God from having its way in our church.
[37:36] I plead with you to get on your knees before God and humble yourself before God and say, God, I'm recommitting myself to prayer, to what your word teaches, and to our fellowship together as a community of believers.
[37:51] And then I believe God can move powerfully like he's been doing. Don't you want to see the floodgates of heaven opened up? Don't you want to see the walls torn down and God's blessings pour out and see what he could do with our community?
[38:05] I want to see that. I want to be a part of it. So would you join me in praying? Let's bow our heads right now. Let's bow our heads right now. And I want to ask this. Right where you're seated, Jared's going to play a little bit of music right where you're seated.
[38:21] If God leads you, would you quietly lift up a prayer to God? I want to emphasize quietly. If we're all speaking at the same time, it would be hard to keep our minds focused on what we're saying and thinking right now.
[38:36] But would you just quietly, out loud, lift up a prayer to God? Maybe for you, for a situation you're dealing with, maybe for our entire church. just say, God, work in me.
[38:49] Use me right now to bless someone else. Use me. Maybe my physical possessions.
[39:01] Maybe God wants me to share something with someone else and be generous. maybe God wants me to be more faithful in building my walk with Him in prayer. Maybe God wants me to take the plunge and unite with this church and church membership.
[39:18] Partner with us in what God's doing here. Take on a meaningful role of service in this church. maybe God's wanting me to get baptized publicly, declare myself as a Jesus follower and be held accountable to this church for walking the Jesus way.
[39:37] Maybe God wants you to recommit yourself to studying the Word of God and turning to it every day, letting it teach us, letting it change us and transform us. Maybe He's talking to you about turning to Him more often in prayer, never hanging up the phone.
[39:53] Maybe He's talking about asking forgiveness for a brother or sister in Christ. Maybe you feel like you were wronged but you responded in the wrong spirit and you've got to go make that right, not for that person's benefit but for God's benefit, for your benefit, for the benefit of our community together as brothers and sisters in Christ.
[40:14] God keeps a record. He'll right all wrongs. He'll have justice. That belongs to Him. Whatever God's working on you about, I'm going to start praying up here at the front.
[40:27] If you'd turn my mic off and anyone else who wants to join me from where you're seated, would you just lift up a prayer? Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[40:37] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[40:53] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[41:04] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.