Embody the Vision

one more time. Good morning. Good morning. Um, we kicked off last week, we kicked off a new vision series for the life of the district church. And again, we don't necessarily just always do topical service or uh topical sermon series. Uh, we preach word word for word, verse by verse through the Bible.

And uh, but we usually kick off our years with sort of what our goals are for that year. Um, and so we're taking a four-week series to dive into what we're calling vision 31 more. Uh, which is a five-year vision for the life of our church. Uh, one, we say we want to have a five-year vision because we have no intention of going anywhere. Okay? And so, we're at the same time saying, "Hey, we're we're going to throw some goals out there because the Lord's been faithful for us.

We're in our 10th year here as a church. We'll be celebrating 10 years this August. um he sustained us through all kinds of seasons in the life of this church. And so because of our strength um that we find in him, because of our confidence that we have in him, uh we have confidence to lay out a five-year vision and say, "Hey, this is these are some things we're praying for, these are some things we're excited about. And at the same time, based on the activity we're seeing God do, we're going to put some goals with that activity and pray and see if the Lord might do this among us." And so vision 31 more is really just a threein-one statement.

It's saying by the year 2030, we want to see 31 people sent out of our church to go and plant churches or be full-time missionaries overseas for the glory of God. And we want to see this happen out of a one more culture. A one more culture. Which means we're not content with what we have. Now, that sounds anti-biblical because we should be content with what we have. But because of what we have in Jesus, we're not content with it just remaining with us.

We want what we treasure, we want others to be able to come and treasure it as well. And so, we're content with what we have in Christ, but at the same time, we want others to experience that as well. And and that's why I wanted to walk through a bit of Acts to be able to show you the fact that God gave them a mission. And the mission is always going to be unchanging. And that's what I talked about last week was that we have an unchanging mission. Make disciples of all nations.

Every church, that's their mission. If they're not making disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all that he's commanded them, if they're not fulfilling Matthew 28, then they're not a church. they're not a church. If they're not actively and proactively engaged in being discipled and helping to make other disciples, then we're not actually following Jesus. We're not doing it. We're following something that might look like Jesus or it might sound like Jesus, but if we're not actively engaged in the mission that Jesus has given to us and commanded of us, then we don't fully understand what he has actually accomplished in and through us.

And so we need to always pull ourselves back to that reality that sometimes we can get distracted in just our daily lives that we forget about what's actually going on in the greater uh greater sense of reality. And what I mean by that is what's going on in God's redemptive story and redemptive plan for all of history. That before there was anything, God created everything out of nothing. Like God did that. And that's an amazing story. You can read that when you dive into Genesis chapter 1.

In his creation, we disobeyed and we sinned against him and we broke our relationship with him. But in God's story and in his plan of redemption, he has sent Jesus to come and fix that so that it can bring us back into relationship with him. And then once we are in relationship with him, we are now fully satisfied in everything that we receive from Jesus. Therefore, we don't need anything from this world. What we're doing now is actually just helping share Jesus with everyone else around us as we are waiting for our inheritance, which is going to be an eternity with God forever in heaven, ruling and reigning alongside of Jesus. And so, when we know that that's where we're going and we know where we've been, it helps shape what we do in the here and now.

And so because we know of the inheritance that's coming, we don't have to right now feel like this is all there is. And so let's amass as much wealth as possible or let's enjoy our lives as much as possible or let's be selfish as much as possible because all I need to do is is is live for myself and not for anybody else. We know what's coming. And because we know what's coming, it actually frees us. And I'll get to this here in a moment. It actually frees us to be able to not live for ourselves, but turn outwardly and live for those around us, introducing them to the same Jesus that has changed the trajectory of our future.

And so it reshapes the community of faith to be able to live not for themselves, but for others. And it's in that vein that I want us to be the most discontent group that lives in Indianapolis because as we look around a room when we typically average between 30 and 40 people on a Sunday morning, I want us to not be okay with that. Not just because we want to fill seats. Not just because we want to add attendance. That's not what it's about. Again, I'm not after just more people in a room who say they're Christian, but don't actually follow Jesus and live that out.

What I am after is more people coming to know Jesus, treasuring him above everything else this world has to offer, and then helping others do the same. That's what we're about. That's what we're about. And so, we are going to have a holy discontentment until that reality becomes fulfilled in and through us. And so when it comes to this goal of sending out 31 people by 2030, this goal is not something that's unique to us, but uh but but it's just our faithfulness to the mission Jesus has given to us. And so when it comes to strategy, because again, I don't want you to hear vision 31 more and just think that it's some pie in the sky ethereal thing or it's just throwing out some numbers and like let's hail Mary hope that we actually reach it in the end.

No, there's some strategy that Jesus instituted. It's not rocket science and it's not some bestkept secret. It's explicit in the Bible. The strategy that Jesus ushered in in order for the church to be built and then expand and grow. Literally so successful in doing so that we're talking about it today, 2,000 years later. Like that's a successful strategy.

The fact that we on the other side of the world are in a room in Indianapolis as it's snowing on January 11th, 2026 is proof that the strategy Jesus implemented with his disciples was successful and is continuing to be successful. And so if it's successful, then we want to replicate and we want to embody the vision and mission that Jesus originally gave to them. And so when I'm talking about strategy, there's a specific rhythm that Jesus instituted, listen to this, for the church to be positioned to receive from God everything they need in order to engage the community for the mission of God. Jesus has a strategy that he gave them. He told them, he commanded them, "Do this and you will best position yourselves to receive from God everything that you need in order to then engage the community for the mission of God." How many of you have ever been to the do the dolphin show at uh the zoo?

Anybody in here? All right. Couple of people. All right. Dolphin show is awesome. If you haven't been, we've got uh passes.

You can come with us sometime. We'll take you to it. But here's something that happens when you enter into the dolphin arena. There's a chance that you will get baptized by dolphins. What I mean by that is there's a splash zone. All right?

There's a chance that you can literally get splashed by the dolphins, but you have to position yourselves in the area where you have a chance of the dolphins baptizing you. If you go sit in the main arena area, it's likely not going to happen. If you go and sit with the majority of the spectators, it's likely not going to happen for you to be positioned to be under the area where the splash is actually going to happen. What Jesus instituted is a splash zone for earth where he gathers people, he teaches them truth, and if by faith they believe it, he'll splash them with the empowering spirit of God and then send them out to replicate it all over again. All we are doing week in and week out is studying, observing, meditating on exactly what Jesus did in order to radically change and transform not only just 12 guys that he has to follow him, but around 120 people that after his ascension gathered together in an upper room and took Jesus's words as absolute truth.

truth and said, "We are to wait on a Holy Spirit that's going to come and we are going to then be empowered to take what Jesus has entrusted to us and go and be faithful with it." And so, as we looked at last week, the first chapter of Acts confirms this where Jesus Jesus told the disciples to gather to sit under the revelation of truth to pray and to wait for the Holy Spirit to come upon them, empowering them with everything they need to be faithful and fruitful in their witness in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, and as we are standing here today, the ends of the earth. So, what we covered last week was sort of this 30,000 foot view, a bird's eyee view of what the vision of God is on us. And and and and out of that, we wanted you to just catch the vision. What I want you to see today is how we then embody the vision. How we embody the vision that he gave us.

And a tool that we use to ensure, I know it was up there just a second ago, you can go back to it, but a tool that we use to ensure this is what we call um an Acts 2 flywheel or a growth wheel for short. So, I want you to open up your Bibles to Acts chapter 2, and we're going to unpack what this looks like because the four things that the church did that would be like positioning yourself under the splash zone for the spirit of God to pour out his power, his transforming presence so that as they go out, they are saturating the world around them. And what they would do is the first thing that they would do is they would gather and then they would group together. And then because of everything that they are experiencing and what they are receiving from the word of God and from the spirit of God, it then turned them to be glad and [clears throat] generous people in which they gave of their time, talents, and treasures.

And then because they realized that, hey, this isn't a mission and vision that ends with us, but it begins with us, they would then take the mission of God and they would go out from there. And so it wasn't just creating some little separate sect in the Jewish culture where they're saying, "Hey, we've been looking for this Messiah for so long. He's finally arrived. All right, let's let's just uh treasure Jesus within our little body and let's just keep it our own thing and not let anybody know." No, no, no. He he said, "Uh, you're going to be witnesses in Jerusalem."

Yes, you got that one right. But it's also going to spread to Judea and Samaria. Did you say Samaria? We don't like Samaritans. Yes, I said Samaria. I want you to take it to your enemies and then take it to the end of the earth.

What do you mean? Everything that is the end of the world, the earth that we have ever experienced, if you've ever read the Old Testament, Jesus, not sure if you're aware of it, they hate us and they want to kill us. And she says, "Yes, absolutely. That's exactly what I'm saying. I want you to take it not to just those who look like you and like you, but I want you to take it to those who hate you and are hostile towards everything that you stand for. Man, that's a tough one, Jesus.

He said, "Yeah, I know exactly. You're not going to do it unless I give you my spirit. And so, go and wait for it. And when you receive it, you will be empowered." And once they all received it, absolutely, they were empowered. Now look at Acts chapter 2 41.

So those who received his word were baptized and there were added that day about 3,000 souls. Now you're probably knowing that I'm going to go to 42 through 47 here pretty soon, which is typically the passage that we talk about of what looks like just a healthy rhythm of a church. And absolutely it is. It's why we're about to preach it in just a few minutes. But you got to see something first before you ever get to 42 where they devote themselves to the apostles teaching and to the fellowship and the breaking of the breads and to the prayers. Before you ever get there, you got to realize that that disciplehip comes from the crowds that were gathered.

It first comes with people coming together to gather and then the word of God being preached and people receiving the word of God and then by faith believing in it and being baptized in the spirit of God and then begin following Jesus. That's what births the church of 42 through 47. So, one of the things that is so important for us is that we don't just group together in our homes and focus on our disciplehip and how we break bread and so forth and how we pray with one another. It's not the only thing that we do. It is one of the main things that we do, but it's not the only thing that we do. The main thing that we need to do is remember that this mission again did not end with us, but begins with us.

And so if you've received the word of God, it's probably been in one of two categories. And if there's a third category, I'd love to meet you afterwards to hear how you came to know Jesus. But the typical two categories in which it happens is someone invited you to a church service and when you were sitting in the pews, just like you were doing now, these aren't pews, they're seats. As you were sitting there, someone got up and opened up the word of God just as we are doing right now. And we're preaching a message that you probably don't even remember the points of the message. But in the preaching of the word of God, God supernaturally uses his word in order to embed it in your mind and in your heart.

And it awakens something within you that the spirit of God regenerates you. And by faith you then now light bulb goes off. Realize that I have been a sinner who is sinning against a good and holy God. And I need to repent of that. Which means I need to stop living how the world is telling me to live. And I need to start living for how God has actually created and ordained me to live.

And I need to turn from living that way and start living his way. And I need forgiveness of all these things that I have done in sinning against him. And so where does that happen? Well, Jesus is the one who's actually gone to the cross and paid my penalty for me. So, I want to believe in the work that Jesus did, not believe in anything that I am doing and therefore receive forgiveness from him because he's already earned it for me. And therefore, I want to give up and I want to give my life to him.

I want to surrender to him and I want to follow him because he is my Lord. He's my Lord. I don't know if you realize this or not, but everyone has a Lord. It's just whether or not it's the lowercase L or it's the capital L one. Everyone has a king. It's just whether or not it's the lowercase king or the capital K king.

Everyone has a god that they worship. Is it the lowercase G or is it the capital G? Which one is it? We are not as much as secular society wants to preach isolation. We are not independent beings. We give of ourselves to something that we worship.

And so if you want to know what you worship, often times look at your bank account. If you want to know what you worship, look at your schedule. If you want to know what you worship, look at how you spend your free time. You're like, "What is free time? I don't even know what that means." Again, that reveals that you're worshiping something.

We are all designed to express and give of ourselves to something or someone that we worship. And Jesus when he comes in and you're sitting in a situation and and you you receive the word of God and it writes what is wrong. It rebukes and it corrects. That is a grace and a mercy of God to you. It's a grace and a mercy of God to you to receive correction. to receive that I was on a trajectory that was full of death and destruction and hellbent on it to then be turned by God to actually see his beauty, his grace, his mercy, his design for my life that actually leads to contentment and flourishing, but also then leads to an eternity that receives an inheritance that's the same inheritance that Jesus receives.

man, you're not going to get anything greater than that that this world would ever have to offer. And so when you come to that reality and by faith believe in it, you've probably sat in a setting just like this and received it and got saved and got saved and then scheduled a time to get baptized and got baptized and as a public proclamation of what happened to your soul on the inside. The second category, you're wondering if I'm ever going to get there. The second category is what all that I just explained someone individually shared with you outside of the context of a local church. So they met you on a college campus and talked to you about it or they talked to you about it in a coffee shop over several meetings as you're walking through reading through wrestling through questions of life whatever it might look like. But somebody gathered you together and preached the word of God to you and you received it by faith believing in everything that Jesus is accomplishing.

That's why it's so important for us to not stop gathering together because we never know when someone who does not know Jesus might walk into this room and hear the word of God preached and get saved. their eternity changes. It changes. And so we'll gather and we'll continue to do that. Before we talk about what the church does, we got to remember how the church was formed. Acts 2:42-47 is it's not just this like playbook for community.

It's the overflow of the conversion. In other words, when Peter got up and preached in Acts 2:41, which the verse 41 is the end of the sermon. So, pretty much all of chapter 2 is the sermon that he preached. Now, this is after 120 people that were followers of Jesus, disciples of Jesus were gathered and he said, "Don't do anything yet. Go to the upper room and just wait for me there. Just wait for the spirit of God to come upon you."

Peter preaches to them. The spirit of God comes upon them and then he goes public with it. When he goes public with it, word is getting out again. Remember, they just crucified Jesus 40 days ago. 40 days ago was the public crucifixion of Jesus. All right.

What what that ultimately is saying is what we are about the entire society right now just murdered So when we think about our context, it's not as hostile. It's not as hard. It's not as difficult as what they were experiencing. Not only that, it's not against the law for you to go out right now and preach Jesus to anybody and everybody. They might not like it, but it's not against the law. In their day, the law is you are to declare Caesar as Lord.

Caesar had actually set a decree out where he gave himself divination like he made himself a god and he said your job as the Roman Empire which Jerusalem at the time the Israelites fall under that as far as the governance of it is to literally worship Caesar as Lord. It's where so when we say Jesus is Lord it's not a tagline that we came up with. It's a response to the countercultural movement of Caesar is Lord. Caesar is Lord essentially predated the Jesus is Lord phrase. And so now the Christians are walking around telling everyone, hey uh we know this is probably going to get us killed, but Jesus is Lord, not Caesar. Jesus is Lord, not Caesar.

And so Peter goes public with this and knowing everyone loves a good controversy, right? I don't care what side of the the um I don't care what side of the coin you're on with the events that are going on in Minneapolis right now, but it's gathering a crowd. Is it? Is it not? I mean, you look at the streets, blocks full of people who have gathered. Same thing is happening in Jesus's day.

They crucify what they consider to be a radical leader. They even refer to Jesus as atheistic because he did not believe in the many gods. Instead, rejected them. So they're looking at him as a radical man who has produced this radical movement that is anti- everything that they exist for in their current day on all spectrums in the education realm, in the philosophical realm, in the spiritual realm. Everything they represent is a threat to the way of life, the society and the culture that has been established and ingrained within the Roman Empire. Jesus opposes every single bit of it.

And so now they're hearing, "Wait a minute. We thought we killed this thing. What are they still doing gathering? What are they still doing praying? What are what what is going on?" And so when Jesus or when when Peter steps into this court, it gathers a multitude of people who are coming to see honestly probably coming to see how many more can we kill.

How many more can we crucify the same way we crucified Jesus? And what I love is Peter doesn't back down. He doesn't come in and say, "Hey guys, I just want you to know we love you. Just want you to know we we get it. Y'all have been through a hard time." He gets up and the first thing he says is, "This Jesus whom you crucified is God whom you murdered."

Not a very secret sinly secret friendly sermon, right? I mean, he's putting all of the blame of the murder of Jesus on the crowd who gathered. But what's so amazing is when it gets to the end of it, their hearts burning within them. 3,000 people from that crowd gathered, heard the word of God preached and received it by faith and came to know Jesus whom they crucified as now their savior who can resurrect them from their own death. Nothing else in all the world can do that. Nothing else in all the world can do that.

And so the same power that produces that is what then overflows into everything that we're about to talk about. And so the second thing I want you to see is that after they gather, they then group. They group. And this is verses 42, 44, and 46. So, I'm going to bounce around them a little bit, but verse 42 says, "They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship, the breaking of bread and the prayers." Verse 44 says, "All who believed were together, and they had all things in common."

And then down in verse 46, it says, "Day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts." Couple things I want you to see from these verses. The word for devotion in Greek is defined as attend to constantly. Attend to constantly or steadfast, which is a great word in by itself, but actually goes on to say steadfast continually. As if steadfast isn't enough. Steadfast continually.

In other words, they were not going to let their devotion to receiving the word of God, the apostles teaching, and to gathering and grouping together with one another in homes. They were not going to let their devotion cease or be thwarted or get distracted or burnt out or tempted away. They were passionately allin on the way of Jesus and this new community of faith called the church that Jesus was building. What's crazy is again I know we're 2,000 years removed and church is still existing which is phenomenal. But at the same time, sometimes it just feels like we don't have a good category for this type of devotion that they experience without calling it some type of radical or you're oversaved because I think we struggle a bit with this type of devotion. And I think the reason why is because we have bought into the lie of secular culture that we shift a bit more into the isolation than we do into the community.

uh the necessary community that we need. And so, and it's not to like it has nothing to do with extrovert, introvert personality types, any of those things. I get it. I know there's people in this room right now who say, I can deal with people for about two hours. Um, and then there's others who are like, I can I can deal with people for about 10 minutes and then I need like my time, you know, I need my alone time. And I get that people are wired differently when it comes to that.

But what this is ultimately getting at is that it it's regardless of what your personality is. It's the spirit of God within you that sustains beyond your personality type to make sure that you are gathering and grouping together with the body of Christ that actually then shapes who you are more than what the world is trying to accomplish. When you are isolated away from the body of Christ, you stunt your growth as a believer in Jesus. You're like, "Well, hold up a second. My relationship is with Jesus, not the body of Christ." Where do you ever see that in scripture?

where I think one of the things that happened when I was coming into Christianity in like the early 2000s was at that time the big like the whole thing it's not about religion it's about relationship and because it was so focused on relationship literally every do you have a personal relationship with Jesus do you have a personal relationship with Jesus do you have a personal relationship with Jesus you want to know what your personal relationship with Jesus looks like it looks like a 10-minute quiet time by yourself behind closed is yours. Do you want to know what a personal relationship with Jesus looks like? It looks like you worshiping in your car on the way to whatever. And do you see what that is also produced? It's produced that my time with Jesus is only when I'm by myself in my room or when I'm in my car by myself. It's never public.

It's never public. Your relationship with Jesus was never a personal relationship. Now it is. He dwells in you. You dwell in him. That's an abiding relationship.

Yes, but it was never meant to be private. It was always meant to be public. Public. That's why when you look throughout the scriptures, sins weren't private. They were public. Worship was never private.

It was public. Communion's never private. It's why when we gather in community groups, we don't do communion in our homes. It's public. Everything about our relationship with Jesus is not meant to terminate itself on us. It's meant to literally multiply out of us to everyone around us.

And so, one of the biggest important things that you need to see here is that you've got to battle whatever that thing is within you that wants to separate you from people. And you've need to run into it and run into what Jesus has actually created for us, which is a community of faith that shapes and molds and transforms us to become more like Jesus. We all have blind spots. And the reason why if I ask you, hey, what do you think your blind spots are? If you answer the question, I'm going to say you're wrong. You want to know why?

Cuz they're blind spots. You don't know what they are. People ask me that all the time. Other pastors, hey, what blind spots are you working with right now? I said, I don't know. Could you tell me?

I need you to tell me. Now, I can tell you what I am aware of. Those aren't blind spots. It's just the mess that's in the floorboard behind the scene. We need community around us that is encouraging and edifying and exhorting us to know who Jesus is and what he's commanded us to observe. That's that's just Matthew 28.

It's not go and make converts and then say bless your private relationship with Jesus for the rest of your life. I hope it goes well. Make sure you read your Bible every once in a while. No, it's go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that Jesus commanded. All right, Jesus. How much is that?

How long is that going to take? Well, you don't have a lifetime long enough to make it work. Okay. So, that just means once I become a believer and I then go and make disciples of other nations and I go and make disciples and I help them observe all that you've commanded, that's going to take the rest of my life. Yes. Yes.

You never graduate from the gospel. You never graduate from learning and growing in what the gospel ultimately means. Which means when you become a believer in Jesus, you're going to spend the rest of your life learning what it means to observe all that Jesus has commanded. Which means you need to always be in a position where someone is preaching, someone is teaching, someone is walking with you, someone is reading to you, someone is helping you learn and grow in what Jesus taught. Every single one of us, even the 90-year-old on their deathbed, needs to still have someone come in and say, "Hey, here's what Jesus taught and we should observe." At the same time, from that moment that you get saved, start looking for someone that you can help learn and grow in the gospel.

Again, verse 46 tells us that this was day by day, meaning it wasn't we'll see you next Sunday, but it was same place and time tomorrow. All right, I'll see you there. I'll have the coffee ready. Now, we're not saying we're going to have you go into small groups and and you know, invest in them every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. You want to do that? I ain't going to stop you.

I'm not going to stop you. But I do want us to realize the importance of biblical community that's outside of the gathering because he calls us to group together regularly. And so as we as a church need to fight for this type of devotion because the world around us is preaching isolation, here's just on this point a couple of applications that you can do. open up your calendar and block out every Sunday throughout the year because of your because of the spirit of God in you giving you the desire to gather with the people of God to hear from the word of God. Man, just open up your calendar and block out every Sunday for the rest of the year. Now, does that mean well, we had this trip planned?

That's totally fine. Totally fine. It's not a rule. I'm not being legalistic here. I'm just saying there's a desire within you to hear the word of God preached and proclaimed and to sing with the saints. Make it as prioritized as possible within your schedule.

Make it as prioritized as possible within your schedule, guys. The the and y'all heard me say this over the last several weeks across the board. Attendance on Sundays for those who say they are regularly Christians who regularly attend church is 1. 7 Sundays out of each month that they actually attend church. Less than half of the Sundays they actually attend church which is not a scheduling problem. It's a devotion problem.

That's all it is. It's a devotion problem. And I can say that it hurts a little bit, but I can say that it's not because I want you to feel bad. It's because one more. We want you to have more Jesus than what you had last year. I also said Jesus is like the church is the bride of Christ.

Jesus is the groom. And as the church gathers on Sundays, it's like a date with Jesus. Could you imagine for those who are married in this room that say you go on dates weekly with your spouse and you show up to half of them. You just you just leave them at the restaurant. I mean, that's that's kind of what we're doing when we show up to church half the time. Hey Jesus, we know you're the groom who's died for us.

You're providing everything for us. You love us unconditionally. You cherish us. You're lavishing your love on us. um we're going to show up less than half the time to tell you we love you and receive more from you. It's crazy.

It really is crazy. And I think calling it crazy is what's necessary in order for us to see the importance of our devotion to Jesus. Just reminding us of who we are in Christ and what he's accomplished for us. Let's make it a priority. Again, dayto-day, how often are you interacting with other believers in some form of community? Again, it doesn't mean that you got to do a community group every single day, but group text, community group, Bible study, accountability group, it's true that Jesus is your identity, but the way he forms you is not in isolation, but it's in community.

It's in community. And it needs to happen more than once per week. All right? So, you figure that out within your calendar, within your group, within your people. You need to figure it out. How often do we need to communicate with one another and encourage one another and pray with one another so that it's effective in us maturing and growing in the gospel?

Third thing I want you to see is the word and prayer. What were they grouping together and devoted to? The apostles teaching and prayer. Those are I say it all the time. Those are the two bike pedals that propelled the mission of the church forward. If you're not preaching the word of God, then you're you're literally a bike that's like going in circles.

You know, you're not gaining any traction. And if you're not praying, then you're just teaching without actually depending upon the source that uses the word of God to actually transform the people. So, we need both. We need the word of God. We need the Bible. That's why we want you to read the Bible every single day of your life.

That's why we tried to we try to bridge that gap where you don't wake up saying what should I read today? We gave you what to read today and so read it as often as possible because you need the word of God and then commune with God. Talk to him and say what do you want me to know from this because where the word of God reveals the will of God, prayer aligns us to the will of God so that the two meet in the middle and we are then living under the will of God. We need that. We need that. It's from this devotion that we receive the word of God, the spirit of God, the grace of God, and therefore actually need nothing else.

Could you imagine living just one day without feeling like you need something? That'd be nice, wouldn't it? I mean, I live every sing. We need more money. We need more time. Need more discipline in the house.

We need more closets to hide all the mess and the toys and everything like we just need. Could you imagine living one day where you fully understand all that Jesus has provided and you say actually I'm good. I don't need I don't need anything. That's what the gospel is producing in our spirit. And when we get to that place and understand it, what's amazing is it then frees us. It frees us to become a people who give.

Number three here, look at this. Verse 45. They were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. Again, Luke says they were together. They held everything in common. That wasn't like some form of communism.

It was spirit produced generosity. When Jesus becomes Lord, possessions loosen their grip. And people matter more than profit. People matter more than profit. The gospel creates a new family and the family shows up for one another when you need the most. When you need the most.

And it might even like one of the crazy things is it doesn't mean that Jesus just kind of like, "All right, well, you need more money. Hey, miraculously go check your bank account. I just threw some in there. That's not how it works. The way that it actually works is when you're in community and you're each praying for one another and you're each walking through life with one another, Jesus says to the one who has much and says, "Hey, so and so could use some help right now. Would you be willing to help him out?"

We see that so many times. So many times when the body of Christ is communing together with the spirit of God empowering it and the spirit of God seeing the needs of everybody, they all have in common the fact that they need Jesus. They all have in common the mission and vision of God to go and make disciples of all nations. When they make the main thing the main thing, everything else, it's not that it's what's yours is mine and this and that. It's not some distribution of wealth, but what it is is God coming in and saying, "Hey, we want to make sure that you keep the main thing, the main thing." And so, we want to be able to remove any boundaries or barriers that are possible.

And so, let's enter into this and let's help John over here help Mark out with whatever he needs. Let's get Barnabas over here to sell a land and give it to the church and donate it there. When you got others who are saying, "Ah, we want to be a part of this thing, but we also want to hold on to everything that we have. We don't want to loosen our grips. And then you get people like Ananas and Safire who die in the church because they weren't true believers. So we have this reality that when in Christ you have everything you need, it then frees you to be able to give away everything you have.

Everything you have. It's radical. That's radical in our day and age, but it was even way more radical in their day and age. The majority of the early church was not full of those with position or status or clout or anything. It was primarily made up of the impoverished, the poor, and the uneducated, those who actually are the ones who need everything. And it was out of those who need everything that they were providing for one another everything that everyone needed.

Which is amazing. Amazing. That's why when Jesus gets to the the rich young ruler and he says to him, "Hey, would you come follow me?" And the rich young ruler is like, "I've done everything that I need to do. I've read the scriptures. I've memorized.

I I'm faithful. I'm going to the synagogues. I'm I'm doing all those things." And Jesus knows what's going to be the the the the closing statement for this man. Hey, you've done all those things. Those are great things.

Those are good things. Um, would you be willing to sell all your possessions and give it to the poor and then come and follow me? Well, hold up, Jesus. And the man walks away saddened because Jesus just told him to sacrifice his God on the altar. And he wasn't willing to do it. He still wants to worship that God.

He still wants to give of his time and energy to that God because he believes that God's going to provide for him what he needs in material wealth. And Jesus says, "Man, you just missed a wonderful inheritance. You just missed it. you just missed it. When we realize, when we come to that conclusion that in Jesus we have all that we need. And again, remember how I started the sermon off?

What do we get? What's coming for us? We don't need anything here. We don't need anything here. John Newton shared an illustration about a hundred years ago about how we should respond to our inheritance and I'll modernize it for us since it was a hundred years ago. So he was talking about a horse and carriage.

Um but for us it would be like if my grandfather and I always use this illustration if my grandfather was Jerry Jones and if you don't know who Jerry Jones is, he owns the Dallas Cowboys. I'm a Dallas Cowboys fan unfortunately. Um, the Dallas Cowboys are the wealthiest franchise across all sports across all the world. They're now worth 13. 5 billion dollars. The second leading franchise is around 9.

5 to 10 billion. So, the Cowboys have a pretty good head start. Jerry Jones owns all of it. If Jerry Jones was my grandfather and said, "Hey, my sons were dumb, so I'm going to skip over them and I'm going to give you all of my inheritance. I just need you to come down to Jerry World," which is what we call it. Come down to Dallas and I need you to just sign some papers on me.

All right. Well, if I jump in uh my truck, which if y'all know, it hasn't been running since March. Um cuz I've had to replace the engine. I've had to replace the transmission and radiator and everything and and it's still not quite working in its Frankenstein state right now. But if I were to get it working and I were to try to make it to Dallas, Texas and on the way I see Jerry World in the distance and the truck just finally gives out, dies on its last leg, and I'm a mile away. How dumb and idiotic and misunderstanding would it be for me to get out of the truck and just sit there and complain about the death of my truck when I've got this inheritance right in front of me.

John Newton says that's what we do. What a fool. This is his quote. What a fool we should be to think that should we see him on that milelong walk. We would be ringing our fists and blubbering about my car or my car. How broken my car.

I've lost my car. Guys, we got to stop complaining about our lives. We got to stop complaining about our situations. We got to stop complaining about what we lack in view of what we're getting. When we stop complaining about what we lack and start seeing what we have in Jesus, it then loosens us from that and actually then frees us to see everything we do have and maybe now start actually helps us point towards others to see where we might be able to meet some needs. This early church they gave and I hope we do too.

And the last thing I want you to see and this will go quickly. they go. Verse 43 says, "All came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. I think there's a connection to the all that they had and the devotion that they had that sometimes we disconnect in our world. And I'll just tell you this, the more that we're in the word of God, the more that we're receiving the word of God, the more that we're seeing how God has rigged history from creation to restoration and how he's moving and working throughout all of it.

how he's piecing things together, how he's choosing, and how he's granting grace and how he's granting favor and how he's working through and how he's stopping the rain and then he's bringing the rain and all the things that God is working out. You cannot read it and it not produce in you some view of how aruck you are in the works of God in the beauty and nature in which he possesses like it humbles you when you see his character and you see his goodness you see his power you see his might and I think it's out of that that produces the devotion we have to then commit ourselves to the mission and purpose purpes of God to be excited about tapping into the power in which God is orchestrating and ordaining in our lives. And so I tell people all the time, I think the problem that the church experiences today is that we're just trying to motivate you with TED talks on how to get you more devoted to Jesus while all the while we're not opening up the word of God that actually produces in you the all that you need that then drives the devotion that you have for Jesus.

If you're not in his story, you'll never be devoted to him. Never. We can't manufacture it for you. I can't produce it in you. Even me right now yelling at you ain't going to do nothing. But you reading the scriptures and reading blessed are those who mourn in spirit.

Blessed are those, man. That ch that changes things when you start to look at the scriptures and you see that people were languishing and mourning the death of a brother named Lazarus. And you see Jesus walk up and with a word say, "Lazarus, come out." And after he's been dead for 4 days, he just gets up, walks out and unravels his his clothing and he says, "What's up?" Like Jesus does that when you see people who are um oppressed with demon possession and Jesus just walks up and then those demons look at Jesus and they say, "Have you come to destroy us?" Like we have such a soft view of Jesus these days.

We need to see the Jesus who is a demon slayer. We need to see the Jesus who literally brings the death back to life. We need to see the Jesus who when they're sitting around with 5,000 people who are hungry and the disciples are looking at Jesus saying, "You're crazy. All we have is five uh five loaves of bread and two fish and Jesus saying, "Oh, you have little faith. Just take it and start passing it out and watch what happens." I love that he still like literally employs them when they still were like, "We don't know how you're going to do this.

We think you're dumb as a rock." And yet then they come back and they're like, "Jesus, you're not going to believe what just happened." Jesus like, "Are you serious?" Like, we need to have awe when we read the stories of Jesus. We're amazed at what he's accomplished. That's the only thing that's going to produce any any change in your life and any devotion to gather, group, give, and go.

The last thing I want you to see here is they were devoted. This is in verses 42 and 46. They were devoted to a phrase that keeps coming over and over, the breaking of bread. The breaking of bread. As they were devoted to the breaking of bread, I think it's twofold. I think it is just literally they're sharing meals in their homes.

That's part of it. But I think it's also them tying it back to remembering remembering what Jesus instituted with them on the night that he was tortured on the night that he was killed and murdered and crucified that he instituted with them the Lord's supper. The table communion where he said the fuel that you're going to need to live your life is remembering the death that I died. the fact that I broke my body and I shed my blood for the forgiveness and removal of your sins. Everything that separates you from God. Everything that literally keeps you from being able to have a devoted relationship with him, I came and removed it from you.

I separated your sin from you so that you would no longer be separated from the father in heaven. Like that's what he accomplished for you. And he did it by breaking his body and shedding his blood. And that's why every single week, because they were observing it weekly, we observe it weekly. We want to come to the table at the end of every single service because we know that again, I can't motivate you to be more devoted to Jesus. I can't um I can't accomplish that for you.

But the spirit of God can. And us remembering what Jesus accomplished in order for him to then give us and send us the spirit. Man, we're going to we're going to worship Jesus for his work, not our work alone. Acts two is not calling us to copy a moment. It's calling us to run the same play and depend on the same power, to depend on the same spirit. The dunamos that we talked about last week, that's the word for power in Acts two or Acts one.

The dunamos that saved them is the same dunamos that sanctifies them. It's the same dunamas that sustains them. It's the same dunamos that sends them. And the way we tap into that spirit is by gathering together, receiving the word of God, and then praying as a church for God to grant us this spirit in order for us to be empowered for for us to be splashed and just drenched and soaked, clothed in Christ. And so, three questions I'm going to ask you. I'm going to ask the band to come back up.

Are you receiving the word? Are you receiving the word not just on Sunday mornings, but are you receiving the word on a daily basis? If you're not, grab this on the way out. Receive the word of God on a daily basis. Open the Bible and get into it. The more you're in it, the more you'll want it.

The more you want it, the more you can't stop. And you'll just keep reading and reading and reading. Are you receiving the word? Second question is, are you devoted to the body? Are you devoted to the body or are you just attending a church? Are you devoted to the means by which Jesus transforms you?

It's still early enough in the new year where some of you probably have some resolutions that you're like halfway through and you're like, "Yes." But January 21st is coming. That's that's the that's the day that kills all resolutions. Are you [music] devoted to the body? Not from a resolve of just a resolution of like, hey, I want to get in church more and this and that. [music] No.

Are you devoted because of what Jesus accomplished for you? You want to then pour your life out for him? And so Jesus, I'm available. whatever you want from me. What he's going to say of you is make sure that you are with my people as often as possible. Make sure you're with my people.

Make sure you serve my people. We're going to talk about that next week. Today's embody the vision next week is serve the vision. What does it look like for us to serve the church and serve the community with the vision that God has given us? Are you devoted? And the last one is, are you depending on the spirit?

Are you depending on the spirit? You can read the word of God for knowledge, [music] but if you're not depending on the spirit of God to literally be transformed by it, it ain't going to do nothing. Even the Pharisees in the first century, they knew the word of God, but they were not depending on the spirit of God to actually transform them. The Apostle Paul knew the word of God more than anybody before he became a Christian. And it didn't do anything for him until the spirit of God transformed him. And so I want you receiving the word of God, but I don't want you stopping there.

And I want you getting with the body of God, but I don't want you stopping there. We got to make sure that we are at all times depending upon the spirit of God, not relying on our systems. And so let's ask God to make us the kind of church where his power is evident, where his presence is treasured, and where his people are formed together for his glory and for his mission. Would y'all stand with me [music] as we remember? Let's remember the means by which he created this community with the all inspiring privilege to belong to the breaking of his body and the shedding of his blood. I I think for me when when it comes to like difficult days, hard days, or just days that I'm frustrated with whatever it is, I just have to always remember that while we were at our worst, Romans 5'8 talks about this.

While we were enemies of God, [music] you got to remember, guys, like like God didn't come down and say, "Hey, you're better than them, so I'm going to give you favor save you. He actually comes down and says, "You think you're better than them, so I'm going to ignore you for right now, and I'm going to talk to those who are poor and broken in spirit. I'm going to talk to those who don't think they deserve anything. I'm going to talk to those who would make a mess of themselves if I showed up in front of them right now. and I'm going to grant them grace and [music] mercy. Though they deserve death and punishment and hostility, I'm actually going to show them love and that I'm going to take their punishment [music] for them.

Like that produces all in me at all times when I realize my sin and [music] I look at Jesus and I just why why would you die for me? Why would you die for me? And he says, "It was never about you." I say, "Thank you, Jesus. Thank you. It's all about him.

It's all about him." So, if you believe that Jesus died on the cross for you to forgive you of your sins and you live your life as a devoted follower of Jesus, we invite you to come down and grab the elements, bring them back to your seats, and at the end of the song, we will partake [music] together.