A Shared Faith
Real Community August 26, 2024 Acts 2:42-47 Notes
While communities based around politics, sports, BBQ and regional accents may help us find people to associate with as friends, they fall far short of the real community that God has in mind for us. How do we move from these “pseudo-communities” to real community?
In the book of Acts, Luke described the “true community” of the first century church. He noted that they were marked by four “devotions.” These devotions were: a shared faith, a shared family, a shared food, and a shared focus.
We can experience this authentic community when we pursue these four devotions. In this first message in the series, we’re going to focus on the first devotion, “A Shared Faith.”
Audio
Hey, we're starting a new series today entitled, “Real Community.” And we're going to be talking about something that's really DNA, core principle stuff, to our church. So if you're visiting for the first time, you're catching us at the beginning of a series that's really near and dear to my heart and to the church at large. Because we are a church that is committed to the idea of living in an authentic, real community with one another. And so that we can be transparent and real, not counterfeit, not putting on airs, but being real with one another.
And so we're going to be talking about that over the next four Sundays, starting today. And we're going to be looking from Acts 2:42 at the four devotions that you see there, in Acts 2:42. Now the truth is, today, people are lonely more than any other time. Perhaps since I've been alive, I see more people talking about their loneliness, their sense of feeling as if no one understands. You'll often hear people say, “The friends I do have are the ones I made when I was in high school or college and now I'm in my thirties, forties, fifties, and they are still my friends.
They don't live in the same town as me. We try to stay in touch. When we get together, we pick back up right where we left off. But I really don't have anyone here where I live, in my neighborhood where I work. I've got people that I know, coworkers and neighbors, but I am really lonely.” And so that's one of the issues that you see.
More and more doctors say that it's safer to smoke like three packs a day than it is to isolate; that one of the things of isolation, it's a predictor of shortening your life. We were made for one another. In fact, one of the first observations that God made when he made man was he said, “It's not good for man to be alone.” But yet, we live in a culture today that's more and more isolated from one another. Now, we attempt a community, and we try to rally around different values.
Sometimes, we try to rally around our political views, and we say, ‘Okay, being a part of some political place is my community,’ but it falls short, perhaps. And if you're new to North Carolina, this won't make sense to you, but the North Carolinians are liable to get loud right now as soon as I mention this. And that is what variation of the color blue might be the way you relate to your culture. Is it Duke blue or is it Carolina blue. Right!
And so people, trust me, if you're new to North Carolina, you can get into a fight over this; their community is based on their color. And here's another one that's kind of a sticky issue in the state of North Carolina: Is barbecue best if it's tomato based or vinegar based? Right!
And so we live in the vinegar based capital right here in eastern North Carolina. And if you go just a few hours to the west, then you start running into those proponents of tomato based. It's your political views, your colors, your barbecue favorites, or maybe it's the way you pronounce, you know, a greeting. Do you say, “You guys?” or do you say, “Y'all?”
If you're part of a particular little area right there in New York, New Jersey, you say, “Yous guys,” like that. That has a lot to do with who you are, you know, and how we could recognize what community you're part of. But these communities, according to psychologist and best selling author Scott Peck, all fall short of real community. He calls them “pseudo communities.” He says that “pseudo communities” are where participants are nice with each other and they play safe.
In those kind of communities, you just have a “pseudo community.” It's this setting where people present only the most favorable sides of their personalities. When people move beyond this, they have inauthentic relationships. They never present their true selves. But when people admit their own brokenness common to all human beings, they approach true community.
Here, the individual experiences deep respect for self and others in the community. This is a glorious place that fulfills the yearning of every human soul and for understanding from one's fellows. Scott Peck says that most of us who think we have community, we really only have “pseudo communities.” And this is really what social media affords us. Many of us think that social media is somehow a substitute for real community, but it's not.
It falls short of that which we were made for. One of the phrases in the Bible, one of the commands that's repeated like a hundred times in the Bible, is the commands that I call the “one another” commands. Love one another, bear one another's burdens and so forth and so on. And what have we taught ourselves here at the church? “You can't do the one anothers without one another.”
That's right. So we need one another. And so that's what this series is about. We're going to be looking at Acts 2:42-47; we are doing something a little unique. We're going to look at that same passage for four straight Sundays, and we're going to pull out different aspects of it.
And today we're going to focus on the first aspect because there are really four devotions here and we're saying they're “a shared faith,” “a shared family,” “a shared food” and “a shared focus.” And today we're going to look at “a shared faith.” We're going to focus on that first aspect, that first devotion. And as we do, we'll be looking for three steps towards that focus, towards having a shared faith in Christ's community. But let's dig in.
Let's read the text. Acts 2:42-47 (ESV) 42 “And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common.
45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” This is God's word. Amen.
We're looking for three steps on how to have the shared faith of Christ. Community. Here's the first; here's the first step:
1. Share the same confession.
A lot of those so called “pseudo communities” are based on what color you wear or what kind of food you eat or those kind of things. But for a Christian community, for an authentic, real community, it begins with heart change. It begins that we come under the same confession of having said “I do” to Jesus. That's the first part of really being part of this fellowship, of being right, first of all, in the right relationship with God through the person of Jesus. Notice what we see here in the scripture.
We see the four devotions right away in verse 42. And this is really the mark of the gathering of the 1st century church right after the Holy Spirit was given to the church at Pentecost. Here we are, at chapter one. Jesus has ascended, the Holy Ghost has fallen. And now here we are, chapter two.
This is the church. This is the church landing and taking off and exploding across the world really overnight. The word says that they turned the world upside down. And what did it look like? What were they devoted to?
They were devoted to four devotions. They were devoted to the apostles teaching, they were devoted to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayer. It's not “rocket science,” people. And here's what I would say to you. We want to be like the first century church.
Is that possible? Is it possible? I think it is. We have the same God, the same Holy Spirit. We serve the same Lord.
Why not be devoted as they were devoted? And speaking of devoted, that word in the Greek has the idea of “to be continually facing towards a thing with all that you can,” “to be steadfast and facing towards it.” It’s the Greek word, “proskartereo.” That's quite a mouthful.
”pros”, is the prefix which means “to face.” “kartereo” means “with strength.” And so with strength, with steadfastness, they were facing towards the apostles teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of bread and prayer. They were devoted to these.
They were passionately setting a priority on these four devotions. And look what happens. Well, we see it in this church. We see signs and wonders and people getting saved and coming to Jesus. But what were they doing?
They were “being” the church. Remember what Jesus told Peter? In Matthew 16:18, he said, “And so I tell you, Peter: you are a rock, and on this rock foundation I will build my church, and not even death will ever be able to overcome it.”
So he never told us to build the church. “I will build my church.” What did Peter say, Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus responds to Peter, "Blessed are you, Simon Barjona! For flesh and blood did not reveal it to you,
but My Father in the heavens.” ‘I'm going to tell you what; your name is no longer Peter. From now on, your name's the Rock. And upon this rockI I will build my church.’
He never told us to build a church. He told us to “be” the church. “If we will be the church, he will build the church.” What does it look like to “be” the church? Well, we have the record right here in Acts, chapter two.
“They were devoted to the apostle’s teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of bread and prayer.” Are you devoted to the word of God? The word, “devoted,” we've said, means “to be continually adhering to,” “giving yourself wholly to” and notice there's a particular teaching they devoted themselves to, to the apostle’s teaching. What is the apostle’s teaching?
What is that? Well, here we are in chapter two. There's no New Testament yet. It hasn't been written yet. So what are the “apostle’s teaching?”
Well, their text is the Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible. They're teaching from it. But primarily, we open up with four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. And so they're teaching out of their experience of having seen. What does “apostle” mean?
What does the word, “apostle,” mean? It means “one sent,” “someone who's been sent,” by whom? By Jesus. Sent with what? With the good news.
The good news of what? That Jesus died for our sins. He was raised from the grave on the third day and he lives today. He's ascended to the father and he's coming again. And so they were preaching this and they began to write it down.
That's how we got our New Testament. It was written down by the apostles who were sent in the authority of Jesus. So here's the first century church. This is being written, but can you imagine “getting it straight from the horse's mouth?”
Can you imagine hearing Peter talking about it? Yeah, I was there. I was there when Jesus said this. And then he taught it and people would be like, Can you tell us that part again, Peter, can you tell us that part again? We can't be there, but we have the record of what they taught and we can be just as they were, just as devoted to that confession.
Confession of what? That Jesus is Lord. Because that's the centerpiece of the New Testament. The centerpiece of the New Testament is that Jesus died for our sins. He was raised on the third day and he lives today.
This is the gospel, and we can give confessed faith to this. It says in Romans, Paul's teaching this, he says, Romans 10:9-10 (NLT) “For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.” Notice it doesn't say, if you “say” with your mouth. It says, “confess” with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,
maybe you'll be saved? It doesn't say you'll be saved later. It doesn't say, if you join the church and do these righteous works, you'll be saved. No.
Christ has done all the work. Our part is to receive that gift, and it's an act of surrender. You're saying, ‘I repent of my sin. I don't want to live the way I've been living. I want to live and follow you.’
I'm saying, ‘Jesus, you're the boss, you're the master, you're the Lord. I'm going to say it with my mouth. Jesus, you're Lord over me, over my house, over my stuff, over my heart, over my thinking, over my family, over my kids, over my marriage, you're over it. And I believe in my heart that what the apostles taught, which we now call the New Testament. I believe every word of it.
I believe the whole word is from the word of God. I believe it was inspired by the Holy Spirit.’ And so you're making this confession of faith. Have you done that? Have you made a confession of faith?
This is the entry point into the authentic fellowship of the believers. It begins this way. Paul makes the point that there's one faith that we share, this one faith. He says in Ephesians 4:4-6 (ESV) “There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” We're called to this one faith. You know, every organization, every nation, if you will, every human endeavor has some sort of a confession or a vow of entry.
If you think about it, if you move to America and you want to be a legal citizen, you have to take classes and be able to pass a test, probably a test that most of us couldn't pass on what it says in the Constitution and those kinds of things. And then there's the oath of American citizenship that you have to take. I'm not going to read the whole thing. It starts like this: “I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic;...”
And on and on it goes. And so there's this oath that they take, and people clap, and they're so excited to become citizens of the United States of America. They've taken these tests, they've made their oath of citizenship. It's a beautiful thing. Now, many of us have taken another kind of oath.
It's called marriage vows. And so the pastor or whoever, the judge, whoever gave you the vows, they said, “Do you take this woman to be your wedded wife, to have it to hold, from this day forward?” Here you are. You're young, you don't know what you're doing. And you say, “I do, until death do I part.” My boy, that's a vow you took on faith, right?
Amen. Yeah, because you don't know, you know a little, and you make a commitment. My son Jonathan, who pastors our Rocky Mount campus, he reminded me when we were studying this week, (we preach the same sermon, by the way, at both campuses, we have the same bulletins and the same sermon notes. We have different illustrations from time to time because we're different pastors) that he had to take an oath of enlistment when he joined the army. He had to take an oath, an officer's oath, when he was promoted to captain as a chaplain in the army.
And here he is with a photo of him taking the oath. He said, “I, Jonathan Combs, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.” That's what he had to say in order to be part of that organization, to be in the army as a chaplain. These are common things that we're aware of. And so for us to really be in this fellowship, this fellowship is not so much about outward things, because if you look at the first century church and you look at our church, we come from various backgrounds.
We come from various colors, various cultures. We eat different kinds of barbecue and wear different colors of blue, but we all bleed the same Jesus if we're followers of Jesus. And that's the rally point, that's the centerpiece. That's the centerpiece of having true community, of real community, is we love Jesus.
That's the centerpiece. And if you get that part, then fellowship is possible, real fellowship, not “pseudo communities” like doctor Peck talks about. Do you want to be a citizen of heaven? There's a confession. I confess Jesus as my lord and savior.
I repent of my sin, and I trust that he made a sacrifice for me that paves my way. Oh, I depend on it. And I'm convinced in my heart that he was raised from the dead and that he lives again. He's coming again. Hey, look.
That's our confession. Put it in your own words, but it has to hold the same content. That's the entry point. Do you have this? And have you made this profession of faith?
You know, we're teaching a membership class right now in another room in the building right now. It started at 8:45 this morning. I taught the introduction before we came in and had the first service. They're going on right now, and at the end of this service, those that were in the class that have made a decision after hearing what we believe and what we're teaching, to join the church.
We're going to present them to you so you'll get to see them at the conclusion of the service today. Those that said “yes,” that they want to be members. Here's what we did at the beginning of the class. During the introduction. I said, “I want to know four things about you before we get started
and I'll go first.” First of all, what's your name? My name is Gary Combs. And where are you from? Well, I was born in Bristol, Tennessee.
And then we heard from them. And then your religious background? I said, well, I grew up Baptist. I've been to a lot of different churches since then. And then I planted this one.
I've been going to this church for almost 33 years now, so I kind of have to come to this one now.
And then, of course, the fourth fact really tells us a lot about the people. This fourth fact is very important. What's your favorite pizza topping? Did you know somebody said “chicken?”
I think that was a first. Have you ever had chicken on pizza? Somebody said, “chicken” on pizza.
Somebody else said, “chicken with pepperoni.” It was just getting too weird for me. I'm learning a lot about you.
But, you know, some of the people said they were from New York. “I'm from New York.” One person made it very clear. I'm from “upstate New York.”
There's a thing going on in New York, y'all. I didn't know about saying you are from “upstate” New York. It's very critical. And so we had people from New York, we had people from Ohio, we had people from Massachusetts, different people.
Different people from different places. That's why we have that membership class. So it gives them an opportunity to reply, “Have you made the confession of faith to Jesus?” It doesn't matter where you're from, what color you are, what gender you are or what your background is. If you rally around Jesus with us, we can get started on having a true community together like that.
And so that's one of the reasons we have a membership class. But it's just kind of cool how people are from different places. Now, two or three of them are younger people. And I remember they said, “I was born here.” In fact, somebody said, “I was born across the street at the hospital.”
And I said to her, “Well, look how far you've come all the way across the street.” And so we've got different people with all kinds of backgrounds, but we rally around one Lord. His name's Jesus. Here's the second step:
2. Share the same passion.
Do you have a passion for God's word, a passion for God's teaching through the apostles, which is the New Testament? And the New Testament is really the capstone of the Old Testament. It's one book, 66 books inside of one book, over 40 authors over a period of 1600 years, yet one message. And the message is on every page, if you look closely enough, through the Holy Spirit's inspiration, if you look closely enough, the whole book is really about God. And specifically, it's really about Jesus.
Yeah, you're in there. There's a lot about humanity. There's some messy stuff in that Old Testament about humanity, but it's really a book about God. Do you have a passion for that? Because the first century church was devoted, and they were devoted together.
They had a unified passion. Notice it says in verse 42, “they devoted themselves. ” That's plural, which means they're doing it corporately. And then if you look at 46, “and day by day attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes.” So they had this rhythm of how they had this passion for the apostle’s teaching. So the rhythm was, there'd be like a public gathering at the temple for the Jew living in Jerusalem. They are of Jewish background, but now they've believed in Jesus, and so we call them “Jewish background believers.”
Okay, so they have a Jewish background, but now they're believing in Jesus, but they're still going to the temple. You would go to the Temple three times a day if you lived in Jerusalem. You would do the morning prayer, the midday prayer, and the evening prayer. And the Jews would say the “Shema,” which means, “Hear, o Israel. The Lord thy God is one God.”
And they would pray, the “Shema:” “Shema Yisrael Adonai eloheinu Adonai yecad.” They would say that prayer. But now here are these christians. They're coming into the temple and they're talking about Jesus.
They're not just talking about the king of the universe. They're saying, ‘We've met the king of the universe. His name's Jesus, we know who he is.’And so they're meeting in the temple, they're meeting in the public place, it's a large gathering, but then they say, ‘Let's go hang out at your house tomorrow.’ And so then they would have home groups which were smaller and more intimate.
So they had this rhythm, right? So this is what we decided some years ago at our church. We're not going to complicate your schedule. We're going to try to.
follow the first century model. We gather here in the temple courts. Welcome to temple courts. You're in the temple courts this morning. And then during the week, we're going to encourage you to meet in one of our homes.
And we have homes all over that are sponsoring community groups. And we have community group shepherds that facilitate those groups. And we have groups that meet on Sunday evening, Monday evening, Tuesday evening, Wednesday evening and I think we still have one on Thursday evening.
I don't think we have any on Friday or Saturday groups, unless you want to start one. But we have a lot of groups. Okay. And here's what we believe. On Sunday morning, you're getting the apostle’s teaching.
I'm preaching from the word of God, and I'm giving you the teaching and we know you're soaking it up. “You're sitting still while I instill.” But you need more than that in order to grow, you need to engage it. And so, in small groups is where you engage it and you show your passion for it,
right? You get together, knee to knee and you get some of that Wilson, North Carolina sweet tea. Or not. Can I have the unsweetened, please? I'm just too sweet already.
I just can't take that much sweetness or whatever. But you're sitting there with a cup of coffee and you're sitting knee to knee.
Do you ever think I don't know. I didn't even want to come tonight.
I didn't want to go to small group tonight. Every voice in your head and your body was saying, You're too tired. You deserve a break. You didn't want to go and you know what?
The kids were acting up and you thought, If I have to bring my kids over there to small group, what if it's my turn to actually watch the kids tonight? I can stay home and watch kids. I don't want to serve the group by helping take my rotation. You just think of all these reasons. And may I say to you, you're not alone. Your pastor has this flesh as well that he struggles against.
You probably shouldn't join the church if you're looking for a perfect pastor. You probably shouldn't join a perfect church anyway, because you'll mess it up.
My small group meets on Wednesday nights, and I'll think to myself, I'm tired. I've worked all day. I've met with people. I'm “peopled” out. Do you ever say that to yourself?
I'm “peopled” out.
I've used up all my words. You should see me on Sunday afternoon after I've preached two services and talked to every person I could touch anywhere in the building before.
I feel the same way often. I don't want to go. I'm tired. But may I say, every time I go, and I go every time if I'm able, I go because I made a commitment.
I've made a confession of faith to Jesus. I'm a Jesus follower. And I've made a confession of faith to you that I'm part of you and you're part of me. So I'm gonna go. And when I go, I've never left thinking,
Man, I wish I hadn't gone. I always leave thinking, I'm so glad that I went. I love those people. They're my family.
They're my brothers and sisters. But I battle the flesh, too. Don't you battle the flesh? Some of you are getting flaky. I've heard some of you are getting flaky.
You only go when you feel like it, which means you very rarely go because you very rarely feel like it. But Paul would say to you, as he told Timothy, “Fan into flame, the calling that was first on you.” Get your passion back. Get your passion back. Start thinking,
“I can't do the one anothers without one another. I need to get back. I need to get back with ‘themselves,’ in verse 42 and ‘together’ in verse 46.
What are we called to in this passion? Let me give you some thoughts. We're to delight in God's word. We're to study it, we're to do it, and we're to share it. Let me give you some verses.
Delight in it: Psalm 1:1-2 (ESV) “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.” This first century church took great delight and joy in God's word.
Are we a people of the book? Do we love God's word? That's the kind of people we're being called to be. For the last 20 years, I've led us in what I call the “Bible bus.”
Every January 1, I say, “The Bible bus is pulling out. We're going to read the one year Bible together. You get a little bit of the Old Testament, a little bit of the New Testament, a little bit of Psalms and a little bit of Proverbs every day. And at the end of the year, you will have taken the Bible bus journey. You'd have taken the tour, and you've read the whole Bible.”
And so, I've got a Facebook group, and I've got it on different places you can look. I've got it on my website. I have actually done a morning podcast for the past three years, where I tell you a verse that meant something to me. And may I say to you, those of you that comment or talk to me about it in the lobby or send me an email, it keeps me going. It is part of what makes me so committed to get up at 05:00 in the morning, to read God's word and to do a podcast.
Whenever one of y'all just says, ‘That meant a lot to me. Oh, that was the word. That word spoke to me today,’ it causes me to not miss a day. I gotta be honest with you. I know myself.
This old flesh is lazy. It loves a recliner. Oh, it does. I have a lazy boy at home. Man,
this thing's nice. We should have never bought it. My flesh loves it.I get myself a tall drink and something to crunch on. Yeah, I could just go to sleep right now thinking about it.
But I get up early. I want to. I want to do it because I love Jesus, and I do love Jesus. I want to do it because I delight in his word, and I love his word, and I do delight in his word, and I do have a passion for it. But some days, what really keeps me doing it, can I be honest,
Is you.
Because what if I let you down and you're having a day where that was the difference for you? What kind of pastor would I be? And so together, you're causing me to delight more, because I need you.
You encourage me. Do I encourage you? I hope I do. I have a passion for God's word. Sometimes it has to be fanned into flame, and sometimes you're the ones who help me fan it back up.
Thank you for those that delight in it. Study it: 2 Timothy 2:15 (KJV) “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
In other words, Paul says, ‘Cut it straight.’ He used a verb there, “rightly dividing the word of truth.” It's a tent maker's verb. He probably had “Popeye arms” from cutting those camel skin tents that he made. He said, ‘Cut it straight, Timothy. Study God's word and cut it straight.’
So we're to be students of God's word. We're to delight in it. Do it: James 1:22 (NLT) “But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says.”
Study it, do it, delight in it. Share it: Colossians 3:16 (ESV) “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” “You can't do the one anothers without one another.” And so you can't even obey that command in that passage without being able to say God's word to one another.
Now, you can't say God's word if you haven’t put it in. It won't come out if it hasn’t been put in. Do you delight, do you have a passion for the apostle’s teaching? Peter gives us the imagery of a newborn baby and how much a newborn baby will cry for mother's milk.
And he equates God's word as being like mother's milk to a Christian. And he says this, 1 Peter 2:2 (NKJV) “As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby.” This is the way we're to love God's word, that we're challenged to love God's word. Do you have a passion for God's word?
One of the things I've learned is that this kind of passion is “caught,” not taught. Now, I'm teaching it right now, but I hope my passion is radiating out from me, my passion comes from the Holy Spirit who lives within me and I love God's word. Can y'all tell I love God's word?
But can you tell that I do? I want you to love it. I want you to love God's word because it's life. It's life. I was teaching the first session of the parenting session yesterday, and we talked about “training up a child in the way he should go and when he's old, he will not depart from it.”
And this idea of train, the Hebrew word has the idea of “to train.” Midwives, when a baby was first born, if the baby wouldn’t suckle, would chew up some dates and get that sweet, sort of citric kind of taste. They would take and spit out some of it on their finger and they would stick it in the palate of the newborn and rub its palate and it would cause it to suckle. And then they would give the baby back to the mother and it would teach the child to have what it needs, to have what would give it life. And may I say to you, I've tried my best.
I can't get down there and stick my finger in your mouth. I'm not sure that would help, but I'm up here. Paul says that it's called “the foolishness of preaching.”
You're all sitting there and I'm up here waving my arms. It's a strange thing we christians do. But you know what I'm trying to do? I'm trying to give you a “suckle response.” I'm trying to get you to where you want God's word, that you want the passion of God's word, that you desire it.
Do you have a passion on a weekly basis for God's word? And we encourage one another when we study it together. Here's the third:
3. Share the same submission.
There's a submission; that we submit to God's word. And to those that teach God's word share the same submission. They devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching. There was that teaching which was correct. They had seen the risen Lord. They'd been sent by the risen Lord Jesus.
That's what the word, “apostle,” means. It means “one sent.” It was authoritative, and they sat under it. And those that taught it, as long as they would teach God's word, they sat under the authority of that person that was teaching it. You know, Paul, when he was traveling through Philippi and Thessalonica, he comes around to Berea and
he commended the Bereans because he was teaching in the synagogue and they would say, ‘We're going to go home and think about what you just said.’ And they go home and study the scriptures to verify that what Paul was teaching was true. And they came back and they said, ‘Yes, you got it right,’ and he commended them for it.
He said, ‘You didn't just believe me because I said it. You went and checked me out in the scriptures and then you came back and said that I got that right. That's the kind of people I like.’ And boy, I do, too. I like it.
Whenever you go home, think, I'm going to chew on that a minute now. I'm going to chew on that. Some of you don't even wait till you go home. Some of you catch me in the lobby and you say, “I'm not sure about that one word now, Pastor Gary, and can we talk about what that was and what that means right there?” And that's fine with me.
That's fine with me because the word of God is an authority over me. I'm an under shepherd. Jesus is the shepherd of this church and the word of God is over me. But I am a presenter of God's word
and as long as I'm presenting it, if we're a part of the same community, we want to be real with each other, then we will submit to it. Is that making sense? Is that clear? And so that's what we see that made this first century community so amazing, so miraculous. They weren't a rebellious people. They weren't trying to be independent.
They wanted to live life together, not isolated. You know, we tend to want to isolate because the flesh likes being lazy. But that might not be the reason. It might just be because you are hiding something. If you hang out with people too long, they're going to find out who you really are.
I've got this addiction, I've got this anger problem.
I'm fine going to somebody's house as long as it's not my house because I don't have a nice house. I don't have a clean house; I'd have to clean it up for the first time this year if I have anybody over. We have all kinds of reasons. But, you know, the Bible teaches hospitality. Did you know that it's a spiritual gift, the gift of hospitality. Did you know that? I remember some years ago, it was before we moved to Wilson.
I used to be a district manager for a major retailer, a drugstore chain, and we lived in the Roanoke, Virginia area at the time. We just moved there and we were visiting different churches. We visited this one church, and I really liked the preaching, man. It was good preaching, and it was good, you know, it was pretty good. Pretty good worship, but really good preaching.
I think I like this place, Robin. We hung out in the lobby, and nobody really talked to us. We walked around in the front of the church, hoping maybe somebody will invite us to lunch so that we could find out more about this church. Everybody just said, ‘hey’ and left.
The preacher comes out and he's locking the door. We never went back to that church. It had good preaching, but it wasn't hospitable. It wasn't friendly.
We didn't feel like they really wanted us over, you know? Church, are you listening to me? Listen to me.
Make sure you're talking to somebody other than your “clique.” Make sure you're following the “three-minute rule:” After every service that you attend, take three minutes and go introduce yourself to somebody you don't know. They might be visiting for the first or second time, and they're new to the city.
They need a family. They don't just need some friends. They need a family. They need somebody to take them out to lunch, bring them over to the house and barbecue. You can decide what kind of barbecue you want to have.
The first time we moved to Wilson, somebody invited us to a “pig picking.” We'd never been to one. They meant a whole pig.
Now, I've been to many of them since then. My son, Stephen, was five years old when we moved here. Stephen was five, Jonathan was two and my daughter Erin, sitting down on the front row right now laughing at me, was one.
We go to the “pig picking.” They had put an apple in this pig's mouth. The pig was laid out on the grill, just spread out.
We walked up with our plates and the guy was reaching in. He's got these rubber gloves on, reaching in, putting pig on your plate. Robin's walking up and she looked like she's going to cry. She had tears in her eyes, feeling sorry. She loves animals.
And then Stephen pulls at Robin and says, “Mommy, that poor little pig's got an apple in his mouth.” Welcome to Wilson, North Carolina. We love “pig pickings” now, but we had to take it slow at first. The family was slow getting on board.
We're submitted to God's word, and we need each other. So, church, whether it's a pig-picking or whatever it is, invite people. Make them part of your family. Don't just attend church. “Be” the church.
“Be” the church. “If you will be the church, Christ will build the church.” It says in 1 Thessalonians 4:2 (NLT) “For you remember what we taught you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.”
Paul is saying, ‘Hey, Thessalonica, remember what we taught you we did under the authority of Jesus?’ And then it says that it's to your benefit, in Hebrews, to submit.It says, Hebrews 13:17 (ESV) “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.”
So come under the authority of God's word and be the church, and let Christ build the church. That's what we're talking about over the next four Sundays. But this first one is so critical. Are you right with Jesus?Have you made a confession of faith? Do you have a passion for God's word? Are you reading the Bible? Do you have a regular pattern of reading the Bible for yourself, not just what you hear on Sunday morning, but on every day of the week? Do you eat some food from the bread of life?
And do you have a willingness to submit and be part of what we're doing as a church? If not this church, find a church that you can submit to the leadership of that church. Because here's our rhythm – we want to do temple courts on Sunday, and then during the week, we want you in a community group where you're moving it eighteen inches from your head to your heart, where you're learning how to apply what you're learning on Sunday morning. 80% of our Sunday morning attendance is in a community group.
I'm still going after the 20%. If you're not in a community group, put it down on your connection card today. Tell me more. I want to learn more about how to get in a community group so I can really grow. And if you are in a community group, but you've been flaky, stop being flaky, start being devoted, and be present in what God's called you to do.
Same confession same passion, same submission. That's the starting point of having real community. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for your word. Most of all, thank you for Jesus.
Lord, I submit to you afresh right now. Just pray with me. Lord, I submit to you afresh right now. Lord. I want to be devoted to your word and to what you've written in your word.
I want it to be part of me. I want to have a passion for it. Maybe you're here this morning and you've never given your life to Jesus. That's your starting point today. You've never confessed Jesus as your lord and savior.
You can do that right now, right where you're seated. Maybe you're watching online. Maybe you're next door in our gathering place. It doesn't matter. You're not praying to me.
You're not praying to the person next to you, whether it's your spouse or your parents or your children. You're praying to the Lord. Pray like this, ‘Dear Lord Jesus, I'm a sinner. I need a savior.
I believe you died on the cross for me, that you were raised from the grave, that you live today. Come and live in me. Forgive me of my sin. Make me a child of God. I want to follow you all the days of my life as my lord and savior.’
If you're praying that prayer of faith, believing, right now, he'll save you. That's the entry point. That's the beginning point of being part of the family of God. Others are here today and you're a Jesus follower.
But you're not all in. You've been distracted. You've been given in to those distractions. You're lonely. You'd admit it right now.
I've been making excuses, Lord, but it's really my fault. I've been isolating myself. I've been pulling away. Lord, forgive me.
Help me to reconnect, first of all,l to you. And then help me to reconnect and get connected to God's people. I believe what you said, “It's not good for man to be alone.” Lord, I don't want to be alone anymore. Lord, help me to get committed.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Audio
Good morning, church. It's good to see all of you today. So thankful to be with you. Starting a new series together called real community. And those of you who have been at our church are seasoned veterans.
This is going to be somewhat familiar to you, but it's a fresh take on one of the most important things we do together as a church, if nothing else, over the next few weeks, I hope that maybe I would convince you to be a part of this community more than just what we do on Sunday mornings. That you would make some real friends, that you would have real family at this church. That church is meant to be more than just the hour and a half we get to spend together here. This is a good start. I'm thankful for you.
There's nothing against it all meeting together. In fact, Hebrews says don't forsake fellowshiping together, and this is part of that. However, we can't get but so deep with one another, can we? In this moment, in fact, right now, you're listening and I'm talking. It's not ideal communication, right?
It's great. I pray that you learn and that I learn and that we're encouraged and challenged together. But there's more. There's so much more in the family of God, and I hope that you would experience that with us. And so we're going to be in this series for the next few weeks, four weeks together, where we're covering something some of you are familiar with.
However, I assure you there's some new stuff. And because there was stuff, I was learning, again, looking at a very familiar passage. However, there's always, I don't know how the Bible does this, but it always speaks. I have no idea how it is. I can read the same passage, the same passage every day for a week and every day will give me something new.
I don't know how that works. And yet God does it. And so we're going to be in what passage today? Small group leaders, small group attenders. What passage should I be in for community?
Chapter two. Bingo. I heard it all over the place. I'm proud of you. You're listening, you're doing good.
And you're small group shepherds. Here's an aside. That verse ought to come up some more than just once a year or twice every other year. Do you know we haven't actually covered this topic since 2019? That blew my mind.
Since 2019. So ever since COVID we just haven't been having real community. I don't know what we've been doing. I'm just kidding. We've been pressing on, but we haven't really covered this in a while.
So we're gonna be in acts 242 today, covering this idea that people need people. Now, I get you, some of you introverts in the room, you think, I may need people, but I'm pretty sure it's just one. It's maybe one or two. I feel you. All right.
I understand that. However, God does some miraculous things through some voices of people that you would never expect. And he's often done this in my life. And the truth is. The truth is, people today are generally more lonely than they've ever been.
It's wild. It's wild that. That's true. When we could be. We could be as connected as ever.
But the problem is our types of connection now aren't very good. The church should be different. This fellowship should be different. Where we actually see each other face to face. That's what we learned more than anything in 2020, didn't we?
That face to face. There's no. There's nothing like it. You can go digital, but it ain't the same. People today are generally more lonely.
They want something real, true companionship. And whether you recognize it or not, God has made you this way. That desire is God given. That desire to be a part of a family, to belong, is God given longing for real community. Now, there's a lot of ways we try to do this.
We attempt to find real community all over the place. I'm gonna give you just a few. These are. These are the hot ones, you know, if you will. The first one is this.
And we avoid this like the plague here at our church. But first, you can pop up this image for me. You can choose an animal. Some people choose animals. You're gonna hear me very, almost never get into this.
Now, I'll share views about things that I believe are true, that are biblical, but I could care less about the elephant and the donkey. I care a whole lot about the lion and the lamb. I don't care too much about that, but that's something that can be very divisive. Pop up another. We like different shades of blue around here.
I know. Randy, you like that shade? I'm not a fan. I do like that shade. That shade is just a little too dark.
Pop up the next one. I like that shade. I like that shade. Technically, I like a little bit of purple and gold, but that's not a shade of blue at all. Some of us pop up.
Some of us like tomato based barbecue. You'd be wrong if that's you.
It's good, but it's not great. If you go in for great, you're not going with that. You're going with vinegar based barbecue. Or you can go out to South Carolina and be grossed out with mustard. So let's just team up together.
Let's be as one who likes mustard. Barbecue, where are you? Show your face. That's all right, brother. I love you.
I had never experienced that until I went to South Carolina and blew my mind. I was like, why is my barbecue yellow? This is weird. Some of us, it's about regions. This is obvious.
I pop up the next image. There's this little pocket of people that says, use guys. Those are trouble. Those people are trouble. All right, well, that's only because they were once up north.
They didn't originate in Florida. They're just there for the winter. You guys and y'all, look, we can team up on a lot of different communities, but let's be honest about something. These are what you might call pseudo communities. That means their identity is so established in one ideal that you never really get real.
Like, if I were a duke fan, me and you could really have a good time watching the games, but I wouldn't ask you about your wife and your kids. I wouldn't. If that's all we had in common. I wouldn't go beyond just that. We're duke fans.
You see what I'm saying? And this is what we do in the corporate world, too. We try to establish friendships, but all we ever really talk about is work. What would it look like to go beyond that's real community? Is life on life.
What's really going on with you? You ever had somebody in your life that you really thought you knew, and then they go off and do something drastic and you're like, I never would have expected. It's because you did not really know them and maybe they never let anybody in. You hear these kinds of stories all the time about, oh, my son or my daughter and my sister. They were just wonderful.
And then somehow they're in jail now for this and that. You're like, because you didn't quite get to the heart. Church should be different. Fellowship should be different. Here's what one writer says about these pseudo communities.
Here's what he says. Scott Peck. He writes where participants are nice with each other and playing safe. This is merely a pseudo community. In this setting, people present only the most favorable sides.
Are they showing of their personalities? When people move beyond this inauthenticity and present their true selves, admitting their brokenness common to all human beings. Then they begin to approach true community. Here the individual experiences deep respect for self and others in that community. This is a glorious place that fulfills the yearning of every human soul for understanding.
From one's fellows, we are often presenting an inauthentic self, the best version of one's self.
This is the problem with our community groups, if you will. This is the problem with if you go on a women's retreat or a men's retreat with our church, if you do life on life, one on one discipleship, it's just hard to hide that for long. And maybe I wonder if this is why some of you are not in love with our community group system. These people ask questions that I don't want to answer. Fair enough.
I like to write questions. If you ever get one that I've written, where I go from warm up to what is your deepest, darkest secret? That's how I like to write them. I don't know why I am this way. I like to reveal I have, I'm just this.
I think it's because I'm healed and God's still working on me. I'm not saying I'm perfect, but I am saying I'm not ashamed of the areas I'm broken. I'm not. And you may be, and community group will stretch you in this way. This is what we want as a church, because at the end of the day, although it's uncomfortable at first, pseudo communities are not satisfying you.
They're not. So how do we move to real community? Well, the Bible gives us tons of examples, but being in acts today is a really good place to start. We see Luke here writing in the book of acts about four disciplines or devotions that make up real community. And he noted these four right here in acts 242.
And today we're going to dig in on the first of those, which is a shared faith that we have a shared faith in common. This is the first and most important building block. And so let's dig in together. We're going to be in acts chapter 242 through 47. Let me read it for us.
It says, and they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship to the breaking of bread and the prayers, 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 their belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. And 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 guess what?
God did. The Lord added to their number day by day, those who were being saved. Now I ask you something, church. Do you think this only happened once? Is this a first century thing, not a 21st century thing?
I wonder if we've not tested it to its fullness, that the Lord might add to our number day by day those who are being saved when we do as we've been called. Here's the first, the first step to have a shared faith in Christ's community. It begins with sharing the same confession. Sharing the same confession. This is the first and most, maybe most important word in this whole passage.
And that's the word devoted. Devoted. It says in verse 42 they devoted themselves to four things. Now we're just going to wrestle with the apostles teaching together today, going to wrestle with the other four later. They devoted those.
That's what's underneath it all. This word is the greek word pros, cartoreo. Pros means before or in front of. And cartoreo means steadfast or strong. It means that you would not just, not just kind of like it or be about it or, you know, this is something I do, but that you would steadfastly persevere, that you would face this thing with all of your strength.
This idea of devotion is a powerful concept. It's meant to be that you would be constant towards it. You would be giving your whole self, if you will. Now, we kind of get this in some ways. Like there are certain things in life we're devoted to and we kind of understand this word devotion, in that those of you who have made a commitment till death do we part and you actually mean it.
That's devotion. Cause guess what? That other person is a broken mess, just like you, and he or she is gonna mess up. Devotion says, I've made a commitment and I'm not just gonna sort of do it. I'm gonna face it.
I'm going to endeavor to make it better. That's devotion. I am in this for the long haul and I want this to be like heartfelt. This isn't just something I'm doing here. I'm doing it here, here, here.
This is devotion.
This is what added to their number, day by day, those who were being saved, they got serious about God's word. Over 3000 people got serious about God's word. And we're in church today because of that. Praise the Lord for them. Otherwise we wouldn't be sitting here right now, saved by grace, saved by Christ.
Oh, but God will do and is doing this still. They devoted themselves. And then it goes on to say to the, there's an important, definite article there. That's not a mistake. It wasn't.
They devoted themselves to some apostles teaching. No, the apostles teaching, they're devoting themselves now not only to the Old Testament, but to the gospels, to the word that is now starting to be delivered in the first century. And now for us, we have canon, we have scripture. This is the apostles teaching. So we share the same confession.
Now this is just facts. If you want to be a part of a community, you really have to start here, that you share a common thought, a common worldview, if you will, a common, for us, a common faith. Now, I've often said, and if you, if you remember this, some of you who have attended membership class with us, there's a very careful balance that I have when it comes to having a shared confession, that there are certain things I believe in the gospel that I would consider primary and then some things that are secondary, even tertiary. For instance, I grew up in a, going in and around Baptist churches. And yeah, technically, I hope I don't scare any of you away if I do.
Whatever. We're Baptists here. You know how you should have known that? We fully dunk people like, we get them wet. Wet, right.
That's part of what we're doing there. But there's a lot underneath that. But growing up around a lot of these traditional Baptist churches, you weren't allowed to dance in these places. And that's primary for some people, secondary for me. Now I'm not saying you guys need to be running the aisles or going nuts in here, but if the spirit leads you, if the spirit leads you to move, then move.
That's a secondary issue to me. Here's another. Like, and this one is a strong conviction for many people, and I understand that conviction. However, the Bible says, do not be drunk with wine. It does not say do not drink.
Okay. Now, I don't. I don't drink, but my reasons are my own. They're between me and the Lord. And I believe it's got a lot to do with my public confession.
I just don't want people to see that. Right. I feel like it might hinder my witness. But for you, this is not a primary issue. Oh, the primary issues are simpler than this.
Do you believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sin? That is a primary doctrine at our church. Do you believe the word of God is his word, inerrant and true to you. Not all churches believe this. Some of you have been to those churches where this book is a guide, but it ain't the word.
Oh, it's a word here. It should be a word at every church. They're a primary. These are things that we share. The same confession.
Romans ten. I recite this often at our church. The same confession of faith is this that you would confess with your mouth that Jesus is lorde. Believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead and have been saved by that truth. For it is by believing in your heart that you were made right with God.
And it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved. We share the same confession. That's your confession. Jesus is Lord. Jesus died for me and he was raised from the dead.
The confession is simple. We share one faith. Paul writes to the Ephesians in chapter four. He says, there's one body, one spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
That's devotion. That's confession.
It made me think this week of something that I did some time ago that I believed and still believe in. And you can pop up this image, this was back in like 2012, 2013. I took what they call the oath of enlistment or oath of office for the military. And I want to read this for you because it still kind of gets me pumped up. Just shows how kind of messed up I still am about this whole thing.
But I, Jonathan Combs, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, and that I will obey the orders of the president of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me according to the regulations and the uniform code of military justice, so help me God. I had that memorized at one point. Not anymore. This was a confession that we all made. Those of us who enlisted, those of us who got in.
And the best soldiers were the ones who believed the words they said. And the best church, the best believers, are the ones who didn't just say those words, romans ten, because they felt like they should, but the ones who believed it.
There's an ultimate community here. I loved the community in the military, but again, that was a. It wasn't a pseudo community, but there was some lack in that. Some of you have been on teams like this. You've been in certain groups like this where you can get real, but you're still always a little bit afraid that someone might throw some daggers, might.
Might stab you in the back. You're always just a little bit afraid about fully revealing your heart. The military is certainly that way. You kind of want to put on the perception that you're tough, right? That you, you're strong.
Sports teams are this way. Your workplaces are probably like this. You don't really want to let them know that, hey, I don't really want to work hard today because I am exhausted. I'm exhausted because my kids are trouble right now. I'm exhausted because me and my wife fought all night long.
I'm exhausted because. And you're not going to tell your coworkers this because you don't want to get it around the old such and such. He's kind of. He's slacking today. He's been slacking this week.
So you'll put on the perception that all is well and all is not well. But that's not church. That's not christian fellowship. You want to be a citizen of something greater. You want to be a part of something that isn't just for this world.
This is the even wilder part about a shared faith in Christ, that this is a permanent faith, that this is a confession of faith that is eternal. Look around the room, folks. These people, those of you who have said yes to Christ, we're spending forever together. Let's get to know each other. Let's get started.
Let's figure out how to get along. If we're not getting along now, I mean, yeah, in some senses we have a long time to figure it out. But I would say, hey, why wait now? You might be thinking, well, there's so much damage here. We're going to need Jesus himself to help us counsel through this situation.
Well, maybe so, but I say get started now. Let's get along. Let's figure out how to be a family now because we have eternity. Do you want to be a part of, of this eternal community that's real, that you can fully be open, then have share the same confession? If you haven't done this yet, I have no clue what you're waiting on.
Confess that Christ is Lord and savior, that God raised him from the dead, receive salvation. Here's the second, the second step. You must have the first, the same confession. And then it moves into a shared passion. A same passion.
It says, they devoted themselves. This wasn't a small step. They devoted themselves to the what? The teaching. Day by day.
In fact, it goes on in verse 46. You want to know how much they liked it. They were doing it every day. Every single day.
Now, there's a whole lot to unpack with that. However, I would like to just unpack one part of it, and it's this. If Sunday morning is your dose of Christ for the week, you're not getting a full dose. I'm just saying 40 minutes is what I try to try to preach. I know I go over sometimes, I'm sorry, church, I know you get hungry towards the end of my sermon, but 40 to 45 minutes, that's all I'm up here doing.
And it's about specific things that might not always touch the area of your greatest problem right now. How could I possibly do that, even with just this number? But this word? Do you think the passion. Are you going to share the same passion by just Sunday mornings together?
You're just getting a little bit. You're just getting a little. But the passion would be day by day that this thing is important to you personally, that you're in the word of God that you're praising. You know, you don't have to wait to come here and you don't have to tell me afterwards. You know, the songs you did today I liked two out of five.
Good news. Good news. Tomorrow you can listen to your top ten. I won't stop you. Go nuts.
Paul's Metallica for a minute and put on your top ten worship songs. None of you are doing Metallica. I don't know. What should I have thrown in there? I'm not doing Metallica either.
That was back. I was back there a little bit.
Yeah. We might not always play your favorites here, but no one's stopping you from day by day worship. In fact, if you want to bring in a shared passion into this place, you want to see a move of God on Sunday morning, it won't start by us just doing this together. It's going to happen when, all week long, each and every one of us, and myself included, are worshiping Monday, the dreaded Monday, that you would get up and say, I don't care what I'm doing today, work wise. Some of us might be dealing with bedbugs or something terrible.
Some of us will be dealing with people messing themselves at a hospital. Some of us will be dealing with people messing themselves in the streets that we have to arrest. I mean, who knows what Monday will hold? What a wonderful day. It doesn't matter.
Where's the passion? The passion is in his word. The passion is in faith with Christ. It says they devoted themselves, and then day by day, they're in the temple courts together. They're breaking bread together.
Oh, you can ignite this thing into flame by meeting together, by. You know what? I'm having a weak day, but I'm going to call up Randy and he's going to inspire me. I have a feeling. You know what's funny?
I have a tendency to inspire other people even when I'm very discouraged. I don't know why God does that, but he will. He will do that. So call somebody. I don't care how bad their day is.
If you're brothers and sisters in Christ, suddenly you've got nothing but encouragement for one another. It's wild how he does that. They devoted themselves to the word together. They were spending time together. Day by day, they were.
You don't have to see each other every day. Some of you got an absolute mess going on in your life. You've got kids in 13 sports. I know you. I got it.
You've got kids. And I almost had kids in four different schools this year. I'm one of the rare ones that's thankful. They made some of these schools k through five. I'm like, hallelujah.
It was going to be a year, and yet I've got to find my passion, not in all of these duties, and share the same passion. Here's a couple of ways to consider how you might do that. I want to give you some application in this. Number one is delight in it. Simply delight in God's word and in worship.
Just delight. Find joy in it. Here's one place, and I could have gone to so many of the psalms for this, but psalm, chapter one, verse one. This is how the psalms lead. Blessed is the man who walks in the counsel of the wicked.
Excuse me, who walks not in the counsel. That's a big difference. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. This is the psalmist giving you what some in the like electronics world would call you.
Giggo. Garbage in, garbage out. Some of you are filling your lives full of garbage, and you're wondering why you're in a bad mood. Because you watch crap all the time. You watch filth.
You listen to filth. But I like the filth. It's got a good tune. Okay. I would suggest your mood has something to do with the filth.
Instead of sitting in the seat of sinners and seats of scoffers, some of you have got some friends that I don't know what kind of friends you would consider them, that every time you call them up, they discourage you and tell you to do the wrong thing. You know it's wrong. You know this isn't true. And yet we've been friends forever. That's good.
Maybe for a season you did a heal so that way you can be a true friend to them. Because right now you're just being a yes man. Right now you're not a true friend because a true friend would rebuke. A true friend would say, those words aren't true and I want to see you do better. That's a true friend.
So sometimes we've got to step back from voices and go, I'm not going to seat in the seat of sinners and scoffers for a little while. Instead, I'm going to delight myself in the Lord until he has so healed me and placed me in a way that I can now bear witness to my friends and not be drugged down by them. There's a big difference. Delight in it. Here's another thing.
Study it. Oh, Lord, Jonathan, I haven't studied since school. I was so ready to get out of high school. This is a different kind of study, my friend. This is a different kind of study.
Second Timothy, chapter two, says, study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. You want to know how to handle every situation in your life, you've got to study it. Hey, look, there's no fault at all in coming home to the Bible and saying, all right, I had this thing happen to me today. What does God's word have to say about this? That's study.
We have this really powerful thing called Google that's mostly used for evil but could be used for good. Guess what your pastor does every week? What does the Bible have to say about dot, dot, dot every single week? Because my brain is decent, but I can't remember where everything is. And so there's times where I'm like, I know the Bible has something to say about this and I can kind of paraphrase it, but where is it, Lord?
Google knows. You know, in the right light, Google might be saved. All right. In the right light.
It's amazing what you can do. Used to, we had to get these big old things out this huge thing called strongs. Google's better. It's more powerful. If you still got your strongs, though.
Boy, it smells good. And it's fun to throw open. What does the Bible have to say about that's study? Oh, rather than you don't have to call me first. And some of you, you grace me with this, and I love you for it because it gives me a chance to study.
But don't rob yourself of it. I truly love this. Don't get me wrong. When you call me and say, what does the Bible have to say about this scenario? I'm like, hallelujah.
I can't wait to. I've got some thoughts, but let me look further. You're giving me the chance to study. I'll do it yourself. And then if you're stuck, hey, let's talk.
It'll be the most fun I'll have all week. Trust me. I'm not lying. Study and then do it. That's the fun part.
Here's what James says. In James chapter one, he says, do not merely listen to God's word. You must do what it says. That's where the rubber hits the road for so many of us. We're like, I really like the way it says day by day they were getting together, but I'd rather just not do that.
You know? I like the idea of it. No, do it. Do it and then share it. This is what Randy read for us.
Fitting. Fitting that you did read this for us earlier. Colossians three. It says, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. How so richly that you would teach and admonish one another in all wisdom.
That singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with Thanksgiving thankfulness in your hearts to God. What would it look like for God's word to so dwell in you that it just kind of leaks sometimes? And in a good way, not in a Jesus juke kind of way, which sometimes we do by accident. What if it leaked at the right time? Parents in the room, here's an aside for you.
You want to know how to guide your kids in the Lord. You've got to fill yourself. You've got to study it. And then scenarios will pop up and you'll go, huh, this part of the word just came to my mind. And then you share that, and it causes your kids to think, you know, dad, mom, they know a lot about the Bible.
It's not so much that. It's that God is doing this active thing in my life where when I am delighting and studying his word. He will now bring it to life for me. He will now. This is why the psalmist says, I've hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.
I've pushed it down so deep into my heart that at moments it would just erupt when I need it most.
Share this passion. You gotta delight. Study it, do it, share it. Here's something I've noticed. Even in those pseudo communities, they have a good passion, right?
The confession is often lacking. We all wear purple and gold together. That's not a great we are all paying several hundred thousand dollars to go here together. That confession isn't ideal, but we never seem to lack passion. I've seen 50,000 people and students out there going, purple, gold.
Why are we saying colors? Has anybody figured this out yet? To support this team?
I was tar heel born and tar heel, you know, we got these jingles and like, what are we doing? I don't have a problem with this at all. That's not the point. My point is we know how to have a shared passion. I'm confused.
And I think the world is also confused when we have less passion here. I think that's confusing. When we have the greatest gift in human history, that Christ himself, the son of God, has set us free for all eternity, how could we not be passionate about that? It's confusing. I promise you, my friends, those of you in the workplace, those of you out there in the battlefields of this earth, I'm telling you right now, your friends and your coworkers are confused that you lack passion about your faith as soon as they find out you're a believer.
But then you seem no different. That is a confusing testimony. And that doesn't mean you need to be perfect and you need to be holier than thou, but you ought to be excited. And the reason you're not excited is because you're not delighting in him. And I can't do that for you.
And Sunday morning won't be enough. And let me just say this. Those of you in community groups, two days a week won't be enough either. Oh, this isn't some master solve. If you come to church on Sundays and then small groups on Wednesday night, you're going to delight in God.
It's a personal relationship with the Lord that takes day by day. Walking in him, Peter puts it this way. He says in one, Peter, chapter two. As newborn babies desire the pure milk of the word, that they may grow thereby. There's a sense that we should so long for it that we're borderline whining like babies when we can't get it.
You see this, the point of what Peter's making? I've had four newborns. I can tell you right now, they don't miss a beat. They get hungry. Everyone will know.
They're good at one thing, and that is alert. They're great at it. They've messed or they're hungry. You will know. Guess what?
Everyone can tell when you don't delight in his word. Everyone can tell. But great news even greater than this, everyone can tell. When you do, it's obvious. It's obvious that the spirit of God is with you.
This is why people followed people like David. This is why people were blown away by Jesus, the spirit of goddess. Well, he's the son of God. He's unique in all the stories for sure. But there's plenty of men and women throughout the Bible that were captivating.
And it wasn't because they were cool or great. In fact, the Bible says of little David that he was a little ruddy guy, probably not the tallest, a little bit sunburnt, but bold and courageous. In Jesus, in God, in the Lord. That's what's going on there. So do you have this passion?
Do you have this passion in worship? It starts in you with the Lord. That's where it begins. And then you bring that to the table everywhere you go. Share the same confession, share the same passion.
And then the last is this. And I could have chosen other word. In fact, I wrestled with this word. Cause I know y'all, y'all love this word too much. All right?
And that is to share the same submission. Submission. Don't you love that word? Love it. I want to remind you of it because sometimes we like to pretend it's just for married couples.
It's not. It's for all people under King Jesus. It's all for all. We are all his servants submitting to his authority. The Bible was careful to say they devoted themselves.
Yes, they devoted. They were under the teaching. Who's teaching? The apostles. The apostles teaching apostle simply means apostolos.
It means $0.01. It's come to mean, and I think rightfully so, that the apostles are those who have seen the risen Jesus. Now this is, again, this isn't a primary doctrine at our church, but you will hear sometimes in certain church cultures, people called apostles. If that is so, then I would say they're small a, apostles. That capital a.
Apostles are those who have seen the risen Christ, those who have written scripture. We don't have really a habit in our church, nor, I think, will we ever of calling people apostles for this reason. It's confusing, this idea that they would come underneath the leadership, that they would decide, we are going to come underneath King Jesus and we are going to submit to those who King Jesus has put over us in authority. This is what they're doing. The fellowship that's now just.
It's just beginning and they're trying to figure this thing out. In the first century, it'd be so exciting, I hope, up there, whenever heaven comes down or he takes me home, whenever that happens, I would like for Christ to have a movie theater for us to watch the things of old. I know that's goofy, but I'd really be. I'd love to see. All right, Jesus, show me when you walked on water.
I'd like to see it for myself. Jesus, show me what it was like for the early church here in acts, chapter two. What did that look like when no one really knows exactly who's leading what and where we should be going, and they kind of get stuck for a little while. Christ said, hey, be my witnesses to Jerusalem, to Judea, to Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. And they didn't go anywhere for a little while.
So then he sieged the city and they all scattered. God works in some wild ways. Just trust me on this. When he says go sometimes he'll make sure I'm thankful for that. I'd hate for him to say go, and then me somehow avoid that.
I'd rather him just go ahead and kick me because I'm ignorant sometimes and stubborn. So here they are trying to figure this out, and they're devoting themselves now to the word that they're hearing from the apostles, those who have seen the risen Jesus, and they're devoting themselves to this. They're coming under one submission. They've made the decision that their values and beliefs, whatever they were raised with, Jew, Greek, wherever they're from, they're making the decision in the first century that we have to make again in the 21st century that Christ's word is above my word, that I'm going to submit to his authority over my own. Real community is like this.
I want to give you a couple of thoughts on this. That real community first begins with a common set of values, a common worldview, a perception of reality that says God's in charge. I'm meeting a lot more christians lately that claim to be christians and yet have this very strange worldview, very strange where it doesn't seem like to me Christ is in charge and everything is random, and I'm like that. It seems to me community coming underneath. Faith has this idea that I know exactly what God is up to.
I may not know every detail, but I can tell you how it began and I can tell you how it's ending. And he wins. We just sang about this. I'm fighting a battle. I think that song's pretty cool in this.
Cause we feel often like we're in, we're at war. However, he's already wondehenkhe and he wants us to be a part of this. We're soldiers in his army, we're servants in his kingdom. But we don't fight or we don't serve out of a sense of unknown. We just don't.
We know how it ends. So we're coming under this submission, this worldview that says, I know God's in charge. No matter what happens in my life, whether it's sickness, whether it's death, whether it's the culture around me, whether it seems like my society has fallen apart, I know God wins, and somehow I'm a part in that. And so guess what doesn't well up in me? Fear.
Instead, hope wells up in me believers. Where's your hope?
If your hope is in the elephant or the donkey, that's a waste of time. I got news for you, lest those people serve King Jesus alongside you, that's not where your hope is. Where's your passion? Where's your delight?
There's some wild christians you could go back and study in the first century that had smiles on their face as they were tortured in the coliseum. That's the kind of delight that's even. It even stretches me. Like, how is this possible? But I know that it is a delight.
That's something bigger than circumstance. Real community has a common recognition of authority and a submission to that. That's what makes a soldier, a good soldier is that each and every one of them say, where you go, I will go. You send me and I'm your man. Yes sir.
Yes, ma'am, I will do it. That makes a good army. Same is true in the church. Wherever christ says go, I will go. And it's a yes sir from me.
You share that same submission. What if he were to say something bold to you, my friend? What if he would tell you, hey, quit your job as a police officer and go into the healthcare business?
And it was harder than it seemed too. It may have seemed hard. What if he just up and said, I want you to go on the mission field to Uganda. I want you to go. But his words, not his go words are not always this.
We get really trapped like that. We think he'll say, well, he's going to send me to foreign lands. Not for most of us. For most of us, he's going to say, all right, my boy, I'm going to send you to this workplace that you've been studying and been prepping for. And guess what?
Everybody in there is lost. And you're going to come to church and you're going to come to your community groups going, man, I work at just, ah, these people. He called you you, not me, not your neighbor. But I did all this work. I did all this study that I would finally have a community of people.
No, no, no. That may happen as God begins to move in your workplace. When he says go, will you say, yes, sir, I submit to your authority. I believe you are sending me there. For some of us, he sends us to foreign lands.
For some of us, we will say our whole life, hey, lord, I'm not doing the pastor thing, all right? Not gonna do it. And if I am gonna do it, it ain't gonna be in eastern North Carolina. Ha ha. Rocky Mount, my friend.
And Rocky Mountain isn't even what it was. When I was growing up, we used to come up here to shop. This place was nice. I'll send you there later. When?
Now everybody goes to Wilson to shop. I'm like, y'all are insane. I grew up there. That's how it is.
And my submission sometimes lacks. Sometimes I go, why me, God? But I'd rather say, yes, sir, you sent, I will go. You told I wasn't expecting this. But this is what he did.
And so here I am. I wonder, my friend, will you submit to the same authority that the apostles did? That calls them in verse 47 for the Lord to add to their number day by day. He's doing miraculous things all over the community. And he's doing it through the most unexpected people.
It's the kind of people who just simply say yes. Just say, hey, I don't know all of the things that are in here. But guess what I can do like everybody else. I can study it. I can figure it out.
Y'all are working all over the city in places where I will probably never go. I'm not going to play with bedbugs, Trey. I'm not. There's some people there that are so happy to see you. I've got a problem.
Please fix it.
John. You've got it even worse, my friend. There's a lot of people that do not want to see you, and yet God has called. I think I would say there's certainly professions like that that it better be a calling of God.
There's a big difference here. In submission and just receiving a paycheck, there's a big difference. Submit to the teachers of God's word. Submit to the authorities. There's some other examples here, and my intent is not at all to say, hey, you guys got to listen to me.
That's not the point of this at all. Here's what the word of God says. It says in one Thessalonians four. It says, remember what we taught you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. When you hear in this place or when you hear in community groups, your shepherds or your pastors leading you, and you know this is God's word to me, don't be discouraged and don't run.
Own it, face it. Submit to the authority for your own benefit. Hebrews 13 says, obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account, which is terrifying. My friends, let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. Oh, when you hear something here, when you hear something from the word of God and it stretches and challenges you, I just pray you would rest in that and work on it and not go, I can't believe he said that.
No, you do the research like the Bereans did, who heard what Paul said and went and did the study themselves and said, what he's saying is true and we need to change.
I want to end with this thought, something I've been complaining about lately, that I'm done. I'm not going to complain about it anymore, because I've noticed a difference lately around here about various businesses and how they're run and how it makes me feel as a customer. If I've complained to any of you about this, I apologize. I want to be a delight. I want to be an encouragement to you.
I've noticed something especially, I have to eat in this city. Y'all ever have to eat around in this city? I've noticed something that there's a really big difference between those who have a submission for a paycheck and those who have a submission for a value system. And it's very obvious in this town, more obvious than in most towns, that there's. You could go to, in fact, if you want to, for lunch today, go to almost any fast food in town and you will find a whole lot of people who are in submission to a paycheck.
And guess what? If that's your goal, if you're submitting to I need a paycheck, then people don't really matter. They don't. They don't matter. Long as you don't get fired, you're good to go.
And so go to almost any fast food in town and you will find that they seem like they're mad that you came. They were having a conversation with the other person in the restaurant and you showed up and ruined it. I'm sorry to have wasted your time, my friend, but I would like a burger.
And I have a family of six. And guess what? Nobody can get right. When you have a family at least that big, they never get it right. Never, never.
It's so annoying to have to pull over every single restaurant and go up missing something. Gotta go back in every time. Even chick fil a can't get this right. I don't care who you are. You said chick fil a gets.
No, not me. Not me. They don't. They're not even open today, so we can't do anything about that today. Today.
But you go to a local sit down restaurant where maybe the owner's in there, you'll get something different. And if he's watching, if he's in there watching his staff, those people won't be hanging around if they don't treat you right. We've got some restaurants like that too. What's the difference? It's submission to a value system, not a paycheck.
Submission to something higher.
I wonder how many of you have made that decision in your life. That everything I do. The next part of Colossians chapter three. He read the part about gratitude and sharing in hymns and the word of God. It goes on to say, I do all things as unto the Lord and not unto men.
Who do you work for?
Oh, it's pretty easy for me to get up here and be submitting to his authority. But who am I going to be tomorrow?
It's not any easier for me that I've got to act right tomorrow too. And you've got a wonderful opportunity. And I would say, my friend, would you submit to his authority in the place you work and in your families? Would you bring this home today? Don't let this sit at church.
Your kids should see your passion. The greatest thing you're doing for your children, parents in the room is not that you're telling them the right answers that you're showing them. Them. You know, when I watch dad read his word, when I watch dad sing, something's different about him. Oh, yeah.
They see your heart, they see your passion. Your friends, your family come under the same submission with the saints of old and see the Lord add to the number day by day. The first century church had these four devotions, and they haven't changed. And the same God is still blessing the people and adding to the number. This is where we're going to be for the next few weeks.
First now today, talking about the apostles teaching and then eating together, which y'all like. That's gonna be fun. And his prayer and fellowship. Will you decide today to share in the same confession? I confess Jesus as lord and savior.
I am his man, I am his woman, share the same passion. I'm about his word. I'm gonna be getting in this thing every day. I have no habit of that. Maybe you might say to me, well, you gotta start somewhere.
Some of these reading plans are really great. Use them to get started. Start in the book of Matthew or John. I often tell people, start with John and see the story of Christ. And then if you want to stick with the john thing, go over to first John, go to James.
If you're like, I wanna know how to control my tongue. I wanna know how to be a better go to James. But then as it starts to inspire you and move you, this thing is a wonder. It's a wonder you'll be over in Hosea and go, I can't believe you said that to me today. God, share the same passion and the same submission.
You don't work for men anymore, my friends. You work for the Lord. Let's pray now together. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much that you are, first of all, a God who saves, a God who loves, who pours out such mercy and grace that you've saved us and there's nothing better in this life that we could have passion for. You've given us so many different things that we can enjoy and delight in.
And that's your, that's even, that is your grace, that we can just enjoy the relationships with others. We can enjoy marriage and children, and we can enjoy friendships that go well beyond family sometimes these wonderful friendships that we have. And we can delight in the things you've given from your earth and things we can eat and places we can go and the beauty of your world. You've given us so much to delight in. But all of that is just a shadow of what you've done with Christ.
It's just a shadow that you would look at a people, myself included, and go, wow, they're a mess, but I got this. They're a broken, awful mess. In fact, they're not just that they're against me, they're my enemies. They want self, self, self. But in spite of that, I'm coming, I'm dying.
I'm paying the price that they can't pay for the justice that they don't even care about.
Dear Lord, I'm thankful for who you are, for that love, that salvation. God, would you, would you never let that even take a backseat to anything in our thought life? That in everything we do, it's inspired by the fact that we are saved by grace, that your love is so intense for us that we could never escape it. Oh, sad are we when we somehow put that in the back filing cabinets of our brainstor. How do we even do that?
That we would be passionate about all these little things that have no real meaning and no purpose in the long term, but we would put the thing that you have done that's eternal on the back burner. God, I repent of that. We repent of that. Would you bring it to the foremost part of our brains, that it would inspire every conversation, it would inspire the way we live?
God, I pray for our church.
Though we are small, I have no doubt if we were the kind of people who delighted in your word day by day and worked hard to love one another day by day, I have no doubt you would add to this number those who are being saved. I don't even have to worry about that part. Only you can move the human heart. Only you can stir a person towards salvation. Not only did you give the salvation, but you draw men to yourself.
You draw people. Our only job is to be the church you've called us to be, to be the people of God as you've directed us. And so I'm asking God first in me, would you cause me to have perfect submission or as close to perfect as I can manage, that I would come under the banner of King Jesus and everything I do that I would be so passionate about that, that it would be obvious to those around me, God, do this in each and every one of us, you took eleven men. Eventually a 12th came in named Matthias. You took those twelve and changed the world.
Certainly you can take 40 and do the same.
Not because any of us want to be something great. We want to see you do what you did in acts 247, those who are being saved. Oh, I don't want to waste that opportunity, God. I don't want to keep this great news to myself. Allow us to have a shared confession and passion and a submission that's so obvious to our coworkers in this community that you would move people towards yourself.
We love you, Lord Jesus. We're yours. Help that person in the room right now. There's somebody in here today that has said no, or wait to you. You said, go, and they said, not right now.
You said, go, and they said, I didn't hear you. God, I pray for them right now that they would say, yes, sir, I am yours. I am bought with a price, and you are worthy of my devotion. God, move us today to put our yes plainly on the table and help us to be the kind of church that is submitting to one another in fellowship that day by day, we would be in community more than just here, more than just a community group night, that we would have family in this place. God, we love you.
We pray all of this in Jesus name. Amen.