Good morning, church. Good morning. It's great to see you today. My name is Stephen Combs. I am the pastor of worship here at Eastgate.

And I'm happy to be filling in today for Pastor Gary, who is taking a little vacation right now to kind of recharge his batteries, prepare for this next series that we're starting. He this week was writing a booklet for it, and the name of the series is called Kingdom Living, and it's a study of the Sermon on the Mount. And this is one that you're not going to want to miss a single Sunday. There's so much on the. So much meat on the bone when it comes to that, and it's going to be 16 parts in all.

So we encourage you to come and be a part of that series with us. So we're excited about that coming next week. But it's my pleasure today to be continuing the series that we started last week called Gospel Centered Living. And we're coming out of the It's Time initiative that we started back in January. And if you recall, the primary purpose of its time was to engage with our community.

And so last week we discussed how this is something that engaging with the community is something that needs to happen individually and it's something that needs to happen corporately. And last week we talked about how it started with living with Gospel intentionality. And now today we're going to be talking about how it involves inviting others into gospel community. And one of the quotes we heard last week that I think is worth repeating from Total Church is we need Christian communities who saturate ordinary life with the gospel. We want our life together to be gospel saturated.

We want to live and talk the gospel as part of our shared life. And so one of the things that we were considering this week is like, what is something that every human being has in common? And that is that we all have needs. And if you study, maybe you're someone who studied psychology and you're aware of this, but it's called Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. And so looking at this chart here, what you see here is what he would claim to be the needs that every, every human being has, no matter what, and they stack upon one another.

And so at the very bottom, you have what he would classify as just basic needs. And these are physiological needs. And here's what it says that's for air, water, food, shelter, sleep, clothing, reproduction. And then above that, we have safety needs, which are personal security, employment, resources, health, property. And so those are what he would call those Two, right?

There are just basic, like you need to have, you have to have these just to continue to function as a human being. And then on top of that it begins to, if you don't have the bottom ones, then it makes it harder to now begin to achieve the ones that stack on top of that. So the third one he lists here is love and belonging needs. And that is friendship, intimacy, family, a sense of connection. Above that, what he calls esteem needs.

And that is respect, self esteem, status, recognition, strength, freedom. And so if you notice that these are now getting into not just a basic physical need, this is now getting into a basic psychological need. And then at the very top is what he calls self actualization needs. That's a desire to become the most that one can be. This is a person's potential that they're looking for.

It's a self fulfillment seeking, personal growth seeking, seeking to have just peak experiences. And so as I said earlier, everyone in the world, his argument is that everybody has these exact needs in common with one another. And how we meet those needs might look different, but we all do have that in common, regardless of race, regardless of culture, regardless of your socioeconomic background. And here's the good news. God cares about those needs.

Jesus had a practice where if you study the Gospels, when he would go to a new community, he would first meet the needs of people in that community through many times, what were miracles? You know, the blind could see, the deaf could hear, right? But he was meeting a need first. And then after meeting that need, he would then share the truths that are hard truths in some cases of the gospel. And he didn't just smack them upside the head with the truth, he loved them first.

However, many of us are so focused on our own needs, and we're so focused on our inner circle, our little bubble of people that we surround ourselves by that we can't see past that bubble and we can't see past that into the lives of others. And we're often triggered by the symptoms of the needs of the world. And what I mean by that is people say things because they're hurting. And instead of us seeing the heart of the issue like Jesus would, we get triggered by it and we get offended. See, and then what do we do?

Well, some of us will just drop a truth bomb and then walk away without actually trying to make the effort of actually seeing into their lives, seeing a need and inviting them into what life, so that we can help meet that need through the power of Christ. Well, what are your deepest needs? This morning I would wager that you're human beings, so you have the needs that every human being has ever had and that there are somebody here has some physical needs and it wasn't on the list, but it's a means to an end. Money is one that I think many of us would say we have in common, but for food, shelter, all that stuff. But if you really examine your heart today, there's a deeper need, there's a deeper desire to have belonging, to have esteem, to have a purpose.

And that's because God made you that way. Are you currently pursuing meeting these needs in the context of a gospel community? Are you looking for it everywhere else but that place? Because maybe you've got some past hurts or maybe you've got some anxieties about becoming part of a community of people. And if you are in a community right now, are you inviting people into it?

Are you engaging with our community, inviting them to be part of the community that you found here? Or are you isolated and you're wondering, man, like my needs of belonging, my needs of esteem, my needs of purpose. I feel like I'm in a deficit today. And we've done it to ourselves, we've isolated, but we can't see that that was actually what created what was kind of like the starting of this issue of feeling like we don't have a sense of belonging, feeling like we don't our self esteem is struggling, feeling like we don't have a purpose. And I would challenge that it's because you're not involved in the community.

And then I would next challenge that if you're, if others in the workplace or in the school or wherever it is you go are looking at your life, you're not very engaging to them because they don't really want what you have, because they want their needs met and they're not seeing that you're even getting yours met. I believe that you won't be engaging to the community unless you're engaged in a community. I'll say that again, you won't be engaging to the community unless you're engaged in a community. We want to be a part of a church that satisfies our deepest needs and it invites the world around us to come. Come and be satisfied as well.

And God's word today is gonna guide us to see how gospel community starts in us and it satisfies us and then it attracts the world around us to come and be a part. So my question to you is, do you wanna be satisfied? Yes or no? Do you wanna be satisfied? Do you wanna be deeply satisfied and do you want to reach our community for Jesus?

Not as many yeses on that one. And we're going to talk about that more as we go into this, is that there's a focus that has tended to be inward and on our own needs. And it's caused us to become a little bit blind to the needs of our community. Now, in the Book of Acts, Luke recorded how what has come to be known as the day of Pentecost. And just short little summary.

The disciples were praying in the upper room for days. And then the Holy Spirit, which was promised by Christ, fell on the disciples. And it's described as. It looked like tongues of fire began to fall on their lips. And so the disciples came out of that upper room and they began to speak to the community around them.

There were over 16 different nations and cultures in that area, yet they were hearing the gospel preached in their own language. And so what happened that day was 3,000 people came to know Jesus, which is just astounding in one day for 3,000 people come to know Jesus. And you know, as I've read this passage all my life, I've always been like, wow, that's incredible. But until this week, I had not considered that there's now a PR problem, not personal, HR problem. That's the one I was looking for in that.

Now you have 3,000 people who came to know Jesus. And we don't want to just be like, man, that's great. You know Jesus now. Good luck. That's not what they did because the church immediately identified that, wow, these are 3,000 people who now are professing to know Jesus.

They're wanting to join on the journey. What are we going to do now? Because some of these people have some very basic physical needs that aren't being met. So how are we going to respond? What you see there is now you have.

This is so cool. The very first church in history, the first time that it ever called itself the church, and they came together as one and they cultivated this culture of gospel community. And then what happened was God added to their number on a daily basis, those who were being saved. He didn't just stop at the 3,000, he continued to add to that number. Here's the encouragement I want to offer to us this morning is that we can invite others into a gospel community with an eager expectation that God will grow his church.

I wholeheartedly believe that he'll do it again. So how do we do that? How do we invite others into gospel community? Well, the text gives us three ways to cultivate a culture that invites others in the Gospel community. Friends, I want to encourage you to stand to your feet.

Right now. We're going to read God's Word together. And if you have a Bible with you or the Bible app or whatever it might be, we're going to turn to the Book of Acts, chapter two, and I'm starting at verse 44 here. We're going to read God's Word and all who believed were together and had all things in common, and they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. 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 then if you're not reading yet, read this out loud together. And the Lord added to their number day by day, those who were being saved. May God bless the reading of his Word. Amen. All right, have a seat.

So we see a lot. There's a lot that we're going to dissect right here today that maybe you're here today and you're like, okay, heard that passage before. Because if you've been part of Eastgate Church for any length of time, you've heard us talk about this passage fairly often. But there's a spin that we're putting on it this week that I think is worth hearing, and it's worth looking at it with a different lens this morning that this is having to do with being part of a community. But this is going to be how we engage our community as well.

So let's take a look. We can invite others into Gospel community by cultivating a culture of authenticity and fellowship. Authenticity and fellowship. So as is our custom here, when we read the Word of God, we want to make sure that we understand what was on the page. And so we're just going to go through it and just pull out key words that are worth explaining.

And the first one we see is in verse 44, it says all believed were together. So simply put, they were spending time together. And when you read on in verse 46, it says how often they were together. It says they were together day by day. Now, I'm just going to be brutally honest.

When. So my brother Jonathan, he's our lead pastor at our Rocky Mount campus, he read that out loud and he was like, that's together a lot. That's a lot of together. And kind of the same way I was like, yeah, that's a lot to Day by day. Do I really want to be around these people that often?

But here's something I want us to consider, is that maybe that idea, even somebody just now got really mega triggered and you were like, I'm anxious. Now my anxiety is through the roof. I don't know if I can tolerate being around these people that much. But check this out. Is it really that big of a stretch to want to be with people on a daily basis?

Because what's one example of something that we've implemented into our society to meet a social need? Social media. You might consider yourself an introvert, you might consider yourself shy. But I've been surprised how many shy introverts are super talkative on social media.

And so like, you may not feel comfortable coming to a public place, but you'll put your sweatpants on and pull out that smartphone on a daily basis because you're not really thinking it through, why you're doing it. But there is a need that you're instinctively trying to meet. And that is you need community, you need relationship. But here's the bad part. Social media is disingenuous and it often tends to be a toxic environment.

And it doesn't actually meet your need because there's something there. There's too much of a distance and it actually makes things worse. It tends to push us further apart. And so the church got this right. They said, man, we're going to get together often.

And then it goes on to something that I think is also very challenging to our culture today. It says in verse 44, they had all things in common. And now the word for common here is the word koinos, which is also the word for koinonia, which you've probably heard us say here before, which means fellowship. That's something that I think a word that's used often in the church culture is the word fellowship. And so at the heart of fellowship is a shared faith, it's a shared vision, it's a shared purpose.

So when it says all things in common, what this is saying is they may not look the same because what did I just said, there was like over 16 cultures and countries there. They may not look the same, they may not even speak the same language, they may not come from the same socioeconomic background, may not have the same preferences, but they had all things in common up here. And that they had a common purpose in Jesus Christ, that the gospel brought them together with a central focus. But then it also says that there was a commonality of openness and open handedness with Their belongings with their possessions, and that brought them to a commonality. And then what did they do?

They provided one another's. What did we just talk about in the introduction? They provided one another's need. Says that in verse 45. So we see them, they're actually literally meeting physical needs.

Some people, and you're here this morning, you're like, I have physical needs. The church was providing it. But then there are other needs that are. That you see as you see the church grow and as you see the people that are sent out of the church, you can see that there are needs of purpose being met. There's a sense of belonging that's being felt.

There's an esteem that people are receiving. And so what we see here is the church, the first church, just immediately recognized that meeting one another's needs was going to be an imperative part of both having a church community, but also to reach the community around them. So it wasn't those meeting needs was not meant to just help the church. It was meant to help the church become selfless. And that functions as a cohesive body of Christ.

That it would be an attractional aspect of the church that would draw the outside community in. We see this command to be together other places in the Bible as well. In the book of Hebrews, it says in chapter 10, let us not neglect our meeting together. There's that word, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near. So they.

The writer of Hebrews was already saying this 2,000 years ago. They were already seeing that people have this tendency to isolate, to not come together. Social media is just our modern way of isolating, Having an attached garage that you pull your car into and never even have to look around at your neighbors. That's just a modern way of dealing with it. But it's a human problem that the enemy has been fighting us ever since this time of he wants you to isolate, he wants you to push away.

But the writer of Hebrews says, let's not do that. Let's come together. And what can happen when you come together? The love of God can be shown. It says in First John 3.

But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Like the writer here is just like, this just can't be so. That's not the Jesus I know. How can God's love abide in little children? Let us not love in word or talk, but in Deed and in truth, in John 13 it says, by this all people will know you are my disciples if you have love for one another.

I've been a part of a few experiences in my life in which I've gotten to be in deep community with the people of God. Our church is certainly one. But there are some environments that we will willingly put ourselves in that I would classify as like a greenhouse environment in which we were kind of forced to deal with some, maybe some inner issues, but also to collectively work together towards a common goal. And so when I was in college, I went on four different summer projects with what was, it was then called Campus Crusade for Christ. Now they call it crew.

And this picture right here is one of me in Moscow. And actually we stopped in Moscow and that's Red Square right there. That's me and my team. If you're still looking for me, because there's a blond haired, long blonde haired guy on the picture that would have been me at the time. The years have changed some things for me, but that's me right there on the front.

But that team right there, I spent seven weeks with them. And what God did in and through that team were some amazing things. I personally got to see three people come to Christ that summer. And I saw other people as well through our team. And so God used our community, they're in Russia, to reach the community.

But do you know that also when you get together with people for any length of time, and this was seven weeks, we didn't have tv, smartphones didn't exist at the time. So we were left to just look at each other and find things to talk about, find things to do, and sparks would sometimes fly. Because when you're together that length of time, if you have a fake face, a brave face that you're used to putting on, that face gets really tired and eventually the facade comes down at some point. And so there's challenges that happen when you're together. And so we see this happen.

Our youth that go on a week long camp every year, our young adult ministry, they go to a conference. Our women's ministry is going on a retreat just next weekend and it's two nights together. Same for men. Our men's ministry, we're doing a retreat. So why do we do these things?

Well, we found that when you put people together for longer than an hour and a half on a Sunday morning, that some great things begin to happen. There's a fellowship that begins to happen, that people's needs get met. But it also, the people of God are more attractional to the community around them when we learn to be together. But there's another side to this that surprises people, and it really shouldn't, is that we're sinners saved by grace. I'm still a sinner.

I still got issues I'm working out, guys. I'm going to sometimes say things without thinking about what I just said and the ramifications it might have for someone. And so I might offend somebody, somebody might offend me. And the worst thing we can do is to push away when that happens. That never makes it better.

You think you made it better by doing that, but all you did was mask the problem and run away. There's a saying we have here, and that is wherever you go, there you'll be. Those problems are going to keep chasing you everywhere you go unless you learn to deal with them inside of community. And so here in these two words that we said earlier, authenticity and fellowship, there's a cycle here that I would like to encourage us to consider being a part of this morning. And that is, first of all, be authentic.

Put yourself in a community where the conversation goes deeper than sure, is some nice weather we're having today. I sure hope it rains. I planted some bushes yesterday and it's kind of, you know, just surface level stuff. Find yourself a community to be a part of where you can be you and be real and you can trust that person sitting across the table from you that when you show them who you really are, that they're not going to just push away and be like, you got problems, or push away and say you offended me by telling me who you really were. Because it is only out of authenticity that you can find actual, real, true fellowship, unity, one of mine.

That you would find a people in which you can belong and truly be satisfied with. It's only out of being authentic that you'll find that. And then guess what? If you find a community like that where you can really be yourself and you can really find, satisfy one another's social needs, is that that now flows back into your authenticity. I'm gonna keep being more and more who I am because these people love me despite me.

Now, does that give you freedom to say any little brash thing that comes to your mind? Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying be a jerk because you should always say things with grace and truth. But. But what we are saying is that find a place where you can be real and where you're not going to judge others for also being real.

And Then find fellowship in that. Moving along.

The second thing we see here, how to we can invite others into gospel community by cultivating a culture of joy and generosity. Joy and generosity, it says in verse 46, day by day, attending the temple together. So what you see here, there's that word again, together. And they came to the temple. And this time that was a place where the people of God would gather corporately.

Like I said, this was the first church. You know, there weren't church buildings, there was a temple. And so. But they came together in one mind. That's this idea of togetherness.

It's one mind, it's one passion. So I look at that, I'm like, man, that's how I want to go to church, right there. I look at that story, I'm like, man, that is what I want to experience. That unity of mind, the unity of passion. They did that.

And then it says, you're reading on breaking bread in our homes, in their homes. And so if you've ever been a part of our community group system here at Eastgate, you know that that's one of the four values is breaking bread. And so that is something that our community groups have learned. That's part of a way that we belong. It's something that's worth doing on a weekly basis.

But. But here I would challenge today that it's worth looking at breaking a bread through the lens of how I can reach my community through this process as well. You see Jesus, he meets Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus had climbed up a tree because there were so many people around. He was trying to get a good look at Jesus.

Jesus just straight up comes up to him, calls him out and says, zacchaeus, you come down. I'm going to your house today. Now, I'm not suggesting you do that strategy. Go up to a complete stranger and be like, I'm coming to your house. Jesus had a one up on you.

He knows the heart of every man. So he knew Zacchaeus backstory before he even walked up to him. But do you think when he got to Zacchaeus house, they just kind of sat there and looked at each other awkwardly and twiddled their thumbs? You know, there was some eating that happened when they got there. In fact, in the book of Revelation, chapter three, there's a very common passage that you've heard where Jesus says, behold, I stand at the door and I knock.

If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in. But it don't stop there. That's where we typically Will stop. But he says, I will come in and I will dine with him. See, Jesus knows how he created you.

He knows that there's something different about you than the rest of creation. While a dog will just eat whatever you put in front of it and just scarf it down, not really caring. He put in human nature this desire for the tasteful, to combine ingredients together and create new foods, because he put this desire to fill our stomachs in an exciting and fun way. And I don't think he did it just so that way you could enjoy it. I think he did it partially as a tool for reaching the community around you.

So here's what I would challenge. If you're not in a community group, don't get me wrong, this sermon should be telling you to join one. You need to become part of a gospel community if you expect to be engaging to the community around you. Strongly encourage that. If you're not on a service team, I encourage you to join a service team.

Maybe you're thinking to yourself, well, I serve in the community. Well, think about somebody who goes to the gym. They're trying to prepare their body physically for something where they might need to exert it in other circumstances. Serving in the church is an opportunity to work those muscles out of service. And guess what?

You're gonna go out in the community, you're gonna be more prepared for it. Okay? Those are two great ways to get plugged into a community. But have you considered that breaking of bread might have another use? And that is, when's the last time you invited someone that was not a family member?

They weren't a church friend, they weren't an old high school buddy, but somebody that you just happened to go to work with them, you just happened to see them often. I don't know what that could mean for you. Somebody's coming to your mind right now. When's the last time you invited them over for dinner? Or if that's too big of a step, when's the last time you said, you know what?

Instead of on my lunch break today, of doing my usual thing and hurrying home and just sitting there in front of the TV and eating my lunch and recharging my batteries, maybe once a week, I'm gonna make a personal mandate that I'm inviting somebody and saying, hey, what are you doing for lunch? Let's go to lunch together. And you're doing it not just because you want to be friendly. You're doing it with intentionality, because you want to use this opportunity of filling your stomachs which there's something. I'm telling you, there's something God put in us that as you fill your stomach, there's something that comes very natural about opening up.

How can you get past the hard exterior that that person may have simply by going and eating with them. So this breaking of bread can have a powerful use. And it says they receive their food with glad, which is the idea here is extreme joy and generous hearts. Generous. It has the idea of a simplicity to it.

It's a singleness, It's a oneness, a. And so it says their giving was generous, it was sincere, it was from a heart of joy. In Second Corinthians, it says, each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion. For God loves a cheerful giver. So there's a type of generosity that God's looking for.

He's not looking for compulsive generosity. He's not looking for a burden by, oh, okay, I'll just, you know. No, he's looking for a glad, a joyful generosity. And then it says in First Corinthians, if I give away all I have and I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. There's this mix of love, joy, and then generosity that creates the type of church that God is trying to create in and through you, that will not only bless the church, but it will bless the community around you.

Are you intentionally inviting people into the community, into your fellowship? Now, there's a parable. Jesus. It's really not really a parable. It's really just a saying.

He paints this. Jesus painted this picture in the Gospels of a banquet. And so I found this picture. I'm a visual person, in case you hadn't noticed that yet. I like to kind of see things.

And so I like what this artist did here. He was kind of given, like, a modern rendering of what this could look like. And here's what Jesus says. When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you get repaid. When you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the blind, and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.

And so. So, simply put, Jesus is saying here to invite over the needy. Now, he pinpoints some people with some physical disabilities in this, but I believe that he has in mind the scope of all who have need. There's somebody at work that offends you, you're thinking of them right now, and it's because they say what's on their mind. They may be a little bit brash.

Have you ever tried to look at them the way Jesus looks at them and look at the heart and say, where are they hurting? What's made them like this? Why do they talk this way?

And to consider the concept of, what if I went and took them to lunch and I paid for it? They clearly have a need that I know is being met in me. They clearly have a need. How can I take them to lunch and not expect to get much out of it? I'm not expecting this to be fun and to gain a new friend in it.

I don't have those kinds of expectations. I simply just want to do what Jesus said and to go eat with someone who has a need and then turn the rest over to God and see what he does. What would that look like? I believe that it would create another cycle. Joy into generosity.

So when we start with joy and why do you have joy? It's because you are following Jesus Christ and he has given you stability in the fact. I'm not basing my day off of how happy I am. I'm basing it off because the joy of the Lord is my strength. And so out of joy and for what Jesus.

I didn't deserve what Jesus gave me. Okay, I'm recognizing, first of all, I have so much to be thankful for, so much to be joyful for, because he has redeemed my heart and he has promised so many things for me, including eternal life. I have reason to be joyful. So what do I do out of that? I'm gonna give because I saw Jesus do it.

I'm gonna be generous out of my joy and because I'm joyful. I'll be honest, I kind of want to be generous now. I actually want to give because Christ is so given to me. And then out of my giving, this is a really cool part right here. Out of your generosity, it drives you to be all the more joyful because there's something in us that does better when we're not selfish.

I can think back to my childhood, where birthdays and Christmas were often points of disappointment for me because I wanted things that were on my list that weren't given to me because it was all about me and what I would receive. But I found as an adult that coming into a place now where I'm the one giving the gift to my family, my friends, I find so much more satisfaction in Giving than I ever received in receiving. There's something there that brings us more joy when we give. And then finally we can invite others into gospel community by cultivating a culture of worship and witness. Worship and witness.

It says in verse 47, they were praising God. So you know, this is self explanatory. They were literally singing praises to God. But don't let us miss the fact that this was not just happening in the temple courts because you see them out day by day with the people praising God.

And this is not meant to just be songs. Something that we heard earlier today was that whenever you serve, that's an act of worship. So not just singing songs, but serving is an act of worship. If somebody were to be able to kind of walk behind you and pick up the bread crumbs that you leave behind on this is what Stephen valued this day. This is what Stephen did today because he values this thing.

And they were to just follow the ways that you live out, the things that matter to you. Would they eventually come to a throne that has Christ on it because they seen how the things that you say and do are for the point of worshiping Him? Or would they follow those breadcrumbs and see the acts that you did that day, the things that you said this day, the sacrifices you made this day were all to just put yourself on the throne. And that's what we're talking about here, that these are a people who were worshiping God on a daily basis. They were pointing to God and all the things that they do.

And then what did God do? They had favor with the people. Now, I love this word favor here because a synonym for it is the word grace. And what it says, it says it affords joy, pleasure, delight, sweetness, charm, loveliness. So they were living this life of praise, they were living this life of worship.

And then it was attractive to the outside world. We heard Pastor Gary say last week that people will sometimes accuse the church of being hypocrites. Well, they're not wrong.

We are people who are saved by grace.

And so before Jesus, before God, I am saved. I know that. I know that. I know that before him he has made me perfect in his eyes because of the blood of Jesus that covers me. But there's something else that's actively happening and will never stop happening until I breathe my last breath here on earth.

And that is even he's made me perfect in his eyes, but he is making me holy. He's working out my. I'm working out my salvation before Him. So, friends, I am not 100% pure. I am not 100% holy.

I'm perfect in God's eyes because of the blood of Jesus. But I'm working out my salvation. So I am going to do things that the Bible says not to do. I am going to say things that I know better because I'm still in this fleshly body. This is not my resurrection body, which will be perfect.

It will have perfect motives. It will be holy. And so guess what? We're going to look hypocritical. But.

But that's not gonna be the focus that the world sees. Because if they see you in community that they desire to be part of, and they see you worshiping God with your life, they are gonna naturally give you grace. They're gonna naturally give you favor. That's gonna cause them to look past those things and to say, man, hey, he's working it out. But there's someone or something that he is following or he is after that's given him purpose.

I want it in my life. And they won't look at your mistakes. They'll look at the person that you're worshiping. And so then check this out. They did all these things.

They were praising God. They were having favor with people and everything that we've heard up to this point. And then verse 47 is probably the most encouraging verse of this entire passage for me. It says, the Lord added to their number day by day. The Lord added to their number day by day.

In the kjv, it translates, the Lord added to his church. So there's this beauty here that if I live out what God has told me to do and all my imperfections, and with the imperfection of the people that surround me, because they got issues too. If we will come together in a gospel community, and we will invite others, come be part of this thing. Come be a part of this community that has met my deepest need and saved my life, then I don't have to worry about adding to the number. God's going to do it.

All I have to do is lift his name up higher than any other name, any other politician or purpose here on earth, lift him higher than everything, and he will draw the world to himself and build his church. It says in Colossians 3, 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 thanksgiving in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to the God, the Father through him.

I'm concerned that the reason that we don't engage with our community is because we would never say it out loud. But the real reason that we're not more engaged is that we just don't really care enough.

We care a whole lot more about meeting our own needs. We care a whole lot more for that person who's easy to love that's in our life. But the ones who don't know Jesus, who rub us the wrong way and say things, and we don't see common ground with them, if we're perfectly honest, we don't care that much. I'm reminded of a TikTok video that's going around right now. There's this guy who's welding, and his wife comes in the room while he's welding.

He's working, and she's like, honey, I just did some shopping. I got this groceries, and I got these shoes for this really good price. And he's like, yeah, that's great, honey. And he's just kind of this autopilot, listening to the things that she's excited about. She's like, yeah, you know, and so me and my friends are like, we're going to be doing.

And he's just completely blocking her out. And then all of a sudden, she just looks at what he's doing and says, man, those are some really fine welds you're doing right there. And all of a sudden, he perks up, and she engaged in the thing that he was interested in. All of a sudden, now he couldn't shut up because that's his thing. He's a welder.

I'm reminded of when I was in 2004, whenever I met Caroline, who was Caroline Boyd at the time, that whenever she and I started dating and then we went on to be engaged, that was all I could think about, all I could talk about. It was not. I didn't ask your permission to hear me gush about my future wife. It just came naturally because I cared so much about her. And I think about what happened this weekend.

We had the ACC tournament in basketball, and you saw on Friday night, in my opinion, like, that was the big game. That was UNC versus Duke. And people. Nobody has to, like, twist anybody's arm to paint their face and go to a game and root for their team. Nobody that's in that stadium right there is going.

If you ask them, like, why do you love your team? Because I played for them. No, they're not gonna say that. Because I went into that school, people have their reasons for why they get. It's not because they played for them.

It's not because they went to school. They just like that team because they like that team. Maybe they were raised to be a UNC F and they are viciously against Duke fans and vice versa. They'll argue with each other. People become passionate about.

To me, if you really think about it, in the grand scheme of things, it's a very petty thing to be passionate about. And yet on a Sunday morning, we'll stand here in worship and say, I'm not really much of a singer. I'm scared somebody's going to look at me if I do open my mouth. But you'll go to a basketball game and be like, we are the champions. Paint my face.

Because you're struggling with something here that's just real.

Your worship is misplaced.

You would be more. You would care more to praise a basketball team or, you know, like I was saying, like your spouse or whatever it may be something that's on that throne. You care more about that than you do about the Great Commission that God has put that. You care more about that thing than you do about Jesus. And it's because of that something else is sitting on this throne.

So there's a cycle that I want to invite us all into this morning, and this is the final one we're going to talk about here. It's the worship and witness cycle. I worship God because He saves me. I worship God because as I have come closer to knowing Him, I've seen Him work in my life. And the more I grow close to him, the more I.

I worship him less for the things he did for me or does for me. I worship him for who he is. Because as he's revealed Himself to me, I have seen the glory of the Lord and there's nothing else worthy of it. He's worth aiming my whole life at. He's worth surrendering all to.

And because I worship him and because he has put His Holy Spirit in me, I cannot help but talk about Him. And so the world's gonna hear about it, whether they like it or not, because it's a natural outflowing of the thing that I care about and the thing that he wants. Some. He said, go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations. If you really, really love him and care about him, you're not gonna be able to help but talking about him and to witnessing to the world.

And here's another challenge I want to issue here. If you're here this morning and you can say, like, Stephen, I'm doing all the right things. Like, I feel like I'm going to church regularly. I'm in a community group, I'm serving at church. But I'm still just like, something just is missing.

It's intangible. When's the last time you talked to someone who didn't know Jesus and told them about Jesus? When's the last time you invited someone in your circle, a circle of influence, the places you go? When's the last time you invited them into your home, invited them to be a part of your community? I would dare say that by worshiping God and not letting it flow through you to others, you're stifling your own witness.

And you're making it so you're actually drying up. You're starting to become passionless. Because when you really worship God, you'll tell the world about it. And then because you're telling the world about it, it's just going to drive you to worship him all the more. There is no one more excited than someone who brings a friend to church and then they're sitting on the edge of the seat their whole day because they're going, man, I got my friend here.

I hope they're seeing what I see. I hope they're seeing this God that I love. There's something that's built into you that wants to tell the world, and it's instilled there by the Holy Spirit.

You and I need real community. And my prayer for you is that your deepest needs will be met here in our Gospel community. But the challenge is to engage then with the community around you and invite them to be a part of it. If you want to be engaging to the community, engage yourself in a Gospel community one last time. If you want to be engaging to the community, engage yourself in the Gospel community.

Will you invite others into Gospel community by cultivating a culture of authenticity and fellowship, joy and generosity and worship and witness? Let's pray.

Christ. We feel the conviction that's coming from you right now that, and it might be for all kinds of different reasons here. There's a lot on the table here this morning for where we feel the piercing of our heart right now and the things that we need to work on. Maybe we're not. Maybe we're not being generous enough.

Maybe we're not witnessing. Maybe we're not in fellowship or in community with someone. There's all kinds of reasons why we're feeling convicted this morning. But God, we worship you. And we know that your Holy Spirit will Give us power, and that through that power he wants to reach our community.

So I pray for each person here that first of all, we would be able to have our deepest needs met in this gospel community. And that way, as we invite others into it, that they too would see their deepest needs met. And what's our deepest need if we fully, fully recognize it? Our deepest, deepest, deepest need is for salvation. Because in and of ourselves, we're not good enough.

And so maybe you're here this morning and you're recognizing that deep need. You're recognizing that in and of your own power that you are not good enough, but that you need. Jesus. Would you pray this with me right now? Jesus, I surrender to you.

I've been trying to do it myself and I'm unsatisfied by my efforts. I know that I'm not good enough of my own. I ask that you would forgive me of my sins. I turn from those. I repent of those.

And I want you to be lord of my life and to take. I want you to take the wheel, Jesus. Maybe you're here this morning and you are convicted of. You're in a community, but you're not engaging with the community. Would you pray this with me?

Jesus, I surrender to you, holy and truly. Help me, Father, to stop isolating. Help me, Father, to care about the world the way you care. And as I work these things out, Lord, help me to take a step this week that gets me a little bit closer to being like Jesus. And to take a step this week that gets me one step closer to being engaging to our community.

We ask this in Jesus name. Amen.