If you could live in any period in history, what time would you live, if you could choose to live in any period throughout history, what time would you live? Go ahead and share with your neighbor right now. Go ahead and share if you could live at any point in history, where, where when and where would you live? All right, for me, I would choose to live right now. I would choose to live right now. And I think all y'all that choose different periods of time are crazy. Like if you wanna meet somebody or, or an experience in a historical event, I get that. But in terms of just living like today, y'all, we got air conditioning, you know what I mean? Like buildings that stand up, you know, medicine, like technology. Like I like, I know technology is dangerous, but I don't want to go back to a world before Amazon prime. I'm just saying, you know what I mean? Like I want to live right now. It is a great time to be alive. OK. Now, while it is a great time to be alive, what I find fascinating is that with all that we have access to, with technology, with uh advancements, with medicine, with everything here. It seems that our world more than ever is filled with division and difficulty and distractions. Now, I can't say this is the most divided. Our country has been because we had a civil war so that it's kind of hard to pass that one. But as far as daily in our experiences, you cannot help but turn on the news, scroll through your phone or for the five people that are still reading newspapers, like newspapers are papers that OK, sorry, just explain. Um you cannot help but see a divided world and in a world where we have access to so much, it seems like it's actually left us feeling overwhelmed and anxious and oftentimes alone. And so for those that are trying to find their identity, find their meaning, find their purpose apart from God, the question I have for you is how's the world's way working for you? How's it working for you? Because I think a major reason why our world is as divided and is as distracted and is experienced so much difficulties is that we've tried to walk through this life apart from the God who made us. And when I'm having conversations with people, I try to do this in this 11 way possible, but they share what's going on and when they're trying to go after life and after this world, apart from God, I'll often times end our conversation with simply like, hey, how, so how's it working for you? Because what I've seen is that people who experience worldly success but yet relationally are broken or people who have, statistically speaking are in the richest portion of the world. And yet they feel like they don't have enough people who have beauty, but yet they feel like they don't, that they aren't enough and, and people are searching and searching and searching. It's interesting. A guy by the name of Saint Thomas Aquinas wrote back in the 13th century, four false idols, four idols that people search for that. When you search for these, apart from God, you're gonna be left feeling empty. And while this was written back in the 13th century, I think it could have been written this morning because the four false idols that this world pursues on a daily basis are money, power, pleasure and fame. Doesn't that sound like our culture right now? An idol is really anything you place in the gods spot. So even good things placed in the gods spot, turned into an idol and left and leave you feeling empty. And everyone in this room myself included has a weekly battle with one. If not all of these idols, we live in a culture that is going to elevate these four things to the highest level of meaning and success might be pursuit of money, but even broader than money. It's pursuing stuff and things and some sense of security, others are pursuing power in control and authority. When you think of pleasure, a lot of times there that gets connected directly with sexual activity, which is one of the most basic forms of that. And we live in a culture that objectifies people. And at the same time tells you to do what you want, sleep with who you want and be whatever you want. But yet at the same time, then devalues what God created, forget and beyond that beyond pleasure there and and sexual activity, you see just even the comforts in life and you experience the comforts of life that you just want to have more and you want it easy and we make comfort and pleasure or God. And then there are others who pursue fame. And now more than ever anybody at any time can become famous or infamous. But we've equated clicks and likes and follows with fame and some might be saying, well, John, it's I I don't wanna be famous. Ok, but do you find yourself living to please the people around you? Are you trying to be famous in your circle of friends? Are you acting, speaking, dressing in a way to get the approval of others? Because when you do that, we do these things. Apart from God, we find ourselves feeling stressed out, overwhelmed, anxious and oftentimes alone. Now compare those four idols with the words of Jesus found in Matthew chapter 11. Verses 28 to 30 he says, come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest, take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Now, when I read those words, it just seems different than what the world has to offer. But what we see after the resurrection of Jesus is the beginning of a movement that was literally called the way it it. You don't see the words Christians early to describe this movement more often than not, you could see them described as the way offering a better and a different way to live. And so how did the church start? Well, the church started as a small band of Jewish descendants who defied a superpower and a religious system that had reigned for 1000 years and they had, they were mostly uneducated. There was a variety of backgrounds, they had no money, they had no power, they had no buildings, they had no political wait and yet it became the largest movement in history centered around a Jewish carpenter who went around and claimed to be God and spoke of the coming of the kingdom and did some miracles. And yet when he was executed by the reigning religious and ruling powers of the day, a few days later, some of those early followers were claiming that he came back to life. And over the next 40 days, roughly 500 people actually claimed that he came back to life. And that the meaning of the fact that Jesus rose again from the dead meant that salvation was something not to achieve but to receive. And that if Jesus defeated death, Jesus can forgive your sins. And now salvation and reconciliation and rest for your soul is possible for all people who trust him as Lord and Savior. And he promised eternal life tomorrow and then abundant life today. And that this teaching started to spread and what started with, you know, a dozen people will say 11 because Judas not the best. OK? Goes from, they replace Judas goes from 12 to about 100 and 20. Peter gets up, preaches this message. Hey, you killed Jesus, but he came back and there's hope for you and this movement grows and grows and grows. And by the early three hundreds, there are millions of believers to where now 2000 years later, it is the largest movement in history with millions, if not billions of people claiming some hold to who Jesus Christ was and what Jesus Christ did. And Jesus predicted what was gonna happen in those final days with the disciples after he rose again. He said these words in acts chapter one verse eight. He said, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and in Samaria to the end of the earth. Now, this statement maps out the rest of the Book of Acts, but also maps out the progression that we've seen throughout the world that this message of hope and forgiveness and love and power that comes through Jesus Christ. Now launch this movement known as the church. So we're gonna take the next four weeks and really try to break down what is the early church mean? Ho how did it start? What were they doing? And why does that still apply to us today? Because I think what we'll find is that when you look at the early practices and, and happenings within the church body, you're gonna discover really what we're calling uncommon sense. Because if you look at the world in their pursuit of money, power, pleasure and fame, what you realize is that the world's way isn't working. And when you study the movement of the church, you see that there is a better way and we can do the same things today and see the same impact and see transform lives. We do that. So the question is, what is the church? What is the church? You know, Je Jesus says, these words ascends into heaven. Jesus goes up, the Holy Spirit comes down. Yeah, the Holy Spirit comes down there. The apostles are start preaching Peter preaches this message. It's really seen there at Pentecost, they start speaking and the people in the crowd start hearing their own native language and receiving this message and responding to it. And it launches this thing called the church. But what actually is the church? Well, the church comes from a Greek word that we have called Iglesia, which means a gathering of people called out for a specific purpose. The word Iglesias is not really a spiritual word. It just meant a gathering of people called out for a specific purpose. So there were people that were oftentimes gathered together at the city gates to discuss the happenings of the city. There was a gathering or Iglesia of military personnel, right? To discuss things. There, there is a gathering of a multi level marketing campaign of young moms selling in the latest. No. OK. Just kidding. There wasn't, I'm just saying anytime you have a gathering of people for a specific purpose, they would call that an Iglesia. And so Jesus uses this term to describe the movement that we now call church. So then if why do we say church? Well, it actually comes from a German word that it's pronounced actually different. It looks like the word church or k it's actually pronounced something similar to like uh Kirch or Khy, like it's got kind of a funky pronunciation, but it looks kind of like the word church. It kinda and it means the house of the Lord. So Iglesia would describe a gathering of people called out for a purpose. And then the word we now translate as church really means house of the Lord or or location or building of that. Now, the early church itself in scripture, we see it described as three things we see, it described as God's bride, God's body and then God's building. It's the church, this gathering of people called out for a purpose. We see this picture here. So first we see the church described as the bride of Christ. This should tell us how much Jesus loves the church. And that's important for us to remember because it's so easy to bash the church and look, I wanna be respectful of people that have come in. If you've been hurt by somebody in the church, I'm sorry. And church hurt is some of the toughest hurt to get over because people, you trust to be spiritual authorities in your life are people that you trust with very sensitive information in your life, turn around and weaponize it and use it against you. And so if you've experienced something called church hurt, I'm sorry. But one person's experience doesn't negate the purpose and bigger picture of who the church is and who we've been called the bee because we have to remember that Jesus died for the church. Jesus died for the people and he calls us the bride of Christ. Like if you came up to me and said, John, hey, I love you. But let me tell you about your spouse. How do you think I'm gonna react? Yeah, we're not friends anymore. Why were some of you? Nodding? Like I would disagree with that. Come on, people. If anything, I tell people that God blessed me and blinded her, you know, it's great. I'm good with it. You know what I mean? Because like, imagine with someone who's a performer all the time trying to be married to that where I think everything is an opportunity for a joke. Anybody with me, I I still I'm trying to find it in scripture, but I think sarcasm is a fruit of the spirit, but it's so bad that like at, at this point anytime my wife asks me a question, she just waits for the second answer because you know, the first one's probably a load of something that I'm just trying to get a laugh out of it and uh or or we'll go to social settings and she'll hear me say the same joke over a second, right? It's, it's the it's the loving eye roll of being married to someone who is like probably trying to live for the approval of others. OK? Just saying just just be transparent here. All right, just get it out in the open, right? But here's the thing. If you legitimately came up to me and said, hey John, we like you but I don't like your spouse like we're not cool. Right? Because I love my spouse. Ok. So let's be hesitant to how we bash the church as we know it. This is the bride of Christ. The other thing is that church is described as the body of Christ that God has had Jesus ahead. We're, we're literally the hands and feet of Jesus, which means that different churches, local expressions of church are gonna look different. The Christians are going to look different from each other but that we need each other to function as a body, right? If all of us were the liver or all of us was the pinky toe or something or all of us like it's not gonna work, you know what I mean? And yet we see too often churches fighting within itself, churches fighting against each other. It just looks like you're like punching yourself. It just just doesn't work because together we are described as the body. Then we also get described in Hebrews as God's building with Jesus being the cornerstone. You know, we're sitting in a, in a facility, right? That has cement walls, roof, right? In other buildings, you see stone, you see brick, you see wood frames, you see plywood like you see all these different things, you see stucco, ok? Those are used to build buildings. God uses people to build his church and Jesus is the cornerstone. And so he actually says this in Matthew 16, he's talking to Peter Matthew 16 verse 18 he says, and I tell you you are Peter and on this rock, I will build my Iglesia and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will build my gathering of called out people. And I love that image because the church is on offense, right? That the gates of hell will not prevail. We are not afraid of gates like no, we're storming the gates of hell, snatching people before it's too late. And what I love here is that this is a promise. And so we don't build his church. God builds his church. And last week at Easter, we talked about the value of his words, the same words that spoke the world into existence or the same words that he uttered there saying that it is finished showing that the mission is complete, that salvation is possible and available to people, the same power of his language. Then he says I will build my church because you don't see the Roman Empire today. You don't see the Persian Empire as it was back then. You don't see the Babylonians, you don't see the Assyrians. Yes, there's historical ties and you can trace those roots and the conflicts and things that are real world events happening today. But think about how crazy it is in this superpower world that this little band of believers transform the world. Here's how I define church right? Here's how I remember it is. There's five components to it So if you wanna remember, you can write down or you can just hold out your hand here. OK. Church is a movement with a message on a mission that is then modeled by Jesus and motivated by love. Church is a movement with a message on a mission modeled by Jesus. Motivated by love and alliterated by John because everything has an alliteration, sorry just this happens that way. It's a movement. We are a gathering of people. I am so grateful that we have a building. We just celebrated the largest weekend of ministry in the history of our church. I don't think it happens without a facility. And so I am so humble and grateful, but we have to understand that a building is what we use to gather as the church. The building isn't the church. We are a gathering of called out people. So let me ask you, are we moving or are we simply meeting? Are we just meeting together to sing a few songs and walk out and forget what we just said and come back and do it next week or? I don't know, maybe the week after. Are we moving to movement with a message? What is the message? The message is Jesus specifically that he is Lord and that he's savior and that when he died on the cross and rose again, that he defeated death. And when he defeated death, that means he defeated your sin, that salvation can be received, not achieved. And that anyone who calls upon Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior can and will be saved. That your sins are forgiven, that you can find purpose and meaning and joy and hope. Because there is a better way. This is the message. The message is not how bad people become good, but how dead people become alive. And with this message, then we are armed to be on a mission and we don't have to question what that mission is because Jesus tells us in Matthew 28 he says, go and make disciples baptizing them in the name of the Father, son and Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey all that I've commanded you. In other words, go and spread the way. This is our mission. He didn't start the church and then give them a mission. He actually launched the mission and then launched the church. That's important that order because it means churches don't simply have a mission, but rather the mission of God has the church. And this also means that the church is God's plan. A we are not by accident and of all our messiness and all our Brokenness, God chose you and God chose me. And so if we have a movement with this message on a mission, the question is, well, how do we even do it? That's where he comes in and says, live as I lived, love as I loved walk as I walked He's not just the means to salvation. He is the model for our life. And at the end of the day, we don't do it for us. We do it for God and we do it for others. And that's why He says those powerful words known as the great commandment. Love the Lord, your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love one another as yourself. He even takes it a step further. In John 13. He says, actually love people as I have loved you. So what is the church? It really is a gathering of called out people. It is a movement with a message on a mission modeled by Jesus motivated by love. A guy named Michael Green said this. He said Christianity was supremely a lay movement spread by informal missionaries. The spontaneous outreach of the total Christian community gave immense impetus to the movement. From the very onset means church is for all of us. It's not just about the pastors, not about just the quote unquote spiritually mature, but all of us have been called into this. And so we see this picture, we see this idea of church and all of this is kind of an introduction. So don't stress, I'm not like going extra long today. But but really, it's an introduction for the next four weeks because we see the early launching of the church gives us a picture of a better way of uncommon sense that actually makes a lot of sense when we look at it and it can be transformational in our lives. So Jesus goes up, Holy Spirit comes down, Peter preaches this message. And at the end of this message, thousands of people get saved. And then what, let's pick up our story here in acts chapter two, verse 36 he says, let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, right? Both Lord and Messiah and Savior. That's the message of the gospel, this Jesus whom you crucified man. We're talking days after the crucifixion. So the people in the crowd, he can go, you killed him, right? And yet there is hope and available to you. And now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and he said to Peter and the rest of the apostles brothers, what shall we do? Peter said to them repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit says for the promise is for you and for your Children, all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself. And many other words, he bore witness and continued to exhort them saying save yourselves from this crooked generation. You'd say those words today, right? So and so those who received his word were baptized and they were added that day about 3000 souls. That's an important phrase, by the way, because in verse 38 it says, be baptized for the forgiveness of sins. So some might interpret that saying, well, we have to be baptized to be saved. The problem is outside of that passage. You don't see that linked for salvation. And then even on the cross, Jesus looks at one of the thieves and says, today, you're gonna be with me in paradise. So you don't see baptism equated with salvation. But it is the very next step or that, that public declaration of that personal belief. So a better translation of that is repent and be baptized because you've received the forgiveness of sins. Because then in that verse there, in verse 41 it says, so those who received the word, in other words, those who believed were then baptized and 3000 people were added. But here's my question to you added to what do you ever think about that added to what the God's checklist? They were added to the church, this Iglesia, this gathering of called out ones. And so you went from 11 to 1220. Now you got over 3000. What are we gonna do with these people? And he goes into what's, what are the strongest passages in all of the Bible to describe what is the local church? So we continue reading, it says they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship and 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 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 gener generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day, those who were being saved, it just seems different than the way of the world back then. And to be honest, the way of the world right now when they say to start off, it says, and they devoted themselves. Another understanding of devotion is worship is worship. If you're taking notes, I invite you to write this down because this is where we're gonna land in the plane today is that worship is giving what you have to whom you value most worship is given, what you have to whom you value most. You were not just created to worship. You were created worshiping. Think about this. What happens when a baby is born? What's the first thing they do? They cry, why they cry because they're in need and they cry because they are searching and I want you to know something since birth. You have not changed to this day. You are in need and you are searching and we cry out what this means is that everyone in the world worships someone or something, everyone's worshiping something. How do we know some of the most unreligious people say, well John, I don't worship anything and they're heading down to the final four. We got 60,000 plus people who gather together in a space at a specific time to say the same words to look at the same things to dress the same way to chant the same chance to have a good guy and a bad guy, depending on whose side you're on, right? Like, yeah, but John, that's sports. Ok? You don't think a Taylor Swift concert is an example of our world worshiping, right? Think about it all gather together dress a certain way, talk a certain way, sing the same songs to follow like OK, John, that but that's I'm not a Swifty. Ok. Uh politics. Anyone, right? Based on what channel or source you're watching saying the same thing following the same thing, good guy, bad guy, right? Going through say like I'm just so glad though that they passed the law this week that there will be no negative political ads. No, they all agreed to play nice. No. Yeah. None of you believe that for a second. That's the sarcasm piece of me. Sorry. Yeah. If you think it's bad now fall is gonna be fun. Um So excited, right? Everyone worships something. We live in a world that worships money, power, pleasure, and fame, do what you want when you want with whoever you want. And no one can tell you otherwise. How's that working for you? But if you turn those affections towards God, it can transform your life, can deepen your devotion and you can deepen that devotion. You can, you can worship with your attention, your affection and your abilities. And so where are you placing your attention, your affection and your abilities these days? What has your attention? What is on the playlist in your mind? No one's ever scrolled through social media. And like after an hour ago, you know what I feel better about myself after seeing everyone's incredible vacation, right? Or in our own little echo chambers of like minded people. We, we just like man, we, what do we end up? We feel, we feel anxious, we feel stressed, right? Where are you placing your attention? Where are you placing your affection? Are you placing your heart in something that can't truly love you back? Neither do I. Right. Neither do I. Ok. Even serious preaching today, you know, for those watching online and couldn't hear that revival broke out when you, when you go through life, right? When you place your heart, where you place your mind, when you place your abilities. If you're doing it for money, for power, for pleasure, for fame, guess what you're gonna lose the job, you're gonna lose your health, that person you put your trust in might betray you. You might get everything you thought had meaning. But yet all of a sudden you still have this void in your heart. There is a better way. It's when we place our worship, our devotion and the God who made us and we gather together as a group of called out people and we live differently and we're gonna spend the next couple weeks breaking this list down. But I wanna go ahead and give this to you because what we see here is we see seven ways to deepen your devotion to God from this passage here in acts chapter two. It's not the only way to deepen your devotion to God, but it's a great place to start. The first way. The early Christians deepen their de devotion and their worship to God was through scripture. Now, they didn't have the written Bible like we have it, but they had the apostles teachings. They would get samples of Paul's letters or they would simply share the story of the resurrection of Jesus. This is why we preach this is why we read the Bible together because you're not gonna be changed by my words. Anything good is coming from God. Anything weird or sarcastic. That's me. OK. The word of God has the power to transform lives. That's why we preach it. That's why we read it. That's why we share it. That's why we memorize it. But then second, what we see is that they pray together, they devoted themselves to fellowship and connection. We're gonna talk about that next week. See, all seven of these, by the way, are done in the power of the Holy Spirit in the context of community. So next week, we're gonna talk about uncommon relationships. But for right now, notice that they prayed together that they talk to God on behalf of each other and for each other and listen to God in a collective setting. If you take that same worry that's running on repeat in your mind and you give it to God that becomes worship. Something that's too heavy for you is not heavy for God. And so we see in here, we see scripture, we see prayer. The third thing we actually see music. I know when music comes in the background, it feels like the Holy Spirit just came in, right? But there's actually a biblical principle where they would play music. David in songs was there's, there's music clas three talks about singing to one another spiritual songs with Thanksgiving in your heart. In acts two, it says here that they would praise God together. Music hits in a different way than preaching, right? When they first played Bless God a couple weeks ago, that song's been on repeat in my car like nonstop for me. Why? Because there's an emotion alignment that happens when something connects, right? Music has that way of connecting. That's why we sing. That's why we praise God to encounter his presence, to exalt his name, to echo his truth. Now, to express our creativity, those words just in our mind, those are actually Andrew's whole heartbeat behind worship. If you wanna have a cool conversation, talk to Andrew about the meaning of why we do what we do musically. The next thing you see here is, is baptism. We see there the early people responded how getting baptized, Jesus was baptized, commands us to be baptized and then goes and tells us to baptize others that first church when they heard the message of Jesus, that first response then was to get baptized. If you wanna do that here in coming weeks, let me know. Let's do it. Let's go for it. Right. Let's declare publicly what God has done in your heart personally. Then we see communion, the breaking of bread. Now they shared meals regularly met at the temple, a corporate gathering, they met in homes, small intimate gathering, they took communion together. And in a moment, I'm gonna pray. We're gonna take this together to remember all that God's done. Bye. And we're gonna break these down in coming weeks. But then six and seven here is that they live lives of generosity. They had lives and generosity they gave what they had to meet the needs of others. And then lastly through service see when you read scripture, when you're praying, when you are worshiping through music, when enjoying baptism, we regularly taking communion, living a life of generosity and a life of service. I'm telling you church that is a better way. And those are the practices that launched the largest movement in history we know as the church. And so we're gonna practice this together right now. This is why we do what we do. That's why we sing songs, we preach, we take communion is to reflect all that God has done for you and for me. And so let's, let's deepen our devotion right now. And remember all that crisis is done. If you don't have elements, we have someone that's gonna pass them around. So don't stress it here. Hang on to these elements and we'll take them in just a moment. Let's pray dear father. Thank you for who you are and what you've done. God. We praise you. We give all that we have to whom we value most in a world that worships money, power, pleasure, and fame. We wanna worship you. We want to remember you today and your sons name. We pray. Amen.