Sunday January 10 message

January 10 2015 Acts church What if I asked you to define church? What would it be, would it be a building, would it be a time of week, would it be a group of people? If it is a building what type of building is it? If it is a time of week, what day and time is it? If it is a group of people what would they be doing? Now I want you to Biblically describe and define the church. Not the way we define it based on our past and present experiences. Define it, truly define it the way the Bible does. What are the characteristics of the church? Biblically the characteristics would be: 1. Love – The greatest commandment straight from Jesus’ mouth was to love the Lord your God with all your heart, all of your soul and all of your mind. Then comes the second, to love your neighbor as yourself. 2. A group of people on a mission – One of the greatest gifts of coaching sports is getting a group of young people to work together, strive together, sweat together for a common goal. How much greater it is in a church to do the same thing. 3. A group of people gathered to pray and focus on Jesus – a group that when they did gather, they prayed and focused on Jesus. Not the music, not the message, not the lighting, comfort level of the seats or the air temperature. A true focus on Jesus and prayer for all who don’t know Him. 4. A group of people equipping and training people to go out and serve – here comes the purpose, the true purpose of meetings should be to equip and train people to go out and serve their community and love on the lost like Jesus. Now that we set out some characteristics let’s look at where and how the church first started. Acts 2:42-47 V. 42 tells us they devoted themselves Devotion is defined as: love, loyalty, or enthusiasm for a person, activity, or cause A. love for a person – Jesus loyalty to a person – Jesus enthusiasm for a person – Jesus B. Love for an activity – sharing Jesus Loyalty to an activity – sharing Jesus Enthusiasm for an activity – sharing Jesus C. Love for a cause – growing God’s kingdom Loyalty to a cause – growing God’s kingdom Enthusiasm to cause – growing God’s kingdom So what were they loving, loyal to and enthusiastic about? The apostle’s teaching – Fellowship – Breaking of bread – Prayer – Everyone was filled with awe. Awe means - a feeling of reverential respect mixed with fear or wonder. No not some, not a few every one of them was filled with awe. The only thing we can have awe for is God himself, nothing on earth and no one who has walked this earth outside of Jesus. I can tell you this, I have tried my hardest to go to concerts, I have. You sit and watch people scream at and idolize human beings. But, I will tell you this if you EVER get to go to a Casting Crowns, Newsboys, Chris Tomlin or Christian concert and see them put the words on the screen and the whole auditorium singing praise to God, that is an awe moment for sure. v. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. Everything in common, why? Because it wasn’t about a preacher, a worship team or a style. It was about a Savior and a God who they were all in awe of. What was in common? Their love, their loyalty and their enthusiasm were all for one common person and one common goal. Jesus and sharing Jesus. v. 45 Selling their possessions and goods to give to anyone in need. Not saying they sold their homes, their cars and their furniture but they raised money to take care of the needs of those they came in contact with. V. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. Every day, well we can’t do that but you know what we can do, we can read God’s word together. I want to get back to the read the new testament in a year plan and read it all together so that we are all reading God’s word together. What is so important about this everyday part? The more you are around someone the more impact they have on your life. Think about the parts of you that have changed the most over the past few years, why is that? Most likely it is because of the people you spend the majority of your time with. This church this group of believers were together all the time, and that meant they were influencing one another. V. 46b They broke bread together in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts. I think in all honesty there is a word in this verse that sets them apart from all others. Sincere, they ate together and were glad together and it was because they were sincere and true absolute true sincerity can only be found in a group of people all doing what they do for the same reason. Theirs was sharing Jesus with their city. v. 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved The last word in our text today is so, so important saved. Not attending, not giving, not singing, not working not even serving, saved. Here is something to think about. The original origin of the word sincere was Sine (which means without) and cera (which means wax). When we get ready to sell a car what do we do? We clean it up and make it as shiny and clean as possible, probably cleaner than it ever was when we weren’t attempting to sell it. If we were sincere, we would show it to them just the way it sits, unwaxed. A glad and sincere heart would be a real, true 100% real representation of ourselves and a heart that lives, beats and shares Jesus.