I invite you to turn your Bibles this morning to the book of Acts, the book of Acts. Tonight we'll return to our study in the book of Revelation chapter 17, but this morning we're moving on in our study of the book of Acts chapter 2 and looking here at the end of Acts chapter 2 verses 42 through 47 of Acts chapter 2. And if you're a visitor and looking for that in those few Bibles, the page number for that is 1158. 1158. Last time we considered the sermon that shook the world. We had looked at the whole design of what a sermon should be and how in the apostolic ministry they preach, they preach the cross, they preach Jesus, and how the Lord was flourishing the church in that message. Well, now it turns to how was the church to function as a people? What were they to look like? What were to be their priorities? That's Acts 2, verse 42 through 47. This is the word of the Lord. And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done to 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 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 may the lord bless this morning hearing of his word we have always been obsessed with the question of how to grow the church that is the um the great question today uh that churches have studied for a long time all the techniques and there are no uh there is no shortage of conferences and books and ideas about how to grow the church we are addicted to that question aren't we we think a lot about that question the church is really concerned about that question i remember in the 90s, it was all about the Willow Creek model. And everyone was flying out to the Willow Creek conferences, and everybody was thinking about how to be more seeker-friendly. That was the language at that time. And the seeker-friendly of how to reach the average Harry and Mary who walks into your church. I was thinking a little bit about it. What are the church growth strategies like today? What do they look like? So I just typed in church growth strategy. And it was interesting to find some major assessments and ideas of how to grow the church, and I just want you to hear a few of the ideas because they help us so much with thinking about what was just set out for you in Acts chapter 2. But these were interesting things to read this week and to think about. Here are some of the ideas that I came across. Promote congregational stories on social media say no to programs that distract from your overall strategy that's that's um that's pretty good one actually we'll talk a little bit about that in a minute make and promote invitation forms to grow your church communicate clearly with church visitors via signage and staff an example once inside north point you're handed off to the inside team who gives you a tour of the facilities introduces you to key pastoral staff and then sits you near the front so that you can connect with Andy. No idea who Andy is, but Andy before and after the service. But it doesn't stop there. After the service, you're invited to the back room where you're seated in comfortable furniture and greeted by a volunteer. This smiling volunteer will ask you about your time at North Point. At least you get padded chairs. Saying, me too. Me too. Provides a safe place for visiting families. Many people have had a bad experience with the church or completely doubt the existence of God. Responding to people's fears, frustrations, and anxieties with me too. Which I would think a better way would be to say, no, I had a good experience with the church, but me too might work. I don't know. Volunteer to do yard work in a particular neighborhood. Park cleanup, neighborhood litter pickup, Christmas tree pickup, fall fall raking cleaning gutters I'm sure every wife here is thinking my husband doesn't even do that at home why would he be out doing that everywhere else but serve free coffee at neighborhood bus stops it isn't too expensive to pick up to print up stickers you can put on your disposable cups with your church address and service times and you can hand out cards you're all saying that's way too expensive but that's okay i understand cater your building to the demographic your church wants to grow some churches have had success handing out water and gatorade during marathons also providing tents to get out of out of the sun and for massages after noticing a lot of tattoos on their members and knowing this is an example that many tattoos come with a story One church hired a photographer and took amazing high-resolution photos of the many tattoos and found out their stories and made a collage of them all on one large wall in the narthex. I do not want to see your tattoos. Please do not show me. We have this struggle too. We have this struggle too. Our answer has been we are going to add programs. Programs, programs, programs. and the adding of programs while many of them can be very helpful and great the problem is that once you become drowned out in programs you begin to actually uh drown out the things that are most important and that creates a major burnout in the life of the church maybe you felt that over your time that i i just feel like there's always something i've got to be at and do And we're always creating this. We're always creating something else. And then you create a situation where Sunday worship isn't even that important anymore. It's just another thing in the mix of all the things that I have to do. More stuff, more programs, and this creates a burnout. And I've seen it, lived it, I've seen it happen in the church. It's interesting when you look at beginnings of something, how simple something starts. It is the challenge of even, you might have the illustration of government. Look at 1905, the Market Street trolley that goes down. You can type this right in on YouTube. The Market Street trolley that goes right down Market Street, San Francisco, 1905. There weren't even pedestrian laws. And as time went on, and we know government just seems to keep adding and adding and adding and adding and constricting and constricting and constricting that is no different in the church this is the problem we have to think about and that is exactly what is helpful this morning as we look at priorities in the church and to think about not so much the question how can we grow the church how does god grow the church that seems to me a better question especially if you're reformed how does god grow the church what means does he use to do it where should the church stay focused to not get distracted with all the wrong things that we can do and be frustrated with. Maybe you sometimes feel, no, I can't get anyone to say yes to serve in any way. And there's the frustration because of the growing list of things. And everyone's tired. Got a lot going on in life. How do we manage all this? It's the profound simplicity of the design here that really strikes me. Profound simplicity. That certain things were honored as certain things were honored, very common things were honored, the Lord in a surprising way shows his power and is adding to the church daily those who are being saved. There's nothing wrong with desiring church growth, you understand. We all should desire church growth. Heidelberg, our own catechism says when we talk about when we're praying thy kingdom come, that we're specifically asking the Lord to increase the church and add to it it should be in our prayers of course add to your church add to your church lord and increase it how do you do that though that's when we come to such an important section this morning uh an axe that is teaching us about proper church growth to show us where the priorities should be and to have us think about how all we uh and even individually as members are contributing to the whole and are a part of the whole, that we would use our lives, as the apostle understood in Philippians chapter 2, to the service and enrichment of each other's faith. So we have here a section that gives us some simple ways for us to pursue and to see the church as it should be and to desire proper church growth. I think the Lord encouraged us a lot about this this morning by bracketing it this way. You'll notice that before verse 42, you have that great statement that the Lord added 3,000 people. Once that sermon was preached at Pentecost, a sermon we considered last time, a surprising sermon, a sermon that is so different from what we hear today, a sermon that was preached at Pentecost preaching Jesus, 3,000 people were immediately added to the church. And now after these things that are said here about how the church went forward, the last verse verse 47 says the lord added to the church daily those who were being saved it's a bracket for us to think very clearly about what did the lord use to grow his church and here we have it all explained the lord grew the church these this way so you'll notice that here uh this morning that there are really three things that are emphasized if you're going to kind of categorize them to understand how the Lord grew the church and you could say that the Lord continued to grow his church through their desire of continuing to learn through their desire of continuing to learn you could say that then the second thing is that the Lord grew the church through their fellowship with one another fellowship with one another and then their commitment to worship. Those are three areas here that are highlighted and that help us look at proper church growth. Let's begin with the crucial verse here. Everyone has recognized there's a very important verse here, verse 42, that says something so important about the church after that first Pentecost sermon in verse 42, and they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and the prayers. Such an important verse. All summed up there in one great verse. What stands out about that list when you look at it? Well, it's really not the stuff that makes the strategy lists of our day, is it? Why? Because there's nothing glorious about that list there's nothing that's easy about that list there's nothing that's um that that says wow that would most surely do it this list involves and describes the disciplines of the christian faith then that's just what they are they're the disciplines of the christian faith this list requires sacrifice this list requires effort and the key word that stands out there you'll notice there is that they were devoted to this. That's a big word in our day, isn't it? That we need to think about. They were really committed to this. They were really, it means persistent in continuing with these things. It's not that they started. This is what always used to happen growing up, where the pastor would get up and say, you need to be at evening church, and it'd be full for two weeks that there was persistence in certain things that they did not waver in there was real commitment to certain things they gave attention to a few things and they really gave attention to these things well and lo and behold the church boomed notice the first thing then the very first thing that's emphasized there is that they continued in the apostles doctrine and i love to use the word doctrine it means teaching doctrine has such a negative connotation today that i love to use it they continued in the apostles doctrine everyone says doctrine divides doctrine last week in the first model sermon a sermon that shook the world what pentecost was all about was the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. And it was with the goal, remember, as we've been studying, looking at the ministry of the Holy Spirit, what particularly the Holy Spirit does in the life of God's people and his church, that that sermon was all about Jesus because it is the Spirit's primary work to bear witness of him. And that first sermon was remarkable, wasn't it? That first sermon was exciting to study, that Peter had made known his whole goal in the sermon was to make known from the old testament jesus uh to have the people think about as the scripture was proclaimed that jesus was everywhere in the old testament that he was in psalm 16 that he was in psalm 110 so that sermon exposited joel 2 psalm 16 psalm 110 a major section major sections of the old testament that spoke of the work of the spirit in the outpouring and what the spirit would do in showing jesus and then peter did it pentecost was um was about the preaching of jesus so he is the fulfillment of all these things you know what that just opened up for them that moment the entire bible the entire bible remember when jesus right after the resurrection began to preach and the two men were there on the road to Emmaus and he looked at them after he had closed their eyes and then would open their eyes through the doctrine. Remember what he began to do. He began to proclaim to them from all of the scriptures the things concerning himself. He began to proclaim from Moses, the prophets, the Psalms, the things concerning himself. You know what the men on the road to Emmaus said to Jesus as He was doing that? They said, our hearts began to burn within us. Did not our hearts burn within us when you spoke the Word this way? What was happening there? It's a really important moment because the same thing has happened now at Pentecost now that the Spirit has come. we read they were thinking the old testament for years and all of a sudden we began to see it all of a sudden we began to see wow that story of joseph was was was about jesus the exodus was the whole story of salvation israel's deliverance was the story of our deliverance Peter just had this first sermon and just said the Psalms are all about Him. He's in them. He's the one talked about in the Psalms. You know what that just opened up? David and Goliath, as important as that event was for talking about how to defeat wickedness is not ultimately about us as it ultimately is about Jesus defeating sin, death, and the grave. In the form of a servant. He beat it. There was joy that began to fill these men. There was a real burning in their hearts that began to, it ignited something. It started something. It ignited a hunger and a thirsting to know the Scriptures and to know the truth as it is in Jesus. We've been looking a long time, they could have said, superficially at the Bible. So when the first prophetic act here at Pentecost happened a proclamation and Peter preached Jesus in this unique way in the demonstration of the Spirit and power. The work of the Spirit was powerfully shown in that the signs in the heavens and the signs on earth was that he was creating faith in the hearts of people. This is how Peter described it. We were born again this way when the word of the gospel was preached to us. When the Holy Spirit was poured out from heaven. So when faith was created this way, What began to happen in people's lives was that it birthed a hunger, created a hunger in them to know Jesus, to desire Him, to want to learn more about Him. So that's the first thing that is being described here for you that says that what happened in the life of these now 3,120 is that it inaugurated a hunger to know Christ, To understand the faith. To know what it means to be a follower. Of course, how to live. All that. All that. So notice the first thing that is said here of the early church is that it continued steadfastly. It gave itself. The people gave themselves to understanding and growing in the doctrine. I think you should be feeling some conviction right now for our attitude to the doctrine has not always been very good, has it? The first key ingredient to a healthy church, the first key ingredient to a healthy church is that its members have really committed themselves and are devoted to continuing to grow. To grow. That's how we're kept. What do we sing from Psalm 119? And how shall the young direct their way? What light shall be their perfect guide? Your word, O Lord, will safely lead if in its wisdom they confide. Your word. Jesus was always talking about this, in a sense, the marks of a Christian. That the followers of Him, believers in Him, the key defining mark of them would be a love for the Word of God. A deep and profound love for His Word. The key mark of the hypocrite was the disregard of it. That was Judas. The key mark of the hypocrite was the disregard for the Word of God. It's the key to this life. And you see their joyful attitude here. Did you notice how when I read the passage, it just breathes of simplicity and joy and happiness as a people together, all of it being brand new. It was all new. Creates a problem for us when this is all old now, isn't it? It was all new. You remember when the people of the Lord had, in Israel's history, Judah's, disregarded the word of the Lord and the Lord carried them all away to Babylon. Remember when he brought them back into the land? You had a same kind of Pentecost moment there. Where Nehemiah gets up and Ezra the scribe and they pull out the book and all the people gather there in Nehemiah 7 and 8. And they gather there and for hours even into the evening all that they did because they had disregarded it for so long all that they did was read the book of the Lord in the hearing of the people and their hearts burned within them. And such great conviction fell as that book was read that the Spirit was working that they all cried out in confession of their sins. And I mean, this is what was described. He read from it, just read it from facing the square before the water gate from early morning until midday in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand and the people's ears were opened. People's ears were opened and they mourned. Total disregard had happened. And the Lord opened their ears again. And they listened to it. And Nehemiah then would come along and give them such gospel and hope. Don't be grieved for the joy of the Lord is your strength. The joy of the Lord. They had returned to the word of the Lord. Well, this was all the promise in the Old Testament of what the greatest return to the word of the Lord would look like when Pentecost would happen, when Israel would be restored. That's what this is. It's the restoration of Israel. The Israel of God together. All these nations. I was thinking, though, on the opposite end, the judgment on Israel that happened over its history was really seen when the word was disregarded and their attitude was bad to the doctrine. Remember Amos 8? Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread or water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. Men will run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord, and they will not find it. You know, it was a famine, first and foremost, not so much of preaching, but also a famine of what? Hearing. Hearing. The judgment of God is that no one cares to hear it anymore. The first moment of the church here after Pentecost, you'll notice here the beauty of this is that the Spirit has come, and He has opened hearts and He's opened minds and they are hearing. They're burning hearts within them. They love the Word. They want the Word. They want to know Christ from all the Scriptures. I think the greatest danger in our day is a famine of hearing and a famine of preaching, but a famine of hearing when the attitude is, I know all this. The hunger to continue to grow is just not there. where the Word is never read? There's this satire site called the Babylon Bee. And they have all these satire articles of just exposing all the things that have happened in the church today. And this one this week said, Lifeway introduces a new dust-resistant Bible. Sad, isn't it? Notice here. They were devoted. The way to improve, you might say, individual devotions is first and foremost connected to how much you are devoted to learn the Bible together. You seeing that? This is not individual stuff. This is not Fit American Church. This is all together. This is all community. This is all people. When the Spirit moved throughout church history, it was always accompanied with the coming upon god's people with a hunger to know the word of god to love it and to grow in its truth if as an individual christian you're to be uh are filled and our church is to be filled with the spirit that hunger has to be here don't expect much of anything in this place if that hunger for the word of god has not been created in the hearts of god's people and if it's spoken and it's not there that's a much more dangerous thing you have to ask if there's no hunger for knowing and growing in the doctrine what's gone wrong where are your priorities right love for the truth growing in the truth will come with an asking of the spirit to open your ears and hearts to want to know jesus to search from the scriptures and say wow i see him i see him that's first that's first Second, and they continued in fellowship, koinonia. This was a common fellowship. You'll notice there. They shared together in their new identity in Jesus. It's such a beautiful bond that's described here. It's such a beautiful bond that we have, isn't it? I remember the story of a fellow seminary student years ago at Westminster who was from Africa, and as the story goes, he didn't speak English very well, but I remember him telling it, and I think he wrote about it, that he came from a Muslim home, and when he became a believer, every time, and this was a great sacrifice to come out of a Muslim home and become a believer in Jesus, And every time he went back to Africa to see his family, he would say, yeah, and he wrote about it, that his father would physically punch him and assault him. His father. And I never could forget and get this out of my head that what he said, the way I got through that, the way that I was able to handle that was to be reminded right then and there that I have an entirely new family. I have a father who loves me. and I have His people who are my family now. My family. I just love that story. That common family love in the bond of the Spirit in the blood of Christ. They looked at their new family and they saw that's where our love needs to be. That is where our love needs to be. John describes this so beautifully. John is the book when we talk first john about love but beloved if god so loved us we ought to love one another no one's ever seen god this was quoted last week and in the funeral um for jack brewers if we love one another god abides in us and his love is perfected in us by this we know that we abide in him and he and us because he's given us his spirit again there's the spirit the connection the bond of love the way that people see God is in our love for one another. That's how they see God. That's the platform here we have in fellowship to demonstrate it. It's not just as important as cookies are, right? It's not just cookies and coffee. I don't think we appreciate enough what Jesus was after in this fellowship. All the social justice discussion today and all the pastors into the social justice discussion today will say things like, we need to help the poor. We need to deal with the oppressed. We need to deal with racism. We need to deal and demonstrate righteousness, and that's just what it means, righteousness in society. Amen. I want to see all those things dealt with. So just like every other church growth strategy, everything's outward. Everything's outward well i want to see those things happen this is why calvin uh would encourage christians to pray a lot for the civil government there's a way you could see it happen because if the civil government is functioning the way that it should function it's going to be a positive bringer of these things in society and we should want to see that and pray for that fixing of these problems and i think over my time we've we've felt pretty guilty that we've not done enough out there have we? Of course. I'm pretty convinced that we don't think enough that our primary responsibility is first and foremost to show this kind of care and love here, right here. Maybe we're so tired of feeling those pressures of caring for everyone else, we don't even tend well to our own family. Once priorities are established, I have no doubt the church will be a good influence on society. I have no doubt. But Paul said first, there's a principle that always is at work. If you can't even care for your own family, how do you think you're going to care for the church of God? If you can't care for the church of God, how do you think you're going to care for society? If your family's in ruins, you're telling everyone else and you're worried about everyone else's problems. See the principle? We have to first think a lot about here how fellowship is going on here. That's the beauty of this. Look at verse 44. Now all who believed were what? Together. And they had all things in common. And they sold their possessions and goods and divided them. All as anyone had need. They were not becoming the solution to Rome's poverty problems, were they? No. That is not what's emphasized here. They were together. They were the family of God. Now maybe this troubles us a little bit as Americans because this thing rings of, we might say, communism or socialism. Those government systems are meant to force people's hands and you know that. That's not what this is. That is not what this is. You know what this is? This is an entirely different way of thinking that goes on in the family of God. This is an entirely different way of thinking that shows our separateness from the society that forces hands on these things. This is an entirely different way of thinking in Jesus' economy and family. Because they knew the love of Christ. Because they had the love of Christ. Because they saw the incredible sacrifice made for them from the one who left the throne and came here and took on rags. That glory. Made himself nothing and gave them and gave us everything. They understood this is how they could demonstrate the same love. What do I mean? They could love those whom Jesus loved by giving themselves this way. These are the ones he died for. These. In other words, they wanted to be generous with their family because that's how the Lord treated them, as adopted children. You know, you're all adopted into the family and get all the privileges of that. This wasn't for us. They looked at things differently now, didn't they? God had given to them not to build a big house and then to live in seclusion and hoard the wealth. That wasn't it. But now to open that house as an opportunity to help those in need in the family. That was huge for the first century. They didn't have all this. This is where hospitality shined. This is where hospitality was given meaning. The ability to open oneself up. To open oneself up and make oneself available and give opportunity to express the commonality of the new bond in Jesus. That's what's being described. It's always a bad sign when there's no fellowship in the body of Christ. For some, it's just show up as late to church as I can get there, get out as quick as I can, and never have any contact with those people throughout the course of a week. Bad. That is not the design. That's just not it. Their growth was furthered as a church, the church grew because people saw this, right? By acting and being involved in the common bond with their spiritual family, I think this challenges us. I think this challenges me. I'm comfortable with my own family. I'm comfortable with my own house, even though it's parsonage, right? If I have children, I'm thinking of my children when they're older and they have needs is not my door always open to them would i not give them what they need would i not give my children the shirt off my back is your door open to your children would you not give them what they need do you know they're god's children here all of you some of you ladies can make amazing meals for your families and feed them all there's an open door policy when it comes to blood is there an open door policy to your spiritual family that's how the church grew that kind of thinking this is what abraham was committed for remember he'd sit outside his tent and if there were visitors i'll feed you come in hebrews picks up on that so beautifully it says don't neglect to show hospitality to strangers for thereby some have entertained angels unaware so the point is is that this is this is a mindset of a people who are redeemed and set apart who belong to the family of God in fellowship. In fact, Hebrews also says, there, we'll come back to that. Let's move to the third point and then we'll be done. Verse 46 explains then this commitment to worship. So you have the commitment there to growing in doctrine, the commitment there to fellowship and the commitment to worship. Notice verse 46 where it says so beautifully, and day by day, attending the temple together and breaking the bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. Back in verse 42, it says the same thing. They devoted themselves to the teaching, the doctrine, the fellowship, and to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Oftentimes this is used as a sort of proof text for making a case that they celebrated communion every time that they came together. I don't believe that's the point of this. They may have done that, but I don't believe that's the point of this. I don't believe that's the point at all of this. What he makes a distinction in here is that they gathered formally in the temple and they gathered informally in their homes. That's the distinction that's here. They would gather for formal worship and then they would come together in their houses and break bread. In fact, Paul describes this when Eutychus fell out the window because he had been preaching so long, by the way. I'll get there, I'll get there. It was so long somebody fell asleep. Can you believe that? It's terrible, terrible. He falls out a window and Paul broke bread. He was famished. He was famished. It wasn't the Lord's Supper at that moment. He was famished. The point is, it's on a commitment to be together and worship and fellowship that way. They came together. They had the supper, the Lord's Supper, communion. They prayed together and they worshiped. They listened to the apostles preach. They broke bread. They fellowshiped and they prayed together. It was simple worship, simple. And they would do this in their homes. They would get together. And they would talk about the Lord. Remember, being filled with the Spirit is when our sons and daughters prophesy. What does that mean? That they're talking about the Lord. We should want that in our homes. Maybe some of that seems weird to us. We have this practice of asking people when elders come and do home visitation. The extent of our questioning is usually, do you do personal devotions? And I remember a family who would always say to the elder body, well, we do family worship. And the elders really didn't know how to process that. What is that? Do you do personal devotions? We do family worship. It's weird. That was the attitude. I understand. I understand that struggle. But we've so thought in these individual terms that we can't think this way anymore. The fellowship was bound up with this corporate mindset of worship that they would worship together and then they would gather. They'd have a meal together. And there was nothing more intimate than eating and fellowshipping and talking about what the Lord had done for them. That was beautiful. They would read the Scriptures together. They would pray together. I want to emphasize commitment. Yeah, they came to receive the Lord in worship. They came to receive the means of grace. Christ was preached. Supper was given. But what's clearly emphasized also here is the commitment to that, that we as a family get to do this together. Isn't it special? Worship is the greatest expression of fellowship because we're demonstrating a unity in praise and strength in the strength of the Son of God who is our Savior who's bound us together. That's why we call this communion. Hebrews links worship together with this. I'm ready to close, but listen to this. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that He opened for us through the curtain that is through His flesh, since we have a great high priest over the house of God, you've got three let us now. Here. Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. You're coming together. Let us hold fast the confession, us, us, us, us, us. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful. You're going to do that tonight when you say what you believe. Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works. Not neglecting, here's the link meeting together as is the habit of some but encouraging one another you have that in your mindset as you come today encouraging one another all the more as you see the day drawing near we always point to that and say don't neglect worship don't neglect worship but there's three other things we shouldn't neglect when we come right when we're gathering we should take seriously the privilege to come and receive forgiveness of sins announced to us having our conscience purified you heard that today we read the law and we confessed our sins and he said you're forgiven you should you get to come together and say what you believe together you're not in this alone you have the same faith that is so encouraging and you get to encourage one another to love and to serve and to do good works. Continue in the commitment in loving one another in the scriptures and doctrine and fellowship and gathering together for worship and gathering in your homes together and helping the needs of the saints. Loving the saints. Enjoy your new family is what it's saying, isn't it? Isn't that ultimately the summary? Enjoy your new family. Love your family. And I remind you that repentance last week was a change of attitude toward all this. Change of attitude. I always think it's the worst display when what we see in somebody's life is that of distancing. When something's gone wrong in the course of one's life and they've fallen into patterns of sin, the first thing that will happen is distancing from all of this in any way possible. They don't want to worship. They don't want to love the people. And they don't want to grow in the doctrine. That's the last thing they want to do. But that's selfish, isn't it? This is how the Lord has decided to bless you and help you and grow His church. Jesus has loved you so sacrificially. I know that. I want to encourage you that. He's loved you so sacrificially, given you His truth, given you a new family, given you an opportunity to worship. Maybe the most important verse then here today is this. And fear came upon every soul. And many wonders and signs were done by the apostles to confirm this word. In other words, they were in awe of what they were a part of. They trembled thinking God brought them into this family. They shook because they saw his power. Maybe that's the takeaway. Are we in awe of what we're a part of? Is there any fear in our hearts that way? Because this is how the Lord is showing us He loves to build His church. He added to the church daily those who were being saved. I hope that encourages us in the Escondido URC for this is the ministry of the Spirit. This is what He's given us in a common bond and family together. You're my family. God chose you and put me into this family. do you think like that special isn't it may we be able to sing i love thy kingdom lord i love the church house of your abode let's pray gracious heavenly father we are thankful for your church and what you're doing and and how you've given us a perspective on how you grew the church it really comes down to that we're all pretty selfish and think well i like this and i want this and i want that we need to rethink and have a kind of awe and fear about what's most important and here it is we should first be thinking about how we are giving ourselves to the doctrine to the fellowship and to worshiping together as a people and enjoying one another in our homes and there's so much more we could say we understand the bible says a lot about fellowship but this is a great start to understand more about lord as we're going through acts what we should continue in help us as a church to be faithful to this design and give us to love these things and to keep our priorities right in jesus name we pray amen