3 Things That Will Change Your Walk With God | Pastor Josiah Guajardo

and welcome. I'm so glad that you chose to attend with us today. My name is Josiah Guajardo. I get to serve here as one of the pastors here at Battle Creek Church. And like I said, I just want to say welcome and good morning. I want to thank Pastor Alex for the opportunity of allowing me to be here today and to communicate to you. I believe that God has a word for me and for you. Can you believe we're already past August and now going full into the school year? And I want to ask this question. How many of you just celebrated your kid's first day of school? I know for some of you that might have been a relief and a celebration, right? That they're back in school and getting back into our routine. And maybe it was their first day of pre-K or maybe kindergarten. And you're wondering how in the world they got old enough to go to school. Maybe it was their 10th first day. And by now you kind of have that routine now and you know where to go, right? What's a pack? What pictures to take, right? That's a big deal. Or maybe it was their last first day and it's senior year. And all of a sudden that pic you've taken every year,

it hits a little bit different. And there's something different because it's their last first day. You know, there's just something different about a first day of school. Delmi and I, my wife and I have two kids as a Bella. She's one years old and Josiah, we call him Jose. He's four years old. I've showed you them before, but this is him on one of his first days of school. He just started pre-K. And so we kind of went through those emotions, right? Where, how did we get here so fast? And I can't even imagine it. Well, the other day I was watching the news and here in Tulsa, there's a school by the name of Bishop Kelly. And they have a first day tradition. And I'll be honest, it has to be one of the best first day traditions I've ever seen. Every year, what happens is the freshmen that are going to high school for the first time are going into high school. They get dropped off for the first day of school. And when they go, the seniors of that school are waiting for them. And before those freshmen can get out of their car and start their first day of school, they have to do something. They have to kiss their mom, goodbye.

Now, picture this with me. Can you imagine being a freshman, right? It's already intimidating, right? You're going into high school. You're the youngest of the group and you're already nervous. You had your clothes picked out, right? 'Cause you're trying to look cool and you're trying to just, as you walk into high school for the very first time, you're trying to fit. And now you got a bunch of seniors all around you. In front of you, behind you, standing at your car saying, kiss your mom. You see, but what started out as a fun tradition has actually become something pretty special. Because every parent knows that this moment represents something way bigger than that, that their kid is starting a new season of life. And whether it's the first day of pre-K, the first day of high school, or the last day before graduation, we know this church that first days are important. And we've all had a first day, right? A first day at a job, or maybe a first day in our marriage and a first day being a parent. First days are always a little bit of everything, right? They're scary, they're exciting, they're fun. And a lot of times, they're all three of those at the same time, scary, exciting and fun.

But I know this, almost always, they're unexpected. I told you that my daughter Isabella is one years old, so last year in July, she was born. And this is her in the hospital. I know what you're thinking, an adorable, adorable baby. I say this, she looks just like her daddy. But no, this is her in the hospital, and this is an outfit that my wife Delmi had picked out. Really excited, I love the pajamas, it had ruffles on the booty, and so she's like, she's gonna wear this on her first day, you see. And so this is in the hospital moments before something exciting, scary, and unexpected all happen at the same time. Well, Delmi had a C-section this time, so the recovery was a little bit different. So I was a little more, I was right away hands on, and Isabella needed to be changed. And so those pajamas these days, now they have two zippers. So when you change them, you don't have to unzip and take all their pajama off. And so they have two zippers, so I unzip it, I take her feet out and I begin to change. I take the diaper out, and she begins to use the bathroom. And I told you, I have my firstborn as a boy, and I had no experience changing girls. And so I was already trying to figure this thing out, and Delmi's trying to coach me from the bed on the left, and Isabella's using the restroom, it just keeps coming,

and I'm now nervous and terrified, and I told you this pajama thing, and you're like, why is that important? Well, because I had to put her back in the pajama. And so I'm freaking out. I'm like, this is my baby girl's first day of life. And I'm messing up. I don't even know what to do or how to do this. And tell me then, it's like trying to get out of bed. She's hours out of a C-section. I'm like, sit down. What are you doing? You can't even move. And all of a sudden, the nurse comes in and honestly saves my life. She comes in and says, let me help you, son. And we've all had those moments where we just do something dumb. We didn't think it through. I was unexpected. And a lot of times when we do those, people look at us and say, is this your first day? Or what's going on here? And for me, I'm sure this is what that nurse was thinking, like, should I let him take that baby home? He struggled quite a bit. But I think she saw my other boy and said, well, I got one living in Britain. So we'll be able to take him home. But if we're honest, there have been probably a few moments where we've asked ourselves

that exact question. But here's what I know about first days. First days have a way of setting the tone for a marriage, for parenting, for a school year, for a new job, how you start matters. And you've probably heard that before. Because a good first day can set the direction for everything that comes after. And if that's true, then today, I want us to look at one of the most important first days in history. The first day of the church. So if you have your Bibles, I want us to turn to Acts chapter two and look at the first day of the church. But before we get there, let me give you a little bit of background. You see, Jesus had gone to the cross. He's been placed in the grave. And three days later, he rose again. And for about 40 days, Jesus met with his friends, his disciples, preparing them for what comes next. And then in Acts 1, Luke records one of the last conversations that Jesus had with his disciples. And he tells them something really important. He tells them to stay in Jerusalem, to stay there and wait. How many of you have heard that from the Lord? And that's the hardest thing to do, right? It is to stay and to wait. And he tells them, wait, because the Holy Spirit is coming.

But he then he tells them, once the Holy Spirit comes, I want you to go. I want you to go from Jerusalem to Judea. To Samaria, and to eventually to the ends of the earth. So Jesus is basically telling them, I'm not going to physically be with you anymore, but you're not going to be alone. The Holy Spirit is going to be with you. So they do exactly what Jesus tells them to do. They meet, they wait, and they pray. And then we get into the next chapter, chapter two. And that's what we're gonna read today. If you have your Bible, like I said, turn there. And this is what it says, on the day of Pentecost, all the believers were meeting together in one place. Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven, like the roaring of a mighty windstorm. Us being from Oklahoma, we got some nasty windstorms, right? And it filled the house where they were sitting. Then what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages. As the Holy Spirit gave them this ability. Well, as far as first day goes, it's a pretty big first day, right? You've got the power and the presence. I mean, this is about as big of a start as these disciples could have ever imagined. And everything happening here is pointing

to what the Holy Spirit is doing. You've got the wind pointing to the will of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said in John three, that the Spirit is like the wind, that you can't control where it goes, but you can see the evidence of where it moves. Then you've got the fire pointing to the purifying power of the Holy Spirit. God is doing something new in them. He's changing them. He's empowering them. And then you've got the tongues pointing to the purpose of the Holy Spirit. Remember what Jesus told them? You're going to take this message all the way to the ends of the earth. And that's exactly what starts happening. People from all over the world are hearing the good news of Jesus in their own language. And then Peter gets up, the same Peter who weeks earlier was too afraid to admit that he even knew who Jesus was. It's now standing in front of thousands of people, boldly telling them about Jesus. And Peter preaches when it has to be the best sermon of his life. And look what happens in verse 41, he's preaching. And that says, those who believe, I'm not sure if any of them expected this. I mean, Peter's up there preaching and suddenly he sees all of these hands go up, right? Thousands of people responding to Jesus. I'm so thankful to be a part of a church who shares the gospel and is able to see what

Peter saw, people coming to know Jesus. We got to imagine Peter looking over at the other disciples like, "Guys, we're not ready for this." Right now, I think he's like, "John and Andrew, go on the guitar and get the keys and we need some music and James and the other James. Go find some more chairs." Matthew, you used to be a tax collector. Go get some buckets. Let's pick up an offering. I mean, they went from a prayer meeting to a mega church in one day, but I want you to notice one work Luke uses here. He says, "3,000 people were added to the church that day. They were added to the church." I know when you think of added, it sounds like a math term, but what's happening here is so much bigger than math. This was just a headcount. This was a heart change. These weren't just 3,000 more people in a room. These were 3,000 people whose lives had been changed by Jesus. They were leaving behind an old way of life and stepping into something completely new. They were added to Peter's church. They were added to the disciples' church. They were added to Jesus' church, because ultimately they weren't giving their life to an organization. They were giving their life to a person, Jesus Christ. I think that matters for us, because as a church, we don't just count numbers. We count people, because people count, and every number has a name, and every name has a story, and every story matters to God, and I love what happens next. Because Luke doesn't just tell us how many people came to Jesus that day. He shows us what they did next.

Verse 42, it says this, "All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship and to sharing in meals, including the Lord's Supper and to prayer." You see here at Battle Creek Church, we believe in seeing this first played out in life. We love to see this lived out in life, because what we are seeing happening here in Acts 2 is foundational to who we are and the kind of church that we want to be. First look at the first word, "all." We love the word around here, "all." If you've been at Battle Creek Church for a while, you know our mission statement. You don't know, let me just share it with you, that we exist to glorify God by helping all people of all ages, all the time, advance in their journey with Christ. We want everybody and anybody to know Jesus, no matter where you come from, no matter what your story is, no matter how far from God you might feel. We want all people to know Jesus, and not just to know Him, but to continually advance in their journey with Him, and like I just said, the greatest thing about it, it doesn't matter where you're at on this journey. And Luke tells us how that started happening. He says, "All the believers devoted themselves." What did they devote themselves to? Well, through the apostles' teaching. They devoted themselves to the word of God. They devoted themselves to fellowship, because we say this around here. Life is better together. We have groups, we have groups in person and online so that you can do community with people, because life is better together. They devoted themselves to the Lord's Supper, who we just spent the last three weeks talking about that. Pastor Alex explaining that, and if you haven't watched it, go back and listen to it. They devoted themselves to prayer, because they understood that they desperately needed the power and the presence of God. But there's another word here, and I want us to miss it.

The word devoted, because this wasn't something they did one time. You see, this was something they did daily. It became a rhythm of their life. They continually devoted themselves. They continually committed themselves. They kept showing up. They kept gathering. They kept praying. They kept opening God's word. They persisted in the things that were formed them into the people of God. Think about that. If you're married, you know the first day of your marriage. It looks a little different than the hundredth day, or the thousandth day, or the ten thousandth day. "Well, we're still on our honeymoon." Well, God bless you. The rest of us knows that marriage grows over time. Because a great marriage isn't built on what you said at one day at the altar. It's built on the commitment to control, to continue to live out every day after that. The following, Jesus is the same way. The first day you come to know, Jesus is an amazing day. It's the best day of your life. And you might have made that decision last week. But listen, it's not the only day that matters. Jesus isn't looking for a one day decision. He's inviting us, you and me, into a lifetime of devotion, a continual commitment to follow Him. So what does that actually look like?

How do we continually devote ourselves to following Jesus? Well, Luke shows us. Look at how this early church actually lived it out. Verse 46, they worshiped together at the temple each day. They met in homes for the Lord's Supper, and they shared their mills with great joy and generosity. Although while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people, and each day the Lord added to their fellowship, those who were being saved. We're gonna dive into that in just a moment, but think about this. Think about what happened to this church. It started with 12 disciples. Then there were about 120 believers that gathered together in the upper room. And now in one day, more than 3,000 people had been added. Had been added. So what happened? What made the difference? What made the difference? Well, when you keep reading, you start to see that these people were committed to meeting together. They met in the temple together for worship. They met from house to house together in community. And they continually met one-on-one with God. And I think those three rhythms are just as important for us today as they were for they. So I want us to talk about three rhythms that we can incorporate into our life based off of this passage

that we should be doing every single day. Number one is this, they met corporately to worship. They met corporately to worship. Verse 47, they worshiped together in the temple. They worshiped together at the temple each day. He lines it out. There's something that happens when the people of God get together. There's something about worship that moves us. And I think we all understand that music has this ability to move us. If you don't think that music moves us, well just turn on some Latin jams, right? That Latin music just gets you moving. Why? Because music moves us. And in a much deeper way, worship moves us. Now I don't just mean worship makes us want to move physically. Although some of you could move a little bit around during worship, right? We could not just stay still. We could activate some of our emotions and some of our hands into praising Jesus. But what I mean is this, worship moves something inside of us. Worship has a way of taking our eyes off of what we're facing and putting them back on who God is. It doesn't always change the circumstances around us, but it changes the way we see the circumstances. Because when I worship, I'm reminding myself that this, that God is good, that God is still faithful, that God is still in control,

that God is still here with us. And there's something powerful about doing that together. There are absolutely times when you need to go and worship God by yourself, but there is something different when you walk into a room with hundreds of other believers. And together we declare who God is and that His promise still stands today. And maybe some of you walked in discouraged, or maybe some of you are discouraged today there where you're attending from. But you're standing next to somebody or you're reminded of somebody who has seen the faithfulness of God. Maybe your faith feels weak, but you hear somebody behind you worshiping like they know this, that God isn't finished yet. And when you hear that, suddenly their faith starts to strengthen your face. You start to be reminded of what God says and the promises that He's told you and you begin to reflect on your life and the things that God has brought you from, you're not still there, He's brought you from them and He's not quiet and He's not there, but He's actually moving even though you can't hear Him or see Him. That's why gathering together isn't just We give God the first of our week and when we make a worship a priority, it has a way of helping us keep everything else in our lives right in order. So just like the early church, we continue to devote ourselves to showing up and gathering

together and worshiping God as a body of believers. Number two, a rhythm that we can continue to have in our lives is collectively in community groups. Verse 46 says, they met in homes for the Lord's Supper. They met in their homes for the Lord's Supper. Well, let me just tell you this. Number one, as you go to community group, if your community group doesn't break bread, you should change that. Right? Food is one of my passions. One of my favorite things to do is to share a meal and be able to share relationship. You see, the early church didn't just corporately meet in the temple. They met collectively in their homes. They understood something that we say that around here, that life is better together, that we need to do life with people because we weren't created to do this alone. When we try to do life alone, things get off balance and our vision starts to drift. And sometimes we don't even realize it. That's why we need people around us. People who know us, people who will encourage us, people who challenge us, people who pray for us. Right? How many of you in your life know of a mom or a dad or a grandma or a grandpa who prayed for you by name for all of those years? Because when we do life together, we make each other stronger. That's why at Battle Creek Church, we say we're not a church with community groups. We're a church of community groups. You see, there's a big difference. Community groups aren't just another program we offer. They're part of who we are because we believe if you're going to be part of Battle Creek Church, you need people to do life with.

Not because we need you to check a box. Not because we're trying to get our group numbers or up or we're trying to do something with that. No, because we know the power of doing life together. And here's what I love. Every single week, it's somebody's first week at Battle Creek. Somebody walks in, throws those doors for the very first time. Somebody attends for the very first time, and maybe somebody invited them, maybe they came by themselves, maybe they don't even know a single person, and they may walk into a room with hundreds of people and still feel completely alone. That's why what happens outside of this room matters so much because eventually, everyone needs to go from a row to a circle. From people you recognize on Sunday to know who eventually know your name. They know your story, they know what you're walking through. You're not just a stranger, but they know you because sometimes the thing that makes a big church start feeling like home is one simple invitation. You see, when Delmi and I got married and I'll just tell you, community group was a foreign thing to her and I. I was nervous. I don't want to go and sit around a circle and tell all my feelings and tell all of my problems and that just seemed weird to me. But what we realized is when we began to go, it wasn't that. It was normal people like her and I that were walking through difficult seasons and for us in our early marriage trying to figure out how to do this. We walked in and they were able to love us and they knew our story, they knew our family, they knew we were here on our own in Tulsa and they began to welcome us and now we begin to found community and they didn't just know our story. We knew their story and when we needed things, they were there to help. Life is important to do with other people. So the early church met corporately to worship, but they also met collectively in community

because then just like now, life is better together. And then the number of the three things, the third thing that we need to continually do is consistently with God, it says that they were all while praising God. So they met corporately to worship. They met collectively in community, but they also met consistently with God. Last month we spent several weeks talking about the Lord's Supper. And one of the things that really stood out to me was that this was a covenant mill. It was a mill that were meant to be shared together, not isolated, not alone, but together as the family of God. And I think there's something important here because the more we gather together, the more it should make us want us to spend time with God personally. We worship together on Sunday. We do live together throughout the week in groups, but. with God every single day. And in fact, I think they actually feed each other. The more time I spend with God personally, the more the meaningful our time together becomes. And the more we worship and pursue God together, the more I want to pursue Him, when nobody else is around. That's why when we talk about first things first, we give God the first of our week. That's why we gather to worship. We give Him the first of our day. We spend time with Him. We open His word. We pray and we give God the first of our income. Because even in our finances, they belong to Him. We give God the first consideration in every decision we make.

And before I ask, what do I want? What I need to ask is God, what do you want from me? But that kind of life doesn't just accidentally happen. It happens when we continually devote ourselves to following Jesus. It means that I'm committed to, it means that I'm committed to showing up, to giving, to finding a place to serve. And using the gifts and the talents that God has given me to help His body and His church, to talk about joining a group and being with other believers and growing. It means with spending time with Him, not because doing these things somehow makes God's love me more because He already loves me. We do those things because we want our lives to be built around Him. Because following Jesus isn't just something we do once a week, it's who we are every single day. And as I close today, I just want to take a moment and ask you, what does your commitment to God look like? What are you doing every single day? Are you coming to worship together? Well, it's us on Sundays with a body of believers once a month or once a quarter. Do you need to make that commitment to saying, I'm going to be there with my kids so that we can begin to know people and begin to be a part of a body of believers worshiping together, to be encouraged together.

Maybe you're saying, hey, I've been doing life alone and I just show up and I leave. I don't really talk to anybody. Nobody knows my name. And maybe for the last couple of weeks in August that we did group Expo and we talked about groups happening all over the city and online. And you felt the tug and you knew you needed to, but you didn't take that step. But today be a sign that God is speaking to you. Don't do life alone. Do life together. Remember you were saying, hey, I just, I haven't really spent some time with the Lord. I haven't really just began to walk with Him and read His word and worshiping and praying. And maybe that's, He's asking you today to just wake up and spend your first of the day with Him. So I love Battle Creek Church 'cause we love daily practice. And if you go to our app, our Battle Creek Church app, it's on the app store. There's a thing on there that's called daily practices and it's a really simple thing for you to start. It starts with prayer. You can look at other people's prayer requests and pray for them. And then you can put what you need prayer for. And then you can go to the next thing and it says take a moment and just take what you're thankful for.

It's a gratitude moment. And there's always something we can find to be grateful for. And then at the end, you get to open God's word and read. We're reading a Bible in a year and read passages and be able to see what other people are writing about it. Maybe that's your next step. And today I just wanna encourage you and just say, don't just think of these things as those would be great to do. Advancing your journey today, take that next step. And if you're like, I don't know how to take that next step right now in their chat, they're putting a connect card, fill that out myself or someone on our step. I'd love to reach out to you and just say, hey, what is God doing in your life and how can we help you take that next step? How can we help you to commit to coming every week? How can we help you to joining a group? How can we help you with being a part of daily practices every day? We wanna help you do that. So would you do me a favor? Would you close your eyes and would you bow your head? And for you, just a moment. Could you just say, Lord, help me to take my next step and help me to advance in my journey with Christ? God, I'm so thankful for us today. I'm thankful that we can look back at the first church and be reminded of those things today that we should actively be corporately in worship and collectively finding community

and consistently being with you. God, I just pray that you would help us to find the discipline that we need. I thank you for what you're doing in and through our church, and I pray as we go today, God, we wouldn't just hear your word, but we would apply it to our lives. Then we would take small steps that would lead to great impact, God. We're still thankful for what you're doing. And in Jesus' name, we pray. We love you and we thank you. Amen and amen. Can we celebrate what God did this morning? (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)