ACTS I & II | The True Church | Acts 2:42-47 | Philip Anthony Mitchell

That is why we appreciate it. Yesterday, we had an ordination gathering for the pastor of the very first church plant of 2819 Church. Stand up Marquavius, stand up hope. Stay standing you two, everybody else can sit, y'all two stay standing right there. If you're watching 2819 and you live in the Norfolk, Virginia area, we want to encourage you to no longer watch this broadcast, but instead we want to encourage you to plug into the very first church plant of 2819, Gospel City Church. They're already having gatherings in the Norfolk, Virginia area, you can find all of their information on their website. So if you live anywhere in that area, you're close enough to that area, no longer watch this broadcast. Today will be your last Sunday watching this broadcast. After today, we want you to just plug in at Gospel City, underneath the leadership of Pastor Marquavius Walker, the first church plant from 2819. Y'all help me honor Pastor Marquavius Walker and his wife, Hope Walker. If you live in that area and you have been blessed by the ministry of 2819, you will be missing nothing. Gospel preaching, spreading the gospel, serious about making disciples, end time focus, you will be missing nothing. Man of God, woman of God, character, integrity, holiness, purity, all the things. Already meeting, official church plant coming at the end of this year in the fall, Gospel City Church. And also too, if you live in the South Carolina area of Columbia, there is a dope church there passed by one of my big brothers, a man who's been a mentor to me for many years, long before 2819. He passes a great church there in the Columbia area called The Brook, and he's in the room today with one of my closest brothers, Bishop Simeon Moultrie. Would you stand up, Bishop? So if you live anywhere in the South Carolina, Columbia area, The Brook Church, I want to

recommend that you go there, okay? If you are a guest of 2819, we welcome you to this holy gathering where we are serious about the spread of the gospel and the multiplying of disciples. And to all of our digital disciples watching me live right now, across America and around the world, we love you. You are of our family, tapped in from wherever you are across the nation and around the world. To all of our digital disciples watching, I want to encourage you to stay locked in. After I pray out this message, I have three important announcements that will be cast to you as vision cast, so I would ask you to not turn off the stream when the message is over. I want to share three things with you that you need to know that are very, very important. So I'm going to ask that you just stay locked in. And if you're not a follower of Christ and you crept into this gathering, you crept into the chat, we know that you're in here and we're glad that you're here. We want you to know that you can belong before you believe and be amongst us before you believe. And our prayer is that a day will come where you will be brought into this spiritual family by the power of the Holy Spirit. A sermon cannot do that. Only God can regenerate a life family. This is the last Sunday final message In a great series. We just call acts one and two Where we are looking at the things that happen after the life of christ as we finish our three-year journey through the book of matthew I get to say to you for the last time that acts is a book of origins Written in the 80s 60s by a man named luke who was a doctor and historian Travel companion of the apostle paul And what he preserved for us in the book of acts you should go and read the rest of it for yourself Is the record of the first 30 years of this glorious messy thing? We call the church and uh our last text today a very short text Should not take me that long to get through it but pray for me somebody said take my time It's not a it's not a long text it's not a complicated text it's pretty much simple and straightforward I will do my best to exhort that for you. I uh

You will not see me for a couple weeks after this sunday and i'm gonna tell you why at the end of this message So if you're watching I want you to just stay locked. So I feel a little emotional right now Because I won't be on this platform for a little while. Um, not because of sin but because of something holy and um They're trying to clock my teeth can't clock my teeth No clocking of my teeth But after this, thank you, bro But after this message, I want to talk to you and um, so just don't log off the stream Our last text in our series today is coming from acts chapter 2 verses 42 to 37 Spirit of the living god We feel your presence in this room we feel your presence across the camera Invading rooms and homes and cars all across america and around the world We thank you for this kairos moment we've come to sit at your feet As we unpack the word that you wrote through 40 men spirit of the living god Exalting the person of christ in every page from the beginning to the end We get now lord to just gaze upon the beauty of the son in the text And father for this last time in the series, I just pray You would have your way amongst us as we talk As we share as we lean into your word And that you would help the person with the microphone and his weakness communicate these truths ask in the mighty and the majestic In the matchless name of our soon coming king the lord jesus christ and all god's people said amen And amen and amen Oh As we uh approach this text I was reflecting on the fact that I grew up and what I would consider a very good home Although I was in the street until the age of 24 I'm, not proud of the things that I did in the street. I hurt a lot of people out there It does not take away from the fact. I was raised by two godly parents

My mother who's still alive. She watches from north carolina. Sharon mitchell my father who was above me now in heaven He will not come back to me, but I will go to meet him and uh, and I was raising a godly home with two christian parents and um The seeds that they planted in me would not take root until later on in my life. That's why you should never give up on your children You should keep discipling your children keep pouring into your children Never give up on them But when I was young, uh, I did not really appreciate family To be honest, I did not see the importance of family I had a very low regard for family It did not really mean that much to me when I was growing up because I was too immature To understand the blessing of family It was not until I became a follower of jesus. I had my own family my wife lena and my four children Malachi israel abigail and josiah when I learned to begin to value the importance of family Uh, my family is very tight-knit. We do everything together. We watch movies together. We take road trips together We travel together. We fight together. We overcome fights together. We eat together Uh, we celebrate each other's victories. We step into each other's pain I was just with my youngest daughter last night sitting at the dining room table She's working through some pain, uh that she was going through and I sat there her and israel We sat there and kind of walked with her through that pain, and she shed in tears, and I take her hand, and I pray for her, and she feels better afterwards, and then this morning I get up and I text her a message, Abigail, I'm praying for you. Everything is going to be okay. Our family is so tight-knit, and we have this beautiful thing going on at home that brings me so much joy and so much peace and so much comfort. There is nothing I would trade in this life, not platforms, not fame, not money. I would give everything up to keep my family. There is nothing I have in this life greater than that except my relationship with Christ, my Bible, and my family. But even as I say the word family, some of you, that doesn't invoke emotions like what I have.

It invokes emotions of pain, invokes emotions of frustration, invokes emotions of difficult feelings of like rejection and abandonment, because there's a lot of people right now under the sound of my voice who, when you think family, you think an absent father, you think an absent mother, you think brothers who did not like you, you think sisters you did not know. When you think family, you think pain. You think dysfunction. You think something that's not important to you because of all you've been through. I understand that, and some of those pains are legitimate. I get that. There is a lot of us, because of our poor experiences with family, because of sinners who have hurt us or who have betrayed us or let us down, because they're all sinners, all human natures. When we hear family, we have a bad concept of family, and in the same way, a lot of us, the same way we have a bad concept of family, that's the same way we think about the church of Jesus Christ. The same way we think about the family of God, when we hear the family of God, we have bad concepts about the family. We feel negative feelings about the family. When we hear about the church, all we think about is church hurt. Some of us, we've made that a badge of honor, so we leave churches. We say, we're going to do this by ourselves. We're going to be in silos, especially since COVID. We say things like, I love Jesus, but I hate the church. I love Christ, but I don't need the church. You know what I'm saying? I've had a bad experience with a church. I don't need to be around organized religion, is what we say. It's like you go to a doctor and you have a bad experience with a doctor, but that don't stop you from going to another doctor.

It's only the thing God created that's not good enough for us when we have one bad experience. There's a lot of people in America, especially… We have a very low view of the church. We see it as just an event we attend on Sunday with a bunch of people we don't know. We see it as something we go to and not something we belong to. We see it as unimportant in our lives. All across America, I'm telling you what I know, we have a very low view of the church, but the text we come to today is one of the most powerful, one of the most famous, well-known passages relating to the church you and I are a part of. In fact, what we're about to look at today is the church in its purest form. While the church has not looked like this since the very beginning, it is worth striving after. It is worth fighting for. It is worth saying that we will corporately work together to get as close to this as possible, albeit messy and albeit problems. We will make a covenant together. Listen to me. I'm talking to you. We're going to make a covenant together, local and digital disciples, to get as close to this as possible. This is an image of the church unfiltered, not diluted, untouched by the sins of man, untouched by man-made doctrines, untouched by traditions, untouched by the devil. It's worth fighting for. Again, it's worth striving to get after. You recall what has happened before we get to this text. Christ come, lived, died, rose, ascended to the right hand of the Father, tells 120 disciples to go into Jerusalem and wait for the promise of the Father. They go into the city to an upper room, undisclosed location. They're there for 10 days, praying, studying the Scriptures, replacing an apostle. On the 10th day, on the day of Pentecost, the Spirit of God is poured out from Christ

in heaven, falls on that room. 120 of them are filled with the Spirit. They're baptized into the church. They become the new organism, the church of Jesus. Peter now goes out onto the street with those other disciples. They are praying in foreign languages, the languages of the crowd. An international crowd gathers around Peter, some in the crowd mock the disciples and say they are drunk because of all of that babble. Peter stands up like men need to stand up. He preaches on the Day of Pentecost, the very first Christian message. He preaches the life of Christ, the death of Christ, the resurrection of Christ. As he preaches that message, he preaches it to those who killed the Lord Jesus Christ. He preaches a biblical sermon, a biblical message under the conviction of the Holy Spirit, the power of the Holy Spirit. The people hear that message, they are cut to the heart and they ask Peter, what shall we do? And Peter says, repent and be baptized, every single one of you for your sins. And he says, turn from this corrupt generation. They hear that message, and Luke tells us the first metric acts, 3,000 souls are added to the church on that day. The church of Jesus went from 120 people to 3,120 people, pause. That's a megachurch. I hate megachurches. But peep the text, the 120 were faithful, the 3,120 we will see will be faithful. So it's not about the size of the church, it's about the faithfulness of the people inside the church. And there's some people that say, I hate large churches. Why? The first church in Acts grew very large and it never stopped growing. The issue is not the size, the issue is what people do inside of the church.

You say, I feel like just a number. You feel like a number because you don't want to plug in. How could you hate something that Jesus created and blessed? So the church was faithful at 120? Because you can have a small church and be faithful and powerful and love Jesus and take a city with 120, or you can have a church of 3,120. Size does not matter, faithfulness matters. So we should not glorify megachurches at the expense of looking over the smaller communities that are just as faithful. I will be a champion for the small church, because there are faithful men leading small churches who love Jesus, love their wives, love God, love the Scriptures, and we only see the 2% of churches in America that are large. This is 2% of American churches, 95% of all American churches, 100 people or less. So I will be a champion for them so they're faithful. I thought it powerful. I just want to throw this in there. Last week when Lanel preached this text about 3,000 people being saved, that same Sunday 3,000 people from 2019 registered for baptism. He preaches about 3,000 people being baptized, and on the same Sunday 3,000 people from 2019 registered to be baptized. I will August baptism experience, one of my favorite Sundays of the year. Some sister DM me, and I don't engage in DMs like that, but if you say, man, the registration is closed and I can't get… Just pull up anyway. Just pull up. Watch the Holy Spirit open up a slot for you. Just pull up anyway. If you're not being baptized, pull up anyway, and just watch the power of God on display. 3,000 people are added to a church with 120 with one message and one day. What do you do with them now?

There's no playbooks. There's no online library. There is nothing to reflect on. Peter and the apostles now have a church, 3,120 disciples, a mixed multitude of young people and old people, different ethnicities, different backgrounds. It's multigenerational. It's multi-ethnic, multi-background, and how do you lead all those different people into spiritual formation? You have people who was not from Jerusalem, moved to Jerusalem, they stayed in Jerusalem, and now you have people who look different in color and skin tone, since we think the gospel is for only one ethnicity, which is a biblical heresy. And now you got this large church with no playbook, different ethnicities, different backgrounds, and yet they got to be led together into spiritual formation. So Peter now, and the apostles leaning on the guidance of the Holy Spirit, will now have to lead this church of 3,000 plus disciples into spiritual formation. And what we come to right here in our text is the very first activities of that large church in that size, the purest picture of the church preserved for us in the New Testament, but every church in America and around the world should be striving to get to this right here. 3,000 are baptized, and notice, they didn't take a six-month class to be baptized. Saved, baptized. You didn't go through a class for a year, man-made, saved, baptized. You don't need a two-year class to be baptized, you just need obedience to the Scriptures to be baptized. Maybe one class to explain, you don't need seven months in a class to be baptized. So what did he do with them? Peter and the apostles, verse 42. Look at the activities of the first church, 3,120 disciples. Mixed group, mixed ethnicity, mixed age. The white brother sitting next to the black sister with the bundles.

The Asian dude sitting next to the YN that became a YD. We turn YNs into YDs, we turn them into young disciples. It's like this room right here, I just go down the row, I see a white face, a black face, a brown face, an Asian face, and every row I see skin color, different tones. Every row from the front to the bleachers. We all mixed. We half whatever we are and half Holy Spirit. We all mixed. Look at what he does with this mixed multitude of disciples. Look at the activity of the church, verse 42, and they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship and to the breaking of bread and to the prayers. So I just want to draw your attention to this first word, they. This first word, they, is very important. It does not communicate a disjointed group of people. They communicated unity, all of them together. They, young and old, white and black, Jew and Gentile, they together as one. They did what? Devoted themselves. What is devotion? It is a deep commitment to something or someone. It shows up in the life of married people who are deeply devoted to each other through hardships and trials and testings and difficulties. They say, girl, I'm going to love you until death do us part. That's devotion. It shows up in faithful friends in which distance and drama and the things of life cannot separate them from being friends. It shows up in faithful servants who are committed to their team and committed to serve their church no matter what's happening in their life. It shows up in faithful servants who say, I will go through hell and not walk away from the Lord Jesus Christ.

It shows up in some elderly wife who's at the bedside of her husband who's about to die. That is devotion. Deeply dedicated. to someone or something or both it says all of these people how many 3120 people were all they devoted committed to four things The teaching of the Apostles The fellowship the breaking of bread and the prayers So the first thing that was committed to is what every church should be committed to the Apostles teaching Now they don't have the New Testament letters when Luke is writing this, right? They don't have the New Testament letters around this time What they have is the Old Testament and they have the teachings of the Apostles So if they were devoted to the Apostles teaching that means they would have been devoted to the Old Testament scriptures the Psalms the prophets Everything in the Old Testament and they would have been devoted to everything the Apostles would have taught them about the person of Jesus who? They knew personally for three and a half years The same man who said to them when your church is born teach them to obey Everything that I have commanded you So that means Peter as the first pastor and the Apostles would have been walking this church through the Old Testament scriptures And would have been teaching this church everything that Jesus taught the Sermon on the Mount Everything he taught for the three and a half years They would have heard teachings about Husbands and wives and submission and they would have heard teachings about all these things that Jesus taught he would have been teaching them all of these things Notice what they were not submitted to or not devoted to they were not devoted to their opinions They Were not devoted to man-made doctrines

They were not devoted to man-made traditions. They were not devoted to dogma. They were not devoted to Roman Empire They were not more devoted to a political party than the Word of God They were devoted to The Scriptures and the teachings of Christ. They were not devoted to empty sermons They were devoted watch to the Word of God and I'm camping out here Because what I see in America breaks my heart There is an emerging Christian generation that is devoted to everything else other than the Word of God But we call ourselves Christians, but we are born Christians Call ourselves Christians, but we are bored with the Scriptures So consequently God forbid anybody is preaching to you the Word of God that's boring to you It's that we want self-help speeches and TED talks. We don't want to be diverted to the Word of God The Word of God is boring Don't teach me the Scriptures Don't convict me with the Scriptures and so we have a generation of people who call themselves followers of Christ But not followers of his word And this is why later on New Testament letters would emerge like the very first New Testament letter that emerged was James So when you every time you pick up the letter of James you pick up in your hand the very first New Testament letter ever Written and it's circulating. You know what James wrote don't just be hearers of the word but be doers Why do we sit here or watch here and not go and do what you've been taught So watch it wasn't half a church devoted to Scriptures see they Now watch if we are devoted to the Scriptures, you know what it tones down Sin against each other It tones down selfishness It tones down ungodliness and lessons all about church hurt when we are devoted to the Scriptures You know why we have a lot of drama in church because we're not devoted to the Scriptures And a lot of you've been hurt by people in the church who are not devoted to the Word of God They will not practice Matthew 18. They will not practice Reconciliation they will not practice loving other people more than you love your

And so there's a lot of drama in the church because you have some people devoted but not they So then we throw the church away it's a not too much church hurt no too many people that don't obey God's Word Watch I've been studying God's Word for 22 years God's Word Watch I've been studying God's Word for 22 years. And the more I study God's Word The more I cry on the pages of my Bible Because the more I read God's Word the more I see his wisdom the more see the foolishness of humanity the more It's great. The more I see the damage of sinация the more I see how God's Word was given to us for human flourishing. You want to see a strong family? Devot it to the Word. You want to see a strong friend group? Devot it to the Word. You want to see strong leaders? Devote it to the Word. You want to see a strong woman? Devote it to the Word. You want to see a strong man? Devote it to the Word. You want to see godly teenagers? Devote it to the Word. You want to see a radical home? Devote it to the Word. You want to see a beautiful church? Devote it to the Word. I need more than just a Sunday morning sermon. Okay. Go home and read for yourself.

You own a Bible. Oh, pastor didn't cover that on Sunday. Right. How can I cover the whole Bible in a sermon? I need a little bit more than a sermon. Good. Go home and read for yourself. Whatever you read, let it deal with your heart, let it punch you in your soul, let it change you, and then obey what you read. Obey what you hear. You want a better husband? Devote it to the Word. You want a better wife? Devote it to the Word. Whatever you deal with your heart, let it change you and then obey what you hear. You want a better job? Let it change you. You want a rich husband? Devote it to the Word. You want a better job? Devote it to the Word. You want a better teenager? Devote it to the Word. There's a lot of mess we could tone down in the church if they, all of us, made a commitment to be devoted to the Word. I will read it, hear it, obey it, even when it hurts me. So don't force a wife to say, "'You better be submitted to a husband that does not love her like Christ loves the church.'" Submit. You better submit.

The Bible says you better submit. I'm the man of God. Submit. Are you loving her like Christ loves the church? I'm about to offend some people. I feel like... Okay. I don't care. Or we've got all this new ways of parenting children. I want my children to be free thinkers. Five. I want my five-year-old to be a free thinker. I don't want to tell my five-year-old what to do when the Scripture says foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child. The Scripture says in the heart of your child is foolishness, and the rod of correction drives it far away. That's why the Scripture says train up your child. It didn't say let your child be a free thinker. Train up your child. And then we have crazy adults who was not discipled by the Word. So little Jaquan is two, and he controls you. Little Hector is three, and he controls you. Little Connor is three, and he controls you. No. Train Connor up. Train Jaquan up. Train Hector up. I don't know an Asian name. I'm trying to pick every name. Train them up.

Tell Jaden, get off the table. We in a restaurant. Tell him to sit down. This is why we got messy families, messy churches, messy relationships, because we're not devoted. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, the Scriptures. They devoted themselves to the definitive article, fellowship. It's a T.H.E. in front of the fellowship. So you think fellowship, you think a hall with some fried chicken and some name brand soda. They devoted themselves to the definitive article, fellowship. It means it's not for you to define. It's for the Scriptures to define. The word fellowship there in Greek is koinonia, which also translates into life in common. It's not just a meeting in a fellowship hall with fried chicken and grape soda. They devoted themselves to the definitive article, fellowship. They devoted themselves to a shared life around Jesus in common. They devoted themselves to large gatherings. This is the fellowship, which means life together and deep relational intimacy. It does not matter the size of the church. If you feel alone, are you obeying koinonia? Those who have friends have shown themselves friendly. If you feel like a number, whose fault is that? Is it the size of the church or your unwillingness to be devoted to the fellowship? You're the one who runs out straight to the parking lot. You're the one who doesn't stop in the lobby. You're the one who doesn't talk to nobody. You're the one who won't serve on a team. You're the one who won't get in a squad. My church is too large. No, you are too isolated.

They, 3,120, all devoted themselves to the definitive article, fellowship. They devoted themselves to koinonia. That is, they are committed to going to the gatherings, local and digital, and they are committed to building relationships with one another, local and digital. This is you in the stream, in the comments, hooking up with people who are in your city like, yo, bro, I see you in my city. Let's go meet up at Starbucks. We can watch the gathering next week while we do the Scriptures during the week. This is you serving on a team so you have new friends. This is you stopping in the lobby and having a conversation with somebody in the lobby. This is you being in the line, and instead of waiting to get in the building, you're talking to the person behind you and the person in front of you. Girl, where are you from? Brother, where are you from? Make sure you know the line gives you a new sister. The line gives you a new brother. The line gives you a spiritual mother. The line gives you a spiritual father. I don't want to wait on the line. You wait on the line for everything else that's important to you. I've seen y'all in Atlanta waiting on the line to get into a restaurant, waiting for your little text message to say, Your table is ready. No. We wait on lines for what we value. I'm ashamed to say I've waited on line for iPhones, and some of y'all have waited in line for sneakers, but not for the gathering of the saints, because your view of the church is too low. So, you're out there only thinking about what you're going to do when you get in here instead of building cornania out there, building cornania in the chat.

So, if you feel like a number, whose fault is that? It's yours for not being devoted to the fellowship. It's your fault. Right now, when this is over, you have 2,000 chances to meet one person. And since God does his best work on two legs, your next blessing might be in the hands of the person right next to you. You might be sitting next to a business owner that will give you the job you've been looking for, but you would never know that because you won't have that conversation. You're unemployed, but there's someone sitting next to you who owns a company looking for your skill set. Your marriage is in trouble, but there's a couple sitting down the road from you who have been married for 40 years. You see gray hair. You think they're not important. They have conquered things you're trying to figure out. out. See that little patch right there? That's called wisdom. This is for all the Gen Zs and Gen Alphas who think older people are not important. You're scratching your head trying to figure out things they've already conquered. If you could learn in five minutes what it took them 50 years to learn, you'd go much further faster. But they're not important. You just want to stick them in a basement and not talk to them. You're bumping your head against brick walls they already ran through. You'd be stressed about stuff they've already survived. They'd be like, baby, just sit right here. They devoted themselves to the breaking of bread. That is communion and community. That means they devoted themselves to remembering the sacrifice of Jesus, and they devoted themselves to having food together. In the first century, having a meal wasn't like, I'm hungry, let's bounce. It was called meals and moments. They used meals to build relationships. Come to the home. Let's break bread together. Come sit on my couch. Let's eat Bojangles and talk together. Let's eat Chipotle and talk together. Let's eat Chick-fil-A and talk together. They devoted themselves to the prayers. Definitive article. What prayers? If all they had was the Old Testament and teachings of Jesus, they would have been known about all the prayers in the Psalms that covered a full range of things.

All the prayers in the Psalms that covered a full range of human emotion, everything from anger to joy, prayers of petition, preparatory prayers, all kinds of prayers to talk to God about all kinds of things. Any emotion you've ever felt, you could find it in the Psalms and prayers. They would have learned the prayers of Jesus. They would have taught them to pray, your kingdom come, your will be done. As they devoted themselves to that… Look at the fruit of what happened. Verse 43. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. Stop. Awe. They said, as they devoted themselves… You know what came upon wonder? Awe. You know what awe is? It's reverence. It's like a holy fear. It's like, wow, look at what God is doing. It's this awe and this wonder. It's like I had two people from my church in my home last week, and we were eating, and we were having corn in the ear, and we were breaking bread. Then when I walked these two young ladies to their cars, a mother and a daughter, we walked them to their cars, laid them outside my door. We go outside, and there's a clear sky. We just started talking about the moon and the stars. I was like, you see that big yellow star right there? I said, that's Venus. It's the only planet we can see in our solar system all year round. That's why it's big and yellow, and you can see it. They said, oh, we didn't know that's Venus, and I'm telling them about Venus. For two hours we talked about the stars. Why? We were in awe of God's creation. That's what awe is. It shows up when you stand on the edge of the Grand Canyon. It shows up when you're staring at the ocean. It shows up when you're staring at a mountain. It showed up for us when we're staring at the stars. Consequently, people talk about the Big Bang Theory. I could disprove that right now. Have you ever seen kids on a merry-go-round? I'm about to destroy the Big Bang Theory right now. The Big Bang Theory says that from a little swirling dot something exploded and then created the solar system. A swirling dot. But space has no gravity. So, if the dot is swirling and something exploded, that means everything else in the solar system should be spinning in the same direction. If kids fly off a merry-go-round, they're all going to be flying off in the same direction. But there are planets that spin in opposite directions. Some are spinning right. Some are spinning left. How do you explain that from a swirling dot with no gravity? Oh, I can explain that. In the beginning, God created…

…the heavens and the earth. Let me just baffle the atheists real quick. In the beginning, God created the universe, uni, singular, verse, with one sentence he created everything. Let there be. And that's the end of that. It takes more faith to believe in evolution than to believe in the beginning God created. And many signs and wonders was done through, watch the word, through the apostles means the Holy Spirit was doing that, because the Holy Spirit still does signs and wonders through people. We still lay hands and see healing. We still lay hands and see miracles. It's not the vessel, it's the Holy Spirit working through the vessel. And all who believe, verse 44, were together and they had all things in common and they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as many had a need. Look at this. I'm almost done, but do you see what happened? They're all devoted to the word. They're all devoted to prayer. They're all devoted to fellowship. And then you have wealthy people in that church who see poor people in that church. And they said, we're going to take care of the poor people in our church. They're selling off possessions to make sure no one goes without a need. You know what that is? That is an explosion of love made visible called generosity, right? Generosity. What we see in the Christians who were really saved, we see saved people are generous. You cannot separate generosity from your Christian witness. It's impossible.

You cannot call yourself a follower of Christ and you're not generous. Impossible. If you're not generous, something is broken in your heart. Generosity is a heart posture. For God so loved the world, he gave. If I'm a follower of Christ, I'm a follower of his nature, if I'm a follower of his nature, I will be naturally generous. I will care about those who have less than me. I care about the man on the side of the road. I go out of my way to help other people. What this looks like in a church, it looks like a couple with teenagers who got clothes in the attic. I meet another couple who got five-year-olds. They can't afford clothes. I meet you in the line. I said, come to my house. I come down from the attic with bags. I give you all of these old clothes. It looks like me having an old car that I no longer use is paid off. I'm not going to trade it in. There's a sister on my roll who's a single mother with five children who's taking Uber. I'm going to give her that vehicle. But you will never know that if you don't have corn in the air. Hold on. A disclaimer. This is not permission for gospel grifting. This is not permission for a person to creep into a church and squad hop and group hop trying to beg everybody for money. No, that's not what this is about. It's not about helping people who are negligent and lazy and don't want to work.

That's not what this is about. This is about us being in community, hearing the needs that are legitimate, and saying, Can I meet that need? And we explode with generosity in the church. This is like, how do you say you love 2019, and Pastor Phillip, I love you, and you log on every week. You get all of this teaching, all of this feeding from myself and the elders. You're in here. You meet friends. You're in squads. Your children are being disciples. You have people. Your life has been changed, but you don't support gospel ministry. You know why? Because the church has drifted from this, so now we are consumers, but not contributors. We feel no responsibility to help gospel ministry. We just take what we don't support. Another disclaimer. This ain't socialism or communism. This ain't the government forcing everybody, let me take money from the wealthy and give it to the poor. This ain't socialism. Notice who's not in the text, Rome. Rome is not in the text. This is voluntary generosity. This is not forced generosity by the government of any country. This ain't communism or socialism. This is voluntary generosity. making sure that everybody is taken care of verse 46 and 47 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 stop right there before I read the last part of this verse I just want you to see that before I close the message they have glad and generous hearts you know that is you have a church with gratitude contentment they're devoted to all these things they love in each other generosity is exploding church people are giving helping one another people are all it feels better that way what I'm describing to you feels better when they function this way it makes church feel better and look what it was I don't want you to read past that in the text look at the detail in the text where were they meeting in the temple and in homes so Philip I don't understand they're meeting in the temple when they're meeting your homes fill up I don't understand well the church didn't have a building for the first 300 plus years so where were you gonna gather with 3120 people they were gathering in the temple that Herod built that had something called Solomon's porch that was like 20-something acres or 30 it was large and thousands of people would gather there now watch where I'm going this church of 3020 people will go to the temple and all 3000 plus and we'll meet in the temple in a large corner it was large enough for thousands of people and it will listen to Peter preach and the Apostles preach but who else was there unbelievers okay so what are they concerned about the loss they're concerned about the gospel they're concerned about people who are headed to hell they're not just comfortable to be sitting in rooms and don't care about people who are headed to hell they're giving they're serving they're doing everything they can to bring people into the kingdom you want the evidence of that is the last half of verse 7 watch and because they're around unbelievers and because they care about the loss because they care about the spread of the gospel and the Lord added to their number day by day those who are being did you see that angel you see what it was they're meeting in the temple that's like our Sunday morning and then they're meeting in homes that's like our squads then they're gathering large they're gathering small they're

gathering large to have corn Ania they're here on Sunday they're hanging out each other's homes during the week they're generous they're loving they have come contentment they're joyful they're devoted to the scriptures there's all there's wonder their signs does that look like the churches in America have you been in a church that felt that way you devoted to the scriptures fighting for corn Ania gathering large gathering small serving in the streets shared life of Jesus together when we devote ourselves to things like this the church functions the way it's supposed to be we lessen church hurt we lessen drama we lessen all of the bad stigma of the church if we would just be devoted to these things not pastor Philip and the staff but all of us local and digital disciples is this your church is this the church that you attend is this what you go to in America is this what we feel in the country you know why we have a low view of church in the country because we've drifted from this and my prayer for us listen they would go on they would go on it would not remain pure they would they would be persecuted as they drifted from Judaism false teachers were coming to the church false doctrines are coming to the church that's why if you read every New Testament letter after Acts Paul is addressing issues and emphasis he's talking about racism in Rome he's talking about what the gospel is and first and second Corinthians he's dealing with a church that's large and mad corrupt he gets the Thessalonica he's talking about believers who are lazy he gets the Galatians talking about people who are drifting from the freedom in Christ back to legalism and he's dressing all these problems on and on and on and he gets the Colossians he's talking to people have a low view of Christ, problems fill the church because of flesh, sin, false teachers, and the devil. But my prayer for 2819 is that we will strive for this, local and digital. We will strive to be a people devoted to the word, devoted to fellowship, devoted to prayer, devoted to breaking bread and relationships, devoted to generosity, devoted to love, devoted to dealing with the issues in our heart. We'll be devoted to these things together. We'll have better marriages, better friendships,

better relationships, better leaders, better homes, better children, better church. Across America, that's my hope for us. This is what Christ died to give us, not what men gave us. This is what Christ died to give us. What we have now is the placebo. We have what men created. This is what Jesus created. So, Father, in the name of Yeshua, the one who created the church, I pray, God, for churches across America and around the world that we would strive to get as close to this as possible. We would strive to be devoted to these things and that we would see an explosion, God, of revival in churches across America as we shed all the things that are killing the witness of the church. May 2819 display all these things in churches all across America and around the world. I ask in the mighty and the majestic and the matchless name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. If you received that, just say amen. Amen. Okay. I got three things I want to say to you, okay? If you just stay logged on, I want to say this. I believe we're living in the last days. I believe we're living in the end times. I believe the church right now all across America and around the world, the church needs to be awakened. There is a small letter tucked away in the back of the New Testament that is neglected. One day, I stumbled onto that letter, and I've shed tears over that letter and wept over that letter. I've preached from that letter three times, twice in the U.S. and once outside the U.S. The Spirit of God had put it on my heart to take that message that I preached twice and expand it with more teaching, more stories, more examples to do everything I can with the life that I have to try to awaken as many believers as possible, to give them information that they may never step foot into a gathering, but that information might make it to their home. The Spirit of God led me to write my very first book. It's called Content. It is full of stories, teachings, Bible examples, challenges, exhortations, encouragement. It is the message I've preached three times from Jude, expanded into full-length teaching. If you don't want it, I won't force you, but if I've meant anything to you at all, it will mean everything to me if you will put a copy in your home or give a copy to somebody else. You can preorder that book right now, so you don't have to wait until it comes. October 13 is when it releases. You should get it while supplies last. You can preorder right now. If you preorder right now, it's guaranteed to come to your home in October. Get one for yourself. Give it to somebody else. If you don't want to do that, we're still all good. No problems at all. Just pray that the message would expand through that

book, and it will be a blessing to people. Amen. The second thing I want to tell you is next week we start a brand-new series. We start a brand-new series next week. I know it's going to be a blessing to you. It's called The Fruit That Remains. You have to watch what we're doing in 2019. We did Matthew for three years. We do Acts 1 and 2, so you see what happened after Matthew, and then what should happen after Acts 1 and 2 is fruit. We're strategic here. Myself and the elders and our executive pastor sat down, and we put together this series to you together. We've prayed. We've put together this series, and this series starts next week. It'll run through the summer, and you don't want… to miss a sunday i promise you log on be here it's going to be a blessing to you okay and the last thing i need to tell you okay i work 10 straight months i preach three times every sunday i'm in the office monday and tuesday i lead meetings i do organizational life i travel i do all the things that's taxing on a human being if you've ever been in college and you have to do an oral presentation you know the drama of doing one oral presentation it almost killed you almost threw up to do an oral presentation right that one oral presentation you had on your syllabus imagine doing that every six days three times every six days no matter what's happening in life plus go to the office the next morning plus leave meetings plus do organization life and do that for 10 straight months you know what that does that takes a toll on a human being and you need rest because rest is godly rest is holy god created and then he rested he did not rest because he was tired he rested to give us an example so our rhythm if you're new to 2019 i work 10 months and then i rest for two months so i don't die okay so i take what's called a sabbatical in june and july so i will be gone for the next couple weeks but the word of god will not be gone and the holy spirit will not be gone because the word is not chained to my mouth and the holy spirit is not chained to my life we're devoted you have to be devoted to the teaching devotion means you show up even when i'm not here if you don't show up while i'm not here that is idolatry and i won't allow that and i can't rest if i'm getting phone calls that they're not showing up they're not serving we're not giving pastor you left and everything fell apart then i gotta come back but if you care about me you love me you want me to rest then be devoted be devoted to sunday devoted to your small devoted to serving devoted to giving do all the things you need to do without

father being around and that's all i got i love y'all i love you i love y'all i love you i love you i love you i love you okay be be be be be be be and i'll see you in a few weeks