Clarify The Community - Acts 2:42-47

Well, good morning. Thanks for being here. Will you help me welcome all of our brave campuses who are worshiping with us today? So good to have all of you. Let me start with a personal thank you. After last week's message, we had over 200 people sign up to help us with student ministry this fall going forward, which is a praise to the Lord for that. What I'd like to say to you is a couple of things. Number one, let's continue to be prayerful about what the Lord is going to do starting on September 9th on Tuesdays, we are going to start student ministry in a whole new way on both campuses. If you're here in Inglewood, we're going to be meeting at the Academy. That's where we're going to be meeting. Also it's going to start at seven o'clock. All our ministry will start seven o'clock on Tuesdays in September. So be prayerful, but also this, be patient, be patient. We're trying to get back in touch with all of you. It's going to take a little time as we build this up and get it going. So just be patient and we know the Lord is going to put you in the right spot. Okay. Let's continue our worship this morning as the Lord gets ready to speak to us. Would you pray with me? Our Father in heaven, we give you all the glory and all the honor and all the praise because they all belong to you. Lord, it's such a privilege to gather with your people and sing praises to your name, to seek your face and to hear you speak. And Lord, we're encouraged to get ready to hear your word because we as a people believe that every time your word is faithfully and accurately proclaimed, that it is you who are speaking. So our prayer this morning is speak, Lord, for we are ready to hear.

And so now for everyone who has gathered, who desires to hear the Lord Jesus Christ speak directly to you, who will believe what he tells you and who will by faith put into practice what he shows you, will you agree with me very loudly this morning by saying the word, amen, amen. Everybody wants to be part of a championship team and not just be part of it, but contribute to it in a significant way. We yearn to be part of something. It's why when we try out for a team that we want to be a part of, when we don't make it, we're disappointed. It's like when we try out for theater for a certain part and we don't get to be in the play, we're disappointed. It's like when we go to get in a certain college that we think we want to go to and we get rejected, we get disappointed because all of us in our DNA have this desire to be significant. In some area of our life, to belong in some area of our life and to make a significant contribution. And that's why if we don't have something like that in our life, we try to find things like that where we can find significance and find belonging. Every gang that's ever formed is they're trying to form significance and belonging. And the reason for that, I want to let you know, is that's what you were created for. God created you with the desire to belong and God created you with a desire to be significance because that's why you're drawn that way. Because you know that you want your life to matter. You know, you want your life to count and you know that you want to bless other people along the way. And it's our God that did that. And so as we've been in this series called Clarify the Call, we've been talking about how we clarify the mission, what God wants us to do and how we clarify the foundation for him to come and clarifying his presence among us and clarifying the gospel. And last week we took a look at clarifying the now right now. Today I want to clarify the community.

I want to clarify what it is that God wants his church to be. I want to clarify what God wants and invites every single born again believer into. Because if we understand from his word what he desires, then we will realize that the things that ache and go on in our heart that we want to make a contribution to, we'll recognize this is exactly what God designed you for. So if you ever had questions on what's the church supposed to be and how am I supposed to contribute and what difference does it make? God has a word for you today. So I want to encourage you, open up your Bibles to Acts chapter two. Acts chapter two. We're going to be in verses 42 through 47. We'll get through the chapter today. And as I read these verses to you, then we'll unpack them together. I'm going to give you five truths about Christian community that God has designed so that you can understand with clarity what God wants. Acts chapter two, verse 42, hear the word of the Lord. He says, And here in this passage, what we see is, what the young church gave their lives to and what Christian community looked like. You remember this passage comes right after the fact where Peter has preached the gospel and they're cut to the heart and say, what must we do? He says, repent, be baptized and you'll receive the Holy Spirit. He tells them it's for them and their children and all who are far from God. And 3000 people repent and put their faith in Christ and are baptized that very day.

So now what are they gonna do? Now they're saved, now they're born again. And this is where our story picks up because now for the first time, we have Christian community. The church has been given birth. And I'm gonna give you five truths about the community that God has established and what he desires. And the first is this, that God desires his community to be devoted to his kingdom purposes. He desires that his community would be devoted to his kingdom purposes. Notice what he says, they were continually devoting themselves. Continually devoting yourselves is more than just an afterthought. Continually devoting yourselves is not a once a week, I'll think about this if I have time. Continually devoting yourself is when your heart, your mind and your soul are all about something. When somebody is continually devoted to their physical training, they're going after it every single day. When somebody is continually devoting themselves to their academics, they're going after it every day. So the disciples, these 3000 people that just came to know Christ, from that moment onward,

they were continually devoting themselves to some things and the scripture is gonna unlock what those things are so we can know as a Christian community what we should be devoting ourselves to. And they were devoting themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. In case you're wondering what should be happening in Christian community, what should be going on in the church, what should be going on in groups, what should be going on in ministries, these four things are what they devoted themselves to. These are primary foundational things. And the first was this, the apostles teaching. They didn't have the New Testament. They had men who had spent time with Jesus for three and a half years. They had men who had seen and witnessed all of his ministry. They had men who had watched him die on a cross brutally. They had men who saw him after he was resurrected from the dead and were commissioned. And now these men have been filled and indwelled with the Holy Spirit and they are speaking the word of God, much of which we have codexed in our Bible today. So what were they dedicated to? Here's what they were. They were a biblical community. They were a biblical community.

They were dedicated to the word of God. They were hungry for God's word and not opinions. If you wanna know one of the things that needs to be going on in the church, we need to be dedicated to God's word and not opinions. If God ever moves you out of the Denver area and you're no longer able to attend Brave, please find a church that opens up the Bible and heralds the word of God with authority. That's what they gave themselves to. They gathered because they said, we need to hear the authority of God's word, right? And so they were dedicated to that. Second was this, they were dedicated to fellowship. Now we need to redeem this word a little bit. Oftentimes in church, fellowship involves a punch bowl and cookies or some brother in Christ that sits at a table. Hey brother, let's have some fellowship. Fellowship we have with God through Jesus Christ. We have fellowship with him. We have a relationship with him. But we also have a relationship with other people. But this fellowship is more than just relationship. Here's why. When Jesus Christ came and he died on the cross for all your sins and was raised from the dead and ascended to heaven and glory, what he does is anybody anywhere at any time who through repentance and faith believe that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior

and turn from their sin and turn to Christ, they are new creations, they are born again. And guess what happens? God becomes your father. So what happens through Christ when we're born again? All of us who share Christ have the same father, which makes us what? Makes us brothers and sisters in Christ. So the Bible says to treat older women like mothers and older men like fathers and treat younger men and women like sisters and brothers. Why? Because here's what we are in Christ. We're a family. Family's fellowship. This is all the one another's in the New Testament. There's 59 of them listed. Some are listed two times or three times. But just think about these. I'm not gonna read all of them to you today. But love one another, be devoted to one another, live in harmony with one another, accept one another, encourage one another, teach one another, serve one another, confess your sins to one another, pray for one another, be at peace with one another, offer hospitality to one another. How about greet one another? Greet one another is more than saying hello. It's more than just a high five and a fist bump. Greet is like we're family.

where we're coming together, greet one another. Why? All the one another's involve this, because Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior and God is your Father, we're family. They were devoted to that. They treated each other as family. They weren't just church attenders that came from different parts of the world. They were family. They had a fellowship. So they were dedicated to the Bible, the biblical truth, they were a biblical community, they were a fellowshipping community. Guess what else they dedicated themselves to? To the breaking of bread. This means a couple things. I believe here it means the Lord's Supper, which he instituted on the night that he was betrayed, where Jesus took bread and wine and symbolically talked about how these represent him and that they're to partake of those until he gets back. And that's what we do. It means in that community, it was Christ-centered. Jesus was the center of everything that they did. When they got together, they wanted to honor Christ. They wanted to worship Christ. They wanted to give allegiance to Christ. They wanted to tell Christ that he was the reason that they were gathering.

Breaking of bread also involved common meals, which was the fellowshipping that they did as they went from house to house that we'll read about here later. But so not only were they a biblical community and a fellowshipping community, they were a Christ-centered community doing the things that honored the Lord Jesus Christ. And then finally this, into the prayers, right? Into prayer. So they were dedicated to what? Being a praying church. Being a praying church. What's a praying church? A praying church is a church that says, prayer is more than just a duty. Prayer is more than just a have to. Prayer is more than just, I better do this more. Prayer is the actual life source of everything we are as a church. It means we've been given God's word, but through prayer, we have access to the living God and we can talk to the living God and the living God can talk back to us through his word. He speaks, he's alive. So if you're looking for a church and you're like, I gotta find a church, I'm church hopping, here's four things you wanna find in that church. You wanna find a biblical church that sees himself as a family that relates to one another,

that honors Christ in everything and is dedicated to prayer. Those four things have to be central. There's a lot of sports teams. There's a lot of footballs just getting started. There's a lot of teams that are gonna, oh, we're gonna be this and we're gonna be that. Any team that's not dedicated to the fundamentals, it doesn't matter how talented they are, they'll never be any good. No matter the church, no matter how many people come, no matter how big or broad it is, no matter what things they're accomplishing, if we're not dedicated to these four truths, we don't have the centrality of everything God wants community to be. He wants us to be dedicated to his word. He wants us to be dedicated to one another. He wants us to be dedicated to Christ and he wants us to be dedicated to prayer, completely dependent upon him, amen? And that's what we wanna be as a church. Whether we're gathering on Sundays or whether we're gathering in community, however we're serving on teams, that's exactly what God would have for us. We wanna be devoted to his kingdom purposes. When we do that, it means we're hungry for who he is and not the opinions of the world and not what the culture says we should be doing, amen?

So let's be a community that's devoted to his kingdom purposes. Second is this, the community that God desires is shaped by his manifest presence. It's shaped by his manifest presence. It says this, as they were devoted to these things, it says, everyone kept feeling a sense of awe and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. So what was going on? As people were watching what God was doing, they were amazed at all that God was doing, why? Because when you're in a community where the word of God is central, where the lordship of Christ is central, where fellowship with others is central and prayer is central, what you experience is God among his people. Now let me explain manifest presence. I mean, God is omnipotent, he's all powerful, but he's omnipresent, he's everywhere. Psalm 139 says, where can I go and get away from God? I mean, you can't flee from the Lord. Anywhere you go, he's already there. I mean, God's omnipresent, right? So everywhere you go, there he already is. But then there's an indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. When you repent of your sins and believe in Christ, the Holy Spirit comes to take up residence in your life. So if you're born again,

the Holy Spirit's with you everywhere you go. So there's an indwelling presence, but then there's a manifest presence. And a manifest presence is a little different. The way we would define manifest presence would be like this. That's when his presence is known and felt and experienced in a tangible way among his people. It's when God does something. Like, that was the Lord. Or I walked on this campus today, I just sensed God was among us. It's when I'm worshiping and God's presence is there. It's when I'm hearing the word and God's Holy Spirit puts himself on that word and it penetrates your heart. And like, that was the Lord speaking to me. It's his manifest presence. So what did they want and what did they have? They weren't trying to drum up with emotion things to get God to work. Now, I've been a Christian a long time. I've been in a lot of meetings. And some people think if you play worship long enough and loud enough and dance hard enough that something's gonna happen. Usually people are just tired, that's why they fall down. Right, I don't need to be tricked emotionally to experience God. I've been in places I've experienced God

that have been far more reserved and stoic. I've been in places that experienced God that are far more free. I've experienced God in a lot of places but here's what we want. We want the genuine expression of God, not something man-made or manufactured. Does that make sense? And that's what they were looking for. They wanted God to show up. When they gathered, when they came to church, here's what their prayers were. Lord, we want you. We want more of you. We don't have enough of you. We wanna see what you want. We want you to speak to us. We wanna honor you. Be present in our meetings. And you know exactly what that's like if you're born again when those things happen. We experience God's manifest presence among us. And we've seen it as a church over and over and over again. Some of you have seen it in ways I haven't seen it and I've seen it in ways that you haven't. I've seen God heal people. I've seen God put marriages back together. I've seen God open doors for people with their finances and jobs. I've watched him do all sorts of things

where we would say there's no way that happens if God didn't do it. And that's what they wanted to be. They wanted to experience his manifest presence. And when you experience it, there's a sense of awe and wonder. Like, that's amazing. Our God is still with us. Our God is still doing things. And that's a massive difference than just being religious and going to religious services and doing that stand up, sit down, go back, go do this thing. God's been with us. And when God's been with us, one touch of the Lord changes everything, amen? We wanna be a community that's devoted to his kingdom purposes. We wanna be a community that's shaped by his manifest presence. And then third, we wanna be a community that's marked. We wanna be a community that's marked by overwhelming generosity. We wanna be a community that's marked by overwhelming generosity. Notice what it says in verse 43. Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe and many wonders and signs were taking place. Verses 44 and 45. And all those who had believed were together

and held all things in common. And they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all as anyone might have need. They're overwhelmingly generous. And let me clear up a couple of things because sometimes people read these verses and they're like, that's why God's for communism. That's why God's for socialism. He's not, okay? He's not. Everybody in this story willingly chose to do all of this because they were motivated by Christ. They were not forced. They were not mandated. So some Christians in the body of Christ have chosen to live in a commune and live in community and do all that. That's wonderful. That's what you choose to do. But you don't have to choose to do that. But we need to be marked by overwhelming generosity. And that's what they were. Also, you will notice, they gave to everyone as they had need. It's not like they lumped all of it together and said, okay, we all get the same amounts, right? That's communism and socialism and all the other garbage isms that are out there, right? What they did was they were, here's why they did it. They were overwhelmingly generous

because they were so grateful to God for all that he did. And they recognized everybody in their community was their family. And they were so motivated to see their family have everything that they needed that many people were selling all their possessions. Many people were bringing their money to the church and say, hey, however the family can benefit from this, let's make sure everybody in the family has everything that they need. And that's what they were doing. It was overwhelmingly generous. And we're gonna read in a little bit because you'll see. How do you think this impacted people outside the church? When they saw men and women and boys and girls and people that had different complexions of skin and different ethnicities and different languages, and they're all together and they have nothing in common, but because even though they have nothing in common, they're watching from the outside and all these people are being incredibly generous with everything they have towards one another. That's the church. This is your family. That's why the Bible says you need to be part of a local church. You must be. It's God's plan A. He doesn't have a plan B.

Some people make excuses. Well, my ministry is bigger than a local. Nobody's ministry is bigger than any local church. Everybody needs to be in a local church. Everybody needs to be with family. Everybody's got to have. in their lives that can help them grow, amen? And this is what the early church was completely devoted to. They were marked by overwhelming generosity. I've been so grateful to serve a church like ours that has always been marked by overwhelming generosity. And we could walk through the seasons of our church from buying our first building to getting this building to getting our building in Westminster to starting our school. There's always been people in our church who are overwhelmingly generous to the things of God. And I praise God for a church like that. It doesn't mean we're a rich church. It means we're a generous church. Why, what's the difference? Because God doesn't need your money. He doesn't need my money. He doesn't need your money. He's not up in heaven saying, okay, if you have a lot of money, I can use it. He doesn't need it. He's looking for generous people. And when he sees people that value him and want him and value each other as family

and are generous in every way that way, then God can do great things. And it's not just financially either, is it? When you're born again, I want you to know something. The Holy Spirit of God comes into your life. He baptizes you into this family. He regenerates you. He fills you. He indwells you. And guess what else he does? He gifts you. He gives you certain gifts. Now, can I tell you why he gives you gifts? He doesn't give you gifts so that you prosper in the world. God does not gift you so that you can personally profit. God gifts you so that you can serve his body in a way that builds up the body so that the church can continue to live on mission, amen? Every single person in the body of Christ has been supernaturally gifted by God for a kingdom purpose. Who, me? Yes, you. You may not be aware of your gifts. You may be growing in understanding them or you may be fully aware of what they are, but you've been gifted by the Lord to serve him. I've heard people say that football is the ultimate team sport. It's not. The church of Jesus Christ is.

Because in the church, there is no sideline. In the church, there is no second, third, or fourth string. In the church, everybody's on the field. Now, you may choose to think that you're on the sideline and not do anything, but you're actually on the field doing nothing. Everybody in the church has been called to serve. Mark 10, 45, Jesus said it even when he came. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. How did he serve? Overwhelmingly generously. What did he do? He left heaven, second person of Trinity, God since eternity, put on flesh for all eternity, for all eternity, came to this world, fulfilled the law, was mocked, was beaten, was spit on, was persecuted, was hung on a cross, and took the wrath of God on the cross in your place for all your sin, then rose from the dead, and then sent his Holy Spirit after he ascended into heaven and empowered every single believer for service. Listen, Ephesians 2, 8, and 9 says, for it is by grace you've been saved through faith. It's not your own doing. It's a gift of God so that no one should boast. I love that verse, God saved me. You know what the next verse says, verse 10? For we, not me, not you, for we, the community, are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand

so that you would walk in them. So what's it mean? God did all the saving in your life, and when he saved you, he gifted you because he already designed works for you to do that he wants you to walk in, that you will walk in if you serve him generously. How did Jesus serve? Overwhelmingly generously, he gave it all. You cannot serve God too generously. I mean, you can't give an offering and be like, but God can't outdo that. You can't serve in the church with your time and say that's more than Jesus ever did. I mean, there's no way we can out-serve, out-give, out-anything Jesus. He's overwhelmingly generous, and as his saints, if we understand how wonderfully generous Jesus has been to us, then what happens to us? We too are translated into people that wanna become overwhelmingly generous to him and his kingdom and his people, amen, and our family. And so that's why no matter where you go to church, no matter where you go to church, you need to be part of a local church somewhere, and you need to serve in that local church. Did you know that? That's God's plan. I mean, I'll put up our vision statement for our church just on this screen.

Our vision statement is to assemble a spirit-filled army to fight for the fulfillment of the great commission in our lifetime. That's our vision statement. Now, every church has a little different way of saying that, and that's totally fine, but it needs to be biblical. It comes from Matthew chapter. 28 verses 18 to 20 where Jesus said all authority in heaven and earth's been given to me therefore go make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit and Teaching them to obey everything I commanded you and I'll be with you always to the end of the age So here's what he says go make disciples Baptize them teach them their identity teach them everything that I've taught you. I'll be with you forever that that's the Great Commission That's what we do. We just word it this way We want to assemble a spirit-filled army to fight for the fulfillment of the Great Commission in our lifetime I want to see it in our lifetime I want to know that we've made the greatest contribution and if it if it doesn't happen in my lifetime I want to know that we've contributed the most that we could have in our generation to see that happen. Amen Now now here's the truth like that's our that's brave. I mean when you get to heaven don't look for brave It won't be there. There's only one church in heaven. It's the Church of Jesus Christ Okay, but God has local churches that he uses to extend his kingdom I mean, that's our logo that says brave It's also our logo at the top the guide on flag with the five stripes that represents being bold resolute authentic virtuous and engaged So if you see the guide on flag That's just symbolic of living on mission for Jesus Christ being bold resolute authentic virtuous and engaged But if you're gonna be part of that and that's what our church is about then we have what's called here a core We have what's called here a core core are serving teams for Christ. That's all they are We have all sorts of teams in our core that serve when you Rolled into the parking lot this morning on whatever campus you were on there were people out there greeting you There are people out there showing you where to park when you came into the building. There were greeters. There were ushers There are people that set up communion so we could take communion later in our service

There are people down with your kids right now investing the gospel of Jesus Christ and praying for them So we all we have all sorts of teams that happen all the time and without our core There's no ministry that gets done without our core we can't get anything accomplished by it's it's God's people Now I want to talk about this word core for a second. It's spelled C or PS. It's pronounced core Can you say that with me out loud and loudly? Core say it one more time really loud You're not saying it loud enough and those you in the back. You're not even saying it at all Say it with me. It's pronounced It's core it's core that's what it is. It's from a Latin word corpus, which means body That's what it means. And it's a body of people United for a common purpose or organized for a specific function That's why we have a core why because every army needs a core Even the Marines call their whole units a core, right? We got to have a core why because the church is not a hospital for sinners and or it's not a country club for sinners It's not a hospital for Saints. The Church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an army So serve the army that doesn't mean and I need to be careful here There are seasons in your life as a believer where you may go through significant pain and hurt where what you need to do during that season is sit and Receive and weep and be filled and that's fine. There's seasons that come like that. Just don't make it a 20-year season Because sometimes what God does is when you've been hurt and you begin to use your gifts and you start serving in a certain way Serving others is what heals the brokenness that's been in you So this is not me as your pastor saying we need you to serve. We need more volunteers. Nothing like that This is me telling you as your pastor. God created you to do something significant for him And I'm just inviting you in to do that and we call that the core at brave say that word with me one more time It's called what core? Yeah. Thank you I just want to make sure we get it because there's a lot of people that say well, well, it looks like corpse No, it's it's core but I can show you how you can make it a corpse You add an E on the end of the word and it's a corpse So I'm gonna tell you about five E's that make our core our life-giving body of Christ a dead body. You want to hear him? Say yes So here's how the core becomes a corpse you add five E's first ones this excuses

When you add excuses then the core becomes a corpse because then you have people that are like, yeah, I can't do it right now I got too much else going on. This is going that's going this happened that you don't don't count on me and you make whatever excuse you want When you start making excuses for why you can't serve in the body of Christ Even though you're already in the body of Christ gifted for the body of Christ being held accountable by God when you meet him for what you do with the body of Christ you Make all sorts of excuses and say yeah, I don't want to do anything and you make the core This body that's alive on mission a corpse number two entitlement Entitlement I will I'll preach it entitlement Right entitlement is the church exists to serve me when I walk into Those doors, the parking space that I needed better have happened before I get to the doors. When I walk in the door, I better be greeted, be super friendly, but not too friendly because I like it like this. The seat I want better be available. The programs for my kids better be set up just right. Temperature in the room should be good. I better sit around friendly people that don't bother me too much. I need it to be about me. And if it's not going my way, I'm out, right? That's entitlement. I deserve. Third one's similar to it. It's ego. Ego is where you say, it's all about me.

Hey, let me tell you what I can do. How come you're not recognizing me? I need to lead this. I need to do this. People need to look to me. People need to see this about me. This is what you should be doing. This is what we should be doing. If we're not doing what I wanna do, when I wanna do it, how I wanna do it, where I wanna do it, when I wanna do it, I'm mad at that church. That's ego. God does not bless ego. The core becomes a corpse when you have ego. Can I give you two more? Exemption. Exemption is when you say, I could, but I'm not really the serving type. You know, service is good for some people, but not for me. No, you were created for service. You're not exempt. God needs you. The body of Christ needs you. By the way, do you realize on judgment day as a Christian, you're not gonna be held accountable for your sin. That was taken care of past, present, and future. You'll be welcomed into God's presence. You know, you are held accountable for your sin. What are you held accountable for? Is how well you served him from the moment

you were born again until you meet him. I'm just inviting you in, saying you're on the kingdom field. God wants you to know your gifts, and he wants you to be deployed for him. And then sometimes as a church, we need to repent of this last one. It's called exclusion. And exclusion is when you say, oh, I don't see how they fit in. I don't think that person can really help us. I don't think they're all that gifted. I don't think they can really do this. And you can do it as a large church, or you can do it as a small group of people, or you can do it as a ministry where you see somebody and you don't see the value in them that God sees in them, and you don't know how to deploy them or use them for kingdom purposes. Here's the truth. If you're using your gift to the glory of God, there is great joy in doing it, right? And here's the thing. When you sign up to be part of the core, you're not getting married to the core. Meaning there's a lot of people that are scared to serve in a church. Like, what if I try this and I don't like it? Then don't continue to do it. I mean, sometimes it takes two or three or four tries to get on a serving team where you're saying,

okay, this one actually fits. I tried four-year-old boys in the nursery. That wasn't my jam. But I can do really well over here. And keep in mind, these serving teams, you're not serving brave. You're serving through brave. These serving teams are for Christ. We're serving the Lord Jesus Christ. This word core, when I started thinking about it, it's really God looking down. You know what God is? God is a champion of real people serving. That's what a core is. It's when God sees his people and he's like, I'm a champion of real people serving. That's what our core is. They're serving teams for Christ. And he's invited you to be a part of it. If brave is your church, there is no reason in the world that you can't be a part of one of his serving teams. So don't let the E make the core a corpse. I wanna make sure, because I didn't hear Westminster last time talk about this. How do we pronounce the word core? Can you say it really with me one more time really loud? Core. Thank you, thank you. That's what we have here. You may go to other churches in the future

and they have volunteers, they have serving teams, they have dream teams. That's fine. Call it whatever you want. Just use your gifts to serve the Lord, amen? Be overwhelmingly generous with your time, with your resources, with your gifts, because we're all family and we're counting on you. Number four is God's community needs to be engaged in weekly rhythms. Needs to be engaged in weekly rhythms. Notice what it says. Day by day, continuing with one mind in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. Remember, they were devoted to these things. Devotion was not a one day a week thing. If you're devoted to something, you're gonna be about that pretty much every single day. It doesn't mean every single day they went to the temple and every single day they gathered in homes. It meant day to day. This is the norm of what was going on in these believers' lives. They were gathering in the temple, they were worshiping, they were going from house to house, breaking bread and having meal. Why?

Because they were devoted to the things of God seven days a week. There's no team in the world that says, we just show up for the games, right? There's no military unit that says, we don't pray, we don't train, we don't do anything, we just show up at the war. I mean, anybody that's devoted to anything, there's no Olympian that just shows up on the day of the Olympics and says, I'm here, I'm pretty talented. I mean, there's dedication and devotion, not just. on the weekends, but for days and months and years. That's what they were devoted to, and that's how they lived. And notice this. Did you notice this? They had glad and sincere hearts. Means they were enjoying doing all this. This was not a drag. This is not like, oh my goodness, the apostles are making us serve. This is such a drag. I'm so busy writing. No, they were getting together with so much gladness and sincerity hearts knowing that, what you guys know. Friends, this is so temporary what we're experiencing right now. If you live another 50 years, this is so temporary to what's coming.

You have no idea, no mind is conceived, no eye has seen, no ear has heard what God has prepared for those who love him. If we even got a glimpse into the coming kingdom of what was coming, you would not want to stay here one more day. I mean, that's how good it is. And they were so turned on by Jesus and what he had done in their lives that they were engaged in these weekly rhythms of big groups and small groups. They went to the temple and they gathered in homes and that's what they did. And notice this, because they had gladness and sincerity of hearts and they were praising God, they had favor with all the people. Isn't it interesting that in a culture that was totally hostile and it killed Jesus, that didn't want anything to do with Christianity, that all the people at that time were now giving favor to those people. What was so favorable? Here's what was favorable. The people on the outside were looking in at the people on the inside and they couldn't make sense of it because there were people from different nations and people with different languages and people with different socioeconomic backgrounds

and people that were different ages and they didn't look like they fit together and there was nothing in common that they had. And yet all these people were so incredibly overjoyed in their worship and they're selling all their property to bring together so that all these people can enjoy it. And people on the outside were looking in saying, whatever they got, that is so special, I gotta be a part of that. Because that's what they saw and they were given favor. And so in the temple, coming together to pray, coming together to worship and from house to house, breaking bread and fellowshipping with one another, that's what they did. That's why at Brave, we do big groups and we do small groups. And our small groups here, we call them cadres. Cadres is simply this, if you don't know what a cadre is, it's a small group on purpose. That's what it is. It's where you grow in authentic relationships, right? It comes from the Latin word, quandrum, which means square, frame or framework. In English, cadres have come to be known as a core group within a larger body that provides structure, leadership and training for others. For us, it's the way we grow in our ministry with one another as a family of God, right? So our core are serving teams for Christ. Our cadres are small groups on purpose.

Now let me talk about cadres for just a second. About two years ago, we rolled out the name cadres. And I just gotta be honest, I think we've had a couple of false starts on them. In the history of our church, there's been certain seasons where small group ministry has been incredible and certain seasons where it hasn't been so good. I would say in the first three years as a church, it was awesome. Think about the time we had about 500 people, we had about 400 people in small groups. Usually about 80% of our people in groups and everybody was connecting. And a lot of people at the time were like, I love the weekend services, but I'm here because of the people, right? I think in our last attempts to do cadres, they started off a little bit evangelistically bold where everybody's watching this and they're coming to six weeks of training and they're realizing, I mean, I gotta do prayer walks every Saturday and I gotta do this and I gotta do that and I gotta lead all these people to Christ and then start forming. I don't have that much time, I can't do that. And then last year, it moved to Wednesday nights and we had some different cadres that were going on, which was great.

But then some people are like, I can't make it back to church on Wednesday night, that's just not my thing, I can't come. And then when I'm hearing cadres, I'm hearing this radical obedience to Jesus and if I'm not willing to go shut down an abortion clinic, I can't be part of a cadre. And oh, by the way, can I just tell you, I love that God's shutting down abortion clinics. One just shut down in Colorado again this week, amen. And having been in different small groups for 35 years, I've been in really, really good ones and I've been in really, really not so good ones. Raise your hand if you've been a Christian for a while and you've been in both good and bad small groups, okay? Here's what I know, I'll simplify it. A good small group feels like this, I know that they want me there and I wanna be there. If that doesn't happen, you can do whatever methodology you want in that group, it's no good. I was in a group when I was in college, I graduated from college, I live 90 miles away. The group met on Monday nights at eight o'clock and for two years, I would leave my house at six to drive the 90 miles to the group and I would come home and I'd be back at 1130. So I made a five and a half hour commitment every week just to be with those guys, it was awesome. I've had other groups that were five miles from my house

where after the first week, I started thinking about what excuse can I possibly make for next week so I don't have to go back? Tell me I'm not lying, it's just true. And so what we really wanna do, and as I've talked to several of you over the last two years I mean, this is the kind of thing I hear, I've had people in their 70s and 80s. You say, Pastor Jeff, all I wanna do is meet some couples my age so we can go out to lunch after service, talk about your message, and there's other people that I can connect with during the week. And then there's other people that are like, Pastor Jeff, what we're doing is awesome. I'm on the resistance cadre. We are out there helping women know there's a better way, and we're shutting them down. Praise God, that's what you wanna do. And there's other people in our group that are evangelists, and they're like, let's get out in the harvest, and let's go to the malls, and let's go to the streets, and let's go downtown. Let's share the gospel everywhere. And then there's others that are like, what are we doing for young adults? And there's others that are saying, who's taking care of the young marrieds? And some are saying, who's taking care of older singles? And there's some, everybody's got this thing in their heart

based upon their gifting for how it happens. And then there's others like, we need to pray more in the group, and others like, we need to teach more of the Bible. Do you realize if we gave 10 cadre facilitators the same curriculum and sent them out into 10 different groups, and you filmed all 10 different groups, you would think you were watching 10 different groups? It wouldn't be the same. So here's what we're setting up for you, because here's what I believe. I believe God wants you to connect into life-giving community. It's designed that way. I'll tell you this as your senior pastor. If I didn't have life-giving community in my life, I could not be doing what I'm doing now. If I didn't have people that I knew loved me, not because I'm a pastor, if I didn't have people that just genuinely love me, that I genuinely love, that we could speak honestly with, I could not do what I'm doing now. And if it's true of me, it's true of every single person that's ever lived. And so in a cadre, really what we're gonna help with is just three words that will help us understand. If you forget these words, it's no big deal. But we wanna gather, grow, and go. Here's why.

We wanna gather for the one and others. In a group, there has to be the one and others. There has to be prayer for one another, and love for one another, and care for one another. Why? Because if it's only curriculum-based, here's what happens. Somebody goes through a really difficult day. They come to group that night. They're like, hey, I just lost my job. And we say, I've seen this. Sorry, brother, sorry that happened. Let's talk about it afterwards. Hey, first of all, for an icebreaker tonight, if you were a car, what kind of car would you be and why? I've seen it. Like, what are you talking about? See, what a good group does when somebody's going through pain is like, stop. Hey, how can we be praying for you? What's going on? Let's spend the night just praying for our brother or our sister, what's happening? Because then that person knows you really want me there and you really care about me. And guess what? I'm coming to contribute, and when I'm healthy, I'll be able to contribute back to you. So we wanna gather for the sake of one and others. It's more than just a Bible study. Where have you seen God work in your life?

What's going well? How can I encourage you? How can I take care of you? What do you need, right? Then you grow, and you really grow in the word and prayer. This book is the curriculum for every good group that's ever been assembled, just so you know. It is. And whether you choose to do a book of the Bible or a chapter of the Bible or one verse or a series of verses, or whether you're doing a study on marriage or the Holy Spirit or generosity or raising kids or whatever it's gonna be, let's let God speak into that. Let's let the word of God and prayer be foundational as we continue to grow in Him. And then let's go. Let's go do what God's called us to do. And that's simply this. Based upon spending time with each other, based upon time of being in the word and in prayer, what is my next step of obedience look like to Christ? How can I best honor Him? Yeah. Sometimes it looks like this. Sometimes we think these are radical decisions. I gotta go out and win the world to Christ. I gotta go do this. Sometimes it's as simple as this.

I need to put my phone down when I'm with my wife more frequently, which was mine this week, right? Sometimes it's, I gotta spend more time with my children. Sometimes it is, I gotta pray more about this. Sometimes it's, I need to look for a new job. We don't know what it is, but here's the reality. If you take your next step of obedience, that will be the greatest step that you can ever take. And for everybody, it's different. You can hear this message today. It's gonna look different for everybody, what the application is. But can we encourage people? Hey, just go be obedient to Jesus, whatever that looks like. Just wanna encourage you. Friends, if you get cadres like that, that are gathering like that, that are life-giving for one another, that are growing in the word and prayer and sending people out to be obedient to Jesus, everything changes. And we wanna invite you into that here. We wanna get better at that here. And much like I said before I preach, be prayerful about this and be patient. This is not gonna happen overnight, but it is gonna happen. We have a staff now that is committed

to seeing this be realized. So no matter what you're thinking about, like, well, I wanna do a cadre this way, then do it that way, to the glory of God, because that's who you are and what you're gonna do. We have people I know that are gonna form prayer cadres. I have people I know that are gonna form teaching cadres. I got a friend of mine, he has a heart for the lost. He golfs all the time. He started a cadre out at his golf club like a year ago with all these non-Christians. He's got 15 coming every single week. That don't go to church, that are asking him all these questions about Jesus. And he's the one bringing the gospel to them. I got other guys dealing with young professionals in the business world that meet there. I have some people that say, there's no way I would ever do a cadre. I mean. I know some of you. There's no way you'd ever do one if it wasn't in your home serving a meal, right? And then there's others of you that would say, I would never be in a cadre if it was in my home and I had to serve a meal, right? I mean, some people like doing it at coffee shops and some people like doing, I have friends that like to mountain bike. I'm not one of them, but they like to mountain bike.

They like to get together. They like to encourage one another. They like to pray and be in the word for a while. They like to hear what each other's doing. And then they like to go mountain biking for a couple hours. What's wrong with that? That's totally fine. I mean, be who God authentically made you so you can be an authentic community with other people and see other people grow in Christ. And so here's the invitation. If you're looking to facilitate a cadre, we'll have opportunity for you later to do that. We wanna help you grow and how to do that so that you can lead life-giving cadres here at Brave. And if you're not in one, we're gonna have myriads of opportunities for you to get into one so that you can find one near you at a time. I mean, some of my guys that are the business guys in the church, some of the stewarding elders, I know, I know what they're like. 30 to 45 minutes, boom, let's do it, let's get going. Other people, let's spend like three hours and just do it that way. Great, you do it your way. We're gonna give you the freedom under the authority of Christ

to do whatever God's leading you to do, amen? So a cadre is just a small group, a small group that's done on purpose. And the purpose is that we build relationships, we grow in Christ, and we go in obedience. And let me give you this last one. If we're doing these first four and we're devoted to his kingdom purposes and we're shaped by his manifest presence and we're marked as a church by overwhelming generosity and we're engaged in these weekly rhythms, and let me just say this before I go to the final point. Let me give you our weekly rhythm at Brave. You're gonna hear it over and over again. It's Sundays, Tuesdays, cadres, that's our rhythm. So gather on Sundays for the word of God, for worship, for seeking him in prayer. Come Tuesdays, first Tuesdays will be our prayer night on all of our campuses. Subsequent Tuesdays, we'll have classes to get you connected and all that. We'll also have student ministry on those nights. So Sundays and Tuesdays are our rhythm, and then cadres. So for some of you, once you're plugged into our church, once you say, this is my lifeblood, Sundays and cadres might be your rhythm other than for first Tuesdays. But that's gonna be our weekly rhythm. Much like the disciples that were devoted day by day, this is something, and if you're in a life-giving cadre,

can I just say this? It's not just when you meet. If you have genuine relationships, you will be texting and talking throughout the week and being there for one another. That's what life-giving community looks like, amen? And if you do those things, then you can experience God's community doing this fifth one, which is expecting additional relationships. You can expect additional relationships. Notice this, and the Lord was adding to their number day by day, those who were being saved. Isn't it interesting that day by day, they were doing the things God wanted, and day by day, God was adding to their number. Friends, I got great news for you. We can't save a soul. We can't make God save people. What we can do is be devoted to the things that God wants, and God will do all the work. And here's the reality. If you do it God's way, God will grow his church. A spirit-filled community multiplies naturally, and you can expect God to see more. I mean, think about it like this. A healthy tree does not have to strain to bear fruit. Have you ever seen an apple tree sweat? That's just what it naturally does if it's got all the right ingredients underground.

In the same way, a healthy church should expect and welcome kingdom growth. It should be natural. It will always be natural, and it's not because of our programs, and it's not because of our pastor, and it's not because of personalities, and it's not because of any other thing. It's because God's people are dedicated to what God wants, and God looks down and says, wow, that community is dedicated to me. That community wants me. That community wants my presence. That community's overwhelmingly generous. That community wants to serve. That community wants to build each other up as a family. Okay, I'll add more to that, and that's what we wanna see. We wanna be a spirit-filled army that fights for the fulfillment of the Great Commission in our lifetime. Let's make the greatest impact for Christ. And the only way we're gonna go out is if we grow together, amen? And that's what God wants to do. And so today, I just wanna invite you in. If you're sitting here today and you're saying to yourself, I'd like to maybe facilitate a cadre. And by the way, our cadre leaders, our best leaders, are not ones that talk all the time.

You ever been in a small group where the person talks the whole time, and everybody just sits around and watches them? I was in a small group one time. Went to the first time. I knew everybody in the group. Went with my wife. We had been married about three weeks. Knew everybody there at our church. We walked in. This great fellowship time. Started teaching the Bible, and the guys asked and answered every question. That was it. So about the third question he asked, I gave an answer and said, I'd love to hear what the rest of you think. And he let one person talk. He's like, thanks for that. And then he went back and asked and answered every question. And I already made my decision. So we were walking out to the car after the group was over, and I asked my wife, what'd you think? And she's sweet and nice. And she's like, I like those people. They're really nice. And so I'm like, good, well, you'll be by yourself next time when you come, because I'm never coming back. Not doing that.

I want to be in a group where I'm valued. I want to be in a group where the other people are valued. So to be a great cadre leader means you're a facilitator. You want to see people grow. You want to hear what God's doing in their life. You want to see one another's doing the one another's with one another. You want to grow in the word and prayer, and you want to see people go in obedience to Christ on mission, amen? Today we're going to end by taking communion. I encourage you to get your elements in your hands. And as you hear this song sung over you, be reminded of this. For those of you who've trusted Jesus by repenting of your sin and placing your faith in him, you've been saved forever, but you've also been placed in a family. And in that family, you're called to serve, and you're called to build one another up. So prepare your hearts in any way that you want. As you sit, you can stand, you can do whatever. And then one of our pastors on each campus will come up and we'll take the elements together. Let me pray for you. Father in heaven, we give you all the glory, honor, and praise for this church and for every church that's devoted to the things that you're devoted to. Lord, would you just raise up a spiritual army here? Lord, we have so many wonderful,

godly Christian people in this church. Lord, would you show people where you want them to serve and how frequently and what that looks like? Would you show people what genuine community looks like? Lord, for those who are new to town, don't know anybody, Lord, would you bring community together? And Lord, would you help us fulfill the vision for this church that you created so that we'll hear the words, well done, good and faithful servant. Lord Jesus, thanks for your humility, your overwhelming generosity, for saving us. Lord, let us be ever mindful today of all the sin that you've forgiven in our lives. We give you all the glory, all the honor, and all the praise in Jesus' name, amen, amen. Can we give God praise for his word this morning? Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.