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Man, I have a mess this morning.

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Thank you worship team for leading us.

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Yeah, that was just, that was powerful.

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I appreciate it.

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But I have not cried as much as I have this past week.

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I'll just put it out there.

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A lot of you already know.

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We dropped off our daughter at college this week on Wednesday.

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And I knew it was going to be hard.

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But to all you who have done this like before, I didn't realize what it was really going

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to be like.

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And it has just rocked my world and our world is just way different than I'd ever expected

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it to be.

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But yeah, so I've cried a lot this week.

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Super sensitive.

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That's me.

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That's really how I am.

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Anyways, pretty emotional guy.

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But that was that set just kind of got me.

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All right.

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Let's just pray.

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Oh my God, we come to you this morning and we desire for you to work in this place.

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Your Holy Spirit is here among us and Holy Spirit, we ask that you would empower me as

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I bring your word and Holy Spirit, would you open the hearts of all those here in attendance

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that they would hear what you would have for them this morning.

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And by your grace and your empowering, we'll get through this time and you will be glorified

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in it.

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In Jesus' name, amen.

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Thanks, Matthew.

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That's just one of my favorite songs and just love that song.

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All right, if you would go ahead and turn to Acts chapter 2.

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Acts chapter 2 is where we're going to be this morning.

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We're not necessarily continuing the series, but we're kind of talking about some things

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that I think are pretty applicable.

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As this whole summer, we've been talking about our core values and beliefs and the things

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that matter to us.

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And I believe Acts chapter 2 says some things that are very relevant to our lives today.

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So we'll be in Acts chapter 2.

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And as we get started this morning, I'd like to give you a little historical background

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to this passage.

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Acts 2 is important because it's the very beginning of the church.

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Prior to this moment, the church didn't exist.

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We call this the beginning of the church age.

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Now some 10 days before this moment, Jesus had ascended into heaven.

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And at this moment, 120 of His followers from Galilee, from Europe, from Asia, and from

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all around the Middle East, they're all gathered together in this moment to celebrate what is

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known as the Feast of Weeks.

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And the Feast of Weeks is a celebration of Thanksgiving offering for what God had already

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done and the provision that He had made earlier that spring with the first harvest that they

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had already received earlier that spring.

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So this is one of the feasts that capable Jewish men were required to go to Jerusalem

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to celebrate.

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So they're gathered there and the Holy Spirit came on them in a powerful and permanent manner.

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Now prior to this moment, the Holy Spirit would come on someone and anoint them and

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empower them for a specific purpose or a task, a season.

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And then after that, He would remove Himself from them.

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And as the Holy Spirit rested on Christ's followers, they spoke in tongues and each person was

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able to understand the others in spite of the fact that they didn't all speak the same

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languages.

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They had been baptized into the Holy Spirit and they would forever have His presence in

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them.

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Now after the Holy Spirit fell, Peter got up, He delivered a sermon and 3,000 people were

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added to the church that day.

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So this is the context for what we read here at the end of Acts chapter 2.

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I'd like to invite Jackson Bosworth to come on up and he's going to read our passage for

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us this morning.

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Acts chapter 2 will be in verses 42 through 47.

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Let's pause.

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Please, yes.

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We kind of need to just get in the habit as soon as they start coming up.

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Let's just get in the habit of just standing up.

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It's great.

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I know, Pasadena loves it.

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It's just awesome when we do that.

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So Jackson, would you go ahead?

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Acts 2.42 through 47.

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And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking

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of bread and the prayers, and all came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were

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being done through the apostles, and all who believed were together and had all things

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in common, and they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds

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to all as any had need.

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And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received

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their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the

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people, and the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

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Father God, we thank you for Jackson.

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We thank you for his passion for you, his deep desire to know you more and that he doesn't

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just stay at the surface level things, but he wants to dig deep into his faith.

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And I'm just so grateful for the passion that he brings.

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God, would you just continue to grow him as a young man and follower of you?

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It's in Jesus' name.

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We pray.

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Amen.

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So, verse 42 mentioned four specific practices that the early church had devoted themselves

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to.

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Now, if you were to ask me what I'm devoted to, I would likely say, hey, I'm devoted to

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my family and I'm devoted to God, church.

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I would say those types of things are the things that I'm devoted to.

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What else might say, they would say, oh, he's also devoted to the chiefs, to Chipotle, to

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CrossFit, those other things.

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Now, we typically tend to understand devotion as kind of just having an affinity for something

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or a commitment to something, to be involved in something.

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But the Greek word that's used here actually refers to persisting in something.

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When you do this, you are making an intentional effort to believe or to be involved in something,

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though it might be difficult to engage in that thing.

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That's what it means to actually be devoted to something.

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Now, I have occasionally been accused of being a bandwagon fan of the chiefs since I don't

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tend to make much of the fact that I lived in Kansas City for a while and my family's

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roots are actually there in Kansas City.

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People often assume that I'm actually a fan of the Niners or the Giants since they associate

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us with San Francisco.

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Well, I have actually been a lifelong fan of the royals and the chiefs.

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Now, there have been seasons where I would continue to rep my chiefs gear even though

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they were horrible.

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There were those seasons.

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The last nine years, the royals have been horrible, yet I have still persisted in wearing

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my royals stuff.

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When the days are rough, when seasons are rough, you have to persist in something and you show

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your true devotion.

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Now, though life was hard, now that's just an example, an illustration from our lives,

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though life was hard, members of the early church were likely seen as outcast by the

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rest of the Jewish community.

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They would have looked down on these Christ followers, but they were persisting in this

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newfound faith of theirs.

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They were persisting in this belief in Jesus Christ as the Messiah, regardless of what

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the society and culture around them was saying.

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They were wholly and completely devoted to these four practices here in Acts 2 and verse

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42.

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Now, the first practice they were devoted to, it says, was the apostles teaching.

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So we have to ask ourselves, what was the apostles teaching?

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What would it have included?

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Now, if you stop to think, the teaching that they had at this moment, the New Testament

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hasn't been written yet, right?

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So at this moment, their teaching would have consisted of what we now call the Old Testament.

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The version of the Old Testament they primarily used was a Greek Bible translation called

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the Septuagint, and it was developed around 250 years before the time of Christ.

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And so this was their scriptures.

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This was what they studied and what they would memorize.

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Scripture is very first sermon here in this chapter actually quotes from the Old Testament.

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Now if you think about it, where did Paul go?

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Each time he entered a new city, where did he immediately go?

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He immediately went to the synagogues.

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And the reason he went there was because he wanted to capitalize on their understanding

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of scriptures.

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He wanted to capitalize on their understanding of who the Messiah was going to be and the

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picture that the Old Testament had drawn for them of the Messiah.

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Then he would take this understanding that they had and he would use it to explain to

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them this Jesus who walked among you.

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He is the Messiah.

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He's the one that you've been waiting for.

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Now we can also presume that some of the apostles teaching centered around the person of Jesus,

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who he is, what he had done, what he had taught them of course.

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So the early church was consumed by the teaching of the apostles and the natural thing for

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us to do then is examine our own context.

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How can we devote ourselves as it says to the apostles teaching?

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Well, when we model ourselves after them, then we would do some of the things that they

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did.

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First of all, we regularly attend worship services.

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This is one of the best ways for us to be exposed to teaching is regularly attend worship

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services.

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I'm not talking just once a month, not even twice a month, but be here every week.

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Week in and week out, make it habit to be here, worshiping corporately with the body

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of Christ.

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Parents, you are discipling your children whether you are being intentional about it or not.

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Your church attendance indicates how important you think church attendance is to your faith

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walk.

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When you model sporadic church attendance, then that's what our children will grow up

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and live out.

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And we can't model sporadic church attendance and then wonder why when they leave high school

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and go off to college, they leave the church.

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The more we are in church modeling that for them, the more likely it is that our children

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will stay closer to God and walk with him in the years after high school.

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I have to say, I love where my daughter is right now.

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She's at Emmaus Bible College and it's just an hour north of here in Dubuque.

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And that place, she's excited because she's everyone that goes there, double majors.

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You're majoring in Bible and then whatever your field of study is.

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She's just so excited to jump in and just learn all that she can in her Bible classes,

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theology, all the different classes she'll be taking.

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She's just so passionate.

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She was telling me yesterday about this friend she's making and how hungry she is for God.

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And stuff is just like, oh, it's awesome.

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That's the stuff you just want for your children.

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And it makes me so happy to hear.

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So another way to be exposed to biblical teaching is to listen to podcasts of your favorite speaker,

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your favorite teacher.

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We have so many resources available to us today, right?

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We have all your listening platforms as well as YouTube and other resources that we can

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go to those things and we can just turn those on and listen to them and we can consume God's

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word of that way.

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Now should you on rare occasion happen to miss one of our services?

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Well, you can go to your app store and you can download 563 Church.

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Look for 563 Church.

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Download that app.

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And I know we've been talking about it a good bit lately, but we want to keep pushing that.

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563 Church is where we are trying to put everything these days.

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So go download 563 Church and get set up and then you can see our services there.

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You can also see our services on Facebook and on our YouTube pages.

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So there are a number of ways that if you happen to miss one of our services, you can

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get caught up online as well.

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So they were devoted to the apostles teaching.

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The next thing that they were devoted to was fellowship.

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Back in 2012, we were going through a bit of a transition here.

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We were going from one service to two identical Sunday morning services.

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Now that meant that we would no longer be having what was called the Rock Center service.

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You see the Rock Center service, for those who are not aware, the Rock Center service

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was a service that was held in the Rock Center and people that attended that service would

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all sit around tables and they would join, they would enjoy coffee and donuts there and

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they would watch the service on a screen.

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It was kind of a little bit of an overflow space as well as just an opportunity to provide

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a different way for people to engage with our services.

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And so we were no longer going to be having that service.

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So I thought, hey, if we're not going to be having that service, let's save a good amount

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of money and let's get rid of the donuts.

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Now for those of you who are around may recall that that was not received very well.

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How could I suggest such a thing to get rid of the donuts?

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There was a significant outcry against this because people said they needed fellowship,

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was the word that they used.

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They needed fellowship.

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And for them, as good Baptists, fellowship equals food.

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So obviously, we did not get rid of the donuts.

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We still have the donuts and we have expanded the donut offerings and the coffee and upped

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our donut and coffee game.

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But I don't think that Luke has donuts in mind when he's talking about the early church

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persisting and being devoted to fellowship.

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Pretty sure it wasn't donuts that he's writing about here.

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Actually the word koinonia, this Greek word that is used for fellowship, means sharing,

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to share in something.

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It denotes intimacy in relationships and communing with others.

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True fellowship is sharing life with those around us.

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And this word was used to indicate the unique type and depth of relationships that the

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early church had with each other.

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These relationships serve as a discipleship mechanism in the body of Christ.

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And me learning from you and you learning from me and sharing in our Christian walk

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with others is mutually encouraging and beneficial.

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Now, unfortunately, there are a number of people today who they want to be long-ranger

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Christians.

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They love God.

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They love Jesus.

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But they want nothing to do with organized religion or the church.

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Now this was never part of God's intent.

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Some people want to do the Christian walk on their own terms, but to do that is ignoring

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the fact that Scripture tells us we should not do that.

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Hebrews 10, 24 and 25 reads, Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good

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works.

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Not forsaking, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one

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another and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

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You simply can't do the things that this passage is talking about while in isolation.

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It's only in the context of community, corporately together as the body that we are able to build

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others up and to encourage them.

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Lou Vian and I have been doing CrossFit for 10 years now.

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When I first got involved in it, I was looking for something that would give me the conditioning

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that I'd received from many, many years in martial arts as well as my cycling time.

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And then I wanted to incorporate some weightlifting that I'd grown up in.

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So, it seems like CrossFit was going to be the right fit.

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So, in January of 2014, Lou Vian and I stepped into our first CrossFit class.

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And we've been going regularly ever since.

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We've loved it so much that we even got our son Micah involved in it for the last couple

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years.

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Now, we enjoy how challenging CrossFit is and that it pushes us to do things that we

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didn't know we were capable of doing.

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But when we joined CrossFit, we were not aware of how significant the community aspect of

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CrossFit actually is.

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We've come to learn that CrossFit is all about the culture and the community environment.

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It's not like other gyms at CrossFit.

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It is expected that you know the people that you're working out with, that you engage with

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them and that you encourage them.

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And the person who's working out last, who's still trying to finish the workouts, they're

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all being encouraged by the others who may have already finished.

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Now, I do hear that at the why, it is kind of like social hour, especially if you go

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in the morning.

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There's a lot of people talking, people from church connecting.

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So I think that's awesome.

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Great to hear that.

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But CrossFit is different than your typical gym.

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You're expected to engage with other people and to cheer them on.

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Now, it's easier to suffer in CrossFit when you're in a community with others suffering,

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right?

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If you have to do something by yourself, it's just not as fun.

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But when you're with other people doing something, it makes it so much more enjoyable.

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As good as the workouts are, I would venture to say that the workouts are not alone or

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not what has led to the worldwide success of CrossFit.

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It's the people.

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It's the community.

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It's the culture.

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People sharing in something together, encouraging each other and holding them accountable.

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So how do we apply this concept of fellowship to our own days, to our own time?

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Well of course, first of all, as I mentioned, attending our regular weekly worship services.

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But also when we have special events, participate with the body in church life.

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Attend an adult Bible fellowship class each Sunday morning.

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And we have special services attend those a couple of weeks ago, a lot of us went out

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to the Waukesia River for our outdoor baptism service and we had a beautiful service there.

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It was just wonderful.

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It was an awesome opportunity to hear of how God was working in people's lives and to

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witness these people who were stepping forward to make public declarations of their faith.

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Now, I was very pleased when everything had basically finished and we're about to start

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eating and yet the pizza is apparently running late.

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Everybody just kind of shrugged it off and they turned and started talking with each

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other, engaging with each other, connecting with people that maybe they hadn't connected

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with in a long time.

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I love that.

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It's the body, fellowshiping together, being connected to each other.

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Another way to engage in fellowship is to find a ministry to serve in, to share in a

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ministry with others is connecting with them.

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There are so many options available for us here.

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There's nursery, there's children's church, there's usher, greeters, there's worship

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team, there's media booth, there's congregational care, there's VBS helpers, there's all sorts

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of ways to get involved.

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So my encouragement to you is to get involved with something.

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If you don't know what to get involved in, then maybe, look, oh, what kind of sounds

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interesting?

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Get involved in that thing.

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If it doesn't work out, it's okay.

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You can step out of that thing and engage in something else.

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Get involved with something.

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That's a wonderful way to share in community with the body of Christ.

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You can also join the church.

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On September 22nd, we will have a membership class, and membership class is one of the necessary

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steps for joining Cornerstone.

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We will have that class immediately following the second service, we'll have some food of

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some sort, not sure if it'll be pizza or if we'll up our game a little bit and do something

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nicer.

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We'll see.

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But you'll hear about Cornerstone, you'll hear about what matters to us, our values

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and beliefs, you'll have the opportunity to ask some questions.

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So I would encourage you to come to that on September 22nd.

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If you'd like to sign up, let me know.

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Let our office administrator, Julie Tingle know, and we'd love to get you signed up and

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have you join us that day.

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And then another way to connect with the body is to be engaged in smaller groups.

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Now I love our worship services.

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I absolutely love what we do on Sunday mornings, and as great as they are, it's not the most

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important thing that we do.

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One of the most beneficial and life-giving aspects of the body is engagement in small

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groups or engagement in life groups.

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This is so important to us that it's one of two main focus areas of mine this fall.

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My goal this fall is to get more and more people engaged with life groups.

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The majority of us are not engaged in life groups, and we would love to see more of you

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involved in life groups growing together.

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Now what does a life group look like?

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Typically a life group involves, of course, sharing a meal.

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You have to start with that, so you share a meal.

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And then after that, there's usually a time where you dive into spiritual issues.

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You engage in some sort of learning components, whether it's just a discussion or watching

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a video from right now media or something like that.

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But there is a spiritual learning component that is involved in our life groups to help

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us probe the deeper things of the faith and examine how certain aspects may apply to our

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lives.

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So if you'd like to be involved in a life group, I would encourage you to contact me.

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Let me know.

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I already do have a list of a lot of people that I know are not in life groups that I

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will be hitting up here this fall and encouraging you to get involved in life groups.

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So that's a wonderful way to engage in fellowship with the church body.

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My last suggestion is to participate in a discipleship relationship.

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This could be an accountability partner, a mentoring relationship, maybe a discipleship

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group.

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There are different ways to engage in discipleship relationships.

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And the goal of these relationships is to spur you on in your Christian walk.

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You can study the word, you can read a book, you can talk about the issues of life and

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the struggles that you're facing.

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I would encourage you if you're not in some sort of discipleship relationship to get involved

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in one.

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We have all sorts of options for growing in our fellowship here at Cornerstone.

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So we see that the early church was devoted to the apostles' teaching and they were devoted

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to fellowship.

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And then third, they were devoted to the breaking of bread.

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Now it's likely that when you hear this phrase, breaking a bread, your first thought is that,

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oh, it's a meal.

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You're having a meal together.

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But that's not exactly what this phrase is referring to.

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Each week the church would gather together for what is called love feasts.

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This was a meal.

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And they would have this love feast.

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And then after the feast, after the meal, they would take communion together.

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And communion is actually what this breaking of bread is actually referring to.

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Now when we think about the context and how the early church was growing and they had these

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things that they were devoted to, it seems perhaps a little interesting or odd to us

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that, well, how does communion specifically lead to spiritual growth?

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But let's pause for a moment and examine the roots of communion.

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Jesus first instituted communion on the night when he was betrayed.

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He and his disciples had convened in the upper room for what has now come to be called the

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Last Supper.

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And there they were commemorating the Passover meal.

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And the Passover was a celebration of how God had freed his people from slavery in Egypt.

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Pharaoh had resisted each of the nine previous plagues and he had refused to let God's people

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go so they could worship him.

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So the 10th plague was to be the final plague.

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And the people had been instructed to offer a sacrifice and to take the blood of that

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sacrifice and wipe the blood of the sacrifice on the top and the sides of the doorposts.

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For those who responded in obedience, the death angel, when the death angel saw the

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blood that was applied to the doorposts, he would pass over that home.

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But for those who did not respond in obedience, then the firstborn son in that home would

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lose his life.

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And this was the final straw for Pharaoh.

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And so he finally relented and he let God's people go so that they could be free to worship

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him.

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So the Passover was a meal to recognize God's miraculous acting on behalf of his people.

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And the Passover was to be remembered each spring.

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Now, on the night of his arrest, Jesus and his disciples were sitting down to remember

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and commemorate this occasion, the freeing of their ancestors.

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Being at the Lord's table causes us to remember because there on that night as he began this

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Institute of Communion or the Lord's table, he identified himself as that sacrifice.

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He identified himself as a sacrifice that brings freedom.

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So as we remember Communion, we remember Christ's sacrifice, remember his body that was broken

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for us, his blood poured out for the forgiveness of our sins.

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Remembering these things helps keep Christ's sacrifice at the forefront of our minds.

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And when we are reminded of what he has done, the response is gratefulness, thankfulness

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for what he has done for us.

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And it causes us to draw near to him and to worship him and to offer our lives back to

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him in worship.

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So we can see that partaking of the Lord's table really was a benefit to their spiritual

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growth.

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So how do we apply that?

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Of course, join in our Communion services.

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If you didn't know, we have Communion on the first Sunday of every month.

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We've set that time aside to be able to remember the sacrifice that our Lord made.

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Another thing that we can do is we can prepare our hearts.

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First Corinthians 11, 28 tells us to examine ourselves.

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So in our services, we like to allow some time for you to be able to examine yourself.

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And for me, this means examining my heart, checking my motives, seeing if there's any

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relationships with others or with God that I need to address.

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If there's any sin in my life that the Holy Spirit convicts me of, then I want to make

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that right so that I can keep open communication between myself and God.

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So we can prepare our hearts.

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Now, so far, we've seen how the early church devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching,

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to the fellowship and to the breaking of bread.

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The last thing they were devoted to was, it says, the prayers.

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In the Old Testament, we have evidence of there being three prayer times a day, morning,

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noon, and nights.

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Psalm 5517, King David said, evening and morning and at noon, I utter my complaint and I moan,

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and he hears my voice.

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And in Daniel 610, we see the prophet choosing to disobey King Darius' ordinance against

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praying to anyone else except for himself.

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And it says there in Daniel 610, it says, when Daniel knew that the document had been

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signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem.

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He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God

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as he had done previously.

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Jewish culture likely involved three times a prayer at the temple each day.

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Now as they would gather for prayer and go to prayer, it also involved various scripture

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passages to be incorporated into their prayer times.

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We know for sure that the Shema was used daily in their prayer times.

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You may be familiar with the Shema.

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The Shema is found in Deuteronomy chapter 6 and the Shema reads, hero Israel, the Lord

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our God, the Lord is one.

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You shall love the Lord your God with all your hearts and with all your soul and with

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all your might.

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And it goes on to tell you to continue to teach these things to your children as well.

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Most scripture passages were used in their daily prayer times.

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So what does this look like for us in the church age to engage in prayers?

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Well the first opportunity available to us is on Wednesday nights.

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We have a prayer meeting and I know this doesn't work for everyone because of different schedules

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and such but if you're able, I would encourage you to come out to the prayer meeting that

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is held in room 216.

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First of all, there's a Bible study that starts at 630 and that Bible study goes from

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630 to roughly 7.

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Then after the Bible study, they go into a time of prayer.

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So I would encourage you to engage in that.

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When we connect and pray together in the body of Christ, it brings unity.

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So that's one opportunity available.

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Another way to flesh this out is perhaps when maybe you're in a setting where they ask

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if someone wants to pray, give you the opportunity to pray out loud, it might be that that's

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something that scares you.

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Well, I would encourage you to go outside of your comfort zone and do something that you're

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not comfortable with and pray out loud.

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This is a great way to grow in your faith.

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Sometimes we tend to think that praying involves certain words and we have to put, say, just

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right but that's not the case.

466
00:37:44,080 --> 00:37:51,640
The great fourth century preacher, John Chrysostom, actually defined prayer simply as conversation

467
00:37:51,640 --> 00:37:54,160
with God.

468
00:37:54,160 --> 00:37:55,600
Talking with God.

469
00:37:55,600 --> 00:38:02,720
It doesn't have to be some grand scheme of words and putting all these right things together.

470
00:38:02,720 --> 00:38:07,640
We can just talk with God.

471
00:38:07,640 --> 00:38:12,960
Another thing we can do is you might want to develop a prayer journal.

472
00:38:12,960 --> 00:38:14,880
This can help you list out prayer requests.

473
00:38:14,880 --> 00:38:23,600
It can help you also be able to write down answers to prayer requests to keep track of

474
00:38:23,600 --> 00:38:29,080
it, looking and seeing, hey, I prayed for this and God responded, God worked.

475
00:38:29,080 --> 00:38:32,800
When we do this, this helps grow our faith.

476
00:38:32,800 --> 00:38:39,720
Others might want to incorporate a sort of structure to their prayer time and use a couple,

477
00:38:39,720 --> 00:38:41,560
there are a couple different things available here.

478
00:38:41,560 --> 00:38:48,120
You could use cats or acts and each of those letters actually stands for something.

479
00:38:48,120 --> 00:38:54,800
A stands for adoration, C stands for confession, T stands for Thanksgiving, and S stands for

480
00:38:54,800 --> 00:38:59,040
supplication or making our requests to him.

481
00:38:59,040 --> 00:39:04,760
Some people like to do that and use this methodology, the structure in their prayer time.

482
00:39:04,760 --> 00:39:12,360
So there's all sorts of ways that we can pray.

483
00:39:12,360 --> 00:39:15,080
We can pray the scriptures back to God.

484
00:39:15,080 --> 00:39:21,840
I would encourage you to grow in your faith, to set aside specific intentional time for

485
00:39:21,840 --> 00:39:27,760
prayer each day to help grow in your faith.

486
00:39:27,760 --> 00:39:32,760
Now the early church was thoroughly committed to performing these practices in community

487
00:39:32,760 --> 00:39:37,920
and together as the body of Christ.

488
00:39:37,920 --> 00:39:47,200
Now they say that if something matters to you, then it'll be reflected in your calendar

489
00:39:47,200 --> 00:39:49,400
and in your checkbook.

490
00:39:49,400 --> 00:39:54,280
And the early church made it clear that these things mattered to them.

491
00:39:54,280 --> 00:39:58,120
Verse 44 said that they were all together and that they were sharing.

492
00:39:58,120 --> 00:40:02,960
Verse 45 said they would sell and they would give to others in the body as needs would

493
00:40:02,960 --> 00:40:03,960
arise.

494
00:40:03,960 --> 00:40:09,880
And in verse 46 they were seen to daily set time aside for worshiping at the temple and

495
00:40:09,880 --> 00:40:12,920
sharing in meals together.

496
00:40:12,920 --> 00:40:22,480
They were always continually coming together, sharing of their time, sharing of their resources.

497
00:40:22,480 --> 00:40:27,720
When I think about the early church sharing their resources, I'm reminded of the early

498
00:40:27,720 --> 00:40:33,400
days of our marriage when we were young and broke.

499
00:40:33,400 --> 00:40:39,080
I was going to seminary and working part time for our church when the engine on my car went

500
00:40:39,080 --> 00:40:41,480
out.

501
00:40:41,480 --> 00:40:47,360
And since we were broke, we certainly didn't have the money to get it fixed.

502
00:40:47,360 --> 00:40:52,720
One Sunday morning after rehearsal we had gathered to pray with the worship team and

503
00:40:52,720 --> 00:41:01,920
as we were gathering there, I was handed a thousand dollar check.

504
00:41:01,920 --> 00:41:08,200
They had all pulled, the worship team had pulled their money together to come up with

505
00:41:08,200 --> 00:41:17,260
this money to give to us to buy the engine so that then my brother could install it free

506
00:41:17,260 --> 00:41:20,700
of charge.

507
00:41:20,700 --> 00:41:30,600
We were completely blown away by this gesture of the body doing what the body does.

508
00:41:30,600 --> 00:41:36,320
They were living out acts too.

509
00:41:36,320 --> 00:41:41,680
How wonderful it was and is to be part of a fellowship of believers and live in community

510
00:41:41,680 --> 00:41:45,840
together.

511
00:41:45,840 --> 00:41:47,620
This is church.

512
00:41:47,620 --> 00:41:54,320
We do community and life together, all growing as Christians on this journey of discipleship.

513
00:41:54,320 --> 00:42:03,200
It's all bower heads and close our eyes if you will.

514
00:42:03,200 --> 00:42:13,080
My hope this morning as we've looked at acts too is that something has connected with you,

515
00:42:13,080 --> 00:42:24,280
that the Holy Spirit has nudged you and said, you need to be involved in this thing.

516
00:42:24,280 --> 00:42:30,440
My encouragement to you is to be connected to the church, do life in community, not as

517
00:42:30,440 --> 00:42:39,080
a lone ranger, just trying to slog through the trenches, but get connected to the support

518
00:42:39,080 --> 00:42:40,080
in the body.

519
00:42:40,080 --> 00:42:47,240
There's encouragement, there's love, there's accountability.

520
00:42:47,240 --> 00:42:54,840
Our Christian walk can be strengthened by the body of believers around us.

521
00:42:54,840 --> 00:43:05,920
Father God, we pray that you would grow us, that you would cause us to do things that

522
00:43:05,920 --> 00:43:12,800
maybe we aren't necessarily comfortable with, things that might ask a little bit of us,

523
00:43:12,800 --> 00:43:25,200
but we know that the sacrifice, the discomfort is worth it when we grow in you.

524
00:43:25,200 --> 00:43:30,680
So God, would we be the church that you have called us to be?

525
00:43:30,680 --> 00:43:36,760
Would we see others around us?

526
00:43:36,760 --> 00:43:38,760
Would we fellowship them with them?

527
00:43:38,760 --> 00:43:40,480
Would we pray for them?

528
00:43:40,480 --> 00:43:51,120
Would we be continually exposed to your Word and remembering what Jesus Christ has done

529
00:43:51,120 --> 00:43:58,200
for us, the sacrifice that he made for our freedom?

530
00:43:58,200 --> 00:44:05,600
Thank you God, thank you for your Holy Spirit within us to grow us to convict us to draw

531
00:44:05,600 --> 00:44:07,120
us closer to you.

532
00:44:07,120 --> 00:44:09,360
In Jesus' name we pray.

533
00:44:09,360 --> 00:44:10,360
Amen.

534
00:44:10,360 --> 00:44:11,360
Amen.

535
00:44:11,360 --> 00:44:12,360
Thank you.

536
00:44:12,360 --> 00:44:13,360
Thank you.

537
00:44:14,260 --> 00:44:21,820
**Music**

538
00:44:21,820 --> 00:44:23,820
You