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Amen, so as I mentioned, I'll be actually continuing just the last few bit of verses there several verses in acts chapter number two So if you want to keep something there in second timothy three go back To acts chapter two kind of read that because you know, we all read acts chapter two on thursday night It's kind of a lengthy chapter. So We'll be looking at a significant portion there in second timothy three, but let's just start out In acts chapter number two, and if you remember in acts chapter number two, of course, it's the day of pentecost the upper room You have the holy spirit coming upon the apostles they're speaking In tongues, we looked at the fact on thursday night that those tongues were languages that were understood by the people that were there from all these different nations So they weren't speaking some babel language. You'll never find an example of that in the scripture It's always a known tongue a known language We looked at that and then of course peter preached a great message The jews that were there come came under great conviction And it says in verse 37 when they heard this the preaching of peter They were pricked in their hearts and said unto peter and to the rest of the apostles men and brethren What shall we do we talked about how that's a great attitude to have, you know when people get saved That's something they should be at. We should all be asking ourselves. What is it that we're supposed to be doing after salvation, right? And he goes on and says to them in verse 38 repent and be baptized every one in the name of jesus christ Permission of sins we dealt with that verse thursday night as well And he says you shall receive the holy ghost for the promises unto you And to your children to all that are far off even as many as the lord god shall call And with many other words, did he testify and exhort saying save yourselves from this untoward generation Then they that gladly received his word were baptized And the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls Now I want to point out a word that you see here used a couple times here at the end of acts chapter 2 It's this word continued right? It says there and they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship and a breaking of bread and prayers And fear came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles and all that believed Uh were together and had all things common and sold their possessions and goods And parted them to all men even as every man had need and they continually continuing daily with one accord In the temple and breaking bread from house to house to eat their meat with gladness And singleness of heart praising god and having favor with all the people and the lord added to the church Daily such as should be saved. So just a couple things I wanted to point out here I didn't really have time on thursday night but the first thing I want to point out is that use of the word continue these people got saved and then they were Continuing in these things they continued in the doctrine they continued in prayers And it actually gives us, you know in verse 42 some things that they continued in Okay, and that's really something We should learn there's a lot of great examples in the book in the book of acts both good and bad Of what that first church did, you know when the church was first getting started that we can look to as a church and say Hey, here's some things that we can apply to ourselves and as individuals Here's some things some principles we can applied to ourselves as a church And one of the first things we can apply here in acts chapter number two is the fact that they continued verse 42 Steadfastly meaning they were determined, right? Then we're going to back down they continued steadfastly consistently In the apostles doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayer So it gives this list of four things that they continued in steadfastly and I think that's a great example to us, you know There's some things That we as a people as individuals as a church need to make sure That we're continuing in okay that we don't stop that we are steadfast in these things And we are unmovable okay, and the first thing That he mentions there in that list is the apostles doctrine and I love that he starts with that because doctrine really Is the foundation of everything that we believe everything that we practice and do is based upon the doctrine the word of god, okay, and if you would Go to second timothy go back to second timothy chapter number three So we're going to look at first of all something to continue in what are the things that they continued in? In acts chapter number two there. Well, the first thing we see is that they continued in Doctrine and that's a very important thing. That's something we need to continue in Today, you know and we're living in a time When people no longer want to endure sound doctrine what they want to do what he to themselves teachers having itching ears Right. They want to be turned onto fables. They don't want to hear the truth of the word of god. They don't want to endure sound doctrine But we see here the example of course in acts chapter two of them continuing in doctrine and then we also see in scripture where We are exhorted It to continue in doctrine, you know Paul said in philippians 4 those things which you have both seen and heard and learned and and received and me Do he's saying those things which i've taught you are things that you need to do These are things that you need to continue in okay He told timothy in first timothy four take heed on thyself and unto the doctrine continue in them continue in what continue in the doctrine We ought to know the doctrine. We ought to continue in the doctrine. We ought to preach the doctrine We have to practice the doctrine Doctrine is what matters and what do I mean by doctrine teaching right the the truths of the bible? The great truths the big truths the little truths. These are things that we should know Practice do and continue in we don't want to give these things up It's an important because we're living in a day when so many are turning aside from doctrine They're putting it off saying if that stuff's not important You know that you want to learn more doctrine go to a bible college You know, we don't expect to hear that taught in the house of god. It should be the other way around It should be coming to the church to hear doctrine But a lot of times people are just coming to church to hear, you know, a feel-good message I'm not against the feel-good message, but I can't make up the bulk of what we do We need to be as we need to be continuing in doctrine Teaching it understanding it practicing it He told timothy continue in this right for second timothy chapter three verse 10, but that was fully known my doctrine All right, paul is saying look if there's one thing you know about me timothy. It's my doctrine the things that I have taught My manner of life my purpose my faith long-suffering charity patients. Look these are all important things But he leads with doctrine, you know doctrine is incredibly important. We don't want to leave that off He continues in all these things. He knows that uh, timothy has fully known all these things He goes on you've known what my persecution Persecutions my afflictions which came unto me in antioc and hiconium at lystra what persecutions I endured but out of them all the lord delivered Me yay, and all that will live godly in christ. Jesus shall suffer persecution Now, what do you think one of the causes of paul's persecution was? It was his doctrine. Okay doctrine brought persecution into paul's life You know the jews did not persecute him from city to city He was not, you know whipped and beaten and stoned and all those other things that he endured All these persecutions because of you know, they didn't like his face or because of you know Something necessarily that he did what they didn't like about paul was the fact that he was preaching and teaching the doctrine of jesus christ He was preaching the inclusion of the gentiles. He was preaching grace, you know, uh salvation by grace through faith in christ Jesus he was preaching that the the old testament law and the priesthood had been put away It was his doctrine that got him persecuted. Okay? So paul is a great example of somebody You know who not only talk the talk but walk the walk he could tell timothy. Hey continue in these things continue in the doctrine You know Just as I have right because he was an example of having done that in the face of persecution In the face of people wanting him to shut up be quiet and stop preaching that and stop teaching that he kept doing it He continued in these things. We need to continue in doctrine folks This is important for preachers and you know and people in the pew as well I mean that's a great birth in our land This is why even so many christians today are so confused and so ignorant of even some of the most basic things in the bible And as a result a lot of times it brings persecution, you know, the preacher gets up and preaches something that's controversial Whatever you want to call it. It's biblical at the end of the day But because you have so many people that are completely ignorant about so many topics, you know A lot of times they and rather than than agreeing with that they get upset And they get angry and they lash out at the preacher All he's doing is doing what he's supposed to do, which is to continue steadfastly in the doctrine That's what we're supposed to do even if it brings Persecution yay, and all that will live godly in christ. Jesus shall suffer persecution you know if you're going to take a stand if you're going to live for the lord if you're going to practice Biblical doctrine you are going to suffer persecution to some extent, you know, obviously in paul's day. It was a much greater Persecution than a lot of us are going to ever experience here in 2023 america but even then it goes on and says in verse 13 but evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived So if you're looking if you're looking to paul for hey, everything's going to be better. Everything's going to be okay You know, you're looking the wrong place. He's saying it's going to get worse People are going to wax worse. There's going to be more deception Which is why he goes on and says in verse 14 But continue thou in the things which thou has learned and what is he what is it that timthy has learned? The doctrine right things are going to be get worse There's going to be more deceivers many anti-christs are even already go out gone out in the world Even in the apostle john's day and the apostle paul's day many deceivers anti-christs were already out there that hasn't stopped. They've increased There's false churches there's false gospels being preached in so many I mean even in just this city alone There's so much false doctrine that is just taught it's so from so many different sources Just in this city and it's like that all across our land and yea even the world That's why doctrine has become even all the more important Doctrine is something we need to continue in it's a great example that we see In acts chapter number two what they did they continued steadfastly In the apostles doctrine never grow weary or tired of hearing doctrine preached You know a lot of times those might be the drier Sermons, they might be the ones that are a little more difficult to understand Quite frankly, they're the ones a little more difficult to preach And make them understandable, you know, that's a great challenge But you know, we should never shy away from that. We should never grow weary of that. We should embrace that because it's important Because of the fact that many deceivers are gone out in the world We are to continue in those things which I was learned and has been assured of knowing of whom let's learn them Verse 16 very famous all scripture is given by inspiration of god. It's profitable for doctrine For approved for correction for instruction righteousness. The man of god may be thoroughly furnished perfect thoroughly furnished unto all good works What is it there for it's there of course for the approved for the correction for the instruction But that's all comes through what doctrine? Doctrinal treat preaching and teaching is what's going to straighten us out on things. It's going to reprove us. It's going to rebuke us It's going to correct us It's going to instruct us in righteousness. It's going to equip us It's the doctrine that we need we need to continue in it. There's no reason not to continue in doctrine Even if it's an unpopular doctrine, there's no reason to stop preaching And teaching the doctrine we need to continue in these things You know, the only person that's going to stop us from hearing sound doctrine or or receiving it is ourselves You know, we don't want to be like those that would you know Stop their ears and not want to hear the truth of the word of god. We want to hear doctrine So that was one of the first things that we see in acts chapter two Excuse me That they continued in Was doctrine right? But what's what's the next thing they continued steadfastly? Lastly verse 42 of acts 2 in the apostles doctrine and fellowship and fellowship and this I could spend a lot of time on this, you know I'll come back to it a little bit at the end again, but you know fellowship is important You know a lot of people out there in internet land right who listen to a lot of online preaching Man, they know a lot of doctrine They listen to every preacher. They listen to all their favorite preachers and amen for that. I'm all for it They learn a lot they get a lot of doctrine but you know what a lot of times they're missing the fellowship They don't they all because they're not attending a local church, you know, they they'll take it in online You know, but they're not going to go to church anywhere and have the fellowship, you know, you need christian fellowship fellowship is important These are the things that they're continuing in steadfastly the the doctrine and the fellowship I mean, i'm sure we'd all agree and say oh doctrine is very important You know the bible puts an emphasis on doctrine No one say, you know, why does the bible bring up the fact in acts chapter 2 that they continued in the doctrine Is it really that important of detail? Of course it is But what are some of the other details that brings up the fact that they continue not only the doctrine but also in the fellowship Which tells me that you know fellowship is an important thing. We need to be having fellowship in the local church We don't want to be people who just take everything in and never Give we want to make sure that we're taking in and learning and growing So that we can help others with that knowledge that we we learn You know the bible if you would go to hebrews chapter number 10, of course any time talking about church attendance You can bet the preacher is going to turn to hebrews chapter number 10. Okay But it's a very important thing I think sometimes people have a very kind of You know take it or leave it attitude towards church and it's not right Because they continued in fellowship Okay, and that's not just getting together for a barbecue or a bingo game or whatever You know, I don't even know if that's if that's allowed bingo games, but You do what you want out there. Okay, you take your chances But you know, they continued in fellowship You know at church That's what it's talking about the fact that they were getting together, right? That's what you see in the rest of the chapter They're continuing in prayer. They're daily in every house. They're breaking bread together. They have all these things they're continuing that's fellowship They're getting together with the brethren You know, the bible says in hebrews 13 verse 1 let brother brotherly love continue You know, that's not something we should stop, you know, this is something that we should Admonish and continue in right we should continue in brotherly love. We should continue in the fellowship with the saints and not forsake the assembling of This of the not forsake the assembling of ourselves together as it says here in hebrews chapter 10 verse 23 Let us hold fast the profession of our faith Without wavering, you know hold fast to this profession For he that is faithful for he's faithful that promise, you know, god's faithful to us. We should be faithful to his institution The church and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works to say what's the purpose of church? Why should why is church emphasized? Why is fellowship important? So that we can provoke one another now, of course a lot of times today And we say if you're provoking somebody it's usually not it's a very negative connotation You say don't provoke your brother don't provoke your sister Right, but we're told here that what we do when we get together is that we consider one another You know, we have fellowship. We kind of get to know each other a little bit We know where people are spiritually what you know what their strengths are what their weaknesses are And we provoke one another unto love and good works You know, we we encourage one another to do the work that we're supposed to be doing You know a big reason, you know why I moved my family to tempe arizona 10 years ago You know from northern michigan was because I knew that I wasn't going to go soul winning on my own, you know The churches that we've been a part of they didn't really practice soul winning like we do here They had other ministries and that's fine But what I wanted to do is I wanted to go out and knock doors And ask people if they knew they're going to heaven and preach the gospel and get people saved at the door You know and when we were kind of considering, you know My wife and I about what we were going to do One of the major contributors was well, we want to go somewhere where we're going to learn and practice soul And we want to be provoked unto good works We want to be provoked under this good work of soul winning And I remember very distinctly I can remember sitting on my couch in my living room and thinking well, maybe we can just stay here Where we're comfortable we have our family and we we like it It's a beautiful part of the country and all that and we can just start learning soul winning on our own But in the back of my mind, I knew even if I learned how to do it It would not be something I continued in You know and the fact and now looking back on it. I could say with even more certainty that I would not have continued Because you need other people to encourage you you need other people to bring you out You know when you put your name down in the bulletin, this is my soul winning time, you know, you're going to be there You know, you're going to show up even if you don't want to be there you're going to be there If you commit to being at a soul winning time and you say to somebody hey, i'll be there In all likelihood you're going to be there. You're going to be committed to that, right? And that's just one thing, you know That's just one example of something that we're supposed to provoke one another to do to love and to good works provoking each other to You know continue in the faith steadfastly to continue serving god to continue loving god continue loving one another And continuing to serve in all these different capacities. That's something that takes place at church Don't be somebody who just fills up on the doctrine look continue steadfastly in the doctrine by all means You know listen to the preaching here listening to the preaching online Reading your bible memorizing get all the doctrine that you can learn it continue in it But don't forsake the fellowship either. You don't want to be somebody who just takes and doesn't give He says let us consider one another to provoke and to love and to good works Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together As the manner of some is meaning some people have a habit of this And you know, this is something that i've just kind of resolved to in my own heart, you know being in the ministry Is that people are going to come and go and I don't mean that in a bad way It's just it's just the nature of the ministry. It's just human nature You know people are going to join the church and people are going to leave the church for one reason or another, you know, sometimes they're going to leave just because They want to live in a different part of wherever they're going to live too far away to attend church They're going to leave because they don't like the church They're going to leave because they think they can find they found a better church and look that's fine You know, but people need to be in a church When I say that we should be faithful to church, we should be faithful to a church Okay, it doesn't have to necessarily be this church now I'm a big fan of this church If I were going to pick out a church for you, it would be this one All right, if you were to ask me. Hey, where should I go to church of tucson? I'd say here Right. Do you have any do you have anywhere else I'd go? No I do. I'm sure there's other great baptist churches you can go to but you know, I kind of have you know I'm kind of biased, you know in my opinion, right? Now all i'm saying here is that if people are going to you know, uh, Move or people are going to go somewhere else, you know people need to make sure that church is a priority No matter where they end up I mean, isn't this what the bible's saying? And yet people have sometimes they have such a just a flippant attitude about church You know, they just they could take it or leave it and he's saying don't forsake the assembling of ourselves together As the manner of some is don't want to be one of these people who's just in the habit of forsaking the assembly Which is the church, okay? We need to be there why but exhorting one another And so much the more as you see the day approaching we need to be exhorting one another provoking one of their love and good works and teaching one another doctrine and practicing that doctrine And let me say this about church attendance When you see people forsake church It's not it's it's neither the first nor the last thing that they're going to forsake in their christian life This is one thing i've noticed If people because think about it church, you know It's definitely one of those things like showing up to church really isn't a big ask If you ask me in the christian life, it's not one of the big disciplines of the christian life All you got trust me. I know i've been doing it for years, you know both sides of the pulpit All you gotta do is show up You just gotta sit down. That's it You know, that's not it's not that big of an ask But you know, it's also a very public thing if you forsake church It's kind of that's kind of a sin that everyone kind of notices, right? If you drop out of church, everyone's going to be like, oh, where's brother so-and-so Right So it's not that it's difficult But it's definitely a very public thing when you forsake church. There's really no hiding that kind of a sin You know if it is a sin folks If if the bible is commanding us to not forsake the assembly and then we forsake the assembly It's a sin to miss church. It's the sin to not be in church I'm, not saying you know, if you don't come to every single service you're in sin But I am saying if you are have the general habit of not being in church Of when you're in church, it's kind of a shock But it's more of a shock that when you're in church than out of it, you know When the general expectation is that you're not going to be there, you know, you're probably that's you've crossed the threshold now You're forsaking the assembly. Okay, that makes sense But you know, that's that's not the first or last thing to go in the christian life because think about there's a lot of other Things you can forsake in the christian life that nobody else is going to notice you can forsake bible reading you can forsake prayer You can forsake a lot of other things, you know, maybe you don't conduct yourself like a christian in your private life You know, there's a lot of things you can do that. The people aren't going to notice here, right? So when a person gets to the place where they're willing to be so public as to forsake the church Sometimes I ask myself what else have they forsooken already? And then I ask myself what else are they going to forsake down the road? Because it's being in the church that's going to provoke you unto love into good works And when we forsake the assembly and there is no provoking unto love into good works you can mark it down There's going to be a lot of other things that you forsake besides just church And when a person and i'm saying again when a person's gotten to the place where they're forsaking church A lot of times to me that's a sign. They've probably forsaken a lot of other things in their in their private life Because it's kind of it's kind of a a big kind of public sin I'm, not saying it's like the worst thing in the world, obviously, it's not good It's a it's a harm to those that are doing it right So if that's the case if you if you've gotten a place if I could say to be so brazen as to just Just say yeah, i'm backslidden. I'm at a church. I wonder what else has been forsaken because You know, that's that's not a really an easy thing to just forsake. Okay? Well, let's let's move along here because there's several things here in acts chapter four or two, excuse me verse 42 That they continued in right they were continuing in these things they continued in the doctrine they continued in fellowship You know you say man three times a week What are you guys doing? They were meeting every day back then and hebrews tells us to meet so much the more as we say the day approaching You know as when paul's telling us that perilous times are coming that that uh, you know Deceivers are going to wax worse and worse, you know deceiving and both deceiving and being deceived Do you think you need less doctrine? Do you think you need less provoking in the good works? Do you need less church or do you need more? You need more not less. That's the answer You know, we need to be in church as much as is possible What's the other thing they continued and i'll just touch on this is prayers right verse uh, 43 At well verse 42 and they continued in fellowship and breaking of bread and in prayers, right? And of course prayer is not something we want to forsake That's something we need to continue in prayer as it says in colossians 4 continue in prayer And watch in the same way with thanksgiving You know a lot of times the reason people have a hard time praying is they say well, I don't know what to pray for Well colossians 4 verse 2 is a great verse. You don't have to turn there But in colossians 4 verse 2 if that's you think about this It says continue in prayer and watch in the same watch in prayer with thanksgiving You know a lot of times if you're having a hard time praying You know as the song says just count your blessings count your many blessings You know prayer doesn't necessarily have to be a time of just asking for things It can be a time of just thanking god for everything you already have You know, if you're having a hard time thinking well i'd pray but I really don't know what to pray for How about just praying? Thanks god for salvation. Thanks god for the bible. Thanks god for a great church Thanks god for the fellowship. I have a church. Thank you for my family. There's so many things And look that's a that's a prayer that'll never wear out you think god's ever going to get tired of like you You thanked me for that yesterday You know, I know you've been thanking me for that every day. Can you stop I know You're grateful for the death burial and resurrection of christ, but you know nuts enough already You're laying on kind of thick with the whole. Thank you thing God's never going to get tired of hearing that You know, and if you can't think of anything else to pray for that's the way you can continue in prayer And you know and as you do that getting the practice of prayer obviously it'll come more naturally other things will come to you You know prayer is not something we want to forsake Prayer is something we want to continue in as they did in acts chapter number two continue in prayer Verse 43 and it says in acts chapter 2 verse 43 and fear came upon every soul And many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. Okay again, I talked about this last week The signs and wonders were done by the apostles, right? And we talked about how many of the gifts that were to be given to them as christ told them they would Take up any they would take up serpents. They would speak in tongues They would uh, you know be able to drink harmful things and it wouldn't hurt them So they would do healings they would do all these things these were signs for the apostles and I mentioned last week too that the reason for that sign was as a Confirmation to those around them that this was legit. This was a bona fide thing That was happening and you see it play out here, right many signs and wonders were done by the apostles But notice in the beginning of that half of that verse and fear came upon every soul and a lot of that was because of the preaching of peter the The the sign that they had seen In the tongues, okay, and the tongues again wasn't the babbling It was every tongue that was being spoken was a known language. It's right there in acts chapter two I'm not going to repreach that if you have questions about that go back and listen to the sermon Okay So these signs and and and wonders were done upon by the apostles and they brought fear upon every soul Let's move along here Acts 2 verse 44 and all that believed were together It just I love The idea of the church. I mean, this is what church is It's fellowship. It's doctrine. It's being together and they had all things common And sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men as every man had need now, let me say this about this This is not an advocation for communism or starting some kind of a commune, okay He's saying whether it was there, you know, where the apostles and the disciples back then were they communists? Right because they're they're they're selling everything they have they're having this collectivism, right? And then they're imparting to every man as they have need it kind of sounds like Communism right, but that's not what's going on here. Okay, Karl Marx wasn't around. All right They weren't this this isn't they're not expressing the tenets of national socialism here Okay, this is this is just something that they did and i'm not saying what they did was wrong I'm again great principle in scripture Always have to keep in mind. There's the statement and there's a story Okay, sometimes the bible just tells us what they did. It doesn't say now you go do that, right? Now you go do the same thing that this person did, you know If you've practiced that throughout scripture You're gonna end up doing a lot of bad things because the bible records a lot of the bad things that people did I'm, not saying this is bad. I'm just saying this is what they did You know at that point it might have made a lot more sense for them to do that One if they're all you know, all these jews are from all around the world. They're coming and they're getting added to the church You know, they've kind of left everything behind They might have you know, they're going to be there with need maybe the more wealthier people who are local You know, i'm just trying to flesh this out and think how that what what it's saying here Maybe they were sold what they had and gave to those that had joined the church that maybe had come from one of these distant Lands, you know to help support them for a time or something like that You know, they were helping them, you know Survive as the church got off its feet got on its feet and got started. Okay You know and later in first corinthians you see the the fact that persecution had begun, right? And that there was a as paul calls it, you know the present distress that was taking place throughout the world the persecution the church and Of him and others, you know that they would have had need Okay, so maybe I don't know that that's what's necessarily taking place this early on obviously in acts chapter two But you know, that's another example You know if if things got bad enough You know people tend even not christians, you know, they kind of kind of tend to pool the resources Because you know a great way to survive in this world is through teamwork, obviously, you know That's kind of how we've gotten to where we are in civilization People have tried to work together as a team. Okay So I think that's something like that kind of going on here. This isn't them saying oh see This is how we're supposed to do things. Let's all go buy land somewhere and move out there We're all going to we're going to start a compound the faithful word compound That's how cults get started. That's not The scripture's not advocating that But obviously there was some kind of a need here right and when you kind of think about the story what's taking place when you know Three thousand souls are being added to the church I don't think they were all from jerusalem because it just got done telling us that they were from you know It lists those over a dozen different nationalities That they heard them speaking in those that they list over a dozen languages that they that was the gift of tongues They heard every man speak in their own language not some heavenly babel You know and you don't you won't find an example Of some angelic language in the scripture. There isn't a single one In fact, when you see angels speaking to men they speak in a language that they understand okay, and i'm kind of going off on that but The point is this that you had all of these thousands and thousands and thousands of people there from every corner under heaven And then you have thousands of people being out of the church There was probably a great need because it's not like they can just call back home and say okay wire transfer me my funds You know all of their their their means their resources are and you know somewhere else So maybe they are kind of just helping people Get through it get the church off the ground kind of figuring things out. That's probably what's going on here that's kind of how I think it through logically, but They're doing this out of necessity, basically You know what we learned from that if you go to glacians chapter number six you say well Is that what we should be doing? Should we be starting? You know some kind of let's all sell everything we have and just kind of okay. What do you need? What's your grocery bill? What's your electric bill this month? Obviously not that doesn't make any sense. Okay That's illogical. But what we are seeing here Is that church is a should be today a way we can apply this, you know church is should be a network of support for people I believe that You know and and if people are down and out, you know, we as a church should help people out, you know when it's truly charity Now i'll say this a lot of people think that every little thing that comes up in life that the church should help them And the people that ask the most for things are people that don't even go to church I get those calls every week. There's voicemails every week Hey, i'm in a motel Can you i'm about to get kicked out? Can you guys pay the next week? No People think that you know, it just says atm on the church's forehead. That's what we are You know now I will say this if people attend church here you know and people are genuine, you know, the wolf is at the door so to speak if if they're Having a tough time if they're going through something, you know, the church should be able to step up And help and whatever, you know financially Whatever in any way that's needed, you know church should be a support network That's so, you know, there's some great lessons we learned from ax chapter two They Sold everything that they had and they gave to every man as they hate me not because they're advocating some kind of communal living But because that was something that was specific to their time what we can learn from that Is that church ought to be a network of support? Which goes back to my point I made earlier be in church Don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together People that forsake church and then they're you know Then they get down on their luck or whatever and they're having a hard time, you know, that's one network of support They've essentially cut off from their lives You know, they're not involved with their community like they should be they're not involved with their local church They don't they haven't networked there. They don't have that support And you know that support comes in many different ways Look at galatians chapter 6 verse 9 And let us not be weary and well-doing For in due season we shall reap if we faint not As we have therefore opportunity let us do good unto all men You know, we should be do good unto everybody, you know We should try to seek for opportunity to help other people in any way shape or form But notice at the end, especially under them who are the household of faith Look if we're supposed to do good unto all men how much more so are we supposed to do unto god's own people? You know Church is not the place to come and be stingy With our time and our resources when it comes to people who have a genuine need You know when somebody's going through something has some difficulty in their life We should be very open-handed with people like that, you know, and and there's so many different ways this can play out You know, I know he's not here tonight. But you know this morning I mentioned brother eddie's a great example of that You know, it doesn't really have a lot of family here. I'm sure he doesn't mind me a lot of people already know this He's he's elderly and he's getting a knee surgery No, that's a real need You know and it's great to be and and on it. Let me say this, you know, I think our church has got this down I believe our church is good in this area But what do we see in acts continuing in these things? That's the theme right this latter half of the chapter continuing in these things continuing to do them Let's continue in this, you know, we're helping we're gonna help brother eddie out, you know ladies here when they give birth a lot of times the church will come together and provide meals and If they're needed or wanted, you know, there's lots of different ways, you know And even it's not even what's great about this church is a lot of times It's not even anything I have to get involved in it's great when you just see church members doing this on their own Sometimes I just hear about it after it's all taken place, you know So and so had problem with their car and so and so came and helped them with it You know, whatever there's so many different examples But you only get that By being a member of the church by continuing with the church by not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together You have to continue in these things you have to continue in the fellowship to have that network of support to have elation 6 9 Not only be something you do but have something that's practiced towards you You know if we are in need of someone to do well onto us if we you know We might be that opportunity for somebody else to do good onto us You know, there's a very good likelihood of that You know because we're all probably going to move at some point Right, and that's when you find out who your friends are When you pack up that it's time to pack the u-haul up Okay Go to uh, romans chapter 12 and again, i'm gonna emphasize this because As I was, you know, I was emphasizing earlier the importance of being in church and sometimes people just say yeah Well, you're just saying it because the bible says that and whatever there's a really there's several good reasons why? Church is so important. Okay The doctrine we looked at the fact that you know, we're living in perilous times the fellowship that we need and again this network of support That's why we got to continue in these things Look at romans chapter 12 verse 9 He says let love let love be without the simulation aboard that which is evil cleave to that which is good You know galatians tells us that we should uh do good unto all men First thessalonians paul told them that touching brotherly love you have no need that I read it to you For you yourselves are taught of god to love one another You know loving the brethren and and and doing good on all men. This is something This is something that we need this is why we need to be a part of church so that we can practice this in our lives That we could practice so we can what let brotherly love continue. Okay And it's interesting this word dissimulation right Let love be without dissimulation And what that word basically means is a concealment To dissimulate something is to conceal one's thoughts feelings or characters is to put on You know a pretense He's saying let love be without dissimulation Don't cover that up Let that be open, right? And look if we're not in church If we're not and if we're not giving ourselves opportunity to do good unto all men Especially their household of faith in a sense. We're kind of covering that up that brother love is being dissimulated We're we're not we're concealing that we're not giving ourselves opportunity to do good unto all men, especially their household of faith We don't want to conceal that okay and there and i'm not going to take the time to to further define that word You know, you could read galatians where you see that with peter when he Separates himself and and stops eating with the gentiles when these jews show up And it says that barnabas was also carried away with their dissimulation Meaning he was he was putting on a pretense, right? He was covering up his true motives his true feelings how he his true knowledge and his understanding he concealed that okay, so that that's a whole nother kind of sermon but You know, we are to uh to to be kindly affectionate one another with brotherly love Not slothful of business and honor preferring one another fervent spirit serving the lord Rejoicing in hope patient and tribulation continuing instant in prayer Distributing to the necessity of the saints given to hospitality. That's romans 12 Where it tells us we are to what distribute to the necessity of the saints You know, that's why it's important to be in church This is what church is You know church is a network. It's a gathering together Obviously, it's god's institution to you know, preach the gospel the whole world. It's the instrument by which Many people are going to be brought to christ But it's also for us who are gathered here A a brotherhood it is a network. It is a family. It's a spiritual family and I and I believe that And uh, you know, we should be ready to distribute to the necessity of the saints So again, and this is all just proving my point that how important church is So if you're not in church, you know, how are you going to distribute the necessity of the saints? You don't even know what the saints need You know, if you're not there in church Networking and getting involved and knowing what knowing one another and fellowshipping one another we're not going to know what each other needs We're not going to we're you know, we well, you know what? We might know a lot of doctrine because we sit at home and just watch youtube And take in a lot of preaching and we know a lot of doctrine. I'm not against doctrine. I just preached about that Well, you know what continue in fellowship, too Continue in that because that's where the rubber meets the road in the christian life That's when you you know, the real work of being charitable hospitable And doing good unto others, you know, that's how you're going to flesh that out in the real world. It's through the local church It's it's that important, you know, that's where you're going to put all your christian virtues into practice is through the local church, okay So, you know we need to do that, uh, let's just move along here verse 46 and they continuing daily Say man, you guys are three times a week. Well, they're continuing daily Right continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house to eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart Praising god and having favor with all the people and the lord added to the church daily such as should be saved And I like this last part here about how the fact it was the lord That added to the church It's the lord that added to it, right? But what do you see in the beginning before that you well? It comes down to this Idea of quality and quantity, right? There's these two aspects that we see here in these last last couple of verses You see the quality of the church and you see the quantity increasing. Okay So who folk what whose job is who's here? Who's whose responsibility is the quality and whose responsibility is the quantity? The quantity belongs to the lord You know, sometimes we get it backwards We just want we want to make church all about just making the church bigger and look i'm not against making church bigger I'm not against big churches You know, but here's the thing what's what we're actually responsible for is the quality of the church no matter what size it is Right because you see the quality here. They're continuing daily They're not forsaking the assembly. They're they're getting together in the temple. They're there for the preaching. They're there for the teaching They're breaking bread from house to house. They're having the fellowship And you know what? They're loving it. They're not and it's not like it's something they just make themselves do They're doing it they're eating their meat with gladness and singleness of heart praising god right and having favor with all the people Meaning the community is glad they're there Right, they're they're being very favorable to this church that started up. Okay It's a quality church You know, and that's what we want to be You know, that's what we're responsible for Here, you know, we're not responsible for the quantity Okay Well, I don't know about that Well again, look at the last part of verse 47 and the lord added to the church daily such as should be saved So who's adding to the church? It's the lord And this is so what's your philosophy about church growth? Here, you know and i've and i've thought about this a lot obviously as somebody who's starting a church You know and and i'm not against doing things to promote church growth. I'm not against Promotions and inviting people. I think that's good. I think we should be doing that But ultimately the growth of the church is on the lord what we really need to make sure we're focused on is the quality of the church And this is what I believe when the church is what it should be. God will add to it as he sees fit He'll he'll bring people in here and i'm not talking in some calvinistic sense. Okay, he'll just engineer circumstances He'll deal with people's hearts. He'll work on people And god will bring people around and and people will find out about us and you know Does that mean we shouldn't advertise on google? Should we not have a website? Should we not know of course not we should do all those things. We should put ourselves out there We should you know promote the church But you know, i'm not going to sit here and get all sad about the fact that you know If this time next year, we're still running in the 40s look running a an ifp church running a new ifb church In the 40s is a success It is And don't ever think that this church that you're a part of somehow is inferior to some other church because it doesn't have the same quantity of people First of all, we're not in some giant metropolis where we're the only game in town Now look i'm not against that we need more more churches maybe started more giant metropolises But you know, it just comes with the territory if you do that You're gonna obviously you're gonna have a greater pool of people to draw from okay And tucson's no small potatoes, okay, I mean tucson is bigger than the tri-county area than I come from by you know Many times over okay This isn't some podunk caller I've been there right, you know, but you know, we have you know, we're drawing from a smaller pool of people But that's not really our concern is it? How many people are here? Well, we should be more concerned about is the quality of the church that we have And i'll say this we have a quality church If you ask me say what's your take on the dirt? It's quality You know the people that come here. There's people that they love the lord. They love souls. They love the bible They love preaching they love one another, you know, we've got a good quality church and let me point this out That's why this church, you know has seen people come and go look if if if If we were only losing people the church wouldn't be as big as it is right now You know, and that's just part of the ministry, you know people move for whatever reasons people come and go It's not always necessarily a bad thing Right, you always have that rate of attrition people kind of leaving And if this wasn't a quality church, then that would be the only direction that people were coming in this church That would be only that would be it would only be outgo and this church would wither up and die The fact that this church is still running In the 40s on a sunday morning And we've seen you know dozens of people Come and go out through these doors tells me that we have a quality church You know that the people here You know, they are loving the brethren they're doing what we're supposed to do, you know And we need just wait on the lord and let him add to the church as he sees fit Our main concern is just to maintain the quality to let the brotherly love continue to continue in these things To continue in the doctrine and to continue in the fellowship Let that quality remain and god will make up the rest Let's go ahead and close the word of prayer