Chris Gaynor: Good morning. it is a a delight and a privilege for me to be with you again and open the word of God. I believe that God has a word for you today. And I believe that in the providence of God, he has appointed me to be the spokesperson for that word. But what I know is that you don't need to hear me today. I don't need to hear me today. What we need more than anything else is to hear from our God. So to that end, before we dig in, I would like to invite you to join me and pray a prayer with me. It is going to be on the screen behind me. I want to give you just 15 seconds to look at it. And then ask the internal question, can I pray this honestly? Can I enter the presence of a holy God and offer myself for Him to do this work in me today? And if you can, then let's pray it out loud together. God, speak to me today so that I might know you better, love you more, and live my life to bring you glory. Amen. The book of Acts recounts for us the incredible early days of the church. For three years, Jesus had traveled about with his twelve disciples who had left everything to follow him. They listened as Jesus taught. They marveled as he healed and delivered. They watched his life and were honestly convinced that he was. That he was the Christ, the Son of the living God. They had great hopes. They had high expectations of what his coming was going to mean for their lives and for their people. But to their dismay, completely unexpected, not on their radar, not in their realm of thinking, Jesus was crucified and buried. And their hopes were dashed. They were crushed. They were in disbelief and confused by what was happening. But three days later, you and I know what happened. Jesus rose from the dead. And I can tell you that in that moment, I don't think their confusion was washed away at all. I don't think their bewilderment at what was happening exited the building. I think they were still just as amazed by what was happening. As anyone could be. And for the next few weeks, the disciples and a few followers spent most of their time sequestered in an upper room, praying, waiting, really honestly, y'all having no idea what was gonna happen. No expectation of what was to come. And occasionally through these days, they interacted with the resurrected Jesus, and forty days after his resurrection, Jesus ascended. And left them. And as the disciples stood there staring up into heaven, again, wondering what in the world is going on, they received this instruction that they are to wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit. Ten days later, now fifty days after his resurrection, the Holy Spirit comes in power at Pentecost. And they are all filled with the Spirit and enabled to speak. In other tongues, in other languages, such that the multitude of people gathered in the city could all of a sudden, all at once, hear what they were saying in their own language. The crowd was amazed and honestly, again, confused by what is happening. So Peter stands and preaches, testifying to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, declaring that he is the long-awaited Messiah, and warning. the hearers to repent and believe. And Acts 2, 40 and 41 wrap it up this way. Here's what it says. And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, Save yourselves from this crooked generation. So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. I don't want to miss this. What started with a just 120 believers gathered in Jerusalem is instantly transformed. 3,000 in one day. I want you to imagine what it would look like, what it would feel like. I don't know how many people are in the room. I think it's more than 120, but what would happen if by the end of today there were 3,000 people in Kerry, North Carolina that believed. And were baptized. It would be astonishing. It would be a little bit hard to handle. It would freak Mike out. And whoever is in charge of the baptism community, committee, I don't know. But y'all, what what they're they were transformed, and their experience and their influence and their impact on their community was remarkable. Did you catch it, y'all? It says all came on every soul. It says many signs and wonders were being done. It says they had favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number not just those 3,000, but daily those that were being saved. What God did was amazing. The 3,000 who came to Jesus, please don't miss this, didn't just get baptized and go on their Mary Wade. They didn't just sign a card or write a date in their Bible. Their lives were. Transformed and their priorities changed. And the result was that God continued to save day by day, and the church grew deep and wide. We just stop for a second and ask a haunting question. Why is the experience of the modern evangelical church in America? Let's go on and narrow it down. Why is the experience of the modern evangelical church in North Carolina? Let's narrow it down. Why is the experience of the modern evangelical church in Kerry, North Carolina in 2026 so radically different from the early church? I say that and I wonder, does that bother you? Does it disturb you that we baptize a few here and there? And there's no radical impact. We don't have favor with all the people. We don't see all. We don't see signs and wonders performed. We don't see masses of people come to believe. Does that bother you? Have we collectively just decided that doesn't happen today? That was for then. It's not for now. Are we making excuses? Are we making excuses? Well, you just don't understand. Our government is is is against us or or the culture around us is not conducive to that, or life is hard and busy, or the schools are corrupting our children. And y'all, you just have to stop. And I have to say to you, don't think for a minute that our experience in our culture, in our government, in our schools, and our life is that much harder than it was in the the days of the early church. I would argue that they were in a worse spot than we are. Listen, recently I read some statistics from a Barna research study that found that 42% of adults in the U.S. say they have deconstructed the faith of their youth. I'm gonna say that again. Forty-two percent of Americans say that they have deconstructed the faith of their youth. Can I tell you that as a dad and a pastor? That's alarming to me. And I wonder, why are so many people giving up on the church? Why why are so many people walking away? I don't think it's because of music or programming. I think y'all honestly it's because we the church have abandoned the very things that characterize the church and I. I think we've given up on being the church God has called us to be. And the people are giving up on us. These few verses in Acts describe for us the core identities of the early church. They devoted themselves to four things: the word of God, the people of God, the gospel of Jesus, and communion with God. Let me say them again: the word of God, the people of God, the gospel of Jesus. And communion with God. And when we think about what God wants to do for us, what He wants to do for me, what He wants to do for you, for His church gathered at harvest in Carrie, I think these give us a good idea of what He has in mind. So I want to unpack them for you today. I want to challenge you today to think: is this what we're about? Is this what we're willing to be about? Are we as a people going to give ourselves to these things? Such that we expect that God might do in us what he did in them. Here we go. Ready or not? I don't know if y'all are ready for me or not this morning. You look a little scared. I know I'm a lot, but it's what you got, okay? Here we go. They devoted themselves to the Word of God. Verse 42 says, and they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching. Now the early church, you gotta understand, didn't have the Bible like we have it. They didn't have multiple copies. They couldn't pull it up on their phone. They didn't have the kind of access that we have to the scriptures today. But what they did have was the teaching of the apostles. And it was the apostles that taught them the word of God. All throughout the book of Acts, you'll find the apostles using what we call now the Old Testament to prove that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah. The apostles were familiar with the scripture, it was clear that. That they had studied them, that they had been taught these scriptures by Jesus. And so they taught them to these new believers. But they also passed on the teachings of Jesus. They had walked with Jesus for three years, listening, learning, taking in the words of life. And now they passed those on to the new disciples. And led by the Spirit, they taught those early believers what it looked like. For them to live for the kingdom of God and the glory of Jesus. And maybe you'll ask, as I did as I was studying this passage, how did they know to do that? Where did they get that strategy? What book did they read? What formation on church growth did they get? What seminar? What instruction did they get to know that this is what they were supposed to do? Where did they get this idea that being devoted to the Word of God should be one of their core identities? We all listen. One part of the answer. Is the Holy Spirit. You cannot disconnect what's going on in the early church, how they lived out their devotion to God from the work of the Holy Spirit. I mean, just a few verses earlier, we read, and the Holy Spirit came on all of them. So don't disconnect the two. Jesus promised them and us, John 14, 26, but the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father. Will send in my name. He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Listen, church, I think some of us are scared of the Holy Spirit. We're freaked out by what might happen if the Holy Spirit shows up. I think we should be more concerned by what would happen if he doesn't. Y'all, one of the primary roles of the Holy Spirit is to lead us to know and understand truth. So they were led by the Spirit to prioritize receiving the Word of God through the teaching of the apostles. Can I just say this to you? You can't really know and understand the truth of scriptures apart from the illuminating power of the Holy Spirit. You can't handle it. Your mind cannot comprehend it. You need, like they needed, we all need, the work of the Spirit. But y'all, they also knew the word was essential because of Jesus. Now I know that sounds like a Sunday school answer. And honestly it is, but it's the truth. They were doing what Jesus did and what Jesus instructed them to do. Jesus himself had demonstrated a devotion to the word of God. He taught them the word of God. He explained to them how the word of God was about him, how everything pointed to him, and how he was the fulfillment of all that had been promised. Jesus obeyed the word of God. He was literally the physical embodiment of the word of God. John 1. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory. The glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. He was the word in the flesh, y'all. He had a vested interest in it. And he tells the disciples to abide in him and let his word abide in them and obey his claim commands. And it's clear from Jesus' point of view. That if you're going to walk with him, know him, love him, obey him, then you're going to have to be devoted to the Word of God. I hate to tell you this, it's not optional. You don't get to take a pass and say, I'm gonna walk with Jesus, but not really interesting. Don't have time for that. I I do want you to see that in one sense, this was not something new for the people of God. God's been on this same kick from the very beginning. Deuteronomy 6, these commands, he said to Moses, these commandments that I give you today, they are to be on your hearts, impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up, tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads, write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates. He intended from the very beginning that the people of God would be marked by a devotion to, a knowing of, obeying, a saturation with the word of God. What did he say to Joshua when he starts the when Moses starts to hand the baton off to him? The book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything that is written in it, for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. What do the psalmist say? Psalm 19, 119 9. How can a young man keep his way pure? And I might say in this at this stage of my life, How can an old man keep his way pure? Verse 11 by living according to your word. Y'all don't miss this. Priority one in the very beginning of the church was a devotion to the word of God. Listen for us, I need to say this it isn't just being committed to attending a Bible believing gospel preaching church like the one you're in. It's more than agreeing to. That the Bible is true and believing that it is the holy, inspired, infallible Word of God. That's not devotion. Devotion to the Word of God is committing to regular time in the Word, memorizing it, meditating on it, ordering your life according to it. Paul's going to tell the church in Colossians let the word of Christ dwell in you richly and teach and admonish. One another with all wisdom, y'all. That comes, that ability to do that, to be the church to one another, comes from a saturation in the word of God. Listen, devotion to the word of God will radically transform how you think, what you say, and how you act, and it will change this church. All right. Y'all still look scared. Here we go. Number two. They devoted themselves to the people of God. It says 42, and they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship. All right, I realize I'm in the South. I don't know how many of you were raised Southern Baptists. I was. My daddy was a Southern Baptist preacher. And where I grew up, fellowship is a church word. Pretty sure nobody says that at your place of business unless they are churched. And most church folk think it means they hung out together and had fun chatting it up. Most people think it has to do with food. Listen, every church I was ever a part of had a fellowship hall, right? We we had a room for eating and chatting it up. But y'all, that's not what this is about. That's not what Acts two is talking about. The Greek word that's used here is the word koinania, which literally means Holding all things in common. Now listen, this isn't we have a lot in common. Meaning we we we had the same experiences growing up. we like the same things. We have the same opinions about things, we vote the same way, we cheer for the same team, go deeps. Come on. We rocking right now. Can't say that for some of y'all team, but anyway. All right. That's not what this is. Y'all, it carries the idea of deep partnership, an intimate bond. It's more like what's mine is yours and what's yours is mine. Y'all, the church in Acts literally shared their life with each other. It's a resolute commitment that says we're in this together. Doesn't matter what happens. I got your back, you got mine. I'm here for you, and I know you'll be here for me. Listen, verses 44 to 46 give us an idea of how that kind of devotion to one another played out in their everyday life. Look at it. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the needs to all as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together, breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts. It lit they literally shared their lives with each other. They didn't go their separate way and just get together on the weekend. They were in and out of one another's homes. They knew each other's needs. They felt each other's burdens. They shared each other's joy. And they were present to meet each other's needs. They knew what was going on in the lives of their brothers and sisters. Can I just say this? I need to say this this morning. Some of you are not being cared for by the church because the church has no idea what you're going through. And you got to be willing, you got to be willing to unload and offload your burden so somebody else can help you with it. They gave themselves to meet each other's needs. I don't think I need to say this to you, but this is countercultural. Honestly, this is the kind of sacrificial love that Jesus said would convince the world that He were we're His disciples. He didn't mean that the world would know that we were his disciples because we had a level of affection for each other. Because we felt something for each other. He intended, he meant. That the world would know we were his disciples if we loved each other like he loved us. Listen, you don't have to sell your house to love this way. You could. You could, some of you could. You could sell your house in downsize. Or you could offload the boat or the second home or some membership to something. You could give something up in order to meet somebody else's need. Y'all, it's a call for us to consider. How we can give ourselves to meet each other's needs. In Philippians 2 3, it's Philippians 2 3, be an acted out. Do nothing from selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility, consider others more important than yourselves. Look at me. It's thinking of the needs as others as more important than your recreational addiction. I got can't nobody say amen. All right. Listen, I I I want to I want to tell you how this plays out in my own life. Not to hold myself up, but to give you just a taste of how this happens. My wife is a first grade teacher in a school in North Raleigh. She has a part-time TA that she shares with three other teachers. This girl is a single mom. Father abandoned her and the baby when he was born. She feels a call to ministry. So while she's raising this little boy by herself and working part-time as a teacher's assistant, which by the way is not a whole bunch of this happening, she also is attending seminary and working on a degree in council. Well, last year when there was some stuff happening in the government and there was a pause in government insistence, Michelle and I knew that Heather was receiving food assistance through the government. That's the way she was feeding herself and her little boy. And y'all came became aware, we became aware, she'd not be able to buy food. She didn't have the money to pay for her and her son to eat. And so Michelle and I got together and we were like, what can we do without? What can we postpone? What what can we pull back from so that we can give Heather what she needs in order to feed herself? Y'all, it's that kind of thing. It's recognizing that every little extra is not for your indulgence. Maybe God entrusted you with a little extra so you could meet somebody else's need instead of always thinking, how can I improve my lifestyle? How can I extend my experiences? How can I check something off of my stupid bucket list? I'm just gonna say it, y'all. I think it's weird to have a list of all the things you want to do on earth before you go be with Jesus. That says something about your priority. You think life is found in the abundance of possessions and experiences here, and you forgot that in his presence is fullness of joy, and at his right hand are pleasures forevermore. So let me spin myself here so that when I get there, I have laid up for myself treasures in heaven. All right, listen, y'all. It's learning to ask the question: what could I do to meet somebody else's need? When somebody shares a prayer request with you, don't pat them on the shoulder and say, I'll pray with you. Ask the question. God, did they say this to me because you want me to be the answer to the prayer? All right. Listen, the world asks, how can you serve me? The Church of Jesus Christ asks, How can I serve you? All right, here we go. Number three, they devoted themselves to the gospel. To the gospel. Here's what the verse says, and they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, the fellowship, and to the breaking of bread. Y'all, it's possible that we might think the breaking of bread is about eating. Because honestly, we think everybody everything is about eating, right? you have first Sunday feast. I don't know what you have on the second Sunday and the third Sunday and the fourth Sunday, but fasting. Yeah, I don't believe that. Don't believe that for a minute. All right. Y'all, we just like, ain't nobody ever seen a skinny Southern Baptist pastor, all right? We like to eat, all right? Can you feel me, Josh? Okay. We like to eat. But that's not what this is talking about, y'all. Most scholars agree that the reference here is to communion, or what we often recall call the Lord's Supper. Do you remember what Jesus did with his disciples on the night before he died? Well, of course you do. They were gathered in up in a room, and Luke 22, 19 says, He took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and he gave it to them, saying, This is my body which is given for you. Listen, listen. Do this in remembrance of me. Jesus instituted what some of us call a sacrament. It's a sacred practice that is intended to symbolize a spiritual reality. There's nothing mystical or magical about taking communion. Communion doesn't save you. Communion doesn't honestly in and of itself do anything for you. It's a way Jesus gave to his disciples and to us. To preach the gospel to ourselves. It's a reminder of Jesus. Not because we're in danger of forgetting that he existed, but that we are in danger of forgetting effectively what he did, what he died to purchase for us. So the early church is doing what Jesus instructed them to do in order to remember him. Remember that he gave himself for our sins. Remember that he fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah 53, but he was pierced for our transgressions. He was wounded for our iniquities. The chastisement that was upon us by was upon him. Wait a minute, the chastisement that brought us peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, but the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Listen, y'all, their devotion. To the breaking of bread demonstrated a devotion to the gospel. It was not just a thing to do when they gathered. It was supposed to be a tangible, present, experiential reminder of the death of Jesus. They weren't devoted to a ritual, they devoted themselves to remembering and clinging to the gospel. Do I need to tell you how much we need to do this? I don't know about y'all. I do, but I'm going to give you grace to figure it out yourself. Y'all, every day, multiple times a day, I need to remind myself that Jesus took my place. That his death was the sacrifice that satisfied the wrath of God for my sin. That there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Jesus Christ. Y'all, you and I need daily, moment by moment, to preach the gospel to ourselves, reminding ourselves that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone in Jesus, and that praise God, Jesus came to save sinners of whom I am the worst. Y'all, I need that because I have an enemy who lies to me. I hear the voice in my head that says, Do you think he's going to forgive you for that? How many times do you think he's going to forgive you for that? This trouble that you're in, this trouble that you're in, this is him getting you back. Am I the only person in the room that hears that? No, I'm not. And y'all, until you and I begin to recognize that we have an enemy whose start. Who from the very beginning attempted to lie to us about the word of God and the character of God until we recognize that He is alive and well and daily working to separate us from the gospel of Jesus. Until we recognize that we will not give ourselves to repeat the gospel because, y'all, it's our life. You cannot give the enemy a foot in the door. You must daily be ready to preach. The gospel to yourself. Listen, y'all, it's the gospel that keeps me from pride and despair. Pride that thinks I could ever be good enough to make my way in. And despair that makes me think that I've gone too far and I'm beyond saving. Listen, y'all. This morning I read it in my quiet time, Hebrews 12, 15, it says, see to it that no one misses the grace of God. See to it that nobody in the b in the body of Christ that harvest carry fails to lay grasp, grip, hang tight on the gospel of Jesus. Number four, they devoted themselves to pray. It says this, and they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and listen, and the prayers. Y'all, it seems that this is a specific reference here to gathering for times of prayer at the temple. It says the prayers, not prayer in general. Verse 46 says that day by day they attended the temple together. Acts 3, verse 1 opens immediately following this verse and tells us that Peter and John are going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. The third hour, 9 o'clock in the morning, and the ninth hour, 3 in the afternoon, were the appointed times of prayer at the temple. Historically, the Jewish people gathered to pray at those times of morning and evening sacrifices. So the early church embraced those opportunities to live out that devotion to pray. It was the time that the Jewish people gathered because offerings were being made and they were coming to experience communion with God at the temple. And so the early church comes and embraces that and they come to gather and pray. Y'all, what's significant here, listen to me, is that they gathered regularly to pray. From the very beginning, this was a significant part of their life together. They prayed together daily. And again, I'm going to tell you that they did this because the Holy Spirit compelled them to pray. Listen to me. The indwelling Spirit of God will always, always draw you, always call you, always compel you to come and be in communion with God. Y'all, we've been not given a spirit of fear. We've begin a spirit that says, draw near, Abba Father. Come be with your dad. Come enjoy him. The indwelling spirit will always compel us to pray. Galatians 4:6 says, God sent the spirit of his son into our hearts, the spirit who calls out Abba Father. Y'all, in us. Is the Spirit of God just begging us to come and be with Jesus? Just come and enjoy Him. Just come and seek His face. Come and gaze on His glory. Come and enjoy Him. And they did it because Jesus told the disciples to pray. Y'all, He prayed with them and for them, and He modeled prayer and taught them how to pray. And can I just tell you that the Lord's Prayer gives us a bit of a window into Jesus' expectation that we would gather to pray? the Lord's Prayer, right? I'm gonna ask that question again because at least y'all can say something this morning. Do you know the Lord's Prayer? Yes. All right, y'all can talk. Amazing. Somebody in this church needs to start saying amen. Come on, shout. Anything. Okay. What's the Lord's prayer say? How's it start? Our Father. Doesn't say my Father. Jesus didn't say come in and say my Father. He said our Father. He said, Give us our daily bread. Forgive us our sins. Lead us. Y'all, I think Jesus gave it to us that way because He intended at least in part for us to have a robust prayer life that was fueled by praying with each other. Can I just tell you this? If you don't know how to pray, do you know how you're gonna learn to pray? Ask me. How am I gonna learn to pray? By praying with somebody else. I have two teenage boys, okay? I have two teenage boys. And here's what I know. Here's what I know. you know how my boys are gonna learn how to talk to a woman? How to tend her heart? How to speak to her in a way that shows honor. You know how my boys are gonna learn that? They're gonna learn that by listening to how I talk to their mother. They're going to learn that as they begin to take note of how I address her and how I speak to her. And y'all, some of you, some of you who know how to pray, who know how to lay hold of the throne of God and cry out for mercy, you need to get with somebody that doesn't know how to pray and model for them. Not eloquent prayers, but honest prayers. You need to be together. Some of you who don't know how to pray, find somebody and ask them, teach me how to pray. My pastor. my grandfather led my pastor's dad to the Lord and discipled him. And his dad will say this: I learned more from listening to Dr. Sheehan pray than I did to listening to his sermons. Y'all, we got to learn to disciple each other in prayer, to teach each other to pray. Listen, y'all, I'm gonna be straight with you. This is one of the saddest realities of the modern church in America, is that we're not committed to pray. We're just not. We'll put it as a value. We'll say it to each other. We don't do it. We just don't do it. We don't gather to pray. The church will show up for a lot of things. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not whatever on those things. I'm not poo-pooing on those things. They're good things. I'm sorry I can't think of a word right there. Just have to deal with it. I'm not putting those things down. But I'm saying when we will gather to eat and fellowship and play and do all kinds of stuff, but we won't gather to pray, it says something about where we think the life in the church comes from. Y'all, they'll gather for all kinds of stuff, but not a prayer meeting. And then and it's sad for me for lots of reasons. One of them is that we don't have the opportunity to to help each other learn how to engage with God. We we don't have the opportunity as mature saints. To get in front of some younger believers and model how to pray, how to talk to God. I'm not talking about how to say prayers. I'm talking about how to engage meaningfully with your Father and your God, how to get in his presence and be wrecked by his beauty and be desperate for his grace and be thankful for his goodness. I'm talking about from the heart, groaning before God. Let me ask you this, Dads. Do your kids know how to do that because they hear you do that? Or are you thinking the Sunday school teacher's gonna teach them how to do it? Y'all, we we that's one of the reasons, but listen, we also miss the opportunity just to commune with Jesus together. We just to be with him together. Listen, prayer first and foremost is about not about getting things from God. It's about getting to God, about getting into his presence and enjoying him and delighting him and experiencing him, his approval and his grace. And y'all, we need to be doing that together. Listen, Christianity is not an individual sport. It's not just something you do on your own. Y'all look. Thank you. Can we just be honest? You tried it. You tried to do it on your own and you suck at it. You're not successful because Jesus didn't call you to do this by yourself. He called you to be in community. And being in community is not showing up three out of every four Sundays or two out of every four or coming in late and leaving early. Being in community is about investing in the lives of other people, letting them pour into you and getting into the presence of God with them and praying and crying out and experiencing God in those ways. Y'all, we miss the chance to do that when we don't gather to pray. Y'all, here's the other thing we miss. We miss the opportunity to experience the work of God together. Read the book of Acts. Read it. Listen, y'all, God moved in miraculous ways in response to their prayers. He did crazy stuff. Crazy stuff. And I guess we just think, well, that was good for them. Y'all, I want, I just it. It pains me to think that I'm gonna live out my life and never experience that kind of thing. I want to see people healed. I want to see people delivered. I want to see people brought from darkness to life. I want to see people abound in every grace and every good work that's called them to do. I want to see the church make a radical difference in RDU and around the world. I want to see God move. But y'all, when we don't pray together, why do we expect God's gonna do that? Can I just say this to you? Prayerlessness. Is the sure sign of pride. Prayerlessness says, we got this. We got some great leaders. They know what to do. They're going to come up with some strategies and some values and some some ways to do this. And we're going to. No, y'all. The church didn't rely on any strategies. They didn't develop a host of ministries. They got on their face before God and pleaded with him, and God moved. When Peter was in prison, they gathered at a home and prayed all stinking like night long. And we can't pray for 30 minutes. I'm not trying to be mad, y'all. I'm just trying to stir you up. Because if we want to see God move, then we've got to learn. And here's the other thing, y'all. When we don't pray together, we don't get to experience and enjoy the answers to prayer. I don't have time to tell you about it. I got a whole list, and it's not because I prayed. It's just because God let me get on what he was doing. I had a girl call me a year ago, having some internal issues, pain, suffering, went. To the doctor, thought it was her gallbladder. Doctor says, Not your gallbladder. Sorry, there's a growth on your pancreas. She got a scan showing a growth on the pancreas. She called me and we prayed. I said to her, I said, Hezekiah got a sentence of death. And Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall and he cried and prayed. God sent the prophet back and said, I'm gonna add 15 years to your life. I said, We're gonna pray that. Called me the next day, they sent her for a higher resolution scan. And guess what the higher resolution scan said was nothing there. What was there yesterday was not there to the next day. Now you can write that off to medical malpractice or faulty equipment or whatever you want to, whatever you need to tell yourself. I'm gonna believe in the moment that God answered the prayer. She got two pictures. Y'all, why don't we just see that? Why don't we see God provide miraculously? Why don't we see God deliver? Why don't we see God heal? Why don't we see God Because we don't pray. we got we gotta learn to pray together. I wonder what does God want to do today that you are missing out on because you don't pray. Is it just because God doesn't work anymore? Remember, the scripture says he's the same yesterday, today, and forever. Maybe it's because we're not the same. Okay, I don't want you to miss this, y'all. I'm gonna wrap this up here. They all devoted themselves to these things. Everybody did it. Everybody did it. And I want you to understand, I want you to understand that it was not just the apostles, it was not just the paid staff. Or the super Christians. They all did it. They all did it. Every single last person of the 3,000 did it. They devoted themselves and they did it together. They spurred one another on. They called each other to it. They expected each other to do this. Does anybody in the room know you're not living this way? Such that they can call you out. They did it together, y'all. They were committed to each other. And I do need you to understand this it was intentional pursuit. Listen to me. The scripture does not say they were devoted. Doesn't say that. It says they devoted themselves. It's not a state of being, it's a course of action by the power of the Holy Spirit, freshly descended upon them, led by. and taught by the apostles from the very beginning, they gave themselves to steadfast devotion. Y'all, they didn't drift into these things. They chose by an act of the will to head in a certain direction. Stop wishing and move. This may be the hardest thing I'm going to say this morning, but I'm going to say it. Because I'm going to get my car and go home. And you have no control over me. You don't pay my paycheck. So I'm not worried about you. And I don't say this to be mean-spirited in any way. I'm pretty sure I'm coming off angry. Just hear it as the passionate cry of my heart for you. I want y'all to experience more. Want you to have so many people come into Christ that you can't fit them in this room. Not so you will be a mega church, but so that Carrie will be transformed. I don't care how many churches you have to start to house the 3,000 that come. I don't care how many buildings you have to build or rent or whatever. What I care about is God doing the kind of thing in you that he did in the church of Acts. And if you don't want that, if you're not committed to that, then I need to tell you this. If you're not devoted to these things, then you're not interested in being a disciple of Jesus. You're not. If you don't commit yourself, you're not interested. What you want is a life that's seasoned by a little Jesus, not a life that's saturated by him. So the question is, what are you gonna do? Y'all, you become what you do. You become what you do, what you practice shapes you, what you give yourself to will ultimately define your life. These four things were the core identities of the early church. This is how they lived out their devotion to Jesus. And I would argue that if you read the rest of the New Testament, every problem in the church in the New Testament that was addressed by one of the epistles. They drifted because they did not devote themselves. They were devoted to the Word of God, the people of God, the gospel, and prayer. And y'all, if you want to be that, if you want to know what kind of church I think Jesus wants you to be, that's it. That's it. What happened in the early church was remarkable. Miraculous. And what happened through them was because of their devotion. Changed their city, their world. Honestly, y'all, it changed our lives. changed our access to the gospel. It changed your ability to hear and know that Jesus saves. What do you think God might want to do if what was written about the first believers in Acts two was true of you? Can you just dream for a second? What would Harvest Carrie look like? God showed up. 3,000 people got saved. I'm not saying God's not here. I'm not saying God's not moving. I'm not downplaying that. But are you satisfied? Is this enough? Is this enough? Don't you have lost friends, lost neighbors, lost kids, kids in the far country, parents, siblings, somebody, anybody who's not walking with Jesus, don't you want them? Don't you want them? Don't you hope that where there are, there's a church that does these things for the sake of the glory of God so those people can come to Jesus? Can I just tell you there's a parent somewhere hoping there's a church in Kerry with a member living next door to their kid that will live these four things out and their kid will be called out of darkness into light? They're praying that will happen. Y'all, that's it. I'm calling you. I think God's calling you. Be devoted. Give yourself intentionally pursuing the Word of God, the people of God, the gospel of Jesus. God, I know my brothers and sisters feel like I've been yelling at them for 45 minutes. And I hope, God, that that won't be off-putting to them, that that won't somehow make it difficult for them to grasp what I think your spirit is saying. God, I hope that they will hear the pastor. God, I want this to be true of me. And I want it to be true of them because I believe, God, with all my heart that your word is given to us to show us how to live out our devotion to you in a way that causes us to flourish and prosper. Not as the world prospers, but to prosper in knowing you and experiencing you and making you known. God, do that for my friends today. God, call them to that. God, put your finger on the things they need to change individually and collectively. And God, you lead them to be the people you want them to be. I pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.