Sunday Morning Service 10:30 AM - The Mission and the Vision Pt 1 - Acts 2:42 - Pastor Ryan Nichols

And read verse 7 with me. For the Lord is righteous.

And if you would open up in your Bibles to the book of Acts 2. Acts 2. Well, last week we finished up our series, our study, throughout the book of Hebrews. And we're sort of in this lull time. And so, I originally had planned to try to have a missionary here this morning to share with us. He ran into some travel issues, so he's going to have to be here two weeks from today.

so that everybody understands the mission of the church here at Calvary Chapel, so that hopefully you can catch the vision and then begin to live that out in the world that is around us. And so, two years ago I put together this study and made it just a little bit longer this time and added some things about why we gather the way that we do as a church. It seems like there's always questions that come up like, why do we meet the way that we meet? Why do we hold church the way that we do?

And so, I decided just to take you on a little bit of a journey through kind of how we as a culture have gotten to where we meet as we do as a church today. So, there's three things I want to look at this morning. We're going to look at the church. We're going to look at the commission. And then we're going to look at the first part of that mission statement of reaching in.

And so, first of all, as we talk about the church. So, here, a couple of years ago, I just put in my little Bible study search engine. I just put the word church in there, right? And the first time that the word church, which in the Greek is ecclesia, the first time that the word church is used is actually in the book of Matthew, chapter 16. Jesus has just asked his disciples, who do people say that I am?

And they give a lot of different ideas. And they say, who do you say that I am? And Peter, of course, declares, you are the Christ, the Son of God. And so, Jesus says, that's a great statement. And Peter, on this rock, I will build my church. And, of course, he not only is speaking of the fact that Peter would be a pillar in the early church, but he was also talking about the confession that Peter made about who Jesus is as the Son of God,

that he would build the church on the foundation of Jesus Christ. And so, that's the first time that the word church is used. But it's interesting because as you look at the word, the word ecclesia actually has pagan roots, not pagan, secular roots, because that term was simply used of a gathering of competent individuals to discuss the matters of the city. So, one bonus you can take out of this morning is that you all are competent people.

Congratulations, you've made it. So, this is a competent gathering of men and women to discuss the matters of the city. So, that's what it was within the Greek culture. And so, the early church adopted that term because it was still an assembling together, the assembling of those who believe in Jesus Christ. So, as we gather every Sunday morning, we gather as the ecclesia, as the assembly, as the church of Jesus Christ.

And it's interesting because as you look at the church, there's kind of three ways that we can look at this. Number one, you are a part of the visible church, the visible church. And the visible church is all of the church throughout the world today. I think one of the things we oftentimes forget is that the church is not just encapsulated in the United States of America.

The church is all over the world. And there's different denominations and there's some different viewpoints, but there's some definitely tenets and doctrines that we hold to as the church, Jesus Christ being at the center and the Word of God being the thing that guides us. But throughout the world, those who claim the name of Jesus, we're all brothers and sisters because we are all part of this visible church. Well, there's also something called the invisible church, which we are all a part of, if you're a believer in Jesus Christ.

that's just bigger than me, and we are. We're not only something that's bigger than just me, it's bigger than us, and it's bigger than even the church in the United States of America, even the church in the world today. We're a part of something that is global and historical in nature. And so we're all a part of the invisible church. But then as we begin to think a little bit smaller,

we are also all part of what's called the local church. And the local church is the church of our Kansas City, Kansas. For instance, if Paul were to write us a letter today, I don't know what I would say, but if Paul were to write us a letter today, he would say, To the church of our Kansas City, Kansas. To the brethren that are gathered there. Because that's who we're all a part of.

And every church in this town that is a Bible-believing, Jesus-is-the-only-way church, we are brothers and sisters with them. We are a part of the church of our Kansas City. Now the particular local assembly that you're a part of right now is Calvary Chapel. But ultimately, whoever we are throughout the town, if we claim the name of Jesus, we're all a part of the same church.

And I bring that up because oftentimes, again, it's easy for us to forget that our brothers and sisters at the Baptist Church or the Northside Baptist Church or the First Assembly Church or you name the one, like that's still our family too, right? Like we're not just the family of Calvary Chapel of our city. We're all family in this church, in this local church in our city altogether. Well, that brings me to kind of a second question of how do we gather?

That's sort of a little bit of history about the church that maybe you didn't care about, but you know it now. But the second question is why do we gather the way that we do? Why do we gather every morning on a Sunday and meet kind of in this sort of a situation? Well, the gathering together of God's followers actually began in the book of Exodus. God set the nation of Israel free from Egyptian bondage, and he brought them to Mount Sinai.

And when he brought them to Mount Sinai, he declared to them the law. And we've talked about this quite a bit over the past few months. He declared to them the law, and a part of the law was the building of a structure where they would all gather to worship the Lord together as one collective body of believers. And that structure that they built was called the tabernacle.

Now, the tabernacle was a temporary tent that they would ultimately form into a temple. We'll talk about that in just a moment. But that tabernacle was to always sit at the center of the nation of Israel. The nation of Israel was made up of 12 tribes. So if you were to look at the way that when they would set up camp, imagine a big plus sign. You've got three, three, three, three.

That makes up those 12 tribes. And right in the center of those 12 tribes in the camp would be the tabernacle because that would be the central meeting place for all of the followers of God where they would not only meet for their sacrifices, but if there was a feast day, they would meet there for the feast day. As a matter of fact, when they would travel through the wilderness there in the book of Numbers, you would find that as they broke camp and took off to go to their next location, six tribes would be at the lead, six tribes would be in the back, and right in the center would be the tabernacle. It was always to be the center.

Well, when they moved into the land, David looked and said, man, it's a real bummer that I live in this beautiful palace and the ark of God is dwelling in a temporary tent. I want to build him a temple. And so God said, listen, you can't be the one that builds me a temple. You're a man of warfare. You're a man of bloodshed. And so I need a man of peace to build the temple.

Your son is going to build the temple. So Solomon builds the temple, and it becomes, again, the central meeting place for the nation of Israel where they would come for their feast days. As a matter of fact, towards the end of 2 Kings, maybe the beginning of 2 Kings, and then somewhere in 2 Chronicles, it lists the dedication of the temple. If you just go into your Bible search engines, not right now, but at some point in time, you can just type in dedication of the temple.

It's a fascinating section to read because the Spirit of God fills the temple. It's a beautiful, beautiful moment. But that became the central location where at least three times a year, all of the Jewish people would come, and they would worship the Lord together because God always wanted people to gather together. Well, the nation of Israel began to fall into idolatry.

The first thing that happened is that there was a split within the nation, the ten northern tribes, the two southern tribes. The ten northern tribes fell into idolatry, and they were taken captive by the Assyrians. And then the southern two fell into idolatry, and they were taken captive by the Babylonians. Well, during the time when the nation of Israel had been taken captive by the Babylonians, they were like, we want to hold on to our system of worship.

And so they started building these buildings called synagogues. And you had to have a certain number of Jewish men to make up a synagogue meeting. But this is what would take place in the synagogue, is in the synagogue, they would gather together, and there would oftentimes be some hymns of worship that were sung. I don't know if you know this, but if you get into the Psalm 121 type area, there's about 10 or 15 psalms called Psalms of Ascent, and those are the worship songs, if you will, for the nation of Israel.

So when they would gather at this synagogue, they would sing some songs together. Someone would get up in front of people and stand at a podium, and he would unroll a scroll, and he would read a section of Scripture. He would explain that Scripture, and he would apply it to their lives. Any of this sound familiar? This is what's called the synagogue model. That synagogue model was then brought back to the nation of Israel,

and that same model is what Jesus followed because he would oftentimes get up in a synagogue, and he would unroll a scroll of Scripture, and he would read and teach about it. And the same thing happened with the disciples. As a matter of fact, everywhere that Paul went, the first thing that he did is he would go, and he would find a synagogue to meet in. Well, that brought up another question.

Why do we meet on Sundays? Because I don't know if you know this or not, but the Jewish people worshipped on Saturday. That's the Sabbath day, and that was their day of worship. So why do we gather on a Sunday? Well, we gather on a Sunday because Jesus rose from the dead on a Sunday. That's why the early church called it the Lord's Day. And so they would gather together on a Sunday.

And we actually find throughout the book of Acts and even reading about it in 2 Corinthians that they would gather the first day of the week, and they would worship the Lord together following this synagogue model. So down through the centuries, that's how we've continued to do things, and now we have a similar thing today. And it always comes up, there's always someone who's really super spiritual who says, you know, if we really want to meet like the early church, we'd meet in houses. Because we all know that that's what God intended, is for the early church to meet in houses, and so we should actually be having house church if we want to do it like the early church.

And my question always is, where does it say that? Where does it say that you have to meet in a house? Well, especially if you read the book of Acts, what you find is that sometimes they did meet in houses because that's what they had to do. There was no other place for them to meet. When Paul arrived in Philippi, there was actually a meeting of the church down by the river.

Not in a van, but definitely down by the river. And then there was times when they would actually meet in a synagogue when that was allowed. And when Paul was in Ephesus, they actually met in what's called the School of Tyrannus. For two years, they met there very often, which is essentially a lecture hall on the campus of a college. So if we want to do it like the early church, we find anywhere that we can gather as the body of Christ,

and we give out the word, we worship God together, and we follow Jesus Christ. So we have to be a little bit careful when people say, well, you know, if we want to do it like the early church did, we have to do it this way. There's a little bit of freedom of movement when it comes to those things. And so we have this idea of the way that the church is today, and hopefully we have followed that same model.

It's definitely our goal to follow that exact same model today. Now the second thing that we wanted to look at is we wanted to look at the commission. Jesus sent his disciples out to do something. It was called the Great Commission. Now if we were to take a collection of all of the places where the Great Commission is mentioned in Scripture, it's mentioned in Matthew, at the end of Matthew.

It's mentioned in Mark at the very end of the book, also in Luke at the very end of the book, and the very beginning in the first chapter of Acts, there are four things that we are told about the Great Commission. If I remember correctly, I had them put them up on the screen. Number one, he said go forth and preach the gospel. The idea of preaching is the idea of a loud declaration of a message.

And so this carries with it a very evangelistic idea. Preachers get out and they preach something because they're declaring something to the people. And preaching is a really big part of what pastors do, it's what churches do, and really kind of what we're supposed to do is to preach, to declare the life-saving message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The second thing that we're told in the Great Commission is we are to teach.

That takes it from the idea of just declaring a message to making sure that you understand the message. Maybe I've even asked you some questions to know whether or not you really understand, but there's explanation involved. That's a little more disciple-making, right? And that brings us to the third is that we are to make disciples. We're to make disciples.

If you just take the word disciple on its very face value, that word disciple means a learner or a follower. And so we want to learn of Jesus ourselves and make other learners of Jesus Christ. Again, that's making a disciple, right? Has a teaching aspect to it. And then the fourth thing about the Great Commission is that we are to be witnesses. That's what we're told in Acts 1, that we are to be witnesses.

In other words, to bear witness to what Jesus has done in our hearts and in our lives. To bear witness of the reality of Jesus Christ for us. And so as we look at that Great Commission, we see what we are called to do as the church. Now, as I started into ministry quite some years back now, I was in my early 20s. And when I first started into ministry, I was in college ministry.

And there was a movement going on in the church. It was called the Emergent Church. And there were some good things about it because it made us ask a lot of questions. There was a lot that was bad about it because we tied a lot of pagan things in with Christianity. But all that to say there were lots of questions. What is the purpose of the church? What is the goal of the church?

What are we supposed to be doing? And so as I, in my young mind, started thinking through those things like, okay, Lord, what is the goal of the church? Like what is our goal in gathering as a body of believers? What's our role? What is it supposed to look like? The Lord simplified for me everything down to two things. Number one, as the church, we are to build up the body of Christ.

We are to edify the body of Christ. As a matter of fact, if you go throughout the New Testament, you will find that theme throughout much of the New Testament is that the goal is to edify or to build up the body of Christ. The second thing that I saw that the church was supposed to do is that the church was to reach out and take the gospel to a lost world. Those two things are what he called us to do.

Well, as we look at the Great Commission, we realize that building up is the idea of teaching and making disciples. Going out with the gospel is the idea of preaching and being witnesses. Through that, I kind of came up with this mission and vision statement, reaching in to build up the body of Christ and reaching out with the life-changing message of the gospel. That is what I see our mission and vision, what is supposed to be here at Calvary Chapel.

This morning, what I want to do is I want to simply talk about the first aspect of that mission and vision statement that we are to reach in to build up the body of Christ. And that brings us to where we are in Acts 2. So focus your eyes down to verse 42, if you're not there. Acts 2, verse 42. And as I always say, my favorite sound besides, come on, is the sound of pages turning.

Come on. Acts 2, verse 42. And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. This is what we call in biblical historic narrative a summary statement. It usually ties together some aspect of action that took place before with the next aspect of action that's coming afterwards and sort of fills in the blanks for us about what's going on in the meantime.

So let's build some context on this verse so that we understand a little bit of what's going on. Acts 1, Jesus gathers with his disciples for one last time on the Mount of Olives. He's getting ready to ascend into heaven, and they ask him a question. They say, Will you at this time establish your kingdom on earth? And he said, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons

which the Father has placed into motion. You go and be witnesses of me in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and into the uttermost parts of the earth. He told them, Terry, wait for the Holy Spirit, and then once you've received that gift of the Holy Spirit, go and be witnesses of me. And so that's what they do. They go back to Jerusalem. They wait in the upper room, and they're there for about 10 days

until they reach what's called the Day of Pentecost. That's one of the feasts that all the Jewish people were supposed to come back for. It's 50 days after the Feast of Firstfruits when Jesus rose from the dead. So for 10 days, they're hanging out, and they're waiting for the Holy Spirit. And then on the Day of Pentecost, it says that the Holy Spirit descended

in tongues of fire, and these tongues of fire came on all of them, and they all began to speak in other languages. works of God now I am NOT at this point of time going to give you an entire teaching on the gift of tongues that'll be for another day but this is what happened and so they begin declaring the mighty works of God and all of these people in their own language in their own native tongue they're hearing the truth of God and they're like oh my gosh these guys are all drunk because if you can't understand what they're saying it sounds like a bunch of gibberish right and so Peter stands up in the middle of all of it in Acts chapter 2 and he says guys come on we are good Jewish boys we are not drunk at 10 a.m. what you see

before you today is the fulfillment of what God said would take place in the book of Joel that that he would send forth his spirit and that the spirit would allow old men to dream dreams and young men to see visions and and all the people would be saved and so as he declares this truth he then goes on to preach the gospel of the death and the resurrection of Jesus and this is what it says in verse 38 he says repent and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and we're told in the next chapter and later in that chapter 3,000 people were added to the church that day now those 3,000 people that

were added to a group of already 200 quick math tells me that that's 3,200 people now in this church and these are the things that they did all the time they devoted themselves to these four things that we're going to talk about but before we get into those four things I want to tell you about one more word everybody with me the next word I want to tell you about is what it says right here in verse 42 they were continually devoting themselves that word devoted there means to give constant attention to to give constant attention to or to put it another way this was their lifestyle this was the lifestyle that they lived and I I want to point that out to his because it's so easy in the Western culture church to make Jesus our hobby to make church our

hobby I shared this with first service I she had a guy that I worked with one time we were talking about hobbies he goes yeah I mean but like like your hobbies church right and I was like dude my hobby is not church right like that's it's not just something that I do to fill up my empty time because I need something else to do in my life Jesus is my life it's the thing that encapsulates every part of who I am but unfortunately that's the way too many people view the church today well it's your hobby it's what you do instead of making it our lifestyle and I need to call to all of us that are in this room right now a truth that needs to be understood that that Jesus has got to be

your lifestyle but it's got to be what you're devoted to like like Jesus says I want you to either be on fire for me or I want you to be cold and get out of here I don't want you to be lukewarm because if you're lukewarm I'm gonna have to vomit you out of my mouth because that's disgusting and so if you're here this morning I want you to know I want to see your heart get on fire for the things of the Lord and not just go I mean it's kind of something I do when I have some time I want it to be the very lifestyle that you live to be devoted to it and these are the four things that he says that they were devoted to with this brand new giant megachurch that they had just started there in Jerusalem number one is the Apostles teaching it says they were

continually devoting themselves to the Apostles teaching now I I don't know if you're asking yourself this question right now but you should be what was the Apostles teaching you may ask themselves that question right now what was this teaching that they were devoting themselves to we don't always think about this but but the New Testament hadn't been written yet like like they were either living out or writing the letters that would compose the New Testament during this time so if that's the case then what is the teaching that they were devoting themselves to well they were devoting themselves to the teaching of the Old Testament the teaching of the Word of God now it would

be fascinating to have lived during this time and to be a Jewish boy or girl that had grown up hearing all of the Old Testament stories and never having Jesus applied to them and now all of a sudden you realize that Jesus is the fulfillment of all of these things that you learned all of these years there's a story at the end of the book of Luke where Jesus is raised from the dead and there's some disciples that are on their way back to a town called Emmaus and Jesus just sort of shows up with them they can't see the nail scars and and everything that's on him and so and so they're just talking to him he's like hey what were you guys talking about and they're like what have you been living

under a rock we're talking about the fact that there's this guy whose name is Jesus that we were all convinced was the Messiah and we watched brutally murdered in front of our faces and now his disciples are trying to claim that he's alive and we don't even know what to do with all of the things that we've just seen we don't even how to process everything that we've just seen and Jesus goes well let's talk and it says that starting with the law he went all the way through the Old Covenant and explained to them all of the things of Jesus all of the things that the Messiah must suffer can you imagine what that Bible study would have been like right like like I grew up in the church

I grew up being taught all the things in the church and so I grew up hearing all the Bible stories growing up I grew up hearing all the stories because I went to a Christian school as well and I remember when I went to Bible college I was walking strong with Jesus but when I went to Bible college we had to listen through Chuck Smith all the way through the Bible and Chuck Smith was masterful at tying in Jesus to everything that was going on in the Old Testament and then tying all of that to what was going on in the New Testament and it was so much fun for me because all of a sudden I started going oh I never made a connection before that's so cool partly because my brain was finally beginning

to be developed enough to take it in but but I'm like oh my gosh this is so cool this is Jesus all throughout the Old Testament and then I came across the guy when I worked at Lakeview Village a retirement community where I was a groundskeeper and I met this wonderful man his name was Truman Page and he lived in the section that I took care of and Truman was a professor of Old Testament history at Calvary Bible College and Theological Seminary up in Kansas City if the guys I work with like dude you got to meet this guy you guys like all the same stuff and and so I started going over there every day on my breaks and just saying hey can you just talk to me about the word and he loved

the Old Testament more than any human being I've ever been around in my life he helped instill in me he and my father a love for the Old Testament and and he said can I start talking to you about Jesus in the Old Testament I was like and so he just started teaching me and it was fascinating this is why I love the Old Testament so much now it's because you see Jesus all throughout it so what did they teach well they taught Jesus as he was revealed in the Old Testament and then from there that's when they started writing the New Testament but they devoted themselves to the teaching of the Word of God now we do the same thing here I don't know if you've noticed that or not but we're

pretty devoted to the teaching of the Word of God here and really there's three ways that we go about it here at Calvary Chapel number one is what we're sitting in now we'll call it lecture style teaching right that's where you all sit out there I take a passage of Scripture and I expound that passage of Scripture to you hopefully you take some notes either that or I give you a really good nap and this is lecture style teaching right this is not time for for interjection or for or for conversation between us because quite frankly that would turn into chaos really really quickly right and so when you listen to a Bible teacher on the radio that's that's lecture style teaching and it's a

really important aspect of the church I had somebody try to tell me once I don't actually think the Sunday mornings nearly as important as a small groups and I went okay well let's let's go back to what Jesus said because Jesus took part of the lecture lecture style teaching listen they're both important I'll get to the other one in just a moment but but God has set it up that through the foolishness of the preaching of man that God's Word would go out to the people there's only a whole lot better ways to do this as far as the world is concerned but God said but this is what I've chosen I'm gonna choose a foolish man that's me to give out the Word of God and God's gonna use it in a really powerful way this is a lecture style teaching this is really

important but then there's a second aspect in that small group study okay I want everybody pull that bulletin out again I know what happens I know what happens during announcements you're thinking about whether or not your coffee is full enough whether or not you actually need to run the bathroom real quick and and and you're thinking about what the message is going to be about or or maybe if there's gonna be room at Pizza Ranch later so you don't listen so that's okay I get it I get it look at that front flap of your bulletin throughout throughout the week there's something going on every single night of the week safe Saturday night five days a week there's something going on here at

Chapel or there's a small group to be a part of now those small groups are great which is why we always say you should get plugged into one of them because if that small group that's where you can start asking questions that's where that discussion that banter back and forth can begin to take place that's where iron starts to sharpen iron because now you're you're talking about hey did you agree with what he had to say on Sunday listen you do don't worry about it you'll get there later did you agree with what he had to say on Sunday did what do you think that this passage of Scripture says well let's let's let's look at some other places and you start having that back-and-forth discussion

and that back-and-forth discussion is what creates thoughts in your mind that that hopefully draw you closer to Jesus not only that but those small groups become your family within the family of Calvary Chapel and so and so we have the small group style teaching and again if you're not part of one of these please get to be a part of one of these because they're really important for your spiritual growth and so that's the second aspect of taking in the Word of God and then of course we feel like you being in God's Word for yourself is incredibly important which is why I also give you a reading plan the Lord laid it on my heart a few years ago that that if I'm going to tell you how important

being in the Word of God is every day I want to give you a plan to be in God's Word every single day and so we started putting that that reading plan in the bulletin so that you would have some sort of a guideline to go off of when when you go that's a really big book where do I start well follow this plan and maybe that'll help you and so they devoted themselves they made a lifestyle out of the Apostles teaching number two is they made a lifestyle out of fellowship out of fellowship the word fellowship means community joint participation or that which you have in common community joint participation or that which you have in common now here at Calvary Chapel we give you a minute

or two in between the worship and the word to talk to each other we call that fellowship time but that cannot encapsulate all of the fellowship that you have in your week because you need this joint participation need the community of the body of Jesus Christ and so listen sometimes you can stick around church afterwards for a little while sometimes you can but that's a great way to do it I hear people say this all the time they say I don't always know everybody in the church I don't there's so much I can't even make it to the back of the church I'm stuck here in the front and and I always like to give the same answer have you thought about sitting somewhere else this Sunday

mind-blowing right I don't know if you realize this or not but there is not a name placard on that chair with your name on it I won't allow it to happen and and I have you ever shown up to church and somebody's in your spot and you're like don't they know don't they know that's my place listen listen here's what here's my challenge for you okay next Sunday don't sit in the seat that you're in now go sit somewhere else in the church now what's probably gonna happen is the people here in the front y'all gonna go to back the people in the back y'all are gonna come to the front you still talk to all the same people the whole time but but maybe we can mix it up just a little bit maybe shuffle

things up just a little bit to where to where you get to know some people that are outside of your comfort zone right although I will say this it throws me off as a pastor when you all sit in different seats I don't if you realize that or not but when you're not in the same seat I'm like I don't even know if they're at church today but that's okay you can tell me you were and I'm gonna believe you but but mix it up a little because that fellowship is so important listen we need the body of Christ but listen fellowship doesn't even just have to take place here at Calvary Chapel a few weeks ago a few months ago maybe we put out this this directory right that's got all these people's pictures

in it and most of their phone numbers in it and a few of their addresses in it here's what you could do is as you can I challenge my board to do this all the time I challenge the elders and the deacons to do this like you should take that direction you should open it up and you should just take a page you just call a handful a handful of those people just call them up and and probably the first time that you call they won't answer because they won't have your number they'll think you're spam and but just like spam you can call back later right or shoot him a text you can feel like hey just I'm trying to get a hold you can try and check in on you and maybe you start inviting some of those

people over for lunch or or you start inviting some of those people to go to go do something with you and all sudden fellowship starts to happen because brothers and sisters as as things continue to progress in the world today we need each other in the body of Christ listen if I were to tell you all of the heavy things that have happened in some of you all's lives just this week we would all be a little overwhelmed and you're not intended to carry that alone you need other people that you can rely on that's fellowship because we have a bond that is closer than blood because we have spiritual blood coursing through us the blood of Jesus Christ and that bonds us closer together that far

surpasses any difference that we may have when I was in Bible College we went to a little missions trip down to Tijuana we went to a church down there we brought him an offering and we did a few little things around the church and before we left the pastor who did not speak very good English at all which I would expect when he's from Mexico so can we pray over you said yeah so he starts praying over us and I didn't understand anything he said until he would say hey so Christo I was like I know what that one means I don't speak Spanish but I do speak Jesus and I know that one's Jesus it and it was such a blessing to know that this guy who our lives couldn't be more different if we tried we're still bonded together by the blood of Jesus Christ that's a

fellowship brothers and sisters we try to give you as much opportunity as we can here but at some point in time you have to make this your lifestyle you have to be devoted to the fact that this is your family and you want to be a part of their lives so they devoted themselves number one to the Apostles teaching number two to fellowship everyone's favorite the Brit number three the breaking of bread the breaking of bread the idea behind the breaking of bread here is really twofold the first is the idea of celebrating the Lord's Supper together and I'll tell you why they're linked together in just a minute but it's the celebrating of the Lord's Supper now I was asked last week

why do we do communion only the first Sunday of the month and I said that's a great question we at Calvary Chaplain and most Calvary chapels are like this we don't want it to become a rote ritual or or just a religious thing that we do we want to make sure that it has impact that there's understanding because part of partaking of the Lord's Supper in a worthy manner is having the understanding of what we're doing and so we don't want to make it something that it's not and so and so we do it once a month and we do it the beginning of the month because what a great way to start a brand new month then with recommitting ourselves to who we are in Christ and remembering that what bonds us all together and what bonds us to Christ is

the sacrifice of Jesus that being said some churches do it every week and there's nothing wrong with that if that's what they want to do then that's what they should do some churches do it twice a month some some churches only do it on Wednesday nights because it's a it's a meal for family and that's the way it's supposed to be that's the way they feel like that it's supposed to be whatever it is the Bible just says as often as you do it do so in remembrance of me and so we do commit ourselves to at least once a month partaking in the Lord's Supper together but there's another aspect of this because in the early church a lot of times they would have what was called a love feast and

communion would be tied into this love feast this we'll call it a potluck that they would have on certain weeks and so and so the other aspect of the breaking of bread is is literally just sharing a meal together now as we've pointed out before we don't have a good space for that here because we've grown too much that we don't all fit in a room in this in this building believe it or not there was probably about 80 of you here at first service this morning and and at some point in time that starts getting to to be a little bit difficult to get us all in one room together we occasionally will try to rent out the ag building or someplace or go to one of the camps and have a potluck like that

but there is something great about sharing a meal together but I want to tell you something you are not bound to wait until we do a potluck to share a meal together again I'm gonna get real mind-blowing on you you can invite someone out for lunch today and you can have your own little fellowship meal you and another family or you can invite someone over to your house to share a meal to you maybe multiple families over to your house to to share a meal together some of our small groups start off with a meal together and listen the breaking of bread is so special because when we share a meal together it tends to tear all of the walls down you have to understand something about Jewish culture in Jewish culture when you shared a meal together you were

literally family with them because they they like lounged around a table and they all ate out of all of the same communal bowls and they would dip out of the same communal bowl and so there's a couple of faces right now they're mine too do you guys remember back in the 90s right when you in a chips and salsa somewhere they brought one bowl for the whole family anybody remember that time one bowl for the entire table and you were just like ain't no double dippers in this house right like you had to teach all of your kids no no you can't suck all of the salsa off of a chip and stick that exact same chip back in the bowl because that's everyone's bowl right dude that's what the Jewish people did man like they ate like you

were family when you were together it's not like that in our culture today always i mean i'd tell them first if anybody here been to the chipotle and derby right like you sit down to eat in one salt and pepper shaker separate you from the rest of humanity when you go in that place all right my wife won't hardly let me eat inside there anymore you know why because if you put a salt and pepper shaker between me and someone else you know what i'm gonna do i'm gonna talk to that person right because i hear everything that goes on around me not always the conversation of my family but the family next to me you better doggone believe i'm listening and i can hear what they're saying and i'll be sitting there going

and i'll look at my wife and she's like and i'm like and i have a choice to make at that point in time do i choose a ride home in peace or do i choose to say what i want to say i rarely choose peace in those situations but we just live in a different world but when you invite someone over to your house for dinner right like first of all they get to see your home and it's amazing the same thing is that you ever been someone's house they have the most pristine house ever and they're like please excuse the mess and i'm like listen i've got a mess to show you let's let's see what you can do with my place okay i got a truck that i could really have you make a mess out of right now and so yeah i'll excuse the mess and then you come in and you sit down and

somebody's kids always running around and usually it's yours right like like some kids running wild and because you get to see them in the wild at that point in time and then what happens is you're wearing the white shirt and you're always serving spaghetti or barbecue, right? I should know better than to ever wear a white shirt, and pretty soon, it's on the shirt, and all the walls are broken down because you just spilled ribs or spaghetti on your shirt, and everybody goes, ha, ha, ha, ha, it happens to me all the time. Mom goes and gets the Tide pen, and now I'm 45 years old, and some other mom is taking care of the Tide pen on my shirt, and it's like, man, all of a sudden now, we're having fellowship. Why?

Because there's no barriers between us. We're just being real with each other now. That's why the breaking of bread is so important in the family of God. And so listen, we'll do the best we can to keep trying to occasionally provide opportunities, but don't wait for us to take the opportunity. Seize the opportunity for yourself. When you sit in that new place next Sunday,

and you meet that brand new family, invite them to lunch, and just see what God does with that friendship. See what God does with that relationship. And so they dedicated themselves. They devoted themselves. Number one, to the apostles' teaching, giving out the word of God. Number two, to fellowship, having things in common with each other. Number three, the breaking of bread.

But then number four is prayer. They devoted themselves to prayer. Now, if you read this literally in the Greek, it puts the word the in front of it. They devoted themselves to the prayer. And I can appreciate that a great deal because they put the in front of everything. But it carries with it the idea of formality. In other words, formal prayer. The early church was always having prayer meetings.

Like they lived on prayer because they didn't have freedoms. They didn't have a freedom to be a Christian alliance or whatever it's called now. They didn't have J. Secular who would go and stand up. But they had each other. They had each other. And so they prayed for each other and they prayed with each other. And so that's what we like to provide for you here at the church.

Is first of all, I don't know, not everybody knows this, but it is in the bulletin, but I don't know if anybody pays attention to it. That's okay. Every Sunday morning, there are two opportunities for prayer meetings. They take place in this room back here. At eight o'clock a.m., I take a little list of all the things that are going on in the church. And there's a small group of us

that gathers back here and prays. Anybody is there. I would love for us to have to move rooms because we had too many people in that prayer meeting at eight a.m. But you say, Ryan, I'm not an early riser. Wait, there's more. At 10 a.m., a prayer meeting takes place. As soon as first service ends, there's a group of ladies that goes back in there and prays, and everybody's welcome.

Anybody can go to either one of those prayer meetings. And I pull all of those prayer requests that we pray over off of our communication device that we use, it's called FlockNote. And if you're not signed up, if you're a part of the church and you're not signed up for FlockNote, I would encourage you, I think it's in the bulletin, but you can go to flocknote.com slash CCAC, and you can sign up to receive the prayer requests. Because while there's formality of prayer, prayer meetings like that, there's also just you getting out and praying.

There's also just you praying for the things that are going on in the world. Last Saturday night, I won't use names because, well, it was on the thing, but anyway, we're online, whatever. I received an urgent request about a girl in our church, her father just had something crazy, or maybe it was two Saturdays ago, just crazy health things going on in his life. And it was scary, and she was scared.

She said, can you please just pray with me and put this out on the prayer chain? So I put it out on the prayer chain. He goes in to the hospital. All of a sudden, everything's fine. Test came back normal. And I know, be honest, I know because I heard it from him that he believes that the reason why he's here today is because of the prayers of God's people. Because we had everybody in this church praying,

we had everybody at the Baptist church praying, like prayers were being offered for this man. And God is at work through those things. But also, as you see those prayer requests come through, you go, I don't know what that name is. I'm gonna pull out my handy-dandy church directory, and I'm gonna learn who that is. That way, when I see them on Sunday during fellowship time,

either during the service or right after the service, I'm gonna go track them down and say, hey, how is so-and-so doing? See how that makes the whole body work together? And so we devote ourselves to prayer. Now, there's one other prayer meeting that I didn't mention. Every, or the first Sunday of the month, there's a prayer meeting down at the end of the hallway.

Anybody's welcome. It's from six o'clock p.m. to seven o'clock p.m., I believe. And it feels like, I have people tell me this all the time, they're like, an hour of prayer. That is so long. Have you noticed how ADHD I am? And I can sit through an hour of prayer. I'm here to tell you right now, that hour goes faster than any hour in my entire week. Because when you sit down with God's people

and you all start praying about the things that are going on in the world, it's no longer just a time for me to sit with my eyes closed. You realize you're at war with a bunch of other people. You guys have just gone into battle together. And that battle takes place. And you can feel that battle take place. So I would encourage you the first Sunday of the month

to take part in that prayer meeting that takes place. Because prayer should be our lifestyle. And so there's these gatherings where prayers were offered. And so these disciples, as the church was continuing to grow they devoted themselves. They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, to the word of God. They devoted themselves to fellowship because of what they had in common with each other.

They devoted themselves to the breaking of bread because that's where deep fellowship takes place. And they devoted themselves to prayer. And so I wanna close with two challenging statements, maybe questions for you. Number one, how are you gonna get involved? How are you gonna get involved? Listen, there's lots of things that you can do to serve here at the church.

There's lots of places to be plugged in to dig in and reach in here at the church. There's lots of places where you can help build up the body of Christ here at Calvary Chapel. How are you gonna get involved? Because it's wonderful that you show up here on a Sunday morning. I love seeing your bright shining face. I love being able to greet as many of you as possible.

I love being able to hear your stories and to talk with you. But what I really wanna see is you become a disciple of Jesus Christ that makes other disciples because that's the discipleship cycle that's supposed to take place within a good, healthy, thriving church. So how are you gonna get involved? And then my second question is this, how are you making this your lifestyle?

How are you making getting into God's word the lifestyle that you live? How are you making fellowship the lifestyle that you live? How are you making the breaking of bread the lifestyle that you live in? And maybe most importantly, how is prayer the lifestyle that you live? Because remember, God doesn't just want one part of your life. God wants all of your life.

And the more that you make Jesus the lifestyle that you live, the greater power that you have in your walk, and quite frankly, the greater joy that you have in the journey. Amen? Let's all stand. Amen.

And if you'd bow with me.

Father, we come before you. And Lord, I thank you for the time that we've had in your word this morning. Lord, I thank you that you are so good to us and that you have provided sections like this to remind us of what we are called to do. And so Lord, I pray for all of us as the body of Christ here at Calvary Chapel of Ark City and the local body throughout our Kansas City.

And God, I just ask that we would be those disciples who would devote ourselves to these things, that we would be involved in every part of our lives and that we would see the work of the ministry go on through us. So Father, be with us as we go out from this place. Give us eyes to see and ears to hear. In Jesus' name, amen. Be blessed.

♪ Worthy is the lamb who was slain ♪ ♪ Holy, holy is he ♪ ♪ Singing his song to him who sits on ♪ ♪ Heaven's mercy seat ♪ Let's do that again. ♪ Worthy is the lamb who was slain ♪ ♪ Holy, holy is he ♪ ♪ Singing his song to him who sits on ♪ ♪ Heaven's mercy seat ♪

♪ Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty ♪ ♪ Who was and is and is to come ♪ ♪ With all creation I sing praise to the King of kings ♪ ♪ You are my everything and I will adore you ♪

Let's do that again.

♪ In golden rainbows of living color ♪ ♪ Flashes of lightning, rolls of thunder ♪ ♪ And you, the only wise king, yeah ♪ ♪ Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty ♪ ♪ Who was and is and is to come, yeah ♪ ♪ With all creation I sing praise to the king of kings ♪ ♪ You are my everything and I will adore you ♪

♪ Filled with wonder, awestruck wonder ♪ ♪ At the mention of your name ♪ ♪ Jesus, your name is power, breath and living water ♪ ♪ Such a marvelous mystery, yeah ♪ ♪ Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty ♪ ♪ Who was and is and is to come, yeah ♪ ♪ With all creation I sing praise to the king of kings ♪ ♪ You are my everything and I will adore you ♪ ♪ Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty ♪ ♪ Who was and is and is to come, yeah ♪ ♪ With all creation I sing praise to the king of kings ♪ ♪ You are my everything and I will adore you ♪

♪ Yes, I will adore you ♪ ♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ ♪ Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty ♪ ♪ Who was and is and is to come, mm-hmm ♪ ♪ With all creation I sing praise to the king of kings ♪ ♪ You are my everything and I will adore you, yeah ♪ Oh, father God, we do adore you. Oh we give you praise and we give you thanks for who you are. Lord, you are the king of kings and you are on your throne. So Lord God, we adore you.

We lavish praise upon you this morning, God. I thank you for your word. I pray that you would bless us as we leave here today. We love you.