you will, open up to the book of Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2. So, we're in between books and we're going to be getting into, we're going to be getting into 2 Corinthians. But before we do, I felt like the Lord wanted me to slow down just a little bit and talk about the vision and the mission of not only the church, but the vision and the mission of our church. So, when I first got out of Bible college, there was a movement that was beginning

or maybe in the middle of, it was called the Emergent Movement. And everyone was questioning, why is the church here? What's the point of the church? As a matter of fact, there was a book that came out at one point in time, and it was called the Emergent Movement. And it was a book that was called, they love Jesus, but they hate the church. And so, I used to ask myself questions a

lot that went along those same lines. Like, okay, well, what is the role of the church? What are we supposed to be doing? Why do we gather every Sunday? Why do we exist as the church in general? And I, what I realized is there's really two main reasons why the church exists. Number one, to build up the body of Christ, to bring Christians to a place of maturity in their

relationship with Jesus, so that we can be molded into the image of Jesus, right? But it's the body of Christ. But the other reason why we exist is to reach out to the world that is around us, to take this gospel message that we have, this message of hope, to a world around us that seems to be lacking hope right now. Matter of fact, if you look at the Great Commission, you can kind of sum up all of the four gospels in the Great Commission that Jesus gives in two ways. Make

disciples and be witnesses. Same sort of formula, right? Build up the church, make disciples, be witnesses, witness to the world about the hope of Jesus Christ. And so as I thought about those things and then became the pastor of Calvary Chapel, I thought, so what is my vision for the church? What is the vision that I feel like God has given me for Calvary Chapel in order to move

forward from where we are? As a matter of fact, I've been asked that question a lot in the past few months. And the vision that I feel like God has given me, which is nothing new because I've presented it before, but never in a full layout sermon in this way, the vision for Calvary Chapel actually goes along those same lines. We're calling it reaching in and reaching out. The

reaching in is the aspect of the building up of the body of Christ, the making of disciples within the church. And then the aspect of reaching out is taking this message that you and I have, taking this truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Notice I didn't say taking your truth to the world around you, but taking the truth to the world around you, because there's a distinction that needs to be made there. Have you noticed that here recently? And that's the way we're going to do it. We're

recently that I even heard it on some TV shows that I've watched. They're like, well, that's your truth. And it's like, well, there's no such thing as your truth, my truth, her truth. There's only the truth. And we take that, the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world that's around us by reaching out. And so I was, as I was thinking about that, I thought we need to make

sure that we understand what the vision and the mission is for Calvary Chapel. And then we as the church body live that out. And so I want to take some time to explain those two aspects of the vision in the mission of Calvary Chapel. And so we start in Acts chapter two, verse 42, with the aspect of reaching in to build up the body. Now take note of Acts 2 42. This is what it says.

They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Now, that's what we would call one of Luke's summary statements. He is at the end of a great event, now given a little summary statement about what's taking place. So we need to talk about what took place to lead up to this summary statement verse. Jesus had ascended back into heaven. After

he rose from the dead, he ascended into heaven. And when he did so, right before he did so, he told his disciples some important things. They said, are you at this point in time going to establish your kingdom here on earth? Are you going to establish your kingdom here on earth? Are you going to establish your kingdom here on earth? Are you going to establish your kingdom here on earth?

In other words, are you going to do away with the rule of Rome and actually be the king right here on earth now that you've risen from the dead? And he gave them a very interesting statement. He said, it's not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father has put into place. You are to go and wait in Jerusalem for the coming of the Holy Spirit and then you are to be witnesses for me. Now I think that's an interesting statement that I think we could really learn from right now

because you know as well as I do that we're looking at the things around us right now and we're saying, is Jesus going to come back today? And the answer is maybe, but maybe not. But the mission remains the same. Whether he comes back today or a hundred years from now, we are to be empowered by the Holy Spirit and then be witnesses for him. And so that's exactly what they did. They went back to Jerusalem

and they tarried in the upper room. They were there for about 10 days and as they waited for Jesus, it says in the beginning of Acts chapter 2 that they were all in the upper room together. And as they waited, the Holy Spirit descended and brought upon them the Holy Spirit. And they were in tongues of fire and they were each speaking in a tongue and all of the people that were around them could hear the wonderful works of God being declared in their own language. And everybody says,

what's going on here? This is craziness. These guys must all be drunk. And Peter says, come on guys, it's 10 a.m. We're good Jewish boys. It's a little too early for that, don't you think? No, what you're seeing is you're seeing the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. This is what God had promised through the prophet Joel that was going to take place. That's what you're seeing. It's because Jesus has ascended

and now he sent him. And it says, And the first part of the mission of the church and that's to build up these 3,000 brand new believers and the part of the building up of those 3,000 new believers comes to us in verse 42 where it says that they did four things in order to build up the church. order to reach in and build up the body. And so I want to look at these four things because these should be the things that identify what we do to build up the body here at Calvary Chapel of Ark City. Number one, well, first of all, it says that they devoted themselves. The word devoted

means to give constant attention to. In other words, this was their lifestyle. Now, I want to say a quick word about this because oftentimes the things of God in 21st century America are not a lifestyle. The things of God are something that we do to make ourselves feel better. There's something that we do so that we can feel a little bit better about all the things that we do during the week.

But here's the thing about the early church and to truly reach in and build up the body is that it can't be the Sunday morning thing that we do. It can't be the Sunday morning and Wednesday night thing. It needs to be the lifestyle that we live. There should be a constant devotion to these things. I was watching a video first thing this morning and I didn't have time to

get it sent up to them to have it played, but it was a pastor who was speaking to a group of people talking about his experience training up some church leaders in China. He had gone over to China to train up some leaders there and he was talking to these people. I think he said there were 22 of them. He said, I don't know, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

I can't remember that. But he had them all together. And he said when he first got there, he asked him a question, he said, what happens if we get caught? Because you know, that's, it's illegal to do that over there. He says, what happens if we get caught? They say we immediately get sent to prison and you get deported. And he said, wow, he said, how many of you have have been to prison for your

faith? He said 18 of them raise their hands. Isn't that amazing? 18 of them have spent time in prison, he said. So of you church leaders, how many people do you represent? And I think it was something like million people that they represented because that's how strong the church in China is. And so he said, I only had 15 Bibles to hand out. So I handed out these 15 Bibles to these, to these

people. I said, you guys are just going to have to share. And he said, I noticed one lady didn't need to, didn't need the Bible. He said, I told him to turn to first Peter. And I read the passage out of first Peter. And she was quoting it as I, as I was reading it. And he said, I asked her, I said, how do you know this? And she goes, I memorized it when I was in prison. Well,

Bibles are illegal in prison. He said, how'd you get it? She said, somebody wrote it down on paper. He said, what happens if you get caught with that piece of paper? She said, it gets confiscated. He said, so how did you memorize first Peter off of a piece of paper that you knew was going to get confiscated? She said, you memorize quick. Isn't that amazing? You see, that's called a lifestyle

of constantly devoting yourselves to these things. And so it goes on and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, he talks about the church and he spent, I think, three days with these church leaders. And, and, and they said, will you pray for us that, that we can become like you in America where we can meet anytime we want to? And, and he said, I can't, I can't pray that you'll be like me. He said,

because I don't want the church in China to become like the church in America. He said, you guys have spent three days sitting on a hard floor, listening to the word in America. If the pews aren't soft enough, people leave. He said, you sat for three long days taking in the word of God. In America, if the message goes past 30 minutes, the people leave. He said, I don't want you to become like the church in America. I want

the church in America to become like you. And I think that that's a real challenge for us as believers in Jesus Christ, because is it our lifestyle or is it just something that we do? And so they devoted themselves to these four things. Number one, the apostles teaching, the apostles teaching. What does he mean by that? Well, literally the study of the word

or the instruction of the apostles. And what the apostles did is they took the old Testament and showed how Jesus fulfilled those things. And literally they were writing the new Testament while they were teaching these things. Because if you think about it, the new Testament is the interpretation of the old Testament through the presence of Jesus Christ. And that's what they

did. And he says, they constantly devoted themselves to this instruction because they knew that if they were to live in a pagan culture, if they were to live in a pagan culture, if they were to live in a pagan world that had been so affected by the idolatry, as well as sometimes the self-righteousness of Judaism, that they would need to know what God's word had to say in order to live properly. Because it would be that study of God's word that would transform their hearts and minds. It would be the study of God's word that would teach them and instruct them. And it would be the study of God's word that would get them in touch with the Savior who

had purchased them with his own precious blood. That is why we need to know what God's word is. We give great place in Calvary Chapel of Arc City to the study of the word of God. That's why we hold this in very high regard. The philosophy of Chuck Smith, the guy that started Calvary Chapel, I was thinking about this as I was preparing this message. And I'm like, I hate to call him the

founder of Calvary Chapel because he would have been angry if you would have said that. He would have been like, no, the Holy Spirit founded Calvary Chapel. And so I was thinking about it. I thought, you know what he would want to be called is the lead servant of Calvary Chapel. That's what Chuck would want to be called. Matter of fact, y'all don't know this about him, but when he would show up, he would, when I was in Bible college, he came and

taught every Friday and they said, don't clap for him. He hates that. He doesn't want you to clap for him. He said, they said, when he comes in, he wants you to point to Jesus. And so that's what we did. When Chuck Smith got there, nobody clapped. We all pointed to Jesus because that's who he wanted to glorify in everything that he did. I always found that to be pretty interesting about him.

And so, and so the, the, the functionality, the, the philosophy of Chuck Smith with Calvary Chapel is if you teach it, they will come. If you teach it, they will come. And then the other aspect of that is that we are to simply teach the word of God simply. Now there's, I think within a church, three ways that the word of God is taught. Number one, you have lecture style. This is what we're

doing right now. You all are sitting and listening to what God has shown me through the word. And I am teaching you line by line. I am teaching you verse by verse, what the word of God has to say. We do that on Sunday morning. And we do that on Wednesday night, as I've tried to make Sunday morning when we're going through the New Testament. And I've tried to make Wednesday night when we're going through the Old Testament.

But then there's another way that you can study God's word. And that's through small group settings. And we offer two or three of those too. We have a men's study that meets on Wednesday nights, a women's or a Monday nights. We have a women's study that meets on Monday nights. And then we have a women's study that meets Thursday afternoon. Those are devoted to the small group study of the word of God, where you're not just sitting and

listening, although I think that's a very valuable thing to do. You're actually discussing the ideas that you have about what God's word has to say. And perhaps talking about the areas where God's word is affecting your life. That's what youth group is for the teenagers. That's what the college group meeting is for those college kids, is it's a time for them to discuss what the word

of God is doing in their lives. And so we offer those small group settings. This is why I'm telling you, we're going to go through some of these things that are in the bulletin here Sunday morning, because I am a firm believer that we don't just show up to church. You are the church. So the other way that you can study the word of God and devote yourself to the apostles teaching is by studying it on your own. And I think that the greatest thing that you

can do is to study on your own so that when you come here on a Sunday morning, I can either confirm that the Holy Spirit is showing and showing you through the word of God or even introduce you to new things that you hadn't even seen in the word of God before. I used to get together with a group of kids on a Friday morning and we would just talk about what we were reading in the word. And I put entire sermons together based upon what some of those kids told me they learned from the word of God, because that's what God's word does. And as he ministers it to you and you minister to somebody else, you're devoting yourself to the apostles teaching.

As an answer to that question, what are you going to do? Well, I tell you what, I hope we can have common understanding when we have a ihnengy experience. because that's what we do. Somebody becomes like, who are the apostles teaching us? But then we have another thing come up in there called the Bizerion and it is a suggesting that we dev spacecraft. Others can say, Amber, but you're nervous.

You might say, well, but you're not nervous. Look, nothing. You're not nervous in your eyes. Anything. Nothing. when you say fellowship, everybody thinks of one thing and one thing only. They think of food. Now, listen, I think that that's an important aspect of fellowship, but that sort of misses the thrust of what fellowship is. Fellowship literally means, if you look the word up, it literally means

community or joint participation. It can also mean that which they have in common. In other words, you come together as a community, you jointly participate because we all have one thing in common. I remember when I went to Bible college, I came from a small town in Kansas. I was not only, as I've told you before, not only the only person from my state, but the only person from my region

of the nation, right? When I was in California. And at times it would feel a little bit alone because I was like, oh man, I'm the only one who even understands half of the things that I say because I speak Midwestern and they speak California, right? Like it really is a different language. And the things that I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say, I would say,

I remember the first time I said, doggone it. Somebody said, what, what, what'd you just say? I said, doggone it. They're like, what, what does that even mean? I'm like, what do you mean? What does it mean? It's like the most, it's the most common thing in the world you say in Kansas, right? Oh man, that became a, one of my friends took that and ran with it.

I had the entire Bible college saying the word doggone it. It was great. It was great. They're like, do you hear what that guy said? This is the funniest phrase ever. Let's say it. But what I realized was no matter how different my background was, we all had one thing in common and that was Jesus Christ. So you could bring people together from South Africa, from Australia,

from Hawaii, from the Midwest, from California, from Washington, Florida, all over the world. We had a kid from England that was there. You could bring them together from all over the world and we could all fellowship with each other because we had one thing in common and that was Jesus Christ. Therefore we had something to talk about. Even if we had nothing else in the world to talk about because we didn't have the same interest

because I never learned to surf when I was in California. Sometimes I kind of kick myself for it, but it is what it is. You know, I had friends, matter of fact, I went to college with a pro surfer, never learned to surf. And yet he and I could still talk on a very deep level because we had the one thing in common and that was Jesus Christ. And when we are here to build up the body,

we are to be a community. My concern about not only our church, but all churches in general is that we have lost the aspect of community and family. When we come together here on a Sunday morning, and this is what always concerns me about the online presence is that when we come together on a Sunday morning, I don't want you to be an individual that sits in a seat. I want you to be a member of the family. That's come to the family meal. That's come to the family meeting. And when

somebody hurts, we share that with each other. And when somebody is happy, we share that with each other. Um, one of the guys, uh, I can't remember which commentary I read this from, but it says that we are to be with the people of God, loving and supporting each other. And as our fellowship with each other grows, our fellowship with the Lord grows. Have you ever noticed that as we begin

to fellowship with each other, talking about the things that we have in Christ that are in common, our fellowship with the Lord grows. You know why? Because we inspire each other. As I hear what God is doing in your life and you hear what God is doing in my life, it starts pointing us more towards Jesus. And then what happens? I go home and I fellowship with the Lord. Oh Lord, I'm so excited about what you're doing in this

person. I'm so excited about what you're doing in the church. And now my fellowship with the Lord is growing. And you know what happens as my fellowship with the Lord grows? My fellowship with you grows. Because now as I'm fellowshipping with him, as everything is right with him, I'm now continuing to pour those things into your life. And I am available and ready to listen to

what God is doing in your life. You see, as the body of Christ, we must devote ourselves to fellowship. You know what that means? That means sometimes you have to be a people person, even when you don't want to be a people person. I know that there are people that exist that would just as soon pandemic was living your best life, right? Because you're like, I, this is, this is actually the greatest thing that's ever happened to me because all I do is

sit at home and I watch Netflix or Amazon prime, whatever your thing is, or whatever streaming service you have now, because there's like a million of them. I, I watch those things and I order my groceries. And the only person I actually have contact with is the person that I confirm that, yes, this is my blue car. My name is Ryan Nichols, and you can just put them in the trunk.

That's the only contact I have. And some people are completely content to live that way. And you go, I can be a believer and do that. No, you can't. You say, Ryan, that's pretty harsh. Really? Because it says they devoted themselves to fellowship. That means that once you get saved, you just got a part of a really weird family, right? My good friend, Jerry Horton used to always tell me,

you can pick your friends and you can pick your nose, you can't pick your family. And quite frankly, when you show up to church and you've accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior deal with it, son, that's your family, right? And we get the weird ones, right? You know how I know? Cause I'm here and I see all you, right? We, we get the different people in church and that's okay. We're to be that family. And so this is,

this is how we do this. Stop and talk to somebody, right? I know that sounds really odd. And I'm talking to the people that love to, to run out. And I don't care if you don't want to stick around and talk, pray about why you don't want to stick around and talk. I understand that there are things that, that make us have to go. As a matter of fact, right after church, I have to leave pretty quick because we have a cheer competition to go down to

down in Oklahoma city, right? I get to go raw rod up for my daughter. Who's who's going to go flip her body all over the, all over the cheer mat. I get those things, but what are you doing to spend time with the body of Christ? Who are you sharing your hurts with? Because the body of Christ wants to know what those hurts are. Who are you sharing your joys with?

Because the body of Christ wants to know I always hate when somebody has had something tragic go on in their life. And I find out about it three weeks later. Now, maybe that's on me because I didn't take time to talk to him, but quite frankly, I can only get to so many people at one time, but I'm like, why didn't you tell me? And they say, well, I didn't want to burden you.

I say, burden me, tell me, tell somebody and they'll tell me. But when somebody suffers alone, I go, but we want to be the body of Christ. We want to fellowship. And as things continue to get worse and worse in the world, we need each other more and more because we're each other's strength. We are to devote ourselves to fellowship so that we can grow together. Number three is the breaking of bread. Now,

I think there's two aspects to this phrase of the breaking of bread. It can carry with it the idea both of sharing meals together, and it can also carry with it the idea of the Lord's Supper. Now, we have struggled to do the sharing of meals together because I have wanted so badly to just protect as many people as I can throughout the COVID thing and protect us from lawsuits and all the other things that go along with it. So we haven't done a lot of fellowship meals, partly because we don't have a great place for a huge fellowship meal here. So I'm waiting till hopefully

springtime and we can go outside. That's the plan right now, just so you know. Pray for a warm march, because if we can get a warm march, we're gonna plan a fellowship meal and we're gonna go outside and do things the proper way and just really enjoy each other. But we have men's breakfast. But you know what else you can do besides things that take place in the church? You could do this magical

thing called inviting someone over, inviting someone out to lunch. Somebody came to me one time and they said, why doesn't the church do meals anymore? And I said, well, who have you it over and they said no one it was like well maybe you could do a meal and have somebody over wouldn't that be great see that's the breaking of bread and i think we should devote ourselves to that devote ourselves to eating together because you know when you learn the most about somebody when you sit down and have dinner with them because you learn about their eating habits and even better you learn about their kids eating habits and and how much they can spill things like right i think the best thing that happens is if you go over to somebody's house for dinner and

somebody spills a cup all over the place because all of a sudden you know what just happened all barriers have been broken down you're like oh i'm so sorry i just spilled stuff all over your table and they're like oh it's okay and you're cleaning it up together and pretty soon you're laughing and pretty soon nobody's worried about anything and you're just really fellowshipping with each other the breaking of bread is a beautiful thing but it not only does it mean the sharing of a meal together but it talks about the sharing of the lord's supper together the breaking of bread meaning that the sharing in communion why do we celebrate communion at Calvary we do it once a month why because that's what we've always done right I hate to say it that

way but it just is we don't want it to become mundane we want it to be something where we really pay attention to it but at the same time we want to make sure that we celebrate it in the way that God intends but we celebrate it once a month and when we gather we do so in a way that we realize we're sharing something together as the body of Christ as we take part in the juice and as we take part in the bread we realize that we all have partaken of the same meal for salvation and that's the death of Jesus Christ but whether it's the breaking of bread through the gathering of a family together or whether it's the breaking of bread in celebrating the Lord's Supper as a family together we

devote ourselves to it why because in those things there is a oneness there is a unity as a matter of fact eating back then back in in ancient times meant that you were sharing all of yourself with that person matter of fact there was a community dipping bowl now listen if you want to really know somebody you have a community salsa bowl that includes their three-year-old right can you imagine that right like that's that's knowledge right there that's unity right there but that's what those things are to celebrate they celebrate not only the unity that we have with each other through the bond of Jesus Christ but they celebrate the unity that we have with Christ because of the death of Jesus Christ why do we devote ourselves

to those things because we're one body through Jesus Christ and so they devoted themselves to the Apostles teaching they devoted themselves to fellowship and to the breaking of bread but then take note of this fourth thing they devoted themselves to prayer they devoted themselves to prayer if you read this literally in the Greek it says they devoted themselves to the prayer I appreciate that because I put though in front of everything it's my favorite thing to do But it's because there's a formality to it. You see, the idea here is that they didn't just devote themselves to individuals praying on their own, even though I absolutely think you should do that. They devoted themselves to prayer gatherings, to times of formally coming together to pray

because they knew that both individually and as a church, they had to be completely and fully dependent upon God for their direction, for their sustenance, for their lives. And so they would gather themselves together for prayer. As a matter of fact, when they were waiting for the coming of the Holy Spirit, it says that they were gathered together in the upper room, waiting on the Lord, fasting and praying. A little bit later in the book of Acts, Peter's gonna get arrested.

What do they do? They get together and they pray. There's another scene in the book of Acts where the disciples are told, you can't preach the word of God anymore. If you do, we'll put you to death. We'll imprison you. And so what did they do? They gathered together as the body of Christ and as the apostles and they prayed. They prayed for boldness because they devoted themselves

to the gathering together and praying. That's why we present opportunities every week for us as the body of Christ to pray together. Every Sunday morning, we have two options for people to come together and pray because I think prayer is one of the most important things that we can do. I hope that every small group that takes place, because I know everyone I've ever led, I always start off, the thing with group prayer.

What do you need prayer for? And how can we all pray for you? I used to make my teenagers, this sounds really bad. I used to make my teenagers pray for the person on the right. Right? Because I wanted to make sure everybody got prayed for. And those teenagers learned how to pray, even though it stressed them out. And you know what they'd always say when it was group out loud prayer time?

They'd always say, but what if I say something stupid? I'll say, God doesn't care. And just plan on the fact that you're going to. Right? I always use the fact that the first time I ever got up and gave a message was at a Bible college. And I gave, they would allow us to give a devotion. And so I think there's maybe like four or 500 people in my Bible college.

Maybe not that many. It might've been two or 300. There's a bunch of people that I'm giving the message to. And I'm this 20 year old kid and doesn't know come here from sick. I'm about anything. And the Dean of men is sitting like straight back there. And the Dean of men was a super, like he retired from construction and he was just this gnarly, the greatest guy in the world,

but you didn't want to get on his bad side. Right? And so he's sitting back there and he always would just sit like this, just looking as tough as anything in the world. And I'm giving my message. And I said, that really sucked. And I just look at him and he goes, and I said, am I allowed to say that out loud? Giving a devotion? I said something stupid. Oh no.

And I've learned to just deal with it. Right? From that point on, I knew I'm going to say something stupid. Almost. Every time I talk. And so I just deal with it. And that's what I tell kids. I'm like, listen, you're going to say something stupid, roll with it, move on, but gather together and pray and have the new people pray. I love when brand new believers pray.

They're like, God, so I don't really know how this works, but I just know they've got something gnarly going on in their life. Just Lord, you know, that sounds bad. God also, there's a lot of poor people in the world. Can you just, you know, I don't know, give them jobs or something. And they pray the most genuine prayer ever because they haven't learned Christianese yet.

Right? Like sometimes I hear people pray and they are making it so flowery. Oh, have you ever heard anybody pray in King James? I love when people pray in King James. Lord, thou will be done on earth as thine will is done in heaven. Right? Like, Hey, if that's how you want to pray, great. But just get together and be normal and just give it to God. They gather together for prayer.

Why? Because it showed their complete dependence upon the Lord. And if we are to reach in, we need to be praying as the body of Christ. You say, Ryan, you don't offer enough opportunities for the body to pray together. You know what? Every Sunday after church, you have the opportunity to gather with other believers and pray. You ever thought about that? Think about this.

You could, if you hear what's going on in someone's life, say, can we just pray for you right now? Hey, you guys come here. This is what they've got going on. Let's just pray for them right now. You know, you could call somebody and pray with them. That's part of reaching in. That's part of building up the body of Christ. I think sometimes we feel like everything has to take place

because it is said so in the bulletin. And sometimes you can just spontaneously do what God calls you to do because that's part of devoting yourselves to the building up of the body of Christ. And so as believers in Jesus Christ, the first thing that we do, the first mission of Calvary Chapel is to reach in, to build up the body. But the second aspect of it is that we are to reach out to the world that is around us.

And so when we come to chapter three, we see a perfect example of them reaching out. Now I've got a few verses to read to you. We're going to read verses one through 19. So look at chapter three, starting in verse one, and allow your mind just to relax and take in. And I'm just going to read the first 19 verses to you. Now, Peter and John were going up to the temple

at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer. And a man who had been lame from his mother's wife, mother's womb, was being carried along, whom they used to set down every day at the gate of the temple, which is called beautiful, in order to beg alms, or money, of those who were entering the temple. When he saw Peter and John about to go in, he began asking to receive alms. But Peter, along with John, fixed his gaze on him and said, look at us.

And he began to give his attention, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, I do not possess that silver and gold, but what I do have, I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ, the Nazarene, walk. And seizing him by the right hand, he raised him up. And immediately, his feet and his ankles were strengthened. And with a leap, he stood upright and began to walk.

And he entered the temple with them, walking, leaping, and praising God. I won't make us sing the song this morning, don't worry. I've done that before. I've learned my lesson, probably. And all the people saw him walking and praising God. And they were taking note of him as being the one who used to sit at the beautiful gate of the temple to beg. And they were filled with wonder and amazement

at what had happened. While he was clinging to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them at the so-called portico of Solomon, full of amazement. But when Peter saw this, he replied to the people, men of Israel, why are you amazed at this? Or why do you gaze at us as if by our own power or piety, we made him walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers,

has glorified his servant, Jesus, the one whom you delivered and disowned in the presence of Pilate when he decided to release him. But you disowned the holy and righteous one and asked for a murder to be granted to you and put to death the prince of life, the one whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses. And on the basis of faith in his name, it is the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man whom you see and know, and the faith which comes through him has given him this perfect health in the presence of you all. And now, brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your rulers did also.

But the things which God announced before him by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he has thus fulfilled. Therefore, repent and return so that your sins may be wiped away in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. What an amazing story. I always love that one. Here these guys are, they're just heading to the temple,

doing the thing they do every day. There were three times for prayer. This was probably the night, this was the later time, three o'clock in the afternoon when they're showing up for prayer. And as they're showing up for prayer, there's just a guy, a guy they'd probably walked by hundreds of times before. Jesus had probably walked by this guy. If he'd been there begging for more than 40 years,

Jesus had no doubt seen him there. It just wasn't time yet. And as he asked them for money, I love that Peter and John are broke, right? Like I never have cash with me. So I'm always just like, I'm acting like an apostle. So Peter and John are broke, they've got no cash. And they're like, we don't have any cash, but I'll tell you what, this is what we do have.

In the name of Jesus Christ, rise up and walk. And of course he goes walking and leaping and praising God. And they all get so excited and everybody's like, oh my gosh. And Peter's like, whoa, hold the phone. This wasn't us, this was Jesus. And you should turn to Jesus too. And so this is such an amazing story that he paints for us. And from it, we see that not only did they reach in,

and build up the body of Christ, but they reached out. Now I point that out because there was some persecution that they were gonna face and the potential is there to do exactly what the potential is there for us to do, to look inwardly. We've got our Christian community. We have our Christian friends. Let's never go out into the world. Let's never go out amongst the people

because they'll defile us. Let's just hold up in our little Christian circle and we'll keep ourselves safe from the world around us. Meanwhile, God's saying it is now impossible for you to be witnesses of me if you're never around anyone to witness to. But the disciples didn't do that. They went out amongst the public and were willing to get their hands dirty

in the work of reaching out to the world around them. From this little story, I have pulled out five principles for reaching out. Five principles for reaching out. Number one, it begins by living a lifestyle of prayer. Look at chapter three, verse one. Peter and John were going up to the temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer. From that, we learned that praying was their lifestyle.

Praying was the lifestyle that they lived. Why is it important that praying be the lifestyle that you live? Because you cannot be sensitive to the spirit of God if you are not in contact with the spirit of God. If you are not in contact with God and what he has in his heart for people, you will never have that same heart for people. And so we have to live this lifestyle of prayer.

And as I live this lifestyle of prayer and pour out my requests and needs before the Lord, you'll find that God also starts laying other people on your heart. Because prayer, its main function, is to align our hearts with God's heart and his will. Prayer is never meant to accomplish our will on earth. Prayer is meant to align our hearts with God's will on earth.

And may I remind you, that God's will is that none should perish, but that all should come to everlasting life. It doesn't necessarily mean everybody's going to come to everlasting life, but it's his greatest desire. And so if I am to reach out, it must start by me living a lifestyle of prayer. Number two, we see that if we are to reach out, we must have a love for people.

Look at chapter three, verse four. And it's what it says. But Peter, along with John, fixed his gaze on him. Now, why does he do so? Because his heart is moved for this guy and his need. If we are to reach out, we must develop a love for people. Now this goes very much hand in hand with what we talked about about fellowship. Some of us say, but you don't understand,

I'm not a people person. I don't even really like people all that much. Now that may sound funny, but I know people that have said that exact statement. Now that may sound funny, but I know people that have said that exact statement. Now that may sound funny, but I know people that have said that exact statement. but I know people that have said that exact statement.

And that's not an excuse. You say, people are so hard because they're so mean. You should begin to develop a love for people. That's what God should be doing in your heart as you live that lifestyle of prayer. I'm gonna put a friend of mine on the spot right now. I'm gonna put Lewis on the spot because I know Lewis. And one of the things that I know about Lewis

is that he loves people and he is willing to go to anyone and pray for them. But you know what? And I can say this boldly because Lewis has said it in so many Bible studies. He said, apart from Jesus Christ, I really don't like people that much. He said, but after I came to know the Lord and after I really got my heart in line with God, I realized that people are who I need to love the most.

And so he does so in a very practical way by praying for anybody that he possibly can. But it starts with having a love for people. And that can only be developed with a lifestyle. And that can only be developed with a lifestyle. And that can only be developed with a lifestyle of prayer. But the world around us can tell when we care. The world around us can tell when we really love them

or if we really just wanna prove our point. They can see the difference between the two. And so if we are to reach out, we must have a love for people. Number three, if we are to reach out with the gospel of Jesus Christ, we must have an attitude of availability. An attitude of availability. I'll point you back to the same verse. I'll point you back to the same verse.

Peter and John, Peter, along with John, fixed his gaze on him. Why is that important? Because they were on their way somewhere. They were on their way to the prayer meeting, right? And it would be easy for them to walk by and say, I see that guy in need, but man, we are running late already. We're already running late for the prayer meeting, so we gotta hurry up and get there.

No, they didn't have that attitude. They had this attitude of availability that said, I don't care what else I've got going on. When God says stop and talk to somebody, I'm gonna be willing to stop and talk to somebody. I am going to be available for ministry, even if it's not convenient. I'm gonna be available to minister, to reach out, even when it's not convenient.

John Corson in his commentary said this. They had reached the point of learning this important lesson. Interruption is often a divine appointment from God. But you see, if I don't have that attitude of availability, if I don't spend my day saying, Lord, how do you want me to minister today? Who can I reach out to today? How do you want me to minister the truth today?

Then I won't have that attitude of availability. But may I say, all of these have to work in a succinct order. It must first start with a lifestyle of prayer, which will then lead you to a love for people, which will then give you that attitude of availability. In the busy world that we live in right now, which, have you ever asked yourself why we're so busy?

Like what am I actually busy getting to? Like what am I actually in a hurry for? Right? I remember when I was a teenager, there was a country music song. And though I'm not a country music lover, I was a wrestler and coach Wayne Jackson played country music in the suburban on wrestling trips. And I learned a lot of country songs because of that. And there was this song,

I think it was even by Brooks and Dunn. I don't know how I know that. I think I just do. It said, I'm in a hurry to get things done. I rush and rush until life's no fun. My hips want to swivel so bad right now. All I really want to do is live and die, but I'm in a hurry. But I'm in a hurry and don't know why. Right? Like that song is so true. Why are we in such a big hurry?

What happens if I show up to that thing a little bit late? Well, people might be mad. People are going to get mad at me anyway. Right? Like I live a life where I give people a reason to be mad at me all the time right now. Right? Like last week's sermon was a great reason for a lot of people to be mad at me. Like if they're going to be mad at me because I'm late, who cares?

Well, we don't understand. I've set my schedule. Oh, we talked about this last week. You set your schedule, but God plans your ways. Right? That attitude of availability. You ever ask yourself, how many hurting people have you walked by whose eyes were crying out for help that you didn't have time to stop because the line in Walmart was too long and you had to hurry?

We should have that attitude of availability. Number four, a willingness to serve. A willingness to serve. Notice what it says in verse six. But Peter said, I don't possess silver and gold, but what I do have, I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And seizing him by the right hand, he raised him up and immediately his feet and his ankles were strengthened.

Now, I want you to take note of the fact that no gospel message has been proclaimed at all yet. Right? We've gone through all of these things and we haven't got to anybody preaching yet, because we forget. We forget sometimes that reaching out has less to do sometimes with how well you can present the gospel and more to do with what your attitude towards people is.

Like that's the difference between truly reaching out and being obnoxious. There's this willingness to serve. He saw that there's this guy and he was willing to take the time to pay attention to him. And now he just needs to do something very practical to serve him, which is going to lead to the opportunity for a salvation message. But it starts with a willingness to serve.

For you, it may be seeing somebody on the side of the road who is changing their tire all by themselves. And all you think is, I've changed a tire before, or I've never changed a tire before, but I can talk and I can help. I could help lift that heavy thing out of the back of their car. Have you ever thought about that? You ever thought about just the simplicity of you serving

somebody else and then they say, why were you willing to stop and help me? Or it just happens to start up a conversation. You see, sometimes reaching out is just being willing to serve in the most practical way possible. Carrying your groceries in for your neighbor. Mowing your neighbor's lawn when you see that it's gotten a little out of hand, which is maybe not

like them. Or it's gotten a little out of hand, which is exactly like them. And so you want to help them out. Those are practical ways. And if we are willing to serve, then God is willing to open up opportunities for us to reach out even more. Because you know what? Sometimes the world needs to know more about Jesus than anything, is that He loves them. And He loves them as they are.

And He doesn't care who they are. Don't give anybody a litmus test as to whether or not you're willing to serve them. Oh, that's a drug addict. I can't serve them. I can tell the way that they're strung out. And so I'm not going to stop and I'm not going to help them. Oh, I can tell that they live a homosexual lifestyle, so I'm not going to really reach out too much to them.

Can't do that as the church. Jesus didn't do that. Jesus didn't care who people were. He was willing to reach out with the truth. Now, He wasn't willing to leave them that way. He wasn't willing to say, now, just continue on with what you're doing. Good job, son. No, He would tell them, go and send them more. But He didn't care to start with who they were. And as believers in Jesus Christ, as members of Calvary Chapel

of Arc City, Kansas, I hope that nobody gives a litmus test to somebody that you're going to reach out to. Because everybody's in need. And if it weren't for the grace of God, I would be them. If it weren't for the fact that God, by His grace, saw fit to reach down and pull me out of the miry pit and put me back on my feet and on the right path, I would be them.

And so I can't look down on them. I can only look at them and gaze upon them and be willing to serve them where they are. What kind of practical ways has God been showing you to serve but perhaps you've been too nervous? Or perhaps you've thought, no, that's stupid. I had an opportunity like that here recently and I reached out to somebody and as soon as I did,

I felt absolutely stupid about it. I was like, that's the dumbest thing in the world. They're gonna think I'm crazy. Come to find out, not only do they not think it was crazy, it was exactly what God had orchestrated. Practical ways to serve people. Number five, we then take advantage of open doors. We take advantage of open doors. I won't read the whole thing over again,

but take notice of what happens in verses 11 through 19. Because Peter and John had lived a lifestyle of prayer, because they had a love for people and because they had the attitude of, Because they had a love for people and because they had the attitude of, availability, because they were willing to serve in a very practical sort of way, the door was open for them to present the gospel. This guy is as stoked as anything about the fact that he can walk again, right? And everybody is amazed because everybody knew this guy.

Everybody walked by him on a consistent basis and they'd seen him there before and the fact that he could walk was a miracle and they're going, what did you guys do? And Peter does the right thing. He says, we didn't do anything. It was Jesus. And you need to know Jesus. And you need to know Jesus too. Remember, he's the one that you crucified. How does he take advantage of this open door?

Well, he makes sure that the focus is on Jesus. He points out the fact that sin is the great problem. And he points out the fact that Jesus is the only answer. Turning from that sin and turning to Jesus is the only answer that there is to truly deal with the problems that they really have in their lives. He takes advantage of the open door. And this is where we come in and we give the truth.

You say, Ryan, I don't know how to present the truth of the gospel. Yes, you do. You know that I was a sinner and Jesus saved me. How did he do it? I have no idea. All I said was, Jesus, I'm a sinner. I need you to save me. And he did. And it was the most amazing thing ever. And people will say, I want to do that. And he'll say, great. Let's do it. Let's pray together.

You're like, Ryan, it's not that simple. Yeah, it is. Because when the Holy Spirit does that work, it's that simple. I think I've shared this story before about the first guy I ever got to lead to the Lord. Listen, I'm not an evangelist. OK? I'm not the guy that can stand up and give the salvation message and 30 people come forward. I'm the guy that gives the salvation message

and I never hear anything about it, right? Maybe some people come forward. I don't know. That's not me. I'm a teacher. This is what I do. But the very first guy I ever witnessed to, a group of us from Bible college went down to Oceanside to the Bar District down in Oceanside, California. And we were street witnessing to people. And I'd never done it before.

I'm a 19-year-old kid living in Southern California who doesn't know anything. And I'm from Kansas, right? And so they handed me these. They handed me these tracts and said, hand these out. And so I go up to this guy, this big old Marine, right? Like Oceanside, that whole area. Camp Pendleton's right there, full of a bunch of big, burly Marines, all ready to get on a bus

to go down to Tijuana to do things Jesus doesn't approve of, right? And so I stand there. I said, have you gotten one of these yet? And he goes, no. And he's puffing on a cigarette. He goes, no, no, I didn't. And I said, want me to tell you what it says? And he goes, sure, why not? And so I walk up. I walk him through everything that it says. And it talks about the fact that man is a sinner.

It talks about the fact that God is a savior and that you need to give your life to Jesus. And so I walked him through that whole thing. And I said, would you like to give your heart to Jesus? And he goes, yeah. I said, you know this is like a serious commitment. Like, I tried to talk him out of it for about five minutes because I thought I just did something wrong.

I've made it seem too seeker friendly. I've made this seem too easy. It's not really a commitment. But as hard as I tried to talk him out of it, he still wanted to come to know Jesus. You know why? Because that's what the Holy Spirit does with the word of God. Quit worrying about what you're going to say and start letting God use you. But it all starts with us being willing to reach out.

And as the body of Christ, we have to reach out. Because right now, the world is primed for some hope. The world is primed for these things. And we have to take advantage of the open doors, living a lifestyle of prayer, having a love for people, that attitude of availability. That's what we need. That's what we need. That's what we need. That's what we need to do.

That's what we need to do. We need to have the willingness to serve and then just walking through that open door. Okay, Ryan, so what do I take for me home from this message? Well, we now, this is my last point, we now need to live out the vision and the mission. We as believers in Jesus Christ, as the members of Calvary Chapel of Ark City, we have to live out the vision and the mission.

Here's the thing, the church is not a building. The church is not an organization. The church are individual people. The church are people who belong to Jesus Christ. Therefore, the only way the mission and the vision can be lived out is if the individual people do what God is calling them to do. We can offer so many things, we can offer so many opportunities,

but unless the people of God take ownership of it, then we're just another social club, right? And we don't want to be that. So what does it mean to live out this vision? This mission? Number one, we need to pray to catch the vision. We need to pray that we'll catch the vision. Begin opening your heart to what the Holy Spirit wants to do on the inside of you.

I don't ever want this to be a pull up your bootstraps and work really hard sort of a thing. No, it needs to be praying to catch the vision. Lord, this is what the pastor says we're supposed to be doing as the church. Give me the vision. Give me the vision for what that looks like. Allow yourself to be surrendered to the work of the Holy Spirit, because here's what I'm finding,

and here's what I'm finding even here at Calvary Chapel right now, is people are coming to me and they're saying, I'm really enjoying coming to church, but God's telling me I need to get more involved. God's telling me I need to be more a part of the church and not just attend the church. What can I do to serve? What can I do to get plugged into more Bible studies, to more things to where I'm actually a part of the community?

That happens because they've been praying to catch the vision, and the Holy Spirit's been doing that work in their heart. So pray, Lord, what areas do I need to get more involved in? How do I need to be more involved with reaching in? How do I need to be more involved with reaching out? But it's going to start with that work of the Holy Spirit in your life.

I fear sometimes that we as believers in Jesus Christ aren't willing to surrender our hearts to what the Holy Spirit wants to do, because we're afraid of the sacrifice that we'll have to make. Because living out what these guys did, reaching in and building up the body, and reaching out with the gospel of Jesus Christ, is going to mean there's sacrifice on my part. It's going to mean that there are things about me that God's going to have to change. But it's a sacrifice that's worth making.

So, number one, we pray to catch the vision. Number two, we obediently live out the mission. We obediently live out the mission. As you pray and God begins to lay things on your heart, start doing what God has called for you to do. Start deciding you do have time to attend that Bible study. Start deciding you do have time to get plugged into different areas of the church.

I think time is one of the greatest excuses that we use in our culture right now. I just don't have time. I use it. I didn't have time. Well, I actually probably did have time if I really looked at my day, like how much time did I waste, or how many stupid things did I think I was in a hurry to get to? How was I in a hurry to get things done and rush and rush until life's no fun?

Sometimes it means prioritizing. Perhaps some of you here have gone through the debt snowball thing where you've had to pay things off and one of the big things that you have to do is you have to prioritize things. What do I do right now that's a need and what do I do right now that's a want? And I bet if we did that debt snowball with our time, do a time snowball, I should have coined that term, note to self, do a time snowball, then we would see a really major change in our lives and we would start going, what's important and what's not?

We're to obediently live out this mission, again, through the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen? Let's all stand. I pray that God continues to minister to you through the power of the Holy Spirit as you leave this place and that God will lay on your heart the things that are from Him. Father, we come before you and just thank you for this morning. And I thank you for what your word has to tell us.

And Lord, I do pray that our hearts would be open to you, that we would be open to the things that you want to do, that we would be surrendered to you in that working of the Holy Spirit. Father, may we as the body of Christ not only reach in to build each other up, but reach out to the world that's around us. And we just thank you, Father. In Jesus' name, amen.

Be blessed.

Amen.

For spirit still the wisdom I stand in glory will see His face I'll serve my King forever in that holy place Thank you, oh my Father for giving us your Son Your Son your spirit thank you oh my father for giving us your spirit the lord bless you