Acts 2

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

Last week, we entered a brand new series on Acts. Entered a brand new series on Acts, we called it Origin Stories, and part of the reason that we did that is because it helps us see where we are right now and where we're from. And it helps connect those two ideas, right? How do we get here from the beginning of the church in Acts. And last week, what we saw in Acts 1, we covered all of Acts 1 last week. If you're interested in how that sermon series started, you can go back and listen to that, either through our church app or through our website. The last week's sermon is up, and it's usually up maybe like a day or two after on a Sunday. Last week, we saw Jesus kind of flip the script on the disciples. We talked about four different pivots, and the disciples are having to kind of rethink what it is to follow Jesus, almost completely. They thought it was gonna work one way,

but then it's gonna work this way. They thought Jesus was going to be there, and Jesus is not gonna be there. He's gonna give him the spirit. And so the disciples then are responding in some resiliency and they are determined to stay together and they're determined to move forward. But Jesus, before or in the middle of doing all that, he left them with a promise. He left them with a promise in Acts 1:5. He said that you're gonna be baptized with the Holy Spirit very soon. Wait for me, wait for this promise to happen. You're gonna be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Today, we're gonna walk into Acts 2, and we're gonna see the fulfillment of that promise and kind of all that it means. So we're gonna get straight into the text. We're gonna be in Acts 2 today. You can either turn, there should be a Bible maybe near you, but there's also, if you have a Bible app on your phone,

you can turn to that. We're gonna be in Acts 2. We're gonna go through pretty much the whole chapter today. We're gonna hit some highlights. It's gonna be good. So at the very beginning of Acts 2, remember we left the disciples. They were hanging out together. They were choosing another disciple to replace Judas. They're coming together, they're praying, they're singing, they're being the disciples still, even though Jesus is not with them directly. So Acts 2, one, everybody's in one place, and then in verse two, you start to see some miraculous things happen. Acts 2, two, and suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. So pretty early on in the second chapter of Acts, we're figuring out something different is happening. Something miraculous is about to happen. Verses three and four of Acts 2.

It says, and divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Okay, so the Holy Spirit is now coming in a brand new way. This is not something really that we've seen before. Okay, we hadn't really seen this before, all through the Old Testament. Hadn't seen that before, this is something that is brand new, and it's coming in a new way, and it's coming in full force. And part of that is challenging to us because this is our heritage, right? This is all of our heritage in Acts 2. This is if you call yourself a believer, then you claim Acts 2 as part of your heritage, right? Okay, but it brings up some challenging questions, some obvious questions, right? Like, as we continue to read Acts 2, it's like, should the church always be like this?

Why is this, you know, why is this so different than my everyday experience? Like, why doesn't Drew get up there with a divided tongue of fire on top of his head and say things? And I'm only half kidding, but if we're reading it in Acts 2, shouldn't it be normative? Shouldn't it be something that we see at least often? Maybe once a month, we'd have a tongue on fire, the, okay, no? But at the very least, maybe like, shouldn't all Christians speak in tongues like this? Right? Some pretty obvious questions arise that even if we're not even that curious, as we read, we're gonna go like, okay, like, something's happening here, something's a little bit different, okay? This is not the only thing in Acts that is going to require extra explanation, okay? And we are going to revisit it, I promise, okay? We're gonna see speaking in tongues again, we're gonna see miraculous signs and wonders,

we're gonna see all kinds of things, okay? But for now, let me just help you. Let me just help you as we read, okay? When we have miraculous things that we read about in Scripture, we need to avoid two things. We need to avoid seeing too much and we need to avoid seeing too little, okay? We need to avoid seeing too much, in other words, if we see it and we're reading it, we don't need to make too much of it like, we don't need to idolize it as some kind of standard. Like, oh, this happened in Acts two versus, you know, three through six, well then it should happen every week. Well, obviously not, okay? Obviously not. It's not gonna happen, it's not gonna happen all the time.

You know, if you're making too much of it and you're like, okay, well then speaking in tongues should happen at every worship service for every church every time, okay? That's making too much of it, that's idolizing what's going on here. But also, we can see too little of it. We can minimize it, we can dismiss it. And we see it too little, we'd say, well, okay, you know, miracles like this don't happen anymore. Speaking in tongues doesn't happen anymore. You know, it's all, that was just for Acts two. That was just localized right at that point in time, never gonna happen again. Okay, that's seeing it too little, right? So you're either seeing it too much or you're too little. What I'm gonna say today, to stay on track, my encouragement, take one, take one event at a time. Take one event at a time, okay?

Look at what's happening in the scripture first. Let the scripture build its own case, okay? Read what's happening and believe it. It's not gonna answer everything. That is not some like golden rule that's gonna help you read every part of the Bible every time. What it is going to do is gonna help you not see too much and not see too little, okay? We need to take it as it is and understand it. And if we do that, I think it's gonna help keep us grounded as we continue to swim through the great and mighty book of Acts, okay, and all the stories that are there, okay? So as we read about today, as we read about tongues and miraculous signs and wonders, and we're gonna do this, like I said, this is not the only week. As we continue to do this, resolve to take the events one at a time. Resolve to let scripture speak, to let it build its own case. I'm not, again, that's not some magic bullet

that's gonna solve every problem, but it is going to keep us grounded and it's gonna keep us looking in the text, in the Bible itself. That's a good place to look, okay? So with that, let's continue reading about tongues of fire on top of people's heads, okay? Let's keep going. We're gonna get a little more context in verses five and six. Acts two, five, and six, it says, now there were dwelling in Jerusalem, Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven, that's important. And at this sound, the multitude came together and they were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language. Okay, a couple of quick observations. Number one, when the disciples started, when the tongues of fire appeared, they seemed to have moved physically because they started in a room and now there's a multitude gathering around them kind of in the temple area, we'll find out later.

Okay, so something happened and the disciples were like, we gotta go to this temple area. Maybe they were close to the temple area, maybe they weren't, I have no idea. The text doesn't really tell us and that's okay. But what we can know is, the quick observation is, it moved the disciples from a private place to a public place. The Spirit did that, okay? So they're like, okay, we got tongues of fire in our head and I don't know if they saw a tongue of fire on each other's head and we're like, you got it, you got it. I don't know, I don't know how this went, but I'm trying to put myself in that situation I would encourage you to also, it's just, it's strange and wonderful, but you're like, what do we do now? What's the aftermath of this? And it made sense of them in some capacity to go to the temple, so they do. The other two quick observations,

this instance of speaking in tongues, I really wanna help you see this, this instance of speaking in tongues right here in Acts 2 is completely 100% unique in the entire New Testament. So hear me, I'm gonna explain myself in a second. This does not happen again in the entire New Testament and I'm being specific. The reason it doesn't happen is because there are many other places in Acts, in the rest of the New Testament that refer to tongues, okay, but what that refers to is people speaking in a different, maybe heavenly or angelic language, okay, some kind of prayer language, something, they're speaking another language. That's not what's going on here. What's going on here is that the disciples are speaking one language, but everybody else is hearing it in their own language. Does that make sense? And that doesn't happen anywhere else in the New Testament.

That's happening here and it's a big deal, okay. So again, you know, the disciples probably thought they were speaking intelligible words, okay, they're just talking, but everybody else, all these different nations that are represented are hearing it in their own language. So that's the miracle, I mean, if we're gonna locate the miracle on the mouth of the ears, I'm not sure, I don't even know if it matters, but it's a different animal, it's a different kind of thing than what's happening typically in the rest of the New Testament, okay. So this is completely unique. We need to remember that. Also, over 14 different ethnicities are all hearing the gospel at the same time, or as verse five puts it, every nation under heaven. Okay, so the Holy Spirit, what the Holy Spirit's doing is doing one thing among many cultures all at once, okay.

What seems to be happening here, okay, the Holy Spirit's taking this event, and it seems to be trying to bring all of this together, right, so these disciples who are in private, now they're in public, all these different ethnicities, and it's the Passover feast, so a bunch of different Jews are all there, and they're all kind of in the temple where the Jews are gonna be, and there's this loud commotion, and the Holy Spirit is preaching the gospel all in their own language. What seems to be happening here so far is that the Holy Spirit is working through the disciples to signal and authenticate that God is doing something completely new, okay. So the Holy Spirit's kind of like waving the flag, okay, it's like, hey, something big is happening. This is not normal, this is not your everyday occurrence. Something big is happening, and it's authentic, it's not just something weird, it's something of God.

Something of God is happening right here. The Holy Spirit coming in this way is monumental in human history, okay. It's something that forever changed all of this. When Peter begins to preach, this is exactly what he says. So starting in verse 17, Peter is preaching, and he begins, he opens his sermon, he stands up among everybody else, and he opens his sermon by quoting Joel chapter two. What does he say? Verse 17 says, in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my spirit in all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. What Peter is saying by quoting Joel two, he's saying to everybody there, what you're seeing right now is the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. Everybody's speaking in tongues all at the same time, that's the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy.

This is God pouring out his spirit, the Holy Spirit, on everybody in a brand new way. And this is new because in the Old Testament, what you had, you had God's spirit kind of resting on people, okay. That kind of happened a couple of different times, right. Like God, his spirit rested on a guy, basaleel, whenever he was going to fashion instruments for the temple, okay, for example. But it's a really random, like you don't even know who basaleel is, it didn't matter, but he was one of the guys in the Old Testament that had the spirit rest on him. What I'm trying to tell you is that, that's a rare occurrence in the Old Testament. It happened a handful of times across a couple of thousand years. And in the New Testament, it's happening way more than a handful of times in an instant. Okay, so whenever Peter's quoting Joel two, that's what he's talking about. And it's saying, look, the Holy Spirit

is not just resting on like one person, usually a leader for one task, and then it's done. It's saying the Holy Spirit is now for everyone. Everybody's dreaming, everybody's prophesying. Old men, young men, men, women, everybody. And they're all connected to God now in a new and a more intimate way, all right. In verse 21, in finishing his quote of Joel two, it says, and it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. This, it signals the rest of what we read in the entire New Testament, okay. That is quoted in Romans. That is quoted a couple of other times, actually. And really truly, this is the good news. This is the good news that you and I believe, right, that God is working in a new and a more intimate way. And we are the recipients of that. Everybody who follows Jesus is given the Holy Spirit as a deposit. This is what Ephesians one, 13 and 14 tell us, okay.

That when you say, yes, I wanna follow Jesus, I'm gonna call upon the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ, I love you, save me, I'm gonna follow you, I repent of my sin, I believe, okay. What happens in that moment spiritually? That person receives the Holy Spirit, they begin following Jesus Christ, that Holy Spirit is given to them as a guarantee, okay. Before this, that whole process that I just described was not the case. Something else was happening, I can't really explain that. I don't really know. The Bible doesn't really talk a whole lot about it. But here in Acts two, it is ushering just, I mean, the floodgates are opening on a new way. It's a way that you and I take for granted. It's a way that we think it normally happens, and it's true, but it was brand new for here.

And so now the Holy Spirit is inside of people, consistently, we find out in the rest of the New Testament, consistently renewing people, consistently teaching people, consistently inspiring people, reminding people, like all of these things. So we have the Spirit of God inside of us, and the Spirit of God is continually like pricking our hearts, speaking to us, motivating us toward love and good deeds, like continually happening. And that is nothing short of revolutionary. And this is the beginning of the revolution.

Okay, Peter then moves into the meat of his sermon, verse 22, so just the next verse. It says, men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know, okay, he's not finishing the sentence yet, I cut him off a little early, but what I'm trying to tell you is that Peter here is introducing this whole slew of people, potentially tens of thousands of people. It's hard to know how many people could hear him at once or whatever, but it was the court, so he could speak and it kind of had good acoustics. So he could speak and people could hear him. So he's talking about Jesus here, and what does he say about Jesus? Look at the next two verses. It says, this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you, pointing to the crowd, you,

crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men, God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it, okay. So this Jesus, he's being very specific, this Jesus that did all the miracles, that was authenticated by God, everybody attested to what he was doing, that it was of God, you crucified and killed him. You crucified and killed this Jesus. Verse 36, Acts 2:36, it says, let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him Jesus, both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. So he's talking to all the Jews and he's saying, listen, the Messiah that you've been waiting for, this person that you thought was going to usher in and solve all your problems, that you thought was going to bring salvation to everybody, this person, this Messiah, he has come and you killed him

and God raised him. And now he's Lord overall, okay. This is not what the Jews in that crowd were expecting to hear that day. They were expecting to celebrate Passover. But what Peter's telling him is shocking, it's confrontational. I'm sure there's more than a few that are taken aback and here was some of their reaction, verse 37, it says, now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart. And said to Peter and the rest of the disciples, brothers, what shall we do? Let's take a second before we see the answer to this question because what I want to highlight here, and I think it's not hard to see but I want to make sure that we see it, the Holy Spirit is lighting up this entire process, okay. In other words, this wasn't Peter and the disciples to be like, you know what they really need to hear. Well, you know what would really work if we all got tons of fire in our heads

and then they all were staring at us and I got this whole sermon written, it's gonna be great, guys, let's do it. Okay, that's not, the Holy Spirit is orchestrating this entire thing, even Peter's words. Even the conviction that people are feeling as Peter is speaking those words. Peter and the disciples literally are bearing witness. They are giving testimony. They say, I saw this Jesus, I was with him. I saw these signs and wonders. I can attest that they were God's work. It's authentic, they bear witness. And some people were scoffing. Verse 13 says that somebody yelled from the crowd, they're like, they're drunk, don't listen. Had too much wine. In fact, Peter, whenever he begins his sermon, he's like, there's no way we could've had too much wine. It's only nine in the morning. Which I think is an interesting argument to make, right? Like, it's too early for me to be this drunk.

Okay, I guess it makes sense. If that's ever my excuse, come, make sure you call me a little bit later. So some are scoffing. And truly, it's probably most that are scoffing. Because what's easier to do? Give them your attention or scoff? Come on, man, it's a no-brainer. Everybody's scoffing. Everybody's looking at that going like, oh, drunk. You know, probably making some jokes, maybe throwing some things at them, I don't know. But it's easy to do that. But what were others doing? Others, the Holy Spirit was cutting their hearts open, spiritually. That there was some spiritual open heart surgery that was happening right there. That people came to that and did not expect to hear that. But when they did hear that, when they heard that truth and it kind of washed over them, they were just undone. They didn't even know how to, like, what do we do? I mean, the crowd is not trying to be exaggerating

right there. They're not trying to stick the landing on the moment. They're coming to the disciples and going, I don't even know what to do with that information, but I know I need to do something with that information. I don't know how to process that in a way that leads to action. Can you help me figure out what that action is, brothers? What shall we do? And as part of our origin story, this process needs to inform how we are made to work with the Spirit. Remember, this is part of our origin story, right? So we need to kind of pay attention to what's happening. We need to attest to kind of the general direction here, what's happening. The disciples are just, I mean, they're just being obedient. The disciples are just kind of walking in, they're just saying, I saw this, it's my testimony, it's what I saw, it's my experience, it's what happened. There's the truth.

And what's the Holy Spirit doing? The Holy Spirit doing, the Holy Spirit is kind of lighting up that whole process, lighting all of that truth up and convicting people with that truth. Look, when you and I share the gospel, when you and I talk with somebody about what truth is, even if it's just, if we're using three circles, if we're using, we're talking about our experience, whatever we're doing, we're sharing our story, we're talking about this Jesus, right? Talking about this person.

It is helpful to understand that you and I are not the surgeons in that moment, right? It's not your scalpel, you're not wondering exactly how to prick this person's conscience, you're not, it's not, you're not doing any of that, you're not the surgeon. You don't need to account for all the things that could be going through somebody's mind. You don't need to wonder what their specific life situation is exactly, right?

You don't pick the perfect time, you're not in control of it. You're not the surgeons, you just scatter seed. We talked about this in Home Groups this week. Jesus gives us a few parables on this and the most pointed is in Mark 4, 26 through 29, and basically the summary is the kingdom of God, it goes out like someone scattering seed. The kingdom of God goes out like someone scattering seed.

That it almost, and the way we see it in the parable, it's like, man, it's just somebody, you ever seen those turf spreaders, right? Those little things that you put all the seed and feed in and you just kinda walk and it just spreads it everywhere, it just spreads it out? I mean, that's kinda what we're talking about, a human version of a spreader, right? You're just literally, you know, you're just going and walking and spreading. You're just literally scattering seed. You're not a surgeon. What you need to understand is even whenever you have something like this happening, we're gonna see this over and over and over and over again in Acts specifically, but in the New Testament generally, you're going to see it's the Holy Spirit that's the star of the show. The Holy Spirit is lighting up that process. The Holy Spirit is giving people words to say. The Holy Spirit is convicting people of sin.

Look, I've been around long enough to hear stories of people saying, hey, I showed the gospel with this person. Dan, hey, that's a great one. I showed the gospel with this guy and it was terrible. I mean, it was a zero out of 10 on gospel presentation awesomeness, okay? And I mean, like face down reading the sheet, like do you believe this? And the guy was like, yeah, I wanna be a Christian right now. And Dan, he's going, and even the other guy, both of you were like, are you sure? Uh, really? And it's because in some way, and I'm not trying to be critical of you, Dan, too much, but it's because we think it's up to us, right? We think it's gonna be these great words that we have and people are just gonna be like, oh, that was so awesome. I don't even know what to do now. Tell me how to be a Christian. I mean, that's not, it's not how it goes. How it goes is the truth goes out, scattered seed.

Sometimes people respond, sometimes they don't. And you aren't in control. Sometimes they scoff at you and say you're drunk. And sometimes they don't. Sometimes they respond. Sometimes they ignore you. And sometimes they respond. Your end of that bargain, like you're part of that cooperation, it's not a bargain, the way that you cooperate with the Spirit is not that you're some surgeon, it's that you scatter seed. You're just faithful, there's just scattering. Just scattering. We simply throw seed a lot like the disciples are doing here. And here is Peter's answer to his question, verse 38. Verse 38, Peter said to them, when they say brothers, what should we do? And Peter said to them, repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Very, very plain answer here.

Repent and believe, you're gonna obey in baptism. So what have we seen? We've seen the Holy Spirit stirring up disciples among a multi-ethnic sea of people. 14 different ethnicities are represented there. It says every nation under heaven, in verse five. We see the Holy Spirit lighting up that process, giving the words to the disciples, convicting people of sin. And I don't wanna lose this. What we're about to read is also what the Holy Spirit is doing. Okay, so let's start in verse 41. Let's see what happens with the Holy Spirit. It says, and those who received his word were baptized and they were added that day about 3,000 souls. And look, I gotta be honest. If I'm a disciple right then and I see 3,000 people's lives changed, that's the finish line, right? I'm calling that a day. I'm going to bed, okay? That's a victory, okay? I'm gonna tell that story to my grandkids.

I'm gonna tell the story to anybody who wants to hear. I was there, I was there at Pentecost. They were telling a fire in my head. I mean, people are gonna get sick of that story. I'm telling it all day long. It feels like the finish line, but there's another detail that Scripture gives us. And I believe it gives us this detail on purpose, specifically, verses 42 through 43. We're just gonna read it in kind of three waves here. It says, and they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers, and awe came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. So what we're seeing here, we're seeing how the Holy Spirit is taking all these 3,000 people and then the work ain't done, Holy Spirit's still working, bringing them together into a spiritual family. The Holy Spirit, for all of these people,

is centralizing what? Teaching. The Holy Spirit is centralizing fellowship. The Holy Spirit is centralizing meals. The Holy Spirit is centralizing prayer, as if to tell all of these people you are part of a new spiritual family and here's what you do together, verses 44 and 45. And all who believe were together and had all things in common and they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as they had need. They are providing for needs together.

They're doing all of this together and the Holy Spirit is helping them understand this is what it means to be a church, this is what it means to be a spiritual family. But I wanna take on, I wanna look, here's the detail I don't wanna miss. The detail I don't wanna miss is where, where. Where was all this happening? Were they gathering back into the original place where they all heard the gospel? No. Verse 46, first part of 47, it says, and day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes. They received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. They did come together to where they heard everything but then they quickly went into homes. The Holy Spirit is bringing forth the New Testament church and he began it all in an open air outpouring of the Holy Spirit but it quickly moves into homes, why?

Think about it, why? Why not keep it in the big arena? More people, right? Why not keep it where it originally happened? People already knew where that was. Now they gotta navigate to somebody's home? What if they get lost? Why not, why not make just one big church right there? It's a serious question. I'm not just trying to play devil's advocate, you don't have to answer but I'm not just trying to play devil's advocate here. I'm really just saying like, what did the Holy Spirit do whenever the Holy Spirit was bringing forth the church? What did he do? He gave him a great big event, a great big event but then he quickly moved into homes. Look, as part of our Christian experience, let's just talk about it that way, the way you and I experience being a Christian, we're going to have moments where we are in the middle of a big event and it's a big event where God is doing some amazing things.

Maybe that event lasts a week, maybe that event lasts a summer, I don't know but if you're part of a church for any amount of time especially as a teenager, I mean you go to camp as a teenager where a student ministry is about to have disciple now in three weeks, right? A disciple now is like a weekend event, okay? And there's nothing wrong with these events. People go on mission trips, people attend conferences, right? These events are all part of an experience, it's great. I'm not throwing any shade on those things but the experience that we have, it can leave us on a spiritual high and it feels great. The experience that we have can help us feel really great but they are only experiences. Experiences in the Christian life are only the beginning. Let me say that again. Experiences, I don't care how great they are, I don't care how awesome that conference was,

it's just the beginning. If you have an awesome Christian experience at a conference, it's not that you should then go to as many conferences as possible to keep that feeling going. If you have a great experience at camp, it doesn't mean that you should keep going to camp and you can only meet God at camp. Having a great experience is only the beginning because it's meant to be the beginning of a relationship. It's meant to be the beginning of something new and beautiful and maybe more normal paced.

So they're not having Pentecost, they're not having this big tongues of fire on every apostle, they're not doing that every day, every week even. I don't even know if it ever happened again. But they're taking that event and the Holy Spirit is pushing them into homes so that they can become a spiritual family. So that the relationship that was begun between individuals and the Lord God in heaven is now going to be continued and facilitated among a smaller group of people. And expecting camp or even Pentecost here to be the relationship is like going on a first date and expecting the first date every time. That you think your relationship is only gonna be a series of first dates.

I mean, I'm sure you're great but whoever decides to do that with you is gonna be sorely disappointed. You and I cannot sustain first date momentum. Okay, like I could barely sustain it even when I had the first date. I mean, just, we need to understand that these experiences are meant to facilitate the relationship. Many, many, many people, particularly in Burleson, grow up and they just go from experience to experience to experience but they never have a family. They never have anybody to grow with. They don't have deeper relationships. And so it's no big deal to jump into a worship service here and have a great spiritual experience. And then next week you're popping over to somewhere else and then the feeling is good over there. And you will serial, you will go to a church like a, you will attend church sequentially. All these different churches never plugging in anywhere

just looking for an experience. And let me just tell you, that's no way to live. And if that's you, there's something better. I'll just say it that way. There's something better than the experience. Church services are great, obviously. I think church services are awesome. But it's nothing like the home group. It's not the same. In Acts two, many theologians, many people, and I know what they mean, they talk about this being the birth of the church, capital C, church, yeah. And I get it. But it's probably more accurate to say that this is the birth of churches. Not the birth of the church. Not that that's wrong. I'm not trying to make it too hard of a differentiation here. But it's the birth of churches that in other words, the Holy Spirit then is establishing the kingdom of God, not through one big event. He's using that big event to establish the kingdom of God

through local churches. The Holy Spirit, what we see in Acts two, is having a big event and then establishing the kingdom through smaller local churches. And it's not because simply smaller is better or anything like that. It's like I said before, there's just some things that can only happen in a home group. We started home groups this last week. So mine met for the first time. It was great. I can already tell that it's just different being with people in their homes. It's different praying with people there. Eating, sharing meals with people there. Being open with people there. And in our church, man, we are praying as a body, as a leadership, we are praying that through the relationships that are facilitated here that we're going to be able to meet needs. That we're gonna be able to know what's going on in each other's lives more. We're gonna be able to open up more.

Not just so that we're known and we know other people more. But so that we can grow in our faith in a significant way. In a way that we really can't do on a Sunday morning. Acts 2, 47, last part. Only read half the verse last time. So 47, the end of the chapter says, and the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. As a church, we want to add people who are being saved. We don't just, it's not adding people to an experience or adding people to a service or adding people to, we wanna add people, we wanna see people come to the Lord in salvation. That takes time. That takes relationships. That's what we're interested in doing. We wanna use those experiences to help people build relationships with the Lord. To be deep in those relationships. And I hope you hear me, I hope you know,

I'm fine with conferences. I'm fine with camp. I mean, we're doing a D now for Crying Out Loud. We're in a church service for Crying Out Loud. But the purpose of this is different than being a church family in a home group. It's different than sharing your life with other people in a more significant way. My encouragement is if you have not found a church home, if you are still just trying to figure it out, we have home groups that are available. They just started last week, so for you to visit one is not a huge deal. But you can get information on that through our website. And if you're interested, we can talk about it afterward. We're entering into the time of response for our service. And as we do, as we sing one last song, I'm gonna be back there in those couches and chairs just sitting and waiting. If you have a question, if you need help taking that next step, if you're like,

yeah, I've just been going from experience to experience, but I'm looking to really find a home. Man, I wanna help you do that. And I'll be honest, I wanna help you do that even if it's not here. Look, as a church, we care about this community, and we care about people finding spiritual homes and rooting down. And so even if it's a church across the street, fine. It's somewhere. The Kingdom of God's a lot bigger than our church. That's good. And we wanna encourage people to plug in. We wanna encourage people to do that, not because we wanna grow big. It's because we want you to find a spiritual family and gain some foundation, some establishing, some help.