7: Empowered to Go

Alright, I want you to turn your Bibles to two passages because I want you to read both of them with me. I want you to turn to Matthew chapter 28 and also to Mark chapter 16. And then if you have another hand, turn to Acts chapter 1. So I want you to look at three passages with me. I want to set up the framework of the message here today.

One of the things that excite me the most about talking about discipleship and being equipped is that we really do feel the responsibility as a staff and pastors in the church to help you live your life well so you can finish your life well. I really like that statement. It's not mine. I actually can't remember who said it.

I know I didn't create it. But I like that statement. Live your life well so that you can finish well. And anything that we can do as a church to help you live your life well, we want to be part of that.

And in this context, living your life well is how do we help you live your life as a follower of Jesus well. So that one day when you stand before me in eternity, I know we all know this to be true. I want him to say to me and to you, well done, good and faithful servant.

That is what we all want to hear and hope to hear. And part of what we get to do here on a Sunday morning is to help encourage but also equip us to do this at a good high level. So what I want to do today is set up the message.

It's going to be a little bit of a different message today. I want to walk us on a journey from the Great Commission to the formation of the very first church. And there's reasons why I want to do this because we see that there's a calling that all of us share when it comes to the commission. In other words, the moment you accept Jesus, you also accept the commission to go into all the world and preach the gospel.

We're going to get that to the minute. But then there's this promise of his Holy Spirit. There's the power of the Holy Spirit. And then there's incredible results that we see happen when people and a church actually live in the commission.

So today's title is Empower to Go. Another way of saying it is if we're going to do what Jesus told us to do, we need his power to help us do it. How many know that to be true?

Well, it's true. If I'm going to do what Jesus says, I need his power because I'm not good enough in myself. We're not talented in ourself just to accomplish what God has for us. So in other words, I want his power to rest in my life.

John Wesley says it this way. You have one business on earth to save souls. At the end of the day, that is the business of what we're doing. We want to help people finish their life well in eternity. We want to see people come to know Jesus, not just once in a while, but every day and every week. And oh, by the way, not just here in church on a Sunday, but how about in your workplace and in your school and in your community? That's where we want to see the awe of God begin to rest.

And that happens when you and I as the church actually walk out of here and live this out. And so today, I want to give you the beginning and the highlight point of what happens when we do this. Four principles around Empower to Go. The first one is this, is the need.

Let's just talk about the need. Why do we need God's power? Let me give you two verses. Matthew 28, verse 18 to 20, which is known as the Great Commission, but then also Mark chapter 16, verse 15 to 18, which is also the commission, but Mark has a little different spin on it. In Matthew 28, it says, And Jesus came to them and said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all I have commanded you.

And behold, I am with you always to the ends of the age. Now that is what's known as the Great Commission. So if you're here in this room or if you're watching online, if you have accepted Christ in your life, you have also accepted that commission.

Now whether you're doing that commission or not, that's a secondary thing. But if you and I are saying that we are a Christ follower, then that's the commission that we're supposed to do. We're supposed to go in the world, make disciples, see people baptized, teach people to obey Jesus, and walk with them in that. I want to take you to Mark chapter 16, verse 15 to 18. If you are following along with us in our year-long Bible reading plan, you'll know that we're in the gospel of Mark right now. And Mark's gospel is very action-based. So the rest of some of the other gospels are focused on the words of Jesus, the things happening around him.

Mark is very action-packed. It's very much about the deeds of Jesus. And you see that in the way that he interprets the Great Commission. In verse 15, it starts in chapter 16, and he said to them, go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

Verse 17 and 18, you see the action side of Mark's gospel. He says, and these signs will accompany those who believe. In my name, they will cast out demons. They will speak in new tongues. They will pick up serpents with their hands. And if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them. They will lay their hands on the sick and they will recover.

Now, Mark puts some action behind what should start to happen as you and I live out the Great Commission. And I want to give some clarity on this because if you read that without any context, what you'll assume is that everybody in here should go cast out demons and go find some snakes on the field and start playing with them. That's not what this is saying. It's not saying go just drink poison and see if God's with you. That's not what it's saying. What Mark is making a point in saying is that when you go do what I tell you to do, you will find opposition.

That's what he's saying. And as you find opposition, and in their timeframe, opposition looked very much like being poisoned, being killed, being martyred. They would run into demonic people. They would run into people who need to be sick, need to be well. So they were facing this on a regular basis, especially in the early church. So Mark was assuring them, per Jesus' words, that as you step out in faith and live out the commission, you're going to find these things.

But as an example, if something does happen, I'm going to be with you. This, by the way, is why we don't do handling of snakes on Sunday mornings. We do that on Sunday night. That's a Sunday night service.

Not only a select few. No, I'm kidding. We don't do that.

And as far as I know, nobody's trying to poison you at work because you're a Christian. Now, your spouse is cooking. That's a different story. I don't know. Yeah.

Nobody's making eye contact with their spouse now. And I love what he's saying because it is action-driven. Go do what I tell you to do and just trust that God's got you. That's the Andy version.

That's our version. Just go do it and I got you. But I want to break this down a little bit and why we're empowered to go and then walk us through kind of a timeline, a scriptural timeline, of what happens from the moment Jesus gave them this commission to the moment that they actually started to do it. You're going to see some incredible things happening. So first of all, why do we need His Spirit? Why do we need to be empowered?

Well, a couple of things we just read. We got to go make disciples. That's what He tells us to do. And to make disciples at the summary level means that we're going to go help teach people how to follow Jesus well, but also help train people how to do that for somebody else. That's where the disciple-making process happens.

That's what we've been talking about. That's why we have the resource like the book and the YouTube videos. We have a class.

We got podcasts. We got sermons around this because what we don't want to do is just leave here feeling like we're just a better Christian. Now, there's nothing wrong with knowledge.

There's nothing wrong with being encouraged. But what we got to leave here feeling like we're a little bit more equipped to actually go and do this. And so we're called to go make disciples. We're also called to see people baptized. I know that those of you that were here last week or watched online, it was an incredible experience to see around 20 people baptized last Sunday. That's a pretty amazing thing to see people say, we want to proclaimly profess our faith by being baptized. This is something powerful and special.

And it's a result. So what this is, the Great Commission is, if you and I are actually going out and doing what we're called to do and people are accepting Christ, their next step should be to get baptized because that's what Jesus did. Jesus commanded us to do it. And baptism is that outward expression of that inward faith. In fact, we got another baptism coming in a few weeks, another opportunity for people to just say, hey, I want to go public with my faith. But we need God's power to go do that.

We also need this power to teach the ways of Jesus. There's something beautiful about when you can sit down across from somebody else and just talk about the ways of Jesus. In fact, I would encourage you, maybe challenge everybody that if you don't have somebody in your life that you're having biblical conversations with, let that be a challenge and a goal for you to do that. Find somebody that you could just share the gospel with. I'm not talking about witnessing to them.

I'm not talking about somebody that doesn't know the gospel. I mean just having good biblical conversation with a fellow brother or sister in Christ. There's something about that when we just learn from one another and teach one another well and listen well.

And if we don't have those people in our life, then at times we're gonna probably struggle in that area. It's also a calling we have to teach people the ways of Jesus regardless. And if we're gonna do that, then how many know that we should probably know the ways of Jesus. That if I'm gonna teach somebody to follow Jesus, I gotta follow Jesus.

I can't just be somebody sitting on a sidelines telling somebody else what to do. I have to actually be in the game with people telling them and showing them this is how we walk together in Christ. So there is this empowerment that we need to actually go. And sometimes the strength and the power is to actually take that first step to go do this. To go actually into the world and to share the gospel with somebody. Just to share your faith with somebody.

So here's what happens next. So there's this empowering that's needed. And based off the commission, why do we need his power? Because he's called us to go do something. And I guarantee everybody in this room, God's called you to do something. There's something he's placed in your life that he's called you to do. And then we gotta trust that he's gonna equip us to actually do it.

Which leads to the second principle around being empowered. And that is the promise of the Holy Spirit. So at this time, turn over to Acts chapter 1.

And for the rest of the morning, we're gonna be in Acts 1 and Acts chapter 2. And I want you to see the delivery and the results of what happens when Jesus' promise come to pass. And the Holy Spirit comes and does something significant.

So here's the promise. This is where Jesus promises the people that he's gonna send his Holy Spirit. Acts chapter 1 verse 4 and 5. It says, While they were staying, he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, You have heard from me. For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. Let's drop down to verse 8. Verse 8 says, But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth.

So Jesus is setting up his followers with a promise. I've called you. I've made it real clear what I've called you to do. Go win people to Jesus. Go make disciples. Go share your faith. See people baptized.

Teach people about me. That's a pretty clear calling. And he follows it up by saying, You're gonna need something extra, though.

You're gonna need something that's gonna give you power, that's gonna empower you to actually go do this. And what he does is he uses the difference between John's baptism and the Holy Spirit's baptism. And so we're gonna wade into the baptism of the Holy Spirit this morning. We're gonna wade in a little bit about the giftings of the Holy Spirit and lean into a little bit of what I hope will be some good, sound teaching and doctrine and theology around this, as opposed to flying off the deep ends.

And so I want to keep us balanced and level by just, this is what Scripture says, and this is what God does. So he compares it. He compares it to John's baptism, which is water, and his baptism, which is the Holy Spirit. What's the difference there? Well, the difference is pretty clear. John the Baptist is referring to baptized people. The word baptizo was fully immersion and back up. So John was a radical in his time. They used to just sprinkle people with water. John's actually putting them underwater, bringing them up out of the water.

It's a signal of death coming to life that's the symbol of water baptism. And that's fine. But what that is, is just telling people and proclaiming that I'm following Jesus. And what I love is that Jesus follows it up and says, once people know, and if you really want to proclaim your faith, you're gonna need actually the power of the Holy Spirit to come on you.

And that's what I'm promising to send you. But then you gotta ask yourself the next question. Why?

For what reason? Why do you and I have the Holy Spirit inside of us? Why did Jesus actually think, hey, you're gonna need the Spirit of God, part of the Trinity, God the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. You're gonna need the Holy Spirit in your life. Well, if you back up a little bit, Jesus ascends into heaven. And he says, I'm gonna leave my comforter with you. I'm gonna leave the counselor with you. I'm gonna leave all of the power you need right inside of who you are through the Holy Spirit. But there had to be a moment in Scripture where the Holy Spirit actually comes and comes upon the followers of Christ.

And this is what we're about to read. So why did they need it? The same reason we need it.

He makes it very clear. But you will receive power to do what? To be my witnesses.

That's why you need power. It's not just to make it one more day. It's not just to survive this life.

It's not just to get by. What he's saying is that, church, you need my Spirit because you have to go be a witness. And I'm sending you out into the world who at times really don't like your message. We're seeing that right now.

It's true now. I mean, we could say this this morning, like, hey, church, God is sending us out of crossroads this morning to go into our world, wherever it is, right? Your work, your school, your neighborhood, wherever you go, you're gonna go be my witness. And don't assume that everybody's just gonna accept the Word of God. There's gonna be opposition. There's gonna be tension. There's gonna be people that don't like the truth of the gospel.

There's gonna be people that are gonna make up their own gospel and everything in between. So what he's saying is that I'm gonna give you a promise. I'm promising you that if you go, I'm gonna send my Spirit with you, which leads to the next principle, and that's this.

The promise fulfilled. So you got the calling to go be a disciple. Jesus says you can't do this on your own.

I'm gonna give you the Holy Spirit. So now let's look at Scripture where the first time the Holy Spirit's power actually came upon the disciples. In Acts chapter 2, verse 1 to 4. It says when the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place.

There was 120 people in an upper room. Suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave utterance. Now listen, there are denominations that have split and formed over those four verses in the Bible right there. In fact, over verse 4, there are denominations that have formed and crafted and split over what does that actually mean and look like?

Let me tell you, let me give you a good doctrine theology on what we just read. Let me just walk you through this. So Jesus tells them to go to Jerusalem and wait. So they go and wait. There's 120 people in this room.

And it's not just the disciples, there's apostles, there's all these other people there. And as they're there, what it says is that it sounded like this rushing wind entered into the room. By the way, when I said that in the first service, the air conditioning kicked down, I thought we were going to have revival. I was like, wait, oh no, it's just the air conditioning.

This sound of a rushing wind comes in. Then what it says is what appeared to be, so it doesn't necessarily mean that there was actual flames of fire. Could there have been?

Maybe. But what it says is that there appeared to be this flame that rested over top of everybody in that upper room. Listen, there was a supernatural thing happening. Let's not try to humanize it. Let's try not to make sense of it and put it in our own context. If God wanted little tiny tongues of fire to show up over everybody's head in the room, could he have done that?

Yeah, he could have done that. I wasn't there. I can read about it.

I can sense what it was, but your imagination, our minds can go a lot of different ways, but you can imagine if we're there and you've got this sound like this rushing wind happening and then something supernatural begins to happen. The very first thing that happens is they begin to speak in other tongues. People are so afraid to talk about this, by the way, amongst different church circles and denomination circles. Again, I didn't write this.

We're just going to report the news. They started to speak in other tongues. You could debate all day long what that was. If you read just a few verses later, what happens? This is fascinating. What happens is as they're speaking in other tongues, there's a bunch of people walking around the street that's crowded. It says that everybody started to hear basically the gospel proclaimed in their own language. Now, these are Jewish men and women gathered together, spoke Aramaic, spoke Hebrew at the time, maybe some Greek, and so they're speaking these languages and then all of a sudden people from all other regions heard it in their own language. Now, were the people in the upper room speaking that language or was the Holy Spirit interpreting the language in their ears?

I don't know, but either way, something amazing was happening. They all began to hear the gospel and then they started thinking, everybody up there is drunk. There's a party going on.

We weren't invited. That upper room's pumping. Let's go.

They're going, no, it's not. This is like early afternoon. We're not drinking. It's almost like they said, we're not drunk yet. We haven't started drinking yet. That's later. Right now, we're all sober.

We're all sober. This is what's happening. This is the occurrence of the promise delivered of the power of the Holy Spirit. Here's a couple of things that I found encouraging about this.

We're going to keep talking about it. First of all, it was a reminder to me that Jesus always keeps his promises and I hope that that encourages you today that Jesus keeps his promises, that his word is true, both the scripture and his word is true when he's speaking to you. He keeps his promises. It also is a reminder to me that whatever he's called us to do, he's going to more than equip us to do it. So whatever it is that God's called you to do, whatever he's placed you to be his witness.

And I want you to think of where he talks about go to the ends of the earth. Wherever you are, that's where you are. That's your world. So take your job, your community, your neighborhood, and just substitute that for the world.

That's where you are. And if you're a believer, again, you cannot escape the calling. Your calling is to impact your world.

That's your calling. Jesus says, I'm going to give you the power to accomplish that so you don't have to do it by yourself. And he shows up and he delivers the promise.

I want to spend the rest of the morning on the fourth principle here because this one brings it all home that a hope will really encourage you. So again, first point, there's a calling that happens. Because of that calling, we realize we need his power. Jesus recognized you need power, so I'm going to send my Holy Spirit. Then we see in Scripture, soon after, he sends the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit gives them power. And I want you to see what happens after that moment in the upper room. One of the reasons why I love the book of Acts so much, because I really do believe that the things that occurred in the book of Acts can and should be happening today.

Healings, miracles, salvations by the thousands, moves of God, the awe of God, the power rested on the disciples as they went out and saw God do amazing things. That stuff should be happening today. And I'll tell you why it's not. Let me just shoot you straight. The reason it's not is not because God's withholding his power. It's because you and I aren't bold enough to actually go do it.

Let's just cut to the chase and say why. Because I think too often people blame God. God, where are the miracles?

God, where's the pouring? Where's the outpouring of your Holy Spirit? Okay, when was the last time you shared the gospel with somebody at your work?

How about we start there? When was the last time you had enough boldness just to go pray for somebody that you knew wasn't feeling well? When was the last time you just encouraged somebody? See, I think the reason why is because we as the church, just globally, and I know there's many of you that are doing this. I'm speaking to the choir, so if you're doing it, that's great.

But I'm convinced the reason why we're not is we're just not actually doing the commission. Why would God give us power just to survive one day? He's given us his Holy Spirit to go actually do what he called us to do. And the miracles that happened in Acts happened as the disciples were performing and doing the calling. They didn't stay in the upper room, by the way, and they didn't just keep going back to the upper room every day because the Holy Spirit stood up there.

So I think that's what happens sometimes. Like, we feel God and we're like, all right, God, here's where you are, so we're just going to come here and everybody's going to come here and we're going to go to the upper room. You never hear the disciples going back up to the upper room. What did they do? They immediately went into their world and turned their world upside down. Immediately. They didn't sit around with a bunch of Christians singing Kumbaya, how awesome God is.

No. They ran out into the streets and miracles started happening. See, we want to take what God does and package it. We want to take moves of God and say it's just for us to get better and more spiritually fat.

No, the reason why God pours out His Spirit on His church today is not so you have a big church that you can all just sit around every day. It's to give you and I power to go into a crooked and depraved generation and see miracles happen and see lives change. That's why we need His power.

That's what we need it for. So here are the results of living out the Great Commission. Let's go to Acts 2, verse 40 to 47. Now this is Peter. So let me tell you. So upper room happened.

They're all, people on the street are kind of confused. The disciples and people leave the upper room and somewhere in a big venue Peter stands up. Now this is Peter. He denied Christ just a little while ago. He was too afraid to share that he even knew Jesus in a courtyard. He cut off somebody's ear in the Garden of Gethsemane.

He sank in water after walking a few steps. This is the Peter that Jesus said, get behind me, Satan. Like this is that Peter. And now he's standing up with a new boldness and he preaches a message.

You can read it. And his message basically was like, let's imagine you're all the crowd and this is Peter. You all crucify Jesus. That was his message. All of you crucify Jesus. It's your fault. You crushed the cornerstone.

You put them on the cross. So guess what? You all better repent and better repent today. That was basically his message. That was a lot of verses I shrunk to like two seconds for you.

There's more to it than that, but that was basically the gist of his message. And now in verse 40, with many other words, Peter bore witness, continued to exhort them saying save yourselves from this crooked generation. My Jesus, that is the message we need for today.

We need this today. So those who received this word were baptized and they were added 3000 souls that day. I want to talk about church growth. That's church growth. 3000 people. And I wonder if at any point, as Peter said, the disciples start to count like one, two, 10,000, two, like what do we do now? Like what, what's next?

See, that's what I love about this. They, they were just being obedient to Jesus. They didn't have the if gathering to send all the women to the next weekend. There was no men's breakfast with tacos that next Saturday. There was no student ministry.

There's no kids ministry. People are just getting saved and I love what they do. Here's the results of living out the great commission. They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread prayers. I love verse 43 probably my favorite verses. All came upon every soul. Many wonders, many signs are being done through the apostles and all who believe were together and had all things in common.

They sold their possessions and belongings, distributed the proceeds to all as any had need and day by day attending the temple together, breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God, having favor with the people and the Lord added to their number day by day. Those who are being saved real quickly, I want to give you some final thoughts on what happens when you and I actually live out this. I hope this will fill you with encouragement, with challenge.

The first one is this. When you and I step out and the spirit gives us power, you will have boldness to proclaim the gospel. There was a boldness in Peter's sermon. It took boldness for him to get up and say, you crooked, depraved generation, repent, repent, repent. Do you realize that Jesus' first message was to repent and to be baptized?

Repent of your sins. That is the message. That is the boldness.

And you and I are going to need boldness because the moment we step out and start proclaiming truth, you better guarantee you're going to have all of culture pushing back on you. Well, that's your truth. That's not our truth. That's not the way we interpret scripture. That's how you interpret scripture. That's not culturally relevant.

That's hate speech. You got to be careful. And can I just tell you, and I say this regularly, that the darker this world is getting, the easier it's becoming to share our faith. It really is. This world is becoming so dark and so dark and so dark that the light of the gospel can't help but shine. It can't help but shine. And the spirit inside of us can't help but let people know the good news.

It's actually getting easier because it's getting so dark. But what's disheartening at the same time, and this church will not be one of these churches, what's disheartening is I'm watching people and pastors and churches give way to culture, constantly just bowing their knee to culture, constantly almost retracting what scripture says out of offense. Now listen, I'm not saying we all got to go be a bunch of jerks to the world around us. But my God, we are not going to back down from truth.

We are not backing down. And I love this statement and you can use it. I didn't write it. I didn't write the Bible. Your name's not in the Bible. You did not sign the Bible. You didn't write it.

All you got to do is share it. And if people don't like it, there are problems with the creator of the universe, not you. And then it takes the burden. I mean, honestly, it's kind of fun to go and say, hey, there's a better way to live life. There's something more to life. There's hope. There's joy. There's peace. There's life eternal.

And this is how you get there. And whether people want to accept it or not, that's on them. But our job is to proclaim of boldness. And there's a sense of boldness.

When you have the spirit power walking in you, you feel this sense of boldness because you know that it's not you. The second thing in this is that there's a kingdom message of repentance. Let's not, let's not complicate the message. The message that this world needs is to repent.

Come on. That is the message. It's not a feel good message necessarily. It's not a bells and whistles.

You don't have to package it in a certain way. It is, listen, we all fall short. We have all sinned against God.

And unless you repent and accept him as Christ, you will be lost for eternity. That is the message. That's the message. That's the message.

The other result is there is devotion to sound doctrine and teaching. You all gotta be careful. Listen, you gotta be careful what you're consuming.

Make sure you're consuming the right things. There are so many things out there right now that sound good. They look good, they feel good, and they are not biblically true. They are not doctrinally true. And listen, I'll tell you right now, if you are at this church and you don't like truth, you can pick any church you want to pick that will customize their message for you.

And that's what's happening. It's so sad to see. And I love church. I believe in the local church by the way. I love the local church. I love the local church. It is the avenue by which Jesus is giving hope to our community.

But listen, we see what's happening. There's churches in our own city that have taken and twisted scripture and they have tickled the ears of people. And now there is a church for literally everybody.

If you don't like what God says at this church, well let's go to a different church because they interpret it differently and I like their interpretation better. That's scary. It's kind of like WebMD. You start to feel a little cold come on and you go to WebMD and now you got the Spanish flu. You're like, how did I catch the Spanish flu?

I haven't been to Spain. I don't know. It's like that with doctrine and theology. I'm just going to Google this and oh look, here's two opposing arguments. I like this one better. So I'm going to do that one.

It's very careful. The next thing is this, the result is that people were filled with awe and wonder. A church that is living out the great commission, we will see awe and wonder. You don't have to manipulate it. You don't have to create it.

It's not about singing a certain song or having special lighting. It is the awe and wonder that only God could bring and do. And scripture says that signs and wonders followed the apostles. You know where the majority of salvations happened? The majority of miracles happened.

They happened in the community. Certainly it happened in their services and in church when they gathered together, but the majority of the signs and wonders and the awe, it happened when they left their church service and they went out to the community. That's what was happening because they had this boldness. They understood their assignment. They understood their calling. They received the power of the Holy Spirit and they went with boldness.

And when that happened, were they persecuted? Yes. Was their opposition?

Yes. But also the Lord added to their numbers every single day. People were getting saved.

Miracles were happening and I believe that could happen today. Another result, which is more internal but so needed, and it's part of the reason why I love our church so much, is it says that they cared well for each other. They cared well for each other. They took care of each other's needs. When a need arose within their body, they literally sold stuff that they had to meet other people's needs.

They cared well for their brothers and sisters. I've told you this before. I will say it again. This will never be a divided church. We're not going to divide over politics. We're not going to divide over culture. We're not going to divide over the things in this world. Instead, what if we were unified?

What if we were together and cared well for each other? Does it mean we agree with each other? Does it mean that Carolina and Duke fans have to be friends today? Does it mean that at all?

In fact, it's probably not happening today. It doesn't mean that we have to like everything about what we say and do, but we were here for each other. We cared for each other well. That has to be the mark of who we are as a church. Two final things is that there is praise and there is fellowship. When they gathered together, they praised God and they fellowshiped, and boy did they eat a lot. I like that church. They ate a lot.

Why do they eat so much? Over a meal, it is so amazing how much fellowship you have when you just sit across from somebody. We just break bread with somebody. When you just get to know somebody on a different level, and this church was doing it. And the last thing is that we've already said it multiple times, but the other result is that every single day people are getting saved every day, every day. Miracles, signs of wonder, salvations were happening every day. My prayer for us, church, as we begin to wrap up today is that we will see these results. That you'll see these results in your own life and that we will see them in the church. My prayer for you is that you will receive a new sense of boldness, not ignorance, not pride, not spiritual holier than thou, but just boldness just to share the truth of the gospel. That you and I would have boldness to share a message that the kingdom is coming to repent, to receive Christ as Savior. That we would have wisdom and sound doctrine and teaching that you and I would see and be filled with awe that people when they saw us, not us as people, but the God in us, that they would just be in awe of that. That we would care well for each other, that we would praise and fellowship and pray for one another well. And my prayer for us and you, not only here on a Sunday, but in every day, that we would just see people come to know Jesus. That you would have opportunity in your job, in your workplace, wherever you are in your school, to share Christ with somebody. That you would feel that Holy Spirit inside of you, because you might be sitting there going, I don't know if I can do that.

I've never done that before. Yeah, that's why you need the Spirit's power to help you with that. And he knows what to do. And the moment I believe that we take a step in that direction, that's the moment that that Holy Spirit power just begins to move. If we just sit back and watch, all we're gonna do is just be on the bench and just say, well, we should do this and culture should do that. No, no, we get, we got to get out there and do it. That's our calling together.