Missions in our Church

“They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to the fellowship, to breaking of bread and to prayer.  Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders were being done by the apostles.  All the believers were together and had everything in common.  Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.  Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts.  They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all people.  And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”

Acts 2:42-47

You get the idea that this is a really close group of people, isn’t it.  They devoted themselves together to the teaching, fellowship, breaking bread and prayer.  They met together daily in the temple courts, they helped out anyone in their company that needed help, even selling things they owned to do so, they ate together and worshiped God together.  They loved each other.  And this is an example for us, God designed the church to be a group of people who love each other, just as they are loved by God.

You see, the early church was a place where people unselfishly cared for each other and worked to make a difference in the world.  And this passage tells us exactly what our local churches should look like.  So let’s reflect for a few minutes.  Does our congregation reflect what’s happening in this passage?  If this was God’s plan for the church, what should we be doing differently?  How can we better support each other?  Think about this, let’s start a conversation.

Something else to think about:  There seem to be two focuses in this passage.  They were focused on understanding God’s Word, and on fellowshipping together.  In the early church, people came together daily, and studied the apostles’ teachings. This was the normal life of a new believer. They grew in relationship with God, and they grew in relationship with each other. So as they grew closer to God, they grew closer together as a group. When churches focus on growing closer to Christ, it will help them build stronger bonds with each other.  

You are His Body...

 

The Apostles Four Things

This past week during our Bible Study, a short excerpt came up from Anne Ortland's book, Discipling One Another.  I've often talked about what I call the four pillars of discipleship, those four things that I think every Christian ought to be doing.  Anne has summed them up well...

What kind of life did those first Christians live?  When they were together, they devoted themselves to four things.  John Calvin wrote in his Institutes: “We must endeavor to keep and preserve this order, if we will be judged faithful to the church before God and the angels.”

First, they gave themselves to “the apostles’ teaching.” That was everything the apostles had seen Jesus do and heard him say.  Eventually they got it all written down; now we call it the New Testament.  Our equivalent today of the “apostles’ teaching” would be Bible study.

Second, they devoted themselves to the fellowship.  That was simply being together for the joy of being together.  Why draw your stimuli for life, they must have been thinking, from non-Christians who have nothing to contribute, when you could be absorbing more and more of the life of Christ from within your Christian friends?  This was no deliberate cut-off from worldlings to be exclusive.  Their fellowship was the strong base from which they reached out to others.  But there was far more power for evangelism in this close-knit community than we find today—we, whose spirits are diluted by so much exposure to the world—even though we may say it’s to win them for Christ!

Third, they devoted themselves to breaking bread together.  I’m sure this meant Communion, but I think it meant other meals, too…

Number four ingredient in their new life together: “the prayers.”  That’s right, the Greek has the article the in front of it, and it’s the same word as in Acts 3:1: “One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of the prayers.”  In other words, “the prayers” were the stated times for worship at the temple, and all believers went together…

No doubt a lot of former activities had to go, for the early Christians.  They “eliminated” and they “concentrated” to these four things.

Friends, let’s check our lifestyles.  Have we eliminated a lot of clutter from our lives so that we, and the ones around us who want to go hard after God, can give ourselves to Bible study, to fellowship, to eating together, and to the regular services of the church?

(from Discipling One Another

By Anne Ortland)

Finding Happiness

...his compassions never fail.

They are new every morning...

This passage is from Lamentations 3:22b-23a. As the title suggests, Lamentations is a book of laments, the Israelites are crying out to God following the destruction of Jerusalem at the hands of the Babylonians (approx 587 B.C.). The chapters in Lamentations are like the Psalms, and in their original language, Hebrew, they are very poetic.

They were recited publicly on the special fast days and days of mourning. While much of the Lamentations speaks of the abandonment by God of the Hebrew people, and are therefore filled with grief and mourning, yet in this passage we get a glimpse of the hope that they cling to.

While they were in their deepest despair, they knew that God’s compassions never fail, they are new every morning. It is that understanding of God that makes their exile in Babylon bearable. No matter how bad it gets, God will one day hear their pleas, and in compassion, restore their great nation.

People today often feel abandoned by God. We live in a time where there is great wealth, whether compared to other nations or to previous generations. Yet at the same time, there is great despair and a sense of hopelessness.

The old saying, money can’t buy happiness, is apparently very true. Never before have we had so much, yet felt so bad about it.

What does buy happiness? If money doesn’t, what does? We all have an inner longing to be happy, to be fulfilled, and many spend their lives trying to find it. What is it that would bring us true happiness and fulfillment?

Solomon, the son of King David, King of Israel himself for some 40 years, searched extensively for the answer to this question. We read his findings in Ecclesiastes 12:13, “Fear God, and keep his commandments; for that is the whole duty of everyone.” The book finds that everything else is “meaningless.”

How do we live a life of happiness and fulfillment? We live it in relationship to God, our creator, redeemer, and friend. In Christ, we find fulfillment, peace , comfort, joy—all the things we need to be truly happy.

How to Pray Like Jesus

Here is a link to last week's message.

I got a lot of comments on it, so thought you might be interested in reading it, too!

Most of us know that prayer is important, but do we really know how we should be praying?  Is there a way that can make our prayers more effective over the long run?  Jesus had a lot to say on prayer.  This week we learn from Him...

Here is the link... How to Pray Like Jesus

Thanks for reading,

Pastor Steve

This week at FBC

This week we do something very different, something I've wanted to do for many years now.  We all know that spiritual gifts are important - that God equips us with those gifts we need to do what He has called us to do.  But how many of us know what these gifts are?  This Sunday, instead of just hearing about how important your gifts are, we'll actually help you identify what your gifts are!  Our sermon time will have a very short devotion on spiritual gifts, then you'll have time to complete a spiritual gifts inventory that will identify your spiritual gifts, and the best for you in serving the church.  It will be a great week at FBC!