One of Heart and Soul
First B Jackson
2024-12-01

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Wow. All right. Good morning, everybody. How are we? It's great to see you.

And, would you stand with me as we enter the Advent season? Anybody notice? It looks a little different in here. Thank you, Tanya and crew for their decoration skills. So So as we enter the Advent season, here's a good word from Matthew two to lead us in a worship.

It's when the wise men saw the star that guided them to Bethlehem where Jesus was born, it says this, that they were filled with joy. Filled with joy, gladness, because they recognized the grace of God. And they bowed down and they worshiped him. So what do you say we start by singing, oh come all you faithful. You can have a seat here for a moment.

We got a few announcements for you.

Hey. Good morning, and welcome to First Baptist Church. Lovely to have you all here for the Christmas season. Blake, I do not have the clicker, so if you'd keep up with me. Lots of announcements going on.

Awana is back tomorrow, so bring the kiddos by 05:45 to sign up. We'd love to have you. Also, always need volunteers. The women's luncheon is coming up on December 11. You do have to sign up in advance online even if you've purchased a full table.

If you'd still sign up and register everybody for your table, that's helpful to track. There is a link on our website if you need help with that as well. The directories are back out in the in the lobby here. If you fail to get a a picture to us, it's not too late. For the next edition, we always are printing more of these.

So bring them in. They are momentarily accurate, and that was true when this slide was made. They are no longer accurate. That's how quickly these things happen. The Buzzer Bread Chili Cook Off is coming up.

If you guys have not been to this, it's wonderful. Last year, we had about 60 people come to this. December 15, 04:30. It's free, but we do need lots of pots of chili. If you could bring it in a crock pot that day, we come in at 04:30, drop off the crock pots, go sing around the square.

Last year, we came back with more people than we went out with, which is super fun. Great thing for hopefully, it'll be in the paper this year. Would you please come? Would you bring some people? It's a great outreach to to the area.

Also, the Angel Tree is up out there. We have these little tags that are hanging from there with these families numbered on there with little gifts that you can give to people who are in need or throughout the community. If you have any questions, Tanya's number is up there. We are only receiving applications during a certain time, which is on the bulletin board down there, just to try to make sure we meet the people face to face and get a little face time with them. If you have any questions, ask Tanya right there.

The Men's Alliance is having their breakfast this Wednesday at 06:30. If you've never been, it's it's super awesome. Great collection of guys together and a good message and a breakfast. Everybody's welcome for that. And the podcasts are now out.

We we've been recording the last few weeks of sermons, and they're up there on most of the platforms. If you have any questions or if something's wrong, please let us know too. That'd be great. Connect hour on December 22 is a potluck, so do bring some food to that. If your chili doesn't, you know, all go away on the fifteenth, freeze it and bring it back for that.

It's great. Chili, it's it's multiuse. It's great. And then we do have our first Advent reading. The Rodox, would you guys come up and help us out with that?

You guys have covered everything. Way to go. Today is the first Sunday in Advent. We light the first candle, the candle of hope. We have hope because of the faithful promise of God.

He sent his son, and we receive our savior, a savior born to redeem the world from sin and death. Romans fifteen thirteen says, may the God of hope fill you with joy and peace as you trust in him that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Hey, would you stand? And and also would you greet one another around? We'll bring you back in song.

We were gone astray. Oh, hold tidings of comfort and joy. Comfort and joy. Oh, hold tidings of comfort and joy. From God, our heavenly father, this blessed angel came and unto glad of Jesus.

And joy, And comfort and joy, and and comfort and joy. Joy.

From Luke two. It says, and an angel of Lord appeared among the shepherds, and the radiance of the Lord's glory surrounded them. Can you imagine this happening? And isn't it awesome that the Lord made himself known to these humble shepherds? It wasn't rich and powerful and prominent, just normal people, just like you and I.

And the Lord's glory surrounded them, and they were terrified, rightly so. Today, we get to talk about the fear of God. And there was an actual terror, but the angel reassured them, don't be afraid. I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The savior, the Messiah, has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David.

Lord, thank you for your first coming. And we look today, the advent coming, that you did come and Lord that you will come again. Thank you for the sure and certain hope that we have in you. Thank you God for joy and comfort, the way that you assure us. Thank you God for your presence with us right now.

And Lord, would you be glorified today in song and through the message and, Lord, through our unity and as as the body of Christ. In Jesus name. Amen.

Instable forethrown, and he shall reign. He shall reign forevermore, forevermore, and he shall reign forevermore, evermore. Undo us a child is born. King of kings, the Lord of lords, and he shall reign the river more, river more. If I were a wise man, I would trial fire.

If I were a shepherd, I will do my part before as I am. I will give to him my heart, and he shall reign evermore, evermore. And he shall reign evermore, evermore. Undue as a child is river Moore. Up here within manger lies, one who made the starry skies as baby born for sacrifice.

Christ the Messiah to our hopes and to our fears savior all the world fears, promise of returning years. Rise the Messiah and he shall reign The rivermore, the rivermore, and he shall reign. The rivermore, the rivermore, only was the child he's born, king of kings and lord of lords. He shall reign forevermore evermore. And he shall reign forevermore forevermore.

I wanna sing the gospel here, and I want you to notice at the end of the song too as we're going through acts. The church of Christ was born and the spirit lit the flame. So we're we're singing the gospel here. Jesus' life, his death, his resurrection, his ascension, and then the church starts. And it is so beautiful, and it is so wonderful to be gathered together as the body of Christ.

This makes me thankful for you. King of kings.

In the darkness, we were waiting without hope and without thy till from heaven you came running. There was mercy in your eyes to fulfill the lie and prophets. Two averse came the word from thrones and less glory to great endure. Praise the father. Praise the son.

To and reconcile the lost to redeem the whole creation. You did not despise the cross. But even in your suffering,

resurrection and ascension.

And in the morning that she rose, all of it knelt its bread till the stones grew for good for the man conquered death. And the dead rose from their tombs, and the angels stood in awe. Oh, the souls have all had come to the father of our stone. And the church of Christ was born, and the spirit in the flame. Now the gospel truth of all shall not kneel and shall not faint by his blood and his name

You can have a seat here for a moment. This is the worship through giving part of the service. I'll invite our ushers to come on forward, and we get to sing a song of gratitude. Before and before we do, would you pray with me? Lord God Almighty, thank you for the beauty of this day, Lord, as the the sun shines through these windows and blinds our folks here to the left side of the stage.

Thank you that God, for the son, that you, son, Jesus, came just as we sang in the song that from the glories of heaven to a cradle in the dirt, God, that you you would do that for us. Thank you. And, Lord, in this week of thanksgiving, we want to to give thanks, and not just not just a thanksgiving day, God, but every day. This is the day that you've made, and we want to rejoice and be glad in it. And James just say that every good and perfect gift, it comes from you, the father of heavenly lights, and you do not change like shifting shadows.

Thank you, God, for your faithful and unchanging nature, that you are the same yesterday, today, and forever. And, God, in light of today's scripture, would you fill us with your spirit and with love, your brand of love, and with unity and generosity, you know, that we get to we get to be a channel of blessing to this community and to the ends of the earth. I am overwhelmed, Lord, at the generosity of your church and how we get to be a blessing. God, may we just be a pass through that as we receive, we give. In Jesus' name, Lord, we ask your blessing on the gift and the giver.

Amen.

All my words fall short.

I've got nothing to do.

How could I express all my gratitude? I could sing these songs as I often do. There's a song on I've got one response.

I've got just one move

with my arms stretched right. I will worship you. So I

Amen. Kiddos, children's church, and can we just from upstairs give a real loud hand of applause for all of our children's church and Sunday school volunteers? The Jordans said that there were over 60 kids downstairs just the other week. That's a lot of kids. I'm so thankful.

So, alright, here we go. I get to preach today too. Sometimes if I'm doing this alone, I call it the Carl show, and I don't like the Carl show at all. And I tell Ray that, and I and and he said, I still want you to preach, so here I am. And I'm glad to be going through the book of Acts together, the birth of the church.

The lyrics of the song that we have sung. King of kings have been swirling in my head all weeks and all week, and there they are. The church of Christ was born, and the spirit lit the flame. Now this gospel truth of old, it shall not kneel and it shall not faint. By his blood and in his name and his spirit, I am free for the love of Jesus Christ that's resurrected me.

Isn't that good? Ray's brought us up to chapter four. Here, let me see if I can get this clicker working. There it is. Enjoy this picture of him as I share some review.

That's one of my favorites of him. He can share the story with you later. So Luke picks up where the gospels leave off. Jesus has risen from death. Just consider that for a minute.

That is huge. Jesus has risen from death. He's appears to his disciples several times. He tells them, hey, stay in Jerusalem the promised Holy Spirit comes. Sure enough, what happens?

The Holy Spirit comes at Pentecost, filling the believers, and those from surrounding regions, they didn't speak the language. They were confused because they understood. People from regions everywhere. How is it that we're hearing the wonders of God in our own languages? And Peter says, hey, listen, church.

This is the Holy Spirit. These guys aren't drunk, because some of you may assume it's only nine in the morning. God made this Jesus whom you crucified to be both Lord and Messiah. He says, repent. Turn to God.

Be baptized in the name of Christ. You too will receive this Holy Spirit. And this is the wonderful part. Moved by the Holy Spirit and the message, thousands come to believe that day. And they devoted themselves I want you to hear this because it it's gonna come up again and again today.

They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to fellowship, what we're doing right here, to sharing meals, including the Lord's Supper and prayer. Those are the basics we never want to depart from. And so the church continues to grow. In Jesus' name, Peter and John heal man that could not walk since birth. They heal this man.

The high council, they're walking past this person every week. They know what's happened. It's an undeniable fact that this man is healed, and the high council, Peter and John stand before him, the high council goes, hey, knock that off, you guys. Would you stop this? And Peter and John say, nope, we can't.

We cannot stop talking about everything that we've seen and heard. So they get thrown in jail and then released for fear of a riot. And we left off last week where the believers gathered together full of the Holy Spirit, and they prayed for safety in preaching the word. Does that sound right? What did they pray for?

For boldness. They prayed for courage in sharing the word. So that brings us to chapter four verse 32. I'd like to read up to chapter five verse 11. This is the church's common life.

We'll get to see a description of the church. What is it that these believers did when they met together? We'll see a positive example of that being Barnabas, and then a negative example being Ananias and Sapphira, and of course, some application throughout. Are you ready? We're gonna have so much fun.

So beginning with verse 32, it says this. Oh, it's not up there. Verse 32 says this, and the congregation of those who believed were one of heart and soul. So I don't want to skip over this part because at the foundation of this healthy and growing and vibrant church, there was unity among believers. There was a common heart, and there was a common purpose with Christ at the center.

And this is the unity that Jesus prayed for in John. Do you remember this? Jesus says, my prayer is not just for them alone. I pray for those who will believe through their message, through the disciples' message that all of them may be what? One.

Father, just as you are in me and I am in you, may they be in us, the unity of the Godhead and the church so that the world may believe that you have sent me. Just so consider this for a second. Our unity together, our unity together shows the world that we belong to Christ. So disunity, not a great example. Unity, a good example.

And it's happening right here, one of heart and soul. And it says this, not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to him. Can I take you back twenty years? Twenty years. So this was me as a youth pastor before I moved here to Jackson.

The guy in the back middle row, no beard. By the way, Brad, you were right. A beard is really makeup for men, and thank you Brad for that. I'm wearing my makeup today. And you know what's neat too?

This is this is so cool. Of of that group in there, I got to officiate a wedding for one of those ladies in there. Over the summer, another one of those ladies came to Jackson for a visit with her family. She's married now. She's got two kids, and it was it was just so sweet to see twenty years later these kids in this youth group that are they're not kids anymore.

They're adults. And and just how well they're doing and walking with the Lord, and I'm just thankful. Anyway, this youth group and I, we took a road trip to the inner city of Chicago. Oh, I'm hoping this will show up. To a place called Jesus People USA.

Has anyone ever heard of Jesus People USA in Chicago? You have? Okay. One. I'll I'll explain.

It it has been around for over forty years. It's now a group of about 200 people living communally in a 10 story building in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood. And and listen to this, they don't get paid directly for their work. Instead, the money that they earn goes into a common purse where, and here's the quote from the website, that it frees up individuals to give themselves wholly to the work of ministry and to family and life. Now, I am not I am not suggesting that you move to Chicago and pull your resources.

My wife is like,

sounds a lot

like socialism. I'm not suggesting that you do this and move there and all that, but I will say I will say that this was fun to witness. It was fun to see these believers. And and what it what was fun to see is that they were holding loosely to what they owned. And with a common heart and a common purpose with Christ at the center and Jesus teaching at the center, they were feeding and clothing the poor, and they were buying up buildings, and they were turning them into women and children's shelters, and on and on.

They do a great work. So like the early church, all things were common properties. Just thought I'd throw that illustration in there. So verse 33, with great power, the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. It's like this.

It's like Peter and John saying, listen, we cannot stop talking about what we have seen and what we have heard. They were filled with his spirit. They're doing miracles in Jesus' name, and God was using their witness to draw people to himself. There was momentum, and the church was growing. And it says this, this is one of my favorite parts, that abundant grace was upon them all.

You know that I love grace. You know that I talk about grace a lot. God's unmerited favor that he just gives to us. There was plenty of that to go around, and church, there still is. God's abundant grace is available to us.

I love that. Verse 34, for there was not a needy person among them. For all who were owners of land or houses would sell them, and they'd bring the proceeds of the sales, and they would lay them at the apostles' feet, and they would be distributed to each to the extent that they had need. Now some say it was a special era in the church that some knew that because of Roman occupation that that their land was gonna be taken anyway, and so they some say that they just gave of their land. They they they sold it and used the money.

Whatever the reasons, it's not only generous, but k. Luke is our author here of acts and also the gospel of Luke. To Luke's Jewish audience, for him to include believers taking care of the poor would have signaled back to the Torah in Deuteronomy where this practice was supposed to be happening through the temple and through its leaders. Look at this from from Deuteronomy. It says, there should be no poor among you, for the Lord your God will greatly bless you in the land that he's giving you.

It goes on to say, give generously, not grudgingly, for the Lord your God will bless you in everything you do. This was supposed to be happening in the temple. This was God's intent. But here's what I love. Now the Holy Spirit has come.

Now the Holy Spirit has come, and there's a new temple where God resides where? Right here. Right here. It's not about a building. God resides right here.

We, church, are his temple. The believers in Christ, the local church, fulfilling the purpose for which God always intend intended to fill the temple, us, with his spirit and with love and with unity and with generosity, testifying about the risen Christ. And look at this. I I love this part. This comes after Luke chapter two verse 42 that as the disciples were devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship and sharing meals, including the Lord's Supper and to prayer, they were filled with his spirit and with love and with unity and with generosity testifying about the risen Jesus.

And what's better is that these friends, these these things right here, church, these are still as winsome and attractive as they ever were. These will always work. And first b, I want to encourage us. I do because and I want to fan the flame because I see these things in our body. And of course, we're not perfect.

We make mistakes. But to the best of our ability, as God leads, we are pursuing this right here. So may I pray just for a moment on that? In fact, I'm I I wanna do this. First, I'm gonna shut the blinds for these poor folks here.

Watch this. I'm just watching these poor folks squint over here or practically crying. May I may I pray here for a moment? Lord God, would you help us to to continue oh, gracious. To be to continue to be this kind of a church, a church that is full of your spirit and love and unity and generosity and batteries that work in the blinds and, God, to be a channel of blessing, to be a channel of blessing to this community and to the ends of the the earth as we devote ourselves to the scripture and fellowship, sharing meals and prayer.

In Jesus' name, Lord, thank you for your church. Alright. Here we go. Moving on. Verse 36.

Now Joseph, a Levite of Cyprian birth. So this is a Jewish believer from the island of Cyprus who is also called Barnabas by the apostles, which translated mean means son of encouragement. He owned attractive land, and he sold it, and he brought the money, and he laid it at the apostles' feet. Barnabas. I love this guy, the encourager.

Now I don't know who these ladies are. This is just a Google image, but I like their bus. It's the Barnabas bus. It's the Barnabas. Barnabas.

Moving on. Look what it says about that's a dad joke. Look what it says about Barnabas in chapter 11. And this in chap when we get to chapter 11, this was a very difficult time in the life of the church. Stephen had just been martyred.

The church is scattering from Jerusalem. You can imagine the anxiety and the fear that the church must have felt. And Barnabas goes to Antioch, and it says this, that he encouraged them to remain true to the Lord with all of their hearts. He was a good man. He was full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.

Doesn't that sound like the kind of guy that you wanna know? The kind of guy that encouraged the believers. And Barnabas went to Tarsus. He went to look for Saul, and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. And so for a whole year, Barnabas and Paul became best buds, and they met with the church, and they taught great numbers of people.

Isn't that awesome? That this is the guy that was discouraging excuse me, encouraging the discouragement well. And may I encourage us from Romans 12 verses six through nine. Here's some application here throughout. We have different gifts according to the grace given to us.

Every one of us in here has different gifts to be used for the body of Christ. If your gift is prophesying, foretelling or forthtelling, prophesy in accordance with your faith. If your gift is serving, serve. If it's teaching, teach. If it is to encourage, give encouragement.

If it's giving, give generously. If it is to lead, do it diligently. If it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully. And I can see the faces around this room as I read these gifts, and I'm I'm looking at you going, there's that gift. There's that gift.

There's that gift. There's that gift. And I love it. Love must be sincere, hate what is evil, and cling to what is good. So this is a great segue into chapter five.

We've looked at a description of the church's common life from Acts. We've looked at a positive a positive example, that being Barnabas, and then we get to Ananias and Sapphira. No doubt, this is a very difficult teaching. I've been wrestling with this for weeks. Now you get to.

And and and Lord help us to take in the whole counsel of scripture, the good examples and the bads. So here it is starting at five verse one. I'm just gonna read to 11, and you can follow along with me here. But a man named Ananias with his wife, Sapphira, they sold a piece of property, and they kept back some of the proceeds for himself for himself with his wife's full knowledge. And bringing a portion of it, he laid it at the apostles' feet, but Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the proceeds of the land?

While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? Was this not yours to do what you wanted to with it? And after it was sold, was it not under your control? Why is it that you've concede this deed in your heart? You've not lied to men, but to God.

And as he heard these words, Ananias collapsed and he died, and great fear came over all who heard about it. Verse six, and the young man got up and covered him. I've been thinking Ray kept saying to me, and the youth group came and they they took him away. And I just I just had a funny image of mine, Carl and his youth group carrying this person away. It's not funny actually at all.

Sorry. But why the youth group? I don't I don't I don't know. The young man came up and they covered him, and after carrying him out, they buried him. Now an interval of about three hours elapsed, and his wife came in not knowing what had happened.

Poor thing. And Peter responded to her, tell me whether you sold the land for this price. And she said, yes, for that price. And then Peter said to her, why is it that you've agreed together, collusion, to put the spirit of the Lord to the test? Behold, the feet of those who've buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out as well.

And immediately, she collapsed at his feet and died. And the young man came in, and they found her dead, and they carried her out and buried beside her husband. Verse 11, and great fear came over the whole church and over all who heard about these things. Again, this is a very, very difficult teaching. Ray did give me the option of not of not preaching.

I said, he said, you you could stop at at Barnabas. And I thought, I'm a big boy. I can handle it. I'll do it, Ray. But it does raise a lot of questions, doesn't it?

You know, why why did Ananias and Sapphira lie? You know, what was their motivation for not telling the truth? Was it was it recognition? They saw Barnabas and they thought, oh, I wanna be like Barnabas, but we'll keep back some of this, you know. And then, of course, the question is, you know, why such a severe punishment?

And the truth is, I don't know. I really I don't know. But I do know this, that the enemy was at work in the church and in the hearts of Ananias and Sapphira. And Peter exposes it. He says, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit?

You've not lied to men, but to God. This is an offense against the Lord. And why have you agreed to put the spirit of the Lord to the test? And and really the bottom line here is that these are the things that threaten the integrity and the unity and the purity of the church. This new era that God was ushering in, the holy led by the Holy Spirit, and the believers are all united together, and this was bringing disunity.

And as one of Ray's seminary professors points out, if God acts to preserve the integrity and commune of the community that the gospel produced, we can have an increased confidence in the truthfulness of the messes message itself. Let me read that again. If God acts to preserve the integrity of the community that the gospel produced, we can have an increased confidence and the truthfulness of the message itself. That's good news for the inquirer, but bad news for anyone who would take a casual approach to entering the kingdom of God. So that's been sitting in my lap for

a while.

Now I get to set it in yours. You're welcome. And then verse 11 ends with, great fear came over the whole church. And this can actually mean real fear like terror, but it can mean reverence and awe and respect, a recognition of God's power and holiness. So in the negative sense, fear of judgment or danger, but in the positive sense, a reverence for God.

But as we go on in acts, we're gonna see as a result of that fear. Look at this. When we approach this next week, that the fear of God, it produced this in the church. Multitudes of men and women were constantly added to their number. So there was this good, healthy fear that was drawing people to the Lord and to the church.

And so as a matter of application, I'm wrapping up here. Here are just a few points that I'm drawing from the text today. Okay? And they are to encourage one another to be alert and to fear the Lord. Encourage one another, be alert, and fear the Lord.

Now, I understand that not everyone is a Barnabas. Right? But we can still do this. We can still do this. We can still encourage one another and build each other up.

Whether that is a word of encouragement, or an act of service, or generosity, or compassion, or whatever it is that God has gifted you with, we can use it to build up the body of Christ, to encourage one another, and build each other up. So there's one application point. I also believe that there is a warning here that we can draw from the text, that to be alert. Do you remember Jesus in John 10? And he says, the enemy comes to kill and steal and destroy.

Do you remember that part? Do you remember what Jesus said he does? I've come that they might have full and abundant life. The enemy, however, comes to kill and steal and destroy. Whatever unity God has placed in us and with one another, the enemy seeks to destroy that.

First Peter says, he prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to desire. This is awful. This is discord. This is this is disunity. This is the wolf coming into the the the fold of sheep.

The enemy did not want unity in the church then. The enemy does not want unity in the church now. And you can guarantee he is hard at work to to bring unit disunity and and and discord. The good news is here, though, and I wanna say this, because it's not just about being alert, is we have the armor here of God. Do you remember this in Ephesians six?

We have armor to stand firm against the strategies of the enemy. And Ephesians six tells us, church, put it on. Put it on. Just even this morning as I was waking up, and you know how you you have this kind of the the mind is a battleground, and you start to have a a thought, and you start to go down, you know, maybe kind of some stinking thinking, and that kind of a stuff, that kind of stuff. And and it's like, we we do.

We need to battle against this, and we have armor here, it says, from Ephesians six. We've got God's truth and his righteousness. We've got the gospel. We've got faith. We've got the hope of our salvation.

We've got the word of God. Now think of Jesus being tempted in the desert in Luke chapter four, and what does he use to combat the enemy's attacks? Use the word. We have prayer, but all to say, we are not defenseless against the enemy, and the warning here is to be alert. And then last is to fear the Lord.

I think we tend to see the fear of the Lord as something that is negative. Proverbs tells us this though, the fear of the Lord, that's the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the holy one, that's understanding. These are good things. To fear the Lord is a good thing.

And when we view God with reverence and awe and respect, recognizing him for who he truly is, every part of God, Not just his grace and not just his love, but

to know that he's a conquering king. That when he comes back, he will judge the world. This is true about God.

And to fear him, that's the beginning of wisdom. That's the beginning of wisdom, for real wisdom. And so there it is. Acts four thirty two through five eleven, we've got a description of the church's common life. Excuse me.

We've got a positive example of that being Barnabas. Let's be a Barnabas to one another. And a negative example being Ananias and Sapphira, and a few application points here to encourage one another, church, and all the more as you see the day approaching, as the scripture would say, to be alert. It really is important that we are aware to protect the unity and the integrity and the purity of the church. It really is that important.

And to fear the Lord. To fear the Lord is a good thing, church. And don't let anyone tell you otherwise. There is a good, healthy reverence and awe and respect that God deserves. Amen?

So with that, I'm gonna invite our worship team. We're a duo today. Some of our worship team got stuck at the airport yesterday, and they're traveling back. So thank you, Seth. Had to be up here not alone.

And well and would you stand? And and while you're standing, can I pray? Lord God Almighty, I'm just absolutely amazed by you that you would speak to us through your spirit and through the word. God, we're taking the whole counts counsel of scripture. The parts we want to hear and the parts, God, that are difficult to hear.

God, may your holiness, and your might, and your power, and your sovereignty, God, may we see it, recognize it, be in awe of you. And God, thank you for your church. As we devote ourselves, Lord, to your teaching and to fellowship and sharing meals and prayer like the early church did, God, would you fill us with your spirit and with love and with a real unity and generosity? And as you taught us to pray, God, would you protect us from the evil one? Anything that would threaten the unity of the church.

Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Shall we sing?

Wonderful. Such an awesome God. So selfish, so generous, so faithful you are. Selfish. You're so generous.

So faithful you are. Nothing comes close. Nothing comes close to the Lord. Almighty and nothing has sweet as you love. And mercy and nothing comes close to the Almighty, nothing has sweet as he's mad.

And mercy, oh, nothing comes close to the Lord. So mighty, so whole, so wonderful. Such an awesome God,

And can I leave you with this benediction here as we part? And enjoy fellowship, really. Go down the hall. Get to know one another through the connect hour, and let's be practicing these things that we're seeing in Acts. But Philippians, this is the one that came to mind for us this week, and as we go, therefore, if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, church, do you have any encouragement from being united with Christ?

If there is any comfort from his love, are you comforted by his love? Me too. If any common sharing in the spirit, yes. Is there any tenderness and compassion? Paul says, make my joy complete, being like minded, having the same love, being one in the spirit, the kind of oneness that Jesus prayed for in John 17, and of one mind, do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but rather in humility, value others above yourself, not looking just to your interest, but to the interest of others.

In Jesus' name, Lord, we ask, would you fill us, God, your church, with your spirit and with love and unity for one another. In Jesus' name, amen.