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Lansing SDA Church

Wes Peppers

Acting Like the Acts Church

Lord, today we just ask in a special way that your Holy Spirit would draw near to us.

There are many away today for the men's chorale and for the pathfinders, and so we uplift them, Lord, that you would use them in a powerful way, that you'd bless them in everything that they participate in for you today.

And Lord, this morning we pray especially for these dear folks that are in the hospital, for Lori and for Sarita, and we pray for Jody's grandson, Lord, Jody and Bob, and Lord, we uplift each 1 of them to you.

Lord, you know their circumstances, you know their challenges, you know the healing that they need, and we just intercede today in a very special way, asking you, Lord, to be near to them, be close to their families, be close to their own hearts and Lord we pray that you bring comfort and peace to them and bring healing.

So Lord We look to you and Lord in this broken world that we live, we realize that these things are very real and Lord the devil delights in them but Lord we know that even through these most difficult trials you can bring good And so Lord we're looking to Jesus today and we're looking for that good that you will bring out of these things.

And we long for the day when Jesus will return when all those things will pass away and you will not have to face them anymore.

Lord we believe that that day is coming soon, and so Lord, prepare our hearts for it.

We ask you to draw near to us just now as we open your word together, and we pray, Lord, that your spirit would come, revive us and rejuvenate us and draw us close in Jesus' name, amen.

I want to ask you a question this morning.

What kind of a church do you think that Jesus deserves?

Isn't that a very interesting question to ask?

If you could think about the church that Jesus would deserve to have, What would you think?

So, there are many characteristics we can think about that we would say that would be the picture of the church that Jesus deserves.

How many of you can think of all those things, right?

And how many of you believe today that Jesus, before he returns to this earth, he's going to have that kind of church?

How many of you believe that this morning?

The question today is, are you going to be that church?

Because the question is not, is it ever, is it really going to happen?

If everything else that's been prophesied in the Bible has come to pass, how many of you think that that's going to come to pass?

And so we long, we desire, we want, we have a passion to be the kind of church that Jesus deserves.

Not just the 1 that He wants, but the 1 that He deserves.

And ask yourselves the question this morning, are we reflecting our own part to make that happen, to become the church that Jesus deserves?

And this morning, we're going to take a look, real quickly, at the book of Acts.

And we're going to see a picture of a church that was the church that Jesus deserves.

And we're going to see this morning if we can find some aspects of the book of Acts, some characteristics that we can examine and ask ourselves the question, how can we become the type of church that Jesus deserves?

How many of you are ready to do that this morning?

And what you find very powerfully is the church that Jesus began in the book of Acts will be the church, will look like the church that is ready and waiting for Jesus to come.

So something happened in between those times, right?

And by God's grace, we're trying to get back to, we're trying to come back to the church that started.

And we want to have even, we want the character of Jesus to be restored in our lives.

So let's take a look at some points this morning about God's early church.

We're gonna, I'm gonna talk about 4 points this morning and There are actually probably 400 or more in the book of Acts that we could look at, but for time's sake I'm trying to condense them.

We may do a little bit of a series out of this coming up here.

But I want to invite you to turn with me in the book of Acts chapter 5.

Acts chapter 5, and we're going to take a look at verse 28 and 29.

The first point that I want to make today is that the Acts Church was a group of people that loved Jesus more than life because Jesus had loved them more than his life.

How many believe today that Jesus loves your life more than his life?

Because He gave up His life for us, didn't He?

He said, no greater love has a man than this for his friends than this, that he would lay down his life for his friends.

But Jesus didn't lay down His life for His friends, did He?

And every 1 of us here today and every person in the world at some point in their life has been the enemy of God.

Not that God posed himself as an enemy to us, but we ourselves were enemies to him.

I hope today that you're not the enemy of God.

I hope that you have become through His grace the friend of God.

But there might be someone here today who is an enemy of God, who is running from Him, who is with their lives doing everything opposite of His ideal for them and making His sacrifice in vain.

I pray that that's not the case this morning for you.

But let's go to the book of Acts chapter 5 and let's see a picture of a people who loved their lives, who loved Jesus more than their own lives.

The Bible says, let's back up just a little bit.

I was going to go to the point, but let's just back up.

The Bible tells us in verse 25, It says, So 1 came and told them, saying, Look, the men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people.

Then the captain went with the officers and brought them out without violence, for they fear the people, lest they should be stoned.

And when they brought them, they set them before the council, and the high priest asked them, saying, Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name?

And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine and intended to bring this man's blood on us.

But Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey who?

Now if you jump down to verse 40 through 42, there were some things that took place, the council talked, but look at this in verse 40, and they agreed with them, and with him, and when they had called for the apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus and let them go.

So they departed from the presence of the council, doing what?

Rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.

And daily in the temple and in every house they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.

That to me, I don't know about you, but it's inspiring.

How many of us rejoice when we have problems?

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Acting Like the Acts Church

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