I want to invite you to turn with me in your Bible to Acts chapter 2, I'm going to read Acts chapter 2 verses 42 through 47 as we continue and conclude our sermon series on spiritual habits, so Acts chapter 2 verses 42 through 47. Here now God's holy, true, and life-giving word. And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the 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. And all who believed were together and had all things in common, and they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. 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, and the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray together. Father, we are so thankful for your word. We are so thankful that you reveal yourself in and through your word by your spirit, most of all in your Son. We thank you that, though we would never run to you, you have come to us. And we thank you that for those of us with faith, you have set us free so that we can run to you and trust in you and come to know you and your glory and your grace. And as we talk about community this morning, Lord, would you bless us, would you encourage us, direct us, that the community we experience as a church body would reflect more of what is possible by the power of the gospel and the work of the Holy Spirit. And we pray these things in Jesus' name and for His sake, amen. I came across a survey which actually had some pretty shocking results. There was an insurance company that did a survey on health and in the process, they discovered that, as many are saying, America has a loneliness epidemic, loneliness epidemic. If you were to look up the survey, you'll find that it says almost half, 47% of American adults say they sometimes or always feel lonely, 27% of American adults say they rarely or never feel like they're really understood by anyone else. 33% of American adults say they have no meaningful relationships. Wow, 20% say they do not feel really close to anybody and attached to that 18%, they don't have anybody they can really talk to. 47% do not have meaningful interactions every day, meaningful social interactions every day. And then here's one of the things that really hit me is that the study showed that generation Z, that's the 18 to 22 year olds start calling students right now, generation Z is the loneliest generation of all. And just in case you think maybe smartphones has something to do with that, they actually the study actually showed that people who use social media very often do not score much higher in loneliness than people who don't. It's just a couple of points difference. So that's actually not the problem. The problem is we live in a world where our sin and our brokenness drives us apart. And we have to understand that God has declared from the beginning that we need people, it's not good for man to be alone as God tells us in Genesis chapter 2 verse 18. So we have what God has told us that we should have community, we should have fellowship. But then we know that so many people in our country do not and are suffering in isolation. Maybe you hear these numbers and you think that's just incredible, I can't believe that. That may be because by God's grace you have some real good, healthy community in your life and good relationships. Maybe you're seeing this and you're thinking wow, I know exactly how those people feel because you are yourself quite lonely. I'm sure there's a mix of us in the room this morning. Well, from whatever perspective we're looking at this, the bad news is loneliness is a reality and it is very challenging. But the good news is God calls us as followers of Jesus into community, shows us how to have beautiful, otherworldly community and that's going to be our focus for this morning. These last few weeks we've been talking about these spiritual habits, things that we put into practice, not to earn something from God, not to earn our salvation, salvation, forgiveness of sins is a free gift that we receive by grace through faith in Jesus. Now we put these habits into practice so that we can grow spiritually and flourish spiritually in this life. And so we've talked about the importance of having a habit of being in the Word. Last week we talked about the importance of a habit of prayer and this morning we're talking about the importance of being in community, the habit of Christian community. So our focus is that Christ-centered, grace-driven, genuine community is essential to spiritual growth and flourishing. So hopefully we can see that from the scriptures today. I want to walk through these verses that I read and we'll talk about three things. Number one, I want to talk about how worship is the fuel for community. Okay, that's the more that we're devoted to coming together and worship the more fueled we will be for this amazing community that's available to us through our faith in Christ. Number two, we'll talk about how generosity is the heart of community. It's becoming transformed by God and becoming much more generous and gracious is what paves the way for community with one another that the world can't even begin to create. Number three, we'll talk about how mission is the fruit of community. It's very amazing. You see that as they experience this rich fellowship and rich community in this passage, more and more people come and join what they are doing. So those are the three points we'll be working through today. Let's start with number one, talk about how worship is the fuel for community. Look at verses 42 and 43. Okay, worship is the fuel for community. What I want you to see is that Luke is writing about these early Christians and notice what he's saying that they're devoted to. Notice what they're committed to and then we'll see shortly after that they had this incredible community and what I'm submitting to you is it was a result of that. Their focus on worship is what was fueling their ability to have this tremendous community among one another. Look at 42, it says, and they, these are these early Christians. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship to the breaking of bread and the prayers and awe came over, came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. Now what you have to recognize is Luke is listing here several things that we do in corporate worship. He's talking about the apostles' teaching so in worship we preach and teach the word of God. He's talking about fellowship. We're in each other's presence. That word fellowship, by the way, is a word that means participation and even contact meaning you can't really have fellowship with somebody unless you're in the room with them. So by the way, that rules out going to church online, seriously. The worship of God must be done in the presence of the people of God. They're devoted to that. Breaking of bread, a way that in the New Testament we see communion referred to. For example Paul does that in 1 Corinthians 10-16 and prayers, obviously we spend every week we spend time in intercessory prayer that's part of how we worship and what we can see then is we're seeing that what Luke talks about before he explains this shockingly amazing community that they're experiencing. He says they were devoted to these things that all coincide with worship, with corporate worship. And then he says that they were filled with awe. And yes, he goes on to say that the apostles were doing many signs and wonders and we might say, okay, yeah, that's what they were in awe over the signs and the wonders. But notice the order in which Luke says it. He says, and awe came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. So what I would submit to you is that he's actually saying that it's not necessarily the signs and wonders that they were in awe over, I'm sure that was part of it, but it was what the apostles were teaching about Christ, it was about what they have through faith and their union with Christ and the grace that God lavishes on us through faith. All in the context of worship, they were devoted to being together to do these things, they were devoted to being together regularly in worship just like how the author of Hebrew says not to neglect to come together. It is a call for us to be committed to being together in each other's presence as we are in God's presence in worship and that actually is what fuels true and genuine community. We need God to transform us so that we will be able to participate in otherworldly genuine communities. It's thinking about this the other day. And for Christmas, my parents bought my children some walkie talkies. And these are like legit walkie talkies, they're not like kids walkie talkies, they're seriously good walkie talkies. I'm not jealous, I'm just saying they're amazing walkie talkies and one of the things that's amazing about them is when they're low on battery, they have the rechargeable battery packs that come with the charger, when they're low on battery, you know what they do? They tell you, when it's low, it will say, out loud, please charge battery, means that high-tech or what? Please charge battery every 60 seconds, let me tell you some else, sometimes whoever was playing with those walkie talkies and it may have been me, they get left on and then you know what happens in the middle of the night. You hear the sweet soft voice, please charge battery. And you're like, did I just hear and then once again, please charge battery and then the hunt is on, you're running through the house, please charge battery and then you get a little closer and then you finally find it and it's please charge, quiet, then you turn it off and you're walking back to your bed, it's 2.30 in the morning and you hear once again the other one that's left on, please charge battery, please charge battery. So while it doesn't work out at night, let me explain this, it is pretty interesting that they have a very, very crystal clear way of saying their batteries need to be charged, they have a very crystal clear way of saying, I don't have any more energy, I can't keep doing this, I'm going to need some fresh power. In Almighty God, lovingly has a very clear way in his word of saying that you and I need our batteries charged, when we hear that call to worship at the beginning of the service, we should hear him saying, I'll charge your battery, I'll charge your battery, you can't live the Christian life, you can't live according to these wonderful ways that God has designed for us on our own powers, it's impossible. That's why we need a savior because we fail at it, but after we've been redeemed, after we've been forgiven, then we need power, we need to be in God's presence, to hook up to the charging unit, so to speak. And what Luke is showing us here is as they were devoted to being together in each other's presence and in the presence of God for worship, it was fueling the type of community that maybe none of us have ever really seen, but the way we can apply that is to make Sunday morning a corporate worship a priority, and to believe that the more devoted we are to being together every week in worship, the more it's going to grow our joy with one another and the feeling of community that we have with one another, we want to see Sunday morning worship not as some chore, but as the place that we connect to the one who can charge our weary souls and empower us and transform us for this type of community. Our batteries get low, please charge battery. And so what happens then, when we are committed to that, and when we're truly worshiping God, we're hearing what is said about Him in the Word, we're understanding Christ at more deeper levels, we're understanding the depths of the grace of God, what happens as we do that more and more and more, die to ourselves, repent of our sins, trust in the finished work of Christ, it transforms who we are, and it enables us to live and love one another in ways that are literally mind blowing. Look at what took place. Generosity, we'll see then, is the heart of community. This whole early church was just dripping with grace and generosity for one another, take a look, 44 through 46. And all who believed were together and had all things in common, and they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need, and day by day attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts. I think when we read that, we're like, no way, just no way. People would never really do that. But people really did that, and we really can be transformed by the grace of God into people that are so happy to give away, so happy to be generous. And I want to realize, here's what's happening, as the early church was worshipping and devoted to letting their apostles teach them about this gracious God as they were worshipping this exceedingly gracious God, they were being transformed into exceedingly gracious people. And it was generosity, by the way. It was not obligated. Nothing obligated these early Christians to sell their things, or to make sure that all needs were met. Nobody was obligating them to give anything up. Sometimes we read this verse and we kind of freak out for a second, because we think maybe it's teaching collectivism or communism or socialism, but it's actually not. It's not teaching that they were obligated to do this. It's teaching that they just joyfully wanted to. I mean, think about this. God teaches us, number one, in Exodus, in the Tengamus, we're taught not to steal. Why are we taught not to steal? Because when God gives us a blessing, it's ours. We own it. No one should take it. Right? God does believe, God wants us to believe that we do actually own our things. This is the same thing in Acts chapter 5 when Peter's talking to Sephiroth. They've sold the land, and you may know that whole story, but the key point right now is Peter tells her that the land was hers before they sold it. So this isn't teaching some sort of forced redistribution. Okay? That may happen in some places by the changing of laws, but God is in the business of changing hearts. And so what we see is a group of people that have been so riveted, so blown away by the grace of God that they just can't help themselves, but to sell things or give things or do whatever they can to make sure that all the people in that community are well loved, well cared for, needs are met. I mean, it is radical. It's not obligation, we're saying it's radical generosity, motivated by the radical grace of God. Man, I want to be part of a group of people that loves each other like that, right? And in many ways, we see that here, but we can see it even more, because the reality is we're made for community, worship fuels it, and generosity is the heart of it. God wants us to have the type of community that the world can't produce. He wants us to have those friendships, those relationships, those meaningful interactions, because he knows that we're not only made for them, but they do, I mean, it literally increases our quality of life. I was reading this article about this place in England. I believe it's pronounced from, okay, no corrections, we'll go with it. From, in Somerset, England, so over the last several years, this place in England has seen a dramatic fall in the number of people being admitted to the emergency room. Like a dramatic drop in the number of people going to the emergency room, and so they've been looking into why was this happening, and it's happening because of what's called the Compassionate From Project, which was launched in 2013 by a doctor, a general practitioner named Helen Kingston, Dr. Helen Kingston. And what she had noticed is that many of her patients when they had an illness would soon become isolated. And once they were isolated, they were much more at risk, and they would very often wind up in the emergency room. And so she started this project where she gathered all these people, and she began to utilize what she called health connectors, and these were people who were keeping tabs on how people were doing in this community, especially the people that had experienced any health issues. They also trained up these voluntary community connectors. And what these people would do is go and provide support and relationship for these people who would otherwise be isolated. And sure enough, after a trial study, the data show that when isolated people who have health problems are supported by groups and volunteers and people reaching out to them, the number of emergency admissions to hospitals falls spectacularly. And that interesting. One doctor said, quote, no other interventions on record have reduced emergency admissions across a population. So the more these people were connected, the more relationships they had, the more people who were making sure they were cared for, the less problems they were running into. And there's studies that have shown this in many ways. For example, HIV patients with strong social support have lower levels of the virus than those without. Women have better chances of surviving certain types of cancer when they have a good support system. Men remarkably, or I'm sorry, most remarkably older patients with either one or two chronic diseases do not have a higher death rate than those who have the same chronic diseases but no connections. Let me say that again. Older people who have chronic diseases but they have a support system aren't seeing a sooner death rate than the people who do have or without the connections. I don't think I just made sense right there. Let's move on. It's a good thing. We'll just leave it there. The point being that the world can tell that when people are better connected, when they're more connected, the world can see that, we can see that. And once it's like common sense, well, of course, we need these connections. But here's the thing, these connections are hard because we're sinners. I am one of the foremost. And so we need the grace of God to transform us which takes us right back to the importance of worship. If I want to be really loving towards any of you, I've got to be transformed by the grace of God in worship. But then when I am and when we are, we can, by the power of the Holy Spirit, by Christ in us, we can love one another in amazing ways. We can create this radical community, amazing, loving, generous community. And one of the key ways we do that is community groups. You know, we'll put a plug in for our community groups. We're not a gigantic church, but we're too big to know everybody. And so if you're not in a community group, we really encourage you to stop by the grow table before you go get in a community group. And then if you aren't a community group, just realize the importance of putting forward that grace-driven, spirit-powered effort to love one another deeply and well. And think about prioritizing even our church, Paul says, it's been Galatians 6.10. So then as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone. And especially to those who are of the household of faith. There's an a special call, a special call for us to love one another deeply and well, to be generous and gracious and make sure needs are met. We do that through community groups. I want to challenge you and your community groups to think through the 59 and one and others. Love one another from John 13. Don't judge one another. Romans 14. Serve one another. Galatians 5. Forgive one another. Ephesians 4. Encourage one another. Hebrews 3. Pray for one another. James 4. Be hospitable to one another. First Peter, 4. The more that we invest in the groups that we have, the more we're going to see community that's more like this, where people's needs are met, people feel loved, nobody's lonely.
And it helps us to grow and to flourish as we do so in community. So God wants to give to us what we can't create on our own. No matter how hard we try, we may be able to create a great relationship momentarily, but we can't create these sustained relationships, but the gospel can, God can, and so in Christ, He's giving to us what we cannot do on our own. It's just like at the cross, right? We could never pay for our sins. We could never earn a righteous status with God. The only way to be right with God is by grace through faith in Christ. We couldn't do that. We couldn't make ourselves right with God. So God sent His Son to die in the cross, to pay for our sins, to give us His righteousness so that through faith we would know for certain that we are forgiven. We are free. We're promised eternal life. God's done for us. What we could never do for ourselves in Christ when it comes to being reconciled to God. And it's exactly the same when it comes to community. He wants us to have this other worldly community and generosity is at the heart of it. And the more we worship Him, the more we're transformed and the more we're able to live out that generosity with one another, and which creates a community that just draws people in. I mean, think about this. Look what happens next. What you see is that mission is the fruit of community. You know, the worship fuels their community. Generosity is at the heart of what's making their community unbelievable. And then it actually, the beauty of the community that they're experiencing is helping them accomplish their mission to make more disciples, which is our mission, to make more disciples. Look at verse 47. It says they were praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord added to their number, day by day, those who were being saved. And so what we're seeing then is as this, as the early church was enjoying this genuine community, the people of the city were drawn to them. The people around were seeing the way they loved each other and they wanted to be near that. They wanted to be part of that. Oh, to be a community where people just want to be a part of what we're doing, because they know we love each other so well. They got people that the early church was praising God, but the city around them was praising them because of the way that they were caring and serving for one another sacrificially. And then it says the Lord was adding to their number. Non-believers were so taken aback by the way they were treating each other that they wanted to be a part of it and whatever way they could. And the thing is this is such a beautiful thing for us. We have a mission where our mission is to make disciples. We exist here to glorify and enjoy God and to proclaim and demonstrate the gospel. And as people hear the gospel and want salvation by grace through faith and Christ, then we seek to make them into disciples. And wouldn't you know it? One of the things that we all really want actually equips us to be more effective in mission. As we laborer to love each other, better and better, more deeply and well. It actually empowers us to draw more people in. In fact, there's a church in Nashville that realized this and they put a lot of focus on ensuring that the community in the church was rich and deep and loving and gracious and they doubled in size in less than a year. Because there's something so powerful that there's something that draws people when they see incredible and beautiful community. Because deep down they know we all know that we're made for it deep down. Even if we can't articulate that, I mean, God is trying. We talked about that in our catechism question and answer today. Father, son and Holy Spirit, community. We're made in the image of a God who has enjoyed community throughout all eternity. So there is this longing. Therefore, when we trust God and labor to love one another well, it creates this community that not only we enjoy, but then the city around us sees and it can help us reach more people and make more disciples. And that amazing. Something we want is something that can help us accomplish our mission. Let me ask you this. What do a wrecking yard, a rock concert, and your front door have in common? All wait. What does a junk yard or a wrecking yard and a rock concert and your front door have in common? Somebody got it in the first service. They all use electromagnets.
Let's pray. No, I'll do it. So an electromagnet is something that it's metal and on its own, it doesn't do anything. But when it's electrified, when electricity is applied, it creates a magnetic field. So wrecking yard. You've seen the big things where the big plate comes down and hits a car and picks it up and then moves it and then it just drops. You turn on the electricity to make the connection and then when you want to drop it, you turn off the electricity wrecking yard. Rock concert. You know what, make speakers make things loud? Electromagnets. That's right. When the electricity comes in, the electromagnets are designed to operate in such a way that they create this field in which they're able to amplify the sound. So next time we had a rock concert, we were like, aren't those electromagnets great? What? They're working. Okay? Front door. Your front door. Your doorbell uses electromagnets. Okay? When somebody touches the button, it takes electricity and puts it through the wires and the little electromagnet pulls itself over. Ding. You might have a ding-dong. We just have a ding in my house. It's broken, I haven't fixed it. It's just a ding in my house. But it's an electromagnetic ding. What's the point? God wants us to understand that as we give ourselves over to him more and more in worship, as we trust him as we're devoted to being in his presence and in each other's presence, he wants to electrify. He wants to fill us with a deeper understanding of his grace that transforms us in such a way that we love each other so well that it's like electricity gets pumped into our body, creates this magnetic field where people in the city around us are like, whoa, just drawn to it. On our own, we have nothing to draw people to this body. But electrified by the grace of God, we have a magnetic field that will pull people in, draw people to us, that we might love them well and tell them good news. Anybody can get in on this. So the hope is that we would be a church just absolutely committed to worshiping together, devoted to these things committed to being in community groups where we love each other so well that the watching world says, wow, may I be a part of this? And we can say absolutely in Christ, absolutely. Let's turn on the electricity by the grace of God. Let's pray. Father, please would you do it? Would you buy your spirit? Super charge every one of our community groups. Would you help those who are not in a community group make adjustments, make changes in their lives that they would jump into a community group? Not because it's the right thing to do, but because it's the place to love one another well. Would our worship fuel not only our love for you but our ability to love one another? And would you bring about community here that's so rich and deep that our neighbors around want in? And through that would you help us make more disciples who will worship you, live in community with one another, and be on mission. For your glory and for our joy, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.