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The First Church Was Nothing Like Ours Acts 2 Explained · truthunedited

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What does real life look like in Acts 2, 42
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  Speaker 1: to 47? The version that turned the Roman Empire upside down.
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  Speaker 1: The version that spread the gospel from Jerusalem to the
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  Speaker 1: ends of the earth in one generation. The version that
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  Speaker 1: made ordinary people so extraordinary that thousands joined them daily.
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  Speaker 1: Today we are going inside that community and you're going
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  Speaker 1: to understand why the church lost it. why you have
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  Speaker 1: probably never experienced it. By the end of this video,
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  Speaker 1: you're going to see the early church not as a
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  Speaker 1: historical event, but as a living reality that is available
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  Speaker 1: to you today. And we are going to show you
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  Speaker 1: something we have been building, a community of believers from
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  Speaker 1: around the world already being transformed by Already experiencing what
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  Speaker 1: Acts 2 describes in the digital world. Stay with us
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: until the end. What we reveal has never been available before.
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  Speaker 1: To understand Acts 2, 42 to 47. You need to
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  Speaker 1: understand what happened just before it. Fifty days after the
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  Speaker 1: resurrection of Jesus and the disciples were gathered in one place, afraid, confused, waiting.
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  Speaker 1: And then something happened that changed everything. The Holy Spirit fell. Suddenly,
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  Speaker 1: a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came
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  Speaker 1: from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.
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  Speaker 1: They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that
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  Speaker 1: separated and came to rest on each of them. All
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  Speaker 1: of them were filled with the Holy Spirit. Acts 2,
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  Speaker 1: 2-4 Fire on each of them, not on one leader,
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  Speaker 1: not on the pastor at the front. On each of them,
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  Speaker 1: every single person in that room received the fire of God.
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  Speaker 1: And Peter, the same Peter who had denied Jesus three
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  Speaker 1: times just fifty days earlier, stood up and preached, and
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  Speaker 1: three thousand people gave their lives to Jesus before he
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  Speaker 1: sat back down. And then something happened that the world
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  Speaker 1: had never seen before, something so radical, so counter-cultural, so
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  Speaker 1: completely unlike anything the religious world had produced. that it
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  Speaker 1: stopped everyone who witnessed it in their tracks. They devoted
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  Speaker 1: themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the
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  Speaker 1: breaking of bread and to prayer. Acts 2.42 DEVOTED Not occasionally,
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  Speaker 1: not when it was convenient, and not when they felt
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  Speaker 1: like it. Let me show you exactly what this community
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  Speaker 1: looked like, because most of us have read these verses
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  Speaker 1: so many times they have lost weight. First, radical sharing
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  Speaker 1: and generosity. All the believers were together and had everything
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  Speaker 1: in common. They sold property and possessions to give to
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  Speaker 1: anyone who had need. Acts 2.44-45 Everything in common, not
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  Speaker 1: some things, not the things they could afford to give away.
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  Speaker 1: People sold their houses, sold their land, sold their possessions,
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  Speaker 1: and gave the money to anyone in the community who
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  Speaker 1: had a need. Because the fire of God in them
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  Speaker 1: made the things of this world feel small compared to
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  Speaker 1: the needs of their brothers and sisters. When was the
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  Speaker 1: last time you were in a community where where someone
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  Speaker 1: sold something significant to meet your needs? When was the
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  Speaker 1: last time you did that for someone else? Second, daily devotion.
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  Speaker 1: Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts.
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  Speaker 1: They broke bread in their homes and ate together with
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  Speaker 1: glad and sincere hearts. Acts 2.46 Not Sunday mornings, every
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  Speaker 1: single day, they gathered in the temple courts for teaching
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  Speaker 1: and worship. They went to each other's homes for meals
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  Speaker 1: and fellowship daily. The early church was not a weekly event.
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  Speaker 1: It was a daily lifestyle. Third, an awe-struck atmosphere. Everyone
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  Speaker 1: was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs
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  Speaker 1: performed by the apostles. Acts 2.43 Awe, a deep holy reverence,
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  Speaker 1: the kind that makes you quiet inside. the kind that
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  Speaker 1: makes you aware that something bigger than yourself is happening.
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  Speaker 1: Signs and wonders were not occasional highlights. They were the
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  Speaker 1: normal atmosphere of this community, fourth joyful fellowship. They broke
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  Speaker 1: bread in their homes and ate together with glad and
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  Speaker 1: sincere hearts, praising God. Acts 2.46 Glad and sincere hearts,
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  Speaker 1: genuine joy, Genuine praise, genuine love for each other. Fifth,
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  Speaker 1: consistent growth. And the Lord added to their number daily
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  Speaker 1: those who were being saved. Acts 2.47 The Lord added
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  Speaker 1: to their number daily, not because they had a marketing strategy,
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  Speaker 1: because a community of believers so devoted to each other,
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  Speaker 1: so filled with the Holy Spirit, so genuine in their
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  Speaker 1: love and their faith, was impossible to ignore. The world
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  Speaker 1: looked at them and wanted what they had. That is
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  Speaker 1: the Acts 2 community. Now let me ask the honest question.
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  Speaker 1: When is the last time you experienced any of that?
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  Speaker 1: The radical generosity, the daily devotion, the awestruck atmosphere, the
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  Speaker 1: joyful genuine fellowship, the daily growth. Most believers have never
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  Speaker 1: experienced this, not even close, and I want to tell
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  Speaker 1: you why. not to condemn the church, not to criticize
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  Speaker 1: pastors or denominations or institutions, but because understanding why we
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  Speaker 1: lost it is the only way to get it back.
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  Speaker 1: Reason one, the church became an institution. In the early church,
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  Speaker 1: there was no building, no weekly service schedule, no formal
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  Speaker 1: membership process, and no committee meetings, no budget discussions. There
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  Speaker 1: were people, filled with the Holy Spirit, devoted to each other,
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  Speaker 1: carrying the same fire, moving toward the same mission, and
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  Speaker 1: over centuries the church became an institution, and institutions, by
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  Speaker 1: their very nature, prioritized stability over fire, order over devotion,
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  Speaker 1: attendance over transformation. The building became more important than the
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  Speaker 1: people inside it. The Sunday service became the primary expression
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  Speaker 1: of community. And somewhere along the way, the daily rhythm
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  Speaker 1: of Acts 2 was replaced by a weekly routine. Reason 2.
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  Speaker 1: The consumer culture invaded the church. The world we live
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  Speaker 1: in has trained us to consume. not to contribute, not
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  Speaker 1: to sacrifice, not to share everything, to consume. And that
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  Speaker 1: consumer mentality followed us into the church. We come to receive,
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  Speaker 1: not to give. We come to be served, not to serve.
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  Speaker 1: We come to be inspired, not to be transformed. And
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  Speaker 1: a consumer cannot build an Acts 2 community because Acts
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  Speaker 1: 2 was built by contributors, people who gave everything, people
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  Speaker 1: who held nothing back, people who looked at their possessions
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  Speaker 1: and said, if my brother or sister has a need,
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  Speaker 1: everything I have is available. Reason three, we lost the mission.
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  Speaker 1: The Acts 2 community was not gathered around a building
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  Speaker 1: or a denomination or a worship style. They were gathered
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  Speaker 1: around one mission, the Great Commission, a go and make
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  Speaker 1: disciples of all nations. That shared mission created the unity.
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  Speaker 1: That shared mission created the generosity. That shared mission created
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  Speaker 1: the daily devotion. When you are fighting for the same thing,
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  Speaker 1: You naturally share everything. You naturally support each other. You
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  Speaker 1: naturally show up every day. But when the mission becomes unclear,
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  Speaker 1: when church becomes just a weekly social gathering, the fire
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  Speaker 1: goes out, the generosity disappears, the daily rhythm stops, and
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  Speaker 1: we are left with a pale shadow of what God
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  Speaker 1: intended His community to look like. Now here is something
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  Speaker 1: I want you to feel before we go any further.
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  Speaker 1: God has never stopped wanting to build Acts 2 communities.
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  Speaker 1: He has never stopped calling people into that kind of radical, devoted,
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  Speaker 1: fire-filled discipleship. He is still doing it, right now, through
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  Speaker 1: people just like you. Jeremiah stood at the potter's house
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  Speaker 1: and watched the potter working at the wheel. And God said,
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  Speaker 1: Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?
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  Speaker 1: Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are
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  Speaker 1: you in my hand, Jeremiah 18.6. The potter does not
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  Speaker 1: abandon the clay when it loses its shape. He keeps
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  Speaker 1: working it, keeps pressing it, keeps forming it into what
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  Speaker 1: it was always meant to be. One of our community
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  Speaker 1: members shared something recently that stopped us completely. They said
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  Speaker 1: that going through our community opened their eyes to how
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  Speaker 1: God was shaping them on the potter's wheel, molding them
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  Speaker 1: into a vessel suitable for use, to carry out His plan,
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  Speaker 1: not just for this, but for everything He wants to
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  Speaker 1: use them for. That is Acts 2. That is what
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  Speaker 1: happens when believers come together around a shared mission. with
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  Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit as the fire and the Word of
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  Speaker 1: God as the foundation. God begins to shape them, mold them,
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  Speaker 1: form them into exactly what he always intended them to be.
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  Speaker 1: Now here is what I want you to see. The
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  Speaker 1: disciples did not stay in Jerusalem. Acts 2 was not
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  Speaker 1: the destination. It was the launching pad. The community was
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  Speaker 1: built so that the mission could go forward. And it
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  Speaker 1: went everywhere. Peter to Rome. Thomas to India, Andrew to Scotland,
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  Speaker 1: Matthew to Ethiopia. The community sent them, the community supported them,
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  Speaker 1: the community prayed for them, the community shared everything so
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: every member had what they needed to go, and the
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  Speaker 1: gospel spread to the ends of the earth. Now I
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  Speaker 1: want you to look at the world we live in today. 4.9
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  Speaker 1: billion people use the Internet. 3.5 billion people use social
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  Speaker 1: media every single day. YouTube has 2.7 billion monthly active users.
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  Speaker 1: The digital world is the largest mission field in human history.
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  Speaker 1: Larger than Rome. Larger than the entire known world of
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  Speaker 1: the first century. and it is largely empty of deep, genuine,
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  Speaker 1: spirit-filled gospel content. The harvest is plentiful, but the workers
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  Speaker 1: are few, and the workers who are there are mostly
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  Speaker 1: working alone, without community and without support, without the daily
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  Speaker 1: devotion and iron sharpening iron of Acts 2. What if
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  Speaker 1: that changed? What if the Acts 2 community was rebuilt,
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  Speaker 1: not in one city, not in one church building? but
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  Speaker 1: across the entire digital world. What if believers from every nation,
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  Speaker 1: every background, every denomination came together around one mission, the
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  Speaker 1: Great Commission, carried into the digital world together? That is
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  Speaker 1: exactly what we are building. For years, Deep Bible Stories
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  Speaker 1: has been preaching the gospel to you, reaching over 75
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  Speaker 1: million people worldwide with the Word of God. But God
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  Speaker 1: placed something new in our hearts, a conviction we cannot ignore.
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  Speaker 1: It is not enough to preach to you anymore. It
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  Speaker 1: is time to build with you the way the early
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  Speaker 1: church was built together, the way Peter and Thomas and
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  Speaker 1: Andrew built together before they went to the ends of
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  Speaker 1: the earth. So we created Go Digital Disciples, a community
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  Speaker 1: built on the Acts 2 model for the digital age.
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  Speaker 1: And here is what is already happening inside. Believers from
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  Speaker 1: around the world are joining. People who have felt called
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  Speaker 1: for years and never answered it. People who have been
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  Speaker 1: consuming the gospel and are now ready to carry it.
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  Speaker 1: People who are being shaped on the potter's wheel. molded
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  Speaker 1: into vessels for the mission God has always had for them.
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  Speaker 1: And we are just getting started. This community is growing daily.
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  Speaker 1: Every day new disciples are joining. Every day new voices
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  Speaker 1: are being raised up. Every day the digital mission field
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  Speaker 1: is being reached by people who were once sitting silently
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  Speaker 1: on their calling. Inside Digital Disciples, you will find exactly
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  Speaker 1: what Acts 2 describes— The apostles' teaching, deep Bible stories teaching,
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  Speaker 1: applied personally to your specific calling. The same depth that
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  Speaker 1: reached 75 million people now focused on equipping you to
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  Speaker 1: go and do the same. Fellowship, a community of committed
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  Speaker 1: believers from around the world. Iron sharpening iron. Every single
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  Speaker 1: day someone in this community is sharpening someone else, celebrating
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  Speaker 1: someone else. carrying someone else forward, breaking bread. We share everything,
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  Speaker 1: every tool, every strategy, every win, every failure, every resource.
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  Speaker 1: Nothing is held back because that is the Acts 2 model,
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  Speaker 1: everything in common, prayer. This community prays for each other,
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  Speaker 1: for each other's content, for each other's calling, for the
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  Speaker 1: people God has called each member to reach. We do
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  Speaker 1: not build alone. We build covered in prayer. This is
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  Speaker 1: a community, an Acts 2 community, for the digital age,
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  Speaker 1: as someone who brings their calling, their testimony, their message,
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  Speaker 1: their fire, into a community that will sharpen it, support it,
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  Speaker 1: amplify it. and send it to the ends of the
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  Speaker 1: digital earth. The link to join Digital Disciples is in
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: the description below. In eight days, you will go from
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  Speaker 1: feeling called to posting your first gospel message publicly, and
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  Speaker 1: the full 90-day program takes you the rest of the way.
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  Speaker 1: From calling to preaching, from preaching to growing, step by step,
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  Speaker 1: in a community that functions exactly like Acts 2, come
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  Speaker 1: be part of it. Stay blessed.