Latest / Bayside Davis Podcast / Not Without Everyone

Transcript

Not Without Everyone · Bayside Davis Podcast

0:05
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the B-side Davies Podcast.
0:09
SPEAKER_00: You're now listening to our current teaching series, Dr.
0:16
SPEAKER_01: Acts chapter 2.
0:18
SPEAKER_01: As some of you know, and some of you aren't familiar with this chapter, it's the beginning of the church.
0:27
SPEAKER_01: Jesus had died, he was buried, and he rose again, and he promised that the church would start, but the church wouldn't start until the Holy Spirit came and indwelt all of God's people.
0:41
SPEAKER_01: So in Acts chapter 2, we see what happened when the Holy Spirit comes and indwells all of God's people.
0:49
SPEAKER_01: And Peter, one of the 12 apostles, stands up and he preaches the first gospel message beginning in verse 14, all the way until verse 39.
1:02
SPEAKER_01: And at the end of his gospel message, he gives people an invitation to be saved in their generation.
1:10
SPEAKER_01: And the people who accepted the message in verse 41 were baptized, about 3,000, the first gospel message goes out, 3,000 people were saved and baptized on the same day.
1:26
SPEAKER_01: Wouldn't that be amazing?
1:27
SPEAKER_01: Preach a gospel message, 3,000 people get saved, and then all of them get baptized on the same day.
1:34
SPEAKER_01: And then we learn how the early church existed.
1:40
SPEAKER_01: Now, what's interesting is the word church, ecclesia, it's an interesting term, and we often think of churches like a building, and that is a part of it.
1:48
SPEAKER_01: The building houses the people of God, but all through the New Testament, the church is never a designation for a building.
1:57
SPEAKER_01: The church is always a designation for the community of God's people.
2:02
SPEAKER_01: Now, the community of God's people meets in buildings, so that's important, but the church is not a building.
2:10
SPEAKER_01: And what's interesting in this section, verses 42 through 47, is you're seeing the very first move of God in the early church is that you cannot have a move of God without God's people.
2:23
SPEAKER_01: You might say, well, why is that?
2:25
SPEAKER_01: Because God in his economy, God in his planning has always worked through people, which is amazing to me because people are like me and maybe like you.
2:40
SPEAKER_01: Imperfect, flawed people, God uses.
2:44
SPEAKER_01: Did you know that?
2:46
SPEAKER_01: That God uses imperfect and flawed people like us.
2:53
SPEAKER_01: There's something really intriguing about the last 120 years of Christianity in our nation.
3:02
SPEAKER_01: Three moves of God occurred in the last 120 years in the United States of America, and all of them found their center in the state of California.
3:14
SPEAKER_01: The first one was the Azusa Street Revival in 1906, on Azusa Street in Los Angeles.
3:30
SPEAKER_01: A group of people just seeking the Lord, leading to a massive revival sweeping across the United States.
3:38
SPEAKER_01: The second one was in 1949 at the Los Angeles Billy Graham Crusade.
3:44
SPEAKER_01: The Billy Graham Crusade was planned for three weeks in Los Angeles, and so many people were coming that they had to turn people away every night, so it lasted eight weeks, and 350,000 people attended, and thousands upon thousands came to Christ.
4:02
SPEAKER_01: And that started a huge evangelistic crusades across America, and millions of people gave their lives to Christ.
4:12
SPEAKER_01: And then the third was the Jesus movement of the late 1960s, early 1970s.
4:19
SPEAKER_01: Some of you were alive then, and then most of you were not.
4:25
SPEAKER_01: This emerged out of the hippie generation.
4:28
SPEAKER_01: They were loose living and wild and drugs and sex and rock and roll concerts and all the things, and all of a sudden they realized, millions of them, that it was empty.
4:43
SPEAKER_01: And they started coming to Christ.
4:46
SPEAKER_01: Hundreds of thousands of young people coming to Christ.
4:52
SPEAKER_01: And really that influenced, I would say, 30 to 40 years of Christianity in America.
4:57
SPEAKER_01: Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa was the epicenter in the Orange County area.
5:03
SPEAKER_01: And then that spawned the fastest growing church planting movement in the United States, right out of a church of 25 people in Costa Mesa, California, that ended up being the second largest church in America.
5:17
SPEAKER_01: But it started with 25 people reaching hippies for Jesus.
5:24
SPEAKER_01: None of this happens without the collective people of God.
5:30
SPEAKER_01: Or to put another way, you might say, not without everyone.
5:36
SPEAKER_01: I want you to notice, we've been asking ourselves, what are the core elements of a move of God as we're looking toward the next 30 years of Bayside?
5:44
SPEAKER_01: And truly, one of the great moves of God as far as churches in American history is Bayside.
5:51
SPEAKER_01: And uh pretty amazing what God has done, but we've looked each week at an element of a move of God.
5:57
SPEAKER_01: You have to have vision, faith, prayer, sacrifice, and everyone.
6:04
SPEAKER_01: Which means you have to have God's people.
6:07
SPEAKER_01: Notice what God's people in this first move of God were doing.
6:12
SPEAKER_01: Notice how they existed and functioned in community.
6:15
SPEAKER_01: Beginning in verse 42, write this down.
6:18
SPEAKER_01: Everyone devoted to spiritual practices.
6:23
SPEAKER_01: Verse 42.
6:24
SPEAKER_01: They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
6:33
SPEAKER_01: I'm afraid this is gonna fall over.
6:35
SPEAKER_01: It's not twisted, so let me do a little twist.
6:38
SPEAKER_01: That wouldn't be good, right?
6:40
SPEAKER_01: I'm in the middle of preaching, this whole thing comes apart.
6:42
SPEAKER_01: Here we go.
6:43
SPEAKER_01: I think it's locked in now.
6:45
SPEAKER_01: They devoted themselves to four spiritual practices.
6:48
SPEAKER_01: Number one, they were devoted to the Bible.
6:51
SPEAKER_01: That's pretty important, right?
6:53
SPEAKER_01: Like you can't be a church that doesn't teach the word of God and see a move of God.
6:59
SPEAKER_01: This is a core part of making disciples of Jesus.
7:02
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said Matthew 28, verse 20, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
7:09
SPEAKER_01: You've got to teach the Bible.
7:11
SPEAKER_01: Now you might say, why the apostles' teaching?
7:13
SPEAKER_01: What is that?
7:13
SPEAKER_01: The apostles taught about Jesus.
7:16
SPEAKER_01: They taught what Jesus taught, they taught New Testament revelation from the Spirit of God, and they taught the Old Testament.
7:23
SPEAKER_01: So essentially, this is a phrase that meant they were teaching the Bible.
7:29
SPEAKER_01: I love this command in 2 Timothy 4, 1 through 4.
7:32
SPEAKER_01: It says, I give you this charge.
7:35
SPEAKER_01: Preach the word.
7:37
SPEAKER_01: That's what you're to do as a pastor.
7:40
SPEAKER_01: Preach the Bible.
7:42
SPEAKER_01: Be prepared in season and out of season.
7:47
SPEAKER_01: Correct, rebuke, and encourage with great patience and careful instruction.
7:52
SPEAKER_01: For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine, sound teaching.
7:58
SPEAKER_01: Instead, they will suit their own desires.
8:00
SPEAKER_01: They will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.
8:06
SPEAKER_01: Not what the Bible says, whatever the drift or the narratives that are anti-Bible of culture.
8:12
SPEAKER_01: They'll want that instead of the words of God.
8:17
SPEAKER_01: Then they will turn their ears away from truth and turn aside to miss.
8:20
SPEAKER_01: In other words, in every generation, there's this great temptation to turn away from the Bible based on counter-cultural narratives against God.
8:34
SPEAKER_01: But that will never change people's lives.
8:37
SPEAKER_01: That will never lead to a move of God when we relegate the Bible to a secondary place in the church.
8:43
SPEAKER_01: It is, if you want to go, if you want, if you just, you know, you move away, hopefully you're a part of this church.
8:49
SPEAKER_01: But if you move away and you go to another city someday and uh you're looking for a church and you go two weeks in a row and they never open up the Bible, I would suggest that's probably not the church you want to be a part of.
9:02
SPEAKER_01: You want to be a part of a church that teaches you about God, about Scripture, about what God desires for your life and for his church.
9:12
SPEAKER_01: And so they were devoted to the Bible.
9:14
SPEAKER_01: Number two, they were devoted to fellowship.
9:17
SPEAKER_01: Koinonia is the term.
9:20
SPEAKER_01: It refers to close relationships.
9:22
SPEAKER_01: They were mutual relationships that had involvement and participation in the way of Jesus.
9:31
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't just like fellowship in the New Testament church was not just like, oh yeah, we've gone to church.
9:36
SPEAKER_01: Now let's go, you know, what's a great wingstop.
9:39
SPEAKER_01: Let's go to wingstop after church and have some wings.
9:44
SPEAKER_01: Now, never invite me to wing stop because I don't eat wings.
9:48
SPEAKER_01: But I'll go to Three Ladies' Cafe if you want to invite me.
9:52
SPEAKER_01: That's the best place in town, right there.
9:54
SPEAKER_01: The healthiest place to eat in town is Three Ladies' Cafe.
9:57
SPEAKER_01: So you want to invite me there?
9:59
SPEAKER_01: I'll go eat there, but not Wingstop.
10:03
SPEAKER_01: Fellowship was not just we're hanging out, fellowship is like we are following Jesus together and participating in the mission of God on earth.
10:15
SPEAKER_01: And there's mutuality, there's deep Christ-centered relationships.
10:19
SPEAKER_01: That's the beautiful thing about rooted our communities, is that everybody needs relationships.
10:25
SPEAKER_01: But here's the problem with culture: most of our relationships are shallow.
10:31
SPEAKER_01: There's surface level in culture.
10:34
SPEAKER_01: You don't get below the surface, but in Christ, you get below the surface, hopefully.
10:40
SPEAKER_01: Lots of, there's lots of people you know, but there's not a lot of people we have meaningful relationships with.
10:49
SPEAKER_01: And that is the essence of how God's designed us to function.
10:54
SPEAKER_01: To be in deep, meaningful, mutual relationships with one another, and that's what the early church had.
11:00
SPEAKER_01: They were devoted to that.
11:01
SPEAKER_01: Number three, they were devoted to breaking bread.
11:06
SPEAKER_01: Breaking bread.
11:07
SPEAKER_01: And scholars aren't sure exactly what this refers to because the term is only used twice in the New Testament.
11:14
SPEAKER_01: It's used of eating meals.
11:16
SPEAKER_01: But if you study early Christianity, you realize that they would gather weekly.
11:21
SPEAKER_01: The church, the people of the church, they had smaller community groups, they would gather weekly and they would eat a meal.
11:28
SPEAKER_01: They would eat kale, they would eat dark leafy greens, they would eat fish, maybe some steak, some berries, whole foods, no processed foods.
11:44
SPEAKER_01: They would eat a meal together.
11:47
SPEAKER_01: And at the end of their meal, they would take communion.
11:52
SPEAKER_01: So some scholars think one, this refers to a meal.
11:56
SPEAKER_01: Other scholars think this refers primarily to communion.
12:00
SPEAKER_01: And then a lot of scholars think this refers to both.
12:04
SPEAKER_01: We sit down, we have a meal, we take communion together, we center our hearts on Jesus, and we're together.
12:13
SPEAKER_01: Everyone.
12:14
SPEAKER_01: Then, number four, they were devoted to prayer.
12:17
SPEAKER_01: They prayed together.
12:19
SPEAKER_01: They praise God in prayer, they thanked God in prayer, they petitioned to God in prayer, they worship God in prayer.
12:26
SPEAKER_01: The early church prayed together.
12:30
SPEAKER_01: They were devoted to the Bible, to fellowship, to breaking of bread, and to prayer.
12:37
SPEAKER_01: Now notice another element.
12:41
SPEAKER_01: Everyone devoted to spiritual practices, everyone devoted to generosity, verse 45.
12:47
SPEAKER_01: Everyone devoted to generosity.
12:52
SPEAKER_01: All the believers were together and had everything in common.
12:55
SPEAKER_01: They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.
13:01
SPEAKER_01: Now you've got to understand the context here is that they were a part of Pentecost, which was one of three major feasts in Israel.
13:10
SPEAKER_01: So people would come from all over Israel and all over the Roman Empire to worship God in Jerusalem every year.
13:18
SPEAKER_01: As they were there during Pentecost for this major religious festival, the gospel was preached, and thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people got saved.
13:28
SPEAKER_01: And nobody wanted to leave.
13:30
SPEAKER_01: And so they noticed that as they were building this community, there were people that had needs, so they were all generous to the community and to the work of God.
13:42
SPEAKER_01: And later on, as you see this narrative play out throughout the book of Acts, you realize that the early church was a generous people.
13:56
SPEAKER_01: They were giving to help churches that might be struggling, they were giving to help people and locations that were experiencing famine as the people of God.
14:04
SPEAKER_01: And so as you just play out the narrative of the book of Acts, you realize that the people of God were generous people.
14:14
SPEAKER_01: They wanted to change the world for Christ.
14:18
SPEAKER_01: And they realized that in order to change the world for Christ, to meet needs, to do compassion, to do all those things, you have to be a generous people.
14:28
SPEAKER_01: As you've been walking through us, maybe some of you are new today, but we've been going through our campaign, and in our little campaign book, we want to change the world.
14:38
SPEAKER_01: 83 compassion projects to change the world.
14:43
SPEAKER_01: Eight million dollars.
14:45
SPEAKER_01: All of this will be completely fulfilled in the next three weeks.
14:51
SPEAKER_01: That's amazing.
14:54
SPEAKER_01: We're building a children's hospital in just Nigeria that will see millions upon millions of patients every year.
15:06
SPEAKER_01: There is not a single pediatric hospital in Nigeria.
15:10
SPEAKER_01: This will be the first, and every kid who comes to this hospital will hear the gospel of Jesus Christ.
15:18
SPEAKER_01: We've already built a hospital that's seen 14 million patients, and every single one of them, it's a free hospital in Joss, Nigeria.
15:26
SPEAKER_01: Every single one of those patients hears the gospel of Jesus Christ.
15:31
SPEAKER_01: So if you come to the hospital, you get free health care by surgeons from Nigeria, but that were trained at the Mayo Clinic, best hospital in the world.
15:40
SPEAKER_01: And that every single patient hears the gospel of Jesus and receives prayer.
15:48
SPEAKER_01: They were changing the world.
15:50
SPEAKER_01: We want to change the world.
15:52
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
15:53
SPEAKER_01: Everyone devoted to generosity.
15:56
SPEAKER_01: Then verse 47 everyone devoted to worship.
16:01
SPEAKER_01: Notice what it says here: praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.
16:10
SPEAKER_01: They were following Jesus together, living out the spiritual rhythms and practices in the way of Jesus.
16:16
SPEAKER_01: They were generous.
16:19
SPEAKER_01: They were a people characterized by generosity, and they were together, and when they were together, they worshiped God together.
16:29
SPEAKER_01: They praised God together.
16:31
SPEAKER_01: You know, when the people of God have been changed by the gospel and they're thriving spiritually in community, they can't help but praise God.
16:44
SPEAKER_01: Think about your life.
16:45
SPEAKER_01: Like think about, think about all the patience of God.
16:49
SPEAKER_01: Think about all the redemptive things that God has done in your life.
16:52
SPEAKER_01: Think about all the grace and mercy and kindness that God has shown in your life.
16:58
SPEAKER_01: And when you're a part of a group of people that love God and have been changed by God and they're living and following the way of Jesus together, you can't help but praise God.
17:11
SPEAKER_01: You can't help but worship God.
17:14
SPEAKER_01: We were in our rooted group, we had our rooted finale this last Tuesday night.
17:19
SPEAKER_01: Our group was like 19, 20 people in the living room of Kurt every week.
17:24
SPEAKER_01: And we're walking through our rooted book, which is like the major rhythms of the Christian faith, the major spiritual practices, and then everybody shares their story.
17:34
SPEAKER_01: We have a meal together every week, and we just follow the Lord together.
17:40
SPEAKER_01: We pray together and we get to know each other.
17:42
SPEAKER_01: It's just an amazing thing.
17:44
SPEAKER_01: We're at the end of our rooted session, and we just went around and we encouraged everybody.
17:50
SPEAKER_01: It's just a cool thing that you do at the end of Rooted.
17:53
SPEAKER_01: And then somebody just busts out in song.
17:58
SPEAKER_01: Multiple songs in a row, and everybody starts singing and worshiping God.
18:02
SPEAKER_01: And I thought to myself, this is a picture of the early church, and this is a picture of what God's people do.
18:11
SPEAKER_01: It was a beautiful ending to our rooted group.
18:14
SPEAKER_01: Now, the largest book in the Bible, quiz, what's the largest book in the Bible?
18:19
SPEAKER_01: Psalms.
18:21
SPEAKER_01: The book of Psalms is 150 songs that the people of God sung to God.
18:27
SPEAKER_01: The largest book in the Bible, which gives us a perspective that music and singing and worship is so instrumental for the people of God.
18:41
SPEAKER_01: So much so that we see verses like this multiple times in the New Testament.
18:45
SPEAKER_01: Colossians 3:16.
18:47
SPEAKER_01: Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit of God.
19:02
SPEAKER_01: Singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.
19:09
SPEAKER_01: Can I encourage you?
19:11
SPEAKER_01: When you come to church and we're singing, first of all, if you can come on time, you're really blessed because you get to sing all the songs.
19:22
SPEAKER_01: But if you can come on time, that's okay.
19:24
SPEAKER_01: We still want you here.
19:25
SPEAKER_01: Even if you're 40 minutes late, we still want you here.
19:28
SPEAKER_01: Because the Lord's going to give you something.
19:31
SPEAKER_01: But can I encourage you when you walk into the place, the house of God, the place that God's people are dwelling and singing?
19:42
SPEAKER_01: Sing the songs of worship from your heart to God based on all God's done in your life.
19:53
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
19:54
SPEAKER_01: Who said amen?
19:55
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
19:56
SPEAKER_01: I like you.
19:57
SPEAKER_01: You're awesome.
19:59
SPEAKER_01: One person, everybody follow in her footsteps.
20:02
SPEAKER_01: She set the example.
20:04
SPEAKER_01: Sing songs in your heart to the Lord.
20:09
SPEAKER_01: And even if you had your worst week, your hardest week, never forget that God is still at work in your life and He is deserving of our worship and praise.
20:25
SPEAKER_01: Don't get so internalized in your problems that you don't look up to God.
20:33
SPEAKER_01: Don't get so lost in your circumstances that you forget that the God of heaven and earth is for you always.
20:43
SPEAKER_01: This is an opportunity to worship, and everyone was devoted to worship.
20:48
SPEAKER_01: Now notice the last part of this verse, verse 47, church growth happened.
20:56
SPEAKER_01: The end, the last sentence, and the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
21:07
SPEAKER_01: A thriving community of Jesus followers will always experience growth.
21:13
SPEAKER_01: Where God is at work and where the people of God are living out the way of Jesus, there will always be growth in two ways.
21:22
SPEAKER_01: Write this down if you're a note-taker.
21:24
SPEAKER_01: If you're not, write it down, anyways.
21:26
SPEAKER_01: First of all, there should always be growth in depth.
21:31
SPEAKER_01: Depth.
21:33
SPEAKER_01: That means there's spiritual fruit.
21:35
SPEAKER_01: If we're doing what Jesus told us to do, there will be spiritual fruit in our life.
21:42
SPEAKER_01: So there'll be depth, there'll be rootedness, there'll be change and transformation.
21:49
SPEAKER_01: God will be at work in the human heart and life, and there'll be spiritual fruit.
21:54
SPEAKER_01: You'll become more patient and kind and loving and full of self control and joy and all the.
22:00
SPEAKER_01: Different fruits of the Spirit of God, God will produce depth in our life.
22:05
SPEAKER_01: The second aspect of growth when God is at work is breath.
22:10
SPEAKER_01: Depth and breath.
22:14
SPEAKER_01: We're in control of the depth.
22:16
SPEAKER_01: Are we growing deeper?
22:17
SPEAKER_01: God is in control of the breath.
22:20
SPEAKER_01: We're in control of, we're gonna seek God together, we're gonna follow the way of Jesus, we're gonna do what God has called us to do.
22:27
SPEAKER_01: And then God is in control of the breath.
22:30
SPEAKER_01: And it says here, notice, and the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
22:39
SPEAKER_01: It is the Lord ultimately that grows the church, not gimmicks, not man-made, not human stuff.
22:47
SPEAKER_01: It's always a discouragement to me when I see pastors that are relying on gimmicks instead of God's word.
22:56
SPEAKER_01: They're relying on entertainment instead of the gospel.
23:00
SPEAKER_01: They're relying on man-made creative things instead of the practices, the ancient practices of Jesus.
23:11
SPEAKER_01: At Bayside, we want to rely on God's stuff.
23:16
SPEAKER_01: God's rhythms, God's word, God's things, what God has put into place to be the building block of spiritual health and growth and thriving and flourishing in the church.
23:28
SPEAKER_01: Those are things that we want to rely on.
23:32
SPEAKER_01: Pastor Ray, who was here last weekend, if you were with us on Sunday night, it was an amazing time.
23:37
SPEAKER_01: And then he invited myself, Matthew, and Sia to share at Granite Bay's vision banquet on Thursday night.
23:50
SPEAKER_01: And he was bragging about Bayside Davis.
23:53
SPEAKER_01: He just loved the spirit and what God was doing, and it was an amazing time.
23:56
SPEAKER_01: We got to share there on Thursday night.
23:59
SPEAKER_01: But he tells a story of a spiritual aha moment.
24:03
SPEAKER_01: They were doing a vision campaign, and they were, the church was booming, and thousands upon thousands of people were coming.
24:11
SPEAKER_01: And he heard a pastor teach something from this passage that changed his ministry forever.
24:18
SPEAKER_01: And it was this.
24:19
SPEAKER_01: I want you to note, I added a layer because I saw something else here.
24:24
SPEAKER_01: Notice four things that take place leading up to the growth.
24:28
SPEAKER_01: Number one, good practices, verse 42.
24:32
SPEAKER_01: These are the practices of Jesus that the early church was following and devoting, everyone was devoting themselves to.
24:42
SPEAKER_01: Then notice verse 44 and 45, good deeds.
24:46
SPEAKER_01: So you had spiritual practices, which we're calling good practices for the sake of everything rhyming.
24:53
SPEAKER_01: Good practices, then you had good deeds.
24:56
SPEAKER_01: They were generous, they were doing great things to one another and to the world as you see this narrative unfold in Acts.
25:02
SPEAKER_01: Then, number three, you had goodwill.
25:05
SPEAKER_01: Notice praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.
25:09
SPEAKER_01: So they were doing the practices of Jesus, they were being generous, good deeds to one another and to the world, and then you had goodwill.
25:18
SPEAKER_01: The people looked at the church and they were like, oh, these people are amazing.
25:25
SPEAKER_01: How many churches are doing good deeds which lead to goodwill?
25:31
SPEAKER_01: And then the fourth thing you see, verse 47, is good news.
25:36
SPEAKER_01: So good practices, good deeds, the good deeds led to goodwill, and the goodwill led to good news.
25:42
SPEAKER_01: In other words, all kinds of people started getting saved.
25:46
SPEAKER_01: That's when Bayside said, we are gonna unleash compassion all over our country and world.
25:56
SPEAKER_01: And we're just gonna trust God because that's what the early church did.
25:59
SPEAKER_01: They were generous people, good deeds.
26:01
SPEAKER_01: Then they that led to goodwill.
26:03
SPEAKER_01: People actually liked the church, and then that led to good news.
26:08
SPEAKER_01: All kinds of people came to believe in Jesus.