Imitating a Mega Church

Acts chapter 2 for a time of study in God's word, this morning. we, this is the 2nd week of our series on moving forward in community with one another, and we, about a month ago stopped the old care groups, and they now cease to exist and are no longer allowed to gather. just kidding, but the, but we're gonna be, revamping and adding a couple care group leaders into the mix and, and just, regrouping and, the new care groups will begin September 14th. And so we, we wanna just reorient our thinking.

Carlos preached last week on relationships and that's definitely so critical when we think about coming together in this way. And I'm going to preach this morning on something that's relevant to that. Mike Barry is preaching next week, and it's going to be more of a family. focus, but the whole goal is how we as as a church and as families can move forward together and do so effectively in community with one another.

And essentially my goal today is to take us to Acts 2 and to, learn some lessons from there that can help frame our thinking and, and all of this is going to be by way of reminder. And, in fact, if you want to give a title to the message this morning, it is this imitating a mega church. Imitating a mega church. we're all imitators, aren't we?

We're incurable imitators, and we imitate sometimes intentionally. but also without even thinking, I have found that I actually occasionally imitate my children. I'll say or do something and it's like, Whoa, that's just like such and such a child, and I didn't do that intentionally, but they influenced me and I probably influenced them. We are incurable imitators and even as a church we are an imitator hopefully of the very best that we see out there in churches today.

but we as a staff basically want to make a confession to you that there is a particular mega church that we're especially, struck by and influenced by, and you may not have known this, but over the last 4 years, the leadership of the church, the elders have been seeking to follow. The example of this particular mega church that has really set, we think a great example, for us, and when I say mega church, I'm probably not thinking of what you think I'm thinking. I went online this week and looked up the definition for mega church and the definition was very simple.

It is a church having around 2000 or more attendees for a typical.

A weekly service and indeed this particular mega church that we are being influenced by and trying to make our church a lot like was averaging more than 2000, in fact, well more than 2000, so it was a mega church from a numerical standpoint, but that's not why I would refer to this church as a mega church. I would call this particular church that we're trying to pattern ourselves after a mega church because Of, some characteristics of this church. It is a church of mega power, mega grace, mega fear, in other words, the fear of God amongst its membership and also mega respect.

And when I say respect respect of the surrounding community, that they had for this particular, mega church.

Of course, most of you would surmise. Speaking about the Jerusalem church that we find recorded in the book of Acts, it is indeed a mega church. In fact, Luke, as Luke the historian is telling the story of this mega church 4 times, he uses the Greek word mega to describe different aspects of the Jerusalem church. In fact, look at this.

He says in Acts 4:32, and the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them. And with great or mega power, the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. So there was mega power in their proclamation of the gospel. But not only that, he then says an abundant grace, and that word abundant is the Greek word that we get our expression mega from.

Mega grace was upon them all, speaking of the congregation. It wasn't just a display of power amongst the leadership of the church who were on the platform. All of the believers in this congregation, there was mega grace upon all of them that was observable to people. Not only that, in Acts 5:11, after The first church discipline ever took place where Ananias and Sepphia had lied and deceived.

The people of God. And sought to deceive the Lord, and Peter pretty much pronounced a sentence upon them, and Ananias and Sepphia fell down dead. after that happened, it says about the Christians in the church, it says, and mega fear came over the whole church. In other words, they had a healthy fear of God.

Just respecting his holiness, his hatred of sin, and that caused them to hate sin and be fearful of sin. The fear was a fear of God in a sense, but it was also a fear of sin. They were afraid, they were terrified of sin. And then in Acts 5:13, after this incident of church discipline, when, when, when people are struck dead by the Lord in sight of a church, it has a hindering effect on people wanting to join.

It's not the thing you put in your church brochure. We've had two people struck dead this year for sins that they've committed. and so we learned that after this happened, that people were afraid to join themselves to this, body of believers, but it says the people held them in mega esteem. Very high esteem.

They respected this church because of their godliness and their fear of God and fear of sin and the holiness, and, and, and they held the people in high esteem. Man, we could use a lot of that today. So this is a church of mega power, mega grace, mega fear that that won the mega respect of the surrounding community that was observing them. And so when I speak of a mega church that we are seeking to pattern ourselves after, that's what by mega.

We shouldn't just look at a church and go, Man, they got big numbers. We ought to try to be like them. That's actually very dangerous, but what's great is we have a church in Scripture that was a mega church in every way, shape, and form, even numerically, but also in these other ways. And Luke tells us about this church and why they were the way they were, so that we could see a pattern that we can follow.

And this is basically what we as elders have been seeking to emulate over the last 4 years. I want to give you 4 descriptions of the of this mega church, and then I'm going to show you what the elders' conclusions were back in 2004 about how we were falling short of those descriptions here at Cornerstone and then what we did, one of the steps that we took to try to address that. But first of all, let's look at some descriptions of, of this. Mega church.

Look at verse 42. This is the verse I want us to focus on., 3000 people get saved. In fact, look at verse 41. It says, So then those who had received this word were baptized, and that day there were added about 3000 souls.

So 3000 people get saved, and any reader would just be dying to know, well, what do they do after that? This is a great event. People were speaking in tongues, and Peter preaches, 3000 people get saved and baptized. What happens next?

What, what did these believers do after they got saved? That's the big question. And Luke opens the curtains on the early believers, and as we peek through the window, look at what we see them doing verse 42, and they were continually devoting themselves to and then he tells us four things that they were passionately devoting themselves to. And by the way, the expression continually devoting themselves to means to be excited about, to be passionate about, to be enthusiastic about, to practice, to persist obstinately in.

They were devoted to these four things. And so here's 4 descriptions of a mega church. Description number 1 is that a mega church in the eyes of God is a church that is continuously devoted to the word, a church that is continuously devoted to the Word. Look what it says in verse 42.

They were continually, these believers were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching. So the apostles taught and they were giving inspired revelation about Jesus and all the ramifications of His death and resurrection and ascension, and the early Christians were continuously devoting themselves to the stuff that was coming out of the apostles' mouth, which was the word of God. Now what does it mean to be continuously devoted to the apostles' teaching? What can we infer from that?

Well, obviously that would mean they were pretty passionate about hearing the apostles. If they found out that one of the apostles was going to be teaching, they wanted to be there where the teaching was taking place, right? And to sit under the teaching of the apostles, but it also would indicate that they weren't just excited about listening to the teaching of the apostles, but once they heard the teaching of the apostles, they were passionate about talking about the teaching of the apostles.

You're not really passionate about a sermon if you just listen to it and then when it's over you never say another word about it.

Are you excited about that sermon? Yeah, yeah. why would you ask? just if you're excited about something, you talk about it, right?

That's the way it is with anything. So no doubt after the apostles taught, believers were getting together and processing, what Peter said, and, and, and what does this mean by way of application, and, and they were talking about this because this was a passion. But they were not just passionate about listening to the apostles, talking about what the apostles were teaching. But we can also infer that they were passionate about actually doing what the apostles said.

it's one thing to talk a great game, but they were actually passionate about, let's do this. This is what they're telling us to do. Let's do it. Let's make it happen in our church and let's make it happen in our homes.

Let us live this stuff rather than just listen to it and talk about it. And I think we can also infer that if they're about the apostles' teaching, that doesn't just mean they were passionate about listening to it and talking about it amongst themselves and applying it to their lives, but it would also indicate that they were passionate about speaking the apostles' teaching to other people. In other words, further proclaiming the gospel message to other people. how passionate you are about the gospel which came from the apostles.

by evaluating to what degree you're willing to share that with other people, the lost. And go to them and say, you're not going to believe this, but I've got some amazing news for you that is from God Himself. And we actually see throughout the early chapters of Acts how the early Christians did this. In fact, when persecution came, they were scattered everywhere, everywhere.

But what did they do? They went everywhere preaching the word, just saying we're going to just tell everyone what we are learning from the apostles and preaching the gospel. So the early church, the early believers were continuously devoted to the word of God, and I would just ask you, would anyone observing your life say, if they live with you for a month, would they be able to write, so and so is continuously devoting himself or herself. To the apostles' teaching.

To the word, would they say that of you? There's a second description of a biblical mega church, and that is that it is continuously devoted to fellowship. It is continuously devoted to fellowship. It says in verse 42, and I might have you make a note here, literally in the Greek text, it says they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship.

There's a the in front of the word fellowship. which at the very least means that these early believers, their attitude was not, I got Jesus, I got the Spirit, and I got my Bible, and that's all I need. And they're like Lone Rangers and all they care about. I am I being holy?

Am I having a good day spiritually? No, they were continuously devoting themselves to the community, to the fellowship, to the local fellowship of believers that was in Jerusalem. They valued the fellowship, they valued the, the corporate community of believer. Neighbors and they thought about the community, not just about themselves.

Anything they did, their question was, will this strengthen the community? Will this edify the community? And if there was anything in the way of gossip or whatever that was coming along that would hurt the community. As much as they love the community, that's how much they would have hated anything that would have hurt genuine community.

Anything that would hurt the church body, they would hate that they would renounce that. And so they were, they, they were very community oriented. They were continuously devoting themselves to the community. How devoted are you to a local body of saved but still sinful and growing believers?

You say, Well, I'd love to, I'd love to do that, but I'm waiting to find a church that And that's perfect. no one would ever say that out loud, but I think sometimes people operate off of that assumption. You're waiting around for a church body that that's never going to hurt you, where you just don't see sin being manifested, and that's never going to happen. Even in the Jerusalem church, people got killed because they messed up.

Ananias and Sapphira were in this church, and they And they messed up. This was not a perfect congregation, but as imperfect as all of them were, and these are all brand new believers, so they had a million miles to go, right? And yet they were devoted to the community of believers. This word fellowship and our understanding in this passage means at least the local community of believers that they were devoted to, but also it would have the idea of what we mean when we say fellowship, which is conversing around anything that we have in common.

in Christ. So when we talk about what God's doing in our lives, that's fellowship. and so no doubt they were continuously devoting themselves to that conversation, about the Lord and about the apostles' teaching and what they had in common in Christ. But the word fellowship biblically is a bigger word than that.

It speaks of any ministry wherein we share with one another those things that are already common property amongst us. It's any and all ministry. And guys, really understand this fellowship is not just talking to each other about Christ. It's anything we do, wherein we practically exchange what's already common property.

If you're discouraged, and I come up to you and say, Man, I got a truth for you that's blessed me, and I think it'll bless you, and I give you that truth, what, that truth was yours yesterday. That, that truth is yours by birthright as a child of God. I'm not giving you something that wasn't yours. I'm merely practically giving to you what already was your property.

When I share with you a promise, when, when we use our spiritual gifts for the benefit of each other, all we're doing is practically exchanging what's already common property. Amen. So the spiritual gifts inside of me, I might call them my gifts, but they're not really my gifts. They're your gifts.

They have your names on them, and I owe it to you to give you these gifts. My gifts are the common property of the local church. And whatever gifts you possess, those are not your gifts. They're my gifts and everyone else's gifts.

They are the common property of the local church, and we owe it to each other whenever we minister our giftedness to each other, whether it be mercy or teaching or service, all we're doing is practically sharing with one another what already is common property amongst us. That's what the early believers did. In fact, look at how devoted they were to being together in Acts 2:44. It says, and all those who had believed were together.

They just, they weren't just separate living individual holy lives, they were together. Verse 46, day by day, continuing with one mind in the temple, that's their large group gathering and breaking bread from house to house. That's the smaller gatherings in the homes. They were taking their meals together.

They didn't want to eat alone. Let's eat together. Let us dine together as brothers and sisters in the Lord. It's the gospel that drew them together.

It's the fellowship that they enjoyed with one another. This commonality that they believed in even applied to their material possessions. We learn in Acts 2 that they had all things in common and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all as anyone might have need. In other words, they look out for each other and they look for needs and it's like, man, this brother has a material need and so I've got some money.

I'll address that need with the funds that I have. Or they saw a need and they're like, Man, I don't have the money to meet that need, but I have property. I will sell my property so that I have the means to address this need in this brother's life. They, if you read in Acts 4, you learn that they individually, they viewed their own possessions as being the common property of the church.

Now it doesn't mean that they went around to each other and said, I just wanted you to know that, that, that car that you have, that belongs to the church, hence it belongs to me. So I really need to use it this week. isn't the gospel great? they didn't do that.

They honestly, we have evidence in Acts through Peter's words that when a Christian looked at another Christian's property, he said, that belongs to them. It doesn't belong to me. But when that Christian looked at his own property, he said, voluntarily, this belongs to the rest of the body. Man, do you, do you look at your possessions as being the common property of the body of Christ?

Do you? and we've, we've gone through this train of thought before, but think about it, guys. Does all that you possess belong to the Lord? Does it belong to Jesus?

Amen. All right, if it belongs to Jesus, does it belong to Jesus' body? Careful, Milton. No, if it belongs to Jesus, it belongs to his body.

The example I like to use is men, if you give your wife a box of chocolates for Valentine's Day, and she says, thank you, honey, this blesses me and she opens it up and she starts eating the chocolates. What would you say? Would you say, honey, what are you doing? She'd say, I'm, I'm eating the chocolates you gave me.

Would any of you say, honey, you've misunderstood the chocolates were for you, not for your body? Would, would you say that? No, your wife would think you were insane. If you're giving it to her, of course, it's for her body.

And so if our material possessions belong to Jesus, of course, it belongs to his body. This is the way we need to think. And if you want to know why the early church experienced such great power, it is because of this generosity, at least that's one of the reasons. In Acts 4 verse 33, it says, and with mega power, the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and mega grace was upon them all.

Why, Luke, tell us why verse 34, 4, or because there was not a needy person among them, and he goes on to tell what they were doing, selling their stuff so that they can meet. Needs of their brothers and sisters. we live in a society where government decades ago took over that province and said, what, we'll take care of the poor and needy and Christians. We just think, well, that's the government's job.

That's, that's not what the Bible teaches. That's been taken away from the church and it needs to come back to the church. And the government can do what it does however it wants to do it, but we need to assume responsibility for our brothers and sisters in the Lord and do all that is in our power to address those needs. These believers were devoted to the fellowship, to the community, to the good of the community.

And to ministering to one another, to being together, and I just ask you, just look at your life, guys, and in all honesty, just ask yourself, would anyone who lives with me for a month write of me that I was continuously devoting myself to the fellowship. The community And to active ministry to my brothers and sisters in the Lord. There's a 3rd description. Of a biblical mega church, and that is, it is continuously devoted to the Lord's Supper.

what we Protestants have done a rotten job with, with this, and I think it's to our shame we, we have so reacted against the theology of Roman Catholicism and the doctrine of transubstantiation that the elements turn into Christ's body and blood that we basically have relegated the Lord's Supper to. It's just merely a symbol. That's all it is. Don't ever think it's anymore, and, Christ may be present in other places, but he's not present at communion, and we basically have removed the presence of Christ from communion out of fear of ever sounding like.

Someone of a different theology. But what? Look at this, guys. Verse 42.

They, the early believers, were continuously devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching, to fellowship, and then literally in the Greek text to the breaking of the bread. There's a the in front of the word bread, not just any bread. He's not saying. We were devoted to eating meals together.

Although that's fine if you want to be devoted to that. That's totally fine. The early believers were devoted to celebrating the meal together, the breaking of the bread, the bread of the Lord's supper together, and we need to value this. And we as elders were asking, man, could we say of anyone who hung out with Cornerstone, for 3 months, would they write, Man, Cornerstone is continuously devoting.

Itself to the celebration of the Lord's Supper. 4.5 years ago they couldn't have said that. There's something mysterious that does happen. I can't quantify it, but Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10, the cup we bless, the bread that we bless, is a communion with the body and blood of Jesus.

Let's just leave that as it is and respect it and say, wow, that's pretty amazing, pretty amazing. And he says in 1 Corinthians 11, If you partake unworthily, you eat and drink judgment into yourself. And I think we can legitimately infer that the converse is true, that when you eat and drink of the elements in a worthy manner, you eat and drink divine blessing into yourself. So something wonderful happens that can't be duplicated through any other means.

Quite so fully. In fact, listen to what Donald Whitney says. He says participation in the Lord's supper allows us an experience with Christ that cannot be enjoyed in any other manner. Neither prayer, the preaching of God's word, public or private worship, nor any other means of encounter with the Lord can bring us into the presence of Jesus Christ in exactly the same way.

By taking the supper, we do more than remember Christ, we encounter Him. You say, Milton, who is this guy? That sounds, weird. This is a Southern Baptist professor at Southern Theological Seminary, and this is his belief of regarding communion, and it's very biblically sound.

And so let us, let us acknowledge that. That there is something unique that the Lord's Supper does for us. If there wasn't something unique that it did for us in terms of encountering Christ, Christ would not have given us that in addition to everything else that He has given to us. And so let us be continuously devoting ourselves as a church body to the celebration, the partaking of the Lord's suppper.

This is what this first mega church was doing. These believers, day one of their salvation and the following weeks and months they were continuously devoting themselves to coming together and partaking of the Lord's Supper. There's 1/4 and final description, and that is that a biblical mega church is continuously devoting itself to prayer. Look what it says in verse 42.

They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and literally in the Greek text, and to the prayers. And to the prayers, there's a the in front of prayer and it's prayers plural which man we can we can draw a lot from that. It may indicate that there were liturgical prayers that the apostles had written and the early church was really devoted to using those prayers. That very likely is a part of the idea, but it also means that they were devoted to praying., out loud together and to be devoted to the prayers means that when we pray together, I'm not just devoted to the prayer that I pray and I'm focused while I'm praying, but it also means that when you are praying, I am devoted to your prayers and to listening to you.

We need to learn when we pray together, the art of not only praying ourselves, but being devoted to the prayers of our brothers and sisters, because it's often as we listen to them express their burdens, and maybe they have a vision and a passion for God to do something, and they're voicing that burden in prayer. And we listen to that and it's like we experience the heart of God through that. It's like, whoa, I think, Lord, you're moving in this way. And And so we're benefiting from the prayers of our brothers and sisters, and even if a brother or sister is praying for you and over you, listen to what they're saying, receive that as from the Lord.

This first mega church was full of believers that were devoting themselves to the word of God, to the fellowship and fellowshipping and ministering to one another, to the breaking of the bread of communion. And to praying together. Praying themselves and being devoted to the prayers of their brothers and sisters when they prayed. So back in 2004 we as elders began to look at Acts 2 and especially this verse, and we just started asking ourselves the questions that I've been telling you.

To ask you Yourself. And that is how are we doing? Could these things be said of us? Would someone say that we are devoted to the apostles' teaching?

And we realized that people would say yes to that. We're devoted to the proclamation of the word of God, very devoted to that, always have been. However, we did observe that we were falling short in one area and that is there's, there's a lot of declaration and proclamation. coming at our people from the pulpit and then Sunday school classes and Bible studies and so forth, but that there was insufficient community processing of the word.

So we realized that was something that we needed to amend. And then also in the area of fellowship or community, we, this is like the biggest area we were falling short in. As we criticized ourselves as elders, and that is that in our church there was an insufficient network of relationships in the body. We gave a lot of focus, a lot of study, a lot of time to the proclamation of the word, but not as much focus to the nurturing and developing and the providing of structures for a network of relationships because it's in the context of unified, loving relationships that we as individuals reach spiritual maturity.

And so we realized we need to give attention to this. There were also insufficient structures of ministry. God was bringing people to Cornerstone. and those people, we just weren't able.

Our structure of ministry was such that we weren't able to get to them and to address their needs and so many of them just moved on. Some of them, praise be to God, stuck around, but after they joined our church, they said, just want you to know you made it very hard for us to stay, and here's why, we just, we didn't feel like for a long time that we were a part of things and that that our needs were. we're being addressed and we're grateful for those who stayed, but we realized as elders that, what, we're not, we're not doing the best job with this.

also, there was insufficient inclusiveness of newcomers.

there were people who would attend. I heard this over and over again. There's a lot of love here at Cornerstone, a lot of love. I, I come into the church and I see love here, but I don't feel a part of it.

I feel like I'm on the outside, looking at all these people who love each other. And they didn't feel included in that, and that's a legitimate, it was a legitimate criticism. Also insufficient opportunities for ministry. There were people who came to Cornerstone, and there just, there weren't enough ministries to go around to where they could get involved and use their gifts.

And also we observed that there was insufficient opportunities for family units to experience ministry together. People come on the campus of Cornerstone and instantly the family divides up. And you go to your separate Sunday school classes and even in our morning service we had children's church where the children would go elsewhere and you'll notice we haven't changed any of that. That all still happens.

There's nothing at all wrong with that, but we did ask ourselves the question, we've got women's ministry, we've got men's ministry, we've got men sitting in their men's groups saying, yeah, things are good at home, and the wife is in her women's group saying things aren't good at home, and they're not together to where we could see that. There was a problem that needed to be addressed and the, the youth went to youth group and so the family's all divided up and that's, that's fine, that has value, but we just asked ourselves, is there any ministry that we do as a church anywhere where the whole family can be together?

And the answer to that was no. And so we knew that we needed to address this so that the family could be together and receive ministry and deliver ministry together.

Regarding the Lord's Supper in all frankness, we were celebrating communion once a month and we just didn't feel as elders. other churches can do however God leads them. we don't want to be critical of other churches, but we felt as elders that we were falling short of Acts 2:42, that nobody, nobody, no historian who would live amongst us for a year would ever write that this church is continuously devoting itself to the celebration of the Lord's Supper. So we knew we needed to do something about that.

And also we prayed when we were together, but we knew that this was an area we needed to grow in. There was insufficient corporate prayer. And so we began to pray about and talk about what some steps we could take towards solving these issues and it involves several steps and things we're still exploring, but the care group ministry was probably, was the most significant. A ministry that we felt that the Lord was leading us to move our church in the direction of, to take us a step closer to the biblical model of what we see in Acts 2:42 and essentially care groups are this they are weekly house gatherings of smaller groups in which we can practice the values of Acts 2:42 in community.

With one another and so we started that about 3.5 years ago and Acts 2:42 is the paradigm. It was the these are the values that we want to see fleshed out in our care group gatherings and indeed care groups provide an opportunity for us to to pray together, to share needs, and to pray in a more smaller and intimate setting. care groups provide an opportunity for us to come together and to process the teaching of the word from the previous Sunday morning's message. Care groups provide an opportunity, having, having 10 care groups, for example, like we're going to have in September.

it provides a network of relationships for shepherding to take place, and it broadens our structure of ministry so that more needs can be met. It also allows us the opportunity to to include newcomers more quickly. In fact, one of the problems that's been created by our care group ministry in the last 3.5 years is visitors. they've said to me leaving church for the first time they've said, I've been invited to 3 care groups.

Which one should I attend? They're asking me to help them to pick, and, and I remember one family, they had come to Cornerstone. It was their 2nd week. They'd been invited to a few groups.

They came to one and in that one care group, one of the members was confessing some sin in his life and so the group prayed over this man and laid their hands on him and this visiting family, the father of the family was one of the ones who volunteered to lay his hands on this man and to pray for him regarding this sin issue. In his life. And I'll never forget after this man, after we had all prayed together, he sat down in his seat and he said, this is so weird. We've been coming to Cornerstone for two weeks, and we already feel like we're part of the family.

And I drank that in because that stuff didn't used to be said about Cornerstone and care groups were a part of why that was said in that case. Also, care groups multiply opportunities for ministry. It used to be Mike was the only one who got to lead in worship, and I was the one who did most of the preaching and those things would be shared a little bit, but I was the only one who ever got to lead in communion. Now with 10 care groups we need 10 worship leaders.

We need 10 people to lead a discussion on a typical Sunday. We need 10 people to lead in communion. We need 10 people to lead in the facilitating of the season of prayer and the care group gathering. We need children to help collect the cups and so forth after communion.

opportunities for ministry. Have been multiplied as a result of our care group ministry, and I love this. we celebrate communion weekly now at Cornerstone once a month on the first Sunday of the month here in our morning service, but on all the other Sundays we celebrate the Lord's Supper weekly in our care group gatherings, so we're able to gather around the elements and to to commune with Christ and to encounter Him through the celebration of the Lord's supper. And so care groups are not the cure-all, but they were how we felt as elders.

God was leading us to take a huge, mighty step towards addressing some of these areas where we felt we were falling short. Now, are we still falling short in many of these areas? Yes. Are we good at care groups?

Probably not. I'd like to think that we effective this month are graduating from the 1st grade into the 2nd grade of care groups, and we have a ton to learn and learning how to do it better. I know I need to grow as a leader, and all of us can grow as care group members. We can do so much better than we have done.

and I believe God wants to take us into the future and teach us how to relate to one another better and to do these values of Acts 2:42 more effectively in community with each other. Let's pray Lord, just a ton of details here, But I, I just want to thank you for your word, the clarity of your word. You're so good to us to speak to us about. About how we should be as a church, and you give us a model, an inspired biblical model.

And Lord, we, we read Acts 2:42, and it's like, oh we want to be like this. We want to be like this in our homes and And our Individual lives and our families and And in our church. So help us, we have so far to go and we just want to thank you for being our friend. Even now As we look ahead and see we have so much to learn, we're fumbling around in so many areas, Lord, but thank you for loving us, holding our hand to lead us from 1st grade to 2nd grade, as it were, and, and please, Lord, grow us in our ability to do.

In a way that glorifies you, we thank You, Lord, for this opportunity to give this offering. To you to support your work. And to support the work of the gospel that is Going on here in this community, Lord, and also around the world. And we, we just ask that you would multiply the gifts that are given.

that they might be extremely useful. And spreading the fame of the Lord Jesus Christ, he might be glorified. We give these offerings to you and we sing to you in Jesus' name. And all God's people said,