Even the most perfectly balanced engine won’t do anything without fuel. What is the fuel of a revival? It is the obedience of a Christian in several key areas.
Acts 2
Speaker: Bob Kadlecik
Bridgewater Montrose’s Podcast
Under the Hood: The Fuel
- All right, well my name, if I haven't had a chance to meet you yet, my name is Bob Kedlesik. I'm one of the pastors here and in this series, we're looking really at the first couple chapters of Acts going under the hood to what made the early church so powerful and so effective. They went from 120 in an upper room to 3,000 people in one day and then weeks, if not maybe a couple months later, there's tens of thousands that are following Jesus Christ. What was the secret to their power and to change the world? This is one of my favorite charts and I've shared it before but these are the five largest world religions today with the most followers. Number five is Sikhs, 90% of Sikhs live in Asia. You could call it a world religion but it really is an Asian religion if you look at it in that way. Then Buddhist even more so, 98% of all Buddhists live in Asia, not so much a world religion even though it's around the world, it's mostly just an Asian religion. Same with Hindu, almost all of those are in India. Islam, Muslims, now you're getting to something that you could legitimately call maybe a world religion because most of the followers of Islam are in Asia and Africa but a small slice in the rest of the world combined but Christianity, really the only truly world religion all over the place, you see what the largest category is where the most people who identify as Christian live, Africa. If you wanna describe Christianity, you could probably describe it as an African religion much more accurately than you could describe it as a European or North American religion because after all, Jesus never went to North America or Europe, but he did go to Africa. He went to Egypt when he was a child and lived all his life in Israel which is technically Asia. So just the church went from this little group of a couple Jewish people to now all over the world. How did that happen? How did the church move like that? Like so cars are meant to move, we know what they're supposed to do, what is the church meant to do? It's also meant to move, it's meant to change us individually, change society as a whole and multiply into the lives of as many people as possible. And so today we're gonna look at, we've looked at different aspects of the church, the Holy Spirit is like the battery and the spark plug goes nowhere without that. The death and resurrection of Jesus is the frame or the chassis, the foundation. And then last Sunday we looked at the pistons, the engine is the gospel which is, Jesus died for us and we need to make him our forgiver and then also make him our leader, our Lord. And today though, we're gonna look at the fuel. No matter how awesome and incredible your car is, like this thing looks like it can move, right? If it doesn't have fuel, it's an expensive paperweight. If it doesn't have fuel, it's a long ornament, just like those cutouts of a bear or other weird things. But yeah, so fuel is what's important and so today we're gonna look at what was the fuel of the early church and this is gonna be more than usual, there's gonna be five things that energize the early church to do what happened in those first centuries. Before they had any buildings, before they had nothing that we would know, political groups, no military groups, no educational facilities, nothing like that, no buildings and yet they changed the world. And so these five things and there were five things that the followers of Jesus Christ, that's what the church is, it's not a building, it's not an organization, it's people, it's me, it's those of you who've given your life to Jesus and asked them to forgive you. Five things they were devoted to, all the believers, devoted themselves, number one, the apostles teaching, number two, to fellowship and sharing meals, including the Lord's Supper, number three, to prayer. And so what we're gonna look at today is how their devotion kept everything in motion and how that's true with us as well. If we wanna move as a church, if you wanna move as a follower of Jesus Christ and be all that he wants you to be, you need these five things in your life, kind of like fuel to get you going. And the first thing it says, they were devoted to the apostles teaching. Now what was that, what does that mean? Well, we have the apostles teaching, right? Different apostles, the apostle John, he wrote first John, second John, third John, gospel of John, revelation, right? The apostle Peter, he wrote first Peter, second Peter and Matthew, he was one of the original apostles, also known as Levi, he wrote the book of Matthew. We have their teaching here. And last Sunday, when we looked at Peter's first sermon, we noticed that 66% of all the verses of his sermon were quoting the Old Testament. And so the apostles teaching is not only the New Testament that we have, but it's also the Old Testament that we have. And so to apply this today, if we wanna be like the early church devoted to the apostles teaching, it means we're devoted to the word of God. And I just wanna ask you this question, could you be convicted in a court of law of being devoted to the word of God? Could you know, you could probably, I probably we all could be convicted of being curious about or to dabbling in, 'cause you're here in church, you're watching a line, you're in Hancock, wherever. So there's at least something about, but devoted to the word of God. Here's a couple, I think it'd be great if you prayed for them, Dave and Elaine Henninger. They're neighbors of mine, they used to come here. She has some dementia, and so he has to take care of her and not let her out of sight, really for better or worse, right? And sickness and health to love and cherish her. And so they lived near me. I went and saw them a little while ago. And in their house, I was just amazed. I have a lot of Bibles in my house, okay? 'Cause I'm a pastor, like, and even adding the Bibles I have in my office to the Bibles in my house, Dave Henninger has more Bibles than I do, okay? And that's saying something. I saw several on a bookshelf in the one room. There was one on a coffee table. There was one in the dining room table. There was one in the kitchen open as well. They were everywhere, and they weren't just, you know, like beautiful display pieces. They were open, and you could tell he reads it constantly. And if we had a court to try to convict Dave Henninger, is he devoted to the apostles' teaching and to the Word of God, he would be convicted. And I think it's where he draws strength from in times that are difficult. And many of you could say the same thing. You know, it's so much more life-giving to open your Bible when you get up in the morning instead of opening your Twitter, okay? Or your Facebook account or whatever, I'm letting some of you might have. I have a Facebook thing that it's averse for the day. That's great. All right, but can you be convicted? This is so important, but the thing is, it's more than just knowing and reading. In fact, Jesus tells us this parable. He says, "If you read your Bible every day, "you are like a foolish man who builds his house on the sand. "And when the storms come, you're gonna get wiped out." And you're like, "Wait a minute, that's not what he says?" Yeah, he does. He says, "For those who just listen to the Word of God "and listen to my words, you're like a fool." He says, "To have a house on a rock, "not only do you have to listen, you have to obey and do it." And that is just so important that we're not only devoted to reading the Bible, and let me just tell you, to do this, you need a plan, okay? You need a plan of how am I gonna read God's Word, where am I gonna do it, when am I gonna do it? And so here's when I do it. I do it in bed, okay, I have to turn my light on, all right? So I wake up, I'm in bed, and I have my phone, I have a plan read through the Bible in a year, and I get that out, I'm in Jeremiah right now. And that's when I do it, that's where I do it, and that's my plan. If you're here today and you have no plan, you're in luck, okay? We have plans for you, okay? We have out at the Welcome Center, if you're online, I think they'll have a link to it in the chat, and if you're in Hancock, they also have them out in their Welcome Center with the popcorn that I don't get, 'cause you guys meet in a theater, but 30-day plan, if you don't have, if you have a plan, stick with your plan. Awesome, great job, keep going. If you don't have a plan, okay, out at the Welcome Center, take one of these, every day this month, read the Bible. It's September 1st, you can do 30 days, right? We also have a 100-day plan, that'll take you to the end of the year with about 15 or 20 cheat days, you'll probably need them, and just grab that 100-day one and say, that's what I'm gonna do, because you can't be devoted to God's Word without opening it, and you got to figure out a time. Best way to start a new habit is to attach it to an existing habit, right? So if you brush your teeth every night, I hope you do, if you don't, attach that habit to something else, but if you brush your teeth every night, maybe that's the trigger. When I brush my teeth, then I read the Bible, right? Or then I spend time in prayer. Attach another habit to an existing habit. Maybe you eat breakfast every morning, if you're like my teenage son, you do not eat breakfast, okay? But maybe you eat breakfast every morning. And so you say, when I eat breakfast every morning, I get my Bible out, and I read it, right? And so to do that, and be devoted to God's Word, but it's not just reading it, but it's obeying it. Is there a command you're delaying in obeying in God's Word? So here's four excuses that people use to not obey God's Word. Number one, it was different back then. I mean, it's so hard to, I mean, there's so much more to be afraid of today. They were not, they did not need to fear mutual thermonuclear annihilation. I mean, that wasn't a thing in first century. I mean, there's so many more things. They did not have, you know, COVID back then. There's so many more things for us to be afraid of. Totally not true. Like, are you kidding me? Do you know anything of history? You could get an infection in your finger, and it could kill you, okay? No antibiotics. Like, there are so many things. And you say, well, they didn't have mass shooters with guns. No, they had mass armies with swords. Like, they're, you know, just don't fool yourself into thinking this particular, there are no new sins, all right? We didn't invent a new sin in the 1960s, okay? Like, yes, we have new drugs, but they had the tried and true alcohol, and they could get just as hammered in alcohol back then as they do today. So it wasn't different back then. It's easy for you to say, right? That's another thing. And that is true. You know what? There's a lot of things that it is easy for me to say that I know nothing about. I've never had a child die, except for when Becky miscarried. I've never really struggled with depression. I've been sad, but that is not depression, all right? And I've never struggled with that. And I have never been raped or physically or sexually abused, like many of you have. So while it is true, it is easier for me to say, it is not easier for everyone here to say. 1 Corinthians 10, 13 says, "There is no temptation that has seized you, except what is common to man." And so I may not have gone through it, but I'm telling you, there's dozens of people in this church that have gone through exactly what you've gone through. There are millions of Christians in this world that have gone through what you've gone through and probably worse. I've never had cancer. Lots of people here have cancer, have had it, have it now, you know? So it is true that not everyone understands what you're going through, but many do. And the great thing about 1 Corinthians 10, 13 is it goes on to say not only is it common to man, but God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear, but will with each temptation provide a way out so you can stand up under it. God understands, God is there, and many others in the body of Christ do too. So it is hard, but here's another thing. This is a more modern one. Like I can't go by God because it's complicated. Let me tell you, whenever I've heard it's complicated, almost never is it actually complicated. What they mean is it's hard. There are other people involved, which makes it harder. There is a relationship aspect, which makes it, there's a psychological aspect, there's a spiritual, there's a financial aspect to this that makes it harder to obey God. But it's usually not complicated, right? This is the right thing. A five-year-old would probably give you the advice. Just do the right thing. Yeah, you're five. Well, yeah, a five-year-old realizes that it's not complicated. It's just really, really hard. But God blesses us when we trust him with hard things in our life and obeying, even when it's hard. And then the last thing is I'm waiting for the right time. This one drives me nuts. All right, I remember talking to someone about Hebrews 10, 25, not giving up assembling, not forsaking the assembly, I know it in a different version. So not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another and so much more as you see the day of Christ's return approaching. And so that is clearly saying, we need to gather together like this on a regular basis and encourage each other. Whether it's like this or in small groups, this is a command, it's clear in God's word. And I've told some people that command and their responses, well, when God lets me know it's time to come back to church, then it's time. And I feel like saying, it's time. He just let you know, what do you want? Jesus Christ to come down from heaven, wounds in his hands and say, yeah, yeah, probably they do. Yeah, that's exactly what they want, you know? And then directly say, are you kidding me? In fact, here's a bunch of verses about it's time. Second Corinthians 6-2, indeed, the right time is now. Today is the day of salvation. And then Ephesians 5, 15 through 16. Be careful then how you live, not as unwise, but as wise, making the most of every opportunity or redeeming the time in old version says, because the days are evil, if you're disobeying God, time is not on your side. And if God says it in his word, then you don't, don't wait for lightning. I've heard it doesn't, it's not pleasant, okay? And so, you know, just, this is what it means to be devoted to God's word. Not only have you memorized books of the Bible, or you read it daily, or all the stuff, but that you're actually putting it into practice. And that's what they were doing, and that fueled the explosion and the amazing power of the early church. They were devoted to the apostles' teaching, and to fellowship, sharing in meals, including the Lord's Supper, and to prayer. And so they were devoted to fellowship. And so fellowship is, this is not fellowship, best definition of fellowship, I think in English is sharing. It's sharing your life with someone. It's sharing financially many times to help someone out. It's that back and forth. And this is why actually we have a couple of things. We have small groups. And so there are 24 small groups you can sign up on there. Actually, how many of you are a part of a small group here? Raise your hand if you're part of a small group. All right, every single one of you, I want you to put your name on one of those signups. If you're a small group leader has a signup sheet out there, put your name there. Because some people will be like, "Well, I don't know Al, you know?" And he's leading the group or Jim's leading group. But I know John. And John's in that group and John's, that's not a good example. John's not scary. He might be scary. No, he's not scary anymore. And I know John and so maybe I'll go to that group. So all of you who are a part of a group, make sure your name is on that list. Maybe your small group leader already put your name down without telling you. That's great. But this is important in our church because this is following one of the commands of God. We're not really, I'm sharing right now. Like I tell stuff about my life, what God has been teaching me in his word, but you're not really sharing. And if we all did share, it would be chaos, okay? It would just be weird too. But in a small group, this is a great place, so important. And then in two Sundays, we have open house. And the reason I'm highlighting this is because we're eating, okay? Food is social grease. It helps you get to know people because you have that awkward silence and you just stuff your face with something. So it's not so awkward, right? And it just helps with conversation and it's not like, you know, you, me, next 30 minutes, let's stare at each other. You know, it's not like that. It's just so organic and normal. And so invite people. There's gonna be invitation cards on those little black tables on your way out. Or if you're online, you can go online and post it to your Facebook page, the open house. Or if you're in Hancock, they got invites out in the lobby as well. But just that fellowship, right? That sharing with each other is so important. And maybe your spiritual gift is eating. So that works out well. All right, so moving on. So they're sharing in meals, including the Lord's Supper and prayer, a deep sense of awe came over them all. And the apostles perform many miraculous signs and wonders. So the third thing they were committed to is prayer. They were devoted to praying. Is that true of your life? And I just wanna just give a couple of different examples of, in fact, devoted to God's Word. This is why all the scripture that I read is up there or it's on my sheets. I don't really need to bring a physical Bible up with me, but I like to. Just symbolically, this is where I study, you know, during the week, but this is what we follow, right? We don't follow this. We don't follow like, you know, I don't know this. Like we follow this. But devoted to prayer, here's a couple of ideas. If your prayer life has gotten stale, creative ways to pray, open your Bible to the Psalms and pray a Psalm, right? Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. God help me not to hang out with people that hate you and that speak against you, including online. God, help me not to fill my mind with that trash, but Lord, as the next verse says, but his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law he meditates day and night. God, help me to do that, not just to read it in the morning when I get up, but to think about it during the day and to meditate on it throughout the day. He will be like a tree planted by rivers of waters who brings forth fruit in his season and whatever he does prosper. God, help me to be a tree. God, help me to be strong like that and buy a river of water like one of those big river maples and that holds back the land and that produces fruit. God, I want to be fruitful. I want to see people saved through my life. I want to see Christians discipled, help me to be fruitful and then that verse, whatever he does prosper. God, I want to prosper. Please prosper me as I follow you. And prosper me financially, prosper me in my family and in my relationships and my friendships and God, prosper me at work. Amen, right? That this is a way of praying that I don't normally pray. I don't usually think of myself as a tree, right? I mean, it's a great word picture. It's not mine, like that's not how I think. But as we read, because when you pray, if you develop a habit of praying every day, what you're going to find is even though we're going before the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, if you say the same thing, the same way, every day and you will eventually get into a rush, it's going to be boring and you're going to dread it. Like, oh, I got to go through that list again today and this is the 450th time I'm praying through my prayer list and like, oh, and I know I should like it because I'm going before God, but I just can't like it because it's the same thing, 450. So do it differently. Go to the Psalms or other places in scripture and use their vocabulary because, you know, the Lord is my shepherd, right? What a great Psalm to pray. Again, I don't necessarily in conversations with people think of myself as a sheep, like, you know, but the Psalms do. So that's one way to, another thing is to sing worship songs to God. Some people have it in their head. If it's not hard, it's not spiritual. And so some of you, you love to sing to God and you're like, but I can't do that in my prayer life because it's too easy. No, do it. Maybe do it in the car, especially if you can't sing well, you know, do it in the shower, do it wherever, go for a walk, do it in the woods. I used to sing my heart out while I mowed the lawn. I did not realize people could hear me a mile away. Like, you can't hear it close up because the lawnmower is loud, but apparently the lawnmower is a low thing and my voice was, and it like, and then I stopped doing it 'cause I didn't realize that, but, right? But devoted to prayer, you can pray in singing, you know? That's one way of praying. We do that even here. Walk through a neighborhood and pray for who you walk by. There's Amy and Paul Johnson, my neighbors. God help them to follow you. And there's Christine Zohora and there's, you know, Brandon and Ashley and their mom Phyllis and you can walk through a neighborhood and pray for the people you know. Deb Kessler, really godly woman who's with the Lord now. She would run marathons and she told me, she said, I'm running this marathon and you're, I forget what it was, you're mile 17. For that entire mile, I'm gonna be praying for you, Bob. What an honor, right? And so when I used to run, I'd run three miles, not 26.2. (laughing) And there was, at one point, there was a single mom in our church who was really struggling with her kids. And I thought, so for me, mile two is the hard mile. So the first mile is what used to be easy. Now it's the hard mile. But first mile is easy 'cause you're fresh. Third mile is easier because you can see the end and you're almost done. Second mile is always the killer. It's like, oh, you know? And so that second mile I thought in the hard mile, I'll pray for the hard kids. And this mom with her two kids, they were just struggling and I'll pray for them. So just be devoted to prayer. Keep a prayer journal and write down the answers to prayer. Pray with others. That really livens up my prayer life. Wednesday morning, men's prayer, 107 Church Street. Chitchats from 545 to 6 a.m. Prayer from six to seven and then they go out and have breakfast afterward. That's optional, but love to have any of you men there. Hear anyone eight o'clock to 845 in the cafe room. There's a group that are praying for you right now. They're praying for those who are coming to the services and for other people. We prayed for you this morning by name, Jeff. Like come at eight o'clock and pray with them. We should pack that room out 'cause I know most of you aren't doing anything at 8 a.m. Some of you are getting your kids ready. You might get a pass on that. But devoted to prayer. All right, do you know though? We got a woman who comes here and she's here at seven with her kids. You know, if she can do that, you can do eight. All right, devoted to prayer and all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. So this is the next verse. This is what they're devoted to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship and to prayer. And then they meet together in one place, shared everything they have. They sold their property and possessions and shared their money with those in need. So they were devoted to generosity as well. But next Sunday, Pastor Josh is gonna come. He's gonna share about some exciting things. A giving campaign that we're launching. That's gonna go to the end of the year. Some really, really cool things that God's doing in our church and that'll be awesome. Chapter four and five of Acts talks about giving to the local church. This is not talking about that. Who's it giving to? Those in need, individuals, people. There's some people and if you're interested in this, there's a couple that used to come to this church. They go to another good church in our community now. They're getting, they need their vehicle fixed and they're short on the money for that. Several people from our church have given toward that. If you want to, let me know. I'll tell you more details. But this is, a lot of you, you know people who have needs financially. Meet 'em, help 'em. Some people, you know, you can't give to them directly because then they waste it or they use it in the wrong way, but maybe you can pay a bill. A lot of times it's the thought that counts. I think one of the main reasons why we don't see the results that happened in the early church is because we don't give the way they gave. Sacrificially, selling property, giving 100% of it away. That's crazy, right? But they were devoted to generosity. And then continuing on, they worshiped together at the temple each day, every day. This wasn't a once a week, gathered together. This was an everyday thing and met in homes for the Lord's Supper and shared their meals with great joy and generosity. They were devoted to public worship. We have child check-in and we don't do it for this reason. We do it for security things and for other reasons. But because we do child check-in, we know how often our kids come. On average, the average kid comes to Bridgewater Church 1.9 times a month. So if you came every single week, it would be 4.3 times a month. And now I know a lot of you work swing shifts and you know, all sorts of things going on here. But here's the thing, I think about half of you are committed and devoted to public worship. And the other half, it's what you do when you were able to get that project on Saturday because if you didn't get that project on Saturday, then you really need to stay home and do it on Sunday and finish it up. Or there's travel teams and we know that sports are more important than coming to church. Or there's, you know, this trip or that thing or that and if nothing is on your calendar, then this is a priority. And the early church, they were like, "This is important." All right, I go to church on vacation, okay? Not here 'cause I'm not here, all right? But I'll go to another church or I'll tune in online in the very least and watch on vacation with my family because they hate going to strange churches with me. But devoted to public worship, I know I'm preaching a little bit to the crowd here, to the choir, a lot of you are very devoted. But if you're not, make it a every Sunday this month. And if it's not this month because you've already made priorities and you've already made commitments, then October, every Sunday in October, say, "Man, I wanna get together with God's people." I wanna sing out and worship and praise God with others and be devoted. So make a commitment to do that. And then this is what happened all the while, praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people and each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who are being saved. Every single day somebody got saved. We have these flowers up there when someone in the week, you know, made Jesus their forgiver and leader. Take that times, 'cause not every week does that happen. Some weeks we don't have a flower, right? We don't have anyone to celebrate. So what was happening in the early churches, kind of what's happening at Bridgewater, times 10. It was unbelievable. And you know what, my prayer for this, I gotta wrap up, but my prayer for this community is that God would so transform and change our hearts and lives. That the statistics of crime and drug abuse and drug addiction in this community would plummet. That they'd have to lay off foster care workers because they don't have foster, nobody needs a, we have such great parents, nobody's going into foster care. You know, that suicide would be so rare that this new generation coming up, my grandchild coming up would be like, I don't even know anybody who killed themselves at 20 years of age have that kind of experience. You know, that God's Holy Spirit would transform us and that we would then help transform this community. Because Jesus is the answer to almost everything that's wrong with this world. And He's given us His Holy Spirit and the gospel to take and to live out. Are you devoted to these things? This has been a firehose to you. You might be like, I'm not doing that, and I'm not doing that, and I'm not doing that. Just pick it, I would say do them all, you can do them all. But at least in the very least, just pick one and say, that's gonna become a habit for me. Starting this week, and I'm not going back, I'm going to be devoted in that way. Let's pray, Heavenly Father, I just thank you for everybody that's here today, for bringing them. God, I know you have a plan for our hearts and our lives. I just ask that you would do it. And God, if there's anyone here that needs to pray with someone, Lord, that they would come up during this last song and pray that they would reach out online to the chat and say, I need someone to pray with me. I need someone to call me, Lord, in Hancock, Lord, that they would go to someone with one of these sheets and say, man, can you pray with me? God, I just ask that we would be devoted to prayer, devoted to your word, devoted to each other, that we would love each other, that we would sacrifice financially. God, that we would be who you want us to be, and that you would use us to change this world. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.