Everyday Church
Continue
(upbeat music) - Hello, friend. Welcome to today's podcast, Everyday Church, with Pastor Jason Kiefer. Everyday Church is a daily podcast where believers learn together, grow together, and serve together. - The biggest threat to the church is when believers no longer continue being the church. For over 2,000 years, day after day, week after week, year after year, and just on and on, the church has continued to be the church. And that's why you and I are here today. Like you and I are here today because of what happened right here in the Book of Acts. Isn't that amazing? You ever stopped and think about that and just think about how we're connected to the work of the apostles, right? And the ministry of Christ and the early church there and the New Testament church there, the Book of Acts and what God did. Isn't it amazing when you think about that, how it took someone from this time period to continue being faithful and other people that were affected by their lives were faithful and just on and on and on and on through several thousand years. And we find ourselves sitting together in a small town of Astatua and being challenged to continue. Amen, I'm thankful for the work of God. And one of the things, one of the enemies of the church is when you and I quit being the church, right? Because the church isn't just a place, it's not simply a place of worship. I'm thankful that we have a nice place to come and worship, hey man, I'm thankful that God has allowed us to grow into a bigger campus and we continue to grow and that's exciting and that's awesome, but that's not the church, right? And us coming together on a Sunday morning, that's not the church. Our three or four services a week and a life group. Those are good and those are helpful and those are a core part of the church, but that's not the church. You and I are the church. Amen, and I think about some statistics I read this past week. A recent study by McKinsey, a consulting firm, found that the average lifespan of companies listed in the S&P 500 was 61 years old or 61 years in 1958. The average lifespan was 61 years in 1958. Today, it's less than 18 years. They believe that in 2027, 75% of the companies currently quoted on the S&P 500 will have disappeared. JP Morgan Chase records that only 12% of businesses today are 25 years or older. You say why those numbers, why those statistics? Well, think about some companies for a minute. How many of you remember a department stored by the name of Zayers? Remember Zayers? Wow, a lot of hands, right? A lot of hands went up there. I remember going to Zayers when I was a kid, right? I remember the big bold letters on the front of the store. They felt like they were gonna eat you up when you walked in the store, right? And I mean, they had the greatest colors, brown, right? Everybody knows brown attracts everybody. One of the greatest things I remember out Zayers when I went in there and correct me if I'm wrong, but man, they sold popcorn. They sold popcorn up at the front, at least the one we used to go to. And man, I remember as a kid, think it was the best popcorn in the world, right? So Zayers, where's Zayers at today, right? It's non-existent. I think of companies that we know very well. I read this past week, did you know that Kmart, there are only nine locations of Kmart in the world. And only three of those are in the United States. Florida gets one, aren't you thankful for that, right? It's all the way down in Miami, but we get one of those. Yeah, even what happened to Kmart? All right, JCPenney's, man, they're on their way out. In fact, I'm gonna tell you something sad. I heard this, a report about this past week and this made me nervous 'cause, you know, if somebody's losing traction and they're having to close their doors, and JCPenney's is buying out coals. I love coals, man. How many of y'all like to shop at coals, man? I, that's a great place to go for guys, man. I love coals and I was like, no, no, no, no, no. They're closing their doors. Don't let them, I'll tell you an even worse one I heard. I heard, I read that a few weeks ago, actually an employee at Kiki's in Claremont. How many have you ever eaten at Kiki's before? Man, that's a good place to eat. You're not gonna appreciate this if you've never eaten there. I heard that Kiki's is gonna be bought out by Denny's. The look that Miss Trisha has right there, that is the look I had. I was like, oh my word, you gotta be kidding me. I've never eaten at a good Denny's, but man, Kiki's, I've never eaten at a bad Kiki's. I mean, I'm worried, what happens to these companies that man were one time just, they were at the forefront, right? What about Walmart? I mean, you remember Walmart at one point, man, they were the place to go, right? I mean, customer service, they're the place you wanna be at. How many of y'all do not like to go to Walmart now? Yeah, like almost every hand, what happens? What happens to these companies that were just great companies and now like we either don't wanna go in 'em, we don't even know who they are, we forget that they exist. They forget, they quit doing what they did to get 'em there in the first place, right? Oftentimes the one who had the vision, the one that had the dream, right? The one that started that, something like Sam Walton comes on the scene, man, and they start this store, a retail store, right, or Walmart, and it starts out little and it just explodes, and it's the greatest place in the world 'cause a man had a vision, and he passes on and the people that come behind him, they start changing some things up. They don't continue to do what got 'em there in the first place, and that really is the greatest threat to the church today, it's not the world, it's not Satan because the Lord's told us that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church. The greatest threat to the church is you and I. It's when you and I don't continue doing what got us there in the first place. I think one of the key things in the church here, in the book of Acts, was the unity that they had. They were unified in what they were doing. I think if you look over in the previous chapter, over in Acts chapter one, verse 14, the Bible says this, these all continued with one accord in prayer. They were just, they had the same mindset, the same goal, the same vision. You look over in chapter two, verse one, and when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And so unity is key to the church. It's key to us to continue what we're gonna do. And for almost 150 years, Aesthetuababdisturge has proclaimed the gospel in Lake County. Aesthetuababdisturge has made an influence and an impact in Lake County and in Central Florida. And so you and I, man, we're at a place where we can make a decision and say, "Hey, so what do we do now? Like what happens now, right?" Well, we continue, right? We continue doing what Christians have done for thousands of years. What got us here in the first place? Why are you standing here and I standing here today? It's because men and women, families, just like yourself decided, "Hey, we're gonna continue by the grace of God and for His glory to serve Him." And so I want you to think about this morning, if unity is key to the church moving forward, we have to have some things that are in common. And in this passage here this morning, we're gonna see several things that the believers had that were common. They were the same. It wasn't, this one over here trying to do this or this one over here trying to do that. The Bible said they had all things in common. That's pretty amazing, right? I mean, I don't know about how your family works, but man, I mean, we got five in our family. And you try to figure out where you're gonna go eat at, nobody ever says the same place, right? I mean, I always name a place and I just figure everybody wants to go where I wanna go and they're like, oh, I hear, I'll say let's go to Chili's and I hear in the back, oh, we always go to Chili's. And I'm thinking, you're not even paying to go to Chili's, like I'm the one paying it, right? Or, you know, I mean, my favorite is when my wife, she wants to go to San Jose's and eat Mexican food. I mean, in my heart, I'm not rejoicing. And on my face, I'm not rejoicing, right? It's hard, man, it is hard to get all things in common, isn't it? It takes the work of Christ to get things in common. It takes the power of the Holy Spirit to get things in common and in unity to move forward. But as we look here in the scriptures this morning, we'll find out how that as we continue together, if we'll make that decision to continue together, man, the Holy Spirit will bring some things in common. I think the first thing the church has to have in common today and this church certainly had in common is they had a common doctrine. They had a common doctrine. Now, the doctrine is just a, it's a statement or a system of beliefs that we live our lives by biblical doctrines that we know, and we're gonna look at one very important one first off, and that is the doctrine of salvation. The doctrine of salvation, notice in verse 42, the Bible says, and they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship and in breaking and bread and in prayers. But if you look at verse 41, the previous verse, it says, then they that gladly received his word were baptized and the same day they were added into them about 3,000 souls. So the he there is Peter. Peter is preaching the gospel. Peter is preaching to the Jews and he begins to preach and in his message, he even talks about those who are far, how that their lives will be changed by the gospel message and those people that were far are you and I, it's the Gentile people. And so we know first off the doctrine of the gospel, the doctrine of salvation has to be common. Aren't you thankful this morning that there's only one way that people can be saved? Aren't you thankful this morning that it wasn't left up to you and I to figure out what's the right way or kind of hope that my method is better than this person's method? I'm thankful this morning that we have the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ that loudly and clearly proclaims, there is only one name under heaven by which you and I can be saved, by which man can be saved. And that is the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm thankful that in the book of Acts, man, right off the bat, that was set in stone and cannot be changed. There has to be a common doctrine. I mean, the church, the church can't move forward if there's a group over here that says, well, all you have to do is call in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and there's a group over here and they say, well, you gotta call in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, plus you gotta be baptized. And then there's a group over here that says, well, you gotta call in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and you gotta be baptized, you gotta do a bunch of good, right? That would be confusing, wouldn't it? Right? And so the gospel that has preached to us, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is this, that you and I are sinners, we are in need of a savior. He died on the cross to pay for our sins. No man could pay for their sins after living righteously so that you and I could be righteous. He was buried in a tomb for three days later. And when he arose, he then ascended up into heaven and seated on the right hand of God. That is where our hope is this morning. There is one hope and that's Jesus Christ. And so as we think about the idea of continuing, the idea is that you and I continue to preach the gospel. We continue to share the gospel, right? We had a starting point class yesterday, amen? As we sit and spoke with people who are thinking about joining the members here at Astatool Baptist Church, we clearly tell people it is the job of every church member to share the gospel with people, amen? It is the gospel of every believer to share the gospel with people. And so for you and I this morning, I'm thankful this morning that we have a common doctrine. John in 1 John 2 19 said this, he said, they went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us. But they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not of us. John said, look, there's some people in the church. They ended up going away from us. They ended up falling away. The reality is they were never saved in the first place. He said, because had they been saved by the right doctrine of salvation, they would have continued in that doctrine. Amen. I'm just gonna say I'm thankful that we had the correct Bible doctrine, we had the correct doctrine for salvation that we can continue in this morning. But then also notice the doctrine of the apostles. He said there again in verse 42 that they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine. And so as these men begin to preach, they begin to preach salvation by grace. And so the apostles doctrine is simply this, it's the word of God. God give us, God preserved the word of God. One of the greatest times when the word of God was preserved and given was through this time error, right? As that these men would stand and preach, they didn't have a New Testament to preach from. They didn't stand and say, well, turn your Bibles to the book of Ephesians this morning, chapter two, and let's preach the gospel. They didn't have that. They didn't have a first and second Timothy in Ephesians and the book of Acts. But man, many times they would stand and they would proclaim what the prophets had prophesied. And as they begin to preach what the prophets had prophesied and the scriptures that they had, man, God would then move upon their hearts. And that's why we have the epistles and the letters to the church. And that's why we have the books of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John, and those books like that. And we get to continue in those. And so for you and I, the church, we have everything we have. We need right here. Aren't you thankful this morning of a correct Bible doctrine that's been proven over thousands of years? We don't have to alter anything. We don't have to change anything when it comes to the word of God. And so I spent some time with the past couple of weeks getting familiar with the starting point class. I knew it was coming up and I wanted to get familiar with all the material that we present to people and all that stuff. And I got to tell you, we got to cheat in there. It's our statement of faith, our statement of beliefs. And you know where it comes from? It comes right out of the Bible. Why we don't have to change anything? Because what we've been given to continue with is exactly what we need to continue forward. And so when we make the decision, will I continue forward? We're saying, yeah, I'm going to continue forward in doctrine. We have a common doctrine here this morning. There may be some things that you and I, people disagree on from time to time. And I'm sure there are some things we can look out of the Bible and I'm like, I don't see it that way. I don't know, maybe some timelines or something like that. But I got to tell you, when it comes to Bible doctrine, what God has given us to be saved, to walk in sanctification, to grow in Him, to go forward as a church, man, we have to have that in common. Otherwise, everybody does what they want to do. And boy, you know where that leads, right? I mean, how many times did the Old Testament in every man did that, which was right in his own eyes? And man, chaos would just break out. I'm convinced, you know what? I'm convinced that it has helped us over the past few months to be able to navigate a transition. So fluidly is that we have a common doctrine. We just stand on God's word and we didn't have to look every different direction and say, man, what do we do? What are we going to go? What's going to happen? We just knew that the Word of God was the guide. It's the map. It's the course that we're taking. And it's the way that we're going to continue to walk. And that we're going to continue to grow. Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 4, 13, till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, and to doctrine. I mean, there's people that they'll tell you things like, well, you know, that church is kind of heavy on doctrine. OK, he said, give attendance to doctrine. I mean, I'm going to tell you, you know what? People that say that, most often don't know what they believe. Most often when people tell you, well, you know, I mean, they're just always talking about doctrine and preaching doctrine. They don't know what they believe. And I'm going to tell you, one of the most dangerous Christians you can run into is those that don't know what they believe. Like, they'll fall for anything. Like, I mean, listen, don't fall for anything. Like, getting God's word, God's word tells you. Like, you don't, well, I heard this. And that sounds pretty good. And this person came over here and they said this. And, well, I like the way they smiled when they said that. And that worked really. Boy, that made me feel good. No, no, no, no. If it's not in black and white, out of the Bible, it ain't right. Don't depend on it. Don't count on it. And so we thank God that we have something we can continue. And so I ask you this morning, will you continue in God's word? Will you continue in God's word? Will you continue in daily devotions? Will you continue growing in God's word? Will you continue reading God's word, studying God's word? [MUSIC PLAYING] Thank you for listening to Every Day Church, a daily podcast where believers learn together, grow together, and serve together. If this episode was an encouragement to you, be sure to hit like, share it, and subscribe for future content. (upbeat music)