Today I'm looking forward for us just to have a chance to talk together. And it's not just a talk. We got some texts to look at as well, but just a family talk about our church, where we're at, a little assessment of where we're going. And if you're just visiting, this is a great Sunday to be here because you get a little look at our heart and what we think is important for us as a church. And if you've been here a long time, then this is a time to lean in for us, just to talk about where we're at and where we're going as a church. And to do that, I want to show us a text that just stirs my soul so much. And you guys, if you've been around the Bible a lot, you know this text. It's a well known text. This is in Acts 2. This is the birth of the church. The first church gets started in Acts 2. And this is a description of that church. And they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of the bread. And the prayers and awe came upon every soul. And many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes. They received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people who and the Lord added to their number, day by day, those who were being saved. Now, this text absolutely haunts me. Like, it just stirs me up so much. This text keeps me up at night. This is a text that Is just kind of shakes me quite often, because as someone who is a part of a group that's responsible for leading a church, you look at this description and be like, are we getting this right? Are we doing it what we're supposed to? Because honestly, I know some of you don't like raising your hand in church, but how many of you, when you look at that description and be like, I want to be a part of a church like that? Yeah, that's an easy question. Now, I'm not trying to glamorize church in the first century, because there was all kinds of problems in the church in the first century. Like, they weren't void of their problems, but that description, when that church got born and they're in those first days of a church and they're describing that, I'm like, oh, man, I want to be a part of that. And it just kind of haunts me to think, like, are we getting it right or are we doing it right? And listen, I love our church. I've told you before, like, if I didn't work here, I would go here. I love this church. There's so much that just is energizing about this place. But I often wonder, do we think things are going great? Because maybe we just don't know any better. How many in this room like snow skiing again? It's like raising our hands. It's been, like, less than two minutes. We've had to raise our hands twice. I didn't expect to get a lot on that one. We're in Iowa. But for those of you that love snow skiing, let's say that you snow ski often. Like, every winter, you're snow skiing quite often. You love it, you enjoy it. But the only snow skiing that you know is going to Sundown Mountain. That's all that you know, and you love it. And then somebody comes along and they start telling you about this place called Colorado. You're just like, huh? Like, this text is like the Colorado for church to me. I'm like, is a place like this exist? Like, is this possible? Could we go there? Can we have a church like this? What if we're doing good things as a church, but the most powerful things haven't been the most important things? Do you know what I mean when I say that? Like, as a church, we're doing a lot of good things? I love it. There's so much to celebrate. But when we look at our church, what if the most powerful things haven't been the most important things? Like, what if our priorities the things that we're most passionate about, the things we put most energy towards and most effort towards, have drifted from what we read. And Acts 2, you ever have priority drift? Like, there's things you set out in life and you would say, this is important to me. But then life happens and years pass, and then you evaluate your life and you feel like, okay, even though I would say this is most important, I don't know if I'm living as if this is most important. Can anybody identify with that? Like, your priorities kind of drift, and there's so many things, like, pulling at you. There's a current in our culture that is kind of. If you're not intentional, it's going to take you a place. And you kind of look up after 5, 10 years and be like, I don't. I'm not prioritizing my own priorities. And you wonder, like, can that happen to a church? I mean, the answer is yes. In fact, you see it in Revelation, Chapter two when there's these letters being written to seven churches. The one written to the church in Ephesus says, you've abandoned your first love, the love you had at first. Like, this is the critique. Like, you've drifted from that. Now, what do you think the consequences would be if a church had priority drift? What are the consequences for the people of that church? What would be the consequences for the community that that church is in? I mean, the consequence that's in that letter to the church in Ephesus is, you better return to the works you did at first, or I'm going to come and I'm going to take your lampstand and you're like, what does that mean? It's not good. Okay, what's the consequences for a people of a church that have priority adrift? Is it just a lifetime of skiing in Iowa? Like, sure, I mean, it's fun, but there's so much more that we're not experiencing and enjoying. And what's the consequences to a community that that church is in that has priority drift? There's a passage in Joel, Chapter two, and. And the context of the passage is calling the Israelites to repent. Like, you need to come back. And a promise that when you do come back, I'm gonna pour out my spirit and you're gonna see me work among you. But here's a critique. This is in Joel, Chapter two. He says, between the vestibules and the altar, let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep and say, spare your people, O Lord, and make not your heritage a Reproach or a byword among the nations, why should they. Now the they is referring to the nations that he just talked to. So why should the nations say, among the peoples, where is their God? So this call for the Israelites to repent. And when they do, my spirit will be poured out among you and I will work among you. But the critique was, hey, cause the church doesn't have it right? The other nations are doubting God, doubting the existence of God and the reality of God, because the people of God don't have it right? Has it been the case for us? Is there priority drift? And what should we be prioritizing? Because there are a lot of good things to do. There's a lot of good things to do. And prioritizing is not about choosing between good things and bad things. That's ethics. All right? Prioritizing is about choosing between good things and good things and trying to figure out what should be the most important things. And then once you establish your priorities, that's when the work begins. Because you have to actually prioritize your priorities. You have to guard your priorities. Because if you don't guard your priorities, you'll get pulled away from your priorities. And there's so many things competing for our time and attention and energy. Amen. Like, you feel that tug. The church is no different. The church, in fact, not soon after the church got started, you see their priorities getting challenged, tested. Like, I'm not going to do Math. But Acts 2, we see the birth of the church in Acts 6. So whatever the numbers are to get there, we got some problems already. And the problems that arise in that church test their priorities. So here's what's happening in Acts chapter six, they have a food distribution problem. Some of the widows that are part of this church aren't getting fed. They're not getting the food. So they bring this complaint to leadership. And here's the leadership's response. Now I'm saying it's Peter, right? You just kind of know Peter's mo. He's kind of just says some things, but they. And he's kind of been the mouthpiece of this movement. But Peter responds. I think Peter responds. But the response of the leadership is this. And the 12 summoned the full number of disciples. So the whole church gathered and said, it's not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. What? I mean, if you read that, you might even feel like that sounds very unchristian thing to say, like we don't have time to help Hungry people. Why would they say that? Like, what's behind that? Now I think Brian is like, peter, you say that, he'll say it. If you go back, if you go to the left in your Bible, if you're in Acts chapter two, if you go to the left a few pages, you're at the end of the Gospel of John. And in the Gospel of John, Jesus, the resurrected Jesus, is restoring Peter. Because Peter, at the crucifixion of Jesus or leading up to that, denied Christ three times. So he's feeling low. And the resurrected Jesus kind of restores Peter back to ministry. And the way he does it is he asks him three questions, basically the same question three times. But he says, do you love me? He's like, I love you, right? And then he tells him to do something. And he says again, do you love me? He's like, I love you. Then he tells him to do something, says again, do you love me? Yeah, I love you. And he tells him to do something. And what he told them to do was, feed my sheep. Now the middle time, he says, tend my sheep. But then he comes back, feed, feed my sheep. And you might think, all right, you're not too far into this ministry. You literally got hungry sheep. They need food. Like, why doesn't Peter say, this is what he's talking about? Christ told me we need to feed the sheep, so let's feed them instead. They respond with like, no, we can't serve tables. We gotta preach the word of God. Because the context of that chapter, that restoration of Peter, was not to feed them physically, but to feed them spiritually, that they need spiritual nourishment. Now, I'm not saying that you don't feed people physically because they figured it out and they got that done. But that's not the response of the leaders. Because this story, the Accountant, Acts, Chapter 6, the point of it is not so much how to feed hungry people as it is a lesson on how to guard priorities. Because you see what gets emphasize even in a few verses. This is verse four. It says, but we will devote ourselves to what? To prayer. Let's say it like, we all can read it like, to and to the ministry of the right. So they had a clarifying of their priorities. Their priorities got tested with good things. And like, yeah, we need to address those things, but not at the expense of rearranging our priorities. Like, this needs to stay important. Now, those priorities didn't get established in Acts 6. They got established in Acts 2, but they got clarified and protected in Acts 6. So let's go back and look at how these priorities got established or what they were at the beginning or the birth of this church. So Acts 2:42, let's focus on that verse. And they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Now, before we get to what they were devoted to, I don't want to miss the fact that they were what? Devoted. They were devoted. Like, we have this culture of convenience and ease. We love it. It's treasured in our culture. We pursue it like, what seems to be the drive or pursuit of pretty much every American retirement. Finally getting to that place where I can just take it easy and relax and just kind of enjoy the benefits of life. Like, it's what we treasure. And that value kind of leaks itself into our thinking even when it comes to church. Like, you never retire from church. You do it. Death, and then it's. Or the kingdom comes and then it's good from there on out. Okay, but to. Now we're to spend our lives for the cause of Christ. Like, this is what we're called to. But this desire for convenience and comfort, it leaks. And even when it comes to church, it's like, is this service going to go longer than an hour? Right. If we do another exit, like, are you telling me we got to come back on a Sunday? We got to do. Like, there's just don't. Like, don't infringe on our convenience. But here in the description, they were devoted. There was a commitment, there was a priority, there was a passion. Now, we can't overlook things that are too easily overlooked. What's the second word in this thing? And they were devoted. It's not like they had a church. And in that church, there were some devoted people. And. No, the description of the church, the gathering, was devotion. There was a shared devotion, and they together were devoted. Now, there is something special about a cooperative effort. Like, they were in it together. They were committed, unified in their energy and their effort. Now, when you read that section we read at first, when you get this description of the church that they were meeting in their homes, in the temple, they were selling their things to meet each other's needs. They were breaking bread in each other's homes. Like, you get this description of, like, a wonderful community that was generous and cared for each other, but that's not what they said they were devoted to. Like, none of that was a description of their devotion. It was a description of their character. It was a description of who they were, how they Acted. And I think it's a description of who they were because of what they were devoted to. Like, they were generous, caring, hospitable people because of what they were devoted to that shaped their life. So what is it that they were devoted to? They were devoted to the apostles teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of bread and the prayers. And it just says they devoted themselves. But you could continue that phrase, like all of those things apply to what they were devoted to. And notice this, there's a definite article before each one of those. It's the apostles teaching, and they were devoted to the fellowship and the breaking of bread and the prayers. It doesn't just say they were devoted to fellowship, doesn't just say they were devoted to breaking of bread or to prayer, to praying. It's the prayers and the fellowship and the breaking of bread and the apostles teaching. Like, we're committed to learn the truth of God that is communicated through the apostles to us. So it's not that they were just dedicated to learning. We want to learn God's word. And it wasn't that they were just devoted to friendship and community. It's the fellowship. He's talking about this movement of the church. Like we're all in together in this. This movement that God is doing through his people, through the apostles, the church. It was a formal commitment to what was happening. And it doesn't just say that they were committed to breaking bread, although further down when it describes that they met together in people's homes, that they broke bread together. But it's not the breaking of bread. This is the Lord's Supper. Like we're committed to remembering the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, because everything flows from that. And it doesn't just say that they were committed to praying. It was the prayers. What's the prayers? It's the gathering of the church for the purpose of praying, like when the church prays. We're committed to that. We're devoted to that. Let's gather and let's pray to together in a prayer service. So you could say they were committed to the knowledge of God. They were committed to the work of the church. They were committed to the remembering of the gospel, specifically the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. And they were committed to an ongoing dependency on God through prayer. Now I think all the Christians in this room would be like, well, of course those things are all great. I'm pro all of that. Those are wonderful things. But let me just give you a peek behind the curtain a little bit. As an elder team this past year, there's been some realizations that even though all of us would also say we love all of those things, we're for all of those things, and we can point to several places in our church where those things happen and get lived out, there was still a conviction that perhaps they're not being prioritized like they should be. Specifically, the apostles teaching and the prayers felt pretty strong in meaningful membership and remembering the Lord's Supper. But when it came to the apostles teaching and the person, there was a conviction that maybe we've had some priority drift, maybe we've had some priority drift and understanding that these priorities aren't always our preferences. We can have a worship night where we have a big feed and we're gonna fill this place up, we're gonna have a prayer service, you can find a seat. And priorities and preferences don't always line up. What we want to do and what we're called to do, always the same thing. But in a me centered, self centered culture, we often think that they should be. You need to find what you're passionate about and be devoted to that. You need to find what fills your bucket and you need to be devoted to that. You ever hear stuff like that? But yet in scripture, we're called to die to ourselves, to find life. And this thing called the church, the people of God on mission for God, doesn't always fit nicely within our comfort zones. It doesn't always line up with our preferences. It's not always. Like, I would want church like this, and I would want church like this. And if we did this every week, like this is what I would want. Like, it doesn't always line up. And yet we're still called to something amazing and still called to something powerful. And what if getting our priorities right as a church was a prerequisite to revival? What if it's like that Joel too? Like, why should the nation say where is their God? Because you're not following me, but if you follow me, I will pour out my spirit among you. Maybe we've had some priority drift and we can't be driven by pragmatism. Did it go well because a lot of people showed up? Did it go well because we got a lot of feedback? We have to be driven by calling. What is God and His Word calling us to do as a church? Because at the end of the day, we won't give an account to a congregation of whether they like the church or not. We'll give an account to God whether He was pleased with our church or not. So we had to step back and ask some questions. And we asked ourselves, I think, a super compelling question that just kind of rocked my world for about six months as we wrestled with this. But the question was this. What if we were most devoted to what they were most devoted to? Not just like, does it exist in our church? And can we point to it and are we doing it? Like, yeah, yeah, check. But what if we were most devoted to what they were most devoted to when it came to the apostles teaching and the fellowship and the prayers and the breaking of bread? Like, what if those priorities were a priority, a driving priority for us as a church? What if we increase the amount of biblical instruction we provide? I mean, we're trying to raise up what mature disciples. You know where we get that? The Bible. All over the Bible. But there's one particular verse that really says, this is Colossians, chapter one. It says him talking about Jesus. Him we proclaim warning everyone and what, teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone what mature in Christ. So this endeavor of having mature Christians involves proclaiming and warning and teaching and wisdom. Like it's part of growing people through the word of God. It's how we do that. And it is so important. Now, this is a long time ago, but especially in our day. And here's my argument for this. We live in an information age. You got so much information coming to you all the time. I mean, the amount of information you consume in a day. And what's clear in scripture is the enemy's tactic is lies. It's twisting of truth. And to confront that, you need maturity. Because Paul brings this up again. This is in Ephesians 4, he says, and he this is Jesus gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ until we all attain the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God. To what mature manhood? To the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ so that we may no longer be children. Now, children is the opposite of mature manhood. And what happens to children? They're tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of what doctrine, thinking, ideas. And those ideas come from human cunning by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Now he goes on to talk about deceitful schemes from the enemy that we don't fight against flesh and blood. But there is a power or an opposition that's lying to us. And it takes maturity through teaching the Word of God to stand up to these lies. So we said, what if we did a better job at teaching our people the Bible? Because there is a problem in our culture of biblical illiteracy. We just don't know the word of God. We don't know the word of God. And there's so many lies, crafty lies, coming at us all the time. And if we don't know the word of God, we're vulnerable and gullible in this world. We'll believe whatever sounds good. It's like, oh, that sounds Christian, right? But the verse we read in Acts 6, we'd all be like, that doesn't sound very Christian. And that's the apostles talking. So maybe we need to learn more. What if we upped the game on what it meant to be a part of a church in our kind of consumeristic culture that treasures convenience? And the temptation as a church is to lower the bar to make it easier for people to engage. What if we said, forget that. That's what our culture says. What does the word of God say? Well, let's raise the bar. Because when you show greater devotion to lesser things, it's idolatry. So let's just call it what it is. And there is nothing greater in this two second world you could give your life to than the work of God through the church of God. So what if. What if we called people to something worth giving their lives to? And what if we took the Lord's supper more seriously? Like, we just didn't do it to do it. But every time we did it, we examined ourselves. And every time we did it, which is often, there was confession of sin, there was a remembrance of Christ's sacrifice, there was a stirring up of devotion, there was a stirring up of worship. And what if we were more devoted to praying together as a church? Like they were going to gather and just pound on the door of heaven, pleading with God to move? Because here's what can easily happen, especially in a large church. You get a healthy budget, you get some talented people, you get some slick programming, and you start to think, we got this. We can strategize and solve the problems that come our way. And you have a low dependency on God. And when you have a low dependency on God, you begin to have low expectations, like, do we really expect God to move? And pretty soon you find yourself as a church acting more like a corporation who can kind of tweak strategies and approaches to incrementally get better and less like a church who has the ear of God to Pour out the spirit of God for the work of God. There's an account of a young, frustrated preacher that was venting to Charles Spurgeon. Charles Spurgeon was the prince of preachers. Pastored a megachurch in London back in the 1800s. And as this young, frustrated preacher is venting to Charles Spurgeon, he talked about how frustrated he was at how few people seemed to be converted under his preaching. And Charles Spurgeon said, what? You don't expect somebody to get saved every time you preach, do you? And the embarrassed young preacher is like, oh, no, no, no, I don't. And he's like, well, perhaps that's your problem. Do we really expect God to move? Like, is that young preacher us as a church? If there's somebody who is entrenched in addiction for 15 years, do we expect God to set them free? If there is broken marriages, do we expect God to heal them? If there are prodigal kids that have run from God, do we expect God to bring them back? And do we pray and prioritize? Like, we really believe that as a church? You know, as we looked at ourselves, it seemed like our priorities as a church has been we need to get people connected. Let's get them in community. Like, the driving priority was assimilation. We. We got a lot of people coming. And listen, we love community. Community's in the Bible. Community is an important thing. But it seemed like the highest virtue of our church was get connected, get connected, get into community, get into community. And the disposition was get in community. And of course you should pray, get in community. Oh, and of course you should read your Bible. I hope you're alert in things. But what if it was switched? What if it was like, we're gonna teach the word of God in our church and. And we're going to pray together as a church. And of course, you should be in community. Have your friends over, have people over, practice hospitality, connect in coffee shops. Do it. Yes, and amen. Of course you should do that. But we're prioritizing this. So here's what you need to know. As a church, we're going to prioritize biblical literacy and corporate prayer, along with meaningful membership and gospel remembering. We felt we were stronger in those two, but the conviction really lied in biblical literacy and corporate prayer. And here's how we're going to go about doing that. Let me just tell you the new things, because there's a lot of things we can point to you that we feel good about. But when it comes to biblical literacy, we're going to expand Sunday classes. What you're used to for us as a church is we do kind of a block of classes in the fall and a block of classes in the spring. We're just going to do classes all the time. There's never going to be too big of a gap where you can't get into a class. Part of our. Somebody like that, part of our remodeling of the basement was to open up space in the second level for more adult classes. So we're going to expand the classes that we offer. We're going to add a monthly men's and women's discipleship gathering. So once a month, the women of our church are going to gather. The men of church are going to gather. There's going to be some teaching, and we're going to group up to discuss it. We're going to do two conferences a year. There'll be a missions conference every fall and another conference in the spring for some more instruction. We expanded our bookstore. We're going to have frequent articles and podcasts. We want to increase the instruction of the Word of God. When it comes to corporate prayer, we've done first Sundays for about a year where a time for our members to gather. We do some teaching. We celebrate the Lord's Supper, but the main objective of that gathering is corporate prayer. We're getting together to pray as a church family, and we're asking you guys to prioritize that when it comes to the Lord's Supper. We've already implemented some of these changes, but we brought back celebrating Communion every Sunday, except the first Sunday of the month, when we do it at first Sunday and we take more time to do it as a church family. When it comes to the fellowship, being devoted to the fellowship, it used to be that you took a membership class, then you told your story and you were kind of in. And there was a value of efficiency. We said, it's not about how fast we assimilate people, it's about how well we assimilate people. So starting this fall, there's a new membership class that's like eight to 12 weeks where we're going to take time to get to know you, help you understand what it means to be a part of a church, help you get plugged into serving in church. We don't buy into the lie that just because we're a larger church that we can't be personal and know our people. Like, we want to be a church, not just a big organization. One of the ways that we're going to try to do that is we're taking all of our members and. And we're dividing them up between all our pastors and elders. So every pastor and elder is going to have a group of members that they oversee. Because one of the things we learned is when everybody's responsible for everybody, nobody's responsible for anybody. So, like, for me, as one of your pastors, I'll have a list of around 100 people. I will call you, see how you're doing. I'll give you my cell number. If you need me, call me. This is what it means to be a pastor in a church, and we're gonna try to manage that. Now we're gonna do a big draft. I don't know when you're gonna get drafted or what your draft status is, how we're gonna divide that up. But we wanna know our people, and we want our people to know their leaders, and we want to care. Well, now, here's the thing. Some of you, some of you are thinking, like, wait, we're adding a conference and classes and monthly gatherings. And you're just kind of freaking out a little bit because you're already extremely busy. But we're not interested in making you more busy busy. But we do want to be intentional with what we're asking you to do. And we want what we're asking you to do to reflect what we prioritize. So here's what we're going to try to do. And I say try to do because if you've been around long enough, we're not afraid to try things and try different things. But when we felt convicted in this, we said, okay, here's one of the ways that we could live this out. We're going to try to do a monthly discipleship recognition rhythm. And this isn't Sunday morning. Sunday mornings is the same, and we're consistent in Sunday mornings. But outside of Sunday mornings, we want to get in a rhythm where that reflects our priorities. So the first Sunday of every month is our members will gather for prayer, and we want that to be a big deal. The second week of every month, our connection groups will gather. You'll be in community. You'll know, and we hope outside of that that you guys get together often. You don't have to call us as a church to. To ask if it's okay if you have your friends over. Right? Go ahead and do it. Meet often, I hope. I go into coffee shops. I love it when I see a group of Veritas people sitting around with their Bibles open Get together often, but the expectation is once a month, gather in community. The third week of every month, we will do a men's and women's discipleship gathering. We're going to have another teaching context where you can gather up afterwards and discuss it with a group of women or a group of men. And then the fourth week, it's open. It's open. Have people over, practice hospitality, slow down, eat dinner together, read a book. A good book. The good book, Right. Don't think that busyness equals maturity in that, but we want to provide that for you. Now, if you're like, wait, I got a bunch of questions. And what about this? And what about that? Have you thought of this? Just relax. The point of this morning is not to hash out all the details. We've had several meetings with our leaders where we worked this out. We'll let you know all the wins and the what's that come about? But here's what I want us to hear this morning. A couple things. One, we are putting a greater emphasis as a church on growing our biblical knowledge through more classes and times of instruction. And this isn't because we want to be some smarter church. We're not going to challenge other churches and Bible trivia. That's not the point in this. This is about understanding how change happens. The Spirit of God uses the word of God to shape the people of God and a clear New Testament teaching on sanctification. That big word just means God transforming his people or conforming the people more into the image of the Son. A clear New Testament teaching on sanctification is not relationship centric. It's word centric. The Spirit of God uses the word of God to shape the people of God. Now, relationships are still important and there's plenty of context for that to be fleshed out. But we want our people to know the word of God. Number two, we are calling our members to be devoted to priority praying together every month. And we've been doing this for a while. And every first Sunday we have three to 400 people gather to pray. And it's awesome. And we have eight to 900 members. You do the math. Now, we have about 1100 seats in here. So if you answer the call, we're like, well, we're going to fill up too fast. And you're telling me like, we're going to have a problem of not having enough seats because our people gather to pray. I want to deal with that problem. I want that. Give me that problem. Okay. We want to plead for God to move among Us. And we're calling on everyone for devotion. I get it. You're pulled in so many different directions, and there's a lot of good things. There's a lot of good things, but this life is a vapor, and it's over like that. And there is nothing, nothing that's more worthy of your life than the church of Jesus Christ and spreading his gospel. So let me get specific here. Here's what we're asking. If you're not a member, because I get it. There's a lot of people in this room that you don't fall in that category. And you're trying to figure out, do I want to be a part of this weird group or not? Keep coming. This is what I say to you. Keep coming. We're glad that you're here. Take a class. Take lots of classes. Come to men's and women's discipleship gatherings. I continue to learn and meet people, but I want you to know that we have a hope for you. And our hope for you is that you would belong. That you would get to the point of, like, all right, I'm done dating. Let's marry. Like, let's be in covenant together as a church family. We want that for you. If you're a member of this church, here's what we're asking. Make Sundays a big deal. Like, come together to worship, serve. Find some time of, like, I'm here to be a contributor. This is. This is my family. I help things get done. Find a place to serve, take classes. Make first Sundays a priority to gather and pray and come to the men's and women's discipleship gatherings to learn and be in community, be connected, initiate your community. Now, I gotta be honest, We've. We've kind of communicated some of these things with different groups of leaders for a while. And getting here, I was a bit nervous because you're introducing some changes and there's like, a thousand different opinions. It's like, what if we did this? And why didn't we do this? And I would want to do this. And I get it. Like, there's all kinds of different opinions and things are going well. So it's like, why mess with it? Why mess with things are going bad? It's, you know, Jake, just leave it be. Everybody's happy. This is great. Like, the number of complaints that we get is pretty low, right? We're doing good. So why introduce change into that situation? Well, one of the things is, when we assess our church, we're not just looking at attendance, budgets, feedback. Do People like it. We're looking here. What are you calling us to. To what are you asking of us? And we don't want things going well to prevent us from pursuing revival. Or let me put it this way, I don't want us enjoying skiing in Iowa so much that we never go to Colorado. Because the original question was, what if we were most devoted to what the church in Acts 2 was most devoted to? That was the question. It was a what if question. So what if? What might happen if we were. What might happen if we collectively were devoted to growing our knowledge of God, to the work of the church, to prayer, and to remembering the sacrifice of Christ? What might happen? What happened for them? Here's the very next verse, verse 43. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And then at the end of verse 47, it ends this way. And the Lord added to their number, day by day, those who were being saved. Again, I'm not strong at math, but day by day, there's 365 people getting saved every year. What if you'd come to this church and there was just a sense of awe and we just saw the work of God among us? Because it's one thing to say that we believe in God, but to actually expect God to show up and move among his church. Why don't we expect that? Do you know what happened to the church again in Acts 6? When their priorities were tested and they stayed true to what they should stay true to? Here's the very next verse in Acts 6. And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem. And a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith. This was a picture of how powerful the gospel is moving. He said, even priests are getting saved. So what if. What if we saw marriages healed and sin confessed and addictions broke and forgiveness extended and prodigal sons returned and lost people found? What if that was just normal? And what if the precursor to that kind of awe and wonder among us was our devotion to what we should prioritize? Because what if a description of this church is, this is a group of people hungry to know God, and classes are full every Sunday. And you come here on a men's and women's discipleship in this room. It's full of people that want to know God more. And if you come on a first Sunday night, this room is packed with people just here to pray and plead with God, to do what he can do and what if you could say these people are committed to the work of God. There's not volunteer shortages. People are just eager to do whatever is necessary for the work of ministry. And what if we were devoted to the breaking of bread, to remembering Christ? Like, not just doing it, but devoted to what we're supposed to be devoted. Like we examine ourselves, we confess sin, we're stirred up by the gospel, we're blown away by his grace. Because how can you remember the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and not want to know him more, not want to know everything that he says and learn more about him? How can you remember the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and know you have the ear of God who beats death and not eagerly and passionately bring all of your court requests to him? How can you remember the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and not just be energized to be devoted to his cause through his church? So, church, let's remember Jesus. Let's remember that his body was hung on a cross and his blood was shed and his grace is sufficient for you. And let's be stirred up to be a church like this. Amen. Let's pray. Father, there is no nothing greater than the awe of you that we could experience. And we have too easily bought into the values and systems of this world. I pray that you would lead us to hunger and thirst for you, to be devoted to you, to long, to experience you, to trust in your faithfulness as you call us, to devotion that you are alive and active and that we would experience you among us. We know that we need you, to want you. So I pray by your spirit you would wake us up to that pray in your name. Amen.