Experience Connection
Acts 2:41-47
Be devoted to Bible Study
Be devoted to fellowship
Be devoted to prayer
Slide
Have you ever had a relationship where you truly felt connected but only to have that connection fade away?
Perhaps in your marriage, you have experienced that? You felt as you got married, you and your spouse really had a deep connection, but as time went on, that connection seemed to fade and you wonder if it was even real to begin with. Sure you go through the motions of marriage, but it seems to have become something superficial.
Maybe you have never experienced that type of connection to another human being before, because you fear getting hurt or let down, so you stay at an arms distance from people.
Well, just like in our human relationships, there are some who never get to experience fully what it is like to be connected to God on an intimate level.
They will recite prayers and read the Bible on occasion, but they always feel like they are at a distance from the Lord.
Others experience it and then that connection with the Lord just seems to fade away and they begin to wonder if it was real.
People either don’t’ experience it or it fades away because, just like in human relationships, they fail to do what is necessary to experience or continue experiencing that connection.
In marriages and other relationships, it is imperative that we spend time together talking and learning about the other person, just like when we first met, so we can continue to experience that connection.
Even in our relationship with God, while it is established and given as a free gift from God, will require effort on our part to continue to experience that close connection.
Now, in a marriage, in those times that we don’t feel connected to our spouse does not make us unmarried. We just aren’t experiencing the joy we could be when we have that connection.
Now, just like in a marriage, we are in relationship with God when we receive Jesus Christ as Savior. That relationship does not go away at times we are not feeling connected or even when we sin. We do not have the joy that we could have, however, if we were we experiencing that close connection with Him.
What is it that we can do so that we can either experience that connection with the Lord?
Well, this morning, we are going to take a look at some of the things that the early church devoted themselves to that helped them to stay connected to the Lord and experience awesome connections to Him and blessings from Him.
Turn with me this morning to
Acts 2:42-47 (p. 772)
Slide
The early church had some incredible experiences with the Lord.
I want to give you a quick background of what is going on preceding what we are about to read.
A quick background up to our text today.
Pentecost has just occurred.
The Holy Spirit came upon the believers at that point and the church started.
Peter preached to the crowd and shared the gospel with them and encouraged them to believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior and it says in Acts 2:41 that about 3000 believed and became part of the church.
Talk about growth problems.
How do you disciple all of these new people?
How do you teach them?
How do they encourage one another and perform all the one another’s?
Where do they park? Oh wait, they didn’t have that problem then.
Anyway, let’s read Acts 2:42 -47 and see how they responded to all of this.
Acts 2:41-47 (p. 772)
41 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.
42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
Ok, I first want us to take a look at the last 2 verses.
Two things we see hare are that these new Christians met together in the
Temple courts and
In their homes
I want to argue that this is key for us if we are going to continue to grow in our relationship with the Lord and experience connection.
We need to also be meeting in large groups to hear teaching and encouragement and to worship together, but we also need to be meeting in smaller groups to study and fellowship and discuss the scriptures and grow as disciples applying these things to our lives.
I want us to look at what these early disciples devoted themselves to and as a result, were able to experience that awesome connection with the Lord.
First, if you are going to experience connection with the Lord, you need to
Devote Yourself to Bible Study
Slide
Acts 2:42a - “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching…”
The apostles’ teaching is recorded for us here in the New Testament.
These early Christians not only would listen to the Apostles teach the Scriptures in large groups, but those who were growing also studied it as they met together in smaller groups from house to house.
A great example for us is the Bereans.
On Paul’s first missionary journey, he ended up preaching the gospel in Berea which is in Macedonia.
Listen to what they did
Acts 17:11
11 Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.
They studied the scriptures to see if the apostles teaching lined up with Scripture.
They did not just do this on Sunday or Saturday when they heard the message.
They were getting together in groups daily to study what was being said and studying what the Scriptures had to say about this Jesus.
Maybe you are saying,
“Well, I can’t get together every day to study. I can barely find enough time to get the things I already have going on done.”
Listen, I don’t necessarily think that everyone got together every day, but that there were small groups meeting every day discussing these things.
As we start our small group Bible studies back up, we have groups that will meet on Sundays from 6 to 7:30, on Tuesdays from 7 to 9, on Wednesdays during our Awana times at locations close to the church from 6:45 to 8:30 and on Thursdays from 7 to 9 pm. We have options at these different times because we know that one time simply does not work for everyone. I want to encourage you to find a time that works for you.
If we are going to experience connection with the Lord, we have got to devote ourselves to studying the Bible, just like the noble Bereans did.
“Well, can’t I just do that by myself, when I find time?
Why do we need to do that with others?”
Because
God uses other Christians to help us grow.
Slide
Proverbs 27:17 - As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.
People studying together can challenge our thoughts and sharpen us in our beliefs.
It is vital to our spiritual growth to do Bible study in groups.
We learn from others and God speaks into our lives through others as well.
Over the years that I have done small group Bible studies, God has used other people to help me grow and to sharpen me and to help me understand His word.
We all hold many preconceived notions of how we think things should be.
It is rare that those ideas get challenged apart from some other person questioning why we believe or think something. That forces us to study that position further in light of God’s word. As we do, we get stronger and experience closer connection with the Lord.
Studying on our own is good, but we also need to study the Bible with a group of other Christians so we can continue to experience close connection.
Secondly, to grow in experiencing that connection, you need to
Devote yourself to Fellowship
Slide
Acts 2:42b
42 They devoted themselves to …the fellowship
Yeah, now were talking. Break out the coffee and donuts… I can fellowship!
First, we need to understand that fellowship is more than just hanging around and talking with people. That is part of it, but it is for the purpose of helping us form bonds and more intimate connections so that others can know us and we can know others.
That only happens as we spend time with one another.
But how do you experience connection with the Lord by fellowshipping with people?
Being connected to God means
being connected to Other Christians
Slide
The church is made up of all other Christians and the church is the body of Christ.
If we are not connected to other Christians, His body, we are not connected to Christ.
1 John 1:6-7
6 If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
This verse is saying that if we say we are in fellowship with the Lord, yet we are living sinful lives, we lie.
But if we are walking in the light of truth in Jesus, (we would expect it to say we have fellowship with the Lord, but it says we have fellowship with one another. That is because being connected with other Christians and in fellowship with them is tied to being connected and in fellowship with the Lord.)
You cannot experience connection to God and not be experiencing connection with other Christians.
God uses our relationships together to grow us, to draw us closer to Him.
God uses people in our life to help us
learn about love
learn about commitment
learn about sacrifice.
There are numerous passages of Scripture that talk about
Loving one another
Being humble toward one another
Being hospitable to one another
Fellowshipping with one another, Etc.
Those one anothers imply being together in relationship.
Outside of relationship with other people we cannot do the things that the Lord told us to do.
And I want to tell you that coming to church on Sunday is good and helpful, but that is far from all that is needed to be in relationship with others.
And without experiencing deep fellowship with people, we will not experience the connection with the Lord that our soul and spirit long for.
Breaking of Bread
The next phrase in Acts 2:42 talks about the breaking of bread.
Some have thought this is solely a reference to communion, but I think it really means just eating together and is a further explaining of an aspect of fellowship.
You see it further explained in Acts 2:46, a few verses later
46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,
Sharing a meal together is something that helps bond people together.
But it goes back to the idea of fellowship, of growing our relationship with each other.
We see this today.
We want to get to know someone better, what do we do?
We invite them over for dinner.
This is the same reason that during the summers here, we have connection lunches.
As a leadership, we feel it is important to provide opportunities for people to grow and connect in relationship with one another, because God works through that and it is vital to our growth in the Lord.
The last thing that we see in this verse that we need to do in the midst of a group to experience connection with the Lord is you need to
Devote Yourself to Prayer
Slide
Acts 2:42
42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
If we are going to be experiencing Connection with the Lord, then we must be praying.
Prayer is one of the essential ways we communicate with God.
And it is through prayer the God hears and responds to us.
We are connected through prayer.
I think most of us know and believe that.
But
God is present in a special way
when we pray with Other Christians
Slide
Matthew 18:19-20
19 "Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them."
This is somewhat of a mystery that I do not completely understand.
I know each of us have the Holy Spirit and that God is with us when we put our trust in Jesus as Savior, never to leave us of forsake us.
But there is something unique and special when Christians get together in prayer.
We see throughout the book of Acts that the early Christians would gather together and pray.
In Acts 12, we find that Peter is arrested and thrown in jail as persecution of Christians began. But it tells us in
Acts 12:5 that “Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.”
The church was praying and God miraculously freed Peter.
Now they were not just praying individually, they were together praying.
After Peter realized how he was freed, it says in
Acts 12:12
“he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying.”
There is something mysterious and special and powerful about people praying together in unity. God is present in a special way.
Better to pray for each other as well
But not only that, but when we gather in groups, and are in fellowship and know one another, we are better able to pray for each other.
James 5:16 tells us to “confess your sins to each other and pray for each”
God wants us praying with each other and for each other.
Bible Study, fellowship and prayer are essential aspects that we need to devote ourselves to if we are going to experience connection with the Lord on an ongoing basis.
And these 3 things are vital aspects to every small group.
I have been at churches before where they just wanted their groups to be Bible studies.
Do not misunderstand me here.
Bible study is vital, but it is not the only purpose of why we should be getting together in small groups.
Fellowship, getting to know one another and growing in relationship is also vital to our continued growth in the Lord as is prayer.
Connection Groups
Here at Hickory Creek, we call our small groups connection Groups.
They are to be places where the people can connect with one another in fellowship, Bible study and prayer.
Scott small group testimony
You may be sitting here thinking, I have no desire to be part of a small group.
It sounds a little too touchy feely for me.
I will tell you I thought the same thing before I ever did a small group.
But in some of the first groups that I was a part of, God used those groups
to care for me and my family when we faced needs,
grow me in my relationship with God,
teach me how to love others who were not always as lovable as me (lol), and
change me to be a more teachable and moldable person.
God has made me who I am through the small group I have participated in.
Today, you are going to have an opportunity to sign up to be part of a Connection Group.
If you have never been part of a connection group, I encourage you to take a step and try it out. It will cost you little time, but I want to tell you that the benefits that you can reap are invaluable.
Maybe you have been part of a small group in the past and your experience was not like I have described. My encouragement to you is to give it another try.
Not every group is going to have the same impact upon you. Not every group gels together as good as some others.
That has been true of my own experience as well, though I know God has used every group I have been a part of to grow me and connect me to Him.
In your bulletins today are a list of 7 different groups with different nights and different leaders that are being offered.
As you leave today, there are going to be tables outside where you can sign up for one of the groups and there will be a flyer that you can take from the group you sign up for that gives you the logistical details and a map of where the host home is.
The group leaders will be out there as well if you have any questions about the study or about the group. Sign up for any group that works for you.
These groups will be starting up in mid September, so in the next 2 or 3 weeks.
Make plans now to be able to experience connection in a deeper and more meaningful way with the Lord and with His people.
Let’s pray.
