Bulletins - Formosa Baptist Church -k

- - Bible Trivia
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- - Isaiah 55:1–3ESV
- - Isaiah 55:10–11ESV
FCF: When a church is united in their pursuit of God’s glory and the expansion of his kingdom, they are a powerful force to be reckoned with. This threat against Satan’s kingdom will not go unanswered. But, if a church is truly united, it will be able to withstand Satan’s attacks and overcome them.
Acts 4:32–5:16 ESV
32 Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. 33 And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. 34 There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold 35 and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. 36 Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, 37 sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet. 1 But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, 2 and with his wife’s knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles’ feet. 3 But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? 4 While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.” 5 When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last. And great fear came upon all who heard of it. 6 The young men rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him. 7 After an interval of about three hours his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. 8 And Peter said to her, “Tell me whether you sold the land for so much.” And she said, “Yes, for so much.” 9 But Peter said to her, “How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.” 10 Immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. When the young men came in they found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. 11 And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things. 12 Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon’s Portico. 13 None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem. 14 And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women, 15 so that they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, that as Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on some of them. 16 The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed.
Prayer
Intro: In the beginning of this passage in v. 32, we see something truly remarkable about the early church:
Acts 4:32 ESV
32 Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul...
They were united. They had the same passion and the same desires. And what we see flow out of that is quite incredible.
A united church is an effective church.
verse 33 tells us that...
Acts 4:33 ESV
33 And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.
They were empowered to boldly share their faith and they were experiencing the grace of God. What were they doing that led to this?
Believers who are truly pursuing the Kingdom regard themselves as stewards.
Acts 4:32 ESV
32 Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common.
We need to beware of the temptation to make more of ourselves than we ought.
Last week, we looked at a passage in Isaiah where Assyria boasted about their military might.
Isaiah 10:13 ESV
13 For he [Assyria] says: “By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I have understanding; I remove the boundaries of peoples, and plunder their treasures; like a bull I bring down those who sit on thrones.
We have a tendency to view our money, our talents, our strength, our power, and our position in life as our own, as though “by the strength of my own hand I have done it.”
But Scripture teaches us that nothing that we have is our own and none of it is for our own glory. Our money, our talents, our strength, our power, and our position in life do not belong to us and they are not the work of our own hands, they are a gift from God given to us to be stewarded for his glory and the advance of his Kingdom. We are merely stewards.
If we try to act otherwise, we end up becoming an enemy of the true king.
Movies and books are filled with examples of villains who attempt to claim more status than what they actually have.
In the story of Robin Hood, the villain is Prince John. He’s not actually the king of England, he’s a steward. He’s a temporary ruler who was placed in power as a substitute while King Richard was out at war. But, in the story you see Prince John get a little too comfortable on the throne, and he starts to oppress the people and use them as if they were his own property. He puts his own laws and taxes in place, which he didn’t have the right to do. He forgot that he was the steward, so he ends up being the villain.
If you’ve seen or read the Lord of the Rings series, this is exactly the same case with the Steward of Gondor. So much so that when the true king of Gondor arrives, the Steward attempts to refuse to vacate the throne.
Paul says,
1 Corinthians 4:1–2 ESV
1 This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. 2 Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.
A united church understands this, believes this, and lives it out. Sold out believers do not regard their money, their talents, their status, their influence, and even their ministry, as their own. They recognize that everything they have is a gift from God to be used for his Kingdom.
Are you willingly giving of God’s money, time, talents, and influence that he has entrusted you with? Or do you view it as your own and hoard it like Prince John hoarded “his” money?
When a church is truly pursuing the Kingdom it has great power.
Acts 4:33 ESV
33 And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.
God blesses those who put his kingdom first.
Matthew 6:33 ESV
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
I am convinced that the greatest obstacle to growth that churches face is simply that they are not truly seeking the Kingdom of God, but are busy building their own little kingdoms.
If you want to see God move through this church, you’ve got to get off the throne and seek God’s glory instead of your own. When you do that—put the will of God above yours, the good of the church above your own, the advance of the gospel above your comfort—the power of God and the grace of God will begin to flow through your church.
When a church is truly pursuing the Kingdom it cares for its people.
Acts 4:34–35 ESV
34 There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold 35 and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.
This is radical obedience and devotion. They are wholeheartedly living out God’s Word.
Deuteronomy 15:4–5 ESV
4 But there will be no poor among you; for the Lord will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess— 5 if only you will strictly obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all this commandment that I command you today.
Deuteronomy 15:7–8 ESV
7 “If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, 8 but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be.
The heart of someone who willingly gives in this way is “Nothing I have belongs to me alone; it is all a gift from God to be stewarded for his Kingdom,” and “This church is my family and we take care of our family.”
I want to challenge you to look around you, primarily here within our own church, and see how you might help others who are in need. This passage isn’t merely about money—it certainly includes money, but it’s about giving of ourselves and whatever God has entrusted to us time, talents, money, abilities, influence, or even just a shoulder to cry on.
Now, another inescapable truth from this passage is that...
A united church is a holy church.
Acts 5:4–6 ESV
4 While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.” 5 When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last. And great fear came upon all who heard of it. 6 The young men rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him.
I think for most of us this passage is very shocking. This couple tells what many would consider to be a ‘white lie,’ a lie that seems to hurt no one, and yet God strikes them dead for it.
God cares very much about the holiness of his church; that is why Ananias and Sapphira are struck down, because they threatened to corrupt God’s church.
When I say ‘holy,’ I mean ‘set apart for a specific purpose, namely the glory of God.’
Holiness does not mean perfection, it means honest devotion. You do not have to be perfect to be a member of this church. And thank God, he doesn’t strike dead imperfect members, otherwise I wouldn’t be here and neither would you.
But, what does matter a tremendous amount is how you deal with sin when you are confronted with it. Matthew 18 gives us some guidelines on this. When a believer sins, we are to confront him or her with the sin. Notice what Jesus says—
Matthew 18:15 ESV
15 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.
Jesus did not assume that his church would be filled with perfect people who never sinned. You do not have to “have it all together” and be perfect to be a part of this church. When I say “you must be holy,” I don’t mean that you must be “perfect.” I mean that you must be devoted to God, genuinely desiring his Kingdom, and humble enough to accept correction. That is required of each and every one of us.
Oftentimes when people talk to me that know I’m a pastor, they’ll put on a face. They’ll pretend to be devoted to the Lord and act as if they’re totally sold out to God. And you know, sometimes they fool me and I believe them. And then, later on, when the truth comes out, I’m disappointed. But you know who’s never fooled? God.
First off, there’s no need to pretend to be something you’re not with me. I’m just a person, and I’m a sinner too. I have to repent of sins all the time. And, I’d prefer to know where you really are in your walk with Christ. You don’t go lie to the doctor, do you? If the doctor asks you, “How often do you smoke?” or “Do you use narcotics?” and you lie to him, you’re just hurting yourself.
I can’t help you if you’re not honest with me. Do you really think yours is the only marriage in this room that’s struggling? Do you really think that you’re the first person in church that I’ve met that is an alcoholic? Do you really think you’re the only person in this room that’s struggling with porn? You think you’re the only person who’s allowed their finances to spiral out of control? Do you think you’re the only person who wrestles with doubts about God? (I actually went through a season during college where I actually wrestled with atheism—and I was a preacher at the time! Jennifer and I have had tough seasons in our marriage. I’ve had times I struggled with bitterness and anger towards someone and didn’t want to forgive.)
The question is, will you be humble enough to admit it and seek help? Or will you hold onto your pride and lie?
Let me warn you. When you come to church and pretend to be something you’re not so that you can gain a reputation and admiration in church, and you pervert what is meant to bring glory to God into something that brings glory to you, you have not lied to man but to God.
Acts 5:4 ESV
4 While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.”
And God is serious—dead serious—about his glory. This is the first and greatest commandment
Deuteronomy 5:7 ESV
7 “ ‘You shall have no other gods before me.
Isaiah 48:11 ESV
11 For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.
Those who rob God of his glory and corrupt his church with pride and lies, God will judge.
1 Peter 1:14–16 ESV
14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
Some of you are going to hear this command, “Be holy,” and your mind is going to twist it around. Instinctively, you’re going to realize that you don’t feel very holy, and you’re going to instantly be aware of your sins and all the ways you aren’t “holy.” And then, what you’re going to do is you’re going to start pretending to be holy to me and others at church, because you don’t want others to realize that you’re not as holy as them.
And that—that pretending—is exactly the sin that Ananias and Sapphira were struck down for.
If you know deep down that you aren’t sure you believe all this Jesus stuff, I can live with that. Just be honest. If you’re struggling with addiction, or doubts, or anger problems, or
The call to holiness is not a call to sinlessness, but a call to honest and sincere devotion to God’s glory and a humble willingness to repent when we fall short of that.
1 John 1:10 ESV
10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
But praise God,
1 John 1:9 ESV
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
So, a church that is humble and repentant is going to be united and effective.
But, I want to warn you ahead of time, because as we do these things and as we become more and more a church like this early church, we’re going to face opposition because...
A united church is a dangerous church
It doesn’t take long before we see the first threat on the horizon. Already, we’ve seen Satan fighting back through persecution. But, now a new kind of threat pops up.
Acts 5:1–3 ESV
1 But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, 2 and with his wife’s knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles’ feet. 3 But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land?
Satan hates a kingdom-focused church.
1 Peter 5:8 ESV
8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
Satan hates united, effective churches because these kind of churches are a threat to his kingdom.
Satan is not worried about the churches and believers that care more about personal comfort and personal preferences than they do the advance of the gospel.
Satan is not worried about churches and believers that don’t care about people and view everything they have as their own.
Satan is not worried about churches and believers that that are busy building their own kingdoms and gaining glory for themselves. He loves that. You don’t have to be a Satanist to further his kingdom. All you have to do is glorify anything other than God.
So, if you’re not experiencing spiritual opposition, then one of two things are true—either 1) you’re not paying attention, in which case he’s probably going to trip you up and use you to break the unity of the church, or 2) you are not a threat to him.
I can hardly imagine a sadder epithet to my life than that I was no threat to the kingdom of Satan. I want to live my life so that I am such a threat to Satan’s kingdom that when I die the devil breathes a sigh of relief.
Do you want to be a threat to Satan? Then you need to content yourself and prepare yourself for his attacks. How do you know that you’re a threat to the enemy? When the bullets start whizzing past your head.
Churches that are on fire for God, churches that truly view themselves as stewards and servants of God, churches that care for each other, share the gospel, and pray for God’s will to be done—those churches are a threat to his kingdom, and he will attack.
Satan will attack from outside and inside the church.
We have already seen external attacks in the form of persecution by the religious leaders in the past few chapters. In many ways, though, such external attacks are not nearly as much a threat as those that come from within.
If Satan cannot defeat a church by using external forces, he will work through the sinful tendencies of the sinners that comprise the church.
Think of Ananias and Sapphira—why did they do what they did?
Acts 5:1–2 ESV
1 But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, 2 and with his wife’s knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles’ feet.
Now, keeping back part of the proceeds would have been fine, had they been honest about it.
Acts 5:4 ESV
4 While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.”
Why would they lie? Because they saw Barnabas and others selling their property and donating the proceeds and they saw the positive attention and praise that they, no doubt, received. They wanted that recognition, the honor. They wanted to be praised by others, but they didn’t really want the sacrifice part.
At the end of the day, this is about pride and self-glorification. Satan worked through Ananias’ and Sapphira’s pride to try to sow a spirit of pride and self-glorification within the church. Imagine what would have been the outcome had God not dealt so decisively with this sin. Others would have probably followed suit. People would have begun to use the church as the place where they make a name for themselves and glorify themselves. Instead of glorifying God and advancing his kingdom, they would have been glorifying themselves and advancing Satan’s kingdom.
So, watch out! Satan will work through your pride and your desire to be appreciated and respected and praised to sow disunity in the church. Be on your guard for this and watch out whenever you sense yourself getting angry with someone.
Satan fears a kingdom-focused church.
Hollywood and some Christian authors and teachers have made Satan and his demons out to be these omnipotent forces that humans are simply powerless against.
But do you realize that Satan is actually afraid of Kingdom-focused churches and believers?
Revelation 12:12 ESV
12 ...But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”
Satan is not an equal power to God. He is not omniscient, omnipotent, or sovereign. He can and is defeated regularly through humble, obedient, Bible-believing Christians and churches.
Remove? \/
I will never forget what God did in September 2022 in Papua New Guinea.
We had just returned to PNG for our second term there and I was reconnecting with the Mubami people that we worked with after having been gone from PNG for three years on a study leave. The kids were in school, so Jenn stayed at the missions center with them and I flew out to Western province for a couple weeks to work with the Mubami.
All week long, I had sensed spiritual warfare through a number of different events. Through several conversations, I began to uncover some of the false beliefs that were prevalent even amongst professing Christians in the tribe, even among the pastors themselves. It was very clear to me that there was still a lot of work to be done and that Satan would not give up his hold easily.
A lot of their false beliefs were centered around certain creation myths they believed, so I decided that we would translate Genesis 1 and I would preach from it and begin trying to correct their understanding of creation. Word got out that Scripture would be read in their language for the first time that Sunday, so people came from all over to hear it.
But just before the service started—like 10 minutes before it—a major earthquake hit. It was strong enough that most people ran out of their houses. I remember thinking to myself, “Earthquakes aren’t as common out here in Western Province as they are in the Highlands...I wonder if that was epicentered in the highlands near the missions center?” But, I dismissed it because I thought, “It would have had to be a truly MASSIVE quake for me to feel it that strongly here, I’m a couple hundred miles away.” As it turns out, it had been a massive 7.6-7.7 magnitude quake centered just a short ways away from our missions center. It gave Jenn and the kids quite a scare, emptied our cabinets, caused landslides all over, and even cracked the concrete slab of our shed.
The next day, a young girl 9 year old girl—the daughter of one of the village pastors—drowned while swimming in the river near her house. I tried to give her mouth to mouth, but it was too late. The next day I came down with giardia. Let me tell you, tummy bugs are no fun when you have indoor plumbing and air conditioning, but when you’re in a tropical village that’s 95 degrees every day and the nearest outhouse is a 200 yard walk, it’s life-threatening. After a day of this, I was so weak I could hardly walk out to the clearing to use my SAT phone to call the missionary clinic at our missions center. I was so exhausted I had to take a chair to sit in while I talked to the doctors.
It was at this point that I began searching for an exit. Everything in me wanted to get out of that village, and I had a pretty good excuse that no one would blame me or judge me for. I was miserably uncomfortable from the heat, homesick and missing my family, discouraged thinking that these people would never ‘get it’ and that I’d never be able to break through their traditional belief systems with the gospel, deeply saddened and traumatized from the little girl’s death the day before, and now felt like I was on the verge of death. I knew that I wasn’t quite that bad yet, but if things took a turn for the worse, I’d have to wait until the next morning when the sun was up and the fog cleared to get medevac’d.
I was losing the battle, it seemed. But as I prayed, I sensed God saying, “Just wait...I’m not done yet.”
The doctors took their best guess that I had probably contracted giardia from the girl I’d tried to resuscitate, so they told me which antibiotics to take from my kit, and I took them. I began getting better in just a couple hours. Honestly, I was halfway disappointed, because that meant I no longer had an excuse to leave.
Wednesday, I spent recovering my strength and was fairly uneventful. But then Thursday night, the day before their Independence Day, some young men got drunk and started fighting. They chased each other around the village yelling obscenities and waving machetes all night Thursday, all night Friday, and continued on into Saturday morning. There’s a lot more that happened that I don’t have time to get into, but what had been only a sneaking suspicion that there was a demonic element to all this was now overwhelmingly obvious. I’ll never forget the vacant look in one of the men’s eyes as he ran past us with a machete, pointing it at us as to warn us not to intervene or else. His eyes were dark, vacant—it was his body, but he was not in the driver’s seat.
Finally, the village elders asked me to use my SAT phone to call the cops in a nearby village to come intervene. I tried, but for the first time, my SAT phone wouldn’t connect no matter what I did. So, I prayed. I prayed God would make the phone work, but he didn’t. Instead, it was as if he said, “They don’t need the police. You know what they need, they need me. Give them me.”
Needless to say, I was not crazy about the idea of preaching a sermon to a bunch of machete wielding, demonized drunks. But, to make a long story not quite as long, that’s exactly what ended up happening.
At the end of my sermon, it was as if I had suddenly woke up from dozing off while driving, and I realized I had preached a sermon in another language with zero preparation and hadn’t missed a beat. It was a language I knew, but it was far more fluent than what I should have been able to do with no preparation. And as I looked at these young men, who just a few minutes before had been running around trying to kill each other, completely out of control and out of their minds, they were now sitting quietly on a log in front of me weeping.
18 people made professions of faith that day, including those who had been fighting one another for the past two days. The pastors, elders of the village, and I all prayed after the service and the atmosphere changed palpably. There had been a feeling of dread and evil that had settled upon the village. When we opened our eyes, that oppression was gone. The weather literally changed during our short prayer. It had been overcast and gray all morning, but when we opened our eyes, the sun had broken through the clouds and the clouds were scattered. Satan had fled before our prayers.
I remember thinking, is that it? He had just fled. The one who had given us so much trouble and fear throughout the week and had put up such a resistance and fight to discourage us and get us to quit, and he was just gone. Vanished. Fled.
And here’s why I’m telling you that story. That was the moment that James 4:7 became real for me. That was the moment I realized that it really was true...
James 4:7 ESV
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Remove? /\
Some of you are in the midst of a battle you don’t think you can win. You’re afraid. You’re discouraged, you’re tired, you feel like you’re losing the fight, and honestly you just want to give up.
Satan and his forces are gunning for you. But...
1 John 4:4 ESV
4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
Satan is like a cornered dog—he’s dangerous, yes; but his lashing out is actually because he’s afraid. And just like a fearful dog, if you resist him and cling to God, he will run away with his tail tucked.
At the end of the day, Satan fears a united church because he cannot withstand it. Do you remember Jesus’ promise when he founded his church?
Matthew 16:18 ESV
18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Now, this doesn’t mean Satan won’t attack. In fact, he most certainly will attack a healthy, effective, united church. Just after Jesus told this to Peter, he had to rebuke Peter and tell him “Get behind me, Satan!”
But, if we stand firm and resist his temptations, submitting ourselves to God and seeking his Kingdom first, Satan cannot withstand us. He will tuck tail and flee before us.
A united church is a resilient church.
We see that even when some conspire to break the unity of the church, a church that is truly unified in its pursuit of God’s Kingdom and his glory is resilient and able to weather such storms.
Acts 5:12–16 ESV
12 Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon’s Portico. 13 None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem. 14 And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women, 15 so that they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, that as Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on some of them. 16 The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed.
Just a quick aside—once again, we see in verses 12-16 that God is working miracles and signs through the apostles and through Peter. As we have already talked about before, this is a unique period in the church’s history, so just because Peter’s shadow healed people doesn’t mean that yours or mine do, and Benny Hinn’s certainly does not. In Acts 19, we learn that handkerchiefs and cloths that Paul had touched cast out demons and healed the sick as well.
Like we’ve already discussed, the office of apostle was a unique thing, we don’t have apostles anymore because they were used to found the church. Once the church was founded, the task of keeping the church running fell to the elders/pastors, but the office of apostle died with Peter, Paul, and the other apostles.
So, this instance here with Peter’s shadow and the similar passage in Acts 19 about Paul’s handkerchief are not things that we should expect to be repeated. They were special miracles God performed to validate the apostles’ ministries.
God certainly still heals today, and often heals miraculously. All I’m saying is don’t get sucked into buying some prayer cloth from a televangelist.
Healthy churches become stronger through trials.
The church didn’t devolve into blame-casting, they stuck together.
Acts 5:12 ESV
12 Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon’s Portico.
If the Lord allows each of us in this room to be together in this church for a while, we’re going to go through some trials together. If we’re healthy as a church, then by the grace of God, those trials will make us stronger.
The world takes notice when the people of God suffer gracefully.
Acts 5:13 ESV
13 None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem.
And as the believers persevered through persecution and Satan’s attacks, those outside the church took notice. And many people came to Christ because of their resilience.
Acts 5:14 ESV
14 And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women,
Conclusion: Brothers and sisters, you and I have a choice to make. What kind of church are we going to be? And you may think that you don’t have much influence over that, but you’re wrong. See, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Every single person in this church matters. Your walk with God matters. Your walk with the Lord (or lack thereof) is contagious, it rubs off your church family. If you are giving a half-hearted effort and putting on a show, other people will start to do the same. But, if you’re on fire for the Lord, that’s contagious too. Children, you can have an effect on your parents’ walks with the Lord. Even a brand new church member or brand new believer that has hardly any experience in their walk with God can inspire someone with 20 years in the faith to get serious.
- - Acts 4:32–5:16ESV
- - Acts 4:32ESV
- - Acts 4:33ESV
- - Acts 4:32ESV
- - Isaiah 10:13ESV
- - 1 Corinthians 4:1–2ESV
- - Acts 4:33ESV
- - Matthew 6:33ESV
- - Acts 4:34–35ESV
- - Deuteronomy 15:4–5ESV
- - Deuteronomy 15:7–8ESV
- - Acts 5:4–6ESV
- - Matthew 18:15ESV
- - Acts 5:4ESV
- - Deuteronomy 5:7ESV
- - Isaiah 48:11ESV
- - 1 Peter 1:14–16ESV
- - 1 John 1:10ESV
- - 1 John 1:9ESV
- - Acts 5:1–3ESV
- - 1 Peter 5:8ESV
- - Acts 5:1–2ESV
- - Acts 5:4ESV
- - Revelation 12:12ESV
- - James 4:7ESV
- - 1 John 4:4ESV
- - Matthew 16:18ESV
- - Acts 5:12–16ESV
- - Acts 5:12ESV
- - Acts 5:13ESV
- - Acts 5:14ESV
- - Ephesians 4:1–6ESV

Isaiah 55:1–3ESV

Isaiah 55:10–11ESV

A united church is an effective church.

Believers who are truly pursuing the Kingdom regard themselves as stewards.

When a church is truly pursuing the Kingdom it has great power.

When a church is truly pursuing the Kingdom it cares for its people.

A united church is a holy church.

A united church is a dangerous church

Satan hates a kingdom-focused church.

Satan will attack from outside and inside the church.

Satan fears a kingdom-focused church.

A united church is a resilient church.

Healthy churches become stronger through trials.

Acts 4:32–5:16ESV

Acts 4:32ESV

Acts 4:33ESV

Acts 4:32ESV

Isaiah 10:13ESV

1 Corinthians 4:1–2ESV

Acts 4:33ESV

Matthew 6:33ESV

Acts 4:34–35ESV

Deuteronomy 15:4–5ESV

Deuteronomy 15:7–8ESV

Acts 5:4–6ESV

Matthew 18:15ESV

Acts 5:4ESV

Deuteronomy 5:7ESV

Isaiah 48:11ESV

1 Peter 1:14–16ESV

1 John 1:10ESV

1 John 1:9ESV

Acts 5:1–3ESV

1 Peter 5:8ESV

Acts 5:1–2ESV

Acts 5:4ESV

Revelation 12:12ESV

James 4:7ESV

1 John 4:4ESV

Matthew 16:18ESV

Acts 5:12–16ESV

Acts 5:12ESV

Acts 5:13ESV

Acts 5:14ESV

Ephesians 4:1–6ESV