This morning we are beginning a study on what Scripture has to say about the church. Thank you. Yeah. What is the church? What is its function? What instructions do we find in Scripture for the church? How does the Bible describe the early church? That's what we'll be looking at this morning, primarily. But we'll start back even further than the early church this morning, back into the origins of God's dealings with people prior to the church. What's important to understand is that ever since the creation of Adam and Eve, God has communicated with people. That's his desire. His desire is to know and to be known by people. And at different times in history, the means in which God communicated with people did vary. But one thing has remained consistent, I would say, that God has always had representatives through whom he communicated with people. Now God can and does communicate without representatives at times. The Bible is God's communication to us and we can read it without a minister interpreting it even though it did come through people. The creation communicates God's power and Godhead to us. God at times appeared directly to people as well, but God always had people to represent him. The church, as God's representatives, don't date back to the beginning of history. The church doesn't date back into the time of BC. In fact, we think it was 33 AD when the church began at the event of Pentecost. Human history dates back much further. Some people would suggest about another 4,000 years. In ancient time, God had different representatives and the different eras that God dealt with his people in different ways. Sometimes people use the word dispensations. different eras or different dispensations. The very early dispensation of God's interaction with men was characterized by called individuals. Called individuals. Initially, it was Adam and Eve. During their lifetime, sin entered the world, but they continued to represent God to their family. Abel, he was a righteous man, but he was murdered. Then Seth was born. He was a righteous man. And when Seth was born, Eve said this, and this is Genesis 4.25, Adam knew his wife Eve again, and she bore a son and named him Seth, for God has appointed another seed for me instead of Abel, whom Cain killed. Later, Enoch represented God. The Bible says of him in Genesis 5.24, Enoch walked with God, and he was not. God took him and when we studied the book of Jude not so long ago. We learned that Enoch even left writings behind Which we call the book of Enoch Jude verses 14 and 15 now Enoch the seventh from Adam seventh generation, prophesied about these men, also saying, behold, the Lord comes with 10,000 of his saints to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against them. The writings of Enoch were apparently still well-known in the early church. His book can still be found, but you'll have to look pretty hard. You won't find it on bookshelves. You'll need to probably go online. Then there was Noah. Noah labored on building the ark, but he also labored in preaching God's message to the people of his time. God did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, 2 Peter 2.5. Unfortunately, the people at large scorned Noah's preaching and died in the great flood. Now, the next character, major Bible character after Noah, is Abram, later Abraham, Genesis 12, one and two. Now the Lord had said to Abram, get out of your country from your family and from your father's house to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great and you shall be a blessing. And here the world entered into a new dispensation in the way that God dealt with people. God began to work through a called nation. Behold, the word of the Lord came to Abraham saying, this one, that is to say, Ishmael, this child, Ishmael, shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir. Then he brought him outside and said, look now toward the heaven and count the stars if you were able to number them. And he said to him, so shall your descendants be. Genesis 15, four and five, and thus began God's chosen nation, the children of Israel who were to represent God to the peoples of the world. To that end, God gave to Israel the law of Moses and the rest of the Old Testament. And there were some Gentile people who came to God through their contact with the children of Israel. You might think of Ruth, the Moabitess, or Rahab, the Canaanite from Jericho, or Nebuchadnezzar, the king, or the Ninevites, after Jonah preached in Nineveh. But overall, we would say, I think I would say that the Israelites were a failure by and large in their job of representing God to the world, at least according to Ezekiel. In Ezekiel 36, nine through 21, this is God speaking. So, I scattered them, the Israelites, among the nations, and they were dispersed throughout the countries. I judged them according to their ways and their deeds. When they came to the nations, wherever they went, they profaned my holy name. And when they, that is the pagan peoples, said of Israel, these are the people of the Lord, and yet they've gone out of his land. But I had concern for my holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations wherever they went. And despite the widespread failure, the Israelites were God's representatives all the way to the day of Pentecost. And by the way, Biblical historians would suggest that these three eras each had a duration about the same, about 2,000 years from Eden to Abraham, about 2,000 years from Abraham to Pentecost, and now it's been about 2,000 years since Pentecost. And today we have a culled body. Colossians 1 18 and he Jesus as the head of the body the church Who is the beginning the firstborn from the dead that in all things he may have the preeminence? And so the church is a body of believers alive in Christ through the indwelling Holy Spirit And it's the church in this era that is given the task of representing God to a watching world And that will be true until The rapture, when Jesus comes and takes his church home. Now there will be other eras after that. There will be the era of the thousand year, the millennial reign of Jesus Christ. And after that, there'll be the era of eternity. But the church then is the entire body of people who have trusted in Jesus Christ for salvation. 1 Corinthians 12, 13, for by one spirit, we are all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and have all been made to drink into one spirit. And this is a reference to what we call the universal church. And sometimes you will hear the term invisible. So if you hear the term universal church or invisible church, what they are talking about is the entire body of believers that God knows as his own children. God only knows the exact identity of all his children across the world. So there is the universal or invisible church, but then there is the local church, sometimes called the visible church. That's spoken of, for example, in Galatians 1. Paul, an apostle to all the brethren who are with me, to the churches of Galatia. And the members of the universal church are to meet together with other believers in a local church, the visible church. And that, according to Hebrews 10, 24, let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another in so much more as you see the day approaching. So we meet here at Bethel Christian Church in obedience to biblical instruction. And you see a hint there also of the purpose of our meeting, stir up love and good works and to exhort one another. In coming weeks, we'll look more into biblical descriptions of what we are to be doing in the church. Today we'll review the beginning of the church. This is found in the book of Acts, and I'll be looking at passages through the first five chapters in Acts, and so you might want to turn there. We'll do a fair bit of reading. It will be helpful if you can follow along. All right, a little bit of background. Prior to Pentecost Day, the resurrection of Jesus, It was 40 days past. Jesus had made intermittent visits to the believers in those 40 days, and having completed his earthly work, Jesus ascended to heaven, as you heard. And I wanted to notice two statements made by Luke the author of Acts in the first part of the book One is the that that gathering of the Saints verse 4 and being assembled together With them he commanded them not to depart from jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the father which he said You have heard for me. So they're gathered together and jesus said don't leave, you know, stay here jerusalem You're to be together here Jesus never intended for the christian life to be lived out individually And at the beginning of the church, the believers were together. And Jesus said, don't depart Jerusalem. No one leaves until the Spirit comes. You, you all, you plural, will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now, actually 10 days from what we can tell. And verse six also talks about the disciples being together. Therefore, when they had come together, And this is now on the day of Ascension. They asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? And they had, as Jesus commanded, they had stayed together. Now we'll go to verses 12 through 15, just beyond where Jim read this morning. Then they returned to Jerusalem from the Mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey. And when they had entered, they went up into the upper room where they were staying, Peter, James, John, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James, the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas, the son of James. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers, Jesus' brothers. And in those days, Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples altogether. The number of the names was about 120. And so they continued together. And a quick count in verse 13 will show you that all 11 of the remaining disciples were there. Other disciples joined them, the faithful women, Jesus' own mother, Jesus' own brothers. All told, there were 120 meeting together in the upper room. And so leading up to the birth of the church, there was a focus on the gathering. together of the saints. Now the other emphasis leading up to the birth of the church was the role of the Holy Spirit. We see it in verse 5, for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. Also in verse 8, you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. Now, this was not news for the disciples because they had been hearing this instruction from Jesus prior to his death and resurrection, recorded, for example, in John 14. And I will pray the Father, Jesus said, and he will give you another helper that he may abide with you ever, the Spirit of truth. whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him but you know him for he dwells with you and will be in you. Also in chapter 16 verse 7 of John, nevertheless I tell you the truth it is to your advantage that I go away for if I do not go away the helper will not come to you. But if I depart, I will send him to you. And so the disciples were anticipating the coming of the Holy Spirit, and they were told that the Holy Spirit would be in them. But though they knew this, I'm doubtful that they knew what to expect. What would it be like? What would that, you know, when the Holy Spirit came in them? What was that going to feel like? What was the experience going to be like? How was it going to happen? The actual event of the Spirit's coming, surprisingly, is recorded in just three verses. Just a little bit of detail. We're on chapter two, verses one through three. When the day of Pentecost had fully come, there were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And with that, the church began. And although the beginning of it was dramatic, we could say it was also small. 100 people, 120 people in total, just in one upper room in Jerusalem, but we will see that it grew quickly. So we notice again in Chapter 2 that the believers were together still, and in one accord. There was a unity there. They were of the same mind, they were of the same passion, and their passion was for the risen Lord. This was a group of people redeemed through the blood of Jesus, and they were bonded together in thanksgiving and praise for their Lord. And then accompanying the coming of the Holy Spirit, there was a sound and there was a sight. The sound was like a mighty rushing wind. But what do you suppose God was communicating by sending the sound of a mighty rushing wind? Well, we could suggest that the wind is symbolic of the invisible. The wind is invisible. The Holy Spirit is invisible. We could also suggest that though the wind is invisible, you can feel it. The effects can be seen, the effects can be felt. A few weeks ago, the wind blew a tree across the road in front of our house and took down power lines. We were without electricity a couple of days, but I was watching a storm at the back door, watching the storm. But I didn't see the wind per se but I saw all kinds of evidences Leaves and sticks blowing and you know the rain was coming in completely sideways Trees were bending and breaking And the Holy Spirit like the wind leaves his evidences The evidence of the Holy Spirit in your life, in the life of our church, in my life, hopefully, the evidences are there. They can be seen, they can be felt. We could also, we might say that the spirit is like the wind and that he's unexplainable and he's unpredictable. This is what Jesus emphasized to Nicodemus during his night visit to Jesus, John 3, 8. The wind blows where it wishes. You hear the sound of it, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the spirit. And those who are born of the Spirit, they no longer control decisions in their lives. The Spirit is guiding them. He directs them, and He directs them where He wants them to go. And our well-laid plans change, because now the Holy Spirit is directing us. But perhaps the best way to explain the analogy of the wind is power. It was a rushing, mighty sound. In fact, it was heard by everyone living in Jerusalem, according to verse 6. The wind's very powerful, and the sound accompanying the Holy Spirit was mighty. It was a mighty sound, indicating the power of the Spirit. Then there was the sight. There appeared to them divided tongues as of fire, and one sat on upon each of them. The presence of fire in the Bible is often associated with two things, one of two things, judgment. and purity. Now, in this case, judgment doesn't make sense, as the coming of the Holy Spirit to those believers in the upper room was not a judgment, and so we would understand the symbolism of fire here to represent purity. It's a reference to purification, an example of a There are many in the Old Testament, but one example of purifying fire is in the calling of Isaiah Isaiah had just said woes me for I am undone because I'm a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for my eyes have seen the king the Lord of hosts and And the next verse continues, then one of the seraphim flew to me having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar and he touched my lips, my mouth with it and said, behold, this has touched your lips, your iniquity is taken away and your sin is purged. Isaiah 6, 6 and 7. Notice in verse 3 how scripture indicates both the corporate and the individual influence of the Holy Spirit. So there were divided tongues. Each tongue split off from the same source. The source was the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit sat on each one of them individually. They were united if you followed each tongue back. There was a unity. They all led back to the Holy Spirit, but yet they were each endowed individually. And so each believer is to purify himself, but the corporate body is to purify itself also. And so the fire speaks of purity. The church was born in an upper room in Jerusalem with 120 people when the Holy Spirit descended on them at a display of power and purity. And that's what God wants from his church today, power and purity. Is that what we have? Is that what we have in America? Is the church powerful or is the church sluggish and sickly? Is the church in America pure or is it compromised? What about a Bethel Christian church? Are we powerful? Are we pure? So we are responsible for our own function here. Even if we can't do too much about the church in America, we are responsible for our own function here in our church. Hopefully, as we continue this study, we can look in the mirror and make the changes that we need to make to be more of a church that's powerful and a church that's pure. All right, the church grows. That growth was in various ways. The first growth mentioned in chapter 2 is growth in numbers. We can't read the rest of the chapter, but you can follow along. I'm going to read some selected sections of chapter 2. We'll start at verses 4 through 8. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave utterance. And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And when the sound occurred, the multitude came together and they were confused because everyone heard them speak in his own language. Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying one to another, look, are not all these who speak Galileans? And how is it that we hear each in our own language in which we were born? And so then there is a list of all the different nationalities and languages represented in Jerusalem that day. I think there was about 16. And that's probably not all of them. And then there's the first part of Peter's sermon, and we'll join in partway through that sermon at verse 22, and we'll read through verse 24. Peter said, men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to by God to you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves also know, him being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death, whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by it. And then let your eyes drop down again a bit to verse 32. This Jesus, God has raised up of which we are all witnesses, therefore being exalted to the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he poured out this which you now see and hear. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now, when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said to them, repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the promises to you and your children and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call. And with many other words, he testified and exhorted them saying, be saved from this perverse generation. Then those who gladly received his word were baptized. That day, about 3,000 souls were added to them. The church started with 120 members. It grew to 3,120 by the end of the first day. Now, that was a special time in history. Jesus himself had ministered to thousands, thousands upon thousands of people, 5,000 plus women and children in one setting. where the 5,000 were fed. And he was preparing the way for their salvation. And Peter was helping harvest those souls that were prepared. The words of Jesus to his disciples from John 4 seem appropriate here. Jesus said, he who reaps receives wages and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this the saying is true. One sows and another reaps. I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored. Others have labored and you have entered into their labor. And so it was a great time of harvest. after the labor of Jesus and John the Baptist and the disciples had sowed the seed and watered it faithfully. So church growth today in America will not look like it did on Pentecost Day. However, we are to still be winning souls for Christ. Go ye therefore and make disciples of all the nations, Matthew 28, 19. And the expectation is that we will continue to preach Jesus Christ. It's going to be different than Peter's sermon. Not many of you, myself included, would probably get up and preach a sermon just like Peter's, although that's one way. But the church is to continue to grow as people repent and trust in Jesus for salvation. Church is to grow in numbers. Are we advancing the church through witnessing about the gospel of salvation through the blood of Jesus? Now, before we move on from the church growing in numbers, let me make a couple comments about church growth, maybe a couple, caveats warnings We're not talking about first. We're not talking about growing the church with unsaved people There are some churches that at least in my mind have gone so far with a seeker sensitive movement That they've padded their numbers with people Who will be those to whom Christ says I never knew you depart from me. I And later, we're gonna read where it says of the early church, no one dared to join themselves to them unless they were genuinely saved. The words of Jesus were, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. People need to be told the truth. about what it means to be a Christian, and I feel some churches are soft-pedaling too much. I know that there is the belief that, you know, if we can get them in, you know, then we can convert them. In practice, that's Not really a strategy that seems to work that well, in my opinion, and I don't see a biblical precedent for it either. That'd be one caution. Secondly, the New Testament church grew because of converts, not because of transfers. Now, there are always transfers, and we're very thankful for those of you that transferred. And there will always be transfers and there needs to be, but the growth in the New Testament church was happening when new people were converted. And that is a focus that we need to work on, the focus of people being saved, as well as, I think, a focus on Christians who are not attending a church. That would be a focus, too, to bring in those saved people that are not attending a church. And a third focus, so you have the newly converted, you have Christians that are not attending a church, and then you have maybe a third emphasis, those persons attending a church that's heretical, or attending a church that's unfaithful to its biblical teaching. All right, so the church grew in numbers, it grew in doctrine, Chapter 2, verse 42, they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship in the breaking of bread and in prayers. And doctrine or correct teaching has sometimes been discredited. Some people suggest it's boring or it's dry. But think of it this way, how many would say to God, you know, God, learning about you is boring. I would study your word, but it's boring. None of us would ever say that. So the next time you hear someone suggest that doctrine is boring, consider that you're hearing a very great insult to God. The persons in the early church didn't think of doctrine as boring. They were continuously listening to the doctrine as taught by the apostles. They were unable to get as much as they wanted. All right, they grew in power and influence. All right, so we're gonna read, we'll jump around just a little bit here. We'll read chapter two, verse 43. Then fear came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. And verse 47 of the same chapter. Praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. Chapter four then. Down at verse 31. reading through verse 33. When they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke of the word of God with boldness. Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and of one soul. Neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own. But they had all things in common. And with great power, the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. And then we're gonna read one section in chapter five. We will read verses 12 through 16. And through the hands of the apostles, many signs and wonders were done among the people, and they were all with one accord in Solomon's porch. Yet none of the rest dared join them, but the people esteemed them highly. And believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women, so that they brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and couches, that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might fall on some of them. Also a multitude gathered from the surrounding cities to Jerusalem, bringing sick people and those who were tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all healed. So clearly there was power. in the early church with the signs and the wonders that were performed and the multiple healings. Does that mean we should have signs and wonders and miracles today? There's probably passages like this that give rise to some of the faith healers, you know, for example. Well, you can pray for the gift of miracles or the gift of healing, but I wouldn't stand in the way if you were able to do that. But notice the signs and wonders were done by the apostles. 243, many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. 512, through the hands of the apostles, many signs and wonders were done among the people. Verse 15, so that they brought the sick out into the streets and laid them on beds and couches so that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might fall on some of them. I argue we do not have apostles today. The apostles were contained to that era, those persons who knew Jesus personally, met Jesus personally. And many people, including myself, would suggest that the sign gifts were given to the apostles as evidence of their authority in the early church and to establish the authority also of their writings. And so I don't suggest that we don't see miracles today. In fact, I'm quite certain that we do. but faith healers. The apostles maybe were faith healers, but I don't see faith healers today. Now, notice the influence the early believers had even among the unsaved. Acts 2, 43, fear came upon every soul. Verse 47, praising God and having the favor with all the people. This was a phenomenon that wasn't, you know, just happening inside the temple. You know, this was seen by all the people, saved and unsaved. Chapter 5, verse 13, none of the rest dared join them. There was a holiness about the movement, a power about the movement that people understood, like, yeah, you know, that's, I'm not part of this. And the authenticity. of the early church prevented people from joining who weren't genuine. But the people esteemed them highly, and so they were esteemed highly by all those who were unsaved. The power and influence of the early church was Such that no one made fun of them. No one taunted them. They were esteemed highly. Now, unfortunately, maybe that's not true of the church today. But maybe partly that can be blamed on the lack of power that we have. and especially the lack of purity that we have. And every time when someone from within the church is outed for moral failure, then the esteem of the body of Christians at large takes another hit. But the early church was characterized by power and purity. And early on, those who tried to slip into the church but lacked purity got called out, Ananias and Sapphira. Today that God has his own way of calling out people and bringing discipline on them, but thankfully Not like Ananias and Sapphira experienced. All right, in accord. Verses 44 through 46 of chapter two. Now all who believed were together and had all things in common and sold their possessions and goods and divided them among all as anyone had need. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart. And then chapter four. Verses 32 to 35, the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul. Neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common. And with great power, the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and great grace was upon them all. Nor was there any one among them who lacked. For all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold and laid them at the apostles' feet, and they distributed to each as anyone had need. Now, wouldn't you like to have been part of that group? I would have loved to have been part of that group. They went from house to house, fellowshipping together. They ate together with gladness in their hearts. They were of one heart and one soul, and their love for the Lord was so strong that no one really cared about possessions. Possessions were inconsequential to them. The only way that possessions were consequential in the early church was as a means to share with people that were in need in the very early church. So great was the love for fellow believers that people who owned land, they didn't consider land their own. Everything they owned in their mind was co-owned by the entire church. And so it was quite natural for them to sell land or other valuables if someone needed. So then, today, do we suggest communal living? No. Why not? Well, you know, they did it in the early church. Well, maybe not. Remember, at the time of Pentecost, there were, according to verse 5 of chapter 2, there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. There were three main Jewish festivals that brought tens of thousands of pilgrims to Jerusalem each year. One of the sources I read, and I don't know how they would know this, but one of the sources I said hundreds of thousands. Eh, I kind of doubt that, but multitudes of people came on pilgrimage during these three festivals. The day of Pentecost fell on the Jewish festival Shavuot. If I'm saying that right, I don't know for sure. Also called the Feast of Weeks. It was essentially a big harvest party. God so timed the coming of the Holy Spirit that Jerusalem was filled with pilgrims. And these people came to Jerusalem to worship, and of course they had no idea that a major movement of the Holy Spirit would happen while they were in Jerusalem. But when the Holy Spirit descended in Jerusalem, these men and women probably found the early church was so compelling that they overstayed their planned visit, perhaps substantially. Nobody wanted to leave. It was a great cost to support all these people. But the movement of the spirit was so strong that people said, hey, don't leave. Don't go back home. We'll support you. We'll take care of you. the accord among them, the unity, the oneness, the power in worship and in communion was so compelling that no one considered their possessions their own. In other words, the communal nature of the very early church was not a result of a planning committee saying, hey, let's start a commune. It was a response to the movement of the Holy Spirit at that time, but what a great experience it must have been. Well, so some of the questions that are before us as we consider the church would be questions of the nature of these. How can we improve unity and accord in our church to be more like the early church? Do we truly have power What do we need to do to increase power? Is it possible for a small church like ours to grow in numbers? How much emphasis should we put on that? How would we? What are the cautions, if that's what we aspire to? Are we influencing the culture around us? How can we increase that influence? What could we do to experience more of the joy that was so evident in that very early church and other questions that we will hopefully get opportunity to address? Please pray with me. Heavenly Father, we, or at least I, sometimes read longingly of those early days of the church and the Spirit moved so powerfully. We ask, Father, for the Spirit to move powerfully among us today. Help us to be dedicated to you in purity so that you can move in us. We ask that you would be with us as we continue to worship this morning in song and in study, and we thank you for the opportunity to be together. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.