Church Family,
This past Sunday we worked our way through Acts 5:12-42. Upset by the tremendous growth of the early church, Jewish leaders had the apostles imprisoned for their public teaching. Yet that night an angel set the apostles free and they immediately returned to their teaching the next morning. Though they were beaten and threatened with further punishment, the apostles refused to stop their preaching because in light of the work of Christ and the Holy Spirit given to them, they must obey God and not man. Are we ready to have the same mindset as the apostles, even in seemingly mundane circumstances? Do we fall in line with the cultural expectation that we should always maximize our income, or are we prepared to decline a promotion to have more time to minister to our families? Do we buy into the culture of vanity and curate our social media posts to present the facade of a perfect life, or are we prepared to humble ourselves to those around us by being honest about our difficulties and shortcomings? Let us ask ourselves questions like these regularly as we reflect on this past Sunday’s sermon.
Prayer Gathering
This upcoming Sunday, at 8 a.m., we will be having a prayer gathering in the Sunday Studies room. This is part of an effort to saturate the life of the church more and more with corporate prayer as this is very clearly something the Bible calls churches to do. Especially as we are working through the book of Acts right now, it is apparent that prayer is essential for fruitfulness as a church and results in greater glorification of God. In light of this call for the church to be praying together, we strongly encourage you to make time Sunday morning to join us for this prayer gathering.
Thinking About Sunday Morning
In light of our current Sunday Studies series on the purpose and characteristics of the church gathering, it seems worthwhile to give some brief encouragements on how we can all be preparing for Sunday morning each week. Surprising as this may be, it is more than just the preacher and the teachers who should be preparing for Sunday morning. If we are to see to our convictions about the gathering, like that it is entirely about God and should be saturated with the person and work of Christ, we must come into Sunday morning with our hearts and minds focused on God. Prayer is, of course, a large part of getting into the right mindset, even prayer on Saturday night and throughout the week that our time of worship and time in the Word would be fruitful. We would also benefit greatly from reading passage for the sermon ahead of time. Coming into Sunday morning with a basic understanding of the text helps us follow the direction of the sermon and pick up on the finer points that emerge. Think of it like re-reading a book or re-watching a movie and noticing new details or instances of foreshadowing that were not as apparent the first time through. If this isn’t a regular practice of yours, perhaps try it this week as we get ready to work through Acts 6:1-7 this upcoming Sunday.
Grace be with you,
Logan Murphy
Pastoral Intern