I'd like for you to turn in your copy of God's Word, Acts chapter 6, verses 1 through 7. It's going to be a text that we make our way through verse by verse this morning, Acts chapter 6, verses 1 through 7. And I've titled the sermon, Unity in the Gospel. Unity in the Gospel. How many of you would agree that our nation is absolutely, right down the middle, divided right now? How many of you would acknowledge that? I'm telling you that between the two major parties a few years back, there wasn't a nickel's worth of difference between the two, except the initials that you were voting for. And now, as you look at policies that are being advocated by just people that are in positions of power, there are, there's America on one side and then there's America on the other. Don't dare think I'm going to talk politics. I'm talking morality. I'm talking biblical stuff. There is a group within our country that believes that parents ought not have a right in their child's life if they begin in school to demonstrate and to talk about sexual confusion. And there is a segment within our society that says the parents should not have rights in that, and that, in fact, the children should be able to begin to take medications and maybe even to have procedures that would mutilate their body. Then there are those on the other side that say that is absolutely wrong. Before God ever created government, he created the family. The family was created in the Garden of Eden. That trumps everything. The family trumps everything. Parental rights, no parental rights. There are those that say that if a man identifies as a woman, he should be able to compete against other biological women and even defeat them in their sports. And in fact, if he says that he is a woman, then he should be able to go into a women's locker room with his, if he so desires. And then there are others that say that is horribly wrong because when we look at a biblical worldview, God created a man and he created a woman and there is no third option. There is no third option. I'm telling you that abortion is also a big thing. Again, I'm not talking politics, I'm talking morality, I'm talking a biblical worldview. Abortion is a huge thing. I'm telling you that when the Supreme Court, I believe it was in 1972, ruled on Roe versus Wade, the Supreme Court shocked the nation. Shocked the nation that they would come up with such a ruling as that because the nation was not at all expecting them to rule in that way. Not at all to rule in that way. And yet, one of the things that we learn is that the law not only determines what is right and wrong, the law determines what you can get in trouble for and what you are not gonna get in trouble for, but the law also teaches, right? You put a law in place for 50 years and you have taught a couple of generations that it's okay. And now we have a segment of society that says that it is perfectly okay, and some would say even up to the point of birth to terminate that life. And there are others that say, Psalm 139 says, even whenever I was in my mother's womb, there you knit me together. There are those that have a biblical worldview and say that we believe that every single person, regardless of skin color, regardless of education, regardless of socioeconomic status, regardless of some perceived handicap, none of that matters when it comes to your value because you have value because you were created in the image of God. And then there are others that say that if you happen to be in the womb, You are not of value. And in fact, what I want to do is I want to show you a minute and a half clip from the Florida Baptist, not Florida Baptist Convention, it's from the, from One More Child. Used to be the Florida Baptist Children's Home. And we've got an amendment that is coming up. Again, this is not political, this is biblical, this is moral. We have a proposed amendment that is coming up. that all Floridians who go to the polls will be voting on, and it's on the issue of abortion. I want you to listen to them talk about, for a minute and a half, this issue called Amendment 4. One more child has an amazing 120-year history of serving vulnerable children. That includes foster children, trafficked children, and hungry children. Our commitment extends to some of the most vulnerable among us, including the unborn and single moms that are facing unplanned pregnancies. In this upcoming election, you will find Amendment 4, the right to abortion initiative, on your ballot. Amendment 4 jeopardizes the sanctity of human life. Sometimes amendments to our Constitution are worded in a way that are difficult to understand, and it can be hard to know exactly what you're voting for or against. For clarity, we are urging you to vote no on Amendment 4. Amendment 4 will repeal the six-week abortion ban that's already in effect in Florida. It will allow for late-term abortions, and it will remove the requirement of parental consent for minors. At One More Child, we believe in the sanctity of human life, from conception to life's final moments. We stand alongside vulnerable children. We're wrapping around mothers facing unplanned pregnancies, and we're helping struggling families in their time of need. So help protect the vulnerable. Remember to vote no on Amendment 4. Yeah, so again, this is not a political issue. This is a moral issue. This is a biblical issue. This is a life issue. Now, one of the things also with the biblical worldview is if someone has an abortion, if someone is confused about their sexual identity, where is their place in the church? I'm telling you that if we are behaving like Jesus, we will love you. We will not love your sin just like we don't love our sin, but we will love you because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But that doesn't mean that we should stand by and allow things to continue on in society. I'm telling you that our nation is divided, but what I want us to look this morning is the fact that churches can be just as divided. and families can be just as divided. I want us to look at Acts chapter 6 verses 1 through 7 and look at how it is that the early church was growing by leaps and bounds, it hit a pocket of division, it hit a pocket of division, and it seems as if the growth immediately stopped They dealt with the division, they moved toward unity, and then God began to grow them again. So I want you to see that this is not a small thing, not a small thing. Look at Acts chapter six, verses one through seven. In those days, as the disciples were increasing in number, as the church was growing, people were getting saved and baptized, there arose a complaint. I mean, this is something that has happened to every single church throughout the church age. There arose a complaint by the Hellenistic Jews against the Hebraic Jews that their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution. The twelve summoned the whole company of the disciples and said, it would not be right for us to give up preaching the word of God to wait on tables. Brothers and sisters, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the spirit and wisdom, whom we can appoint to this duty, but we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. This proposal pleased the whole company. So they chose Stephen, a man full of faith in the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Procurus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicholas, a convert from Antioch. They had them stand before the apostles who prayed and laid their hands on them. And then we see growth resume. So the word of God spread, the disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly in number, and a large group of priests became obedient to the faith. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we come to you and we thank you for this, your word. And Father, this is just one of the many, many, many things that makes your word fascinating and valuable in that you did not gloss over lessons that we can learn at other people's expense. Lord, you didn't gloss over the fact that this early church didn't take long to get to a point of disunity, and thank you for that, because we can learn from that in our families, and in our church, and in other churches. This text is available to anyone who has your word, and so Lord, I pray that as we look at it this morning, that we would listen to what your Holy Spirit wants to say to us. That if there's any division between us and a fellow believer, if there's a division in our family where we are at odds with family members, maybe close or maybe distant family members, and it's just an ongoing thing, or Lord, Heaven forbid that there is disunity here in the church. Lord, I pray that you would cause us to see how valuable it is and see that in your grace you have made a way for us to cultivate unity and enjoy what you desire for us so that ultimately we can glorify you and see your kingdom grow with salvations and baptisms. Lord, we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. The first thing that I want us to look at, just making our way through the text in Acts chapter 6, is disunity typically stunts the effectiveness of the gospel. Disunity typically stunts the effectiveness of the gospel. Look at verse one again with me, and then let's kind of unpack what it is that's going on. Verse one, in those days, as the disciples were increasing in number, so the church was growing, people were being saved, there were, what did Jesus say in the Great Commission? Go and make disciples. Well, they were making disciples, and the disciples were increasing in number at that time. Always be cognizant that when God desires to bless, Satan is gonna try to torpedo it. When the disciples were increasing in number, there arose a complaint by the Hellenistic Jews against the Hebraic Jews that their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution. So let's talk about this. What's going on here? So what's taking place is, if you were to go back to Acts chapter 4, just go back two chapters, go on and look back at Acts chapter 4, verse 34. There was something that was going on here in this church. Acts chapter 4, verse 34. Because they were in a time of persecution, because many Christians were experiencing the fallout, maybe their businesses were going under because they were not being, unbelievers weren't going to their place of business, or maybe they would take them to court or any number of things, there was persecution and there were Christians that were struggling and they couldn't make their bills, they couldn't get enough money to eat. And so the church addressed it in Acts chapter four, verses 34 and 35, it says this, for there was not a needy person among them. See, the church fixed this problem because all those who owned lands or houses sold them. brought the proceeds of what was sold, and laid them, the proceeds, at the apostles' feet. This was then distributed to each person as any had need. And so what was going on is there were people that were within this Jerusalem church that said, you know what, there are people that are hurting, they're financially hurting, and I've got some property that I really don't need. And so I'm gonna sell that property, and I'm gonna take the proceeds, and I'm gonna bring it to the church and entrust it to the church, to the twelve, the pastors of the church, I'm going to entrust the proceeds so that they can distribute it. They can distribute it, right? Among those that had a need. And so who was over it to begin with? Well, it seemed as if the pastors, the twelve, were over this. They were the ones that received the funds, and they were the ones that then distributed it. But in verse 1 we read that there arose a complaint by the Hellenistic Jews against the Hebraic Jews that their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution. What's going on there? It's the allegation of injustice and racism. Injustice and racism. Let me tell you what's going on. There were Jews in the Jerusalem church that were there and they had been born and raised as Jews. They had lived there in Israel. They knew the Hebrew language. They knew the Israelite language, which was Aramaic at that time. They knew Hebrew culture. They felt completely comfortable in Hebrew culture. They were steeped in the Hebrew scriptures, the Hebrew law. They were comfortable with the the Hebrew food, they loved Hebrew food. Everything about them was Hebrew. And so there were widows who were Hebrew Jews, right? Fully steeped in Judaism, fully comfortable. And they're right at home in Jerusalem, which is where that was. Then you have what the scripture calls the Hellenistic Jews or the Greek Jews. Now who these were were these were Jews, but they were raised in other places and they happen to have apparently Come into Jerusalem to live here or in the region, but they weren't raised in Hebrew culture They were raised in another culture. They were Hellenized That's the word for they were steeped in Greek culture and they liked Greek food and they didn't know that the Israelite language of Aramaic they spoke Greek and whatever language they spoke there and so when those people came in and their widows were there The allegation against the pastors was, you're not being fair, and you're not providing for the Greek Jewish widows what you were doing for the Hebrew Jewish widows. You're playing favorites, and this is unjust, and it smells like racism. That's the accusation. The church was growing and then Satan sent a torpedo toward that church and called out an issue of injustice and disunity happened. Disunity happened. Bingo, the church had division, they were growing, and now they were threatened with division, and we don't read about growth until after this thing is dealt with. Let's just talk about some things, and I've got these in your notes. What can cause disunity in the church? And this is not a comprehensive list, it's just a brief list. The list is as varied as the number of people in a congregation. Sometimes there can be doctrinal error. Sometimes that can create disunity. And that needs to be dealt with, right? If somebody is teaching that, for instance, if somebody is teaching that salvation is not by grace, that you get salvation, you attain salvation by your good works, you do this in order to get saved, that is a huge issue that cannot be overlooked. And that, rightfully so, does cause division, and it needs to be addressed. Sin also sin that is addressed or ignored. It's not just doctrinal. It's sometimes sin that is addressed or ignored You know, I've had some people throughout my ministry. I've had some people come to me Hey pastor, what's what's wrong with so-and-so? I noticed that they they're not coming as much as they used to or they just seemed upset and in my mind I can't tell them but in my mind I know exactly what's going on that there was an issue that they were dealing with some grievous issue or a family member was dealing with and and because I'm the shepherd of the church and I will stand before Jesus one day and give an account for how I shepherded the church, sometimes I have to step in and say, what's going on? What you're doing is not right. You need to stop this. You need to repent because I love you. You've got to stop this. And 99% of the time, I'm just telling you, 99% of the time, they don't say, oh, pastor, you're exactly right. The word of God is true and I want to repent and I want to get, 99% of the time, I'm telling you, 99% of the time the people get upset and angry and they either leave or they stay and they cause trouble. Sometimes sin, whether it's dealt with or it's ignored, can cause disunity. Sometimes member expectations of ministry and the pastor can cause disunity. People don't measure up, the pastor doesn't measure up. Four, sometimes personal conflict with other members. Sometimes members, even outside of the church, can have problems in the workplace or wherever else, and they happen to be a part of the same church, and they kind of bring their conflict in and start whispering and bringing other people on board. That can create disunity. Sometimes power struggles. I bet you didn't know that there are always people behind the scenes that are trying to grab the reins of the church and they want to lead. It's a power thing with them, power struggles. We're gonna talk about that in a little bit. Societal influences. I'm telling you, some people wanna say COVID has passed. I'm telling you, COVID has changed America. It has changed. People are lazier. I'm just telling you, generally speaking, it's harder to get people to get engaged and to get involved. Pastors, business people, everybody is saying it changed us, it changed us. But I'm telling you, during that time, it's like you couldn't win for losing because if you say, hey, we're gonna have masks in the average church, you would upset half the people and half the people would say amen. If I was to stand up and say, hey, you know, you need to go get the shot, half of the people would get upset and half of the people would say amen. I mean, and that's not to mention the political climate of when all of that was going on. Sometimes societal influences make their way into the church and can create a rift. Sometimes a lack of communication. Boy, I've got all sorts of illustrations, but I've fortunately ran out of time and so we're going to keep going. A lack of communication can cause rifts. People don't have the information and so they make it up. Why does division in a church hinder evangelism. Why do we see the division in this church in Acts chapter 6, why do we see that there's growth on the front end and growth after they fix it, but in the middle we're just led to believe everything came to a halt and they had to fix this disunity problem. Why does division in a church hinder evangelism? Let me just give you four reasons. One, it causes an inward focus. causes an inward focus. We're busy trying to put out fires inside of the church so that our energy and our motivation is on this so that we can't be concerned with those who are headed to an eternal fire, right? It focuses internally. If your family is characterized by disunity, then you're focused on this and this is what emotionally consumes you so that you're not necessarily able to be all that God has created you to be outside of that because this is what's stressing you. It causes inward focus. It also makes us look hypocritical. Hey, Jesus can change your life. He can give you a love for others that the world can't even touch. He can give you peace that passes all understanding. And then if they are to say, oh yeah, I know exactly what goes on down at y'all's church. Y'all's church is known as one where y'all are always fighting and bickering. You're always divided. They could sue us for false advertisement, right? Jesus can change you, just don't look at what our experience is. It makes us look hypocritical if we're not striving for unity when we tell others that Jesus can change them. Three, God can't trust us. God can't trust us. Why would God birth someone into the kingdom and in his infinite wisdom say, what church is really struggling with unity right now? What church can I put them in where within a matter of weeks or maybe a month or two at the most, they're gonna wipe their hands clean of the church and wipe their hands clean of maybe even Christ? Why would he do that? Why would he do that? Why does disunity cause evangelism to stop? Sometimes it's because God can't trust us. And then four, why does division in a church hinder evangelism? Because we're trampling on Jesus' prayer. Some say that the Lord's Prayer is our Father which art in heaven. That's not the Lord's Prayer. He never prayed that prayer. He just said, after this manner, you can pray. If you wanna read the Lord's Prayer, read John 17. John 17. When Jesus prayed, the night he was betrayed, he poured his heart out. We get to listen in to Jesus in his prayer closet as he's talking with the Father. And there is something that shows up, not just once, Not just twice, not just three times, but four times. There's something he prayed, and he said it four times. Listen to John 17, verses 11, 21, 22, and 23. In verse 11, he said, he's praying, that they may be what? One, even as we, Father, are one. Verse 21, that they may all be what? One. Verse 22, that they may be one even as we are one. Verse 23, that they may become perfectly one. God in the Trinity has enjoyed oneness. There is one God manifested in three persons and yet there is one God. And God in the Trinity has enjoyed perfect oneness from all of eternity. And when God created Adam and Eve, He said, the two shall become one. God wants us in marriage to enjoy something of what he enjoys in the Trinity. And when Jesus in John 17 was praying for Christians and praying for the church, he was saying, may they be one. That's what it means to be a Christian. We strive for oneness. We strive for oneness. Now again, if there's doctrinal issues, if there's sin issues, we deal with that so that we can strive for oneness. We are never more like the Lord Jesus Christ than when we are striving for oneness in our relationships. This is what he prayed. And when we are not experiencing oneness, when there is division, we are trampling on Jesus' prayer where he said four times, Lord God, Please let them be one. Let them be unified. Don't let them be divided. Lord, as we are one, let them be one. Let them experience unity. So, first church, Acts chapter six, there was no oneness. Oneness was threatened. There were allegations that were going around, so they had to deal with the issue. Look at number two. Reclaiming unity in a church often requires a plan. Reclaiming unity in a church or a family often requires a plan. Look at verses two through four. The twelve summoned the whole company. So the twelve who were acting as the pastors, it didn't have one pastor, it had twelve pastors. The twelve called the company, I believe this is the church, the company of the disciples and said, so they're instructing, the pastors are instructing the church, they're saying this. It would not be right, it's not the right thing for us to give up preaching the word of God to wait on tables. It's not that tables is a bad thing, the pastors are prioritizing. Verse three, brothers and sisters, Select from among you. So the pastors are not doing a power play here. They're saying you select from among the seven men of good reputation. So don't just get anybody. Make sure that people think highly of them. They're good reputation and they're full of the Spirit. They're Spirit filled and they're filled with wisdom. They've got the ability to discern and make wise choices. They're not just saying, pick seven guys. They're giving qualifications around them. And they said, whom we can appoint for this duty. So you send us seven guys like this, we're gonna put our hands on them. No questions asked, we're gonna appoint them for this ministry. You pick them, we're gonna put our hands and put them aside for this ministry. Verse four, but we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. So let me ask you a question. Why do the pastors not want to be in charge of the distribution anymore? You know, if you could imagine there was a table, you know, there was a table, or maybe tables, and money had been obtained from the selling of property, and money had been brought to the church, and so now people are coming to the church daily, and they're saying, oh, you know, the widow is coming, oh, I don't have money for food. Don't worry, ma'am, don't worry. There are people in this church that have graciously sold property, and they have brought the proceeds here, and so how much do you need? How much do you need? Well, I need this much. Okay, ma'am, here you go. This is something that's provided by the church members. They're giving to the Lord, so the Lord, through these members, is giving to you. And so they would go away. So these guys were doing this, but now there's allegations of unfairness. The guys said, uh-uh. You know why? One, we're given the reason. They said, okay, if we really dig in and try to work this problem, it's going to affect us time-wise, it's going to affect us emotionally, we're going to be emotionally drained from all of this that's going on, trying to fix this, when our job primarily is prayer and the ministry of the word. And so we're told that, that's why they said, we're not gonna do this anymore, you pick out seven guys. But I believe there was also an unwritten thing that I see because I'm a pastor. The pastor's integrity was being questioned. They were saying, the Greek widows are not being treated fairly. compared to the Hebrew widows. Who was distributing the funds? The pastors. So what was going on is the pastor's integrity was being attacked. I'm telling you, if a pastor loses his integrity, he's got nothing. If a pastor loses his integrity, he's got nothing. If you know of some sin that I am engaged in, you know that I'm engaged in sin, I could get up here and proclaim truth perfectly, but you wouldn't want to hear it from me. You'll listen to somebody else, but you're not going to want to hear it from me, because as far as you're concerned, and probably rightfully so, if I'm genuinely in sin, I'm a hypocrite. If a pastor loses his integrity, he's got nothing. And so the pastor said, you know what? No, for the benefit of the church and the kingdom, we have to step away from this. Were the pastors being racist and unjust? I tend to think not. We don't know. We're not told that. We just know of the allegations. And the pastor said, you know what? We're going to step away. We're going to step away. Y'all get somebody else to fix this problem. We'll affirm them. Congregation, you select the seven. I'm telling you that what they did is they dealt with disunity. That's the trick of leadership. That's the trick of spiritual leadership. Sometimes if there's disunity in a family, sometimes if there's disunity in a church, sometimes you assess, I think that's going to burn out. And if I address it, I may throw gas on it. So I'm just going to let it go. And then there's other things where, you know what, that's not gonna burn out. So I have to address this and I gotta address it in the right way. So there needs to be plans that come up. The Bible is not silent on this. If there is disunity over a lack of meeting needs, then that has to be addressed. I am forever grateful to the deacons here at First Baptist Church who genuinely demonstrate what it looks like to have a family deacon ministry. How many of you members know who your deacon is? Yeah, exactly. In many churches that I've pastored, if I asked that same question, very few hands would go up. Very few hands would go up. Because the deacons did not see that really as something that they should or could do. I'm telling you, many of the deacons here are actively taking care, because I can't do this by myself. So they are stepping in, like Act VI, to not just undermine disunity, but to genuinely meet needs. to make sure that if someone's hurting, somebody finds out about it, somebody knows about it, so that we as a church can consider how it is that we can address and meet that need. Also, the deacons oversee benevolence. If there's someone within the church that is struggling, particularly financially, we try to handle that quietly, but the deacons oversee that, have a ministry in that way. So address it if it's a disunity over meeting needs. If it's a disunity over hurts. You know, you don't know what they did. You don't know what they said. Matthew 18 comes into play there. All right? Go to them. If they don't hear you, take two or three neutral witnesses and talk to them again. If they don't hear them, then tell it to the church. And if they don't listen to the church, then treat them as an unbeliever, because saved people don't act like that, right? And so there's ways to deal with that disunity. If there's a disunity because of misunderstandings, then talk to them. Talk to them. Don't keep yammering and everything else. If there's a disunity over a misunderstanding, then go and talk to them. If there's a disunity over doctrinal or moral issues, well, that certainly has to be dealt with because that's a toxin in the life of the church. And if the church is silent on things like that, it sure looks as if we're approving it. And if we're approving it, then why wouldn't others continue to do that as well? For the health and viability of the church, you want a pastor. You want deacons who are not afraid to go to people with kid gloves initially and say, what you were teaching is not biblical. And we need to sit down and talk. And until you can get this right, you cannot teach anymore. Or you were engaged in such a big, grievous sin. It's public knowledge, and people know about this, and we as a church cannot stand idly by. If you're in a position of authority, we have to remove you from that, and you need to repent and make that right. I know that's unpleasant, but if we value a church that God would bless, we have to do that. We have to do that. You know that, right? We have to do that. Number three, number three, reclaiming unity often requires willingly giving up power. Reclaiming unity often requires willingly giving up power. Verses five and six, this proposal pleased the whole company, right? So they heard what the pastor said, hey, choose out seven men and we will appoint them, let them deal with the problem, our job, prayer, and the ministry of the word. So it pleased the congregation, so they chose Stephen, a man full of faith in the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Procurus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicholas, a convert from Antioch. They had them stand before the apostles who prayed and laid their hands on them." So, you've got a plan that was given by the pastors. Now it's in the church's hands. I'm telling you that behind the scenes of many churches, there are power players. I'm telling you many pastors and many pastors wives and those that are in ministry when they retire, they generally say something like this. I want to just sit on the pew and be fed. I don't want to know what goes on behind the scenes. My job and my goal is for there to be no surprise if you were to look behind the scenes here. No surprise if you were to look behind the scenes that you see no power play going. But I'm telling you that here, there could have been some power plays. The apostles could have seen this and said, okay, we're gonna take power for ourself and we're gonna choose the seven people. Congregation, you just take it. You just take the seven. They could have done a power play. They didn't do that. They didn't do that. The congregation was given the authority by the pastors to do this. The congregation could have said, okay, he gave us seven. That's an odd number. That means there's a tiebreaker. So we're going to fight over who that seventh person is. Is it going to be a Greek Jew or a Hebrew Jew? We're going to fight over that. They didn't fight. In fact, if you look at all seven names, none of them is a Hebrew name. None of them is a Hebrew name. They're all Greek names. In fact, if you look at the seventh guy, Nicanor, he wasn't even born a Jew. He was a proselyte. He came into the Jewish faith and then he became a Christian. He wasn't even born a Jew. Do you know what the congregation did? They said, there are allegations that our brothers and sisters, their widows, their family members, that they, the Greek Jewish widows, are being overlooked and mistreated, and they're not getting their fair share. So we're giving up power, and we are saying, we're gonna choose seven, seven, all seven of them will be Hellenistic Jews. so that everybody knows we are going overboard to fix this problem. You see this? A lot of times, it's human nature. When there's a problem, when there's division, to grab power, to get our way. And yet, what we see here in the church is they gave up power. They gave up power. I'm telling you that that's not always the case. There was a guy that John wrote about in 3 John verses 9 and 10. Listen to what he says. John says, But Diotrephes, but Diotrephes, who loves to have first place among them, he wants to be first place in everything. He's a power hungry guy. He does not receive our authority. He doesn't respect me, the Apostle John. That's why if I come, I will remind him of the works he's doing. I feel like there's a punch with that last statement. I'll remind him of the works he's doing. I'm going to set him straight. Why? It's not a power play. It's because he's harming the church. He's harming the church. When there is disunity, evangelism stops. Many things stop. God's hand of blessing is removed because we are not experiencing what Jesus has prayed for. May they be one. Number four, and we're done. A unified church is often a growing church. A unified church is often a growing church. We read in verse one that the disciples, the number of disciples was increasing and then also in verse one, and yet there were allegations. And so then we read for the next six verses, just the problems that they were dealing with and how they were resolving to fix that problems. And the clear assumption is they acted on this and they fixed the problem. So when we get to verse seven, it says, So the word of God spread. The disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly in number. The disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly. People are getting saved and baptized. And a large group of priests became obedient to the faith. When this church was unified, they started growing evangelistically. People were getting saved again. People were getting baptized again. But it wasn't just the people that they would have expected. Priests were getting saved. People that were religious, that everybody thought, hey, if anybody's got it right, they got it right. I'm the one that needs to be saved. I think they're doing just fine. The priests were getting saved. It doesn't say they were getting saved. It says they became obedient to the faith, which is what it means to be saved. If we are saved, we are obedient to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what it means. I'm telling you, that if you want a revival to break out in every single church, and I'm convinced, I believe with what I've heard Billy Graham say so many, so many years ago, that such a large number of people that sit on the pews of our churches are not saved. They have no genuine love for the Lord. They don't love his word. They wouldn't say that, but they don't spend time with it. It's boring when they do. They don't spend time in prayer. They don't share their faith. They're not really convicted over their sin. There's no compelling desire to be obedient to the gospel. So many just, the bare basics of what it means to be a Christian have been absent for so long because they're not genuinely saved. Well, pastor, I went forward. Nowhere in scripture does it say we have to go forward to get saved. Nowhere. It's repentance and faith. How do I know I'm saved? 1 John 5, 13, these things are written that you may know that you have eternal life. How do I know I'm saved? It's behavioral. Do you love others? Are you convicted over sin? Do you desire to obey the Lord Jesus Christ? I'm telling you that a revival could probably break out and people would celebrate if those individuals on our church pews who are embarrassed to say that I know I don't think I'm saved. I know I made a decision, but everybody thinks I'm saved. I'm even in a position of authority. I might as well be just like these priests who everybody thought it was okay and it was all right. But I know in my heart of hearts, there's never really been a change, and I feel as if I'm missing something, and I suspect that it's because I'm not saved. I'm telling you, when someone like that makes a decision to trust Jesus, I'm telling you, the revival fires could probably break out. This is kind of what, at least we see it happening in the first church, that when they got their unity issue solved, then it wasn't just lost people getting saved, it was the people that were lost that everybody thought was good with God, they were getting saved too. You see this? This is so vitally important. I wanna end with this. How many of you have noticed this right here beside me? Anybody? Some of you are probably, it's been bothering you the whole time. What has it got that up there for? What this is, is in your bulletin that you got today, in your bulletin that you got today, you have a card. We're not gonna go on a campaign, we're not gonna do a who's your one campaign, we're just not gonna do that, but I do like these cards, Jamie found these cards and we're gonna do this. If you look at this, it does have a place where there can, you can, you know, it's serrated, and there's a smaller card, and it says on the back, who's your one, and then it has name. That's not your name. That's not your name. This is not intended for you. That name is somebody that you are praying for, for salvation. Not for their sore toe, not for anything, it's for them to be saved. On Wednesday nights, I want you to know, on Wednesday nights for the last two and a half, maybe three months, just about every single Wednesday night, we have taken about five minutes to create a list of first names of people we are praying for to be saved. Who's your one? I'm asking that over the next week, we're gonna turn these in next Sunday, right? We're gonna turn these in next Sunday. And I'm gonna have people come up to the front, and just as a group, nobody's gonna be embarrassed, but we're gonna have a basket up here at the end of the service next Sunday, and I'm gonna ask that you turn this in with the name of somebody you are committing to pray for, for their salvation, for their salvation. And then we will continue to pray for these individuals until God saves them or we kick the bucket, right? And somebody else continues to pray. So what is this up here for? Well, I met with a fellow pastor quite a few months ago, three, four months ago, four or five months ago maybe. And he has just been seeing a number of people, their church is unified and they are seeing a lot of people get saved, lots of people get baptized. And I said, tell me about it. What's God doing? What's that look like over at your church? And he shared principles with me. He shared that, hey, you're praying on Wednesday nights, man. It's just a matter of time before God begins to bless you with people that are getting saved. This is gonna be a visual. This is gonna allow us to see and I'm not gonna move this off to the side because if I move it off to the side, we're probably gonna forget about it and I don't wanna forget about this. What we're gonna do is we've got two color balls. One is blue and one is red. When someone gets saved here, someone gets saved, or you lead someone to salvation, you share the gospel, and they get saved, I want you to tell me because I wanna tell us. And when that happens, representing the blood of Christ, we're gonna put one of these in there, and it's just gonna stay in there. For the year, the rest of the year, it's gonna accumulate. The blue represents water. When we see somebody get baptized, We're going to put this in there. And every Sunday, we're going to come in and we're going to see where we are. The reason why is because I had Jamie look over the records over the last year and I said, Jamie, how many baptisms have we had? Now, I don't know about salvations. There are a few, but I couldn't chase those down. But we could track baptisms. Do you know how many baptisms we had over the last year since January 1? We've had two. We've had two. I'm telling you, maybe division is it. Maybe there's some other reasons. But I want us to see this and constantly be praying that God would use us to lead people to faith in Christ and to see people get baptized and plugged into a church where they can grow. Will you join me in saying that as far as I am able, that I will be the kind of person and I will work toward the kind of church where God would entrust us with people being saved and people being baptized so that we can praise Him every single Sunday. Will you join me in doing that? Let's pray. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we come to you and we thank you so much for your goodness and grace. And Lord, we thank you that you're not so much interested in our past if we have resolved that with you and made that right with you. You are not so much interested in our past so much as in where we are and how we can make tomorrow more Christ-centered and more fruitful than we are today. Lord, I pray that we as individuals, we as families, we as a church, Lord, I pray that you would help us. not merely not to be content with going through the motions, but to see you working in and through us to bring a lost and dying world to you. Father, help us to demonstrate what it looks like to be a genuine follower of you. Lord, now as we go into this time of response, however it is that you are moving among us, Lord, right now, help us to make those things right. Whether it means people come forward and talk to me or just bow their heads in their pews and do business with you. Right now, Lord, as we are singing, help us to do business with you. In Jesus' name, amen.