If you haven't already, for those that have been with us, you know where we're headed, but we are headed over to the book of Acts in chapter two. I know some of you are already there, probably. Acts in chapter two, as we continue to study the subject that we have entitled Seven Habits of a Highly Effective Church. Today is our seventh week in this study. It is our last week in this study, and I can honestly say that this is a a series that has gnawed on my own heart. I hope it has you as well because, you know, as I look at these things here that are being spoken of in this scripture here, you know, I don't want to sound down on us in one way because I see many things that we do that are right, and I won't exhort you in those things that we do right, but I have to tell you there are some things here that as we're going across that I see that we can improve on, and some things that we should start doing that we haven't been doing as well. And it's here for our betterment, and I hope it is your desire, really, to get better all the time. You know, it should be our desire to conform ourselves into the image of Christ. the image that He would have us to be in this world. I don't know if you've ever thought of it this way, but the church here at Grace is a visible representation of Christ in this community. It is a visible representation of that. The gospel that we preach is not our gospel. The gospel that we preach is His gospel. The love that we share is His love. The care that we have for one another is all of Him, and it should be our desire to be as much like Him as possible. And folks, He is indeed perfect in nature, and we should strive to be a perfect church as well. And I know that as I say the word perfect church, that immediately some people have a negative connotation, because we get this idea of a person kind of with that peak of perfection attitude that looks down upon everybody else in the world. Folks, that's not what I'm talking about, because as I told you already as we went over these things, we are a church of mess-ups, we are a church of people who struggle. We are not a perfect people, but we are worshiping a perfect Savior, right? And it is our desire to be more like Him. We don't look down on others, but we try our best to perfect ourselves in Christ. That should be our desire. And certainly that is my vision for this church as well. Now, let's begin reading our passage of Scripture here in Acts 2, beginning in 42, verse 42, and we're going to read through the end of the chapter once again in verse 47, where we'll be taking our text from today. And it says, And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. And all that believed were together and had all things common, and sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men as every man had need. And they, continuing daily in one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. Now, in this passage we have seven distinct things that we see that were practiced here in the church at Jerusalem, really on an ongoing basis. Things that the scripture elevates as a matter of importance, and they are important to us even today. And again, these things are, first of all, continuing on in the Apostles' Doctrine, then in fellowship, the taking of the Lord's Supper, corporate prayer, care for one another, worship, that's what we talked about last time, and today we're going to talk about the subject of evangelism. And as I go over that list of seven things, again, you know, not all of those seven things are spelled out just by name, like prayer is a pretty easy one to get. Some of these things that we understand are here by implication or by description. And our last topic of evangelism is one that is found for us, that is implied in what is written. As we look at that, verse 47, and it says, And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. So we want to say this from the very beginning. Because it's glaring us right in the face. In those first few words of that last sentence there. And that is that the Lord is the one who adds to the church. It is Him that adds to it. It is through His way that He adds to the church. He has a means in which he adds to the church. And the means in which he adds to the church is not the methods of man. You know, man has cooked up a lot of methods throughout the years to bring people into the church. Not the least of these, compulsion, right? But even now as we look into the modern schemes of emotional persuasion and easy believism that tells people all they got to do is just say a prayer and accept Jesus and that's all there is to it. Everything is going to be great and rosy. You know, man's methods will add to the roll call of the church. Man's methods may grow a church in such a way that it has bigger numbers and more youth activities and more small groups and more fun, right? But it does not mean that the Lord added to the church. Because the Lord does not add people through man's method, but he adds people through his means. He said, I will build my church. I want you to know something. I have never added anyone to this church. You have never added any person to this church. You didn't add yourself to this church. The church didn't add you to this church. It was Christ who added you to this church. It is Christ who builds. It is Christ who adds. The church at Corinth was having a hard time grasping that fact. There was divisions in that church over many different things, and there was divisions over who they heard the gospel from. You know, some thought they were more important than others because of who they heard the gospel from. I want you to look over in 1 Corinthians with me, if you would, for just a moment. 1 Corinthians in chapter 3. And in chapter 3, beginning in verse number 4, It says, For while one saith, I am of Paul, and another I am of Apollos, are ye not called? Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos? But ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man. I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase. So it is God's intention that we yield to Him and let Him do the building. Let Him do the adding. Which also means that He will add as He sees fit. And that He will give us all that we stand in need of. Now then you might ask, if God does not add to His church through the methods of man, then what are the means that you keep mentioning so far this afternoon? The means that He adds to His church. Well, the means that He adds to the church is you. The means that He adds to or through is me. And it's one of the most simple things that we know. But it is yet the most powerful thing that we will ever come to know. And that is the gospel of Christ. Romans chapter 1 verse 16 says, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For it is the power of God unto salvation for everyone that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Greek. The gospel is indeed a dynamite to the heart of the lost when that gospel is applied by the Holy Spirit. That is when He gives the increased. But how can they call on whom they have not believed? And how can they believe on whom they have not heard? They can't because they need someone who is faithful to take the Word of God to the lost sheep of God who still yet need to hear the voice of the shepherd calling through the Gospel message. He needs us to take the Word. He needs you to share the Gospel, as Randy spoke just a few minutes ago. You are the means through which He works. You know, I have two goals for this year and I'm going to keep coming back to them over and over. They are, number one, that we become closer and closer as a church and disciple one another so that we might be able to stand firmly in the day in which we live in. And secondly, that we disciple the world by telling the lost about Jesus. and bring them into the fold. Those are priorities that we should have every day. You know, many think it's the job of the pastor or the elders, I should say, really to go into the community and bring them in. Go out and bring them in. The truth is, it is my job to go out into the community and to tell other people about Christ and invite them in. But it's only part of my job because it's part of all of our jobs. To do the very same thing. To go out and to be a witness to others in this world. You know, sometimes I refer to this church as grace. Matter of fact, 90% of the time that's what I call grace. Some of you all refer to it as Grace Baptist, especially if you've been here a long time, that's what you call it. You know, the name above the door is Grace Missionary Baptist Church. Grace Missionary Baptist. Missionary is the word we often leave out. But that's just a name. What is the sad part about that is, is that many churches are leaving it out as well. And I don't mean by name, but I mean by practice. You see, we wonder why our churches shrink. And we wonder why new people don't come in. And the answer is obvious. We're neglecting to be missionary in our own communities. You know, sending a check to Brother Catrion down in Guyana, or Brother Craft down in Mexico, That doesn't make us a missionary church. It is commendable. It is needed. But it does not make us missionary. It is Christ that made us missionary when He gave to us the Great Commission in Matthew 28, verses 19 and 20. It says, Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. Some of you all heard that already today. You know, the first church may not have had missionary in their name, but they were missionary in practice because there was a desire to go ye therefore. And we understand that when the Bible says go ye therefore, it doesn't mean that all of us are going to be going to Mexico and Guyana and the uttermost parts of the world. It means sometimes that we go across the street because there are lots that are living across the street as much as they are on the other side of the world. they need to hear as much as they do. Churches spend thousands of dollars a year to support the publication of handouts, flyers, and Bibles to send to places like India and China and Budapest or wherever, but spend absolutely nothing on doing the same thing in their community. Churches spend thousands on helping to support children's ministries and bus ministries and will not invest in their own communities in the same way. You get what I'm saying, brothers and sisters. It is one thing to call ourselves missionary and it's another thing to practice it all together. Too often our churches have been concerned with only what takes place a few hours, a couple days a week, rather than the other six and a half days that we're outside in the world. The Lord's church should be a missionary-minded and missionary-acting church. John Stott once wrote, and I love this quote, He said, no self-centered, self-contained church absorbed with its own parochial affairs can claim to be filled with the Spirit. You know what? He was right. I'll tell you something else as well. No self-centered, self-contained person, absorbed with their own personal affairs, can claim to be filled with the Spirit. And being filled with the Spirit of God is exactly what God intends for us and what God intends for His churches. That is what God desires. Listen, this church here at Grace is not all about us. And your life is not all about you. But if we are Spirit-filled, we will love not just each other, and folks, I know we have a love for each other here, but if we truly have been filled with the Spirit, our love will extend past these doors and into the communities that we live in. To go out and to be the means that God has ordained. to convert the souls of men. I'm afraid, though, that most of the time we share the gospel outside of our family. And I say that because, you know, a lot of times when we share the gospel with our family, we sit down and we do it slow, we do it methodical, we keep at it. But I'm afraid most of the time, you know, when we do share the gospel outside of our family, the way that we do it is usually in the wrong manner, the wrong way. You know, we live in a fast-paced world. There's drive-thrus for everything. Drive-thrus at banks, to pharmacies, You can even order your food now online, your grocery shopping, and pull up to Walmart and they'll load it up for you. It's pretty amazing really. But get in, get out, and get back to doing what you want to do. That's kind of the style of life these days. And often men are tempted to fall in a bit of like what I like to think of as about fast food evangelism. Knock, knock, here's a tract, see you later. And as good as that tract might be, it never gets read in any fullness because what makes what you're peddling any more special than the last knock, knock, here's your tract that came by their door? Fast food is rarely good food and fast food evangelism is rarely good as well. If you're going to reach people, you need to invest in people. You need to share your life with their life. Look back in Acts, sorry I didn't tell you to mark your spot, but look back in Acts once again, chapter 2. That last verse, 47, says, Praising God and having favor with all the people, the Lord added to the church, daily such as should be saved. I want you to notice here that those that had been saved there at the church at Jerusalem were not just having favor with other saints. but they were having favor with others in Jerusalem. To have favor with someone, you have to not only talk the talk and walk the walk of what you proclaim to believe, but you also have to show a genuine care and interest in others. You have to invest yourself in their lives to show others that you care. I remember when I went to college, you know, and I just went to Marshall at first before I went to Palmer and Iowa, but I remember just even when I first went to Marshall, you know, and I came from a small school outweighing, right, and you know I knew most everybody there seemingly, at least I thought I did. But you knew just about everybody. And then you go to Marshall. And the first thing that they did back then, basically, was take your name away and give you a number. That's what you became. A number. You know the routine? I'm number one. It's nice to meet you. You're number two. We should do lunch sometime. You know, that's what you became. That's what your identification was. And you know, as when you get into that kind of situation, you begin to kind of lose who you are. You don't feel very important. You just feel like you're just one number in the midst of a lot of other numbers and who cares if student 426839 falls off the face of the earth as long as her tuition is paid in full. No one cares. But here's the real sad fact though, is there's a lot of people walking around in this world that feel like they are nothing more than a number. That no one really cares, and the fact of it is, is that as Christians, we have often treated them that way as well. Here's a tract, see you later. The name of our church is stamped on the back, we'd love to see you. That's it. We have reduced evangelism in many cases to essentially handing out business cards for a potential client. But understand we are not in the market for potential clients. We are in this to share eternal life with people that are headed for a destiny of hell. Listen, I have no doubt that on occasion such interactions might be fruitful. Sometimes you actually get a good burger at a fast food restaurant. And sometimes God works through us in spite of our actions. Nineveh responded to Jonah in spite of his bitterness, in spite of his hate, in spite of the worst message ever preached. But listen, God didn't place the book of Jonah and the holy canon of Scripture to be an example of how we should behave. But rather it's a condemnation of His hard-heartedness and what He did say to show us indeed that God has a people that need to hear. People that may not look like us, act like us, but they need to hear. so that they might turn from their wicked ways and live. Brothers and sisters, the church at Jerusalem had favor among the people. Why? Because they were excited about their Savior. They were excited about their salvation. They were excited about the hope that Jesus Christ was coming again. And folks, they genuinely were showing interest in other people to give them what they had, to give them a piece of that same hope. As a Spirit-filled church, we must be a missionary church. And as a missionary church, we must be a church that goes. But doesn't just go, but go in the right way. In a fruitful way. Not worry about how many flyers that we put out. Not worry about how many doors that we knocked on. But go out and share the Word. one by one, showing care and love towards other people, concern for their lives, concern for their needs, concern for the destiny of their souls. How can they trust what you have to say about the most important thing that they have in their life, the destiny of their soul? if you have an established trust to begin with. If people are going to trust you with something that is as important as their eternal destiny, there has to be some value that is placed in your character. Because let me tell you something, there are people out there that are peddling everything imaginable when it comes to the name of Christianity and religion in general. How are they to know to trust you over the guy that's peddling a law? There's only one way that I know to find favor among people. And that is to show them love and respect and care. I'm not saying that we don't tell them about the fullness of what sin is. I'm not saying you don't tell them about the fullness of what hell is. It's not very loving not to share with someone the destiny of what is waiting, but you can do that in a kind and compassionate and loving way. Standing on the corner with a bullhorn or a megaphone and yelling at someone that they're going to hell is not a very loving way. It certainly doesn't compel many to come to Christ. Again, Jonah is not the example to follow despite how good the results were. Christ is our example. We all come across people every day that are lost. Many don't even know what it means to be lost in the first place. Some think they're a Christian because their moms and dads said they're Christian. They put up a Christmas tree, that must mean they're a Christian, right? Some think they're Christian because they got splashed with water sometime in their life. They have no idea what it really means to be saved. They need hope. We all come across people every day that are overwhelmed. Overwhelmed because of the conditions that sin has brought in in their life. You have what they need. Fr. Greg spoke about it this morning. That joy. You have what they need. You have Jesus Christ. We just need to slow down. to notice others. Notice their distress. Notice their frustration. Say, what's wrong? What's wrong? You might be surprised. They might just tell you. And it might give you the opportunity to establish some trust. And the opportunity to tell someone about Christ. I was listening to a sermon this week about this very subject. The speaker began to talk about Joseph down there in an Egyptian prison. A man who was wrongfully there in the first place, just seemingly one disaster after another taking place in his life that landed him there, but he found strength in the Lord. To the best of his ability, he did things. I guess one of the kids got locked in. One night, you know, as they were all in that prison, there was a baker, there was a butler, they had a dream, and Joseph came in the next morning And he noticed that they were sad. And he began to ask them what they were sad about. And you all know the story well. But how many times have you read that story without noticing that Joseph spoke to them because he noticed the sadness of their countenance? You know, Joseph had enough in his life going on at that point in time that you might... He had enough to be sad about himself. He had enough to focus on himself. But yet, he came through and he noticed that they were in distress. And he told them about God and he interpreted their dreams. And you know the rest of the story. But where would Joseph have been if he had been so self-centered and so self-absorbed in his own situation that he had not noticed the distress of someone else? Slow down, brothers and sisters. Notice others. Show care for their needs. Develop favor among men and share with them Christ. And I think the truth is, is that most of us will find ourselves doing that at some point in time in our lives. I mean, sharing the Word with someone you've developed a relationship with, and you've done so in such a way that they listen, that they hear, and they might even hear indeed the very words of their salvation. And to God be the glory for when that takes place. And I do believe that most of us do that on occasion, but you see, that's the problem. far too often in life, those occasions are few and far between. Not just days between, but weeks between, months between, years between, and that's the part that's truly a shame. You see, one last time as we look at the verse, it says, Praising God and having favor with all the people, and the Lord added to the church daily, such as should be saved. What I want you to see here in this verse is how the Lord added to the church. It says that He added to them daily. Now we know it is God who adds to the church. He does the choosing, He does the drawing, truly He does it all. But there is one way that He added to the church daily, and that is through daily evangelism. Daily evangelism. Just as the church was meeting daily in the temple and from house to house, they were also daily going out to tell people about Jesus. Inviting them to come to a meeting, to someone's house. Understand, there is no daily adding to the church unless there is daily witnessing for Christ. The two go hand in hand. So be honest with yourself, brothers and sisters. You don't need to tell me. But be honest with yourself because God already knows the answer. How many people did you talk to about Christ this week outside of this church building and outside of this membership? How many people did you invite to church this week? I understand they may not come. No one came that I invited this week. No one came that I invited last week. I can't change that on their part. Maybe someday they will because I'm going to keep asking. I can't change those who will not hear the gospel. Maybe someday they will. You see, it's my job to plant the seed. It's my job to water the seed and to fertilize the seed. It is your job to plant the seed, to water the seed, to fertilize the seed, but it is still up to God to give the increase. And I know that it's frustrating at times when you try to talk to others and you get shut out. And I know it's frustrating when you invite them and they don't come. And I know that it is your sincere desire for them to have what you have. But eventually one might come to know Christ because of you. And eventually one may come through the doors that you invited. Don't let the discouragement of those that don't respond to the gospel or those that don't respond to your request to come to discourage you into turning the Great Commission into the great omission of our lives. It is the gospel that changes the hearts of men. And it is the gospel that is the lifeline of the church. You want this church to be here when the Lord comes back? Be missionary. Share the gospel. Invest in others daily. Daily. With that, I'll end the message. Randy, if you'll come and lead us in a couple of verses of song.