Good morning, everyone. Thank you, Brother Dan, for the song. As Brother Dan was singing, I remember the first day I met him. It was at a pastor's fellowship in Burbank. And he saw me coming in through the front door. And he stood up and met me by the front door. And since that time, we became friends. That was a good, that was a long time ago. That was actually thirty years ago this year. So I praise God for that, for having a friend like Dan. It is good to be here this morning. Thank you for inviting me to come and speak and share the word with you. A lot of you I know, a lot of you I've met many years ago and we praise God that you're still here. When we think of what we do, where we go. We think of the church. People ask the question, why should we have church? And people ask the question, what is the church anyway? Well, we think of the church as the corporate body of believers that are called out of this world to come together, bear the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, believe in Jesus Christ, be baptized in, carry on the commission of the Lord. That is what the church is, and today I would like for us to just visit the account in the Bible about the first church, and find our place in the body of Jesus Christ. When we think of the church, which is the corporate body of believers, the question is, what is my part in the church? Where am I? Where do I belong? What can I give to the church? What can I participate to do good for the church? And once you find your place, you fill that place. I don't know, in our church, it's sort of a custom of people to find a place to sit on every Sunday and every Sunday they come to the church and they sit on the same place every Sunday. You find that to be true here too. In the fellowship hall after church we have lunch at church and You could almost tell, I could almost tell where the person would sit down once they get their food to sit down. So I'm aware if I want to find somebody, if I want to talk with somebody, I just go to that portion of the fellowship hall and I will find the person there. If he's not there, then I would say he's absent, he's not there. In fact, when I first came to our church, we had a lady that that had been in the church before I was there. One day she came to church and she was late. And she came, her seat was actually the second seat on the left, the second row of the left side of the church. And she came in and somebody was seated on the chair and she came straight to the person and said, that's my seat, get out of my seat. Well, the guy did not know what to do. I said, well, why don't you just move over to the next seat, and then you'll be fine. And he did move to the next seat, and everything was fine after that. So, people find their place in the church, and they fill up that place. Now, in the corporate body, we also should know what the church is, where is our place and we fill up that position or place in the church. I'd like for you to open your Bibles with me to the book of Acts chapter 2. This is quite a long chapter, but I'd like to read verse 37 to verse 47, just reading 10 verses all together. Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brethren, what shall we do? And Peter said to them, Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call to himself. And with many other words, He solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, Be saved from this perverse generation. So then those who had received this word were baptized, and that day there were added about three thousand souls. They were continuously devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe, and many wonders and signs were taking place to the apostles. And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common. And they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. Day by day, continuing with one mind in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day, those who are being saved. This is the account of the first church. The basic composition of the church was 120. If you look at Acts chapter 1 and there were 120 were gathering together and they prayed together. And as they prayed together, they stayed in Jerusalem because the instruction of Jesus Christ was for them to stay in Jerusalem until the promise of the Holy Spirit come. So they were not allowed to go out, to move out of Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit came. And so they were there praying and they also acted certain things and certain matters. and they drew lots and they got Matthias actually to be counted with the eleven of the apostles. Then on the day of Pentecost they were gathered together in one place and suddenly something happened. You find visual things, and you find audio things here in chapter 2 verse 1. He says, Suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Wow! That would have been an exciting experience. He says, A noise like the violent rushing wind. and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Everyone would probably be awakened by that if they were there and some people were getting sleepy, they would be awakened by the noise. And it was something that was sent and felt by everyone in the place. And then, in verse 3, we see something happening that has not happened before. And there appeared unto them tongues of fire distributing themselves, and they rested in each one of them. I could just imagine that right now, if we were there, there on the day of Pentecost, I could see tongues of flames over its head. Can you imagine that? Can you think of that? Tongues of flame. Actually, it says here, like, to them tongues as of fire, distributing themselves, and they rested in each one of them. So, if there were 120 there, then there were 120 tongues of flame, each one resting over the head of each one. And that is something that you would not forget. That is something that people would not forget. But of course, that would be a sight and a sense that would question, that would bring about questions to people. What is this? What's happening? And then the Bible says after this, verse 4, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit. Today many people are saying, and they were baptized with the Holy Spirit. No, the Bible doesn't say they were baptized with the Holy Spirit. It says they were filled with the Holy Spirit. The filling of the Spirit is different from the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Baptism with the Holy Spirit would be Jesus Christ placing the Holy Spirit upon every individual at the time of faith in Jesus Christ. That's automatic. It comes there. So the Spirit is placed into the believer when the Holy Spirit comes. And it is not for us to do that, it is the work of the Lord Jesus Christ to baptize with the Spirit. Remember how John said, I baptize you with water, but there is coming after me that will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. Now, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a different thing. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is the act of the Holy Spirit whereby He takes the believer and places the believer into the body of Christ. So you think of baptism as placing into, whereas the Holy Spirit is placed into the believer, the Holy Spirit takes the believer and places him into the body of Christ. That's automatic. And so they were there, as they were filled with the Holy Spirit, and every time you find in the Book of Acts the word filled, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit, it is always followed by an action. It is always followed by a certain ministry. You see, many people that do not serve, they do not minister because they are not filled with the Spirit, because they are not obedient to the Spirit, they are not in the control of the Spirit. The word fill has the idea, it's not the idea of being, you have a glass, and then you have half full, and then you can add on to it. No, it's not that. The idea of fill here comes from the word, which actually means to be controlled. And they were controlled by the Holy Spirit, and the result was that, and they began to speak in other tongues. as the Spirit was giving them utterance. It's marvelous. I have learned several tongues, but there are tongues that I'd like to learn. I wish I could speak Yiddish. I wish I could speak Ilochano. Some people here are Ilochanos and they know how to do that. I can carry on a conversation for about maybe 10 seconds, then that would be all. That's all my Ilokano would be. Maybe four, three sentences in Ilokano, but after that, no more. But if I were, if I had the gift that the Lord gives me that, then I would be speaking that. Imagine if every one of us here speak in a tongue that you do not know, that you have never learned, and then you start speaking that. And the next verses were saying there were people there because the Day of Pentecost brought so many people from other lands to come to Jerusalem that day. And the people were saying, in verse 7, and they were amazed and astonished, saying, Why are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born? Parthians, Enneads, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pantylia, Egypt, and the districts of Libya around Cyrene. So they're saying, how could these people speak this? Okay, so with the sounds, with the sight of the flames, with the speaking in tongues, people were trying to make an explanation of all this. And the conclusion was this, they must be drunk. They must be drunk, they're so noisy, you know, they're so noisy. I had a cousin that never went to high school, but whenever he's drunk, he speaks good English. Well, anyway, the English that he can do, but that is what he says, he says, I can only speak English when I'm drunk. And so that means the wine has taken control of him and he's able to speak that. But here, remember in the Bible, he says you should not be drunk with wine, or any excess, but you should be drunk, or you should be controlled by the Holy Spirit. And then you'll be able to do something that you usefully would not do, because it's not you that wants to do it, it is actually the Holy Spirit that is controlling you, and submitting to the Holy Spirit, you start doing that. Peter stood up and said, and he stood with the eleven in racist voice, and he made an explanation. He said, no, we are not drunk. It's only nine in the morning. People do not get drunk at nine. Maybe a hangover from yesterday. No, it was not a hangover from yesterday. But he explained the fact that this is the fulfillment of the prophecy in the book of Joel, where the Holy Spirit will come and young men will see visions and older men would actually see dreams. And then he said, Then he moved on and said, and explained to them about Jesus Christ, whom they had taken and they had crucified and he died and was buried and he rose again from the grave. And Peter said, this one is made Lord. Take a look at verse 34, for it was not David for It was not David who ascended into heaven, but he himself said, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. Therefore let the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom ye have crucified. That was the preaching of the Apostle Peter, the first recorded sermon of Peter in the Book of Acts. So he spoke, and as he spoke, there was a response. The response was, they said, What shall we do? Verse 37. They heard this, and they were pierced in the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the Apostles, Brethren, what shall we do? Peter said, Repent, each of you, and be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And then he said, in verse 41, So then those who had received this word were baptized, and that day there were added about three thousand souls to them. Now, if you take a look at the church, the first church, we find certain elements that describes the church. First of all, if you are to become a part of a church, you need to be converted. You need to believe. Now, some people say, well, it does not say in verse 41, he says, those that gladly receive this word. But if you look at verse 44, he says, and all those who had believed were together and had all things in common. Some people like to come to church. Some people say, well, I do not like church. But whether we like the church or not, the fact is the church is born. The church was born and the church is existing. The first mention of the word church here in the Book of Acts is actually in Acts 2.47. So in believing, there are two things that you do. We do. First, we believe God is holy and just. We believe that we are sinners, and we repent of our sin and turn away from our sin, and then we leave Jesus Christ, that He is the Son of God, who came to earth, became a man, died on the cross for our sins, to take our sins away, to bear the penalty of our sins, and to redeem us, deliver us from the punishment of sin, power of sin and the presence of sin itself. So you believe in Jesus Christ and then you receive Jesus Christ. There are some people who know the Lord Jesus Christ but have never received Jesus Christ as Savior. We went to home of an elderly lady about 83 years old the other day and we went to visit her in their apartment and She's living with her daughter and her husband and two daughters. And so she was talking about, she was telling us about the fact that she's from La Union in the Philippines and that she has an older brother and an older sister. And they were worried about her, that they would not see each other again. Having heard that from her, I said, you know, the comforting fact about this is this. You can tell your brother and sister in the Philippines that they do not need to worry about not seeing you again. If you have Jesus Christ in your heart, if Jesus Christ comes into your life, if you believe in Jesus Christ and you receive Jesus Christ as Savior, You could tell them and say, if I die, I'll go to heaven. But you need also to repent of your sin, believe in Jesus Christ and receive Jesus Christ. Then if we do not see each other here, we'll see each other in heaven. And so after about 40 minutes of sharing the gospel with her, we bowed our heads and she accepted Jesus Christ as Savior. the granddaughters that were there were listening and praise God that we could, as a result of that, we have another new Bible study in Los Angeles because she wants her daughter to hear the gospel. She wants her son-in-law to hear the gospel. She wants her grandchildren to hear the gospel. And so I said, We'll have a Bible study here. And I said along the way as we came to your apartment, we met several Filipinos there. Would you be able to invite them and come so that they will come here and have and meet with us for Bible study? And she said yes. So the idea is this. The first thing that is required of the Lord would be, first of all, we need to recognize who God is. We need to believe in Jesus Christ and then we need to believe that Jesus Christ is our Savior and then make a decision to accept Jesus Christ as Savior. Some people said, I remember one day after an evangelistic meeting, a man approached me and said, you said I have to say it, I have to say to Jesus Christ, I believe and I accept you as my Savior. Why should I do that? And I said, the Bible says in Romans, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in your heart that Christ God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. I said, you know, accepting Jesus Christ is just like a wedding. You've been to a wedding. Some weddings are long, some weddings are brief. But there are actually just two questions that are very important in the wedding. The question to the man is, man, do you accept this woman whose hand you hold to be your lawful wedded wife. And the man cannot just be silent. The man cannot just look at the preacher or the officiating minister. The man cannot say, just look deep into my eyes and you'll see the answer. That's not enough. When I officiate, I always tell them, you respond to it, otherwise there will be no wedding. If you do not say, I do, Then I dismiss the crowd and we all go home. Because there is no accepting. You know, it's the same thing. So, then the preacher or the officiating minister asks the woman and says, Woman, do you accept this man to be your full wedded husband? By the power vested upon me as the minister of the gospel, I pronounce you husband and wife according to the laws of the state of California in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Whom God has joined together, let no man put asunder." Right then and there, at that moment of accepting and having accepted Jesus Christ, they're pronounced husband and wife, they sign the marriage contract, they're already husband and wife for now and eternity. Right? They do not become husband and wife because they live together in a house. No, that is after. dwelling together, living together is after the marriage. And I think our people, there are many people today that need to know that. That living in of two people together that are not married is living in sin. It used to be called living in sin. Now they just call it live in. And that is wrong, that is improper. Anyway, so the moment they become husband and wife, the same thing with us. If the person believes and repents of his sin, and believes in Jesus Christ, and receives Jesus Christ as Savior, then Jesus Christ becomes his Savior, and the Bible says that person becomes a child of God. Right? But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to be called children of God, even to them that believe in His name." So you believe. And then, as a result of that, you are born into a family. Now take a look at this. When a person receives Jesus Christ as Savior, according to John 1.13, the person is born not of blood, not of the flesh, not of the will of man, but by the will of God. Right then and there, the person becomes a child of God. The next thing that I would like for us to remember is the first word I would like you to remember is believe. The second is belong. Verse 41 says, And then they, those that received this word, were baptized, and there were added about three thousand souls. Now, so after believing in Jesus Christ, a person needs to be baptized. It is not an option. It is a command. It is something that is the will of the Lord. And if a person is obedient to the Lord, his first step of obedience after faith in Jesus Christ is to follow Jesus Christ in the water of baptism. Be baptized. I remember a first year here in the United States. I taught standard school the second week at church in L.A., and we went through the Book of Acts in our study. At the end of three months, many of the officers of the church were baptized. It was not my will, it was what the Bible says. This is what the Bible says. And if a person does not follow that, then the person is not obedient to the Word of God. It has to be the Word of God, and it has to be the Holy Spirit convicting the person to be able to submit to that. So they were baptized. And baptism is the official, initial introduction of the person into the local church. You become a member of the church. So if you come to CBT, you attend here and you have not been baptized, you cannot be a member of CBT. But if you have been baptized and you come here and you have you're not a member, then you apply for membership, and you become a member of CBT. Now, if you are baptized, and you become a member of the church, then you belong to the church. The Bible says, "...and that day there were added unto them three thousand souls." Added. Notice that word, added. Simple arrestment date. You have one plus one, Two, right? That means the one is part of the second one, the second one is part of the first one. Right? So if a person believes and he's baptized, he's added to the local church. Now how does a person become a part of the body of Christ? The body of Christ, that is when in the book of Corinthians, Paul is saying, when you believe, the Holy Spirit takes you and places you into the body of Christ. dual membership. You become a part of the spiritual invisible body of Christ and you become a part of the visible body of believers in a certain locality. That's why we call it local church because it's a church in a locality composed of people in the locality. Wow, that's interesting because they are added into the church and so you say I belong, I become a part of that. You would notice that if you take a look at chapter 2, verse 43, from verse 42 on, the pronoun they is used again and again. When you become a part of the church, you do not say I, but we. You do not say yours, but ours. Right? That is identity with the local church. So we say, we'll have a service tonight. It is our evening service. That means, if it is our, then I'm part of it, and you're part of it. Right? Our. This is our gathering. I'm coming back tonight. I will have to leave after the service because there's a birthday party in our church for one of our grandsons. And that's why my wife is not with us today. But she will be with us tonight, Lord willing. But it's becoming part of it. So you say, you belong to the church. You are incorporated to the church. So you believe, now you belong. You are identified, you become a part of the group. The Filipinos have this statement. They say, ang sakit ng kalinkinan ay sakit ng buong katawan. That's what they're saying. That means, the pain of the little finger is the pain of the whole body. Now one part of the body is in pain, the whole body does not say, let's just cut it and throw it away. It's painful, right? No, the whole body works together to bring something to the part that is in pain so that it is healed. Then the whole body is refreshed by the fact that now we're okay again. Because you're part of it. The Apostle Paul said, if anyone of you is grieved, I grieve with you. If you cry, I cry with you. But when you're happy, I'm happy with you. Because we are in this together. We need to realize that as a church, we become a part of the same body. And we look after one another in the same body. And we look after one another in the same church. Okay, so you belong, you're baptized, you're added to the Church. Now, thirdly, take a look at verse 42, "...and they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching, and to the fellowship, and to the breaking of bread, and to prayer." They're saying the third part of being in the Church would be becoming. You say, well, it doesn't show there is becoming, but what were they doing? They were becoming committed to several things. They were learning, they were in fellowship, they were breaking bread, and they were praying. All of this are basically means to an end. These are not an end to themselves. In the book of Ephesians, the Apostle Paul says in Ephesians 4, let me just look at that briefly. Let me read this, verse 11. And He gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, for the building up of the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and to the knowledge of the Son of God to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children taught here and there by waves and carried about every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men, by craftiness and deceitful scheming." So he's saying, all of this gift, the apostles, teachers, pastors, evangelists, and prophets were all given to the Church to teach and train the Church to equip every member of the Church so that they can serve. CBC exists to minister to every member of the Church, and the lookout of the Church is to build up every believer to the point that the believer knows how to serve, how to minister. Otherwise, the Church is failing, if we're not doing that. That is what the Bible says. And then, so that we will grow, we're not just to be equipped, so that we will be edified, and we will grow up to the full measure of the stature of Jesus Christ. One of our mission as a church would be so that everybody, every member of the church will become like Jesus Christ. So are we there yet? Or are we moving on? We should be moving on. We should be stepping up. We should be becoming more like the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what he's saying. And then he says, so that the whole church will be firm, will mature to the point that they can distinguish between wrong and right. And that which is holy and that which is evil. And they could not be swayed by every form of doctrine. For like Martin Luther, he could say, here I stand. I cannot and I will not recant. This is what I believe. And here I stand, and I cannot change my view on this. As the book says, I will be that way. So this is what God wanted them to do. They were studying. They had Bible studies. They had Sunday school. They were learning. They were breaking bread together. They had fellowship. And they were praying, all for one purpose, to accomplish the purpose and will of God for them. Now, of course, they said they were in the Apostles' teaching, that is, the Word of God that they are following. Then they were in fellowship. You know, Becoming is not just becoming like Christ. We become participants in the body of Jesus Christ. Take a look at this, verse 43. Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. And all those that had believed were together and had all things in common. And they began selling their property and possession and were sharing them with all as anyone might have need. Day by day, continuing with one mind in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart. So, they were becoming progressive. They were moving on. Notice this. Many times people think of church as only activity. Well, I went to church. I went to prayer meetings. I went to Sunday school. I'm done, I've done my share for Sunday, and then I go home. No, it's not just motion of the body, it is the attitude of the mind, a mindset. I need to be there because I'm part of the body. I need to learn because I need to minister. I need to minister so that people will hear of Jesus Christ, so that people will know that God loves them, so I need to minister so that the needs of people are met. There should be a mindset that backs our action. We do not just act because some people tell us to do, but we should do it because God tells us, and out of our own initiative, we do it. We become progressive in our thinking, we become progressive in our partnership. I like the word, Saliship. Saliship means joint participation. If this pew in the front is lifted and brought to the back, I need Saliship to do this. I take it here. Somebody takes it up from the end. If the two of us cannot do it, somebody else will come, and maybe four of us, six of us can take it easily to the back. That's fellowship. Fellowship is not just meals. We call our meals, our potluck, fellowship, because we eat together. We share together. But that is part of Saddlership, but actually the word Saddlership means doing things together. The Church does not end when you go out of the doors of the Church. It does not end there. Your care and concern for one another continues on. Do you know, you would know whether the person has prayed for you, If the next time you meet each other, he would say to you, how's your foot? Well, if the person said last week, I'll pray for the healing of your foot. The next week you meet each other, he would say to you, how's your foot? Or maybe, Tuesday he would say, have you seen the doctor? You need a ride to go to the doctor? I'll take you there. Isn't that fellowship? Would you enjoy a member of the church that offers service for you? That's joint fellowship. And this is what they were doing. They sold their property and possessions and were sharing them with all that anyone might have need. This is not obligatory, but this is out of initiative. And sell this So, we can pay. Remember, we have a parsonage in Los Angeles, and in 1994, we were going to sell the property. I remember that recession in the 90s, the early 90s. And nobody, many people came to see it and nobody was buying and so finally we decided we'll sell it at half price. But nobody still would buy it. Finally the deacons of the church said, let's just foreclose it, have it foreclosed. So in a meeting they decided to, they brought it to the meeting and the members decided we'll have it foreclosed. After the meeting, two members of the church came to me and said, Pastor, that was wrong. I said, why? He said, two reasons. One, we're a Christian church, and we are not supposed to tell a lie. We still have money in the bank to make payments, and if we tell the bank we are foreclosing it because we have no money to pay, then it's telling a lie. Secondly, the other person said, It's not a faith. We still have money to pay for the next six months. We're worried about the seventh month. Where is our faith? I thought we live by faith and not by sight. So I said, what do you want to do? Well, it's your call, Pastor. What do you want to do? I said, OK, I'll bring this matter back to church and move for reconsideration of the matter. So we announced that, and in two weeks we met again and we said, we have an item for reconsideration. And so they said, OK, what is that? And so we talked about that. And so we talked about it lengthily, and then we decided not to have it foreclosed. The question is, where would the money come from? That's the next three months. People in the church decided, many of them decided, to increase their giving from 10% to 15% to 20%. And nobody became poor because of that. Others took sidelines. Another job. And their job, after they got their job, the pay was, of course, automatically Uncle Sam gets a part of overtime, right? Another job. Then the type, but they said, do not, that's no problem. I'm, the rest of what I receive out of the second job will go towards the purchase, the payment of the parsonage. In three months time, the church paid off the building. Why? Because the people had the initiative to give, and people had the initiative to say, this is ours, this belongs to the church. And fix this. Some of them sold things. I remember those, the young people, they were collecting bottles, and tin cans, and anything that they can collect together. They had yard sale, they had rummage sale, and whatever they got out of that, it went to the payment of the building. But you know, that was for a building. But you think of this, we do not care just for the building, we care for the people that are part of the body of Christ. Everyone that had needs. That was wonderful. It was a wonderful situation that people could see that. You know, the neighbors will see. If you cannot drive and somebody comes by and pick you up, your neighbor will notice that somebody comes to pick you up and bring you home after that. And your neighbor would say, who's that? Who's that that comes here and picks you up? Who is that that came with two bags of groceries? Who are they? And then you tell them. Once they see that we love each other, that we care for one another, people will see the Lord Jesus Christ in our lives, and they will be impressed. Not by us, but the person that lives in us, that has brought about a change in our lives. This is transformation. So people in the church are people that are believers, people that belong to the church, and people that become like the Lord Jesus Christ in progression. And then they were also becoming proactive. I like that word proactive. Before we think of proactive, we were just saying that I'm favor, I am for being active. Of course today when you think proactive, you think of pimples. you know, on your, on your faith. And so if you use proactive, then it will cure that. But the idea is this, it's good, some people recommend that because it's good for your faith. Now the believer is good for the people of the world. We become proactive, we become participant. Lastly, I'd like to do this. Take a look at verse 43 and verse 47. Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe, and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. You know, when the apostles preached, when the apostles went to the temple, when the apostles went to the streets, they were seeing wonders of the Lord. People were being healed and converted, because the apostles went out We cannot expect God to do wonders among our neighborhood, we cannot do wonders among our families and friends, if we do not get out of our homes to go visit them and share the Gospel. We could not just say, Holy Spirit, work in the home of my mother, when we do not go to our mother's home. We cannot expect God to move in the home of our neighbor if we do not go and speak to our neighbor. But if we go there and become proactive in preaching and sharing the gospel, the Holy Spirit will show himself mighty in your behalf because the Holy Spirit has been given a power for our preaching and sharing the word. So they saw all this because they were moving. And then take a look at verse 47. And they were praising God and having favor with all the people. Wow, that's nice. There was celebration. People were praising God. It was not as if, oh, poor us, poor me. Remember Paul said, if God is for us, it can be against us. There was power, and they were praising God. They were celebrating. I went to a seminar in Florida. We went there. We had a seminar for two days, and then on the third day, we went out in teams by threes. Maybe another time I'll explain to you what that plan is. So we went by threes, and then after we had gone out for about three hours, we came back to the church, and we had celebrations. We were submitting a report, homes that we visited, people that have made a decision, people that said, well, come to church on Sunday for Sunday school. And we were reporting this and everyone was just praising God for what God was doing. But you know, if you do not do anything, there will be nothing to celebrate. Praising God would be the effect of this, in favor with the people. People knew them, people saw them. And they became favorable to the neighborhood and the people around. And then, lastly, this is something to celebrate. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those that were being saved. Day by day. When was the last time we had somebody come to know Jesus Christ as Savior? Last Sunday was a joy in our church. where I introduced four people in the church last Sunday morning and I said, we praise God for this, new believers, new members of the body of Christ, a father and a mother, their son and their daughter-in-law. They accepted Jesus Christ as Savior. We meet in their home now every Thursday evening for Bible study. They've accepted Jesus Christ as Savior. And so the lady said, next time I'll invite friends to come and attend the Bible study. Beloved, this is the church. God is going to do wonders for the church because we are children of God after we have believed in Jesus Christ. We become like the Lord Jesus Christ and people, we belong to the church and then we become like the Lord Jesus Christ and people will see that. And when we become like the Lord Jesus Christ, people will notice. And God is going to work in the hearts of people and be saved. Praise God. Beloved, the first church was not perfect. There is no perfect church now, except the body of Christ. that we have the power of God in the local church. God is going to move and God is to do wonders. Let us pray. As our heads are bowed and we start to pray, I would like to ask you, if you have seen yourself as part of the church, and what you can do as a member of the church. Why don't you go ahead and let's go ahead and come to the Lord and say, Lord, thank you for saving me. Thank you for making me a part of your body. And thank you for the fact that I could be used for your glory for the building up of the body of Christ. Lord, we thank you for the church. Not just an organization, but the living organism that grows and grows and grows. We thank you for any decision that has been made today, for life that has been surrendered to you, to become participant, to be progressive, to be producer for your glory. We submit to you and commit to you the passage of scripture that we have shared. We commit to you, everyone, to the work of the Holy Spirit and bring about conviction and conversion and change. Thank you for the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We pray that you'll bless this church. We pray that you'll assure yourselves strong in their behalf. We pray that you'll provide their needs and we pray that you'll give them wisdom in their decisions and we pray that you'll just widen their contacts. Thank you once again. In Jesus' name, Amen.