Real Christianity: The Model of the First Church - Pt 3

0:31 Number six, real Christianity, not phony, fake, pseudo-Christianity, enjoys joyful worship. Real Christianity enjoys joyful worship. Worship is a celebration. It's a festival, not a funeral. It's the party for the kingdom of God. And when worship is joyful, people want to be there because people are looking for joy. Do you think church ought to be fun? I do. I do. You know what? There's so much bad news in the world. The last thing you need to do is come to church and hear more bad news. You don't need to come to church for bad news. All you have to do is turn on the TV. There's plenty of bad news in the world. I could stand up here every week and tell you everything that's wrong in the world. So what? What we need is the gospel. Gospel means good news, not bad news, good news.

1:27 And when you have good news, when I hear good news, it makes me joyful. and worship is to be joyful. We come here to celebrate, not to commiserate. Now, I've been in some of these churches that are called the first church of the Frigidaire, you know, where, you know, people are ice skating up and down the aisles as ushers. I look over the front to make sure there's no, you know, casket there, you know. And it's really funny because at Saddleback, we are a joyful church. And it kind of ruins people when they go to other churches sometimes. I actually know of a lady who moved from Saddleback to Texas, and she joined a church there that was very formal and kind of quiet. And at the end of the first song, she started clapping. Like, you know, we clap at Saddleback. She started clapping for the song. And the usher came out and said, ma'am, you know, we don't do that in this church. And so then they sang the second song, and she forgot and clapped again. And the usher came up and said, ma'am, you're going to have to be quiet, okay?

2:26 We don't do that here. And then they sang a third song that was kind of rousing. And she kind of did like one of those Rick Munchaus, woo-hoo, you know? And the usher came up and said, ma'am, you're going to have to be quiet or you're going to have to leave. And she said, well, I'm sorry. I'm just so full of the joy of the Lord. He said, well, you didn't get it here. You know, there are two reasons why unbelievers don't become Christians. Two reasons. One, they've never met a Christian. And two, they have.

3:04 Because some Christians are so cranky and so negative and so legalistic and so judgmental and no fun, I want to be around joyful people. I don't want to be around cranky, critical, negative people. Now, look, let's look at real Christianity. It says in verse 46, they continued to worship together in the temple courts. Notice that's plural. Praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. Now, there's a couple things I want you to get out of this. First, it says they met in the temple courts. Circle the word S on courts. We've talked about this before. that the first church did not meet in one building. They met in lots of buildings.

3:56 And the reason we have venues and campuses is because we're a New Testament church. They met in the temple courts. Do you know that for the first 300 years of the church, there were no church buildings? For 300 years, not a single church building was built. They met in temple courts. They met in parks. They met in tents. They met outside. They met in catacombs. They met where it was secret because they were being persecuted and you could lose your life. No church buildings, but they met in multiple places. One church, multiple places. But what I want you to notice is the kind of worship. It says praising God and enjoying the favor. Circle praising and enjoying. The worship was happy. It was happy. I don't know, have you ever noticed why people love to go to rock concerts?

4:52 This is the reason why. It allows them to express emotions they can't express anywhere else. You go to a concert, they used to do this with lighters, now everybody does it with cell phones. What are they doing here? I'm thinking this is as close to worship as those people are ever gonna get. Why do we like to go to rock concerts? Because you were wired for worship. God gave you emotions that need to be expressed. The only reason you have emotions is God has emotions and you're made in his image. God has joy and God has sadness and God has anger and God has frustration, and God has celebration, and you have all those emotions because you were created in the image of God. That's why you're not an animal. Ants don't have emotions.

5:44 They have instincts. But human beings are created in the image of God, and God made you with emotions to be expressed, and you were wired for worship. Now, if you don't worship God, you're gonna find an outlet to worship something. Now, why is it, tell me the logic of this. that it's okay for me to go to a game or a concert and yell my head off and raise my hands and hoot and holler and nobody thinks that's weird. I'm just a fan. But if I come to church and show any kind of emotion, I'm a fanatic.

6:28 All right, okay. Now, thank you. Now, tell me the logic. Tell me the logic of this. Okay, so I'm allowed to get emotional about anything except the most important thing in life. I can get emotional about a game that isn't gonna matter a week from today, but I cannot get excited by the fact that my past has been forgiven, I have a purpose for living, and I have a home in heaven. I cannot get emotional about that. Come on, give me a break.

7:01 Yeah. Now They had fun. And by the way, where does joy come from? Well, Peter mentions it in this sermon here in Acts chapter two. He quotes David in 2.28. He says, you've shown me the paths that lead to life and your presence fills me with joy. Circle paths and presence. The two things that give human beings joy is knowing your purpose and feeling God's presence. That's where lasting joy comes from. Knowing the path that leads to life, knowing your purpose in life, and feeling God's presence. God is with me. He's with me right now. Look at the next verse, Acts 2, 26. This is more of Peter's Pentecost sermon.

7:54 He says, because of this, my heart will be glad, my words will be joyful, and I will live in hope. Question, do you think if everybody in our church lived like this, our hearts were glad, our words were joyful and we lived in hope, would that attract other unbelievers? Oh yeah, you wouldn't have to advertise or market anything.

8:21 Let me just tell you something, if you're cranky and boring, don't call yourself a Christian because you're a bad advertisement for God. Because if you call yourself a Christian and you're mean-spirited, people think God's mean. He's saying, if my heart is glad and my words are joyful and I live in hope, that's gonna attract unbelievers. Some of you have lost your joy and you need to get it back and you need to pray like David, restoring to me the joy of salvation. Now there's another element. Real Christianity, number seven, makes generous sacrifices. Real Christians and real Christianity makes generous sacrifices. The Christians of the Roman Empire era were the most generous people in the empire. In fact, they were famous for their generosity.

9:18 They took care of each other. They took care of the poor. They helped each other out. They literally shared everything. Look at this next verse. Here's what the Bible says about the first church. all the believers, it's not just pastors, all the believers, that's all of you, shared everything, not just some things. That means lawnmowers, okay? It means RVs, it means whatever. They shared everything with each other because they were family. In fact, it says they would sell their land and the things they owned and then give the money to anybody who needed it. That's pretty radical. You see how far the 21st century church is off from the first century church? Now, I've actually read books who talked about that the first Christians lived in community, and they say the first Christians practiced communism.

10:12 Wrong. Absolutely wrong. Let me explain this to you. Capitalism says, in a nutshell, what's mine is mine, and I'm going to keep it. I'm going to keep it, and I'm going to protect it. What's mine is mine, and it's all mine. That's capitalism. Communism says, what's yours is mine, and I have a right to take it. And as the state, I can take it away from you, and I can redistribute it to everybody else. It's forced charity. We're gonna tax it, and we're gonna redistribute it. That's communism, that's socialism. Capitalism, what's mine is mine, I'm gonna keep it. Communism, what's yours is mine, and it belongs to the state, and we're gonna redistribute it the way we want to. Christianity says, what's mine is really God's, and I'm sure willing to share it with you. See the difference?

11:05 It's voluntary. It's not taxed, it's not forced, it's done not out of law or legalism, it's done out of love. Christianity is neither capitalism nor communism. It is saying, what's mine really belongs to God. I don't really own anything. I'm here for 80 years, God's given me a little bit, I'm gonna use it right now, and then it gets passed on to somebody else. So if you need it, here, let me help you out with it. Total voluntary, generous and sacrificial. And notice they shared everything, not just money, everything. In fact, notice it says in Acts 2 46, they shared their meals, oh, I like that one. Okay, they shared their meals with great joy and generosity. Circle joy and circle generosity. And then draw a line between the two because generosity always produces joy.

11:58 The more generous you are, the more joyful you are, and the more joy you have, the more it makes you want to be generous. Generous churches are joyful. By the way, did you know that in the New Testament, the word, when they gave at worship, when they gave the offering, the word that they gave to describe the offering is the word hilarios.

12:19 Now guess what word, that's in Greek, guess what word we get from that? Yeah, hilarious. It says, when they gave the offering, these guys had a party when they gave the offering. They so loved to give, they were so generous, and they were so joyful about it, they had a party every time they took an offering. Now, let's just admit it. In most churches, when you take the offering, that's the low point in service. It's like, okay, everything's died, take the offering. You know, it's like, oh, brother, what can I think of? How soon can I get out of here? All you guys, the bleachers, try to leave. I know that, you know. and oh, they're taking the offering, you know. But in the New Testament time, it says they were hilarious. Now, if the offering was hilarious, what do you think they did when they were really having fun? They loved to give. Here's my question. Do you think that if we went back to the original New Testament, real Christianity, not the fake stuff, but the real kind of Christianity that has supernatural power, and you see miracles happening, and uses everybody's language and you speak to the people you can best speak to.

13:24 And he uses everybody's gifts and women's gifts are used and valued and men's gifts are used and valued and little kids and elderly, young and old, everybody's gifts and talents are used. And we offer life-changing truth that free people from their habits and their hurts and their hangups. And we share the true gospel and we provide loving support for each other because we're a family and we stick together as brothers and sisters. And we treat the elderly as mothers and fathers. And we care for each other. And when we get together for worship, we celebrate. We don't commiserate. We have a good time. We have a joyful party. We enjoy God's grace. And then we generously sacrifice for each other and for our church and for the kingdom of God. Do you think that if we did that, we could reach more people for Jesus? Oh, without a doubt. We'd reach more people in the next 10 years than the last 30 years combined. This is a church worth dying for.

14:22 In fact, that's exactly what they did. In the New Testament church, they died for their church. They would rather go to the Colosseum and die a death with gladiators and lions than renounce their faith and their brothers and sisters in God's family. It's a church worth dying for. Now, when you have that kind of commitment, the eighth condition is this. Real Christianity creates exponential growth. Rapid, multiplying, fast, exponential growth. When you do these other seven things, the eighth is automatic. Now notice it says, people liked what they saw. So every day their number grew and added those who were being saved. When it says people liked what they saw, who's it talking about there?

15:15 Unbelievers. Unbelievers looked at Christians and goes, those guys are weird, but I like what they're doing. They love each other. They're happy. They're seeing miracles. And all these things are happening in their lives. Let me go back to the very first verse we looked at. It's our charter. It's here on the screen. We sang about this. From Jerusalem, you'll go out to the whole world. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. And then you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Do you know why this church has power? Because we take that verse seriously. And when God looks down and sees people and churches saying, they believe what I tell them do. They do it the way I said to do it in the Bible. He puts his power.

15:58 Wouldn't you like to be a part of a church like that? This is a church worth living for. And it's a church worth dying for. You guys are a bunch of radicals. Let me pray for you. Father, I pray you will protect everybody this week. Protect their finances. Protect their jobs. Protect their marriages. Protect their health. Protect their minds from temptation and evil. Protect them from all the things that try to mess up their lives. May they live this week as real Christians. representing real Christianity. I ask you to bless them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen. You know, people are being transformed by these messages. In fact, here's Rick with a letter from one of our listeners. Well, I hope you enjoyed the broadcast today. I love to end our time together by sharing letters from listeners because we get so many great ones. This one's from a woman named Elena. Dear Pastor Rick, I've been struggling with insomnia for many years. That's a common problem.

17:10 It has inevitably affected my family, and I've been irritable. I've been short-tempered with them. I've even gone to sleep therapists in hopes of regaining at least five hours of continual sleep without sleeping pills that do more harm than good. But it was all unsuccessful until I started listening to Daily Hope. You know, quieting my mind, Pastor Rick, with the messages from the Bible and my desire to glorify God when I turn out the lights with the daily hope messages has brought me back to a stable sleeping pattern. That's amazing, Elena. That's amazing. She writes, every morning now I wake up after more than five to eight hours of sleep and I wake up saying, thank you, Lord, for another night of peaceful sleep. With full comprehension, I turn on daily hope again before I start my day. So she's ending her evening with daily hope, and she's starting her day with daily hope. That's pretty amazing. She said, Pastor Rick, life happens, and sometimes my insomnia problems come back. However, they're not as frequent, and they don't last as long as they used to before. So thanks for your messages of hope from God. I now function with more clarity and more spring in my step. Elena, thank you for writing. I love you. And I'm so encouraged that these messages have brought some peace to your mind. And I'm going to be praying for you this week, that your nerves will be calmed, that your peace will increase, that you will be given sleep. You know, there's a verse in the Bible where it says God wants his loved ones to get their proper rest. So thank you for writing to me. And those of you who are listening, I encourage you to write me. Let me know what's going on in your life. It's one way that we can partner together. Thanks for your financial gifts. Thanks for your prayers. And thanks for your letters. God bless you all. Hey, if you'd like to let Rick know how this broadcast has blessed you, he would love it. Please feel free to send him an email at rick at pastorrick.com. That's rick at pastorrick.com. Be sure to join.