The things of God were not a part-time interest or a convenience-based commitment to those early Christians, but their highest priority. If you want to get serious about God, stop and reflect on what they took seriously. They took church seriously. “The believers met together in the Temple every day.”
Question: Are you a hit-and-miss churchgoer? Do you get upset if the service exceeds an hour or the preacher takes an extra ten minutes? Is once-a-week your limit? Not for these New Testament Christians! So what drew them? The temple’s praise team and band or choir? Cutting-edge media or youth programs? Did they have more time and less responsibility than we have? No, everything about their life was harder, took longer, and was less convenient. Yet their encounter with Jesus so transformed their priorities that, “Every day they continued to meet” (v. 46 NIV).
They hungered to gather in the presence of the Lord, believing His promise, “Where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them” (Mt 18:20 NLT). Taking God seriously requires regular involvement with other Christians, experiencing this unique aspect of His presence, hearing His Word together, and encouraging one another (See Heb 10:25). You need that special dimension of fellowship with God that happens only when His family gathers together with Him.
“The believers met together…and shared everything.” Acts 2:44 NLT They took fellowship seriously. Those early disciples valued their relationship. It went beyond merely singing hymns and hearing sermons. They “met together…shared everything they had…sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need” (Acts 2:44-45 NLT).
Do we have such selfless love, caring enough to share everything we own with our brother and sister in need? How many of them shared what they had? “All the believers.” How much did they share? “Everything they had.”
God’s Word describes His church as a body. Its members exist individually but they can only function properly in connection with one another. Arms, hands, legs, shoulders, etc. cannot live separately; they must be joined to a body with a head to accomplish their purpose.
The early church survived incredible persecution and achieved amazing things. Why? Because they understood the need to value each other, and to sacrifice personal interest for the sake of the whole.
As isolated, self-reliant, self-promoting individuals they would have been destroyed by the overwhelming force of their enemies. As a believer you may survive apart from the church, but you can’t thrive.
Your God-given potential will never be realized until you commit wholeheartedly to a local fellowship and invest yourself in serving God’s vision for that church.
Today, decide to not make church an option, make it a priority. THOSE WHO ARE PLANTED FLOURISH! I want to challenge you its past time for all of us to GET SERIOUS ABOUT GOD.
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