Experience Connection

Experience Connection

Acts 2:41-47

Be devoted to Bible Study

Be devoted to fellowship

Be devoted to prayer

Slide

Have you ever had a relationship where you truly felt connected but only to have that connection fade away?

Perhaps in your marriage, you have experienced that? You felt as you got married, you and your spouse really had a deep connection, but as time went on, that connection seemed to fade and you wonder if it was even real to begin with. Sure you go through the motions of marriage, but it seems to have become something superficial.

Maybe you have never experienced that type of connection to another human being before, because you fear getting hurt or let down, so you stay at an arms distance from people.

Well, just like in our human relationships, there are some who never get to experience fully what it is like to be connected to God on an intimate level.

They will recite prayers and read the Bible on occasion, but they always feel like they are at a distance from the Lord.

Others experience it and then that connection with the Lord just seems to fade away and they begin to wonder if it was real.

People either don’t’ experience it or it fades away because, just like in human relationships, they fail to do what is necessary to experience or continue experiencing that connection.

In marriages and other relationships, it is imperative that we spend time together talking and learning about the other person, just like when we first met, so we can continue to experience that connection.

Even in our relationship with God, while it is established and given as a free gift from God, will require effort on our part to continue to experience that close connection.

Now, in a marriage, in those times that we don’t feel connected to our spouse does not make us unmarried. We just aren’t experiencing the joy we could be when we have that connection.

Now, just like in a marriage, we are in relationship with God when we receive Jesus Christ as Savior. That relationship does not go away at times we are not feeling connected or even when we sin. We do not have the joy that we could have, however, if we were we experiencing that close connection with Him.

What is it that we can do so that we can either experience that connection with the Lord?

Well, this morning, we are going to take a look at some of the things that the early church devoted themselves to that helped them to stay connected to the Lord and experience awesome connections to Him and blessings from Him.

Turn with me this morning to

Acts 2:42-47 (p. 772)

Slide

The early church had some incredible experiences with the Lord.

I want to give you a quick background of what is going on preceding what we are about to read.

A quick background up to our text today.

Pentecost has just occurred.

The Holy Spirit came upon the believers at that point and the church started.

Peter preached to the crowd and shared the gospel with them and encouraged them to believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior and it says in Acts 2:41 that about 3000 believed and became part of the church.

Talk about growth problems.

How do you disciple all of these new people?

How do you teach them?

How do they encourage one another and perform all the one another’s?

Where do they park? Oh wait, they didn’t have that problem then.

Anyway, let’s read Acts 2:42 -47 and see how they responded to all of this.

Acts 2:41-47 (p. 772)

41 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Ok, I first want us to take a look at the last 2 verses.

Two things we see hare are that these new Christians met together in the

Temple courts and

In their homes

I want to argue that this is key for us if we are going to continue to grow in our relationship with the Lord and experience connection.