 Beginning at verse 41, reading to verse 47, Acts chapter 2, then those who gladly received his word were baptized, and that day about 3,000 souls were added to them. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in prayers. Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now, all who believed were together and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all as anyone had need. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people, and the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. Now, I want to begin a series as mentioned a moment ago. A series that I'll call the church that Jesus builds. And what I want to do, what's the purpose of this? Some will ask, and after I'm through, they'll still say what was the purpose of that, but what's the purpose of this? Well, I simply want to give you insight into the value of the church, the body of Christ. So in order to do that, to speak of the church, I chose to take a few moments. Some of you haven't been with us that long. Some of you have been with us for a long time, but others have joined this fellowship, you know, not that long ago, a year, two years, three years ago. You may not know much about the history of this fellowship, and you probably don't know very much about me, the pastor of this church, although I don't want you to think that what I'm about to share is supposed to be making some significant difference in the way you view me. I do want you to know how this church happened and why we do the things that we do. Because a lot of times people may wonder, why do you do what you do in the fashion that you do? How did that happen? Because many people, when they enter into a church, never really take into consideration its history. And so I wanted to begin, though I'm going to be looking at verse 42 and sharing several things from verse 42, we will look at that verse. I wanted to begin by giving a brief history of how our church came into existence, a really synopsis of what I was sharing just this last Saturday, eliminating certain things, but giving the gist of it so that those of you who are with me on Saturday will already know these things. But some of you, most of you who were not with me on Saturday, at the servants seminar, this may be new information or it will be information that you've heard in the past and you're just being refreshed by. So let me give you a brief introduction concerning how this church came into being and then what I want to do is develop some things out of verses 41 and 42 and we'll conclude there because I'm going to pick up next time at verse 43. And so let me give you a brief background. I originally came to the Inland Empire in September of 1974 and I came into this area for a specific reason of teaching my older brother the word of God. My brother Frank had gotten saved, he got saved August 4th, 1974. He lived in Ontario, I lived in Norwalk and so because he wasn't getting fed other than a weekly he'd go to church, I was concerned for him and so what I did is my sister Madeline and I have a younger sister named Madeline. Madeline and I began to drive together from Norwalk and we drove to the city of Ontario in order that I could disciple him and it was at that Bible study that we had here in the city, actually there in the city of Ontario back in September of 1974 that I began my ministry in the Inland Empire within a couple of months of starting that Bible study. My brother began to invite friends to attend the Bible study and as he began to invite friends from his job to attend, a young woman showed up one day who was just invited, she was a coworker and as she came to the Bible study she listened to the study and all and within a couple of weeks she got saved and then within a few weeks after that you know I took her out on a date and we've never been apart since obviously that young woman was my wife Marie. So when I met her and I began to date her I was living a busy life. I went to school five days a week. I was teaching two Bible studies a week one in Norwalk and the other in the city of Ontario. I was attending church on Thursday evening, Sunday morning and Sunday night and I was playing on two softball teams during the week. So after marriage we moved to Rowland Heights. I went to school, I worked part time I taught three Bible studies a week I attended church Sunday morning and Sunday night. Within the first two years of marriage our lives became busy. I led an outreach ministry for Biola College in a place called Ramona Gardens. I became a father for the first time began working full time in Huntington Park. I taught two Bible studies a week one in Norwalk the other in Rowland Heights. I quit Biola because I couldn't afford it. Began attending night school at Cal Poly Pomona. I quit Cal Poly went to Melody Land School of Theology. After a semester there I went to Cal State Fullerton returned to Cal Poly Pomona. In early 1977 we would drive from Rowland Heights to attend Calvary Chapel Downey. From Rowland Heights we moved to Norwalk continued to attend Calvary Downey. Eventually we drove every Sunday morning from Norwalk to Claremont to go to church. Early in 1978 we went to Calvary Chapel Claremont where I was appointed to the church board and we met every Tuesday night after school. In November of 1978 we bought a home in Ontario for a short time had home Bible studies weekly there. I began teaching a Bible study on Monday nights at the church, moved it to Friday nights, continued working full time while playing and ministering on the church softball team and served on the board and in children's ministry. During this time we had our second baby little David and I just finally quit school. I served in Calvary Claremont beginning in 78. I was ordained as a pastor in 79, placed on staff in 1980, paid staff. I received $969 a month before taxes and tithe had a house payment of $500 a month. Marie worked as a substitute teacher. I was an assistant pastor. During the one and a half years of that ministry Marie worked jobs regularly bringing home needed money to pay our bills. I had VA benefits, they ran out, we needed her check. Marie gave birth to Joseph. When he was three months old I was told I'm not a pastor. The pastor wanted me to be a counselor for the church but I would no longer be on staff as a pastor. I had been praying for several weeks, knew that this was the Lord moving me out so I resigned and began praying about where my family and I were to attend churches. At that time Corinne was three, David was two and Joseph was three months old. So at that time my sister in law Patty asked me to teach her a study because she had no church to attend and so with that our church began. It began in the city of Ontario in July, July 26, 1981 and it began with 25 to 30 adults and 10 to 15 children. When we began this ministry the Lord gave me two specific scriptures for this church. First he gave me Exodus 23 verses 29 and 30 where it says I will not drive them out from before you in one year lest the land become desolate and the beast of the field become too numerous for you. Little by little I will drive them out from before you until you have increased and inherit the land. I took that to mean in a practical way that our fellowship would not explode in numbers but grow gradually. That's something we sought to take place in the early years. The second scripture was our first message as a church where God said behold I will do a new thing. Isaiah 43, 18 and 19 says do not remember the former things nor consider the things of old. Behold I will do a new thing. Now it shall spring forth shall you not know it. I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. So over the years we've seen the Lord fulfill his word to us. We were 11 years in Ontario. In 1985 we absorbed Calvary Chapel of Chino. There was a Calvary Chapel here in the city of Chino before we began to meet here. In 1985 the senior pastor of Calvary Chapel Chino resigned. His board came to me and spoke to me saying can we join our fellowship? Can we merge Calvary Chapel Chino with Calvary Chapel Ontario? And so in 1985 Calvary Chapel Chino ceased to exist and they merged with us and so we became at that time Calvary Chapel Chino, Calvary Chapel Ontario and we continued in Ontario until 1992 when we moved here. Now when we began in the city of Ontario we wanted to enjoy God with a group of like-minded people. We wanted a church that would be in love with the Bible, a church that was alive and a church that was filled with and walked in the spirit of the Lord. And with that in mind we needed a model of what a church should look like. In Matthew 16 verse 18 Jesus said upon this rock I will build my church. Have you ever wondered what a church is supposed to look and to be like? You see as a father I wondered what my children would look like and what they would be like. When they were born those of us fathers you may have done the same thing when all four of my children were born. I was there in the room when Marie gave birth and when the doctor brought that baby to me and handed me the baby, man I looked at that face to see if there was anything of me in that face. I don't know if you're anything like that but I certainly did. I looked for a likeness. They were so ugly I said oh. Indeed they are mine. But you do that. I mean as I grow a little bit older you look to see and all of that. You know here's something on the side. I have a lot of people here who say you know what? Whenever I see your children next to their mother there is absolutely no doubt that she's the mama to those children. Some of you have seen my kids around my wife and you'll say that, right? I mean how many of you would say that? I think most of you. Yeah, but here's something for you. If you saw my nieces and nephews my Joseph, we have pictures of Joseph with his cousins Johanna and Patrick. They look like brother and sister and so there's a strong family resemblance on both sides and so my children I would look to see is there anything of me in this child? And that's what dads do. And I say that to say this when the Lord looks at the church a church that is really made of his children what is he looking for? What image is it that God wants to see in that which belongs to him, his child? Because I do believe that God's children should, if you will, look like and act like their father. That's what being a Christian really is and God, I think we look at our children and sometimes we can see ourselves in them. That's why when my kids were small that's why when they would do certain things I would see myself. I'd say, oh no, they're like me and they would be even to this day. If you ever knew my children there are certain things about them that I recognize and I will say this. I tell my Nana, my Anna, I'll say to her your last name may be Rivera but you're Rosales. There's no doubt about it because she has so much of my personality and the same is true with our kids. They're a mixture of both but when you look at them what are they to be like and what are they to look like and when God views the church what is it to be like and what is it to look like and don't think that God doesn't want to be reflected by his children because he does. He wants his image. We're to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ and he wants us to be reflections if you will transformed images from humanity to children of God in such a way that the world can look upon us and say they're children of their heavenly father. That's what God wants to do in us. He wants to conform us into his image. What is he looking for? He wants us to be like him. He created us in his image. Genesis 1.27 says God created men in his own image, in the image of God, he created him. In Colossians 3.10 it speaks concerning this image in Colossians 3.10 it says you have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him. Ephesians 4.24 says put on the new man which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness and so there's this knowledge, righteousness, holiness these are spiritual expressions of our heavenly father and that's what he intends for us. You see the early church obviously began in a healthy way and the early church provides a model for us to this day and so because of that I wanted to look at this passage to see what God's pattern is for the church. What is the church that Jesus builds? And so that's what we'll be looking at. I'm gonna take you on a series through a few studies here in this passage because I wanna develop that because I really think that it's important for us to really get a grasp of who we're supposed to be as the body of Christ. What are we supposed to be? I have to tell you and I'm not prepared to go into a great deal about this right now perhaps during the series I might take some time to share some of these things but if there's anything the church is right now it's confused and I'm not talking about just Calvary Chapel, Janeville, I'm talking about the church, the church in the United States, very confused, having an identity crisis. Who are we really and what are we supposed to do? And so I really feel that this is a right time for us as a church, as the body of Christ here in Chino Valley to spend some time to look at this together so that we might see what God might want to be doing in us and we'll use the book of Acts as our model because that's the model that we choose to use as we concern ourselves with that matter. So as we begin, we begin by knowing this. One, the day of Pentecost has fully arrived. The Holy Spirit has fallen on 120 of Jesus' disciples. They were together in what is called the upper room and they were waiting on the Lord and as they were waiting on the Lord and were praying the spirit of God baptized them. Now when the Holy Spirit came upon them the apostle Peter got up and he began to minister the word of God, he spoke to a number of people, you see that all in chapter two and as he was there preaching on the anointing of the Holy Spirit he spoke concerning Jesus, he spoke of Jesus being crucified, how that he died he was buried and he speaks concerning the resurrection of Christ and he speaks concerning the need for repentance. That's gospel preaching. When you speak concerning those things that's called gospel preaching and that's what he did. Jesus Christ crucified, Jesus Christ dead, buried, resurrected, ascended in such a way that he went into heaven, sent the Holy Spirit in order for you to have a relationship with him and this is biblical preaching. That's what he said. People got saved. 3,000, notice verse 41 again. 3,000 people in the preaching of the apostle Peter. 3,000 people were saved. Now here's your problem. What's going to transform this group of strangers into a community of believers? How do you take 3,000 people and have a single body? How does that work? Because that's gotta take place. What is going to keep them from remaining a group of religious strangers? Here's something for you. A lot of people today want to remain religious strangers. They do. They prefer it. There's no accountability when you remain a stranger. Is there? You can put on any face you want. I can put on any holy face I want and people can see me in a certain way and it's not difficult to put on the I'm very holy mask. A lot of people do and sometimes they do so regularly. They do it every Sunday and I'm not calling anybody hypocrite by the way. I'm simply saying that's a fact. That's what happens. When people don't really know what's going on in my life, it's easy for me to put on something else. It really is. It really is. We went to 25 years ago now. We had a married couples retreat. Now when people go to married couples retreats, you naturally assume that the people going there want to work on their marriage and have a better marriage, right? I mean, you'd assume that. That's why you go to retreats. I would assume. So I am at the retreat. I get somebody approaching me saying, you've got to come. There's something that needs to be dealt with immediately. And I'm brought to one of the rooms. I knock on the door, enter in. There's a little wife sitting on the edge of her bed. Her face is bruised. Her husband had beat her up at the retreat. And just because you're at a religious function doesn't mean the flesh doesn't find a place to show itself. And that exactly happened. And those kinds of things have happened before. And I'm not saying this with condemnation. So please don't misread me. But every almost, well, quite frequently, I won't say every week and I won't say every month. But quite frequently, when our guys are cleaning up after a Sunday service, we'll be throwing the trash and there will be an empty beer can in the bathroom here in the church. We've found empty Scotch and whiskey bottles. And I'm not judging. So please don't misread me. I'm not. I'm glad that they're here. I want them to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. Don't misread me. I'm not judging them at all. I'm simply telling you that's a fact. I'm telling you that every time we have an inventory here for our bookstore, we have thousands of dollars of merchandise that's been stolen by believers. And you know what the number one thing they steal is the Bible. That's a fact. I'm not lying to you. And they take the 10 commandments and remove the thou shalt not steal. That's a fact. That's a fact. I could go on and on and on, but that's not the purpose of my teaching today. It's just true. So please don't ever get caught up thinking that everybody around us all love Jesus, not to say that the ones around you right now don't. Don't be looking like them. Because they're doing that to you right now. Just remember that everybody is welcome. I want people saved. But that doesn't mean that everybody knows Jesus Christ. There's a lot of people who don't know the Lord. You know that. And so in accountability, you have the joy of having people who know who you really are. That helps me a lot. What's going to keep 3,000 people from being strangers? What is? That's what we're going to be looking at, because to be honest with you, I have never had a desire to have a huge group of strangers. What I've always wanted was a church of maturing disciples. So when verse 41 speaks concerning 3,000 souls being added, that is based on they received with gladness the word. What is it that is going to make a person saved? Well, we have a genuinely converted group of people here. These people here, the church, are genuinely converted people. These are people who gladly receive the word of God. That simply means that they receive the gospel. They heard the gospel. And with joy and faith, they welcomed that gospel into their life, and they were saved. And that's obvious. That's how you become a Christian. At least to me, as I'm seated up here, I would like to say that's obvious. And yet it probably really isn't as obvious as I think it is. You see, you become a Christian by receiving the gospel by faith, by personally believing the message of the gospel. Now, what I just said seems to be lost on the average American today, because just yesterday I was watching a news program with Bill O'Reilly. Some of you who are aware of him, Bill O'Reilly. But I was listening to him yesterday, and he said this. He said, this is a quote, 80% of Americans, he said, 80% of Americans refer to themselves as Christians. That's true. 80%. Some surveys actually have higher than 80%. Very few have ever said lower than 80%. The average that I've seen is 83%. Sometimes it's been as high as 90% of those who surveyed when asked, what is your religious faith up to, in some surveys I've seen, 90%. So O'Reilly was simply stating what is common today. 80% of Americans refer to themselves as Christians. But there's a book that has been written called The Great Evangelical Recession by a man by the name of John Asa Dickerson. And he points out that the vast majority of those claiming to be Christian rarely attend any church, nor do they trust in Christ alone for their salvation, nor do they value God's word as the only rule of faith and practice. He points out after researching four studies by four different researchers, the unanimous conclusion was that the actual number of evangelical or born-again Christians is shockingly between 7% and 8.9% of the US population. I would agree with that. I would agree with that. It isn't 80%. If that's a fact, then every Sunday here should be like Easter Sunday. It should be like that, right? If that's a fact, but it's not a fact. The fact is that between 7% and 9% of the US population actually truly believe. And I think that's accurate. I would say that's fairly accurate. I've had so many conversations over the years with people who say, oh, yeah, I'm saved. But they don't read the Bible. They don't fellowship. They don't attend church regularly. They don't do any of that. But when you speak to them, they will tell you, oh, yes, I'm born again. I had a guy I used to work with. He used to swear terribly, swore all the time. And again, I'm not some prude. I used to use terrible language myself. As a matter of fact, one of the coaches in my high school said that I was on the track team. He said, Rosalind, this is the quickest runner we have in the school. And he's got the most vulgar mouth of any kid I've ever heard. So I'm not in any way casting aspersions that somebody uses bad language. God knows, I could probably teach them how to combine some words and create a new one. I mean, that's how I was. Again, I want to be very careful that I don't come off to you like some self-righteous old man. I'm just telling you the fact. That's a fact. And I worked with this fellow. And this fellow was using vulgarity all the time. And then finally, he says, he's never forget the conversation. He said to me, I'm born again. And I said, really? And he goes, yeah, you didn't know that, did you? Now, you're shocking me. I thought for sure that you were saved. I said, yeah, yeah, that does surprise me. He said, I was watching a TV program. They had me pray a prayer. And I'm now a born again believer. And I've been one for X amount of. And you know, let's face it. I mean, I don't want to call into question what they would say, because you know what? God has a way of taking us and cleaning up our dirty little mouths. He has a way of doing that. Again, I'm not judging the fellow. I'm simply saying that, no, I wouldn't have known, by the way you speak. Our speeches would be salted with grace. And the way that you speak, it's salty, but not with grace. And so there are quite a number of people. And we all know this. I'm stating the obvious to who would answer and say, oh, yes, any survey is I'm born again. Yes, I'm a believer in Jesus Christ. And so we just need to remember that. It is through the receiving of the word of God in faith that we become Christians. In John 5.24, Jesus said, most assuredly I say to you, you who hears my word and believes in him who sent me, has everlasting life shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. You hear my word and you believe in the one who sent me, you have everlasting life. That's how I got saved. That's how you got saved. So when I got saved, I started asking myself, what is the church supposed to be like? And what is it that the Lord would have for me? And the model I received was what I got by being in Calvary Chapel ministries and all. And I saw the Lord as he worked in the church through one, for us being born again there. You see, these new Christians aren't a group of curious and they were not semi-interested people. By virtue of the fact that they remain steadfast, well, that demonstrates that they were genuinely saved. Verse 42 says they continued steadfastly. That demonstrates that they were genuinely saved. So they weren't giving Jesus a chance. You know, a lot of people, well, I'll give him a shot. I'll give Jesus an opportunity. No, they weren't giving Jesus a chance. They were fully committing themselves to him. They repented of their sins. They received Christ as Lord savior. And like Jesus said in John 831, if you abide in my word, you are my disciples indeed. And so they were genuinely saved. What's the church made up of? Not just people who show up, but people who are really saved. And in verse 42, they continue steadfastly in notice the apostles doctrine. And so the church, when you're saved, also centers your attention on God's word. You actually become a student of the word of God. And a genuine believer is one who hungers for the word of God. I have been blessed. Marie and I have been blessed recently with two new babies, two new grand babies. You know, my Zoe and my David. And my little David is four months old. And just yesterday his dad told me, you know, I'm real concerned about my baby because he's vomiting a lot. He's vomiting, dad. I'm real concerned for him. You know, when babies are healthy, babies are hungry, babies are hungry. When babies are not hungry, you know, and there's no reason for them not to be hungry, it's time for them to be fed. And they're not hungry. Every mama knows there's something wrong here. There's something wrong with this baby. Every mama knows that. You know, my daughter Corinne, it's a great example. When Marie was nursing her, and I've shared this with you, I went to work. My work was only five, 10 minutes away from where I lived. And I left Marie nursing Corinne. I came home for lunch and Marie hadn't moved. She had been in the same place for three and a half hours. She says, I can't stop nursing the baby. Watch what happens. And she'd pull away from Corinne and Corinne would start screaming. And then Marie had to, you know, reattach, if you will. And I left Marie. I said, honey, I'll just make myself some lunch. I went back to work. I came back at four. And Marie was still attached to Corinne. She goes, I can't move. I can't move. She looked like a spider had removed all of her life juices. She was all wrinkled like that. Well, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby, if you're not hungry for God's word, maybe that you're not alive. Maybe you aren't a newborn babe. Maybe you don't have that desire. See, it's an evidence that you're saved when you have a hunger for the word of God. You see, when he speaks here about the Apostles doctrine, that's another way of speaking of the teachings. The word doctrine speaks of teaching. And so they remain steadfast in the teachings of the apostles. The doctrine of the apostles is found in the New Testament. It's called the foundation of our faith. Ephesians 2.20 says you have been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Jesus Christ himself be in the chief cornerstone. So today there's a lack of Bible teaching. It has led to what has been referred to as carnal Christianity. I remember a phone call I received from a person who asked for prayer. They called me in my office and they said, I'd like to ask you to please pray for my pastor. And I said, of course, what would you have me pray for? Well, my pastor got fired because he wants to teach the Bible. And the board fired him. Could you pray for him? Because he needs to find a place to serve God. You'd be surprised at the amount of churches that refuse to be taught in God's words. You would be surprised. Perhaps some of you came out of an environment like that. But you would be surprised at how many churches just are not pastored by somebody who teaches the word of God. So when we began, we made a decision to become a fellowship that takes the Bible seriously. In Acts chapter 20, verses 26 and 27, Paul said it like this. He said, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of all men, for I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole counsel of God. So teaching the word of God is intended that the man of God may become completely mature, according to 2 Timothy 3.17. And so these new believers were submitted to instruction, and they were hungry for the word of God. And they believed the message, as well as the one who was presenting the message to them. And that made it possible for them to learn. In 1 Thessalonians 2.13, Paul said it like this. He said, for this reason, we also thank God without ceasing. Because when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you welcomed it, not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe. So the word of God, you receive it and welcome it, not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the very word of God. And so they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine, which is why we do what we do here, which is why under normal conditions, I will teach you through the word. That's why I do that. As I mentioned earlier, this is unusual for me to do a series of topical studies. It's unusual because I've always taught for the history of this church. We'll celebrate 34 years in July. The history of this church has always been built on a systematic teaching, in one form or another, through the word. Other than when we first began, you might find this interesting, when we first began, I was trying to lay foundations, even as I'm relaying foundations tonight. I began to pray at a certain point, and I started saying to the Lord, I believe it's time for me to teach a book. What should I teach? I've got this distinct impression that I believed could possibly be the spirit of God saying, teach the gospel of Mark. And I argued with that inclination, thinking I was speaking to myself, and said, well, I don't know if I begin Mark, and I'm in chapter one, and I stop at verse eight, and I pick up at verse nine. What happens when I get to chapter three, and somebody hasn't heard the first two chapters, and I was arguing for some reason, in my own mind, turns out I was quenching the spirit, and I was arguing in that fashion for a week or two. I just kept getting this impression, and then one day a visitor in this church, when we were in Ontario, a woman, I wouldn't be able to point her out if she was talking to me after service, but I do remember she walked up to me and I'll never forget this as I had been wrestling. Should I, I think I'm supposed to teach the gospel of Mark, I will never forget how this woman walked up to me after a Bible study on a Sunday morning, and she said this to me, teach the gospel of Mark. That's a fact, I'm telling you the truth. I said, oh, okay, that's the Lord. Cause that was where we were supposed to be. And so we did that, and I taught through the gospel of Mark. Verse by verse, chapter by chapter, and went through books like that, have been doing that obviously for a long time, remaining steadfast in the word of God. But not only did they remain steadfast in the word of God, they remained steadfast in fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. Now, when I was first saved, this fellowship thing was very new to me. I'm very self-sufficient, if you will, not one who was prone to, I just wasn't one who wanted a lot of friends. I just, I had one friend, and that would be enough. I didn't need five or 10, though I had a lot of relationships and people that I would today, I'd say they were very dear friends, but I've always been pretty much on my own. It didn't have a great need for a lot of people around me. So this was news to me, that I'm supposed to actually develop relationships with more than one person. And that's what Calvary Chapel once again, introduced me to, which was fellowship. I was taught that fellowship is truly needed if I'm gonna mature in my Christian faith. And our fellowship that we began very early was centered on Bible study, on personal reading the word of God, worship, prayer, and just beginning to share our lives together. Keep this in mind, Jesus designed the church to be a body working together in unity as a body of believers. We're like a baseball team. What is the most important member of the team? There isn't the most important member because the team is important. In the church, there's only one important person, that's Jesus Christ. He's the head. We all work together. In 1 Corinthians 12, 12, it says as the body is one and has many members, all the members of that one body, being many are one body, so also is Christ. So who here is unnecessary? The answer is no one here is unnecessary. Everyone is necessary. Every single one of us in this room is necessary. Never forget that because you know and I know. That the enemy whispers in your ear and your flesh agrees. You don't show up, nobody even notices. Don't worry about it. You can turn on the net and you can watch and it's not uncomfortable there. You can lay in bed and go to church. That's not a healthy thing to do. I meet with pastors. I met yesterday, I pastor pastors. I had 18 pastors from various Calvary Chapel and other ministries that meet with me on a monthly basis and we gather together for two hours, two and a half hours. They ask questions and I minister to them. That's what I do. I've been doing it for many years. And just yesterday, we were having our fellowship and having our time together and I was sharing these kinds of things with them that we need each other and it is unhealthy to be a lone ranger. It's unhealthy for us to wear that mask to hide behind our spirituality. I need people in my life who can speak to me as a person and say, you know, I'm concerned about you. And I have those people in my life and I need them. So do you, so do you. God is graciously given to me a wife who loves me so much. She does tell me the truth and I love her for it. And families ought to be that way and the church ought to be that way too. For a moment, just think I'm not asking you to do anything but just to take a moment. Do you have somebody in your life that is like that? And if you do, why don't you take a moment and say thank you Jesus for this person because that is so important because we need each other. God knows we do. And in a time when the church is so impersonal of all time, it's now that we need to unite. We need to unite as the body of Christ. Don't be, okay, should I say, okay. I wasn't trying to think of how to say this. What we need to do is we need to become sensitive to one color, sensitive to one color. And the color that we should be sensitive to is red because that's the color of the blood of Christ. Let us be careful not to be looking at people by their black, their white, their brown. God help us because the church has to, the church still has to deal with that element. And we haven't been successful yet because sometimes people choose the church they go to based on how comfortable they are racially with the people around them. And God help the church because we're made up of just different individuals who have the same color. And that's red, the blood of Christ that cleanses us from all sins. We need to remember that. I'm telling you, I'm telling you we have to be very careful not to prefer one over the other. Am I saying that we shouldn't be appreciative of who we are? Am I saying that as a Hispanic that I'm supposed to act like I'm Swedish? No, I think you can value what you are. There's nothing wrong with that, you know? You are who you are. That's fine, but I'm no better than anybody else because of what I am. I just am, like Popeye, I am what I am. That's all that I am. To me, this is so important because I want this church to love one another. That's the mark of a Christian. I had this guy call me up from Leadership Magazine. It's a publication put out by Christianity Today. And he said, we understand that you have a large Hispanic population there. I said, I think we do. And he says, what is it that makes it a large Hispanic population? And I said, Hispanics? I mean, I don't know. And he goes, do you play Latin music in worship? I mean, seriously, you did. Do you play Latin music? I said, yeah, yeah, every Sunday we sing La Bamba. I mean, what are you talking about? What are you talking about? I don't, you know, I don't get it. I don't get it. Listen, I'm not a Mexican pastor. I'm a pastor. I'm not a Mexican Christian. I'm a Christian. That's what I am. You know, yeah, that's what I am. So the church is different. It's because we're commanded, we have a specific command and that is to love one another. And that's how God designed us to fellowship with him, to fellowship with one another and just enjoy each other's company. You know, the first time we ever had a church breakfast, we didn't have a man's breakfast. We didn't have a woman's breakfast. We had a breakfast. And all of the church showed up for breakfast. All of them did. And we, you know, it was great. I mean, that's how the church began. I mean, hey guys, we're gonna have breakfast. We'll have a breakfast next month. We're gonna meet at such and so place. It's a Mexican restaurant. No, we're gonna, we're gonna be chorizo. And manudo. I said, no. And the church showed up. That's the way it's supposed to be. Get together, hang around, love each other. You know the world out there needs Jesus and we need each other. And that's how we were designed. And that's really an important thing. That's why the Bible says be devoted to one another and brotherly love, accept one another as Christ accepted you, serve one another in love, be kind and compassionate to one another, consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. I mean the Bible speaks specifically about this kind of fellowship. 50 times in the New Testament alone, at least 50 times it uses the term one another because that's what we are, we're to be with one another. And the church that Jesus built is made up of saved and hungry, taught people to love one another. I pray that when somebody who doesn't necessarily regard this as their home fellowship or their church, I really pray that when they walk in here that they will say to themselves, there's something different. There's something different about these people. When I went to Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa for the very first time, I believe I was 19 years old. You've heard this, but I'll close with this. I was a doper. I smoked some pot, drank some beer. I was barefooted as a hippie. If I had walked into the church that I used to attend, which was St. Pius, the 10th church in Santa Fe Springs, I was raised a Catholic. If I'd have walked into the church loaded the smell of beer, barefooted, what would have happened? Goodbye. You're showing disrespect, dishonor, you know, that's how I was raised. So I intended to offend. It's a fact. They're gonna escort me out. I'll tell my friend you're all a bunch of hypocrites. And then when I go in there and the guy given the Bible studies freakier than me, Lonnie Frisbee, not Chuck, and I was there. I didn't know what it was I was feeling. I had never felt this in church in my life. And I couldn't tell you what it was. And I still remember, I was leaning on somebody's knees because we were all just crowded on the carpet. Hippies sat on the carpet as well as the pews. And they would put their knees up so you could lean against them. We actually were human chairs. We would put our feet up and people would lean on us. And it was packed. It was built to seat maybe 200, 300 people. There were 500 kids in this place. Packed overflow. And I'm there crowded with these other kids. And I'm saying, what am I feeling? What am I feeling? What is here? I've never felt before. There's something here. I've never felt before and it wasn't because I was buzzed. It was because something spiritual was happening. And it caught me by surprise. I was ambushed by something. I was ambushed by the love of God. By the love of God. And may that be present here in this church. In this church. Amen.