 Several of us were praying earlier. I think it's all of our desires that this weekend be a time of great prayer, of great fervency. I was I was reading a quote from Spurgeon who said that prayer without fervency is like hunting with a dead dog and That struck me. I thought wow, that's that's a that's a good observation I hope that we can go to the Lord not in vain repetition, but Truly with with hearts that are expectant that believe that he has something for us this weekend So let's go to the Lord father. We we come before you this Evening and we pray first for ourselves. We ask that if we have Fallow ground in our hearts that you would indeed help us to to root it out and to soften it to prepare the soil of our hearts to well receive The seed of the word that it may penetrate deep into our hearts and bear much fruit Father, I pray that as we Sit here. We will be attentive. We will Be praying for our own hearts. We will be praying for Those who are who will be speaking particularly brother Dale as he shares two messages from the word We ask that your Holy Spirit would be mighty among us. We pray that your spirit would be mighty in our own hearts We pray that you would give our brother Dale clarity to Share his heart to share the word We ask all these things in the name of Jesus. Amen. It is certainly a special joy to greet you tonight in Jesus name And we welcome all of you here And if you notice in that we're sure they were passing out as you registered it says there that this evening should be a time of introduction to the theme of this weekend And so we want to Use it that way and before if you allow me to before I give an introduction to the theme of the weekend I need to give an introduction to that So I have three words that I want to say To the congregation and I'm saying these words also For the benefit of the speakers who will be following in these sessions. I want them to be aware of some of these points especially of one of them You will know when I get to that point First thing I want to say tonight is that This theme that we have for this weekend is a bit distinct for Kingdom Fellowship weekend the last numbers of years that this Group has been meeting together in various campgrounds at different places this year at Roxbury and has come to our attention through observations and pastors who are Blessing their people as they come here and designed to see their congregations blessed and enhanced as they visit here on these weekends Then maybe we should just take a little time and reflect upon this that Salvation is not only a personal matter with God the revival is not only our yielded this anointing before the Lord It's not only a matter of my prayer time and of my evangelism In my interest in the neighbor. It's not only my walk with God It's not only that I am aware of him and know him though. This is life eternal, but there is a corporate aspect to the Christian life And more more specifically there's a local body. There's a local congregation There is a gathering together the saints. There's a local assembly and how does all this work there? How does my prayer life work there and how does revival work there and how does my life flow there and If anybody that become aware of my relationships with my brothers Were they to examine that even? To the least extent Would they begin to wonder then if that's the relationship I have with God and would they tend to think that well As he gets along with this one then with that one that must be with his relation with God is like And how's this working on this level? That's a concern And so putting all that together this weekend was planned with that concern in mind And so we'd like to look this this weekend not only at our walk with God and our personal devotion there as important as that is Because you know what happens when you try to start a car and several of the cells are dead in the battery The batteries a union of energy there to get that engine started, but when several cells are dead It kind of is a defeating way to try to Arran car a car on the nana. It just does not get the car started And so does no church So we don't we don't hesitate We have not no apologies for the past years than their emphasis on that personal relation with God But would you allow us this year? Look at the corporate experience That's the first observation. I'd like to make And then there's another one I don't have any preachers are here pastors evangelists missionaries. I Suppose the audience this size there are several and one of the things we try to teach pastors is that There are always two ways to preach a sermon Now they're more than two Preaching methods are are many But we have a body of truth here we take that truth and we can really Scourge the people with the truth We can send those lightning bolts of doctrine and teaching and and truth to the people and their hearts are scared and they Realize they don't measure up and they feel condemnation and their situations They don't know what to do about it and think maybe all we're doing is aiming something at them And that's a That's not the way I would recommend that we speak to our people But there's another way that is we have in the audience Someone who does not understand what we're talking about Some of them in the audience who does not understand what we're experiencing Some of the audience who's never seen this point of view from their scriptural background and perspective before They're sitting there saying You know, I admit I don't understand it It's obvious. I'm not doing it But I'm open to understanding it Then Then let's teach them in such a way that they can understand it And if there was a sincere person who said if someone would guide me I Think it'd be a blessing to me but There are you there are eunuchs not only from utopia There are others there are policies and need to understand God's word the interesting thing about this is That those of us who are preaching and teaching We need one another to And so there's someone here this weekend that says, you know, I was never here before and I don't know what's gonna happen this weekend And what are they going to do to me when I get here? We don't want anyone to be under any condemnation. No one is under any criticism For where you are in your life. Everyone of us is on a journey And we press on but we're not there yet. There's a goal before us, but we're still striving towards it And I'd like to speak Tonight and ask the our dear brothers who are sharing this place tomorrow and Sunday To keep that in mind that this corporate experience, maybe it's not where you are You say to me, oh They're just a few of us where we are why We we were just real small group and And maybe There's someone here that does not have any group and this is not a word of condemnation but if we could share some scriptures here and invite and encourage and at least try to explain And I would want you to know that throughout this weekend if you'd like to visit with someone who can help you Maybe plug your life into some of this experience Even though you're at a remote place Kind of isolated and alone There's great love for you at Kingdom Fellowship weekend and God cares and that's why you're here and we want to minister to you As you're here these days So I want to share that word. That's an introduction to the introduction And then one more word We have here and I'm going to be reading it both from John 17 and later from Acts chapter 2 We have a model there We have a model of how a group of people about 120 souls began their their elementary steps into applying The newfound life in Christ the life that comes from above when Christ ascends and the gifts are given the spirit of God comes as you promised that it would and the wind is blowing and the Lord is near and we see them modeling and a new experiment in the city of Jerusalem And then time went on and there may have been more than one way to carry all this out And although I'm very very blessed with this model and we're very excited about the simple teaching that's given here and the way this was so Ably lived out in this first century church You and I might be aware That in various cultures and times and places where the gospel goes we have to take the same lordship of Christ The same word of truth the same apostolic doctrine The same desire to honor our Lord the same love one for another and Form a model in our communities wherever we are the people who can recognize and say of us that was said of them These are Christians these are the anointed ones these people know the Lord. They have been with Jesus There is something about them that we don't have in ourselves And so this model here Maybe that's slightly different in certain settings of the world and maybe your church Expression is just like the different for we have at our local assemblies where we are But it's a model that's be carried out and when Christ is in the midst When our Lord Jesus is present with us that in charge Then there can be a holy response response a holy work done that we want to keep that in mind as we go through these Messages this weekend John chapter 1 chapter 17. I'm sorry in your Bible These words make Jesus and lift up his eyes to heaven and said father the hour has come glorify thy son That thy son may also glorify thee No, I'm not doing this tonight. I'm not gonna take time to do this tonight Well, there's you Mary wrote his book with Christ in the school of prayer. He He and one of those earlier lessons he had some 30 lessons there. I think in that book Well, the early lessons he referred to the law of the sanctuary That phrase comes to look of Ezekiel It said just slightly different there The book is equal we have a very interesting thing that happened in chapters 10 and 11 We have the glory of the Lord departing from the temple It goes out in a hill off to the side and the later departs completely from the city The glory of the Lord is gone and then we come back here later into the 40s 41 42 43 43 the glory of the Lord comes back and fills this temple and it's filled with a glory That's hard to imagine And everyone knows that the glory of the Lord is there and I like to think of that in model as we look at this verse here the glory that belongs to the father and belongs to the son That has demonstrated this earth with the tabernacle of the temple is filled with the glory of the Lord When Christ has his honored place When his life and love is flowing between us as thou has given him power over all flesh that he should give eternal life To as many as thou has given him and this is life eternal that they may know thee the only true God in Jesus Christ him thou has sent I've glorified thee in the earth I finished the work which thou gave us me to do and now oh father notice this verse Glorified I'll me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was I've manifested thy name unto the men which Thou gave us me out of the world Thine they were and thou gave us them me and they have kept Thy word If we could just drop down then to verse 16 They are not of the world even as I am not of the world Sanctify them to the truth I word is truth I want you to notice the plurality of these terms here As thou has sent me into the world even so have I sent them into the world and for their sakes I sanctify myself that they also might be sanctified through the truth neither pray I for these alone But for them also which shall believe on me through their word that they all may be one these They all may be one as thou father art in me and I and thee that they also may be one in us That the world may believe that thou has sent me and the glory which thou gave us me I've given them that they may be one even as we are One I and them and thou and me that they may be made perfected one that the world may know that thou has sent me and has loved them as thou has loved me and brothers and sisters it's just like this that There was a tremendous glory and relationship and unity and And communion and oneness between the father and the son And there was a glory there that could not be hidden and then Jesus saying here In these little churches these corporate expressions of my presence wherever they are around the world Men are going to see that glory When my disciples do where they are gathered together as you and I father have done when we have been together And just having said those words And now one more thing needed to be said doesn't your heart crave and experience like that? Well, there's perfect trust where you have confidence in each other Where you can rejoice to see God doing in a brother something he's never done in your own life Where the gifts of others are way beyond our own But what a joy to be part of something that's far greater than ourselves And then the love and the quietness and the humility and the blessing The Lord commands a blessing there. He sends that blessing there. It has to be there And the glory of the Lord fills the place And and the glory is not departing. It's not Ichabod. It's the glory of the Lord returning and filling the house And then people see that So I want to read that to you Let's go to Acts chapter two I like to begin reading here verse 41 then read to the end of the chapter All right, so this is the day of penit cost and we have had 3 000 souls converted here through the preaching rod's word. It's a phenomenal story And we have something happening to the people That were in this way united to God's church And this required a very very unique response to to this kind of an influx of souls into a given congregation In 120 turned into something else very very quickly here Verse 41 says then they that gladly received his word were baptized in the same day They were added on to them about 3 000 souls They continued to stand fastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship and in breaking a bread and in prayers And fear came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles And all that believed were together and had all things common And sold their possessions and goods and part of them to all men as every man had need And they continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house To eat their bread with gladness and signals of heart Praising God and having favor with all the people And the Lord out unto the church daily Such as should be saved Now some of you might know this it really does not matter, but we were just in the states about two and a half months ago and We were only here two days and discovered that that terrible pain with which my wife was traveling on the airplane as we came up here And the fact that she had not been able to stand on her feet for 10 days nor take one step we found out After we were in the state of Pennsylvania for two days that she had a broken hip We had been to several doctors in Costa Rica. They had not discovered the problem because All the pain was from the knee down and they checked those things out and couldn't find anything wrong And the problem was a hip that was seriously shattered And so she had a partial hip replacement here in a local hospital in the county of Lebanon city of Lebanon And then that left us with A financial responsibility Less than a week ago a young man in one of our churches Who has very very little income I suppose there are never any people in this audience that would be satisfied to live on what he earns in a week in a month this young man About 17 years old Came up to me and said bill of dale May I give you something Had a piece of paper all folded up He gave me this folder piece of paper. I didn't know what it was And I got home and opened it up It said something like this and started written in his handwriting. He said i'm sorry This is such a small amount of money But I wanted to give something for your wife's hospital bill I hope that this can help a little I showed that to my wife the brothers Surgery can help solve problems brothers Some finances can help at times But nothing heals like love Nothing heals like one does in a church Nothing heals like someone saying I want to participate and you know Isn't that what we just read here? Carried on a different way Not quite the same models we have here But a very beautiful thing Which leads us to a very important point in this passive scripture that I've read Because we have christ here our lord jesus with global plans We have christ here sender on the high and gives gifts to men We have christ who's gone into glory and 10 days later sends the holy spirit upon the earth We have christ who gave a commission did gave it five different times In matthew and mark and luke and john and x chapter one And i'm not sure about it but at least Four of those five times what he said to the disciples about their responsibly to evangelize the world were set at different locations Different experiences different times in his ministry to his to the 11 One was gone by that time And his heart is the souls of men And as we read this passage we very easily see that there are two ways that god does that There are two ways that god reached his hearts. There are two ways that evangelism works There are two methods that god uses And i read both of them to you in this passage The first one is And peter did it on the day of petty cost the preaching of the word And that might be literally standing on a street corner might be standing at the Parliament salamence porch and preaching out over the temple audience To a crowd of people out there in the courtyard. It might be tracks being passed out on the street It might be something digital that you're using It might be some other means by which a person hears the gospel of christ Those are beautiful things and god honors that and the foolishness of preaching is what god uses It's an evangelistic tool. It's a powerful tool to bring people to christ But there is a second method here It is The one accord witness of the local assembly You notice that in these in these Verses that we read And then this explains It's a picture here It's a description of what this congregation looked like as if you were standing outside observing yet As if you're watching what was happening praising god Having favor with all the people Lord added to the church daily such such as should be saved and that should be a surprise to us Because we know the heart of our lord jesus and what he said in chapter 13 A new commandment i give unto you That you love one another as i have loved you In that commandment he never could have given Until the very end of his life because no one would have known how he had loved us As i have loved you can you imagine a congregation or brothers with that kind of love to each other By this show them and know that you're my disciples if you have loved one for another It's that same aspect. It's the it's the witness that comes from the testimony of the gathered body And people are watching that they're seeing that assembly They're seeing the interactions They're sensing what flows from life to life. It's a powerful tool. Jesus said the same thing in john 17 Where we have read this thing we read it twice And toward the end of that reading we said there we read there That the world may believe You be one And your attitude to relationships that the world would believe and another time he said that the world may know How they know it's going to work How they know it's going to work in their lives how they know it's going to change them How do they know it? They can see it You see Could we carefully say it like this tonight? If what we see here is not working in the assembly where I am If it's not working in our churches, it's not working Among us There just seems to be a dearth a drought It just seems like The prayers don't get past the iron ceiling. It just seems like it's an exercise That doesn't result in much Then I would say Based upon what we've seen here There might either be something wrong with our message Or there's something wrong with the messengers With the relationship between us and among us That are responsible to give the message What is wrong? This is with christ's will is and we have it here It's a fulfillment the local congregation is one of the one of god's ways to reach people that otherwise will not be reached They see it Experienced in the lives of his people And that is why I feel that Whether you're going to have a closed economic community like they had here at the very beginning or not But you're all going to live together in some some compound some place in some kind of a Communal situation or not There's going to be a real close relationship between the brothers of a church And we have to have something more than a place to go to church on sunday It's got to be something else that has to be a fellowship. It has to be a community. It has to be a testimony That's to be a flame of fire And that's what jesus is asking for here Can we go look a little bit further at this passage that we just read by a way of introduction? I want you to notice that here we have on this earth a 12 apostles down because none of them was chosen in chapter one And we have some some that are kind of a little bit better known and maybe just out front a little bit more than others Like peter and john we have peter here preaching in this day The Matthias has now been chosen for Matthias if you speak spanish Matthias in that case So we have men here, but we have more than men here If you notice this passage we've had here verses 41 to 47 We notice the close relationship between what they are doing what the lord is doing A close relationship between what we're doing in our churches and what the lord is doing at our churches And there's certainly many many things that you and I can't do but there's nothing that christ can't do We're very limited what we do that he's not limited what he can do So let me just share a couple of things with you We have peter preaching in the day of pentecost that that sermon was before verse 41. I didn't read that sermon But I like to notice Verses 38 and 39 The people that ask him a question they wonder what to do Then peter said unto them repent to be baptized everyone of you in the name of jesus christ For the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the holy ghost for the promises unto you And to your children and to all that are far off even as many as the lord our god shall call And so peter did the preaching but the lord god did the calling And and you're effective in this message and you're trying to as best you can communicate the truth The people are hearing you but while you're doing that the lord is in the midst. He's doing something Way beyond what we are doing There are situations here gathered together thought this weekend in this tabernacle and campground That we're injured of we don't know about it. I've already met some of the most interesting people I've already met some people that that Probably have taken a tremendous risk to come to a place like this for this weekend And may god bless them And all the deeds they have the unique situations that they represent where they come from in their country or in their state or in their community We can't be minister of that to all those things but the lord does He knows what's going on. He will he will bless them And we must be conscious that christ is in the midst And when the problem is in your congregation a problem between brothers a problem in this in the Relationships or however it is say even in the health issues of your brothers or a financial struggle that someone might have And it's way beyond the the resources of the congregation to meet it It's not beyond the resources of our lord to meet it Talks about fellowship here the apostles doctrine and fellowship. We have bread house to house We have singing we have praising god A lot of things happen to your fellowship But I want to just read what it says the first john 1 3 Just to see where christ is show you where christ is while we're having this fellowship What is going on here? verse 3 says that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that you also may have fellowship with us fellowship with us And truly our fellowship the fellowship we have with each other the fellowship we have on this earth The relationship we have one another that fellowship is with the father and with his son jesus christ And that's what makes it what it is that what that's what gives it the power From on high that it has It's not a social fellowship. It's not a club. We don't take up our dues once a week It's a sharing. It's a caring. It's a being interested in one another And we have that fellowship with each other because we have fellowship with christ let's see Sunday morning a week ago In our congregation A young brother stood up a young brother who had never had a chance on the world to To be a child of god Didn't know one story in the bible There's no anything about sin does not know what truth is One of the most ignorant people I have ever met when it comes to spiritual things She's now married Member of our congregation. She and her husband. They have two small children She stood up and she was crying. She said I'm a mess in our home I get angry at the family I don't think god is with me Would you play pray for me? I'm not doing very well Well, it's hard to have fellowship with one another If there's something wrong with our fellowship with god I'll maybe say a little bit more about that on Sunday morning But she made a very very beautiful connection there She put her attention to the right thing for as ignorant as she is and for little as what she knows I need god with me Last time I was in this state of Pennsylvania. I had an interview with a young mother Who faces intense difficulties that very very few mothers face And I hope that no one here has to face what she lives with I said your sister She's almost like a daughter to us. And so I think I called her that I said but in all the struggle is is there evidence that god is there? Do you have evidence that god is there? And she began to tell me About what she called listen to at this this evening. She called it god things Brother Dale, it's a god thing She gave me one god thing and she gave me another god thing and things in her life that could not be possible apart from god working in her life I said you tell your children about those god things Explain that to your friends Your family there's a god thing Our fellowship Is with each other it's our fellowship, but we have it because we have this We had a meeting with that young mother in Costa Rica She was very blessed with what she heard that evening and that we sat together in her house We have wonders and signs being done here by the apostles But not by the apostles alone Yeah, I read to you the last verse of mark 16 And they went forth and preached everywhere The lord working with them and confirming the word was signs following amen The lord was with them. Where was the lord ascended on the high? Where was the lord with them and these signs were being done these wonders were done by the apostles It's the evidence the lord was in the midst So I didn't have a way to come here this afternoon So my granddaughter offered that we could take her car and and I can drive her car out then she'll drive it back home So she's sitting beside me And we're driving along we're going at the Pennsylvania turnpike And she gets out a cell phone and she starts she finds a bible passage on there And starts reading me some verses from from from mark chapter 14 and she reads me these verses And these signs shall follow them to believe In my name they shall cast out devils. They shall speak with new tongues. They shall take up disturbance If they drink any deadly thing and shall hurt them They shall lay hands on the sick and shall they shall recover She's a brother Dale Do we experience that in our churches? The apostles won't have either If christ wouldn't have been doing it But christ was there Now you just hold on to that Throughout the weekend We'll see if the lord comes back to that later Christ is the lord of the church. He's ahead of the church He is the fullness of the body. He is the builder of the church. He's active involved in what's going on here I want you to notice that in this passage And then some 11 or 12 times in the book of acts We have this word one accord one accord Comes from a very interesting word in greek The spanish bible every time translates translates this word unanimous. It's a very good translation of this word There's on one time the bible this word is used apart from its usages and acts It's found in romans 15. I'd like to turn there just briefly. This will not take long acts Excuse me romans 15. There's a very good bible definition of this word here in this passage Verses five and six Now the god of patience and consolation grants you to be like minded one to another according to christ jesus That she may with one mind and one mouth glorify god even the father or lord jesus christ And our bible say that she may be with one mind and one voice glorify god And why is that because we're like minded? We have the same mind the same mind is in us that was in him The same mind that was united with his father one of the fathers in us That same mind not grasp me for tension or for popularity or for recognition the same mind that's Humble and lowly and servanthood minded that same mind is in us And when that mind is in us then we have this one accord That doesn't mean that no one has a thought or a perspective different from somebody else But the mind is the same One mind one voice we have that throughout the book of acts They were together with one accord in prayer in verse 14 of chapter 1 When the day of pentecostals full of come they're all with one accord in one place Verse 46 says that they continue daily with one accord in the temple breaking bread of house to house That is the power that is that is what must be in the assembly where you and i are That one accord that unanimous thinking that being like minded that having one voice And when we come out of the discussion come out of the meetings we're saying the same thing We agree to it. It's it makes sense to us that we are satisfied that The holy spirit has given us that direction one accord And then i want to go to verse 42 Read this verse one more time Then leave you just a few thoughts They continue steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and in fellowship and breaking a bread and in prayers And what i want you to see in this verse And throughout this whole passage and throughout the fourth formation this New body of people called the church of jesus christ in the new testament You have here if you look at it closely both in an external and an internal aspect to this You have structure You have life You have clear order at the same time you have power So i was getting out of the car out here in front of one of these buildings that My granddaughter's little hand She said grandpa I want the lord to give you words But i want god to give you power The words are one thing The power there there is this structure. There is this order. There is this external There there is something in place here. There are parameters here But there's also something else We have the apostles doctrine There's a limit there There's a there's something Containing there's something describing there's something That is visible and we can understand it apostles doctrine And when rolling now under his book the spontaneous expansion of the church Or no, I guess that was Mystery method st. Paul's or ours. He said in there That every place paul went he left with every congregation What the greek bible calls An apostolic tradition It's what paul said. He leaves with every church. It's what he said there four times in the book of first quinthians That he's taught this in every congregation every congregation has received these teachings from him Now we have letters written on the congregations We don't have all the teachings and all those letters that we have in first quinthians, but paul left with each congregation A clear playing field a a parameter an understanding Of an apostolic doctrine We have that We have a lord supper here And some people would call that an ordinance That's okay with me if you call it that But the power of this thing is not the fact that structured in such a way that happens once a week or once a quarter or once a year It's not the kind of bread you use or don't use it's not what kind of What kind of Method used to serve the serve the the wine the grape juice. It's not that It's the life that's in there. It's the love and fellowship that's there So you have the structure, but you have something else. We noticed that here There is fellowship coinonia A flowing of life and of love There are house meals house to house There's a life of prayer We will notice more of these elements throughout this weekend What we see here are souls united in daily work And in worship and people are watching it and they're interested in what they see they don't understand it In those of you who are missionaries, I don't know how many we have here in this audience You go to a new place and the you're so excited about What you've studied the what you've learned you want to see souls come to christ You're going to build this building you have some funds here to put up a little temple You want to see this thing be filled up with people and after two years nothing happens and you say to yourself What's going on here? Your message might be fine keep reaching it But during those two years during those five years the Lord's going to bring all kinds of things into your life You'll face difficulties probably that you'd never knew you'd face ever many missionaries bury a child within six months of being on the mission field Happens to many made people I could tell you many stories like that And people have faced incredible difficulties And why is that and people are watching What do they do when that happens? How do they handle that? What do they do? They're looking Let them observe let them learn Let them draw near them and watch you Stay on your knees stay with the Lord's take close to each other If there's only two families in this place where you are or three Be as united together as you can be don't ever let anything divide you don't let everything destroy The only work they got is doing here in your in your testimony people are watching it's it's sewing time I stood beside it up in grave The precious mystery family During his sunday They tried to get it across the lake in time to get to get to a hospital And couldn't get across the lake in time and a little boat to high winds and storms They couldn't get across in time the boy died Now we have it up in grave Now when you say some words some purple words these parents these grieving parents I said to them This is not a grave It is a garden in that casket. There's not only a body There is seed holy seed that you're sowing today In this garden God knows what he will do with the fruit that comes forth from this sowing Go forth and bear the precious seed and weep as you go But in love and unity and surrender to God in humblest of mind If fellowship with one another there's a harvest coming and the people are watching It's God's evangelistic method. He needs willing people To whom he could work to make it possible. God bless you dear people This weekend Thank you brother dale for that message These these two passages that he shared from acts 17 Act john 17 and acts 2 are Among two of the the passages that I believe are are Should be I should say the most prominent in our own thinking as we read the new testament You know, we often use the expression the lord's prayer and for good reason we talk about that prayer in matthew 6 But of course jesus in that prayer was really instructing the disciples how to pray Maybe it's a little more fitting to call john 17 the lord's prayer that's of course The prayer that jesus himself prayed and it's by far the longest prayer that we have in scripture from him and One could easily make the case as brother dale did that acts 2 is in fact the fulfillment of what jesus prayed for There in and john 17 One of the points that struck me as I was listening to to brother dale speak was Was a concept that I heard many years ago. I read it in a book Where someone had said that what people what it takes for people to believe something is what's called a plausibility a plausibility structure is Is real people real? Structures real human beings who have love and relationship They can make the beliefs suddenly seem plausible that for most people when they read the bible It's just this far out idea and what in the world this is mean But said in the context of an act 2 like setting Then as jesus said in john 17 the world knows and I hope those of you who remember And have been memorizing this verse recall that jesus said the world will know That he was sent by the father and so This is right at the heart of what it is to be a christian and to form this Answer to jesus's prayer and john 17 the unity that you prayed for is not a mystical unity out in the ether It's a real tangible unity that the world sees that forms this plausibility structure as we see in acts chapter 2 That draws many many people and I hope that as we Move through the weekend we can unpack this concept In great detail i'm i'm actually going to close us in prayer and then we're going to move into a time of small group prayers But let's let's pray and ask the lord would seal what brother dale has already shared Father we we go before you and as we hear The words of jesus as he cried out Shortly before his crucifixion. I pray that we will Understand the words of this man who is about to die and Put them deep in our hearts that his prayer will mingle with our prayers as we seek to see This people that have this beautiful concentric relationship of The father and the son the son and the father jesus and us us and him and the life of the trinity Exploding permeating through us and the world marvels as it sees these These tangible plausibility structures these these structures that all of a sudden make the gospel seem real Father give us divine energy to fulfill jesus' prayer may our May our communities may our churches Grow more and more like acts too not not in deadness But in vitality and in life and I pray that as we Meditate on what we heard you will give us more of a hunger that we will Cultivate in ourselves more of a hunger to see jesus' prayer met and we know that just as an acts too the the harvest came Really as a as a as an overflow of the life that existed in the church Father we pray for our time of Moving into the small groups and also for the meal that we're going to be eating in a couple of hours may we speak in Ways to build one another up and to encourage one another up in the faith. We pray these things in jesus' name. Amen