Wed Inspiration

Morning Inspiration with Pastor Merritt

"And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need." Acts 2:42-45

We have all kinds of Christian churches in America today. We have traditional and contemporary churches. We have churches made up of all kinds of ethnic and people groups. We have churches that meet on Sundays and some that meet on Saturdays. Yet, regardless of anything listed above, the heartbeat of a church should encompass the following things: preaching the Word of God, promoting fellowship, and praising the Lord.

It breaks my heart to realize that many Americans attending church today do not hear biblical, expository, and authoritative messages from the Word of God. I really believe that right here, in the Bible belt of America, there is a famine for God’s Word. In the above passage, Paul tells us that the Christians of the early church “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching.” And that is what churches are called to today. Pastors are not called to preach about their opinions or what they think is true, but rather about what God has already said to be true in His Word.

Secondly, churches are called to fellowship. I want to emphasize again how vital it is for the church of Christ to engage in genuine fellowship with other believers. One of the reasons why Christianity spread like wildfire in the early days of the church is because of the love that Christians manifested for one another. They cared for one another; and they shared their possessions with each other joyfully.

Now I don’t know whether you picked up on it yet, but every church should also be a place of excitement and praise. The early church in Acts had a contagious atmosphere of enthusiasm! I don’t believe in "dead" worship services. Worship services should be full of joy and praise because as believers, we have been brought from death to life! And that's worth celebrating. Real church, the way God designed it, should be anything but boring or lonely. But above all, it should boldly and proudly proclaim the truth of the Gospel.