Spender, Jack: Outreach And Nurturing-02 ~ A Pattern For Growth

Well, good morning. Nice to be here. Nice to see you all. Thank you for coming. We look forward to a good time together, and, um, a little outline is being passed out. I just assume that you, uh, left it on page one and didn't get into page two yet, because if you don't follow page one, page two won't make too much sense. Open your Bible, if you would, to, uh, Luke, Gospel of Luke, chapter twenty four. And let's read... very familiar section, beginning at verse thirty three. Now, if you have a hearing diff- difficulty, I don't have a real strong voice, so there's some nice five dollar seats down here in the front. Just, uh, feel free to come down and take them. Luke chapter twenty four, and, uh, let's begin reading at verse thirty three. And they rose up the same hour and returned to Jerusalem and found the eleven gathered together, and those who were with them, saying, The Lord is risen indeed and hath appeared to Simon. And they told what things were done along the way and how he was known to them in the breaking of bread. And as they thus spoke, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. But they were terrified and frightened and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? And why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Handle me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have. When he had thus spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet. While they yet believed not for joy and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here anything to eat? And they gave him a piece of broiled fish and a honeycomb, and he took it and did eat before them. And he said unto them, These are the words which I spoke unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning me. Then opened he their understanding that they might understand the scriptures. And he said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sin should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things. And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you, that tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high. And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands and blessed them. And it came to pass that while he blessed them, he was parted from them and carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen. Let's just commit this reading to the Lord. Father, we're thankful for every opportunity to read the word and to think about it together, and we ask that thy spirit would work in our hearts this morning, that we would go home different people. We pray that the blessings that we receive might affect those with whom we fellowship, that the Lord Jesus might be glorified, even as we have heard earlier. So be with and bless us in this hour, we pray, as we would commit our hearts and our minds to thee, in the worthy name of the Lord Jesus. Amen. Our subject, as you see on your little program, is, has to do with outreach and nurturing of believers. And, uh, before we get into a study of this word, I'd like to just say a few things to kind of warm up our hearts and get us all, um, in tune on why we're taking this subject up and what we hope to accomplish. If you think back to the time when you came to know the Lord as your Savior, uh, probably every one of our testimonies is different, but there are some things that are the same. One thing that we would all share in common, if we remember when we came to know the Lord, is we saw our needs. And, uh, God had his way of working by his spirit to bring us to that place where we saw our neediness. And when we came to the Lord, uh, you probably expressed it in different terms than I did. We all had our own ways to speak to the Lord about that, but basically we didn't come as negotiators that said, well, Lord, I'm willing to give a little bit here, and maybe you could give a little bit here. We came as lost people, and uh, we just, we were at the bottom, and we humbled ourselves and said, Lord, I need to be saved. And uh, we know that God did his mighty work when we took that humble place. If you look at the life of the Lord Jesus, you see that he had dealings with some religious leaders, Pharisees and others in his day. And, uh, even though we respect the fact that they were zealous for the law, and, uh, they had positions of authority and several other things, we just find it hard that they were so proud. Um, they couldn't humble themselves, they couldn't see their need, and because of their proud spirit, the Lord said, your sin remains, and it did. Well, think about that in relation to what we learn from scripture about other areas of truth. I'm afraid that some people, once they come to know the Lord, um, they kind of look at that humbling experience that they pass through when they confessed that they were sinners and in need. They kind of look at that as something that was, uh, unfortunate and distasteful and is forever behind them. And they almost become Pharisees. Now I'm saved, and, uh, I know the truth, and they look down at other people as if those poor other people are, uh, are of less value and, uh, so forth. And even I find in assemblies, leadership, people in leadership can become proud of the fact that they are in leadership, the fact that they have influence and some authority over the lives of others, that they can be called elder or shepherds or whatever. And that's a shame because what happens is those who experience great blessing in their lives that took them out of their lost condition and brought them into the family of faith when they humble themselves, cease to receive the blessings of God that he wants to continue to bestow on us all our Christian lives as we daily humble ourselves. And the humbling that we need to go through is really no different. We're just as dependent today as we were before we were saved or the day we were saved, and we need to remember that. And so when we come to the area of the growth of a local assembly, I find as I travel around, there are many assemblies that just say, well, you know, we're just not growing. We've been this way for years, and there's a lot of reasons for that, and some people are content just to say we live in the last days, and churches that grow compromise, or other statements. You know, that's simply not true. It's possible today to have a growing New Testament assembly that is faithful to the principles of God's word, and we don't have to pretend that if you're growing or healthy, people are getting saved, and new people are coming in, that you're somehow unfaithful to the Lord or you're compromising. That's not true. It can be true, it's a possibility, but it, it need not be true. So I'm appealing to you, not only in this first session, but throughout this conference today, to be willing to take a humble attitude. Every one of us needs to do this. We need to look at the assembly where we fellowship, whether you're in recognized leadership or not, whether you're a sister or a new believer or somebody who's been saved for many years, take a humble attitude and recognize that there may be things, not that I could teach you because I'm a learner. There's a lot I need to learn, and there's a lot that I'm still learning, but there may be things that God would like to teach me about the quality of my assembly where I fellowship. There may be changes that need to be made. You know, going back to our analogy, when you came to Christ, it was a major, major change from darkness to light, from sin and death to eternal life. That's a big change. But again, once we get saved, we say that's the end of change, and we get set in cement, and uh, the way it was is the way it will always be. Well, you know, living things are characterized by change. And so assemblies need to learn the truth, they need to go on and grow. And I'm praying that as a result of our day together, God could warm up your heart, and the assembly where you fellowship maybe could have some new insights, some new life, um, and we really want to focus on this matter of outreach. And then the third session we're going to talk about, once you have people coming in, whether they're saved or whether they're young believers seeking fellowship, um, who are not getting fed somewhere else, how do you keep them? A lot of places people come, but then they leave. They come and go. How do you hold on to people? What makes people want to stay and settle in and grow? That'll be in our third session. We've read together a passage in, uh, the Gospel of Luke, and, uh, in order to properly understand the setting of this passage, I would like to remind you, um, well, I'll do it in the form of a question. How do you account for the fact that a group of only twelve men, really eleven, a little group of men who misunderstood a great deal of the Lord's teachings, forsook him at the cross, in many ways denied him, spent most of their time arguing about who would be the greatest? Um, how do you account for the fact that a little handful of men with all of those problems became the foundation stones or the, the beginning work of a church that grew so phenomenally that you read that within the first few days there were three thousand people added to the church, Acts chapter two. You turn a couple of chapters and you read of five thousand people. You go on another chapter and it said multitudes being saved. How do you account for this? And many people will say, oh, well, that's easy, brother. You know, in Acts two, the Holy Spirit came. And I would like to suggest that that's part of the truth, but that's really an oversimplified answer, the Holy Spirit came. Because, you know, Doctor Luke wrote two books. He wrote Luke, and he wrote Acts, and Acts is really part two. So you have to go back to part one to get the whole story. Now, we don't have time to obviously study the life of Jesus, and I'm going to assume that you know, uh, an overview of the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus. But when he died, you don't read of great multitudes of people coming to him in faith when he died and rose again. You find, really, in the resurrection ministry, pretty much the same little handful of people, um, meeting in the upper room and waiting. In the last chapter of Luke, we have one of his resurrection. Um, two believers walking along the road, um, to Emmaus met the Lord, and we've read it many times. It's a very precious passage, and, uh, he goes in to stay with them and breaks the bread, and they recognize him, and they're all excited, and they go back to Jerusalem to tell the others we've seen the Lord. And so that brings us up to the passage that we read, beginning at verse thirty three. And I'd like to call your attention to eight little, um, observations. They're listed there on your outline. You see the eight of them. Eight things that will help us understand how the Lord Jesus prepared the disciples for the work that was ahead, the great work that was going to come in just a few short days. Obviously, um, I am not including all the work of his life and ministry, his crucifixion, his res- I'm looking at that as all part of the preparation, but that's behind. Now we're in Luke twenty four. He's risen from the dead. He meets with the disciples. He's ready to return back to heaven, and these parting words, in other words, we might call this, these are the last hours of the Lord before he returned to his father, back to heaven. They are very significant, and there are things here that will help us if we'll take them to heart. Ask yourself, for each one of these things that are written here, ask yourself, um, what this can teach you about the place where you fellowship. Think of the place where you fellowship as a, a spiritual family, and these are the believers, whoever you have, whether you're in a large congregation or a very small congregation, these are the believers that God wants to reach your town, your state, your area through. And picture the Lord being with you, ready to return to heaven, passing through or giving you these things here that are recorded in Luke twenty four, just before he leaves, and he's going to say to you, now, I leave to you the task of the Great Commission. I want you in your area, I want you where you live to be fruitful, and I'm expecting, I'm going to go, but I'm expecting you now to take this message out, and I'd like to see outreach, people getting saved, people getting trained and built up. How is this going to happen? Are you up to that challenge? I work with a lot of young people up north in, uh, Connecticut, and one thing I like about young people, you know, they have a lot of zeal. They might make mistakes, but they have a lot of zeal. And when you get older, sometime the fire tends to go out. You run out of energy, and uh, it's not just that you run out of energy, it's that energies get distracted into a lot of other areas, and there's not much time. It's a fight to get a little piece of time for the Lord. But the young people, when they're still young, they have a lot of zeal, and uh, we have a lot of fun. And uh, right now we have a new assembly, fairly new. It's uh, growing. We had about seventy five at the Lord's Supper Sunday, and, uh, some of these young college students, they want to give their life to God in an area that matters. And so I'll say something to them just to get them, you know, just to get them cooked up a little bit. I'll say, wouldn't it be nice if we sat down and planned to, uh, plant three or four more assemblies in cities around our state in the next couple of years? Boy, you know, they roll up their sleeves and say, let us at it. I believe if I said to them, you, you go over to this city and find an apartment, and you, you go to this. I wouldn't do that because that's the Lord's job, but I mean, if I said that to them, they'd run right out the door and get going. That's exciting. But even if you're in an established assembly and you've been many years the way you've been, um, don't accept just kind of a status quo. Take a challenge from the Lord. You need to reach out. There's nothing like the joy of new believers coming into your fellowship. There's nothing like the joy of people getting saved and coming into the assembly and getting trained. Is that possible? Well, it is, but you know, a great deal of it has to do with our own mental attitude. If we're Pharisees, oh well, we can't learn anything, you know, we've always done it this way. Chances are we're going to continue right where we are. So I want to challenge you. Let's look at these eight things, beginning in verse thirty three. Now, the first one in verse thirty three to thirty five, we find that the disciples had a personal encounter with the Lord. Uh, they were already believers, but I would take that as being, um, I would apply that, that those that you are going to reach out to, they need to have a personal encounter with Christ. Um, don't be too quick to read into that what you think I'm saying. When I say a personal encounter with Christ, what you're hearing, some of you, is they need to be saved. Now that's true. You and I know that, but don't read into that too quickly. I'm not just saying that. If I go into a, a town where there's no assembly, where we'd like to see one raised, where we believe God is, would like to plant one, and uh, we get into a home and start teaching, for example, the book of Romans, it's my goal that the people who come will have a personal encounter with Christ. Now, ultimately, what that means is they need to be saved. Ultimately, that, that means they have to be saved. But how many people will come into a Bible study, and when you open the scripture, they'll say, you know what, I'm lost, I need to be saved. I don't know if you find it like that, but I sure don't. People come in, and they pretty much come in with the attitude, me and God are already friends. And so what has to happen? Well, first of all, they have to meet the Lord in those who already know them, already know the Lord. So I'm a believer, they have to meet the Lord first in me. That means that they're going to have to meet Christ-likeness in me. I have got to act and talk and treat them like the Lord Jesus did. We don't have a lot of time to pursue these things, but just stop and think for a minute. How many times did Jesus tell you about, tell his disciples about what was, what he knew? Imagine if he had wanted to tell the disciples about what it was like to create the world and what was going on in the stars in his universe and a million other things he could have talked to them about. You don't ever read one time he talked to them about all that was important to him. Imagine if he had sat down and said, let me tell you about where I live in heaven. Let me tell you about what my father's house. Let me tell you. He would have some stories to tell. He never once did that. Why? Because he was interested in the people, and he cared for them. And we need to learn some of these great lessons about the way the Lord Jesus behaved among the people that he would reach out to. But in verse thirty three through thirty five, we find that these wonderful words in verse, uh, thirty four, when they returned, they met the other apostles, and they said, the Lord is risen indeed. This is no longer just a rumor or hearsay. We know that the Lord is risen. We have met him. And as a believer, you cannot sing the hymn, he walks with me and talks with me if you don't personally know that Jesus is risen and he is alive. That has got to be a personal conviction that you have, that he is alive, that you have a personal encounter with him, not only the fact that you were saved one day and you met him for the first time, but that every day when you open the word and pray a- and spend time in prayer, you have a personal relationship with the Lord, and you're not going to be able to reach people unless that's true for you. And if it's not, you need to get it settled and find out why. And I find many people that, it's not that they're not true believers, they're not saved, it's that there are things in their life that have come between them and the Lord. There's a barrier in the relationship. And then, in verse thirty seven to forty three, the second point is you notice that there was a problem, and the Lord addressed it. This particular problem was fear. It says... they were terrified and frightened because they thought they'd seen a spirit. Now, once the disciples were convinced that the Lord was risen, you might have expected them to say, well, the Lord is risen. We know it. That takes away all problem. Let's rejoice. There can't be a problem. There's nothing to worry about. But as a matter of fact, they knew the Lord was risen, and yet here it said they were terrified. They had a problem. What did the Lord do? He didn't say, well, shame on you. That's unworthy of one of my disciples. He patiently dealt with it. In fact, if you look over the part that we read, there's more verses devoted to this than anything else in the whole section. What can we learn from that? Doesn't matter if people get saved and become believers, they still have problems. And you can't pretend like they don't. And if you're going to be a shepherd and care for people, you have to be willing to accept them and their problems and help them. Think of it this way. What is it going to take for the people in my assembly to reach out to lost people in the community? Look at the men and the women and the young people in your assembly and see the people that they could reach for Christ, and ask yourself, why is it that they're not? In every single one of their cases, there's a barrier. They may be all different, there's a problem. Someone has fear. Fear of speaking to people. That's a big problem. Someone has fear of death. If you're afraid of death and obsessed by death, you don't have the joy of the Lord. You can't really reach out to other people. You're not even convinced yourself that you're all right. Somebody else doesn't think they have a spiritual gift or isn't happy one with the one they have. Excuse me. Or whatever. Every, every barrier, every obstacle, every problem that every young believer has, and older believers too, will go with them all of their days. It will cripple them, because, you know, fear cripples. You know that? Fear cripples people. And that will go with them and stay with them all of their days, and they will be unfruitful until somebody loves them enough to help them with that problem. How does that work? Well, we're going to talk about that a little later, but really, you know, the ideal environment to have the Lord meet you in your need is in the church. The church is a family where we come together to get edified. That's what edified means, built up. Part of the building up process is to have the obstacles and fears and hindrances dealt with by the word and the spirit of God, so that now we could say, you know, I've been in bondage to that thought or that problem or that habit or that misinformation all my life. God has removed that now. I'm so excited I can go out and tell my family or my neighbors. And you see people begin to reach out who never would open their mouth before. You would find it very interesting if we had a testimony meeting here today. We're not going to do it, but you would find it very interesting if we had the honesty so that each one of us could speak about why we do not reach out to other people. It's amazing, really, if you work with people to find out the things that are barriers. And the reason I say it's amazing is because a thing that is not difficult for me can paralyze you, and a thing that you would think is silly can cripple me so that I can't say two words. And the adversary knows us well enough to know what it is that will keep our mouths shut, and he will use that and hold that over us all of our days. I work with some people up home, and one of them, every time I talk to this lady, I think of the verse that says, ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. You know that good verse? Ever learning, never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. She never can come to the point where she says, by the grace of God, that's settled, I'll never bring it up again. Never come to that point. You always got to know more, more information, more learning, more Bible studies, more counseling on the subject. We never get it settled. Consequently, she cannot move forward. Well, the Lord graciously worked with the disciples here, and he didn't say, what's the matter with you being afraid of a spirit? You should know better, you're grown-ups. He didn't do that. He took them right where they were, and he said, look. And he did two things. First of all, he let them touch him. Come here and, and, and handle me, he said. And secondly, he ate in front of them. He wanted to dispel and speak to their fear because he knew they would never be useful to him as long as they were filled with fear. They would be crippled. In your assembly, make sure that you are working toward that end in the lives of the people, because when those barriers begin to come down and God begins to have victory in their lives, you know what's going to happen? Outreach. And I want to warn you that there's an alternative to doing this. The alternative is to bring in a professional evangelist. Now, I have nothing against evangelists. Thank God for them. We need more of them. But in many places, they are employed because the saints don't open their mouths. They know nothing about being a witness. They don't do it. They're afraid to do it. They've never been equipped to do it. Uh, they are mute. And it's the man up front who's going to make the church grow, if there's any hope for the church to grow. That's a shame. That's a shame. That wasn't what happened back in the early church. The early church grew because the people were excited about what the Lord had done for them personally, and they were speaking about their own personal faith. Let's turn and go to the third point on the list now. Verse forty four through forty six, we read, then opened he their understanding that they might understand the scriptures. The Lord Jesus also prepared his disciples by opening their minds to understand the scriptures. They would not be effective in outreach until they could understand the word of God. They would not be effective. If you look back to verse 19 of this chapter, you notice what when the Lord met those two people walking along the road, and he pretended like he didn't understand why they were sad, and he said, what things, what's matter? You read from verse nineteen through twenty four, and you know what you read? A big long list of very interesting experiences. Well, this happened, and this happened, and we thought this should happen, and we expected this, and then we heard this, and then we heard this, and we thought this would happen, and they poured out their heart. Here's all the experiences that have happened. But look at verse twenty five. Then said he unto them, O foolish ones and slow of heart to believe all that has happened to you. That's not right. What does he say? O foolish ones and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. And it says, beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. He didn't say, you need to listen to your experiences. He said, your problem is you're not paying attention to the word of God. Your experiences have taken priority over the scriptures. That's why you're sad. If you knew the scriptures and you believed the scriptures, you wouldn't be sad. People today, even saved people sitting in the assembly, many of them are sad. And they're sad because they're basing their life, the foundation for their life, is what's happened to them and their family, their experience. Shepherds will help them understand that their experiences need to be interpreted by the Word of God. Their life needs to be explained by the scriptures. Their experience needs to be interpreted by what God says, and they're sad because they're interpreting their life by what's happened or what they've seen or felt. Some of the people I counsel with, I notice that everything they say, they start with the word I feel. One lady finally understood that I was watching for that use of the word I feel, and she finally got smart, and she stopped using it. Now she starts everything with I sense. You know what? It's a synonym. Means the same thing. It isn't what you or I feel, it's what God says in his word that matters, and peace and joy do not come from what we feel. They come from what God says. And we have to interpret the, our lives by God's word. And so the Lord Jesus then, it says in verse forty four, These are the words which I spoke unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms concerning me. God's word concerning me must full- be fulfilled, therefore you must know the word of God. That was the third equipping that he gave them to prepare for outreach that was ahead. First of all, a personal encounter. Secondly, the willingness to deal with their fears and their problems. Thirdly, they needed to understand the scriptures. Number four, in verse forty seven, we see that he gave them a clear message. Really, in verse forty six, it begins, Christ would suffer, rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins would be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. We need to have a clear message. I hope that in the assembly where you fellowship, there is time for teaching the believers the basis of their faith. You don't need to be preaching at lost people. You need to be teaching the believers how God saved them. Read every epistle, every single epistle, Peter, Paul, John, James, read every one, and find me one verse where an apostle ever addressed the church and said, if one of you should be lost reading this today, you won't find one, not one. What did they do? You read the letter to the Corinthians with all their doctrinal and moral problems, every problem that a church could ever have was at Corinth, and yet what does he say? He addressed them as the saints. I can't tell you how many good assemblies I've seen over the years dry up and shrivel up and die because they were so busy at addressing the possible lost person that was present, they never had time to feed the sheep. When I teach the book of Romans, I never address the lost. I address the believers, just like Paul did when he wrote Romans. And I tell them, this is how God saved you. You need to learn it, and this is why he saved you. And we go through it verse by verse, addressing the believers so they understand. Now, of course, I know that most of them sitting there at the beginning are, are not saved. But you see what happens, they get to look in the window at something they know is not true, and they want it. The moment I turn and fire at them and attack them, they leave and never come back. And when I talk to the believers, this is what how God saved you, and this is why God saved you. The Spirit of God works powerfully, and they come under conviction. Sooner or later, they make it known and accept the Lord. That's why Paul, when he wrote, and the other writers, when they wrote, always wrote to the saints. We need to do that today. We need to be teaching Romans. What is sin? What is justification? How did God save you? Why did he save you? What is sanctification? These things need to be taught in the assembly continuously, and yet we're so busy talking to the possible lost person that might be present, the flock does not get fed, and we wonder why we're not growing. So number four, he gave them a clear message. Number five, in verse forty eight, we find that he gave them a clear commission. You are witnesses of these things. I'm going to leave that one right there, because that's going to form the theme for our second seminar, about another half an hour. So we're almost out of time. Let's just finish up here. Number five, ah a clear commission. You are witnesses of these things. You notice he didn't say you are preachers. He didn't say you are evangelists. We need to work- look at that word. It is precise. It is chosen for a very particular reason. We'll talk about that in a few minutes. You are witnesses. The believers in your assembly need to be understood that every saved person in the assembly is a witness. You may be a bad witness. Now, a bad witness doesn't tell the truth or keeps his mouth shut or distorts the truth or whatever, but you're a witness if you're a believer. You have a story if you would tell it. Number six, In verse forty nine, it says, I send the promise of my Father upon you. Power. He provided power for the disciples. You cannot reach out without power. It's impossible. The opposite of the power of the Spirit of God is the energy of the flesh. That won't do God's work. It is not by might, that is human might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord. You need spiritual power to reach out. Many believers today lack the power of the Spirit of God in their life. And why is that? Well, they look over on one side and see a lot of extremes, a lot of excesses, a lot of error. What do they do? They run the far opposite direction to try to correct that. And you get a situation that the Lord spoke of through Paul, and he said, having a form of go- godliness but denying the power thereof. Folks, I want to tell you, I am convinced, and I know that you're here today because you are convinced in the New Testament way of gathering in God's assembly, but I believe in the power of the Holy Spirit, and I hope you do too, because you know what? Without the power of God's spirit in your life, you will not reach out. Outreach will not happen. Number seven, verse fifty and fifty one. It was in the very act of blessing the disciples with his hands lifted up in blessing that he was carried up into heaven, reminding them that that was the capacity in which he would work when he was visibly gone from their sight, the present ministry of Christ. And what is that? Our great high priest functioning for us at God's right hand. That told those apostles in clear terms that the way you last saw him is the way you are to remember him. He lives at God's right hand now to intercede for you, so that when whatever problem comes into your life, in a moment, in an instant of time, it can be dealt with and removed, and we can go on in faith, and the s- the devil cannot get an advantage over us and say, you can't outreach for God because you're not saved anymore, or you're out of fellowship. We don't have to have that, do we? That can be removed and dealt with w- immediately. Why? Because there's a man at God's right hand for us. Isn't that wonderful? And then finally, in verse fifty two and fifty three, there was an overflow. And I hope that whatever you call the worship meeting in your assembly is not a dead routine ritual, because if it is, something needs to be done. It needs to be the overflow. I have two children still at home. The assembly where we fellowship now on Sunday, breaking of bread, the other meetings are such a time of delight. If I even joke with the kids about going someplace else on Sunday, sometime I have to go and speak somewhere else. All I have to do is even kid with them. You're going to miss going to Waterbury on Sunday. I'll have two people in tears on my hands. If they're sick, they'll go and sit in the back on the floor. I couldn't keep them away from it. Why? Because it's the most exciting, invigorating time of the week. You couldn't make it through the week without it. What has happened when the assembly becomes a place that is dead and dull? What a shame. Well, you notice it doesn't open with the statement they worshipped him and were continually praising and blessing God. It closes with that. That is the overflow of a heart that is full. And so we begin then, and you'll notice I put a little note on the bottom of your page. We begin in our first lesson by realizing that the Lord equipped and prepared his disciples for what was just ahead. There was a major, major outreach going to happen. Thousands of people were going to be reached, and the Lord Jesus met their need, the personal encounter, helped them with the problems that they faced that would keep them crippled in fear. He opened their understanding to understand the scriptures. He gave them a clear message, a clear commission, provided power for them, assured them of a ministry that he would have for them that would go on, and allowed them to worship and praise him and overflow their hearts. What a tremendous preparation he made. Is it any wonder to us that, if you think of it, the Gospels is the story, really, of a huge crowd of people being whittled down to a handful, and the book of Acts is the story of a handful growing into a huge crowd. But what a different quality the second huge crowd had, right? The first time there were people looking for free bread and easy miracles. The second time there were people willing to give their lives for the Lord. What a preparation he made. Now, in the face of that, can you go to an assembly where those pre- preparations are not provided for young believers and expect there to be a dynamic outreach? I'll tell you, you can't. It's like farming. You get what you sow. You reap what you sow. You want to see re- outreach? Do what the Lord did. Sow. See what it says at the bottom here? The Lord Jesus taught that the word of God is like seeds sown to bear fruit, and he prepared for outreach and gro- growth as a gardener would. He knew in a few days the harvest is going to begin. He had planted and sown for three years, and now we get a little, a little capsule of it. You can take that little outline from Luke twenty four um home and pray over it and incorporate it into the lives of young believers. I'll tell you, I'll promise you on the word of God, you will see results. You will see results. Let's just commit this time to the Lord. Father, we're thankful for time together in the word. We ask a blessing as we continue on, that our hearts may be challenged, thy spirit would work, and the Lord's people be refreshed. We ask it in his name, amen.