Void

From Eric Bryant @ Mosaic:
(paraphrased)

I'm convinced that the early church was looked at as being kinda weird. I mean, think about it: They claimed that God became man and walked around the earth. Then he was killed (GOD was killed!!!) and then he rose from the dead and soon gave His Holy Spirit to those who would follow him. Back in the day, those were some pretty 'out there' beliefs. But something interesting was happening in the early church... let's look at Acts Chapter 2 -- starting in verse 42.

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

Look at verse 44! That's amazing! Something had happened inside of them, they had changed so much that whenever someone had need, they would sell their stuff to help them out. People back in the days of the early church KNEW they could come for help. They KNEW they would be helped. Not just some superficial help or a smile -- these early believers were sacrificing to help people in need.

I'm sure the people that lived with these early Christians were like, "Well, they have some crazy beliefs but I KNOW they will help me if i ask."

It's obvious that the early church was transformed by Jesus. Here's another example: Look at verse47. "praising God and ENJOYING THE FAVOR OF ALL THE PEOPLE." They actually enjoyed ALL PEOPLE. Obviously something supernatural is going on here because we all know it's not humanly possible to love all people. When Jesus is asked 'Which is the greatest commandment?", He answers with, "Love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself." Jesus wasn't confused. He knows how we work... how we think.

A lot of us out there have no problem loving God. One of the favorite sayings of people working for the church is, 'ministry would be great if it wasn't for the people.' Those of us who say or think like that have no problem loving God. But then there are some of us who love other people. We are always around them and they give us life. But what Jesus is saying is to really be able to love other people, you need to love God. Likewise, if you really love God, you will love all people.

Back in Acts 2:47, we see that the last thing it says is 'the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.' This is fascinating. Again, these early Christians had some pretty 'out there' beliefs. I'm convinced it wasn't their beliefs that captivated friends, family and neighbors. These people were captivated by the early Christians' character. Character, not beliefs.

In Los Angeles, where millions and millions of people live, it's easy to see someone in need and think, "Oh, someone else is taking care of them." God has done amazing things through strangers, but I'm talking more about people that are already in your life. People are amazingly open to new ideas at points of transition -- death of a brother, change of jobs, moving, birth of a child. People in your life often go through these transition times.

When my wife and I moved to Los Angeles 10 years ago, we had a hard time finding the right part of town to live in. In our first 6 months, we lived in 4 different places. Through all of this, we started attending a small group from Mosaic. When it came time for us to move again, our entire small group came to our home and spent an entire Saturday helping us pack and move. Like I said, we were new to the city... we barely knew any of these people. But their actions spoke volumes about who they were.

Think about those people in your life -- were there is already a relationship. Sometimes you just feel like you need a hug. Instead of asking someone else for a hug, find someone that needs a hug more than you do. As the early church demonstrated, put others before yourself (with supernatural help). And, every time I've hugged someone, they've hugged back... (except for my mother-in-law).

In the early church, it was more about character than beliefs. Now-a-days, people don't care so much about where they're going after they die. Some might tell them they're going to hell after they die if they don't have a certain set of beliefs -- and this may be true. BUT, they feel like they're in hell now... in THIS moment. 'What will God do for me now?' they ask.

Show these people in you life that your care for them. Just as with the early church, do people know that they can come to you when it all goes wrong?... when they transition?

If you're on the fence a little bit about what Jesus said (love God AND love your neighbor), maybe you need to do what I did. (to make a long story short) I admitted that I didn't love people (it was easy to love God...). I knew that I needed Jesus' help. I asked Jesus for help and ever since then, my life has been radically changed. You can go to Jesus and ask him for help... and you can trust that He will be there for you.

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Inspired partially by this sermon (Titled "Curry Favor" if you do a search on iTunes for Mosaic Podcast) and partially by an inner calling to do so, I'm asking Jesus to help me. I don't quite know what is wrong, but there is certainly a void present in my soul. I don't know how long it's been there b/c I've been so busy I've barely had time to think about this stuff. I'm seeking help by faithfully reading scripture and praying for 15-20 minutes every day for the next 40 days. I don't really know what will come of this, but i do know that it can only be good.

As Eric said above, I don't think I really have much in common with the early church.
Anyways, I'm curious as to what will happen in the next 40 days. I'll be sure and update the blog (as always) so others can see what happens.

Thanks for listening!
-Collin