Announcements:
-Prayer meeting on Sunday night from 6pm to 7pm. Upcoming dates: May 15, June 5, June 12, July 3, July 10.
-Volunteers to serve the community will be needed weekday mornings between June 6 thru July 8. More information coming soon.
-Camp private room forms are still available, fill out a private room form if you would like to reserve one for summer
-Camp dates are Monday July 18 to Thursday July 21.
-Youth meet every Saturday at 6:30pm, 3rd Saturday of the Month at the Youth meeting is at the community center
-Pray for HCC and Open Hands Community Charitable Services as we prepare to expand our service to the community.
Sermon Notes:
Main Point: We need God’s presence in our lives more than ever. We can learn a lot from the early church and how they thrived regardless of hard persecution.
Series Review: What can we learn from the early church as we read in the book of Acts?
- Week 1: The early church was totally dependent on being led by the Holy Spirit
- Week 2: We learn the following from the early church: Go, Don’t be Afraid, expect to be criticized, focus on the goodness of God.
- Week 3 (today) – We learn the following from the early church: Holy Spirit empowerment, they had a desperation that produced prayer, they had faith that produced obedience, they had passion that produced unity, they were concerned for their neighbor and had everything in common.
Acts 19: 1-6. Paul knew how important it was for Christians to be empowered by the Holy Spirit.
What did the early church have?
Acts 2:38-47. Once their hearts were changed to accept Jesus as their Salvation they begin to act differently. The church began to produce these characteristics.
- They had the Holy Spirit that produced power. (power to heal, power to transform lives-In Jesus name)
- Francis Chan writes, “When I read the book of Acts, I see the church as an unstoppable force. The church was powerful and spreading like wildfire. Not because of clever planning, but by a movement of the Spirit. Riots, torture, poverty, or any other type of persecution couldn’t stop it. Isn’t that the type of church movement we all long to be a part of?”
- They had a desperation that produced prayer. Acts 4:31-37
- They had a faith that produced obedience. Acts 4:19
- They had a passion that produced unity. They knew that united did could stand firm to execute their passion in Christ
- They had everything in common. Acts 2:45. They were passionate about meeting needs of others.