PartE: Week 2 - PartE Over There!

Tim Ross | September 19, 2021

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Y'all ready to jump into this Word? Okay, if you have your Bibles, I want you to go to the book of Acts 2. I'm reading one verse, I'm preaching out of one verse. Everything that I need to say is in this one verse. We are in a series called Let's PartE and it's about community. I am the champion of people getting together and living their lives connected with each other in community. The reason why we call them parties, I explained last week, we want every person to play their part here at Embassy City, so why we spell PartE with an E and not a Y here.

It's not misspelt in here, it's misspelt everywhere else, it's not misspelt in here. Acts 2:42, here's what it says, "All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship and to sharing in meals, including the Lord's Supper, and to prayer." One verse, real simple, keep it up. Let's all read together, shall we? "All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship and to sharing in meals, including the Lord's Supper, and to prayer." One more again, that sounded real good. "All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship, answer sharing in meals, including the Lord's Supper, and to prayer."

Pretty easy, right? If you're taking notes on this message, please write this down. Party over here, party over there, party over here, party over there, only 22 of y'all?

Everybody got saved at 9 at youth camp?

For real, all of y'all? Party over here, party over there, party over here, party over there. Now for my camp folks, Father Abraham, had many sons, had many sons had father Abraham, I am one of them, and so are you, so are you, so let's just praise the Lord.

All right, camp folks, just wanted to make sure. You're not being penalized for getting saved when you were in the 7th. I just want you to know, I love you too. Some of us was in the club and you were already leading in Bible studies. It's all good, it's all good, that's why we all got in here, we all got different testimonies, it's all good. That's what I want to talk about, I want to talk about parties over here and I want to talk about parties over there. By your hands, let's pray over the word, shall we? Holy Spirit help us to party. Amen.

There's one of the thing I love about scripture and I love about the Bible is that we can see the progression of the faith unfold in the book of Acts in an incredibly dynamic way. After you read the gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, the Synoptic Gospels and John's gospel that covers all three and a half years of Jesus's earthly ministry, the Book of Acts seemingly explodes with the life and the culmination of Jesus's teachings through the apostles. I find it absolutely profound that men that had been with him for three and a half years, that had been exposed to his ministry, that had been impacted by his ministry, that were willing to die for his ministry, we're actually afraid to live out that ministry until the book of Acts because it wasn't until the book of Acts that they would have in them what was in him.

It was not until the book of Acts that the same spirit that was in Jesus would be on the inside of his apostles, for them to perform the works that they were going to perform. In the month of November, I'm actually doing a series on the Holy Spirit because if you are not actively engaged with the Holy Spirit, the person of the Holy Spirit, you will not upset the world. You will be afraid of the world, you will be intimidated of the world you will be completely paralyzed by the world, no different than the disciples were after Jesus's death.

Not being filled with the Holy Spirit, these men were cowards, exposed to Jesus's teachings, exposed to his miraculous signs and wonders, but lacking the ability to step out on faith and be bold enough to declare Him as Lord for one reason and one reason only, they lacked a person living on the inside of them. If you don't get the person living on the inside of you, you cannot be a bold witness for Jesus Christ. Against your best wishes, against your strongest willpower, without the Holy Spirit, you can't do a thing. [chuckles] You will have a form of godliness, but you will deny the power thereof, because you don't have that person living on the inside of you. God will not allow you to get credit for doing something for Him outside of Him, by yourself.

The glory of God is housed on the inside of us by the person of the Holy Spirit. When we invite Him on the inside, we can do supernatural things. We begin to do extraordinary things. He is the extra on our ordinary. You put it together, it becomes extraordinary. It's not you that's doing it, it's who's on the inside of you. This is why it's important when you talk about the Book of Acts, you actually understand the full title of the book. It is the acts not of men, not of women, it is the acts of the Holy Spirit through the Apostles.

Luke who is not going to let you get it twisted into thinking that Paul has some power and that Peter has some kind of power, that Apollos has some kind of power. He wanted to make it clear upfront. Oh, Theophilus, please understand, I've done my due diligence, I have done my research, I have concluded my investigations, and Theophilus, I just want you to know that these are the acts not of Paul, not of Peter, not of John. I've seen these guys up close, they are no different than you and I. These are the acts of the Holy Spirit through these apostles.

I saw what they were like on their worst day and they wouldn't have got back up if it had not been for the Holy Spirit that was on the inside of them. I saw them when they were being persecuted, and there's absolutely no way that after Paul is almost stoned and left for dead, he would get back up and start preaching again if it were not for the Holy Spirit on the inside of him. I saw these men be jailed and in prison for preaching the gospel message just to be released and get out and start doing the same thing again. There is no way I can give them credit for that because no man wants to be that inconvenienced. No man can endure a persecution like that. The only reason why these guys kept getting back up and going back out is because they have the Holy Spirit on the inside of them.

When the Holy Spirit was on the inside of them, they could do all things through Christ that was strengthening them. Here's what was amazing. Paul, Peter, John, all of these incredible men, Stephen, the first deacon, they all shared one thing in common, they were filled with the Holy Spirit. Can you imagine? After Jesus's ascension in Acts 1, that the Holy Spirit would fall on about 120 people that were inside of a room. After they were filled with that spirit, they didn't run around the room for three hours, shouting about the fact that they got it.

They ran out of the room and told people that had no context, "I got it."

See, I grew up in Pentecostal churches. If you didn't grow up in Pentecostal churches, based on some of the ones I've experienced, be blessed.

You should be happy that you did not get exposed to them, but there were other ones I grew up in that were so healthy and so dynamic, and the Holy Spirit was so engaged in what they were doing. The difference between those that had impact and those that didn't is that the ones that received the Holy Spirit and went out and told people about it, those were the ones that had dynamic change in their community, but the ones that just ran around for four hours, happy that they got it, were very ineffective. Over the course of months and years, they became very, very bitter because that empowerment was never meant to just be contained in one space. It wasn't meant to be a light on light encounter. You were supposed to be set on fire, empowered by the Holy Spirit to go back out into pitch black darkness and light it up.

Peter preaches his first sermon, his first sermon and 3000 people give their life to Jesus. Let me tell you something. This was not a dynamic sermon. Go back and read it in Acts 2, read that sermon. That's not-- if he preached that right now, y'all would be like, "Okay. I think you quoted the Bible for two thirds of the whole sermon," but the Holy Spirit doesn't need much. He doesn't need your eloquence. He doesn't need you to have all the words together. He just needs you to be obedient enough to open up your mouth and speak because there has never been a man that has led someone to Jesus.

I feel this. I'm going to take my time. There's never been a man that's led anybody to Jesus. You've never led any, you've never won a soul to Christ. You've opened your mouth and you've spoken. The Holy Spirit while you were speaking, drew that person to Jesus. Did you think he was going to get credit for a soul? You thought you was getting credit for a soul? That eternal part that's on the inside of somebody you thought he was going to share that glory with him?

There is no person smart enough, eloquent enough, gifted enough in speech and language to talk about the invisible man and somebody go, "I'm going to give my life to him. I never seen him, no video footage, but I'll give my life to him because the way you spoke--" No, if I can convince you to get saved, there's somebody else to convince you to leave the faith. You can't debate a soul into the kingdom. You can debate a mind into a religious structure, but you cannot debate a soul into the kingdom.

Peter preached with power, boldness, the same coward that was locked behind a door about a week and a half ago, who went back to his old job after Jesus left. They had to find Jesus on the seashore, cooking him breakfast. Can you imagine how embarrassing that is? Jesus finds you backslidden. Instead of saying, "I can't believe you left me," he's cooking you breakfast. "You ready to come back?" It's with loving kindness that he draws you. It's not going to get you back. He's going to bless you back here.

I don't know who that's for right there, but you've been on the outskirts for some time and you're waiting to get everything together before you come back and God is looking at you the same way He looked at Peter and say, "Just come back right where you are. I'll take you smelling like smoke. I will take you smelling like weed. I will take you in the lie that you're now living. I will take you in the lifestyle that you now have. I'll take you right now. You won't change and then come to me. You will change as you are coming to me."

Peter preached the sermon and 3000 people. God, can you imagine your first sermon, 3000 people get saved and now you looking like, "What are we going to do? I didn't know it was going to go this well, it was my first sermon. Jesus took the training wheels off and he got on the cloud and he floated into heaven and left me here by myself. I didn't know 3000 people are going to get saved." That's verse 41 in Acts 2, 3000 people got saved. Now what do we do with these people? Let's throw some parties. 3000 of them we can't have one big party, I know but let's put a party over there and a party over here and a party over there and a party over here and then a party over there and a party here because that thing died off.

Y'all sound party pooped. What did you do last night?

Did y'all turn up that hard last night? That last one was like, "Woo," and y'all sitting down and got winded. I don't understand how that happens, that's weird, but in order for the community to be big and still feel small, they had to break out. They could no longer just depend on the synagogue experience they were having once a week. They could no longer just say, "I'll see you next week and I hope everything goes well and we'll meet back here this week."

No. That first initial dynamic experience you had, you had it in a large group but now I need you to break out into some parties. We need to take this into homes, we need to meet throughout the week because where I am right now I think in six days what I'm going through right now my soul could drift. There's some persecution that I'm experiencing and I just need the faith of a believer, I cannot wait for the altar call on the weekend, I need somebody to talk to right now.

They broke out into parties and Acts 2:42 is the secret sauce to all parties where believers get together and they share one another. My four points are coming straight from this verse because I want to talk about the four things to do at a party. For those of you all that have already signed up to be party leaders and you're hosting parties, for those of you all that are going to be connected and getting into parties I want to talk about the four things that happen at a party because if these things are not happening at a party it's not a party. You can call it something else but it's not a party.

These things started happening in Acts 2:42 and over 2000 years later they are still happening around the world right now. It was amazing to me last year when people were saying, "Corona has shut down the world and the church and we're concerned that the church is not going to be okay because we're not meeting right now." I was amused by that because I've read my Bible and throughout the entire Bible, the church always grew under persecution and pestilence. We are at our best when drama pops off. You put the church of Jesus Christ in a pressure cooker and when we come out we are well done, you hear me?

We are actually stronger because of what we went through than before we even experienced the opposition so from the Old Testament to the New Testament every time I read it I just saw the church being persecuted whether it was by persecution or pestilence or famine. On the other side the church was stronger than ever so the only thing 2020 did was make the church stronger, the church of Jesus Christ got stronger. I'm going to tell you why it got stronger because you couldn't go to the building and so you had to stay at home and home had to become church which is where it's always been because the church is not this building.

Notice I said I'm believing God for another building. I didn't say I was believing God for another church, you're the church, I'm the church. Now you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, we are the church. This building could blow up and we could pitch a tent in the grass across the street and still have church.

In the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s when racist men and women were burning down churches, the real church of Jesus Christ was laughing because they were like, "We got insurance on that building, bro. You just gave me a bigger check and that's not the church. It's a building. We can build another one of those. We are the church." Everybody had to stay home, you know what happened? Everybody started inviting everybody to their house on the low. You couldn't get the church building so you brought the church feeling into your place. Into your space and we actually grew. We were watching-- you were watching me on a screen.

You were watching me on Youtube. Some of y'all wasn't even watching at the time that it came out. You was eating brunch. You were like, "Pancakes." Then around two o'clock, "All right, let's catch that teacher." It's all good because this is what was supposed to happen at parties. Let me go over the four things that happens at a party. Number one, please write this down, devote yourself to the teachings. That's what they did.

As it was, 3,000 people gave their life to Jesus the very next verse says they devoted themselves to the teachings. At a party that's what you want to do. You want to devote yourselves to the teachings, at some point you just want to say, "Hey, let's just go over the word that was taught this weekend. What did you get from it? How did it apply to your life? How are you applying it to your life? Did it challenge you? Did you feel like the word was speaking to you? I've been praying for you since you told me the last time you heard this that this happened or that happened."

When you go over the teachings you get to reinforce it. I remember when I was a young adult pastor, we met on Friday nights. Think about it. Dallas DFW Metroplex and I'm trying to get 18 to 30-year-olds to come out on a Friday night. Club night, weekend night and I had people saying, "Man, nobody's going to come to your young adult ministry on a Friday night because you got too much competition." I'm like, [laughs] "Cool, I got you." They said, "If you're going to have a meeting on that night don't teach a long time. Young adults have a short attention span you don't want to teach a long time." I was like, "I got you, fam."

I taught for 50 minutes. Hour and ten minutes and you know what them young adults were doing? Taking notes, highlighting their Bible, sharing it with their friends, going home, and talking about it some more. Building on their faith. Why? Because when you devote yourself to the teachings you grow. When you devote yourself to what you're doing you grow. If you take what you're getting on the weekend and apply it during the week, revisit it during the week you will have exponential spiritual growth. If you jot some notes down on the weekend and you never going to see them again for three years I'm not saying you're not going to grow, you just not going to grow as fast but when you have other people around you to hold you accountable.

"Did you read your Bible this week? What was the ratio from Netflix to Bible reading this week? What was your ratio from Instagram scrolls to Bible verses this week? Have you forgiven your father yet? The whole series was on forgiveness. Have you forgiven your father yet? We just got done with a series on giving, have you started tithing yet?" Go over, you devote yourself to the teachings. You're saying that God speaks to me in this house. This is where I get my mail. I'm not just going to receive my mail on Sundays, I'm going to open it and read my mail during the week. Devote yourself to the teachings.

Point number two, please write this down. Fellowship. It's a word that we don't use often but it's a biblical word. I love this word. Fellowship, the Greek word for this word is Koinonia. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and they Koinonia-ed, they fellowshipped and I got to give you some breakdowns and nuances of this word because I love them all. Association, communion, fellowship, close relationship, generosity, a fellow feeling. I love that word. Altruism, nice juicy dictionary word. It just means to devote yourself to another person's welfare more than even your own. A sign of fellowship. I love this one, proof of brotherly unity.

They fellowshipped why? Because it proved that we're connected. They're not just going to be standoffish and stay away from you, and I only see you on the weekends. I'm going to make a point to spend some time with you. Gift, contribution, participation, sharing they fellowshipped with each other. Let me tell you I'm an introvert. I've shared this with you all before. Introversion doesn't mean I don't like people, just means I get drained by people. All that means two different things.

Before the pandemic hit, back when we called them groups, I don't call anything a group no more. I'm all about parties but we had groups at my house on Wednesday night, I was one of the group leaders. Now, I had to put some parameters around that, because we had groups all over the DEA of Metroplex, everybody's trying to come to mind and I was like, "That's not how that works. You can't drive 50 minutes for community when you passed four other places you could have connected with," but we had people at my house on Wednesdays and I was, even though I'm an introvert, I was so energized and drained by them.

Does hat makes sense? I can't wait to see them, I'm like, "Oh my God," it's Wednesday. We play games, and we eat food and sometimes we get into deep conversations but we were just fellowshipping with each other and it was so good and I was able to learn more about them. They were able to learn more about me and when they left I was like, "Oh Lord Jesus, thank you."

"Oh, boy. Thank you, Jesus. I love people. Thank you, Jesus." That verse to Koinonia did not ask what your personality type was. "I'm not going to no parties because I'm just not a people person." How are you not a people person? Jesus died for people. You a people.

I'm so basic. You a people, he died for you. You don't want to connect with other people. He's not asking if your personality is open to a party. He's saying if you want to grow outside of the weekend, you need to throw a party or join a party. Point blank period, if you want to grow in a dynamic rate, because this is exactly what happened in the book of Acts and this is how the Gospel spread, it wasn't just the synagogues on the weekends. It was at homes during the week. They were devoted to the teachings and they Koinonia-ed with each other they fellowship to each other. They had association, there was a fellow feeling that they all had.

Which brings me to point number three, please write it down. Share a meal. How many people like to eat? How many people hungry right now?

Every time I drive to church, I usually pass a Cracker Barrel and I look over, that parking lot is full. It's like nine in the morning. I'm like, "Heathens."

Ain't no seven o'clock services around this parts.

Why do you get a hash brown casserole and I don't? Share a meal. It says that they all ate together. They shared a meal, including the Lord's Supper. Communion isn't just the cracker and the wine. Communion is every time you get at a table with a group of people you have common unity with them. Everything's better over some food. Maybe you don't think you would like to be in somebody else's space until they hand you have a sandwich.

All of a sudden your whole mood changes because it was a tasty sandwich and they had chips and dips and it's the kind you liked. They shared a meal. Think about it. We keep talking about we want revival to break out but we don't want to do the things that maintain revival. You don't maintain a revival by continuing to try to revive people. Let me break down revival. You have to be dead to be revived. Clear, [sound effect] clear, [sound effect], clear [sound effect]. [gasps] Woo. Revival. [sound effect] You just killed him again.

You revive a person so they get up. After they get up, you don't revive them again. You going to kill them. You going to shock them to death. Every time I see believers that are like, "We got to have revival in America. We need a revival. Come on Lord, give us revival." After they get up, what you going to do? You better feed me.

Don't keep shocking everybody else. I want something to eat. Thank you Holy Spirit. There was a little girl. Jairus's daughter was dead. It just came to me. Jairus's daughter was dead and Jesus went to the house and he walked in. There was some professional weepers outside. [weeps] He walked in, he said, y'all got to go. You got to get people away from you.

That fake emotions keep talking, sir. They all left and he grabbed her hand and he said, "Talitha cumi," damsel, arise. Revival. She got up. He said, "Now get her something to eat." Just wanted to make sure you had Bible for it.

After revival, we should eat something. Let's share a meal together. You're going to throw a party, have some food there and let's sit down and let's not everything be deep. There's four things that happened at a party. They went over the apostles' teaching, but that's not all they did. They hung out and they fellowshipped with each other. They got to know each other. As they got to know each other, they ate a meal, which brings me to point number four, they prayed for each other. That's what you do after you're done partying.

Anybody got any prayer requests? Anybody need prayer for anything? Hey, is your mom still in the hospital? I know she was having a hard time. Just want you to know you're not in this by yourself. Hey, I heard you saying you're up for a promotion on your job and you're believing God for it. You got you went through three rounds and you got one interview left, man. Let's just pray that if this is the Lord's will, God, you open that door and if he doesn't open it, let's just pray that God will give you peace. Knowing that he's protecting you from something that you don't even know.

You can't get all that done on the weekend. That can't just keep happening only at-- "I can't wait to get to church on Sunday. Got a hot prayer quest I need to bring to the altar."

You ain't got nobody to talk to all week? No, let's get in community. Where I can pray with somebody at the altar, but I can also pick up the phone with somebody during the week because we are doing life together. You been in my house four times, child. You going to pray with me. You've seen me at my best, you've seen me at my worst. You saw when the food didn't get here on time. How hangry I got and you still love me anyway. Now I want to tell you that I still have some insecurities from my dad never telling me he loved me. Oh, now we living life together. Now we getting past the superficial. Now we starting to share at a deeper, more intimate level.

Let me tell you something. That's when you grow at parties. You get empowered on the weekends, but you grow at parties. The apostles knew synagogues. Synagogues is not going to do it. We got to diversify what this looks like. They said, "Cool. Let's put a party over here. Let's put a party over there and let's tell people to go over here and let's tell people to go over there," and what they going to do when they get there. Four things, we going to be real basic.

Make sure they go over the teachings. We want to make sure that what we're saying is effective and it's actually sinking into them. Let's make sure that they fellowship. We want them to hang out together, get to know each other. Then please feed these people. I don't care what it is, called Uber Eats, go to Costco. I don't know what you all are going to eat, just get something. Let's pray for each other. You don't need a Master's degree in divinity to pray for somebody. You don't need to be ordained into ministry with credentials behind your name to pray for each other. We are the body of Christ and we all play our part so the other part gets stronger, healthier, and grows.

Party over here.

Party over there.

I said the party is over here.

I said the party is over there.

I said the party's over here.

I said the party is over there.

Party's over here. Sign up.

There's going to be a party over there. Sign up. We need some group leaders, that's me.

We need some more group leaders, me too. We going to party over here, whoa. We are going to party over there.

Here's what I'm saying. Don't keep coming to this church on the weekend saying that I just can't find no connections. We're starting parties so that nobody feels displaced. Don't put yourself in isolation. Don't be intimidated or fearful based on a prior experience you've had. Let's party. Would you bow your heads and close your eyes? What is the Holy Spirit saying to you through this message?

My hope and my prayer is that you get the clarity and the basics of the burden that we have, to see the body of Christ get stronger and that through that burden we will grow, we will be connected. You might think PartEs is the corniest name of all time. I don't care. I just want us to be connected. This is our expression of worship to the Lord. It's not just what we do on the weekends. It's what we want to be about all week long. Whether you're an extrovert or an introvert, a little bit quirky, a little bit nerdy, real standoffish, or way up in people's personal space. If you join a party, we will grow. God thank you much for giving us the grace to grow.