Parkerville Baptist Church
Acts 2:42-47 Where Are You Planted?
This Sunday, Ray Hockley will be continuing our new sermon series on the book of Acts, with an insight into the life of the early church. He will speak about how this Spirit-filled church, born on the day of Pentecost, offers us a blueprint for experiencing church life today. The passage in Acts 2:42-47 depicts a Learning Church, a Loving Church, a Worshiping Church, a Sacrificial Church and a Growing Church. This is a timely message for us at Parky as we think about how we can also grow into a strong and healthy church community.
Locations & Times
Parkerville Baptist Church
910 Seaborne St, Parkerville WA 6081, Australia
Sunday 9:00 AM
About Parkerville Baptist Church
<b>Why we exist …</b><br>Love God, love others, make disciples … that’s the commission Jesus left his followers. <br>At Parky, it’s our mission to do this by sharing our lives and creating pathways that inspire people to wholeheartedly follow Jesus.<br><br>Visit www.parkerville.church to learn more about our church.
The church is very much like gardens; some are vibrant, healthy and lush, while others are withering and dying. The early believers we read about in the book of Acts discovered that to have a healthy church, like a healthy garden, takes commitment and devotion. As believers, we need to devote ourselves to things that help us grow. A strong and healthy plant can withstand the elements of harsh wind and scorching sun, and most importantly it will produce fruit. We also need to consider where we are planted.
We are told that they studied the apostles’ teachings. So even though as we read in John 16 that the Holy Spirit is the Teacher "and will guide us into all truth”, he still uses apostles and teachers to teach the Word. Yes, we can be taught directly through the Holy Spirit, like my experience at the dry river bed in the Pilbara, but the Lord still uses human teachers to encourage us, and that’s why we come every week to hear the Word through God’s servants.
It says that they had fellowship with one another. The Greek word is koinonia, which reflects a deep devotion towards one another. Our connection to one another is vital to the heath of our Christian walk.
Can you name 3 fellow believers who know everything about you and still love you despite your faults; friends who pray for you and who ask you the hard questions to keep you to account; and those who encourage you with Scriptures? Do you have even one? If we want to go deeper in our walk with the Lord, we need to go deeper with each other.
Can I encourage you, if you are not already attending a home group or connect group , to speak with one of the Pastors or Deanne? My wife Melissa, and I, meet with a few other church members about once a month, and it is really encouraging to share our lives and support one another as well as coming around the Word to hear what the Lord would want to say to us.
Parky is also starting a monthly Sunday afternoon service that you might consider attending. It will commence in a few weeks’ time on May 21st at 4.30pm.
Or perhaps you could consider opening your home for Sunday lunches and inviting people over for lunch after church? When I lived in Merredin we had open house every Sunday lunch. It was a ‘bring and share’, so it was not a burden for anyone and we had some great times of fellowship together.
The point is that we need to stop making excuses and start fellowshipping.
I am excited for the month of June when we as a church will devote ourselves to praying both corporately and individually for guidance as we seek God’s will for our future direction.
Prayer is so important for us as believers, and it is the engine room for change.
Also when we break the bread together it is another act of worship because it reminds us that the work has been finished on the cross, that Jesus' body was broken and His blood was shed for our sins so that we can have an eternal relationship with our living Saviour who rose and ascended to Heaven.
It is not surprising that these believers were praising God with glad and sincere hearts. There was such an air of enthusiasm and excitement about what God was doing in their midst that they were prepared to sacrifice everything to demonstrate their commitment to the cause.
The principle of the passage is that the believers were sacrificial in their love for one another by putting each other first. Jesus demonstrated this when He washed His disciples' feet.
We do need discernment when it comes to the use of our finances. In Galatians 6 we are called “to carry our own burdens” yet a few verses earlier it says that we are called to “carry each other’s burdens”.
We don’t want to be enabling someone when God wants them to stand on their own two feet, but we are also called to be generous. I always think that if we are unsure, we should err on the side of being generous. It’s better to be too generous than too stingy. We have a generous God, who lavishes his love on us, and as we “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness all things will be added to us”.
The church wasn’t just a holy huddle, who sat around and enjoyed the new-found intimacy they had with each other. They were Missional.
I saw a cartoon many years ago which had a church which looked like a castle surrounded by a moat and it had the drawbridge lowered with a sign saying “evangelism week, all are welcome”. Sadly, this is true of many churches. They don’t leave the safety of their four walls and hope that the people will cross the moat to join them. But we know that we are called to go out and to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth. The early church did this and as the passage says, they found favour with all people.
Where are you at today? Are you struggling? Perhaps consider where you are planted and what you are feeding yourself. Perhaps it’s time to consider following the example of the early church who regularly met together for fellowship, prayer and the breaking of bread.
We Are the Church
Online giving
We’re reliant on the giving of those committed to our community to fulfill our mission of helping people become wholehearted followers of Jesus, and we’re deeply grateful for your participation. GiveWay is a convenient, secure way to give your tithings/offerings/fees to Parkerville Baptist Church. Payments are anonymous and can be given by direct deposit or Visa/MasterCard. Recurring payments can be made or a one-off payment.
https://www.giveway.org.au/bfsgiveway/Parkerville-Baptist-Church-iGive