CHURCH MATTERS
Part 3
“What We Do—Our Habits”
Acts 2:40-42 “And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.” 41 Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. 42 And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.”
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In this series called “Church Matters” we’ve so far covered “Why We Meet—Our Fellowship,” and “Who We Are—Our Identity.
This time we’re going to look at “What We Do—Our Habits.”
Now, the context is that Peter has just finished the first evangelistic sermon to be preached after Pentecost.
The Spirit of God has mightily fallen upon him and the infant church gathered in the upper room.
A vast crowd of people from many nations, gathered for the Day of Pentecost, have listened to his message.
In response to his fiery gospel message, three thousand of them called out on Christ to be saved!
The brand new baby church was born then and there.
And the Bible tells us that they immediately began cultivating 4 habits that characterized them, and that were pivotal to their spiritual growth.
—The four habits were—Bible teaching, fellowship, communion, and prayer.
These were the HABITS of the early church, the church that eventually became known as “these that have turned the world upside down!” (Acts 17:6)
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It says “they continued steadfastly in…” these things.
That means they continued doing these four things with devoted effort until they became fixed habits.
Now, we human beings are ‘creatures of habit’!
ILLUS: Criminal profilers know this very well.
They have solved many key cases by learning the habits of the criminal that were so ingrained in their behavior that they could predict their future actions.
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HABITS come in all shapes and sizes.
They can be mental, spiritual, or physical habits.
They can be good—like the habit of exercising or prayer, or Bible reading.
Or they can be bad—like smoking, overeating, drugs, and so on.
Whatever they are, the habits we cultivate are to a great degree the prophets of our future.
One man wrote, “People don’t decide their futures; they decide their habits and their habits decide their futures!”
There’s some real truth to that!
Every person listening to me right now has habits—things you do automatically without thought or planning.
We’re so used to doing them they become second nature.
—Habits are formed by doing the same thing enough times for it to become an ingrained part of our behavior.
Bad habits begin with a fleshly temptation that, when repeated, becomes a habit.
Good habits generally begin with a sense of duty—this is what I should do according to God’s word.
But a good, godly habit eventually moves from DUTY to DELIGHT!
What began with obedience becomes a genuine, heartfelt joy!
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They say it takes an average of 66 days for a new habit to become truly automatic.
So a couple of months of dutiful obedience becomes in the end a genuine, joyful habit!
Now, notice that the habits the early church developed came about from the Holy Spirit being poured out on them.
Their habits were the result of the Spirit’s influence, not the flesh.
There are flesh-driven habits, and Spirit-driven habits.
Flesh-driven habits are generally not healthy or good for us.
But Spirit-driven habits produce the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, loyalty, gentleness, and SELF-CONTROL!
These wonderful spiritual fruits we see manifested in the early church, and they were the by-product of the habits they cultivated.
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So let me hit on them briefly today.
First, their HABIT was to listen to:
I. Regular teaching
Acts calls it the “Apostle’s Doctrine” which simply means they regularly (daily) fed their spirit man with the Apostle’s teaching.
Feeding daily on God’s word was the HABIT of the early church.
It became second nature, something they did without having to even think about it!
It says, “Continuing daily with one accord in the Temple and from house to house” they listened to God’s word taught.
—God’s word is meant to be consumed by God’s children daily!
Jesus said, “Give us today our daily bread.”—Matt.6:11
God says in Proverbs 8:34 “Blessed in the man who listens to me, watching daily at my gates.”
The Psalmist wrote, “Blessed is the man…whose delight is in the word of the Lord, and in His word he meditates day and night…”—Ps. 1:1-2
So I pray that you as a member of Turning Point are cultivating this crucial habit in your own life!
It may start as DUTY, but it will end in DELIGHT where you will say with David:
Ps. 119:162 “I rejoice in your word like one who discovers a great treasure.”
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Then secondly, they developed the HABIT of:
II. Regular fellowship
“They continued steadfastly in…fellowship.”
Each and every day they gathered for fellowship with other Christians.
The Greek word for fellowship is “koinonia” and it is the kind of relationship that is not based on worldly things like hobbies, politics, sports, partying, or other things in common.
Koinonia fellowship is based on mutual faith in and love for Jesus Christ!
THAT kind of koinonia fellowship transcends race, hobbies, politics, sports, common interests, likes and dislikes.
It brings people of differences and diversity together under the banner of Jesus Christ!
The Apostle Paul wrote: “We are no longer Jews or Greeks or slaves or free men (black or white, rich or poor, blue collar or white collar, American or from another country) or even merely men or women, but we are all the same—we are Christians; we are one in Christ Jesus.”—Galatians 3:28
Strength comes when Christians meet together!
Rather than meeting together less and less, we’re to meet together more and more, especially as the return of Christ draws near!
Heb. 10:25 “We must not quit meeting together, as some are doing. No, we need to keep on encouraging each other. This becomes more and more important as you see the Day getting closer.”
This early church habit kept them strong in very tough times, and it will us also!
Thirdly, they developed the HABIT of:
III. Regular communion
“They continued steadfastly…in the breaking of bread.”
Now, this could be talking about eating meals together.
But I think it primarily refers to the Lord’s Supper, because Jesus commanded the Apostles to “do it often.”
Why did this matter as a HABIT?
Because of the reason for the Lord’s Supper.
Jesus said, “For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup you are retelling the message of the Lord’s death, that he has died for you. Do this until he comes again.”—1 Cor. 11: 26
So the habit of regular communion keeps the Lord’s death on the Cross fresh on our minds so that it doesn’t fade with time!
That’s why we regularly observe the Lord’s Supper at TP, because it’s a constant reminder of what Jesus did for us!
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And finally, they developed the powerful HABIT of:
IV. Regular prayer
“They continued steadfastly…in prayer.
Prayer became an ingrained habit of the early church.
They prayed regularly at all hours of the day and night.
For instance, in Acts 3:1 “Peter and John went to the Temple one afternoon to take part in the three o’clock daily prayer meeting.”
Then a few chapters later a man named Cornelius, who was a Gentile, sent a group of men to bring Peter to his house to tell them about Jesus.
The Book of Acts records:
Acts 10:9 “About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray.”
So in Acts 3:1 we see Peter and John attending a daily 3 O’clock prayer meeting.
And in Acts 10:9 he’s found praying at high noon on a rooftop!
Prayer was the ingrained, non-negotiable HABIT of the Apostles and the early church!
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Daily teaching,
fellowship,
communion,
and prayer were the habits that created a church that shook the world!
Are these your habits?
I want them to be mine, how bout you!