Your Bibles and turn to Acts chapter two. See, I gotta get everything set up here. Alright. That here is alright. Acts chapter two, and we're gonna read in a moment from verses 44 to 45.

I'll probably start back in verse 42 for context. We have been going through our church covenant, which we read several weeks ago. That stresses our stewardship. The Bible says it's required in stewards that a man be found what? Faithful.

Faithful. And we are stewards of the Lord Jesus Christ. A steward is one to whom something has been entrusted by their Lord. Missouri Avenue Baptist Church, this local church, this ministry of Jesus Christ, and it is his ministry, it's not my ministry. It's the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, has been entrusted to who?

Us. Yeah. That's the word I'm looking for. Not just pastor. Okay?

This local church ministry, this ministry that God has given to us has been entrusted to us. It is important that we're faithful, that we participate in the local church ministry that God has called us into as one body in Christ. We are stewards as Missouri Avenue Baptist Church and as individual believers of the gospel message to spread it, to proclaim it, to declare it to our neighbors, our friends, and all around the world. We have 11 missionaries we currently support. You can look on the map back there and see where where they're ministering.

And it is a joy and a privilege to be part to partner with them in in what? What are they doing? They are declaring and spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. Biblical missions is not biblical missions if you're not preaching and teaching the gospel. You may do many other things.

You might build schools. You might build churches. You might teach classes. You might do many other things, but it by definition includes the preaching of the gospel. And it is something that isn't just to be done on the other side of the world.

It begins in our Jerusalem, which is is right here. And I'm glad that I put tracks back there and they go and I have to print more. And every few weeks, I have to print more because you're taking them. I pray that you'll continue to pass them out and share the good news of Jesus with others. We are stewards of the family, the family.

You know, the church is made up of families. And as the family goes, so goes the society. But it can also be said in part, it's also true of the church. We have a responsibility to lead our families and to raise our children in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord. That is an important, very important stewardship that God has given to us.

And so that's mentioned in our covenant. And then the last few weeks, we've looked at this one. We are stewards of God's testimony in this world. People will will get an impression of who our God is, whether he's real or not, whether he's holy or not, whether he's love or not, whether he's just and fair and righteous and good by what they see in who? Us in Missouri Avenue Baptist Church.

It is important that we are faithful to glorify God whether whether you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the to the glory of God. And there are things which bring honor to our Lord, and there are things that dishonor him. And as God's children, we need to be doing the things that bring him glory, and we need to avoid the things which do not. That our testimony will shine brightly. That the gospel message that we preach will not be diminished by our actions, but will be strengthened by them.

And then this morning, the last and that is we are stewards of one another. In the church covenant reads, we further engage to watch over one another in brotherly love, to remember one another in prayer, to aid one another in sickness and in distress, to cultivate Christian sympathy and feeling and Christian courtesy and speech, to be slow to take offense but always ready for reconciliation and mindful the rules of our savior to secure it without delay. We're gonna cover the first part of that this morning and the last part of it next Sunday morning because I I really wanna spend a little bit of time on the forgiveness and reconciliation part because that's one that sadly is missed today oftentimes in in churches. But generally speaking, we are stewards one of another. We see that exemplified in Acts chapter two.

So if you wanna look in Acts chapter two, and we'll begin in verse 42. This is the first church of Jerusalem. After the day of Pentecost, after the 3,000 souls were saved, it tells us what the church, what the congregation of believers did. Verse 42, and they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship and breaking of bread and prayers. By the way, all of that was done together.

Okay? The word church means called out assembly. It it implies that it involves congregating together, that these things are to be done not only in our closet at home, but also to be done together as a church. In verse 44, and it says, and all that believed were did I just use that word? Together and had all things common and sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men as every man had need.

Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Dear heavenly father, thank you, Lord, for the privilege of being part of this local assembly of believers. I pray, Lord, that we would indeed be good stewards of that which you have entrusted to us and particularly as it relates for our love and care for one another today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Now you see here in Acts two, the first church, the believers were willing to give up of worldly possessions, in some cases, land, in some cases, other things they sold in order to see to it that the needs of others in the congregation were met. It was not by law. We're not under law. We're under what? Grace.

It was not under manipulation. They weren't required. They weren't told you had to do this. But many of them chose to do it what? Willingly.

Why? Because there was a need. There was a need. As many of these people in Jerusalem and others, they came to know Christ. They were kicked out of the synagogues.

They lost their support group. They they didn't have Social Security and and welfare and Medicaid and Medicare, to help provide for them. They depended upon the goodness and the charity of others. And having been tossed from the synagogues, they lost their support group. So, they became their own what?

Their own support group to help one another and many of them had needs. There were many widows. There were orphans. There were others who could not work because of disabilities and things and so, they took care of one another. They demonstrated the love of Christ in that way in the early churches.

They helped to carry one another's burdens. Are you responsible for the one sitting beside you or behind you? You are not responsible for their faith. You can't believe for them. You are not responsible for their faith.

That is between them and who? Between them and God. We are the messengers of the good news of the gospel, but it is the Holy Spirit and the Lord that draws people unto himself. It is the Lord who saves, and we are not responsible for the faith of others. Are you responsible for the choices of others?

The answer to that again is no. You cannot make choices for them and therefore, you are not accountable for the choices that they make. That is on them. We live in a world today where everybody wants to blame somebody else for their trouble. But the Bible says it's appointed to man once to die, but after that, the what?

The judgment. And who are we gonna stand before God accountable for? Ourselves. The decisions we make, the things we do. Not the decisions that others made for good or for ill.

We will be held account for the decisions we made. We're responsible for those. We're not responsible for the choices of others. But we are responsible, at least in part, for the care of others, especially those in the body of what? The body of Christ, particularly those in this local body.

I do believe God is going to hold us account for whether we demonstrated the love of Christ toward those in need, particularly those of the household of faith. We are responsible to care about them. We are responsible to help carry their burdens. Their burdens as brothers and sisters in Christ also become whose burdens? Our burdens.

We take prayer requests in Sunday school. We take prayer requests at other times in our Thursday bible study. We pray for those prayer requests. But as we take the prayer requests and we share the prayer requests and we pray for those prayer requests, we are helping to carry one another's what? Burdens.

As we share them, as we pray for them, and take them before the throne of grace, it is one way in which we help to carry one another's burdens. Galatians six one and two, I read from the bulletin to start with this morning. Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, you which are spiritual, restore such in one in the spirit of meekness considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. What does Paul say? If there's an errant Christian who has made some bad decisions, got caught up in sin, do you have a responsibility as a brother and sister in Christ?

Paul says, yes, you do. You have responsibility to try to help them to get back in a right fellowship with who? With God. In a right testimony for in the way of blessing in their life. We are responsible to try to help them.

Now, we can't make the decisions for them, but we are responsible as children of God, as brothers and sisters to try to help them should they get off course. Thus, he says, bear one another's what? Bear ye one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. Why is the law of Christ? That she love one another.

You said a new commandment I've given to you. It's not really a new commandment, but here it is. You love one another. We fulfill the law of Christ and the example of Christ he set on the cross by caring enough about others to help carry their burdens, whether it be spiritual, physical, emotional, that we help to carry their burdens. What does this mean?

That my brother's sister's struggle should be of concern to me also as one who loves and cares for them. To the extent that we jump into the fray to help carry their burdens because in Christ, their burdens are ours. In Christ, we should not be what? Alone. And we're not alone.

But other brothers and sisters in Christ should make that known. We should make that known. You are not alone. We are in this. We are in this together.

In Christ, we should not be alone, and that should be clear even to the world around us. Here is that new commandment in John 13. A new commandment I give unto you that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you have long love one to another. So many things that other people would have said, by this shall all men know you are my disciples.

By how you look, you talk, you act, you do this, you do that. But Christ hit the nail on the hit the anyway, nail on the head. What is the the root of the matter? That you what? That you love one another.

Because if you love the Lord, are you gonna take his name in vain? Are you gonna go after other gods? No. You're not gonna do that. You're gonna be faithful to him.

If you love your neighbor, are you gonna steal their stuff? Are you gonna murder them? Are you gonna hate them? Are you gonna lie to them or abound them? No.

You're not. He says, Jesus said another passage, on this, these two commandments, love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself, hang all the long commandments. Because if you love God with all your heart and you love your neighbor with all yourself, with all as yourself, then these other things are not gonna be an issue. And Jesus said, if you want to show the world that you're a Christian, show it by your what? By your love.

Now, by the way, does loving other people mean telling them what what they want to hear or telling them what they need to hear. Which one is love? Telling them what they need to hear. Telling them the truth. That is love even when it what?

Even when it hurts. So the world's got that kind of mixed up today, doesn't it? They keep telling us if we love them, we will just tell them what they want to hear. But we don't want them to die in their sin. We don't want them to go to a Christless eternity.

We want them to be saved. We want them to know the truth. We want them to hear the gospel and that Jesus Christ died to forgive them of their sins but that requires that they know they're a what? They're a sinner. The same as as we had to come to that realization and know that sin, by definition, is an offense to almighty God who made us.

But despite that, he loves us and he wants to forgive us, but only through the sacrifice of his son, Jesus Christ. They need to hear the truth. The truth will what? Set them free. Loving them means telling them the truth.

And we're to love one another, which means sometimes we might actually have to say something to our brother and sister in Christ that they don't want to hear. But that's okay. This kind of love, agape love that Jesus talks about here is that which Christ demonstrated on the cross when he carried your burden. A burden you were unable and incapable of bearing that you and I might be what? Might be saved.

That's what he did. He carried that burden for us, which we could not carry ourselves. He hath made him, that is God hath made Jesus to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God. And Jesus bore that punishment. He bore that suffering on the cross so that we might be made righteous in Christ Jesus so that we might be forgiven and enjoy the blessings of heaven and being heirs of God.

He carried that burden on that cross. And the burden of sin that he carried was far greater than the cross that he carried, yours and mine. It says in Colossians chapter two, and you being dead in your sins and the unsearch incision of your flesh, hath he quickened, which means made alive together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses, blotting out the handwriting of ordinance that was against us, which was contrary to us and took it out of the way nailing it to his cross. And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly triumphing over them in it. How did he show that he triumphed over sin?

When he rose again from the what? The dead. But he bore that sin. He bore those accusations. He bore that guilt on the cross so that you and I would not have to bear it one day at the great white throne judgment.

He bore it on the cross for us. And if we will accept his sacrifice, indeed, we shall be what? You shall be saved. And now, as a child of God, God commands us that we love one another as he has loved us. This is the same kind of love God expects husbands to show their wives, helping to carry their burdens in marriage.

In Ephesians five twenty five, it says, husbands, love your wives even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. It is the same kind of love which should be evident in the church and among our brethren in the Lord. My little children, let us not love in word neither in tongue but in what? Indeed and in truth. It's not enough to say I love you.

It must be followed up by what? By actions. By being willing to help carry the burden of one another as Christ carried our burden on the cross of Calvary. It's not all about you. It's not all about me.

It's all about Jesus and what Jesus wants for us all and what he has done for us all and the privilege he has given us all to serve him and to serve one another here. I'm reminded of Mark chapter two. If you'll turn back to Mark chapter two with me, I'm gonna read several verses there. But I right away, when I thought of carrying one another's burdens, is there any any event that happened during Jesus' ministry that reminds you of somebody carrying someone else's burden? Well, Mark chapter two.

We'll read about it together here quickly. And again, he, that's Jesus, entered into Capernaum. That's a town around the Sea Of Galilee. And after some days, it was noised, made known that he was in the house. And straightway, many were gathered together in so much that there was no room to receive them, no, not so much as about the door and he preached the word unto them.

And they come on unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy, which was born of four. Now, I was confused when I was a little kid what it meant born of four. You know, said born has an e on. It means it carried. Okay?

He was carried by what? Four people. Okay? So, couldn't get in The the crowd was so packed in the house where Jesus was. There's no way in.

And so but these these four brought a friend of theirs who was too sick and too ill to walk. They brought him on a stretcher to Jesus. They bore him. They carried him. They shared his burden.

And when they could not come nigh unto Jesus for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was. And when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lake. How many of us would have said, well, I gave it a shot. You know, we came, but, you know, the crowd's too big. We can't get in.

We'll try again another day. But that's not what his friends did, was it? No. They were determined to get their friend before who? Before Jesus.

So they they went up the steps that were on the outside of the building that went up onto the flat roof, and they dug through the roof until they had a hole big enough to lower. Now I always wondered about the person who owned the house and now had her hole in her roof. I'm sure about that. But but they took the time to go through all of that so they could lower him down before Jesus Christ. When Jesus saw their faith I think it's interesting that Jesus in it includes them.

When Jesus saw what? Their faith. You see, it took four people to get that man to Jesus and those four people believed that Jesus could what? Heal him. As it would seem the man in the bed thought too, but he couldn't get there by himself.

So these four people, they were important. Bryant testified that in his mind, he thought I was important to his journey in the Lord. It could have been other people. There is nothing special about me. There's something special about my savior.

But the same thing can be true of you, your neighbor, your friends, your loved one. Whether they have a spiritual need or a physical need or whatever the need may be, you can be part of their story by showing the love of Christ. Jesus said it said, when he saw their faith, he said unto the sick of palsy, son, thy sins be forgiven thee and and, well, we know the story about the scribes and they can well, who can forgive sin but God? And, of course, Jesus could forgive sin because he was who? He was God.

But Jesus went on to say down here in verse nine, whether it's easier to say to the sick of the palsy, thy sins be forgiven or to say, arise and take up thy bed and walk, but that you may know that the son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, he say it to the sick of the palsy, I say unto thee, arise and take up thy bed and go thy way into thy house, and immediately he arose. You see, why did Jesus come? To heal people from palsy? No. He came to heal people from their what?

From their sin. But Jesus said, so you you know that I forgave his sin, which is the most important thing. I'm gonna give you a physical manifestation. Get up and walk out of here. And he did.

He did. But the point was he needed salvation. He needed his sins forgiven, and he needed help. And those who loved him were willing to carry that burden with him to get him to Jesus. This man was incapable of getting the help he needed and so others who loved and cared for him jumped into action, and he was healed and forgiven.

He had both his physical and spiritual need met because someone cared enough to very literally carry his burden. Could that someone be be you today? Their struggle is therefore mine as well. I cannot must not leave them to struggle alone, but be there to help them as a family member, a teammate for their good and God's glory as Christ did for us. If your teammate is not doing well, then the team is not doing well.

So do you ignore the teammate that's not doing well? Do you say, hey, well, I'm sorry, but it's it's all on you. I'm I'm not gonna help you. Do you ignore them? No.

Because you want the team to what? To succeed. So if for no other reason, you help to carry that burden so the team succeeds, in Christ we are a what? We're a team. And when one struggles and one hurts, we all struggle, we all hurt.

It affects the what? It affects the team. It affects the team. Someone might be struggling spiritually. That's what Paul was addressing in Galatians chapter six.

Paul's letters were to church members in different places who were often struggling in their faith. Paul was very busy with other things and other places and he stopped what he was doing to write letters to encourage the Corinthians and the Philippians and the Ephesians and the Thessalonians in their what? In their faith. He couldn't meet all their physical needs. He wasn't a doctor.

He couldn't meet all their financial needs. He didn't have a ton of money. But you know what he could? Like Peter and John said to the man at the gate, silver and gold I have none, but what I have I give you. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, stand up and walk.

What? So Paul gave what he had. What he had was the gospel. What he had was encouragement from the Lord, and so he encouraged them. He took out of his time to write them and to minister to them, and we can do the same.

They needed help carrying their spiritual burdens. Paul did not abandon them. Some might be struggling physically with their health, with a need of food or ride or help at home or babysitting. One of Ashley's kids had a fever this morning, so she's not here. She sent a video showing how sad they were.

They didn't get to come because they they really wanted to be in church this morning. And so she sent a video to Kate. But I know for a fact that there have been members of our church and some now that are spending hours and hours helping her with her kids so she can go to work. That is a huge deal to Ashley. A huge deal.

That that is what we're talking about. Struggling emotionally, struggling with difficult circumstances and hurt, others need to know they're not alone. We need to help each other because sometimes you're the one who needs help. We're to be there for each other. I'll get to Hebrews 10 in just a moment again.

When several people show up to help with church needs, so much more gets accomplished. When we have many day many hands on work day, you know, brother Ray, we're pouring concrete next Saturday, weather permitting. How much fun is that gonna be if you have to do it all by yourself? Yeah. A lot less than if you had help.

A matter of fact, that's a job for, like, a half a dozen people. We get a half a dozen people out here, and that's not gonna be a big deal. If two people gotta do it, that's gonna be backbreaking work. So many hands make what? Light work.

You wanna show you love brother Ray and brother Al? Show up to carry concrete. Show up to babysit. Show up to help one of our elderly folks that needs a little bit of help or to give somebody a ride that needs to get to a treatment. Show the love of who?

The love of Christ. You're not responsible for their decisions or actions of others, but you are responsible to love them enough in the cause of Christ to look for ways that you might be able to make their burden burden lighter. In Acts chapter four, we read about a guy named Barnabas. Matter of fact, that wasn't his name. That was his nickname.

It means son of consolation or son of encouragement. Why? Because he sold everything he had in order to help meet the needs of the church there in Jerusalem. Because when a fellow showed up in Jerusalem that had been persecuting the church and needed somebody to believe in him, who was it that believed in him? It was Barnabas who took Paul under his wing and believed that the Lord could change his life.

It is Barnabas that went to Tarsus to get him and to bring him back to Antioch to minister in the church. It was Barnabas that went with him on his first missionary journey. Who is Barnabas? He's not nearly as well known as Peter and John, but he's got crowns in heaven. What what did he do?

He helped other people. That's what he did. He wasn't the the greatest evangelist or the preacher, but he was the guy that was there with you to help carry your what? To carry your burden, which is what what God expects of us all. And Paul in Romans I'm running out of time, so I just gotta mention a couple.

Romans chapter 14, Paul writes and tells the people in Romans, don't spend all your time judging the actions of everybody else. Instead, judge this, that you do not put an obstacle, a stumbling block in their what? In their path. K? So Paul says more than one passage that he sacrificed liberty in order for the sake of the gospel and for the needs of others.

I was I can do this and I can do that, but you know, I'm not gonna do this and I'm not gonna do that if it causes a stumbling block to be in somebody's way and hearing the gospel or in a child of God serving the Lord. Paul says you need to do likewise. Don't just think about yourself and how this affects you, but also how it might affect who? Somebody else. Now I could drink a Coca Cola in a bar, but I don't do that.

Why not? Because I don't want somebody coming and seeing me sitting at a what? At a bar. Because it might be a what? A stumbling block.

Matter of fact, in high school, after a unfortunate experience, I decided not to buy IBC root beer anymore and carry it around in public because my friends thought I was drinking what? Beer. I was sitting in a ballgame hiding my bottle of IBC root beer. Nothing wrong with IBC root beer, but hiding it because it's in a brown bottle. And one of the classmates in my class walks up to me and he smiles real big and he opens his McDonald's cup to show me what's inside.

See, I had a brown bottle with root beer in it. He had a McDonald's cup with beer in it. And he justified. He thought it was cute and funny. Sadly, he lost ten years of his life to alcoholism.

I didn't help. I didn't help. In Hebrews chapter 10, jump ahead just a little bit, mount on. We're told this, and let us consider, what? One another.

To provoke unto love and the good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching. I know I'm preaching to the choir because you're here today. But why are you here? Why can't you just watch the livestream at home? Why did you come?

I hope it's because you understand that we need to come together because we need each other. And that's what God says. To consider not just yourself when you come to church, but also each other and the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not here for me this morning. I'm here for the gospel of Christ and for you.

And I hope you're here for the same reason because that's what God expects of us. And what love demands of us that we consider one another even in our church attendance and what we do while we're here that it's not just about us. I'm afraid in so many churches, it is just all about you or me. Entertain me. Make me feel good.

And we've lost the whole purpose of coming together. The pastor should not be the only one calling visitors or making visits or witnessing or sending birth cards or checking up on who is missing or going out of their way to welcome them. That is the ministry of the church. I thought about doing this this morning, but I decided not to. But I was gonna ask for a show of hands how many people have seen or talked to Joyce Wiseman since she has been in the hospital in rehab.

I know for a fact there's probably a dozen hands that would go up. Now that is a testimony to the Lord Jesus Christ, and that is what we're supposed to be doing. And you know it is a testimony for Christ, but you know what it means to Joyce? Until you're in her position, you probably don't. But it means the world to her, and every time I go, she tells me so.

That is the love of Christ. That is what church is about. Not just about coming on Sunday, not just sitting in a pew, not just singing songs, not just listening to the pastor go on and on and on wondering when he's going to let you go home and eat lunch. But it's about caring for one another, carrying one another's burdens. That is a stewardship that God has given to us in Christ Jesus.

Let's not be weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint. Now you say it's not worth it. It is. It is. It's worth it today.

It's worth it tomorrow, and it will be worth it all when we get to heaven. What do you take with you when you leave this place to go to heaven? You don't take your car. You don't take your money. You know what you do take?

You take others whose lives you touch for Jesus Christ. That's what you take with you. You take you go to the to the treasure that you have sent forward in your service for Jesus Christ. Sometimes we focus on the wrong things, don't we? If you're here today and you've never trusted Jesus Christ as your savior, he loves you so much he carried your burden on the cross.

He wants to give you eternal life, but you must accept him. You must recognize you're a sinner in need of a savior and confess him by faith this morning. If you haven't done that, if you'll come today, I'll love to show you from God's word. You don't have to carry this burden alone anymore. Jesus Christ will carry it for you.

Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, we thank you, Lord, for Jesus Christ, our savior, for the privilege to serve him together in this place, to serve one another, to demonstrate the love of Christ each day. Lord, I pray that you would help us to humble ourselves, to consider one another and the bigger picture, and most of all, our our Lord Jesus Christ and his love and what he did that we might be saved and that we might help each other in that service. Lord, I thank you for this church. I thank you for those that have put themselves out again and again and again to help others.

And I pray, Lord, that would grow and and it would multiply and the testimony of Christ would be magnified and the and the believers here would grow and grow and grow as we help each one another in that endeavor in the Lord Jesus. In Jesus' precious name we pray. Amen.