It's because of Christ we ask
it. Amen. All right. Acts one. Thomas messages the upper room.
The Lord told these brethren to go to Jerusalem and to stay
there until he sent his Holy Ghost to them. And then he was
going to send them all over. He's going to preach in Jerusalem
and all over. And that word's going to go to
the next generation and the next generation and the next generation.
And it's going to come all the way to us here tonight. But he
said, for now, he said, you go to Jerusalem. Look here in verse
four, Acts 1 verse four. It says, I'm being assembled
together with them. commanded them that they should
not depart from Jerusalem. But, and our Lord speaks, wait
for the promise of the Father, which he saith, you've heard
of me. Wait for the promise of the Father. Now you go there.
And they went. That's the text we're gonna look
at tonight. That's the text we're gonna look
at tonight. They went, okay? If y'all wanna look down, let's
look over to Luke 24. Look over there. We'll see this
journey before we get there. Luke 24, verse 50. This is how Luke closes this,
his record of the gospel. Luke 24, 50. It says, and he
led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands and
blessed them. And it came to pass while he
blessed them, he was parted from them and carried up into heaven. That's what we looked at last
week. The Lord was carried up in a what? A cloud. And I got
a picture of the cloud today. It was absolutely breathtaking. The Lord just took a paintbrush.
It was better than any painting I've ever seen. I stopped on
the road and took a picture. I said, this might be it. I hope
my brethren's looking up and seeing these clouds and said,
look what a marvelous thing the Lord has done. Maybe he's on his way
right now. They went up into heaven, verse 52, and they worshipped
Him. They worshipped. That's an important
word. Are we here to worship? Do we
know what worship means? Do we know what that word means?
They worshipped Him and returned to Jerusalem as He commanded
over in Acts 1, right? With great joy. They were happy. Remember those angels told him,
I said, you just saw him go up. That's how he's coming back.
They told you he's going to come again. Now go do what he told
you. Go wait on him. And they did. And they were full
of joy. It says great joy. Verse 53, and were continually
in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen. Now it says there
that they worshipped him. They worshipped him. Mankind
talks about there's going to be worship services on Good Friday. There's signs all around this
county and this, that and other. What's worship mean? I heard
somebody describe it. I couldn't find it in any lexicon
or anything, but it was worthy ship. He's worthy and he is. Well, I don't know if I feel
good. Does that make a difference in his worth to be worshipped? I told brother Tom Harding that
20 years ago. I said, Tom, I don't know that
that I'm the Lord's child. I don't think I'm a child of
God, but I know he's worthy of being worshiped, whether I am
or he ain't or I'm not. And he said, I think you're on
to something, son. Yeah, that's when in doubt, worship
him. He's worthy. That's a good explanation. But
you know what? That ain't what the word means. Well, what's
it mean to you? This place would be packed to
the teeth if we'd all sit around in a circle and I let everybody
go around the room and say what they thought that text meant
to them. It'd be packed. We ain't here to hear what man
thinks. I ain't here to hear what some old guy thinks. I wanna know
what God said. You know that word's a combination of two words.
Right there where it says worship, they worshiped him. The first
word, you ain't gonna find it there, look up here. The first
word's direction. Facing towards, that means you're
turned from something to something else. You're turned to him. You
ain't looking at yourself. You ain't looking at the word
or the world. You're not looking at the conditions around you.
You ain't looking at conspiracy theories. You're looking to Christ.
And the second word means coon. And I thought that was precious
to me because we call them coon dogs. That's a dog that hunts
coons. It means dog. That's a Greek word for dog.
And it's as one that licks its master's hand. out of adoration,
out of thanksgiving, out of love. Would you want a dog licking
your hand that was bellyaching? It might bite you. It might take
a finger with it, shouldn't it? Are we turned from everything,
from ourselves, from what we think worship is, and do we just
go to our master and adore him and lap him up like a dog? I've never heard of such a thing.
Well, God calls that worship. They worshiped him. They turned
from all their ideas and their experiences and their thoughts
and what grandma and grandpa did, and everything they considered
to be true, and they turned to him, a person, and they just
lapped him up. I'll take anything you give me.
If you scratch my head, if you give me a bone, I don't care.
I just want to wag my tail and be by your feet. That's what
I want. God calls that worship. Now,
is that what we call? We need to learn to call it that,
don't we? If he'd teach us something, and we could unlearn all the
things, like Moses in the first 40 years, if we could unlearn
40 years worth of learning, and our intellectual acumen, and
put all that crap behind us, and him teach us something. I guess that's offensive, I'll
get old English. Put all that dung behind us. How about that,
is that better? God might teach us something.
He may save some souls by doing that. If we could shut our mouths
and open our ears and hear Him speak. I could not get that printer
to work this season. I wasn't gonna have any notes. I probably don't
need them. Worship Him. They did that in
an upper room, didn't they? But they didn't just do it in
an upper room. They did it in the temple, didn't they? And they didn't
just do it in a temple. You know where they did it, Cass?
They did it in their homes. They did it in their place of
business, whether they were employees or employers. They did it in
their schools. They did it whenever there's
homeschooling our kids or teaching kids how to be homeschooled.
Whatever they did, Christ was on their mind. And that impacted
their daily walk. It wasn't just on a Wednesday
and on a Sunday. It was morning, noon, and night,
while they was pumping gas or feeding camels, whatever it was.
He got a hold of them and he dwelled in them. And he was on
their thoughts. We'll look at more of what that
is in a little bit. Not just in that upper room. And you know what that
is? That's a testament that they
believe God. And Christ said, you believe
in God, believe also in me. I'll go to prepare a place for
you and I'm gonna come back and get you. That's where we are. And my angel said
he's on his way back. All right, Acts one. Let's look
back a little bit in verse nine. Acts 1 verse 9. And when he had spoken these
things, while they beheld, he was taken up, and a cloud received
him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly
towards heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by in white
apparel, which also said, You men of Galilee, why stand ye
gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken
up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you
have seen him go into heaven. He told you to go to Jerusalem.
That's a good helper, isn't it? I know you want to sit here and
watch, see if he does something else. He's there, and he'll come back when
he comes back. And the same way he went up,
you're going to see some clouds. Now go on. He told you to go to Jerusalem.
Here's where we pick up from last week, verse 12. Then returned
they to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from
Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey. That's about a mile. That's how
far there's allowed to walk. And the first used to suburbs,
all the Levites lived outside of the city in the suburbs. It's a mile. Okay. I want to
give you five W's. who, what, where, when, and why
on what takes place in these next two verses, okay? I thought
all week about rearranging the, we'll do where first, or the
why first, and the when first, and I thought, well, I'll just
give it like that, and if the Lord's gonna bless it, he'll
bless it in spite of me, and I pray he'll do that. Verse 13,
who was there? We're gonna talk about this upper
room. Who was there? It says in verse 13, "...and
when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where
abode Peter, both Peter and James, and John and Andrew, Philip and
Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and
Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James. These all continued
with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women,
and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren." Now who
was there? That's the first W. Who was there in this upper room?
This upper room. Well, there's 11 apostles there.
That's the remaining apostles. He lists all of them by name.
And they said there was women there. Women there. We read over
in Luke 24 at the Lord's grave, or at the tomb, there was Mary
Magdalene and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other
women that were with them. There was a lot of women there,
wasn't there? His mother was there with them. I thought that's
something, you know, what's this world call our Lord's mother? The Virgin Mary. The former Virgin
Mary. You know, she had children after
she had the Lord. I was only for a little bit,
wasn't I? But here's this chaste one that's, I was a virgin. Oh,
we pride ourselves on those things, don't we? In such an educated
culture. Who else was there? Mary Magdalene.
Here's one that had never been with a man, and here's one that
sold herself to any man that would have her walking by. Both
of them. You see the opposite ends of
the spectrum there? Both of them. Mary, the former virgin, and
Mary Magdalene in the same room together. What was they doing
as being of one accord? You know those mean people? Those
people we don't like in this world? Ought not be none. Ought
not be none. That might be our brethren, huh?
What I thought. You think they got along? I stole this from one of my brothers.
It was just too good not to use, I have to tell you. Do you remember
Ruth, that Moabitess? Oh, don't even look at them.
She come all the way up from Naomi, bumped into Boaz. It was
her hat to light on that field. Lord put them together. I love
how he writes. So modest, his doings. And she, Boaz fell in love with
her, and she fell in love with Boaz. Could you imagine her meeting
her family members, going in there, and meeting her mother-in-law?
She said, oh, mother of Boaz, I love you. I like the way you
got your house set up. I like the way you talk. You're
such a role model for me. I like the way that you make
biscuits, and I like the way you make your roast in the oven.
You're just, and you're so put together. You're always dressed
so nice, and your makeup so good, and your hair's put up, and you
worship God, and you know him. You remember Boaz's mom's name?
Rahab? She said, honey, you don't know
the half of it. I look up to you so much, Rahab.
Sit down neat, honey. We're a lot more like than you
think we are. You think she stuck her nose up in the air? I said,
well, back in my day, we would have never done this. No, she
is Rahab the harlot. Sitting there with Ruth the Moabitess
and both of them in the lineage of our Lord. He counts himself
with us. Can you believe that? He come
down to this world for us. Something we ought not forget.
It says, with his brethren, who's that? Mary's other children?
Mary's other children? There are brothers here. Those
are brethren, brothers and sisters, right? And James and John, they're
brothers, aren't they? What about Peter and Andrew?
They're physical brothers, aren't they? James and Thaddeus? That's
Jude, the other Judas. They were brothers. We have some
brethren here that are physical brothers and spiritual brothers.
I've never experienced that. I never had to be something though,
wouldn't I? What a blessing that is. What a double honor the Lord's
blessed a family with. There's families represented.
The Lord blesses and they command their households and they honor
God and God honors them. Tell folks in this generation
that God ain't lying. It's the truth. That's a blessing, isn't
it? Lord come to them and does those things. That's a precious
thing. But being in that room to worship God earnestly, not
because it's Wednesday, but to be in that upper room to worship
God, because you have to be where his people are and you have to
hear a word from him. You know, that makes us closer than blood
relatives. We esteem those more than our
blood relatives. Turn over Mark three, our Lord did. Do we want
to be like him? Mark 3. Verse 31. There came then his brethren
and his mother, and standing without, sent unto him, calling
him. And the multitude said about him, and they said unto him,
Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without, there outside, seek
for thee. Your mom and your brother and
sisters are out there and they want to talk to you." And he answered them
saying, who is my mother or my brethren? And he looked round
about on them which sat about him and said, behold, my mother
and my brethren. Would that offend you men in
here? If the Lord said, you're my mother. Just us and assume
he is right. Wouldn't you? Or you ladies in
here, what if the Lord looked at you and said, you're my brother.
Would we correct him? That'd be precious, wouldn't
it? He said, this is my mother. This is my brethren. For whosoever
shall do the will of God, the same as my brother and my sister
and my mother. He said, what's the will of God
that you believe on me? and you adore him. You don't
agree that he's God. He's your God. You don't agree
that Christ is the only way that mankind could be saved from their
sin. He saved you from your sin. He's the only one that can show
mercy. I need mercy, and he showed it. He heard. He heard. Well, what were they
doing back in Acts 1, verse 14? Who was there? A great multitude
of a wide variety. in-laws and outlaws. Everybody
was there. What were they doing? That's
who, what? Verse 14. These all, all of them, good,
bad, ugly, Mary Magdalene and Mary the former virgin, and the
brothers and the ones that weren't brothers, and the apostles and
the disciples, all of them. These all continued with one
accord in prayer and supplication. They were there praying. They
were all together, because of their Lord, praying to their
Lord in prayer and supplication. That's what we'd read back in
Luke 24. They were continual in the temple, praising and blessing
God. Now, you just consider what was
on their minds. The Lord had just ascended. They
watched it happen. And for the last 40 days, he
was crucified, was buried, and rose again from a tomb 40 days
ago. And he walked this earth with
them, and he appeared to them, and he talked to them. And he
said, I'm about to go to my father. He said, but you're going to
have a comforter. I'm going to give you something to do. I'll
be with you. It's going to be all right. And
he comforted them, and he talked to them, and he encouraged them,
didn't he? They saw this, they saw him walk
through this world, they saw him ascend on high, and they
had the promise that he's coming back for them. That's fresh,
isn't it? Fresh in their minds. Do you
think they were concerned about the mayor's race? Do you think
what they wanted to talk about in this upper room was Super
Tuesday? Do you think any of them was
concerned about their good cholesterol levels or their free testosterone? Not a one. Their hearts, they
were in union. They were united. They were one
of cord, one of cord, with their hearts on their master, like
a dog turned to him and licking his hand. And they were praising
him and praying to him and blessing him and saying, he's been so
good to us. And he's left us with a promise
that he will come back and get us. Let's just sit here and wait.
Let's sit here and thank him. and talk about the good things
he's done, not that we've done, until he comes back. One of the
old writers said, this was the purest form of the modern church. Anybody that wasn't in that room
wanted to kill him. It was pretty cut and dry back then, wasn't
it? You weren't there because you wanted to be. I want to be
a warrior for Jesus. Ha! Until you see heads on pikes
out in front of everybody's front porches, you might change your
mind on that one. Everybody wants to be a warrior until the bullets
start flying. This was serious, wasn't it? The Lord just spoke
to them. What were they doing? They were praying. What happens
in a church service? Oh, Brother Parks put this in
his bulletin. I had done half this and it was out of order,
and I thought, well, I'll just copy his article because it's done.
A church service following scriptural orders of simple service. He
said, we want to attend the church that Christ attends. Is that
where you want to go? Not a church, not any old church.
I want to be where he is. It's a simple worship service.
Saints praise the Lord and bless His name, Psalm 100. They sing
with and to one another with God-honoring hymns, that's Ephesians
5 and Colossians 3. They exhort one another, Hebrews
10. They observe the sacred ordinances, especially the Lord's Supper,
Acts 20, 1 Corinthians 11. They pray to God and God answers
them, Acts 4. they hear God's servant preach
the gospel. They were there praying, wasn't
they? Paul said in Ephesians 6, he said, you take the helmet
of salvation, the sword of the spirit, which is the word of
God, and praying always with all prayer and supplication in
the spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication
for all saints, and for me, and for me, that utterance may be
given to me that I may open my mouth boldly. and make known
the mysteries of the gospel. I can give knowledge and understanding."
They were praying. They were praying. What was gonna
happen? Well, the Lord wasn't there to preach to them no more.
They'd been preaching for a few years, hadn't they? Peter's about
to preach. He's getting ready to. And I
thought, oh, Lord, whichever one you put in their hearts to
preach, be with them. Give them a message. I don't wanna hear
the gospel. Out of that 120 that's there, I want to hear Christ exalted.
I want to hear man abased. I want to see him in these scriptures. Show me. I probably forgot. Show
me again and be with that one. Make him say it plainly and just
say what God said. That's a miracle. They're praying for those preachers,
weren't they? How often should we do that? Turn over to Luke 18. Luke 18. Speaking of this prayer, Paul
said in 1 Thessalonians 5, Rejoice evermore, period. Pray without
ceasing, period. In everything give thanks. They
say the things that make you happy give thanks. He said in
everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ
Jesus concerning you and me. Pray without ceasing. Rejoice. Be thankful. Be thankful. Luke
18, verse 1. And he spake a parable unto them
to this end, for this cause, this is why he gave it to them,
that men ought always to pray and not to faint, not to quit
doing it, not to fall over. Verse 2, saying there was in
a city a judge which feared not God. neither regarded man. And
there was a widow in that city, and she came unto him, saying,
Avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while.
But afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God,
nor regard man. I don't care about God, and I
don't care about you or any other man. Yet, because this widow
troubleth me, I will avenge her. Lest by her continual coming,
she weary me. She won't hush, and she's bothering
me, and in case this gets worse, I'm just gonna avenge her and
get this over with. It ain't cause I like her. It
ain't cause I, that's how we ought to operate. We ought to
judge things. Two people in my household got called for jury
duty. What a blessing. God did that, and then you might
go sit in a court of law and see how this court works, and
then you'll be reminded how God's court works. That's a good thing.
And you older folks that's retired ought to volunteer for it. God
might teach you something and he'll take it off his working
folks. But this was a wicked judge and he didn't regard God
and he didn't regard man. And he said, just cause this
woman won't let off of it, I'm gonna give in to her. Verse six,
and the Lord said, hear what the unjust judge saith. This
judge ain't just, this judge doesn't fear God, but do you
hear what he did? Do you see that? And shall not God avenge
his own elect? He told the apostles, he said,
if your children come and ask you for fish, you wouldn't give
them a scorpion, and you're evil. What do you think the Lord's
gonna do? Shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day
and night unto him, though he bear long with them? He may wait
a while before he answers them. But those that cry to him, I
tell you that he will avenge them speedily, speedily, right
early, David worded it. Nevertheless, when the son of
man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? We have the faith
to pray to him and praise him, worship him, whether we get any
fringe benefits out of it or not. I know a lot of people that's
come to churches where the gospel was preached and they wanted
to get healed or have friends or I don't know, list something
that's a positive in mankind's world and they didn't get that
and it didn't take long and they quit coming. Well, that's good
faithful brother so-and-so. No, it ain't. They were out for number one.
I want the Lord to make me faithful till he comes, just to praise
him. Not to have some kind of benefit for Kevin out of it,
and not to make my life easier, or anything else, just praise
him because he's worthy of being praised. Back in our text, our next one.
Where would all this take place? We know who was there. A wide
variety. Whosoever was there. We know
what they were doing. They were praying and praising
and thanking God and praying for them about to preach. Those
that had to go into this world and preach all over it. Lord
told them what they was going to do. And I said, we're going to need some
help. You all pray for me. Where does this take place? Verse
13, and when they were come in, they went up into an upper room. The Greek translation, the literal
translation is the upper room, a definite article, the, not
an upper room, not one of a bunch of other upper rooms. The original
Greek is the upper room. This could be referenced, that's
where the Lord gave his last supper, where he gave his table,
wasn't it? Over Mark 14, it said, he will
show you, go to this man, you tell him you're going to observe
the Passover, and he's going to show you a large upper room,
furnished and prepared. You tell him this is for you,
for me, and he's going to show you this room, and it's big,
and it's furnished, and it's prepared. Mm-hmm. That's a picture of God's church
throughout time. Did you know that? That's what
this upper room represents. The upper room. He brings us
out of this cesspool of this world and brings us up to think
on things of him and his kingdom. Is that up? Well, we go down
to Egypt. Egypt blows sea levels down them
slime pits. He brings us up to Bethel, up
to his house of bread, up to Jerusalem. That's his church
throughout time. That's where the Lord meets his
people, his body. And that's a large room. It can
fit a number that no man can number. Close my eyes or somebody lifts
over the airwaves. There's room for you. Come in this room. There's plenty of room and it's
furnished. You don't have to bring anything.
Everything's needed there. Well, what if we got the stuff
that's there? Do we have to get it ready and assemble the furniture? No,
it's prepared. Everything's done. It's all finished.
Just come. Just come. That's the upper room
throughout time. But this is also every upper
room. And some of y'all's been to some
of them. I think everybody in this room has. At least one.
You've been to some local assemblies where the Lord meets with his
people. And you go there and what do you think? This place
is well furnished. Everything's prepared. Lord prepared that
message real good for my heart. They got it good, didn't they?
We had some visitors recently. Did they tell you that you got
it good here? They think this is a nice room.
They think it's an upper room, not a mediocre room. That's where
God dwells with his people. That's the local assemblies.
But I gotta make this real clear, though, too. This is just a building.
This is just brick and mortar, okay? In Appalachia, they call
them the church house. We're gonna go to the church
house. We gotta clean the church house. We're gonna have a dinner
at meal after services at the church house. It's just a house
where they have church. It's a building that has church,
that the church meets. The church is the Lord's body.
That's his people. He says he abides in us. And
we just happen to congregate to stay out of the rain. And
I built, if I had my, we're a little bit up a hill, I wish it was
higher on a hill. I do. That's what them people back
in poor old Appalachia call things. You know what those people say?
They say, I reckon, I reckon, what hillbillies. You know where
they got that? They could only afford one book to read in the
house. And they learned how to read
out of that book. And they learned things like, Likewise, reckon
yourselves also to be dead and need to sin. Impute, account
yourself. Mark it down because it's done.
That's what reckon means. It's closer to the king's English
than most of the people over in the UK. It's unadulterated,
but it's in an upper room and it's up high, isn't it? I mentioned
this last service. The Lord said, you're the light
of the world. Not, well, this building is the light of the
world. He said you. Kevin, that's too strong. Well,
he said it. He said, you're the light of the world, a city that
is set on a hill and it can't be hid. Christ in you, that light's
gonna shine forth in this community. We're gonna get into that later
on as we go through Acts. That's how he's gonna build his
church, is us having neighbors and us having employers and us
having people we know at the stores or whatever, people we
come in contact with. But set on a hill, it can't be
hid. David said in Psalm 40, he said, he brought me up out
of a horrible pit, out of the mire of clay, and he set my feet upon
a rock and established my goings. He's lifted us up, hasn't he?
And we come in this upper room to hear about that. What's Zion
called? Mount Zion. Up. Where'd the Lord go? He ascended.
He went up, didn't he? And how we view that ought to
be precious wherever the Lord has a local assembly. That's
how we ought to view and treat our brethren, and especially
treat those that come bringing good tidings of good things,
those that come preaching the gospel. I want us to get that.
We ought to be like Abraham and get the best calf that we can
get, not some old ruddy buck out there. Go get the best meat
we can have. We put our best foot forward
for those that's preaching because the Lord ain't come yet. But
we want to be good to them. That's what I was talking about.
Where did Rahab hide those spies that came to her? In the basement? Did she hide them down low? I
can get down there. I know it smells a little moldy, but it
won't get you. I put bleach down there last week. We'll give you
an hour." No! She hid them up on the roof of
the house and hid them with stalks of flax. Up! She put them on
the roof. And I got to think about that.
You know that wasn't the only one? Elijah. She went to a widow
and she fed him a cake and then she fed herself a cake and then
she fed that son a cake. He said, you're going to stay
with her through this drought and she's going to provide for you.
And he lived with her. That whole drought that he prophesied
of, and then that woman's son fell sick, and she came to him
and she said, what do I have to do with the old man of God?
Art thou come unto me to call my sin and remembrance and slay
my son? We always think that, don't we? If some kind of bad
thing happens to us, what did I do? That's what Job's miserable
comforter said, didn't it? What'd you do? Bring us evil. God's punishing you. No, he's
not punishing you. Might be chasing you, but Elijah
spoke to that woman. He said unto her, give me thy
son. And he took him out of her bosom
and he carried him up into a loft where he abode and he laid him
on his own bed. Where'd he stay? She put him
up in loft. It's warmer up there in the winter
time. You go up there, you get the best room in the house. That
Shunammite woman, she gave Elisha bread every day when he walked
by. And she went to her husband one day, and she said to her
husband, Behold, I perceive this is a holy man of God, which passes
by us continually. He's always coming through here.
Let us make him a little chamber, I pray thee, on the wall. Not
out of sticks and mud. Up on a stone wall, up high.
And let's put him in our bed and a table and a stool and a
candlestick. What more does he need? He's got a place to sit,
a place to sleep, and a candle to study with. And it shall be
when he cometh to us, he shall turn in thither." We got a room
set just for him. That's giving to hospitality,
isn't it? The Lord said, one in a thousand shall flee at the
rebuke of one and the rebuke of five shall you flee till you
be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain and as an ensign
on a hill. We're gonna be made an ensign.
Remember what an ensign was? That flag, a banner, Nisi. When we put up on top of that
hill and be made like Jehovah Nisi. He's going to be our banner
and we're going to declare him. He's going to put us there. If
we're his, we're going to. Up high in an upper room. That's
where they were. That's where we all were brought.
Not back down to the dredge and not back under the law. Above,
up! Upper room. Back in our text,
when did they do it? Verse 13, Acts 1, 13. Got to who, got to what. After
where they did it, when did they do it? Verse 13. And when they
were come in, they went up into an upper room where abode both
Peter and James and at least of them. Who might as well say
they live there? They're there all the time. Every
time you drive past, they're there, ain't they? He abode there.
Look at verse 14. These all continued. They continued
with one accord and prayer and supplication. They didn't quit.
They were there to the end. Well, they used to go there and
like people are, you know how many people I know that used
to preach the gospel? That's frightening. I pray I ain't one
that's chalked up to used to believe in God and used to preaching
his word, used to following him. I want to follow him. I want
to continue. I want to abide there. Just bring you sleeping back
down there. I live here now. Y'all about to run me off. I want to
be where his people are. I have to, that's my family.
It's more important than my real, than my blood family, my family,
I had them. What we call real family. That's
the real family. We read, I told you, 1 Thessalonians 5, pray
without ceasing. They were there, they didn't
quit, and they didn't quit praying. And they continued praying. Paul
said in Ephesians 6, pray always with all prayer and supplication
in the spirit for all the saints. Pray without ceasing. Pray always. What's that mean? That is not
saying your prayers. That is not saying your prayers. Will you save her? Will you give
grace? I can't give grace. Will you say grace? Grace comes
out of his lips. Lord taught us a lot about prayer.
We don't know much of it, but I wanna learn, don't you? It's
not quoting God's scriptures back to him. Let it sit there
and just chant and say, well, this sure is a good scripture
that goes along with whatever's going on that day. Just say something.
It's communion. Prayer without ceasing is a unity.
It's an intimacy. It's a constant consideration
of everything all at once. It just ebbs and flows. He's
our prophet, he's our priest, and he's our king. And those
clouds today was so beautiful. He's a creator. He was. Who controls those? That's a
good question for you. He does. It's his providence.
He controls everything, doesn't he? I want my loved ones to be
saved. Who's going to do that? That's
him. Go pump gas in your car. Isn't that a combustion engine
amazing? The Lord gave somebody sense
enough to do that so that way I could drive around and go preach
real easy. I ain't gotta walk and go through 10 pairs of shoes
a year. Not do me some good. We think on us and our brethren.
Think on them all day and all the time just comes and goes
just like you're breathing in and out. It don't stop. Let's pray without ceasing, not
sitting around humming like a monk all day, saying chants. Turn over Psalm 10. Psalm chapter
10, I want you to see this. These brethren, we read there
in Luke 24, how did they go down to Jerusalem to this upper room?
It was with great joy. What David said, I was glad when
they said, we get to go to the Lord's house today. They were
happy, and they prayed without ceasing. Psalm 10, look at verse
4. David's speaking, the Lord says,
the wicked through the pride, I want you to get there, Psalm
10. If you get back to Job, you went
too far, go right. Psalm 10, verse 4. Does he say the brethren and
good faithful brethren? He says the wicked. The wicked
through the pride of his countenance will not seek after God. God
is not in all his thoughts. He don't think on God all day.
What goes hand-in-hand with not thinking on God? We might think
about God things or what we think church things or churchy things
or something like that. He doesn't think about God because
he doesn't know him. What goes hand-in-hand with not thinking
about God? Verse 5. His ways are always grievous. Are your ways grievous? Has my
week been just horrible? Oh, this day's just been so long.
Oh, my back hurts, and this is bad, and that's bad, and so-and-so's
sick, and... I got on to... I preached out
loud. I don't know who listens to this
thing, but I said, do you ever see me hand out a prayer list?
No, and if God keeps me, it won't happen. You know, I started getting
two prayer lists consistently in my name all the time. I mean,
big ones. Pray for so-and-so's neighbor's cousin. Why? That they'd come to church and
God'd save them? they got cancers so they're gonna they need to
come church sooner that's what they need not that that cancer
goes away they need christ not an oncologist that's the true
need his ways are always grievous we think about god all day long
who he is not not just that we offended him or something like
that but Are we happy? Do we have joy in him? Not in our lot in life, not in
our situation, not in us, but in him. When we hear him, that's
him. That's what he did. He brings us that upper room.
That make you happy? Or is that grievous? God judgments. He's saying, Your
judgments, Lord. His ways are always grievous,
but Your judgments, Lord, are far above out of His sight. I
don't have a clue what the Lord's doing. God wouldn't do something
like that. That's the wicked speaking. That's
the unregenerate speaking. What's the Lord's people do?
Let's think on Him. And whenever I forget to think
on Him, you remind me to think on Him. You start thinking on
Him. Don't say, Kevin, no, you need to be doing this. Just say, you
know what the Lord did for me today? That'll stir up my pure mind. That's why I said you either
sugar Him up or shut Him up. Somebody starts talking to you
about things that don't matter and they're goldfish, just start talking about what
good things the Lord's done for you. And if they have no clue what
you're talking about, they can't talk and they'll quit bothering you.
Or if they're a brother or sister, they'll say, you know what? That's
right. The Lord is just fabulous. Let's talk about that. Let's
dwell on those things. What's he doing? Saving his people
and getting all the glory for it. What else we need to know?
That's something. Why did they do this? Who's there?
Riffraff. What are they doing praising
God and thanking Him and praying for folks? Where's the satin
upper room? We in all the time. Might as
well live there. Why? Why do such a thing? Why forsake all these worldly
good things? The Lord says, I gave this earth
to you, enjoy it. Go up to Yosemite, look what
He made, it's beautiful. If you got the means to go there,
we ought to go look at it. or look at a palm tree. I always
wanted to live in a place where there's palm trees when I was
a kid. I sent a picture once a month to my sister. I said,
look, I own a palm tree. It's amazing. Enjoy it. But why
would we forsake all these things and experiences in life and only
live where the gospel is and build our whole life around the
worship of God instead of squeezing it in whenever it happens to
fit in our busy schedule of appointments and other things? Why? Back in
Acts 1. 1, they were in Jerusalem in
that upper room. Why? The Lord told them to. Salvation
is a command. Don't forsake the Assembly of
the Saints. Well, I had this going on. Things come up, that
happens. She's about to run a graduation
for the school this year. It's on a Wednesday. Ain't no
way else to do it. Sometimes those things happen.
Showed up in work clothes. There's been several times I
showed up in work clothes. She didn't bring me clothes to
change into or I just smelled so bad I wouldn't change. We're
commanded to do that. God commands us to. And the second
reason, they had only their Lord and their God in their minds,
in love, because they loved him. They loved him. If I found out
my brother had come to San Diego and was here for three days and
then left and didn't come up and say hi to me, I would be
wounded. I'd hurt my feelings. And then
my true brother was down here and tried his best to meet me
for lunch and it didn't work out, but we talked on the phone
for a half hour. I was tickled to death he wanted
to meet up for lunch. That was precious to me. Want
to in love, don't we? Verse 11 says, Which also said
ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This
same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so
come in like manner as you've seen him go into heaven. Now
let's hear about him till he comes again. Let's tell others
about him until he comes again while that door is still open.
Verse 8 says, but ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost
has come upon you and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in
Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria and to the uttermost parts of
the earth. I'll send you all over. You're going to do those things. Why? Because when he ascended
on high, he lived captivity captive, and he gave gifts unto men. That's
what Paul was talking about in Ephesians 4. This right here.
He gave them gifts. I'm going to send my Holy Ghost
to you and be with you and equip you to do this. And you go preaching
all the words. World. And Paul continued in Ephesians
4 and on. He said, Now he that ascended, when it went up, What
is it but that he also descended first in the lower parts of the
earth? That's the one that came down for us. And he that descends
the same also that ascended up far above all the heavens that
he might feel all things. Why? Because we know who he is.
We know who he is. We know what he did. He condescended
to this earth for us. Well, that's our reasonable service.
That's just two days a week for an hour. What a reasonable thing
to show up worshiping every day, every thought. That's reasonable,
isn't it? As many times as he'll be pleased
to allow me and let me and make me look to him. That's reasonable. That's reasonable. He commands
it and we want to. That's what I'm getting at. And
we're of one accord. One accord. I won't keep you no longer. I'll
run through this real quick. What are believers? Well, that's not
my experience. Well, I'm not talking about somebody
else. I'm talking about believers. Those that's in the upper room,
this upper room, the upper room in Kingsport or New Jersey or
St. Petersburg, Florida, or wherever
it is. Believers, they're of one accord on the gospel. They
see eye to eye. There's no disagreements on it.
That very one that descended, that condescended is the only
one that can ascend. and I in him. If I'm ever going
to be made like him in any sin, it's going to be in him. My sin
was so great. He had to physically come down
to this earth and represent me and live for me and die for me
and be risen for me. And right now he's got to intercede
for me until he finally comes and gets me and transforms me
into him. May be made just like him. They
see eye to eye. Well, I don't know about this.
I don't know about that either. Lord's people see eye to eye. We have,
we're one accord. We got that down pat. This Word
is the Word of God. As He gives us light in it, it
don't change. It's so, and if I don't understand
it, it's not the Word's fault, it's my fault. This is God's
Word, and that God's sovereign. He does all things according
to His will. Everything that happens, down
to the molecules or whatever they're made up of. Electrons
orbiting a nucleus. We can't even imagine those things,
and that's good. That ought to give us a hint
of how majestic and mighty he is. He's a sovereign God. He
does what he wants to do, and what he does is right. We see
eye to eye, we're of one accord on all mankind born of Adam,
that's all of us, depraved. And we ought to invent new words
that make it sound worse. Dead, graveyard dead. We're a
bunch of dead dogs, sinners. And we see eye to eye, we're
of one accord on election. Not just on the doctrine of election.
We could be eye to eye with the doctrine of election with Pharisees.
They believed in election, didn't they? God chose people and it
just happened to be them. Like, I think he did a fine job.
I'm wonderful. Not the doctrine of election. We see eye to eye.
We're one accord of the God of election. Election is unto salvation. And that's the means he was pleased
to pick some and put them in Christ. That's amazing. Why?
Because Christ, the Holy One of Israel, he's the elect. We
have to be put in him. by His grace, and we see how
we're of one accord on the Lord calling His people to Himself,
and He does it by the Holy Spirit through the preaching of Christ
through the truth, and only the truth, nothing but the truth,
and it's 100% His doing. Nobody made a decision to help
him out. Nobody happened to show up in the right place, right
time, how lucky they are. Absolutely not. He does it through the preaching
one-on-one and the hearing. That's how faith comes. We see
eye-to-eye on those things, for he is. The law being completely and
totally filled full when our head said, it's finished. Well,
now you got to keep... No, you don't. It's finished.
We don't see eye-to-eye on those things if you think there's something
left for man to do. Now, is there something left for us to do?
We ought to love and joy and be long-suffering. Yeah, do it
all you want. Lord told us that the other night,
or the other morning. Now, go show mercy. You've seen
me be merciful to you. Now, here, practice. Do it all
you want. You're gonna mess it up. Try
again. We see eye to eye on those. We're of one accord on those
things. And one accord in knowing the promise of God to keep all
his children and not by their help or not by their own doing. He's going to keep us by his
doing until we're made like the Lord Jesus Christ and presented
faultless before his presence of his glory with exceeding joy
on both parties. It'll be happy about it. What blows my mind, he'll be
happy. He's going to be happy. This
is great, buddy, is it? This is good. And that's the
kind of room I want to be in. That eternal upper room, because
that's where he is. If I don't want to do that on
this earth, what makes you think I want to do that for absolute
infinite eternity? But if we want to here, I sure
want to then. I sure want to then. Let's pray
again. Father, draw us, gather us