John K. Jenkins Sr - Breaking of Bread

Alleluia! We bless your name, Heavenly Father. We honor your name today, we worship you, and we give you the praise, glory, and all of the honor. We call upon you, collectively coming together, praying for each other. We come this morning, collectively thanking you for every door you’ve already opened and every prayer you’ve already answered. We beseech and pray today, God, that as we pray for each other, you would move on behalf of our brother, our sister, and the persons whose hands we hold. We call their names out before your altar, asking you, God, to step into the domain of whatever is going on in their lives and work a miracle on their behalf. Break the stronghold of the enemy, bring healing where it is needed, and grant financial blessings if someone is in need. Heal marriages, heal families. Father, let your will be done; may your perfect will prevail in every aspect of our lives. This is our prayer. We pray in the name of the Lord Jesus, not only for people in this building but also for our brothers and sisters who join us around the world. We intercede and pray for those in the military, those on college campuses, and those, God, who join us wherever they might be, that you might minister to their needs. Father, we pray and acknowledge our sins to you; we need your mercy and your forgiveness. We ask this in the name of the Lord, praying for each other that your kingdom would come, your will would be done, and your name would receive the glory and honor. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Alright, you can’t be seated! Acts chapter two; we’re still in Acts chapter two, and I’m going to pick up where we left off. For the benefit of our guests who are with us this morning, we’re in a series from Acts chapter 2, verse 42, that talks about what the early church did. Verse 42 says this: they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and in prayers. This is the early church, and this is what they did. Our theme for 2019 is «Doing Life Together.» Say that; say it one more time. Look at your neighbors and say, «We’re going to do life together.» Tell the person on the other side, «Are you going to do life with me?» We’re trying to transition people from just looking at the backs of the heads in front of them every week to engaging in life with each other. That 's what the apostles did. This was what the early church did. In verse 42, it states that they did four things. They continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, which means they followed what the apostles taught. We spent six weeks discussing the foundational truths of Scripture. We talked about the apostles' doctrine and teaching. Last week, we discussed fellowship, which means there’s more than one fellow in the ship. Go ahead and pass through! It means sharing life. Just so, fellowship means we’re going to share life. That 's our challenge; that’s what we’re going to do as a church family-share life with each other and not be unconcerned. We are concerned about whatever you’re going through and whatever your challenges in life may be. I’m concerned about it; we’re concerned about it with each other. Here 's the third thing that we’re going to talk about today. It says right here in verse 42 that they broke bread-the breaking of bread. What I want to do is spend these next few moments discussing what breaking of bread means, how it applies to your life, and why it is significant. That is what we’re going to talk about today: the breaking of bread. Now, it means two things. The breaking of bread refers to these two items, and the first thing deals with covenant. Somebody say «covenant.» In Jewish history and culture, one of the things they did when they established a covenant with someone is that the covenant was sealed with a meal. As a matter of fact, when people got married, they sealed the marriage covenant by breaking bread. It’s called breaking bread, or they had a meal. That 's why when you have weddings today, there’s a reception and food is provided for people. Even though nowadays I 've discovered that receptions are becoming less about dinner and more about finger sandwiches-come on! -Halloween punch is taking over because it’s expensive. But sitting down at a table and looking at each other allows you to engage and affirm a covenant. A covenant is important because most people don’t understand the difference between a covenant and a contract.