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All right, well, let's turn in the Word of God to Acts chapter 1. Acts chapter 1 in the Word of God. Acts chapter 1, and we'll read verses 6 through 15. Acts chapter 1, verses 6 through 15. Let's read this. Acts 1, beginning verse 6 says, When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, without this time restore again the kingdom of Israel. And he said to them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power, but you shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you. And you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and all Judea and in Samaria and to the uttermost part of the earth. 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 toward heaven, as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, which also said, You men of Galilee, why stand you gazing up in 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. Then returned they into Jerusalem from the Mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a Sabbath day's journey. And then when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode 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. And in those days, Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples and said, The number of names together were about 120. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, we come again before you through the blood and name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, again, we praise you. We glory in you. And Lord, we're so thankful, Lord, for your grace upon our life. And Lord, how you give us the strength, Lord, even to get up in the morning and go to work. And Lord, the things that you allow us to do, Lord, we want to be thankful. And Lord, I pray again for each person that's here, each person that's listening in. Thank you for your faithful servants. And Lord, I thank you for touching Sister Judy and giving her, allowing her to be here tonight. Lord, we do pray you give the doctors wisdom about decisions that need to be made concerning the pacemaker or any other need there might be. Please give guidance there. And Lord, for Sister Muxlow and others that have been mentioned. Lord, we think of Brent as he's traveling. Lord, continue to watch over him. And thank you for his faithfulness and service to you. Lord, for our missionaries. Thank you, Lord, that we can support them and pray for them and be a part of their team as well. And so, God, you know all the needs among us. And so, God, we yield ourselves to you. Again, help us through your word tonight. In Jesus' precious name. Amen. And just as another announcement, don't forget Sunday morning, right? Sunday morning will be my last service officially as a pastor. And then we'll have the fellowship afterwards. And then we'll come back and have an early afternoon service. And then Brother Wood will preach his first message officially as the new pastor of the Choice Hills Baptist Church. So please be praying about that. And it'd be a good thing to invite people to. And so don't forget the food. All right. Don't forget the food. And as you know, especially the desserts. Remember, Paul said, bring me the books, but especially the parchments. I say bring the food, but especially, amen, the desserts. But we'll have a good time there. All right. As we look at Acts chapter one, we know the story, right? Jesus rose again. He spent another 40 days with them. And then they walk out and he ascends to heaven. Now, think about this. Jesus, the one they'd been following daily for three and a half years, who then died and then rose again, and they now had been back together for 40 days. Boy, no, no. Imagine how excited they'd been. You know, of course, you know, that day when he was upon the cross and, of course, all the things that happened when he was arrested and Peterson and all those great things that happened, no doubt all the emotion that had been going over those several days there. But then he came back and then he spent time with them, spent another 40 days with them. No doubt that they'd been very excited to see this one that they'd been walking with daily for three and a half years. But now he was departing for good, at least physically. Amen. At least physically, he was departing for good. And verse 11, the angel said, why stand you gazing up? Why are you still staring at Jesus? His time for being with you and guiding you daily, at least physically, is over. There's still more work to be done. Now go back to Jerusalem and get about the father's business. Amen. So we have to remember things change in life. But amen, as long as the Lord tarries and as long as we're here, there's still, amen, the father's business to be about. Like Jesus said when he was young, no, you're not. I must be about my father's business. And we have to remember that. Right. Yeah, there's still work to do. And so he said, hey, this isn't time to be just stand around. Let's get back there and get something done for the Lord. So, of course, they go back to Jerusalem. And let's read again, verses 12 through 15 says, then they return, then return they into Jerusalem from the mountain called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey. And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room again, where both Peter and James and John and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew, 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 brother. Now notice verse 15. And in those days, Peter stood up in the midst of his disciples. And so, we know Peter gets up and says something. So here we see Peter stands up. It seems that during this, if you want to call it a time of transition, Peter takes the role as leader. So we see him stand up here. And of course, you know, they talk about another apostle and make a vote there and cast their lot. So Peter stands up taking a lead position. But then when we come, you know, the story in Acts chapter two at Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came down, right, that Peter stands up at Pentecost also. So showing a position of leadership among the people there. Now it's believed, talking about Jerusalem, right, the church at Jerusalem and all these people got saved. It's believed, of course, who became pastor of the church in Jerusalem, they believe? James. Oh, this James. Yeah, he's older than I thought. It is believed James became the pastor of the church of Jerusalem, though. Let me give you some verses there that you see the example. Remember when Acts 15, when they have some questions about some things that they went back to Jerusalem. And I'll just give you these few verses. It says in Acts 15, 12 through 14, then all the multitude kept silence. Right. They brought the questions and gave audience to Barnabas and Paul declaring what miracles and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles by them. And then you see James take a leadership position here in the church. And after they had held their peace, James answered and saying, Men and brethren, hearken unto me. Simon hath declared how God is the first to visit the Gentiles and take out of them a people for his name. So we see three leaders. We see Jesus was the leader. Then we see Peter taking a leadership role among the people. Then we see James taking a leadership role among the people. But notice this, whether it was Christ that was physically taking the lead or Peter taking the lead or later we see James taking the lead. But right. We see verses 13 and 14. Right. It says they all came. It says they all came together. And it says, notice the men and the women. I'm glad that he put that in there, that the men and the women had come together because it takes the whole team. Right. Takes the whole team to build the church, takes the whole team to keep the church together, takes the whole team to move the church forward. But it says this, these all continued with one accord. And that's what you see throughout the book of Acts. Right. That no matter who had the leadership position, right, the church stayed together and the church moved forward together. These all continued. It says they all continued with one accord. You know, I often think about this because I've seen this, you know, I've mentioned before, you know, well, when I've been in other churches and the leadership changes and things, I see a lot of times I'd see people change. So I always try to emphasize this. If the way someone serves the Lord, if the way someone serves the Lord and the way someone serves the church, if that changes based on who's behind the pulpit, well, Jesus isn't here anymore. Well, you know, I like Peter. Now they put James over the church, right? You know, if people change, I've noticed this. I'm going to say that again. If the way someone serves the Lord and the way someone serves the church changes based on who is behind the pulpit, if you will, that is everything being right, then they are a man follower and not following Christ. I think it's important to emphasize that because we're followers at the end of the day, we're followers of Christ. The pastor is the under shepherd. Christ is the shepherd. It's Christ that's the head of the church. You know, I remember when the first time, you know, you all know I was saved under Brother Albertson. And I remember the first time he left, right? A guy came over and took the church. And boy, I'm telling you, Brother Albertson left. And boy, that, you know, none of us knew him. I'm glad, you know, we know Brother Adam. This guy, he canceled all the missionaries. He said, I'm your first missionary. And he said all this stuff. And I was still a new Christian. And he boy, he he he didn't like me. I don't know why I was teaching. I was teaching the Sunday school class, a teen Sunday school class. And he's like, I don't know why you got Stuart teaching the Sunday schools. Then he pointed to one of the teenagers said why, why he knows more. He knows more about things than than than Stuart does. And boy, I mean, all this stuff. And you know what? And and and a bunch of people, some good friends of mine, you know, got up and left the church. But you know what? I stayed with the church. I say this for sometimes you go to church because you need the church. Sometimes you go to church because church needs you. Right. That's why I always emphasize that. And I said, listen, if people like if solid people don't stay in the church, then what's going to happen to this church? And I said, you know what? He was there, I think, within seven months he was gone. Right. And then actually Brother Albertson came back. And you know what happened? All the people left came back. You know, and some of those are still very 37 years later, some of those people are still good friends of mine. But I said, you know what? And a lot of and a lot of them I highly respect. But you know what? I said, you know what? Because they didn't like this or that, you know, I said I stayed with the church and the Lord took care of it. The Lord took care of it because it's his church. It's his church. But you see, they continued in prayer and supplication. If we are to to continue in one accord, we must all be praying together. Notice it says men and women. It takes all of us, a praying church. How wonderful. And it says that word continued means this. It means to remain somewhere, to cleave faithfully to to remain steadfast and faithful in the outgoings of the Christian life. And in this case, it emphasizes prayer to continue together in one accord. We must remain together like they did. How often people are quick to leave with change of leadership before giving the new leadership an honest and fair chance. But we must do like them, stay together in one accord. That means that what that phrase, one accord means this with unanimous consent, with one mind, all together, one and the same. That's how we want to remain as God's local church. Acts 4 24 says this. And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord. I like that. Amen. Something happened. The church was being attacked. And what do they do? Right. They did all run in different directions. They rallied together and they pray together. They lifted up their voice together and they cried out together in one accord. Lord, thou art God, which thou hast made heaven and earth and the sea and all that in them is. I like I like this verse. Acts 15 25 says this. It seemed good unto us being assembled with one accord. I like that statement. Being assembled with one accord to send chosen men unto you that are beloved Barnabas and Saul. You see, this is how we want to be. Every time we assemble, we want to be assembled in one accord. Here's some verses that show what that means. Acts 15, six and seven, that you may be one mind and one mouth glorify God, even our father, Jesus Christ. And then verse seven says, wherefore, receive one another. Right. I emphasize this again. I'm sure I've emphasized before, but that God would help us to stay in one mind, one mouth and receive ye one another. I like what the thought of receiving one another means. It means this to receive to oneself and to treat with kindness, to take by the hand and bring aside for fellowship. That's what we want to do with one another. Amen. Man, Joshua, man, it's so good to see you. Hey, let me pull you over here. Come over here, man. I want to fellowship with you. You know, the ladies to one another. Hey, sister, it's good to see you, man. Let's pull over side and fellowship. I didn't say gossip. I said fellowship. Right. You know, you're not supposed to gossip. If you're going to do that, post it on Facebook so we can all see it. All right. So we can all see it. Right. One another receive ye one another. I like that. And that's how we should be, man. We're excited to see one another. Acts 2, 42 says this, and they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship. There it is. And fellowship doctrine, breaking bread and in prayers. You see, we are challenged as a church to continue. And we see that wonderful example through the book of Acts that no matter what, amen. Sure, I'm sure the best thing was when Christ was there physically. But we know that's why he sent the Holy Spirit. Right. So we still have that connection with him. But whatever human instrumentality that God puts in front of us, whether it's Peter or James or Paul, and, you know, Paul talked about that later. Right. Well, you know, some Sam Paul, some Sam of this, some Sam of that. No, we're all of Christ. And this is Christ's church. We are challenged as a church to continue one, as we see here, continue talking to God in prayer. Colossians 4 to continue in prayer and watching in the same with Thanksgiving. So may the Lord help us to continue to talk to God and continuing to let God talk to you. Right. They continued in the doctrine. They not only did they continue to talk to God in one accord in prayer, but they continue to let God talk to them in one accord. Colossians 123. If you continue in the faith, grounded and settled and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which you have heard and which was preached. Right. You said you've heard the gospel. You've been grounded and set on the faith. He says, continue like that. Hey, you know, hey, listen, you've heard it. You know what to do. We'll just keep doing it. Listen, this church, everybody here knows what to do. You've been doing it. Why is this church still here today? Because you've continued to do what you're supposed to do. And that is what God just asked us to keep doing. So continue to talk to God, continue to let God talk to you. And then it said in fellowship and continue to talk to one another. So, you know, I mean, I hope you'll still let me talk to you. That's what I thought. Right. Continue to talk to one other. Galatians 2 9. It says, when James, Cephas and John, who seem to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave me in Barnabas. I like that. The right hand of fellowship. I just like that thought. You know, man, there's been well, he's just been you got to move because I always see you first. I always got to talk about you. Right. But I just like that thought, man. I just like when walking in and saying hi to people and shaking somebody's hand and just saying hi to people. I'm not just that's just a blessing. That's why it was the reason I enjoy coming to church. Right. I just like to give people the right hand of fellowship and encourage them and be encouraged by them. So we just the thought is just to continue. I'm going to say continue to talk to God, continue to let God talk to you and continue to talk to one another, because these things will help us continue to stay together and move forward. So I encourage you continue as you have been again, as you have been. I tell you one one thing when. The Lord brought me and my wife here. One thing that, you know, really impresses was how everybody worked together, how I remember when I when I first took the church and my friends would call me, say, really? You? Is that true? After my friends got over the shock, right, they said, I said, well, listen, I said, let me tell you, I said, this church. I mean, before this is what I'd say. I said, this church is me. I said, they really don't need a pastor. They just need somebody to get up and preach. I said, because they do everything. I mean, everywhere you go. I mean, they they I of course, I bragged on Karen because I always say this. I said, Lord, I don't know if you ever had me pass. But if you do, just give me a good secretary for me to say that. And the Lord answered that prayer. Right. But, you know, we came here, everybody coming, everybody's doing stuff. People, everybody knew what they were taking care of. Everybody is doing this. We come to Luke 52. Didn't have to figure anything out. You know, I remember forgetting first Luke, not Luke 15, but the first VBS. You know, the McLean just walk up and says, all you got to do is read this and just do what it says. I'm like, oh, thanks. Made that easy on me. Right. I mean, he had all that stuff written down. Luke 52, you know what I'll do. Everybody just came in. Everybody knew what to do. I was just amazed, especially because this church had been without a pastor, what, like a year and a half or whatever it was. And everybody just everybody just had their place. And you know what they did? They just continued in it. They just continued in it. And that's how this church survived. Even that year and a half where it didn't have a pastor, because what you guys continued in prayer. You guys continue to talk to God. You guys continue to let God talk to you and you continue to talk to one another. And that's how this church survived that time period. Right. Because you did exactly what we see in the word of God in Acts. Now, I'm thankful that this time there wasn't no, you know, a time period that you had to had to be without the Lord worked out because I mean, as a as a pastor, if it is able, it's better to stay there and do those things. I mean, the Lord, the Lord did all that. And boy, and since I've been here, what have you been doing? You guys made it just everybody's done what they're supposed to do. And the things continued. And so, man, that's all we got to just keep. So really, it's just keep on keeping on. That's all it is. Just keep on keeping on. Just keep being a blessing to one another. Just keep being a blessing to everybody that walks in that door. Just keep being a blessing to the Lord. And just let the Lord keep being a blessing to you and everything will be all right. It's just exciting to think about. And so that made a big impression on my wife and I. And you guys have continued to do that. So. Right. And so my prayer is that you just keep on keeping on and continue to do what you what you've always done. Amen. And God is God has given us a man. And right. And I just I just you know, I'll say the son of it. I just will say I am I'm a hundred and ten percent with him and thankful for I'm thankful for this church. I don't want to stop there because then I'll get into something else I want to I want to say. But may the Lord help us, amen, just to just to keep on keeping on and do what the word of God. They said when Jesus left, they went back and they just continued faithfully. When Peter was there, they continued. Amen. While Peter was there and then the church was organized there and all these other people joined and and even under James, they continued on and just all through. And you see that great work that God did through the book of Acts. And even when Paul, he'd start a church and he'd go there for a year and a half or go there for three years or go there for however long he was. And what he and every time he wrote him back, what he say, Timothy, you know, you've been taught, just continue in it. Right. Hey, church, you know what I told you when I was there? Just continue in it. Amen. So listen, you guys know what to do. Amen. And I know that you'll just continue to do it. And for that, I'm thankful. Let's pray.