We're just wrapping up the "Things to Fight For" series that we've been in the last few weeks. (I encourage you to go online to www.brookside.net and listen to the sermons. Go to our messages link and find the sermons preached May 21-July 02, 2017.)

Each week, we've looked closely at the Bible to see what it says about the following topics:

• Fight for a Thriving Marriage - Ephesians 5:21-33
• Fight for Vibrant Faith - Colossians 1:28-29
• Fight for the Next Generation - Psalm 78:1-8
• Fight for Your Identity - 1 Peter 2:9-10
• Father's Day (special speaker Myron Pierce) - Matthew 3:14-17
• Fight for Effective Influence - Esther 4:12-16
• You Have to Fight to Fight - Galatians 6:9 and 1 Corinthians 15:58

To help Brooksiders get and stay "in the fight" in these areas, each week we've also been recommending books that will drill down more deeply into each of the topics. These book recommendations are a great way to multiply an ethos of equipping in the life of the church.

I figured it'd be worthwhile to collect ALL of the book recommendations across the entire series, and put them in one place. Check out what follows for the books we recommended each week during this "Things to Fight For" series:

Something big happens in Acts 2 - it's one of THE pivotal events of the Bible. 

Before Acts 2, things are fairly still. We find Jesus’ first disciples huddled in an Upper Room. After Acts 2, we find Jesus’ disciples spreading out through Jerusalem, into the larger region, and even getting to Rome! (Which is a long way, especially when there aren’t airplanes or cars.) Something happens in Acts 2 that changes the playing board and Jesus’ followers go from huddled together to spreading out on mission!

Before Acts 2, we know that the sum total of Jesus followers was about 120. That’s not a lot of people! By the time we get to the end of Acts 2, we learn that number has multiplied to 3000 people - and then if you keep reading into Acts 4 you find that pretty quickly that number jumps from 3000 to 5000! Something happens in Acts 2 that catalyzes this exponential growth !

Something happens in Acts 2 where the gate opens up and the picture changes from preparation and anticipation to one of bold movement and fresh life! There's no way to exaggerate how pivotal of a turning point Acts 2 is in the story of the church!

​So the question we should all be asking now is this: “What happens in Acts 2?!” What happens that propels the early church forward in all of these ways?  And what does all this mean for our lives TODAY?

To dig into these questions, check out this sermon I preached on "The Gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:1-47) earlier this year.