Get Involved in Intentional Fellowship
Notes
Transcript
Intro:
We are here to glorify God by following Jesus together and calling everyone to follow Him with us.
The WIFE acronym helps us with the details.
Glorify God- Everything is about God. Pointing out his greatness.
We do that most especially with the idea of worship.
More than singing. It’s a way of living. I am not my own. I belong to God, not the other way around. That was last week.
We gather primarily to put God first, to make Him great in our lives and our church. NOT US.
Personally we ask- will this give God glory? Will this please Him?
We can literally ask this of every decision we make.
Today is about the us. Sort of. It still is about glorifying God. But it’s the second reason we gather. The F in the WIFE acronym.
The church gathers for fellowship.
And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
what is fellowship??
κοινωνία (koinōnia). n. fem. fellowship, communion, sharing, participation. A term that conveys a sense of commonality, solidarity, and shared responsibility among households or individuals.
Derek Leigh Davis, “Assembly, Religious,” ed. Douglas Mangum et al., Lexham Theological Wordbook, Lexham Bible Reference Series (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2014).How do we “fellowship”?
The most general sense of this term refers to a shared conviction that manifests itself as mutual responsibility and status. Most often, koinōnia refers to the sharing of resources, monetary or otherwise
Derek Leigh Davis, “Assembly, Religious,” ed. Douglas Mangum et al., Lexham Theological Wordbook, Lexham Bible Reference Series (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2014).Our fellowship is centered upon Christ not upon outward similarities or preferences
Can you see that it means much more than eating together!
Fellowship is everything we do to be and strengthen the family of God.
So what does fellowship involve? What’s the act of fellowshipping?
And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
there’s a lot there.
2. Fellowship includes:
The sharing of meals,
The sharing of the Lord’s Table,
The sharing of prayers,
Acts of service and help,
and the equipping of believers.
Ephesians 4:11–16 (ESV)
And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
Now God does the gifting. the appointing.
But we need to work together to enjoy the benefits.
Free people up to serve. Train. help. Encourage. Correct.
For what purpose:
Our shared growth into Christlike maturity.
That’s the purpose of fellowship.
We worship to express God’s glory.
We instruct and Fellowship to grow more mature, which gives God more glory and makes us stronger to handle life and offer our lives to God.
A lot of churches don’t do this. They listen to instruction in terms of sermons and Bible studies but they fall short on fellowship. There’s some eating together but not much else. Where scared of what Fellowship requires.
3. Fellowship requires...
Intentional Involvement in each other’s lives,
We must be present consistently.
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
We must also be willing to get involved with each other.
We must be real with each other without judgment
Without love and humility this won’t happen
We must learn to trust each other. We can if we are on the same page about the point of fellowship
This is about becoming like Jesus, not oppressing each other with opinions
A fierce commitment to our Unity.
Jesus prayed for our unity in John 17.
Satan loves to destroy unity in churches.
And we make it easy
Disagreements
Gossip
self serving agendas
Paul told us how to protect our unity:
Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
We must put minor disagreements behind us.
We must talk to each other and not about each other
We may not see eye to eye but we will walk together arm in arm
If we agree on the essentials, and if our goal is “give God glory” and “learn God’s instructions” and “Grow together into a mature, faithful, strong group of Christians to better give God glory”...
Our arguments on predestination/freewill become less important
Pre-mil/post-mil
You’ll never find any group of humans you agree with everything about.
instead of dividing, tearing down, wearying each other, let’s come together on who we are and why we are here.
The stakes are way high.
A church that constantly argues will destroy itself
For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.
A church without real fellowship will fail to glorify God and accomplish its mission
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
So if we don’t use fellowship correctly, they won’t see God in us.
We’ll talk about reaching out to the world more next week.
But if we don’t use fellowship correctly among us, we won’t get stronger in faith. We’ll be less mature. We won’t equip and encourage each other.
What will we do?
You and I have a God-given responsibility to receive God’s instruction for the church.
To be personally and together about God’s glory.
To hear His instructions regarding what that means.
To gather with each other so that we can be better together than we would be alone
Reflection:
Time to join the church?
Have you been present but without intention?
Will you commit to Fellowship as God intended?
Will you commit to unity?
Pray
Benediction