Fellowship

Greeting

This morning we wrap up our Is Your Life Balanced? sermon series

I pray God has grown you through His truth

I pray God has grown you through conviction

I pray God has grown you through edification

i pray you are doers of the Word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves.

This morning we are going to look at fellowship

Godly fellowship must be a part of a true Christian’s life

It must be a priority in your life

It is no something you have to do it is something you are blessed to do

If your life lacks fellowship you are missing out on a picture of heaven

let’s pray

START RECORDING

This morning I want to look at two aspects of fellowship

Fellowship with God

Fellowship with others

We are to enjoy

long for

prioritize fellowship with God and each other

It goes far beyond being around each other

Fellowship is intentional...

Fellowship is an act of worship

Fellowship is an act of obedience

Fellowship is created by God to bring us closer to God and closer to each other

It makes me sad....truly sad.....that so many Christians are so quick to willingly miss out on fellowship

As I said I want to focus on two particular parts of fellowship

Fellowship with God

Fellowship with others

We wills tart where fellowship starts

Fellowship With God

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1 Corinthians 1:9

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“God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.”

You and I are called to fellowship of Jesus

Fellowship with Christ

Fellowship with God

Fellowship with the Holy Spirit

You are called to fellowship

Called by whom?

GOD

John 6:44

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“No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.”

You and I are called by God to Jesus

Repentance leading to salvation

That salvation not only secures forgiveness

redemption

freedom

eternal life

but also fellowship

As a Christian you and I have an awesome opportunity to fellowship with God

Spend time with God

Get to know God personally

I pray you have that type of fellowship with God

It is important

I feel God leading me to talk to you about another part of fellowship with Him that leads to a deeper more intimate secure relationship with God

Obedience

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Ephesians 4:1–6

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“I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”

Walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called

What is that......What is the vocation wherewith ye are called?

Christ’s ambassadors

Christ’s representatives

What a noble calling

You and I as Christians are Christ’s own

That is amazing but it also comes with responsibility

What is that responsibility

To walk humbly

to kill your pride

to kill your wants

to kill your desires

Take those to God

Jesus gave us that example in the garden as He prayed for God to remove His cup

Luke 22:41–46

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“And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed, Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. And when he rose up from prayer, and was come to his disciples, he found them sleeping for sorrow, And said unto them, Why sleep ye? rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation.”

What was that cup......the moment God would have to look away from Jesus

When was that moment

When Jesus became your sin and my sin and the sin of the whole world

God cannot look upon sin so when Jesus became our sin God looked away

That is the cup Jesus is praying here in Luke to have removed

However notice He took His request and then left it with God

He said nevertheless not my will but your will be done

He didnt whine about not getting His way

He didnt get mad at God and join a different church

He didnt go on facebook and put God on blast

No He got up and did the will of His Father

His personal desire was to save us another way

However His love for GOd enabled and drove Him to pray and truly want God’s will not His will to be done

Humble

In humility we enjoy true fellowship with God because in humility you place yourself in submission to God.

You must also walk gently

Once you die to you

once you fully submit to God

You become gentle

humans by nature are not gentle

Just watch toddlers

You dont have to teach them to hit or be violent…they figure it out on their own

look at society

we are far from gentle

election season always reminds me just how violent we really are

there was a day when someone running for an office talked about where they stood and what they believed in

Now all the add and all that you hear are attacks on the opponents....not their policies

not their stance

but on them

name calling

juvenile attacks on character and family not politics

Personal deep attacks

Shame on us for condoning such behavior

As you fellowship with God He changes your heart and nature

You become gentle

I struggle here

My whole life i have been rewarded for being aggressive

Athletics

Employment

coaching

They all have something in common....

Aggression = success

You do you

look out for #1

Wrong

God through Jesus took care of your eternity

You are good

Put God first and others 2nd

Is your walk humble and gentle?

Another way you and I fellowship with God is by being patient and understanding

I struggle with patience

I am not a patient person by nature

Melody and my family will tell you that I am still figuring patience out

Here is the thing however.....my nature doesnt matter because God’s nature is patience and only God’s nature matters

As a Christian

As a son of God I am to die to my nature

I am to have my mind renewed and transformed

I am to be a new creature so my old nature doesnt matter any more and should have no power in my life

You and I give our old nature so much power....shame on us

We allow our past to define us

We allow our circumstances to control us

You are not who you were before Christ so stop giving your past power

Stop giving your sinful

selfish

human nature control over your life

You are dead to your old nature and alive in Christ Jesus!!!!!!!

I love the KJV translation of patience......longsuffering

To be patient you must choose

be willing

intentionally suffer long

It is a choice

You realize the other person is wrong

late

impatient

selfish

sinful

etc etc etc but you choose to suffer long so that they may come to repentance instead of perishing

When you lose your patience it is because you chose to lose your patience

You always have a choice

when you are delayed

when you are frustrated

when you are tired

when you are rushed

when you are upset

are you patient

are you longsuffering

are you showing Christ or Satan....those are the only two choices

Are you understanding......not condoning but understanding

Chances are if you are sitting here this morning you are saved

If you are not saved I pray the Holy Spirit is leading you to repentance this morning and that you follow His leading

Once once is called to repentance leading to salvation you must be understanding

again not condoning

Ephesians 5:11–14

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“And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light. Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.”

You do not condone sin.....you reprove sin

You stand on God’s Word and against sin

Understanding is different than condoning

Understanding is realizing you were once a sinner but you are now saved by God’s grace!

You understand that sinners do sinful things

Christians do sinful things

you don’t accept the sin but you understand and therefore choose to be patient with them

you choose to be gentle

you choose to be humble

you choose to be loving

Call sin a sin but love the sinner or the Christian that sins

why

because Christ paid for your sin and their sin on the cross

He died for them just as He died for you

Fellowship with God is truly about your walk

Are you walking in darkness or light?

Are you walking in Jesus or yourself

Are you walking in Jesus or the world

Fellowship with others

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I feel led to discuss 2 aspects of fellowship with others

non believers

Christians

We are to be with non-believers

we are to do life to an extent with nonbelievers

2 Peter 3:9

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“The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

God is not willing for any to perish

Will they.....unfortunately yes they will and in fact there will be many

Matthew 7:13

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“Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:”

Many will perish

That is their will

That is their decision

They chose to reject Jesus but God wants all to repent so you must want all to repent as well

it requires relationship most time to share the light of Jesus into their broken dark worlds

Pray for them

Pray with them

Eat with them

Give advice

give help

Influence them

However it is not true fellowship because they are lost and therefore must not be allowed to influence you

We must be intentional

we must be looking to build relationships to influence them for Jesus and shine His light into their lives!

But it can never be true fellowship until they are saved

Christians....Brothers and Sisters in Christ Jesus

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As Christians

brothers and sisters in Christ we have a responsibility......a calling

God has very specific expectations for us in how we fellowship

How we do life together

How we interact

To be honest we fail those expectations quite often

First we are to gather together

Hebrews 10:25

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“Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.”

First Hold fast to the profession of our faith without wavering

This is the reason we gather

This is the perspective we are to have when we gather

We don’t gather to socialize

we do socialize when we gather but that cannot be the reason

we dont gather to eat

we do eat and eat well when we gather but that cannot be the reason

we dont gather for any other reason than Jesus

we gather to provoke one another to love and good works.....help each other live from Jesus

we are not to forsake gathering.....you are going to miss church and gathering from time to time…you get sick....you go on vacation ect.....that is not what is being talked about with forsaking......forsaking is putting something ahead of gathering with your brothers and sisters.......forsaking is saying I know I should be there but I just don’t feel like it this morning

forsaking is serving you instead of serving Jesus and others

Sin

Pride

Selfishness

Putting you before God

You dont gather for you

You dont gather for any other reason than Jesus and others

When you decide gathering is not for you then you miss Jesus and steal from your brothers and sisters

Let’s Look at why we gather

Unity

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Philippians 2:1–2

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“If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.”

Be likeminded

having same love

being of one accord and one mind

Unified

together

likeminded

now does that mean we will always agree?

Nope

Does that mean we will all think the exact same thing..

nope

not while we are here on the earth

We are human

We have free will and the ability to think for ourselves

we will not always agree

however what it does mean is we are driven by scripture

we are driven by truth

we are driven by love....agape love

we are surrendered to Jesus therefore we have the same goal.....

IT

salvation and discipleship

Because of that we put Jesus and others 1st

As we fellowship

as we pray together

as we eat together

as we study God’s Word together

as we do life together

we know each other better and better and our love for one another grows.....our love for Jesus grows....this unites us unlike anything else can

Out of fellowship grows fondness

out of fellowship grows love

out of fellowship grows unity

1 Corinthians 12:12

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“For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.”

Fellowship leads to us realizing we truly are one body

many members

one body

one goal

one mission

It takes every single one of us to accomplish the goal

IT

We serve together

we love together

we minister together

That brings us together

That unifies us

Fellowship does more

Galatians 6:2

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“Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.”

You and I were not created to do life alone

God created Eve because it was not good for Adam to be alone

Fellowship.....part of fellowship and unity is carrying one another’s burdens

We should be intentional and looking for burdens to carry

So many times we wait to be asked before we step in and help carry someones burden

Stop

If you hear someone, especially a brother or sister in Christ express they have a burden dont wait.....jump in and help carry it

Be a doer

If someone requests prayer in our group me or app pray but do…carry their burden....look for ways to help carry it

find a way to help

make them food and take it to them

mow their lawn

Find a way to carry their burden

Be open

be available

be vulnerable

act dont wait

1 Thessalonians 5:11

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“Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.”

Comfort

Christians face hearts

Christians face disappointments

Christians face failures

Christians face loss

Comfort

Look to edify each other

Again many times praying is awesome but praying must lead to doing

The more you fellowship the better you know people

The better you know people the easier it is to comfort them

Be engaged

be present

be a comforter

Discipleship

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All of this points to discipleship

you are not called nor expected by God to disciple everyone on a deep

intimate level

you are called and to do that with some but not everyone

However, discipleship is a natural result of fellowship

Proverbs 27:17

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“Iron sharpeneth iron; So a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.”

We sharpen each other by discussing the Word

Correcting

Rebuking

Edifying

Letting Word of God drive us and our interactions resulting in discipleship

Listen if you are defensive when corrected by another Christian with scripture you better have God check you heart

Iron sharpens Iron

now you are not iron

God through His Word and His Holy Spirit makes you iron....

if you have no God

No Word

No Spirit

you are not sharpening you are tearing down because it is all you and not God!!!!

God and His Word must be at the center of fellowship

If not then it is not fellowship

Some here this morning hear fellowship and cringe

they desires less fellowship

shame on you

i cant wait to be with you guys

I miss each of you when we are not together i hate missing fellowship I cant get enough

I pray you are also there not in mind only but in doing

I pray you live a life of fellowship.....first with God then with others!

STOP RECORDING

Invitation

STOP STREAMING