"The Disciplines" - Part 5- Fellowship

Introduction

Good Morning family!

Well here we are at family camp 2024. Have you enjoyed it?

Are you getting enough sleep?

Well this morning we are to continue to talk about the practices that we can engage in that will position us to spend time with jesus, become more like Him and do as He would do if he were in our place.

And this morning I am only going to talk about one of those practices, in fact, whether you know it or not, you have been practicing thins all weekend here at camp. it is the practice of fellowship.

It's an old “churchy” sounding word, Fellowship.

What is it? Well it is one of the practices of engagement so this something we that we do.

In Fellowship we engage in common activities of worship, study, prayer, celebration, and service with other disciples. This may involve assembling ourselves together in a large group like we are today, or meeting with only a few. So it is pretty simple. We just take some of the practices we have been discussing over the past few weeks, but instead of doing them alone, we do them together with other people who are brothers and sisters of the faith. That is fellowship.

Why do it?

This is a deep observation about the nature of the soul and spiritual life. I don't know why it’s true I just know that it is true.

When we come together in fellowship, the group of fellow believers we gather with contains a lot more of God, and can keep the force of His presence a lot better than scattered individuals.

One of the things we get to enjoy here at family camp are evening campfires. I love staring into a fire. Something about that takes me places I don’t normally go. It makes me more contemplative. Anyway, I digress.

Just like a campfire, the fire of God burns higher and lasts longer when the coals are heaped together and each coal is warmed the the by the other's Flame. And, just like the coals of a campfire, the members of the body have to be in contact if they are to sustain and be sustained by each other.

The truth is, the Christian life is not meant to be lived alone in isolation. It is true that each individual has a unique and direct relationship with God, and God alone is his or her Lord and judge. But the life, the real living of a disciple of jesus Christ is one that requires some regular and profound connection with others who share it. And it is greatly diminished when that is lacking.

So if you were to take a pair of tongs and you just take one of the coals from the fire and set it off by itself, pretty soon it will run out of fire and grow cold just by being isolated from the other coals of the fire. It will not last nearly as long isolated.

So, again,m I don’t fully understand why it is, But I know it is true that together, we contain more of God than we do separately. And so, we engage in Fellowship.

Now one of the problems with the word Fellowship is it has just become a cliche. Most of my exposure to church has been in the Baptist church. Every Baptist church you go into tends to have a place in the building that they call the “fellowship hall” And we go to the fellowship hall for receptions and it would generally involve red punch and cookies. And you go there and you drink the red punch and eat the cookies and try to make small talk.

Now I know it is hard for some of you to believe but I am an introvert. Making small talk can be somewhat painful for me. Most of my experience in the “fellowship hall” was rarely actually, well…fellowship.

I spent a little time in Presbyterian church and Presbyterian churches generally have what they call a “Fireside Room” I don't know why they just do. It was a little humorous to me when Donna and I came to LFB, to discover we have both!

In Fellowship, as it is understood biblically, we are together with people in a great common cause. If you have ever read Tolkien’s “The Fellowship of the Ring” it was about a band of people who are on a noble Quest and they draw strength from each other as they serve and talk and encourage each other.

That is the idea of fellowship. If you were here Friday night, Adam got us started by encouraging us to make an effort to sit and talk with folks that maybe you have been on the journey with on Sunday morning but have never really got to know very well and get to know them better.

To actually engage in that with each other for more than just a brief good morning and a handshake during the meet and greet. Fellowship is not just hanging out with people, it goes further than that.

As I said earlier we use the word in kind of a cliche way that often really means we just spent time in a larger room with a bunch of other people eating cookies and drinking red punch. But did you actually fellowship with them.

Biblically speaking, fellowship is quite a particular thing. We are engaging in these certain practices like prayer, worship, study, celebration, and service but we're doing that with other believers so that we can contain more of God as we are together.

The word we see for Fellowship in the New Testament is the Greek word Koinonia. It means participation within a community. Koinonia is most often translated into English as sharing, fellowship or communion.

Let’s look at a passage this morning in the book of Acts that i think really gets to the heart of fellowship. It is in Acts chapter 2 and I will begin reading in verse 38.

This scene comes right on the heels of peter’s sermon at Pentecost. When Peter finished speaking, we read, let’s start in v 37...

Act 2:37-47 ESV - 37 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" 38 And Peter said to them, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself." 40 And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, "Save yourselves from this crooked generation." 41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.

Here comes the fellowship...

42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the (koinonia) fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

What a beautiful picture of shared participation, of fellowship. 3000 people were not added to out number this weekend but with several ladies who have kiddos on board, we are off to a good start! And as I was reading this passaage again this morning I was struck by how family camp is such a similar environment as we read about the early church. We are all hanging out together, laughing and sharing time and resources with each other. We have had times of devotion and worship here together. I have watched you all share with each other. There has been teaching, breaking of bread, prayers, all things that we read about in this passage. I just think that is very cool.

So Luke tells us that the Church should be devoted to shared participation with all members. And then he explains that the members of the Church are to hold "all things as shared in common" (Acts 2:44)

In other words, the members’ commitment to sharing their lives with one another is tangible and action oriented. They sacrifice to share all their resources—their space, their time, and their stuff—with anyone in their community who has a need.

Donna and I have not had the summer of our dreams. But I have to say thank you to this church family for all you have done to help us through this journey. Your prayers, your sharing of resources and and you overall concern for our well being has been an incredible blessing to us. So thank you for your koinonia.

We did not know it when we first arrived, but Donna and I were counting all the reasons that seem clear to us that God led is to LFB. We needed you all before we even knew it, and it is crystal clear to us that we are right where we are supposed to be. In fellowship with you all. This season of our life, which could have easily been a season of misery has instead been mostly a season of joy.

I don’t know if you all remember, but Family Camp last year was my very first official day of preaching as one of your pastors. I think you know this, but you have an incredible staff and team of Elders and it has been an honor and a great privilege to serve with them. I am not the greatest administrator because most of my service in ministry has been as a sole proprietor so to speak. But these folks have helped me to grow in many ways and through circumstances that none of us anticipated. Some of it was rough sailing to say the least and I expect we will experience more challenges in the days ahead. But if the spirit of true koinonia prevails, we will see God do greater things among us than we have already seen.

Okay. Enough mushy stuff.

So all of these activities in which we can particiapte in fellowship and community, engaging in these certain practices like prayer, worship, study, celebration, and service with other believers will have no effect ot power if you will if we do these things apart from fellowship with Him.

It all originates from a loving koinonia with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Many passages indicate the necessity of that vertical fellowship that must come first...

1Co 1:9 ESV - 9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Paul closes 2 Corinthians with this...

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. Phl 3:10 ESV - 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share (Koinonia) his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,

1Jo 1:3 ESV - 3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.

That vertical fellowship can then expand to the horizontal enjoyment of koinonia with one another. The foundation of our fellowship begins with entering into the fellowship that existed long before we did.

So, just what IS the Basis for Fellowship?

God enjoys perfect fellowship within himself. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are in eternal relationship and always participate in acts of self-giving love toward one another .

Jesus prayed in that famous prayer recorded for us in the 17th chapter of John...

Jhn 17:5 ESV - 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

You can sense the fellowship in that prayer. This fellowship is the essence of Heaven—full of joy, generosity, and peace. Before creation as we know it existed, this mutual and loving participation was God's reality. And he chooses to share this with us. He created us in His image so that we could share in his eternal self-giving fellowship and partner with him to share it with all of creation.

Gen 1:27-28 ESV - 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

So how can we respond to God's invitation to shared partnership? Two Ways.

Since we are made in the image of a God who shares, how could we do anything but share? It turns out there are two ways of sharing. Back in our Acts passage there is a similar word next to koinonia found in Acts 2:44 44And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; That word Common is translated from the Greek Koinos. This word can be found all over the New Testament to describe both negative (unclean, defiled) and positive (approved, holy) ways of sharing. We were made to share, but how we share is important.

This idea is repeated in the Bible. The first way we can respond to God’s shared life is to willingly give and share resources so everyone has enough. This way of life leads to wholeness for the entire community. It is good.

But we can also define goodness according to our own wisdom, taking and consuming things for our own advantage and then sharing our self-promoting strategies with others. This second way destroys shared participation in relationships, leading to mistrust, shame, and blame.

Adam and Eve chose the destructive way, and the whole world still groans because of it.

But God kept his first choice and remained committed to giving us the gift of shared relationship he has always enjoyed. To restore his fellowship with humanity, the Father sent his Son to take the blame, bury the shame, and restore us by his Spirit into relationship with him and to one another.

We are now invited to trust him with everything we have, and this leads to enjoying fellowship with God’s family and sharing with one another whenever needs arise. But this invitation asks us to trust that God has provided more than enough to go around, and that is not easy.

So we practice. Practice. Practice.

I hope this weekend you have seen and have practiced fellowship. Some of it no doubt happened without notice.

Here's how you can do it today in a very simple way. Read a passage of scripture with another person and you might just talk as you go through that and share how it speaks to you.

Pastor Sean has been encouraging us to to read scripture together and many of you are doing that together. That is fellowship.

Do you have a matter that needs some prayer. Find someone, ask if they will listen to your prayer request and then pray with you over the matter. Something happens when we pray with others. That’s fellowship.

We have a lot of families here this weekend with young kiddos. Maybe offer to hang out with one or two of then for a while so mom or dad can slip off and relax in the shade somewhere for a while. That’s fellowship.

Tomorrow when it is time to pack up, maybe offer to help Angie load stuff in the van or Sean to load up sound equipment. Maybe help with the cleanup here in the pavilion. I know Angie would appreciate that and that is fellowship. We want to leave this area in tip top shape when we leave so the Tadmor staff does not have extra work to do because we didn’t. That is a way we can serve them and THAT is fellowship.

Conclusion

So, celebrate with somebody. That's Babette's Feast we talked about a few weeks ago.

I hope those of you who are up for the day, brought your lunch and you will stay and share a meal with someone. To eat food you love to eat and drink beverages that you love to drink with another person or a group of people that you love to be with. That is fellowship. All through the day just in little moments you can add fellowship. And if you are really hard core you can stay for the sunset worship time tonight. More fellowship.

Let me leave you with some words I think you have heard this weekend and should be familiar to many of you....

If then you have been raised with Christ...

Col 3:15-17 ESV - 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Imagine we are all seated at a large table. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have invited you alongside all who would receive his invitation. It’s a potluck. God has given his very best and invited you to join him. So what do you share? And what do you hope others will bring to the table?

Amen? Let’s pray.

Oh yes. Gentlemen. remember, men’s prayer at the church next Saturday at 8PM. Hope to see you there for a time of ....fellowship.