Intro:
- Where is our Strength?
- Acts 2:42-47; 4:32-35; 5:12-14; 8:4-8 - The church was tough and growing
- Some later lost strength due to persecution, so letters written to encourage
- Today, when no persecution, people still lose their strength.
- There is a great threat to the church, & we need to identify it
- "The greatest threat to the church is not doctrinal or moral, its relational" - Dr. James Hinkle
- "Unless the church changes its present form and gets back to community & sharing lives personally,
the church is done." - Dr. Frances Schaeffer
- The early church had doctrinal & moral problems and survived. Why? Fellowship
- In our study on fellowship, found that indifference breeds poor fellowship or vice versa
-If you have one, the other will soon follow
- We must have a growing fellowship
I. Isolation is not good
- God said in the beginning that it was not good for man to be alone
- However we prize independence
- Our heroes: John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Lone Ranger - ALL LONERS
- A lot of it came from the early days: Frontier Homesteading
- In the beginning, "independence" was the word
- Stake claim, built houses in the middle of the claim
- No neighbors for miles
- Pictures of homesteaders look crazy and ghostly
- Isolation definitely took its toll on people
- Text: Numbers 11:11 ff
- Moses, a man with full of God’s spirit could not bear it alone
- Jesus and Paul were not loners either
- Yet we tend to be isolated in our society
- In our culture, new job every 3-4 Years
- 40-60% of an average town moves in a years time
- Don’t know nieghbors
- Don’t know brothers and sisters in the church
- Get used to being isolated and independent
- Fellowship is a challenge
- Think of where you were a year ago, 2 years ago, 3, 5
- Think of what people there were in the church a year ago, 2 years ago, 3, 5
- Time to reach out or you just might fade out
II. Fellowship is Beneficial
- Homesteaders eventually built houses on the corner of their section to be together with neighbors who did the same
- Eccl. 4:9-12 - See that the benefits of fellowship are reciprocal, it involves:
- (v.9)Working Together - Share in a common goal, cause, works.
- ILL: When my Mom (who is Korean) sees someone she thinks might be Korean, they start talking like they knew
each other all their life.
- (v.11)Supporting Each other - Satan throws stumbling blocks of
discouragement, doubt, fear, bitterness, pride, envy, arrogance, temptations
- Fellowship involves picking your brother up, not kicking him when he is down
- If no fellowship, it gets harder and harder to get back up on your own
- Keeping Each other Warm - there is a certain closeness, kindness graciousness
- Keeping Each other Strong
- Have to build up to build strength
- A rope made up of individual strings twisted together
- It works together (if not work, it will dry rot)
- They support each other
- They are close to each other
- Together, they have strength
- So we need to get close
- A heard someone once say: Find someone in the church with common interests, then you can fellowship them
- Problem: THAT IS NOT FELLOWSHIP AS THE BIBLE DESCRIBES IT
- Our fellowship is IN CHRIST
- Christians have so much in common through the blood of Christ
- Too many times we engage in small talk of similar interest & think it is fellowship
- If that is what early church did, they wouldn’t have lasted a week
- Recognize that fellowship goes deeper than that
III. Fellowship is instructed
- We shouldn’t practice it JUST because it is good, but because it is instructed
- Ephesians 4:25 - We are members of one another. Therefore:
- Gal 5:13 - Through love serve one another
- Heb. 3:13 - Exhort one another daily
- Heb 10:24 - Consider how to stimulate (provoke) one another to love & good deeds
- More on love:
- I Pet 4:8-10 - fervent love, hospitable no complaint, serve w/gift
- I Pet 1:22 - Sincere love (not just an act)
- I John 4:18 - No fear in love, perfect love cast out fear
- What this mean?
- Perfect love - "complete" love
- How is God’s love perfected in us? , when we return it, it is complete
- You love someone, take risk, they reciprocate, no fear of punishment (perfect love)
- Someone got mad and walked out of the church at the invitation after saying his peace
- I went over with a peace offering
- He was ready for a fight, but that diffused it
- He came back and was able to deal with these things
- That is perfect love, God loved you, and wants you to complete it by showing it
- Ask yourself: How much fellowship do I have
- Do I exhort daily
- What have I done to stimulate my brothers to love and good deeds
- How sincerely have I made an effort to perfect the love of Christ in me?
Conclusion:
1. Must have a growing fellowship
- Isolation is not good
- Fellowship is good
- Fellowship is instructed
2. What now? CHANGE!! (it’s not a bad word, we have to change daily to conform to image of)
3. 3 Steps:
- Admit your need for one another
- Involves taking a risk
- It might be new territory (Exodus, all they knew what was behind, trust)(baby)
- Develop deeper fellowships
- We are a fellowship not an organization
- Need to get VERY close to a few
- Prov 18:24 (I had a friend once, said a teacher)
- Can’t develop same level of intimacy with everyone
- Jesus not devlope same level, but DID NOT IGNORE REACHING OUT
- He was always saying "FOLLOW ME"
- Prov. 27:17 - Have a close friend(s) (someone to share)
- Purpose is not small talk, fun things, etc. but spiritual
- Make a Committement
- "We should" has never accomplished anything
- Begin with "I will"
- Investment of time (will take time to develop fellowship, not 3 times wk)
- Begin with your own family
- Then include another family
4. Attitudes Necessary for it to work:
- Openness
- Trust (and be trusted not to hurt)
- Acceptance
- A positive Attitude
- Perfect Love
5. World is not our home, WE ARE HOMESTEADING
- Can’t be a lone ranger on a homestead
- Fellowship involves risk, your brothers can hurt you when you open up
- Remember that the REWARD outweighs the DANGER