Discipline of Fellowship

Happy Sunday. For the past several weeks, we've been looking at spiritual disciplines. Today's might just surprise you. Have you ever thought of fellowship as a spiritual discipline?

It is. It is a discipline. It doesn't just happen. We must make an effort to be with others.

When we think about fellowship, most of us think about getting together with other Christians for prayer or worship or talking or eating or just being together. And while these activities are an important part of Christian fellowship, there's a bigger biblical concept to fellowship that provides us a deeper understanding of what it really means. Before anything was created, God existed as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the Trinity. One divine being, one essence with three separate distinctions or persons.

The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. But there's only one God. The three distinct persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, exist in a loving relationship together. You could say that they have lived in fellowship together forever.

Now when creation occurred, when God created Adam and then Eve, he made them in his own image. They were created as rational beings and besides their relationship with each other, they enjoyed friendship and communion with God as well. Sadly, when they disobeyed God, they were ashamed and they hid from him. And the fellowship they had with God was broken.

And since that moment, God has continually reached out to his creation. He made a way to restore humanity's fellowship with him. We see see him advancing his plan through the Old Testament, the prophets, and then came Jesus, the new covenant. The most important aspect of our Christian fellowship is our connection with God through Jesus.

Our relationship and fellowship with God is what makes Christian fellowship among believers possible. Listen to this teaching from 1 John 1 verse 7. But if we are living in the light as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other and the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us cleanses us from all sin. Let me do that again.

If we are living in the light as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other. And the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all our sin. Our fellowship with God changes everything. It changes friendships.

It changes families. It changes marriages. It makes our time with one another so much better. We learn a lot about the early church in the book of Acts.

Listen to these words from the second chapter of Acts verse 42 about the early church. They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and fellowship to the breaking of bread and prayers. Fellowship is the relationship that we have with one another as Christians and based on the relationship that we have with Jesus. When you and I became Christians, our relationships changed.

Jesus became our savior. God became our father. Christ followers became our family. Believers are now my brothers and sisters in Christ.

It's a lot like when a person marries. When you get married, you don't just get a new spouse, you also get an extended family. It's a package deal. Our Christian life is that way.

We have a big package, a wonderful family. The early church spent a great deal of time together. Listen to this from Acts chapter 4. Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul.

And no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. There was not a needy person among them. For as many as owned lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles feet and it was distributed to each as any had need.

Now these people were together. Fellowship is so important. The Greek word for fellowship in Acts 2:42 is coonia. It means to share, to contribute, to participate, to partner.

Christianity is not an individual experience. It's not a private experience. You were not meant to live by yourself in this world. You likely remember from Genesis after creation, God looked back and looked and what?

Look at what he said at the end of chapter 1. He said, "God saw everything that he had made and indeed it was very good. There was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. Everything was good."

Do you remember the first thing that God said was not good? Go with me to Genesis 21:18. Then the Lord said, "It is not good that man should be alone. I'll make him a helper as his partner."

It is not good that man should be alone. You know that and I know that. We grow. We find encouragement.

We find a place to belong. We find safety. We find joy. We find protection through fellowship.

Proverbs 27:17 tells us this. As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend. Our friends should make us better, and we should do the same to them. One of the best parts of church life to me is finding family.

Jeanie and I have been part of churches in Mississippi, Indiana, and Georgia. And people in those places have become family, brothers and sisters, part of a great fellowship that has enriched our lives. Now, to be honest, in those churches, there have been attenders. They were the last one in, the first one out.

They didn't want to meet or greet. And well, that's not fellowship, and they're forgotten. Rick Warren said this. He said, "Fellowship is a place of grace where mistakes aren't rubbed in, but rubbed out.

Fellowship happens when mercy wins over justice. It's that important and people long for it." Yesterday, I had to take an Uber to pick up my truck that was being serviced. The driver that picked me up was from Kenya.

His name is Kazim. When I learned that he was from Kenyan, I told him, I said, "Everybody I've met from Kenyan loves Jesus." And he smiled and he said, "I too love Jesus." We talked a little bit about our faith.

And when we got to the end of the ride, Kazim thanks me for talking to him. He said, "A lot of people just ignore him." I said, "We're brothers, aren't we?" And he struck out his stuck out stuck out his hand to shake mine.

And he thanked me once again. Fellowship is important. go and do that. It's a discipline.

Pray with me. Father, thank you for the people that have been disciplined enough to make a difference in our lives. To reach out, to make a call, to lend a hand, to give us a ride, to teach us in school, to work in VBS. A lot of people doing that right now.

Thank you for spiritual disciplines that make a difference. This is one we can all do. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Thanks. God bless.