Intangible Relationships The Church — 1 Timothy 3

0:14 Yeah, that's just not fair to have to follow that up. They're the Pittsburgh, we're the Cliffords from Branford. It's a little anticlimactic, but for those that maybe couldn't have joined us on Friday or Saturday, welcome. We're finishing our our series here on relationships. Friday night, we looked at that initial relationship and that is of our faith.

0:49 And the challenge there was right? The lord Jesus could have asked Peter anything. If he was sorry, if he still believed in him but no, Jesus was more interested in Peter's level of love for him. And the challenge was for each one of us, right? To be honest with ourselves and to be honest with our savior as to where really our love level is.

1:14 And if we can be honest with him, I think no matter where that might be, even if right now, maybe you could only say you have an affection for Jesus, hey, listen, he can still use you. Right? And I believe that if you can be honest with where you're at, then is where you can... Your love will... For Jesus will begin to grow.

1:31 And then we looked at yesterday morning, we looked at some of those inherited relationships. Right? The relationships that you have within your family, within your home. And again, I just wanna remind you that your house, it may be low in terms of visibility. Right?

1:51 I don't know what your house looks like. I don't even know where it is. But your house is at the top of the list in terms of vitality, in terms of ultimate influence. Because our society, right, the the Lord's house, right, all these other houses, we say, get their people from your house. And I really believe that a crack in the home is a crater in our culture.

2:20 I think the family is so important to God. It's one of the institutions that he set up. And so, and then lastly, yesterday, we looked at those impactful relationships. Right? That we are followers.

2:37 Yeah. We're followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, we've also been commanded to note those who so walk. Right? We've been commanded to imitate or to emulate our lives after those who are more mature in the faith. And so we looked at some of the examples, right, of what a godly woman, what a godly man looks like and what discipleship really is.

2:59 And so, this morning, we wanna finish up with what I call interdependent relationships. And that's the relationships within the local body. I wanna talk this morning about fellowship. The relationships that we have right here in this assembly and I know some of you visited from other assemblies as well. I'll just share a quick funny story is that I was so encouraged to see the Wilburs here Wilburs used to go to my assembly way back in Groton, Connecticut a long time ago.

3:33 And Wilbur was actually my Sunday school teacher. And he actually had to kick me out of his Sunday school class. So I'm a living testimony of God's grace today. But also thank you, Wilbur, making me the man that I am today here, you know, kicking that brat out of your Sunday school class. But but yeah, right?

3:54 So I mean, this weekend's been great. I've had so much fun at the Hilton's house there, getting to know some of the the young adults last night. Right? But right? If it wasn't for Jesus Christ, we wouldn't have a relationship.

4:09 Right? We live in different locations. We have different interests. Right? And I'm always amazed, right, at the relations that we have within the body of Christ, because of Jesus Christ.

4:20 And so I just wanna look at some of those things today, if you'll turn your bibles please to first Timothy chapter three. First Timothy chapter three. We are gonna be looking at a few passages today. And because of the snow, I heard that we're like about forty five minute delay. Right?

4:41 Is that what it is, Andy? Oh, fifteen. Okay. Alright. I tried.

4:51 I tried. First Timothy chapter three. We're just gonna look at a few verses here. Beginning in verse 14. First Timothy chapter three beginning in verse 14.

5:13 Paul here writing to Timothy says, these things I write to you, though I hope to come to you shortly. But if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of truth. And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in glory. And the Lord will bless the reading of his word again, this morning.

5:52 Let's just open in prayer. Our father, thanks again for this weekend. Again, I'm so blessed, to see the snow this morning. We're so thankful for how it reminds us of your precious word. And thank you too for the encouragement of the saints here.

6:07 They're willing to brave the storm and to get in their cars and come out of this morning, because they want to learn of you. And, so, Lord God, we ask you to bless them for that. That this morning that you would, allow them to hear your voice. Lord God, we just ask your special blessing on our time together this morning. In Jesus name, amen.

6:53 Right? He sends it in the letter just because he says, hey, I might be delayed. Right? And coming to Ephesus, right, to help Timothy put things back in order. That he really felt that there could be no delay in addressing the Ephesian problem.

7:09 And so Paul here says explicitly that this letter was shown or was given to show Timothy and others, of course, how one ought to behave in the household of God, which he said is the church of the living God. So my question for you this morning is, what is the local church? What is it? For some, the local church is a social network, a place to meet like minded people. For others, it's a a place to help raise their children.

7:49 For others, it's a place for social justice, helping the poor, the trafficked, the unborn. You see, how we view something affects how we treat it. What is God's view of the local church? I mean, I guess that's an important question. Right?

8:10 Maybe we should stop asking ourselves what we think the local church is, and we should ask God, what is his view of the local church? You see, we all need to be reminded of what a local church is. Paul here actually gives three pictures of what the local church is. God's view of what the church is. We're just gonna look at one this morning.

8:35 Paul here says, right, in verse 15, I write these things that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God. Now this word house, it does refer to a building. However, most likely, this is metaphorical language for what would be family. Or in some of your translations, it might even say, the household of God. And I'll tell you why I think that.

9:06 Look at verse four of chapter three. Speaking of overseers, elders. Right? It talks about one who rules his own house well. Is it talking about the building there?

9:21 No. It's talking about his family. Right? Here in verse five, for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God? Look at verse 12.

9:36 Let deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses. Well, we're not talking about a building here. Metaphorically, we're talking here about a household. We're talking about a family. That's how God views the local church.

9:55 It's the family of God. And I think that's important. In fact, Paul says in Ephesians chapter three verses fourteen and fifteen, he says, for this reason, I bow my knees to the father of our Lord Jesus Christ from whom the whole family in heaven and on earth is named. The church is God's family. It's full of brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers.

10:26 You remember in Matthew chapter 12, it says, but he answered, speaking of the Lord Jesus, and he said to one who who told him, who is my mother and who are my brothers? Jesus stretched out his hand towards his disciples. Here are my mother, my brothers. For whoever does the will of my father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother. In fact, even though Christ is our God, did you know he's called our brother?

11:03 It's amazing. Right? In Romans chapter eight, it says, because those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, that his son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. The church is the family of God. So what I'd like to do this morning is I I wanna look at three reasons why fellowship.

12:04 This morning, what I'd like to do is look at the reason for fellowship. I wanna look at the results of fellowship, and then I wanna look at the reality of fellowship. This first one here, I wanna just read a few verses here. Look at verse four of Genesis chapter one. God saw the light that it was good.

12:25 Look at verse 10. God called the dry land earth and the gathering together of the waters he called seas and God saw that it was good. Look at verse 25. And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

12:51 Verse 31 of chapter one, and God saw everything that he had made and indeed it was very good. And so the evening and the morning were the sixth day. And now take a look at chapter two verse 18. And the Lord God said, it is not good that man should be alone. I will make him a helper comparable to him.

13:24 Now, in Genesis here, right, we see that before there was even sin, God said that it was not good for that man should be alone. And I'm sure many of you have been to weddings where they've shared this verse. And I do believe that this is a good verse to show how marriage and family are so important. But I think there's something underneath this verse. Is someone who is single any less of a human being than someone who's married?

13:58 No. We would all agree with that. Right? Is someone who is not married less spiritual? The answer is no.

14:06 Okay? You see, don't think this verse is saying that it's not good for man not to be married. I think this verse is saying it's not good for him to be outside of community or outside of fellowship. As it says here, I think this verse is saying it's not good for man to be alone, to be alone. So here's the deal.

14:39 God did not intend any of us to live in isolation. God has created us for fellowship. He has created us for community. Right? I believe there's actually a human shaped void inside every one of us.

14:59 And so that's the reason for fellowship. That's the reason for us coming together. It's not good to live in isolation. It's not good to live alone. Unfortunately, know of several people who have isolated themselves and they get to a point where they walk away from the faith.

15:27 And you can almost just kinda see it coming. We've heard that illustration so many times, right? When you take that ember out of the fire, right? And you sit it out there by itself, it eventually what? It goes out.

15:39 You can actually take that ember, put it back into the fire, and guess what? It starts to glow again. It's not good to be alone. That's the reason for body life. The reason for fellowship.

15:54 Because we're not created to be alone, to live in isolation. But not only that, but there are some results, right, of fellowship. And the first one is this, encouragement. The reason why God wants us to have body life, the reason why he wants us to have relationships with those in our our local assemblies here is because it actually is encouraging. Hebrews chapter 10 verses twenty four and twenty five says this, and let us consider one another, right, in order to stir up love and good works.

16:27 Not forsaken the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching. You know, something that jumped out to me, you know, several years ago about this verse that I'd never seen before, As I see... I don't know if you guys have noticed it. Is I want you to note that love and good works need to be stirred up. They don't happen naturally.

16:55 That's what the writer says here. He says, consider one another in order to stir up love and good works. You can't do that if you're alone. Only through fellowship, only through body life can your love and your good works be stirred up. And it says here, encouraging one another.

17:21 These things don't just occur. In Romans chapter one verses eleven and twelve, it says, for I long to see you. This is Paul. He says, I long to see you that I may impart to you some spiritual gift so that you may be established. So here's Paul.

17:41 He's longing to come to them, to impart a gift to them so that they can be established. But notice what he says next. That is, that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith of both you and me. Do you see how it works? Right?

17:59 Paul understands that God had given him something to do and he was gonna come to this place and he was gonna be encouragement to them. But he said, hey, I want you to know, you're gonna be an encouragement to me too. It's a mutual thing, he says, between the two of us. Being an assembly of God's people gives you the chance to be around people at different stages of their faith journey. It gives you an opportunity to bear their burdens alongside them.

18:31 That's awesome. Because everyone has something to teach and everyone has something to learn. Every one of us. In fact, it creates the ideal environment to be a Barnabas, to pursue a Paul, or to train a Timothy. What it comes down to is is lifting each other up, learning from one another, being the friend that each of us needs.

19:12 Only this environment provides that. You living in isolation doesn't provide that environment. But you can see that one of the results of body life, one of the results of relationships here on the lower level is encouragement. You have an opportunity not only to teach someone based on where you are in your life's journey, your faith journey, but you have a tremendous opportunity to learn from someone here too. Because no one here is in the same season.

19:43 Nobody. We all have different things going on. We all have different things. And so I would encourage you, right? When when you have that fellowship time here on Sunday mornings, or maybe you get together midweek, right?

19:55 Be really considerate of what you're talking about. I know what we're susceptible to. Right? We love to talk about what happened in sports. I did it this weekend already.

20:07 I was wrong about the Cavaliers. I thought we hadn't... We beat them every time. We lost them once. K?

20:12 I'm a Celtics fan, by the way. Okay? Sorry. Alright? Alright.

20:16 There's some of us, Whatever it is we know we're passionate about, that's what we like to talk about. Sports, politics, the weather. Whatever it is. Right? But I want to encourage you.

20:24 Right? In order to have that that the result of fellowship. Right? That encouragement stirring one another on to love and good works. I'll just give you a couple examples.

20:36 Maybe you could ask that brother or sister, hey, what are you praying for right now? You'd be amazed that when they tell you what they're praying for actually shows what's going on in their heart. Or maybe you could ask a brother or sister, right, what are you meditating on right now? What is it about Christ that you're... You've been considering?

20:57 Or maybe something in the scriptures that that you've just been meditating on. Or what has God done for you lately? I was sharing with the young adults last night that a brother had shared once that someone had come up to him. There was a bunch of young people talking, and he asked them, hey, what has the Lord been teaching you lately? This brother, I mean, he was a young man at the time.

21:25 He said he had no answer. But it bothered him so much that from then on, he promised God that he would never not have an answer again. He went on to serve the Lord. He was an elder in a local assembly. And he was sharing this, is that that one question impacted his life so much.

21:44 What has the Lord been teaching you lately? But someone took the time to come over and ask him that question. And so one of the results of fellowship is encouragement. But I'll give you another result of fellowship that we're afraid to talk about sometimes in the assemblies, is enjoyment. Yeah, I know.

22:03 Okay? It's wonderful. Right? Christians can have fun. Alright?

22:09 We can have more fun than anyone else. We had a lot of fun last night with stupid moose madness. What is that? Hey? Moose masters.

22:17 No masters. Moose masters. Yeah. I don't... I'm not...

22:19 Don't have the card, so I can't can't do that right now. But... And everybody right now has no idea what we're talking about. Hey. Turn to Psalm one thirty three.

22:56 But look how the psalmist describes it. Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It's like the precious oil upon the head running down on the beard, the beard of Aaron running down on the edge of his garment. It's like the dew of Hermon descending upon the Mountains Of Zion. For there, the Lord commanded the blessing, life forevermore.

23:22 Hey, listen. Body life brings enjoyment. It brings blessing. I want you to notice here that it says here, right, that it's good and pleasant. Did you know there's things in the Bible, right, that are good but they're not pleasant?

23:38 Discipline. The Bible says it's good, right? It ain't pleasant. And then there's actually things in the Bible that are pleasant but not good. Says too much honey.

23:50 It's pleasant, but it's not good. Here it says that our fellowship, right, that brotherly love, it's like precious oil poured on the head. And here is a picture of hospitality, of refreshing. Right? When you invite someone over to your home today, right, typically you offer them a nice refreshing drink.

24:20 Well, in ancient Israel, you you might offer someone something to drink, but you would also offer them oil for their head. I was not offered any oil when I came over in the South Sudan, but it was kinda cold out. So... Alright? But we know that in ancient Israel, the climate was hot and dusty.

24:39 And oil on a head would bring a welcome relief. We find that similar image of hospitality and refreshing in Psalm 23, don't we? Our shepherd, the Lord, what does he do? Thou anoints my head with oil. My cup overflows.

24:59 But not only that, we we see this illustration here, right, of the dew of Herman descending on the Mountains Of Zion. Mount Herman is located in the Northern part of Israel with an altitude of over 9,000 feet above sea level. It's known for its cool nights and heavy dew in the morning. Mount Zion is actually in the Southern part of Israel with an altitude of only 2,400 feet above sea level. And unlike Herman, there is very little dew, very little rain, or any moisture at all.

25:35 It's dry. It's hot. What an amazing thing here, the psalmist says. Right? If the dew from Mount Hermon were to fall onto Mount Zion.

25:49 And that's exactly what happens with Christian fellowship. Dew is refreshing. Christian fellowship should also be refreshing. It should be enjoyable. Okay?

26:04 We should leave Christian fellowship energized, encouraged, renewed. Fellowship is fun. And it should be enjoyed. And so, we see the results of fellowship are not just encouragement, not just enjoyment, but believe it or not, one of the results of Christian fellowship is evangelism. Yeah.

26:32 In Acts chapter two, we read in verses forty six and forty seven. It says, and so continuing daily with one accord in the temple, breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness. There's that enjoyment part. And simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. There it is right there.

26:56 Christian fellowship, body life. They're getting together house to house throughout the week. What happened anyway? In the early church, that was... That's what they did.

27:07 In fact, it's sad to say, I'll even testify to you right now, the assembly that I go to right now, the testimony is that when they first started, they said they would not do anything without each other. I'm like, man, I would love to see that today. Where every night we were getting together as a body. Now you can't even get people to come out once during the week. But here in the early church, was every day, house to house, eating food, praising God.

27:36 But this is what I want to point out here. In Acts chapter two verses forty six and forty seven, it says, and the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. I want you to know that they are together daily in each other's houses, eating food, breaking bread, praising God, and every day people are getting saved. What does that look like? Well, in John chapter 17, you don't have to turn there if you don't want, but in John 17, I I think this is what happened.

28:28 He's talking about the disciples. But also for those who will believe in me through your word. That's us. That they all may be one as you father are in me and I in you that they also may be one in us. And here's the reason that the world may believe that you sent me.

28:55 I believe that unity that Jesus Christ prays for in relation to us will call people to Christ. It's not just a spiritual unity. It's so real, so visible, so tangible that people are going to come to Jesus. Our unity, our fellowship will be the gospel call to the world that this group is different. I kind of alluded to that in one of the messages yesterday.

29:31 The world is watching. The world sees how you guys function, how your body life is like. And we should have such a unity. Right? We have such a fellowship, the world says, hey, I want that.

29:45 What is it you guys have that I don't? The sad testament is that sometimes the world looks at the church and they go, I don't want that. All they do is bicker and fight with each other. But that's not one of the results of body life and fellowship. The results are that we, each of us, are encouraged in our walk with the Lord.

30:08 That each one of us are are energized, right? And enjoy fellowship with our brothers and sisters. And ultimately too that it would lead to many people getting saved. That unity amongst us, right, will be a call to the world that we're different. And so those are some of the results of fellowship, but I want to just talk about lastly the reality of fellowship.

30:38 You see, Paul actually advised young Timothy to treat the members of the local church as he would treat the members of his own family. He says this in first Timothy chapter five, he says, do not rebuke an older man, but exhort him as a father. Younger men treat them as brothers. Older women treat them as mothers. And younger women treat them as sisters with all purity.

31:13 You see, God is love. And that love works through man, especially through the whole community of Christians. And so the reality is this, that the church of God's family should affect... The fact that the church is God's family should affect how we treat each other. If if the way God views the local church is that it's the household, it's the family of God, then that should affect how we treat each other.

31:45 Amen? Yeah. And so one of the first things when we consider this idea of family, right, when you think of how you treat your family, the first thing is that this, it must be fed. If the church of God is a family and should be treated as such, well then the church needs to be fed. The only diet though that will nourish the people of God is the word of God.

32:14 It is our milk. It is our bread. It's our meat. It's our honey. I want to encourage you this morning that a church, and this is from Warren Weirsby, a church does not grow by addition, but by nutrition.

32:30 That's how a church grows. Church needs to be fed. But not only that, a family, right? A family needs discipline in love. Children who are not disciplined, they become rebels and tyrants.

32:48 Sometimes children need rebuke. Hey, listen. If a brother or a sister gets the courage enough to rebuke you, think about how hard that was. Even guess what, maybe it wasn't hard for them. Right?

33:05 I just thought about that. Yeah. Sometimes for them it's not that hard. But here's the thing I want to encourage you. Do not despise the discipline of the Lord.

33:14 I was sharing that the other day. Say, is there something that you can take from what that brother or sister said? Is there something that you're like, maybe there is something there in my life that I do need to work on. Right? Don't despise the disciple of Lord.

33:29 Or be discouraged, right, when you're rebuked. And I'm just speaking from my own experience and I know it's hard is that God often, right, will use spiritual leaders in the assembly to exercise discipline. We don't want to. Right? But because we love the the the people of God that he's given us to in our care.

33:53 Right? Right? Sometimes there's there's discipline that's needed. There's rebuke that's needed. When we see them kinda going this way, say, hey, listen.

34:01 No. No. No. I don't think that's a good idea. But a family needs that.

34:06 Right? A good parent doesn't do that with their children. They don't see their kids sticking their finger in the light socket and say, yeah, you'll be alright. Right? Smack their little finger.

34:16 Okay? It's healthy for body life, for family life. You need discipline in love. But here's a big one, is if God views us as a family, as a household of God, then we need to show each other familial love. There's a verse in Romans 12, which is so cool.

34:50 We know agape, which is you know that sacrificial love of God. We know phileo, right? Which is love between friends. Right? And affection.

35:01 Right? We know eros. If you know eros, right, is that sensual or romantic love. It's actually not in scripture, but it's alluded to many times. But then this is a different one.

35:14 Right? This brotherly love here is the word storgy. And it's an affectionate love, but it's a familial quality of love. In fact, in Romans chapter one, when it's describing the unrighteous, it actually uses the opposite of it. It's called astorgias.

35:36 Which is interesting. Right? In describing the unrighteous, it uses this type of love, an unfamiliar love. And in fact, in second Timothy chapter three, when it talks about the disobedient generation as being unloving, same word again. That non familial love.

35:55 We see it illustrated in the book of Philemon. Right? Everyone's familiar, remember? Onesimus runs away from Philemon. He gets saved.

36:02 Paul writes Philemon. What does he say? Hey, listen. That slave that you once had, who is now a brother in the Lord, love him as a servant? No.

36:13 No. No. He says love him as family. He's now your brother in the Lord. Can you imagine Philemon?

36:22 Like, are you kidding me? That's what all of us are called to do. We're to show familial love to each other. And the thing is, is this this storgy love, this this familial type of love, it's a non discriminatory love. I could tell you for certain, I did not choose my brother.

36:46 My actual biological brother. Okay? Ray knows who James is and he knows I would not have chosen my brother. No, I love my brother. Right?

36:55 But I didn't have a choice in the matter. He's my brother. Right? And as many times as he may irritate me and get me upset sometimes, he's my brother. I can only illustrate to you in this way is that we both went to Messiah College.

37:09 I was big into intramural sports. We were playing intramural soccer. Now, I'm a football, basketball, baseball guy. I'm not a soccer guy, but I can hold my own. I I...

37:18 There was a time where I thought I was somewhat athletic. K? And we were playing in the semi finals. We were playing against a team of all former soccer players. Right?

37:29 Who would actually, one time another had played for Messiah, but had, you know, dropped off the team and now we're playing intramurals. We were heavily the underdog. It went into two overtimes. Sudden death. Someone in our team was going to throw the ball in and my brother as he went to kick it, kicked it into our goal.

37:53 I did not think it was funny at the time. In fact, my cousin was actually on our team as well, and I was... And right away, as brothers only do, we made my brother feel terrible. You moron. What are you doing?

38:08 Right? But in that moment, as we are seriously unhappy with my brother, letting him know I'm happy we are, some of the other soccer players from the other team, as they walked by, made some sinister marks to my brother. Now here's my cousin and I, and we're sitting there making fun of my brother. And as soon as they said so to my brother, I said, what'd you say? That's my brother.

38:33 Right? What is that about familial love? Right? And one moment, he was the idiot. And the next moment is, hey, you talk about my brother like that again.

38:48 That's how we should treat each other. We're family. We're brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers. And so my question to you is, you showing familial love to the members of your local assembly? That's the reality of fellowship.

39:08 You didn't have a choice in the matter, right? These are the folks who God has chosen for you to fellowship with. Treat them as family. And so this also implies openly sharing problems and hardships. Right?

39:48 Right? He calls the congregation that he writes to brothers. It's okay to use familiar terms. And so show familial love to each other. And this is somewhat related, but when we talk about this idea of the reality of fellowship, one of the things we need to do too is we need to prioritize each other.

40:07 Galatians chapter six verse 10 says this, therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith. Especially, especially. You see here in this text, Paul calls for believers to prioritize the body of Christ over others. And that is not evident today. And I promise...

40:40 I... The nice thing about coming to speak and not knowing anybody is I really don't know where you're coming from. But in Connecticut, many families prioritize sports over the body of Christ. Many families prioritize other obligations over the body of Christ. There are so many people today that say they're busy.

41:02 And I know they're busy. And they're busy with good things. But these things have prioritized them... Their lives over the body of Christ. You know, in a natural family, right, the the the members feel a responsibility to participate in family gatherings.

41:22 I don't know if you feel that way, I always feel that way. Hey, for some reason, my mom lives forty five minutes away, you know, my wife says, oh, we need to go over your mom's this weekend. Why? Well, she's having a dinner for us. Okay.

41:34 But we have to go John, it's your family. Okay, alright. Thanksgiving, I've never had Thanksgiving at my house. I always got to go to mom's, okay? But that's actually part of family, right?

41:45 I mean, that's the reality of it. Right? There's a the feeling of responsibility to participate in family gatherings, whether it's a dinner, whether it's an outing, whether it's a vacation. But this should be true amongst the church family as well. If they're gathering for Sunday worship, you should feel responsible to be there.

42:09 If they're having a midweek bible study, you should be with your family. If they're meeting for prayer, a retreat, a mission trip, you should feel, hey honey, we have to go. It's our family. Members should feel a responsibility to be involved. Church must be our priority.

42:44 Prioritize each other. Here's another thing I learned too, is interesting, that the reality of fellowship is this, is actually we grow closer to each other as we grow or know God more. In in first John chapter one verse three, it says, that which we have seen and heard, we declare to you. And this is John speaking here. He says, that you also may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the father and with his son, Jesus Christ.

43:29 Here's what the apostles taught. The apostles taught of their experience with Christ so that others may have fellowship with them and God. Do you see what I'm saying? So here you have these apostles. Right?

43:45 As they experienced Christ, as they had fellowship with him. Right? As they grew in their relationship with him, now they're at a point where now they are talking about what they experienced with God, with Jesus Christ. And it says, and in doing so, now you can have fellowship with us and with God. The implication of this is that the more we know God, the more time you spend with God, the more we can have genuine fellowship with each other.

44:24 The closer we get to God, the closer we get to one another. And consequently, the more fellowship that we have with the body of Christ. So therefore, if we are growing in Christ, knowing him and his word more, we will naturally grow in our fellowship with one another. This is why so many in the church never really get involved. I believe why so many never really get to know the people in the church is because they themselves are not growing spiritually.

45:00 You see, knowing God naturally leads to knowing and being intimate with his family. Essentially, right, our our horizontal relationships reflect our vertical relationship. Our vertical relationship reflects our horizontal relationships. Hey, if we're in discord with others, we can be sure that we are in discord with God. I can't emphasize this enough.

45:32 I can't tell you how many conversations I have with people and they say, well listen, I can't worship with those people. Okay. So obviously you have a problem with God right now. Oh, no. Me and God are good.

45:42 I'm like, no, no. You're not actually. Because if anybody right here, if you were to come up to me and say, hey listen, John, I don't like your wife. I'd say, well guess what? We ain't have fellowship.

45:54 Because that's my wife. How in the world can you sit there and say, well, no, I don't like that brother or sister, but I love God. No. No. No.

46:04 You understand. That's that's God's daughter. Hey. That that's that's Jesus' sister or brother. Like, do you mean you can't...

46:13 Do you understand what I'm trying to say? You can't have discord with someone in the church and think that you're good with God. It's impossible. In fact, Matthew chapter six says this, Christ said, if we don't forgive one another, God will not forgive us. If we forgive others, God will forgive us.

46:39 That's some strong language. But that's the idea there. You cannot be in discord with a brother or a sister right now and think that your relationship with God is okay. Your fellowship with God. Doesn't work that way.

47:27 The more we know God, the more fellowship we will have with each other. That's an important principle. And so, I just want to close here with an illustration. I love this one. There was a missionary in Papua New Guinea, and he was asking one of the natives for the best route to get from one place to another.

47:55 And the native, with a puzzled look on his face replied, there are all kinds of roots, friend. And so he continued. He said, we we could go through the bush and visit some friends along that way. He said, or we could take the coastal route. The sun will be strong, but an old man lives there and he knows many stories from World War two.

48:21 If we take the road, we can talk to some members of my wife's family who live on this side of the river. The missionary was getting frustrated with all this thinking, he just doesn't get it. I want the best route. And then it hit him. Then it hit him.

48:43 You see, his American idea of best was the most efficient, easiest way to get there. The Papua New Guinea's idea of best was determined by which relationships you want to build. You see, we need to modify our perspective on the local church. We're not just a collection of individuals who happen to meet at the same spot every week for worship and instruction. We are to become the house of God, the family of God, which implies relationships.

49:27 Let's pray. Our father, we thank you again for what your son, the lord Jesus Christ, did for us at the Cross Of Calvary. Thank you for bringing us in to the household of God, making us a part of your family. Oh, may each of us be better at showing familial love to one another. That brother or sister that we have discord with, may we see them again as your son and your daughter.

50:10 Lord God, help each and every one of us to know you more, that we would increase in our knowledge of God so that naturally our fellowship with one another would increase as well. I ask your special blessing on the saints here and saints who have visited from other assemblies, this weekend, Lord God, that you would just bless them, that you would help them and myself here, to just not be mere hearers of your word, that we would not be like those who would look in the mirror and just walk away and forget that what we've seen, but that we would actually be doers of your word for your name's sake. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.