Abraham, Kurian: Fellowship In The Church ~ Immanuel Bible Chpl.Ministry

Brother Milton is a tremendous blessing to all of us. Today we are celebrating the first year of our worship here in this chapel. When I look back, I see how much he loved this assembly. Let's continue to pray for him, that the Lord would give him many more years to come, and he will be a source of blessing to all of us. We have been looking at some of the most, uh, important s- themes of the local assembly, and in the past we looked at some of the very important topics like the priesthood of believers, uh, the importance of evangelism, the God's call to evangelize the lost and dying, and also about, um, the prayer. And, uh, this morning I would like to share with you about the church and the fellowship, koinonia. It's a very important subject for our consideration, and, uh, I was uh, told, I think Friday night, that uh, Milton won't be able to come, so uh, Elson asked me that would you be able to fill in for him? And I agreed, and thank you so much for the prayers of the saints. And I hope and pray the time we spent here would be profitable to understand a little bit more about the importance of this subject, church fellowship. One of the epistle that emphasize on this subject matter is First John, and there are so many profound truth that we can learn from this epistle about, uh, Christian koinonia fellowship. Uh, I would like to share about some of the doctrinal aspect of this in the beginning, then we will look into some of the practical aspect, how we can practice this in a local assembly. Recently, somebody asked, uh, a fellow that, are you a Christian? And he said, uh, yes, I'm an, I'm an e-Christian. So these days you all get, you know, we are all into computer, emails and all kinds of things. So this brother got confused and he said, what do you mean by that? E-Christian. He said, I'm a, I'm an Easter Christian. He d- uh, he attend only one meeting in the whole year, that is on Easter. You'll go to the church, otherwise you won't be there. So he is known as the e-Christian. There is nothing like that in e- in the Bible called e-Christian. Uh, when the church was formed on the day of Pentecost, we know that people, uh, were willing to obey the Lord's command, and uh, three people were added to the church. Then we know that they continue steadfastly in the doctrines of the apostles, uh, in prayer, in fellowship, and in the breaking of the bread. Those are the essential ingredients of the local assemblies, that they continued in, uh, the fellowship. So church is a community of believers. It is a, uh, a fellowship of believers. And I remember when I was young, we used to call the place where we used to gather fellowship hall or assembly hall. You know, we used to go to assembly hall. We used to, saints used to gather together to worship the Lord. The reality of our faith or our new life in Christ is, uh, made vivid, or the evidence of our, the new life that we have in Christ Jesus is, uh, we find in the continuance of our faith as well as in, uh, this koinonia, the fellowship. Those who are saved will long to be with the saints. They don't prefer to stay home and, uh, just watch football or, uh, go for a golf, uh, practice or things like that. For them, it is very important. It was unheard in the first century that the Christians remain alone. They used to gather together. F. F. Bruce in his, uh, commentary on, uh, various books, he particularly emphasized the importance of the gathering of the believers. So, it was something that was practiced in the first century, and it's being practiced today all over the world. The believers used to gather together just to, uh, enjoy the company or, uh, the fellowship one to another. And then the mark of the early church was that, um, it was a growing church. You know, people were added to the church. Five, three, first three thousand, then we read about how many? Four thousand. More and more people were added to the church. The church continued in the sound doctrines of the Bible. And this is one of the sound doctrine of the Bible, fellowship. And, um, there are things that we need to understand about it, and, uh, let's then turn to First John and, uh, read a little bit about that as, because there are so many things that we need to cover this morning, so I do pray that the Lord would speak to us, uh, from this epistle, some of the important themes. Let's turn to chapter one and read the first, uh, let's read the whole chapter. How do you like that? Let's keep the whole chapter, First John. That which was, or which was from the beginning, which we have heard, or whom we have heard, whom we have seen with our eyes, whom we have looked upon, and our hands have handled concerning the word of life. He's talking about our Lord Jesus Christ. Uh, the life was manifested, and we have seen and bear wit- witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was from the Father and was manifested to us. That which we have seen and heard, we declare to you that you also may have fellowship with us. And truly, our fellowship is with the Father and the Son, Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full. This is the message which we have heard, uh, from him and declared to you that God is light and he- and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. And the blood of Jesus Christ, uh, his son cleanses us from all sin. If you say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If you confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If you say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and we, and his word is not within us. Shall we pray? Our gracious, loving Father, we are so thankful that we could gather again, uh, as your children, and we pray that thy word is powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. So we pray that through, oh, the ministry of the word, Lord, we might be encouraged, we might be enlightened, we might be strengthened, so that we might be able to reflect to this lost and dying world. What is the communion that is there in the Lord Jesus Christ for his people? We want to pray that thy presence would be in our midst. We want to thank you for your promise that where two or three gather in your name, you are there. Lord, we pray that would grant unction from above to thy humble servant. Lord, I understand that I don't have any strength within me, but we thank you for your very enablement. So we pray that would give us the strength from above so as to see from your word how wonderful is our Savior indeed. We thank you for this time. We pray this in Christ's precious name. Amen. What is fellowship and what is not? You know, we need to understand that. There is a lot of misunderstanding about fellowship among God's people. Some people think that, you know, sitting around a, around the meal and sipping coffee is fellowship. In a, in the true sense, that is not fellowship in the Bible. In fact, the word fellowship is more than being together. That means it is more than being to- together. It means having things in common. It means joint participation and cooperation. It says that what is mine is yours also. It is contrary to the communism. Communism says that what is thine is mine. But in the early church, we see that the believers consider all they had for the use of the other believers who are really in need. They never thought that something exclusively belonged to them. They believed that everything belonged to God. They are only the caretakers. So they were willing to share what God entrusted with them for the blessing and edification of other, uh, Christians. We will look, look into that somewhat in detail in a later stage as we progress in our study. So fellowship is more than just gathering together for enjoying some meal or, um, just for some fun sake when people gather together in a park or something like that. That's not actually true Christian fellowship. The true Christian fellowship is partnership. Partnership. You know, we need to understand that. It's very essential for us to understand this important truth. It talks about friendship, and it is something that we find in the Lord Je- it is a pres- uh, someone said it's a precious gift from God that we can enjoy this fellowship in this life. You know, it, it stays around the new life, so enjoying the new life that is there in Christ Jesus. If Christ is absent from our interaction, there is no true fellowship. People go to the bar and they enjoy the beer, and sometimes they think that they have a good time. In the biblical sense, it is not fellowship. It is people have a good time. But when you think about the Christian fellowship, it is around the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And, um, as we come to First John, we understand more about it. The source of our fellowship is our new life in the Lord Jesus Christ. We read about that in the first, uh, three verses of first John. In, uh, verse three, it says, that which we have seen and heard and declared to you, that you also may have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with Father and his Son, uh, Jesus Christ. Those who don't have this relationship with Christ can never have, uh, this privilege of enjoying Christian fellowship. So one must make sure whether he's truly born again or not. The source of our fellowship is in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and the new life that we have in him. Those who are in Christ, they are new creation. We are in him, and he is in us. We need to understand that. And, uh, secondly, we find the purpose of the fellowship, uh, in verse three, that we may have fellowship with the Father. What does that mean? It simply means that we may know God better. You know, when you acquaint yourself with somebody, what happened? We understand him better, right? When you talk to a person, when we, when you pour out your heart to a person, he would be able to also share some of his experiences with us. We understand a person better. The same way, in the Christian fellowship, the one of the goal, purpose is to know God, know God through his son, Lord Jesus Christ. And in this epistle, we li- uh, read quite a bit about the Father and his character. He is, uh, he is the light, he is the righteousness, he is love, and there are so many aspects of his character we see here in this chapter. The requirement of the fellowship, how can we have this fellowship? It won't come just like that. Of course, positionally we are in Christ Jesus. When a person believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, what happened? He's baptized into the body of Christ. So the fellowship doctrinally, positionally, judicially happens. It happens. That positional, uh, status is there because we are made one with Christ. All believers, universal church. But in the local church, universal church is, it's a fact, it's a doctrine, it is the truth that is given in the Bible, but we don't understand much about universal church. It's a miniature form of the local church is the miniature form of the universal church. In the uni- local church, we see people, we interact with people, we get to know people, we understand people, we enjoy their presence. So that's important, very important. That's the fellowship becomes a reality in our lives. This requirement of the fellowship, our walk with the Lord, walk in the light. We read about that in, in this First Epistle chapter one verse seven. But if you walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ is some cleanses us from all sin. If you don't walk in the flesh, I mean in the light, we cannot have this fellowship. Walking simply means a lifestyle. When we obey the word of God and our lifestyle is controlled or steered by the revealed will of God, then we can have fellowship one, one with another. And secondly, we find in this chapter that we need to recognize our sin. Chapter one verse eight, if you say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. This was a problem with the many believers in the past. Some pe- people believe that once saved, always saved, and they become sinless. They believe in the sinless perfection. I was reading about John Wesley. He was a great man of God. One of the man used of God mightily, eh, all over the world, particularly in England. The one who spared England from a civil war. God used this man so mightily. If you get a chance, read his biography. It's so wonderful to read about this great man of God. But he had a problem. He believed in the sinless perfection. Sincerely believed that. But his contemporary was George Whitfield. He was also a revivalist, a revival preacher. And there was a, uh, you know, uh, uh, George Whitfield said, no, as long as we live here in this flesh, we will be subjected to temptations, we will fail in our thought life, you know, we cannot say that we attained the sinless perfection. There was conflict, there was disagreement between, uh, these two servants of God as far as this doctrine was concerned. So what happened was that, um, somebody asked, uh, uh, John Wesley, what do you think about George Whitefield? Will you be able to see him in heaven? So John Wesley said, no, I won't be able to see him in he- heaven. He said he won't be there in heaven. Then this brother got really confused because he was a well-known preacher, a servant of God, used of him madly in England. And then, uh, he said, then he explained that I won't be able to see George Whitwe- Whitfield because he will be in the forefront. He will be way ahead of me. I'll be way behind, so I won't be able to see him. Even though they did not agree on this important subject, there was some commonality or something that was there in Christ Jesus. Christians do have that fellowship because of the finished work of our Savior. Recognize our sin, confess our sins. Once you recognize our sin, confess, agree with God. The Holy Spirit will convict us of our sin. Then just say, yes, Lord. You don't have to give all explanations and excuses and things like that. When the Holy Spirit will convict us of our sin, just to say to him, just agree with him and seek his help to overcome that, that problem. And be willing to make some adjustment in our own life so that we can have victory in Christian life. And then obey his commandment, keep his commandments. We read about all these things in this First Epistle, chapter two verse three to eight. If you read, we see the importance of command- obeying him. He says, now by this we know that we know him if we keep his commandment. By knowing that we have this relationship with God, we can maintain fellowship in our Christian life. At the test of the fellowship, the requirement of the fellowship, the test of our fellowship, uh, we find in verse chapter three, verse three. do we really live in light of the return of our Savior? Or what is our priority? You know, I heard the story about a servant of God. He was, he was invited to preach in a convention, a crusade back home. So one day, the one brother took him to a place where he was building a, a big five-story building, and uh, this brother told him, oh, when I look at the foundation of this building, I s- think that even when, even uh, when the Lord comes, it's going to remain here. Uh, this poor brother, innocent brother said, well, uh, brother, when e- when the Lord comes, uh, kids will be here anyway. So he was building the foundation such a way that he was just saying that I don't bother much about when you build something, build nice, strong. And uh, it's a colloquial kind of story that goes on in India that how we invest our life, the time that we spend, how much we are available for the Lord's work. If there is an opportunity to share gospel with somebody, are we willing? Are we really excited? Do we really think about our eternal investment? And do we really live in light of the return of the Lord Jesus Christ? That is one of the tests of our, our fellowship. You know, or just we absorb everything, uh, to ourselves. Do I continually live in sin, or do I really, uh, careful about whom I meet or what I do or things like that? Do we really seek God's help in order to overcome, uh, problems in our lives? Another thing is that, uh, uh, what is that, uh, the, uh, maintenance of health? These are some of the things I noticed from the writing of, uh, one of the servant of God, and I thought maybe I sh- I- I should share with you. How can we maintain this fellowship? As human beings, we fail every now and then, right? Are we going to lose salvation? Definitely not so, because salvation is a gift. God saved us, and nobody's going to lose. Those who are saved will never lose their salvation, but you can lose fellowship with God. You can lose fellowship with fellow brethren. That is the fact. You know, because how can we maintain this fellowship? Because of the very ministry of our Savior. We find in First John chapter two, my little children, these things I write to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sinned, we have what? We, we have who in heaven? An advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. Because of the advocacy of our Savior. We're showing to Brother Lance something about, uh, Peter. You know, Peter was in deep trouble. You know, he was before he betrayed the Lord Jesus Christ. Uh, the Lord was, uh, talking to, talking to Peter. We read about that in Luke's Gospel, chapter twenty two. I just would like to read that because it's a very important, uh, passage for us to consider. Chapter twenty three, verse thirty one and thirty two. Actually, it is chapter twenty two, thirty one and thirty two. Here we know that, um, the advocacy, you know, we have an advocate in the very presence of the Father. It says that, uh, the Lord said to, uh, Peter, Simon, Simon, indeed Satan has asked for you that he may sift you as wheat. But I have, I have prayed for you that your faith should not fail when you have returned, and when you have returned to me, strengthen your brethren. What a passage it is. Think about it. Your faith should not fail because I, I need you. Satan wanted to sift him just like wheat. But the Lord was saying to him that, you know, I was praying for you. I prayed for you, Simon, that you should not lose your faith. So here we find the, the maintenance of faith, that we have a great advocate with the Father, and he is our propitiation, means he is our satisfaction. He is our mercy seat. When you think about that, in the nation of Israel, on the Day of Atonement, the high priest used to enter the inner sanctum and sprinkle the blood on the mercy seat, eh, to cover the sin of the nation for the whole year. So, the nation of Israel were spared from the judgment of God because of the work of that high priest. The blood was sprinkled over the mercy seat. So he is our propitiation. You know, the Lord Jesus Christ is once for all, died for us, and he is our eternal propitiation. Therefore, you know, we are safe from the eternal judgment. There is therefore no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus. He is our propitiation. And the ministry of the Holy Spirit within us. The ministry of the Holy Spirit. The, the Spirit is the one who gives us the unction from above so that we can understand the word of God that we read in, uh, First John chapter two verse twenty two to twenty and twenty seven. We have the unction from the, uh, from above, or the anointing of the Holy Spirit. To for what? To understand the truth. That does not mean that we should not appreciate the ministry of the teachers or the ministry of the word of God. In order to understand the, the effectiveness, the truthfulness of the ministry, we have to look into the Word of God, just like the Bereans. Bereans examine the Word of God daily so that, you know, whether what is taught to them was true or not. In Acts chapter seventeen verse eleven, we read about that. In the same way, you know, we need to examine ourselves by the help of the Holy Spirit. What we hear, what we study, is it consistent with the written word of God? If it is not consistent with the word of God, we should not accept it. That's the truth. So the maintenance of this fellowship is possible because of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Then the enemies of the fellowship. We are living in a world. The world is not going to appreciate. You know, I always like that translation, the J.B. Phillips translation of the Romans chapter twelve verse one. There it says that, you know, therefore I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your body as a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto, to the Lord. Then he said, don't, don't allow the world to skews us into its mold. The world is so powerful. Don't be transformed by the renewing of, you know, by the power of the world, but being renewed within u- us by the Holy Spirit. The world is so powerful, it can mold us into, uh, it can skews us into its mold. We have to be careful about it. We read about that in chapter two, verse fourteen to seventeen. We are in this world, but we are not of the world. Therefore, we must be careful about our involvement. The world system will be always the enemy for the fellowship with God and with God's people. And then again, we find the lust of the flesh, lust of the eye, and the pride of life, the deceitfulness of the world. The, the world will always try to deceive us. So we got to be careful about, uh, that. So we have, we looked at about five, six important things. The source of the fellowship, the purpose of fellowship, the requirement of fellowship, and the test of fellowship, and, uh, the maintenance of fellowship, and the sixthly, the enemy of the fellowship. Satan, devil, the world. They are going to cause hindrance in Christian life for us not to enjoy this fellowship. Christian fellowship is such a wonderful thing. I was reading about, uh, some of the saints, John Knox, when he was in, in the prison. He was in the prison for, uh, for the cause of what? For the cause of the gospel. How could he be alone? How could be he be away from everybody, all believers, and continue in that fellowship with God? Because of his willingness to keep his mind on God. And he was thinking about the greatness of God, and there he wrote that book, The Pilgrim Progress. And I can just share a little bit about my wife, Daisy. When she was going through, she had three kinds of cancers, all kinds of treatment, chemotherapy, PET scan, radiation, uh, radioactive treatment, all kinds of things were going. She was quite knowledgeable about what was going on in her. I heard even once she asked her, her doctor, the ga- this uh, uh, Dr. Brian Brown. Brian Bryant, oncologist. I don't know where all I have cancer. Why don't you order a PET scan for me? Because she, she was so confused, but how could she maintain that peace in her life? Because of her willingness to spend time with the word of God. And in the last days, she wrote the devotional book. Amazing. I sometimes, I read that devotion every day. I wonder how she got all these thoughts. I really wonder how she got these precious thoughts, because her heart was fully tuned to God. She was in fellowship with the Lord. You know, when we are in fellowship with God, what happened? We will be longing to be in fellowship with the fellow Christians. It's quite natural. If we are not in fellowship with God, we will neglect the gathering of the saints. These are some of the doctrinal aspect of Christian fellowship, and I just want to share a few things about, uh, the practical. How can we maintain this in a local assembly? That's very important. It's one thing to know the doctrine, there's nothing wrong with that. But, you know, how can we put these doctrines into practice in Christian life? That is the most important thing. You know, I already mentioned about the basis or the source of the fellowship is our salvation, right? Are you sure of your salvation? Are you, are we sure of our salvation? And if we are truly saved, we will show forth the evidence of salvation. Once saved, always saved. That's a doctrine. But, you know, once you are saved, you cannot remain the same. You will be different. You have to be different. Because we have a new nature in us, a divine nature in us. So naturally we will show forth the marks of the new life. Once you have the marks of the new life, it is quite natural for us to be with God's people. Think about a pig and a, a goat. A pig always will go to the dirt, right? But a, a lamb cannot go to the dirt. Sometimes the lamb will fall into the dirt, but the lamb will never stay there. It will come out of it. The same way in Christian life, we, we are really born again. We long to be with God's people. They are very precious to us. They, because they are precious to the Lord. I'm always thinking about the Lord's farewell message to his disciples in the upper room. He said that, uh, you should lo- love one another as I have loved you, love one another so that you will be known as the, uh, as my disciples all over the world. What, why he asked them to, uh, love one another? Because those people are very different people, if you think about it. Matthew was a tax collector, right? Peter was a very impulsive person. There was a, a Simon the Seer. He was a revolutionist, a militant. And we, you know, those people are very different, different characters, but they need, God wanted them to have that unity among themselves. So he said, you got to work together. You got to love one another. It is very biblical for us to be together because we have so many things in common. That's something that we need to remember. You know, we have so many things in common. I just wanted to highlight some of those things because it is quite natural for us to enjoy this fellowship because we have a common salvation. And that we read about, read in Jude, uh, verse three. We, we have a common relationship. We are called unto the fellowship of God to Christ. We have a common relationship. That is in First Corinthians chapter one verse nine. We have a common goal. Philippians chapter one verse five. We have fellowship in the gospel. We have a common, uh, uh, uh, spirit. Philippians chapter two verse one. You cannot be indifferent. You, we have to function together. And then we have a common fellowship of suffering. Philippians chapter one verse twenty nine. We are called to suffer. It's not that only a select few are destined to suffer. As Christians, we all have to suffer in some measure. Some might suffer more, some might suffer less. We have a fellowship of sharing. Philippians chapter four verse fifteen and Galatians chapter two verse nine. And then we have a common worship. When we gather together to worship, it's a common gathering, you know that? When we gather together, we are not that, we are indifferent, uh, to the fact that this is the gathering of the saints. It's a collective, a corporate worship, common gathering. So the basis of our fellowship is that common nature we have in Christ Jesus. We have the same salvation. And then the nature of fellowship is what? What's the nature of fellowship? That's a practical aspect, you know, we need to understand that it's a mutual ownership. Let's turn to Acts chapter two and read verse twenty, uh, forty five. Acts chapter two. You know, when the believers got saved, all these Jews got saved, how did they conduct themselves? We find in, uh, chapter two verse forty five, it says, and sold their possessions and goods and divided them among all as anyone had need. Mutual ownership. Nobody wanted to talk about that. Why it was necessary? Have you ever thought about it? Because, you know, to attend the, that feast of Pentecost from the, from all over the world, you know, Jews were scattered at that time. They were gathering, they were living in different parts of the Roman Empire. At the time, you know, people came there to participate in this feast. They heard the preaching of Peter, got saved. Three thousand people got saved. They were added to the believers there, right? That's what we read. They continued steadfastly. Three thousand people got saved. They continued steadfastly. That means they did not go back to their places. They burned the bridge. They stayed there in, in Jerusalem, most of them. They stayed there in Jerusalem. They didn't have anything. They needed shelter. They needed food. They needed clothing, they needed the basic essentials of their life. So how could they do it? You know, the believers who were there in Jerusalem were willing to share from their own things so that these people could be protected. When Paul was writing to the Romans, and I think in Corinthians, he said, you know, he was taking a collection from the Gentiles for these Jewish Christians because they were in need of, don't wait for me to come. Before even I come, make that collection because they need your support. They need your encouragement. So the nature of fellowship is sharing. Are we willing to share some of our things? You know, when you share, you know, share it with joy, otherwise don't share at all. You know, there is need all around us. And the, the nature of the fellowship is sharing. What is the symbol of fellowship in a practical sense in an assembly? Our communion. Do we realize that? The Lord's Supper is a fellowship. Let's stand up. Bruce, would you like to read First Corinthians chapter ten verse sixteen? Can you read that verse for me? A cup of blessing which we bless. Is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? It is the communion of the service. It is the fellowship. When we gather together, it is true that we think about the wonderful salvation. When we take part in the table, we, we share and participate in the blessings of Christ, saving work on the cross, and our, and we renew our communion with one another. You know, it is very important. We renew, we are the part of one bread. We take part from one bread. Have you ever thought about it? We, there is a unity, communion, fellowship, partnership that we have in Christ Jesus. So the symbol of fellowship is communion service. What is the danger of the fellowship? Sin. Very simple, right? When we live in sin, sin can influence the assembly very easily. It could be doctrinal sin. It should be practical sin, anything. We got to be careful about that. You know, the sin is just like a cancer. It will spread so fast. It will destroy the church. It will destroy the fellowship. So we got to be careful about that. And even in First Corinthians chapter eleven verses twenty eight and twenty nine, Apostle Paul warned about that. When you come, examine yourself. Agree with the Lord. Confess your sins to the Lord or seek his help to overcome the problems. Otherwise, you are inviting judgment for yourself and not to the body. Body. Let's turn to that verse because that is important. It's not talking there about an individual believer. Maybe it's an individually also applicable, but he's here talking about the church, the body of Christ. Let's turn to first Corinthians chapter eleven, verse twenty eight. I think, twen- uh, verse twenty eight and twenty nine. Let a man examine himself, so let him eat of the bread and of the drink, drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment unto himself, not discerning what? The Lord, Lord's body. It's talking about the church. When we partake from the Lord's table unworthily, it's not going to bring any blessing to the assembly. We got to be careful about that. That is the symbol of fellowship, the danger of fellowship we looked at, and the responsibility of fellowship, serving. We are called to serve. We are saved to serve, right? We all know that. You know, the responsibility of fellowship, practical aspect. We are s- in a fellowship to serve one another, serve one another. Everybody has a role to play in the local assembly. And I really thank the Lord for each and every believer here. Every now and then I hear something good about you. I, I don't want to highlight some of those things. I praise God for them. All are not preachers, all are not teachers, all are, all don't have that, uh, leadership quality. But you know, some of the dear ones who are involved in this assembly, the things they are doing in secret, the things they are doing without the knowledge of many people, are really touching many lives. I get the report about that. I don't want to make those things known to you. I praise God for them. If I get an opportunity to encourage them, I encourage them. Everyone is bel- given with a gift. Some people might think, oh, I have this gift, I have. Whatever gift you have, whatever opportunity you have, whatever leading you get, use it for God's glory. Whatever it is. You know, God can combine all those things together for his glory, and the believers will be edified, and the church will be built up. There m- there should be a willingness, uh, to serve. In the, in the, in the early, uh, uh, time, or in the first century, Roman soldiers used to ask the Jews, or rather, you know, slaves, there were a lot of slaves, to carry their luggage for one mile. At the time, the some of them were willing even to carry the luggage for the second mile, additional mile. That is what the generosity, serving really means. Are we willing to do that? Or, you know, as someone said, I come to the church, what I get there? You know, many people think that if I, if they come here, they get something. But do you, do we really come here with the desire to give something to someone? This is a place of giving. It is better to receive, better to give than to receive. That's the only verse used in the epistle the Lord has mentioned in the gospel state. That's the only verse that's used in the epistle. It's better to give than to receive. Do you know that? And we should never ask ourselves, what I get? No, that's not a biblical approach. So we find here that we should be generous in our generosity is a desire God gives to us. And we should be sensitive about the Lord's leading. If you are exercised about something, do it. Don't waste your op- opportunity, because you may not get another opportunity. And then the result of fellowship. So we looked at the basis of fellowship in a practical sense. The nature of fellowship is sharing. The symbol of fellowship, the Lord's Supper, communion. Uh, the danger of fellowship, sin. And then the responsibility of fellowship, share- serving, serve one another. Serve one another. And last of all, the result of fellowship, what? Joy. I like that verse, you know, that's in first John chapter, uh, 1. Paul, that John says that, I write these things to you, yeah, and these things we write to you that your joy may be full. Fill it to the brim, let it overflow. Complete, complete joy. In an assembly, when God's people serve one another, share one another, you know, there is great joy. There's great joy. What an opportunity God has. He said, that's why someone said that fellowship is a precious gift from God. Do we really appreciate that? Do we really appreciate the mutual fellowship? You know, encouraging one another, mutual love will be manifested in a tangible way. You know, in a, you know, Peter speak about the speaking tr- gift and the, the, uh, the, uh, serving gift. Whatever gift God has given you. I don't know someday what gift I have. Maybe I have the gift of evangelism. Maybe I have the gift of teaching. Maybe I have the gift of something else. I don't care much about those things. Whatever opportunity comes on my way, be ready in season and out of season. Just for the glory of God. Use it for God. If God give me an opportunity, I don't knock on the door and open the door and all. If God gives me an opportunity, I'm available. You know, by his help, at least in a small measure, I can encourage either brethren. Mutual love manifested in a tangible way, in whatever might be the enablement. Gift is a divine enablement God gives. Christ will be honored. Ultimate God should be that. When that happens, the world will take note of you. The world will take note of you and me. You know, it is an essential ingredient for the growing church. We just completed one year here, right? God willing, we will have many more years to come. Let us put these principles into practice. Let us be the people who are saturated with the person of Christ, and also let us be the people who are known as a people of sharing, people of communion, a people of, um, serving, people who were really finding true joy and satisfaction in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me close with that chorus that is known to all of us. Trust and obey, for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey. That this is the only way you can find true happiness in life. We can know all the doctrines in our head, but if those doctrines would become practical in our life, you know, we are really fooling ourselves. It's not going to help any assembly. It's not going to bring any glory to God. So let us serve the Lord. Let the rubber meet the road. How do you like it? Let us be known as the practical Christian. Shall we pray? Loving Father, our gracious Lord, we just want to thank you again for this opportunity you have given to us to look into another aspect of the local assembly, the church fellowship. We pray that that would help us to put this truth into practice in our lives. We don't have any strength within us, but we pray that, oh Lord, you would give us the strength from above so that we might be known as a group of believers who love and care and share one to another. We want to thank you for this precious time. Now, as we depart from here, be with us and use us for your glory. In Christ's name, we humbly pray. Amen.