Fellowship: What a to Live!
Scripture Reference: Romans 12:1 – 6a
Introduction
The Spirit of God has been at work these past couple of weeks, seeking to either challenge your way of living or confirm your way of living. Because the thing that will grow us or defeat us, strengthen us or weaken us, move us forward or set us back is how we are living our life today.
We have defined the way to live from a Christian perspective through understanding discipleship: the process of being a lifelong learner and follower of Christ determining to go where He goes, do what He does, and say what He says.
We have defined the way to live from a Christian perspective through understanding worship: the spiritual, intellectual, and emotional response to who God is and what God does. God is the focus of worship.
Today we seek to understand the way to live through fellowship. This is one that Rick Warren of Saddleback Church who wrote the Purpose Drive Life has defined as one of our purposes for living --- Fellowship.
As we live for discipleship, the chance to bear the life of Christ in a Christless world, as we live to worship, the chance to honor God in a godless world, we have the chance to fellowship in an isolated and lonely world.
But why talk of fellowship? Are we not fellowshipping in the church today? Have we come to the place that coming together is more important than staying apart? Have relationships among people become more complicated or less complicated?
I have just completed my Doctorates of Ministry degree, one of the highest degrees to achieve in Christian ministry. I am not saying that to brag but to prove something.
I now have two advanced degrees, a Master’s and a Doctorate…I have taken approximately 180 semester hours of instruction over the past five years. That’s approximately 50 – 60 courses of instruction.
There were at least three subjects not offered in any of the degree programs, one was church management from a business perspective, another was on prayer, and the last one was fellowship? No course work, no credit, and no professor.
One teacher once said that at the end of the day when all of the dust is settled we feel like orphans left with nothing but a remote control and television to entertain us because that requires less work.
We have become married to escapism tactics like television, chat rooms, video games, periodic church attendance, to avoid coming together.
The world’s theme of self-absorption has invaded the church with all the emphasis placed on who is going to help me and getting what’s yours, your destiny, your vision, your call as though it operates in a vacuum apart from the whole of what God is doing. (The AIDS quilt)
Fellowship is vital. As Hezekiah Walker has rightly declared…”I need you, you need me, we all a part of God’s body.” We need each other because the best of us can get spiritually dull. The best of us sometimes want to throw in the towel. The best of us sometimes fall flat on our faces.
“Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12), because falling is right around the corner. I have tarried long enough; let me define fellowship and then move into the text.
I am defining fellowship as the opportunity to share our lives with others in order to strengthen, encourage, and build one another up through Jesus Christ.
Fellowshipping with the Savior, Fellowshipping with the Saints, and Fellowshipping with the Sinners are the points for the hour. My three points are woven throughout the entire chapter of Romans 12; I will merely get you started on what you can continue with for the rest of the week.
I. Fellowshipping With The Savior (Romans 12:1 – 2)
As we grow and mature as believers in Christ, we will find that fellowship is vital to living. More specifically, fellowship with our Savior is key to real living.
For which of us will decide that today is not a good day to walk with the Lord? Which of us in here will declare tomorrow, that it is not a good day to walk with God?
God has sought to commune or get with his people for a very long time. It has been His desire to be involved in our lives regularly and consistently.
Leviticus 26:12 I will also walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people.
John 14:23Jesus replied, "All those who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and live with them.
And remember God was so committed to fellowshipping with us that He came and occupied a temporary body like ours to helps see and even greater way to have fellowship with Him as the Father…
John 1:14. And Christ became a human being and lived here on earth among us and was full of loving forgiveness and truth. And some of us have seen his glory--the glory of the only Son of the heavenly Father!
You were made to fellowship, God did not redeem you and then step away from you to leave you alone, no more than a mother who carries a child for nine months gives birth should just walk away. Fellowship occurs, nurturing takes place, love is experienced, and life is enjoyed.
1 Corinthians 1:9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
So what do I do in response to all that God has done for me? Fellowship with Him (Walk with Him as Enoch walked with Him; walk with Him as Noah walked with Him.)
Next question, how do I fellowship with the Savior? Look here in the text:
1. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
You are to give Him your body, your mind, and your will. The unregenerate person cannot give God his body, his mind, or his will, because He has not given God himself.
Because he has no saving relationship to God, “a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised” ( 1 Cor. 2:14 ).
A. You Give Him Your Body
Before we trusted Christ, we used our body for sinful pleasures and purposes, but now that we belong to Him, we want to use our body for His glory.
The verb “present” in this verse means “present once and for all.” It commands a definite commitment of the body to the Lord, just as a bride and groom in their wedding service commit themselves to each other
It is the right response for all that God has done for you and I. We can not want to be where He is. And Paul helps us to understand that giving God our bodies in fellowship is also our worship.
This commitment is “our reasonable service” or “our spiritual worship.” This means that every day is a worship experience when your body is yielded to the Lord Everyday is a fellowship experience when our bodies are yielded to Him.
B. You Give Him Your Mind
The world wants to control your mind, but God wants to transform your mind This word transform is the same as transfigure in Matthew 17:2 . It has come into our English language as the word “metamorphosis.” It describes a change from within.
The world wants to change your mind, so it exerts pressure from without. But the Holy Spirit changes your mind by releasing power from within. If the world controls your thinking, you are a conformer; if God controls your thinking, you are a transformer.
God transforms our minds and makes us spiritually minded by using His Word. As you spend time meditating on God’s Word, memorizing it, and making it a part of your inner man, God will gradually make your mind more spiritual (see 2 Cor. 3:18 ).
C. You Give Him Your Will
Your mind controls your body, and your will controls your mind. Many people think they can control their will by “willpower,” but usually they fail.
We surrender our wills to God through disciplined prayer. As we spend time in prayer, we surrender our will to God and pray, with the Lord, “Not my will, but Thy will be done.” We must pray about everything, and let God have His way in everything.
So here is how verse 1 and 2 is translated if I put all the word studies together:
Translation . I therefore beg of you, please, brethren, through the mercies of God, by a once for all presentation, to place your bodies at the disposal of God, a sacrifice, a living one, a holy one, well-pleasing, your rational, sacred service.
Translation . And stop assuming an outward expression that does not come from within you and is not representative of what you are in your inner being, but is patterned after this age; but change your outward expression to one that comes from within and is representative of your inner being, by the renewing of your mind, resulting in your putting to the test what is the will of God, the good and well-pleasing, and complete will, and having found that it meets specifications, placing your approval upon it.
I can have unbroken fellowship with my Savior by giving Him by body, my mind, and my will.
II. Fellowshipping With The Saints (Romans 12:3 – 12)
When Saints are communing with Jesus Christ, the dynamic of this fellowship will automatically overflow into their relationships with other believers. Our horizontal fellowship is simply an overflow of our vertical fellowship.
This means that if your relationship with God does not overflow into caring about God’s people, you are not as close to God as you thought you were. If your union with God has not produced a communion with God that overflows to the benefit of other believers, you are not as spiritual as you thought you were.
If a believer comes to church week after week and takes in the Word of God, yet nobody else ever benefits from what God is doing in his life, he is a carnal, out-of-fellowship saint (1 John 4:20).
So how do I have fellowship with the saints? But first let me give you three verses to chew on later on this week:
1 Corinthians 1:10 I have a serious concern to bring up with you, my friends, using the authority of Jesus, our Master. I’ll put it as urgently as I can: You must get along with each other. You must learn to be considerate of one another, cultivating a life in common. - MSG
Ecclesiastes 4:9 Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. 10 For if 1either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not 2 another to lift him up. 11 Furthermore, if two lie down together they 1 keep warm, but a how can one be warm alone? 12 And if 1 one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart.
Matthew 18:20 And when two or three of you are together because of me, you can be sure that I’ll be there
Paul was writing to Christians who were members of local churches in Rome. He described their relationship to each other in terms of the members of a body.
The basic idea that he is attempting to get across to them is that each believer is a living part of the body.
Each believer has a gift (or gifts) to be used for the building up of the body and the perfecting of the other members of the body.
In short, we belong to each other, we minister to each other, and we need each other. What are the essentials for spiritual ministry and growth in the body of Christ?
A. Honest Evaluation (v. 3)
3. For through the grace given to me I say to every man among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.
Listen, I heard one minister put it this way concerning ourselves…we all formerly had hard hearts, stiff necks, feet swift to mischief, dull ears, blinded eyes, throats that were open graves, tongues full of deceit, poison under our lips, dead spirits, unclean hands, self-centered, sin-seeking, held hostage individuals, but God…
There is nothing more harmful to the body of Christ than those of us who overrate or overestimate themselves. The same cross that was needed to get me in Christ is the same that was needed to get you in.
The same blood that was shed for my sins no matter how many was the same blood that was shed for your sins no matter how few. The same Jesus that saved me from how far was down is the same Jesus that saved you no matter how far up you were.
I came in the world with nothing and I am going out with nothing, so whatever I have been given in between those two points came from God by His grace and should be used for God for His glory.
Not only must there be an honest evaluation if we are going to have fellowship with each other, but an honest cooperation.
B. Honest Cooperation (v. 4 – 8)
You remember that song by the Ojays that had lyrics that went like this: I got what you want, you got what I want, and we were made for each.
Each of us has been given something to do to help build one another up, but it cannot happen if we are not connecting. You know where I believe the best places to sense the needs of others in the church? --- Church School.
Spiritual gifts are tools to build with, not toys to play with or weapons to fight with.
Eugene Peterson makes it simple:
6let’s just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren’t. If you preach, just preach God’s Message, nothing else; 7if you help, just help, don’t take over; if you teach, stick to your teaching; 8if you give encouraging guidance, be careful that you don’t get bossy; if you’re put in charge, don’t manipulate; if you’re called to give aid to people in distress, keep your eyes open and be quick to respond; if you work with the disadvantaged, don’t let yourself get irritated with them or depressed by them. Keep a smile on your face.
Fellowship involves moving from an honest evaluation to a honest cooperation to a honest participation.
C. Honest Participation (vv. 9 – 16)
Verses 9 –16 focuses on the attitude with which we do things. Paul reminded them that they must enter into the feelings of others. Christian fellowship is much more than a pat on the back and a handshake.
It means sharing the burdens and the blessings of others so that we all grow together and glorify the Lord. If Christians cannot get along with one another, how can they ever face their enemies? A humble attitude and a willingness to share are the marks of a Christian who truly ministers to the body
Taking care of and looking after one another is literally saturated throughout the Scriptures. Fellowship was meant to be a way of life.
So we have had Fellowshipping with the Savior (verses 1 – 3), Fellowshipping with the Saints (verses 4 – 16), and now we have Fellowshipping with the Sinners (verses 17 –21).
III. Fellowshipping With The Sinners (Romans 12:17 – 21)
Anybody in these days and times who lives a life in fellowship with God, and fellowship with other believers knows that you still live next door to people who don’t know God, work with people who don’t know, shop with people who don’t know God and exist in a world where people don’t know God.
When I speak of fellowshipping with sinners I am not stating that we should participate in the practices of those who have not identified with God in their lifestyle choices. This is not a message of tolerance either. That is, a spirit of acceptance to things people are accepting as good.
We are called to be in the world but not of this world. Paul makes it clear that we are not to be God in judgment, vengeance, or anger, but we are to be God like in love and peace.
We ought to go out of our way to build bridges to those who don’t like us and hate God. We are being challenged to allow our transformation by God and our edification of each other, be translated into meaningful connection in the community.
We are not ask to shut ourselves up in the house, but be proactive in relating to those who don’t have a fear God, or interact well with other people. Even in our own households.
Jesus warned His disciples that their worst enemies might be those of their own household ( Matt. 10:36 ). Unfortunately, some believers have enemies because they lack love and patience, and not because they are faithful in their witness.
There is a difference between sharing in “the offense of the cross” ( Gal. 5:11 ; 6:12–15 ) and being an offensive Christian!
Even if our enemy is not converted, we have still experienced the love of God in our own hearts and have grown in grace.
Conclusion
