FORMED FOR GOD’S FAMILY
Purpose #2 FELLOWSHIP — 40 Days of Purpose
1 Peter 2:17
Adapted from Outline by Rick Warren—Saddleback Church
INTRODUCTION:
A couple years ago Adelina Dominguez died in San Diego. Why mention her? Well at the time she died Adelina was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest living American at the age of 114. In living over a century she had outlived all of her children and even some of her grandchildren. Adelina was interviewed in an Associated Press article and asked about the secret of her longevity. Adelina gave all the credit to God and His plan for her life; she said, “I knew God had a purpose for my life.”
Few of us will ever live to be 114. Yet regardless of how long you may live God has a purpose for your life.
We are now at day 15 of 40 days of purpose; together we are discovering the answer to the question, “What on earth am I here for?” Through the last week we have studied our first reason for being. Our primary purpose in life is to know and love God.
The Bible calls that WORSHIP. You and I were made to bring pleasure to God as we choose to love God back—worship is responding to God’s great love for us by loving Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. We choose to give God our affection, our attention and our actions. Everything we do is to please God; that’s a lifestyle of worship.
Today we are going to look at our second purpose for life. Until we find out what God wants us to do with our lives we will never be satisfied; our life will be empty. So let’s get out our Bibles and discover why God has made us.
• Hebrews 2:10a (NCV)
God is the one who made all things, and all things are for His glory. He wanted to have many children share His glory...
God wanted a family. That’s why we’re here. If you want to understand your purpose for life, you need to know God wants you to be a part of His family.
• Ephesians 1:5 (NLT)
His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave him great pleasure.
God is our heavenly Father—Abba Father—our Daddy God. And guess what. Our Daddy God loves His kids. As members of His family, we make God happy.
Our purpose for life begins by loving God our heavenly Father. We continue to fulfill our purpose by letting His love for us overflow to others. Here then is your second purpose for living.
• Stand with me as we read God’s word together: 1 Peter 2:17 (MsgB)
. . . Love your spiritual family. . .
God’s purpose for your life is simple. Number 1—God wants you to learn to love your heavenly Father; that’s worship. Number 2—God wants you to learn to love the other members of the family, your brothers and sisters. God wants us to learn to love each other; that’s your second purpose for life.
Now the Bible has a word for loving each other; it’s FELLOWSHIP. Write this down, “Me second purpose in life is fellowship.”
Like worship, fellowship is often misunderstood by people today. What do you think of when you hear the word “fellowship?” Some might say casual conversation, some would say eating out together, and others might say going to church.
o Imagine this a couple of guys meet either before church with a cup of coffee, or out in the lobby after church and their conversation goes something like this:
Hey how are things going?
Oh good; how ‘bout you?
The same, although work has been a little crazy.
Say, who do you like in the big game today?
Oh I like the Eagles; this is the year for curses to be broken. You?
I think the Pats will repeat; they’re going to clip the Eagles wings.
Well I guess we’ll see soon enough who’s right and who’ wrong.
Yep; I’ll be sure to check in with you next week, and I promise not to rub it in too much when you see that I’m right.
Na, I’ll bring you a piece of humble pie.
Well we’ll see next week—love ya brother.
Yea, have a good week; been nice fellowshipping with ya.
Now, did they just fellowship? No! They are just shooting the breeze; that’s just talking. That’s not fellowship. Write this down, “Fellowship is loving God’s family.”
Now, why does He want us to learn to love each other? First, it makes us more like God, because God is love. Second, he wants His children to learn to get along. Parents will agree; we all want our children to learn to love each other (hopefully before they kill each other). And number three, God wants us to love each other because it’s practice for eternity. When we’re all in heaven we are going to love God and guess what—we’re going to love each other too.
• 1 John 4:21 (GW)
Christ has given us this commandment: The person who loves God must also love other believers.
The Bible makes it plain; we are to love each other. Our fellowship is to be more than just small talk. God wants us to get connected with each other just like He wants us to be connected to Him. God doesn’t want ritual or religion; He wants more than casual acquaintances or surface relationships. God wants INTIMACY; He wants us to love deeply!
So how do we do that? How are we supposed to love each other? I’m glad you asked, because that’s what we’re going to look at this morning. The Bible tells us exactly what God expects.
• 1 Timothy 3:14-15 (NIV)
I am writing you these instructions so that, [15] . . . you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church. . .
If you have your Bible circle the word “household” and the word “church;” you might even draw a line to connect the two. God’s household, or God’s family is the church. If you have made the decision to accept Christ as your Savior, then you have been adopted into God’s family; you are a member of His household; you are a part of the church.
If people were to ask you, “What did you do today?” Most of us would answer, “I went to church this morning.” We think of church as a place to go; while we may call this building a church—GOD DOESN’T.
The Church is not a place you go to; the Church is a family you belong to. Big difference! The Church is not a building; it’s a body. The Church is not an institution; it’s not an organization; it’s not a club. THE CHURCH IS A FAMILY. The Church is more than a building or a service you attend for a couple hours on Sunday morning. The Church is God’s family of which we can all be a part.
In God’s family, He wants us to love each other; that’s fellowship. This morning we’re going to discover what fellowship really is. It’s more than small talk; its even more than a pot luck dinner or a super bowl party. In God’s family real fellowship is expressed at four levels: MEMBERSHIP, FREINDSHIP, PARTNERSHIP, and KINSHIP. We’re going to look briefly at each of these and Pastor George is going to tell you about the first.
PASTOR GEORGE:
Fellowship has four levels, and the first level is MEMBERSHIP.
The first level of fellowship is membership which means—write this down—“choosing to belong.” This is the most basic level; we all have to start with membership—to choose to belong. That simply means you find a church family and you choose to get connected—to be a part of a local church family.
• Ephesians 2:19 (Living Bible)
...You are members of God’s very own family... and you belong in God’s household with every other Christian.
God says you belong in His family. The Christian life is not just a matter of believing. It is matter of belonging—of identifying and connecting with other believers. Belonging is a choice.
When you were born, you were automatically connected to your family and became a part of the human race. You didn’t choose your parents—you couldn’t pick your grandparents, and as much as you may have liked you couldn’t trade in your siblings. Being connected to your family is not a choice; it’s just a matter of birth.
But you have to choose to identify and belong to God’s family. One of the biggest lies out there is that we are all God’s children. No, you are only God’s child by making the choice to have Jesus as your big brother. Only through Christ are we forgiven and made members of God’s family.
But that’s only the first step. Our heavenly Father not only wants us to come to Him through His Son Jesus; God wants us to choose to belong with His family the church. Belonging is a choice—a choice of membership.
o Have you ever heard someone say, “Well, I’m a Christian, but I don’t want to belong to any church.” That just doesn’t make sense. The church is where you live out what it means to be a Christian.
That’s like saying, “I’m a football player, but I don’t want to be a part of any team.” It doesn’t work.
Or it’s like saying, “I’m a tuba player, but I don’t want to be a part of an orchestra.” A tuba player without an orchestra sounds pretty funny.
Can a bee say, “I’m a bee, but I don’t want to be a part of a hive?”
Can a soldier survive without a his buddies in a platoon.
A Christian without a church family is an orphan. God has adopted you into His family, but you must choose to belong.
• Romans 12:5 (NIV)
In Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
This week in The Purpose Driven Life, we will be reading about six reasons why you need to be a part of a church family. We are going to learn how the church meets your needs and how you meet the needs of others. But this only works as we realize we don’t belong to ourselves; we belong to each other.
You can sum up our first two purposes like this:
o It’s not about me, it’s about God.
o And it’s not about me, it’s about us.
In Christ we are members together of one family—one body.
People today have the wrong idea about membership. When we think of membership, we think about belonging to a club or organization. But membership was originally a Christian word taken from the Bible.
We are all members of the Body of Christ. Just like your hand is a member of your body, that’s how tightly we’re connected to each other. This isn’t about being a part of a club, wearing silly hats or anything else a club may do together. This is about belonging to each other, making the choice to belong to a family.
Many so called Christians think they can hop from church to church. In America the church is all about choice. If this church doesn’t meet my needs then I’ll go over there. If another church offers a special program we’ll show up there. American Christians pick churches like we pick a grocery store; what’s on sale this week? If you want to grow, if you want to see God at work in your life, you have got to join a body.
o If you hop from church to church it’s like disconnecting yourself from one body and attaching yourself to another. Imagine what it would be like if God gave you the job of being “the liver” in the Body of Christ. You can’t detach and attach yourself to different bodies hopping from one church to another. If you tried that with your liver it would shrivel up and die, and so would you.
If we don’t choose to belong to a local body of believers then we are going to shrivel up and die. We are all members of the body of Christ, and we belong to each other.
There are two important ways we can show that we are connected to each other—that we belong together.
First is through membership in a local church. Some people say, “Why should I join the church? I’ll just attend.” That’s like saying to your fiancé, “Why should we get married. We can just keep dating.”
Membership in the local church is like my wedding ring. This ring doesn’t make me married to Denise. The ring is only a symbol of the commitment I made to her as my wife. We are married because of the choice we made to love each other. We decided a long time ago that we belong together and our wedding rings are reminders of that choice.
• Romans 15:5 (NIV)
May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus.
Paul’s prayer for the church in Rome, and our prayer for Praise Assembly of God is that God will continue to bring us together with a spirit of unity. Membership is a choice. Will we choose to belong to each other?
If you haven’t already done so, we want to invite you to choose to become a member together with us at Praise Assembly of God. Don’t just date us forever; make the choice to get married—to get connected through membership. You could say we have already planned the wedding! We just need you to accept our proposal.
You can pick up membership applications today at the welcome center and plan to be a part of our spring membership class. Membership Sunday will be April 10th, so let’s make plans to include you in being apart of Praise Assembly of God. We belong together!
The second way we can show that we belong to each other is through water baptism
• 1 Corinthians 12:13 (MsgB)
This is what we proclaimed in word and action when we were baptized. Each of us is now a part of His resurrection Body.
• Romans 6:3-4 (MsgB)
[3]. . . That’s what baptism into the life of Jesus means. [4] When we are lowered into the water, it is like the burial of Jesus; when we are raised up out of the water, it is like the resurrection of Jesus."
Through water baptism we identify with Christ and with His body the church. Just as Jesus died and rose from the dead, all of us who are members of God’s family have died to our old life of sin and are resurrected to live a new life in Christ as members of His body.
Water baptism is a public way of saying, “I’m alive in Christ Jesus and a part of a group of believers who make up His body—I belong here.”
If you have accepted Christ as your savior, if you have made the choice to be adopted into God’s family you should make the decision to be baptized in water. Whether you have never been baptized in water, or if you wandered away from the Lord but have renewed your commitment to Christ we want to encourage you to be baptized in water as an outward way of expressing what God has done in you. No longer will you live for yourself; you have decided to live for Jesus.
On Palm Sunday—March 20th you can be baptized in water. Over the last two years we have had the joy of baptizing around 12 people both children and adults in water. This year we want to baptize 25—or more! Are you one of those who have decided to follow Jesus and live your life for Him? Make a public confession of your faith and be baptized Palm Sunday. You can sign up at the welcome center following this morning’s service.
PASTOR GREG:
Fellowship begins with membership as we choose to belong and second, fellowship deepens with FRIENDSHIP.
The friendship level gets you more connected with God’s family in an important way; through friendship we grow together. Write this down friendship is learning to share.
• Acts 2:44 (NLT)
All the believers met together constantly and shared everything with each other.
Believers in the early church did two important things—they “met together” and they “shared everything.” Now if we are going to grow together being connected at a deeper level then underscore these two things. You can’t develop friendships without meeting together; and two, you can’t develop friendships without sharing.
Friendship is a choice! If you want to have friends, be friendly! Make a point of getting together with other people and let them in on your life.
Growth in the local church will happen as the members of the family choose to get together and share everything. It’s good to call each other “brother” and “sister.” BUT WE ALSO NEED TO ALL ONE ANOTHER FRIEND!
I was a part of three home groups this week for our 40 Days of Purpose meetings. Twice people were saying things like this, “Can we keep doing this?” “Pastor I enjoy being a part of these groups so much.” How many of you know the answer to the question? YES WE CAN KEEP DOING THIS!
My prayer has been that God would use these 40 days of purpose as a catalyst to begin small group ministry. I’m excited that not only do people want to continue being a part of small groups, but more importantly they are enjoying it! IT’S GOOD FOR US TO LEARN TO SHARE.
One of the hardest lessons for children to learn is to share. How many of our kids learned the word “mine” before they learned the word “ours?” Every child has to learn to share, and parents have to help them learn the blessing of sharing and not keeping everything as “MINE!”
God is our heavenly Father and He wants His children to learn to share. Our Daddy God says, “share everything!” Now obviously there are lots of things we can share with each other, but let me quickly mention three.
First the Bible says we should learn to share our EXPERIENCES.
• Proverbs 27:17 (NLT)
As iron sharpens iron, a friend sharpens a friend.
You and I can learn from the experiences of others. Some people learn the hard way; others benefit from the experience of others. Not only are am I glad I can learn from your experiences—I don’t have enough time to make all the mistakes you all have made! (And you don’t have time to make all my mistakes either.)
No on know everything, but everyone can teach someone something. We have all had different experiences that we can share with others to help them. Think of all the wealth of knowledge sitting here right now in this church family in this service, and how much we could learn from each other if we just spend the time to get together.
Second, the Bible also says we’re to share our HOMES.
• 1 Peter 4:9 (NCV)
• Open up your homes to each other.
• (NLT) Cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay.
• (God’s Word) Welcome each other as guests without complaining.
The Bible doesn’t say if they are really nice ones, open them up. It just says open your homes. You don’t open your homes for inspection—people don’t bring white gloves to check for dirt. As I say, “This is our home, not a museum.”
Why does God want us to open our homes? Why are we to share our homes? I’m glad you asked!
First when we open our home we are opening our lives to people. When you welcome someone into your home you have invited them into your life.
Second, we share our homes because it is impossible to fellowship in a crowd. You can only fellowship in a small group, or one on one. While we may all love each other, we’re not going to do any fellowshipping here today. It is impossible to fellowship with this many people. We can worship together. We can celebrate together. We can learn together.
But we cannot fellowship with nearly 100 people in a church service. We are not going to walk out of here not knowing each other any better than than we do right now.
Fellowship only takes place in the small group. Fellowship can only happen in our homes, sitting around the table at a meal or playing a game, sitting on the couch and praying together. We grow in friendship as we meet together and share everything. That’s why the Bible says open up your homes. That’s where you really get to know people.
Do you know how important opening your home is? For the first 300 years of the Christian church believers met together in one another’s homes. There were no church buildings to worship together in; no cathedrals, no sanctuary, no stained glass windows—only kitchens and living rooms! Yet amazingly that 300 year period was also one of the fastest periods of growth in the church than at any other time in history! The church grew best in homes.
How many of you are in a 40 Days of Purpose group? Can I see your hands? Look at that. Almost everybody. We have had more than 80 people meeting in small groups over the last two weeks. That’s the church being the church! And for many of us this is the first time in our lives we have been a part of a small group meeting is someone’s home. But overwhelmingly people are telling me, “I want more of this!”
The Bible tells us to share our experiences, our homes and third, we are to share our PROBLEMS. None of us were ever meant to face our problems alone. We need each other!
• Galatians 6:2 (NLT)
Share each other’s troubles and problems.
Don’t carry your burdens and difficulties by yourself; let others come along side you and share the load. Listen to this—when you share a joy, it is doubled; and when you share a problem, it is cut in half!
• Romans 12:15 (NIV)
Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.
o I remember going from these extremes with different people all in the same day. I began the day ministering to a family who had experienced the death of a loved one, and I ended the day with a brand new mom and dad rejoicing over the birth of their first baby.
Sometimes in a small group you die of laughter and sometimes you’re all shedding a tear. Why? It all depends on what is going on in the lives of people your group during the week.
Here’s the good news. You don’t have to fix everybody’s problem. God hasn’t told you to do that; God just says share them with each other. This means to lend a listening ear, to give a shoulder to cry on, to extend a hand to hold. We’re just simply there for our friends in their time of need. You don’t have to fix it, just share it. Let’s allow God to help us not just sympathize with people, but to empathize with them—to feel their pain and share it.
PASTOR GEORGE:
Fellowship begins with membership, it deepens with friendship and third, fellowship is strengthened through PARTNERSHIP. Partnership is doing my part.
We all have a contribution to make; only as we each do our part will our church be everything God has planned for it to be. God has not brought you to Praise Assembly of God to just sit in the pew. That is not why you are here. God brought you here to serve together with other believers.
Think about this! God wants to make a difference through your life and mine as together we fulfill His purpose and plan for our lives! We will do more together than we can ever do alone.
In our family we all have our chores to do—let’s face it we are in trouble if we expect mom to do it all. We are all members of God’s family and the Lord expects us to do our part and share in getting our “spiritual chores” done.
The Bible is filled with the fact that you and I are to work with one another in getting this job done. There are 58 times in the New Testament the Bible says we do something with one another. We serve one another. We love one another. We pray with one another.
• 1 Corinthians 3:9 (NLT)
We work together as partners who belong to God.
Circle the word "partners" in your Bibles. We are not in this thing alone; we are partners working together for God.
o Later today the Patriots and Eagles will face each other in the Super Bowl. Both teams are going to struggle and fight with all their strength to win a world championship. Some of the winners may say there is no higher high than that—their wrong! You and I get the opportunity to work together to fulfill God’s purpose in and through us. There is nothing greater than the experience of doing what God wants us to do and seeing what He can do through our meager efforts. If all we ever saw was one person saved it would be better than winning 5 Super Bowls! I’m glad God has put us together on the same team.
We’ll come back to this thought of our partnership in the final two weeks of our 40 days of Purpose. God has made us for MINISTRY and a MISSION. We have work to do, and God wants us to do it together.
PASTOR GREG:
Fellowship begins with membership, it deepens with friendship, it is strengthened through partnership, and finally, fellowship is KINSHIP.
Kinship is more than just family relationships. You know how in the south family is called my kinfolk. When you think about kinship or kinfolk perhaps your mind imagines “The Beverly Hillbillies.” Jed, Granny, Jethro and EllieMae they are kinfolk right?
Kinship is more than just family; KINSHIP IS YOUR CLOSEST RELATIONSHIPS.
If you have an accident, the hospital will try to contact your “next of kin.” Now, that doesn’t mean their going to call your Great-Aunt Ethyl, who you haven’t seen since the last family reunion. When they call for the next-of-kin, they are looking for the people who care the most about you—the people closest to you.
God wants us to have that kind of attitude toward one another, that’s the deepest level of fellowship—kinship. Kinship is loving believers like family.
• Romans 12:10 (GW)
Be devoted to each other like a loving family.
God says “Well, we’re not just like a family; we are a family.”
The word for fellowship in the Bible is the Greek word “koinonia." Literally, this word means being as committed to each other as we are to Jesus Christ. That is the deepest level of fellowship—being as committed to each other as we are to Jesus Christ. That is more than just a family relationship—it’s an eternal relationship. Kinship is the loving relationship we share within God’s family.
Most people know John 3:16, but not too many people know 1 John 3:16. It is just as important as the first “3:16” we all know and love. Read this with me.
• 1 John 3:16 (NLT)
We know what real love is because Christ gave up his life for us. And so we also ought to give up our lives for our Christian brothers and sisters.
This describes the deepest level of fellowship; loving each other enough to sacrifice our lives for one another. Loving kinship means we have the same love for each other that Jesus has for all of us. Jesus died for us—He gave all he could give. Kinship is the willingness to do the same.
Friends, this is what life is all about. Loving God and loving one another. If you miss this, you have missed your purpose for life.
Your life is not about your accomplishments; it’s not about how much money and things you can accumulate. When your life is over God is not going to ask you to bring Him your trophies; God isn’t going to ask for your diploma. God isn’t interested in the gold watch you get at your retirement party.
What matters most to God is one thing. What did you do with the love He put into your life? The meaning of life boils down to two simple things: LOVE GOD and LOVE PEOPLE.
Loving God, that’s called WORSHIP. Loving each other, that’s called FELLOWSHIP.
The truth of the matter is, you can’t do one without also doing the other. If we are going to fulfill our purpose in life, we have to do both.
How do you know if you’re in God’s family? How do you know if you are fulfilling God’s purpose for your life? This is what the Bible says.
• 1 John 3:10 (NLT)
Anyone . . . who does not love other Christians does not belong to God.
• 1 John 4:20 (GW)
Whoever says, "I love God," but hates another believer is a liar. People who don’t love other believers, whom they have seen, can’t love God, whom they have not seen.
• 1 John 3:14 (NLT)
If we love our Christian brothers, it proves that we have passed from death to eternal life." That’s the proof.
That’s Bible; that’s the proof. Loving God and each other; not one or the other—BOTH!
The greatest privilege you will ever be offered in life is a privilege of being a part of God’s family. You see, God’s family is a laboratory for learning to love. Some of you grew up in homes that didn’t have a lot of love. And, honestly, you don’t know how to love. The only love some people is sexual or romantic love. They don’t know any other kind of love.
So we have to be taught how to love each other, and the church (the family of God) is where you learn to love REAL people, not IEEAL people. Nobody in your small group is ideal and neither are you. We learn to love real people, and that’s what God put us on earth to do.
Where are you in learning to fulfill your purpose?
o MEMBERSHIP—choose to belong.
o FRIENDSHIP—learn to share.
o PARTNERSHP—doing your part.
o KINSHIP—loving believers like family.
