"Chosen To Fellowship Together"40 Days of Community - Message 3

40 Days of Community, week 4

This morning I want to talk about something that is pretty radical. It’s the concept of Christian fellowship. The Bible says in Rom.12:5, "Since we are all one body in Christ, we belong to each other and each of us needs all the others." Turn to the person next to you and say, "You need me." Go ahead. "You need me." All right. Now turn back to that same person and say, "I need you." Go ahead. "I need you." We just had over a dozen marriage proposals just then.

During the 40 Days of Purpose campaign that we did two years ago, the big idea was that God put you on this planet for five reasons: worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry, and mission. That’s the big idea. Let me give you an even bigger idea. You cannot fulfill those five purposes on your own. You can’t do them by yourself. It’s impossible. That’s the bigger idea we’re looking at in 40 Days of Community. God wired all of us in such a way that we can only fulfill his purposes for our lives in relationship to each other. It’s called Christian Fellowship. We need each other.

This morning I want to give you four reasons why you need to be in fellowship with your church family, and more than that, four reasons why you need to be in a community group with a few other friends who you can get to know on a deep level. The first reason we need Christian fellowship is that we need others to WALK with us. In other words, we need people to help us grow spiritually. The Bible says in Colossians 2:6 and 2:7, "Just as you receive Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him." All through scripture we are told to walk: walk in the light, walk in love, walk in obedience, walk in the Holy Spirit, walk as Jesus walked. The important thing is this: God never intended for you to walk through life alone, and for good reason.

First, it’s safer when you walk with others through life. There’s safety in numbers. Second, it’s supportive. Fellowship helps keep you from giving up. Hebrews 10:25 says, "Let us not give up the habit of meeting together. Instead let us encourage one another." We need people to encourage us in our daily walk. When other people are walking with us, they keep us going. There’s an old Zambian proverb that says, "When you run alone, you run fast. But when you run together, you run far." The life that we live is not a 50-yard dash, it is a marathon. You want to run far. Third, it’s smarter. You’ll learn a whole lot more when you go through life with other people close to you. The Bible says in Proverbs 26, "Only fools trust what they alone think is right."

All of us need a few people in our lives that we know well, and who know us well. No one was meant to go through life alone, and we don’t have to. We all need a group of people who know us and are willing to walk with us through life together. That’s what our community groups are all about, and it is where Christian fellowship can best takes place.

The first reason why we need Christian fellowship is because we need people to walk through life with us. The second reason is that we need others to WORK with us. The Bible says in Ephesians 2:10, "God made us to do good works, which he planned in advance for us to live our lives doing." Anytime you use the talents God has given you to help other people, that’s called ministry or service. However, God doesn’t want you to do it by yourself or you’ll get worn out. You need other people to work with you. God tells us in Eccl.4:9, "Two people are better than one because they get more done by working together." You know that’s true. You always get more done by working with other people. Together we can make a big difference if we each just do a little part. Galatians 6:10 says, "Every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all, starting with the people closest to us in the fellowship of faith." When we work with each other we get energized. We begin to support and compliment one another’s efforts. When we work together no one has to get worn out or burned out. When we work together our love and respect for each other only grows. That is all part of true Christian fellowship.

We need people to walk with us and we need people to work with us. The third reason we need Christians fellowship is because in life we need others to WATCH OUT for us. Philippians 2:4 says this, "Look out for one another’s interests, not just for your own." We need people who will defend us, who will protect us, who will help us stay on track, who will warn us, who will watch out for us.

Have you ever seen any of those ‘Neighborhood Watch’ signs in some areas? That’s a sign of fellowship. It says, "We watch out for people here. We take care of each other." If you went on vacation this summer and you were gone for a week or a couple of weeks, you probably told your neighbor, "I’m going to be gone for a while. Would you mind just keeping an eye open and watch out for my stuff?"

Well, let me ask you, do you have anybody watching out for your soul? Friends, your soul is more important than your stuff. Who’s watching out for you? Who’s making sure that you’re still growing spiritually? Who’s making sure that you’re not getting discouraged or giving up? Is there anybody like that in your life? Here’s another question: Who are you watching out for? You can’t expect anybody to watch out for you if you’re not watching out for anybody else.

That is why Christian fellowship is so important. Every one of us need it. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 4:12, "A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back to back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken." Again, I believe that our community groups are the best place in this church for that to happen.

We need people to walk with us through life. We need others to work with us. We need others to watch out for us. The fourth reason we need Christian fellowship is that we need others to WAIT AND WEEP with us. That is, we need people who are going to be there with us in the inevitable crises of life. When we’re waiting for the bad news or when we’re weeping, we need other Christians in our life.

Now as your pastor, I feel this one deeply because I see it every day in our church. There are so many situations in life that nobody should ever have to go through alone. Nobody should ever have to sit alone in a hospital, waiting during a life or death surgery.

No woman should have to wait alone while she’s waiting for a lab test from a problem pregnancy. No one should ever have to sit at home alone, waiting for the coroner to identify the body of a loved one who just had a heart attack. No one should ever have to stand at an open grave alone. No man or woman should ever have to spend the first night alone when his wife dies or her husband dies. And no man or woman should have to spend the night alone when the wife walks out, or the husband has walked out. I could go on and on and on.

The Bible says in First Peter 3:8, "You should be like one big family, full of sympathy toward each other." Now when you get in the hospital, you don’t want the whole church to visit you. That would not be a good idea. However, it would be nice to have five or six people visit you, and to say, "We’re praying for you. We’re going to be here with you."

The safety net God planned for your life is a group of believers who are committed to you. The Bible says in Rom.12:15, "Be happy with those who are happy and weep with those who weep." At the same time, you need to be in a group that you care about so deeply that you naturally rejoice when they have a celebration and you weep when they have a tough time.

Friends, we need each other. We need other believers to walk with us, to work with us, to watch out for us, to wait with us and to weep with us. That is real Christian fellowship!

Let’s pray: Father, it’s time for the church to be the church. It’s time for real fellowship to begin in our church. Please begin in our hearts today. Please bless our church as we do 40 days together. In your name we pray. Amen.