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I'd like for us to pray once more regarding this project before we get into the message.

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Father, I pray that having seen the production of the spots and beginning to capture the

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possibilities with these seeds of truth, that you will absolutely excite us and build enthusiasm

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in our midst, that we as a local church may let others know that we are here, that we

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care, that we want to share Jesus with them.

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May our hearts be broken for those in many of these 50,000 homes we're talking about

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who are crushed beneath the load of guilt and sin and despair and who are looking for an

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answer.

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We pray that by your grace this may be part of your work in their lives, bringing them

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to forgiveness and hope through our Lord Jesus Christ.

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Use us as a congregation and we pray that you will raise up the means whereby we can

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make this tool effectively used.

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In Jesus' name, amen.

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Would you open your Bible please with me to Ephesians chapter 4 as we look today at verses

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12 and 13.

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We talk about Christ's church, a community of fellowship.

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The Bible says that Jesus gave some as leaders for the equipping of the saints for the work

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of service to the building up of the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity

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of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a mature man, to the measure of

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the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.

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Have you noticed that some words have lost their definition in our contemporary pop culture's

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jargon?

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For example, when you speak of something being sweet, it doesn't mean that it has sugar

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in it anymore.

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If it's said to be mint, don't be looking for that flavor.

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If something is called righteous, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's good.

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We could go on and on with a list of words that our culture has used in a different way

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than we have been used to.

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Not only is that true of words in general, it's also true of biblical words.

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I think, for example, of the term born again.

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We have a very clear understanding of what that means, but it is used in our culture

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today in a variety of ways outside of the context of the Bible.

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Even atheists will say they are born again about something.

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Such is the word fellowship as well.

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I was recently on a university campus and saw a sign that was promoting an upcoming

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event and among the things going to happen at this event was fellowship.

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And I thought to myself, I was rather startled seeing the word there, and I thought to myself,

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really, what do these people know about fellowship?

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Fellowship is a biblical word.

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It comes from a Greek word koinonia.

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The essence there is the middle of the word that means in common.

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Fellowship means that you share things together in common.

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It is not used in the modern English translations of Ephesians, though it is in the King James

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Version.

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But there is a form of the word fellowship that is used in chapter 5 and verse 11 where

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he says, and do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness.

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Now there truly is the word koinonia in the original language.

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Do not fellowship, he says, with those who practice unfruitful deeds of darkness, that

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is, they are in sin.

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Do not share with them.

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Do not participate with them in their activities.

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The idea of fellowship is found in Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 19, for example, where

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he says, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens.

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Now the word fellowship is not here, you see, but there is the idea that we share together

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in a citizenship, whereas once we were aliens to this kingdom.

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Again in chapter 3 and verse 6, Gentiles are fellow heirs, fellow members of the body,

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fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

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Again the idea of sharing, partaking in it.

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Fellowship in its essence is what we share together in Christ's community.

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You will notice in our text today in verse 13, the apostle says, we all attain to the

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unity of the faith, all of us together.

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We share leaders to equip us.

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As part of fellowship and what we share together in this community, we share leaders to equip

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us.

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Christ sovereignly gifts all of His saints.

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We talked about this last week.

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Some of those gifted saints, He calls to roles of leadership within the community.

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That is His order, His arrangement, His structure of things.

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That order is intended to bring blessing to all of the community.

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The equipping of the saints comes through that leadership.

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This word equipping is a word that is used elsewhere in the New Testament as mending

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the nets, Matthew 421.

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It was used in that early day of physicians setting a bone that had been broken, putting

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it back in place.

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That's the purpose of leadership.

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Leadership in a local church is to repair people's lives, to set them in order, to

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set the church in place, to structure it, to arrange it, to manage it in such a way

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that the saints mature.

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Dr. Galen, who lived in the second century and who must have been a brilliant physician,

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really he was called crazy, as some of you may know, because he worked on cadavers trying

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to understand how the body worked.

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But he was just ahead of his time, we all know that.

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But Dr. Galen used this term in his writings.

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He used it in the sense of furnishing a house.

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As a body of people, we share the same leadership whose purpose is to furnish us as a people,

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to prepare us as a community for the work that God has called us to do.

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When leaders are leading and followers are following, there is a situation where equipping

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can occur and be achieved.

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The benefit of what we share through our leaders depends upon our responsiveness to it, however.

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In the equipping that is done in the church, we can't sit passively and expect that we're

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going to be prepared to serve the Lord.

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Our response has to be active, we have to be involved, we have to be energetic about

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it.

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Passive learners don't belong in the church.

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We're talking about active learning and participating.

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As a body of people, we share leaders whose purpose is to equip us.

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That leadership has to be trusted leadership.

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That leadership has to be respected leadership so that we as a community can look to them

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for the equipping that they must do.

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How does that equipping take place?

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It seems to me there are at least three means by which equipping takes place in every local

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church.

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I don't have time to point it out to you, but if you go to the pastoral epistles, the

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books of Timothy, written to Timothy, you will find examples of what I'm talking about.

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Equipping takes place through the work of overseeing, which leaders must do, through

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the work of teaching, which leaders must do, and through the work of modeling, again, which

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the leaders must do.

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They must set an example.

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When you put those three things together, with leaders who are committed to overseeing

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and managing the church, who are committed to teaching the Word of God, and who are committed

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to modeling it in their lives before the community, and you have a community of people who are

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watching and eagerly learning and who are active and who are committed, then you have

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a situation that is dynamic.

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That's the kind of a situation the New Testament is talking about in this verse.

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It's the fellowship of the saints.

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Because we are a fellowship, we share leaders to equip us, but secondly, we share work to

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build us.

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The purpose of this spiritual outfitting is to get God's work accomplished.

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We are a saved people, saved to serve.

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God intends for that service, for Christ to be directed in and through the local fellowship

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of the saints.

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Thus, there is no place in this fellowship for laziness, apathy, or retirement.

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We have in our hands from God a lifetime assignment, rather we must make place for diligence, faithfulness,

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and endurance in the work of service that he talks about in verse 12.

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The God-honoring result of this, when God's people are serving Him, is that the body of

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Christ is built up.

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The Greek term here really is house building.

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Notice the equipping of the saints for the work of service results in the house building

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of the body of Christ.

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Have you ever been involved in building a house?

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You may have done it once.

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If so, you may never do it again.

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It's a lot of work.

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I mean, even if you're hiring people to do the job, it's still a lot of work, it is a

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big headache, but it's important.

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And the finished result is ever so satisfactory as you get into that home that you have labored

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over on paper and with people who are building it.

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And finally comes that day, you get inside, you begin to move your furniture around, and

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you say, we're here, but what the Bible tells us is that as we are equipped and matured

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and as we then serve the Lord, the result is that as a body of people we get built.

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We've been doing that for the last 12 years.

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Some people are frustrated we're not further along the line.

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I think house building is a frustrating job.

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So is building a church.

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And there are times that all of us wish we were further along or this were in place,

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or we would be able to do that, or this.

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But the point is that as all of us in this fellowship that we participate in, as all

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of us are being equipped and get involved in the work of ministry, we will be built

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up as a house of God.

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The church is only as strong as its weakest member.

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That's a provoking thought, but it's true.

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A church is only as strong as its weakest member.

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What God wants us to do is to build up one another so that we as a body of people become

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a strong house.

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The building of this community is not just the job of the pastors or the staff or the

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elders or those in leadership.

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It is the job of every one of us because we are this community.

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We are this community.

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We share the work to build up this body of Christ.

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Every person who's a part of us, it's ours.

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To do or to fail in, it's ours.

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Thirdly, we share unity to mature us.

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That's part of fellowship as well.

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Now, in one sense, we have unity that the Holy Spirit produces spiritually according

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to verse 3, and yet we are told in verse 13 that it's a goal.

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It's still out there in front of us, that we haven't arrived there yet, and we all

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know that's true.

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He tells us that we must enter into it fully as a fellowship of people.

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We must look to be unified in our faith and in our intimate knowledge of Jesus Christ.

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We share that unity in Him.

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Now we must grow in it and experience it so that we will become a mature man.

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Notice He doesn't say mature individuals because His emphasis is on what we are together

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as a people.

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A mature man, He says, the picture here is of an athlete who has so worked out and so

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built his muscles that he is well-defined and ready for action.

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That's the picture here of the church.

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We share a unity in the Holy Spirit that we want to use to grow into maturity so that

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we are muscular.

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We are able to accomplish the work He calls us to.

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We're not there yet, of course.

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We don't yet measure up to all the fullness of Christ's likeness, but that's our goal.

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Out of this brief message this morning before we come to the Lord's table, there are three

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lessons for this community of fellowship that I want us to draw from our text and what I've

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said.

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Lesson number one, the focus of fellowship is not what others do for me, but it's what

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we contribute to each other.

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In this narcissistic culture we live in, there is a me-centeredness that precludes the work

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of God and the lives of people who allow that to control them.

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You see, the focus of God's plan, His fellowship, is not on what others can do for me, but rather

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it's upon what we can contribute to each other.

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They give and receive proposition.

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Even saints who are unhealthy or hurting will gain from giving to others.

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If today you are feeling miserable in your Christian life, if you are feeling wounded

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and hurt, one of the best things you can do for yourself is to get involved in serving

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others and to get the focus off yourself.

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Someone says, but I'm not being ministered to.

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Maybe the real question is, to whom are you ministering?

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Because you will find that if you minister to others, you will be ministered to.

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Question number two is that the aim of fellowship is not to be happy, but to be Christ-like.

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People today want to come to church for a spiritual high.

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They want to come for that emotional uplift for the week.

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I understand that there is emotion as we gather together.

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There are things to be happy about, but we have to understand something.

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The aim of fellowship in the community is not just to be happy.

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The aim is to be like Jesus.

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And sometimes that comes through tears.

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Sometimes that involves trials as well as triumphs.

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Our fellowship with Christ includes His suffering, of course.

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Paul said that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of

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His sufferings.

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We must be prepared in the church to fellowship together even when it's not happy, but to

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fellowship in the hard times and the trials and the challenges as well.

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Now number three, the key to fellowship is not settling for I might, but affirming I

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will.

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The saint who says, well I might do this or I'll think about that, is a tentative saint.

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A tentative saint will not enter into the depths of fellowship with his fellow Christians

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or with Jesus Christ.

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Fellowship is for those who make commitments.

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It's required.

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We rob ourselves when we react ambivalently to opportunities in the church.

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We must not allow ourselves the indulgence of being fringe in God's work, of just staying

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on the edge, of being in the galleries.

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Fellowship requires us to get onto the playing field, to get involved.

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Fellowship in the community requires commitment.

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Commitment is the key that unlocks the treasures of what fellowship is all about.

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When we refuse to make commitments, we cannot enter into the fellowship of Jesus Christ

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because He is a Savior who committed Himself to us and requires commitment from us to Him

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and to each other.

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The Bible says that Christ loved the church and what?

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Gave Himself for it.

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Gave Himself for it.

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The question is, are we willing to give ourselves for the body of Jesus Christ, for this new

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community of the saints?

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Are we willing to give ourselves as Jesus did and make that commitment?

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A number of years ago I stood beside the grave of a pastor in whose church I was privileged

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to minister.

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He died ten years before I got there, but I stood beside his grave and I recognized

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that in the thirty-five years he was in that church, he gave Himself for that church.

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He died of a heart attack at sixty-two years of age because of the load that he bore to

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build that church.

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And I said to myself, I want to be the kind of a pastor who gives Himself to the ministry

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he's in.

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I hope that's true of all of us.

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Just as Jesus loved the church and gave Himself for it so that we too would love His church

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and give ourselves for it and to it.

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As we come to the Lord's table today, it will be our invitation.

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So that as we take up that piece of bread reminding us of His body, and we lift up the

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cup to our lips and we drink of it, reminding us of His blood, we are saying, Jesus, as

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you have been committed to me and to this community of the saints, so I commit myself

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to your community and to the fellowship of your people.

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And as we eat that bread and drink that cup, we are answering the invitation and saying

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to Him, I am committed, Jesus Christ, to your body as you are committed to your body.

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Let's pray together.

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As we pray and prepare our hearts to receive these elements, perhaps it's good for us

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to take a moment to reflect and to really examine whether we are committed, whether

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we're willing to give of ourselves to the work of Christ.

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Let's not be dishonest as we partake of the elements.

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Rather, let's be truthful and understand that as we partake of His communion cup, His

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fellowship cup, we are saying to Jesus, Lord, I am willing to commit myself to the fellowship

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that you have created by this broken body and shed blood that I remember today.

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Just quietly allow the Spirit of God to minister to your heart and prepare you for this moment

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of response.

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Lord, we thank you for the sacrifice that you made for us.

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For this bread and for this cup, we humbly express our gratitude.

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We also today respond to the call for commitment to the fellowship of the saints.

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By partaking of these elements, we are saying to you, we are committed, we are willing to

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lay down our lives as you did for one another and for the work of God in our midst.

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Firmly secure our hearts as we partake and respond to the work of your Spirit.

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In Jesus' name, amen.

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This is my body which is for you, eat it in remembrance of me.

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Lord, we remember your sacrifice and the precious blood that was shed that we might find forgiveness

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for our wickedness and iniquity.

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Thank you that by this blood we have been declared right with God.

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We have been forgiven.

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We have been received.

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As we partake of the cup, may we even in our own woundedness and hurts receive one another,

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care for one another, and commit to serve one another that we as a body may be built

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up.

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Amen.

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When I survey the wondrous cross, I see the

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wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died.

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I see the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died.

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Forbidden Lord, that I should host, Save in the death of Christ my God.

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All the vain things that Charming God, I sacrifice them to His blood.

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See from His head His hands, His feet, Sorrow and love, Flamingo down.

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Did ere such love and sorrow meet, Or thorns come, poor, so rich a crown?

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Lose the whole realm, abhor, breach your mind,

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What were a present far too small?

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Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my soul, my life, my own.

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Lose the whole realm, abhor, breach your mind, My soul, my life, my own.

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Jesus said, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.

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Drink it in remembrance of me.

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As we drink of His cup, as we eat the bread reminding us of His body,

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We should call to mind that ours is a fellowship of suffering.

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God calls us to that kind of fellowship and faithfulness in it.

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That kind of fellowship requires commitment, and I think of the aged polycarp

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who in the first century was brought before a stake to be burned to death.

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He was asked if he would not recant of his faith in Jesus Christ, and he said,

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Eighty-six years I have served Him till now, and He has not failed me.

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I will not fail Him now.

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And he allowed his life to be taken.

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May that kind of commitment, recognizing what fellowship means,

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may that kind of commitment spur us on to faithfulness in 1993

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to serve Jesus Christ as a community of people.

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Let's stand together and be dismissed.

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Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God our Father,

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and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all. Amen.

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related.