CURRENT SERIES
The Fellowship of the Church
August 5, 2018
LifeWay Moments
LifeNotes
• Fellowship — A friendly association, especially with people who share the same interest; a group of people meeting to pursue a shared interest or aim.
• We all have a common goal — to fellowship with God and one another. That is our purpose. That is why we assemble.
• We assemble to learn things that will help us to live a life that will reach others and make them want to come into the Kingdom. We should always be compelling people, not repelling people.
• Ecclesia — in the Greek means church; a called out company or assembly of specific people. You are not just in church — God has called you to church. When you are called to something, you will stick with it.
• Sometimes in life, with the things you are called to, there will be resistance. We don’t focus on the resistance, we focus on the victory.
But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.
— 1 Peter 2:9 NLT
• The church is not a building. The church is the people that God called into the Body.
• What is the first purpose of the church? So we can show the goodness of God to others. Let everything you do show the goodness of God. God is good all of the time, but it doesn’t mean we will have a trouble-free life.
• Prosperity can be a hurdle for some people. Money is not the root of all evil — the love of money is. The problem is not money, the attitude with the money is the issue. If you can’t let money go, it has a hold on you.
We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.
— 1 John 1:3
• What is the second purpose of the church? We are called to fellowship with the Lord individually and corporately. Church is not a Sunday thing, it is an everyday thing. We celebrate with Christ the things that He has done in our life.
• There is something very powerful that happens when we assemble corporately. We have been called to meet together.
And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place.
• You will never function in that new and life-giving way if you operate under the law. The law says “I have to,” grace says “I get to.” The law says that you better do everything perfectly, God says “You better receive what I have already done.”
• We are more subject to repent and change our mind when we experience the love of God than we are hearing repeated messages telling us how rotten we are.
• The Bible says that the law kills, but the Spirit gives life. If you don’t believe the law kills, try to walk in it.
• Legalism means that everything you do in your fellowship and relationship with God is based on your behavior. It’s hard to get saved when you think it is up to you. It is easy to get saved when you know it is all up to Jesus.
• When we understand the love, grace and truth of God, everything becomes less challenging. The law produces death, the Spirit produces life.
And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.
— Hebrews 10:21-22 NLT
Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
— Romans 12:2 NLT
• When you are in church and listening to the message, you are renewing your mind to the truth of God’s Word.
• We still have to make a decision that we believe the Word when we read it.
• If you read a verse or hear someone teach on a verse, in your spirit you might say, “Oh, I know that.” Do you? Do you know it the way He wants you to know it? Do you understand what He is saying at that moment? It is powerful when the Word of God is allowed to be spoken into our hearts.
• Everyone is called to the ministry, not just pastors and evangelists. It doesn’t mean that it is our full-time vocation, it just means that God has called us for a purpose. We are called to represent Christ.
• The reasons God wants you prosperous is to show the world the goodness of God and to impact the Kingdom. The message is free; the method to get it to people is not.
And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.
— Hebrews 10:25