Evangelism, Discipleship and Fellowship on the Lord's Day

Evangelism, Discipleship, and Fellowship as Lord’s Day Priorities

Well, we come tonight to week number eight. Last week I miscalled the number at number six, last week was number seven, this week is number eight, I'm really confused. This is number eight of our series, Decently and in Order.

Yes, I'm sorry, here you are. So far we've looked at Lord's Day worship, we've looked at preaching, and we've looked at praying, we've looked at singing, which are elements of the Lord's Day service. We've looked at the ordinances, baptism and communion, and how those are to function within the Lord's Day service.

And today we're going to look at evangelism, discipleship and fellowship. I want to read the introduction. We have seen in this series that the Lord's Day is when the body of Christ comes together for the specific purpose of corporate worship.

However, does that mean this is done to the exclusion of other spiritual disciplines? What place does evangelism, discipleship and fellowship have on the Lord's Day? So that's the question that we're going to seek to answer tonight.

And on your outline, I have given you the definitions of those three spiritual disciplines. And let's look at just the definition, just the main headings, the Roman numerals. Now, evangelism is proclaiming the gospel with a view towards seeing people converted.

Now, you could define evangelism much more broadly than that. But that's the simple, basic definition. Evangelism is the idea that we are proclaiming the gospel with a view to see unbelievers become believers.

And that's the word evangel, as we've studied in the past, means it's the word gospel, means good news. It's from the Greek, evangelion, meaning good message. It's the gospel. And when we evangelize, we're trying to see people come to know our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, as we do.

And that's the goal. Number two, discipleship is instructing believers in the spiritual disciplines of the faith. Discipleship is, in essence, and again, this can be you can make a much longer definition.

But the short, simple definition is discipleship is teaching people to be like Christ. It's teaching people the disciplines of the faith and how to follow after our Lord and Savior. He who was the very model of what it meant to be an absolute human being, the perfect man.

We are seeing him as the model and we're following after him. That's why the twelve who followed him were called apostles. But they were also called disciples. They were learners. They were students. And that's what that word discipleship comes from.

And finally, the word, the fellowship, fellowship is fostering relationships among the local body of believers. Fellowship is fostering relationships among the local body of believers. So, again, the question for tonight, how does evangelism?

Discipleship and fellowship take place between 1030 and noon on Sunday morning, because what we're talking about is the Lord's Day worship service. How do these three things take place? So that's the subject of tonight.

Evangelism Through the Lord’s Day Sermon and Gospel Conversation

Well, let's look first at evangelism. Evangelism is proclaiming the gospel with a view towards seeing people converted. Letter A, the universal church is made up of believers, all true believers make up the universal church.

Now, this is interesting because the word universal is also another word. Catholic, the word Catholic means universal, the word Catholic has been corrupted. It has been stolen and used by the Roman Catholic Church and Roman Catholicism is, as I mentioned before, an oxymoron because Catholic means universal.

And Rome is a place in Italy. You can't be the Roman universal church. It's not appropriate. And what they have done is they've created a hierarchy which comes out of Rome with a false teacher at the top.

He's called the pope. And out of that is flowing a false system of religion. OK, so that's what you have. So when we talk about Roman Catholicism, that's not what we mean when we say Catholic. When we say Catholic, we mean the universal church.

Every time someone comes to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, by virtue of having been regenerated by the Holy Spirit of God, they are placed into the body of Christ. And that is a universal placement. That makes sense that believers all around the world, all are part of the same body, the universal body of Christ.

Now, the local church, this is the next blank. The local church is a mixture of believers and unbelievers. Now, this should not come as a shock to anyone, but I'm going to I'm going to say it and we'll see if anybody goes, oh, not everyone in church is saved.

As the old spiritual says, not everybody talking about heaven is going there. Right. And that's a sad reality. The local church is a mixture of believers and unbelievers. Now, how is that the case? Well, first and foremost, it's the case because the church local is people who have confessed Christ and people who haven't confessed Christ.

Now, that's not saying those people are all members of the church, but there are all a part of the church in the first way as children. My son is a part of this church, but he's not a he's not a member of the church because he hasn't confessed Christ publicly.

My daughter, Hope, is not a member of this church that she hasn't confessed Christ publicly, but she is here. He is here. And they're here every Sunday. They're they're here more than some members. You know, they're more than some people who believe they have confessed Christ.

Amen. Yeah. So when I say the church is a mixture, the first mixture is is believers and children. They're here. They're a part of what we're doing. The second thing is there are people who have said they believe in Jesus and really haven't.

I'm going to be preaching this text on Sunday, and this is probably the hundredth time I've quoted it. I got to thinking this week, how many times have I quoted this text? Matthew 721. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven.

But the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven on that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name?

And then I will declare to them, I never knew you depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. That's Matthew 721 to 23. I'll be preaching that on Sunday. And this is the first time in 10 years of preaching that I will ever have preached the verse I've quoted it over.

I know just thinking back, looking back through my notes and things, I know that I've quoted it, mentioned it, referenced it over 100 times. This is the first time I've ever preached it because it's first time I've been in this text and I preach verse by verse.

Typically, it's first time I've ever been to this portion of Matthew to deal with it. But it is an important passage. The reason why I've quoted it over 100 times, the reason why I've mentioned it that many times and the reason why I put it to bear so many times is because the reality is there are people who confess Christ who do not know Christ.

There are people who say they're Christians who are not Christians. There are people who get baptized who shouldn't be baptized. There are people who take of the bread and of the cup who shouldn't be taking of the bread of the cup.

There are people who say they're Christians who ain't. You say, Pastor, why are you stressing this? Because it has to be stressed. Some churches you go to, as long as you sign the card, as long as you raise your hand, as long as you say, I believe and you go down front and you have a little emotional experience where you get on your knees and you you bow at a mourner's bench, then you're saved and you're never to question it.

You just sign a little card and they give you a spiritual birth certificate. You have this situation where you are you are then saved and you're never, ever, ever, ever supposed to have a moment doubt.

Beloved, that's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches there are many people who will go to the throne confidently. That's the that's the reason why the term is Lord, Lord. I'll stress this more on Sunday.

But the reason why it's Lord, Lord, is because in Hebrew, when you say something more than once, it is for emphasis. They're saying, Lord, Lord. They're saying this is who you are to me. You're my Lord.

My this is who you are. But he wasn't. They made a verbal confession. But they had no inward possession. So when I say that the universal church is all believers and then I say the local church is a mixture of believers and unbelievers.

Now, you know what I mean? The local church has unbelievers in it. Now, let her see Lord's Day sermons are to instruct believers. That is the first purpose. Lord's Day sermons are to instruct believers, but should also confront unbelievers.

Their purpose is first to instruct. And I think that that's often lost in a lot of preaching today. Oftentimes, preachers have abandoned the responsibility of instruction and they become only focused on the confrontation of sinners and evangelism.

And it becomes a Sunday every Sunday between 11 and 12. They have a little miniature Billy Graham crusade with 150 verses of just as I am. And they focus all on evangelism and there's no teaching. I even heard a pastor say that one time.

He says, I don't do any teaching here. I only do evangelism. And what you do is you create a church that's a mile wide, but it's not a church. It has no real depth of faith. So the sermon by the pastor is first to instruct the believer.

That's the first purpose. But we must never forget that the other purpose of the sermon is to confront unbelievers, to confront unbelievers. And some do not do that. Some only focus on the instructional part of the sermon.

They become many seminary professors, many lecturers, and they only give their exposition of the text without any gospel presentation, without any urgency. And that's just as wrong. Because every time I speak to a group, I go in with the assumption that there are people within that group who are not saved, because Jesus told me in Matthew chapter seven that on that day, many will come and say, Lord, Lord, and yet they have not been converted.

So when I stand before the church, I don't make the assumption that anyone is necessarily saved, but I preach to all and give the gospel call always. Now, here's the thing about that. I was in a church one time.

And the pastor, it was a small church, and the pastor finished his sermon. And I think there was something going on after church, either they were having a business meeting or they were having a dinner, something was happening right after church.

And the pastor finished his little 20 minute sermonette and he closed his Bible. He looked at I remember this specifically. Jennifer would remember it, too. He looked out and he goes, well, it looks like you guys are all saved.

So we'll just go ahead and pray and be done. If I'm lying, I'm dying. I heard the words come out of his mouth. He literally looked at his congregation, looked at he didn't know, but he looked and he said, yeah, you guys are all saved.

We'll go ahead and close up now. It boggles the mind. My wife and I talked about that for days. Can you believe it, that he would look at a group of people, a mixed congregation of people and say, yeah, you guys are all good.

No need for confrontation, no need for urgency, no need to place the confrontation of the gospel for you. No need to have you introspect or look at your own heart or to search yourselves to see if you're calling an election is sure.

No need to do what the scripture says. You're good. What a shame. What a shame. Turning your Bibles with me to Second Timothy four. Second Timothy four was admonishing Timothy, giving him his final instructions.

Remember, Paul was Timothy's mentor, his father in the faith. Timothy is very much a spiritual learner, his disciple in the faith. And this is what the apostle Paul says in verse five and giving him his instructions.

He says, as for you, meaning Timothy, who is a preacher, pastor, elder in the church, and he's a young elder because the apostle Paul at another point said, do not let them despise your youth. You know, when I started pastoring this church at 26 years old, I took that verse.

I took that verse to heart because it's very easy to look upon a young man and not give any respect or attention to what he has to say. And so Paul tells Timothy, even though you're a young man, preach with fervency, preach with urgency, preach with strength, preach with power.

Don't let your youth be looked down upon. And so this is the part in verse five. He's giving him some instructions. He says, as for you, always be sober minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

Now, the part of that passage that I find so interesting is when the apostle Paul tells Timothy, do the work of an evangelist, because within the church there are actually different giftings. And we talk about the gifting of the the prophet or preacher of the church.

And then we talk about the gifting of evangelism as being a specific gift within the church. And oftentimes church will have a church, will have evangelists within the church, men who are called to that specific task.

Sometimes church even have a staff evangelist whose job it is to lead the church in the reaching of the lost and going out into the community and doing those things. But here the apostle Paul is telling Timothy, the pastor, the elder of the church, you don't get off the hook because as the pastor, you are having to do the work of an evangelist.

And what place does the pastor do his work of an evangelist most is when he steps behind the pulpit on Sunday morning because he's not only teaching and instructing the people of God, but he is proclaiming the gospel to a mixed multitude.

He's proclaiming the gospel to the saved. The saved need to hear it, too. We need to be reminded of the gospel. We need to be instructed in the gospel. We need to be reminded of our salvation and where it comes from.

But he's also preaching to the lost. And so the apostle Paul is telling Timothy, do this work consistently over and over and over and over and over. Do this work. Evangelism happens in Lord's Day worship as the pastor proclaims the gospel in his sermon.

And evangelism occurs after the message when the sermon is discussed between believers and unbelievers. It can happen at lunch. It can happen in the home between parents and children. It can happen in a men's meeting or a women's group.

It can happen at any time after the pastor has come in and confronted the people with the gospel of Christ. This is where the believers and the unbelievers come together and there's an opportunity for individual evangelism.

This occurs after the proclamation of the gospel. Sometimes before, sometimes the person brought that person to church and has been talking to them about the gospel. They come and they hear the gospel from the pastor.

And there is another open opportunity to talk yet again. In the book, Pastor Sketches, the pastor in that book, I don't know if you remember. We got that book whenever Mike Gadosz came for our conference and he was selling that book.

And I told everybody that was the book I was using for personal devotions. In that book, Spencer, the pastor who is writing his memoirs, not his memoirs, but his journals. He tells a story about a man who came to him after service and the man was broken hearted.

And he had been confronted in the sermon. He'd been confronted by the gospel, had been confronted by the truth. His tears are down his face and he comes to Spencer and he says to Spencer, I am broken and I don't know what to do.

And Spencer says, you need to repent and trust the Lord Jesus Christ. I've told you the truth. I've told you the gospel. Now it is between you and the Lord. Repent and trust in Christ. And the man left a few days later.

He sees the guy and he's got a big smile on his face in the neighborhood or whatever. And he said, did you trust Christ? And the man said, no. And he said, well, why are you so pleased with yourself? You seem to be no longer broken.

And he said, well, as I was leaving that day, I I came upon Brother So-and-so. And Spencer goes on to say that Brother So-and-so was kind of high up in the church. He was he was well respected, well known.

And he said, I came across Brother So-and-so and I told him how I felt, that I was broken. And Brother So-and-so told me it was OK and I didn't need to worry. You know what Spencer did? He you know, he went to Brother So-and-so and chewed him out.

Now, I'm given the vernacular, he went to Brother So-and-so and said, look, if a man comes to you broken under the gospel, you don't need to comfort him. You need to point him to Christ because the only true comfort comes by the spirit.

You don't comfort this man in his sin. You send him to the spirit, the only one who can give him true comfort, because what he basically said was, you're OK, you don't have to worry about this now. Your young man, that guy could have got hit by a carriage on the way home and died.

This was a few years back, of course. But you understand, that's where the congregation comes in. Before the message, we bring unbelievers in, we seek that they hear the gospel. And then after the message, we we don't give them comfort outside of the cross.

We point them to the cross, we urge them towards Christ. That's the goal of the congregation, that if there are unbelievers among us, we would point them towards the Savior. And that they would find their comfort in him.

So evangelism is proclaiming the gospel with a view towards seeing people converted. That happens every Sunday morning, every time we come around, every time we come together for corporate worship, when I stand behind the pulpit, evangelism is happening.

It might not be that I'm, again, giving a Billy Graham sermon, but the gospel is being preached. The gospel is preached throughout the message. The gospel is also preached throughout the service. As we do our responsive readings, as I speak behind the table, I'm proclaiming the gospel over and over and over and over again.

That's part of the Lord's Day worship. So that's how that happens in the service. Number two, discipleship is instructing believers in the spiritual discipline of the faith. Letter A, Lord's Day worship contains many didactic elements, Lord's Day worship contains many didactic elements and didactic simply means teaching elements or elements, instructive elements.

And we've noted this all along as we've studied each element of service. I hope you've noticed that in every element I've said and here's what's being taught. Remember, we talked about praying. I said we pray multiple types of prayers during the service.

We pray prayers of intercession, prayers of benediction, prayers of invocation. And what does each one of them do? They they lead the service and congregation in prayer, but they also instruct in how to pray.

Why do we stop at our service and pray the model prayer? My reasoning for that is not that we would do so in vain repetition, but that we would do so with an eye towards a didactic purpose. Why was the Lord's Prayer given by Jesus?

Because his disciples said, Lord, teach us to pray. And so he gave them the model prayer and said, here is how you pray. Here is the model. And so we include the model as part of the worship service because it has a didactic function.

It's how I learned it as a child, sitting in church, hearing people say it, hearing myself repeat the parts I knew until I knew it all. Singing, we mentioned a few weeks ago when we studied music, singing has a catechizing ability.

We will remember what we sing more than we remember anything else. You know, you could sing through a couple of the songs that we do a lot. You could probably sing the choruses of most of our songs without having to look at the screens.

I see the songs that we do often. You ain't looking at the screens anymore. You're just singing because it's part and parcel of now your internals. So it has what we call when we catechize, remember, this simply means to learn by memorization, to learn from question and answer, remember is memorizing.

Well, as I said, when we talked about music weeks ago, singing has that ability. It has an ability to cause us to remember. And of course, our regular participation in communion demonstrates the depth and truth of the gospel.

We see this. All these didactic elements are in the service. Letter B, the exposition of Scripture is the primary discipleship method of the church. The exposition of Scripture is the primary discipleship method of the local church.

Now, I want to say something. There is a myth which has really become popularized, and that is that discipleship can only be done one to one and can or can only be done in small groups. That is not true.

Small groups are good and one to one discipleship is good. But the primary method of discipleship in Scripture is the proclamation of Scripture by the man of God to the people of God. This is the method that we see in Scripture.

This is what makes the pastor's sermon such an important part of the Lord's day worship. And it's what's missing in so many churches. The pastor gets up and gives a five minute talk and tells them how good they are and how they have their best life now and bose, bose, bose.

And there's no instruction and there's no demands of urgency from the pulpit. And the pulpit gets removed and they replace it with a bar stool. And the pastor comes up with a little notepad and his little iPad Bible.

Now, there's anything wrong with electronic Bible, but I mean, just, you know, got to have a skinny jeans, got to have a little soul patch, got to have a little got to have, you know, got to have a certain look.

And he comes up to present not. A message. But a talk, the pastor's sermon. Is the most important part of the Lord's day worship service, and this is why it is given more time than any other part of Lord's day worship.

Hours and hours and hours of reading, studying, writing, rewriting, reading it to my children, me for a second, reading it to my family. Did that make sense? Reading it again and over and over. He's heard most every sermon you've ever heard twice because we read them at home for devotions.

Does this make sense? Is this coming through clearly? Figure if my kids can get it, most everybody else can get it, you know. But we don't do that with the music. I mean, we spend time working through the music, making sure that it's going to be appropriate.

We spend time in the studying to pray properly and and communion is done properly. But what is given the most time in the Lord's day? Is that exposition of the word? This is why here's another you're already in second Timothy four.

Let me let me let me read to you what the Apostle Paul charges Timothy with. You say, why do I say this is most important? Listen to what the charge to the pastor is. I charge you, verse one, I charge you in the presence of God and of Jesus Christ, who is to judge the living and the dead and by his appearing in his kingdom, preach the word to stop right there.

I remember when my sermon was preached for my ordination, the pastor who came and preached was Dr. Jerry Powers, my seminary president, beautiful, loving Christian man, came and preached my seminary or my ordination service.

And this was the text he used. He stopped there and he said, preach. He looked at me. He said, preach the word. And it goes on, be ready in season and out of season. That means when you're ready and when you ain't ready, it means when you think you're right and you ain't right, you've got to be ready always when you feel good and you don't feel good, be always ready, reprove, rebuke and exhort with complete patience and teaching.

And there's that word teaching. How is discipleship done in the church through the proclamation of the word of God? It's done through reproving, rebuking and exhorting with patience by the man of God before the people of God.

That's the primary method. It's not the only method. And it's not to diminish other methods, because I do take certain men in my life and I personally disciple them as right now with Aaron, who's going to seminary.

And we have times of personal devotion and personal study, our dads and dudes. We have a time of where men come together, eight of 10 of us come together. And we study the word together. And those are not in value or those are not unvaluable.

Those are very valuable. But the primary method of discipleship in the church is the preach word on Sunday morning, which is why it's a shame on us when we when we move that out of our lives and replace it with something else.

That's the last sermon in the series is next Wednesday night. We're going to talk about replacing Lord's Day worship, and that's what so many people have done. Lord's Day Sunday has become the day of the beach.

It's become the day of the going to the movies or sleeping in or going to Denny's for the Graham Slam breakfast or whatever else we replace it. We we disregard it and we miss out on this very important part of our discipleship training.

Let her see when a church minimizes or replaces preaching. Discipleship is naturally diminished. Again, the words are minimized, minimizes when a church minimizes or replaces preaching, discipleship is diminished naturally.

Dialogue, debate and discussion are all great, but they can never take the place of proclamation and exhortation. And I've already mentioned this, I won't mention it again for too long, but I just say again, many modern preachers do not see their role as a prophet within the body.

They don't see their role as proclaiming God's word to God, God's people. Now, you know, we've talked about the difference between a prophet. We talk about somebody who speaks the future. That's not what I'm talking about.

The gift of prophecy means to speak God's word to his people under the power of the Holy Spirit. That does not mean to speak new revelation necessarily. So when we talk about prophets to the people of God, we're talking specifically about preachers preaching.

Many people don't see their role that way anymore. They don't see themselves as the man of God called by God to preach to the people of God. They see themselves as self-help gurus. They see themselves as life coaches.

They see themselves as encouragers rather than exhorters. A preacher should feel the same unction that Jeremiah felt. And I want to just show you very quickly what Jeremiah felt when he was called. Jeremiah 20, verse 9, Jeremiah, chapter 20 and verse 9, you know this passage.

Yep. If I say I will not mention him or speak any more in his name, there is in my heart, as it were, a burning fire shut up in my bones and I am weary with holding it in and I cannot and that was Jeremiah's proclamation about his own prophetic call to God has given me the word to preach.

He's given me a word to speak to his people and I cannot hold it in. It is like a fire in my bones. When a sermon has concluded, the congregation should be exhorted towards closer conformity to Christ.

And that's what discipleship is, conforming to Christ. We have been predestined to be conformed to the image of our Lord, Romans chapter 8, and that's what preaching is. It's calling people to confirmation.

It's calling people not to be conformed to the world, but to be conformed to Christ. And thus it is where discipleship begins in the church, not where it ends, but certainly where it begins. Finally. Fellowship, fellowship, as we've already noted, is fostering relationships among the local body of believers, certain aspects of fellowship can only occur before and after Lord's Day worship.

Let me explain that before we go on. Certain aspects of fellowship can only happen before and after Lord's Day service. You will not get to know people on a personal level within a worship service in the same way that you could outside.

You will not learn each other's strengths. You will not learn each other's struggles. You will not learn each other's pains. You will not learn each other's turmoils during worship service. This is why I believe that meals at church are valuable.

I would like to see us do more of those where we come together after worship and spend time talking with one another. This is why personal hospitality is valuable, where we have people into our homes.

So, so, you know, so much of that is gone anymore. It seems like we don't invite each other over much. We don't want people in our houses anymore. And I think that's something that was lost years ago.

You know, it was it was very common. And I don't say this because I'm fishing for somebody to invite me over. But years ago, when I was a when I when I, you know, was a was a was was not born yet. But back in the day, you know, let's say let's say 40 years ago, 50 years ago, 60 years ago, wasn't it common to invite the pastor over and have a meal?

You know, and I can honestly say that I have not spent a lot of time in homes eating with people. Now I have with some of you and I'm not again, I'm not fishing for that. But what I'm saying is we shouldn't just do that with pastors.

We should be doing that with all of us. We should all be shopping together, eating together. And I know some of you guys go to restaurants. That's cool. That's that's, you know, being together is the most important thing.

But there is an intimacy that comes with inviting someone into your home. You got to straighten up a little bit, kind of get things ready, you know, where they're supposed to be, you know, and there's a little bit of work involved.

And people tend to appreciate that when we invite them into our homes. So this is what I mean when I say there are certain aspects of fellowship that only occur before and after the service. We can't diminish that because that does need to happen.

But letter B, there is a type of fellowship which occurs during Lord's Day worship when believers gather in unison to pray, to sing, to learn. And to study together, there is in that moment, in that time period, a fellowship which is occurring, we may we may not be learning about one another socially.

But we are growing together spiritually in our relationship as a church. This, again, is why it's so devastating when people aren't here, when they give up that time of fellowship as the body singing and praying and studying together.

I don't know or I don't have to know everyone in the service to be able to fellowship with people in a service worshiping God. I go to these conferences. I'm in there with hundreds of people. I don't know these people, but there's a sweet moment of fellowship when we all sing, you know, Immortal, Immortal, Invisible, God only wise, when I can hear 200 other men fellowshipping together, singing that or praising together, singing that song.

There's a sweet fellowship. I used to go to a pastor's conference back when Ligonier Ministries was smaller than it is now. They used to have a pastor's conference and it was only for pastors. They wouldn't even they wouldn't allow anyone else to go.

You had to sign up a year in advance and it didn't cost anything, but they would only take 100 pastors. And let me tell you, they treated us so nicely. It was such a blessing because they would bring us down.

We paid a little bit to start with, but we got so much back in books. I always said it was free because they gave us so much stuff just to come. I think the only reason they had to pay anything to register was just to ensure that you'd come and then you got it back in books and they fed you and they did all these really nice things.

It was like it was like it was such a blessing. But let me tell you, when I went in that room with 200 other pastor, a hundred, nine, nine other pastors, 100 people, nine other pastors, when we started to sing, I mean, you had guys who joined hands, never met each other.

You had voices being lifted up in unison and fellowship never in the world. And, you know, I met men at those conferences that I'm still friends with today. And it started it started in that moment of fellowship that happened in the service.

It started in that moment where we proclaimed God's holiness together in song and prayed together and and we shared each other's understanding of this is who we believe God is and this is who we're worshiping.

So so there is an element of fellowship that occurs in the Lord's service. And this is where letter C comes in. What's that? OK, thank you. Lord's Day worship is the seed and root. Of loving Christian fellowship, the seed and root.

Why is it the seed? Well, it's often where we meet our church family for the first time. I mean, you might have come here because you knew one person, but after that, you're meeting 75 other people. So it's the it's the root or I mean, it's the seed because it's where relationships are planted.

But then it's the root because it's what keeps them held together. It's the root that holds everything together. The people that I'm closest with in my life are not my my family that is by blood. Not even close.

Is it my family who's by blood? It's the people that I see Sunday after Sunday after. I see you guys 52 times a year more than I see most of my extended family. That means I don't see them at all. Maybe 51 times a year because once a year we have a family reunion.

And you know what? That family reunion there is not at all the fellowship that occurs here every Sunday afternoon when we get together after church and we're walking out that door together and we're hugging each other and we're shaking hands and we're going to lunch and we're talking.

No, nothing even close happens at my family reunion that happens here every Sunday. It's just not for me, maybe for you, but not for me. From what we do here grows our eternal relationships. This is the seed that sprouts and it's the root that holds it together.

So is there a fellowship on Sunday morning? Yes, it begins there. Now, what time is it? Hey, I finished it a couple of minutes to spare. I got a couple of questions. Let's talk about these these questions very briefly.