Lesson # 9 - Part 2 The Church: Fellowship & Worship (Fundamentals of the Faith by John MacArthur)

We're continuing lesson number nine. From the book fundamentals of the faith. This is the church fellowship and worship. So we. We ended last week in section number two, so we're gonna pick up section number three on The subject of fellowship.

Does that look about right where we left off? Okay. All right. I remember this time. It says the Bible uses the Greek word coin Aenea to describe fellowship within the body of Christ. That word means participation with others in a common purpose.

The Latin equivalent is communion pointing to the communion that is shared with other believers as well as with God and.

And.

That's appropriate because this Sunday we're celebrating communion and One of the things about taking the Lord's Supper is we're supposed to do it as as a group as a body. Rarely does somebody ever ask For me to take communion in you see this sometimes when I'm at the hospital visiting people.

You'll see a Catholic priest come through and they're giving communion to the person who's who's ill. I don't think I've ever had anyone request that me take them communion in the hospital or nursing home and I think one of the reasons why and I understand this that we are supposed to take communion as a group as as the body of Christ because the word communion itself means fellowship so we do it within the fellowship of believers.

But anyway, that's we'll get on to communion The actual Lord's Supper in a few moments, but right now we're talking about unity within the church. Number one it says what is God's desire for every local church according to 1st Corinthians chapter 1 verse 10.

What's God's desire? For Unity in the faith. Do you agree with that? Does God want unity in the faith within the local church? Of course God doesn't want disunity. Obviously, so he wants unity therefore we should want unity and work towards unity.

Yes, Larry.

Don't we work? To have unity within our own bodies. You know, like when I hit my finger with a hammer. The whole body hurts. Yeah. Just like I don't want to lose one of my fingers, right. You know, so each each part within Myself my body is important right.

And it's the same with each of you.

Yeah, that's a good point a good illustration. Because if you have different parts of your body working against each other. That that's a real that's a real issue. And there's some people have.

Autoimmune.

Problems where the body attacks itself and anyone who struggles with those types of illnesses knows How difficult and frustrating it can be. So yeah, we want unity within our own personal body in that way.

We want unity within the local church. And of course, it would be wonderful to have unity within the you know, the universal body of believers worldwide that that's Challenging but we can have unity within the local church before we move on.

How do we have unity? within a local church. Well, I would say we have unity in doctrine and then unity in practice. So sometime if I taught something that was totally off and left field that would create disunity in the body of Christ.

Or if somebody me or someone else was mistreating someone else being rude and just or just open sinful behavior that creates disunity. So we can have unity if we strive for it with both doctrine and Practice.

That's why it's harder to have unity within the the universal body of Christ worldwide because all these different churches have their different beliefs right there's different doctrines on the end times and the nation of Israel and baptism and all this other stuff and It makes that makes it hard to have unity with other churches in other denominations.

But as long as we agree with the doctrine here, we can have unity within this fellowship. So.

Yes.

As well, you know like on Sunday evenings, we've been going to a got a mold open Baptist Church and Even though it's an English service It's still with their Accents it's still hard to understand their English all the time and and they do music a little different and.

So I mean each church body may have differences like in In worship practices like singing. Yeah. Yeah, and you know speaking of that.

Church, there's been people who have preached sermons who believe in a different. Different way of baptizing and so but we can still have a certain degree of fellowship. There's different believers, you know in your personal life.

Maybe who go to a different church maybe down the road who view the end times differently. Long as it's within the parameters, you know, there's certain things that are outside the bounds of orthodoxy.

But we can agree to disagree on some things and still have unity and I think I think we want that. There is one story they get a lot of attention in.

In.

Evangelical news the past week or two. Most all of you I think probably know who Charles Stanley is, right? Well for the past 20 years Charles Stanley, you know his ministry, you know starts to decline as he gets older now.

He's retired but his son Andy Stanley is probably one of the most popular names within Evangelical Christianity and it just came out last week and this is actually nothing new but people for whatever reason are now talking about it again where he's now becoming affirming of Same-sex marriage and you know when kids want to transition their gender.

They seem very affirming towards all of that. Well that creates massive disunity and maybe the people in his fellowship are all on board with that. Suspect probably some of them aren't. But a church like ours could not that it's going to happen.

Anyways, we could not have fellowship with North Point Church in Atlanta so if we were in the suburbs of Atlanta and we had worked with them in the past and we knew them and you know Some of our family members went that that would cause a great rift.

So this this and I bring that up because this is the problem with unity. You can't have unity when there's false doctrine being preached or when there's just bad practice. So whether it's homosexual stuff or even Divorce and infidelity.

I mean these are things that tear churches apart. So we want to preserve the unity. Just stick to the Bible. That's what I always wonder. Why do these guys they get so big? It seems like they think they can just create new teaching just stick to the Word of God.

But anytime we depart from Scripture, yeah, it's there's going to be disunity, unfortunately.

Yeah, yes.

Belinda first.

Yeah.

So on an individual basis that can also. Yeah. Right. Yeah, and you could believe the right thing and technically be correct and use that position of I'm right as a club to just clobber other people. So how you go about things and your motivation sometimes can create this unity.

But I.

Was just going to say doctrine determines Practice right, you know how you're going to live. So yeah what you believe kind of like your world view, right? You know if you allow The culture to change to determine your thought Then you're going to go with the way culture is teaching, right?

But if you follows the Bible Then a biblical worldview view will determine how you look at.

Culture, right?

Right doctrine determines practice. So, you know, why do we still preach from the Bible? Why do we still sing hymns? Why do we still do all these things that we've done for generations? Because it's biblical.

Now we could probably get more people through the front door if we brought in the rock band and did Ted talks. You know instead of a sermon you do something like a Ted talk. That would probably bring more people through the door.

But then after a while, yeah, you might triple the size of your congregation. But nobody believes the Bible anymore and people are wanting to do gay marriages that at your church. So I it's a trade-off.

When churches stop preaching the Bible, it's inevitable that they're going to get into bad practice. Of course, these churches are doing this because they gave up preaching the Bible years ago, so.

And who's responsible then for leading. People astray.

Well, isn't that the shepherds right. The shepherds responsible, right? Right. Yep. Okay. So number two read Ephesians 4 2 3. What will promote? Unity. What will promote it humility and gentleness with patience?

Showing tolerance for one another in love. Do you agree with that?

Yeah.

See just Going back two minutes ago. Some people would hear me pointing out error and say Mike you're creating disunity because you said something about this Person or this church? Well, but why am I doing that?

Because I want people to know the truth. I could take that and again use it as a club to just personally attack people. But if we're motivated by love and humility like we have I'm sure we've done some things wrong.

I'm sure we don't have it all figured out. So when someone comes to us I'd like to think we would listen if we were off in some way. But it's really how you approach it and what your motivation is. So humility and gentleness if somebody's Believing the wrong thing.

Do you just tell them they're a fool and just know you you want to be patient with them? Maybe they don't know because they were never taught so we need to approach this in a in a gentle way and Tell them show them what is true showing tolerance for one another in love.

So what is tolerance?

You.

You know, you just you don't yell at them. You don't write them off you accept them for who they are. But you don't leave it at that, you know, you don't affirm them in their error you accept them, but then you try to Move forward try to teach what's right and show them what is right.

We're living in a time where People think tolerance is just accepting everything. So even if somebody says or doing something wrong. Well It's right, it's fine. You're not doing anyone any favors. And again that creates disunity in a local fellowship.

So what is our responsibility in verse 3? Being diligent to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Then it says read Philippians 2 1 through 4. What is the key to maintaining unity within?

The body of Christ, what is the key mark? Yeah, that's the approach that some people have I suppose. No, no, it says do nothing from selfish and or Excuse me as selfish ambition. Is that a different verse do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit?

But with humility of mind regard one another as more important than Yourself. So yeah put other people before yourself. You know be considerate of other people. That's that's where you get the breakdown when somebody has their own idea.

I'm gonna do what I'm gonna do and they just plow forward. Anyway, and they're not being considerate of others. Not to belabor this point, but a Dennis told me a story Of a church that was like ours Believed and had the same practice and somebody came in a new pastor with the Andy Stanley mindset that Doctrine and practice in this pastor imposed it on the church and it just tore the church apart.

And.

What's the problem. Well, not only is all that wrong or a lot of it's wrong. They're not being considerate of other people.

Right.

And I don't want to make it about like the the style of music but you know. That does matter to people. People do find it Important to them if the church isn't ready for something new. You know if you want a church to change you have to kind of guide people along.

That's what a shepherd does guides the sheep. Not just dictate. Hey, this is the way it's going to be. If you don't like it tough, I mean that that can't be the attitude of leadership in a church, but sometimes.

Sometimes it is so be considerate of one another. I try to be considerate of all of you and you've been considerate of me. I think I think we have unity here and I'm thankful for that. And like I've said before people who have been part of the church where there's disunity, I mean you can see the stark the stark contrast.

All right be fellowship with God and with other Believers. Scripture is clear that the believer enjoys fellowship with who number one God the Father. Number two God the Son. Number three the Holy Spirit and.

For other believers, however with whom is true fellowship not possible. Who can you not have fellowship with so you have fellowship with God. With Christ the Holy Spirit you have fellowship with the Trinity you a fellowship with People in the church other believers who can't you have fellowship with?

Buddhists unbelievers same thing, right? It's the same thing, right? You can't a fellowship with the world. People who don't believe in Jesus. They have a totally different Worldview, right? That's the term we use they look at things completely different.

You can almost guarantee. However, you approach something. However, you view something they're gonna think the opposite. And it goes pretty much straight down the line oftentimes. So why can't we have fellowship with the world?

Remember what the word fellowship means it means Communion. It means partake. Participation with others in a common purpose. What's the common purpose of the world right now or some of the purposes? Self okay.

You know me myself, you know, what can I get out of this, you know looking out for number one. Right. Yeah, that's that's the way the way of the world. Look out for number one. What's another purpose of the world right now?

Yeah, that seems to be a mainstream viewpoint that all religions you you can have your truth. Christianity but all of my truth, whatever my.

Faith is.

We can't have fellowship because We are not in communion with that. We have a different purpose. We have a different agenda. What's our agenda? Well the agenda is to be a part of the world. Of a Christian should be whatever God's will is like whatever God says in the Bible.

Here's. Here's the way I think. Right here. This is what I think. The world when the world considers what's in this book How did how do they react?

This is.

Terrible. This is judgmental. This is horrible. We need to do away with this. We need to tear down. But hey that I want to have the mind of Christ. However, that book thinks, you know, whatever God thinks that's what.

That's what I think. Or that's what I'm shooting for.

Anyways.

So you can't have fellowship with somebody who believes completely different and wants to see different things done and accomplished. Pretty basic, right? Or can we have fellowship with the world.

Yeah.

All right fellowship involves ministering to other believers, so this is C. Fellowship involves ministering to other believers. Fellowship within the body of Christ involves sharing in each other's lives.

According to each verse below. How should Christians minister to one another? Romans 14 verse 9 says we are building up The building up of one another so we want to build people up not tear them down.

Galatians 5 13 we want to serve one another Galatians chapter 6 verse 2 bear one another's burdens and thereby fulfill the law of Christ and James 5 16 confess your sins to one another and pray For one another.

Okay, so Are we doing this? Let's just go through these briefly. Are we building one another up? The word for this is edification. So if you are edifying somebody or if something is edifying it it's building them up.

The world.

Wants to tear down and then build whatever they want. But we need to build each other up, how do how do we do that? What does that look like practically speaking? What can you do to build someone else up?

Okay, yeah, yeah say well that doesn't sound like building them up well actually. In the sermon later love your neighbor as yourself. Who knows where that verse comes from? I'm trying to make a point here.

So Love-your-neighbor-as-yourself, where does that come from? Okay sermon on the Mount or people say well, yeah, Jesus said that in the Gospels. Yes, he did. But that originally comes from the book of Leviticus and we always talk about taking verses in context, right?

If you go back to the verse prior it says so love your neighbor as yourself. You know what the verse right before it says you shall surely rebuke your neighbor. It's like wait these two don't seem to go together but Mark's point is is well made.

Yeah, when somebody's wrong when somebody's doing something wrong and it's destructive to them or to other people. You're doing them a favor. You are showing love by admonishing them.

Right.

You get a little kid in school and he's just not doing his homework and he's just tearing the place apart. The teacher or the parent is doing the child a favor by Correcting them. So well, you know love is just letting him do whatever he wants.

No, it's not. So yeah, that's true. You can build someone up by correcting them now how you go about doing it, right? That's that's. That's where it can get a little more challenging. Building up of one another so when somebody does something right?

Praise them up, right? This is we call just encouraging people and somebody says something that hey, that's a good insight. Hey, that's it. That's a good point. Or even if you don't think it's that great of a point.

Hey, yeah, that was good. Just be encouraging if you see somebody trying if somebody's trying and they want to go in the right direction. Encourage that person. We need that.

And if we see That someone has a gift And they're a little hesitant on how they go about using that gift by just encouraging them and working with them to get them going. To use that gift is You know building them up.

Encouraging them because a lot of times some people are like well, I don't want to Step on anybody's toes or I don't want to right do this or that and but by encouraging them to to go for it when We see we can see that they clearly have this gift.

Yeah an ability. Yep.

Yes.

Yep, yep. Yep. Good.

Of.

Galatians 513 serve one another. We know what that looks like. If somebody needs help help them or they if they're mourning. Yeah, reach out to them. We know what that is. So it's just a matter of doing it.

Sometimes we get so busy and our own lives our own problems and we we neglect what other people are going through. So serve one another. And to your point about the gifts. God if we really believe this this is what the scripture teaches that every believer has a spiritual gift.

We're all supposed to be using that gift.

So.

And if you don't know what your gift is try a whole bunch of things and see what works. You know see because when you actually find your gift someone will recognize it and they'll encourage that and that's how you know.

Mark.

Well, yeah, that's kind of a lot that's the last resort right. I mean that would be excommunication when somebody is just not responsive to anything and They they're causing Division and they won't change.

Like we're talking about unity within the church. So when somebody is committed to just they're doing something wrong it's obvious they're doing something wrong and You try if somebody even tries to come to them gently, you know, leave me alone and they're just not listening.

Yeah at that's the end of the road where that has to happen, but The whole point is to avoid that and never let it get to that. That point I know somebody so that's terrible. How can you how can you say that?

Well every everybody does this everybody practices some sort of Discipline or excommunication. Schools do it, right? It's called suspension or Expulsion right, so This happens everywhere. So churches is no different, but it's about preserving unity.

Galatians 6 to bear one another's burdens. Linda mentioned something that would be bearing one another's burdens. James 5 16 confess your sins to one another. How are we doing on this one? I?

Think.

Evangelicals have this idea that confessing your sins to a man, you know, that's what that's what the Catholics do. They confess their sins to a priest and I don't need to confess my sins to any man. I'm just gonna confess to God.

Right, you've heard this before and you know, that might be your your thought. But why does doesn't the Bible say confess your sins to one another? Now if you confess your sins to Somebody else you're not going to them as if they're God to forgive you that that is part of the Catholic system.

It's as if the priest acts as The Lord and forgives you. What's the purpose though of us confessing our sins to other people?

Humility right I.

Say that's that's a big part of it. If not the biggest part of it just having that posture to be able to admit to Everyone else. Hey, I got that wrong. I'm sorry. You don't want a congregation full of people that never admit they're wrong.

Because then you're gonna run into the other issue Linda.

Right.

Yeah, I mean that that is for sure if you do someone wrong you absolutely should go to them and Apologize and admit you were wrong. No question about it but even just in general being able to public, you know, and I don't think that people should come into church and Openly just tell people all of the things that are going on that might not be edifying.

But we need to be Need to be humble. So yeah.

And also.

By.

Confessing our faults to one another. Let's say I See another guy that is going down the road where I have been. I Can go to him and say well listen, this is how it affected me when I did that and Encourage him build him up to not go down that same path, right?

Yeah.

Yeah, we all need accountability a lot of people don't want accountability but we all need Accountability, so confess your sins To one another and pray for one another. If you have a really good friend someone you are Very close to you talk to each other about this stuff.

You you tell the person. Oh, man, I really messed this up and there's that there's that interaction if you're just You know closed off and I'm never gonna admit that I did it. Yeah, that that's not gonna work.

Well. So what has God given to each Christian to help him or her minister to others within the church first Peter 4 10 and 11. The Lord gives a special gift or a Spiritual gift. There's a hand in the back.

Yes.

One thing when we approach each other that I find helps is that I apply a verse. I Think you'll recognize it. It says it Created me a clean heart of God and renew a right spirit within me. And if we approach another person with that Bible verse up front in our mind that will make the whole Encounter go much more smoothly, right?

Yeah, and just some advice if you ever do go to someone and talk to them About something that maybe they did something that offended you like we're talking about. Yeah be prepared have chapter and verse and Be specific with the thing that they're doing wrong.

Because if you're not really sure you just I think they did some I feel like they might have done. No, leave that alone. Let it go. But if you if you do go to someone to correct them, it has to be specific clearly.

Here's what you did and here's chapter and verse and I want to help you because like Larry said I see you going down this Road, I care about you. You can't just go up to someone and say well, you know I just feel like you're kind of being a Pharisee about this.

Well, what did I do? Well, I don't you know, it's just kind of the way you are. Chapter and verse. Well, you know, I don't have any specific. See you're just you're just Slandering the person at that point.

You're just running them down. So You need to be specific otherwise, it's not helpful. All right, any final? comments or questions about that. Remember, this is all to preserve unity. This is all to work together for unity if we have a church body where people Know each other and care about each other that we can actually do this and do it correctly.

It will strengthen the body of Christ the the tendency today is just hey Let's just sweep you grab the rug and I'll get the broom. We'll just sweep it under the rug. Or if you're not I didn't see that and it'll just ignore it and hope it goes away that that makes it worse.

Okay.

All right.

Section number four on worship.

Yes.

Just something in adding to the fellowship. Speaking of next Sunday fellowship dinner and that's a way. Getting together and commuting with one another. I Get it really encouraged and I I love it, you know getting together with the church family.

Once a month for a meal. Yeah, and you know and it's fun working together. You know setting up. Preparing and cleaning up and it's it's just fun. So don't forget to sign up. Okay.

Yeah, it's a fellowship meal, right. When you hear the word fellowship, what do you usually think of. Is that what you think of getting together and eating? But probably that's the way a lot of people would do.

Fellowship.

But but it is deeper than that. Remember we are to be of like mind and of like purpose.

So.

The fellowship is ultimately we have fellowship with one another because the same Holy Spirit That is within you is in within me and is within all the members and attendees of the church. Okay, so we have fellowship in God and with others.

The Meaning of Fellowship in the Body of Christ

Section number four. Worship. The English word worship Originally was spelled worth Ship, see. I didn't know that and this is something I learned that was new. Who knew that worth ship? Okay, Larry is the only one who knew so.

Good job, Larry.

Yeah.

I think that's really helpful. It means to acknowledge the worth of someone or something. We worship when we give honor to God for who he is. Worship acknowledges God's person nature. Attributes and works.

It stems from a grateful heart and renders adoration devotion and submission to God. Another thing that like when you hear the word fellowship you think of a potluck or a fellowship meal. That's what people think when people hear the word worship.

They think oh, yeah, that's when we sing the songs. Well, yes, but it's more than that the whole the whole thing is worship gathering together singing praying corporate Reciting of the Lord's Prayer or Responsive reading this sermon communion.

It's all worship. And why are we worshiping God? Because he is Worthy. God is worthy of all of our praise. God seeks a God seeks genuine worshipers. Read John 4 23 and 24 Says how are we to worship God verse 24?

In spirit and in truth. If we are to worship God in truth, not error. We must seek to know him by learning about his attributes and actions. This is why we need the unity because we all need to agree on who God is and who Christ is and what he did.

You can't really worship a God that you don't know or you can't worship a God that You have completely wrong beliefs about. So God is worthy. We should Worship him in the truth. What would be an example of not worshiping him in truth?

Okay, I was doing a Bible study on the radio this past Wednesday where a Bimelech was made king at a worship site created or established by Joshua. So there was probably a pillar there Unto Jehovah God, but then there was also imagery and Israel did this throughout their history.

They would take the worship of Jehovah and then they'd have a An idol of Baal right next to it or we're gonna worship God and Solomon brought the idols into the temple. Well, that's not worshiping God in truth because yeah, you have some truth there with Jehovah and what you know about him.

But then you're bringing in the Asherah pole and the idols. What does God say? That he's to be worshiped.

But.

Yeah, I mean the first commandment is you shall have no other gods before me so that's an example of worship and it really was worship, but it wasn't in truth and.

Having there's.

Plenty of examples we could go through where yes, there is corporate worship. You can look at it. Yes, this seems like the worship of God, but the truth is not there. We worship God be we worship God because only he is worthy of our highest devotion.

So that means that God is at the top, right? The NFL is below God. I know it's both on Sunday and some people get that confused but you know, God's first he really is. I'm just correcting people in love.

That's all this is. Read Revelation 4 10 and 11 and answer the following questions. What is God worthy to receive? Glory honor and power. Why? Because God created all things. And there's plenty of other reasons, but that's the big one.

He is the creator. Everything comes from him. So God is worthy. Does anyone think God isn't worthy? So you would know nobody here would think that why because we have unity. Out there if you went door-to-door through Leverett and got people's opinions.

Do you think God is worthy of all? Glory honor and power. What do you think the residents of Leverett would say? No, some of them would say yes, but some of them would say no get out of here. No, he's not.

But that that's unity that we don't have with unbelievers. See worshiping God involves praise. How did the psalmist say that God should be worshipped. Psalm 66 verse 4 Says and all the earth will worship you and will sing praises to you and they will sing praises to your name.

Worshipping God involves reverence. So he's worthy of our highest devotion. Involves praise and God his worship involves reverence. What did Moses do when he worshipped God Exodus? 34 verse 8 What did Moses do.

He bowed Low toward the earth. He did something else. Do you remember what it was? Yeah, he took off the sandals. I just want to park it on this subject for a little while. I think That could be it might create disunity though.

How.

This is one of the things that I I think evangelicalism it has wrong. You know, I talked about that fair is fair. I'll talk about the Mormons and Catholics and all these other groups. I think it is only fair to say that.

Evangelicals.

Broadly speaking. Really have a problem with showing reverence towards God. I don't see a lot of reverence within mainstream evangelical Christianity.

I.

Think Catholics. Actually, I don't know. Maybe this isn't a smart thing to say. I think Catholics are far better at showing. At least on the surface. They are far better at showing reverence than evangelicals are.

Yes.

I.

Think just the when we are together as a body we show Reverence the same way we would show reverence towards towards a person. The way we talk to them. Would be. You know, God isn't our buddy. So when we pray to God You know, you should talk to him like he's the creator of all things.

So in how we pray the sermons. Much of the evangelical preaching these days is self-help motivational speaking. It's a man centered message and that is not showing reverence to God.

You know.

How people. Just do worship in general. I think there's something to be said about a church being beautiful. Why do we have stained-glass. It's to reflect the beauty of God's creation. Why do we have beautiful sounding music?

I mean the hymns are just beautiful Beautiful music. And some of the classical music written throughout history is Beautiful music. And stay, you know, I like an electric guitar as much as the next person.

You know, wow, but I mean it's not exactly worship.

I.