The True Meaning of Fellowship — Zac Poonen

In 1980 and 81, we were building our first building on Wheeler Road Extension in Dacosta Square. And those days we were known as Christian Fellowship Center and we had the name on the front. And while I was watching that construction, somebody who lived in that area said, what is this building for?

I said, see the name there. It's for Christians and it is for them to have fellowship. And this is a center where they come together for that. Now the question I've had through the years is, is that only a name, Christian Fellowship Church, or do all of you who want to be a part of CFC forgotten what the F in CFC stands for?

Fellowship With God Beyond a Church Name

It's fellowship. In the world they talk about evil as an F word. For us it is fellowship. And if you don't have fellowship, it's an empty word to say I belong to CFC. Do you know if you read through the whole Old Testament, the word fellowship never comes even once in terms of fellowship with God, not even once.

Because there was no fellowship possible in the Old Testament. Friendship, yes, you read about friends. In Proverbs you read about a friend that sticks closer than a brother. Friendship is a worldly thing.

There are many worldly people who are friends. Jonathan and David were such good friends. But fellowship is an altogether different thing. Jonathan was even willing to give up his position as king and never wanted to harm David.

It's amazing. Jesus said there's no greater love that a man can have than he lay down his life for his friends. People are willing to lay down their lives for their friends. And in the military particularly, there are many cases of people who have risked their life to save others.

It's a tremendous sacrifice for friendship. But fellowship is an altogether different level. Friendship is a human thing. Fellowship is divine, is godly. And in the Old Testament, they could not rise to the level of a godly life.

The New Covenant and Salvation From Sin

And that is why in our church from the beginning, we have emphasized the New Covenant. The Old Covenant was established by Moses with Israel. And Jesus, when he died and rose again, established a New Covenant which was sealed on the day of Pentecost with the sealing of the Holy Spirit.

And there are many, many aspects of this New Covenant. It's a new agreement that God has made with man. And we have spoken about it so many times in this church. It's not enough to know about it intellectually, but we must know about it and experience in our life.

For example, one of the most prominent things that we have spoken about in relation to the New Covenant is the ability God gives us to overcome sin in our life. And we have spoken so much about that in these last 42 years.

In the Old Covenant, they only had forgiveness of sins. I want to make this so clear, for many here are new and you haven't heard these things in other churches. They had forgiveness of sins. Psalm 103, verse 3 says, Bless the Lord who forgives all your sins.

David said that 1 ,000 years before Christ. He was looking forward to the coming of Christ. But he could not say, Bless the Lord who saves me from my sin. No, he couldn't be saved from even adultery. And murdering Bathsheba's poor husband.

He couldn't be saved. But he repented and he was forgiven. You read Psalm 51, what a tremendous prayer of repentance it was. Bless the Lord who forgives all your sins, but he can't save you from your sin.

But in the New Covenant, the very first promise, as soon as you open Matthew's Gospel, Chapter 1, verse 21, You shall call his name Jesus. Because he won't forgive people's sins, he will save them from their sins.

There's a lot of difference between being forgiven of your anger and being saved from your anger. A lot of difference between being forgiven of your lustful thinking and saved from your lustful thinking.

You know the difference. Many people live in this endless cycle of repentance, forgiveness, repentance, forgiveness. Repentance is an Old Testament message. All the prophets preached repentance. And the greatest prophet, John the Baptist of the Old Covenant preached repentance.

And forgiveness is an Old Covenant message. But salvation is not an Old Covenant message. The Old Covenant, they were only saved from their enemies, from their Moabites and the Egyptians and the Syrians who attacked them.

They were not saved from sin. But in the New Covenant, we don't have earthly enemies. We only have spiritual enemies in the devil, in the flesh, the lust of the flesh. And salvation is from sin. If Jesus only forgives us, he's not our saviour, he's our forgiver.

When he saves us, we can call him our saviour. And we are saved from sin and finally saved from hell and separation from God. So that's one aspect of the New Covenant message. The other is, as we read in Hebrews 8, that under the law, people tried and tried to keep God's commandments.

The Old Testament law in the Ten Commandments was Thou shalt, thou shalt not, thou shalt, thou shalt not. Or in modern English, you shall, you shall not. You shall not take the Lord's name in vain. You shall not worship idols.

You shall keep the Sabbath day holy. You shall honour your father and mother. You shall not commit murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not bear false witness. You shall not covet your neighbour's wife, etc.

But in the New Covenant in Hebrews 8, verse 11, God says, I will write my law in your heart. I will put it in your mind. I will forgive your sin. I will not remember it anymore. And I will be a father to you.

And you will be my sons and daughters. It is God doing it. In the Old Covenant, it was man's response. You shall, you shall, you shall. And they tried for 1500 years under the law. And everyone failed.

Why did God give the law? To teach man, you can never in your entire life come up to my standard by your struggle. The amazing thing is, people haven't learned it even today. So the Lord poured out the Holy Spirit on all those 120 people in the first church.

That was the first church, 120 people praying. And they had spent their lives struggling, struggling, struggling. And they failed. And then they were filled with the Holy Spirit. And they suddenly found they had a power to do this.

It's the difference between pushing a car and getting inside and driving the car. It's a lot of difference. It's another picture of the Old and New Covenant. Old Covenant is push, push, push the car. And sometimes with the brakes on, it's quite a job.

But getting inside and driving the car, it's some other power that's moving you from one place to another. These are pictures, but they are very accurate pictures of life without the Holy Spirit's power and with the Holy Spirit's power.

And I know in my own life, I was born again 58 years ago, but for the first 16 years, I did not know how to overcome sin. I knew how to be forgiven. I did not know how to overcome discouragement. I did not know fellowship.

I had friendship, but I never knew fellowship. So I may have spoken and sung about fellowship, but I didn't know anything about it. Until God filled me with the Holy Spirit. Just like on the day of Pentecost.

He is just the same today. The God who lived in the time of Peter, James, John and Paul is just the same today. And what He did for them, He'll do for us. And the amazing thing is, the Bible teaches that what God the Father did for Jesus, He will do for us because of that wonderful promise in John 17, 23, that He loves us as much as He loves Jesus, if we are His disciples.

Wholehearted Surrender to Christ

You can't claim that promise and say, Lord, do everything for me that you did for Jesus, if you're not wholehearted like Jesus was. There's a condition. Jesus said in John 17, 10, All that I have, Father, is yours, and so all that you have is mine.

Remember that. All that I have is yours, Father, and so all that you have is mine. Then it goes to verse 23, The Father loves us as He loved Jesus. Many people have tried to claim that promise and it doesn't seem to work.

They get worried in times of difficulty, even though the Father cares for us as He cared for Jesus. It's because they have not gone through John 17, 10. They haven't said to the Lord, All that I have is yours, and so all that you have is mine.

It's a wonderful exchange. I've often used the example of a beggar woman sitting with her tin can. An ugly beggar woman sitting with a tin can with probably one rupee or two rupees coins inside it. That's a picture of me as a sinner.

And then this handsome, rich prince comes driving by in a Mercedes Benz and gets out and says, I'd like to marry you to this ugly beggar woman. That's Jesus Christ coming and inviting me to be married to Him.

But there's a condition. I'll give you all my millions of rupees, but you've got to give me everything you have too. And this beggar woman looks at her two rupees inside her tin can and says, I want to pray about it.

Can you imagine anything more stupid? That is exactly like many Christians who hesitate to give their all to the Lord. Exactly. I cannot think of a more perfect picture. They keep praying. Should I give everything to the Lord or not?

Should I say, Lord, you plan my future, I give up my ambitions, I'll give up. What is your two rupees? Your ambitions for the future? Your plans for the future? All the things you can do for the Lord?

You think you can do for the Lord? Two rupees. And the Lord is willing to give you His billions and saying to the beggar woman, let's have a joint account. I'll put my billions and you put your two rupees and you can draw as much as you want, I can draw as much as you want.

Say, I want to pray about it. I want to see if there's any, I'm being cheated in this process. I want to tell you, every one of you sitting here, this, if that is your attitude, that is the main reason why you grumble, why you complain, why you cannot give thanks in everything, why you do not rejoice always, why you're anxious and why you cannot overcome sin and why you're not filled with the Holy Spirit or you don't have, or you maybe once you were filled with the Spirit but you're not continuously filled with the Spirit.

And that's the reason for all the tension in your home. And I would even say, that's the reason for your perpetual, being perpetually in debt and for all your unusual financial struggles. It's one thing.

You have not said to the Lord, all that I have is yours. John 17 .10. And so the Lord has not said to you, all that I have is yours. You give 10 to God, God says, I'll give you 10 too. You may not even get 10%.

I don't want 10 from God, I'll tell you. I don't want a marriage where my wife is 10 mine and 90 somebody else's. And Jesus does not want a marriage where you are 10 his and 90 your own ambitions in the world and so many other things.

And so I want to say to you, my dear brothers and sisters, I'm trying to show you not the highest form of Christian life. No, no, no, no. The only form of Christian life. There is no highest Christian life, which you can choose if you want and there's another option to choose a second class, like in a train.

You don't go first class, you go to second class. No, there's no such thing. In the Christian life, there is only one. And that is not God's highest, that is God's normal. The normal Christian life is where a Christian comes to the Lord and says, Lord, all that I have is yours.

That is the normal marriage. You think that's very demanding? Supposing before a marriage, this bridegroom asks the bride, I want to know one thing. Are you going to be 100 mine? Or I know you've had boyfriends in the past.

You know, all of us, spiritually speaking, we didn't follow Jesus in the past life. That is, we had old boyfriends. That is, our worldly attitudes were our boyfriends. Our love of money was a boyfriend.

Our craze after sex was a boyfriend. And all the other things in our life were all our boyfriends. Our anger and our bitterness. And the Lord says, I know you've had boyfriends in the past. Are you willing to give up all of that and be entirely mine?

Every day of the year, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, are you going to be mine? And if that wife says, Well, I want to think about it. You say, let's postpone the marriage. Till you decide. Being born again is being married to Christ.

And exactly the same demand you expect from your wife, or you sisters expect from your husband. The Lord is not expecting anything more, less or more than that from you. Would you like your wife to go fool around with some other man?

One day in a year? Or one hour in a year? The Lord also doesn't want us to fool around with sin, even for one hour in a year. Oh, you see, that's a very high standard. Well, then you're making a very high standard for your husband and your wife.

Why don't you allow her to go fool around with one man for, one woman for one day, one hour in a year? It's not too much, is it? You see, we expect so much from, the Bible says, Christ is the head of man and man is the head of the wife.

But you expect total devotion from your wife, but Christ expects total devotion from you. See, that is human nature as such. I want others to do their part to me, but I don't want to do my part to Christ.

Now, the reason I'm saying that is, I believe that many of you have a very unsatisfactory Christian experience. If you're honest, you have to admit, you don't have a type of Christian experience that the New Testament speaks about.

Always in triumph, free from anxiety and rejoicing and being able to love those who hate you and bless those who curse you and forgive everybody and never murmur or complain. Most of you don't have that.

And the reason is, you have not said to the Lord, all that I have is yours. Your life will be completely changed and you'll suddenly rise up to a far higher level and your struggle with sin also will become very much less.

I'm not saying there won't be a struggle with sin. Jesus prayed with loud crying and tears, but he was like in the PhD class struggling with a subject, whereas most of us are in the kindergarten struggling with mathematics at an altogether different level.

There is a struggle with mathematics at every stage. You struggle with maths in the first standard, second standard, and all the way to PhD as well and beyond. So Jesus also struggled with sin, but he wasn't struggling all the time with anger and sexual lust.

No, no, no, don't misunderstand it. You get past it. You get past it till those things don't pull you anymore. You can come to a life where you never get offended, you never get angry, you never lust after women.

What a life that is. And little by little, it's like saying you go from second standard to third standard, you've learnt addition. But the kindergarten student says, oh boy, addition is so tough. But how is it it's not tough for you?

It's exactly what some people say, oh brother, overcoming anger is so tough, but there are people who can say, it's not, not for me, it's over. It's because the person who pursues education with a passion learns these things.

A casual person who goes to school just for fun does not learn addition, even after many years. So, if we really seek God wholeheartedly, you can come to a very satisfying Christian life and a very satisfying Christian marriage.

And in that atmosphere, you can bring up your children in a really godly way. And you can be a very effective, useful member of this church, even if you don't know how to preach one sentence. Preaching is not the main thing in this church.

That is a gift God has given to a few. It's a gift. And the Bible says, he does not give the same gift to everybody. Just like different members of the body have different functions. But you will have some function if you integrate into the body and become one with it.

It's very, very important. When we talk of becoming a member of this church, it begins not with friendship. It begins vertically with fellowship with the Father. You know, there is a great significance in the two arms of the cross.

Fellowship With the Father and With One Another

Vertical speaks of our fellowship with the Father. Horizontal speaks of our fellowship with one another. Both are necessary. There is no single stick cross. You can't have a cross with just one vertical bar or one horizontal bar.

It needs both. And that's symbolic, that there must be a fellowship with the Father and with one another for true Christianity. That's why we call ourselves Christian Fellowship Church. Fellowship with the Father and with one another.

And the other thing to remember is the vertical arm of the cross is always bigger than the horizontal arm. Teaching us that fellowship with God is much more important than fellowship with one another.

One comes out of the other. The first commandment is not love your neighbor as yourself. The first commandment is love God with all your heart, with all your strength, all your mind. That means my whole life must be passionate in loving Jesus Christ.

If you don't begin there, you can't have a cross. No. So it's not, the reason why fellowship with your wife or husband or with other believers breaks down is not because of that other person. As you always say, oh he's a difficult person, my wife is a difficult person, my husband is a difficult person.

Those are all silly excuses you make because your vertical bar is not right. Your relationship with Jesus Christ is not what it should be. That's the reason for all fellowship horizontally problems. So if you turn with me to 1 John in chapter 1, I always look at John's letter.

Turn with me to 1 John in chapter 1. There are people who studied history who say that John wrote his letter after he wrote Revelation. It's quite likely. In which case, 1 John may be the last of the 66 books written of the Bible.

But I can imagine that because he saw the condition of the churches around him and we see the condition of 7 of those churches in Revelation 2 and 3. 5 of them were so terribly backslidden, planted by the apostles.

In 60 years, 60 or 70 years, 60 years. They had gone from the faith and love that they started with. Even Ephesus. Ephesus was such a wonderful church. You read that in Ephesians. But you read in the second letter to the Ephesians which is Revelation chapter 2.

You find that they're backslidden so badly that the Lord says, I'm going to go away from this church. I'm going to remove the lampstand. Means I'm not going to be in your midst anymore. You 500 people will still have your meetings and your songs and all but Jesus won't be there.

It was so bad. Just about 30 years after Paul left Ephesus or 35 years. It had backslidden so badly. And the church in Sardis only had a name. The leader. Even the leader. He had a name that he was alive.

Maybe he was a great preacher. But his life did not correspond to his word. And Laodicea was so bad that the Lord said, I'll spit you out of my mouth and told that church, I'm standing at the door. Can you imagine a church where Jesus is outside the door and saying, can I please come in?

And they were singing songs to Jesus inside the church. That's just like the Pharisees who crucified God outside Jerusalem and then went into the temple of Jerusalem to worship God. Can you imagine something so stupid?

They had already killed the Son of God outside and then they go into the temple to worship the same Jesus. A lot of Christians are like that. Laodicea was like that. Jesus was outside the door saying, I stand at the door and knock and inside the church they're singing songs and it happens to a lot of Christians.

They pray and Jesus is not in their heart. He's not in their life. He's not in their home. And so John saw all this and that must have been the condition. He's written about seven churches in Revelation.

That must have been the condition of many churches because the apostles planted many, many churches and many of them had come to that terrible state by then. And so he's writing with a burden in his heart from the Holy Spirit to sort out this situation in the churches.

And what does he say? Please turn to 1 John chapter 1. He says, what we want to speak to you about is fellowship. That which was from the beginning. What was that? The word of life. The life, verse 2, was manifested.

An eternal life which is the life of God which is from the beginning when nothing else existed. You know, John always goes back to the beginning. Even in his gospel he says, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God.

The word was God. He goes back beyond Genesis chapter 1 to the real beginning. And here also he says, in 1 John 1 about the beginning, John was really burdened to bring Christians into that life which was there from the beginning.

Eternal life. Not a religious life. You see, a lot of Christians have a religious life. It's not that eternal life which God had right from the beginning. In that eternal life there was perfect purity, there was perfect love and there was perfect fellowship between Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

You know, there are people who say we have three gods. No, we don't have three gods. We have one God in three persons. See, God had to be more than one person. I'll tell you why. God had to be more than one person right at the beginning.

Because God is love. And you cannot love unless there is one other person. Minimum. If you are only one person, there is no such thing as love. You just love yourself. And there is no such thing as fellowship if you are only one person.

So that is why every religion that talks about one God with no persons is a false religion. That cannot be the true God. God is love. And so it says, that which was from the beginning which we have heard, he's talking about Jesus, we heard this life speaking to us in a human form.

We saw with our eyes how he lived. And we've looked and we've touched that life. Not just touched his body, we touched a life when we touched Jesus. And that is the life that was manifested on earth. We have seen it.

And we testify to that. We are witnesses about that life. We are not witnesses about a doctrine saying you must be baptized in water, sisters must cover their heads, the tribulation comes before the rapture.

No, no, no, no. It's all doctrines. I appreciate all of them. But it's a life that we testify to. That eternal life, verse 2, which is with the Father and which is manifested to us in the person of Jesus Christ.

That was the first body of Christ. And the church is called the body of Christ because it is supposed to manifest the same life that was manifested in Jesus. So that people who come in touch with you and me should be able to say we've also heard something different from all the other people in the world.

We've seen and looked and touched another type of life. Not just they heard a doctrine from your mouth, but they've seen, there's a man we've seen who's always calm, who's not in a panic at any time. There's a woman I've seen who's never complaining or grumbling.

There's a man and woman I've seen in my life who seem to be so heavenly. Not like these sannyasis and monks who lock themselves up in a monastery always and never talk to anybody and say we are talking to God.

That is a vertical bar without a horizontal one and that vertical bar is fake. Jesus was not a monk. He never expected any of his children to be monks and nuns locking themselves up in monasteries and convents.

No, we had to mingle with others. Otherwise how do you manifest that life? If you lock yourself up in a room and say I fellowship only with one or two people who will agree with me. No, you've got to live in the midst of wicked people and manifest that life.

The light is needed in darkness. You don't need the torch in sunlight. You need the torch where there's darkness. The world is full of darkness and that's where the Lord has told us to be the light. This is our calling, brothers and sisters.

Not just to tell people I'm a Christian and to give out tracts and books. No, but to manifest a life. And John writes this because he says those churches, if they had concentrated on that they would not have ended up as such backslidden churches and those Christians would not have ended as backsliders if they had always concentrated on that life.

And he says we have seen that and we have heard it, verse 3 and we proclaim that life to you, not a doctrine. And the purpose is by proclaiming this life you can have fellowship see that wonderful word which never comes in the Old Testament with us.

And we can have fellowship with the Father and through His Son, Jesus Christ and with His Son, Jesus Christ and that is why we call ourselves Christian Fellowship Church. The church is the body of Christ which manifests that life.

In other words we are seeking to manifest a fellowship with the Father and a fellowship with one another which is more than friendship which is more than religion. Very different. But it's easy to have a name Christian Fellowship Church.

Sounds wonderful. But to manifest it so that we are not actors, hypocrites claiming ourselves to be Christian Fellowship and our standard is just like that of other human beings. That's wrong. Let me show you a verse in 1 Corinthians where the Holy Spirit rebukes the Corinthians.

Christian Fellowship Requires Spiritual Unity

You know for what? 1 Corinthians 3, verse 3. Listen carefully. 1 Corinthians 3, verse 3. You are still fleshly because there is jealousy and strife. Strife means you argue and quarrel with each other.

Is there jealousy? Anybody here jealous of somebody else? Anybody here? Please examine yourself. Don't examine other people. Are you jealous of anybody else in this church for any reason? Jealousy usually comes because you feel he is more gifted than you or he is more blessed than you or he's got more money than you or his children are better than yours or his wife is prettier than yours or some stupid reason like that.

Jealousy and strife.

Strife need not be fighting and hitting each other. It's pure quarreling. Quarreling with others. You know all our quarrels are about earthly things. What do you quarrel with your husband and wife for?

It's usually in some earthly thing which is going to disappear when the Lord comes. What do you quarrel with porters in the railway station about or auto rickshaw drivers? It's always some earthly thing.

Or with neighbours. Always some earthly thing. And he says that proves you are fleshly and says you are just walking like ordinary men. Ordinary human beings. And you say is it a crime to behave like an ordinary human being?

Absolutely. Aren't you walking like ordinary men? If you call yourself a born again Christian it is a crime to behave like ordinary human beings. An absolute crime. That's why I wanted you to see that verse.

Because you are claiming to have fellowship with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. And it's not true. You are not manifesting that eternal life which is with the Father. From all eternity before any angels or any universe was created there was Father, Son and Holy Spirit having wonderful fellowship with each other.

Loving each other. This is the God we worship. One God. How to explain that with our mind we cannot understand. Just like a dog cannot understand geometry I am not surprised if I can't understand the Trinity.

If the dog can't understand geometry I can't understand Trinity. That's not surprising. I can understand geometry but I can't understand Trinity. Because that's above me and much more above me than I am above a dog.

So I don't try to explain the Trinity. I believe it. So I say it is wrong for us to live on earth like other human beings if you are a Christian. Then you must say I am not born again. I am just pretending to be a Christian.

I am just like anybody else. And what is it that makes the difference? It's the Holy Spirit. I have to say my life was completely changed when God filled me with the Holy Spirit. But I had a hunger and a thirst and a longing for it for many years and I prayed and cried and longed for it because I wanted it more than anything else on earth.

And I'll tell you something, those of you who are not sure or don't experience this wonderful life, spiritual life. The day you want it more than anything else on earth God will lead you into it. You shall seek me, God says, and find me when you search for me with all your heart.

I'm sorry that is the price. You say it's too expensive. You can't get it. Forgiveness of sins, that's free. Come and take it. It's like a lot of things kept on the table. Take it, take it. Everything is free.

But fullness of the Spirit and living in the fullness and anointing of the Spirit, there's a price for it. And the price is not money. It just means you have to give everything. It's like saying, I cannot occupy your whole house unless you give me the key to every door.

Isn't that a reasonable request? The Holy Spirit is saying, you want me to come and fill your life? I cannot come and fill your life if you don't give me the key to every door or you don't open doors of certain rooms.

I'm sorry, I can't come in. So think about that. So I want to encourage you this today to value fellowship. Fellowship with God. Pursue it and say, Lord, I don't want it to be just a word. I don't want CFC to be a slogan.

I want that middle F fellowship to be real in my life. Not any type of, not earthly fellowship, Christian fellowship. I want to be part of a Christian fellowship church. I want to live in Christian fellowship with God and with my fellow believers.

And he says, our fellowship, verse 3, is with the Father and the Son, Jesus Christ, and I want you to have fellowship with us. John was such a great apostle. He probably lived an overcoming life for 60 years, and he's telling these ordinary believers, you can have fellowship with me.

You may be born again yesterday. I've been born again 65 years ago, John says, but we can have fellowship as equals. Because we are both children of God. John did not feel I'm superior to you. You know, even when he writes Revelation, see how he addresses him in Revelation chapter 1.

I like this. Revelation 1 verse 9. I, John, your brother. He was an apostle, but that was function. But in relationship, he was a brother. It's like you may be an engineer, or a nurse, or a teacher, or a doctor, but that's not what you when you're seeking fellowship in the church, you don't say, I'm a nurse, or an engineer.

No, no, no, no. I'm a brother. I'm a sister. So apostle, prophet, that is function. Like engineer, doctor, it's a job. It's a job in the church, like that is a job in the world. So all these people who call themselves apostle, and pastor, and prophet, they don't have a clue of what it means.

It's not a title. Reverend, right reverend, bishop, metropolitan, pope. What about John, your brother? Learn from him, this great apostle who had walked with God for 65 years. I, John, your brother. The reason why Paul called himself an apostle in his letters was because he was not one of the original twelve apostles.

And so he had to convince people that Jesus had made him an apostle from heaven. That's the only reason why he says Peter, an apostle. So that people know who he was. Today we recognize it, but in the first century they would not.

They would say, you're not one of the twelve. He says, I'm not, but Jesus appointed me. That's why he calls himself an apostle. Otherwise, all these people, they wanted to be known as brothers. Their function was apostle, but they were brothers.

There is no brother in CFC who is superior to another. There may be one who is more spiritual, there may be those who are more gifted and different functions, but we are all brothers and sisters in Christ.

We never choose any title other than that. So John says, I want you to fellowship with us. We fellowship as equals under the headship of Jesus Christ. Just like in this body, every member is equally important.

There are visible members, there are invisible members like the heart, liver, kidney, all are important. In a Christian fellowship church, there are some who are very visible, like me and some of the elders here, more visible because we come up to the pulpit.

That's because that's our gift. It is not because we are superior to any of you. I honestly say, I do not consider myself superior to a single person sitting here, not even to someone born again yesterday.

You are a sinner saved by grace. I am a sinner saved by grace. And when we get to the throne of God, the only thing that will give us entry into heaven is recognizing that we are sinners saved by grace.