Well it's great to be here today. Last time I was here was I believe the first
service ever and it's good to see some of the same people that I saw that day
and I also really appreciate people who've driven from very far away. I know
some people drove from as far as five hours away and so thanks so much for
being here this morning and the title of the sermon this morning is continuing in
fellowship, continuing in fellowship. Look down at your Bible there in Malachi
chapter 3 verse 16. The Bible reads then they that feared the Lord spake often
one to another and the Lord hearkened and heard it and a book of remembrance
was written before them for him, excuse me, before him for them that feared the
Lord and that thought upon his name. The Bible says that those that feared the
Lord spake often one to another. They talk to each other a lot is what the
Bible is saying. Now go to Acts chapter 2 where I get the title for my sermon. Acts
chapter 2 verse 42. The title of the sermon is continuing in fellowship. The
importance of us as Christians getting together and talking with other
Christians, spending time with other Christians, having fellowship together.
The Bible says in Acts chapter 2 verse 42 and they continued steadfastly in the
Apostles doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers. Now
what I see in this one verse is basically a well-rounded program and
well-rounded people. Okay if you think about it we are made up of body and soul
and spirit. We've got the mind, we've got the body, we've got the soul, we've got
the spirit and if you think about it the Bible says they continue steadfastly in
the Apostles doctrine. You know that has to do with the mind, right, because
doctrine literally means teaching. So the doctrine that they're continuing in are
the principles from the Word of God that they're being taught. So they're mentally
learning things. They're learning doctrine. They're learning the Bible.
They're continuing in the doctrine but they're also continuing in the
fellowship and the breaking of bread and that has to do with our need as human
beings to spend time with other people. This feeds our soul. You know we've got
the body, we've got the soul and we've got the spirit and I think one of the
best ways to explain this is that our body is that which interacts with the
physical world around us, right. Our body interacts with physical things. We eat
food and we can see, smell, hear, touch. That's our body, right, and that obviously
includes our brain, you know, which is a physical brain inside of our head
processing information. Then the soul is that which interacts with our fellow man
and then the spirit is that which interacts with God, okay. So these are
kind of the three basic parts of a human being. So we've got them continuing
steadfastly in the Apostles doctrine. That's feeding their mind and fellowship
and in breaking of bread. That's feeding their soul and then it says that they
also continued in prayers and that's their interaction with God, their
communication with the Lord through prayer. So we got body, soul and spirit.
We've got a well-rounded program. Now when we think of fellowship or breaking
bread, you know, having a meal together, spending time together, one of the words
that would come to mind is friendship, right. Having friends when we talk about
our soul's need to interact with other people. We have a need for friends and
friendship. Well what did the Bible say about friends or friendship? Well believe
it or not, the word friend or friendly or friendship is used in the Bible a
hundred and seven times. So it's a pretty big subject in the Bible. There's a lot
to say about friends. Now let's look at some of those scriptures this morning. Go
to Proverbs chapter 17. Proverbs chapter 17, the title of the sermon is continuing
in fellowship. Hey it's great that you're continuing in the doctrine. I'm so glad
that you're continuing to believe the things that you've been taught from the
Word of God, but are you continuing in fellowship? If not, then you're out of
balance. Just sitting at home, maybe listening to a sermon, that's great for
the doctrine, but how are you doing on fellowship, right? You need friends. You
need people that you can sit across the table with and eat a meal with, spend
time with, talk with, interact with. Friends are important. Look at Proverbs
17 verse 17. A friend loveth at all times and a brother is born for adversity.
Flip over to chapter 18 of Proverbs. Chapter 18 verse 24, the Bible reads, a
man that hath friends must show himself friendly, and there is a friend that
sticketh closer than a brother. So the Bible said a friend loveth at all times
and a brother is born for adversity, meaning that when you go through hard
times, you're gonna need to have friends to lean on. You're gonna need to have
friends there to encourage you. Those people are there for you in times of
adversity, right? Bad times. And sometimes your friend will even stick closer to
you than your brother, even than your physical family. Sometimes your physical
family might be far away or maybe they're just not there for you, for
whatever reason. Maybe you're not close with them. The Bible says there's a
friend that sticketh closer than a brother, and it says in verse 24 there, a
man that hath friends must show himself friendly. What does that mean? We need to
put forth some effort in our lives to make friends. We can't just sit and wait
for the friendships to come to us, right? We got to show ourselves friendly, right?
We've got to be a friend and do things for other people, reach out to other
people, and extend to them the right hand of fellowship, because a man that hath
friends must show himself friendly, all right? So we need to put forth effort in
our lives to make friendships. And you say, well, I don't think it matters.
What's the big deal? You know, what do we need friends for? What do we need
fellowship for? Well, it's important. It's something that we need as human
beings. It's good for our soul. It's good for our Christian walk. And one person
alone is not going to stand. The Bible tells us that two people or three people
will be able to stand where one will fail, okay? And this is part of the reason
why church is so important. It's a place for fellowship. It's a place for
friendships to be made. Go to Proverbs 27. It's a few pages to the right there.
Proverbs chapter 27 verse 5. The Bible reads, open rebuke is better than secret
love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.
You know, one of the reasons why we need friends, and there are a lot of reasons
why we need friends, is that friends will actually straighten us out when we're
wrong. If you're not very close to people, if you don't know people very
well, they're not gonna feel comfortable telling you when you're doing wrong. But
someone that you're closer to, someone that's a close friend, they'll usually
feel a little more comfortable to say to you, hey, what are you doing? You know, what
do you do? You know, why are you getting out of church? Or why do you have this
sin in your life? You know, they're able to confront you when you need to be
confronted. The Bible says faithful are the wounds of a friend. You know how
somebody sometimes might have something on their face or something, and nobody
wants to tell them? Or they're, you know, or they're flies unzipped or whatever.
You know, something's wrong and nobody wants to say anything, right? And who is
it that's finally gonna say something to that person? Their friend. It's gonna take
them aside and say, hey, you know, I think you might need to go in the bathroom and
and get that off your face, or straighten up your hair, or whatever. Whatever's
wrong with you, your friend will tell you what's wrong with you. You know, I know
this, that if I hear a preacher and he preaches something that's wrong, you know,
I'm not necessarily just gonna pick up the phone and call that preacher and
tell him, hey, let me tell you about a mistake you made, or let me tell you
where you're wrong. I wouldn't feel comfortable doing that, just calling up
some other preacher and, and, you know, I don't really have the right to do that,
or I don't really know him that well. But I'll tell you something, my close friends,
if I heard them preach something that was off, I would pick up the phone and
call them and say, hey, listen, I heard you preach this sermon. You've made a
mistake. Let me, let me show you what the Bible says. I'd feel more comfortable
doing that. That's why we need friends in our life. Now, here's what I've noticed
through the years. People who don't go to church, they often get into really
radical doctrine, or false doctrine, or weird doctrine, because they don't have
that moderating influence of the fellowship in the local church. See, when
you get around people from church, and you talk, and let's say you get a goofy
idea about something in the Bible, your buddies at church are gonna tell you, no,
that isn't true, that isn't right. Church tends to have a moderating influence on
people, where when people get crazy ideas, or wacky doctrines, the people at church
will kind of normalize them a little bit, and say, no, no, no, no, and they kind of
balance them out, and they can actually talk them off the ledge of some weird
doctrine. But people who are just on the Internet, here's the problem. You can find
people on the Internet who believe anything, anything, like the most obscure,
crazy, wild belief. It's out there, okay? So what you can do is you can surround
yourself with people on the Internet who just believe every weird thing that you
believe, okay? Whereas if you went to a, you're not gonna find a physical church
full of people like that. You got to go to the Internet for that kind of crazy,
you know, like, for example, even people who believe that the earth is flat, you
know. Boy, they surround themselves with people who believe the same thing online.
But if you actually tried to take that doctrine into a physical, local church,
you'd be laughed out the door, right? And that's, you say, oh, that's terrible. No,
that's a good thing. It's a good thing, because you know what? If people would
get laughed at when they bring up something crazy, then it would have a
moderating influence, because faithful are the wounds of a friend. You know, if
you approach your close friend and say, hey, I think the earth is flat, and your
close friend says, you're being stupid, you're being an idiot, you know, that's a
faithful wound, amen? So what I'm saying is that people who get out of church, they
tend to go off the rails doctrinally, because being around other people,
talking things out with other people, really helps keep you straight and
keeps you normal. And not just with your doctrine. I mean, we're talking about
doctrine, just in every area of life. You know, it tends to keep you more normal
when you have friends, and you fellowship, and you spend time with
other people. Other people can balance you out. You go live by yourself in the
woods for 20 years, who knows how weird you're gonna get, you know? And I don't
want to offend anyone, but you know, I think Japan is one of the weirdest
countries in the world. I'm not trying to offend anyone who's Japanese or from
Japan or anything like that, but there's a lot of weird stuff that comes out of
Japan, a lot of strange things. But part of the reason why is because Japan was
isolated from the rest of the world for hundreds of years, and they didn't allow
anybody in or out. They're very isolated, and they became very strange, okay? They
became very imbalanced. And we don't want to become like a spiritual Japan, where
we just do our own thing, and we don't talk to anybody else, and we just isolate
ourselves from the outside world, and we only surround ourselves with people that
are just like us, okay? You can get imbalanced. We need friends to balance us
out and to tell us when we're wrong and to tell us when we've gone crazy or have
a weird idea or something like that. One of the great things about the local
church is that it's such a diverse crowd. We're not just surrounded by people who
are just like us. You know, this is a small church. I think I counted about 65
people that are here this morning, and as I look around at a church full of 65
people, I see people that are white, people that are Hispanic, people that are
black, people that are from India, and so we have a very diverse crowd ethnically
here, and I guarantee you that socioeconomically there's a diversity
here. I bet that the pay scale would range from people who make a lot of
money to people who make little money, and we've got people that are city
people, and we've got people that are from rural areas here, and what is it
that has brought together this crowd this morning? I mean, what is it that
brought people from different nationalities, different economic
backgrounds, different city culture versus rural culture? It's the Word of
God. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. It brings us together, and we come together, and we
are stronger than the sum of our parts because we balance each other out, and
iron sharpens iron, and we come away better for it, right, than if we
were just around people that are identical to us. Go, if you would, to
you're still in chapter 27. Jump down to verse 9. The Bible says,
ointment and perfume rejoice the heart, so does the sweetness of a man's friend
by hearty counsel. Counsel has to do with advice or them giving you guidance and
in what you're gonna do with your life and so forth. Thine own friend, verse 10,
and thy father's friend forsake not, neither go into thy brother's house in
the day of thy calamity, for better is a neighbor than is near than a brother far
off. Verse 17, iron sharpened with iron, so a man sharpeneth the countenance of
his friends. So again, why do we need friends? Well, first of all, friends
encourage us. They bless us. The Bible says the sweetness of a man's friend.
It's like ointment and perfume rejoice the heart, so does the sweetness of a
man's friend by hearty counsel. That word hearty has to do with being from the
heart, right? This is not just a superficial acquaintance that we barely
know. Hearty counsel is when we sit down and talk to our friend that we know well
and we really open up and tell them what's on our mind and they open up to
us and tell us what's on their mind and they tell us how they really feel. Okay,
that's a sweet thing. That's a blessing and not only does it rejoice our heart
and put us in a good mood to have good fellowship with our friends, but it also
sharpens us, right? It also keeps us right. It keeps us clean. The rebukes and the
the faithful wounds from our friends help us to be a better person also, okay?
Now go if you would to Acts chapter 27. Actually, go ahead and turn to 2nd
Timothy 1. You don't have to turn to Acts 27. Go to 2nd Timothy 1. I'll read for you
from Acts 27 because there's a common theme in the New Testament. When we talk
about friends, the word that comes up a lot is refreshed. Being refreshed by our
friends is something that comes up a lot. Like the Bible says in Acts 27 verse 3,
And the next day we touched at Zidon, and Julius courteously entreated Paul and
gave him liberty to go unto his friends to refresh himself. Okay, so what does it
mean to refresh, okay? Well, think about what it means to be fresh, right? If
something's fresh, that's good, right? It's gonna taste good. It's gonna be clean.
It's gonna be something that you enjoy and then that re- prefix has to do with
something that's being done again. Like think about when you're on your
webpage browser and you refresh the browser. What does that mean? You're
basically pushing a reset button, bringing it up to date, bringing up a
clean view of what's going on there. So when we refresh ourselves with our
friends, you know what? It kind of recharges a certain battery for our soul,
doesn't it? You know, people that are put in solitary confinement, they literally
go insane. Typically they lose their minds after a certain amount of time
because we as human beings must be refreshed by our friends. We must have
fellowship. You know, if you're a depressed person, let me ask you this, you
know, how are you doing on fellowship? If you're sad and depressed and down, I
wonder if you're coming to church and getting the fellowship that you need.
Say, well, I come to church and nobody talks to me. Well, are you talking to
them? You know, you got to reach out. You got to be friendly if you want to have
friends and I can't even count how many times I've been depressed and down and
melancholy. Then I went to church and started talking to some of my friends
and next thing you know, I'm in a good mood. Why? Because it's refreshing. It's
like you're thirsty and you finally get something to drink. It's refreshing, right?
Well, going to church, getting around God's people is refreshing. Boy, sometimes
being out in the world can wear you down just listening to the foolishness of the
ungodly and it's so refreshing to get around people who actually believe the
Bible, who actually love the Lord, who actually have the same values that you
have. That's a refreshing thing and so we need that as Christians to be refreshed
by God's people. Look at 2 Timothy 1 verse 15.
This thou knowest that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me, of whom
are Phygelus and Hermogenes. So these are the bad guys, you know, and there are
always going to be plenty of bad guys who turn their back on you, stab you in
the back, betray you, but the Bible says the Lord give mercy unto the house of
Onesiphorus for he oft refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chain but when he
was in Rome he sought me out very diligently and found me. The Lord grant
unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day and in how many things
he ministered unto me at Ephesus thou knowest very well. You know, this
scripture right here is a good guideline on how to be a good friend right here
because this is an example of a guy who was a great friend to Paul. His name was
Onesiphorus, alright, and that's not really a famous name but Onesiphorus
was a guy who was Paul's friend and he's an example friend that God gives us in
the Bible to show us how to be a good friend. Okay, what do we see about
Onesiphorus? It says he oft refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chain. You know,
part of being a good friend is that we're not embarrassed of or ashamed of
our friends because of the things that are wrong about them or bad things about
them or whatever. Let's say your friend's ugly. Don't be ashamed of that, alright.
Let's say your friend's dress is funny. You know, don't be ashamed of
that, okay. Let's say your friend, you know, has a criminal record or something. You
know, you're not ashamed of that. You know, he's saying, look, this guy was my friend.
Because he was not ashamed of my chain, okay. What is his chain? His chain is
that which is going bad in his life, right. I mean, Paul doesn't want to be in
chains. He's in prison, right. So the true friend is the one who does what? Goes and
visits him in prison. That's what it means to be a true friend, right. It's
when your buddy goes to prison and you go visit him in prison. Not just like, oh
well, he got arrested, man. I want nothing to do with him. Well, that's not a very
good friend, is it? Or let's say someone gets sick and that's their chain.
Somebody's very sick or they get a disease. A bad friend would say, oh well
you're no fun to hang out with anymore because, you know, you used to be so much
fun before you got sick but now you're just bedridden, you're weak, you don't
have fun anymore. Boy, no, the friend is not ashamed of the chain, right. Whatever
that chain is, okay. And they don't, they wouldn't be ashamed to acknowledge you
as their friend, right. You know how it is when you're in high school and there's
all these kind of little politics of who's friends with who and the cool
group and the nerd herd and everything like that. Well, you know, there'll be
sometimes that people will be your friend but then in front of other people
they'll act like that they're not your friend, right. That's the opposite of what
the Bible is teaching here, okay. It would be sort of like if someone were my
friend and you say, well what's your chain, Pastor Anderson? Well, I've got some
chains, okay. Because, you know, I obviously have a horrible reputation
online, you know. If you Google me there are all kinds of people who hate me and
say all kinds of horrible things about me. So can you imagine if someone were my
friend but then maybe they got around some people that were atheists or they
got around some people who were liberal or left-wing and then all of a sudden
they acted like they weren't my friend. No, they shouldn't be ashamed of me if
they're gonna be my friend, right. Then they would basically confess me openly
and say, hey, this is my buddy Pastor Steven Anderson and they wouldn't be
ashamed to say that. Otherwise, they're not a good friend, are they? You know and
that's just I'm just using myself as an example because I'm me. But you know what
you've got your chain. I've got my chain. Everybody's got their chain. Everybody
has faults. Nobody's perfect, right. You got people that have sicknesses. You got
people that have criminal records. You got people that maybe have faults. Maybe
they smoke cigarettes or maybe they're overweight or maybe they, you know, have
this problem or that problem or this sin or that sin, right. You know a true friend
is not just gonna turn their back on you because there's something wrong with you
or because you've made a mistake or you've messed up or you got fired from
your job or whatever. You know a true friend is gonna stand with you through
good and bad. Now that doesn't mean that they're gonna stand with you no matter
what. You know obviously hey if you go out and become a horrible criminal and
if you go out and become a heretic or a false prophet or you're you know you're
calling yourself a brother and you're out living in fornication, you know at
that point you want a friend that's gonna break fellowship with you because
faithful are the wounds of a friend, amen. But I'm talking about little things. I'm
talking about things that are not deal breakers. You know the friend is gonna
stand with you and get through those things with you and help you and let's
say you do go off the cliff and commit some horrible sin or do something that's
really bad, well then you know what your true friend's gonna do is they're gonna
try to call you to repentance at that point, right. And they might rebuke you
sharply and they might even break fellowship because you've gone over the
line of what the Bible teaches is over the line and basically they would try to
restore you to fellowship and then when you're sorry and you repent you know
they'll they'll be the first to welcome you back in and and help you get back in
the fold and help you get things right in your life, okay. So being a friend has
to do with not being ashamed of the chain, right. Not being afraid you're
gonna be seen with somebody or something like that. No, no standing up for them
publicly, standing up for them and being their friend. The Bible also says in
verse 17, but when he was in Rome he sought me out very diligently and found
me. So from that we can see that a good friend, they're not just friends with you
when it's convenient, they're even friends with you when it's inconvenient.
I mean they're willing to drive a long way to come see you because they're your
friend, right. And the Bible says here that when he was in Rome he sought me
out very diligently and found me, okay. So he didn't call up the Apostle Paul and
say, well I'm here in Rome, here's where I'll be if you want to come see me. And
Paul's like, well you know I'm in prison, right. I can't come. You know he went and
actually sought out Paul and he probably had to figure out which jail he was in,
he was having trouble finding him. Apparently it was difficult because he
said he sought me out very diligently and found me. So he went to the first
prison, he wasn't there. He went to another prison, he wasn't there. Rome was
a huge city, right. He's going through all the jails until he finds him, right.
That's a good friend that's gonna seek out diligently and find his friend. And
then it says in verse 18, the Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the
Lord in that day and in how many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus, thou
knowest very well. So this guy, Onesiphorus, he refreshed Paul. He was not
ashamed of his chain. He sought him out very diligently and he ministered unto
him. And you know what, that's the kind of friend we need to be. That's what the
local church is all about, is making friends and being that kind of a friend
and getting to know people on a deeper level, having hearty counsel, right. And
then once you've got your friend, you're there for them. And when they need
something, you help them out. And you know, when they're lost, you go find them, right.
And when they're in sin, you rebuke them. And you know, but you're not ashamed of
the chain, right. You help them, you work with them, and that's what it's about to
be a good friend and to have fellowship. Now go to Romans chapter 16. You can tell
as you read the Bible that friendship was really important to Paul and that
fellowship was a huge thing for the Apostle Paul because he is constantly
talking about his friends in the various books of the New Testament that he wrote.
And there are examples of this all over the New Testament, but the biggest
example is in Romans 16. But we could look all over the New Testament where
Paul talks about this friend and that friend. And it wasn't just Paul because
John was the same way. John said in, you don't have to turn there, but in 3 John verse 14 he said,
But I trust I shall shortly see thee, and we shall speak face to face. Peace be to
thee. Our friends salute thee. Greet the friends by name. So he's saying, look, I
want you to greet my friends by name. Okay, don't just get up and say to
everybody, hey everybody, John says hi. He said, I want you to go to each person
and by name say, hey brother so-and-so, John says hi. You know, hey brother Eli,
John says hi. Hey brother Steve, John says hi. You know, and go to each person and
say hi to them because he wanted them to know that he actually cares about them
and he's thinking about them as individuals. Paul's friends were
important to him. John's friends were important to him. Okay, so if we're gonna
be godly men, we should have friends, we should fellowship, we should care about
our friends and think about our friends and reach out to our friends. Look at
this great chapter in Romans 16 of Paul greeting his friends. Look at verse 1,
I commend unto you Phoebe our sister, which is a servant of the church which
is at Cintria, that ye receive her and the Lord has become a saint, and that ye
assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you, for she have been a
suckerer of many and of myself also. Now why is Paul friends with this lady Phoebe?
Why is she somebody that he cares about and wants to write a couple
verses about and give a special letter of recommendation about? Why is she Paul's
friend? Well look what it says, she had been a suckerer of many. Now that word
suckerer, S-U-C-C-O-U-R-E-R, okay, this is not a suckerer like a con man who's out
to sucker you, all right. No this is a suckerer, if you speak Spanish you know
the word socorro, right, which means help. So a suckerer is someone who helps you.
So this lady Phoebe, she helped a lot of people, right. He said she's been a
suckerer of many and of myself also. So how do you become the Apostle Paul's
friend? By helping him out. I mean she helped out the Apostle Paul, she helped
out a lot of people, I guarantee you that Phoebe had a lot of friends. You know why
Phoebe had a lot of friends? Because she showed herself friendly. She was good on
fellowship. She didn't just come into church the second it starts and jet out
of church the second it's over. You know what, she hung around, she
fellowshiped, she got to know people, she went out to eat with people, she spent
time with people, she had people over, she got to know them and when she saw a need
in their life she helped them out. That's being a friend, that's fellowship, right.
She was a suckerer of many and of myself also. Look at verse 3,
greet Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus. How did Priscilla and
Aquila become friends with Paul? Well by working with him in the ministry, right.
He said they are my helpers and we know from the book of Acts that they
participated with him in preaching and soul winning and in his different work
for the Lord. And by the way that's one of the best ways to make friends is by
showing up for soul winning. I mean if you go soul winning with somebody you just
made a new friend because when you go soul winning together you end up talking
a lot between the doors, right, especially if you're in an unreceptive area
sometimes all it is is fellowship, right. If you go to an unreceptive area it's
like an urban hiking expedition with a lot of fellowship and you know what
that's what can sometimes get you through it because man if you're by
yourself in an unreceptive area it can it can wear you down. But when you're in
an unreceptive area with a buddy out soul winning when people say no
you're just like all right see you later all right so let me get back to my story
you know and you're just jumping right back into the fellowship right you just
keep talking and get to know people. Boy that's how friendships are often formed
is out soul winning. That's one of the best reasons to go two by two is it just
builds fellowship it builds camaraderie or if you go on a missions trip you know
I see brother Steve here from Louisiana you know I know him real well because we
went on a missions trip together and we were out soul winning we were riding in the
back of a truck together we're hiking through the jungle together we ate
chicken feet together and and you know we had all these different experiences
and and all these fun stories of staying out in the jungle with cousin Wayne and
all that stuff so we have a shared experience together from work that we
did together from a missions trip we took together so instantly when I walk
in and see him it's like oh there's my buddy right because we've done stuff
together right we've gone places together that's how you make friends
shared experiences like that so you know if you come to church you come to the
activities you do the soul winning you're gonna make friends right and then
not just a superficial friendship of just hey how you doing how's it go you
know you dig into a little bit about people's background and you learn about
their lives you figure out what their needs are and then maybe you can step in
sometimes and meet their need and then something goes wrong in their life and
then you're not ashamed of their chain and you come in and you can help them
out and and get them through it you know that's what friendships about that's
what it means to have fellowship and Paul's a great example is it says in
verse number four who have for my life laid down their own necks so we're
Priscilla and Aquila pretty good friends yeah he said look they laid down their
own necks for my life unto whom not only I give thanks but also all the churches
of the Gentiles so look it wasn't just Paul that they were friends with man all
the churches of the Gentiles they all owed a debt to Aquila and Priscilla they
all loved Aquila and Priscilla because they gave of themselves the Bible says
greater love hath no man than this then that a man laid down his life for his
friends the Bible says in verse five likewise greet the church that is in
their house salute my well beloved Epinatus who is the first fruits of
Achaea unto Christ greet Mary who bestowed much labor on us salute so look
again Mary showed herself friendly now she's getting mentioned in the book of
Romans I mean I'd like to have my name in the book of Romans how would you like
to be mentioned in the book of Romans well how did she get there how did she
get there did she get there by being a great pastor she's a woman how did she
get there by being the the world's greatest missionary no she got there by
doing what just by being a friend just by ministering unto Paul helping him out
being there for him being his friend and when he's writing a letter these are the
people that are coming to mind these are his friends these are the people that he
cares about and who care about him salute Andronikus and Junia my kinsmen
and my fellow prisoners well that's a good way to make friends right you you
get thrown in jail together amen who are of note among the apostles who also were
in Christ before me greet amplius my beloved in the Lord salute urbane our
helper in Christ and stack is my beloved salute a Peles approved in Christ salute
them which are of Aristobulus household oh well you know all the early
Christians they were all Jews really because these don't look like Jewish
names right these are Greek people or at least Greek in name the Roman culture
the Greek culture obviously are connected he says salute Herodian my
kinsmen verse 11 greet them that be of the household of Narcissus which are in
the Lord salute trithena and try fossa who labor in the Lord salute the
beloved Persis which labored much in the Lord you say what in the why do I care
about all these names well these people that Paul cared about why did God give
us these verses why do we need to get all these shout outs of shout out to
this guy shout out to that guy why do we need that in 2019 we don't know who
these people are God put this in the Bible for a reason couldn't God have
easily just left this out of the Bible just saved us a bunch of names that we
have to pronounce he put this in the Bible because he's trying to show us
that Paul had a lot of friends okay pot a lot of friends this is just to the
Romans what about his friends everywhere else I mean these are just the friends
that he has in Rome he's like Oh Houston okay well say hi to so-and-so say hi to
so-and-so say hi to someone Oh Fort Worth say hi to so-and-so say hi to so
and so say hi to so-and-so oh you're going to Phoenix well be sure you say
to the height of this guy this guy this guy this guy this guy this guy this guy
this guy this guy this guy this look correct me if I'm wrong Paul seemed to
make personal relationships pretty important to him to have this many
friends everywhere he goes and to take the time to greet them by name now
thankfully he didn't do this in every pistol because there'd be too much
reading I think God just gave us one example you know and then in 3rd John he
spared us by just saying greet the friends by name you know you know who
they are see you know attachment a or whatever and then we can leave that out
of the Bible we don't need all those names but you know what God gave us a
whole list of names here to drive in this point the Bible says in verse 13
salute Rufus chosen in the Lord and his mother and mine now that's a
pretty cool statement there when it says salute Rufus chosen in the Lord and his
mother and mine what's he saying basically this guy Rufus who's his
friend Paul liked his mom so much he's basically saying it's his mom it's not
his literal mom folks what he's saying is she is like a mom unto me like I
consider her my mom you know she's just an older lady and see the Bible talks
about this in if you flip over to Titus keep your finger there and flip over to
Titus chapter 2 but if you go over to Titus chapter 2 it talks about this this
wasn't in my notes but it just kind of popped into my head so I'm gonna take
you over here to Titus chapter 2 and because it's not in my notes that's the
wrong chapter let me think where's where's the chapter that I'm looking for
Oh 1st Timothy 5 1st Timothy 5 there we go all right this is what happens when
you go off the script right of course I never have much of a script anyway but
there we go 1st Timothy chapter 5 verse 1 rebuke not an elder but entreat him as
a father and the younger men as brethren the elder women as mothers the younger
as sisters with all purity what's he saying look you treat elderly women in
the church as a mother unto you right he's saying you know rebuke not an
elder and treat him as a father and treat the younger men as brethren right
so when we go to church and say hey brother so-and-so hey brother so-and-so
that's not just a word we consider them our brethren you know we consider them
brothers and sisters in Christ and then he says the younger women as sisters
with all purity because he's saying you know you don't want to get too buddy
with the young ladies you want to make sure there's purity obviously it's not
really your sister okay so you know there are things that would be
appropriate with your sister because obviously you know I for example I go
out to dinner with my sister I hang on the phone to my sister I spend a lot of
time with my sister I'm not just gonna do that with just random young women in
the church right but still I should love them as a sister treat them as a sister
have kindness with all purity obviously keeping keeping a healthy distance but
the Bible saying look the older women in the church they're as mothers unto you
right the the older men as fathers right the younger men as brothers the younger
women as sisters so what the Bible is teaching here is a closeness with
friends right and and I love how he says you know Rufus and his mother and mine
he's saying you know Rufus his mom you know she made us such great meals when
we were over there and and we would go over to her house and she would cook for
us and spend time with us and take care of us that I felt like she was a mother
unto me I believe is what he's saying here in verse number 13 look at Romans
16 verse 14 salute asynchronous flea gone hermus
patrol bus Hermes and the brethren which are with them salute Philologus
and Julia Nereus and his sister and Olympus and all the saints which are
with them salute one another with an holy kiss the churches of Christ salute
you look that was 16 verses of just shout outs just name after name after
name after name after name this goes to show you that friendship and fellowship
were important to the Apostle Paul he cared about people he thought of people
on an individual basis he wasn't just thinking only of himself but he reached
out to other people he was friendly toward other people fellowship is so
important you know it can't be overstated
and this is what the internet only crowd misses you know that when they
don't actually physically go to church they miss the fellowship you can't
download that you got to be there and the little live chat you don't even know
who you're talking to on you know who people are pretending to be or whatever
and you got all the weirdos and the trolls and everybody else you know when
you actually physically show up the fellowship is better now there are some
people who downplay the need for fellowship for example when you go on a
missions trip these are the people who just want to go soul winning from Sun up
to Sun down and they get mad at you when you want to take a lunch break they get
mad at you and you want to take a dinner break they get mad at you when you tell
them hey I'm sick of soul winning we've been soul winning all day I need a break
I need to take it easy you know the holier-than-thou types that just we can't
let these people go to hell we just gotta go go go it's like whoa buddy
relax because you know what I've been serving God for decades and I'm gonna be
serving God for decades I'm not trying to burn out all in one weekend this
isn't the last day before the preacher of rapture or something we got to get as
many people saved you know we're gonna be here for years take it easy okay but
sometimes you'll see the holier-than-thou types they'll downplay the
need for fellowship and you know when when we organize our soul winning
ministry in Phoenix we try to prioritize fellowship in the sense that you know
for example we're having a soul winning trip tomorrow to an Indian reservation
and you know I set aside an hour and a half for lunch say well does it take an
hour and a half to eat lunch no but you know what it's good to take an hour and
a half sit down there's a pizza place there that's a pretty good pizza place
sit down for an hour and a half right and have some fellowship and enjoy
yourself and you know what that does is it makes me want to come back next time
you know if it's just all work and no play then guess what people aren't gonna
want to come back I've seen people come back from mission strips that were too
austere and too hard-working and not enough downtime not enough time for
fellowship not enough time for enjoyment and they come back and say
well we got a lot of people say but I'm never doing that again that was too hard
that was torture I'm never going on another mission strip I've heard people
say that and you know what that's the last thing I want to hear what I like to
hear from people when they come home from a mission strip is you know hey
when's the next one when can we go back when can we do it again now obviously
there's a balance because there are some people who just want to be all play you
know what I mean they want to just take a vacation and call it a mission strip
you know but we strike a balance at our church where on a big missions trip
we'll try to spend about five hours a day max soul winning you know because if
you got actually soul winning in a receptive area for five hours look I
don't know about you but after five hours of soul winning I'm done if it's
receptive now I've gone soul winning for eight or nine hours if it was un
receptive because then you're not really preaching that much it's not really as
tiring because you know like I said you're getting a lot of fellowship just
from door to door at that point you know when you're just kind of hanging out and
nobody's talking to you like when I went soul winning in Norway I went soul
winning for like eight and a half hours one day and I don't even think we got
through the entire gospel with a single person you know like the whole day I
don't even think one person heard the entire plan of salvation you know we got
a few verses out but it was eight and a half hours of just door knocking and you
know that was not that grueling of a day because I had a good buddy with me
and we were basically hanging out talking and having good fellowship and
for eight and a half hours we knocked doors one time pastor Roger Jimenez and
I went soul winning together for like an 11 hour day minus meals and stopping so
we probably did about actual eight hours of actual door knocking but we only had
like I think two or three salvations the whole day because it wasn't that
receptive but look when you're going to places like Guyana when you're going to
Botswana when you're going to the Apache Reservation man you're pretty much
giving the gospel wall-to-wall I mean you're just giving the gospel given the
gospel given a god's man after five hours of that I'm toast I'm done forget
it but the holier-than-thous don't understand that Christianity is not
measured in years it's measured in decades it's measured in decades okay
and you can go out and put in a good day's work and do a lot of preaching and
you can also have a good time and you can also build friendships and
relationships and you know those hour and a half long meal breaks that's where
you build important memories that's where you build friendships that
hopefully will last you for a lifetime and so don't listen to the holier than
now's the hyper spiritual the the you know what the Bible says be not
righteous over much why shouldest thou be destroyed what does that mean be not
righteous over much well it obviously isn't telling you to sin a little bit
it's not saying hey sin a little you know don't be righteous over much that's
not what the Bible is saying when the Bible saying be not righteous over much
it's saying don't try to do too much good or too much righteousness to where
you burn yourself out and run yourself into the ground okay obviously we're
supposed to follow all God's commandments and sin is never okay but
when it comes to how much do we pray how much do we read our Bible how much
do we go soul winning the Bible doesn't really give us a concrete answer of read
your Bible this much pray this much so win this much it doesn't tell us right
so we have to decide okay how much am I gonna do well you know what I want to do
I want to do the most that I possibly can amen but without burning out not
just I'm just gonna redline it and drive it till the wheels fall because then
you're on a crash and burn pace the Christian life's a marathon it's not a
sprint and so you don't want to just on your mark get set go and you're just
tear out it you know it's a 26 mile run and you're just running full board yeah
I look at all these losers behind me I'm smoking everybody look at these losers
that can't keep up but you know what the people that I've observed over the years
who are constantly talking about the losers who can't keep up and oh that's
all you read your Bible that's all you go soul winning you know blowing off
their mouths like a holier-than-thou they're the ones who end up crashing and
burning the over-the-top people the hyper spiritual the overzealous are the
ones who end up crashing and burning friend why because they're just trying
to put on a show and impress you hey look at me look how fast I'm going yeah
except it's a 26 mile race and you're only a quarter mile in that's why you're
running so fast okay so don't be righteous over much don't let the
hyper spiritual and the holier-than-thous get you down and try to
tell you that we don't need to take a lunch break or we don't need to take a
dinner break you know that fellowship and sitting around and talking getting
to know people that's a part of the Christian life that matters it's part of
the Christian life that matters I mean think about we realize that in our own
families don't we I mean how do our families work do we just do we just get
up go to work and we just work work work and then we just come home and just
work around the house and study and read it no we what do we do sometimes we sit
out and play a board game with our family or go take a walk to the park or
go swimming or go on a bike ride or some you know why because we're human and
this feeds our soul this feeds our need for friendship and camaraderie and you
know what if you don't find it at church you're gonna find it somewhere else I
mean we're human folks we need friendship we need fellowship now let me
just close on this thought what does the word fellowship actually mean because
the title of the sermon is continuing in fellowship now I grew up in church how
many of you grew up in church your whole life all right several people most
people haven't but you know I grew up in church and when you grow up in church
the word fellowship is a word you don't even think about what it means because
it's just it's a word you use so much you're kind of like well it's obvious
what that means because you got the fellowship Hall and you know the
fellowship area and you know stick around for fellowship I mean these are
the if you're in a Baptist Church you hear these words so many times but
that's not really actually what the literal word fellowship means okay
that's what it has come to mean and that that is how it's used in the Bible but
if you actually break down like what is the word fellowship really mean well the
word fellow means you have something in common that's what it actually means
like if I said oh you're a fellow electrician what does that mean he's my
fellow electrician or my fellow pastor right or my fellow brother in Christ
fellows it means that you both have something in common hey we're both
electricians we're both Christians we're both pastors right my fellow Americans
what's he saying I'm an American you're an American that's what fellow means
right so what is fellowship mean fellowship is the condition of having
something in common that's what it means fellowship is the condition of having
something in common okay so when we talk about having fellowship one with
another we're saying that we have something in common and in this case
it's I'm a Christian you're a Christian I love the Word of God you love the Word
of God I believe in soul winning you believe in soul winning I go to pure
words Baptist Church you go to pure words Baptist Church right that's the
fellowship that's what you have in common so when we talk about sticking
around for fellowship or continuing in fellowship or hey let's go to the
fellowship hall what it means is having a time where we spend time with people
that are like us and where we build friendships with people that are like us
not because we're both white or we're both black or we're both rich or we're
both poor or both electricians or we're both from Texas or not from Texas no
what it actually is is because we have Christ in common that's the fellowship
right and that's that's how we should be choosing our friends anyway you know our
closest friends should be our brothers and sisters in Christ and so when we
talk about having fellowship that's what we mean now a lot of people when they
think of a church they just think of the pastor right you know it's just like
they just think faith for Baptist Church pastor Steve Anderson or pure words
Baptist Church pastor Jonathan Shelley sure foundation Baptist Church pastor
Aaron Thompson very but but here's the thing is the church just a pastor now
the church is the is the whole congregation right you know when pastor
Romero stepped down some people say you know are you gonna change the name of
the church it's like well no because one guy is not the church you know the
church is still there okay the church is still steadfast Baptist Church now the
pastor is obviously an important part of the church but he's just part of the
church he's not the whole church now I remember when I first started faithful
word Baptist Church I was the only person that everybody knew okay because
I'm going out knocking people's doors and dragging people into church right
trying to get the church off the ground from scratch in my living room and so
you get to a point where there's 20 people coming to church but they're not
friends with each other the only person they know is me okay so then after the
service I'm like trying to spend time with each person you know because like
I'm the only person they know otherwise they're just kind of sitting there so I
got to kind of go to each person and spend time with each person and it was
exhausting for me as a pastor to have to be everybody's only friend you know
because I'm the one who knocked their door and talked to them and got to know
them I've been to their house kind of eat with them or whatever but they
don't know each other so I'm just exhausted just going around just just
you know work in the room you know just basically trying to spend time with
everybody and I remember just it was such a breakthrough in the in the
history of our church and in the growth of our church when people started being
friends with each other it was so great it was like yes because then I could
literally sometimes I would literally just stand back and even to this day at
faithful word usually on the morning services there are a lot of visitors and
stuff that are coming up to me and talking to me but a lot of times on the
evening services of faith for it man sometimes I just literally sit back
nobody's even trying to talk to me nobody even wants to talk to me they're
all just talking to each other and it feels so good to just sit back and just
look around the auditorium and everybody's just talking to each other
everybody's just talking to each other and I'm just like I'm out of here see
ya you know I'm going home I'm going to bed and you know they can hey just turn
out the lights when you guys leave and people will stick around for hours and
you know that's an important step in the growth of a church because when
everybody's only there for the pastor and they're only there to be friends
with the pastor it's it's strenuous on the pastor number one you're gonna drain
his social battery pretty fast okay but but number two is it's not it just
doesn't make sense because you know you don't want to have all your eggs in that
one basket you know I'm sure that some of you are not that jazzed about the
fact that Pastor Jonathan Shelley went and took over steadfast Baptist Church
in Fort Worth and I don't blame you you know why you wouldn't be jazzed about
that because of the fact that you love Pastor Jonathan Shelley down here but
what you got to realize though is that the fellowship is still good here
because you didn't just come here all right my morning appointment with
Jonathan Shelley is here you know here's my evening appointment with Pastor
Shelley can't wait till Wednesday at 7 when I go to see my buddy Pastor Shelley
you know here's the thing about that you're coming to church you're coming to
the congregation you're coming to the group and look I'm here preaching this
Sunday next Sunday I believe it's gonna be brother Bruce Mejia that's preaching
you know a few Sundays after that it's gonna be pastor Roger Jimenez you know
you still get your pastor Shelley time on Thursday night event and so the the
point is it's not really important who the preacher is okay if the preacher
gets up and opens the Bible and delivers the Word of God to you and you're
edified and you can take something from it you can learn something from it you
can grow from it amen but you know what you can also turn to your neighbor next
to you and get the fellowship not just like oh pastor Shelley's not here it's
like well but who is here look at all these people around yeah okay not
everybody's gonna be best buddies with the pastor you know our church in
Phoenix now has about 400 people in it you think I'm buddies with everybody
look don't tell anybody back home but there are people in my church I don't
even know their name all right I don't I'm like this person's been coming for
months I need to figure out what their name is you know who these people are
because it's just impossible I mean there's just and somebody like oh this
here's just too big well really because in the Bible the church had thousands of
people in it it had literally thousands of people in it you think that they were
just best buddies with everybody in the church when there's thousands of people
in it no they weren't well how does that work because people got to be friends
with each other right people need to be friends with each other people don't
what if people come to me for every little thing there's you know it's just
I'm gonna be wearing too thin I'm spread too thin at that point so fellowship is
an important part of coming to church and it's not just fellowship with the
pastor although it could include fellowshipping with the pastor because
pastors need fellowship to him in but it's fellowship with everybody so you
don't just come to the church based on well who's preaching today oh well I'm
not that jazzed about that guy you know oh well you know pastor Anderson's
coming I'll be there you know pastor Bruce or brother Bruce me here I'll be
there Oh brother so-and-so man stay home now look I can understand if you're
driving from several hours away you might just come to hear a certain
preacher I get that but I'm talking about people that are local don't lay
out of church because it's not your favorite guy behind the pulpit because
you know what you're not just coming to hear a sermon you can hear a sermon at
home you're coming for the fellowship amen and look I remember when I was a
kid in my carnal unspiritual days as a as a young child you know why I went to
church because my parents made me of course but but you know why I looked
forward but here's the thing my parents didn't have to make me because I wanted
to go to church and you want to know why I wanted to go to church because I
wanted to see my friends and you know what I didn't pick a church when I was a
kid I didn't I didn't decide I liked the church I didn't like a church based on
the pastor's preaching you know I was looking at that youth department you
know I was looking at the kids and so you know and I'm not saying that you
should pick a church based on that but I'm just telling you that as a kid that
was important to me was to come to church to see my friends and that's not
a bad reason to go to church go to church to see your friends amen go to
church to make new friends and so I hope that you guys as you go through this
transition time where you know your pastor is up in Fort Worth and he's only
down here once a week and eventually you get a new pastor and you know what don't
get so hung up on those things because it's not about a certain man it's not
about I'm of Paul I'm of Cephas I'm of Apollos you know what it really comes
down to is pure words Baptist Church and it's not one man it's never been one man
right it's it's everybody it's the whole collective here so why don't you get to
know the people that are here make some friends get together with people outside
of church show up for some of the soul winning show up for the picnic and don't
just sit off by yourself at the picnic you know approach people introduce
yourself tell them your name make some friends amen now look you're not gonna
be friends with everybody right they're gonna be certain people that you don't
really click with and then other people that you click with great find the ones
you click with find you find your friends and be a blessing to them let
them be a blessing you continue in the doctrine yes but also continue in the
fellowship amen let's bow your heads and have a word of prayer father we thank you so
much for this church Lord and thank you for the fellowship that we have that we
we believe the same things we love you we want to serve you and and in this
crooked and perverse nation Lord this church shines as a light in the world
and I pray that this church will be refreshing when people show up tonight
or Thursday night or next Sunday Lord I pray that they would be refreshed by
the preaching but I also pray that they would be refreshed by the fellowship and
the friendships that are formed and in Jesus name we pray amen