Amen.
Part of the chapter we're going to focus on is found in Acts chapter 2 and verse number
42, where the Bible reads, And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, and
in fellowship, and in breaking them bread, and in prayers, the Bible says.
And I want to focus on that one phrase right there, fellowship.
Now fellowship is a very important aspect of the Christian life.
Often we will see churches that are actually named like a Christian fellowship, right?
And often we'll see that the New Evangelicals and everything that's not Baptist really abuses
that word of fellowship.
But the fact of the matter is that fellowship is a biblical teaching.
It is a biblical concept.
And it's something that we as Christians need to know what it is.
We need to know what it's not, and we need to know how to apply it in our personal lives.
I honestly believe that, you know, someone who believes right on doctrine, they got the
right Bible, but they don't have the right kind of fellowship, we'll really go that far
in the Christian life.
Fellowship is very much necessary in the Christian life because we are social beings, okay?
And we need friendships, we need relationships, we need brothers and sisters in Christ to
be able to have one accord with and strive together with and learn from and just have
a good time with, okay?
And look, sometimes there's a category of Christians that believe, well, no, you can't
have any fun in the Christian life, just read your Bible, just pray, just do what you're
supposed to do, and there's no fun to them.
No, you know, actually being a Christian is a lot of fun, okay?
And you can have a good time being a Christian.
And often I believe the reason God created fellowship is because we like being with one
another and feeding off of one another, okay?
And look, we need encouragement, right?
This is not an encouragement type of a message, but the fact of the matter is the Bible says
that when we meet together, we're supposed to exhort one another.
In modern words, we would say we encourage one another, right?
Because the fact of the matter is there's certain people even in our church that maybe
are going through a tough time.
They're going through a rough time, maybe a financial problem, maybe a problem in their
family, they're suffering the loss of someone in their family, and where do they come?
They come to church to have some exhortation, right?
Of course they're going to get the rebuke, they'll get the reprovement, they'll get the
correction that's necessary, but you know what, through the fellowship within God's
people, we get a lot of encouragement.
Because here's the thing, I mean, the phrase goes that misery loves company, right?
I don't know what it is, but when you're going through something rough and you find out that
someone else is experiencing that rough thing, it kind of helps a lot.
Even if you found out that this person didn't even know how to explain it or how to get
through that problem, it just helps to know that you're not the only one going through
that problem, okay?
And that's why it's important to come to church.
That's why it's important not to just be a YouTube Christian, right?
Or it's just like, but it's basically the same thing, I'm getting the doctrine, I'm
learning a lot of stuff, yeah, but you're not getting the fellowship.
You need to be with people, and it's true.
These people who only get their teaching and get their church from the internet, they're
kind of weird.
I'm not trying to be funny, I'm being honest.
Sometimes they're a little weird.
And it's why, because they're not being social, okay?
And we as Christians need to learn to be social.
Why?
Well, because first and foremost, that's how God created us.
But secondly, because we're supposed to be soul owners, and guess what soul owning is?
Going out there, talking to people that you've never met, learn how to talk to them, learn
how to get along with them, learn how to invite them to church, of course, learn how to preach
the gospel to them.
These are the essentials of the Christian life.
And in order for us to do that, we need to learn how to have good fellowship, right?
So fellowship is important.
Now, in today's churches, this word has been thrown around, even to the point where they'll
put it on the name of their church, Christian Church Fellowship, right?
Or Fellowship Vines, something stupid, you know?
Some sort of fellowship.
And they don't want to come off abrasive, they don't want to come off as, but you know
what?
That's a stupid way of thinking.
And look, if you name your church a Christian Fellowship, that's exactly who you're going
to attract.
The kind of people who just want to have fun.
That's why we call them the liberal fun centers, because they're not there to learn the word
of God.
They're not there to learn biblical doctrine.
What are they there for?
They're there just for the fellowship.
I have a friend who's at a church right now, and he came from a church that is like full-blown
all about fellowship.
They don't teach any doctrine, and he actually, he left that church because it wasn't a King
James only church.
The pastor would preach from the ESV, and then the congregants would use the NIV, and
this person had the HIV, and all these people had different things, and it was just a smorgasbord
of Bibles.
And he said, all they do there, they don't even come for the doctrine.
You know what they do?
They come for the fellowship.
Now look, fellowship's important, but we're going to preach doctrine.
But you've got to have a balance, right?
Because here's the thing, if we're robots, we're only here to learn doctrine, you know,
you're not going to go very far in the Christian life, it's just the bottom line.
You need other people to friendship with, to have fellowship with.
That's why I encourage everyone who comes to our church, don't just leave when the service
is over, okay?
Stick around, get to know some people, make some friends, why?
Because you need friends.
And more importantly, you need church friends, you need Christian friends, okay?
And look, I mean, I've been to churches where as soon as the service is over, it's like
they're out.
I mean during prayer, everyone's just like, they're gone.
To the point where the pastor has to stand at the door during prayer, I'm not joking,
to catch the people who are going to leave, you know, because they're so fast out that
door.
You know, they're not coming for doctrine, you know what I mean?
And some of those are not even coming for fellowship, right?
They're just like, I'm just coming because I know I've got to be in church or something,
you know?
Or I just got to alleviate my conscience because I was drinking last night or whatever.
But you know what, we need to have a balance, okay?
And church is not just a discipline though God has commanded us to be in church, right?
It's a place where we can have friendships.
This is the place where you'll have friendships of a lifetime, okay?
And we need each other, all right?
This is not a mushy-gushy message, it's just common sense, it's fact that we need fellowship
in our lives.
Get to know the people.
You're like, yeah, but I'm not very social, then you need to learn how to be social, okay?
I'm not saying be a social butterfly, where it's like, hey everybody, I'm here, you know?
We can get started, you know?
No, but you know, hi, what's your name?
My name is this.
Where do you come from?
Where do you live?
Where do you work?
What's your social security?
No, I'm just kidding.
Ask questions.
Get to know one another.
Because look, I'm going to be honest with you, you're going to go through a rough time
one day and you know who's going to be there to help you out?
Your church family.
They will be there.
But how are they going to help you out if they don't even know you?
If they don't know you, how are you going to be able to help them out?
Or look, God's going to equip you to be able to help someone else, but how are you going
to be able to help them if you don't even know them?
We got to get to know each other.
We got to have fellowship.
It's an important aspect of the Christian life.
And you know, our church is not designated to just be fellowshipping, right?
I mean, we have fellowship, but what we centered everything around is the preaching of God's
Word.
The doctrine is very much important.
And guess what?
That's why we have fellowship.
Amen.
Because we agree.
Right?
Go to Amos chapter number three.
Amos chapter number three.
The reason we can have fellowship is because we agree.
You can't get, what does fellowship mean?
Basically, you're in agreement with someone.
You're walking with one accord.
You're having a good time with someone.
It's a friendship.
It's a good relationship.
But you can't have a good relationship with someone who doesn't agree with you.
Look at Amos chapter three, verse one says, Hear this word that the Lord had spoken against
you, O children of Israel, against the whole family, which I brought up from the land of
Egypt, saying, You only have I known of all the families of the earth, therefore I will
punish you for all your iniquities.
Can two walk together, except they be agreed?
And the answer is no.
You can't walk together if you're not in agreement, right?
You can't walk together.
That's why it's important that if you are in a pre-trib, you know, Zion, Israel loving
church, you probably should get in one of our churches.
I mean, if you believe in replacement theology and so on and so forth.
Why?
Because, look, it's hard to have fellowship at some of these churches.
It's hard.
You know, it's like you're in survival mode most of the time.
You're like, man, I don't know if the pastor is going to call me out today or if that sermon
that he preached, because he doesn't really call out the names, but he makes, he's insinuating
that it's me, you know, and it's just you're walking on eggshells all the time.
Well, you need to be in a church that believes like you.
And look, when I got booted out of my church, my pastor told me, you need to be in a place
where they believe like you.
Well, here it is, you know, you said, you know, I got to be in a place where they believe
like me.
Well, guess what?
I found a bunch of people who believe just like me and we're having good fellowship,
but you got to be in a church.
And look, don't complain about your church believing differently if you know you should
be here.
Be here.
Come where people agree.
Why?
Because you can't walk together unless you agree.
Now, look, there's certain relationships in life that you kind of have to bypass certain
beliefs in order to have that relationship.
Like, you know, your in-laws, or as some people call them, outlaws, I'm just kidding.
Just people you have to get along, maybe you don't get along with on certain doctrines,
but for the sake of keeping the relationship right with your family, you do your best to
get along with them, right?
But here's the thing, the majority of the relationships that you should have, the strongest
relationships you have, should be in church.
So what about my family?
What about my immediate family?
Well, they should be in church with you, you know?
We should all be in the same church together in agreement having fellowship.
Now go with me, if you would, to 1 Corinthians chapter number one.
Today I was, we're out sowing, and you would think like people on Christmas Eve would be
like a little more nicer, you know?
They're just like, I was like, this is in the bag.
I mean, this is Christmas Eve.
And we ran into a house, you know, they had all their idols in the front and, you know,
the manger scene and all that.
But that would mean that, you know, they believe in Jesus and, you know, they have somewhat
of an understanding that Jesus is God and they believe in Jesus and God and all that
stuff.
And I'm like, okay, this person's going to be open.
And I knock on the door, they're like, what?
And I'm like, I got a Christmas CD for you for Christmas, Merry Christmas.
Oh, okay, okay, okay.
They grab it.
And I said, but you know, more important than that is just know where you're going to go
when you die, you know?
Are you 100% sure that if you die today, you go to heaven?
I don't want to talk about religion right now.
Don't talk to me about religion.
Bye.
And that was it.
I don't even know why I shared that illustration, I just want to get that off my chest.
The person was mean.
I was like, dang.
I mean, this is Christmas.
You get, you just be like, hey, thanks, but you know, I have something cooking in the
back or, you know, lye or something, but man, it's just like, don't talk to me about religion.
So the next door, there's a guy and he was loading something into his car and they say,
hey, how's it going?
I got a Christmas CD for you, you know, just want to say Merry Christmas and he had this
big smile and he came and he goes, wow, he goes, I'm a pastor.
I was like, really?
He goes, yeah.
I was like, what church you go to?
And he said, fill in the blank, fill in the blank, fellowship church, you know, because
you could throw in anything in those things.
And I said, okay.
And I said, so well, let me ask you something just more important than even the CD or what
church you go to.
Is nowhere you're going to go when you die?
Are you 100% sure that if you die today, you go to heaven?
And he goes, yeah, man.
Yeah, absolutely.
I said, great.
Well, how do you know?
Can I ask you?
And he said, because I have fellowship with God, you know, and he started giving me all
these relationship with God, fellowship with God type answers, which by the way, if anyone
ever tells you that they're not saved.
You say, well, I know someone who looks like they sincerely, I don't care how sincere they
are.
They're sincerely wrong.
You can, you're not saved because you have fellowship with God.
Now after salvation, we're supposed to have fellowship with God, but that's not what you
do to get salvation.
Right?
You have to believe on Christ.
I mean, I know a lot of people who are saved.
They don't have, they have like zero fellowship with God.
You know, they're living worldly lives.
They're out there in the world.
They're not doing God's will.
They're just out there, but they're safe people.
Well, this guy was basing his salvation off of his fellowship with God.
He goes, I, you know, I have fellowship with God.
And I said, I said, well, you believe in God and you believe in the Bible.
I was trying to find, I try to find common ground with them, you know?
And he said, yeah.
I said, do you mind if I show you from the Bible how you can know for sure what the Bible
says, how you can get to heaven?
And he says, hey man, he said, you're preaching to the choir here.
You know, I'm a pastor, which translation, I'm too proud to admit that I don't know the
way of salvation.
And I don't want you to tell me about how to gain salvation.
I'm a pastor.
That's why I'm going to go to heaven.
That's what he's saying.
And I said, and I said, well, well, let me just leave you with the verse because he wasn't
going to hear me out.
I don't want to waste my time with him.
And so I started giving him some verses and I said, and by the way, you can't lose your
salvation according to the Bible.
Once you, once you trust Christ as your savior, the Bible says, for by grace are you safe
through faith and that not of yourselves.
It's not of yourself.
It is the gift of God, not of works that any man should boast.
And it was the funniest thing because he was just like the whole time, right?
As soon as I talked about eternal security, his countenance dropped like Cain.
His countenance fell.
Why aren't that countenance, why has that countenance fallen?
You know, why aren't that?
Because I'm Roth, you know, and he's just like, and I'm like, I figured I knew this
guy was some sort of stinking, you could lose your salvation junk, you know.
And, and by the way, if you have to fellowship with God to gain salvation, what kind of,
what kind of fellowship is that?
You know?
And then I said, and then he said, okay, thanks.
He goes, well, let me leave you with one verse.
He said, what do you do about John 15 where it says, you know, they're cast forth as a
brand, but he gave me some like new NIV rendition of it.
You know, what if you throw a stick and I don't know, some, some thing is just like,
I knew what he was trying to say though.
You know what I mean?
Like I get where he's going.
And I said, well, actually what the Bible says, no, thanks, thanks.
So I got to go though.
But think about that.
And I'm like, well, I got the answer.
You said, what can I do with it?
I'll tell you what I do with it right now, you know, but he didn't want to hear me out.
But he goes to this fellowship Christian church.
And look, I'm not saying that everyone who attends these kind of churches are not saved
because the fact of the matter is right across the street, where I was soul winning, it was
called something fellowship too.
I don't know what it was.
I can't remember.
And I met someone there and they gave me all the right answers.
You know, I said, are you 100% sure if you die today, you go to heaven?
And it was a lady.
And she said, she said, yes, I'm saved.
I've trusted Christ as my savior.
I said, okay, great.
And the follow up question, right?
Which is what?
Can you lose your salvation?
Right?
Because, and I thought to myself, she's going to believe that you can't lose yourself.
I said, can you lose your salvation?
She said, nope, can't lose it.
You know, and she quoted me some verses about not losing your salvation.
And I said, great.
All right.
Well, Merry Christmas.
You know, do you want to leave me with that CD?
Hope you come back.
And I said, I'm going to leave you with that CD.
I'm going to leave you with that CD.
What does this require?
Well, first of all, it requires the Word of God.
The right Word of God.
You know, not these false versions of the Bible.
And I remember years ago, I was reading this liberal book, and it was about having like
a daily devotional time or whatever.
And this guy was a full-blown NIV guy, you know.
And he, the book was like heavy on having a relationship with God through the NIV.
And he read the NIV cover to cover every day.
That guy's not saved.
He said, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on a second.
Hold on a second.
But you're saying he read the Bible, though.
Well, here's the thing.
That's not the Bible.
Right.
Okay.
My sheep hear my voice, right?
And another will they not follow.
And here's a stranger will they not follow.
And look, yes, we believe that the King James Bible is that voice, right?
For the English-speaking people.
Yes.
Okay.
And if someone says, why read the NIV cover to cover, and I don't see nothing wrong with
it, you're following the voice of strangers.
And he's not, look, he's not having fellowship with God, he's having fellowship with devils.
Because it's a false version of the Bible.
You can't read that Bible and be a safe person with the Holy Spirit of God living within
you, and read all that false doctrine that's found within that book.
And that comes to the conclusion, I shouldn't be reading this, this is wrong.
Because if you're saved, you're gonna see all the false doctrine found within and say,
okay, this is wrong.
I need to find the real deal.
This is wrong.
Okay.
But true fellowship with God requires the Bible.
So how do we apply that practically?
You need to be reading your Bibles every single day.
And look, I come from a church where one of the men used to say all the time, it's not
about information, it's about inspiration.
Now, I disagree with that.
Because we need the information of God's Word.
Okay.
The Bible says that my people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge.
You know why Christians and churches are just being pummeled by the world, and by the devil,
and by the sodomites, and by false doctrine?
Because they're rejecting knowledge, the knowledge found within God's Word.
So yes, we need the information of the Bible.
We need to know the right doctrine, what the Bible says, every single aspect of the Word
of God.
But that does not negate the fact that yes, the Bible does inspire us.
That does not negate the fact that when we read the Word of God, yeah, we're fellowshipping
with God.
Those are God's words.
You know, when we're reading the Psalms.
Look, if you ever go through a tough time, go read the Psalms.
Because it's a book of a guy who went through a lot of hard times.
I mean, David didn't write the whole book of Psalms, but he wrote the majority of them.
And a lot of them, he wrote during times of trial, and tribulation, and turmoil.
You see the heart of a man who went through a lot of hard times, and he was inspired by
the Holy Ghost, wrote these words.
That's good fellowship right there.
You know, I can think back at times in my life when I went through a really dark time
in my life, and I read the book of Psalms, and it inspired me, it comforted me, it gave
me that which was necessary to continue to go forward for God.
You say, well, I'm not going through anything necessarily difficult right now.
But you will go through something difficult.
Trials are coming.
That's just part of it.
Especially when you're part of this church, amen?
You're going to go through it.
And what do you need?
You need to be reading God's Word.
You need to get familiar with the Word of God, but you also need fellowship with the
Lord.
Okay?
It's important to get information, but yes, we do need inspiration.
But it also requires prayer.
Okay?
How do you fellowship with God?
Through prayer.
Talking.
See, how do I get along with Mark?
Because I talk to Mark.
We talk.
We agree.
We talk together.
We're fellowshipping with one another.
We're using our words.
No, it's not just like, what if me and Mark were talking, and I'm just trying to build
this relationship with him, and I talk, and he's just like, I'm like, so how's your day,
Mark?
And he's just, I mean, you okay?
I'm like, something's wrong with, this guy went mute on me.
It'd be weird if it was a one-sided conversation, right?
So here's the thing.
You spend a lot of time reading God's Word, but do you spend time talking back to God?
Right?
Because God's talking to us through His Word, well, we've got to talk back to God through
prayer.
Right?
By worshiping Him.
By adoring Him.
By asking Him for things.
Okay?
By asking for wisdom.
And look, the liberals have taken this way out of, just out there.
But it does not negate the fact that we do have to pray.
Pray without ceasing.
That's good fellowship right there.
Okay?
That's, as the song says, the sweet hour of prayer.
Spend time praying to the Lord, getting to know Him, fellowshipping with Him.
And let me say this, this also requires a confession of sin.
Because the Bible says, can two walk together except they be agreed.
But if you have sin in your life, you can't fellowship with God.
You get what I'm saying?
Why?
Because the Bible teaches us that if we have sin, we can't fellowship with God.
There's no agreement with that.
We haven't confessed that we haven't forsaken our sin, therefore we can't have fellowship
with the Lord.
It's standing between us and our Lord.
Okay?
And look, obviously we don't know all the sins that we have.
But on a daily basis, we need to recognize the things that we have committed as best
as our ability.
Our minds can tell and confess those before the Lord, repent of those things, so we can
have the right relationship with the Lord.
Pray!
And look, one of the reasons, and I talked about, you know, for so many, be nice and
be compassionate and when you're out there, one of the reasons, a lot of reasons why people
are not compassionate enough, is honestly, in my opinion, they don't pray enough.
Because prayer softens the heart.
It really does.
It softens the heart.
And when you pray, because in order to come before God, you need to be humble, right?
You need to pray, it's in humility.
And what does it do?
It softens the heart and it tenderizes your heart so that when you're actually going out
there sowing it, you have that tender heart.
Okay?
It's good to know the Bible.
It's good to be zealous.
Look, there's a time to hate.
Amen?
But there's always a time to love, right?
The time to hate is right now.
We're going to be on the pulpit and we're going to be ripping on these false prophets
and reprobates.
But when we're out there, when we're out sowing, it's a time to love, showing compassion.
But we need to confess our sins on a day-to-day basis.
It says if we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and
do not the truth.
That's what the Bible says.
So these people who, you know, I've met saved people who are out in the world and they're
just living carnal, worldly, ungodly lives.
And they, you know, I'll ask them how they're doing and they're like, yeah, I'm good, you
know, I've still got my fellowship with God and, you know what I mean?
I still love the Lord, but they're out of church, they're smoking pot, they're drinking,
they're not reading God's word, they're not praying, they're not doing any of those things.
But yet they say they have fellowship with God.
They're lying.
You're a liar.
Because if you have sin and you say have fellowship with God, you're lying.
You're not doing the truth.
Okay?
But fellowship's important with God, first and foremost, obviously, right?
We gotta have good fellowship with God.
But let me say this, we also have to have good fellowship with other Christians.
Okay?
Learn how to get along with one another.
You need to learn how to get along with one another.
And I haven't heard, you know, that you don't get along with one another, but this is preventative,
amen?
Mark, get along with Chad or something, no, it's not.
I think everyone gets along here, but this is preventative.
We need to learn how to get along with one another.
You know why?
Because you're gonna get on someone's nerves.
Bottom line.
And don't, and look, don't be some pompous idiot and say, me?
Everyone loves me.
I'm the most likable guy here.
No.
You're probably the one who irritates everyone the most.
You need to learn how to get along with people.
Okay?
And, and how do you do that?
Well, first of all, with humility.
You know?
Because everyone likes a humble person.
You know?
They don't like a proud person.
It's like people resist pride.
You know what I mean?
You need to learn how to get along with others and, and be patient with others and just have
good fellowship with others.
Go to Acts chapter number, excuse me, go to 2 Corinthians chapter number 8.
2 Corinthians chapter number 8.
But look, fellowship is not just a matter of just, you know, we just hang out all the
time.
It has to be centered around something.
You know what I mean?
You know, you've got to center it around a cause.
Look what the Bible says in, excuse me, 2 Corinthians chapter number 8 and verse number
1.
This thing cut it off, let me see right here, I want to read it right.
2 Corinthians 8 and verse number 1, the Bible reads, Moreover, brethren, we do you to wit
of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia, how that in a great trial of
affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches
of their liberality.
For to their power I bear record, yea, and beyond their power they were willing of themselves,
praying us with much entreaty that we would receive the gift and take upon us the fellowship
of the ministering to the saints.
So see, this fellowship that they're having was centered around ministering to the saints.
There was a cause involved in this, okay?
And the problem is, a lot of churches, the ones that de-emphasize doctrine but they emphasize
fellowship, it just means just eating all the time.
Look, I'm all for eating, we just ate some carne asada right now and we're going to go
eat some more after this, but you know what, people don't come to church, I hope you don't
come to church just because of the food, right?
There's churches that are like that, that people only come to church because of what
they offer, as far as the food is concerned.
They don't care about the doctrine, they don't care about the preaching, they don't care
about anything, okay?
And that's what they consider to be fellowship, no, the fellowship needs to be centered around
a cause.
And what is the cause?
Ministering to the saints.
But let me say this, a cause even greater than that, preaching the gospel.
Some of the greatest fellowships that I've ever experienced is out there preaching the
gospel with someone right next to me.
Whether it's getting persecuted together or seeing someone saved together, it's the best.
It's the memories of a lifetime.
And your relationships are built even stronger, look, for our kind of church, we need to build
strong relationships here.
You know why?
Because the persecutors are going to be coming.
We need to back each other up.
We need not to have sissified Christians who just bolt at the very thought of persecution
coming our way.
No, have some thick skin.
Be willing to stand up for right, be willing to back up your brethren in Christ.
I was talking to Pastor Anderson on Thursday, and I said, man, I'm disappointed, man, I'm
disappointed.
And he was just like, why?
I was like, we haven't had protesters yet.
I was like, I feel like everyone in our movement has to, we just have to at least one.
And he's all, they don't have the guts to come here.
But he was super firm because of his almighty.
Not that nice of an area.
But I was just thinking, what strengthens a church is the persecution that comes from
the outside.
Well, actually, it does two things.
It weeds out the weaklings.
Which if you're weak, you're going to get out of here.
And I hope that is not said of anyone in our church.
But if that's you, see ya.
Because here's the thing.
If you are scared of that, I want you to leave.
You know why?
Because you're going to affect everyone else.
Because you'll be an example of everyone.
And look, fear is very contagious.
If one person's afraid and one other person sees that you're afraid, they're going to
get afraid and it's just going to scare, how many of you guys ever seen the feigning sheep
or goats?
What is that called?
They get scared of every, I mean you're like, ahh!
And they're just like, they're just, you guys ever see that?
Look it up on YouTube.
It's hilarious.
But you know what, there's a lot of Christians like that.
It's like, oh, the homos are going to, and they just like tip over.
And you don't need to do much to scare them.
We don't need Christians that are like that.
And look, if you're like that now, okay, strengthen up.
Gird up thy loins like a man.
And gird up thy loins of thy mind like a man.
You need to make sure that you are fortifying yourself, getting into, that's why the fellowship
with God is important.
Because look, if God be forced, who can be against us?
I know God is for you if you're not in God's Word.
The worst place, the worst time to get close to God is right in the middle of persecution.
Because you're just regretting, you're like, man, I wish I had read my Bible these last
couple months or whatever, you know.
The best time is like when you're reading your Bible and then it comes and it's just
like, okay, man, I've been ready for this.
Let's do it.
It's going to be fun, you know.
But it's important.
So fellowship, what am I saying?
Fellowship centered around the ministry of the saints.
And look, by the way, I'm not downplaying.
Most of us have gone through some sort of persecution, right?
Whether it's from family, it's from our church, it's from whoever.
But the fact of the matter is, we all need to be centered around and have fellowship
around a cause, preaching the gospel, ministering to the saints.
The Bible says in Galatians 2, 9, and when James, Cephas, and John, who seem to be pillars,
perceived a grace that was given unto me, they gave to me in Barnabas the right hands
of fellowship, that we should go into the heathen day unto the circumcision.
Now James, Cephas, and John were wrong about this, right?
Because they wanted to preach the gospel to only the Jews.
Okay?
Sorry, Milan.
Milan was like, please don't rip on the Jews.
He was joking.
He was like, don't rip on the Jews.
What's the sermon without, you know, serving on the Jews?
But they were wrong.
They wanted to only preach the gospel to the Jews.
You know?
But the concept is good because they gave Paul and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship.
So what did they do?
They teamed up with them.
They encouraged them.
And look, we want to be a blessing to those churches that are going to start just like
ours, right?
I mean, Pastor Anderson is thinking about starting a church in San Diego with Brother
Chad Morgan.
That's going to be exciting.
We want to be supportive of that.
Okay?
We want to pray for them.
We want to support them.
We want to be there for them.
We want to support those who believe like us.
Give them the right hands of fellowship.
Go to Philippians chapter number one.
Philippians chapter number one.
Fellowship is important.
Fellowship with God is important.
Fellowship with other Christians is very vital as well.
Getting along.
Establishing relationships.
Getting to know one another.
And if you're weird when you came to this church, one thing that will help you become
unweird is just building some relationships.
I'm serious.
It sounds funny, but it's true.
You know?
Because you start normalizing a little bit.
You know?
You start learning how to talk and how to take a joke.
And look, it's not a sin to joke, okay?
And to laugh every once in a while.
Mary Hart does good like a medicine.
You know?
And you need to learn.
You can't be so uptight all the time.
You've got to make sure you're having some fun, okay?
And you know, there's a time and place for everything, obviously, right?
But that doesn't mean we can't have fun in a Christian life.
I'm having a blast, you know?
I'm having a blast.
It's a great time.
And if you're not having a blast, something's wrong.
Something is wrong.
You know?
You say, well, I'm reading my Bible.
I'm praying.
I'm not excited about the Christian life.
You know, maybe you just need to be in church more often.
You know?
Stop missing services so much.
Be in church.
Be around God's people.
Learn how to get along with others.
And it'll help you a lot.
Verse 1 says, Paul Entomote is the servant of Jesus Christ to all the saints in Christ
Jesus which are at Philippi with the bishops and deacons.
Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all,
making requests with joy for your fellowship in the Gospel from the first day until now.
Look, this wasn't like for your fellowship, over that food, man, I think that was good
stuff right there.
No, he said in the Gospel.
That means he labored with them.
They're out sowing together, you know, preaching the Gospel.
And that strengthens relationships.
And verse 7 says this, excuse me, in verse number 27 says, only let your conversation
be as it become at the Gospel of Christ that whether I come and see you or else be absent,
I may hear of your affairs that you stand fast in one spirit with one mind, striving
together for the faith of the Gospel.
So what happens when you have fellowship of the Gospel?
You have, you're striving together for the faith of the Gospel, you're getting things
done.
Because it's easier to work with someone who you enjoy being with, right?
You encourage one another, you exhort one another, you're having a good time doing it
and you accomplish so much more.
So what are we saying?
We gotta have the right kind of fellowship.
And look, around Christmas, you better have the right kind of fellowship.
You know, maybe some of you have family members you go with and you visit, but you know what?
If they start doing things that are contrary to God's word, it's time to go home.
Time to go home.
You know?
And you need to make sure that you're having the right kind of fellowship.
We'll get into that just a little bit.
Go to Ephesians chapter number 5.
And look, don't get along.
Look, fellowship's important.
Why?
Especially if you work in the world or you're out in the world, you're going to run into
people who want to be your friends who are not Christians.
And the Bible commands us that we ought not to have fellowship.
What fellowship has righteousness without a righteousness, right?
Now look, if you're trying to win them to Christ, give them the Gospel, okay.
But you know what I found more often than not is that when people have relationships
in the world and the people are not saved, it's not because you're trying to give them
the Gospel.
Okay?
It's because you like their worldliness, you like their dirty jokes, you're laughing at
what they do, and guess what, you're giving the name of Christ a bad name.
And it's going to water you down as a Christian.
It's going to cause you to compromise.
You need to get out of that relationship, out of that friendship.
And look, let me say this, girls who are Christians ought not to have guy friends who are unsaved.
Can I say that again?
If you are a female Christian, you shouldn't be having friends who are not, who are guys
that are not saved.
Why is that?
Because what concord hath Christ with Belial?
What fellowship, that's an, you're unequally yoked, and let me say this, most girls, they're
naive.
Yeah, go ahead, look at me, hate me, whatever, it's the truth.
They're naive.
And you know what, it takes just one guy to sweet talk a girl, say the right kind of words,
and boom, they got her in the bag.
And look, you may not agree with me, but it's fact.
That's why it's important that girls, you look for someone who's in church.
Or you don't look for them, but you know what I mean.
The goal is to marry someone who's in church, is what I'm saying, right?
To be with someone who's in church, not some worldly, unsaved, yeah, but I believe I can
change them.
Look, the Christian one can't even change their Christian name.
That's hard, let alone an unsaved guy, okay?
So don't have fellowship, and guys, guys shouldn't have fellowship with girls who are unsaved,
alright?
Yeah, but I just think I can win her to Christ.
Well, how long have you been talking to her for, do you still have a winner?
You know what I mean?
And here's the thing, is I've known guys who were Christians, who were doing right, they're
getting right with God, they were getting sent out of their lives, and they just blew
it.
And they fornicated, they found some girl who God gave them, right?
You know, listen to my sermon on charging God foolishly, okay?
They found some girl, and what happened, they fornicated, they had a child at a wedlock,
and now they're a saved guy with an unsaved girl, and guess what, she doesn't wanna come
to church.
Now you got a problem, now there's conflict.
Because here's the thing, once the physical aspect of relationship is over and done with,
guess what, you wanna go to church and she doesn't.
And if you're not a strong leader in your home, you ain't gonna get her to come to church
with you, okay?
Now be a strong leader and get her to come to church, amen?
So this is what we're doing.
I'm not asking you to go to church, this is what we're gonna do, after you get married
obviously.
It's not like you wanna go to church, it's like, we're going to church, we're gonna leave
in 10 minutes.
I need 20 minutes to get ready, okay, but we're leaving in 10.
So, that's settled, you know?
And look, if you are gonna be a, if you're gonna have a successful marriage, if you're
gonna have a successful Christian life, you need to be strong.
And look, sometimes it's good to ask for someone's opinion, but you know what, most of the time,
if you're the man of your home, you need to just make the decision and just do it.
No questions asked.
I don't ask my wife for permission to go to church, I don't ask permission from my wife
for anything.
I'll ask for opinion on certain things, like, hey, you know, what do you think about this?
Or whatever, you know, because she has wisdom.
You know, the Lord has blessed me with a prudent wife, I'm very much thankful for.
But look, I'm the boss.
I don't, I'm not gonna ask her for permission to, you know, my kids, my son's not gonna
dictate whether we come to church or not, okay?
And we, I don't even know how I got off on that.
Where do I have eternity?
Ephesians chapter number five.
So what kind of fellowship should we avoid?
Okay, so we know the right kind of fellowship, right?
We need to have fellowship with God, we need to have fellowship with Christians, how do
we do that?
By being in church.
But here's the fellowship we ought to avoid.
First of all, the works of darkness.
Look at Ephesians 5, 5 says, For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, or
covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ, and
of God.
Let no man deceive you with vain words, for because of these things cometh the wrath of
God upon the children of disobedience.
Be not ye therefore partakers with them.
For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord.
Walk as children of light.
For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, and righteousness, and truth, proving what
is acceptable unto the Lord.
And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them,
the Bible says.
Now, there's so many avenues we can take with this, obviously we know that when we think
the unfruitful works of darkness, we think of Hollywood, you know, we think of the television,
and all this junk that's coming through the media.
It's like, we ought not to have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, amen?
But in contrast with what it's talking about here, it talks about the fruit of the Spirit.
Well, who's the one who provides the fruits of the Spirit?
The Spirit, right?
The Spirit is the one who produces the fruits within us.
And then it says to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works.
Well, in Galatians chapter number, what is it, six, it talks about the works of the flesh,
right?
So, what are we saying here?
Fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness.
Look, we ought to, as Christians, we need to develop spiritual habits and not always
feed the flesh.
You ever heard of a carnal Christian, Paul Washer?
You know, a carnal Christian does exist, all right, it's in the Bible, all right?
Now, yeah, Paul was carnal, right?
But here's the thing, how do you become a carnal Christian?
By feeding the flesh all the time, you know?
And you know why it's so hard for you to come to church, you know why it's so hard for you
to read the Bible, you know why it's so hard for you to do the things of God?
Because you just don't do them.
You're always just giving in to the flesh.
Fleshly appetites and fleshly desires and that's why you're weak, that's why you struggle
with sin, that's why you can't stop doing that thing that you do, that's why you can't
stop hanging around the person you hang out with, why?
Because you're constantly feeding the flesh.
Be strong in the Lord and the power is might, the Bible says.
We need to make sure that we're strong in the Lord and not giving in to the works of
the flesh.
We don't have fellowship with these things.
Don't entertain those things.
And look, often Christians, what they like to do, they don't want to sin, they just like
to get nice and close to sin.
And my father-in-law used to teach me, he used to say, look, you need to have standards
in your life because the standard is something that you have right here that keeps you away
from even being tempted to do that which is wrong.
Because here's the thing, if you violate a standard, well, you're still very far away
from the sin.
However, if you're close to the sin, if you fall, you're going to get right into the sin.
You know what I'm saying?
But if you have standards in your life, you have certain rules that you, not, and they're
not biblical rules, they're things and they're principles that are set, found within God's
word, but it's safeguards that you place in your personal life to keep you away from the
things that would entice you to do wrong.
Those are important to have in your life.
You know?
For instance, you know, single guys riding in cars alone with girls.
You know, the Bible does not say, thou shall not ride in a cart alone with a girl, right?
But is that the wisest thing to do?
You know?
Look, every man is a red-blooded man.
Okay, and if you're not, get out.
Get out.
Why is that?
Because men have a propensity to, there's a desire for women, okay?
If you don't have that desire, get out.
So why would you put that temptation there, the possibility to do that?
Now look, if you ride in a car alone with a girl, will you sit in a, I don't know, depends
on who it is, I guess.
Maybe you have the fortitude to be able to withstand that.
But the average man, I don't think, I don't think so.
Because here's the thing, look, or you say, well, we just hold hands.
Look, our relationship has to grow.
And once you hold hands, there has to come something after that, always, okay?
It's not like, well, we just held hands for five years.
Get out of here.
Shut up, you liar.
Something's wrong with you.
That's weird.
Look, that's why you just need to get married, right?
You just need to get married, and you can hold her hand all you want, and, you know,
it's important, okay?
That's why you vote for fornication.
Here's the solution to not fornicate.
Get married.
Amen?
That's the solution.
If you are a carnal Christian, and you're constantly feeding the flesh and feeding the
desires of your flesh, that's why you're not, like, that's why you're constantly struggling,
you know?
You need to make sure that you're setting disciplines in your life that will help you
out with these things.
But next, with unrighteous people, the Bible says, be not unequally yoked together with
unbelievers or what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness, what communion hath
light with darkness.
So obviously we know we're not supposed to fellowship with unrighteous people, okay?
If we're trying to win them to the Lord, and they're unsaved, that's one thing, but look,
to have your closest friends be unsafe people, there's a problem with that.
Okay?
You're like, yeah, but we've known you, we've been best friends.
That's my BBF, or whatever, BFF, what is it, BFF, right?
BB, I don't know what BFF, is that a channel station or something?
BFF, you know?
That's my best friend forever.
We've known each other forever.
Look, but they're not saved.
And if you're their BFF, why don't you witness to them?
Get them saved.
If you love them so much, yeah, but then, you know, I don't want to offend them.
You're going to offend them even more if they die and they go to hell, because you were
their friend, right?
Their BFF.
Right?
No, don't have, that's why it's important, the best friends you ought to have is right
here.
Amen?
And kids, children, the best friends you ought to have is your parents.
Amen?
You ought to get along with your parents, you ought to love your parents, you ought
to be able to get along with them and have them be the best friends that you have.
Not buddies, but your friends, is your parents, are your parents.
Now go with me forward to Exodus chapter 32.
I'm kind of all over the place with this, but just talking about fellowship.
What's another thing that we ought not to fellowship with?
Well, the Bible talks about having fellowship with devils.
And during Christmas, that's often a unseen sin of Christians.
You say, why is that?
The idolatry that takes place during Christmas.
You know, we ripped on Elf on a Shelf last week, and I hope you guys burned your elves
on a shelf and took away your Santa Claus and Dia de los Reyes and all that other stuff,
but that's common.
You know, one thing I forgot to mention really is the manger scene.
That's idolatry.
And look, I'll be honest with you, I didn't come to the knowledge of that until like a
few years ago.
Yeah.
You know, I just learned about that.
But once I learned about it, I rejected it.
Okay.
And it wasn't necessarily a tradition of my family, but it was something that was commonly
seen even at my old church.
You know, you just have a manger scene.
It was just this nice little manger scene and all these things, but that's idolatry.
That's not, that's wicked.
Okay.
And look, if you have a manger scene at your house, put that thing away, burn that thing,
throw it away.
It's not pleasing to God.
You want a manger scene?
Go read Luke chapter 2.
You'll find it right there.
Okay.
But look what the Bible says here in Exodus chapter 32.
Let me turn to myself.
Exodus chapter 32.
I was thinking about this this week.
Exodus chapter 32 and verses 1, the Bible says, and when the people saw that Moses delayed
to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron and
said unto him, up, make us gods which shall go before us, for as for this Moses, the man
that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we want not what has become of him.
And Aaron said unto them, break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives,
of your sons and of your daughters and bring them unto me.
And all the people break off the golden earrings which were in their ears and brought them
unto Aaron.
And he received them at their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool, excuse me, after he
had made it a molten calf.
And they said, these be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it and Aaron made proclamation and said, tomorrow
is a feast of the Lord.
And look what it says here.
And they rose up early on the morrow and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings
and the people sat down to eat and to drink and rose up to play.
Now go with me if you would to 1 Corinthians chapter number 10.
First Corinthians chapter number 10.
So the Bible says there in Exodus that they ate and drank and they rose up to play.
Now what does that mean?
Does it mean that they pulled out Scrabble and Monopoly and just started like doing ring
tosses?
What were they doing?
What does it mean to play, okay?
Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse number 1 says, Moreover, brethren, I would not that
ye should be ignorant, how that all of our fathers were under the cloud and all passed
through the sea and were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea and did
all eat the same spiritual meat and did all drink the same spiritual drink for they drank
of that spiritual rock that followed them and that rock was Christ.
But with many of them, God was not well pleased for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
Now these things were our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil
things as they also lusted.
Neither be, what, ye idolaters, as were some of them, as it is written, the people sat
down to eat and drink and rose up to play.
So we see the same thing, he's explaining what's taking place in Exodus and he said
they rose up to play.
We obviously know that's referring to idolatry, right?
But why would God say that they rose up to play?
What does that have to do with idolatry?
You know, I mean like were they, you know, dancing with idols?
Why would the Bible refer to that as playing?
Now go to Genesis chapter 38.
Look at the first, we're gonna look at the first mention of playing, played, that form
of the word.
The first time it's mentioned.
Genesis 38 and verse 24, the Bible says here, and it came to pass about three months after
that it was told Judah, Saint Tamar thy daughter-in-law hath, what, played the harlot and also behold
she is with child by whoredom and Judah said bring her forth, let her be burned, and so
on and so forth.
What is it talking about?
When it says being, when it talks about playing, it's talking about acting like some, behaving
like someone, right?
So the Bible says that these children of Israel, they rose up to play, and the Bible calls
that idolatry.
Now go to Jeremiah chapter number three.
Jeremiah chapter number three.
Why would God refer to that as playing?
Jeremiah chapter number three and verses one, the Bible reads here, they say if a man put
away his wife and she go from him and become another man's, shall he return unto her again?
Shall not that land be greatly polluted?
But thou has played the harlot with many lovers, yet return again to me, saith the Lord.
Now if you study the book of Jeremiah, what were the children of Israel guilty of?
Idolatry.
Which in Jeremiah, God relates it to as playing a whore, right?
Because they're relieving God and they're going to be a whore with these idols.
So when the Bible says that the children of Israel in Exodus rose up to play, they rose
up to play the whore, is what it's saying.
So let that sink in your ears to know that when you have manger scenes and idols in your
house and Santa Claus and all this stuff, you're playing the whore.
You're rising up to play.
Play what?
Play whore.
Is what you're doing.
Now that puts a different perspective on idolatry now, doesn't it?
No, idolatry is not that bad.
No, it's wicked.
It's very bad.
And anytime you always say, but it's baby Jesus, but you're playing the whore.
You're behaving like a whore, spiritually speaking.
Why?
Because you're using idolatry.
You're rising up to play, to act, to behave in such a way that's not pleasing to God.
And the Bible tells us, even in the 10 commandments, we shall have no other gods before us.
Make no molten image.
The Bible tells us over and over again, condemning idolatry, we ought not to be a part of that.
Now the Bible also talks about, in Colossians chapter 3 and verse number 8, it talks about
idolatry being like covetousness.
You may say, well, I don't have any idols in my house, but look, you know, during this
Christmas season, a lot of people become covetous, right, because we want things.
And when's the time to get it?
Christmas.
You know?
No, we need to make sure we're...
God is using that as a metaphor.
He's using that as an example.
It's obviously not the same as making an actual molten image to commit idolatry.
But God is saying, you're worshiping this thing that you want.
Why?
Because you're spending all your time, your effort, your money, and it's something that
you want and you can't have.
That's covetousness.
You're idolizing this item that you want, okay?
And we as Christians need to make sure that during this Christmas season, we need to practice
this matter of contentment.
Be content with such things as you have.
Okay?
Now, look, and you know what?
When you're content, you're going to appreciate those gifts way more.
Because when you're content with what you have, once you get the gifts, you're like,
wow, I get more.
Praise the Lord.
Awesome.
I'm thankful for it.
You know the brattiest kids?
You know the ones...
I've met kids who don't appreciate anything.
I mean, they'll get the bombest gifts for Christmas.
And it's just like, oh, yeah, you know, it's just like, oh, yeah, thanks, you know.
They'll play for like an hour and then they'll be done away with.
You know why?
Because they're just covetous.
The parents have taught them to be covetous.
They just give them everything that they want.
But you know, when you teach them contentment, they appreciate the things that they have
a lot more.
I mean, my wife comes from a large family.
What I mean large is like eight children, which obviously is not necessarily large in
comparison to those in the Bible.
I mean, in our society, that's pretty big.
Eight kids is a lot of kids.
And you know, when you have eight kids, you can't necessarily buy everyone everything.
Right?
But you know what my father-in-law and my mother-in-law would do?
They would just give them these simple gifts from the 99 cent store.
And my wife said, we loved it.
They'll give them like two bucks each or something to go buy something or they'll just give them
something very simple from the 99...
Stickers.
Like stickers for Christmas.
Hey, they loved it.
You know, because if you're content with what you have, anything sounds good.
When you get anything, it's like, wow.
But when you get everything you want, the full soul loatheth in honeycomb, right?
You don't even appreciate the honey that you get.
So you got to make sure that during this time, you're practicing contentment so you can appreciate
the things that you have.
Now, look, if you already have all the things that you want, okay, well, I don't know what
you got to do.
Give it away to someone or something, you know?
And then thou shall have treasure in heaven, amen?
But if you're like, you know, I just want this, I want this, why don't you just practice
being appreciating the things that you do have?
Start with this, with your family.
Be thankful that you have your family, your wife, your son, your husband.
Appreciate those things.
So when you get something more than that, man, you're very much thankful for it.
You know, don't play the horror during Christmas.
You know, don't commit idolatry with molten images.
But of course, don't be covetous either.
What's the message today?
We want to make sure that during this time, we have the right type of fellowship, okay?
And look, when you have molten images in the manger scene, you're having fellowship with
devils.
You're exaggerating.
The Bible says it, okay?
And when we're having fellowship with devils, the Bible says we're playing the horror.
And so, let's have the right type of fellowship.
I mean, tonight, we're going to have some good fellowship, amen?
Don't leave right away, don't take off, don't sprint, you know?
I know your tías waiting, but you know what?
I'm Hispanic too.
They're going to stay up till 1 o'clock in the morning.
Okay, so you're good, all right?
You can fellowship for like an hour or something and then go home, and they're going to be
up till 3 o'clock in the morning, all right?
Because the presents don't open till 12 for Hispanics, all right?
I know that for a fact, all right?
Now, as the families get older, the time decreases to like 10, then 9 or something, because they're
tired or whatever.
Let's go ahead and bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for this time.
Thank you so much for the right kind of people we can have fellowship with.
I pray that you'd help us, Lord, to disregard maybe some fellowships that we shouldn't have.
Maybe it's a coworker in our job.
Maybe it's even a family member who's not saved, but just not a right influence in our
life.
Lord, it's not like we have to separate from them completely, but we shouldn't have fellowship
with them.
We should desire to want to witness to them, get them saved, and so we can have fellowship
with them.
But I pray that you would help us to emphasize the fellowship found within the local church
and to have the right fellowship, and especially during this time, help us to reject the ungodly
practices of fellowship, the idolatry, the playing the whore, rising up to play, and
covetousness, and things that displease you and make us carnal.
And I pray that you'd help us during this time, Lord.
Thank you so much again for all that you do, in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Amen.