Fellowshipping Together

Pastor Dale Tunnell: A happy Sabbath, church family.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: It is good to be with you.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: We missed you last week.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Ah, it is good to be home.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Last Sabbath we were worshiping in Paris.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: at the International Church there with our granddaughter.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: This was her dream vacation where she wanted to go.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Paris, France.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I want to see the Eiffel Tower.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: So we saw the Eiffel Tower.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: How long does it take to see the Eiffel Tower?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: We saw it from several different angles.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: different places around town.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: But I'm going to tell you, our feet were tired.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: There was a lot of walking involved, but we had a good time.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And when we arrived back home here Thursday evening, our granddaughter said she had a great trip.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: If you can believe her.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Her grandparents had a great trip.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And uh we hope that uh she will remember it

Pastor Dale Tunnell: We had fun.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I thought when I uh heard the announcement for the uh children's church

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I thought maybe we should just continue Sabbath school.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: All the children have disappeared.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: So I thought maybe it was a good time to continue Sabbath school because I don't know about you, but uh

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Our teacher, he ran out of time.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean, what was it, Curtis?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Did we get to Wednesday?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean, did you guys cover all the lesson?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Some of you have no clue what I'm talking about, the Sabbath school lesson?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Well, I'm gonna tell you, this Sabbath school lesson this week, it was one that uh

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Some people were agonizing against, about, didn't want to hear about it.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Some people were excited that they finally get to talk about something real and practical.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Uh some people were uh not sure where the Sabbath school lesson was going to go based upon your teacher or based upon the people in the the the Sabbath school group that you were part of, and if you were not part of a Sabbath school class, I'm sorry for you.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Sabbath school is more important than the worship service.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Just gonna let you know.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I think I heard some Sabbath school teacher say that today.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Uh he did not know I was listening, but I was just around the corner when I heard him say it and uh But uh I will agree.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Sabbath school is uh a place where I mean, have you ever been part of a Sabbath school class?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: You just

Pastor Dale Tunnell: You just hunger for Sabbath school.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean, I remember going to a uh a Sabbath school class where their Sabbath

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Worship starts at 8 a.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: m.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: on Sabbath morning.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: So Sabbath worship starts at 8 a.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: m.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: and goes from 8 to 10.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And then at 10 o'clock, they transition to Sabbath school time.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And Sabbath school goes from 10 o'clock till noon.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Or until the Sabbath school is finished.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I'm gonna tell you that those Sabbath school classes, sometimes they did not finish at noon.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: They continued and continued.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean the the fellowship there in those Sabbath school classes.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Sometimes it was

Pastor Dale Tunnell: the the discussion was so good, so exciting, it was y you just didn't want to stop.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Sometimes there were two people that you could

Pastor Dale Tunnell: You could hear the debate, the tension that was going back and forth and and they didn't want to stop and the rest of us were finished.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: But have you been part of the Sabbath school class where you you just you you hungered for Sabbath school

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean, a a Sabbath school class that every week you you look forward to to getting there because it was your place of of belonging.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: It was your place of

Pastor Dale Tunnell: of giving uh additional insight.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Maybe it was a a Sabasco class, maybe it was a small group that you were part of, maybe it was a a a a fellowship group.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: You you you just found your place of belonging.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: You you knew that you were going to get into the Bible.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: You knew that you were going to get into God's words.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: You knew that you were going to get a feast.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: and you knew that you were going to be sharing ideas and you knew that people were going to be listening to you.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I remember talking to to individuals that were in college and these individuals that were in college when they when they graduated and they they went from college back to their home churches, they were so

Pastor Dale Tunnell: so frustrated with Sabbath school because in their college Sabbath schools they had found places of belonging

Pastor Dale Tunnell: places where people were were sharing ideas where where growth was occurring and they they or maybe you've had a Sabbath class of

Pastor Dale Tunnell: of of young adults of or maybe it was a new married Sabbath school class and it was a place that a as the the weeks went by, the months went by, the years went by, or maybe it was a place that it was the

Pastor Dale Tunnell: the people with young families, with with young children.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And it was a place where the the the the things that were shared there, it was a it was unique.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: It was a a place of of fellowship.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: A place where

Pastor Dale Tunnell: camaraderie was built, a place where you you just came to or maybe it was the children were all in school and you you you all had similar

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean you had children that were similar ages and you you did things together as families.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: You would it was not just Sabbath school class, it was not just small group, but it was the activities that you did.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: During the week, uh the activities that you did on Sabbath afternoon, activities that you did through the week with with the children, with the families, but you found that place of belonging.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: That place of fellowship.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Have you ever felt that?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Three of you.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Four, five, six, seven, ten.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Okay, some of you.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And then something happens.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Things change.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Somebody moves or you move or or or or life

Pastor Dale Tunnell: continues on and things change as life continues to change and the dynamics change and suddenly you're looking back at what used to be with some nostalgia

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Oh, I wish I had a group like that now.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean, do any of you ever think, oh, I would love to go back to my college Sabbath school class?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Oh, the things we talked about, the wisdom I have to share with them now, that I didn't have then.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Oh, wouldn't it be fun to go back to your college Sabbath school school class

Pastor Dale Tunnell: You look back at some of those places in life, some of those places where you felt that belonging, and you say, how can I

Pastor Dale Tunnell: How can I recreate that?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: How can I I carry that with me?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: How can I I I trans

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Expose it to another place at another time.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: That I don't have the same people.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: We don't have the same dynamics.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Life has changed so much.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: How do we how do we get that back

Pastor Dale Tunnell: This morning I got in the car and started the car, pushed the button and it started and as soon as it started the

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Radio came on.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: It's always on in my car.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I don't like silence very much.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Lucky for me I keep it on uh Gospel Radio.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And the song that came on is

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I can call it one of my favorites.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I have so many favorites.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: But you know the song.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: The Family of God.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: We've sung it here several times, but uh the history of the song.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Gloria writes about it.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Gloria Gaither, who helped write the song.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Bill and Gloria wrote the song, Family of God.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: She writes about it and she says Ron and Darlene Gardner were part of their church group.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: She says, Bill and I were members of the church of in Alexandria, Indiana.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: We were not very prominent members in the church, but we were there fairly regularly.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Ron and Darlene were there with their three children.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And one Sunday morning, let's try that again.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: It was a Saturday

Pastor Dale Tunnell: After Good Friday.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: That Ron went to work for the garage.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: He was serving as a mechanic.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: He was making up time that he had taken off the previous Thursday to take his little daughter for some tests prior to an anticipated heart surgery.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: While Ron was working with combustible material, there was an explosion.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: He managed to be blown through large double doors, but the building went up with flames

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And Ron's body was covered with burns.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: The doctor said if Ron could just make it through the night, that maybe he had a chance of living

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And so the church made phone calls to the other members in church, and they had a prayer meeting, and everybody was praying.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: For Ron.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Little groups, big groups, at homes, at the church, over the phone.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: The church was kept open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And people would meet at the church and they would pray, they would talk, they would beg Jesus, just praying for Ron for his life.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: First twenty-four hours Ron lived.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: They said, well, he has a better chance now.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: They continue praying.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Continue praying.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: A week later they got together.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: The congregation was

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Mournful and sad, but yet happy that Ron was still alive

Pastor Dale Tunnell: The church began to communicate with each other even more.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: There were tears that day of joy and praise, gratitude, but also about pledges of how that they were going to help the family

Pastor Dale Tunnell: They talked about things that they would need, they pledged that they would would help to watch the three children.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: They would pledge about spending time at the hospital.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: The blood for transfusion was pledged, money was pledged, meals.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: long months of support while the healing process was going to go on.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: These things were were pledged that week.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: After services that day, as Gloria is writing, she says, Bill and I were so full of beauty of all that we could hardly speak on the way home

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Finally we said something to each other.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: They do that for us too

Pastor Dale Tunnell: It was words of of hope, but it was words of question because Bill and Gloria were not really role models.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: At the church.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: They weren't there on a regular basis.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: They weren't able to to teach regularly because of their schedule.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: They couldn't

Pastor Dale Tunnell: couldn't hold regular positions in the church.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And so as they made this statement, they'd do that for us too.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: It was a matter of of of a statement of of faith, but it was also a matter of of

Pastor Dale Tunnell: questioning.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: They'd do the same thing for us too, wouldn't they?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: It wasn't because that Bill and Gloria were worthy of it at that time.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Some of us might say they were worthy of it today.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: But at that time, they sat down and wrote the hymn, The Family of God

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Because they felt the family fellowship at that time.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Today I wanted us to focus on fellowship.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: It's a nice word

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Fellowship.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Koinonia.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: The church, the called out ones, have fellowship with one another

Pastor Dale Tunnell: What does it mean for us to fellowship together?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Now, we heard the announcement this morning, something that is happening tonight, and that is

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Is Game Night qualify as fellowship?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Okay.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: We heard announcements

Pastor Dale Tunnell: this morning about women's ministry getting together and they're going to to to watch a movie together and and

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I heard that the men's ministry is going to do something soon.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I haven't read about it yet, but I've I've I've heard such is going to happen.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: The these ideas that we have of of the women getting together and watching a movie or the the the men getting together and having brunch together or or these kinds of activities, is that what Scripture is talking about when it says

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Fellowship.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Now maybe that's there's a process

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I have written down is watching football together, fellowship.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Is playing games together at game night fell uh

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Fellowship is is playing golf or pickleball or or going boating, fishing, or hiking, is that fellowship?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Is that what Scripture is talking about when it talks about about fellowship?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I invite you to open your Bibles to 1 John chapter 1, where we had our scripture reading today.

1 John 1 · chapter mention

Pastor Dale Tunnell: First John chapter one.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Yes, it's not on the screen today, so you'll have to uh

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Open your Bible.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: First John chapter one.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: We're getting reading here in verse one.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: It says

Pastor Dale Tunnell: That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled concerning the word of life

Pastor Dale Tunnell: The life was manifested and we have seen and bear witness and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: That which we have seen and heard, we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son, Jesus Christ.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And these things we write to you, that your joy may be full.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Pause for a second in our in our reading here of this chapter.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: When John is writing this

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And I say John because most Bible scholars believe that it is John, even though he does not identify himself specifically.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: The writing structure of 1 John is very similar to what we have in the Gospel of John.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: The introduction here in John chapter 1, I mean 1 John 1 1

John 1 · chapter mention

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Is very similar to the introduction in the Gospel of John.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: So many individuals believe that it is John the disciple that is writing first John.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And for that reason, uh the time period that this book shows up, we be we think that it was sort of in the ninety to one hundred AD time period.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: If that's true, John is now

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Well, we'll just call him old.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I know we don't like that word, but he is the senior statesman

Pastor Dale Tunnell: of the church.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: He's writing because he has seen a lot.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: He he's writing about, he says, that which we have seen, that which we have looked at, that's what we have

Pastor Dale Tunnell: have handled with our hands that concerning the word of life.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: He is writing about what he has experienced.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: He is writing because of what he sees

Pastor Dale Tunnell: in the church.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Many people fall in love with 1 John because oh it's just a wonderful book of the Bible

Pastor Dale Tunnell: What no amen there?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: It's just a wonderful book of the Bible.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean, it's one of those books of the Bible that you can summarize in one word.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Love.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean, we we like that word love, don't we?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: If we like that word love, you're gonna love 1 John because it's all about love.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean that's what what John is trying to to describe to us.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: He's trying to to get us to understand what true love is

Pastor Dale Tunnell: We come down to verse 3 here.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: It says, That which we have seen and heard, we declare to you that you also may have fellowship with us.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Notice he's talking about, he wants us to have fellowship with us, that is, the believers, that is the body of Christ.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: That is the church family.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: He wants people to have fellowship with one another and also to have fellowship with God.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Because those two things are not

Pastor Dale Tunnell: incompatible.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: In fact, if you study scripture, those two things are very compatible

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Those two things are necessary.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: God is, in fact, if you're going to be reconciled with God, God wants you to be reconciled with the church, the body of Christ, the believers in Christ.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: That reconciliation, the church, that's the the people that are being saved.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: That's the the called out ones

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And so he is saying you can have fellowship with us as well as fellowship with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And these things rewrite to you, so that your joy may be full.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Now we talk a lot about joy.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do you want full and complete joy?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Yes, that's why John is writing, John is writing, so that we may have full and complete joy.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: We continue reading here.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: This is the message which we have heard from him, and declare to you that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: If we say that we have fellowship with him, we walk in darkness and lie, and do not practice the truth.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and with the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Cleanses us from all sin.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Notice Did I do something?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: We're still back on?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Okay.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Devil tries to mess with me with this microphone stuff, so I understand how the devil works on that part.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Verse 6, if we say that we have fellowship with we walk in darkness, we lie, and do not practice the truth.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do we want to be those kind of people?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean, many people say they want fellowship with God, but they don't want fellowship with the church.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Is that even possible?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Fellowship with God carries over to our fellowship with one another.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: God is a God of fellowship.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: God is the creator God.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: He said, let us make man in our image.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: He wanted to have a relationship with mankind

Pastor Dale Tunnell: God is a fellowshipping God.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: He wants to He wants to hang out with us.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: He wants to come down and talk with man.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And He wanted it in Genesis to come down and talk with man.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: He wanted to have that relationship with them, but then things got in the way.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean, today he longs to have that same kind of relationship with us today

Pastor Dale Tunnell: That he had with Adam and Eve in the beginning in the garden.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: He wants to walk with us.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: He wants to talk with us

Pastor Dale Tunnell: He wants us to have that time of prayer.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: He wants us to open our Bibles.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: He longs for us to pray to Him and to communicate with Him and tell Him the desires of our heart.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: He wants to have that kind of intimate relationship with us

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Turn your Bible, 1 Corinthians chapter 1.

1 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I want to look at some more of the Bible texts that use this word fellowship.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: We're gonna come back to John, first John there, but uh want us to go to First Corinthians chapter one

Pastor Dale Tunnell: First Corinthians chapter one, verse nine.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Notice what Paul says here using this word fellowship.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: It says, God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: called into the the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Turn again this time to Ephesians chapter 3

Ephesians 3 · chapter mention

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Ephesians chapter three.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I know it's easier for me when it's on the screen also, so uh

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Ephesians chapter three, verse nine here

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Ephesians three.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I see, I probably need to read eight also.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: It says, To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery from which the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God, who created all things through Jesus Christ

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Notice both John and and Paul are talking about a fellowship, a fellowship that takes place in the relationship with Jesus Christ.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Turn again this time to Philip.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Philippians Chapter One Philippians Chapter One

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Uh we'll start at verse three.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Philippians chapter one.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Says, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine, making requests for you with all joy

Pastor Dale Tunnell: for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing that he who has begun a good work in you

Pastor Dale Tunnell: We'll complete it.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Paul is saying that that we have that fellowship with God

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Your fellowship in the gospel from the first day that you accepted Jesus Christ, that that that fellowship of there, that that that place of of belonging, still there in Philippians, turn over chapter, chapter two.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Verses 1 and 2 it says, Therefore, if there be any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit

Pastor Dale Tunnell: if any affection and mercy fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, and of one mind.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Notice it says if there be any fellowship of the Spirit.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: God's ideal is for us to have fellowship

Pastor Dale Tunnell: For us to have that place of belonging, for us to have that connection, for us to feel at home with our relationship with Jesus Christ, with our relationship with God.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: But we live in the real world.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Our relationship with God is broken.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: It is shattered.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: We have sin in our lives that have separated us from God.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And our fellowship with God is not what it should be.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Paul talks about, I'm going to take you through again a list of Bible texts here, talking about the brokenness of fellowship

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Go back to 1 Corinthians.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: 1 Corinthians chapter 10, talking about this brokenness.

1 Corinthians 10 · chapter mention

Pastor Dale Tunnell: 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 20.

1 Corinthians 10:20

Pastor Dale Tunnell: 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 20, it says, Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God.

1 Corinthians 10:20

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And I do not want you to have fellowship with what?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Demons.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Paul is reminding the people here, you have two two options for fellowship.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Fellowship with God or fellowship with Oh man, wait, wait, wait, what that claims We don't like

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Those words.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: That's kind of harsh to put it that way.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: In our Sabbath school lesson, we read a different one, Second Corinthians chapter six.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: You may have not read it in your Sabbath school lesson, but it was referenced in the lesson this week in 2 Corinthians.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: We didn't get there.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: We'll get there later in the quarter.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: 2 Corinthians chapter 6.

2 Corinthians 6 · chapter mention

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Verse fourteen

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Says, do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness, and what communion has light with darkness?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Fellowship with unrighteousness, with lawlessness

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean, Paul is raising up the choices that we have, that of a fellowship with demons or that of a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Fellowship with lawlessness or or or fellowship with God?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Ephesians chapter five

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Verse eleven

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Paul challenges us here.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: He says, but have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: This idea of fellowship is important for us.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: It's important for us as a church family to understand what fellowship is.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: It's important for us to understand that there is a

Pastor Dale Tunnell: a fellowship with darkness as well as a fellowship with light.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I want you to go back to our scripture that we've been looking at, 1 John chapter 1.

1 John 1 · chapter mention

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Back to first John one.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Our scripture reading for today

Pastor Dale Tunnell: But if we walk in the light as he is in the light

Pastor Dale Tunnell: We have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all sins.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: If we walk in the light as he in the light, we have what?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Fellowship with

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Notice it says we have fellowship with one another.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: For the last three months, we've been talking about one another text.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: The last three times I have spoken, we have been talking specifically those one another texts, having to deal with

Pastor Dale Tunnell: hospitality or or or how we as a church are are relating to to guests, how we are relating to the outsider, the things that we are are providing for them

Pastor Dale Tunnell: today is is fellowship.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: This fellowship is is more than just

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I want to say it's more than just quality time.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: More than just quantitative time.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: This is something something deep that occurs.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean when John writes this, I I I wrote down I I

Pastor Dale Tunnell: John writes here verse 7, it says, But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And my first thought when I when I read that

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I wonder if John is reminiscing about Acts.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Chapter 2 You know how it describes it there in Acts chapter 2 verse 42

Acts 2:42

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I'm going to read verse start at verse 40, Acts 2, starting with verse 40.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And it says, And with many other works he testified and exhorted them, saying, Be saved from this perverse generation.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I'll translate that for you.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Be saved from the demons of the world.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Okay?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: be saved from the demons of the world.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Then those who gladly received his word were baptized, and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Verse 42, and they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I wonder if what John is remembering here when he writes this verse 7: But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I wonder if he's he if he's thinking back about what it was like in the in the early days of the church, the the fellowship that they had in in that generation.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Is it possible to take that fellowship?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And to and and to carry it down 50, 60, 70, 80 years later, is it possible for us to have that same kind of fellowship today?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And in his mind, it is possible because he says with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all sin.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: He has in his mind about Jesus bringing fellowship.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: He has in his mind about what can be accomplished with the blood of Jesus Christ.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do we realize that Jesus' death on the cross brings fellowship with one another?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Oh, I'm glad I got an Amen there.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean when I was reading about this this fellowship and and doing some study on it

Pastor Dale Tunnell: One of the things that uh one of the the speakers pointed me to was to Leviticus chapter three.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I know we don't study Leviticus chapter three.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Those Leviticus 1, the sacrifices there, 2 more sacrifices, 3, more sacrifices, 4, more sacrifices, 5, more sacrifices.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Chapter six and seven, repeating one, two, three, four, five.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: But chapter three there talks about a a special sacrifice, the sacrifice of

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Peace offering.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Or if you have the New International Version and some of the other modern translations, it says the sacrifice of fellowship, the fellowship offering

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Now it doesn't say it specifically there in in chapter three, but it it covers it again in chapter seven when it re talks about all these.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: But that sacrifice there, it was a sacrifice that people brought and they would lay their hands on this sacrifice

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And then the blood was shed, and then the intricals of the Yeah, it describes it, they were taken out and were sacrificed on the altar, the the fat and the the

Pastor Dale Tunnell: organs that were there were sacrificed on the altar.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: That sacrifice was was given to God.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: This is the fellowship offering.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And then the meat of that was taken, and there was a meal that was prepared with that meat

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And with that meal, the the person who had laid their hands on it and their family and the the priest were supposed to eat that fellowship meal together.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Yeah, sometimes we we we think that we we when we talk about the cross we think we're talking only about the sin offering

Pastor Dale Tunnell: But we forget that these other offerings are talking about the cross also

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Jesus is the the the the fellowship offering.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do we understand that?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Leviticus 3 is talking about a fellowship offering.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Jesus is the fellowship offering.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Jesus is what is going to unite us and to bring fellowship into our church family.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: It happens because of what Jesus did at the cross.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I'm not going to cover it too much today.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I'm just going to mention it quickly.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Deuteronomy chapter 14 talks about a tithe

Deuteronomy 14 · chapter mention

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And it talks about what many scholars refer to as the third tithe.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I know we often emphasize tithe number one, that's the tithe that goes to the Levites, but there's also a second tithe that is talked about there in the Old Testament.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And there's also this Deuteronomy, a third tithe.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: They talk about this as a third tithe for two reasons, because there are two other previous tithes, but also this tithe specifically it says you've you have this tithe that you've saved up for year number three

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And this is a tie that you are supposed to use for fellowship

Pastor Dale Tunnell: If you want to look it up, you can look up.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I'm going to give you the verses here.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Deuteronomy 14, 28 and 29.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: It talks about that special third tithe, which is for the fellowship, that you are supposed to provide a meal

Pastor Dale Tunnell: For the fatherless, for the widows, and for the priests, and you to eat together

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Think about that.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: If we if we started, you know, tithe one.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Don't stop giving tithe one.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Tithe two.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Start giving tithe two if you're not doing it yet.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Tithe three.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: What would happen if we started having a tie?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: You know, tithe just means 10%.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: It's not a, they're not all the same ties.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Many people get confused when they study this because they think it's all the same ties.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: But another 10%.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: If we started spending another 10% on fellowship.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Collecting it so that we could have fellowship that took care of the what is described there in Deuteronomy 14, the fatherless

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Some people say the orphans because another part of scripture talks about the orphans and the widows.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: This idea of of of fellowship, this begins with God.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: God is that God of

Pastor Dale Tunnell: of fellowship.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean God created man, he says, Let us create man in his image.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: God said it is not good for man to be alone.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: There was there was fellowship.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: That Leviticus three, that that fellowship offering.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: The the Deuteronomy fourteen, that that fellowship tithe.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: God said, let them build me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean, this idea of fellowship is is continues throughout Scripture if our eyes will just open to the additional possibilities.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Matthew 18 was talked about in our Sabbath school lesson this week as well.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Matthew 18, I'm going to read to you a different part than what we talked about in Sabbath school, though.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Matthew 18.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: If you want to turn there.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Matthew eighteen verses nineteen and twenty

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Notice what it says.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: For where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there in the midst of them.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I'm glad I got a amen there.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Isn't that wonderful news?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Are you sure?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: We talked about in Sabbath school today this idea of what we believe and the idea of what we practice.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: If we believe it, if we believe what the text says there, what should we do

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Practice it.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do you call somebody and say, hey, can you get together with me?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Because I need to pray.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I want a prayer partner.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I want somebody to pray with me.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do you have a prayer partner?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do you have somebody that you pray with?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do you have two or three that get together so that you can pray?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: So that you can be in the presence of what'd it say?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Jesus said, There I am

Pastor Dale Tunnell: In your midst, right?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do you get someone else together with you to pray?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I mean I I I I I love what we do.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: We we we we we have prayer meeting, we have we have prayer time be before Sabbath school, we have the the prayer cards that come up and are collected with the with for the elders to pray.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Sharon has a prayer list.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: There's a prayer list in the bulletin.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And you need to be praying about those things by yourself.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: But do you realize what happens when you get together with somebody else and you begin to pray about these kind of things?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: What does scripture say

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I didn't hear what you said.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: That's not the part I want you to hear just yet.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Verse 19.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: What does verse what does Matthew 18 verse 19 say there

Matthew 18:19

Pastor Dale Tunnell: It will what?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Oh man alive.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do you do you see what that says?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: That's like handing you a blank check, isn't it?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do we get together like that so we can pray?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: What happens if you get together with somebody like that and you begin to agonize in prayer over these kind of things?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I'm gonna tell you what happens.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Fellowship.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: The things that you are praying like that for, it it it it it occurs.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: What could happen?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: As I was reading this week, preparing for the message today, I read

Pastor Dale Tunnell: one heaven's pastor he wrote, When it comes to soul winning

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Ninety-five percent of soul winning is done by fellowship and five percent by teaching.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: My head spun when I read that.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Because that's not where we spend our money.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: That's not where we spend our time.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: That's not where we spend our energy.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: We spend our energy on teaching

Pastor Dale Tunnell: So I scratched my head when I read that and said, I wonder what would happen if we spent more time, energy, effort, and money on fellowship.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Would the teaching happen quicker?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I've often said it, and you you've heard me say it from up here before.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I'm going to say it again: that what happens in the lobby is more important than what happens in the sanctuary.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: What happens in the fellowship hall is more important than what happens in the sanctuary

Pastor Dale Tunnell: This concept of fellowship is extremely important.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Psychologist Arthur Aaron, he claimed that he can cause two people to fall in love.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: If they will just take time to answer 36 questions.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Share their answers with each other.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And then after those thirty-six questions, if they will look into each other's eyes,

Pastor Dale Tunnell: For an extended period of time.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I've read the questions.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I've shared the questions with young adults that are interested in getting married.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: The concept is because those questions are asking such intimate questions

Pastor Dale Tunnell: That the level of intimacy continues to grow until you get to question 36.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: You are deep in intimacy and what you have revealed of yourself and what the other person has revealed to you.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And it can take some time for that to occur.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: But I wonder what happens in the church when we

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Oh, I don't want to say it.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: What a conversation I heard in our Sabbasco class.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: We're kind of scared to ask those questions.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: There are things that we don't want to be intimate about in our relationship as a church family.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Things that we don't want to discuss.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I think of questions we used to ask

Pastor Dale Tunnell: individuals to lead them to a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: If you were to die tonight, would you have eternal life

Pastor Dale Tunnell: What would happen if the elders started coming to your church and asking you that question?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And the follow-up question.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: If you were to die tonight and you were to arrive at the gate of heaven

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And we'll just say Gabriel was there to ask you, why should I let you into heaven?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: What answer would you give him?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: If we begin to ask those questions, are we getting a little bit too intimate with each other?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Are we comfortable with that?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: With our level of fellowship?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: In the church.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: How's your walk with Jesus going?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Are you growing in Jesus the way you want to be growing?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Is there anything I can do to help you grow more like Jesus?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: More like you want to grow like Jesus

Pastor Dale Tunnell: What did Jesus do for you this week?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: What interest of prayer have you had this week?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Is it possible that we could write a sec uh section of thirty-six questions that we could grow in our

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Our intimacy and our church with one another

Pastor Dale Tunnell: What is it we want for each other?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do we want to simply come to church and hear the beautiful music?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do we want to come to church and have a lively discussion in our Sabbath school classes?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do we want to come to church?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Yeah, what is our purpose?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: My desire for you, my desire for me is to have a church family that desires me to be in heaven with them.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And I want you in heaven with me.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: That means there are going to be times that when the fellowship

Pastor Dale Tunnell: If we're going to truly grow, we're going to experience some challenges.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: We're going to experience some difficulties.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: We're going to to to ask one another the difficult questions.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Oh, but then the fellowship can be so sweet.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: So, so sweet.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Joseph Scrivan wrote a poem for his mother in 1855.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: She was not doing well.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: They were living in Ireland.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: He never intended that poem to turn into a hymn.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: See, Scrivan had endured immense personal tragedy in his life.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Including the accidental drowning of his fiancee

Pastor Dale Tunnell: The day before the wedding

Pastor Dale Tunnell: A few years later, engaged again, weeks before the marriage, his fiance died.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Health-related issues.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: And yet in in 1855 he sat down and he wrote a poem for his mother

Pastor Dale Tunnell: The poem is the hymn of our closing song.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: What a friend we have in Jesus!

Pastor Dale Tunnell: You know the words.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Open your hymnal 499.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: He's writing this for his mother after these kind of things happen in his life.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: He says, What a friend we have in Jesus.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: All our sins and griefs to bear, what a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Oh what peace we often forfeit.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Oh what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: God in prayer.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Do we understand the fellowship that God wants for us?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Jesus provided it.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Jesus.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Try one more time.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Jesus provided it for us on the cross.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: He paid the price not just for our sins, he paid the price for our fellowship

Pastor Dale Tunnell: our fellowship to be reunited with the Creator God.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: For that that separation that we have with with God.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: To be completed.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: He provided the fellowship that is available for us to have with one another by his death on the cross.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Friends, as we we sing this hymn, I want us to understand Jesus loves us so very much.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: That he paid the price.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: That when the elder comes and visits you and he's asks you the question, if you were to die tonight, would you have eternal life?

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Don't be shy, don't be embarrassed.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: These are are questions to cause us to grow, to cause us to have understanding, to cause us to have better fellowship with one another.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: to to desire to have that intimacy with fellow brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Friends, we need to be encouraging people to get ready for the soon return of Jesus.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Jesus is coming soon.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I hope our church is ready.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: I want our church to be ready.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: Jesus has paid the price.

Pastor Dale Tunnell: What a friend we have in Jesus