Christian Fellowship - Donny Swartzentruber

Well, good morning, and you know, together we bless the

Lord for the blessings he's betowed upon us already here

this morning. It's a blessing being here with you, and

I would have loved to have kept my seat and

continue listening and just taking in something that is so

beautiful here this morning. You know, what kind of meal

did Brother Joel say we're going to have today?

What kind of meal? Did he say? We're going to

have a fellowship meal? So what is that? What is

a fellowship meal?

He didn't say we're going to have carrots or beans

or steak, but he said we're going to.

Have a fellowship meal.

You know, there's probably nowhere on earth that that could

be announced and be as meaningful as it is for

like God children, we know something about fellowship, don't we.

And it's been a blessing being here with you this

morning and fellowshipping with you. You know that shepherd we

just heard about he calls and we want to turn

to First Corinthian chapter one and notice something that he does.

It caught my attention the last part of Psalm twenty

three when we were quoting that together, and it said

I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

In the House of the Lord, we're not alone. The

most important thing is the Lord is there. But it's

also others that he has called. So we notice First Corinthians,

chapter one, in verse nine, we begin again with the

word God. And the first evening we looked at the

book that begins with the word God.

It tells us here that.

God is faithful, and we acknowledge that this morning, in

his faithfulness, he has called us. God is faithful by

whom you were called unto the fellowship of His son

Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Wow, that's wonderful. That is so amazing.

And that is why Bertha and I have actually enjoyed

being here with you, because we've been able to fellowship

with you. It's because we can get in with you

and besides you and feel your heart and you feel ours.

And that is somebody we just want to encourage and

bless you in here this morning with in every way

we possibly can no for you, for even our extended

family that is here with you.

What is more important.

For Adeline and Connor and.

Your children.

And in the coming generation then a true Christian fellowship.

And we hasten to say this morning. That does not come.

It does not happen easily. It does not come without

someone paying the price to make fellowship possible.

In fact, as we go on and read write the.

Next verse, we say wow, wow. We start seeing the

cost involved. Verse ten says, now I beseech you, brethren,

by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye

all speak the same thing, and that there be no

divisions among you, but that ye perfectly, that you be

perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the

same judgment. Once again, good morning to everyone. It's a

blessing seeing you here, and we look forward to more

fellowship with you.

Today.

I'd like to think today of Christian fellowship, and as

we look at Christian fellowship, we'll see that Christian maturity

is something that comes into the picture as being so important.

The only way really we can experience Christian fellowship. And

it doesn't mean we have to be a college student.

In fact, as we look at Jesus teaching, we need

to be childlike. We need to be like children. When

we become like children, we can experience true Christian fellowship.

But it takes a lot of commitment, dedication, humility, yieldedness,

love to experience Christian fellowship. So just a little bit

of background for these two verses that we just read here.

We won't take time to do that, but we could turn.

To Acts eighteen and we see that Paul was preaching

at corinth He was preaching to people that hadn't known

the Lord and from many different backgrounds, and they were

listening to his preaching. And the Bible tells us in

Acts eighteen they believed, you know, they believed, they were converted,

they were changed in their heart, and they were baptized.

One of the men mentioned in Acts.

Eighteen is Chrispus and we see he's mentioned again here

in this chapter and first Corinthians one, and we share

that this morning and just in passing, as it were,

to give a little thought here as it relates to

being members one of another and even church membership and

being committed to a brotherhood, because today there's many that think,

you know, like you, just you become a Christian, you

can be baptized, but you don't become a part of

a fellowship. And we believe the scriptures would teach otherwise.

Here is one case from the scripture and example Christmas

when he was baptized, he became a believer in corinth

He didn't just just go on his own way, see that.

He's mentioned here in one Corinthians one, verse fourteen. He

was a part of that brotherhood that was called to

speak the same thing and be of one mind and

be committed together and experienced fellowship. So we see an example,

a beautiful example there of becoming a part of a brotherhood.

I think Jesus teaching about the good Samaritan and he

talked about picking up the good Samaritan, picking up the person,

taking him to an inn and saying there take care

of him is a type of the church as well.

And that's where we want to be. And he says,

when I come again, the Lord is coming back to

the end to take his children home in the end.

And that's where we want to be. That's what we

want to be a part of. It is very.

Beautiful, wonderful, encouraging, a blessing to be a part of

a Christian.

Fellowship where everyone there acts.

In Christian maturity. Is it ever that we would just

like to tell our children, you know, just grow up.

I mean, you're acting like a baby.

And I wonder.

If sometimes God would like to tell me that I

wonder this morning if suddenly, in a moment, every one

of us would physically just turn into the stature of

what we are in Christian maturity. You know, I just

confess I probably would shrink a couple sizes, you know,

if we would just suddenly be like we are in

Christian maturity. And we share this this morning from our

hearts because it's so important for you, for your children,

for the coming generations.

There's no better place.

On earth to be for children than to be in

a Christian home, Christian school.

You have all that here.

There's no better place for us as adults and teenagers

to be than in a Christian fellowship where lives the

people hearts have been changed. And they were they once

were selfish and self seeking and proud. Now they are

loving and giving and forgiving and forbearing and patient.

And nobody wants to try to get by with what

they can get by.

With because their hearts and lives have been changed. Everyone

has a heart like toward the Lord of wanting to

serve the Lord and love the Lord and love the

people of God. It takes so much commit miney, and

I was blessed this morning as we came together here

and in the beginning of our fellowship, what'd we do?

We started singing together and to the Lord, Eternal Father,

and we lifted up our voices and singing to the Lord.

And then we heard the devotional thoughts Brother Earl shared

with us and talking about obedience, and he said something

like this, at one point, we need others, We need

each other, We need others.

To help us along the way.

And the Sunday School lesson and then the thoughts that

Brother Joel just shared with us, taking from that beautiful

Psalm twenty three, We're thankful to be here with you

this morning, and we just want to bless you and

encourage you to give yourself with all your heart to

promoting here a true Christian fellowship that will be a

blessing to everyone around this morning. We can't help but

look then at some of the things that go with that.

There is a price to be paid, and we begin

with the good Shepherd. We begin with the good shepherd.

You know, it tells us in tewod Corinthians eight nine.

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Oh he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor,

that you, through his poverty, might be rich. Just one

of the hundreds of verses that remind us of the

sacrifice Jesus made to make this fellowship in Halsey, Oregon possible,

To make it possible for hearts to be changed, and

to truly love one another with true hearts and want

the best for each other, to lay our lives on

the line for the sake of our brother, our sister,

to give up our desires. I was amazed this morning

again to be impressed with the fact that in the

New Testament, thirteen times we find these words. Thirteen times

we find these three words love one another. There are

so many other one anothers. It says, wash one another's feet,

It says in honor, preferring one another.

And in this we're looking.

At what makes Christian fellowship possible. It limps, it is broken,

it is wounded without these one anothers. Receive you one another,

admonish one another, Salute one another with an holy kiss,

greet you one another by love, Serve one another, bear

you one another's burden, for bearing one another, forgiving one another,

teaching and admonishing one another. In psalms and hymns, comfort

one another, edify one another, exhort one another, consider one another,

to provoke into love and good works, exhorting one another.

There is someone that has gone before us that has

made it possible, someone that paid the price to make

it possible for us to have Christian fellowship here this morning.

I don't remember ever reading this story here before. I'd

like to just share this this morning in light of

something for us to think about as we think of

what Jesus did for us, something that's recorded in history,

that happened back in eighteen sixty two. Willy Lear and

the Firing Squad. The story of what happened to me,

he said in the spring of eighteen sixty two, isn't

really my story at all. It's the story of Willy Lear,

and the writer is anonymous. We do not know who

the person is that wrote the story, but his focus

was Willy Lear. The Northern soldiers surprised me that spring

night in my living room where I was talking with

my wife the crops. The children were sleeping upstairs, and

not one of them awakened to the heavy stamp of

the men's boots on the front steps. Willie and I

and more than two dozen farmers school teachers and blacksmiths

from the peaceful southern village of Polmyra were rounded up

and herded into a damp Union jail. Someone had to

be punished, the Northern Army was saying. President Abraham Lincoln

were saying, someone had to be punished because there were

so many of the Northern the Union soldiers being killed

in the Palmyra area, and so they decided to round

up men take them into prison. And then it tells

us what happened. The days that followed our arrest were

a jumble of bad meals, nightmares, and fatiguing waiting.

And then there was the court martial.

In the crowded court room after the trial, we obediently

waited in line, sick with fear, yet mutely unprotesting. I

could hear Willie Leer next to me, moistening his lips

over and over again. I put my hands in my pockets,

took them out again, put them in again.

Then the General spoke.

Your sentence is death by shooting. The General spoke again,

you will draw lots. We'll execute ten immediately, only ten

to be shot today. I reached with stiff fingers for

my own lot. When I looked down at what I

had drawn, I saw that it read death, and so

in an hour then I would be dead. There were

nine others who would be dead two and slowly drew

upon art from the living, and clustered together in a.

Tight Not Willi Lere was not among us.

We stood together in a close circle, none of us speaking.

And then suddenly, though I hardly knew what I said,

words tore from my throat. Those words were my wife,

my children. I can't do this. I saw my wife

in his mind's eye, struggling with stubborn crops and tools

and cattle. I saw my children, hungry and tired and poor. No.

No, My voice mounted to a scream.

And then I felt a hand on my arm. I

whipped around, thinking it would be the General or the executioner.

But it was Willilere.

Willy Lear said, I'm going to ask him, and he

jerked a thumb toward the general. If I can take

your place, I stared at the boy. Let him take

my place in front of a line of men with rifles,

take my place among the dead. Let another place a

man die in my place. I couldn't do that, And

yet there was my family. Will Elier spoke to the

general and said, I want to take his place. The

general said, the orders say shoot ten. That's all that counts.

Willie stood in front of me again, and he said,

for your family, for your family.

Today.

I continue reading in a moment, but he want us

to think about the arm of the Lord that brought

salvation and made this fellowship possible, The arm of the

Lord that something in behalf of our families. Slowly I

left the knot of men who were waiting for their death,

and Willi Lear joined them. He joined them as they

filed outside and lined up in a wooden row, their

backs to the men with rifles, their faces toward clumps.

Of meatow grass.

I watched them, I heard the roar of the rifles.

I saw Willie lear fall.

I watched him will fall flat, face down to the dust.

My heart twisted with convulsive spasms.

My heart tightened.

Excuse me, my heart twisted with his brief convulsive spasms.

My heart tightened.

As he became still, I caught hold of the arm

of the man beside me. He died for me. I

almost shouted at him. Do you hear me?

He died in my place. I owe my life to him.

Do you hear.

The writer says, I went back to my wife and

children home, to work in the field, to watch the

sun rise, and set to give my family food and

clothes in a home. Yet my life with them was

never quite the same. No matter who asked me, or

when or where, I always said, I'm alive today because

another man died for me. We have this possibility this

morning because someone died and shed.

His blood to make it possible. Do you know that

there is someone who.

Has died for you that you may have life, spiritual life,

power to overcome sin and help with everyday problems. Peace

of mind in today's world is yours, and eternal life

in heaven is yours too. And while it's not here,

we could add Christian fellowship has come and is ours

today as a result of this, because another died for me,

and it's closed here with gain this eternal life today

except Jesus Christ as your savior. Now there's a what

is it a five letter word? That word peace. It's

a short word, but it is so.

Meaningful.

It's so meaningful when we think about the peace of

God that we can have in our hearts that passes understanding.

It's so meaningful when we think about the possibility of

having peace in a brotherhood, in a fellowship of believers.

But it's so important for us to remember someone paid

the price for peace, and we could turn to the

Book of Ephesians and read out Jesus what he did,

and he is our peace. And he hath broken down

the middle of of partition between Jews and Gentiles to

bring all races and creed and people into the fellowship

of believers.

And we bless the Lord for that. And it is

said when the name of.

The Lord is degraded because we do not have peace

one with another, because we are still giving expressions of

selfishness and pride and malice that can be so hidden

until a moment of opportunity rises and we can say something,

we can do something that hurts our brother, our sister. Oh,

we all need an attitude of heart like this young

man had in Kentucky. I don't know his name, but

his teacher's name was Winston Lee. He was a high

school history teacher in Whitesburg, Kentucky. And it was on

the eleventh grader's note that came in in some of

his school work that he was to grade and This

was the note that this student shared. It was some

extra work the students could do to get some points

and benefits and to have a better grade. And the

note he gave to his teacher was, if you could,

can you give my bonus points to whoever scores the.

Lowest in this test.

And the fact is the person that scored the lowest

it was a girl that was going to have a

failing grade. And with five points being taken off of

Winston Lee's score and grade and given to that girl,

she was lifted to a passing grade. What a beautiful

example of love, of fellowship, of sacrifice for the sake

of others. Troy Stauffer wrote a very good article. It

was in The Sword and Trumpet. Oh, it was quite recently.

It didn't know it was so recently. The title is

love is a Risk. It's really a good article.

This morning.

We want to think about the price it has to

be paid for Christian fellowship and for closeness and oneness

in brotherhood. Someone has to be willing to pay the

price for peace. Love is a risk. Think of Jesus

leaving the glories of heaven. We could read in John

seventeen The Glory he had with God before the world began,

and he comes down to earth and he sacrifices and gives,

and we go thirty some years down the road and

we see him hanging on a cross. And dear brethren,

tell me, tell me, how do you explain in the

Old Testament it is written.

It's even hard.

To say, because we know Jesus was holy and perfect

and never sinned. And yet you know it was said

and the Old Testament cursed is every man that hangeth

on a tree, And they hung Jesus on a tree

and crucified him with criminals. Yes, love carries a great risk.

Love garys risk of rejection. Love carries the risk of

you pouring out your heart for someone to maybe get

slapped in your face. And that's one of the hardest

things to bear when you have poured out your heart

for someone and you're doing your best, and you you intercede.

For someone you love and you get slapped somehow, And

then what's going to happen?

Are we going to give up love and brotherhood and fellowship?

Are we going to do something that forever is going

to be exed in our brother and sister's mind because

we struck out in anger at that crucial moment we

draw from Jesus just looking down at that band of

soldiers that just put him there, those that he came

to save, and he has a prayer on his lips.

How is it that he could to his father just

pray and ask God to forgive those men.

They don't really know what they're doing.

Troy Staffer said, the more we love, the more we

become vulnerable to the very thing that we.

Are loving, and that is beautiful.

Do you know, men, the more you love your wives,

the more you give yourself to them. If they are

responsive and reciprocal, it's a blessing for you. But you

open yourself up to being hurt the more you love.

It's painfully true that those who are closest to us

are the ones who can actually hurt us the most,

because it hurts so deeply when they do the things

that hurt. It becomes easy to build up cold walls

of protection, to push others away, to push God away,

to build a cocoon and snuggle in the quiet of isolation,

and to minimize the risk of love. Yes, because truly

loving is risky. Life without love and relationships, though, is

not life at all, and worst of all, without love,

death is the only end, eternal death. It is only

this love and this promise that can give us any

hope or meaning on this earth.

It's the only thing that can keep us.

Out of that world of self protection and isolation is love.

It's the only thing that makes the risk of love

worth taking. Love will sometimes the painful sting of sin

when we puny humans are flattened by circumstances and the

cosmos that are beyond our control.

We can still cling to.

The promises of God, get back up and bravely choose

to keep loving. And then He has in big, bold

capital letters.

We must.

When the test comes, dear brother and dear sister, Christian

fellowship is hanging on the hinges of your response and

what you're going to do in those crucial moments. And

we can set on pews and just look so nice

while having real issues in our hearts with the struggle

to love and these things.

It takes the grace of God.

He goes on and concludes by saying, because my friend

and love is a risk, but not to love is

the greatest risk of all.

I have two.

Distinctly different and yet so much alike containers up here

this morning. In this container, there's all these separate little pieces.

Here's an onion. Sure enough, we got that onion to

sit up. This is mister Onion, you know, and.

It's so I think, you know, it's so good. We

have mister Onion here this morning. And mister Onion.

Is important, as we'll see. Here's mister Carrott. I don't

know if we can get him to stand up or not.

You know, he'll be the tallest one among us. Actually

he stood up. That's mister Carrot. And he resembles, you know,

the desired for power and prestige and to be seen

and to be noticed, to stand out, to be you know,

significant heir. I have quite a few mister potatoes, missus potatoes,

different colored potatoes, and you know, in this sense, they're

still hard there, you know, together like that, and they

they'd be able to stand up and then we have Wow,

this is amazing.

We actually have mister Steak here this morning.

And you know, mister Steak might think about the fact

that some people, some people today have carnivore diets and

all they.

Eat is meat.

And I mean, I really I think I could have

church fellowship myself alone, and we feel you know, mister steak,

we have here all these separate things now this morning,

How does it be which one of you would like

to come up here and just take a bite.

Of this raw potato or this raw.

Onion, bite into that onion. I mean, if you'd like

to take a bite of that onion and chew it down,

you know, we would kind of make our face go

into different motions, wouldn't it eating a burning onion all

by itself? Who wants to eat a raw steak?

The carrot wouldn't be too bad.

But there's something much much better up here this morning,

you know that staff the other night we thought of

how that thing was formed with steam and pressure. There's

something else up here this morning that was created with

steam and pressure. But we're so thankful this morning that

probably out of the light, the same bags, the same containers,

the same freezer. We're taking these same items, not these

that are in this bowl, but other items of the

same bag. And they gave themselves to fellowship, even though

it meant they were going to have to fall over

and lose their identity. But I just want to show

you what we have up here.

This morning.

I don't think any of us would really like to

come and enjoy this, but wow, we have something else

up here this morning, and I just want to show

you what we have.

We have these same things.

Look at that carrot, and that carrot look at there,

it has some of the onion on it. You know

how tasty that carrot would be. And these potatoes are

soft and edible. They've been cooked with the onions, the carrots.

And here's a steak tender and ready to be eaten.

And they're all in this pot together. And I think

just about anyone here would just enjoy eating what's in this.

Pot in What made the difference.

The difference was these potatoes and onions and all the meat.

There was a price to be paid, there was a

sacrifice to be made.

They needed.

They were put in the pot and they were and heated,

and in a sense they lose their identity though you

look in here you can see them. But you know

what you'd want to do. You'd want to eat all

of that together. You just love eating it together.

Christian Fellowship, you know it is it is. It is sad.

It would be it.

Would not go well for us to endeavor to have

Christian fellowship like this plate is this morning, and for

that to be the model we follow, we turn our

bibles to Ephesians chapter four, I think it is, and

we see some things that are so important for Christian fellowship.

We'll begin reading it verse one, and just notice some

of the things that go along with Christian fellowship. I therefore,

the prisoner of the Lord, Paul says, beseech you that

you walk worthy of the vocation.

We're with your call.

And we just read in Corinthians we've been called into

the fellowship. And we could turn to first John one

and we see we're called into the fellowship. Verse two

gives us some requirements if we want to enjoy Christian fellowship,

it must be with all lowliness and meekness, with long suffering,

with forbearing one another in love. You know, there's a

verse that says something about esteeming others better than yourself.

Verse three endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit

in the.

Bond of peace.

There is one body and one spirit, even as you're called,

and one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, baptism,

one God and Father of all, who is above all

and through all, and in you all beautiful, beautiful verses.

We go over to verse twelve. These things God has

given for the perfecting of the saints, for the work

of the ministry, for the edifying of the Body of Christ,

till we all come in the unity of the faith

and of the knowledge of the Son of God, and

to a perfect man, and to the measure of the

stature of the fullness of Christ, in other words, to

grow up to be mature spiritually, that we henceforth be

no more children tossed to and fro and carried about

with every wind of doctrine, by the slight of men

and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.

This morning, there's one more thought I just want to

share here, and I'm just going to title it the

turn of the Heart. And an example of it is

Jesus standing in front of the Sanhedrin and all the

religious people and being in front of the High Priest.

And while he's there, he's being beaten and smitten, mocked,

spit on, slapped, and one of his very closest friends

comes in the back, and we could turn to the

scripture that gives us this this picture, and he's back

there talking with some of the people in the back,

and and someone back there says, you're you're you're also

one of them.

You know, you're you're one of them, And Peter says

he's not. He denies it.

And and you know, what happened three times, and he

even had some time to think about it. I think

one scripture says it was about an hour later it was,

you know, it happened again, and and Peter just Peter

did not want to be identified with Jesus. And then

that scripture that tells us, it tells us Jesus turned

and looked upon Peter, and I view him as up

in front of those angry men, and Peter back there,

he knew what's going on. And one of his closest

friends is denying even knowing him, and he turns and

looks on Peter. And Peter did not see anger and

hatred in Jesus' eyes. He saw something that moved him

to tears and to repentance. And that's the look we

want to give, isn't it when someone has done something

that hurts so deeply and so badly. Do you know

people can read us by looking at our eyes, you know,

our eyes, you know I haven't done this really, but

you know, if we just look at each other's eyes,

our eyes have really a message. And some of you

have experienced sadness and hardness and difficulty, but one of

the things that's not hard to see is when there's anger.

On the other hand, your eyes portray when there is

a peaceful look, a loving look. But Jesus' eyes and

his look also convicted Peter.

He went out and wept.

In our congregation. Many years ago, there was one of

our brethren.

Gave out a.

Song, and it was soon after we had changed song books,

and he gave out a song a number, and we

turned to it. Now, he wasn't upfront, he was in

the congregation, but he's a very good and capable song leader.

So we turned to that page in the book and

he leads the song, and he leads it in the

tune that we were familiar with. Well, very early in

the song, we could tell the song in this book,

the book we were using now is a completely totally

different tune, different notes, And don't you know, I'm so

thankful today I can tell you that the whole congregation

sang that song just like as if no mistake had

ever been made heartily. The song was sung as in

to the Lord, the turn of the heart, the heart

of the congregation was toward him. It is fine, it's

and love cover with a multitude of sins.

And it was okay, you know. And someone could have

stood up and said, you.

Did not follow the notes. This is how we do

it here, and you need to follow directions. Of course,

there's things that are serious that can't just be overlooked.

And not taken care of.

But the turn of our heart is so important, the

way we look at our brothers and our sisters, the

way we want to give ourselves to sacrifice. Can I

conclude with one story, and I think I may have

read this here almost a year and a half ago,

but it won't take me long. And it brings out

a point. And I'm confident summer here that never heard it.

Robert Baker's testimony, and I received this from Chester Weaver.

It's the most impressive act Robert Baker is saying I

have ever witnessed in the Fellowship of Believers. It occurred

at the Prairie's treatment of Night Church when I was

a teenage boy, that is over thirty five years ago.

And yet The experience is as fresh in my mind

as if it were happening this moment, in this very room.

Thirty five years have passed and I have never observed

a more significant or meaningful event in any church service

I have attended, and I have attended a lot of them.

I was sitting near the rear of the church when

the tall man came down the aisle. He stopped several

benches ahead of me. He signaled to a particular man,

leaned over and whispered a few words to him. I

was close, but I could not hear the words he spoke,

but I could read his slightly moving lips. The words

the tall man said to the older brother on the

church bench. The words I could lip read were the

whispered words, may I wash your feet? The expression on

his face was one of greatest tenderness and love. I

thought he was about to cry, and later he did cry.

I still feel tender as I recall the event. You see,

it was known that these two brethren did not get

along with each other. They had periodic misunderstandings, voices were raised,

and anger was present. As a new Christian, I could

not understand these differences in the harsh words. I was puzzled,

disturbed in her with those things. I watched those two

brethren walk down to the front of the church. It

was a moving, meaningful scene. The tall man gently motioned

for the other brother to be seated. Both men were barefoot.

The tall one girded himself with a towel, knelt down

and tenderly washed his brother's feet. Then they exchanged places

in the act was repeated. They both rose, the towel

was laid aside. They stood facing one another in front

of the church. It seemed like the clock stood still,

time frozen for a moment. It was like a beautiful painting,

he said. Their faces glistened with tears, and then there

was action, once more gentle action. They pressed their lips

to one another's cheeks, and by that brief act of

washing one another's feet, they dissolved all the puzzlement, disturbance,

and hurt that had swirled within this.

Young boy's heart.

Just want to bless you this morning here, encourage you as.

You go from here.

What is you know more important and valuable than Christian

fellowship around the Lord Jesus Christ and one with another.

God's blessings to you