Uniting in Fellowship through Hospitality and Authenticity | Dr. John Ewart

Well, good morning, Englewood. Take your Bibles and find the

Book of Ecclesiastes. By the time you find it, I'll

catch up to you. Good to see everybody this

morning. If you're a guest this morning,

thank you for being with us. We have a big crowd and discover

Englewood going on right now in another room.

So appreciate that bunch as well.

And Pastor Jordan sharing that. I hope that you'll notice in

your worship guide the work day coming up at our church plant in

Tarboro. And then they'll be another one

on October 11th where we need everybody to do canvassing and

some door hangers is they have their launch service on October

19th. So appreciate them, pray for

them. Also our worship team.

I hope you appreciate our worship team.

Our worship team has put out ACD called worship.

That's what they want you to do and they're going to lead you to

do that. You can stop by the bookstore

and get either the CD and or there's a downloadable QR code

that you can use. I hope you'll go and do that by

about 400 of those. Share them with your closest,

dearest friends and I know you'll enjoy that worship time

together. What percentage am I looking for

for your participation? So 100%.

That was fantastic. So you bet 100%.

We're hoping to see you in in worship on Sunday morning and

connect group small groups and our midweek service.

Hundreds of people coming out on Wednesday nights right now and

also in service. And if you've been here in the

last few weeks on our Wednesday nights, you know that we've had

started a focused prayer time where we get prayer requests

from our reach ministry, from our connect groups as well as

others. We'll have hundreds and hundreds

of prayer requests. We'll spend a few minutes

praying over those Wednesday nights and then having our

lesson together. And so if you've been here, you

know, over the last couple Wednesday nights, we've also

been praying for Charlie Kirk's family and what's going

happening across our nation. This afternoon, there's a prayer

vigil out in Arizona that many of you would know about.

And so I just want to spend a moment, I just want to take a

moment and pray for that prayer vigil that it would be a

testimony that this would be a moment that would bring part of

our nation together and at least at least testify about our Lord

Jesus Christ. So let me lift that up.

Father, we thank you for your grace.

We thank you for the opportunity of being your people.

We thank you for the privilege of intercession and supplication

of prayer. I just pray, Father, that you'll

continue to be with the Kirk family, Lord, and just continue

to bless them. I also pray that you'll be with

the accused and the accused family in a special way as well,

that Lord, you would speak to their hearts and draw them to

you. I pray, Father, that today the,

the, the prayer vigil that it will take place will not only be

safe, but Father, it'll be a testimony not simply to one

person's life, but to you. And I pray, Father, that because

of the attention that it will get, that it'll be a testimony

that will touch many, many people.

So Father, we pray for that and pray for what you're going to do

through that. Now, Father, speak to us through

your word. Speak to us this morning as we

talk about being your church and being your disciples in Christ's

name, Amen. Well, here we are discovering

how to join God's mission by living out the biblical vision

of the church. I hope that you'll notice out in

the lobby and in the office some new artwork and some new

biblical vision and mission statements out there.

And so I hope that you'll take a moment, take a look at that

because here at Inglewood, we exist to join God's mission.

And God's mission is to bring glory to himself and for us to

join Him in redeeming the nation's.

And redeeming the nation's means across the street.

It also means around the world, like you saw in our video.

So how are we going to do that right here, right now?

I don't know if you have heard what I've been told, but I've

been told by a reliable source that the North Carolina

Department of Transportation has shared that they predict 50,000

new people moving to the city of Rocky Mount and next 10 years.

That means about 20,000 in the next 5.

And so I've been sharing with you that growth was coming.

I've warned you about that, challenged you about that.

And it's, it's, it's going to take place.

And then I've also shared with you about 462 times that 74% of

the people who live within 10 miles of where you're seated

right now don't attend any kind of church.

They don't attend any religious gathering whatsoever.

Not just church, but any religious gathering, about 74%.

So you can imagine with this population growth, how many more

people are we going to be talking about here very soon?

So what are we going to do about it?

The mission field is right here and it's going to continue to

grow. And we have responsibility.

So what are we going to do? And so by 100% participation in

his vision, he's given us, I believe that we can live out

Inglewood's vision, which is to make disciples who love God and

and love people and join his mission.

And so we need to know what that means.

How do we make that kind of disciple?

What is that kind of disciple? And so I've started this new

sermon series called Come Live, the Church's vision, the Seven

Essentials of Discipleship. And so this is so we'll all be

on the same page concerning how to make healthy disciples to

live out that vision. And so if you've missed any of

these sermons, it's important to go back and listen to them

because the seven essentials tie together.

You don't just do one or the other, that you're looking at a

whole package here. And they're going to guide you

to join him on his mission. It'll guide us as a church to be

in One Direction. 1 heart, one mind, 1 spirit.

So they each also have an aspect of being, knowing, and doing.

And we're going to be talking about each of those aspects.

So they're going to help lead you.

They're going to help lead your family.

Here's my next step. Here's our next step of

discipleship. Here's the area where we need to

grow. And so it'll be important for

you to be here each Sunday. Last time I shared that a

disciple of Jesus engages the Bible with a humble and

teachable spirit. So now I need to add that a

disciple of Jesus also unites in fellowship through hospitality

and authenticity. And it's always interesting to

me because when we talk about spiritual disciplines and you

talk about what's the most important thing you teach a new

believer, We talk about studying the Bible and we talk about

prayer and, and we might talk about sharing your faith and

then which is great. Those are all very important and

we're going to talk about all those things.

But it's interesting how fellowship doesn't seem to rank

as high sometimes. And we need to, we need to alter

that, especially in our world today, because this is

incredibly important in a cultural context that we now

live in that can be so inhospitable, so artificial, so

impersonal, frankly so divided and Even so angry.

This essential is a radical counter cultural idea that we

need to promote and to live as a church.

And so we live in a very individualized, self driven

world where many people believe they can communicate without

community, They can expect with no investment, they can demand

with no sacrifice, and frankly they can complain with no

repercussion. And so we live in a world where

people are often more skilled at competition than they are at

community. And so we need to talk about

what this really means, because many in our world today create

virtual, often even vitriolic facades.

Rather than engage in personal intimacy or accountability, they

prefer to communicate at a distance through devices and

screens. And, and, or often they are

engaged in talking about people instead of talking to people,

which means that communication actually doesn't happen very

often. And so people think that that's

communication, but it's not. And so they seek to get rather

than to give. They seek to promote self rather

than to lift one another up. And not often.

That's the world in which we live.

So this morning I have to ask an important question to the

believers here and the members of this church.

Are you willing to risk it? Are you actually willing to risk

loving others and allowing others to love you even though

you might get hurt by them? Will you risk allowing others to

get close to you? Will you sacrifice self for the

benefit of others? You know the old, old story.

It's older than I am. So it's an old story about the

two boys who were exploring one day and they go into The Cave

and suddenly a a, a mean, angry grizzly bear comes popping out

from behind the rock and starts to chase them out of The Cave.

And as they're running out, one of the boys drops to his knees

and takes off his hiking boots and starts to put on his tennis

shoes. And the other boy shouts back,

says, you don't have time for that.

You're never going to outrun the bear that way.

And he says, I don't have to outrun the bear.

I just have to outrun you. Ever feel like bear bait?

Sometimes this world make you feel that way, doesn't it?

I mean, seriously, that's what this fallen creation does.

It's just how it thinks. This is how it prioritizes me

first, me first, me first. Mine, mine, mine.

And sometimes we may fall prey to feeling that way in our

relationships with one another. So I pray that we don't

experience that in this church. I pray, I pray that we love each

other authentically. I pray that we're nice and

hospitable to each other and to those new friends that we're

going to meet and are going to be visiting with us and we need

to make. I pray that we will love others

through these intentional relationships for encouragement,

for accountability. I pray we develop a regular

habit of meeting together like that with our other believers

for the purpose of mutual spiritual growth.

People are going to join churches for a lot of reasons,

but they stay at church primarily for relationships.

That's a that's a statistical truth.

They remain because people love them and they feel loved.

Authentic relationships found in community.

So Christ establishes his church for specific purposes.

And one of those was fellowship. And we may not think that's as

important as others, but we need to pay attention to this because

He knew we would need this to be the disciples to that He

intended for us to be so that we could love Him and love others.

Even from the beginning, man created in the image of God.

One of those aspects is our need for relationship.

And so from the very beginning, God knew we needed to do this.

We need to have community with him and with others.

And so even back in Genesis 2, God said that.

Then the Lord said it is not good that the man should be

alone. I will make him a helper fit for

him. Now the context obviously is the

creation of Eve, his closest companion, his wife.

But the principle extends without authentic hospitable

community, everything suffers and healthy growth, healthy,

healthy life's going to be stunted.

Remember, solitary confinement is considered severe punishment

because it starves somebody of this, it robs them of it.

And you may many of you would remember this well, maybe it was

you. Some folks did not deal well

with the isolation of COVID. Remember, you remember that some

people still aren't dealing well with that.

It still has an impact when you do community studies like we did

here, one of the number ones felt needs, one of the number

one felt fears of community still today impact of COVID.

So fellowship has an incredibly important characteristic,

incredibly important goal for a biblically healthy church and a

church member. So in this extremely

individualistic, autonomous culture, authentic fellowship is

a is a much greater challenge than we may be aware.

Even inside the church sometimes, especially in a

larger church where people can come and just hide, many would

hold people at arm's lengths and and not allow spiritual intimacy

in their lives. They just don't let it happen

because there's actually a fear base in our culture now that

results in not feeling safe and not feeling safe enough anyway

to be authentic with somebody else.

It's hard to trust, it's hard to believe in others, it's

sometimes even hard to believe in ourselves.

So, so poor or inaccurate motive, attribution or

questioning that ask or predict what what are they really after,

what do they really want or why they really being nice to me are

common. People have felt so victimized

that they just know it's going to happen to me again.

If I do this, I know it's going to happen to me again.

So we've been burned enough at times to grow cynical, to grow

skeptical and to go wary. Often people in our world see

everything with a yeah right kind of roll your eyes

mentality. And they think it's just going

to be that way all the time. Teresa and I once served in a

small town in Oklahoma right on I-40 and the only reason we had

anything in that town is because we were right on I-40 and, and

we had a, we had a Hardee's. And I'm not, I'm not trying to

be mean to the, the franchise. I've been to many, many Hardee's

that are just wonderful places to eat the finest, most healthy

food in the world at Hardee's. So with that disclaimer, this

particular Hardee's in Sallisaw, OK was at the time, I'm sure

it's the fine. I'm sure it's a fine eating

establishment today. So I remember all those lawsuits

disclaimers go to see [email protected].

But, but when we were there, you go through the drive through at

Hardee's and, and everybody knew, everybody knew, everybody

in town knew you stopped and you looked at every single thing in

your bag before you moved on because you knew something was

going to be wrong. And so there was this constant,

you would watch them, the the bags would go back and forth and

then and then you'd get your bag and then or you'd make the

mistake and you just have to drive around and get in line

again. And they knew they were this

bad. So they had a stock of chocolate

because if they got it wrong, they gave you a chocolate cake.

They had a stack of chocolate cakes.

You could see them when you go through the drive.

There's all the chocolate cakes because they know they're going

to get it wrong. You got a free chocolate cake.

So people sometimes were hoping, I want a cake.

Healthy discipleship has to expect something different.

Christ expects us to be different.

Christ makes the difference. So we need to be different.

Inglewood, we need to be different.

So remember Acts chapter 2, We studied this for a reason.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

In verse 42 it says and they devoted themselves to the

apostles teaching and the fellowship.

Don't miss that definite article, the fellowship to the

breaking of bread and the prayers.

So next to engaging the Bible, think about this.

Next to engaging the Bible with a humble and teachable spirit,

there was this single minded continuous devotion to the

fellowship. It was that important.

Koinonia. Many of you would know that

Greek word. It's the idea of sharing.

It's the idea of holding things in common with one another.

It could actually be used in secular terms for business

partners as well. But the idea behind the root of

the word is that I, we're entering into one another's

life. So we get to enter into one

another's life in some authentic way.

And they were devoted to this. They were actively engaged in

this. They had a single minded focus

and passion for this, about partnering with one another and

about entering into one another's lives.

Now, friends, that's the church, or supposed to be.

So loving others through hospitable, authentic church

relationships requires real, focused action.

It requires intentionality. It's not just going to happen

accidentally. There was something special

here. It was the fellowship.

This wasn't just a fellowship. It wasn't just any fellowship.

There's something special about what they were doing together.

They were meeting and eating together.

They were sharing and caring together.

They were loving one another and taking care of one another.

And our world desperately needs to see His church loving each

other this way, especially right now.

Our world often thinks of what we are against how how they turn

Christianity into something hateful and and we need to show

them what we're for and who we're for and how we love one

another and love them. So in Ecclesiastes, King Solomon

told you. I finally get there.

How many looking in table of contents?

I'm kidding. You don't have to confess, but

thank you. Thank you all very much.

I see those hands. Your buses will wait.

In Ecclesiastes, King Solomon was searching for meaning, and

we are too. Why do I exist?

Who am I supposed to be amid this cultural chaos, among this,

among this cultural vanity? What shall I do and how?

So he shares a proverb with us in verse 12.

Excuse me, verse 9. Start in verse 9, we'll end up

12 later. Ecclesiastes chapter 4 verse 9,

Ecclesiastes 4:9

2 are better than one because they have a good reward for

their toil. I want you to hear the basic

truth. We're Better Together.

Pretty complicated isn't it? We're we're Better Together.

Alone is not better. Together is better.

So isolation does not produce what togetherness might produce

together. Self effort will not create more

than teamwork. Team works better.

SO2 can work together better than one, and they'll have a

greater reward for their efforts.

And So what we see here is once again from our seven essentials

of discipleship. A disciple of Jesus unites in

fellowship. And there's the verb.

We unite in fellowship through hospitality and authenticity.

This is who we must be. We must be authentic with one

another. In fact, Paul talks about

teamwork like this in First Corinthians Chapter 9 verse 23.

1 Corinthians 9:23

He says I do it all for the sake of the gospel that I may share

with them. Talk about his team and the ones

the partakers of the gospel that he worked with in churches in

its blessings. The first thing I want us to see

is that authentic church fellowship leads to serving with

one another. We serve with one another.

He worked with a team. He shared with him in the

blessings of his service. God knew we would need a team to

do these greater things. So we continuously, devotedly,

with a passionate focus, seek to enter into one another's lives.

Seek to enter into, join an authentic fellowship to serve

Him and to serve one another in the best ways.

So He saved us, He gifted us, He equipped us, He called us to use

that salvation, to use that giftedness to call to serve with

this group of people called Inglewood Baptist Church.

That's where we are right now. We're in this together.

So let's be hospitable. Let's be authentic with one

another. And with those we're going to

meet, there could be 20,000 of them that we're going to meet.

Think about that. Think about finding a parking

spot then the Jewish philosopher follow once said this he said be

kind to one another. You're all sharing the same

battle talking about life. So we receive a greater reward.

We receive a higher production we we bear more fruit when we

work well together right We love God, we love others in a greater

sense we're going to be able to do that better and so the so the

pastors have been discussing the best ways to equip and empower

you to serve well in our various ministries.

So don't just come study, don't just come study with one

another, come and serve with one another.

And the easiest team to join is a connect group.

You thought I was going to get through a message without saying

those two words, but the but, but the easiest team to join is

a connect group. You don't even have to be a

church member to join one of those, right?

And you're going to in these smaller communities, you're

going to study, you're going to pray, you're going to encourage

one another, and you're going to serve one another.

I got an e-mail this week. I won't share the names in order

to protect the glorious, because it's a good thing, not a bad

thing. But it just says this.

Pastor John, my husband and I were not present at our Connect

group last Sunday morning. I've been attending church slash

Sunday school for some 60 years and have never seen such an

outpouring of love and friendship from a group of

people that we barely know. Welcoming, welcoming us back and

missing us. The reach thing seems to be

working. We will be there this coming

Sunday. I thank God for leading us here.

What a testimony. After the first service, I had a

lady come out and talk to me and she, she just wanted to share

this with me. She says, you know, every time I

ask what percentage do I want and everybody says 100%, she

goes, I was saying 99.9. She said, I've, I've been a part

of this, been around the church for a long time, but I haven't

been in a small group in many, many, many, many years.

And she said, and I want you to know one of your small groups

reached out to me and said, we really want you there.

And she said, so I'm going right now to that small group.

And I said, and here she said, here's what made the difference.

It made all the difference in the world to believe that

somebody wanted me, that somebody cared about me, that

somebody really authentically wanted me to be with them in

that small group. Isn't that beautiful?

Y'all say Amen or something? Yeah.

Fall on your face. Do something.

All right, so the easiest way to do that, So Solomon goes on.

Look at verse 10. It says for if they fall, one

will lift up his fellow, but woe to him who is alone when he

falls and has not another to lift him up.

Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep

warm alone? So second thing we need to see

is authentic church fellowship also leads to supporting one

another. I looked up the word hospitable,

Webster's definition of hospitable it it means a

generous and cordial reception of guests.

It can also mean offering a pleasant or sustaining

environment or readily receptive or open.

So how can we provide here at Inglewood the best, the most

generous, cordial, pleasant, sustaining environment and

reception for one another and for our new friends who join us

as guests as we reach out. So if you're not in in close

fellowship with others, if no one has the right or the

opportunity to intentionally enter into your life, how is

anybody going to really be able to help you?

I know some hide, I know some withdraw so they can

intentionally avoid such closeness in their lives.

I know that maybe that's some of you.

They find it too personal. They find it too uncomfortable,

especially in the beginning. They don't want to be in that

smaller group because they don't really want to be that well

known by others in such a way. They don't really want that

level of accountability either. And so the, the result is it

makes it very difficult for them to receive the support they need

in life. Now, I know this is going to

shock you. I'm really glad you are all

sitting down. If you're sitting at home

watching this, sit down right now, wherever you are, make

sure, because I don't know if you know this or not, but

sometimes in church, people complain.

I know, I know, hard to believe in it.

And over the years, over the years, I've actually had people,

this is, I'm not making this up. People complain that their

church didn't support them well enough in their time of need.

Well, I want to visit with those people.

I, I want to talk to them. Not about them.

I want to talk to them. So I sit down.

I said, were you in a small group?

Well, no. Well, did you participate 100%

in everything that you could? Well, no.

Were you in an accountability relationship with someone

walking through discipleship with you?

Well, no. So I'm not real sure how you

honestly expect something to magically occur in your life

when you've done nothing to put yourself in the place to be well

supported. I mean, to simply be a part of a

crowd of almost 1000 people, which is how many people will be

here around today, that's total on a Sunday's a great start.

And we're certainly overjoyed that you are here.

But it'll, it will not be enough to become all that you're

supposed to become and to receive all that you're supposed

to receive. Listen to what God wants.

Paul had to deal with this in a church in Corinth because they

had such trouble with their fellowship.

He says in First Corinthians 12. He says, But as it is, God

arranged the members in the body, each one of them as he

chose. If all were a single member,

where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts,

yet one body the I cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you,

nor again the head to the feet I have no need of you.

On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker

are indispensable, And on those parts of the body that we would

think less honorable or bestow, the greater honor, and our and,

and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty,

which are more presentable parts do not require.

But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to

the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the

body, but that the member may have the same care for one

another. If one member suffers, all

suffer together. If one member is honored, all

rejoice together. Now some of you have heard parts

of my testimony, and some of you don't need to hear parts of my

testimony. But over the years I've broken

most of the bones in both of my hands for various escapades, and

I've broken my little fingers a few times.

My little fingers are crooked. They don't get any straighter

than that. And you know when you break your

little finger, you know what? It hurts.

And you can't pretend like you don't have a broken little

finger. It bothers you.

You have to tape it to the other finger.

You have to sit there and try to hold on to things in weird ways.

A little bit of finger matter. How many of you broken a toe?

You don't ignore a broken toe. So you might think I'm just a

little old finger. I'm just a little low toe.

I don't matter. Nobody's going to miss me.

It doesn't matter what happens to me.

That's just not true at all. The whole body suffers.

Don't be the missing train car. You all matter.

Each part of the body needs the other.

We're called to be 1 body. We're not just several body

parts laying around a room. That's gross.

So don't commit some kind of spiritual or relational

amputation and try to isolate yourself that way.

In true community, we're here for one another.

We're accountable to one another.

It's impossible for one part of the body to be in pain and the

remainder of the body to be in peace.

Not the way it works. We all have a significant role

to play. So instead, love others through

these intentional relationships. For encouragement, for

accountability, holiness. Do that both corporately and

individually. I mean, there's a reason why

mountain climbers tie themselves together.

They, they, they, they tie ropes to one another so that if one

guy falls, the other ones can brace themselves and that person

doesn't fall to their death. He gets caught and they'll hold

on to him until he can regain his footing again.

There's a reason for that. Church fellowship has to be that

way. When a member slips and we slip,

we stumble. The others need to be right

there to catch him and to hold him up until he regains his

footing. I mean, there are new believers

in the Lord who who God's going to continue to save.

I know 2 married couples right now waiting for baptism, at

least 2. They're they're ready and ready.

We're raring to go. They're in Discover Inglewood

right now, I think. But but as the Lord continues to

save people, they need someone to walk alongside of them unless

they stumble. And we can't let members just

wander off. Those inactive people who've

already wandered need to be loved and guided back.

So thank you for reaching them in your connect groups.

That's part of what this is all about.

We all need authentic accountability.

We're roped together, bound together by the Holy Spirit.

Now look at verse 11 again. Again, if two lie together, they

keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone?

Now the image here is not sexual.

This isn't husband and wife. This is the practical image of

two travellers travelling in the desert and they need to stay

close to one another in the cold desert night in order to make it

through it, right? So it's a metaphor for the

supporting of one another, being close to one another against the

world's coldness. We need each other.

So involvement in a community can't be done if you hold people

that emotional and relational distance.

Healthy fellowship requires hospitable authenticity.

And so across all our ministries, including our

connect groups, there's going to be a consistency of purpose

based upon these discipleship essential essentials as well as

opportunities for you to apply them in your life.

That's, that's what's going to determine our schedule, our

programs. It's interesting how the world

will see this. The unbelieving Greek writer

Lucian, he was not a believer. In fact, at times he wrote kind

of satirical and, and mean things about Christianity.

He lived around 1:20 to 200 AD, so very early in the movement.

And he's he's observing Christianity as it grows and

spreads in those early years. And so he observed the

fellowship of Christians. And this is what he wrote.

He says it's incredible to see the fervor with which the people

of that religion help each other in their wants.

They spare nothing. Their first legislator, Jesus,

has put it into their heads. They are brethren.

Now he's astounded by this. This is countercultural.

In his day. It was not normative in the

Roman world or the Greek world to treat one another the same

way. So remember back in Acts, the

the Bible says that they were together.

The Greek word homothymodon, it means of 1 accord.

They're all one, and compared to their old legalistic religion,

this was actually revolutionary. They were devoted to entering

into one another's lives in a new way.

They were joyful, they were united, they loved each other.

And in our pre Christian post post modern culture today, it is

starving for this authentic fellowship out of their fiercely

independent autonomy and the desire to define their own

personal truths. They are actually seeking others

with whom they can can join in what are called peer communities

of truth. And these peer communities give

them a sense of comfort. They give them a sense of

assurance against that fear base that's permanently now part of

our culture, which is one of the reasons why we're so obnoxious

to one another in our culture today at times.

Because part of this is a post 911, post COVID anger and fear

that is now a part of our culture.

So we need to be the experts. The church ought to be the

experts in peer communities of truth.

Englewood Baptist Church has exactly what 50,000 people

moving to this area are starving to death for if we'll share it

with them. But I'm afraid that because of

so many poor examples of churches that don't have real

Koinonia, many don't even know what authentic church fellowship

should look like. So, gang, we got to show them.

Are you with me in this? We got to show them.

Listen, fellowship is going to lead us to serve with and

support one another. Now we're at verse 12.

I was just ready to get to the end of the beginning, you know,

trying to save you all the time. Verse 12 says, And though a man

might prevail against one who is alone, 2 will withstand him.

A threefold cord is not quickly broken.

So the third thing we simply want to see is authentic church

fellowship leads to strengthening one another.

In true Koinonia, we defend, we protect, we strengthen each

other spiritually and otherwise. So individualism and division

are going to make us weak. Unity and harmony are going to

make us incredibly strong. We need to have that first.

Peter 58 reminds us of this enemy who seeks the opposite.

Peter writes about the devil. He says be sober minded, be

watchful. Your adversary, the devil

prowls, knows that word, prowls around like a roaring lion

seeking someone to devour. Satan is a roaring lion who

seeks to divide, seeks to isolate the weak, seeks to

isolate the elderly so that he can prey upon them.

You've seen enough movies to where you know that's how lions

work. You know that I've worked in

Africa many places many times and been out on the safari and

seen the animals and whatnot. And it's always interesting to

him. The safari wagon will drive

right by a lion. But then the the guide would

stop on the Masai Mara and he would say, you see those dots on

the hill over there? And I say, yeah, he says, those

are Cape Buffalo. This is as close as we're

getting. And I said that mean he goes,

oh, they turn us over and stomp us to death.

And I said, you know what Cape Buffalo do?

When the lions come, you know, the lions are going to try to

isolate a little bit. You know, the babies, they're

going to try to get the baby or the sick one or the old one, and

they're going to try to isolate him from the herd so they can

attack that one. What the Cape Buffalo will do is

they'll form a circle and they'll put the young and the

weak and the ill in the middle of the circle.

And then you got nothing but a bunch of bull buffaloes

surrounding and it's nothing but a circle of horns.

They'll kill a lion to death. I mean, they'll smash him to

pieces, flip him in the air. We need strong strands tightly

circled together to not be overpowered.

Hand in hand, heart and heart, life and life, spirit and

spirit, fellowship, relationships and community.

So Koinoni, is this real miracle of grace?

You got to think about this in the early church, men there were

coming from Jewish backgrounds, Gentile backgrounds, Pagan

backgrounds. You got slavery.

You've got free people coming together, poor and rich, male,

female, all coming together to form this new weird family

called the church. And they're there to strengthen

one another and to serve with one another and to support one

another in a, in a climate of great persecution and trial.

And God knew they could make it alone.

So Koinonia removes barriers of ego and pride and prejudice.

Again, remember the study in Acts?

It was on purpose. It fed into this more than you

know. The Gospel by the power of the

Holy Spirit went broke down barrier after barrier after

barrier after barrier, confronting and defeating the

enemy and making sure the gospel would spread.

So the early church needed community for survival.

And God knew that individually we would not be able to stand.

So he gave us the church that together we could be strong,

strong in love for others, strong in love for ourselves,

encouraging and helping one another to put on the whole

armor of God so that we might be able to stand against the

schemes, the Methodia. So it's a military ambush.

Word against the devil. In fact, this past week, Pastor

Jean and Pastor Jordan and I recorded a podcast in our

Walking in Prayer series that you can use while you're walking

or when you're in a quiet time, a prayer guide on spiritual

warfare. How do I put on the armor of God

in my life? We need to be able to stand

together, move forward stronger than other Together we are

continuously single mindedly devoted to entering one

another's lives with love. Again, Paul wrote that troubled

church in Corinth in First Corinthians 1412.

It says so with yourself since your eager for manifestations of

the Spirit, strive to excel and building up the church.

See, they were having a spiritual gift competition in

Corinth. I talked about that on a

Wednesday night a few weeks ago. You can look that up on line as

well. Who was better?

Who was more important? Who had the greater gift?

But Paul says, instead of working for yourself, I want to

challenge you to strive to work toward, to give great energy at

your very best level, to excel at building up others in the

entire body of Christ. For what are you striving to

excel? You strive and excel to

strengthen and help that new or struggling believer, to protect

that weaker brother or sister who's in a tough spot, to love a

a hurting lost community around you, to develop meaningful

relationships for for others and to care for them within the

church. See, a disciple of Jesus must

unite in fellowship through hospitality and authenticity.

There's certain things that we must be that we must be

hospitable. We must be authentic in order to

do this. There are also certain things we

need to know. There's certain knowledge we

need. We need to know we need to unite

in fellowship because we need to know the significance of church

membership. We need to understand that

actually belonging to the body matters.

We need to understand the biblical way to deal with sin.

Along with that, we need to understand how to forgive.

It's often a challenge for people.

We need to see the biblical examples of hospitality and how

to care well for each other. And we're going to be talking

about these and showing you these things and in our various

ministries, giving you opportunities to do these

things. But we we don't just need to

know this stuff. We got to put it into action.

So there's a doing part of this. So part of that doing is in

presence, just the ministry of presence.

Listen, share meals together. It needs to be barbecue and Taco

time. You understand what I'm saying?

That's what they were doing. They were meeting or and eating

around the table together, sharing fellowship with each

other. We also need to be there for one

another in hard times, sometimes just your presence.

But then there's this participatory part of it, this

participation. Become a member, get involved.

Make sure you're here for Sunday worship.

Make sure that you're here for Connect group.

Be make sure you're here for midweek, be a part of this, of

what's going on here. All these things tie together.

If you're not here for one, you might not think I'm paying

attention to something or I'm not doing something because

you're not here for everything. And then we also need to see the

peacemaking actions. We need to be able to confess

sins to one another. We need to forgive one another.

We need mutual accountability and love.

Now you need to ask yourself, what's my next step?

What's my needed next step in discipleship, in fellowship?

What do I need to do to improve my Koinonia?

How can I be more hospitable? How can I be more authentic?

We're going to continue to teach you and give the opportunities

to live this out in 1968. This is a true historic story.

The N Koreans captured the USS Pueblo and there were 82 crew

members who were incarcerated in pretty horrific conditions and

and in one instance, 13 of them were forced to sit around a hard

table at attention for hours. And after several hours, the

door would fly open and a North Korean guard would come in and

brutally beat the man in the first chair with the butt of his

rifle. The next day, each man came and

said in their assigned seat. Same thing.

Hours and hours and hours. They never knew when the door

would open. And then the door would suddenly

bust open and the North Korean guard once again beats the first

man in the first chair. Same thing happens the third

day. Well, on the 4th day, the men

know that that man won't survive another beating, it'll kill him.

And So what happens that day is, without the guards seeing it,

one of the a young sailor slips into the first seat, changes

seats with him. After several hours the door

busts open, the guard comes in and doesn't pay any attention,

just beats whoever sitting in the first chair.

For weeks they would rotate and a different man would sit in the

first chair, knowing exactly what was going to happen.

And for weeks the guards would come in and beat whoever was in

the first chair. And after a while they gave up.

Because they couldn't break them because of that kind of

sacrifice, that kind of unity, that kind of love for one

another. The gates of hell shall not

overcome the love, the strength, the true fellowship of this

church when we're strapped together in one accord.

So I challenge you to come live this vision together.

Join us, Join us today. There's a whole room of people

working through that today. Join us in authentic fellowship.

Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for the challenge of

your word. Father, sometimes things might

seem more important to us than other things.

But Father, we need to be careful because we need to pay

attention to what's important to you.

And Father, you emphasize the significance of true fellowship

over and over again in your word.

This idea of Koinonia is not just some passing 1 passage kind

of thing. It's there over and over and

over again. Our strength is found together.

Our strength is found in you and with one another.

Father, for some here the very first step.

And I was just thankful in the first service during the

invitation, how someone came to just shared with me what a

blessing this was for their life.

Something you've done in their life or these recent days, just

talking about salvation. Father, the first step of

fellowship is fellowship with you.

So Father, I pray if there's someone here who has never truly

been saved, they have never authentically asked Jesus Christ

to be their Lord and Savior right now, wherever they're

seated. Father, I just pray that you'll

help them to understand how real this is, that you, you are

indeed authentic, and that Father, the only way for them to

know true fellowship with you is by trusting in Christ.

Others who have been visiting, others who have been searching

and praying, it's time for them to join us at Inglewood.

Some need to talk about church membership.

Maybe somebody needs to talk about biblical baptism.

Others need to come and pray. Maybe there's an issue with

fellowship with others in their life or with themselves and they

just want to pray. So Father, let let us use this

time to commune with you and let you, Father, have free reign for

us to respond the way you want us to.

We thank you, Father, in Christ's name, Amen.

I'm going to ask you to stand. Our worship team is going to

lead us. There'll be pastors here to

visit with you, but you don't have to visit with us.

There's a room right over here called the Next Steps Room.

You can go straight to that room.

There are people in there who would love to have a private,

discreet conversation with you, to pray with you.

You can just come and pray at these steps, or you can come and

talk to one of us. Whatever you need to do, you do

it right now as we worship.