The provisions of FELLOWSHIP
FELLOWSHIP IN A LOCAL CHURCH PROVIDES
A PLACE OF PRAYER
A PLACE OF PRAISE
A PLACE OF PREPARATION
A PLACE OF ENCOURAGEMENT
A PLACE OF PARTICIPATION
A Place of Praise
FELLOWSHIP IN A LOCAL CHURCH ”ECCLESIA” PROVIDES
A PLACE OF PRAISE (recap)
A PLACE OF PROTECTION
All discussion of worship must ultimately deal with the issue of undivided allegiance to God.
Matthew 22;36-37.
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.
What Jesus said about worship.
Luke 15:8-9.
These people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.
John 4:19-24.
Sir, the woman said, I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem. Woman, Jesus replied, believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.
Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.
.
Acts: 14:23.
Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust.
Hebrews 13:17
Obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.
The Lord places us into a family in the natural as well as the Spiritual
Psalm 68:6
God places the lonely in families; he sets the prisoners free and gives them joy. But he makes the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.
Family is important. Both in the natural and spiritually it is a place of
support and protection and that is why Satan does all he can to break up the family unit with divisive people.
A. One of the ways he does this is with loose talk and criticism
which breaks down instead of building up.
B. Another tactic of Satan is that he introduces doctrine that is unbiblical.
1 Timothy 4:1
But the Holy Spirit explicitly and unmistakably declares that in later times some will turn away from the faith, paying attention instead to deceitful and seductive spirits and doctrines of demons.
1 Peter 5:9
To the elders who are among you I exhort, I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker of the glory that will be revealed:
Shepherd the flock of God which
is among you, serving as overseers,
not by compulsion but willingly,
not for dishonest gain but eagerly;
nor as being lords over those
entrusted to you, but being examples
to the flock; and when the Chief Shepherd
appears, you will receive the crown of
glory that does not fade away.
1 Peter 5:9
Likewise, you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for God resists the proud,
But gives grace to the humble.
Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.
Acts 20:17-30
From Miletus, Paul sent to Ephesus for the elders of the church. When they arrived, he said to them: You know how I
lived the whole time I was with you, from the first day I came into the province of Asia. I served the Lord with great humility and with tears and in the midst of severe testing by the plots of my Jewish opponents.
You know that I have not
hesitated to preach
anything that would be
helpful to you but have
taught you publicly and
from house to house.
I have declared to both
Jews and Greeks that they
must turn to God in
repentance and have faith
in our Lord Jesus.
Paul’s warning
Acts 20:17-30
Therefore, take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also, from among yourselves men will rise up speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.
Acts 20:17-30
And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.
Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again. Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of any of you. For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God. Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard.
PREDATORS BREAK UP THE HERD
1 Corinthians 3 :1-17
Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? For when one says, I follow Paul,” and another, I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings?
What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.
1 Corinthians 3:1-17
By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved even though only as one escaping through the flames.
1 Corinthians 3:17
Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.
FELLOWSHIP PROVIDES
A PLACE OF PRAYER
A PLACE OF PRAISE
A PLACE OF PREPARATION
A PLACE OF PROTECTION
A PLACE OFEN COURAGEMENT
A PLACE OF PARTICIPATION
MATTHEW 13:1-17
That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. Then he told them many things in parables, saying:
A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. Whoever has ears, let them hear.
MATTHEW 13:1-17
The disciples came to him and asked, Why do you speak to the people in parables? He replied, Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance.
Whoever does not have,
even what they have will be taken from
them. This is why I speak to them in
parables: Though seeing, they do not
see; though hearing, they do not hear
or understand. In them is fulfilled the
prophecy of Isaiah: You will be ever
hearing but never understanding;
you will be ever seeing but never
perceiving.
Gavin has recently ministered on the letters
to the 7 churches in Revelation and drew
attention to the remark.
Revelation 2:7
He who has an ear, let him hear what the
Spirit says to the churches.
Did we hear and take note of what the
messenger of the Lord said to us?
Or dowe say like the Laodicean Church
that we are rich and have need of nothing?
But are still blind to our lukewarmness?
Do we as Brakpan Assembly have ears that don’t hear?
Do we listen to the daily devotionals and take them to heart as God speaking to us through the gift
ministries. I spoke recently in my
devotionals about the importance
of evangelism, has anything changed
in our lives in this regard?
Have we warned our family
members about the global warming ahead of us?
This is a warning from Scripture and not AL gore or some other liberal democrat.
Revelation 16:8-9.The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and the sun was allowed to scorch people with fire. They were seared by the intense heat, and they cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and glorify him.
Do we as Brakpan Assembly have ears that don’t hear?
This is what everyone who is not ready for the Rapture will face, including our friends and loved ones, forget about save the planet we need to see the inhabitants of the planet saved.
Are you ready?
MATTHEW 13:15-17
For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise, they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.
But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.
The only variant in the parable of the sower is the soil represents the heart.
What kind of hearts
do we have.
Hard..
Stony..
Thorny..
Good..
What has happened to the to the seed that has been sown in our
hearts recently?
HOW ARE WE AS A CHURCH RESPONDING TO WHAT THE LORD IS TELLING US ?
But the (hard calloused hearts) is what got my attention and what followed in verse 17
MATTHEW 13:17
For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.
Do we as Brakpan Assembly have ears that don’t hear?
I have spoken of these 3 categories before
1. The rocky ground
2. The thorny ground
3. The good ground
The old Testament Saints had a Passover lamb to look back on we have eyewitness testimony of how God stepped down from heaven and took upon Himself our humanity and paid the penalty for our sin on the cross of Calvary.
The old Testament Saints had a harvest feast of Pentecost TO LOOK BACK On WE HAVE THE FULFILMENT OF JOEL’S PROPHECY WHEN GOD POURED OUT HIS SPIRIT ON HIS DISCIPLES, THERE ARE THOSE OF US WHO HAVE EXPERIENCED OUR OWN PENTECOST… ARE WE THE WITNESSES THAT JESUS said we would be?
The old Testament Saints had a high priest who had to offer sacrifices for his own sins, we have a sinless high priest who became sin for us, so that we could be clothed in His righteousness
HOW ARE WE AS A CHURCH RESPONDING TO WHAT THE LORD IS TELLING US ?
As I was reflecting on the advantages we have as laid out in the book of Hebrews I thought of some of the comparisons of Jesus that I had just heard earlier in Matthew’s Gospel
Matt 11:21&31 Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them: for she came from the utmost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, a greater than Solomon is here.
Maybe something like this “woe to you Brakpan AGF if the people of North Korea had the freedom that you have to spread the GOSPEL, they would turn the Nation upside down.
The Chinese house churches risk imprisonment to come and mouth silent praise, but you can’t even get out of bed on a Sunday morning
Please Lord don’t let us silence your voice like Eli did.
Luke 12:48.
The days are coming, declares the Sovereign Lord, when I will send a famine through the land, not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.
HOW ARE WE AS A CHURCH RESPONDING TO WHAT THE LORD IS TELLING US ?
Hebrews 12:25.
Be careful that you do not refuse to listen to the One who is speaking. For if the people of Israel did not escape when they refused to listen to Moses, the earthly messenger, we will certainly not escape if we reject the One who speaks to us from heaven!
HOW ARE WE AS A CHURCH RESPONDING TO WHAT THE LORD IS TELLING US ?
Hebrews 1:1-2
In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe.
SONG:
Open our eyes, Lord.