"It" has caught up to us and a sermon post about True Christian Fellowship

 

I kind of knew at some point I might be back to setting up another make shift studio for recording some sermons.  "It" caught up with us so we are dealing with it.  ZOOM has come back into my life also with at least 5 meetings this week!  

With so much going on in our world, we find ourselves praying all the more for the advancement of God's kingdom through the local body of believers.  These havens of hope keep us grounded to the message that is eternal.  Keeping focused on proclaiming the gospel in a world that is pushing so many things onto our plates to navigate has become challenging but we are praying for some new stories to tell that come out of the fellowship.

The practice of inserting a stand-alone sermon between the chapters of James I think has been beneficial to address some topics that might be better to talk about now rather than later.  After chapter 1 came a sermon on the sacrament of communion; after chapter 2 came a sermon on worship focusing on what we sing (psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs) and how we minister to each other; after chapter 3 came a sermon on the state of the American church and holding it down to the Word of God requiring some repentance; and now after chapter 4 comes a sermon on true Christian fellowship.  

I have heard so many times, "We are a friendly church!" and I would agree but is that bar too low?  Should we be more than a friendly church?  What does a fellowship church look like?  This was my motivation to paint a picture of a church that goes from friendly to fellowship, a church that really represents the word "koinonia."  

I think the hardest application point is the rearranging of our schedules.  Our schedules have been rearranged as we have limited our time with the body of Christ down to an hour a week.  I believe true Christian fellowship cannot be attained and maintained without rearranging our schedules back to more regular times together.  As the Scriptures indicate, we need to be at the level of devotion to this fellowship, this body of believers, along with our devotion to God's word, worship, and prayers.  

Here is the insert used for this sermon.

And here is the sermon in my make shift studio.

Adam