Who You Are In Christ - In Fellowship With the Saints

All right, so in fellowship with the saints, was anyone here raised Catholic? Yeah. What does it take to be a saint as far as the Catholics are concerned? Lots of money. Lots of money. That's not the answer I was expecting, but I like it. It takes many decades of proving.

Do they have to be dead first? I think so, yeah. And then voted on. And then voted, I think you're right. And it doesn't necessarily have to, like Mother Teresa didn't do miracles, she just was, she served the poor, isn't that right? What is the biblical viewpoint on a saint? Believer. Absolutely. The word saint means literally a holy one and by believing You know, we're given all the things that we're talking about today and our holiness is imparted from Christ. It's not our holiness, it's His holiness that makes us a holy one. What do you guys think fellowship means? What does the word fellowship mean? What's that?

Communion with each other. Communion with each other? Okay. Stan? The Greek word is koinonia and it's what they call being in the same boat together. Okay. Common ideals used and sharing those. The one that I liked was a group of people looking to pursue a shared interest or aim. So we're all serving the same thing. Our fellowship is based upon common interests, absolutely, being in the same boat. We're all looking to serve or pursue a shared interest or aim. What I wanted to do today to look at our fellowship was to just kind of work through Philippians 2, verses 1 and 2. And we'll start with just kind of a little bit of background on Philippians. A lot of you may already know this, but the book of Philippians was written by Paul. And it was written by Paul while he was a prisoner. Paul had planted a church in Philippi.

And he was writing them for a couple of reasons. One was they had sent him a gift. The guy's name is Aphroditus. And they had had him carry a gift to Paul while he was in prison. And so one of the reasons Paul was writing, just say thanks. You guys are, you know, that's part of striving for the same purpose, being in the same boat is taking care of one another. And he was thanking them for that. And he also wanted to encourage them to strive for unity.

And one of the things that the Philippian church was dealing with was some persecution, which Paul obviously knew as well. And that persecution was kind of causing maybe a division here or there, differences in point of view on how they should go about dealing with those things. So Paul is, one of the major things that he's doing in this letter is telling them to seek unity as they go through these struggles. Another thing that Paul commonly deals with in his books is or in his letters, the churches are coming up with rules and regulations and laws and things like that.

And he's saying, you guys don't need to do that. That's not what this is about. It's about the same type of love that Christ had that you guys are supposed to live by. So that's kind of some of the background that you want to have in mind when we look at the verses today. My mouth is as dry as it could be.

Would someone mind reading Philippians 2, 1 and 2 there? Therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in Spirit, intent on one purpose.

So why are we saying if? The word if here is brought forward in many English translations, but the four conditions that Paul is presenting in verse 1 are not intended to place doubt, rather to establish a logical basis for things in verse 2. So it is proper to use since here instead. Therefore, since there is already. In the Greek, the word if is used four different ways, basically.

One of them is to to indicate possibility. If this happens, that can happen. It's possible. Another is to indicate probability. If this happens, it is likely this will happen. And those two words actually, it's based upon the tenses and sentence structure, depending upon the way that if is used. But those first two, possibility and probability, have likelihood of future conditions built into them.

If anybody watches football, you read the newspaper before Sunday's games and they'll say like, he has an ankle injury and it's probable that he'll play. Or he has a knee injury and it's possible that he could play. It's kind of those same ideas built into these two words.

The third way that it's used would be an impossibility. It can't happen. So like, if you would have been here, you could have seen what happened. Well, it's a past thing. It's impossible. You can't be there. It's said and done. So that one implicates impossibility. And the fourth way that it's used is the way that it's used in these sentences, and it's to demonstrate reality and to put a logical thought process in your head. And it's something that we don't really do in our English language, but it was a common thing in the Greek language.

So based on the realities, In these verses therefore if there is you could basically say therefore based on the reality that there is any encouragement in Christ so instead of saying instead of thinking in our if doubt sort of way this is to cause your brain to look at this in a logical way to see the things that are in verse 1 and how they're set up or and how they logically follow through to verse 2 and The next part here is what does it say? So the first condition that Paul is writing about there is encouragement in Christ. In the Greek, encouragement is a compound word, a combination of alongside and call. So the call alongside. It means literally, to call alongside, as in aid, comfort, encouragement, counsel, consolation or expectation.

And these are things that as a body we have these in one another. And when the body is functioning correctly, if there's a believer that's experiencing doubt or some type of struggle, there's encouragement brought forth by the love of Christ in the body. Christ actually uses this word repeatedly describing the Holy Spirit in John. So the Holy Spirit is our encourager, He is our comfort, our counsel. The second word there, or the second condition is consolation and love. It's a Greek word that is almost identical to the one used for encouragement. And it has an idea of a persuasive address yielding comfort in the one being spoken to.

And then the love that he's using there is agape, a love that is self-sacrificial in nature and has God as its source seeking the benefit of the recipient entirely without return. That's not a love that we Society doesn't think of love that way. I have a friend who recently, he's not a Christian, but he's dealing with a breakup kind of thing with a girl that he's dated for a long time. And one of the things I talked to him about is just his viewpoint of what love is. And a lot of people, love is a feeling. It's something that you experience. And the commitment level and the idea of seeking someone else instead of yourself through love is not common in society. But it is exactly how God has loved us and how he desires us to love one another.

Do you mind if I ask a question? Sure, go ahead. How would you differentiate between the encouragement and the consolation? Are they similar ideas just to emphasize the point? Or would you say that he was trying to make two different points? Well, when we dig a little bit further into this... We're not there yet. Well, and that's okay. If you look at the third page, this may actually help. If you look at the third page, it says, where is the logic? And these ideas are lining up with what's being said. What's being said in the first verse is lining up with something in the second. Since there's encouragement in Christ, make my joy complete by being of the same mind.

So have a mind of encouraging one another. Have a mind of being there to counsel one another. And then the consolation of love make my joy complete by maintaining the same love So there's a there's a mindset, but there's also The type of love that you want to extend so they're they're similar words that are used in those two sentences But I think are in those two conditions, but I think they are conveying two different yet similar ideas The first one is When you say it's a mindset, it's almost like a mental thing, whereas the second one is an action. Sure, yeah, it's a type of love. I mean, it's actually played out in your actual day-to-day walk, in interaction with the people that you care about. As opposed to the first one, which is kind of a mindset.

I don't know that that's the same. Well, yeah, and... When you think about your day-to-day life, my old pastor, he had a, he called it authentic Christianity. And it was made up of a couple of things. One is Christ-like thinking and behavior. And thinking and behavior are, one is going to lead to the other. If you're living in the Spirit and your mindset is on Christ, is on the things above, having the same mind of Christ, your behavior is going to flow out of that. Your behavior should line up with that. And those actions are also spurred on by the Spirit, by the love of God, which is in you.

It's not you doing it. Well you know the world loves to say it's not it's not what you say it's what you do. Right. You know really you hear that a lot. When actions speak louder than words. The loudest action humanity has ever seen is Christ on the cross. Does that? Sure. Do you agree? Oh yeah. Okay. It was a genuine question.

I thought maybe you had some other thoughts as well. You described them as similar, and I just wanted to understand the reason for the sentence. Paul actually uses those same two words in a similar argument in 1 Corinthians. I don't know the verses off the top of my head, but there are a series of words that he uses more than once in the Bible to emphasize thinking and behavior.

The next one here would be Fellowship of the Spirit. And we talked about fellowship already, participation, sharing. I really do like that one. A group of people looking to pursue a shared interest or aim. We're here for a purpose, and if we're all focused on that same purpose, it's going to be good fellowship.

Fellowship of the Spirit. It is by the Holy Spirit that believers have been placed into the body of Christ. When you believe, you are baptized, you are given the Holy Spirit. We had a couple of baptisms a few weeks ago, and those are just to symbolize how You know, how just immersed you are with the Spirit.

And it's not something that's going to leave you. It's not something that is going to go anywhere. Your job is to abide. But you don't get the Holy Spirit at baptism. No, you don't. You get it upon belief. The baptism is symbolism. Unlike some teach the baptism. Right, yeah. No, no. That's not what we believe here. That's not what the Bible says either. So, absolutely.

Are you going to discuss fellowship? I don't want to. Go ahead, what do you want to... Well, the thing with the concept of fellowship of the Spirit is it's very common, at least in my own life experience, to find that there's more division in the church even though we're all believers and we're unified in Christ and unified in all being indwelled by the Holy Spirit. There's a lot of division in the church and The concept of fellowship of the Spirit says, because you are indwelled by the Holy Spirit, you should have fellowship.

It doesn't, it's not something that I've heard taught. Anywhere? I don't, I may, may. What is the, I may be too broad a statement, but regularly at all. The division that you're talking about, are you talking about division in a singular church, like at Holly Hills, or are you talking about division on Molly? Conceptually, conceptually amongst Hills or between Holly Hills and some church down the street or across the globe. The idea of division is, we embrace division. We've been taught we'll all agree to disagree.

But this implies a unity from the Holy Spirit that says because the Holy Spirit is working in you, there's going to be fellowship. And we should not just sit by and idly think, yeah, it's alright to be divided. The Holy Spirit is doing something. Sanctification is going to bring us together as the Lord refines our theology and we submit our lives to God's Word. It's going to bring us together. And the Holy Spirit is going to bring that fellowship.

And it exceeds the carnal division. The Holy Spirit doesn't bring division. my word, I've revealed it, this is truth. And somebody else says I'm going to ignore that and I'm going to do something carnal and that's going to break division. But it's going to be the flesh in at least one of the parties that's going to break the division, right? But the Holy Spirit is going to stand true with the truth of his word. But otherwise, he brings about unity.

And my attitude, I mean, when I went to seminary, all I heard was division, division, division, Anytime you find somebody who doesn't believe what you believe, split. And so I did. Boy, if that's what they're being taught, no wonder. Well, not every seminary is the same, and things have changed in various places.

But never once was the fellowship of the Spirit presented. Hey, you both are indwelled by the Holy Spirit, you should be in fellowship. You must both submit yourselves to God's Word. source of truth and that's going to cause unity. But I never heard fellowship of the spirit wrong. Yeah, regardless of denomination. And that isn't to say that we should ignore differences, it is simply to say that we should recognize the source of unity. Or concentrate on the things that you agree on.

And I, you know, we have friends, and I'm sure everybody here does, who, you know, go to other, and they're believers, and they go to other churches, and they may be real steeped in legalism, but we know they're believers, and so when we fellowship with them, we, I mean, we don't purposely throw in their face, you know, what we think is truth. They know from our life that there's a difference. And so we fellowship, and we enjoy the fellowship, but Even saying that, your fellowship can only go so far with what is common, which is you're both believers and you're both part of the body of Christ. But you can share, but there's not an in-your-face kind of, we have the truth. Because they think they have the truth. But you do have a fellowship.

But again, it can only go so far. commonly taught is is doctrinal arrogance I don't know maybe that's not the right term but it's like well I am a Methodist and therefore as a Methodist I have the best way and I'm a Baptist and therefore as a Baptist I have the best way rather than simply having the attitude of God's Word is my ultimate authority and I submit myself to God's Word period and so I always looked for fellowship to come about from men having debates. We're going to have a debate, and the winner of the debate clearly has got truth, and then everybody will rally around that one truth, and then we'll have fellowship.

And that's not what Paul says. No, no, that's fine. That's a good conversation. Stan, you had something to add there? Actually, if you go to the scriptures, and not Paul, but John, and you go to 1 John, chapter 1, verse 4, you could actually say, the reason John wrote 1 John, verse 4 says, these things we write so that our joy may be made complete. And then if you go up to verse 3, what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also so that you too may have fellowship with us and indeed our fellowship is with the father and with his son Jesus Christ yeah so actually you could say the entire book of first John the purpose was to show that they did have fellowship that doesn't have anything to do with the fact that you're a believer, which is what you said.

I'm going to give an experience, but I don't always go on experience. I have Christian friends who have obvious different viewpoints than I do. You spoke to this already. My brother-in-law was in a very charismatic church, and I don't agree with that theology, but when I hang out with him, when I spend time with him and we talk about God's Word and things like that, I do experience fellowship. And I think when the Spirit is leading conversation about God's Word, truth is going to be revealed with that person, and fellowship is going to be deep. on the basis that both people are in the Spirit and both people are seeking truth from the Word.

If someone's discounted the authority of Scripture, then that growth may or may not be there for them. Probably not. But for us here at this church, I believe everyone here really looks at Scripture as the final authority on things. You know, churches that don't do that is where our error is coming in.

And that's not to say we can't have fellowship with people in those churches, because they are saved. They do believe in the gospel, and that's what is required to be saved. And because of that, they have the Spirit, and because of that, we can fellowship with them.

That's not to say there will never be differences. But what Paul is calling for here is a unity in purpose, a unity in belief, not lots of different beliefs, not you believe what you want to believe, and I'll believe what I want to believe, but here's what we've presented to you. Paul's saying, here's what I've presented to you. Have unity in that, not something you've made up. And that's where our fellowship is. It's not exactly what it is today, though. I have Bible studies outside the church. I have one assisted living. a fine Christian lady, and she knows others who claim to be Christians.

Well, what denomination is he? What denomination? He's not my denomination, so I can't go. Yeah. Well, and Ireland obviously experienced war over denomination, and so have many other countries in the past as well. I'm not a denomination. I just teach the Bible. Yeah. This unity that Paul is speaking to doesn't exist everywhere. But it's what God wants. It's what God had in mind when he gave us the Spirit. People are tied into that though with a small fellowship. My denomination. That's my fellowship. I have to say that Paul probably didn't experience that either.

And that was a goal of his because at one point, I don't know where it was, but he said that, you know, The only one that stayed with him was Mark, I think. And Mark was the one that he got upset with earlier on. But Mark stuck around and became, you know, a disciple of his. And he had Timothy and he had Mark and, you know, maybe two or three others.

And that was it. And he was out there on the front lines. It'd be like our soldiers on the front line in Iraq being all by themselves with maybe, you know, three or four people bringing supplies to them. And that's what Paul was. And so, and first John, John was on the Isle of Badness.

I don't know if that's when he wrote that or not, but he too desired fellowship. So it wasn't something that they had achieved except through a few relationships. You know, it's not something, you know, we envision that today as having, you know, a whole camaraderie of friends and family and fellowship and, you know, a big family gathering and all this other stuff where all of our friends come. That's, I don't think, he's talking about a more intense and sincere connection here.

You know, a true, a true connection through Jesus Christ. Yeah. Yeah, and The connection is in, I actually have the verse on the last page there, but in John 17, I mean, when Jesus is praying, he's talking about that unity being the same as what he has with the Father. Our unity with one another and our unity with Christ and our unity with the Father is supposed to be, is intended to be the same as what Christ has with the Father.

And that's something that we don't really understand. And that's rare. That's almost the exception in many cases, to have that degree. Yeah. Well, too, if you look at Paul's entire career, his entire life, every single book he writes is about, for the most part, explaining who they are in Christ again, and then dealing with some kind of error that was going on. I mean, this was never in his, you know, you're right, in his whole life, it never was what it was meant to be. And so it's not surprising that with us now, it's not that way either.

Well, and the fundamental thing that you're dealing with there is position. Paul talks about position in all his books. He talks about where you're positioned and then obviously our condition is not always there. He presents the position first and then here's where you really are. Here's what you're dealing with in your flesh or in your sin nature. Here's how I want you to go about correcting it. We're all the same. I mean if he were here today he'd be writing all of us letters. Our church is exactly the same. No, that's why we still study these things, because they're still pertinent to what we deal with.

And he himself was flawed, because he said so, in many areas. But he can't imagine that Christ would love him, or God would love him, because he's so flawed, he's not worthy. Yet he was a great teacher, wasn't he? Not by his power, but that which God had granted him.

The next phrase there is affection and compassion. And I left the word out there, I should say in the Greek. Both terms literally refer to the internal organs. But the words are used here to convey tenderness, heart, affection, compassion, mercy. These are things that we do too.

We'll say, I'll have a heart. Or, she's got a great heart. We're not talking about when we say, oh, have a heart. We don't think that they don't have one. We're just speaking metaphorically. So same kind of idea there that is brought forward with those Greek words. Or you have a gut feeling. Right. The next phrase there is make my joy complete. It is literally you must fill up to the point of completion It's the joy of me. This is given as an imperative, so the idea is that you must do this.

Paul goes beyond the measure of mere suggestion. Actually, most of this is stolen from Vern's notes, but the imperative should not be taken as law, but is entirely and exclusively consistent with the life of Christ and the believer. So if you're abiding, These things are entirely consistent with what your life should look like when you are abided. Does that make sense? It's not set up a bunch of rules and regulations for you to do this, but abide and these things will happen.

The word joy is gladness, which springs from aboundingly freely given grace of the Lord. going back to 1 John again it says in verse 4 which I read before these things we write so that our joy may be made complete and he's talking about fellowship in there then if you go to James and I don't have the verse in front of me but you know you're supposed to consider it all joy and that's when the condition that you're in is bad you're supposed to focus on behavior are synonymous when they're referring to it. And I never thought about that before, but that's how James makes sense.

Because if you have fellowship, just like Jesus had the fellowship with the Father, it didn't make any difference. Well, it made a difference, but he could endure what he had to go through because he did have the fellowship with the Father. And the reason when he was on the cross and he had, you know, the real pain was when the fellowship was gone. And he became, you know, the sins of man came upon him. And that fellowship was broken.

First time that it ever existed, I guess. So, you could almost use him as synonymous. Yeah. Well, it's interesting here that, I mean, these are Paul's words, make my joy complete. And John there, you said the reason we write these things, John is talking about the apostles, those who experienced one-on-one fellowship with Christ. And Christ gave them a task when he left. He wanted them to spread the knowledge of the gospel. And so the joy that Paul and John are talking about there is the joy of the joy of fellowship that is similar to that which they had with Christ. That is similar to that which Christ had with the Father. So yeah, that's a good point to bring up.

I don't. I've read through it many, many times and also many commentaries trying to figure out exactly what what John's trying to say in 1 John, but every time I read that and I get further into the depth of that particular book, that's exactly what he's saying. How do we get this fellowship? How do we have this joy? The next set of words there is being of the same mind. The word translated mind here equals to have a mindset about something or someone involving the will, emotions, and conscience, resulting in a proper course of action.

So having a mindset about Someone or something is going to be something we could call our faith and someone we could call Christ And it involves our will Emotions and conscience The next phrase they're maintaining the same love Paul literally literally like literally writes the same love so the same love that he's talking about in verse 1 and that love we were talking about was One that is given entirely without seeking benefit from the recipient. Its power is God. It's not done through any miraculous thing that you know, but through the Spirit.

The next phrase there is united in spirit, which is a compound word in the Greek, meaning together in souls, souls together, so united as one. an intent on one purpose. In the KJV that is translated, of one mind. And the mind there, the Greek expresses the idea that the saints are thinking plurally as one. So everyone is thinking as one.

And this is what we were talking a little bit about earlier. Paul is not at all promoting diversity of doctrine, mindset, and purpose in the church, rather profound singularity. So the third page there. What does it mean? These verses give an idea of what our fellowship should look like and how we should logically live it out. So where's the logic?

So if we read each one of these bullets, therefore, since there is already encouragement in Christ, make my joy complete by being of the same mind. Therefore, since there is already consolation of love, make my joy complete by maintaining the same love. Therefore, since there is already fellowship of the spirit, make my joy complete by being united in spirit. And therefore, since there is already affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being intent on one purpose."

This is an idea of what our fellowship should look like. These words that we've kind of dug into are there to give us an idea of what what God has in mind for our fellowship to look like. The encouragement that we can have for one another through Christ by being in the same mind. The way that we can comfort each other in love by maintaining the same love which God has extended to us. The fellowship and spirit that we have because God has given us his Holy Spirit.

And the heart Affection and compassion, we talked about those two words being Greek words talking about internal organs. The heart, the courage that we can have with one another by being intent on one purpose. So the next part I have here is what purpose? When we talk about being intent on one purpose, what is that purpose? And in John 17, 23, I'll just go ahead and read these first. And this is Jesus. He's praying, and at first he's praying for his apostles, his disciples.

And so he says, I do not ask on behalf of these alone, his apostles, but also those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, even as you, Father, are in me and I in you. that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me. The glory which you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as we are one, I in them, and you in me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that you sent me, and love them even as you have loved me. It's kind of profound, really.

So Jesus is praying these things, and basically what Paul's saying in Philippians is these things have come true. Christ has asked these things in his prayer, and now they're true of us. This is a prayer that's granted. It's true. You know, 1 John where he's talking about, we write these things so that. He's writing these things so that what Christ asked for here in this prayer could be true of us, could be true of his church.

The fellowship of the saints is not something to be taken lightly, for in our fellowship there is profound purpose, that the world may know that God the Father sent the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Father loves the world, even as he loves his only Son. So it's kind of amazing what our fellowship is to display to the world. And that's, I think that's why a lot of us, that's why we have problems with division, you know. And that's why, that's why, you know, we talk about, often we talk about division in churches being something that, you know, Satan will say, Satan's weaved his way into that church or something. But to a degree, I think that's true. He wants to create division so that God's message is not clearly portrayed.

I think I've said this before in this class, but one of the, you know, Gandhi, his quote was, he was very interested in Christianity, but the reason he didn't want to convert to it was because of the actions of believers. If we're all fellowshipping the way that God has intended here, that picture of the world would be a different one. It's interesting because when you think of this, and he says the purpose is to show that the Father sent Jesus Christ and the fact that the Father loves like Jesus loved the people as an example, how many people in the church today, particularly evangelistic television and all this, is that really the goal or is it a personal narcissistic goal of demonstrating what great things they can do or Benny Hinn, the healing and all the rest of this sort of thing? Because it's not lifting him up, but it's lifting themselves up.

And it's making a mockery of faith and church. And going back to what you were talking about, the Catholics, at least when they saint somebody, they make it really, really special. I mean, this is really an exceptional thing to be a saint, you know, to be voted on, and maybe the miracles are concocted or whatever. who's an exception and truly has done this, you know, made Jesus Christ a goal. Whereas if you just make everybody who's in the church today a saint, it's almost in a sense degrading.

But it's true. Positionally it's true. It is true, positionally. But if the world looks at it, what I'm saying from the world's standpoint, it's almost degrading the world. You know what I'm saying? Because like you said about Gandhi, this is the way the world sees it.

I know so many people that go out there and try to push their faith on people, but yet they don't have the foundation. They don't have the example that somebody would be willing to follow. Right, and you know the intent, the purpose is fellowship. so that the world can see who Christ is, so that the world can understand his love. And you bring up the televangelists, do you think their purpose is exalting Christ or making money?

I don't know, but it sure seems like making money. The purpose is important. Understanding what your fellowship is about is important. Because if you're thinking it's for me to be forgiven of my sins, well then your sins are already forgiven. That's not your purpose. And so it is important to know the purpose. I think we think of fellowship between believers. I think you can have fellowship by yourself with the Lord. Oh absolutely. It's two different relationships. It is two different relationships. Yeah, but still that is fellowship. Absolutely. You have to have the one with God in order to have the other alternative ones.

The affection and compassion are not... the flesh doesn't have affection and compassion as he's intending here. You've got to have the Holy Spirit moving through you with the supernatural power of God giving you affection and compassion. Because otherwise our reaction is to usually be repulsed by somebody in a situation that needs that compassion and affection. Hey, you're not okay. I'll stay away from your not-okayness and be okay by myself or with other okay people. Instead of having the affection and compassion, which is supernatural from God, to reach out. well-being is a sign of God cursing them for not having done something right in their life. He's saying, oh no, on the contrary, God's created this need so that you can be compassionate and affectionate towards people.

And it puts need in a totally different light. Yeah. And even if that person isn't receptive to your affection and compassion, someone else is going to see it and go, well, I wanted to run away from that person and Randy gave him love instead. I'm open. Or whoever, right? That believer gave them love instead. Yeah.

In verse 3 and 4, Paul goes on to say, you know, don't set out on selfish ambition and, you know, seek things for yourself. But in verse 4, but look out for the interests of others. You have all this and the Lord is working through you. your mind will be focused on how can I help that other person versus what can I gain or what can I get out of this for me, which is what our flesh wants all the time. But when we're in fellowship with the Lord, we can then fellowship with other Christians and seek to encourage them and help them grow as much as they're going to help you grow. That's a good point.

And I don't know if this was happening in Philippi, but it was in Corinth. People were not seeking one another, they were seeking selfish gain. They wanted to know who's the most spiritual, who's the most whatever. And so they were seeking self instead of seeking the other believers' best interests. And Corinth didn't necessarily deal with the persecution like Philippi did, but if you're dealing with persecution, seeking self, if you're all on one ship and you're seeking self, you're going to sink. You're taking water and seeking self. It's not going to work for everybody else.

Right. And if that true fellowship is happening, that's going to make the joy complete. Right. Absolutely. I was just going to say in Acts you kind of get a sense of how Paul processed things because he uses some language kind of throughout when they're making decisions like in chapter 15, for it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us. It kind of indicates that they communicating with different things or over different things with each other.

It's kind of interesting to see the process that they make decisions. Well, and in a good church that process is existent in leaders. You know, when we pray for our church leaders, mostly I just pray that they're abiding in the Spirit when they go to make decisions. Because If you've got a decision to make and they're all abiding in the Spirit, then it's going to seem good to them in the Spirit and they can make a decision based on that.

So, yeah. That would be another type of fellowship. Another extension of it. Does anybody have any other questions or anything? If not, I'm okay wrapping up and getting a cup of coffee. Anybody? Comments? Questions? Alright, I'm going to go ahead and we'll finish up here in prayer and then we'll be the first ones to the snacks. Lord, we We thank you that we can meet this morning. We thank you for all the things that there are.

We know that there's encouragement in Christ. We know there's consolation of love. We know there's fellowship in the Spirit. And we know there's affection and compassion through you. I pray that we do make your joy complete by abiding in your Spirit and fellowshipping with one another. And that that fellowship would display to everyone else, display to the world that But you have loved us in a manner that we don't really even understand, that we rarely seek in our own self, or possibly never. But we are amazed by your love. We pray that this body continues to grow, that your body everywhere continues to grow, and that you would be exalted through it. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.