In the sermon 'Continuing in Fellowship' by Troy Sheppard, the importance of fellowship within the church and with Christ is emphasized as crucial for the church's health and longevity. The sermon begins with a reflection on past experiences and God's goodness, followed by a discussion on the role of individual responsibility in maintaining a church's vitality. Acts 2 is used to illustrate the early church's steadfastness in doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer, emphasizing the importance of continuing in these practices. Fellowship is described as a mutual participation in something, which can be good or evil, and true fellowship with other believers stems from a primary fellowship with Christ. The sermon warns against fellowship with unrighteousness and highlights the ultimate goal of being conformed to the image of Christ. The unity of the church is portrayed as vital, requiring work and the denial of self-will, with the church's purpose rooted in manifesting Christ's image. Practical ways to promote fellowship include faithful worship, limiting worldly influences, and serving one another. The sermon concludes with the call for unity and fellowship as expressions of the church's divine purpose.

I'll take that song book out of your way. Thank you, brother. Well, it has been good. To think about time past and God's goodness, two of over these years. It has been good.

Remember whenever we met, Barry and Tina, David Meadows was instrumental in that because he and David worked at a manufacturing plant together and they got to talking about the Doctrines of Grace and Barry was going to prove David wrong. And so he went to the scriptures. And well, David wouldn't prove wrong, was he, Barry? No. The scriptures taken rightly and through the power of the Spirit of God leads you into great truths.

We're thankful for that. All right, Acts chapter 2 this afternoon. As the church goes forward we considered some things this morning. Brother Pruitt laid out a message for us to consider in his way of encouragement and instruction. And we try to challenge you.

And Brother David looked at this memorial. It's not something that we stop at, but we go forward. We have the past and then the future hitherto, and up to this point. And the Lord will continue to be at the church. And I'm confident of that, and I do believe, as she's faithful to him, the Lord's given promise that His churches will be here when He comes.

There'll be at least one of them here when He comes. But each church is individual and as we know from the scripture and from experience they live and die and different reasons churches die. Sometimes they are stamped out by persecution. There's no doubt that that has been the case of many of the Lord's churches And sometimes they die out because they're not faithful to the commission that Christ has given them. And one of the important things for churches of the Lord Jesus Christ is to be faithful to the Great Commission.

And if a church is not faithful to the Great Commission, it will die a slow and painful death. Be sure to that. There are other reasons churches die, but we're not gonna labor in the place of mortality. We wanna think about living. And I would encourage the church, There are many things that God uses and he does help us.

He must be our help, but we have great responsibility as the Lord's churches. Do not take it lightly that you as members of this church are responsible to the Lord for how this church lives. Now the church living is His responsibility, But how it lives, well that's yours. He gives life to churches, but it's your responsibility. He's equipped you with everything you need as a body of Christ to live.

And what you do with that, well, that really is up to you. Alright, Acts chapter 2, and so it is for all the Lord's churches acts chapter 2 in verse 41 Of course this comes out that great message that the Apostle Peter preached on the day of Pentecost, where the Lord's church that was there in Jerusalem was added to, and 3, 000 souls were saved. Can you imagine such a meeting as that? 3, 000 people were saved, and only saved, but they were baptized and added to the Lord's church in one day. Boy that'd be some kind of great meeting wouldn't it?

Yeah. But here we have in Acts chapter 2 and verse 24 and we're just going to jump into the text And they that gladly received his word were baptized. And the same day, there were added unto them about 3, 000 souls. And they continued. We could just preach that today.

And they continued. They continued steadfastly. So not only did they continue but they were hard at that work. It was steadfast. It was continual continuance.

And they kept at it. And they that gladly received his word, verse 42, and they that continued steadfastly in the Apostles doctrine, that's one thing. And fellowship, that's something else. And in breaking of bread, that's the third thing, and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles, and All that believed were together and had all things common, and sold their possessions and goods and departed them among all men, as every man had need.

And they continued, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house to eat their meat with gladness and Singleness of heart Praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved I just want to look at one thing, we only have a little bit of time, and I want to look at one thing I think is very important for a church of the word Jesus Christ. And they're all important, but I think this is very important for a church to continue in. The scripture teaches us that that's what they did. That it was something that was perpetual in their existence. And it is something that makes a church a healthy church of Jesus Christ.

They continued. Of course, the Apostles' doctrine, that is apostolic doctrine, the doctrine of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're not going to get on that in most of the churches. I believe that we fellowship with are very sound doctrinally. The issue among us is not doctrine so much as it is other things.

The second thing that they did was they continued in fellowship and that's what I'm going to look at this afternoon and that is continuing in fellowship. Let's look at this for just a few moments. Fellowship means to have communion, union, or a mutual participation in a thing or with someone. And one can have communion, union, or mutual participation in good things or in bad things. And things that are evil or sinful are things that are righteous and holy.

And this is the way it is used in the scriptures. And so I'm going to look at that for just a moment. So in the book of Ephesians, for instance, we'll come right back here, but in the book of Ephesians chapter 5, in Ephesians chapter 5, you see this truth that this union or communion or fellowship as it is in the scriptures there can be sinful or it can be sanctified. In the book of Ephesians 5 and verse 11 there there's a warning there and it says and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather reprove them. So you can either have union, fellowship, communion, mutual participation with that which is evil like in the text here where it says the unfruitful works of darkness or you can have fellowship that is you can have communion or union or you can participate with that which is righteous as in our text that we started out with.

2nd Corinthians chapter 6 just to show you how the idea of the word is used in the scriptures, in 2 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 14. 2 Corinthians 6 and verse 14 says, and be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers for what fellowship, that's the same word there, for what fellowship have righteousness with unrighteousness, and what communion have light with darkness? It is a question that is asked in the test, and the answer is they don't. Darkness and light do not have communion with one another. Matter of fact, whenever there is light, there is the absence of darkness and vice versa.

There may be a scientific way of looking at that, but just in a practical way, you know that when the lights go off in this building at night, it's dark in here, and that when it comes on, it's light in here. They do not intermingle with each other. They do not have communion when one comes, the other leaves. And that's the way it is to be with the believer in his communication with the world. And so you can have a mutual participation or communion or union or fellowship with either that which is good and holy and righteous or that which is unholy and unrighteous.

And the children of God are warned about their actions and their activities and their associations. One can have communion or union or mutual participation or fellowship in the death of Christ. The scripture speaks of it in different ways. I'm going to labor on that for just a moment then we'll get into the subject matter. Just again to establish what fellowship is.

And I believe that as we think about this afternoon, as we think about it in relationship to this church, and as you think about it in your individual lives, that you really cannot have fellowship with other Christians until first you have fellowship with Christ. In Philippians chapter 3 and verse 10, the scripture says, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death." Notice the sufferings are plural in that text, the fellowship of his sufferings. One can have fellowship, communion, a mutual participation in the sufferings of Christ. Matter of fact, every saved person has, to some degree, a mutual participation in the death of Christ. Now, in the text, I believe, in Philippians, it's really talking about living a sacrificed life.

But it goes far deeper than that because, after all, it is Christ's sacrifice that first and foremost that we have participation in. In other words, when Jesus was on the cross, let's make it layman's term, when Jesus was on the cross, not only was I on his mind as the song we sing sometimes says, but I was in his heart. Matter of fact, when Jesus was on the cross, all of my sins were on the Lord Jesus Christ and he paid for them all. So I have a mutual participation or a fellowship or a union, if you will, in the death of Christ. He lived, he suffered, he died in my place.

And his death was reckoned as my death. The Lord Jesus Christ was there bruised by the Father. It was Troy's shepherd that was bruised. It was my sins that were put there. There is a mutual participation in the death of Christ.

There are many activities that men can have communion in or fellowship with. Some are good and some are evil. Here back in our text now, here the scripture reveals that fellowship is one of the ongoing activities of the church that Jesus built. Here it says in our text, those folks that had gladly received his word and were added to the church, that church of 120 people, this church now is over 3, 000. They continued in some things.

And one of the things that they continued in was fellowship what was their fellowship think about it what was their fellowship and and why were they in fellowship And how did they engage in fellowship? You see, beloved, they were living out their purpose. One of the purposes that the Lord Jesus Christ established His church, there are many purposes, but one of the purposes was that they might live out their purpose as believers of the Lord Jesus Christ. That they might live out the Christ life because after all, there is first of all fellowship between the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost these three who are one they have a mutual participation in your salvation you know if you study the doctrine of the Trinity, or the doctrine of the tri-unity of God, you'll find that there are different persons in the Godhead. I'm not afraid of that term.

They're not actors. It's not like a bad play about vaudeville, where a man's only got one actor, and he goes out in the back and he changes clothes and he comes out and he's little red riding hood. And then he goes back in the back and then he comes out and he's the big bad wolf. And then he goes back in the back and changes his clothes and he's grandma. That's not the way God is.

There's God the Father, there is God the Word, and there's God the Holy Ghost. And these three are one. And the Father has a part in the covenant of redemption, the Son has a part in the covenant of redemption, the Holy Ghost has a part in the covenant of redemption. And that is laid out in the Scripture. And there is fellowship in that.

There is a mutual So the Father is glorified in a certain area, and the Son is glorified in a certain area, and the Holy Ghost is glorified in a certain area, and these three who are one are glorified as the one true and living God in our salvation. And then comes along our participation where we are brought to the Father and we are brought to the Son and we are brought to the Holy Ghost. And as we live out our Christian life, all we're doing really is just living out our purpose. Now we live in a time where people don't know their purpose. Evolution, the deluge of evolution has left men purposeless, if they're such a word.

They're left without purpose. They don't know how they got here. They don't know why they're here. They don't know where they're going. And that's the opposite of what God reveals to us in His Word.

But as believers, we should know our purpose. God saved us for one purpose that we know of. There's many purposes, but one we're looking at, and that is to have fellowship with Himself. God wants us to have union, communion with Himself. God saved you that you might know him He already knows you but he saved you that you might know him that you might have an intimate relationship with him in the book of first John first John 3 First John and verse 3 the scripture says there this, For I rejoice greatly, excuse me, 1 John 1 3, I was wrong, 1 John 1 3, That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us, and truly, truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.

See, God gave us, excuse me, God saved us to have fellowship with himself and you will never ever have good fellowship with others until you have real fellowship with Jesus Christ. One of the sad things that happens in church life sometimes is that there are lost people you know with all the protections and guardrails and there are protections the Lord has established protection and guardrails to keep lost people out of the church. Baptism is a guardrail. There has to be a profession of faith. That's a guardrail.

A public declaration of faith and then a submission to the Father's will by being baptized and declaring that yes, God is just. And the Bible talks about God being justified there in the baptism of John. And what that really means is that, yep, God was right when he said I was the sinner. Yes, God was right in saying that that old nature is stinking and rotten as a corpse. God was right in all that, and I'm dead to myself.

I'm going to live for Him. And all that's confessed in baptism, by the way. So that's a guardrail. Then He places the Lord's Supper there for self-examination. That's a guardrail.

Either to keep us out or to get us right if we're in there and say nope nope nope I don't have a participation with him that's why it's there. A lot of fellowship is broken in churches because I really believe because of lost people who have no fellowship with Him and then save people who are out of fellowship with Him. God's desire is that we have fellowship with Him, union with Him, And the outcome of that union is the joy, or if you will, the joy of fellowship. I would make a distinction between relationship and fellowship, but the outcome is the wonderful thing of fellowship that we have with Him. God's desire, of course, is that we as believers be one with Him.

God wants His people. This, of course, should humble the hearts of every sinner that's come to a saving relationship with Jesus Christ that God would want you. Why would God want me? Why would God, the King of glory, who is eternal and immortal and holy and all of His being, want me or you? Why would He want to participate with us?

But He does. He has no need. There's no need in God. He doesn't need me. He doesn't need me as a person, an individual.

He doesn't need me as a child of God. He doesn't need me as a preacher. He doesn't need this church. He doesn't need any of his churches, but he's so chosen to have them. That should humble our hearts.

He doesn't need us. But yet, in reality, in truth from scripture, he wants us. Shouldn't it humble us that he wants us? John chapter 17, I'm just laying the groundwork if you will for just a moment on fellowship and the importance of fellowship and to teach you this truth that God saved us for fellowship with us. John 17 and that prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ that high priestly prayer that we alluded to this morning in John 17 in verse 11 it says and now I am no more in the in the world but these are in the world and I come to thee holy father keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that here's why." Now listen to this.

Here's why he prays this, that they may be one as we are. Boy, he wants us to be in the same fellowship, the same communion, that the Father has with the Son. I pray Father that you'll keep these, they're in the world, I've come to thee, these are still in the world, and the world's gonna be attacking, then there's gonna be all kinds of enemies against them, but I want you to keep them, keep them through thy word for this purpose that they that we might have fellowship that we might be one that's going down if you will to verse 20 neither pray I for these alone but but for them also which shall believe on me through their word." Here's why he prayed, that they all may be one. That is those disciples immediately and those disciples today, us. That they all may be one as thou, Father art in me and I in thee, that they also may be one in us.

And here's a grand purpose for now, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me." Our fellowship matters. It matters to God. It matters to us, or should. It even matters to the world. The world watches.

They observe. They observe your language, your talk about the Lord, and then they observe how you interact as believers. You know Jesus said by this shall they know. The world can know some things that you're my disciples. Yes you love one another.

I'm reminded back during persecution time in Russia, back in the grand old 60s, by the way, not very long ago, that very large nation who gave lip service to freedom in Christianity and the iron claw came down very heavily upon people. You can read about it in the persecutor. There was a man who was a persecutor and he was saved by God's grace but anyway they would go to this meeting place and they found them found some folks there and they beat them all up and said don't you do this again and they go to break up another meeting house and there was a girl there and she was at the one before. And they go to do another one the third time and guess where she was? She was right there.

And they were getting ready to beat her to a pulp and one man stepped up to as one of the persecutors he said she's got something we don't have. She had fellowship with her lord and because of that she had fellowship with the assemblies that she was part of. God desires, God wants, that's the revealed will of God, that we be one with Him. God's ultimate goal is to bring us back to conformity to the image of himself. Remember when Adam was created in the garden, whose image was he created in?

Well God created Adam in his image, in his own image, the scripture says there in the book of Genesis, in his own image created he him, male and female created he them. God stamped at all the creation, the vastness of all the molecules in the universe, there was only one creature, only one creature that was stamped with the very image of God. That's man. Mankind. They lost all that in Adam.

But in the book of Romans, the intent of God saving you is to bring you back to union with Him. Union in purpose, He wants your purpose to be His purpose. Union in thought, you know, we've been given whose mind? The mind of Christ. He wants us to be in thought with Him, in will.

You know the best place for any believer to be is to have a will that is surrendered to His will. The grand purpose of our salvation is to bring us into union, to fellowship, where we have a joint participation, a mutual thought process, a mutual love for Him, and then of course, what will result of that is a love for each other. Romans 8, Romans 8.28, you know that passage, don't you? I mean, you probably got that engraved on your pillows and sleep on that at night. Amen.

Romans 8, 28. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son. Notice, don't overlook that. We really like verse 30 among our people, don't we?

We get the chain of grace there and we link it all together. That's wonderful. I do the same thing. But the purpose, the purpose is his foreknowledge and his predestination for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate for a purpose to be, to be conformed to the image of His Son. God wants us to be like Jesus.

That's what He saved you to be like. To be like Jesus, which is, by the way, who is Jesus now think about it with me He's the one That came and is the image of the invisible God Figure that one out. How can that how can you have a tangible image of that which is invisible with God all things are possible and you did it in your son he is the fullness how you get this one the fullness of the Godhead by the way. And He wants you, and He wants me, to be in the image of Jesus Christ. See, because when we live the Christ life, the surrendered life, well, that's how we live out, or enjoy if you will, our fellowship with Him.

We get a lot of folks and they're just struggling with Christ. They're not really... You know, in church problems sometimes, there's all kinds of problems going on in churches. And every problem... I went back to it this morning, did I not?

Every problem is because of pride, which is self-will, which is we get in the way. And it's not God's way. It becomes his way versus my way or her way versus my way. But it's not God's way. God's way is the way to fellowship and the way to unity.

God's desire for us is to be brought to the conformity to the image of Jesus Christ and God's ultimate goal is to bring us into that image and because of this we are warned warned about fellowship for instance in second Corinthians where we read about fellowship with unbelievers and false religion. We're warned about that because that will break fellowship with God. The Lord Jesus established His church to manifest and to aid this fellowship. And that's what we're looking at this morning or this afternoon. The Lord Jesus Christ wants the church to manifest and that's why he created it.

It's one of the reasons, there are many reasons, but we're dealing with this one reason. You know, you've got to think about these things. Why did Jesus Christ establish a church? Why did he do it? Did he need a church?

No, he has no need, doesn't need anything. So he has no need. You can't have a self-existing being having a need. You have need. You need air, you need sunlight, you need food, you need rest, you know, you need work, you need all kinds of things.

But God doesn't need anything. But yet He started a church. Why do that? And the answer to the scripture is, for a need that you have you need fellowship yeah you do First, first you need fellowship with God. If you're lost today, the reason that you're without peace is because you're without God.

The reason you're without hope is because you're without God. It's those simple terms. And no matter what you do, no matter how you struggle, or how you try to patch it up, you'll always be without peace because you're without God. And the reason that you're the way you are is you deformed. You don't bear the image of God.

That was lost. Now you bear the image of Adam. The image of Adam. But Jesus Christ saved you, if you're saved tonight or today, for his purpose. And he established a church, which we're looking at, to manifest and to aid in this purpose.

Now we looked at John 13. I won't go there. I quoted it just a moment ago. In John 13, this is how they know that you're my disciples. Where you have love one toward another.

That's how they know it. So that's a purpose. Purpose. And God wants His people, especially His churches, to be unified in purpose, in doctrine, in lifestyle, because it manifests our union with him through the Lord Jesus Christ. So because of that, first of all, a church should strive to promote a spirit of unity.

In the book of Ephesians chapter 4. Now to me the doctrine of church unity, which is the doctrine of fellowship, we think of fellowship, we think about a structure behind a building where we go and eat. That's just an outflow of fellowship. That's all it is. Fellowship is the participation that we have first of all with Christ and each other.

The outflows of that, there are different ways that it's manifest and one may be in eating together. A lot of times in the scriptures they ate together. I mean even on the mount when God called them up eventually those elders went and they ate with God. They had fellowship. That was one of the signs that there was communion.

Really, that speaks about how we feast on someone, really, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. It speaks to greater things, but I'll leave that aside for time's sake. But Ephesians chapter 4, it is the duty of New Testament churches, and this is a church epistle written to a church that was a very doctrinal church. Matter of fact, This church, the church at Ephesus, has a book written to it, the book of Ephesians. It has pastoral epistles written to their pastor, Timothy.

And then it has the book of Revelation written to it. So this was a church that was well-versed, if you will, on getting their letters from the Lord. I mean, they actually had them in hand. This is for you guys. And they were a very dark little church.

Matter of fact, the Lord in the book of Revelation commends them for their doctrine. But you know what He chides them for? Love. And what is really when you get down to love? That's the fellowship we have with the Father.

When you lose your first love, you know, we're talking about, now I must put the hair there again, between relationship and fellowship. Fellowship is what we might say the enjoyment of the relationship. Now some of you folks, I've been married to my wife 25 plus years and we've been in that relationship for 25 plus years but I can tell you we've not always been in fellowship. And I have six children from 20 to almost 10 and I'm their daddy we have relationship but we've not always been fellowship we don't always enjoy that relationship You're not always going to enjoy your relationship with the Father, But that's on you. This church will not always enjoy the relationship she has with Jesus Christ.

See the deeper issues, whatever goes on in church life, the deeper issues are really not the outward he, Him, her, they. It always goes back. And that's what John says there in 1 John. And truly our fellowship is with, right? That's where it starts.

That's where it finishes. And everything in between hinges upon that truth. So what does a church must do? I know I have to get over there to Galatians stone. I'm in Ephesians.

I was going there. I stopped. But in Ephesians 4, in Ephesians 4 it says, and verse 1, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation with your called with all lowliness and meekness with long suffering for bearing one another in love." Endeavoring, that's work. I mean you've got to put yourself into it. You've got to do a little bit to get something out of it.

Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. And then he gives some arguments for why. All the ones that he mentions in that list. It takes work for churches to stay unified. It takes work for churches in their preaching ministry and in the membership of the body and the Lord gives direct warnings about church division and all the things that can come up.

In the book of 1st Corinthians for instance, he warns them. Matter of fact, that church was a divided church, and they were rebuked by the Lord in Scripture, and a divided church is always a mark of carnality. Always. 1 Corinthians 3.3, you know what he tells them there? Well, in essence he says, you think you're spiritual but you're carnal.

Let me just go there. I guess I have to labor there for just a moment. I want to, you know, as we talk about continuing in fellowship, well, what does it mean to have fellowship? Well, the church at Corinth, they weren't having good fellowship. They had people that says, you know what?

Apollos, that's my man. My man said, well, Apollos, he's nothing. You're Paul, He's the man. He's the real man So they were saying you can read about it if you are familiar with the Wicca first Corinthians And Paul said there was all kinds of it divisions and I got a letter from the house of Chloe and I believe a lot of things that he's saying about you guys and then he gets to the root of the matter the root of the matter well let's go back first Corinthians 1 10 says and I beseech you brethren by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and the same judging. You know what that means?

Be on the same page. And of course, the same mind as the mind of Christ, the same page as the Scriptures. And speak the same thing. You've got to have unity, and that's the only way you have unity. And then the mark of carnality, 1st Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 3, For, well, For ye are yet carnal, for whereas there is among you envy and strife and divisions, are you not carnal and walk as men?" You know, there's a scripture, we're looking at Ephesians, I'm going back and forth now.

Now the church at Corinth was carnal. It's interesting that they had all kinds of spiritual gifts. Now think about it with me. Spiritual gifts, whatever they are, whether they're extraordinary or not, spiritual gifts are no sign of spiritual maturity. No sign of spiritual maturity.

You may be gifted, but you can use your gift the wrong way. Preachers can do it and they do. Church members who have different gifts, they do the same. They can be proud about their gift or arrogant, or they can misuse it for the wrong purposes and intents. And here he says, here's how you know.

Here's how you know whether it's carnal or not. For as there is among you eminent strife and division, are you not carnal? That's a question. He's just reasoning with them. I love the way the apostle Paul lays it out in reasoning arguments.

You know, they couldn't escape it. Yeah. If they thought about it, yep, yep, yep, you're right, Paul. There's a lot of division. And we know that we're eating each other up.

We know there's this bad thing that's going on. But anyway, in the text, you see this, that the Lord gives warning about this. So what does he do? He says you must promote you must strive to have unit unity, which is the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace We should all examine ourselves in relation to how we contribute or hinder church unity. God wants you to continue, the first church continue in fellowship.

Secondly, There are some ways to promote it. First of all, we promote fellowship by denying self and self-will and submitting to the doctrine of the Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 4. The goal again, we're trying to get at this goal with the time that we have. The goal.

What is the goal of a church of Jesus Christ? And what is the goal of an individual believer in the Lord Jesus Christ? That's a question Which is think about from all Well, let me ask it another way. What is the scriptural goal? Yeah.

What is God's goal? Amen. What is God's goal? Well, to answer that question, we must go to the Scriptures. Right.

And so in Ephesians, we find God's goal. Ephesians 4, 11. And he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers. That's why he gives gifts and he gives those kind of gifts for the perfecting of the saints, which means the saints aren't perfect. They need to be perfected.

There's no member of this assembly nor any assembly represented here. There's no assembly of Jesus Christ where all the members are perfected. That's right. There You, where you are right this moment, there's some deficiency in you in the area of your design in relationship to God. There's something wrong where you are and you need to search that out.

So The purpose of preaching is to perfect that. Secondly, it's for the work of the ministry. And the thirdly, it's for the edifying, which means to build, to build up, the body of Christ. And here it comes, till we all come, which means we haven't arrived yet, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God. You know, Paul said that I may know Him, right?

So even Paul after 30 years of ministry says, I don't know Jesus Christ like I need to know Jesus Christ. Philippians, you can read it. That I might know Him. But that's the goal, that's what we're aiming for. And here's the point I was getting to, unto a perfect man.

How do you have fellowship? How do you enjoy that relationship that you have with God? How does a church enjoy fellowship? Striving to be like that man. See the goal of an individual Christian, the goal of the body of Christ as a church of Jesus Christ, the goal of you who are saved is to be conformed to the image of Christ, and the goal for this body of Christ, This body here in Popwellville, Georgia, the goal, God's goal for you is for this body to be like Jesus Christ.

That's what the text says. Unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. And listen, beloved, that is a large measure. That is a large ruler. That's a large measuring stick.

That this church, this assembly of Jesus Christ would be like Jesus Christ, like that man Jesus Christ as he walked on this earth. That individually you're that way and corporately you're that way. None of us ever run, can we? Our response to God's grace is so that we'll walk worthy of our calling, which is, by the way, a calling that is a call to holiness. It's a call in holiness, to holiness, and for holiness.

And really in simple terms, holiness is that which is reserved for something special. It's in a class all its own. You know, believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are in a class all your own. God saved you from the world for himself. God before that chose you for himself, you're in a class all your own.

He balked you with his blood, you're in a class all your own. This communion table, that's what it's for. You know in the Old Testament they had instruments in the tabernacle, they had tables and they had lamp stands. Those were for special use, But it was just a table. It was just a place to house oil lamps.

That's all it was. But when God consecrated it, separated it, set it apart from itself, it became something that was just in a class all its own. And that's what G.B. Called it. You're to be different from this world.

In other words, you're to be like the man, Christ Jesus. And your unity and fellowship as a church is grounded in that purpose for which you're called. You must live out that purpose. There are many ways it can be promoted, but I'll just give you these. It can be promoted by fateful worship and fellowship.

In Hebrews 10, you know what he says there? He says, first he says consider one another. You can read it. I don't have time. Hebrews chapter 10 in verse 24 and 25 where that wonderful passage that preachers like to use where they says forsake not the assembly of yourselves together as a manner of something as you know and always get in church well it's far deeper than that that's right really the forsaking it's not so much I don't even believe that text is so much about being in church as it is, don't forsake it.

Right. Don't abandon it. I'll tell you what people can come to church and be faithful in the assembly and they've already abandoned it in their hearts and their minds. Yeah, that's the truth now. Grasp that truth.

But be faithful. How do you do that? Well it starts out in that text, you read it. Consider one another. It's interesting isn't it?

Consider. That means you have consideration for the burdens that others bear. You have consideration for the confession of faith that you make and others make. You have consideration for your testimony, your family, your neighbors. You have consideration for the time and labor that the man of God places in the scripture to feed you, consider one another, and of course ultimately considering Christ and His intent and purpose in having a church.

We can promote fellowship by limiting our fellowship with the world. 2 Corinthians 6, boy I'd like to deal with that one for a little while. God has called us to separate from this world And one of the plagues of the churches of Jesus Christ and it's nothing new is Yoking up with the world The man of God stand in the pulpit of and preach the Word of God and first of all he's got to wade through all the filth and trash that people been wading through all weeks to even get to anywhere regions of their heart. So he warned you don't have fellowship with the world and the unfruitful works of darkness we read that one didn't we but rather we prove them and you know the first place to reprove them is in you you know we have to reprove ourselves in our participation in the world you know Psalm 101 tells us not to set any wicked thing before our eyes. A lot of time we keep those things in our pockets.

So we can bring them out before I say, what are you talking about preacher? You know what I'm talking about. The old dumb phone. Participating in the world. Getting you're full of the world and drinking up the slop of the world.

And then want to go be in fifth by, it doesn't work that way. We can promote fellowship By talking to each other about the things of God having love for one another by preferring one another by serving I'm only with you For a church of Jesus Christ to be what God would have it to be, His design, that's what we mean by that. Say, well, Brother Shepard, don't you believe in predestination? Yeah, I do believe in predestination. Don't you believe that whatever's to be will be?

You better believe that, but not like you did as an excuse for sin. God wants us to be what He wants us to be. And how do we know what He wants us to be? He gave us a book. That's His revealed will.

If you're without Christ, if you're without Christ today, There's a place of enjoyment. Oh, it's a sweet place of enjoyment. Where God forgives our sins. He's made full satisfaction for a way to forgive our sins so we can have union with Him in the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you're saved, you can enjoy that fellowship, that relationship where you enjoy that fellowship.

And as members of the Lord's body, you can enjoy that If you get back on the right page and stay on that page, which is always and only Christ. Thank you.