1 Cor 1:9. We're in the 2nd part of the series on Koinonia. Last week we talked about Koinonia, the bond with each other. This week is Koinonia, the fellowship of the spirit or our bond with Christ.
1st Corinthians 1:9 says, "God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord".
Father, thank you for being here today. Lord, we rejoice over the miracles that have already been done, we rejoice over what you're doing. Father, I pray that you would annoint me to speak and that you would annoint us to hear. God, may we decrease and may you increase, in Jesus name. Amen
I love this verse, "God is faithful, by whom you were called into fellowship with his son". The word called means literally to invite. Do you realize that you and I not only have been invited to have fellowship with each other, to know each other and have relationship with each other but we have been called to have fellowship with God himself. That word invite is a summons to participate in the blessings that God has for our life. That word, Koinonia, means to have an intimate participation with his spirit, to meet with God, to know who he is, to daily have that deep relationship with Him.
I think the church, many times, has really looked at fellowship with God as a religious thing. We have faith, we believe something and so we go to church, we read the Bible and we pray. But God has called us to so much deeper things. That deeper thing is intimate relationship with Him, intimate participation with God. I don't know if we have grasped the depth of what God is calling us to. We've been asking this year that we would know his presence, for God to come and be with us and meet with us. God calls us to the great blessing of having fellowship with the Lord and Savior of the world.
2 Corinthians 13:14 says, "The grace of our Lord Jesus and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all". Paul just wasn't saying this as a nice greeting to the church. How many understand that Paul was a radical man? He was a man with an on fire relationship with God. It is one thing to be saved but God has called us to so much more and that is fellowship with the spirit of God, fellowship with the son of God. Today in America and around the world is a religious type of approach to coming to God. It is the duty, it is the going to church, it is the praying, but God is calling us deeper. To grasp a hold of that truth will change you and me forever, it will change Harvest Community forever. If the Christians of the world would grasp it, it would absolutely change our nation.
Koinonia fellowship is about relationship. It extends beyond friendship to a real unity and a oneness. It is the intimacy that comes out of a close bond with God. Not only can we get close to each other but we can get close to the Lord. The closest way in the Bible that describes this is that unity in marriage, that oneness. The truth is it is hard for me to ever see life without Dawn, we're one. We've started to look alike and thankfully I'm looking more like her. But it takes that oneness that God desires for us to have with Him, with Jesus, to walk with Him and talk with Him, to know him and think like he thinks because he already knows our thoughts.
For many, to believe that we can have a close relationship with God is absolutely unfathomable. They don't believe they can do that. They believe they can have a relationship in the sense of knowing and understanding who he is and knowing his word but it almost seems irreverant to say that I can know God and walk with him, talk with him and be close to Him, that he's my friend, he's my everything. That's what God desires. As a matter of fact, I believe that the closer you get to someone, the more you learn to appreciate every side of them. I've been married to my wife for almost 20 years now. We work together everyday and to see what she's capable of is absolutely amazing. As a matter of fact she helps make me better. I remember for a long time I used to look at the statue of liberty, I always wanted to go but it was a whole other thing when I got to go there. I got on the boat from the Jersey side, drove across and stepped off onto that monument. It's one thing to see it in a book or on tv but quite another to get up close and check out the color and when you get inside it's way different inside than outside. It's amazing what it took to get that thing together.
When you get close to Jesus you gain an even greater awe of who he is, an even greater humbleness that he would even want to walk with us or be with us. God longs to be with us so much and to have that Koinonia, that was Jesus' prayer. You really get to know somebody when you get to see how they pray. You get to listen to their heart when you hear them cry out for certain things. You can tell those who are close to God by the way they pray. Jesus, in John 17:21-26, began to pray, "Lord, I pray that we all may be one as you are. Father, as you're in me and I in you, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. The glory which you gave me I have given them that they may be one just as we are one. I in them and you in me that they may be made perfect in one and that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me. Father, I desire that they also whom you gave me may be with me where I am and that they may behold my glory which you have given me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world. Righteous Father, the world has not known you but I have known you and these have known that you sent me and I have declared to them your name and will declare it that the love with which you love me may be in them and I in them".
He wants to be in us, not just God dwelling in us through salvation but us in Him, Him in us. That unity is so precious that it is really hard to describe and understand. Jesus desires us to share in his glory, to fellowship with him that we would know his love in the perfect unity, to behold the glory that God has given him and he wants to share that wonderful relationship that we can have with him. God is already committed to Koinonia fellowship. He already made that way by sending Jesus. Do you realize that God loves to fellowship with you? The Bible says that when God created Adam, he came down and walked with him in the cool of the night. Do you know that God enjoyed that? Not only did Adam but God did too. Think about that. That's why when Adam hid, God asked, "Adam, where are you?" That's why he sent Jesus because Adam became afraid of the one who loved him the most. Can you imagine what it was like to know him?
The Bible says that Enoch walked with God and he was no more. It doesn't say that Enoch died. Moses was close to God but he died and was buried out in the wilderness. Elijah got taken up in the chariot of fire. The Bible says Enoch walked with God and he was gone. Do you want to know what happened? Enoch was just getting with his God and one day God said "I'm tired of you not being with me, come on up Enoch". Enoch just walked with the Lord, he didn't die. He went right up into the presence of God. Could that happen today? Absolutely. Now I haven't reached that because I'm here preaching to you on Sunday so I'm still waiting. But hear me now, I want to be like that. Think about it. All great men and women of God have seen the Lord do powerful things in their life. They knew God so intimately that whatever they did for him was not such a strange thing because of that intimate relationship with him. There was a familiarity that they had with God.
In Daniel 6:10 it says, "Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home to his upper room with his windows opened towards Jerusalem. He knelt down and prayed and gave thanks before God as was his custom since the early days. The King said, "If you go and pray to anyone else but me you're going to be thrown into the lion's den". I don't believe that Daniel going up to pray was an act of defiance or a political statement on his part. Daniel was just doing what he always did, "I'm going to meet with my God". This wasn't religious praying like five "Hail Mary's" and a couple "Our Fathers" and then move on. It was him in intimate relationship with God. At this point Daniel was about 80 years old and since childhood he met with God, he walked with the Lord. He said, "I'm going to be faithful to you, I don't care what anybody says, God, I love you and I need you". At 80 years old Daniel was thrown into the lion's den. Other people were thrown into the lions den and they were torn up before they even hit bottom. Daniel could have said, "Listen, I'm 80 years old and I don't have to put up with this". Here's Daniel in the lions den, an angel of the Lord shows up and the lions shut their mouths. He walked with God.
These people spent time in Koinonia fellowship. This really is the whole purpose of why we're fasting and praying over this next week. I believe the reason why the church doesn't see the miracles that the early church saw is because we really aren't in Koinonia with the Lord. That's what we need. America needs change, America needs Jesus but the church needs Jesus too. We need that intimate Koinonia relationship and Jesus desires to have it with us. Koinonia is familiarity with God. The reason why Daniel could go down in that lion's den is because he knew what God would do.
1st John 1:1-4 says, "That which was from the beginning which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled concerning the word of life. The life was manifested and we have seen and bear witness and declare to you that eternal life that was with the Father and was manifested to us, that which we have seen and heard we declare to you and that you also may have fellowship with us that truly our fellowship is with the father and his son, Jesus Christ. These things we write to you that your joy may be full". That fellowship that we have is with Jesus.
The reason why so many things happen when we read about these great men and women of God is because they had that fellowship with Him. They were familiar with Him. Have you ever noticed when miracles happen in the church, we should get excited but it's more like a shock. I can declare Jesus to you because I've met with Him. I can tell you who God is not because I've read this book and I've got head knowledge but because I've met with him. I walk with him and I talk with him and I've watched him in my life and I've seen him in others lives. I've been with Jesus and the reason that I can declare to you what I know and who he is and what his word says, is because I've done it myself, I've been there. There is familiarity in this Koinonia. The question is are we willing to invest in that fellowship?
John said, "I want you to have that so that your joy may be full". Have you ever noticed people who walk with God, they're just like you and me, they go through hard times and good times, they go through trials and victories but you never hear them moaning. These people do not walk around with a cloud of depression over their head. They are not walking around in a funk all the time though everyone does get a little funky every once in awhile. What we're talking about is not a perpetual living in that darkness. When you know Jesus your joy will be full. If you are a Christian that's walking around with a sour look on your face and a depth of depression in your heart, I want to encourage you to get with God, begin to have that fellowship with him because it will change everything. John said, "I want your joy to be full". How many know God wants the joy of the church of America to be full today? Rejoice with him through the good times and through the bad times with peace of heart and mind because you know who your God is and you are familiar with him. This is what we are doing through this week of prayer and fasting. The question is do we really believe that we can have fellowship? We think of fellowship only in terms of what God can do for us but do you know that you have something to offer God? He wants to be with us just like he wanted to be with Adam, just like he walked with Elijah.
Dawn has alot to offer me. After 20 years I'm still getting better because I met her. The truth is that when I married her I also had to believe that I had something to offer her. Sometimes we think it's only a one way street. Not only does she offer me companionship, help and hope but I offer her that same thing. We have that with God, he desires to have that relationship with us.
There are things that we do to ensure that the bond of fellowship lasts and increases in our life. I like what someone said, we need less ?should do' sermons and more ?how to' sermons. So I want to tell you how to have that intimate relationship with the Lord. First of all, we know we must spend time with him. But the truth is one of the greatest ways we can be in Koinonia relationship with the Lord is by being faithful to him as he is faithful and committed to us. The relationship that I have with my wife is strong because I'm committed to her and she's committed to me. Commitment is a great thing.
1st Corinthians 10:20-22 says, "Rather that the things that the Gentiles sacrificed they sacrificed to demons and not to God and I don't want you to have fellowship with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the Lord's table and the table of demons or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?
Let me put that a little bit simpler.
Ephesians 5:11 says, "Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather expose them". What does that mean? You cannot have intimacy with someone you are always hurting. I believe that one of the things that God is doing in the life of a church especially in these last days is drawing us into a closer intimacy, and the more you walk in the Lord the less you will walk in the things of the world and of the enemy. I have found that the closer I grow to Jesus the less I want anything that has to do with darkness. It is impossible if you are always hurting someone to feel and be close to them. I love the friendships we have in this church and the fellowship we have as believers. How many are thankful for the body of Christ here? This is an incredible place but even as committed as we are to each other there are some areas of fellowship that I will not share with you that I share with my wife. That's important and there are some things that I will share with God that I will not share with the world or the enemy. If you're always stepping out on your spouse it's not going to be a harmonious thing. If you are always stepping out on God that is spiritual adultery. Every time we step out it hurts God and I find out I don't want to do it. Because I love my wife there are things I do and don't do and there's things she does that way and it's the same with God. Koinonia never betrays.
1 John 1:5-7 says, "This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanses us from all sin". Isn't that beautiful? God gives us the freedom to walk in the light and I would much rather walk in the light than in darkness anyday. Though there are times when my flesh is attracted to that darkness and I kind of want to go that way but the more I stick with the Lord I never want to betray him, I never want to hurt him. I believe that if we as a church and if we as Christians would make sure that our life is always in the light, we would see the miracles that the early church saw. If you want that close walk with God you've got to leave the things of the world behind. To have Koinonia we not only don't do that which would hurt but we strive to do what we please.
Philippians 2:1-2 says, "Therefore, if there is any consolation or encouragement in Christ, if any comfort, if any love, if any fellowship with the spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord and of one mind".
When we are intimately involved with somebody, we strive to get along with and to develop relationships with those who are close to them. How many of you have inlaws that you had to become close to because it meant alot to your spouse? All of us realize that we need to get along with those who are precious to others in our life, it's a big deal. The truth is, it's fun when you watch people whom you enjoy being with all around you and you enjoy being together. That has been Jesus prayer from the very beginning. "Lord, I pray that not only would we be one together but that they might be one". Here's what God is saying, I love it when my people enjoy the same things that I'm enjoying and they get along together and love being with each other and care about each other. We all get together and enjoy the Lord together. There is something so precious about that.
One way to tell if someone is walking in fellowship with the spirit is to see their relationship with the rest of the people of God. Are we in one accord being like minded? I wonder if that's why sometimes koinonia with the Lord is hindered. I know in the world there are different types of denominations, there are different traditions that we have infused into our different ways of worship. But God is praying that all those who know Him would be one so that the power of his spirit would be released in the world so that he could touch others lives that we could come together. How many know that is vital to the Lord? And it makes a difference.
We're going to be here in church on Friday and as we seek him in that prayer time and when we're with people that serve together and meet together and cherish the Lord together, powerful things take place because God is in the midst of it.
True Koinonia shares in the other's pain. Phillipians 3:10 says, "That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering being conformed to his death". That's a radical statement. Those who suffer together have a bond that can never be broken. If you have ever watched two soldiers get together after the war, whether they've been in battle together or not, there is a kindred relationship because they have been through the thick and the thin. They have understood what it is to be in the battle and they understand what it is to survive. They understand what it is to see the suffering and hurt of others and to help them. From all different generations, WW II or the Persian Gulf, when they get together these folks begin to melt. It's the same when you get with other Christians who have a love for God.
In order to know God there will be times that you will participate in the suffering of Christ. God so longed to have relationship with us that he sent his son Jesus to die. The way you get to understand Jesus is to understand his love for people, his passion for those that are hurting. There have been times when I sat and held people who are weeping over a lost child. Those who have lost a loved one to death, those who have been working to beat an addiction and wept with them as they've succeeded and failed. Those that have gone through the pain of adultery and the result of it or they've caused it. I've prayed with them and began to feel how Jesus felt. There are times in my ministry where I've been absolutely humiliated. Jesus hung on the cross, stripped naked before the world and dying in their place. There have been times in my life where I've done everything Jesus has asked and I still look like I've been a failure. There are times I've felt naked and stupid, being crucified. That didn't make me a martyr, what it made me was a partaker of the sufferings of Jesus. I was obedient and I was crucified. That didn't mean that I was dying all over again like Jesus was for the world but I was participating in the same sufferings. I was putting my life on the line for what God was doing for others and I was being humiliated and misunderstood, taken advantage of, even cursed at by those I was helping. In those moments of that suffering I began to know who Jesus was and we began to be closer together. I understood what he came to do for the world, I didn't even get to partake just a little bit. He carried the full weight of the world and I got to share in it for just a moment.
That relationship with Him became precious. There have been times when God has asked me to do things and I've been so tired, people needed me to get up and go. You want to know the secret people have for surviving 30, 50, or 70 years of marriage? They work together through it all. They become close because they shared it and cherished it. If you've ever been through a hard time where the other has bailed out, God will be there for you and you'll have Koinonia with him. He becomes your husband or your wife, he becomes so precious. That's how your walk with God lasts and becomes powerful, that's how Enoch walked with God and was no more.
Intimacy can involve pain but when we weep over those who are perishing, and we love those that God loves, when we go through the trials and the loneliness, God begins to draw us and we begin to know the power of his resurrection in our life. "That which we have seen, that which we have touched, that which we have known, we declare to you". Intimacy requires that devotion and commitment to love. Real intimacy requires that time of prayer where you meet. All this week we are going to seek God and we're going to fast. There are many things on that prayer list we're believing God to do this year but the purpose of the prayer and the fast is to know Him, to have relationship with Him, to love Him with all that's within us, Koinonia. If we will do that, our church will never be the same, we will never be the same.
Heavenly Father, as we come to you this morning, thank you for your love for us. Jesus, we cherish you more than we cherish our own life. Our heart's desire, Lord, is to know you in all your fulness. Holy Spirit, this week as we begin to fast and pray, I ask that Koinonia would happen. First of all I pray that Koinonia fellowship with you would be so powerful in the life of this church. God, I pray that everyone of us would know you in fullness and that we would draw closer to you. Lord, our prayer this year is a passion for your presence. As we passionately seek you this week, I know that there will be busyness at work, I know that while we're fasting the enemy will come and tempt. I pray God for a hedge of protection around each one of us. I pray that as we are seeking you we would not even realize that there is warfare going on around us for you are a shield about us. I thank you that the devil is defeated and that in the midst of the battle we are victorious. Lord, this week I pray that you would be such a shield that not one arrow would penetrate.
God, purify us, we have no desire for the work of darkness. I pray that not only would we have an incredible passion to meet with you, Jesus, but we would have an incredible passion to walk in the light. I pray God that those things in our life that are sinful would fall off, I pray that those who are bound would be set free. I pray that families would be mended during this week, I pray that there would be miracles taking place, that healings would happen. Lord, for that cancer we prayed for, let this be the week they are healed just like the cancer of the esophagus was healed. Lord, I pray that my diabetes would go and that everyone's sickness would go. Lord, it would send a message to the world, "that which we have seen, that which we know, that which we have handled".
God, I pray that you would build us together as a church in even greater unity than we already are. It's been wonderful, these friendships and relationships we've developed here in this church. God, as you are adding to us, I pray that everyone would be included in this circle of love, everyone finding their place and seeing their part and being valued for what they do. Lord we commit and dedicate ourselves to this fast. As we start it tomorrow and as we gather Friday I pray that your presence would be here and what you will do in our lives and through the ministries of this church would be amazing in 2009. May there be salvations by the hundreds and people filled with the Holy Spirit. As we look at our youth I pray that we would be amazed at who they are in Jesus filled with the spirit of God and power. May children lay hands on children. May High Schools, Middle Schools and Elementary Schools come to you and may families that are without Jesus be saved. Lord, we'll give you the glory for doing these things and more, in Jesus name, Amen.
