Fellowship With God
God desires a personal relationship with us, and we can experience this fellowship by living in close relationship with Jesus Christ and allowing the Holy Spirit to work in us.
Andrew Murray emphasizes the importance of personal fellowship with God, highlighting that each individual can know God uniquely and intimately. He explains that while God desires a close relationship with humanity, sin often creates barriers to this connection. Many Christians may understand forgiveness and acceptance but overlook the joy of daily fellowship with God, akin to the bond between a father and child. Murray encourages believers to seek this relationship through Jesus Christ, relying on the Holy Spirit to cultivate love in their hearts. He invites listeners to meditate on John 14:21, urging them to express their love for God and embrace the personal nature of their fellowship with Him.
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"He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him." - John 14:21.
The Three Persons in the Godhead are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
God desires to reveal Himself as a Person. Each one of us is an individual, and we each come to know God in a distinct, personal way. We each have different life experiences and relate to God based upon who He has revealed Himself to be to us. God will reveal Himself to us as a Person, and delights in being discovered and found by us. It is our holy calling to enter into fellowship with Him.
God greatly desires this relationship with man. But sin has come between man and his God. Even in the Christian, who thinks that he knows God, there is often great ignorance, and even indifference, to this personal relationship of love towards God.
People believe that at conversion their sins are forgiven, that God accepts them so that they may go to heaven, and that they should try to do God's will. But the idea is strange to them, that even as a father and his child on earth have pleasure in fellowship, so they may and must daily have this blessed fellowship with God.
God gave Christ His Son to bring us to Himself. But this is only possible when we live in close fellowship with Jesus Christ. Our relationship to Christ rests on His deep, tender love towards us. We are not able of ourselves to render Him this love. But the Holy Spirit will do the work in us. For this, we need to separate ourselves each day from the world, and turn in faith to the Lord Jesus, that He may shed abroad His love in our hearts, so that we may be filled with a great love towards Him.
Dear soul, meditate quietly on this thought. Read the words of Christ in John 14:21, "...he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him." Take time to believe in this personal fellowship. Tell Him of your love.
Say to Him: "Lord, Thou hast loved me dearly; most earnestly do I desire to love Thee above all."
Sermon Outline
- I. The Desire of God for Fellowship
- A. God desires to reveal Himself as a Person
- B. God delights in being discovered and found by us
- II. The Barrier to Fellowship
- A. Sin has come between man and his God
- B. Even in Christians, there is often great ignorance and indifference to this personal relationship
- III. The Means of Fellowship
- A. Living in close fellowship with Jesus Christ
- B. The Holy Spirit will do the work in us
- IV. The Result of Fellowship
- A. A deep, tender love towards God
- B. A great love towards Him
Key Quotes
“He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.” — Andrew Murray
“God will reveal Himself to us as a Person, and delights in being discovered and found by us.” — Andrew Murray
“For this, we need to separate ourselves each day from the world, and turn in faith to the Lord Jesus, that He may shed abroad His love in our hearts, so that we may be filled with a great love towards Him.” — Andrew Murray
Application Points
- We must separate ourselves from the world and turn to the Lord Jesus each day to experience fellowship with God.
- The Holy Spirit will do the work in us to help us love God deeply.
- We can express our love to God by telling Him of our love and desiring to love Him above all.