Joyful Fellowship with Christ and His Body

Yeah, thank you. I feel at home, so I'm very glad to be here. My children and I were thinking as we were knowing that we were going to be here.

The last time we were here was what we thought was by accident, but God ordained it. Our flight was cancelled and we were supposed to fly out on Saturday night. Normally, we would be disappointed if our flight was cancelled, but we were all excited because that meant we could be here on Sunday.

That was actually, I think, three or four years ago when the first meeting in person after COVID when we met at the park. That's how long it's been since we were last here. So we were very excited that we got to be here.

Often when we come to California, we don't get to be here on a Sunday because we're trying to get back to Colorado on a Sunday. So it's a joy. I'm very thankful that the Lord allowed us to be here.

I've been meditating recently in the last few weeks or so on how do we test that what we believe and what we have of Christlikeness is real. One of the things that the Lord's been speaking to me in that regard is if it's manufactured, if I have to try to do it versus it being spontaneous, then you know it's not real. These days, everybody is talking about AI, artificial intelligence.

That's manufactured. Even though it might feel like intelligence, it's still somewhat manufactured. I've been thinking about the areas of artificial intelligence in my life spiritually.

If it's manufactured, even if I fake it and I convince people around me or even convince myself, if it's just artificial, if it's manufactured in some way, it's not real. One day God will pull back the covers and show what is real and what is not. For example, a lot of people think about speaking in tongues.

In most of Christendom, they're trying to manufacture speaking in tongues. Figure out how can I, I hear somebody speaking in tongues or what I think is speaking in tongues, and so I think, okay, I want that so that I can be accepted in my club or something like that. So many Christian circles that believe in the baptism of the Holy Spirit, they try to manufacture speaking in tongues.

That's not real. Sometimes people have asked me, how should I pray? Should I pray for the speaking in tongues? I'm not told to seek such a gift in the scriptures, but what's really helped me, and as I thought about it, is if you are really wanting to praise God with all of your heart, that deep within you is a deep thankfulness for what God has done. Not just singing to impress others or praying to impress others, but deep down you are genuinely thankful.

Genuinely you want to praise God with all of your heart, and you just can't stop praising Him when people are looking and listening or people are not. You will find maybe the English languages or whatever your native language is not enough, that God will give you that gift. That's spontaneous versus artificial.

And you can apply the same in many areas. A couple of areas that I've been thinking about recently are joy and fellowship. And if you look at the scriptures carefully, you'll find that the two are very closely connected with each other.

We hear about fellowship, in fact, it's in our name, both here and at RLCF. We use that name. What church do you go to? A church that has the name fellowship in it.

And I was thinking how easily that word fellowship can become just a casual word. And the enjoyment that should come out of fellowship is missing, perhaps. And I don't know you all well enough to be able to know whether it is missing, but I've seen in my own life that easily fellowship and the joy that God intends for us to have out of fellowship, we could easily lose.

Joy, for example, when I read that James says, for example, in James 1, consider it all joy, or Peter said joy inexpressible and full of glory. Or Paul says, you know, that even in my trials, I rejoiced so much so that I was willing to, wanted to share my joy in that trial. They weren't quoting a verse.

There was no James 1 verse 2 for James to say, yeah, I consider it all joy. Or for Peter to say, my joy is inexpressible and full of glory. And for us, it could be just a verse.

Oh, the Bible says joy, inexpressible and full of glory. And so I think I should manufacture this inexpressible joy or this considering it all joy. I know I have.

I read that verse and say, Lord, I don't have it. I'm going to try to have it. But what did James do that made him right? Consider it all joy.

What did Peter have that made him spontaneously right? My joy is inexpressible and full of glory. And Paul, he wasn't quoting someplace that said, you know, rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice.

It was something spontaneous within them that said, I am rejoicing. And I don't know about you, my dear brothers and sisters. That's what I long for more and more.

That the Christian life we have is not just a quoting of a bunch of verses and saying, I guess I should have that. It's good to know God's word. But as we know God's word and for you children and young people as well, as you memorize your verses, I hope deep within, and you can start even younger than I did, that deep within there's a longing that says, Lord, give me what Peter had.

That whether I'm quoting a verse that's already in scripture or it's coming from within or not, it's coming from a well within me. What Paul had, what Peter had, what James had, and above all, what Jesus had. The new covenant is this, that we follow Jesus' example and he had life.

He had life. He didn't have a bunch of verses and all that. Those verses were just guides.

But deep within him, he had the life of God in him. And when we have the life of Christ in us as well, it becomes spontaneous. And you might express yourself differently from others, but it becomes life.

Likewise, with fellowship, I'll start by this verse, maybe in 2 Corinthians chapter 13. 2 Corinthians chapter 13, I don't know what all this means, and we could perhaps have a Bible study on it in itself, but Paul ends this letter to the church in Corinth, 2 Corinthians 13 verse 14, but talking about three things, the love of the Father, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Be with you all, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

Now fellowship has a meaning of intimacy connected with it. There's only one place that I know of in the Old Testament where the word fellowship is used. It's Psalm 55, I think, where it says that can be translated as fellowship or intimacy.

Intimacy. And I've been thinking about that even in terms of our relationship with brothers and sisters in a church. We call ourselves fellowship.

You call the church here New Covenant Christian Fellowship. We call our church there River of Life Christian Fellowship. Think about replacing that word fellowship with intimacy.

New Covenant Christian place of intimacy. River of Life Christian place of intimacy, where we want God to establish something real, something intimate, something where I care about my brother and my sister and the children as if they were my own biologically, and in fact even greater than that. A new place, a place where there's intimacy.

When you read about Jesus and look at these two things, fellowship and joy, let's turn to John chapter 17. The joy that Jesus had when he enjoyed fellowship with the Father. We've heard often how the most precious thing for Jesus was fellowship with the Father.

And that's the one thing he didn't want to give up when he was in the Garden of Gethsemane and he knew that this fellowship with the Father was going to be taken away for some period of time. And he said, Father, if it is your will, I'll give up anything else. And we've heard meditated on that, and I don't know if you have, I'm sure you have.

But I was convicted recently that even thinking about that, I admire that Jesus had this intimacy with the Father that he didn't want to give up. And it could easily become a manufactured thing as well, where I'm also trying to have that intimacy with the Father. Where I think, well, Jesus, you had this intimacy with the Father, I want that too.

And so I manufacture it. Maybe I change my language or I have a way of imagining that I have intimacy with Jesus. But for Jesus, it was spontaneous.

And I thought about it like this. I love mangoes. And if you want me to describe what eating a mango is like, I could go on and on and on about it.

I really enjoy it. I just genuinely do. And it was like that for Jesus, not mangoes, the intimacy with the Father, that he didn't have to pretend that he had intimacy with the Father.

It was there, spontaneous. He had tasted it. And that's become more and more the longing of my heart.

Lord, I want a taste of you. It says in Psalm 34, Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. And if my dear brother and sister or children, you're sitting here and you say, Lord, I hear about intimacy in the church, intimacy with you, and intimacy with my brothers and sisters in the church.

But I got to admit, it's manufactured. I'm sitting here and singing as the deer pants for the water, so my soul longs after thee. But deep down, it's not real.

I'm sitting and singing, open the eyes of my heart, Lord, I want to see you, high and lifted up. But I have to admit, Lord, it's not real. I'm manufacturing it.

Then, come to the Lord, oh, taste and see, he's good. I believe if the desire of your heart is sincere, you can taste of him and it will become life within you, something spontaneous. Jesus longed that this joy that he had, the same way when he spoke about the Father and intimacy with the Father, there was a joy that Jesus had throughout his life that he didn't have to pretend that he was joyful.

There were times when he was mourning, there were times when he was weeping over Jerusalem, weeping at Lazarus' tomb, and no matter what the emotions felt like, there was a joy that emanated. Emanated is a big word, it just means that it came out of him, as it were. If you were around Jesus, I really believe you would get the sense he was a deeply joyful person underneath.

And I've been convicted that, I wonder if my coworkers would say, you know Santosh, he's a really joyful person. Or my wife, my children, the other brothers and sisters in the church, he really enjoys the Lord. He doesn't have to pretend it.

Even when he thinks I'm not looking, he just seems to enjoy the Lord. And he enjoys the church fellowship. That's what I long for, and I'm asking the Lord to give me more of that.

And Jesus said in John 17, verse 13, this is Jesus' prayer to the Father. Think about this is the last long prayer, as it were, on behalf of the church that Jesus prayed for us. Think about Jesus praying that for you and I, my dear church family.

He says, now I come to you Father, he's saying. And these things I speak in the world. So why did Jesus speak? Think about the three and a half years of speaking, and the 30 years of living that he lived here on this earth before that.

And at the end of it he says, this was the whole reason. That my joy, they may have my joy made full in themselves. You know, it's funny, I recently, I keep discovering new ways in which Jesus says, here's why I have come to this earth.

Most Christians would say Jesus came to the world to die for the sins of the world. I think Christians start with that. You read in John 6 that he says, I've come into the world not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

What about this? Jesus came so that I would be a joyful person. And if I somehow allow the devil to rob me of that, where I'm one of those serious holy types that doesn't have joy, I've missed it. The holiness of God is represented, you can say, is manifest in joy.

Joyful holiness. Joyful fellowship. And I'm not talking, again, we can try to manufacture it.

We can say, okay, now I guess we've got to be smiling all the time, sing more upbeat songs and all that. And then it will become manufactured and artificial again. But if you examine your heart, as I've been doing recently, and saying, Lord, I wonder if somebody was to be crossing me on the street and seeing, and think, man, that guy looks like there's something heavy on his heart.

He's just got a frown on his face. And I say, what a poor representation of a Christian. Jesus said, I came down and spoke all these things so that you would be joyful.

And the rest of the world says, no, the Christians are anything but joyful. I want to be such a person filled with joy, so that they may have my joy made full in them. A couple pages back, go back to John chapter 15.

Here he tells the disciples the same thing. John 15 verse 11. These things I have spoken to you so that my joy may be in you.

In other words, Jesus was saying, if you've seen me, you've seen joyfulness. He said earlier in John 14, you've seen me, you've seen the Father. What did the Father look like? Joyful.

And he says, and I've spoken to you these things, and I've taught you all these things, including Matthew 5, Matthew 6, Matthew 7, what we know as the Sermon on the Mount. All of those teachings, all the times Jesus was strict with his disciples, all the times he rebuked them and was almost angry at them because of their unbelief and their worry. He says, all of these things I've spoken to you so that your joy may be full.

These things I've spoken to you so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be made full. Have you known Jesus for even a year, let's say, and you don't have a year's worth of joy from Jesus in you? If you've known Jesus for a year and you don't have a year's worth more of joy in you, perhaps it's another Jesus. A Jesus who's very strict and rigid and hard and serious all the time.

A joy that doesn't compromise the holiness of God, but I long for that joy in my life as well. A joy that comes from knowing Jesus. And he went on to say in John chapter 16, if you read all of that together as one long conversation, it's here he says in John chapter 16 verse 23, in that day you will not question me about anything.

He's talking about the Holy Spirit coming and filling us and giving us a relationship with the Father. John 16 verse 23, truly, truly I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have asked for nothing in my name, but ask and you will receive.

And what will be the proof of that? Your joy will be made full. And I've come to see that this is one of the proofs that I've really received from the Father. The joy becoming more full, a little bit more of the joy of God in my life.

You see, for example, even the disciples, I want to show you a couple of verses where it speaks about the result of the Holy Spirit coming into the lives of the disciples. Acts chapter 13, Acts chapter 13 verse 52. Acts 13 verse 52.

The disciples were continually filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. And I see often that there's a close connection between the fullness of the Holy Spirit and a genuine joy. In fact, that's what I believe the speaking in tongues was.

It was an overflow of the baptism of the Holy Spirit that was joyful. It was a loud noise and so much so that all the thousands of people on the other side says, what are these people all excited about? And Peter said, we're excited about Jesus of Nazareth. There was a joy that came out from these disciples.

A couple of chapters later, Acts chapter 15 verse 3. Therefore, being sent on their way by the church, they were passing through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles. And what was the result? Wherever they went, it was a trail of joy, bringing great joy to the brethren, great joy to all the brethren. So there was a joy that was characteristic.

I think if Paul spent an evening in your home, Paul, who spoke so strictly and followed Jesus, says, follow me as I follow Christ. I really believe that if you spend an evening with Paul, Paul came to your house for an evening, you would leave. After he left, you would think, man, that's a joyful man.

There's a joy about him. Yes, he speaks about the holiness of Christ. Yes, he speaks about the righteousness of Christ.

Yes, his only desire is to be a partaker of Christ's suffering and his resurrection. But there's a joy in the midst of it. And I long for that myself.

First John chapter one. Here's John writing towards the end of his life. First John chapter one.

Let's begin reading in verse one. What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes. Again, I think of this picture of the mango that John is saying, listen, I've tasted it.

I heard it. I've seen it. I've touched it.

It's real. And you can see that it's real in my life as well. I don't have to pretend that Jesus is real.

This is John saying, I know it's real because I've seen it. I've heard it. What we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands.

And I think if you could say we've tasted it as well concerning the word of life. And the life was manifested and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the father and was manifested to us. What we have seen and heard, we proclaim to you also so that you too may have fellowship with us.

Indeed, our fellowship is with the father and with his son, Jesus Christ. These things we write so that our joy may be made complete. You see that connection between joy and fellowship.

John wasn't pretending when he said, I have fellowship with the father. It was real. And think about us as a church representing that to the world around us.

If people were to come in and be in our midst for a little while, would they say these are people who really know when they say fellowship, they know what that fellowship really is. They've tasted it. They look forward to it.

And I was convicted even recently about how easy it is for us to take for granted the church fellowship that we have. Think about it even coming here this afternoon. Is it just a routine? Is it just a, oh, I guess that's, yeah, it's time to go to church.

Let's go and we're going to be there together. Or was there a joy? I see that every time Jesus was with his disciples, he was excited. He loved being with his sinful brothers.

You think about how sinful they were and how far they were, how they were arguing about who's the greatest. But he, when he said, when he broke bread with them at the Passover, he says, I've longed to be here with you. Imagine Jesus looking forward.

Oh, it's going to be tomorrow. We're going to get together. And yes, I know I hear Peter and James fighting about who's the greatest, but I want to be with these brothers.

You know, Jesus once looked forward to this meeting. He longed to be here with you. How much did you long for the same, to be with Jesus and to be with the other brothers and sisters? Is it just a pretense? Is it just a, I want to look happy and look like I'm excited to be here? Or is it spontaneous? Is there a driving force, as it were, within you that says, I want to be with these.

These are the ones whom God has chosen for me to be around. There's a song we sing similar to the one we sang today. I know a precious brotherhood.

It's my delight and longing. That's the phrase that's been going through my mind. Lord, I want you, first of all, and fellowship with you to be my delight and longing.

Not a manufactured, not speaking about devotion to Christ and speaking about Jesus being my delight, but it being real, that it just comes out from within you. And as a result of knowing the head that way, knowing his body that way, I know a precious brotherhood. Do you know the brotherhood that way, dear church family? Is this local church precious to you? When it becomes spontaneous and real and God knits your heart together, you'll never get offended with others.

People might not treat you the way you want to be treated. People might have quirks. People might have different personalities, but you will never have to deal with getting offended in the church because Jesus and his body is precious to you.

That's what I see John writing here, that he says, we long that you will have the same fellowship. Because we have fellowship with the Father, I long that you will have fellowship with us. So a couple of things, and then I'll close.

First of all, joyful fellowship with God. What does it mean to have joyful fellowship with God? I believe it's, he goes on to say, it's fellowship in which there's no darkness at all. And I believe we must start there.

A lot of people would like to have a happy, go lucky, you can say, a happy relationship with God. But true joy in fellowship with God, that true fellowship with God cannot happen if there's any darkness in us at all. And he goes on to say that.

So let's continue reading 1 John 1 verse 5. This is the message we have heard from him and announced to you, that God is light. Do you want this fellowship with the Father? Genuine, spontaneous, non-artificial. Remember God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all.

It means there's no room for darkness at all. No bitter attitude. No unforgiveness to even one person.

No resentment. No self-seeking. Not even a little bit of pride.

No lustful thoughts. No anger. No matter how small it is.

In him is no darkness at all. And if we say that we have fellowship with him, and yet there's a little bit of darkness in us, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.

And the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin. So what does it mean then to have fellowship with the Father, like Jesus had? Unbroken fellowship with the Father, that's spontaneous. It doesn't mean that we never fall.

It means that the moment God shows us a little bit of this darkness in us, where he convicts us and says, the way you spoke to your wife that moment, everything you said was right, but there was a wrong attitude. The way you treated that brother, partial, or as a favorite, or you spoke a little bit disdainfully because he's not one of the cool ones in the church. There was a wrong attitude there.

In him is no darkness at all. And the moment the Holy Spirit convicts you of it, repent of it. Be cleansed.

The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. So it doesn't mean that we're always perfect. In fact, it says, if we say we have no sin, we're deceiving ourselves.

I recognize that there are still areas of unconscious sin in my life, but the moment the Holy Spirit reveals it to me, I repent of it. And the blood of Jesus cleanses me from all sin. It's a wonderful thing.

I believe every single one of us, no matter how long you've been a Christian, can begin to have this fellowship with the Father right now. According to this verse, you and I, and every single one of us, can have this kind of fellowship with the Father beginning right now. You don't have to wait until you've been a Christian for a year, or two years, or five years.

It's very simply, as soon as the Holy Spirit convicts you of something, you say, yes, Lord, you're right. That was proud. Yes, Lord, you're right.

That was unkind. Yes, Lord, you're right. There was the love of money deep down in that.

And thank you for opening my eyes to see it instead of defending myself. There's no darkness at all. And I can have fellowship with the Father.

And the more we walk in this light, the more that fellowship with the Father becomes natural, becomes spontaneous, where I've tasted and seen that God is good. And I can have this unbroken fellowship with the Father. I think of, in Hebrews chapter 12, this joy that Jesus had.

It didn't matter, even though he was going to the cross. It says in Hebrews chapter 12, how Jesus is our example in this joy. Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses, Hebrews 12 verse 1, surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before him.

I miss that, I'll be honest with you. I thought about Jesus as an example in my faith, Jesus as an example in running, being set free from sin. But I missed looking at Jesus' eyes to see what was it that his eyes were fixed on.

His eyes were fixed on a joy, a joy that came from having this fellowship with the Father, and a joy that came from knowing that I too, as his younger brother, and you too as his younger brother and sister, would also partake of that joy, like he said in John 15 and John 17. So this was a joy set before him. And if I have that same joy set before me and say, Lord, I want to partake of your joy, I want to see your joy more, then I can run this race with endurance.

You know, he too, it says here, had to endure the cross. What do you think? Was the cross easy for Jesus? According to this verse, it wasn't. He was a man just like us and he had to endure it.

He had to bear it. There was a heaviness to the cross. And I know I miss that sometimes because I thought, Lord, it seems heavy, this path I'm going.

It seems heavy. Am I missing something? It was heavy for Jesus too. He had to endure the cross, but in the midst of it, his eyes were fixed on a prize, on a joy.

His eyes were fixed on a joy, who for the joy set before him. That joy was the fact that he, even though for that period of time, that fellowship with the Father would be broken, it would be pleasing to the Father. Say, Father, I'm just going to be pleasing to you.

And one day you will restore it and we will have that fellowship again for all eternity. That's the joy that he had. Along with that, a joy that I would become a partaker of that.

And I thought about it like this, dear brothers and sisters, when Jesus had that joy that as a result of my enduring my cross, one day Santosh and Megan would be one in their marriage. Santosh and Megan in their home would be one. New Covenant Christian fellowship would have unity.

They'd have true fellowship. And in the local churches that God has placed us, that we would experience unity. That's why he endured the cross.

That's the joy that he had set before him, that he would look down 2,000 years later and see a body of believers who have laid aside their differences, laid aside their preferences and their standing on their own dignitary and are truly being made one. And today when he looks down, would he be grieved when he sees a home where a husband and wife who both take the same name of Christ are fighting with each other and arguing with each other and thinking of themselves as better than each other. And then in the church the same way, Jesus had a joy set before him that we would be one.

He said that in John 17, as the Father and he are one. And have we disappointed him in that sense? With our little bickering and our little arguments and our little fightings. Jesus had a joy set before him that we would experience fellowship in the body as well.

John chapter 13, let's go back there. So fellowship with the Father first of all and then fellowship in his body. True fellowship, John 13 verse 35.

By this all men will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. These were Jesus' words. The distinguishing mark of you all as my disciples will be this, that you have a genuine love for one another.

Everything else will be some other version of some other religion but the true love for each other. I was thinking about this even in the context of our church that when I visited other churches in the past before I went to Colorado as a visitor in a church, everybody was very friendly to me. Because as a visitor, you want to be friendly to them, you want to be hospitable.

I don't think I've ever been to a church where people weren't friendly to me in some way. In fact, some churches go overboard with it. Everybody wants to be friendly and make a good impression on you.

I thought, is that how we are supposed to be as a church as well? If a visitor came in and sat in our midst for the first time, would they say, wow, those people were really friendly to me? According to this verse, what I saw was that what they should see is these people are really friendly with each other. Yes, we're friendly to our visitors as well, but they sit there and they observe and say, wow, these are people who are completely different temperaments, completely different skin color and backgrounds, but they really love each other. The picture I got was of, let's say, in our home we were looking to adopt a child.

A child comes in and we bring them into our home and say, we want you to see what our home is like. And if I was a child going to be adopted into a home, and I came to that home and watched, what is this home like? What is this home like? Do I want to be a part of this church? I wouldn't look at how they treat me, because everybody is nice to the visitor. Of course, everybody would be nice to me as the one that wants to be adopted.

I would look at how they treat each other. How does this husband, this daddy speak to mommy? How does the father speak to the child? Because that's going to be me one day. If I want to be a part of this home, I want to see what are they like with each other if I'm going to be a part of that home.

And I think about how God brings different visitors into our midst. Yes, we're friendly to them, we're kind, we're generous, but I want them to see these are people who really care about each other. Everybody.

They care about each other. They take an interest in each other's lives. That ought to be the distinguishing mark of us as a church.

That's what Jesus said here, John 13, verse 35. They will know you are my disciples by your love for one another. Philippians chapter 2. How do we have this love? How do we have this fellowship in the body? Philippians 2, verse 1. 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, Paul says, make my joy complete by what? Being of the same mind.

How is it that we're going to have fellowship with each other? Is it that we have park days? I'm glad you have park days. We do park days as well. Is it that we're nice to each other and we invite each other to each other's home? I'll invite you to my house.

You invite me to your house. Let's get together and do activities. That's how the world thinks churches should be built.

You'll build a club that way. It's very clear here. The Holy Spirit says, if you want to have fellowship in the Spirit, come to the same mind.

Learn to think the same way. How are we going to do that? We can act the same way artificially. We can sing the same songs.

We can read the same version of the Bible and all that. Those are outward ways, but to have the same mind, what does that look like? He goes on to say. What is the same mind we're all trying to have? How are we all going to think the same way? Is it that we all have to preach a certain way and talk a certain way? I was recently listening to some messages from a particular church group where I'm familiar with their leaders, and I saw that all of them speak the same way.

They all sound just like they learned to preach the same way. If you closed your eyes, you would think you were listening to one of their leaders because they all speak exactly the same way. Is that what it means then to have fellowship? We all start to speak the same way and use the same language? No.

It says have the same mind. What mind? Verse 3, where nothing is done from selfishness or empty conceit, but everything is done by regarding one another as more important than yourself, the mind of humility. Here's the secret, my dear brothers and sisters.

Do you want fellowship in your marriage? It's not going out on more dates or buying flowers for your wife or your husband. That's good. Do that.

But learn to think of your wife as more important than yourself. Learn to think of your husband as more important than yourself. By that common mind, because you're both thinking of yourself as less important than the other, you'll find that there's fellowship.

And now we bring that into the church where I as a brother, my brothers and sisters, we're all trying to think of the other as more important than myself. That brother is more important than me. That sister, she's more important than me.

That child, she's more important than me. And every one of us is thinking the same way. We have fellowship.

And then that fellowship becomes spontaneous. It's not an artificial club relationship. It's a fellowship that has come because I have said, Lord, I want to think of myself as less important than my brother, my sister, my wife, the children.

I'm less important than everybody else. And the other brother sitting next to me, the other sister sitting next to me, is also thinking the same way. And we have all been conformed into the mind of Christ, who thought of everybody as more important than himself.

He thought of everybody as more important than himself. This is the bloodline, you can say. This is the nervous system.

I like to think of it like this. You know, the head is the center of the nervous system. And it controls the whole body.

Do you want to be a part of Christ's body? Do you want true fellowship? Be a part of his central system of humility, of thinking that way, the way the head thinks of everybody else as more important. And this true humility is joyful. That's how I can come to a place where I look forward to being around my brothers and sisters.

It's not, oh, you know, they haven't treated me like this, or they haven't done this for me, or I have this little bit of a grievance. I'm busy trying to think of everybody else as more important than myself. And in that I find true, true, true fellowship.

I like how Paul, I'll close with this. Recently I was looking at different places where he just almost gushes over the saints. It's just like he writes about these saints that he has to rebuke and correct, but he says, you all are my joy.

I'll give you a couple of examples. 1 Thessalonians 2. And I read this and I thought, I want to be able to say this about my fellow brothers and sisters in the church. 1 Thessalonians 2. This is Paul, the mighty apostle, so close to Christ, probably the closest to Christ of all the people on earth at that time, and he's writing to sometimes carnal churches.

And yet he has partaken of the mind of Christ. He's got the joy of fellowship in him where he can tell these Thessalonians who are a little bit miserly in their giving and things like that. But look at what he says in 1 Thessalonians 2. We brethren, having been taken away from you for a short while in person, not in spirit, we're all the more eager with great desire to see your face.

I mean, he's had to correct this church. He's had to correct them for false understanding about Christ's return and all these other things. But he says, I'm looking forward to being with you.

He knew a precious brotherhood. And that brotherhood wasn't about their false and their un-Christlikeness and the ways in which they need to grow. Yes, he dealt with it, he corrected them, but he says, you are my brothers.

I love you so much. Verse 18. We wanted to come to you, I, Paul, more than once, and yet Satan hindered us, because who is our hope or joy or crown of exaltation? Look at the words he uses to describe his brothers and sisters, his brotherhood.

You are our, who is our hope or joy or crown of exaltation? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ that is coming? You are our glory and joy. Chapter 3, later on he says, verse 9. What thanks can we render to God for you in return for all the joy with which we rejoice before God on your account? As we night and day keep praying most earnestly that we may see your face and may complete what is lacking in your faith. This is the mighty apostle Paul, much greater, miles ahead of where the church was spiritually, and yet he had a longing for them.

He says, I can't wait to see you. I feel like that sometimes when I travel away from our church and I miss a Sunday, and I think, I can't wait to see my brothers and sisters. That's the church God has placed us in.

And for you all, if you have to miss a Sunday or you're sick, is there a longing within you? Not a manufactured, oh yeah, I guess I should love my brothers. But is there a longing within you that has come from tasting and seeing fellowship with the Father, and as a result of that fellowship with the saints? This is how Paul spoke. I like that word, gushing, gushing over the saints.

Gushing means he was just so full of joy. He didn't have to pretend. He was really excited.

If Paul came here, if Paul was a part of this church, he would say, I'm so excited to be with you all. And you'd think, man, who am I? But the mighty apostle Paul speaks that way of us. And think about us, dear brothers and sisters, that way.

What is the secret? It's this humility of mind that Jesus had. I know it's the way I want to go. I want to think lower of myself than I've thought before.

I want to think of one more person as a little bit more important than me. And I believe, with all of my heart, I will find a joy, a spontaneous joy that comes out from within, a love for Christ and for His body, the head and the body. Amen.