Life and Fellowship Existed from the Beginning

Thank you for this technology that you have provided in this time to reach many places at the same time. We pray that you will make this a time of spiritual profit to each of us. Give us ears to hear what you have to say, we pray in Jesus name. So Annie would just like to say hello to all of you. So happy to see you. May God bless this time together. I am sorry she is not going to preach today so you may be a bit disappointed. Our subject is fellowship in the body of Christ. I want you to turn to 1 John and chapter 1. You see these two words, fellowship, body of Christ, are words that are never found in the Old Testament. Under the old covenant there was no such thing as fellowship. Very important to understand that. You know in CFC we emphasize new covenant and I believe one of the reasons God raised up CFC was to emphasize the new covenant. I am not saying we are the only ones talking about new covenant. I am sure many churches talk about it. But to emphasize it as much as we should, that is not done sufficiently. Building the body of Christ is not emphasized sufficiently around the world. So something is missing. I believe it is like some major organs in our human body missing. You can survive without some internal organs. I don't mean heart or liver or kidneys. But some organs in your body, even if they are removed, you can still live. But your life will be substandard. If your arm is missing, you can still live. If one eye is missing. But it will be substandard. And so if we don't understand everything in the new covenant, we will still live. A lot of Christians are fine Christians. But there is something missing and it will be a great tragedy if we see Jesus face to face when he comes back and we get a clear picture of our entire earthly life and discover in that day there was something we missed out completely on which was written very clearly in the New Testament. There are very few people, I will tell you honestly, there are very few people today who seriously study the New Testament. And even many preachers. They are mostly interested in collecting money and what they call reaching the lost. I am all for reaching the lost. But if you don't make them disciples, they will be lost again. You gather the fish into a net which is full of holes. What will happen? Those fish will go out again. And then another evangelist has got to bring his net full of holes. This is what's happening. Fish come in. They get counted. They get lost again. They get caught again. But if you want to preserve them, then we must lead them to discipleship in the new covenant. So fellowship, these two words, fellowship, the body of Christ. They are not found in the Old Testament because the reason is they did not have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them. In the old covenant, the Holy Spirit was upon them to equip them, you know, to split the Red Sea or pull down the walls of Jericho, tear lions apart and defeat armies and establish an earthly kingdom of Israel in the land of Canaan. But the Holy Spirit was not inside them. That's why even a man after God's own heart like David committed adultery. He didn't have the life of God in him. He could not have it. Great prophets like Elijah would get depressed even after bringing fire down from heaven. Can you imagine getting depressed after bringing fire down from heaven? Why did Elijah do that? Because he didn't have the Holy Spirit within. Don't despise him. He was 100 times better than all of us. But he lived in an age when the Holy Spirit was not within. And when we talk about fellowship and the body of Christ, both are entirely dependent on the Holy Spirit having complete control inside us. So if you only understand the theory in these days, nothing will happen. You'll be just the same next year and the year after. But if you open your heart in these days to the Holy Spirit and say, Lord, I want revelation from the Holy Spirit in my spirit within. I want my life to be changed. I want to understand what life in God is, what fellowship is, and what building the body is. Those who hunger and thirst for it, God will fill them. There's no partiality with God. So let's turn to 1 John. 1 John is a very important letter because of one reason. It was written by John when he was about 95 years old. The Gospel of John was also written when he was 95 years old. And it's amazing how the Holy Spirit reminded John and inspired him to write of things that happened 65 years ago when he walked with Jesus. You know, can you try and think of things that happened even 30 years ago? Leave alone 65. Most of you are not 65. But imagine, try to remember something that happened, clearly to write down a story of what happened 35 years ago in your life. It's so difficult. John was writing in his Gospel about things that happened 65 years earlier, inspired by the Holy Spirit. And you find that John writes certain things which are not found in any of the other three Gospels. Some amazing stories. For example, the marriage in Cana, the turning of water into wine, the first miracle that Jesus did. It's not even mentioned in the other three Gospels. John writes it. Isn't that a wonderful story? Or of the woman caught in adultery whom the Pharisees wanted to stone, whom Jesus released by saying he was without sin, cast the first stone. What a lovely story. Something would have been missing if that story was not there. But it's not in the other three Gospels. All those wonderful chapters, John 14, 15, 16, 17, they're not in the other Gospels. And John, inspired by the Holy Spirit, writes that. I thank God for that, you know. It's wonderful. And think of this wonderful statement found in John 13, verse 34 and 35. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you. Not found in any of the other Gospels. Or all men will know you're my disciples when you love one another. Don't you think that's a very important verse, John 13, verse 35? But it's amazing that Matthew, Mark, and Luke don't even mention it. And John, writing 65 years later, mentions what Jesus said, inspired by the Holy Spirit. Of course, they, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, had to write what they were inspired to write. But this is the basis of fellowship in the body of Christ. All men will know you're my disciples when you love one another. So it's not a question of knowing doctrines alone. We emphasize every doctrine in the New Testament. Even things like don't get into debt, women, rail your heads, so many things. But these are not the central things of the Christian life. The central thing is you must love one another. You can do all those external things that we don't have a pastor and we don't have paid ministries and all that. But if you don't love one another, all those things are worthless. Some of those people who do those things, if they love one another, will be better than us. So fellowship is built on that verse. So one John, John writes it when he's 95, as I said. And I want to tell you something else. John also wrote the book of Revelation. And in the book of Revelation, you all read it, in chapter 2 and chapter 3, there are messages to the seven churches. I'm not going there now. But you know, if you read them, that five of those seven churches and five of those elders of those seven churches were backslidden. They were in such a bad shape that one of the elders, the elder in Laodicea, the Lord writes, You're wretched, miserable, poor, spiritually poor, spiritually blind, spiritually naked. Can you imagine telling an elder of a church which was once planted by the apostles, You're wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. Now if you'll say that to some backbencher sitting in a church, I can understand. But to tell the elder of a church, you're wretched, you're miserable, spiritually poor, blind, and naked. And you say, hey, was this a church planted by the early apostles? Sure. There's no guarantee that the church will remain spiritual just because it was planted by a mighty apostle. It all depends on whether there are good, God-fearing elders to lead that church forward. And that's why in Revelation 2 and 3, you read about Philadelphia. Such a wonderful church. The Lord says, I'll make you a pillar in the house of God. And he stands by them and says, I'll make you firm, strong witnesses for me. So it all depends on leadership. And it all depends on whether the right things are emphasized in a church. So one of the most important things is fellowship. So John saw all this. He saw how Christianity started on the day of Pentecost with a mighty baptism in the Holy Spirit where 120 separate individuals were praying on the day of Pentecost and they got fused into one body. It's like 120 pieces of iron being thrown into a furnace and they come out as one piece. That's what happened on the day of Pentecost. They didn't remain 120. After the day of Pentecost, they became one. That was fellowship. And that was the body of Christ. And that was the beginning of the body of Christ. On the day of Pentecost, when 120 people became one with each other, loved one another. I mean, they loved each other so much that some of them sold, in those early days, sold their houses. Can you imagine? Sold their houses and went to living in rented houses just because there were some poor people among them who didn't have any money. That's rare to see that type of Christianity. I'm just trying to show you the depth of their fellowship. They were really one with each other. I mean, it's like a father would gladly sell his house if he finds his children are starving and go and live in a rented house because there's love there. But that is the depth of love those early disciples had. And it's very rare to find it. But it is a part of the Holy Spirit. And the reason was they experienced fellowship and they had become one body. You see how a left hand will do a lot of work when the right hand is injured or handicapped or broken. Why does the left hand do all the work, the work of two hands? Because it's part of the same body. Now, my left hand will not go and help somebody else whose hand is broken because I'm not part of his body. But when my own hand is broken, this left hand will do the work of two hands. That is body. And that is what Jesus is trying to build all over the world. And it's very rare to find because people come together just to sing songs and what they call praise and worship and make a lot of noise and hear certain sermons. And so many of them are so boring. And nothing is built. There's no fellowship and there's no body. They come together. It's more like a club. So, dear brothers and sisters, God has not brought you together just to start another church like that. If it's like that, you might as well go and join one of those other multitudes of churches there. You've got to see your vision. It doesn't matter if you're small. The early church was very small. I mean, the disciples were only 12 in number when they started, 11 really. And most of the churches I've seen that God has raised up all started very small. But they emphasized quality. They emphasized fellowship. They emphasized building the body. And, therefore, something came out of it. So, it's very important that we emphasize these things, fellowship and building the body of Christ. So, turning to 1 John. So, as I said, John had seen the backslidden condition of all these churches in the first century. And keeping that in mind, he writes about the most important thing. You know, there are many things written in the New Testament which are not found so much in the Old Testament. For example, the gifts of the Holy Spirit. A lot of people place a lot of emphasis on speaking in tongues. That's a good gift for a man to communicate with God. But it's very interesting that John, in his epistle, does not even say one word about it. He doesn't say one word about it in the Gospels. And he doesn't say one word about it in his letter. I mean, the way a lot of people emphasize that in Pentecostal circles today, you would think that is the solution to everything. I wish it were. But I've seen tongues-speaking people, 95% of them are so carnal and worldly. And I don't believe that speaking in tongues is genuine at all. It's a fake. One of the easiest gifts of the Spirit to counterfeit. And I would rather not have a counterfeit at all than pretend that it is a real thing. What John emphasizes is not even healing. That's another thing a lot of people emphasize today. Physical healing. Great, if Jesus can heal the sick. Now, I believe that. But when churches are in a backslidden state, what does John the Apostle emphasize? Not speaking in tongues and not healing. You won't even find a verse about that in 1 John. And it's important to see that because then we can learn a lesson as to what is important and what is not so important. It's like in the human body, you know, we have nails and little fingers, but they're not as important as the heart, the liver, and the kidney. So we have to see what is the most important thing. Are we majoring on minor issues? Then we will not build the body of Christ. We need to see what is major in the Christian life. And if you read 1 John, you'll really understand it. And here's a man who's not a young fellow who's just getting up and preaching. He's 95 years old. And I have a feeling that, I mean, I read that John was so old in those days that he couldn't even walk properly. He had to sit in a chair, and they used to carry him to the front of the hall in the chair. And he would sit there and speak to people and say, little children, love one another. Here was a saint, 95-year-old godly man who walked with God for 65 years speaking to us. So when we read this, think of John, 65 years of walking with God, a spiritual life, speaking to you from his letter. That's how we got to see it, a man who's seen the condition of Christianity, how it started in the day of Pentecost, how it declined in 65 years. And so many churches, so worldly, and he's giving a message to them to try and revive them. And the main emphasis in John's letter is life and fellowship. You see, he doesn't mention the body of Christ here. See, you can talk about the body of Christ like Paul does in 1 Corinthians and Ephesians. And very often when people talk about that, they are emphasizing the outward form, that in the body of Christ there must be apostles and prophets and evangelists and teachers. That's mentioned in Ephesians. And then there must be these different gifts, and 1 Corinthians 14, how they are to be exercised and how the meeting of the church must be. That's all good. And John knew that Paul had written it, and he endorses it completely. But he's saying that just like Paul said in the last days, that people will have a form of godliness without the inner power. John knew that he had come to that place where Paul had died 20, 30 years earlier, and John was still living, the only apostle. And he saw that people were using all these verses and everything else in 1 Corinthians and Ephesians and talking about the body of Christ and all that, but it was only the form. And I find that can very easily happen in a CFC church where we have so many correct doctrines. And some of you who are clever and can understand and listen to many messages, you can speak about these things, but it can only be a form of godliness without the inner power and light. So John realizes the main thing is to have the inner reality more than the outward form. The outward form is important. Think of it like this. The doctrines in the Bible, in the New Testament, New Covenant doctrines, are all important, like all the members of our body are important. Which member would you like to cut off? You can live without your little finger, correct? But you don't want to cut it off. And in the same way, you can live without a whole hand, but you don't want to cut it off. So the parts of our body, we can say, are all the doctrines in the Bible, in the New Testament. Which one do you want to get rid of? I don't even want to get rid of the smallest doctrine in the New Testament. Not even a little nail. I want every doctrine in the New Testament. But the important thing in this body is the breath. If you take away the breath from this body, it will be dead. All the ten fingers will be there, the eyes and nails and everything are there, but the body is dead. This is the condition of so many people who measure on doctrine. I pray that your churches will not measure on doctrine, but on life. The life of God that comes in us through the Holy Spirit. This is why it's so important to be filled with the Holy Spirit all the time. All the time to be filled with the Holy Spirit, so that the life of God surges in us. Jesus spoke of it like rivers of living water flowing out from us all the time. We must never be satisfied with anything less than that. And the condition for that is to thirst and believe. Jesus said, if anyone thirsts, if a person is satisfied with a substandard Christian life, I can guarantee in 50 years you'll never go higher than that. But if you have a thirst in your life for more than you have right now, you say, Lord, I want your best in my life. I want your best. And if you have a hunger and thirst for that all the time, I'll tell you honestly, I was born again 58 years ago when I was 19 and a half and is nearly going to be 59 now. And I still have a tremendous hunger and thirst to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Every day I say, Lord, I cannot accomplish your will for my life if I'm not filled with the Holy Spirit. I'm not satisfied with anything I've done in the past. There's a curtain behind my body where I don't look back to the past. Paul said, forgetting the things that are behind. So I live my life as if I've done nothing for the Lord till today because there's a wall behind me. I look back and I see a blank wall. There's nothing there. Forgetting the things that are behind and pressing on to so many other things God wants to accomplish through me. I pray that you have that passion in your life. Some of you are so young. It's so important that you begin your life with a passion, not just to sit in a good church, you know, to meet regularly, but that you will have the very life of God through the Holy Spirit inside you. So that's what John writes. Turn with me to 1 John 1. See, he goes back to the beginning of time, before time began, before Genesis 1 verse 1. You know, John writes in his gospel, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. That is, Jesus was there in the beginning. That's actually the first verse in the Bible, John 1, 1, before Genesis 1, 1. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. So he's talking about that time in 1 John 1, 1. He always goes back to the beginning, 1 John 1, 1. What was there in the beginning when there was no universe, no angels, no human beings, no church, no doctrines, no Bible? What was there right in the beginning? There was life, the life of God. That's what he's talking about. And when Jesus came to earth, he says, we heard it. We saw it. We looked at it, verse 1. We touched it. That life which existed from all eternity before the worlds were created, I heard it in Jesus. I saw it in him. I touched it. And he says, this life we have seen and testified, this is the eternal life, verse 2, which was with the Father from all eternity and it was manifested to us. Now, why is he saying this? Well, Jesus had gone up to heaven 65 years earlier. And the main emphasis John is bringing out here is, dear brothers and sisters, this is the life which other people in the world must touch and see in you. Now, you see the challenge there? Do you know the life you're supposed to manifest to the world around you, you and me? Not just a good, decent life and that we go regularly from church services. No, the very life of God, which was there right in the beginning before the worlds were created, which was once manifested through Jesus on this earth and which God wants to continue to be manifested through his body. Why is the church called the body of Christ? That title was never given to Israel. The bride, that was given to Israel. You read in Isaiah, Israel is called the bride. The family of God, the kingdom of God, kings and priests, those titles are all given to Israel also. But there was one title never given to Israel. Israel was never called the body of God. We are called the body of Jesus Christ. That's special because we have a demonstration in the first body of Christ. The first body of Christ is Jesus himself. He came in a body and it's not just that he did miracles and cast out demons. That is only three and a half years, 10% of his life. A lot of people concentrate on 10% of Jesus' life. They think following Jesus means you've got to heal the sick, raise the dead, travel, preach sermons. Listen, I say that is only 10% of his life. What was he doing the other 90% of his life? What was it that made the father say at Jesus' baptism, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Even though at that stage when Jesus was 30 years old, he had never healed a sick person. He had never, you know, raised the dead, never cast out a demon. But the father said I'm well pleased with him. Think of that, you know, many of you don't have any supernatural gifts. Do you believe that God can be pleased with you? Please listen carefully. Do you believe that your heavenly father can be very pleased with you even though you never preach a sermon, you never heal a sick person, you never cast out a demon, you never travel outside your town or city to evangelize anyone, you've not done anything which people call ministry, you've never built a local church. Can the father be pleased with you? I say yes. Jesus didn't do any of these things for 30 years. But do you know what Jesus did for 30 years? In Nazareth as a carpenter, he was a businessman, you know, self-supporting businessman as a carpenter from the age of 18 to 30. And I think Joseph had died by then. And he supported himself and his family. And he lived the life of God in his home and in his place of work. Can you do that? When you think of Jesus' life, 30 years out of 33, which is 90% of his life, he was not a preacher. He was a hardworking businessman trying to earn his own living, poor businessman, poor carpenter, trying to earn his own living, taking care of a family with four brothers and sisters and a mother, eight-member family. How many of you have got eight members in your family? He had to take care of eight members in his family, and he had to work hard, sweat, perspire, earn his living in order to support that family. That was his life for 30 years. But in those 30 years, he manifested a life of purity, of humility, of love, goodness. I'm sure he helped a lot of poor people in Nazareth, even though he never did any miracles. I'm sure he encouraged a lot of discouraged people in Nazareth, just by words that he shared with them, even though he never preached a sermon. Everything that every one of you can do, every one of you can do that, what Jesus did for 30 years. You may not be able to do what Jesus did in the last three and a half years of his life. Forget that. But you can all do what he did for the first 30 years. He kept himself pure. He was eagerly desirous to manifest the glory of God. He spent time in prayer with his father when he was alone. He used to go to the wilderness. In our cities and towns, there's no wilderness. But early morning, when everybody's asleep, it was a very precious time when you can be alone with God, even a few minutes. Or if you wake up in the middle of the night unexpectedly, you spend a few minutes with God. It's possible. Sometimes you're alone in a room or somewhere traveling, and you're alone. Precious times when we can be alone with God. You make use of that. That's what Jesus did, you know. That's what Jesus did. He was alone with God frequently in those early days, and that's what gave him that strength to live that life. So I hope this will encourage you. This is how each of you concentrate on that life, then fellowship will be built. Because think of fellowship in our human body. I've said this many times, and I never get tired of repeating it. How does my left hand fellowship with my right hand? Think of a pianist who's playing with two hands, and his feet are playing the pedals, and his eyes are looking at the score on the music sheet. How many parts of his body? His eyes are looking here. His eyes are not even looking at his fingers. His eyes are looking at the score on the music sheet. His feet are on the pedals. He's not looking there. And yet all these parts are functioning so perfectly. A really good pianist is really amazing to see how both his feet and both his hands and his eyes are functioning so perfectly, and such beautiful music comes out of it. There's only one reason. Only one reason. All those parts of the body are connected to the brain, and the brain is, you know, in split-second timing, telling the left hand where to play and the right hand where to play and when to press the pedal, and the eyes must look here, and all is in split seconds, like electricity. So fast everything goes that everything is perfect. That is the picture of fellowship. Completely different members, left hand, right hand, working together because they both are connected to the life of the head. That's why I'm emphasizing life first. The reason why two believers can't have fellowship or a husband and wife can't have fellowship is not because they don't spend a lot of time together. You know, marriage counselors say you must spend a lot of time together for a walk and all that. All that is excellent. I'm not against it. By all means, do it. I myself counsel married couples to go for a walk, take time together, and spend time together, resolve your differences every day, never go to bed angry. All that is good. But I'll tell you this, you can do all of that, and there are people who still fight and quarrel and divorce. The way to fellowship is by being connected to Christ, the head. When these two hands are connected to the head perfectly, even if they don't always hang around together, fellowship together, they work perfectly. So remember this. Fellowship is not based on spending a lot of time together in a busy world like ours. How much time do you get to fellowship with all the others in your church? Probably very, very little. I mean, our life is so busy nowadays that you don't really get much time to meet with others and all that. But we can still have very good fellowship if each of you are connected to the head. I've sometimes seen this. Somebody I've not seen for one or two years, and he's faithfully walking with the Lord connected to the head, Jesus Christ, and I'm connected to the head, Jesus Christ. What happens when you meet after two years? It's immediately we come into fellowship as if we have been meeting every day. Our fellowship is so sweet and close, only one reason, that both he and I have been connected to the head for all these two years that we never saw each other. See, that teaches us something, that the basis of fellowship is not only spending time together and coming for meetings, which is very important. The Bible says don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together like some people do. It's very important to meet together. But if you meet together and you're not individually walking in the light with God, you will not have fellowship. So turning back to 1 John now, let me read further there. He says there, you know, this life was manifested, verse 2, and that's what we are talking about in testifying this eternal life. And he says, the reason I'm proclaiming this to you, please look at verse 3. Please follow with me in your Bible in verse 3. What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you, that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father, his Son, Jesus Christ. Did you see that? He begins with talking about life and ends up saying, the reason I'm talking about life is so that you can have fellowship with us, and our fellowship is with the Father, that is, with the head. Exactly what I said, these two hands work together because they are connected with Christ in heaven. And remember, John is writing this because he saw the pathetic condition of a lot of those churches in those early days. And he said, boy, Lord, he was praying, Lord, please give me the right words to solve this pathetic condition of these churches, which are so backslidden, and the Holy Spirit inspires them. He said, don't talk about all the gifts of the Spirit. That's not primary. These people have it, and they are still not fellowshipping with each other. What they need is the life of God, which is there from the beginning. That will bring fellowship. So I pray that as we read this, we'll have a tremendous hunger and thirst in our heart, saying, Lord, I want that very life that you have, that you manifest on the earth. I want to say to you, my dear brothers and sisters, that is the essence of Christianity, to experience the life that Jesus had on earth in us, in our spirit. That's manifested. It will be manifested in the way you speak. It will be manifested in the way you look at people. It will be manifested in your actions. It will be manifested in the way you handle money. It will be manifested in the way you live your life on earth in every relationship with your wife, your children, with your colleagues at work, with unconverted people. This must be our longing. Lord, even if we are few in number, help us to manifest the life of God. Jesus was the only person in Nazareth for 30 years who had the life of God. Just think of that. There was nobody else. There were some good people there, but in Nazareth for 30 years, there was one man who had the life of God in him, and he manifested it, and that meant that he was very faithful in his private life in temptation. That's how he manifested it. We all have a private life which other people don't see. It's your faithfulness there before God that will determine whether the life of God will be in you. And I want to tell you another thing. There's a great verse in the Psalms. You turn with me for a moment to Psalm 16. It's a very good verse. Often I think of this myself. In Psalm 16 and verse 11, Psalm 16 and verse 11, in the middle of that Psalm, it says, In your presence, God, is fullness of joy. I want to tell you something. There's a lot of joy in many things in the world. A lot of people have joy in eating ice cream, and a lot of people have joy in sex, and a lot of people have joy in making a lot of money. But fullness of joy, fullness is found only in the presence of God. In your presence, there is fullness of joy. And therefore, he says in verse 8, Therefore I have set the Lord continually before me. That means I always seem to live in the presence of God with the Lord in front of me because that's the only place where there's fullness of joy. So his determination, the Psalmist that was David, and by the way, this is quoted about Jesus in Acts chapter 2. That's how he lived. The Father was always in front of him. And this is the secret of a life full of joy. And from that verse, Psalm 16, 11, I have made a rule for myself. And you can make that rule for yourself as well. Whenever I don't have fullness of joy, I'm not in the Father's presence. I'm not in the presence of the Lord. Whenever I'm complaining, grumbling, murmuring, bitter, angry, I say to myself, I am not in the presence of God right now. Because in the presence of God, there's fullness of joy. When I'm anxious, afraid, I'm not in the presence of God. So we need to say, Lord, I want the Holy Spirit to bring the presence of Jesus real to me in my spirit so that I always dwell in the presence of the Lord and that I always have fullness of joy. Joy, I'll tell you something, joy is one of the greatest safeguards. You know, it's like a life jacket. If you're drowning in the sea, it's great to have a life jacket, especially if you don't know how to swim. And even if you know how to swim, you can't last in the open sea long without a life jacket. And so joy, fullness of joy is a tremendous safeguard that will save you from drowning in temptation, save you from drowning in sin. So remember this. And so you must long for this. How to have it? In the presence of God. Now turn back to 1 John. See what John says, and you'll see that he says exactly the same thing. 1 John in chapter 1, he says here, we saw that in verse 3. We are writing this. Please look at verse 3 and 4 very carefully. 1 John 1, 3, and 4. What we have seen and heard, that is Jesus, his life we proclaim to you, reason that you may have fellowship with us, that we can work together like members of one body. And our fellowship is with the head, Jesus Christ. That's how the members of this body work. And why are we writing this? So that your joy may be full. So he comes back to this too, what we saw in Psalm 1611, that if we are in touch with the head and fellowship with him, our joy will be full. Don't think joy is an unimportant fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace. Joy is a very, very important part of the gifts of the fruit of the Holy Spirit. In fact, it is one of the proofs that you are dwelling in the Father's presence. Please remember that. I made it a rule for my life that has helped me tremendously. Whenever I find I don't have fullness of joy, I go and spend two minutes in God's presence. Just two minutes. I say, Lord, what's wrong with me? Why are these other things taking away my joy now? These things which I'm worried about now, are they so important really? Why are these other things bringing some clash here? I don't want it. I want to live in your presence. And if God sees that you're really eager about it, believe me, all of you, your lives will be transformed. I don't care how young you are in the Lord. I don't care how recently you got converted. Is it only for mature saints who have been walking in the Lord for 20, 30 years? No, but new believers. Some of you new believers, you can walk in the presence of God from day one. Just keep a clear conscience. You can have fullness of joy, which will lead to fellowship with the Father, fellowship with Jesus Christ, and which will build fellowship among yourselves. That is the way to build the body of Christ. Let's turn back to 1 John 1. Then he says, now he's given an introduction in the first four verses, and you see that I'll never get tired of repeating this. He goes back to the beginning. How is it when there was no heaven and earth, no angels, no human beings, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? What did they have? Tell me what they had. They had life. They didn't have doctrines. There were no doctrines with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They didn't need doctrines. They had life, and they had another thing. They had fellowship between them. Just two things, life and fellowship. That's all that they had right at the beginning, the eternal life of God. And the wonderful thing is he never gave this to the angels, but he's given it to us. Do you know the angels can never become one body? Do you know that the angels cannot have the life of God in them? They can't have eternal life. Do you know the angels cannot have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them? The angels can have the Holy Spirit helping them, but not dwelling in them. That's why Jesus became a man like us and demonstrated how the Holy Spirit could be in him, and the Holy Spirit can now be in us. This is an amazing truth. So I want you to pursue this, and I encourage you to pursue it. And the test of it is, do you have joy all the time? Whenever you lose your joy, you know your focus has shifted to something else. And you remember what happened when Peter was walking on the water, looking at Jesus. He was overcoming gravity and walking on water. The great miracle there is not Jesus walking on the water. The great miracle there is Peter walking on the water. The great miracle is not Jesus overcoming sin. The great miracle is that he helps us to overcome sin. That Peter could walk on the water, but the moment his eyes got shifted away from Jesus to the waves and the wind, you know what happened to him? He began to sink. And whenever you begin to sink in your life into depression or gloom or defeat or anything like that, or murmuring or complaining, you know your focus has shifted away from Jesus to some human being, to some circumstance, to something. And no wonder you're sinking. And if you don't turn back to Jesus again, you will reach the bottom of the sea. But the wonderful thing that Peter did, it's a great example for us. As soon as he began to sink, which means when his feet went into the water one inch, one inch, his feet, and he felt in his body, I'm slipping, he cried out, Lord, save me. That's what you need to do. As soon as you begin to feel, hey, I'm slipping into murmuring, anger, bitterness, anxiety, immediately, Lord, save me from this, very often we don't do it. We wait till we almost reach the bottom of the sea and then say, Lord, pick me up from there. Let's change that habit. As soon as we sense in our spirit, oh, I'm slipping here. Something has happened. I'm about to lose my temper. I'm getting a bit anxious about something. Turn back to Jesus and say, Lord, I don't have fullness of joy now. Hold me, save me. What did Jesus do? He did not give him a big reproach or lecture. He held his hand immediately and made him stand. I tell you in Jesus' name, the Lord will do that for you as well. He loves you as much as he loved Peter. But you've got to turn to him immediately. He cannot help you if you're looking at the winds and the waves and people around you. The Bible says in Hebrews 12, 1 and 2, that we must run the race looking unto Jesus. And one translation says, fixing our eyes on Jesus, you know, like these horses that are driving carts. In India, we see them. They have these blinders where they put it around their eyes like this so the horse can't look this way or that way. Otherwise, it will wander off in some direction. We need to have something like this, these blinders that they have on these horses so that we look only at Jesus. We'll never sink there. Believe me, this is true. I took a long time in my life to learn it, but you don't have to take such a long time to learn it. You can know it because you're hearing these things now. I mean, I never heard these things for nearly 16, 20 years of my Christian life. I had to discover some of these things studying the Bible myself. You know, just like there are a lot of things you never could have as a child, which your children can now have because you have acquired them. Your children are probably living at a more comfortable level than you lived when you were a kid. Spiritually also, it can be the same, that we can experience, you can experience better things than I could experience at your age, but value this. Now, turn back to 1 John 1. We're talking about fellowship, the life of Jesus to be manifested in us, which will lead to fullness of joy, thus the body can be built. And what is the first message that leads us there? Verse 5. This is the message that we have heard from him. The number one message. God is light and there is no darkness at all in him. In simple words, he will not tolerate any sin. That's the first message. The first message is not about physical healing. It's not about financial prosperity. It is that God cannot tolerate any sin. It's completely foreign to his nature. He will not tolerate the slightest bitterness in you, a slightest unforgiving attitude towards someone who has harmed you. Never. That is darkness. He will not tolerate impurity in your thoughts, even slightly. You know, these people now who are even believers, who are enslaved and addicted to pornography, they're believers who have given up their addiction to alcohol, given up their addiction to drugs, and even movies, but who are addicted to pornography. You think that happened in one day? Not at all. It happens slowly. All addictions start slowly. You start with a little bit and you enjoy it. It could be a drug. It could be alcohol. It could be cigarettes. It could be making money by cheating. It's all an addiction. And you say, hey, I can get something. And it could be a little bit of pornography. And you're careless there. You're on a slippery slope. And you slide down, slide down, unless you wake up and get out of there immediately. I tell you this. Don't ever look at pictures that tempt you sexually. You don't turn away from it. You will get addicted to it. And then one day it'll be too late. I mean, the Lord can deliver you at any stage, even if you're an addict. But it's much more difficult. And you'll be harassed with dreams and thoughts of that. So resist it. God is light. This is the first message. There is zero darkness in him. He cannot tolerate any sin. He cannot tolerate any cheating. God is light. There's no darkness in him. He cannot tolerate a person who's got hatred in his heart, even towards his enemies. No, he can't tolerate a gossip who goes around speaking evil about others behind their back. There are Christians who do all this. Their fellowship with God is zero. Their fellowship with others is zero. They may have friendship, but friendship is not fellowship. Friendship is, you know, like an anatomy laboratory in these hospitals, medical colleges where they teach anatomy. They have dead bodies cut into pieces so that people can, the students can study human anatomy, and the legs are there and the stomach is there and the eyes and hands, but they're not connected. And that's friendship. Friendship is you can put two legs together, dead bodies, legs. There's no connection. Fellowship is where every part is connected together. So remember, if you want this wonderful fellowship, if you want the life of God, if you want the joy that is full all the time, number one message that you must never forget is God is light, and there is no darkness at all in him. If you turn back to Genesis and chapter 1, just have a look there. In Genesis chapter 1, we read, because God is light, the very first thing that he created was not the heaven and, after the heaven and the earth, and the earth became dark, it says he said, let there be light on the very first day. Genesis 1, 3, let there be light. Don't forget that. The Bible opens with this message that God says let there be light, and that's what God is saying into your life, first of all, light. And then what is the next thing he did? He immediately separates, verse 4, the light from the darkness. Did you see that? He separates. God is a God who separates light from darkness because he doesn't want a sort of dusk type of situation, half light, half darkness. He doesn't want that type of thing in your life. He separates it. Now, you want the commentary on that, you turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. In 2 Corinthians chapter 4, you read a commentary about that message in Genesis 1. Listen to this. 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 6. God, who once said light come out of darkness, that is Genesis 1, has shone into our hearts and given us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. So he said what happened there in Genesis 1 is what happened in your heart. God one day spoke into your heart and said let there be light. That's how you were born again. This is a description of being born again. God said let there be light in your heart. He didn't say that to everybody in the world because they didn't open their hearts to him. You opened your heart and God said let there be light and light came into your heart. Then what is the next thing after that? Turn to 2 Corinthians 6. 2 Corinthians 6, verse 14. Don't be bound together with unbelievers for what partnership has righteousness and lawlessness? What fellowship has light with darkness? So come out of them, verse 17, and be separate and don't touch what is unclean. And I will be a father to you, 2 Corinthians 6, verse 18. So the first thing is light comes into your heart. What is the next thing God does? He wants to separate that light in your heart from all the darkness that has been in your life for so many years. You know in the days before we were born again, we were living in darkness. And now God put a light in our heart and he wants to separate all the darkness away from the light in our hearts. It doesn't happen overnight, but if you work at it little by little by little by little, God will bring a separation. So please remember this. We'll close with this. God says let there be light. God did it. And he's the one who separated the light from the darkness in Genesis 1. You may say, Lord, I don't have the strength to do it. Say, Lord, can you pray this prayer to God? God, you're the one who created light in my heart. I couldn't do that. And I read in Genesis 1, Lord, that you are the one who separated the light from the darkness. Please do that in my life. Please separate me from all darkness in my life. I can't do it. Some of these sins are so strong, they enslave me. They enslave me. Lord, do a work in me and separate me from all darkness in my life so that I can have fellowship with you and fellowship with one another. Lord, make this weekend a life-transforming weekend for me, that my entire life will move into a different plane. If you hunger and thirst for that, God will do it. Okay, we'll stop for the time being. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Heavenly Father, I thank you for these dear brothers and sisters who are eager for the life of God. I pray that you will satisfy their hunger and my hunger, too. I want more of your life, Lord. Each of us, as we hunger and thirst, please fill us with the Holy Spirit and build a strong church there in Melbourne, in Brisbane, in Sydney, in Perth, that your name be glorified in these places. Even though the fellowships are small, they comprise of people who want to walk in the light, who want to hate all darkness, who want to seek for the power of the Holy Spirit to keep themselves pure, to have the life of God in them. Thank you, Father. You'll do it. In Jesus' name, Amen. Okay, talk to you a little later. Thank you. Is there anything you want to tell me, Vinay?