0:00 The Lord liveth, and blessed be the rock, and let the God of my salvation be exalted. The Lord liveth, and blessed be the rock, and let the God of my salvation be exalted. 0:25 This next song says, Light of the world, you step down into darkness. I believe many of us know this song. And it's a song sung to Jesus himself, to the Lord himself. Light of the world, you step down into darkness. You open my eyes. 0:42 You let me see the beauty. So here I am to worship, and to bow down, to say that you are my God. Sing to Jesus, brothers and sisters. We want him to be the center of all that we do today. In the light of the world, you step down into darkness. 1:05 Open my eyes, let me see. Beauty that made this heart adore you. Hope of a life spent with you. 1:28 So here I am to worship, here I am to bow down. Here I am to say that you're my God. You're altogether lovely, altogether worthy, altogether worthy, altogether wonderful to me. 1:57 Kingdom of all days, so, so highly exalted, glorious in heaven above. So here I am to worship, here I am to worship, here I am to say that you are my God. 2:27 So here I am to worship, here I am to worship, here I am to bow down, here I am to say that you're my God. You're altogether lovely, altogether worthy, altogether worthy, altogether wonderful to me. 3:01 Behold our God, seated on His throne. Behold our King, nothing can compare, come let us adore Him. 3:23 Behold our King, nothing can compare, come let us adore Him. Behold our King, nothing can compare, come let us adore Him. 3:54 Behold our King, nothing can compare, come let us adore Him. Behold our King, nothing can compare, come let us adore Him. Behold our King, nothing can compare, come let us adore Him. Behold our King, nothing can compare, come let us adore Him. 4:00 Behold our King, nothing can compare, come let us adore Him. Behold our King, nothing can compare, come let us adore Him. Behold our King, nothing can compare, come let us adore Him. Behold our King, nothing can compare, come let us adore Him. 4:04 Behold our King, nothing can compare, come let us adore Him. Behold our King, nothing can compare, come let us adore Him. Behold our King, nothing can compare, come let us adore Him. King, nothing can compare, come let us adore Him. 4:08 Behold our King, nothing can compare, come let us adore Him. Behold our King, nothing can compare, come let us adore Him. Behold our King, nothing can compare, come let us adore Him. Behold our King, nothing can compare, come let us adore Him. 4:10 Behold our King, nothing can compare, come let us adore Him. Behold our King, nothing can compare, come let us adore Him. Behold our King, nothing can compare, come let us adore Him. Behold our King, nothing can compare, come let us adore Him. 4:14 Behold our King, nothing can compare, come let us adore Him. Behold our King, nothing can compare, come let us adore Him. Behold our King, all creation, come let us adore Him. Behold our King, nothing can compare, come let us adore Him. 4:33 Behold our King, nothing can compare, come let us adore Him. Behold our King, nothing can compare, come let us adore Him. Behold our King, nothing can compare, come let us adore Him. Behold our King, nothing can compare, come let us adore Him. 5:07 Behold our King, nothing can compare, come let us adore Him. Behold our King, nothing can compare, come let us adore Him. Behold our King, nothing can compare, come let us adore Him. Behold our King, nothing can compare, come let us adore Him. 5:14 Behold our King, nothing can compare, come let us adore Him. Behold our King, nothing can compare, come let us adore Him. Behold our King, nothing can compare, come let us adore Him. Behold our King, nothing can compare, come let us adore Him. 5:36 Behold our King, come let us adore Him. Behold our King, nothing can compare, come let us adore Him. Behold our King, nothing can compare, come let us adore Him. Behold our King, nothing can compare, come let us adore Him. 6:00 Come let us adore Him. Behold our King, nothing can compare, come let us adore Him. 6:20 Who has felt the nails upon His hands, bearing all the guilt of sinful man. God eternal, humble to the great, Jesus Savior, risen now to reign. 6:48 Behold our King, come let us adore Him. Behold our King, seated on His throne. Come let us adore Him, come let us adore Him. Behold our King, nothing can compare, come let us adore Him. 7:22 Behold our King, nothing can compare, come let us adore Him. Brothers and sisters, shall we stand up? O come let us adore Him, O come let us adore Him. O come let us adore Him. 7:51 O come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord. O come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord. For He alone is worthy. 8:12 For He alone is worthy, for He alone is worthy. For He alone is worthy, Christ the Lord. 8:36 We'll give Him, we'll give Him, we'll give Him, we'll give Him, we'll give Him, all the glory. We'll give Him, we'll give Him, we'll give Him, we'll give Him, all the glory. We'll give Him, we'll give Him, we'll give Him, we'll give Him, we'll give Him, all the glory. 8:56 We'll give Him, we'll give Him, we'll give Him, all the glory. We'll give Him, we'll give Him, we'll give Him, all the glory. We'll give Him, we'll give Him, all the glory. We'll give Him, all the glory. In Christ the Lord. 9:04 In Christ the Lord. 9:31 Yeah, brothers and sisters, we want to give Him all the glory. Let every eye be fixed on Him. On Jesus. The name above all names, the name alone in whom there is salvation. 10:01 Yeah, we know that Satan wants to distract us from a simple and pure devotion to the Lord. But there's life in Him alone. Let's forget about ourselves and concentrate on Him. 10:22 Knowledge that He alone is worthy. He's seated on the throne. Come, let us adore Him. In the book of Revelation. 10:44 It says they sang a new song. Worthy are you to take the book to break its seals for you were slain and you purchased for God with your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. 11:07 And you have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God and they will reign upon the earth. Yeah. Yeah. Brothers and sisters, I want to see myself there in that number. 11:29 Purchased with the blood of Jesus Christ. Who's brought men from every tribe and tongue and nation together and made us to be a kingdom and priests to our God. And He wants us to reign over sin, over this world and our flesh. 11:58 It says in chapter 7. God speaks of a great multitude who have come out of the nations, washed their robes, made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 12:18 And the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd and will guide them to springs of water. And God will wipe every tear from their eyes. Brothers and sisters, let's lift up our voice in any language that we are comfortable with. 12:37 Let's forget about ourselves. And acknowledge that He alone is our righteousness. And He's purchased us. And He is worthy. Yes. Lord, loving Father, we want to resound with the shout of heaven, Lord. You are worthy. You are worthy. 12:54 You've done all things well. You bought us, Lord, with a great price. You loved us with a great and everlasting love. You chose us before the foundation of the world and you are worthy, Lord. Yes, Lord. All things belong to you. 13:07 We are here. We are made for your pleasure, Lord. We praise you. We thank you. You're the lifter of our heads. You're the builder of the church. You're the shepherd of our souls. We praise you. King of kings. Lord of lords. 13:19 Holy are you, Lord. We praise you, Lord. There is no one like you. There is no one in heaven and earth, Lord. You are a high and exalted holy one. Almighty Father, we praise you. How you have loved us, Lord. How you have loved us. 13:34 We thank you. We praise you, Lord. We thank you for this time. Yes, Lord. We thank you, Lord, for giving us your son, for sending your spirit till the work is done. We thank you that you're continuing to work in us. Come at this day, Lord, into your hands. 13:53 We want to please you by faith, Lord. We pray in your mighty name, Jesus. Amen. Brothers and sisters, please be seated. So, we'll go over our memory verse. 14:15 Brothers and sisters, let this not become a ritual. Really want to encourage you to say, Lord, let me hide your word in my heart. And trust that your Holy Spirit will bring it back to me in my need. I've hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. 14:36 That's what the psalmist has said. Romans 10:13. We have a promise. Shall we say it together? Romans 10:13. Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved. And that is a wonderful promise. 14:57 And for the week to come, we have a command from 1 Corinthians 9:27. Repeat after me. 1 Corinthians 9:27. I discipline my body. I discipline my body. I discipline my body. I discipline my body. I discipline my body. I discipline my body. 15:18 I discipline my body. I discipline my body. I discipline my body. I discipline my body. I discipline my body. I discipline my body. I discipline my body. I discipline my body. I discipline my body. And make it my body. I discipline my body. 15:29 I discipline my body. I discipline my body. I discipline my body and make it my slave so that I myself will not be disqualified. Amen. So, brothers and sisters, today's a special Sunday, unusual Sunday. 15:53 We've asked those who are part of the family, this family, this church family, to stay back. So, we have a short initial meeting and we're calling this Fellowship Sunday because God has called us to have fellowship. We want to hear more about that. 16:13 We want to allow the truth of God's word and his plan and purpose for us to sink into our hearts. So, pay close attention. We'll start with hearing a recorded message and after that, Brother John will share what's on his heart. 16:31 I want to speak today on the importance of building fellowship because I fear that a number of brothers and sisters who are coming here regularly 16:58 come, I think, only to listen to the message or sing the song. But if you ask yourself how much you have built fellowship with others and I answer that question honestly, you may discover that very little. 17:22 And when something is very little in our life, it's because we don't value it enough. Anything we value, we will pursue and seek to acquire. We look eagerly for a house to live in or rent. 17:43 We look eagerly for a job because we find these things are essential. And for a lot of people, going to church is essential, but building fellowship is not. And as long as a person is not building fellowship, we have to say that he has not understood the new covenant that Christ established at all. 18:09 Because Jesus came not only to forgive our sins, which is what all Christians believe. And I have a feeling that a lot of people sitting here only know that much. Really, some of you sitting here, probably a number of you, really don't know anything more about Christ than what somebody in the CSI church believes. 18:27 Even though you sit here, you know Jesus died for your sins, but you may not be knowing victory over sin in your personal life. And fellowship with others, pretty close to zero. Fellowship is different from friendship. Friendship people in the world have. 18:45 So, if you hang around a lot of time with some of your friends here, this is no different from people hanging around with friends in the world. We need to distinguish between friendship and fellowship. There's a lot of difference. 18:59 Friendship is a good thing. It's an earthly thing. You don't need the Holy Spirit for that. You don't need to be spiritually minded to have friendship. You can be an atheist and have good friends. You can live in adultery and have good friends. 19:15 But to have fellowship, you have to be free from sin. When I come into the presence of God, I have no interest in impressing or pleasing anybody but Jesus himself. And I earnestly request you, my dear brothers and sisters, please, please, at least from now, and you young people, if you can start now, develop the habit of living before God's face only. 19:45 I wish somebody had told me this when I was 19, when I was converted. I could have come there much sooner. But for so many years after I was born again, I lived before the face of man. I spoke and sang because I wanted to do the right thing in the eyes of man. 20:03 And I had a sudden impression of what spiritual Christians do, and that I do the same thing. It's all imitation. It's garbage. You know that God does not want us to act. The word act in Greek is hypocrite. Act. And that's hypocrisy. 20:21 And that's the one thing Jesus warned people about. Beware of acting. We need to translate that word hypocrisy to acting. Every time you read the word hypocrisy in the New Testament, I read it like this. Beware of acting. 20:36 Beware of acting. And I tell you, there's a lot of acting among Christians. And if you don't get rid of it, you won't be able to build fellowship. If a person comes to me and tries to act spiritual with the right language and the right actions, 20:54 I say, listen, brother, don't try to act spiritual. Just be yourself. And we'll be able to have wonderful fellowship. It doesn't matter if you're not spiritual, if you're a bit carnal. I can have fellowship with you. But if you pretend, when you're carnal and you pretend to be spiritual, 21:08 I cannot have fellowship with you. I can have fellowship with a carnal brother. So long as he's honest and open and he's saying, well, I've not yet become spiritual. I'm trying to be spiritual. I have more fellowship with that person than a carnal person who's pretending to be spiritual. 21:23 Oh, talk spiritual language. That's garbage. And I can see through that in one minute. It's very, very important that you understand these simple principles. We don't want hypocrisy in CFC. We don't want a single person acting. 21:37 We don't want anybody in the pulpit acting. We don't want the singers acting. We don't want, in our talking to the other, we don't want any acting. But I'll tell you something, it's not easy to get rid of it. Because there's so much of it. 21:50 You know, when we say something, we begin to think, what do we think if I say this? And okay, we have to be careful about what we speak. I'm not saying that we should say everything that comes to our mind. We must be wise. 22:01 But not, I mean, I have to be careful about what I say because I don't want to hurt people. That's wise, definitely. So, let me turn you to the first episode of John. And now listen to this. The whole purpose of this, he says in verse 3, is not to impress you with how much of the Bible I know, 22:24 or some new truth I know. It is so that you may have fellowship with us. So, there are two words that come in verse 2 and 3. Life, in verse 2. Fellowship, in verse 3. I would say the whole of John's letter is referring to life in Jesus and fellowship with Jesus and with one another. 22:48 If you've got that, you've got the new covenant. If you've got that, you've got the central part of the Christian life. If you haven't got that, well, then you haven't really understood what the new covenant is all about, 23:01 except a doctrine that we died with Christ and we rose again. And we can say we're seated in the heavenly places. It's all imagination. And he says, our purpose in proclaiming this to you, that you may have fellowship with us. 23:15 But, he says, don't forget, our fellowship is not with you, first of all. It's with the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. Like I've often said about the two arms of the cross, they speak of fellowship, the vertical arm and the horizontal arm. 23:35 And the vertical arm is always longer in a cross. That speaks of fellowship with the Father, which is primary for me. Then, the horizontal arm is a fellowship with one another. It's also important, but it's based on our fellowship with the Father. 23:55 And so, if our fellowship, the horizontal arm is more, is longer than the vertical, as unfortunately sometimes it's like that, it's a friendship. If you find that you're more eager, I mean, here's a simple test. You're more eager to be with the brothers and sisters than talk to Jesus. 24:18 Your horizontal arm is long. Your vertical arm is small. Can you imagine a cross? Have you ever seen a cross with a small vertical arm and a long horizontal arm? That's not the real cross. It's not the type of cross where Jesus died. 24:34 Not at all. So, that's a good test of whether what you have is friendship or fellowship. If you find that horizontal relationship is much more important for you, then that is friendship. It's good. I'm not saying friendship is bad. 24:53 But friendship is an Old Testament thing. It's not new calling. Fellowship is much deeper. True fellowship can only come if you have fellowship with Jesus. And the more your fellowship with Jesus and the Father increases, 25:09 the more our horizontal fellowship with one another will increase. Otherwise, we are living in a world of self-deception. And I want to say this lovingly, but honestly, I fear that is the condition with many here. 25:30 who are not committed to the Lord, not committed to this church, you come here maybe just to listen to a message. But I've often said that you don't need to come to this church to listen to a message. Not even to listen to me. 25:43 Maybe you are blessed by what I hear. You know, you can go to YouTube in your home and listen to me every single day for three years. And by the time you finish three years, there will be more messages in there. You can keep listening almost until Jesus comes. 25:58 And you'll always have something new to hear. But it's not going to bring you close to the Lord. You can even hear all that and be lost. Why do we come together? We come together to do what we cannot do alone at home. What are the things we can do alone at home? 26:14 We can pray. We can give thanks to the Lord. We can sing songs at home. We can worship the Lord probably better than here. We can praise the Lord. We can listen to messages. We can pray and intercede for others. There's so many things we can do at home. 26:32 We can even give to the Lord by writing a check or transferring some money to Christian ministry. But there's one thing you cannot do by sitting at home. That's for build fellowship. You can't do that. For that, you need others. 26:47 And you can watch a message on the Internet. You can't have fellowship through the Internet. It's not possible. For that, you need others. You need to mingle with people and get to know them. Like I've often said here, one of the best things to do when you're meeting a new person is to ask for his testimony. 27:07 How did he come to know the Lord? Ask him what his experience of the Lord has been. I do that, and I'm so blessed when I hear amazing things that the Lord has done for them. I'm interested in what the Lord does in other people. 27:22 I think we're going to do this in heaven when I meet the millions of believers there. I'm going to listen to stories. It will take hundreds of years to listen to all the stories that people tell me about what the Lord did for them. 27:33 But I can begin that here. Are you interested in that? Let me ask you honestly. Are you interested in that? Are you interested in listening to what the Lord has done for other people? Or are you only interested in yourself? 27:44 Just be honest. If you're honest, I believe the Lord can help you. So fellowship is not just coming together on Sunday morning, joining all together, having a meal, and going away. That is not fellowship. They have in a lot of non-Christian temples and mosques and gurudwaras and all. 28:07 They come together and they eat and they go. And they are good friends. They help one another. Somebody is shifting a house, they go and help them to shift the house. That's not fellowship. Nothing wrong in it. I'm just saying that's a worldly type of friendship. 28:21 But fellowship is something more than that. It begins with a relationship with the Lord Jesus that's deepening and growing. So ask yourself whether your relationship with Jesus Christ is deepening and growing first of all. 28:33 Otherwise, just right across your name, I have not understood fellowship. I'm not saying that to condemn anybody. I'm just saying so that you can begin at least now. You know, that's why sometimes on a Sunday, we have a picnic. 28:51 I don't think there's any other church that I've heard of that has a picnic on Sunday morning. I never heard of one. Maybe there are some bold churches like that. But, you know, people are shocked when they hear, you have a picnic on Sunday morning? 29:06 You mean, you don't have a time of singing and listening to the message? No. We have a picnic. Why do we have a picnic? Not just to eat, but to have fellowship. Do you know, in a picnic, you can have more fellowship than in a Sunday morning service like this, 29:23 where you listen to the message, sing a few songs, and go home. We believe in fellowship. And I personally think we need to have a lot more times where we build fellowship with one another through interaction so that we become a body, 29:39 so that we are connected to one another. It's very, very important. That's what a local church is supposed to be. And that's what we want this church to be. Different from other churches, not just in the doctrines we preach, 29:55 or we don't want to get any honor for the type of songs we sing, or how our singing is good, our preaching is good. If there's one thing we want to distinguish ourselves from others, not even the fact we don't take a collection. 30:08 That can be a very earthly type of glorying. But the fact that we have a quality of fellowship with one another, which is far deeper than we've seen anywhere else, then we are truly the body of Jesus Christ, the church that Jesus is building. 30:26 So, John says, that is the purpose with which I'm writing this letter. And so it's very important to understand that, let me repeat again, that when John, when he saw the decline in Christendom in his time, and the backsliding of churches and elders, 30:44 and elders who were ready to be rejected by the Lord. Imagine an elder brother, to whom the Lord says, I'm going to spit you out of my mouth. That means, you were in my mouth, you were speaking my word till now, elder in Laodicea. 30:59 You're an elder, right? I'm going to spit you out of my mouth. Can you imagine the Lord telling an elder in Sardis, you just got a name that you're alive. You just sit up there in front and preach, and everybody gives you a name, 31:10 but you're dead. There's no life in you, and you're an elder. John was a pretty strong apostle to write such things to elders. Yeah, he told them the truth about what the Lord thought about them. It's very, very important. 31:27 So, it's important for us to recognize fellowship with Jesus is the most important thing, on the basis of which we build fellowship with one another, and he says further, verse 4, these things we write so that your joy may be made complete or full. 31:49 So, I learned something from that. That's not only here. That the reason why so many Christians are not full of joy 24-7. I said 24-7. 24 hours a day, seven days a week, full of the joy of the Lord. That's a scriptural verse, 32:09 Philippians 4-4. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice, which means we're supposed to rejoice 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And here it tells us how that can take place. He says, I'm writing these things to you so that you can know how you can have joy 24-7. 32:28 It's by fellowship with the Father and fellowship with one another. The more you build fellowship with Jesus Christ and the Father, and the more that results in fellowship with one another, you know that has a direct effect on the joy in your life. 32:43 I can say that. Joy in my life has not come through more money or no sickness or nothing like that. My joy doesn't go down if I become sick. And my joy does not go down if I lose money. These things don't interest me. My joy is entirely dependent on fellowship with God, 33:05 and the result is my fellowship with others who want to have fellowship. Not everybody is interested in fellowship. And I'll tell you another thing. You don't need to meet so frequently to have fellowship. I have sometimes seen that I have wonderful fellowship with people I meet just three, four times a year, 33:27 and not so good fellowship with people who I see here every Sunday. And I ask myself that question. Why is it I have wonderful fellowship with people I meet, really deep fellowship with people I meet a few times a year, 33:46 and not with people who I see every Sunday? And I've come to this conclusion. Horizontal fellowship, just what I said, is dependent on how much vertical fellowship they have. So here's a brother who maybe I see only a few times a year, 34:01 but he's living in wonderful vertical fellowship with the Father. But I meet him. It's as though we've never had any break in our fellowship. We'll just carry on from there, and we can go into deep fellowship. Whereas you meet a person every Sunday, 34:16 and his vertical fellowship with the Father is very small, he's not going to have much fellowship with you. Perfection and goodness can all take years, but honesty doesn't even take a moment. Honesty is to say, this is what I am. 34:32 This is what I did. I acknowledge this is wrong. Your conscience tells you this is wrong. What you did was wrong. The way you talked to that person or did something was wrong. This thing is wrong. Honesty. Walk in the light. 34:48 And then we will have fellowship with God. The blood of Jesus will cleanse us from all sin. Now, if walking in, listen carefully now, if walking in the light meant we were perfect, then where is the need of the blood of Jesus? 35:02 Then this verse would read, if we walk in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and we are perfect, and we don't need the blood of Jesus to cleanse us, because there's no sin in our life. Is that what that verse says? 35:12 No. That teaches us walking in the light does not mean we are perfect, does not mean we are perfectly good. It means we are honest. If we walk in the light, the blood of Jesus cleanses us, and we have fellowship. It's so clear. 35:28 You know, when you read the Bible just as it is, and slowly, and you don't rush through it, you get a lot more. Like I've often said, I am more interested, not in reading through the Bible so many times, but in letting the whole Bible go through me once in my lifetime. 35:49 If the whole Bible can go through me once in my lifetime, that's much more than me going through the Bible a hundred times. My whole purpose in studying Scripture is so that every word will go through me and become life. 36:01 Man shall live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. So, verse 8, I don't think this will apply to anybody here. If we say we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves. The truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, 36:18 we acknowledge God is faithful and righteous to immediately forgive us our sin, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, and to bring us into fellowship with Him. If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. 36:37 And so, my little children, chapter 2, verse 1, I am writing these things to you that you may have fellowship with us. Yes, but you may not sin. It's the same thing. Earlier, He says, I am writing these things to you that you might have fellowship with us. 36:57 And He says, here, I am writing these things that you may not sin. Is that a contradiction? No, it's exactly the same thing. I am writing these things to you that you may not sin. And you may have fellowship with us. And if, 37:09 if any man sin, in other words, He says, long as we live on this earth, the possibility of sin is there for all of us. He doesn't say you. He says we. If, if anyone sins, we, John includes himself. 37:31 He says, I am 95 years old. I walked with God for 65 years. But even I may slip up sometimes in my thought or accidentally a word. But I immediately come to the Lord and get it cleansed away. We have an advocate with the Father, 37:45 Jesus Christ the righteous. I thank God that when I slip up and if the whole world is criticizing me for my slip up, I know one person who will stand by my side. That's Jesus Christ. No matter how much I've slipped up, He will stand by me 38:03 and say, don't worry, I'll lift you up. And I want to say that to everybody here. If you've made a mess of your life or you've slipped up somewhere, a lot of people are against you. Maybe people misunderstand you and your, 38:16 some of you, your relatives and your parents are non-Christians. They don't understand you and they're troubling you so many ways. Take courage in the fact that there's one person who will always stand by you through thick and thin 38:27 and advocate Jesus Christ the righteous. He's your advocate not only here but with the Father. What does an advocate do? An advocate is pleading with the judge. Think of a court and somebody's accusing you of something. 38:45 Your advocate, you don't have to open your mouth, you know. Advocates fight for you. They speak for you to the judge. Say, this is the reason why you should let him go free. I've got the best advocate in the world and you have too. 38:58 Jesus Christ the righteous who pleads with the Father and says, Father, I shed my blood for him. I shed my blood for her. I want you to forgive her. He's fulfilled the condition. He has fulfilled the condition. He acknowledged his sin. 39:13 He didn't try to cover it up. Forgive him. Forgive him immediately. And from that point onwards, he goes on to speak about two things primarily in the rest of the letter. Keeping God's commandments. You don't keep God's commandments, 39:31 chapter 2, verse 4. Again, you're a liar. And the other thing is loving your brothers. The one who loves his brother, chapter 2, verse 10, abides in the light. These are very, very important. Walking in the light leads on to 39:48 obedience to God's commandments, which we emphasize constantly in this church. small and big and loving one another. Not agreeing with one another. I don't agree with all brothers and sisters, but that doesn't stop me from loving everyone. 40:06 So, dear brothers, I've only given you a little introduction to one John. I want to encourage you to read through this episode slowly. Let every verse sink into you and say, Lord, that fellowship and fullness of joy which you want me to have 40:25 on this earth, fellowship with one another, I want that. I don't want to be one who just sits in CFC and warms the seat on Sunday morning. I want to build fellowship here. I want things to change from today. What do you say? 40:44 Amen? Thank you. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for the clarity of your word. It's so simple. Like you said, little children can understand it. 41:05 But as the clever and the intelligent miss it completely. Help us to be like little children as we read your word and to come into that wonderful fellowship with you which brings fullness of joy in our lives 24-7. We want that life. 41:21 The kingdom of God which is righteousness and joy in the Holy Spirit and peace. Thank you, Father. Make it real for everyone here. We don't want anyone to be left out. We don't want anyone here to be left out. We humbly ask 41:36 in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Thank you. 42:08 Hello, check. Let's sing the song. As we think about what we heard. Blessed home in the church I have found. 42:38 Blessed brotherhood, holy and pure. Blessed foretaste of heaven alone. Blessed fellowship, pure with the saints. Fellowship, oh how sweet. 43:01 Fellowship in the light and in truth. Fellowship, oh how sweet. Fellowship with the saints here on earth. Thank you, Lord, for the body of Christ. 43:24 Thank you, Lord, for the shepherds so good. Thank you, Lord, for the prophetic word. Thank you, Lord, for the fellowship, sweet. Fellowship, oh how sweet. 43:47 Fellowship in the light and in truth. Fellowship, oh how sweet. Fellowship with the saints here on earth. Oh how good and how good and how pleasant it is. 44:10 For the brothers in unity to dwell. It's like new, it's like new, so refreshing and good. God commands life and blessing or good. Fellowship, oh how sweet. 44:33 Fellowship in the light and in truth. Fellowship, oh how sweet. Fellowship with the saints here on earth. Yeah, we'll hear from Brother John. When I read the theme here, it says, 45:15 let your lives overflow with joy. And thanksgiving for all the Lord has done. This is Paul saying with great gratitude to the Lord. I stand here, I feel the same. See what the Lord has done, what the Lord is doing in our midst. 45:38 I would like to read a verse in Jeremiah 3, verse 14. It says, Jeremiah chapter 3, verse 14. Written, you faithless sons, declares the Lord. For I am a master to you, and I will take you, one from a city, and two from a family, 46:03 and bring you to Zion. Then, verse 14 says, I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you knowledge and understanding. What is this knowledge and understanding? See, I have come here to this church about 28 years back. 46:23 I found shepherds. Who are the shepherds? Shepherds are the ones who have fellowship with the Father. Fellowship with God. And then they lead all those who come under them into that fellowship. We read one John. 46:45 John's burden was that, hey, we have fellowship with the Father. Come, let's have fellowship. If you have fellowship with us, and you will also experience the joy which we have with the Father. The joyful relationship with the Father. 47:03 See, that is the ultimate goal. The ultimate goal is God wants to have a relationship with us. That's why church is called a family. And shepherds do their job. It's not only, oh, elders. No, it's the heart of a shepherd. 47:18 A sister can have a shepherd's heart to encourage people. How we can have fellowship with the Father? We heard that get rid of sin. Because sin blocks my fellowship with the Father. If I have a right attitude, every shepherd will have a longing. 47:42 Others should have a good fellowship with the Father. So that they will have a joy and peace of heaven. So that is only possible if they have a right attitude to sin. That's what the longing of John was. That here, what I want to emphasize is, God says that. 48:00 God has picked. When I look at all brothers and sisters, it's a miracle. When I speak to them, it's a miracle. See, the miracles which God has done in their life, like Brzezak was mentioning, it's amazing things, amazing work the Lord has done in each one's life. 48:15 That's how God has picked each one and brought here to build each one of us into the family of God under the shepherds. The chief shepherd is our Christ, our Lord, Jesus Christ. So that is where we want to kind of, we must seek to have fellowship with, closeness with. 48:39 So, that's why we need shepherds. We must find shepherds. See, whenever I speak to someone who's coming for some time, I ask them, have you found confidence in somebody? Someone. Maybe one of the elders or maybe somebody. 48:54 That's so essential. That they only can help us. A shepherd who has a good relationship with the Father. See, we cannot have fellowship with the Father without walking in light. As one who is walking in light, then he can help us. 49:09 I can name many brothers. I can name many brothers. When I came to the church as a lonely single person, and I found fellowship. The one who encouraged me to, hey, you want to have a better life. You need to have a relationship with the Father. 49:29 I can name many brothers. So, I was so insecure when I came. And that's why I can say that my heart overflows with joy and thanksgiving. Because I found shepherds. And then, Psalm 68, verse 6 says, 49:50 God makes a home for the lonely. He leads out the prisoner into prosperity. Only the rebellious live in parched lands. Really, it's a wonderful thing. Finding a shepherd, finding a home in the church. In the home, what is so important? 50:09 In the home, relationship, fellowship is more important. Do we call a building a home? It may be a house. It's not a home. The home is the people. Here, when we all go, this is not a home. This is not a family. There is no family. 50:27 Like I was mentioning the other day. This is only a building. The home is people. And family is people. And people who have relationship with each other. That is what we need to desire, brothers. Then again, what we heard was, 50:43 it's not horizontal relationship. You know, our church name, you all know. Our church name is Christian Meeting Church. Am I right? It's not Christian Meeting Church. It is a Christian Fellowship Church. I think with great wisdom, the Lord gave it to Zach and Brother Ian. 51:05 And they named it Christian Fellowship. Why Fellowship? Why Fellowship? Fellowship is something. It will help me to get right with God. That's the ultimate goal. Why God has to gather us here? Why God has to save us and bring? 51:21 He wants more children. He wants a family. That's the thing. See, God is not interested in anything else. Even when we say, oh, we must live a comfortable life on this earth. That's not the goal God has. God wants us to have a relationship with him. 51:37 That's what I see. See, church is a family. What is a family? How do I know that this is my family? That my attitude shows that, whether it's a family. So family, all are imperfect. All of us are imperfect. We see imperfections in the family. 51:57 See, when I come to the church and see imperfection and say, oh, no, I will avoid. Oh, this brother is like this. This sister is like this. I want to avoid so and so. Then what happens? I become so small. I cannot grow in fellowship. 52:11 But in the home, it's not like that. When there is an imperfection, our parents were imperfect. But how do we respected them? Did we respect them because they were perfect? No, not really. They had love. They had commitment. 52:24 They took responsibility. In despite of differences, despite of imperfections, we respect our siblings, how we deal with our siblings. Even though we have imperfection, we become responsible. How to fix it? How to fix the problem? 52:43 That's what we see. That's the mark of family. If I am in the family, it's very easy to say, oh, this is not okay. This is not okay. This is not okay. If somebody comes and says, this is not okay. This is not okay. He's not come to family. 52:55 He's come to hotel. Chutney is good here. Idli is good there. See, it's okay. They will go to some other church and, oh, this is not good. This is not good. No, no. They are not found family. The family, see, this is my home. 53:08 If something is not there today, the curry is not tasty. Okay, let's make it better. So, it's okay. Manage. Let's manage today. But let's make it better. How to fix this? That spirit I have found among shepherds here. See, they don't say, oh, what to do? 53:25 We'll give up. No, no. They don't give up. If shepherds had given up on me, I think I would have gone away long, long back. They didn't give up on me. They said, no, don't give up, John. The Lord wants to fix it because the Lord is our Father. 53:42 He wants to fix it. That's why we don't have to get discouraged. See, we sing a song. We never heard a discouraging word. What is that? See, if somebody wants to live in sin, like Jesus said, those who practice sin, for them, 53:56 it's discouraging. Oh, what is this? They always talk about sin and this and that and all that. They want to correct me. Why they want to correct me? They want to help me, not in a negative way. They want to help me. See, that is. 54:10 And also, church is a body. It's a body. You know, in the body, all the parts, you know, every part longing, other parts to be connected to head, mind, brain rather. It's longing. See, any part is disconnected. All the other organs are working so that that part is restored to a relationship or a connection 54:36 to the brain. That's the beauty of the body. That's the beauty of the body. Because in the body, everything happens all of a sudden. See, this hand, anything happens. Mosquito sits here. Immediately, it taps. We tend to think that, oh, this right hand, left hand has a kind of a direct relationship. 54:53 Not that. See, because it happens so fast, we tend to think that, oh, all the organs have a mutual relationship. No, no. It's all connected to the head. This head will tell this right hand, do this. Then only this will go and help. 55:08 That is what we have to see. That is what I have seen in the church. Even the people, I mean, shepherds and brothers, godly brothers, they didn't come just to help me, not to have a horizontal relationship. They got an inspiration from the Lord to help me. 55:26 That's how I've been restored. Today, my testimony is that I have been preserved in the fellowship with others. That has helped me to have relationship with the Father. See, that's how it is. When we come in, we must seek fellowship so that my fellowship with God will get better 55:47 and restored. And if I have a better relationship with the Father, I must seek fellowship so that I can help others. Their relationship will be restored. See, I hope you understood. See, like the first category is, I want somebody to, I want a fellowship with somebody who will 56:08 help me to get to know the Lord better. And if I know the Lord better, I should seek fellowship with others who need my help to get to get to know the Lord better. That is, these are the two things. In my life, I don't have third category. 56:21 I have only two categories. That is those who help me to see Jesus better. And those who need my help to see Jesus better. That is what the fellowship ultimately God has glorified and he will be father to us. His presence will be here and then we'll truly be joyful and happy. 56:41 That's what, that's what is burdening me. Let's pray and we'll seek the Lord. Like Brother Zach said, let's take time to read one John to understand what fellowship really means and experience and so that our relationship with father will be better in the coming days 57:00 so that we can have better relationship with one another. May the Lord help us and bless this day to improve our fellowship. Father, we thank you, Father, for your word and thank you for your love and care and concern the way you have brought us here with a purpose, Lord, so that we'll build fellowship so that 57:20 we can have a better fellowship with you, Lord, so that all Satan's plans will be thwarted, nullified. We pray that every discouraged brother and sister will find encouragement to build relationship with one another and also to have a better relationship with you, Lord. 57:40 Bless our day and commit ourselves, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. The meeting is over. We'll have announcements now. We want to welcome those who are visiting us for the very first time.
