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Well it's great to be here today. Last time I was here was I believe the first service ever and it's good to see some of the same people that I saw that day and I also really appreciate people who've driven from very far away. I know some people drove from as far as five hours away and so thanks so much for being here this morning and the title of the sermon this morning is continuing in fellowship, continuing in fellowship. Look down at your Bible there in Malachi chapter 3 verse 16. The Bible reads then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another and the Lord hearkened and heard it and a book of remembrance was written before them for him, excuse me, before him for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon his name. The Bible says that those that feared the Lord spake often one to another. They talk to each other a lot is what the Bible is saying. Now go to Acts chapter 2 where I get the title for my sermon. Acts chapter 2 verse 42. The title of the sermon is continuing in fellowship. The importance of us as Christians getting together and talking with other Christians, spending time with other Christians, having fellowship together. The Bible says in Acts chapter 2 verse 42 and they continued steadfastly in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers. Now what I see in this one verse is basically a well-rounded program and well-rounded people. Okay if you think about it we are made up of body and soul and spirit. We've got the mind, we've got the body, we've got the soul, we've got the spirit and if you think about it the Bible says they continue steadfastly in the Apostles doctrine. You know that has to do with the mind, right, because doctrine literally means teaching. So the doctrine that they're continuing in are the principles from the Word of God that they're being taught. So they're mentally learning things. They're learning doctrine. They're learning the Bible. They're continuing in the doctrine but they're also continuing in the fellowship and the breaking of bread and that has to do with our need as human beings to spend time with other people. This feeds our soul. You know we've got the body, we've got the soul and we've got the spirit and I think one of the best ways to explain this is that our body is that which interacts with the physical world around us, right. Our body interacts with physical things. We eat food and we can see, smell, hear, touch. That's our body, right, and that obviously includes our brain, you know, which is a physical brain inside of our head processing information. Then the soul is that which interacts with our fellow man and then the spirit is that which interacts with God, okay. So these are kind of the three basic parts of a human being. So we've got them continuing steadfastly in the Apostles doctrine. That's feeding their mind and fellowship and in breaking of bread. That's feeding their soul and then it says that they also continued in prayers and that's their interaction with God, their communication with the Lord through prayer. So we got body, soul and spirit. We've got a well-rounded program. Now when we think of fellowship or breaking bread, you know, having a meal together, spending time together, one of the words that would come to mind is friendship, right. Having friends when we talk about our soul's need to interact with other people. We have a need for friends and friendship. Well what did the Bible say about friends or friendship? Well believe it or not, the word friend or friendly or friendship is used in the Bible a hundred and seven times. So it's a pretty big subject in the Bible. There's a lot to say about friends. Now let's look at some of those scriptures this morning. Go to Proverbs chapter 17. Proverbs chapter 17, the title of the sermon is continuing in fellowship. Hey it's great that you're continuing in the doctrine. I'm so glad that you're continuing to believe the things that you've been taught from the Word of God, but are you continuing in fellowship? If not, then you're out of balance. Just sitting at home, maybe listening to a sermon, that's great for the doctrine, but how are you doing on fellowship, right? You need friends. You need people that you can sit across the table with and eat a meal with, spend time with, talk with, interact with. Friends are important. Look at Proverbs 17 verse 17. A friend loveth at all times and a brother is born for adversity. Flip over to chapter 18 of Proverbs. Chapter 18 verse 24, the Bible reads, a man that hath friends must show himself friendly, and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. So the Bible said a friend loveth at all times and a brother is born for adversity, meaning that when you go through hard times, you're gonna need to have friends to lean on. You're gonna need to have friends there to encourage you. Those people are there for you in times of adversity, right? Bad times. And sometimes your friend will even stick closer to you than your brother, even than your physical family. Sometimes your physical family might be far away or maybe they're just not there for you, for whatever reason. Maybe you're not close with them. The Bible says there's a friend that sticketh closer than a brother, and it says in verse 24 there, a man that hath friends must show himself friendly. What does that mean? We need to put forth some effort in our lives to make friends. We can't just sit and wait for the friendships to come to us, right? We got to show ourselves friendly, right? We've got to be a friend and do things for other people, reach out to other people, and extend to them the right hand of fellowship, because a man that hath friends must show himself friendly, all right? So we need to put forth effort in our lives to make friendships. And you say, well, I don't think it matters. What's the big deal? You know, what do we need friends for? What do we need fellowship for? Well, it's important. It's something that we need as human beings. It's good for our soul. It's good for our Christian walk. And one person alone is not going to stand. The Bible tells us that two people or three people will be able to stand where one will fail, okay? And this is part of the reason why church is so important. It's a place for fellowship. It's a place for friendships to be made. Go to Proverbs 27. It's a few pages to the right there. Proverbs chapter 27 verse 5. The Bible reads, open rebuke is better than secret love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. You know, one of the reasons why we need friends, and there are a lot of reasons why we need friends, is that friends will actually straighten us out when we're wrong. If you're not very close to people, if you don't know people very well, they're not gonna feel comfortable telling you when you're doing wrong. But someone that you're closer to, someone that's a close friend, they'll usually feel a little more comfortable to say to you, hey, what are you doing? You know, what do you do? You know, why are you getting out of church? Or why do you have this sin in your life? You know, they're able to confront you when you need to be confronted. The Bible says faithful are the wounds of a friend. You know how somebody sometimes might have something on their face or something, and nobody wants to tell them? Or they're, you know, or they're flies unzipped or whatever. You know, something's wrong and nobody wants to say anything, right? And who is it that's finally gonna say something to that person? Their friend. It's gonna take them aside and say, hey, you know, I think you might need to go in the bathroom and and get that off your face, or straighten up your hair, or whatever. Whatever's wrong with you, your friend will tell you what's wrong with you. You know, I know this, that if I hear a preacher and he preaches something that's wrong, you know, I'm not necessarily just gonna pick up the phone and call that preacher and tell him, hey, let me tell you about a mistake you made, or let me tell you where you're wrong. I wouldn't feel comfortable doing that, just calling up some other preacher and, and, you know, I don't really have the right to do that, or I don't really know him that well. But I'll tell you something, my close friends, if I heard them preach something that was off, I would pick up the phone and call them and say, hey, listen, I heard you preach this sermon. You've made a mistake. Let me, let me show you what the Bible says. I'd feel more comfortable doing that. That's why we need friends in our life. Now, here's what I've noticed through the years. People who don't go to church, they often get into really radical doctrine, or false doctrine, or weird doctrine, because they don't have that moderating influence of the fellowship in the local church. See, when you get around people from church, and you talk, and let's say you get a goofy idea about something in the Bible, your buddies at church are gonna tell you, no, that isn't true, that isn't right. Church tends to have a moderating influence on people, where when people get crazy ideas, or wacky doctrines, the people at church will kind of normalize them a little bit, and say, no, no, no, no, and they kind of balance them out, and they can actually talk them off the ledge of some weird doctrine. But people who are just on the Internet, here's the problem. You can find people on the Internet who believe anything, anything, like the most obscure, crazy, wild belief. It's out there, okay? So what you can do is you can surround yourself with people on the Internet who just believe every weird thing that you believe, okay? Whereas if you went to a, you're not gonna find a physical church full of people like that. You got to go to the Internet for that kind of crazy, you know, like, for example, even people who believe that the earth is flat, you know. Boy, they surround themselves with people who believe the same thing online. But if you actually tried to take that doctrine into a physical, local church, you'd be laughed out the door, right? And that's, you say, oh, that's terrible. No, that's a good thing. It's a good thing, because you know what? If people would get laughed at when they bring up something crazy, then it would have a moderating influence, because faithful are the wounds of a friend. You know, if you approach your close friend and say, hey, I think the earth is flat, and your close friend says, you're being stupid, you're being an idiot, you know, that's a faithful wound, amen? So what I'm saying is that people who get out of church, they tend to go off the rails doctrinally, because being around other people, talking things out with other people, really helps keep you straight and keeps you normal. And not just with your doctrine. I mean, we're talking about doctrine, just in every area of life. You know, it tends to keep you more normal when you have friends, and you fellowship, and you spend time with other people. Other people can balance you out. You go live by yourself in the woods for 20 years, who knows how weird you're gonna get, you know? And I don't want to offend anyone, but you know, I think Japan is one of the weirdest countries in the world. I'm not trying to offend anyone who's Japanese or from Japan or anything like that, but there's a lot of weird stuff that comes out of Japan, a lot of strange things. But part of the reason why is because Japan was isolated from the rest of the world for hundreds of years, and they didn't allow anybody in or out. They're very isolated, and they became very strange, okay? They became very imbalanced. And we don't want to become like a spiritual Japan, where we just do our own thing, and we don't talk to anybody else, and we just isolate ourselves from the outside world, and we only surround ourselves with people that are just like us, okay? You can get imbalanced. We need friends to balance us out and to tell us when we're wrong and to tell us when we've gone crazy or have a weird idea or something like that. One of the great things about the local church is that it's such a diverse crowd. We're not just surrounded by people who are just like us. You know, this is a small church. I think I counted about 65 people that are here this morning, and as I look around at a church full of 65 people, I see people that are white, people that are Hispanic, people that are black, people that are from India, and so we have a very diverse crowd ethnically here, and I guarantee you that socioeconomically there's a diversity here. I bet that the pay scale would range from people who make a lot of money to people who make little money, and we've got people that are city people, and we've got people that are from rural areas here, and what is it that has brought together this crowd this morning? I mean, what is it that brought people from different nationalities, different economic backgrounds, different city culture versus rural culture? It's the Word of God. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. It brings us together, and we come together, and we are stronger than the sum of our parts because we balance each other out, and iron sharpens iron, and we come away better for it, right, than if we were just around people that are identical to us. Go, if you would, to you're still in chapter 27. Jump down to verse 9. The Bible says, ointment and perfume rejoice the heart, so does the sweetness of a man's friend by hearty counsel. Counsel has to do with advice or them giving you guidance and in what you're gonna do with your life and so forth. Thine own friend, verse 10, and thy father's friend forsake not, neither go into thy brother's house in the day of thy calamity, for better is a neighbor than is near than a brother far off. Verse 17, iron sharpened with iron, so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friends. So again, why do we need friends? Well, first of all, friends encourage us. They bless us. The Bible says the sweetness of a man's friend. It's like ointment and perfume rejoice the heart, so does the sweetness of a man's friend by hearty counsel. That word hearty has to do with being from the heart, right? This is not just a superficial acquaintance that we barely know. Hearty counsel is when we sit down and talk to our friend that we know well and we really open up and tell them what's on our mind and they open up to us and tell us what's on their mind and they tell us how they really feel. Okay, that's a sweet thing. That's a blessing and not only does it rejoice our heart and put us in a good mood to have good fellowship with our friends, but it also sharpens us, right? It also keeps us right. It keeps us clean. The rebukes and the the faithful wounds from our friends help us to be a better person also, okay? Now go if you would to Acts chapter 27. Actually, go ahead and turn to 2nd Timothy 1. You don't have to turn to Acts 27. Go to 2nd Timothy 1. I'll read for you from Acts 27 because there's a common theme in the New Testament. When we talk about friends, the word that comes up a lot is refreshed. Being refreshed by our friends is something that comes up a lot. Like the Bible says in Acts 27 verse 3, And the next day we touched at Zidon, and Julius courteously entreated Paul and gave him liberty to go unto his friends to refresh himself. Okay, so what does it mean to refresh, okay? Well, think about what it means to be fresh, right? If something's fresh, that's good, right? It's gonna taste good. It's gonna be clean. It's gonna be something that you enjoy and then that re- prefix has to do with something that's being done again. Like think about when you're on your webpage browser and you refresh the browser. What does that mean? You're basically pushing a reset button, bringing it up to date, bringing up a clean view of what's going on there. So when we refresh ourselves with our friends, you know what? It kind of recharges a certain battery for our soul, doesn't it? You know, people that are put in solitary confinement, they literally go insane. Typically they lose their minds after a certain amount of time because we as human beings must be refreshed by our friends. We must have fellowship. You know, if you're a depressed person, let me ask you this, you know, how are you doing on fellowship? If you're sad and depressed and down, I wonder if you're coming to church and getting the fellowship that you need. Say, well, I come to church and nobody talks to me. Well, are you talking to them? You know, you got to reach out. You got to be friendly if you want to have friends and I can't even count how many times I've been depressed and down and melancholy. Then I went to church and started talking to some of my friends and next thing you know, I'm in a good mood. Why? Because it's refreshing. It's like you're thirsty and you finally get something to drink. It's refreshing, right? Well, going to church, getting around God's people is refreshing. Boy, sometimes being out in the world can wear you down just listening to the foolishness of the ungodly and it's so refreshing to get around people who actually believe the Bible, who actually love the Lord, who actually have the same values that you have. That's a refreshing thing and so we need that as Christians to be refreshed by God's people. Look at 2 Timothy 1 verse 15. This thou knowest that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me, of whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes. So these are the bad guys, you know, and there are always going to be plenty of bad guys who turn their back on you, stab you in the back, betray you, but the Bible says the Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus for he oft refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chain but when he was in Rome he sought me out very diligently and found me. The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day and in how many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus thou knowest very well. You know, this scripture right here is a good guideline on how to be a good friend right here because this is an example of a guy who was a great friend to Paul. His name was Onesiphorus, alright, and that's not really a famous name but Onesiphorus was a guy who was Paul's friend and he's an example friend that God gives us in the Bible to show us how to be a good friend. Okay, what do we see about Onesiphorus? It says he oft refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chain. You know, part of being a good friend is that we're not embarrassed of or ashamed of our friends because of the things that are wrong about them or bad things about them or whatever. Let's say your friend's ugly. Don't be ashamed of that, alright. Let's say your friend's dress is funny. You know, don't be ashamed of that, okay. Let's say your friend, you know, has a criminal record or something. You know, you're not ashamed of that. You know, he's saying, look, this guy was my friend. Because he was not ashamed of my chain, okay. What is his chain? His chain is that which is going bad in his life, right. I mean, Paul doesn't want to be in chains. He's in prison, right. So the true friend is the one who does what? Goes and visits him in prison. That's what it means to be a true friend, right. It's when your buddy goes to prison and you go visit him in prison. Not just like, oh well, he got arrested, man. I want nothing to do with him. Well, that's not a very good friend, is it? Or let's say someone gets sick and that's their chain. Somebody's very sick or they get a disease. A bad friend would say, oh well you're no fun to hang out with anymore because, you know, you used to be so much fun before you got sick but now you're just bedridden, you're weak, you don't have fun anymore. Boy, no, the friend is not ashamed of the chain, right. Whatever that chain is, okay. And they don't, they wouldn't be ashamed to acknowledge you as their friend, right. You know how it is when you're in high school and there's all these kind of little politics of who's friends with who and the cool group and the nerd herd and everything like that. Well, you know, there'll be sometimes that people will be your friend but then in front of other people they'll act like that they're not your friend, right. That's the opposite of what the Bible is teaching here, okay. It would be sort of like if someone were my friend and you say, well what's your chain, Pastor Anderson? Well, I've got some chains, okay. Because, you know, I obviously have a horrible reputation online, you know. If you Google me there are all kinds of people who hate me and say all kinds of horrible things about me. So can you imagine if someone were my friend but then maybe they got around some people that were atheists or they got around some people who were liberal or left-wing and then all of a sudden they acted like they weren't my friend. No, they shouldn't be ashamed of me if they're gonna be my friend, right. Then they would basically confess me openly and say, hey, this is my buddy Pastor Steven Anderson and they wouldn't be ashamed to say that. Otherwise, they're not a good friend, are they? You know and that's just I'm just using myself as an example because I'm me. But you know what you've got your chain. I've got my chain. Everybody's got their chain. Everybody has faults. Nobody's perfect, right. You got people that have sicknesses. You got people that have criminal records. You got people that maybe have faults. Maybe they smoke cigarettes or maybe they're overweight or maybe they, you know, have this problem or that problem or this sin or that sin, right. You know a true friend is not just gonna turn their back on you because there's something wrong with you or because you've made a mistake or you've messed up or you got fired from your job or whatever. You know a true friend is gonna stand with you through good and bad. Now that doesn't mean that they're gonna stand with you no matter what. You know obviously hey if you go out and become a horrible criminal and if you go out and become a heretic or a false prophet or you're you know you're calling yourself a brother and you're out living in fornication, you know at that point you want a friend that's gonna break fellowship with you because faithful are the wounds of a friend, amen. But I'm talking about little things. I'm talking about things that are not deal breakers. You know the friend is gonna stand with you and get through those things with you and help you and let's say you do go off the cliff and commit some horrible sin or do something that's really bad, well then you know what your true friend's gonna do is they're gonna try to call you to repentance at that point, right. And they might rebuke you sharply and they might even break fellowship because you've gone over the line of what the Bible teaches is over the line and basically they would try to restore you to fellowship and then when you're sorry and you repent you know they'll they'll be the first to welcome you back in and and help you get back in the fold and help you get things right in your life, okay. So being a friend has to do with not being ashamed of the chain, right. Not being afraid you're gonna be seen with somebody or something like that. No, no standing up for them publicly, standing up for them and being their friend. The Bible also says in verse 17, but when he was in Rome he sought me out very diligently and found me. So from that we can see that a good friend, they're not just friends with you when it's convenient, they're even friends with you when it's inconvenient. I mean they're willing to drive a long way to come see you because they're your friend, right. And the Bible says here that when he was in Rome he sought me out very diligently and found me, okay. So he didn't call up the Apostle Paul and say, well I'm here in Rome, here's where I'll be if you want to come see me. And Paul's like, well you know I'm in prison, right. I can't come. You know he went and actually sought out Paul and he probably had to figure out which jail he was in, he was having trouble finding him. Apparently it was difficult because he said he sought me out very diligently and found me. So he went to the first prison, he wasn't there. He went to another prison, he wasn't there. Rome was a huge city, right. He's going through all the jails until he finds him, right. That's a good friend that's gonna seek out diligently and find his friend. And then it says in verse 18, the Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day and in how many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus, thou knowest very well. So this guy, Onesiphorus, he refreshed Paul. He was not ashamed of his chain. He sought him out very diligently and he ministered unto him. And you know what, that's the kind of friend we need to be. That's what the local church is all about, is making friends and being that kind of a friend and getting to know people on a deeper level, having hearty counsel, right. And then once you've got your friend, you're there for them. And when they need something, you help them out. And you know, when they're lost, you go find them, right. And when they're in sin, you rebuke them. And you know, but you're not ashamed of the chain, right. You help them, you work with them, and that's what it's about to be a good friend and to have fellowship. Now go to Romans chapter 16. You can tell as you read the Bible that friendship was really important to Paul and that fellowship was a huge thing for the Apostle Paul because he is constantly talking about his friends in the various books of the New Testament that he wrote. And there are examples of this all over the New Testament, but the biggest example is in Romans 16. But we could look all over the New Testament where Paul talks about this friend and that friend. And it wasn't just Paul because John was the same way. John said in, you don't have to turn there, but in 3 John verse 14 he said, But I trust I shall shortly see thee, and we shall speak face to face. Peace be to thee. Our friends salute thee. Greet the friends by name. So he's saying, look, I want you to greet my friends by name. Okay, don't just get up and say to everybody, hey everybody, John says hi. He said, I want you to go to each person and by name say, hey brother so-and-so, John says hi. You know, hey brother Eli, John says hi. Hey brother Steve, John says hi. You know, and go to each person and say hi to them because he wanted them to know that he actually cares about them and he's thinking about them as individuals. Paul's friends were important to him. John's friends were important to him. Okay, so if we're gonna be godly men, we should have friends, we should fellowship, we should care about our friends and think about our friends and reach out to our friends. Look at this great chapter in Romans 16 of Paul greeting his friends. Look at verse 1, I commend unto you Phoebe our sister, which is a servant of the church which is at Cintria, that ye receive her and the Lord has become a saint, and that ye assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you, for she have been a suckerer of many and of myself also. Now why is Paul friends with this lady Phoebe? Why is she somebody that he cares about and wants to write a couple verses about and give a special letter of recommendation about? Why is she Paul's friend? Well look what it says, she had been a suckerer of many. Now that word suckerer, S-U-C-C-O-U-R-E-R, okay, this is not a suckerer like a con man who's out to sucker you, all right. No this is a suckerer, if you speak Spanish you know the word socorro, right, which means help. So a suckerer is someone who helps you. So this lady Phoebe, she helped a lot of people, right. He said she's been a suckerer of many and of myself also. So how do you become the Apostle Paul's friend? By helping him out. I mean she helped out the Apostle Paul, she helped out a lot of people, I guarantee you that Phoebe had a lot of friends. You know why Phoebe had a lot of friends? Because she showed herself friendly. She was good on fellowship. She didn't just come into church the second it starts and jet out of church the second it's over. You know what, she hung around, she fellowshiped, she got to know people, she went out to eat with people, she spent time with people, she had people over, she got to know them and when she saw a need in their life she helped them out. That's being a friend, that's fellowship, right. She was a suckerer of many and of myself also. Look at verse 3, greet Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus. How did Priscilla and Aquila become friends with Paul? Well by working with him in the ministry, right. He said they are my helpers and we know from the book of Acts that they participated with him in preaching and soul winning and in his different work for the Lord. And by the way that's one of the best ways to make friends is by showing up for soul winning. I mean if you go soul winning with somebody you just made a new friend because when you go soul winning together you end up talking a lot between the doors, right, especially if you're in an unreceptive area sometimes all it is is fellowship, right. If you go to an unreceptive area it's like an urban hiking expedition with a lot of fellowship and you know what that's what can sometimes get you through it because man if you're by yourself in an unreceptive area it can it can wear you down. But when you're in an unreceptive area with a buddy out soul winning when people say no you're just like all right see you later all right so let me get back to my story you know and you're just jumping right back into the fellowship right you just keep talking and get to know people. Boy that's how friendships are often formed is out soul winning. That's one of the best reasons to go two by two is it just builds fellowship it builds camaraderie or if you go on a missions trip you know I see brother Steve here from Louisiana you know I know him real well because we went on a missions trip together and we were out soul winning we were riding in the back of a truck together we're hiking through the jungle together we ate chicken feet together and and you know we had all these different experiences and and all these fun stories of staying out in the jungle with cousin Wayne and all that stuff so we have a shared experience together from work that we did together from a missions trip we took together so instantly when I walk in and see him it's like oh there's my buddy right because we've done stuff together right we've gone places together that's how you make friends shared experiences like that so you know if you come to church you come to the activities you do the soul winning you're gonna make friends right and then not just a superficial friendship of just hey how you doing how's it go you know you dig into a little bit about people's background and you learn about their lives you figure out what their needs are and then maybe you can step in sometimes and meet their need and then something goes wrong in their life and then you're not ashamed of their chain and you come in and you can help them out and and get them through it you know that's what friendships about that's what it means to have fellowship and Paul's a great example is it says in verse number four who have for my life laid down their own necks so we're Priscilla and Aquila pretty good friends yeah he said look they laid down their own necks for my life unto whom not only I give thanks but also all the churches of the Gentiles so look it wasn't just Paul that they were friends with man all the churches of the Gentiles they all owed a debt to Aquila and Priscilla they all loved Aquila and Priscilla because they gave of themselves the Bible says greater love hath no man than this then that a man laid down his life for his friends the Bible says in verse five likewise greet the church that is in their house salute my well beloved Epinatus who is the first fruits of Achaea unto Christ greet Mary who bestowed much labor on us salute so look again Mary showed herself friendly now she's getting mentioned in the book of Romans I mean I'd like to have my name in the book of Romans how would you like to be mentioned in the book of Romans well how did she get there how did she get there did she get there by being a great pastor she's a woman how did she get there by being the the world's greatest missionary no she got there by doing what just by being a friend just by ministering unto Paul helping him out being there for him being his friend and when he's writing a letter these are the people that are coming to mind these are his friends these are the people that he cares about and who care about him salute Andronikus and Junia my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners well that's a good way to make friends right you you get thrown in jail together amen who are of note among the apostles who also were in Christ before me greet amplius my beloved in the Lord salute urbane our helper in Christ and stack is my beloved salute a Peles approved in Christ salute them which are of Aristobulus household oh well you know all the early Christians they were all Jews really because these don't look like Jewish names right these are Greek people or at least Greek in name the Roman culture the Greek culture obviously are connected he says salute Herodian my kinsmen verse 11 greet them that be of the household of Narcissus which are in the Lord salute trithena and try fossa who labor in the Lord salute the beloved Persis which labored much in the Lord you say what in the why do I care about all these names well these people that Paul cared about why did God give us these verses why do we need to get all these shout outs of shout out to this guy shout out to that guy why do we need that in 2019 we don't know who these people are God put this in the Bible for a reason couldn't God have easily just left this out of the Bible just saved us a bunch of names that we have to pronounce he put this in the Bible because he's trying to show us that Paul had a lot of friends okay pot a lot of friends this is just to the Romans what about his friends everywhere else I mean these are just the friends that he has in Rome he's like Oh Houston okay well say hi to so-and-so say hi to so-and-so say hi to someone Oh Fort Worth say hi to so-and-so say hi to so and so say hi to so-and-so oh you're going to Phoenix well be sure you say to the height of this guy this guy this guy this guy this guy this guy this guy this guy this guy this guy this look correct me if I'm wrong Paul seemed to make personal relationships pretty important to him to have this many friends everywhere he goes and to take the time to greet them by name now thankfully he didn't do this in every pistol because there'd be too much reading I think God just gave us one example you know and then in 3rd John he spared us by just saying greet the friends by name you know you know who they are see you know attachment a or whatever and then we can leave that out of the Bible we don't need all those names but you know what God gave us a whole list of names here to drive in this point the Bible says in verse 13 salute Rufus chosen in the Lord and his mother and mine now that's a pretty cool statement there when it says salute Rufus chosen in the Lord and his mother and mine what's he saying basically this guy Rufus who's his friend Paul liked his mom so much he's basically saying it's his mom it's not his literal mom folks what he's saying is she is like a mom unto me like I consider her my mom you know she's just an older lady and see the Bible talks about this in if you flip over to Titus keep your finger there and flip over to Titus chapter 2 but if you go over to Titus chapter 2 it talks about this this wasn't in my notes but it just kind of popped into my head so I'm gonna take you over here to Titus chapter 2 and because it's not in my notes that's the wrong chapter let me think where's where's the chapter that I'm looking for Oh 1st Timothy 5 1st Timothy 5 there we go all right this is what happens when you go off the script right of course I never have much of a script anyway but there we go 1st Timothy chapter 5 verse 1 rebuke not an elder but entreat him as a father and the younger men as brethren the elder women as mothers the younger as sisters with all purity what's he saying look you treat elderly women in the church as a mother unto you right he's saying you know rebuke not an elder and treat him as a father and treat the younger men as brethren right so when we go to church and say hey brother so-and-so hey brother so-and-so that's not just a word we consider them our brethren you know we consider them brothers and sisters in Christ and then he says the younger women as sisters with all purity because he's saying you know you don't want to get too buddy with the young ladies you want to make sure there's purity obviously it's not really your sister okay so you know there are things that would be appropriate with your sister because obviously you know I for example I go out to dinner with my sister I hang on the phone to my sister I spend a lot of time with my sister I'm not just gonna do that with just random young women in the church right but still I should love them as a sister treat them as a sister have kindness with all purity obviously keeping keeping a healthy distance but the Bible saying look the older women in the church they're as mothers unto you right the the older men as fathers right the younger men as brothers the younger women as sisters so what the Bible is teaching here is a closeness with friends right and and I love how he says you know Rufus and his mother and mine he's saying you know Rufus his mom you know she made us such great meals when we were over there and and we would go over to her house and she would cook for us and spend time with us and take care of us that I felt like she was a mother unto me I believe is what he's saying here in verse number 13 look at Romans 16 verse 14 salute asynchronous flea gone hermus patrol bus Hermes and the brethren which are with them salute Philologus and Julia Nereus and his sister and Olympus and all the saints which are with them salute one another with an holy kiss the churches of Christ salute you look that was 16 verses of just shout outs just name after name after name after name after name this goes to show you that friendship and fellowship were important to the Apostle Paul he cared about people he thought of people on an individual basis he wasn't just thinking only of himself but he reached out to other people he was friendly toward other people fellowship is so important you know it can't be overstated and this is what the internet only crowd misses you know that when they don't actually physically go to church they miss the fellowship you can't download that you got to be there and the little live chat you don't even know who you're talking to on you know who people are pretending to be or whatever and you got all the weirdos and the trolls and everybody else you know when you actually physically show up the fellowship is better now there are some people who downplay the need for fellowship for example when you go on a missions trip these are the people who just want to go soul winning from Sun up to Sun down and they get mad at you when you want to take a lunch break they get mad at you and you want to take a dinner break they get mad at you when you tell them hey I'm sick of soul winning we've been soul winning all day I need a break I need to take it easy you know the holier-than-thou types that just we can't let these people go to hell we just gotta go go go it's like whoa buddy relax because you know what I've been serving God for decades and I'm gonna be serving God for decades I'm not trying to burn out all in one weekend this isn't the last day before the preacher of rapture or something we got to get as many people saved you know we're gonna be here for years take it easy okay but sometimes you'll see the holier-than-thou types they'll downplay the need for fellowship and you know when when we organize our soul winning ministry in Phoenix we try to prioritize fellowship in the sense that you know for example we're having a soul winning trip tomorrow to an Indian reservation and you know I set aside an hour and a half for lunch say well does it take an hour and a half to eat lunch no but you know what it's good to take an hour and a half sit down there's a pizza place there that's a pretty good pizza place sit down for an hour and a half right and have some fellowship and enjoy yourself and you know what that does is it makes me want to come back next time you know if it's just all work and no play then guess what people aren't gonna want to come back I've seen people come back from mission strips that were too austere and too hard-working and not enough downtime not enough time for fellowship not enough time for enjoyment and they come back and say well we got a lot of people say but I'm never doing that again that was too hard that was torture I'm never going on another mission strip I've heard people say that and you know what that's the last thing I want to hear what I like to hear from people when they come home from a mission strip is you know hey when's the next one when can we go back when can we do it again now obviously there's a balance because there are some people who just want to be all play you know what I mean they want to just take a vacation and call it a mission strip you know but we strike a balance at our church where on a big missions trip we'll try to spend about five hours a day max soul winning you know because if you got actually soul winning in a receptive area for five hours look I don't know about you but after five hours of soul winning I'm done if it's receptive now I've gone soul winning for eight or nine hours if it was un receptive because then you're not really preaching that much it's not really as tiring because you know like I said you're getting a lot of fellowship just from door to door at that point you know when you're just kind of hanging out and nobody's talking to you like when I went soul winning in Norway I went soul winning for like eight and a half hours one day and I don't even think we got through the entire gospel with a single person you know like the whole day I don't even think one person heard the entire plan of salvation you know we got a few verses out but it was eight and a half hours of just door knocking and you know that was not that grueling of a day because I had a good buddy with me and we were basically hanging out talking and having good fellowship and for eight and a half hours we knocked doors one time pastor Roger Jimenez and I went soul winning together for like an 11 hour day minus meals and stopping so we probably did about actual eight hours of actual door knocking but we only had like I think two or three salvations the whole day because it wasn't that receptive but look when you're going to places like Guyana when you're going to Botswana when you're going to the Apache Reservation man you're pretty much giving the gospel wall-to-wall I mean you're just giving the gospel given the gospel given a god's man after five hours of that I'm toast I'm done forget it but the holier-than-thous don't understand that Christianity is not measured in years it's measured in decades it's measured in decades okay and you can go out and put in a good day's work and do a lot of preaching and you can also have a good time and you can also build friendships and relationships and you know those hour and a half long meal breaks that's where you build important memories that's where you build friendships that hopefully will last you for a lifetime and so don't listen to the holier than now's the hyper spiritual the the you know what the Bible says be not righteous over much why shouldest thou be destroyed what does that mean be not righteous over much well it obviously isn't telling you to sin a little bit it's not saying hey sin a little you know don't be righteous over much that's not what the Bible is saying when the Bible saying be not righteous over much it's saying don't try to do too much good or too much righteousness to where you burn yourself out and run yourself into the ground okay obviously we're supposed to follow all God's commandments and sin is never okay but when it comes to how much do we pray how much do we read our Bible how much do we go soul winning the Bible doesn't really give us a concrete answer of read your Bible this much pray this much so win this much it doesn't tell us right so we have to decide okay how much am I gonna do well you know what I want to do I want to do the most that I possibly can amen but without burning out not just I'm just gonna redline it and drive it till the wheels fall because then you're on a crash and burn pace the Christian life's a marathon it's not a sprint and so you don't want to just on your mark get set go and you're just tear out it you know it's a 26 mile run and you're just running full board yeah I look at all these losers behind me I'm smoking everybody look at these losers that can't keep up but you know what the people that I've observed over the years who are constantly talking about the losers who can't keep up and oh that's all you read your Bible that's all you go soul winning you know blowing off their mouths like a holier-than-thou they're the ones who end up crashing and burning the over-the-top people the hyper spiritual the overzealous are the ones who end up crashing and burning friend why because they're just trying to put on a show and impress you hey look at me look how fast I'm going yeah except it's a 26 mile race and you're only a quarter mile in that's why you're running so fast okay so don't be righteous over much don't let the hyper spiritual and the holier-than-thous get you down and try to tell you that we don't need to take a lunch break or we don't need to take a dinner break you know that fellowship and sitting around and talking getting to know people that's a part of the Christian life that matters it's part of the Christian life that matters I mean think about we realize that in our own families don't we I mean how do our families work do we just do we just get up go to work and we just work work work and then we just come home and just work around the house and study and read it no we what do we do sometimes we sit out and play a board game with our family or go take a walk to the park or go swimming or go on a bike ride or some you know why because we're human and this feeds our soul this feeds our need for friendship and camaraderie and you know what if you don't find it at church you're gonna find it somewhere else I mean we're human folks we need friendship we need fellowship now let me just close on this thought what does the word fellowship actually mean because the title of the sermon is continuing in fellowship now I grew up in church how many of you grew up in church your whole life all right several people most people haven't but you know I grew up in church and when you grow up in church the word fellowship is a word you don't even think about what it means because it's just it's a word you use so much you're kind of like well it's obvious what that means because you got the fellowship Hall and you know the fellowship area and you know stick around for fellowship I mean these are the if you're in a Baptist Church you hear these words so many times but that's not really actually what the literal word fellowship means okay that's what it has come to mean and that that is how it's used in the Bible but if you actually break down like what is the word fellowship really mean well the word fellow means you have something in common that's what it actually means like if I said oh you're a fellow electrician what does that mean he's my fellow electrician or my fellow pastor right or my fellow brother in Christ fellows it means that you both have something in common hey we're both electricians we're both Christians we're both pastors right my fellow Americans what's he saying I'm an American you're an American that's what fellow means right so what is fellowship mean fellowship is the condition of having something in common that's what it means fellowship is the condition of having something in common okay so when we talk about having fellowship one with another we're saying that we have something in common and in this case it's I'm a Christian you're a Christian I love the Word of God you love the Word of God I believe in soul winning you believe in soul winning I go to pure words Baptist Church you go to pure words Baptist Church right that's the fellowship that's what you have in common so when we talk about sticking around for fellowship or continuing in fellowship or hey let's go to the fellowship hall what it means is having a time where we spend time with people that are like us and where we build friendships with people that are like us not because we're both white or we're both black or we're both rich or we're both poor or both electricians or we're both from Texas or not from Texas no what it actually is is because we have Christ in common that's the fellowship right and that's that's how we should be choosing our friends anyway you know our closest friends should be our brothers and sisters in Christ and so when we talk about having fellowship that's what we mean now a lot of people when they think of a church they just think of the pastor right you know it's just like they just think faith for Baptist Church pastor Steve Anderson or pure words Baptist Church pastor Jonathan Shelley sure foundation Baptist Church pastor Aaron Thompson very but but here's the thing is the church just a pastor now the church is the is the whole congregation right you know when pastor Romero stepped down some people say you know are you gonna change the name of the church it's like well no because one guy is not the church you know the church is still there okay the church is still steadfast Baptist Church now the pastor is obviously an important part of the church but he's just part of the church he's not the whole church now I remember when I first started faithful word Baptist Church I was the only person that everybody knew okay because I'm going out knocking people's doors and dragging people into church right trying to get the church off the ground from scratch in my living room and so you get to a point where there's 20 people coming to church but they're not friends with each other the only person they know is me okay so then after the service I'm like trying to spend time with each person you know because like I'm the only person they know otherwise they're just kind of sitting there so I got to kind of go to each person and spend time with each person and it was exhausting for me as a pastor to have to be everybody's only friend you know because I'm the one who knocked their door and talked to them and got to know them I've been to their house kind of eat with them or whatever but they don't know each other so I'm just exhausted just going around just just you know work in the room you know just basically trying to spend time with everybody and I remember just it was such a breakthrough in the in the history of our church and in the growth of our church when people started being friends with each other it was so great it was like yes because then I could literally sometimes I would literally just stand back and even to this day at faithful word usually on the morning services there are a lot of visitors and stuff that are coming up to me and talking to me but a lot of times on the evening services of faith for it man sometimes I just literally sit back nobody's even trying to talk to me nobody even wants to talk to me they're all just talking to each other and it feels so good to just sit back and just look around the auditorium and everybody's just talking to each other everybody's just talking to each other and I'm just like I'm out of here see ya you know I'm going home I'm going to bed and you know they can hey just turn out the lights when you guys leave and people will stick around for hours and you know that's an important step in the growth of a church because when everybody's only there for the pastor and they're only there to be friends with the pastor it's it's strenuous on the pastor number one you're gonna drain his social battery pretty fast okay but but number two is it's not it just doesn't make sense because you know you don't want to have all your eggs in that one basket you know I'm sure that some of you are not that jazzed about the fact that Pastor Jonathan Shelley went and took over steadfast Baptist Church in Fort Worth and I don't blame you you know why you wouldn't be jazzed about that because of the fact that you love Pastor Jonathan Shelley down here but what you got to realize though is that the fellowship is still good here because you didn't just come here all right my morning appointment with Jonathan Shelley is here you know here's my evening appointment with Pastor Shelley can't wait till Wednesday at 7 when I go to see my buddy Pastor Shelley you know here's the thing about that you're coming to church you're coming to the congregation you're coming to the group and look I'm here preaching this Sunday next Sunday I believe it's gonna be brother Bruce Mejia that's preaching you know a few Sundays after that it's gonna be pastor Roger Jimenez you know you still get your pastor Shelley time on Thursday night event and so the the point is it's not really important who the preacher is okay if the preacher gets up and opens the Bible and delivers the Word of God to you and you're edified and you can take something from it you can learn something from it you can grow from it amen but you know what you can also turn to your neighbor next to you and get the fellowship not just like oh pastor Shelley's not here it's like well but who is here look at all these people around yeah okay not everybody's gonna be best buddies with the pastor you know our church in Phoenix now has about 400 people in it you think I'm buddies with everybody look don't tell anybody back home but there are people in my church I don't even know their name all right I don't I'm like this person's been coming for months I need to figure out what their name is you know who these people are because it's just impossible I mean there's just and somebody like oh this here's just too big well really because in the Bible the church had thousands of people in it it had literally thousands of people in it you think that they were just best buddies with everybody in the church when there's thousands of people in it no they weren't well how does that work because people got to be friends with each other right people need to be friends with each other people don't what if people come to me for every little thing there's you know it's just I'm gonna be wearing too thin I'm spread too thin at that point so fellowship is an important part of coming to church and it's not just fellowship with the pastor although it could include fellowshipping with the pastor because pastors need fellowship to him in but it's fellowship with everybody so you don't just come to the church based on well who's preaching today oh well I'm not that jazzed about that guy you know oh well you know pastor Anderson's coming I'll be there you know pastor Bruce or brother Bruce me here I'll be there Oh brother so-and-so man stay home now look I can understand if you're driving from several hours away you might just come to hear a certain preacher I get that but I'm talking about people that are local don't lay out of church because it's not your favorite guy behind the pulpit because you know what you're not just coming to hear a sermon you can hear a sermon at home you're coming for the fellowship amen and look I remember when I was a kid in my carnal unspiritual days as a as a young child you know why I went to church because my parents made me of course but but you know why I looked forward but here's the thing my parents didn't have to make me because I wanted to go to church and you want to know why I wanted to go to church because I wanted to see my friends and you know what I didn't pick a church when I was a kid I didn't I didn't decide I liked the church I didn't like a church based on the pastor's preaching you know I was looking at that youth department you know I was looking at the kids and so you know and I'm not saying that you should pick a church based on that but I'm just telling you that as a kid that was important to me was to come to church to see my friends and that's not a bad reason to go to church go to church to see your friends amen go to church to make new friends and so I hope that you guys as you go through this transition time where you know your pastor is up in Fort Worth and he's only down here once a week and eventually you get a new pastor and you know what don't get so hung up on those things because it's not about a certain man it's not about I'm of Paul I'm of Cephas I'm of Apollos you know what it really comes down to is pure words Baptist Church and it's not one man it's never been one man right it's it's everybody it's the whole collective here so why don't you get to know the people that are here make some friends get together with people outside of church show up for some of the soul winning show up for the picnic and don't just sit off by yourself at the picnic you know approach people introduce yourself tell them your name make some friends amen now look you're not gonna be friends with everybody right they're gonna be certain people that you don't really click with and then other people that you click with great find the ones you click with find you find your friends and be a blessing to them let them be a blessing you continue in the doctrine yes but also continue in the fellowship amen let's bow your heads and have a word of prayer father we thank you so much for this church Lord and thank you for the fellowship that we have that we we believe the same things we love you we want to serve you and and in this crooked and perverse nation Lord this church shines as a light in the world and I pray that this church will be refreshing when people show up tonight or Thursday night or next Sunday Lord I pray that they would be refreshed by the preaching but I also pray that they would be refreshed by the fellowship and the friendships that are formed and in Jesus name we pray amen