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well resuming our uh study on worship from Acts chapter 2 uh this morning we're going to to look at that second of the four um things that the early church did again reiterating that there's no
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reason to think that that four those four are exhaustive that that's all they did and nothing more we know from uh you know from other from Paul's letters for
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example but also um extra biblical evidence from the first century that when the Believers gathered they did sing uh that that was something that
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that was I think a carryover from the synagogue um and uh and so we know that even though that's not in the list I hope to to touch upon that because obviously it has become a major part of
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the concept of worship in the modern Evangelical world uh the music the type of music the different types of music and all of that but we're going to be
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looking at that word fellowship and what I want to do in starting it's the word in the Greek is you're familiar with it I'm sure it's
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coia and it is a uh a fairly common uh Greek word both in the Bible and outside outside the Bible in Greek writings um but it's also um one of those Workhorse
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words that has a lot of different English translations and so as you're reading your bible really doesn't matter what version you're version you're reading you may very well be reading the
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word in the Greek but you're reading in English you may be reading it in the same paragraph two or three times and in the English you're reading two or three different words so it it's a little
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confusing when that happens it's almost would have been almost been better if we just stuck with the word and just you know transliterated it into English and and then we would know that Paul is for
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example and he uses it the most um that um that we're reading the same word I was just looking at my notes in terms of
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Paul um the word shows up as with many Greek words and Hebrew words both as a verb and a noun so the the verb is fellowshipping and the noun is
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fellowship those are the common uh translations but as a verb it occurs eight times in the New Testament five of them in Paul's letters and as a noun it occurs 19 times
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13 of them in Paul's letters so he's not the exclusive use actually John is the other especially in his Epistles he uses the word so between pet uh Paul and John
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you've got pretty much all the use of this word in the New Testament but as I pointed out it it's translated so many different ways what I wanted to do was actually look at the
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three major English words that are used to translate it and then if possible to I don't know if we'll have time to do this but actually look at the passages in which it's used I think that's
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probably the best way to understand the biblical meaning of the word rather than doing some type of a a vast word study to show the emology and the extra biblical usage of the word and simply to
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look at how the writers used it and the context in which they used it and I think we're going to see that it has two um basic meanings that that are that are
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very very similar but they have diametrically opposed diametrically opposed perspectives the word essentially means to share
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to share in or to share with okay that's kind of the fundamental meaning
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let's just say to share and yet the the perspective of the word with the one with whom you're sharing goes both directions there isn't
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a different a different word okay so if we look at
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the idea of two people coin anding it goes both ways okay so it it's having a share
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share in it's a reciprocal type word uh which means it's very dynamic it it's not a word that that goes Just One Direction so um we have a share in
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Christ God has given us a share in Christ and it's the same word so often times when you read it what it's talking about is is not
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unidirectional it is by definition bidirectional and reciprocal does that make sense so you're you're never just
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reading like a like a um an uninvolved third party party observance of something going on both parties are actively involved in the the
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transfer of whatever the the content is okay so I guess maybe fundamentally we can say that it's
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Dynamic it's reciprocal that's kind of the meaning of sharing although you know not really what what
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do we mean when we tell our children to share we mean let them have one right right we're not both we're not sharing that way you know if I if I share part
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of my piece of cake we're not both eating the same bite okay we're we're giving and receiving so that's that's not what we're talking about with coia
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somehow in coia there is a back and forth Motion in the sharing to where this is really the kind of the the the Crux of the
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participate fully we can't do that if we if we share that means somewhat of a zero sum game isn't it if I if I share my uh food
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with someone else that means I don't eat as much of it as I would have otherwise and they eat more than they would have otherwise but the biblical at least the
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the New Testament contextual meaning is that we share and both eat 100% of the
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H I guess that that's a that's a reasonable analogy pregnancy um Al although you know the child is yeah the child is not taking from the mother um in in the sense that as the as the uh
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child grows the mother decreases so yeah that's that's probably a very good analogy that um there there's that is kind of the fundamental sharing uh biblically speaking is that we share in
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the life of God and yet that when when God gives he is not diminished by the giving but what's
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really amazing is that when how do we put it when we give God is glorified God is
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exalted now God doesn't get any more glorious than he already is he he cannot become more exalted than he already is and yet the scripture talks of us about
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us ascribing glory exalting the lord and and um lifting his name um it the the odd thing is is that it it appears that
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he also he also gains by the transaction of coia okay so again that's kind of mindboggling Ling but I wanted to kind of under underg what we're talking about
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here because um frankly most modern evangelical church services are more about receiving than giving what do I get out of it or I
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don't really get much out I didn't get much out of that sermon you know that type of thing and sometimes that's a reality I'm not saying that that's a falsehood and in some cases it's it's true shouldn't be but it it is but our
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perspective I think maybe um we've been trained in our culture to to kind of approach things what's in it for me what what do I get
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out of it what blessing is coming my way through going to this church or that church um we don't really think about God actually being blessed by our assembly um and and I don't think we
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consider our part and responsibility in Fellowship we talked to weeks ago about the fact that that this this is this is mutual this this is by no means clerical you know that you
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have worship leaders and a preacher and and it's all being received by the Le that is completely unbiblical the whole the whole nature of assembly is dynamic
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and reciprocal in which both parties are sharing or all parties are sharing 100% okay so um you know we can summarize by saying you know the
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receives from God I mean that's that's that's pretty much a given but what is not fully understood is that God is blessed also in the transaction because we we know this more
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in the negative in scripture than we do in the positive that if worship is is not God honoring is not obedient then God is not
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pleased and he rejects that worship so even though he is immutable he is unchangeable his his ways are beyond our ways his thoughts above our
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thoughts he doesn't have emotion like we do he has he has no needs he is perfectly complacent within himself yet he has ordained that the
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transaction with his humans is reciprocal and it's truly reciprocal that he is truly blessed when we bless his name he is truly blessed
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when we assemble in the in spirit and truth and he is also put out when we don't we see that both in the prophetic
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um letters in the Old Testament but we also see it in the letters to the churches in Revelation right that they were assembling but it wasn't to bless
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uh certainly we uh we don't hold as as some have taught that God was lonely yeah I mean you're not saying that in fact you're saying the opposite um you know why did God create why why is there not nothing uh and I think the the most
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reasonable answer is he created to bless and to be blessed you know I think that's what you're saying he he created to be able to bless but also he created
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creatures that can bless in return He created to love and be loved okay and and that I think is is a really good way of of looking at the whole of scripture
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and the whole of nature is that God created to bless and be blessed and that's quinia and and I think that if you we've we've been studying Leviticus and the Tabernacle Dynamic of Israel in
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the wilderness and we'll be returning to that next month um but really the word that goes over all of that is Queen Ania um what does it take for a holy God
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to dwell among amidst a sinful people and conversely what does it take for a sinful people to dwell in the presence of the holy God that's the whole
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Tabernacle Story the priesthood and the the sancta the the the the Sanctified furniture and and whatnot in the Tabernacle and then all of the
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sacrifices and we're going to be getting in now to the dietary laws and the clean and the unclean and the pure and the impure and then the Holiness code you know you shall not uh Harvest into the
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corners of your field you shall not glean your grapes twice and all of those rules what's this all about well fundamentally it's about coia it's about God dwelling with men
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mankind God dwelling with his people and his people living in his presence that hasn't changed it's not something new now that Jesus Christ has come and and the Holy
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Spirit has been poured out if if anything the idea of the veil being torn is that the various stages of Separation first the
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priesthood then the ironic priesthood then the veils first before the holy place then before the holy of holies okay think of it in your mind you you
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all probably have a picture of that Tabernacle and and what it meant was you know there was only so far the average Israelite could go in his approach to Jehovah right right the levite could go
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a little bit further right the the within the Levites the sons of Aaron could go a little bit further but only the high priest could go in all the
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way and then only once a year so you think oh these well what Jesus Christ has done is all of those are gone so what does that do that intensifies the question how do a sinful
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people live in the presence of a holy God it doesn't remove it and certainly it it doesn't mean well we can just do what we want now because we have the Holy Spirit I mean why did he give us
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the Bible then if if we can just do what we want or do what we think works or we can say well we meant well right but keep in mind that you know sincerity is
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payment in another direction right not to the holy of holies uh but the road to hell is paid with good intentions so you know that's that's not the answer so as we study
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this I mean if you really got into a a deep dive into worship we we really need to spend the time contemplating and understanding the
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entire Tabernacle dynamic because that's where it's all laid out the question of a holy God dwelling with a sinful people and a sinful people living in the
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presence of a holy God reciprocal but also terrifying consider Leviticus 10 and the story of naab and abiu Aaron's sons there's nothing in the
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story that indicates that those two men were rash or arrogant or willful but they made a mistake right and it cost them their
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lives and God's response to Aaron was by those who come before me I will be holy okay think think of um whoa who had
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probably no other intention than to protect the Ark of the Covenant from falling to the ground right and he reached out to steady the cart which it should never have been first of all usza
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was not a levite shouldn't have been anywhere near that thing okay so so many mistakes were made OSHA would have just had a field day with that entire process writing up all these citations all right
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and he reaches out again perhaps with all good intention bam he's dead okay it's it's like a reminder well think of ananas and saf You' have not lied to men but to
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God right dead that doesn't H man if that happened all the time first of all it would be a lot of fewer people here including up front um but if that happened all the time we might have a better understanding of the Holiness of
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The God Who has saved us and whom we love and I think worship would be a little bit more serious there's a I and forgive me if if you're offended by Instagram I
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understand that but there is an Instagram real called The Holy nope and and this guy you know it's it's always the same setup he goes out he goes out of his house with his Bible and
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he sits down in a chair and then it's a clip from some modern contemporary either uh woke or just wild you know and he gets up and walks out it's the holy
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nope um and and you know I think if we could see and I'm not Sugg esting that this would be a good thing for us we can see it in scripture we can see that to
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approach a holy God is a is a fearful thing he is an all-consuming fire and we should never take his Holiness granted
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um and and we should never approach him uh lightly or flippantly now again I don't think that that means as as many have interpreted that we should come into the sanctuary with solemnness and
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quietness um he is also a loving father who Delights in the Delight of his children okay and I no more want my children to come into my house solemn
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you know and reverent you know then I think he wants his children to come into His presence so there are extremes you know there's the one extreme in which he's just some
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Cosmic uh granddaddy uh you know a fun machine and then there's the Other Extreme in which you know we we kind of cower and crawl um no I I think we come into His
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presence with boldness and yet understanding that he is a a holy God he is all consuming um hopefully in our Plum line study coming up that that word
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holy is something we're going to spend a lot of lot of time looking at so a little Forte so um with all that introduction there's no way I'm going to get through all of this but uh perhaps we will get through one
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of the words because again um it's really uh um you know there there's a lot of uses um okay I'm going to I'm going to put down the three common words
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translations uh the first is communion this is obviously going to vary on the basis of the the um English Bible that you have and the translators of of that particular Bible some of
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these are going to be interchanged um but these are still three the three big
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uh so those are going to be the the three we're going to look at does anybody have any comments or questions before we get into the the passages themselves all right the first one then
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communion and we really we're only looking at Paul um and only because uh that's where we find most of the usage if you do go beyond and look at the the the same words as they're used by John
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you will see that the context is pretty much the same okay and and we probably will at some point look at first John because that that is an important passage um okay 1 Corinthians 10 if you
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want to follow along I'm going to put these all up on the board that you can look at um later but 1 Corinthians 10 I I'm starting with that one um
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primarily because we we tend to think of the word communion as a synonym for the Lord's Supper we call it communion and we don't really use that
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word much after that it might have too much association with Communism and so we just don't use it uh I don't know but it's really not part of our vernacular
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we don't really talk about you know and uh in fact when someone when a Christian does does talk about you know getting together let's say the phrase sweet communion okay um they're either reading
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from a 19th century hym or they were born in the 17th century okay we just don't talk that way anymore um and and so it it means to us pretty much the
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Lord's Supper so First Corinthians I'm going to put this down as Pauline as Pauline usage 1 Corinthians s
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1016 um th this verse is actually worth a whole Sunday school study in and of itself but not in the context of the church's Fellowship but rather in the context of what does the Lord's Supper mean but Paul writes is not the cup of
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blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ now there they've gone The New American
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Standard has has gone to the most basic meaning of the word Coria and but they've also uh done a good thing and that is they have translated the same word the same way so if you're reading
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from a different version and and when it talks about the cup uh as a coinonia in the blood of Christ and the bread as a coin Andia in the body of Christ so that
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this is one of the most profound verses in the in the Bible if you don't if you do Mark in your Bible you ought to highlight this one and and maybe even ear market for some personal
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some personal study if if we had done that in the church is history we I think we would have a lot less error with regard to the way the Lord's Supper is is observed um
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but it's also very very profound um but this is you know and and I do like that The New American Standard uses the the word sharing but the new King James uses
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the word communion this is a communion um in the blood of Christ the communion in the body of Christ this is also really at the heart
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of the Gospel meaning of the word there are they're going to be a lot of other usages a lot of other coining with with other
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contexts none of which pertain without this one okay all all other Fellowship all other sharing or partaking all other
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communion rests on this one and that is the share or the partaking or participation we have in Jesus Christ okay so
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okay so um looking at this one first we see the
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sharing in Christ this is what makes all the others possible uh this
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is I think this is fundamental to the idea of Christian worship again if you if you were to follow the holy note yeah the one thing you would see or hear in in some of the
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ridiculous clips and I assume they're all real because a lot of crazy stuff goes on I don't I don't think you have to fake craziness in the entirely in the human race or in the church sadly but if
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you listen to it or even just you may have heard this in sermons and at other church hopefully not here um but in many places the whole idea of the Gospel is
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is sharing among ourselves and being tolerant and accepting loving one another it's it's a it's a whole list of platitudes that have absolutely no meaning apart from
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this one it has no Foundation okay or or we're sharing in the blessings of God well how has that come about there there's no sharing at all in
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a positive sense unless there's this sharing that that's where it all starts so no worship is biblical worship that
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doesn't have this as the starting point and not just the starting point but the entire atmosphere of all other quinia okay so this is the this is the true
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fundamental meaning of the Gospel coin um but it has a flip side 2 Corinthians
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6:14 now this passage actually uses the word um it uses a diff another word a synonym but we're not going to go into synonyms we're just going to use um this uses both coia and then a synonym of
27:54
Fellowship we're just going to look at the coia 2 Corinthians
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14 do not be bound together with unbelievers for what partnership have righteousness and righteousness and lawlessness or what Fellowship has light with Darkness now in this case
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partnership is a a slight slightly different word it is a synonym um but the word with light and darkness is the
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word coia so this is a contrast this is the flip side if we claim to have a share in Christ Paul is saying what share then do
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you have in wickedness unrighteousness bile he goes on later in another passage what Fellowship is there between light and darkness so this is
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this is not I mean this is still positive in the sense that that we are in the light we are children of light he calls us calls us but having a share in Christ means you
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no longer have a share in the devil being in Christ means you no longer have a share in Adam being in Christ means you no longer
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have a share in darkness and so his questions are purely rhetorical the answer is clearly none you know there's no blending of light and darkness and
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when people try to blend it that in itself is an act of
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Darkness yes yes he goes on in 1 Corinthians 10 to talk about the the food sacrifice to idols and meals that are dedicated to false gods demons and and he's basically saying what
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Fellowship have we I do not want you to be partakers with demons and I I think it's the same word but I didn't put that one down all right so here what he's
30:12
saying is um the I'm going to call it the flip
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and and that's a steady message both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament and this is going to be um kind of a fundamental concept as to why we're even studying the dietary laws and the clean and unclean principles what
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are known as the Priestly Torah or the Purity laws in Leviticus why are we doing that right I I can tell you ahead of time it's not that so that you observe them all right I'm not I'm not
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going to take away your ham sandwich that's that's not the purpose of our but the purpose is is that God is Holy and only a pure people can be in the
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presence of a holy God so by studying Leviticus we we get a better understanding of what that word even means okay it does not mean sinless Perfection I'll tell you that right now
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does not mean that okay so the the the ideas that many people have of I I've got to be this I've got to be better in order to no that's totally wrong because it contradicts Grace there's a
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completely different and yet the concept of uh no fellowship with darkness is clearly Old Testament they were have no fellowship with Pagan Nations around
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them were they they were not to inter marry they were not to follow in their idolatrous footsteps they were not to worship their gods and so um there is a flip side to the light of Salvation and
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that is to shun the darkness Paul makes that clear in his his letters that we're not even to speak of the things done by them in the dark okay and I've said this
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many times before if you're going to a building and it has no windows turn around and around and leave it's probably not a good thing going on in there if you notice you just drive around if you drive past a uh a
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Mason's Lodge you drive P you won't see any Windows they won't what what are they doing in there in the darkness that's even unhuman I think um
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all right so another one um as we finish up 2 Corinthians 13 verse 14 kind of ties the two
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verse 14 uh this is part of his benediction the grace of the Lord Jesus Jesus Christ and the love of God and The Fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with
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you all again I was using the new King James when I came up with um I will confess that's what I have Bible Gateway set it's my default uh I do use Bible Gateway you can start proceedings
33:15
against me um the coia it's just so much easier than strongs concordance you know that's so heavy you heavy you just the coia of the Holy Spirit
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spirit this is what makes it all possible um now we often I mean we always at the end of the service read a Biblical benediction or a doxology as a
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blessing to the congregation um I hope it never becomes like the churches that always every week do the Lord's prayer you know I I hope it
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doesn't become doesn't become rote that these are specific blessings um the Jewish synagogue will will use the 18
34:10
benedictions they they'll they'll speak these blessings um these are God's blessings this is God pronouncing a blessing upon his people and his people ought to
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listen and and give heed and ear to what what's being what's being said but then in your own studies you know you you might do this if you're if
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you're thinking of uh a subject of of devotion of just personal study you might try simply studying the benedictions they're theologically
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packed okay they're they're not just arbitrary statements so when he says the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
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um he's echoing what John says when he says Grace and Truth have come through Jesus Christ the law came through Moses John 1 but Grace and Truth have come in
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Jesus Christ uh the grace of God is poured out to us through Jesus Christ when he says the love of God um that's what started all for God
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so loved the world that He Sent His only begotten son that it's God's love not not God's Wrath that Jesus has has come to assuage and to turn aside but rather
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God's love sent Jesus and then he says The Fellowship of the Holy Spirit the coia of the Holy Spirit that's the glue that holds it all together there's no true worship that is
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not guided directed and gifted by the Holy Spirit okay so um you know this is where it all begins is our Quia our sharing in
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Christ without without that none of the other verses I'm going to look at Lord willing next week whether they're are fellowship or partaking or participation or sharing whatever the English word
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none of them pertain if you don't have this this is where it all begins but it's not without a flip side that it it you you're not uh I don't know who said
36:19
this it's been said many times that that God Saves us from our sin but not in our sin you know that that we are not uh um we're not to Simply go on living life as
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if nothing has happened that doesn't mean we're not going to sin that's not even a I don't even think that's expected of expected of us I think it's more expected of us that we trust in Jesus Christ and his
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blood certainly not in our ability to to go forth and sin no more because we're not going to succeed okay so uh and yet there is a a
36:56
responsibility now that we have been made children of light and that is to live and to walk in the light which means to shun the darkness and the idea I think the concept that Paul's trying
37:07
to bring out in that passage and then in uh in another is that if you think about it it's completely irrational to think that you can have
37:19
Fellowship both with God and the devil right that's ludicrous that we can have that can we we walk both in light and in
37:31
darkness no we can't so it's not really a deep theological concept it's more a reminder that just think about it guys you're you're children of light so shun the
37:42
darkness don't participate in it and then finally um the whole thing is made possible you know it's it's not some people have actually taught that in
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Christ we have a new law no the gospel's not a new law he even said that he had he did not come to abolish the law but rather to fulfill it he didn't he didn't come down from
38:05
siai with two new tablets okay he he fulfills the law and brings Grace but what really makes it work for
38:17
us to use this very vulgar practical terminology is the outpouring and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit but again in the modern western church
38:28
we have almost completely individualized that concept when it is actually rarely spoken of on in individual terms in the
38:39
New Testament okay Paul Mark just did an excellent series on the holy spirit in the Old Testament where we do see the Holy Spirit coming on individuals to either gift them for Works within the
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the temple or the Tabernacle I should say or prophetic Ministry okay but now he has been poured out into our hearts
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collectively so when we read about assembly and of worship we see that this is all is all orchestrated by the spirit who gives
39:13
gifts individually as he Wills so um the danger for us in in this concept
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we need to to avoid the pitfall of solely I should say individualizing the work of the Holy Spirit to think it has to do only with my sanctification and and not integrally
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and more importantly the life of the body of Christ Justin sense that we we are designed to
40:15
overflow that is the idea what we are we give because we have that's a good good
40:44
all yes I think I'm putting Romans five uh is is essentially what you're saying that the love of God has been poured out through our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom he has given okay so the idea that that we give out of the overflowing I
40:56
think is exactly 1 Corinthians 12: 13-14 that it it is the work of the Holy Spirit to gift the children of God to edify the body and then through that
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collectively to glorify God in Jesus Christ so the idea that poured out through our through our hearts by the Holy Spirit
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yes it again it's not it's not Zero Sum that goes takes us round back to the beginning and that is we're not diminished by so giving um and and it's been said and I think it's been wisely said um you know that if you feeling
41:43
burned out let it burn if if you're if you're feeling burned out in Ministry or in Fellowship that probably means that you
41:53
are attempting to do it on the strength of your own capacity which is very limited okay there's no limit to the Holy
42:04
Spirit and so the the ideal and this is again I'm I'm trying to to teach what the scripture says is an ideal that we approach and we desire to attain but the
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ideal is such that we give and are not diminished by the giving we share and are not lessened by the sharing in fact this is the this is the real strange
42:28
math is that we give and gain by it let's close in prayer father we do thank you that you have given us the Holy Spirit without
42:38
whom none of this would be possible none of this would be even worth discussing it would be so out of our reach and yet we know that we still have this law at
42:50
work in our members that keep us from doing that which we know to be right and true and good we pray that you would teach teach us and guide us and then also equip us and enable us to
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experience to give to live in true quinia we pray this for the building up of the body of Christ here in this building we pray it for the edification
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of your children for their growth in Grace and Faith we pray it For Your Glory that your name might be exalted among us we pray it in Jesus name amen
