Fellowship: The Means to Encouragement and Endurance

Text: We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: "The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me." For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. Romans 15:1-7

When two or three or more are gathered in fellowship, there is nothing like it! Fellowship gives us the ability to encourage each other in ways that will make more stable in our faith.

Fellowship gives us the ability to:

1.) ...Encourage each other to remain SOFT but SURE - Be moldable. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. Heb. 3:13-14 Don't loose the essence of who you are in Christ through whom you are moldable. The bible's use of clay is to mold and shape and still be clay. Clay is just clay, moldable until hardened. In today's time, it would be easier to use Jello as our modern day example. Jello is moldable until you cool it, then it hardens, but the great thing about something thats hardened. It can be made moldable again.

2.) ...Encourage each other to remain STEADY - Faithful! Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. Heb. 10:19-25 Let us.....Let us hold unswervingly to the One who has called us. How do we weather the storm? Let's use the example of the Sequoia trees. They survive not by themselves, but by growing their roots together with the entire forest to give substance to all, together. They stay strong due to the group of roots. Grounded!

3.) ...Encourage each other to become/remain STRONGER - What then shall we say, brothers? When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church. 1 Cor. 14:26 Strengthening of the church. Fellowship is not just to gain "buddies", or just to chill out. It is to strengthen one another and in turn the church, to steady each other. What power can be derived when God's people come together in His name to find weakness and provide Light with strength.

Never become satisfied. Don't become hardened. You can become soft if reheated. Encourage each other, be Jello in the hands of God.

Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken. Ecclesiastes 4:12