"Fellowship In the Body of Christ" by Zac Poonen (8 July 2012)

I want to speak today on building fellowship fellowship in the body of Christ and the verse I have in mind to begin with his Ephesians 4 and verse 16 these are great new covenant words fellowship body of Christ they were not known in the Old Testament visions 4:16 reads like this from whom that is from Christ the head the whole body and the body refers to the body of believers were born-again who've been connected to Christ the head being fitted and held together this is a very important verse I would encourage you to read it when you go home but meditate on each word being fitted held together by what every joint supplies according to the proper working of each individual part causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love it's one of the most powerful words about building the body and building fellowship in the body of Christ it's very important for us to understand that God abolished the Old Covenant and he's established a new covenant through the blood of Christ on the day of Pentecost something fundamentally changed on the day of Pentecost a new creation began with the resurrection of Christ and that became real for a hundred and twenty people when the Holy Spirit was poured out upon them and so the Old Covenant was abolished it's very clearly mentioned in Hebrews eight in the Old Covenant Israel were given was given many titles like kings and priests and the people of God even the bride of Jehovah many of those titles are for us in the Christians today as well but there was one title Israel was never given they were never called a body the church believers who are united with Christ are called a body similar to this physical body the Old Testament Israel was a congregation and there's a lot of difference in a congregation and a body a congregation can be a group of people who have common interests and goals but their unit unity and union is external whereas a body like the parts of our human body the parts of our human body are connected to each other inwardly internally through the head and that's the difference in Israel and the church we're not supposed to be a congregation the congregation is a group of disconnected people but unfortunately many churches are congregations and not a body a congregation can sometimes be no better than people sitting in a movie theater see people who come to a movie theater compare a church a big church with a movie theater what did they come to the movie theater for they really don't come to meet each other they come because there's some entertainment up in the front that they are all interested in and they watch that they pay their fees for the tickets and they go home and if it's a good movie next week they come again again their interest is not in each other it's in what happens up in front and that's how it is in many a church they come because there's some interesting performance up in front music perhaps good preaching and if there's going to be good music and preaching next week as well they'll come again and if the preaching is boring and the music is not good they don't come it's like the movies bad this week so we don't go so a lot of churches are like this they're a congregation and in a movie theater you don't know who's sitting next to you and you don't really care you don't know anything about his problems he doesn't know anything about yours there's no connection and you need to ask yourself whether you're part of a church like that that's not meant to be like that in a body every part is interested in another there's a little hurt in my little finger and if it's infected and full of pus and painful it can knock out my whole body because the body is very much interested interconnected it's a wonderful thing that Jesus Christ has used this expression of body to represent his believers and I believe that we have come short of God's purpose for us as Christians and not only here but all over the world and God is restoring just like from the days of Martin Luther he began to restore truth about justification by faith and various things he's restoring around the world his great truth through the body of Jesus Christ and we need to understand that so here in Ephesians 4:16 we were seeing the whole body and where every part has a part to play that's very important for each of us to understand that everyone has a part to play in this building of this fellowship with one another I want to turn now to 1 Corinthians in Chapter 12 something happened on the day of Pentecost as I just told you 1 Corinthians 12 and verse 13 where it says by one spirit we're baptized or immersed into one body there was no baptism in the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament John the Baptist said concerning Jesus he will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit came together to make us into one body if you were to look at the hundred and twenty people waiting for the Holy Spirit in the day of Pentecost we could look them as look at them as 120 pieces of iron that were thrown into the furnace of the Holy Spirit and came out as one piece they were 120 pieces of iron when they were thrown into the furnace but when they came out they came out as one piece there were one body and this was God's plan for the church and I believe this is where we are missed out one spirit now when we look at this body of ours why is it that every part of this body functions together with the other parts think of a person playing an organ the ten fingers working together the feet playing the pedals the eyes looking at the score the years listening and every part of the body working together it's not because like we think if we spend a lot of time together we'll get to know each other better that's not the reason why these parts of the body work together my hands are not always holding each other and going around having fellowship like that no we I hardly ever we hardly ever spend our time together like that and yet our hands are wonderful fellowship have you hands ever fought with each other no as your right leg ever kicked your left leg in anger no why doesn't it happen you know why it's not because they're always hanging around together no it's because each of them is connected to the head and the connection is perfect and because that inward connection is perfect that's why they work together and when you can't work together with your wife or husband or a brother or sister the problem is not that you don't spend enough time together the problem is your inward connection where the head is not right you know it's like to use an example we need two things in our body for example if my left right hand is sick with infection and sores and a lot of diseases it will be a useless member in my body even though it's a part of my body or on the other hand it may be perfectly healthy in every way no sore nor sickness no infection but it could be paralyzed again it would be a useless member of my body there are two things that my hand means my arm needs to be an effective member in the body health and power and that's exactly what each of us need also two things to be an effective member of the body of Christ first spiritual health freedom from sickness freedom from infection in other words freedom from sin and that's very easy it's much easier to be free from sin to be cleansed of our sin than to even heal a wound in the hand because if I get an injury in my hand right now it may take a few days to heal but if I've committed a sin right now and I can ask the Lord Jesus to forgive me and cleanse me I'm cleansed immediately if we confess our sins he's faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness immediately that's the first requirement to be an effective member of the body of Christ spiritual health and that's very simple it's like if you get a thorn in your foot you don't wait to take it out you take it out immediately you don't even wait half a minute you take it out immediately if you get a speck of dust in your eye you don't wait you take it out immediately we must treat sin like that as soon as you're aware that you have sinned not just in those external sins like anger which made you lose your testimony and therefore you feel ashamed of yourself it's easy to feel sorry for ourselves and because we lost our testimony there but what about those inward sins where I've sinned in my thoughts or my attitudes towards people or the motives with which I did those things those are the areas where God sees whether we fear him a lot of our externally seeking to be free from sin maybe because we want a good testimony before men but when I seek to be inwardly free from sin and to confess the sins in my thoughts and my attitudes and motives that's where God sees that I fear him and that's where we need to cleanse ourselves if we want to be spiritually healthy and all it requires is acknowledging that was my fault that was selfish that was not admiring God's creation that was sexual lust why not be honest then God will forgive us but if I try to give some other reason for my sin I'll never be forgiven Jesus told the Pharisees you're always justifying yourselves Luke 16 15 that's why they couldn't be forgiven because they always had an excuse and if you have an excuse for your failure you'll never be forgiven you'll be a Pharisee so the first and most important thing is the spiritual health to be an effective member of the body of Christ in other words as soon as you're aware I mean there could be a lot of sins in our life we are not even aware of which we will become aware of as we grow spiritually but whatever we are aware of to confess it immediately to the Lord we don't have to go to what others unless we've heard them then we have to confess to them but it's so important the Apostle Paul once said in acts 24 and verse 16 a very important verse for spiritual health Acts of the Apostles chapter 24 and verse 16 I do my best in view of this I do my best to maintain always and the important word there is always a blameless conscience before God and before men this is one of the great secrets of the Apostle Paul's life now I want to say to all of you remember that verse and seek to live by it I've sought to live by it for many years and it's kept me healthy it's not such a great thing it's just like saying every time I get a thorn in my foot I pull it out or every time I get a speck of dust in my eye I clean it out that it doesn't make me a great saint it just makes me a sensible human being and if you want to be a sensible Christian keep your conscience blameless before God and before men always if you hurt God by something in your thoughts or attitudes confess it acknowledge it don't justify yourself if you hurt a human being confess to that person even if it's your husband or wife or anybody say I'm sorry thus we keep ourselves healthy and the second thing is power if I don't have power if my hand is paralyzed even if it's healthy there's no sickness the blood is flowing in it you can say it's a member of the body but it's a useless member if it's paralyzed its paralyzed means it's connection with the head is broken somewhere it doesn't have power so we need not only helped but power so we not only need the blood of Jesus to cleanse us to be an effective member of the body of Christ we need spiritual power inwardly by the Holy Spirit I want to say to you in Jesus name that the same God was eager to cleanse you from all your sin is just as eager to empower you with the Holy Spirit's power so that you can become an effective member of the body of Christ we read there in that verse every individual part has got some part to play in the body just like the human body there's no part in this body that doesn't have a function but could be a tiny little vein or an artery or it could be a little bit of skin every part has got some function to fulfill in the body of in our human body and likewise in the body of Christ and that's what gives all of us worth not none of you should feel that you have no part to play in the body of Christ you have a very very important function that's why we need to seek God for cleansing and seek God for power continuously my hand may be very powerful today I'm strong and it clearly paralyzed tomorrow you know that you see a person healthy and strong the next day you heard that he had a stroke and he's lying in bed what happened he got a stroke he got paralyzed and it can be like that with a Christian who's very healthy and strong today and something happens his connection with the head is gone and he comes paralyzed he can still be a member of the body my parents hand is a member of the body the blood is flowing it the blood of Christ may be cleansing you but it is a useless member when it's paralyzed and it's a burden on the rest of the body that's how many Christians are and we shouldn't be like that now one more thing I want to say from Ephesians 4:16 if you turn back there to Ephesians 4 and verse 16 there's another little thing mentioned in the middle of that verse these parts of the body are fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies you know in the human body there are many joints think of just this arm for example this joint of the shoulder and the elbow at the wrist each finger has got three joints sometimes we don't realize how important these joints are it's not enough just to have strong arms and hands supposing assume that my every part of my hand was healthy and strong and not paralyzed but the joints were not working I couldn't move my shoulder I can't bend my elbow I can't bend my the joints in my hand how would my arm be and if both arms are like that I'd be is going around like this can you imagine how useless I'd be even though I'm not paralyzed even though there's no sickness in my hand or body just the joints are not working the joint speak of fellowship when one brother cannot fellowship with another brother his joint is stiff he's he's a hindrance to the body of Christ so it's no use saying I'm a very strong brother and here's another brother in a church is a very strong brother can they work together is that joint functioning do they have arthritis you know how when you have arthritis it creaks and groans when every time you bend and a lot of fellowship between brothers like that a lot of fellowship between husband and wife is like there's creaking and groaning going on all the time when they try to work together there's something wrong with the joint what do you do if you have arthritis do you live you say oh I'm quite oaky it doesn't matter you take it seriously so much there's a lot of arthritis I tell you in the body of Christ and that's why it's not functioning properly and we are more concerned about physical arthritis in the spiritual arthritis joints that which every joint supplies every single the relationship that you have with every other person in the body of Christ closely connected with you is very important we're not worried about you know for example this hand does not worry too much about the joints in the other hand it can work functionally perfectly okay if it's functioning with its own joints in other words the question is not how well I have fellowship with the brothers and sisters in Argentina or China they're very easy to have fellowship with folks there the point is the ones who are close to you that that's the test whether there's whether you're working together with them not whether you send money to mission work in Africa or India you can think you're very spiritual because you do that can you work together with those who are close to you like that little ditty says to live in love with Saints above won't that indeed be glory but to live below with Saints we know that's a different story unfortunately unfortunately and that's where the body of Christ is limited and hindered because the joints are not functioning so which would you rather have two strong brothers full of Bible knowledge who can't work together it's like a powerful forearm powerful upper arm but the joint is stiff give me a weak brother and another weak brother well not great Bible scholars but whose joint is working properly a weak arm a weak arm where the joint is working properly is 10,000 times better than a stiff arm with powerful brothers and sisters what about a husband was full of Bible knowledge and a wife was full of Bible knowledge both coming to the same church but can't get along with each other at home useless give me a husband who doesn't have so much Bible knowledge and a wife who doesn't have so much Bible knowledge a weak one but who can work together this is the important thing in the body of Christ some of us glory in house Ellis we offer the Lord how what we are doing for the Lord here what we're doing for the Lord there I want to ask you brother sister can you work together with others can he work together with other fellow believers or does everything have to go your way are you the head of the body by the way are you the one who determines how everybody else must work some believers act like that there is only one head Christ and you know what happens to these unfortunate babies that are born with two heads they don't survive too long and any fellowship which has got more than cry one Christ as head it's not gonna last too long I'll tell you that we need to acknowledge Christ alone as our head and we must be humble enough the best among us must be humble enough to say I'm just a member and I need the others just like they need me we need to value one another this is so very very important so I want to turn now to John's Gospel chapter 13 this is a very important verse here John chapter 13 and the last supper just before Jesus went to the cross he spoke about something as a new commandment now he had already given them many Commandments in Matthew five six and seven in the Sermon on the Mount of full of Commandments but now he says a new commandment one new commandment I give to you and that is that you love one another as I have loved you that's speaking of the joints the joints of fellowship and love he said this is the one commandment I'm giving you I mean you can wait till you become strong that's okay you see even a baby can have all its joints functioning and a strong big man may not have his joints functioning I'd rather have that baby and in that small church small church that's what a baby represents with all its joints functioning running around I'd rather have that than a huge church where people can't get along with each other where they don't work together where they don't function together it's useless it's a congregation it's not a body the Lord is building a body John 13 verse 34 all I give you a new commandment that you love one another as I have loved you then in the next verse it says this is how all men will know you're my disciples how will people know that you're a disciple of Jesus Christ is it by the fact you go to church every Sunday or you speak in tongues or you read the Bible or your sing Christine songs none of these things the fact that you love one another that's what people have to see and for that it requires a local church fellowship you see the world's not going to see how I love the Christians in some other place I mean I can send money to people in other places but they don't see how I get along with them they can only see how I get along with people whom I am fellowshipping with regularly and that's how it was in the early church if you turn to the Acts of the Apostles in chapter 2 let me read you this verse in Acts chapter 2 the day of Pentecost they were filled with the Holy Spirit and many thousands were converted in acts 4 4 it says 5000 men alone were converted plus the women and children there must have been ten thousand believers can you imagine what type of a church that was in Jerusalem what a mega church that was ten thousand people much bigger than this one but how did they meet we read in acts 2:46 day by day Acts of the Apostles chapter 2 and verse 46 they continued in the temple they couldn't afford big auditoriums and halls they didn't have church buildings they were didn't have that much money to build a church building and the Jewish people wouldn't have permitted it so they gathered in the temple there was a huge courtyard in the temple they could come these thousands of people come together maybe Peter Peter will get up and preach and some of the Apostles would share the word and then what did they do after that it says they in houses in many houses they met as small fellowships there were two ministries there there was this temple ministry was like a preaching center and then there was the house-to-house meeting together where they built a body where they built relationships I mean when the 10,000 people met there they wouldn't know each other it's impossible but when they met house-to-house with the twenty thirty forty fifty people meeting together in a house they built fellowship they broke bread together and that breaking of bread was a symbol of their fellowship with each other they knew one another they cared for one another they carried each other's bird and they loved one another and the people around them could see these are the disciples of Jesus Christ this is how they did from the very beginning this is Acts chapter two this is the early church and they shared everything together with gladness and sincerity of heart so when Jesus said that you must love one another as I have loved you there's an example for us the Old Testament commandment was love your neighbor as yourself that was just a commandment Moses would get up and preach the commandment and they would listen and try and go and obey it but Jesus came in a different way he didn't just give a commandment he gave an example by his life that's the fundamental difference between New Covenant and our Old Covenant the Old Covenant was just exhortation the New Covenant was example and that's why an Old Covenant preacher like Moses could just give exhortations it didn't matter how he lived but a new covenant preacher cannot just give an exhortation his life must be an example his family life must be an example otherwise he's got he's not a new covenant preacher he's just an Old Covenant preacher so Jesus said love one another and I'm giving you an example as I have loved you so if I want to know how I have to love others in the body of Christ I have an example in Jesus and Jesus love for me was manifested primarily on the cross in the love of Christ for me there is a cross on which he died and this is the attitude I need to have towards every brother and sister in the body of Christ there must be a cross between me and that other person a cross on which I have to die Jesus didn't come and ask me to die he died then he tells me to take up the cross and so this is what it means to love one another as he loved us that in my relationship with others I die that's why I spoke about discipleship last week a disciple is one who loves Jesus more than all his relatives more than all his friends secondly one loves Jesus more than his own life and his own will and thirdly one who loved Jesus more than all his possessions you cannot build a body if people are not made disciples first that's why you need to make them disciples first then bring them together and then only can they be built into a body and so in this body the principle as I said is I died to my rights to my will to my feelings to my reputation that's the only way I can love you it's not just love your neighbor as yourself and in relation to Christ's love for me I want to say three things that that cross symbolizes for me and which should symbolize our relationship with one another first of all the cross of Jesus teaches me forgiveness that's the first thing I encountered that all of us got at the cross he forgave me my sins were many millions perhaps billions too many to count but in a moment he forgave them all the worst crime that was ever committed on this earth was the crucifixion of Jesus Christ some of you may think that people have harmed you a lot perhaps they have they harmed your family cheated you hurt you in many ways but do you believe that the greatest sin of all was the crucifixion of Jesus Christ there was no sin that's any human beings ever committed against you that's greater than killing Jesus Christ and when he hung on that cross the greatest crime committed against him he said Father forgive them that is the example he has set for you and me to forgive others whatever their crime you can never say but what he did was terrible was it worse than what they did to Christ did he wait for them to ask forgiveness no they never asked for forgiveness forgiveness still today he forgave them they don't know what they're doing they don't know the seriousness many people around us don't know the seriousness of sin Father forgive them forgiveness is the thing that hinders many many things in our life for example even physical healing the Bible speaks about elders praying for the sick and that's something I personally do whenever people in our church ask me to pray for the sick and the Bible says in James chapter 5 and verse 16 that when an elder is praying for a sick person there must be a confession of sin in fact this is the only place in the New Testament where it says confess your sins to one another some people misquote scripture and apply this to general so-called accountability groups and all that type of rubbish never found in the New Testament and confess your sins to everybody that's the teaching of psychology not the Bible in the Bible it says here here's a man who's sick and the sickness is due to sin see the context of it and that person needs to confess so that he can be healed the purposes so that he can be freed from his sickness so whenever I pray for a sick person I ask him have you forgiven everybody it's the number one thing I ask people because I know that many sicknesses remain with people because of an unforgiving spirit attitude toward someone else I know this happened to me forty-five years ago when I had to have a little minor surgery and when I came out from there a couple of days later I found a severe nerve pain down my right hand and nerve can't pain can be terrible and I didn't know what the cause was it cause of it was I ran in saw one of the top neurosurgeons in India and he told me did you have anaesthesia sometime ago I said yes I had to have general anesthesia a few days ago and he says ah when they lifted you off the bed your head must have fallen back they were not careful about it and something must have got twisted off there or snapped or something and that's why this nerve pain is there you got to just live with it for the rest of your life and I didn't have any victory over sin those days so I got mad at the doctor for for for the mistake he made it on my body which is going to make me suffer for the rest of my life and I he was a believer but I still wrote him a strong letter and you can do terrible things when you don't fear God and the very next day God spoke to me said he didn't do it deliberately and even if he did you got to forgive him forgive him his I forgave you and I said Lord I'm sorry for writing that letter and I wrote another letter and I to him thank for asking for forgiveness saying I'm really sorry for what I wrote yesterday I wrote it in anger I'm sorry and the Lord spoken to me please forgive me and you know what happened in a day or so my pain disappeared you know what surgery and painkillers and tablets could not do forgiveness did there's something some of you are missing because you haven't forgiven someone that's what I wanted to tell you forgive one another as God forgave you very very important sometimes it can be between husband and wife in 1 Peter chapter 3 in verse 7 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 7 it says you husband's in the same way live with your wives in an understanding way this applies to all Christian husbands and one part of that understanding is to recognize that she's a weaker vessel she's weaker not because she's unspiritual she's weaker because she's a woman and you must show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life in other words you can't sit on the throne alone it's a double throne you got a letter sit with you heir of the grace of life and if you don't do that God won't listen to your prayers do you understand now dear brothers why God's not listening to some of your prayers you pray and you say why didn't that promise work for me here's the answer here is the answer you did not give honor to your wife as a fellow heir you treated her as beneath you despised her it could be the other way around too maybe some of your sisters your prayers are not answered because you don't respect your husband as an equal you don't know how to bear with them you see how relationships broken relationships wrong attitudes means God doesn't listen to your prayer what happened to me I could have lived with that pain till today for forty five years but it went off in a day when I forgave learn to forgive release people don't catch them by their throat spiritually speaking or physically I want to show you verse now in mark chapter 11 you see this is a great promise for when you find obstacles in your way in our Christian life we can all many times find obstacles hindering us from moving on to the place where God wants us to be many times obstacles put by the devil circumstances and all types of things God he could it could be human beings whom the devil uses speaks in mark chapter 11 and verse 23 about a mountain that mountain is not a physical mountain but an obstacle in my ways using a symbol of something that's hindering me from going on to do what God wants me to do or God wants you to do it it's a mountain in your way the Lord says say to this mountain be taken up and cast into the sea get out of my way I'm gonna do the will of God I'm gonna accomplish God's purpose I tell you this there are many situations where we can find mountains in our way in my own life and I've been a believer for 53 years I found many many obstacles like this and I said Lord I'm determined to do your will I'm not gonna let this mountain hinder me from doing your will I'm gonna get it out of the way in Jesus name nothing is going to stand between me and accomplishing the will of God I'm not talking about if your aim in life is to make money or get honor I'm not talking about that if your aim in life is to do God's will in your life and you find a mountain in the way it's got to be removed that mountain is not a signal to retreat but a challenge to your faith that's the way you got to look at it but he went on to say verse 24 when you say to that mountain to get out you must pray in faith if you don't believe that it'll happen if you say oh this problem is too big for God that's what they said in the borders of Canaan oh these Giants are too big for God and the Lord said you really think these giants are too big for me okay they will be too big for you you'll never conquer the land 600,000 people missed the Promised Land because they looked at this mountain and said oh this is too big for God pray in faith there were two people Joshua and Caleb who said these Giants are not too big for God God can handle them without any problem ask in faith and you will receive that's a promise it will be granted but one more thing verse 25 the Lord says there's one more problem you have to forgive when you're praying and you got all the faith in the world to move the mountain and the mountain still does not move there could be another reason you haven't forgiven somebody somebody who cheated you somebody who harmed you you haven't released them you've got that little grudge in your heart even though you pray for our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come forgive us our trespasses our sins as we forgive others you don't really mean it because you haven't forgiven somebody you want God to forgive you but you haven't forgiven since your father will not forgive your transgressions so the lack of forgiveness is just the same like lack of faith many of us think we don't have faith enough even if you get faith is the mountain will still not move if you don't forgive this is so important why do you want that mountain to be in front of you why do you want to waste your life forgive that person release him and move on the second thing I want to say the cross of Christ first of all shows me forgiveness and how I must forgive others the second thing it shows me is the value of human beings sometimes we don't realize that human beings are valuable if you look at a person a human being and particularly a child of God and you despise him because he's not as smart as you or he's not as spiritual as you think you are or he's a different race or he's a different community or he's got some other weakness so he's not as gifted as you it's not so clever as you whatever it is and you mingle only with people at your own social level you haven't understood the cross on the cross Jesus taught us the value of human beings if you were to ask God how valuable is human being said look at Calvary there you'll see the value of every human being and that's the second thing when it to love another person as Christ loved me there's a cross between me and him a cross which teaches me first forgiveness and second second his value as a human being do you know that the closer we get to God the less we despise people let me show you this verse in the book of Job in the book of Job it says in chapter 36 and verse 5 job chapter 36 verse 5 God is mighty but he doesn't despise anybody so if you look at the devil here on my left side and God here on the right the devil despises everyone God despises nobody all of us are somewhere in between when you get as close to God as possible you will despise nobody the closer you get to the devil you'll despise more and more people and you can discover today where you are whether you're closer to the devil or closer to God God despises no one he values everyone he values people are weak he doesn't care whether a person is ugly or obese or these things don't make a difference to God because he looks at the heart he doesn't look down on people he doesn't appreciate people because they are slim and smart and clever no he looks at the heart he values people as they are and I want all of you to know this dear brothers and sisters if you have a superiority complex towards people you haven't understood the cross and the same thing applies to people who feel inferior oh I'm so useless I'm good for nothing dear brother sister look at Calvary how can you say you're not worth anything you're very very important to God and you have a function in the body of Christ don't ever say I'm just a nobody you may say well I'm just a little finger in the body of Christ or maybe I'm not even a little finger I'm just a little nail so small but you know when you feel scratching you badi no other part of the body can help you except your nails and sometimes you're going to ask somebody else can you please scratch my back I can't reach that place you know what that Ministry of scratching people's back is in the New Testament is called encouraging others encouraging others you know how many sentences it takes to encourage people 1 God loves you brother God's got a plan for your life imagine saying that to some young discouraged person can you imagine how it would perk him up and make his day and how much did it cost you to say that when you were speaking to somebody on a cell phone or to add that one sentence at the end of an email why don't we do it I'll just so full of ourselves we don't understand what it is to scratch somebody's back there's nobody here who can say I can't scratch anybody's back I can't encourage anybody even the weakest most ungifted person has got this ministry and then finally the cross symbolizes the unity of the members of the body when Jesus stretched out his hand he was inviting Jew and Gentile the two greatest opposites in the world and bringing them together Ephesians in chapter 2 we read these words in Ephesians in chapter 2 and verse 16 he reconciled them both that is the Jew and the Gentile in one body to God and in our case the thing that brings a distance between you and another person it may be race yes maybe culture it may be education it may be social levels whatever it is Christ unites them in the cross I praise God for what the work God has done in our churches in India where we have illiterate people and PhDs working together functioning together as members of the Christ's equal he doesn't make a difference Christ has come to bring us together and when he we are brought together like that we read in Matthew chapter 18 and verse 20 what happens Matthew 18 verse 20 we read where two or three are gathered together like this Christ is in the midst he's the one the glue that holds us together makes us one and when Christ is in our midst with these just two or three you don't need to 3,000 just two or three who functioning as a body now because they are united we read in verse 18 they have authority to bind satanic activities on earth which will be bound not in the third heaven where God is but in the second heaven the heavenly places where the devil and his hosts are from the heavenly places Satan produces confusion in your home or in your children or in a church two or three who are united can bind those activities and release those people and release that situation and set people free my wife and I have done that frequently in our home my fellow elder and I have done frequently in the church kneel down and in Jesus name set people free set our children free from the bondages of Satan it's by the authority we can exercise when we are united do you see how the devil understands this that's why it's constantly trying to break fellowship between you and your wife and you and your husband constantly trying to break fellowship between you and your fellow elders and other brothers and sisters in the body of Christ I want to invite you my brothers and sisters let's defeat Satan together as a body of Christ honor let's bow in prayer I want you to respond to that particular thing which God spoke to you today whatever it may be what is the one area or two areas where God spoke to you do you have to ask forgiveness from somebody do you have to release somebody do you have to forgive somebody forgiveness doesn't mean fellowship Jesus didn't fellowship with the Pharisees but he forgave them you don't have to go and meet the person but you must forgive them in pursuing peace with all men sometimes the best way to pursue peace is to avoid certain people who are quarrelsome but we must forgive there's no excuse for not forgiving and right where you're sitting right now you can exercise your will and say Lord Jesus I forgive that person and that person and that person right now don't worry about your feelings your feelings are followed later forgive them and Lord I don't want to despise anyone I'm sorry that I despise certain people till now I don't want to despise any human being because you died for all of them on the cross and Lord I want to pursue unity with those whom you brought together with me in my home and in my fellowship so that Satan can be defeated wherever you have kept me heavenly father help us to walk this way in Jesus name Amen

Channel: CFC India

Views: 10,067

Rating: 4.8024693 out of 5

Keywords: Fellowship, Body Of Christ, Poonen, Sermon

Id: ZKlQvsoPTNI

Length: 46min 53sec (2813 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 11 2012