C/communion In and With the Spirit

Automated transcript of the sermon audio, generated with OpenAI Whisper (small.en). It has not been checked against the recording and may contain errors, especially in names and Scripture references.

So welcome to our fifth seminar. I can’t say our fifth fellowship seminar. This is our first of these. We had two on raising children, and then we did two on marriage, and then this is our fifth in this format. It seems to have been fairly well received, and I know that I have benefited from all of them personally. Then when we gather, the sessions and the hours actually fly by without the slightest hint of fatigue or exhaustion. It’s really been a supernatural thing the last several years that this has been so refreshing of a time that the hours have just zipped by. Perhaps it’s the combination of the coffee, and the fellowship, and the food, and then the substance of the talks, who knows.

But hopefully we’re in for another great afternoon today. So I’m going to pray for us, and then we’ll get started with session one right away. Let’s pray. Father, we are grateful for a beautiful afternoon that you’ve given, a opportunity to gather in your name. And as we undertake a whole afternoon devoted to the theme of fellowship, we pray that we would recognize that it is worth the difficulty and the challenges that relationship and a fallen world involve. We pray that as we do so, we would be instructed from your word. We pray that the words, I even pray this session, that the words that I would have to share would be helpful and they would be accurate, and that they would fall on hearts that are eager and ready to hear them, although nothing particularly new or novel will be involved in them.

We are grateful for your word and its instruction in all of these things, and we’re grateful for the work of Christ, and we pray these things now in his name, amen. Well, this is section one and it is entitled, Communion in and with the Spirit. So what I call capital C communion and lowercase C communion. Communion in and with the Spirit, you can’t have one without the other. The older I get, the more and more convinced I become of the importance of the horizontal relationship when it comes to communion time. When it comes to communion on Sunday mornings, The relationship with those in the pew is very important.

Many may argue that, of course, communion is strictly between the believer and God. Sure, that’s fine, but would anyone really try to argue that communion in your own bedroom with chips and Pepsi has quite the potency of communion on a Sunday morning with the bread and wine, and your brothers and sisters in Christ? Well, no, of course not. That is not by accident, that’s by design. You don’t have to believe in transubstantiation or even consubstantiation, like the changing of the elements from bread and wine to the physical body and blood of Christ, for instance, to believe that there’s something supernatural involved in communion.

And anybody who has attended TEC, for instance, for any period of time or enjoyed communion with us, I think would agree with that, that there is something special that does happen on Sunday mornings and communion time. What I am, though, this morning in this session is to help us to better believe something that we already know, namely, if we would optimize our fellowship with God’s Spirit, we must actively value, protect, and cultivate our fellowship in the Spirit with one another. So I’m going to be hammering home this point from a variety of angles, hitting the drum from 1 o’clock, 3 o’clock, 6 o’clock, and just going around the drum and hitting it.

Really, there are parts of this talk this afternoon that may appear simplistic. They’re going to be so basic and so simple, and yet it’s often the case that we don’t need to be instructed about something new as much as we need to be reminded of what we already know. I don’t plan. I don’t aim to say anything that is particularly novel today. I hope rather to instruct us once again about what we already know. So if this is true, if we would optimize our fellowship with God’s spirit, we must actively value, protect and cultivate our fellowship in the spirit with one another. If that’s true, then conversely, consider recognize the absolute insanity of bickering with those in your pew and expecting that everything’s going to come out awesome in communion.

That is a serious mistake and has great consequences. And as a matter of full disclosure, I am speaking this morning, this afternoon, first as a dad. I think about this connection between what I call capital C communion and lowercase c communion. A lot, but evidently the concept is not intuitive. That is, it has to be taught. The relationships of my own children are where I am confronted with this most often. They don’t always see the importance of being in fellowship when taking communion. They have to be taught. Their communion, both capital C and lowercase c, is robbed of its power when they are out of fellowship.

And sadly, I don’t think that they’re alone. Some of course would argue that children have no place taking communion in the first place. I would disagree and save the longer treatment for another time, but I would say this. First, their problem is not age-related. If it is, then it’s something that will all outgrow. But since their dad has the same problem, and since many in this room do as well, I think it’s safe to say that this is a problem that is unique to humanity. And again, the problem being that we can tend to engage in strained fellowship. We can even harbor strain in our fellowship and then have no red forehead, no blushing at all when we go to take communion with God’s people and communing with the Spirit.

So first of all, it’s not an age problem. Second, if we believe that communion is effectual, That is, if it actually has the outcome that God intends for it to have, then do we really want to deprive them of it? Depriving them of the expression of the fruit of harmonious fellowship. No, I certainly don’t. But I do want them to do it the right way. So as we examine this theme today, and let’s consider what statement it is we’re making in the first place, and I want to engage in this discussion considering first, communion with the Spirit, and then second, communion in the Spirit, that’s with God’s people, and then third, perhaps some hot tips on how to stand fellowship. So, hot tip or no.

We’re going to begin by looking at communion with the Spirit. So, keeping in mind our thesis here, what I mentioned a moment ago, and our title, read with me, it’s a little bit of a marathon, 1 Corinthians 11 verses 17 through 34. If you cannot read that, it’s okay. I’m going to read it nice and loud, but in the event you didn’t bring your Bible, I wanted to actually have it available for us. And I’ll stop a couple of times, make a couple of comments, but Paul says to his readers in 1st Corinthians chapter 11 verses 17 and following these words, But in the following instructions, I do not commend you because when you come together, it’s not for the better but for the worse. For in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you.

And I believe it in part, for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. When you come together, it’s not the Lord’s supper that you eat.” So he is saying, in effect, whatever it is called, it’s certainly not the Lord’s supper that you all are engaging in, and it is to your harm. For in eating, verse 21, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. What? Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not.

For I receive from the Lord what I also deliver to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when He was betrayed took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way also, he took the cup after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. Whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord.

Let a person examine himself then, And so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill and some have died. But if we judge ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. Verse 33, so then my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home so that when you come together, It will not be for judgment. About the other things, I will give directions when I come.

Now, we’re not going to do a full exposition of these 18 verses here, but a few observations bear pointing out. Namely, apparently, the Lord’s Supper is a big deal. It is not something that has to be engaged in lightly. It is not to be done flippantly or glibly or without thinking. And of course, that is one of the dangers of taking it on a weekly basis is that we could become monotonous, we could become just repetitive when taking the Lord’s table.

But it’s also an excellent practice for say our own orientation and if we’re actually communing with the Spirit, how often is too often to do that, that’s a really good thing. But then second, there’s a difference, a significant difference between the Lord’s table and mealtime. There’s evidently a difference between taking communion and filling your belly. One is an act of unifying worship. The other is at best mealtime. And at worst is something gluttonous and selfish. In examining how it is that communion is an act of worship, consider what Christ said in verse 26, when Paul’s quoting Jesus. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he calms.”

That’s verse 26. What does this mean? What is tied up in the death of our Lord that would make it worth proclamation? Well, in effect, when we proclaim the Lord’s death, we’re proclaiming quite a bit. There’s a lot that’s worth proclaiming really. When we proclaim his death, and I think about this when I’m taking the bread and drinking the wine on Sunday morning. We are making a statement to the cosmos that Christ has died, but that he has also been raised again and he has in his passion, conquered sin and death. That is a statement that we make when we take communion on Sunday mornings. Without his death, of course, there could have been no resurrection and without that resurrection, There’s no signification of the completion of his payment for sins.

Christ’s suffering and death at the time of Passover also was not by coincidence. His blood covers us and assuages the wrath of God. There’s a lot that we proclaim in our taking communion. When we proclaim the sacrificial, initiating, substitutionary, and victorious death of Christ, yes, victorious death, that is an orienting act of worship. And how can your heart, I think this is important for our consideration this morning, how can your heart rightly be affected the way it ought to be if you’re harboring bitterness toward your neighbor while trying to take communion? Any sanctifying work there is retarded. It is thwarted.

It is interrupted. If you’re harboring bitterness against your pumate or begrudging him his bigger piece of bread or that he has seven drops instead of six in his wine cup, well, then your communion won’t be as potent. It makes no sense. And our communion is less powerful as a result. Beyond this, by its very nature, communion with God’s Spirit is, as you guessed, spiritual. So God does better than simply expecting us to try to cultivate some spiritual feeling. It’s not, you know, what the Easterners may do and cross our legs and cry, ohm, and try and feel something in particular. But rather, we actually have, and I think this is a tremendous mercy from God, we have tangible physical means of enjoying fellowship with the Spirit, namely, enjoying fellowship in the Spirit with those in whom He dwells.”

So this part of the case I’m trying to make this afternoon. If you want to enjoy communion with God, you can do that by your right communion with those in whom He dwells. Christian’s fellowship in the Spirit is a means of enjoying fellowship with the Spirit. So then let’s look at our second piece, communion in the Spirit. There’s a passage there I’m going to read for us in just a moment to defend this argument. We of course could look at the whole of the New Testament or all of the one and others, but time won’t allow us to do that. I don’t really think we need to look much farther than Ephesians chapter 4. We’ll find plenty of support even in just the first seven verses, and I think it’s fair to say that Ephesians 4 verses 1 through 7 is representative of this theme in the New Testament.

So let’s read it together. I therefore, a prisoner of the Lord, says Paul, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit. Just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is overall and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. In terms of the greater context, it’s an awkward place to stop, but for our purposes it serves just fine.

Paul’s call to unity, and when we get to some of the hot tips later on, you’ll see that there’s tremendous overlap between the things that I would suggest and Paul’s suggestions because I got some of them from him. Even if there aren’t scripture verses that tied to all of them, the point is the same. With humility and gentleness and patience, bearing with one another in love, maintain unity. Paul’s call for them to be unified then is rooted in the very nature of God. So Sean referenced John 17 this morning, and Christ in his high priestly prayer asking that the Father would cause Christ’s followers to be one as He and the Father are one.

Paul says elsewhere, ask him rhetorically, is Christ divided? Of course He is not. So there is one spirit that indwells us all, and there is one God who is at perfect unity with Himself. His call to unity is rooted in theology. proper. This is something that is unique to Christianity. We are to be unified with one another in Christ and in the Spirit because the Trinity is unified with Himself. One body, says Paul. No, I’ve already got past it. The church comprising Christian, Jews, and Gentiles alike is the body of Christ. You can see Ephesians 2, that he has made the two into one, and Christ himself, the cornerstone.

He is the cornerstone of this structure, and it’s holding up Jewish and Gentile walls alike. The Spirit is the holy mortar that is holding up these Jewish and Gentile walls. When walls fight for preeminence, the building is ugly. Some of us have seen architecture like that, where it looks like the walls are in combat with one one another striving for preeminence. One spirit consistent with our theme, one spirit, one spirit indwells all believers. So whether we admit it or not, we have at least that much in common. So Christians that you don’t even know are united to you by the spirit because there’s one spirit who indwells us all.

And once again, the Spirit is not divided against Himself. One Lord, says Paul. Christ is the one Lord whom we all confess. He’s the one Lord whom we all love commonly. We submit to Him. And as children of a common father or subjects of a common king have some inherent commonality in terms of their own loyalties, so do we, and more so, because ours is supernatural. One faith in verse five.

The Christian faith is common among us. We have one faith that we profess that is common to us as well. One common confession. One baptism. The public identifier of Christians is baptism, and believers are baptized in the same name, that is the name of God. One God and Father of all, and again, more of the same that he’s already stated. It’s all the same. So what do we see from this? We have learned Christ, Ephesians 4.20. But when Paul’s rebuking his readers, he’s telling them that they have learned Christ in a different way from how the Gentiles are conducting themselves. And when we learn Christ, we learn a holy curriculum of sacrifice and grace and love.

The Christian who has learned Christ and who acts it out is one then who lives for others. And what did Christ say to his disciples in John 8.34? He said that his followers would be identifiable by their love for one another. By this, verse 35, sorry, by this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. And this is because the Spirit commonly indwells all men. So when we have fellowship in the Spirit, we evidence our belonging to Jesus for the world. There is one Spirit and he is not at odds with himself. Paul does not call his readers to manufacture the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, but rather to maintain it or to keep it, to preserve it.

It’s a unity that already exists in the Spirit who is not Himself divided. Our job is to maintain it to the degree that we can as best we can. Our practice then of communion on Sunday mornings is not just an act of worship. It is an act of cultivation of fellowship with one another and an expression of it. Just as the sexual union of a godly couple is both an expression of a right relationship and the cultivation of a right relationship, likewise, communion and corporate worship both expresses and cultivates a right relationship with the spirit and with those in whom he dwells. It’s eating a meal together that is an age-old practice of forging relationships that’s as old as human relationships are.

And as Christians grow in our love for Christ, our love for people should grow with it. One Spirit indwells all Christians. It is a betrayal then of who we are in Christ when we take capital C communion without lowercase see communion with those in our pew. So how completely senseless is it for us to want to have fellowship with God and not have fellowship with his people? I think this is important, and some of you might just think I’m meddling at this point. Hey, there’s something to be said for personalities to be sure. Yes, but there’s not really room in the Christian walk for withdrawal and isolation. for hermit living.

I think the monks were way off on this, way off for all the good that they did. Their withdrawal from fellowship. They surrounded themselves only with Christians and had nobody to whom to evidence their belonging to Christ. By this will all men know that you’re my disciples that you have love for one another. Oh, wait, they’ll never see you because you’ll be hanging out by yourselves. There’s a healthy desire when we want to, when we gravitate toward God’s people. But the idea is that we also have somebody to show that off too. That is how we act in the world. The spirit is himself, the supernatural mortar and the rebar that holds together Christ’s body.

That too is unique to Christians. So how do we do it then? As we’ve talked about what these things are, so how do we go about it? Well, brace yourselves for completely nothing new. But I’m going to call them hot tips nonetheless. I’ve got 10 hot tips for staying in fellowship. I’m going to get your pens ready because there’s some real pearls of wisdom coming. So here we go. Having established that our communion with the spirit is tied to our communion in the spirit, namely with other believers, We turn to what this looks like on the ground, week in and week out, day in and day out, in our homes, in our workplaces, in our pews.

As I said, none of these tips is particularly new or novel, and the list is far from exhaustive, and there is plenty of overlap. I’ve bookended them with the most important, so at the start and at the end. But first, consider with me, hot tip number one, repent and ask for forgiveness. Repentance of sin makes fellowship possible. Stated differently, without repentance, right fellowship is impossible. Sin is relational poison, and harboring sin is relational suicide. When we are in sin, we don’t embrace fellowship, we flee from it. We withdraw from fellowship. How many times have you seen it? Somebody that a young person whose life you’re involved in begins to harbor some sin.

That’s pretty besetting. He doesn’t have an interest in being around people at that point. Rather, one of the quickest ways to tell that a young man or a young woman is in sin is by an evident withdrawal. That’s also something that we do not just grow out of. We can see that sin is relational poison. We need to be quick to repent and ask for forgiveness. And then related to that second, we need to be quick to forgive. Forgive. This is related to the first tip, and we must be in a constant state of readiness to forgive our brothers when they sin against us. The parable of the servants in Matthew 18 is clear on this, and that those who have been forgiven much should be aware of what they’ve been forgiven and eager to forgive others.

That should be a natural byproduct of a state of forgiveness, is a readiness to forgive others. Now I’m not suggesting that we forgive with or without repentance on the part of the other person, which is why I worded it the way I did. We need to be in a state of readiness to forgive. for our part to make that exchange so that relationship can be restored. Hot tip number three, pray for your brother. Interceding for your brothers is an act of love that is usually carried out in privacy when nobody’s around to hear you or see you and be impressed. This is particularly effective when the person for whom you’re praying is unlovable. If you struggle to love your brother, praying for him can have a remarkably orienting effect. It can orient your heart toward him in a more favorable way. Fourth, I would suggest don’t fight with your brother. Like this is good stuff, yeah? I mean pretty deep.

Interceding for your brothers is an act of love. Also a commitment to just not fight with him, can be loving. Now of course there are qualifiers here. A refusal to break fellowship with your brother reflects a commitment to fellowship. A refusal to break fellowship reflects a commitment to fellowship. Now there are times when we absolutely ought to spar and sharpen one another. Yeah. There are times when you may need a kick in the pants from your brother or you may need to administer one to him. Yeah, maybe you’re being a bonehead and that’s completely necessary. That’s not fighting. That’s not what I’m talking about.

I’m talking about the fighting that is born out of grasping for preeminence, petty selfishness, all of those things that we pretty much know about. A lack of patience which is going to come later on. Here’s the reality. Most hills are not worth dying on. But a prideful or a petty person is so small-minded that everything looks huge. He can’t discern the difference between a mountain and a molehill and everything looks like a mountain that has to be died on. Well, if you would have right fellowship with your brother, you must remember that your brother is not your enemy. So when you choose to fight with him, you better darn well make sure you’re right and he’s wrong, and then have the fight.

And that’s probably worthwhile at that point. And when you choose strategically which battles to actually fight, when to fight, and when not to, that gains you credibility when there’s an actual mountain to fight over. But in the main, for the most part, in most cases, most of us would do well to just resolve not to fight. And I think that if that is your attitude and disposition, you’ll know when the time is to actually go to the mattresses. Five, look for ways to serve your brother. Initiating sacrificial service for others not only imitates Christ, it takes our focus off ourselves, and that’s always a good thing.

The cosmic example here that is inescapable is that of Christ Himself. In Romans 5 verses 6 through 8, Paul lends insight into Christ’s behavior. He says, for while we were still weak, and weak is an understatement there, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly, for one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die. But God shows us love for us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. That is what I call seeing a need and meeting a need. Jesus did not wait until somebody asked him to take care of it. He actually didn’t even wait until we appreciated it.

Christ was killed at the hands of sinners that he was rescuing from the consequence of their own sin. And many of us struggle to do the dishes unless somebody is waving pom-poms and striking up the band in the wings for us. In the mirror, too. Yeah. Yeah, may God grant us by His grace a delight in serving our brothers, especially those who live under the same roof. Hot tip number six, practice patience with your brother. Like the matter of forgiveness, God is patient with us, and so it is right and fitting that we would be patient with one another if we would be God-like. When we practice forgiveness, when we practice patience, we are imitating God who has had that disposition toward us. Frankly, He does not treat us as we deserve, yet we feel as though our impatience with others is justifiable. That’s just not so.

If we have been, if God has been, if we’ve been the recipients of tremendous patience on God’s part, we should be quick to extend that to others. Number 7. Try hanging out with your brother. Like make a priority out of time spent in fellowship. Spiritual blood is thicker than water. As many of you can probably affirm, relationships in Christ are often stronger than blood relations. Those who cultivate fellowship should work to be with one another. Don’t let a Trinity Families Fellowship Sunday go by without sharing a meal with somebody else of the last name, different from yours. Just don’t let it happen. I don’t suggest that we alienate others, that is those who are not of the household of faith, who are not brothers or sisters in Christ, or that we hang out with Christians exclusively, as I mentioned earlier.

But we should make a priority out of associating with and in fellowship with God’s people. Number eight, build up your brother. Paul instructs his readers, let no corrupting word come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up as fits the occasion that it may give grace to those who hear. Now, the spirit, I mean, the letter is easy understand too, but some of you are like, well, didn’t Paul use some pretty crass language from time to time? Yes, he did. The spirit of what he’s getting at is not hard for us to understand. Think about building others up with the words that come out of your mouth. Think about building up your brother when you speak to him.

That can be an expressly encouraging words. It can be even in spiritual conversation. Ask him how he’s doing or what spiritual lessons he’s learning of late. And when you build up your brother, this benefits both of you. Two godly people will have an easier time in fellowship than two immature punks. An illustration of this is the marriage relationship. The more you edify your spouse, the more you benefit. You get a happier spouse, a better relationship, and a properly aligned perspective. And then I promised that I bookended it with the best. I told you it wasn’t exhaustive, But the last two do tend to cover a lot.

Learn to love Matthew 18. And maybe others of the guys are gonna talk about it this afternoon. But Christ’s instruction on dealing with sin from Matthew 18 provides us a blueprint for maintaining fellowship. If Christians just used Matthew 18, we could change the world. If the world used Matthew 18, the whole world would be a better place. But I’m not just calling us to employ, to know, to use. Matthew 18, practice it. I’m calling us to love it. It is wise and it is supernatural. And it’s like a secret weapon for the relational ninja. From two siblings who are fighting over Legos. Matthew 18, says something about that.

For the two neighbors, one of whom keeps blowing his leaves into your yard. like Matthew 18 has instruction about that. It is a formula for harmony when it is loved. Recently, this is just an almost good for nothing anecdote, but it’s worth including. I saw again the value of Matthew 18 when I saw it being not employed. We had an issue with an unbelieving neighbor and Sonia and I invited all of our neighbors over to our house for Christmas party. And one of our neighbors declined the invitation. Very, I mean, he was nice and he was polite, though he was frustrated and he was sort of smiling through his frustration, that he would not come because he was too mad at our homeowners association and particularly at the president and me, the vice president.

Our bylaws prohibit the parking of commercial vehicles in our, in view of the street. So it can’t be in your driveway, it can’t be on the street, it’s got to be in your garage or you have to park it someplace else. And unbeknownst to me, our president had the audacity to enforce this rule. So I actually didn’t know it was happening, which is fine. But because our, so this neighbor had a work van that was parked on the street, and his company’s name is on the side of the van. And our HOA president sent him a letter, made personal appeals, I think, and put a sign on his windshield eventually that if you don’t move it, we’re going to have to fine you.

And it was only at the last step that he actually moved it. And again, to my knowledge, didn’t have a single conversation, make an appeal, or write a letter to the HOA asking for a variance or anything like that. He didn’t come to any meetings. He just, by his own admission, lost a lot of sleep, stewing in his anger over the situation, feeling as though he was being picked on. And the way I explained it to my kids was like this. He wanted for the rules to not apply to him without any request or appeal. And when they were enforced by our president, he just got mad and still didn’t talk to anybody about it. I further told my kids, because it was like an out of body experience and I was having this conversation with this gentleman, because I was thinking, a little bit of Matthew 18 could go a long way right here.

And I told my kids that practicing Matthew 18 could have actually ameliorated a lot of the concern. If he had a concern, he could have said, look, I understand the rules, but I don’t know that I’m violating the spirit of it. Would the HOA consider making an exception in this case, and here’s why. Or he might then have opportunity hear a defense for why that rule is even in place. But I have a hunch he was probably not too familiar with Matthew 18 and so my favorite part as a little epilogue was when he said, I would just ask that if anybody has a beef with me that they come and talk to me in person.

Then my spark plug like antagonistic wife, who’s anything but, she’s actually very disarming in conversation that they said, Don’t be a hypocrite She actually told him that You’ve got to come talk to us if you’re upset That was my favorite when she told him he was heated don’t be a hypocrite Yeah, my point is this whether it is kindergartners in the parking lot or little siblings fighting over Legos or parking your van in in the street. We have to love Matthew 18. It is genius. And I mean, of course you know it’s genius because it comes from the mind of God, but I mean it’s really, really, really good. Like you should try it. It is a treasure and it’s a formula that will not only preserve, but it will galvanize fellowship if we would but use it. And then when all else fails, to love the golden rule. All else will not fail. All of these things are fantastic. They’re from scripture. I didn’t come up with them. They won’t fail. But if they do, or even if you just forget the rest, think about this. How would I like to be treated? Whatever you

wish that others would do to you, do also to them. For this is the law and the prophets says our Lord. Treat others the way that you’d like to be treated, and it’s guaranteed to to sweeten your communion. So now consider this. We must value and cultivate right fellowship with those in whom the Spirit dwells if we would properly communion with the Spirit Himself. We would. And if you’re not convinced yet, look back at the hot tips list and consider them all absent. What would that look like? Imagine that you never repented and think relationally. Imagine if you never prayed for your brother, if you always fought with him, if you never tried to serve Him, if you were never patient with Him, if you never spent time with Him, if you never tried to build Him up, if you hated Matthew 18, and if you thought the golden rule was dumb.

Now of course, communion in and with the Spirit would be non-existent. That person could not call himself a Christian and be marked by those things. But if there’s a spectrum there between always and never, we wanna be more on the always end of the spectrum, and most of us are on the sometimes, at least on Sundays part of the spectrum. Yeah, in that sometimes range we practice communion in and with the Spirit at least on Sundays if no other times during the week. And of course, that’s better than nothing. But I’m suggesting that if you would take communion with the Spirit, if you would make it more potent, if you would want to make it more potent on Sunday mornings and at other times, we can work on that at any time by our commitment to these hot tips.

And as we do this, our communion on Sunday mornings will gain power. So some of you have been objecting, and I’m running third and heading home here now, that you remain out of fellowship with somebody. And you’re thinking, for all of my efforts, I still am at odds with this person. And as much as I’ve tried to make the case that these things can’t be separated, the fact is we know that there are cases where we don’t enjoy perfect fellowship with every believer despite our best efforts and intentions. Paul even seemed to get that because he qualified his charge in Romans 12-18. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

sweet and as potent as our communion might be here and now, it remains a taste of what is to come. The best is still ahead. Let’s pray together. Father, we would ask that you would help us to prioritize rightly this connection between fellowship with you and fellowship with those in whom you dwell. And I pray that we would all actively look to cultivate our fellowship with one another as a means of better communing with you. Because by your design, that is what you would have us to do. Make us faithful to obey and to love Matthew 18 and to love the golden rule and to aim to follow the example of the initiating, sacrificing, serving Christ. We thank you. We pray this in Christ’s name. Amen.

sweet and as potent as our communion might be here and now, it remains a taste of what is to come. The best is still ahead. Let’s pray together. Father, we would ask that you would help us to prioritize rightly this connection between fellowship with you and fellowship with those in whom you dwell. And I pray that we would all actively look to cultivate our fellowship with one another as a means of better communing with you. Because by your design, that is what you would have us to do. Make us faithful to obey and to love Matthew 18 and to love the golden rule and to aim to follow the example of the initiating, sacrificing, serving Christ.