Fellowship of the Spirit - 2 Corinthians 13:14

[0:00] Hey guys, thanks for listening to our Calvary Chapel Charlotte podcast. I will walk by faith and not by sight.

[0:48] You can turn your Bibles to 2 Corinthians 13 if you want to. You know, we finished Revelation and I had a man makes his plans, but the Lord directs his steps.

[1:01] I was thinking, we'll do Psalms, we'll do something simple, just kind of. And it kind of was in a conversation with someone who was just like, well, how is the Holy Spirit supposed to operate in the church? And just some interesting ideas and conversations I've had.

[1:15] And just done some reading on my own and the Lord just put it on my heart. He's like, hey, this is something that, you know, is foundational that the church needs to know. We need to know what the Word says.

[1:25] I've been reading a book by G. Campbell Morgan. I always want to say J.P. Morgan, but that's not reading a book by him. G. Campbell Morgan. And he talks in there and he's talking about, it's the Ministry of the Word is the name of the book.

[1:42] And as he goes through the different ministries of the Word, one of the phrases he'll use is he'll say, we must expunge from our mind all preconceived ideas and definitions that we bring to the Word. We must put those aside and allow the Word to give us its definition and its meaning.

[1:58] And I think as we read the Word, man, there's so much in there that I wonder, why don't I experience that? Why am I not living that? What's going on here?

[2:09] And I think some of the misconceptions of the Holy Spirit and how he works in our lives is because we see things in the Word that we just don't see around us. We don't see in the church as much. I don't see in my life as much. And I think, well, maybe it was only for then, or maybe they had something special.

[2:24] And I think what the reality is, is the expected Christian life was what we read in the epistles and in the New Testament. And that we have, we as a church, as a whole in the West, we've removed ourselves so far from that.

[2:40] And we've had to substitute other things in its place. Because I often think of the fact that the Lord called me to be a pastor to just be an example of how far the church has fallen these last days. He's like, I need someone.

[2:50] I'll have to use him. You know, I don't feel in any way that I measure up to those who have gone before me. But anyway, we will dive in and we will see what God has for us.

[3:05] So I'm used to doing line by line. Well, we'll do line by line and verse by verse in the scripture we're in, but I'm not used to doing topical, right? It's like, we're going to pick a book and we're going to go through it. So I'm like, Lord, what do you want to do?

[3:15] And that's why I was like, man, I needed just a break. Thank you, Aaron, for jumping in and doing the last teaching, the previous Wednesday, just to kind of study. And so I put together a roadmap for us so we can kind of see where we're going.

[3:29] So we're going to get on board the Holy Spirit bus. And these are the stops that I think we're going to take along the way, but I'm not driving the bus, right? The Holy Spirit is driving the bus. So there may be a detour.

[3:39] We may stay at one of these stops longer than we anticipate. Like each one of these stops is not like one week study. It could be longer. Tonight will be. Our first stop is our introduction, which we will look at 2 Corinthians 13, 14, and that primarily will be the fellowship of the spirit.

[3:56] That scripture will be foundational to our entire study. And that scripture is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.

[4:07] That's how Paul closes the letter to 2 Corinthians. And we'll break that verse apart as we go into it. But the whole point is, I want to fellowship with the spirit. We want to partake of the life of the spirit.

[4:19] So I'm hoping, I'm going to hit start right now on my timer, try and stick to about 40 minutes. And then I want to leave like 10 minutes to where that's what we do.

[4:31] We're fellowshipping with the spirit. We're giving him opportunity to minister to us and for us to respond to him. You know, when you're teaching, we talk about like you want to land the plane, have a good landing.

[4:43] Sometimes you just got to jump and pull the ripcord. So if we hit that time, we may just jump and bail and we'll pick up where we are. The other thing with teaching topically, you end up with a whole lot more.

[4:53] And it's like, oh, this speaks to it. This speaks to it. But anyway, so step one, our first stop this week is introduction. And then where I want to go is we're going to go to Jesus's words. We're going to go to the upper room and we're going to let Jesus lay the foundation.

[5:05] We're not going to jump into, well, what about the gifts? And what about us speaking in tongues for today? And what about this? And what about where, where, you know, they receive the spirit? We want to let our foundation be in Jesus's words, where he first introduces the idea of the Holy Spirit as the comforter, as the helper to his apostles.

[5:20] And that's in the upper room. Sorry if it's too small or bad coloring. So we'll spend some time there letting Jesus build that foundation.

[5:31] Then we'll look at, okay, well, Jesus said they're going to receive the Holy Spirit. What did that look like? What did it look like when they received the Holy Spirit into their life? And those are three different areas after resurrection at Pentecost and then beyond.

[5:42] We're in the beyond. We'll then jump back into looking at then, okay, Jesus informs them of the Holy Spirit. They receive it. What was the effect in their lives and in their ministry?

[5:53] We want to see how the Holy Spirit operated in Jesus's ministry and then the apostles' ministry and how those are very similar. And then we see what the Holy Spirit as an operative in our lives does.

[6:04] Then we will park ourselves in Ephesians 4, primarily 1 through 16, as kind of the gateway into the epistles, where we'll get into the fruit and we'll get into the gifts.

[6:15] And so we'll see that the Holy Spirit's given for edification. And we'll start there as then we launch into the epistles. And this is where we hit the expected Christian life. This is the life that was expected.

[6:25] We're going to see that as we get into Corinthians. They were a church that, for all intents and purposes, was scraping the bottom of the barrel of those doing church well in Paul's letters of those he wrote to.

[6:37] And yet they had a quality of life that was expected as a baseline of life in the Spirit that I think even we lack today. See, the expected Christian life is filled and fruitful.

[6:48] The expected Christian life is gifted and grateful. So I think I'm pretty sure up through number five. And after that, maybe there'll be a different on-ramp or a different highway or something the Lord takes us on.

[6:59] I don't know. But we're just going to see. So tonight is the Fellowship of the Spirit. And if that is similar to anything you've ever seen before, it's purely coincidental.

[7:12] So I have a quote here. I have never listened to or read anything by Malcolm Cronk. I just collect quotes. So he was a pastor that lived over 100 years. He was predominantly in the 80s and 90s.

[7:23] But he says, With the right spirit, a clumsy church structure will work. Without the right spirit, an ideal structure won't work. And I think we could replace the word right with holy.

[7:34] With the Holy Spirit, a clumsy church structure will work. Without the Holy Spirit, an ideal structure won't work. Now, I don't want to be a clumsy church structure.

[7:45] But I do allow and purposely build into my walk with God and the ministry space for clumsiness. Like, hey, God, let's give allowance that we're clumsy people.

[7:58] Let's give grace. Let's allow the Holy Spirit room to work and not be so like, this is what it's got to be. Or you're out. You know, this is what it's got to be. Or we're not doing it right. We want to allow the Lord some room to work.

[8:11] So it's okay. It's okay if we're a little clumsy regarding all of this. As long as we have the right spirit. Our interpretation of the scripture, by definition, must come from within the scripture.

[8:24] Because only the scripture can give meaning to the scripture. In other words, if I have to use an outside source to give me definition of the scripture, then all of a sudden the scripture is not the scripture. The outside source is. Right?

[8:34] The outside source is the authority. By definition, for this to be the scripture, all my understanding and meaning and definition of the scripture has to come from it. What does that mean? Why are we even here?

[8:45] Right? Why do we even need to do this? Well, it is appropriate to rephrase and to give the sense and the meaning of the text. But it's going to come from within the text.

[8:56] Our primary understanding of the scripture is through the mind of the spirit. Moving upon our natural minds. That is our primary understanding of scripture. When I approach the text, it's not, well, I really like David Guzik.

[9:08] And then, you know, my wife likes Spurgeon. But I kind of think he's a little too flowery for me. Maybe I'll go with Tozer. You know, I'm going to listen to the read and then pool it all together and say, well, which do I think is best? No, I'm going to come to the word.

[9:19] I'm going to trust the Holy Spirit moving upon my natural mind to give understanding and sense to the text. We cannot understand living spiritual truths without the living spirit of God.

[9:30] We quote this one all the time. John 6, 63, Jesus says, In other words, I'm not going to understand the words that Jesus speaks, which are spirit in our life, according to the flesh, according to my natural understanding.

[9:46] It's just not going to happen. It's through the spirit moving upon my mind that I then have understanding. So as we move into this introduction, the idea is not to have a lot of information.

[10:02] We want good information. But what we want is to act upon what we know, right? We want to be doers and not hearers only. We don't want to just have a bunch of information, kind of like the Corinthian church did.

[10:16] And Paul will be like, man, guys, you got everything except the application. So I'd rather be a little clumsy, maybe in my understanding of scripture and maybe in how I process this in my life.

[10:30] But man, if I've got the right spirit, if we have love, it'll cover a multitude of sins. So as we walk through this tonight, here is our outline. So we'll look at the fellowship of the spirit.

[10:43] And then we'll see that that leads to the unity of the spirit. Within the unity of the spirit are the gifts and the fruit. And we'll end, hopefully, unless we bail out early, with being governed by the spirit.

[10:55] So if you are in 2 Corinthians 13, 14, we'll read that together. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

[11:08] Amen. And so here we have the Trinity. We have the Son, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God. We have the Father and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit. We have the Trinity there. They are co-equal, right?

[11:21] They, God the Father and God the Son, well, they're like people. But the Holy Spirit's like a feeling, I get. No, the Holy Spirit's not a feeling. He's not a, he's not a force.

[11:33] He's a person. He's a third person. Now, is he a background figure? Very much he is in our life, in our walk. You know, we're told to ask things in Jesus' name. We're told to pray things in the Father's name, right?

[11:46] But we don't always see where you say, well, pray in the Holy Spirit's name. He is the operator of that. I think a good picture is from John chapter 2 at the wedding feast of Cana, right? Jesus was the one who said, hey, fill the water pots with water and take them to the governor of the feast, right?

[12:04] All this stuff that was happening in the background that he didn't know anything about. Who was the one who changed the water to wine? Well, Jesus did. It was at his word. But the operator of that is in the power of the Spirit.

[12:17] The Spirit was there working. And I think of those servants, those unnamed servants. They're just working in the background, operating in the background. And in the end, who gets all the glory? The bridegroom.

[12:28] The bridegroom gets all the credit in that story. Such a beautiful picture of the Holy Spirit working in the ministry here of the Son. So the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God.

[12:41] Kind of like I said Sunday. We love that. Oh, the grace of Jesus. Man, let me tell you about his grace. Let me tell you what he's done in my life. Let me tell you about how he's passed over my sin. And he still passes over my sin.

[12:53] Let me tell you about the love of God. The love of the Father. That I've been welcomed into a relationship with him. Man. Let me tell you about the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. I don't really know. Because that makes me nervous.

[13:04] Right? We love the grace of the Lord Jesus. We love the love of God. The fellowship of the Holy Spirit. What is the effect of the Son's grace? What is the effect of when Paul says, The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you?

[13:16] What is the effect? Well, Titus 2.11 says, For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. So the effect of the Son's grace is salvation. Man, may the grace of Jesus Christ be with you.

[13:29] May salvation be with you. We have the love of God. So it's the Father here. What's the effect of the Father's love? Ephesians 2.4-6 says, But God, who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, has quickened us together with Christ.

[13:49] By grace are you saved. Has raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. The effect of the Father's love is life, it's resurrection, it's relationship.

[14:01] Here you see he's working with the Son. Here's the grace that's in there. By grace are you saved. Say, yes, the love of the Father and the grace of Jesus Christ. And yet it is by the Holy Spirit that we experience both God's love and grace.

[14:14] By the Holy Spirit, we're not going to experience these things. Romans 5. I'm going to tell you, there's a lot of scripture to weave these threads together. So bear with me. If I'm going too fast, I'm sorry.

[14:28] Romans 5. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand.

[14:41] We have peace with God because of this grace wherein we stand. We have access now into Jesus Christ. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. And then he's going to talk about tribulations and patience.

[14:53] Let patience have her perfect work. And it'll lead to hope. He says, And hope makes not ashamed. Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. Yes. And I think we stop there. I think in my own mind I stop there.

[15:05] Oh, I'm justified by faith. I have the grace of Jesus in my life. Wonderful. Hope makes me not ashamed. Because the love of God is shed abroad in my heart. How? By the Holy Spirit which is given to us.

[15:17] By the Holy Spirit which is given to us. So we see that the Holy Spirit is the one who shed, by which we experience God's love and grace. So what is the effect then?

[15:28] Of the fellowship of the Spirit. We've looked at the grace of Jesus. The love of the Father. What about the fellowship of the Spirit? Well, our word for fellowship is koinonia. I'm sure you've all heard that.

[15:39] If you've been around Calvary Chapel at all. It's one of those words. I don't know Greek, but I can sound like I do. Fellowship. Koinonia. You know. You may say it like Chuck. Koinonia. Koinonia. Koinonia. Koinonia. Koinonia.

[15:49] It means communion, association. And my favorite definition. Joint participation. It means we all have a share in something. We all fellowship in something.

[16:00] There's a share that we each have in this. Joint participation. So if we interject that definition. May the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. May the communion.

[16:11] May the association. May the joint participation of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Communion. What is communion? It's to commune. To commune. To communicate. So what is the effect of the Holy Spirit's fellowship in our life?

[16:26] I had my ideas of what I thought it would be. And the Lord took me to this scripture. Philippians 2. 1 through 2. If there be.

[16:36] And the idea is. There is. So. If there is. And there is. You can insert there. If there is. And there is. Therefore any consolation in Christ.

[16:47] If there is any. And there is. Any comfort of love. If there's any. Fellowship of the Spirit. Here we see that phrase again. If any bowels and mercies. This is just the Greek way.

[16:57] And the old Greek ways. They didn't say in your heart. They said in your bowels. It just meant the depths of your being. Fulfill you my joy. That you be like-minded. Having the same love.

[17:08] Being of one accord. And of one mind. In fact. The Holy Spirit's fellowship. Is unity. He brings unity. And on your own. If you have time. You can look up those four.

[17:20] Different definitions there. Fulfill you my joy. Be like-minded. Same love. One accord. And one mind. He could have just said. Fulfill you my joy. And be one. But he describes that. We're not going to go into all that right now.

[17:31] So the Holy Spirit's given to the church. To unite the church. In the reality of the life of God. He's the one who sheds abroad. The love of God in our hearts. And yet how sad.

[17:43] That the gift to the church. Specifically for the purpose of unity. Has caused such division. Today. The thing that's to unify. That's to build unity. Causes division today.

[17:53] Almost more than anything else. The unity of the Spirit. We've moved from the fellowship of the Spirit. The unity of the Spirit. You can turn to Ephesians 4.

[18:04] We're going to briefly. Glean a few things from this. Pick up in verse 3.

[18:16] Paul writes that we are to endeavor. To keep the unity of the Spirit. And the bond of peace. Doesn't say endeavor to keep unity at all costs.

[18:26] The unity of the Spirit. The two are linked. You're not going to have the one without the other. Do you know today. There are massive efforts within the church for. Unity.

[18:39] For unity. There's plans. And there's programs. There's events you can go to. There's all kinds of things you can do to unite. But there's only one unity that counts. To keep the unity of the Spirit.

[18:49] In the bond of peace. There is one body. And one spirit. Even as you are called. In one hope of your calling. One Lord. One faith. One baptism. One God and Father of all.

[19:00] Who's above all. And through all. And in you all. What is Paul saying here? He's saying it's not. You don't need a different baptism. A different father.

[19:11] A different faith for different groups. The Jews don't need a different one. The Gentiles don't need a different one. Women don't need a different one. Men don't need a different one. You'll see this will be used by people to say. See one baptism. There's no baptism in the Holy Spirit.

[19:23] Well first of all. It's talking about water baptism. So if you wanted to be strict in that. You'd say. Well don't get baptized a second time. But if we're going to be honest in our hermeneutics. Then we'd have to say. Then that means there's also only one hope.

[19:35] I mean I hope I have more than one hope. But then again. I do only have one hope. It's in Christ. Isn't it? But he's saying that there's just one way. It's one. We don't need multiples.

[19:46] It's not scattered. This is one unified thing working together. The Holy Spirit is unified in the same purpose. As the Father and the Son. Look at verse 7 through 8. But unto every one of us is given grace.

[19:59] Grace is a free gift. It's charis. That which is freely given. Every one of us is given something freely by God. Free gift of grace. Freely accepted.

[20:12] According to the measure of the gift of Christ. So we see gift again. That is he who gives the gift. Wherefore he saith. When he ascended up on high. He led captivity captive.

[20:23] And did what? Gave gifts unto men. By what means did he give those gifts? Jump down to verse 12. We're not going to look at what all those are. Eventually in Ephesians 4. We'll break all that down.

[20:34] But those gifts. What are their purpose? For the perfecting of the saints. Perfecting means to be completely furnished. Those things were given for the perfecting.

[20:45] For the furnishing of the saints. The gifts that he gives. Not to make me feel spiritual. Not to make me feel necessary close to God. Not to make me feel like I've got boldness and power.

[21:00] It's for the saints. It's not for me. Now as a saint it is. But for the work of the ministry. For the edifying. That means building of the body of Christ. Until we all come in the unity of the faith.

[21:14] The Holy Spirit's unified in the same purpose as the Father and the Son. It leads to unity. The fellowship of the Spirit.

[21:26] Means allowing the Holy Spirit to unite us around the purposes of God. And then to be united in those purposes. To edify one another. It's to see God working in our lives and in our fellowship.

[21:40] Where the result is. Man. You're getting built up. And as you're getting built up. I'm getting built up. It's not God. I need more of your Spirit. Oh I feel. I feel like a supercharged Christian.

[21:50] How are you feeling? Hmm. Man. I got. I got a supercharge. What did you get? Well you know. Maybe someday you'll arrive. No. No. What does Paul say? He says. No. We give more honor to the weaker thing.

[22:01] Right. We're thinking a lot about Ezekiel. Where Ezekiel. The Lord gives Ezekiel a word about the shepherds. The false shepherds. And it says they push with the shoulder. They push away.

[22:13] Those that are diseased and hurting. They reject. They push them away. Instead of drawing them in. How sad. The body's to be a place for healing.

[22:24] For comfort. We should be united in that. A spiritually united body. Is a spiritually gifted and equipped body. Ephesians tells us. We are gifted.

[22:35] By Christ. For the equipping. Of the saints. We're a united body. We're spiritually gifted and equipped. First Corinthians chapter 12.

[22:48] If you want. You can turn there. And read a few verses from there. Being a bunch of places in Corinthians. So we've seen of the fellowship of the spirit. Leads to the unity of the spirit.

[22:59] And that does what? It gifts. God gives these gifts. To the body. To unite them. In the love of God. We are to be a.

[23:10] A spiritual body. United. Gifted. Equipped. First Corinthians 12. We'll read verse 1. Then we're going to skip verse 2.

[23:22] About the idols. And read verse 3. Verse 1 says. Now concerning spiritual gifts brethren. I would not have you ignorant. And Paul says. Hey guys. This isn't. This isn't something like. Oh we can't know anything about that.

[23:33] It's so. You know. It's so out there. Nobody really knows. No. He says. Don't be ignorant about this. Know about this. Absolutely. Because this is what equips you. This is what builds you up.

[23:43] This is what edifies your body. If you don't have this. You need to know about it. Wherefore. I give you to understand. In verse 3. The no man speaking. By the spirit of God. Calls Jesus accursed. He just talked about dumb idols.

[23:56] And that no man can say. Jesus is Lord. But by the Holy Spirit. You can't say. Well you know. The Holy Spirit moved me. To do this. But it wasn't in line with the word. But it didn't glorify Christ.

[24:09] Unfortunately. There are parts of what is called. The church today. That would claim. The Holy Spirit speaking. It doesn't glorify Christ. And it doesn't point to Christ.

[24:21] It is through the spirit. That we confess Christ. It is through the spirit. We accept Christ. It is through the spirit. That we appropriate Christ. Look at verses 4 through 7 here.

[24:32] Now there are. There are diversities of gifts. But the same spirit. There are differences of administrations. But the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations.

[24:43] But it is the same God. Which works all in all. Do you see there. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit again. The Trinity. The same spirit. Same Lord. Same God.

[24:54] But the manifestation of the spirit. Is given to every man to profit with all. In other words. The outworking of those gifts in our lives. Is for what purpose? To edify and profit the body.

[25:07] That's what it's for. One spirit. Different and diverse gifts. Different giftings. People gifted in different ways. Why are there different gifts? To one spirit.

[25:18] Why didn't he give us all of it? Like all the gifts. We have all of the Holy Spirit. And all of the Father. And all of the Son. Why didn't he say. Bam. You get all the gifts. And you get all the gifts. And you get all the gifts. Why would you think he would spread them out like that?

[25:31] Because if I had all the gifts. I don't need you. There wouldn't be any fellowship. There would be no need for the body. We would each be these individual little people walking around like. I'm good.

[25:43] I don't need anything. What does he do? Diversity of gifts. Differences of administrations. Diversity of operations. And he puts them all here. In this group of people. That are supposed to be unified.

[25:55] How unified are you in your own family. When it comes to decisions. Like where you're going to eat. Or what you're going to watch. Or where you're going to go on vacation. Stuff like that. That's a whole process of elimination.

[26:06] Okay. All right. I'll go anywhere. I'm starving. Just pick something. We're going to be unified. The Holy Spirit unites the church.

[26:18] In one unified purpose. Of glorifying Christ. And Christ is glorified when his church. Is maturing. As one spiritually unified body.

[26:30] The Holy Spirit equips the church. To glorify Christ. And Christ is most glorified. When his church. Is spiritually unified. In growing. It's maturing. Much of the church today.

[26:41] Will gladly receive the new life. That comes through the spirit. But they will not fellowship with. Associate with. Or enter into joint participation. With the spirit. Why not?

[26:53] Why is that? So well. You know the church has done some crazy things. And that's true. I think many in the church today. They use the excuse. Of the craziness.

[27:04] That's been wrongly attributed. To the spirit. As an excuse to shun fellowship. But if there's a reality there. That's edifying. And it's going to build me up. Why would I shun it? Galatians chapter 5.

[27:17] Tells us why. Because the life of the spirit. Will cost the life of the flesh. But the fruit of the spirit is love. It's joy. It's peace. It's long suffering.

[27:27] It's gentleness. Goodness. Faith. Meekness. Temperance. Against such there is no law. There is no boundaries around that. There's no constraint to that. Man you are just. Too long suffering. I wish you had some unforgiveness in your life.

[27:40] No. There's no boundaries around long suffering. You're too gentle. You should be a little harsher. Anybody ever said that? Said no kid to their parent ever. Man I wish you'd crack down on me a little harder.

[27:56] We want all that. Oh but look what it's going to cost. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh. With the affections and desires. You see if we live in the spirit. Let us also walk in the spirit.

[28:07] To walk means to direct one's life according to. So if I direct my life according to the spirit. It is going to crucify my flesh. So why do I use an excuse to push the Holy Spirit away?

[28:20] Because the flesh. The Holy Spirit becomes something to be avoided. And then what happens? Self effort. Programs and education are inserted in place of the spirit.

[28:32] They become the thing that we use to do what? Get equipping and unity. And the flesh lives on. So I don't want to crucify the flesh. But I want the equipping and unity. I want my church to function well.

[28:45] So I use effort and programs and education. To build into my system here. Something that takes the place of the spirit. Now. Are programs and education wrong?

[28:55] No they're not. Not at all. If they are. Led by the spirit. If they're spirit directed. They're wonderful. They're amazing. But if we remove the spirit. What do we have left?

[29:06] We have the flesh. No matter how good it seems. We are doing. In our programs. In our efforts. In our education. If it's not of the spirit. It means it's of the flesh.

[29:18] The flesh can only produce one type of fruit. And it's corruption. The work of the flesh. Will produce the work. The fruit of the flesh. Even within the ministry of the body of Christ. If I minister to the body.

[29:29] In the efforts of the flesh. It's going to be the fruit of the flesh. Then in the body. So without fellowship with the spirit. What do we do? We remove ourselves from the source. I don't have a source now.

[29:40] For the fruit and the gifts. All of a sudden. I'm cut off. And I'm trying then. In my own efforts. Or in the flesh. Or in some form. I got to keep this thing going.

[29:50] And I all of a sudden. Have a form of godliness. And I deny the power thereof. And I'm building into my walk. And into my ministry. The fruit of the flesh. The gifts.

[30:03] Are a beautiful thing. God gives us freely. Things that are meant to edify us. And build us up. But the gifts are merely containers. Think of them as like. Your Tupperware.

[30:14] Right? The gifts convey the fruit. That's all the gifts are. They're just the container. To convey the fruit of the spirit. Gifts without fruit. They're empty. And they just make a lot of noise.

[30:25] If you bang them together. Right? It's just the gifts without fruits. Empty. But fruit without gifts. Is unusable. Man I can have so much fruit in my life. But I have no way to convey that.

[30:36] I'm just filled with fruit. Like oh God. You're doing so. So wonderful things. But God hasn't gifted me. And equipped me. And enabled me. Because I'm not fellowshiping with the spirit. I have no way to convey the fruit.

[30:46] What happens when you have unconveyed fruit? What happens to it? It rots. It spoils. It gets stinky. The gifts of the spirit equip us. To distribute the fruit of the spirit.

[30:58] We need them both. In our lives. So the fellowship of the spirit. Brings the unity of the spirit. It allows the gifts. To work in our lives. For the edification of the body.

[31:09] And it allows the fruit then. To be distributed. To the body. Galatians 5.22. As we said. The fruit of the spirit is. Love. Joy. Peace. Long-suffering. Gentleness. Goodness. Faith.

[31:20] Meekness. Temperance. If you want. You can turn to 1 Corinthians 13. You know. Galatians 5. It says. The fruit of the spirit is. Love. And then it lists all the other things.

[31:31] All of those are attributes of love. Because God is. Love. God is love. The fruit of the spirit is love. Attributes of love. Joy. Peace. Long-suffering. Gentleness. Goodness.

[31:41] Faith. Meekness. Temperance. A spiritually united body. Is then a spiritually equipped body. Spiritually equipped body. Is able to be a spiritually fruitful and fulfilled body.

[31:55] As we are spiritually equipped. And God fills us with his spirit. We become spiritually fruitful. Spiritually fulfilled. For the edification of one another. Paul will write here in 1 Corinthians 13 though.

[32:06] And tell us. That without this fruit. It's just a bunch of emptiness. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels. And have not love. I become as a sounding brass.

[32:18] A tinkling cymbal. And for interest of time. You can read the rest on your own. I think you know what it says. If I have not love.

[32:31] I become as nothing. And then verse 8. Love never fails. The gifts are important. But what is conveyed by the gifts. Is far more important.

[32:42] It's no good to have the gifts. If you have nothing to convey. And what is conveyed is the fruit. And the fruit is love. How is love conveyed? Love is conveyed in relationship.

[32:53] You can have all of the gifts. You can give your body to be burned. You can speak with the tongues of men and angels. But if you don't have love. What good are you essentially? I don't mean what good are you to God.

[33:04] But I'm saying God wants to equip you. But what good are you? If you're a super equipped Christian. But have nothing to give. A relationship of love seeks fellowship with the one it loves.

[33:19] A healthy relationship of love. Seeks fellowship with the one it loves. It would be kind of silly. In my marriage. It would be like, oh, I love my wife. Oh, but I can't stand being with her.

[33:31] Oh, but I love her. You know. No. It seeks fellowship. It desires that above all else. Now you can have a relationship where you seek fellowship and love.

[33:42] And the other party may not. But a healthy relationship of love. It seeks fellowship with one another. It seeks fellowship with the one it loves. I think we could replace some words here in 1 Corinthians 13.

[33:55] Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels. And have not love. And become as a sounding brass. I think we could replace that. Have not the love of the Father. If I speak with the tongues of men and angels.

[34:06] If I have not the love of the Father. I become nothing. I think we could replace it with the grace of the Son. If I speak with the tongues of men and angels.

[34:16] And have not the grace of the Son. What am I? What are we if we don't have the love of the Father? What are we if we don't have the grace of the Son? I think we can replace it as well with the fellowship of the Spirit.

[34:28] Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels. And have not the fellowship with the Spirit. And become as a sounding brass. Or a tinkling cymbal. I have nothing. The Holy Spirit is not just someone who kind of deposits something in our life.

[34:41] And then moves on to the next person. To deposit the next thing. You know. Here you go. Here's something for you. No. It's to fellowship with Him. He's the means by which we fellowship and commune with God. In John 13.35.

[34:55] Jesus says. By this shall all men know that you're my disciples. Because you are so spiritually equipped. And charged. And wow. You guys are amazing.

[35:05] No. You have love one for another. Do you have love one for another? Well I'm a little clumsy at distributing the love. That's okay. Do you have the right spirit? Do you have the Holy Spirit?

[35:17] Man. Keep dishing out the fruit. I don't think my containers are really working well. That's all right. Just keep dishing out the fruit. The Holy Spirit is given to the church to unite the church in the reality of the life of God.

[35:30] The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. He equips us. He bears the fruit. A spiritually united body is spiritually fruitful and gifted and equipped to experience and operate in the love of God.

[35:46] That is the point. That's why we fellowship with the Spirit. So that we can be gifted. So that we can be filled. So that we can be fruitful. To do what? To distribute love. So that all men might know that we are his disciples.

[35:57] So we looked at the fellowship of the Spirit. The unity of the Spirit. The gifts of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit. We're going to end here being governed by the Spirit. Turn one last place.

[36:09] 1 Corinthians chapter 2. I'm going to pick up in verse 11. So there's where we're at in our outline. 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 11.

[36:27] Paul says, For what man knows the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Meaning, what man knows the things of a dog, unless the spirit of the dog be in him? Right? I don't know what the dog's thinking.

[36:38] I project onto it. You know, give me food. Let me run. Whatever. If it was a cat, I'll kill you. I'll kill you. Give me food. I don't know.

[36:48] We can only project. We don't really know what's in their mind. What man knows the things of a man, except the spirit of man? I can pretty well kind of gauge what's going on in your life, in a sense, because we have the same spirit.

[37:04] We're people. We're sons and daughters of Adam. So we have the same emotions, maybe in different quantities and intensity. Even so, the things of God knows no man, but the spirit of God.

[37:18] I don't know what's in God's heart. And what does man do? He projects onto God all the time, all kinds of things about God. Now, we have received not the spirit of the world.

[37:29] Meaning what? No man can know the spirit of the world unless he has the spirit of the world. We're not supposed to have that spirit. We should not know the world because we don't have the spirit of the world. That's not what's been given to us.

[37:40] But the spirit, which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. And there's those gifts again. Those things that are freely given to us, that charis. We are to know them.

[37:52] I would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning these things. Which things also we speak, Paul says. Not in the words which man's wisdom teaches. Because man's wisdom doesn't have the spirit of God.

[38:05] It doesn't have the mind of God. But which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. So we see the Holy Spirit is necessary for knowing the grace of God, the things that are freely given, the words of God, for we speak not with man's wisdom, and the wisdom of God, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

[38:26] You think, man, that Corinthian church, they were amazing. I wish we were that church. Look what Paul said. That these guys, the spirit is telling them of the grace of God, the words of God, the wisdom of God.

[38:39] Amazing. Wow. But the natural man, he receives not the things of the spirit of God. Verse 14. For they are foolishness unto him.

[38:51] Neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. Meaning, there's no other way around this. There's no other way. We can't supplement anything else in place of the spirit. But he that is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.

[39:06] In other words, I can understand with a greater understanding what's going on in man, but they will not be able to understand. The natural man is not going to understand the spiritual man. There's no way. For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?

[39:19] But we have the mind of Christ. So the spiritual Corinthian body. They had the things of Christ. They had the words of the spirit. They had discernment of the spirit.

[39:29] They had understanding of the spirit. Sign me up for that, church. Wow. I'll flip over to chapter three, the very next verse. And Paul says, And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal.

[39:46] Wait, wait, wait. Paul, you just said they are the things of Christ. They're the words of Christ. They have discernment of the spirit. They have understanding of the spirit. They judge all things. They're instructed by God. He says, Listen, I've been feeding you with milk, and you've not yet got to the point where you can yet handle this.

[40:13] You're not equipped. For you are yet carnal. Carnal means governed by mere human nature, not by the spirit of God.

[40:24] For you are governed by your mere human nature. For whereas there is among you envying strife and divisions, what does the spirit bring? Unity. There's divisions.

[40:35] Are you not carnal and walk as men? And so here is a church that would seem to be as spiritually as equipped and as spiritually alive from the outside as it would seem. And yet, what don't they have? They don't have the fruit.

[40:47] They don't have the love. They're carnal. Their lives are still being governed by the natural. And what does that lead to? Division. The word division means ungoverned desire, ungoverned conflict, and ungoverned individuals.

[41:04] How do you know if your church is operating in the unity of the spirit? Is there division? Is there strife? Is there envying? Okay, well, we'll just find a way to make unity.

[41:18] It doesn't work that way. You can make as much unity as you want, but it's not going to force the spirit in. The natural outworking of the life of the spirit will be unity. Without that, it will be division.

[41:29] And no matter how much you try and unify, you will never be able to remove the life of the flesh. It is possible, then, to have the Holy Spirit in our lives, but not to have him governing our lives.

[41:42] The wisdom of this world, it's not governed by the Holy Spirit. Paul would go on to say that it's deceptive, it's foolish, it's unwise, and it's ultimately under God's judgment.

[41:56] Jump down to verse 21 of 1 Corinthians chapter 3. Therefore, let no man glory in men, for all things are yours. Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come, all are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's.

[42:16] What is he saying? Don't divide. Don't divide. Well, I'm of Paul. I'm of Apollos. Well, I'm alive. Well, I've gone down into death with Christ. I'm looking for things to come.

[42:28] Well, brother, I'm about the business of God now in this world. You know, I follow Jesus. Well, I'm about the Father. Man, they're all from one source. Don't divide. Let no man glory in men. Glory in men leads to division.

[42:40] The things we possess of God, they come by way of the Father's love, the Son's grace, and the Spirit's fellowship. Right back to our first scripture. All is ours, but unfortunately, not all partake of or participate in those things that are given to us.

[42:58] Who would not want to fellowship with, associate with, or jointly participate in all that God has for them? Who wouldn't want to do that? Man, I want to fellowship with, and associate with, and jointly participate in all that God has for me.

[43:12] What's the alternative? Well, I can fellowship with, associate with, or jointly participate in the ungoverned carnal nature. That's the alternative. How often do I do that?

[43:23] I jointly, I willingly participate in the ungoverned carnal nature, and I think, God, I feel so far from you. I feel like there's division. I don't feel open with my brothers and sisters as much as I used to.

[43:34] What's going on? I mean, I have the Spirit. Well, shouldn't that be enough? He says, ah, yes. But carnality still lives. So what is the conclusion?

[43:47] The conclusion is we do not need to fear fellowshipping with the Spirit. Because it is through the Spirit that we are gifted, equipped, and united to live fruitful lives of love. I want to live a fruitful life of love.

[43:59] It is through the Spirit that that happens. He doesn't lead us into goofy, weird things. Right? He operates in our life. Every gift of the Spirit is to equip us so that we can bear fruit and edify one another.

[44:11] Jesus will say in John 17, 21, as he's praying to the Father, that they all may be one as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

[44:29] It's through that unity. But without the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, what are we? We are simply a divided group of individuals seeking to accomplish by our own ungoverned efforts a work that only God can do through.

[44:45] A unified, united, Spirit-filled body of love. If we don't fellowship in the Spirit, we're just each our own little individual efforts. That's not how it's meant to work.

[44:57] Thankfully, just as we've been learning in John, just as we don't have to understand all about Jesus to receive Jesus, to believe Jesus, we don't have to understand all about the Spirit to fellowship with the Spirit.

[45:09] We definitely did not just cover how all the gifts operate in our lives. What's going to happen if I open myself to the Spirit? I tell you what's going to happen if you open yourself to the Spirit. He's going to fill you with love. He's going to let you know how much God loves you.

[45:21] He's going to bring the grace of Jesus into your life. And then he's going to, through you, allow you to be part of ministering that to his body. Sounds like a pretty good deal when it's freely given. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

[45:41] Amen. Spiritually united body is a spiritually fruitful and gifted body equipped to experience and operate in the love of God. So I'm going to pray.

[45:53] We're going to end with, we'll end the live stream, Henry, after I pray. And then we're just going to take like 10 minutes. We're going to fellowship with the Spirit. So what do I do?

[46:06] What do you do when you fellowship with your brothers and sisters? You commune with them. You listen to them. You respond to them. You know, as we've been fellowshipping the Spirit at home, it's interesting, just different times.

[46:23] And don't, don't, don't, don't think like, wow, Jared's home is super spiritual. No, this is like, okay. Like we haven't got together in forever. We just do our own thing. Like we're a group of individuals seeking the Lord.

[46:33] We're going to get together tonight and just sit with the Lord. And it's interesting because sometimes it's like this person will start praying or this person will talk or we'll just sit there. So the Lord wants to equip you.

[46:48] But equipping comes by faith. And faith always operates in a realm outside of what we can do in our own. So if the Lord's putting on something on your heart, it's like, man, I think I should speak out this word of praise or prayer or, or whatever.

[47:01] That's that part of, part of faith where we have to say, all right, Lord, I've asked you to fill me, fill me with your love that I can distribute that to the body. So Father, we're going to do that.

[47:12] We're just going to sit with you. We're going to sit with the Son. And we're going to do that by fellowshipping in the Holy Spirit. And my prayer, Lord, is as we do that, that you would shed abroad by your Spirit, the love of God in our hearts, that you would equip us to then take that love and distribute it to our brothers and sisters around us.

[47:31] Lord, overflow us with your love. Lord, don't let us get stale and sour and stinky and rotten because we're just storing it all up and we have no means to distribute it.

[47:43] And Lord, help us not to get so enamored with the glitz and glamour of the effects of the Spirit that we lose sight of who he's always pointing us to, to Jesus.

[47:55] We love you. We thank you that as clumsily as we walk through this world with you, Lord, we have you with us. And Lord, back to that picture of Elijah.

[48:06] Lord, you've washed us in the water of your word. Would you now please send the fire? And we ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen.