-Pastor David Ndubueze at CHoP
*Because prophecy has declared that the evil day must come. Every day is both good and evil.
*Temptation must come, sin must come, what you can do is to seek exemption.
- No believer can survive in the Faith without commitment to regular fellowship.
*Everything we need for our fulfillment is in fellowship: vitality, security, prosperity, posterity. - Remove these vital components from you as a believer, what remains?
I pray that your presence in God’s presence this morning will make your joy full. Your coming today shall not be regretted. Thank You Father, in Jesus awesome name.
I count it a great privilege to bring us the exhortation line for our Covenant Hour of Prayer this morning and I believe God that the grace of God that is at work upon this altar will find expression in our lives today. We began yesterday dealing with the subject:
UNDERSTANDING THE WONDERS OF BEING COMMITTED TO REGULAR FELLOWSHIP
The more the merrier. We saw that the early Church had a daily commitment to fellowship and no scourge of persecution could crush them. They had all forms of trials and persecution. They were besieged with all forms of attack, but the Bible says in Acts chapter 2 from verse 46 to 47, “they continued daily in fellowship.” The persecution kept heightening but in the midst of the persecution, the Lord gave them favour and added to them daily.
-By your daily commitment to fellowship, I pray that this will be your testimony. Every day for you shall be a plus in the name of Jesus Christ.
Please let’s take note of the following wonders of regular fellowship.
- Our fulfillment as believers is ordained to manifest in Zion. That’s the place of our fulfillment as believers. When you are called to the Faith, you will become a potential star. It’s a call to fulfillment, all round fulfillment in life. But just like no one becomes fulfilled as a doctor by gifting or by grace. You may have the gifting, you may have the traits, but you need to go to the University and Institution, that is where that potential is processed. The same way, God’s wisdom recommends Zion as the place of our fulfillment as believers. Everything that makes for fulfillment in our race as children of God is domiciled in Zion. There are a lot.
Our vitality, as we heard yesterday, is in Zion – Obadiah 1:17
Our security is in Zion. Our prosperity is in Zion. Our posterity is in Zion.
Psalm 132:13-18
Let me hear you say, ‘Fulfillment’. You can see that every class of believer had their fulfillment covered in that Scripture. He said, “Zion is my choice saith the Lord. There I will visit the Priest, I will visit the poor and I will ensure their security by visiting their enemies.”
2 Samuel 7:10
God’s choice and recommendation for your vitality, for your security, for your prosperity, for your posterity is in Zion.
Psalm 92:12-15
Tell your neighbour,” You are not wasting your time committing yourself to fellowship.”
You hear ‘Zion there, a place of deliverance’ ; ‘Zion there, the choice of God’; Zion there, a place of satisfaction but you see the Word Zion in the Old Testament is the word Church of Christ in the New Testament. Zion is the Church in prophecy – Hebrews 12:22-24
Zion, the place of deliverance in the Old Testament, the place of healing, the place of holiness, the place of satisfaction is only a prophetic figure of the Church where you and I are right now. And by implication, it is only a reflection of God’s revelation of the meaning of fellowship. So when we gather today and when we gather in Church like this, we are gathered for our fulfillment. We are gathered for our vitality, our security:
We are gathered for our prosperity, we are gathered for our posterity. That means that no believer can survive. Church Gist. Remove these vital components from you as a believer, what remains?
You may have vitality, without security: you might be wasted.
You may have security, without prosperity: you are still down.
If you have prosperity and you lack posterity, you are not sure of the future: you are still down.
That is the reason you must note and understand that no believer can survive in the Faith without commitment to regular fellowship.
Our fellowship is with the Head of the Church, Jesus Christ, so disconnecting from fellowship is like a member of the body, a part of the body disconnecting from the head. There is no part of anybody that can survive outside the head.
John 15:16
Our fellowship is like the branches of a tree connected to the vine. You know Jesus said, “you have not chosen Me, but I have chosen”, but except you stay connected to me, once the branch is disconnected from the vine, the next thing is to dry.
-You will not dry.
No believer can survive in the Faith without commitment to regular fellowship. Departure from fellowship is disconnection from God’s manifest presence and that is where you have your fullness of Joy.
That is where you and I have our fulfillment.
Psalm 16:11
He said, “in His Presence there is fullness of joy.”
Where do we find that Presence? Where 2 or 3 gather to fellowship – Matthew 18:19-20
Meaning if you are not in fellowship, I am not there with you. Church Gist. If you are not in Fellowship, you have disconnected from the Head. We can’t be weak in fellowship and be strong in faith. You can’t be absent in fellowship and be present in God’s presence.
Distancing from fellowship is the beginning of complete departure.
Anybody you see distancing from fellowship, check the person, he is either completely off the Faith or he is on his way out.
1 John 1:3
Fellowship is not mere natural gathering. When we are here right now, we are in the presence of the Father, we are in sync with the Son, we are enforcing and re-validating our connection with the Head. Anything headless is a monster. When a believer begins to disconnect from fellowship, he shifts from a believer to an unbeliever, to a rebel, to an infidel. He is just on His way out and out.
1 John 1:6
You can’t claim to be in the Faith and out of fellowship. Fellowship is ordained for our covering against the evil day. Every day is both good and evil. God’s servant said once, “you don’t pray against the evil day, you only seek exemption from the evil day. Because prophecy has declared that evil day must come.
…Temptation must come, sin must come, what you can do is to seek exemption.
By wisdom, fellowship is ordained for our covering against sin among others. This is why God gave the caution, “that please never forsake fellowship.”
Hebrews 3:12-14
Departure from fellowship is connection to sin. You will agree with me that two are better than one. It is easier to crash out when you are alone – Ecclesiastes 4:9-12
It was recorded in Acts chapter 12 that Peter was caught up in Prison. Sin can be likened to an assault, an attack. Temptation can be likened to an affront of the enemy, against a believer.
If you are alone, who will know that you are even attacked.
If you disconnect from Home Cell, disconnect from Fellowship, they don’t see you, so nobody will know when you are completely off the way. But when you are in fellowship, when you make yourself committed to daily fellowship for instance, you are always here at Covenant Hour of Prayer, you make it a point of duty to be in Wednesday Service. You make it a point of duty to be in Service, you are sure that you are in a unit. You will be very, very sure that even if something bigger than you comes to pick and lock you up in prison, before you die completely, somebody will be there to help you.
Acts 12
Peter was locked up in Prison, the Church kept praying for him.
Why? He was in fellowship.
But look at Judas: a time came when Judas began to withdraw himself. Instead of staying in fellowship with the Church, with Jesus, his company began to be with the Pharisees, with the Sadducees. Little by little, gradually he was still eating from the same cup with the Master when he was chained. He didn’t recover on time until his head left him.
But thank God for Peter who was always in fellowship, though the same temptation that came to Judas, came to Peter, he was recovered.
I want you to pray, may none of us fall into the trap of disconnection, in the name of Jesus Christ.
Strength is amplified with unity and that unity is found in fellowship.
Genesis 11
God said, “this thing that their heart is set to do, nothing can stop them.”
But when they were divided, separated, the world crumbled on its own.
You have been building, you have been setting up a glorious future in God’s presence, may the trap of disconnection not waste your efforts.
What do we do therefore? Stay committed and connect yourself to somebody else to help the person stay committed in fellowship understanding:
- Our fulfillment in destiny as believers is in fellowship.
- Our security from sin is in fellowship.
In fellowship is where the Word comes and it is the Word that cleanses us from all filthiness.
In fellowship is the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than the blood of Abel.
In fellowship is the judgment of God that judges the man of sin from taking us off course.
Prayers: I take grace to maximise the blessedness of fellowship.
God is hearing you, He is answering you.
#PastorDavidNdubueze
#CHoP24August2021
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CHoP is an acronym for Covenant Hour of Prayer
