Fellowship With God
True fellowship with God comes from being honest and open with Him, pouring out all our thoughts and feelings, and trusting Him to separate the good from the bad.
John MacArthur emphasizes the importance of anamimnesko, urging believers to carefully think back and reconstruct in their minds the truths and experiences they have encountered through the gospel of Jesus Christ. This act of remembering serves as a strong deterrent to apostasy and a powerful encouragement to faith. The command to anamimnesko is a call to continually recall the advantages, actions, and accounting of their faith journey, truth by truth and event by event. The act of remembering is crucial in strengthening one's faith and endurance in times of trials and sufferings, as seen in various biblical examples like Peter's remembrance of Jesus' words and Paul's reminder to Timothy.
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Fellowship with God, then, as to privilege, is communion with Him; the actuality of friendship and fellowship with God, as to responsibility, is partnership with Him. . . Fellowship with God means we have gone into business with God, that His enterprises are to be our enterprises.
. . . . How many people are there in company with whom you can pour out everything in your heart, say everything, say anything? Very, very few . . . But there is a perfect description of friendship. With your friend you think aloud, there is no restraint; there is no need to keep up an appearance--the blunter thing would be to say, there is no need to play the hypocrite. . . With God it is my privilege to pour out everything that is in my heart, chaff and grain together, saying anything, saying everything I am thinking. But have we learned that lesson? Do not we think altogether too often our conversation with God must be that of carefully prepared and often stilting phrasing? I think we never so grieve His heart as when we attempt to speak thus with Him. Conversing with God reaches its highest level when, alone with Him, I pour in His listening ear everything in my heart; and the manner in which I have learned that secret, and live in the power of it, is the measure of the joy and strength of my friendship with God.
. . . I can say, and I do say, when alone with God things I dare not say in the hearing of other men. I tell Him all my griefs, and doubts, and fears; and if we have not learned to do so, we have never entered into the meaning of this great truth concerning fellowship. He will take out the grain, and with the breath of friendship blow the chaff away, only we must be honest when we are dealing with Him. . . Then He will be patient, and loving, and gentle; and out of the infinite love and gentleness of His heart He will speak some quiet word of comfort.
How much do we know of this fellowship? How much have we practiced talking to God of everything in our souls?
Sermon Outline
- I. Fellowship with God as Privilege
- A. Communion with God
- B. Actual friendship and fellowship with God
- II. Fellowship with God as Responsibility
- A. Partnership with God
- B. Business with God
- III. The Nature of True Friendship
- A. Freedom to speak openly
- B. No need for pretence or hypocrisy
- IV. The Importance of Honesty with God
- A. Pouring out all thoughts and feelings
- B. Trusting God to separate the good from the bad
Key Quotes
“Fellowship with God means we have gone into business with God, that His enterprises are to be our enterprises.” — G. Campbell Morgan
“Conversing with God reaches its highest level when, alone with Him, I pour in His listening ear everything in my heart;” — G. Campbell Morgan
“He will take out the grain, and with the breath of friendship blow the chaff away, only we must be honest when we are dealing with Him.” — G. Campbell Morgan
Application Points
- I must learn to be honest and open with God, pouring out all my thoughts and feelings to Him.
- I must trust God to separate the good from the bad, and not try to present myself in a certain way.
- I must recognize that fellowship with God is a privilege and a responsibility, and live accordingly.