Jesus Invites You to the Table

PRAY OVER THIS

“Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come forth!’ And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Loose him, and let him go.’” John 11:43-44

 

PONDER THIS

Did you know you can have fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ? Lazarus went from being in the tomb to feasting at the table with Jesus. There he was, face to face with Jesus. Wouldn’t you love to have fellowship with Jesus? You can! That’s what we have every time we come to the Lord’s table. That’s a meal with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Many times in the Bible, Jesus invited His disciples to eat with Him. It is our legacy to fellowship with one another and with the Lord Jesus. Salvation is not a penalty you pay to get to Heaven. Receiving salvation is the way we enter relationship with the Lord Jesus. How do you raise a dead man spiritually? The same way Jesus raised Lazarus: by His Word. His Word will guide us into new life with Him, and it will give us great fellowship with Him.

What does your fellowship with Jesus look like?

Who in your life needs fellowship with Jesus? How can you point them to Him?

PRACTICE THIS

Identify and thank someone who shows you what it looks like to have fellowship with Jesus.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Are You Enjoying Fellowship?

PRAY OVER THIS

“But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” 1 John 1:7

 

PONDER THIS

What is our fellowship? It is in the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. What is the bond that holds us together? We have a common Lord, a common life, a common love, and that’s what makes the fellowship of the Church what it is.

I used to play football. When we would win a big game, the people up in the stands—your dad and mom, and friends—would hug and say, “We won, we won!” and the coaches down there would embrace and say, “We won, we won.”

And while they took joy in the win, they didn’t actually play the game. I’ve been so tired I couldn’t even lift my hands to pull my jersey off. It’d be wet and sweaty, and my arms would be bruised, but I’d finally get that jersey over my head, unlace those shoes, and rip that tape off my ankles. As I’d sit there with another guy who’s bruised and battered, who’s been down there in the trenches with me, I would look over at him and say, “Bill, we won, didn’t we?” That's fellowship: when you’ve been in the trenches together.

What would it look like to be in the trenches of faith together with others in the Church?

In what ways do you seek fellowship with believers around you? What is difficult for you about living in fellowship with others?

PRACTICE THIS

Share a meal with some fellow believers and encourage them about the moments you have been supported by the fellowship you have in Christ.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

The Key to Experiencing Fellowship with God

PRAY OVER THIS

“As His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust."

2 Peter 1:3-4

 

PONDER THIS

What is fellowship? Fellowship is not coffee and donuts. Fellowship is not, as some people cutely say, “two fellows in the same ship.” This is a very technical word. It is the Greek word koinonia, which means “to hold things in common.” Because of Jesus, we experience fellowship with God, and we have fellowship one with another. What do I have in common with the Father? Nothing. He’s holy, and I’m unholy; He is almighty, and I am a worm. So how can Adrian have fellowship with God? This is how: God, who knows the chasm between us, sent the Lord Jesus Christ to take on human flesh. Jesus became a man. He never discarded His deity but took on humanity. Because of His work, we begin to have likeness together. Jesus took the very nature of man so that we might take the nature of God. So, I have fellowship with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Because of this, I can walk and talk and have fellowship with Him.

How have you experienced fellowship with God?

Why is having fellowship with God so valuable?

PRACTICE THIS

Take a walk and talk to God about your life and struggles. Thank Him for the work He did so that you might have fellowship with Him and others.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Our Good Is God’s Delight

“I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul.” (Jeremiah 32:40–41)

God’s pursuit of praise from us and our pursuit of pleasure in him are one and the same pursuit. God’s quest to be glorified and our quest to be satisfied reach their goal in this one experience: our delight in God, which overflows in praise.

For God, praise is the sweet echo of his own excellence in the hearts of his people.

For us, praise is the summit of satisfaction that comes from living in fellowship with God.

The stunning implication of this discovery is that all the omnipotent energy that drives the heart of God to pursue his own glory also drives him to satisfy the hearts of those who seek their joy in him.

The good news of the Bible is that God is not at all disinclined to satisfy the hearts of those who hope in him. Just the opposite: The very thing that can make us happiest is what God delights in with all his heart and with all his soul. These are amazing words: “I will rejoice in doing them good . . . with all my heart and all my soul” (Jeremiah 32:41).

With all his heart and with all his soul, God joins us in the pursuit of our everlasting joy because the consummation of that joy in him redounds to the glory of his own infinite worth.

John Piper 

God Isn’t Gloomy

The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations. (Psalm 33:10–11)

“Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases” (Psalm 115:3). The implication of this text is that God has the right and power to do whatever makes him happy. That is what it means to say that God is sovereign.

Think about it for a moment: If God is sovereign and can do anything he pleases, then none of his purposes can be frustrated. “The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations” (Psalm 33:10–11).

And if none of his purposes can be frustrated, then he must be the happiest of all beings.

This infinite, divine happiness is the fountain from which the Christian (Hedonist) drinks and longs to drink more deeply.

Can you imagine what it would be like if the God who ruled the world were not happy? What if God were given to grumbling and pouting and depression, like some Jack-and-the-beanstalk giant in the sky? What if God were frustrated and despondent and gloomy and dismal and discontented and dejected?

Could we join David and say, “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water” (Psalm 63:1)? I don’t think so.

We would all relate to God like little children who have a frustrated, gloomy, dismal, discontented father. They can’t enjoy him. They can only try not to bother him, or maybe try to work for him to earn some little favor.

But that is not the way God is. He is never out of sorts with frustration or discouragement. And, as Psalm 147:11 says, he “takes pleasure . . . in those who hope in his steadfast love.” So the aim of the Christian Hedonist is not to avoid this God, not to run from him, or tiptoe through the living room lest his gloominess become anger. No, our aim is to hope in his steadfast love. To run to him. To be happy in God, to delight in God, to cherish and enjoy his fellowship and favor.

John Piper