 Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to Unfiltered. Pastor, welcome. Recently, Pastor, we had a conversation regarding fellowship and the importance of fellowship. We see it in the Bible. It's not good that man shall be alone. There's often references to the importance of fellowship. Koinonia is often used. It's one of our pillars, withness. When we reference going to church, that includes a lot of different things. That includes being there for the worship, hearing God's word, fellowship, and being among other believers. You know, we have online services, which has been a great tool for those who are sick or out of town or maybe they live far away from our church and they want to watch us online. But more specifically, for those that are in our area and have chosen to attend online versus coming to live service, how does that affect fellowship and receiving God's word? Well, it's not a substitute for actual human beings being near one another and talking to one another and experiencing life together. As you mentioned, the first thing God ever said was not good was for a man to be alone. It's not simply man. It would be also inclusive of mankind. It's not good that human beings isolate themselves. When we do isolate ourselves, we are failing to recognize the need for other gifts and other people's capacities in the body of Christ. That's why Paul in Romans as well as 1 Corinthians would speak concerning the church as a body. It's made up of various members, but they all make up the one body. So the hand and the feet, the eyes, ears, we all need one another and we all express our gifts in different ways that makes the complete body what it's supposed to be. So when people voluntarily are unwilling to or choose not to assemble with others, that's really not a good thing. Obviously, there are those who cannot assemble. There are those who are ill, perhaps hospitalized imprisoned. I mean, we have people watching us online who are in prison and our greetings to you guys even at this moment and all of that. They can't come to our fellowship, if you will, even though they do have chaplains and they do have services within the confines of that penitentiary or that jail. The fact is that if they could be here, they would be here. There are many who would rather be out and about, if you will, and even including especially being with other believers. And so it's not a good thing for me to voluntarily isolate myself. I'm not to be doing as Paul would say, or rather the writer of Hebrews would say, it's not good for me to voluntarily disregard the assembly of myself together with others of like-minded, et cetera, because the gifts have to work together. You can't receive baptism online. You can't have communion with other believers online. If you have a need for prayer, you can't go and speak to the pastor or speak to one of the leaders. You can't do it when you're online. And so it's, I think, an unhealthy excuse for just voluntarily staying away from church services very often. And that's because of whatever discomforts or displeasures they may feel. There are many who feel that they learn better by themselves or without the intrusion of other people, but that's really a symptom of something that's deeper and needs to be addressed because we need each other. The gifts of the spirit operate together. The body of Christ works together. It's a unit. And so yeah, I think that when people voluntarily forsake the assembly and that it's really an indication of a spiritual illness that they need to deal with. My follow-up was there's a decline in effectiveness as a believer by only solely watching online, as you just mentioned a little bit. Well, it's like playing handball by yourself. I mean, you both win and lose at the same time, right? But that's not a lot of fun. Right, right. Yeah, you need other people. The church is a team. It's made up of many, but it's a single team. There are no superstars. I know that we like to elevate certain people because we think they're heroic in what they do. I think that's a natural kind of way that we have a tendency of doing. If I can't do something or won't do something, well, I'm going to value the one who does what I wish would be done. So we make pastors or leaders our spiritual heroes when in fact God doesn't intend the church to be made up of those who do and the others who watch. God intends for us to do that, which He has gifted us to do, called us to do, and through obedience we do that, which we've been called to do. And we have to be very careful because I think today we have such a hunger for other people to do the things that we wish could be done. And we fail to realize that we could be doing certain things incrementally that would be effective in many ways. One quick thing, and then we'll close. I don't want to prolong this, but as we go through acts this upcoming Sunday, and Paul is in Lystra, and there's a certain reaction that takes place in all of that. And he ultimately is going to receive stoning, and they're going to pick him up as the one who is dead. They're supposing him to be dead. You might find this interesting, John, is Lystra is a place where a woman named Eunice and another woman named Lois were. They were from that area. And Eunice and Lois more than likely were people who heard Paul when he preached because it speaks concerning a great number of people coming to faith in Christ. And so they came to faith in Christ, but they also had somebody, a grandson, a son, by the name of Timothy. Yeah, and Timothy, that's where he would have gotten saved. He was saved because he had a grandmother and a mother. Paul speaks about this, and I'll be quoting the scripture this Sunday. Excuse me, but he had a believing grandmother and mother, and Paul tells him in 2 Timothy 3 that it was through his upbringing in scripture that made him open to salvation. And so there are people who don't come, who don't bring their children to church. They may be raising a potential Timothy, somebody who would observe the way mom and dad live and grandma live and be influenced in that way, because that's what Paul said. He said, the scriptures are able to make you wise unto salvation. And yet what happens is we have people who may be raising a young Timothy or somebody that make an impact or could make an impact in the world today, but they're too busy taking them to soccer or they're too busy putting them on some traveling softball team, baseball team, and they don't realize the potential their children have because they have not reached their own potential, you see. So there's a need to be in the body of Christ to discover your gifts to be used by the Lord because we may be raising people that are of utmost influence. We are raising the next generation of believers should the Lord tarry. And yet many, many are so caught up with the things of the world, John, that they don't realize the need for other people. They don't realize the need to be taught the word of God, to be involved in serving, using their gifts. They're too busy as people who need entertainment or people who are basically just watchers and not doers. And so I really encourage our church of those who are listening right now for that matter, don't avoid fellowship, because it's just an unhealthy thing. And the world is encroaching in, it never stops. Darkness doesn't stop spreading. And it requires the light to repel it. And here we are asleep in the light. So no, I really think that the church needs to wake up at this time. And if you're able to be in your church, it doesn't have to be this fellowship in your church. The church that feeds you, the church that matters to you, you need to be there. Amen. Well, thank you, pastor, for sharing that. And thank you guys for tuning in. Do you want to invite you to our Wednesday evening service tomorrow at 7 p.m. and pastor? Are we having communion? Communion, yes. We didn't announce it on Sunday. We did. I didn't hear you. Another one I'm out. Yes, we're having communion on Sunday. I did. I also announced the wrong book. Oh, yeah. I'll be teaching through what? Esther again. I'll do a second run through the first one you do like. It's one I invite you, because we are having communion after Pastor David started, please ask these. Chapter one. The purpose of life. Yes, that's going to be an exciting time to, why are we here? So come on out, invite your friends and family. It's always a great time to spend time in God's Word, to worship the fellowship and then to celebrate communion afterwards. God bless you. Thank you, pastor, and we'll see you tomorrow evening.