The Fruit of Fellowship

Jun 23, 2012
asmith
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Jesus said to his disciples on the eve of his death, “You did not choose me. I chose you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last.” (John 15:16) We worship a fruitful God, a God who is continually creating something out of nothing, continually giving life. God wants us to share in his joy of being fruitful. God’s vision for us is to have fruitful lives, and God is working this vision INTO our lives. What happens if we take this to a communal level?  What fruit grows in a people who:
* have open, responsive hearts
* have the Good Seed of Christ planted deeply within them
* are being soaked and permeated by the living waters of the Holy Spirit
* are being shaped, pruned, and strengthened by God, our gardener?

In Acts 2, we witness the birth of the church, and in that birth, we see the first fruit of the Spirit. Call it what you will – togetherness, community, fellowship, kinship, family, CHURCH – but on that day, a rag-tag bunch of individuals became something greater than the sum of their parts.  The Spirit of God filled them to the brim, and they discovered in each other a common devotion, a common awe, a common generosity, a common rhythm of life, and a common delight born of that Spirit.

Before we name the fruits that grow when the Word and the Spirit fill a fellowship, we celebrate the fact that the very EXISTENCE of the fellowship is a fruit of the Spirit. This was true in Acts, and it is true for us today.  Our little fellowship – the Church at Southpoint – is a fruit of the Spirit.  The very fact that we ARE is a sign of the Spirit’s presence in us, and a sign that God has not forgotten this world. We were born out of the Spirit, and we continue to be woven together by a common Spirit around common Word. May the Spirit continue to give us a common devotion, a common awe, a common generosity, a common rhythm of life, and a common joy.

Thank you, Lord. Thank you for calling the Church at Southpoint into being. Thank you for the obedience and generosity of those who responded to your call in starting our church. Thank you for sustaining us through times of change and challenge. Thank you for the good fruit you will bear through us as we are receptive and obedient to the Word and Spirit.

 

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The Church at Southpoint
15639 24 Ave.
Surrey, BC V4A 2J6

Office Tel: 778.878.4352

Pastor Tel: 604.288.2543

Fax: 604.531.2398 (Attention: Church at Southpoint)

The Church at Southpoint is affiliated with the Canadian Baptists of Western Canada