The Christ Centered Life: Fellowship with God

1. The Christ Centered Life: Fellowship with God Psalm 15 Dr. Levell Bass, Pastor

2. Do You Want Fellowship with God? How do we obtain Fellowship with God? Who Has Fellowship with God?

3. First Requirements for Good Relationships We have to communicate • Listen • In human relationships we hear what a person says • With God, we read his Word • Speak • In human relationships we speak • With God, we pray

4. Second Requirements for Good Relationships You can speak all the right words. You can listen with great sincerity and care. You can be kind, gentle, and show genuine respect for me. But, if you mistreat my children, my friends, my family, or those in my care don’t expect to be a welcome guest in my home. We must Behave • Toward the person in the relationship • Towards those that the person in the relationship cares about.

5. Why Should God be any Different? • It’s good to read his Word (Listen). • It’s good to share your heart with Him (Pray). • But don’t expect to have fellowship with him if you’re not willing to be kind with those He cares about.

6. How Can I have fellowship with God? • Today we will look at a passage that gives instruction on who has fellowship with God. • It is written by David – a man after God’s own heart. • It’s not the person that simply knows God’s Word. • It’s not the person that spends hours in prayer. • It’s not the teacher, the priest, the pastor, etc. • Who has fellowship with God? Let’s look to Psalm 15.

7. Psalm 15 (ESV) A Psalm of David. 1O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill? 2 He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart; 3 who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend; 4 in whose eyes a vile person is despised, but who honors those who fear the Lord; who swears to his own hurt and does not change; 5 who does not put out his money at interest and does not take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved.

8. To Whom Should Apply this Psalm?

9. God, What are your requirements for me to enter into your house? 1 O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill? • David desired fellowship with God. • David was a man after God’s heart. • David’s greatest desire, “to dwell in the house of the Lord”.

10. Matthew 22:37–39 37And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. How do we show our love for God? “We love our neighbor as ourself”

11. Love God? Then love your brother. 1 John 4:20–21 20If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

12. Let’s look at How David would explain this in the rest of Psalm 15.

13. He must be without blemish 2 He who walks blamelessly and does what is right • The person that sojourns in God’s tent is Blameless – “without blemish”, “perfect”. • Was David without blemish? Neither are we. • He must do what is right. Follow God’s requirement.

14. We are all blemished Psalm 32:2 Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

15. Christ Cleanses my blemishes Romans 3:21–24 21But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, The Law couldn’t cleanse me of my blemishes. But Christ sacrificed himself to cleanse me of my sins and give me access to the Father.

16. Be blameless and Be honest with yourself 2 He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart Two ways we lie to our heart: • We underestimate our sin. • We overestimate ourselves.

17. God Forgives those that speak the truth in their hearts. 1 John 1:8–10 8If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. Romans 12:3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

18. In my heart, do I want to harm someone God loves? 3 who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend; • Do I say things that are untrue about others to cause them harm? • Do I act in manner that could cause harm to my neighbor? • Do I initiate or propagate information that could discredit someone?

19. Honor those worthy of honor 4 in whose eyes a vile person is despised, but who honors those who fear the Lord; • We should disapprove of people that harm other people: lie, defraud, slander, wrong others for personal gain. • Honor those that honor God.

20. Keep our promises and oaths 4 in whose eyes a vile person is despised, but who honors those who fear the Lord; who swears to his own hurt and does not change • He keeps his promise even when it is to his own harm.

21. Do we take advantage of the weak? 5 who does not put out his money at interest and does not take a bribe against the innocent. • Charging interest is seen as taking advantage of another person’s weakness. • Pervert justice for personal advantage.

22. Result of a life of integrity with others? He who does these things shall never be moved. • Stability: He is solid, firm, can’t be moved. • He enjoys intimate fellowship with God. • David state in Psalm 23, “and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

23. Psalm 1 1Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; 2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. 3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. 4 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. 5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; 6 for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

24. Apply it to all relationships

25. It is summarized by Christ John 13:34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.

26. It’s not too late Isaiah 55:6–7 6 “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; 7 let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.