INTRODUCTION...

- When Jesus was asked the greatest commandment, He answered clearly
Great Commandment: MK 12:30–31
“30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. 31 The second is, Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other command greater than these.”

- Later, after His resurrection, Jesus gave His disciples the...
Great Commission: MT 28:19-20
“19 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

One Mission: Together, they form one mission.
- The Great Commandment tells us what to be—people who love God and love others.
- The Great Commission tells us what to do—make disciples of Jesus.

Fellowship/Koinonia:
God never intended us to live that mission alone, we are supposed to do it in community, in FELLOWSHIP with others. The New Testament word for FELLOWSHIP(koinonia) isn’t just coffee and donuts after church. It’s a life-on-the-line partnership, a mission team, a formation flight.

Fellowship Is Spatial:
- Koinonia—the shared life of God’s people—is not abstract. It has shape, proximity, and rhythm.
- Edward T. Hall was a prominent cultural anthropologist known for his work on nonverbal communication and intercultural understanding. He is particularly recognized for his concept of proxemics, which is described as five social spaces:
1. Divine
2. Intimate
3. Personal
4. Social
5. Public

- We believe the life of a disciple can also be organized around these five spaces.
- Our heart here at Creekside Church is to pursue FELLOWSHIP and share the mission of God through four primary gospel rhythms that fit into these five spaces:

1. LIFE WITH GOD…[Divine Space] (Walking with Him)
2. LIFE ON LIFE… [Intimate Space](Walking like Jesus walked, closely with others in discipleship)
3. LIFE IN COMMUNITY…[Personal & Social Space] (Growing and Living as family in community together as the body of Christ)
4. LIFE ON MISSION…[Public Space](Stepping into the world with the Gospel joining God’s mission together)

—> These four rhythms naturally map onto the five spaces:
a. how close we get
b. who we walk with
c. how we extend God’s mission

1. LIFE WITH GOD [Divine Space]
Walking with Jesus

- Communion with God fuels everything else; it’s the source of koinonia.
You hear me every week during our time of communion call it ‘divine space’.
- Divine Space is an intentional time for YOU to build your relationship with God. We need a lot of ‘divine space’ in our daily lives…our fellowship with God should be the foundation of our fellowship with each other.
- The first four weeks of this series dealt with that aspect…Hearing God’s voice through reading/reaping/memorizing/meditating on His Word and Having God’s Ear through prayer/fasting.
- Last week we talked about being a part of God’s family through GENEROSITY…time talents and treasures used for His Glory and the benefit of each other. We can only be generous when we experience the generosity of Jesus in our lives.
- When it comes to loving others…we can’t do that with depth if we aren’t first drawing near to God. Life on Life, Life in Community, and Life on Mission flow out of the Divine Space and our Life with God. It all starts here.

2. LIFE ON LIFE [Intimate Space]
Walking Like Jesus Walked...

- Life-on-Life discipleship is intimate and gives us DEPTH in our relationships with others. It is walking closely enough with one or two others that you see each other’s real lives and regularly are applying the gospel in your everyday struggles.

HEB 10:24 [NIV84]
“24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds…”

- Jesus Modeled This: He preached to the crowds, but most of His time was with the twelve—and within that, three Peter, James and John. They saw His prayers, His weariness, even His tears. He saw their fears and doubts, and loved them in real time.

1 COR 11:1 “Imitate me, as I also imitate Christ.”

- The heart of Life on Life…discipleship is understanding it is caught not just taught.

1. Invite a couple of people into your real life, not just your Sunday life.
2. Let them see how you handle money, conflict, parenting, or sin and failure in real-time.
3. Meet regularly with them for prayer, encouragement, and accountability.

* Parents—your children are your first disciples. Let them see faith lived, not just taught.

3a. LIFE IN COMMUNITY #1 [Personal Space]
Living as a Small Family of Believers

- If Life on Life is intimate…giving us depth, then Life in Community is broader…giving us breadth. It’s the whole church family—different members, different gifts, one body but meeting in different size groups (both PERSONAL SPACE and SOCIAL SPACE).

ACTS 2:42-47
"42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and signs were being performed through the apostles. 44 Now all the believers were together and held all things in common. 45 They sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple, and broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with joyful and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. Every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved."

1 COR 12:27
“27 Now you are the body of Christ, and individual members of it.”

- Community isn’t optional. It’s God’s design for growth and endurance.
- Jesus even said in...

JN 13:34–35
"34 I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

- Like logs in a fire—pull one out, it cools; keep them together, they burn hotter. Or like a football team—no single player wins alone. Even fighter jets fly in formation to protect and complete the mission. Christians are designed to fly together.
- Life in Community is sharing life with close friends in a small group (we call them Missional Communities MC’s): sharing meals, playing together, praying together, reaping scripture together, supporting one another in ordinary life. [not just a Bible Study].
- It is all about belonging to each other, sharpening each other and practicing accountability and being vulnerable. These are not casual acquaintances, but trusted friends.

1. Be willing to join an MC.
2. Invite people into your home, your family rhythms, or shared meals.
3. Cultivate one or two friendships that can ask, “How can I walk with you in Christ this week?”
4. Talk to Pastor James

* We need more groups…pray about stepping up and out to lead one, host one

3b. LIFE IN COMMUNITY #2 [Social Space]
Living as a Large Family of Believers...

- We talked about this a little bit last week in the area of generosity with time/talents/treasures.
- All of us make up this local body of believers. Creekside Church. What a story God is writing through all of us!
- Sundays are really important for us as a church family. We gather to worship God and give him the glory he deserves through music, prayer, scripture, fellowship with each other, serving each other through multiple ministries, making disciples of kids and students and adults…GATHERING as a larger body is an important part of our spiritual life together!
- NO GUILT TRIP: but these large group GATHERINGS should be a priority in our lives, the gathering of believers is important

1 COR 12:27
“Now you are the body of Christ, and individual members of it.”

HEB 10:24-25
“24 And let us consider one another in order to provoke love and good works, 25 not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching.”

HEB 3:12–13
“12 Watch out, brothers and sisters, so that there won’t be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13 But encourage each other daily, while it is still called today, so that none of you is hardened by sin’s deception.”

ACTS 2:46-47
“46 Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple, and broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with joyful and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. Every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.”

- Marks of True Fellowship in these spaces:
1. Proximity – close enough to notice needs.
2. Regularity – consistency builds trust
3. Commitment – church involvement reflects covenant fellowship
4. Gospel conversations– speaking truth in love builds up the body

EPH 4:15–16
“15 But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into him who is the head ​— ​Christ. 16 From him the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for building itself up in love by the proper working of each individual part.”

4. LIFE ON MISSION [Public Space]
Living “FOR THE ONE”

- Integrating the Rhythms: When woven together, the ANTHEM for Creekside Church, living FOR THE ONE, begins to take form…
--- Life with God gives us LIFE.
--- Life on Life gives us DEPTH.
--- Life in Community gives us BREADTH.

- But if we stop there, we could become inward-focused..
--> Fellowship isn’t just for comfort—it’s for mission.
- It is our way of articulating and fulfilling the Great Commandment (vertical/horizontal LOVE) and the Great Commission (Make Disciples)

- Together, they form one mission.
--> The Great Commandment tells us what to be—people who love God and love others.
--> The Great Commission tells us what to do—make disciples of Jesus.

- Remember: God is already at work…we join His story, we don’t start our own!

JN 5:17
“My Father is still working, and I am working also.”

- The overflow of fellowship is mission.
- We are SENT ONES. Jesus said in John...

JN 20:21
“…As the Father has SENT me, I also SEND you.”

ACTS 1:8
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

- Every Christian is SENT. You may never move overseas, but you are SENT across your street, into your workplace, into your city.
- Think of a delivery driver. They don’t keep the package—they deliver it. God has entrusted us with the gospel, not to store, but to share.
- Mission is both DEMONSTRATING and DECLARING the gospel. Jesus fed the hungry and preached the kingdom. Our lives and lips both point to Him. Mission isn’t our idea—it’s God’s. He’s already at work, and He invites us into His bigger story.
- Joining God’s mission is like stepping into a play already in progress. You didn’t write the script, but you’ve been invited into the role He prepared for you.
- We are SENT ambassadors, representing our King and His Kingdom

2 COR 5:17-21
"17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come! 18 Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. 19 That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.” 21 He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

1. Identify your ONE...See your workplace, school, or neighborhood as a mission field
2. Someone else’s ONE…Go on mission with another believer, then debrief together.
3. Ask God not just to bless what you’re doing, but to show you where He’s already at work.

CONCLUSION: YOU WERE NEVER MEANT TO FLY ALONE...

- The Christian life is not a solo journey—it’s a formation flight. God’s grace comes not only through His Word and prayer, but through His people.

EPH 4:15–16
“15 But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into him who is the head ​— ​Christ. 16 From him the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for building itself up in love by the proper working of each individual part.”

So—pursue fellowship with other believers…belonging to the body of Christ…

— Live your LIFE WITH GOD…Live LIFE ON LIFE, Commit to LIFE IN COMMUNITY, and step into LIFE ON MISSION.

— And together, experiencing genuine fellowship/koinonia…let’s live out the gospel in the everyday stuff of our lives!

RESPOND, REFLECT & COMMUNION

I would like to give you a chance to respond to God…

-- What did God reveal about who he is to you today in our time in God’s word?
-- What did God reveal about what he has done or is doing in our time in God’s word?
-- What did you learn about who you are as we looked at these stories today?
-- What did you learn about what you are supposed to do?

—> Let's take a minute to thank Him, respond to Him, confess our sins to Him, examine our hearts before we take communion...

—> WHAT IS JESUS SAYING TO YOU TODAY?
—> WHAT IS JESUS ASKING YOU TO DO?