Well, our theme for this Missions Conference this year is Partners of the Gospel. And that idea comes from Philippians 1-5, which Brother Ben Fairchild will be dealing with this morning. That verse is translated in a little different ways depending on what version you're looking at. Partnership is a very good translation of that particular word. If you're looking at the King James, you'll probably see your participation, it talks about your fellowship in the gospel, making remembrance of you, making a request for your fellowship in the gospel. The New American Standard Bible translates to participation in the gospel. And sometimes we throw around these terms, these biblical terms, like fellowship, you know, without really thinking deeply about, you know, what does that mean? You know, we have a fellowship hall. Why do we call it a fellowship? We have fellowship meals. Why do we call it a fellowship hall? Well, that's where we fellowship, right? We talk together and enjoy good food. But yeah, that's good, and that's what our English word fellowship kind of has reference to, but biblically, what does that word fellowship mean? And that's why you have these different translations, you know, in that verse, you know, partnership in the gospel, participation in the gospel, fellowship in the gospel. We just don't have an English word that really fits what it's trying to communicate here. And so this morning, I just kind of want to help you out a little bit and try to give you a better idea of what's being communicated when the Bible uses this word fellowship. Fellowship in the gospel or partnership in the gospel. Whatever it means to be a partner or to have fellowship in the gospel, it does include this idea of participation and fellowship. So I want to look at this partnership as fellowship. Now the word that's translated here, I'll go ahead and tell you the Greek word in case you want to know. It's the word koinonia. Some of you have probably heard of that word before, koinonia. And so let's first of all look at what it means for believers to have fellowship with one another. That's the word that's used there in Philippians. What does it mean for believers to have fellowship with one another? What does this look like? Well, we'll look at what fellowship is and then how this concept plays itself out practically. Every believer's union with Christ is really the basis for our communion with him. And so our unity in Christ is really gonna be the basis for our fellowship with one another. And so a good definition of fellowship It's really a close association involving mutual interests and sharing. I think that would capture everything that most of what this is trying to communicate. It's a close association involving mutual interests and sharing. And so that's why you have these translations that are going to render this various ways, depending on exactly the context. You're going to have fellowship, you're going to have contribution, that's a type of sharing. You have a participation, partnership. And so fellowship is really going to assume a unity. It's going to be unity with Christ and unity with one another. And so when people possess this fellowship, we see these people involved in active relationships with one another. Their focus is on knowing Christ and on making him known together. So fellowship, it's a close association involving mutual interests and sharing. And really big in that idea is this idea of sharing. It could be sharing your faith, or sharing possessions with one another, or having this shared participation in Christ's sufferings, or a shared participation and beneficence toward other believers. So an illustration of this is in Acts chapter 2. It's a well-known place where this word occurs. And Acts 2, of course, describes the day of Pentecost in it. And after these thousands of people are saved on that day of Pentecost, it describes the early believers and what their focus is. And there in verse 42, Acts 2, 42, we're told that those early believers devoted themselves to certain things. They continued steadfastly in four things. What are they? Do you see it there? The Apostles' Doctrine and what? Fellowship. They devoted themselves to this. What is fellowship? This close association involving mutual interests and sharing. They devoted themselves to this. This sharing in this, this mutual association. These mutual, they have mutual interests. What else did they devote themselves to? To breaking of bread, the Lord's table, and prayers. Okay, Apostles' Doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer. They're devoted these things to this close association with one another. And that fellowship that they had, that close association, that sharing that they have, it actually did involve actual sharing of their possessions. If you look a couple verses later, verse 44. What did they do? It says that they had all things in common. They shared. Actually that word common, that comes from the same word koinonia. It's a different form. And they sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men. They shared with one another because they had fellowship with one another. These believers had this shared experience that, that day of Pentecost, that shared experience, that amazing experience they all had. They had a shared experience, many of them had a shared experience with Christ physically during his, throughout his ministry and his, the difficult days of his trial and crucifixion and burial, which took just 40 days before. They shared the exaltation of his resurrection and the 40 days that he was with them. All of them had this mutual interest in Jesus Christ. His person and His work for them. They had all spiritually died with Christ. They had all been buried with Christ through baptism into death. They had all been raised up with Him to walk in newness of life. And as part of their spiritual ascension with Christ, Ephesians talks about how believers all are seated with Him in the heavenly places in Christ. So you see how this fellowship is a shared experience of all these people, a shared experience with Christ. What is fellowship? It is this close association involving mutual interests in sharing. They all have this mutual interest in Christ. They all share in the benefits of His death. And so they have this close association with one another as a result of that. That is what fellowship is. And these mutual experiences are true of all of us who trust in Christ. We have the shared experience of dying and being buried with Christ, being raised up with Him, ascending with Him in the heavenly places, And so these mutual interests and these experiences led the early church there in Acts 2 to be deeply invested in one another's lives, helping one another, sharing with those who had need. And so in contrast with the world, the members of the church have this incredible relationship with one another that is not true, that cannot be true of anyone in the world because of this fellowship we have with one another through Christ. That's what fellowship is. It's this close association involving mutual interests and sharing. And this is what our partnership in the gospel means. We all share in the work of Christ. and we are all gonna share in the task of making that gospel known to others and bringing others into the kingdom. That's what fellowship is. Well, how does that, let's look at how that fellowship affects us. We've touched on some of this, but I wanna make sure it's clear. Well, first of all, fellowship means that we are going to have this mutual identity in Christ. What do we call ourselves? Christians, we are Christians because that's our identity. We all share, this is a mutual identity that we all share. It's this mutual identity that draws out of us reciprocal concern and edification. In Romans chapter 12, Paul is describing how all of us are part of one body in Christ. And he describes what that means practically. And part of it, what it means, he says, distributing to the necessity of the saints, given to hospitality. Romans 12, 13. Hold on, I'm bringing it up here. That word distributing to the necessity of the saints, why did I pull that verse up? Well, because that word distributing, okay, you have koinonia, And the verb there comes from the verb koinoneo. Oh, okay. It's the verb form of koinonia. It's sharing with the necessity of the saints. Because of that shared identity in Christ, it results in a sharing to others' necessities, given to hospitality. In 2 Corinthians 8-4, we have another instance of this. And Paul mentions the Macedonian church, raises them up as an example of generosity. And he talks about how it was something that they were very eager to do, and they wanted to take upon them the fellowship of the ministering to the saints. They wanted to share in that ministry of the saints. This was something that their mutual identity in Christ resulted in. Okay, so one way our our fellowship, the reality of our fellowship. One way it affects us is that it means that we have this mutual identity in Christ that's gonna result in generosity toward one another. So it means that we're gonna have, second of all, edificational relationships with one another. I just made that word up. Edificational, in a relationship that edifies, that builds others up. And when you look at the many New Testament commands concerning relationships, you see that Christ-likeness involves giving and receiving in response to God's love for us. This might be spiritual edification, but it also involves physical edification. And we saw some examples of that in Romans and Corinthians and Acts. The believers had all things in common and shared with those who had need. Finally, fellowship is going to need that we are going to be partners in the advance of the gospel. And sometimes that does involve suffering. Galatians 1-9, we see an example of being partners in the advance of the gospel. Paul is giving a lot of personal testimony here in Galatians, especially these first two chapters. And he was talking about his own entry into missions. And he talks about how he got to know James and Cephas and John. And when James and Cephas, this is Galatians 2.9, when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, they were leaders in the church, when they perceived the grace that was given unto me, They saw that Paul had grace, God's gift to preach the gospel. And so when they saw that grace, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship, that we should go to the heathen, to the Gentiles, And they did the circumcision to the Jews. They partnered together at the advance of the gospel. They had this reality of fellowship in Christ. And so they gave them the right hand of fellowship, that partnership that Paul should go to the Gentiles and James and Cephas and John would go to the Jews. Philippians 1.5, Paul reminds them of their fellowship in the gospel, their partnership in the gospel. And they demonstrated their gospel partnership by supporting the Jerusalem believers, as we see later on. Partnership as fellowship. Because of our fellowship in Jesus Christ, the mutual identity that we have in Him, that is a reality in our lives. This is fellowship. And that fellowship is going to express itself in various ways. It expresses itself in care for one another, physical care, spiritual care, and a partnership in advancing the gospel, a working together And we are so thankful for you all, for your partnership with us, and trying to advance the Gospel in very, very dark places of the world. Let's close with a word of prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for the fellowship, the reality of the fellowship that we have in Jesus Christ. We pray that we would truly be partners in the gospel that we would truly live out the reality of the fellowship that we all have in Jesus Christ. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.