09/08/2026
FERRYFIELD MISSIONARY BAPTIST CHURCH
Interactive Phone Bible Study
Better Together
Why God Never Meant for Us to Walk Alone
Relationships and Fellowship in the Christian Community • Hebrews 10:24–25 • Tuesday, September 8, 2026
We were never designed to walk alone. Fellowship is how God keeps us standing.
Opening
Welcome and prayer. Open the line, greet the Saints by name as they join, and pray for open hearts and honest conversation.
Opening Question
Think back over the past month. When was a moment another believer showed up for us at the right time, with a word, a call, a meal, or just their presence? Describe it in a sentence or two.
Saints, every one of those stories is a picture of what we are talking about tonight. None of us got here alone. Somebody prayed for us, somebody taught us, somebody sat with us in the hospital or stood with us at the graveside. Tonight we want to look at why that is not an accident but a design.
The Anchor Text
Hebrews 10:24–25 (KJV)
And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
Notice the verbs the writer uses. Consider. Provoke. Assemble. Exhort. Not one of them is passive. Not one of them can be done alone. The writer of Hebrews is speaking to believers under pressure, some of them tempted to drift away from the gathered church. His answer to pressure is not “try harder by yourself.” His answer is “stay connected to one another.”
Let us also note the phrase “as the manner of some is.” Even in the first century, some believers had already made a habit of staying away. This is not a new problem, and the remedy has not changed either.
Designed for Connection
Fellowship begins before the church, before Pentecost, before Abraham. It begins in the nature of God Himself. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have existed in perfect relationship from eternity. When God made us in His image, He made us relational.
Genesis 2:18 (KJV)
And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
This is the first time in Scripture that God calls anything “not good.” Everything else in creation received the verdict “good.” But a human being alone, with no one to share life with, was declared not good by God Himself. Isolation was never part of the design. It is a vulnerability.
1 John 1:3, 7 (KJV)
That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ... But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
John connects two things we often keep separate: our fellowship with God and our fellowship with each other. He does not present them as two different relationships. Walking in the light with God produces fellowship with one another. When our relationship with God is real, it shows up in how we relate to the people around us.
Discussion Question 1
1. Why do we think God called it “not good” for a person to be alone, even in a perfect garden with no sin, no sickness, and no enemy yet present? What does that tell us about how He made us?
Fellowship Is More Than Attendance (10 minutes)
The New Testament word most often translated “fellowship” is the Greek word koinonia. It carries the idea of sharing, participation, partnership, and having something in common. The same root gives us the word “communion.” Koinonia is not two people in the same room. It is two people sharing the same life.
Acts 2:42 (KJV)
And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.
The early church did not simply attend together. They shared doctrine, shared meals, shared prayer, and, as the following verses tell us, shared possessions when a brother or sister had need. That is koinonia.
Romans 12:4–5 (KJV)
For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.
Paul does not say we are members of the same organization. He says we are “members one of another.” A hand does not attend the body. A hand belongs to the body, and the body does not function right without it. That is how God sees us in relationship to each other.
So we have to ask ourselves an honest question. Is it possible to be present every Sunday and still not be in fellowship? Yes, it is. Attendance puts us in the room. Fellowship puts us in each other's lives.
Fill in the Blank 1
Read Hebrews 10:25 together and fill in the missing words:
“Not forsaking the __________ of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but __________ one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.”
Discussion Question 2
2. What is the difference between attending church and being in fellowship with the church? What does “members one of another” look like in a practical, everyday way?
What Fellowship Does for Us
Scripture is very practical about the benefits of walking together. Solomon lays it out plainly.
Ecclesiastes 4:9–12 (KJV)
Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up. Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone? And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
Four things happen when we walk together. Our labor is more fruitful. When one falls, the other is there to lift. When it gets cold, there is warmth. When the enemy comes, there is someone standing beside us. Every one of these is something we cannot supply for ourselves.
Proverbs 27:17 (KJV)
Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.
Sharpening requires contact, and sometimes friction. A knife left alone in a drawer does not get sharper; it gets dull. Fellowship is where God sharpens us, and sometimes that sharpening comes through a brother or sister who loves us enough to tell us the truth.
Galatians 6:2 (KJV)
Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.
Paul says bearing one another's burdens fulfills the law of Christ. That means carrying each other is not optional charity. It is obedience. And it means that when we are the one with the burden, letting somebody help us carry it is not weakness. It is giving another believer the chance to obey.
Fill in the Blank 2
Read Ecclesiastes 4:12 together and fill in the missing words:
“And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a __________ cord is not quickly __________.”
Discussion Question 3
3. Ecclesiastes says “woe to him that is alone when he falleth.” Why is it so hard for many of us, especially mature believers, to let someone help us up when we fall? What keeps us from letting our burdens be shared?
What Fellowship Asks of Us
Go back to Hebrews 10:24–25 one more time. Every verb in that passage is something we do for someone else. Consider one another. Provoke one another to love. Exhort one another. Fellowship is not primarily about what we receive. It is about what we give.
That means fellowship asks something of us. It asks us to show up, and not just to the service, but to each other's lives. It asks us to be known, to let people past the surface. It asks us to forgive, because there is no long-term fellowship without forgiveness. And it asks us to go after those who are drifting, because the writer of Hebrews said “some” had already made a habit of staying away, and he did not say to let them go.
Saints, we know where Ferryfield is right now. We are living through transition. Leadership is shifting, faces are changing, and some seats that used to be full are not. In seasons like this, fellowship is not a program on the calendar. It is the thing that holds the body together. Programs come and go. Buildings change. But when we are truly members one of another, the body stays whole even when the season is hard.
Fellowship is not what we receive from the church. It is what we give to one another.
Discussion Question 4
4. Hebrews says to “exhort one another... so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” Why would fellowship become more urgent, not less, as time moves forward and as our church moves through change?
Discussion Question 5
5. Who do we know that used to be connected and has drifted? Without naming names on the line, what is one concrete step we can each take this week to reach toward that person?
Closing
Tonight we have seen that our need for one another goes all the way back to the garden. We have seen that fellowship is shared life, not shared seating. We have seen what walking together does for us, and we have seen what it asks of us.
The writer of Hebrews gave us the reason: the day is approaching. The Lord is coming back for a body, not for a collection of individuals. Until He comes, He has given us each other. Let us not forsake that gift.
Closing Reflection
Closing Prayer
A Note on the Word Koinonia
Koinonia (Greek, Strong's G2842) is the New Testament word rendered “fellowship” in Acts 2:42, 1 John 1:3 and 1:7, and elsewhere. Its range of meaning includes fellowship, sharing, participation, partnership, and communion. All scripture quotations are from the King James Version.
