Episode Transcript
[00:00:16] So the United States was born out of a cry for independence.
[00:00:23] The Declaration of independence, written in 1776 by Thomas Jefferson, one of the more brilliant documents in American history, was foundational not only in justifying a revolution from Great Britain, but it was also foundational in implanting a new cultural ideal for a new nation. I'm just going to read the beginning part. Listen to how the document begins.
[00:00:53] It says, the unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America. When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with one another and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
[00:01:25] So if you listen closely, Jefferson is rooting this idea of independence not just as a civic political right. He's appealing to the laws of nature and divine authority as the right for independence.
[00:01:46] The next part of the document is the most famous part, the one that we all know, that we hold these truths to be self evident, that our Creator endowed us with certain and unanable rights.
[00:02:01] What are those rights? Anybody know? History class? What are they, Dan?
[00:02:09] Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Right?
[00:02:15] That's good. That's good. Good history, Dan. This idea of independence becomes fundamental to our national identity, becomes fundamental to our national identity.
[00:02:29] These things are our birthright. Life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, freedom, apple pie, baseball, America. Right, America.
[00:02:44] I'm not going to do trump.
[00:02:48] These are the core values of what it means to be an American. And listen, there's a lot to admire about the founding fathers and the civic liberties that are embedded into the fabric of this country. But when those values inevitably seep into our culture, into our collective consciousness, we tend to embody that daily. And so good wisdom prompts us to ask, okay, these are good ideals, but is this the way I'm called to live as a follower of Jesus? Right.
[00:03:24] A life of independence, that. A life of self made entrepreneurial zeal. This pull yourself up by your bootstraps mentality. To achieve greatness, or at the very least, to achieve the American dream.
[00:03:45] When you think about the American dream, there's probably some pictures that come to your mind. The picket fence, the four bed, two bath house, maybe a backyard, your dog, financial freedom.
[00:04:03] Sociologists have tried to identify what are the elements of the American dream. And they actually outline there's. There's four parts of the American Dream. There's opportunity, upward mobility, prosperity, and of course, independence. Right? The right to do whatever you want, go wherever you need, when you want. And there's something that's compelling about the American Dream for me at least, because it champions this idea of ambition and it champions the idea of purpose.
[00:04:47] Purpose.
[00:04:49] But as we surely know, the American Dream is not perfect, right? I mean, laying aside the reality that when the Declaration of Independence says all men are created equal in historical context, at the time that really meant men only, specifically white men with property, right? It wasn't until years later that those freedoms were afforded to women and African Americans and indigenous peoples.
[00:05:22] But that aside, the real flaw with the idea of independence as our true purpose is that it falls short of a biblical Christian worldview.
[00:05:35] Because as we know from the Christian story, from the beginning of our conception, from the beginning of man's creation, God says what it is not good for man to be alone.
[00:05:49] The fall itself was a kind of Declaration of Independence. We decided that we could become like God and therefore that we didn't need God and that we could go our own ways and be our own gods. We could declare independence from God himself, that we didn't need him anymore.
[00:06:09] And so we took of the fruit and fell.
[00:06:16] God created us to be in community with one another because God himself is a community. The Trinity is Father, Son, Holy Spirit, all one God, three persons.
[00:06:33] In fact, if you, you think about the Old Testament and the New Testament and the times that it was written in the context of the societies of the ancient Near east and the 1st century Greco Roman world were collectivistic societies, right?
[00:06:53] They were not individualistic ones. So you think about an individualistic society is one in which your identity is attached to your life, your liberty and your pursuit of happiness, right? It's all about you. But in a collectivistic society, your identity was intricately connected to your family. It was intricately connected to your, your tribe, your community, even your nation.
[00:07:24] And so this is why we've read so many genealogies in our Bible reading plan this year, because it's coming from a collectivistic culture. The prosperity of all the people of the tribes of Israel was a direct concern and a responsibility to the average ancient Israelites.
[00:07:47] Now here's the thing. Even though it's easy for us to critique the American dream and individualism, this, if we're honest, this is the kind of culture that we're swimming in, right?
[00:07:59] We live and breathe individualism.
[00:08:03] If we're honest, you and I, we're far more me centered than we probably want to admit on a daily basis, right?
[00:08:14] Like, think about this. Think back to when you were growing up and you were in high school and like, the end of high school is kind of the beginning of when you kind of have to start to make some mature, grown up decisions for the first time, right? So what are you asking yourself? You're asking, where am I going to go to college? What am I? What, what am I going to major in?
[00:08:39] Or maybe you're asking, what do I want to do for my career? What do I want to be when I grow up, right?
[00:08:47] These are questions of purpose that you're asking yourself.
[00:08:52] But let me ask you this. When you were considering those things, did you ever stop and ask, I wonder how this life decision is going to affect my hometown?
[00:09:03] Probably not, right? Like, you didn't stop and consider, like, if I go to tcu, I wonder what city council's going to think.
[00:09:12] That probably wasn't a thought.
[00:09:15] Because this is an independent culture, you have the freedom to choose what to do with your life without direct consequence to your neighbors or your town or even your church.
[00:09:26] That's our culture. Our purpose isn't tied to our communities.
[00:09:32] But what our text this morning is going to calibrate us towards is the reality that, yes, you and I have individual purpose. We do.
[00:09:42] But as the people of God, as the body of Christ bought with his precious blood, we have purpose.
[00:09:51] And that purpose is just as important, if not more so, than our individual hopes and our individual dreams and our individual aspirations. Because God didn't create us like leaves that just drift in the wind aimlessly and scatter all over the ground.
[00:10:09] John Piper says that aimlessness is akin to lifelessness.
[00:10:17] The church is a body. The church has an aim. We have intention. We have direction. We're doing something when we gather here. So I want to invite you to consider this morning instead of being preoccupied with your individual life, your individual liberty, your individual pursuit of happiness, what if we stepped into the first century audience of the church and we collectively ask ourselves as Redemption Hill, what is our purpose when we come together on Sundays, when we intentionally gather on the Lord's Day, and when we gather in community groups, what are we doing? What's our purpose? I think that's the question of our text. What is the purpose of the people of God? And it's going to answer it for us in three ways.
[00:11:07] The first one is to hold fast to our hope in God. That's verse 23.
[00:11:13] Second one is to consider one another, verse 24.
[00:11:19] And lastly to be regularly together.
[00:11:23] That's verse 25. So number one, our purpose is to hold fast to our hope in God. Look at verse 23 with me says, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. So what the author is calling us into is a kind of preliminary heart work here for us before we come together. This is something that, that we can actually do independently of one another, but we're all still called to do it, right? Like I've heard one pastor say, there's certain Bible verses that you can obey laying down in your bed, but there's other verses that you actually have to climb out of your bed and do something, right? To be somewhere. Does that make sense? So this verse you can do in your heart, it's a lying in your bed or on your knees or in the car kind of text. He says, let us hold fast.
[00:12:23] So this is an ongoing action. In other words, he's saying, let's continue this aspect of our faith together. Let's hold fast. That means exactly what you think it does, right? Think of squeezing something really tight, like holding onto a rope.
[00:12:40] Or when you hug someone that's dear to you, that you're not going to see for a long time, like your spouse or your best friends or your kids or your parents that hug, you're going to hold them tight, right? Like it's going to, you're not going to want to leave, you're going to want to hold them close to you. That's the idea here.
[00:13:04] Now hold fast to what he says, the confession of our hope without wavering hope.
[00:13:15] Hold fast to your hope. Now. We live in an age of secularism, okay? Secularism just means that we live in a society where belief in God is not assumed to be true. And instead what's assumed to be true is naturalism, science, rationalism. These things are evidence based, right? That's what it means, that we're in a secular age. But here's the problem. When you remove God from the assumed picture of reality, that has consequences, right?
[00:13:50] And one of those consequences is that you don't just lose God, but you lose his virtues.
[00:13:58] Virtues like charity, love, faith and hope.
[00:14:05] Bertrand Russell was a famous atheist philosopher, and towards the end of his life he said this regarding hope. Listen to how bleak this is.
[00:14:17] He says the labors of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction and the vast death of the solar system. And that the whole temple of man's achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins.
[00:14:39] Only within the scaffolding of the truths. Only on the firm foundation of unyielding despair can the soul's habitation henceforth be safely built.
[00:14:55] Well, he must be fun at parties, right? But here's the thing. Russell was actually just being honest with his secular atheism and carrying it to its logical conclusion.
[00:15:08] Because if death and extinction are inevitable and God is not real and Jesus isn't alive, then we should not hope, right? We shouldn't hold fast. We should release forever to the foundation of unyielding despair. The apostle Paul says this too. He says, if in Christ we have hope, in this life only we are, of all people, most to be pitied.
[00:15:36] Paul's confirming his point. No Jesus, no hope.
[00:15:41] Like, if none of this is true, we of all people should be the most to be pitied.
[00:15:47] Because what a waste of time this is, trying to advance a kingdom that isn't real, following after a fairy tale. God raising money for gospel proclamation in the city and to the nations, risking our lives for a myth.
[00:16:09] Like, if none of this is real, we could do a lot more and have a lot more fun on a Sunday than this, right? Like we could buy a big boat and a lake house and just grill out and watch football, right?
[00:16:24] Why do this? Why be here?
[00:16:29] But if Jesus is alive, and friends, make no mistake, Christ is raised from the dead.
[00:16:39] He's the first fruits of all who have fallen asleep.
[00:16:44] For just as by one man has come death, by another man has come life and resurrection and hope.
[00:16:52] He is risen.
[00:16:54] We do have a purpose, to be here today.
[00:16:59] And listen, maybe you're here today and you don't possess the despair and the hopelessness of the extinction of all things like Russell does.
[00:17:10] But if you're like me, maybe you're walking through a season of cynicism that instead of holding fast to the hope of the gospel, your grip is loose on, on the rope, the political news cycle, the partisan decide, your attitudes towards your boss at work, your annoyance with a coworker, even your own shortness with your family. All of these things could be signs of cynicism in your heart, like whatever it is, like you just find yourself collectively rolling your eyes at the world.
[00:17:49] One author says cynicism often masquerades as godly sobriety, meaning that when we're cynical about something, we're often rightly diagnosing the prevalence of folly or sin in the world. But in our attempt to be a sober realist, cynicism actually gets Us drunk on a view of the world that's vacant of God's ability to redeem and bring goodness to a situation.
[00:18:16] Does that make sense? Let me say it again.
[00:18:19] In our attempt to be sober realists, cynicism actually gets us drunk on a view of the world that's vacant of God's ability to redeem and bring goodness to a situation.
[00:18:31] Listen to how Peter puts it first Peter 1:13. He says, preparing your minds for actions and being sober minded.
[00:18:39] Prerequisite, being sober minded, then set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Friends, we can't be cynical and hopeful at the same time.
[00:18:53] And I say that as someone who struggles with cynicism constantly, even cynicism in my own faith. Like, I cynically believe that God cannot change people, that there are certain non Christians in my life that he's just not going to save, and that there are certain believers that he's just not going to change their attitudes or their behaviors about something, that they're just going to remain stubborn because that's who they are. We just got to deal with it.
[00:19:26] That's not hopeful. That's not hoping in the Lord.
[00:19:32] Like, do you know, like when you look at the phrase the confession of hope, you know what the author's referring to here? He's actually talking about something that he already mentioned in Hebrews 6. He says, we have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Friends, Jesus is the hope.
[00:20:04] He's the one who's faithful to his promises.
[00:20:07] So when we talk about how our primary purpose as a people is to hold fast to our hope, we're talking about holding the hope that has entered the inner place behind the curtain.
[00:20:21] You think about the Old Testament sacrificial system. What the high priest would do on the day of atonement is that he would make a sacrifice outside in the courtyard.
[00:20:33] And then what he would do is he would gather the blood of the sacrifice and he would go into what's called the holy of holies, where the presence of God was, where the presence of God dwelled, and he would sprinkle it onto the mercy seat on the day of atonement.
[00:20:48] And the significance of that is that in the gospel in redemption, Jesus was sacrificed outside the gates of Jerusalem.
[00:20:58] But the sacrifice of his blood was so powerful against demons, and so powerful against hell and sin and death itself, that the moment he died, the curtain of the temple was torn in two.
[00:21:19] That's amazing, because we don't need a sacrificial animal or a priest anymore to go to the presence of God.
[00:21:34] He is our hope. He's the hope that has gone to the inner place.
[00:21:39] And listen, he goes to the inner places also, not just in the temple, but in our own hearts.
[00:21:48] He goes to the inner places of our sin, the darkest, most wretched parts of yourselves, the parts that you wouldn't realize reveal to anybody else.
[00:21:58] He goes all the way down to the bottom of the pit of our sin and unrighteousness.
[00:22:04] And he cleanses us and he forgives us by his blood. And then he rises all the way up, bodily, physically, from the dead and to the right hand of His Father, to His very presence.
[00:22:16] Because he who promised is faithful. That's the Gospel. Amen.
[00:22:26] And if you would turn from your sins, if you're here and you don't know Jesus, if you would turn from your sins and trust him, you will know hope like you've never known it before, that you could hold fast to him today through repentance and faith. If you would declare him as Lord and Savior of your life, he will be your hope. He will be your confession.
[00:22:52] You can trust in Him. That's the offer to you.
[00:22:57] And for those of us who are believers, we're once again called into the character and the person of Jesus.
[00:23:05] Hope is a confident expectation and a desire that God will bring good to a situation. Jesus is that for us.
[00:23:15] He promises to put his law on your heart. He promises to remember your sins no more. He promises to never leave nor forsake you. He is our hope today, now and forevermore, so we can hold fast to Him.
[00:23:31] So we've seen that one of our purposes as his people is to hold fast to our hope. And we can. This is the kind of text, like I said at the beginning. You can do this wherever you are. You can do this in your seat. You can do this in the car. You can do this on your bed, on your pillow, asleep. You can do this on your knees. You can do this at your desk, at work, wherever you are.
[00:23:53] But the following two verses are going to cause us to climb out of the bed and do something and go somewhere. So we move to our second point, which is consider one another. Consider one another. Verse 24. Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.
[00:24:15] Now here's why I'm titling this consider one another, because in the original Greek, the word order on this verse is impossible to bring over into proper English. And that's the case with most translations of any language. But if we were to take the original word order of this verse, here's how it would like actually paraphrase out. It would read, consider one another, how to provoke or stir up to love and good works.
[00:24:47] So, English grammar lesson. For a second, we just did history. Now it's grammar class. Okay, The. The word consider. What part of speech is that?
[00:25:03] Verb. Right? What's a verb?
[00:25:13] That is a better definition than I even have. It's amazing.
[00:25:18] A verb describes an action, right? Okay. All right. Little harder. Now look at the words. One another in the text. One another. What part of speech is that?
[00:25:32] Close.
[00:25:34] Wait, who said someone? Say object. It's the direct object. Yeah, the direct object, if you don't remember grammar class, receives the action of the noun, right? Okay, so let's put this together. You have consider the verb, and you have one another. The direct object. The one another is receiving, the considering.
[00:25:56] Okay?
[00:25:57] And now you take this word consider. This is also used only one other place in the book of Hebrews. That's Hebrews 3. It says, Therefore, brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession.
[00:26:14] So consider as conveying this idea of studying, of setting your mind upon something, or the word we've been using for 20, 25, beholding something or someone.
[00:26:29] So in the book of Hebrews, we have an exhortation to behold and consider Jesus the person of Jesus daily.
[00:26:37] But here in verse 24, we also have a call to be perceptive and observant regarding our relationships with one another.
[00:26:48] In other words, when we gather together, we pay attention, right? Anybody know, like, anybody like, people watching. It's okay to admit people watching. Any people watchers in the crowd? What's people watching? That's when you. Not in a creepy way, but maybe you're out in public. You're just idly observing people in public. You're maybe making a backstory for them. And like, like, oh, I bet they're a CEO of something. Like. Or you eavesdrop on somebody. You know, you're people watching. You're listening in. You're paying attention.
[00:27:27] That's considering.
[00:27:29] That's being perceptive.
[00:27:31] But the considering in this verse has a particular aim, and the aim is to stir up that word. The word stir up, it literally means provoke.
[00:27:46] Provoke.
[00:27:49] In my family and among my peers, I'm considered the Pot stirrer of the family. So I enjoy prodding and poking fun at things that annoy people and kind of exposing it in a very playful way.
[00:28:08] And I had a roommate in college who I just. He was one of my best friends, and I just loved to mess with him.
[00:28:16] Like, all through our freshman year, I would just troll him and joke around with him. And me and my roommate, we were living in a house with several other guys. And you know how when you have roommates, you love them? Like, we were all friends, but there's certain small things that they do that just kind of get under your skin and annoy you. And so this particular roommate, he would.
[00:28:45] He loved to drink milk. Like, he drank a lot of milk. And he would just leave the empty milk jug in weird places in the house.
[00:28:54] He would, like, empty. Like there'd just be an empty milk jug next to the door on the ground.
[00:29:01] Or like, on a weird spot in the counter. Or, like, one time we found it in the sink. And like, he would just leave stuff weird places. He had these dumbbell free weights. And like, he'd leave, like, his socks and his underwear on top of it. And like, he'd always leave his laundry and the washer and like, never, like, transfer it over to the dryer. And finally, like, you know, I kind of thought it was funny at first. Cause I was like, oh, this is just him. But the other roommates came to me and they're like, hey, man, we gotta do something about this. Like, this is just. It's not, like, cute anymore. We need to do something. And so instead of being the mature adult and doing the adult thing, which is to, like, sit down and have a conversation, we concocted. We decided it would be really funny to just take all of the stuff all over the house and just pile it on top of his bed.
[00:29:57] And so that's what we did. We took the milk jugs, we took the empty cups. We took the underwear and the socks and the laundry. And we just put. Piled it all on top of his bed while he wasn't there one day. And then we left. We left and went to the house.
[00:30:13] And I thought that, you know, that would just be really funny, but it also would kind of send a message. And so he ends up calling me and he says, hey, did you guys do this? Did you guys, like, put all of this stuff on my bed? He was really upset. And I go, yeah, man, that'll show you. You know. And he was like, hey, hey, I really don't appreciate that. Like, I really like, he wasn't. It wasn't a funny gag to him. He was insulted by it. And I was kind of defensive at first, but he was like, man, like, all throughout our friendship, like, you just constantly poke and prod at me. And I realized at that moment, I was like, I'm. I'm kind of a provoker. Like, this is like an unkind thing to do. I'm provoking somebody in a backhanded kind of passive way. And it's not healthy. And so I share that. To say that the text is calling us to provoking, but in the opposite direction, right?
[00:31:21] Not to provoke one another to things like anger or jealousy or strife, but towards what? Towards love and good works. And here's what that means.
[00:31:32] It's not just love and good works in the general sense, like acts of charity and kindness, those are good and necessary. That has its place. But it's more in kind of a Matthew 5:16 kind of way, when Jesus says, in the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works. And then what? And then give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
[00:31:58] We want to stir up one another. That God would get glory and we would behold Jesus more. That's the idea, right? That's the aim of stirring one another up. And so this takes some maturity on our parts. If we're really going to consider one another, that's going to require us to know each other, to study one another, to be aware, to pay attention to how we're coming in as we gather or how we're coming into community group, right? To be mindful of what seasons we're walking through, to be sensitive to that.
[00:32:38] This is going to take a kind of humility on our parts. You think about humility and the way Paul describes it in Philippians 2, he says that we might count others as more significant than ourselves. Right? The most mature Christian men and women I know are the ones who treat me like this. They're the ones who count me in, right? They take time to get to know me. They're not thinking about themselves in conversations. It doesn't have to be about them because they want to stir my affections and love and good works towards Jesus.
[00:33:16] They want to see people like Jesus sees people. They want to look after the interests of others. Right?
[00:33:25] Do you know anybody like this? Are you like this?
[00:33:31] I'll say, just a real practical way. Our community group kind of practiced this the other day, and I didn't even initiate this, but we just took inventory of who was still with us and who wasn't.
[00:33:42] And the people. Some people have moved away. Some people have been in and out for one reason or another. And we said, hey, let's contact these people. Let's pray for these people.
[00:33:54] That's part of what considering is we're paying attention to who's here, who's not here collectively as a body.
[00:34:02] If you know Elizabeth Davis, she's a perfect example of someone who. Who embodies this. She's extremely gifted in this area of considering. She has a very sharp running list in her mind of who's here, who isn't. She knows who needs care in the body. If you have a question about where somebody is or what's going on with somebody, like, just ask her.
[00:34:26] When I think about someone who stirs me to love and good works, I think about Dallas Gossett.
[00:34:32] Dallas, the other day we met together, and it was a conversation that we both didn't want to leave because he was so encouraging and strengthening my soul and the person of Jesus that there was just this overflowing of love for one another and to God, right? I'm grateful for you, brother. And I know that Dallas isn't just that for me. He's that for a lot of you as well.
[00:35:02] That's what I'm saying, y'all. This is this verse 24. Let's continue to own this. You think about the creativity it takes to obey a verse like this, right? Like to really stop and consider and say, hey, how can I help this person? Help me help us love Jesus more?
[00:35:20] How can I encourage them to do good for that person at work or that family member? How can I spur them on to the good work of sharing the Gospel?
[00:35:30] What can I plan? What can I consider? What can I do to stir this person to glorify Jesus? I want you to think about that today.
[00:35:39] Take that. That's a question I want us to take away from today. Lord, would you help me be a better student of your people, a better considerer, for the sake of your kingdom, for the sake of more disciples being made?
[00:35:54] Lastly, let's look at verse 25. Remember, our threefold purpose as a people is hope in God considering one another. And now our final point. How do we do this? To be regularly together.
[00:36:09] To be regularly together. Verse 25. Look at it with me.
[00:36:13] Not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another all the more as you see the day drawing near.
[00:36:23] Now, when I first read this verse, I kind of laughed a little bit because sometimes the Bible is funny, right? You know, remember, Hebrews is a sermon, okay? And so these words would have been delivered out loud to a people. And he's saying, hey, let's not neglect to meet together, as is the habit of some. You know, it kind of felt like passive to me. Maybe I'm reading too much into that. But I thought it was kind of just a funny little quip. Cause he's like, I'm not gonna name names. But some of you aren't here. You know.
[00:36:55] You know who you are. That's kind of how I read this. I thought it was kind of cheeky, but I don't know. I could be. That could be too much. I think probably more realistically, the real point that he's making here is more of like a warning, right? He's saying, hey, don't neglect the power of the gathering.
[00:37:12] Because some people are doing that.
[00:37:14] Now the question is, what's he talking about here? Is he talking about the Sunday morning gathering? Is he talking about small groups? Is it another random fellowship? And the author doesn't specify here if it's the Sunday morning assembly or not. But I think by process of elimination, in serving like the whole of the New Testament, from Acts to Revelation, he's most likely speaking to the regular gathering of believers on the Lord's Day, most likely.
[00:37:42] And because there couldn't be much else that he's referring to here, we know that there was a pattern that in the book of Acts, on the day that Jesus was raised, which was a Sunday, we see early. We see this in the early church as well, of people who gather on the Lord's Day to worship and to take communion and to hear the word of God delivered to them. So it's safe to say this is talking about the Sunday gathering. So, yes, good application of this verse is to come to church on Sundays. That's a good way to apply this. That's a positive thing for you to do as a Christian, especially as a member of a local church, is to prioritize the Sunday gathering. Because it's good to be here. It really is. It's good to be among the people of God as a believer. We need one another.
[00:38:33] But I think what would be an even better, deeper application for us is to hear this and not just think, okay, I need to come to church. Pastor wants me to come to church. La, la, la. But to come to church and to come to community group and to make it a godly habit, to make it a familial rhythm, to meet with one another. To practice these things, because, listen, I love our Sunday services, but if this is all we're coming to, it's very difficult to obey the whole of this passage, right?
[00:39:06] Like doing the bare minimum of just being here from 10:05 and 11:30 and then jetting out and not being known, not being in community. That's not what the author of Hebrews has in mind when he exhorts us to meet together.
[00:39:19] He's not just talking about our coming and going on Sundays, he says, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another.
[00:39:32] So it's not just gathering to consume, it's gathering to bless.
[00:39:38] One of the many things I love about our church and the way that we do this is that on Sunday mornings after service is over, we're not in a hurry to get out of here.
[00:39:47] We like to linger. We talk, we laugh. Some of us intentionally pray with one another. We seek each other out.
[00:39:56] Let's keep doing that because in many ways that's crucial to how we obey this text.
[00:40:03] When we come here, we want to encourage one another. We want to consider how we might stir each other towards the person of Jesus.
[00:40:12] That's being an active participant in the church. When you do that, you're being and doing good to one another.
[00:40:21] And even more so, that's why we champion community groups as well.
[00:40:26] Because fulfilling all the one another's passages in the New Testament is very difficult to achieve if our Christian life can one day a week, right?
[00:40:38] Our community groups are designed to be an outpost of Gospel oxygen for you.
[00:40:45] We gather there to embody the practices of intentional hospitality, joyful repentance, honest prayer. Because we're all sinners in need of Jesus and we need one another if we're going to make it, if we're going to persevere.
[00:41:03] Like you think about it like I need y'all, like I need your holiness.
[00:41:10] Bonhoeffer once said this, and he wrote it in a really good short book called Life Together. He said, every act of self control of the Christian is also a service to the fellowship.
[00:41:26] You think about that like when you say no to sin privately, when you resist the temptation to gossip or to lust or to lash out at your loved ones. When you do that, you're not just overcoming sin, you're actually serving me. You're serving the body.
[00:41:46] Which means that our growth as disciples, our daily transformation into the image of Jesus, that affects all of us.
[00:41:56] Because as Paul writes in the negative way, he says, a little leaven leavens the whole lump he says, when one part suffers, we all suffer. When one part rejoices, we all rejoice. Your sanctification is our business.
[00:42:15] That's why we want you here. We want you to grow, we want you to flourish. We want you to be all that God has created you to be.
[00:42:24] And the community of God is crucial to that project.
[00:42:31] We want to equip you, the saints, for the work of ministry.
[00:42:39] We don't want it to be just all elder led and staff led and deacon led. Like, we want to equip you to be ministers of one another.
[00:42:49] And so when you consider that truth, this ties very well with this last phrase of the text that says encouraging one another all the more. As you see the day drawing near this day, this is the future day, the final judgment. When Jesus returns at the last days, Jesus says, the love of many will grow cold. And it's because we're all creatures of habit, right? What you don't do for a while, you habitually tend not to do for a while. If I don't go to the gym regularly, I habitually start not going. If I don't pray regularly, I habitually start not praying.
[00:43:36] So why don't we want to develop these bad habits is because the day of the Lord is drawing near.
[00:43:43] Jesus is going to return. Like, like a lot of times, I don't know about you, but like, when I, When I think about the return of Jesus, I think about, like, how it's going to look, right? Like, how it's going to sound. Is it going to, is it going to be over Israel? Like, is there, you know what, what is social media going to say? Are there going to be drones? Like, like, what is this going to look like, right?
[00:44:09] We've all thought about that. But have you ever considered, if we were fortunate enough to see Jesus return in our lifetimes, have you ever considered how you would want him to find you?
[00:44:23] What would you want to be doing on that day or in that hour?
[00:44:28] Where would you want to be?
[00:44:30] What habits would you want to be engaged in or not engaged in?
[00:44:38] Like, do you, do you want to be addicted to pornography when Jesus returns?
[00:44:47] Do you want to be angry and lash out at your, at your family, at your loved ones when Jesus returns?
[00:44:58] Do you want to be gossiping?
[00:45:04] Listen, the blood of Jesus is faithful and good to cover all of those things when we turn back to him, but how do you want him to find you?
[00:45:18] John Calvin, when he was at the end of his life, he fell very sick. He was really ill. He had bladder stones. He had gout, lung hemorrhages, migraines. His body was in horrible condition.
[00:45:32] But he would force himself to continue working, even continue preaching and fulfilling ministerial duties.
[00:45:40] He did everything he possibly could. And one author that wrote his biography wrote this about him. He said he drove his body beyond its limits.
[00:45:51] And to those who would urge him to rest, he would respond with the wondering question, what would you have the Lord find me idle when he comes?
[00:46:04] Now, there's some stubbornness in that quote. For sure, there is a place for rest and rehabilitation in the Christian life. But you can't help but admire the heart of that right?
[00:46:15] His motivation for not wanting to cease his habits of kingdom work and serving the Lord and preaching and teaching was the coming of Jesus.
[00:46:25] He didn't want his Master to find him parked in idol.
[00:46:31] How do you want Jesus to find you when he comes?
[00:46:36] So, friends, as we close, let's consider our purpose in this.
[00:46:43] The Lord did not put us here to to to live independent lives.
[00:46:48] We're here to hold fast to the hope of Jesus, to cling to His Gospel.
[00:46:54] And we're here to consider one another, how we might provoke and stir each other to know and love Jesus more. And we do that by being together regularly. We habitually gather on Sundays in community group and even outside of those things. And we establish these healthy rhythms because Jesus is going to return.
[00:47:16] And when he does return, if he were to return in our lifetimes, what if he were to find us together with one another, engaging in gospel ministry, stirring our hearts and affections towards love and good works?
[00:47:34] What if he found us beholding him wherever we were, in trial or in triumph?
[00:47:41] He is our hope.
[00:47:44] He is our purpose.
