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Gospel Community: Hebrews 10:24-25 · Providence Baptist Church - Sermons

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When people are gathered for preaching, the preacher must appeal to an authority.
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! And that authority will either be God's authority as it's found in His word, or it will be an
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! Or it will be an appeal to His own authority.
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I hope that there's a clear understanding in our minds that when we come to His own authority,
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come together for the preaching of the word, you haven't come to hear me speak or anyone
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else that may come, but you've come to hear the word of God speak. It's by this authority
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that we're given life and direction in that life. So let me ask that you take your copy
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of God's word out and you turn to Hebrews chapter 10. We are, as I think most of you know, taking
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a brief break from our normal pattern of verse-by-verse exposition. We have been in the book of Acts
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as of late, finished up chapter 10 and poised to go into chapter 11, see the gospel spring
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forth into Gentile populations. It's an exciting place to be, but as it's the beginning of the
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school year and much of our congregation is made up of college students, it's kind of the beginning
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of our year. And we deemed it important to take some time to either focus you for the first time
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or refocus you as we consider some areas of Christian living starting into this year.
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We started a couple of weeks ago talking about our gospel identity, and I've been crafting for you
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with some help of Wes and his grammatical prowess some summary statements to help us kind of get
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our heads around what it is that we're talking about as we look at the scripture together. And
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we started off with the idea of gospel identity. Who is it that we are in Christ? If you have placed
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believing faith in Christ, who are you? And the statement was as follows, by grace alone,
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through faith alone, in the person and work of Jesus Christ alone, we are justified before God,
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forgiven and adopted by Him. This gospel identity is our great motivation for worship. So having once
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been enemies of God because of our sin, having set ourselves against Him by the way that we lived,
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that record of wrong has been dismissed, and we've been granted the righteousness of Christ by believing
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in His person and His work. And if we have done this, we're accepted by God in Christ. We now have restored
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relationship with God. And it's that reality that causes worship to spring forth and worship that comes
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from every aspect of our living, not just music. So in all things we worship because of who God has
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made us in Christ. Romans chapter 12, verse 1, Paul writes, I appeal to you, therefore, brothers,
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the therefore is there because of the magnificent gospel presentation that has been given in the first
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11 chapters of the book of Romans. I appeal to you, therefore, because of these truths of the gospel,
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brothers, you are found in Christ by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice,
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holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. And what Paul is saying is that brothers,
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those found in Christ, give all of yourself to the worship of God. Having experienced the mercies of God to us,
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in Christ, we live for Him. We've been talking and using the metaphor of good trees, leaning heavily on this
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biblical metaphor. And the logo, it's not up there at the moment, but the logo, you're seeing it on papers
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everywhere. We might be overusing it, in fact, is to state that as good trees, the evidence of such is that
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we bear good fruit, right? We don't bear good fruit to become good trees, but we are good trees, and therefore,
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good fruit comes forth. And we've been presenting to you that the bearing of fruit takes effort on our part.
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The process of becoming perfect in Christ is a process that takes us as the Lord is working in it.
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So there's some things that we must pick up and do and strive for and aim for, right?
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Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it's God who works in you, both to will and to work
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for His good pleasure. So we work as God works. And I've said to you before, we work as if it all depends
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on us, and we praise the Lord that anything good is accomplished by His power within us.
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And we're looking at four different areas of Christian living, fruit areas, if you prefer.
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And I recognize full well that these things are not nice, tidy, neat categories. They overlap in
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many, many ways. And so I don't mean to be over-reductionary as we talk about the Christian life,
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but it's helpful, I think, for us to have hooks to hang our ideas on. And so that's what we're
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attempting to do as we look at gospel identity and then coming out of that gospel conviction,
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gospel community, which is where we find ourselves today, and then coming weeks, gospel character
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and gospel commission. It is our hope that you are so tired of hearing about these things by the end
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of this year, but that your life is being molded and changed by what the Scripture has to say
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concerning these things. We want to see improvement in the life of our congregation.
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So today, the summary statement for gospel community is this,
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being justified before God, forgiven and adopted by Him, we worship Him through gospel community.
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Loving the church in varying means of fellowship and service.
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Now, this morning, I want to speak to you plainly, and I want to speak to you briefly, I hope,
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for multiple reasons. Number one, this has been a trying week for me, concerning community in a number
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of ways, and the details of which are not really important. But I have to tell you honestly that as
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I sat to prepare this particular sermon, some personal vendetta came out in my notes, and I had moments
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where I would take and highlight and delete whole pages and go, nope, not okay. Like, my motivation
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in saying the things that I'm getting riled up to say are not from love, and so I've gone through that
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cycle a number of times. It's been trying for me this week. Further, we have and we will speak often
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concerning gospel community. We speak about it a lot, and if you know me very well at all, you'll know that
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the topic of the local church is one of my great passions. I've seen its great need and the loss of
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the doctrine of the local church, and so we certainly will be talking about it more in the future. And then
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finally, you've soldiered through some long sermons lately, and I want to give you some mental space
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to consider the application of this morning's message for you. We're going to talk very practically at some
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points, and I want you to really consider what this means, what the Word of God means for your life
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today and as we move forward into this year. So our text for today, Hebrews chapter 10, verse 24 and 25,
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included on your notes there for you to mark up. This is not for you to ignore the text in your
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scripture, but for you to mark that up if you'd like to on that page. In order for us to get to Hebrews 10,
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24 and 25, it's really appropriate that we back up to verse 19. So I'll begin reading Hebrews chapter 10,
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beginning in verse 19.
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Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus,
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by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain that is through his flesh,
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and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full
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assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure
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water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.
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Now let's pause for just a moment at the end of verse 23 and see that this text teaches us two
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wonderful privileges granted to us by the gospel. Two wonderful privileges. Number one, unlimited
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accessibility to God. Verse 19 and 20.
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Because we now have this confidence, because of what Christ has done for us, because he has been the perfect
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sacrifice for our sin, the sacrificial system has now been done away with. The temple curtain has been torn.
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We now have full granted access, unfettered access to God because of Christ. And you see that in verses 19 and 20.
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Unlimited accessibility to God. Secondly, we have great advocacy with God. Verse 21. We have a great priest
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over the house of God. The Lord Jesus Christ sits at the Father's right hand interceding for us. The access
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that we have is because of our great clothing in Christ. And we have him as our advocate. And so the text
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goes on. Because of this, because of these realities, right? Unlimited accessibility to God and great
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advocacy with God. And the writer of Hebrews gives us three exhortations. Number one, he says, let us draw near
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to God. We have full granted access, right? What a wonderful privilege it is to know God, not in theory, but in reality,
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relationally. Let us draw near to God. Verse 22. Secondly, let us hold fast the confession of our hope. Let us contend
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for the truth. Let's cling dearly to the convictions that we have in the gospel. Verse 23. And the third
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exhortation is found in verses 24 and 25. You're wondering when we're getting there. Here we are. Verses 24
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and 25. The third exhortation. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to
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meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
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Beloved, this is God's word to us. It was written for our good and his glory. We would all do well to listen to it in order to
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believe its promises and obey its commands. So I've shown you the two exhortations. Let us draw near to God. Let us
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hold fast the confession of our hope. What is the third exhortation? What is the third exhortation? Let us
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consider how to stir up one another. And the Greek word for stir up is a very fascinating word. It can mean to
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stimulate, to stimulate, to spur on. Some would translate it in courage. Some incite. My favorite is agitate.
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Let us consider. Let us figure out how we can bug each other to the end of love and good works.
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The linguist Colin Round translated it affectionate incitement. Bringing somebody to, and whenever I
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think of inciting, I think of inciting someone to violence. Let's use the way I hear that word used.
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Here, affectionately inciting somebody to love and good works. So this is an affectionate incitement. This
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third exhortation is giving us that we would love one another with action. Consider how we're to do
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this. And it's a work, right? I love that the writer of Hebrews says, and let us consider, right? He's not
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suggesting that we just think about how to do it. We're going to do it, but he's saying there's effort
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required on our part, right? That it's going to take varying means. How do we do this work of inciting one
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another affectionately to love and good works? And I would suggest to you that affectionately inciting
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someone to be Christ-like would be to say that we should love the church to love and good works. And so
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your summary statement says that, right? Gospel community, loving the church. Now, beloved, if we love
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Christ, we will love what he loves. Jesus loves the church. Ephesians 5.25 says, Christ loved the church
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and gave himself up for her. Jesus loves the church because Jesus purchased the church. Acts 20.28.
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Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you
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overseers. To care for the church. Jesus loves the church. Jesus loves the church because Jesus purchased
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the church with his own life. And Jesus identifies himself with the church. Acts 9.4. And falling to the
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ground, he, being Saul, heard a voice saying to him, this is Jesus speaking, Saul, Saul,
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why are you persecuting me? Saul is going around and hauling off Christians to jail. Christ identifies
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himself with the suffering of the church. So if we love Christ, we will love what he loves. Jesus loves
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the church because Jesus purchased the church and Jesus identifies himself with the church. What a great
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mark of true genuine, genuine regeneration is that we love what Jesus loves. And we do that through
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affectionate incitement, this love with action. And there's an aim to this incitement, right? We're
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pressing at people, we're pushing at one another to love and good work. We're pressing that we might
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walk in the ways of Jesus. We could call this activity discipleship. We rightly call it discipleship. And
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every activity of the church should be discipleship. Unless we have erred and we have wandered off into
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becoming a country club and we're simply holding activities for the sake of drawing us together so
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that we can all be good friends. If we are meeting together for the exaltation of Jesus Christ, then we meet
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together in order to press at each other in Christ likeness. What is a disciple? Simply a follower
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and propagator of Jesus, his teaching and his ways. So discipleship is affectionate incitement to this
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end. I fear too often we have too narrow of a view of what discipleship is. Certainly this morning,
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teaching you from the Word of God is discipleship, right? Wes very carefully picking out songs that are true in their
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content, right? To get your heart and your head to unite together is discipleship. I hope you leave humming tunes and
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considering the truth of God to you in Christ. Sometimes I want to take breaks from preaching altogether and just read you the
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scripture that's being referenced in all the songs that we sing. If you'll take some time, you'll see that they're rich with the
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truth of God. All that we do together is or should be at least discipleship. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a
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wonderful book called The Cost of Discipleship, I commend it to you, where in which he defines what
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discipleship is and what it is not. He wrote this,
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discipleship means adherence to Christ. And because Christ is the object of that adherence, it must take
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the form of discipleship. An abstract Christology, a doctrinal system, a general religious knowledge on
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the subject of grace or on the forgiveness of sins, render discipleship superfluous. And in fact,
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they positively exclude any idea of discipleship whatever and are essentially contrary to the whole
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conception of following Christ. I'm going to sum that up for you in my own words, right? He's saying
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abstractly knowing about Christ and about his ways is not discipleship at all. With an abstract idea,
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it is possible to enter into a relation of formal knowledge, to become enthusiastic about it, and perhaps
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even to put it into practice, but it can never be followed in personal obedience. And here's what I
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want you to stick in your mind. Christianity without the living Christ is inevitably Christianity without
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discipleship. And Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ. So we begin in
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Christ and we continue in Christ to be pressed on in his ways. And a primary grace to us in this effort is the gospel
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community. So discipleship is affectionate incitement to follow Jesus' teaching and his ways.
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And the author of Hebrews states this activity, this following of Jesus' ways in the to love, right? Love, which is an
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affection. I would argue with you that it's an affection that is decided upon. You set your affection on an object
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of affection and you seek the greatest good of that object. So love and good works are beautiful deeds. And this
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certainly expands beyond just the life of a congregation to the community around us. But for this morning's sake,
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we'll focus our energy on good works to one another. And good works are just a tangible outworking of that
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affection. And so we love the church in varying means of fellowship and of service. And I think if you're
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looking at that summary statement, you could make some synonymous connections. And I don't, it's not really that
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important that you do so. I'm not trying to rewrite Hebrews chapter 10 verse 25, but to say, 24, excuse me,
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loving the church would be to say to stir up, right? How do we affectionately incite, how are we agitating
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each other in a positive way would be to love. And we're going to do so to the church in varying means
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of fellowship, which is a closeness. And here we could see love in the fellowship of the saints and service,
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which is good works. So we're to love the church in these ways. But before we move on, what is the
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church? And many in our day have a confusion about this. And many would call this building the church.
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And that's confusing. I am not exhorting you today to love this building. You might be able to love me
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by loving the building, but I'm not ultimately suggesting that you love the building. What is
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the church? And the study of the church is called ecclesiology. It's the theology of the church. The
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word means literally church knowledge or church logic. And as we approach ecclesiology, it's really
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better to ask not what is the church or more rightly to ask who is the church. The Greek word ecclesia is a
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very general word, kind of a generic word, in fact, in Greek, and it simply means the gathered ones. So as we
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talk about the church of Jesus Christ, it's a it's a people gathered around an event, namely Christ
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redeeming his people, his life, his death, and his resurrection. That's who we are. It's not gathered
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for an hour and a half ish on Sunday morning. It's gathered as a people around an event, not a series
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of events, right? Life, death, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We as the church need to see that
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that permeates all of who we are. We carry as the church of Christ, the message of Christ everywhere
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that we go. The church is both invisible and visible, right? Invisible is the church as God sees it, all true
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believers for all time. One of the reasons that we like to quote old dead guys and put it on the front
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of your bulletin is not because we want to sound smart. The point of that is to try to connect you
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to the church invisible, right? To remember that that we're not alone and we have a legacy of people
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that have gone before us, right? That we we owe an allegiance to only as they were following
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Christ. They say things often much better than I can, but what great access we have. I want you,
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especially you college students, to study theology and do so by the study of old books. It'll serve your
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soul well. So the church is invisible. It's also visible. The church as man sees it, as we can see and touch
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and tangibly understand the church to be. The church is both universal in that it's nationwide,
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people meeting everywhere this day, right? Gathered together in a large reality. And it's also local,
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and that's the form that is most mentioned in the scripture. So it's a people. It's not a property.
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It's not programs. It's a people. So that's what we're to love, right? We're to love the people that we call
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the church. How do we do this? We do it in varying means of fellowship and service. A man named David
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Mathis published a book recently called Habits of Grace, also commended to you. He wrote this concerning
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fellowship. He wrote,
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It's a shame the word fellowship has fallen on hard times in some circles and is dying the death of
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domestication and triviality. It is an electric reality in the New Testament, an indispensable
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ingredient in the Christian faith and one of God's chief means of grace in our lives. The koinonia,
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Greek for commonality, partnership, fellowship, that the first Christian shared, wasn't anchored in a
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common love for pizza, pop, and a nice clean evening of fun among the fellow churchified. Pop is what
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they call Coke up north. I don't want you to get confused in the quote. Its essence was in their common
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Christ and their common life or death mission together in his summons to take the faith worldwide
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in the face of impending persecution. Rightly did Tolkien call his nine the fellowship of the ring.
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This is no chummy hobnob with apps and drinks and a game on the tube. It is an all-in, life-or-death,
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collective venture in the face of great evil and overwhelming opposition. True fellowship is less
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like friends gathered to watch the Super Bowl and more like players on the field in blood, sweat,
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and tears, huddled in the backfield only in preparation for the next down. True fellowship in
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this age is more the invading troops side by side on the beach at Normandy than it is the gleeful
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revelers in the street on VE day, the day after. Right? So, I just realized I made a big commendation
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to you to read old guys and I read a very modern guy who talked about apps and pop in the Super Bowl.
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Contemporary authors are also beneficial to us. But this is that picture of fellowship, right? It's not
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it's not just macaroni and cheese after the service, right? It can include that in it, but it means
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so much more. The idea of fellowship is us gathered together and living our lives together for the sake of
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the gospel of Jesus Christ, right? It's us linking arms together in a battle, not seeking our leisure
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apart from it. We are designed for fellowship, right? If you are saved, God has saved you as an
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individual. But more than that, God has saved a church. He's called a people and he means for you
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to be a part of that people. Now, at this point, I know that I'm kind of preaching to the choir because
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you're here, right? And that's a wonderful thing. And there are people who aren't here who should be
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here and need to hear what I'm saying. And I want to say to you, right, that you need to help spread truth.
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You need to be talking to your friends, members. We need to be connecting with those
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members who aren't here and haven't been here for some time. We need to understand why they haven't
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been. And if it's simply that they've misunderstood, there's been a lack of understanding on their part
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over the need of community, then we need to help them to recognize that because we love them. We are
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designed for fellowship. The more I mature in my Christian walk, the more I recognize my need,
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of Christian fellowship, right? I have always had need of it. It's never not been a need of mine. But
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the more I grow up, the more I recognize my need of it. Across the years of pastoring here, when I take
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a vacation, I miss you guys more. In the beginning days, I was so glad to have a week off. Now, it's like,
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I want to jump back in the car and drive back up here. I miss you guys when I'm not with you, right?
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I'm not outgrowing my need of you. Look at the, in our text, the corporate nature of God's people.
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Just look quickly at the plural pronouns. Verse 19, since we have confidence. Verse 20, that he opened for
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us. Verse 21, since we have a great priest. Verse 22, let us, our hearts, our bodies. Verse 23, let us hold fast
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the confession of our hope. And verse 24, let us consider. The idea of a Christianity devoid of the
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church is entirely foreign to the pages of the New Testament. Now, we sent out a member health survey,
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and I talked about this a bit at length last Sunday. If you'd like to go back and listen to that,
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I would encourage you to do so if you, if you missed it. Some of the, the ways in which we went
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about this. When we asked questions in the areas of these four C's, rightly, I should say we made
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statements and asked people to gauge their agreement or disagreement with these statements. And I am,
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I am encouraged by the response. We scored best in the area of gospel community. I think that our
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church generally gets this more than many others do. Does not mean that we have arrived. It does not
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mean that there's not room for improvement. But we've done well, and my exhortation to you is that we
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can do better. I think generally as a people, we do well, but there are those who still lack the right
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and proper commitment to a local congregation that they need. College students, if you're here and
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your visitors, this is all entirely new to you, I want you to be involved in a biblically faithful,
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Christ-centered local congregation. We want to be that for you. We labor to do it well. We're not
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perfect. There's no such thing as a perfect church. We sure are trying. We'd love for you to be here.
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If it's not here, do it somewhere. Like, please don't spend your college years church hopping and
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bouncing and bouncing and bouncing and bouncing. Your soul will suffer for it, and I'm telling you that
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from experience. Get involved. Get yourself entrenched as quickly as you can with the people
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who are going to agitate you to love and to good works. John MacArthur once shared a story, which I'm
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pretty sure I've read to you before, but it's good, so I'm going to read it again.
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He wrote,
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A pastor made himself comfortable but said nothing. In the grave silence, he contemplated the play of the flames
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around the burning logs. After some minutes, the pastor took the fire tongs, carefully picked up
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a brightly burning ember, and placed it to one side of the hearth all alone. Then he sat back in his chair,
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still silent. The host watched all this in quiet fascination. As the one lone ember's flame diminished,
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there was a momentary glow, and then its fire was no more. Soon it was cold and extinguished.
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Not a word had been spoken since the initial greeting. Just before the pastor was ready to
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leave, he picked up the cold, dead ember and placed it back in the middle of the fire. Immediately began
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to glow once more with the light and warmth of the burning coals around it. As the pastor reached the
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door to leave, his host said, Thank you so much for your visit, and especially for the fiery sermon.
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I shall be back in church next Sunday. And I could account to you many, many stories of people who have
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withdrawn themselves from the fellowship of our church and from other local congregations, and they have
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always suffered for it. We have this strange notion that we have to be all put together when we come to church.
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And so often when people don't feel put together, they don't want to be here. Beloved, this is the place
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you need to be when you're not put together, which we ever are really put together. This is the place
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you should come in times of hardship. You should want to be with God's people who are going to lift
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your hopes beyond the trivial things of this world. We're going to point you to Christ. That's why I miss
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fellowship with our body. I don't have to be preaching. I'm not concerned about the details of
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the service and how they're going to work out. I know you guys do fine in my absence. The reason I
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miss you is because I need my heart warmed at the hearth of Christ. I need to experience him afresh,
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and I experience him in part in you, in your lives, right, in your exuberance, your desire
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to be here. You just sitting in a seat is an encouragement to me on a Sunday morning. Glad
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to have you. We need one another. Let me do share with you a positive engagement, though, in the life
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of our church that I admired immensely. A lot of you know who the Zwimpies are. If you don't, I hope that
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at some point you get to know them. I think they're going to be returning to us from Germany
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this summer for some time. A precious family, Ryan and Kathleen and their five daughters. They're
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now serving at a school in Germany, and as we are prepared to send them off, we raise support for
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them. Many people rallied around them in that. Our church rallied around them in that. I was so impressed
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that they never disengaged from the life of our church. What an obvious time, right, to get all of
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the details put together to move to another country. And it was a massive amount of details that they
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were having to work out to not just say, well, Sunday mornings are not as important anymore, right?
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We're transitioning out, and we can go through a transitionary time. They came two days before they
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got on a plane and left and helped me with work on the church property, right? I wanted just to go,
34:07
go home. What are you doing here, right? They were in constant fellowship. In fact, it may have even
34:14
got more fervent before they left out of a desperation to be with you a little bit longer
34:19
before they took off. I think I would have disengaged. I have to be honest with you. I think
34:24
I would have said, what's the point, right? Why put more energy into this now? I'm leaving. I've
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gone for years. I won't be able to connect and know these people the same way anymore. They were a
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precious example of the way in which you should love the local church. Now, if you were a guest here,
34:44
you're off the hook for a little while. My encouragement to you would be to get involved
34:48
with the local church and to become a member of the local church, to commit to a local congregation
34:52
in that way. We've got a members class next Sunday. You're welcome to come to. I'd love to
34:56
have you at it. Members, we signed a covenant together. We made promises to one another in that
35:05
covenant. And I want to remind you of a few of them. I've got a copy here of the prospective new
35:11
members packets. We committed to each other to love the church with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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Christ. We committed to each other to promote the edification and sanctification of the church.
35:31
We committed to hold ourselves and the brethren, the church, to the standard of Scripture. And we
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committed to contribute to the work of the church with our talents, with our time, and with our finances.
35:47
And some of you fall short in this regard. And I know that life is crazy. I know it's busy. And I
35:55
know that it's difficult for me to say all this because some of you may think, well, it's your job.
35:59
And I've got to tell you honestly that I'm really thankful that it's my job sometimes because it
36:03
makes sure I do it. I have to be here. I can't just flake out. It's impossible for me to do that.
36:09
And I have to tell you honestly, I might flake out sometimes if that wasn't the case. I don't want you to
36:15
be flaky. The balance of life and all of the many things that are going on in it is crazy. I'm there
36:25
with you. I have three children and a wife at home and many, many responsibilities on my plate. We have
36:32
got to quit trying to balance everything. We've got to start prioritizing things. And because I love you
36:38
incredibly, I want you to put first and foremost above everything else, your soul. And because I'm
36:46
so convinced that the grace of the church is necessary for you, I want you to prioritize being
36:52
part of the church, being part of the fellowship. Boy, we work at making every time together we have
36:59
valuable for you. I don't want to just waste your time. I want us to come together, right? If we don't
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come together and have your heart warmed toward Christ to the best of our ability, then you might
37:09
as well go hiking on Sunday mornings and be contemplative, right? Come here and experience
37:14
Christ. This is our great hope. And we want to draw you together in greater and higher degree. The
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picture of the early church was a church devoted to one another in all components of life and are
37:27
very compartmentalized, very industrialized lives now make that really hard. I'm going to tell you
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honestly, I'd love to have your whole Sunday. I'd love to return to an idea of keeping the Sabbath
37:39
and just have you all day long, right? And we could pack it in on a wonderful day of resting in the
37:45
Lord. I think we might be kicking too hard against the culture if we tried to accomplish such a thing.
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And so we've tried to break out times of meeting together around specific activities and to help you
37:57
grasp the breadth of what we ought to be doing together as the church. But even those times aren't
38:02
completely sufficient for that, we need to be seeking out each other in the in-between times
38:06
as well. We need to be knowing each other across our lives. But as we've made commitments to each
38:15
other and as we're pressing at what we're going to be doing together, we're going to up the
38:19
expectations around here on members, right? And I don't believe that we're actually changing anything.
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I don't think we're giving any new directives out. I think we're simply
38:27
more carefully defining what the covenant means. And I share these with you. If you're a member of
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this church and you're just not willing to commit to these things, you have my permission to bow out,
38:40
okay? Because I want to love you well. I'm tired of letting people go on nominally and not thrive
38:49
in their Christian walk because I'm being soft, right? I'm going to agitate you to love and good works,
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right? Because I care about you, right? Because I love you immensely. I want you engaged for your
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sake and for ours. There's risk in all of this of becoming legalistic. I think that anytime a high
39:12
expectation is put on anybody, it gets quickly branded as legalism. Legalism says that I want you to look
39:18
like me. I don't want you to look like me. I want you to look like Christ. There's ways we got to get
39:22
that in. So, if you're a member of Christ Family Church or becoming, and I hope you are,
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there are three meetings that we want you to be a part of consistently. And this will begin to be
39:36
expected of you in this year. Number one is our congregational meetings, gathering here on Sundays
39:42
that we can be together. In all of these things, if you are throwing up or you have a fever, please
39:47
stay home. Feel free to take a vacation. That's okay. I'm not saying you have to be here every single
39:53
Sunday, but there should be a reason that you're not here. There should be a reason that you can't
39:57
come and fellowship with us. And someone should know why, right? Don't let the reason be that you're
40:01
flaky, right? That you woke up and you're a little groggy from staying out late the night before, right?
40:06
You need to be with God's people on Sunday mornings as we meet together. I wonder if we've ever had
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every member of Christ Family Church here on a Sunday. And I would guess we haven't. That's sad.
40:20
Congregational meetings. Secondly, community group. There are sign-up sheets out in the hallway. If
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you're a member of this church and you're not currently part of a community group, go out there
40:28
and look at the times that they meet. We have a meeting on Sunday afternoons now, Monday night,
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Tuesday night, and Wednesday night. I hope that one of those times is convenient for you. If it's not,
40:37
come talk to me. And I've said that before, and people have complained behind my back
40:43
that there wasn't a time available for them, and they never came and talked to me. Just come talk
40:47
to me. Like, I want to be accommodating. We want to help you be part of this community of faith. Come
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tell me why you're unable to do so, and we'll make it possible for you to do so. Be part of a
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community group, that smaller sphere coming in tighter, of people that can know you more and that
41:06
you can know. It's not really reasonable for us to all know each other super well in this setting,
41:09
but a community group, you can. And then down beyond that, and because we've got to keep the
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alliteration going. There it is. Wes made you a picture so the name made sense. A core group,
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and what we're going to call these, and I know core groups used in other contexts. Sorry. This is
41:32
small group discipleship. So this is one-to-one, one-to-some, or some-to-some discipleship. You getting
41:40
in with at least one other person, or a small group of people, three, four, five people, and
41:46
studying together. Addressing these areas of Christian living, right? This conviction areas,
41:50
and community areas, and character, and the commission areas, right? It's getting down to that
41:54
place together, which we need, right? You need to have, Clay and I like to call bro time.
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You've got to get it in in that way. You have to have a place of deep confession, and encouragement,
42:08
and accountability, right? We need those kinds of things to be happening. We're going to talk
42:12
more about the necessity of these things, and what should be happening in those to make it
42:19
a discipleship process, but you're going to be part of these three things, okay? We're not going to
42:26
try to program this thing like crazy core groups. We're just going to start talking about it. Hey,
42:29
who are you getting it in with? It's got to be with somebody. It doesn't have to be for a year. You
42:33
could go through a book together and move on to somebody else. Who are you meeting with and being
42:38
intimate with? Investing in and being invested in. Clay has very graciously agreed to give some
42:46
leadership to this. We hope to have some trainings for it, so if you're going, we got to do what?
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We want to help you and give you leadership and service in this direction, but I want on your radar
43:00
right now, if you're going to be a member of Christ Family Church, you're going to be involved in
43:04
these three things. Not in a legalistic way, right? Not with perfection, right? But you need to be
43:08
engaged, and we want you to be because we love you. So various means of fellowship, right? Meeting
43:16
together. You got a note that in our text, we're going to consider how to show one another up to love and good
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works, right? Which verse 24 has necessitated on us being together, right? Because verse 25, the writer
43:28
of Hebrews states it in the negative, right? Which we can then assume the positive. He says, not neglecting
43:33
to meet together, as is the habit of some. Like first century church, it was already an issue,
43:39
right? Still an issue today. So if we're to not neglect meeting together, then we must meet together
43:43
in order to incite one another affectionately through fellowship and through service. Galatians
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6, 9, and 10, and let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not
43:56
give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are the
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household of faith. Romans 12, 10, Paul says, outdo one another in showing honor. Now, I, as a pastor
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here at Christ Family Church, have read things like this, outdo one another in showing honor, and I've
44:23
taken it on myself to make it like a service competition. Paul writes in one of the letters
44:30
to the Corinthians, I would most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. And I've wanted this to be
44:36
a characteristic of me, that if it's going to get done, I'll get it done. But in doing that, in an effort,
44:44
I think a well-intentioned effort, I have just taken on too much. And in an elder meeting not all that
44:51
long ago, I was really sinfully venting a little bit about how much I had going on.
44:57
And Doug Hitchcock, in his very mellow way, said, you know you created that culture.
45:06
And so, I've called it the Nathan's got it culture. The assumption that things will get done,
45:14
because they have been getting done. There's been a way. And I'm not negating that other people don't
45:18
do things around here either. Please don't hear me saying that. But I've taken on too much. I've
45:22
overloaded myself. It's made me have to neglect some other things that I should be doing better.
45:27
than I am. It's denied you of service opportunities. There's so many lessons to be learned in humbly
45:35
serving the life of a congregation. Charles Spurgeon, this is on your bulletin. He said,
45:43
there's always a set of grumblers about who think they could preach better and manage better than
45:46
anybody else. They're the people who generally do nothing at all. And we have found that to be true.
45:52
It's very interesting how people who typically have the most complaints are the least involved.
45:57
in the typical, ongoing, day-to-day life of a church. So, there are things that need doing. And as I said,
46:05
I don't want you to serve property. But you can serve me and you can serve others here by being
46:12
engaged in just service stuff here on the property. There's a lot of stuff that goes into putting on
46:18
our gathering together. So, as such, if you are a member of Christ Family Church, you're going to serve on a service team.
46:26
You're going to be part of getting in together, right? Time, talents. You're going to offer your gifting
46:33
and your service to us. Sometimes, to my chagrin, ministry apprentices this afternoon, we're going to be going through some
46:41
spiritual gifting. And I've just heard people not serve, not physically serve, because that's not their gift.
46:47
Too bad. You've got arms and legs. You can push a vacuum cleaner, right? It's possible that you can do these things.
46:55
And it'll be good for you, especially if you have the inclination in you not to do it, to get in and do it.
47:03
If you are over 60, we're not going to make you serve on a service team.
47:09
But your service is valuable and it's important. And there's probably some more spiritually applicable
47:17
ways that you can serve that would serve us better than vacuuming. Open up some time for you,
47:23
for some of these young people that desperately need your wisdom. We want you to engage all the same.
47:31
We're not going to ask that you sign a sheet today. But, members, there's some teams and you need to get on one of these.
47:35
And we're going to be following up on this kind of stuff. We want you serving in some capacity.
47:40
Members, a lot of our non-members, regular non-members, out-serve you. And I find that shameful.
47:47
I think that's a sad thing, that you're getting out-served by the non-members.
47:51
We should be hosting them, not the other way around.
47:56
Those teams are the hospitality team.
47:59
Matt Sossman and Jake Risner have kind of teamed up to give us leadership that.
48:02
We're kind of changing what that looks like.
48:05
But they're basically, I told, this is the analogy I gave them.
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I said, look, on Sunday mornings, we're throwing a huge party at the church building.
48:12
And I got the entertainment part covered.
48:14
But you've got to do everything else.
48:15
People are showing up to your house, right?
48:17
So the coffee has to be made.
48:18
We've got to make sure things are picked up and clean.
48:20
We've got the Lord's Supper supplies.
48:21
We've got offering things.
48:23
There may come a day where we have to start making you park differently, tighter together.
48:30
These guys might run out and put an umbrella over your head when you're getting out of the car on a rainy day.
48:35
Hospitality team is important because it just says to people, whether they're part of our church or guests to our church, that we love you and we care.
48:42
Weekly cleaning.
48:44
Abby Mewson is giving leadership to this.
48:47
It has to get done every single week.
48:49
You'll be surprised when you walk out of here how dirty this building is.
48:52
And it has to be tidied up.
48:54
It's a major undertaking, and she needs help.
48:58
Building and grounds maintenance.
49:00
Doug and Lisa Shelnut have been giving leadership to that.
49:03
There's always a project.
49:04
There's never not a project on this property to be done.
49:08
And we certainly could use your help.
49:10
Childcare.
49:10
My mom, Julie Rayner, is heading that up.
49:15
She's not had to do a whole lot as of late.
49:17
We have the prayer meeting on Sunday mornings, and she's been organizing people to care for the children during that.
49:23
We're going to expand when childcare is offered a little bit.
49:27
As you all know, we do family-integrated worship.
49:30
We like to call it multi-generational worship and have the kids in the service with us.
49:35
We provide other areas for parents to go if they need to, an overflow space across the hall, a nursing room.
49:41
In addition to that, we're going to begin providing care for little, little ones, little guys.
49:46
And it's not our intention that we change who we are, but that we help people become who we are.
49:51
So as people are coming into the life of our church, they just have some assistance in the process of doing that.
49:57
So we're going to have care downstairs.
49:59
We're going to be encouraging children to be in the service with us, welcoming them, happy that they're here with us.
50:05
But when that family is having a tough time, they're falling apart on a Sunday morning, we want to be there to love and serve and encourage and disciple them in the process of helping their children sit in the services with us.
50:17
So we're going to expand that a little bit.
50:21
Member care, Barbara Hitchcock heads that up.
50:23
So when we have someone in the hospital, when someone has a baby, we plan and organize meals and get all that taken care of.
50:31
Barbara handles all that, and she could use some help with it.
50:34
And we're going to be shifting oversight of all these positions off of me and to Doug Hitchcock.
50:40
So Doug's going to start overseeing all of this and giving some orchestration to it.
50:44
It'll be a little bit of a process, those of you who are in those leadership roles, but we're going to be doing that so that it's not my primary or secondary or third concern.
50:53
We have an audio-visual team.
50:55
It takes a lot.
50:56
There's people sitting back in the back right now that are on that that are pushing buttons and making sure that stuff works on a Sunday morning.
51:03
And John Sheatham heads that up and, again, could use some help.
51:06
I think we lost some of our trained people to CFC Oakwood when we planted that this summer.
51:10
And so we could use some more folks that could be trained on how to use that stuff back there.
51:16
And then finally, we've formed a new team called the communication team, which Andy Truitt is going to head up to help us.
51:22
We're rebuilding a website.
51:23
Just help us more consistently and clearly communicate.
51:26
So you won't contact me anymore for an announcement.
51:29
You'll contact Andy for an announcement, and he'll get that together.
51:33
And Wes Shelnut is going to be giving oversight to those two things.
51:37
So, again, out in the hallway on that table, there are forms for this.
51:43
If you're a member of our church, you really need to be prayerfully considering where you can serve.
51:46
Serve in multiple places.
51:47
That's great.
51:48
Sign up on every single one of them as long as you're not spreading yourself too thin.
51:52
But we need to get people on these places, and we will come and recruit you if you don't sign up to serve in some regard.
52:02
So the exhortation to us is to consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.
52:09
And I hope that you're feeling agitated.
52:12
I hope that you're seeing that you have an important part to play in the life of a local congregation.
52:16
I hope that those of you who have already committed to being part of a local congregation
52:21
are maybe finding some space and some ways that you can give a bit more of yourself to the life of this church.
52:27
None of this is about preserving a piece of property.
52:31
None of it is about being social.
52:34
All of this is about taking the gospel of Jesus Christ to our community and to the ends of the earth.
52:39
It takes all of us pitching in.
52:40
We're the body of Christ.
52:43
Let's pray together.
52:44
Let's pray together.