From Followers to Family

Second part of Connected here in this series. We’re talking about having a real community in a hyper-digital world that oftentimes, although we’re super networked, we’re not really experiencing good fellowship and that’s where we’re going to dig in today. Underneath the hood of like our church and underneath the hood of our community groups is a verse that many of you in the room know very well and that’s Acts 2:42. Last week we talked about the Word of God and having fellowship with God and being able to dig into His Word. This week we’re talking about this big word, fellowship.

And so that verse is Acts 2:42. It says, they devoted themselves to the teaching, to the fellowship, breaking of bread, and to the prayers. And so that’s underneath where we’re going to be digging in, but when it comes to connection, I wanted to broaden this a little bit. Something, a term has come to light that you may have not heard, but like sociologists talk about this term, and I think it’s true of really where we are now. And it’s this term that we now are experiencing networked individualism.

And so we, uh, we are experiencing a network of people, but we’re still living individual lives. That’s essentially what that means. We’ve traded smaller, tight-knit communities for these sprawling networks of online relationships. I bet many of you in the room have hundreds, if not thousands, of friends on Facebook. Some of you have been a little careful with that, maybe you’ve kept it nice and tight, good for you.

I had a season in my life where I literally just accepted everybody, so I’ve got a ridiculous amount of people on there that some of which I can’t remember. I may not even know them, and so that was my habit for a bit. But you’ve got followers and you’ve got people you’re watching, but the question is, do you have somebody at midnight you can call when things are going poorly? You might have hundreds of people online. You, you literally have friends that you haven’t seen since high school and you know what they ate for dinner, but you can’t call them and actually get help.

This is this networked individualism we’re dealing with now. We’re not experiencing fellowship, we’re experiencing we’re known, but we’re not really known. Here’s the interesting thing: researchers studying religious services, specifically churches, they were trying to actually debunk whether there’s any physiological benefit to being in church, and all they kept discovering is that there’s actually a lot of benefits. Here’s one study that showed that repeated attendance that people gathering in those regular worship services or in homes experience benefits like a 68% lower risk of death from suicide, drugs, alcohol, and various other things. That being in community with other believers actually helps you to not do what is arguably some dumb stuff, all right, or to struggle in other ways like addictions and various things.

There’s a 2/3 chance you’ll do a lot better if you have community. Now, that’s probably not shocking, but what is shocking is how often you might know a thing like that and still run in the opposite direction. Like, I may know that being in fellowship is good for me, that doesn’t mean I’m actually going to act upon it and do what is best. I love what the Apostle John said as he’s reaching the end of his life. He’s an old man at this point writing 2 John.

And he says this, I have much to write to you. I would rather not use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to come to you and talk face to face so that our joy may be complete. I love this kind of granddad approach. I feel like I could hear my parents and grandparents saying something like that.

You know, I could text you, but I’d rather just tell you in person. There’s something sweeter about face to face. There’s something more powerful about having someone actually near that you can look at. In fact, communication is far better. You can make some terrible mistakes if you text somebody a deep message that really needed nonverbals.

You can offend somebody you didn’t mean to offend. You can make someone not see the depth of what you’re trying to say. They’ll just kind of shrug it off with a thumbs up when really you were trying to say, this is a desperate thing. But if we were face to face, you would see me and know, oh, He’s serious about this. Or, this ain’t that big a deal.

I don’t need to go to DEFCON 5. Text is dangerous. I try not to use it for, like, important things. I would recommend that to you. But there’s no substitute for face-to-face fellowship.

We’re going to be in the book of Hebrews this morning dealing with just a couple of verses where it talks about this idea of what it looks like to have not only a fellowship with our Father, but a fellowship with one another that’s life-giving, life-changing, that we hopefully will experience something real and not this digital landscape that is mostly very, very distant. So let’s dig in. We’re going to be in the book of Hebrews. The author here urged believers to faithfully stay in fellowship both with God and with each other. Really, the book of Hebrews, just to summarize the whole book, We preached on it for several years, and so we went through this whole book together, but the whole book is really about drifting and walking away from both the faith and from fellow believers.

So much of Hebrews is about that. And here the writer in chapter 10 is talking specifically about encouraging and commanding them to stay together, to keep as one, and to stir one another up. So we’re going to be in that text today. We’re going to see that we too can live faithfully in fellowship with one another and with our Father, the Lord Jesus. And so, let’s dig in.

Hebrews 10:19-25. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that He opened for us through the curtain, that is, through His flesh, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider then how to stir up one another to love and to good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near. This is God’s Word.

Amen. I pray this would encourage you today. Some of you really need encouragement. I pray that that will happen. Many of us need a challenge.

I pray it will do that as well. As we dig into this text, we can live faithfully in fellowship together as the family of God. Here’s the first, and this isn’t going to be rocket science. These are the 3 really imperatives, command verbs of our text today. Here’s the first: by drawing near together in faith.

By drawing near together in faith. Verses 19 through 22, the writer of Hebrews is here saying, hey, look, everything I’ve been writing for you— there’s a therefore to start our passage today— everything I’ve been leading up to to this point is, let me just conclude it all by saying you have been granted incredible access to the Holy of Holies, to God the Father Himself. And so you ought to be walking in and drawing near, and you ought to be doing it as a community of believers. Look at what he’s writing here, verse 19, therefore you have confidence. You can walk in the front door with confidence.

This word has to do with freedom in speaking. You can do this amazing thing with the Lord of Lords, the Creator of all things. You can speak freely. He’s not afraid of your questions. He’s not scared of your woes.

He very much is ready to speak with you, and He knows your thoughts, so you’re the only one who’s being silly and thinking He can’t hear. He hears it all. He knows it all. He’s completely all-powerful and all-knowing. So we have the freedom now to come into His presence and speak freely.

Why do we have it? Well, verse 19 says, because of the blood of Jesus. So here’s this access because of Christ’s crucifixion, because of the blood of the Savior, because of His resurrection. The Bible here says we have the new and living way, not a new and living way, the new and living way. There’s only one way to come into the Holy of Holies and, and talk to the Father, and it’s by the blood of Jesus.

That’s it. There is nothing else, no one else. And He gives this freely. And He says in verse 20 that it’s through the curtain. Now, this is, this is a Jewish kind of analogy.

This is a picture that should come to your mind because the people who would be reading this would go, oh, I know what He’s talking about. In, in the, in the temple in this day, There was a curtain, a large veil, a heavy veil that blocked the common people from ever, ever, ever seeing the Holy of Holies. In fact, even the common priests could never see it. There was only one man who could only see it once a year, the high priest, and he would go back in there. In fact, they would tie a rope around his waist so that in case something happened to him in there and he died, They could pull him out without going in there.

That’s how serious they were about this. And if they weren’t, you can read some biblical stories about guys that didn’t take this seriously, and they didn’t fare well. You don’t touch the Ark of the Covenant, and you don’t go in the Holy of Holies. But now, church, hear this. Now, because of the sacrifice of Jesus, we can walk right in.

In fact, God was so keen on making this obvious that the day that Christ Jesus was crucified, He tore the curtain down. Other extra-biblical sources even mention that something strange happened in the temple that day, that God went in there and said, all right, doors open, rip! Curtain torn from bottom— from top to bottom. Matthew 27, Matthew records this. He says, behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in 2 from top to bottom.

So now you’ve been given access you and I, who have no business in the Holy of Holies, can walk right in. And more than that, this is a summarization of really so much of what the writer of Hebrews has been saying. You have access to the Father because you’ve been saved by the blood of Jesus, and not only that, you have a great High Priest. He’s mixing metaphors now. He’s saying not only is He the way, the truth, and the life, but He’s also the High Priest.

This is better news because let’s be honest, That moment where you got to walk into the principal’s office, you kind of wish there was a buddy with you, right? Like when someone opens the door, all right, you can go see him, and you’re like, okay, you kind of walk in. That moment where you go see somebody who’s important and you’re like getting those jitters, it’s like that times a bajillion. But here it says the great high priest is going in. So Jesus is not only the way, the door opener, He’s the one walking in beside you.

Don’t worry, buddy, I’m with you. He’s both our access and our advocate. Isn’t that incredible? This is an amazing gift you’ve been given, an amazing gift. So the writer of Hebrews says something that shouldn’t even be strange.

So here’s your command: draw near. You have an opportunity to spend time and hang out with and talk to the living God. Why aren’t you? The Hebrew— the writer of Hebrews is like, well, duh, let us draw near. This is why this command here is not even your, like, stricter commands of Scripture.

This is in what we call the subjunctive. This is this invitation. He says, let us. I mean, now that you know this, wouldn’t you want to? Like, if you had VIP access to your favorite band or your favorite show, or you can meet, like, some of your favorite actors, You’d be like, yes!

You wouldn’t be going, eh, maybe next time. Next time they come in town. No, if you had access to your favorite band, you could go behind the scenes and slap hands and hug necks and go, man! You’d do it. You’d be itching to do it.

You’ve been given VIP access to the Creator of all things. Why don’t you draw near? Notice too, he doesn’t just say, hey, you draw near. He says, let us draw near. Christianity has been and always will be a community of faith.

It is not a solo act. In fact, we need one another to draw near. You can do it on your own, certainly, but this is let us. When we come into the community of faith together, we draw near together. This is what church should be, is that what we’ve begun in praise is that we’re trying to walk up the steps so we can walk behind the curtain into the Holy of Holies.

We’re getting into his word so that we might peer into his mind and hear his voice.

Draw near. You have people in your life that you come together with and you draw near to God with. Not just buddies, not just people who— not just drinking buddies or something like that. Not— and it’s good to have friends of all kinds, but Do you have people in your life that draw near to faith with you? Then you get what you get in verse 22, which is like this incredible just smattering of great.

The writer of Hebrews here is like, man, if you guys would just draw near, you could get this. You could get a true heart, full assurance, sprinkled clean, done with an evil conscience, bodies washed with pure water. He’s like so excited as he pens this. If you would just come into the throne room of God, you would experience a true blessing, assurance, and God beginning to remove the scales from your eyes so that you might not have an evil conscience. And bodies washed with pure water, like an analogy being used here of what happens in baptism.

Like, this is a reminder of what God has done in you, that He has washed away your sin and wiped you clean. It’s a picture on display. Drawing near is definitely the first thing for a reason. In fact, you could argue fellowship is a pretty good indicator that you’re walking with Jesus. 1 John 1, it says, if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.

You know you’re walking with Jesus when you decide you’re going to put up with and bear with one another. There’s a lot of different passages I could have used today to talk about bearing with one another, but we have to admit something: it’s pretty easy if we begin to understand that there is a God who loves us and created us, and He sent His Son Jesus to die for us, who loves us. We can begin to get behind all that and say, I like this God, I like this Jesus, I like this faith, But I’m not so sure I like Sally on the other side of the room. And that’s the interesting thing about church. That’s the interesting thing about this command, let us draw near.

Hey, it’s pretty easy to come by faith and say, hey God, you’re good and you love me and you’ve got a plan for me. But he turns around and says, all right, so bear with one another. Fellowship together. This is where the rubber really hits the road. This is where you actually start to create friction and you’re drawing near together and something powerful happens.

I don’t know what happened along the way. When I was a teenager, we used to talk about this idea of having accountability partners. I don’t hear that that much in church anymore, and I’m not sure why that terminology died, because there needs to be someone in your life that can speak truth, the truth of God’s Word, into your life and every week, and you should be open to receive it. You should be reaching out to have it. We used to do that a lot, and somehow I feel like we’ve gotten away from this idea that fellowship is bringing people into the presence of God that we might receive a true heart with full assurance sprinkled clean.

Look, the blood is reconciling us to God, and then because of that, it’s reconciling us to each other. Ephesians chapter 2, it says, now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Jesus, blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility. God is no longer at war with you because your sin has been removed. His wrath is done.

That’s that dividing wall of hostility. This is what the blood of Christ has done. It has wiped it away so that now that dividing wall of hostility with others has also or can also be wiped away. This is a powerful idea. So those signs that you see all over the place when you’ll even see them in grocery stores, employees only or authorized personnel only.

And you look by that and go, I don’t know what they’re doing back there. Like, you’ll hear crazy sounds going on back there. Now when we come, what used to be an authorized personnel only before us and God, that door has been— it’s still there, but underneath it, it’s like, hey, an admittance to Jonathan, an admittance to Rich, an admittance to— you put your name in there. So now I’m authorized personnel. I get to go back there.

It’s incredible. This is what the blood of Christ has done for us. It has given us admittance to a place where we can spend time with the Father. I’ve noticed this with my family too, that if you’re really true family, the way you treat one another’s homes is very unique. Like when I go home to see my parents, guess what I never do?

I never ring the doorbell. I never knock. Sometimes I don’t even call. I just show up and I know how they work. If they’re home, their back door, like through their little screen porch, is probably open.

So I’m just going to roll in. I’m here. And my mom’s going to be like, yay, and give me a hug and I love you and can I cook for you? And I’m like, do all of that. And my dad’s gonna be like, hey boy, not as many words, but I see that twinkle in his eye.

I see it. So happy to see me. Because that’s what family does. Family doesn’t knock. When my kids come home from school, they start kicking shoes off.

They start throwing book bags. They raid the pantry. I’ll hear the fridge door dinging because they’re just sitting there going, what do I want to destroy today? This is what family does. They don’t knock.

They don’t ring. They kick their shoes off. This is the kind of access we have been given, because the Bible says we have been adopted into His family. We are sons and daughters. Why are you not visiting and kicking your shoes off and laying down on the couch and saying, Dad, you would not believe the day I had.

Heavenly Father, you would not— well, actually, you would definitely understand because you If I was talking to somebody else, but you get it, you get it. Let me just— can I just talk to you, Lord, about my day? Can you help me to process? I’m having trouble with my boss. I don’t know what I’m doing right now with my kids.

I thought I had this thing figured out, and then a new day has come. I don’t know what to do as a husband, as a wife, Lord. Just help me with my finances. Do you understand the access? Lord, would you help me to know what it is to live in purity with you?

Help me overcome this addiction. Lord, give me strength. You can kick your shoes off and sit down on the couch in the Holy of Holies. Why aren’t you? And why isn’t someone beside you saying, we’re going that way.

Come on, let’s go. So here’s the question. When’s the last time you really, really, really drew near with a heart of full assurance? God loves me. He knows me.

He saved me. I have access. When’s the last time you went in there and spoke to him like you would speak to your spouse or your parent? When’s the last time? I pray it’ll be today, after today.

And I want you to hear this because we have environments all over the church that you can join into in order to draw near together. We, we have a lot of different environments that you’re in one right now. Good job. You started your work week well. Sunday morning, you’re here.

You could have slept in. Thank you. I’m glad you’re here, but I would have preached to empty chairs. I was preaching no matter what. I’m glad you’re here though, but this is between you and the Lord.

Your day is beginning in fellowship. What will it look like from here? Are there people in your life that you’re letting in? We have several different things we do here at the church. There’s men’s and women’s Bible studies.

There’s community groups. There’s one-on-one discipleship. There’s just the fact that you can, on your way out, say, hey buddy, let’s have lunch. I don’t know you well, You can do that. Did you know that?

Like, I hear people all the time saying, hey, I’m lonely. Hey, people don’t check on me. And when I start to think about that person, I hate to say it, it’s hard for me to put judgment aside because I start to go, what would you like the church to do when you have said no to all of the environments we offer? It’s like, hey, I’m feeling the way, I’m not in fellowship. Well, are you in a community group?

No, I don’t really want to do that. Really interesting. Hey, are you one-on-one with anybody? Are you going to our men’s Bible studies? Are you— Are you— have you made a friend?

Yeah, I’m waiting for someone to come talk to me.

I love you, whoever you are, if that’s you, but you’re lonely for a reason. And I’m not saying we shouldn’t do well as Christian brothers and sisters. We should. I’m really trying, and I mess up all the time, but if I see you, I really am trying to meet you and talk to you. And create a relationship with you, but it’s pretty hard to do.

It gets easier when you’re receptive. It gets easier when you’re willing. So don’t make the mistake of saying, man, nobody ever checks on me, but I’ve literally said no to everything.

No, instead come into the family home. If you want to call this your church, and I pray you will, that you would come into this place. You don’t have to knock. You don’t have to ring the doorbell. And this is your family.

Let’s talk like we’re brothers and sisters. And quit playing games and talk truth to one another. That’s number one, right? Some of you are like, that was enough. We’re not done.

So draw near together. And second, this is the second one that the writer gives, hold fast. So we can become a family that fellowships together as a family of God by holding fast together in hope. He says, let us cling, keep firm, have a grip on our confession of hope. Now, you could easily see that and think to yourself, is he talking about our salvation confession?

Well, maybe. That is certainly something he could be talking about, but this word most often is thought to mean a public allegiance to Christ. I want you to remember something that’s going on in the first century. To be a Christian in the first century meant great persecution. It meant it could cost you everything, your very life.

Now, that’s still true for Christians all over the world to this very day. In fact, you might read, if you do some research, there are more Christian martyrs in the 21st century than previous years combined, or at least the 20th century. The 21st century is still underway, but there have been a great many. But here in America, you won’t experience that kind of persecution, so how do we translate this? This is the idea that as a community of believers that we would cling together and hold fast together, that we might stand firm for what is true and what is right and what is faithful, that we wouldn’t shrug aside the biblical truths because of culture or whatever feels convenient at the time, but that rather we would come together, lock arms, and say, hey, I know they’re— this is gonna— this is gonna be a wild ride, but let’s hang firm that we actually believe the truths of Scripture, not only the gospel but all of the truths of Scripture, that we would hold fast the confession of hope, Why?

Because He who promised is faithful. So here’s the question mark that really comes to my mind. If I’m to hold fast to this public confession allegiance to Christ, the only reason that I would have strength to do that is if I believe that what He said is true, that not only am I standing firm on words that were written 2,000 years ago because I believe the One who wrote them is faithful, And also that the promises that he’s written in here are coming. Some of them have come, some of them are coming, some of them will come. If I stake my faith there, then it gets easier for me to stand my ground when other people say, hey, you know what, you should parent this way.

Hey, you know what, you know, love is love. Hey, you know what, this is the way we should operate. Hey, when you go to work, why would you work the hardest when you’re there? Everybody’s getting the same paycheck. You might as well coast like everybody else.

And instead I go, that’s not what I read when I read. I read in Colossians 3, work as unto the Lord and not unto men. So I’m not working for your paycheck, I’m working for the Lord. So I come to work on time, correctly dressed, and I work hard, even when it means they’re going to give me more work with no extra pay. And that will happen Every organization I’ve ever seen, ever been a part of, 20% of the people do 80% of the work.

It’s true in every single organization. It’s true in the church. It shouldn’t be, but it is. And so when we come to these kinds of things, do we cling to one another? Do we hold fast?

Do we lock arms and say, we’re going this direction because we believe the one who promised is faithful? Me and my brother and my uncles and stuff, when we used to go to the beach as like an extended family, when we’d get bored on the beach, we’re like, all right, Let’s all just go in the ocean and here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to hold hands and lock arms and we’re just going to take the waves. All right, this is the weird stuff we would do when we’d get bored. And some people would stumble, but the other people would, oh, I got this.

And the bigger the wave, we’re all looking at each other like, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, let’s take the waves as a family. And this is the weird Cone stuff. There’s a lot of problems with us, but that’s one of many. But I love kind of the picture of that is there are waves going to be constantly coming in your life.

That’s a promise. In fact, Jesus makes that promise. He says, hey, if they call me Beelzebub, what do you think they’re going to call you? They call me the devil. They’re definitely going to call you some stuff.

But take hope, I have overcome the world, he says in another passage. Hey, you’re, you’re going to deal with things. There are going to be waves. Some of them are caused by the fact that you’re a person of faith. Some of them are simply caused because there is death and sickness.

There’s pain in this life until Christ comes again. It’s just a fact. So who do you have in your life that you can hold tight for when the waves are blowing you over? They’re over there going, I got you. Hold fast together, it says, because confessing our hope together keeps us from spiritual drift.

It causes us to not waver, because when we isolate, we waver. Hebrews chapter 2, it says, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard lest we drift away from it. It goes on in Hebrews 3 to say, so exhort one another every day as long as it’s called Today, if you have an opportunity, take it to exhort one another that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ. Oh, sin is very deceitful.

It’s a great liar. It will convince you. The most, the most spiritual of person will become convinced that what they’re doing is not sin. It’s a liar. It’ll come to you and say, hey, this isn’t gossip.

This is just a prayer request. I’m talking about somebody right now, but I meant it as we should pray for this person. No, you didn’t. There’s a lot of examples like that with deceitfulness of sin. I’ve noticed something with little kids that I’m about to grow out of this phase, and I got to admit, as a father, I’m getting a little— I didn’t think this would happen to me.

But I’m getting a little bit sad about seeing my kids grow up. I didn’t think that would ever happen because when they were little, I was like, I didn’t want them all out of my house. Uh, but now one of them will be leaving my house in a year, which is crazy, uh, if the Lord leads him to go to college, which it looks that way. But my youngest is going to be 8 this year, my youngest, and she’s starting to get in that phase where Do I need to hold dad’s hand or not? There’s a superpower that I really have enjoyed all these years that I don’t want to lose.

And it’s this power. Women, I think you have this power too. But men, we feel a certain way. We’re just walking and we just go boom. We don’t even have to look.

We just— and all of a sudden a little tiny hand just grabs it. It’s a superpower. Wham. Ah. And you just— it’s a miracle moment where a little tiny squishy little fatty hand grabs your hand.

Hey, daddy. Oh my goodness. Yes. It’s great. So I’m just walking, boom, and I’ve got a little baby B.

And baby B’s not a baby anymore. I’m still calling her baby B. But when I’ve noticed with all of my kids, I don’t know when this happens because I feel like even my 17-year-old doesn’t always look both ways. I’m worried about that kid, y’all, um, because he’s driving now. I really— y’all be praying.

But I’ve got another one. She’s in the room right now and I won’t pick too hard on her, but all of us have a kid that just kind of vanishes. Like, you’ve all probably got that kid that the whole family’s moving through a store and we’re talking and we’re hanging out and eventually we’ll look at each other and go, where is Kenzie? Where is she? Because she’s done, ooh, you know, squirrel.

You’ve all got a squirrel kid, right? Everybody’s got one. And that’s the kid you definitely need to get a hand on, especially if you’re crossing a road. Here’s what’s funny about kids, I think, like just from their perspective, I’m holding daddy’s hand, but that’s not true. I’m holding their hand.

If I wanted to let go, I could get rid of them. Like I could easily let go, but guess what they can’t do? They can’t easily get loose of me. And you probably have all had that kid that’s like, I’ve got this, and they’re trying to get loose. They ain’t got this.

They’re all on a mission to die. I don’t know what’s wrong with them. They don’t seem to have any perspective on danger. So you get that little hand and you walk them across the road. I want you to hear that this is the picture of Christian perseverance, is that you do your best to try to hang on to the Lord, but know this, friend, your little slippery sinful fingers will lose their grasp at times, but his hand will never fail.

He’s got you. But here’s the greater picture of this verse, is not only are you holding on here to the Lord Jesus, but you’re holding on to some others, and they’re holding on to the Lord Jesus too. And when my hands get a little slippery, sometimes they’re like, come on, we’re good, we got this. Some of you are holding on by a thread this morning. I want to ask you something.

Who in your life knows that you’re struggling? Who knows? Does anyone? Does your spouse? Who knows?

Who has permission to check on you? Have you given anyone permission to ask you the hard questions? To look you in the eyes and say, I know something’s off, so we can goof off and not talk truth, or you can tell me what’s going on. Who do you have? Have you given someone that kind of permission?

You should have that level of permission with your spouse. I pray you would work towards that. That you can tell them the whole truth. Men, this is especially hard for us. There’s a part of us that thinks we’ve got to, you know, in order to make them feel secure, if we tell them all the hard stuff, they’ll feel insecure.

But guess what? They’re really good at reading your mind. They’re just really good. They’re very intuitive. Many women, most women are very intuitive.

They can tell something’s off with you. So honesty would be better. Instead, they’re feeling insecure because they don’t actually know the reason. They think it could be something else. I’ve met many women that will stretch the truth so they’re like, I think he’s cheating on me.

No, he just doesn’t know how to pay the bills. Like, calm down. And you’d make her less insecure if you would just say, hey babe, I’m stuck. And if you, as you’re talking to the Lord with me, if you hear something from him, help me. Who has permission to speak to your soul?

Do you have an accountability partner, someone in your life that will tell you the truth with love? If your answer today is no one, I want you to hear something. That is not strength. That’s pride. It’s weakness.

God has made us for one another. I’ve grown up hearing my dad say this for years. There’s over 100 one anothers in the New Testament, and he would famously say, you can’t do the one anothers without one another. That’s so cheesy it sticks. It’s like, you ever get a line like that you can’t forget?

You can’t do the one anothers of Scripture without one another. You need people in your life that have permission to really speak truth into your life. If you don’t have that today, find it. Don’t be passively waiting. Nobody checks on me.

Nobody loves me. No, people do probably love you, but they have busy lives too. They’re not thinking about you. Why aren’t they thinking about me? I don’t know.

Why aren’t you thinking about them? Let’s flip the script. What is going on? You are not the center of your universe. There’s what’s going on.

God is the center. Have you made him so? And then if you need something, Ask. I need a friend. They’re here.

It’s a small group of believers right here. Guess what? They’re here. Ask.

Go to something. Go to something where people are who are people of faith. We have several different community groups all week long. Yes, the first time you go, it will be uncomfortable. I’m sorry, because you don’t know the people.

Just go. Got one on Sunday night, Tuesday night, Wednesday night. If you need a different night, tell me about it and we’ll figure it out. We’ll launch another one just for you because we care that much. Who can check on your soul?

Who can hold fast with you? Now, final point, and I have negative 102 minutes, so I don’t know what that means, y’all. So we’re going to move quickly because I have a feeling— I’m just going to use my gut. The 3rd and final thing that the writer here gives is to stir one another up, to consider to stir up one another in love. This is your final, and it’s such a beautiful point.

Hey, draw near together in Christ Jesus, hold fast, cling to one another that you might not waver, and cling to truth. And then lastly, he says stir up, and the word he chooses in the Greek here is so good. You might see stir up and think, oh, that’s positive. That’s not what this word means. This word means to irritate, to provoke, or to incite.

I want to provoke you to love and good works. I want to so irritate you that you got to do what’s right. You need some friends like that in your life that will give you enough friction to say, fine, I’ll do what’s right. That’s a good friend right there. That’s what is really meant by the ancient proverb, Proverbs 27.

It says, as iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another. When you sharpen iron, guess what you create? Sparks every time. So when church is getting it right, we are creating sparks so that the rough edges are coming off. When you make diamonds, you’ve got to use a hot laser to get the rough edges off.

You’ve showed up today, and so have I, with a lot of rough edges. But if you’ll be a part of a group of people who are holding fast to truth, you will begin to sharpen with some sparks that, if you can see them as these are good sparks, you can bear them better. If you have those moments where you’re like, I don’t know if I agree with their assessment of me, but let me just hear them out. Then those sparks begin to create in something in you that is no longer a hard heart, but a soft heart. This is the dangerous place that a Christian can find themselves, is a calloused heart that can no longer hear the truth from another brother or sister that comes in and says, hey buddy, I think you have an anger problem.

No, I don’t. Yeah, you definitely do.

Sharpen. And then he finishes with this, and I got to admit, this kind of encouraged me this week, um, because I thought this was a new problem, but it’s not. Verse 25, listen to it: not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some. You know, as a pastor, there are times where I, I look around the room and I go, where is everybody? I’m missing all my people today.

It happens from time to time. Sometimes community group can be like, where is such and such? What’s going on? And we just assume the worst a lot, unfortunately. People just have better things to do than spend time with Jesus, I guess.

We do stuff like that. At least I do, and I repent of that kind of behavior. But here’s the thing. The writer of Hebrews is saying, man, in the very first century, they’re just years after they’ve seen the resurrected Jesus already, They’re neglecting to meet together. For 2,000 years, this has been a struggle.

Why? Because the human condition is to be distracted, that we would prioritize things over Christ. It’s common to man. I’m not— don’t feel particularly guilty of this, but hear it. In fact, this word goes a little stronger than that.

The word neglect here has to do with being abandoned or forsaken. This is the idea that you would actually look at the body of Christ and those who you should be fellowshipping with and helping and being a brother, families and brothers and sisters, and that you would look at that and say, I don’t need any of that. That’s the idea of this neglect, that you would forsake it.

But the writer here says, instead of that, I want you to encourage each other because the day is coming. Now, they didn’t know that that the Lord was delaying His coming, but I tell you, every day that goes by is closer. That much I can guarantee. And sometimes some people make assumptions that that day could be soon. There’s a lot of reasons that you might could say that, but here’s what I know as a fact: it’s closer today than it was yesterday.

And that as that day approaches, I should be encouraging you and not abandoning you. I should absolutely Neglecting meeting together is not a new problem, but it’s an old sinful habit that every culture has where you turn inward. 1 Thessalonians 5, Paul writes, we urge you, brothers, instead admonish the idle, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. Admonish the idle that by meeting together you’ll be encouraged all the more. Look how Acts 2:46, how that section of Scripture where they’re meeting together and being blessed, it says, day by day attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes.

They received their food with glad and generous hearts. They were so passionate about their community that they were together every day. Incredible! Here’s something I’ve noticed, church. I’ve noticed that a truth that is true both in nature and within the walls of Christian faith.

There’s a pattern that goes from isolation to vulnerability to to, well, at least in nature’s case, to death. But in Christian culture, it’s to drifting. So, isolation to vulnerability to drifting. Here’s what happens. Here’s what happens in nature.

In nature, you’ve got animals like sheep who, ironically, Christ always, always calls us sheep, probably for good reason because we are goofy and sheep are super goofy, and they wander. And they don’t seem to have any awareness of what’s going on, and so a sheep will wander, and what happens when a sheep or a gazelle or that one goofy— when you’re watching National Geographic and you see that one wildebeest that’s being dumb, what happens to him? He gets eaten. That’s what happens to him. That’s what happens to the sheep among wolves.

That’s what happens to the gazelle among lions. The goofy one that isolates himself gets killed. Now friends, the same has been pretty true in my experience with Christians. It’s like, I know you’re thinking, boy, this is really— this is heavy. I want you to hear this.

The evil one will often tell you you do not need fellowship. You need more margin in your life, and if you need more margin, then you need to cut the church stuff. That one is easy to cut. That’s what you’ll say. You’ll say, boy, I got a lot going on.

My life’s chaotic. I need to get away from community group. I need to stop serving so much at church. I’m going to keep all the stuff that’s making me feel completely not at peace. I’m keeping all that.

But the stuff that might have actually benefited me and given me the fruit of the Spirit, that’s easy to cut. This is what the evil one does to us, deceives us this way. And so what happens among believers is Isolation, then vulnerability, then drifting. So what I’ve seen countless times is someone pulls away from community group and not long after that they pull away from serving, not long after that we just stop seeing them very often at church, and then later I hear something, something hard has happened in their life and they blame the church for not helping them or checking in. It’s a pattern I’ve seen so many times.

I wish it wouldn’t happen to you. I pray it does not. But part of the problem of the pattern is that you have isolated yourself like the goofy gazelle, and then the evil one attacks, and instead of being responsible, you blame others.

Instead, no, instead, believers are to be stirring one another up to love. Let me look down my row. Let me look around the room. Who can I encourage to walk the walk with Christ Jesus, to hold fast in faith? Who can I have a face-to-face conversation with this week and say, how’s it really going?

Are you becoming those who stir up or just spectators?

To spectate is easy. It’s possible to attend church. You can do this for years. We make it somewhat uncomfortable here. I know some of you feel that at times.

Why does he talk about groups so much? Why does he talk about serving so much? Why does he talk about evangelism so much? Because that’s what it means to be a Christian, friend. That’s what the Bible says Christianity looks like.

It’s not, it’s not sit there with your popcorn. Boy, this is a nice show. I really like this Christian show. That’s not biblical Christianity.

And so if you’re uncomfortable, I’m very, very sorry, but that’s what it means to really walk with Jesus. And he invites us today to draw near into his presence as a community, to cling to one another, to have people in my life that I hold fast to and say, come on, man, we’re heading this way. We can do this. And then to encourage them to love one another and do what is good. In fact, I skipped this a minute ago, but Jesus says in Matthew 5 that those good works that people can see, they’ll see it and they’ll glorify the Father.

That you would do something so impactful in love and good works that people would look at you and what you do and say, there must be a God, there must be a God, because he believes in— look what he’s— look what she’s about. Be a stirrer, not a spectator. Let me conclude this way. We have 3 ways to live faithfully as the family of God. I pray and encourage you that you would take them.

You’ve been given access not only to a family, but to the Father. Would you draw near? Would you draw near? Would you hold fast and cling to one another and stir them up to love and good works? And remember this as we close.

That all of this is not meant to be a message where we say, oh, I got to try harder. I got to pull myself up by my boots. I’ve got to do better. That’s not how the writer started, and it’s not how we’re going to finish. He says the reason that we draw near, the reason we stir one another up is this: because of the blood of Jesus, because of the High Priest who has given us access and been an advocate to us.

So friend, to take these actions is to say, Lord, I need I need you to help me, empower me to love well. Some of you need to pray this really fervently today because there’s maybe people at our very church or people in your family that you know you need to encourage, but right now you’re pretty ticked at them. This would be the day to say, Lord, I need you to show me grace and mercy that I might be able to show it to others, that I can love well and encourage them. Lord, help me to cling to your Holy Spirit as you guide me in good works. Not that I am working hard to do good works, but that the Lord is working through me.

There’s a huge difference. So as we finish right now, I pray that you’ll hear this, that the Lord has granted you access. Draw near and take others with you. Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for your goodness.

Thank you for your love. Thank you for your mercy. You are a good God who did everything necessary that we could come into your presence. You died on the cross that we might be free, not only from our sin, but free to come into the Holy of Holies and hang out with you. Thank you for that, Lord Jesus.

This is amazing that you would do this, and you did it out of your love and your goodness to us, not anything we could have accomplished. You did it all because of who you are and because of your love for us. Thank you. I recognize today, Lord, that someone may have come in the room and they’ve not said yes to this opportunity yet. This truth that Christ Jesus has not only died for them, but also has granted them access into the throne room of God.

Dear friend, if you’ve come today and that’s you, and you’re feeling the Holy Spirit tugging on your heart and leading you to come into his presence to receive this access that you can get by no other means— he is the new and living way— if that’s you, my friend, this is an important day. That the Lord has orchestrated that you would be here. I pray you would not just shrug this off, but you would take this opportunity to say yes to Christ Jesus who’s drawing you towards himself. Would you pray with me simply this? Lord Jesus, I believe today that you died on the cross for my sin.

Lord Jesus, I believe that you have granted access to the Father because of your sacrifice. And God, I believe that you raised Christ Jesus from the dead. Because of this, I believe that not only have you conquered my brokenness, my sin, but you’ve also granted me eternal life. Thank you. Thank you for this new life, this new and living way.

And I’m asking now, Lord, in my newfound salvation, would you help me to draw near? Help me to learn what that means. Lord, as I begin to try to study your scripture, as I begin to try to understand how to pray, Lord, would you just help me? Would you speak to me in prayer? Would you speak to me in your word as I try to navigate this new life I have in you?

Dear friend, if you prayed that prayer, I’m so blessed. I’m so thankful for you. We’re praying with you, Lord. Guide us. Help us to draw near to you.

Help us to long and hunger for you in a passionate and powerful way. Lord, I pray we would hunger for you like we hunger for food, like we crave breath. Lord, would you do that? Would you begin to show up in our lives, the lives of your people in this room right now? When we go into prayer with you tonight, later this afternoon, tomorrow morning, when we crack open your word, Lord, would you speak?

That we might hear your voice and see your face. God, please, so that we would crave to draw near. Help us to hold fast to one another. I pray for that person in the room today that is feeling lonely, that you would help them to stretch and meet others, take opportunities, that maybe someone else in the room right now would spot them and reach out and give them an opportunity to be stirred up to love and good works. Lord, would you, would you cause us to be accountable to one another?

That we would take seriously holding one another to love and good works, that we would stir each other and encourage each other to do what is right because you love us. God, help us to create true friendships all around this room. We love you. We pray all of these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.