The Habit of Fellowship
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Good to see you this morning. My name is Stephen Combs. I’m the pastor of worship here at Eastgate Church. And you know, I gotta say, I’ve been. I’ve been working here for 20 years, and I think this is the first time ever that Pastor Gary and myself have been in this kind of tag team situation.
Usually it’s me up here leading the music, and then he comes up here to preach. And so I think it’s the first time he’s ever done the greeting for me to preach. So this is just an unusually kind of cool day, though, you know, to have the privilege to preach up here in the pulpit and to continue this series that we started week called the Power of Spiritual Habits. And during this series, we’re gonna be studying habits that have been passed down since the early church. And today we’re gonna be diving into the spiritual habit of fellowship.
Now, if you were here last week, there’s an illustration that we use that I think is gonna be a good consistent one to use throughout this series, and that is that in all of our pockets we have these smartphones that when powered up, are capable of things, but when their battery is dead or as good as a very expensive paperweight. And so with our phone, we’ve learned that there’s a very important habit that we have every single day, and that is plug the thing in and charge it. And just as it is with our phone, it is with our spiritual life. And that we are built with a battery inside of us, you could say spiritually, that can only be filled by one source, and that is by that is through the Holy Spirit. And so the power cable represents the conduit of whatever habit that we are put in place.
So last week we put in the habit of devotion. And where we learned that it’s through devoting ourselves to being alone with God and reading His Word and getting to a solitary place that he fills us with the Holy Spirit. And just like how we know when it comes to things like physical health, that it’s not just one thing that’s going to make you physically healthy. Like, for example, if I am trying to get healthy physically, if I am trying to maybe lose weight, I don’t just work out. I’ve been the personal testament to what that can look like.
You’ll get really strong but still have a big old belly on you because you didn’t change your diet. And then maybe you’re doing those two things, but you have a horrible sleeping habit. So there’s things that we know that it’s multi. And so I brought up something new this week and that is the surge protector. And this kind of gives us the symbol here that there is one power source.
And in our case, we know that we are powered by the Holy Spirit. But when it comes to habits, there’s multiple ways of plugging into this. And so last week we talked about the habit of devotion. And so this week we’re going to be adding another habit here of fellowship and whereby we will see that we can be filled and we can also be used by the Lord to fill others as well. It’s because we’re not meant to do this life alone.
Christianity is a team sport. But let’s be honest with ourselves. Some of us have gotten out of the habit fellowship, and that’s the way we like to put it. At least we like to say, I’ve just gotten out of the. I just kind of fell out of the habit of going to church.
I kind of fell out of the habit of going to a community group. But it’s so much bigger than that. We haven’t just fallen out of a habit, we’ve developed a brand new habit now of isolation. So that isolation itself is a habit that we run to. And it’s because we’re looking for a place to plug this thing in, but we’ve plugged ourself into a place that’s not satisfying us.
We have our reasons. We have our triggers that push us into isolation. One of our triggers is that we feel emotionally overwhelmed. So when life feels like it’s too much, like we have stress, we have anxiety, we have conflict. Another trigger that puts us in isolation is fear of rejection, judgment, the past hurt or social anxiety makes withdrawing just feel safer.
Another trigger is exhaustion and burnout. We feel physically or mentally drained. So avoiding people feels like a relief, shame or guilt. So this is like the negative self beliefs like, I’m just, I’m a burden to everybody. I’m not good enough.
And so we just drive ourselves right into withdrawal. And then another trigger might be the need for control. So retreating it gives you the sense of you’re able to kind of build a barrier, build a boundary that you can control. You don’t have anything unexpected happening when you’re alone, whereas people, you never know what’s gonna come of interacting with people. And so by these triggers and by diving into these things, we do experience some temporary rewards.
One of them is relief. Maybe you have the immediate escape from the pressure and the criticism or the conflict. Another temporary reward would be comfort. That solitude Just feels safe compared to the social risks. Maybe another reward that you experience is control.
Just the ability to manage my environment, to manage all the interactions. Another reward you feel is rest. It’s a break from the stimulation and the demands. And finally another reward would be protection. You avoid potential rejection or failure.
And so it’s these triggers and these rewards that have caused us to not just fall out of a habit of fellowship, but to dive into another habit of isolation. But if we’re honest with ourselves this morning, this habit of isolation, those rewards are temporary. They’re like a drug that is really great for a moment, but then it fades. And so we find ourselves over time in isolation, being driven to loneliness, depression, anxiety. We have weakened support systems and overall just a deeper disconnection.
The short term gain creates long term pain. And that’s where some of us are this morning. But what we need, what we really, really need and what’s going to give us a long lasting spiritual and emotional reward is fellowship. It’s not isolation. And it’s going to be the conduit in which the Spirit not only empowers us, but he’s going to anchor us, he’s gonna stabilize us for life’s storms.
And so when you look into the book of Hebrews, chapter 10, you see this beautiful picture here where it’s describing how now with Christ before God, he has taken us into the holy places with himself. And it’s by his blood and his power and his works, his life and death and resurrection alone that we can now come with Christ into the holy of Holies, which in that time in that culture, the Holy of Holies would have been a place reserved only for the high priest to go once a year. But now by the blood of Christ, we get to go there anytime we want. What is the holy of holies? Is it an actual physical place?
No, it’s a spiritual place. In that now, by Jesus sacrifice and by his adopting us as sons, we can come before the Father with assurance of our faith and to meet with the holy God. And not by our own works, but by his works and his will alone. So we’re starting with this beautiful picture and then we’re gonna see then this blending of a personal devotion, whereby last week we were talking about personal devotion and how it’s your goal is to get alone with God and to talk to God, to hear from God. If you can do those two things, get alone and have a relationship with God, you’ve had a successful devotion.
Well now here this week, we’re going to See this connection of this idea of fellowship. And so what the writer in Hebrews says is that when we draw near to God, hold fast to our confession of hope without wavering. And this is gonna be a combination of not just holding fast to Jesus alone, but it’s gonna be also what we’re gonna see in our text today is that the anchor in our storms, the thing that’s gonna help us to not waver, is gonna be fellowship. So how can we come together and faithfully fellowship with one another in Christ Jesus? We’re gonna see that the text gives us three ways to form this spiritual habit that we’re talking about, a faithful fellowship.
So let’s pray together. God, I pray now that your word would be spoken clearly. And we know, God, that when you speak, it pierces the heart. And I pray, Father, that as we open up your scriptures right now and as we look to the book of Hebrews, that we will be challenged that we would be changed and that no one present, whether they’re here in person or watching online, that no one would be able to escape the power of your words. And I pray that you would change our lives.
And we do all this now in the name of Jesus. Amen. Friends, let’s stand to our feet right now. We’re going to open our Bibles to the book of Hebrews, chapter 10. Let’s go ahead and stand up.
And if you don’t have your physical Bible, you can always go to the church center app. We have an event there every single week where not only can you see the scripture, but you can see sermon notes looking at Hebrews, chapter 10, verse 24. I’m going to read 24, and then we’ll join together for 25.
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works. Let’s read this together, 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. Amen. God bless the reading of his word.
Amen. Amen. You can be seated.
So, as we said earlier, we see here in the Scriptures there are three ways to form the spiritual habit of faithful fellowship in Christ Jesus. And the first way we see right off the bat, stir one another up to love and good works. Stir one another to love and good work works. You’ll find that all the points we’re finding today come right off the page. We see here in verse 24.
The first thing that the writer says is, let us consider. Now this is the idea. It’s not. This is, this is like an active consideration. This is a I’m going to fix my eyes on this thing.
I’m going to fix my mind on this thing. What am I fixing my eyes on? How to stir up. Now the word stir up here, the definition is this idea of to provoke, to maybe to prod, like with a shepherd’s staff, it’s to incite something. It even means to irritate something.
And so we have in view here a shepherd with a sheep. And that if you’re trying to get them to go a certain way, you’re using that staff to kind of to provoke them. That’s the idea that we see here in view with this word stir up. And in fact, it’s not even always used in a positive sense. Throughout the Bible we see that sometimes it can have a negative connotation.
Whereas you see the disciples sometimes having arguments with one another. But the arguments have a good outcome because there’s corrections that are made through those arguments. And so I have in mind here when we read this Proverbs, chapter 27, where it says iron sharpens iron and one man sharpens another. This is what stirring up is supposed to look like in that sometimes sparks fly when you’re sharpening iron. But that it stirs us up and makes us better, it makes us sharper.
Now this is not a self stirring. This is not a standing and looking in the mirror and pointing the finger at ourselves and being like get right, you need to do this and poking and prodding ourselves. It says let us consider how to stir up what one another. And if you’ve been part of our church for any length of time, you know that our habit when we see the one anothers is that you cannot do the one anothers without one another. And so this isn’t a self stirring.
This is something that you’re now you’re stirring up others, you’re provoking, prodding for the purpose of love, which is we see in the Greek here it’s the word agape, which is unconditional love. This is God’s kind of love. This isn’t a love that comes naturally to us in physical form because it’s unconditional and certain other to love and to good works. So starting with this love idea, in John 13 it says a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another just as I loved you. You also are to love one another.
By this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. And that’s A familiar passage maybe to most of us. And we kind of summarize it by saying the world will know you are Christians by your love. That’s essentially what Jesus is saying here, is that the love that comes from the Father is unique. This is an unconditional love.
This is an attractional kind of love. And this isn’t a passive kind of love. I’m mindful of who here. Maybe listen to D.C. talk growing up. And you remember the song Love is a Verb.
You familiar with that tune? Man, I remember like jamming out to that when I was in like sixth grade. And so this is. This is. It’s a very intentional, it’s a verb kind of love.
It’s a when Jesus came to earth and died for me, even though I was his enemy kind of love. It’s a loving despite who I am. And so I’m putting this love into action sense and then I’m stirring one another to love and to what good works. It says in Ephesians, chapter 2. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
These are not just good in the type of works that the world would call good. The kind of works that make you look good, the kind of works that just make you feel good. These are works that Christ had in mind for you to do whenever he freed you of your sin and made you into a new creation. These are the kind of works that he specifically is looking at you and saying, I’m gonna use these works to build my kingdom. So these are.
This is the type of thing we’re stirred up to. And as I’m considering this idea of stirring up, it brings a movie to my mind that I grew up watching as a kid. Has anybody here seen the movie Hook before? Seen the movie Hook? That’s a classic for me.
And just really quick summary. It’s basically, it’s story of Peter Pan grew up and he forgot about Neverland. He forgot he could fly. He forgot he was Peter Pan and he goes back to Neverland. And here in this picture here, the Lost boys are with him and they’re trying their best to stir him up, to provoke and jog his memory of who he is and what he can do.
And so in this scene, he’s in a slingshot and they’re getting ready to launch him and just hope and pray he figures out how to fly again. And then later in the movie, you see this scene where he’s sitting there at a dinner table with them and it smells really good to him. And then they begin to pass it out, and they open up the pots, and he looks at his plate, and it’s empty. And everybody else around him is like, looks like they’re really enjoying their meal. And he’s just, like, dumbfounded.
Like, what is everybody eating right now? And then somebody turns to me, like, go ahead and eat. And he’s like, eat what? Gandhi had more than this. And it’s a funny scene, but the truth is, when we analyze this a little further and we look at our own lives, some of us this morning are looking at an empty plate.
Some of us this morning are looking at an empty bowl. And you’re looking around at others, and you’re like, what is this love that I hear the Word talking about this morning? What is this thing that y’ all are stirring up? Because I don’t have anything to stir. And, friend, here’s what I would point you right to right now, is that if you don’t have Jesus, your bowl is empty.
There’s nothing to stir up because nothing has been stirred in. And so the best starting for you today, best starting point for you today is gonna be, you know what? It’s time. I need to give my life to Christ. Because I’m that person who has that habit of isolation.
And I’m sitting here looking around and going, man, these Christians sure seem to love one another. There sure seems to be some amazing good works. People sure seem to be satisfied around me. But I’m sitting here with an empty plate. Friend, that plate can be filled by Jesus and his power in and through you.
And so what we’ll find here is that this journey towards filling our plate is not just a personal one, it’s a corporate one as well. So fellowship, it’s not just for comforting one another. It’s for calling each other to a higher purpose. It’s that going into the holy of holies with Jesus and then going alongside my brothers and sisters and prodding each other along to become more and more like Christ. So how do we do this?
Well, here’s some practical ways. Be intentional with your fellowship. Don’t just hang out when you’re together with the believers. Ask questions that matter. Ask one another, how’s your walk with Christ?
Ask them, how can I pray for you? What’s one step of obedience that you’re working on today? This is commonly called accountability, is how can we hold each other accountable to doing the things that are gonna make us more like Christ? Because I’ve got that in view Maybe you speak words to one another that spark action, the things that I say to you. I have it in mind that I wanna motivate you because I’m seeing in you what Christ sees in you.
Maybe it’s just a matter of modeling love and good works yourself. And you’re looking at your life right now and you’re like, are you analyzing your heart right now? And you’re saying, do you have love in your heart for one another? Do you have God’s kind of love for your brothers and sisters in Christ, which loves them unconditionally? Are you doing good works that others would look at you and be motivated by seeing your life?
And then finally, here’s a really, really practical step that we’d encourage you to take this morning. And that is, you see I’m wearing one of these come as you are green shirts. When we leave this service this morning, if you go out to the lobby, Mike Laramie’s gonna be out there wearing one of these green shirts. Go find him. And he’s gonna help you get connected.
We have lots of small group shepherds that are gonna be kind of hanging out with him. He’s gonna help you get connected. And through small group, you’re gonna find that it’s a great starting point for finding fellowship through making that weekly commitment to being together. And maybe your youth age. This morning.
I encourage you to come to youth group tonight. We meet at 4 o’ clock right here in the hub. If you’re young adult ministry, I encourage you to come to their service on Thursday. That’s. These are going to be some really, like, you can’t say I didn’t give you a practical next step.
That’s a very easy one to say. I’m going to say yes to. It’s a really. Sorry, it’s not an easy step. It’s an easy way of finding that fellowship.
So stir one another up to love and good works. Second way to form the spiritual habit of faithful fellowship in Christ Jesus is stay devoted to one another by gathering together. Stay devoted to one another by gathering together. Now, the writer of Hebrews in 25 says, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some. And so we have these words, not neglecting.
What does it mean to neglect something? It means to forsake it, to abandon it, to desert that thing. And the antonym of neglecting is to cherish something, to look after something, to care for something. So what is he saying? Don’t neglect what?
To meet together. So meeting together. And when he’s saying this, he has in view that this is an example of the meeting together, that coming together on Sundays as the church, coming together during the week, and meeting in one another’s homes, small groups, or any of the other various ways that I just described to you. Don’t neglect meeting together. And then here comes the hammer, as is the habit of some.
Now this word, habit, here is the word ethos. And we actually saw this used last week. We were talking, we were using the story of Jesus to help understand this habit of devotion. And one of the scriptures we read last week was Luke 22, where it says, and Jesus came out and went, as was his custom. Well, guess what?
The Greek word for custom is ethos. So Jesus had this habit that was making him more like it was bringing him in relationship with his Father. And it was a characteristic of his life. It was a way that people saw him. And how many of us this morning have not just fallen out of the habit of fellowship, but you actually have a habit of neglecting it.
You actually have a habit of avoiding forsaking meeting together. And it started to change who you are. And it’s not a good thing. When you look in the mirror, you’re seeing, this is not a good direction for me. Are you looking more like Christ?
Well, Jesus had the habit of devotion, but he paired it with. I mean, just look at him. He had to pry himself away from his disciples many times because he stayed in fellowship all the time. I look at his life and I’m like, man, how? How did he do that?
So for some of us, it’s saying, I’m going to stay devoted to not just not neglecting meeting together, but I’m going to do the opposite. I’m going to cherish meeting together like the early church did you see in Acts 2:42, and they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. This is a passage that if you’ve been a part of one of our community group systems, then you’re very familiar with this. This is because this is what we base our community group system off of those four things that they devoted themselves to. And one of those is fellowship.
And then you read on in verse 46, the results of this. And day by day attending the temple together. So, like, this would be an example of attending the temple and breaking bread in their homes. What did I say earlier? Getting together in your homes.
They received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to Their number day by day, those who were being saved. I love this picture. So much of them just getting together, eating good food and helping one another out. And does it say that they added to their number themselves, the people who were being saved?
No, it says God added to their number day by day, those who are being saved. So you mean to tell me that just by doing the opposite of neglecting me together, if I would cherish this time, that God will build his church? He did it. We’ve seen him do it. I’ve seen him do it in my own life.
So what can this look like? Well, we see the psalmist write In Psalm, chapter 122, I was glad when they said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord. And here we are standing inside your gates, O Jerusalem and the tribes of Israel. The Lord’s people made their pilgrimage here. They come to give thanks to the name Lord.
That’s the kind of heart that I want to have when I come together with the people of God here on Sundays. That’s the kind of heart that I want to have when I come together on Wednesday nights with my small group is saying, man, I was glad whenever I said, let’s go, let’s go, and let’s meet together. Let’s give thanks to the name of the Lord.
So as we consider this idea of neglecting meeting together, what we’re actually finding here this morning is that it’s so much worse than neglecting the meeting in our minds. That’s what’s allowed us to kind of justify it, is that we had our triggers, like we said earlier, and you’ve got your temporary rewards that are causing you to dive into isolation. And maybe Covid was a real big trigger for you that you kind of got in a spiraling down in isolation that started five years ago, and you’re still stuck in it. But here’s what we’re seeing that’s even worse than that. It’s not just neglecting meeting together.
We’re actually neglecting the body of Christ with the gifts that Christ has put into us. And so as we consider the systems of the body, like this chart right here, we know that they come together to make one functioning system. I’m thinking about, like the nervous system, for example. How many times have I wished I could just hit a button and turn my brain off because it’s keeping me up at night. But the problem is, if I say, stop with the anxiety.
Let me just turn this system off. Well, guess what’s not happening now. The auto system that’s breathing for me, the auto system that’s digesting my food. This would be a bad thing for us to even fathom turning one of these systems off. It’s so easy for us to understand how that would be really bad and stupid.
But how often do we look at ourselves and be like, well, man, you know, the gift God gave me, I’m a big toe. I look up there at the head and I’m like, why can’t I be one of y’? All? You know, that looks really great up there. I’m down here in the dirt, man.
And how far be it from the eye to look at the hand and say, I’m so much more sophisticated than you look at. Look at you, the calluses on your skin and the things that, you know, we self judge and we think we don’t belong. We judge others and we think they don’t belong. But Paul says in First Corinthians 12, Every part of the body is indispensable.
And so, friend, this morning, maybe you are a big toe, but have you ever met anybody that doesn’t have a big toe? Balance is a real problem.
And so just accepting the fact that’s the part that he gave me, I’m going to stink and be the best big toe you’ve ever seen in your whole life.
And if anybody’s ever had an injury, I’ve had two knee surgeries, I’ve had a wrist surgery, I’ve had a cyst cut out of my middle finger. I’ve had wisdom tooth cut out, had some surgeries. All it takes is one of these systems to be failing for me to realize just how important that system was.
And so I think that we understand this about our own body, but we don’t See the bigger picture here is that when we neglect meeting together, we’re neglecting the church body of a part that our redeemed saved by grace, by the blood of Jesus, the new creation that he wants us to be. The good works he wants us to do is meant to be a body part that your absence is neglecting the church of and how much of a difference it would be if you just were here. So how do we take this step then of doing the opposite? We’re in this new habit now of isolation. If I’m gonna cherish meeting together, what do I do?
I plan for it. There’s a saying that goes around a Sunday morning worship is a Saturday night decision. It’s you actually saying, I’m going to go to bed at a reasonable hour. So that way even the 11am service doesn’t feel early to me the next day that I don’t crawl out of bed and go, oh, well, kind of sleepy. And then you just don’t go.
Maybe small group itself, maybe yam, maybe youth group, because your schedule is so busy. Maybe that’s bigger than a night before decision. Maybe that’s a week before, maybe it’s a month before. Because what do we know about ourselves? If I’ve got a hole in my schedule, there’s a vacuum that just wants to suck something into it.
And so in order for me to put the important pieces into my life, like fellowship, like community group, sometimes I have to plan in advance, far out in advance, and make it happen. And not only make it happen, but then protect it. And to guard those habits, friend. I can’t tell how many people I’ve come across that they’ll be in community group. And then they’ll say, man, you know, I just got a lot going on right now.
And they quit community group for. They say it’s just gonna be for a season, but what happens is they quit. And then what’s one of the first things that starts happening whenever you start breaking away from the fellowship and you get alone? There’s this little voice and maybe he’s not so little, maybe it’s a big old voice. And I think, you know, sometimes it comes from the exterior, but a lot of times it comes from right in here.
They don’t even miss you. You don’t even really matter that much. You were kind of annoying them by being there anyway. You’re the egr, you’re the extra grace required person, so they’re better off without you.
And then our enemy, the evil one, has us right where he wants us. He’s put you on a pathway away from fellowship into isolation, where the short term gain is a long term pain. And maybe that’s where somebody’s finding themselves this morning. So don’t give at all, don’t give an inch. Because one little small little drift down the road might be a ways off from the destination that God calls you to be.
And then participate fully. Bring your worship. Just attend. If we’re singing songs, be the loudest voice in the whole room. Because I’m not singing for the people that are on the stage.
I’m singing for the audience of one. And I have a part to play in this. And it may not be the best notes coming out of my mouth, but it’s going to be like a football game if it’s got to be where I’m in the stadium and I’m bringing this crazy loud noise because that team is worth praising, that team is worth being excited about. Amen.
And then our third way of to form the spiritual habit of faithful fellowship in Christ Jesus is strengthen one another with encouragement. Strengthen one another with encouragement. So verse 25, what does it say but encouraging one another. Now the word encouraging here is the word parakaleo, which is really similar to the Greek word for Holy Spirit, which is parakletos. And what is the Holy Spirit’s, what is one of his roles?
I mean, he empowers us, but he’s known as the great encourager. So we see this idea here in this word encouragement of coming alongside with somebody. It’s almost like somebody coming alongside and putting their arm around you. Tell me there’s not a whole lot better feelings in the whole world than to have a good friend walk up and put their arm around you and look in you, in the eyes and just that feeling. Am I right?
There’s something about that. And so coming alongside. And then it says, but encouraging. What are the two words after that? One another.
You can’t do the one anothers without one another. So I’m not, once again, I’m not in the mirror going, all right, Stephen, you got this, man. Encouragement, encouragement. Encourage yourself. You know, we can do this.
This is you now saying, I’m not just coming into the. What just happened? I’m not just coming into the fellowship. This water bottle, this happened last week. You think I would learn from this?
I’m not just coming in the fellowship to be encouraged, but I’m seeing that there’s somebody over here who needs my encouragement. And maybe all they need me is just to come alongside with them. And he says, and all the more. So this is this idea of like, do it so much more, so much bigger and greater and longer. Why, as you see the day, this is the capital D day right here.
What is that in the church? It’s the day of Jesus Christ’s return. So as we know that that day’s coming, it could be today, friends. We don’t know. It really could.
It’s a day only that he knows. But we know that this morning I’m one day closer than I was yesterday to that return. It may not happen in my lifetime, I don’t know. But the writer of Hebrews is saying, with that in view that time is not unlimited. Encourage one another, come alongside one another.
And so what can this look like? What is encouraging? One Another. What are the effects of it? Well, in Galatians 6, we see he says, carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
Maybe you’re here this morning and you’re like, stephen, I’ve been carrying. I’ve been trying to carry these burdens by myself, and you just don’t know the weight of it. This has been so awful. Maybe your eyes are open in this moment. Maybe you didn’t had even done a self evaluation.
You just now realized how many burdens you’ve been carrying alone. But to enter back into the fellowship, or maybe for some, to enter into the fellowship of Christ for the first time, you’ll find that we can carry one another’s burdens, come alongside one another and encourage one another, and that there is great power in that. And then it says in Hebrews 3:13, but encourage one another daily as long as it is called today so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. Remember the voice we were talking about earlier? It’s a real voice, and it’s tied to sin.
It’s tied to deceit. What is our enemy’s main goal? Well, shoot, he’s got a lot. But what would he call success in us? How do I isolate that person from Jesus?
How do I make them a nobody? How do I make them produce nothing and be completely worthless? How do I make them a powerless paperweight?
Well, he’ll do that if he can get you alone. But if we will come together and encourage one another, it’ll break through that hard shell. We’ll not only have the encouragement of the comfort of coming together as believers, but what did we say earlier? The stirring up will actually encourage us as well. Not just to lift my spirits, but to look at my life and be like, man, Stephen, there are some things that you need to work on, dude, maybe I need somebody else to kind of, kind of be my eyes sometimes, because I might be walking down a path that I don’t even realize myself, what I’ve done and maybe how I’ve veered away from Christ.
So sometimes it takes that encouragement. Ecclesiastes. And that’s actually on the inside of my wedding ring. It’s a passage that you hear a lot of Weddings, Ecclesiastes 4. It says, Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed.
If one person falls, the other can reach out and help, but someone who falls alone is in real trouble. Likewise, two people lying close together can keep each other warm. But how can one be warm alone? A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated. But two standing back to back can conquer three are even better.
For a triple braided cord is not easily broken. And here’s what he’s pointing to. Check this out. The third person. Matthew 18.
From where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them. He’s saying, I’m going to be that third cord. I’m going to make you so strong by you coming together. He says, where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am. Now I know, look, I know he’s with me.
There’s a reason why in devotion I can find the Lord. I know that he’s there. But whenever I need encouragement, whenever I need someone to lean on, when life inevitably gets hard and is ready to smack us upside the face as soon as we walk out those doors, don’t walk alone. He’s saying that. Lean on one another and guess who’s getting ready to join the party.
And I’m gonna make you stronger than you can imagine. I said earlier that Christianity is a team sport. I’m excited right now because my favorite time of the year is upon us. Football season. College games have started up on Saturdays.
NFL games are on Sundays. And it reminds me football is something that it was my favorite sport growing up. This is a picture of me, number 60, back in high school. And I’ve got my. My team right there.
I think that’s a picture I pulled from my yearbook right there with my teammates there. And when I think about football, I think about how hard it was at times, how we would have to do two practices, we called it two a days. Two practices a day in August and just so hot and muggy and just, you know, bloody and pain and all the stuff that you’re going through, but the being able to. And I was an offensive lineman and so being able to look to my left and to my right and see buddies on either side that were in this together. And if I get pancaked and knocked on my back, I’ve got a friend who’s gonna walk up and stick his hand out.
I’m not getting up alone. I’ve got my teammates to help me get up. If I go out in the field and I’ve got my running back chasing behind me and I plaster somebody, then the people that I’m looking for the most encouragement is not the people in the stands. I’m happy they’re there, but I really want to hear my teammates when I’m in The weight room, and I’ve got that humongous weight on my chest, and I got that guy over top of me. You got it, you got it.
And then you get it up, and then the whole room just cheers in an uproar. There’s some special things to me that I think about football that come to my mind. And, friends, your life is not all that different, I think, than some of the things we face in team sports, that you’re going to face loss. There’s not a person in history that was ever that played professionally. I’ll make it clear that never lost one single game their entire life.
And so learning how to overcome adversity is not something you do alone if you’re on a team sport. And friends were saying, Christianity is a team sport. So what we need is, I need a teammate in the spiritual sense. I need someone who’s gonna come alongside me and pick me up whenever I’ve been pancaked by the issues I had that day. Or maybe, Maybe it’s not even something that happened that day.
Maybe I’ve had a loss of a loved one or a loss of a job or just some burden, some debt that I’m in. But I need that teammate who’s going to come alongside and encourage me. But they’re also going to point me and say, man, here’s where we’re going. Remember that today is temporary. But, friend, remember where we’re going.
You might have lost a lot here, but we’re getting ready to gain a whole lot when we get to heaven one day. No matter what happens here in this life, sometimes I need that voice to come along me and remind me the truth to encourage me. And so how can we encourage one another? One easy step, just show up. Just the fact that you came and with a smile on your face.
It says in Second Corinthians, God, who encourages those who are discouraged, encouraged us by the arrival of Titus. This is Paul talking from experience. Just by Titus showing up, I was encouraged. And we know Paul went through a lot of hard things. So just by Titus presence, he was encouraged.
How many of you in my life do I get encouraged? Just when I see your face on a Sunday morning, when I shake your hand. Somebody here this week is in isolation. And just the simple gesture of a handshake, that physical touch is more physical touch than you’ve had all week. But that person who showed up this morning and shook your hand, you encouraged you just by that act.
And then another step in this would be making encouragement. Make this something that you’re doing intentionally. I’m not always going into the fellowship. Me, me, me, me. Give me, give me, give me, give me.
I need all the encouragement I can. Like, you’re like Eeyore on Winnie the Pooh.
This is you. You looking at it and going by Christ’s power. I believe something’s been stirred up in me. Something’s been stirred into my life. And I’m gonna.
If I only got a little bit of encouragement there because it’s been a hard week, I’m dumping it out on this person because I want them to experience the encouragement that I believe is bigger than me. I believe it’s an encouragement that Christ himself has given me. And I believe that when I connect through him through this act of fellowship, that this conduit is not just flowing into me by the power of the Holy Spirit, but that this is a really cool habit, because now I’m going to actually flow out as well, and I’m going to let that power almost be cyclical. That the more that I. More power I receive, the more I’m going to give, and I want to experience that flow that you see Pastor Gary making this symbol.
How many times have you seen him on a Sunday saying, I want to receive from God and give to others. That flow is incredible, isn’t it? To receive and to that constant just receiving, giving, receiving, giving. Who here today would stir one another up to love and good works, would stay devoted to one another by gathering together and would strengthen one another with encouragement. Let’s pray, Father.
This is a familiar topic today to many of us, this topic of fellowship. But I pray, God, that just as we know that your word does not return void, that somebody here, well, all of us would be seeing something in our own life right now that you’re challenging us on seeing something in our own life that you’re stirring up and something that we need to correct. And in speaking to my friends here, if you’re here this morning and you’re recognizing in your own life that you have neglected the habit of meeting together and you’ve actually formed a new habit of isolation, would you pray along with me? Jesus, forgive me for my isolation. Forgive me for seeking the temporary rewards that came from it.
Forgive me for running away from your body and neglecting your body of the gifts that you put into me to use for your body and with your body. I pray, God, that you would help me to not only get back in the habit, but to ditch the habit I’ve got of isolating and help me, God. To have something in me that’s stirred up so I can stir it into someone else and help me to be an encouragement to others as well as I myself am encouraged. Maybe you’re here this morning and as we just reminded ourselves of this stirring up, you know, that you’re the one that’s got the empty plate. You know, you’re the one here this morning that is looking around and going, I don’t have the love, I don’t have the satisfaction that I see around me by these believers in Christ.
And maybe you finally come to the breaking point. This morning you’ve said, enough’s enough. I’m tired of doing it alone. I want to receive the satisfaction and the power and the life and the forgiveness that comes from Jesus. Would you pray this with me, Jesus?
I surrender. I’m not doing this alone anymore. It’s too heavy. The burdens are too strong. And I need you to carry this weight.
But there’s a weight that only you can carry and that’s the weight of my sin. And I need forgiveness. And I ask you, Jesus Christ, forgive me of my sin. Turn me away from my dark path. Make me the kind of person that you want me to be.
Be Lord of my life. I confess you as my Lord and my Savior.
We ask all these things in Jesus name, Amen.
Read transcript
Maybe the first and most important step in your journey with the Lord Jesus is the power of personal devotion and prayer with the Lord. It all starts there. But I’ve got great news this morning. There’s a habit you’re doing right now that we’re going to talk about today, and that’s the spiritual habit of fellowship. You may have never thought of it this way, but we’re going to spend some time on that together right now.
That this is one of the most important parts of walking in Christ Jesus. It’s not a solo walk. I’m going to say this so many times today in hopes that you won’t forget. Christianity is a team sport. It always has been, it always will be.
We need one another to help push us and stir us up and encourage us. We need one another. And so I’m thankful that you’re here today. You’ve done a good step and we’re going to keep working on this together. Look, this all starts with having a receptive heart that lets the Holy Spirit change you and lead you to action.
So here’s our series theme. We’re going to be in these spiritual habits for a few weeks together, but our theme verse is this. It’s out of Ephesians, chapter 4, where it says, instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes, put on your new nature, created to be like God, truly righteous and holy. I wonder something. What is it that causes us to disconnect or not put on this new nature that we’ve been promised in Christ Jesus?
What causes us to be hung up on this? Last week we saw that we’ve got to begin with this time of intentional, private devotional life with Jesus, where it’s you and him just breaking down the word of God, getting serious in prayer. It begins there, but it doesn’t stop there. We set that time aside. However, we know this.
In every other part of your life, every other habit in life, it takes many things to get it right. I wish it were easier to do life, but you’ve probably discovered this already. There’s things that are hard maintaining physical fitness, very hard the older you get, just gets harder is what I’m discovering. It doesn’t get easier maintaining good relationships. Not easy hard.
Guess what? That person you’re sitting with right now, maybe you just started dating, maybe you just got married. Maybe you’re in the newlywed phase or something. It gets harder. It gets harder because guess what?
Challenges are coming. Maybe you have children, maybe someone loses a job. Maybe something happens in one of your families. There’s death. We call these D days here around this church.
Death, Divorce. These terrible things can happen to you, and then the person that you’re sitting next to gets a little more challenging. Relationships over time are not easy. They’re hard to maintain.
Why is it then that we are kind of surprised when in order to have a quality spiritual life, it takes more than just the habit of intentional and private devotion? Don’t get me wrong, it starts there, but it does not stop there. If you’re trying to be fit physically, I got some bad news for you today. Eating healthy isn’t enough. You gotta, like, move your body.
It’d be nice if we could just lay around. I guess maybe some of you are like, no, that’d be terrible. Like, I love moving. I love sitting and watching other things, you know? In fact, football’s coming.
I love sitting, watching other people move. I love it. But this is not the way to stay healthy. Guess what? There’s this crazy thing you have to do.
You have to sleep. Imagine God in his infinite wisdom saying, but for one third of your life, you need to turn it all off. You just need to power down. I have a hard time with that. I’m a night owl, and sometimes I just come alive at about midnight.
And you’re thinking, you’re nuts. I just am. Like, I’m wired. The idea of going to sleep right now is insane. But then I wake up hurting a little bit the next day.
And I’ve done this for 40 years now. Well, I guess I was doing it as an infant. I don’t know. Probably have to ask my mom later. Our spiritual life is like this.
What we build privately is meant to be applied corporately. Christianity is a team sport. And let’s be honest, some of us have gotten out of the habit. This is an interesting thing that we’re gonna. We’re gonna be In Hebrews chapter 10, just two verses today.
And Paul, when he writes this, well, it may be Paul. Hebrews is an unknown author. I. I have a suspicion that it’s either Paul or someone with him. But the writer of Hebrews here develops this idea that it’s not so much that you fall out of a good habit, you actually create a bad habit. He says, as is the habit of some, that you would neglect the fellowship.
There’s a darker side to this. Actually. It’s not so much that, hey, I’m not really. I don’t have a good habit of being connected to the body of Christ. It’s actually, you have a bad habit of being Isolated or even avoiding people.
What causes this? Look, I have good news for you today. None of this is coming your way as a point of condemnation. I am very introverted. Some of you know this.
I love being alone. And I can do it for a long time before I need people. The hermit life would work for me for a season. Like the monastic, the monk life. I could do that for a little while, you know?
Some of you are like, oh, I would die. I gotta have people. I gotta have people now, you know? But there’s triggers for why all of us. Introvert, extrovert.
No matter what your personality is, there’s triggers that cause us to isolate or avoid people. Here’s a few that I discovered online as I was kind of doing some research this week. Some of us are simply feeling emotionally overwhelmed right now. We, we’re stressed out. There’s too much, too much anxiety at work or in the family sometimes.
Men, I think, are especially guilty of this. If it’s just too chaotic in the home, we go escape somewhere. The problem isn’t solved, we just walk away from it. That’s one. You’re overwhelmed.
Maybe there’s a fear of rejection right now, or some sort of judgment. Maybe there’s been some past hurt or some kind of social anxiety that’s causing you to withdraw more because it’s safe. If I put myself out there again, I don’t know how I’ll be handled. And I’m worried about it. Some of you have experienced this at church, I pray.
Not this church, but maybe it has happened here that you put yourself out there and someone hurt you and so you’re afraid. Maybe you’re just straight up exhausted, physically, mentally drained. Avoiding people just feels like a relief. Maybe there’s some shame or, or some guilt or something. You have these negative self beliefs, like I’m a burden on people, I’m not good enough.
So you withdraw. Or maybe simply this, you just need to be able to be in control. And anytime I’m around other people, things get a little too chaotic. So retreating gives me this sense that I can protect my boundaries. And hey, look, I wrestle with some of these.
We even experience some rewards when we isolate. I would say they’re quick, but not long term. You might get some relief from pressure, but it’s short lived because guess what? The world’s still out there waiting. It didn’t change.
You didn’t fix anything. You just stepped aside for a minute. Maybe it provides some comfort, some solitude, some rest. Maybe it protects you for a season from rejection or Failure. But there is a catch.
It’s a bad one. It’s like a hook gripping you. Isolation leads eventually to loneliness, a weakened support system. You don’t really have a net to catch you or a deep disconnect. I saw this.
This is a quote. I don’t remember where I read it. I didn’t come up with this. But it’s a quote I read this week. It said the short term gain creates long term pain.
So the gain of, you know, getting alone, it feels good, maybe for a season. But then who’s there for you on the other side? We need instead, not only spiritually, but even physically, we need to be in fellowship church. God’s Word teaches us that fellowship is an essential habit to connecting with God. This isn’t like some kind of arguable point.
The Bible talks about one another over a hundred times. And the idea that the apostles come together, Jesus doesn’t just call one, he calls 12. All of them are misfits. This is what Jesus does when he calls the church together. He doesn’t just call one or two.
No, he starts sending them out. It’s a community effort. God’s Word is consistent on this. From Genesis to Revelation, this is what he’s called people to. And as we study, and we’re not going to study all of Hebrews 10, obviously just a couple verses today, but Hebrews 10:22 connects this idea of drawing near with a true heart to God.
And then verse 23, holding fast, the confession and where we’re going to be today. Then stay connected, don’t neglect, and consider instead how to stir one another up all the more. It’s interesting that the writer here says, do you want to know what it means to draw near to God, stay together. Oh, I’d so much love for that verse to not be in there. I’d love to say I’m gonna solo Christian this thing and then I don’t have to deal with these crazy people.
I’d love to say that it’s not the case and I’m wrong anyway, because I need you and you need me. We need one another. So in Hebrews 10, where we’re going to spend some time today, the author concluded this wonderful instruction about drawing near, holding fast by teaching them the spiritual habit of fellowship. We can form this. We can form a habit of devoting to one another in faithful fellowship.
So how do we do it? I believe the text is going to give three very clear ways to form a spiritual habit of faithful fellowship in Christ. Let’s read a Few verses together. We’re in Hebrews, chapter 10, verse 24 and 25. Listen to this church.
It says, let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works. All right, verse 25, though 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. There’s like, I’m feeling a wave.
Where’s the wave?
Talk amongst yourselves.
Was it there the whole time?
Check, check, check. God is good. Alright, be careful. We’re going to limit our movement here. Alright, good luck with that.
So three ways to form the spiritual habit of faithful fellowship in Christ Jesus. These are going to come right out of the text. This isn’t rocket science. This morning I want you to hear the text and apply it. He starts off by saying, let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.
Stir up. This is a weird thing to say. As I read it again this week, I’m like, why those words? The word here in the Greek is so strange. It really means to prod, to provoke, to incite.
I’m about to go completely manual. Literally, the writer here is saying, I need you guys to poke one another into love and good works. I don’t like the way that sounds. I don’t know if I feel good about that. Get your tools out and prod one another.
This is like. This is a shepherding term. Okay? This is the idea. I don’t know if you’ve considered the shepherd staff in a while.
It’s, you know, the hooky thing. Cool, right? The hook part is so every once in a while you can grab a sheep and yank it. Because sheep are dumb and so are we. And so every once in a while you gotta yank.
But guess what’s on the other end? It’s pokey. It’s got a sharp side. And guess what you do with that sometimes you gotta prod. This is what’s going on here.
He’s saying, stir up one another to love and good works. Every once in a while church, we have to get with each other and have enough love for each other that we would actually say, buddy, stop doing what you’re doing. Go this way, you’re going that way. Hey, look, we, as a church, we’re following Lord Jesus. We’re going that way.
Why are you going over there? Prod, poke. To love and good works. The words here, not surprising for love is the word agape. This is this unconditional, godly kind of love affection that you would be Aiming at something better, not a conditional kind of love for each other.
That’s, hey, if you do this, I’ll do this. But. But if you fail here, then I’m out. That’s not the love of the church. The love of the church says Christ came, died for us.
We did nothing to earn it. And so we’re going to apply that to one another and so stir up and then to good works. Did you know that the church should be filled with people who genuinely love each other and do good stuff?
Not out of a sense of earning, but out of a sense of obedience to Christ? We do good works because God is good to us. We just simply pass it on and we should be doing it with one another. So fellowship, then this stirring up. You see the action in this?
It’s not passive. Look, fellowship inside of the church is not passive. It’s an intentional act of sharpening one another. I think this is still the theme verse for our men’s ministry group, but this is a great application here. Proverbs 27:17, it says, Iron sharpens iron and one man sharpens another.
This could be applied to the church as a whole, though, not just our men’s group. You know that iron, sharpening iron is the idea that you actually have to put things in the blacksmith and there’s friction and there’s sparks, but on the other side you’ve got a sharper blade because guess what’s happening? We’re going to war tomorrow. Some of you are fully aware of this, where you work. You’re like, I know I got a battle ahead of me tomorrow.
Some of you are thinking, I very much wish I could stay in bed tomorrow because I’ve got to face this co worker. I’ve got to deal with this problem I’ve got. Some of you are in like the first responder field. Every day is like this for you, right? Every day is an opportunity for some insane battle.
And a lot of you are facing this tomorrow, this week. The Bible says we should be putting on the armor of God and that when we come together in the fellowship of God, that we sharpen each other. So that way we’re ready for tomorrow. But if we decide not to show up, or maybe we just come and, hey, today I’m just going to be a lump in a seat. I’m not going to do much.
I don’t really want to interact with people. You know, you guys should be thankful I even showed up today. Guess what? We are not thankful you showed up today. I don’t think the Pastor should say that.
No, I’m hopeful that you will be the kind of person who comes to church and gets involved that makes the decision that I want to be a part of the fellowship, not just a seat catcher. You know, I can take up space. Any of us can do that. No, we’re called to stir up one another. John Jesus says this in the book of John 13.
He says, A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another just as I have loved you. You also are to love one another. Hear this, Church. By this, all people will know that you’re my disciples. If you have love for one another, it is surprising when the outside world looks in and says, they seem like they hate each other.
I’m not going. I don’t blame them. This should be a place of real, authentic family where we truly take care of each other. And love says the honest thing, too. It has compassion, but it also tells the truth.
Ephesians then goes on to talk about good works. Paul writes to the Ephesian Church, we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, and we should walk in them. We ought to be a people doing good in our city, doing good in our community. Why? Because we love the Father, because we love what Christ has done for us.
And it’s just obvious to us that we ought to celebrate in good works. Now, I want to share something. This is going to sound so left field for a moment, but follow me for just a second. I thought of this this week, and I was like, should I go with this? Because this is abstract.
I thought of the movie Hook. All right, come on board for a moment. Who all seen the movie Hook? It’s kind of. Kind of back there a little bit.
Robin Williams plays Peter Pan, has forgotten how to be Peter Pan. It’s a crazy story, but he sits down with the Lost Boys for a meal. This imagery just really stuck in my head this week. And he sees all of them. They are chowing down.
Remember this scene? He looks at the table and it’s all empty bowls. They’re stirring emptiness. He’s looking at them like, what are they doing? And they’re having the blast.
They finally say, hey, hey, Peter, you gotta eat, Pan. Eat with us. And I love this line. This is what came to my mind this week, because I’m a weirdo. He shouted out, eat what?
There’s nothing to eat. Gandhi ate more than this.
And it turns out he had to use his imagination to partake in this food. He had to access something in his childhood that he had forgotten, right? He had to access his imagination. I thought of that this week because this idea of stirring up, I thought of this Church. Here’s what I know, friends.
We can’t stir into others what we don’t have.
Some of us are stirring some empty bowls right now. And I’ve just encouraged you to bring something to the table. Love and good works. Stir one another up. But you can’t do that with an empty bowl.
Do you know Jesus? You met him, yet you spent some time with him. Today I’m going to say something wild to you. Do you know you shouldn’t come to church expecting to meet him finally today? You could have saw him as soon as you got up.
You don’t have to wait. You don’t have to say, Saturday night. Boy, I hope I have an interaction with Christ tomorrow, because I really need it. Hey, church. I hope you do.
I’m not saying that. I hope that you come into this place and you feel the presence of God and you’re moved and. And you grow and you feel like you’re one step closer to being more holy and more obedient. And you know better how to follow the Lord, Jesus. I hope all of that for you.
But you don’t have to wait. And if you’re thinking that tomorrow, Monday comes and Monday’s tough sometimes you don’t have to think, boy, I can’t wait till next Sunday. I finally could get some more of that Jesus juice. Whatever in the world that means.
No, we’re called to stir one another up to love and good works. Which means we have to also privately be getting stirred up in prayer in the word. You don’t have to have a degree to do this, friend. Guess what? I’ll tell you something.
This might be hard to hear. They don’t really teach you in seminary how to have a quality interaction in the word of God. They teach you what stuff means. They teach you. Hey, hey.
Paul wrote this and Winnie wrote it, and they teach you all this stuff behind the scenes. But I had to bring to the table a passion and a love for God’s word. Otherwise, I had no business being there. You can do this. Do you know him?
Have you met him? Have you met him this morning? Well, if you haven’t, that’s okay. We’re gonna meet him together right now. We’re gonna talk through his word right now.
But you don’t have to wait and you don’t have to run solo anymore. Some of you have bowls absolutely full. You’ve Got a quality life with God. And you might even be thinking, man, it would be easier for me to run this race by myself. I hate group work.
I hate teamwork. Some of you are that way. I remember in college I despised when we would get a group project. Despised it because I knew there’s going to be a few slackers on the team and they’re just going to get the A that we all earn. Maybe a B. I don’t know.
Depends on how I’m feeling. I hated group work and stuff like that. This is not what Christianity is. You got food in the bowl. It’s time to stir up one another.
Fellowship’s not about comfort. It’s a calling for something higher. Here’s some ways to apply this church, some ways to apply this. Be intentional in your fellowship. No more small talk.
You don’t have to do this. Some of you hate this anyway. You don’t have to come to church and say, hey, how’s your favorite sports team doing? The weather looks a little funny today. We might get rain.
I mean, you don’t have to do this. You can come up to one another and say, how’s it going, man? How’s your walk with Jesus? Hey, last time we were together we prayed about such and such. How’s that?
How’s your dad? How’s your marriage right now? We’ve talked about that before. Like we don’t have to waste time anymore. Get intentional in the way you speak to one another.
Motivate one another to live holy as he is holy. Model love and good works. You do it and then stir other people to do it. Create rhythms for stirring. Now, you’ve noticed something today that’s I hope, kind of unusual.
There’s a few of us wearing the greens today. I normally wear button ups and stuff like that. I normally look a little more pastorly, whatever in the world that’s supposed to look like. But there’s a few of us rocking the greens today. It’s because after service today there’s going to be an opportunity for you to go get plugged into a community group.
Some of you have been at our church for a long time, have never plugged in. Today’s the day to do it. Make it happen. We’re going to have, all of us are going to be in the lobby receiving you. We’re launching a new group today.
But this is an opportunity for stirring that we do every single week together. And it goes way beyond what we can accomplish here. This is a top down approach. Right now I’m Speaking, you’re listening. I enjoy it, it’s fun.
But I like getting with you. Just a few of us and going, alright, what in the world did any of this mean? What am I supposed to do with it? How can I pray for you? That stuff’s happening at community group and we’re eating together and we’re all figuring out who eats with their mouth open and all that crazy stuff.
It’s awesome. Join a community group today. This is your opportunity. You want to know what it means to fellowship at Eastgate Church. That’s where it truly happens.
Now here’s the second way. He says, stir up one another. And then he says, not neglecting. So I’m going to put that in positive language. Stay devoted to one another by gathering together.
Stay devoted to one another by gathering together. He says in verse 25, don’t neglect meeting together. And then he says something crazy, as is the habit of some. We have to come to a moment of clarity here and just kind of be honest with ourselves and say, it’s not just that I’ve fallen out of the habit of connecting well with God’s people. It’s actually I have the opposite habit.
I have the habit of being alone. And here’s a really devastating thing that’s true. It takes like six weeks, they say, to create a good habit. Guess how long it takes to make a bad habit. Like a moment, like instantaneous.
No one ever has to make me eat ice cream. I just do it. It’s wild. No one ever has to tell me to do nothing. I’m really great at it.
I’m excellent at laying around. Sometimes I have to look out at my yard and go, I got a mow. You know, sometimes I have to actually make an initiative and it takes time to create healthy habits. And this is true here. But Paul says, or the writer here of Hebrews says, you have a habit of not meeting together.
This is the word ethos here. This is the idea of a custom, a characteristic. Somebody’s not gonna like this today, and I’m sorry if this is you, but your friends know who you are. And I’ve had this accused of me before and I’ll be honest, kind of hurts my feelings because I’m trying not to be this guy. But like you all have that friend that if you call them, you can pretty much guarantee they’re not going to respond.
You love them, they’re a good friend, you invite them to something, you can pretty much guarantee that that invitation was simply just because you want to keep a line of communication open, you know, they’re not coming.
Some people say that I’m kind of that way. I’m trying to be more devoted to one another and trying to be quicker and responding to people. You know, some of that stuff that I’ve done in the past, even as a young man, it’s hard to break people’s impression. You know, it takes a while before people would say, you know what? I think maybe he’s not that way, but maybe that’s you.
Today, you’ve actually got into the habit. So much the custom that people characterize you by being a guy who’s going to be by himself, who he’s not going to show up.
But the early church is wild, instinctively getting together, and way more than we do or probably ever will.
We’ve got such an incredible habit, especially in American culture. It’s not this way everywhere in the world. But in American culture, we are characterized by independence. Not just the freedom and all the cool stuff and all the flag and all that fun. No, no, I’m talking about independence, personally.
Where you can pull into your driveway, pull into your garage, shut the door, no one can see you, you can isolate. And it’s not odd. It’s normal. It’s not the early church, though. And I think us, the American church, should be working towards something better.
Acts chapter two, which is where I could have spent all my time today. But I got to admit something to you, church. We have preached Acts 2:42, 47 so much here. I was like, I’m gonna give him something new today. I don’t know if you’re okay with that.
I’ll get you next time. If you’re just passionate about this text, I love it, too. But in Acts 2:42, it says this. They devoted themselves to four things. The apostles teaching, the fellowship.
It says they devoted themselves to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayers. And then it goes on later in that text to say, day by day, attending the temple together, breaking bread in their homes. They receive their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And guess what? God did.
He added to their number, day by day, those who were being saved. This is the early church. This is the calling on our life Christians.
So here’s just under the hood for a moment. Here’s all we’re trying to do here at Eastgate Church. We pray that you’ll come here and fellowship with us on Sunday mornings. We pray you’ll do that and that we’ll give you an encouraging uplifting challenging word that we’ll worship together and we’ll do our best to have an excellent time together of fellowship. You guys can communicate after, beforehand and, and get to know each other.
We’re hoping you’ll do that. And we’re going to give you so much of these four devotions right here. But there’s some stuff that’s missing that’s hard to do here. We offer one other thing right now. We’re just about to launch another group on Tuesday nights right now.
You can come on a Sunday night, on a Tuesday night or a Wednesday night and maybe we’ll launch more if we can figure it out. We’ve got a few nights where we come together in homes, we eat together, we pray together, we talk about God’s word together and we’re learning how to be holy as Christ is holy together. This is all we do here. It’s a pretty simple structure. Some of you grew up in churches where there were meetings all week long.
Maybe that was, I think it was effective in its day. It’s hard to get people to even come out to two things. Now. I’m just prayerful that you would consider this. Come to church on Sunday, come to a small group and I believe something, something’s going to start happening in your life.
You’re going to feel connected.
Most people that eventually leave our church, or for some, a lot of times they’ll tell me, I just don’t feel, feel plugged in. And we haven’t always done great. But now the next person that says that to me, I’m going to be nice because I’m a nice guy. But I’m going to say, did you ever go to a community group? No.
Well, not surprised. You know, if you’d have tried that out, maybe. You know what? No one knows yet. You only told me you’re leaving.
Hey, why don’t you go to a community group, see what happens, alright? To see if maybe you feel a little more plugged in. In fact, I read a stat recently that said about 95% of people going to churches that feel connected are people that serve 95%. Guess what we have around here. This isn’t the point of this text, all right?
So you don’t have to keep this today, but I’m going to offer it free, alright? We have a lot of opportunities for you to do stuff. And y’, all, there’s some of you in the room that are incredible at stuff, things that we don’t have anybody else incredible at. And you’re sitting there, you could feel connected, plugged in. Some of the most fun that you can have in church is doing things together.
It is a joy to come up here and sing together. It is a joy to greet people together. It’s not that much fun to do alone. You ever work a job like this? Used to happen a lot in the military.
You ever work a job solo for a while and Fresh Blood shows up with some energy? You’re like, praise the Lord. Or you’re on a job and some young buck shows up with all this pile of energy. No knowledge, but tons of energy. You’re like, hallelujah.
I’m gonna make him move all the heavy stuff so I can think. Wonderful.
This is how church is too. Friends, I’m going to just be honest with you for a second. It is so much better to do ministry with you than without you. It’s so much better. When I start seeing y’, all, something happens.
Every Sunday morning I get here at about 8 o’, clock, I start putting everything on, start getting things going. As people start arriving, I. I just start getting filled up and fired up. As my worship team starts showing and people start showing up to serve children, I start going, we’re going to do church today. If people start showing up late, I start going, I don’t know if we’re going to do church today.
I’m only one guy. We’re going to have to bring the kids in here. It’s going to be wild. You get me? Are you hearing what I’m saying?
Christianity is a team sport. And when we get this right, God does something the Bible says he adds to their number day by day. You want to be a part of a movement of God in your city. Start stirring up one another to love and good works, start being together. God does the other stuff.
It’s incredible. He’s taken all the hard work upon himself. He just says, would you be obedient to be together and worship me and spend time with me and I’ll put this stuff into place. The Lord added to their number and guess what else we can make gathering together a delight and not a duty. I never wanted to plant a church that was going to be humdrum and no fun.
I don’t want to be a part of that. It. It’s okay. Hear me say this. It is okay to come to church and smile.
It is a good thing to come in this place and have a good time. I want you to walk out of here going, you know what? That was fun. Are you supposed to say that at church? I Don’t know.
I thought it was supposed to be, like, real somber. There’ll be somber moments because sometimes I’m going to cry a little bit. I’m going to cry a little bit over here. But it’s because I love Jesus. Don’t worry about that.
But I’m having fun. All right. Those are tears of joy. You know, you can have fun at church. You can have fun.
We have a lot of fun at community group. We make fun of each other. Sometimes it’s a good time.
Stay devoted to each other. Here’s a verse that really spoke to me this week. I thought about preaching it, but I couldn’t figure it out. Maybe I’ll do it another time. Psalm 122, verse 1 through 4.
It says, I, this is King David. It says, I was glad when they said to me, go to the house of the Lord. And now here we are, standing inside your gates, O Jerusalem. Jerusalem is a well built city. Its seamless walls cannot be breached.
And all the tribes of Israel, the Lord’s people, make pilgrimage here. They come to give thanks to the name of the Lord. I love this idea. He says, I was glad when the people said, hey, man, let’s go to church. I was pumped up to hear him say that.
I would be, too. Paul says in the book of First Corinthians, he says that every member of the body is indispensable. I’d encourage you to read this passage in First Corinthians, chapter 12. I’m not going to spend any time there this morning. I learned something this week, though, that is indeed true.
Every single part of the human body is absolutely indispensable. I found out, in fact, some of you know this already. I think the only main important part of your whole body is that little area right there at the bottom of your back. I think that’s the only part that matter. Because if you mess that little part up, guess what?
You can’t even tie your shoes. You can’t even get. You can’t even sleep good. You try to roll over and you’re like, I can’t roll over. I don’t know what I’m doing here.
I’ve forgotten how to walk. I feel like an invalid. That happened to me earlier this week. Praise God. I’ve worked through that.
I need to work on that a little bit more. But I figured out something. Every single part of the body is indispensable. My wife was so unhappy with me being hurt that she, like, hooked her toe on something this way. Her little pinky toe.
That thing is looking weird now, y’. All. But she’d be okay with me saying that, I hope. But it’s like the seventh time this girl’s broke that one pinky toe and now she’s limping around the house. I’m like, that was my thing this week.
That’s not yours. That’s my thing. So guess what? That little bitty bone right there at the bottom, that little bitty pinky toe. Little bitty.
You need it. Did you know that? You know you need that goofy little pinky toe. Some of you got some weird looking ones. You needed that.
Do you know it?
Every part of the body is indispensable. Some of you in the room have been saying this to yourself for a while. I’m insignificant. I’m not important. They don’t need me there.
No one appreciates me. Guess what? That is not the truth from Christ Jesus. That is a lie from the evil one. And we’re not saying that here.
We need you. And when you don’t show up, when we feel like our little pinky toes are missing, we feel like that little integral spot in the bottom of our back is jacked up. We feel that we need you. We need one another. Some of you might be the big toe.
That’s okay. We need you for stability. Goofy as you might look, we need you. Not everybody’s called to be a mouthpiece. Not everybody’s supposed to be the eyes and ears.
But we all have a part to play. And when you don’t show up, we feel it. Community groups, especially this way, when people don’t show, it’s tough. We miss you. You might be the joy.
You might be the thing that makes us smile every week. Now here we are, just looking at each other like, well, now how are we going to have fun?
All of you know this already. When you get your old friends together and somebody doesn’t show, it just doesn’t feel quite the same.
None of you are indispensable. In fact, I’m confident in this. God has called you in this place this morning for a purpose. It might be your first time with us this Sunday morning. This is not an accident.
I’m prayerful that you would be called into our fellowship today in a real, tangible way. Every time you gather together, you declare two things. You declare that you belong to Christ, that you belong to his church. You declare them both. And when you neglect to show up, you weaken both of those confessions.
So this is not a fun application. And then I’ll get into the Third one, which is all just lovey dovey and rainbows.
Some of you have made the decision to not plan for this.
Being devoted, staying devoted to one another means planning to do it. Worship shouldn’t be a last minute decision. I feel up to church today. I think we should go make the decision. No matter how I feel in the morning, I’m going to.
That’s planning for it, that’s protecting it. Guarding against this subtle shift that all of us have of. Well, if I’m not too tired. Well, if this ball game isn’t too important. Well, if nothing else comes up, I got you every fall, you don’t surprise me.
I can look at the NFL schedule and go, I know who’s not showing this week because it’s a big game. Tape it. I mean, good grief, we’re not changing our time for that game. We’re going to be here at 10:30.
Protect it. Guard against the subtle shift. Participate fully. Don’t just show up. Engage.
Guess what? You can sing with us too. I don’t care if your voice is no good. Sing, listen. Pray with us.
Greet each other. Give. No one talked to me today. I didn’t see you open your mouth. What’s going on here?
We’re not always going to get this perfect. Talk to people. No one talk to me. I’m so sorry. I’m gonna.
Look, I’m gonna go nuts in here trying to meet all y’. All. This. I love this meet and greet moment because I’m just running around like, hey, hey, good to meet you, but I might miss one of you. Sorry.
You can talk to me afterwards. I promise I’ll be the last one here, or one of the last ones. Sometimes the canes beat me. I think it’s something they’re trying to do. But you can meet one of us.
Here’s the third. Strengthen one another with encouragement. Strengthen one another with encouragement. Stay together. Stir each other up.
Stay devoted to each other. Strengthen each other. He ends by saying, encourage one another and all the more, because the day of the Lord is drawing near. I don’t know when Christ will return. There have been people throughout human history that have said, hey, he’s coming.
He’s coming now. He’s coming in. And people have drank the Kool Aid on that. Jesus instead said, no man knoweth the hour, but here’s what I’m confident in. We’re closer today than we were yesterday.
And we’re getting closer every day that goes by. So we should have this kind of perspective together that it could Be tomorrow? We don’t know. It could be later in this week. But who should we be?
How should we live in that? We should live urgently. That’s what he’s saying here, that you’re intentional in your fellowship. You’re intentional in encouraging each other. Because we don’t know he could come tomorrow.
There’s an urgency to this Christian walk. He says, encourage each other. This word is the word parakaleo. In the Bible, the Holy Spirit is called the Paraclete. I always thought of it as like he’s a paracletes, which is weird.
That has nothing to do with it. But paraclete literally means to come alongside. The name of the Holy Spirit is actually the one who comes alongside and puts his arm around you. That’s what the idea of his name is. And so here we’re called to encourage each other.
Parakaleo, come alongside and say, brother, we got this. We can do this. To come alongside you and say, I see your broken marriage, but I’m here for you. I’m going to tell you the truth, but I’m going to love you. We can do this.
Guess what Christ can do. He can heal every marriage. He can heal everything. He can solve your financial woe. He can help you if you just lost something, if you’re going to.
If you’re facing debt. Look, Christ is there, the Paraclete. The Holy Spirit is alongside. But we’re called to be like him. He says encourage one another.
And all the more as the day is drawing near. I just want to encourage some of my older members today. You know who you are. You know, I’m so thankful for you. It’s been mysterious to me for a long time.
Brother Tom Bolander was our oldest member for a while. I think it’s now. You miss Helen, now our oldest member here. And I was so thrilled for the longest time that you guys came because here’s this goofy young buck up here moving around, acting crazy, and you came to church. Here’s what I know.
No matter how old you are, you’re still here for a purpose. There’s an urgency to your mission. There’s an urgency. The Capital D day of Christ’s return is approaching and he’s coming back. And I’m thrilled about that.
But I don’t want to leave anybody behind. I want to grab them all. I pray you do, too. Every single family member, every co worker, even the ones that kind of get on your last nerve, you still don’t want them to go somewhere else. Like, go ahead and let’s grab on all the more as the day draws near.
If you’re still here, if you’re still drawing breath all the more as the day draws near. This is the way of the true church of Christ. The way is strengthening one another. Look at Galatians. Paul says to the Galatian church, he says, carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you fulfill the law of Christ.
Carry each other’s burdens. Encourage one another. Earlier in the book of Hebrews, it said in chapter three, verse 13, it says, encourage one another daily as long as it is called today so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We can do something as a fellowship in the body of Christ where we actually help each other live more holy that we don’t pay lip service to this anymore. When someone comes saying, hey, I’m struggling with this addiction, I’m struggling with this thing.
I’m struggling with my obedience, we don’t just say, hey, man, it’s gonna be okay. That would be a lie. We say, I’ve been there, but guess what God can do. I haven’t had that exact same struggle, but here’s something I had and here’s what I did about it. We come alongside, say, look what Jesus can do.
And then, this is my final scripture of today. There’s no greater strength and encouragement than having God by your side. Matthew, chapter 18, in fact, says, where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them. I pray you feel the spirit of God in this place today. We can feel it.
Every time we get together. He shows up in a powerful way every time. Christianity is a team sport.
There have been several times in my life, and I’m going to close with this thought, when I realized that I can go way beyond my perceived limits. We all have this in our head. This is as far as I can go. This is as good as I can be. This is as strong as I can get.
You know, we all have these perceived limits. I remember high school football. I was one of a handful of white kids on the high school football team and. And a very small white kid, too. I was a tiny little fella trying to play cornerback.
And I can remember being in the weight room with these grown men. I mean, most people. And this is some of you in the room, some of you got beards in high school, I’m still waiting on mine.
Some of you. And girls, I’m sorry, this is going to sound wacky, but I remember when I started seeing guys with armpit hair. And I’m like, I don’t belong around here. That took a while for me. I just wasn’t doing anything that looked manly.
I just looked like a child until I was about 16 years old. It was weird. I’m trying to play high school football. I can remember being on the bench press with these guys with beards over top of me. I’m pushing, like, probably £100.
I remember I could do the bar and 225s and I was like, praise the Lord. Which is like, what, 95, I think. Yeah, 90. I’m just. And I got guys over top of me going, push, Combs, push.
I’m like, ah.
By the time I finished high school, I’m like, I’m getting close to 225 because I got these guys over top of me going, ah. It helps. I would never have even tried it. I would not have tried it. I would have tried to lift it and go, I’m going to break something.
I’m going to die.
I found out I can survive the most horrendous things in the army, just some of the. And we do this to ourselves just because I don’t know what’s wrong with the army. Some of y’ all have been military, and we just do horrible things to train. Just, I guess, find out that we could almost die and we could survive it. I don’t know.
I found out I would never have tried some of these things. Crawling through concertina wire while they’re shooting bullets over our heads and, like, all this crazy stuff and getting pepper sprayed and tased and going in on purpose to get CS gassed in a chamber. Like, no one does this. I would have never done this on my own. But if we’re going to do it together, let’s do it together.
You know, if we go down, we go down together.
So we all come in there and I found out, guess what? I can do it. I can survive this. So then, if something terrible happens on a real battlefield somewhere, I know if you’re next to me, we can do this. We can survive this.
If some of you are trying to do Christianity solo and you’re wondering why you feel like you’re about to break, it’s because no one’s there. Because you. You haven’t connected. But guess what? We link arms together, we can survive anything.
The warfare of the evil one, it’s real. It’s like, I don’t really want to talk about this at church today, but it’s a real thing. And guess what? There are forces Opposed to your marriage, to your life. They want you to be broke.
They want your marriage to fail. They want you to doubt your faith. They want you to run away from church. This is the ploy of the evil one. But if you come together, you go.
We can go in the chamber. We got this.
I pray that that speaks to you today. Because guess what I’ve discovered. Brothers in Christ have pushed me way beyond my perceived limits. Areas of sin in my life where I thought, I will never overcome this. I’ve had guys come around, put their arm around me and say, I have and in the power of the Holy Spirit, so can you and show me a roadmap of how they got there.
Some of you in the room need to get a friend like that. They’re here.
So in a world that’s constantly working against you, tearing you down, the church should be a place where we build up. I encourage you show up. Presence itself is an encouragement. Paul writes in second Corinthians, he said, God who encourages the discouraged, encouraged us simply by the arrival of Titus. A friend in the faith showed up and he felt encouraged.
I get that every time I see your faces, I feel encouraged. Make encouragement a habit, not just a hobby, not just an occasional afterthought. It’s going to be okay around here, church, if we start having this kind of language like, hey brother, I’m here for you. You can do this in the power of Christ, instead of saying, it’s going to be alright. Now let’s stop with all that fluffy word stuff.
Let’s tell each other the truth and stick by one another. Spiritual habits act like a conduit that connects us to the power of the Holy Spirit. I pray that you will. You will feel a challenge, but not just challenge, but you’ll take a step towards. I’m going to make a plan.
I’m going to protect the habit of fellowship. And the way that I’m going to do that is by stirring one another up, by devoting myself to the church of God and to strengthen through encouragement. Let’s spend some time now in prayer together. Heavenly Father, we ask that you would help us to really honor you in this spiritual discipline. This one I think surprises us a little bit, that there should be a discipline, a habit, if you will, of gathering a habit of fellowship.
God, I pray that you would encourage your church right now, that we would be the kind of people who take seriously our walk in Christ together. That when we see one another, we’re not thinking about how to pay some kind of lip service. No, we’re thinking genuinely, how can I help this brother or sister grow in their faith, be more obedient to Christ or to get over this terrible sin area or this terrible defeating thing that’s happening in their life? What can I do to help that? That would be our new motivation.
Christ, would you make us that kind of church that’s serious about the fellowship, that’s intentional in our conversations, that doesn’t come to church out of some sense of duty, but out of delight that we would long to be together? God, only you can really do this in us. You would mold and change our hearts in such a way that we would long to be together? God, would you do that? If there’s some brokenness in this room, Lord, I pray that you would press that on our hearts right now.
That before we leave this place today, we might take some stuff steps to reconcile together. That this can genuinely be a place of love and good works out of obedience and honor to all that you’ve done for us, Lord Jesus, God, would you peer in and see that? See if there’s some kind of brokenness in us where we need to come clean with one another. Give us a heart for that today, Lord, we love you. We’re so thankful that you’ve called us into community, that we don’t have to go through this difficult life solo.
You’ve called us to something far better. That not only do we get to have this experience of knowing you and worshiping you and seeing you move and stir in our life, we get to see it in community and that’s even more exciting. Lord, I’m so thankful right now for all of the incredible things you’ve done in my life. But I have to admit something, Lord. I’m even more thankful for the opportunities where I’ve gotten to speak into others life and seen them restore a marriage, seen them come through a terrible suffering.
That’s even more exciting to me. God, I’m thankful that you call us to community. Would you help us to really be that in our city? We ask boldly right now, Lord, that you would add to our number day by day, those who are being saved. Because we are getting this prayer part right, we are saying yes to fellowship.
And now you can trust us with more, God, would you trust us with more and encourage us? We love you so much. It’s in Jesus name we pray. Amen.
