Neglecting Church Fellowship

Hebrews chapter 10, let's read verses 18 to 31. Where there is forgiveness of these, we're in the New Covenant, there's forgiveness. There is no longer any offering for sin via the law.

Christ has come. And then he goes on, verse 19, Therefore, in view of these things, brothers, and he kind of summarizes what's happened 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, so the second thing, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart and 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. Why? For he who promised is faithful. And then he has his third, let us.

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and 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. Four, if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses.

How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the one who's trampled underfoot the son of God and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has outraged the spirit of grace? For we know him who said, vengeance is mine, I will repay. And again, the Lord will judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

And then he does another contrast, but recall the former days when after you were enlightened, but we'll stop right there. So I wanna talk about how important it is to not neglect meeting together, how important that is. About a month ago, someone sent me an article and the article was entitled, The Most Dangerous Thing a Christian Can Do.

And I didn't click on that article for a few days and I thought, I wonder what this is about. You know, sometimes we use the most dangerous thing a Christian can do, meaning like on the offensive against the kingdom of darkness. Well, that article, when I finally clicked on it, it wasn't talking about that type of doing something dangerous for Christ.

It was talking about a self-inflicted danger. And in part, it referred to this issue of neglecting to meet together, being the most dangerous thing a Christian could do. And I'm gonna refer to that article at the end.

I wanna read a quote from it because I think it's very insightful, but it got me thinking and it made me recognize, I don't think I've taken this personally as serious as I should. I just think that I've been sobered up thinking about this topic after having read that article and just really reconsidering some of Hebrews 10 and some of the connections that the author makes that maybe I just didn't take as seriously as I should those connections. So that's what I want us to think about, how important it is to not neglect meeting together.

And our main concern here is not what I have to say, not what this article has to say, but what does God's word have to say? And that's why we're right here in Hebrews 10. So let's consider this passage and dissect some of the logic here that the author is putting forward. So if you start reading again, verse 19, the writer says, and if you've got a Bible, open your Bible.

You wanna be able to see the grammar in the text and be convinced of it yourself. It's gonna be harder to be convinced if you're just hearing me, unless that's how you listen, that's fine. But verse 19, therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, he's given that truth.

Then he gave another. Since, you got these two, since we have confidence to enter by the blood, since we have a great high priest over the household of God. So in other words, we've got full access, full access to God through Jesus Christ.

And we've got, he represents us before the Father. We've got those two truths. And those two truths, he's bringing those out.

And now that's the lens through which we're gonna look at the rest of the passage. In view of these two truths of the Lord Jesus Christ, in view of the gospel, you could basically say, we've got this lens now to understand the rest of what follows in the passage. And so after he gives those two truths, he goes on to give three responses that each of those responses for us are introduced by the phrase, let us.

Right, if you look at verse 22, let us. Verse 23, let us. In verse 24, let us.

So in view of these truths about the gospel, he's calling us to have three responses that he each introduces by the phrase, let us. This is showing us how we should respond to these truths. All right, you think about, here I know this truth, what response does it dictate in my life? This is exactly how the Hebrew author is thinking.

He's thinking when you hear certain truths, it's gonna produce something. There's a call to action that the truth demands of our lives. And so let's look at those truths briefly.

First truth in verse 22. The first response, let us draw near with a heart because the way is already opened. All right, and I'm calling that truth, let us be prayerful with confidence.

For the first reality of it, I need to be a prayerful person. I need to pray with confidence that I have a cleansed conscience. The second response, verse 23, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering.

Why? For God who promised is faithful. So that call to action is let's persevere. So let's be prayerful, let's persevere.

Those are the first two things. He's saying in view of the gospel, these are two realities, these are two responses that we should have. Then the third response is verse 24.

Let us consider one another. And why would you consider others? He then gives the reason. You do something when you're making those considerations about the brethren to stir up love in good works.

And so that third thing is we're to be provoking one another to good deeds, right? So you got, so he starts out in his logic, you got these truths of the great high priest, your conscience is cleansed, the gospel. He says in view of that, let us be prayerful, let us be persevering, and let us be provoking one another to love and good deeds. So he brings that out.

Now, then the question becomes this. Well, where does the author believe these things should be primarily taking place? I wanna be prayerful. I wanna be provoking.

I wanna be persevering. I wanna be stirring you guys up to love and good works. And then he explains the where in the next verse, verse 25, not neglecting to meet together as in the habit of some, but encouraging one another all the more as you see the day drawing near.

So in his mind, these imperatives are played out in one primary place in the gathered assembly as we are all here together. You see Paul talking a similar way in 1 Corinthians as well. We're to be encouraging one another here.

Now, he doesn't stop there. If you look at the passage, he mentions the answer to where this is all to happen. And then he actually gives a motive.

He adds a motive when he says this, and all the more as you see the day drawing near. So there's a day drawing near that as you're here today at church, this should actually be on our mind. Max, it's good to see you.

There's a day drawing near. There's a day coming. And I would put forth the second coming of Christ is when it's all gonna be over.

So when the end's gonna come, and he mentions that as a motive. There's a day drawing near. And the way to me that's helpful to think about it is this.

We are the what? The bride of Christ. And when that day finally comes, we're gonna see who face to face, our bridegroom, right? And it's almost like the author refrains the church gathering as a rehearsal for the day of Christ's return. Kind of like you have a wedding, right? And the day before the wedding, you're going to the rehearsal, you're getting everything in order, you're trying to figure out what's gonna happen.

It's almost like he views the gathering among each other. We're doing it as we see the day approaching. As we see this ultimate wedding day approaching, we're at the rehearsal.

So you guys, in one way, have come to rehearsal today. You've come to rehearsal that's leading to this ultimate day of Christ's return. Now, no couple who's confident of their marriage skips the rehearsal the night before and expects to glide through the ceremony near the wedding becomes, right? The closer the wedding day gets, the all the more important it is to be talking about it and thinking about it.

Now, that leads us to the end of verse 25. And if I stopped right here, that would be really, really bad. That'd be bad Bible teaching to stop right here.

Why? What's the first word in the next verse? It's for. What's the for therefore? It's a conjunction connecting it all. And so let's think about the for, maybe before I think about the for, just again to, if you got lost in the midst of that, let's just scan through it again.

He gives these two truths that we have. Then he gives three responses. Then he gives the where those responses take place.

Don't neglect meeting together. Then he gives a motive, a place we're thinking, the day, the day approaching and drawing near. And then we've got verse 26.

For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sin. Now, we get a lot of emails where people, all they do is email, what does this verse mean? They don't connect it to the context at all. And you get people, they teach on this verse.

They don't connect it to the context at all. They just look at verse 26 and on. It's all connected together.

And this all matters to see if this article is right, that one of the most dangerous things you and I could do is neglect the meetings or leave a church or be isolated with no church. If that's one of the most dangerous things we could do, this actually matters to consider this conjunction right here. To actually see, do I actually, do I see the importance of this as I should? And so let's think of this.

The conjunction four signals to us that the warning grows straight out of the previous verses. Right, verses 22 to 25. That warning is growing out of those truths we just taught about.

So the deliberate sin in context is a refusal to obey the commands that were just given. Right, the commands that were just given. If you refuse to practice those, that's one way you can define the willfully going on sinning after receiving the knowledge of the truth.

And that would mean you're subtly refused to draw near to Christ in prayer. You're no longer a prayerful person. No longer prayerful with the body.

Means you're not holding fast to sound doctrine. You're not persevering. Right, there's this slack and perseverance.

And then what was the next? Let us. You're not stirring up one another. Well, how does that command not get obeyed? Not gathering, but obviously you could be here today and you have no plan to stir anyone up and you're very self-focused.

Well, you're disobeying that command even if you're here. You can disobey the command by being here, right? So we can be, it's not just neglect. It's neglect to stir up, to think about the interest of others, which is obviously the mind of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So in other words, the choice to walk away from the rehearsal, the wedding rehearsal for that day, to forsake the gathering that keeps us focused on Christ, because we're here looking to that day. We're thinking of that day. We're eagerly awaiting His arrival, as Hebrews 9 says.

You persist in that path. You're not merely missing meetings, but those meetings are on a certain path. And when you get off of that path to that day, that's the bigger thing that's taking place.

You're stepping off the path onto a road where the once and for all sacrifice of Christ is not the primary thing being celebrated. It's not the thing being talked about. It's not the thing being emphasized.

And so our two privileges in verse 19 and 21, the blood-bought access, the great high priest, they require ongoing responses for those truths to remain warm in your heart. You and I can go down a path where we're not denying Christ initially, but we make decisions where the means God uses to keep Christ warm in our own souls is no longer there. And then this happens, meaning it's not an obvious path to apostasy.

If a person deliberately turns away from those practices, I would argue the four in verse 26 is triggered. They're going down a path where the sins they're committing, not doing the three let us that He's called them to, that's part of willfully sinning, deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth. So in plain terms, you neglect the rehearsals, you neglect the gatherings that cultivate these responses to the gospel, these three let us's, because we have a great high priest, you neglect that long enough, you're gonna arrive at the wedding day, and you know what's gonna happen? You're gonna arrive at the wedding day, and in the end, you don't even wanna stand near the bridegroom anyways.

You've lost, Christ is no longer the attractive Savior because of His person and what He's done. Your heart has grown cold to the Lord. You're ashamed of Christ.

He says right here in verse 26, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins. It seems to me the writer is deliberately referring to, alluding to Numbers 15. In Numbers 15, under Moses, a stray lapse into sin could be covered by a goat.

There was an offering for sin, right? If it wasn't willful. But it mentions there, the person who does anything with a high hand and reviles the Lord, that person is cut off and his guilt shall be upon him. In other words, the law, when you brazenly had a high hand and you sinned in a way willfully and deliberately, there wasn't actually an offering for sin for someone who did that.

So I think that's kind of what he's alluding to when he says right there, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins. Back then, they didn't have a sacrifice for that. You're removing yourself from Christ, this one sacrifice.

And verse 29 says that person is trampling underfoot the Son of God, profaning the blood of the covenant, outraging the Spirit of grace. Wait, by me refusing to stir up one another to love and good works? That somehow gets me to a point where I'm outraging the Spirit of grace? That can't be right. There's no way that's part of the path to get there.

Yes, yes, it is part of the path to get there. That's what the text says. So how does this tie back to not neglecting to meet together in verse 25? Again, verses 22 to 25 lists these responses that keep a heart, I'm using that language, it keeps your heart soft toward the sacrifice.

You're drawing near in prayer. You're holding fast and persevering to doctrine. You're stirring up one another.

You're not neglecting to meet together and stirring up one another. And that's keeping the heart warm. You could think of the church as like this campfire that it keeps these four actions warm and glowing in your heart.

And you step away from the flames. And what happens? Your faith, it begins to cool. And you keep your distance and it just starts to chill out in your life.

It freezes over. And the person finds himself in a place of having a false peace in the midst of their willful defiance. And so the writer's saying, look, you wanna know one of the safest places you can be to keep these let us actions that are responses to the Gospel in verse 19.

You wanna keep those warm in your heart. The place you wanna be is you wanna show up. You wanna be around the brethren.

You wanna be around the iron that sharpens iron. You wanna be around those who love you to confront you for your sin, who love you to rebuke you. You wanna be around those.

Pity the man who falls with none to help him up, right? But a cord of three strands is rarely broken. Even if you're here today, your heart's closed. You're maybe irritated at what I'm sharing.

You're losing a grip on your confession of faith. You've got no intention of encouraging anyone. You know what? It's still a great thing you're here.

Because by being here, you know what? Your heart's being confronted. If you're at home today and you're not here and you're not hearing these words right now, you're not gonna be confronted with areas that need to be confronted. So what makes the warning so unsettling to me, the warning of verse 26, is how ordinary the first steps outside can look.

The writer does not begin with adultery, blasphemy. He mentions neglecting to meet together. That's the where, where we're prayerful, where we're persevering, where we're provoking one another.

Notice, me not worried about you to stir you up. Just giving into that selfish mindset is a path to willfully sinning, even after receiving the knowledge of the truth. And that should surprise you.

Maybe it shouldn't. It should become a knowledge, actually, I guess. So skipping the assemblies or being involved when you're here could feel harmless.

There's no golden calf being made. It's no open denial. Yet the text treats it as the first outward symptom of the same high-handed rebellion that ends with no sacrifice remaining.

You see, that's what we're talking about. Maybe a good way to illustrate this, an illustration. People say this is Spurgeon, but I looked it up.

They don't think it was Spurgeon. I think someone made that up and put it on the internet saying it was Spurgeon, so it would get shared more. But it's a good illustration.

On one occasion, a pastor was meeting with a man who was struggling with coming to the meetings. They were having a conversation by a fireplace. As the man shared about his struggles with the local church, things he didn't like about his church, the pastor took a fireplace poker, reached into the fire, it's burning, and he took out one of the hot coals and he set it to the side, and they keep talking.

After about 15 minutes, the pastor directed the man's attention to the hot coal that he had removed. So look at that coal, look at that coal right there. The man answered yes.

At that time, the coal was no longer burning. It just sat there lifelessly, and the pastor continued, for those who separate themselves from the church, they're like that lonely coal dwindling in its flame. When you remove yourself from the fire of others and community, you start to languish in your walk.

And he commented, the coal, it didn't curse the other flames as it walked away. It simply isolated itself, cooled down, darkened, and died. In the same way, in the same quiet way, a believer who lets the calendar crowd out the gathering is already drifting towards the point where the one all-sufficient offering no longer avails.

Again, it no longer avails because their heart is no longer warm. Their focus is no longer on Christ. And they're on a path that they might be proving they're not the Lord's and they go out from us because they were not of us.

You know, that's the ultimate reality that's happening. Even though they were enlightened and under all manner of conviction, the author in Hebrews says, for us, there's better things, perseverance. The true child of God is gonna persevere.

Hebrews 3, it says, we've come to share in Christ if we hold our original confidence firm to the end. Isn't that amazing? There's an if, there's a condition. We got, we have, whatever confidence you have today, are you gonna have the same confidence in 20 years? I mean, we're in a battle, in a race, and we gotta hold firm to the end.

I mean, that's the reality of what we're facing as Christians. So Hebrews 10 warns the person who keeps sinning deliberately, no sacrifice remains. It's not describing a believer losing salvation.

It's unmasking a pretender whose ongoing high-handed defiance showed they never really relied on that blood, that precious blood of Christ. So the text gives you and me a question, many questions. But one is this, will you treasure the one sufficient offering, Christ? That's how verse 19 starts.

It's not an expectation to be at the meeting. The passage starts with pointing you and me to Christ. And as you're thinking about Christ, no matter how many warts all of us have got, you're thinking about Christ and his love for you, that's gonna bring you to be here, right? So it's that focus on the Lord that leads us into a place where we're then exhorted, let us, let us, let us.

He doesn't just say pray, persevere, provoke. He says, look at this Savior, and then he calls us to the let uses, you understand? That's important, we give that in the right order. So yeah, I think Hebrews 10, 24 to 25 is often neglected and not emphasized in its context.

I mean, verse 26 is directly connected, hopefully my attempt to prove that to you succeeded and didn't fail. So yeah, let me, a month ago, this article, this is by Tim Challies in June of 2024. I'm just gonna read a couple excerpts of this.

He said, one of the most innocent things, this is called the most dangerous thing a Christian can do. One of the most innocent things a Christian does may also be one of the most dangerous. What is it? And this is the article's emphasis.

They moved and left a good church situation. That's how the article frames it. He says, are you ready for the number one reason people stopped attending church? They moved.

The study found that around three out of every four people who left the church did so in a pedestrian, in a casual pedestrian way, they moved the inconvenience of attending kids' sporting activities, family changes like marriage, divorce, having a new child. In other words, it was not their convictions that led them away, but their circumstances led them away from the church. They didn't mean to leave the church, but inadvertently they allowed their lives and lifestyle to hinder their attendance.

Church got displaced by other priorities until it became a little more than an afterthought. They became unintentional deconstructionists. And this was the aha moment for me, Tenchalli says, because it's so consistent with what I observed.

We've had people join our church after moving to Canada from another country. They arrive with glowing recommendations from their former church. They were active.

They were involved. They served in many capacities, but they're not with us long before, but they are not with us long before their attendance begins to decline. And we begin to see them rarely, if at all.

We do our best to reach out to them, but find they stopped attending not only our church, but any church. What happened? They moved and somehow their faith was not equal to the move. It can happen with former members of our church as well.

They move away, perhaps to study, perhaps to work, perhaps for economic reasons. When we follow up to try to ensure that they are integrating into a church and their new community, we find they're not attending church at all. They moved and it somehow undid what seemed to be thriving faith.

Neither, and then he balances this out, right? We got a balance, and I appreciate Tenchalli does it. Neither of these scenarios is universal. Of course, we've had many people move in and move out who commit to their new church and they thrive there.

But both of these scenarios are common enough that we need to be aware of them. He says a few more things. Every journey begins with a single step, and that is true of so many who leave the church.

They leave by inches. They leave without meaning to leave the church. They leave because they've not been adequately cautioned about the coming challenges, that what seems like a time of exciting new experiences and new starts may actually be a time of unintentional de-churching and inadvertent deconstruction.

The last thing he says, I think the caution for all of us is that moving or other major life transitions can be an unexpected enemy. We need to caution ourselves when we prepare to significantly change our lives, and we need to caution others when they do. We need to understand that one of the most common things we do is also one of the most perilous.

We need to know that one of the most dangerous things a Christian can do is move. So that's how he frames all of it. He balances it out, right? There's brethren who move.

The Levies are about to move. Lord willing, they're gonna go up there. They're gonna thrive, right? It's not gonna be something where someone doesn't thrive.

But all of us, we've gotta weigh these things out. We gotta consider these realities. A major life transition being an unexpected enemy inadvertently allowed their lives and lifestyles to hinder their attendance.

That's something, have you ever had that happen? You make some decision that inadvertently affects your attendance. No big deal, right? Now you're not being stirred up. You're not stirring others up.

These let us's aren't really happening, and you could end up in verse 26. That's what he's warning us about in Hebrews. So is there any decision in your life you feel like is innocent, but is actually gonna have a larger effect than you recognize? We've all had that, right? We made some decision.

We thought this is a very innocent decision. This is not gonna have a massive impact, and it has a bigger impact than we ever thought it would. Do you struggle with persistent absence from the assembly where we draw near to Christ in a rehearsal, looking to our ultimate wedding to him on that great day? Hebrews 2, therefore we must pay closer attention to what we've heard, lest we what? Lest we what? Must pay closer attention to what we've heard, lest we, what word does he use? Drift, and that word drift brings up what sort of imagery? Similar imagery to 1 Timothy 1, about shipwrecks, drift, boats.

I don't know about, I've been on a canoe a long time ago, but if you're not proactively, depending on the state of the water, if you're not proactively paddling or going in a direction, you stop for a moment, what happened? Before you know it, the very shore you were near and everything, your position is totally changed. And you didn't even recognize it. You just kind of picked up paddling for a moment, and you got taken to a place, it seemed harmless.

But before you know it, you're far from where you started. You're pulled downstream by a force you hardly even noticed initially. Because you know, when you're active with the body of Christ and you're paddling, you don't notice how strong the current is.

But when you stop, you're isolated, you're the only paddler on the boat, you're gonna feel it. So that's something we have to realize. You might not notice it.

Another thing, you know what we don't notice? I don't think we, brethren, I'm telling you, this has proved itself time and time again. I don't think you recognize what good is happening to you by being here. I mean, just hearing the truth.

It's like Paul Washer said years ago, I remember it really helped me. He said people would hear sermons Sunday night, they wouldn't even remember what was preached, or they'd read their Bible, they wouldn't, and people kind of looked at that as a real negative thing. And Paul Washer said that happens to him all the time.

He'll read, and he doesn't even remember what he read at night. And he said, he doesn't feel unspiritual for not remembering it. And he gave, it's too long to give this illustration, but his point was, he was being cleansed and purified by the Word he heard.

And if you step out from all of that, you'll notice the difference of not having all that taking place. So I don't think we recognize. Every time you sit under God's Word, under the Word of God, around the brethren, you're hearing, brethren, share, it's the coal being warmed.

And you know, you're around everyone, we're all warming each other. You go isolate and take that coal out, and it starts to die out, you'll start to recognize exactly this concern. And this illustration, I think it's just, really captures it.

A park ranger once paused a tour in the Northern California Redwood Grove. Has anyone been to the Redwood Grove? Okay, yeah, I've got a few. How tall are those trees? 300 foot.

300 foot. And he asked, how do they survive the winter floods? How do they survive the winter storms? 300 foot tree, what's your natural answer? Man, they got deep roots. And guess what? That's not it.

They don't have deep roots. They don't have it. They got something far more amazing than a deep root.

He shook his head, he brushed away the forest floor. He said, the roots only reach about 60 feet. Six to 12 feet down.

300 foot tree, six to 12 foot root. How do they survive? That's kind of like us, right? We don't have really big roots. We're weak by ourselves.

He said this, their roots stretch outward at that point and sometime nearly go 100 feet over. But that does no good if something else doesn't happen. They tie themselves to every other redwood they can find.

So you got that redwood, its roots are going not that deep. They go 100 feet out. You got this whole grove of redwoods and all their roots become a web underneath the ground.

So when one gale, the man said, one tree never fights alone. The whole grove leans and holds together as the storm is hitting. I'm telling you, that is a very good picture of the church and the body of Christ.

And he pointed to the stump of an old lone redwood left standing after its neighbors had been logged. And without that woven network, it toppled over in one storm. That's what happens to the isolated Christian.

They no longer have the shared webbing that distributes the force. And the last thing he said was you stand alone and even a giant will fall. But you link your roots to the community of Christ and you can weather centuries of wind.

And the centuries is based on how long those trees are alive. You see that? I mean, you don't want to get into an isolated grove. You don't want to be over here.

You want to get in the midst of that grove. You want to have those connections with the body. You want to be in the life of Christ's bride and his church.

There's editing some things of Stuart Alley out. And that was one thing that came up at a conference recently. He said he was amazed how many people go to church and they don't even know the people they go to church with.

Like that's the cultural church in UK. And in some ways that happens in America. And if you're coming here, you want to know people.

You want to hang around. You want a fellowship. You can't stir them up just with some thoughts sitting in your chair.

You got to use your words. They can't stir you up if you're out the door too soon and in the car. So, just a brief conclusion.

We need to caution ourselves again when we prepare to significantly change our lives. Just remember this message. I need to remember it.

I can take you the body for granted and not recognize the impact you all are having and have had upon my life. And because I'm in the midst of the redwoods with the web. And then somehow you wrongly assess yourself, which is what pride does.

And you take yourself out from that web, thinking I've stood through some storms. You don't realize how much others were used to link through that web to stand through the storms. Proverbs 18, whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire.

A fool doesn't listen to sound judgment, it says. These are vital things, brethren. So when you plan to move, a job change, a child's sports season, do you first ask how will this affect the gathering with the church? Is that one of the first questions on your mind? If it's not, I'm telling you, you're not taking Hebrews 10 seriously.

It's kind of a lower tier issue in the Christian life. Look, if you've been in this church, you've heard us emphasize the prayer meeting. We're not doing that for no reason.

One of those three let us is to draw near, to be a prayerful people to our God. And we can, because Christ shed his blood. And as has been echoed by many a men, you might not feel like, or in women, especially the women with the kids and everything.

I mean, you don't feel like going to prayer meeting. And you come and you get stuck in the back with your kids. Again, you might end up in a conversation, stirring someone up back there that you didn't even anticipate.

If you're looking and praying for those opportunities, God will give you opportunities, right? Let us pursue doing good to one another. I mean, that's the whole Tim had a sermon decades ago, it felt like decades ago, Fatty's on the stirring up one another. I mean, he emphasized, the text emphasized you're actively pursuing someone to stir them up.

I mean, are you here today thinking about who you can stir up? And stir up to love. It's a big thing, right? We need love. We need love.

There's bitterness towards someone in the church, cooling your desire to gather. You slowly start getting away from the Redwood Grove. Remember, this gathering is a small picture of the day.

The final gathering. Yeah, there's an individual judgment, absolutely. But one way we get there, Hebrews 3, exhort one another once a week.

What's it say? Exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today. And then he gives the reason. So that none of you are hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

And it's interesting, what is the next thing he says in Hebrews 3, verse 14? Just turn there, we're in Hebrew. Didn't think of this till now, but it's just the same type of connection. Yeah, look at this.

This is the same idea here. Verse 12, take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart leading you to fall away from the living God. Okay, I don't want to fall away.

I don't want to have an unbelieving heart. And in contrast, his solution for that is what? Exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today. His solution for you and I not apostatizing is not neglecting the meetings and not just not neglecting them, but being here, being intentional to stir one another up.

I mean, you see, that's how the Hebrew writer talks. So you don't want the devil to trick you to minimize, because you might not feel like you're being helped by being here. Who cares if you feel like you're being helped? I'm called to obey Christ.

And he's doing far more than I can feel in my life right now. And if I just look at some subjective feeling and whether I had that or not Sunday night when I get home, it's a horrible litmus test to all the things God's doing in my life. Because even the things that test me with other brethren in my life are being, that's the iron sharpening me to make me more like Christ, to get gross sin out of my heart and expose it.

So it's the same thing here. Same emphasis right there in context. Another disclosing question.

Think of your children, your spouse, your friends. What are they learning from your weekly choices about the value of Christ's bride? That's what this is about. It's about the day.

It's about the day when we go to see Him and the wedding happens, right? It's not about church, so to speak. It's about the bride. Do people see us putting such an emphasis, such an importance on this? Well, the last thing would be, in Hebrews 10, to read the rest of the passage, right? This should help you.

Verse 32, we're sobered by this warning and then look what the author does. He wants to encourage you. But recall the former days, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with suffering, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction.

And this is what they were enduring. This is what he's reminding them. Look at the grace of God in your life and all that happened.

And he says this, sometimes you were partners with those who were treated in that way. And then look at the stirring up the love they did. You had compassion on those in prison.

And then look how much they're living for that day. You joyfully accepted the plundering of your property. Now, that's encouraging and it's scary.

Why is it scary? The people who joyfully accepted the plundering of their property, the people who suffer with those who are in prison, apparently are now some of the people who are neglecting the meeting together and no longer stirring up one another to love and good works. Oh my, how fall, the great ones had fallen. So that's sobering, but he actually uses their past experiences to encourage them right now.

This is him attempting to stir them up. And we should do that too. There are things I've seen some of you brethren do in the days gone by, and I should remember the grace of God in your life and I should specifically go to you and stir you up by remembering what the Lord did in your life at that point.

This is exactly what the Hebrew writer does right here. It's a good reason to journal, to remember even the things that have happened in people's lives. So he finishes there, verse 25, his conclusion of reminding them is therefore, in view of all of that, come on guys, don't throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.

And then he reminds them again, verse 37, yet in a little while, the coming one will come and will not delay. And he says in verse 39, we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but are of those who have faith and persevere their souls. Well, that's my exhortation to me and to you all brethren, take these things to heart.

Hebrews 10, Hebrews 3, even other places in Hebrews, other places in the Bible. This is the degree of intensity that the Bible emphasizes the importance of not neglecting, not just being here, but being involved in the life of the body. And you might not recognize all that God is doing in your heart and your life by being around other Christians, I'm telling you.

It's amazing how you can reflect when you're, it's kind of like again, what Max shared in that interview, for a few years, he couldn't see what was going on. But once he was out of it, he could look back and recognize the things in his heart God was trying to drudge up. But sometimes you just can't see it when you're in it.

So you got to believe the Lord. The Lord is working all of this in my life. All right.

So I'm going to pray. After I pray, we've got two people who want to get closer into this Redwood Grove, Jeremiah and Josh. And they're going to read, Josh is going to come first and read his testimony.

Then Jeremiah, and then we're going to go baptize Jeremiah outside. So let's pray. Father, Lord, I pray that I would really take these truths to heart.

Lord, in my own heart. Lord, I want to be prayerful. I want to be persevering.

I want to be provoking others to love and good works. Lord, the truth is, even as I'm saying that, as I'm preaching, remembering things in brethren's lives in the past and reminding them as the author of Hebrews did. Lord, I don't think I've mastered that.

I know I haven't. Lord, help me to grow in that area. Lord, to recall former things.

Lord, as much as Paul says, we've not looking to what's behind. Lord, that's true too. We can make an idol of things in the past, but Lord, at the same time, there's a place to use it for encouragement.

Lord, I pray you'd help me to grow in that specific area. Lord, to have an ability to encourage people in that way. And Lord, we pray for those who sadly are in the place of this very passage.

Lord, Father, there are members in this church who've not been here in months. Lord, there's people we're reaching out to who've been gone for six, seven months and, Lord, what a burden for them. Father, there's the coal over there and the heat's going away.

Lord, how can we be those who see them come back? Lord, at least get them in another church. Lord, not to have no church. Please, Lord, help us.

Help us, as James 5 says, to go after the wonderers. And Lord, I thank you. I thank you even for bringing different ones here who may have been gone for half a year.

Lord, you're kind in that way. Lord, you're good. Lord, we thank you for how you pursue us.

We thank you for your love for us. Lord, help us to love one another in a greater way. Lord, we fail, but Lord, we want to grow.

We ask you to send great grace upon us. In Christ's name, amen.