Why Church Matters | Sunday Message

Hey there. Thanks for listening to the Greg Laurie Podcast, a ministry supported by Harvest Partners. I'm Greg Laurie, encouraging you.

If you want to find out more about Harvest Ministries and learn more about how to become a Harvest Partner, just go to harvest.org. We're going to be in the book of Hebrews, chapter 10 today, Hebrews chapter 10. So if you have your Bible, go ahead and open it up. I want to just thank Pastor Greg for the opportunity to teach today. It's always a joy to share God's Word. And I want you to know that next Sunday, Pastor Greg is going to be back in the pulpit.

He's going to be starting a brand new series called It All Starts Here. And we're going to be studying the book of Genesis together and very excited for that. In addition, we have our small groups that are starting back up again. So if you've not yet joined a small group, it's a great time to get into one because we're all going to be going through Genesis together and it's going to be a great time. But we go ahead and join me for a word of prayer just to ask the Lord's blessing on our time together as we open up His Word. Let's pray together. Oh, Lord, we come before You now and we are so thankful for Your Word, Your love in the church. And as we talk about the church today, Lord, I pray that You would speak to us, that You would transform us, that You would help us. Lord, we want to recognize that the same Holy Spirit that inspired these words is within us. And we want to know what You have to say to us today. So, God, would You, through Your Spirit, give us understanding as we study Your Word together. We pray all of these things in the name of Jesus.

Amen. Well, as we end this year and begin a new one, this is always a good time for us to stop and reflect and to think about the things that have happened this year and to start planning and thinking ahead towards the things of 2024. One of my favorite moments from this last year, it just happened about a month ago, my son Braxton and I, we were out running some errands and driving around. And from the backseat, he pipes up, he goes, hey, Dad, when I get older and I buy a house, I want to put a picture of you and Mom up in the house so I can remember you guys.

And I was like, okay, so, wait, why do you need a picture to remember us? Where are we going to be? And he goes, well, you guys are going to be, you've died when I buy a house.

And I'm like, okay, so, all right, that's where we're going. All right, you know, being the pastor dad that I am, never miss an opportunity to talk about Jesus in heaven. So I was like, hey, you know what's really cool, Braxton, is that even when we die, we're going to see each other again because of Jesus, because we have been saved. So he's quiet for a second, he thinks about it, and he goes, okay, so, Dad, when you die, there's going to be two doors, okay? There's going to be a big door and a little door. Make sure you go through the little door because that's the one that goes to heaven, right? And I'm like, oh, my gosh, this is so sweet. Like, I'm not going to correct the theology right then and there, right?

It's a little bit off, but he gets the general idea, right? And so I'm like, yeah, but for sure, I'll definitely go through the little door. And then he says this, and this is like, see, he goes, Dad, when you get there and when you and Mom go through the little door, will you guys wait right there, right next to the little door, so that when I get there, you're the first people that I get to see? And I'm just like, sitting and driving, bawling, like, yeah, I'll wait for you. Like, it was like, just the sweetest moment. It was one of those moments where I'm like, walking away going, man, we're doing something right. Like, my wife and I, we're like, they're getting it, they're understanding and they're excited about the gospel and about Jesus and, you know, feeling pretty good.

But that didn't last very long, right? Because our daughter, our two-year-old daughter, Maeve, has now entered a new phase of her life. She is determined to give new meaning to the term terrible twos, right? She has been on a roll.

Let me just share with you what happened in one day. This was two weeks ago on a Sunday, and one day this is what she did. First, she got into a stick of butter and smeared it all over our kitchen. Then she got into her brother's hair gel and decided to try to do all of her hair and the rest of her body. Then she took all of the sandwich bags out of the drawer and threw them all over the house. She got a roll of paper towels and unrolled it all over the whole house. And she pulled all of, she got into our seasonings drawer and she got all of the seasonings and spread those. She made our house smell a little wild. But, and then she got into my deodorant because apparently she felt like she stunk or something, I don't know, and put it all over herself. She got into my backpack and then drew all over herself.

Listen, y'all, this was one day that she did all of these things. Like, it was wild, my wife and I. And then last Sunday on Christmas Eve, I get home and I open the door and all I hear from the back, here's my wife standing at the door holding Maeve in one arm, a toothbrush in her mouth, like, and a broom. And my kids in the background are going, there's glass everywhere. She had gotten into something and broke a glass and it had shattered all over the place.

And this is what I walked home to. And so again, like, it was in those moments where I got to tell you, like, sometimes parenting, it's a little bit hard. Any parents? Can you agree with that? Parenting can be a little difficult sometimes. And it's in those moments you need help. And these are, this is a silly example of a truth that we all go through, right?

A silly example of something that we all experience. We're all going to go through seasons of order and chaos. The Bible calls these things trials.

And another way that it talks about them is storms. And we are all going to face trials of some kind. It's been said that you are either in a trial, you are coming out of a trial, or you are about to enter into a trial, right? All of us have experienced trials of various kinds. Let me just by show of hands, how many of you guys have been through a trial before in your life? A difficult season of your life?

I would say all of us to some degree have been through these things. Man, I mean, 2023 alone was a pretty wild year, right? I mean, it started last January where for some reason a Chinese weather balloon gripped our national attention. Do you guys remember that? It was like on every news channel, like where the balloon was, where did it come from, where is it going?

Nobody knows, right? And then this also was the year of AI, right? AI became really big this year. Some might argue that this was the year of Taylor Swift.

You can argue about that on Twitter, I mean X, because this was the year that Twitter became X. Also the year that the nation was gripped by the Ocean Gate Titanic sub that we all, for some reason, it was just one of those things. It became a big news story and all of us knew how many hours of oxygen they had left. And there was a countdown on every news channel, right? And the pandemic was finally declared over this year. Did you know that was almost four years ago now that we entered the pandemic?

How crazy is that? Also, more seriously, this year we also saw the fire in Maui back in August. That was devastating to that community there and even to our community in Maui at our Maui campus. And I know that this was not a year that anybody in Maui planned for. No one expected these things to happen. We also saw the attack on Israel on October 7th and the subsequent war that has broken out because of it.

It was a wild year and unfortunately it doesn't look like 2024 is going to get much better. If our hope is in something political or in this world, I'm telling you right now it's not going to get much better than it is right now. But here's one thing that I know for sure. During trials, which we all go through, we are all going to need help and support in those moments. And as Christians, our primary support comes from the Lord.

In Psalm 121 verses 1 and 2, it says, I lift my eyes up to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. I love that Psalm because it puts into perspective where our true source of help really is and it's the Lord. The Lord is the one who is there to help us. And I believe that one of the most tangible ways that God gets us through our trials and storms is through His people. God gets us through trials and storms through the church. The church and God's people are the tangible expression of God's love, His care and His comfort for us in time of need. This has been true in my life.

I'm sure this has been true for many of you in this room. And today we're going to talk about why the church matters. This is a great time for us to think about church because it's a great time as we enter into the new year, as we think about new habits, as we think about new disciplines.

And we're going to talk about why the church matters. That's why you're opened up to Hebrews chapter 10. We're going to read verses 19 through 25 together in Hebrews chapter 10 verses 19 through 25. I'm reading from the New Living Translation.

It says this. And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter the most holy place or heaven's most holy place because of the blood of Jesus. By His death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the most holy place. And since we have a great high priest who rules over God's house, let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts, fully trusting Him, for our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ's blood to make us clean and our bodies have been washed with pure water. Verse 23. Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope that we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep His promise. Verse 24. Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of His return is drawing near.

We'll stop there. Before we get into our main points for our study today and break down this passage, I want to set the context for you of the passage that we just read. If you're unfamiliar with the book of Hebrews, Hebrews was written to a group of Jewish Christians that were ready to give up. It was a group of Jewish Christians that were facing all kinds of different trials, all kinds of difficulties and pain. And what the author of Hebrews does is he uses the first nine and a half chapters of the book to explain to them and remind them of the truth about who Jesus is and what He has done for us.

And in this book, you really get to see the pastor's heart for his people. They were ready to give up. They were ready to throw in the towel. They had already been through so much by becoming Christians. Many of these Christians had lost family and friends. Some had probably even lost land and property because of their faith. Others lost social status and were facing difficulty.

Some maybe even lost their source of income. And again, it was a really difficult thing for them to do because to claim to be a Christian was to renounce so much of what they believed and how they lived before. And so the author of Hebrews is reminding them of some really important truths about who Jesus is. He reminds them that Jesus is God's son, that He is greater than the angels, that He is God in flesh, that He became man so that He could identify with us. He reminds them that Jesus is greater than Moses, which was a huge, huge deal to the audience that He was writing to. He reminds them that He is our great high priest and not only that, but He is our forever priest and then that He is the perfect sacrifice that was made for all.

And because of Jesus, no more sacrifices were needed for the covering of sin. Like it was a big deal, foundational truths that He was communicating to this group. And in the passage that we just read, the author now hopes to move this group from knowledge to action.

But it's almost as if he's saying, all right, you know what you need to know. Now it's time for you to do what you need to do. We've laid the foundation. You know all of the things, all of the truth that is necessary.

Now it's time to act. And I believe that this applies to us today. In light of all that Jesus is and all that He has done for us, there are three things that we must do as the church, as believers. And the three points, our three main points today are this.

They'll be up on the screen. Number one, we must go to God. Number two, we must hold on to hope. And number three, we must motivate one another. We'll break these down a little bit.

We'll go through them one by one. But I want to tell you there's something really important that we need to not miss about this passage. This was not written to an individual. It was written to a group. It was written to a community.

Ultimately it was written to the church. These commands are things that we can do on our own. I can go to God on my own. I have access through Jesus Christ to God the Father. I can hold on to hope on my own.

I can motivate others on my own. But this was not written to the individual. This was written to a group. This was written to the church.

It's easy to interpret it as an individual charge, but the language that he uses tells us that this is not just for the individual. In verse 22, 23, and 24 it begins with this phrase. It says, Let us go right into the presence of God. Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope that we affirm. Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works.

This language that he's using is almost like, you know, back east here's what you would say. You'd say, Hey, all y'all. All y'all, listen up. This is what all y'all need to do right now. This is a communal act. We have an individual responsibility to do this in community.

And why does this matter today? You know, you are here today on one of the historically lower attended church services during the year. Right.

In fact, there's a number of churches that don't even meet on the Sunday in between Christmas and New Year's. Right. And so this is one of those those services. So you are here because you know, you know, church is important. I'm preaching to the choir in some sense because you're here. But these are good things for us to remember because, well, this year has been pretty monumental for us as a church.

Right. We've reflected on so many things this last year. We celebrated our 50 year anniversary. We Jesus revolution launched in theaters and on Netflix. We crossed the million profession of faith milestone. In fact, 2500 of those professions of faith just happened this year on our campuses.

Like it's incredible. Like there's so much for us to celebrate. Over 5000 people baptized this year. 4500 at the Jesus revolution, baptism at Pirate's Cove and then another 600 that were baptized here on our campuses. Like these are all these numbers all represent real people whose lives have been changed and transformed. I've been I've had the privilege of talking to a number of them and seeing the transformation that's happening in the lives of people. And it's incredible.

So much to celebrate. But. Recently, Pastor Greg, he shared national trends that are happening in church attendance. And one of the things that he shared is that the trend is that attendance is going down in churches.

All right. It's been shared that recently a study was done and that the majority of church goers are only going to church one to two times per month. So what we did is we started looking at our data. We started looking at the patterns of our church. And here is what we found overall. We found that only 20 per 24 percent of our congregation attend harvest at least once per month on average.

Here's here's what that means. That means that 76 percent attended less than once per month. So the vast majority of our church, of our congregation, of our people are coming to church less than once a month and only 11 percent went to at least half of the Sundays in 2023. Pretty interesting statistics when you when you look at that.

Right. It's showing that actually our attendance patterns are are matching national attendance patterns. And we're talking about this today because my hope, my prayer for our church and for our community is that those numbers would change. My hope is that this message will motivate us to make church a priority on Sunday mornings, that that church is not an optional part of what we do on Sundays, but that church is the thing that we do on Sundays and we fit everything else around it. It's not the football game that takes priority. It's not the soccer games that take priority. It's not brunch that takes priority.

It's not sleeping in that takes priority. But it's church. It's God's people. It's meeting together to worship and serve our God, our Lord and our Savior. And listen, we've got three services. You can you can take your pick.

You can fit everything else around what happens on Sundays. So let's dig into our text together. Three points that we're going to go through as we as we look at our text.

Number one, if you're taking notes, we must go to God. In verses 19 through 22, the author builds on the things that he has already said. Right.

He begins verse 19 when he says, and so in my translation, it says that other translations would say therefore. Right. Pastor Greg says this often when there's a therefore in the Bible, we have to find out what it is there for. Right. Because it's a transitional phrase. It's saying based on everything that I just told you, now here's a truth that you need to understand.

Right. So the first nine and a half chapters of Hebrews, he's saying now let's do something with this. And what are the things that he tells us? He tells us that we can boldly enter into the most holy place. That's where the presence of God would dwell in the tabernacle and then in the temple. And remember when Jesus died on the cross, the veil that separated the holy place from the holy of holies was torn from top to bottom. We read in scripture separating that divide that that divided man from God. And now God's presence is available to all who believe in Jesus.

Right. It was his death that made this possible. And because we have a great high priest, what does he tell us in verse 22? He says, let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts, fully trusting him. We gather as a church to worship God.

That's what we are here for. We gather as a church to be in his presence. Right. In a sense, that's that's what we are doing right now as we are gathered.

We're going into the presence of God. And when we go to church, we are not going to a building. Right. We know this.

Right. The church is not a building. The church is not an event. The church is not a concert. It's not a TED talk that we go just so we can learn something new.

We're not going to a place that gives me an hour and a half break from my kids as kids ministry watches them. That's not what we're here for. We are here to worship and serve and honor our God, our Lord and our Savior. When the church gathers, we are gathering as God's people to worship, serve and experience his presence. The presence of the one true almighty God. The God that spoke the world and everything in it into existence. The God who spoke to Moses through a burning bush and called himself the I am. The God who saved his people from Egypt through mighty wonders. The God who rules all things. The God who spared not his even his own son because of his great love for us. That is the God that we are here to serve today. We are here to worship him and honor him.

And news flash. Church, it's not about you. It's not about what you get from it.

Right? The sooner that we understand this, the better off that we will be as believers. It's not about what you thought about the message. It's not about what you thought about the worship. It's not even about what you learned.

Right? Because church is not about what we get. Church is about what we contribute. What did I give when I came to church? That's why I love what we still call our worship services.

Worship services. We are here to serve the Lord. We are here to honor him.

Right? What do we give him? We give him worship. We give him honor. We give him adoration. We give him our attention. We give him our praise. And we do this all with sincerity, fully trusting him as it says in verse 22.

Right? The question is not what did you get from the message today. What did you get from the church service today?

The question is what did you give? How did you serve the Lord? How did you honor and worship him today? We believe here at Harvest that the church exists for three reasons. That it exists for the exaltation of God. That's our upward focus. We believe that it exists for the edification of the saints. That's our inward focus. And we believe that it exists for the evangelization of the world.

That is our outward focus. And when we gather as the church, these three things are what we are trying to accomplish. First and foremost, we want to honor God with all that we do.

We want to sing songs that bring him praise. We want to teach his word in a way that honors and glorifies him. But in addition, we do this because we want to build up the body of Christ. And we want a lost and dying world to know that there's a God and a Savior that loves them and cares for them.

These are things that we're always trying to accomplish. So why does church matter? Church matters because in the church we go into the presence of God in a way that we simply cannot on our own. I want to say this to our online audience, those of you who are watching right now. And I know that there are a myriad of circumstances that keep people away from gathering together as the church on a Sunday.

And I want to be careful and understand. I know that there are some that simply cannot come and be in person with us. And I believe that online church is an amazing tool that allows the word of God and worship to be done in a person's home. And I think it's an amazing and beautiful thing. But I'll say this, to those who can come, online church is not a substitute for what can happen when the church gathers together. There is a unique thing that happens when God's people come together to worship him corporately.

There is something special there. And so I want to encourage all of you that for every opportunity that you have to get into church, to be here in person. Listen, I know that there's all kinds of reasons to not. I know that there's all kinds of things that are competing for our attention. But that's why I believe it is so important that we make church the priority when we go about and plan our week. So again, point number one, we gather. Excuse me, we must go to God. Point number two, we must hold on to hope. When the church gathers, we gather to remember the reason for our hope.

Verse 23 says this, let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope that we affirm for God can be trusted to keep his promises. What's the hope that we have to look forward to that we hold on to? Well, it's the hope of heaven. It's the hope of forgiveness.

It's the hope of being reunited with lost ones. There are so many good things that we have to hope for because of our salvation. But here's what's unique about Christianity. In Christianity, we are saved by grace through faith.

Here's why this is important. In Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8 and 9, it says, for by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast. This is important because the only thing that we contribute to our salvation is belief. That's the only thing that we do is we believe. We trust Jesus.

We trust in who he is and what he has done. When you work for a job and you get a paycheck, you're not getting paid because of the love and grace of your employer. They're not paying you out of like, oh man, you're so amazing.

Let me just bestow. No, you're getting paid because you're owed that from the terms of your employment. You put in the hours, you get the paycheck. But that's not the way it works with Christianity. But man, oh, it's so hard because we are given something that we cannot earn. We don't earn salvation, but man, we want to earn it.

Has anybody felt that before, like wanting to earn it, wanting to do stuff to make it possible, right? We want to deserve it. But on the flip side, we don't deserve salvation. And we feel like we are not worthy of it. We have guilt and shame because of sin. And here's what I love about verse 22 of this passage. At the end of it, it says, for our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ's blood to make us clean and our bodies have been washed with pure water. I want to say this. If you're new to church and the sprinkling of blood thing is throwing you off, don't worry.

It's okay. It's not real blood, right? It's the blood of Jesus symbolically in our lives. It is His real blood that was shed 2,000 years ago on the cross. But spiritually, it's His blood that cleanses it. And what I love about this is it doesn't say that our guilty consciences go away. There's some comfort in that because there are moments that I think about my past sin and it hits me and it hurts. And I think like, man, I don't deserve this. And that's actually a tactic of the enemy. The enemy wants you to feel like you don't deserve it. Why are you even here? You shouldn't even go to church.

You shouldn't even show your face around those people. You know what you have done. But because of God's grace and His forgiveness, because of that salvation that's by grace through faith, all of that has been washed away. And even though I still in moments feel guilty of it, I can be confident knowing that my sins are forgiven and that I have been washed clean.

And here's the thing. I've seen more people leave the church from misunderstanding these things than almost anything else. I've seen more people leave the church because they're the earn it type people. They want to earn their salvation and they get these what the Bible calls puffed up heads.

They think that they know better than everybody else. You ever looked at an infant and looked at the proportion of the head size to body size? The head of an infant is about a quarter of the size of the body of the entire infant. Imagine a person whose proportions stayed the same.

Can't even touch the top of your head because your head is so big. That's the picture that the Bible is painting for us of a person with a puffed up head. That they think that they know better than anybody else. They think that they know better than the pastors. That they know better than anybody at the church. And they have a way of viewing the world and they end up leaving a church because, well, they're not doing things the way that I think that they should do things. And then you go to the next church and you know what happens there? They're not going to do things the way that you think that they should do things. And you know what happens when you go to the next church?

They're not going to do things the way that you think that they should do things. Here's, that's a misunderstanding I believe of the grace of God. But on the flip side, the people who are aware that they don't deserve it, but are allowing guilt and shame to keep them from entering into the church and being around God's people.

Man, I want you to understand this. When it comes to the grace of God, you cannot earn it and you'll never deserve it. And that's the beautiful truth of it. You cannot earn it and you will never deserve it, but God gives it to us freely anyway. Salvation by grace through faith. And we need to be reminded of this constantly. Because there's a war in my soul that wants to earn the favor of God, but that also knows that I don't deserve it, so why should I even try?

Right? And so we need to combat that by going to church and being reminded of the hope that we have. Holding tightly onto the hope that we have in Jesus. That it's all by His grace. Can I get an amen to that?

Because this is such an amazing thing that we have to hold on to. And I want to say this. Every single week at this church, we get to hear people make a profession of faith. And out loud pray and ask God for forgiveness.

Pray and ask God to come into their life and to clean them up and to make their life new. And that is such a privilege. Don't lose sight of that.

That's a miracle that's happening. I also want to say this. We usually do that at the end of the service in Riverside. Almost every Sunday I host there. And when I go up after Pastor Greg to explain the New Believers Bible and help these people take their next step in the Lord, you know what often I'm met with? I'm met with people standing up and leaving during that moment. And I want to say this as kindly as I possibly can.

When you stand up and leave when we're talking to new believers, you are telling the new believers in the room that you don't really care that much about them. And you have better things that you need to do than to support them and be there for them in that moment. Yeah, I know there's a football game. I know that there's a soccer. I know there's things to do. But there's a real amazing and beautiful moment that's happening in the church right then and there when that moment happens. I want to encourage you. Stay.

Stay for the whole thing. Because God wants to speak even in the announcements to new believers. God wants to speak to you even in the announcements for the church. God wants to speak to you in our closing song. Like this is an amazing thing for us to be part of. And so again, let's not lose sight of that. Let's hold tightly to the hope that we have because God is trustworthy. Point number three.

And this is our last point for the afternoon. We must motivate each other. We must motivate each other. Verses 24 and 25 make it clear on what we are called to do when we gather together.

We gather to help each other grow. Hebrews is telling us that we need to motivate or stir one another up to love and good works. And the author of Hebrews is also addressing an issue that was creeping in to this church at that time. Now back then the context of the church more than likely they were meeting daily.

Right? In Acts chapter 2 verse 42 it talks about them meeting daily to talk about the apostles doctrine, the breaking of bread and prayers. This was part of their life because again remember this was a group of Jewish Christians who had lost family and friends and community. And so the church was their new community and this was the people that they hung out with. These were the people that they spent the majority of their time with. And so the author of Hebrews is saying don't neglect the meeting together as is the habit of some.

Right? Now for us today we're asking for a once a week commitment on a Sunday. That's not as big of a commitment as these people were making. And so I think all the more we should be committed to the gathering of the church. So why does the church matter? Why should we motivate each other?

Well here's one thing. You need the church. You need the church.

Why? Well number one the church is good for you. In 2007 there was a study that was done by an atheist social psychologist named Jonathan Haidt. Not Haidt but Haidt. There's a D and a T together.

It makes it hard to pronounce. But he summarized the findings that of the benefits of religious participation. And this is what he said. He said surveys have long shown that religious believers in the United States are happier, healthier, longer lived, more generous to charity and each other than secular people. Isn't that crazy? Healthier like that you are that you live longer as a result of being part of the church. Right? Another study found that weekly church attendance effectively improved the physical and mental health of Americans and reduced mortality by 20 to 30 percent over a 15 year period.

That's pretty wild. Like that these studies are finding how good church is for us. In addition number two you need the church because church is good for your marriage. There was another study that was done that found that faithful church attendance together as a husband and wife reduces the couples risk of divorce by 47 percent. Not only is the church good for you in a practical way. It's also good for your soul.

It's good for you for your spiritual life. There's a book that was written called The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg and in it he discussed the ideas of something called keystone habits. Keystone habits are habits that make forming other good habits easier.

Think about it this way. An example would be if you want to start eating good eating right instead of putting yourself on a diet and only eating certain things. A keystone habit could be just simply tracking everything that you eat. I don't know about you but that sounds miserable especially during the holidays.

Right? I think all of us would just be depressed if we did that during the holidays. But here's the idea. That simple habit they have found makes it easier to diet, exercise and get better in your overall health. Another one is getting a good night's sleep. Getting a full eight hours of sleep is a keystone habit they have found that helps making forming other habits a lot easier. Now I believe that in Christianity church is not a habit that needs to be formed but it is a discipline that needs to be practiced. Participating in being part of the church is not a habit but a discipline that we need to practice. The same as Bible reading, prayer, loving your neighbor, serving others, practicing generosity.

These are all disciplines that we need to practice as believers. But I believe that the church is a keystone discipline that will help you in the other disciplines of the Christian life. Being part of the church offers community. It offers accountability and motivation to do the things that we are supposed to do as believers. Because every week you're coming together, you're hearing the gospel, you're hearing people or hearing from God's word.

You're meeting with people that ideally you're motivating one another and encouraging one another to do what is right. The great reformer Martin Luther, he said this, God does not need your good works but your neighbors do. I think another way that we can put this is God does not need you to go to church but your neighbors need you to go to church.

Because it's through the church that we are formed and made more like Jesus. Listen, you need the church when trials come your way. I know that so many of us have been through trials and been through difficult seasons of life.

And I think this is a thing that we need to prepare ourselves for. Don't wait for trials to come to participate and be part of the church. Participate and be part of the church because when the trials come, those are the people that are going to stand with you.

Those are the people that are going to help you and walk with you through those trials. Not only do you need the church but the church needs you. The church needs you because listen, you're part of this body. The apostle Paul talks about the church as the body of Christ. That we are all parts of that body working together. And we are incomplete without you the same way that the body is not fully functioning when it's missing a part. So the church is not fully functioning when you are missing from it. Your voice is needed, your talents are needed, your experience is needed.

The church needs you to motivate the people around you. Now let me ask this or say this. I recognize that in a room like this, I would say we probably don't all know the people that are sitting around us.

Probably don't know their names. Maybe we've nodded at them and, you know, shook their hand, maybe, right? But a lot of times we enter church and we're just kind of like, this is my spot, this is my chair, this is what I do. I'm going to just sit here and be quiet and listen and hear and then I'll be done. Now I'm going to do something that the introvert in me will never forgive me for.

It shouldn't be that way. How can we motivate one another to love and good works if we don't even know each other? We don't even know each other's name. So introverts in the room, forgive me. Extroverts, you can thank me later.

I'm going to give you like 30 seconds. Introduce yourself to the person next to you. Say something. Say hello. Say hi. We have a lot of introverts in the room it sounds like.

Online, introduce yourself as well. Okay, you can cut that out now. Just stop, all right? Just kidding.

But for real, we need to keep going. All the introverts in the room were like, that was my moment. Yes.

Yes. You just wanted to keep talking. That's my wife. My wife is the extrovert in our relationship and like anytime she gets time to talk about, talk with people. Because she's around kids all day. We have five kids and when she gets to have adults talk, it's like she's charged up.

Whereas like I'm like drained, right? But here's the thing. How can we motivate one another if we don't know each other? We need to come into this place and be loving and caring to the people even around us. They're sitting right next to us. You all have something in common.

Do you know what that something is? Jesus. We all have Jesus in common. We're here for the same reasons. So as we close today, I want to say this. We need to motivate one another. We need to not neglect the meeting together as is the habit of some. We need to work on serving one another.

I want you to say this. Not only does the church need you, your small group needs you. If you're not part of a small group, you need to be in one because you offer something to that small group that only you can bring. Your voice is unique.

Your personality is unique. What you bring into that space is needed. Your church needs you to give. We all have time, talent, and treasure that we can give to the Lord. Your church needs you to serve. The vast majority of what happens here at the church is done by volunteers. The people you see in the parking lot. The kids ministry volunteers.

The ushers. So many volunteer positions that happen every single time. Can we make some noise for our volunteers really quick that serve us every single week?

Again, it is so good. Get into a place of serving the Lord. So here's the deal. Church matters immensely in the Christian life. Sunday service, I think coming on Sundays is the bare minimum.

That's the starting point. Not once a month. Not when we feel like it. But every Sunday. We need to get to a place where church is what we do on Sundays. In our house it should never be, hey, it's Sunday. Are we going to church?

That shouldn't be a question that anyone should have to ask. It's Sunday. We're going to church. We're serving the Lord.

We're going to be part of the body of Christ. My challenge for you, don't neglect church on Sundays. Don't downplay what is happening each and every Sunday.

On Sundays we go to church. You need it. Your kids need it. Your church needs it. Your neighbor needs you to be part of the church.

And as we close today, I want to say this. There's maybe some people in this room that, like the author of Hebrews is writing to, you're ready to give up. Maybe you've tried the church thing and you're like, I'll give it one more shot. Or maybe you have not yet put your faith in Jesus.

You've not yet come into and become part of the body. This is how you become part of the church. You put your faith in Jesus. It's believing in Him.

It's believing that Jesus Christ is who the Bible says He is. That He died, well first that He lived a perfect life. That He died a death that you deserve. That He rose again from the dead and trusting in that. Jesus said this. He said, I am the way, the truth and the life and that no one comes to the Father except through Me. He is the only way to get to the Father.

But He's also the only way to be part of this community. And so, I want to invite you into this community. I want to invite you into the church through faith in Jesus Christ. So I'm going to pray right now and I give you an opportunity to do that. Will you pray with me? Oh Lord, we come before you now and we are so thankful for your word and we are so thankful for the church.

So many good, beautiful and amazing things come out of it. And so Lord, as we worship you now, as we praise you now God, I pray that you would be with us. That we would experience you. But Lord, most importantly that we would serve you. That we would honor you. That we would praise you. And Lord, I pray that if there's anybody in this room or that's hearing this message that doesn't know you. That has not yet become part of this community.

God, would they do that today? And if that's you, everyone keeping your head bowed and your eyes closed. If you want to put your faith in Jesus. If you want to become a Christian. If you want to enter into the family of God and into the church.

I want to give you an opportunity to do that right now. It's just a matter of simply praying a prayer and believing in your heart that Jesus is the Son of God. That He died for your sins. That He rose from the dead. And it's asking Him to forgive you of your sins.

It's repenting and turning away from your sins and turning towards God. Will you pray with me? I'm going to ask that you pray this out loud after me. Again, the most important thing is that you mean this from your heart.

Say this. Say, Dear God, I know that I've sinned. I know that I've made myself your enemy. Please forgive me of my sins. Wash me and make me clean. Help me to live for you for the rest of my life. I'm turning from my sin and I'm turning to Jesus.

I believe that He is the only way. Thank you for loving me. Thank you for forgiving me.

Thank you for accepting me. In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen. Amen. God bless those of you who just prayed. God bless you guys.