Turn to Hebrews chapter 10, if you would, Hebrews chapter 10.
Three weeks ago, I guess, we did the first half of this message on our fellowship. It builds on first, of course, that we are called by the work of Christ in our lives into fellowship with God, and then equally so or as much so, I guess you would say, we're called into fellowship with one another. Probably one of the most oxymoronic statements you could make is, I'm an independent Christian.
There's just no such thing. You were saved to be a part of the people of God, be a part of the assembly. You've missed Christianity substantially if you miss that you're to belong to and be a part of a fellowship of believers. So let's look at it there, Hebrews chapter 10. I'll tell you what, we'll just go to verses 24 and 25 where we will camp considerably for this second half of our message. Hebrews 10, 24 and 25. The contextual setting again is the writer is writing to Hebrew believers.
However, and I agree with the scholars who say that it's highly likely there's a lot, a lot of false professors in this fellowship. There's a lot of Jewish Hebrew people who have maybe friends, relatives who've embraced Christ as the Messiah, and so they're sort of moving that way. They're considering the things of Christ. They're considering the claims of Christ, but they're not yet fully converted. They're not yet true believers.
So you have a mixture there. And so it's not, well, it's obvious that in that kind of setting, you're going to have a lot of people falling away. And that's what he addresses in this context. People are falling away from and out of the fellowship of believers. So he exhorts those who are true believers to say faithful beginning in verse 24 of chapter 10, and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near. Now we've already talked about Roman number one, the founding principles of our fellowship, and we look back at the verses preceding verses 24 and 25, where Paul talks about three Christian virtues, faith and hope and love. These virtues that have become real in our hearts and in our lives are virtues that are created by Christ himself. We are the work of Christ. We are faithers, if you will. We are people who live by faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, not just to get into heaven, but for how we live our lives, how we order our priorities, how we make a propriety of life's decisions. It's all based on, it's all centered in the fact that Christ has changed us. Now there's mysteries all in this. The Bible says if you believed on Christ, therefore you're a new creation in Christ Jesus.
How does that work? Well it's not a physical, tangible change yet. That's coming. But for right now we're changed on the inside, and the three virtues, the three primary virtues of our Christianity really sort of mark or identify or define the change. Number one, faith. We are faith people who trust in Christ. Then the next one is hope. We have hope in Christ, and we're not hoping in hope where our hope is certain.
We're not hoping we have hope. Our hope is a real tangible thing. And then love. There is a love that God has, the Bible says, set abroad in our hearts, Romans 5-5.
I like the expression, this love is copiously diffused into our lives. It's as if that every aspect of your being has been baptized, immersed in the love of God for you, which naturally results in our love back to God, and also a love for all that is God's. God's doing something in the earth. God's already beginning his second creation in the world.
He's already beginning his new and final work. There was the first creation, Adam and Eve, heavens and earth, all of that glorious and marvelous beyond compare, but it is not to be compared with the new creation that is the work of Christ that is being done in the earth by God using the gospel through the power of the Holy Spirit to birth people into this new creation. And they are marked by people who have in their hearts this faith in Christ, a hope in Christ, and a love for God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, and a love for one another.
So that is really the foundational principle of our fellowship. You didn't choose this thing. God chose it.
You didn't join up with God. God created something new in you and made you one of his. The powerful truth that comes out throughout the pages of the text.
Now let's go to new material now. Getting down more to brass tacks, getting down more to where the rubber meets the road, the practical distinctives now of our fellowship. So he comes to verses 24 and yeah 24 and 25 basically and begins to give the practical application of the theological foundation that he's laid out in those earlier verses. Now subpoint one here would be the command to be in fellowship. It's not a suggestion that you belong to, that you are active in fellowshipping with God's people. I pass different congregations driving up and down the road and I know something about the philosophy of ministry of those congregations and it basically goes something like this. If you'll just come here we will basically ask almost nothing of you and we will promise you we will put on the best event every Sunday so that you might be amused and entertained in church that Sunday. That is radically non-Christian. I believe John McArthur's right when he says a lot of these congregations need to be called non-churches as it's just really a cleaner form of worldly amusement on Sunday.
Christianity, brothers and sisters, it doesn't matter. We have these fine buildings and beautiful and excellent things all around us and we've worked hard to get there and God's blessed us and helped us but if next month we're meeting in a warehouse somewhere on metal chairs we're still the church as long as we have each other and have God's word and have the blessings in the ministry of the Holy Spirit among us. But he says in verse 24, and let us all of those who are the people who are the product of the work of Christ. If you're the product of the worth of Christ, if faith has been birthed in your heart, if something's happened in you where there's a part of you, at least a strong germ or strong seed in your heart that says, yes my hope is Christ, not me, not my baptism, not the sacraments of the church, and certainly not the priest in some religious organization, certainly not Jeff Knoblin or anything, he does for me, my faith is Christ. If you're one of those that's the work of God in your heart.
And my hope, the hope that I will be safe in him for time and for eternity, that is a gift of God. And then of course the love of God that's been spread abroad, shed abroad in my heart, those are the works of God. So all of those who are the products of the work of God are to be in fellowship. Let us, he says, come together.
So this is a command. All this was done to us, faith, hope, and love. These virtues are in us, not just to strengthen and encourage us individually, but to bind us together collectively. That's what in my class, this term, I've put a lot of emphasis to the guys on a regenerate church membership, because you don't have enough cleverness, creativity, and ability to keep people interested for 44 years. They better be products of the spiritual work of God. Then they will desire one another. They will desire that fellowship. They'll be drawn to people who have that same faith, hope, and love, and then God keeps them. And if God keeps them, they'll never be lost. So it's a commandment that all of those who are the work of Christ, evidenced by something of at least the seed of faith, hope, and love, they are to come together. Biblically and spiritually they are one. And that's why I would charge and that's why I use the phrase, find you a biblically and spiritually healthy local church.
Now none of them are perfect, but they ought to be on that track. Don't just go where folks are nice or folks sell you a product, if you will, that kind of satisfies all of your wondering desires or something. Find a place that is striving to be biblically and spiritually healthy. I mean, brothers and sisters, we live in a day where the churches cannot any longer be mildly biblical and come together in that fellowship. So there are no exceptions to God's plan. He's ordained that the centerpiece of his work and his glory is local congregations, local churches, until the eternal state. That's when he returns and banishes everything that's not of him and establishes his glorified universal church unto himself. But until that day, everything is centered in a church.
So he says, let us come together. And then let's note, secondly, second sub-point, not only the command to be in fellowship, but secondly, notice the work involved in fellowship. Yeah, when you joined a church, you signed up for work. I don't know if you know this, but some of the sheep are difficult. Don't tell them their pastor said that. Some of the sheep in your small group can be a challenge. Fellowshipping biblically with all of these different kinds of sheep. And by the way, I kind of like it that God's got all different kinds of sheep. Amen?
Sometimes in staff meeting we'll be talking about somebody who's a particular challenge. And I'll often say, well, guys, God's got all kinds of sheep out there. And it wasn't a question, but I just remind them as I remind myself, and we're going to love all of them.
Minister to all of them the best we can. But that means it takes some work. Notice how all of this is worded in our text, and it really emphasizes the intentional effort that has to be there in a fellowship, a congregation of a true biblically, spiritually healthy local church. So he says, let us consider. The first word, consider, is what I want us to think on. The word consider in this text means to study on. Study on it. Put some effort into it. You come to church and you're putting some effort into, how can I biblically Christ in a Christ-honoring way minister to or care for these people around me? Study on it.
Study on them. It has the idea of being attentive to. It has the idea of continuous care, one for another.
You have to work at it. It's a present active verb, which means it never ends. You never get to the place where you don't have to work at ministering one to another. It's a part of God's calling on our lives. It's a part of our fellowship. That he also emphasizes that this is a work by giving us the word stimulate.
He says there in our text, verse 24, let us consider, consider what? How to stimulate one another. The word stimulate means to incite. You ever seen someone incite someone else? It's translated Acts 15 39 where Paul and Barnabas had this sharp disagreement about John Mark.
Then that's the way it's translated, a sharp disagreement. There was a, they were rubbing each other the wrong way. There was some friction between Paul and Barnabas. They were stirring each other up.
Did y'all see the end of the Michigan-Ohio State game? When that boy planted the Michigan flag on the Ohio State logo, he was inciting. You could use this biblical word translated stimulate. He was stirring them up to action. And so if the Bible says we're to come to our small group, and by the way, if you don't have a biblical small group structure in the church, how are you going to do this stuff?
We have what? 750 members and then you have children and others who are tenders with the members. So let's say 900 to 1,000 active people in this congregation. Is there any way you can just come together for one hour a week and worship and everybody have their needs met and everybody be ministered to?
No way unless you have a structure to do it. You can't fulfill this text unless your elders have ordained a structure whereby we get to know one another and spend enough time with one another, whether it's the kind of love, transparency, and bonding that we feel the freedom to be the sandpaper that incites my brothers and sisters to go on for God. Have you ever come into small groups and you're just kind of full of the doldrums? You know, like after you lose to Vanderbilt or something on Saturday?
Or if you're a Tennessee fan, you lose to anybody anytime, but I mean just you're in the doldrums. And you go into class and something happens to get you off of the things that really don't matter and onto the things that do matter. And you reorient your heart. That's what this is talking about. You're inciting them to stay on track in their thinking and in their lives.
We need that from one another. It also can be translated irritating or provoking. It means you make someone a little bit uncomfortable. Now look, some of you have the spiritual gift of making others more comfortable.
And I say that tongue-in-cheek because that's not a spiritual gift. So don't work at making others uncomfortable. Under the motive of God-ordained love though, you do want to incite or stir one another on to faithfulness with God. We are all born, we all came forth from our moms with a natural lazy streak. And that natural lazy streak is no more profoundly seen than in our spiritual lives. We need each other to be that holy sandpaper, if you will.
Inciting, provoking, irritating even, making someone uncomfortable in love. It all has to be under the balm of love. My point is, this is work. This takes some time.
This takes some energy. And by the way, I do see a lot of it at Grace Life Church. And matter of fact, when I get comments from pastors, people that come here from all over the world, usually during our conference, I get more comments on the way he sees you, our people, caring and loving and ministering than I get on anything else.
And that's as it should be. The Bible said, all men will know you're my disciples by the love you have one for another. That's the love between Christian brethren.
When they see that, they think that's real stuff because they compare it to what they see out there in the world and what they see in other places that are supposed to be congregations. So thank you for your heart to put some energy into this. It takes time and energy and it's going to take patience. It's going to take understanding.
It's going to take discernment. So I would ask you again, did you join Grace Life Church understanding and committing to the work of Christian fellowship? The pastors are scared to death to preach this kind of stuff because they're afraid everybody will leave. Nobody will want to be a part of that.
Well why wouldn't you? If you're the product of Christ's work and have faith, hope, and love. If God's doing the work in you, then this is not a big deal for you. Now you might say, hey I want to do better and I want to keep repenting and keep learning and keep reassigning myself or realigning myself with the way I'm supposed to be in God's work. That's true for all of us. But if you have no interest in caring for other brothers and sisters through your small group, then you're not one of Christ's products. Something's missing in the area of the Christian virtues of faith and hope and love. But some of you are between two worlds also. There's a part of the old worldly part of you, but God's Spirit's been working and now you have to honestly say, you know I'm being drawn to some of that crazy stuff Jeff Noblitt preaches.
I'm starting to feel that. You ever heard of the amen of the Holy Spirit? When I hear the word preach, there's something in me that starts saying, amen, yes, that's right. Even though I don't like it. You know one of the marks of conversion is that the sins that my flesh love I hate.
Did you hear that? The sins that my flesh loves I hate. And part of the sins my flesh loves is being an independent, do my own thing, don't bother me, don't mess up my life.
And all of a sudden God says, nope, you need to be over here where you have a heart and an attitude to embrace something of the work of Christian fellowship. Now something of a balance here because I sometimes become burdened, especially for our ladies classes, because ladies classes typically have a person that comes through every now and then and they're very demanding of a lot of energy and attention. And so there has to be a loving way to balance that out so that one person is not just draining the energy of the entire class.
Am I getting too practical and pointed this morning? I'm not saying it can't happen in a men's class, but it seemed to happen a lot in ladies classes. Galatians 6, 2 through 5, for example. In Galatians 6, 2 through 5, Paul is speaking to the church at Galatia about this very idea of caring for one another, ministering one another, and here's what he says. First of all, verse 2, bear one another's burdens and thereby fulfill the law of Christ. So here were Christians and there was some fleshly carnality here and people were only thinking about themselves and so he's saying, look, in the Christian fellowship there's times when you have to do a lot to care for a brother who's hurting or a sister who's hurting or hold someone else up. So there's a sense in which you need to be like Christ. He says fulfill the law of Christ. What did Christ do? He went and bore the burden of his brethren. Did he not?
Is he not called the elder brother? He went and bore our burden. Now in like spirit you can't bear the burden of 900 people but you can help bear the burden of 7 or 8 or 15 in a small group. That's not overwhelming and thus it glorifies God. Now verse 3, he continues on in Galatians 6, for if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing he deceives himself. A lot of the Galatian Christians were thinking, well the reason they have special problems is they're not as mature and astute and elite in their Christianity as I am. If they were like me they wouldn't have these problems and burdens.
He said, now wait a minute, time out. That's just not true. All of us will have seasons when we will need others to help hold us up. It's not that they're just inferior to you.
It's that they have a season where they need a special need. So stop comparing yourself, which is basically what he says in verse 4 of Galatians 6, but each one must examine his own work and then he'll have reason for boasting. Now he's not promoting boasting, but they are boasting. So he's saying, if you're going to boast, look at your situation alone and are you doing well with the opportunities, gifts, health, and abilities God's given you. Now that's the way you judge yourself. Don't look at another brother over here who comes out of a very difficult, troubling situation.
We sometimes have a person converted and they had a horrible, horrible home life and they've got battle after battle, issue after issue they have to fight through just to function normally in life. You can't compare yourself with them. You only compare yourself with yourself. What's your situation like? How are you doing with what God's given you in life? So don't always go over here and say, well, I'm doing better than them so I'm okay.
I can kind of coast here. No, no, no, that's false. That's wrong thinking. Matter of fact, he amplifies this out in talking about this same issue in 2 Corinthians 10-12. If we are not bold to class or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves, but when they measure themselves by themselves, they look at other people, they always can find somebody that's not doing as well as them and they kind of give themselves a pass.
But when they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding. So then he comes to that balancing phrase in verse 5 of Galatians 6. Verse 5 of Galatians 6, For each one shall bear his own load. There is to be a burden bearing and burden sharing to equal things out. And sometimes in our small groups need to stop being so continually needy. And there is a time if you're a small group leader when you lovingly and humbly exhort them about it, as they are really draining the class's energy over things that are not that serious.
So there's a balance in all of these things. For example, in 2 Thessalonians 3 10, Paul writes to the church and says, For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order. In other words, we said this a lot.
What did you say a lot, Paul? If anyone is not willing to work, then he's not to eat either. If someone is just always needing but not doing their part, they need to be dealt with lovingly, of course. But these things need to be balanced out. So in all of this, getting back to Hebrews chapter 10, verses 24 and 25, this is work.
There's a work involved in this. Time, effort, gaining the wisdom, and there's real work in making sure you do it out of love. Don't do it because you want to be the best small group leader at Raised Life Church.
That won't last. You have to have a love for God and the purpose of God being glorified through the ministry of your class. And that's what we're going to get to next. The third subpoint here is the primary goal of our fellowship, and that is we're to work at considering how to stimulate one another to what? Last phrase, verse 24, to love and good deeds.
Love and good deeds. In other words, we want to so minister in our fellowship, i.e. particularly our small groups, so that we are a loving, maturing fellowship which exemplifies God's wisdom, God's power, and God's glory. When the world sees the church ministering to one another as this text describes, then the world is caused, if you will, provoked, if you will, to say, that must be God working in their lives, because regular folks don't do that.
Just normal people don't care for each other the way they care for each other. So that's our primary goal. That's the glory of God. Now who was the greatest example of true Christian love and true Christian good deeds?
We know the answer to that. We're to be imitators of Christ, because Christ was the highest example. And when Christ was on the earth, two thoughts come to my mind about his love and good deeds. First of all, he loved his father, and he loved his father's will, so he loved the father's children.
The father had marked out his children from before time, and Jesus comes to rescue and secure the children, because he loved his father, and loved his father's will, and he loved the children. And that's the way we're to minister. We're to minister to the primary goal of, may we be motivated by the love of God and love for God's will and love for God's children, i.e.
the church, so that God will get the glory. The word good here in the text, to stimulate, consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds. The word good here is the idea of beautiful or excellent, our moral excellence, our valuable. In other words, the deeds we do for the body of Christ as Christians are the most excellent deeds being done in the earth. The deeds, the work we do for God's kingdom and glorifying God, if we do it biblically with the right motives, are the most valuable works, the most excellent works that you can do in the earth. Not meaning that we don't do good things for other institutions or organizations, but none of them compare to doing good for God's work centered in God's church.
Christ certainly did good works, good deeds in a perfect way. In John 17 4, as Christ is headed to the cross, he could look up at the Father and say this. John 17 4, I glorified you on the earth.
There's the key. That's the greatest goal, that God might get the glory. Well, Jesus, how did you glorify the Father? By having accomplished the work which you've given me to do. You gave me a work.
We've been talking about that. This is work. You've given me a work. And I finished it perfectly, sealing our redemption and saving our souls. Matthew 13 17, Jesus is being baptized and behold a voice out of heaven said, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. He did it well. Then he goes to the cross and he completes our redemption perfectly, perfectly. He hung there and said, it is finished. Praise God, he didn't say it's almost finished. It's pretty much finished.
No, it is done. I finished the work he's given me to do. So like our Lord, the primary goal is to work to bring about our local church, the body of Christ, for us particularly our small group, to a spiritual maturity one and another so that God would be glorified. Ephesians 4 11 and 12 speak somewhat to this, and he gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists, some as pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints, for the work of service. So my job, the pastor's job, is to equip you so that you can do this work we're talking about, to what?
Last phrase, verse 12 here, to the building up of the body of Christ. Two practical thoughts and we're done, all right? Two, if you will, conclusions for practical application.
I think it's all been quite practical and applicable, but some thoughts here. Number one, to build strong fellowship you must possess right attitudes. You've got to walk in the door with the right attitude about why you're there.
Now there's a number of them we could list, but let me just list two or three things. Number one, the attitude of worthiness or worth. I walk in the door and think these people are worth my time. I walk in that small group room and I think these people are worth my energy. These people are worth my work.
Jesus loves them, Jesus died for them, and they are worthy of getting a significant portion of my energy and my teachers. That's the only right attitude you can have. Look, you want to be happy in church then walk in thinking those people are worthy of me serving them.
Why? For the glory of God. Now just humanly speaking, you may not feel like they're worthy of it, but for the glory of God they're worth it. And a whole lot of the time God is testing you by putting certain knuckleheads in your small group.
He's maturing you. If he can use Balaam's donkey, he can use a person who's difficult every now and then to help grow you. So secondly, not only are they worth it, but a second attitude is viewed as a defined appointment that God put us together. And I'm walking into this small group wondering, how can I cooperate with God to help him or her become a more mature believer? How can I cooperate with God to make him and her, this class member, a more mature believer in Jesus Christ? And if I might just add, it's not on my list, but the attitude of humility here. This is a place for you to look at yourself and confess your own struggle at times, your own weakness at times, without being too specific, your own failure, so that they don't think you're coming at them like a prima donna or like an elite one, like a gnostic with the spirit of wisdom. No, I'm a fellow struggling repenter, but I do want to engage in the work of considering how to stimulate my other brothers and sisters to love and good deeds.
So the worthiness, the divine appointment element, the humility that I start with confessing that I struggle too. So you might want to ask yourselves also, what are God's assignment for this person? Are they a spouse?
Well, that's God's assignment. Are they a husband or wife? How can you help them there? Are they a child?
Then how can you help? That's their assignment to honor their parents. Are they parents? That's God's assignment.
How can you help them as they are functioning as parents or maybe grandparents? What are God's assignments and how can I encourage them? And you might ask the question, what's hindering him or what's hindering her from maturing and being more of what Christ wants in these areas?
Well, you've got to be careful here, brothers and sisters. The tone, the tenor, the spirit, the patience, the timing, you cannot come across as a know-it-all and forceful, but as a fellow traveler, a fellow disciple. And then, of course, as you're striving to think they're worthy of it, this is a divine appointment. God's put me with these particular people for this particular time, but also you want to make sure that you have the question in your heart and mind, now what is God teaching me? As a matter of fact, that might lead to be most of your thinking, but what is God teaching me?
In these four plus decades as pastoring people, we have been through a lot of things, but I can tell you, I know for a fact, a lot of things we went through were because you were praying that God would give you a faithful and godly pastor, and God said, well, I have to do a lot of work on the pastor to make him faithful and godly, and God put me through things so that I could grow, and I'm not done, and neither are you. So, as we think about the right attitudes, let me just say a word here about a wrong attitude, and this one is probably one over these years of counseling and watching and leading. I see this so often, the wrong, wrong, wrong attitude to have when you walk into a room full of people is fear.
No wonder the Bible says over and over and over, fear not. If you go in there fearful, what will they think of me? They're going to reject me. If they knew me, they wouldn't like me. On and on we go, fear, fear, fear, fear.
Here's what happens. Almost always you push back, you push away because of fear. You don't want to get close. You're not transparent, and everyone thinks you're arrogant and proud.
And by the way, you're not with the excusable on this. Fear is sin, and fear keeps you from getting into the the warp and the work and the brass tacks of fellowshipping and helping one another, and it puts you off as astute and superior when maybe that's not what you're meaning to do, but that's the way you look. So you don't want to carry an attitude of fear. Go into that room confessing, God, I repent of any fear of rejection. I repent of any fear of they think I'm not going to be worthy, or I'm not good enough to be in here, whatever it is, because you saved me, and you placed me in this church, and these elders put me in this small group, and I'm going to honor my elders like the Bible says, and I'm going to go in here with the right attitude and not the wrong attitude of being fearful. I remember when I was first converted, I was scared to death going to Sunday school class because I didn't know the books of the Bible. I didn't hardly know the Old Testament from the New Testament, but I went ahead and went, and I grew and I learned.
Well, first cousin to fear would be the wrong attitude of selfishness. You certainly don't want to have the attitude when you go in there, well what are y'all going to do for me? Are y'all going to bless me? Are y'all going to minister to me?
Y'all going to care for me? I visited a physician one time, he was a church man, this is many years ago, and he was a good guy, and he hadn't been coming to church, and so I visited him and said, you know, why aren't you coming? He said, Pastor, if I need something, I'll let you know. I think, oh my goodness, you've got a PhD in something, and you don't even know the ABCs of Christianity. Christianity is not about what you're going to get, it's about being a part of the fellowship, and what can you give as you also get.
He missed the whole thing. Fear, selfishness. Well, that's number one, to build strong fellowship you must possess right attitudes, and now I want us to step back real quickly, not to be wrong here, but step back about just friends in the world, fellowship with the people of the world, having acquaintances.
Let's think about that just for a moment. Let's begin with 2 Corinthians 6 14. In 2 Corinthians 6 14, Paul exhorts the carnal, quiet, worldly church at Corinth and says, Do not be bound or yoked together with unbelievers, for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Now certainly we're to have friends and acquaintances and be friendly to all men, try to love and serve all men, but those you choose to yoke up with have a special closeness.
He said you're not to do that with unbelievers. This word do not be bound together comes from the word that can be translated yoked. It's the idea in the Old Testament particularly of yoking an ox with a horse. The reason you didn't put an ox and on one side of the yoke and horse on the other to pull the wagon is because it doesn't work.
There are two different types of animals with two different types of strength and two different types of temperament. The horse is going to be faster and quicker, the ox is going to be slower and stronger, it just won't work. And so he's saying brothers and sisters, when you come across people in the world and acquaintances, sometimes you have to work closely with people. God understands all of that, but the people you choose to yoke up with cannot be unbelievers. It just won't work.
It just doesn't work. So while we must be and should be friendly, kind, and loving, and helpful to all people, we can't be yoked together with those who are not believers. So you need to learn to let God pick your friends.
You know what I mean by that? When you get to know somebody out there in the world, out there in the neighborhood, out there in the workplace, talk about the Lord. Don't be pushy or brow beating, but talk about your faith. Maybe you'll ask them to, hey, I've got this book I've been reading.
Would you like to read this book? Or, hey, would you like to come to my men's small group at church? It doesn't make you a member of the church of some brothers our age.
You can sit in there, we do Bible study. So you try to be a real Christian without being pushy, and over time, if God intends for you to be yoked with them closely, they'll keep moving with you toward Christ. But what you'll also find is often they'll move away and realize, hey, this guy's serious about this stuff.
This isn't just something he's putting on to impress me, this is who he is. And then they'll start falling away, and thus God is choosing your friends. Are you with me, church? Because there is a great danger in being friends with the wrong people. If you're running with somebody and you're yoked up in a close fellowship with somebody, they're drinking and they're cursing and they're doing things that are immoral and they don't represent Christ, then others who might have been wonderful Christian friends look at you, they don't know you yet, and say, if he runs with that guy, then he doesn't love my Christ. And you missed the potential friendship you could have had with brothers or sisters. And while this is particularly true about singles who are looking for a spouse, if you're running with, hanging out with girls or partiers, and living immorally in an ungodly way, maybe that's not really who you are. And then the young men who might be looking for a godly young lady looks at you and says, you know what, I'd be real interested in her, but the girls she runs with obviously don't know Christ, and so she must not know Christ. You missed so many potential good friends, possibly a good life partner. So those are some practical exhortations about our fellowship.
