Hey, at all of our campuses, can we give the Lord some praise? For a cool story. Hey guys, if you are at one of our campuses, I want to welcome you. Hey, if you're at the Ridge, I want to welcome you. I know some of you might be brand new today, and that's great.
It's a great time to be new because we're going to be in a new sermon series.
So, if you have a copy of scripture, turn with me to Hebrews chapter 10. As you guys are turning to Hebrews 10, let me just go ahead and give you guys one of the most exciting announcements I have personally ever given to our church. And I'm saying that without qualification, and that's a huge statement, okay? But if many of you guys are going to remember this, in 2019, we had a sermon series that was called No More Spectators. All right.
And it turned out that that sermon series, I feel like, really was anointed. Like it had just a hand of the Lord on it. There's a lot of things that kind of came out of it. One of the things that came out of it that was also, I feel like, has been anointed by the Lord, is a big vision for 200 families at Mercy Hill to be involved in foster care or adoption. All right.
And what we said was in 2020, actually, it was the Week before the COVID shutdown of everything, the week before our church gave $250,000 for the sake of being the first partner to members of Mercy Hill that step into the adoption waters. We wanted to make sure we were partnering with them financially and could be a big supporter for them. And so the church gave that money. COVID happened. I mean, you know, all this was going on, but in 2020, We set a goal of 200 families by 2025.
You guys know what year it is, all right? And man, look at the Lord. It actually did not take him all the way to the end of the year. I want to introduce y'all to Mike and Chelsea Ryan. They are the 200th couple at Mercy Hill.
to step into the adoption at Foster Care Waters. What an incredible story, y'all. They decided to adopt a couple of years ago. Their child was born in Tampa, and we just happened to have planted a church in Tampa. And so they got to go down there and plug in to that church for the time that they were on the waiting period and be loved on and still kind of be part of the Mercy Hill extended family.
This is what they said of their adoption: Our group in Mercy Hill held the rope for us, like they have so many chosen families.
Now, this sweet child will know she is loved by us, her birth mother, and a host of people who helped bring her home. That's the church being the church. She didn't do anything to make herself Orion, but now she is, and she will be forever. And what an incredible story, guys. We are just beaming about this.
I've been waiting to tell y'all this all week, but we are going to be setting new goals. And man, the chosen ministry is going to keep rolling. And we want to see, we really believe that God has just scratched the surface of what He's going to do. But let me say one more thing to close this story out and kind of loop it together. Guys, Mike and Chelsea, they came to Mercy Hill as college students who didn't even know each other.
They were alumni of the 2018 City Project class.
Okay, and so here's what I want to say to some of you guys that have been serving and giving and all in faithfully for years and years and years.
Okay. You know, I tell our staff all the time: if you want to catch big fish, you got to go to the deep water. And the deep water takes a long time to get to, by the way. And so, staying and being faithful over a long time, you end up getting to see stories that you would not see any other way. Like a story of two college kids who meet each other in a city project in 2018, end up getting married and adopting a child and becoming the 200th family to adopt or foster for Mercy Hill.
So, if you have been giving, serving, and you're just, man, it's just week in, week out, just faithfulness to the church. I hope that you especially take incredible joy in the story that I just shared because, man, that's a big fish. All right, and it's deep water. It takes a long time to get there, a long time of faithfulness. And many of you guys have just been on that train.
You've been faithful.
So, take joy in that today. All right. Hebrews chapter 10 is where we're going to be today. And we're going to dive into our sermon. Guys, we are people at Mercy Hill who want to grow.
If you don't want to grow, I've learned this at our campuses or here. If you don't want to grow, you will not stay at Mercy Hill. You just won't, you can't. Because if you want the mediocrity and you just quote a wanna hang around and it's a social thing or whatever, you will get rubbed the wrong way at some point and you will leave. But if you want to grow, you understand that growth is friction.
Growth is iron sharpens iron. Growth is, I need to hear things that I don't wanna hear. I need to commit to things maybe that I'm not committed to in an all-in kind of way. And there's a lot of steps in that growing process. At Mercy Hill, we talk about growth like this: it's a flywheel.
We say gather, groups, give, go. All right, gather groups, give, go. Are those the only four things you'll ever do as a Christian? No. But I'm telling you, they are major.
And if you jump in that stream, you have the opportunity to move in the current of maturity. There are people that say, well, there's no such thing as a protocol for Christian growth or a roadmap to Christian growth. Yeah, there is, actually. All right, we pull it right from Acts 2:46 and 47. These are things that the church has done for 2,000 years.
We gather together, we group in smaller groups, we give our time, talent, and treasure, and we live for a mission that's bigger than ourselves. And when we do that over a long time, y'all, it produces Christian maturity in our heart. The Spirit produces that in our heart. Listen, if you do these four things, it doesn't mean you will grow. But if you don't do these four things, it does mean that you won't grow.
If that makes sense, okay? Like the spirit still has to do it, but these are the things that God has given us. And the first among them is to gather well, the official assembly of the body of Christ.
Okay, when we say we're going to church, that's a little odd. The church is a people. You know, the church is not an organization. It's not a building. It's not one of the campuses.
But what we mean is we're going to gather with the church. And I want to talk to you about the importance of that today. We're going to do five sermons on Gather Groups, Give Go. And I'm just going to lay out a very simple, doesn't mean it's easy, okay? But a simple protocol for Christian growth.
And it starts with the gathering. Hey, the gathering is essential, big idea for spiritual growth. If you want to grow in a Christian life, Valuing the gathering, pouring into it, planning around it. Making sure that this, what we do on the weekends, is a very important part of your life, is essential. It's non-negotiable.
Man, it's an essential part of what God has done to give us the engine for Christian growth. And we're gonna see that in Hebrews chapter 10 today.
Now, here's what I'm gonna do. Hebrews 10. I'm going to talk a lot about the gospel first. And then we're gonna talk about how the gathering keeps that alive in our heart, all right? And that's gonna be sort of how this breaks down.
So let's dive in. Hebrews chapter 10, verse 19. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that He opened for us through the curtain. That is his flesh through his flesh. And since we have such 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.
Now, this is a deep passage, and it's a famous passage in the book of Hebrews, but I want to really try to break it down today. All right, the first thing that I notice in verse 19, we need to start with the breakdown, is it says in verse 19, since we have confidence. We have confidence. We can enter into a relationship with God.
Well, verse 22 says, Let us draw near.
So you sort of have these two bookends here, okay? One says we have confidence to go to the most holy places and have a relationship with God. And then verse 22 says, Let us draw near.
So don't just have confidence that you can, but do it, right?
Now, this begs a question for us that verse 19, 20, and 21 answer. And the question is. How could it be? That you and I who are sinners. The Bible says our hearts are deceitfully wicked.
Who could know them? Man, we're prideful, we're sinful. How could it be that I, a sinner, could have confidence to enter into the most holy of holies? The relationship with God. And also, not only have confidence in that, but be told to do it.
In my sin, I can't be. In the presence of God like this. I mean, he he radiates holiness, and that is not me. You know, one person said it like this: You and I, without God doing something to cover us and our sin. You and I coming into his presence would be like a tissue paper on the surface of the sun.
That's about how quick we would last. But yet, the book of Hebrews 19 tells us you have confidence. Verse 22 tells us draw near. How could it be? Well, y'all, verse 19, 20, and 21 is a simple retelling of the gospel story.
Do you know how you have access to God? Do you know how you get to be in relationship with Him? Do you know how you can be in His presence? Because of his blood, verse 19, because of the new and living way, verse 20, and because he is our great high priest, verse 21. And that's what it says.
I mean, verse 19 tells us very clearly. By the blood of Christ we can enter in. Verse 20 tells us we can have a new and living way through the curtain that is his flesh. Y'all, those two verses taken together tell the gospel story. If you don't know the gospel, it's basically this: Jesus lived the life that we didn't live.
Okay, you and I, in our sin, we deserve hell, we deserve, because of our rebellion, to be separated from God forever, but Jesus never sinned one time. But at the end of his life, he laid down on a cross and he took death on our behalf. You know, most of us here today, probably, even if you're not a Christian, you sort of understand some things about the Christian journey. You know, you've grown up in the South. The American culture still has a lot of symbolism from Christianity in it.
And so maybe you're thinking, like, well, I know it's sort of the cross and dying resurrection. Why did he do that? He did that to die in our place. You and I in sin deserve the cross. Jesus never sinned, doesn't deserve the cross.
But what happened? The theologians call it the great exchange. He took what we deserved.
so that he could give us what he deserved. What he deserved is life well lived before God. Enter into the most holy place, enjoy a relationship with God and grow in it. That's what he deserved. But he took What we deserve in death to give us that access.
And that's what verse 20 actually says. He opened for us through the curtain that is his flesh. There's a bunch of imagery, guys, in the book of Hebrews, and the imagery here is very clear. When Jesus died on the cross, there's this interesting story. He dies on the cross, and in the temple, there's this really crazy heavy veil.
A huge curtain. That would hang between the holy place and everybody else.
Okay?
So all of us, man, we don't get to go into that holy place. Only the priest goes in the holy place at a certain time of year. To offer a sacrifice for our sins, but we don't get access like that, the normal folks. But this veil that separated that holy place from the normal people, when Jesus died, it was torn apart. It was torn in two.
Much like Jesus in the Last Supper tears the bread. The veil was broken. Jesus' body was broken. What is the imagery here? Here's what it's saying.
If you want to go to the most holy place, If you want to have that relationship with God, there ain't but one way to get there, and it is through Jesus. Just like a curtain that was torn, just like a veil that was torn, there is access. There is a pathway to get there. And it's through him. You can say it like this.
We have a relationship with God because of Jesus alone. We either have our relationship through Jesus Or we don't have a relationship. With God. That's what the Bible says. I know it rubs our culture the wrong way.
But it's clear as day in Scripture. What does Jesus say in John 14, 6? Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father but through me, but by me. He is the new and living way that He has secured access for us.
because of the blood that he shed on the cross. And the Bible doesn't paint a picture of this as one among many religions. The Bible paints the picture of this is the true and living way. This is the way that we come to a relationship with God. You know, it's funny right now.
I feel like we're, it feels to me, I could be wrong.
Okay, I could be wrong. It feels to me like we're sort of on the tail end of the great truth construction experiment that we've all sort of been going through for the last hundred years.
Okay, this whole relativistic idea that truth can be what you want it to be, and this can happen. You know, there's two things competing truth claims. They could both be true. I think, again, this is conjecture. This is just me reading the tea leaves of the culture.
Okay. I think it may have something to do with why we're starting to see revival on campus after campus after campus. That 18 and 19 and 20-year-olds are having a little bit of that moment of like, man, you've told me to construct truth my whole life, but we all know that doesn't work. And now you have churches. I hope Mercy Hill is one that are willing to crack open the word and shoot it straight.
And people are like, I can build a life on that. I think that's what's going on. I mean, you think about Mercy Hill. When we came back from COVID, there were less than 100 college students in this church. There'll be 500 or 600 Tuesday night here at College Live.
And I mean, we praise God for that, right? Yeah. And I and I just think like What is God doing in this generation? I think some of it is a moment of Jesus says, the book of Hebrews says, you want to get to God? Good news, there is a way.
It is through Christ. That either is or it ain't.
Okay?
But it can't be both, and it can't be neither. It either is or it's not. I've told this story before, but I feel like it illustrates the point well. You know, when I was, when we first planted Mercy Hill, my kids were really young, and we went on, me and me and Pastor Bobby and this guy named Clay, Holland at the time, we went on this hike, and we saw, way out in West North Carolina, we saw this awesome black bear come running down the mountain. You know, and if you guys know, there's places in West North Carolina where the bears are like squirrels.
I mean, they're everywhere. And I'd never seen one in the wild like this, though. I've seen them at campgrounds and stuff, but this was just, this dude was running and he stopped on the trail looking at us. And, you know, it was a great opportunity for me and Bobby to show courage. And Clay got really, the other Clay got really scared.
Okay, I'm just going to be honest. I don't mean to throw him under the bus, okay? But he got really afraid. All right. And I'm messing around.
And he, and so anyway, I used to tell my kids this story. They thought it was really funny. And, you know, they just thought it was, you know, I'd be telling the story. Bear comes down and me and Bobby. And we're trying to get Clay out of the fetal position, tell him he's got to run, you know, and all this.
And so they always thought that part was funny. And so. Anyway, one day I'm telling them this story.
Now they're little. I mean, they're like two and four or something. I mean, they're little, little. And I tell the story, and I'm like, oh, and here comes the black bear. And AP, just clear as day, says, oh, no, no, the bear was brown.
I was like, no. I said, it was a black bear. And he said, no, it was brown. I was like, bud, it was a black bear. A brown bear would be a totally different deal.
You know, this is a black bear. And he was just adamant about it. He said, the bear was brown. I said, bud. I was there, okay?
It's a it was a black bear. And my daughter at four years old Living in this culture watching Disney movies, okay? You can be what you want to be. She she says, well, Dad. The bear could be black for you and brown for AP.
I said, stand up. Get up. You guys stand right here next to each other. Turn the lights on. We're playing around.
You stand right there. I said, Howdy Joe. That is postmodern relativistic philosophy. And we're not having it in this house, okay? And the bear was black, and that's all there is to it.
Now, It's a funny story, right? But here's the deal. I think our culture. In some ways, not everywhere, obviously, and I could be wrong, but it feels like we're starting to realize. Man, the bear's either black or it's brown.
But it can't be both at the same time. And it feels a little bit like it's a good moment then to say what the scripture says about Jesus. Because Jesus said it, and the book of Hebrews says it. And here's what it says: I am the way, not a way. I am the way, the truth, and the life.
Hebrews says he is the way. To God, through the curtain that is his flesh, he was broken for us, but he provides a new and living way. And he's not only that, I told you in verse 21, he's also the great priest. And since we have a great 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, it's the image of baptism here, with pure water.
Now, the Bible, this is interesting. It happens all the time. Y'all, the Bible does what your eighth-grade English teacher tells you never to do, okay? It mixes metaphors all the time. And in this one passage, we've already mixed a metaphor.
In the same breath, the writer of Hebrews says, Jesus is the veil that is torn open so that you can get to God. Then he says, He's the priest. That applies the blood of the sacrifice so that you can stay in that relationship with God. You could say it like this. Jesus has both veil and or curtain and priest.
Jesus gives us access. and advocacy. We not only get in, But because we have a great priest who is applying, you guys know that song we sing a lot at Mercy Hill? Thank you for the blood applied. That song is a real good example of this.
The priest, what's his job? Apply the sacrifice to the people. And that Jesus has opened the way for us to God by his sacrifice, but now he advocates for us any time we sin. Anytime we mess up, anytime we don't get it right, what is Jesus doing? That one's on me.
Hey, that sin right there, I already paid for that. Oh, they did this again. They feel like, you know, again, again, again, I paid for that. I paid for that. I paid for that.
You know what's awesome about that? It will muster a love in you for God that something like fear could never touch. You know why? Because here's what humans think. Humans think, well, if you're saying Jesus is a great priest, Who will apply his blood to every mistake and every sin and every mess up?
That I ever do. Then that gives me great license to just like I can sort of just live in sin and do whatever I want to do. And I'm going to tell you something. When you actually become a Christian and the Spirit is actually in you. And you think about the great truth that no matter what you do, God is not going to kick you out.
He will continue to apply that sacrifice to your life. It changes what you want to do. You stop saying, oh, goody, now I can go live my life the way I want to. What you start saying is, God, I want to live the way you want me to live. I am not trying to muster love for you.
I'm seeing great love, and I am responding to that great love. And I think baptism, I mean, look what it said. Baptism is a giant reminder. He says in verse 22: and our bodies washed with pure water. Baptism is an incredible reminder.
Of what God has done in our life. You know, if you have not been baptized, we got these cards. We're going to mention them on their way out. But if you have not been baptized, and it's something that you are struggling with, we want you to fill one of these cards out or thinking about. Because baptism serves as an anchor for us to remember what God has done.
Do you remember what Rebecca said in that video? She said, I got baptized at 13. I believed I was baptized. That baptism held as an anchor even for years after when she was kind of walking outside of church, but it was there. It was in her mind.
It was a great marker in her life, and now that she has returned, you know, and I think it probably guided the way in some ways. And so, I would just, I would encourage you: think about that expression of God, you've done this for me. I want to do this for you in baptism.
Okay, I know some of you are like, man. You told us this sermon was about why we need to come to church.
Okay, we got to get that to that part, all right?
Now, here's what it says in verse 23. Let us hold fast. The confession of our hope without wavering. For he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.
Not neglecting to meet together, and that's really going to be the point here. As is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near, the day, the day of the Lord. Man, hey, as we get closer to the end, the times are evil. We need to be even more intentional with this stuff, with gathering together.
Now, here's the way this sermon is broken down. I told you. We talked a lot about gospel.
Now we're going to talk about what we need to do to keep that sort of alive in our heart. And here are the two great imperatives of this passage. Actually, there's a few imperatives, but there's the two that end up, I think, hinging on the one, okay? The two are. We hold fast our confession, number one.
And number two, we stir each other up to love and good deeds. Verse 23, hold fast the confession. What does that mean? It means we fight to hold on to the truth that we have in verse 19, 20, and 21. The blood, the new and living way, the great priest, we got to fight to hold on to that.
If we're not intentional about holding on to it, we'll let it go. At our student camp, they did this thing where they had the kids do a dead hang competition. That hang on the bar, see which ones can hang up there the longest, okay? And man, this little girl, Abby, one of our little gymnasts at Mercy Hills, she kicked everybody's tail, all right? I mean, it was like she could just be up there with one arm looking around, all right?
It was pretty awesome. But that idea of the dead hang, if you've ever done it, it's like, man, it's a fight. And that's what we're called to do: is like, man, we are called to exert ourselves in trying to hold on and remember and keep alive what God has done in terms of his gospel message. Hold, don't lose your ground, don't lose your nerve. That's another way to think about it.
You know, I think about the movie Braveheart, top five movie of every man in this room.
Okay, I know that. And I think about what does he do? The cavalry is charging. And what is William Wallace yelling out? Hold!
Because what? Our natural inclination is to is to throw and run.
Well, he's saying here, hold fast, don't run away.
Okay. Hold fast, that's the first thing, all right? The second thing he says in verse 24 is: stir each other up to love and good deeds. All right, he says consider how to stir one another up. What does that mean?
It means that the way you may be stirred up for love and good deeds might be different than the way you do or the way you do. And we want to be others focused considering how they would be matured in their Christian life.
Okay, so we got two things. Big gospel, blood, living way, great priest, right? Then we got two things that we're told to do: don't let that go. and encourage each other to grow, love and good deeds. How do we do it?
Look at verse 25. Not neglecting to meet together. As is the habit of some, but encouraging one another. And there it is. That this y'all, there's a protocol.
People say, well, there's no formula to spiritual growth. Yeah, there is. And part of it is gathering together. Spirit's got to do it. But this is what he calls us to do.
To gather together. You could say it like this. Holding fast and stirring up. comes from the gathering. Not only from the gathering, there are other things that we do to enrich our Christian life, but certainly it comes from not neglecting that part.
If we want to hold fast our confession of hope and we want to stir others up to do the same. Then we gather together.
Now, some of you guys are like me, okay? And you're thinking, okay, but I'm analytical. How does the gathering help us to hold fast and stir one another up? It doesn't say. Yeah.
It just it doesn't tell us. I could probably make some assumptions. I think you get a bunch of people in a room like this, and you begin to sing, and that truth washes over you, and the spirit's moving in that moment. Two or three are gathered, the spirit's there. I think that's probably part of it.
I think you hear teaching. You know, we're big on the preaching event at Mercy Hill because I think that we need it. I know I need it, but I also think that it teaches us how to read the Bible. You know, what am I doing when I'm preaching? All I'm doing is explaining, applying, illustrating.
Explaining, applying, illustrating. That's it. That's what we do when we read the Bible.
Okay, so it kind of helps us with that. I think just having the accountability of being on teams and rubbing shoulders with other people. There's a lot of ways I'm sure that it does it. It doesn't tell us how it does it, it just says. This is how we're going to be able to hold fast and stir one another up.
Is that we would gather together the official assembly. of the church. And I just think that it's good for us to remember that today and to value it appropriately. Y'all, we were made to be powered forward. By gathering together.
This is what we're but we live in such an individualistic culture. You know the you know the greatest example of this for me is the company Peloton.
Okay, and some of you guys may have a Peloton somewhere. It's probably got dust on it, if I'm honest. It seems like every story I've ever heard of a Peloton person is I got the Peloton, but I don't use the Peloton.
Okay, here's the thing about the Peloton, the bike. You know what the Peloton actually is in cycling? The Peloton. is when that whole group of a hundred cyclists come together And something about the aerodynamics of all of that and the accountability of all of that, that group, when it gets moving, can hawk anybody down in a one-on-one situation almost. The group will move faster together than anybody that individually tries to break out.
Now what's funny is that Peloton is the group. But what we've done is put the bikes in individuals' houses where they use fake names and fake emails so they don't have to actually interact with anybody on the little screen. Isn't that ironic? And it's like, hey, we're powered together.
Well, we do it separately, and then a lot of us don't really do it. It's just kind of an ironic thing. This is our culture. We're that individualistic, but we were made to be powered forward together. Y'all, we live in a culture that'll say people say things like this that are nonsensical.
Well, I go hiking, and that's my church. I play golf and that's my church. Not understanding that the very nature of church is a people who then gather together. As plainly as I can say this, okay, and I need to say it this plainly. You and a cup of coffee and your Bible and K-Love on your back porch is not going to church.
It's not. I'm not saying it's not valuable.
Okay, I I mean I mean dude have your have your morning quiet time. I know I do. And I valued that greatly. It is valuable. It ain't going to church.
It's not coming together. It's not the official assembly. Many people are opting for that while neglecting the actual official assembly because it's just reflected in our culture. We like doing things by ourselves. We love sort of the self-help kind of individual genre of that.
But yet, the Bible is telling us that we need to value the gathering. And that gathering will power forward our Christian growth.
So, here's what I want to do in terms of an application: guys, grow your faith. by gathering faithfully. Grow your faith by gathering faithfully. If you don't want to grow, man, you probably wouldn't be here. All right?
And so, how do we do that? We do it God's way. And we grow by gathering. It's not the only thing that we do, but it's a very important thing that we do. And some of us need to just think about this today: do, you know, almost like a paradigm shift.
Do I think about my Christian life in that communal of a way? I mean, we're Americans, y'all. It's like, man, it's about individual pride and individual achievement. And I'm fine with a lot of that, obviously. But in this instance, we have to understand something that maybe will change your Christian life forever.
You ready? Jesus didn't just die for you. He died for a people of which you and I have been given a privilege to be a part of. Big difference in those two things.
Okay, it's not just about you. There is a people. Globally. Our brothers and sisters in Christ. That gather in local bodies, some of them big, growing multi-site movements like Mercy Hill, some of them eight or ten people in the high jungle of Peru.
But they're local bodies that are scattered all over the world, and it is the body of Christ, and they gather. The church gathers together in an official assembly on a regular basis. Do you value that? Is it valuable to you? Are you showing the value of that?
You know, I think about it like this: we need to remember that Jesus Christ spilled his blood for this people so that they would be able to function as his people. And an important function in the church is the gathering of the saints. In other words, you can say it like this: if you want to see the value of something, look at how much it costs to buy. For us to be able to do this May it cost Jesus his blood. How valuable is that?
Are we taking something that valuable? And then, just sort of, man, I'm lax with it. It's a church on every corner. I'm not really worried about it. Are we seeing it?
As valuable.
Well, here, there's three ways we can value the gathering tangibly, all right? I pray that the gospel will give us this motivation to wanna value it. Look at the price that was paid to get it. All right, we have the opportunity. Man, sometimes we just let it go right by us.
We don't think about it. Guys, other places, in our first service here today, one of our sent ones in Africa, they're here. They're going right back. I think it was their last Sunday back here. I heard a story from them very specifically.
Many of the people that are pastoring churches, in order to get training and to gather with saints like this, one of the guys he was talking about literally gets on a fruit truck, rides all day long, gets off, walks for miles and miles. There have been times where he gets caught where the sun's going down, still hasn't made it to the village where they're going to gather, literally is fighting off hyenas. to be able to get to the gathering. It does it with joy. Our sent ones serve in places where people have to hide to gather like this because the government is so oppressive.
Man, there are many places. Where people are tempted not to gather because of persecution. You and I are tempted not to gather because of our preference. Big difference. Really beat the ball field.
Rather come home one day late from vacation, whatever it is. And we just neglect sometimes.
So here's one way to call you tangibly to do a bit of a reset, all right? Reset some things. And let's value in three ways. The first way is this. Very quickly here, value the gathering by being ready for it.
I'm going to say this one time. Sunday morning church is a Saturday night decision. Especially if you got kids under five years old. Because all the stuff they gotta have, okay, when they come. That's it.
That's it. So, are you making that decision on a Saturday night? Church doesn't you don't stumble into a church any more than you stumble into a gym. It's a decision that we make. Secondly.
Value the gathering by planning around it. Listen, this is universally true. And I'm telling you, I bet your eyes will be open to it if you just think about this for a minute. You can look back on your own calendar. This is so true.
I'm in a lot of cohorts and text threads, and I've got a lot of friends that do this around the country, and we're all trying to learn from each other. This is so true across the whole country. People post-COVID. are coming to church less without realizing it.
Okay?
It's not a conscious decision a lot of people are making. They just don't realize it. That after COVID, we put such a high value on time. That we began to guard it in a way that now we're wanting to give it out to other things and we're not thinking about it. And suddenly, instead of coming home one day early from the vacation, it feels like it's more of a win just to stay and get that extra day in.
Instead of planning on the front end to say, hey, we're going to only miss one gathering, we're going to end up missing two simply because we didn't plan very well. And I want to call you to that. Look, people, you know, you would ask somebody, do they go to church? Yeah, I go to church every single week. When actually it's like, man, you go like 30 times a year, you don't realize it.
You know, it's like through ball games and kids' sickness and vacations and all this kind of stuff. It gets crowded out.
So let's plan for it. All right. So be ready as one. Plan this. And then the third thing is this, guys: value the gathering by fully engaging in it.
You say, what does that mean? When we say fully engaged, we mean serving, we mean coming and not just receiving. We say, hey, if you're going to come and receive, make sure you stick around to give.
so that there are other people who can have the same experience that you have. That's here at the Ridge, that's at all of our campuses. Man, I would love. Hey, we live in this individualistic kind of me monster culture, and many of us will rail against it with our kids and the selfishness that we see. And yet, we come to church, receive, don't serve, and what are we teaching our kids?
It's okay to receive without giving. I want to call, I know that's sharp. I want to call you that. Hey, think about it. On ramp back in, if you've ever been to a weekender, or go to the weekender.
And jump into serving. I know some of us are like, well, you know, we can't save her two. Little Johnny doesn't like to be in the kids' care for two services. Tough, okay? Tough.
He listen, he's gonna be alright, alright? It'd be okay. In fact, it's probably good for little Johnny to learn he's not the center of the whole world. And that the family doesn't revolve around him. And then he goes and does what mom and daddy tell him to do.
And so that's that's a you know it's it's kind of a two-for-one sort of idea. And so I would just tell you, hey, let's value. The gathering. in a way that That means that we jump in and serve, all right? Hey, summer is over, all right?
And man, for some of us, I know that that's an exciting thing. Uh it is for me. Because the reality is By the end of summer, In our house, it's crazy. The inmates are running the asylum at this point, okay? I mean, there's no bedtimes, fortnight.
I mean, there's just, it's all, it's all gotten, and it's like, okay, we need. You know, we need to recenter here. Going to school kind of helps with that. And so I just, you know, I think about for us guys that have a chance to reset rhythms. Listen.
Think about the gospel. Think about what Jesus did. Think about how we can consider one another. Think about how we can hold fast our confession. It all hinges on the gathering.
Okay. How valuable is that to you? Can you make it valuable as you reset rhythms?
Sometimes there's a church on every corner. I can always just go to church again next week. And because we're not hungry, we've never tasted what it means to be hungry. and not have church readily available for us. Then maybe we just don't value it as much.
We don't treat it as valuable because maybe we've never. going through a famine of it. You know there's a kid named Lopez Lamong. Who ended up carrying the torch and running for the United States in the Olympics. It was a pretty crazy story though because at six or seven years old he was one of the quote lost boys from the Sudanese Civil War.
Some Catholics smuggled him across the border. Him and thousands of other kids, and ended up being refugees in this place, been in refugee camps, ended up getting adopted into America. And the first Day, he's with his family. His dad asked him if he's hungry. No, he's not hungry at all.
He's actually sick because he's never been on an airplane before. But From where he comes from and from the things that he's experienced, if somebody says, Are you hungry and there's going to be food? You say yes. And so he says yes, and so they pulled into a restaurant. This comes from his memoir.
We pulled into a restaurant. The restaurant was McDonald's, okay? We pulled into a restaurant and walked inside. We walked up to the counter, and up above were photos of everything on the menu. And I had no idea what was what.
So much food. from which to choose. All the choices made my head swim. I just knew that this had to be one of the nicest restaurants in all of America. What's the last?
Many of us, man, we can always go to church. There's a church on every corner. We don't know what it's like to be hungry. We don't know what it's like to value something. My dad ordered a chicken sandwich for me.
And I said. This is for all of us, right? Todd said, No, bud, it's just for you. I unwrap the sandwich. But I could hardly bring myself to eat it.
I looked at this large piece of chicken sitting on the bread and thought of the way the ten boys in my tent. and the refugee camp shared one chicken every Christmas and every Easter. I took a few bites and wrapped it up.
So I can save it for later. And that's what my dad said, bud, we have more food at home. You know, you could get so familiar with something that you don't even take it. You just take it so for granted, you don't even value it anymore. Right?
It takes a little reminder that not everybody gets to do what we get to do. And so, my question for us today is: man, will we value? The Gathering because God certainly sees it as valuable. And very important for our spiritual growth. Let's pray, Father.
We come before you right now, and Lord, we ask. Sincerely, that you would move the priorities around in our hearts and in our lives so that we would. Value the gathering in greater ways. Lord, I pray that out of this sermon, There would be hundreds of people jumping to the weekend or that want to serve. They want to come to two services, not one.
Lord, I pray that we, myself, my family included, would be ones who are looking more diligently at our calendar. thinking about ways that we cannot miss because it's that valuable. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Mm.
