Why We Matter to Each Other

Church is a living, moving, breathing entity and it's promised to change. And God is promised in every one of our individual lives to change us and ultimately perfect us in the presence of Christ because that's what spiritual growth means. It means change. But it also means to in the assembly accept noise.

It's a vision that kind of transcends that intuitive design and desire for us to find that quiet place. Believers are called to be members of a local church body. We're committed to participate and engage in the life of the church.

We gather together because we share faith in Christ. And as local church families, each church and all of its members are meant to encourage each other. We encourage each other to stand firm in the faith throughout life's challenges and trials.

Welcome to Wisdom for the Heart with Stephen Davey. In this lesson, Stephen expounds upon the promises we must make as members of a local church body. We are to pray for, care for, and serve one another spiritually and physically. Stephen's calling this lesson why we matter to each other.

Grab your Bible as we get started with today's lesson from God's word. It strikes me if you read the history of the church from its very inception, beginning at Acts chapter two and onward, you discover embedded in the DNA of God's design, this idea of people, the idea of change, the idea of movement. The church is a breathing, living body. And we're given the analogy of becoming part of a body where hands or feet or eyes, mouths, ligaments, blood vessels, organizing, active. It means noise.

It means people. Belonging to a local church is making a decision to move beyond whatever that ideal might be of a quiet, solitary life. And if we all had our druthers and we were asked, where would you really like to live, more than likely we would say, many of us where there are no people. Our deck would overlook a pond.

We'd be surrounded by trees. They don't talk back, not people. But the church of our Lord is designed to move beyond that solitary, quiet life where everything stays put and nothing changes, to roll up our sleeves and engage. All of that to say a church is a living, moving, breathing entity. And it's promised to change. And God has promised in every one of our individual lives to change us and ultimately perfect us in the presence of Christ because that's what spiritual growth means. It means change.

But it also means to, in the assembly, accept noise and distraction. You don't get your favorite seat. Not all the time. Sometimes. Maybe you got it today.

Good for you. But it's a vision that kind of transcends that intuitive design and desire for us to find that quiet place. And for me, it would include a pond and trees. We make a promise when we come into the body of Christ to set that in a very real way aside. And I want to show you today what that means. In our study on the church thus far, we have addressed subjects of who we are and why we belong and how we behave and why we exist. And now we're talking about what we promise. What we're promising is we head toward in a matter of weeks the signing of a new constitution and bylaws. And what we promise effectively relates to what we believe.

And so I've kind of used that categorical statement and stuffed under it a number of things that we are holding to and stands which we are taking biblically. We have dealt with what it means to promise each other things related to our personal conduct. Now what I want to do is shift gears and talk about what it means as a member of the body to make some promises as it relates not just to our conduct, but to our church. What are we promising each other?

Well let me give you the first of two we'll cover today. The first promise of a member regarding his or her church is to purposefully and faithfully participate in public worship services and all that goes with that. Now you might think that this is really too obvious. You wouldn't have to say this. Yet it's interesting in the New Testament you discover early on, even in the first century, that people were choosing, in fact some had already made the habit of withdrawing back to that quiet place.

Maybe back to the pond. Instead of participating, they were saying, and theologically there was a construct that would be accurate, that you can worship God alone. You can worship God all by yourself.

So I really don't need the assembly. And we've taken a look closely at some of those unique ways where God shows up when the assembly meets and we've dealt with a lot of that. But it's interesting that they have to be told in the first century that you need to invest personally in this living body called the church.

Let me show you one particular text. We're just going to land on the book of Hebrews here. So turn to Hebrews, the book of Hebrews, written to Hebrews, that is converted Jews. And I want you to notice what he's going to say to them in chapter 10. In fact, before announcing the personal responsibility of belonging to an assembly of believers, he kind of takes him on a little bit of a history tour and he says, here's what you left.

Here's where you used to be. Look down at verse 19. He's going to summarize now so much of what he's taught.

We don't have time to get into all of that, but let's just deal with the summary. Verse 19, Hebrews chapter 10. Since, therefore, brethren, we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new, you could translate that freshly slain, a reference to the death of Christ, and living way, that's a reference to his resurrection, which he inaugurated for us through the veil that is his flesh.

Let's stop for a moment. That would have immediately meant a lot to these Hebrews, these converted Jews, because they knew full well that the tabernacle and then the temple, there was the separation of the holy place from the holy of holies by this gigantic veil in the temple that would have been 30 feet high. Our ceiling is about 30 some feet high. So imagine the curtain that tall. When Christ dies, it rips right down the middle. There's no hand anywhere.

It rips. You see, to them, they understood for centuries that veil basically communicated stay out. You can't come in here. In fact, only one man, one time a year, was allowed to go beyond that veil, and he went in there with such fear and such terror and the people with him that they would sew bells on the fringe of his robe and they'd tie a rope around his ankle because if they didn't hear the jingling of those bells, they would assume God had rejected that annual sacrifice and they'd need to drag the dead body out. So now you're talking about going with confidence into the very presence of God.

You've got to be kidding. What a wonderful gospel this is, and that's exactly what he's telling them. This new and living way through the veil, which is the flesh of Christ, which he gave on our behalf, we now have direct access into the very presence of God. So as an assembly, we don't take that for granted because uniquely, he's present with us as he met with them when they met as a church.

There's a uniqueness to corporate living truth. We're not going to meet today, and I've got to deliver to you something new because God changed the guidelines for access. We get into the family by faith, and the gospel never changes. For by grace, you have been saved through faith, not of yourselves.

It's the gift of God, not as a result of works, lest any of us should boast. So sweet to see a couple baptized at the 8 o'clock hour this morning who'd come out of Roman Catholicism wanting to do the best they could to get into heaven and to hear their testimony of coming to faith in Christ and now their obedience. What a thrill to have met this week with a lady in the greenhouse. In the course of my conversation with her, she's come directly here from Roman Catholicism, and after an hour and a half to hear her accept Christ as her personal Lord and Savior by faith alone, and my assignment whenever I have a chance to do that with people is to tell them to tell three people, just to sort of lock it into their own hearts as they use vocabulary they've never used before.

And we went out of my office, and there was our membership secretary in the outer office, and I said, you know, why don't you let her be the first of the three? So she's describing to her what she's done with vocabulary that's new, and she happened to give this phrase. She said to Laurie, she said, my eyes were opened.

Isn't that great? My eyes were opened. You know, it strikes me that for many of you, Sunday is the only day you get to get around people whose eyes have been opened, like yours. This is the only day you get to be around people who love the word and love the Lord and love the assembly and want to invite that change and are so troubled by the fact that you need to change more.

What a wonderful thing to gather for spiritual food and fellowship and encouragement. We got in by faith, and we're meeting with people who have the same story somewhere along the line. God's Spirit opened our eyes, and we believed in Christ alone. The writer here stresses first and foremost you get into the family of God by faith, but then he goes on. Secondly, you get a grip on life because God is faithful. Look at verse 23. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, literally without swaying, for he who promised is faithful. So cling, hold fast to your confession. That's simply what we confess to be true related to the gospel. He's not talking, by the way, about holding on so you don't lose your salvation.

You get a good grip. He's not talking about entering the faith at this point. He's talking about growing in your faith. And you cling to that confession, and you understand as you cling that God, not you, but God is faithful for he who promised is faithful.

He doesn't change the rules to get in. We get into the family of God by faith. We get a grip on life because God is faithful.

And now thirdly, this is where I want to get. We gather together to encourage our faith. Verse 24, he says, and let us consider how to stimulate, your translation may read provoke, one another. You can translate that to stir up or to provoke. It typically has a negative meaning, and that's what we think of when we hear the word provoke. You may know some people whose spiritual gift is provoking you.

Every time you get together, they provoke you. Well, it's used negatively that way. It can be used for irritating or exasperating. Here it carries the idea of prodding forward positively, of inciting, of infusing others with hope and courage. This is a positive action word.

And here's the point he's making. It takes your presence to pull it off. It takes your presence. You notice here that this isn't an invitation for just a few people in the church, the staff or the elders, the deacons.

You know, they're supposed to do that. This is for every one of us. This is our commitment. Let us, let us consider.

Have you ever thought about how to do this? Let us consider how to stimulate one another in the faith. How much time do we spend thinking of ways to encourage each other in the faith? So much of what goes on here is literally the result of people thinking through ways to encourage each other in the faith. Now, the writer goes on in verse 25 to add what seems like, you know, it's too obvious to even say, but he says it, not forsaking our own assembling together as is the habit of some. In other words, there are people in the first century church who've already decided, I really don't need that stuff. I really don't have a responsibility to the assembly.

Yeah, I'm pulling back to my pond and my trees. It's already the habit of some. By the way, don't be one of the some here. Don't be one of the some.

Don't be one of these somebodies. And it's not because just the fact that you need the assembly. What he's saying here is he's turning it around. He's saying the assembly needs you. Christianity is a team effort, a team sport.

We can't pull this off if we're missing parts of our body. The trouble is we often come to church and somebody will ask us, well, how was it? Well, it was great.

Well, why? Well, because we sang what we liked and we had people treat us like we liked and we got what we wanted and coffee was halfway decent or whatever. The writer of Hebrews is saying we come to the assembly on the lookout for someone that we can encourage. In fact, he goes on to write, but encouraging one another. That is literally infusing another person with courage, putting courage in. So the English translates it encouragement, literally cheering others along. You know, your very presence next to someone you sang with encouraged them. It wouldn't have been anything in any way, shape or form encouraging to have sang all by yourself.

We're to cheer one another along. I love that incident recorded by a pastor by the name of Brad Estep who wrote about Jamie Scott, a little kid in his church in second grade. Time for the annual love of Monterey school play and Jamie had his heart set on being one of the key players and actors and told his mother about it. She knew he was introverted and rather quiet.

He wasn't going to land that role. And so she was so she was concerned for him that he would be so disappointed when it wasn't chosen to play one of those leading roles. And so the day of tryouts and when the results are going to be handed out, she she went to school to pick him up and had with her some cookies that were her favorite. She was going to try to encourage him.

And this would be so discouraging. And she pulled up eventually. And when Jamie saw her, ran over to her and she rolled her window down. And he he said to her, guess what, mom, a bunch of kids were chosen to cheer. And I'm one of them.

I'm one of them. Wouldn't it be interesting, beloved, to discover the reality one day that in the mind of God for the church, cheering on other believers happens to be a leading role, a leading role. We have been chosen to cheer. And we're basically promising by becoming part of the body officially that we're going to cheer each other on, that your faith and your growth happens to be a responsibility of mine and of me yours. That whenever this assembly meets, it doesn't just meet to encourage us. It doesn't just meet to serve us. It doesn't just meet to please us. It doesn't just meet to give us hope. It meets together so that we can do that to others along that same line.

Then is the next promise that I want to cover. And let's make it a little more tangible to actively pray for, care for and serve one another spiritually and physically. In other words, it isn't just cheering by word. It's just cheering by means of action, deeds. We don't just verbally cheer one another on. We physically roll up our sleeves and get involved in one another's lives. And most of what we do for one another is behind the scenes.

Most of what happens in an assembly on the Lord's day, so many things are going to happen today and so much of it will not be seen but by a handful of people. Sometimes on a Sunday and it happened again today, I'll come in a side door early, met by one of the security detail, I'll walk down a hallway through a room or two and backstage eventually and I'm walking through this classroom that's going to become an ABF and there's this gentleman who's setting up chairs in rows. He's come early to get ready and to prepare that room. He's not the teacher, not the assistant teacher. He's a helper. And what always strikes me is that that man was a senior pastor for decades. Now in his 80s, what can I do?

I can set up chairs. That deeply moves me. So much goes unseen but by our Lord and I think we ought to have better eyes and more alert spirits to notice. What was the last time he watched a movie and then stuck around to read the credits as they're scrolling up? You know, Indian Scout number 45, Indian Scout number 46 or whatever.

That music that you thought was so beautiful, did you stick around to find out the name of the composer? Probably not. I don't. There's another event. There's somewhere to go. There's something to do. One of my favorite verses in scripture for the sake of time, I'll just dip into it and quote a phrase for you but it's found in the Journal of Nehemiah and it's a wonderful text where they are rebuilding the city of Jerusalem and the walls and nobody is living inside the city.

It's dusty. It's broken down and they're camping out and then some men volunteer to go live in the city to help protect it and to take on the inconveniences of all that that would mean and there's that wonderful little text in chapter 6 where it says, and the people blessed all the men who volunteered. I love that. The Hebrew word for volunteer, nadav, simply means, in fact we could rather woodenly translate it to be compelled to be courageous, to be incited, urged onward. In fact you could rather woodenly translate it with a nuance of to be noble. I love that translation, to be noble. And all the people blessed, all those men who chose to be noble, they volunteered to take on a difficult role, an assignment, to literally move into that broken down unfinished city to accept difficulty and inconvenience for the sake of people. You know what, that sounds a lot like volunteers to this day, doesn't it? Taking on the inconvenience, willing to serve, willing to take on difficulty and what may very well be a very tough assignment. What better way to describe volunteers than to describe them as noble ones. Noble ones. And most of the noble things you do will never be recognized on earth.

See when you watch that movie you typically focus on three or four leading characters and all those other people behind the scene that even made that script and made that film, you don't stick around to read the credits to find out who the assistant to the assistant to the assistant director of graphic arts happened to be. I wonder how many people will serve this church today, I know there are 200 of them just for kids 5th grade and down, who will never be recognized or thanked. The truth is the ancient city of Jerusalem is a lot like this church.

We have a lot in common. We advance as a church, any church does that's advancing, not by a few leading characters. This church is advancing by people who spot need, who roll up their sleeves and say I'm going to tackle that one.

So much of the ministry is not from some top position down, it's from the people up who are saying can I meet that need, I need to do that. And by the way keep this in mind for those of you who are noble ones, God reads the credits, never misses a name. In fact a writer of Hebrews addresses that, look over at chapter 6, turn back a few pages, look at chapter 6 and verse 10. What an encouraging text here. Hebrews chapter 6 and verse 10, for God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward his name.

How? In ministering and in still ministering to the saints. God will not forget your deeds of love, the things you do to minister to the saints, that is the body of Christ. People forget, God won't.

People don't say thank you as much as we ought to say thank you. People overlook you, God never will. He will always read the credits, in fact if we want to make that analogy a little more theologically correct we would say he's actually writing them, he's writing the credits.

He doesn't miss a name. He doesn't miss the simplest deed done out of love for him and for those who make up the church. Let me tell you something, you are among the noble ones. You're spiritually and physically demonstrating the love of Christ in action.

The credits that may never be read by people on earth are written and recorded and one day rewarded by God in heaven and it isn't only those who played a leading role, it's all of that behind the scenes. To join a family means to promise that you will invite change, to participate in the lives of others because we understand that we don't just belong to Jesus Christ but because we belong to Jesus Christ we actually belong to each other. God wants each of us to be part of a healthy church and in the context of that church he wants us actively serving each other.

Belonging to Jesus means belonging to each other. You're listening to Wisdom for the Heart with Stephen Davey. Today's lesson comes from a series on the church called Upon This Rock.

Stephen's calling today's sermon Why We Matter to Each Other. If you joined us late or had to step away and you missed part of this lesson you can listen to it online. Go to wisdomonline.org and you'll find the link that allows you to listen right from your computer.

There's lots of other valuable resources on that site as well so take time to look around. That address once again is wisdomonline.org. You can also listen on our smartphone app.

Go to either the Google Play or the iTunes store and search for Wisdom for the Heart. Install that app and take this ministry with you wherever you go. Each week the staff team here at Wisdom International gathers to pray for each other and for you. We were encouraged recently to hear from Sharon who listens to us from Moline, Illinois. She said, I'm praying for your ministry and for Pastor Davey and the staff. I've been praying for you for a while. What a privilege it is to give and to pray for you. I'm praying that many will come to Christ through your ministry.

And then she adds, please tell Stephen I really like his sense of humor. Well thanks Sharon for encouraging us and for praying for us. If you'd like to send a prayer request or a note or even a gift of support to our ministry, you can write to us at Wisdom for the Heart, PO Box 37297, Raleigh, North Carolina, 27627. That's all for today, but please be with us tomorrow for our next lesson here on Wisdom for the Heart.