Spiritual Paroxysms - [Hebrews 10:24-25]

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

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Apostle Paul said, But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

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In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

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By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes, as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her

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King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. The pastor from the

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Reformed Church in America was given 500 bucks and told to go plant a church.

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First thing you do if you want to go plant a church is you need, besides people, you need a building.

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So he could not find a building to rent. Well, this didn't stop this young man named

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Robert, and so he rented out the Orange County Drive -In Theater in California, and he had a great idea.

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He'd have a church service in the drive -in movie theater, and he would stand on the top of the snack bar and preach sermons.

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You could hang the little speaker on your window, and you would be given hymnals, and Robert Schuller started off in 1955 that very way, before he came up with the

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Hour of Power and the Crystal Cathedral. It was marketed early on with that church.

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It said, quote, where even the handicapped, hard of hearing, aged, and infirm can come and see and hear the entire service without leaving their family car.

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One parishioner said, smoke and be in church at the same time, at the drive -in during the daytime, what a trip.

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Fast forward 20 years, I remember with my mother and two siblings, dad stayed at home.

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We went to the Yankton, South Dakota drive -in on Broadway Street for church services on Sunday, and the pastor would stand on top of the snack bar, and he would preach, and we would sit in the car eating our egg

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McMuffins in our pajamas for Sunday morning service at the Lutheran Church Yankton drive -in.

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There were a couple downfalls, though. Here was one. The singing was awful, because it was just the

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Abendroth singing, and not one of us except mom could sing. The other downside was, it's hard to serve other people.

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The one another's fellowship, encouragement, it's hard to do in the car.

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I'd like you to take your Bibles this morning to turn to Hebrews chapter 10, as we're going to look at this very idea, why it's so important to be around other church people in light of who

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Jesus is. Christianity, as some call it, is communal. We need one another. We have to be around the body so that we can encourage people.

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Some days, we are the ones needing the encouragement. The Bible says in Hebrews 10, 24, let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but in encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

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The writer of Hebrews knows something, and he knows that if you want to stimulate people to action, if you want them to do something, if you want them to obey the laws and commands of a holy

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God, of a creator God, he doesn't just say, get busy obeying. He frames things, and he puts together this great picture about how great the

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Lord is, so you would want to respond with gratitude. He'll say, the issue isn't obedience to get into the faith, the issue is since the

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Lord Jesus obeyed, and since he's graced you, then if somebody would love you like that, wouldn't you want to respond with,

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I'd like to obey him, not to earn my standing, but because of my standing, and that's what the book of Hebrews does.

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It really follows the pattern that Romans would follow, that many theologians would say. It talks about our guilt, it talks about grace, and it talks about then the response is gratitude.

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Jesus by sovereign ordination, by divine decree, yielded his own personal obedience to the

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Father by becoming the high priest who offered himself as a sacrifice, and who prays for his people.

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This was by his own precious blood. One man was asked this question, what is the new covenant? And here's how it's answered.

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The gracious, free, immutable promise of God made unto all his elect fallen in Adam to give them to Jesus Christ, and in him mercy, pardon, grace, and glory.

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So if anybody would do that for you, and of course Christians, that's what the Lord has done for you, you want to respond properly, you want to obey, you want to do what the

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Lord says. So we come to Hebrews chapter 10, verse 19 and the following with this hinge verse that begins with therefore.

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Since Jesus is the great high priest, so what? When I was in seminary, they always asked the question, where's the so what?

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These truths are important, these truths are vital for us, but what does it matter?

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So we move from how we think about Christ to what we do since we're now in Christ.

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By the way, as we learned two weeks ago, and thanks to Pastor Steve who filled in for me last

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Sunday when I was in Canada. By the way, I think Dunkin' Donuts is overrated, and so is

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Tim Horton, sorry, coffee. The writer is approaching his

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Jewish audience in a Jewish way, so it shouldn't surprise us that when we come to 10, 19 and following now, it sounds

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Jewish. And so he's going to want people to respond, he's talking to Jews, he'll talk to them in a very

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Jewish way, and we'll see how simple that is once we understand where he's coming from.

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So into review, since Jesus is this great high priest, since he's forgiven Christians, how do you respond?

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Here's the response. Number one, believe. We looked at that last time in verses 19 through 22.

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Since he has done this great high priestly work, well what should we do? Believe. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain that is through his flesh, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.

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The way we probably talk would be, well, since Jesus is so great and he died on the cross and he was raised, you should repent.

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You should believe. You should trust in the Lord. You should say, I can't save myself, and I'm going to rely on the

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Lord Jesus with faith. And that's true. Here though, it's very Jewish language that he's using the backdrop, remember, from the day of atonement where the high priest would probably be afraid to walk into the holy of holies, and now because of the blood of Christ Jesus and his atoning work, you can enter into the holy of holies by faith.

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You can simply trust. And he uses these priestly concepts, does he not? Draw near.

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Enter. It's just a synonym for faith. It's just to have knowledge of something, to give assent to it, and then trust.

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It's picturesque. It's wonderful. Calvin said, there is great weight almost in every word.

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So we must remember that there is here to be understood a contrast, the truth, a reality as seen in Christ, the abolition of ancient types.

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That is to say, we want to stay away from the holiness of God when we have sin, but since our sin has been dealt with, then we can come to the

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Holy Father. And he uses all kinds of terminology here. You can see the word blood.

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The Jews would know that would be sacrificial, substitutionary, in place of veil.

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You can't go into the holy of holies, but now, of course, the veil has been ripped. Priest, we talk about that a lot, sprinkled, consecrated blood, washed.

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And therefore, if you're not a believer, the call is to believe, to enter, to draw near, to repent and trust in Christ Jesus.

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Very Jewish way of thinking. Charles Simeon explained his coming to Christ in a similar

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Jewish way. As I was reading Bishop Wilson on the Lord's Supper, I met with an expression to this effect, that the

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Jews knew what they did when they transferred their sin to the head of their offering. The thought came into my mind, what?

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May I transfer all my guilt to another? Has God provided an offering for me that I may lay my sins on his head?

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Then, God willing, I will not bear them on my own soul one moment longer. Accordingly, by faith,

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I sought to lay my sins on the sacred head of Jesus. Well, the response to Jesus is believe.

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Number two, we started to look at last time, found in verse 23, is if you are a believer, then what?

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Keep believing. And he uses language that the Jew would understand to be that very thing, verse 23.

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Believe and now keep believing. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.

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He wants them not to let go. Remember what's happening. There's persecution. Maybe I should go the other way.

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There's trouble. There's trials. Matter of fact, even in chapter 10, what's going on with some of these people?

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It might make you think second thoughts about Jesus. Verse 32, struggle, sufferings.

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Verse 33, reproach, affliction. Verse 34, prison, plundering of property.

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If those things happen to you, you might think, you know what? When I was a Jew, before I was a Christian, none of these things happened.

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Now I'm trusting Christ? Trouble. And he says, you know what? It's worth the trouble. And you could even be thinking now, you know what?

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There's trouble in my life. And I've lost a loved one. I've got cancer.

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There's relationships that are hurting. This that and the other. And you're like, well, my life was easier before I was a

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Christian. And you know what? Maybe it was. But your eternal life won't be easier. Your honoring the

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Lord Jesus has to be now. So keep believing. Don't go back. I like the language here.

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Do you see it? Hold fast. This is a synonym for faith. Keep white knuckling.

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Keep believing. Keep adhering to. Keep committing to. Well, what would the opposite be?

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Defection. Apostasy. Turning your back. Saying, you know what? I grew up with that. And that was good when

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I was a kid. And that was good for my mom and dad. And it's good for society. It's good for the moral fabric. But I'm not going to do that because I've got other things

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I want to do. And I've got other people I want to date and see and be with and everything else.

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No, keep holding on. The opposite of this is defection. The opposite of this is shirking your responsibility and going

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AWOL. To hold fast. The word hold fast means to hold down.

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To have so much intensity to grab it that you're just kind of almost like hunched over. Just, I'm going to not let go of this.

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And what are you supposed to hold on to? What's the text say? The text says in verse 23, hold fast the confession of our hope.

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And of course the writer in Hebrews meant you're supposed to hold fast the London Baptist 1689 confession.

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Right? That's our confession. He says hold fast the confession. Okay, you Presbyterians, it's a

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Westminster confession. No, no. What's the confession? The confession. By the way, confession means to say the same thing.

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Christians all confess. They all say the same thing. What's that same thing? What's found in chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10.

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What we've confessed in chapters 1 through 10 about Jesus the high priest, about Jesus making atonement, how

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Jesus adds, the second person of the Trinity, adds human nature so that he might be our representative and then die on the cross and be raised from the dead.

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That confession in 1 through 10. Say, I believe that. Hold fast to it then. Say the same thing that this writer says, that the word of God says, that the

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Lord says, and that other people in this body say. He talked about in chapter 3, verse 1,

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Jesus the apostle and high priest of our confession. Chapter 4, it sounds just like chapter 10.

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Jesus, the Son of God, since he's passed through the heavens, let us hold fast our confession.

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Because the only other option in this binary nature of things, it's either you believe or you don't believe, it's either you follow or you go

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AWOL. Regardless of your circumstances. That's why I think he uses here, because of their circumstances, and of course many of yours, hold fast the confession of our hope.

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I probably call it the hold fast the confession of our faith. It's a confession of our faith, but here, because there's so much trouble, so many trials, so many things going on in life, it's the confession of our hope, living in light of there's something more than now.

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If you survey people today, across the world, what are you hoping in? I think they're just generically hoping for things to what?

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To get better, that next year will be a little bit better. This hope has an object. So no matter what your circumstances are, he says the confession of our hope, hold on to that.

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Gerhardus Voss said, the Christian is a man who lives with his heavenly destiny ever in full view.

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His outlook is not bounded by the present life and the present world. He sees that which is and that which is to come in their true proportions and in their proper perspective.

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The center of gravity of his consciousness lies not in the present, but in the future. Hope, not possession, is that which gives tone and color to his life.

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His is the frame of mind of the air who knows himself entitled to large treasures upon which he will enter at a definite point in time.

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That's encouraging because when you're going through all the troubles and trials, there's something more in the future, something's coming.

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It's just not this life on earth. How can I withstand persecutions today by holding fast the confession of our hope?

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And the Bible teaches right there in verse 23, without wavering, without leaning, without doubting.

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You're going to see in just a moment why this is so important to be around other Christians because sometimes we do and we need to be around strong Christians.

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And sometimes those stronger Christians are weak, they need to be around other strong Christians. Double -minded men, no.

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Double -minded women, no. Keep your eyes on the one who is never double -minded. For he who promised is most of the time faithful, every other day faithful.

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Here the text says he's faithful. 1 Thessalonians 5, the faithfulness of God. Faithful is he that called you, who will also do it.

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What if I'm putting all my eggs in the future basket of hope while I'm getting persecuted now, but it doesn't pan out?

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The Bible says he's faithful, he's true. He'll never leave you nor forsake you. He's reliable, it's impossible,

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Hebrews 6, for God to lie. So dear Christian, if you're going through troubles now, keep believing.

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Trials now, keep believing. There's a confession of your hope. Sometimes people say this, well you know what,

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I'm not really believing now, but I believed when I walked the aisle 10 years ago, I believed when I was a little kid.

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I signed a card, I went up front, I went to Billy Graham, I did this, I raised my hand, the pastor said every head bowed, every eye closed, no one looking around,

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I see that hand. And so, you know, and I got baptized when I was 16, 17, and all that stuff, but I just don't believe anymore.

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The present tense of this, including in 1 John, is are you believing now?

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I'm not trying to be mean or rude, but I don't care that you accepted Jesus in your heart when you were 10, are you believing right now?

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Because lots of things happen, it's like, well alright, 10 year old comes up to me here at BBC, it's happened a lot, pastor,

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I believe, I believe that Jesus died for me, I'm sinful, and he was raised from the dead, and what do

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I say? Prove it. No you didn't.

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I know you're parents, you're a chip off the old block. No, that wasn't in my notes there, sorry.

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What I'm gonna do? Good job, way to go, and what am I always gonna say every single time you know me by now?

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Keep believing, keep believing, because we don't say, you know what, I used to believe, but then

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I went through puberty and got a car and met a man, or a woman, whenever I meet somebody and they're like, well you know,

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I just don't know if the Bible's true anymore, I grew up with it, but I don't think it's true anymore, I always ask the same question, what's her name?

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What's his name? Because you can't try to believe what's in the book and do what you do, and have it balance out, so, there's trouble, there's trials, but there's this great hope coming, so the response to this

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Jesus who did this out of mercy and love, as Pastor Steve prayed, is to believe and to keep believing, are you believing now?

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1 John 3, this is the commandment that we believe in the name of the Son, Jesus Christ.

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What's the commandment that you must obey? To believe, if I could use that language, everyone who believes that Jesus is the

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Christ has been born of God, 1 John 5, 1. In light of Jesus, what do you do?

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You believe, you keep believing, and now in verses 24 and 25, you serve believers, you love believers, you believe, you keep believing, and you serve believers.

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Verse 24 and 25, and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and to good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

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He, the writer, still is trying to motivate based on a platform of who God is. Remember, moralism says, do this.

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The gospel says, because this has been done for you, do this. That's the right way to think about it in light of the gospel.

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Here, since Jesus has done all this for you, and since He's not on earth anymore, if He were on earth, you'd be thinking, you know what,

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Jesus did all this for me, I'll do whatever you want, I'll serve you, I'll, you know, you just tell me what to do and I'll do it.

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But since He's risen, He's exalted, He's in heaven, He'll come back one day. Since He's not here,

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He has a bride, He has a people, and He wants us to serve them. And the life of Jesus is simply giving

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Himself, and so we think to ourselves, why am I around other Christians? And maybe some of you are thinking this way,

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I know most of you aren't. I'm here at church to get. No one today was nice to me, nobody said anything to me except, can you please move your coffee?

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I mean, people, you know, I just, the church is not very loving and they didn't have me over and they didn't do this and they didn't do that and I just come to church and nobody's here serving me.

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Well, I wish we would serve you, but that shouldn't be your attitude. The attitude should be,

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I'm coming to serve, I'm coming to give. The Lord did this for me, even though I was worse than Lot, even though I was worse than Lot's daughters,

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I'm worse than the people at Sodom, I know how self -righteous and how sinful I am and God said,

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I love you, I've forgiven you, you're reconciled, I've had my son bear the wrath that you deserve and you go, now, what do you want me to do?

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Here's what God says, than love other people. And you go, it's a lot easier to love Jesus than some of these people here.

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I know, I'm looking at all your faces, you only see one and you're saying the same thing in singular as I'm saying in plural.

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This, this is not because if we do this enough, if we're good enough at this, God will say, okay, enter into my heaven.

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But since we're in, how do you respond? So, let me respond to this section with, with an outline.

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There are three great theologians church history says that start with A, Anselm, Augustine and Aquinas.

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The three A's, have you ever said, what are the three great A's of, of theologians? Anselm, Augustine and Aquinas.

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But I'm gonna give you three A's that recognize the supremacy of Jesus, the high priest. If you're a

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Christian, here's your kind of way to respond. The three A's in there, agitate, attend, and applaud.

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We've got, we know once in a while I'm a Baptist, right? Is that okay, Sherm? Bob, is that okay? Did you name this church

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Bethlehem Bible Church, Baptist Church? You inherited it, did you? Did you not? Yeah, okay. Did you ever think about changing the name?

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So, you didn't ever think about changing the name? Never did, okay. Then I won't tell you what

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I'm thinking. Hey, we can redeem it because Bethlehem means house of bread.

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And remember, Jan Hus, in Prague, was the pastor of Bethlehem Chapel. So, there you go.

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The three responses, agitate, attend, and applaud.

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Number one, agitate. And I know what you're thinking, this is gonna be an easy one, verse 24, and let us consider how to stimulate, agitate, this is where we get the word paroxysm, one another to love and good deeds.

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So, the first thing he says is, I want you to help foster other people to do things for other

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Christians. But, it's gonna take a few things. Here's what it takes, first of all, to consider the same word he used about considering Jesus in Hebrews 3, one, consider this great high priest, think about it, don't just have a fleeting thought, don't just kind of alt tab through life, no, but stop and stare and think and say, you know what,

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I'm gonna put my gadgets and gizmos and everything else away, I'm gonna sit at the lake and I'm gonna think, you know, here's who

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Jesus is and here's what he's done for me and how I can praise him. It's the same word here for consider, to direct your mind, to focus your mind on, how can

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I get people to provoke one another, to agitate one another in a positive sense, to stimulate one another to love and good deeds.

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The ESV says, how to stir up one another to love and good deeds, to think about it, this is the same word consider that our

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Lord Jesus used when he thought about, when he taught us to think about the lilies of the field, consider the lilies how they grow, they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even

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Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these, but if God so clothes the grass which is alive in the field today and tomorrow was thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, oh you of little faith and do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink nor be worried, go outside and just think about those lilies and he makes this very personal, he's talking to the congregation, let us,

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I could say it this way, let you, this is what you are supposed to do Christian, how can I figure out ways to incite in a good sense people to love one another, this is a community, some churches are called grace community,

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I had a daughter when she was little she wanted to know what church we're going to go to and she would say daddy are we going to be going to grace community, it's a community of people focused around the grace of God and we too while it might not be in our name this is what we are supposed to do, the royal law is love one another, the royal law is love your neighbor as yourself, that's the second great law and this is essentially that and it comes as I said before from the word paroxysm, now paroxysm could be this violent attack or this kind of sudden emotion, it just means to sharpen beyond, make something super sharp, that's the positive aspect to it and probably what was happening here in context with Hebrews, the

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Jews weren't thinking this was too good and they probably were thinking you know what it's hard for me to be around other people because the church now is not just Jewish there's gentiles, there's unclean people there and I don't like that, it's going to be we want to just be by ourselves, we don't want these new people coming in, we want to be just with the charter members, those people, all these new people coming in and they don't dress like we do, they don't act like we do,

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I mean I could extend it to our church and say the new people that come in and they've got tattoos on their neck and they've got this kind of hipster pants on and they got this that and the other, no, no, no, we're the old school people, we don't like these new people, no way, we don't have anybody around here that peevish, do we?

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Oh peevish, that's what Calvin called it, peevish, the

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Jews were puffed up with, we have Abraham as our father, now these other people around, we don't want to be around those people, sounds awful, we don't want that, especially in light of Jesus died for them,

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Jesus loved them, if you, as one writer said, if you love Jesus, you'll love the church and you stimulate one another to, what's the text say, love and good deeds, that could be as simple as, let me talk to you about who

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Jesus is, let me remind you who this Jesus is, I know you're struggling, I know you're going through a sickness and maybe a lot of, you know, you're tired and there's the chemo and this, this, that and the other and your faith is maybe faltering for a second, let me just come alongside of you and say,

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I'm not even, I don't even have to do anything for you, I'm just going to remind you who this savior is, who said, I will never leave you nor forsake you, and sharpen them, to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, some people say, you know what, the church should all be about deeds not creeds, but we do the deeds because the creed of Christ, because of who

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Jesus is in Hebrews, we're able to do that, to talk to other people about the

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Lord Jesus, dear friends, this is why going to Montana and living off -grid to be away from everybody isn't right, this is why the attraction some have to the

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Amish where we're just going to go in our cloister and be there isn't right, this is why the monastery isolation of just being around nobody is not right,

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Wesley even said, the Bible knows nothing of solitary religion, we need each other, when

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I'm strong, I help somebody who's weak, when I'm weak, somebody who's strong helps me, it's just like a good marriage, some non -conformist congregations had a church covenant and the members had to sign this statement when they joined the church, we engage to watch over one another in love, that's right, this is not we do the deeds to stay in, we do the deeds to get in, this is, since we're in, we do the deeds, works are simply evidence, they're not the ground, the ground of your salvation is

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Christ's work, you can't get to heaven unless you're perfect, Jesus perfectly obeys the law, you stand in his stead, he's your vicar, he's your representative, but since you are saved and you have been regenerated and you have been made a new creature in Christ Jesus, he's holy, he asks us to live in a holy way and here's one of the first things that this writer says, to live a holy way, to live a godly way, a

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Christ -like way, is to serve other people, good deeds, some say, are the root of salvation, no, they're the fruit of it, right?

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You say, well, sometimes I don't serve other people with a perfect attitude, can I be direct?

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You never serve anybody else with a perfect attitude, it's okay, serve anyway, God, the son, because of his work, all your works are accepted in the beloved too, our statement of faith says, believers are accepted through Christ and thus, their good works are also accepted in him, this acceptance does not mean our good works are completely blameless and irreproachable in God's sight, instead,

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God views them in his son and so, he is pleased to accept and reward that which is sincere even though it is accompanied by many weaknesses and imperfections.

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If I, who is far from holy compared to God, could treat my kids in such a way where the, you know, my eight -year -old son was out in the backyard and he was helping me mow with his kind of fake mower and he wasn't really doing it very well and he was looking at the neighbors and doing this, that and the other,

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I still could say, thank you for helping, if a mom could have a child and a five -year -old daughter help with cookies and the kids putting in too much baking soda and not enough chocolate chips for dad's liking and all these other things, the mom could still say,

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I accept that, good job, way to go, if we do that and we're sinful, what about the father who says, you know what,

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I know your works are far from perfect, they're not sincere, they've got a sin hangover, but because of who

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Jesus is, I not only accept you, I accept what you do, who wouldn't accept what somebody does, but they'll accept them, if you accept them, you'll accept what they do and they're done because we want to express our gratitude because we want to show we're thankful, we want to show that yes, in fact,

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Christians do this, we're created in Christ Jesus for good works, right, that we may walk in them, of course, we're doing it dependent on the

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Holy Spirit and even Jesus said, apart from me, you can do nothing, Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15, grace toward me did not prove in vain, but I labored even more than all of them, yet not

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I, but the grace of God with me, Lord, help me to serve other people and love them, maybe you need to go through the directory and just pray and think, maybe you need to come to church service early to just look around, who could

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I go encourage, maybe you need to read the bulletin to see if there's a ministry exists that you could serve in, the cookie ministry, the junior church ministry, nursery, chairs,

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I would have Luke come with me early, I needed to get here early and he'd come and he'd go outside and shovel, rest home ministry, moving ministry, it takes some time, would you think this week about it, how can

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I think of ways to stir up others to love and good deeds and how could I do them, not only agitate, but also attend, the thought continues, three

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A's that recognize the supremacy of Jesus, agitate and now attend, verse 25, not forsaking our own assembly together as is the habit of some, some people just don't show up, it's the

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Lord's day and they're like, you know what, I don't want to go, I don't want to come, I got other things to do and maybe it's the

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Jews who are thinking, you know what, we don't want to show up and maybe that's not our day to do things, it's not the

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Sabbath, it's not Saturday, it's now Sunday, whatever the reason is the church doesn't know anything about solo

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Christians, well, I'm going to do church today, the internet church, of course, there are times when you're out of town or you're sick or something like that, that's not the point, one of the things we try to do with our kids when they were growing up is we, we're out of town for instance or overseas or something,

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I never wanted my kids to say, are we going to church today, dad? I always wanted to ask this question instead, well, where are we going?

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And sometimes we weren't going many places, there'd be about eight of us huddled around two other families and the kids, this is, by the way, a present tense, don't do it, don't ever do it, if you're doing it, stop it,

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I guess most of you aren't disobeying this command today, so good, don't go

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AWOL, I don't like these people at church, I've been burned and my pride,

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I know, is going to get in my way, but when people come to me and say, I just can't attend anymore, I've been burned at this church, well, friends,

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A, I'm sure you've burned other people, right? And B, I've been burned more than anybody else,

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I'm here, because I'm great, no, but because the text says, get together with other sinful Christians, who have been redeemed by the blood of the lamb and sing phrases to the sun, that's all,

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I don't want to go AWOL, say, yeah, but kids have games every Sunday, I got interviewed a while ago, a long, long time ago before I was on the radio, they interviewed a larger church in the area and me about sports on Sundays, the other pastor said sports on Sundays are so bad, it's so awful, it's so this, it's so that, and I agree with him, but I had to be

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Abendroth contrarian, of course, and I just said, well, it's about time our kids have something to say no to for Christ, because in their world they never have to say no for Jesus' sake to anything, no,

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I just can't do that, and I'm not saying there's a one -off, I'm not trying to give you any rules, I'm just saying, if you're gone every day for sports, because your world revolves around sports, it's not revolving around the

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Lord's day, that's all, the text says, does it not, don't forsake the assembly, don't go

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AWOL, don't act like you're at some kind of drive -in church, it's the Lord's day, it's the day

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Jesus rose from the dead, it's the day he ascended into heaven, we get together and we say, you know what, it's not about me today, well,

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I don't really like the music, well, I didn't ask you, eh, I didn't ask you

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B, it's like, I stood at the door one time and somebody said, I don't like that tie of yours, I thought it was a joke, they were serious, my flesh said mentally,

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I don't like the way your husband dresses either, but I didn't, see how this works,

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I'm at the front of the sinful line where we say, but yeah, we're going to lay all this aside and say, but Jesus is the object, not anything else, not anyone else, we've all got those skeletons, we're all deep down wicked, we're all lots on the inside, because if we weren't, we don't need

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Jesus to die, we'll just get better, when you go on vacation, make sure you take your kids to worship, short of snow emergencies or health or something, worship corporately, dads especially,

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I want you to be excited about coming to worship Jesus in front of your kids,

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I want you to lead that way, because I know, and you've seen the statistics, if mom's excited and dad's not, the kids aren't, if dad's excited and the mom isn't, the kids still are,

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I mean moms, I want you to be excited, but if the dad's leading, the dad's leading with singing, the dad's leading with let's get there early to serve, the dad's like, you know what,

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I can't wait to go and learn about who Jesus is, can't wait to go praise, can't wait to go and serve, we're going to go, we're going to do something exciting, serve, and then afterwards, like on Sunday nights at Grace, we used to go get ice cream cones back in the old days, in those days, they were 29 cents,

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I don't know what happened to Bruce Bolivar's pricing, but they were 29 cents, friends, iron sharpens iron as one man sharpens another, now somebody said, you know what,

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I'm going to take reasons why I don't go to church and transpose them onto why I don't like to eat,

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I don't eat anymore because I was forced to eat as a child, I don't eat anymore because people who eat all the time are hypocrites, they're not really hungry,

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I don't eat anymore because there's so different, so many different kinds of food, I can't decide what to eat,

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I used to eat, but I got bored and stopped, I only eat on special occasions like Christmas and Easter, none of my friends will eat with me,

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I'll start eating when I get older, I don't really have time to eat, I don't believe that eating does anybody any good, restaurants and grocery stores are only after your money, should have took the offering after the sermon today, when dads lead, marvelous things happen, and finally number three, agitate, attend and applaud, this is all a recognition of who

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Jesus is, fleshed out, not to him because he's not on earth, but to his bride because she is, verse 25, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near, remember the context, these people are tempted to go back, these people are tempted to say, my life was easier when

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I wasn't a Christian, so we come alongside and the word encourage is the same word that's used of the Holy Spirit, to come alongside, to bear burdens, to say

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I understand, don't lose heart, this word was used in military history for a regiment that's lost heart and the general comes in to give the pep talk, this text isn't just for elders, this text isn't just for deacons, this text isn't just for pastors,

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Spurgeon said, it's not the work of the minister alone to exhort, but the brothers and the sisters too should exhort and encourage one another, seek to stir each other up in the faith and fear of God and this word encouragement is an imperative, it's an ongoing imperative and by the way, there are some people here at the church that excel in encouragement and I just thought of one man and one woman that if you say,

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I don't really know how to do this but in terms of encouragement, one more with her words and one man more with his actions, if you don't know how to encourage ladies, you need to go find

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Eileen Strong, I could pick 50 ladies here but you ought to go find Eileen Strong and say,

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Ebendra thinks you're the best encourager and I've told her that face to face, is she here? Oh, I guess she's forsaking the assembly but when she's here,

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I'm just kidding, Eileen Strong is the encourager

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I thought my mom was the encourager Eileen Strong if you're discouraged ladies, you go talk to Eileen Strong well, my husband and I aren't getting along and this, that and the other maybe you don't need counseling maybe you need to go visit a lady like Eileen for encouragement

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Eileen Strong she typifies this and you know what that tells me? she understands who

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Jesus is as high priest she gets it when you're not encouraging, when you're like,

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I only need encouragement I mean, some people I know they're just like the encouragement amoebas that's all they want encouragement, encouragement and I want to give it even in spite sometimes

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I don't but how about you people that have no encouragement why don't you go give some encouragement that'd be good that's what the text says man, if you want to find somebody who was an encourager especially, yes with his words but more with his actions you ought to go talk to Fred Thiebaud that's who you ought to talk to faithful servant around here stirring people up Fred looked at me like what?

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me? and I talked to Sherman the other day about this too their bodies are broken down and they wish they could go serve more right?

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both of you but they've done their service around the church and now what they could do is they could encourage you people like that go find

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Fred and say raise your hand Fred go find Fred go do something around his yard and say by the way

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I need you to help encourage me how do you encourage people? how do you love people even though they might not be lovely?

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how do you love other people at church? and by the way Fred used to be an elder here and he got stung plenty of times too as elders do and pastors do where people don't like him and he was burned and what?

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Fred's still here worshiping how long do we go about this?

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do we have to do this forever? seems like a long time to do it well the Lord is going to come back one day isn't he? and then we'll be done and all the more at the end of verse 25 as you see the day drawing near you're not going to have to do it forever

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Jesus is coming back and so contrary to the bumper sticker Jesus is coming back look busy how about Jesus is coming back so be busy his soon return should make us live holy lives because we don't want to be doing something inappropriate when he comes back it's not going to unsave us but the day of the

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Lord this last day this day of reckoning should motivate us now some people think well this day drawing near was in 70

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AD a few years from when Hebrews was written and then the temple was destroyed but I think this is the day this is the judgment day

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Jesus is coming back so serve other people you can't serve other people in heaven so you might as well serve them now we have a divine example of service

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Jesus is the one my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work the

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Lord Jesus the ultimate servant have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus who although he existed in the form of God he did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied himself taking the form of a bond servant and being made in the likeness of men and being found in appearance of men he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death even death on a cross so one of the things

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Christians do is they know they believed they keep believing and then they serve other believers they serve other believers by figuring out ways they can be involved in their lives they do that by being around Christians and they do that by encouragement sometimes

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I even put a little post -it on my desk and I just say encourage I mean one little word of encouragement can change somebody's life

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I've told you my daddy wounds before I don't know if my dad ever said I'm proud of you I was standing right over there one day after I preached which was from the

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Bible but it was a pretty poor homiletical sermon we all laid a few eggs up in the pulpit and as professor

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Montoya said sometimes they're ostrich eggs but at least it was from the Bible and Dave Jeffries said to me he said

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Mike he got up really close like Dave Jeffries does he was a pastor and elder here and he said if I was your dad

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I'd be proud of you I lost it I lost it I'll never forget it one thing one man said on one solitary day after a sermon that wasn't too good pretty much changed my life so the

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Bible says why don't you encourage instead of approaching everybody with these are all my needs this is what I need of course we can do that but how about let's proactively figure out let me encourage one person this week that's my assignment for you because Jesus is a great

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God He served you He loved you therefore this is how we respond let's pray Father in heaven thank you this is encouraging it is convicting but it's encouraging as well and so I just am so thankful for those here at the church who have served and loved and they've worn themselves without doing that that's a reflection of what you've done in their lives they would acknowledge to God be the glory

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Father I pray for some of the young families here the young ladies I pray they'd be like Eileen and in 30 years we remember their service and I pray for the men here the young men one day