“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 priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full of assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 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, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
– Hebrews 10:19-25
How many of us truly are so privileged to meet together with people who will do as the author of Hebrews urges and “stir up one another to love and good works”? Truly, tonight I was blessed to get a taste of the beauty of that happening. I got home about 45 minutes ago from a great evening spent with the Lakewood Student Ministry’s volunteer leadership, known as Lifeguards. Truly, there is nothing that inspires my spirit more than joining with people who have a heart for God to pray, talk, and plan. But it’s a meeting that comes only once a month, and that is far too rare a time to keep a man on track.
What are we to do then, brothers and sisters? How many of you can even say that there is a time once in every month that you are so inspired and drawn up to holy things? The number is few, I think. Is it any wonder, then, that there is so little of the vibrancy and passion that is evident within the early church? We humans need – absolutely need – other people to draw us in the right direction. We are so prone to wander on our own; we make a resolution as we awake one morning and find, only five hours later, that we have completely strayed from that which we were so set upon earlier. We study the Bible or hear a powerful word from a sermon and are inspired to greater love and faith, and wake the next morning completely forgetting what was said or read the day before. Oh how we need to be surrounded by people who will consistently, constantly, be pointing, pushing, and even dragging us further up and further into the things of the Lord!
My call for you tonight is simple; seek to surround yourself with people who have true hearts, assurance of faith, and have been cleansed by the water of the word; people who will hold fast to hope and will inspire you in your walk. Do not despair if you look around and see none! It is a principle of this life that like attracts like. Remember that “he who promised is faithful” and seek after him, becoming a person who stirs others up to love and good works, and the Lord will be faithful to bring forward others who have that same heart. Gather often with Christians of all types with the purpose of praying, speaking of the Gospel, and setting your mind not upon earthly things, but on things above, where Christ has taken his rightful place at God’s right hand. Do as the Lord commands the Israelites in Deuteronomy 11:18-21 and place the kingdom of God before at all times; as you walk along the road and as you lie down in the night. People of God! Let us hold fast to our confession of faith unwaveringly; let us come together and become a people who stand in an unbroken line, calling the lost and carrying the weak onward upon the road that leads to the gates of heaven. What joy there is in being surrounded by people who are bonded together in one Spirit!
I pray that each of you would find the sweetness of that fellowship, and as you taste it, be inspired to draw others into it as well. Praise be to Christ, the only one who enables us to have such joy and connection!
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