Connected: Cultivating Relationships within the Church (2) - February 23, 2025

It is my privilege to invite you to today's sermon podcast.

I have made the Apostle Paul's prayer request my own.

When he states in Ephesians 6.19, Pray also for me, that whenever I open my

mouth, the words may be given to me, so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel.

May today's sermon come alive to you and aid you in your understanding of God's plan for your life.

This morning, I want to continue the sermon that began last week and try to

get through what we can get through.

But we're talking about connecting, connecting, building meaning relationships through faith.

And we talked first and foremost in the first sermon series about our love for

God and what love is all about and how love needs to be the foundation of every relationship we have.

And not just any kind of love, but the kind of love that God shows to us, that agape love.

And last week we started talking about cultivating relationships within the

church community. And again, we talked about drawing near to God.

If God is the foundation, if His love is foundational for us and every other

relationship that we have, then we need to draw near to Him.

We said with sincere hearts, with assurance and with a cleansed conscience and a clean body.

And so all of that referring to what Jesus Christ has done for us and cleansing

us through his blood and making the

way for us to be free from sin and the trespasses that we've committed.

And so now we come, we'll finish out the three parts of this sermon.

I just want to invite you to stand if you're able or willing and hear the word

of the Lord this morning from, again, Hebrews chapter 10, verses 22 through 25.

Hebrews 10:22–25

The Scripture says this, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and full

assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty

conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.

Let us not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing,

but let us encourage one another and all the more as you see the day approaching.

Father, thank you for your word. May you bless it to our lives.

God, would you challenge us? Would you affirm us?

And most of all, God, would you send us out to reach those that are in need

of love, in need of a relationship with you, Lord, that are in need of a relationship

with a faith body like this one.

God, we dedicate this time to you. Thank you for your word in Jesus' name. Amen.

You know, we're talking about cultivating.

I cannot believe the snow in my yard is about gone already, and it's still February,

and that just continues to blow me away.

Now, I know we could get more, and the weather forecasters don't always forecast

correctly, but it seems like warm weather is coming our way.

This time next week, they say we could be in the 50s, and so it just astounds me.

And all that says to me is, praise the Lord, I don't have any snow to take care

of, but also to get my tools ready, because Melanie's going to want to plant

a garden and get some garden boxes together and start cultivating some soil,

cultivating the ground and cleaning up after winter and all that kind of stuff.

So, well, I praise the Lord. It also means a lot of work, but cultivating when

you're going to do a field, right? It's a lot of work, isn't it, Les?

Okay. Isn't it, Les? Yeah. All right.

Get your cultivator out there. You're breaking up the soil. You're getting some weeds taken.

I mean, there's a lot to do when we think about the faith community and the

relationships we have, man, we're a lot of work.

Some of us may be more than others, but you know, God is working on each of

us, and God uses us to help work on one another.

The scripture says, as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens the countenance of another.

You know, we're all in this, as God's working on us, He works on us supernaturally,

for sure, through His Word, but through our brothers and sisters in Christ.

And we said, this is the let us sermon, not let us like on a sandwich,

but the let us sermon, because it gives us some hints on how we can cultivate

this faith community, how we can bring one another along to greater faith in

Christ, how we can bring one another on to be the people that God has created us to be individually,

but definitely as the body of Christ.

And so three more points this morning in the time that we have left.

And the second point is not just let us draw near to God, But it says to let

us hold unswervingly to our profession of hope.

Now, hope we can have because of the faith that we have in Jesus Christ.

Because of the hope that we have that Jesus has cleansed us from our sin,

that is an issue to be taken on faith,

that Christ's blood is sufficient for us in cleansing our sin,

and that we trust that we have a Savior so that at the end of our life, or when Christ returns,

we have the hope that we will be with him because of our faith in Christ that

we believe Jesus has cleansed us when we've given our lives to him,

when we've asked him to forgive us of our sin, that we do believe 1 John 1, 9.

That if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just.

He will forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness,

that we believe that by faith.

And by believing by faith, it gives us the hope that we are with God.

It gives us hope that we are one of God's children through which we can cry,

Abba, Father, an endearment term, a term of how much that we love God.

And so the writer of Hebrews says to hold unswervingly to that profession.

Hold unswervingly that you know, that you know, that you know.

And why do you know? Based on faith, because you have the hope.

The hope that we have and that we profess that one day we'll be reunited with

other believers that have passed on.

Those in our family, those in our church family, those in our community that

we know had faith in Jesus. We have that hope.

And the author says, hold unswervingly to that.

Now, when I first started learning how to drive, my dad identified a bad habit that I had.

And maybe it's not just me, but he said, Mike, wherever your eyes go,

that's the way the wheel goes.

I said, yeah, whatever, dad. I've taken driver's training.

A little 14-year-old, I've got my license.

And so what happened? Well, the first time I was solo, I dropped something in

the floorboard. And so guess what? I looked down and where did my hand go?

As I looked down to the right, it turned the wheel that way.

And so I said, oh, I better get back on the road.

The writer says to hold unswervingly to that hope that we have.

We think about what does that mean? Well, first of all, it means to stand firm.

1 Corinthians 15, 58. Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters,

stand firm. Let nothing move you.

Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord because you know that your

labor in the Lord is not in vain.

What you do for God is not useless.

What you do for God is purposeful, is meaningful, and it has an eternal significance.

So stand firm. Don't let anyone try to tell you that Jesus has not risen from the grave,

that there is no hope of an afterlife, that there is no hope in your life in

the dire circumstances that you face, because all those are lies,

because we know with God all things are possible, as the scripture says,

even in our circumstances, that God can turn things around.

Some of you in here this morning, you have a testimony of how God turned things around in your life.

How even when circumstances, when others tried to tell you there was no hope

for you, God still believed in you.

And God still had a plan for you. And I want to tell you, God still has a plan

for you. So stand firm no matter what you're going through.

Hold unswervingly to the hope that you have, that you profess,

because God is faithful.

Not only stand firm, but overflow with hope. Romans 15, 13,

may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him,

so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

How do you have the power of the Holy Spirit? Well, there's a hint in the words

above me. One of them is prayer.

The second one is reading the scripture and letting God's words saturate your

life, but then letting the Holy Spirit of God leads you through your prayer

life, through his word, into the fullness of who God is.

Overflow with that hope. Man, don't you just love hanging out with pessimists?

You know, the chicken littles that say the sky is falling, the sky is falling.

Man, if I'm watching a news program and it turns sour like that,

whether it's on the radio or TV, I'm turning it.

I don't want to hear that stuff. I don't want to live in denial of it.

I'm very much aware of it.

I'm very much aware of life and sinful men and what sinful people can do.

But I want to hang out with some optimists. I want stuff coming into my life that fills me with hope.

I don't know if you listen to the Christian radio stations around,

whether it's the talk radio or the music or on the Sirius XM or whatever you listen to.

Maybe it's a CD or a tape, but I pray that you listen to stuff that gives you

hope, that leads you, as the Scripture says, to fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him.

See, we've got to stand firm in our hope so much that we're overflowing like

a fountain, and people are going to be attracted to that.

If you're saying that there's hope in certain circumstances when it seems like

there isn't, people are going to be drawn to that to ask, why do you believe that?

Why are you so hopeful in this situation where there is no hope?

I'm sure we all have stories that we could tell about how God has turned things

around at the very last minute.

Reminds me of the saying that I've quoted to you before, that God is never late.

He's seldom early, but he's always right on time.

And we can take that by faith to know that that's true.

And so it leads me to my next point on this hold unswervingly to the profession

of our hope, and that is to be anchored in hope.

Hebrews 6, 19, we have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.

Well, you know, if we're not anchored when you're out fishing,

especially if you're out in a large body of water, you begin to drift.

You begin to leave the point at which you want to be.

An anchor helps to secure you there, to keep you there amidst the tide,

amidst the current, to keep you steady and secure, to keep you anchored. Hope does that for us.

When we have hope in Christ, we have hope in what God wants to do in our lives.

We have hope that our family will be restored, relationships will be mended,

that even our nation can turn back to God.

When we have hope in God that will bring all that about, it serves as an anchor for us.

And we don't get carried to and fro by every conspiracy theory.

We don't get tossed here and there by the waves of other people's opinions or

other people's writings that are spiritual.

But we stay anchored to the hope that we have in Jesus Christ.

I've got to tell you, hold unswervingly to our faith, to the hope that we have because of our faith.

And third, the scripture says, let us spur one another on to love and good deeds.

I love this one. I don't see Dally this morning, but the other church day he

came in with spurs on his boots.

Man, he was clinking and clanking as he walked around the church.

He was proud of them things.

I said, Dally, what are you out doing? I was out getting some cows,

helped rounding up some calves.

Lucas, you were with him in that. I didn't see spurs on your boots, though.

Those spurs, man, they get the horses going, don't they?

We think about this. We spur one another on to love and go. I don't want to be spurred.

That doesn't sound fun. But what it means is, hey, sometimes it takes a little

push, a little shove, maybe some sharp elbows that we have in our congregation,

not just to keep you awake, but to help get you going.

Do good. We've got to do good and prioritize the church family.

Galatians 6, 9 through 10. Let us not become weary in doing good,

for at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people,

especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

And we're going to do good to all people, but it says, especially those in your

family, but in your church family too.

We need to be looking around. How can I bless you?

How can I come alongside and support you? How can I build up your faith?

How can I help you along to take the next step of faith in your journey.

We need to be always watching out for that. We need not to fall into the trap

of becoming critical, becoming fault finders.

Those are ploys of the devil. That's not what we're talking about.

Hey, every church has weaknesses. And I've been to a lot of them, I know.

Sometimes I am the weakness. And so what do we do?

We point it out, we try to extricate it, we try to get rid of it,

or we try to submit it before the Lord and let healing take place.

In our relationships, we don't just cut one another off because we view revelation

and the interpretation of that differently.

No, we talk it out. We have fun with it because it allows us to search the scripture some more.

We don't fight and bicker over little things that don't really have an eternal significance.

No, we value one another even more highly than the problem itself, than the issue itself.

As the scripture says, let's don't become tired or weary in doing good,

but we will reap a harvest. Keep the harvest in mind.

Harvest time is coming. We're seeing a harvest now.

We need to keep about that work. Let's do good to all people,

especially those that are here, the family of believers.

To do that, to spur one another on, we also need to remember we've got to support

and encourage one another.

1 Thessalonians 5.11, therefore encourage one another and build up each other

just as just and fact you are doing.

Hey, we're to edify, we're to build up. The words that come out of our mouth are to be uplifting.

There to be like a food to help you grow as we encourage one another.

I thank you, church, the way you encourage me.

Whether my sermon's been good or just a big stinker, you've still encouraged

me not to do the stinky sermons, but to spend more time when you have a question

for me. Pastor, I didn't understand that.

Maybe I didn't understand it, and so you give me an opportunity to go and clarify it.

We build one another up. I've seen this happen in our Wednesday nights in our small groups,

the questions that come up that are just challenging, not just to the students

or to everyone in the group, but also to the teachers as well.

We support and encourage one another.

We want everyone to succeed, don't we?

Don't we want everyone here to get to heaven?

Man, so we got to help people along, because I'm going to need help along.

I thank you so much for all of you that prayed for my mom, who had a minor stroke last week.

About this time last week, she was finally going into the ER and figuring out

what's going on, but your texts and your cards and your notes and the conversations

were so encouraging to me. Thank you.

You see, we all get to points in our life when we need others to come along

and help us, just emotionally, spiritually, maybe even physically.

I know chicken soup has been brought to a lot of people. That's just been a

miracle to help people recover from things.

So we've got to support one another. Last on this point, spurring one another

on to good deeds and love.

We've got to remember that love is that defining characteristic of a disciple.

It's not church attendance. It's not. You should go to church.

You should be here every time you can.

It's not about your attendance in Sunday school or the amount of offering you

give. But love is that defining characteristic.

It's not my words. It's Jesus. He said in John 13, 34 and 35, a new command I give you.

Love one another. As I have loved you, you must love one another by this,

by love, his love. everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.

That's what we're called to. We're called to love. Love when it's easy.

Well, when we light the Christ candle, when we're celebrating baptism and church

members and great things that are happening in the lives of our people, woo-hoo!

Yeah, we're praising God about that. But loving people when love's hard,

when it's tough to do that.

Perhaps loving even when we're personally hurt by something or someone.

To remember to take that step of faith, to go out and just to say,

I'm gonna love you no matter what.

Hey, I know you're treating me cruddy right now, but you know what?

I'm gonna love you through this. And because of my commitment to love you,

I'm not cutting you out from my life.

Because of my commitment, because I do love you, because Christ loved me when I was unlovable.

We're gonna see this through and it's gonna be hard and we're going to have

some serious conversations, but let's deal with it. Because at the end of that, you know what happens?

Your relationship becomes stronger.

You become closer to one another, but also closer to God in the midst of solving

all that, working through that, loving each other, when even when it's hard.

God is glorified, but that's the mark. That's what disciples do. We don't just give up.

Aren't you glad Jesus didn't give up on his way to the cross?

As he's struggling with this cross there, walking up to the hill Golgotha.

Can you just, you never want to see it. Well, forget this, takes off the crown

of thorns, man, throws the cross down. I'm out of here.

Ascends to heaven. Well, that would have been a different story for us.

We wouldn't be right here right now. We'd still be lost, dead in our trespasses and sins.

But God loves us so much. Jesus loved us so much. He went all the way,

all the way to the cross, to die on that cross.

His blood was poured out.

He died a sinner's death, a man that was holy, that knew no sin.

And he did that for us. And he calls us to have that same kind of love,

that same kind of love for others.

Lot of times, there's nothing that compares to Calvary. There's things that

we can do as disciples to work this out. All right.

Fourth and finally this morning, let us not give up worshiping together.

I know you're waiting for this. It's the Hebrews 10 sermon.

Let us not give up worshiping together. There's a warning here.

This is a lettuce warning.

He says, some have already done this. Some have already checked out.

I'm so grateful for you being here today.

You could have stayed home. You could have watched the live stream or recording

later, but you made it a commitment to come today, even out in the rain.

And not just because of the weather,

but there's something more that you desire just while you're here.

I'm so grateful for those that are online and that watch us there.

They've committed this time, and we have some regulars that are joining us together,

though they can't be here physically because of their geographical location

or because of things they're going through in their own life health-wise,

but they still meet with us every Sunday.

We see the comments. We see the views.

But it says here some have just cashed out altogether.

You remember the big C word of COVID when it came. You realize how many thousands,

maybe even tens of thousands of churches closed down?

They're no longer in existence today. Not because of the disease,

but because when it became convenient for them not to gather,

they chose not to gather.

Because when the members weren't there, then the funds didn't come in,

their offerings, their tithes, and so they had to close down.

We think about the warning. Some have already done this. Some just cashed out

and said, no, this church thing is not worth it.

It's painful to think that that could happen when we're part of a church body

like this, and we love getting together.

We love to worship God. We love to study the Word.

How one step in the wrong direction could lead us that way.

Acts 2.42, I've preached it probably three or four times in the last year that

I've been here, but one more time on this verse.

The early church, the first church ever, what did they do?

They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship and the

breaking of bread and to prayer.

That was the pattern left to them. That's the pattern left to us today,

to gather, to not take that for granted,

but to gather in order to accomplish the worship that we have for God,

in order to encourage one another, to build one another up.

There's also a charge in this verse. We think about the verse again, chapter 10, verse 25.

Not giving up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing,

but encouraging one another all the more as you see the day approaching.

Don't give up worshiping together. Don't give up meeting together.

Do not forsake, do not take the worship of God for granted.

Romans 12.5 says, So in Christ we, though many, form one body,

and each member belongs to all the others.

Boy, when you're not here, you're depriving me of the fellowship that we share together.

When you're not here, I'm talking purposefully, like I ain't going there today.

When you're not together, then I miss out on the gifts that you have that minister

to God, but minister to me too.

Boy, can you imagine if all the singers decided not to go to church one Sunday?

Maybe they had singers retreat in the mountain.

And you got Pastor Mike up here trying to lead you in worship.

I don't have the gift to do that with my voice singing.

Each of us play a part, whether your gift is singing or whether your gift is

serving or just encouragement.

Well, when you're not here, we miss out on those gifts. We miss out on your

story and being encouraged by what God did with you this last week.

We miss out on praying for you, whether at the altar or in the fellowship time

we have out in the foyer around the building. We miss out on that.

So it's not just you're naughty for not being here. There's a purpose for the

distaste here of not forsaking worship. We're one body.

If you don't believe me, chop off your finger or chop off your ear.

Go to the doctor and donate an organ or something.

See how you feel after that.

No, don't do that I don't want a lawsuit.

You get the idea. We're a body. We need all of our parts, even the ones we think

we can do without. We still need them.

No, that's another. I won't say that. Well, there's a motive here too.

What's the motive behind let us not give up worshiping together?

Well, there's a judgment day coming, folks.

There's a judgment day that's coming. All people will be judged.

We'll stand before the the mighty throne of grace, and I hope we find grace.

We can find grace in Jesus Christ, amen. We find forgiveness.

We find an advocate with the Father who is the Son, Jesus Christ.

But we understand, too, that there's a motive behind this, that God is coming

to judge, and we do not want to be guilty of rejecting the presence of Jesus.

Matthew 18, 20, For where two or three gather together in my name,

Jesus says, there I am in the midst of them or with them.

Boy, there's something special that happens when we gather.

Scripture says even if it's just two or three, that Christ meets with us there,

that Christ is present with us there, that Christ is present with us here today.

And so we want our motive to be that we want to experience the presence of Christ,

the power of his Holy Spirit as we gather together like we have today.

That's something special.

Scripture says, perfect love, love that has been perfected in your life, it casts out fear.

So we don't have to fear the judgment. If we're letting God perfect that love

in our life, the agape love, the selfless love, the sacrificial love,

when we're trusting God, that fear is gone.

We don't have to fear judgment. And so our motive is we gather together because

we love each other, because we're expressing the love that we have for God and one another.

That love's being perfected in our lives. We go back to 1 Corinthians 13.

What are you talking about, love? And of course, it says the love,

joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control. And I probably missed some fruit in there.

But you know what? It's letting God work that out in our life.

Judgment's coming. Boy, you could be ready for it. Bring it on.

I know where I stand with Jesus.

Or you can kneel and let him forgive you and cry and call upon him to save you

from the judgment that's impending, to cast out the sin in your life when you

give it to Jesus, to confess your sin,

to ask God to help you. He will help you if you'll let him.

You just got to be willing to let him and lay down that stuff that you don't

need to carry because Jesus said, cast all your cares upon me because I care

for you. Let Jesus take your burdens.

Folks, I want to tell you by engaging in the kind of authentic fellowship that

we aim to practice here, we can experience the richness of a shared faith,

of mutual encouragement, and get this, of collective service together,

of just going out on mission and seeing what we could do to bless others because

we ourselves are blessed like that.

So I just want to encourage you one last time here.

Let's do as the Scripture instructs us to do, huh? Pretty simple,

right? Let's draw near to God.

You've drawn near to God today by just getting up and coming,

because we've said Jesus is here with us.

Let's hold unswervingly to our profession of hope.

Let's spur one another on to good deeds and love, and let us not give up worshiping

together as God gives us the opportunity.

Hey, it's nothing to be legalistic about. It's just a formula on how we can

cultivate the right way, the fellowship that God wants us to experience this side of heaven.

Boy, it's a preparation time. I can't wait to get to heaven because there's

a lot of people in the Bible that I want to ask about their stories.

You know, what's the rest of the story on some of these guys,

some of these gals that are in Scripture?

You know, we've got to know, but not just that.

There's relatives of mine. I've got to find out more about how God brought them

to the place of their faith.

How that faith impacted me all down the generations to the point to where I

could accept Christ as my Savior.

This is kind of the prelude, the fellowship we share to what's coming for all

eternity and what God is going to continue to do even then.

All right. You know, if you'd like help, I just want to encourage you.

If God is calling you to make a decision, you can use our Connect card for that too.

If you scan that or you fill out that card, you want to take a next step.

Well, that's the way to do it.

Maybe God has put something on your heart. You want to become more connected to the church.

Fill that card out. I'll give you a call. I'll text you. I'll call you, email you, whatever.

We want to help you take the next step of faith. Maybe you're looking for a Bible study.

Maybe you're new to the church and you're just wondering, well,

what do you guys do Wednesday nights? Or what's this women's coffee or men's

breakfast? Love to tell you more about that.

Either find me in person or just do that. Fill that little connect card out.

Well, we'll help you make that connection.

The thing is, I want you to know you're welcome here.

We want you here. We want you to grow in Christ here.

And then we want to be able to send you out so you can reach others to bring

in to God's family as well.

I know we're going to have the results of the ballot in just a minute,

but would you pray with me? Let's pray together.

Father, it is in the name of Jesus that we just thank you so much.

Lord, we thank you for what Christ has done in our lives. Lord,

we thank you so much for giving us a family here, a body of believers where we can come.

And if we need prayer support, we've got people that pray for us.

Lord, if we need help in life and finding direction, we can find that here.

God, we've got a family in addition to our family, and not just a family here

in this congregation, but the global church of the Nazarene and the tightly

knit community that we are.

We know if we were to go to another nation, if we can find a church of the Nazarene,

we know, God, what to expect in that service, that there will be vibrant worship,

that there will be people preaching the word true to Scripture,

that, Lord, there'll be loving fellowship.

And, Father, most of all, there'll

be people there to encourage us and to help us to grow up in Jesus.

Father, thank you for this morning. Would you take your word again,

challenge our hearts, affirm us where we're strong, and, Lord,

just help us to continue to worship you, to love you, and to grow in holiness and love.

It's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen.

I want to thank you for joining today's sermon podcast. You can find a copy

of today's sermon, as well as other sermons, and the sermon outline from today

on our church's website,

www.mvcnaz.org.

It is my prayer also that you will seek out a church home that recognizes the authority of the Bible.