Resolved to Assemble Together

INTRODUCTION

It is only the third Sunday of the year and it already feels like its been a long year.

Two weeks ago I introduced the sermon series I Am Resolved with the message “Resolved to Grow.”

Today I want to challenge you to grow in your walk with God through faithful church attendance.

Studies show that church attendance in America hit its peak in about 1950 and has been on a decline since.

This is a trend that needs reversal.

The Bible calls us to faithful, consistent church attendance.

Church attendance provides us the opportunity to put into practice many of the spiritual disciplines I will cover in this sermon series such as prayer, giving, serving, and hearing the Word of God.

Faithful church attendance serves as the basic foundation of our spiritual lives and our spiritual growth.

You might, and I say this tentatively, you might be able to be a Christian and not attend church, but that was never God’s plan.

He designed the assembling together of believers as a primary means of our spiritual growth.

A Christian without a church could be like:

A sailor who won’t step on a ship.

A soldier who refuses to join an army.

A fighter pilot who won’t get in an airplane.

God designed church for the believer and the believer for church!

The Bible teaches us the necessity of faithful church attendance.

In the first part of the book of Hebrews the author spend time teaching about the superiority of Christ and the salvation Christ provides to those who believe.

In the Bible teaches us how we can apply what he wrote about Jesus to our lives .

Hebrews 10:19–25 NIV

19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

These verses contain several instructions we will consider this morning, but all of those instructions center around us meeting together as the church on the Lord’s Day as indicated in v. 25.

Faithfully meeting together to worship the Lord is the foundation of spiritual growth.

The Scriptures call us to faithfully meet together.

God expects us to faithfully meet together.

Today, I hope we will come to understand that faithful church attendance brings results in spiritual growth.

BODY

Faithful church attendance brings the family together to worship God.

Yesterday some men of my family and some friends met at Jonathan’s house to celebrate Jonathan’s birthday.

We cooked in our dutch ovens.

We did some target practice with our firearms.

We generally hung out and had fun.

I time for family and friends to enjoy one another and grow in our relationships.

The church is the family of God.

The section of Scripture we are studying today begins in v. 19 saying, “Therefore, brothers and sisters.”

Brothers and sisters.

Some older versions say “brethren” but “brothers and sisters” is a better translation from the original language.

He could have said “men and women” but instead we see “brothers and sisters.”

This reflects the idea that we are a family—the family of God.

When we come together to worship se come as a family, belonging to each other and belonging to Jesus.

says:

Hebrews 2:11 NIV

11 Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.

Before we came to Jesus we were outcasts.

We were strangers.

We were separated from God.

We were separate from the family of God.

But now the blood of Jesus opens a new way for us and puts us in a new family.

Once we were lost, separated strangers, but now, through Christ we draw near to God, we draw near to one another, and He draws near to us!

Jesus opened the way for us to come near God!

The very place our heart longs to be.

The very place God wants us to be.

Jesus died so we could get to that place.

Often we talk about being related to someone by blood.

I am not sure how it was here, but a few miles from here in Ozark County when I was a young man it was important for the older people to know who you were related to.

Probably because there was a time when one family feuded with another and they wanted to know what side you were on.

More likely they wanted to prevent us young’uns, as they called us, from marrying our cousins.

Tronnia’s mom wasn’t satisfied until she could track down my family tree—I had her stop when I realized Tronnia and I have some of the same cousins.

Blood relation was important.

There is a greater relation and it is also based on blood—the precious blood of Jesus.

Those who trust Christ for salvation are brothers and sisters through the blood of Jesus!

We are family!

Paul wrote ().

1 Corinthians 12:27 NIV

27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

Whether you have been a Christian one week or many years, you are family, you are part of the body of Christ, you are blood family.

And the body, the family, is incomplete when you are away.

Faithful church attendance brings the family together to worship Christ.

Faithful church attendance reminds us of the work Christ begun in us and the work He desires to finish in us.

In v. 22 of our text the Bible speaks of our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us and our bodies washed in pure water.

This refers to believers in Christ forgiven of sin and baptized in water.

Water baptism is a sign to the world that God has provided a deeper, inner cleansing.

Baptism and receiving Christ is just the beginning of what God wants to do in our lives.

In the Bible says:

Philippians 1:6 NIV

6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Jesus wants to work in our lives.

Jesus wants us to be changed day by day.

Jesus wants us to grow.

One of the ways He accomplishes this is through faithful church attendance.

Here, we find encouragement.

Here, we find inspiration.

Here, we are challenged.

Here, we are called to change.

Here, the Holy Spirit speaks powerfully to us.

Here, we draw near to God and He draws near to us.

Here, we fellowship with one another and provoke one another to grow in love and good deeds.

Faithful worship attendance brings spiritual growth to cleansed and baptized believers.

Faithful church attendance builds our faith and keeps us from wavering.

Hebrews 11:23 NIV

23 By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.

Hebrews 10:23 NIV

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

Heb. 11:

Satan and his agents working in the world seek to shake our faith in Christ and cause us to compromise our faith in Him.

Satan seeks to shake the church, the kingdom of God, and cause God’s people to compromise with sin, corrupt the church with unbelief and evil, and eventually cause people to fall away and be lost.

The days satan has to work are limited—the Bible teaches us his time is short.

He works overtime.

He is diligent in his work.

He works hard to corrupt our children through worldly entertainment.

He works hard to corrupt adults through the pressure of political correctness.

He deceives men into thinking they are women and women into thinking they are men.

He is behind the push for gender neutrality.

Anything wicked, evil, ungodly and wretched he promotes as good, righteous, and morally acceptable.

All of us are susceptible to falling into his trap.

That is why we need a church home and why we should be faithful to a church home.

I mean a real church!

A Gospel-preaching church.

A Spirit-filled church.

A truth preaching, sin exposing church.

A devil defeating, soul-saving, disciple making church.

A Jesus loving, people loving, church that worships in Spirit and in truth.

There are plenty of churches that compromise the Gospel, affirm people in their sin, or simply con people out of their money.

There are plenty of dead, dry, ritualistic churches with no spiritual life in them.

False teachers leading

If you want to grow in your walk with Christ and if you want to take steps to guard the faith of your children, be faithful to a real, New Testament, church—a church like Mansfield First Assembly.

We aren’t a perfect church because our pastor (me) isn’t perfect and neither are the people, but we are committed to pursuing spiritual growth in Christ--to becoming more like Christ.

We are a hungry church.

We are a hungry church.

Hungry to grow in spirit.

Hungry to become more like Jesus.

Hungry for the truth of the Gospel.

Hungry for souls to be saved.

If you are new here, especially if this is your first time, could I encourage you to give us three weeks.

One visit isn’t enough for you to truly get a glimpse of us.

Come three weeks.

Get to know us.

Meet with me.

Ask questions.

There are many good churches around and with all my heart I believe this is one of the best.

If you and your family are going to grow n the Lord then you need to faithfully attend a biblical, New Testament church.

Faithful church attendance helps us give encouragement, receive encouragement, and helps us grow in good deeds and love.

Hebrews 10:24–25 NIV

24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Heb. 10:

From time to time, no matter how fired up for Jesus you have been, we all need to receive encouragement.

To be encouraged when we receive bad news about our health.

To be encouraged when something isn’t going right in our job or business.

To be encouraged when satan attacks, fear overwhelms, and doubt arises.

At times, we all need encouragement.

Likewise we need to be encouragers.

Earlier in the book of Hebrews the Bible says ():

Hebrews 3:13 NIV

13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.

Encourage one another!

When we are down and suffering we come here hoping someone else will be in a moment of victory and can encourage us.

Dear friends, let us be quick to give encouragement!

Let us build one another up in the faith.

Our text says that we can encourage one another in three specific ways:

In love.

In good deeds.

In faithful church attendance.

We are to encourage one another in love, good deeds, and faithful church attendance more and more the closer we get to Christ’s return.

When the text says “as you see the Day approaching” it is talking about the return of Christ!

His return is guaranteed.

Neither the armies of man nor the armies of hell can prevent His return.

Christ shall come again!

He is coming soon.

And we know without a doubt that we are about 2,000 years closer to His return today than when the Spirit inspired these words.

Jesus is coming soon!

We need each other more today than ever.

We need to meet faithfully together now more than ever.

As we get closer and closer to Christ’s return we will need each other more than ever.

We will face many spiritual struggles.

We may face times of persecution.

Anti-Christian forces will grow in strength and authority.

We will need each other’s encouragement more and more.

When difficulties arise we should make an even greater effort to be faithful in attendance.

Faithful church attendance helps us grow in faith and good deeds as we encourage others and receive encouragement from them.

IN CONCLUSION

The cold, wet weather reminds me of a story I heard many years ago.

A man in a church had first skipped church occasionally, then he came rarely, and finally not at all.

On a cold, blustery day, his pastor went to seem him.

The man’s wife let the pastor in and the pastor found the man sitting and warming himself by the fireplace.

Neither of them spoke as the pastor took a seat beside the man.

In a few moments the pastor picked up the tongs, reached into the fire, pulled out a brightly flaming coal, and set it away from the fire on the hearth.

The men sat in silence while over the course of a few minutes the brightly flaming ember burned low, died, and turned to cold ash.

The man looked at his pastor and said, “I understand. No need to say anything. I will see you Sunday in church.”

Together, we create a hot spiritual fire.

Alone we are in danger of growing cold and dead,

Faithful church attendance creates in us a solid foundation for spiritual growth and life.

Will you decide right now that hobbies, flimsy excuses, and trivial matters will not prevent you from being faithful to God’s house.