Hope At 7 - May 27 - We The Church

Hope At 7

Good evening everyone!

Hope you’ve had a great day! It was a beautiful day out, tons of Shuswap Sunshine. Wednesdays are generally our meeting day. A day of connecting with other pastors at SCC. I’ve found it to be a real blessing having a collective of Pastors to work with. I’ve grown to really enjoy their insight and the love they have for the people that we minister to.

We’ll tonight Bob is off. He’s at a council meeting and I’m with you. And I want to just spend tonight looking at one topic “The Church”. And I’m going to be in Hebrews but I’m jumping ahead a number of chapters. This is because what I want to talk about is something that has been sitting on my heart and mind for weeks now with the Pandemic taking place. The big question that I want to talk about essentially is what is the church and what is the role of the church. You see just a few months ago we were banned as world from gathering together in any capacity; whether it be school, work, parks and church. We had this abrupt halt placed on us like nothing any of us has probably ever seen ourselves.

In a matter of days we kinda heard about the virus number coming out of the East and numbers increasing here in Canada and around the world. And then bang no more gatherings. And the church has transitioned from being a community that gathered together in person each and every Sunday to being effectively an online community.

And you know what I think at the onset as a staff team we knew that that’s what we had to do and what we still have to do to protect people and to abide by the government requirements. But the reality is, is that we aren’t fans of this. We don’t like not being able to give handshakes and to see how everyone is doing week to week. We don’t like that we can’t gather together to worship Jesus on a Sunday morning. We don’t like not being able to do our normal Youth Ministry stuff. We don’t like what we are faced with. You know and I know it’s not natural for us. I don’t believe that we are designed to be in isolation and away from people like we’ve been asked to for the sake of this virus.

And while we will need to be in this holding pattern of not meeting all together for a little while longer the hope that I want to encourage you with is that this won’t last forever! That we will back to church. When that exactly is, I don’t know. But you what I do know is that that shouldn’t stop us from being the church. Because you and I are the church. We are called by God to be his church in this world. And I think that while we aren’t able to physically meet together that shouldn’t stop us from fulfilling this and being the church to one another and to the places were we are.

I think Hebrews 10:23-25 gives us a clearer picture of our role as a church and I think it’ll give us some encouragement while we are working through how we all operate together during this time. Hebrews 10:23-25 tells us, “23 Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. 24 Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. 25 And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.”

Starting right at the beginning of this passage. And this is reminded to us by every speaker at Hope at 7. The hope that we are affirming and remembering is Jesus. He is our hope. The writer of Hebrews explains this in the verses just before the set we are looking at tonight. The hope being that we can boldly enter into heaven’s Most Holy Place because of Jesus, because of his amazing sacrifice on the cross. This Most Holy Place is a reference back to the Old Testament, which was the place where God lived. And this gives us this picture that Jesus’ death gives us access to God that was at one time only given to the High Priest at a set time during the year.

And the passage tells us that we need to remember that this is God’s promise to us. And God always keeps his promise. And we see that in the bible. I know I’ve seen it in my life. God showing up and keeping his promises to us. And I trust and believe that he will keep this promise for us that if we follow God that he will be preparing a place for us with Him.

Then we get to the one of the first things that I think is important for us being the church at this time. Is that even though we can’t meet together, and can’t see each other on a Sunday morning that we need to be be thinking of ways to motivate one another toward acts of love and good works. And I love this because what the verse is asking us to do is infectious. Like when we love people well and when we encourage good works then that encourages someone else to do the same thing. I love what I’m seeing in our community these days. The birthday parades, the gift ninjas. All these things that are designed to love on people and to give them encouragement. And that excites people and then they want to go out and to do the same.

I think we need to maybe think about doing this more as a church, wherever we are located. I know after reading through this passage and thinking through it, this excites me and drives me to want to do more of this here in Sicamous. Finding ways to motivate others toward love and service for one another. And I recognize where this starts. It starts with God, whose at work in me and through his word is called me/called us to do this.

And the last part of the verse. Is to not neglect meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing. It says to make sure that we encourage one another. Again we are nudging each other toward Jesus knowing his promise that He will come again.

And I love this because it tells us that what where experiencing, this desire to meet together as a church, is a good thing. That when we feel like something is missing when we don’t have our regular times of being together, that that is exactly what God wants from us. But what I want to encourage you is that even though we can’t meet together it doesn’t mean that we can’t meet together. Does that make sense? What I mean is that we can’t meet together corporately, like all together as a church, but we still have opportunities to meet together individually. We still have the ability to call one another, to send a message of encouragement to one another, to tell someone you’re praying for them, that your thinking about them. Our meeting together on a Sunday morning shouldn’t stop us from doing some of the things that we do on a Sunday morning. Like catching up with folks in our church family. Dietrich Bonhoeffer says this, “The physical presence of other Christians is a source of incomparable joy and strength to the believer.” And that is so right. I know when I run into someone from the church while out and about these days I get this joy. Because we share this bond of Jesus just seeing the faces of folks in our church is a joyful moment and gives the strength to press on and to continue on with the day. Its so cool.

You know what I love the apostle Paul’s life. Because no matter where he was, and what predicament he found himself in, he remembered this. That we are church and that no matter where we find ourselves we can still put into place these things. In Paul’s life we see he was in prison a number of times. What he didn’t do was sulk and mope and sit in the corner. No he wrote letters to his brothers and sisters, encouraging them. Telling them to press on.

And what I want to finish with, and one of the things that Paul did that was so important in isolation and being apart from his church, is that he spent that time talking to the people around him about Jesus. We read in the bible that Paul made sure to encourage others with the mindset that the day of Jesus’ return is near. And I’m not saying that this pandemic is a sign of Jesus’ return, cause the bible says that no one knows when that will happen. But no matter what we should want to share Jesus with those around us because every day that we pass we get closer to that amazing day.

Let’s pray.

So be encouraged. I hope and pray that we can get back to normal soon. But for right now we will continue with our current method of church.

Which is streaming live on Sunday mornings and have a life group there to watch the recording and have that church experience. If you’re not in a life group and want to come to a service let us know. We want to make that happen for you and get you there on a Sunday.

That’s for being here with us tonight. Tomorrow we have a special guest. Linda Crosby is going to be here tomorrow night. She was a blast as a guest. If you don’t remember she wrote a book after spending time writing down the things that her family got up to. It’s going to be another amazing night at Hope at 7.

So have a great night. May the Lord bless you and keep you. Have a great night.