Beacon Sunday Service September 3rd 2023

So the first announcement that we actually shared last week was that we were going to have a town hall meeting today. But we felt as a leadership group that this is easier at this point in the stage of our pastoral search to have sent you a members email. So that email was sent by our brother Stephen two days ago. So if you haven't seen it yet, it's check your inbox. It has uh a quick update of of what's happening with our pastoral search. And if you have any questions, please let uh to please feel free to approach William, Howard, myself, or Steven, uh, and we'd be happy to give you an update. Uh we are still looking for children's ministry volunteers. Uh, if you haven't already gotten your background check or if you're in the process of uh please let me know and we can slide you in um after those checks are completed.

Uh but are there's a sign-up sheet um that you can fill in if if you want to fill in one of the Sundays. Our offering options are Zell, Venmo, Cash and Check. Um, as members of the beacon, we ask that you give uh according to how the Lord has blessed you in your life and how inspired you are uh to to give to the Lord. Uh if you're visiting today, uh we ask that you do not give, and if you have a local church, please continue to give to them faithfully. Um so I'm gonna introduce our guest speaker today. His name is Christian Headlin. Uh he is a brother who is serving as a pastor at Lighthouse Community Church. Um they have blessed us so much, and we have another one coming here today. He grew up in Torrance, California.

He went to USC for two years, but at the beginning of his junior year, he came to Christ. He then transferred to the Masters University, where he se received his BA and MA in biblical studies. He got his MDiv in biblical and theological studies from Southern Seminary. Um although he did not grow up in a Christian home or church growing up, he did not go to church growing up. Uh he realized that he had been spending many years living in sin, and he ultimately uh was seeking the hope and joy in the and or he was seek sorry, uh he was seeking things uh with ultimate hope and joy in the things of this world, but he recognized his need for forgiveness and a reconciled relationship with God. So he started going to church and learned about the gospel and the person and work of Christ.

He recently got married to his lovely wife Julie, uh and uh they actually live right here in Filipino town. Uh they serve together in Lighthouse's college group where we know that our sister Janet goes to. Uh but they will be transitioning to the young adult group in a few weeks. Uh his wife is completing the last year of her fellowship at CHLA in the Pediatric Emergency Department, while he is spending the next year writing a master's thesis in New Testament in the New Testament and serving on pastoral staff at Lighthouse. So let's give him a warm round of applause or Christian or Brother Christian. Please stand as I read God's word this morning. And our passage comes from Hebrews 10 verses 24 and 25.

Hebrews 10 verses 24 and 25. 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 in all the more as you see the day drawing near. This is the word of the Lord. Well, good morning, everyone. It's so good to be here with all of you. It's funny, as Phil mentioned, I only realized just a few weeks ago just how close my wife and I live here. I was driving home from USC after I was meeting up with a student, and Google Maps just happened to take me down the street. And I I don't know why, but I I saw the church. I didn't see the sign, but I I saw the church, and I was like, oh, I heard the beacon LA is around here.

I wonder if if that's it. And then I saw the the Korean uh writing, and then right under it, I saw uh beacon. And so there it was. And this morning it took us about I thought it was gonna be 10 minutes, but it's actually only about five minutes. So that was really nice. Uh got to sleep in a little bit more. But it really is an honor to open God's word with you. And I'm so thankful that you guys would invite us from Lighthouse to come and speak for you. Some of the guys have been able to share about this church. Um, they've been able to share their experiences here, and we've all just been so encouraged. Um, you know, on Monday morning when we have our staff meetings and we give ministry reports from the past week, and so we've just been so encouraged by your faithfulness by your love for Christ and your love for God's people.

And so for me to see it firsthand to come and talk to some of you already this morning and to worship with you has been just such a blessing. And so I'm excited to get to know some of you after uh during lunch as well. With that, why don't we jump into our teaching time? I'm sure I'll have more time to share just about myself, and you'll get to know my lovely wife Julie, uh, who's here. But if you have your Bibles, and if you haven't turned to them already to Hebrews, you can turn to Hebrews chapter 10, and again we're looking at verses 24 to 25. Hebrews 10, verses 24 to 25. And if you're taking notes, you can write down that the key idea for this message is that God sustains our faith and grows us unto maturity through different means, through mutual encouragement and exhortation.

And the reality that the day of Christ is drawing near should prompt us to consider how to love and encourage one another all the more. So again, God sustains our faith and he grows us unto maturity through mutual encouragement and exhortation. And the reality that Christ is coming should prompt us to consider how to love and encourage one another all the more. So hopefully that key idea will make more sense as we go through the text. But let me just read it one more time for us, just so we have it engraved in our minds as we go through it. In verse 24. 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 drawing near.

So first I think it's helpful to provide a bit of context to the book of Hebrews, just to help us understand what the author is getting at in these verses. When we come to the book of Hebrews, we see that the major problem the author was addressing was that Jewish believers in Jesus were becoming sluggish in their faith. They were even beginning to think about abandoning Christianity to return to Judaism and their former way of life. Hence the name of the book, Hebrews. In chapter 2, verse 3, we see that the readers they were second generation Christians. And that's important because while they had been believers for some time, in chapter 5, verses 11 and 14 to 14, we read that they had stopped listening to God's word.

And although they should have been teachers and mature adults in their faith, they needed to be retaught the basics and the foundations like children. In chapter 6, verse 12, the author suggests that they had apparently regressed in their growth in Christ.

They were facing shame most likely from their Jewish brethren who had called them blasphemers for following Jesus. In chapter 10 and then chapter 12, we read different things. We read that they endured sufferings at their conversion. They even had their property seized. So a Jewish believer tempted to escape persecution, may have found it appealing to retreat back to this protective umbrella of Judaism, which is a protected religion under the Roman government at the time. So this was a very serious situation. And the author of Hebrews, he understood this really to be a crisis of faith for these people. So in response, what does he do? He writes this letter, and he warns them over and over again in these famous warning passages that if they reject their faith in Christ, there's no salvation for them.

And so in the book, there's this sense of urgency as you read it. There's a sense of exhortation and warning throughout. And in chapter 13, verse 22, the author describes the entire letter as a word of exhortation. And the only other place we see this phrase is in the New Testament is in Acts chapter 13, verse 15, where it refers to the synagogue sermon. And basically this implies that the letter was to be read aloud like a sermon. And it's intended as any sermon to move its hearers into action. But what's worth noting is that at the end of it all, the author, he doesn't think that the readers will turn away from Christ, that they will apostasize, apostatize. He's convinced that they will heed his warnings, that they will be saved on the last day.

We see this in chapter six, verses nine and ten. And so he doesn't intend to sow doubt in the minds of his listeners, of his readers, regarding their salvation. Instead, the warnings, they're meant to point them back to Christ. They're meant to point them to the redemptive historical realities that Jesus has brought about and fulfilled. And so they're struggling. But he's telling them to hold on and to press on, to continue serving and loving one another, to continue encouraging one another, even though you are facing suffering, even though you are discouraged. And he says, the reason why is because Jesus is better. You can't turn back to the former way of life, to Judaism, because Jesus has come and he's fulfilled all of the salvation promises, and he's given us hope and he's worth it.

But the key thing is that the author, he's not simply satisfied with us as Christians, just merely holding on in our faith, right? And keeping our faith. But he's also concerned with us progressing and moving forward to full maturity in Christ. So again, it's not just spiritual survival that he's concerned about, but it's also spiritual growth and holiness.

Later on in verse 12 of chapter 12, he says, Therefore, lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees. And he's talking to the group here, right? He's and this is meant to be read aloud for everyone to hear, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joints, but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

Verse 4 let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. Keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have, for he has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. And so we see that he's not just satisfied with keeping your faith and just holding on. He's saying, press on in this race, to continue to grow and to fight sin and to do it together, and to call one another in this fight to keep going. And so we see this call to progress toward maturity, also leading up in our text in chapter 10. So just for some context, I'll start reading in chapter 19, where he says, Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places, so in light of what Jesus has done, in light of that, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is through his flesh, since we have a great priest over the house of God, the result of that is that we should draw near verse 22 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.

An exhortation again, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. So some have pointed out that this passage, it's a major turning point in the letter, and it really introduces the final section of this letter. Because in the first eight chapters of the letter, there are ten imperatives. Imperatives are commands. And in the last three chapters alone of the book, there are twenty-one imperatives. And again, this is because the author, he's really emphasizing a call to maturity, as he has just laid forth why Jesus is better, and why we should follow him and keep pressing on in light of all that he's done. And so, in summary of just kind of getting our bearings around the book, the author he's preaching the sermon of exhortation to his hearers.

He's rallying them together to advance in maturity, or else he's saying you're going to drift away in the other direction. You're going to leave the faith if you don't keep fighting. And if we're to ask the author of Hebrews how it is we're to hold fast in our faith, how it is we're to grow into maturity, what would he say? Well, it's interesting because he would say one of the ways we do this is through the mutual encouragement and exhortation that we experience in fellowship with other believers. In other words, the author teaches us that God doesn't just zap us when we become Christians and make us immediately holy. Right? Instead, he uses various means to preserve us from falling away on the one hand and to cause us to advance in our faith and grow in sanctification on the other hand.

Some examples of God's means of preserving us and growing us that we usually think of are the preaching of God's word. Prayer, intercession. But fellowship and mutual encouragement, they are a means of grace as well, that we don't often think about, maybe. And so I hope that we'll see in this text that one of the greatest means God uses to prevent apostasy and to cultivate maturity and growth within us is people. People within the church who call us back to Christ, who call us back to the right path when we go astray, and those who spur us on to keep running this race when we get tired, and to keep going until we reach the finish line and when Christ returns. So with that, let's talk about these two important verses before us.

And I'm going to break things down verse by verse and really just start by looking at verse 24. And in this verse, the author exhorts believers to consider, to consider. So that is the main command and emphasis of this verse. And the word for consider, it means to think about carefully, to envisage, or to be concerned about something or someone. It means to slow down and to strategize and to really picture in our minds and to be intentional and focused in our thoughts. We might think of someone we describe as being considerate, someone who is caring and sensitive, and who takes the time to think about how to serve and respect others. So if consider or be concerned about or to think about, if this is the verb or the action to which the author is calling believers, then what is the object that receives this act of considering?

In other words, who or what does the author of Hebrews want believers to consider and think about? Well, there are different ways to translate this verse just based on the grammar in the Greek. But in the Greek, the object of the verb for consider is one another. So we can translate the sentence, consider one another, instead of consider how to stir up one another. And it might seem, you know, a little nuanced. Um, you might not like grammar, and that's okay. Uh I struggle with it too. Um, but the difference is who or what we are commanded to consider. I think that's clear, right? Is it considering how to stimulate people or considering people themselves? And I think the emphasis is on the latter, though, considering people themselves.

For example, the Christian standard Bible, which I just found out, the Christian standard Bible is outselling, I think the ESV right now. Um it's a good translation. Um, some of my professors they they helped with it. Um, but the CSB reads, let us consider one another in order to provoke love and good works. And so again, no matter how you translate this verse, though, all can agree that the emphasis of this command is not placed on thinking about ourselves, but thinking about other people. And the gaze is supposed to be outward, not inward. And so this general outward bent toward others that we're called to have as followers of Jesus, it should remind us of a familiar verse or familiar passage in Philippians 2, where Paul says, Complete my joy by being of the same minds, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you not look only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. And then, as we know, Paul goes on to ground this call to humility and selflessness in the very example of Christ, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but Christ emptied himself by taking the form of a servant. So for Paul and for the New Testament, this is what humility looks like. To look outside of ourselves and to reflect Christ. And in the context of Philippians, it's what creates unity because we've taken the emphasis off of ourselves and what we want in considering ourselves, and we've placed it on others and how to meet their needs and to benefit them.

So in some, this verse in Hebrews is saying that we're to think about others carefully. That's what it means to consider other people in a way that seeks to serve and to love them. And it doesn't mean to just think about or imagine someone in our heads, and that's it, right? No, it means to envisage and to be concerned about their best interests and how we can serve them. It requires intentionality and brainstorming even and picturing in our minds how we can love them and how we can encourage them in our faith. So, what does it look like to have this mindset for us as God's people? Well, again, I think it begins with being intentional. And what do I mean by that? Well, what I mean is that it requires an effort to consider those relationships and fellow believers that God has called you to be faithful to during this season of your life.

How can you steward those relationships and interactions well with those people to whom God has called you to serve? In other words, who are the believers that God has providentially and purposefully placed in your life right now? And how does he call you to serve and love them? How is he called you to consider those here at this church and beyond it? And again, this doesn't simply mean meeting together by just showing up, right, in our large gatherings. Of course, that's part of it, right? That's that's required, but that is the bare minimum. Because true fellowship and being intentional is so much more than just being here and breathing and just being a warm body. It's about making an effort to think outside of yourself and to consider the needs of those around you and to be sensitive to them and to think about how you can help meet those needs.

So even before you show up on Sunday morning, before you meet with other Christians for coffee, for hangouts, for dinner, whatever it might be, before you do that, you're on your drive, or it's the night before, and you're considering and you're thinking, who can I serve today? And you're identifying someone, and then you're asking yourself again, how can I serve them? And it's not just our friends that we're comfortable with, right? That's easy, but it's with those outside of our comfort zone. Maybe those who are hard to love.

And it requires you to put more time and work into things and grinding through those conversations that might be hard. Requires time spent with people who you might not connect with as well. Requires awkward silences, small talk as you ask questions to get to know people and learn how you can serve them. This is where I think there can be a danger in failing to distinguish between socializing and biblical fellowship. And I'm getting this from the book Spiritual Disciplines of the Christian Life by Donald Whitney. I highly recommend it to you. And Donald Whitney, he says that although socializing is a part of fellowship, it is possible to socialize without having any true fellowship. On the one hand, socializing, it involves sharing human and earthly life in ways common to both believers and unbelievers.

But on the other hand, Christian fellowship, New Testament coinonia, it involves talking about God, the things of God and life from a uniquely Christian perspective.

But his observation is that we engage in true fellowship far less than we believe we do, even at church.

It looks like this. Two or more Christians, they gather together, they sit for hours or they hang out for hours, talking only of the news, weather, sports, work, family, right? Socializing. While completely neglect neglecting any discussion of expressly spiritual matters. And if this is the case when we meet, what makes us different than any other group of human beings, than any other religious group or community that aren't Christian? When I go to the gym, I see people there who really try to build relationships, and that's where they find their community. And I'm not saying that every conversation between believers has to include Bible references, has to include recent answers to prayer, or has to be talking about the most recent sermon you heard, but without personal interaction about what God is doing in your life, what he's teaching you, or what we're learning about him.

We're sharing how he's been faithful to you. We're asking people the tough questions. We're trying to encourage and keep others accountable, then what are we even doing as believers? At the end of our conversations, we've merely socialized, and then we say we've had good fellowship. J.I. Packer, he defines fellowship as this. It is a seeking to share in what God has made known of himself to others as a means to finding strength, refreshment, and instruction for one's own soul. We should be able to enjoy these fruits of fellowship in any context where there are Christians. Right? I'm visiting today with my wife, and that's what bonds us together, right? The fact that we all know Christ. We've all tasted and seen that the Lord is good.

And we can share in that, even though we've just met you. When we gather, we should be considering other people, how we can strengthen, refresh, exhort, even rebuke at times, so they can continue progressing toward maturity because we love them and we care for them. So do we ask questions when we talk to people? Do we just talk about ourselves and what's going on in our lives? Whatever we want to talk about, or do we want to ask about the person across from us and see what's on their heart? What God is teaching them and what God is doing in their life, what burdens and joys, what trials and triumphs might be on their minds. Do we try to steer the conversation in a direction that points them upward to God and encourages them?

Do we ask, how is your walk with God? Where do you want to grow? How can I pray for you? How can I serve you? Are you asking about their family and school or work and how they're integrating their faith in those settings? Do you know people's testimony? I think that's a big one. I've known people for years, and I don't know their testimony, right? I've shared in fellowship with them, but I don't even know how God saved them. So this is something I need to grow in as well. And I understand it can feel awkward, right? I'm not saying just to go up after service and be saying, hey, what's your biggest sin? And how can I, you know, check in with you next week? I know that can be awkward, and I know there's wisdom and you know, uh just being wise with that.

But again, this is what we need. We all need this, and we all need to contribute in kind of creating this sort of culture that makes us feel normal to open up about our faith, to share with each other, and to encourage one another. Nowadays, people often talk about normalizing certain things, right? Normalize talking about certain things, right? Things that people weren't comfortable talking about before. Well, I think we need to normalize talking about spiritual things and being comfortable with that. Because I can't tell you how many times God has used people asking me intentional questions or even sharing about their faith and what he has done for them and what he's teaching them, doing that to encourage me.

I'm strengthened and served when I ask someone about these things, and they share about these things. So you can serve and courage and love by doing this. But intentionality, it requires openness from both sides, right? This is a group effort. Because on the one hand, we have to be willing to ask these questions and to take an interest in people and to follow up to gear things toward spiritual things, right? But on the other hand, we also need to be willing to open up and share about these things when people ask us, not just giving one-word answers. So if I could sum up this point, I want to ask when you think about others and when you consider them, what is the first thought that comes to mind for you?

Is it what verse 24 is calling us to consider them and to think, how can I serve the people in this fellowship? Is that your posture? Is that your attitude? And is that what you're known for? Because when we live with this attitude of considering one another, we encourage each other in Christian living. It's infectious, and we stimulate each other toward godliness. And that leads me to the next part of verse 24. As I mentioned, what I think is the proper way to translate the verse in verse 24 is let us consider one another in order to provoke love and good works. And this word for provoking or stirring, it can mean rousing to activity. So, in other words, I think what the author of Hebrews is saying is that as we consider one another, as we think carefully and deeply about each other, and as we intentionally love and serve one another, the result is that it should cause sort of a chain reaction that stimulates one another toward love and good works.

As others observe our example, as they receive our love and service, they are stirred up to do the same. Our love and service toward each other, it should be infectious. You know, one of the greatest privileges in the past few years, and even probably in my life at this point, is uh has been working at Lighthouse. Uh Lighthouse has been just such a blessing. I think, especially after uh working in environments where, yeah, it was mostly unbelievers, and um working, you know, whether it's in food service or uh other customer service places uh like in insurance where it can be tough, and there are people there that uh either co-workers or customers, uh, where they're not the happiest, they're uh not very encouraging, right?

And it could really take a toll on a person, and maybe some of you know what that's like in your own work environment. Uh people will, you know, say that, oh, that place was a toxic place. It was a toxic work environment. And I do believe that you can have that in many places. But working at Lighthouse has showed me what it's like to be in an in an environment where people's attitudes and love for one another and selflessness and this attitude that we see in verse 24 to consider one another, how it's infectious, how just showing up, and in the first week or two, my attitude, my love and selflessness toward others immediately change just by looking at the examples of the staff there, and how loving and how gracious they are.

And so just seeing that, seeing their attitude, seeing their examples, it had an effect on me. And I think that's what the author of Hebrews is getting at that as we consider one another, as we are selfless and have the mind of Christ toward one another, people are going to see that, and it's going to create a culture where there's this well-oiled machine of stirring one another up by doing that in loving one another and causing others to want to serve in love in return. And in this verse, love and good works, it seems to be referring to serving others, so loving your neighbor as yourself and carrying out Christian virtues and works that reflect Christ to others. In Hebrews 6 10, the author he uses the same words and he says, For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward his name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints.

So this is the type of culture that we want to promote, right? Stirring one another up toward love and good deeds. And it begins with each and every one of us, each and every one of us who set this example of kindness and love and a selfless attitude, and inspiring and stirring others who receive that love or who observe it to do the same. We're a community, we are an interconnected body of believers, right? That is one of the most powerful images that Paul provides us in his letters. So our attitudes and behaviors, they are infectious. We're either promoting or we're hindering a culture characterized by love and good deeds. Because we are so interconnected with one another. We might think that our small actions, our attitudes are reserved to ourselves and they don't affect other people, but they do because we are connected as a body.

So we want to ask ourselves do my attitudes and behaviors promote or do they hinder this type of culture among believers? Am I stimulating others toward love and good deeds by my conduct, by my attitude? Okay, moving it down to verse 25 now. So the author, he exhorts his readers not to neglect meeting together in verse 25. Some were clearly doing this, that's why he says it, but uh to encourage one another, or he's calling them to encourage one another instead of neglecting to meet together. And this command probably reflects the apathy and the sluggishness that I'd kind of mentioned at the beginning when we looked at the context. And because they were sluggish, because they were regressing in their faith, the last thing he says they need to do is stop meeting.

Because meeting together in his mind provides this communal setting where mutual encouragement and admonition to press on and to grow in their faith occurs. Because notice that the alternative of not meeting, it's not simply to meet, and that's it, right? He's he's not saying, okay, you're not meeting, so you just need to meet, and that's sufficient. No, the alternative to meeting, he says, is to encourage one another. So again, it's not just about meeting, right? Although that's necessary. It's so much more than that, because he calls for effort and intentionality and encouragement among these believers. So it's not simply just a nice thing to do to come to church. Right? It's necessary for us to keep our faith and to grow.

We read earlier in a parallel text of chapter 3, uh, if you would turn there. In chapter 3, verses 12 and 13, really just highlighting again the importance of fellowship with other believers and our need for fellowship. Chapter 3, verses 12 and 13. He says, Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God, but exhort one another every day as long as it is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. So I mentioned God uses various means to preserve us as Christians, to preserve us from falling away on the one hand, and on the other hand, to cause us to advance in our faith and to grow in sanctification.

And again, one of the means we see that God does this is through people, through fellow believers, members of the church. So the entire community assumes responsibility to watch out that no one grows weary or no one walks away from the faith. So persevering in faith under trial and persecution, or seeking to grow in maturity, it isn't a private matter. It's impossible to carry your Christian walk out on your own. I don't care whether you're the Apostle Paul, whether you're St. Augustine, John Piper, Christian Headlin, no matter who it is, as Christians, the way God has designed us as people and as believers and the church, we need each other. Because if we attempt to live the Christian life alone, especially when trials and temptations come, we will die.

The author of Hebrews is saying.

Cut off from the life of the body, and I think of the spiritual effects that the isolation had on people. Knowing that isolation and not gathering, that's the road to apostasy, as we see in chapter three. And I've seen many people leave the faith, unfortunately, and many who still have not come back to church, who were faithfully serving. You know, and I know that there was, of course, a lot of debates on when churches should have opened up and all that, and my intent is not to uh take a stance or to get into the middle of that debate. But the point I'm trying to make is that the fact of the matter is community among other Christians, we saw is so vital, is so essential. And the isolation we saw during COVID and the after effects proves what the author of Hebrews is saying.

We can think of different situations where a friend or someone you know who grew up in the church, maybe started hanging out with the wrong crowd, or just took themselves out of fellowship for whatever reason, and they ended up drifting away. And the thing is, the most dangerous kind of sinful compromise, sinful compromise, it's the one that goes unnoticed. Right? The one that typically happens in isolation. People rarely wake up one day and out of the blue just say, Okay, I'm done. I'm just gonna walk away from the faith. It rarely happens as quickly as that. Instead, the path of apostasy is paved with these small steps, these small unrepentant sins that slowly over time callous our hearts toward God.

It's a slow drift, it's deceitful. That's who Satan is. He's the deceiver. And that's what sin is like. And so without the influence of other believers in our lives who really know us, without these people to call us back, it's easy to succumb to our own blind spots where we can even justify our sin. So again, we need people to encourage, to admonish, to call us out, to rally us to stay on the alert, to keep fighting from now until Christ returns. Because his return, as we'll see in this next verse, or sorry, in the rest of verse 25, his return is sooner than we think. And that is the author of Hebrews' final point here. At the end of verse 25, he adds one last remark to motivate these readers.

He tells them that they should consider one another, stir each other up, meet, encourage one another, because the end is near. Specifically, he says that the day is drawing near. But what does day refer to here? In case uh you're not familiar with with the phrase or the term. Well, basically it refers to the return of Christ. And it also refers to the day of the Lord, which was described in the Old Testament, where God would return to judge his enemies and to save his people. So it is a day of both judgment and salvation. And it serves as both a warning meant to startle those who are in sin and who are living in spiritual laziness to get ready, but it is also an encouragement for God's people who are living in God's ways and who are righteous sufferers, an encouragement that he will deliver and store and restore them.

So for the context of Hebrews, we can see that the author, he's doing both here. Some have grown sluggish and are drifting away from Christ. They fail to mature, as we've been talking about. So he's waking them up and warning them that Christ will return soon. So will you be ready? Because you'll have to give an account to him. And you want to be found in him faithfully. Others were suffering under persecution, right? And trials, and they were facing hardship. So they needed encouragement to press on, knowing that Christ would return and make everything right. So this mention of the day of the Lord, it serves as both a warning and an encouragement for these people. And then the phrase all the more, it adds emphasis, right?

Because Christ is returning, and we'll have to give an account to him that should cause us to reflect and to think about how we can spend the rest of our time on earth before he returns, and how we can spend it loving and serving his church, stirring each other up towards faithfulness, so that when he appears, and we give an account to him, he will say all, or he will say the words that we all want to hear. Right? That we should all be longing to hear. Well done, good and faithful servant. So if you knew Christ was returning, say 30 days from now, or if you knew you were going to die soon, would you be ready? How would you live differently? How would you love your friends and your family, your church family, differently?

Would it change the way you considered and loved and interacted with others? Would it change how you treated your fellow brothers and sisters here? Are you going to be ready and have a clear conscience before him? That you love those around you and cared for them as he does, and that you stir them up toward love and good deeds. And if not, it's not too late, right? Because the author of Hebrews is calling us to wake up and to wake each other up and to band together as a team and to rally each other as we run this race of faith. And again, even though it seems harsh, maybe in the letter, he's confident that they will listen, that they will keep running faithfully. So may we heed his exhortation as well.

And may we start doing this now, today, at lunch, this week, as we meet with people, and in the months and years to come. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for the book of Hebrews. We thank you for the warnings. God, we thank you for your warnings to us. Although they may seem harsh, we know, God, that this is your love and care for us to call us to persevere and to run the race of faith, so that we may know Christ more, that we may serve him and obey him and be blessed by that. So I pray, God, that we would appreciate the church and remember that one of the means that you give to preserve and to grow us is people in the church. And so we may we consider how to love one another, and may our love for one another be infectious, that it may create a culture of love and good deeds.

And may we do this all the more as we await the return of Christ. And we look forward to that day, God. May we be found faithful in him, each and every one of us here when he comes. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.