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Hebrews chapter 10 verses 24 and 25. However, we will peek back at 23. Hebrews chapter 10,

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we'll start in verse 23. We'll read through 25, then we'll pray. We'll jump in. Hebrews

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is kind of toward the back of your Bible. The author of Hebrews had worked his way up

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to making his main point, and that is encouragement to his audience who are being tempted to turn

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from their faith in Jesus Christ. And we saw last week in the verses we looked at that

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word of encouragement, that they would stand firm, that they would persevere, that they

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would not give up. And we're going to talk a little bit more about that in just a second.

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Hebrews chapter 10 verse 23. Let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering,

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for he who promised is faithful. And let us be concerned about one another in order to

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promote love and good works, not staying away from our worship meetings as some habitually

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do, but encouraging each other and all the more as you see the day drawing near. Let's

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pray. Father God, we come to you, dear Lord, and I pray that in these few verses that we

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would find encouragement and strength today, dear Lord, that as we come together as a body

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of Christ, that we would find encouragement and love, dear Lord, just being together.

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I pray, God, that in these few minutes that your Holy Spirit would speak to us, that you

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would speak through me, dear Lord, that you would help us to hear the words that we need

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to hear, that you would help. Only the words that we need to hear come from my mouth today

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and that your Spirit would just let us see and hear your word this morning, God. I pray,

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dear Lord, that you would just hide me behind the cross, that you would help me to be able

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to preach and teach in a way that brings glory to Jesus Christ in everything that is done.

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And I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. What we saw last week in the last verse we

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looked at, which is verse 23, is we saw this call to the audience here that they would

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not give up in the midst of their trials, in the midst of their persecution, in the

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midst of whatever it was that they were going through. The author of Hebrews, as he's been

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trying to make the point through the whole book, is do not give up on Jesus Christ. Do

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not lose faith in Jesus Christ. For he who promised is faithful. If God has promised

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you eternal life and forgiveness of sins, if God has promised to be with you in the

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midst of your deepest, darkest days, then God will be with you. God will deliver you.

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And even if we suffer in this life, we will spend an eternity with God through Jesus Christ.

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Therefore, these are the promises of God, so do not give up. Do not give up on your

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faith and turn to anything else. Now, maybe this is fair to say that the audience that

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he's writing to here were having a crisis of faith. Maybe you've heard that phrase before.

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Maybe you've had a crisis of faith before. A crisis of faith is where you have faith

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in Jesus Christ. You have faith in the Word of God. You have faith in who God is. You

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believe God's Word. You believe what it says. You've trusted in Jesus Christ. And something

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occurs in your life that begins to cause you to question who God is. Question the goodness

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of God. Question your faith in Jesus Christ. And that is exactly what was going on to the

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audience here. These were people who had come to faith in Jesus Christ, but yet for whatever

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reason they were being tempted to turn from Jesus Christ. They were on the edge, and some

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of them, it sounds like, had already walked away. They had already given up on Jesus Christ.

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They had already turned from their faith. And the book of Hebrews is an encouragement

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not to turn away from your faith in Jesus Christ. Now, they were going through hardships.

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The audience that is being written to here was going through hardships. There was difficult

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things that they were going through. There were some trials. There were some difficulties,

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maybe even from other Jews, some pressure saying, hey, you need to come back to the

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old way. They were really being tempted. They were really being pressured. It appears suffering

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in some way. And it was that suffering that was undoubtedly causing them to question the

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goodness of God or doubt the goodness of God. And that is what a crisis of faith is. Now,

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most of the time, those who have come to faith in Jesus Christ and who have walked with Christ

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for some years and who are familiar with the Word of God, most of the time, when things

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are going good, there are no crises of faith in our life. When things are going well, we

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typically don't question God. We typically don't have a crisis. Sometimes maybe that's

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the case. But typically, the real crises of faith come in our life when something bad

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happens. That's when the rubber really meets the road. It's easy to serve God. It's easy

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to have faith in God. It's easy to worship God when things are going well. But we begin

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to have a crisis of faith when things begin not to go so well. When the things that are

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occurring in our life don't line up necessarily, at least in our minds, with what it says about

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God. And we begin to have difficult seasons in our life. We begin to go through hardships

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in our life. We lose somebody that we love that's very close to us. We have some experience

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in our life that's dramatic. And when we have those experiences, we say, wait a minute,

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I thought God was good. If God is good, then why is this bad thing happening? If God has

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promised to watch over those who are His and to take care of them and to protect them,

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then why in the world is this tragedy happening to me? And then doubt begins to creep in.

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And then we begin to question God. And then we begin to question God's Word. And then

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we begin to say, is any of this even true? Is God even real? If this is the God that

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I've been reading, if He is real, is He even a God who's worth following? If this is what

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He allows His people to go through and to endure? And those moments are when we begin

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to have a crisis of faith in our life. Now, we may have been reading through this book

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all along and say, well, I'm not going to be like these. I'm not in the same boat as

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the Hebrews. I'm not going back to the old sacrificial system. Well, it doesn't matter

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what you're going back to. What matters is what you are coming from. And what they were

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coming from was faith in Jesus Christ. And what they were going to was leaving that faith

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in Jesus Christ. And that's the real difficulty. And that's why we have to be on guard. That's

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why we always have to be on guard. And we always have to be in God's Word. And we have

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to believe and we have to trust without a shadow of a doubt that God is good. And we

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need to be reminded of that. And it's hard for us to believe that sometimes. It is hard

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for us to believe that when we see the evils that go on in this world, when we see the

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hardships that we face. And some of you may be sitting out there today and you may be,

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as I say these words, you may be saying, I don't see how you can say that. You don't

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know what I've been through. But I tell you today, because I cannot tell you anything

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else, that God is good. And you may say to me after church, but why? But why this? But

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why the other? And maybe I can give you an answer that's halfway decent or maybe not.

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Maybe I can't give you an answer that's going to satisfy you in any means whatsoever. But

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I can tell you this, that God is good. And I can also tell you this, that we do not understand

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the ways of God. It is beyond us to comprehend the things that a perfect and loving and good

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God does when they don't make sense to us. But God's ways are higher than our ways and

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God's thoughts are higher than our thoughts. So we trust in the Lord with all our heart

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and do not rely on our own understanding. Now I say today that God is good knowing full

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well that life is hard. I'm not pretending for a second that the tragedies and the hardships

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and the things that we face in our life are not difficult and they are not real. And there

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are times that it doesn't feel like God is at work and it doesn't feel like God is present.

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But I want to tell you today that God is good and God loves you. And that's all I can tell

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you. I wish I could tell you, here's why God does this and here's why God does that and

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here's why it's all going to be good. But I don't know because I'm not God. I'm just

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a guy that's struggling with you, that goes through the hardships and sees the difficulties

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and sees the evil and says, why God? Why do you allow this to happen? Why do you allow

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good people to suffer? But what we cannot ever allow ourself to do is to question the

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goodness of God. Because the moment we begin to question the goodness of God, a crisis

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of faith may soon follow. And that's what's going on with the audience here in the Book

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of Hebrews and that may be what's going on with you today. But that's why we read these

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words. That's why we come on the Sundays we don't even feel like it. When we come when

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things are falling apart and we're questioning God, we come because we need to be reminded

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that the He who has promised is faithful. That Jesus Christ didn't die on a cross for

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no reason, but that He died to accomplish the will of God so that everything could come

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together just as it needs to be. And we don't always understand how God is working things

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together for the good of those who trust in Him. But all I can tell you today is the truth

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of God's word says that He is. And there is nothing else that I can offer you today. And

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I can tell you this, there's nothing else the world can offer you today. If you turn

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from the faith in Jesus Christ, if you quit trusting in the Word of God, there is nothing

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else you can trust in because there is hope only in Jesus Christ. And that's what we saw

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last week. We saw that He calls His audience to draw near to God in what? In faith. He

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calls them to draw near in faith in the hope that they have in Jesus Christ that He who

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has promised is faithful. God is with us today and God cares about us today. And God sent

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Jesus Christ to die for us today so that through Jesus Christ we will have the strength to

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make it through the days that we can't make it. And even on the days that we have faith

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in God, that our faith begins to waver, we are like the man in the New Testament that

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says I believe but help my unbelief. And there are days in our life, if we are honest, as

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Christians, there are days in our life that we may begin to question and we may begin

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to doubt and we may begin to really struggle with our faith when we go through that really

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difficult trying hard time. And most of you have been through one of those. You may be

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going through one now and if you have not, you will one day. And we need to remember

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the Word of God when we go through those difficult times. That it is through our faith that we

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find hope in Jesus Christ. And so His audience is really struggling here. And maybe some

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of you are really struggling today. They're really struggling. But He gives them some

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fantastic advice. He gives them some fantastic advice. And what He tells them is, is to get

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together. Y'all need to get together and you don't need to stop getting together. Now,

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what we call that is church. And when we do that is on Sunday mornings. But we do it at

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other times as well. It doesn't matter when it is. It doesn't matter where it is. But

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what the author of Hebrews tells us is that we need not to forsake the gathering of ourselves

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together. He says that at the end of verse 24, or no, excuse me, in 25. Not staying away

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from our worship meetings as some habitually do. So here we have a group of people whose

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faith is hanging in the balance. And He's telling them, look, in the midst of your fight,

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in the midst of your struggle, what you don't need to do is avoid being with other Christians.

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Avoid fellowshipping with other Christians. You guys need to come together. There are

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some who have gotten into the habit, He says, of not gathering together with other Christians.

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But what He tells them to do in the midst of their difficult time is you guys need to

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continue to get together and worship God. Now it's important for us that we remember that

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we need to take a time, that we need to come together, and we need to be with one another

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as brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. That's where we're going to find our hope. That's

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where we're going to find our strength. Now there are days that we wake up Sunday mornings

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that we don't feel like coming to church. And if we're honest, there are some of them

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Sunday mornings that we just don't come to church. Now I'm not saying that we don't sometimes

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have a legitimate reason. I mean, sometimes we're sick. Sometimes there are legitimate

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reasons why we don't come. But sometimes we just don't come because we just don't want

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to come. And it's real easy to take a Sunday off and to take two Sundays off. And pretty

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soon it's real easy to completely get out of the habit of coming together with brothers

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and sisters in Christ to worship God, to lift one another up. It's real easy to get out

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of that habit. But it's real important for us that we stay in that habit. Now there will

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be Christians sometimes that will say, well, I can be a Christian and I don't have to go

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to church. Well, that is true. You can certainly be a Christian and you don't have to come

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to church. But I would like to thank and I hope for everybody that comes that there's

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something that we get from church, that there's some blessing that we receive from church,

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that there is some blessing for us to say, God, I'm going to take some time out of my

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life and I'm going to come and I'm going to worship you, dear Lord. I'm going to sing

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these songs to you, God. I'm going to come and I'm going to sit through Sunday school

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and I'm going to listen to your word and I'm going to try to grow in your word. And I'm

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going to sit through a sermon, dear Lord. And I want to listen to your word so that

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I can grow in your word, God. I want your Holy Spirit to come and to work in my life.

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I would like to think that there is some blessing that we receive from coming together and being

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in God's house. And maybe you say, I don't like the songs we sing. The Sunday school

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teacher don't do a very good job. Half the sermons are too long and don't make no sense.

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Even if all of those things are true, I would still like to think that you get a blessing

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from being around brothers and sisters in Christ. I'd like to think that when you walk

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through that door, as everybody begins to come up to you and begins to hug you and begins

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to shake your hand and begins to say, brother, how are you doing? Sister, how are you doing?

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It's good to see you. How was your week? I'd like to think that there is some blessing

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that we get as brothers and sisters in Christ from being with one another. Now, I'll tell

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you this, y'all don't ever do this, and I'm the worst person in the world because I'm

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the preacher and I've done this before. But there have been some Sunday mornings that

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I just did not feel like coming to church. Now, y'all probably had never done that before.

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That I was in a bad mood and I didn't feel like coming. Some days you just not feel it.

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Some Sundays you wake up and you're like, praise the Lord, it's a beautiful day. And

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some days you're just like, I just don't want to do it. They're going to ask me how I'm

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feeling and I've had a horrible week and I'm just going to lie and tell them everything

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is great and I just don't feel like it. And they're going to ask me about this and they're

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going to ask me about that. And there are some Sundays that we just don't feel like

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it. And I've had a couple of those in my life, but I'll tell you this too. I've also had

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some of those Sundays where I was like, God, I'm going to do it. And I went and then being

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in the presence of God's people and being in the presence of God's word and seeing smiles

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on people's faces. I come in with just a bad attitude and I left saying, thank you God.

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Thank you for changing my heart when I didn't feel like coming. God, thank you for showing

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me your goodness. It's good to be in God's house. And maybe not every Sunday school lesson

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is good and maybe not every sermon is good and maybe not every song is good, but maybe

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there are some things in church that we're missing. Maybe there are some beautiful moments

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that we missed that bring joy to our life. Maybe there's some joy there. Maybe you say,

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I get tired of coming. I don't want to come because I ain't getting nothing out of it.

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Well, maybe just maybe you're not putting anything into it. Maybe you're coming with

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a bad heart. Maybe you just come to church every day and say, well, what can the church

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do for me in this way? And what can the church do for me in that way? And how can the church

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help me in this way? Maybe we need to change our mindset and say, God, how can I serve

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in the church? What can I give to the church? How can I help this church? How can I be involved

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in these ministries? How can I be involved in this community? How can I be there to love

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all my brothers and sisters in Christ and put them a card in the mail and pick up the

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phone and check on them and drop by and see how they're doing and ask them how they're

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doing and tell them I love them and tell them that I'm praying for them. Maybe as much as

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we get out of church, maybe we need to be putting that much back into church. Maybe

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we need to say, God, I'm not feeling it today, but God, help me to see your joy and help

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me to see your grace and help me to see your love and help me, God, in some way of being

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here with these brothers and sisters in Christ. Help me to find you in some way and see some

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way that I can help them. Let me tell you a good example of joy, of just a little joy

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that I saw in church last Sunday. Last Sunday, we had the Lord's Supper after the church

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was over and everybody begins to walk up. And I'll tell you something that was just

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beautiful. I was standing here and I had my head down. I was praying. I kind of looked

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up and there I saw this young lady, little girl, that just had gotten baptized a few

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weeks ago. And for the first time in her life, she was partaking of the Lord's Supper with

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her dad right there by her side. And I said, thank you, God. What a beautiful, what a beautiful

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thing to see. What a beautiful joy to see that. And maybe there are things like that

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that we can see around our church all the time if we just look. Maybe on those days

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where we say, I just don't feel like coming. Maybe on those days where the sermon wasn't

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that good. Maybe just maybe you saw a brother and sister in Christ and they really need

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you. Maybe they're suffering and they're in pain and maybe you just go home and say, God,

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I'm not doing good, but I pray for that brother and sister in Christ. Regardless of how I

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feel today, dear Lord, regardless of what my heart is like, God, I pray for them because

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they need you. I pray for their family. I pray for their situation. And do you know

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that it almost never fails in my life that when things are just rotten and my heart is

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just rotten and it's not in the right place, that when I begin to pray and begin to pray

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for other people, it's the most beautiful thing in the world, how God begins to just

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kind of deal with us. Maybe you've experienced that. But there's a lot of benefit that we

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get when we come together as brothers and sisters in Christ. There's a lot of benefit

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that we get as we try to grow in the word together, as we try to lift one another up,

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as we praise God for the work that he does in this church and the people in this church

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and how he uses us and how he blesses us. So what does the author of Hebrews tell his

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audience? He says, look, you guys are struggling, but what you don't need to do in the midst

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of your struggle is quit coming together because there is beauty in the body of Christ. It's

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a crazy thing. When we need to hear God's word most, when we need to be around other

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brothers and sisters in Christ the most, oftentimes those are the times that we don't want to

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come to church the most. We don't feel like it. We don't want to do it. We don't be around

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the people. But when we need it the most, it's the time we don't want to come the most.

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But those are the times that we got to make the effort, that we got to say, okay, God,

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I don't feel like coming. I don't understand your word. I'm questioning God, maybe some

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things that are going on. I don't want to question you, God, but I'm struggling. So

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God, let me come together with brothers and sisters in Christ so that I can continue to

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seek you and to grow in you. And if we're having struggles in our faith, if we're having

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struggles in our belief, if we're having struggles in our life, then we need not to forsake the

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assembling of ourselves together. And that's what the author of Hebrews tells his audience.

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And that's good instruction for us today. But what did you say before that in verse

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24? And let us be concerned about one another in order to promote love and good works. Isn't

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that a beautiful thing? And let us be concerned about one another. Let me ask you today, are

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you concerned about other people in your life? Now, the obvious answers to that question

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should be yes. But if we're honest, maybe it's not. We get pretty concerned about our

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own life. We get pretty concerned about what we're going through and our jobs and our family

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and our troubles. And oftentimes, it's easy for us to fall into that trap that we become

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so concerned with the things that we have going on that there might be a brother and

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sister in Christ who has a need and we totally miss it because we're too concerned about

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ourselves. But the call of Christianity is to consider others as more important than

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yourself. Philippians chapter two tells us that. That's one thing that's so important

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for us as a body of Christ, that we never become a people who are selfish, but that

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we are a people who are all about serving one another. That we are a people who consider

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others as more important than ourselves. Maybe there are some needs around you today. Maybe

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there are some that you've overlooked. It's okay. Ask God to help you to see them. We

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don't always see those things. Sometimes we do get caught up in ourselves and we get so

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caught up in what we're doing that we kind of miss the things that are around us. But

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we need to pray to God and say, God, help me to see ways that I can help those brothers

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and sisters in Christ around me who are part of this body. God, help me to help them. That

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we can lift one another up. As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. Let us

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lift one another up in love and in good works. Now, we've already seen here last week, we

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saw the mention of faith. We saw the mention of hope. Here we see a mention of love. Sometimes

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you see these three things together. The most common place you probably recognize that is

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from 1 Corinthians chapter 13, verse 13. All that remains is faith, hope, and love. But

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the greatest of these is love. These are the things that are crucial to us as Christians.

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That we have faith, that we have hope, and that we have love for one another. That we

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love one another. That we promote love for one another. That we make sure that everything

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we do is building somebody up and not tearing them down. It's important for us to do that

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as brothers and sisters in Christ. We don't want to fall into the trap to begin to talk

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about other brothers and sisters in Christ in this church. To begin to cause divisions

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in this church. That's not promoting love. That's promoting hatred, bitterness, anger.

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That's not what we want to promote. Too many times in churches, that's what's promoted.

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There's this click and there's that click. This one talks about that one and that one

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talks about the other one. People are in real need and we're too busy arguing about stupid

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little things that don't matter. Because we don't consider others as more important than

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ourselves. We're not promoting good works. We're not promoting love. We need to promote

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love for one another and we need to promote good works. The works that are going to be

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for the kingdom of God. That's why we come together as a body of Christ. It's to promote

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the kingdom of God. It's to serve God in everything that we do. We need to be reminded of that.

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Sometimes God blesses us and he's good with ministries that we do or people that are reached

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or whatever it is. We thank God that we can do that but we should never seek to do that

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for a pat on the back. We should never seek to do it so we can tell everybody else in

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the community, all the other churches, well you know here's what we did. Oh well that's

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good that you all did that but we did twice as many shoe boxes as you all. Praise the

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Lord that's precious what you all did. We should never fall into that trap of thinking

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that we've done more or never get discouraged because another church does more than us and

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whatever it is. We're called to do what we can do. What God has placed on us. What God

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has given us the ability to do. And there's no amount that's too little or no amount that's

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too much because we need to do it all for the glory of God. We don't want to fall into

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the trap of promoting ourselves but we want to come together so that we can promote love

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amongst one another and good works for the glory of God. He finishes here at the end

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of this passage in verse 25, not staying away from our worship meetings as some habitually

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do but encouraging each other and all the more as you see the day drawing near. Encouraging

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one another. Do we do a good job of that? Do you do a good job of encouraging people?

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Maybe you do I don't know. But if you don't you need to try to. You need to try to say

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an encouraging word. Now here is what the easiest thing in the world to do is. It's

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easy to say a discouraging word. That doesn't take no trouble at all to find something negative

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to say. But what we need to try to do is find an encouraging word. Try to find something

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positive to say. Now if you want negativity you walk out into the world you turn on the

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news you will be bombarded with negativity. But in the body of Christ we need to find

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some peace and some rest. We need to find some encouragement. If you can't find any

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peace and encouragement and love in the body of Christ then we're doomed because you're

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not going to find it outside of the body of Christ. So when we come together we need to

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come together as men and women as children of God who encourage one another. Encourage

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one another when you know somebody is down and struggling and wanting to give up. We

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need to be those who encourage one another. We need to be those when our brother and sister

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in Christ is not here to say I missed you. To call and to check on them and just to encourage

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them and to pray for them. This is what builds the body of Christ. This is what strengthens

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our faith. So when those times of adversity come we do not have a crisis of faith. We

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do not turn from Jesus Christ but that we cling to Jesus Christ and through the help

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of our brothers and sisters in Christ around us we grow. We strengthen ourselves. But the

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worst thing we could possibly do in the midst of hard times is to separate ourselves. It's

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the worst thing we could possibly do. In our worst times often we want to be alone. We

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don't want to be around anybody else. But when we're alone we're an easy target. You

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ever watch those nature shows? You see all these animals. They travel in packs. Sometimes

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you see the lions. They're trying to get one. They don't go after the strongest ones. They

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don't go after the whole pack. They kind of circle the pack. They wait until they can

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find one who's maybe weak and one who's smaller and they wait to get it along from the rest

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of the pack. Why? Because it's an easy target. But there is safety and security in the presence

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of God in brothers and sisters in Christ. But the moment we get out from the pack, the

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moment our sin, the moment our doubt begins to draw us away, we become an easy target

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for the devil who is like a roaring lion looking for one who'd devour and he will devour us

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if we are not careful. So we need to be a body of brothers and sisters in Christ who

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seek God, who come together, who love one another, who promote love and good works,

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who considers others as more important than ourselves, and who are ready for the days

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of trouble when they come. When will they come? I don't know. I guarantee you there's

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days of trouble that are going to come in your life. I don't know what way they'll take

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place but they'll come. He says here at the end of this verse, and all the more as you

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see the day drawing near. I don't know what day he's talking about there. About half

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your translations are going to have that capitalized. Some interpreters believe that being the day

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of the Lord, the return of Christ. Others just see that as a day of difficulty that's

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approaching in the context, a day that might be coming for the audience that's here. I

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don't know. We need to be prepared for all those days. We need to be prepared for the

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day that Jesus Christ will return, but until he returns, we need to be prepared for the

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difficult days that are undoubtedly going to come in your life. There are going to be

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seasons of pain. There are going to be seasons of heartache. There are going to be seasons

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of hardship. There's going to be seasons of death. There are going to be hard times in

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your life and there are going to be times probably for every one of us if it's not already

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been that our faith is shaken. And on those days we need to seek God with all of our heart

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and do not rely on our own understanding. We need to come together with brothers and

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sisters in Christ. We need to be in the word of God. We need to encourage one another and

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we do not need to forsake the assembling of ourselves together because there should be

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power and love and grace and beauty and joy and peace in the body of Christ. I pray that

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as the body of Christ that we exhibit those qualities, that we are there for one another,

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that we love one another, and that all we do, we keep our eyes on Jesus Christ. All

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we do, we do it for the glory of God. Maybe there are some of you today and you're having

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a crisis of faith and you're really struggling. I want to pray for you today. If you want

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to come down, I'll pray for you later. You want to pray where you are, pray where you

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are. You want to come down and kneel as we have this time of invitation. But if God is

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dealing with you today and you're struggling, then you keep struggling with God, but do

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not give up on God. Do not turn away from God because there is no one else that we can

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turn to. Maybe you know somebody that's struggling today. Maybe somebody in this church. Maybe

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somebody in your family. Reach out to them. Pray for them. Encourage them. Let them know

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that you love them and that God loves them because it's that strength of God. It's this

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blessing of community that God gives us and what a blessing it is that God doesn't send

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us out on our own to make it through this world and it struggles, but God brings all

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of us here together just as he has today so that we can grow in his word, so that we can

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seek him, and so that we can encourage one another. Let us be found faithful to do that

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today. Father God, we come to you. We thank you for your good word. I pray, God, that

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if there is one who is struggling today that you would help them, that you'd meet them

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in their struggle, dear Lord. You know that life is hard. You know that we are weak, and

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so we need your help, dear Lord. Maybe it is true of some of us in here today that we

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believe, but dear Lord, we need you to help our unbelief. God, I wish I knew all the answers

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to all the questions, dear Lord, but I don't know all the answers to all the questions

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as to why you do the things you do and why you allow things that you allow, but dear

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Lord, I do believe that you are good and I pray that you would help us never to forget

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that. It's easy to say that you're good. It's easy to trust you without question when

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times are good, but dear Lord, I know that when times are hard, that's when it really,

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really gets serious. So God, I pray that even if we think we are ready to stand in the midst

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of hardships in life, that you really help us to be ready, that you help our hearts to

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be strengthened, dear Lord, that when those times come and those days of difficulty come,

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that we would not give up on you, that we would continue to stand firm in you, dear

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Lord, that we continue to trust in the cross of Jesus Christ, that our faith would not

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waver, that our hope would continue to be strong, and that our love for you would grow,

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that our love for one another would grow, dear Lord. I pray, God, that you would help

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us to be a body of Christ that is continually gathered for your glory, that we come together,

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dear Lord, to hear from you, to learn your word, to grow in you, that we come together,

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dear Lord, to help one another. Maybe there are some today that just, they just wasn't

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feeling it when they came, dear Lord. Maybe they're still not feeling it. Maybe they just,

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maybe they're just struggling. I pray, God, that you would help them not to leave without

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experiencing your presence today. I pray, God, that you'd give them some peace and some

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joy and some comfort. I pray, God, that you just let them receive a blessing from being

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here, dear Lord. If it's nothing else, a blessing of a hug from a brother and sister in Christ,

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or an encouraging word, or maybe your word that we read today, whatever it is, God, I

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pray that we would all leave here today saying that we have received a blessing by being

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able to gather together here to worship you. God, maybe there are some here today and they

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do not know Jesus Christ. I pray today that they would. I pray that they would repent

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of their sins, God, that they would ask you to forgive them, that they would quit living

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for themselves and they would live for Jesus Christ. God, I pray that if any made that

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decision today that they would come forward here in a moment in this time of invitation,

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dear Lord, that we can celebrate. God, maybe there are some today that are just struggling

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and they're just right in the midst of it, dear Lord. It's serious, God, and I pray that

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you just comfort them and strengthen them. If they need prayer, I encourage them to come

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forward, dear Lord, so that I can pray for them so that this body, these brothers and

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sisters in Christ, as they see there's a need that they can begin to pray, God. But I pray,

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God, that you would work in our midst today, that your Holy Spirit would be among us today,

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that we would seek you today, that we would find you today, that our faith would be stronger

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today when we leave than it was when we came. Help us to be ready for whatever is before

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us, dear Lord. No matter what hardships and difficulties we may face, dear Lord, I pray

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that you give us the strength to stand firm in our faith. And I ask these things in Jesus'

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name, amen.