If you want to open in your Bibles, Ephesians chapter 6 starting in verse 10 through 17 and basically no signal. but when they get a signal. What we're gonna be looking at, and I always wonder what a non-electronic Sunday would look like. We are never alone in the struggle that we have. We are connected and communicating and caring. And Ephesians 6 explains that to us as it, through the grammar, through the actual structure of these sentences, and through each of the words that the Holy Spirit breathes out, He emphasizes the connection that we have. And let me show you as you look down at Ephesians 6, and then I'll catch up on the board when it catches up with us. Yeah, I see that Les is gone, so he's gonna come. Maybe we should pray. It always gets fixed during prayer, but we won't. Here we go. I'm gonna emphasize with my voice what, and show you, it's kind of like you're looking at an online resource that would do the Greek for you. Because 14 of the words that I'm going to read to you are intentionally inspired by God plural instead of singular. Do you understand? God is saying this does not work. and is not designed to work primarily alone. It's designed to work together in a plural sense of the body of Christ. Let me show you what I mean. Finally, my brethren, be strong. That verb is plural. We are together to be strong. I'm not to be totally caught up with whether I'm strong. I'm supposed to be vitally connected to know that we are strong. Now, let me explain to you what I mean. When I was a little, seven or eight-year-old Hazlitt elementary school student. Every year we had the privilege of going on the firehouse tour, you know, the fire station. And we looked forward to it. The teacher told us about it. They put it on the board. I don't remember if we had permission slips, but we all got on the big yellow bus and we drove down to the Hazlitt fire station. And I remember we had to hold the little rope so we wouldn't do anything wrong because there were axes and big shiny trucks and we held our little rope. And as we were getting our tour by the, whoever gave the tour, holding our little rope, we all jumped as that piercing fire siren sounded. Now that wasn't part of the tour. So they quickly made us back up on our little rope we were holding. And the, for the first time in my life, I saw The firemen who were upstairs, you know, lifting weights and eating and whatever they do up there, coming down that pole. Because it was real. It was an alarm. It was a fire or something. And they started coming down that pole. And in my little, little mind, I noticed something. Some of them came down. It's like they had jumped into the bottom of their suit, and they just got on that pole, and they were holding it and holding on the thing, and they were holding part of that fire suit over their arm. Others of them didn't have the fire suit on. It was over this arm, and they were holding the boots in that arm, and they were coming down. And some of them, their gear was beautifully all nicely hanging, and they just ran to that and were jumping into it. And all of us kids were just watching this whole process. And they were putting on their whatever they were putting on. And then one person went around and looked at all of them. He said, you don't have this, you don't have that. Good, you're ready, you're ready. Because it wasn't whether each of them came prepared, it was whether all of them on the truck were ready to go out into the fire. And just like if I was a fireman and someone came up to me and said, hey, you don't have one of your boots on, I would not be offended. I would go, oh man, thanks, I don't want to burn that foot. This one's ready and this one's not. Do you understand the idea of they were on a truck going to a dangerous, probably, I mean I don't know if they did it just to make it exciting so I wouldn't forget it, but I was assuming they were going to a real fire. And no one wants to go to a real fire. without your oxygen tank and your axe to break out if you get stuck in there, and all of your flame retardant, resistant, and protective gear. And nobody that's a fireman gets offended if someone comes close to them and says, I don't think you have any oxygen in your tank. They wouldn't go, it's none of your business. They'd go, thanks, thanks. Yeah, I would hate to go into a fire. Do you understand? That's the plural nature of the body of Christ. Every day we're going down the pole into the fire. Every day we all wear the same outfit. And every day, all of us on the truck are supposed to be saying, ooh, you don't have one of your boots on. Did you know that? You don't have your helmet. What if one of those beams hits you on the head? You need your helmet. Do you understand? There is a plural nature. Keep going. Verse 11, put on, is in plural. In fact, we can catch up here now that we have a signal. We're never alone in the fight. When we go out into spiritual warfare every day, we don't go out alone. We go out on the truck with other believers. Now, they might not be visible, but they are praying for us, they know us, they're tracking with us, they love us, they gather with us, and when we're apart, we're on their mind. We're never alone in the fight. We're connected to other believers. We're communicating with other believers. And we are evidently caring for other believers. And because of that, we share, we're going out into the same struggle. And the gear, the firemen didn't dream up what they're supposed to wear. The firemen wear what generations of firefighters have learned is the best gear. Now, our gear is not evolving. It's not like, wow, there's a new substance. It's more, we have the ultimate finest gear designed by God Himself that He's asked all of us to wear because we're in the same struggle. Now here are what I'm showing you. In verse 10, be strong is plural. We are together be strong. Verse 11, we are together put on. We are together able to stand. Verse 12, we are not alone wrestling. It isn't like I have something to face you'll never understand. We're all facing... the same manifestations of the evil, of the evil one, and of his hordes. And we wrestle against them. We together take up the whole armor. We together can withstand. And we should be talking about how we're doing at that. We together, having done all, can stand. Verse 14, plural again. We stand. We gird ourselves with the belt of truth. Can you imagine a fireman who didn't have his belt on with all that stuff that they need? Can you imagine one fireman telling another fireman, hey, you know what, that stuff you need on your belt, it's there on the hook. And can you imagine the fireman being offended that his friend reminded him that in the hastiness of the moment, going down that pole, I don't even know if I could have done that. All his kids wanted to, by the way, that's why the rope was there. We all wanted to climb upstairs and run down that pole. But for him to ask, are you girded? Isn't offensive. See, in the church, we are supposed to realize that the people around us are saying, We're all supposed to be girded with the belt of truth. Are you girded with the belt of truth? Is it still hanging over there? Have you not... interacted with God through his word lately? Are you not totally held in by his truth? Did you know I was like that? I used to leave my belt all the time too. And you know what I learned? And we lovingly come alongside of them. Having put on, having shod your feet, taking the shield. All of us are to take the shield. This is the most important piece. This is the most vital piece. This is, as we've seen, this is the most described piece This is the only part of our spiritual warfare that describes what we're facing, all the fiery darts of the evil one, which all will be extinguished by the shield of faith. This vital one, this shield, is something we all are to be taking up. And all of us will be able, and all of us are to take the helmet. So, basically, the idea is this. It's supposed to be us. It's not about me. The goal of the Christian life is not for me to be the most wonderful, proficient, excellent in every way. I am not on the firetruck alone. It's not a float in a parade where I deck out to be seen. It's a group together, connected, checking, is everyone on the firetruck? Is everyone on the firetruck wearing the gear? Are you ready? Do you know what we're facing? This is where we're going. And it's going to be hard. It's not about me. It's about us. See, that's the whole, the fact that God describes believers as always being one sheep of a larger flock. It's not the goal to be one sheep. It's to be one sheep of a larger flock. When we're saved, we're into a family. We're not spoiled, only childs. We're part of God's family. We're part of a larger group. We are, as we see, members of a connected body. In fact, this week, Nice, you know, France. You know, as that was unfolding, I know all of us watching it and horrified and everything. But as I was studying a new bulletin, a new update, you know, my Google aggregator would tell me something new happened. And I remember I wasn't paying attention, I was just clicking. And one of my clicked, later I looked back, it said graphic. You know, I was just seeing what was happening and what they were learning. And I think they pulled it down, but it showed that this truck actually dismembered some people. And part of them was all alone in the street. Did you know that to see a dismembered body instantly is sickening? It's to see something An arm that's supposed to be connected, to see it all by itself is sickening. Because that arm is supposed to always be connected. Or that hand, or that whatever. And to see a part disconnected for any human that is normal is horribly unsettling. To see a dismembered body. Yet, America, a growing number of members of the body of Christ live their life dismembered from the body. They say, I don't need to be a part of a body. I am connected to Christ myself. Jesus did not design us to be solely connected alone. He designed us to be connected to a body. We might be a finger, we might be an eye, we might be a tongue, we might be a foot, we might be a hand, but it's a hand of his body. and his body is the local manifestation of the church of Jesus Christ. Yet in Western and primarily American Christendom, we go through life seeing dismembered believers. And they don't think it's horrible. And sadly, a lot of times the church doesn't think it's horrible. I think we've gotten used to people disconnected from the body. But that's not how God designed it to be. We are members of a connected body. We are stones of a built-up temple. And the amazing truth is, though we're each individually uniquely designed for Him, we are also seen, always in the Bible, as connected to a group larger than ourself. And right from the start, in fact, do you remember how we started this? Let's go back to the Lord's Prayer. That's where all this started. Look how Matthew 6, Matthew 6, and you know this, but I want you to see it in context of what we're talking about being connected. Matthew 6, the whole introduction to this series, where we are chugging through each of the petitions of the Lord's Prayer, we're on the one, lead us not in temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. That's how we got to Ephesians 6, because that's the primary passage on that. But look how The Lord's Prayer goes in Matthew 6 and verse 9, in this manner therefore pray. What's that? That is a plural verb. It's not you pray singular, it's you pray plural. It's you as a group are to pray this way. Not just you as an individual. This is a group explanation. And look at what the first word is of the prayer, our, not my. Now, I don't get in the family unless he's my father, but the instant I get in the family, he's our father. And that is the vital connection of the body, that Jesus from the start. And then he goes on to say, in verse 11, give us this day our daily bread. Verse 12, forgive us our debts, as we forgive, as in plural, our debtors. Verse 13, do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. By the way, out of the 75 words of this prayer, 11 pronouns and verbs are plural. And by the way, what are the ones that aren't? They're referring to God. Whenever he refers to us, it's as a group, not as just me. It's not about me. It's all about us, connected, communicating, caring for one another. That's God's plan. So the Lord's Prayer is that way. I just showed you Ephesians 6 is that way, 14 times in Ephesians 6. In that little tiny passage, it's plural, it's our, it's we, it's us, it's taking together. Did you know that the other spiritual warfare passages are that way? Did you know that James 4, when it says, submit yourselves therefore to God, that's in the plural. When it says, humble yourselves in the sight of God, that's plural. Do you know why it's plural? Everybody on the truck, the fire truck, part of the gear is to be clothed with humility, to be resisting the devil, to be wearing the armor. Everybody in the church has the same mandate of the armor, of the conduct, and of the relationship. And we are supposed to all not be offensive to someone, but to be welcome to come up. Did you know, I was, you know, I run between the services. And, you know, I have to get my microphone on and my coat on and everything. And I get a little, you know, messed up. And I had a dear, loving elder come up to me and go, you probably don't want that that way. Probably don't want that that way. And he got all done. And I didn't go, leave me alone. That bothers me. You invaded my personal space. Did you know what? I was so thankful that I didn't have everybody wishing that they had talked to me. And have you ever met someone that has something out of place? Something. And you can't even think about what they're saying. You're wondering, you know, they're eating chicken salad, and there's a big piece of it right there. And they don't know it. Big blob of mustard or mayonnaise. And you're just fixated, looking at that, thinking, should I say something now? Should I hand them a napkin? Should I go? Or, you know, all the different ways people try and help you. We appreciate that. I mean, we're embarrassed, but we're less embarrassed than if no one would have helped us. And if you go through the whole time, see, we're all supposed to be connected, we're all supposed to be wearing the armor, and we're all supposed to be resisting the devil, which is in the context of humbling ourselves and drawing near to God and mourning over our sin. All of the commands of James 4 are plural imperatives. And even in the classic Your adversary, your, plural, adversary the devil, goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom, singular, he may devour. He can't devour the whole church. He picks out individuals. But he's the whole church's adversary and he must be resisted by all of us. Because if he's not, he has an access point. And did you know a disconnected member of the body who is not close and connected and communicated and cared for usually is the place through which discord and division can enter. Which is Satan's calling card. Confusion. Discord, division, complaining, murmuring. It's usually that disconnected one. So, each of these settings are presented in the plural. From the Lord's Prayer, to our armor, to resisting the devil. And what they're saying is, we're not alone in this. We're doing it together, and we're on the same truck, and everybody around us is supposed to be looking at us and telling us that you need to put your boot on. And they're not saying that because they're proud or pompous or know-it-alls. It's because they love us, and they want to help us. We were never designed to be alone. In fact, God said it's not even good for us to be alone. In creation, before the fall, God said to Adam, it is not good for man to be alone. Therefore, I will make you a helper suitable corresponding to you." Even in perfect creation, the idea of the fellowship within the Trinity, there's one God ever existing in three persons, and there is an amazing, inexplicable triune fellowship between them. God says, you should not be alone. It's not good to be alone. The church that Jesus bought and what Christ is building is a church of connected individuals, not unconnected islands. Now, a few weeks ago, maybe three weeks ago, we had Michael Smith, Dr. Michael Smith from Liberty University. And do you remember? I mean, I took a whole page of notes each service. I mean, it was amazing. He speaks, he teaches Bible. He's one of the most beloved Bible teachers at the largest Christian training university in the world. And in America, it's its premier Bible teaching university, Liberty University. And so I had an appointment with him. I said, Michael, You're on the cutting edge. You are with every new crop, every incoming class of the finest young people from across the country and the largest Christian institution. Could you share with me what you're seeing? Because I'm vitally interested in the next generation. Bonnie and I spend all seven of our vacation weeks every year invested in the next generation. We travel. I don't know if you knew that, but we travel and we go to them and spend a lot of life and energy to be training the next generation. but primarily overseas. I said, Michael, what are you seeing on the cutting edge here? Two hours later, he took a breath. I took pages of notes, four pages of notes. It was like I hit one of his favorite topics. I'll just, I don't want to do two hours, I'll just give you 30 seconds. I said, just give me a, what are you seeing as kind of a trend? He said, I'll tell you what I'm seeing as a trend. He says, I've been teaching the same class for years, for, I don't know, 12, 14 years, I don't know how long he said. And he said, it used to be, that the bell would ring, and there was a cacophony. There was just this bedlam sound of everybody getting up, and he said the boys were all jostling, and they were shoving and grabbing each other, and they were going out loudly out of the classroom, carrying on, and they were all talking about what they were gonna do. And the girls, he said, would get in these little groups, and they'd be whispering and looking around, and there'd just be all this sound. He said, do you know what it's like now? The bell rings. Earbuds in. the kind of quiet sound of sliding an electronic gear into a backpack as they're swinging it over their shoulder. He said either they're tuning in the song they're going to listen to or they're texting. He said it's absolutely quiet. And they all filter out of the class alone. None of this arm-in-arm jostling. I mean, I remember we used to do all kinds of stuff when I was in school, even in university, in big Christian university. I mean, we were planning, we were talking, we were saying, hey, I'll see you for lunch, I'll see you for lunch. Okay, save me a spot at lunch. Okay, are you going to Jackson? I'm going to run with you. You're going to meet over there? Okay, we're going to go. And you were just constantly communicating and everything. Nowadays, don't get in my area. I have an area that I totally control. I post what I want you to know about me. I don't post what I don't want you to know about me. I communicate with who I want to communicate with. I don't communicate with who I don't want to communicate with. And don't touch me. Don't get near me. I'm living in my little world. With my earbuds. Did you know that's what our culture has done to us very rapidly? Did you know culture is seeping into the church? And people have a zone, and they come in, in the world, they totally manage their life, and they only post what they want people to know about them. And so, in church, they only post what they want people to know about them. and they are on their own truck. They're not on the truck with everybody else. They've designed their own little truck to go through Christian life. They are individually isolated islands. And if you get too close to them, do you remember how I started eight years ago at Calvary with the mistaken community thing in the morning service? Do you remember? It was a huge uproar. I said, everybody turn and face one another in a little circle, hold hands, and we're gonna pray. Facing people? Touching people? They petitioned back then, the elders, and a whole group said, we are members, if he ever does that again, we're not coming back. So I moved to the evening service with all that kind of stuff. I thought, if you come out at night, you're a diehard, you know, you're gonna, and then the next thing, you know, so we survived that. Do you know what I did two years later? I said, I built up to it, I didn't do it on purpose. I mean, I didn't shock anybody. I said, we're going to all share a 15-second salvation testimony of when God saved you and forgave your sins and when you got eternal life, the greatest day of your life. Reduce it down to 15 seconds, and turn to the person next to you, and in 15 seconds tell them, you were born a lost pagan, headed to hell sinner, and you heard the gospel and came to Christ. That was worse. I mean, that was a... Never do that again, because we don't have one of those testimonies. Boy, that was shocking. Did you know that's what church is supposed to be? That's why unbelievers didn't come to church. We've kind of messed it up. This is supposed to be a gathering of hobbyists that all have the same hobby. It's like a biking club, and everybody is showing off their bike and saying how many miles they went this week, and they're going to do 1,500 this summer, and they've got these new clips to hold their feet on, and boy, they found this thing that can really get the water while they're pedaling. And how are you doing? I mean, they're all in the same thing. If you go to the bike club, if you go to the car club, I mean, they can't wait to show you their car. And if you're in the bowling club, they know their absolute average and how much they've won if they're into competitive bowling. And do you know what I mean? But you come to church and you can't talk about that. It offends me that you would ask me my testimony. All I'm asking is, do you have a bike and do you ride it? Are you really a biker? You're in the biking club, but you don't want to talk about bikes. I wonder if you're really a biker. I wonder if you really have a bike. The testimony is how you became a part of the family of God. And see, that's the connection we have. But we're living in a Earbud world, where I post what I want you to know, I'm not going to tell you the rest. That's not godly. That's not the church. That's not what God designed. We are never designed to be alone. It's not even good for us to be alone. The church that Jesus bought, the church Jesus Christ is building today, is a church of connected individuals, not unconnected islands. So the question is, are you connected to his flock? Are you a functioning member of the body? Or are you dismembered? Isn't that horrible? I mean, I can still see. I'm glad they put graphic in capital letters because I wouldn't watch that again. It was horrible to see dismembered bodies. But that's what Christ sees. Are you a functioning member of his body? Are you a living stone in his temple? That is something we all need to consider when we think even of spiritual warfare. It is our duty collectively to know that one another are standing. Do you know if anybody around you is standing through the war? Or are they and are you in that zone where nobody can get too close except what you post for them to know about your life. Well, the bottom line is that we don't face the battle alone. And we're supposed to communicate that to one another. The verbs and pronouns of all these passages point to us together. We all face the same battles. We all face them together. The Lord is saying through Paul, we're not to look on spiritual warfare as something we face alone. We can only win in community and with other believers. When we gather with believers, we are to talk about God's word. We're supposed to talk about, I mean, just like the bicyclists talk about their lighter bike with 87 gears, you know, and they can actually go fast uphill because of whatever. We say, yeah, I'm struggling with this, but boy, the Lord has really shown me this. And someone goes, really? Well, I'm struggling with that too. And we begin to encourage and edify and build up and exhort one another. That's God's plan. And we can only win when we're in community with other believers, when we talk about His promises, when we can honestly talk about His work in us. But why is it talk? Because it's our voices that Jesus empowers. Do you understand that God has chosen the mechanism for the exhortation and encouragement and edification of believers to be our voices speaking the truth we have personally experienced? And when we speak it, it's Christ's power that changes them. It's the most amazing thing to see. We were designed to operate best inside a Christ-shaped community of believers. a group of believers that are conformed to the image of Christ, and we operate within that context, and as we look at them, we see all the ways that Christ wants to conform us and hasn't, or that Christ has conformed us and not them. And it's like being on the truck and saying, you forgot your helmet. Because we all wear helmets. Into the fire. You don't have your tank on. Or you don't have your hose. Or you don't have your face mask. Don't go in the fire. You're going to breathe the smoke. It will destroy your lungs. And see, we do that because of love. And we pay attention to one another. The description of spiritual warfare is a shared personal battle. The most pronounced view of this is when we look at the shield. This we must carry, we must use our own shield, but others around us remind us and even help us. Do you remember when Moses was sitting up on the rock and Aaron and Hur had to hold up his arms so that Joshua would win out there in the battle? Do you think that God needed Moses to have his arms up in order for Joshua to win? Do you think God was tied to Moses' arms? No. It was a picture. God does it all. But he wants us to see that we have to uphold one another, work as a team. Moses couldn't do it alone, Joshua couldn't do it alone, Aaron and Hur couldn't do it alone. It had to be the community, the connectedness that God was showing for the battle. Just like Moses needed his arms held up, so we need one another. Well, So you ask, I could hear it out there, how do other believers help us? Because we all know the zany stories of the Gestapo churches, the churches where everybody has to do the same thing and people are all checking each other and they live in constant fear of stepping over the line and being in the wrong place or being seen in the wrong place or doing the wrong thing or eating the wrong thing or wearing the wrong thing, you know, or watching the wrong thing and everybody's just, you know, kind of like Gestapo Germany. Is that what the church is supposed to be like? No. In fact, two of the most interesting passages are in Hebrews. Now, let's just real quickly, because I don't want to get too far into this, because that's what we're going to look at tonight. But let me just introduce it. Hebrews chapter 3, verse 12. How do believers help us? Other believers, how are they supposed to help us? Here's a summary of what it says in chapter 3 verse 12. Other believers help us by speaking faith-stirring, hope-building words that feed our souls. Sometimes, some people are in such a desperate condition, they literally can't even get anything out of the Bible. And sometimes, it's like they're in the hospital bed, and they just came out of surgery, and they can hardly move, and their family has to put ice chips on their tongues. Because they can't even drink. They can't even... a straw. What would they do in that bed if the nurse just plopped the ice chips on the tray and walked out? They can't even move. They need someone to take the chips and put them on their tongue. That's the faith-stirring, edifying ministry that we have with one another. We don't even know what condition people are in. And when we speak faith-stirring words, hope-building words, it feeds our soul because we're saying, this is true and I've experienced it and I'm confessing it to you. I'm testifying that this faith-stirring, strengthening truth has helped me, and I'm sharing it with you. So it feeds my soul, but also it stops the work of sin. Now look, I'll read it to you and then I'll show you. Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. Now I know the context of Hebrews and so do you. We're talking about those people that were hearing about the new covenant that Christ purchased on the cross and the new covenant that sin is blood, but they were wavering between that and the old covenant because they really liked Doing and feeling they did all this stuff and achieving and they were not coming to God by faith Trusting in his gracious provision now. I know the primary context is those Jews that were wavering but the fact that this is in the New Testament, and it was was a part of what Paul is talking about when he said all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable then I know it's profitable so look what it says and Beware lest any of you have an evil heart in unbelief in departing from the living God. Other than the context of the first generation, it's what we all face. Every day, God and our flesh, the world, and the devil are assaulting, the world, flesh, and devil is assaulting us and God is pleading with us. And every day, either we believe God and turn our back on what culture is doing, what the devil is shooting at us, and what our deepest desires of our flesh are, and we say, I will obey. Even though I don't want to down deep in my flesh, and even though everybody else isn't doing it, I will respond in faith to you. I will go out not knowing where I'm going and not seeing and walking by faith like the book of Hebrews and Abraham. Or, I will believe the lie of the devil, believe the crush of the culture, and I will respond to the lusts of my flesh. Do you understand that all sin is connected to either believing the devil, the flesh, and the world, or believing God? And if I believe God, it's faith, and if I believe the others, it's a temptation becoming a sin. All sin is connected to unbelief. that I don't trust or believe God, and I trust and believe and follow what is in opposition to Him. That's what we all face. We all have a tendency to have an evil heart of unbelief when we depart from the living God and find the treasures of this world to be more appealing than the God we can't see. It's just a constant struggle and in a moment I'll show you a chart about it. But look what we're supposed to do to get out of that. But exhort one another daily while it's called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Sin is deceitful. Sin is designed to confuse me into thinking that that God isn't fair, or God isn't good, or God is out of control, or God is powerless. And this is better than him. And so sin is turning my back on obeying God by faith and turning toward the temptation, whatever it is. Sin is deceitful. And sin, look at verse 13, hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Sin hardens us. And we need others to exhort us, look at the beginning of verse 13, but exhort one another daily. Who are you in touch with that's a godly believer on a daily basis? That was the norm of the first century. They could not imagine being alone. It was so hard, so bad, they couldn't go one day alone. Exhort one another daily. You know, tonight all I'm going to be sharing is what I get to do all week long. I have 10 small groups. I have 33 men that I'm a part of. Daily! I mean, you ought to see. If I paid by the text, I'd be broke. I mean, I get constant texts from these men. Yes, no, okay. And some groups are yes and yes, because we're always doing little extra things. The yes is, yes, I'm in the word and fellowship and prayer and everything. And the other yes is, I'm sharing that with my wife. Boy, that was a hard one to adopt, because I found out that a lot of Christian men aren't really in a spiritual relationship with their wife, at least one that's pretty open and discussed. But daily, who are you in touch with daily? Who is tracking your life? Who knows you well enough that says, something's going on. Something's going on with you. What's going on with you? What are you, you're afraid of something. You're starting to, you're different. Who knows you that well that can, verse 13, exhort one another daily because sin is deceitful, it's hardening us. Are you close enough to any godly believer to get exhorted? And when they exhort you, what do they do? Chapter 10. This is what we're going to practice tonight. Chapter 10, look at verse 24. This is fascinating. Look at what we're all supposed to be doing. This is standard operating procedures for the church. This is not for retreats, mission teams, career Christian workers. This is standard protocol for the very basic level of Christianity. This is what God designed us to operate in. Yesterday I was doing a wedding in the chapel and it was wonderful and it was beautiful. Everything was wonderful about it. But it's my favorite, one of my favorite activities. I always say the same thing. I say, dearly beloved, we gather together in the sight of God with you as the assembled witnesses to join together this man who's shaking and sweating and just about ready to pass out, and this woman in the holy covenant of marriage. And then later in the service I say, I've been meeting with this dear couple for weeks, for months, and I mean they've gone through all the tests and they've filled out and done their homework, but this last lesson I want you to hear because you're the assembled witnesses and family and friends and those that know them most and love them most. And I want you to hear what they're promising, covenanting to do, and I would like you to come to them in the days ahead and ask them, how are you doing? I was at your wedding. How are you doing it at leading your home under the gracious lordship of Christ? Did you know people actually listen at weddings? I had one couple come to me. In fact, the man came to me and said, could you give me another one of those cards, the one you gave me to put in my wallet that has all the affirmations of the Ephesians 5 husband? He said, because someone stopped me. And it was someone that was at the wedding, my wife's, her friends, that I didn't know and I didn't recognize them. And they stopped me and I looked at them and they said, are you still doing everything you promised to do at your wedding? And he looked at him and he said, what are you talking about? They said, I was there, you said that. And he came to me and he said, I didn't know anybody, listen. He said, what did I promise? Could you give me another copy of that? And you know what Ephesians 5 says? Ephesians 5 says that a man gets in the Word every day so that his family and marriage will be sanctified because his life is genuine. Do you see the motivation for my daily time in the Word? It's so that I sanctify and cleanse my marriage and my family just because my life is in tune with God. And we are supposed to express that to each other. I'm supposed to say, I want to be regularly in the Word of God every day so that our family is sanctified. And then we look at our wife and we say, and I would like you to be in the Word of God so that you can be an encouragement to me. Not a competitor and not a rebuke, an encouragement to me. And there's a lot of, you know what else Ephesians 5 says? It says that we're willing to leave anything that hinders us from fulfilling this calling because it's from God. And so we meet with our marriage partners and we say, I don't want anything to be more important in my life than my relationship with you because that's my highest priority humanly. Divinely, God. Second to that, you. And so I want to leave anything that hinders my relationship with you. And then you pause and you look at them and say, Is there anything that you think is more important to me than you? And be prepared to listen for quite a while. Because most of us never get to that basis in our marriage. Where we say, I don't want you to feel that my hobby, my friends, my personal whatever is more important. My amusements, my entertainments, my whatever is more important than you. Is there anything that's starting to appear in your mind to be more important in my relationship with you? See, that's what a marriage is like. That's what the church is like. We're supposed to be able to go up to one another and say, you know, it appears when you talk, you're more excited about your athletic achievements or your financial achievements than you are about God. Now it just appears that way, and I know that couldn't possibly be true. Is it? And the persons, if they know you and love you and listen to you, they'll pause and they'll go, yeah, it is easier to talk about money than God. In fact, now I haven't been reading my Bible for months. You know, I carry it around, but it's really like a brick. And you know what we say to them? Oh great, I just wondered, and we walk on. No, we say, you know what, I go through times like that in my life too. And I want to Hebrews 10 24 you. Now look what it says. But considering one another, verse 24, the word consider, if you look it up and do a little Greek word study on it, means you get close and examine it. I mean this sure Beta 87A Shure microphone, I'm sure is expensive. Shure means surely, expensive. Did you know if you're buying something expensive that you make sure you're getting what you're looking for? Bloomberg was talking, that's a business commentator, he's a mayor but he has a big company, and he was talking about the recent economic turmoil has made people buy gold. you know, gold, they have so much money that they can actually buy gold to be a hedge. And he said, the Chinese, and he actually said it's the Chinese, have found out titanium and gold are very close on the periodic table in foreign weight. And you can take titanium that feels as heavy as gold and put a coat of gold on it, and you can actually sell one ounce titaniums for the price of gold and make a killing. And I thought, huh. Whoever does that hasn't been on a John Wayne movie watching time, because when John Wayne found a gold coin, he always went, what? Right? Didn't you notice that? Gold, your teeth sink into. Titanium, your teeth break. Because it's too hard. Gold is soft. It's heavy, but soft. You see, what are you talking about? If you buy gold coins through a glass and don't examine them, by the way, 24 karat gold, you can actually scratch with your fingernail. I mean, it's so soft it needs. They rarely sell 24 karat gold. It's too soft. And that means they're not examining it, they're just buying it. That's what this word means. It means get close enough to examine it. Get close enough to see what's really there. And it says in Hebrews 10, 24, we're supposed to be getting close enough to one another and examining one another in order to stir up love and good works. Does anybody get close enough to you to see if your gold is real? Do they get close enough to you to sharpen you? That's what the word stir up, paroxysm is the word. Paroxysm is a word for like a convulsion, but it's also a word for sharpening. Something that very clearly affects me across the board. A paroxysm is a systemic event, and a sharpening is it completely affects me. Does anybody get close enough to affect you to love and to good works? That's what the Gathering of the Church is about. Verse 25, don't forsake that coming together to be considering one another as the manner of some is. They were doing that even back then in the hard times. They were so busy or distracted they weren't coming together for the closeness and sharpening. But here's what the church is to be doing, exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day. Now, two views of that. Both are probably true. The day is the coming. They could see the persecution of the Roman Empire was coming, and it culminated in the book of Hebrews with the destruction of the temple, A.D. 70, but it's talking way beyond that to the day of Christ's return. What we do is we come alongside people and sharpen them and say, hey, you know what? It might be today or in 20 years, but you're actually gonna have to stand in front of Christ's judgment seat And do you think that your hobby is more important than your family? Or you think your hobby or your whatever is more important than what you were left here to do? And we sharpen one another in light of the day. That's what the church is about. What does that mean we are? Connected. Communicating. We're connected close enough to see one another. We're communicating. We're speaking words that Christ can energize. And we do it in the context that we care. I care so much about you going out in the fire, I want to remind you, you don't have your helmet on. I care so much about you going into the smoke, I want to remind you, you need your oxygen tank. I care about you so much, I say, something's out of whack here. Something's going on in your life. You look different, you act different, your eyes are different, you treat your wife differently, you're treating your kids differently, what's going on? See, we all need to be close, connected, caring. Now, how do you do that? I'm glad you asked. And God says you use the shield of faith and make sure everybody else is using it. We remind each other that when God says it quenches all the fiery darts, he means it. That there is no temptation taken us, but such as is common to man, but God is faithful and he can extinguish every one of them, that we let him. We remind each other of that. And then, we realize Satan knows just where to shoot in our life. Because we all have an area. My dad used to store all the gas cans and all the paint cans and the kerosene cans in the shed. Because he had been somewhere where something had burned. So he had just this, he didn't want gas fumes anywhere around us. So we put it out in the shed. And I used to mow the lawn and leave the gas can, my dad would say. And he knew one spark would... Satan knows what can explode us. He knows where to shoot. And so, because of that, when we have pain, he knows that he can shoot an arrow at us and inflame us, say, God isn't good. He shouldn't allow you to have pain. But God says, no, in faith, trust my wisdom. I know everything about your life, and I know you need this pain right now. When we have sorrow, God doesn't care. He's out of touch. God says, I love you so much that I'm bringing that sorrow to help you understand how much I love you and how much only I can comfort you. And when you have that temptation, Satan says, ah, God doesn't understand your needs. I'm going to feed your needs. And God says, no, I understand your needs and I have a perfect timing for meeting every desire you have. And when we have a loss, he says, God is absent, Satan says. He can't protect you. And God says, no, I'll never leave you or forsake you. That loss came with me standing right next to you. I happen to be holding your hand right now. And when that sickness come, Satan says, God's out of control. God says, no, trust my power. I am using that to show you my grace is sufficient for you. Don't petition me to take away that thorn in your flesh. Find I can be closest. And when we have that deepest desire, a lust, Satan says God doesn't really want you to be happy and God says trust my plans. I built that desire into you. Don't let it go toward lust. Let it go toward letting me fulfill your legitimate desires in a biblical way. How does all that happen? Tonight. As we develop, and I mean it's not like we learn it all at once, but by the way, do you know what tonight is? Communion. Do you know how many times we have communion at church? Let's do a quiz. How many times every month? One half of all the communions at Calvary are Sunday nights. That means that two-thirds of you miss one half of all communions. Did you know that? And communion is the highest worship we offer as a group. It is the most pure, rarefied, raw worship to God we can offer. And two-thirds of you miss one-half of all those celebrations. Just, you already knew it, I just wanted to tell you. I knew it too. But do you know what you miss? You miss the connection that only comes at the communion service when we're all celebrating the same thing. The one who died in our place that we just sang about. And the one we're supposed to be communicating to each other. So tonight before communion, and if you're coming, if you want to come, for a lot of you I just discourage you from getting anywhere near this place. But if you come, you should bring your Bible and you should open it and put a little marker in the favorite place. Not the, the favorite, but one of your most favorite places. Because tonight, Before communion, we're going to be able to, in a smaller group, actually share, out loud, reading our favorite part of the Bible that encourages us. And for the first time, you're going to experience the fact that what you have been blessed by will bless everybody in that circle. Because your voice, sharing what God has done in your life, will be energized by the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And you, connected in that moment, communicating God's Word, are a part of caring for the body of Christ. And then we'll roll right into communion, which will be one of the best we've ever had. So with that in mind, let's all stand. I'm going to close in prayer. And what I would encourage you to do is to consider how you're doing and not living the life. How are you doing at getting closer and closer and closer to a group of godly believers that can speak faith-stirring exhortations into your life? Because that's the only way we stand, is together. Let's bow for a word of prayer. Father, I thank you for letting us gather. I thank you for the truth of your word. I pray that you would stir us so that we can be tools in your hand to stir others around us. And I thank you for this great calling that you can extinguish all the fiery darts, but that shield works best together with others that are on the truck going through life with us. In the name of Jesus we pray and for his glory we ask and all God's people said, amen. God bless you as you go.