Alright, we're here in Hebrews chapter 10, and I want to focus on verses 24 and 25.
Let's look first at verse number 25 where the Bible reads,
Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is,
but exhorting one another in so much the more as you see the day approaching.
Now this is probably the most famous verse on the importance of church and church attendance.
This is the verse that people quote all the time, and it's a great verse, but quite honestly,
you don't get the full picture unless you go back to the verse before.
In verse number 24 where the Bible reads is,
And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works.
Notice how there's a colon after works.
What that's doing is it's going to connect verse 25 with verse 24.
So how is it that we provoke unto love and to good works?
By going to church.
That's the full picture of what's being said.
So we're going to look at five points here today,
and I want you to look first at verse number 24 where the Bible reads,
And let us consider one another.
Consider one another.
See, the first point in the sermon of the purpose of church is to consider one another.
That's the number one reason why you should be at church,
is because you're considering other people as opposed to yourself.
Now oftentimes you say,
Well, Brother Stuckey, I know I need to be at church so I can learn the word of God,
and I can be motivated to get sent out of my life.
Hey, that's all great and everything,
but the number one point is because of the fact you're considering one another.
You're not considering yourself, but you're considering other people.
That is why you should be in church.
Now turn to Philippians 2.
Philippians 2.
Now look, there are a lot of benefits of going to church.
There's a lot of reasons why it's a good idea to go to church.
There's tons of benefits, but what's the purpose?
What's the point?
It's to consider one another.
Consider other people.
And as a result of considering one another,
you end up reaping those benefits of being at church.
But the number one reason why you should be in church
is because you're considering other people.
You're worried about them as opposed to yourself.
Now this should not be shocking to us,
because what's the whole purpose of the Christian life?
What did Jesus teach us?
The number one thing is that your life is not about you,
but it's about other people.
That's the number one thing you read in the Bible.
That's the whole point.
I mean, if you've been with us for six months
and you don't know this yet,
that's the thing I want you guys to realize.
The number one thing you need to learn in church
is that your life is not about you.
It's about other people.
And if we get that point down and we understand that
and believe that and realize what that means,
it's going to affect how we live our entire lives.
Look, we go so many times and we don't feel like it.
You say, why?
Because we're considering one another.
We're considering those people that are lost out there
and they have no hope without us.
You know, that's why we live our lives
to consider other people as opposed to ourselves.
Philippians 2, starting verse number two, the Bible reads,
Fulfill ye my joy, that ye be like-minded,
having the same love, being of one accord of one mind.
Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory,
but in lowliness of mind,
let each esteem other, better than themselves.
Now, if you've listened to Pastor Jimenez
preach a lot of sermons,
this is the number one verse he quotes.
Philippians 2, 3, it's not even close.
He quotes that verse more than any other verse in the Bible.
Consider other people, esteem others better than yourself.
What does that mean?
It basically means that you're looking at other people
as being more important than yourself.
You're esteeming them better than yourself.
So on days when you don't feel like doing something
and I don't feel like going soul winning,
I don't feel like preaching the gospel to the lost,
but wait a minute, what about those lost people?
Do they want to hear the gospel?
And the answer to that would be yes.
You esteem others better than yourself, okay?
Our lives are not simply about us.
They're about other people.
Now you might say, brother, that's so hard.
We give up so much to be at church
and now we have to just care about other people
more than ourselves.
Look, you're gonna be happier
if you care about other people
than if you just care about yourself.
Look at the rich people out there
that have everything handed to them.
Everything in life is just about them
and they get everything they want.
They're miserable people.
That's why they commit suicide
when they're 30 years old.
That's why they die of alcohol poisoning
or drug overdose or whatever
when they're 30 years old.
Why?
Because of the fact their whole life is about them.
They end up being miserable.
That's the way it works.
Our lives are not about us.
They're about other people, okay?
Verse number four,
look not every man on his own things
but every man also on the things of others.
And so we don't just look at our own things
and what benefits us and what do we want.
We look on the things of others, okay?
Now that does not mean
that you look that somebody has some suit
and you say, man, I like that.
Look on the things of others.
Man, I want that.
Now that's called being covetous.
That's not what it's saying
when you look on the things of others like,
man, I wish I had that car.
I wish I had that house.
I wish I had that.
No, no, no.
That's not what the Bible's saying.
What it's saying though is you look at other people
and you look the things that are important
and necessary for them
and you don't care about what you do.
You don't care about what they need.
Verse five, let this mind be in you
which was also in Christ Jesus.
See, this is what Jesus Christ taught us.
So when you go back to this chapter
about the love of Christ and what he did,
look, he laid down his life for us.
This was the mind of Jesus Christ.
Now people didn't get this when he was alive
because they figured he would come here
to be a conquering hero.
He didn't do that.
He came here and he cared about other people
more than himself.
And what he's telling you is
let this same mind be in you
which was also in Christ Jesus.
Our lives are not supposed to be about us.
They're supposed to be about other people.
Now turn to Matthew 20.
And so what exactly does this mean?
What's a practical application?
Well, realize that when you're coming to church,
you're coming to church
because you care about the people at that church.
You don't care about what you need.
You care about what they need.
So let's talk about something
from a practical standpoint.
Is church a place where you come
to make money?
No, it's not.
It's not a place where you go
to sell your business.
You don't make this place a house of merchandise.
We don't make it a house of merchandise here.
We don't sell anything at this church.
Everything's free.
Why?
Because that's what the Bible teaches.
It's not a house of merchandise.
But this is not a place for you to come in
and try to get money from people.
Didn't we deal with that problem several months ago
and that was kind of like the final straw
with that person where it's like
you don't come to our church
and start asking people for money.
That's not appropriate.
Brother Stuckey, I don't know.
That seems pretty harsh
since you're mad about people asking for money.
No, I'll tell you what's harsh
is when God strikes down Gehazi
with leprosy permanently.
Why?
Because he used religion to make money.
Isn't that what you see?
Naaman was healed and he's gone
and then basically he lies to Elisha
and he lies to Naaman
and he just asks for basically
a little bit of money.
What did Elisha say?
Hey, this is not the time to ask for money.
He got struck with leprosy
permanently.
He cleaned onto him permanently.
Why?
Because church is not the place
to get money from people.
You don't come to this church
and start asking people for money.
That's not the way church works.
Now here's the true sad reality
that at any church in the world
people always ask for money.
And usually they're not even
members of your church.
They just kind of come to church
and then they ask for money.
That's the way it usually works.
Look, just this morning
at six in the morning
you could ask my wife.
I woke up and I showed her a message
from someone who visited our church
like three months ago.
That was the last time they were here.
They came during the mission trip.
That was the last time
and then they were asking for money.
And it's like you're not even
a member of our church.
And it's like I don't even know you.
How am I going to give money
to someone I don't really even know?
You say does this situation happen often?
It happens several times
every single month.
Look, at the end of this service
we're actually going to hand you guys out
our finances over the first six months
of this church and go through
each of the categories really quickly.
But look, if we gave money
to everybody who asked for money
we would not have these AC units.
We would not have these chairs.
We wouldn't have anything.
Say why?
Because for one,
there's a lot of people that ask for money.
And two, once you start giving
some people money
it just increases the amount of people
asking for money.
That's the way it works.
And look, this is not a place
where you just come in
and you know you just ask for money
and stuff like that.
Look, that is not the purpose of church.
You say why?
Because the purpose of church is other people.
It's not yourself.
You don't use the church for your benefit.
Now will this church benefit you?
Absolutely.
This church will benefit your life.
It will change your life.
But you don't try to use the church
for your own benefit anymore.
No, you're coming to church
because you care about other people
more than yourself, okay?
Now let me just say this that
my suggestion would be that
if somebody ever asks you individually
for money from this church
you know you probably should
talk to me about it first
because there's a good chance
they've already asked me for money as well.
Okay, there's a good chance
I might kind of know some
about the situation, all right?
But if somebody comes in
especially it's different
for example there's people
that are here every single week
that are members of our church
and we love them, we care about them.
Look, if people fall on hard times
the church can be there to help them out.
Because the church cares about them
they know them, they love them.
But if it's somebody who's not even here
who's not even part of our church
and they start coming and asking for money
it's like you know what, that's not appropriate.
That is not the purpose of church.
You don't use the church for money.
And if you think what I'm saying is harsh
then you need to go back
to I think it's 2 Kings 5
and read the story of Naaman and Gehazi, okay?
Because they use the church for money
and what happens, Gehazi gets struck
with leprosy permanently, okay?
You don't use the church for money.
Now look, most Baptist churches
in the Philippines
aren't they into religion
for a filthy loser's sake?
Amen.
That's the truth.
How does God feel about it?
Well remember the story of Gehazi.
He got struck with leprosy forever, okay?
Matthew 20 verse 26.
But it shall not be so among you
but whosoever will be great among you
let him be your minister
and whosoever will be chief among you
let him be your servant.
Even as the Son of Man
came not to be ministered onto
but to minister
and to give his life a ransom for many.
See the Lord Jesus Christ came here.
He didn't come as a conquering hero
to have everybody just minister onto Him
and everything like that.
No, He ministered onto them.
He was a servant unto all.
And look, Jesus was not rich when He was here.
Like all these pastors
that want to make all this money.
Look, Jesus was not rich when He was here.
Right.
So it's like why in the world
would you think that
if you're preaching the word of God
that you should be rich
and you should be, you know,
anyways, that's a whole nother rabbit trail.
But look, church, the purpose of it
is not to get rich, okay?
Now I want you to think about something else
from a logical standpoint.
Let's say that every single person
showed up today
with the purpose and the mindset
that I am here
so that way other people could benefit me
and encourage me and motivate me.
I'm here just so other people
can motivate me, okay?
Look, if everybody had that mindset
then nobody would be motivated.
Because nobody would actually be trying to help
motivate other people
and encourage them.
But let's say everybody showed up today
with the mindset
I'm going to come to try to help
encourage other people
no matter what's going on in my life.
I'm here to try to encourage
and help other people
then everybody walks away encouraged.
Right.
Okay.
See, if we live our lives
only about ourselves
and we come to church and say
I'm here just to...
How can this benefit me?
Then nobody's going to be benefited.
You need to come to church with the mindset
how can I benefit and help other people, okay?
Now turn in your Bible back to Hebrews 10.
And so the first point of this sermon
is just simply this
that we need to consider one another.
That's what it says in Hebrews 10 verse 24.
And you say well why is it
that we consider one another?
Well what does it say in verse number 24?
Hebrews 10 24
Let us consider one another to
provoke onto love and to good works.
You see a church helps provoke you
on the love and good works.
It helps motivate you to read the Bible.
It helps motivate you to go sowing.
It helps motivate you to live your life
caring about other people.
See that's a purpose of church
and you need to consider one another.
Why?
Because if we don't encourage one another
then honestly our motivations
are just going to die out.
We need to be here and encourage
and help one another
to continue to motivate them.
You say why?
Because the world kicks us around
seven days a week.
It kicks you around with the music
and the movies and everything out there.
Everything you hear.
People talk about getting drunk
and fornicating and all this stuff.
Look the world kicks you around.
You need to come to church
and have something completely different.
You need to learn the word of God
and you need to have people encourage you
because as a Christian
the world will try to destroy
your motivation every single day.
You need to come to church
and get encouraged
and get help from one another.
But you don't come to church
in order to get encouragement.
You come to church
in order to encourage one another
and what happens?
You reap what you sow.
If you come to encourage one another
you're going to get encouraged.
Don't we believe that you reap what you sow?
That's not just a verse saying that
hey you live some sinful life
you're going to reap that.
That's not the only thing it's saying.
That's the bad part.
But the good part is
that if you choose to serve one another
then guess what?
Your needs are going to be met as well.
Turn to Malachi 3.
Malachi 3.
I mean you can look at our results
in our bulletin of how many souls
have been saved as a church.
It's a team effort.
If this church did not exist
then the amount of souls
that we would have gotten saved combined
would be nowhere near that.
Why?
Because when you're at church
it helps motivate you to live for God.
Other people are excited to win souls
and do things for God
and it motivates you.
And here's what takes place.
Some ways I'm going to show up
and I'm really excited
and I'm ready to conquer the world.
Other ways I'm going to show up
and I'm not feeling very good at all.
And honestly I need people
to encourage me.
And see that's the thing with church
because we all have our high points
and we have our low points.
Now the key is this
that you must be at church
whether you're at a high point
or a low point.
Because the natural tendency is
that when you're not feeling good
you just kind of forsake church.
And you feel like if I forsake church
it's going to make me feel so much better.
No it's not.
You're going to be miserable
when you're feeling bad
you must be in church.
Why?
Because people can encourage
and help you and motivate you.
Otherwise you're just going to faint out.
Malachi 3 verse 16.
Then they that feared the Lord
spake often one to another
and the Lord hearkened and heard it
and a book of remembrance
was written before him
for them that feared the Lord
and that thought upon his name.
He said,
Brother Stuckey,
how often is often?
Okay.
What does that mean?
Well it probably means
coming to church more than once a month.
It probably means
hearing from people that love the Lord
as much as possible
and being around God's people
as much as possible.
Why?
Because the more you're around God's people
the more motivated you're going to be.
And see this was the pattern
in the Old Testament
and the New Testament.
Whether you go back pre-flood days
or our current life that we have now.
That the people that feared the Lord
would be hated by the rest of the world
and they need to speak
often one to another
to get motivated.
Okay.
Look in the Old Testament
so many took place.
But I'll tell you what in the Old Testament
you also had to have God's people
getting together to motivate one another.
Otherwise you're going to
lose your motivation very quickly.
Turn to Acts 2.
Acts 2.
Now one thing I'm personally encouraged by
is the fact that there's some people
that honestly their schedules
don't make it where they're able
to come to church all the time.
But then sometimes
they show up after the services are over
just for fellowship and soul-willing.
It's like man that's awesome.
I've never really been part of a church
that really doesn't.
That's exciting.
That's encouraging.
And it's good because of the fact
you need to speak often one to another
as much as possible
to keep up your motivation.
Acts 2 verse 42 the Bible reads.
And they continued steadfastly
in the apostles doctrine
in fellowship
and in breaking of bread and in prayers.
You say brother Stuckey
does the doctrine that we believe in matter?
Absolutely it matters.
But the fellowship also matters.
It's like yes we believe very strongly
after the tribulation.
Yes we believe very strongly
that believers in the Old Testament
went to heaven.
They didn't go to some holding place in hell.
We believe these things.
But look the doctrine is not going to be
the only thing that you need
to be motivated to live for God.
Because you might know
all the doctrine in the world
but you're still going to get depressed sometimes.
You're still going to go through trials
and guess what?
It's the fellowship
that's going to get you through those trials.
It's not really going to be the doctrine.
It doesn't really matter
how much doctrine you know
because if you go through trials in life
that's not going to get you through it.
What gets you through it is the fellowship
of people that love God,
that comfort you,
that motivates you to live for God.
That's what gets you through it.
Turn to Ephesians 4.
Ephesians 4.
And so a pattern we saw in Acts 2.
And Acts 2 is the big chapter
where they get all those people saved.
And you see after Acts 2
that the church just explodes and broke.
One of the big parts of this
is because they're continuing often
in breaking of bread and in prayer.
What that's saying is basically
they're having meals together.
I think it's great that on Sundays
we have meals together as church.
We eat together, we fellowship,
we talk about life and things like that.
That is great to help continue
to motivate you.
Ephesians 4 verse 16.
From whom the whole body
fitly joined together
and compacted by that
which every joint supplies.
So you see here in verse 16 it says
the whole body fitly joined together.
When it says body
it's talking about the body of believers,
this local body, the body of Christ.
And what it says is fitly joined together.
Okay.
Now he's using an example of a body
because we all have bodies.
Okay.
And we have a lot of parts
or members to our body.
And they're fitly joined together.
And look the way our bodies are designed
you can't just mix stuff
and move it around.
Right.
I can't just move my hand
and put it up here by my ear
and move my ear down here.
It's not going to work very well.
Okay.
We're designed in a specific way.
We're fitly joined together.
Now what would happen though
if today I was missing one of my body parts?
What would happen if I was missing
you know one of my legs
or missing one of my arms?
It obviously is going to cause
a big hindrance to me.
What if I was missing an eye?
It's obviously going to cause
a big hindrance.
What if you have a church
where many people that are members
of that church are just not there?
They're just for safety and assembly.
It's going to affect the church.
Right, yeah.
Because we're fitly joined together.
You specifically have a purpose
at this church.
Amen, yeah.
Okay.
Now I don't necessarily know
the exact reason why God has you here
but you have a specific purpose
of why you're here.
Okay.
And you're meant to be here
to be a benefit to other people.
You need to find out what that role is.
Also in verse number 16 it says,
Incompacted by that
which every joint supplyeth.
If you think of compacted,
think of a trash compactor.
Okay.
A trash compactor basically
gets all the trash compacted together.
Really tight.
Okay.
And so we as believers here,
look we're supposed to be
very tightly joined together.
We're supposed to be close with one another.
Yeah.
Now one big reason why
our church is compacted together
is because of our doctrine.
Because we believe the same things
and there's very few people that do,
it makes us very close to one another.
Right.
Automatically.
But you can't just forsake the fellowship.
We're compacted together.
This is the group of people
that's going to reach this area
for the gospel.
Because of what we believe
we're compacted together
but we need the fellowship.
Okay.
We need both of these things.
Look it's hard to have good fellowship
with people that believe different things.
Yeah.
Right.
If people come to this church
and they believe in salations
by repenting of all your sins,
it's like kind of hard to have fellowship
with that person.
Right.
They believe something completely different.
That's not what our church stands for.
Yeah.
If they believe something completely different
they say well you know I think
the hymns are outdated
we're just going to sing these rock songs.
Look it's hard to really fellowship with them
because of the fact
we don't have that same doctrine
that brings us together.
But we do have the same doctrine in this room.
In terms of important doctrines
we believe the same things.
And you're never going to be this close
to other people that believe different things.
Amen.
Right.
You're going to be close to the people
that have the same doctrine as you
but you need to actually be here.
Right.
If you're not here
you're not going to get the benefits of that.
Verse number 16.
That was every joint supplied
according to the effectual working
in the measure of every part.
So effectual working means
it actually has an effect
in the measure of every part.
Every part, every member,
every person in this church
you're to be here
and to help effectually work.
It means it makes a difference.
You being at this church
you make a difference
to help motivate people to live for God.
You make a positive difference at this church.
Not a negative difference.
A positive difference.
You're not a hindrance
but you're a help.
That's what the Bible is saying here
in Ephesians chapter 4.
Now turn back to Hebrews 10.
So what you don't want to do
is be someone who
you come to church
when you feel like coming to church.
You say why?
Because of the fact
us at this church wants you here.
It doesn't really matter
whether you feel like coming to church.
It matters whether the people here
want you to go to church.
Now I understand people can get sick
and they can have valid reasons.
I'm not denying that.
Okay I understand.
Sometimes you know you have to miss church
for valid reasons.
But what I'm saying is
you know sometimes
some people come to church
when they feel like it
or if they feel like living for God that day
well I'll show up at church.
If I don't then I'm not going to show up at church.
But it doesn't matter what you feel like.
Remember the point of this sermon.
Consider one another.
What matters is do the people at church
want you here.
And if we have church wants you here
then you should come.
Wasn't last week a very exciting week?
It's very exciting.
You say why?
Because it was packed.
We had a lot of people here at church.
We had a lot of people.
It was motivating to all of us.
Now the truth is that
nobody at this church cares about the attendance
more than I do.
Okay you say why?
Because every single week
I report to Pastor Mendez how things are going.
Okay.
Every single week I make a missionary update
to report on how things are going.
And so honestly when Sunday rolls around
I'm paying close attention to people that are coming.
I know if somebody's been gone for a few weeks.
I know somebody's missing for various reasons.
And I'm wondering in my head
hey is something wrong?
Is it their work schedule?
Are they sick?
Are they mad?
What is it?
You know.
Why?
It really matters to me.
Quite honestly it's going to matter to all of us too.
Because if you start coming to this church
and in a couple months we have like 20 people here on Sundays
you're going to start to lose your motivation.
You get motivated seeing other people.
Why?
It validates everything we're doing.
Yeah.
It shows that yeah you know God is behind this church.
So when it works and what we're preaching
and the way we preach.
Yes it makes a difference.
Because the other Baptist churches will mock us.
They'll criticize what we do.
But when we see a lot of people come here to church
we see you know what?
Obviously coming to church makes a difference.
And what we're doing makes a difference.
Okay.
Now I want you to understand that when you think of church
I personally believe that church is honestly the number one
most basic part about being a Christian.
Amen.
The number one most basic part.
You say why?
Because of the fact you can start coming to church
but it might take you a while to get into a habit of Bible reading every week.
Yeah.
Now you can come to church but it's going to be hard to start being motivated
to go soul winning every week.
Okay.
And also when it comes to you know church
what you're doing is basically showing
hey I agree with this church.
I believe in this church.
I believe the same things as them.
I have the same values as them.
And so when you're coming to church what you're showing is
this is the group of people that I want to line up with.
This is the group of people that I stand behind.
Okay.
Now look people go to other churches
other Baptist churches here in the Philippines
and they know that their pastor might not even be saved.
They say my pastor preaches repentance of sins.
It's like why did you go there?
Well I think I can change the pastor.
I think I can change the church.
I think that a guy who's been preaching a false gospel for 25 years
if I just you know show him through my good works
all of a sudden he'll get saved become a soul winner
and just be like another pastor of minutes.
That's not going to happen.
That's ridiculous.
And look you know I've been one of those foolish people before.
I was at churches that were dead as can be
and I kind of stuck in there.
I thought hey hopefully I can make a difference.
It doesn't work.
And many of us have learned that same lesson that I did
and that other people need to learn.
It's not going to work.
You say what do I need to do?
For save your dead church and come to a real church.
That's what you need to do.
You say brother second you want to recruit people
from these other Baptist churches in the Philippines?
Yeah actually I do.
Say why?
Because of the fact when you're preaching a false gospel
I don't feel too bad about stealing your members.
Yeah it's like why would I feel bad about that?
It's like you're not even clear on what your gospel is.
You're not preaching the truth.
Why would I feel bad about that?
Do I feel bad if some Catholic church
or Catholic person starts coming to our church?
No I don't feel bad.
Why?
Because the Catholic church is a false church.
Do I feel bad if somebody leaves a repentance of sins
Baptist church and comes to our church?
I don't feel bad at all.
I'm going to sleep great tonight.
The fact that more people that come to our church
I'm going to sleep even better.
I won't feel guilty about it.
Okay now look if that church is a real church
and they're really preaching the truth
and yeah you know what those people are welcome
to stay at that church that's fine that's great.
But the problem that we have is
there aren't a lot of great churches around here.
And so no I'm not going to feel guilty of people
leaving a dead church and coming to a real church.
Why?
Because our church is going to be the one in this area
that goes so when he does something big for God.
And I wish that was not the case.
I wish that some of you that come a couple hours
to this church I wish you had a church
just like this in your area.
And you know Lord willing one day that will be the case.
Okay but honestly it's going to start with people
just regularly attending our church
and eventually we can do a church point.
Church point's never going to happen
unless the people who listen to all the sermons online
start actually coming here.
You say brother so if this church was near me
then I would you know go to this church.
Yeah but you're never going to have a church near you
until you actually start coming to this church.
That's right.
People need to start coming to this church
and then guess what we can start making plans
of doing a church plan one day.
But you know all the people who listen to sermons online
and they go to a dead church
you're going to be a dead church the next 20 years then.
Right.
Because of the fact you know what
it's not logical to start a church plan
if our church isn't big enough.
And so you need to just make the effort
of actually coming to church for a little while.
You say brother Stuckey that's easy for you to say
you live near the church.
Look I used to drive an hour and 45 minutes
to church every week.
I used to drive an hour and 45 minutes
when I lived in Pennsylvania.
I worked in Maryland.
I went to church in West Virginia.
Okay I drove an hour and 45 minutes
and it was like a death drive during the winter time.
There's snow on the ground.
There's deer that come around the corners
and everything like that.
I was scared many times.
You know there's times when the fog is so thick
that I couldn't even see what I was driving.
And literally the only thing you can do it
in Garrett County in Maryland it's like a death trap.
Several years back they had a car wreck
that was like 200 cars.
Because what happened is it was a heavy fog.
One person gets in a wreck.
The person behind gets in the wreck.
Person after person after person.
Why?
You can't really see.
What you're trying to do is honestly
just look at the lights behind you of the car
because you can't really see the road at all.
And there's snow coming and your car's kind of shaky.
Look I used to drive that all the time
but you know I always said at the back of my mind
you know what this is the church I go to.
It's the best church and I'm willing to make the drive.
You know and I ended up actually moving to West Virginia
instead of driving an hour and 45 minutes to church
I drove an hour and a half to work.
Five times a week.
Okay and I remember one morning I was there for church.
On Sunday you know I lived in Morgantown at the time.
I woke up the next day to drive back
and the snow was so bad it took me three and a half hours.
It took me a long time because it was extremely dangerous.
But you know what I did that for a long time.
Why?
Because that was the church in my area.
Okay you go to the best church
that's in your area even if it takes you effort.
I'm not asking you to do something that I don't do
because I used to do that as well.
Hebrews 10 verse 25 the Bible reads
not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together
as the manner of some is.
The third point is this that you have to make an effort
to miss church.
You have to make an effort to miss church.
Now that might sound strange to you
but look at that word forsake.
What does forsake mean?
Well turn to Hebrews 13 five.
Hebrews 13 five.
And in Hebrews 13 five what the Bible reads is this.
Let your conversation be without covetousness
and be content with such things as you have.
For he has said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.
Okay forsaking is basically like a stronger word than leave.
Right we know when we're saved God's never going to leave us.
We're saved no matter what we do the rest of our lives.
Once saved always saved no exceptions.
Once we're saved we're saved forever.
He's never going to leave us.
He's never going to forsake us.
Forsake is basically like a strong term to say that you're leaving
but here's the thing if you're going to forsake something
that implies you're making an effort to leave.
Okay he's never going to forsake us.
If he were to forsake us he would actively leave us.
He's putting in effort.
Okay you say why does it say not forsaking?
Because you're expecting to be here and to miss you're actually making an effort to miss.
But honestly this logically makes sense as well
because think about when you skip work.
When you skip work what do you have to do?
You have to call and say sorry you know I'm sick today I'm not going to make it.
Right you have to actually make that phone call.
Then people ask you the other day hey why weren't you at work the other day?
Oh I was sick.
Right but when you miss church what every single person does is
they give the reasons why they're missing church.
Because people ask them about it and they'll say well you know because of this because of that
and they might have a valid reason but you're actually you know having to put in an effort
to say hey this is why I wasn't there.
Okay look the bottom line is God expects you to be at this church.
If you're in this area you consider this your church God expects you to be here.
Okay he expects you to be at church and say brother Stuckey
you know right now I'm not able to come to church all the time.
Maybe your work schedule is all over the place and you miss church sometimes.
Well you know honestly
I understand that it's going to take some effort but you want to make a change
so you're going to be able to be here as much as possible.
I understand you might have a job where you're missing on Sundays
but that's not something you want to be doing permanently.
You want to find a way to get the problem fixed and I understand that it's a problem that I
don't have and you might have a situation.
I understand that that's something that you honestly should pray about and think about
and figure out what can I do so I'm not missing church for work.
Because work is not more important than church.
Now work is necessary.
We need to work but at the same time you know you don't want to be in the situation where
you're just always missing church.
That's not a good position to be in.
Now notice what it says in Hebrews 10.
Go back to Hebrews 10 let's look at verse 25 again.
Now in terms of my part in that when people are not able to come for because of work purposes
I always pray for those people and I pray that they'll be able to fix their schedule
and make a change.
I hope that you'll make the same effort as well.
I'm willing to pray for you that you're going to be able to make that change.
That's something that you want to change though.
Okay now I'm not saying that you need to just go out today and just quit your job if that's
the situation you're in.
I'm not saying that.
What I'm saying is you want to find a way to get that change and actually pray about
it and think about it.
Figure out what can you do.
Hebrews 10 verse 25 of our reads,
not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is.
Okay the fourth point is this that some people do this.
They forsake the church.
Okay church isn't that important to them.
Okay it says as the manner of some is.
Some people have a pattern of missing church.
That's just the way it is.
You know whenever a church starts there's always people that are you know they're from
day one but there's certain people that you know are not going to be there permanently
because honestly some people just have a pattern where they're just not going to be
at church.
Okay when it comes to people that listen to sermons online everyone says man I wish I
had a church in my hometown.
If this church was in my hometown man I would be at every service.
I'd be your number one sole winner.
I'd do anything I could to serve the church.
A lot of those people they don't even go to church.
Yeah it happens all the time in the U.S.
Right.
People are looking for I remember you know a story from Pastor Anderson from a long time
ago.
You know he had a good friend of his that he went to Bible college with that actually
did graduate from Hiles Anderson and you know he graduated from Hiles Anderson and he started
a church in Iowa and I remember somebody visited Faithful Word Baptist Church one day and he's
like man you know I really wish you know I could have a good church you know the same
old story you know my pastor's lame the preaching bad they don't really go soloing you know
it's like that for pretty much all of us and then he said if there I wish there was a church
like Faithful Word and then he was actually lived like 15 minutes away from the new church
that was being started by someone who believed in the poster of rapture who went soloing
all the time believe everything we do okay and pastor Anderson told me like hey my my
my good friend one of my best friends is starting a church in the next couple months in your
hometown guess what that person never showed up to church it's the same old story I mean
it's not just something that happens it happens all the time people say you know man if there's
a church like this I'd be there all the time no no not necessarily because the manner of
some people is not to come to church it's very easy to listen to a sermon online it's very easy
you don't have to get dressed up you know you can you can pause it to to put some food in the
microwave right I mean it's very easy to just listen to the sermon home you can listen to it
at midnight you can listen to it at four in the morning whatever you want it's very easy to do
that it's not as easy when you have a set time a set location and you know honestly there's no
real dress standards here but you know most people are going to show up at least somewhat dressed up
probably more than if you listen I mean when you listen to a sermon at home you don't say well I
gotta pause I gotta put on my tie you know I gotta put on my suit to listen to this sermon right you
don't do that neither do I okay but obviously at church you know you're going to come dressed up to
a certain degree okay but some people just are never going to be at church because quite honestly
the manner of some people is not to be a part of church yeah that's just the way it is now obviously
I'm preaching to people that are actually here in church but I just want you to understand this that
if we had you know 20 people that lived right around this area that listened to all the sermons
and once they found out the church was here look not all of them would come to this church even if
it was walking distance away some of them would just not come to church why just not that important
to them okay look at Hebrew chapter 10 now I want you to understand something that when you think
about in the bible when John the Baptist was preaching he was preaching where out in the
wilderness now guess what people didn't have cars to get there say brother second it's really hard
to get to church I have to take three rides or whatever but it was a lot harder with John the
Baptist right they put in great effort to come right yeah they might be basically forsaking
their food for the day like hey we're gonna eat breakfast before we go hey we'll eat dinner like
14 hours late when we get home we're gonna eat a big dinner when we get home we're not gonna
have lunch we're not gonna necessarily be able to pack a lunch or whatever you know who knows
but it's not like you can just stop on the side of the street and say oh wow Robinson's grocery
store I'm kind of hungry I'll just grab a bottle of water I'll grab this look I mean they didn't
have those modern conveniences that we have right so basically when they went to listen to John the
Baptist they had faith that you know what along the way we're not gonna have you know you know
our chariot or whatever we're riding it's gonna be fine there's not gonna be any problems
and we're just gonna go by faith and just go to hear the word of God you leave early and come back
late and what happened was Sundays was meant to be a day where this is my day for the Lord
basically whether I start early and end late hey this is my day that I'm serving God
when John the Baptist preached that's what they did when Jesus preached didn't people come a long
distance away and then all of a sudden it's like wow they don't have any food they just kind of
went by faith and just said I just want to hear the word of God preached and then Jesus obviously
fed the great multitude but look they were going without understanding or without believing
necessarily that they would have food on the other side they just said you know what I want to hear
the word of God I don't care if I'm tired I don't care if it makes me exhausted look it's not that
bad to be able to to leave at seven or eight in the morning and you're here from 10 to one you
know you eat lunch you go so when you get back at six at night look our services are early
you don't get back at midnight you know they're designed that way to help people out because I
understand people are coming from a distance I don't want you to have to get back super late
at night but look our service times are pretty convenient for people coming from a long distance
away back-to-back services you know lunch if you want to stay for so long you can do all of that
one day we designed it that way for a reason okay they are pretty convenient for people coming from
a distance honestly it's not that big of a challenge to say oh wow I'm getting back and
I still have like five hours before you sleep at night but in the bible people made a much much
bigger effort than any of us right Hebrews 10 verse 25 notice what it says not forsaking the
assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is but exhorting one another and so much
the more as you see the day approaching see the bible says so much the more what that's showing
you is you need church more now than you did in the past right it's more important now to go to
church than it was in the past you say why because of the fact with the invention of the cell phone
guess what people are seeing worldliness wickedness every single day with facebook and tv and
everything like that with the music player look you're around the world all the time every single
week the world is trying to get your old man stirred up that old song you used to listen to
the old man they're trying to the devil's trying to stir it up the world's trying to do that guess
what you need church more now as the wickedness increases you need somebody actually standing up
here and preaching against the wickedness and telling you that hey you know what vice ganda ain't
normal that's not normal I don't care if everybody watches it it's not normal it's wicked it's
perverted it's not normal and look if you don't hear that at church where are you going to hear
that no and the sad reality is there aren't a lot of people standing up and just telling me the
truth you're not hearing that at church see this church sometimes offends you with what's being
said yeah because of the fact what's happening is you're being unbrainwashed right yeah you're
being unbrainwashed see the world will brainwash you throughout the week and if you don't get
unbrainwashed and look you in your personal time you should be reading the bible as much as possible
to unbrainwash yourself oh yeah because the reality is we live in the world and the world
will brainwash you okay look if you were the devil what would you do doesn't the bible say
the devil is the god of this world right doesn't say the 2nd Corinthians 4 he's the god of this
world look if you were the devil and you were the god lowercase g of this world and you had free
reign to destroy people's lives wouldn't you try to do it with the music and the movies and
everything that you see of course you would right but the devil's not an idiot he's obviously trying
to do that and that's why you need the church more now than he did in the past why because honestly
100 years ago when you walk down the street it wouldn't have been that weird yeah right people
would have been dressed like you'd expect we would be dressed now if you walk down the street it's
just like it's a crazy world out there you know it used to be honestly this is the way it was like
30 40 years ago pastors would preach against you know what they call mixed bathing okay that's
basically swimming guys and girls swimming together and the reason why they did that is
because they understood that women would be dressed in a certain way guys would have their
shirts off which would be you know not the most modest thing and they said you know it's not
appropriate but see now but that that was a day when you walked down the street and everyone would
be dressed normal now though it's just like i mean you can't do anything if you go out in public it's
like mixed bathing everywhere no matter where you go people are dressed inappropriately and it's
like honestly you just can't avoid it right so it's like what i'm saying is not really that
extreme because you know what they used to preach even more extreme in the past but now it's getting
worse and worse and worse and worse and guess what you need church more now okay turn to ephesians 4
ephesians 4 say brother stuckey this sounds like really extreme preaching well that tells me that
you need church i need the bible more because honestly the bible is much more extreme than
anything i've said yeah this is not really that extreme at all i mean you read genesis 19 that's
extreme okay i mean god destroyed an entire city sodom and gomorrah because of the sodomites because
of the baklava that's why he destroyed the entire town okay i didn't make up that story the word
sodomy comes from the town of sodom yeah that's what god feels about okay look you look throughout
the bible what i'm saying is really not that extreme at all throughout the bible god is
extreme we serve an extreme god he expects our righteousness he expects us to obey but what i'm
saying in this sermon just simply just come to church yeah it's not really that extreme and
honestly if you came to church regularly and you heard the preaching it would start to seem pretty
normal to you if it doesn't seem normal to you that's because you know you don't hear a lot of
preaching yeah and honestly i always challenge people this that if you read the bible in your
personal life just every day you read the bible reading cover to cover one time and you won't
think anything i'm saying is extreme every single person when they read the bible for the first time
they're like wow i i had no idea that you know god was so you know vengeful wrathful yeah i mean
if you read the bible yeah he takes you know serving him very seriously and he hates wickedness
that's what i'm teaching reasons four verse 22 that he put off concerning the form of conversation
the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust and be renewed in the spirit of
your mind you see it is not good enough just to be saved you need to be renewed right yeah you need
that as often as possible every single day you have to put on the new name okay because the world
brainwashes you you're in the old man it says corrupt according to the deceitful lust
look the the world brainwashes you every single week you need to be in the new man as much as
possible every day you need renewed you need to be reminded of the same things you already know
you've heard them preached okay it's not good enough to preach on a topic and then never hear
it again for 20 years no you need to hear it over and over again why because every single week the
world is brainwashing you that what you heard in this sermon is wrong right and you need to be
renewed as much as possible now the best way is to just read your bible amen that's the number one
best way amen but you know church as well because you need to hear it preached and you need to be
in a place where people motivate you to live for god turn to first kings 10 first kings 10
and so when it comes to this sermon you know your number one purpose of coming to church is simply
because you care about other people you say brother specter the people of this church are
my friends i consider them my church family i love them yeah you should be at this church because you
care about your friends because your friends want to see you here yeah your church family wants to
see you here it's not just me everybody wants to be here we want the people at this church we care
about people being at this church and so you say brother stuck you know what if i don't feel like
going to church you go to church anyway oh yeah that's what you do because your life is not about
you that's the number one main focus of the entire bible is learning is your life is not about you
it's about other people and you should be in church because you actually care about those
people and because you want to motivate them okay but i've been to church before there's a guy that
i knew at one of my old church in west virginia you know brother dave and i i nicknamed him in
my head the human spark plug okay and the reason why i said this was because every single sunday
man he had a smile on his face and he just shake your hand really say hey how's it going brother
and just every i mean and i was there at church for years every single week that's what he did
he wasn't acting phony or whatever he was just very enthusiastic excited person and i'll tell
you what i showed up at church sometimes that i did not feel like being there but once i saw
brother dave and he shook that hand and you know man i was like man i feel pretty good now
why because when you're around people that are in a good mood you end up being in a good mood
so when you're coming to church you should be here to try to encourage one another because
if you come to church and you're just depressed you know some people you know all they want to
do is tell you about their problems it's like oh you know well let's start from when i was 10 years
old and you know i was supposed to go get ice cream and you know my my mom promised me that
ice cream and then you know my dad said no and i've never forgiven my dad until this day and then
you know i became a teenager and i wanted to date this guy blah blah it's like look you know we
don't need to hear all your problems okay and that's that's a bit of an exaggeration but honestly
there's people like that that all they want to do is tell you about their problems you know you
knock on that door and then someone you know just a couple minutes in they just start talking about
their life and say man i remember when i was a kid this and that they just want to tell you about
their problems and things like that you know i mean church is about other people and their
lives are about other people it's not about yourself okay first kings 10 verse 8 let's wrap
this up first kings 10 verse 8 it says happy are thy men happy are these thy servants which stand
continually before thee and that hereby wisdom and first kings 10 is really the best chapter to
look at time what is the perfect church what you see is that these people were there and they
heard the wisdom of Solomon they're actually there they came they showed up to hear the wisdom
of Solomon and when it comes to being at church and notice what it said in verse 8 happy are thy
men happy are these thy servants look when you hear the word of God preached and you show up
to church it's going to make you happy yeah you say well brother I'm depressed i don't feel like
being at church that means you must be at church because that will make you feel better being at
church is going to put you in a better mood okay but if you just stay at home and just kind of
sulk and be depressed and all you do is just think about yourself and how bad your life is all day
you're just going to permanently be miserable right the secret to getting over depression is
to quit thinking about why you're depressed yeah because guess what eventually you won't even
remember why you're depressed and i remember what was bothering me see when you forget about
something and you don't think about it you don't talk about it you forget about it i mean you go
back to people that you went to school with in elementary school do you know all their names
no you don't you know why because you don't actively think about it every day and eventually
you just forget about it yeah that's right it's the same thing with things that bug you in your
life if you would just quit meditating on yourself all the time this this is the secret you know you
don't have to go to a psychiatrist to get some sort of drug to give you the answer to this
here's the secret don't think about yourself all the time think about other people what's
going to be the result happy are thy men happy are these thy servants this is honestly the number
one most basic part of being a christian because you're basically showing hey this is what i believe
i agree with these people i link up with these people and look don't be embarrassed to show up
to this church because other baptist churches hate us don't be embarrassed to show up to this
church if one day i get on the news for something i preach you know yeah you got to be in church
because you're saying you know what i believe in that church i support the church i believe the
same thing they do i believe the word of god i believe in so many i believe in heart preaching
i believe what the bible says church is very important here's the thing the purpose of church
he says other people it's not about yourself but if you would actually come to church everything
you want out of church when they come you want to learn the word of god you would learn it you want
to be motivated to live for god you get motivated to live for god but your purpose your reason for
coming to church must be because you care about other people and not yourself let's go to the word
of prayer dear heavenly father thank you for allowing us to be here today and getting to hear
your word of god preached and just all the people in this room god that love you and want to serve
you god yes you did continue to bless this church help us you know with our church