“Don’t Forsake Assembling Together”

1. “Don’t Forsake Assembling Together” Hebrews 10:23-25

2. - “Breaking News Alert” – There are other services and gatherings each week @ FBC!

3. When all of the excusesare analyzed, you will find they all boil down to one word, "priority". • Everyone has a list of priorities that governs their actions, but many people have not considered what their priories are. • We always have time for what we truly and personally believe is the most important thing in our lives.

4. What has God called me to or instructed me to do in this area of gathering together forworship, instruction, fellowship and service? • Heb. 10:23 - “Let us *hold fast the confession (profession) of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.”

5. 1. Don’t turn away from your trust and profession of faith in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. John 14:6 Acts 4:12 • 2. Don’t turn away from the only One who can save your soul for all eternity!

6. Heb. 3:12-14 “Be careful then, dear brothers and sisters. Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God. You must warn each other every day, while it is still “today,” so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God. For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed, we will share in all that belongs to Christ.” - NLT

7. v24 - “And let us consider *one another in order to stir uplove and good works” • Consider – “to perceive, mark, observe, understand; to consider attentively; to fix one's eyes or mind upon” • 1. It is to take careful note of one another’s spiritual welfare.

8. Stir up – “to incite, sharpen or stimulate as a direct result of provoking, irritation or contention” (Vincent’s Word Studies in the NT) • 2. It surely is easy enough for any of us to stir up hatred, division, contention or bitterness. • 3. It takes a bit more thought and effort to “stir up love and good works.”

9. Verse 25 • This exhortation in v25 will start to show us how we can begin to accomplish the feat of stirring to love and good works. • A. The positive manner will be “*encouraging one another” (to console, to arouse to action, to come alongside of)Prov. 27:17 • B. The negative aspect to be avoided is “not to forsake the assembling…” • forsaking – “to abandon, desert or to leave behind”

10. Our local church desperately needs consistency for the work of the Lord, the witness of the church, the encouragement and example factor to younger believersand younger children/teens and also for the support of God’s work financially, both here and abroad. • William MacDonald - “Without question we find strength, comfort, nourishment, and joy in collective worship and service.”

11. One aspect of this exhortation was that “forsaking assembling together” was the danger of turning one’s back on Christianity and reverting back to Judaism and therefore not really trustingin Christ alone for salvation.

12. “Don’t Forsake Assembling Together” Hebrews 10:23-25

13. assembling - It properly means “an act of assembling, or a gathering together.” • 1. This Greek word is only found here and in 2 Thess. 2:1 – where it is translated “gathering together” • 2. The command, then, here is, to meet together for the worship of God, and it is an urgent admonition on Christians as an important duty to do it. • “It is implied, also, that there is blame or fault where this is neglected.” — Barnes' Notes on the New Testament • of ourselvestogether - that is, for the purpose of public worship

14. Matt. 18:20 - “Where two or three are *gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”*collected, assembled • as is the *manner (habit)of some - • manner (Gr. ethos) – “habit, custom or be accustomedto”

15. Question: How is a custom or habit formed? • AT Robertson – “Already some Christians had formed the habit of not attending public worship, a perilous habit then and now.”

16. Adam Clarke – “They had given up these strengthening and instructive means, and the others were in danger of following their example.” • Someone said - "If absence makes the heart grow fonder, some people ought to love their church greatly."

17. KJV PC - “The assembling of the believers is often an outward indication of the inner condition. If a man’s faith will not get him to church, it is doubtful if it will get him to heaven.”

18. 1. Some may have been deterred by the fear of persecution. • 2. Some may have neglected the duty because they felt no interest in it. • 3. It is possible that some may have had doubts about the necessity of doing so. • 4. Or it may perhaps have been that some may have neglected it for a cause which now sometimes is proposed, such as dissatisfaction with a pastor/preacher, or with some member or members of the church.

19. John 14:15 – “If you love Me, *keep my commandments.” • AT Barnes - “There is an obvious propriety that men should assemble together for the worship of the Most High, and no Christian can hope that his graces will grow, or that he can perform his duty to his Maker, without uniting thus with those who love the service of God.”

20. but exhorting – “warning, urging, and encouraging” • one another – Gr. – allelon - it’s reciprocal; it’s complementary, it is corresponding to each other

21. 1. This mutual, reciprocal action is nearly impossible without getting together or gathering in some manner. • 2. The assembling of the believers on at least a weekly basis for, “doctrine, fellowship, the breaking of bread and prayers” together is God’s design for us. Acts 2:42

22. “And so much the moreas you see the Day approaching.” • 1 John 3:3 - “He that has this hope in him purifies himself even as He is pure.” • King David said, “I was glad when they said unto me; "Let us go up to the house of the Lord.” - Psalm 122:1 • Glad – “to rejoice, to be affected with joy and delight”

23. William MacDonald – “It was no burdensome duty or dreary routine. In going to the temple to worship he found fulfillment and gladness.” • KJV PC – “The heart that delights in worship of God will always delight in the place appointed for worship.”

24. John MacArthur - “It is only in the local body to which one is committed that there can be the level of intimacy that is required for carefully stimulating fellow-believers ‘to love and good deeds.’ And it is only in this setting that we can encourage one another.” • D. L. Moody - "Church attendance is as vital to a disciple as a transfusion of rich, healthy blood to a sick man."

25. Will I make it a priority or will I make excuses?