EDIFY THE SAINTS
Hebrews 10:19-26
INTRODUCTION:
ILL> There was a church in a small town in Tennessee that had a most interesting name. The sign in front of it said, "Left Foot Baptist Church." There was a young man who passed by the building several times, and he always got a good chuckle from the name. Finally, one day when he was waiting on his bus, he asked someone about the church with the unusual name.
I don’t believe that he was counting on the answer that he got. He found out that several years before a great conflict arose in the church. You see, it was a foot-washing Baptist church–they washed one another’s feet as an act of worship. But the conflict broke out over which foot should be washed first. Half of the congregation thought they should start with the right foot. The other half thought that they should always start with the left foot. The conflict simmered and brewed until finally the left-foot proponents split off and organized their own church. Of course, they called it "Left Foot Baptist Church."
A. While that story is unusual by itself, we know that it is not unusual for churches to allow small and insignificant matters to tear them apart.
1. And when these small things become the focus of the church, then they keep the church from fulfilling God’s purpose
a. I am very thankful for the positive spirit of unity that exists in the church family here
b. It is something that we need to continually work at as we strive to live out God’s purpose for our lives and for this church
B. At the start of this year we began talking about our purpose as God’s Church
1. The leadership team recently adopted a purpose or mission statement for the church
a. It begins with what we talked about last week--our number one purpose is to evangelize the lost
2. Today we want to take a look at the second part of our mission statement
a. Not only are we to reach out to the lost and bring them to Christ, be we are to help those new believers grow in their relationship with Christ
b. 1 Thes. 5:11
Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.
c. The word used in the KJV for "build each other up" is the word "edify"
3. So, the second part of our purpose it to edify the saints
a. "The Mt. Gilead Church of Christ exists to evangelize the lost and to edify the saints..."
b. In Hebrews 10 Paul gives us some guidelines as to how we might edify one another and build each other up
c. I call this Paul’s vegetarian sermon because this short passage is full of "let us"
d. READ: Hebrew 10:19-25
I> PAUL 5 STEP METHOD OF BUILDING A STRONGER CHURCH
A. First of all, Paul says that we need to Focus on God
1. VS 22 - let us draw near to God
a. This seems to be elementary, but may be the hardest step if you been walking the wrong direction and have found yourself running away from God
b. It may be that you need to sit down and have a serious discussion with God about where your life is headed
c. You need to be open and frank with a desire to change and let God cleanse your guilty conscience
B. Follow the straight and narrow
1. VS 23 - let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess
a. That would "unswervingly" is a word we don’t use much today
ILL> In November Alan got his driver’s permit. I let him drive from Marion. Of course, like most new drivers he had a tendency to swerve back forth. The trick is to make small adjustments to keep the vehicle moving in a straight path.
b. That’s the way you should drive
2. Hebrews 12:2
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith
C. Help Others Grow
1. A Kick in the Seat of the Pants
a. VS 24 - let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds
2. The word "spur" means to provoke or to irritate
ILL> Have you ever been walking along and you get a stone in your shoe? You don’t want to stop to take the time to get it out so you keep walking, but eventually you feel like you’ve got to remove this boulder.
Then when you take your shoe off the stone is so small that you can hardly find it. Small as it was, however, it sure was irritating.
D. You cannot help others grow unless you are faithful to the body of Christ
1. VS 25 - Let us not give up meeting together
2. I remember a lot of sermons on this passage as a kid
a. Too many times we got the cart before the horse
b. The reason that meeting together is so important is so you can minister to others and so you can be ministered to
c. We preachers like to hit this hard because the more people we can get in here the more job security we have
ILL> People come to church for one of two reasons–the want to be here or they have to be here. When you get involved in the lives of others and understand that you have a purpose to minister, then you will want to be here. If the only reason you come is because it is your duty, it makes it more difficult.
E. Encourage one another -
1. VS 25 - let us encourage one another
2. Everyone needs to be encouraged at times–I don’t care who you are or how strong of a Christian you are
a. It’s nice to hear someone say, "It’s good to see you here today" and really mean it
b. It’s great when you hurting or dealing with a sickness and people say, "I’ll pray for you" and mean it
ILL> Rhea Malone after every sermon says "Mighty Powerful." She said every sermon is either powerful good or powerful bad, so "mighty powerful" kind of covers both sides.
c. The church is more than people meeting together and having a worship service on a Sunday morning
d. The more you are involved in other people’s lives, the more you will feel a part of the church family
II> SPECIFIC WAYS IN WHICH YOU CAN HELP EDIFY THE FAMILY OF GOD
A. Let’s begin by taking a look at the early church
1. Acts 2:42
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
2. In this passage we see four important areas in which the church is built up
B. 9 ways
1. Apostle’s Teaching
a. Preaching and teaching
2. Fellowship
a. Usually when we think about fellowship we think about such things as pot luck dinners
b. However, a better way to understand what fellowship is is to think of it as community building–Forming relationships
c. This requires spending time together with brothers and sisters in Christ
3. Breaking of Bread - the Lord’s Supper
a. Remembering the tremendous sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ
ILL> Mel Gibson has co-written, directed, and financed a movie coming out February 25 called "The Passion of the Christ." The movie is a representation of the last 12 hours of the life of Christ. It is so graphic that it has been rated "R". However, we need to understand that what Jesus went through wasn’t easy–it was graphic–it was horrible.
b. When we partake of the Lord’s Supper together it brings us closer together as a body because we are sharing in this memorial that was given to us by Christ Himself
4. Prayer
a. We are to constantly be in prayer for each other
b. Especially for me as your minister, Jon as he works with the youth, the elders as they oversee the work of the church, the deacons as they lead in their various ministries
c. Col. 4:2
Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.
5. Worship - the body coming together to exalt Christ
6. Giving
a. God makes it plain in the OT that our giving is conected with the spiritual blessings we receive
b. Malachi 3:10
Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the Lord Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.
c. Giving also includes providing for the needs of others
7. Serving - many ways to serve
a. Teachers
b. Building cleaner
c. Monday School workers
8. Encouraging
9. Listening
10. Using other God-given talents
C. 1 Cor. 14:12
try to excel in gifts that build up the church.
III> CONCLUSION:
ILL> Do you recognize the trees on the screen? (Giant redwoods) It is a photo of a giant redwood tree from the Western United States. It’s one of the largest trees on the planet. But you probably didn’t know that these huge trees have a relatively shallow root system. In fact, if they had to stand alone on their own roots, they may not have the support that they need to stand. But in those giant redwood forests their enormous weight is supported in part by the interlocking of the tree’s roots with the other trees around it. They work together to hold one another up.
A. That is our responsibility as God’s Church–to hold each other up, build up one another, to edify each other.
1. Ephes. 4:16
From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
