Lindsey Blair and Bobby Gilles recap and discuss Pastor Jonah Sage's sermon from Hebrews 10:19-25.
Lindsey Blair and Bobby Gilles recap and discuss Pastor Jonah Sage's sermon from Hebrews 10:19-25.
Bobby: Welcome to the Midweek Checkup. My name is Bobby Gilles and I’m joined by Lindsey Blair. This past Sunday Pastor Jonah Sage began our new series, A Life Worth Living. He preached from Hebrews Ten verses nineteen through twenty-five
Lindsey: Pastor Jonah said that a life worth living is a life immersed in the people of God. But if you missed the sermon or need help remembering, it’s time for a Midweek Checkup.
Bobby: Jonah began by asking what we want out of life, and if we’ve ever had a life-giving job. Life-giving jobs and life-giving people are rare. For ten chapters now in Hebrews, we’ve heard Jesus is better than the angels and prophets. We’ve heard Jesus’ work is better than the old covenant, the old law, the old priesthood, and the old sacrifices. If Jesus is better, and his work is better, then what must that mean of the life he’s invited us into?
Lindsey: The life Jesus invites us to, a life worth living, is a life lived together. If we want to experience the life-giving way of Jesus, we have to trade ME for WE. Jesus saves a ME to make me a WE…do you understand?
YOU are saved so you can be ADOPTED into a family, the church. And this is hard to accept because we’ve all been hurt by others. We’re scared and skeptical of words like ‘community’.
Bobby: We have to make a decision…is our way of life life-giving or soul-sucking? When you are hurt, it’s not all your fault! Maybe some of it is, but being hurt is not generally your fault. But if you let your hurt drive you into isolation, skepticism, and cynicism, you’re letting hurt win. If God keeps his promises, then we can trust him when he tells us a life worth living is a life immersed in his people. We ground ourselves in his promise, our great hope.
Lindsey: What if we, together, were paying attention to each other, listening to each other, scheming for ways to motivate one another? So much hurt happens in relationships when we are focused ONLY on ourselves. We come into relationships thinking “what can you give me?” That’s how you become a soul-sucker instead of a life-giver. Hebrews ten, twenty-five says, “Let us not neglect our meeting together.” How are you going to listen and motivate people you never see? If you want to experience the gift of community, a life worth living, you have to prioritize being around people.
Bobby: And what if we encouraged each other when we met? If you have a life-giving person in your life, are they not encouraging? Don’t they breathe hope into you? Humans require such little encouragement to do incredible things, and most of us are absolutely starving for a drop of it. We gather to worship God. We sing, we pray, and do all those wonderful things. We experience the presence of God there. And you know where else we find God’s presence? In. Each. Other. We worship God when we listen to each other, motivate each other, encourage each other. You would never miss a Sunday if even half of us said “That’s who I’m going to be.” We can become that, because that’s who Jesus is, and his spirit is in us.
Lindsey: Yes! Next Sunday is Easter Sunday. We’ll have three service times at eight-thirty, ten, and eleven-thirty a.m. There’s no Bible Fellowship this Sunday, but we do also have a Good Friday service this Friday at seven p.m. Join us for Good Friday and Easter, and bring a friend!