Kennystix's podcast
Consider How to Stir Up One Another to Love
The following message is by Pastor John Piper. More information from Desiring God is available at www.desiringgod.org. Tonight's message is from the book of Hebrews, Chapter 3, Verses 12-14, and then Chapter 10, Verses 23-25. Hebrews 3, 12-14, "Take care, brothers, lesser be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today. That none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end." And then from Chapter 10, "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. For he who promised is faithful, and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near." Let's pray together. All the more, Lord, all the more, stirring each other up, exhorting one another, helping each other fight to fight a faith all the more as the day of Christ, the day of the Lord approaches. What a seriousness there is about this one another ministry. As the days become hard, and as the tribulations increase, and as the stress gathers, and as the signs of the end approach, Christian togetherness, exhorting, stirring is more urgent. Oh, God, help us to see that in this service, in this word, in this message. Help us to feel this, forbid that any would leave a lone ranger Christian rather than a connected Christian. Help us to feel the burden of giving, exhortation, and receiving, exhortation, giving, stirring words, and receiving, stirring words as the day draws near. Lord, this is not a light thing, and I pray that you would give it its appropriate weightiness now in this service, in Jesus' name. Amen. I'm going to come back to those two passages at the end rather than do an extended exposition of them. So here's the way it's going to go. I would like to give some historical background in our history as a church as to what this message is about, and then do a broad New Testament sweep of the importance of what these two verses say, these two passages, and then we'll close by looking at them and what they add to that sweep. If you're newer at the church, I would like you to know that not only do we have a mission statement, we exist to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things, for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ, but we have a vision, an overarching vision of how that gets applied called "treasuring Christ together." So the way to say it as a whole would be as a church, we exist to spread to as many people as we can a passion for the supremacy of God in all things, capital A, no exceptions, for the joy of all peoples, all people, groups in the world, all unreached ones and reached ones through Jesus Christ by multiplying campuses, planting churches, and a global deaconate. Those are the three pieces of the "treasuring Christ together" vision. It's about two years old in its full church-approved articulation and what an amazing two years it has been. The North Campus is fully functional, purchased, built out, not paid for, yet. The South Campus, Lord willing, is in the serious planning stages for the fall of 2006, somewhere that way and that way. Help us, pray that one, into reality. For those of you watching at the North Campus, I was just pointing south from here. TCT Church Planting, the first resident as you met him last Sunday, Jordan, is here on site and within a year will be sent out to plant a church. Another church plant is in the final stages of planning and preparation to be spun off next March. You'll hear more about that. The global deaconate is responding to crises and planning more extensive on the ground. Bethlehem involvement with ongoing poorest of the poor, suffering people. That's the vision under the mission for the foreseeable future and we are thrilled to have that kind of direction with the mandate of the church. Now, here's what we thought. The North Campus had a kind of grand opening last Sunday and it seemed to us that as the Wednesday connection begins for the first time in the history of the church on two campuses, for the last couple of years we've had two campuses and we've done it all together down here and now North folks have their Wednesday night connection and the downtown folks have this Wednesday night connection. It seemed to us good that we would teach during the 630 time on those Wednesday sessions called connection on the ten dimensions of a treasure in Christ together church. If you want to read the whole booklet on the treasure in Christ together you can go to the bbcmpls.org website and read it and what you'll find on page 4 I believe is 10 dimensions that we hope will characterize every one of the church plants that goes out from this church over the next 10 years or so. We have divvied up among the staff who teaches which of these 10 dimensions. I was assigned to start number four which is about mutual care to teach last Wednesday North and this coming Wednesday down here and it struck me as I was pondering how to do this that today is the small group focus which is all about mutual care and how the elders try to do pastoral care in this church and I decided and Kenny and Sam thought it was okay that instead of using my Wednesday nights to do that I would do this Sunday on dimension four related to this the small group ministry and then use happily the Wednesday last time and this coming time to have a freer open discussion concerning a related topic namely the elders recommendation concerning baptism and church membership so if you're wondering are there ongoing discussions are there opportunities to ask questions concerning the star article that you may have just read we did one Wednesday last that was taped it'll be available on a CD or on the website and we'll do another one this coming Wednesday down here so today this sermon the background of this sermon is every fall we have a focus on small groups and this fall I happen to be assigned dimension four which is mutual care and so it's time now for me to read that to you let me read dimension four of the treasuring Christ together vision for each of these churches we hope to be and plant goes like this every church will be marked by quote mutual care corporate commitment to pursue a life together in sacrificial faith-sustaining care for each other in loving relationships at every level of youth and age joy and sorrow comfort and crisis health and brokenness close quote so that's dimension four called mutual care it has four pieces to it the aim the means the context and the extent of mutual care the aim faith sustaining all of the mutual care in this church whatever form it takes should be a faith sustaining faith enlarging faith deepening faith rising ministry faith should get stronger because of our togetherness and our care for one another the means in this is said to be sacrificial care for each other we'll unpack that more in a moment not just preaching not just corporate large group worship not just TBI classes I believe in all of those with all my heart give my life to them but I say to our small group leaders when I meet with them monthly on a Sunday night you are the hands and feet of the sermons and if you don't do your calling and gather your flock the sermon goes handless and feetless we'll see how important this is in a few moments the context is in loving relationships and the extent is at every level of youth and age joy and sorrow comfort and crisis health and brokenness so that's dimension four which we hope will mark all the churches that are planted over the next decade out of this church may God do it the primary means by which mutual care is equipped and facilitated by the elders of this church and that is one of our main responsibilities is found in this booklet it's not the only way that pastoral care happens it is the center and the meat and potatoes of how covenant members of this church get cared for we train small group leaders elders and I the staff meet with them monthly and we talk about the ministry they have so there's kind of a filter-down effect God Christ elders small group leaders flock care flowing we pray through these groups that's what we have put in place and my goal in this message is to put Bible foundation underneath dimension four mutual care and the small group ministry of Bethlehem Baptist Church that's what I aim to do the biblical foundation of small groups or mutual one another care not coming from the pastoral staff but coming from you to you the biblical foundation of that is most ultimately God cares for you and has ordained that first his son be sent into the world to purchase the liberty and the freedom and the omnipotent energy of his care for sinners rather than his judgment upon sinners he has sent Christ into the world as the care purchaser and then care giver so God cares he sends Christ to purchase the care and then through Christ he uses elders families church members that's the flow of the biblical structure of care so let me show you that from the Bible first Peter five seven we'll start at the top and work our way down through that that flow first Peter five seven cast all your anxieties on him on God because he cares for you my oh my what a burden lifting word that should be for you cast all your anxieties on God because cares for you can you imagine anything better than to hear that the omnipotent sustainer creator upholder gider ruler of the universe cares for me the church of Jesus Christ is the blood bought bride of his son and oh how he is jealous to care for the bride of his son you second he sends his son into the world to become a care purchaser and a care giver John 10 shepherd in this case means this listen to how he says it Jesus says I am the good shepherd this is John 10 11 I am the good shepherd the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep the hiring fleas because he's a hired hand when the wolf comes and he cares nothing for the sheep so you see the contrast that's being set up I'm the good shepherd or you might have a hiring pastor shepherd the hiring is not doing this because he cares for you therefore when the wolf comes he runs away I stay and kill the wolf I love you I care I care for your wool your pasture your still waters I lead I protect so under this massive creator god who cares for us he has sent his son into the world his son says I will lay down my life for you and in laying down my life for you I purchase all my free care for you and you are mine third the elders they're way down underneath the son and the father but they're there first Timothy three five describes the qualification for elders in the church of Jesus Christ and one of the qualifications is very interesting in this verse it says if someone does not know how to manage his own household and you might have words of you might have thoughts of you know kind of heartless management in your mind but you can get those out of your mind as the sentence concludes if someone does not know how to manage his own household how will he care for God's church the whole reason when we we've got about eight elders we're seriously looking at eight elder candidates right now one of the things the elders do is send a we dispatch two elders to their house and they sit down for a couple of hours with wife and potential elder and they talk about life talk about marriage and they talk about doctrine and they talk about how they handle conflict and they talk about whether that's true if someone does not know how to manage his own household how can he care you watch a man how does he care for his wife how does he care for his children grown children and little children and if he doesn't know how to care for them manage them he shouldn't be an elder in the church why because that's what eldering is about God Almighty cares for his church the son cares for his flock under them elders care for the people for families God has put families in place to partner with the church in caring for the members of the church and the family let me read you a very helpful pointer in this direction from 1 Timothy 5 16 kind of a surprising verse to me because of the focus it puts on the the women in the church it says speaking of the care of widows now you're talking about a culture in which there's zero welfare okay if the family in the church don't do it it doesn't happen and widows their their breadwinner is gone and and what are they going to do well today the government picks it up doesn't have to be that way and probably won't always be that way maybe not even in this country the church ought to step in well here's here's what it says 1 Timothy 5 16 if any believing woman has relatives who are widows let her care for them then an unusual charge to the women I mean I kind of would respect him to say men there but he says women if any believing woman has relatives who are widows let her care for them let the church not be burdened so that it may care care care care for widows who are really widows what that means is a widow who has no family members in other words that Paul is saying families are the first responsibility to give care and if the family for any reason can't manage it the church steps in not the government first and so number four in the flow God Christ elders and I'm putting these beside each other now from the sun going to elders now I'm going to family you've got family partnering with the church as they as best they can so that people are cared for five this is the one I want to spend most of our time on namely the members of the church caring for each other so you get God cares for you sends Christ who purchases all that omnipotent care so that it can come to sinners who don't deserve it and he himself becomes an embodiment of it as the shepherd of the flock and he calls elders to take leadership to see that this happens this care he ordains families so that in their children and widows and mothers and fathers and everybody are caring for each other and then he ordains what what's this third piece and it's what we we do in small groups it's this it's the warrant for this ministry we have a huge department in this church called family discipleship because of how utterly crucial that second piece is in the way God has set up his kingdom and then we have this piece and we have an eldership so we have an eldership family life department and then we got this this tongue over here called small groups or mutual care where is that in the Bible like where is sand on the shore we'll come back to Hebrews three and ten in just a few moments what I want to do to lead to Hebrews three and ten is to give you the sweep and as I do this I almost never do what I'm about to do I'm going to give you 20 passages of the Bible and comment on about three four seven so this is like topical sermon big time and as I read these 20 passages of scripture would you be praying just quietly in your heart be praying Lord this fall is there a new step you want me to take in mutual care how am I doing in giving it to other believers and how am I doing in receiving it from other believers are there some steps I should take so that I am more in line with what these texts are saying that's what I think would benefit you the most right now is for you to listen don't look them up I'm going to go too fast listen and pray how about that one Lord how am I doing there how about that one number one first on four eleven beloved if God so loved us we also ought to love one another so the big overarching care commandment is love one another we spend a lot of time on that in Romans 13 second Romans 15 seven welcome one another or you could translate it accept or receive one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God Christians should be very welcoming people when somebody approaches you or draws near to your little your little three person group over in the corner of the commons there shouldn't be a cold shoulder to that as somebody gets near there should be a kind of wall don't don't be clickish be open-hearted and open-minded welcome one another as Christ welcomed you Christ walked across the commons on glass number three first Corinthians 12 25 that the members the word members is in the text that the members and it means hands and legs and ears and that the members may have the same care for one another oh let us know the beautiful imagery of the body of Christ number four first Peter 4 10 as each has received a gift you have a gift did you know that you have a spiritual gift every believer has at least one probably a bunch of spiritual gifts as each has received a gift use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace oh what a wonderful picture of what should happen in small groups God's got grace and it is as varied as personalities are varied in its manifestation and our job in a small gathering one on one or one on ten is that through our peculiar personality warts and all we let grace flow and that becomes service your spiritual gift is what happens when the real you simply let's grace flow from God through you to another person you don't need to find it on a list it may not be on a list anywhere just you be you loving people and bestowing grace and the way it comes out of you will be very distinctive and guess what very needed by somebody else if you don't do that you're withholding something very needed in the church number five Ephesians five two submit to one another out of reverence for Christ so submitting is a central piece of that serving component and there should be and this works for elders who are leaders also there is a way in which we should be submitting to all rather than lording it over the flock serving submitting leadership should be servant leadership six first Thessalonians five fifteen always seek to do good to one another and to everyone do good to one another number seven Ephesians four thirty two be kind to one another tender hearted number eight Hebrews ten twenty five now i'm picking up one of our text that was read not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near being in each other's lives for mutual encouragement is an end time necessity ponder why that might be ponder the kinds of words Jesus uses to describe the stresses and the trials and the tribulations and the dangers and the persecutions of the end times and then let it land on you as the day draws near don't neglect to meet for mutual encouragement you know when i was growing up i heard that verse quoted a dozen times no a hundred times for sunday morning worship scolding us for not being regular in our attendance do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together and they never finish the verse that you might encourage each other now i do believe that happens in worship services but there's a there's a horizontal one another thing going on there that's not happening in this room right now except from me to you and it's all about you doing that for each other therefore some kind of setting like this is going to be very important small groups number nine Hebrews 10 24 let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works i would love to talk for a long time here about my own life which is brimming with gratitude for the number of people that have come into my life and stirred me up for christ i'd talk about no well and being stirred up to love like i ought to love for our children and our our aging parents i talk about ray ortland i am talking about it i talk about ray ortland who was the first pastor who caused me to fall in love with the church of jesus christ 1968 walking around the streets of pastedina as an engaged guy just wanting to be together with no else he's back in wheaten i'm in los angeles and i'm wondering if there's a future for the local church huh isn't that the most stupid thing you ever heard like an ant wondering is there an earth then i with noel married december walk into lake avenue church and sunday after sunday this man's radiant love for his people totally changed my view of the body of christ changed my whole view about my future and what a good thing it is to be a part of the church of jesus christ with all her imperfections i would talk about tom steller and how 25 years of partnership has shaped me so deeply because of his unique way of caring for people that's so unlike mine i talk about david michael and how he stirs me up to love kids and i talk about david livingston and how he stirs me up to love the lost i talk about brad and john and how they stir me up to love teenagers i talk about biographies that i read and how they stir me up to love the nations and eric who gets me all fired up every time he prays that's what the body of christ little group and big group is supposed to do god has ordained that we get stirred up not just by getting along with our bibles but by getting with each other and our bibles number 10 Hebrews 313 exhort one another every day as long as it is called today that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin so exhort one another every day because sin is always threatening always threatening to make you hard and blind number 11 colossians 316 let the word of christ dwelling you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom now the word admonish has a little bit of an edge to it right who doesn't i don't think i care to be admonished exhort fine admonish and there are times when this pastor better get admonished somebody would have the courage to get in my face and say don't say it that way you shouldn't have written that i got taken to task for one star article i wrote about 20 years ago that almost got me fired but i won't even tell you the title because the title has well almost got me fired but two of our deacons sat down with me my office said you blew it so that's important for all of us admonition not just you know comfortable exhortation Ephesians 5 19 number 12 this is an amazing one kind of threatening address one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody to the lord with all your heart address one another in hymns and songs and spiritual songs how does that happen it happens two ways many songs most of the ones we sang tonight maybe all of them were directed straight to god or jesus but guess what we heard each other doing it we heard each other with heart and mind and soul saying you are great and when another believer sees you and hears you say to god you are great with song something happens that's very good or it can be in a family i'll be real honest we're not really great singers into piper family we interviewed a guy for the south worship guy that we're still looking at and i asked him we just pushing on his personal life and he said well my kids and my wife they're not you know called to sing but we sing we sing when we have devotions and the pipers have but we're not as regular as we should and it's good i'll even give you an absolutely radical challenge no well then i've done this a few times anniversary 37 coming up somebody gives us or we just go to some uh what do you call it bed and breakfast and still water and when we get up in the morning and they bring you the breakfast would you guy ever say let's sing just the two of us would you ever do that we've done it it's really weird and wonderful absolutely wonderful she can sing and i can sing a little bit meditate on Ephesians 5 19 for your family you don't have to be a very good singer it might change your life number 13 Romans 15 5 made the god of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another live in harmony with one another 14 second Corinthians 13 11 comfort one another oh the beauty of a pastor and say that right oh how wonderful it is when a pastor watches something beautiful like a small group responding to a crisis or a loss oh when it works the way it's supposed to work and these small groups rally around somebody whose husband is in the hospital her child is sick and they're buying meals and they're clean in house and they're buying stuff for them and they're doing all kinds of things and and people are just brimming with gratitude to god that's beautiful that's Jesus all over us and so comfort one another in crisis number 15 Romans 15 14 you yourselves are full of goodness filled with all knowledge able to instruct one another this is a really heady church in some ways classes running out our ears a lot of exposition going on people like to think and that ought to be flowing this way not just this way as as knowledge rises if you learn anything anything about god tell somebody about it bend it outward when it comes to you Romans 12 10 number 16 out do one another in showing honor number 17 Colossians 3 13 bear with one another if anyone has a complaint another you can't survive as a church or a marriage without what the old word describes as forbearance in other words you don't like it you'll never change it deal with it endure it is not an amazing thing that love includes forbearance forbearance just bear it so there's a lot of stuff in this church you don't like right bear it there's a lot of like bear it not with grudging grumbling murmuring just bear it love covers a multitude of sins number 18 Colossians 3 13 beyond bearing forgive one another as the Lord has forgiven you so you also must forgive so we don't just bear only when there are real offenses real offenses we let them go bearing is stuff that may or may not be sinned you think it's in they don't think it's in and so you bear it but if a real offense happens a real sin against you you forgive it this is the way one another works James 5 16 number 19 confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed there are few things that are more humbling and more healing than to say to someone I'm sorry I was wrong do it to your children dads do it to your teenagers nothing is more bonding than a dad who knocks on the door after overreacting sits down on the bed and says I shouldn't have said what I said would you forgive me to a 15 year old kid or a nine year old kid and in a small group few things will bond you then confession of sin finally number 20 first Peter 4 9 show hospitality to one another without grumbling and the reason I end with that one is because it is so closely related to small groups because most of our small groups happen in homes not all of them but most of them happen in your homes would you be freed would you be liberated right now could I just say do not be ashamed of your simple efficiency apartment and do not be arrogant proud or puffed up about your very nice home what God cares about is not the size or cleanliness of your apartment or your home he cares about is it open and full of love that all he cares about my wife loves the plaque boring people live in immaculate houses and that's probably true I draw to a close by looking at the texts that were read to you Hebrews 13 13 describes the negative effect that exhorting should have and Hebrews 10 25 describes the positive effect that exhorting should have and I'll just read these and we'll be done exhort one another every day this is Hebrews 3 13 exhort one another every day as long as it is called today that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin that's a negative avoidance we we look at each other and we know that Satan and the world and the flesh are trying to harden and dull and blind and deafen the soul and we're in each other's lives with words saturated extortation to keep the soul alive and sensitive and supple and touchable by the word of God and the spirit of God and then verse 24 I said 25 24 of Hebrews 10 the positive side let us consider how to stir one another up to love and good works we all tend to drift into selfishness and we need to be stirred up to love again over and over so I appeal to all of Bethlehem I appeal to all of Bethlehem as one of your under shepherds who will have to give an account someday of whether we've done what we can do to care for your souls I appeal to you would you help us by taking seriously our plan to make these small groups available and would you simply pray towards joining one or creating one we need lots more than are here in order for 1700 covenant members to be included I'm talking to teenagers and octogenarians I'm talking to singles and married I'm talking to men I think they don't need this sort of thing and women I'm talking to babies in Christ who are brand new and know they need it and I'm talking to 50 year old veteran Christians who think they've outgrown it all of us need to be in context relationships where verse 25 happens do not neglect to meet together but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near please get this booklet this little back panel here tears like that and you can put on there the one that you would love to be considered for or you can be in touch with them pray with me about this north campus and downtown let's pray Father in heaven there are so many many reasons why you have called us to be in each other's lives what I owe to other believers by way of stirring up for you and for love is incalculable and I thank you for that don't let any I pray miss out on this blessing I ask it in Jesus name amen thank you for listening to this message by John Piper pastor for preaching at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis Minnesota feel free to make copies of this message to give to others but please do not charge for those copies or alter the content in any way without permission we invite you to visit desiring God online at www.desiringGod.org there you'll find hundreds of sermons articles radio broadcasts and much more all available to you at no charge our online store carries all of pastor John's books audio and video resources you can also stay up to date on what's new at desiring God again our website is www.desiringGod.org or call us toll-free at 1-888-346-4700 our mailing address is desiring God 2601 East Franklin Avenue Minneapolis Minnesota 55406 desiring God exists to help you make God your treasure because God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him
John Piper | Don’t be a loner in the Christian life. God did not design it that way.