Why Gathering Together is So Important // April 11, 2021

[Music] thank you for joining us for our online gathering at hope church in las vegas nevada we exist to connect people to live the life of a jesus follower we're honored that you are tuning in we hope you enjoy this service hey hope church family my name is kat and i'm a part of the hub team here at hope church and i wanted to thank you for taking the time to watch our online worship service today if you want to learn more about the hub and some things we have coming up open up the hope church lv app or visit thehublv.com at hope church we exist to connect people to live the life of a jesus follower if this happens to be your first time joining us we want to get to know you better go ahead and text new to hope to 94090 after you hit send you'll get an immediate response from our team with a link to a short form for you to fill out our connection and community team wants to help you take a step back into community by attending a reconnect on april 12th from 6 30 pm to 8 pm these fun-filled one-time gatherings will introduce you to others at hope in a similar life stage so come enjoy a time of fellowship friendship and learn how to grow your faith you can get more information and register for reconnects at hopechurchlv.com or on the hope church lv app secondly we know that over the last few weeks many of you have heard the gospel and began a relationship with jesus we want to celebrate that with you as well as connect with you and begin walking with you on this journey if you've recently become a jesus follower please let us know by filling out our digital connection card you can access this by scanning the qr code you'll find on the card near your seat if you're joining us in person or by opening our hope church mobile app we can't wait to walk with you on the journey well that's all i've got so let's continue with our gather time [Music] such an easy thing for you to do your hand is moving right now you are still showing up at the tomb of every nazareth your voice is [Music] again [Music] no you never lost [Music] is [Music] my walls are all crashing down right now i know [Music] i know [Music] [Music] you never will [Music] oh you never lost [Music] i know you can do all this i i know [Music] i don't know about uh church but i came here to worship today we're gonna testify of god's goodness today singing about what he's done for us in our lives so join in with me [Applause] [Music] but the miracle that i just can't get over my name is registered in heaven [Music] i believe in signs and wonders i have a resurrection [Music] my [Music] i'll testify by jesus [Music] [Applause] come together sons and daughters bought with blood and washed in water sing the praises of the spirit son and father our god we'll finish what he started our god we'll finish what he started this is this is [Music] if i'm not dead you're not done greater things are still to come or believe if i'm not dead you're not done greater things are still to come [Music] [Music] [Music] this is my testimony from death to light cause grace we wrote my story i'll testify by jesus i'm justified this [Music] by jesus [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] come on church how many of you could testify of the goodness of god in this place [Applause] one of the things i love about hope church it doesn't matter what building we're in i've been here for quite a while now i've gathered with hope church in a lot of buildings what i love about this place is we come here together to lift up a good good god to sing praises together listen i don't know if you had a great week this week or you had a terrible week this week here's what we can do as we gather why gathering is so important is we come together around this idea that no matter how bad the world is no matter how bad our week was that god is good in fact i started going to church in high school and so i a lot of like the christianese i didn't really understand so bear with me for just one second but i came to church and um somebody looked at me one time and they said god is good and they expected me to like say something and i didn't know what to say but maybe you know what to say and so we're going to kind of get around this kind of rally cry where we say god is good and people say all the time hey you know it all the time god is good so we're going to introduce you a brand new song today again i want us to to understand the importance that no matter what your week looked like this week no matter how you came into this place we're just singing these songs like god the god that we're here to worship is never lost to battle he is fully undefeated at all times in all of the universe and he has saved us if you're a jesus follower here today he has saved you and we can testify of the lord's goodness so we're going to teach you a brand new song and it talks about this idea of god just being good it's kind of a song version of that god is good all the time so i want to teach you the chorus and it requires you i'm in the wrong key that would have been bad ej uh it requires you to do some singing because here's what's important about gathering we don't just gather so you can watch ej just sing all these high notes and just sit back and go man that's cool we gather and the church has been gathering for a couple thousand years to gather together to sing and to lift up praises not to watch people do it so you have a part to play tonight in this worship and so i want to teach you this course here's this course good god almighty [Music] without your mercy so i keep praising your name at the top of my lungs we're gonna do some church tonight [Music] so i keep praising your name at the top [Music] [Applause] is [Music] all right we're not some church in here tonight i can't count the times i've called your name some broken night you showed up and patched me up like you do every time i get enemies i forget that you keep coming around [Music] here we go [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] say is love goes on forever that your mercy never stops so why would i assume you'll be somebody that you're not like [Music] on earth praising your name no matter what comes because i know where i'll be without your mercy so i keep [Music] [Applause] [Music] is when the sun goes down love them in the morning love them in the noon time love them when the sun goes down [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] jesus when the sun goes down jesus in the morning jesus jesus when the sun goes down amen hey hope church i'm standing in the newly remodeled preschool area here on campus through your generosity we were able to remodel 5 000 square feet of our kids space to include five additional classrooms two bathrooms two large storage areas and an office and it all opened easter sunday now the entire downstairs of this building is dedicated to children birth through kindergarten where each thursday night and sunday children are cared for prayed for and learned from god's word all about the life of a jesus follower and each weekday during the school year hope christian preschool and junior kindergarten is providing a high quality early childhood education to the families in our community with the purpose of connecting them to live the life of a jesus follower on behalf of all those who lead and volunteer through these preschool ministries i would like to say thank you for your generosity church family i want to remind you that you are a part of fueling these ministries as you give financially through hope church you are helping us to invest in the next generation each week as a church we worship god together in numerous ways we've already spent some time today worshiping god through music and in just a few moments we're going to worship god through praying together and studying his word but right now we're going to worship god by honoring him with our resources so i want to encourage you to give to the lord by investing financially through hope church for the sake of the mission there are multiple ways you can give and you can see several of those ways on the screen church family thank you for living generously to sharing god's mission in las vegas the west and the world in our preschool lobby we recently put this verse on the wall jesus says to his disciples in mark 10 14 let the children come to me don't stop them for the kingdom of god belongs to those who are like these children this verse shares two things number one jesus is love and value towards all children and number two jesus is love and value and all of us who have faith to believe in him and his love for us let's thank him now for his great love for us god thank you so much for your love we thank you for all that you are god we thank you for this area this um opportunity to invest in the next generation in preschool and so god we thank you that you love these children and god you we thank you that you love us and so god we give you glory and honor for all that you are god would you guide us today god would you enable us to be able to continue to sing to you and to be able to hear from your word and so god thank you for this amazing day thank you for your amazing love and the value you place on every person on this planet including our children so thank you jesus we pray all these things in your name amen let's continue worshiping through song now you hold our hearts together there's no one higher than you [Music] redeemer defender our great and mighty savior there's no one higher than you you are always with us gracious to forgive us by your power we've been set free and lord we stand amazing your presence astounded by your mercy and love our hands are lifted high and surrendered your grace for me is always enough there is no one higher than our god there is no one greater than you let my life forever praise the glory of your name there is no one higher than yours [Music] [Music] your glory knows no measure there's no one higher than you oh you are always with us grace is to forgive us by our power we've been set free lord we stand amazing astounded by your mercy and love our hands grace for me is always is no one greater than you let my life [Applause] [Music] there is forever one higher than you [Music] [Music] know [Music] christ i saved [Music] is [Music] great [Music] [Music] there is [Music] [Applause] sounded by your mercy and love our hands are lifted and surrendered your grace for me is always enough there is no one higher than our god there is no one greater than you let my life forever praise the glory of your name there is no one higher than you there is no one higher than you there is no one higher than you there's hallelujah one higher there's no one greater there's no one like you jesus there's no one and nothing that can compare to you jesus you are holy you are righteous you are wonderful you are gracious you are [Music] thanks hope creative team for leading us in worship today before pastor vance preaches for us i want to take a moment and just come together and praise god for who he is dear lord we just want to thank you for being a powerful god a loving god a god that desires to know us and love us i pray that today you would speak through pastor vance that he would say exactly what you want him to say that you would convict us or encourage us or move us whichever it is that you're wanting to do lord and that we would be obedient to you we give this day to you lord it's in your name we pray amen enjoy the sermon i came across an article this week on a website called psychology today and the headline of the article captured my attention here was the the way they titled the article why we need to know why it intrigued me so i read the article here's the opening of the article i want to hear what they said i thought it was very insightful we are all of us meaning seeking creatures we seek not only to define the meaning of our lives by adopting whether consciously or unconsciously an overarching purpose but also to understand the reason for almost everything that happens in the course of each day why is what drives not only everything we do but also our emotional reactions to everything that happens to us why the importance of knowing why and as i thought about that in reflecting on that article the church i think especially in america but it's really a problem all over the world the church is often too focused on the what question and not focused enough on the why question the what question is a question that we answer with our hands it's a it's a hands question it's a question about what am i supposed to do a lot of times the church is really good at talking about the what what are we supposed to do how am i supposed to behave what am i supposed to perform what what what what activities am i supposed to or not supposed to partake in we're good at the what question the hands question the why question is a heart question it's a motivation question and when you read the scripture it's interesting jesus is way more interested than the heart than the hands the hands can be doing the right thing but if they're doing the right thing for the wrong reason that's not pleasing to the lord david talks about this in the psalms over the past year in our country a lot of questions have been asked about christians gathering together there have been a lot of debate there there's been a lot in the news there's been a lot in the press about christians gathering together and it's focused predominantly on the what happens when we gather this weekend i felt led of the lord for us to take a one-week break we'll be jumping back into our study in the book of james next weekend but i want us to focus this weekend on the why of gathering and i want to ask this question i want to really answer this idea why gathering together is so important why gathering together for worship as god's people is such a big deal you know gathering together with god's people for worship was the practice of the life of jesus when you study jesus's life in the gospels over and over you read verses like luke chapter 4 verse 16. look at this verse it says and he jesus came to nazareth where he had been brought up it's his hometown and as was his custom you see that phrase as was his custom that phrase as was his custom refers to something that that was a lifestyle practice it was the normal rhythm of jesus's life what was his custom he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day and he stood up to read it was the pattern of jesus's life to gather with god's people on the lord's day for worship one of the things that we teach here at hope church is that the christian life and listen it's not just a teaching of hope church we believe it's a teaching of the new testament that's why we teach it but the christian life is not you and me living for jesus but the christian life is jesus living his life in and through us there's great freedom in the discovery of the power of christ in us living his life through us well if when jesus was on the earth jesus's practice and pattern of life was to gather with god's people for worship it just makes sense that as we allow christ to live his life in and through us that that reflection that pattern will be demonstrated in our lives and you saw it in the early church what was the pattern of the life of jesus became the practice of new testament christians when you read in the book of acts you'll see many places in the book of acts where the early church gathered on the lord's day for example in acts chapter 20 it says on the first day of the week the church gathered together the church gathered every week on the lord's day to worship and that was something that continued on in the early church as a matter of fact there's a historian a christian historian and philosopher whose name is justin martyr he lived about a hundred years after the death burial and resurrection of jesus i want you to listen to what justin martyr said in his writing the first apology he said this is a hundred years after the death and resurrection of jesus on the day called sunday there is a meeting in one place of those who live in cities or the count or the country and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets now what we know is the memoirs of the apostles and the writing of the prophets we would now say that to be the bible it's the old testament prophets it's the writing of peter and john and paul in the new testament he says that the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read as long as time permits i love that they were long back then too when the reader has finished the one presiding in a discourse urges and invites us to the imitation of these noble things here's what he says this is a hundred years after the death bone resurrection jesus every week on the lord's day on sunday they would gather together somebody would stand up and read the scripture and then they would somebody would then speak from that scripture and urge people to imitate what we're reading in the scripture then he says we all stand up together and offer prayers and as you read on through that he talks about the singing of psalms and hymns and spiritual songs i don't know about you but when i read that you know what that sounds a lot like exactly what we do every sunday every weekend when we gather together here to to worship god and here's the point i want you to understand when we gather in a place like this to worship every weekend we're not just following some american version of christianity we are literally following in the footsteps of the early church in giving priority to the public worship of god together with god's family when we come together to worship we're doing what brothers and sisters in christ since jesus death burial and resurrection there's been a gathering every week where brothers and sisters have come together for over 2000 years celebrating the fact that jesus christ died on a cross he was buried but then he rose again from the dead and for 2 000 years brothers and sisters in christ have gathered together in a place every week to lift high the name of jesus and when we gather here every weekend we're not just going through the motions of church we are celebrating and standing in the history of the family of faith worshiping the god who saved us but not only was it the pattern of jesus and the practice of the early church in the new testament we find prescribed for us that we're to follow in that example if you got your bible this weekend i want you to open it to hebrews chapter i'm going to focus on two verses of scripture hebrews chapter 10 verses 24 and 25 and i'm going to read these verses then we're going to unpack them together in dealing with the why why is gathering together so important the bible says 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 the big question that i want to answer today is why do we gather and i think as you think back over the last year is there was all this debate about churches and gathering we oftentimes we talked about churches like they were just everything else but i believe that the scripture teaches us that there's something unique about the family of god and the gathering of the family of god and it's really unpacked in understanding the why we gather together as brothers and sisters in christ why do we gather well a lot of people would answer that question and say well the reason that i come to church is because i know it's what i need to do for god to be happy with me like if i don't come to church somehow god's going to be disappointed in me listen we talked last weekend about the reality that our our position before the father the way he views us is not rooted in our performance it's rooted in our position in christ whether you've had a good week or a bad week hadn't changed the way the father looks at you it doesn't change the way he loves you whether or not i'm here every sunday checking off the box or not that doesn't earn me favor before god but a lot of people the reason they come is that well i got to do that for god to be happy with me or somebody might say man i come to church because i i need that pick-me-up once a week i i need to be encouraged i need that and some people say man the reason i come to church is because it's just what my family taught me i was raised in one of those families that said on the lord's day you go to church so that's what i do that's why i'm here but to answer the question why we gather the writer of hebrews here gives us much greater biblical insight into why we gather let me give you some statements to answer that question why we get i'm going to give you three of them here's the first one we gather because god is worthy of our worship are you glad to be saved i'm not sure you heard the question did i just ask you are you glad to be saved i mean we talked last weekend about the reality that we are forgiven are you glad to know today that all of your sins past present and future have been forgiven are you glad to know today that you are accepted by god not on the basis of your performance but because of your position in christ are you glad to know that your security in heaven is settled because of the death bell and resurrection of jesus here's what i want you to know the god who saved you the god who's forgiven you the god that accepts you the god that has your place reserved in heaven is worthy today of us coming into this place and lifting up his name and worshipping him we didn't read it but in the phrase just before the verses we read out of hebrews chapter 10 in verse 23 the last phrase says this i'll put it up here for he who promised is what say it out loud faithful then he goes into verses 24 and 25 talking about our gathering together for worship one of the reasons we gather for worship is because the one we've gathered to worship is worthy of our worship our response to who he is is an expression of worship that's what we've done already in this service we sang that first song man and they saying i didn't really know what we were going to be singing this weekend and when i got here i looked at the list i'm like man this is going to be awesome but but they opened with that song about god never failing about this god being faithful and then we sang about the goodness of god and we sang about the greatness of god all of these things about who he is we are worshiping him because he's worthy of our worship psalmist the psalmist understood this principle that we worship in response to the greatness of who he is let me show you in psalm 95 the way the psalmist writes about this reality of worship he says in psalm 95 oh come let who let us sing well i'm not a very good singer nobody us there's only us and them right us sing them don't let us sing to the lord let us make a joyful noise in the in the hebrew it's a word that means to shout do you know it's okay to shout in church hey listen sometimes it'll help you a preacher if you shout he said let us sing to the lord let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation let us come into his presence with thanksgiving let us make a joyful noise to him you hear it it's it's to the lord it's to the rock it's into his presence it's to him and then he says for the lord you hear how this worship thing it's not about us worship is all about him we've gathered in this place because god is worthy of our worship look what he says for the lord is a what say it out loud great god and a great king above all gods oh come let us worship and bow down let us kneel before the lord our maker for he is our god we gather to worship because god is worthy of our worship the hebrew word here for great is a word that emphasizes importance size or significance take any one of those three categories importance size or significance and god's at the top of them all like he's far above all others god is great i love webster's definition of great webster says it's remarkable in magnitude degree or effectiveness markedly superior in character and quality listen we don't gather because the church is great we don't gather because the music is great we don't worship because the preaching is great we don't gather because the people are great we don't gather because the building is great we gather because god is great [Applause] out of that psalm 95 passage here let me give you some some descriptions of the kind of worship that our great god deserves number one our worship should be joyful three times in verses one and two you hear the psalmist here describing joy or joyfully god's people should be joyful people man nothing is more frustrating to me than see somebody come in church and they get that brand on their face and they sit down and they lock their arms and say bless me if you can there's no place for that in the family of god listen it doesn't matter how bad your day's been your place in heaven is secure you're forgiven you're accepted by the father your position in christ is settled nothing changes that we ought to come in here with a spirit of joy our worship is to be joyful i was dead but now i'm alive i like this second when our worship should be active when we gather for worship worship is a verb think about that for a minute not a noun worship is not a vent an event you attend worship is not a video that you watch online worship is an activity in which you participate worship is not a spectator sport you see we have a wrong view when it comes to worship in the american church here's the wrong view we believe that you many times in the church in america you in the congregation are the audience and we believe that the people up here on stage are the worshipers and we often have this idea that god is the prompter and what happens in this dynamic is god is prompting the people on stage and they respond in worship in front of the audience did you know that's really messed up let me let you in on a secret you are sitting on stage worshipers worshipers the folks up here on this stage here's what they are they're prompters filled with the holy spirit of god and the greatest value anybody on this stage brings is not their ability it's not their their their craft or their skill or their ability to sing or to speak the greatest value they bring is walking into this place filled with the holy spirit of god so that when they get up to lead they are effectively prompting the worshipers so if if you're the stage worshipers and the stage people here are the prompters who's the audience there's an audience of one and he is seated on the throne of the universe and every weekend when we gather in this place we are gathering to be prompted by the holy spirit of god and we join our voices together in worship because god is worthy of our worship do you hear these words singing shouting coming shouting bowing kneeling you know what that is it's active now that doesn't mean everybody's got to worship the same i watched ej up here a minute ago you know i can't do that like if i wanted to i can't do that i was not i pray that when i get to heaven whatever teddy and ej got i get a dose of that when i get to heaven they got something i didn't get in my gene pool i can't i don't do that listen we're not going to all worship the same here's my point when we come into the house of god god is worthy of our worship being who we are there should be freedom to have an expressive joyful active celebration of worship the third thing the psalmist says is our worship should be together do you hear it oh what's the first two words oh what come the word come is a word that's a verb that describes movement to something or someone and get this in the hebrew language it's a command it's meaning this it's not a suggestion for you and i to pray about it's an imperative we're to come together we're to come together for worship why do we come together for worship first reason because god is worthy of our worship here's the second reason we gather because god commands our worship i just showed you in psalms where it's an imperative let me show it to you back in hebrews chapter 10 verse 24. he says and let us consider anytime you see that that phrase and let us it's a greek construction of a verb describing an imperative it's used like a command for a group of people together of which the writer is included in the group meaning it's it's not a suggestion it's an imperative it's a command let us together consider how to stir up one another to love and good works how by not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some followers of jesus choosing not to gather with other believers for worship is not a new issue in the church the writer of hebrews here says in the early church in the first century there were already christians who were developed what he calls a bad habit a bad practice in life of neglecting of forsaking of abandoning the gathering together with other believers in worship but in the last year in america what's always been an issue in the church has become epic in the church let me show you a statistic the barna research group did some study at the end of 2019 and here's what they discovered one third of practicing christians in america has stopped attending church during coven 19. one-third one-third of the church in america is doing exactly what the bible says here not to do now were there some reasons early on in this process why all of us needed to be very careful and cautious as we gather together yes there were and that's why as a family of faith we responded and i think in many ways led the way in our city for setting standards and working with governing officials and trying to make sure that we were we were careful with everything we were navigating in society but we're now living at a point when a lot of people they're going to the mall like they always went to the mall they're going to their friend's house like they always went to their friend's house they're going to restaurants like they always went to restaurants they're going to work like they always went to work but they're still playing the card when it comes to gathering in church on sunday and i know preaching in the room here i'm literally preaching to the choir you're here but there are some people who are going to be watching this online that i'm talking to and listen i'm not talking there are still people in society who because of health concern or being in high risk categories still need to be very careful and if that's you and you're watching online listen we encourage you to continue to enjoy worship together with believers online because it's the absolute safest thing for you to do right now but here's what i am saying to the online crowd if you're going to the mall like you always went to the mall and to work like you always went to work and your friend's house like you always went to your friend's house in a restaurant like you always went to the restaurant and you're just simply choosing to watch church out of convenience or comfort it's time for you to re-gather with the family of god because one of the reasons we worship is god commands our worship it was never an option for believers to come together in worship and you say maybe you say well what's the big deal why can't i just choose to do this at home i get that god's worthy of my worship and i get that god commands us to worship but but why can't i just worship at home by myself now that's a very american thing our individualistic mindset in america we're the only ones that understand the christianity without community when you look in the new testament when you look at the global church the global church and the new testament church knows nothing of christianity without community and what the writer of hebrews here is saying is that we've been commanded to not forsake the assembling the coming together of the body of christ in worship and here's why we can't just do this at home here's the third reason why we worship god's worthy god commands it here's the third one we gather because worship's not just about us you see we have a responsibility for the spiritual well-being of others in the family of god and the writer of hebrews is teaching us here that when we gather together with others in god's family weekly that's one of the ways we give priority to ministering to one another inside of the body of christ go back to hebrews chapter 10 let me read it again look what he says and let us consider you see that word the word consider is a greek word that means to to think about to contemplate on to to give minds attention to let us consider how to get this stir up one another the word stir up there it's a greek phrase that that describes era when it's used negatively it means to irritate when it's positively it means to inspire he says man let us think about how we can inspire one another to love and good deeds and he says let me tell you the starting place for that not neglecting the gathering of yourselves together he said there's no way you can begin to consider how to stir up how to inspire the faith of others if you're not coming together as the body of christ for worship you see too often when we gather for worship we're totally consumed with ourselves but here's what the writer of hebrews is teaching us gathering together for worship's not just about me sometimes we gather for worship and it's all about did i like the music or not we did a new song this weekend introduce a new song every time we introduce a new song some people email oh i love that song i didn't like that song just didn't do it for me i hate to bust your bubble you're not the litmus test i'm not the litmus test we look for music that that's consistent with god's word that magnifies who he is that brings us together from a diversity of culture and background and generation but we we get so concerned well i didn't like the music or i didn't like the message or i just wasn't feeling it today but gathering together is not just about me it's about god and how he wants to use me in the lives of others in his family listen to what warren wiersbe said about these two verses of scripture he said it is interesting to note that the emphasis here is not on what the believer gets from the assembly but rather on what he can contribute to the assembly meaning this the writer of hebrews is not saying you need to come to church for you he says you need to come to church for the church the church needs you and god's going to use you in the lives of others when we gather together for worship over 40 times in the new testament the holy spirit uses the phrase one another he inspired the writers across books in the new testament to talk about the one another relationship and all of these one another phrases describe our responsibility to each other's brothers and sisters in christ things like loving one another serving one another honoring one another giving preference to one another two of the one and others are used right here in hebrews i want to look at these two one anothers that demand us being together the bottom line is you cannot live out the one another's through a video you cannot live out the one another's watching on youtube we have to be together now is there a time and a place when that's an appropriate way for us to lean into worship i'm traveling i'm sick there's a health concern absolutely there's a time and a place what the writer of hebrews is saying is can't be the habit can't just be comfortable because i like sitting in my pajamas with my coffee cup everybody all right i know you're all right you here i'm gonna get some emails but that's all right to one another's we're exhorted to here that we can't do without being together look at the first one stir up one another to love and good deeds i told you earlier the word stir up here is a greek word that when it's used negatively it means to irritate it's like when you get a rock in your shoe man it just irritates it will not leave you alone it just bothers you it's an irritation but when it's used positively as it is here in this text it means to inspire to motivate we should be aware of what god is doing in the lives of other people around us when we gather and we should be looking for ways to inspire greater devotion to jesus and the lives of other people when we gather you know the problem sometimes we come to worship and we're so consumed with us it's like we got blinders on man we park in the parking lot we ain't looking at nobody else we get to the door we're going right to our seat we want to get our seat and then when service is over man we want to be the first one out so we can get to the parking lot and beat the crowd out of the parking lot it's all about us we got blinders on what if what if when you pull on campus what if when you arrive here the question of your heart is god would you show me some people today in the gathering that you can use me in their life today to inspire listen if we understand that that responsibility doesn't just sit up here on the stage that responsibility sits out here we're all gathered together as worshipers and the responsibility as we gather is for each of us to look for ways to inspire one another to love jesus more to serve him in greater ways what if what if you showed up here every weekend and you said god show me at least one person today god i'm not leaving today until you use me to inspire one person you know one of the reasons we designed this worship center the way we did it was intentional we obviously wanted an intimate room where we could meet together and have worship but you know in this room you kind of get the feel that everybody's on stage right like no matter where you sit everybody can see you right it's true right you know why we did that there's a verse in colossians that talks about singing to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs you know what happens when we gather in this room we get to see each other worship and let me tell you how this affects me personally every week we do multiple services last weekend easter man we did a bunch of services by the time we got to the last service on easter i never want to preach that sermon again in my life man i'm tired of it but you know what inspires me i don't know if you noticed this about me but i'm not one of those guys who sits back in the green room until it's my turn to preach no i'm out here during the worship every week i sit through every song every every service that we have every weekend i'm here i'm engaged i'm singing you know why because i need that much worship in my own heart but but get this there are some times you've done a service and it's time to do the next service or the next service i come out here and my heart's really not in it my heart's not in it i'm over here praying lord i really don't want to do this again we just did this i don't want to do this again and guess what happens i'll be looking around the room and i'll see one of you i'm serious you may not know it but i can't tell you how many times it's one of you in a service just going after it i'm gonna pick on him cause he's in the room my brother alex over here i told travis i want to bring alex on staff and pay him a full-time salary to have one job attend every service because man i'm telling you this brother inspired and listen i know his story if you knew his story man his story he inspires me god uses this brother and other people as i look around the room there are others in the room that god uses to inspire me as you engage in worship here's what you need to know others are watching you they may have come in here and at the worst week of their life their family may be falling apart they may have just lost their job but when they see the joy of jesus in you and they see you going after it it inspires them to worship god how do you do this how about a simple greeting just look for somebody to say hey too i know we got to be careful right now but you can air high five you can fist bump you can say hey from six feet away you can say hey just greet somebody make it your intention to never come on this campus without greeting somebody and letting them know you're glad to see them do you know that just about every weekend we have people that walk in here that are contemplating really dark things in their lives people that are giving church a try as a last hope and it could be christ in you that just says hey man you matter i'm glad you're here that god could use to literally turn their life upside down but to get there we've got to get not so focused on ourselves and we for sure gotta be here how about looking for somebody you can walk up to and say can i pray for you i don't get weird about it all right it's not a moment for you to call down the kind of glory of god on their life i'm not talking about dad i'm just saying hey if you know i'm good enough that's all right go for it but if you don't know them that well don't freak them out but a simple is there anything i can pray for you about when i walk into service i'm going to be praying i'd love to pray for you anything i can pray for you about you know what i'm talking about considering i've been kind of challenging the online crowd you can't do this and do this from home let me tell you what else you can do you can't get here late and leave early and live this out if you get here after the service starts and leave before it finishes here's what you're screaming worship's all about me i've come here for me and mine this weekend but when we come here to stir up one another we get here early to meet with people we stay lingering afterwards to connect with people because we didn't just come here to get ours we came here to be used by god to stir up others stir up one another then here's the next one he says encouraging one another he says encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near in verse 25. that phrase encourage it's the the greek word that we get the word paraclete that's a name for the holy spirit it's this greek word that we get that name from it's a word that literally means to to come alongside of to encourage to to come alongside and lift them up meaning you can't do this from a distance you got to do this in close proximity there has to be relationship there has to be gathering together listen the reality is this world that we live in can be discouraging for jesus followers amen it's a tough world it's getting darker but you know what he said the day is drawing near what day is he talking about the day when jesus comes again and sets it all right you say when's it going to happen i don't know but here's what i do know it's closer today than it was yesterday you say pastor i believe we're closer to the second coming of the lord than we've ever been you're absolutely right we sure are and tomorrow we'll be another day closer i don't know when it's going to happen is it in our generation i don't know is it 100 years a thousand years i don't know because to the lord of days is a thousand years and a thousand years is a day i don't know when it's going to be but here's what i do know in the world that we live in we all need encouragement and when it's when we come together that god uses us to lift one another up and encourage one another as we see the day drawing near [Music] see what encourages me sometimes is when some of you say amen that's that's the word that's good that's what amen means it means i agree that that's what the word says that's why we worship but there's a whole lot we could say about the what of worship we're not going to deal with that this weekend i wanted to just talk about the why and what we're going to do is we bring this to a close is we're going to worship together when we practice this worship together every weekend as your leadership you need to know that we're focused primarily on two things we're focused on experiencing god's presence together for us it's not about repeating a program we we believe that what we need to do is experience the presence of god together the manifest presence of god and then we want to worship together with god's people worshiping together is about hearing god through his word it's about talking with god through prayer and it's about responding to god as he moves in our lives it's what this thing of worship is all about what an incredible message today from pastor vance we gather for worship because god is worthy of all of our worship and what i'd like to do today is to invite you to join me in responding to god's word and to help us do that i want to ask you a few questions for you to process through based on the message that we just heard here's question number one when you gather for worship are you participating in a joyful and active way here's question number two how can you inspire other brothers and sisters in christ towards love and good works this week question number three is gathering for worship a priority for you as a jesus follower the word of god today showed us that it is vitally important for the body of christ to gather together for worship and one of the main reasons that we gather together is because god is worthy of our worship but this begs the question why is he worthy of our worship why is god actually worthy of our worship and here's why because god has done everything necessary in order to bring us into the family of god jesus has bridged the gap that was created because of our sin between us and god jesus did for us what we could not do for ourselves well how did he do it the answer is found in romans chapter 5 verse 8. the bible says this that god shows his love for us and that while we were still sinners christ died for us god sent his son jesus into the world to pay the penalty of sin for all of us once and for all the good news of the gospel is not that god waits for us to clean ourselves up before him but rather that god took it upon himself to come to us first and offer us a relationship with him through jesus god proved his love for you by sending his son jesus into the world jesus lived perfectly and died on the cross to pay the penalty for sin once and for all then jesus was raised from the dead to make the way for us to be reconciled into a relationship with god and maybe you're watching this right now and you don't have a relationship with jesus but you want one here's what i want you to know the bible tells us that if we call out to the lord and place our faith in him we can begin a personal relationship with god and one of the ways that we do this is through prayer and so i want to invite you today wherever you are and whoever you are if you want to begin a relationship with jesus i want to ask you to simply pray this prayer either in your heart or out loud where you're watching this video there's nothing magical about this prayer it's not the words of a prayer that saves you it's by the placing of your faith in the finished work of jesus that saves you and we can do that through prayer so wherever you are today if you want to begin a relationship with jesus you can pray these words to god lord i know that i am a sinner i know that you died for my sin i know that you rose again from the dead [Music] and today jesus i give my life to you i turn from my sin and i place my faith in you thank you jesus for saving me amen now if you just began a relationship with jesus today i want to be the first person to say to you welcome to the family you are now a part of the family of god and one of the reasons for god placing us in a family is that we were not created to live this life on our own the christian faith is not a siloed faith it's it's a faith done in community it's not to be done in isolation and our desire as a church is to come alongside you and help you follow jesus together and so if you just prayed that prayer can you do something for me can you take out your smartphone and text the word jesus follower to the number 94090 jesus follower to 94090 by doing this you will let us know that you made this decision and we would love to begin a conversation with you about the decision that you made as well as celebrate with you what god is doing in your life again thank you so much for being a part of our service today and as we bring this service to a close let's join our team as they lead us in worship [Music] you're hidden in glory in creation now revealed through you are christ what a beautiful name it is what a beautiful name it is the name of jesus christ what a beautiful name it is nothing comparison what a beautiful name it is the name of jesus what a beautiful name it is me that could not [Music] the heavens are wrong [Music] forever [Music] what a powerful day it [Music] name is is the name of jesus [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] name it is [Music] it is [Music] what a powerful name it is the name of jesus just before we leave let's continue just to sing and lift up jesus our cornerstone [Music] [Music] through the [Music] one more time let's lift this up [Music] together [Music] [Applause] [Music] thanks again for watching our online service today we want to invite you to join us thursday nights at 6 30 p.m or sunday at 8 30 and 10 30 a.m you no longer have to reserve a seat so just show up we hope to see you soon have a great [Music] week [Music] you

Channel: Hope Church LV

Views: 1,111

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: hopechurchlv, hope church, hope church lv, church

Id: jDLNuolF0ds

Length: 78min 57sec (4737 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 11 2021