Advantages of Assembling Ourselves Together

you can be seated i was planning to present this message on a sunday earlier this year and the schedule changed and i didn't but even in planning to do so it kind of had a wednesday-ish feel if there is such a thing and so when it turned out that i didn't have the opportunity to present it on a sunday this opportunity came and i thought well maybe this was what was supposed to be i do admit at the outset that i have taught this lesson before i think the last time was in the year of our lord 2012 here in the sanctuary and the reason i point that out is because i once you hear my theme i don't want you to think that this message was simply born out of the effects of our coveted protocols coveted prevention protocols the last year has been interesting to say the least but the principle of scripture that i'm going to highlight is something that i did long before a pandemic it was true then it's true now and it's going to

remain true after we get through all of this ahead of time i'm going to read from hebrews the 10th chapter and just a couple of verses uh this should be the king james version that i'm reading uh you can remain seated too if you would do that you can turn to these places i have a few scriptures for you this evening hebrews 10 24 familiar verses and let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching and actually that may have been the new king james version if you're keeping score but we are instructed here as you can see to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together but to exhort or encourage one another and do so all the more as we see the day approaching and so for just a little bit i want to bring to you this thought advantages of assembling ourselves together advantages of assembling

ourselves together there's an old roman saying that i read that roman orators would use before they made a speech and it went something like this there is a time when nothing must be said there is a time when something should be said but never a time when everything should be said and so this evening i know that god's people can just about assemble anywhere anytime and so to avoid preaching about everything i'm going to limit my focus to the times that we meet here in this building or apc congregational meetings have been a part of religious culture since ancient times in fact in the old testament after the israelites were delivered from egypt god instructed israel to have special meeting times and he even foretold through moses that he would one day god would one day choose a place out of the 12 tribes of israel and that would be the meeting place or the place where they would gather as we know it turned out to be jerusalem and that was the location where they were to bring their

sacrifices their tithes their offerings they were to gather there for appointed feasts well today here in 2021 we don't go to the holy city of jerusalem imagine that commute if we had to do that every sunday but the concept of god's people assembling themselves is certainly carried over into the new testament it started with the birth of the church on pentecost if you'll remember there in acts chapter 2 it says about 120 were all in one place when the holy ghost was first outpoured or there was the birth of this pentecostal experience and maybe this is a bit far-fetched but if you think about it jesus could have told them to wait separately in their homes he could have said you split up and then this is how i want to do it but they clearly understood or they came to the conclusion that he wanted them to be together and so they were for some seven to ten days until the holy ghost was out poured and certainly this practice continued throughout the new testament record of the church

and there are lots of good reasons to come to church i realize i'm speaking to people who have come to church on a wednesday night and so admittedly in many respects this is going to be under the heading of reminders but i think every once while it's good for us to have reminders and at the very least i hope we'll leave this place with a fresh appreciation of what it means to get together in the house of god to have the opportunity to have the privilege and for our eyes to be open to the wonderful advantages that there are when we consciously make the choice as we've done tonight to come be in the house of the lord and one of the advantages of assembling ourselves together and none of this is rocket science but i might throw out one or two that you haven't really considered or thought about for a while but one of them is simply this fellowship with god's people in psalm 122 verse 1 david said i was glad when they said unto me let

us go into the house of the lord and if you'll stop and look at that verse or consider it for a moment it does say i david speaking was glad when they so we've got some other people involved some others said to me let us you know don't you david you need to be in the house of god get on down the road and get there no he said let us go into the house of the lord it brought joy to david's heart to realize that there were some people that wanted to gather with him and go to the house of the lord and in acts 2 we're told in the new testament that the new believers continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine or teaching but also in fellowship in breaking of bread and in prayers i'll be quick to note that socializing is not a primary purpose of our getting together in church but it is enjoyable to get together with god's people it is enjoyable even if you can't greet everybody in a congregation our size it is

heartwarming to realize that you are gathered with people of like precious faith that you're with people who are on the quote unquote other side of the sanctuary who also have your love for god in their hearts who also share an experience of biblical salvation they hold to the apostolic teaching share the same mission and certainly have come to worship god and spirit and truth just like you have that's heartwarming even if you don't get to say hi or smile at everybody tonight you're with people of like precious faith and that does bring joy to our hearts but even beyond our general services such as we're in this evening and we have on sundays we also get together in smaller groups without question and not all of them are attended by everybody that's the reason they're called small groups but we have celebrate recovery on tuesday night grief share on thursday night i did hear brother bowie announce friday night the ladies are getting together can we hear yes for the lady about time right i think i don't know when

it was last hit to see last time you guys got together a year or a year whole year almost okay and so that's coming up and you are meeting in here right so you can all spread out and be safe so uh that's a ministry a time of getting together that's a little different than what we're doing tonight certainly the men's uh men's ministry they have get-togethers planned on the calendar this year our youth are meeting right now in their own meeting or time of worship and fellowship and so there's all kinds of ways in fact even children's church is getting ready to launch again we tried it back in november and got shut down a little bit by a surge in covet but we are aiming for next wednesday to have that up and going and we're also looking at some meetings for sundays too at 9 11. so all these smaller groups are ways that the church gets together enjoys fellowship one with another another advantage to our assembling ourselves is the fact that we can have united

prayer in acts 2 42 that i mentioned earlier it does say that they continued in a number of things but one of them was in prayers jesus teaches us i know it's in matthew 6 there's probably another place or two in the bible but he teaches us specifically that we are to have private times of prayer he talks about going into your closet shutting the door praying to your father and your father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly so clearly there is private devotion advocated by jesus and the word of god however there are other times when we join in prayer acts 2 42 that i've referenced is one of those they continued in prayers and that implies that they had different meeting times in fact in acts 3 when peter and john were on their way to the temple it was what the hour of prayer it was an appointed time where they went to the temple for prayer and not just the two of them i'm sure there were others too in acts 12 i think

brother linder referenced this sunday in his message when peter was in prison the church got together they didn't all stay home and pray individually but they got together for corporate prayer acts 16 talks about a ladies prayer meeting in philippi act 16 where they met so lots of scriptures and references to us getting together and it's certainly an advantage when we join our faith and offer our prayers to god james chapter 5 uh verses 14 and 15. i think i do have these verses for you on the screen uh james 5 14 says is any one among you sick now this is talking about a specific kind of prayer it says let him call for the elders and notice the plurality of that of the church and let them pray over him anointing him with oil in the name of the lord and the prayer of faith shall save the sick and the lord shall raise him up clearly elders if i can just use that biblical term they make house calls to visit the sick if needed they make

hospital calls at least we did pre-covert right but there is the implication of course that these elders can also pray in a congregational meeting you get the idea that if you're there sick and and obviously it's something that's not contagious but you have a sickness an illness a disease you can call for the elders of the church and they will anoint you with oil pray over you in the name of the lord and the prayer of faith shall save the sick and so you've got this combined prayer even though elders are cited we all can call on the name of jesus christ together and through the combined prayer we can see our faith rewarded and i think you'll agree that combined prayer is it's like a channel to god it is certainly a gateway into his presence we experienced that around here last saturday night not all of you were able to come but we had a tremendous time of prayer here in the sanctuary and i'm not taking one thing away from your private devotion but if you were

here i think you have to admit it was pretty powerful to be with others great advantage and it wasn't a regular church night but we got together for the focus of prayer the specific reason of praying and what a time we had in the presence of the lord we were challenged and helped and strengthened and we know god heard us in fact james 5 16 that next verse says the effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much just imagine what a whole bunch of people praying together can do and certainly we've seen that as we have assembled ourselves together and so prayer united prayer is a real great blessing another one and this point may seem a little self-serving but when we get together we hear anointed preaching and i say self-serving because i are one as they say but regardless of the messenger and i know i'm with mature saints of god that agree with this regardless of the messenger it's the preached word of god that's crucial so no matter who's here behind the sacred desk as

we call it sometimes as long as the preacher's in the book it's going to work as long as he's preaching god's word it's not going to return void but it's going to have the effect that god intends for that specific service and that's why it's such a joy to come faithfully to services because you hear different ministers but not only different ministers you hear different messages what god had for us last sunday won't be what god has for us this sunday if he carries his coming but by coming faithfully we benefit from all the messages that god lays on the hearts of the ministry and so certainly that is a great advantage of us coming together and i know we're in a technological age and you can watch dvds and see things live stream and all of that but there's just something about being alive i guess they're in person and feeling the impact of god's word going forth and people of god responding first corinthians 1 21 says this it please god through the foolishness of preaching or really

what is meant there through the foolishness of the message preached and paul was specifically talking about the crucifixion how it didn't make sense to the greeks and the jews didn't really understand it but it's through that means preaching that god has chosen to save those who believe and not only save but it's also his way of ministering to us helping us encouraging us guiding us telling us the things that we need to know i remember years ago in fact we were at the old church some of you might remember when brother greene was our pastor we remodeled the uh platform extended it from the the small size that it was and it was on a midweek service it was under construction and brother charles clanton who has gone home to be with the lord was invited to come preach and i came to the house of the lord that night i was in my late teens i guess if memory serves and i came with a dilemma uh there was there was something going on that i needed an answer

and i'd prayed about it sought god and i was even in the pre-service prayer time that night talking to god about it letting him know that i needed some clarity on what i needed to do in a given situation and i came out to the service and when brother clinton preached that evening his message was my answer that night what he declared was exactly what i needed to hear and let me know how i needed to respond or or act in that given situation and so firsthand even though it wasn't a salvation message it was a time of ministering to me and i got my answer through the preaching of the word because god laid it upon his heart and i'm sure it helped others in that service as well but it was particularly what i needed and when we mix our faith with the word of god it will produce results when we hear the word of the lord receive it in faith it will produce results and so anointed preaching is a tremendous advantage that we have when

we assemble ourselves together here's one that you might not just readily think of but when we gather it's also a time when we can give offerings to causes bigger than ourselves we know quite well that we can send money from home in fact covet has taught us that that we can certainly get online and do that but there is something i don't know inspiring at least to me maybe i'm a little bit off base in some regards but it's inspiring to me as we agree as a group to help others sometimes that's planned you know you know in advance like our missions conference last weekend we knew it was coming we knew that we were going to be prayerful about faith promises and so forth but sometimes it's spontaneous i've been in services where god just a need arose and god just started moving on people's hearts and this one said i'll give this i'll give that and it's pretty fascinating to see how god will work through us to meet needs in the church and so it can be

an advantage in that regard just that it inspires us to be a blessing to something beside ourselves or a cause that's bigger than ourselves and so that's certainly an advantage and then here's another one acts 14 verse 27 i think i have this one too on the screen acts chapter 14 verse 27 says and when they were come and that means to antioch and had gathered their church together so it was a congregational meeting they rehearsed all that god had done with them and how he had opened the door of faith unto the gentiles and one of the advantages in our assembling ourselves together is that we can listen or hear of reports of the worldwide church of jesus christ in this case uh the disciples were coming back to report what god had done particularly in opening the door the gentiles and you can imagine the thrill as they were hearing these reports i know we live in the day of social media i know you can read all kinds of posts and good things and i'm glad it's

out there but again it's just something special about being there in person when you can hear the news and we experienced this last sunday in the missions conference at the outset even saturday night at the prayer meeting but then also in both the sunday services reports were shared good things are happening even when it came to the offering it was the growing number was flashed there on the screen and just exciting to learn about what god is doing and it is exciting to get first-hand accounts of god's healings for various people the outpouring of his spirit baptisms lives being changed is being started new works being planted whether it's north america or other places in the world and even to hear about answers to prayer divine protection divine provision and folks have an opportunity to share what god has done for them it's heart warming it's faith and it's so strengthening to know that we can get together and that's again none of these are the soul reason we gather but it's one of the advantages one of the many

advantages that we have in getting together or assembling ourselves listening to reports of the world wide church is clearly an advantage and then we also are encouraged and directed through the gifts of the spirit if you're not familiar with those first corinthians chapter 12 will outline them for you with some explanation and there are reference books and other ways that you can delve into those to learn more than just what's stated there in first corinthians but in the seventh verse of that chapter it says the manifestation of the spirit is given to each one that is the gifts of the spirit are given to by god to others severally as he will but it's given for the prophet of all so the gifts of the spirit clearly as i read through there it's for the community of believers this is not to say that the gifts of the spirit cannot or will not operate uh with you on your own or with just two or three in a home somewhere but clearly when the congregation gets together that's prime time

if i could say it that way for the gifts of the spirit to operate and clearly one of the more visible ones is a message in tongues an interpretation or just a word of prophecy that comes forth but the implication is that that demonstration whatever it is the word of knowledge the gifts of faith the healings miracles whether it is it is for everybody's advantage and i know there are times when a message will specifically talk to heart just like brother clanton's message talk to my heart but again it talk to others and so a message can help one person in particular or many and that just seems to imply when you study through that that the display of the gifts comes usually when we are together and so when we assemble ourselves that's the opportunity the environment is right for god to minister or have those gifts operating and he again chooses whom he will to use them and there are i believe nine if memory serves i should know that shouldn't i amber where's amber where's amber where'd

she go oh she's oh yeah she's flashing photography back there all that stuff is that right are there nine are there nine gifts suddenly i had a mental block are you saying yes or no i can't see with these lights you think there's more oh we'll debate later okay how many are in first corinthians 12. there we go thank you see got to ask a guy what do you know i'm kidding i'm kidding i'm kidding i'm kidding i'm kidding i'm kidding i'm just kidding we'll talk later she'll kick me in the shin now won't you all the ladies line up and kick brother river in the shin after church but in all sincerity they operate when we're together and so what an advantage for us to be in the name of jesus gather and to have that opportunity and certainly uh all kinds of good things can happen the healings the miracles uh the word of knowledge the word of wisdom uh god speaking to us through the interpretation of tongues and just so many wonderful things happening and i

won't slow down to go into it personally but you're listening to a guy who has been helped time and time again particularly by messages that were interpreted message in tongues was given fact i came to an altar back january 19th 1975 because of the gifts of the spirit that operated there was a message in tongues brother black gave the interpretation and uh part of that was directly to me and it got me in the altar and so i'm a firm believer that the gifts of the spirit are a tremendous advantage when we get together and it's happened to me there's been lots of things that have been communicated or confirmed in my spirit through the gifts and so i'm very very thankful that they are a part of the church another advantage in our assembling ourselves together is corporate worship uh i won't read the verses but revelation 19 kind of gives us the idea that there's going to be lots of corporate worship in heaven so if you don't care for corporate worship you might not like heaven i

don't know but psalms 107 31 says this all that men would praise the lord for all his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men and then verse 32 let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people or the assembly of the elders as it reads there and so you see clearly that one of the reasons of our gathering and one of the advantages of our assembling ourselves together is that we can praise him corporately and and i love this about our god you can be saying uh your heartfelt praise on this side and i can be on this side offering mine god hears it all accepts it all but this is another thing that i've directly benefited from when we're offering our praise corporately there's an atmosphere that's created an environment that is created where god is right at home he dwells inhabits our praises so he's right at home to minister right at home to meet needs and perform miracles and answer prayers and fill people with the holy ghost all kinds of

wondrous things happen in an atmosphere of worship and most of you have been in the church long enough to know that if we uh keep our mouths shut and we kind of sit uh glumly and don't really get involved in worship there's not a lot that happens but boy when we open our mouths and praise when we worship when we give god glory you can just sense the atmosphere shifting changing and and god's attention is gained and good things result because of our corporate worship and clearly there's lots and lots of verses if you want to do a study on it you can but let me give you just one more david said in psalm 34 3 o magnify the lord with me i don't want to do it by myself david said but with me let us exalt his name together so david recognized that there was something powerful he discerned the value of mutual worship and figured out it was pretty worthwhile to link up with others in giving worship to join with other people in offering praise

and we all have different expressions of worship and that's fine but here's the point we worship together you might clap your hands i might wave my arm but we're worshiping together you might dance with your feet and other might leap with his legs but we're worshiping together and the actual words of praise that i say and the words of praise that you say they may be a little different but it's all to his glory it's all honoring him it's all something that we do together and so what an advantage when an atmosphere like that is created such a positive effect and the worship of god does pave the way for the ministry of the word and certainly for the moving of the spirit it is a tremendous tremendous advantage another one is to the another advantage is that we witness spiritual transformation we can see baptisms people's sins remitted in the waters of baptism in the name of jesus people are filled with the holy ghost and our altars in our benches and other places other meetings small groups and

so we can witness spiritual transformation it's certainly okay to and maybe we don't say this as much as we used to but it's okay to get your blessing at church but don't forget we're also assembled to be a blessing to reach out to other people and so praying with others encouraging others pointing others to god leading them to a conversion experience are all things that can happen tremendous advantages when we assemble ourselves together and then in hebrews 10 that i read at the outset another advantage it says that we are to consider one another to stir up to love and good works not forsaking the assuming of ourselves together as a manner of some is but so much the more as you see the day approaching and so another advantage in our assembling ourselves is that we can have opportunity to prepare for that day which is approaching or to recheck or to reevaluate or to better prepare if it were as it were we don't know the day or hour when jesus is coming back but we can discern

the season right in thessalonians paul said of the times and seasons brethren you have no need that i write unto you for yourselves know perfectly that the day of the lord so comes as a thief in the night so we might not know the day or hour in fact the bible tells us we don't know it but we can figure out the season and uh one example that i've looked at over the years is if you have one of those calendars that in fact i guess it's next month the first day of spring should be on your calendar but if you live long enough to know you know i should say that it doesn't always weather wise match up i can remember years ago with my daughter angela we must have been on spring break we were first day of spring i remember it because it was so so ironic first day of spring we were out at westport plaza i think when ozzie smith still had his restaurant i was taking her to lunch there in the noon hour

and we were walking through several inches of snow on the ground first day of spring so it doesn't always match up but you start figuring out the seasons at hand right the robins the tree blossoms the flowers the buds and all the things that go along the weather does start warming up there are signs when you know that that season's at ha it's the same way with the coming of the lord don't know the day or hour but we can look in the word of god and see that it's coming soon the coming of the lord is soon signs prophecies foretold in scripture are coming to pass world events point to it and assembling ourselves together is just another opportunity to better prepare to search our hearts and get ready for that day and so we can take advantage of the opportunity being together to make our calling and election sure but the best reason of all the best advantage of all when we get together is the fact that jesus always shows up for church now you can encounter

jesus anywhere i'll be quick to say that in fact during his ministry people encountered him in the city encountered him in small towns and villages along the road mountains along them sea houses in the temple the presence of jesus is not limited by geography or even physics for that matter he can show up anywhere he wants any time he wants he was with the apostle peter in prison john on a deserted isle he was with paul in a foreign country italy so there's no limitation to god and his manifestation but through his spirit of course he never leaves us never forsakes us present with us in our homes hospital waiting rooms outdoor services doesn't matter where but if there's any place when you where you can encounter the presence of jesus christ it is the church if there's any place you can experience his love his joy his peace it's right here in the house of god when we gather so i'm simply saying this a tremendous advantage in our assuming ourselves is that when you get together in god's

house with god's people you can expect jesus is going to show up jesus is going to be in our midst just go ahead and plan on his presence being in the sanctuary and manifesting itself in some way jesus said in matthew 18 20 where two or three are gathered together in my name there am i in the midst of them yet another powerful advantage in assembling ourselves together is the fact that when we get together in his name no matter how small the group or how large the group in his name he promises i'll be there i'll be there in your midst and so that's a case where i know he meets with us in our private prayer times but clearly he singled out that situation where just a handful or a whole bunch as long as you're gathered with others in my name i'll be there and what a powerful powerful thing for us that's why we don't know when we get together everything that jesus specifically plans to do when we meet you name the service we don't

always know what god has in mind at least i don't maybe god gives you the insight and you know everything that's going down in a particular service i don't but one thing is for sure by coming to church we position ourselves to receive whatever it is he has for us on that given occasion just by showing up we may not know exactly what he wants we know kind of a few things that are probably going to happen but whatever he's got in store for us we're in on it because we've been faithful to the house of god so showing up puts us in line for the blessing that he has to bestow that's why i would just say it this way as long as it's in your control you want to get to the house of god as long as you can make the decision on your own as long as nothing is preventing it get to the house of worship it's a wise choice and there is advantage after advantage after advantage of assembling yourselves together with the people

of god and in closing i read an account of a local paper so obviously this was some time ago but a local newspaper had a sunday morning religion section that contained among other things letters to the editor about various religious issues and one sunday something was printed that became quite controversial a man wrote i quit going to church this year i decided that attending services week after week was a stupid thing to do after all i went to church for more than 40 years and during my lifetime have probably been 5 000 services only a handful of them were memorable what a waste of time well as you can imagine this sparked some fury and a lot of incoming letters some wrote that church does make a difference some wrote they sighed in fact he signed that bored and busy so they sided with bored and busy his opinion that most services were meaningless or unnecessary but finally one letter came in and was printed and it seemed to end the debate here what here it is i quit eating

this year thanks to bored and busy's insights i decided that eating week after week was a stupid thing to do after all i've been eating for more than 40 years and during my lifetime have probably eaten 5 000 meals only a few of them were memorable what a waste in time and he signed it starved and stupid sometimes you wonder in a given service just what does it mean to come to that particular service but don't overlook the spiritual benefits of assembling ourselves together we need the fellowship we need the united prayer we need the anointed preaching we need the opportunities to give to causes bigger than ourselves we need reports of what god is doing we need the manifestation of the spirit and the gifts of the spirit we need community or corporate worship we need to witness transformation in people's lives we need to prepare for the day that's approaching and certainly we need to meet with jesus christ and experience his power and his presence i can't tell you tonight i've been brought up in the church

for those that don't know me or my background i couldn't tell you how many services i've attended i i didn't even think to try to add them up just even on average i don't know but whether i knew it or not i needed them all and i'll have to admit there's a lot of services that i couldn't pinpoint to you what happened exactly here and there there are a lot of them i can but when we take the time and the effort it does take some time it does take some effort to come to the house of god that's for sure but it's worth it to be in the presence of god it's worth it to be with people of like precious faith it's worth it to follow the biblical principle he said not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together but encouraging one another and so much the more as you see the day approach it's worth it to encounter jesus isn't it it is worth it to have our faith rewarded and true to form he's in this house

tonight and i hope that through this service in our time of worship through music through our prayer through some of the things that i've highlighted i trust that your mind and heart has been encouraged and refreshed strengthened and certainly you can know that the petitions that you've brought to him this very night in this very place he's heard you and you can go from here refreshed you can go from here filled with faith that god is going to do a great work in your heart and in your life because he loves you if you'd stand with me once you've done that i'm going to invite you just to spend a few moments to thank the lord for the fact that we have the church and i i know it's a spiritual body and i talk about the body of jesus christ that's what it really means we're called out believers but thank god we have a place to gather right a place to get together and there are all kinds of advantages we do lift up your voice and let's

thank him together from our hearts lord we appreciate so much your presence your nearness we thank you for the fact that we can join in worship join in the house of god thank you that we are in a country where there's a opportunity to build a place like this and it's able to be set aside time where we can freely gather and assemble ourselves and more than all those practical things thank you for the power of jesus christ that meets us here thank you for the lives that are transformed thank you for the healings thank you for the answered prayers thank you for the things that you do to encourage and uplift us we rejoice in what you are doing and we celebrate this night the advantages of assembling ourselves together thank you for honoring us as we've honored your word and the principle of it we do celebrate this very night amen and amen