Prepare for Worship | Stir Up
Last Sunday, Small Groups Director Ryan Heard exhorted us to welcome one another as Christ has welcomed us from Romans 15:7.
Read: Hebrews 10:23-25
This Sunday, Student Minister Caleb Morgan will preach from Hebrews 10:23-25. We will consider that because of Christ, we have the strength and responsibility to stir up one another with the gospel. In preparation for our worship gathering, let these words from Brian Hedges move you to consider others and how you might stir them up to love and good works.
Reflect: “Stir Up”
We help one another become more like Jesus by considering one another in order to stir up love and good works. As the dying embers of a fire need to be stoked and stirred into flame again, so our hearts need to be stirred into action by the encouragement of others.
And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.
—Hebrews 10:24-25 NKJV
Notice that stirring up love and good works requires that we “consider one another.” I need people in my life who consider me, who study my soul, who look deeply into the patterns of my thinking, the ways of my heart. I need people who know me so well, that they know how to effectively motivate me into obedient action. So do you.
This passage also shows us that one of the motives for considering and exhorting one another is the approaching Day of the Lord. If we are tempted to give short shrift to the importance of relationships, it’s because we have adopted a mentality more characterized by this age than the age to come. This grounds our relationships in an eternal perspective, reminding us that we are all headed for an eternal destiny.
Relationships matter because you and I, to some degree, are helping each other . . . move toward increasing Christlikeness and everlasting glory, or we will further the progressive disintegration and corruption of our souls.
The stakes are high! The people in your life will last forever. Keep an eternal perspective and, under God’s grace, do everything in your power to use relationships for both your own and your friends’ progressive conformity to the character of Christ.
Excerpt from Christ Formed in You, pp. 255-256, by Brian G. Hedges.
Sing: Song List for Sunday
1. “Psalm 8 (How Majestic Is Your Name),” by Shane & Shane
2. “Christ Be All,” by Grace Worship
3. “O, Lord, My Rock and My Redeemer,” by Sovereign Grace Music
4. “Blessed Assurance,” Arr. Jeff Capps
5. “On That Day,” by CityAlight