Dangers of Do-it-Yourself Christianity

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Transcript:

We’re going to be in Hebrews chapter 10 tonight. Hebrews chapter 10. I’m probably going to keep this a little bit short this evening.

I know I say that all the time, but I started feeling a little green around the gills before we got started. So we’re going to be in Hebrews chapter 10, and we’re going to talk a little bit about do-it-yourself Christianity. I’m very much a do-it-yourself kind of guy, at least in terms of what I aspire to be and what I aspire to do.

I’d rather build something than go buy it. I’d rather fix something than throw it away and go get a new one. And to an extent, that’s a good thing to do.

That’s a good thing to shoot for. But I also realize that everybody can’t do everything. If you don’t believe that, just let me do heart surgery on you.

I don’t know what I’m doing. I can’t do everything. I can’t accomplish everything.

I can’t do everything on my own. As much as I like to build and to plant gardens and all that, sometimes I need, not this week, but sometimes I need Charla to help me. Sometimes I have to ask her, can you come hold this vine while I tie it up?

Can you come hold this while I hammer this in over here? Sometimes I have to holler at the kids. Can you come pick up this piece of firewood that the dog has scattered in the yard while I’m on the lawnmower?

You know, we need other people. And as I came tonight prepared to talk about this subject, I was listening to an interview on the radio talking about how we specialize in labor and how we divide things up. And that’s really the way we do things in our society now.

And it’s been for our benefit. A hundred years ago, if you didn’t grow it yourself or somebody around you didn’t grow it themselves, you pretty much didn’t have it or you had to know how to make it yourself. Now we can run down to Walmart and get what we need, which I did very quickly after the services this morning.

There were some things Charlie needed. I just run down to Walmart. I didn’t have to learn how to make the stuff myself, which was great.

If we only had what we could make ourselves, we’d be in a heap of trouble because we can’t do everything we need on our own. We can’t. I’ve been taking some, over the past few months, I’ve studied some lessons from a group called the Foundation for Economic Education that talks about how the free market system works together.

And they use the example of the pencil. And they said there’s nobody who can go down to South America and cut the trees from the rainforest or wherever else. And I guess they replant trees now, too.

Who can also go over to Africa or Malaysia and harvest the rubber for the eraser. Who can go and mix up the yellow paint. Who can mine the graphite.

Who can mine the aluminum for the, I forget now what they call the metal thing that attaches the eraser. But there’s nobody who can do all of that and also saw the pieces together, fit them together, do the finished product. They said this is the result of thousands and thousands, and this simple little pencil is the result of thousands of people’s labor.

I could not produce a pencil today, and you could not. But you take the labor of thousands of people, harvesting trees, harvesting rubber, mining aluminum, mining graphite, mixing the paint, running the sawmill, running the trucks that get those things to the factories, running the coal power plants to power the factories, running the restaurants that feed the truckers on the way. You can see this is an ever-expanding web.

And it turns out that this free-market system that is so individualistic and let’s work hard and take care of ourselves really means that we are interconnected and interdependent in a way that we never have been before. And I got to thinking about this as I was listening to this interview today on the radio, that that’s true in the life of a believer as well. Now there is a sense in which you and you alone are responsible for your relationship to God.

We’re not going to stand before the judgment seat of Jesus Christ, the mercy seat of Jesus Christ one day, and Him look over our lives and say, well, what did LaWanna do in your life? He’s going to ask LaWanna what she did, But I don’t get to say, well, Lord, LaWanna didn’t help me enough. No, it’s what did you do?

There’s a sense where I am responsible. You are responsible for your spiritual life before God. But there’s another sense in which God says, no, no, you’re responsible for each other.

You’re dependent on each other. That’s why he put us together as the local church. God never intended us to try to do the Christian life on our own, to completely do it yourself.

Because we don’t all bring the same things to the table. And we can’t all accomplish the same ministry, but you put us all together, and God stirs the pot and mixes us up, and it all gets done. And he put us together to need each other, and to lean on each other, and to encourage each other.

We’re going to look at just a couple of verses tonight, starting in Hebrews 10, verse 23. And this is probably one of the more familiar passages of Hebrews that you’ve ever seen. But he says, let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for he is faithful that promised.

And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching. Okay, that’s a short passage right there. But in it, the writer of Hebrews is under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit telling the members of the local church to hang together because we need each other.

God never intended us to be Lone Ranger Christians. And the question is often asked, well, can’t I just read my Bible at home? Sure you can.

And you can worship God at home. You can have a relationship with God at home. You can do those things on your own.

But you cannot have the full Christian life that God intended you to have apart from a community. Now, as I said, God can empower those things. God can still work in your life.

I always, when I think about this, I think of Richard Wurmbrand, who founded Voice of the Martyrs, if you’re familiar with that group. He was a political prisoner for years in communist Romania. He was locked in a prison cell much of that time by himself.

And he still continued to study God’s Word if he didn’t have God’s Word in his hand, if he didn’t have a Bible there in his cell. He’d meditate on the passages he did, remember. He would sing by himself.

He would pray by himself. And God was able to sustain him and grow him during that time. But folks, we are not locked in a prison cell.

That is the exception, not the rule. For most of us and most times of our lives, God intends us to grow together, to work together, to rely on each other. And that’s why he puts us together as the local church.

Under normal circumstances, it is dangerous for us to say, nah, I don’t want to be part of that group. And I’m not saying that in the. .

. I’m not saying, hey, you need to be part of the church because I want numbers to fill the pews every week so I look good to the other preachers. Or because we want to control what everybody says or does.

I’m telling you this because it’s what the Word of God says that we need each other. And this is not just the pastor saying it. It’s God’s Word.

And guess what? I believed these things even before I became a pastor. That’s why I was so heavily involved in my local church even before I was a pastor.

Part of what made me want to be a pastor, aside from the call of God that I felt on my life, was the fact that I saw how the local church was supposed to function and how God put us together to need each other and that leadership and what it can do to help people unlock their God-given potential. But he tells us in verse 23 to hold fast the profession of our faith. And I want to share with you just very briefly tonight from this passage a few things that we run the risk of, a few dangers that we encounter along the way, if we decide, no, I don’t need the church, I don’t need other Christians, I can just do this by myself. First of all, we run the risk of surrendering to doubts.

He says, let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering. And part of the job of the local church is to reinforce our confidence in the truth. Now, that doesn’t mean you’ll never have questions, it doesn’t mean you’ll never have doubts, and you certainly don’t want to go into a church and have the church tell you, well, stop thinking, stop questioning, stop growing, just believe what we tell you.

That’s not my position. That’s not the position of any healthy church that I know. I’ve told you before, I am a skeptic of a great many things, and I encourage skepticism.

Folks, I knew there was fake news before they started talking about it on the real news because you just see things out there that don’t smell right. So I encourage people to have questions. Don’t I tell you at least once a week, go check this out for yourself.

Don’t just believe what I’m saying. Go do your own homework. But I also know that when you get apart from the church, when you get apart from your brothers and sisters in Christ, there’s always that nagging voice.

And not the nagging voice of saying, you need to do your homework on this, but the nagging voice of saying, that’s not really true. You can’t believe that. There’s no one.

Nobody believes that. About things that you’ve already experienced and things you already know to be true. I’ve experienced God’s goodness.

I’ve seen the change that He’s made in my life over the years. I’ve seen the change that he’s made in other people’s lives throughout the years. And still, there are times that you hear that voice saying, that can’t be real. Well, you’re going to be more susceptible to those voices of doubt.

And again, I’m not saying questioning can sometimes be healthy. But giving in to doubts about things that you already know are true can be very dangerous. And I’ve seen too many people fall by the wayside because they thought, well, I can just do this myself.

And then they began to give in to that little voice that said, no, that can’t possibly be true. And they began to doubt what they already knew. And so as he’s encouraging us to be part of the local church, he says, let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering.

We need each other because we help each other stand firm in the faith. Second of all, we can forget God’s character because he reminds us in verse 23 that he is faithful that promised. Why should we have confidence?

It’s not confidence in my own belief and confidence in my own faith and confidence in what I know. It’s confidence in who God is. And as I have said many times, that it’s not the strength of your faith that determines its validity.

It’s what you put your faith in. I can believe very strongly that a chair is going to hold me up. And if the chair is not worthy of that trust, I may just fall flat on the floor.

And that has happened on a few occasions. Well, folks, he reminds them, and again, we don’t know exactly who wrote this. There are some clues inside that lead us to know that it’s one of the apostles or a close associate.

It might have been Paul. That’s the traditional view. It might have been Barnabas or Silas or Apollos or Aquila.

One of those guys. Might have been Luke. It’s written to a Jewish background audience.

And one of the things that they often do in the New Testament or in the Old Testament, too, when they’re speaking to Jewish audiences, is to go back and remind them of God’s faithfulness to the nation of Israel all throughout history. And that’s why you’ll see Nehemiah going through the list of all the things that God did from Abraham and through Moses. And that’s why you’ll see in Joshua’s ministry, talking about the deliverance from Egypt, they always go back and look and say, what is our story?

Where were we and where has God brought us? And so he doesn’t go through a list here, whoever has written this, doesn’t go through such a list here. But you can tell where he’s hearkening them back to say, think about this for yourself.

Isn’t he faithful? Think of all you know of God. Think of all that he’s done for us.

Isn’t he faithful? And we get outside this community, and we’re not challenged in our faith in that way. We’re not surrounded by people who have experienced and acknowledged the faithfulness of God and his goodness.

And we get out in a world that’s hostile toward God. We get out into a world that looks at the things that God has done and tries to stand in judgment of God and says, well, the God I worship would never do that. Well, I don’t know what God you worship, but the God you should worship did that and said that, and it’s recorded in the book.

And he had a reason for it that you or I will never understand. Who am I to stand in judgment of God? But we forget who he is when we get outside of this community and we get out into the world.

It is so much easier. Am I saying you’re going to walk out the door and miss a service and you’re going to forget all about who God is. That’s not what I’m saying.

And in none of this am I saying that shame on you. You miss church. There’s no excuse.

There will be times that you have to miss. That’s not what he’s talking about when he says forsaking the assembling of yourselves together. He’s saying make it a habit to be part.

Make that a hallmark of your lifestyle to be part of this community. But you get outside of this community and you surround yourself with a community that’s hostile toward God, it becomes much easier to forget who He is and what He’s done and His faithfulness in your life. Third of all, tonight, we run the danger of disregarding our service.

He says in verse 24, let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works. If you’ve ever had a sibling growing up, you know what the word provoke means. Right?

And just poke at you and poke at you. Or maybe I’m not touching you. Stop not touching me.

Okay? We would provoke each other and make them do things. I’m not going to name names, but I’m running into this now with my children, where one knows what is going to get the other one in trouble and encourages the other one to do that.

As a matter of fact, they both sometimes would do that. And it amazes me. Y’all are so gullible.

Don’t listen to each other. You’re both being a bad influence right now. Provoking means to just poke somebody or push somebody long enough and push just the right buttons to get them to do something.

and we think of it in a negative context. But the writer of Hebrews tells us to provoke each other to love and good works. That we need to do the things that encourage each other, that spur each other on to show love and to do good works.

See, we have a service that we’re called to. We are called to serve other people in the name of Jesus Christ and on his behalf and to show his love. And when you get outside this community, it gets just a little bit easier to forget about that.

It’s just a little bit easier. I notice sometimes the further I drive away from Seminole and the further I drive away from my church family, the easier it is to forget that I’m still a pastor and I’m still a Christian and I’m still a missionary. And I find myself, for example, in Phoenix getting more irritated with people and more, can I say, road ragey?

And you know, probably think what’s the big deal? It’s just a change of attitude. Whereas here in Seminole, I go into Walmart today, and I could get a little road ragey with the carts, but I stop and think, okay, no, these are supposed to be kind, supposed to be loving, represent Christ in the community.

Okay, do you understand what I’m saying? The further you get from this body, the easier it is to forget about the obligation that we have to the world. Because we should be coming in, and we should be sharing the things that God is doing in our lives, and we should be encouraging each other in that.

This is how God used me to serve this week. That’s amazing. Have you considered this?

We should be challenging each other to go ever higher in our service and in our love for others. Provoke each other in a good way. I’ve seen churches provoke each other in a bad way.

Every time I mention the story about somebody taking a swing at somebody else at a business meeting over who got the mail, some of you all laugh like you think I’m kidding, but that really happened. I’d say somebody has been provoked at that point. Now, they’re responsible for their own actions and their adults, but somebody’s been pushed.

The buttons have been pushed just a little too far. You’ve got to get pushed quite a little ways to take a swing at somebody at church. Churches can provoke each other in the wrong way.

He tells us to provoke each other to love and to good works. And we do that by being part of this community and sharing what God has done and is doing in our lives and for other people. We run the risk, number four, of falling out of fellowship.

The local church should strengthen us by providing Christian fellowship. You may have Christian friends here and there outside of this church, and I encourage that. It’s always good to get together with fellow believers, even if you don’t go to the same church.

But show me another institution, another organization. I hate to call the church an organization. But show me another entity that is found in nearly every community in the world that fosters Christian fellowship.

Do you find Christian fellowship down at the bar? Some of you might say you do. You don’t find Christian fellowship really down at the bar.

I don’t really have Christian fellowship at Walmart unless I run into some of y’all. I don’t have Christian fellowship in line at the post office unless I run into some of y’all. And again, at Walmart and the post office, that may happen, but that’s not the goal. That’s not what Walmart is there for or what the post office is there for or the bank.

You’re not going to find it at the movie house. That’s not their job. But if you’re looking for where am I supposed to be connected to other Christians, where am I supposed to find where I fit, it’s right here.

It’s right here. And oftentimes churches get a bad reputation, sometimes deserved, sometimes not, for being a place where people feel excluded. Some have gone way too far the other direction and said, in the interest of being inclusive, we’re just going to throw out pages of this book and we’re going to say that whatever you want to do is fine.

I still maintain we can look at each other and say, my sin’s not okay and your sin is not either, but you’re loved here and you belong here. I think there’s a line that we can find there. and where we should be a welcoming place, tell people, you want Christian fellowship, this is where you find it.

It doesn’t matter what you come in dressed like. It doesn’t matter whether you just have overalls or if you’re wearing a suit. It doesn’t matter whether you came in a Cadillac or you hitched a ride here on the back of a chicken truck.

It doesn’t matter whether you talk good or not. None of those things matter. But if you want Christian fellowship, if you want people that you can unite with and be a part of their lives and then a part of yours, and do all of that around the person of Jesus Christ, this is it.

The local church is where that happens. Because he says, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is. There were already, in the days of the early churches, there were already people who were trying to go it alone.

And the apostles were saying, wait, whoa, whoa, this is dangerous. And Jesus modeled that. I think Jesus modeled that better than we do.

Because we, a lot of us, get together two days a week and call that fellowship. And I’m glad for I’m glad for the fellowship that we have those two days a week, sometimes three. Jesus and the 12 men that he discipled live together and walk together every day.

I’m not saying we need to do that. You get some real fellowship real fast. As I said last week, you don’t really know somebody until you’ve lived with them. It’s an eye-opening experience.

But what I am saying is there should be a daily relationship where we’re part of each other’s lives. And to do that with our brothers and sisters, that comes through the church. And finally, this evening, we run the risk of losing our hope.

We’re in danger of losing our hope. Because part of the job of this local church is to direct people’s attention to the fact that Jesus is coming back. And if you forget about that fact, if you forget that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, if you forget that he rose from the dead to provide your eternal, to provide your resurrection, if you forget that he’s coming back for you to rescue us from all of this and to take us into the presence of his Father for eternity, it’s easy to lose hope.

It’s easier when we get outside of this community where by and large the world does not care about Jesus Christ or what he said or what he did or what he wants. It’s easier to get outside of this community and take our focus off of what he did for us. And suddenly all we see around us is darkness and despair and hopelessness.

and it’s easy to forget the hope that we have in Jesus Christ. And it’s easy to look at the world and grow weary and say, well, it’s just never going to get any better. Folks, he says we’re to exhort one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching. What day?

The day of Jesus’ return. That one day Jesus is going to return and call us home. And as I talked about a few weeks ago, several weeks ago now, about the end times, people disagree.

Even Bible-believing Christians disagree on the timing of how all that’s going to happen. Is it going to happen all at once? Is it going to happen in stages?

What order is it? Pretty much the one thing we agree on, though, is that Jesus is coming back. And that was really the crux of the message that day for you.

All of this, important to study, important to talk about, not so important we need to divide about it, because what is important is that he is coming back, and on that, the Bible is crystal clear. And we can forget, it’s much easier outside of this community, outside of the church, it is easier to get caught up and what’s going on in the world and forget about the hope that we have in Jesus Christ. Forget that he’s returning. Forget that things are going to be restored and reconciled to God.

And that is because it’s not the job of any other entity in the world. It’s not the job of the post office or Walmart or the bank or the movie house or the bar. It’s not the job of any of those things.

It’s not their reason for existence to remind people of the hope in Jesus Christ. It’s ours. Part of the reason we need each other is when those times get tough, when there’s heartache, when there’s suffering, when there’s confusion, to remind each other, to be there to encourage each other and to remind each other that there is hope in Jesus Christ that is found nowhere else. So the Bible calls us not to try to be Lone Ranger Christians.

That’s a term I’ve heard thrown around for years. I’m not sure I like it because even Lone Ranger had Tonto on the horse. The Bible doesn’t teach us to be lone wolf Christians and say, I can do this all on my own.

You can do some things on your own, but if you want to do it the right way, we need each other. And we need this family, this fellowship, this community called the church.

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