Hebrews 10:23-25 - Hebrews 10:23–25 / Helping People Connect to Each Other
My name is Jared Romley, and I am one of the pastors here. If you have a Bible, grab it and turn to the book of Hebrews, chapter 10. We are in a wonderful series talking about the mission of The Well, our mission here as a church family. Tonight, we are going to look at how we help people connect to each other.
I want to start by asking you a question: How many of you are part of The Well? Raise your hand and say, “The Well is my home church.” A lot of hands just went up. Now, if I asked you why you joined The Well or why you are a part of this body, just think in your head what those answers would be. Would they sound something like this? “Man, I just love the teaching.” “The worship is so good.” “The coffee is out of this world.” “The seats are so comfortable.” “The air conditioning is great.” “I just love what it does for my kids.” “I love what it does in the community.”
There are probably all kinds of answers. But I want to address that question for you, for the local church, and particularly for us as a people. We realize very clearly that the church is a people, not a building. We come to a building as the church. So why are you a part of it, and what is your role in it? Hopefully, the answer to that question isn’t simply, “Well, I get this, and I get that, and I’m so glad I can take this, leave, and not do anything else with it.”
That consumer mindset is something we constantly battle.
We Cannot Be Rogue Christians
Last week, you heard PJ very clearly raise the bar for us. Part of our mission—helping people connect to God—is not just the job of the church staff, a person behind a pulpit, or a guy behind a guitar. It is our shared mission. It is our job as a body to help people connect to God. PJ shared the story of Crazy Larry, the man who connected with Jesus, and Jesus told him to go and tell everyone what God had done for him. And he did just that.
What is fascinating is that if you keep reading in the Gospel of Mark, just a few chapters later in Mark 7, Jesus returns to that same region of the Decapolis with His disciples, and there are four thousand people following Him around. Were they all believers yet? I don’t know. Were they all interested in who He was? You better believe it. For days they follow Him as He teaches and instructs them.
Jesus does remarkable things. He walks up to a man who is deaf and mute. In that day and age, you didn’t touch people like that; they were outcasts. Yet Jesus walks right up to this man in his real need, touches him, and heals him. His ears are opened, and his tongue is released so he can speak clearly. Jesus tells him not to tell anyone, but the man cannot help himself. He has been unable to hear or speak his entire life, and now he is healed. He goes and tells everybody.
When we help people connect to God, the natural consequence is that we have to help people connect to each other. As more people connect to God, they need community. So how do we relate to one another? John Wesley once said, “The Bible knows nothing of solitary religion.” The idea I want you to hold onto tonight is this: you cannot be rogue and be a Christian. You cannot say, “It’s just me and Jesus, and that’s all I need.” If you say that, you don’t believe in the Jesus of the New Testament scriptures, who established and empowered His church by His Spirit to be a people gathered together. We cannot do this alone.
What does helping people connect to each other look like? In Hebrews 10, we find our answer. Here is the big idea: we help people connect to each other as we gather, we grasp, and we give.
Hebrews 10:22-25 (NASB)
let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled [clean] from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging [one another]; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
The author of Hebrews is writing to Hebrew Christians who are drifting. They are drifting from their faith and from the community of believers. Persecution and fear are creeping in, and their lives are slipping into compromise. The author writes to remind them of who Jesus is—the ultimate sacrifice and our great High Priest. Because of what Jesus has done, the author calls the church to action.
1. We Gather: Drawing Near to God Together
Notice how the writer begins this passage:
Hebrews 10:22 (NASB)
let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled [clean] from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
Do you see that word? “Let us.” It is plural. It is corporate. Let us draw near. Draw near to whom? Draw near to God. First and foremost, when we talk about connecting people to each other, we draw near to God together. That is where our collective affection belongs.
We draw near with a true, sincere heart. Scripture always goes after the internal reality of who you are, not just the external things you do. Religion has always said, “Perform these duties, and then you will have a relationship with God.” But Christianity goes straight to the core, to your deepest, truest self that needs to be transformed by Jesus. Left to ourselves without Christ, do you know what we gather around? Ourselves. That is our culture: “I want what I want, give it to me now, and what’s in it for me?” Individualism and consumerism are the barriers we must overcome.
God doesn’t need you, and He doesn’t need me. But He graciously chooses us and uses us. We draw near to Him with authenticity. You can’t fake it forever. You might hide it for a while in public, but the people who live with you know who you really are. And this call is for everyone—from children and students, to young adults, young married couples, empty nesters, and the elderly. All of us need to draw near to God with an authentic heart in full assurance of faith.
2 Corinthians 5:7 (NASB)
for we walk by faith, not by sight–
We live by faith, not by sight. We are anchored in something far greater than the visible world around us because there is a sovereign God over it all.
The author says our hearts have been sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. In the original language, this phrasing points to a completed action with ongoing results. It is a one-time event that stands forever. You don’t have to keep coming back to repeat Old Testament cleansing rituals. In Christ, through the sacrifice of our great High Priest, the deepest part of who you are has been cleansed once and for all. You are a new creation.
We don’t gather merely to perform religious duties. Jesus warned that many will stand before Him and list their external works, only to hear Him say, “Depart from Me, I never knew you.”
Matthew 7:21-23 (NASB)
’Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven [will enter]. ’Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ ’And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’
Our hearts matter. We gather together around the one true God, drawing near to Him in genuine faith.
2. We Grasp: Holding Fast to Our Hope
Next, the author calls us to hold on tightly to the truth we have received:
Hebrews 10:23 (NASB)
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful;
To make a “confession” means to openly declare allegiance to a person or a truth. The confession we hold onto is Jesus Christ and the good news of the gospel. We grasp onto the confession of our hope. This hope is a confident, joyful expectation that sustains us when the world beats us down.
We confess Christ every time we gather, but that confession cannot be limited to sixty minutes on a Sunday morning. It must define our daily lives. We hold fast without wavering. We live in a culture where people bounce from one trend, book, or philosophy to the next, constantly shifting their identity. But Christians do not need to waver because God has spoken clearly in His Word. Where Scripture speaks clearly, we stand firm; where Scripture is silent, we don’t speak for God; and where things are nuanced, we exercise biblical discernment.
We do not waver when the culture claims Jesus didn’t do what He did, or that the supernatural is impossible. We know the Creator of the universe stands above the very physical laws He established. We hold fast because He who promised is faithful. When you live in isolation, disconnected from the body of Christ, drifting and backsliding become dangerously easy. But when we gather and grasp onto our confession together, we keep each other anchored.
3. We Give: Stirring One Another Up
Having drawn near to God and held fast to our hope, the author directs our attention to one another:
Hebrews 10:24 (NASB)
and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds,
That word “consider” means to give deliberate, thoughtful attention to something. Our society breeds flippant, distracted thinking. We are constantly inundated with notifications, media, work demands, and entertainment, and we often check out mentally. But biblical community requires intentional thought. We are called to thoughtfully consider how to stir one another up.
To “stir up” means to provoke or incite. You can stir someone up negatively toward anger and exasperation, or you can stir someone up positively toward love and good works. You can come alongside a brother or sister and say, “Come on, you can’t do this alone. I need you, and you need me. Let’s run this race together.”
When I was a youth pastor, I led a small group of guys who were into video games, tech, and energy drinks. None of them played sports, while I was a big sports guy. One day, I took them all to the gym. I loaded up 235 pounds on the bench press and had them take turns getting under the bar. One by one, they got under it, felt the crushing weight, and couldn’t lift it. I pulled the weight off each time. Afterward, I looked at them and said, “You think you’re strong enough to handle life on your own at fourteen years old? You can’t do it alone. Life is heavier than that bar. I need you, you need me, and we have to do this together.” That physical demonstration opened their eyes to their need for community.
We are called to stir one another up to love and good works. We don’t gather simply to enjoy comfortable seating, great lighting, or good coffee. We gather to cultivate agape love and purposeful action. But you cannot stir someone to love if you don’t know them. If you come in, sit down, leave immediately, and remain an isolated spectator, you cannot fulfill this calling. It is our collective responsibility to know and be known.
Hebrews 10:25 (NASB)
not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging [one another]; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
The author warns against neglecting our gatherings. In the early church, some were tempted to stop meeting due to persecution or shame over sin. The word used for meeting refers to the regular gathering and scattering of the community. We see this rhythm in the early church as they devoted themselves to teaching, fellowship, breaking bread, and prayer.
Acts 2:42 (NASB)
They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
Whether in the corporate weekend service or in smaller groups throughout the week, we need each other. And we encourage one another all the more as we see the Day of the Lord approaching. That Day is our ultimate hope—the return of Jesus Christ, when every injustice will be made right, every tear wiped away, and sin and death destroyed forever.
In light of that day, we press into each other’s lives. We ask the hard, loving questions: “How is your marriage?” “How are you doing with that temptation?” “How is your walk with the Lord?” It is not just the pastoral staff’s job to care for the body; it is the work of every single believer sitting in these seats.
Moving from Consumers to Contributors
You give time to the things you love. One of the men I serve with at our Clovis campus, Greg Zuffelato, is an avid CrossFitter—in incredible shape. If someone told you they loved fitness, loved what it did for their health, but then admitted they never actually worked out, you would know their words didn’t match reality.
In the same way, many say, “I love Jesus, I love God, and I love His church,” yet they invest zero time or energy into the body of Christ beyond attending a service occasionally. If that is our posture, we have reduced the Christian life to forty minutes of consumerism. When we are consumers, we get irritated over minor inconveniences: someone took our parking spot, someone sat in our seat, the coffee was lukewarm, or the music was too loud. It becomes all about “me, me, me.”
We need to flip that paradigm. When you show up focusing on how you can give, pray, and encourage others, your entire perspective changes.
Ephesians 4:11-13 (NASB)
And He gave some [as] apostles, and some [as] prophets, and some [as] evangelists, and some [as] pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.
At The Well, our mission is to be an equipping church. We equip the saints for the work of ministry. We use the language of gather and scatter. You don’t just go to church; you are the church. We gather to worship, pray, partake in communion, celebrate baptisms, and sit under the Word. Then we scatter into our neighborhoods, workplaces, and schools to be the hands and feet of Jesus.
Connecting to each other requires your presence and participation. Obviously, there are seasons when you cannot be here—illness, recovery from surgery, or caring for a newborn. But too often, we needlessly neglect the gathering for secondary pursuits. We make time for sports practices, work events, and endless activities, yet sideline the community of faith. Prioritizing the body of Christ is essential to our spiritual health.
Put Your Feet Down in the Current
If you want to know how to connect practically in a church this size, the answer is simple: join a group and serve on a team. It is less about the specific task and more about the people you do life with.
For years, Pastor Brad has shared an illustration about a Doughboy swimming pool. When a group of people start running in circles inside an above-ground pool, they create a powerful current. If you are new to faith or deeply wounded from past church experiences, we encourage you to lift your feet up and let the current of this body carry you for a season. Heal, rest, and observe.
Hebrews 10:24-25 (NASB)
and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging [one another]; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
However, some of you have had your feet up for three, five, or seven years. You are floating comfortably with your coffee, enjoying the ride while others generate the momentum.
As lovingly and directly as I can say it: it is time to put your feet down. Put your feet down and start running, or get out of the pool. We need you. I need you, and you need the person sitting next to you. The mission of God moving toward a broken world requires all of us.
Step into serving in Kids Connection. Step into student ministry. Invest in your campus and your workplace. Lead your family to love Jesus. Let us gather, let us be equipped, let us hold fast to the gospel, and let us stir one another up to love and good works.
Closing Prayer
Father, You deeply love the local church, the people of God. You commissioned us through Your Son to go and make disciples—teaching them, baptizing them, and building them up in the faith across this globe.
Lord, help each of us understand our place in Your body. Give us the courage to put our feet down and get into the flow of what You are doing. Help us lay aside consumerism and take up our responsibility to connect to one another, encourage one another, and spur each other on toward love and good works.
Make us a people on mission for Your glory. We pray all these things in the highest name, the name above every name, the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.