"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 of the saints as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near." (Hb.10:23-24)

 

           The Weekly (Not Weakly!) Assembly = Stimulation to Action!

 

The weekly, (not weakly!) assembly of the saints is not a "guilt fest" or a time of corporate worship.  Worship occurs all week long in the spiritual realm where we dwell with Christ in heaven by faith. Thus we worship 24/7 by subjecting ourselves in prostration, spiritually speaking, before His awesome throne of mercy as people who have been raised up and seated with Christ. (Eph.2:6)  As far as the guilt, more on that later.  But what our assemblies really are about is now going to be discussed, as we come together weekly to serve each other with words of edification, exhortation and even rebuke.  We are to stimulate each other to action each Lord's Day by the help of God's Spirit according to His Word and the pattern we see laid out within.

 

Saints must assemble to recharge so that they can charge into the world as victors.  Boring assemblies that just go through the motions are an abomination! Such saints, every Lord's Day, instead of weekly, are weakly assembling! Such lackluster meetings actually undermine God's own chosen method to power-up His troops.  Every Lord's Day it is essential to provide the proper stimulation.  Everything and everyone must be Spirit-empowered. Some say that the real work of the church is not done on Sunday in the assembly, but "out there" in the real world.  (I've said it.)  But we must not go overboard with such statements, lest they merely go through the rituals and leave as harassed, world weary and distracted as they arrived.  Do you leave your own assemble stimulated ...or just ready for lunch?    Do you have happy feet and a sparkle in your eye?  If not, then change things right now.  Get out of that rut.  Quickly!  Being bogged down will destroy any army.  And please, please don't keep saying that you are "going to church" - you are the church!

 

One other special note before delving deeper:  Each of us is personally responsible to bear in a big way to squeeze every bit that we can out of the assembly, by developing good listening techniques and mentally engaging ( such as good note taking) rather than just relaxing as if we were sipping lemonade on the beach. Our active enthusiastic participation is key.  If we think and act enthusiastically about our faith and our local assembly, we'll end up being such. 

 

Now here's some things Scriptures say about the assembly:

 

The Lord's Supper  (Acts 2:42; I Cor. 10:16-22;11:20- 34)

 

The production and wallowing in guilt is the antithesis (direct opposite) of the purpose of the Lord's Supper!  Read carefully Hebrews 9 & 10.  Christ's perfect sacrifice is to create a perfect conscience in us, without reference to sin.(Heb.9:9-14;10:2.12,19-22, etc)  Full assurance of faith is produced by contemplating the effects of the blood that speaks better than the blood of Abel, not guilt and remorse.  So you might say, what about  Paul's James' or John's advice to examine ourselves and confess our sins? (I Cor.11:23f; James 5:16; I Jn.1:8;2:1)  These are not about confessing our sins at the Lord's Supper, but whenever we are convicted of our sin.  Ideally, all sin should be forsaken as soon as we are aware of it, and feel the guilt that it produces.  This happens whenever we are confronted by it through God's word and our conscience.  Are people waiting all week long until Sunday morning for these two things to confront them?!  We'd better have a closer walk with Christ than that!

   The is Lord's Supper weekly in our assemblies is paramount.  It reminds us that the assembly is not about us but about Him.  Shining a spotlight on Christ's sacrifice resets our devotion to spiritual things and hatred for this stinking, sinful world.  That is, if we are not just going through some Catholicized ritual rather than consecrated, concentrated thought about what we're doing.  And there is no possible way that we can benefit from the Lord's Supper if we just take it as guilty sinners hoping for our weekly temporary conscience "fix". That is an O.T, not a N.T mindset!  Anyone engaging in any ongoing sin will not get one shred of benefit from drinking gallons of juice and eating whole loaves of unleavened bread.  Only the repentant who are walking in the Light as He is in the Light can fellowship with Him in the true communion of God with man in the Spirit.  And waiting until the Lord's Day to start thinking about these things is far too late!  Such people need to return to some mainstream denomination with its priestly confession booths and un-spiritual, unscriptural sacramentalism, and quite fooling themselves about their partaking of the Lord's Supper.  Proper participation requires being "in Spirit".  This requires an ongoing real relationship of faith with Christ that is producing real victory over sin and so forth.  So let's come to celebrate the Lord's death by being dead to sin and alive to Christ Jesus in the Spirit.  Let's declare His death until He comes - with eagerness because we know that we are ready to see His appearing without fear.  Let's not be looking for a "guilt fix: until the next shot, shedding fake tears of remorse for another lousy week of sin and worldliness.  When do we prepare for such partaking?  All week long by being led and filled by the Holy Spirit in all aspects of our life.  There is no other way.

   Note:  We need spiritual leadership in the Lord's Supper. Heartfelt devotions by confident Spirit-filled and Spirit-led men who put the proper meaning into it from Scriptures carefully chosen.  And Jesus' death and the benefits deriving thereof must be the focus, causing gratitude and adoration.  Those leading should put thought and energy and prayer into their presentations.  Songs should be sung that lead us to dwell upon the spiritual import of what we are doing.  Prayers prayed must be original expressions from minds that are spiritually in the groove and not traditional exhausted clichés by mindless robots going through the motions.

 

 Public Prayers (Acts 2:42; I Cor.14:15-17; II Tim.2:1-8)

 Getting together to pray is very crucial in our assemblies.  Prayer must be in the Spirit also. (Acts 8:26-27)  We cannot just issue rote ritualized prayers and expect them to do anything but bounce off the ceiling!  How about hearty "wrestling" in prayers like Epaphras.  Things should shake. (Acts 4:31) Mountains should move.  Our prayers on the Lord's Day should be led by people who pray in their prayer closets much, much more than they do in public.  These corporate prayers should be inclusive, congregational and international in scope. And full of scriptures.  The Psalms should be heavily included so that we pray God's thoughts, not just ours.  Everyone should participate and be able to say a honest "Amen" at the end, without hypocrisy.  Notice that "clean-handed men" only can pray such prayers and say such amen's.  Also, only men who treat their wives with respect. (I Pet.3:7)  And both in I Tim.2:1-8 and I Pet.3:7 it is the men who lead these public prayers.

  So do the prayers in our assemblies cause occasional Goosebumps, and led our minds to really enter heaven's portals and petition the Almighty with absolute confidence of good things being done in response?  Or are they just necessary "filler". God forbid!

 

Singing; Plucking and Singing (Col.3:16; Eph.5:18-19)

    The Holy Spirit fills those who sing properly.  Question:  Can you picture how Jesus sang in the synagogues? Did He not lead the apostles in singing with an awesome attitude?  (Matt.26:30)  Would He have sung any less enthusiastically or energetically than He wants us to sing?  Have you every pictured Jesus singing before?  As a Spirit-filled man, who wanted to continue to be filled up with His own Holy Spirit, He knew from experience as a man how vital is great music.  Just as different saints are gifted to preach, exhort, teach and so forth, so also are some also able to use music to present the Word to us.  These gifted individuals should be encouraged to use their gifts well and do so with God's help.  Congregational music is not what Eph.5:18-19 or its companion verses in Col.3:16 is talking about.  There is room for both.  We get be "sung to", and we get to sing to each other as well.  All music is, like different foods, sanctified by prayers of faith and by consecration to Christ, as long as it is edifying and encourages stronger faith and devotion to the Lord.  Music wars must stop if the church is to be a truly international house of prayers and praise to Christ as a worldwide temple of God.  Diversity here is definitely a good thing.  By the way, I think the story of Saul's temporary heart "conversion" by the Spirit while among Samuel's prophet/students as they were singing and playing instruments is an example for us today. The Lord put that in there to illustrate the close connection between the filling of His Spirit, which positively influences the attitude of the mind - just as alcohol negatively influences the mind (be filled not with wine) - through music.  Note in Col.3:16 that the singing is another way to exhort and edify each other (service) through the Word of God.  It richly dwells within us, and that is the matrix in which the Spirit fills us up with all the good thoughts and feelings we need to serve God even more energetically.  So let us sing until are abdominals become "six packs ", so to speak, by really getting into it and making a real, honest joyful noise unto the Lord.  And whether tambourine or piano or guitar or drums, let us "pluck" or play with all of our heart as well, making merry music unto Christ.  (See Eph.5:18-19 again, and look at some Greek references to see how those verses are honestly translated without previous bias.)

 

Preaching/Teaching:  The Presentation of God's Word (Acts 2:42; I Cor.14:24-25)

 

Are we "addicted" or devoted to the Apostolic Word?  Do folks fall down on their faces when they hear our preaching, and convincingly confess that God is certainly among us??  Can people endure longer messages than 25 minutes?  What about the length of the average movie or football game.  Less entertaining?  Perhaps, but what about our spiritual attention spans being grown to adult size lengths by practice?  Remember something very important:  The assembly of the saints is for the saints, primarily, not the alien sinners out there on the streets.  What we win folks with we do win them to.  I am not advocating long, boring, dry, uninteresting presentations that leave the listeners baffled and asleep in the "pews." (That would stink!) Jesus spoke as man before Him, and the average people were amazed at His teaching, for He was teaching them as one having authority and not as the scribes.  (Jn.7:46; Mk.1:22)  Even Herod used to enjoy listening to John the Baptist! (Mk.1:20)  If John could keep a pagan anti-Christ king interested, how much more should our gifted brethren keep the average guy in the assembly (popularly but wrongly called a "church attender") interested!  We need powerful, Spirit-filled, convicting and amazing teaching going on in our assemblies.  It is a sin to bore people every Lord's Day by ill-conceived, poorly presented lackluster meatless messages. 

  On the other hand, we need the attitude and spirit of Mary, who sat at Jesus' feet attentively. (Luke 10:39-42)  That is the better part than all earthly activities - including the preparation and partaking of delicious food.  I have seen men who are considered "boring" in America come to our assembly here in Bomso, Kumasi, and be treated with rapt, respectful and truly interested attention. That is because the saints have been trained and have submitted themselves to Christ first in order to have a spiritual mindset rather than carnal.  Carnal minded folks always need more and more entertaining, and resist and resent long time periods enforced upon them where they need to focus on heavenly realities.  These seem like a lot of hot air and wasted time. Hence the problem lies much more with these fickle, baby Christians than the faithful presenter of God's Word. 

 

Closing Notes:

 

Like the locker room half-time pep talk, the weekly assembly of the saints to stimulate the saints to action.  In that sense, the real work is going to be done outside in the world afterwards.  But without stimulating assemblies, the team will lack the morale and momentum to push hard.  I also see the wisdom in evening meetings on the Lord's Day.  Today, many people work shifts and on Sundays. Others must travel.  Why not add the second assembly for more participation also from the congregation?  More time for more sharing, teaching, singing and so forth.  Can we get too much of those things?  What else will most saints do with that time period more productive to building faith and serving each other?  And why not add another time, Wednesday evening, for prayer, instruction and singing? Again, what else will most saints do with that time period more productively to edify and encourage each other?  Rather than any of these assemblies being seen as a "have to" or a imposition on our busy schedules, why not take a more critical look at our go-go lives and schedules.  Are we being meatloaf Martha's or Mary's?  Do spiritual considerations really predominate in our planning out our schedules.  Are we demonstrating the faith that seeks first the Kingdom (Christ's church) and His perfect righteousness (Christ's character) first in our lives. (Matt.6:33)  I believe if we will firmly resolve to park ourselves in the assembly of the saints every time the door is open, God will bless that decision in a myriad of mysterious ways and make it ultimately possible if we persevere, as a matter of course.  Yes, there will be times when for good reason we are not in town.  But even then we can bless some other church's assembly with our presence and share our faith there as well, with a little planning and foresight.

 

Let's stimulate each other to action for the glory of King Jesus today and every day, with the awesome help of His indwelling Holy Spirit. 
AMEN? AMEN!

 

Peace in Him.