PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 282: God Loves Togethering, Part 10
LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell
EPISODE 282: God Loves Togethering, Part 10
What does God say in the New Testament about His people assembling together? What attitudes does God wants us to have about meeting together? We look at seven different attitudes which will completely change your attitudes to the positive instead of the negative.
Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to The Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.
Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies! Good to be with you again. We are continuing, and I think this will be the last one on our sessions of “God Loves the Gathering of His People Together.” Today I’d like to talk about the attitudes that we should have when we come to be with God’s people. God shows us in His Word these attitudes we should have. Therefore, we should understand them. I’m going to take Scriptures from both the New Testament and the Old Testament.
No. 1. IT WAS THEIR HABIT TO MEET TOGETHER
This is a very important principle. In Luke 4:16, it talks about Jesus. It says: “As was His custom,” or, “As was his habit.” he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day.” Every week Jesus, as a child, and now as an adult, continued to go into the house of God each week.
That is a scriptural principle, dear lovely ladies. I believe that we, as mothers, although our husbands are the head of the home, we are the heart. We determine what makes it happen. Therefore, it’s very important for us to know that this is a scriptural principle and something that we must work towards. Even during the week, we’re thinking about it. We’re making sure that everything is ready for us to get there . . . that we put this principle into our children.
I am blessed, and my husband is blessed, to be part of a godly generation, a generation of God-fearing and church-attending families. Because of this, it’s blessed our lives. We have sought to pass that on into our children’s lives, and their children. Sometimes I see it weakening a bit. Wow! Maybe I’ve got to get a bit of strengthening going on there because God wants us to pass on these principles to the next generation and the following generation.
We can’t miss out, can we, without reading Hebrews 10:23-25. I’ve often mentioned this Scripture. This is a Scripture that we really should all know by heart. I wonder if you can say it without having to look it up. Do your children know it? If they don’t, why not make it a memory verse in your family?
Hebrews 10:25. We’ll read from verse 23 for now: “Let us hold fast the confession of our faith without wavering.” Can I repeat that: “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 ye see the day approaching.”
Do you notice what is leading up to that Scripture? Verse 23: “Let us hold fast the confession of our faith without wavering.” Then it goes on to say: “Not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together.” Now ladies, the coming together each week, as we come together as families, we as mothers are making it happen, helping our family to get there. As we make this happen, we’re going to strengthen our own faith and strengthen the faith of each one of our children, because it’s as we come together that our faith will be strengthened. Our hearts will be strengthened. We’ll be able to hold fast the confession of our faith without wavering.
OBEDIENT OR DISOBIEDIENT?
You’ll find that people who are wavering in their faith are people who are not attending church regularly. They are being disobedient to this Scripture. Ladies, we have to confess, if we are not obeying this Scripture, we are disobedient. We are either a doer of the Word, or a non-doer. What does Jesus say? “He that hath My commandments and keepeth them, he is His that loveth Me, and I will love him, and My Father will love him.”
Everything hinges on keeping His commandments. Here is one that is so important for the strengthening and the continuing of our faith, that we will not waver. I know you want to have children growing up in the faith who will not waver. Of course! It’s not going to be enough, just taking them to church on Sunday. You have to be giving them the Word, day by day, in the home.
THE ASSEMBLING
But this is a very important part because it’s a coming together. There’s something wonderful about the coming together. God loves it. Oh, look at those words again: “Not forsaking the assembling.” I’ve heard many people say, “Well, we just do our little thing at home.” Well, that’s all very nice, but that’s not what the Word says. The Word says: “the assembling.” Then it says: “of ourselves together.” You’re not together with all the saints if you’re at home. No, we are assembling, we’re coming together. This is what the Word says.
Here are a few other translations.
The Moffat Translation: “Not ceasing to meet together.”
The Knox Translation: “Not abandoning, as some do, our common assembly.”
The Amplified Classic says, “Not forsaking, nor neglecting, to assemble together.”
The Jerusalem Bible: “Not neglecting our congregational meeting.”
We can go back to the Old Testament, 2 Chronicles 29. We learn from the New, but we also learn from the examples of the Old. Go back to 2 Chronicles 29. This was in the reign of Hezekiah when he brought a great revival to the people of Judah.
Here it says, in verse 6 onwards: “For our fathers have trespassed, and done that which was evil in the eyes of the LORD our God, and have forsaken Him, and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the LORD, and turned their backs.” That was talking about the temple, where they came to meet together, where they assembled.
It says they “turned away their faces from the habitation of the LORD, and turned their backs. Also they have shut up the doors of the porch, and put out the lamps, and have not burned incense nor offered burnt offerings in the holy place unto the God of Israel. Wherefore the wrath of the LORD was upon Judah and Jerusalem.” Why? Because they had turned away from the habitation of God’s house. They turned off the lamps and they had not burned incense.
Well, how does that relate to us? Very much. In God’s Word, the incense, the lighting of the incense, which was on the altar of incense right before the curtain before you went into the Holy of Holies. The altar of incense was not something that was only back in the Old Testament. The altar of incense is something which is present right now. It’s in the heavenly realm. It’s before the throne of God right now.
Of course, now there is no curtain separating that beautiful presence of God, the Holy of Holies. It’s open because of Jesus shedding His blood. When His blood was shed, that curtain was torn, from the top to the bottom.
But over in Revelation 5 and 8, John looked, and he saw that altar of incense before the throne. Yes, in heaven, right now! It is there in the Word, in the Old Testament, and in the New. Right there in Revelation it says: “And the incense was the prayers of the saints.” That’s what it’s all about, the “prayers of the saints,” morning and evening. They had to light it morning and evening.
I wonder how many have turned off from that. So many Christian families today are not lighting the incense morning and evening. Now, I’m not saying you go and light incense, no. It is what it typifies, the meaning. The lighting of the incense was the prayers of the saints and the worship unto God.
We still need to keep that going—every morning coming into His presence to pray, to worship and every evening, coming into His presence to pray and worship. When we come for the (not just our little family gathering), but then the meeting of the assembling of all the family of God’s people, we are to come and worship, and to pray. We make it a habit. Amen?
We also notice that, when they came, the whole assembly came. I think we’ll look at that a little bit further on, hopefully.
No. 2. THEY CAME ON TIME FOR THE MEETING OF GOD’S PEOPLE
We talked about that two podcast’s ago, so I don’t have to talk about that again. Just a little reminder—at least three of the Hebrew words for “assembly” mean “the appointed time, the calling out of the assembly.” God ordained trumpets to be blown when He wanted His people to meet.
No. 3. WE MUST HAVE THE ATTITUDE OF LOVING TO GET TOGETHER WITH GOD’S PEOPLE
It’s not only a duty. We do it because we can’t wait to do it! We can’t wait to be with the people of God. We can’t wait to get with others to pray and to worship. Oh, it’s just in our hearts! This attitude, lovely ladies, we’ve got to have this attitude ourselves, and get this attitude to our children.
Let me give you some Scriptures.
Ephesians 5:25. You all know this Scripture because it says: “Husbands, love your wives.” Then it goes on to say: “even as Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it,” But do you notice there, dear ladies, that it says that Jesus Christ loved His church. Jesus loves the church. He loves them individually, but He loves them as a church.
We talked about how God sees His people as a flock. He sees them gathering together. He loves the church. He gave Himself for it. Shouldn’t that be our attitude?
Over in 1 John 3:14 -16: “We know that we have passed from death unto life.” Why? How do we know? How can we be sure of our salvation? How can we know without a doubt that we “have passed from death unto life.”?
Here's the answer: “Because we love the brethren.” Do you love the people of God? Actually, this is one of the proofs that we are born again. If we are not born again, we really don’t have any desire to be with the people of God. But if you’re born again, you are a blood-bought believer. You have a longing to be with other blood-bought believers because you have been born again into this family. They are now your family. You love them, because Christ loves them. God loves them. Now He’s put this love in your heart for you to love them too.
Romans 5:5: For “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” We meet together because we love them! Amen? Oh, do you teach your children this attitude? My lovely ladies, what attitude do you have when you’re going each weekend to be with the people of God? “Oh well, I guess we’d better get ready for church. We’ll get home as soon as we can because we’re going to go for a picnic this afternoon. We’ve got to get to that sport,” or whatever we’re doing. No, that’s not our attitude.
We set aside a day for the Lord. Some are meeting Saturday on the Sabbath. Some are meeting on Sunday, the first day of the week. But whatever day you are meeting, see it as the Lord’s day, set apart for Him. What I notice is those who meet with God on the Sabbath keep the Sabbath. They keep it as a day to the Lord. I see many who consider Sunday the day, but they might go to church, and that’s it! The rest of the day belongs to them. It doesn’t belong to God at all. Oh, let’s have a Lord’s Day.
Let’s go to Psalm 16:2-3. David says these words: “O my soul, thou hast said unto the LORD, Thou art my Lord: my goodness extendeth not to thee; But to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight.” Did you get that, ladies? Did you see David’s attitude to God’s people? Oh, wow, this is amazing!
When David was talking to the Lord, he said, “Lord God, I can’t really practically show my goodness to You, so I’m going to show it to the saints that are in the earth, because they are Your people. They are Your footstool. Oh, Lord God, they are the most excellent in all the earth, and they are my delight!” Wow!
This is how God wants us to see His people. They should be our delight. This is how we show our love to God, by showing it to His people! As the New Testament tells us, our attitude to the humblest saint is our attitude towards the Lord. How we treat the humblest saint is showing how we treat the Lord, because He is in His people. If you haven’t got that, ask the Lord to give you a delight for His people. If you delight in His people, you will want to be with them! Amen?
No. 4. THEY WERE EXCITED TO MEET WITH ONE ANOTHER
Once again, David speaking. Psalm 122:1: “I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord.” David was excited about going to the temple to worship the Lord with God’s people. He loved the assembling of God’s people. He loved to be in the midst of them. He loved to worship the Lord in the midst of His people.
Now, of course, we can worship the Lord on our own. Oh, we can pray on our own. We can have our own beautiful personal quiet time. Oh, I can’t wait to get up in the morning, to open the Word and hear from God personally. Oh, I just love it! I can’t wait for it! And yet, there’s even more. God loves to meet us in the assembling of His people. He wants us to be glad about it! Woo hoo! Glad!
Now, ladies, we’ve got to teach our children to get this attitude. But you know what? They’re going to get your attitude. What your attitude is, it will become their attitude. You’re going out of duty, going, coming home. Well, they’re going to see it as something boring. But if they see, wow! This is so important.
You can gear your children up. You don’t start on Sunday morning. You start in time to prepare them for having everything ready for Saturday or for Sunday. Say, “Children! Wow! It’s the Lord’s Day, and we’re going to meet with the people of God! Isn’t it going to be so exciting? Wow! We’re going to worship the Lord. We’re going to hear from God. We’re going to meet with His people. Oh, you’re going to see your friends at church!”
That’s a good thing. Yes, it’s a good thing that they can see their friends at church, hopefully. I know sometimes there are some of you, you’re in a fellowship, and there are no other children the ages of your children. That is sad, because it’s so wonderful when there are friends for every age group. That’s how it’s meant to be, of course.
We are so blessed here. Oh, the children are so blessed. They come to church, and they see their friends. As soon as church is finished, we have a fellowship meal. We don’t just go home. The children go out to play. They all find one another. The little ones all begin to play. Then the bigger ones. Then the bigger boys are out playing soccer. Then some are out playing volleyball. Everyone is finding their own age group. They’re excited to meet one another because fellowship is so important in this part of church life.
YOU DETERMINE THE ATMOSHERE! YOU MAKE IT EXCITING OR BORING!
But dear ladies, get some excitement about going to the house of the Lord. Of course, if we’re delighting in it, we’ll want to get there on time, won’t we? This is the same for our family devotions. I’ve had some people say to me, “Oh, our children find it a bit boring.” Well, it must be you who’s making it boring. Help! You can have it boring, or you can have it exciting! It’s all our attitude.
When we gather our families together every morning and every evening, when you’re getting them together, well, of course, what we do. We have them already gathered together. We always have our morning devotions after breakfast. Then evening at the supper table so that everyone is already there. But if you’re calling them together, say, “Come on, children. We’re going to get together. Daddy’s going to read the Word, and we’re going to listen to God speak! Oh, come! It’s going to be so exciting!”
Everything depends on our attitude. If it is exciting to us, we can’t wait to hear the Word of God, we make it exciting for our children, asking them questions, giving them opportunity to ask questions. Then perhaps after we have read to our children, ask, “What did God say to you?” It’s amazing to hear what God has spoken to our children.
It’s all your attitude. Even going to church, oh, if our children have negative attitudes, we don’t stand for them. We put a positive attitude into their hearts. I remember a family that we knew many years ago. They continually gave into their children. They would go to one church, and their children would get negative about it. They didn’t like this, and they didn’t like it. So, they’d take them to another church. Then they’d have groanings and complainings about that church. So, they’d go to another one. They didn’t stick.
Where are they today? Those children, a boy and a girl, are both on drugs and wiped out. They didn’t put those right attitudes in them. We don’t have to put up with the stupid little groanings and grumblings of our children. No, we put into them the right attitudes. We should give them the attitudes of making it exciting to be with the people of God.
That word, “I was glad,” it’s the word samach. It means “to be joyful, merry, glad, to brighten up, cheer up, gladden, make joyful.” It talks about having a joyful and cheerful countenance. So, encourage your children, when they go to church, to smile at everybody, to have a cheerful countenance. It’s amazing what cheerful countenances do to cheer others up!
LET’S GO!
Do you notice it says, “I was glad when they said unto me, let us go!” Wow! Do you like those words? That’s what you want to say in your family. “Come on, children! Come on! Let’s go! We’re going to the house of God! Yippie!” Yes, be excited! That’s the words of the Bible, the living Words. “Let us GO!”
It doesn’t say, “Oh, well, think we’ll stay home today. We’ll have our little Bible reading ourselves.” No! “Let us go! Let us go unto the house of the Lord!”
Isaiah 56:7 talks about being “joyful in My house of prayer.” Amen.
No. 5. REVERENCE THE HOUSE OF GOD
We can be filled with joy, also having reverence. We realize we’re coming to worship an awesome God. We come dressed appropriately. I think if we’re truly reverencing God, if we come to meet Him, we won’t be coming with clothing that is exposing the flesh—
short skirts, cleavage, and so on. These are not showing reverence to God. They’re not walking in the fear of God.
We see examples of this fear of God coming on the church in Acts 5:12. That’s in the story of Ananias and Sapphira because they deceived the Lord. You can read this story again. “And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things.” It says: “Great fear came upon all the church.” It didn’t come upon the building. No, “all the church.” That means all the assembly of the people gathered in the church.
Leviticus 19:20 and repeated in 26:2: “Ye shall keep My Sabbaths and reverence My sanctuary. I am the Lord.”
Psalm 89:7: “God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about Him.”
Psalm 5:7: “But as for me, I will come into Thy house in the multitude of Thy mercy, and in Thy fear will I worship towards Thy holy temple.”
The New Living Translation says: “I will worship with deepest awe.”
No. 6. THEY CAME TO GIVE PRAISE TO GOD
When we come as the assembling of God’s people, we’re coming to give to God. We’re not just coming. “Oh, what can I get out of this place?” No! It’s nothing to do with what you’re going to get. It’s what you’re going to give. Firstly, you’re going to give to God.
The Scriptures speak (and I’ve got all the references that I’ll put in the transcript). The Scriptures speak about blessing the Lord, praising the Lord, giving thanks to the Lord, exalting the Lord, singing new songs to the Lord, and lifting up His Name in the congregation of the saints. God wants us to do all these things personally. But, oh, He especially loves us to do them in the congregation of the saints.
By the way, that word “congregation” in the Old Testament is used 335 times! That’s how much God loves it. Of course, He also wants us to shout and clap in the house of the Lord.
Psalm 132:16: “Her saints shall shout aloud for joy.”
Psalm 35:18: “I will give thanks in the great congregation. I will praise Thee among much people.”
No. 7. THEY CAME TO GIVE TO ONE ANOTHER
That is such a big thing, such an important attitude for us to have, dear mothers, and to teach our children. We don’t wait for them to be adults to understand this principle. We teach them right from the beginning that we go to the assembling of God’s people to bless others, to encourage them, to pray for them, to lift them up, and to build one another up.
I think I’ve talked about it before, but I discovered in the New Testament 41 different things that God wants us to do to one another. We can’t do them to one another sitting in our homes. We’ve got to meet with one another to do all these things to one another. It’s a whole one-anothering lifestyle.
When we go to be with the people of God, we’re going with a smile on our face. We’re going with a little word in our heart to pass on to someone, to cheer them up, to comfort them, to bless them. That’s why we need the times of fellowship. Oh, it’s so wonderful if your church has a fellowship meal. But maybe they don’t. We have found this the greatest blessing over our lives. But then we have also been in the past to different countries and churches where they didn’t have a fellowship meal. What would we do? Then we would ask people to our home.
Every week, after church, we would always ask people to come back to our home so we could fellowship together. Oh, it’s such a blessing, because this is God’s whole plan, to build one another up. What does it say in 1 Corinthians 14:26? It says here: “How is it then, brethren? when ye come together,” (notice the words “come together) “every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying.” That means “building up.” The early church conducted their meetings a little differently than we do.
Today, most churches will have worship and then the minister gives the Word, then the closing prayer. And bye-bye! But back then, when they came together, they came ready to participate! Every one of you has something to give to the body. A word, a doctrine, a revelation, and so on. They don’t always have that in churches today, do they?
We have always given opportunity in our fellowship. My husband has always done this for people to share, and have an opportunity to share, because it is biblical. It is for the building up of God’s people. However, if your church does not have that, well, you can also bless other people.
Don’t run home from when the meeting has finished. If you’ve got a little word in your heart, maybe it’s for someone who is lonely, they’re hurting, they need comfort, they need cheering up, look for that one. Give them that little word. Give them that word of encouragement. Give them that blessing. Pray over them. Always seek to come to give to someone who needs cheering up, because so many do.
And you can inspire your children to do the same. “Children, we are not going to church just for ourselves. We are going for the people, to bless them. If you see someone lonely today, why don’t you give them an especially big smile? Why don’t you go up to them and give them a big hug?” Oh, a hug from a child can do wonders for an older person. There are people who live on their own, widows who live on their own. When a child will come up and say, “I love you,” or “God loves you so much,” and hug them. Oh, it can do wonders for them, miracles. Teach your children how to bless other people.
Of course, they’ll see that we’re doing it too. They’ll see that we want to invite people home, to keep blessing and encouraging them, fellowshipping together. When we have all these different attitudes, dear mothers, oh, it makes all the difference! It makes it exciting and full of purpose. We’re also training and teaching our children from little that this is their lifestyle. It’s the lifestyle of the kingdom of God. Amen?
“Dear Father, we thank You with all our hearts again, for Your precious Word that shows us the way. I pray, Lord, for these lovely families. Each family, Lord, the representatives that are listening, I pray that You will give them a new inspiration, a new purpose, a new desire for the meeting with Your people. Firstly, Lord, because it’s Your commandment, and we’re being obedient, that is the very first thing, Lord, being obedient to You.
“But help us to do it, Lord, in the way You want us to do it, Lord. Oh, coming, Lord, with our hearts filled with love and joy and delight at being with the people of God. Coming ready to give, and to bless, and to build one another up, Lord God. That we will all be strong in the faith, never wavering. We ask this in the precious Name of Jesus. Amen.”
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
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Transcribed by Darlene Norris * This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Scriptures about praising the God in the congregation of His people:
Psalm 22:22, 25; 35:18; 26:12; 68:26; 107:32.