Your church was missing people yesterday.

Hebrews 10:19-25 is full of encouragement for us, as members of the church. It offers three invitations for us to walk closer with God:

1. Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart. (Hebrews 10:22a)
2. Let us draw near to God with the full assurance that comes from faith. (Hebrews 10:22b)
3. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess. (Hebrews 10:23)

These are made possible by the new reality that is because of the work of Jesus Christ and his shed blood for us.

But it also offers three invitations for us to walk closer with one-another, and provides instruction for how we should relate to one another in the church:

1. Let us consider how we may spur one another on. (Hebrews 10:24)
2. Let us not give up meeting together. (Hebrews 10:25a)
3. Let us encourage one another. (Hebrews 10:25b)

So, let’s finish this study with a look at the final invitation in the second half of verse 25, “but let us encourage one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

I’m not sure, grammatically, whether we are being told here to encourage one another to continue gathering together, or to take advantage of being gathered together to encourage one another all the more.

I think both are appropriate, and vital.

Look back in your mind to the last time you went to church. Who was sitting around you, in front of you. And who was not there who should have been?

My guess is there was someone who was missed. Would you call them today and tell them you missed them? Encourage them to gather together next week, and also just encourage them.

The reality is, people love to be noticed. But perhaps more than that, people love to be missed. And too often the church focuses on who is new, and who is here, and misses the people who need to be noticed the most.

So Hebrews 10 invites us to a closer walk with God: to draw near to him in sincerity of heart, to draw near to him with the full assurance that comes from faith in his son Jesus Christ, and to hold without wavering to the hope we profess. But it also invites us to bring those things into this community of others who are walking the same path… to spur one another on, to move together towards Christ, and to encourage each other along the way.

There is no doubt in my mind that all around the world, God’s people are being the church, functioning as the church, loving as the church, drawing near to Him as his church.

But this kind of life is far more than an hour or two on Sunday morning. It is a daily awareness of God’s presence in and among us. It is a commitment to the person on either side of you, and the one who isn’t there but should be.

Hebrews 10:19-25

¹⁹ Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, ²⁰ by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, ²¹ and since we have a great priest over the house of God, ²² let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. ²³ Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. ²⁴ And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, ²⁵ not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.