Ep 30: Feeding the Flock (w/ Sean Rall)

Speaker1: Hey good morning I'm Daniel Dopp and this is for your Sunday morning drive. The short podcast designed to help put you in a Colossians three two mindset and help prepare your mind for worship on those hectic Sunday mornings. We are brought to you in partnership with the Ministry League Network of podcasts. You can find the link to their YouTube channel in today's show notes for over 50 great podcasts that can help encourage and edify you. I do appreciate you making us a part of your Sunday morning routine, and if you can, please give us a share with someone that would enjoy the podcast and help us grow through word of mouth. We have another special guest for you this morning. Joining us today is Sean Rawle. Sean is the youth and family minister at the Troy Church of Christ in Troy, Tennessee. He began his work in Troy after graduating from Bear Valley in 2023. Sean is an upstanding guy, a Star Wars nerd, and he's also my brother in law. I'm very thankful for Sean and his willingness to share some great thoughts with us today. Sean, thank you for joining us this morning. Why don't you take us for our Sunday morning drive? This is episode 30, Feeding the Flock. Let's go to church.

Speaker2: Are we there yet?

Speaker3: Why do we need to go to church? That's the question that I asked our youth group here a few weeks back in one of our Sunday morning classes. I asked them this question, and as you can imagine, I got several blank stares. Well, of course we need to go to church. Some of them may have been thinking, but I had not asked them whether or not we needed to. I had asked them why we need to go to church, so they pondered the question for a while. And finally a young girl raised her hand and I called on her and she said, well, it's kind of like for the same reason why you have to eat regularly. If you don't eat, you'll starve. And going to church is kind of like eating spiritual food. When we come to church, we get our spiritual needs met, and if we don't do that, then we will starve spiritually, I told her, I said, you are absolutely correct, but I said, but that that brings up another question that we have to ask, and I asked them that question. And I would like our audience members to to ponder this question with us for a little bit as well. I asked them, I said, if everyone comes to church with that mentality, if everyone comes to church with the mentality of I am here to be fed spiritually, I am here to be taken care of spiritually.

Speaker3: What would happen if everyone had that mentality while they thought about it for a while longer? And then eventually another kid raised his hand and he said, well, if everyone has that mentality, if everyone is looking to take care of their own needs, if everyone is looking for how their needs will be met, then no one is meeting the needs of others. No one is going to feed anyone else spiritually and everyone is going to starve these kids in this youth group, they understood a biblical principle that I'd like for us to examine briefly this morning. Notice in Hebrews chapter ten, verse 25. It's a very well known verse to most of us, 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. This is a verse that we normally hear quoted with reference to the first part of the verse, not forsaking our own assembly. We say, well, we need to come to church regularly, otherwise we are forsaking the assembly and that is absolutely correct. But notice what the Hebrews writer says in the verse immediately before this. In verse 24 he says, 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.

Speaker3: What the Hebrews writer is, is instructing us to do here is not just to come together, but to come together with a purpose. And that purpose, we might say one of those purposes is seen here expressly in this passage, to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, and to encourage one another. When we come to our our worship assemblies, do we have this attitude of how am I going to be taken care of? How am I going to be stimulated to love and good deeds? How am I going to be encouraged? Or do we have the attitude as seen here in this passage? How can I encourage the brethren? How can I stimulate my brothers and sisters, to love and good deeds this Sunday morning as as you drive to your worship service, I hope you will ponder this idea for a little bit and ask yourself, how can I stimulate my brothers and sisters to love and good deeds? How can I encourage my brothers and sisters? How can I this Sunday morning, feed my brothers and sisters spiritually?

Speaker1: Those were some great thoughts from Shawn for your Sunday morning drive. Now it's time to hear yours. Here are discussion questions for this week.

Speaker3: Who are some specific people that I can encourage today? What are some specific ways that I can encourage those people today? And what are some specific ways that I myself like to be encouraged?