Ep 65: The Huddle (w/ Jonathan Hose)

0:00 Well, good morning, I'm Daniel Dalp and this is for your Sunday Morning Drive, the short podcast with the goal of providing some motivation, some drive and encouragement on your way to worship and helping you recenter your mind on those spiritual things on hectic Sunday mornings. We are brought to you by the Ministry League network of podcasts. You can always check out Ministry League and the great free resources they offer through ministryleague.com or on their app. We do have a special guest today and it is my good friend and brother in Christ, Jonathan Hoes. Jonathan is a member of the Washington Ave. Church of Christ and is employed by the way Construction man. What to say about this guy? He's as solid as they come.

0:41 I so look up to Jonathan and the high bar he sets as a husband, a father and a man of God. Whitney and I have become fast friends with his family and his kids were actually kind enough to lend their voices to the intro today. I know you'll be blessed by his thoughts. Jonathan, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with us today. Let's go ahead and get the show on the road. This is episode 65, The Huddle. Let's go to church. Are we there yet?

1:27 Why are you going to church? When I think about that question, there are many answers. God created us to relate well with one another and he even tells us how. Jesus said the 1st and greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and the second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself. What a calling. He also said that if we love God but hate our brother, we are a liar. So as Hattaway asks. What is? Love In First Corinthians chapter 12 it talks about spiritual gifts in the body of Christ. We all have different gifts and they work together to make up the body. The chapter after that is famously nicknamed the love chapter. Chapter 14 is about spiritual gifts and how to use them in church gatherings and at the end of verse 26 it gives the motivation for it all.

2:12 Let all things be done for edification. It is very fitting that God inspired Paul to write the love chapter where he did. It is easy to pull that chapter out by itself, like it is separate, but it is important to see in the full context. There is no way for the parts of the body to function together without love. In chapter 13 we have a deep teaching about what love is. I believe we should read that chapter multiple times a year. It is a good reminder for us about how we should treat one another. As it says in verses 4 through the beginning of eight, love is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy. It does not boast. It is not proud. It does not dishonor others. It is not self seeking. It is not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrong.

2:53 Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. If all things are to be done for edification, we first need to know what that word means. So I looked up edification from Merriam Webster's dictionary, which says an act or process of edifying. Well, that wasn't too helpful. So I looked up the definition of edifying and it says instructive or informative in a way that improves the mind or character. Then I looked up edify and it says to instruct or improve, especially in moral and religious knowledge. If you ask someone when you get to your church gathering, they might say it means building up. On our way to our church meetings, it is a good habit to ask ourselves how we can edify others. Today we all need edification and those who so generously will also reap generously.

3:44 Let's make that the goal of why we go to church. Another reason to go to church is mentioned in Hebrews 10/23 through 25. Let's hold firmly to the confession of our hope, without wavering for he who promised this faithful. And let's consider how to encourage one another in love and good deeds, not abandoning our own meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another. And all the more as you see the day drawing near. In First Corinthians 1533, Paul gives us a warning. Bad company corrupts good character. Does that mean that we don't spend time with people who have bad character? No, but we need to understand that the influences we have in our lives greatly affect us. It is very important to have godly influences in our lives. That comes through relationships. What more of a godly relationship can we have than with God Himself?

4:32 In any relationship, communication is key. God communicates to us through His Holy Word and we communicate to Him through prayer. We need to take note of how many times Jesus withdrew by Himself to talk to the Father. It is critical for us to follow His example to keep ourselves focused on Jesus, the Author and Perfector of our faith. God has blessed my beautiful wife and me with four precious daughters. When I think about them growing up, one of my prayers for them is that they would grow up as built in best friends. One of the ways that can happen is spending time together. Since we homeschool them, that gives them extra time to learn how to relate with one another. Our biological family is good training on how to relate with our spiritual family. When we make that choice to follow the way of salvation, we become a part of the family of God. One of our goals as a family is to get to heaven together and to bring as many people with us as we can. Since we are a part of the family of God, we need to spend time with our family.

5:24 It is easy to lose sight of why we assemble as a church, but hopefully these thoughts encourage you to keep that commitment strong in your lives, to not forsake the assembly, to keep that as a priority in your lives so that we can love each other, edify each other, and encourage each other. It is for our own good. It is for the good of others. And I can't help but think as we assemble together that God is smiling as we have that joy in Him together as a family, as His family. What a joy it is to fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ. Everyone has the same 24 hours every day. In our culture, it feels like we need to fill that time with activities and stuff. It is important to prioritize our time. We cannot add time to our lives. How are you spending your time? G Michael Hope said hard times produce strong men. Strong men produce good times.

6:10 Good times produce weak men. Weak men produce hard times. I see that cycle in history and in my own life. We go through ups and downs, but let us be the kind of family that remains strong in Christ no no matter what kinds of times we are going through. Jonathan shared some great thoughts with us and now it's time to hear yours. And don't forget, you can always share your comments and thoughts on each episode at For Your Sunday morning dr.com. Our discussion questions for this week are why do you go to church when we are assembled as the family of God? How do you edify your brothers and sisters, and what does it mean to truly love our brethren?