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The River ChurchSermons

Let Us: Stir One Another

Caleb Combs · Sunday, 23 August 2026 · 40:41 · 5,422 words

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Based on Hebrews 10:24‑25, the sermon calls believers to stir one another toward love and good works instead of living in isolation. It stresses that every Christian is responsible to pray for, encourage, and gently correct others in daily life and in gatherings. The speaker urges listeners to ask God to place people in their path, to prepare their hearts, and to act with purposeful care. This challenge continues as the day of Christ’s return draws near.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

stir 37 lettuce 8 preparation 6 prayer 17 consider 16 someone 22 gather 17 instigate 4 burn 7 call 30 week 24 statement 10

Topics

Scripture referenced 8

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Hebrews 10 1:58 Hebrews 10:24-25 2:23 Hebrews 10:24-25 3:18 Hebrews 10:24 3:27 1 Thessalonians 5 14:59 Romans 12 20:14 Hebrews 10 36:14 Hebrews 10 37:53

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

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Hey everyone, my name is Zach, and thanks for checking out one of our sermons today.

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Thanks again for joining us, and we hope you are blessed by today's message.

Good morning. Good to gather with you. Good to be with you here this morning, if I don't know you.

My name is Caleb. I'm the pastor here, and excited to open God's Word together for the next little bit.

And so it's good to be with you. As Pastor Noble was sharing, we are super excited for the next few days.

I know some of you parents are excited for your children to start school this week or next week,

and so you don't have to amen that. You're more excited about that than a lot of the messages being,

so it's good. No, it's exciting and terrifying. I asked for prayer last week as I walked my senior

and kindergartner into school. I did have a lot of people ask me if I needed counseling. I do.

Okay. All right. I always like giving God credit for that. God's sense of humor.

My wife and I said, well, 18 years ago, we were the young parents. We are no longer the young

parents walking into kindergarten, and so that's okay.

And so it was a good week and thankful for God's grace and mercy. And so if you're new,

wondering what we're doing, we are in a series looking at lettuce statements in the book of

Hebrews. And so if you have a Bible, a device, something to follow along or read along, we'll be

in Hebrews chapter 10. And so while you turn there, just want to celebrate right now, about

two and a half hours north of here. We have about,

a hundred young adults from the church having a gathering at new life camp. And so we're super

excited for our young adults up north. And so we are in, uh, some lettuce statements. We're going

to look at lettuce statements found in Hebrews chapter 10 verses 24 through 25. I did get some

grief last week, uh, from some of you that my lettuce jokes were bad. And so I wanted to double

down on that. Okay. All right. Like I shared these with the staff and,

they said, don't do this, but that's okay. All right. All right. So it's knock, knock. Okay. Let's

try that again. Knock, knock. Lettuce. Lettuce in. We're cold. Okay. All right. Three out of 10. Thank

you. All right. You don't have to applaud that. It was terrible. All right. Noble said this one's

his favorite. We don't have any vegetable jokes yet. So if you do let us know. All right. Terrible.

That's terrible. All right. We'll try again next week. Okay. All right. Or not.

So found in Hebrews chapter 10 verses 24 through 25. I'm just going to read that passage. We're

going to spend some time, um, looking at the lettuce statement found in Hebrews 10 verses 24

says, and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting

to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another. And all the more,

as you see,

the day where day is capitalized, emphasizing that it is talking about a specific day,

the return of Jesus that see the day drawing near. So let's pray. And we'll jump into that

passage this morning. God, we love you. We praise you. We honor you. We glorify you.

God, we lift you up in song and sermon. As we open your word, God speak this morning,

God challenge us, guide us, convict us, lead us. God, we pray that you work,

we pray that you work in our hearts. We pray that you work in our minds. We pray that today

is a transformational word, God, and how we interact, how we converse, how we come to

gathering with the church. God, ultimately, whether that's gathering on a Sunday morning

or in homes or in groups, God, we, we just ask that you speak this morning. God, we praise you.

We love you in Jesus. Wonderful name. Amen. So as I mentioned, we are in this Hebrews

We're looking at these lettuce statements. So I want to give you a little backdrop. Last week,

I did this. Hebrews was written to Jewish Christians who were facing immense pressure,

persecution, and temptation to abandon their faith in Christ and return back to religious

repetition or the religious practices that they were taught and instilled as children. We again,

don't know the author specifically.

The human author, we know it was God-inspired, God-written, but we are unsure who the human

author is. But I read this this week. It's good. Hebrews demonstrates that Jesus is greater than

all the systems, the struggles that we face in this life. And I love that. Jesus is greater.

And so he says, the writer repeatedly shows that Jesus is the promised high priest. And as I taught

last week, gives us a direct access to God. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. He is that

way back to God. And so we are given that access, that direct access to God. It's so important that

we grasp and understand how important that is, that direct access. And not only he gives us access,

but gives us, or he is, that advocate.

And so last week, we looked at the previous verses, 19 through 23, looking at the call to

let us hold fast to the faith. We have these cause statements we find here in this passage

that are so important. But this morning, we're going to look at the statement, let us consider

how to stir up one another to, or let one another to love and good works. So you were

given a stir stick on the way in. Okay. If you did not receive one, grab one on the way out. We'll

explain what you're going to do with this later. But it is, will be a part of the message this

morning. I was talking to Pastor Noble this week. And his idea was to go to Home Depot and convince

them to give us 4,000 paint stir sticks. He actually wasn't going to convince them. He was

just going to keep going in to see how many he could get. I said, that's a bad idea. We'll just

purchase coffee stir sticks. And so we'll show where we're going to go with this stirring this

morning. This passage calls the community of believers, us, the church, to a life of mutual

encouragement, mutual encouragement, called to stir up one another. This phrase is used

throughout the New Testament. What's funny about this statement or this phrase it's used,

actually, commonly in a negative manner to found in Ephesians or Colossians, where it's the idea of

provoking your children or provoking or pushing or prodding something towards a negative reaction.

So we're told to pay attention that we're not stirring one another up to bad things, if you

will, or prodding one another towards bad things. But in this passage, it's used as a positive.

It's a call to us, as we mentioned last week, the church followers of Christ to what? Push one

another, prod one another to love and good works. Calling us to, and this is again used probably

much in a negative term in our culture to instigate, instigate somebody like, wow,

that's usually negative. How will that work in my life? Well, you're called to,

to instigate a part of the body. We'll get there. Some of you are like, oh my goodness,

pastor just told me I can do whatever. No, that's not what I said. All right, we'll get there. All

right. But it's a prodding, it's a pushing brothers and sisters in Christ, implying a

mutual activity. What's important about this passage or phrase, it doesn't just categorize

pastors or doesn't categorize a deacon or the church. It categorizes that let us statement.

It's all of us.

All of us have been called to follow this directive. And so for the next few minutes this

morning, I'd like to really talk through what that really truly means in our practical worship,

what our practical gathering with the church and our practical gathering at homes or wherever we

find ourselves in community, being a part of living, not in a solo world. I mentioned that

last week, God has given.

Each other. We need one another good, bad or ugly, whether you like someone, whether you don't like

someone, whether someone annoys you or you're like, Hey, I'm in lockstep with them, old and

young men and women together. We make up the body of Christ. Ecclesiastes is very clear. Two are

better than one. It's not an argument. We need the idea of us. It is no longer I and me. It's we,

we are in this together.

As you sit here, maybe today's your first time gathering with us as a church, or maybe you've

lost count. That's great. Guess what? Each and every one of us, if you claim to be a follower

of Jesus Christ, you've confessed with your mouth. You believe that Jesus came, died on a cross and

rose again. You identify as a child of God. You've repented of your sin. Guess what? We're in this

life together. We're in this life together. We've not, we've not been called to live in isolation.

I've been called to live solo walks with Christ. We've been called to do this together. We need

one another. Man, if I can emphatically convince every single person in this room, I guarantee you

this, your life, your walk with Christ would change not only for yourself, but someone else.

How your week changes. You're like, I no longer am so worried about what I have. I'm worried about

what he or she or they have.

This week, because I'm praying for them. I'm caring for them. And together we can live out

the love and good works God has called us to do. So I want to talk through practically what that

looks like. I want to give you kind of four practical things. If you're a note taker,

they all start with a P. And so they're simple and easy. The first one is through prayer.

How do we stir one another up to love and good works? It is and must start with,

prayer. You're saying, what does that practically mean? Well, you can start with saying, God,

put someone in my path today where you can be glorified and I can be used. God, put someone

in my path as I gather or in the workplace or in my home or throughout my life. As I operate in

the world, I come across God, put someone in my path where I can be used to what? Stir them to

love and good works. I must begin to say, God, you put someone in my path. I'll say this to you.

That's a dangerous prayer. Talk about dangerous prayers. That'd be one of them. God, you use me

because guess what? He's going to do it. There won't be a maybe. Nope. You'll run into somebody

and you'll go, oh my goodness, God, why did you do this? And he'll say, you asked. But as you

consider to stir one another up to love and good works, God, I pray that you place someone in my

with wisdom and discernment to identify, to care and to love. You're saying, well,

I don't know enough of the Bible to do that. Guess what? Words of encouragement don't have

to be deep doctrine. Hey, how are you? I'm praying for you. Is there a specific way I can pray for

you? What do you have going on in your life? Oh, you have this. Hey, can I pray for you now?

Can I pray for you tomorrow? These are directives that God has given us.

That's what Galatians references as we bear one another's burdens. It's not from a distance. No,

but it's in a side-by-side lockstep together. We going, Hey, I know you have this going on

and I'm praying for you. And so we've been called to pray, rely on Christ, pray for that person.

I love James five says, therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another

that you may be healed. A prayer of a righteous person has great power.

As it is working first Thessalonians chapter five, therefore encourage one another and build

one another up. As we take a few minutes this morning to, I use this word exhortation as to,

I exhort you as to encourage you to stir one another up to love and good works. We must start

with prayer. The second is we must have preparation. We must prepare the word used in this passage. It's

as we look at it, it says to consider the word used here, uh, is used 14 other times in the new

Testament. It means to notice, pay attention, look closely at it implies some sort of preparation

or pre-thought. And I've said this before. If you've heard me preach on specific,

the gathering of the church, but I know what it's like to gather with the church. I've done it my

life. And as you get in the car, you just trying to get the kids in the car and you're glad they're

dressed. Uh, and you've maybe have eaten something on a Sunday morning and you drive, I'm driving up

I-75 and you're worried about, okay, they've got school tomorrow. Do we have lunch food? Do we've

got, we've got this going on? What else is happening in the week? None of that is bad,

but is there a moment or is there some thought for you and I to take a

moment to remove? Okay. I have all of these things happening going on. I want to take a moment to

really think, God, I've got to consider how you're going to use me as I am gathering or as I'm going

to a growth community or as I'm heading to work, as I'm going to dinner with some friends, God,

am I truly considering that you want to use a word that we use culturally? Am I game planning?

Am I thinking through, Hey, you know what, God, I know I'm going to be interacting with this

couple of friends. God, I know we need to talk about these things. God, I want you to use me

today. I want you to place me in this right place. God, I want you to, to, to be able to speak into

my life. I'm beginning to consider as I get in my car on a Sunday morning to come sit in some seats.

Am I considering I sit in the same spot each week, the same people sit down the same row for me,

but I've never met them. You're thinking that never

happens. It does. It absolutely does. And some of you guys are, I'm not going to look right now.

I'm not going to look right now. They're looking at you too. Don't worry. It happens, right? And so

we come sit in seats and we walk to our car. We shake someone's hands superficially, not really

getting to know them, not taking a moment to consider, look closely at God. How can I be used?

That's what relationship, that's what us is really truly supposed to look like. And so as we begin to

consider, maybe you're a crammer. You're like, what does that mean? Well, as school is beginning

to start, some of you are studiers and some of us were crammers. You know what I'm talking about,

right? Some of you prepared for tests. Some of you are praying in your seat. God, just give me

this wisdom. You said you would give it to me and give it to me abundantly. I need an aid today,

right? That's me. That's probably some of you. Okay. All right. But that's, it's not a cram.

Like in the moment is thinking it's taking your head off your pillow. As you open God's

word, as you pray, even on a Saturday night, or maybe on a Wednesday night, as you're going,

God put someone on my heart. I want to consider how to love and care for them. Maybe coming and

gathering with a church or going to a growth community. God who needs encouragement today

instead of, Hey, you know what? I know I've got this meeting this week. I know I have this

happening going on this week. You know what? I didn't really like the song today, or that was

what, what will he preach too long today? Or will somebody talk to me? No. What if we came with a

heart of considering how to love, push, stir, care, prod. I use the word instigate us to love

the way God has called us. Philippians two, Paul echoes these words. Let each of you look not only

to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. He also says in Romans 12,

outdo one another in showing honor. I'm going to say that again, because I think that will shake

us a little bit. Outdo one another in showing honor. As we are a church, as we are followers

of Christ, as we've been called to live and love and courage and to push one another, the way God

has called us. Are we truly thinking, Hey, how do I love someone more than myself? Or is it, I have all these

things happening and going on. And this is not me preaching at you. This is me preaching to myself.

And so we begin with prayer. We begin with preparation. This one's going to seem odd as I

was thinking through this, but we have to practice. We have to practice this. Practice implies some

failure. Some of you are great extroverts. I love that you are an extrovert. That's awesome. Maybe

the others are introverts. You're like, you have told me I need to communicate and talk and interact

with somebody else. That's the worst thing you can tell an introvert, right? You're like, oh, okay.

No, guess what? We've been called to do that. So you're like, some of you, Hey, you have skills,

sales in your background. This is no problem. You're like, I'm in. But an introvert, you're

like, oh, this is going to stretch me. So taking moments, taking times. I love what Paul says

to Timothy. First Timothy, practice these things, live them out. He's telling Timothy to live out

the disciplines that God has equipped him to do. I read this this week. It says, this requires

intentional relationships in which we seek opportunities to encourage and stir one another

to love and good works, intentional relationships. So thinking through, considering and practicing,

living out the disciplines, not just talking the talk, but living an intentional life with one

another. The last one is patience. What does patience have to do with stirring one another

to love and good works?

Well, I know this is not going to be a newsflash to anybody in this room. Okay. There's a bunch of

human beings in this room. Newsflash. Last I looked, human beings are fallen, broken people.

Romans for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. There are no perfect people other

than Jesus Christ. And so when you come to stir one another up or stir someone up to love and good

works, you're not always going to get the best response. I know shocking, right? Someone's going

to say, well, you know what? I'm not going to do that. I'm going to do that. I'm going to do that.

You don't know what you're talking about. You don't know what my week looks like. You don't

know what's happened in my life. You don't know all these things. And your response has to be with

patience. It can't be fine. You go sit over there. I'm going to sit over there. No, it's with patience

and care and gentleness. That's the fruit of the spirit growing out in our life and loving and

encouraging and caring for one another. The way God has called us. Why? Well, first John four,

seven and eight. Beloved, let us love one another.

For love is from God. Whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love

does not know God because God is love. Truly stirring one another up to love and good works

looks like sacrificial, selfish, selfless, and unconditional. Tongue twister there. All right.

We've been called to love and care, encourage and care for one another.

Cautions is great with that. Ephesians, forgiving one another the way Christ has forgiven us. It's

all there. And so we see these practical statements of prayer, preparation, practice,

and patience as we live them out. But how and when should this happen? I'm glad you asked.

Verse 25, not neglecting to meet together as the habit of some, but encouraging one another

and all the day as the more you see the day drawing near. That's when we don't

live in isolation. We live together. Let us plurality meeting one another. It's interesting

as I shared through some, some backdrop of some back background of Hebrews. Apparently some of

the believers, the early believers were abandoning the church. We're not given specific reasons here

in this passage. Some because of persecution, some, they didn't want to be seen or heard with them.

We're not quite sure.

Why exactly they were abandoning them. But one thing I can say is in the church today,

maybe not for harassment, maybe not for sliding back into another religion. Maybe it's because

we're super busy. We don't prioritize correctly. Maybe it's because of travel sports. You're like,

wow, now you're getting personal. No, I understand that. Maybe it's a work. Maybe it's,

you fill in the blank. See, encouragement cannot take place.

And isolation during one another up true stirring cannot happen from a distance. You see today you

can look statistically. They say the average believer is a part of the church somewhere

between 1.5 and two times a month. I love this analogy. You've heard me use it before. If you've

been here, I say, try going to the gym 1.5 to two times a month and tell me how your fitness is.

You can say this. It won't be great. You'd be paying a lot of money, but it won't be great.

Why do we think in our walks with Christ, it'll be like, well, I do a Bible. So it's great. I'm not

implying that, but guess what? We've been called to live in plurality. Let us, we need one another

in our walks with Christ, knowing that accountability, honesty, care, love, pushing one

another the way God has called us to do that. Some of that's in confrontation. Hey, do you realize

what is happening in your life here? Maybe you need to tweak that. That's loving and caring the

way God has called us to do that. True stirring is being able to look someone in the eye and love

them the way God has called you to love them, considering it. So there's a lot of books,

podcasts, and opinions on this idea or concept of church culture or gathered culture.

I love this passage because to me, they can all center around this. Obviously,

we center around Jesus Christ and we honor and we glorify him. That's why we're gathered or

that's why we head into a growth community, or that's why we're a part of living out to honor

Jesus Christ, because none of us are worthy of his love and his care and his grace and his mercy,

yet he gives it to us. But I'll say this to you very, very clearly. This call is not optional.

This is not like, hey, take it or leave it. This is our, or this is gonna be terrible English,

but it's our responsibility as believers. It's our responsibility as the church to stir one another

up to good works. And we must consider it. We must prepare. We must look at it with intensity

and focus and intentionality because God has called us to do that. And so I'll ask you this

morning, intentionally stirring to good works. And this is not, hey, you know what? I'm telling

my kids everything they're doing bad. That's not what it is. All right. I'm telling my spouse. I'm

that's not what it is. I wish it was simply just pastors. This is not a, just a simple mantle

for pastors. You see the culture of the river. What I beg God for it to be is hundreds and

hundreds of people stirring one another up to good works, texting one another, praying for one

another, encouraging one another, knowing that when you walk through the doors on a Sunday or

on a Wednesday or another night that you're heading into a place that, you know what?

I don't have everything together. I'm falling apart. I'm struggling. I'm just

creeping in. But I know the truth of God's word will be preached. I'll be loved and cared for

and encouraged the way God has called us. That's my prayer for this body. That's the body.

She's not, well, let the pastor stir up. You know, I love to stir up. I really do. I'm an

instigator, good and bad. It's not the deacons. It's not leaders, not church staff. It's you.

It's us. I can guarantee you this. I'm going to be done. You're like, man, you are getting

your, I really get passionate about this. Someone needs your prayer. Like they're praying to God too.

They do. But guess what? I guarantee you a hundred percent of the people sitting in this room would

be encouraged knowing that someone is praying for them this week. That's not like a 90 or an 80 or

70, a hundred percent. If you're saying it's not you, you're just being obstinate. That's a hundred

percent. Someone needs your encouragement. I'll say this. This one's not fun. Someone needs your

correction. Speaking the truth in love, right? You're very present.

Yes. Someone needs your example. Someone needs your invitation. Not just simply to, Hey, I sit

next to you, but Hey, could we go to lunch? Or Hey, could I, could I pray for you? Or Hey, you

know, we're, we're, we're gathering together in this growth community. We'd love for you to come

be a part of that. Someone needs that. Someone needs your forgiveness and someone needs your

reminder of the truth. Refocus. Cause I know there's many times in my life, man, I can get off

and I have to be re-centered back to the truth. Bring me back. Okay. Refocus. Those are not

babies. Those are not, I think so's. No, those are facts, man. If I could beg you preach another

hour or two, if I had to convince every single person in this room that the body of Christ is

supposed to be that. But my prayer this morning was not so that Caleb could convince you that the

word of God through his Holy spirit would penetrate your hearts and transform the way we gather the

way we love the way we stir one another. The way God has called us. I read this week. I love this

analogy of this imagery, but it says you, you take a,

a burning log out of a fireplace and set it aside. At first it will burn, right? It'd be hot,

but eventually flame weakens. The glow fades. And truthfully before long, it becomes cold.

Put that same log back into the fire, surrounded by other burning logs and the heat, the fire begins

to return to you. We're not created to burn alone. Oh man. I love that picture. I love that picture.

I love the whole song that I listened to. There's a fire burning inside of me. It's this, this, this

imagery of the Holy spirit and the gospel just burning out. And I just desire that. And I don't

just desire for me. I desire for my wife, for my kids, for you, for your family, for you

individually. So you weren't created to burn alone. Neither was the person sitting next to you

or three rows away from you. Person may be drifting, tired, struggling, wondering if

God is really real dealing with the lies, the temptations of the devil and asking the question,

does anybody even notice? I can say this to you today. That is too true for the church today.

My prayer today is not the pastor can step in, which I would do, but so that the people

in one another, the culture would change. God has placed the person across the room,

across the aisle, down the seat, sitting next to you to be that encouragement, to be

that prayer, to be that preparation. That's my prayer today. And so you're given a stir stick.

You got a Bible. This is a great bookmark. I bookmark Hebrews chapter 10. You slide it in

there. Keep it in your Bible. A visual. Every time you open your Bible, we'll do this. Who are

you stirring today? Am I stirring anybody? Because it's easy. Well, you know what? I need to be

stirred. Yes, you do. I do too. But I'll say this to you confidently. You'll watch the things that

need to be stirred about diminish as you're stirring somebody else. That's good doctrine

there. That made bad English, but good doctrine. So put that stir stick in your Bible. On a Sunday

morning, as you drive, you find it in your Bible, you find it in your car. You go, who am I stirring?

What I don't want you to do is walk out and throw it away. These are big money. One's noble one,

it would have been big money. Practically, that's the life we've been called to live.

Stir. Consider how to stir up to love and good works. For how long do I have to do it? All the

more as you see the day drawing near. That day is the return of Jesus Christ. Until Jesus comes

back, we've been called to do that as the church. Can I pray for you? God, we love you. We praise

you. We honor you. We glorify you. God, thank you for this word found in Hebrews chapter 10. God,

may it simply not just be words that we preach, that we talk about on a Sunday morning or on a

Wednesday night or on a Thursday night or throughout our week. May they be actions. May they be

deeds. May they be responses. God, I pray for a cultural shift, not in other churches,

but specifically in this local body right here, Holly, Michigan, God. I pray boldly right now

for a cultural shift, God, that we would stir one another. There'd be a change. There'd be a

preparation. There'd be patience with one another, God, and we would practice it out every single

time we have an opportunity.

God, that's my prayer. God, I know there's ones sitting in this room or joining us online

that have been battling through all sorts of things. God, may they not leave this room

without feeling being encouraged. God, may every single time we gather the real authentic response

out of superficial heart for one another. So we try to do what Romans tells us to,

outdo one another with honor and love. God, that's my prayer. God, you've called us to need

one another. You've called us as us. Praise you, God. God, thank you for bringing every single

person. Design them. You've orchestrated this moment right now. Place them to hear the words

this message today. May you transform and challenge them, God. God, we praise you. Thank

you for your word. Thank you for the challenge in my own life. I love you. I honor you in Jesus'

wonderful name. Amen.

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