How to Fix it....Continued from I Love How This is Worded....

Larry McCall offers some counsel about keeping our hearts from freezing over, based on Hebrews 3:12-14:

See to it, brothers; that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first.

First, we need to wake up to the reality that unbelief can overtake the heart of any professing Christian--including our own. We must not be lulled to sleep by false assurance in some "decision" made or prayer prayed in times past. As we see in Hebrews 3, two key marks of a Christian are faith and faithfulness.

We must "take care" that both faith and faithfulness are being cultivated and evidenced in our own lives and in the lives of our fellow church members. The sin of unbelief can overtake a heart so gradually that we don't notice it until a professing Christian is living a life of blatant unfaithfulness to Christ. In love we must resist spiritual naivete. We must "take care."

Second, we must realize that the fight against apostasy is every Christian's concern, not just that of the church's pastors. The author of Hebrews says, "Take care, brothers." The battle against apostasy and the quest for ongoing faith in Christ and faithfulness to Christ is a "community project." Every Christian should be mustered and trained for this battle for souls.

Third, our churches must develop a "culture" that values the daily care of one another's souls and provides practical ways for that to happen. Hebrews 3:13 instructs us to "exhort one another every day." While we continue to hold out the primacy of preaching in the life of the church, the battle against apostasy must be fought beyond our Sunday morning events.

The members of our churches must be given opportunity to move away from isolation and toward loving, deep involvement in one another's lives. Church leaders must teach church members the crucial importance of faith-building relationships. No one can intimately know everyone in their church. But we must be involved very personally with some of the church body.

And these interpersonal relationships in small groups must move beyond trivial, superficial conversations if we are going to carry out the directive to "exhort one another every day."

Church leaders need to model and teach a mutual "soul care" that, over time, begins to get traction in the normal life of the church. Church members can fight against the cold winds of unbelief that threaten to ice up the souls of their friends by reminding themtof the dangers of sin and the joy, hope, and satisfaction we have in Christ alone.

Overtime the conversations should become gospel-saturated, Christ-exalting, Spirit-empowered, and faith-building.

The battle against apostasy in our churches is fought as one Christian exhorts another Christian to treasure Christ above all that Satan, sin and the world have to offer.

Last, Hebrews 3:12-14 teaches us that this ministry is urgent: "as long as it is called 'today'". 'The day of Christ's return and subsequent judgment is coming. We must not carelessly assume that "someday" our church will take up battle against apostasy. While we say "someday," God says "today." For the glory of Christ and the care of souls, let us all take up the battle against apostasy.

This article taken from Tabletalk, Logonier Ministries and R. C. Sproul, October, 2010.