"And let us consider and give attentive, continuous care to watching over one another, studying how we may stir up to love and helpful deeds and noble activities, not forsaking or neglecting to assemble together as believers, as is the habit of some people, but admonishing one another, and all the more faithfully as you see the day approaching." — Hebrews 10:24–25 (AMPC)
Eye to Eye
Before Bro. Tony said anything else from the Word, he asked the congregation to do one simple thing: turn to the person beside you, look them in the eye, and say, "I'd like to be a blessing to you, during these last days."
He explained why eye-to-eye matters. "If you don't look people in the eye, you don't really mean it." In Tagalog, we have a word for that — recibo. The receipt. The evidence that what you said is real. His daughter-in-law has the same instinct with her youngest son: "Solomon, look me in the eye. Watch my eye." And then she would speak to him.
That was not just a warm-up. That was the entire sermon, compressed into one practice. Because blessing one another in the last days is not done from a distance. It is not a Facebook comment. It is not a polite kumusta on the way out of church. It is eye to eye. It is I see you. I mean it. The Lord is for you, and so am I.
And the question Bro. Tony pressed into the room is the question that holds the rest of the sermon: can we actually be a blessing, in these last days?
The Days We Are Living In
Look around at the world and you will see why the question is honest.
There are wars that will not end. Negotiations that collapse. Ceasefires that break. Fuel prices that rise and fall and rise again, and a hundred small economic pressures that grind down ordinary families. Bro. Tony spoke of brothers in business torn between cost-cutting and the courage to keep expanding, because nobody knows what next year will look like.
And underneath the economic uncertainty is something more serious: persecution. In Nigeria, Christians are being killed by militants. Anti-Semitism is rising on American university campuses. In some countries pastors are arrested for preaching in public squares. Even where the persecution is not yet overt, it presses against the church in quieter ways — through media that mocks faith, through pressure to soften the gospel, through the slow temptation to keep our mouths shut so we do not lose our jobs.
These are the last days. Not a metaphor. The actual season the Bible warned us about. Difficult days. Persecuted days. Uncertain days.
So the question Bro. Tony raised is not theoretical. In days like these, can we still be a blessing? Can we still be blessed?
The book of Hebrews answers yes.
The Same Temptation They Had
The letter to the Hebrews was written to Jewish Christians facing the exact same pressures we are facing now. They were under persecution. They were exhausted. And they were being tempted to abandon Christianity — to slip quietly back into the traditional religion of their fathers, which did not honor Jesus as God.
"Kalimutan mo na. Ang hirap ng buhay. Tutulungan ba talaga ng Diyos ito?" The enemy whispers to a tired believer the same way he whispered to a first-century one. Just give it up. The Christian life is too costly. Maybe God is not really there. Maybe your prayers are not really being heard.
How many of you have been praying for something for a long time, and the answer still has not come? Mid-term, long-term, walang pa rin. That is when the enemy steps in. He tires out our faith. He discourages it. He whispers that we are wasting our time.
The writer of Hebrews knew what that felt like. And he gave the church three commands — three movements — to hold the line until the Lord returns.
Hebrews 10:24–25 — Three Movements
"And let us consider and give attentive, continuous care to watching over one another, studying how we may stir up to love and helpful deeds and noble activities, not forsaking or neglecting to assemble together as believers, as is the habit of some people, but admonishing one another, and all the more faithfully as you see the day approaching" (Hebrews 10:24–25, AMPC).
The Filipino translation lands with the same weight: "Palakasin natin ang loob ng isa't isa, lalo na, na nakikita na nalalapit na ang araw." Strengthen each other's hearts — all the more, because the day is drawing near.
Three movements. Three Cs. Consider. Come together. Carry.
1. Consider One Another Attentively
The first word is consider.
Bro. Tony asked the congregation to put a hand over the brow and look slowly at the brother to one side, then the sister to the other. Consider. The Greek word means to observe fully, closely, by thinking about something from top to bottom.
But not in the wrong way. There is a scene from The Devil Wears Prada where Meryl Streep's character looks Anne Hathaway up and down — head to feet — and turns away in judgment. That is not the kind of considering Hebrews has in mind. We are not called to be critics of our brothers and sisters. We are called to be students of them.
Bro. Tony's wife is good at this. She can look at someone, talk with them for a few minutes, and already know what kind of gift would bless them. That is considering. That is the attention God asks us to pay to one another — not surveillance, not judgment, but the careful, prayerful study of how to bless the person in front of us.
And the goal is not just understanding. It is stirring up. The Greek word is the one we get paroxysm from — a sharp prompting, a deliberate provocation. But in Hebrews it is provocation toward love. Toward good deeds. Toward noble activities. We are meant to push one another, gently and on purpose, toward the kind of life that looks like Jesus.
But here is the harder truth Bro. Tony preached underneath that command. We cannot consider others until we are free from being consumed by ourselves.
That is where Galatians 2:20 comes in. "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." When we became Christians, our old self was crucified. The self that always thinks of me first, my problems first, my prayer requests first — that self died. The new self, the spirit alive in Christ, is free to consider others.
Bro. Tony shared his own struggle. Anger. Even after he became a Christian. Even after he got married. The temper kept flaring. Until he understood — really understood — that the old man was crucified with Christ. His spirit was a new creation. The work that remained was the daily maturing of the mind, the emotions, the body to catch up with what was already true of his spirit.
That is the order. Until the old self stops running the show, we will keep considering ourselves first. But once we have been set free by Christ, the door opens to consider the brother and sister beside us.
Who is the Holy Spirit calling you to consider this week?
2. Come Together Consistently
The second word is come together.
"Not forsaking or neglecting to assemble together as believers, as is the habit of some people." The writer of Hebrews already had a problem — some people had developed a habit of not coming. They had reasons, surely. They always do. But the warning is direct: do not be like them.
A coal taken out of the fire grows cold within minutes. Put it back among the burning coals and it glows again. The gathered church is the fire. You cannot maintain spiritual heat by yourself.
But Bro. Tony also named the real reason many brothers and sisters hesitate to come together — and it is a reason worth saying out loud. If we come together, it might be a reason to come apart. Because Satan loves nothing more than a fellowship of believers. And his first target is always the family. Acts 2:42 is a family text — devoted to teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, prayer — and the enemy will work hard to break that family apart through misunderstanding, dissension, and offense.
Bro. Tony spoke from his own life. Five and a half years working in Saudi Arabia. Away from his family. And when he finally came home, the communication with his son was broken in ways a tape recorder could not fix. "Why is he afraid of tape recorders? Daddy is in the tape recorder. Daddy is not here." Years of distance, and the relationship struggled to recover. He asked the hard question many Filipino families ask: do parents always have to work abroad to support their families? He has watched this same dynamic destroy mother-daughter relationships in Hong Kong, where domestic helpers raise other people's children for years while their own children grow up without them.
The enemy targets the family because the family is where the church is made.
So come together is not a polite suggestion. It is a warfare strategy. Sunday morning. Friday devotional. Mid-week prayer. Whenever the family of God gathers, we are guarding something. We are protecting one another from drift. We are pulling the cold ones back into the fire.
And we must be on guard while we gather — alert to the small offenses Satan will try to use to break us apart. Come together, and stay together.
3. Carry the Presence of God Faithfully
The third movement is the deepest. "Admonishing one another, and all the more faithfully as you see the day approaching." But Bro. Tony pulled one phrase out and made it the heart of the third point: carry the presence of God.
Where does that phrase come from? From Exodus. From Moses, who stood before the Lord and said something staggering: "If your presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here." Even with more than a million Israelites freshly delivered from Egypt, Moses refused to take one more step unless the presence of God came too. Because what made Israel different from every other nation was not their numbers. It was His presence.
When the pagans saw a cloud over Israel in the daytime, they knew something supernatural was guarding that people. When the night came and the cloud became fire, the enemies who attack in the dark were too afraid to strike. The presence of God on His people was a hedge that no army could cross.
That same presence — the Lord Himself — now lives in us. "You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies." When we gather as the church, we are not just gathering people. We are gathering carriers of the presence of God.
And Bro. Tony preached how that presence is released — through prayer. Real, daily, family prayer. He and his wife pray over their children every morning. Lord, cover them with the precious blood of Jesus. Surround them with Your spiritual hedge. Send Your angels to guard and guide them. And he can name the times the Lord protected his family because of those prayers. A near-collision on a drive. A business that did not collapse during COVID even after two years without a client. A son who keeps choosing the way of God in the marketplace. His presence, our Lord honored.
He and his wife also take the Lord's Supper at home — often, before meals — pleading the body and blood of Christ for healing, for protection, for wholeness. His wife had cancer in her right breast. They prayed Psalm 37:20 over the cancer cells. They chose oxygen therapy instead of radiation or chemo. When the doctor finally opened her up, he said the same words they had been praying for months: "Your cancer cells are dead. They are no longer alive." That is what it means to carry the presence of God — not a feeling, but a daily, faith-filled bringing of the Lord into every room of life.
But carrying His presence is not just for our own families. It is for the brother and sister beside us in the church. "Lalo na," Hebrews says. All the more, as you see the day approaching. That means admonishing — gently warning the friend who is drifting. Urging — do not give up, hold on, the Lord is faithful. Encouraging — I see what God is doing in you, and I am for you.
And Bro. Tony made one pastoral observation worth writing down. Filipinos love to hide. Ask them kumusta? and the answer is almost always mabuti naman. But if you see the eyes, you can tell when the mabuti is a mask. That is when the work begins. Tap the shoulder. Look them in the eye. Ask again. Do you need encouragement? Because everyone does — even the people in the happiest families. The job of the church is not to accept the polished answer. It is to keep asking, gently, until the truth surfaces and the Lord's presence can be carried into the place that actually hurts.
The Marketplace and Mother's Day
Two more things Bro. Tony wove through the sermon, both worth keeping in mind.
The first: honor your parents. It is the commandment with a promise — long life, quality of life. We had just come through Mother's Day, and Bro. Tony spoke gratefully of his own son, who saved up to bring his parents on a month-long trip across the United States and Canada. Honor God by honoring your parents. That principle is not just for Mother's Day or Father's Day — it is a year-round command, especially for adult children who now have families of their own. If you want to honor God, honor your parents. And if you are a parent, the way you honor your own parents is the model your children are watching.
The second: the marketplace. The presence of God is not meant to stay inside church walls. Bro. Tony spoke of the seven spheres of society — family, religion, education, government, media, arts, business — and how the Lord is raising up believers in every one of them. Some of you sit in offices, some in schools, some in business, some online. Wherever God has placed you, He has given you the ability and the attitude and the skill to make a difference there. Bring the presence of God into your workplace this week. Bring it into your classroom. Bring it into your group chat. A little here, a little there, subtly, gradually — until that whole sector starts to look more like the kingdom of God.
Acts 2:42 — The Pattern That Holds
This is why our church takes its name from Acts 2:42. "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer." Four devotions. Not preferences. Devotions. The early church did not gather when it was convenient. They devoted themselves. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
Hebrews 10 is the apostolic echo of Acts 2:42. Same call. Same command. Be devoted to one another. Watch over each other. Gather without fail. Carry the presence of God faithfully — especially now.
The world will not get warmer on its own. The church will. And the church gets warmer one considered brother, one consistent gathering, one carried word at a time.
From This Sunday
"Little by little, I chose my family. What's the point of temporary pleasure if you lose the gift of family?"
This Sunday, Bro. James opened the service by sharing his life testimony — how years of chasing temporary pleasures quietly eroded the things God had already given him, and how, step by step, the Lord turned his heart back toward his family and his faith. It was a picture of exactly what Hebrews 10 describes: a brother who needed the fire of gathered believers to warm back up, and a church that kept burning while he found his way home.
Read Bro. James' full testimony →
Challenge
Pick one person in this church this week — not the one you are already close to, but the one the Holy Spirit just brought to your mind — and do all three things for them.
Consider them: think about their life on purpose. Study them, the way Bro. Tony's wife studies a person before choosing a gift. What is happening underneath the mabuti naman? What would actually stir them up to love and good deeds?
Come to them: do not wait for next Sunday. Send the message. Make the call. Show up at their door if you can. Bring yourself into their life, in person, before the week is over.
Carry the presence of God to them: bring a word. A scripture. A prayer prayed out loud over them. An eye-to-eye I see you, I am for you, the Lord is with you. Whatever they need — admonish, warn, urge, or encourage — carry it as if it came from the throne of heaven, because it did.
If every member of Acts 242 did this once a week, our whole church would feel the warmth of it before the year ends. And the world around us would feel it too.
Lalo na, lalo na, na nakikita nating nalalapit na ang araw.
