Neglecting This as a Christian Puts You in Spiritual Danger
In this sermon, David Diga Hernandez warns believers about the spiritual peril of isolating themselves from the local church. He grounds his argument in Scripture, citing Hebrews, 1 Corinthians 12, Acts 2, James 5:16, Colossians 3:16, Ephesians 5:19, 1 Timothy 4:13, and other passages that emphasize the necessity of gathering together for worship, teaching, fellowship, accountability, generosity, and the exercise of spiritual gifts. Hernandez critiques the modern disdain for “organized religion” and the “four walls of the church,” arguing that both structure and spontaneity have biblical legitimacy, but that rejecting order often stems from spiritual pride, past hurt, or apathy. He outlines the dangers of isolation—spiritual pride, paranoia, susceptibility to false doctrines, and emotional distress—and stresses that isolation undermines evangelism, edification, and the body’s health. The sermon calls listeners to honestly evaluate why they may be avoiding church, to overcome pride or hurt, and to re‑engage with a local gathering, whether in a traditional building, a coffee shop, a home, or any organized setting, for the sake of spiritual growth and the kingdom’s mission. The message concludes with a practical invitation to support the ministry.
Chapters
I wanna talk to you about the dangers of isolation. The body of Christ is meant to be in unity. You as a believer were designed by the Lord to have community. Here's what the Bible says in the book of Hebrews. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near. is drawing near. So here we see that there is safety in our unity. There is safety in our gathering. Often we're of the mindset that we are the body of Christ, and this is true to a degree, but let's take a look at that portion of scripture right now. 1 Corinthians chapter 12, I'm gonna read verses 12 to 21. The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free, but we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit. Yes, the body has many different parts, not just one part. If the foot says, I am not a part of the body because I am not a hand, that does not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear says, I am not a part of the body because I am not an eye, would that make it any less a part of the body? If the whole body were an eye, how would you hear? Or if your whole body were an ear, how would you smell anything? But our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it. How strange a body would be if it had only one part. Yes, there are many parts, but only one body. The eye can never say to the hand, I don't need you. The head can't say to the feet, I don't need you. So you've probably heard this phrase, I am the body, and this is true to a degree, but you have to remember that we are parts of the body. Only in our gathering, only in our unity, only in our communion with one another do we then become the body of Christ. So to say, I am the body all my own, is to say, I have no need of the other parts. Now, some have maybe a certain mindset that has been built in over time, maybe through certain experiences or maybe through improper teaching. And they've come to disdain, many believers have come to disdain what they would call, quote, organized religion, end quote. And by this, they mean that anything with structure, anything that grows, anything that's organized, anything that's too big, must not be from God. And while I understand that systems and structure alone cannot produce moves of the Holy Spirit, we have to remember that the Holy Spirit, who is God, is a God of order. And he does move at times according to structures that can be seen by us. And so when we say things like, well, I'm not for organized religion, well, then you have to ask yourself, what are you for? Disorganized religion, chaotic religion. Name me one thing that God ever did that was disorganized. Name me one thing that God ever did that didn't have a system or a structure to it. The earth is an ecosystem. Your body consists of many systems. God has micro and macro systems that run the entire universe, and his church is a system with Christ at the head. Now, again, I wanna emphasize that this doesn't mean that systems can produce moves of the Holy Spirit, but rather that the Holy Spirit does implement systems through which he chooses to move. And this is what God has given to us, the gift of each other, the gift of the body of Christ, the gift of that great structure, that great organization, which is God's work, God's kingdom expanding work in the earth today. There's a popular disdain for what we would call the 4 walls of the church. And you often hear people say things like, well, that's great that they're meeting. That's great that God's moving. That's great that miracles are happening and people are being saved. But I think we need to go outside the 4 walls of the church. And I understand that, but we have to remember to have biblical balance based on truth and not allow ourselves to go to either extreme. On one extreme, we have man-made projects. And what that is, is total self-reliance upon the power of man. They don't involve the Holy Spirit. They don't seek God's voice. They don't seek God's guidance. In fact, they stifle moves of God for fear that they may lose the growth that they themselves think they attained. And so on that extreme, we have structures of man that stifle the Spirit. On the other extreme, we have people who are so disorganized, so undisciplined, so hate-filled towards systems that they actually reject the systems that God himself has implemented. They reject order, they reject structure. And really, if I'm just being honest with you, it's not organization that people have an issue with, it's accountability that people have an issue with. They don't want anyone telling them what they should or should not do, and they wanna be the final authority in terms of what they think should or should not happen. But what begins to happen is there's this spiritual pride, this elitism, this virtue signaling that people allow to fill their hearts, where they begin to dislike anything that is structured. But do you realize that the church, the local church, the gathering body of saints is the most powerful evangelistic tool in the church, in the world today, I should say. So as an evangelist, one who hosts evangelistic services, one who releases media where we pray that people hear the gospel and are saved, as a result of having heard the gospel and responding to the gospel. I believe that, I believe in evangelistic outreach. I believe in going out and casting a wide net. It's what our ministry is all about. It's an evangelistic healing ministry. But I, as an evangelist, also acknowledge that there is no greater evangelistic system or tool used by God in the earth today like the local church. Most people who come to Jesus will come to Jesus after having heard the gospel in their local church, having been invited by their friends and family members and loved ones. And so we can't just snub our noses at that which is structured. We can't just snub our noses at the system that God has placed in the earth today. We can't just say, well, the only real thing, the only real ones are the ones out on the streets. And by that, they mean the sidewalks and the grocery stores and the gas stations. And that's all well and good, and that's wonderful, but actually, as we look in the Book of Acts, and as we look at the ministry of the Lord Jesus, we see that they would actually find a place to preach the gospel, often in a building. They would preach the gospel, they would preach a message, and then they would perform miraculous demonstrations, and people would respond to the message. So the people would come and see what was happening in these local gatherings. Now, this is not to say that we shouldn't preach at the local grocery stores, at the local gas stations, or on the sidewalks. But this is to say that we cannot snub our noses at those moves of God that take place in what we would call the 4 walls of the church. Simply put, both are legitimate moves of God, and we need both. We cannot reject either one, because if we reject the streets and the grocery stores and the gas stations, we are rejecting the evangelistic arm of God's ministry. And if we reject the local church, we are rejecting the edification arm of God's ministry. And we need both edification and evangelism. We need both. And in fact, edification happens on the street and evangelism happens in the church building. Now, this does not mean that it's all about the building. This does mean that we have to learn to appreciate all expressions of God's church in the earth today. And we cannot say that one is fake because it's polished or organized or large. And we cannot say that one is unneeded because it's out on the streets, or it seems to be a little bit more, how shall we say, grassroots. Both are needed, both are valuable. And having made that point, I think it's important to consider that yes, we need to attend a local church because it's in our It's in our gathering that we become the body. It's in our togetherness that we find the benefits of the Christian life. So never mind with this popular disdain of the 4 walls. Just because it's happening in the 4 walls doesn't mean it's fake. And just because it's happening outside the 4 walls doesn't mean it's genuine. You can have the fake and the real within and without the 4 walls of the church. And again, this doesn't mean that we're just talking about a building here. Because it's not about a building, it's about our gathering. And sometimes in our gathering, there are buildings. We can have storefronts. I've been to church, I've preached in churches that were in storefronts, in houses, in coffee shops, in schools, in people's places of work, in parks. I preached in many different settings. And in all those different settings, I saw something beautiful, the gathering of the saints together in an organized fashion, someone ministering the word, leaders being appointed, ministry effectiveness coming about as a result of ministry focus, all people gathering their resources and their talents and their time and their energy and their emotion and their influence together to create one big effort for the pushing and the propagation of the gospel around the world. This is God's beautiful system within the earth. Now, I understand also that there are some times where people cannot attend a church. Maybe you're in the hospital and you're sick and you can't get out of that hospital bed. Well, okay, then that would be an exception to a generalization. But the general rule is if you are able to, you should attend a local church in person. Now, that local church can be in a building with a steeple, or it can be in a coffee shop with coffee tables and coffee shop chairs, and you drink coffee together. Maybe you have a coffee church, I don't know. It can be in somebody's classroom, it can be in somebody's house, but the gathering of the saints must occur, gathering together for the purpose of biblical unity. And so while I understand, well, there are situations where that cannot happen, you have to be honest with yourself. You can't be defensive either. You have to do an honest evaluation of where you are in your walk with God. You have to do an honest evaluation of what it is that you're committing to or not committing to, and then why are you committing to that or not committing to that? So in that honest evaluation of self, you have to assess whether or not you are avoiding church gathering because of past hurt, because of past offense, because of spiritual pride. It could be any number of reasons that keep you from gathering, but you have to do an honest evaluation. Is it true that you absolutely cannot attend a church, or is it true that you will not attend a church and therefore you tell yourself that you cannot? What leads to isolation is spiritual pride. This idea that nobody has it right but you. In fact, I watch people do this to online Christian content creators and to local churches. They'll say things like, well, you know, so far I like what I hear, So far, I agree with you. And really what they're implying is, I'm watching you. I'm gonna wait to see if you say one thing. And if you say one thing that I disagree with, if you are, in my opinion, off in any one interpretation of doctrine or scripture, well, now I'm out of there. And they say things like, well, I thought I found a real pastor. I thought I finally found a real church. I thought I finally found a real online minister from whom I could receive. But now I see that I was wrong. Oh my goodness, I was wrong. You missed one thing, or we disagree in one area, or I don't like how you interpreted that one doctrine. And really what they're saying is, I know everything. And if you are preaching everything that I believe, then you're 100% correct. I even saw one time on one of my friend's channels, somebody had commented, okay, so far I think you're 99% accurate. And I thought the sheer arrogance of such a thought. that you are the standard and that you are the one who's judging and evaluating and saying, well, you're 99% and you're 100%. And by this they mean you're correct so long as you always agree with me. And that spiritual pride causes you to nitpick at sermons, to be hypercritical, to look for anything that may be out of place. And if you find that one thing, you're out of there. That spiritual pride leads to isolation. And really, you'll never find anywhere then, because anywhere you go, you'll find something with which you disagree. Anywhere you go, you'll find something that you don't maybe like how it was handled. And if you allow yourself to become obsessed with that, instead of focused on the primary things, well, then you're always going to find an excuse. If you want to find an excuse to dismiss a ministry or disconnect from a gathering, you're going to be able to find it no matter what that ministry is. So that spiritual pride, will lead to isolation. Another thing that leads to isolation is spiritual hurt. In other words, a situation was handled maybe without having considered you, or maybe there was an issue of abuse, spiritual abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse. There are abuses of all forms, and they actually happen in churches, unfortunately. But now, because of what happened in one church or in one gathering, you now have rejected all churches, all gatherings for all time. And while I can sympathize with hurt, and sometimes those hurts are based upon actual offenses, and if we're being real, sometimes those hurts are simply based on perceived offenses. In either case, forgiveness needs to be the choice, and you have to, at some point again, gather with the saints. And then spiritual differences, I think that's self-explanatory. We just differ in our opinions. And obviously if a church is different enough, it's never going to be a good fit. But if you have fundamental similarities and only superficial differences, then that's a sign to you that you should probably stay there. And so if you find at least a fundamental connection with that church, I think it's worth working through your differences for. Another reason people isolate is spiritual apathy. They don't honor what matters. They disconnect. for silly reasons. Maybe they're tired, maybe they're busy, maybe they have too much on their plate, and they give themselves excuses that they convince themselves to believe, and therefore they begin to isolate. But here's what begins to happen when we isolate. When we begin to isolate, we become filled with paranoia. When we begin to isolate, pride is puffed up. When we begin to isolate, we embrace bizarre doctrines, and we get into conspiracy theories. We go down, these rabbit holes that just lead to lack of peace and lack of sleep and lack of joy. And there's this tension that begins to arise within the heart and the emotions of this individual who is isolated. This is why, by the way, in 2020, we saw the rise of weird mixtures in the church. Weird doctrines begin to become popularized. Why? Because people in their isolation, became more susceptible to fear-based teachings, and then they were filled with deception. And so we have to be careful to not isolate. Let's look at some of the examples in scripture that we see. This is what church gatherings should look like. Acts 2:42-47. All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles' teachings and to fellowship and to sharing in meals, including the Lord's Supper. And to prayer. A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need. They worshiped together at the temple each day, met in the homes for the Lord's Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity, all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. Each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved. Some things I observe here that at least we can take away in principle and look for them in daily application in terms of our gathering together in church today. They all financially contributed to a common cause. So the takeaway principle is they were generous, they were givers. This is something that I believe is a beautiful expression of your love for the gospel, for the Lord, and for souls. They heard sermons. So the word was taught. You know, we get into these attitudes sometimes like, well, I don't need anybody to teach me. 1 John 2:27, I have an anointing within me, I need no man to teach me. Well, that was talking about teaching the basics of salvation that you should already know, and no one should come and be able to change those fundamentals of salvation. But then we see that Christ gave to the church teachers, pastors, apostles, evangelists, prophets, why? For edification, for building you up. So why would Jesus say to you, you don't need any teachers, now here are some teachers. You don't need any pastors, now here are some pastors. That would be a contradiction. And the Lord does not contradict himself. So yes, you need teachers. Yes, you need people who can minister the word to you. And this is why, by the way, those who teach the word are judged with stricter judgment because they've been given that responsibility. Notice also, they all fellowshipped. They didn't show up to church late and then leave early. They actually fellowshiped with one another. You might think it's a silly thing, maybe to go out and eat with some friends after church, or to go and do things together as a family on the weekend, a church family on the weekend, or maybe even during the week. But I'm telling you right now, that's a major component of what it was to be a believer in the book of Acts. And it's a major component still to this day of what it is to be a believer, that fellowship. Fellowship with one another. This is not superficial conversation and just some disconnected involvement with someone's life. This is true accountability. This is true involvement. This is emotional and spiritual connection. This is deep. This is profound. This is something that is life-transforming because you actually connect with people who truly get to know you. And you have to learn to invest in that. And this is something I think our generation is really lacking in. We don't know how to invest in fellow believers as friends. We have countless teachings on marriage, countless teachings on parenting, countless teachings on maybe even mentor-disciple relationship, but we are lacking in the church today. I have no statistic for that. That's an anecdotal observation. But in my observation, I think we're lacking in a major way, teachings on cultivating godly friendships. I'm talking peer-to-peer. Everybody needs mentorship, friendship, and to be involved in discipleship. Everybody needs a Paul, a Barnabas, and a Timothy. Everybody needs a mentor, someone they're discipling, and someone who is their friend. And so they fellowshipped with one another. You may think it's just a meal. It's not just a meal, it's fellowship. You may think it's just, a day spent together or a little visit to someone's house. My friend, that's how you build connections. And just because you're investing in it, just because you're cultivating in it, just because you're being intentional about it doesn't mean you are, quote, forcing it, as our culture likes to teach today. It takes investment to do this. So they shared meals with one another. They took communion together. They prayed together. These are all of the wonderful things that we see that we can experience in the church today if we will simply yield our lives to what God has said. We're missing out on many benefits. More dangers of isolation include what you can't do if you live in isolation. You can't receive teachings from teachers. You look at 1 Timothy 4:13, it says, until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of scripture. to exhortation and to teaching. So we absolutely do need to gather and receive teaching. If you're not gathering together, you have no corporate worship. Colossians 3:16, let the message about Christ in all its richness fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. Ephesians 5:19, watch this now, addressing one another, Now, how are we supposed to fulfill this command, addressing one another, if we're not gathering with one another? Addressing one another in what? Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart. So here it's talking about singing together. That is a spiritual act that cannot be done in isolation. By the way, Psalms were divinely inspired. Hymns were worship and praise songs about God. And then spiritual songs were expressions of faith and spiritual truth in melody or inspiring songs. So if you ever hear people complain about not every worship song being sung directly to God, they're missing this, spiritual songs. So then we see that without gathering together, there's no corporate prayer. Acts 2:42, all the believers devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship. and to sharing in meals and to prayer. Referencing that same verse, there's no fellowship if we're in isolation. Now watch this. This one's pretty challenging too. James 5:16, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. You know what else you cannot have in isolation? Accountability. You cannot have accountability in isolation, not truly. You know, people will ask, how you doing? And we say, oh, I'm doing okay. Or people will say, how you doing? Maybe you're a little bit honest. You say, oh, you know, I could use some prayer. And then we stop there. We don't communicate what's happening. How are you ever supposed to receive real help if you're not communicating real deep truths? That's right. How are you supposed to be able to really address the problem if nobody's able to understand or know the problem? And I'm not saying that everybody needs to always be involved in all of your business. And I truly believe that there are degrees of friendship and fellowship that we experience with some that we won't have with others. For example, there are things that I will share with some people that I will not share with all people. And the closer I am to someone, the more I will share. So you gotta be wise with that too. But there's something missing when you're in isolation. You have no real accountability. And shooting someone a text and saying, hey, I messed up, pray for me, is not accountability. Seeing somebody at church on a Sunday morning and saying, hey, you know, I've really been struggling, just pray for me. That's not true accountability. Accountability is an accounting. How do you account for something? You get into the books, you look at the details, you express what's actually going on in your life. And if you don't have these godly friends, you need to work on cultivating those. So you have that true accountability. No encouragement. Hebrews 10:24, let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. Now here's another command. Think about this. Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. How are we supposed to fulfill that one in isolation? Not possible. You also can't use or express your spiritual gifts in isolation because 1 Corinthians 12:7, It makes it perfectly clear that the gifts were given to us that we might use them to edify who? One another. Who's that talking about? Who's one another? It's the body of Christ. And so you and I can't even use our spiritual gifts in isolation. Bottom line, the dangers of isolation are that you will become strange. Let me just put it to you bluntly. You're gonna get really weird. You're gonna get really fearful. You're gonna get really cynical. You're gonna get really nitpicky, hypercritical, judgmental, and there's gonna be this tension, this angst, this heaviness that you're just not going to be able to break. And so you have to step out of your comfort zone. I know maybe it's hard for people to accept you. Maybe you are a little bit of a strange person, but I promise you, some rejection is worth ultimately finding people who will accept you and embrace you and help you to become all that God has desired that you become. We were not created to live in isolation. Moments of solitude with God, sure, but lifestyles of isolation, absolutely not. Nobody is called to that. It's not your burden to bear. It's not a part of your anointing. God did not tell you to do that. He would not contradict his word. You need to get back to church. And I say that to you because I love you.
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