What's Under Your Mask? (Part 3)

Joel Hayworth

Hebrews: Jesus is Greater 2022-2023 • Sermon • Submitted a year ago

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Introduction

Back in 2015 there was a movie called The 33 that was based on a true story from 2010 where 33 Chilean miners were trapped underground for 68 days beginning in August of 2010. They were over 3 miles away from the entrance from the mine and nearly a half a mile underground itself. Nearly a million tons of rock were stuck between them and their families! Into this dire situation, rescue teams began working around the clock trying to come up with ways to communicate with these miners and eventually to rescue them. The mission for the rescuers was to encourage the miners each day and to provide them with hope while the team worked tirelessly to get them out of danger.

68 days after the collapse of the mine, each of the 33 miners were rescued. The mission was a success. Can you imagine being one of those 33? Being trapped in darkness with no hope of escape with a limited amount of resources and 32 other people that you might not even know all that well? Literally into this darkness, a team ventured to rescue them and bring them back into the light. We see in Scripture that we as humans are also trapped in darkness and that can feel like a helpless place to be. The problem with ourselves is that not only are we trapped and facing physical suffering and difficulties, but we are also facing an eternal problem that our sin presents. Into this hopelessness, Jesus provides a light and a way. Jesus came to seek and serve the lost. Jesus succeeded on His mission and Jesus continues to save sinners today.

As we continue making our way through Hebrews 6, we arrive at a much more reassuring text of Scripture than the one we looked at last week. Today as we look at Hebrews 6:9-12 we see that the preacher is confident in the spiritual status of these people because of the fruit that he has observed from their lives. As you look underneath your mask today and evaluate your heart - what do you see? Do you see yourself trapped in darkness? If so, look to the light. Do you see yourself checking boxes and doing things to give you assurance that you’re good enough on your own? If so, abandon that false hope and look to the light. Do you find yourself struggling with what to do next in your walk with the Lord? If so, understand that Jesus has saved you for a purpose and that is to serve Him, not sit and sip. Jesus has a mission for His followers and today, as we celebrate Mission Sunday, we’re going to see a glimpse of His mission for us and that is a mission to serve others and to serve them well. Let’s study from God’s Word!

Hebrews 6:4–12 CSB

4 For it is impossible to renew to repentance those who were once enlightened, who tasted the heavenly gift, who shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 who tasted God’s good word and the powers of the coming age, 6 and who have fallen away. This is because, to their own harm, they are recrucifying the Son of God and holding him up to contempt. 7 For the ground that drinks the rain that often falls on it and that produces vegetation useful to those for whom it is cultivated receives a blessing from God. 8 But if it produces thorns and thistles, it is worthless and about to be cursed, and at the end will be burned. 9 Even though we are speaking this way, dearly loved friends, in your case we are confident of things that are better and that pertain to salvation. 10 For God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you demonstrated for his name by serving the saints—and by continuing to serve them. 11 Now we desire each of you to demonstrate the same diligence for the full assurance of your hope until the end, 12 so that you won’t become lazy but will be imitators of those who inherit the promises through faith and perseverance.

We see here the strong warning from last week. Do you remember our study of Hebrews 6:1-8? While some believe that this is a passage that states that genuine Christians can lose their salvation, we looked at much of the New Testament and were reminded of the blessing and assurance that eternal security brings to our lives as that doctrine is found from cover to cover in Scripture. This initial warning is to people in the congregation who might have a genuine profession of faith in Christ, but they are not genuinely born again. Today, we see some good news to those who are truly in Christ. No more warning - here we find optimism. The optimism is not because of who these people are, but because of WHOSE they are. As you look underneath your mask today, what do you see? Let’s pray that God would help those of us who are born again as we produce Godly fruit in a godless world, and that those of us who might not be in Christ to find that security and salvation in Christ alone.

Genuine Christians Demonstrate Love (9-10)

How would you define love? Love is something that our world is growing less and less familiar with it seems. We have interests, passions, hobbies, and friends, but love seems to have been kicked to the curb. We try to manufacture love rather than truly experience love. We try to find objects and experiences to give us love rather than finding love in Christ-honoring relationships. We’re a 5-hour energy and caffeine based society! We want immediate results rather than developing habits and experiencing steady growth. I mentioned this last Sunday night - I love my wife. Husbands, if you are next to your wife, look at her right now and tell her that you love her. Boom - free husband points for you to cash in later! Honestly, though, one of the most simple things that you can do in life is to tell the people who you love that you love them because you never know how many more times you’ll be able to tell them that. Words matter… but as the expression goes, actions speak louder than words. If I tell Lindsey that I love her but I never have time to spend with her or I never back that statement up with action, then those words ring hollow real quick.

Is love as simple as 4 letters? There are times where love is as simple as 2 letters, “No” or 3 letters, “Yes” but more often than not, love is demonstrated with action. Think about how we see love show up in Scripture.

John 3:16 CSB

16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

God loved and He gave - verb/action

1 Corinthians 16:14 CSB

14 Do everything in love.

Do everything in love - verb/action

Romans 5:8 CSB

8 But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Christ loved us and died for us - verb/action

Why is this the case? We see that God loves us and He demonstrates that through action - why are we to do this as well?

1 John 4:19 CSB

19 We love because he first loved us.

So, genuine Christians are to demonstrate love because God first loved us! Let’s look at our text and see how exactly we can do this and why this matters so much. The last two messages we’ve seen two warnings. A warning for genuine Christians to continue to grow in maturity, to grow from milk to meat, to move from first base to second base, and so on and so forth… the reason why this is a warning is because if we aren’t growing, we might not be saved in the first place because Christians grow. That was our warning in chapter 5. Last week in chapter 6 we had a warning to genuine churchgoers but not genuine Christians who are playing the game with their mask on. They know the words, they look the part, they might even have made a profession of faith, they might show some fruit for a period of time… but like Luke 8 told us, eventually they stop producing fruit because they are not truly saved. The last two messages have been challenging! Today we see something different, though. Look in verse 9. Do you see a change in the preachers tone of voice?

No more warning of falling away or immaturity… instead we see a warm welcome as he calls the majority in this congregation “Dearly loved friends.” This is how Paul would usually greet his friends and churches, but this is the only time that this expression appears in the book of Hebrews! While there are some in the church who need to grow and there are some who are not genuinely saved, the majority of them he calls family members and friends! As your pastor, I echo this love for you all. It’s a blessing and honor to serve as the Lead Pastor here at FBC Salem under Christ who is the Senior Pastor. The preacher makes this statement because he is confident of their salvation for 3 reasons:

Because of their work

Because of their love for God

Because of their love for God’s people

Therefore, he identifies them (at least the majority) as dearly loved friends. Let’s think through these 3 reasons in verse 10 that lead this preacher to being confident about their ability to handle the main thrust of his sermon that Jesus is in fact better and greater than anything else imaginable. First, he says that God is not unjust and will not forget your work. Two things stand out here: First, God is not unjust… what does it mean to be unjust? Well, it looks like evil triumphing over good and never being punished. It looks like wrong never being righted. It looks like darkness defeating the light. Don’t we see a lot of injustice around our world today? Some have argued that because there is so much injustice, it must be true that there is no God because how could He allow all of this to happen? It’s a good question, but the Bible answers it clearly. God created all things good and sin distorts that good picture. While evil exists and even seems to thrive now, it has an expiration date. God is not unjust. He doesn’t forget His children and He certainly doesn’t forget what His children do. He rewards those who honor Him and He will destroy those who disobey Him in His timing. The preacher is certain that they are saved because of their work that he can see.

Matthew 7:16–17 CSB

16 You’ll recognize them by their fruit. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 In the same way, every good tree produces good fruit, but a bad tree produces bad fruit.

Based on the fruit that he can see, it’s good, and the conclusion is that they must be saved. What about you and me? What about FBC Salem? If an outsider were to come into our church, what would they see? Would they see a church that loves themselves or a church that loves Christ most of all? Would they see a church that demonstrates love to one another or a church that loves to talk about loving one another? The hallmark of Christian love has historically been Christian service and this is what we see in Hebrews 6:10. God won’t forget your work and the love you demonstrated for His name by doing what? Serving the saints… and continuing to serve them!

These Christians demonstrate love for God and God’s people by serving. The literal word there is diakoneo which comes from the root diakon - which means to serve and it’s where we get our word… deacon! What do deacons do? Serve. What are all Christians called to do? Serve. You could say that every Christian regardless of background or age is a deacon and that those serving in the office of deacon are doing so to model to everyone else what they are supposed to do: serve well. Deacons lead by serving. We are all called to serve - but not only past tense. Not only whenever we feel like it. Isn’t it interesting that God’s timing and way don’t always align with ours? Sometimes people get a little bit on our nerves and it can be easy to stop doing what we’re supposed to be doing. What are we supposed to do in those moments? We continue, present tense, to serve others. Even when it’s hard. Why do we do this? It’s not natural… but it’s what God calls us to do.

Have you ever heard of Hudson Taylor? Hudson Taylor was 21 years old whenever he left England for China in the 1850s to share the Gospel. Taylor, like Adoniram Judson, William Carey, and countless other missionaries, encountered many tragedies during his missionary endeavors. He lost children. He lost his wife. He was falsely accused by many different people who didn’t like what he was doing. But do you know what Hudson Taylor kept on doing in difficult times? He kept on serving other people, even when he wasn’t well liked. He served people who didn’t want to be served all the time. Why would he do this at the expense of his health and safety? Because he loved Jesus and he wanted others to know Jesus too. He once put it like this, “I saw not only that Jesus will never leave me, but that I am a member of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. The vine is not the root merely, but all - root, stem, branches, twigs, leaves, flowers, fruit. And Jesus is not that alone - He is soil, and sunshine, air and showers, and ten thousands times more than we have ever dreamed, wished for or needed. Oh the joy of seeing this truth.”

If Jesus has saved you, you can rest assured that He will not forsake you. He is with you. He will use you. He will provide for you. Genuine Christians understand this truth and they demonstrate this otherworldly love with others, even when serving others is hard to do!

Genuine Christians Demonstrate Hope (11)

Not only do genuine Christians love and serve, but in verse 11 we see that genuine Christians have “hope until the end.” On Monday afternoon we always have kidz choir here at the church during the school year and I asked the kids last week what they think the word hope means. At church we talk about hope a lot. Even outside of church we know that the word hope is talked about often as people want to know how they can have hope in a world that seems to be hopeless. But what exactly is hope? Some say that hope is a good feeling or a good vibe. Someone wakes up in the morning feeling good and they’ll say, “I hope that I have a good day today.” Is that Christian hope? Is it a good feeling or an emotion? Christian hope is fact based. Paul talks about hope more than just about anyone in the Bible and every single time that Paul talks about Christian hope, he grounds that statement first in what God has given to us. In other words, hope is not based on a feeling or something that might happen… Christian hope is first based on the fact of what God has already done for us. Spurgeon put it like this years ago, “Do not look to your hope, but to Christ, the source of your hope.” Meaning this, in this life we will have moments where we don’t feel hopeful. Times where we suffer. Times where we lose. I’m a pretty optimistic person most of the time, but whenever the Cardinals are playing I’m probably the least hopeful person out there because I’ve been let down too many times by pitchers giving up leads in the 9th inning of games! Seriously, though, we all have moments where we feel hopeful but we also have moments where we feel hopeless… times where the bottom drops out… times where we don’t know where to turn or what to do. In those moments, where is our hope?

Let me tell you this: It can’t be in ourselves or in what we feel, because that’ll leave us hopeless. The last two weeks we’ve been diving deep into God’s Word to guard against spiritual immaturity and playing the church game but not truly knowing Jesus as Lord and Savior and not being changed by Jesus. What is the difference between a genuine churchgoer and a genuine Christian whenever the bottom drops out in your life? The genuine churchgoer might stop coming to church because things didn’t go their way… but the genuine Christian will crave being with God and His people because that is where they find their hope. So often people come to Jesus for what they think that Jesus can provide them with. Happiness, purpose, money, friends, a new life. Jesus can certainly do these things - and we see this in Scripture! But if we come to Jesus for what He can give us then we aren’t coming to Jesus for Jesus. This isn’t to say that it’s wrong to pray and hope that God will provide specifically what we need in the moment - He knows exactly what we need before we need it. But our ultimate hope in this life isn’t that Jesus will make our day better or give us this thing or that thing. Our ultimate hope is that Jesus Christ has already won our victory for us. He’s already sealed, secured, and saved us eternally from the punishment of our sin and this gives us hope in every situation and circumstance we face in life.

It’s nice to talk about that hope that Jesus has secured… but what about whenever persecutions arise? The preacher of Hebrews says to demonstrate this same diligence as they serve others even when hard times arise. Whenever we’re in the comfort of our padded pews, air conditioned and heated facility, coffee cup in our hand, Bible in our lap, church clothes on, car waiting for us outside, friends and family surrounding us… How much hope do we really need? This is comfortable. This is tradition. For some of you, like me, this might be all that you’ve ever known. Whenever we get comfortable, we often get complacent. Whenever we look around on Facebook and talk with other people in our community and they say that they have a personal relationship with Jesus but never come to church or that they love Jesus but they don’t love Christians or that they talk to you about Jesus but they live a life or stand for things that don’t align with His Word, we see a problem. How can you and I demonstrate our hope in Jesus Christ? By holding fast to Christ. By not throwing in the towel whenever things get hard. By persevering through hard times. By getting outside of our comfort zone.

What is the result of Christian hope in our lives? Joy. Several weeks ago, I received some news that was hard to digest. Steven Strauch, the director of missions for the Laclede Baptist Association, had been sick for quite some time but he shared on facebook in early February that he had returned to his home on hospice care and on Friday, February 10th, he passed from this life and saw his Creator and Savior face to face. Steven was a friend and mentor of mine whenever I first started pastoring in Conway. He’d call me the young preacher guy and whenever I hear that from people in Salem it makes me smile because I think of Steven. Steven was diagnosed with aggressive cancer back in 2020 and this was his second bout with cancer. He did every kind of treatment that you could imagine while maintaining a busy preaching and ministry schedule for the pastors and churches in the Lebanon area. When he couldn’t sleep - he smiled. When he couldn’t get comfortable - he always made sure other people were. When he couldn’t be present physically - he’d be in prayer for you spiritually. Over his last 3 years, Steven got progressively weaker, but his faith deepened. While he lost his hair, he never lost his hope. He’d share Psalm 46:10 - Be still and know that I am God on a daily basis on his facebook page to encourage others in their struggle to pause… and remember that God is God and He’s still good. Friends, that’s what it means to demonstrate hope.

Anyone can do this whenever life is rainbows and sunshine. Anyone can come to church and put on their mask for an hour a week… but whenever life kicks you down, whenever suffering strikes, whenever people pick on you to your face and behind your back, guess what? You can still have hope. Do you know why? Because as a Christian, your hope isn’t built on your feelings… It’s built on Christ’s finished work. Look at your life today, are you demonstrating a life of hope in Jesus with the things that you’re saying, the things you’re posting, and the things that you’re doing in private and in public?

Genuine Christians Demonstrate Faith (12)

Because of what Jesus has done, not only are we to love others and have hope in hard times, we are also to be people of faith as we trust in the Lord. We are told in Scripture to be a people of faith and to walk by faith and not by sight… but that can be hard to do whenever we don’t know how to walk in this way. As a result, one of the themes throughout Scripture is the theme of imitation. Sometimes imitation can be annoying - but other times imitation is life saving. Children have a unique way to imitate their parents, don’t they? For whatever reason they seem to always pick up the things about yourself that you don’t want them to and the things that you really want them to imitate, maybe they don’t pick up right away! Imitation is important in our growth to be more like Christ. We need examples around us to help us as we follow Jesus and try to glorify Him with all that we do.

The preacher of Hebrews calls on this congregation to be imitators of those who inherit God’s promises. There are two main groups that the preacher of Hebrews calls on his listeners to imitate. We follow the example of Jesus Christ (Hebrews 3:1-2 and Hebrews 12:1-2) as well as those in the Hall of Faith (Hebrews 11) that ran the race before us! This is similar to what Paul shares in 1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1

1 Corinthians 10:31–11:1 CSB

31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God. 32 Give no offense to Jews or Greeks or the church of God, 33 just as I also try to please everyone in everything, not seeking my own benefit, but the benefit of many, so that they may be saved. 1 Imitate me, as I also imitate Christ.

So how do we do this? Look at Hebrews 6:12 - we don’t grow lazy. We fight against laziness. The opposite of slothfulness is steadfastness and we demonstrate steadfastness as we run to our Father and follow in the footsteps of those who ran the race before us. How can you and I demonstrate this type of faith?

As we think about Mission Sunday and some of the ministries that we’re going to be doing, I’m reminded of our mission trip to Guatemala last summer. If you went on that trip or if you’ve seen pictures of that trip, you saw many people in the village we worked in called Pastores have virtually nothing. By nothing, I mean next to nothing. We built them 12 x 14 structures that would be small rooms in our American minds… but for them would serve as houses or a place for 4-5 children to have their “own” space so that the mom and dad could have their existing bedroom in the 12 x 14 house to themselves. So many of these families live on so little each day and it breaks your heart to think that a 12 x 14 structure literally changes their lives, but it does in so many ways! Here’s an amazing story of faith. The local Baptist pastor that Salt and Light Ministries partners with in Pastores is called Wilfredo and he is a young pastor with a young wife and daughter just younger than Gabriel. He’s pastoring a small but faithful and growing congregation in a poor village and the Lord has provided but he doesn’t have much. One of the 10 houses we built last year was for Wilfredo and his wife to be able to have an additional living space for their growing family but the baptist church has been growing so much in Pastores that he felt like they really needed a worship pastor to help meet the needs of the people. Do you know what he does? The church can’t afford to pay the person much, but he offers this man the house that we built for him and his wife. Why? Because Pastor Wilfredo is willing to trust in God’s plan and provision even if it means that he and his growing family don’t get to benefit from something that “belongs” to him. That’s walking by faith and not by sight, friends. In our country we want to get all that we can, can all that we get, and sit on that can… But Biblical Christianity is about walking by faith not by sight. Dying to self. Taking up our cross. Sacrificing our desires. Putting our sin to death. We do this daily and as we walk this way we demonstrate our faith in the Lord as we not only trust in Him at church, but we trust in Him with everything that we do. It’s evident to others. It’s not our works, it’s His work in us. Are you demonstrating a life of faith in Jesus today?

What Are You Producing Today?

So how do we demonstrate Faith, Hope, and Love in our lives? If these are the marks that genuine Christians produce, if these things should be our fruit, how do we do it? Are you ready for a breathtakingly easy answer? One word: SERVE!

But I’m too young to serve - false!

But I’m too old to serve - false!

But I’m not qualified to serve - false!

But I don’t have time to serve - false!

We serve with our time, talent, and treasure. We serve by giving, growing, and going. We serve by praying, participating, and proclaiming who God is and what He’s done.

This congregation demonstrated their faith, hope, and love by serving (past tense) and continuing to serve (present tense). What is preventing you from serving today? Maybe you think that you don’t have enough time - that’s false. Maybe you can’t teach a class every Wednesday night or go on a weeklong trip, but you can pray for those who are teaching. You can give to support those who are going. Maybe you think that you’re too old to serve - friend, that’s certainly not true. You can write a card of encouragement for those who are going and that’s a way to serve. You can give financially to support the mission work that God is doing. You can share what God is doing to others and pray for people to respond to the Gospel. Maybe you can’t go to the nations, but you can go to your neighbor! (If you can’t say Amen, you’d better say Ouch) If we aren’t willing to serve - we demonstrate Hebrews 5:11 and our sluggishness is revealed for all to see. If we’ve been genuinely changed by the blood of Jesus Christ - like these believers 2000 years ago - we will demonstrate that through visible fruit that the Holy Spirit produces inside of us and that fruit is apparent for others to see. What fruit are you producing today? Are you coasting and comfortable, or are you ready to step up and serve even if and when it’s not convenient? There are over 10,000 people in our county who do not attend church. Thousands upon thousands who if they were to die today would spend eternity separated from God in a literal place, called hell. And maybe by gods grace you are here today and you are one of those thousands. Today friend understand that it is God’s grace that brought you here and today you can be saved because of that same grace forevermore as you repent of your sin and works and are saved eternally because of the work of Jesus in your place!

We have a task before us - FBC family. The same God who has saved us has given us His Spirit for us to serve Him. His Word doesn’t return void. He commissions us to go into all the world and proclaim the Gospel and make disciples and glorify Him with all that we do. How can you and I do that? By giving, growing, and going. By serving faithfully. By proclaiming the Gospel boldly. There is a way for you to serve today and it starts with producing Christlike fruit just like this congregation did as they loved others as Christ had first loved them.

Who is someone that you can love today?

Who is someone that you can serve today?

Who is someone that you can encourage today?

What is one way that you can support the mission of this church?

Giving your time, talent, and or treasure!

Jesus, the Son of God, fully God and fully Man, came to this world to seek and save sinners like you and me. He succeeded in His mission. He won the war. He provides His followers with an unshakeable hope and an unwavering victory. Even in the most difficult of moments, you can be confident and hopeful not in yourself, but in your Savior. He will hold you fast. You can always trust in Him. He’s never failed His followers and He won’t start with you. Trust in Him and live a life of perseverance and faith for Him today and each day!

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