Sermon Tone Analysis

Great than >Bumper video.

Introduction -

Angela Lee Duckworthy at 27 was a 7th grade Math teacher in public School in New York city.

What she learned during this time was that the difference between good and bad grades in her class were not dependent on the child’s IQ but rather the student that worked hard enough learned the material..

After several years of teaching, she went on to Graduate school and became a psychologist.

She started studying kids and adults in super challenging settings… and what made them fail and what made them successful… She took a research team to West Point Military Academy and studied which ones stayed and which ones dropped out.

She went to the National spelling bee and tried to predict which children would advance the farthest in the competition..

She studied rookie teachers working in tough neighborhoods.. asking who was going to be still there by the end of the year… who will be the most effective at improving the learning of the students?

She Studied people in the market place those who would succeed…and those who would fail.

And one quality kept coming back in the research… That was - it wan’t the super intelligent that made it … it wasn’t the talented individuals who made it…it wasn’t the physically healthy… but it was those who possessed GRIT…

Angela describes Grit…as

“a passion and perseverance for very long-term goals.

Grit is having stamina.

Grit is sticking with your future, day in, day out, not just for the week, not just for the month, but for years, and working really hard to make that future a reality.

Grit is living life like it's a marathon, not a sprint.”

(Ted talks)

This morning do you have Grit?

Do you have this quality of persevering for the long Hall…

Most of us have times when we feel strong and other times when we feel like giving up..

There are several times in my life when things came to a screeching halt… Where I felt hopeless ...I felt like giving up...

The truth is that life can be hard… we do our very best and still fail… and so logic is why bother …why even try???

Here is the thing is God doesn’t give you and I the option to quit!!

How do we Persevere over the long hall?

Day in and day out....

This morning we are starting a sermon series Greater than..we are going through the book of Hebrews…

The question that arrises in the book of Hebrew is … If God is so committed to our joy and our well being, if he loves us so much, why is our life so hard?

That’s what the book is about.

Why is our life so hard?

The answer of the book, in a nutshell...Life is not about the destination but about the journey...

Tim Keller tells us that the journey in Hebrews

“A journey from isolation into the city of God.

The only way you’re going to get home is by fixing your eyes on Jesus.”

Life is not a sprint you are not going get home though shorts bursts but rather it’s being sustained and supported for the long term.

But this is only happens by Fixing your sights on the Right things...

Spiritual Grit…doesn’t begin with us — pulling ourselves up by the boot strings… Spiritual Grit be begins with our view of Jesus.

This is the message of Hebrews..

T/s A little bit of background of the book of Hebrews.

We don’t know exactly who the author of the book Hebrews is— There is no formal Greeting in the introduction of the book and the language seems to be different from the other of Pauls Epistles..

And so it is difficult definitively credit Paul as the author… Some have suggest Apollos, Barnabas others..

Hebrews is written to the second Generation of Jewish Christians who are struggling to hold onto their faith in the face of social pressures.…They

were introduced to Faith by those who had known Jesus during His earthly ministry … They were true believers who were not merely professing Christ… many of these believers were being persecuted for their faith…

They are living in a pluralistic society like where there are many different beliefs, religions and philosophies.. Being a Christian meant you were part of this marginazied group…

So these Christians were tempted to give up…… they are in danger of Drifting..forgetting what they had been taught… encouragement to keep going …keep believing ..

Hebrews is the stark reminder that Every Generation has to come to terms with the place of their own faith… There has always been and will is always going to be hostility to Christianity…and.. We are always going to encounter pressure to conform to the values of the culture around us.

There is the temptation for each of us to relax a little bit and let ourselves drift away with the tide of modern culture — But unfortunately at what cost?

We could also drift from the very blessings we have in Jesus.

Every Generation needs to find the reason for believing… Why Faith… Why Christ in the modern world?

The book of Hebrews is really a passionate sermon …it is a reminder to these second Generation Christians to what they have received… What has been passed down to them..

To Remember what kind of Savior they have possessed… and to keep on going...

Hebrews teaches us that Jesus is still the best thing that church has to offer…

As Christians we are called to run the race with endurance, not to drift—to set aside everything that weighs us down and to run the race of endurance set before us..

T/S Hebrews begins with an introduced to God who has Spoken and is Still Speaking.

T/S The question on these Christian minds is why continue… Society is teaching them one way… What is the point?

The first reason is Given...

1. God has Spoken Clearer today than Ever Before..

We are told that God spoke in the past and that God is still speaking in these last days..

The word “spoken”… is laleo which means to express in speech…… It is a message that has been delivered by word of mouth.

This idea that God Speaks is what sets Christianity apart from other Religions..

God is more than a powerful Force in the universe… God more than a higher power out there..

God is more than the sum of subjective experiences… but GOD speaks...

Can you imagine a world without Words… without Language?

(pause)

Words engage every part of us… the mind, the heart.. without words we are left to feelings… and perception… God expresses himself… through words…

This is important point because... Speech is the major difference between false god’s and Judaeo Christian God… There were plethora of gods in the ancient world… but the problem with idols is they were man made....and inanmate objects don’t communicate… The psalmist says..

Idols are one dimensional…

In Contrast to the gods of the ancient world of this world the God of the Bible is one who Hears and speaks and has personality..

Hebrew tells us that God spoke in many ways.. From the Begining with Adam and Eve in the cool of the Evening and then continuing through the Patriarch period… God Spoke to Abraham , Isaac, Jacob… to the great Leaders of Israel Moses, Joshua, God spoke to the the Judges of Israel and to the Prophets and the Kings of Israel..

Not only at many times but also in many ways - God spoke through burning bushes, through Angels, through his still quite Voices, God spoke through divine … God even spoke in his silence…God spoke creation..like a painter displays his art the heavens declare his glory

These Jewish Christians knew that God had spoken but what they needed to hear is that God is still speaking presently…

Hebrews tells us that God is still speaking in these last days.

- Now the phrase “Last days”… is not so much Chronological time table as it is a theological concept… If you are looking at a timeline the last ddays would be from the Ascension of Christ…until the return of Christ.. tbetween the frost and second advent ...

Theologically — the writer is saying - from now until the end of time there is no fuller, no more final expression of God than Jesus.

Full stop.

No ifs, ands, or buts.

Nothing further.

This is it.

Absolute.

In other word God is still speaking to us the same way as he did to those Second Generation Jewish Christians… through the Eternal Word of Christ…

God still speaks today..

The Theologian Henri Nouwen expresses it like this..

“God speaks to us not only once in a while, but always.”

In the past, when God used the prophets he sometimes gave them words directly (in oracles or visions), sometimes providentially led them through experiences they recorded, sometimes “spoke” through extraordinary events such as the burning bush: there were “many times” and “various ways” -

Now in the original text is different from some of the major translation

The Greek… leaves out the article “a - Son” — “the - Son” esv says expresses it as “his Son”

The Greek puts an emphasis on the quality of God’s final revelation… Think about the society pluralistic gods… philosophies and religions.. God has Spoken through ONE… God has spoken “in Son”—we might paraphrase, “in the Son revelation.”

The idea is that God’s previous revelation came in many parts and was therefore fragmentary or partial, in comparison with the final and complete revelation contained in God’s Son---

illustration..

The author Philip Yancy in his book on prayer… says that..

He had become more convinced than ever that God finds ways to communicate with those who truly seek him, especially when we lower the volume of the surrounding static,”

Yancey talks about reading the account of a spiritual seeker who interrupted a busy life to spend a few days in a monastery.

“I hope your stay is a blessed one,” said the monk who showed the visitor to his cell.

“If you need anything, let us know, and we’ll teach you how to live without it.”

—Based on Philip Yancey, “What 147 Elk Taught Me about Prayer,” Christianity Today (March

Implication

If God is speaking louder and clearer today then he did in the past..

There are huge implications....

One of the greatest possibilites presented to us is the possibility of Hearing God.

Jesus taught that his sheep know his voice...

The second is that God has something to Say to us.

What is God saying to us at this particular Juncture in History?