Sermon Tone Analysis

*"BOLD IN CHRIST, IN GRACE, AND IN PRAISE"*

(A Sermon from Hebrews)

 

Westgate Chapel 7~/18~/99 a.m.

Hebrews 13:9-16

 

PROPOSITION:  When the cares of this life have intimidated you and brought you into the bondage of fear and indecision, the challenge and call of the Spirit is to be bold in Jesus, bold in grace, and bold in praise and thanksgiving.

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i. introduction

!! -     WHEN Hollywood portrays people in its productions, to make the plot interesting they tend to exaggerate the personality types to get your attention.

!! -     I HAVE never known anyone like John Wayne.

I am sure that there are some men out there like that, but those fearless, carefree, cowboy types do not represent reality for most of us.

!! -     THERE are not many women out there in the real world like Lucille Ball or Carol Burnett.

!! -     NOW, on the other end of the personality spectrum, from Rambo, you have Barney Fife.

He is an exaggeration too, but there are far more of us who, in the privacy of our secret thoughts, see ourselves as Barney Fife than Sylvester Stallone.

!! -     BARNEY has been battered by life somewhere along the way.

!!! ~*     Something has tilted his equilibrium.

He feels and looks out of balance, like a prat fall waiting to happen.

And when it happens, we all laugh, nervously, because we feel like him.

We are him.

!!! ~*     An abusive father, or a domineering mother, or some crushing experience in life has robbed him of any sense of personal worth, and he has no confidence at all.

He desperately wants to be accepted, to be an equal to Andy, a potential replacement as Sheriff of Mayberry when Andy retires.....but we all know that he will never make it.

!!! ~*     He is plagued with indecision, and confusion and fear.

When the crisis hits Mayberry, you can count on Barney to mess things up in the panic.

!!! ~*     No wonder Andy will only let him carry an unloaded gun.

This man cannot be trusted with live ammunition.

!! -     NOW, Barney is an exaggeration of a personality type, but we all love him because we see ourselves in his life much more than we see ourselves in John Wayne or Indiana Jones.

!! -     THERE are many people today who are so battered and scarred by their past, and intimidated by life, that any appearance of confidence, or composure is a well-constructed veneer covering the drab grey uniform of Barney Fife.

!! -     THE pressures of life take their toll.

!!! ~*     Knowledge is multiplying faster than ever in the history of the world.

It is impossible to keep up.

There is not enough time to read all the trade journals you should.

You and I will be out of date before we can wear out our Dockers.

!!! ~*     We are living too fast to have meaningful relationships.

Marriages are failing and leave behind wounds that seem never to heal.

!!! ~*     Our sense of security is shaken by a job market that is changing overnight, companies are down-sizing, and the economy rests precariously on budget deficits and third world debt.

!!! ~*     There is so little that can be counted on today.

Moral standards are decaying.

Truth is relative.

Eastern religions and cults are growing faster in America than the Far East.

!! -     AND so we live in a world where, in spite of outward appearances, there is very little confidence, very little inner peace, and very little genuine boldness.

!! -     TURN with me please to Hebrews 13:9-16 this morning.

I want to look at a few verses there with you that have to do with genuine boldness for living.

!! -     THE Christians to whom the book of the Hebrews had been written had lost their boldness.

!! -     THE crushing circumstances of their lives had robbed them of confidence, had stolen their peace.

They had lost their song and all boldness for living had been carried away.

!! -     THEY were confused.......didn't know which way to turn, what to do next, where to go, what to say......like Barney Fife when the Mafia came to Mayberry and Andy was out fishing.

!! -     LET'S turn to Hebrews 13:9-16 to find the answer for this fear and confusion......to find a source for boldness (pg.

1194)

!! -     I BELIEVE that holy boldness can be found in three places in these 8 verses of Hebrews 13.

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ii.

bold in jesus

!! -     THE first place to find boldness is in the only human who lived life to the fullest.

!! -     HE never flinched, never backed away from a challenge, never gave up and in the face of the fiercest opposition.

!! -     HE lived with heaven and eternity in view, but fully engaged in the things of earth.

!! -     HE never compromised truth, never lied, never gave in to sin.

!! -     EVEN in His death He took on the powers and principalities of darkness and emerged from the fight triumphant.

!! -     COLOSSIANS 2:15 says of Him...

!!!       “*And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross*.”

!! -     BUT this bold victory over sin and darkness and death was not won by the Man, Jesus, on the cross for God’s benefit.

There has nevere been any question of God’s complete dominion over Satan and all of his evil forces.

!! -     NO the victory of Christ on the cross, fully God but fully man, was to provide you and me with faith access to holy boldness.

!! -     PAUL writes in 2 Corinthians 2:14,

!!!       “.....*thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him*.”

!! -     BACK in Colossians 2:6 Paul says,

!!!       “*So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him,* (7) *rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness*.”

!! -     SO what does this have to do with Hebrews 13:9-16?

!! -     WELL, verse 9 says,

!!!       "*Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings.*"

(Hebrews 13:9)

!! -     LET me paraphrase this verse for you.

*Instead of being led away into confusion by an emphasis on different teachings and doctrines, set out boldly to know Jesus only, with all other things secondary to that pursuit.*

!! -     ALL through the book of Hebrews it has been evident that the people had been confused and misled by different emphases in teaching.

!!! ~*     In Hebrews 1&2 the writer is having to correct a problem with too much emphasis and teaching on angels.

!!! ~*     In chapter 3 the problem was an emphasis on Moses.

!!! ~*     In chapter 5 it is priests.

!!! ~*     In chapter 6 it is the elementary teachings of repentance, and faith, and baptisms, and the resurrection and the judgement that have taken center stage instead of the deep things of Jesus.

!!! ~*     In chapters 8 & 9 it is the Old Testament forms of worship and sacrifice.

!!! ~*     And in this chapter it is an emphasis on ceremonial foods.

!! -     THE author says that these teachings have led the Christians away, pulled them off course, left them confused.....vulnerable to fear.

!! -     WHEN you are off course, pulled away from the path, confused, then there is no basis for boldness at all.

You are handicapped to live the abundant life that Christ has promised.

!! -     HERESY is usually a teaching that started as truth, but got too much emphasis, too much attention, and took a slight 5 degree shift in course, until it eventually pulls the follower of Jesus off the mark.

!! -     THE last 85 years of Church history have been checkered with many such emphases and teachings that have left confusion in their wake and robbed the Church of its boldness.

!!! ~*     We have had an emphasis on Bible teaching that has led some groups to believe that they are doing all that God intends for them as long as they are meeting in groups for "deep" Bible study.

!!! ~*     We have had an emphasis on worship, with clinics and seminars teaching how to sing, play and dance in the Spirit......and whole congregations that believe that their sole reason for existence is the worship experience.

!!! ~*     We have had an emphasis on demons.

Need I say more?

!!! ~*     We have had an emphasis on divine healing, on the Baptism with the Holy Spirit, on the gifts of the Spirit and their use in the Church.

!!! ~*     We have had an emphasis on tongues, on shepherding, on deliverance.

!!! ~*     We are seeing a resurgence right now in an emphasis on personal prophecy, with Christians running here and there to get a "word from the Lord" for guidance in their lives.

!! -     AND many of these things are good.

And many of them are given by the Lord.

!! -     BUT at the point that they become our "trademark," our "specialty," our "reason for being," *I believe that, even though they started in the Spirit, somewhere along the way God gets off the bus and we go on on our own.*

!! -     AND a lot of people end up hurt, and weak in their faith, and confused, having lost the holy boldness that they were intended by God to enjoy.

!! -     WHAT is the solution?

!! -     IN Philippians 3:10 Paul says,

!!!       "*I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.*"

!! -     THE Amplified Bible for this verse says,

!!!       "*O that I may know Him, that I may become more progressively and more intimately acquainted with Him....*"

!! -     IT is Jesus who is the Author and the Finisher of our faith.

!! -     IT is our relationship with Him that is of primary importance here, not some doctrinal distinctive, not some "new revelation" or teaching.

!! -     WE need a new relationship with Jesus here, a new love affair with Jesus.

!! -     HE must increase and we must decrease.