Sermon Tone Analysis

What do you know about mountain climbing?

When I say mountain climbing I could mean either 1) Free Climbing: the general getting up a mountain or series of rock with just your body(usually easier in difficulty level), 2) Bouldering: which is a steeper more serious grade of climbing without harnesses or bolting but rather with large pads to protect you if you fall, or 3) Lead climbing(traditional climbing): which requires the most faith of others in that you hang from a cliff by only the support of a bolt drilled into the rock or another harness style system.

Normally there is a lead or the bolt in which you hang from have been previously placed on the rock.

This has actually become a huge sport!

In 2020 it will actually make its debut in the Tokyo summer olympics.

The analogy is made throughout scripture of someone running a race is equal to the life of a christian.

When you place faith and trust in the atoning and saving blood of Jesus Christ alone, we start the race.

But in my mind, and for the sake of our text today, this excursion that we set out on is like a mountain climb.

If mountain climbing is the analogy for the life of the christian, we have to settle on which type of mountain climbing.....

I would definitely say that it is closer to lead climbing.

We are climbing up this rock together, steeply, suspended and hanging on tight!

There is a process in climbing to the top of a mountain.

1) First you have to drive there… There is the idea that you are going mountain climbing!

2) We approach the mountain in our car (pysching ourselves up!) 3) We stage, or prepare base camp.

This is where we will either get our gear ready or prepare our bodies to the climate.

4) The climb! this is the hard work.

We start the climb up the mountain.

The lead climber will take off and attach all the bolts, or anchors there like, to the rock and set the ropes up for the next person.

There is a greater risk for the lead runner, there is more space between them and the bottom if they fall.

Then, everyone else follows their lead.... 5) The summit: this is the top!

We are finally there, the goal of what we came to do.

Follow-Up (6:1-12)

Follow-Up (6:1-12)

Now, the reason that I desire to use this analogy is because of the stark warning given from the pastor to his congregation last week.

In chapter six we see the congregation has been lingering on elementary issues of the christian faith.

In their climb they have stopped.

Not to recharge, or take a water break, or sleep for a couple hours, but they have stopped because the top summitt doesn’t look so appealing to them anymore.

So if you can imagine…

They are not doing this....(Show picture of sleeping bag hanging from rock)

They are doing this....(Show picture of lake camping)

They have stopped for rest and found the beauty and peace of god, which is WONDERFUL, but they have said I don’t think i want to go any further.

They have taken the awe inspiring practices of the Lord Jesus Christ and have become content where they are.

This type of contentment can be dangerous because we stop growing in our christ likness.... and they had…

They are lingering on immature things such as

repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2 and of instruction about washings,1 the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment

there are all good things, but remember that they have been christians for years now!

He says in the later part of chapter five that they are babes that have grown dull in hearing, they have slowed in taking instruction.

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1 Or baptisms (that is, cleansing rites)

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All of us cheered and said amen last week when we heard the argument in verses 6-8 for the security of our salvation we have in God.

Don’t get me wrong, that is amazing!

It is the promise that our bolt isn’t going to fall out as we are climbing the mountain… A pretty great promise to have as we approach the top which is the hope of the promise of eternal majesty with the father.

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The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

But that promise was not given to help us be comfortable where we are.

It was given to propel us forward.

The promise was given to us to look down at where we have come from and say, “God’s got this....Let’s keep going!”

Granted, this group of people had been serving the saints diligently, and out of love.

But the Pastor says that they had become comfortable in ministering to those that already knew the gospel, But because of verse 12 in chapter 5 we know they had stoped reaching out to teach those who didn’t…They had become sluggish(lazy, careless)....But how do they get out of their sluggishness??

Because the pastor says in verse 11 and 12 of chapter six that he and the others desire that this group of people show intensity and eagerness in their hope so that they will not be sluggish.

How do they keep climbing?

First lets address what these folks had become sluggish in...

So what is it we are supposed to be doing?

While it is hard to do much more than climbing while you actually mountain climb, in our analogy while we climb, while we grow in our Christlikeness, our hands reach out in faith and hold on to the rock, while our foot follows naturally behind.

The christian climb is composed of two movements…

: Love God, Love others

We love god by delighting in his commandments.

1 john 2:5-6.

5 But if anyone obeys his word, love for God[a] is truly made complete in them.

This is how we know we are in him: 6 Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.

In Jesus’ tells us that we should take these two movement and put them to work.

So this group of people the pastor is talking to had been working, but had forgotten their priorities.

Jesus commands his disciples to go into all nations and preach the good news of his death and resurrection, baptize them into the faith, and then disciple them to go out and do the same thing… Its because of our love for God, the love of his word, that we do what it says, so we can go out and tell others!

Our hands reach out and grab a hold of God and our feet follow.

This is not what this congregation in our text is doing…They had become dull in their thinking, hearing and action.

So maybe at this point we should stop and ask ourselves...

Have we stopped climbing?

This is the sobering thought that the pastor’s congregation is dealing with at the moment.

But he lights the moment by saying, “look, here is the reason to keep climbing!”

What caused them to stop climbing?

The author answered this question in verse 12, you have lost... your... faith and have become impatient… and have stopped climbing.

Why?

Notice that all of this is very logical and sequential and actually in legal language.

Why have they lost their faith and become impatient?

Because they have forgotten God’s promise

And with THAT introduction....

This is the certainty of God’s Promise

God’s promise to Abraham (v 13-15)

Abraham, the father of the Israelite faith had been given multiple promises throughout his life.

But there is one that rings must prominent in the pastor’s mind.

That is after he took Isaac up on the mountin… Turn with me there to

Abraham had been given a promise, one that took the majority of his life to see fulfilled.

He did not judge God because things didn’t work out the in way he though they would.

He finally saw the promise come through his son Isaac.

Willing to risk the promise, Abraham said yes to God and sacrifice him.

However, God stepped in and reminded him, “because of your patience and faith, your son will prosper.”

God’s promise to Us (v 16-18)

It was with an oath that God promised Abraham that he would be blessed.

When human beings promise something it is common to swear by something greater than themselves that what they are saying was true.

“I swear on my life that…xyz...

I bench pressed 300lbs, caught that fish, got that grade, said that thing”… The practice was to only swear by GOD, the greatest thing to swear on.

But, the stipulation was, if you swear on God it has to be true(10 commandments)!

Jesus had something to say on this kind of talk in when he said, “stop making oaths and speak so much truth that you never need to swear”

However, our Pastor saw two things here from God’s words in .

He saw an oath,

and said, s“By myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son,

By Myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son

and he saw a promise