Sermon Tone Analysis

Series: The Journey

Title: Join the Journey

Text:

ATTN

One comedian I heard dealt with a burning issue in our country today: Passwords.

Pic - Forgot password

See I know that people think you’re getting old when you start having trouble remembering things, but maybe it’s not your age.

Maybe its because your brain is just too full . . .

with passwords!

You have to have a password for everything.

And every website you use has got different rules: You got to have two “p’s” three numbers and an upside down “q” . . .

and a number and a capital and a symbol.

O, Ok that’s easy.

And then they tell you “Don’t write it down.”

O no, I got it all up here!”

And they give you the worst advice: “Just name it after a childhood pet.” O that would work if I had a pet named P,Q, underscore 709576!

So, whenever I go to a site I haven’t been to in a while I end the suspense.

I just look for that little button that says “Forgot password.”

I don’t even try, I just hit it.

Then, that’s right you know what happens: A screen pops us that says, “We’ll help you retrieve your password, What’s your username?”

Well, if I could remember my username, I could probably remember my password!

That’s why I say, I hate passwords.

In fact, I sure hope when I get to heaven, they don’t ask me for a password.

But, in a sense, there really is a password to get into heaven.

And right off the bat, someone might say, “I know what it is; it has to be “Mercy.”

Well, that answer does make sense, but it isn’t quite complete.

The word “mercy” means to keep someone from a punishment they deserve.

That might say why you stay out of hell, but it doesn’t explain what gets you into heaven.

Someone else say, “I know what it is: The password is ‘grace.’”

That answer seems right too, but, again, I don’t think it’s quite complete.

“Grace” means to give someone something good that they do not deserve.

Now surely heaven is something good that we don’t deserve, but being in heaven and I might say, truly enjoying heaven, will require something more than grace.

If you want to know the password I’m thinking of, think about which says, Pursue peace with all people AND HOLINESS without which NO ONE WILL SEE THE LORD.

You see mercy isn’t enough because it just gets you out of hell; grace isn’t enough because it just gets you into heaven.

You will only enjoy heaven when you are brought face to face with the Lord and that will not happen without HOLINESS.

Now, I know that those of you with some theological knowledge might, at this point, be tempted to “underdefine” this word, “holiness.”

You might be tempted to say, “Well, what the Hebrew writer is saying here is that we must possess the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ.

We are holy because we have been given the character of Jesus.

It has been imputed to us.

And while that is true, it still doesn’t completely define this word, “holiness.”

One Greek scholar says of this word, Holiness denotes not only the act of God’s free grace in justifying sinners, but also the result of that justification upon the sinner in making him just and equipping him to recognize the rights of God on his life.

Holiness refers not only to the activity of the Holy Spirit in setting man apart unto salvation and transferring him into the ranks of the redeemed, but also to enabling him to be holy even as God is holy ()[1] You might say it like this.

It refers to the initial act of salvation and also to the process of sanctification in the life of a believer.

Without that, the Bible says, no one will see God.

So today we begin a new series entitled The Journey.

Over the next 12 months we are going to journal and preach our way through the essential message of the entire Bible.

Each week we will have a schedule for you to read that week.

A more complete schedule will also be available on the website.

I am asking each of you to take a turn at doing a hear journal for each day’s reading.

In case you don’t know what a HEAR journal is it’s a very simple acronym.

The H is for “Highlight.”

That just means you ask God to speak to you as you read and, as you read, note a verse that stands out to you.

The E is for “Explain.”

Simply, you explain the context of the statement and what it means.

The A is for “Apply.”

You take the passage and show how it can relate to your life.

The R is for “Response.”

You take some concrete action to obey what you have learned.

Obviously the primary resource for becoming holy is the Bible in your hand or on your smartphone.

You might say that this series called “Journey” is not just a journey through something (i.e. the Scripture), it is also a journey TO something: It is a journey to holiness, the characteristic which will allow us to see God.

The question then becomes: How?

How can we be holy?

That’s what I want to talk about today, I want to talk to you about the how of holy.

How do you and I, in a very practical way, experience deep life change in our behavior.

If holiness is the password to heaven, how can it be produced in us.

I want to show you how from a passage in Hebrews chapter 4.

If holiness is the key to heaven the right interaction with the Word of God is the key to holiness.

How does the Scripture produce holiness within us?

Well, in the first place:

D1:

Interacting with God’s Word protects us from failure.

EXP

The description of the failure.

You see the DESCRIPTION of the failure I’m talking about mentioned right off the bat in v 11.

It says, Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall . . .

“Entering into rest” is a phrase common in this book.

It has both a reflective and a prospective view.

It looks to the past and to the future.

When I say it looks to the past, I have in mind what happened with the Children of Israel.

The first generation that left Egypt died in the desert because they were disobedient and stubborn.

They failed to enter into their rest.

It looks to the future because, in a sense, the church is the spiritual children of Israel who are being led to heaven by Christ.

The writer is saying that we are to be diligent to enter into our rest.

That’s the description of failure.

It is failing to enter into our eternal rest in heaven.

The danger of the failure.

The DANGER of the failure.

That’s the description of our failure but what about it’s danger?

The danger is that we would fall and not reach our destination, which is heaven.

Now, I know that raises question marks in your mind.

You might be asking, “Well, Rusty, are you saying we can be saved and then so fall from that place of salvation that we do not go to heaven?”

Well, as I have said many times.

Those who say that a person can lose their salvation would say that these people were genuine believers who lost it; Those who say that you can’t lose your salvation would say that these people were not genuine believers to begin with.

Regardless of what you say their initial state was, the warning is very powerful.

The writer says, we must possess DILIGENCE.

We must be diligent to enter that rest.

And what is it that we are to be diligent about?

V12 tells us: We are to be diligent about letting the Word of God do it’s work in our lives.

Our interaction with God through His word will protect us from failure.

ILL