Encourage One Another
Hebrews: A Story Worth Sharing • Sermon • Submitted
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Good Morning!
Taking a step back and looking at what we have learned in this chapter, we see that we need to Trust and Hold Fast to Jesus.
The first week we compared Moses to Jesus and saw that while Moses was faithful to his calling as a servant of God.
Jesus was perfectly faithful as a son of God.
Because he has experienced what we do, he is the perfect representative for us before God.
He is the high priest that no one else could ever be.
We were reminded of Israel's inability to remain faithful.
We struggle just as they did and that is what we will continue to talk about today.
Picking up in verse 13 we are going to look at the author's encouragement to the church.
He is revealing the tools that they have to fight against sin.
I want to remind you that we learned last week that, as followers of Jesus, our will aligns with His.
The problem we all face is the flesh that is still part of us.
Today we are going to see an incredibly powerful tool that God has given us to help us in that endeavor.
What I hope you recognize today is that this tool is one that we are very familiar with.
It has been available to us, and we use it pretty well.
But it is something we need to get better at using and sharing.
We’ll get to that later though.
I was talking with a friend this week and them describing their work environment.
It is full of drama and is difficult to be around.
All of us have had experiences in our life where things drag us down.
As we talked about last week, we want to have a good attitude and to represent Christ well.
That is our desire, but sometimes the circumstances of life make that feel impossible.
You may be like my friend and experience that at work.
Or it could be with your family.
Perhaps with a group of friends.
I hear others and sometimes I describe it as a “funk”.
I even just wake up with it sometimes.
When the world just doesn’t feel right.
My day is blah and nothing seems to bring me satisfaction.
Sometimes we just need something and we can’t figure it out.
We aren’t the only ones that have struggled in this way.
The hearers of this book were struggling.
They have lost a lot for the sake of following Jesus and as we learned during the introduction to this book, life was pretty bad for them.
In the midst of their struggle, they are exhorted to not be like Israel and trade their desire for comfort for obedience.
What we are going to see this morning is that when life gets difficult the answer isn’t a distraction or rest.
The answer is obedience.
Read this passage with me this morning.
13 But encourage each other daily, while it is still called today, so that none of you is hardened by sin’s deception.
14 For we have become participants in Christ if we hold firmly until the end the reality that we had at the start.
15 As it is said: Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.
16 For who heard and rebelled? Wasn’t it all who came out of Egypt under Moses?
17 With whom was God angry for forty years? Wasn’t it with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?
18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, if not to those who disobeyed?
19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.
This passage can easily be broken into two sections, but both of them are pointing to the same things we have already learned.
Trust andHold Fast to your faith in Jesus.
Today we are going to see the follow-up to these two ideas, because like you, I understand that we need to do those two things, but how does one do that when in the middle of a funk?
The first thing he tells the church to do is to encourage one another.
When he says in vs 13 “while it is still called today”, he is saying that we should not delay.
Don’t put this off because it is so important.
This wording tells us that the author intends for them to make a practical application as soon as possible.
How does the encouragement of others strengthen your faith?
Do you have any specific examples?
I said earlier that this was something that we are familiar with because this is the purpose of our Life Groups.
God has told us to live in community so that we can encourage one another.
For the church that this letter was written to, there was such a great temptation to walk away from their faith.
Just like Isreal.
The author is telling them and us to relate to one another in an atmosphere of encouragement.
I am not talking about creating a fake feeling atmosphere, but one that shows genuine love for people, no matter how their week was.
Encouragement that we all receive when sharing life with one another.
We have heard many testimonies about this over the last six months.
Why is it so critical that we do this and do it regularly?
Look at the end of vs 13.
But encourage each other daily, while it is still called today, so that none of you is hardened by sin’s deception.
The hardening of the heart that he references is not something that happens overnight but is an adopted, inflexible mindset.
Remember what we heard last week that for Israel, what was at first just a symptom developed into a settled habit of mind.
Gathering together, sharing what is going on in our lives, then giving and receiving encouragement keeps us from falling into and/or staying in sin.
Attending and participating in worship and life groups isn’t something we just do, It is what makes us and keeps us.
The whole world experienced what it feels like to be disconnected during lock-down and how it affected us emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.
We were created in God’s likeness and God purposefully surrounded himself with a host of angels and created us to live in a relationship with him.
14 For we have become participants in Christ if we hold firmly until the end the reality that we had at the start.
We have become participants in the Kingdom of God.
Not bystanders, Participants!
IF...
We don’t do what Israel did and choose to live in disobedience.
We see here again that we need to “hold firmly”.
Being intentionally focused so that you do not lose sight of the purpose.
Holding a snake.
The author backs up this idea by reminding them of what happened to Israel when they lost focus.
What was did Israel lose focus of that caused them to rebel against God?
The second section begins with him quoting from Psalms again and then follows it with five questions that answer one another.
15 As it is said: Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.
16 For who heard and rebelled? Wasn’t it all who came out of Egypt under Moses?
17 With whom was God angry for forty years? Wasn’t it with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?
18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, if not to those who disobeyed?
19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.
Question 1 &2:
Who heard and understood yet rebelled?
Wasn’t it those that God had just revealed his glory to by rescuing them from Egypt?
The rebellion was a result of Moses’ leadership which is viewed in comparison to Jesus.
This is a good word for us in terms of how much weight we put in the leadership of those around us. Those leaders have a purpose, given by God, but they are not God.
Our faith is in God, not in any person.
A big part of Israel’s issue is that they got this wrong.
Quickly look at their progression from hearing to hardening.
He said, “If you will carefully obey the Lord your God, do what is right in his sight, pay attention to his commands, and keep all his statutes, I will not inflict any illnesses on you that I inflicted on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you.”
Exodus 19:7–8 (CSB)
After Moses came back, he summoned the elders of the people and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him. Then all the people responded together, “We will do all that the Lord has spoken.” So Moses brought the people’s words back to the Lord.
Exodus 20:18–19 (CSB)
All the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the ram’s horn, and the mountain surrounded by smoke. When the people saw it they trembled and stood at a distance. “You speak to us, and we will listen,” they said to Moses, “but don’t let God speak to us, or we will die.”
Rather than taking the opportunity that God gave them to hear and respond directly with Him, they choose to put a mediator between them.
God still wanted to use Moses as their leader, but God wanted to have direct input as well.
Israel refused.
All of us should be trusting the Holy Spirit to guide us personally as well as through the leaders God has placed in our lives.
There is a balance that is needed, not tipping too far in either direction.
God has given us people to encourage us, but they cannot take the place of God in our lives.
Question 3&4:
With whom was God angry for forty years?
Wasn’t it those who sinned and died in the wilderness?
The final straw was the spies coming back from the promised land reporting that the people there couldn’t be defeated and Israel trusted them rather than the God that split the sea and drowned the fiercest army in the known world.
Israel didn’t forget what God had done.
They slowly, over the course of their time in the wilderness, choose to place their trust in men rather than God.
They were living in Active rebellion…
The neglecting of meeting together and holding firmly to that which you believe is active rebellion against God.
Don’t be like Israel and spend your entire life only hearing from men, rebelling against God, and suffering as a result of your rebellion.
Question 5:
And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, if not to those who disobeyed?
God does not like it when we purposefully do the opposite of what he has asked us to do.
Side note: No one likes this.
The cost of willful disobedience is high.
The Lord spoke to Moses: “Send men to scout out the land of Canaan I am giving to the Israelites. Send one man who is a leader among them from each of their ancestral tribes.” Moses sent them from the Wilderness of Paran at the Lord’s command. All the men were leaders in Israel.
Then Caleb quieted the people in the presence of Moses and said, “Let’s go up now and take possession of the land because we can certainly conquer it!”
But the men who had gone up with him responded, “We can’t attack the people because they are stronger than we are!” So they gave a negative report to the Israelites about the land they had scouted: “The land we passed through to explore is one that devours its inhabitants, and all the people we saw in it are men of great size. We even saw the Nephilim there—the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim! To ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers, and we must have seemed the same to them.”
Then the whole community broke into loud cries, and the people wept that night. All the Israelites complained about Moses and Aaron, and the whole community told them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had died in this wilderness! Why is the Lord bringing us into this land to die by the sword? Our wives and children will become plunder. Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?” So they said to one another, “Let’s appoint a leader and go back to Egypt.”
For Israel, it cost the lives of an entire generation except for Joshua and Caleb, who were faithful.
19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.
We will talk about his rest more next week when we talk about Joshua, but the point that he is making and that we need to see is that they didn’t receive it because they didn’t believe and obey.
There is great power in the echo chamber that we surround ourselves in.
We are called to be a light in the darkness.
We cannot escape this world and have been called to be in the world.
It would be impossible to fulfill the great commission if we kept to ourselves.
The incredible tool that we have, need to utilize, and share with others is our life groups.
We find support, encouragement, and love when we gather together, share our lives, and study the word.
We need it and the people in our lives that don’t know Jesus need it too.
It is time for us to take a serious look at how we are treating our life groups.
Have LG’s begun to be something that we just do or are they fulfilling their purposes?
We believe the Bible has set a precedent for small group discipleship and ministry. Our church is committed to developing small groups that will provide ministry, discussions about a biblical application, and fellowship for every member. Our Life Groups are the care-giving arm of the church. These groups help our church minister effectively. They provide meals when your family is sick, support in times of crisis, companionship, and help as you live out your life.
We believe that God's design for evangelizing the world involves every believer. We are committed to lead our members to develop relationships with non-believers in the community to love to them, spend time with them, care for their families, and lead them to a relationship with Jesus Christ. We provide opportunities through our small groups for relationship building in a nonthreatening environment.
We are really good at the first part that is for our members.
How is your group doing on the second part?
Are you making space for and purposefully inviting non-believers into your group so that they can experience God’s love?
We believe God is leading us to be a church that multiplies. To be effective in carrying out this distinctive, all of our leaders and members need to help to create a missional culture. We are a sending church, and it is in our DNA to plant new churches. This means when we outgrow our current facilities, we will be asking God to call some of our members to a new work. It is our dream that one day, God will be calling entire Life Groups to relocate and start churches together.
Our friends and neighbors need God, just like you do.
The focus of this study is to encourage us to tell this story that is worth telling.
Are you sharing your story and are we encouraging one another to share outside the walls of this building?
God has given us a directive. Are you walking in obedience or rebellion?
Pray.