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SERMON SERIES Hebrews
SERMON TITLE What Makes faith Unforgettable
SERMON DATE 06/22/08
SPEAKER Jeff Paschall
TEXT Hebrews 13:1-40
It took a dozen chapters for the writer to stretch our minds and challenge our convictions. He’s taken us from the ancient past and pondered when the Son of God fashioned our world… to far into the future where the same Son will reign supreme as King over a new universe. And in between he’s argued that the death of Jesus was foreshadowed by the sacrifice of animals through the old covenant. And that old covenant – all about laws… and rules… and procedures – is no longer in effect for those who accept the sacrifice of Jesus.
And in those first dozen chapters… amidst all these severe warnings that, “You can’t go back!”… there’s hardly a smattering of commands. Barely a handful of them – five, maybe six – over all of those chapters. But now when we come this thirteenth last chapter… the page is littered with them! In fact… 18 commands in 25 verses! And he isn’t giving just random suggestions for no particular reason. He’s not saying, “Okay, no rolling stops at stop signs… Uh, try something new spiritually every once in a while to mix things up. Floss. Okay, read your Bible, and take a walk now and then.”
No. The commands here are presented because of two reasons. 1) Because of the real situations these people were facing. They are either corrective… or preventative! They were in danger of doing things they should NOT DO… or NOT DOING something that they should do… and so the commands reveal a corrective or preventative measure! He’s saying, “DON’T DO THIS!… I think you just might!” or “DO THIS!… You might settle for superficial… BE LAZY spiritually… and NOT!” That’s true of ANY command in the Bible! …the second reason… the reason he’s WROT this book… is that 2) He’s pleading with them to exercise their faith! He’s saying, “Persevere! GO FORWARD in the face of increasing pressure, great risk, and losses in life! He’s saying, “DON’T QUIT GOD! The promises we have in Jesus are SURE! And so these commands are meant to make their faith SOLID! They are concrete around the fence posts of their faith!
And this is the repeated idea throughout this chapter. (v.2) “Do not forget!” (v.3) “remember!” (v.7) “remember!” (v.16) “Do not forget!” This says everyday-Christianity is different than weekend-Christianity. Weekend-Christianity lives on Sunday morning… a few songs… patience while you listen to a sermon. Give some money… maybe. Come back next week… maybe. And in between… you resume… “REAL LIFE”! Everyday-Christianity finds itself tested in 1) streets, behind slow moving cars, and you’re late… 2) and in bed with our spouses… 3) and in choices we make with our money… and in the frustrations we feel with our leaders… Faith is not JUST intellectual – starts in the head and the heart – and spreads out your hands and feet! Faith affects US! And what he’s about to say… is that 3) when you see faith… … it’s unforgettable!
See, most of us would read through this whole book and wonder, “Where is our faith tested?” After hearing the great examples of faith in Hebrews 11 we wonder, “Well, (excited) will God ask me to build an ark?” “Or leave my homeland?” “Or sacrifice my son?” “Or die a martyr’s death?” Well… maybe… but the EQUALLY IMPORTANT TESTS OF YOUR FAITH ARE NOT JUST IN THE PROFOUND BUT IRONICALLY MAYBE MORE PROFOUNDLY IN THE ORDINARY!
In this chapter… the writer probes where faith shows up in our daily lives. And first of all he says our faith shows up, Socially in relationship with others. The concept “love” ties these first 6 verses together. And the first area of faith is 1) in our love for other Christians… in the affection and love that we show. 1Keep on loving each other as brothers. The love commanded here isn’t the famous “agape” sacrificial love. Instead, this is a different word. This Greek word means, “family love”. It’s “brotherly love” that two believers share because they BOTH KNOW they’ve been graciously saved by Christ! (Motorcycle wave, Scion club, Subaru commercial where he pays the parking meter) Somehow… because of what Christ has done… we REALLY DO belong to each other! There’s this… intrinsic connection… WORLDWIDE! IT’S AMAZING! AND AS BROTHER’S… we’re responsible for each other spiritually! We’re supposed to care… show interest and affection… make it a priority to stay involved in each others’ lives… hold one another accountable and encourage one another!
It’ no mistake that he starts with brotherly love. He starts there because these people were tempted to walk away from their faith. You know why? A decided lack of family love for one another… had crept in! And brotherly love is an anchor to your soul when tough times come. It’s nearly IMPOSSIBLE TO WALK AWAY FROM! People don’t easily (if ever) LEAVE LOVE. It’s when you feel ISOLATED and DISCONNECTED that it becomes easy to quit GOD! DEEP and DIVINELY EMPOWERED relationships are a guard against… walking away! And ISOLATION… invites quitting! (in an iGroup? …I don’t worry… I do if you’re not!) Satan knows… the people who LEAVE FIRST… are the people who don’t feel connected to anybody. And so the writer comes out right from the very beginning and says, “You know where faith shows up unforgettable? In your relationships with other believers. GET CONNECTED (bookmark! I won’t mind if you do it now!)
Second, our faith is tested in our 2) love for other people… for strangers! And it’s an interesting word! It’s “hospitality” 2Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it. I don’t really like the NIV translation “to entertain” Literally, the word is “love of strangers”. It’s a word that came to mean “hospitality”. As nice as “entertaining” is… the point is not to show off a nice house… or to provide a wonderful-high class meal… it’s not wrong to do that… the point is to refresh a person with food… encouragement… LOVE… and REST. It’s “Mi casa, su casa. Please come in! Take your shoes off. Make yourself at home.” And the person unsuspectingly coming in to your orbit… your home… HOWEVER SMALL IT IS… whether it’s a LITTLE TEENY apartment shared by three other people, or it’s a BIG MANSION… whatever it is… INVITE THE STRANGER IN… … …AND LOVE THEM! And the whole comment about the angels isn’t to tell you how cool it would be to have an angel in back bedroom… but that the stranger who pops in and drops by… MOST LIKELY… WAS SENT BY GOD… they were PREPARED by Him… to come to YOU! … … …THIS VERSE is the most biblically sound strategy for EVANGELISM in all the Bible! …And it means… the front door of evangelism… isn’t the church service… it’s YOUR FRONT DOOR! And faith unforgettable… shows up in your life… when you INVITE THEM IN… and LOVE THEM! (Halloween! v. Harvest crusades)
And when you LET THEM IN… and you expose your life to them… what do they see? Well, third, our 3) love for the suffering. Compassion. 3Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering. I think he’s saying more than when a person we love hits prison… REMEMBER them… He’s not saying, “don’t let out of sight, out of mind” happen… “Oh, what do you say we all go out to eat… hey let’s invite, JOE!… Oh… yeah… I remember… Joe’s in prison… well, okay, who else could come?” …he wants us to think what it means to be in their place… and act accordingly. He says, remember them… “as if you yourselves were suffering!” And if you don’t KNOW what it’s like to be in their shoes… ALL YOU HAVE TO DO… is sit with them in a stuffy room… talk with them for 35 minutes behind 2 inch plexiglass on a phone while they’re wearing an orange jump suit and flip flops… with an armed guard over their shoulder! (Ryan… looked at me wide eyed through the window and told me something I’ll never forget. He said, “Jeff… you don’t know what it’s like… to go through life… and doors open in front of you… and shut behind you… and you NEVER, EVER, TOUCH THEM! …FREEDOM… for me… will be the day… I’m able… to reach for a doorknob… and twist it myself…” and he just wept!) After that day… I suffered with people in prison! It makes faith unforgettable! (Billy?)
Empathy and compassion is this trait that’s sorely lacking today. Our individual worlds are SMALL… and they’re CLUMPED AROUND our shrunken selves… and a life that is all wrapped up in itself… is a very small package. But when we LOVE and act compassionately… faith shows up unforgettably!
And it REALLY shows up… when we 4) lift up our marriages. 4Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. (Well! That should make us shudder a bit). To honor marriage means to consider it… VALUABLE… or PRECIOUS! It’s a relationship that should be honored and respected and so protected. In those days… marriage was under fire from TWO SIDES. On ONE SIDE, Roman culture EXPECTED men to be promiscuous. They could take mistresses as escorts and sexual partners. They were the ones you went out with… had fun with. They also had, supposedly, a wife – to give legitimacy to their families and up-keep their homes. But, you know, you didn’t go out and have fun with your wife! And it was okay to have both! On the OTHER EXTREME there were the weirded-out-spiritual people who thought that marriage was A STEP DOWN spiritually! In asceticism sex stunted one’s devotion to spiritual life! And marriage was a compromise! And against both the CULTURE… and WACKED OUT spiritual extremists… Christians STOOD STRONG and VALUED and PROTECTED marriage! THEY STUCK OUT! They didn’t have to TALK DOWN about any way of life… all they had to do was TALK UP MARRIAGE!
(Applebee’s; Jen cried when she looked at my marriage and my live for Sharon and how beautiful a thing it is, and said “When I look at you and your beautiful wife and your unbelievable family and kids… it’s just SO UNBELIEVABLE… because it gives me HOPE!”) Today, marriage has been under such severe fire… that now… marriage isn’t necessarily between one man, and one woman (husband/wife). And it’s not necessarily… “you and none other till death do us part.” BOTH OF THOSE IDEAS… are just GONE! They’ve been HACKED AWAY AT… TILL THERE’S NOTHING LEFT! Making it EASY to STICK OUT!!
This verse says marriage is violated in two basic ways! #1 adultery… and #2 sexual immorality. Adultery is having sex where one person is married or both people are married… just not to each other. Somebody’s vows have been violated. Sexual immorality involves anyone who engages in sex… CASUALLY… apart from marriage! That’s everything from living together… to one night stands… from masturbation to molestation… from illicit posters and stickers and images in our houses and on cars to engaging internet pornography… It’s all CASUAL SEX! It ruins… marriage… sex as it wasn’t intended to be! And if you look at the verse… God takes BOTH of these violations PERSONALLY! “God will judge…” You do those… and you have to answer to Him… PERSONALLY! … I didn’t write THAT!
We should remind the world that long before the advent of the glossy counterfeit sex-sellers of modern culture… God created the wonder… and scintillating fireworks of sex… The misconception is that protecting it means “make sure we keep it bland!” “If you MUST… you know… DO IT… make sure you keep it as plain… and unenjoyable as possible!” Sex as God designed is something you SPEAK UP FOR and PROTECT like a national wildlife preserve! You PROTECT IT… because THERE’S something BEAUTIFUL ABOUT IT… that WILL get ruined from misuse!!! SEX… IS… GOD’S INVENTION! It has a …a Perfect Inventor… invented for perfect purposes… to be expressed in a prescribed way… to experience it’s MAXIMUM benefit to our lives! And God was the One that said, “I’m going to create you in a specific way… you’re going to have this NEED for intimacy and lifelong companionship… and I’m going to CREATE something beautiful that will STICK YOU TOGETHER like glue in a permanent way inside and out! … … it will be a party… an ongoing celebration of your lifelong journey toward intimacy together!” I like how the Message translation says this verse, “Honor marriage, and guard the sacredness of sexual intimacy between wife and husband. God draws a firm line against casual and illicit sex.” This is how he says faith shows up… most unforgettably… in your life!!!
Lastly today, our faith shows up in 5) how we handle money, 5Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, So He says, love 1) believers… love 2) strangers… 3) love the suffering… love 4) your spouses… 5) but we’re not supposed to love money! In fact… take some preventative actions so that that doesn’t happen! First is to 1) be content! We learn to say… “Enough!” That’s hard to say! You realize that NO AMOUNT OF MONEY or stuff will satisfy the cravings of your heart… or completely calm your fears about the future! But CONTENTMENT… developing the ability to say, “Enough!”… allows you to enjoy WHAT YOU DO HAVE!!! Either how much or little it is! AND… it unlocks your ability… to be THANKFUL! A CONTENTED PERSON… doesn’t love… MONEY!
And contentment comes easy when we “remember” (the point of this chapter) what God HAS PROMISED us! because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”[a] 6So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?”[b] You can’t obsess about materialism… if you’re well-trained… to remember… He’s our helper! Our provider! He’ll give you what you need! He’ll never abandon you! Or let your deepest needs go uncared for! And so… the result is… you DON’T WORRY! I love the question he quotes! “What can man do to me?” This person has rooted materialism so far out of his life… this person is saying, “Look! I trust God! What can man do to me?” And we say, “Well, wait a minute! To answer your question, uh, a lot, actually… man can do something to make my life miserable… make me suffer… he can cripple me… physically… financially… emotionally… HE CAN EVEN END MY LIFE… if God so allows… … …” But the guy says… “Okay, but then after that… … … NOTHING! Is that all man can do? … … …You can take away STUFF from me… you can even snuff out my LIFE… but what you CAN’T DO… is remove HIS LOVE… and you CAN’T TOUCH the life to come! THIS LIFE IS THE INCH! THE REST OF EXISTENCE… GOES ON WITH NO END… AND IN STAGGERING AND BREATHTAKING FASHION IN COMPARISON… … …! If you LOVE MONEY… you’ll sustain LOSSES suffer PAIN and frustration at the hands of men… You trust in GOD… your faith will shows up… unforgettable… even untouchable! (Contentment is the highest Christian virtue)
So our 1) love for others, 2) for strangers, 3) for suffering, 4) and marriage, 5) and money… they all evidence our faith in unforgettable fashion… and they also show where we are deficient and evidence our LACK OF IT! Our FAITH OUGHT TO BLEED THROUGH in our relationship with others… But it also ought to bleed through… in our relationship with God… and personally in our encouraging character (next week).
It’s no mistake he started with loving one another. (iGroups… empty seats… I worry… iConnect)