Midweek Bible Study | Hebrews 3 | Gary Hamrick

all right friends hebrews chapter three is where we are as we continue in our study through the book of hebrews again last week we were off but two weeks ago we finished chapter two so tonight we're gonna be looking into chapter three so if you need a Bible raise a hand and one of our finest years we'll be glad to give you a Bible and you can turn to Hebrews chapter 3 with me Hebrews chapter 3 while you're turning there just a brief reminder the book of Hebrews written by someone we don't know because the author is unnamed but nevertheless inspired by the Lord so whether it was Paul or Barnabas or a lot of other theories who might have written Hebrews it doesn't matter it was all inspired by the Lord we do know that it had to have been written some time before 70 AD when the temple was destroyed by Titus Vespasian because the writer of Hebrews writes as if the temple is still standing and he's writing to an audience who would understand about temple practices and temple sacrifices so that's why this letter is dated pre 70 AD the recipients of the letter we also know and that is that these are Hebrews Christians Jews who are believers in Jesus and the writer of Hebrews is going to challenge these Jewish believers to not be not revert to legalism and not to get lazy in their faith but the writer of Hebrews has to cut through a lot of the historical and traditional aspects of their faith in order to get them to sound biblical truth and it is true for any of us if you've grown up in the church there are certain things that you may have learned kind of historically or traditionally based on whatever your upbringing might have been in the church if you have one and some of those things might be accurate some of those things not so accurate and so we have to kind of parse through those things my tradition growing up practiced for example infant baptism but then when I looked into Scripture and realize you know really water baptism is reserved for people who make a profession of faith in Christ I don't think when I was six months old I could do that so then later right before I got married I was baptized at a in a in a fishing hole up on the other side of Thurman Maryland by my uncle who was pastoring at the time because I realized though my true said I was good to go the Bible kind of taught me otherwise and so if you've grown up in the church you might have to kind of parse through some of that too and be thankful for your heritage to be thankful for what you might have learned and gleaned along the ways but you kind of got to measure it according to what scripture teaches and so the writer of Hebrews is speaking to Jewish people who were very dependent upon a system the whole sacrificial system had been you know practiced for centuries the way to God is the sacrifice of an animal now the whole concept that Jesus is the Passover lamb that takes away the sins of the world and he has fulfilled and replaced the sacrifice of animals I mean that was a whole staggering concept to the Jewish people even though they put their faith and trust in Christ to go away from what they've been traditionally doing for centuries was a challenge for them and there were other challenges also related to the dietary aspects of the law and certain customs and rituals that you mean we don't have to do these anymore no because those things were pointing to Christ all been fulfilled in Christ it's about Christ and faith in Christ and Christ alone so they had to kind of be pried loose from some of their own historical and traditional leanings in order to really embrace sound biblical truth and so one of the things that the writer of Hebrews is going to do is talk about how key words in the book of Hebrews how better mentioned eleven times superior four times greater seven times throughout the book of Hebrews and all of these things are in reference to Jesus that Jesus is better superior and greater than and the writer of Hebrews is going to make this argument throughout the whole book different things and different people that Jesus is greater than better than or superior - and in Chapter one we talked about how he's greater than the province the writer of Hebrews opens up chapter one verse one talking about in times past God spoke to us through the prophets at various times and in divers manners but in these last days he has spoken to us through his son through whom he made all things and then he goes in the next verse that he says and the son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being in other words the right Hebrew says ok God spoke to us through the prophets that's wonderful we don't despise the prophets we don't disparage the prophets prophets are good Jesus is better because God spoke through the prophets true but then God spoke through his son who is God so do you want someone to speak on behalf of God or do you want God to speak and so he's better than the prophets because the he's the exact representation of his being the prophets were only just the vessels through whom God worked and then he's also going to make the argument in chapters 1 and a little bit at a chapter 2 that Jesus is better greater than the Angels no no angel worship Peter the writer of Hebrews is saying Jesus is superior to angels don't worship angels don't elevate angels angels are good angels are mentioned more than 300 times of the Bible they're powerful beings that God has created but they are not to be revered they're not to be venerated they are not to be worshiped they are to be understood as creatures that God has created but inferior to Jesus and there's there's a lot of you know angelic kind of worship going on in our world today there's a lot of angelic comparisons there's a lot of false religions that are based on angelic kinds of representations and angelic things that they have said so listen Jesus is superior to the Angels and then what he's going to say here in chapter 3 is that Jesus is superior to Moses now this again you got to hear this through Jewish ears because you know Moses is a revered and respected prophet among the Jewish people again as I said in the opening of the book of Hebrews a few weeks ago none of these things are bad Jesus is just better so he's not saying that Moses is bad or the Angels are bad or the prophets are bad again as I as I said a few weeks ago it's is a vanilla ice cream good chunky monkey better right and you've never had chunky monkey you're missing out let me just tell you something right now all right I digress anyway that's the concept he's like these things aren't bad but there's something better and so don't ever settle for anything less than always worship Jesus exalt Jesus magnify Jesus live for Jesus follow Jesus be sold out for Jesus that's what it's all about and that's the way chapter three begins here by the way look in your Bibles here at chapter three now he says therefore holy brothers who share in the heavenly calling fix your thoughts on Jesus fix your thoughts on Jesus the Apostle and high priest whom we confess so in the NIV that I'm reading from here it he talks about fixing your thoughts on Jesus if you have a new king james or ESV it just uses the word consider and consider Jesus I like NIV here where it fix your your thoughts it's a it's a stronger it's a stronger way of communicating the word in the Greek rather than just considering you know I consider it sounds a little weak but fix your thoughts that sounds stronger doesn't it the Greek word used here is one one word is cotton away oh and cotton away oh and the Greek is from two words no way o means to exercise the mind and the prefix kata in the Greek is the intensity of the word so you can have just no way or means exercise the mind think about things but kadhai no AO is the intensity like don't just don't just think about it in a in this passing moment but fix your thoughts and really just grab hold of the whole idea of who Jesus is how much he loves you that he died for you fix your thoughts it's it's a stronger word than just consider it's okay but I just think I appreciate the language you're better two further for the Greek word cut in a way oh just just consider an intense focus on Jesus in your thoughts our thoughts are wicked our thoughts betray us our thoughts need to be reined in we need to master our thoughts this is why Paul would write in second Corinthians 10:5 we need to take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ all right are you glad that your thoughts can't be heard out loud how embarrassed would we be if our thoughts were heard out loud now some of you have a terrible habit of saying out loud what you're thinking don't do that learn learn not to just say what you're thinking there needs to be a filter please filter we don't want to hear what you're thinking sometimes but anyway that's why we have to take captive every thought so we need to fix our thoughts on Jesus and and then the writer here uses some interesting language it calls Jesus the Apostle and high priest whom we confess so you know the word apostle typically used to describe the twelve that Jesus selected but apostles just from a Greek word APUs Tello meaning one who was sent out one who is sent forth and so Jesus in that sense was sent forth from the father so he just uses that word loosely one who was sent forth Jesus sent forth from the father and he's also serving like the high priest in those days you could not get to God directly you had to go through the high priest and the high priest would take the blood of the sacrifice behind the veil of the curtain in the temple and just the high priest of the high priest alone would make atonement for the sins of the people they would even tie a rope around the ankle of the high priest in case he died in the presence of the Lord behind the curtain you couldn't go in after him so you they pull him out with the rope that's what they would do so it was a very high calling to be the high priest and God arranged work for the high priest to be a part of the sacrificial system because the high priest was to represent God to man and man to God and Stan as an intermediary the writer of Hebrews is going to spend a few chapters later in chapters 8 9 and 10 talking about how Jesus is better than any earthly high priest and how he has fulfilled the high priest there is no longer any earthly high priest despite what some people might refer to themselves has there is no high priest there's not even a priestly service with all due respect to our Catholic friends the priesthood has been replaced and fulfilled in Christ alone he's the only sufficient able peer intermediary between God and man you no longer have to go through a person you can go directly to God through Jesus Christ the son so he is the Apostle and high priest of our faith he is the one who has paid the price in full he stands in the gap represents the father to us us to the father he's our advocate he's our high priest that's why the writer uses this language here to describe them and the ends verse one by saying whom we confess whom we confess now make a note in the margin of your Bible there's two ways that we confess Jesus number one is with our mouth number two is with our lives when you come to faith in Christ you confess this is Romans 10:9 and 10 that you know if we confess with our mouths that he is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead we shall be seifer's with your mouth that you confess and are justifies with your heart that you believe and are saved and so there's a confession of our mouth in declaring our faith in Jesus Christ but then there's also a confession of our lives there's a confession of our lives where we also bear testimony to who Christ is in our lives by the way that we live Jesus would say in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:16 said let your light so shine before men that they might see your good deeds and glorify my father which is in heaven there's the confession of our of our lips and the confession of our lives Peter would write something similar in 1st Peter 2:12 when he exhorts us this way live such good lives among the pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us so just you know ask yourself is a Christian I may have confessed Christ with my lips because that's how you come to faith that's how you are a believer but are you confessing him with your life are you living your life in such a way that people take note that you are a reflection of Christ by the way that you live verse 2 says he was faithful to the one who appointed and now here comes the comparison to Moses just as Moses was faithful in all God's house Jesus has been found worthy of greater honors he hears the word greater greater honor than Moses just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself now he's just making some comparison areas using an analogy the first analogy uses with all due respect to Moses he's saying listen Jesus is creator Moses is just created so who is greater the builder or that which has been built so he says you know listen Jesus is greater because he's he's creator Moses is just what has been created Jesus is the Builder Moses is just the house in that sense and verse 4 the writer goes on to say for every house is built by someone but God is the builder of everything Moses was faithful as a servant circle at word in all God's house testifying to what would be said in the future which is true Moses himself was a prophet in Deuteronomy 18:15 Jesus sorry Moses said that that God would select a prophet Moses said one will be appointed God will select a prophet like me from among his own people and so even Moses knew that there would be a day when Messiah would come and God would select even from among his own people in other words God would take on flesh and he would be like us and and so Moses was faithful as a servant in the house in God's house testifying to what would be said in the future but Christ is faithful as a son Circle that word over God's house and we are his house if we hold on to our courage in the hope of which we boast so the writers saying here that the caution to the Hebrew believers at the time was your elevating the servant above the Sun and in any typical ancient household you have a servant who works in the home but the son has higher status so that's the way he's comparing Moses to help them understand he's like you know Moses Moses is like the house but Jesus is the Builder and who is greater the Builder or was built and Moses is a good servant he's faithful to God but Jesus is the Son and who has greater status a son in the family or a servant so he's making that comparison to help them understand Moses is good but Jesus is better he's the fulfillment of all the Old Testament prophets and so then he draws on their own history by this next section here in my Bible it's subtitled warning against unbelief and so in verse 7 he says so as the Holy Spirit says today if you hear his voice do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion during the time of testing in the desert where your fathers tested and tried me and for 40 years saw what I did that is why I was angry with that generation and I said their hearts are always going astray and they have not known my ways so I declared on oath in my anger they shall never enter my rest now some of your Bibles might point this out but right now the writer of Hebrews the reason it's indented in your Bibles is because he's quoting from Psalm chapter 95 right here between verses 7 through 11 he's quoting Psalm 95 verses 7 through 11 and he's drawing on their own history about a time when the Jewish people were unfaithful to the Lord and this whole part here about this time of testing in the desert the time when your fathers tested and tried me he's referring to that time when God led the Hebrew slaves out of slavery from Egypt on their way to the promised land a journey that should have taken 13 days on foot ended up taking 40 years why because there was a generation that was rebellious against God and so God because of their rebellion said this generation shall not enter you're not going to enter the promised land and I'm just gonna let all y'all die in the wilderness over the next 40 years and I'll take your kids in and that's what happens so he starts out here back up to verse 7 where he says as the Holy Spirit says today today notice the urgency today if you hear his voice do not harden your hearts now this is the message of chapter three and a little bit into chapter four he's going to use the word heart in three times here in Chapter three he's gonna use the word one more time in Chapter four his warning the writer of Hebrews is drawing on their own their own Old Testament history by saying to them learn from your forefathers they hardened their hearts against God we're gonna talk about why in a moment and this warning is don't you do that don't harden your hearts against the Lord now it's interesting he's giving them a couple of expectations in Chapter two the exhortation was don't drift away that's why chapter 2 verse 1 began we must pay more careful attention therefore to what we have heard so that we do not drift away so we talked about that last time now he's going to say to them here's another problem that can attack Christians you can become hardened in your hearts you can become disappointed and frustrated with God don't let that happen there's a lot of people get frustrated with God they get angry with God God doesn't do what they hoped that he would do god didn't prevent what they hoped he would have prevented God didn't answer on time the way they wanted him to answer we evaluate God through a very narrow lens and the narrow lens is self and if God doesn't perform or show up or do what I hope or ask or pray or plead then sometimes it lends it it tends to cause people to become angry and bitter at God and hardened towards him and so the writer of Hebrews is saying don't let that happen don't let that happen you know we have to always maintain a big picture of God to the best that we can and in God's sovereignty and in His Majesty and in his magnificence he's up to stuff always for our good but things at the moment we cannot necessarily see and understand and friends when God doesn't always show up or answer prayers or do what you think you that he should or wish or hope that he would it's in those moments we just have to fall back on our faith and trust that scripture is true that God is good and he has my best interest at heart even when he's not doing things the way I think he should I mean how silly is it sometimes when we say those kind of things even if we don't verbalize it and we think to ourselves you know why does it God do it this way and why did he wait then why doesn't yet and why did it almost like we would do it better I mean think about it and the analysis at the end of the day that's what we're basically saying if God would have then this would be better do you remember when Jesus shows up at the tomb of Lazarus his friend one of his closest friends and he's greeted by by the sisters Mary and Martha and the first sister comes up to him and said and says to Jesus if you'd have been here my brother wouldn't have died now a lot of people read that and think that she's actually just kind of praising Jesus like I know that if you'd have been here he wouldn't have died you would have done something great I tend to read it through a sassy tone and one day I might have to apologize to both sisters but I I i think she basically was was chewing him out because the Bible says that when Jesus got word that his friend was sick and near death he tarried where he was three more days when you when you factor that in and then you realize that he he just stayed where he was through but I hear that Lazarus is dying but I'm just gonna stay where I am for three more days so that by the time he shows up he's four days late so I don't think for a moment you know Martha's thinking if you'd have been here Oh things would have just been wonderful it's just what I've been special I think she's thinking what took you so long what took you so long and Angie and Jesus you know he's so he's so patient but it does say that that he snorts with anger I mean he's frustrated at the scene because of the lack of unbelief and of course many of you know the story that at the end of the day he raises Lazarus from the dead and I ask you what's a greater miracle that Jesus had shown up four days earlier and prevented a sick man from dying or raising a man from the dead what's a greater miracle raising a man from the dead sure it was so God's delay is off for his display because God knows that there's going to be a greater revelation of his glory even though on our timetable we think he's late so the writer of Hebrews is like whatever the reason might be but you're disappointed in God please don't let it cause you to become hardened in your heart don't become hardened in your hearts he says remember the time of the testing in the desert when your fathers tested and tried the Lord and he ends verse nine by saying and for forty years saw what I did okay so here's what was going on with the Jewish people God miraculously delivers them after 400 years of slavery through a series of 10 plagues Pharaoh reluctantly says go ahead you can go okay just the fact that they were free is a testimony of God's miraculous intervention they're free that are on their way to the promised land they get their backs to the Red Sea Pharaoh starts deciding I want my slaves back in ghost charges after them God parts the Red Sea you know the story the Hebrew people go through on dry ground and then when the Egyptian army follows God swallows them up in the Red Sea I mean time after time after time the Jewish people were standing there looking beholding the miracles of what God was doing elissa there were an estimated anywhere from three to three-and-a-half million Jews who left Egypt on their way to the promised land and God took care of them fed them made sure they had water do you know how just in comparison so Loudoun County the population of Loudoun counties about three hundred seventy five thousand people so we're talking ten times the size of Loudoun County you know how many people it takes an estimated 1,500 tons of food per day to feed three to three-and-a-half million people you know how much water it would take to keep three to three and a half million people alive every single day eleven Galan's now that's just basic necessity that's like three to four gallons per person now in doing this research I learned something do you know how many gallons of water the average person uses today on average I was stunned now we're talking about so you know you're gonna get up you're gonna use the bathroom you're gonna take a shower you you know you're gonna drink water through the day maybe you'll do laundry so you average all that out 80 to 100 gallons of water per person per day US Geological Survey free information for you eighty to a hundred gallons of water per person per day that's what we need and God took care of thirty-two half million people through the wilderness fed them and Deuteronomy says their clothes didn't even wear out and neither did the shoes on their feet and so God took care of them time after time after time after time after time and they beheld the the miracles of God I mean this is incredible to think about how they were constantly seeing water out of a rock manna manna was their food it just kind of came up out of the ground and and they would have to scoop it off every day and you couldn't take more than just for that day because then it would spoil if he tried to hoard it they would spoil and so it was like frosted flakes like Krispy Kreme all across the ground every single morning and quail quail just would be flying in by the dozens that people will be eating quail and man and that water out of a rock and God's parting the Red Sea in the Egyptian army he's doing away with them and all this stuff and then and then they're in the wilderness going you know is there any other thing on the menu we were really kind of tired of this manna we've done everything we can with it we've made mana Splitz manicotti manwiches do you have anything else Lord and we really don't can you put a little bubbly in the water I mean a little fizz or something I mean we can go for goodness sakes anywhere now we can make our own drink selection and mix it just as we were and they're whining about all this and so God is holding them more accountable because of what it says there in the verse he says for forty years forty years you saw what I did you know who was held more accountable in the Ministry of Jesus during his time the three cities of Corazon and capper nyan and why were they held more accountable they were held more accountable because they'd be held more of his witnesses in a concept more of his miracles in a concentrated area of about seven square miles Jesus performed more miracles on the planet than anywhere else and those three cities rejected him didn't receive him didn't believe him that's why in Matthew 11 21 to 24 Jesus says that those three cities will be held more accountable he said it will be better for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment actually he didn't say Gomorrah but he's just as thought of it's better for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you who lived in corzine beside ax and Capernaum because of their lack of belief despite the fact that Jesus had performed all these miracles that's what's happening in this story here despite the fact that God had done all these miracles to sustain his own people they were ungrateful they complained they were critical of all kinds of things they tested and tried God on different levels they tested and tried him in the area of deliverance he had delivered them and they weren't grateful they tried and tested him in the area provision he'd given all this food all this water sustained them for forty years they were ungrateful they tested it tried him in the area of leadership they didn't like Moses they didn't like the guy that he had chosen even Moses his own brother and sister Aaron and Miriam complained against God Korah led a rebellion against Moses complained against God God could ticket took care of those people by the way - and and they complained constantly and they whined and they murmured God said you tested me you tried me I gave you all these things I took care of you I loved you I delivered you I provided for you you tested me and you tried me look at what God has done in your life and be grateful count your blessings be thankful for what the Lord has done look for the wonderful ways that he has taken care of you and provided for you because if you can focus more on those things then on the things you think he fell short concerning which he hasn't but sometimes in our mind we think that way it will help us not to become hardened in our hearts he goes on to say there that in verse 10 that is why I was angry with that generation our hearts are always going astray if not known my ways and it wasn't for a lack of God's revelation that they didn't know his ways it was for the lack of their appreciation they just didn't appreciate and revere and respect and worship God and they weren't thankful in their hearts whatever God did was never good enough and so they complained and they murmured that was their disposition we have to really guard our hearts against that church it's easy to just become complainers it's easy to become people who just you know are are always looking at what they think God hasn't done instead of what God has done we have to guard against that in our own hearts because as a result he says there in verse 11 so I declared on oath in my anger they shall never enter my rest they shall never enter my rest now in the historical context he met they're never gonna get to the promised land they're never there never gonna enjoy the rest that they would otherwise have had by coming into the promised land because of their their unbelief and their rebellion they died in the wilderness and the only people from that generation were the two guys Caleb and Joshua who believed God for His faithfulness that went in otherwise it was the next generation all the kids of the Fallen would go into the Promised Land but those who rebelled against God they never entered his rest now rest is going to be a key word used here in the next couple of chapters in chapters three and four the word rest is found 13 times 13 times it's going to become a major theme here in this chapter and in the next and the ultimate rest that the writer of Hebrews is pointing to is the rest that we have in salvation because of knowing Christ I mean there's no greater so he's taking an historical concept here about remember the rebellion hardness of heart and they never got into the promised land that never entered God's rest he's saying don't harden your hearts don't rebel against God or you won't experience the rest that comes through that relationship in knowing Christ so that's the ultimate rest that he's pointing to here we'll talk more about that when we get into chapter four next week but then he goes on to say something here and this is where the book of Hebrews gets very challenging and somewhat difficult to interpret there's been a lot of division about you know what does this mean but look at verse 12 with me he says see to it brothers and he and he's building on this whole this whole argument here see to it brothers that none of you has a sinful unbelieving heart that turns away from the Living God let me just read through the end and we'll come back but encourage one another daily as long as it is called today so that none of you may be hardened there's the same theme by sins deceitfulness we have come to share in Christ if that's an important word if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first as has just been said and then he repeats it today if you hear his voice do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion okay a lot of great discussion and sometimes even division which we don't want over verses like this you could read different parts of your Bible for those of you know the difference between the terms Calvinism and Arminianism you can read different parts of your Bible and it sounds very Calvinist other parts of your Bible look very Armenian and when you take the whole counsel of God's Word together you have a neat balance and the tension is kept intentionally intact this is one of these sections here where it looks a little Arminian what do I mean by that it the emphasis is a lot on you you better hold up your end of the deal you better hold up your end of the deal and in fact even uses the term hold firmly you better he says there in verse 14 if it's a conditional statement we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first he's going to put an emphasis on our responsibility to hold on to Jesus and to hold on to the confidence we had at first our faith in Christ and he starts this section here in verse 12 by saying make sure see to it brothers now notice he refers to them as brothers these are believers these are not unbelievers these are believers even started chapter 3 verse 1 by calling them holy brothers so these are born-again believers in Jesus and he and he warns them make sure that none of you has a sinful unbelieving heart that turns away from the Living God now I'm gonna put the verse on the screen for you because I want to underline the the words turns away from we're just gonna gonna kind of a dissect this a little bit and the Greek word here for that phrase turns away is a fast aiming a novice Stamey is from two greek words oppo meaning offer away and hiss taemi meaning to stand so it literally means to stand off or to stand away from a fast Amy if you have an ESV it says see to it that that you don't fall away from if you have a New King James that says see to it that you that you're not departing from okay so fall away from depart from or NIV says turns away from the Living God and just to put some context on this Greek word office Tammy I'm going to give you two other examples in the Bible where the word is used Luke chapter 8 verse 13 Jesus uses that word office taming to describe those who receive the word enjoy but have no root and fall away in times of testing so Jesus even talks about you know the some seed falls on rocky paths arm in a thorny area some on good soil and and so he's using different language to describe the effect that some people receive God's Word in different ways and and some receive it initially enjoy but then times of testing come and they fall away I fast Amy that's the same word in Luke 8 another example of it and even probably an even harsher use of it is in first Timothy 4:1 where Paul writes to Timothy and he says listen some at the end of the age will not put up with sound doctrine they're going to abandon the faith alpha stamie and they're gonna follow deceiving spirits so that word a fast ami is never used in a in a cheerful way it's always used to describe this whole concept of abandoning turning away falling away departing so never using a good sense as it relates to the Christian then the debate becomes is the writer of Hebrews talking about someone who never really believed or someone who believed and then renounce their faith or turned away so so in all that becomes great debate and I don't I don't believe it's really fruitful to split hairs over the whole thing I can tell you this much he's not talking about people who have never really believed because again he calls them brothers these are believers this is a warning about turning away and all I can say is that there is some emphasis placed here on our responsibility again he he emphasizes here if verse 14 we have come to share in Christ we've come to share in Christ we know Christ if we hold firm literally and the confidence we had at first some people love to point out John 10:28 where Jesus talks about how no one can be snatched from my hand true I have no concerns about God's grip on me the concern we should have is what is our grip on God and that part is our responsibility God's never gonna fail us God is a firm grip but what is our responsibility the writer here says if we hold firmly to that which we to the confidence we had at first so again I I don't want to I don't want to swing to either extreme I'm not a five-point on on the arguments of Calvinism or are many ism because I think that the Bible presents a bow view that God is sovereign but man is also responsible and that part of our responsibility is making sure that we don't have a sinful unbelieving heart that turns away that abandons that office day me that that that departs from the Living God and that's why in the middle of this discussion he says in verse 13 that we should encourage one another every day we need to encourage each other in the faith encourage each other daily as long as it is called today so that we don't develop a hard heart so so we not only have responsibility in our walk with the Lord we have a responsibility in our in our relationship to one another to help encourage one another now he's gonna use the word encouragement a few times through this book one of them is in chapter 10 verse 25 where he talks about don't forsake the assembly don't give up meeting together as some of you are in the habit of doing I think I thank you all that you're here tonight because you're living out the exhortation of Scripture he says in chapter 10 25 he says don't give up the habit of meeting together as some of you are in the habit of doing but encourage each other and all the more as you see the Day approaching what's the day the the return of Christ it and ultimate rest yes but I mean when we are getting closer and closer to the return of Christ we have to encourage each other more and more why because the world's getting that much more crazy and and our faith is going to be that much more challenged and Christians are going to be that much more hated and and we're going to experience persecution perhaps not to the degree that others do in other parts of the world but at some level we will not be liked if you want to follow Christ he will not always be liked get used to it he was crucified for it and so as we see the Day approaching we have to encourage each other we have to come alongside each other and say hey I just how can I pray for you hey the Lord put a verse of my heart for you today I just wanted to share this with you that it might strengthen you for the day text each other verses pray for each other stop each other and you know as you see each other and say how could I pray for you today we need to be about strengthen each other and encourage each other in the in the body of Christ because there is this potential for us to be deceived in our hearts and become hardened that's why he says today don't wait till tomorrow today if you hear his voice do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion let's read through the end of the chapter he says in verse 16 who were they who heard and rebelled were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt and with whom was he angry for forty years was it was it not with those who sinned whose bodies fell in the desert and to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed so we see that they were not able to enter because of their unbelief so he's using this historical lesson as a modern-day reminder don't be hardened in your heart and please today he quotes here from Psalm 95 today he's gonna say he says it twice in Chapter three is gonna say it again in chapter four and I've got five minutes so I'm gonna close at this story just to kind of bring that point home about today because the the exhortation is you don't you're not guaranteed tomorrow that's basically what he's saying it's like none of us is guaranteed tomorrow so we need to make sure today we're right with the Lord when I shared this story a few years ago so if some of you have heard this before but every time I I hear that verse it reminds me of a guy who who was a friend of mine maybe friend is strong it was an acquaintance of mine that I met actually through the process of our church going through the originally the special exception process for our old building over on Miller Drive so we had to go before the Planning Commission here in the town of Leesburg and then ultimately before the town council and had to get approval for a special exception to be able to have a church and what was what still is an industrial zone over there at the air park where our first church was on Miller Drive and so in the course of going through these hearings I I developed an acquaintance with one of the guys who was on the plan commissioned his first name was David and David was he was like he's kind of a quirky guy and and he was kind of a I describe as like a country gentleman he was just like always very respectful very had funny sayings had funny expressions had a bit of an accent usually had like a fedora on it you know and so it was just kind of um very kind of a gentleman's gentleman and as a result of meeting him through this whole process with the Planning Commission the Town Council he he just kind of took an interest in finding out more about Christ and about Christianity and so he would just randomly drop by my office at the old building over on Miller Drive and and Marilyn who was my admin at the time she'd be like mr. Kennedy's here again and he would just randomly pop in and want to talk about faith and talk about the Lord and and he had a lot of questions a lot of questions and at the end of every conversation I would say all right David we spent an hour talking about all this are you ready to make a decision for Christ and in his very respectful tone he always called me Reverend Gary and I would keep correcting him like there's nothing reverent about me if you really knew me you would never call me Reverend but anyway I would say he would say Reverend Gary not today maybe tomorrow and every so often he just keep popping into my office and we talk about faith and he had all these questions and at the end of every conversation I would say the same thing David are you ready to make a decision for Christ today Reverend Gary not today maybe tomorrow that was the way our conversation ended every single time I probably met with the man a dozen times and then one day I got word that IC was campaigning for another person running for a local office here he was walking down through the streets of downtown Leesburg and he drop dead of a heart attack and I've always wondered will I see him one day again because he heard and he knew and he understood but every time we ended that conversation he always thought he had tomorrow so I hope that in his own private time he made a decision for Christ and that I'll see him again but I'm haunted by that story because every time I read that verse the exhortation about today don't harden your heart today because today is all we have we're not guaranteed tomorrow I always think about David Kennedy and I always think about anybody here who might yourself be thinking maybe I'll maybe I'll think about Jesus tomorrow you don't necessarily have tomorrow as a guarantee I've done more funerals for people under the age of 40 than over the age of 40 people die and death is no respecter of persons and this is not a tactic to scare anybody into the faith I'm just saying from real-life testimony I had a friend who kept saying maybe tomorrow and tomorrow didn't come and I don't want others to think about Jesus and think to yourself maybe tomorrow when you may not have tomorrow so can we just bow our heads tonight today while it's still called today before you leave here if you don't know Christ as your Savior would you be willing to invite him into your life and surrender your life to his lordship because all you have is right now all you have is today for sure and so before you leave here I want to give you that opportunity to trust him Lord we come before you tonight and we're thankful that you've given us the we've lived up to this point but because none of us is guaranteed tomorrow when you tell us in your word today if you hear his voice do not harden your hearts I want to make sure Lord as far as it's dependent on me to make sure I communicate clearly to people that because we don't have tomorrow guaranteed Lord would you please move in our hearts today for those who already know you Lord we celebrate our relationship with you and for those who don't know you I pray they would make a decision right now to trust you and I'm gonna pause on my prayer with your heads bowed eyes closed and I'm gonna lead you in a simple word of Prayer and if you want to trust Christ today you can pray this prayer with me right where you're seated you can invite him into your heart surrender your life to his lordship and so if that's you you know who you are just pray this with me right where you're seated you can whisper this prayer with me just pray it with me to the Lord just say just say Lord Jesus just tell them that right where you're seated you could just say Lord Jesus I thank you that you died on a cross for me and because I'm not guaranteed tomorrow I don't want to put off a decision that I can make right now Lord I surrender my life to you I ask you to come into my heart and save me save me from sin and death you died on a cross because you loved me and I put my trust in you as my Lord and Savior forgive me cleanse my heart come into my life I surrender to your lordship I commit to live my life for your glory and I thank you for forgiveness and grace and your love for me by faith I accept you as Lord and Savior I confess with my mouth Jesus is Lord and I believe in my heart that God raised you from the dead in your name I pray amen you

Channel: Cornerstone Chapel - Leesburg, VA

Views: 11,041

Rating: 4.8947368 out of 5

Keywords: Calvary Chapel, Cornerstone Chapel, Gary Hamrick

Id: tkDPbM6ZzTw

Length: 49min 25sec (2965 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 16 2019