Give Your Time

Good morning, welcome to NHCC, please open your Bibles to the book of Hebrews.

Where have we been?

Sermon series- welcome- our desire to be a church where people who enter feel seen, loved, cared for, wanted, and welcomed.

Week 1- Who is it that walks through our doors, and what are the various needs of all of them?

Week 2- How do we display the grace and truth of Jesus to everyone that enters? How is grace displayed without minimizing truth, and how is truth displayed without minimizing grace?

This morning- In being filled with both grace and truth, what do we have to offer those who come to worship at NHCC?

Not speaking here of some special group of people, some welcoming committee, I’m speaking of everyone.

Read Hebrews 13:15-16- “Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.”

Pray.

Introduction to the book of Hebrews.

When we read through the book of Hebrews, we find a preoccupation with the future.

Jesus is set forth as the fulfillment of all things, in particular, the fulfillment of all of the OT.

Jesus is better than the angels, better than the prophets, better than Moses. His priesthood is better than Aaron’s, His new covenant is better than the old covenant, His blood is better than the blood of bulls and goats.

Everything that was noteworthy in the OT is perfect and fulfilled in Jesus.

Thus, in a way, even in looking back, the author points everything forward to Jesus, and thrusts our minds into the future to consider how all that Jesus has done will be one day perfected.

Everything is future minded.

William Newell- “The subject of Hebrews is…our being brought into the glad company who are worshiping and praising God, Christ leading this worship…In Hebrews, as in no other book, is set forth a believing human being left here for a few years of pilgrim existence as to earth, but really occupied with Heaven, with the throne there…with the Great High Priest there, Jesus, the Son of God.”

We, then, ask the question- how do we find ourselves occupied with the realities of heaven, while still living here in the present?

For one of the answers, we look to our text.

1. Exploring Hebrews 13.

Largely a chapter that deals with the church’s responsibility to our fellow man.

Look at what all is covered:

Let brotherly love continue.

Show hospitality.

Visit those in prison.

Let marriage be held in honor.

Stay free from the love of money.

Remember your leaders.

Then right in the middle of all of these instructions on how we relate to those around us, come verses 15-16.

Offer up a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of your lips that acknowledge who He is.

Let’s take some time to observe what kind of words and phrases are used in our two verses this morning.

Responsibility to God in a section largely concerning our responsibility to man. The author begins our relationship with God by encouraging a continual sacrifice of praise.

1. Sacrifice of praise.

Much to consider here. The use of sacrifice elicits in the mind of believers the highest form of sacrifice, namely, that of Jesus Christ- His sacrificial life and death.

Reminded that our lives are sacrifices because of the sacrifice of Jesus.

He has paid the sacrifice for our sins, but has also shown us the perfect example of a sacrificial life, one we are to possess as well.

We live sacrificially as Jesus lived sacrificially.

Further, our minds are taken back to the OT, when sacrifices were given.

Not thinking so much of sacrifices for sin here, but instead of thank offerings.

These are not the atoning sacrifices, but instead the offerings given when people wanted to thank God for His salvation and His many gifts.

Picture this- bringing an offering to the priests to be used in their service as a way of saying thank you to God.

That is what is being spoken of here in Hebrews 13. We bring to God, to be used for His service in this world, a sacrifice of praise, or a thank offering.

Here is what I have, all of it. Here is my heart, expressed in the words that I speak. Use it all for the good of your Kingdom.

And we recognize the sacrificial nature of such an offering.

We give it all to God. It’s all His.

Maybe you buck against such an idea. Please allow me to share some words of encouragement with you.

David McWilliams- “We Christians are loved, loved eternally, loved incredibly, loved magnificently, forgiven of infinite debt, we commune with our covenant Lord, we are children of the King, we are upon his heart, and the intercession of Christ our Priest secures our perseverance to the end: how can we do other than offer a sacrifice of praise?”

No other response is appropriate when we consider all of what God has done on our behalf.

So the question remains- why this talk of our relationship with God, our responsibility toward Him, when everything else is about our common man?

They’re directly related. Love God, worship God, honor God in our love and respect for others.

Let’s look at a few more phrases found in our text.

What does a sacrifice of praise look like practically?

Do good.

Beneficence. Speaking of doing what is good, in particular for the betterment of others.

Isaiah 1:16-17- “Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.”

In Isaiah’s speech to Judah, he begs them to turn from doing evil to doing good.

God’s people have always been tasked with the raising up of society, doing good for others, typically with no reward.

Matthew 10:8- “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay.”

One of the marking characteristics of Jesus’ ministry with His disciples is doing good for the betterment of others at cost to Himself.

We shouldn’t be surprised that this is meant to be a marking characteristic of the global church as well.

But how do we do good? What does it look like?

Share what you have.

We all understand this concept, and we teach it to our kids, but at some point, we lose sight of what we are teaching.

At the core of the concept of teaching kids to share- it’s the right thing to do, but also much of what kids have, they do not own.

They are given things from their parents and are expected to share what they have.

Luke 12:48- “Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.”

All that we have is from God. Thus it is possible to give of what we have been given.

Pleasing to God.

Isn’t this the aim of our lives? We live our lives concerning ourselves primarily with the vision of One.

Galatians 1:10- “For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.”

A mark of being a servant of Jesus is seeking only the approval of God, living a life to please Him.

John 12:42-43- “Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.”

We are reminded that all of our good works for the betterment of others

2. Applying Hebrews 13.

Hopefully we are prepared to offer our lives, our words, and our good works as a sacrifice of praise to God, a thank offering for all He has done on our behalf.

Remember, we give a sacrifice of praise to God when we do good. We do good when we share what we have. Such sharing is pleasing to God.

How do we please God? What is it that we have to share in the context of becoming a welcoming church?

Much to share, but let’s focus our attention in one area. Time. We have time to share.

Maybe you disagree. Perhaps you believe time to be the one luxury that you cannot be willing to share.

If we do not have time to share, then we have likely not created boundaries as we ought to.

Becoming generous with our money as an example- we create boundaries IN ORDER that we are able to obey God.

Trouble comes when we think we have no money to set aside to obey God’s commands because we are spending every cent.

What do we do instead? We budget our money. We prioritize. We create boundaries. And when we do this, we find ourselves to be free to obey God.

What if we looked at our time in a similar fashion. We ought to budget, to create boundaries, limits and priorities.

If we are unable to obey God with our time, then likely we need to clear some of the busyness from our schedule.

One step deeper. Return to budgeting money.

We do ourselves a disservice if we believe that some of our money is for God and the rest is for self.

When we budget, we ought to ask how God desires for us to use ALL of what we have.

Same is true for our time.

Did you notice in the text a highly important word that I have passed over up to this point? “Continually.”

This sacrifice of praise, shown in our doing good and giving what we have is not a part time job.

If we are to become a welcoming church, it will require, from each and every one of us, a sacrifice of time.

A couple of practical ideas.

Clear your Sunday, to the best of your ability.

Allow time for conversation to take place, or an invite out to eat for lunch, or time to pray with someone new.

Greet people with a sense of getting to know even the most basic information about them.

Be willing to share a bit about who you are. Remember, Jesus’ ministry was incarnational. He entered into the lives of others. We are to do the same.

Both of these suggestions require a giving of time.

We don’t see this as a negative, or something to grumble about. We are called to give joyfully from our wallets, we are also called to give joyfully of our time.

And we give joyfully because it gives praise to our God, and pleases our Father as a beautiful act of worship.

Hebrews 13:15-16- “Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.”