Daily Conditioning (encouragement to keep hardness away)

Communion

Tuesday we will all probably eat a bunch of processed meat, spend time outdoors, and to close off the night, blow a bunch of stuff up. Love it.

But we do that to commemorate the signing of the declaration of independance. The day a group of colonies chose to create a new nation, born in liberty and justice…We’ve had and will have our bumps along the way, and no nation lasts forever, the day is worthy of celebration.

on July 4 1826, as the nation celebrated it’s 50th birthday, John Adams, the second president of the US lay on his deathbed. His life spent on the forging of this nation, but now he knew it was ending.

Adams had accomplished much in his 90 years. Yet, interestingly, Adams’s final words were simply, “Thomas Jefferson survives.” Apparently above all else, the thing that gave our nation’s second president the most satisfaction in his final moments was not reflecting on what had been done, but rather the hope that someone he trusted, his fellow patriot and founding father Thomas Jefferson, was still alive. Unbeknownst to Adams, however, just five hours earlier that same day, in Virginia, Thomas Jefferson had passed away.

The story of Adams’s final moments is helpful to us as we consider and contemplate the meaning of Communion. First, it reminds us that true satisfaction and contentment in life shouldn’t come from our own accomplishments and successes, but rather from a deeply held hope in the future. As Christ followers, we know hope comes from believing that someone we love and trust is still alive and at work. Second, it reminds us that no matter how honorable our intentions, to place hope and trust in anyone other than Jesus Christ is folly.

In Communion, we are invited to remember that the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ provide us with eternal hope for the future. As the apostle wrote: “The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever” (1 John 2:17). And, so, we have this same eternal hope that our work, service, and suffering for him are not in vain—because we trust in him for today and for tomorrow.

Please join me in taking the elements

1 Corinthians 11:23-26 “For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”

Pray

Dismiss kids

Announcements

Picnic August 6

fireworks

Blueberry Fest July 15th

Camps

Summer schedule

Potluck

Sermon

If there is one thing I know…besides movie quotes and random trivia…it’s hair care.

Despite Allie Merchant comparing my head to Gru yesterday, I get how it works.

I know the importance of clean hair, and since the only hair I have left on my head is pretty course, I understand the importance of conditioner.

Now I personally use a regimine of beard oil to keep this bad boy from being an itchy scratch mess, but there is a variety of thoughts on the subject.

pause

We use conditioners for a lot of things.

We might use Armor All to condition and protect leather in our car

You keep a leather jacket in good condition, by…conditioning

We even refer to workouts designed to keep our body resilient to injury and wear…conditioning

Scripture, and particularly our one another for this week, are concerned with a very particular kind of conditioning. Our hearts.

When scripture speaks of the heart, it’s not the organ that keeps you alive. It is the wholeness of who you are, it’s where you make choices, set your priorities, it directs the will to action.

But our hearts have a big problem. Jeremiah the prophet said

Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable—who can understand it?”

in the middle of a poem about trust.

The one who trusts the Lord, whose confidence is in the Lord, is blessed.

Like a tree with fresh new green growth, roots in the water, confident in drought, never not bearing fruit.

And then this weird line, almost feels out of place…except Jeremiah begins to look at how despite what we could have in our trust of the Lord, we are betrayed…by our hearts.

One of the consistent descriptions of a heart refusing to trust or surrender to God is a hardened heart.

Pharoah had a hardened heart that led him to oppress Israel. God offered him an escape from judgement…let my people go…but his hard heart led him all the way to destruction for his people.

Ahab was an evil king of Israel whose hard heart was offended by a farmer who wouldn’t sell property…so in his heart, he conspired with his wife to have the man killed.

Several examples in scripture of men and women with hard hearts, refusing…unable to experience life as God intended...

Let’s pause on that for a second…I keep reminding us, God intended us to be his partners and image bearers, his representatives to rule the world as he would.

But Adam made a choice to not trust (look, there’s our theme…)

Cain didn’t trust that God had enough favor for him and Abel

And we read of time and time again that humanity forfiets being trees planted by streams…because our hearts got hard and deceived us…as Jeremiah said…incurable…who can understand?

Unable to experience life as God intended, trusting him, giving of ourselves for others. Filled with the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control.

Filled with a readiness to deny ourselves

Filled with the confidence that God is on the throne, that our worries and hopes and all in between are firmly in his hands. Leaving us free to love one another.

You probably have examples of people with hard hearts running through our mind. Please ask those people to leave your mind for a moment.

The heart is deceitful above all…and the heart would love nothing more for you to think about others with hard hearts right now.

But I…I need to worry about me. And you need to worry about you. Because my heart can get hard like that. And a hard heart had some pretty devastating consequences.

Here are some signs, and some consequences.

Consequences of a Hard Heart

Distance from God

Let’s start at the worst, and most tricky to see, especially for the religious.

This should be obvious, if trusting God is the source of a healthy heart, remember our tree example…then a hard heart will create distance between you and God.

…not on his part. But in the same way a couple who quits trusting can sleep in the same bed and feel like there are miles between them…we can easily and subtly do that to God.

Uzziah was one of the good kings of Judah.

Became king at 16, and check out 2 Chronicles description of him:

2 Chronicles 26:4-5 “He did what was right in the Lord’s sight just as his father Amaziah had done. He sought God throughout the lifetime of Zechariah, the teacher of the fear of God. During the time that he sought the Lord, God gave him success.”

He had a soft heart. But then, sometime after his teacher in the fear of the Lord died...

2 Chronicles 26:16 “But when he became strong, he grew arrogant, and it led to his own destruction. He acted unfaithfully against the Lord his God by going into the Lord’s sanctuary to burn incense on the incense altar.”

Full story is in 1 Kings 13, but the bottom line was he decided God was holding out on him, ONLY letting him be king, and he wanted to be priest too.

When the priests stood up to him, he lost his temper and God gave him leprosy so he had to rule from quarantine, through his son for the rest of his life.

He trusted God…until he didn’t. The problem, he didn’t see his heart harding, one day he just decided God’s ways weren’t his. He could decide. And when we lose sight of God, when we experience distance, we can quickly find a...

Lack of Compassion

I’ll go back to Pharoah. If you aren’t familiar with the book of Exodus, it follows the story at the end of Genesis, where Joseph, and the people of Israel preserve Egypt through a famine.

They are welcomed to establish themselves as a community in Egypt with gratitude.

Then time passes and there comes a pharoah with a hard heart.

Check out this thinking:

Exodus 1:8-10 “A new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt. He said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and powerful than we are. Come, let’s deal shrewdly with them; otherwise they will multiply further, and when war breaks out, they will join our enemies, fight against us, and leave the country.””

The people of Israel continue to multiply even under this oppression, so where does a hard heart go? He says this to the midwives who helped the Israelites with labor:

Exodus 1:16 ““When you help the Hebrew women give birth, observe them as they deliver. If the child is a son, kill him, but if it’s a daughter, she may live.””

When that doesn’t work, because the midwives as is their style…had compassion...

Exodus 1:22 “Pharaoh then commanded all his people, “You must throw every son born to the Hebrews into the Nile, but let every daughter live.””

Do you see how a hard heart, not trusting God, distorts his view of reality to the point of slavery and infanticide?

Most of the worst evils in this world started with a lack of trust in God’s generosity, a need to protect themselves or their tribe, and wham…you have most genocides, wars, and the little simple acts of indifference you and I participate in daily without noticing.

Lack of compassion is sneaky.

If a brother or sister of yours lost their work, lost their home, and you found them begging on the street, living in their car, you would have compassion...

But the sight has become common enough, and makes us uncomfortable enough…that isn’t our go to, to ignore, to avoid, to complain about the government’s failure to keep the streets clean...

Just because they didn’t grow up with you, are they less my brother? See how easily our hearts can be hard?

A friend or coworker treats you poorly, they don’t seem to care…so we stop caring.

Your spouse wasn’t just what you were hoping for when you had a need, so when they need someone to lean on…you aren’t as warm as you would have been.

To have compassion is to empathize and with someone who is suffering and feel compelled to reduce it.

When our hearts get hard, we get very good at explaining why it’s for their benefit, or how it wouldn’t do any good for us to show them compassion.

Last one that I’m going to look at, though there are certainly more.

Anxiety

This ties into the last one pretty strongly, but worth mentioning on it’s own.

Not saying there aren’t genuine anxiety disorders, and I highly recommend the use of counselors and have seen the positive impact the medical field can have in certain cases.

But I am looking specifically at the ordinary anxiety and worry every one of us carry around…needlessly.

When I quit trusting God, this is one of my earliest warning lights.

In an anxious state, we begin to see nothing but the needs unmet, the problems that can’t be overcome, and our bodies will move into fight or flight mode, stress begins to overwhelm us, and we will become focused on ourselves.

See how that ties to lack of compassion? Hard to care about someone else when your eyes are all on your lack.

My own struggles here are why when I preached through the sermon on the mount last summer I was so passionate about certain passages.

Matthew 6:25-34 ““Therefore I tell you: Don’t worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothing? … Can any of you add one moment to his life span by worrying? … So don’t worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you. Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

And in all the passages above about money, prayer, fasting, loving your enemies, and the passages below about judgement and the kingdom, we examined how the way we see God and his generosity IS EVERYTHING here.

To summarize all those points, we can look at King David. He was the man who had God’s heart. He did great. Through betrayal, his own sin, the pain of loss and more…as he lay on his deathbed, he told his son to murder people who had offended him....how did the man after God’s own heart become this? His heart got hard.

At this point, you’re probably thinking…so where is the one another?

Let me tell a quick Bible story first.

In the book of Numbers, the people of Israel under Moses are getting ready to go into the promised land.

They send 12 spies to check it out.

The land is amazing. Grapes the size of your head.

10 of them then added, “But we don’t have a chance of beating the giants who live here. If we go in, we’ll all die.

2 tried to remind the people that God had you know…liberated them from Egypt with a heap ton of miracles…including opening a lake…

But the voice of the 10 prevailed

Numbers 14 tells us they immediately reject the plan to go in

Numbers 14:10 “While the whole community threatened to stone them, the glory of the Lord appeared to all the Israelites at the tent of meeting.”

This leads to another 40 years of wandering for the people. Later generations wrote a song.

Most of Psalm 95 is a praise of God’s might and goodness, but it ends with a warning.

Psalm 95:7b-11 “...Today, if you hear his voice: Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah, as on that day at Massah in the wilderness where your ancestors tested me; they tried me, though they had seen what I did. For forty years I was disgusted with that generation; I said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray; they do not know my ways.” So I swore in my anger, “They will not enter my rest.””

The Conditioner for Hard Hearts

The writer of Hebrews is writing a letter to a church of mostly Jewish Christians facing threats from the inside and outside.

Jewish and Roman neighbors are threatening persecution

There is intense pressure to give up on the gospel

And if you read the whole letter, clearly the writer is concerned that they are starting to compromise their trust in God, their love, their faith.

Knowing they know their Hebrew scriptures, after reminding them of who Jesus is, the author writes in the part of Psalm 95 that I just read out loud.

What was the Psalm writers concern? Same as the writer of this letter: DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS.

This is a day of testing you are enduring…don’t get hard. TRUST GOD.

And then we get the conditioner to prevent and restore hard hearts.

Hebrews 3:12-13 “Watch out, brothers and sisters, so that there won’t be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage each other daily, while it is still called today, so that none of you is hardened by sin’s deception.”

Encouragement

What are we doing with encouragement…is it simply, “You can do it”?

No, the issue of a hard heart is one of distrust, unbelief, in God’s goodness and generosity.

It happens when we start to believe that there’s not enough of God and goodness to go around, and we assume we’re being short-changed.

So encouragement is all about reminding one another that God is who he says he is.

It’s pointing back to Him and his faithfulness

How does Encouragement combat a hard heart?

Balances the Noise

We accidentally turned on the news yesterday.

Boy that was fun. Negative, negative, negative, woman pulled in rip current saved by courageous surfer (yay), tornadoes, airlines, boo

And if we think it’s just the news that’s negative, keep in mind, they know what keeps an audience…so they send the signals that our brains are looking for.

What’s easier to remember, something nice someone said when you were 10, or something negative a teacher or classmate said about you?

I can remember THAT nice things were said…but only a few stand out.

But the voices that criticized, belittled, brought shame? Some of those still echo. And even if we’re not thinking about them, they shape us and can and will harden our hearts.

It’s interesting to watch the ministry of Jesus.

His only harsh words were for the religious and those who had power.

The woman caught in the act of adultery?

John 8:10-11 “When Jesus stood up, he said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, Lord,” she answered. “Neither do I condemn you,” said Jesus. “Go, and from now on do not sin anymore.”]”

A short tax collector/criminal everybody else hated?

Luke 19:9-10 ““Today salvation has come to this house,” Jesus told him, “because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.””

Jesus balanced the noise. He continually brought words of life to those who were in the pit of despair. He reminded them who they are and WHOSE they were.

Daily

Hebrews 3:13a “But encourage each other daily, while it is still called today”

How great is the concern over a church filling with hard hearts?

DO IT EVERY DAY.

Take a look at the next verse:

Hebrews 3:14 “For we have become participants in Christ if we hold firmly until the end the reality that we had at the start.”

That “IF” is scary. We are participants in Christ IF we hold firmly until the end THE REALITY that we had.

What is that reality?

That God is good and that God loves you and that God is worth trusting.

the passage goes on to reference the story that song was referencing and asks some hard questions:

Who heard and rebelled? Those who God rescued through Moses.

Who didn’t enter rest? Those who disobeyed… verse 19

Hebrews 3:19 “So we see that they were unable to enter (God’s rest) because of unbelief.”

So he tells the church, this church in a moment of crisis far worse than our situation in the USA 2023, Don’t stop encouraging each other.

Encouragement reminds us of God’s truth, the reality we had from the start.

It renews our hope, increases our faith, and gives us courage to take risks in deepening relationships, following Jesus, denying ourselves, being the church, the humanity God created us to be!

And key, it preserves us during the most difficult times.

Historically, studies of Pastors have shown there is always a group thinking about quitting. between 10 and 20 percent contemplate it.

As of the end of 2022, that number is almost 40%. With younger pastors being a substantial portion of that group.

When you boil down the reasons?

They feel discouraged. Their hearts have gotten hard.

I would be lying if I pretended I don’t fight hardness of heart daily.

But here’s the thing…these are people…who are in scripture and teach encouragement, do a lot of encouragement…daily…and their hearts get hard…they struggle to trust God

Think you’re immune? Think I am, Caleb is, every sunday school teacher and deacon or elder?

We ALL need encouragement DAILY to keep our hearts from getting hard.

How?

One issue. I’m telling you you need encouragement daily…but can you do that for yourself?

Actually, you can do some of it.

As much as we characterize the Stuart Smalley’s of the world:

I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and gosh darnit people like me

Science agrees with scripture that we benefit from self-encouragement.

1 Peter 1:13 “Therefore, with your minds ready for action, be sober-minded and set your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

The English ruins this…the phrase reads in Greek: Gird up the loins of your mind…In other words, tuck your robe into your belt so you are ready to run. and then set your hope on that reality we’ve been discussing.

But the writer of Hebrews is emphasizing that we really, really need each other.

I need you, and we all need each other to be encouraged.

The stakes are high.

Hebrews just reminded us that an entire generation of Israel that got hard hearts missed the chance to enter the promised land.

So let’s talk some HOW.

Easiest one first

Words

Oh the dangers of a sharp tongue. If we really knew the impact of our words…we would be so much more careful.

Proverbs 18:21 “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.”

As I reviewed my notes this morning, I could think of ways words had crushed me yesterday.

And then I remembered the way my son and my wife gave me the gift of life with words when I needed them most.

So one, be careful you aren’t using your words to discourage. None of us are perfect here…so we can all be better.

Two, use your words on purpose to build up. Not fluff. Not ego building.

Remind one another of God’s goodness. Point to the things God is doing in lives right now.

Help people see the way their lives are having a kingdom impact, that they matter.

Demonstrate God’s Nature

One of the best ways to remind people of the reality of God’s goodness, is to demonstrate it.

Forgive when it isn’t earned

Give of what you have for the blessing of another

As Jesus said in the sermon on the mount,

Matthew 5:38-42 ““You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I tell you, don’t resist an evildoer. On the contrary, if anyone slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. As for the one who wants to sue you and take away your shirt, let him have your coat as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to the one who asks you, and don’t turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.”

Offer to pray

This one feels obvious, but we can be so hesitant.

We like to say, I’ll pray for you.

But we hesitate to say, How can I be praying? or even more, Can I pray for you right now?

Prayer is a demonstration of trust in God.

When we show confidence that God cares by taking a person’s need before the Lord they experience 2 things.

They can believe a little more that God is interested

And they know you are.

Serve

We just hit this a couple weeks ago, but worth repeating

1 Peter 4:10 “Just as each one has received a gift, use it to serve others, as good stewards of the varied grace of God.”

Especially when we work together, there is nothing more encouraging.

one of the Most encouraging moments i remember was on a mission trip to Guatamala, there was a group building a new church building.

The concrete was being mixed on the ground, someone scooped it in a bucket, then the bucket was passed up a line, up ramps, to the top of the wall, where it was skillfully poured into the forms.

We joined in. Couldn’t speak to each other, they didn’t even speak Spanish, so there was no overlap...

But They were encouraged by our joining the line, we encouraged to sere with them.

If you haven’t found a place to serve at HCC, I encourage you to join the team. You’ll be an encouragement to others, and you’ll find your own in the working together.

Conclusion (worship team up)

there was your challenge for today. In words, in grace, in prayer, and in service…encourage one another.

DAILY

Now, you might not see everyone every day…but you see someone.

Who do you see? They are your calling in that moment.

Coworker

Family

Church

Barista

Checkout clerk

The man who can’t quite reach the top shelf at the store

The one on the corner

The one who needs mercy

The one who hurt you

The one you hurt

Fight the hardening of your heart. Ask the Lord to show you where it’s already happened.

I promise this, because the hardening of the heart usually happens in painful times…the healing of a hardened heart usually means feeling that pain again.

great incentive to fight to stay soft in the first place...

But I also say that to say it’s worth it to find peace, joy, hope, and love again.

But more than your own heart, in each and every relationship and interaction, go to war against the hardening hearts of One Another. And the weapons of this war are encouragement.

Pray