Jesus - Give Him Your Attention!

We will wrap up this series next week at our Christmas Services on the 21st & 24th. (Invite your friends and neighbors to come).

Hebrews

The Greatest Gift Ever Given - Jesus

Jesus - Give Him Your Attention!

The series we are currently in is Hebrews - The Greatest Gift Every Given “JESUS”. The Spirit directed us to Hebrews for a purpose, To refocus us on Jesus.

The message today will summarize all of the warnings of Hebrews into one final warning.

The title of the message today is: Jesus - Give Him Your Attention!

The purpose of the Hebrews series is to encourage us and remind us to keep moving forward.

To not give up.

To keep running the race.

For those of us that have put our faith in Jesus, we wake up every morning with incredibly good news. We have a High Priest in Jesus.

A High Priest that is greater than anything.

A High Priest that is close.

A High Priest that is mindful of us.

A High Priest that is not ashamed of us.

A High Priest that stands with us.

A High Priest that is faithful.

A High Priest that desires for us to fix our thoughts upon Him.

A High Priest that is our helper.

A High Priest that is our REST.

A High Priest that desires for us to be in an intimate trusting relationship with Father.

Please stand for the reading of the word of the Lord:

9 Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are convinced of better things in your case—the things that have to do with salvation. 10 God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. 11 We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, so that what you hope for may be fully realized. 12 We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised. Heb 6:9–12.

This is the word of the Lord.

Give your neighbor a high five and say, “In your case…..I am convinced of better things!”

I want to reemphasize few point about Hebrews that we have already covered over the last 4 weeks:

The author’s main objective is to collectively call the group of home churches to a

specific focus, to be diligent all the way to the end. To be intentional about staying focused.

All believers need to progress in the faith and in the advancement of the kingdom.

To accomplish that most people need to be challenged from time to time to get back in step with biblical principles. We need to be reminded!

The word of God summons believers to evaluate their lives and encourages us to move forward in the pursuit of holiness.

Today is not a message about what we are doing wrong or are not doing.

Today’s message is with the same heart of the author of Hebrews. A heart to encourage a group of believers to be diligent all the way to the end.

The Main Warning of Hebrews:

Paying attention is extremely important in life in general and especially in our spiritual discipleship.

The book of Hebrews has a lot of warnings that the author is challenging us to pay attention to.

Over the prior 4 weeks we discussed most of these warnings:

2:1 “pay careful attention so you don’t drift away”

3:6 “we are his house if we hold firm to our confidence and hope”

3:12 “see to it that none of you has a sinful heart”

4:11 “make every effort to enter the rest’

10:26-27 “don’t keep on sinning”

All of these warnings are summarized in the verses of Hebrews 5:11-14.

11 We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. 12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. 6 Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, 2 instruction about cleansing rites, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And God permitting, we will do so.

Hebrews 5:11–6:3.

The author is encouraging every reader of Hebrews to take serious the personal effort it takes to strive forward to maturity.

Faith is not passive; it requires committed effort and training.

Every single day when we rise, we choose to pick up our crosses.

We choose to be crucified with Christ in all that we do.

The Cultural Impact of our Lack of Maturity

How do you know if you are mature?

How do you know if the person beside you is mature?

Going to church?

How much of the Bible is read?

How many sermons are listened to?

How many faith based books fill a library?

Our culture, along with the technology that surrounds us, makes it incredibly difficult to be a mature believer as defined by the writer of Hebrews.

Unlike when Hebrews was written, today there is a massive amount of Christian media content. From literature in commentaries, to theology, to books on every single topic you can imagine, to hymns and music, to devotional guides, to the availability of sermons on demand all over the internet. It all amounts to content in the hundreds of millions (maybe more).

We have so much content and our culture is throwing it at us faster than we can actually digest it. Everyone has an opinion about everything. Just look at Facebook, Instagram, or whatever your medium of choice is; hundreds of millions of Christian opinions and short reels, telling 20 second bits.

We have created a culture that shares information in seconds.

Those seconds of information are being used to form beliefs.

The headlines are forming us.

The problem is headlines and opinions are not the meat of the story of our faith.

We have more content at our finger tips today than in any other point in history, yet there are fewer mature Christians in our culture today than at any point in our history.

I have heard a number of pastors recently make the following statement, “We don’t have a content problem, we have an implementation problem.”...............(REPEAT)

I believe our generation has become spiritually hard of hearing.

We are being filled with one liners and headlines.

Quick to scroll to the next “thing”.

Allowing the algorithm to dictate what we see and hear.

Maturity doesn’t come from quick hits.

The habits we are forming in regards to the way we are engaging with our culture are spilling over into how we are engaging our spiritual lives………….(REPEAT)

What I am going to say may be confrontational or even controversial. However, I believe it needs to be said because I believe this is the single biggest problem facing most believers and I don’t think most of us are aware of this issue.

I see many people reading books, listening to sermons, listening to podcasts, getting scriptures of the day, reading a daily devotion, implementing the latest discipleship strategy, starting the latest program, on and on it goes. These are all good things. They are valuable things. But they are also counterfeit things.

We have a generation being trained to listen to every voice except the voice that matters most; The voice of the Holy Spirit.

Bob Sorge in his book “The Secrets of The Secret Place” said it best. “When you hear a sermon you are listening to someone else’s insights in the word, but in the secret place, you are receiving insights from Jesus that are custom made just for you. It’s a word straight from His mouth to your heart. Personalized words from the scriptures, have the power through the Holy Spirit, to sustain and carry you through life‘s greatest trials. This is the true fountain of life!”

Where does scripture back up my comments?

But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. John 14:26

As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him. 1 John 2:27

Everyday we form habits, either intentionally or unintentionally.

The habits we allow to be formed by the way we engage with our culture……..spill over into how we engage with our spiritual experience.

Immature believers spend a lot of time seeking content of what others say and teach.

Mature believers spend the majority of their time being taught directly by the Holy Spirit.

Immature believers spend more time being informed.

Mature believers spend more time being formed.

The author of Hebrews, in 5:14, sneaks in a very quick and simple definition of maturity:

14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. Hebrews 5:14

The key points/phrases the author uses are:

Solid Food

Constant Use

Trained Themselves

As I read this verse, I spent a bit of time meditating on the phrase “distinguish good from evil”; I realized this is one of the by-products of maturity. The ability to distinguish good from evil.

As I was meditating, another verse came to mind:

For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

2 Timothy 4:3–4

Let’s pause for a moment here. I want to focus on two things in 2 Timothy 4:3-4

They will gather around them a great number of teachers.

Away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

This is the warning from Hebrews that we live with!!!!

Doesn’t this sound like our culture? This warning is what we are bombarded with everyday.

We have access to a great number of teachers that we can gather around us with the click of a finger or the scroll of a thumb.

Turning away from truth towards myths. That sounds a lot like fake news.

On top of those you add the danger of AI and voice overlays. You can literally create anything you want and it is getting harder and harder to determine what is real and what is a myth.

I’m going to say it again…………….This is the warning from Hebrews that we live with!!!!

Whether you are new to the faith or have been a believer for a long time, you have to become someone that becomes committed to the “The Way”:

Consuming solid food.

Constantly using what you have learned.

Continue to train yourself from the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Testimony Story (The Hiding Place Story):

Let me give you an example of what I am talking about regarding “training yourself from the guidance of the Holy Spirit.”

I have all of these books, but my training practice is to “Ask the Holy Spirit,.....Base on what you are teaching me what book do you want me to read.”

We must be grounded in the truth of one opinion, not the opinion of many!

Church, I implore you, hone your ears to one voice, not many voices.

Listen to the words of The Christ!

Listen to the words of the Messiah!

May your ears not be itching for something else. May your ears not be itching for something quick and convenient. I pray that your heart will burn for the gold that is refined in the fire. May your heart burn for the treasure offered to you by Jesus.

Do you recall the first sermon in this Hebrew series? It was entitled “The Letter to Remember - Jesus is Greater”. In that sermon the Spirit was challenging our congregation to not be like the church of Laodicea, the lukewarm church. In that letter the challenge to the church was:

18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. Revelation 3:18

Buy from Him the gold refined in the fire!

The place that begins at is the feet of Jesus.

Jesus is our solid food.

The Holy Spirit is our teacher and our trainer.

Our role right now, at this time in history, is to be different.

Choosing to be formed by the Holy Spirit’s voice, not other opinions and voices.

We must become a prophetic alternative narrative to the story of our society?

The world is begging us to be mature in our faith.

The world is searching for truth, love, and hope.

The truth, love, and hope the world is looking for is inside you.

Your time in The Secret Place purchasing gold refined in the fire matters.

Why does it matter?

The world’s ears are itching for truth.

You are the light of that truth because Jesus is in you.

The time has come in which it is YOUR TURN to rise up and SHARE THE THINGS JESUS HAS DONE FOR YOU.

The testimony Jesus has given you matters.

The testimony Jesus has given you matters to everyone the Holy Spirit nudges you to love on.

The Secret Place is where you intentionally engage with The Holy Spirit to become mature. (Let me give a small example of something that happened to me a few weeks ago).

On November 28th I hiked into the wilderness to my Secret Place:

I got up at 5am and started hiking around 5:45. (I love going early this time of year and start hiking with a headlamp………it’s fun to watch the day awake).

As I stepped into The Secret Place I felt the nudge of Spirit tell my heart:

You have come today to purchase gold from me.

You used to get up early to do your will, things that got between me & you.

I then realized what day it was.

It was “Black Friday” (The day the world gets up early to go purchase something at a discount.)

I spent the entire day being with Father.

Spirit spoke to me and shared a single lesson with me.

It took nearly all day for the lesson.

A point that I need to be aware of.

Spirit directed me to Isaiah 2, Psalms 4, Psalms 14.

There were two themes:

Going to the mountain of the Lord as the place to learn his ways.

Idols that separate man from God.

I asked Spirit, “Search my heart for any idol I am not aware of.”

I asked Spirit, “What are my idols?”

At the very end of the day, as I was getting ready to leave, the answer presented itself.

Anything that keeps you away from The Secret Place with Me…….. is your idol………..(REPEAT)

Jesus - Wants Your Attention!

Benediction

9 Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are convinced of better things in your case—the things that have to do with salvation. 10 God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. 11 We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, so that what you hope for may be fully realized. Hebrews 6:9–11