Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Think about something as we get started this morning.

You have a finite amount of time left on this planet.

(Average life expectancy is 78.6 for men in the US)

Hopefully you have all come to terms with that at some point prior to this morning, and I’m sure for many of you it has changed the way you live.

Perhaps it’s changed the way you eat wanting to make wise choices and extend your years as long as you are able.

Perhaps it’s motivated you to join the gym for the same reason.

For some of you it’s impacted your financial investments wanting to leave something behind to your children and grandchildren.

Hopefully for most of you, if not all of you, this concept has impacted your eternity.

You’ve made that all-important decision to repent from your sins and place your full faith and trust in Jesus Christ’s atoning death.

Those are all wise ways for us to respond to the reality that our time left on this planet is limited.

But there’s one more area that I’d like us to focus on this morning: Has your finite future made an impact on your relationships with your brothers in Christ?

Has the reality that your time is fleeting changed the way you relate to other believers?

Has it put a drive within you to see a brother sharpened in his walk with Christ as a result of his friendship with you?

Our text this morning as we wrap our conference is .

In this passage the author, in expounding on the glories of our salvation, commands us that we need to be intentional with the time we have remaining, to see our brothers-in-Christ spurred on towards a greater degree of Christ-likeness.

Body

Think about something as we get started this morning.

You have a finite amount of time left on this planet.

Hopefully you have all come to terms with that at some point prior to this morning, and I’m sure for many of you it has changed the way you live.

Perhaps it’s changed the way you eat wanting to make wise choices and extend your years as long as you are able.

Perhaps it’s motivated you to join the gym for the same reason.

For some of you it’s impacted your financial investments wanting to leave something behind to your children and grandchildren.

Hopefully for most of you, if not all of you, this concept has impacted your eternity.

You’ve made that all-important decision to repent from your sins and place your full faith and trust in Jesus Christ’s atoning death.

Those are all wise ways for us to respond to the reality that our time left on this planet is limited.

But there’s one more area that I’d like us to focus on this morning: Has your finite future made an impact on your relationships with your brothers in Christ?

Has the reality that your time is fleeting changed the way you relate to other believers?

Has it put a drive within you to see a brother sharpened in his walk with Christ as a result of his friendship with you?

Believe it or not this is actually commanded by God.

Our text this morning as we wrap our conference is .

In this passage the author, in expounding on the glories of our salvation, commands us that we need to be intentional with the time we have remaining, to see our brothers-in-Christ spurred on towards a greater degree of Christ-likeness.

Let’s get a running start so that we can make sure we understand the flow of the author’s argument.

Pick up with me and read .

(ESV) — 19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.

24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Prior even to this, in the rest of chapter 10, the writer has been reflecting on the glories of our all-sufficient Savior whose single offering has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

(ESV) — 11 And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.

12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.

14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

So then in 19 what we have is his transition to the effect that Christ’s sacrifice should have on our lives signalling this shift from theology to the application with that big “THEREFORE” right at the start of verse 19.

This application is given in three parts: 1) Let us draw near in full assurance of faith (verse 22) - this pertains to our vertical relationship with the Lord; 2) Let us hold fast the confession of our hope (verse 23) - this pertains to an inward resolve to remain steadfast in our faith; 3) Let us consider how to stir up one another (verse 24) - this pertains to our horizontal relationships with one another.

In other words, the gospel has an all-encompassing impact on our lives.

It impacts us vertically, inwardly, and horizontally.

As men I think we get the vertical and even the inward parts of the gospel’s impact on us.

“I’ve been made right with God, I have a relationship with him, and there’s an inward conviction that I will hold on to with all of my resolve.”

But it’s this last element, the horizontal relationships that we have with one another, that drove the vision for this conference.

This is an area I feel that we can all grow in, and if we will, I believe it will have resounding effects on the spiritual health and vitality of our families and of our church.

As a result of our relationship with God through Christ and our inward resolve and steadfast hope our relationships with one another are to be different.

(ESV) — 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Right away a word that should jump out at us is the word “consider.”

“Let us consider..”

It’s a first-person-plural command.

In other words, the author was putting himself and his audience in the way of the command.

This isn’t a suggestion or the author’s own feelings.

This is a direct order, backed by the authority of the Word of God.

We should, we must…CONSIDER

“consider how to stir up one another...”

Consider.

Not a big action verb is it?

Not, “go, do, be, change, fight, say, defend…”

Consider—To consider is to give intentional concentrated thought to something.

No one stumbles into this.

Consider.

Not a big action verb is it?

Not, “go, do, be, change, fight, say, defend…”

Consider—To consider is to give intentional concentrated thought to something.

No one stumbles into this.

Consider—To consider is to give intentional concentrated thought to something.

No one stumbles into this.

(ESV) — 6 Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.

7 Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, 8 she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest.

Solomon here is instructing his son to pay special attention to the ways of an ant.

Why?

Because after considering these things he wants his son to do something.

Consideration is intentional, it’s a ruminating, a marinating of the mind wherein we intentionally contemplate, fix our thoughts on something usually with some action as the intended end.

So the author of Hebrews commands us that we are to consider…what?

Consider what?

We are to consider...how to “stir up” one another.

There’s another phrase to pause and look at more closely, to consider, “stir up.”

Even in English we get the imagery at work here, don’t we?

To stir up is to provoke, to incite, to rouse.

It’s an unexpected word in this context.

The normal use of this verb isn’t positive.

(ESV) — 39 And there arose a sharp disagreement, so that they separated from each other.

Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus, Conclusion

Conclusion

In other words, the picture here is that we’re to be an irritant that won’t allow our brothers to stagnate spiritually.

Be the burr in the saddle, be the pebble in the shoe for the sake of your fellow men.

Illustration: For a long time my dad struggled to get involved with the local church, to get involved in relationships like these.

Until he finally sat down with a pastor and opened up to this passage and told him, “This is what I need.

I need to be stirred up.”

To what end?

To the end that they excel in “love and good works.”

It’s point number one for us today...

Plan to provoke righteousness in your brothers.

“Love” for one another suggests a call to unity, something that may have been lacking among the original recipients, and “good works,” which is the natural product of a biblical love () You might ask, “What are these good deeds?

How do I do this?”

That’s why the command is there for us to consider, to give intentional thought to this.