10 24-25
Hebrews Series- Fellowship Baptist Church
Passage: Hebrews 10:24-25
Theme: The Life Produce by the New and Living Way
Proposition: The New Life Seeks to Encourage Other Christians
Introduction:
The life of the believer is to be radically different from that of the one who has never come to know God as their Father. Here, in this section of Hebrews 10, we have been introduced to two areas in which our thinking is to change:
1. We are to be people who draw near to God because of the assurance that our faith gives us that we stand forgiven, cleansed, and accepted because of the blood of Christ.
2. We are to be people who hold onto the hope we have in Christ, never yielding to the temptation to give up and quit, because we know that God is faithful to finish the good work He has begun in us.
This brings us to the third area in which our lives are to be different—we are to be people who seek to encourage the other believers God has brought into out lives. This way of living involves a deliberate, planned, sacrificial strategy in our lives with the objective being that we all, as a community, become more like Christ in our daily lives.
Read verses.
Let’s look at what we are to learn from God’s word in this area of helping each other become what God desires us to be.
1. This way of life involves all Christians
Let us
This is not a way of life that is reserved for some special class of Christians
It is for the leadership of the church and those that are led
It is for the more mature believer and the less mature believer
It is for the teacher and the student
It is for those who know their bible well and those who do not
In short, no one who claims to be a child of God is exempt from this instruction.
2. This way of life demands concentrated effort
Consider – to consider closely, to give careful consideration, to be concerned about with the implication of a response
We are not talking about the busybody who knows everyone’s business just so that they feel in the loop and important:
Illustration of someone wanting tapes to know what the requests were – no effort to do anything, just wanted to be in the know
Illustration of woman at the bakery in Linden – she knows everyone’s business
This is a person who is looking for ways to know the person, with a specific objective in mind. It is not about self satisfaction because I know, it is what I intend to do with the knowledge that helps the other person.
3. This way of life seeks what is best for others
Stir up one another to love and good works
Stir up – in the positive it means to stimulate, motivate, but when used in a negative sense it communicates intense anger or hostility.
Strong encouragement – intensity of emotion
To love and good works
Love for God that results in a love for others that produces good works
It is an outward action produced by an inward attitude
It is not simply warm fuzzy feelings of affection but rather a driving motivation that seeks what is best for the other person and devises ways to accomplish what is best.
4. This way of life is fulfilled within the community of the local church
Not neglecting to meet together as the habit of some is
Lit. “Not abandoning the gathering together”
Some have sought to use this to mean that a Christian should never miss a Church service for any reason. But that is not what is being referred to. It is referring to a intentional, habitual practice of avoidance.
When is it right to “break fellowship?”
When doctrinal error is being tolerated or biblical mandates are being violated.
What would cause us to develop this type of wrong behavior?
Our own selfishness that is annoyed by the faults and flaws of others
Failure to love, failure to recognize own flaws
Desire avoid personal confrontation of tolerated sin
Plain old fashioned laziness
But encouraging one another
If we really do what verse 24 states, consider, we can find a myriad of ways to encourage one another. What are areas we can identify in which we need encouragement?
When we struggle with sin
When we are pressure by unbelievers in our life
When we think about quitting in some area of our Christian life—
when our faith is weak
When other Christians we love give up
When we have a hard time understanding God’s plan in our life
When we are questioning God’s goodness
When we have someone in our life that irritates us or is difficult to love
When the leadership of the church makes decisions we don’t agree with
We must also understand that this encouragement to love and good works is to taking place in the times we have set aside to gather together. That is why it is important for us to be here. We have a task to accomplish every time we step out of our car in the parking lot.
It should begin with prayer
It should be a commitment we make
It requires a plan to be aware
It requires the grace of God
5. This way of life always has room for improvement in this life
All the more as you see the Day drawing near
What is “The Day”
Could refer to time or period of coming persecution (which is hinted at in Hebrews 12) or the rapture before the tribulation
Whatever “the day” refers to, the point is that this activity is to be more and more a priority of our lives as time passes and there is never a time when we can say, in this life that we have finally accomplished our objective.
We need to be people of faith who draw near to God.
We need to be people of hope who never forget what God has promised.
We need to be people of love, who encourage others to love and good works.
As Paul wrote to us in 1 Corinthians 13:
So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.