Press On!
Hebrews Warnings • Sermon • Submitted
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· 20 viewsThe season of preparation sometimes takes place during times of persecution. God encourages up to persevere or press on to maturity.
Notes
Transcript
1 Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,
Introduction
Dr. Michael Osterholm, a newly appointed Covid-19 advisor to President-elect Joe Biden, told CNBC that the pandemic in the U.S. will face its darkest period so far over the next three to four months.He said that the U.S. is “about to enter Covid hell” as hospitals begin to report more patients.Osterholm’s concern about the looming winter months echoes that of Biden, who also said on Monday that the U.S. is “still facing a very dark winter.”
The Press is against us!
Not only this, but just dealing with the everyday struggle of life. Working jobs that have made it common place to underpay its associates, while working longer hours that seem to never end; The Press is against us!
Or maybe your the single mother or father who has lost her job to COVID 19 and the government has used us like political pawns in dishing out federal assistance. The Press is against us!
Rent payments behind, student loans out of control, and being pent up in the home for over 9 months has placed everyone on the brink to take a trip to the nearest therapist starting with Pastors......The Press is against us!
Well if this is you, or you choose to add your own narrative to our dilemma, we need figure out some things in a hurry to keep our sanity.
Men kissing Men, abortion, human right violations mounting not in a 3rd world country, but the United States of America where over 500 children taken from their parents ......A historical narrative played out by this country......The Press is against us!
We are living in a time where we need to have discernment. How can we know right and wrong if our senses are dull? When trouble comes,whether personally, progressively, or pandemic-ally, how we respond during these times can let us know where we are in our relationship with the Lord. The word tells us......
24 “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.”
9 And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment,
10 so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ;
1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
We need to engage with the words of the Kingdom of God in order to press our way through this mess. What is pressing against you this morning? You and I and everyone else is pressing against a world that is hostile to Jesus and His people. Whether its from slavery to trump-ism, our ancestors made it, our mama’s and daddy’s made it, we can press on our way and make it too.
14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
What is God calling you to do today? He is calling us to step up our game, He calling us to Get with it; He’s calling us in the words of Jermaine Jackson, “ Lets get serious” Serious about what? Serious about maturity......
That was the Dilemma in the Hebrew Church.
They were not able to properly resist their world for many reasons. They were warned against drifting and told that Jesus was superior to the angels( Heb 1:1-2:4) ; Then we noted that Jesus is superior to Moses and that it was Dangerous to fall in the hands of a living God. (Heb 3.12-19)
Today we need find out one of the reasons the Hebrew church wanted to return to Judaism .....back to the old plan......return to the familiar paths and turn from Christianity and Jesus.
Point 1 -Press on from Laziness
In
Heb 4:14-5:10) The writer of Hebrews is preaching about superiority of Jesus priesthood and expressing High Christology about the Melchizedek priesthood.....and by the time he gets to (Heb 5.11) he stops....and He gives the reason he has to stop his reasoning.....they have become dull of hearing
Dull of Hearing means to become LAZY and SLUGGISH
11 We have a great deal to say about this, and it’s difficult to explain, since you have become too lazy to understand.
The preacher stop his train of thought and shifted gears.....He points his listeners to an athletic illustration as one who is trained and discipline through a solid nourishment of the word of God.....It is through this training that they are prepared to press on......If your not prepared and trained for this world we live in, then we can live a life stuck ...... failing to engage the word in the spirit realm through prayer and fasting to live practical in theis present evil age
12 instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age,
Illustration
Allergies Are a Failure in the Body’s Ability to Discern
John 7:24; 2 Corinthians 11:13–15; Philippians 1:9–10; Hebrews 5:14; 1 John 4:1
Preaching Themes: False Teaching, Healing, Wisdom
Every spring, 35 million Americans get hay fever. Springtime allergies occur when the body’s immune system incorrectly identifies pollen as bacteria or viruses and releases antibodies to fight against it. This releases chemicals called histamines, which trigger allergy symptoms like runny noses and itchy eyes.
It isn’t enough to combat irritants; we must have discernment to recognize what is dangerous and what is harmless.[1]
Argumentation/Application
Just like this Corona Virus, some of us are living with Allergies; Were running around with runny noses and itchy eyes because our immune system cannot identify this virus called sin...................
You and I must not be LAZY to Press on.......When you Press on you get down on your knees and pray the word of God.......You pray and condemn this world on your knees or in bible study on Wednesdays @ 6:30pm when you learn to hear the word of God and obey it.....When you press ON........You meditate and think about the Goodness of Jesus, You pray in His Name, you thank your Heavenly Father for everything good , bad or indifferent, and you never give up.....Don’t act like a toys R us Kid, grow up....
Press ON in His word, prayer, humility, worship, meditation,
Point 2- Press On because He’s a Keeper Heb 6:1-6 ( argument) and Jude 24
Hebrews 6 speaks of a situation or a case where someone was with these Christians, but they quit on Jesus and the Church ......The writer is speaking argumentatively as if he he presiding over a legal case about people who declare themselves Christians at one time and are not.
You can’t lose a house if you never owned a house
You can’t go broke if you never had a job.
You can’t go barefoot if yo don’t own a pair of shoes
You can’t go bald if you never had hair;
You can’t be a Christian if you never been a Christian
You cannot lose what you never had, but if you believe in Jesus , He will Keep you !!!!!!!!!
19 They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.
There is no such thing when someone say they used to be a Christian.......People ware falling away from the Lord because they never knew the Lord......
think about it......If someone could stop being a christian, that is an insult to God because that person is calling God a liar.....
14 knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and will present us with you.
Press on because He’s a keeper
13 but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation.
29 “Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.
1 Jude, a bond-servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James,
To those who are the called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ:
10 ‘Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.
25 Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past,
3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on thee:
Because he trusteth in thee.
1 Oh, to be "Kept for Jesus!"
Kept, by the power of God;
Kept, from the world unspotted,
Treading where Jesus trod.
Chorus:
Oh, to be "Kept for Jesus!"
Lord at Thy feet I fall;
I would be "nothing, nothing, nothing;"
Thou shall be "all in all."
24 Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy,
When your kept by Jesus , He will keep you and I from falling.......we can press on .....because when we live our lives by faith it does not matter about crazy presidents, crazy people or even when we are crazy , we know who Jesus is.......and even when life, family, finances , sickness, old age, ungodly children, we can keep on pressing on to maturity by not being lazy and press on because He’s a Keeper....