Messy Christianity Week 3

Quit Striving

If any of you are like me then you all want to improve or work to succeed in something. In sports you are working to become 1st string or become faster in what ever race you are running or become 1st chair in the band. We all want to achieve some goal that we have before us so that we can be the best. We want people to congratulate us and tell us how proud they are of us. We keep striving to achieve what ever Goal it is ahead of us. All of you want to be a successful individual in life so that you can do or afford anything that you want. To be suchThis is not a bad thing to do at all in life.

But when it comes to your spiritual life it is a terrible way to look at it! You cannot work hard enough to be good so we need to stop striving to earn our salvation.

We are going to be in Hebrew 4 tonight where the writer is addressing the issue with Jewish believer working for salvation.

Hebrews 4:11–16 NLT

11 So let us do our best to enter that rest. But if we disobey God, as the people of Israel did, we will fall. 12 For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. 13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable. 14 So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. 15 This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. 16 So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.

We are going to be looking into the importance of resting in Christ rather than becoming people who are striving to save ourselves.

1. Remember Scripture

Hebrews 4:11–13 NLT

11 So let us do our best to enter that rest. But if we disobey God, as the people of Israel did, we will fall. 12 For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. 13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable.

When we look at Hebrews we must first know that this was written to a group of jewish believers who are under constant persecution. They are focused on the Jewish life of working for salvation and were neglecting the idea of resting.

hebrewss 4:11

We have to quit working to boast ourselves up to the point where we achieve salvation and focus on resting in Him.

Matthew 11:28–30 NLT

28 Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”

There is a story about a Missionary in Africa who offered a ride to a national who was walking along with a large backpack on his back. The missionary stopped and offered him a ride in the back of the truck and the national agreed. They went on their way and missionary looked in the rearview mirror and saw the national standing in the back of the truck with his backpack still on. He stopped the truck and asked him what was wrong and the national said, “I didn’t know that the truck could hold me and my backpack, so i am still holding the weight of the backpack.”

This is a fun point because everyone loves to rest or take naps especially in high school! We can get so caught up in focusing on how we can achieve the next goal in life and so many times that bleeds over into our faith as well.

We look at our lives as having different goals that must be met in order to achieve something and that is completely opposite of how our Christian life is supposed to look.

The christian life is a life in which we cannot be good enough or work hard enough to please christ because Christ has done all the work for us to be saved.

We do this through remembering his word and resting in it! God’s word is unlike any other book around. Scripture is powerful because it is the word of God to us!

The creator of the world has spoken to us in his word and is still speaking to us when we read it!

We quit striving to please christ when we rest in his word.

2. Remember our Confession

Hebrews 4:14 NLT

14 So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe.

We quit striving to please christ when we remember our confession. This is what we say about Jesus Christ.

This is our belief that Jesus is the son of God and He came to this earth as a man and lived a perfect life and then gave his life as a sacrifice for us. He then rose again.

We must remember our confession because in doing so we realize that salvation does not come from anything that we have done but what Christ has already accomplished.

Our confession is us coming back to the point in our lives where we realized that Christ is enough and I cannot do enough to be saved. Our confession takes us back to being completely dependent on Him and puts us back in our place knowing that the life we live is not our own but we must be reliant on God.

We cease striving when we remember our confession of christ.

3. Remember Christ

Hebrews 4:15 NLT

15 This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin.

We also remember that Christ was perfect when he lived this life. We must remember that Jesus was 100% human while on this earth and he resisted all temptations to sin.

He did this through being God but also though his dependence on God the father. When we look at our lives as striving to resist sin on our own we are going to fail miserably. We cannot strive to accomplish a sinless life because we are sinful people.

We are constantly going to give into sin unless we rest in Christ. We are going to constantly be tempted to sin because Jesus himself was tempted to commit sin but yet he resisted. He resisted the temptation to sin which allowed for him to become the perfect sacrifice for us.

This should also be a comfort to us because we are able to understand that Jesus was a real person who was tempted in the same ways if not more than we are. We are worshipping and following after a person who lived the life we are living in order to redeem those who call upon his name.

We are not worshipping an unknown unapproachable God but the God who came to this earth and lived a sinless life.

We cease striving to live a sinless life on our own when we live our life through christ.

4. Remember His Grace

Hebrews 4:16 NLT

16 So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.

We also need to remember God’s grace for those who believe in his son! We are able to come to God’s throne of Grace through prayer confidently when we are in the midst of the difficulties of life.

We draw near to his throne with confidence because of the work that Jesus Christ did on the cross! We do not have to come to God in prayer worried about if he will be gracious to us because Jesus is the one who is pleading our case for us.

This is so comforting to me due to the fact that so often we will hesitantly come to God when we are struggling because we feel as if God is too busy for us or that we have sinned too much. When we come to God in prayer we are understanding that we cannot do this on our own and that we need God.

When we remember His grace we cease striving to obtain it on our own. We begin focusing on God and our lives begin to promote him rather than us promoting ourselves.