Unshakable Thankfulness Heb 12:28 - 13:8

Unshakable Future

I thought I was at a veterans or foreign wars meeting about a year ago… Not really it was at a pastors prayer meeting about a year ago. You world have thought that those poor pastors had been through a war. Each guy there said this has been the hardest year of my ministry.

One guy said, “I can’t wait for things to get back to normal!” Another guy said yeah and they all agreed.... Things need to get back to normal.

One wise old pastor who had seen it all said. “Gentlemen, I think we are already back to normal. I think uncertainty is the new normal.”

We live in the age of uncertainty

The earth has been shook, As bad as we think things are in this country, The majority of the world had it worse than we did.

in this age of uncertainty it is nice to be able to look to something that is certain.

Hebrews 12:28 tells us .....

Covid 19 can shake the world....but It can not shake the kingdom we are going to receive.

Global inflation can shake the world…but it cannot shake the kingdom we are going to receive.

Natural disaster and war can shake the world but it cannot shake the kingdom we are going to receive.

Are you thankful yet?

You should be or a least that is what the writer of Hebrews says look at verse 28

People don’t like participation trophies. My wife got one of those when she was a kid and she was like what do …I do with this? But Hebrews 12:29 tells that every Christian gets a participation trophy. We are all receiving a kingdom that will not be shaken.

Knowing we will receive an unshakable kingdom should make us unshakable in our thanks.

Thankfulness helps us to serve God… Not only helps I would venture to say it is the only acceptable way to serve God. “by it, we may serve God acceptably. This word ‘acceptably’ is only used once in the entire bible. and it is here. Could mean in a acceptable manner.

‘with reverance and awe’ something about being thankful keeps us humble.

And you best be humble…you best serve God with reverence and awe because He is a consuming fire!

You might recall that God was in a fire on Mount Sinai in Exodus but also Deuteronomy is littered with statement about God being a consuming fire.

Our lives are lived before this consuming fire. Does our all-powerful God see you as a thankful person or not? does He see you as someone who is thankfully offering acceptable worship to Him. The last thing I want is for God to think I am ungrateful.

Question: Do you want to know how to appear grateful to God?

Transition: The next 7 verses give us some behaviors we can manifest to promote thankfulness in our lives, concrete ways we can be thankful.

This is not a fake it tell you make it thing these are real action we can adopt that God gives us through the writer of Hebrews to help us be thankful and serve God acceptably.

these are unshakable practices that promote in us unshakable thanks.

Thankful people are loving .

Verse 1 this is family love. It is the word Philadelphia. … the city of brotherly love....Christians have been brought into a family. The household of God. We are brothers and sisters with one another.

I have always heard that blood runs thicker than water.

The deepest kind of bond is not based on race or family relationship but on our common bond we have in Christ.

The family of God should and can be the thinkest bond. Which is why we should let brotherly love continue.

That is why the church dinners are important. Like the dinner we are going to have today.

speaking of which ........ our next behavior....

Thankful people are hospitable

A friendly church is a God honoring church.

The churches met in homes and the ministers would sometime need a place to say before they traveled to the next church.

Also persecution drove many people away from their homes.

Many poor believers could not afford to stay in an inn and the inns were also dangerous. So the early church relied on the hospitality or other believers.

To be thankful we need to spend a night in the clink.

If you read Acts you will see that. Some of the first Christian’s were persecuted for their faith and imprisoned for their faith.

One way that love express itself is in concern. We need to be concerned enough to try and identify with them.

Close you eyes and remember them now in Afghanistan on the cold concrete floor. They have 1 small meal a day. Can you spend a night in the clink with them?

We should celebrate marriage to generate thankfulness.

A dedicated Christian home is one of the nearest things to heaven on earth and it starts with a Christian marriage.

It is a bit troubling when people are not thankful for their spouse.

The Possibility of talking about what Christian marriage looks like to the youth group kids. Christian Marriage vs. Casual hook-ups and LGBTQ

When you are a pastor you meet with a lot of people. And very early on I discovered that most people have marriage problems. Now, most of these problems can be worked out. But sometimes the marriage just implodes which is very sad bc it leaves a broken family in its wake.

More often than not it is some form of adultery and fornication that destroys the family. Which is why the words of verse 4 are important to obey because they keep the family together.

Financial Peace

Do any of you know what the second biggest monster that destroys families is?

Second biggest monster that destroys the family is money! yikes.

Pastor Warren Wiersbe tells of a Christian couple in Eastern Europe who was ministering behind the iron curtain before the fall of the Solvet Union. The couple had brought blanks, and bibles and christian literature and other essential items to a secret church meeting the couple assured the believer that Christians in America were praying for them.

“We are happy for that, one believer replied, but we feel that Christians in America need more prayer than we do. We here in Eastern Europe are suffering but you in America are very comfortable; and it is always harder to be a good Christian when you are comfortable.

Contentment can never come from money or material things, for they can never satisfy the heart. When we have God we have all we need because only God can satisfy the heart.

Financial peace like all forms of peace is found in God and that makes us thankful.

My uncle Rob was this way. He was a Hoarder who valued people more than things. People are more valuable than things. Which leads us to our last unshakable practice that promotes unshakable thanks.

Thankful people don’t forget their leaders.

The church is not only an organism but it is also an organization. If an organism is not organized it will die.

Churches need to be organised with Godly leaders. They need leaders who have a proven track record of knowing and speaking God’s word.

Make sure you have leaders who are speaking God’s word to you. Teaching is an important part of church leadership. Without vision the people parish.

Proverbs 29:18 CSB

Without revelation people run wild, but one who follows divine instruction will be happy.

We need to carefully observe the out come of their lives.

we observe their lives but we don’t build are life on their lives.

Warren Wiersbe tell a story of announcing his resignation from a church that he had been pastoring for several years. One of the members said to him, “I don’t see how I am going to make it without you! I depend so much on you for my spiritual help!”

Warren shocked the man with his reply. He said, “Then the sooner I leave, the sooner you can start depending on the Lord.

Observe but never build your life on a servant of the Lord.

Think about these guys like Ravi or Joshua Harris or the Hillsong pastor or worship leader whatever....I cant keep up with them all.

verse 8 of Hebrews says “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” Jesus will not fail you...build you life on Him.

Conclusion

I hope you see that verse 8 of chapter 13 parallels verse 28 of chapter 12.

This passage ends how it begins. We belong to an unshakable kingdom and we are subjects of an unshakable King.

Knowing we belong to an unshakable kingdom should make us unshakable in our thanks.

I have since realized that that wise pastor was wrong.

Uncertainty is not the new normal ...No… the the overwhelming, never-ending, Everlasting, never-changing Person of Jesus is the new normal and it is time we get use to it. Its time we start being thankful for what He has done and does for us again.

For the Christian the new normal is not uncertainty. For the Christian the new normal is the unchanging certainty of Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the new normal.

Christian Standard Bible (Chapter 12)

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.