Sermon Tone Analysis
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When we were living in Oregon my friend and I went hiking in the Cascades for 5 days.
We were attempting to hike 50 miles in five days.
A good amount but not insurmountable.
We were 2 days in when we took a trail we thought we be a little easier than the one we were on.
The trail wasn’t on the map but we knew the direction we were heading.
About 3 hours later we realized the trail didn’t go in the direction we were hoping.
We were lost.
We doubled back for an hour and didn’t find the trail.
We came back to where we originally realized we were lost and panic began to settle in.
In a rare moment of irrationality for my friend he decided to just head in the direction of our car and started walking off trail.
Just tromping through the woods.
That is one of the most dangerous things you can do in the woods when you are lost, just act and head further into the woods off trail.
We needed some time to consider our options.
To look at the best next step for our situation.
Instead of just heading off into the woods we needed to figure out what was best for us in that moment.
In our passage in Hebrews 3 the author is going to tell us right away to consider Jesus.
Considering Jesus is our greatest confidence for life and ministry
to consider means to apprehend or take hold of.
to actually see and hold onto.
It is abiding
One of the problems I think we are facing in our current culture is the same as that of my friend tromping off into the woods.
He didn’t have a map, a gps, a phone with a signal, or me for that matter.
He just started walking.
And while I am coming from my context in America and more closely NE, there are some post-modern and secular parraells to be made.
We are living in a culture now where the encouragement is to find your spiritual path.
To walk your own journey.
To you do you.
It is extremely individualized to the point that the only expert you are relying on is you.
You are simultaneously trying to make forward progression while relying on your own wisdom to know what to do next.
That is honestly the actions of someone in constant panic.
It is anxiety going for a walk.
We are relying on our selves to make much of the world in our post modern culture and in doing so we are increasing levels of anxiety in our world.
I have done some research on the mental health conditions of Uruguay and was surprised to find it’s suicide rate was double that of the rest of the Americas.
I found that information on the WHO website and then did some digging around in Reddit for awhile and found a number of subreddits about why people think the suicide rate is so high.
Here are some of the responses.
Show screenshots
People are hurting everywhere, no matter where you are in teh world.
But things, by the data alone, seem to be a little more particular.
Because our group is small enough, I would love some feedback on this.
Are these some areas that you feel?
Maybe not even in suicide.
That is extreme but in some of the despondancy or anxiety felt.
the passage has established that Jesus has already given better identities and has built a better house.
Throughout the book we will be continually convinced that Christ is not just a better option but is the only option that grants life.
I think there are three issues facing the church today that leads into this idea of an unbelieving heart leading us to fall away from the living God.
I think all of these areas lead toward trudging into the forest to find new paths.
And while this doesn’t cover every moment and situation I do see this happening most everywhere.
We will be revisiting these in the next few days because the church is not immune.
Let’s look at what happens when we consider Christ.
When instead of trudging off into the forest we stop to consider other options.
Consider Jesus who is building a better identity
The church is called holy right from the start.
The way the church is addressed already shows us what God thinks of us.
We are told right away that we are holy and that we share in a heavenly calling.
God has done the work to make us holy.
His work has made us holy and that informs our identity, who we are, and we are told we have a heavenly calling, what we do.
Before we see just how good Christ is building His church, He has, just through His position, has made us holy and provides our calling.
But those are not created or generated.
They are given.
These are positional in Christ.
We don’t make them, He does.
And they are not a guarantee because they are true now.
We don’t need guarantees when the work is already done.
This is our starting point.
Christ forming and shaping and bringing our identity into being, the one who calls us out, is where the church finds our identity.
Sometimes the best thing that can happen in our lives is losing a lesser definition of ourselves and the church.
Christ has a much greater identity for us, calling us holy and His.
But we so easily miss it because we are settling for lesser definitions
Consider Jesus who is building a better house
The author is convincing us of the majesty of Christ.
Christ then is to convince us of holding fast to our hope.
The author points us to Christ and calls us to respond accordingly.
Christ is greater than Moses.
That compared to even the greatest example of redemption in the Bible, Jesus is greater.
Jesus is faithful to build what He started.
Moses began a great work but did not finish.
He did not cross into the promised land.
So in a sense, when the writer speaks of Moses he is going back to the unfinished business.
The tension of having to wait for another, In this case Joshua, to step in and walk the israelites to the promised land.
Outside of Christ we are forever waiting for something better.
until we know Christ our head is always on a swivel.
For generations there is a sprint to meaning and identity.
And that sprint is a way where we develop a way to concoct our own identity.
And what we are finding, at least what I am finding is that
This kind of life is exhausting because it is relentless.
It is up to the person to create all meaning and to define all things.
That tires anyone out.
So we have cultures of people who have nothing in the tank, who continually spurn out their own identities until those identities no longer work for them then they have to create something new.
IT is a relentless pursuit.
And the Good news of the Gospel is that we can invite people to rest.
To stop.
That God is building something far greater.
Jesus said there were two realities.
A house on the sand and a house on the rock.
The only way to structurally tell them apart is from the rains that will definitively happen.
Consider Jesus as our confidence for life and ministry
The final picture given is that of the Israelites.
Who made the journey, who wandered in the desert but never entered into the promised land.
Who are being used in this passage as a cautionary tale.
A tragic cautionary tale at that.
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