HEBREWS-JESUS IS BETTER: All Push

 All Push Hebrews 5:11-14 The book of Hebrews is an interesting book, and instructive book and one important to our continuing faith, intact as we study it, we should be growing all together. We’re in a church that teaches one book at a time exegetically. Meaning, taking the meaning OUT of the Scripture and desiring to know what it says. I want to encourage you today to take notes as we study - and concentrate on one thing specifically today. Capture the scripture references and be looking them up this week. This world is a dangerous place to live, just in our body we know people we love who’ve been shot while doing NOTHING to anyone. We know people who’d learned they had cancer and hadn’t known it. We’ve buried infants. We’ve cried together from the pressures of this life - but in the midst of it all is a central truth, God is good, He loves us, He sustains us, our lives are His. The things of this life will crush you, but He who is in us is greater than He who is in the world we read in 1 John 4:4, there is one - did you take a note? As we’ve worked our way through this book - it started with a people who’ve turned from their new-found trust in Jesus to things like works, and maybe they’re loosing the purity of their faith. The writer of Hebrews has said: ▪ In 2:1, Pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. ▪ In 3:8, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, ▪ In 3:12, Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. ▪ In 4:1, Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. ▪ In 4:14, Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. I love this book - it’s so applicable to our lives today. Do you see that the writer of this book, by may called the preacher, is concerned with something, really concerned with the lastingness of their faith. He asks us to pay attention, not Harden our hearts, to take care - to desire to enter into rest, and to KNOW JESUS. Last week, we climbed to the top of a peak the author climbed us up. He needed us to know, without a doubt who Jesus is and how great Jesus is. Now that he’s done that, he’s concerned that we stay infatuated with Jesus. But more than simply infatuation - he wants something else from us and that is the point of the remainder of this chapter - maturity. Maturity is the greatly ignored element of all the evangelical church today. So lets see what the preacher encouraged the Hebrews to do with their maturity and lets see how we can be challenged, too. Hebrews 5:11–14 (ESV) 11 About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. The word for dull has some great insights from one of my favorite Greek Scholars who I’ve been reading for years and gifted translations to both Ed and John (I think I gave you one John - if not…. sorry) The word for “dull” nothros, is key to this entire section and here is what Wuest says: “It is a combination of two Greek words, one meaning “no,” the other “to push,” hence, “no push,” thus “slow, sluggish.” These Hebrews were slow, sluggish, stupid, numbed, in their apprehension of the teaching of New Testament truth. This made it difficult to teach them. The difficulty lay therefore not in the writer but in them.” I wonder what we’ve done, as the American church, in creating dull “Christians” with no push. Her his why - we concentrate on two things: 1. Getting people to raise their hand and say, I believe in God 2. Getting people to really like coming here and feeling good when they leave so they’ll come back and give us money Church, does that sound like anything in all of your Bible about Christian maturity? GO ahead, and find churches who start and build around music and youth groups (these are consumer items in the church) and I’ll show you places who don’t concentrate much on scripture and who drift further from scripture over time, not who draw in closer. There are so many talking heads about Church planting, so many books on the topic, so many missiologists with great ideas, and so many of them will say things like: “you need to decide if you’re going to be an outreach church, or events based church”. In the book of Acts, 2:24 when the church was in its infancy and before all these people came to perfect the church with programs, and church planting models and biker churches, and cowboy churches however the early church seemed to study Scripture together, build relationships around Biblical fellowship and support one another in being a witness in the world. Church I love you. I want you to grow, I want us to grow. I want us to be all push. Am I saying you cannot have a concentration on music and be concentrated on scripture - no, what I’m saying is often we’ve not fed the depth and maturity in people, rather we’ve just tried to keep them happy and keep them entertained, at the cost of their faith. The preacher says pay attention, don’t Harden our hearts, to take care - to desire to enter into rest, and to KNOW JESUS. 12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, Church, are you moving from a place where you have an initial faith in God to a place where you can share your Faith in God? Are you ushered from the basics to maturity - are you happy to be dull, do you have NO push? These folks “by this time” they should be able to teach. Meaning they’d had the time to learn and grow; but they hadn’t and now they needed someone to teach them. 13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. Guys, if you haven’t progressed in your faith to the point where you’re ready to teach others about Christ, you’re immature. Sometimes we need to hear that tough love; it encourages us to push. And it’s OK - but before we can progress, we have to take inventory. Do I mean you know everything you should know, no? Do I mean you know everything you could know, NO. I’m challenged and encouraged by people around me and by many of you regularly - I pray often to have a more teachable spirit. But church we need to have an ability to give a reason for the hope that lies within in us, which MUST be the Jesus that the author brought us up to understand. The priest who’s priest hood is based on God’s calling, and God’s character, and God’s grace, and NEVER our work. Do me a favor, find that to be true in Ephesians 2:8-9 and 1 Peter 3:15, are those in your notes? 14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. Solid food is supposed to train our minds. To train us, by what.. Constant practice. This should sound familiar consider Romans 12:2, take a note of it. Romans 12:2 (ESV) 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Guys scripture should be our focus - it’s where our minds are trained to have a life sustaining faith. To share with other the hope that’s within us, and to avoid the temptations in the world that will pull us away from God, BUT - we know about Christ, we’ve seen His eternal priest hood, we’ve seen God saves by grace through Him and we will not not Harden our hearts, we will take care - we do desire to enter into rest, and to KNOW JESUS. Scripture gives us the desire to push and know Christ more and to know God more. There was a pastor in my life who, though he never knew it, was VERY influential. One of the many ways he was influential was through one statement, when I was a young father, of a young son. He said something like this: “The next time your child does something like speaking out against their parent or misbehaving and you don’t feel like doing anything about it, just tell them - I’m to lazy to correct you and don’t love you enough to correct you and train you for life in this moment” that may sound odd, but guys, there is a lot going on there. As parents we have a complex world to prepare our children for. As Christians we have a faith that’s wildly simply and oddly complex, our Bibles train us up in faith. They’re all we need for life and godliness, see 2 Peter 1:3 (note taken?). Imagine if we were not dull nothros if we weren’t without push! But if we were ready to have a deep knowledge of Christ. Ready? There are some steps that if you’re here right now, and you see the truth of Jesus and that the gospel is the power of God to save you, Romans 1:16. If you’re at that point, and you see it - be converted. Trust Jesus, turn from your sin, Romans 10:17 says that faith comes by hearing and you’re doing a LOT of that right now - once you’ve experienced faith, repentance comes next, which is total abandonment of yourself calling on God, Romans 10:13, and you’re moved from darkness to Jesus kingdom (Colossians 1:13). Next you’re committed, your growing, your baptized (Matthew 28:19/Acts 2:38), if that’s you, lets talk. I get jazzed about your conversion. Then don’t be northros, be committed be growing. As you move on from benefactor to teacher you’ll teach others (2 Timothy 3:16-17) and you’ll labor and strive with others (Colossians 1:28-29) - THIS is the Christian life. Do you see how it’s different than being entertained so that you’ll give money, it’s about God, and it’s about Christ’s sacrifice? Let me tell you what I’d like you to consider. Is there push in you that’s concerned about paying attention, not Hardening your heart, about taking care - and about to desire to enter into rest, as well as knowing JESUS? I pray so. If there is - move beyond JUST that, move into sharing that. Who do you know that’s traveling down this path, whom can you teach about Jesus? Where are they in the process, do they just need to hear the gospel message - that Jesus’ grace is available or do they need to understand more about sin, more about God’s grace? Do you pray for those people? It’s not about distractions here - it’s about God. We will NOT be without push, we’ll be all push, because people are dying without God - and so as a church we’re committed to NOT pressing you to 1) raise your hand and 2) like it here, rather those things may happen, but were concentrated on you being driven by scripture so that you’ll be sharp not dull, so that you’ll have push, so that you’ll be conformed by the renewal of your mind, and finally that you’ll share that Jesus with others. This week, lets encourage maturity and push in ourselves by going back through the Scripture from this week Hebrews 5:11-14 and challenge yourself by going back through the scripture references from today, and ask, what do these expose about my push to know God and my spiritual maturity and lets grow together. Let’s Grow Together HEBREWS-JESUS IS BETTER All Push Pastor John Weathersby Transcend Church 5 of 5 Sunday 4/22/2018