Faith To The Very End
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INTRO:
Turn with me to Hebrews 3:7
Faith in our teams...
Teams have faith to win today...
They believe they will win...
But Their faith will be tested with each and every play that happens.
From the moment we believed in Christ, our faith was birthed.
But each day our faith is tested...
The goal… is to finish the race holding firmly to our faith we have found in Christ.
This morning we are going to see in Hebrews 3; 3 ways to prevent or lose your faith.
We all desire to finish the race… To hear, “well done good and faithful...”
PRAYER:
SERMON:
We kick off this passage of Scripture with a Word from the Holy Spirit...
And I strongly feel the Holy Spirit is still saying this to each and every one of us.
He is telling us how to finish strong holding our faith firmly in our hearts.
7 So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness,
9 where your ancestors tested and tried me, though for forty years they saw what I did.
10 That is why I was angry with that generation; I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’
11 So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ”
The Holy Spirit is referring to the Israelites in the wilderness.
As they drew near to the Promise Land their faith in God’s promises failed… and instead of receiving the promise, they never recieved it.
What a horrible outcome...
After all that God did for them.
God freed them from Egypt
Parted the Red Sea
Destroyed the Egyptians military
Water in the desert
Manna from Heaven
Quail when Manna wasn’t enough
40 years and their clothing and shoes never wore out.
Miracle after miracle…
And their life ends short of the promise because their Faith faded away.
If we are not careful that can easily be us...
But in the next few verses, God gives us 3 things to do in order to keep our faith till the very end.
12 See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.
1.Guard Your Heart From Sin!
1.Guard Your Heart From Sin!
The greek word for Sin here means:
Tainted with, Marked by, or full of sin.
Sin that is not dealt with will in time turn our hearts away from the living God.
Sin doesn’t turn your heart away from the Lord overnight. But it will slowly draw your heart towards unbelief.
Let me tell you a secret about sin… It rarely starts out as an obvious sin.
God’s Word teaches us that the pleasure of sin is temporary...
But notice that Sin is pleasurable...
This is how it really gets us… because it feels good. It feels right… It seems good at the time.
So how do we know what is sin if it can deceive us?
By knowing the Truth of God’s Word!
And if you are not guarding your heart from Sin with God’s word… it’s only a matter of time before your heart turns away from the Lord.
Guard your heart Church from all sin! Be on the look out for it. Remove it quickly. Have no part in it.
Let’s look at number 2.
13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.
2) Surround Yourself With Encouragers Of The Faith!
2) Surround Yourself With Encouragers Of The Faith!
There are 3 things about this verse that you need to really understand in order to fully grasp what Paul is saying here.
A) We need others to help keep us from falling into the deceitfulness of sin.
A) We need others to help keep us from falling into the deceitfulness of sin.
You are not meant to live out your faith alone! You need other Men and Women of Faith who support, encourage, spur on, motivate, and challenge us to hold firm to our faith in Christ!
B) We need daily encouragement from one another.
B) We need daily encouragement from one another.
Sunday’s are not enough time with the body of Christ to finish strong.
You need daily interaction with other believers who inspire, and encourage you to stay on track with your faith.
You don’t just need someone who calls themself a Christian.
You need to have friends who DAILY encourage you to keep going.
C) There is an urgency!
C) There is an urgency!
Don’t wait till tomorrow to put these type of encouragers into your life.
The cost is too high!
Without this daily encouragement, your heart will become hardened towards God’s Word.
And a hardened heart can not bear much fruit.
Surround Yourself With Encouragers Of The Faith!
Let’s look at the 3rd and final point.
15 As has just been said: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.”
3) Don’t just hear, but Obey God’s voice!
3) Don’t just hear, but Obey God’s voice!
What has God spoken to you?
What have you done with it?
Have you forgotten what He said?
Have you ignored or pretended you didn’t hear Him?
Have you obeyed His voice?
Each time we choose to disregard or devalue the importance of His words to us, we harden our hearts more and more.
Choose today to start hearing and obeying what God is speaking to you.
Write it down… follow through with it…
It’s in our obedience to Him that our faith grows and is strengthened to last to the very end...
CLOSING:
If you find your heart is hardening toward God this morning… it’s not too late.
Choose today to repent of your hardened heart.
Repent of the sin you have allowed to enter your life.
Repent of your disobedience to God’s voice.
And choose today to hold onto your Faith to the very end!
PRAYER:
Prayer over those who raise their hands to repent and for God to soften their hearts.
HUDDLE GROUPS:
We are going to do one more thing this morning before we close.
During a football game… there are times when a team will huddle up.
In that huddle they refocus on the goal to win.
They encourage each other, correct each other, and get everyone on the same page for the next play.
This morning, I want us to get in a huddle with our families.
If you don’t have family here, join another family.
And there is one question you will each answer and then pray as a group to keep your faith to the very end.
Here is the Question:
“How can we encourage one another in our faith daily?”
“How can we encourage one another in our faith daily?”
When most of the groups are done, I will close with a blessing over you and a gift from us.