Hebrews- Part 4- Sharper Than A Two Edged Sword Series

Hebrews

“Encouragement for a life of Faith”

Part 4

“Sharper than a 2 edged sword”

Today we will continue our study of Hebrews

We have seen over the last few weeks

Jesus as the one and only

As the real deal

We saw how the writer of Hebrews encouraged us to live the life of faith that we have found through a relationship with Jesus

We have seen him declare Christ’s superiority and supremacy over and over again

And we have heard a couple of toe stomping exhortations

That prayerfully has exposed some sore spots in your own Christian walks

I know they have exposed some of mine

Then we saw what it takes to get all that Jesus has for us

By means of keeping our hearts pure by using Jesus as the standard of purity in our lives

We studied how we must avoid evil and then took a look at looked at what that meant

We tend to think of evil as Old Slick himself or Freddy Kruger from the nightmare on Elm Street

But we saw how all sin is evil and how choosing to sin is allowing

Actually inviting evil into our lives

Which cause us to drift away from the righteousness of Jesus

We took a look at what the writer meant by unbelief and prayerfully learned that

It is not just belief that God exists

But believe that he rules our lives that make the difference in our lives

Our writer tells us to warn each other

That as believers we have the authority and responsibility to warn other believers about the price of sin and the price of unbelief ----what that means is we have the responsibility to hold each other accountable

‘And that we must guard our own hearts against hardening

I want to tell you again Hebrews is a very valuable book

It offers great wisdom and knowledge for the believer

And it offers some critical keys to understanding for the lost

Our writer in my opinion would have made a really good Cowboy Preacher

Why

Because he fully understands the concept of mashing on’

And He does not avoid the hard topics as many in today’s world are prone to do

( Shown pocket knife)

I as a man

As a cowboy

As do most men

And most cowboys and even cowgirls do

Love pocket knives

I have been carrying a pocket knife for as long as I can remember

Since I was a small child

Many knives have adorned my belt of had a place of honor in my front pocket

I can tell you as many of you know

I am never far from a pocket knife

I have 2 in my possession as we speak

I have knives in my vehicles

In my locker at the fire station

In all of my desk drawers

My night stand

In my saddle bags

To me not having access to a good knife it like trying to walk through a patch of bull nettle barefooted

Or pick dewberries in my underwear

Without a good knife I am just not comfortable

I know many of you feel the same way

As I am well aware there are enough pocket knives right here in this room today top stock a good sized sporting goods store

I can tell you for me

Style of knife is not the most important thing

I prefer a trapper or moose pattern

But own many others as well

It is not the size of the knife that matters

I own many different sizes of knives

It is not the type of steel that the blades are made- carbon- stainless ceramic or Damascus

Or the handle material, bone, wood. Synthetic

That gets my focus

It is

The knifes sharpness that matters to me

You see for me in order for a knife to be a valuable tool

In order for it to do it’s job

It must be sharp

When I get ready to castrate a calf

Cut a piece of rope of leather

Or even open a package of some sort – even a knife package that requires a knife to open- someday somebody really needs to explain that one to me

Knife sharpness is where I place its value

-----Pause-------

This thought of sharpness brings us back to God’s word

Back to the book of Hebrews

Let me read for you from God’s word

Hebrews 4:12-13

“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.”