Hebrews- Part 6- " There Has To Be A Pony In Here Somewhere" Series

Hebrews – Encouragement for a life of Faith

Part 6

“There has to be a pony in here somewhere”

Hebrews 6:18-19

Have you ever stopped to consider the difference between an optimist and a pessimist?

There was a research team at a college who received a grant to study just that thing

The difference between an optimist and a pessimist

In order to make a determination of the difference

They took two young boys and asked them to be part of a study

After a series of questions to both the kids and their parents

A plan was made and a rough determination of which one was a pessimist and which one was optimist was made

So for the first part of the test

They took the young man that they had determined to be the pessimist

And

Placed him in a room of brand new toys

He was surrounded by everything you could dream of

In another room

They placed the boy who they determined to be the optimist

This room was piled about 2-3 feet deep with horse poop

They left both the boys in the perspective rooms for about an hour

A video camera was set up in each room to allow the researchers to watch the responses

As they watched the first room

They noticed that

Inside the room the young boy was just sitting

Nothing had been opened

Nothing had been played with

He appeared to be very sad

So next they started watching the boy in the room full of Horse poop

The video showed the boy in that room very excited and franticly digging in the horse apples

So the team took their clip boards and went to each room and began their interviews of the boys

They asked the first

What’s wrong?

Why have you not played with any of the toys?

Do you not like them?

He said” I am afraid if I play with them, I might break them and that would make me sad”

They took their clipboards

Made their notes

And

They confirmed their theory on Pessimism

As they entered the next room

The team was a bit perplexed

This boy was still digging

They asked

Son

What are you doing?

He said” In a room this full of horse poop, there has to be a pony in here somewhere, and I am going to find him”

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

Unfortunately as Believers we often tend to be like the first kid instead of the last

It is my desire today to try to show and teach why we should keep digging when life gives us less than we desire or even hope for

Continuing with our study of Hebrews today

We are going to shift just a bit from the mashing that our writer has been doing

Neither he nor I will or should or apologize for the toe stomping that has been prevalent in the messages the last few weeks

Guys

We need to hear the hard stuff

We need God’s word to show us what is wrong in our lives

And we need to make changes in our lives when it does

But

We also need to be encouraged sometimes

Please open your bibles to Hebrews Chapter 6 this morning

I need to tell you there are more toe stomping words in chapter 6 of Hebrews

It would have been very easy to continue on the path we have been on

But my desire this morning is to preach a softer

Kinder message

One that prayerfully will still cause conviction in our hearts

But one will make us feel good about being a believer

And encourage us for the things we do right

And cause us to keep digging when life does not turn out like we wish it had

We will cover the hard words in our bible study next week, so once again I encourage you to consider coming and being part of it

I need to do something right now

Those who come to the studies, I do not want to embarrasses you but I would like to ask that you stand up

For those not coming

I encourage you to go and talk to these that are standing

Hear their stories about their spiritual growth

Ask them questions about how God’s word is changing their lives and their outlook on life

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

In order today to see how we become spiritual optimists instead of spiritual pessimists

We need to go back to Hebrews

Please open your bibles to Hebrews 6

Throw your bulletins in there as we will e going back there several times this morning

“Our great desire is that you will keep on loving others as long as life lasts, in order to make certain that what you hope for will come true.”