Jesus The Better Way: He Provides Better Possessions Series

JESUS THE BETTER WAY:

JESUS PROVIDES BETTER POSSESSIONS

HEBREWS 10:32-39

Do you have your cell phones with you this morning? I have a text question for you. The phone number and question are on the screen and I will refer to your answers later in the sermon. Here’s the question:

“WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE MATERIAL POSSESSION?”

Please answer with one simple word … no need to for clarification, etc. … just your favorite item.

This is not a trick or a trap. Mine would be my motorcycle. I really enjoy riding, cleaning, and maintaining my Harley Heritage Classic.

What’s your favorite possession?

INTRO

Have you ever noticed that you can tell what someone values – even what they trust in – by the way they spend their money? As I have said before; show me your checking account and I can give you a biography of your life. It tells me everything you value.

Have you ever spent time looking at your spending habits in light of your values? It might be a worthwhile use of your time. Try to do it from the vantage point of an objective bystander. What would someone who did not know you, assess about you by looking at your spending habits and money management?

In a manner of speaking that is what the writer to Hebrews does in verses 32-39. He makes an assessment of the Hebrews’ values by looking at how they manage their treasures and possessions. In doing so he is able to tell where their real treasures lie.

Listen to the Word of the Lord:

HEBREWS 10:32-39

32 Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering.

33 Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated.

34 You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions.

35 So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.

36 You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.

37 For in just a very little while, “He who is coming will come and will not delay.

38 But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him.”

39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.

It is easy to get attached to stuff isn’t it? Even temporal stuff can cling to us if we never stop to scrutinize our loyalties. I cannot help but notice that the understanding the Hebrews had of their material possessions governed the way they lived their lives. They held on loosely knowing they had “better and lasting possessions” awaiting them.

They had obviously assessed the landscape and chosen to live in light of eternity. You see, this was a church going through hardship because of their faith. They had to make some real and immediate decisions that were certain to affect the remainder of their lives – both here and in eternity. They counted the cost. They are an example of a church that understood the gravity of John’s words: “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever” (1 John 2:15-17).

Just as your checkbook gives you a picture of where your values and loyalties lie; so this ancient church gives us a picture of what a people “holding on loosely” look like.

• They have transcended the immediate and are looking at things from eternity’s vantage point.

• They have said no to the offer of this world and yes to God.

• They are, to use a term the writer will use in the next chapter, “looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:10).

Let’s see what a picture of church (or a Christian) that is “HOLDING ON LOOSELY” looks like?

1. THOSE LOOKING FOR “BETTER AND LASTING POSSESSIONS” WILL ENDURE THE MOCKERY AND RIDICULE OF THOSE BOUND TO THIS WORLD (32-33)

The writer says, “{Y}ou stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering. Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution.”

The world’s system has nothing to offer past this life. It is all they can live for. They literally have to live by the motto “you only live once so get all you can.” But followers of Jesus have been emphatically promised “better possessions.” The immediate does not have to govern our choices. That, of course, brings a clash with the world’s system and inevitable ridicule.