Let Us Consider One Another Series

Introduction

Somewhere in a Hartson family photo album is a picture of me at the age of about three. In the picture, I have on my cowboy hat, cowboy shirt, my boots, short pants standing next to my spring action rocking horse. Now that I have grown up, I realize there are some photo flaws in that picture that don’t make me a real cowboy. First, real cowboys don’t wear short pants. Every John Wayne movie I ever watched; cowboys wear long pants. Secondly, real cowboys don’t stand next to spring action rocking horses. They stand next to the real thing. And thirdly, real cowboys have spurs on the back of their boots.

And what I want to talk with you about today is that third item- spurs. I looked up the word to see exactly what it meant. And according to the dictionary it means a device with a small spike or a spiked wheel that is worn on a rider's heel and used for urging a horse forward. I am not a cowboy but apparently when the cowboy pushes the spur in the side of the horse, he starts moving forward. If someone put a spur in my side, you might just see me run faster than I ever ran.

Now let me show you why that word “spur” is so interesting to me this morning from our Scripture that is taken from Hebrews 10:24. Please stand for the reading of God’s Word.

Scripture

Hebrews 10:24 NIV84

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.

Now look at the eight word. It is the word “spur”. I looked it up in my Greek concordance and it is found only this one time in all the Scriptures. And in the Greek, this word is two wording coming together that implies moving toward someone to move them forward, and the implication is in their Christian life. And so, this verse of Scripture is answering the long-ago asked question. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” And the answer is yes. I have a responsibility and you have a responsibility to help brothers and sisters that have fallen back or who got stuck to move forward.

But the Scripture tells us don’t rush headstrong into doing this without carefully considering how you should go about it. The word “consider” in the Greek means paying intense attention, not just casual attention but intense attention as to how we go about spurring someone forward.

So that is what we want to spend our time on today: carefully considering how to spur our brothers or sisters forward. And let me tell you why this sermon is important. Because of Covid 19, people have opted to do church in so many ways other than being in the church house. And when Covid 19 ends, their habit of how they do church will be set. And it is going to be hard to break that habit. And it going to take some spurring on to get brothers and sisters back in the church house. But how do we do that with immense care?

Points

#1

Before we attempt to spur another brother or sister forward, we better check if we are moving forward in our own Christian walk.

Galatians 6:1 (NKJV)

1 Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.

Jesus, during His three-year earthly ministry, had several things to say about trying to spur on one another. During the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7:4 (NKJV), Jesus said,

4 Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from your eye'; and look, a plank is in your own eye?

And then on another occasion, Jesus had some men (Pharisees and Scribes) who brought a prostitute to Jesus with the intention of stoning her because of her sin. And Jesus told them in

John 8:7 (NKJV)

7 ... "He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first."

So, it seems to me that Jesus is telling us that the starting place to spur someone else forward is to begin by looking at my own life and see things that I need to correct before I attempt to correct you.

In other words, Jesus is making an amazingly simple point: you cannot spur someone forward with words only because that person you are attempting to spur on is listening to your words but he or she is also looking at your life. Let’s suppose I am the one that needs to be spurred on. And let’s say that Coach Everett, our newbie at church, sees I need to be spurred on. So, he comes to be to try to move me forward. I hear what Coach has to say to me but when he walks away, I think to myself that was some nerve of him because I know how he lives, and he is no fine example of a Christian man to be lecturing me. So, did Coach Everett have any positive affect upon my life? Did he spur me on? The answer is no. He probably entrenched me further to continue doing what I am doing.