Going Deeper Hebrews 5:12 – 6:1
Introduction: Paul scolded the Hebrew Christians for remaining shallow believers and not growing deeper in their Christian experience. They remained superficial believers. He challenges them to go on to maturity. Christ called Peter to “Lauch out into the deep and to let down his nets for a catch.” When he obeyed the result was amazing. Christ calls us to go deeper with Him where greater riches and service lie and stop wading in the shallows. Why don’t Christians want to go deeper? How can they go deeper? What are the benefits of going deeper?
I. Why people don't want to Go Deeper
A. It calls them to leave their comfort zone
1. There is a fear of the deep
2. There is a fear of being different
B. It calls for a greater commitment
1. It takes work
2. It takes time
C. It requires consecration –
1. It may call for sacrifice
2. It may call for the giving up something
3. One writer of a blog penned, “I've been fearful to go deeper with God because I thought it would include deep pain, you know, walking through the fire to be refined. It might.”
D. It requires Accountability –
1. It calls for availability
2. Luke 12:48 “everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.
II. What is the Path of Going Deeper
A. Intensive Bible Study
1. 2 Timothy 2:15 “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
2. John 5:39a “Search the Scriptures…” – Pore over, Examine
3. Picture a scientist going about some great work. He or she is searching for the cure for some horrible disease, or making a marvelous new discovery. First, the scientist digs for facts, looking deeply, studying carefully, investigating every clue, relentlessly hunting for any and every fact that will make the discovery deeper, richer, and more accurate. Then, the scientist ponders what the facts mean, finally coming up with a theory. After much more testing, the scientist is ready to put the theory into practice, to apply it. This is a picture of “inductive” study. “Inductive” means going from the particular to the general, from the facts to the thesis or teaching.
4. Inductive Bible Study. - Bob Grahmann
a. OBSERVATION - What does the text say?
b. INTERPRETATION - What does it mean?
c. APPLICATION - What does it mean to us?
5. “Inductive Bible study” starts with the facts of the Bible gleaned through careful observation of the text. After observing everything that can be seen in the text, inductive study then asks what the facts mean. This is “interpretation.” Then, after we understand the teaching or point of the passage, we apply the text to our lives. – copied
6. Acts 17:11 “These (Christians in Berea) were nobler than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.”
B. Intimate Prayer
1. If revival in our church and our country depended solely on our prayer life, would it break out?
2. James 4:2-3 “Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.”
3. "Every Christian has a direct line of communication with God, available at ALL TIMES. But most Christians never lift the phone off the hook and often forget the line exists until an emergency arises." - Bill Bright, "How You Can Pray With Confidence"
4. Colossians 4:2a “Continue earnestly in prayer”
5. To walk with God, we must make it a practice to talk with God. -
Gary Heard, Melbourne, Australia
6. Jeremiah 29:13 “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”
7. If the desire of your heart is to have abundant life, have a deeper love for God, have the power of Christ flowing in you, become a stronger Christian, having the Holy Spirit directing your steps, to be more conformed to the person God created you to be, you must "pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17).
C. Intentional Living
1. Genesis 6:9 “This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God.”
2. Amos 3:3 “Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?”
3. As believers walk with God each day in humble submission, they are renewed little by little into the image of Christ through the process of sanctification, a work of God within the regenerate person through the indwelling Holy Spirit, in which the believer by faith grows into deeper walk with God in a way that is pleasing to Him.
4. Someone has said, “Our problem is not that God cannot change us. Ours is a problem of the will. Do I want all that God wants for me? Do I want to live in a manner that will glorify Him?”
5. Are you more like Christ today than you were yesterday?
6. One by one He took them from me All the things I valued most;
'Til I was empty-handed, Every glittering toy was lost.
And I walked earth's highways, grieving, In my rags and poverty.
Until I heard His voice inviting, "Lift those empty hands to Me!"
Then I turned my hands toward heaven,& He filled them with a store
Of His own transcendent riches, 'Til they could contain no more.
And at last I comprehended With my stupid mind, and dull,
That God cannot pour His richesInto hands already full. – Source Unknown
III. What is The Reward of Going Deeper
A. Inexhaustible Treasure
1. Romans 11:33 “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!”
2. Ephesians 1:16-19 I “do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power.”
3. Billy Graham tells a true story told him by a pastor he met in Glasgow, Scotland. There was a woman in this pastor's parish who was in financial difficulty and behind in her rent. So the pastor took up a collection for this poor woman at church, then went to her home to give her the money. He knocked and knocked at the door, but there was no answer. Finally, he went away. The next day he encountered the poor woman at the market. "Why, Mrs. Green," he said, "I stopped by your house yesterday, and I was disappointed that there was no answer." The woman's eyes widened as she said, "Oh, was that you? I thought it was the landlord and I was afraid to open the door!" The riches of God have been made available to us in Christ, yet most of us shrink back from receiving all that God eagerly wishes to place in our hands. The riches of God cannot help us until we open the door of our hearts – Ray Stedman
4. “I have now disposed of all my property to my family. There is one thing more I wish I could give them and that is faith in Jesus Christ. If they had that and I had not given them a single shilling, they would have been rich; and if they had not that, and I had given them all the world, they would be poor indeed.” - Patrick Henry
5. Paul in Ephesians 3:8 speaks of the “unsearchable riches of Christ – these are no less than GRACE - God's Riches At Christ's Expense.
B. Infinite Power in Prayer
1. James 5:16b “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.”
2. "Nothing lies beyond the reach of prayer except that which lies beyond the will of God. Prayer can do anything, prayer is omnipotent." – R. A. Torrey
3. Hebrews 4:16 “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
4. I John 5:14 “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, he hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.”
5. "Prayer wonderfully clears the vision; steadies the nerves; defines duty; stiffens the purpose; sweetens and strengthens the spirit." S.D. Gordon
C. Incomprehensible Peace
1. Isaiah 26:3 “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.”
2. Philippians 4:6-7 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
3. "It's not the absence or presence of problems that determines one's peace of mind; it's the absence or presence of God." –Unknown
4. 1 Corinthians 14:33 For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.
D. Inseparable Communion
1. 1 John 1:6-7 “If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.”
2. Galatians 5:16, 24, 25 “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh… those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”
3. "You will know you are close to the heart of God when what grieves your heart is the same thing that grieves His."
4. Psalm 139: 7-10 “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me.
