Not too long ago, a real estate listing in Dallas had the simple headline: “Converted Church.” In other words, what had once been a church facility is now somebody’s house.
The listing under the heading had this description: “The altar has been adapted for use as a granite and stainless steel themed kitchen, in homage to the cooking gods.” That’s the words they used – “in homage to the cooking gods!” It went on, “The choir loft has been rewired for a home theater.” There was no baptistery, but there was a hot tub – and, among other things, a game room, a music room and an exercise studio. All this for about $2 million! One more thing: the 15,000 square foot church/home has 11 bedrooms. Nice to know people can now sleep comfortably in that church.
John Whiteside, the realtor showing the house, says, “De-sanctified churches are the number-one type of building converted to residential use.” (www.PreachingToday.com)
Sad to say, this has happened to a lot of churches, whether or not they have been converted into residences. They’ve been “de-sanctified” and have simply become comfortable places for people to gather and sometimes sleep. These are churches that have lost their way, because they forgot what they were all about.
This morning, as we look into a new year, I want us to remember what we’re all about as a church, so the same thing doesn’t happen to us. This and the next four Sunday’s, we’re going look at the church’s core values which God put into place when He first established it in the 1st Century. We’re going explore the fundamental commitments that were there from the beginning so we don’t forget what we’re all about and lose our way.
And we’re going to start in the book of Hebrews, where the author addresses a church that was about to lose its way. The believers in that church were experiencing heavy persecution. Many had lost their jobs because of their faith in Christ. Many had been disowned by their family and friends, and they were criticized and ridiculed. As a result, some began to wonder if following Christ was worth it, and they were ready to leave the church and go back to a way of life that seemed a whole lot less stressful. It is to these people that the book of Hebrews was written to remind them of what they had in Christ, and then to encourage them not to give up their core values as believers in Christ.
It’s an important message especially for us today who still experience criticism and ridicule for the stands we take as followers of Christ. So if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to the book of Hebrews, Hebrews 10, Hebrews 10, where we come to the essence of this book, a paragraph that summarizes the entire book in just a few short sentences.
Hebrews 10:19-20 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God... (NIV)
Jesus has opened up a way for us to come into the very presence of God Himself. Under the old way, only one man, once a year, could enter into the presence of God. That man was the High Priest, who on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) would wash himself completely then enter the holiest of holy places in the Temple. There he met with God behind a thick veil, beyond which nobody else could go. Then Jesus died on the cross, and that veil was ripped in two – from top to bottom. His broken body and shed blood opened a way for all of us at any time to enter into the very presence of God Himself.
That’s what Hebrews 8 to 10 are all about, summarized here in vs.19-20. Jesus has provided direct access to God for every believer. He is mediator of a better covenant, a better way. More than that, He is a better high priest.
Hebrews 10:21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God... (NIV)
That’s what Hebrews 1 to 7 is all about. Jesus is God Himself – who became like us, who understands what its like to struggle, & who died for us once and for all. As such, He is our high priest, interceding and praying for us.
When somebody says to you, “I’m praying for you,” isn’t that a huge encouragement? I know that Sandy and I are very encouraged when people say to us, “We’re praying for you.” That means so much to us, and many times it has been just the thing to keep us going.
Well, the good news is Jesus is praying for all of us! He’s praying for you! He’s praying for me! & That should be enough to keep us all going for quite some time.
Jesus has provided a way for us to have direct access to God, and He Himself is praying for us right now. Therefore, since that is true, verse 22 says, “Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith.” (NIV) In the hard times, since we have so much going for us in Christ, 1st of all, let’s continue to…
PRAY IN FAITH.
Let’s approach the throne of grace with every confidence because of our faith in Jesus Christ. My friends, when you feel like quitting, just pray. Come to God in prayer and draw strength from Him.
Edward Everett Hale was chaplain of the U.S. Senate from 1903-1909. One day someone asked him, “Do you pray for the senators, Dr. Hale?” “No,” the chaplain responded. “I look at the Senators and pray for the country.” (Letters of Grace, Newsletter, 5/95, p. 3)
Prayer – it’s the best thing to do when you see trouble ahead. When things get rough, when you’re discouraged, then come into God’s presence and pray. Or as the text says, pray "in full assurance of faith.” In other words, trust God completely to see you through. Trust God completely to give you grace to help in a time of need.
The daughter of missionaries to the Congo Republic in Africa once told Pastor Leith Anderson this story: As a little girl, she participated in a day-long rally to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the coming of missionaries to that part of Africa. At the close of a long day of speeches and music, an old, old man stood before the crowd and insisted on speaking. He soon would die, he said, and if he didn’t speak, information that he alone possessed would go with him to his grave.
He said that when the missionaries arrived, his people thought them strange and their message dubious. The tribal leaders decided to test the missionaries by slowly poisoning them to death. Over a period of months and years, missionary children died one by one. Then, the old man said, “It was as we watched how they died that we decided we wanted to live as Christians.”
Those who died painful, strange deaths never know why they were dying or what the impact of their lives and deaths would be. But through it all, they didn’t leave. They stayed because they trusted Jesus Christ. (Leith Anderson, “Mystery Martyrs,” Men of Integrity, January/February 2004)
And that’s what will give us the staying power as well. It’s our faith in Christ that keeps us going, our trust in Him.
Annie Johnson Flint put it this way in an old hymn:
When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
When our strength has failed ere the day is half done,
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources,
Our Father’s full giving is only begun
His love has no limit;
His grace has no measure;
His pow’r has no boundary known unto men;
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus,
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again.
Do you believe it? Then come to Him “in full assurance of faith.”
Pray in faith! Why? Because you are forgiven. When we trusted Christ as our savior, our sins were washed away.
Hebrews 10:22 Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. (NIV)
You see, it would mean certain death to stand dirty and sinful in the presence of God. The high priest in Old Testament times, even HE had to take a ritual bath before He could enter into the holy of holies lest he die.
Well, here it tells us that we have already taken a bath. Our sins are already washed away. We are clean on the inside. God accepts us wholly and perfectly. Therefore, we can come boldly and confidently to His throne of grace to find help in the time of need. So don’t quit when you get discouraged. Instead, pray in faith, because you are forgiven. Then…
PERSEVERE WITH HOPE because God is faithful.
Hang in there! Don’t give up your hope, because God always keeps his promises.
Hebrews 10:23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. (NIV)
God will never go back on His Word. We can trust Him to keep His promises to us no matter what. So don’t give up. Don’t lose your hope, because God will come through for us every time.
In his book, The Jesus Creed, Scot McKnight shares the moving story of Margaret Ault. When Margaret was just about to complete her Ph.D. at Duke, something unexpected – but quite welcomed – happened: she fell in love. She went on a date with a man named Hyung Goo Kim, and the proverbial sparks flew. But almost as quickly as the sparks became a fire, they were doused with water. Hyung Goo informed Margaret that he was HIV positive. Needless to say, Margaret was devastated. In her own words, “I’d just met someone I liked, and we were definitely not going to live happily ever after. I felt like I had been kicked in the gut by the biggest boot in the world.”
Still, she and Hyung Goo were married. In his book McKnight asks the question many of us would ask: “Why would anyone invite into the core of their being so much pain?” He then goes on to share that the answer unfolds in the rest of Margaret and Hyung Goo’s story. He writes:
When Margaret was in graduate school at Duke, she and Hyung Goo loved to walk in the Duke gardens, and so knowledgeable did they become of its plants that they “supervised construction” of a new project. They walked through each part of the garden routinely and had names for some of the ducks. In their last spring together, the garden seemed especially beautiful [to them].
Hyung Goo died in the fall and Margaret returned to the gardens in the spring where a memorial garden of roses was being constructed in his honor. In her book, Sing Me to Heaven, Margaret reflects on the days she returned to the gardens. She writes:
Where peonies were promised, there were only the dead stumps of last year’s stalks; where day lilies were promised, there were unprepossessing tufts of foliage; where hostas were promised, there was nothing at all. And yet I know what lushness lay below the surface; those beds that were so brown and empty and, to the unknowing eye, so unpromising, would be full to bursting in a matter of months.
Then she asks, “Is the whole world like this? Is this what it might be like to live in expectation, real expectation, of the resurrection? Was not Hyung Goo’s and my life together like this? Empty and sere, and yet a seedbed of fullness and life for both of us. He died, and I was widowed; yet in his dying, we both were made alive. (Scot McKnight, The Jesus Creed, Paraclete Press, 2005, pp. 286-288; www.PreachingToday.com)
How did Margaret find such hope in the midst of her pain? Well, she refused to focus on the deadness around her. Instead, she focused on the promise of life.
You see, God’s promises are like seeds planted in a “brown and empty” world. To the unbeliever, what seems so barren will one day be busting with life and beauty and joy. So don’t give up on God, ever, even in the midst of your pain. Instead, Pray in faith, because you are forgiven. Persevere with hope, because God is faithful. And finally...
PROVOKE ONE ANOTHER TO LOVE, because Jesus is coming.
Spur each other on to compassion, because your redemption draws near.
Hebrews 10:24-25 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. (NIV)
Jesus is coming soon, so let’s get together more often. Let’s get together so we can spur one another to love and good deeds.
In a recent issue of Men of Integrity magazine, Max Lucado talks about his experience at a Young Life camp in Colorado. He says, “Every Thursday during that Young Life summer camp, 400 students make the 14,000 foot climb up Colorado’s Mount Chrysolite.” He and several Young Life leaders walk with them.
Well, on one of those trips, somewhere around 4,000 feet, a student named Matthew decided to call it quits. Lucado coaxed him, begged him, negotiated a plan with him: thirty steps of walking, sixty seconds of resting. Finally, they stood within a thousand feet of the peak. But the last stretch of the trail rose up as straight as a fireman’s ladder.
They got serious. Two guys came up beside Matt, each taking an arm. Lucado pushed from the rear. They all but dragged Matt past the timberline and to the awesome view at the top. That’s when they heard the applause. 400 campers on the crest of Mount Chrysolite gave Matt a standing ovation.
Lucado says, “As I slumped down to rest, a thought stream-rolled my way: There it is, Max, a perfect picture of my plan. Do all you can to push each other to the top. Was this a message from God? Well, it does sound like something he’d say.” (Max Lucado, “Push Each Other to the Top,” Men of Integrity, March/April 2010; www.PreachingToday.com)
Sure it does right here in Hebrews 10:24 and 25. That’s what the church is all about – coming together to push each other to the top especially as the days get harder and harder before Christ’s Second Coming. When the going gets tough, we’re here for each other to coax, beg, push and cheer each other on to love and good deeds. None of us need to go it alone, because we have Christ and we have each other.
During the Civil War, General Corse and his men were guarding the fort at Altoma Pass. General Hood, and his army surrounded the fort and ordered General Corse to surrender. Corse refused, and many died in the battle that followed. The situation grew hopeless, but the defenders remained at their posts and refused to give up.
Then a white signal flag, across the valley some 20 miles away, waved the message: “Hold the fort, for I am coming.” General Sherman’s army was on its way. The defenders of the fort would be rescued if only they could hold on for a little while longer.
Today, we see the signals of Christ’s coming. The stage is set for the end-time events as described in the Bible. Israel is in the land and controls the city of Jerusalem. World powers are aligned as predicted in the book of Daniel. We have the technology to number every individual as described in the book of Revelation. The signals are all there – Jesus is coming very soon! So hold the fort! Don’t give up, for your redemption draws near!
Pray in faith, because you are forgiven. Persevere with hope, because God is faithful. & Provoke one another to love, because Jesus is coming. These are the core values that will keep us from losing our way – faith, hope, and love.
