JESUS THE BETTER WAY:
JESUS INSTILLS A BETTER MOTIVATION
HEBREWS 11:32 – 12:3
INTRO
The Bucket List
So did any of you read, a few weeks back, about the 91 year old that fulfilled one of his bucket list items?
Walter Thomas lives in Woodstock, NY and he had an unusual wish on his bucket list. He told his grand daughter, Becky Goers, that, “he always wanted to back a car through the garage door.”
So Becky, a driver’s education teacher, called in a few favors and made it happen. Grandson Andrew Thomas found a 1998 Isuzu Rodeo, and his brother Brian discovered a garage Walter could wreck.
Donning a crash helmet and with family watching, Walter climbed behind the wheel, hit the gas, and barreled backwards through the wooden door.
Family members laughed, cried, and cheered as flying wood settled around the driveway.
“That was crazy,” Walter told the paper while smiling ear to ear. “We really took the door down.” He also answered his lifelong question. The garage door was destroyed, but the frame was undamaged.
{Source” http://www.krmg.com/news/news/local/91-year-old-fulfills-bucket-list-item-backing-thro/nmWHn/}
Have you ever asked yourself why you do the things you do?
What determines what is worth of your time and energy?
When you look back at the end of your life will you be able to say, “It was worth it.” Will you know that you have given your life for something that counted?
There are a lot of earthbound motivations that compete for our loyalty and diligence but, in the end, they prove to be dust and rust. There are other motivations that some might say are foolish but last long after we have passed from this life into the next.
Have you heard of Jean de Meung (c.1250 – c.1305)? Probably very very few of us have heard of him. And there’s a reason. He stayed holed up in his home in France trying to turn rocks into gold. Something that had been tried for almost 2000 years to no avail but he wanted the gold!!
Have you heard of Robert Grosseteste (c.1175–1253)? You need to. He was the Bishop of the diocese at Lincoln and the central character of the English intellectual movement in the first half of the 13th century.
• He lectured on theology at Oxford but is also considered the founder of scientific thought in Oxford.
• He is considered the first physicist and mathematician of his age.
• He had a great interest in the natural world and wrote texts on the mathematical sciences of physics, optics, astronomy and geometry that have influenced science to this day.
• He affirmed that experiments should be used in order to verify a theory; testing its consequences through controlled experiments.
• He added greatly to the development of the scientific method that Roger Bacon later expanded into "the scientific theory."
One chased his greed the other chased a dream based off of what he knew of God and God’s creation.
It seems to me that knowing the calling of God (that dream God has implanted within you) and chasing that dream with all one’s heart trumps any other pursuit.
To have a clear sense of a divine dream, of what God has created you for, and refusing to be deterred is stabilizing, satisfying, sustaining and significant.
At the same time, following God’s will for you can be heart breaking.
It will also be exhausting.
It will cost you your life … it cannot be a hobby you “do” on the side.
But in every case it will be be worth it and you will have no regrets.
Listen to the word of the Lord:
HEBREWS 11:32 - 12:3
11:32 And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets,
11:33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions,
11:34 quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.
11:35 Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection.
11:36 Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison.
11:37 They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated—
11:38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.
11:39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised.
11:40 God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.
12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
12:2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
12:3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
Chapter 11 is referred to by many as “Faith’s Hall of Fame.” It is a record of the the saints from the Old Testament that sought and followed God’s dream implanted within their hearts. It is worth your while to read this chapter over and over. It cannot help but:
• Encourage your own faith
• Purify your motivations
• Streamline life’s pursuits
But, as I said, be advised because what you discover about following God may not leave you with “warm fuzzies.” Rather you will discover that:
• Following God’s will for you can be heart breaking.
• It will be exhausting.
• It will cost you your life … it cannot be a hobby you “do” on the side.
• But in every case it will be worth it and you will have no regrets.
In a real sense this chapter is not seeking to “define” faith but, rather, to described and illustrate what faith looks like. It wants you to see how trusting and following God’s dream within motivates you. The motivation is summarized frequently in the chapter but can be boiled down to three comments … our motivation is that we
1. “Desire a better country” (11:16) … Faith let’s us see what things can be not just want they are. Faith let’s us see what our lives, our families, our communities and our world can look like when God’s people do God’s work … it creates a “better country.”
2. Believe God gives a “better resurrection” (11:35) … Faith believes God can take that which is dead and infuse life into it. Faith looks at the brokenness and the hopelessness around us and chooses to allow God to use us to impart life there.
3. Believe God offers “something better” than the world can offer us (11:44). Faith believes God is bigger than the present circumstances would suggest. Faith believes God has a “preferred future” that can come into existence when God’s people chase God’s imparted dream.
That is why:
• “Noah … built an ark” (11:7)
• “Abraham … obeyed and went” (11:8)
• “Moses’ parents … were not afraid of the king” (11:23)
• “Moses … chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time.” (11:25)
• “The people … marched” (11:30)
• You can read the rest
We discover that the pursuit of God (or the motivation of eternity) is not shallow or ethereal or old fashioned or simplistic – it is, rather, the true motivation of substance! It trumps it superficial, human-potential laden dream the world has to iffer.
This motivation results in:
• Pleasing God (11:5)
• Becoming heirs of righteousness (11:7)
• God’s honor (11:16)
• Looking ahead to our reward (11:26)
• Being able to see the invisible (11:27)
• The world not being worthy of us (11:38)
• Receiving God’s full inheritance (11:40)
Earthbound motivations and rewards cannot compare to eternity. Chasing fake gold cannot withstand the scrutiny of time.
________
There is a danger of thinking that this book is encouraging us to “be so heavenly minded that we are of no earthly good.”
There is a danger of thinking this writer is encouraging us to neglect this world for the next. That would be incorrect. A shift definitely took place in 10:32 and onward but, when you are a living through hard times, looking to the future is essential.
Truth be told, it would behoove all of us to lift our gaze a bit, to look past the muck and mire of “today” and gain (or maintain) an eternal perspective.
In fact, we are encouraged to lift our gaze and “Fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” (Hebrews 12:2-3).
CHAPTERS 12 AND 13 WILL BRING THE FOCUS BACK TO EARTH AS WE DISCOVER THAT A HEALTHY ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE IMPACTS THE ENERGY WE HAVE TO SERVE GOD AND HIS WORLD HERE AND NOW.
You see, the writer knows that your faith is only as good as the object you are trusting. Are you trusting is alchemy or God’s created order and Word? Seriously, if you are trusting in Mickey Mouse, or a tree, yourself, or anything else to see you through to eternity you will be sorely disappointed. Your faith is only as good as the object it is built upon. That is why only Jesus can assure you of “a better country” (11:16) and “a better resurrection” (11:35) and “better promises” (8:6). Because he and he alone offered a “better sacrifice” (9:23) and rose from the dead.
In doing so he has “planned something better” (11:40) for you.
That should give each of us a better motivation. It cannot help but:
• Encourage your own faith
• Purify your motivations
• Streamline life’s pursuits
But, again, be advised; you will discover that:
• Following God’s will for you can be heart breaking.
• It will be exhausting.
• It will cost you your life … it cannot be a hobby you “do” on the side.
• But in every case it will be worth it and you will have no regrets.
Let’s read our covenant prayer from Hebrews together.
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This sermon is provided by Dr. Kenneth Pell
First Church of the Nazarene
Broken Arrow, Oklahoma
www.banazarene.org
Jesus: The Better Way
(A Congregational Prayer from Hebrews)
Leader: Heavenly Father, giver of all good gifts,
Leader: Because Jesus is better than our legends
All: We will look to Him for character
Leader: Because Jesus is better than our human potential
All: We will look to Him for strength
Leader: Because Jesus is better than our family pedigree
All: We will look to Him for identity
Leader: Because Jesus is a better mediator
All: We will look to Him for reconciliation
Leader: Because Jesus serves as a better guide
All: We will look to Him for direction
Leader: Because Jesus offers a better relationship
All: We will look to Him for communion
Leader: Because Jesus makes better promises
All: We will look to Him for assurance
Leader: Because Jesus ensures a better peace
All: We will look to Him for comfort
Leader: Because Jesus provides better possessions
All: We will look to Him for satisfaction
Leader: Because Jesus instills a better motivation
All: We will look to Him for purpose
Leader: Because Jesus establishes a better family
All: We will look to Him for belonging
Leader: Because Jesus awards a better inheritance
All: We will look to Him for our future
Leader: Because Jesus imparts a better life
All: We will look to Him for an example
Leader: In the name of Jesus, the Better Way, we pray.
