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.
And if Coach Everett is not in a right position spiritually, he gets home and he tells Kathryn, his wife, today, I told the pastor what is wrong with him; I put him in his place. And an element of pride sets in his heart and he is worse off for attempting to spur me on. I did not move forward, and he probably moved backwards.
That is why being a pastor, associate pastor, Sunday school teacher is such a difficult position (and I pray for you all constantly) because in your preaching and teaching, you will by your words be seen as spurring on the people who are listening, but your life better show it. You cannot spur people on with just words; you have to show it with your life.
Any good parent wants to spur their children on to be the absolute best. So, how does a parent do that certainly with words. You got to work harder in school. You got to have the right kind of friends. You cannot get side-tracked by alcohol or marijuana. And what does the child do? He looks at your life and he sees that you are doing the very things you told him or her not to do. Do you really think that you are spurring on your children on be their best? No, your life does not line up with your words.
So, self-examination is the very first thing I need to do if I am considering trying to help a brother or sister by spurring them on. Self-examination is needed if I want to spur my children to be their best.
#2
I should feel a burden to spur on my brothers and sisters, but I should know the signs when it is right for me to go to them. That means I need to be in communication with God in prayer to determine that right time.
Romans 5:6 (NIV)
6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.
Romans 13:11 (NIV)
11 And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.
You cannot read the Old and New Testaments, and not see that timing is particularly important. Through its pages, the Bible talks about the right time, the time has come. Jesus on serious occasions spoke about “my time has not yet come.” The Bible when talking about the events of the Revelation speaks of “a time to come”. Timing in the Christian life is particularly important.
So, if that is the case, timing as to when I go to someone to spur them on, the Scripture is telling me -that timing is important. If I go too early, the person you are attempting to spur on might think that you are too much up in their business. That person is probably telling them themselves- you need to worry about your own business.
If I go too late, the person might feel I didn’t care enough when he or she needed me, so they kind of wrote off the church, Christian fellowship, and possibly God. They think to themselves; they call themselves Christians, but they didn’t come to my side when I needed them.
So, there is a sweet spot, a time when it is the right time to spur someone on. And when you hit that sweet spot, you get to experience what the Bible describes in Proverbs 27:6 (NIV)
6 Wounds from a friend can be trusted...
In other words, if you hit that sweet spot there will be a time of healing.
So far, I learned to spur someone on, I better do my self-evaluation and I better get with God to find that right time. But there is one more thing I need to do.
#3
When the time is right to spur someone on, I need to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit so that He is actually doing the spurring on and not me.
Luke 12:11-12 (NIV)
11 “When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say,
12 for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say."
If I allow the Holy Spirit to speak through me, He is going to speak to that person’s heart. The Holy Spirit of God can speak in ways that I cannot possibly speak to someone.
If I go to spur you on and I go without the sensitivity of the Holy Spirit, there is only one of two outcomes. I may try to manipulate you. Let me give you an example, “if you come back to church, the first Sunday you are there, I will take you out to eat after services.” Pastors, I got to tell you, are great at manipulating people to walk down the aisle. We can say something like “if you are not sure of your relationship with God raise your hand”. And then the Pastor may say something like thank you I see your hand. And then the Pastor says if you raised your hand, you need to come down to the front and let me pray for you. The pastor just put that person in a difficult spot through manipulation.
Or the other outcome is making the person feel guilty. Making someone feel guilty does not turn them around. It turns them off. I constantly remind myself: Romans 2:4 (NKJV)
4 Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?
Now you know why when you attempt to spur someone forward, you got to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit because our outcomes with the Holy Spirit would be disastrous.
So, the three things I need to remember: do my self-evaluation, be prayed up so that you know the right time and go with a sensitivity to the Holy Spirit.
Let us pray!
