Hebrews 10:19-25
Eric A. Snyder, Minister, Farwell Church of Christ
February 10, 2002
A burglar, needing money to pay his income taxes, decided to rob the safe in a store. On the safe door he was very pleased to find a note reading: "Please don’t use dynamite. The safe is not locked. Just turn the knob."
He did so. Instantly a heavy sandbag fell on him, the entire premises were floodlighted, and alarms started clanging. As the police carried him out on a stretcher, he was heard moaning: "My confidence in human nature has been rudely shaken."
I know that there are times when your confidence in God is shaken.
In a time when every thing seems so uncertain and scary, perhaps you’ve been left wondering; where is God?
In a certain suburban neighborhood, there were two brothers, 8 and 10 years old, who were exceedingly mischievous. Whatever went wrong in the neighborhood, it turned out they had had a hand in it. Their parents were at their wits’ end trying to control them. Hearing about a priest nearby who worked with delinquent boys, the mother suggested to the father that they ask the priest to talk with the boys. The father replied, "Sure, do that before I kill them!"
The mother went to the priest and made her request. He agreed, but said he wanted to see the younger boy first and alone. So the mother sent him to the priest.
The priest sat the boy down across a huge, impressive desk he sat behind. For about five minutes they just sat and stared at each other. Finally, the priest pointed his forefinger at the boy and asked, "Where is God?"
The boy looked under the desk, in the corners of the room, all around, but said nothing.
Again, louder, the priest pointed at the boy and asked, "Where is God?"
Again the boy looked all around but said nothing. A third time, in a louder, firmer voice, the priest leaned far across the desk and put his forefinger almost to the boy’s nose, and asked, "Where is God?"
The boy panicked and ran all the way home. Finding his older brother, he dragged him upstairs to their room and into the closet, where they usually plotted their mischief. He finally said, "We are in BIIIIG trouble."
The older boy asked, "What do you mean, BIIIIG trouble?"
His brother replied, "God is missing and they think we did it."
I don’t know if that described your life, but I know that there have been times in my past when I couldn’t find God. The reason that I couldn’t find him was not because he wasn’t there. It was because at the time I was unstable.
We live in a world that is changing every second. In fact the word that most people would use to define their lives in today’s society is. Shaky, or unstable.
If you follow the news you will find out that what we deal with everyday is at least a little shaky. Currently even thought Mr. Greenspan says that the recession is over our economy continues to show signs of instability. The house market right now looks uncertain. Last week the Rams offense even managed to look poor. We now live in a time of live in relationships because people honestly can’t make a decision about who they want to spend their life with. Divorce rates are at an all time high. Even in the past year our sense of security has been taken from us.
So what do you do through out all of the instability, Well we are told in God’s written word that He is trustworthy. He can be trusted, He is unchanging,
I would contend that at any point in your life there are things that are really unstable. In the past 6 months some of you have been laid off, lost your health, lost a loved one and the list goes on. So you know that God is your only source of stability. It’s that way for everybody.
Have you found yourself sitting back thinking that your life is pretty great? One of the things that amazes me most about life is how strong it is and how fragile it is. We all live unstable lives, The job could be gone tomorrow, The kids might have some heartbreaking news in a week, we never know what is around the corner, But we do know this. Through all of our instability we know that the Lord is our rock.
He in unbending, and the great news about serving merciful God is that He promises to care for us
A father and son were out in the country, climbing around in some cliffs, The father heard a voice from above me yell, "Hey Dad! Catch me!" He turned around to see his son jumping off a rock straight at him. He had jumped and then yelled "Hey Dad!" The father caught his son. And they both fell to the ground. For a moment after neither could hardly talk. When the dad found his voice again he gasped in exasperation: "Can you give me one good reason why you did that???"
He responded with remarkable calmness: "Sure...because you’re my Dad."
His whole assurance was based in the fact that his father could be trusted. Let me ask you are you living to the full extreme, because you trust God. Have you taken some dives off of cliffs and trusted God to give you life?
If you have not jumped into the arms of Jesus I want to encourage you to try it out.
The book of Hebrews chapter 10 describes how we can jump into the arms of God.
19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 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, 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. 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25 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.
This text can be summed up in a short sentence: Get close to God, stay close to God, help others get close to God
The author is gloating about the fact that at one time to talk to God you needed a priest. You needed a professional, but the author says because of Jesus, you and I can now come to God personally if we have Jesus.
The first part is a self help book it could be titled “How to get close to God”. And the writer lays out some very easy steps for getting closer in your life.
1. How to get close to God
a. Get sincere
God loves sincerity. The Bible tells us that he values honesty more that he values lies. He wants you to be sincere. He says to the people in Isaiah’s day “They worship me with their lips but their hearts are far from me” So he says if you wont come to Him as your first support of stability then your world will not remain stable for very long.
You say that sounds harsh. God makes no excuses for being Jealous, He desires your time, your companionship and your sincerity. Do you have an honest desire to get to know Him better? That’s all he wants from you.
You say that sounds rough. Let me ask you parents; Doesn’t that describe the relationship that you want with your children? It may sound hard but it’s just the natural desire of a loving parent. I think you can all agree that sincerity is the first key to any successful relationship.
b. Believe in Jesus
He didn’t leave these things as negotiable. God says I sacrificed my son and if you want to get to know me you have to get to know him. Learn about the preparation that God made to make you all his children.
Believe that Jesus is who he claimed to be.
c. Get clean
A young boy, about eight years old, was at the corner "Mom & Pop" grocery store picking out a pretty good size box of laundry detergent. The grocer walked over and, trying to be friendly, asked the boy if he had a lot of laundry to do.
"Oh, no laundry," the boy said. "I’m going to wash my dog."
"But you shouldn’t use this to wash your dog. It’s very powerful and if you wash your dog in this, he’ll get sick. In fact, it might even kill him."
But the boy was not to be stopped and carried the detergent to the counter and paid for it, even as the grocer still tried to talk him out of washing his dog.
About a week later the boy was back in the store to buy some candy. The grocer asked the boy how his dog was doing.
"Oh, he died," the boy said.
The grocer, trying not to be an I-told-you-so, said he was sorry the dog died but added, "I tried to tell you not to use that detergent on your dog."
"Well," the boy replied, "I don’t think it was the detergent that killed him."
"Oh? What was it then?"
"I think it was the spin cycle."
Some of you feel like you’re living in the spin cycle and cleaning up your life would all but kill you.
For the baptized believer this passage rings true we remember confessing that we have sinned. We remember declaring our full allegiance to Jesus.
But I have to tell you there is nothing magical in the water. There is no Clorox bleach to get you clean. We are cleansed by Jesus.
The Bible says doesn’t just say He took our sins it says He literally became sin. Jesus, the one who was pure and spotless took all of our sins like a sponge, he literally made them his own.
Martin Luther tells of a dream when he heard Jesus knocking on his door and he started running around trying to pick the place up and the more he cleaned up the messier it got. Finally he was so afraid that Jesus would go away so he opened the door and said “Lord if you are willing to come into a house like this” and when he turned around his house was perfectly in order.
Some of you have had the same dream and you know the phrase too well. You will never reach people by telling them what they are doing wrong. Because we are all interested in what Jesus is doing right. And when he comes into your house, it won’t be long before it’s all put together.
2. How to stay close to God
A husband and wife were watching a old romantic movie
When the movie was over the wife started to cry
He said what’s the matter
"You Used To Kiss Me."
So He Leaned Over And Kissed Her.
She started to cry again so he said now what’s wrong
"You Used To Hold My Hand."
So He Reached Out And Held Her Hand.
She said
"You Used To nibble on my ear”
He Got Up And Walked Out Of The Room.
"Where Are You Going?
"I’m Going To Get My Teeth."
Paul tells the Ephesians that they need to get back to basics
He says you’ve forgotten your first love, it’s time to get back to basics
Remember the hope that you were called to
3. Helping others get close to God
a. meeting together
b. encouraging each other
Wayne Smith tells a story about a man who was an incredible human being. He was one of the founders of the Billy Graham crusade. He was known for his encouragement and sacrifice. He was a well known author and preacher He also was an incredible swimmer. One summer he vacationed on swoon lake in New York. Which as I understand is a rather huge lake. He was on a boat with about 12 other people and it was getting dark when the boat took a sharp turn and 2 teenage girls fell overboard. Without even stopping to take off his shoes Dawson Trotman age 56 immediately jumped in after them. Because it was so dark no one thought he would find the girls but he found one and managed to pull her over to the boat where the people pulled her up. After that Dawson went down again and almost miraculously found the other girl she was pulled into the boat and when they went to reach for his hand to pull him in, it was gone.
The church of the open door in Colorado Springs in was where Billy Graham had the funeral service. It was the biggest funeral that town had ever seen. The media was there everybody had a story. But I think time magazine had it best. On the cover there was a picture of Dawson Trotman with a caption about what he had done and these four big words across the front of the magazine: Always holding somebody up”
Who are you holding up?
