Answering God’s Call Today
Hebrews 3:1-4:13
SICC, 6/30/02 (Morning)
Decisions, decisions, decisions. Some are easier than others. Some are cut and dry. This is the kind of decision you might make at 8:30 in the evening after you have been running around all day long. You still have not had supper. No one has had time to cook. You are tired. It is time to eat. You say to one another, “Let’s go out.” Pretty easy decision. It is cut and dry.
Others aren’t so easy. “Should I get married?” That is a decision that a person might mull over for years. It is not so easy. There is one good thing about it though. Once you have made the decision. There is no need to worry about it any longer. You don’t have to wake up every day after you get married and wonder if you want to be married that day or not. You will always be married. Marriage is a one time decision.
Some decisions are complicated though. Not only are they hard, but they have to decided afresh every day. Your relationship to Jesus is one of those decisions. You don’t have to decide whether or not you are going to be saved every day. That decision is a one time matter. You make the decision to believe in Jesus. You make the commitment of repentance, and you show that you accept the forgiveness offered to you by Jesus by being baptized. When we do that you have made a decision that governs your whole life. You don’t have to be a Christian or not to be a Christian every day. If you believe and have been baptized, you are a Christian.
You do have to make a decision every day though. That decision is whether or not you are going to live like a believer or not.
That is really where the core message of the Book of Hebrews is directed. Our author is encouraging us to live every day in such a way that we reaffirm that decision we made how ever long ago to be a Christian. His point is this: once you have made that decision, there is nowhere else to turn. The only course is forward. The only way we can make progress is to do things that renew that initial commitment we made to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Let me review the argument our author has made so far in the Book of Hebrews. In chapter one he tells us that Jesus is the last word from God the Father. He gives us 7 reasons why Jesus is God’s final answer. Chapter 2 tells us that Jesus’s message is one we must listen to and obey. If we don’t there is no hope for us. We can be sure of that because God has never messed around before. When he says something will happen, it happens. An example of his justice is seen in his dealings with the Israelites. He punishes those who disobey his commands. Not only that, but we know Jesus is worth listening to because of the extent to which he has gone to deliver his message. He has died for us. We must hear God’s word through Jesus.
Today we’ll look at chapter three and the first 13 verses of chapter 4 where, in great sermonic fashion, our author tells us that we need to make the decision to follow him today.
A long, long time ago, long before Jesus walked the streets of Nazareth, long before David slew the giant, there was a man named Moses. He was a good man, an honorable man. He obeyed God and spoke God’s word openly. He was a man who deserved respect. His people didn’t respect him though. If they had, they would not have disobeyed the words he spoke to them from the tablets God gave him on Mt. Sinai. Had they all acted in obedience and trust, they would have entered into the promised land 40 years earlier than they did. Instead, none of Moses’ generation entered into the rest God promised. They made a decision, a wrong decision. They decided that God was not worthy of their trust. They all died in the desert because they didn’t believe that God could lead them to their rest in the Promised Land.
God is still promising rest. We need rest. God will give us rest if we decide daily to put our trust in Him. There is not much rest here from any source other than God. There is plenty of anxiety. There is plenty of pain. There is plenty of heartache. There is not much rest. We need rest. I’m not talking about 8 or so hours of sleep. I am not talking about 15 minute power naps. I am not talking about vacations away from the pressures of life. I am talking about the rest that comes from God. Decide to seek God and find rest. You need it.
• If you have a family and still work 60-80 hours a week you need God’s rest. Decide to trust him.
• If you are dealing with the prolonged illness of a loved one, you need God’s rest. Decide to trust him.
• If you are on the verge of financial poverty, living from paycheck to paycheck, you need God’s rest. Decide to trust him.
• Do you send your kids to a school where they might come into contact with anything from bullies to pushers? They will see many things. They will see the depravity of divorce. They will see the destitution of drug dependence. They might experience the lasting languish of loneliness. They see it all in school. They experience it all in school – except the hope of God. If you are raising children today, you need the rest of God. Decide to trust him.
Don’t be like the Israelites. They hardened their heart in the desert. They decided not to trust him. They had an opportunity to enter into God’s rest. The rest that he had prepared for them, but they missed the opportunity because they were not faithful. They made the decision long ago to leave Egypt. They trusted God then.
• Maybe they trusted because they saw the Nile teem with frogs.
• Maybe they trusted because they witnessed locusts devouring everything that was green in all of Egypt.
• They saw the hail fall throughout all of Egypt – everywhere but their neighborhood. Maybe that is why they decided to trust.
• They saw the first born die. Every first born. Whether he lived in the pasture, the stable or the palace, every firstborn died. They died so that the Hebrews could enjoy their rest. They died so that the Hebrews could be free. Maybe that is why they decided to trust.
Now the Hebrews stood on the precipice of freedom and they were frightened. They were moments from entering into their rest and they ran. They saw God work. Many people died for them. They heard the voice of God and they doubted.
Today, if you hear his voice listen. Today, if he calls you to enter in, enter. You know God works. You know God’s Son died for you. Don’t doubt. Don’t fear. Don’t run. Decide to trust. Enter into his rest. Once you get there, stay there. That is the message of the Book of Hebrews in a nutshell. Enter into his rest. Once you get there, stay there.
Sounds like a no brainer, but if history is any indicator, we had better not take this one for granted. Remember the Hebrews.
• They watched the Egyptians shovel hail and tip-toe around frogs.
• They saw locusts so thick their Egyptian masters had them sweep them away with brooms.
• They saw the Nile turn to blood and they witnessed the overnight death of every first born in the land.
Then they made the decision to leave Egypt. In the desert,
• They saw all of Pharaoh’s best soldiers and officers lie lifeless on the banks of the once-dry Red Sea. Drowned in God’s wrath.
• They tasted the manna.
• They cleaned the quail.
• They were awestruck at Mt Sinai.
• They followed the fire.
• They quenched their thirst with water from a rock.
That was yesterday. Then it was today. The decision had to be made again. They hardened their hearts. They refused to enter into the Promised Land because the men there were big and the walls there were thick. Simply put, they decided not to trust.
What does God want you to do today? Everything that happened yesterday is leading up to his call on your life today. The victories that God gave you yesterday were not for you to wax nostalgic about they were to strengthen you for today’s challenge. The lessons God taught you yesterday are not to puff you up with knowledge they are to fill you with faith. You have already been through salvation. You believe. You’ve been baptized. You are saved. That decision is made. Now what? God has freed you from a life of slavery to sin just like he freed the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt. Jesus died so that you can enter into the promised land, just like the first born in Egypt died so that the Hebrews could leave the land of their slavery. Now what?
Let’s think about it in the context of our church. God has brought us a long way.
• Eight years ago this church was simply a few families who believed that God was not ready for this worshiping body to cease to exist. Barely enough money to pay the bills. Barely enough strength to come together each week. I think they drew straws to see who would preach every week. I’m sure there were doubts as to whether anyone would come and preach here. God called me here. Frankly, I didn’t have a lot of other offers. I had just come off of a difficult ministry and I didn’t know if I should be a preacher or not. Part of the reason I came here was I didn’t think I could make things much worse than they already were. Maybe we all had our doubts. Didn’t think we could do it. We decided to try, trusting God. Well, God did it, and He used us.
• The windows were falling down. It was going to cost tens of thousands to fix them. Didn’t think we could do it. We decided to try, trusting God. God did it, and he used us.
• I had to work another job. The money simply was not there for me to fully support my family through the church. We didn’t think we could do it. We decided to try, trusting God. God did it and he used us.
• We barely had enough kids to warrant one Sunday School class. We didn’t think we would ever have a full Sunday School program. We decided to try, trusting God. God did it and he used us.
That was yesterday, what about today?
• We need a new roof. We are barely paying our current bills how are we going to pay for that? We must try, trusting God. God will do it, and he will use us.
What else does God want us to do now?
• Wayne Long is trying to get together a base of support among NYC Churches to start a new church among Portuguese speaking people in Queens. Maybe God is calling us to be involved in planting that church. How can we help? We are pushed to the edge right now. There is nothing more we can do here. We don’t have extra money or time. If God is calling us to do it, we better decide to try, trusting God. God will do it through us.
• Our Sunday school teachers and students are pushed into every corner of the building. We’ve got no real Sunday School classes. Maybe God is calling us to expand our building so that we have more room to grow. How can we afford to build? No one will loan us the money. We cannot raise that kind of money. If God is calling us to do it, we better decide to try, trusting God. He will do it through us.
The question we must ask ourselves is, “What will we do today.” This summer will be a time for us to make some important decisions about what God will have us to do today. We must seek his voice. More importantly, we must be willing to answer when he calls to us. We must decide daily to trust that God will do what he calls us to and that he will use us. Almost thirty-three years ago some of God’s leaders listened to God’s voice calling them to begin a church on Staten Island. It wasn’t easy. It didn’t seem possible. They met in a basement for a while. They met in a couple of different buildings. They pursued property, had one lined up, but, at the last minute, it fell through. It didn’t look as though what God was calling for would be accomplished. But David Miller and others were faithful and God did it through them. They made a decision to follow God’s direction. God led them to victory. Let’s as a body make a decision today to follow after God’s leading.
