Hold On (Heb. 10:19-23)
Text: Heb 10:19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus,
Heb 10:20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body,
Heb 10:21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God,
Heb 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.
Heb 10:23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
Illus: One day a little boy and his Father went out to sea on a long anticipated fishing trip. They sailed out to sea, far away from the shore. They were so caught up in the fishing and each other’s company they failed to notice the dark clouds of the fast approaching storm. The sea began to roll and crash upon the little boat as the wind whipped the waves to tremendous heights. So the little boat capsized and the father and the son were in the raging water at the mercy of the elements. As they rode the crest of a wave they saw in the shallow depression of the watery trench a marker buoy. After an energy-draining swim they reached the buoy. The buoy was small, just large enough to get a hand hold on. The father knew that to stay was to die and that it was impossible for both of them to swim the long distance to the shore, so he told his small son to hold on to the buoy And he would swim for help. After hours of laborious swimming he cast himself exhausted upon the shore. He was taken to the Coast Guard station for help. He told the Captain of his little son on the buoy and asks to go get him. The Captain said,"nothing could survive in this storm". After much pleading the father convinced the Captain to go out to sea to look for his son. Searching the vast sea was like looking for a needle in a haystack. At last they came to the marker buoy, but there was no one there. Fear and dispair gripped the father’s heart, but not one to give up he asks the Captain to go a little father out. The Captain reluctantly consented to go to just one more buoy. As they neared the next buoy, hopelessness surrounded the crew of the rescue ship. As they drew nearer to the buoy there was no sign of life, then they waves twisted the buoy around, then a small hand could be seen holding on to the buoy. After the small boy was safely aboard the ship, the Captain ask him, "How did you manage to hold on so long"? The young boy answered, "My dad said to hold on, that he would come back for me".
Sometimes it seems like life is a mess and you’ve been shipwrecked ,GOD is saying HOLD ON!
People who held on
1. Job. Job 1:13 One day when Job’s sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house,
Job 1:14 a messenger came to Job and said, "The oxen were plowing and the donkeys were grazing nearby,
Job 1:15 and the Sabeans attacked and carried them off. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!"
Job 1:16 While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, "The fire of God fell from the sky and burned up the sheep and the servants, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!"
Job 1:17 While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, "The Chaldeans formed three raiding parties and swept down on your camels and carried them off. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!"
Job 1:18 While he was still speaking, yet another messenger came and said, "Your sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house,
Job 1:19 when suddenly a mighty wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on them and they are dead, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!"
Job 1:20 At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship
Job held on to GOD even later when his flesh was afflicted
Job 19:26 And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God;
Job 19:27 I myself will see him with my own eyes--I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!
Later on Job was restored
Job 42:10 After Job had prayed for his friends, the LORD made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before.
2. Calab-
Num 13:30 Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, "We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it."
Num 14:21 Nevertheless, as surely as I live and as surely as the glory of the LORD fills the whole earth,
Num 14:22 not one of the men who saw my glory and the miraculous signs I performed in Egypt and in the desert but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times--
Num 14:23 not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their forefathers. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it.
Num 14:24 But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it.
Deu 1:35 "Not a man of this evil generation shall see the good land I swore to give your forefathers,
Deu 1:36 except Caleb son of Jephunneh. He will see it, and I will give him and his descendants the land he set his feet on, because he followed the LORD wholeheartedly."
Josh 14:6 Now the men of Judah approached Joshua at Gilgal, and Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, "You know what the LORD said to Moses the man of God at Kadesh Barnea about you and me.
Josh 14:7 I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadesh Barnea to explore the land. And I brought him back a report according to my convictions,
Josh 14:8 but my brothers who went up with me made the hearts of the people melt with fear. I, however, followed the LORD my God wholeheartedly.
Josh 14:9 So on that day Moses swore to me, ’The land on which your feet have walked will be your inheritance and that of your children forever, because you have followed the LORD my God wholeheartedly.’
Josh 14:10 "Now then, just as the LORD promised, he has kept me alive for forty-five years since the time he said this to Moses, while Israel moved about in the desert. So here I am today, eighty-five years old!
Josh 14:11 I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then.
Josh 14:12 Now give me this hill country that the LORD promised me that day. You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but, the LORD helping me, I will drive them out just as he said."
Josh 14:13 Then Joshua blessed Caleb son of Jephunneh and gave him Hebron as his inheritance.
Josh 14:14 So Hebron has belonged to Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite ever since, because he followed the LORD, the God of Israel, wholeheartedly.
3. Rahab. --- The walls are falling down
4. Daniel--- in the lions den
5. Jeremiah--in the pit
6. Peter-- on the water
7. Noah ---in a world of sin
Gen 5:32 After Noah was 500 years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham and Japheth.
Gen 6:1 When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them,
Gen 6:2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose.
Gen 6:3 Then the LORD said, "My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal ; his days will be a hundred and twenty years."
Gen 6:4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days--and also afterward--when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.
Gen 6:5 The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.
Gen 6:6 The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.
Gen 6:7 So the LORD said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth--men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air--for I am grieved that I have made them."
Gen 6:8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.
Gen 7:6 Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth.
Heb 3:6 But Christ is faithful as a son over God’s house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.
You’ve got to hold on to GOD and move when he says move and stay when he says stay I believe that the glory cloud is ready to move
ARE YOU READY TO MOVE WITH IT?
To hold on to GOD you must let go of the world. If you want to walk under the Glory Cloud you must be totally committed to God.
There is a change coming! We are ready to walk in a new area with GOD
Are you ready, can you hold on?
