Hebrews
Encouragement for a life of faith
Part 9
“Endeavor to preserver”
Hebrews 10:35-36
In the Clint Eastwood movie” The Outlaw Josey Wales”
Lone Watie played by Chief Dan George
Is telling Josey about all the troubles that his people have suffered through the years and the hardships they have endured
In this scene he describes his visit to Washington to meet with the President
And how the president after hearing about the hardships of his people
Told him and his people to “Endeavor to persevere”
He said they thought about this for a while and then declared war on the union
In the movie this is a comical scene
But this is exactly what we as Christians must do
Endeavor to persevere
Webster’s dictionary defines Endeavor as
“To try hard to do or accomplish something”
And persevere as
“Continuing in a course of action in spite of difficulties, obstacles and discouragements”
In today’s study of Hebrews this is where we wind up
Our writer tells the Jewish believers of the day and us in the process
To cowboy up
To hang on
Keep going in spite of hardships and set backs
Let’s open up our bibles to Hebrews chapter 10
And let me read for you verses 32-34
“Think back on those early days when you first learned about Christ.[a] Remember how you remained faithful even though it meant terrible suffering. 33 Sometimes you were exposed to public ridicule and were beaten, and sometimes you helped others who were suffering the same things. 34 You suffered along with those who were thrown into jail, and when all you owned was taken from you, you accepted it with joy. You knew there were better things waiting for you that will last forever.”
Neither these believers nor we should be surprised at this persecution
Jesus Christ himself told us of it
John 15:20
“Do you remember what I told you? ‘A slave is not greater than the master.’ Since they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you. And if they had listened to me, they would listen to you.”
The early Christians
Some of the great men and women of our faith faced harsh persecution
Listen to what our writer describes in Chapter 11:36-38
“Some were jeered at, and their backs were cut open with whips. Others were chained in prisons. 37 Some died by stoning, some were sawed in half,[d] and others were killed with the sword. Some went about wearing skins of sheep and goats, destitute and oppressed and mistreated. 38 They were too good for this world, wandering over deserts and mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground.”
This is hard
Harsh
Intense
Persecution
I know we suffer from many types of persecution
Some of your may have sacrificed relationships with family or friends due to your acceptance of Jesus
Others may have lost Jobs
Some are teased
Verbally or even physically abused
And these are real
And hurtful persecutions
Although they do not hold a candle to the things the early Christians suffered
They still have the ability
Like the intense persecution
To cause someone who is weak in their faith
To fall away
From the faith
Once again not a loss of salvation
But a drifting away from God, his word and the blessings that come from obedience
All types of stressors can cause us to shift our focus from the glory of God
To the pit of our own despair
And it is just this thing that our writer is warning all believers against
Please open back up to chapter 10:34
“You knew there were better things waiting for you that will last forever.”
Remember back to when you accepted Jesus
When you trusted Him as your Lord and savior
Remember that feeling that a weight had been lifted
That you were loved
Truly and unconditionally loved
Forgiven
Perfectly forgiven
Made into something new
Something different
This is the feeling and knowledge that our writer speaks of
Knowing that in spite of what happens
There are better days coming
And those better days unlike these hard times will last forever
Let’s see how he tells us to get to those better days
Verses 35a
“So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord”
Do not throw away
Do not discard
Don’t get rid of the
Confident trust in the Lord
Remember that you trusted him and he delivered you from the pits
He pulled you from the muck and mess of your old life
He saved you from yourself
Hang onto that in the hard times
Remember where you were
And remember where you are now
Remember where you would be apart from Jesus
This is your safe place
A place to pitch your tent
Trusting in Jesus
For Salvation
Trusting in Jesus for daily living
All in
Then he goes onto to tell us to remember the great reward it brings us
Verse 35b
“Remember the great reward it brings you!”
Listen
If all salvation did
If all it did
Was keep us from going to hell when we leave this life
That
Would be more than enough
That would be worth the price of admission
But if you are a believer
You know----
And I you are not
It is this I want to tell you
Salivation is so much more than just fire insurance
Salvation brings with it so many gifts
So many rewards
When we obediently follow the one who died to give us this great gift
Rewards like
Love
Peace
Assurance
Contentment
I could go on and on
These and so much more are the true rewards
The lying wolves
Those false prophets
That preach health, wealth and prosperity
Are completely missing the true blessings that God gives us through Jesus
They focus on things that fade, rot and rust
Money and junk and stuff
Instead of the eternal
And the priceless
You can’t buy grace
You can’t buy love
You can’t buy peace
The rewards Jesus promises are so much greater
Then he goes on to tell us how to get the rewards we have been promised
Verse 36
“36 Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised’
Patient endurance
Endeavor to preserver
Stick it out
So
That
You will
You will
--- Keep doing whatever you want?—
No
Listen
He tells us to that
To get the rewards God has planned for us
We must patiently endure the hardships and persecutions of this life
So that we will continue to do God’s will
And when we do his will
We get his promised rewards
Verse 36b
“Then you will receive all that he has promised”
God’s word gives us a very clear choice between two directions
We can take the high road
The one less traveled
And reap the rewards of an obedient life
Or we can take the well traveled
Easy path
That leads to destruction
The Christian life takes
Work
It takes
Commitment
It takes endurance
Sometimes the Christian road is lonely
Sometimes we feel we are traveling that road all alone
Sometimes the obstacles seem overwhelming
Sometimes there are downright road blocks
At all these times this is where the confident trust comes
In
We must hang onto
The fact that we are never alone
God has promised that he will never leave us
Or forsake us
So when we feel lonely on the hard road
It is us
Not him that is distant
God tells us in his word is we have faith as small as a mustard seed we can move the obstacles that seem like mountains in our lives
And as far as the roadblocks
Nothing is impossible for God
We must stand on our confident trust
Stand on the promises of God
Especially in the hard times
Especially in the persecution and we must endeavor to persevere
But
Verse 36
Brings this perseverance to the next level
Our writer says
We need
Not just endurance
We all have the ability to endure
Things
But how we endure
Makes all the difference in our faith and in our witness
He says patient endurance is what we need
So how do we get this patient endurance?
The Apostle Paul tells us what we need in
Colossians 1:11
He tells us that we need HIS strength and power
Not our own ideas and abilities
In order to find this patient endurance
“We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy”
Paul prays that we will be strengthened by HIS glorious power
Not our own power
And then given HIS strength
We will have all the endurance and patience we need
You see
As I said
We all have the ability to endure hardships in life
But on our own
The way we endure is often less than is good for us
We can easily become discouraged
We often become bitter
Angry
Disconnected
Distant
To God and others in our lives
Hardships come on all people
Saved and unsaved alike
Matthew 5:45
“For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike.”
Believers and unbelievers alike will have times of trouble
Hardships
Times of darkness
Loneliness
But Only God’s children
Those who have been adopted into the family through the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ
Have the ability to rely on HIS strength to overcome those obstacles
Jesus’ brother James what the result of patient endurance is
And he
Takes this to patient endurance to an even higher level
In his Book
James 1:2-3
“Dear brothers and sisters,[a] when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.”
He says we should be thankful for the hard times
That we should praise God for the chance to grow spiritually
He calls hardships an opportunity for great joy
James says this because he knows that we grow the most spiritually in the hard times
James 1:4
“So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.”
When your endurance is fully developed
You
Will be perfect and complete
Needing nothing
As we grow spiritually
We grow closer to Christ
And we grow more like Christ
We begin to think like Jesus
Speak like Jesus
And deal with times of trouble like Jesus
Jesus’ patiently endured
The punishment that was delivered
That he did not deserve
He endured the cross
He endured the torture
He endured the torment
The spit
The whip
The nails
Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior Endured
It all
Patiently
Willingly
Remember how he prayed for his murders
“Forgive them Father, for they don’t know what they are doing”
Remember how he prayed – not my will father but yours
Patiently enduring all
So
We
You and I
And everyone who calls on his name
Will be saved
The writer of Hebrews tells us what we need
Patient endurance
Paul confirms the need for
Patient endurance
James
Tells us how we develop this patient endurance
“Changing the way we look at the hard times”
And then
Peter
One of Jesus’ closet companions
And one of the leaders of the early church and founders of our Faith
Peter the one who walked on water
Gives us guidance for Christian growth \ Though Endurance
2 Peter 1:1-11
This letter is from Simon[a] Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ.
I am writing to you who share the same precious faith we have. This faith was given to you because of the justice and fairness[b] of Jesus Christ, our God and Savior.
2 May God give you more and more grace and peace as you grow in your knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord.
3 By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. 4 And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.
5 In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.
8 The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins.
10 So, dear brothers and sisters,[c] work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen. Do these things, and you will never fall away. 11 Then God will give you a grand entrance into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Patient endurance is a gift from an amazing God
He in His strength
Gives us the ability as believers
To preserver
All trials and troubles in our lives
He in HIS strength gives us the ability to use those hard times and a chance to
Grow- Spiritually
A chance to Show- Our faith
A chance to Show --our trust
A chance to Show --His love
A chance to Know – Him and His word and his love
And to
A chance to Go- Into the world as his witnesses
And eventually when this life ends
To
A promise to
Go to be with him in glory
This patient endurance does not earn us salvation
But
It is definitely evidence of our Salvation
Close from the heart
