In the Pixar movie, “Inside Out” kids learn about their emotions. It all starts when the character; 11-year old Riley Anderson wrestles with conflicting emotions that comes from moving from her stable like in rural Minnesota to her unknown “to be” life in San Francisco.
Did any of you see the movie? The gist of the movie is to see how our basic emotions often control our acts: Joy, sadness, fear, disgust, and anger seem to be standing at the control booth of Riley’s life and directing it; literally, from inside out.
One of the quotes from the movie asks a simple question: “Do you ever look at someone and wonder what is going on inside their head?” (Joy)
Explanation:
The Book of Hebrews is a book that gets inside our head. No one really knows who the writer of Hebrews is and perhaps that’s by God’s design and will.
The reason is that it’s simply “the Word of God.” It’s God’s response to a bunch of people who weren’t feeling it. They started out the Christian life with the excitement of Pentecost. They rode the wave of the resurrection and the joy of hearing the stories of Jesus spread like wildfire and came to the area where they lived.
When they heard about Jesus; everything they had learned from their parents and teachers about God came alive and they quickly embraces and invited Jesus into their lives.
In response, they enjoyed the celebration of worship, lifting their hands in praise, and sharing the testimony of how Jesus changed and transformed their life completely.
Yet, in time, their feelings began to falter, the difficulty of living the Christian life in a time of persecution set in, their attendance at church seemed less enjoyable and being on God’s team was no longer popular; they were tempted to give up.
Perhaps they wanted to be like the traveling Christians who had seen the miracles of Jesus, were the eyewitnesses of the resurrection, and felt the joy of seeing the ascension. Yet, distance had left them out of such opportunity.
Suddenly discouragement set in. Perhaps a difficult diagnosis led them to fear and their faith started failing. Or an unexpected event shook their faith when they would have preferred the shaking of the ground beneath their feet like Paul experienced in Philippi.
Hebrews is not written to the people flying high spiritually; its written to the people who understood the struggles of life and the challenges that come to everyone; including Christians.
It’s written to the people who were simply: “Not feeling it.” It’s written to people who felt like John the Baptist who was in prison about to be martyred for his faith who said: “Go ask Jesus if he is the promised one of should we look for someone else? (He wasn’t feeling it)
It is written to people like you and me who face life’s struggles and silently ask God questions such as: “Where are you God?” “Why did you let this happen God?” Or even worse, “God do you even care?”
Transitional Sentence: What does God have to say to people who aren’t feeling it?
I. Faith is Not Feelings; It’s Facts
Hebrews 1:1- “God, “
Explanation:
When I was growing up there was an old song on the radio sang whose lyrics went something like this. It said: “You’ve lost that lovin’ feeling, Oh that lovin’ feeling...now it’s gone, gone, gone... (Do you want to sing it with me?) whoa, whoa, whoa.”
Strangely enough, that song was sung by a group called: “The Righteous brothers”—of course, the song was about the loss of feeling “in love” and the tragedy of that loss.
Yet, the writer of the Book of Hebrews is writing to a different set of “righteous brothers.” It is believed that they were believers, probably in small Christian community groups in Greece. Many were new believers who had heard the gospel from their believing neighbors.
Unlike the believers in Palestine, they had heard about Jesus second hand. Yet, they had enough time to mature as believers and to have their own life experiences journeying through life with Jesus like you and I do.
Yet, they were on the struggle bus. One of the greatest reasons why was because their faith was following their feelings instead of the feelings following their faith.
To get things back in order, Hebrews 1 starts out with one word and a comma. Did you read the verse? It simply says: “God (comma).”
God comma. Let’s stop there. What’s happening here? The writer is helping us understand how faith is supposed to work. Faith starts with facts, which produce faith, and feelings will follow.
God introduces Himself again. He takes them back to the very first book of the Bible and the very first verse in the Bible. He does not argue His existence; He states it. He’s not answering questions like: “God where are you” or “Do you really exist.” He just take them back and reminds them of what He first said.
He stated the fact. “In the beginning God”—now at the beginning of Hebrews, “He’s still revealing Himself.” God starts with a “drop the microphone moment.” He just comes on the center stage of their life and says: “God.”
He’s taking them back to Genesis 1:1. He rewinds history and states the facts. There is a God and He’s been present all along.
He was there in Creation and He is still present in their persecution. He was there in the Old Testament, and He’s still present in the New Testament. He was there in “year 1” and is still there in A.D. 65—when Hebrews was written.
Listen: Feelings change just like the flipping of calendars pages. Feelings switch like the weather switches in the seasons of life. Yet, God does not change. He’s always present and relevant. He’s not going anywhere. He will never leave you nor forsake you.
If you are frustrated at God or emotionally bouncing around because of the changes of your life; you need make a pit stop at Hebrews 1:1 and re-discover our never changing, always present, immutable God who is present and there for you.
Sometimes the best thing to do when we get disappointed and frustrated with God is to go back to the basics and just remember—God is there.
Illustration: Vince Lombardi- “Gentlemen, this is a football.”
“Gentlemen, this is a football!” That is one of the most famous and often used sports quotes in history. However, most don’t know it’s real history of that statement.
In July 1961, Vince Lombardi kicked off the first day of training camp for the 38 players on his Green Bay Packers football team. The prior season had ended in a heartbreaking loss to the Philadelphia Eagles after blowing a lead in the 4th quarter of the NFL Championship Game.
When the players came in to start training camp, they expected to immediately begin where they left off and work on ways to advance their game and learn fancy new ways to win the championship in the new season. When they sat down and began, Vince Lombardi held up a football and said, “Gentlemen, this is a football!”
He then had everyone open up their playbooks and start on page one, where they began to learn the fundamentals – blocking, tackling, throwing, catching, etc. That was clearly not what they expected as players who were at the top of their game.
This hyper-focus on fundamentals allowed them to win the NFL Championship that season 37-0 against the New York Giants. Vince Lombardi went on to win five NFL Championships in seven years. He never coached a team with a losing season after that and never lost a playoff game again.
If focusing on fundamentals can elevate a great team to such heights, imagine what it can do for your spiritual life if you just get back to the basics about God.
Application:
Sometimes we need to get back to the basics. We need to return to the facts because our feelings have somehow gotten ahead of the facts. When our feelings take over they coach our faith; instead the facts coaching our feelings.
Feelings are fickle – they can change day to day; and when feeling are left unchecked, they can step us away from God instead of into the will of God.
Which dictates your thoughts and behavior? Does your faith direct and govern your feelings or do your feelings direct and govern your faith?
The writer of Hebrews understood a simple fact: Feelings are supposed to follow faith that is based on a fact. the path God has for us.
Transitional Sentence: What does God have to say to people who aren’t feeling it?
II. God is Speaking; that’s a Fact
Hebrews 1:b- 2- “...after He spoke....”
Introduction:
God is a talker. I love the next few words that immediately follow God’s reintroduction of Himself. He said... “God (comma) after He spoke...”
This should be a huge relief to us. What this tells us that one of the greatest priorities of God is to speak to us. He is not sluggish or lacking when it comes to talking to us. This is a huge relief because like any other relationship; communicate is key.
Henry Blackaby explains this saying: “If you have trouble hearing God speak, you are in trouble at the very heart of the Christian experience.”
He first explains how committed He has been historically to speak and reveal Himself to us. He has been committed to:
a) Speaking to people from the beginning- He mentions in verse 1 that he was the author of the Old Testament. He was talking through the prophets. He used the prophets like Moses, Isaiah, and the many others to reveal Himself and speak through him to us. He started in Genesis 1:1 and kept “the Book” moving. He had to speak so we would know our way. He wanted us to build our life on truth; so He communicated.
b) Communicating in many ways- In verse 2, God broadens our understanding about how He
speaks and adds the phrase; “in many ways.” In other words, God is always speaking and
speaks in many ways.
Hebrews 12:25 explains some of those ways when he said: “See to it that you do not refuse
Him who is speaking...” The point is: Like a parent, there are many ways God communicates.
Do any of you have kids that are professional listeners? They always listen to you? The never
ignore you and immediately respond affirmatively to what you say?
In Hebrews 12:26 God makes note that when His children did not listen, “...His voice shook
the earth.” Then he warned: “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the
heaven.”
The point is: When people don’t listen, He responds and a whole lot of shaking gets going on.
Today, a whole lot of shaking is going on. Do you think God is shaking things up in
America? Do you notice that a whole lot of shaking is going on in the weather, in politics,
in pandemics, and in a ton of other stuff?
God is so committed to speaking that if we don’t listen; he seeks to shake us and wake us up from our slumber because He desires to be heard.
If people aren’t feeling it; most likely they are asleep so God shakes the world and wakes us from our slumber because again, as Blackaby said: “If you have trouble hearing God speak, you are in trouble at the very heart of the Christian experience.”
Illustration: Permanent losing of the voice
Several years ago, Fox News carried an heart-warming story about a 43-year old British Dad named Lawrence Brewer who is a computer programmer and was diagnosed with a disease called (MND) Motor Neurone Disease that takes away his voice allowing him to only speak through a speech synthesizer.
At the time his son; Stan was 13-months old and Brewer could not stand the thought of his son growing up without the hearing his son read bedtime stories to him. He explained, “One’s own voice is a mark of identity and I did not want my son to miss it.”
In return, he recorded 1600 words and stored them in a computer program that will break them down to individual sounds and mimic Brewers real voice forming every word he wanted to say.
Years have passed and Stan is now 13 years old and has not only has he heard his Dad’s voice through childhood, but is now transitioning to middle school and not only hears his Dad’s authentic voice through the computer, but knows his Dad’s accent, voice tone, and words of instruction as a parent.
He said: “Hearing my Dad’s voice is something that I do not take for granted. I know how painstaking it has been for Dad to make this available to me and I appreciate every time I hear him speak; even if it is through a computer.”
Application:
Throughout history God has spoken in many ways and they are recorded in the Bible. In times past, God spoke in dreams and visions. He used nature; miraculous signs; prophets; a still, small voice; fire; trumpets; fleece; the casting of lots; and angels.
He has spoken in the middle of the night, during worship services, at mealtimes, during funerals, while people were walking along the road, through sermons, in the middle of a storm, and through the movement of His Holy Spirit.
God makes it clear that if you are a Christian; you’ve heard God’s voice because John 10:27 says: “My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me.”
I like what Loren Cunningham said. He said: “Hearing God is not all that difficult. If we know the Lord, we have already heard His voice - after all it was the inner leading that brought us to Him in the first place. But we can hear His voice and still miss His best if we don't keep on listening. After the what of guidance comes the when and how.”
Rick Warren said something similar when he said: “We often miss hearing God’s voice simply because we are not paying attention.”
Listen: God is still speaking to the listening heart.
When you feel far from God; we also feel that He’s not hearing us because we are not hearing Him. Jeremiah, the weeping prophet (as he is known) must have felt the same yet as He became still, listened, and waited on the Lord this is what he God said:
“Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” Jeremiah 33:3
Sometimes dry spiritual times are just a season and a pathway to the Promised land where Jesus reveals Himself to us in a fresh way, if we will stop, listen, and experience a deeper and firmer foundation for our trust and faith in the Lord.
Transitional Sentence: What does God have to say to people who aren’t feeling it?
III. Jesus is the Greatest; that’s a Fact
vs. 2-3- In these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through women also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory, the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the Word of His power. When he made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of Majesty on high...”
Explanation:
When people depend on feelings; and the feelings they often “let go” – “step away”—or “go astray.” They “loose hope”. Other things attract them. The magnetism of the world seems more enticing. Following Jesus seems cumbersome. Joy seems to fade.
Yet, the writer says: “In these last days has spoken to us in His Son...” To those who has lost heart; he directs to the heart of the gospel. The person of Jesus.
The writer of Hebrews puts Jesus front and center. He shifts our eyes directly upon Him and draws us to fix our eyes on Jesus and remember who he is; He is greater! He is Jesus; the one and only.
Who is He?
a) He is the best thing that has ever come into this world- vs. 2-We are reminded of who Jesus
is. He is not only the one who created the world, but is the one who entered the world for us.
All other world religions are an endless pursuit of attempting to discover the God who created
all of this; yet Christianity reveals God bursting into our world to make himself known to us.
The Psalmist understood how awesome of a gift we received when Jesus came because he looked into the heavens and knew there was a God and said: “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have ordained, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you visit him?” Psalm 8: 3-4
Yet, this same God who created this planet and created us; died for us. This is mind blowing. He is the greatest thing that has ever come to this world.
b) He is the best thing we will ever see out of this world- vs. 3- “He is the radiance of His
glory”- The word for “radiance” (apaugasma) means: “brightness.” When we read about
heaven. John speaks of heaven as a place of brightness and light as we read:
“ And the city had no need for the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its light is the Lamb.” Revelation 21:23
Jesus described Himself saying: “I am the light of the world.” Listen: When we get to heaven we will literally live in the light of Jesus’ glory. Listen: Don’t miss Him here so you don’t miss seeing Him there.
The verse says he’s the exact “representation” of God. He’s not a “reproduction” of God; He is the exact representation of God in human form. The word for “representation” is the word
Eikon. He’s is the person of God put in human flesh. He is God become man.
c) He’s the only one who has control over the whole world - vs. 3- “he upholds all things by the
word of his power.” These people who were reading about Jesus in Hebrews felt like
everything was in chaos and out of control in their lives; yet we are reminded that by his word,
everything is held together. Literally, everything falls apart without Jesus.
d) He’s the one and only purification from sins- vs. 3- “He made purification from sins”- In
other words, if you are going to get clean; there’s only one who can wash away your sins;
it’s Jesus.
e) He’s your one and only advocate- vs 3- “He sat down at the right hand of God”- He sat
down- In the temple there were no seats. The priests of old offered sacrifices endlessly and
never took a break—they never sat down. Yet, Jesus, the one and only is sitting down because
the work is finished and He sits as the one and only “go between” between us and God; the
work is done and over. It’s complete.
Do you want to know what happens when we get our eyes on Jesus; there’s something that wells up in our soul. Worship starts happening. Praise begins. Joy returns. Peace invade. Life is transformed. Faith grows. Feelings return.
Conclusion: The dishwasher
A mother and her son were talking. His mother lived for nearly 94 years. One day around her 90th year she said something like, "If I had known I would live this long, I would have fixed the dishwasher." It had stopped working.
She thought it foolish to repair her dishwasher in her mid 80's. After all, both of her parents had died really young, and she had nearly doubled that. So why waste the money.
After hearing her story her son bought her a new dishwasher for her birthday and she used it for nearly 9 years.
Invitation:
It was worth it. Getting the dishes washed for 9 years was worth it. Yet, how about getting your sins washed away? How about knowing the one who will be the light that never goes out. The Savior that will never turn you down or turn you away.
Perhaps the old hymn writer said it best as he began worshipping and said: “ It will be worth it all, when we see Jesus, life’s trials will seem so small, when we see Christ; One glimpse of His dear face, all sorrow will erase, so bravely run your race till we see Christ."
