Introduction:
Three Questions to Ask Yourself When You Are Out of Energy (Hebrews 13:18-25)
- Do I have people Praying for me? (Heb 13:18-19)
Three Lifehacks to Get People to Pray for You:
- Be worth praying for. (Heb 13:18bc)
- Give a Request worth praying for. (Heb 13:19)
- Ask with Confidence in the power of prayer. (Heb 13:19)
- Am I trying to do everything in my Own Strength ? (Heb 13:20-21)
- Have I Isolated myself? (Heb 13:22-25)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:49-00:59
Father, your word tells us that your word is like rain, and when it falls, it produces growth and life.
01:00-01:01
We believe that.
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We believe that your word always accomplishes the purposes for which you send it forth.
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So, Father, I pray that we would hear from you today, above all things.
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We pray in Jesus' name, amen.
01:18-01:20
Microphone sound good, James?
01:20-01:22
All right, we got the thumbs up from the big guy.
01:23-01:25
All right, Hebrews chapter 13, are you there?
01:28-01:38
In my 18 year old son, Owen, has an endless supply of energy.
01:41-01:50
And we saw this when he was a baby, many, many, many sleepless nights, up all night, Aaron and I taking shifts.
01:51-02:00
We just saw, he had a lot of energy, but there's one incident for me, really, really got my attention.
02:01-02:08
And that was many, many years ago when he was just a little squirt, we went to Cedar Point and it was a one day trip.
02:08-02:16
So we got up early, we drove out, and all day in the park, 90 degrees, walking on the pavement, on the rides, all day.
02:17-02:25
And I remember we drove home that night and we got in like 11.30 or midnight.
02:25-02:28
Aaron and I just like dragged ourselves into the house.
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We were exhausted.
02:30-02:32
Owen runs into the house.
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And I remember he spent all night running laps through the house as he did so often.
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But I thought surely this was going to wear him out And it didn't.
02:43-02:49
And I think it was sometime around there that we took him to a doctor to get some tests run.
02:50-02:55
And we found that Owen does not produce melatonin.
02:56-02:58
You know, the chemical that makes you sleep?
03:00-03:03
But instead he constantly produces adrenaline.
03:05-03:09
So we have a real life superhero in our family.
03:10-03:11
He never gets tired.
03:11-03:21
And so many times over the years, Aaron and I have said to each other, where does he get all that energy?
03:25-03:34
Where does all of that energy come from to create a human being that never gets tired?
03:35-03:43
And I was thinking about that a lot this week because you know, church, We are called to be bold witnesses for Jesus.
03:45-03:47
We're called to be godly spouses.
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We're called to be child disciples.
03:51-03:52
We're called to be ministers.
03:53-03:56
We're called to be perseverers.
03:56-03:58
I think that's the word, under trials.
04:00-04:12
And we're supposed to do that living in fallen flesh, living in a corrupt world surrounded by people who hate God.
04:16-04:19
So where are we going to get the energy for that action?
04:24-04:33
Have you ever felt like, you know, "I can't… I can't take another step"?
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Have you ever felt that?
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I'm just so worn out.
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I don't know how I'm gonna make it another day.
04:40-04:49
And as we get to the end of Hebrews, the Hebrew writer closes with a reminder of where we get our energy from.
04:52-05:10
So today, if you've come to church or you're streaming the church online, and you're asking yourself, "Why am I out of energy?" I wanna ask you three questions.
05:12-05:17
All right, so in your outline, three questions to ask yourself when you're out of energy.
05:19-05:20
The first one, write this one down.
05:20-05:23
Number one, do I have people praying for me?
05:25-05:26
Do I have people praying for me?
05:27-05:28
Look at verse 18.
05:32-05:36
He says, "Pray for us." Stop right there.
05:37-05:39
Church, we need to be praying for each other.
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And you're going to see specifically in this context, he's talking about church leadership.
05:46-06:00
And he's saying, "Church leaders need prayer." Because if you're a leader in the church in any capacity, you're a prime target for the enemy.
06:02-06:07
Because Satan gets the biggest bang for his buck by taking you out.
06:11-06:19
Because Satan knows that he can get a lot of people off track if he takes the leader out.
06:22-06:26
How many celebrity/famous pastors have we seen?
06:27-06:36
I think just over the last 10 years that have gone down, and the fallout that's come from that, it's not an accident.
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Satan knows he can get those followers to fall away if he can take the leader out.
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In fact, I saw that in my own life.
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The very first church that I pastored, I was just interning.
06:51-07:01
I was helping with the youth group, and I was teaching the senior high Sunday school, when I was preaching occasionally, and it was just a little country church of about 60 or 70 people.
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And I'm not gonna go into all the details, but the senior pastor suddenly left under very bad circumstances.
07:10-07:13
And the elders of the church asked me to fill in.
07:13-07:25
And I'm like, "Well, I don't know anything." And they said, "Well, we want you to fill in." And I stepped up and filled in for a season.
07:26-07:31
But you have to know that that church of 60 or 70 people turned into a church of about 12.
07:33-07:36
Such a hard season of ministry.
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But Satan knows if he can get you off track, he can get the people that are following you off track.
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So listen, church, whether you're a small group leader or you work in Harvest Academy, or you're an elder, or you're a pastor, or whatever you do, Satan's after the people that you love.
08:03-08:05
And he'll get them off track by taking you down.
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Whether it's through distraction, or temptation, or discouragement.
08:15-08:18
So listen, he says right here, "Pray for us.
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Power comes from prayer, so you need to get people to be praying for you.
08:24-08:26
And you're like, "Well, how do I do that?
08:26-08:34
"How do I get people to pray for me?" Well, the Hebrew writer gives us three life hacks to get people to pray for you.
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You're like, "Why life hacks?" "Ah, because everything's a life hack nowadays, right?
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"If it's a good idea, it's a life hack." So I thought I would connect with the kids You know how hip I am or something.
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So here's three life hacks to get people to pray for you.
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Letter A, be worth praying for.
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How about that?
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Be worth praying for.
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Look at what he says next.
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He says, "Pray for us, for we are sure "that we have a clear conscience, "desiring to act honorably in all things." "Well, that sounds awfully arrogant." No, no, no, it's not arrogant at all.
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He says, "Look, I want you to pray for us.
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"I'm just being sincere.
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"Our motives are in the right place." Okay?
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We don't have any issue.
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We have a clear conscience that we are sincerely trying to do what God wants us to do.
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We have a clear conscience that our motives are about pleasing the Lord.
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That's really all that matters, right?
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Our motives and, that's why I'm asking for prayer.
09:47-09:50
So be worth praying for, right?
09:52-10:01
On the other hand, you know, many years ago, I had some people from church approach me because some Jehovah's Witnesses were coming after them.
10:02-10:03
So I said, all right, I'll meet with them.
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And I sat down and had, we shall call a lively discussion, me and the Jehovah's Witnesses.
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And as we parted ways, they said, hey, pray for us.
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And I'm like, no, no.
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To spread your lies, no.
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I'll pray that God stops what you're trying to do.
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How about that?
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But the point is this, I'm motivated to pray for you if I really believe that you want what God wants.
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That motivates me to pray for you.
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So you want prayer, be worth praying for.
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Letter B, secondly, three life hacks to get people to pray for you.
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Give a request worth praying for.
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Look at verse 19.
10:55-11:12
He says, "I urge you, the more earnestly, to do this," to pray for us, "in order that I may be restored to you the sooner." So apparently the Hebrew writer was away.
11:12-11:14
He was anxious to return, right?
11:16-11:23
So if you ask for prayer, for something that is worth praying for, you are going to get prayers praying for you.
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Pretty simple, right?
11:28-11:34
Have you ever been asked to pray for something, a specific request, that you're not sure if you should pray for?
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Has it ever happened to you?
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Because I gotta tell you, that's happened to me a lot.
11:42-11:45
I think of many years of prison ministry when I'd meet with the men in prison.
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Guess what the number one prayer request in prison ministry is?
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Can you guess?
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Yeah, yeah, pray that God gets me out of here.
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And I think to myself, maybe you shouldn't be out.
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I don't know what you did.
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Maybe the best thing is for you to be in here right now.
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So do you know what I always prayed every single time?
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I'd say, okay, let's pray.
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I would pray for justice.
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I would pray, God, you are God of justice, you love justice, and I pray that you would do the right thing in this man's case.
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Every single time, right?
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Or we had a woman one time who said, I pray that I get custody of my kids.
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And it was a sad situation, and I'm thinking, well, maybe right now this isn't a safe situation for your kids, maybe I shouldn't be praying for that.
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So I prayed that they were safe.
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But it's easy to get someone to pray for you when the request is worth praying for, right?
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When it's things like, "Hey, I'm trying to witness to my neighbor.
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Could you pray for me to have an open door?" Or, "You know what?
12:56-13:01
I'm going to the school board to try to encourage them in God's truth.
13:03-13:14
Could you pray for me?" Or, "The Choices Pregnancy Center, and has been receiving threats, could you please pray that God would protect choices?
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I could go on and on.
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Just give a request worth praying for, right?
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And let her see, this is a huge one.
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Ask with confidence in the power of prayer.
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Ask with confidence.
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Like, look at verse 19 again.
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He says, "I urge you." the more earnestly to do this, in order that I may be restored to you the sooner.
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Let me ask you, is that language of that prayer request, is that language fatalistic or is it confident?
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Which is it?
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Shout it out.
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It's confident, isn't it?
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He wasn't saying, I wanna be restored and all we can do is pray.
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Send me good thoughts, good vibes.
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We might as well try praying.
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That's not how he presents it at all.
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He's like, I am begging you to pray for me because I know that it's going to make a difference.
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I know that God is going to move.
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I have such confidence in that.
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I'm begging you, please pray for me.
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And honestly, church, we don't often ask for prayer confidently because let's just be honest.
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A lot of times we just don't believe it's gonna work.
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But you know, we ask for prayer requests.
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Even when we don't believe it's gonna work, sometimes we do that.
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Sometimes we ask not believing.
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Sometimes it's just an opportunity to gossip, right?
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Like, hey, I want you to pray for Pauline.
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Her husband's leaving her because, and it's an opportunity to gossip, or it's an opportunity to complain.
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You know, just pray for me.
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I've been really sick and my nose won't stop running.
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I'm just constantly wiping my nose and snotting all over myself.
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And it's just, I'm so sick of it.
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And now it's just an opportunity to complain.
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Or sometimes we ask for prayer, not believing because we just want to vent.
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I need you to pray for me at work.
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My job's demanding mandatory overtime.
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My supervisor's a punk.
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And that little jerk who works in accounting." Here's the thing, we see it here in the text.
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If you really believe that prayer works, I mean if you really believe that prayer works, it affects even the way that you ask for prayer.
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And we see it here, don't we?
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Very confident.
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Very confident.
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Next month is a month of prayer for us.
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And church, you need to know that your leaders want nothing more than to see God at work and God glorified in this church.
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That's all your leaders want.
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And that's why we put this prayer guide together.
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Did you get one of these?
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These requests in here are all things that are vitally important for you, for your neighborhood, for your family, for your nation.
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These are things worth praying for.
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And we believe that God is going to move, church, as we unite together in prayer.
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Every day, imagine every person from this church going before the throne of God asking Him for the same thing.
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We believe He's going to move.
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Please church, let September be a fresh start in your prayer life.
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We want to help you with that because we believe in the power of prayer.
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Do you?
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Well, if you're out of energy, just have to ask you if you ask people to pray for you.
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Three questions to ask yourself when you're out of energy.
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Number two, am I trying to do everything in my own strength?
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Am I trying to do everything in my own strength?
17:40-17:40
Look at verse 20.
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This is a lot.
17:46-18:07
He says, "Now, may the God of peace, "who brought again from the dead, our Lord Jesus, "the great shepherd of the sheep, "by the blood of the eternal covenant." Read that this week and I thought, wow, that's a lot to unpack.
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It's a doxology, really, that contains concepts that he's already covered throughout Hebrews, except maybe you saw it.
18:21-18:28
There's two things in there that he talks about that he didn't mention in the rest of the epistle.
18:29-18:32
And one of them is that Jesus is our shepherd.
18:36-18:46
And another one, and this absolutely floored me, is this is the only place in Hebrews where the resurrection of Christ is specifically mentioned.
18:47-18:49
I read that this week and I thought, is that true?
18:50-18:55
I couldn't think of any place else in Hebrews where he specifically mentions the resurrection of Jesus.
18:58-19:08
And as he closes the epistle, he's like, hey, can't leave these out because here's a couple of key truths that we need to make sure that we get down.
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First of all, we're helpless and defenseless sheep.
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We need the guidance and protection of a shepherd.
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And we certainly can't leave out the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
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The resurrection of Jesus proved that he is God.
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And it is through faith, not only in the death of Jesus Christ, but in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that we are promised a resurrection of our own.
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But until that day, we cannot live the Christian life in our own power.
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We can't do what God's called us to do in our own strength.
19:49-19:50
Look at verse 21.
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He says, "May the God of peace," and then verse 21, "equip you with everything good "that you may do His will, "working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, "Through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory "forever and ever, amen." You see, he equips us to do his will.
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How does he do that?
20:19-20:21
See the language, he's working in us.
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He's working through Jesus Christ.
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This is what the Holy Spirit does.
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He empowers us for everything that God calls us to do.
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And I gotta tell you, that takes the pressure off.
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because I don't have to try to perform for God.
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I don't have to say, you know what?
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I'm gonna try really hard to do some things for God and maybe God will be happy with me if I do that.
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That's not how it works.
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You see, God supplies the power for the work that he wants to do through me.
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There's only one thing that you need to do.
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And that's know him.
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That's it.
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That's your job.
21:10-21:11
That's what God wants from you.
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He wants you to know him, to enter into relationship with him through Jesus Christ.
21:17-21:18
That's what he wants.
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And he's gonna take care of everything.
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You see that verse 21, he is the one that's going to equip you.
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So if you're out of energy, You need to ask yourself, where am I getting my power from?
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Am I trying to do everything in my own strength?
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Or am I just allowing God to be at work through me by the power of his spirit, right?
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So three questions to ask yourself if you're out of energy.
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Do I have people praying for me?
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Am I trying to do everything in my own strength?
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And the last one, have I isolated myself?
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Look at verse 22.
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He says, "I appeal to you, brothers, bear with my word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly." Briefly.
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LOL.
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I guess it's a relative term, isn't it?
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Briefly.
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I mean, it's a relative term.
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If you sat down and just read Hebrew straight through, you could do it in under an hour.
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So that's brief, right?
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But then I got the old calculator out and I started doing some math.
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Do you know in this series, including this sermon, we've had 33 sermons from Hebrews.
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And each sermon is about 35 minutes.
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We're gonna do the averages.
22:50-22:51
Is that all right, Taylor?
22:51-22:53
35, is that fair?
22:53-22:54
Okay, Taylor says that's fair.
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About 35 minutes is the average.
22:57-23:03
That means sermon time in Hebrews is 1,155 minutes.
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I think I got them all.
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That's 19 hours and 15 minutes.
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He's like, I wrote to you briefly.
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So much more could be said, but under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, This is God's perfect explanation of the New Covenant and all of the implications of the New Covenant.
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Look at verses 23-25.
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He says, "You should know that our brother Timothy has been released with whom I shall see you if he comes soon.
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all your leaders and all the saints. Those who come from Italy send you greetings. Grace be with all of you. He closes, he mentions Timothy, he mentions leaders and saints, he even mentions them Italian Christians. And it's just a reminder for us, I think it was a reminder for the Hebrew audience and it's definitely a reminder for us as well, that we're part of a body by design and we need each other. That's the way God designed it. Like, none of us are in this alone and we're not supposed to be, but some Christians are happy to isolate and and streaming and all of the tech and all of that, that's been a great thing.
24:49-24:52
We've been able to reach more people than we've ever been able to reach.
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But the downside of that is some Christians are happy to just isolate.
24:58-25:22
I just go to church at home streaming, or I've heard so many people say this, you know, some TV preacher, "That's my pastor and that's my church." And hey, it's great to watch those things, some of them, but nothing replaces in-person worship.
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Nothing replaces in-person praying for one another and fellowshipping with one another and coming under the teaching of God's word together.
25:33-25:37
There's nothing that replaces in-person worship.
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Now I don't know if you heard the rumors.
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They're talking about lockdowns and shutdowns in September and October.
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Have you heard that rumor?
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I'll tell you something that's not a rumor.
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I know a church that's not locking down.
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(congregation cheering)
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We will be open.
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Look at verse 23 again.
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'Cause there's a phrase here that really just stood out to me.
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The first three words of verse 23, he's talking about Timothy being released.
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We don't really know what's going on.
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Your Bible says the same thing mine does.
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Was he in prison or released for service from a church?
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Who knows?
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We don't know, not important.
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But here's something that stood out to me.
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The first three words, he said, "You should know." You should know, do you know what that implies?
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That implies I know that you care about Timothy, so you need to know what's going on with him.
26:57-27:07
You see, church, caring about others, being together, identifying with the body.
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None of us are called to isolation.
27:14-27:18
There is no such thing as a detached, isolated Christian.
27:18-27:20
There's just, there's just no such thing.
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We're called to be part of a body.
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And for the body to function, the members have to be together.
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All right?
27:33-27:37
Aaron told me this story just a couple of days ago.
27:38-27:39
And I'm like, wow, what a great illustration.
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But she has a friend that told this story to her.
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So if there are any more details, you have to ask Aaron.
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But her friend told her this story.
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She lives down South.
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And she said that their church was doing pictures for the church directory.
27:56-27:56
Okay.
27:57-28:27
And the way they did this was you go, you show up and a photographer takes your picture, well, takes many pictures actually of your family, you know, different poses and, you know, then after they take all the pictures, you have a Zoom meeting with somebody else and they review your pictures through Zoom and they help you pick the best one that the photographer took, all right?
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So this friend was telling Aaron 'cause she knows this family from the church.
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The family has a dad, a mom, a son, and a baby.
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Are you with me?
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A dad, a mom, a son, and a baby.
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All right, so they showed up and they got all these pictures, you know, human pyramid, okay, how about, you know, just the couple and okay, you holding the baby and all these different combinations of these pictures.
28:57-29:13
And when they had the Zoom meeting, The person from the photography company said, "Hey, here's the picture that best represents your family." And they put the picture up, and it was a picture of just the mom and dad and baby.
29:16-29:30
And they said, "This is the picture "that best represents your family." And the mom said, "That doesn't best represent our family, "because we're not all in the picture." And the photographer says, "No, no, no, no.
29:31-29:40
"I looked at all of them and this is the best one." And the mom said, "It's not the best one.
29:42-29:59
"The best one would be the one "that has our whole family in it." Did you catch the implication that the photography company employee was making here.
30:01-30:03
This is the best picture.
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This is the best representation of your family and your son really doesn't matter.
30:11-30:12
He doesn't matter to this.
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And the family felt a little different about that.
30:20-30:23
Like, yeah, the son does matter because he's part of our family.
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And I would say, church, it's the same thing here.
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We all matter.
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Every one of us.
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So be here.
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Get involved.
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However, God has gifted you, get involved.
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And somebody might be saying, you know what?
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I really don't need the church.
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Yeah?
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Well, maybe the church needs you.
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And maybe, maybe you're out of energy because you've isolated yourself.
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Are you spiritually gassed?
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Well God always provides energy in the same three ways.
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Right?
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It's prayer, it's His Spirit, and it's other believers.
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That is how God is going to energize you.
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For everything he's called you to and everything he wants you to do.
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Our worship team would make their way forward.
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You know, this is the last sermon in Hebrews.
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Anybody else a little sad about that?
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And you know, we started this whole series, when was that, in December?
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We started this whole series in December with one question.
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We asked just one question.
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The question is, why Jesus?
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Why Jesus?
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Meaning, why is Jesus such a big deal?
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Why are we worshiping Jesus?
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Why do we talk about Jesus?
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Why do we give so much money for the kingdom of Jesus Christ?
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Why Jesus?
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We found our answer.
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Why Jesus?
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Because even as awesome as angels are, Jesus is greater than the angels.
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Why Jesus?
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Because even as awesome as Moses was, then the Old Testament, Jesus is greater than Moses.
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Why Jesus?
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He is a rest.
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Why Jesus?
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He gives us access to God.
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Why Jesus?
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Because like Melchizedek, he is a king and a high priest.
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He's both.
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Why Jesus?
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Because he's the final sacrifice for sin because he takes our sin away.
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That's why Jesus.
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Why Jesus?
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Because he makes us perfect in the sight of God.
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Why Jesus?
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because faith in Jesus pleases God.
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Why Jesus?
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Because he's given us everything for here and for all of eternity.
33:22-33:23
Why Jesus?
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Because he will never leave you or forsake you.
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Why Jesus?
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Because his very presence takes away all of our fears.
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Why Jesus?
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He equips me with everything good to do his will.
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That's why Jesus.
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Let's pray.
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Father in heaven, we thank you so much for this incredible book that just bridges the gap between the covenant you made with Israel and the covenant you made through the blood of Jesus Christ.
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And Father, today I just lift up my brothers and sisters here And God, I confess to you, there's a lot of times that I feel like I'm out of gas, that I don't have the energy to take another step.
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And as your amazing book of Hebrews closes, God, we found where you provide the energy to do the things that you have called us to do.
34:30-34:58
So Father, it's just simply my prayer today that we'd stop looking in all these other places to get energized. And we turn to the incredible resources that you've given us. And all glory and honor and praise and power be unto your name. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Hebrews 13:18-25
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Feeling spiritually gassed? Which of these 3 things (prayers from others, walking in the Spirit, and fellowship in the body) do you feel most lacking in your life right now? How are you going to go after it?
Why is in-person worship and fellowship so vital to your walk? How can “only going to church online” rob you of blessing?
Have you ever been asked to pray for something you felt you shouldn’t pray for? How did you respond? Why is it important to give people good reasons to pray for you (Heb 13:18-19)?
Breakout
Pray for one another!