Introduction:
The Call to Maturity (Hebrews 6:1-12):
- Maturity means Moving On from the Basics . (Heb 6:1-8)
- Maturity means Loving God . (Heb 6:9-10)
- Maturity means Imitating the Faithful . (Heb 6:11-12)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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01:01-01:34
Let's bow our heads and I'm going to ask if you would please pray for me to faithfully communicate God's Word. I will pray for you to receive God's Word as Alex prayed. Fertile soil, right? That's where the seed of God's word grows. Let's pray. Father, this is your word.
01:41-01:54
Nobody's here to hear from me. We're all here to hear from you. So let your word Be true.
01:57-02:01
We know God, we know you always do what you set out to do when your Word is proclaimed.
02:01-02:03
We just want to be faithful to proclaim it.
02:05-02:07
Thank you ahead of time for what you're going to do.
02:11-02:13
We praise you in Jesus' name.
02:14-02:20
And all of God's people said, "Amen." Open up your Bibles with me please to Hebrews chapter 6.
02:23-02:24
Hebrews chapter 6.
02:27-02:38
For many years I was involved in prison ministry, and we would basically show up and they'd put us in this little room and they would invite whoever wanted to come to church.
02:39-02:49
And Mark can tell you, there were seasons where we'd get a lot of people that would come and then we'd go in seasons that it would be otherwise, right?
02:49-02:55
And I remember one season in particular, for several weeks, there was one person that came.
02:57-03:01
And he was a very young man, and his name was Klaus.
03:02-03:04
Didn't know his last name, didn't know why he was there.
03:04-03:10
But I know he was at Bible study every week for a season.
03:12-03:16
And I remember the one time he came, he asked me this question.
03:18-03:58
He said, "If I keep putting off coming to Jesus, will there come a day that it's too late for me in this life?" In other words, can I put Jesus off to the point, he asked, that I could lose my opportunity here on the earth?" And I told him, "Yes, you can." And I took him to this passage that we're going to be looking at today.
04:00-04:12
Well, the next week I went in, I show up, they take me back to the room and they called for, um, they called for church as they called it, or Bible study.
04:12-04:19
And, um, I waited a couple of new guys came and I said, Hey, where's, where's class?
04:22-04:31
And the one man said he got out last week and I said, the punk, he was, he told me, come and see me when he got out.
04:31-04:34
And we, you know, get him involved in some discipleship and things.
04:34-04:35
And the man put his head down.
04:35-04:44
And he goes, he the day he got out, he overdosed and he died.
04:50-04:56
He. He brought a very serious question.
05:01-05:02
We're going to look at today.
05:04-05:06
What happens to me if I keep putting off coming to Jesus?
05:10-05:12
And I get to throw that question in your lap.
05:13-05:18
We started it last week and the text flows, the message flows.
05:19-05:24
But I get to ask you, are you a churchgoer or are you a real follower of Jesus?
05:26-05:27
Because there's a difference.
05:30-05:31
Are you a churchgoer?
05:32-05:35
You see, this is exactly who the Hebrew writer has been addressing.
05:36-05:40
People who are churchgoers, but they've never personally received Christ.
05:41-05:42
They're not opposed to the message.
05:44-05:46
And they even like the church scene.
05:46-05:53
They like coming to church and they like the church people, but they've never personally received Jesus Christ.
05:55-05:56
They're not born again.
05:59-06:05
You see, the people he's addressing here are the exact same people He was addressing in chapters three and four.
06:05-06:07
You remember that account?
06:07-06:27
He says, "Don't be like the Israelites "who came all the way up to the edge of the promised land "and they were about to enter in "and God's like, 'Go get 'em!' "And they were like, 'Nah.' "They were scared and they backed away." And God says, "They will never enter my rest "because they don't believe me." He's talking to the same people.
06:28-06:32
And last week we saw that active faith brings maturity.
06:33-06:41
And the Hebrew writer says, "Some of you have no maturity because you don't have real faith." He says, "You've heard the gospel so many times.
06:41-06:42
You should be teaching.
06:45-06:46
You should be discerning.
06:48-06:56
Your faith should be showing up in the way that you live your life." He says, "But you got none of these." Many of you.
07:00-07:03
How many times do you have to hear the gospel before you'll receive it?
07:05-07:06
How many times?
07:08-07:12
And we said that last week and we'll say it again this week because it's the same audience.
07:13-07:18
We would be so naive to think that there aren't such people in this church or watching this stream.
07:18-07:19
We would be so naive.
07:20-07:21
How many Christians are you?
07:21-07:29
A hundred percent, not in any church except the church in heaven, is that a hundred percent born again believers in Jesus Christ.
07:30-07:33
And every church, you're going to have people that are church goers.
07:34-07:39
But aren't true born again believers in Jesus, there are some sitting here today.
07:41-07:47
And to you, I have to ask, how many more times do you have to hear the gospel before you'll receive it?
07:50-08:00
And I have to tell you, as I told this young man in prison, if you keep rejecting the gospel, the day is going to come in your life that you are unable to receive it.
08:01-08:03
You cannot receive it.
08:06-08:10
You'll reach the point of no return.
08:14-08:16
Some of you need to mature.
08:20-08:21
And you need to do it now.
08:22-08:27
Like, "Well, how do I do that?" Well, He doesn't leave you hanging.
08:28-08:36
He goes on to explain, "This is how. This is how." You need to receive Jesus Christ, and He shows us what this looks like.
08:36-08:43
So, on your outline, if you're taking notes, which we always encourage, This is just the call to maturity.
08:44-08:48
Okay? This is the call to the churchgoers who know the basics.
08:49-08:59
Jesus died on the cross, and okay, you believe the Bible is the Word of God, and you know some of the basics, but it's time to come to Christ.
09:00-09:01
It's time to grow up.
09:03-09:05
It's time to move from churchgoer to born again.
09:05-09:07
The call to maturity, number one.
09:07-09:09
Maturity means moving on from the basics.
09:13-09:16
Look at the first couple of verses in chapter 6.
09:18-09:52
It says, "Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment, stop there." Who was Hebrews written to?
09:55-09:58
Who was Hebrews written to? Hebrews.
10:02-10:03
You're like, "You're trying to trick me." No.
10:04-10:07
I'm not trying to trick you, I'm just trying to get you to read.
10:08-10:32
Hebrews was written to Jews, and he was saying, "Jews, you need to go beyond the ABCs of what the Old Testament teaches about." He goes, "The elementary doctrine of Christ." He wasn't speaking about Jesus specifically as a person, he's talking about Old Testament doctrines regarding the person of the Messiah.
10:32-10:37
And we know Jesus is the Messiah, but he's talking about the one on one Messiah teachings.
10:38-10:48
And what he's saying is you need to move on from these elementary teachings about Messiah and embrace Jesus Christ because he is the Messiah.
10:48-10:58
And he came and how foolish it would be to hold on to these pictures of the Messiah instead of embracing the real thing.
11:00-11:01
You understand what that means?
11:01-11:02
It's like this.
11:05-11:10
I got an illustration that I got to explain for our younger crowd here.
11:10-11:24
But when I was in college many years ago, many, many years ago, younger people, there was no social media, okay?
11:25-11:28
And there were no smartphones, all right?
11:32-11:42
So I went to school in Ohio, and Aaron, who was not my wife at the time, went to school in Indiana, IUP, Indiana, Pennsylvania.
11:43-11:55
So when we would communicate with each other, again, this is where I have to explain things to the whippersnappers among us, we would actually, it sounds so archaic, but we would actually get paper and write.
11:57-11:59
We wrote letters to each other.
12:01-12:03
And you're like, why didn't you just talk on the phone?
12:03-12:06
Because at that time it was like $5 a minute, long distance.
12:06-12:07
Remember those days?
12:09-12:11
So we would write each other letters.
12:12-12:24
And again, without social media and without smartphones and things like that, there were times that Aaron and I would, we'd write each other these letters and we'd send a little photograph.
12:24-12:25
This is a photograph.
12:26-12:31
See this, you're like, you're like, how's that digital image not on your phone?
12:32-12:34
It's on paper, and I'm kidding, all right.
12:35-12:47
But we would send each other like photographs as a way of like, oh, you know, and I look at this now and I'm like, boy, Aaron hasn't changed very much.
12:49-12:50
I don't know what happened to me, but.
12:53-12:54
But here's the point.
12:54-12:58
This is what we did back in those days, right?
12:58-12:59
Because we were far away.
13:00-13:10
And I remember just holding onto these pictures and how much these pictures meant to me of Erin.
13:12-13:14
And I married that girl.
13:16-13:29
And how foolish would it be of me today to be sitting at home and she's sitting on the other end of the couch, and I'm sitting here just like still wrapped up in this picture.
13:31-13:33
Like, oh, isn't she just so beautiful?
13:33-13:38
And, oh, I just love this picture so much.
13:38-13:49
And you would come and you'd say, dude, why are you so wrapped up in this little piece of paper when you have the real person is sitting on the couch with you?
13:49-13:50
Wouldn't that be foolish?
13:51-13:53
And you see, that's what's happening here in Hebrews.
13:54-13:58
The Old Testament was like the photograph of the Messiah.
13:58-13:59
Here's what he's going to look like.
13:59-14:00
Here's what he's going to do.
14:01-14:02
Here's what he's going to be like.
14:02-14:09
And then Jesus shows up and does all that the Messiah was going to do in his first advent.
14:09-14:12
And so many of the Jews were still holding onto the picture.
14:13-14:14
He goes, you've got to move on from this.
14:15-14:19
This was awesome, but you've got to move on from it because the real has come.
14:22-14:24
That's why this is, I'm gonna go through this very quickly.
14:24-14:28
He's, this list here is all basic Old Testament stuff.
14:28-14:30
He goes, first of all, he says, you gotta leave.
14:31-14:32
That means move on.
14:33-14:34
This is Old Covenant stuff.
14:34-14:35
You're moving on.
14:35-14:36
You gotta move on to the New Covenant, right?
14:36-14:37
Jesus has come.
14:37-14:39
And then all these things, real quick.
14:39-14:42
He says the elementary doctrine of Christ, the Old Testament teachings about Messiah.
14:43-14:44
He talks about repentance.
14:46-14:48
That's being sorry for your sin.
14:48-14:49
That's part of the message.
14:49-14:50
That's not all the message.
14:50-14:54
You got to turn from your sin, yes, but you got to turn to Jesus.
14:54-14:57
He talks about faith.
14:58-14:59
Notice a tour God.
15:01-15:02
Not in God.
15:04-15:08
That's the guy that says, oh, I believe in God, we're going to talk about that in a second.
15:09-15:11
I believe in God, Austin, that's a great start.
15:12-15:13
But that's only a start.
15:14-15:22
He talks about washings laying on of hands, those are Jewish rituals, Cleansing on the outside, pictured the cleansing on the inside that Jesus gives.
15:25-15:27
And then resurrection, eternal judgment.
15:28-15:35
Again, merely believing that these things are real isn't enough because Jesus came and gave us the full revelation.
15:36-15:40
He says, you've got to move on from these ABC's.
15:40-15:43
And then verse three, he says, and this we will do if God permits.
15:44-15:46
He says, look, you've got the basics down.
15:47-15:51
You understand the basics now come all the way to faith in Jesus Christ.
15:54-15:56
Again, Jews don't hold on to the old covenant.
15:56-15:58
There's a principle for us.
15:59-16:04
Here, church, you got to let go of this elementary stuff.
16:06-16:07
Like, what do you mean?
16:09-16:12
Again, this is for people who say things like this, oh, I believe in God.
16:14-16:15
I hear that all the time.
16:15-16:30
You meet somebody, they find out I'm a pastor, and, "Oh, I believe in God." Like, "Thanks for letting me know that up front." Or people say, "Oh, I believe there's a heaven." Okay, good for you.
16:31-16:36
"I try to be a good person." Again, "I like coming to church.
16:37-16:38
These people seem friendly.
16:38-16:39
I like this.
16:40-16:44
I like the music." Awesome.
16:45-16:50
All those are good things, but they're not complete things.
16:53-16:55
Do you believe in Jesus Christ?
16:56-16:58
Have you received him personally?
16:58-17:00
Are you a church goer?
17:00-17:02
Are you a real follower of Jesus?
17:03-17:06
You have to make a personal decision to receive him.
17:06-17:07
And maturity means moving on.
17:08-17:10
It means growing up in your faith.
17:10-17:11
Now look at verse four.
17:13-17:41
And he says, "For it is impossible in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift and have shared in the Holy Spirit and have tasted the goodness of the Word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away to restore them again to repentance.
17:47-17:56
This is one of the most serious warnings that the Bible gives, and it's directed at churchgoers.
18:00-18:06
He's saying you can have a form of Christianity that isn't being a true Christian.
18:11-18:13
You know, we've got Easter coming up and.
18:16-18:23
Regardless of your feelings regarding some of the secular things that surround the holidays, I think there's one thing that we can all agree on.
18:25-19:01
Something that we all share a dislike, and that is, have you ever Have you ever gotten one of those chocolate Easter bunnies in the box with the cellophane window in the front? You know the ones I'm talking about with the little yellow candy eyes? You know what I'm talking about? I remember as a kid I'd get these things. First of all, if it says chocolate flavored, this thing tasted like dirt. I'm talking about milk chocolate, right? Like a real man. But you This isn't up for debate.
19:06-19:14
But did you ever get one of those, ladies and gentlemen, and you pull it out of the box, and you always start at the ears, right?
19:15-19:16
That's the American way.
19:19-19:25
But have you ever taken a big bite of that chocolate bunny and it was hollow?
19:27-19:28
You know what I'm talking about?
19:30-19:31
The disappointment.
19:34-19:37
I mean, there were so many Easter's as a kid, I was crushed.
19:38-19:43
'Cause you think this is gonna be like a big fat Hershey bar, right?
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Like, oh, this thing's gonna last me like, well, like 15 minutes at least.
19:48-19:51
You take that first bite and it just like crumbles.
19:53-19:59
And you see, that's his point here, There's a lot of Christians like that, that you look really good on the outside.
20:00-20:01
The box looks good.
20:01-20:03
You see it in the little cellophane brook.
20:03-20:05
You see the the bunny in the box.
20:07-20:11
It looks great on the outside, but there's nothing going on on the inside.
20:13-20:15
That's exactly what he's talking about here.
20:15-20:18
Are you a churchgoer or are you a follower of Jesus?
20:20-20:21
That's what he's saying here.
20:21-20:23
You've been exposed to the real thing.
20:23-20:27
You're around what God is doing, but you are not a part of what God is doing.
20:29-20:31
Again, looking at this list quickly.
20:34-20:40
See, some people think he's describing a Christian here, and it's obvious to me that he's not.
20:41-20:44
He's talking about those of you who have been enlightened. What does that mean?
20:45-20:46
It just means taught.
20:46-20:49
It means you understand something by hearing it or reading it.
20:49-20:52
And there's some of you, you know what the message is.
20:52-20:53
Jesus died on the cross.
20:54-20:56
Jesus resurrected from the dead.
20:56-20:58
He bore the penalty for my sin.
20:58-21:00
He rose to give me eternal life.
21:00-21:02
You know what the message is.
21:04-21:06
And then he says, you tasted the heavenly gift.
21:08-21:09
Tasted.
21:11-21:14
There's a big difference between tasting something and consuming something, isn't there?
21:17-21:23
If I brought a donut in and said, here, you can you can lick a little bit of it, but you can't eat it.
21:24-21:27
You'll know very quickly there's a difference between tasting something and consuming something.
21:29-21:30
That's what he's saying.
21:31-21:36
He says you're you're getting a taste of the heavenly gift because you're around people that are worshiping.
21:38-21:42
Same thing he says, shared in the Holy Spirit, not possessing the Holy Spirit.
21:42-22:01
You're just blessed enough to be around people who are filled with the Holy Spirit And you get all the overflow blessing of that because those people that are filled with the Holy Spirit are loving and gracious and kind and forgiving and and and he goes, you get to share and what the Holy Spirit is doing because you're around people that have the Holy Spirit.
22:02-22:05
And he says, tasted the powers of the age to come.
22:08-22:09
We've seen that in this church.
22:12-22:13
God's power at work.
22:13-22:16
We've seen people healed spiritually, emotionally, physically.
22:17-22:18
Marriage is healed.
22:18-22:21
We've seen in this church so many prayers answered.
22:21-22:27
We've seen so many lives completely transformed by the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
22:29-22:34
And Hebrew writer here is saying, look, you have been in the eye of God's hurricane.
22:35-22:44
You see him at work all around you and you know what's happening all around you is the work but it's not happening to you.
22:46-22:48
And here's the sobering warning here.
22:49-22:54
He says - do you see this in your Bible?
22:55-22:59
Verse 4 and verse 6.
23:00-23:11
He says when somebody experiences all of this, and then they fall away.
23:13-23:18
He says, it is impossible to restore them to repentance.
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Impossible, the Bible says.
23:23-23:24
Well, why is that?
23:27-23:30
Well, one reason is there's no more revelation to be received.
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That's a reason.
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You can't be saved.
23:35-23:36
You can't be.
23:38-23:39
You know, it's like this picture.
23:40-23:46
Imagine, imagine you've never done cliff diving before, but you want to try it.
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You thought it looked like fun.
23:49-23:59
So you take a day and you hike for hours up this mountain where there's the greatest cliff diving spot in the world.
23:59-24:03
And you you climb up this mountain and you get to the spot.
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And like, OK, it's your turn.
24:09-24:12
And you say, you know what, I can't do it.
24:12-24:16
And you turn and walk away and you spend hours walking back down the mountain.
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Let me ask you, what are the chances you're ever going to be on this edge again to take another crack at it?
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See, this is what he's talking about spiritually.
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He's talking about people that have gotten to the edge.
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They know the gospel. They see what Christ is doing.
24:31-24:34
They know what the response is and they get right to the edge.
24:34-24:36
And Jesus says, jump. And it's like I'm.
24:40-24:42
He says, you're never going to get that person back to the edge.
24:43-24:48
He says, it's impossible to restore such a person to repentance.
24:50-24:56
Impossible. You know what you need to do and you turn back.
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And I have to ask you, for those of you that are like, well, I don't think that's right.
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I don't think that's right.
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My question is, well, what else could God have done?
25:09-25:10
What else could God have done?
25:10-25:12
He sent his son to die for you.
25:15-25:20
And then he goes on to explain what that means, the death of Jesus, that's the gospel.
25:23-25:26
He made the call to action clear, which is receiving Jesus Christ.
25:27-25:29
And you refuse to do that.
25:30-25:31
What else is God supposed to do?
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That's why he says it's impossible to restore such a person.
25:43-25:46
You get to the edge and you fall away, you're never going to get back to the edge.
25:51-25:54
Look at verse six again. Second part.
25:56-26:05
Says it's impossible to restore them again to repentance, look, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.
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Wow. Do you realize what that's saying?
26:09-26:13
It's saying the person that understands the gospel and understands who Jesus is and what he's done.
26:14-26:19
And and you you get all that intellectually and you're like, I'm not going to receive him.
26:19-26:44
He says, "What you're doing is you're standing with the people that accused Jesus Christ." While He was on the cross, the people that are like, "He deserves it! He deserves to die! He's no Savior!" The Hebrew writer says, "You're standing with them, because you've evaluated who Jesus is, and you decided that He is not your Savior." He says, "You're holding Him up to contempt." Wow.
26:46-26:51
If you do this, if you know all of the information and walk away.
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You'll never be saved.
26:58-27:02
God does not have a plan B, you know that God doesn't have a plan B.
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God's not like, here's my son that I sent to die for you.
27:06-27:08
And you're like, I will not receive him.
27:08-27:14
And God's like, well, let's see what other means of salvation we have laying around back here, because he obviously doesn't want my son.
27:14-27:15
There is no plan B.
27:19-27:26
That's why Pastor Taylor preached a few weeks ago, chapter two, verse three, same question.
27:26-27:29
How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?
27:30-27:31
Again, what's your plan?
27:34-27:41
What's your plan when you stand before God someday as a sinner by birth and by choice?
27:41-27:54
And Jesus came to take that away, and to pronounce you not guilty, and make you a child of God, and you said no, and now you have to stand before that holy God, after refusing His gift.
27:55-27:56
What's your plan?
28:00-28:05
If you're not going with God's plan, I'd be curious what yours is.
28:06-28:09
He gives an illustration to drive the point home.
28:09-28:11
Look at verses 7 and 8.
28:14-28:26
He says, "For the land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God.
28:27-28:37
But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned." That's a pretty obvious illustration, isn't it?
28:39-28:40
It's just this, your fruit reveals where you are.
28:41-28:42
That's all he's saying.
28:42-28:49
The rain is the gospel and people who respond are useful, they're fruitful, meaning God is using you for His kingdom.
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But the people who do not respond produce nothing good.
28:53-28:57
Thorns and thistles, their end is being burned, talking ultimately about hell.
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I have to take this place to remind you that your works do not save you, but your works do reveal whether or not you are saved.
29:12-29:23
That's why Jesus said in Matthew 7, 20, "You know a tree by its fruit." What's your life producing for God?
29:24-29:25
That's what He's asking here.
29:25-29:26
What's your life producing?
29:28-29:31
It can be useful and blessed today if you come to Christ.
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His warning here is if you have come to the edge and you know, you know the gospel and you know what you're supposed to do and you walk away from Jesus, he says you'll never get to this place again.
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The call to maturity.
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Number two, maturity means loving God.
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Okay, first of all, you've got to move on from the basics.
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Right now, I'm sure even for those of you that have received Christ, those of you who are born again believers, you're probably feeling a little queasy.
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So, the Holy Spirit anticipated that.
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'Cause look at verse nine.
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He says, "Though we speak in this way, "yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things, "things that belong to salvation." Notice there's a change in pronouns.
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He was addressing those who fallen away, those who, now he says you.
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And you see there's an obvious shift here in the text, right?
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You see that he's addressing true believers.
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He's saying, don't you get caught up in this?
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Those of you that are like, I've received Christ.
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Am I in danger?
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He says, I feel sure I'm persuaded.
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Of better things, things that belong to salvation.
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And look, it's obvious to me, church.
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it's obvious to me that there are many people in this church that are true born again followers of Jesus.
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It's obvious to me.
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But more important than me knowing, look at verse 10.
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It says, "For God is not unjust, "so as to overlook your work "and the love that you have shown for his name "in serving the saints as you still do." more important than me knowing is God knows.
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What's the evidence?
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What's the evidence?
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It's right here in verse 10.
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You need to underline it.
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The love that you have shown for his name.
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The evidence of maturity is loving God.
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God knows those who sincerely love him.
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That's it. That's the mark.
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That's all that matters.
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That's maturity.
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The question ultimately lands on this.
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Do you love God?
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Because he knows who does.
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And you're like, well, that's all well and good, Pastor Jeff, that's all God knows, but is there any evidence for us?
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Absolutely. He says it right there.
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He says, "The love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints as you still do.
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Love for God results in serving others.
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And hear me, 'cause I know there's a bunch of people that need to hear this.
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But if you serve people because of people, you're gonna burn out real quick because people stink.
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People are disappointing.
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People are disheartening.
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People are sinful.
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Even great people, even great Christians, do stupid, sinful, immature things sometimes.
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Can I get an amen?
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Okay, it didn't need to be that loud.
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That deserved like, amen, I kind of see what you're saying.
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Some of you were like really behind that.
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Amen!
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Like, it's true though.
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If you serve people because of people, you're not gonna last very long.
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You see, you need to serve people love God. Remember John 21? Remember when we went through the gospel of John, John 21, Jesus on the beach with some of the disciples, and remember Jesus said to Peter, "Do you love me?" And Peter was like, "You know that I do." And remember what Jesus told him? "Feed Notice Jesus didn't say, "Peter, hey Peter, do you love people?" Peter's like, "Lord, you know I love people." "Well then feed them." That's not what he said.
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He said, "Do you love me?" And if you love me, you see, you're going to serve people.
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And if you let love for God motivate your ministry, you're going to have a long, blessed, and fruitful ministry.
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He means loving God with a love that moves you to serve his people.
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And then finally.
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OK, so he addresses the unsaved, right?
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Number one, he addresses the unsaved like you all need to grow up because you're going to get to the point of no return.
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He addresses the saved like, hey, this ain't for all y'all.
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You're mature because you love God that shows up in the way you serve people.
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Now he shifts one more time.
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He goes, Now I'm addressing everybody.
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I'm addressing the whole church here.
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Maturity means imitating the faithful.
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Look at verse 11, he says, and we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end.
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Each one of you, OK, so this is like blanket admonishment.
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He goes, Listen, church, pursue Christ.
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You're like, I've been a born again believer for the last 20 years.
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Awesome. Pursue Christ.
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Like, well, I'm still kind of on the edge.
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I don't know what the pursue Christ like I've been going through a rough season in my life right now.
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And I pursue Christ.
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I'm telling all of you, go after Jesus with earnestness.
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Stop playing around.
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It's not a game.
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It's not for show.
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Get real in your walk with God.
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All of you go after it.
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And then verse 12, he says, so that you may not be sluggish.
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But imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
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Sluggish. Sluggish, I always think the same thing when I hear that word sluggish, we had pancakes yesterday.
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I associate the word sluggish with pancakes.
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Anybody else? Just me.
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Awesome.
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Interesting, in the Greek it has nothing to do with pancakes.
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It's actually, remember last week when we talked about the dull of hearing?
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You know, the people that were immature because they were dull of hearing?
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Sluggish and dull of hearing, it's the same Greek word.
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It's the exact same word.
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What he's saying here is, look, all y'all church, I don't want you acting like churchgoers.
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I want you to be real.
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And here's a here's a great place to go find somebody.
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That is sincerely following Jesus Christ and imitate their faith.
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Imitate the mature Jesus followers, and I would commend that to you, church, look to the godly examples in the church.
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Look to people in this church that have an obvious real faith and follow them, imitate them.
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And as I was preparing this, there was one person that came to mind immediately when I read this in the context of this church and it's Rich Brunk.
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I don't even think, he's probably teaching today, isn't he?
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Okay, don't tell him I said this, all right?
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His name immediately came to mind.
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Look at how faith and patience manifests in that man's life.
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Look at his marriage.
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Look at his parenting.
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Look at him as an elder in this church, as a small group leader, as a prayer leader, and teaching the kids leader right now.
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Look at the faith that he has.
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That's what the Hebrew writer here is saying.
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He goes, "Be imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises." Attach yourself to someone like that.
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Go to their small group.
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Let them model for you what following Jesus looks like.
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Maturity means imitating the faithful.
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Are you a churchgoer or a real follower of Jesus?
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He says here there are promises to inherit.
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God has so much for his people now and for eternity.
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And churchgoer, if you turn back, you will forfeit everything that God has for you.
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And you're never going to get another opportunity.
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He says it's impossible.
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And when you preach a message like this, you always have several people looking at this going, Oh my goodness, have I done that?
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Have I gone to the point of no return?
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Have I come to the edge and walked away?
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Have I done that?
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Have I hardened my heart to the point that I'm not gonna receive Jesus?
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Am I the guy that he's talking about here?
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This is wonderful news.
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If you care.
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That's a good sign that you haven't.
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Because you see people that have done this, they don't care.
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They're unfazed.
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They can hear a message like this and be like, "Yeah, I was kind of fired up about Jesus once upon a time too, but not really my thing anymore." But I just want to challenge you, church, if there's anything in you at all, and you're at the edge, and the spirit is moving, today has to be the day.
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Because you're never going to get here again.
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You'll never again get this close to the edge.
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You know, Klaus, what happened to him?
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Where is he now?
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You know, obviously I've thought about that young man a lot.
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Did he come to Jesus?
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And he just got out and became a victim of his own bad choices?
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Did he walk away from the edge as he asked me if it was possible to do?
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I don't know.
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And I wonder if there was something else I could have said or did or...
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But it's too late.
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It's too late for him.
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His choice has been made.
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But you see, if you're hearing this, it's not too late for you.
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Like you to bow your heads as the worship team comes back.
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I'd just like you to bow your heads.
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I'm sure there are some people right now, in exposure to God's Word, are feeling great conviction.
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Like, "Yeah, you know what? I've been a churchgoer.
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I don't have a spiritual life at all.
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I haven't been born again.
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I just like going to church." I can't give you a more serious warning than this one.
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The father, as we bow ourselves before you today.
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Once again, we see in your word, you, you love us so much that even those of us that.
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have turned this into a game, or have been content with deluding ourselves of being in a place where we are not, You still pursue us.
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You still warn us of the eventual fruit of our choices.
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Father, I pray again, as we do so often, that Your Holy Spirit would Just grab the heart of the person who has been a church goer, but not a born again believer.
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Father, I pray the Holy Spirit would grab that person and slam them down and not give them a minute's rest until they come to that place where they receive the gift of Christ.
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If they stop being a church goer and they accept your invitation to become a child of God.
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Father, just now I pray that you would equip our small group leaders.
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There's going to be some heavy conversations this week.
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I pray that you would equip our elders as there are going to be some heavy conversations about these matters.
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Father, let there be a harvest of righteousness to the praise of your glory.
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We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Hebrews 6:1-12
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Why is it impossible (Heb 6:4-6) to bring someone back to repentance if they experience the blessings of the Gospel and then fall away?
Why does your service to others in the church have to be motivated by your love for God (Heb 6:10)?
Who is a Christ-follower that you’ve observed that is worth imitating (Heb 6:12)? What about their faith do you find inspiring?
Breakout
Pray for one another for an earnest pursuit of following Jesus!
