Hebrews Chapter 6 Verses 9 – 12

• We begin this week with a bit of encouragement. Last week was hard and even a bit harsh as we looked at the first part of Chapter 6. And no doubt, after the first 5 Chapters, some of the readers, maybe most of them were feeling a bit discouraged because the writer is just kinda correcting their doctrine, correcting their hearts…just kinda correcting. You know how I’d feel? “Well, am I doing anything right?”

• It’s important, especially for you who have learned much, seen much, know much, it’s important that you don’t forget, people are people. They’re just like you. Wrong thinking needs correcting, no doubt. But who’s correct? You? Not so much. You need correcting too…God alone is correct and His heart is for that person. Not for you to look smart or to be right. His heart is for them, like a gentle Father…don’t lose sight of that…correction is so much more easily received when our heart is for the person.
• Discouragement can make someone sluggish. Discouragement from others but also discouragement that simply comes from the subject we talked about last week of missing out on confidence towards God. How much more confident my children are when Daddy is around! When I am with them and they know it…man they are so very secure and bold, fearless and positive even…And we see this here in verse 11, “We desire that each one of you show the same diligence,” meaning “striving, accomplishment, and promotion.”

• Why do any of that if the end is continually insufficient and many times…just failure? And truth, it usually is if it’s all on you! But it’s not! Jesus said, “With man it is impossible, but with God, possible!”

• And so be lifted up, look at verse 11, “to the full assurance of hope until the end!” Full assurance! Plerophoria! THAT is an awesome word! “Certain resounding far-reaching permeating complete confidence!” Have you ever been there? In the zone man…not like you can hit every shot from the free-throw line but that no matter the ups the downs, the thrilling and the mundane…the hardest of days, you’re still filled with hope! And that hope brings gratitude…humility…peace…
• How can we be there? By knowing that God is with you. He is for you. He has saved you. He has washed you, cleansed you, justified you and is even in the process of sanctifying you as you walk with him in your own humanity…
• Everything you do, every step, every day, every trial, every faithful flash of decision and action in your life is not lost. He sees it all and is faithful and just to finish what He started…to work in your hearts and minds to bring you fully into His promises. And how is it that His promises are realized? Verse 12…through faith and through patience.  (Gotta have both)
• Notice though, please don’t miss this. God’s promises are not earned…they are inherited. See that? Starting with salvation then things that accompany salvation…the promises of a spirit of love, power and a sound mind as opposed to a spirit of fear. I mean listen to this…He has promised to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to set the oppressed free and to empower us to break every yoke! (Is 58) How? Inheritance…just like Abraham…

Hebrews Chapter 6 Verses 13 – 15

• Patiently endured…here is where so many are just simply not willing to go…but this is the very place where we read and the very place of this happening in our own lives…, “he obtained the promise.” Laid hold of it. You might say, “I’m patient, I endure,” yet this word is the same one found in 1 Cor 13:4, “love suffers long.” Literally it means “faith and patience.” To not lose heart in bearing the offenses and injuries of others. To love. All of the promises of God available for our ready inheritance…even causes HUGE diligence and confidence towards God and towards this life…LOVE. To place God first and to place ministry unto Him and others as the priority of your days…welcome to every promise of God!
• Abraham endured and obtained by loving and trusting whom? Himself? Lot? His sheep and oxen (money)? Not a chance. He trusted God. Huge issues! Crazy problems! He could have easily buckled but God promised and he believed God. And so check this out…difficulty is measured by the capacity of the agent that is doing the work! If I go into a mechanics shop and see an engine sitting next to a car, I panic! That should be in there! But a master mechanic sips coffee while they wrench on that thing with full confidence! You see many things are extremely difficult for you and for me, even impossible! Maybe the situation you find yourself in today…but nothing strains God…nothing…

Hebrews Chapter 6 Verses 16 – 18

• I love this point that the writer is making. It is like an anchor point that actually holds! When God promised Abraham (an impossible promise…to make a great nation of him and yet he was already 75 years old), when God made that promise…He finalized that promise. He removed all controversy and question. And how did He do it? By Himself! He staked confirmation on the immutability of His counsel…indeed two immutable things…one, His counsel and two, the fact that He cannot lie…impossible! And so context, context, context, this rest that was spoken of in Chapter 4 Verse 1, how is it obtained? Simply by inheritance…receiving it!
• And so naturally, consequentially, finally…for those that are looking for something real, something true, something unchanging and immutable, the natural response to receiving this wonderful message is to flee towards it! Flee what? Death! The lie! The counterfeit. The indefinite. The false. The unstable. The hopeless.
• Hearing of what God has done and it is undeniably valid because He Himself swore by Himself and has proven even through all of history and yet even to you particularly, especially if you have received the Spirit of Promise…lay hold of that hope set before us…stop with this handling and putting down and considering and leaving behind and considering and then walking back into old ways…LAY HOLD of this hope…
• (Side note) Isn’t it wonderful, by the way, to have a strong tower. In the midst of this mess we live in…every day, folks in different moods around us…different problems at work, at school, at home…and yet you are rock hard holding to Him who does not change and His counsel is immutable. The power that comes from that is unique in all eternity…

Hebrews Chapter 6 Verses 19 – 20

• This hope will walk us into the very presence of God…no more earthly high priest needed…no more works, no more covering our sin…we stand fully exposed with who we are and what we’ve done entirely out in the open so that the darkness of shadows and secrets are powerless…and in that exposition, God welcomes us into His presence because of the Forerunner…A forerunner goes forward, knowing others are going to follow.
• The Jewish high priest was not a forerunner of the people, he was a representative of the people. The Jewish high priest would not remain in the presence of God but He would make atonement and leave…Not Jesus. Jesus entered into the intimate presence of the Father not as our representative but as our Leader and Savior. Our Cleanser and our perpetual Mediator and so we can follow Him right in…to intimacy ourselves with the Father…totally foreign to religion, totally foreign to Judaism and yet both sure and steadfast in and only in Jesus, the very Son of God.
• Not available through good works or through an earthly priest…only available to those who will follow the forerunner…right into God’s presence themselves..
• In 1893, engineer George Ferris built a machine that bears his name, the Ferris Wheel. When it was finished, he invited a newspaper reporter to accompany him and his wife for the inaugural ride. It was a windy July day and folks were nervous. Not George. The wheel turned flawlessly and after one complete revolution, Ferris called for the machine to be stopped so that he, his wife and the reporter could step out. Mr. Ferris has promised the two that the wheel was safe despite even the wind and his wife and the reporter had believed based on his word. But only after the ride could it be said of all three that they had personal faith…
• God the Father so desires you to know Him, that He made a way…He provided a Forerunner…the perfect man…to do away with anything and everything else but to simply be with Him…saved and set free, alive forever…through faith and patience, patiently enduring…through love. Never give in. Never stop until you’re where you want to be…don’t lose heart. Don’t grow discouraged. He sees every thought even towards Him…come fully and recklessly to Him…today.