Andrew Fountain - What is your reality? (Hebrews pt.9)

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Sermon notes - What is your reality? (Hebrews pt.9)

• What is the most important thing we need to have to keep us following God in this World?
  • Of course the most important thing is the Spirit
  • But the second (linked to this) is an understanding that there’s a spiritual reality, that is more real than the physical reality we see around us.
  • Another word for that is faith
  • Because it’s faith that enables us to lay hold of the unseen world and treat is as if we can see it.
  • This is one of the threads running though Hebrews
  • We’re going to trace those threads today.
• A recap on the social culture of the time

• David DeSilva Perseverance in Gratitude: Commentary p.12–16
  • shame/honour culture
  • Pagan gods very visibly all around, penetrating every aspect of society.
  • deviancy control
  • A constant tug towards conforming to what everyone else believed

1. The true Reality

• Go through table, comparing them

2: Reasons

• lived 4000 years ago in a prosperous city called Ur, (near modern-day Kuwait)
  • God told him one day to leave his home and to set off on a journey
  • He was to spend his whole life, travelling around, living in tents
  • He would have no home, because God had promised him a future home

• There were two realities for Abraham:
  • Earthly reality
    • No home, living in a tent
    • no children
    • destined to die wandering around Palestine
  • Were those three things true? —yes!
  • Spiritual reality
    • God was preparing an eternal home for him
    • He was going to have children as numerous as the sand on the seashore
    • He had a destiny as one of the great figures of history
• Both realities were true
  • Now which reality do you think was most real for Abraham?
    • It depends on what kind of a day he was having!
    • He wavered between. There was a tension. But he persevered!

Israel in the Wilderness

• Hebrews 3 gives an contrasting example of the Israelites crossing the wilderness
  • Earthly reality
    • They had left all their comforts in Egypt and were living in tents
    • The same food every day, and they were getting fed up with it
    • They often ran out of water
    • The land they were supposed to be going to was populated by large, well-armed forces
    • All true
  • Spiritual reality
    • They were promised great comfort and wealth in the future
    • They didn’t have to worry about food, drink or clothing
    • They would easily be able to defeat their enemies
• Both realities were true
  • Now which reality do you think was most real for almost all the Israelites?
  • What Hebrews 3 says they lacked was faith.
  • Faith lets you grasp the invisible true reality

• Earthly: very poor, this money is all she has for food
• Spiritual?: God has say he will honour those who honour him

• 1805-1898 Bristol, England
• After weeks in prayer, he became convinced that God was asking him to start an orphanage, specifically to demonstrate how he would supply all their needs
  • This sort of event happened 100’s of times and was very well documented

“I hate to bother you, Mr. Muller,” began the matron, “but... the children are all ready for breakfast and there is not a thing in the house to eat. What shall I tell them?”

George stood up. “I’ll take care of it."... [He] reached down and took [a little girl’s hand] hand. “Come and see what God will do,” he said. Inside they found three hundred children standing in neat rows behind their chairs. Set on the table in front of each child were a plate, a mug... and spoon. But there was no food whatsoever to be seen....

“...where’s the food?” Abigail asked in a whisper.

“God will supply,” George told her quietly, before he turned to address the children. “There’s not much time. I don’t want any of you to be late for school, so let us pray,” he announced.

As the children bowed their heads, George simply prayed, “Dear God, we thank you for what you are going to give us to eat. Amen.”

George looked up and smiled at the children. “You may be seated,” he said. He had no idea at all where the food he had just prayed for would come from or how it would get to the orphanage. He just knew God would not fail the children. A thunderous din filled the room as three hundred chairs were scuffed across the wooden floor. Soon all three hundred children sat obediently in front of their empty plates.

No sooner had the noise in the dining room subsided than there was a knock at the door. George walked over and opened the door. In the doorway stood the baker, holding a huge tray of delicious-smelling bread.

“Mr. Muller,” began the baker, “I couldn’t sleep last night. I kept thinking that somehow you would  need bread this morning and that I was supposed to  get up and bake it for you. So I got up at two o’clock and made three batches for you. I hope you can use it.”

George smiled broadly. “God has blessed us through you this morning,” he said as he took the tray....

“There’s two more trays out in the cart,” said the baker. “I’ll fetch them.” Within minutes, the children were all eating freshly baked bread.

As they were enjoying it there was a second knock at the door. This time it was the milkman, who took off his hat and addressed George. "I’m needing a little help, of you could, sir. The wheel on my cart has been broken, right outside your establishment. I’ll have to lighten my load before I can fix it. There’s ten full cans of milk on it. Could you use them?" Then looking at the orphans sitting in neat rows, he added. "Free of charge, of course...."

• Go through table, asking for and hilighting answers

• The point of the message is not this chart, but your own challenge
  • Where do you need to take your eyes off the visible and have them firmly fixed on the promises of God!

3. Results

• Results of having a firm faith

• celebration (my translation to capture the idea in the original)
  • Gift is coming, so you spend on your credit card
  • invisible world

• But…
  • If the invisible, spiritual world is not very real to you, what effect do you think it will have?

4. Route

• So what is the route to having more faith

• Jesus enables us
  • Eyes fixed on him
  • Jesus the pioneer
  • rest in him [4:1–11] (another sermon)
  • he is the compassionate High Priest [5:2–3]
    
    2. He is able to deal compassionately with those who are ignorant and erring, since he also is subject to weakness,
    3. and for this reason he is obligated to make sin offerings for himself as well as for the people.
  • He understands our weakness!
• What evidence do you have?
  • Mark Twain defined faith as “believing what you know ain’t true.
    • “Evidence based community”
  • There is so much evidence for Christianity—what is called apologetics (another sermon series)
  • What evidence do we have already as a reason to believe God ?
    • see lives changed – Evident in the lives of other Christians
      • He is changing us
    • supernatural events
    • answers to prayer
    • inner “knowing” that it is true
    • The Spirit
• Humans are social beings
  • One thing that makes it harder for us to have faith in the unseen is being surrounded by people who would laugh at that viewpoint
  • We cannot help but be influenced by those around us, or in the media, no matter how much we think we are like a rock
  • Hebrews has a remedy for that: meeting regularly with other believers
• Meeting together regularly [10:25]
  • example of coal from a fire
  • another plug for homegroup

• The biggest problems we are facing are so small in the eternal scheme of things
• (go back to previous slide)

So what is your reality?

• Is life hard at the moment? —don’t give up!
  • Are you having trouble with relationships? —put it in perspective!
  • Need more money to make ends meet? (The God who “owns the cattle on 1000 hills knows your needs)
  • anxious —what is the very worst that could happen? (die and go to heaven)
    • anxiety—worst case
  • We measure ourselves and make performance goals for ourselves that God has not made for us —other people
    • Allow God to define what it means for you to be successful
  • It is all about getting the right perspective
• How can I make my faith stronger?
• “Enable us to live our lives in this reality, understanding what you have for us.”

Updated on 2017-03-22 by Andrew Fountain