Hebrews 3:12-13 – Finishing Well – Bible study

Hebrews 3:12-13 Finishing Well The writer of this book was concerned that some of his readers were not going to finish at all for Christ. You see it not only here, but throughout this book. \#Hebrews 2:1, 3, 12:15\ Heb 3:12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. Understand that if Christians do not finish well, it will not be Christ who fails His people, but His people who fail Christ. God offers to us all that is necessary for us to not only finish but to finish well. We must simply reach out and take it. I was called to preach 45 1/2 years ago have now been your pastor for 35 years. In that time, I have seen some who walked away and some who fell away from Christ. Whether it was their own doing or whether there were forces exerted on them to do so, they went back into the world and are now as though that were never His. I for one want to make it. I want to finish my race, my ministry, and my life as right with Christ as I can. I hope you do as well. The question for this morning is, "How do we do that? Three thoughts: I. We must realize there is a course to run. A. Every Christian must realize that he is here for something greater than his own good, his own desires, and his own goals. 1. God calls upon Christians to put Him first in all things. 2. This was spirit John the Baptist had. John 3:30 He must increase, but I must decrease. 3. This was the way Paul the Apostle lived. Acts 20:24neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course . 4. This is the way it is to be with us. a. Years ago, I read of the true story of a missionary doctor who came out of the jungle to marry his beloved. While the wedding ceremony was being conducted, a runner came asking for the missionary doctors help. The finished a shorten wedding and the doctor left, not returning for months to his new bride. b. All Christians have been called to serve. c. Each must simply decide to do so. B. To finish our race, we will have to grow in some areas. I will only mention three: 1. Spiritual Discernment Phi 1:9 And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; 10 That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ; a. The Bible speaks in several places about the race we Christians are called to run: \#1Cor 9:24, Heb 12:1\. b. But it will do no good to show you those verses unless you can understand there are ways better than this world offer. c. That is what spiritual discernment does. Discernment helps us to (1) "abound more and more in spiritual knowledge" (2) "abound more and more in spiritual judgment," that means to make better and better decisions. (3) So that we can choose the excellent things. d. Many Christians feel about their spiritual course the same that the unsaved feel about salvation. (1) They just dont get it. (2) Most lost people think salvation is okay for you but it is no big deal to them. (3) That is exactly how many Christians look at running Gods race, which is just another way of saying, living for Jesus. (a) They just do not get it. (b) They think it is alright for us preacher types but it is no big deal for them. (4) Friend, like the lost will wake up at the Great White Throne and understand salvation was for everyone, so many Christians will wake up at the Bema Seat to learn that every Christian had a race God wanted them to run. e. Spiritual discernment is the ability to know today what we will know at the judgment. f. If we are going to finish well, we are going to need to grow in spiritual discernment. 2. Worship a. You should be a little surprised by that one. (1) Most people think worship is a choice for Sunday only. (a) Church is at 11. (b) If you miss it, you missed worship for the day. (2) It is not. b. Worship is enjoying the presence of God and being strengthened by it. Please get both halves of that statement. (1) Worship is enjoying the presence of God. (2) Worship strengthens us to serve God. c. How important is it that Christians enter joyfully into Gods presence? (1) It is so important that all the commands of the Bible are intended to bring us to it. (2) All of the commands, and there are many. (a) The command to pray (b) to study the Bible (c) to give (d) to forgive (e) to live holy (f) to praise (g) to love (h) to help (i) to witness (j) to assemble. (3) Worship is the end of them all. It is the goal, the end of all of those means. (4) How does keeping Gods commands get us to worship? (a) Obeying each of those commands requires us to surrender a little bit more of ourselves. (b) We cannot worship God unless we surrender. (c) So as we come to each of those commands and surrender to it, our ability to worship God get better and better. (5) Now there is another waya better way. (a) Instead of having to find, understand, and surrender to each command God gave, we can just completely surrender to God right now and settle it. (b) Then no matter what command we find in the Bible or feel like God wants us to do, we have already settled the issue. (c) That kind of surrender gives the Christian complete access to God, and he will find his worship is glorious. d. Now we need to go back to the second part of the statement I made earlier. (1) Worship is enjoying the presence of God and being strengthened by it.. (2) Worship strengthens us so that we can finish our race! (a) Worship charges our spirits with joy, peace, power, encouragement, and satisfaction. (b) You say, "Ive never experience that!" (c) It is because you are not worshipping! i. My biggest danger is that I get so wrapped up in preaching and teaching the Word of God that I fail to worship. ii. Sitting inside a church is no more worshipping than sitting inside a doctors office is getting a cure for a disease. iii. Those kinds of things may happen at a doctors office, but it takes more than just going for it to happen. (3) Worship gives us many things but note these three: (a) Worship is our pleasure. It may take some discipline to get into worship, but it should become a joy to be with God. (b) Worship is our reward. It is God meeting with us because we have surrendered to Him. (c) Worship charges our spirits. It gives us the strength and ability to continue our race. e. If we never learn the blessedness of worship, then we will not receive any positive reinforcements needed to complete our race! 3. Training a. There are two courses of study for the Christian. (1) There are some "how"s to be learned. (a) how to pray (b) how to use faith (c) how to soul win (d) how to study (e) how to build strong marriages (f) how to rear children (2) But the real training is learning the "be"s. (a) to BE dependent (b) to BE faithful (c) to BE humble (d) to BE a servant (e) to BE kind b. As the commands of God are the means to bring us to place of surrender, so the "how "s are the means to make us into the ""to be"s. c. Some will never learn the "how"s or the "be"s. (1) They will not finish the race. (2) They probably wont ever even know there is a race. d. Some learn the "how"s but never learn to "be"s. (1) They may finish but they will not finish well. (2) They will bog down in rules and duties and obligations, always doing the work but never enjoying the ride. II. We must realize there is service to perform. A. If I have said it once, I have said a thousand times, WE WERE CREATED FOR A PURPOSE. 1. God did not create mistakes, failures, extras, fill-ins, temps, part-timers, or used-to-bes. a. There is no exemption from the service of God or retirement out of it. b. It does matter whether you are pastor a construction worker, a missionary or Christian doctor, a Christian secretary or housewife. 2. There is simply too much to be done and the time is slipping away. a. Lost souls need to be told about Jesus. b. Saved souls need to be taught, grown, and encouraged in Jesus. c. And in the midst of all of that, hurting souls need to be helped. B. Facts about our world: 1. 3.14 billion people have never even heard the name Jesus. (Thats almost half the population.) 2. 70% of the worlds evangelical Christians are never told about the 3.14 billion. 3. 70,000 people die every day without Jesus. (That is 48.6 people every minute.) https://bethanygu.edu/blog/guidance/7-missions-statistics-that-will- motivate-you-to-go/ 4. In North America, 20% of non-Christians do not even KNOW a Christian. 5. World-wide, 80% of non-Christians do not even know a Christian. https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2013/august-web-only/non- christians-who-dont-know-christians.html 6. In the United States, 44% have no idea where they will go when they die. (That number includes Christians who should have said "Heaven," atheists who should have said "Nowhere," and the unsaved who should have said, "Hell." American Worldview Inventory, Arizona Christian University & Barna, 2020 7. A person attending EVERY service in an evangelical church for 2 months STRAIGHT, would have less than a 10% chance of even hearing the words "hell" or "redemption." The Digital Pulpit: A Nationwide Analysis of Online Sermons, Pew Research Center, 2019 8. More than 20% of Evangelicals are not sure that heaven is a real place. Baylor Religion Surveys, Baylor University, 2011 9. 57% of regular churchgoers say they have never had a religious experience that changed their life. General Social Survey, 2010 10. Only 8% of regular church attenders believe that sharing their faith is very important. What America Really Believes, Baylor Religion Surveys, Baylor University, 2007. 11. Almost 50% of Christians think that most non-Christians have no interest in hearing about Jesus, but Spiritual Conversations in the Digital Age, Barna Group, 2018 12. 78% of the unchurched said they would listen to someone who shared what they believed about Christianity. LifeWay Research https://www.rotw.com/this-weeks-shocking-stat?mwm_id=313625897994 &gclid=Cj0KCQiAmfmABhCHARIsACwPRABGv5tBo4dnizuDUi6a2Eb-ec3rSb5xlS CDaRYack0O4Bnim9vb27oaAmgsEALw_wcB C. Everyone needs a reason to get up in the morning. 1. Christians have two: a. Our heavenly reason is Jesus. b. Our earthly reason is others. 2. OTHERS, LORD, YES OTHERS, LET THIS MY MOTTO BE, HELP ME TO LIVE FOR OTHERS THAT I MAY LIVE LIKE THEE. D. If we are going to finish well, we must realize that we have a service to perform and give ourselves to it. III. We must realize there is a testimony to preserve. A. One of the greatest sins today is the sin of ruining our testimonies. B. It takes a whole life to make a reputation, but only a moment to destroy it. C. If you have ever been hurt, broken, bruised, or crushed, by a Christian who soiled the mantle of Christ passed to them, then you know what it would do to others if you did the same. 1. The fact that you may have a. walked further with Christ b. served longer than others c. been more visible than most 2. only means that the hurt you cause to the cause of Christ would be more severe than others. 3. When you soil the mantle of the Lord, you build a wall for the lost and lay a stumbling block for the saved. D. When the devil comes knocking at your door, remember these four truths: 1. In the day you ruin your testimony, you will make it easier for other Christians to do so too. (You will become someones stumbling block.) Romans 14:13 Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brothers way. 2. In the day you ruin your testimony, you will dim the light of salvation to a lost world. 3. In the day you ruin your testimony, you hurt your children and grandchildren. a. If your children are lost, you just put up another roadblock to their salvation. b. If you are children are saved, you just set a stumbling block in their path. 4. In the day you ruin your testimony, you bring judgment to yourself. We are looking at the end time clock and wondering when Jesus will returnas ever generation of Christians should. But it really does not matter. It does not matter if Jesus comes in our lifetimes, if America rises or falls, or if a sickness sends civilization back to the Dark Ages. Those things will just influence the course we run. What matters is that we will finish the course. With 45 years in the ministry and 35 years as your pastor, I have desire to make it. I believe we all can. Will you?