Pastor Jonah Sage preached Hebrews 6:13-20. There is no pain so great that his grace cannot comfort, and there is no death so tragic that his resurrection cannot overcome. Lector: Meg Shaffer
Pastor Jonah Sage preached Hebrews 6:13-20. There is no pain so great that his grace cannot comfort, and there is no death so tragic that his resurrection cannot overcome.
Lector: Meg Shaffer
Christianity is a developmental journey from infancy to maturity
We’ve talked about the early years of faith being about milk, basic truths about God
Theology and doctrine, growing in the rhythms of faith like praying, serving, giving
We’ve talked about maturity as well, what it means to live on solid food.
As we grow, we begin hungering for more than information about God.
We’ll talk more about this at length in our next series, Divine Desire: The Hunger at the Heart of Every Human.
Divine Desire Artwork (shoutout Emily Dippie)
Grown up Christians cultivate communion with Christ, feeding on God’s presence
I want to talk about that transition period in between, though.
It’s really obvious when this happens to us physically, 11/12/13.
Your body basically screams at you “I’M CHANGING!”
By now, we have a general understanding of infancy and maturity…now we need to talk about the transition.
Let’s start at v. 13:
For example, there was God’s promise to Abraham.
-Hebrews 6:13
In Gen. 22, God promises to bless Abraham and multiply his descendants
Abraham has one son at this point, and right after this, he learns his brother just had 8 sons with his wife, and four others with his concubine.
Right after THAT, Abraham’s wife, Sarah, dies at 127 years old.
God gives a promise. Abraham is far from home with one child. How in the world will he have, as God said, “descendants beyond number, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore”?
Promise->brother has 12 children!->wife dies…and far from home, Abraham begs the elders where he is staying to sell him some land so he can bury his wife.
How would that series of events feel to you?
Here’s how Abraham responded:
Then Abraham waited patiently
-Hebrews 6:15
We now have what we need to understand what a season of spiritual puberty looks like
First, it begins with a promise from God. Abraham received that audibly…how do we receive a promise from God today?
If you’ve been receiving age appropriate nourishment as a baby Christian, you’ve been pouring over the scriptures for years.
THAT’S where we receive the promises of God.
Some will jump out at you, some will stir your soul and cast a vision for your life.
When you find that hunger, something to really run after…the transition has begun
Second, there will come a period of profound disappointment.
This can take many forms. Think of what Abraham endured
He watched someone else get what he thought would be his
He watched his wife die
He felt out of place as a foreigner, nowhere to bury his wife.
At some point in each of our journey’s with Christ, we will get the sense “this is not what I anticipated/wanted” and that will turn into some form “I don’t know if this is for me.”
Doubt will creep in. And here is where the options come in.
We can double down and keep trying to live on baby food…keep doing all the things that we had been doing, or we can wait patiently.
Listen carefully now. Times of doubt, fear, loneliness, frustration…these are NORMAL parts of faith, and are often the early indications that you’re ready for more
Maybe think of it like teething. Tough experience. Painful for child and parents.
But…we all know it’s coming, we know it won’t last forever, and we know we get to eat steak after, amen?
If you’re there this morning, take a deep breath. You’re OK.
Nothing is wrong, likely just the opposite.
We must come to expect and embrace these new challenges, because on the other side of them comes life more abundant and free than we thought possible.
So one last question to answer here…how do we do this well?
A big hope of this series has been to simply learn that it’s coming.
Maturity is coming, know the indications you’re growing up, expect it.
This will help us embrace these times, quiet some of the fear.
Beyond that, I have 2 encouragements for us to navigate the in-between well.
1. Trade your striving for trusting.
Striving is how we find our way as infants in Christ.
As we grow up, this gives way to trusting. Called it willingness last week.
What is it we trust exactly?
God also bound himself with an oath, so that those who received the promise could be perfectly sure that he would never change his mind. So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie.
-Hebrews 6:17-18
Trust your promise keeping God.
As we often sing, all God’s promises are yes and amen
Like Abraham, it will be hard to wait. There will be losses and confusion.
But if we want to get through that well, we must press on to trusting.
“I don’t know what you’re doing,” we pray, “but you promised me this, and I trust you to keep your promises.” That’s a great prayer.
As you experience the signs of growing up, trade your striving for trusting.
2. Look for God instead of answers
The mature Christian is asks “where are you” far more than “what are you doing”
In other words, they’re looking, actively seeking, evidence of God’s nearness
They pray to experience God’s presence, they read the scriptures to help them recognize God’s voice, they serve to find the face of Christ.
V. 18 shows us:
We who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us.
-Hebrews 6:18
Did you see the trust at the end? Confidence as we hold to the hope…that’s trust.
Holding on. Where have the mature gone to in these times of uncertainty?
They have fled to him for refuge. Do you see? They’ve run into a relationship.
They don’t hide in God’s promises or God’s truth or even God’s word…they take refuge in God.
When milk is what you need, the answers are so empowering, clarifying, and healing.
As your problems get more complicated, or as you see your wounds go far deeper than you realized, answers become insufficient. You need love, an embrace, a relationship.
At the funeral, you don’t want someone to come and tell you how your loved one died.
You want a hug, you want someone to tell you “I love you. I see you, I’m with you.”
So as we hit the middle years of faith, our disciplines, our faith, must be marked by fleeing to the presence of God for refuge. Look for God instead of answers.
This is the good stuff of faith, this is where real power and change comes from. Listen again how the Preacher describes it:
This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary. Jesus has already gone in there for us.
-Hebrews 6:19-20
Listen now. You and I live in a world of transactions…but that’s not the real world
In a world of transactions, you get what you pay for, you get what you deserve.
In a world of transactions, there are no guarantees, only a ceaseless jockeying for personal advantage (Long, 78).
I’ll give you money if you give me that thing only works until someone else comes and says “I’ll give you that plus $10 more…” do you see?
In a world of “look out for number 1”, there is no lasting peace.
There are no guarantees. If we don’t live in a world of transactions, where do we live?
You and I who call upon the name of the Lord, who flee to him for refuge, live in a place called the kingdom of God.
Did you see why we can go there? We are not high priests, we are not blameless and pure…but Jesus has already gone in there for us.
We enter at his invitation, and we rest on his promises. What’s the result?
He is for us an anchor for the soul. A great stabilizing force who always keeps his promises.
There is no pain so great that his grace cannot comfort, and there is no death so tragic that his resurrection cannot overcome.
All of life’s joys are for us but a taste of the pleasures waiting for us at God’s right hand forever, and all of life’s sorrows are for us a reminder of our Great High Priest who understands our weaknesses because he lived and suffered amongst us.
Look for God, the soul anchor available to us. Learn to view all of life as bread crumbs leading you to his presence
Pursue maturity in Christ, Christian, whether you’re ready for it now or will be soon.
Learn the rhythms of communion with Christ, that your hope may abound.
He’s never broken a promise, his guarantee is sure, which means you can abound in confidence.
You will. Not. Be. Disappointed.
Let’s pray.