The Courage to Go On, Soft Heart, Sure Steps

This is North Way tape number 549. This message, the second in a series on the book of Hebrews, was delivered by Pastor Jay Passavant of North Way Christian community on Sunday morning, October 5th, 1986. Hebrews chapter 3. Let's begin at verse 7 as we read, all right? So as the Holy Spirit says today, if you hear his voice, Do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion During the time of testing in the desert where your father's tested and tried me and for 40 years saw what I did This is why I was angry with that generation and I said their hearts are always going astray and they have not known my ways And so I declared on oath in my anger. They shall never enter my rest See to it brothers that none of you has a sinful unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God But encourage one another daily as long as it is called today So that none of you may be hardened by sins deceitfulness We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence We had at first Kind of sobering words The Bible says as the Holy Spirit says It's Kind of a good day for a sobering word though, isn't it? How much rain have we had this week? It just keeps coming and we haven't had as much as some other parts of the country When it starts raining you get a little confined and you can't do all the things that you're accustomed to doing outside running around So much sometimes it's it's compulsory meditation I was talking to a brother on Wednesday night at the meeting whose car broke down Just as he turned on the Fort Duquesne Bridge in the middle of the rainstorm last Wednesday afternoon And all he could do is sit there and wait for a truck to come and meditate on the goodness of God. I Wonder if you feel like I do sometimes and do you ever say it's just like this is what my whole life's like this Just one rainstorm after another Every once in a while There's a break in the clouds and I see a little sunshine and just when I get ready to go out and clean up and wash the car Another rainstorm comes in my life Well below that I want to talk to you this morning briefly because we do have communion to share this morning But I want to talk about going on when the rains come down moving on in a time of Resistance The courage to go on in God the courage to go on in reality the courage to go on to receive the courage to go on in obedience and in relationship I Talked with you last week, and I don't have time to reiterate. But remember I said that The New Testament Church is pictured in Old Testament Israel that's why the Old Testament is recorded so that we as As the New Testament Church won't make the same mistakes That Old Testament Israel made and one of them beloved is spelled out look at it with your own eyes in detail They hardened their hearts and turned in rebellion during the time of testing in the desert What do you do when the rain comes during World War two? There was a period in the history of London in the fall of 1940 when for 57 consecutive nights Imagine this now none of us were there. I don't I don't believe 57 nights in a row Bombers came from Germany 200 at a time Dropping 100 500 pound bombs on a city seeking to destroy 57 nights in a row relentless rain in The form of bombs the next morning after each bombing raid Winston Churchill the great leader of that nation could be seen sifting through the rubble Helping those whose homes have been destroyed or businesses blown apart And in the end as we know England not only survived But the United States came along and helped and the Germans were defeated and following VE day Churchill was asked what had he done? during those 57 consecutive nights of bombing Churchill replied that he'd retired to his bomb shelter underneath Piccadilly Square and there Underneath the intensity of a small little desk lamp. He had a map of Europe And he planned the invasion of Germany and you see it was the hope of going on and Conquering his greatest enemy in the midst of the rain that came in the form of bombs That inspired not only a man but a whole nation to survive and to overcome Beloved what are the circumstances that are raining down in your life today? They may be a broken marriage about to be destroyed they may be Endless nights of loneliness when no one understands there may be a rain in your life life today of disappointment. I Sense there are many here who are struggling with just Expectations that aren't met there may be rain in your life today in the form of physical ailments You know, it's awful to feel bad, isn't it? I'll tell you Monday. I either ate something or caught something or did something that just destroyed my inside. I Felt like I'd eaten the movie aliens I mean, it's just my whole insides was exploding and I was miserable and You know, it's just amazing how your thoughts turn to different things when you're just wiped out, isn't it? You realize I am so fallible. I mean in one day your whole life can change just like that, but you prayed for me I'm back glory to God What is raining on your life today? Well, one of two things will result According to the way that you respond to this rain And here's what I want to show you one of two things will happen while you're getting rained upon number one you will either Harden your heart as the Israelites didn't rebel you will either get hardened and hardened. I'll talk about that in a moment or you will find the courage to To go on and plan your strategy to defeat your enemy That you might get through the rain and receive The victory of God that he has for your life. I'm going to talk about those two things briefly right now when Circumstance when disappointment when frustration falls into your life The key to moving on is to not let your heart get hardened look down with me at the word today Verse 8 says do not harden your hearts verse 10 says Their hearts were always going astray verse 12 says don't have a sinful unbelieving heart verse 13 Don't be hardened by sins deceitfulness verse 15 Do not harden your hearts beloved. How many think there's a warning in those words? Anytime the Holy Spirit repeats something time after he's trying to get your attention. He's saying don't harden your heart Don't harden your heart Now what is it? What exactly does hardening your heart mean? Well a heart in your heart means that there is an increasing resistance in you to yield to the hand of God the heart in your heart means that there is an Increasing focus in you on you and not on God poor me. Oh God if you only saw how bad it was To harden your heart means that you increasingly grow in the ability to justify your situation and the way you're feeling about Well, I'm I'm unusually responsible in my company and therefore it's all right that things just keep pushing God out You see and we get hardened to the voice of the Holy Spirit less pliable less moldable less fashion fashionable in the hand of God Now beloved how many of you know that it doesn't take long for there to be a crust over your heart Never work with body putty that you use in a car years ago, I did that and Usually comes in two parts doesn't it David you have a sort of an inert matter That's like the plastic filler and then you have this other tube that says on it cream hardener You squeeze some of that in the body putty working in and Boy, once you put that stuff in there a chemical reaction happens to that inert material and it just over the next Really minutes and a couple of hours that that stuff that was very moldable you can push it into a hole and Fashion it over whatever you need to do and then start see if you get so hard You can you can sand it and it just crumbles and like dust. That's how hard it goes Well beloved our hearts are to be soft and pliable. We know the Bible says we'd have a heart of flesh But when we get in the reign of circumstance Some things just begin to squeeze hardness into us And our hearts begin to get like that putty they begin to get harder And a chemical reaction as it were in the spirit takes place and things start to harden in us Look with me hold your place there in Hebrews and turn back to first Corinthians chapter 10. I refer to this last week I want you to see a very Complimentary passage to the one we're in first Corinthians chapter 10. There we are My Bible is entitled in this chapter warnings from Israel's history I like that and here Paul writes and says I Do not want you to be ignorant of the fact brothers that our forefathers were all under the cloud and then he goes and talks about The Israelites leaving Egypt and he comes down to verse 6 now these things occurred as examples To keep us from setting our hearts on the evil things. They did or King James says what? Lusting I want to give you five heart hardener's Right write these down. Would you go ahead on the overhead five heart? hardener's These are the things that if you get into them while you're going through a trial You're going to find yourself getting crusted over toward the voice of God. Here's the first one. It's to lust now lust in our minds You usually means what? Sexual connotation. Well, I lost after a person But the Bible uses lust in a broader term broader sense. It means something that you want now The key to understanding lust is to see it as something that has to happen right now Whether or not God wants it right now Lust says I must have it now the Israelites were three days into the wilderness and It hadn't rained and they hadn't had any water and they were getting thirsty and they said now we've got to have a Where's the water Moses? Now I got a drink. I've got to have it now See lust says now Another hard hardener is idolatry Now that's a word that's can sound very religious But it means basically satisfaction in something other than Jesus. That's idolatry. Do you find? Your ultimate satisfaction in something other than Jesus you say well not really ultimate satisfaction, but there's other things I really enjoy. Oh, you know that it's very easy to let that something else you enjoy begin to push out Your satisfaction in Jesus. Do you know that ministry can do that? You know, I know I know men whose ministries have taken Jesus place Insatisfaction. I know people whose job though. They would never say this their job Brings more satisfaction than their relationship. I know people whose relationship to a fellow to a guy Brings more satisfaction than their relationship to Jesus and beloved that's idolatry That's 20th century that's putting something in place of who God is to be that will harden your heart You say well, how do I know if I'm in idolatry is identifiable by the amount of time you give to it If you're watching TV seven eight hours a day, that's becoming an idol in your life You against TV pastor. I have a TV. I Watch it sometimes But I know for a fact that it's an idol in many homes Christian homes. It's on all the time more important than knowing Jesus the third thing impurity Now the word there's a lot of different words that are translated impurity. This was the word porneia, which means fornication Paul saying you want to get your heart hardened. You just start messing around It is amazing how people justify their actions for the opposite sex God Drove he drew us together and we we were supporting one another I mean we we were life blood to each other and it was just sort of we couldn't help ourselves God understands we really love each other. I have to throw something in here. I forgive me Young people I watched a show a week ago Just maybe ten minutes of it on Saturday night Here's where TV is heading folks during this program a Single father single parent father Walks in the room and his his son's Lazily getting out of bed. He's as the story unfolds. You realize he's 15 years old has braces He's uh, he looks like a 15. He's well-casted for the part he's a little bit gangly and so when he gets up out of bed and he's stirring around and Dad said why are you so sleepy today? He says something like Dad it finally happened. He said what finally happened, you know, it finally happened Well, the interchange goes back and forth and the 15 year old son Shared with his dad that he had his first sexual experience that night before and it's just it's It begins to unfold. I know that's something right there, but then it goes on and the dad just begins to like Wow What things sure have changed, huh? I mean Was it good? Well, I mean you really cared about her didn't you and I'm just watching this, you know this is on regular network TV and see the issue became not whether or not it was right or wrong, but I mean it's the context son. I mean you cared about her and I guess that's all that really matters Times are changing up. You see there is such a spirit Loosed in our culture the Christians believers brothers and sisters believers beware Because we all can fall prey to that spirit of impurity and it'll harden our hearts number four Tempting God now beloved. There's a whole teaching over and over again The Bible says that that Israel tempted God and what does that mean? Well, that's a strange phrase, isn't it? It means this to tempt God means That you defy him to prove that his ways are right You in effect lift your fist and say prove it That's tempting Prove it. All right, you brought me out here in the desert. It's raining. I'll prove it And the Bible says that they did that over and over again. I read 13 times where they provoked God and their Wanderings in the desert and finally the fifth one. These are all in First Corinthians 10 6 through 10, by the way The fifth one is to grumble now if you don't do any of the other four beloved How many of you say that one's all right, you know, you got me on that one J. All right, you see the number one Way that the enemy begins to turn us against God is to have us complain and mumble and grumble If I get up another morning and it's raining God, I'm I'm getting out of here I'm going to Albuquerque Grumbling murmuring now listen, I'm joking about this, but you know, God takes murmuring very seriously Do you know that he said in numbers 1423 that because they just kept doing this kept murmuring kept complaining God said, all right No more You're gonna die right where you are There came a point when God said no more no more complaining and he cut him off You say well, you mean I'll lose my salvation if I complain about the meeting today No Your salvation is secure in Jesus, but beloved you'll begin to cut yourself off from the purposes of God in your life You'll begin to lose what God's ordained Those five hard hardeners beloved are out there And we encounter them all. So what should we do then? But let me just say this we need the courage To go on and not to have our heart hardened Paul warns over and over again in Hebrews He says don't do it And notice that he says back in Hebrews 8 or 3 8 rather. He says today today bill Not last week today Ron The Holy Spirit is speaking to us today You see this matter of hardening our hearts this matter of moving through the circumstances Isn't something we worry about a few times and then we get past it. It's today, isn't it? Do you know that every day there's a battle for progress or regression in the Christian life Every day, there's a battle you're gonna take a step forward or you're gonna fall back There's no neutral ground in the King Today and what do we do? What do we do to go on then? We all heard about Chernobyl How many of us heard about Chernobyl you heard that story? Who will ever know the details and not until God shows them all but it was it a disaster by anyone's definition a meltdown that Caused many lives to be lost and yet not too many of us know that some 25 years prior to Chernobyl a similar incident almost occurred in our country 1951 there was a young Navy lieutenant Who was trained in reactor technology and nuclear physics and he was? Asked to disassemble a reactor who that was beginning to experience a breakdown of its systems that had been designed to prevent it from melting through and There was some radiation escaping from the core And even though this young Navy lieutenant understood that he risked in his own life the effects of radiation sickness Sterility and even death He listened to the orders obeyed them found the courage to go in and head the team that disassembled that reactor He survived and became the president of the United States His name was Jimmy Carter. He demonstrated in that incident the courage to go on when Circumstances would say get the heck out flee Turn your back. How do we find that courage? What do we do? How can we press it? Well, here are two reasons that the scriptures give us look with me in verse 13 Paul begins in verse 12 by saying see to it brothers. He's appealing to them as brothers in the Lord But none of you as a sinful unbelieving heart that turns away from the Living God in verse 13, but encourage one another daily How often everyone? Say it again Daily there shouldn't be a day when you're not in fellowship. There shouldn't be a day when you're not touching someone in Jesus There shouldn't be a day that goes by that you don't connect with another believer and share the Lord not just say well Let's go, you know Hit softball together, but but talk about what God's doing while you're playing softball Connect every single day. The first thing we need to do beloved is to see we can encourage one another the day of the Lone Ranger Christian is over Who is that masked man? There's a silver bullet left on your chair. I'll know we're in trouble but listen, I've said that half-jokingly, but you know one of the byproducts of the charismatic movement and multiplied with that the great glut of media Teaching and availability is the fact that many people float from place to place They just they're floaters. They They love God But they don't want anybody to become their Covering they want to decide when they're going to go and what they're going to go to and all the rest I'm here to say to you today beloved. The Lord is saying come out of that kind of lifestyle Get yourself into a church We want you to if you don't have a church make this your church be in a place where you know you're going to be cared for and covered and encouraged every day We pray every single day here at Northwood our elder Gene Rink was leading a prayer meeting this morning Every morning you can come and pray and get encouraged To go on in your walk in Christ You know the number one by the way, the number one characteristic of cults and the cult leaders Cult leaders are isolationists every cult leader separates himself from a ring of people so that They can be autonomous Autonomous that's the key you see to isolating yourself and then becoming your own authority. Well, the Bible says that's not the way we're to be we're to encourage one another every day and secondly, then Look at verse 14. We come to share in Christ If we hold firmly to the end the confidence we had at first Beloved I'm talking here in this final point We find the courage to go on When we grab hold of who Christ is in our life when he We partake say partake with me. Would you partake of who Christ is? I could not think of a really adequate analogy of what it means to partake of Christ I Thought of a heart transplant You know, it's one thing for you to have your heart massaged and you know Or maybe a regulated they have regulators they can put on your heart and sit, you know, people have the colors Pacemakers, right? That's one thing. It's another whole thing though to get somebody else's heart in That's an idea of what it means to be, you know imparting life But even that falls short you see Jesus wants us not to get better not to try harder Not to be super Christian, you know, we don't get up in the morning and look at the mirror said here we go I'm gonna go get him today because I'm powerful He just wants us to Receive an impartation you can only give if you receive first You can only go on if you receive the strength to do it. You can only get out of the ring If you receive the power To do it now look at these scriptures This is a hidden word and you won't get it unless you ask the Holy Spirit to open your eyes to it We have come to share in Christ that is the word partake in the Greek to share in Christ means to partake If only we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had it first. What is the confidence we had at first Pat? What is the confidence we had at first? Think about When you first came to Christ, what was the confidence? What was it? What was it? The confidence was that God could do for you what you couldn't do for yourself. Is that right? The confidence was that you couldn't save yourself You couldn't get out of your mess, but God can get you you couldn't make it on your own but God could Well, if we hold that confidence to the end, you see that's what Paul's saying go back to that confidence What he's saying is to partake in Christ means to have faith in the grace of God To have faith in the grace of God now I hope I sense that some of you are just going over your head, but I trust listen. Let me say it again To be able to get through the rain to be able to get through the discouragement To get on into the realities of God you have to have faith in the grace. You've got to draw on the grace It's in Christ Jesus, you won't be able to make it unless you do I Had a sentence here. Would you put that up, please Shane? Grace can never resist faith In itself that should be grace can never resist faith in itself Remember the story of the Sarah Phoenician woman in Mark chapter 7 Here was a lady that came and her daughter was sick and she didn't know what to do. Remember the story and She came to Jesus and she said Jesus Heal my dog and Jesus said something that we we consider to be cruel. What did he say? he said I've come to the Jews and you know, she was considered a Samaritan dog as it were he said I've come to give bread to the Jews and then The lady responded back but even the dogs eat the crumbs from the master's table now, what did that do? Well, you see that showed Jesus that she had faith in his goodness That she saw her condition. She says I'm no I'm no better than a dog But I know God that you're gonna make me And Jesus said I can't resist that kind of faith. You've been healed your daughter said go ahead now beloved That is what God said See your condition and say God help me Let me Receive Christ today. What do we do when it rains in our lives? What do we do when the circumstances want to dry us out and in terms of separating us from God? Well, we either harden our hearts or we draw in the life of Christ We're gonna do that right now. Let's close up our Bibles Let's draw right now in the life of God, let's turn to grace and Receive provision in our time of need right now bless the Jesus beloved as we come to communion. I know of no better picture No better picture of what it means to partake in God than to have communion together. Let's borrow Thank you, we're gonna commune together church, we're gonna commune we're gonna partake of God together The Lord instructed me to do one thing before we start this time of communion Lord showed me that there would be many who are going through a time in their life of feeling like Rain was just falling all the time and as it were bombs were dropping in your life You were things weren't falling apart around you, but the Lord said that first of all before we partook before we Received that we needed to confess I Wonder right now do we need to confess? We need to confess that there's something in our lives that are hard that's hardened toward God Have we allowed some of those things to harden? Before we receive communion. I'm just gonna invite you to come right up here at the altar and say God I want to lay this down. I've been hardened in my heart or I've been I've been struggling God I've been resisting you or I just haven't been finding you Lord, and I know it's been a problem in my life. I Just want you to come before we have communion I want you to come and give you the opportunity to say before God Lord right here right now. I Confess my need I repent of my heart. I want my life to be changed Lord is let's stand together and exalt him. His name is Jesus. Let's stand and sing Ferris Oh Oh He Open your hearts my children and my power can be fully released body of believers Remember I said profess with your mouth and believe in your heart that I am Lord You must accept my authority or be like unto a ship without a rudder select me now in love and My love will flow to you like living water. I'm gonna wait a few more moments God help us if the church we don't see our own condition We think God doesn't see what we think inside how we feel how we act We think we can go through motions and please God how wrong we are But his mercy and love is calling out to us now, but we've got to confess our need church got a humble ourselves We've got to say God. I know what my condition is and I repent I Just present myself I'm gonna call for one more time to come up and say God. I Need you to touch my life. I Need you God My heart's been hard Not sensitive to your voice The Lord will meet you I Just would pray for each of these Obedience ordered by faith have stepped out of where they were And I pray for the power of God now to meet them where they are What I pray you to honor them in their humility right now And God that you say that when we humble ourselves you will exalt us Meet them father speak to their inner man or let them know deeply God That you're drawing near to them right now father, and I just thank you for their hearts Lord, I sense that each one will have an anointing of God on their lives That they'll notice is significantly different from this point Lord bless them as they come to present themselves to you Oh, I thank you for them Jesus Glory to your holy name Oh father Lord Praise the name of Jesus Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Just go ahead now When we turn to your seats those of you came up as you receive communion now those of you came up especially The Lord is going to be ministering life to you. The impartation of God is going to come into those you may all be seated Would you please bring the elements up front, please? I'll pray over these elements Beloved Jesus said that we must eat his flesh and drink his blood This is the nature of impartation One died for us that we all might live It's no longer we that live Christ lives in us This is the bread of life Father we receive now these elements Lord and for every humble and contrite heart where I believe that impartation will take place or to persevere in difficult times To go on through to receive reality father to have all that you want them to have in the powerful name of Jesus Bless each one with the Lord. I meet their need in Jesus They go ahead and go ahead and partake when when you're led to do so you don't need to hold the elements just partake when You're led to do so What I hold is the cup of the new covenant which aren't you grateful today for a lot of Jesus It means to me today that no matter what I've done Where I am I can start fresh, right? It means that no matter how difficult It may be the blood of Christ I'm joined with God through the blood of Christ As we commune and share this blood together May there be an impartation The power that's in that blood the power of the blood of Christ Usher's would you bring up cups, please and we'll pray for them to As you receive your cup and what I'm going to ask you to hold your cup and we will all partake together of that Now father we receive these elements as having your Life Oh God that imparted to us in and we set them apart. We set apart this this cup right now The name of Jesus God we pray that it would be to us the very life of God Lord communing with our father And knowing that Jesus Christ in dwells us and That he is sufficient for our healing. He is sufficient for our restoration. He is sufficient for our provision Through all those things Lord, even as we partake now of Christ as we hold firmly our confidence in your goodness in Jesus Go ahead and take your cup and hold it and we'll partake together Need to share with you as you prepare to take this cup the Lord Impressed me all week Healing is going to be present here today And I more I just went through the week and more confident I was I need to share that even though we haven't had Ministry for healing as such I'm believing that as we partake of this cup a number of you who are sick I want to encourage you to receive the cup Worthily that is to say give God look to God to fulfill the power that's in the blood Toward you and he's going to heal many of you right where you are Healing is going to break forth right where you are as you partake of the cup. Let this be your confidence In his goodness The cup of the Lord Jesus let's share Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh God we lift our voice Describe to you the glory and the power and the honor the majesty that's due your name this morning. Oh, Lord We pray Lord is now we just begin to assemble together father for the purpose of praise and worship For the purpose of being with God in the presence of his people Lord that you would now begin to move upon us for and have it our praises Being all that we do and say together Lord in the name of Jesus everyone said Amen Would you do something for me? Would you meaningfully and by that I mean more than just perfunctorily look at one another say hi, but Turn to one another and greet one another and tell them something about how you felt this morning when you woke up Go ahead and greet somebody in Jesus name If you're still coming in this morning, why don't you come on toward the center we have Mucho empty seats right in through here and to my right You can be seated by the way It's gonna take it's gonna take us an hour and a half now to to undo The chains that we've just described or what we felt like when we got up this morning. I Felt really good until I looked outside On your way out this morning. The ushers at the doors will have your North Way news for September in October Be sure you pick that up today How many women are planning to come to the women's ministry luncheon this week did you put your hand up women's ministry luncheon They'll be sharing with you The art of forgiveness and inner healing and there's babysitting and there's lunch and I've seen it and it's good You can sign up for the women's ministry right behind us here Charlie are you here this morning Charlie back? Charlie's not here this morning, but this Tuesday night. Have you seen did you see the sign on the North way? The North way sign a route 19 Are you interested in finding a job you can love? Art Miller, I believe authored the book finding a job. You can love will be here Tuesday night at 730 and Let me just tell you that is that will be a worthwhile Experience if you can come and hear art Miller His ministry and and and Priority to it's such an impact on my life I know when I was changing careers and when I wasn't sure if I was where I was supposed to be So you can blame it all on them finally leadership those of you who Consider yourselves or know that you are a part of leadership in this body those who know that you have a call on your life Be a part of leadership. How many of you are planning to come this Saturday at 8 o'clock to that time? Do you put your hand up, please the leadership meeting this Saturday morning at 8 o'clock? We did not put anything in the North way news or notes this morning But if you know that God is a call on you be a part of leadership here You're invited to that time from 8 o'clock to 10 o'clock this Saturday morning I'm excited about today One of the reasons is because we have a room here full of ministers You know Ephesians 4 tells us That we are to equip the Saints for the work of the ministry So as we prepare our hearts right now, would you just extend your hand to the one on your left and right? Let's pray for one another God we thank you that we are called to be ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ How we ask now in Jesus name that you would allow your anointing to fall on this body of believers on this body of ministers Lord That throughout this morning we would minister in power. We would minister the life of God in wisdom and with discernment father we pray that the word that would come forth this morning would enter our hearts and Make our feet quick and ready To be the ministers that we are called to be in Jesus name everyone said Amen, glory to God. Thank you the day that Jesus was arrested Brought before Pilate it was then the Procrea