Preoccupied With Jesus Christ The High Priest (Hebrews 3:12-19)

I've been your pastor for 20 years now. I know for some of you that seems like four decades.

And very interestingly, over the last 20 years, I've gotten a window into your lives.

And I've been there for weddings. I've been there for baptisms, special events and celebrations.

And some of you have come to me and said, I've been converted today. I've heard a message about grace alone, and God has opened my eyes.

I mean, what a thrill for a pastor. God's work doing its work in those who believe and those who don't believe.

I've also been officiating many of your loved ones' funerals. And on rare occasions, some of you have let me into the room where your loved ones have died.

I've been able to be there to minister and to pray, and those are special times. John Wesley said,

Christians die well. How is that? Is it true? Does that mean unbelievers don't die well?

I've seen many people die over the years, up close, those final last breaths.

And is it true that Christians die well? And if they do, why?

If they do die well, would you like to die well? Would you like to suffer well?

Would you like to go through trials well? John Knox, the great Scottish Reformer, was on his deathbed.

He was a preacher, and he had a hard time speaking. You'd hate to have your voice go if you were a preacher, but on his deathbed, he could barely talk.

And so he had someone who was attending to his needs physically, and that person wanted to know if John Knox still believed what he preached for all those years.

Do you still believe in this law -free Gospel, the question was asked? Where it's just good news,

Jesus kept the law, but now for you, it's simply faith in Christ Jesus. Are you still trusting in Jesus?

He couldn't talk, so the attendant said, just raise your hand one time, and that will tell me you still believe the same thing.

And Knox, wanting to affirm it, not just once, but twice, three times raises his hand.

I still believe that Jesus is the eternal God who died for my sins and was raised from the dead.

One of my favorite Bible teachers, J. Gresham Machen, he was in North Dakota, he was 55 years old, he went to a small

Presbyterian church, he got pneumonia, and he was on his deathbed. He had enough strength to dictate a telegram to his comrade, his friend,

John Murray, Westminster Seminary. And here's how the telegram ended. I'm so thankful for the active obedience of Christ, Jesus obeying the law in our place.

No hope without it. I'm going to entrust my eternal soul into your care,

God, based on the work of Christ credited to my account. Does it surprise you that people with a high view of God and a high view of Jesus Christ die well?

It shouldn't, for I'm already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the

Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but also to all those who have loved

His appearing. Who wrote that? The Apostle Paul, the last chapter he ever writes before they chop his head off as a martyr for the

Christian faith. And so when you think about dying well, or living well, or suffering well, or going through a trial or temptation well, what's the key?

What needs to be in the forefront of your mind? For Knox, for Machen, for Paul, and for many others, including

Jesus, it's a high view of God. Jesus is essentially on His way to the cross.

Well, He is on His way to the cross. And He says, Do you now believe?

Behold, the hour is coming. Indeed, it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave

Me alone. I am on My way to go die, and you are all going to run. Yet, I am not alone, for the

Father is with Me. Even our Lord Jesus gets comfort knowing that the

Father and the Spirit are with Him. How do Christians die well?

Well, how do they live well? And if you'll take your Bibles and turn to Hebrews chapter 3, we're going to talk about that again today.

The person and the work of Jesus, and then our response to Him.

These people here in the book of Hebrews were suffering. They were going through all kinds of persecution.

If you remember, even chapter 10, it says that they've endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated.

For you have compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.

So this man is writing a letter to Christians on how to live well, how to die well, how to think well.

And it's all about the person and work of Christ Jesus. Now, there are very varied paradigms in the

Christian faith. Here's a paradigm that you need to know. Maybe you already know it, but you just wouldn't articulate it with alliteration.

Guilt, grace. What's the third one? Gratitude. Knowing our guilt, our own sin, our own trespasses, our sinful nature, how we miss the mark of God.

We have great guilt. What are we going to do? We can't save ourselves. We can't get the monkey of sin off our own back.

Somebody's going to have to rescue us and save us. And if that rescuer were only a person who had justice and righteousness in mind, we would be condemned.

But we're not only full of guilt, there's someone who is grace incarnate. And Jesus, because He's gracious and because He's merciful, and of course the

Father and the Spirit are as well, His grace is greater than all our what?

Sin, or to use the alliteration, guilt. So if you know you're a sinner and you know

God has saved you from your sin, surely by His grace, nothing found in you, because if He looked in you,

He'd just see guilt. The answer to salvation doesn't lie in the person, it lies in the triune

God. And He saves you and forgives all your sins and guarantees you adoption into His family.

What's your response? What's the final G? Guilt, grace, gratitude.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow. When's the last time you just said, God, I know I deserve hell, but I'm going to heaven.

Thank you. I get heaven. Well, there's another paradigm that you need to work through, and that is theology leads to methodology, leads to what's the last ology?

Doxology. Somebody has taught you that, praise God. What you know about God leads to how you act, that leads to praise.

By the way, if your praise is off or your methods are off, go back to theology.

So what's happening in the book of Hebrews is this. Chapter 1, it's all about theology.

He's driving to a methodology. He's driving to practice. He's driving to application.

But there has to be things in your mind first. I'm sorry to do this to you, it's not my notes, but remember

Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke? The movie? Chain Gang?

It's like a father -son movie to watch, Cool Hand Luke. Plus, if you named your son Luke, what are you going to do?

This guy was rebellious, Paul Newman's character, so they just basically tortured him on the chain gang, and that prison warden basically said, you've got to get your mind right.

It's all about thinking to start. We want to do right away, and there's plenty of doing, but there's thinking to start.

Speaking of Luke, one time I said to my son Luke, you know, you did this and it was wrong and disobedient and sinful, this, that, the other, generally, and of course when you're a pastor, you don't want to say negative things about your kids, and I just did, but there's a reason why.

He's not here. And I said, Luke, you know, when they're little, this little, you don't say, why did you do something?

It's like the garden, what did you do? I didn't ask you why, I know why you did it, because you're a little viper, but not why.

When they're older, you ask, what did you do, yes, and why? Luke, why did you do that? And he looked at me and he said,

Dad, I wasn't thinking right. Okay, no spanking for you today, because you had a good answer.

You understood theology, methodology, thinking leads, and so the author wants you to know, here's who

Jesus is, he's better than angels, he's better than the prophets, he's better than the covenants of the Old Testament, he's a better sacrifice, he's a better sanctuary, he's a better high priest, everything about Jesus is better.

That will lead to the right methodology, but it's like he's not letting you up for air quite yet.

Sprinkled into this theological discussion, what we call Christology, if you want to know what Hebrews is about, it's about Jesus, Christ, the

Messiah, and L -O -G -O at the end of that word, Christology, Christ Logos, a word about Christ, theology about Christ.

Sprinkled in, there are some warnings, and here's the essence of really every warning, since there's forgiveness found in Jesus alone, since you're reconciled to God through Jesus alone, since you're redeemed out of the slave pit of sin by Jesus alone, if you turn your back on Jesus, there's no hope for you.

Baptism, circumcision, church membership, good deeds, I'm better than the other person.

If this is the only one, and he is, who's so preeminent, who's so exalted, who's so superior, there's salvation found in no other.

When you say, sorry, the trials are too tough, the persecution's too strong, the plundering of my house is beyond what

I could take, throwing dad into jail, I can't get over, if I just turn my back on Jesus, my life will be better, it'll go back to where it was.

If you do, there's a proverbial hell to pay, because it will lead tragically to that very place called perdition.

No matter what you do, as you see the exaltation of Jesus, and you know who he is, you know what he's done, if you turn your back on Jesus, there's no hope for you.

And so that's the essence of the book. Thirteen chapters of the exaltation of Jesus. First talking about theology, essentially the first ten chapters.

Then there's a hinge at the middle of chapter ten. Here's some outflowing of what you should do.

Don't be miserly when it comes to money, and don't want too much, and make sure the marriage bed is undefiled, and make sure you respect your leaders, and those kind of things.

But driving through as this theology to methodology, it ends in doxology, and sprinkled in five times warning passages.

And we're in one of those warning passages now. Hebrews chapter three, verses seven, and the warning essentially, let's just use the chapter break, goes through verse nineteen.

Do you see what happens in verse nineteen of chapter three? Do you see what the final, the essential summary is?

So we see, Hebrews 3 .19, that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

Israel, this mighty nation that God grows in Egypt, He rescues them out of Egypt.

He's going to take them to the promised land, but in the wilderness, they murmur, they grumble, and they had one summarizing sin, and that was unbelief.

So He's using that as a backdrop, like He regularly does. Temporally, Israel had this problem in the wilderness.

You now that are in the wilderness, don't you have the same problem? Use them as an illustration of what not to do.

You ever see those posters on people, you know, in businessmen's, businesswomen's offices, those motivational posters, and it shows some yacht skimming across the ocean or something?

I haven't looked at the site for a long time, but they have demotivational posters too, and those are very interesting.

I think it shows some ship that's getting wrecked, and it says something like, at least your life serves as a fitting reminder of what not to do, or something like that.

That was Israel. All those bodies on the wilderness ground, 600 ,000 men in the wilderness.

There are children. There are women. 2 million, let's say 2 million people in the wilderness.

40 years they were there. They're all dead, as an example. Don't be an unbeliever like them.

Let's see, 2 million, 40 years, 365 days. I did the calculation. That's 137 funerals a day.

When you see those bodies buried every day, you should be saying to yourself, it was because of unbelief.

Oh, they were disobedient. Oh, they were lawless. But it's because of unbelief. The worst sin in the world is unbelief.

People are saying on the internet now, in the news, there's a horrible sin that's prolific.

It is horrible, but it's not as horrible as this. Jesus, I don't believe what God the

Father says about you. I don't believe what the scriptures say about you. That's worse than any sin that's being touted on the internet now.

Chapter 3, verse 12, Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart.

Show me an unbelieving heart, and I'll show you a wicked, perverse, evil person, leading you to fall away from the living

God. But instead, the positive note, but exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. As it is said, today if you hear

His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. For who were those who heard and yet rebelled?

Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was

He provoked for 40 years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?

And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

My outline today is simple. Let me give you three exhortations, so that you keep believing that Jesus is the

Messiah. I'm assuming most of you are believing that, trusting in Jesus. If you don't, before you die, there's hope.

That means there's hope today. And today is the day that you should repent and believe on the Lord Jesus. But for the believers, let me give you the responses from Scripture.

At this church, we practice something called expository preaching. Think of the root word, expose.

I want to expose you to what the text says. The author has an intention when he writes this

God -breathed word. And so I want you to know it. I want you to see it in context. The opposite of expose is what?

Impose. You don't want me to impose what I think. Can you imagine if I get up today and say, this is what

God says, but it's really me? You need to run. That's a cult leader thing.

By the way, there's many reasons why I'm not a cult leader. One of the reasons is, look at the truck

I drive. Okay, there you go. No cult leader drives such a truck. Preaching is supposed to be, this is what

God's word says. And what you're supposed to do at the end of the day, after you have roast pastor for lunch, you're supposed to say this.

I understand that passage better now than I did this morning, before I went to the worship service.

You should not be saying, well, you know what? Mike is so clever, he sees things in the text that I can't see.

That's scary. You should say, I didn't see it before, but now I see it. That's the goal, because I want you to understand.

Because today is the day for you to understand, and to think rightly so you act rightly, so you glorify

God rightly. By the renewing of your, what does Paul say in Romans 12?

Minds. Because if your mind is captive, then your emotions are, and everything else will follow it.

Exhortation number one, take care. We looked at this briefly last week after the introduction. Take care, verse 12.

Exhortations to respond rightly to the superior Jesus, take care.

The point of the passage is the point of the sermon. The point of the sermon has to reflect the passage.

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living

God. When you start to distrust someone, it just breeds more distrust.

So instead of thinking, you know what, God doesn't care for me because of my bad circumstance. I have to think rightly.

Lots of times I preach to myself, I'm talking to myself, Mike, think rightly. Mike, don't do that.

Mike, stop that. Mike, you're an idiot. Mike, this is wrong thinking. Mike, think this way. Mike, Mike, Mike, take care.

And I'm not exaggerating when I say that. I regularly say that. I try to make sure nobody's driving next to me when I use my lips to say it.

But you go up to the waterfalls. We went to some waterfalls in New Zealand. Bridal Falls. And they've got these warnings.

Don't get too close. Why? Because if you're standing like this for a selfie, you're dead.

Warning. Take heed. We went to the beach. They've got more warning signs. Don't eat the shellfish.

They'll kill you. Duly noted. This must be a problem, otherwise he wouldn't address it.

Why does he keep, I think my father would say, harping on something, because it's important.

Because when you're stressed in that trial, there's trials that are general. There's trials that distress you, like Romans 8 says, that just squeeze you in and hem you in.

There's no way out. Doctors can't figure it out. No one else can figure it out. You're pressed in.

And so what do you do? If you're not careful, you might start distrusting, which is another word for believing or having confidence in who

Jesus is. In spite of what I see, I have to trust

God. Is this not like the Mount of Transfiguration? Peter, James, and John are on that mountain, that holy mountain, and Jesus shows the glory

He has on the inside, and it comes on the outside. He's transfigured. And then Peter says, even though I saw, even though I heard, there's something that's more sure than my own experience is what?

The prophetic word made more sure. Seeing Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration is an experience that was valid, but this is more true.

It seems like maybe God's not loving me because I'm buying into the ostinization of American Evangelicalism.

Everything should be pie in the sky, but I'm hurting. I'm struggling.

I have to wrangle my mind back to the Scripture because it is a problem. I have to say to myself, maybe with a tear in my eye, great is thy faithfulness, even though these issues are coming up.

The word take care, as I said last week, means to perceive with your eyes. So he's using this literal word, keep your eyes open, and it means something.

Keep your eyes open so that you don't drift down the stream of unbelief.

It's a present tense, and it's an imperative. Make sure you're careful. See to it constantly.

Take a look at Israel regularly as an example of unbelief and failure.

Now the more you study this, it's fascinating. He does it for a reason. Instead of calling them holy brothers like 3 -1, therefore holy brothers, he says here, take care brothers.

Maybe there are some people who are listening that don't really deserve that name, because they're going to turn their back on Jesus.

See to it. You could translate it that way. Lest there be in any of you, you can almost feel

Nathan's finger on your sternum, unbelieving heart leading you to fall away from the living

God. If you want to know what an evil heart looks like, in this particular context, it essentially manifests itself this way.

We've got the evil heart theologically, and methodologically it does this. I'll do what I want. I'll do what

I want. Instead of counting my trials all joy. Instead of trusting in God.

Instead of submitting. Instead of saying, I'll kiss God's rod. Instead of saying things like Job would say.

Though he slay me, yet I'll trust in him. The evil heart says, no. I'll do it my way.

I'll follow my own plans, my own purposes. And friends, you can see here, why unbelief is such a moral problem.

You have a friend at college. You think, you know what, their problem is an intellectual problem, because they don't understand evolution, and this and that, and all the different nuances of the

Bible, and sin, and redemption, and everything else. It's an intellectual problem. Friends, unbelief is a moral problem.

The fool has said in his heart, what? There's no God. So if your approach to apologetics and evangelism is simply rationalism, how's that working out for you?

It's a moral problem. He addresses this to every individual.

Take heed. Spurgeon said, you may go to hell heedlessly, but you cannot go so to heaven.

Every problem that leads you away from God has its origin, has its cause, has its foundation in unbelief.

No wonder in Hebrews, faith is so exalted. By faith Abraham, by faith

Sarah, by faith Moses. Faith is exalted because it has an object, Jesus, and unbelief is called wicked because it has an object, us.

Faith in ourselves. Did Bob Dylan sing that song in his saved album,

Everybody's Gotta Serve Someone? I think he did. I know you guys are really up on pop culture.

Hey, Alistair Begg quotes the Beatles every week, so get off my back. Not only does everyone have to serve someone, everyone believes in someone.

That's why for a lot of us, unrighteousness isn't the problem. We know licentiousness is bad.

But the problem is, self -righteousness, we trust in ourselves, even as Christians.

So when the vice comes and squeezes in, Kim and I were just putting something in the vice the other day, down in my father's old vice, just squeezing that thing.

Remember when I was a kid, we'd put our finger in there and see how many turns you could get. You're laughing because you all did it.

Then you'd have the imprint on your finger. Stanley. Your buddy would come by.

Squeezing in and you're getting squeezed. You're getting squozen. And the

Bible says the temptation is trust yourself. Oh, how could your

God let you go through that? Well, my God's a loving God. My God's a prosperity

God. Whatever it is, squeezing is coming. Then what do you do?

And so the author, he's a pastor. This is a sermon. He's exhorting. Sometimes he's very comforting.

Sometimes he's firm. Don't turn your back on Jesus. This is the firm one. Remember back in verse 11?

If you do turn your back on Jesus, what's the end game? As I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest.

Israel didn't make it into the promised land. And people today who turn their back on Jesus and don't keep believing, they end up in hell.

And God gives an oath for that, a divine oath. They shall not enter my salvation rest.

Look at the outcome of this awful unbelief in the end of verse 12, leading you to fall away from the living

God, to turn away. The languages of betrayal, desertion,

AWOL. There are people in the news today who have committed treason against America and then they've been pardoned.

This is that kind of language, to turn away. It's where we get our English word apostasy.

They have seen God in the wilderness make water come from a rock.

They have seen God in the wilderness provide manna from the sky. Double manna the day before the

Sabbath. They have seen quail provided by God within striking range to kill.

But they say, you know what? We're not going to believe you. We don't trust you. And the writer of Hebrews is saying, you've seen

Hebrews chapter 1, Jesus greater than angels. The eternal

God. The high priest in chapter 4, don't turn your back. And we're not talking about tradition or denominations or dead things.

Look at, to apostatize from the living God. I love to read the Bible slowly.

I actually love to preach slowly through books of the Bible too. Because how can I how can

I just bypass from the living God? That's in contrast to dead gods.

Gods that aren't gods. I've used the illustration so many times, but I don't really see false gods that often.

But if I go to certain restaurants, I see the little kitty up there. And I just think, dead

God. And I just see that that might be moving. But that's a dead

God. This is the living God. If God were just made up, try to get you through the night kind of thing.

But this is the living God. How can you turn your back on the living God? Hebrews 9 .14

To serve the living God. Hebrews 10 .31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a

Hey, if it's a dead God, made up God, God of your own imagination, no big deal.

If it's Bart's God, it's Tillich's God, it's Bultman's God, it's a liberal theologian's God, Rob Bell's God, no big deal.

But this is the living God. And the thing about the

Bible, I don't know if you've noticed this. As you read Proverbs, so let's say today is 19th?

So you read Proverbs 19. And then tomorrow it's 20. Many people do that. It's good advice.

Don't only read the Proverbs, but it's good advice. You pretty soon start seeing two people. You see wisdom personified and you see someone else.

What's the opposite of a wise person? A fool. And one of the characteristics in Proverbs about the fool is this.

They don't think there's an after. They don't think there's a tomorrow morning.

They don't say, you know what, if I keep going down this road, I'm going to go off the cliff.

When Kim and I and the kids were in Switzerland, I had a car and we rented it and we wanted to go up to the top of this mountain and take a little ride down in one of these little luge kind of things.

When there's no snow, what do you do? And so you sit in this little, what is it called? This little luge thing.

So going down. And so GPS is telling me to go up to the top of this mountain.

Well, there was a sign on there that had like skull and crossbones and an X and all that. And I thought that that cannot mean don't keep going this way.

Kim and the kids are like, Dad, well, I don't know Swiss German.

I don't know German. It's got some kind of cross there, but I thought it meant because it showed a horse, a car and something else.

I thought the cross meant all three shouldn't be on the road at the same time. I didn't see any horses.

So we start driving. GPS is showing it. Pretty soon people start looking at me meanly committed.

Got a luge roads getting narrower. I'm committed roads getting narrower.

I'm almost to the top. Finally, I said to a lady, do you speak English? Yes.

Am I supposed to be on this road? No. The fool says,

I don't really care where my actions lead me. And for the person that turns themselves, turn them turns their back on what the

Bible is talking about here. You're getting led right to the slaughter into the hands of a living

God. It's called apostasy.

There is an after sober words.

Yes. I don't have time to read it. I've read it several weeks ago. The living God refrain is found even in numbers 14 truly as I live, say to them as I live declares the

Lord, what you have said in my hearing, I will do your dead body shall fall in this wilderness.

There are lifeless idols. I'm not one of them. King Darius wrote to all the people's nations languages that dwell in all the earth.

Peace be multiplied to you. I make a decree that in my Royal Dominion, people who are to tremble and fear before the

God of Daniel, for he is the living God. Oh, Daniel, servant of the living

God. Since God is alive, run to him in faith.

Don't turn your back on him, no matter what he is. The living God. Today, our society thinks it's their right to be unbelievers.

Oh, that might be true in our society, but not before the living God. A side note here where it says to fall away from the living

God. This has nothing to do with lose your salvation. You can't lose your salvation. You didn't earn it. You can't lose what you did not gain.

This means you've seen everything about Jesus, and you say, you know what? Pressure's too much. I turn my back on him.

It shows that you were never a Christian in the first place. Number two, the second response is not just be careful, but encourage.

Here's the positive side. Verse 13, please. Here's the positive side to the negative exhortation of verse 12.

I want to keep believing. Any practical help, yes, take care, and now encourage.

But exhort or encourage, come alongside one another every day, as long as it is called today. Let's stop there.

Here's what I have coined this as. The missing verse in Christian counseling.

I've studied a little secular counseling, psychology, at University of Nebraska in the early 80s.

I've studied some integration counseling with Bible and secular psychology. I've studied

Newthetic counseling, which is, what does the Bible say to inform the mind? Newtheteo, news, the mind.

And maybe they have it in this last category, biblical counseling. The kind that we would teach here from the

Bible. Forget what Maslow, Skinner, you know, and all the others say. But I don't hear much about this verse.

In the middle of the trial, you have to ask yourself, can

I do this alone? The church, when she sees somebody struggling in a trial, should ask themselves this question.

Am I my brother's keeper? What's the answer? Here, what's he saying?

In all the context of unbelief, remember, in believing, exhort one another every day. This is the missing verse of Christian counseling.

Someone calls you up. I'm in a trial. My husband did this. My wife did that. My kids did this. My job did that.

My blood test from the doctor said that. What's the first thing you say to the people? What must you say if this verse is actually true?

And it is. Friend, loved one, keep believing.

Keep trusting in Jesus. The context is belief. And so he says, exhort one another every day.

This is not a dry, sterile context. Just encourage. Just say good things.

Way to go. I'm proud of you. You're my son. Wonderful. Here's the concept.

You're hurting. You're in a trial. Keep believing. When I first got diagnosed last year, somebody said to me, several people did, pastor, we know you're the pastor, and all that stuff, but God's faithful.

I just wanted to tell you that. And I said, thank you. I'm just like you, and I need to be encouraged.

That I'm the pastor means nothing in terms of I'm a person who I need to understand again.

God is faithful. God can be trusted. Don't only look inward, but look upward.

Grandma Evie, don't just gaze at your trials and glance at the Lord. Gaze on the

Lord and glance at your trials. I need to be told that. And when you have friends here in this congregation who are going through trials, what do you need to say to Dave Copper?

Praying for a miracle. Good. Maybe they'll find a cure in the next few years.

Good. What must be included in an exhortation in the middle of a trial?

Answer, Dave, I know you know God is good, and faithful, and sovereign, and holy, and omniscient, and omnipotent, and immutable, and gracious, and good, and full of loving kindness.

Keep believing in Him. Are you? That's what he's saying.

In the middle of a trial, Christians come alongside of other Christians and bear them up. Did we just not read that in Galatians chapter 6?

So when someone calls you and says, I'd like to meet, I'm in a crisis counseling situation, don't forget to talk to them about Jesus.

Well, make a to -do list and list all the attributes of your husband that are positive before you think about the negatives, or your wife, or this, that, or the other.

Okay, I understand that. How about you call me for advice from here on out. I'll try to do this to the best of my ability.

I'm going to talk to you about Jesus. So if you want encouragement, I've got some for you.

Jesus, you could tell people, persevere, don't give up.

There's light at the end of the tunnel. I found this online for how to encourage someone. The sooner you procrastinate, the more time you'll have to get the task done.

Took you a while. I know I'm changing gears here. Here's my style. I give you the heavy stuff, we take back a step, and then breathe, and then

I assault you again. That's how I preach. It's true. Guess you can't take assault the whole time.

Giving you all my secrets. If you drive twice as fast over train tracks, you're half as likely to be hit by a train.

What kind of advice is that? Bad advice. Friends, we walk by faith and not by sight, so we remind people the invisible object of their faith.

The word encourage means to come alongside of, to urge someone to take action or to think a certain way.

And it's a present imperative. Keep on doing this. Someone's in a trial, encourage them to keep thinking about their object of their faith.

And that's exactly what the writer of Hebrews did. These people are in a trial and he just keeps saying, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.

Even people in the Old Testament, Jephthah, Samson, they were all trusting in the Messiah to come. Dave Copper, keep running.

Dave Copper, don't stop believing. Dave Copper, don't turn your back on Jesus. Let me remind you who

He is. What He's done. This is the means to the ends.

The means to the end of eternal salvation, secured, is through encouragement.

The songwriter was correct. Prone to wander, Lord, I what? Feel it.

Prone to leave the God I love. And so we come to that Christian friend, brother or sister, and we say,

I know that. I've been there. I'm as weak as you are. But here's who Jesus is. Keep believing.

What are our options when we call people? You know, sometimes it's just nice to have someone to talk to and listen to your problems.

But the text doesn't stop here. You say, well, I like to send flowers.

That's how I encourage people. Great. I like to write a little note. Great. I like to talk about what that person has meant to me.

Great. There are so many ways you could encourage. But part of that encouragement, according to Hebrews 3 .13,

is don't stop trusting in the risen Savior. He's the living

God. And what does that do? Essentially, it moves all the discussion about me, myself,

I, my problems, my circumstances, on to someone else. Here's who

God is. Take a good long look because He's faithful when

He calls you. He's faithful to bring it to pass. I think too often we're helping people with behavior modification and things that they need to do instead of who they need to believe in.

And it's tricky. Does the text not say that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin?

How tricky sin is. How insidious sin is. How deceiving sin is.

And then exacerbate that with Satan, the father of lies. How could

God let you go through that? So we need the flip side where the Christian comes along and says, you know what?

God will never leave you nor forsake you. Friend, you're trusting in Christ, aren't you?

Yes. So I want you to know, friend, there's no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.

Probably the thing that has encouraged me most the last year, as I talk sadly probably too much about my own trial, is this.

While I might be weak, anxious, fearful, and the list goes on,

I've thought about Romans chapter 8 verse 1. My standing before God is not based on my response to a trial.

Because if it was, my response to the trial would have to be perfect. But my response to the trial, although less than perfect,

I'm still trusting in the God who says, there's no condemnation for you because Jesus has paid for your sins and He has given you

His righteousness and you stand before me as a son or a daughter. Sin's deceit is going to just turn me inside.

And I need to be told, you need to look up. I know there are people in the church going through troubles and trials and struggles.

Relationship issues and surgeries and medical issues. And I know many of you will get into some of those things in the coming year.

It's inevitable. We live in a fallen world. But congregation, would you do me a favor?

When someone needs counseling, would you talk about Jesus Christ and remind them to keep believing in the

Savior? Let's pray.

Father, I thank you for our time and your word. How wonderful it is to have

Scripture to rule and guide our minds. Exhort one another every day.

Father, would you help our congregation? I don't know how we're known in the community.

Maybe doctrinally sound. Maybe fighting error. Maybe preaching the Bible verse by verse.

Whatever it might be. I'd also pray, Father, that internally our church would be known for a church that reminds one another, especially in trials, about the

Lord Jesus Christ. For all doctrine that we study is about Him. For all

His great work, it's about Him, the person. He makes reconciliation.

He grants forgiveness. He sacrifices Himself. He loves us with an everlasting love.

He is the lover of our souls. He is the one who's been raised from the dead. He is the one who's coming back.

So, Father, help us not to be deceived thinking inwardly, but outwardly and upwardly for your sake.