Holding on to Hope

Our text today is from the Book of Hebrews—this book was written to Christians with a Jewish background who lived in the 1st century. They were tempted to give up, drift away, cash it in, quit, or retreat back to a form of religion that was safer, less suffering, less on the line, more familiar, and more predictable.

It's a book about endurance. Persistence. Keep going. Don’t quit. Hold fast.

The writer of Hebrews says...as the day approaches...there are a few things you should be doing. And not just doing but doing increasingly so as you see the day approaching.

While sacrifices are no longer necessary, obedience still is necessary.

1. Let us draw near to God–Hebrews 10:23.

• You should long to be with Him. There should be a desire to draw near to the Holy One.

2. Let us hold onto hope—Hebrews 10:23.

• He won't let us down. The one who promised is faithful. The way we hold fast to Him is by clinging to Him, who has promised. The source of our strength is Him. He is a promise-maker and promise-keeper. But you don't have to know every detail of God's plan to trust every Word of His promise. His promise can be trusted. Hebrews 6.

3. Let us spur one another on—Hebrews 10:24-25.

• Let us consider (be concerned with, pay attention to, fix our thoughts on, contemplate).
• Consider how we spur one another. The direct object of consider is one another.
• Consider how we can encourage each other toward love and good works. Matthew 24:9–13 (NIV).
• In the end, people will betray and hate each other. Instead of moving towards each other, we will move away. When people begin to hate and betray each other, wickedness will increase, and the love of most will grow cold.
• This is a warning for us. As the day approaches, humanity will tend to pull away from others, isolate, betray, and hate one another. The result will be that wickedness will rise, and love will grow cold.
• So we need each other. Why? Because the love of most will grow cold.
• Do we need to commit, plant, and root ourselves in and among a group of people to stir up love and good deeds in us? We are not meant to do life alone. No the language is stronger...we cannot do life alone. We know that. Since the beginning of humanity, we have known that. The first thing the LORD said was not good in the garden was not sin in Chapter 3...it was solitude in Chapter 2.
• ”Some Christians try to go to heaven alone, in solitude; but believers are not compared to bears or lions or other animals that wander alone; but those who belong to Christ are sheep in this respect that they love to get together. Sheep go in flocks, and so do God’s people."
• Individual Christianity is not Christianity. The New Testament does not provide one example of it. The early Christians understood that the greatest gift we have been given is the Church.
• We need people.
• Hebrews 10:24-25
• Encouragement flows in more than one direction.