Mpt-unbelief kept our forefathers from receiving their promise of rest and if left unchecked, unbelief will Also derail our hope and promise of salvation and rest.

Hebrews 3:7-19

Rest and unbelief. Part 1

*1 We must check our heart

Verses 7-12

• • Talk about the 40 years
    • Miraculous escape
    • Manna and water
    • Promised land
    • Unbelief despite God’s presence

• Hardened hearts

• Hearts and heads

• • God’s reaction was real and there were consequences
  • Rest for them
  • Verse 12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God 
    • transitions it to us, His new testament people
  • We too have a rest
    • Matthew 11:28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

• Any of you, fall away

• • This warning is for “believers”
  • Those of us who have heard the voice of the holy spirit

• They were to believe that God was faithful to His promise and His commandments worthy of obeying
  • What is God calling us to believe and have faith for?
    • Salvation
    • His faithfulness
    • His living Godness
      • Healthy doubt
        • Matthew 7:7 7“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.

**2 We are responsible for and depend on one another to encourage our faith

12Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 

• But

• Exhort on another (In the Lord…)

• • Uplift on another
  • Stir up one another, 
  • Strengthen one another
  • Energize one another
  • Revitalize, hype, gas
• Not an island
• We are commanded and compelled by the holy inspired word of God to do this
  • Church family
  • Quit the football team
  • Even Jesus got His crew when He was struggling
  • James 5:16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
  • Counter cultural for us as Americans, but this is kingdom culture
• When are we told to do this?  Cada dia!
• What does this look like?
  • Phone call
  • Text message
  • Letter
  • In person (I guess?)
  • “I’m checking in on you, how you doing spiritually?  Hows your walk with God going?”
    • Positive response, not, nunya
  • Whenever one of my sons gets in trouble, he’s not the only one getting called.
    • Where were you, you let him do this, what did you say, did you intervene?
    • These are the questions the Lord will ask us about our brothers and sisters that fall away

***3 The destructive power of sin can lead to unbelief

12Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 

• Hardened

• • No longer sensitive to God
  • No longer a heart that beats for God
  • No longer a heart that seeks to please God
  • A heart that is done.
• How does this happen?  By the deceitfullness of sin
  • Deceifulness, the deception, the delusion, the trick of sin is that something is better than God and/or my perception is better than Gods
  • The more we choose sin, the harder our heart gets, until we are completely deceived and fall away
  • It may look like the children of israel in our story today
    • They continued to complain and murmur because their perception was that God wan’t faithful, whether it was food, water, or winning a war
      • They were deceived because God had proved that He was faithful to provide and preserve them.  It was this decietfulness that hardened their hearts to the point of losing the promise
    • The decietfullness of sin that hardens our heart may also look like us choosing sin consistently until our hearts have become cold and hard
  • When thoughts of unbelief rise
    • Flesh and satan
    • Not checking it until we believe it, this is deceit
    • 2 corinthians 10  4For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,

14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end

• Saints, this is the dividing line.
• If indeed you hold on to the faith it proves that you have come to share in Christ
  • You will be tested
  • You will battle unbelief
  • You will battle against sin in your life
  • You will battle for faith in God 
  • You will at times like David in Psalms say, God are you there or not!?
  • But. You will not be hardened. Your heart will continue to be His because true Christians persevere.
    • 1 Corinthians 15:1-2 1Now I would remind you, brothers,a of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
• This is why this text is so important.
  • I want all of us to be the first part of this verse.  We have come to share in Christ
    • The proof of whether we have come to share in Chist is our perseverance and continued to faith and belief in God no matter what
    • We will noT forfeit the promise of rest
    • We will not forfeit the promise of salvation
    • We will not forfeit the promises given to us for this life or the one to come
• 4th and final What are our responses to this warning?

1. Let us examine ourselves, verse 12, take care, brothers, lest there be in you an evil unbelieving heart
2. Repent, because there is some degree of unbelief there either now or in the past
3. Begin practicing the discipline of exhorting one another daily
   1. Ask the the question, Hey bro, hey sis, where you at with the Lord right now
   2. Grandad, still holding on
4. Repent, confess, and stop any sin in your life.  This is “that sin” or that “reoccuring sin” that, “God is going to have to just forgive me because I’m not giving this up sin”
5. Strengthen your own confidence in the Lord by being active in His word

Sermon Outline on Hebrews 3:7-19