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The video is not an excuse for husbands to go out and buy a Corvette. Just so you know this morning. But have you ever considered, um, how much we need each other? We talk about the idea of overcoming and what it means to overcome in Christ. How important we are to the lives of one another. We’ve been studying a series together about overcoming and the beginning of this series. We looked at what it meant for us to overcome obstacles in our life as individuals overcoming our past, overcoming broken relationships. Last week, we started to ask the question, what does it mean for us to overcome collectively as a group in Christ? We understood that God has taken us down all sorts of avenues and paths in our lives and and the requests and and the begging of last Sunday was that we don’t give up in the midst of adversity. That even in the darkest moments, God has a place for us to shine brightly for him, and we overcome the obstacles which partake of our lives. We can overcome those with experience in Christ as a way to encourage others that we meet who are going through dark storms as well. We saw Pastor Eddie as he struggled with having Lou Gehrig’s disease, and how God has even used that rather than give up on life, as he shared last week, God has used him to encourage the lives of other people as they face similar circumstances.
Overcoming with our experience. It’s also important as we think about overcoming that we seek to do it together. And I think in life, one of the things that we want to know more than anything else is that somebody cares about us. I think when God designed us, he designed us for relationships. It says in Genesis, he breathed into us his spirit, different than any other creature in this world. He gave us the ability to communicate with him through that spirit. God created us to relate to one another. He tells us when God made Adam, he said, it’s not good for man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him. And he made woman more than anything else in this world. I think that what we desire to know is that somebody cares. We looked at a theme verse as we’ve gone through this series together. This is the last message of overcoming, and it came from First John chapter five. It’s where we get the word Nike. If you wondered what that was all about, it says for whatever is born of God overcomes, which is Nike or an extended version of the word Nike overcomes the world and this is the victory or the Nike. That’s the country version is Nike the Greek? It’s Nike right? We win the K, we have the victory that overcomes the world, which is our faith. Jesus gives us hope, a hope that although our past may brought adversity for our lives, Jesus gives us a bright and glorious future and we are victorious.
Or we have Nike in Christ. We are conquerors in him. And so we begin to ask the question, what does it mean for believers to live in overcoming victory with Jesus? I think of in the Old Testament what I would call a warrior for God. It was a man by the name of Elijah. If you read in First Kings in chapter 17, there’s grand stories in which are being conducted in the life of Elijah through the hands of God as God ministered in Elijah’s life. Elijah prayed and rain stopped for three years. Elijah brought a young man back to life when he had died. Elijah goes before all thousands of false teachers, and he presents to him the truth about God and he. He takes an altar and he soaks the altar with with rain or with water. And then he throws the sacrifice upon the altar. Then he prays from heaven that God would come down and consume this altar, and it just explodes in fire. Elijah saw glorious things that took place by the hand of God. You know, what’s interesting is you see all these wonderful things that God is doing through Elijah. When you get to chapter 19, you hear an exact opposite attitude of what you would expect from a man who’s seeing these things happen from God. It says in 19 and verse four, but he himself went out.
A day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree, and he requested for himself that he might die, and said, it is enough now, O Lord, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers. Goes on in verse ten and verse 14 he says the same thing. I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the sons of Israel have forsaken your covenant, torn down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left, and they seek my life to take it away. All these glorious things that Elijah is seeing done by the hand of God. And Elijah comes to this point in chapter 19 and says, God, just take my life and you’re left with a question, why would someone request such a thing? And the answer is, is because Elijah felt all alone. Elijah grew up in the nation of Israel, and he saw his people continually rejecting God and following after false gods. So much so that when someone stood for the Lord, their life would be ended. And Elijah was walking this world lonely, reminding us of how important we are to each other. And God says to Elijah, his response comes in verse 17. It says, it shall come about. The one who escapes from the sword of Hazael, Jehu shall put to death, and the one who escapes from the sword of Jehu, Elijah shall put to death.
It’s a different Elijah and Elisha. Yet I will leave 7000 Israel all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him. So he departed from there and found Elijah. God’s response to Elijah’s loneliness was to bring people into his life who were pursuing the same goal as him after God. We are important to one another. You know, as you study scripture, you begin to notice a theme that is men serve the Lord. God brought people along to encourage them. Moses had Aaron. Paul had Barnabas and Saul. David had Jonathan. Naomi had Ruth. Jesus had his disciples. Elijah had Elijah. All of us encouraging one another throughout Scripture. Because God knows as people we weren’t designed to be alone. And as we look at the life of Elijah and we consider our own lives, the question we ask this morning is how can we overcome together? How can we, as a church family, be of assistance into each other’s life as a source of encouragement and overcoming and living in victory through Christ? Point number one this morning, if you brought a Bible with you, I would encourage you to turn to the book of Hebrews. It’s halfway through the New Testament Towards the end of your Bible in chapter ten, God begins to define for us how we can overcome together through Christ. The first message that God shares with us is that you are not alone.
The first encouragement that we need in our lives when we feel isolated, when we feel like we we can’t overcome the obstacle in front of us, is to be reminded that we are not alone. In fact, when you read through the book of Hebrews, it’s a it’s a grand teaching of everything that Jesus is in our lives. He starts in chapter three and he reminds us of the Old Testament. He says, do you remember the life of of Moses and all the glorious things that came through the law and the temple that was built, and all the glorious things that came through the the worship that took place. Do you remember those things? As the writer of Hebrews dictates, and the response is, yes. And then he says, well, Jesus is better. The Bible tells us that Jesus never held the Aaronic Priesthood because Jesus was never born of the tribe of Levi from the son of Aaron. It’s impossible unless you’re born from the tribe of Levi and the son of Aaron. But what Jesus held to was a greater priesthood. It tells us in Hebrews chapter seven that Jesus came from the Melchizedek priesthood. And as you read in chapter seven, what you find significant about the Melchizedek priesthood is that it can’t be passed from person to person, that that the person who possesses that priesthood has no beginning of days and has no end of days. The only one that can be measured in that way is Christ himself.
Rather than have to go to the Old Testament form of sacrifice, Jesus became our High Priest other than go to the temple and have to come before the the temple and place an altar of sacrifice upon the altar, and and sprinkle its blood upon the mercy seat. Jesus became that sacrifice for us, sprinkling his blood on the mercy seat for our lives. It was a greater priest. And throughout Hebrews continues to remind us that we are not alone because Jesus is always with us. It says in verse 14, excuse me, Hebrews chapter ten and verse 19 therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter in the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he inaugurated for us through the veil that is his flesh. And since we have a great high priest over the house of God, rather than depend upon a man to make sacrifice for us in the temple, we now have Jesus who has done it for us. It says in verse four, therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weakness. You see how significant that is. Is it important for our lives when we go through dark times to know that there is someone else who’s experienced that with us.
To know how deeply our hearts have grieved when we experience the the loss of something that we’ve had to endure. And it says Jesus, by taking on flesh and coming to the cross, he is sacrificing himself for every loss that’s existed upon this world. Jesus knows suffering. He’s saying Jesus doesn’t just sympathize with your weakness. He empathizes with it. But we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are. Yet he did not sin. In verse 16, it goes on to say, let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. It goes on and says about Jesus, therefore he is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through him, since he has always lives to make intercession for them. In 12 three it says, consider him who endured such opposition for sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Not only is Jesus a reminder to us that he is always with us, but we can look at him as an option, an opportunity to realize that just as Jesus overcame whatever opposition faced his way, we ourselves can also overcome through Christ. We overcome together by reminding ourselves, you are not alone. Jesus is always with you. But he goes on in Hebrews chapter ten and verse 24, he reminds us, as Jesus is always with us, as Jesus has promised to be our High priest forever.
He says to us as a church family, let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds. A reminder is just as Jesus is always with us, God’s community is always with you. Have you ever been in an in a position in your life where the the storm seemed brighter than the solution? That moment of darkness seemed much bigger than any strength you had to muster to overcome. And Jesus is saying, it’s not only important that you understand that I am with you, but it’s also important that you understand that church family is with you. And so he says in verse 25 to us, not forsaking our own assembling together as the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near. God’s desire for us in coming together serves a purpose that we take the opportunity to actually encourage one another. God’s desire is for us to begin to meet, not forsake, the assembly together, but to understand. We face obstacles in our life and we need to know that someone cares about us. In fact, when you read first John chapter four, this verse is incredible. It says no one has seen God at any time. Yet this is a great part. If we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
God is saying to us, listen, your relationship with me is not based as an individual. It’s about us. And if you really want to experience God’s love together, it’s about getting together as us and seeing God’s love perfected in collectively God’s church. You can’t forsake the assembly if you want to understand and know and grow with God, get together with his church. We pray to God often times for miracles to work in our lives. But you know, the most miraculous thing and the greatest way God chooses to work is in the life of people. It makes so much sense, and everything that God created, we were the ones given his spirit. We were the ones that God desired for us to draw near to him. And so God is the one who miraculously works in our lives. And so when we talk about wanting to know God to the greatest depths, this verse is saying to us, draw near to one another. Get together. Don’t forsake the assembly and begin to love. And in loving one another you see the love of God manifested in your lives. The way for us to overcome is for us to understand we are not alone. If we go on in Hebrews chapter ten and we we look in verse 21, God describes, we saw in verse 19 to 21 about Jesus. And we saw in the end of verse 24 and 25 that God’s need is for his church to get together.
But I want to talk for just a minute about the meet in between those two passages that unite. He says, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart. Keep in mind as we go through these verses, just pay attention to the first few words of these following verses. It says, let us draw near with a sincere heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Verse 23. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near. As we assemble together God’s desires for us to think about us, to not think about individual self, but to think about community. We come to church on Sunday. It’s not always about what I’m going to get today to encourage my life. And I hope you’re encouraged when you when you leave today, I hope you find a desire within your heart to pursue after a relationship with God. But it’s also about walking in the doors and looking at the needs of people and asking God, how can us, as people grow closer to you and encourage each other? And in verse 22 to 24, Paul focuses on three big words that he continually talks about in Scripture.
Verse 22, he says, we encourage each other in faith. In verse 23 he says, we encourage each other in hope and in that faith and in that hope. In verse 24 he says, now let’s consider how to stimulate one another to love. Paul focuses on these three aspects because they are important to a growing life with God and to encouraging one another. Paul says in first Corinthians 1313, abide in faith, hope, and love its pillars to the belief of of life, its foundation to the truth in which we pursue. In fact, in in verse 22, when he talks about the word faith, it means truth or credence. In this sense, he’s saying there is a core pillar of foundation in your life in which you should hold to. In fact, we just ended a series called, I believe, going over what the core of Christianity is all about. The pillars in which the church has stood for since the time of Christ. And Paul is saying to us, this truth is important. What you believe is important because it will dictate how you choose to respond and live. And so Paul tells us in verse 22, when we gather together, because we we know what Jesus has done for us, let us draw near with a sincere heart and full of assurance of this truth.
This faith has become the foundation of our lives. We need to believe in something bigger than ourselves that outlives our own life. A truth that will stand true throughout all of eternity. A truth that when everything in our life seems to fall apart. A certainty of a promise to know that some something better will come. And Jesus says to us, this faith is the pillar of your life. And he goes on and says in verse 23, let us consider, as we build upon this faith how to have hope in these moments. It says, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. You got to be careful in the Bible when we read the word hope, because we’ve kind of changed the definition for us today. It’s sort of a cross your fingers wishful thinking. To a lot of people. I sure hope so. But when the Bible talks about hope, it’s it’s an expected future. They anticipate it as if they knew it was going to happen. They lived their lives in knowing that this future was of certainty. And it says, let us consider to to remind one another. Let us spur one another to look forward to that hope. You know, in the midst of darkness in our lives, what we need reminded of often is that there are brighter days ahead. When the storm seems bigger than anything in our future, we need someone to point us forward and remind ourselves there is hope.
There is hope because you are not alone. Jesus is with you, looking after your needs. Your church family is here to encourage your needs. I think about the importance of this verse standing out in the lives of the Jewish people as they read this passage, and during heavy persecution in their lives, and literally losing their heads for following after Christ. And as Paul dictated these words to these believers, listen, stand for that truth. Stand for that faith and God’s, remind yourself there is hope. He goes on in verse 24 and reminds us of love. You know, it’s a lot easier to love when you realize that you’re standing up on a truth that is timeless and does not change, and it’s a lot easier to love when you know there’s a brighter future ahead in your life. And Paul says in this verse, now that we’ve talked about this faith that you’re standing on, and now that you have this hope that you’re looking forward to. Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds. Let us go out into this world and share this hope, and share this faith with people who who need encouraged in their lives. Stimulate is to provoke. When we gather together, our interest is to provoke one another. And understanding this faith and understanding this hope. How are you going to take this out into this world and use this for God? If opposition comes your way and someone is even threatening to cut your head off as the life of the Jewish people here, how are you still going to love in those moments? Paul tells us in faith, hope and love abide in these three things.
And he says in first Corinthians 1313, the greatest of these is love. Do you know why people still talk about Jesus today without believing in Christ? It’s because regardless of what you think about Jesus. Jesus continued to love until the very end when they threw him on the cross. And he was persecuted for for standing in this world. And Jesus’s life was about to end. As he hung there, he said, father, forgive them. That attitude of grace and forgiveness has spoken throughout the centuries, and the moment in which Jesus could retaliate. In a moment when Jesus could have called legions of angels from heaven to massacre a world who hated him, he loved. Love always rings true in the midst of any anger. Love can speak into hearts. Faith, hope and love is important for us to carry as a church. When we think about encouraging other believers because optimism rubs off. Have you ever been around a loving person and found it difficult to continue to be mean or a hopeful person, and found it somewhat guilt ridden to continue to be a Debbie Downer? Those things are contagious. And when you come and you assemble because you know everything that Jesus has done in your life and you carry with that faith, hope and love for the purpose of encouraging other believers.
You become contagious for Christ. It’s hard to walk out of a room when someone you know cares about you, regardless of the burden that you feel and not feel somewhat uplifted in your day. Excuse me? And God tells us to carry faith, the truth in which we stand on hope. The certainty of a future and love for the moment. You know, I think the reminder for all of us as we look at those verses are to live our lives as big, big picture people. Let me give you an illustration for just a minute. Pretend for just a moment. This rope represents the span of eternity, the point of life in which you will live from here on into forever. Imagine it doesn’t end. Actually, it doesn’t end at the stage. Okay. It wraps around the world a couple of times. This. This rope is long. This is eternity. And at the end of this rope, this black part is your life on earth. And so we have all of eternity for which we live. And then we get to the very end and we have our life. And what kills me, and maybe even what the Apostle Paul is talking about here for us as we consider faith, hope and love is that people will live their entire lives in light of this, and they’ll make decisions here that are only made for this.
And they’ll see people like believers who are following after God, thinking about the light of eternity, making decisions here and sacrifices here. That may affect this, but they’ve got the rest of this. And they say they see you make these decisions in your life, and they look at you and say, man, you are crazy and you can look back at them and say, yeah, but you’re making a decision here and you’ve got the rest of this for the rest of your life, and you’re not choosing to follow after Jesus. Man, you are crazy. God has called us to be big picture people. We talk about hope. We don’t have to live in life of fear, of just about this world, because we have the rest of eternity. And when we think about hope and faith and love together, we’re not making decisions in this world that just affect this life. We’re talking about decisions that affect eternity. Consider the importance of faith, hope, and love. Because what God has called you to as a body of believers is to be big picture people. Abide in faith, hope and love. Maybe we could ask the question this morning. Jesus, when you came to this world and you had all of this persecution placed upon you that ultimately led to the despicable cross in which you would die. God, how in the world did you overcome that moment? The Bible tells us in Hebrews 12 two.
It tells you to fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame. And he has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. It’s saying to us, how did Jesus overcome the cross? Well, Jesus just wasn’t thinking about the moment. Jesus was willing to sacrifice for the moment because Jesus was thinking about the rest of eternity. Jesus is saying to us and John, he Johnny said, I came to seek and to save that which was lost. And as Jesus went to the cross in that moment of suffering, he was thinking about every person who would walk the face of the earth and wanted to give them an opportunity to come and know and grow and love him. And Jesus said, man, this suffering of this moment for the light of eternity, and living in community with people who choose to follow after me. Amen. And Jesus endured the cross for the joy set before him. How do we overcome opposition in our lives when people. Ignore us or mistreat us for following after Christ? We think of the joy of eternity, though in these moments we may suffer for Jesus for the rest of our lives, we will enjoy the fruits of our labor in Christ Jesus overcame because he didn’t focus on the problem. He focused on the solution of eternity.
Minus of one more thing. This morning, as we consider this passage, it says in verse 25, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near, saying to us in verse 25, do not forsake the assembling together. I’m going to ask you a question. You don’t have to raise your hand, but when you read that first phrase, do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together. How many of you automatically thought, Sunday, I am going to church now on Sunday because this verse said I had to. Why do you think Sunday when it doesn’t say go to church on Sunday? It says don’t forsake the assembling of yourself together. The point of the passage is this live church every day. Be the church every day. When we talk about faith, hope and love and encouraging each other, it’s not just about Sunday. It’s about finding people in the body of Christ who want to grow and know the Lord, get together somewhere and encourage each other in Jesus, not forsaking on Sunday. On Sunday. What is that about? It’s every day that God has called us to live into this world for him. Jesus has called you to be a light wherever you are, for the sake of Christ. We do this as big picture people. We do this in faith, hope, and love. Paul said it this way in first Corinthians nine.
He said to the weak, I became weak to win the weak. I have become all things to all people, so that by all possible means I might. I might save some. You ask Paul what he thought about Paul wasn’t a person that thought as an individual. Paul was a person that thought about community. And I think one of the things I enjoy about foreign cultures is that they are way more family oriented and community oriented than we are as Americans. We’re all about what we can get and finding our happiness and joy apart from anyone else. What the body of believers were about, and you can see in acts chapter two, is is giving in the life of the community for the sake of each other and meeting each other’s needs. And Paul is saying in this passage, whatever it takes to encourage someone in the Lord, that’s what I’m doing. Can I say this morning I’m heaven is real and so is hell. Amen. A lot of people like to think there is a heaven. We only want to think about a good place, right? But we’ll just totally deny hell sometimes. You know, Jesus in the Gospels taught about taught about hell twice as much as he taught about heaven. People will read that and still conclude that hell is not real. Why would Jesus emphasize hell so much more than than heaven if hell isn’t real? Now look at a passage like this, and I see that Paul really believes that hell is real because he’s saying this decision on what you choose to do with Jesus in your life is so important that I’m giving my whole life for the sake of community, for the sake of other people to proclaim the name of Christ so they trust in Jesus and experience eternity with him.
God created you to experience eternity with him. And so he’s saying whatever I need to become, I’m becoming that for the sake of Jesus into the weak. I become weak. Charles Spurgeon said this if you believe in Christ, may we never be an encourager to anyone to go to hell. But may we throw our bodies in front of them. And may we cling to their feet. And may we beg them to trust in Jesus. Eternity is important. And rather than live our lives thinking about this short span of time in which we exist on this world, God has called you in faith, hope, and love to plan for all of eternity. How do we overcome as people? Well, first we need to understand that we are not alone. We’ve got a community encouraging us to the one who is always with us, which is Jesus. We live in faith, hope, and love, and we are big picture people thinking about the light of eternity. And we don’t assemble just on Sunday. It’s about encouraging one another every day for the sake of Christ.