Encouragement to Persevere - 4

First of all, I want to thank you for directing your questions to Pastor Barkman and not to me. You're very welcome to continue to do that.

We'll be out of town on Thursday morning, so. Well, it is very, very good to be here. Enjoyed very much worshipping and fellowshipping and sharing the word of God with the tri-state pastors and some of their wives. Not that they have one more than one each, but some of the wives of some of the pastors came and had a great time. I just want to say you're very blessed to have such a good pastor and pastors to hear the word as it was preached today.

And to hear that word week after week and month after month and year after year and almost half a century. You consider yourself very blessed because we traveled a fair bit and there's a lot of dryness, there's a lot of darkness, there's a lot of disappointment out there. And we always, always, always love coming to this church and fellowshipping with you, worshipping with you. And as I've said to all your pastors, my biggest problem is stopping at a reasonable time because you're so easy to preach to. And that's no credit to me. That's a credit to your pastors.

And they have faithfully built an appetite for the word of God and a sense of anticipation that God will speak once again. Well, I hope you have your Bible. One day it'll probably just be a chip or something in our head. We'll just have to snap a finger. But until then, you at least have to get out a device. I guess I'm still old enough. There's something good about holding a book in your hand.

And please turn again to Hebrews chapter six. Now the women in my life, and only one of them is a wife, I have daughters-in-law and daughters and granddaughters. One of the programs they like to watch once in a while is one of those house programs.

Like, you know, flip it or flop it or love it or lose it or whatever it is. And they, you know, to kind of save the marriage, every once in a while I watch a program with them. And it's very interesting as they go from house to house to start with.

And then from room to room and, you know, oh wow, oh wow. Anyways, in a way that's what we're doing in Hebrew six without that last part. And I hope you won't love it and list it. I hope you will love it and live it.

All of God's word is designed to be of intense spiritual profit for the people of God. And we've been kind of doing a house tour. Just a little illustration to kind of help us work through the passage as we've taken it apart in a sense, I'll say room by room.

Remember at the end of chapter five we kind of came up the front steps to the porch and knocked on the door. And we need to remember that the people who are touring the house are spiritually immature. They've got a lot of growing to do. And they've got a lot of growing to do because the Christian life is serious. This isn't kind of just a fun thing. This isn't just a hobby.

This is life. And so we need to be heeding always the word of God. And then we went in the door, which is chapter six, and the first room we saw, remember, was a crime scene.

And I deliberately put it that way because it is absolutely crucial that when we come to any text of the Bible, we don't ask the wrong questions. If we do, we will ultimately get the wrong answers. Does anybody here play Sudoku?

There's a couple of us. Well, I won't even bother with the illustration then. But if you play that game, it's a math game, you can think you're going to win it in the end. But you can make a big mistake at the beginning and you don't really get it until you're almost at the end.

And then you realize it's all wrong. And it's the same when we come to the Bible. It is absolutely crucial that we ask the Bible the right questions that that portion of the Bible is speaking to and answering.

And the first room, if you remember, was a crime scene because two crimes were committed. The first is when we come to the text, we're more concerned about who the preacher is talking about than who the preacher is talking to. And it's very important for us to understand that he's talking to us. Those of us who claim to love the Lord Jesus Christ, who have turned from their sin, who believe that there's a work of God in our hearts, supernatural by the Spirit of God. And then the second crime that is committed is that when we come to the Word of God, we smorgasbord.

We kind of go along the line and we pick up the things that we like and kind of don't really hang around the things we don't like. And it's very important for us to see that all of the Word of God is intended to produce persevering faith. And the only faith there is that saves is persevering faith.

Persevering faith begins the moment you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. And therefore it is absolutely crucial that we do not pit the Word of God against the Word of God. And especially as I've been trying to explain that we do not put the warnings of Holy Scripture and try to make them be counteractive to the promises of the Scripture. We all love promises, but both the warnings of Scripture and the promises of Scripture come from God.

They are both divine. Secondly, both the warnings of Scripture and the promises of Scripture are intended to produce persevering faith. And you cannot have persevering faith by just zeroing in on the dessert part of the buffet, the promises.

You need to eat your greens and your collards and all the different things that are going to be good for you. And the warnings are absolutely essential. And as I've said before, the promises point to the design of the goal or the end of what God intends. The warnings are the divine means to reaching that intended goal. And so it is absolutely crucial that when we come to the Scriptures, unless it's saying specifically to children, and you're 70 years old or something, you're deceived that the warnings of the Scriptures are speaking to you. They're speaking to me. And I cannot have fat ears or dull ears.

I cannot kind of listen, but not really listen because I think it has nothing to do with me. The second house or the second room in the house is to look at this particular warning. And we saw, I trust, last night that this is a very serious warning. And if you think this one's tough, don't do it now, but go later to chapter 12.

It's even worser and worser there. And it is absolutely crucial that we understand, as I said with the illustration of the road that has both promises, a Dunkin Donuts two miles down the road, and warnings slow down to 30, sharp curve to the left, the good driver is the person who heeds the warnings, who does what they're instructed to do on the road. And so it's crucial that this congregation in the first century and this congregation in the 21st century, that we hear the warning and we do not negate it. We do not diffuse it because of a preconceived theological position.

And the position probably is true. But you do not use one portion of the word of God to diffuse the power and the impact of another part of the word of God. Every New Testament letter, or in this case sermon, is occasional. And by that I mean it was written or preached to speak to a specific occasion.

And I need to understand that occasion. When we come to the Bible, it's very much like the old phones that we used to have without speakers and all of that. The phone rings, your wife picks it up or your husband picks it up, she starts to talk, you don't hear the other person, and then you begin, oh, well, that's grandma. Well, no, that's not grandma, that's our oldest daughter.

No. And as the conversation goes, you begin to try to figure out who's calling and what they're calling about. And so when we come to the Bible, we're putting the phone up to our ear and we're saying, what is this about? If they're talking about coming for Christmas, don't you make it coming for Thanksgiving. And in this passage of Chapter 6, he is talking to people who need to grow up spiritually.

And they need to hear. Because you see, spiritual immaturity, you don't know where it's going. You hope it will go to spiritual maturity, but it could go to spiritual apostasy. And so as Barney Fyfe would say, you have to nip it in the bud.

You have to deal with it. Now, we're going through Hebrews 6 room by room, because we want to see how this pastor preacher ministers to people like us. How he ministers to spiritually immature people. And tonight we're in the third room. And this room is a little more to our liking. On the door it says encouragement. Marlene said to me this afternoon, how do you feel about preaching the sermon tonight? And I said, well, I'm always loving preaching sermons that are encouraging.

And so I trust that you'll be encouraged tonight. But I trust that you will not with this third room negate room one and two. As I said, it's like going into a house, you're buying a house, there's a kitchen, there's a bathroom, the living room, the bedroom and the dining room. And you don't start playing the rooms off against each other. You need all of those rooms to have a full-orbed life. And we need all of what Hebrews 6 says to really understand Hebrews 6.

Now, we're ready to dive into the sermon. People are strange. I'm strange. I've been hanging around me for almost 73 years. And you would think I would know me pretty good. But I always kind of confuse me. I'm not as predictable as I would like to be, and especially spiritually. I'm a pretty disciplined guy. I'm a list person.

I have a list with regards to my list. But the problem is when it comes to the spiritual realm, you can make the list, you can make the disciplines, you can do all of those things, but it isn't as easy as you think. Because it's not all about you. I have to struggle with my flesh, you have to struggle with your flesh. But you also have to struggle with a mortal enemy named Satan.

And what's worse is you can't see him. And then you have to struggle with a thing called the world. And many times that's confusing too. Oh, there's really some very obvious things, but there are a lot of other things that aren't so obvious. And then you're in a church with other people like you.

If you're having a good day, you can count on it somebody else ain't having a good day. And you have all these dynamics going on. And that's why it's not easy to be a pastor, to be a shepherd, to care for the sheep. Because first of all, the pastor's got the problem of himself, because before he's a shepherd, he's a sheep. And he not only has to try to figure himself out a little bit, but then he has to try to oversee a group of people who at their heart, they love Jesus. But boy, there's so much push and pull. There's so much up and down.

You're going along great and you get a phone call or a text or this or that or the other thing. And so the pastor who is dealing with this congregation that to some degree is spiritually immature, and the reason they're immature is because they're really struggling with whether it's worth hanging in there, pressing on, persevering, or should they quit? Well, they weren't going to go native if they quit. They weren't going to all go to a nudist colony. All they were going to do is go back to the Bible, the Old Testament Bible, which they were raised on. It would sure lessen the persecution and opposition.

And after all, the Old Testament is the Word of God, isn't it? But oh, you don't go back. I want you to imagine you've been married 20 or 30 years, and then you decide you're going to start courting your wife. And you're going to pick her up at seven o'clock after you've asked her father's permission. And you're going to take her out. You're going to be a perfect gentleman. You're going to have her in by 10.

You might give her a peck on the cheek, and you will ask her what she's doing next Friday night. And already the illustration seems absurd, doesn't it? Like, we have four kids.

We have 11 grandchildren. What do you mean, what am I doing next Friday night? And you see, to go back to the Old Testament and see it wrongly, and again, one of the biggest problems in Christianity is people going to the Holy Word of God and asking it the wrong questions.

And usually they're asking the wrong question because that's what they're assuming in the first place. And the preacher says, don't you do that. You can't go back. You either stay in and go for all you've got or you get out. But if you get out, there's no getting back in because this isn't about you.

It's about my son. God the Father said, I allowed in 30 AD for people to mock and spit at and ridicule and condemn my son and say that he was worthy to be put to death. But oh, that day's over. He's been raised from the dead. He's been received bodily into heaven. He reigns over the universe. That's why this sermon begins in chapter one with all this wonderful stuff about Jesus Christ.

And don't even think about packing this in. This isn't about how you feel or how it's going in your life. This is all about Jesus Christ. And God the Father says, you know, I'm a gracious dad.

I'm patient and long suffering. But there's one thing you don't do. You don't mess with my son. I sent him here and he was messed with.

But those days are over. He is the Lord enthroned in heaven. Every angel covers himself and shields himself when they're in his presence. Every angel in the universe is asking what the son would like them to do. Angels are sent to minister to the heirs of salvation. There isn't one angel in heaven who's doing their own thing. There's not one angel that gets the weekend off. I don't know where angels would go when you're already in heaven. And so as you think about Jesus Christ and your situation, your circumstance, remember you're either in or you're out. Now, tonight we come to room three. And you're thinking, when does the encouragement start?

Well, it's starting now. As we look at these verses that Pastor read, verses nine to 12, what we want to do is see how this preacher pastor ministers to people like you and me. Because, you know, the truth is every once in a while I need a kick in my spiritual pants. And every once in a while a whole congregation needs a kick in their spiritual pants. But other times, you know what we need? We need a pat on the back. We need to be encouraged. We need to be motivated in such a way that we'll press on. I do love Jesus. In my saner moments, what I want more than anything else is his glory and his honor and the delight of just knowing him as my friend, as my savior, as my sovereign. But oh, it's not easy.

It's very difficult. And the pastor knows that. The guy preaching this sermon knows that. In fact, he says throughout the book of Hebrews, God deliberately picked men to be priests because they would understand the weaknesses and the tendencies and even the propensity to go astray. And that's why every priest had to first offer sacrifices for himself and then for his people. And I don't know how he did it, but Jesus never once sinned. But oh, he's a sympathetic high priest, isn't he?

He understands. It's a very interesting thing that very few superstars in any sport become good coaches. Usually the guy that sat on the bench most of his career who's a good coach because he knows what it's like to sit on the bench. The superstars, they can skate both ways. They can bat right-handed or left-handed. It's just all this God-given talent, but the poor just gifted but ordinary person, boy, it's hard.

I can't imagine standing up there at the bat and these guys throw 98, 99 and 102 miles an hour balls at my head. It looks easy when they're on TV and you're sitting there and you're lazy, boy. And you see the Christian life looks easy from one perspective and especially if we glitz it up with a little bit of Americana or Canadiana. But that isn't the real world. And so we need to be encouraged. So how is he going to encourage these people?

And he's going to encourage them the very same way they were saved, the very same way they're sanctified and that is through words. We've become dismissive of words because we think we live in Babylon. It's babbling all the time, isn't it?

But all words are crucial. God brought everything into existence by speaking. That's power. I tried it once or twice and said, David, sit down.

It didn't work. But God said, let there be and there was. And he speaks the word of his gospel into the heart of the dead, dark and sinner and they live. And that word comes to them again and again and again and again and it sanctifies them. And you do see growth. They're just a little bundle. Then they're a toddler.

And before you know it, they're taller than you and eating twice as much. And so he will speak words in this place called encouragement. Two kinds of words. First of all, he will speak words of comfort. And then secondly, words of counsel.

First of all, he will speak words of comfort. I was very shortly into the ministry, if that's the right way to put it. I've been shortly about everything. So I hadn't been in the pastor long when I heard these tremendously insightful words spoken by Charles Swindoll. People don't care what you know until they know you care. And that has always stuck with me. People don't care what you know until they know that you care. And I thought a lot about the pastured.

Obviously, I've been in it for over 40 years. And to me, the pastured is ultimately being able to do the two great commandments. That is to love God and to love people. I know wonderful Christians who love God, but they're not that great with people.

And I know other people who are great with people. And it's not that they don't love God, but man, theology and books and things like, you know. Neither of those people, while they're true believers, should be pastors or elders. I don't care how much you love theology if you don't love people. And I don't care how much you love people if you don't love theology and truth and doctrine. Because the calling of the pastor is to love God with all of his might, heart, mind and strength. And to love people like he loves himself. So he comes to these people in verse 9 with the word of very kind, tender care. Notice what he says in verse 9. Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved. This word beloved is obviously a derivative of the Greek word.

If you know any Greek word, you probably know agape. And what he is telling these people, even though he's had to speak some very difficult things and he will speak more difficult things through the rest of the sermon, he loves these people. Now I don't know about you, but I really am not overly motivated to change if I sense the person trying to change me doesn't love me. And I've had people who really love theology and doctrine who tried to convince me of truth, but it was obvious that they didn't love me. On the other hand, I have met people who genuinely love me.

And what I have found, not obviously physically, but spiritually, I've had growth spurts under those kind of people. Because you see, to be concerned about another person so that they would grow and mature and develop, you've got to love them. Take your kids.

You might holler back, you take them. But take your kids. For 20 years you're investing in these children. If you didn't love them, it'd be terrible, wouldn't it? And what's really terrible is by the time they're any good, they go off and get married, which is what you want. And you invest all of this time and this effort and prayers and sacrifice and being up late at night and all kinds of things.

And you do all of that because you love them. And what you find out when you become 21 or two or three and get married, and you start having kids yourself, you figure out, man, my parents really did love me. I thought I was God's gift to the world, but I realized I wasn't even close. Do you know I never walked till I was eight? Do you know I couldn't even wipe my bottom till I was eight? I had body casts from the hips down. My mother and father had to carry me literally everywhere.

I was in the hospital many, many times for months and months and months. And my parents had two other brothers or two other sons who were my brothers. And then we had children and not even close to what my parents went through. And they really did love me. They really did love me. And I've had pastors who really loved me. I graduated from Bible College in 1972. Toronto was four hours driving from Windsor. My pastor came all the way from Windsor, came to the graduation, which was at 7 to 10 at night, and drove all the way home and then preached Sunday morning and Sunday evening.

And knowing him, they probably had somebody in Sunday afternoon. I said, thanks. And then I became a pastor. And I went, wow.

Wow. That man loved me. And what motivates us to grow is to know that the people who want us to grow really love us. And it seems this preacher knows these people. And it's very clear that he loves them.

And if we're going to minister effectively to our children, to our husband or our wife, to the people in the congregation, they need to know that we really love them. I was listening to a song the other week, I guess. And this gal sang a song to the greatest man about, the greatest man I never knew. And it was a song about her father who did this, this, this, and this, but never once said he loved her. And I thought, it's sad both ways, isn't it?

Sad both ways. It's clear from the Bible that Paul or Peter or James or whoever, these men loved their people. And love is a powerful thing.

It's the most powerful thing that motivates people to change and to persevere and to press on. When I was a teenager, I played the alto sax. I loved music. There was a man in our city who on Saturdays gave me free saxophone lessons. He played in the Windsor Symphony. He taught in the high school.

Never took any money. Used a Saturday morning to teach a guy the saxophone. He never said anything except, keep practicing, work on those scales, your fingering, work on that embouchure, whatever it might be, we'll see you next Saturday. Twenty years later, I was talking with my best friend and we hadn't seen each other in about twenty years. And he said to me, you know, Mr. Curry really loved you. And that's a high school teacher. Who would have ever thought a high school teacher really loved kids? And that meant so much to me. Even at that age, I was in grade eleven, I realized that this man obviously cared about me.

That he would sacrifice, his wife would sacrifice their Saturday mornings so that some goofy little kid could come and learn the saxophone. And so what we need to understand here as we're working through and see if we get sidetracked with the wrong issues, we'll miss the good stuff. And he says, I want you to know I'm shifting this a little bit. Though we spoke in this way, yet in your case, beloved. Those are words of comfort, aren't they? And the word comfort doesn't mean you cuddle up on the couch with an Afghan or something. The word comfort means you put fortitude, you put strength into people. And there's nothing more powerful than to know that the people who come to you and at times have to say difficult things, that they really love you. But there's more to his comfort than expressing his love and care.

Look at this. He says, though we speak in this way, yet in verse nine, in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things. Now that feel sure there is almost kind of weak because I have absolute confidence in you. Don't you like it when someone has confidence in you? Although maybe they have to correct you. But he is going to go on and he is going to point out encouraging things to these people.

Look what he says. We're convinced in our word better. Remember, that's kind of the buzzword of the sermon all the way through the book of Hebrews. Better things. Things that accompany salvation. Do you know if you're really saved, it works? It takes. And you come as an empty handed sinner.

You have nothing to offer but your sin. And it's like one of those old rundown buildings you see on the road. And it's Don's diner. And you think, I wouldn't take a dog in there. And you go by one day and there's balloons.

There's those floppy things and there's signs and everything under new management. And you think, hmm, I think I'd try that. And you go in and you say, wow, this is great. And the Lord Jesus, when he saves a person, he moves in.

He takes up residence. And it should be obvious. If there is a house on your street that nobody's lived in for 10 years and neighbors move in, you'll know.

Especially if they got kids, you'll know. And he says, you have things that belong to salvation. Isn't that encouraging? And then, not only does the we there is probably the preacher in Timothy and probably others, but in verse 10, he says, for God is not unrighteous. God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints as you still do.

Isn't that encouraging? To think that a godly person would recognize the work of God in you and to point out that God himself sees that work. And he doesn't overlook it. And what do they see? For God is not unjust to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints as you still do.

He points to their track record, their past. And the real proof that you really love Jesus is that you love his bratty kids. I use this illustration in our home church and I said, what would you think if Joe and Mary, we'd love to have you guys come over for dinner, but don't bring your bratty kids?

Would you come? Some of you would, but when you really think about it, no, if you don't love my kids, then you don't really love me. And you see, there are people who haven't been to church in years, not because of COVID, it's just because they can't stand the people of God, but they love Jesus. And the Bible says, survey says, if you love me, you'll love my people. You know, I got to hang out with you guys for all eternity. And you know what's worse? You have to hang out with me.

Right now you're blessed. They bring me in for four or five days and then maybe in a couple of years they'll have me back. But to love the people of God. The word there for serve them is diakonos. It's the table waiter.

I can't imagine a worse job than being a waiter or a waitress in a restaurant. Cleaning up after people. And that's what the Christian life is often about, cleaning up after people. And what God has noticed and what the people of God has noticed that these people love the people of God. And they love them for Jesus sake, for his name. When I started dating Marlene, courting Marlene, I found out she had a family. She had a mother and father and a brother and a sister. Did I really love her?

Well, if I did, I have to start loving her mom and dad and her brother and her sister. Because it's a package deal. And it's the same with the Lord. You know, to live in love with the saints above all that would be glory, but to live below with the saints I know.

Well, that's another story. But what the preacher has noticed about these people, and he's absolutely convinced of this, that they have a godly track record right up to the present. And you would say, well, why would he preach those things? Because they have a godly track record right up to the present. You see, once you've been driving 40 years, they don't stop putting warning signs on the road. In fact, the older you get, the more you need to have those signs, don't you?

And you may mean never had an accident, never had to use your insurance. And a big part is because you responded to the warning signs all through the years. And so he gives them great words of comfort that he cares about them, and he's confident that God is at work in their lives.

That's all I want to know. Is God at work in my life? I remember going back to Binbrook. I pastored for 18 years, we were gone for 12, we came back, and I said in a sermon, I hope that the person you see who's growing the most in this next year is me. I haven't arrived and now hopefully you guys can, you know, just imbibe the aura. I've still got a lot of growing to do.

If I live to be old as Methuselah, I have a lot of growing to do. But do you see evidence? Do people see evidence?

Oh, well, you're nice, you know, yeah, I know you got bad temper in this, but yeah, no. Do they see the things that accompany salvation? If you're saved, you'll love the other people God's saving. Sins and all.

When I was pastoring, I would do a lot of premarital counseling. And first session, you know, they're all bubbly and excited. And I'll say, okay, Joe, what do you like about Susie? Well, you know, he's a guy, so she's cute. She's pretty. Did I say she's cute? You know, okay, okay, Susie, what do you like about this clown?

And she, oh, well, it's dimple and, you know, he's got a nice car and blah, blah, blah, those things. And I say, okay. Then I say, Joe, what don't you like about Susie?

Name me five things. And he's a little shocked and then, well, you know, she's, I always have to wait. She's never on time. Does that bother you, Charlie? Or Joe, whatever his name is? Well, yeah, okay.

Then they list their thing. Susie, what don't you like about Joe? Well, he can be insensitive at times, you know, he can barge through the door first and he'll take the biggest piece of cake and he'll just flop on the couch and grab the remote and never wants to see Love It or List It or whatever it is. And then I'll say to them, when you go down that aisle, and I pronounce you man and wife, nothing will change when you come back up the aisle.

Now, the proof that you love this guy is not that you like his dimples. It's what will you do with his sin? Because you will live with that for the rest of your life. And see, God loves me in the context of my sin. Now, we'll move on. I'm not sure how long I have here. But until I see glares, I'll just keep going.

I just won't look over there. So how's it going? After words of comfort, he has words of counsel. And when you know that somebody loves you and somebody sees the evidence of the grace of God in your life, are you open? You want to hear what they've got to say?

Sure you do. And he has words of counsel. And the word of counsel is found in verse 11. He says in verse nine, where we feel sure we're very confident of real evidences of marks of salvation in your life. And in verse 11, he says, and we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end. What he is saying is that, do you know what our prayer and desire is? For people like you that God loves and we love. People like you that we see real evidence of saving faith and God sees evidence of saving faith and will respond to that in his time and in his way. What we want you to do is grow up and grow up fast and persevere to the end.

Do you see how the warnings fit in? Do you see how the promises fit in? Our prayer and desire for you is that, and notice here it doesn't say y'all. He says each one of you. And I know down here y'all can even meet in one person.

A little confusing to me, but y'all. But what he's saying is that while there's much that the church can do corporately, there are some things that you have to do for yourself. I can't believe for you. I can't get saved for you. I can't persevere for you.

And we can't persevere for you. Each one of us is responsible that we have an eager desire to press on and persevere in the hope. And the hope is the certainty and the sureness of this thing. We're not following a fairy tale. This is the most true stuff in the universe. That is what is true about Jesus Christ. And we want you to persevere to the end. And you've got to grow up.

You've got to grow up. Now he puts a negative because the question is, well, how do I do that? He's going to give a negative and then he's going to give a positive and hopefully will be through then. Negative in verse 12 is so that you may not be sluggish. This is the same word that he used in Chapter five, verse 11.

You become dull or sluggish or lazy or lethargic in your hearing. Whether you like it or not, God does all of his work through the word by the Spirit. And the biggest problem in spiritual immaturity is laziness. In the Middle Ages, I guess they didn't have anything better to do, they categorized sins and they said there were seven deadly sins. That is sins that would kill grace. And one of those sins was named after an animal, a sloth.

But if you go to the book of Proverbs, you see that Solomon is constantly speaking to his kid and saying, listen, don't be a sluggard. Don't be lazy. We live in a lazy culture. Doesn't it amaze you how lazy our culture is? And we see somebody achieve something, whether it's in sports or academic or, you know, a 10 year old gifted and playing the piano, and we think, oh, wouldn't it be great to be like that?

And of course, that kid's practicing like 12 hours a day. Well, I don't know if I want to do that, but I'd love to be able to play the piano. I'd love to be able to know the Bible like, well, you won't if you're lazy. And we live in a culture, a soft culture, because we have so many blessings, temporal blessings that encourages laziness. I'll get around to it. I know I didn't have my devotions today, but you know, it was, well, I just didn't get around to it. I know I should have done that. I know I should be reading a book every once in a while, you know, it's just wonderful.

It was a beautiful day. Tonight's a day to be diligent and disciplined. And what we will find on the judgment day is that everybody who apostatized became lazy first. And so he, in love, tells them, he counsels them, stop being lazy.

Now that doesn't mean when you're 75, you can do all the things you could do when you were 25. But we're talking about spiritual things. We're talking about disciplining yourself to discern bad from good and good from bad. To be able to listen and discern when you're watching a TV program, you're just kind of, you know, semi comatose. What were you thinking?

What was the plot line of that? I don't mean some dirty, filthy thing, but almost every Disney movie, and I'm not saying you shouldn't watch it, but almost every Disney movie says what? You've got it in yourself to be whatever you want to be. The Bible says all you've got in yourself is sin, but there's help and it's found in Jesus. So negatively, I have to take laziness seriously, my laziness seriously. I can't do anything about your laziness. Positively, how do I persevere? Read all of Calvin's commentaries before I'm 40? No. Look what he says. So in verse 12, that you may not be sluggish or lazy or lethargic, but, a word of contrast, be imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Do you see all the warnings and the promises go together?

You know what you need to do? Is what every good business does, what every good sports team does. They put the rookie to room with the superstar.

There are some teams who will get a player who's past his prime, and the only reason they still want him is because of the influence he will be in that locker room. He comes to practice every practice. He's on time. He's disciplined. He's in the weight room.

He's doing the things he needs to do so that he can stay in the league. Who you like, you become like. Have you noticed that? And I'm defined, a person or two, and the word imitate there is the word for mime. A few of you might remember Red Skeleton and what a good mime he was. And he could do a whole program without speaking.

Absolutely amazing. And we could always tell when one of our kids got a new friend, and we knew something about that new friend before we ever met them. The way a kid wore his hat, the way he talked, the way... Because who you like, you become like. And what you need to do, first of all, is defined in the Bible, godly people to imitate. Now in the book of Hebrews, he is given examples of apostates, the generation in the wilderness, Esau. But in chapter 11, person after person after person after person, by faith, by faith, by faith, by faith.

And by faith there, it means by persevering faith, in spite of incredible odds and difficulties and dangers, they pressed on and they persevered. If you're a younger person, you find an older person in your church who's pressing on. May not be the coolest thing, but it will be the wisest thing you do. You go to that widow and say, how do you do it? How do you do it? With all your heartache, how do you come here Sunday after Sunday and sing the praises of the Lord and love the word and are kind to the people of God?

How do you do it? You find somebody if you're younger that they'll take you under their wing and mentor you. You're to find people that will show you how to persevere to the end. Because that's the most important thing, to persevere to the end. And then as you get older, you'll be on the lookout for a younger person that you can take into your confidence and mentor. And it doesn't mean you've got books and you've got, you know, all the rules. It's just that you come alongside and you help them press on and persevere.

Isn't that wonderful? I came out of a non-Christian home. My father was violently opposed to the gospel. I was 17 years old. A couple in our church who had seven kids, they had a little hardware store and they lived in an apartment upstairs. They kind of adopted me and I was always welcome there. And when I was a little discouraged and things were difficult, I'd go and climb those stairs. I was a lot more able then. And I climbed those stairs and the dad would sit me down and say, I want you to listen to these hymns and get out his record player and play these great hymns.

Or he'd talk about theology and his wife would come in with some freshly baked bread and butter, a piece of homemade apple pie. And they just loved me like I was their kid. And then I went to Bible college. I'd only been saved two years. And a third year student who was really old, he was about 35, came up to me one day and he says, you know, could we meet every week?

I said, I don't even know who you are. And he says, well, I'm Roger and my wife's Joan. And the Lord's just put it on my heart to be your friend.

Oh, I'm so thankful. Look what he says, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. You want to know how to get to the promises? Oh, heed, heed, heed the warnings.

Please hear them. Don't negate them. Don't let your theology throw you off. That theology is right and true and good, but it is never intended to keep you from hearing and heeding the warnings because the warnings lead to the promises.

And notice those promises are about an inheritance. These people are losing everything for Jesus, their homes, their families, their businesses. No one's martyred yet. No one's died in this church yet for Jesus, but they probably will. And the gospel comes and says, I got a promise that's out of this world.

I've written you into the will. What a great gospel. You know, the neat thing about being a Christian is it's very practical. Anybody here don't understand what laziness is? Anyone here who doesn't understand what it means to find a good godly friend who will help you to press on and persevere? No. Doesn't say read all of Calvin.

Doesn't say master Luther. Listen to every CD by R.C. Sproul and all that stuff's great if you're able to do that. But deal with your laziness and find people who will help you to press on and persevere, who will take you aside and who love you and say, hey, don't. You're getting a little full of yourself. You better smarten up. Now, here's some chocolate cake. Let's talk about it. Oh, by the way, if you don't have anybody to imitate, come back tomorrow night and I'll introduce you to someone you can imitate.