Sermons

FILTER BY:

← back to list

Feb 16, 2025

He is Worthy of the Struggle

He is Worthy of the Struggle

Passage: Hebrews 3:1-19

Speaker: Patrick Lafferty

Series: Worthy: His Worth, and a Life Worthy of Him

Keywords: belief, heart, glory, unbelief, son, exhort, deceitfulness

From the moment you’re born, life is a struggle. Not all lives have the same struggle, but all lives struggle. So all lives press upon us the need to persevere, and something must give us a reason to persevere. The author of Hebrews writes to those tempted to follow in the footsteps of their fathers when deep struggle tempted them to the opposite of perseverance. As he continues to build his case for the worthiness of Jesus, he develops the idea of just how worthy Jesus is, including worthy of the greatest struggle any person knows.

 

CENTRAL TEXT:  Hebrews 3:1-19

Heb. 3:1   Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, 2 who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God’s house. 3 For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. 4 (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) 5 Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, 6 but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.

Heb. 3:7   Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,“Today, if you hear his voice, 
8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, 
9 where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years.

10 Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’
11 As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’”

Heb. 3:12   Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 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. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 15 As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

Heb. 3:16   For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? 17 And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

 

PREPARATION:   Psalm 95:1-3

LEADER:  Oh come, let us sing to the LORD;
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!

ALL:  Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!

LEADER:  For the LORD is a great God,

ALL:  and a great King above all gods.

 

PRAYER/SCRIPTURE READING/CONFESSION OF FAITH:   1 Corinthians 10:1-13

LEADER:   For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 and all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. 7 Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” 8 We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. 9 We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, 10 nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. 11 Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. 12 Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. 13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

The Word of the Lord

ALL:         Thanks be to God

 

CELEBRATION OF THE LORD’S SUPPER: 

CONFESSION OF SIN:  

LEADER:  Let us confess our sin to the Lord.

ALL:  Righteous Father, you who are slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. You who are also right to call us to the same holiness that is part of your very being. We test Your patience with how we act with presumption and ingratitude. We are easily deceived. Forgive us for our negligence and for our presumption. Help us to see where we might be deceived, and then open the eyes of our heart to the beauty and glory of your Son, that we might find new strength to follow Him, no matter the struggle.

 

ASSURANCE OF PARDON:     Hebrews 12:1b-3

LEADER:  let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.3   Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.

ALL:   Thanks be to God.

 

 

BENEDICTION:    Jude 20-25

LEADER:   But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. And have mercy on those who doubt; 23 save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh. Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, 25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. 

DISMISSAL: Amen.

LEADER: Let us go forth to serve the world as those who love our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

ALL: Thanks be to God!

 

RELATED SCRIPTURES:

  • Numbers 12:6-8

 

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: 

  1. Can you cite some enormous personal challenge you’ve either faced or are currently facing? Describe it in as much detail as you are willing.  
  2. What’s been hard–or even hardest–about following Jesus thus far in life?
  3. Refresh yourself of the historical background of this passage: look back at Exodus 17 and Numbers 20. Sketch the plot of the moment concerning water. What happened? What did it reveal? How did all the “players” act or respond? What point might that moment to those who heard it later? And the point to us?
  4. How is the gospel meant to sober us–to awaken us to our capacity for self-deception by sin? How is it also new about God’s response to our predicament?
  5. How is a crowd distinct from a community? How does the latter function in its degree and expression of concern for one another? Have you ever been on the giving end of confronting people to remain steadfast or turn from sin? Ever been on the receiving end of that kind of conversation? What was it like? If you haven’t been on the giving end ever, what are some reasons why?
  6. What kind of community is the gospel out to create which begins to embody–humbly but courageously–what we find in vv. 12-14?

 

ILLUSTRATIONS:  

 

 

 

QUOTES:  

 

  •  A God who does not react to wrongdoing, including rebellious lack of trust, is a God who is apathetic and uncaring. A God without this kind of anger cannot be the God of justice or real, costly love.  
    - Amy Peeler

 

  • . . .do take your own limitations and fallibility seriously, do take the need for community and correction seriously. . . and do take danger in the spiritual realm as seriously–no, more seriously–than you would take danger anywhere else.
    - Ross Douthat,     Believe

 

BOOKS / DOCS