A Greater Possession

Good morning, church. We're continuing our series through the book of Hebrews. We're in part 18. Can you believe that? We began last Fall.

We did the first five chapters last Fall, and then we took a break. Then this fall, we went back to it. We are just about finishing up the next five chapters. We'll finish up chapter 10 today, and then we're going to take a break again for the Christmas season and other planned sermons that are coming. Then, we'll come back next Fall and we'll finish those last three chapters.

If you've just gotten on the journey, you can watch all of those sermons on YouTube or you can watch them on our website. It's a great study that we've enjoyed together, going through the book of Hebrews. Now, you don't have to go far in the book before you discover its theme. The theme of this book is, “Jesus is greater.” Hebrews 1:4 (NLT) “This shows that the Son is far greater than the angels, just as the name God gave him is greater than their names.”

Jesus is greater; that's been the theme that we have followed throughout the book of Hebrews. Now, in this eighteenth sermon, we've entitled it, “A Greater Possession,” because in Christ all things are ours. If you have Jesus, you have all things.

To have Jesus is the greatest possession that we can have, because in Him we have Christ, we have heaven, we have promise of eternal reward, we have all in all in Jesus. He's the greatest possession that we can have. And that's the theme of our text today. I wonder if you have a valued possession that you care deeply about in your life. Do you have a possession and perhaps what makes it most valuable? It's often that someone you care about who gave it to you.

That's often what attaches value to it. Perhaps it was your mom, your dad, one of your grandparents, aunt, uncle or maybe it was your spouse. But the fact that they gave it to you is what makes it a prized possession. You know what I'm talking about.

Are you thinking about something like that right now? I was thinking about this and I was thinking about my father's Korean War uniform. I remember when I was a little boy, my mom had this cedar chest at the foot of her bed. Young women, when they would get married in those days, would have a chest that they'd been saving since they were little girls, with items in it for their wedding day.

My mom, in fact, had one as well. After she got married and started having kids, it became like a museum or something. For example - baby's first shoes.

Little Gary's first shoes are in there. There's the first cut of his hair in a little envelope and then all these things from me, my brother and sister and from my dad. My dad died when I was 8 years old.

There was a whole section in the cedar chest of my dad's things. I would ask my mom, ‘Can I look in the cedar chest again?’ because, you know, when you're a little kid, you get to hear the stories again. I would ask, ‘What's this?’

She said, “This is your dad's Korean War uniform.” So, after she died, we had to go through all of this stuff, right? We had to go through all this stuff. So, I got the uniform. I wanted the uniform.

Well, then I got it home and I didn't know what to do with it. It sat in a box forever. I hung some of it in the closet and some of it was in a box in the closet. Do you have stuff like that? It's a prized possession.

You don't want to lose it, but you just don't know what to do with it. Finally, we were getting ready to have a family reunion at my house. I'd had this plan for some time, but I knew it was going to take a lot of creativity and work.

I finally did it; I made a shadow box. It's huge. It's probably this deep, and it's really tall and wide.

My dad had several hats; there was one that you folded and put in your belt and one that was a really formal one with a leather brim on it. He had all of these different kinds of hats. They're all from the World War II era and the Korean War era. He had all of these medals.

I actually looked all of this stuff up. I didn't have my dad to ask. I printed out what all the medals meant. I found black and white photos in the cedar chest of him in Korea in front of these Quonset huts, these metal huts, like Gomer Pyle and I put those in there.

I put all of this in the shadow box. When we had the family reunion, I marched all of my family members up there. They all were like, ‘Wow, cool.

Let's go eat.’ Except maybe for my brother and sister; it meant more to them. It meant a lot to one of my nephews who is in the military.

But it probably wouldn't mean anything to you because it wasn't your dad. I'm not sure what it'll mean to my kids after I'm gone. I don't know what they'll do with my Dad's shadow box, but I wouldn't take anything for it.

You probably don't prize it; you probably wouldn't prize it. But I do, because it belonged to my dad.

That's what we have in Jesus.

This is what the author of Hebrews is telling us. He was telling the readers in that first century, ‘Do you realize your most prized possession is Jesus because He gave Himself for you? He's your greatest possession, if you'll have Him, because He surely wants you.’ Perhaps you once felt that way about Jesus.

Maybe you're here today and you're trying to make a comeback spiritually. You're trying to get it back together again because you remember when He was your most valued possession, but you've taken your eyes off of Him. And you're here today hoping and praying that you'll hear from God. I hope and pray that you will.

I've prayed for you, that you would prize Him as you once did, or maybe prize Him as you never have, as your most prized possession. Perhaps, someone hurt you in the church and that's why you haven't been here for a while. Maybe that's why you're watching online. You need the word, but you don't like those people.

I'm sure that's how the disciples felt. Peter, he's always mouthing off. Simon the Zealot is always talking about the next presidential election; he's a political guy. Judas is over there talking about money all of the time.

I'm sure that the only thing that kept them together was Jesus. They probably had to learn to like each other. That's what the church is; it's a mess of people coming from all kinds of brokenness. It is no accident that we're across the street from the hospital because this is the hospital church.

So, maybe you got hurt at church, but you realize you need to come back because your most prized possession is the head of the church; His name is Jesus. I'm sure that's what the early readers of Hebrews were facing. They had the same kind of doubts that we do. The same kind of struggles, taking their eyes off of Jesus. They struggled with disappointment, suffering, the busyness of life that can distract us, what the world promises with instant gratification, possessions and things. They make you happy for a moment, but they all pale in comparison to the abiding, everlasting, better possession that we have in Jesus, the surpassing worth.

Do you know this? This is what our text is about today. Indeed, it's a warning from the author of Hebrews, where he's warning the believers not to shrink back from recognizing the great, great possession we have in Jesus and being forced to remember it. I believe today, as we look at the text, we'll see three ways that we can be encouraged. We can be warned, but we can be encouraged to remember this greatest possession of all that we have in Christ.

So, let's dig in. We're going to finish up chapter 10 today, starting at verse 26. Hebrews 10:26-39 (ESV) 26 “For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. 28 Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. 29 How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?

30 For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. 32 But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, 33 sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. 34 For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.

35 Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. 37 For, “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay; 38 but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” 39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls. This is God's word.

Amen. So that's what we're looking for today: Three ways on how to remember our greater possession in Christ Jesus. Here's the first:

Recognize the cost of not drawing near. Look at verse 39, that final verse. He's kind of summarizing what he said all throughout chapter 10 in this final verse. He says in verse 39, “But we are not of those who shrink back…” Shrink back.

I think this is in contrast to something we learned last week in the book of Hebrews, chapter 10. Let me remind you of those three let us statements that we heard last week. Those three “let us” commands: verse 22 of chapter 10, “Let us draw near.” Verse 23,

”Let us hold fast.” Verse 24,”Let us stir up one another.” Do you remember those from last week? It seems to be in the context here that he's offering this as that which we could do in the opposite, rather than drawing near, which is commanded.

Since Christ has opened the way, since we have this wonderful confidence in Christ, He's given His body and His blood for us, that gives us the ability to draw near to God, that we can come into the very presence of the Father and talk to Him. Don't shrink back from that.

Don't draw away. Don't do the opposite, because that would be the sin of a believer. For a believer, that would be sin, because you've been given this access and now you're treating it as nothing. Even worse than that, you're treating it as if you're trampling on the Son of God, as if you're profaning His very blood.

That's some strong language. This is the fourth warning of five in the book of Hebrews. There are five stern warnings in the book of Hebrews. This is the fourth one and I believe it's directed at believers.

Why do I believe that? Verse 26, “For if we,” the author includes himself, and surely he's a believer,”go on sinning deliberately…” What kind of sinning? I think, contextually, he's speaking about the kind of sinning that a believer might fall into, of not recognizing the body and blood of Jesus, of handling that knowledge that they have flippantly without priority in their life.

So, they don't pray; they don't talk to the Father, they don't make room for church in their schedule and being with other saints. Remember those three commands: “Let us draw near;” that's going to the Father in prayer. That's talking to the Father.

”Let us hold fast our confession;” nobody knows they're a christian because they don't tell anybody. They're like “007” christians; they're like secret agent christians because they want to be “cool in school. They want to be cool with their friends. They want to be cool with their co-workers.

They don't want anybody making fun of them. They keep quiet. They don't hold fast their confession and then, they don't stir one another up because they don't gather together.

They don't get in a community group, they don't get in a small group, they don't attend church. They pull away. This is a unique kind of sin for believers, I think, and you will be punished in this life for it. It's almost like it's not necessarily active punishment. It might just be that God withdraws His protection of blessing and lets you experience life without Him, since you're not drawing near.

Let's get more detailed about what it says. This is deliberate sinning. Verse 26, “For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.” I think he's talking to believers because he doesn't say, ‘after hearing the truth.’

He says, “after receiving it.” Then, the word, “knowledge,” in the Greek, if you like being exposed to the Greek language, the language of the New Testament is “epignōsis.” “gnōsis” is where we get the word “gnostic” or “gnosticism,” then add the prefix “epi” like epicenter.

Have you ever heard of that word? It means “at the center” of a thing. It intensifies the meaning. So, this knowledge is certain knowledge. It's concrete knowledge.

So, this person has received the Gospel. If you recognize who Jesus really is and what He's done for you, and you've received it, you haven't just heard it, but you've received it and then you go on deliberately sinning, what's left for you?

Well, here's what's left - it's judgment. It's a fury of fire in this life. It's God looking at you like an adversary, looking at verse 27, because the book of Hebrews, the author here, he preaches the gospel from the Old Testament.

Here he goes to Deuteronomy. So, he starts talking about Moses, and on the evidence of two or three witnesses, and here he's quoting from Deuteronomy, and he begins to preach on that. Now, as I think about this, as we see this passage, I want to be honest with you and explain to you that there are several views on this passage. One view is that yes, it is believers, as I've said, I think it is speaking, it is a warning to believers.

One view is this is believers, but they believe it's about salvation. So, that view is believers, they've received the Gospel, but then they've backslidden and they've gone against their faith. They've apostatized; they've committed apostasy. They've gone back,they've lost their salvation and they're destined for hell. What we're reading about is that reality, so that's called the Arminian view.

That's a view that many hold. Another view is that these are not true believers. They just made a confession of faith and the church heard their confession and they got baptized, but they didn't mean it on the inside. There was no life change, there was no heart change. And so they're destined for eternity apart from God in a place called hell.

They never were really believers. If they were really believers, they wouldn't continue deliberately in their sin. That's called the reformed or the Calvinist view.

I'm not leaning towards either of those right now. I do believe it's believers, but I don't necessarily think that this is about eternal judgment. The book of Hebrews has never been afraid to use the word eternal. It's used many times, but it is not used here.

Then, it gives an example from Deuteronomy where if someone broke the Mosaic law and two or three people saw them. Let's say you were gathering firewood on the Sabbath and two or three people saw you. They would either put you out of the camp or they might stone you to death, depending on how deliberate, often and continual you did it. It might cost your life, but it wasn't about salvation.

It was about discipline or punishment in this world. That's the example he gives. And then he goes on when he's given these examples and he talks about how he wants that potential person. Remember, he's saying “we.” But then he says, in verse 29, “How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one…”

So this is this potential person who has offended the Triune God, the Trinitarian God. Gary, where do you see that? Let me show you. Watch closely. He's this person who's heard the Gospel and received the Gospel and then, instead of drawing near to God, shrinks back.

The word, “shrink,” implies fear. So, instead of approaching confidently and boldly, they shrink away and go back to their former life. Okay, and what's that like? How does God perceive that treatment after you've understood it? How does God feel?

Are you interested in how God feels about you believers when you don't draw near? Are you interested? Here's what He says. Here's what it feels like to Him.

I want you to think about it. He says, 29 “How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?” That's offensive to the Father. You've trampled on the body and blood of Jesus. You've come down here and you've handled this flippantly, just in some rote fashion you haven't really thought about

and the Father's offended. It's like you've trampled underfoot.

This is how He feels. It says, “...and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified…” and so that offends Jesus, who poured out His blood for you. You've profaned it. That word, profane, comes from the Greek word, koine.

Actually, the Greek language is called koine Greek, not classical Greek, but koine Greek, which means common. You've treated the blood of Christ as it's common, as if it were common, as if it were just anything and nothing special. You've made it unclean, common.

Then he says, “...and has outraged the Spirit of grace?” Now we're on the Holy Spirit; you've offended the Spirit of God who offered the free gift, so you've offended the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit by shrinking back instead of drawing near. He opened up the new and living way to you and you got busy and you got distracted. You got your feelings hurt, whatever your reasons are, and you have pulled away from God. It's a different kind of sin.

It's not the kind of sin we normally think about, is it? It's not the kind where you broke one of the Ten Commandments or something, or you used bad language or you stole something. Those are all sins. This is a unique believer kind of sin where you've mishandled the Gospel and haven't fully embraced it into your life. He's saying in a warning, 31 “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

He will discipline you. He will remove His protection of blessing from you. He will allow you to experience life without Him and He'll do anything to get you back, because He's sent Jesus to get you, and you know it. You've received the knowledge, yet

you've shrunk back instead of drawing near. Then, he quotes more from Deuteronomy, in verse 30, “For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.”

That's also from the Book of Deuteronomy. So this whole first section, he's preaching out of Deuteronomy and he's preaching a warning to believers who don't rightly, even though they fully understand it, don't rightly respond to what Christ has done.

Chuck Swindoll writes something about this. He said, “So, the author is addressing a potential category of people who are genuine believers but whose lives are so contrary to a life of faith and obedience to Christ that they are visibly indistinguishable from unbelievers.They are believers who backed away from Him rather than drew nearer to Him. They have withdrawn from the community of spiritual growth and encouragement and have become isolated from accountability. As such, they have betrayed their confession of faith in the person and work of Christ—the only one whose work can pay for their sins.

They have been born again, but they go on sinning—willingly, knowingly, and continually (10:26).” It's a warning, a warning to believers who don't rightly understand the prized, surpassing possession that we have in Jesus.

I believe this person will suffer in this life, the discipline and the heavy hand of God, because He is sanctifying and trying to bring them back into His fold and perhaps it will put at risk their very life. We see it in the book of Acts, with Ananias and Sapphira and others who died prematurely because they were unfaithful. And I've seen it in 34 years of ministry. I've seen people come to faith;

I believe it was genuine faith and then I've seen them pull away. Maybe they got their feelings hurt. Maybe they got distracted by all the things that can distract us in this world.

Without me naming them, you probably know what I'm talking about and they just pulled away. They just got out of the habit.

Then, they lost their family; they lost their kids

and not only that, I believe they put at risk their reward, not their salvation, but I think they put at risk their reward in heaven. So, they arrive in heaven but as one who passed through the flames to get there. Gary, where do you get this? Well, Paul talks about it in1 Corinthians 3:11-16 (ESV) 11 “For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—13 each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. 14 If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.” This is a stern warning to the believer who has received the knowledge of the truth of Jesus

and instead of entering into this relationship and completely embracing it, maybe they did for a season, but they've drawn back, they've shrunk back.

Be warned that this life is a dangerous way for the believer to live. Instead, let us draw near with full confidence instead of shrinking back. Let's go to number two; we got through the first verses of 26 through 31. Now, we're at verse 32 and following.

He's shifting now from the warning to some encouragement. We need it, don't we? After those verses of stern warnings. If you really love somebody, if you're going to be a good mom or dad, you're going to warn your kids, you're going to give them stern warnings, but then you're going to follow it with encouragement.

That's what's happening right here. That's how the Father loves us. He warns us, then He encourages us. Look at verse 35, and then we'll back up the bus to verse 32 and kind of work through that segment, verse 35, “Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.”

Do not throw away your confidence. So, think back to those three “let us” commands. We already covered the “instead of drawing near,” he warned us, “don't shrink back.” So instead of shrinking back, draw near, but now he's in context.

We're still remembering. He said, “hold fast the hope of your confession” and then he says, don't throw it away.’ Don't throw away your confidence.

Don't wad it up and throw it away. Instead, hang on to it. Hold it fast. Hold what fast? Your confession, your confidence, your confession of hope.

That's what he's saying. Instead of holding fast, I want to warn you, don't throw it away. He's putting it with a little more teeth in it to remind us of this. Remember back in verses 19 and 20, that confidence we have in chapter 10. Hebrews 10:19-20 (ESV) 19 “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us…”

So don't throw that away. You've got this, since you can talk to the Father, did you talk to Him yet today?

Have you talked to the Father today? Did you get up this morning and say, ‘Father, thank You for another day. I'm planning on going to church here in a little bit to be with Your people. Thank You that I have the privilege to do that. Oh, forgive me for my sins yesterday because I know I'm already forgiven through Jesus,

but I need a fresh cleansing today, a fresh awareness that I'm right with You.’ Did you take advantage of that? You're to confidently draw near because of what Jesus did. Don't put that on the back burner because that's a sin for the believer.

That hurts God's feelings; He loves you so much, He did this and you don't even talk to Him. Don't throw that away. Don't wad that up and throw that away.

It hurts. It hurts the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and it moves Him to discipline you because you're His. That's what I'm thinking as I'm reading this. He opens up verse 32. So I gave you 35 first to contrast. .

Instead of holding fast, he's saying, be warned, don't throw it away. Go back to verse 32. Here's how you do it. Recall. See that?

But recall, remember, recall. Bring back to your mind. Think about when you first were enlightened. Remember when you first got saved and you're on fire for Jesus. Remember that.

You know you should. That's when you used to tell people that you were a Christian before you got to where you weren't telling people anymore. You weren't holding fast your confession of faith. You weren't holding it up; it was more like it slipped in here somewhere.

So, like I said earlier, you could be cool in school, you could be accepted by friends. You don't want to stick out, because anybody who sticks out gets whacked. Do you remember that whack ‘em game? Anybody who puts their head up, they get whacked? So I'm just going to keep my confession of faith right here; it's not popular in the culture today.

He tells us, ‘No. I want you to hold that fast.’ He says, ‘Do you recall when you did that in your former days, when you were enlightened?’ Sometimes it would cause struggle and suffering and sometimes you'd be publicly exposed to reproach and affliction.’

The word for publicly exposed is a Greek word that we get the word, theater, from. The origin for the Greek word or for the English word, theater, comes from that verb, and it means to be put on stage and to be laughed at. To be put on stage and have people throw tomatoes at you.

Do you remember when you would tell people about Jesus and they would make fun of you for it? That's never happened to you? It's probably because you never told anybody about Jesus. It must not be your prized possession, because I guarantee you, whatever is most prized by your heart, you talk about.

If He's really your greatest possession, you can't help but talk about Him. You can't help but hold fast your confession. If you don't talk about Him, then He's not your most prized possession and that's like trampling on the Son of God.

That's like profaning His blood. That's like offending the spirit of grace. This is not me talking. I'm just telling you what it says. It hits me.

Oh, it hits me because, most days, He is my prized possession and I will tell the waiter, the waitress and the checkout clerk. I will tell the person standing next to me at the gas pump most days. But some days I don't because I'm in a hurry.

I have things to do. Plus, I don't really care much about that person.

Some days I know you're not like that, but some days I am. Then, I remember how important He is and how He's my greatest possession and then I do better. I start talking about Him again. I hold fast my confession. Remember what you went through?

Remember how you went through that? Remember how you were partners with those who got treated that way and it helped you? Hey, I wasn't the only one. We both got made fun of because we believe in Jesus, but that's okay, because we feel good because we suffered for Jesus. Remember that? Hey, do you remember when people got put in prison for being persecuted?

You didn't turn your back on them. You went and visited them and showed them compassion. Do you remember when you did that? Hold fast to that.

Go visit the people in prison.

Don't turn your back on them. Do you remember when the Romans came and the Jews turned their back on you because you started following Jesus and you couldn't find anybody that would protect you and they came and plundered your property? I’m at verse 34.

I'm just going through the scripture. Remember when they came and took your stuff? Do you remember when you said to the Roman soldier, hey, look under there. You missed something. Because I don't care.

I don't care because I have a better possession, an abiding possession in heaven that you can't take from me. You remember when you were like that? You don't remember when you were like that?

Get like that. Take hold of your confession of faith. Get your confidence way up. Take hold of what you have awaiting you in heaven in Jesus. It's yours.

Don't put your stuff ahead of Jesus. Remember when you were like that? Then, we see the key to the whole passage. The reason that you were joyful, even when they took your stuff, is because you knew that you had a better possession and an abiding one.

You knew it. You knew it.

Blessed are you. The book of Luke says, Luke 6:22-23 (ESV) 22“Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! 23 Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.” You're in a good club.

When we get to chapter 11 next week, we're going to talk about that club that you'll be in. You'll be in the faith hall of fame. Not the rock and roll hall of fame. Not the baseball hall of fame.

I wanted to be in the rock and roll hall of fame. I'm too old now. Those Beatles got me playing the guitar when I was 11 years old. I was going to be a rock and roll star. But, I am never going to be in the rock and roll hall of fame.

I don't want to now. They are a bunch of crazy people.

But, I want to be in the faith hall of fame. That's chapter 11.

That's the hall of fame that I want to be in. You have a better possession.

Here's what Peter says about it. Pop that up on the screen, 1 Peter 1:3-5 (ESV) 3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” I'm just going to skip down to verse four. You've got an inheritance in heaven that's imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you, it's better than anything on planet Earth.

It's yours. No one can touch it. It's ready for you. It's kept for you. Do you believe that?

Do you know that you've got a better possession? Where's your treasure today? Where's your enduring, abiding treasure that you value above all things? May I say to you that I love my wife, I love my kids, I love my children and I love my grandchildren. I love you

and the more I know you, the better. I love you because of Jesus in me and Jesus in you, it's true. But I love Him more. I love Him more than you. I love Him more than my kids.

I love Him more than my wife and, oh, I love her. She's the delight of my eyes.

But I love Him more and she knows it and I know she loves Him more too. That's what makes us work together so well.

Where's your treasure? Whatever you treasure most, that's what you'll talk about most. That's what you'll focus on most. He says to take hold. Don't throw away your confidence.

We're in these final verses. We're going to go from verse 35 through 39. Now, I'm going to talk about it.

Resolve to persevere by faith for your promised reward. I like this. If you keep your confidence and you don't throw it away, you get a great reward. In verse 35, You see that there's a great reward waiting for you.

We've touched on that already. I like the Greek word for great. It really sounds great. It's megas. You get a mega reward.

’Hang in there, persevere and don't give up.’ You're going to need endurance because it's hard in this life. There's a lot of temptation.

There's a lot that vie for your attention so that you'll prize it above Jesus. So, you're going to need to endure so that you have done the will of God. Don't you want to hear from Jesus? ‘Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into everlasting joy.

Come on in.’ Don't you want to hear that from Jesus? I do. When you've done the will of God so well, you may receive what is promised. What is promised?

Your eternal reward. Your mega reward. It's promised to you. It's kept for you.

Verse 37 says, For, “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay;” This sounds familiar. I was studying this week and I was thinking, yet a little while and the coming one, He's already come once. He's the coming one. That's Jesus.

He's already come once. We're going to celebrate that in a few weeks, right? Christmas, the coming one, the first Advent. He's already come, and He's coming again. ‘Yet the coming one will come and will not delay.’

He's going to come again. That sounds familiar; then I remembered that we just preached through Habakkuk back in the early part of this year. This is Habakkuk.

He moved from Deuteronomy when he was warning us. That's a good place to get a warning. And now he's moved to Habakkuk to encourage us, because He's a sweet Father. He loves us. He'll discipline us and He'll warn us,

but now, He's building us back up. He's coming again; the coming One's coming again and He's not going to delay. So, hang in there.

I know some days you wonder, I wish He'd come today because I'm worn out. I'm right here preaching to you right now. I wish He'd come right now and catch me doing this. I want Him to catch me doing something good, don't you?

Boy, what would be better than preaching and talking to you? Wouldn't it be great to get caught up right now and we all just go out of here? That'd be a great day, but I don't get to pick.

But, I get to decide if I want to endure; if I want to persevere by the power of the Holy Spirit. So you need endurance. Hang in there. Don't doubt that He's coming again. He is coming.

He's still quoting verse 38; he's still quoting Habakkuk, “but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” So let faith give you strength to endure.Hang in there.

But, if you shrink back, that doesn't please God; He'll take no pleasure in that. He takes no pleasure in you pulling away from Him, even if you do wrong. Sometimes when you do wrong, you feel like you need to punish yourself. Have you ever done that? I've sinned in the same place.

I don't want to go back to God right now. I feel ashamed. No, He's already paid for it. Come on back in. See, the greater sin is shrinking away.

That's the devil lying to you again, that you're not worthy. You've asked him to forgive you for that same thing a dozen times; the devil lies, He doesn't want to hear from you again. That's a lie. Draw near, hold fast, and then stir one another up.

That's a reminder of that, right? We need one another. Then, he summarizes again here in verse 39, “But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.”

He started off with “we.” Then, he started talking about you and that guy over there and that lady over there who might do the wrong thing. ‘I'm not really talking to y'all,’ he says. ‘I'm just warning y'all.’

Look over there at what they did and how much trouble they got into. “But we…” He's back. See it

in verse 39? I know you won't do this. I know you won't shrink away. I know you won't let go and throw away your confidence.

I know you'll stay firm and persevere. “...we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed,

but we're those who have kept the faith and preserved their souls.” We're the ones who stuck at it. We stayed in it. We endured.

We kept on keeping on. Sometimes we were hanging by our fingernails. Some of you just now got a picture in your head of that kitty cat poster. Hang in there, right? Some of you don't know what I’m talking about.

Ask somebody who knows. Hang in there. Have you ever felt like you wasted your life? Have you ever felt like you leaned your ladder against the wrong building and you should have leaned it over here?

I thought I was climbing the ladder of success, but I climbed the ladder to nothing. Have you ever felt like that, like you wish you could do that? Do you ever feel like I wish I could get a do over? I remember when we first planted the church. The early days, especially.

Our church would grow a little bit, and then we'd lose people. Then it would grow a little bit and then we'd lose people. We were small and I had my identity all wrapped up in the church instead of having it wrapped up in Jesus.

It's very confusing when you're a pastor because it's hard to separate Jesus and the church because you don't know how to do that yet because you're young. That's where I was. If the church felt successful, I felt successful. If the church didn't seem like it was growing, I would think, I'm worthless. I should probably not be called to this. It was hard in my 30s.

I remember when we first started and I found this verse from Isaiah. I thought, man, he feels just like me. He was preaching to Israel and they were going up and down and up and down. One king listened to him named Josiah. And then another one came along and didn't listen to him.

Here's what he said to the Lord, Isaiah 49:4 (NIV) But I said, “I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing at all. Yet what is due me is in the Lord’s hand, and my reward is with my God.”

I said, ‘Thank you, Isaiah. That's what I need to do. I need to take my eyes off of whether these seats are full or not.’ I'm not preaching for you. I love you, but I don't love you as much as Him.

I'm preaching for Him because He told me to. He called me, and if I don't preach, I'm disobedient. So I study and I preach and if two of you come in here, I'm preaching. During COVID none of you were in here.

I preached to these empty chairs because He told me to. Now, one of your small groups came in here and heard how hard it was for me. You made life size pictures of yourselves and filled up about three rows of cardboard figurines. I don't know if that helped; it actually distracted me a little bit.

But it showed that you love me. Do you ever feel like you've wasted your life?

You haven't. Draw near. Hold fast. Keep on encouraging each other. Stay in the faith.

Endure. Don't throw away your confidence because your reward is in His hands. If you have Jesus, oh, He's the greatest. He's the greatest possession of all, because all in all is in Him. If you love Him first, then you'll have your lovely spouse who loves Him.

You'll have your kids who love Him. You'll have your church family and your friends, all in Christ are yours too. But if you don't have Christ, you don't have anything but you. I don't want to be stuck with me because I know me apart from Jesus.

But with Jesus, I have all things. He's the greatest. He's the greatest. He's the greatest possession.

Let's pray.

Lord, thank You for Jesus. I pray for that person today; you've never given your life to Him. You don't know what I'm talking about, but you sense something right now stirring in your soul, knocking at your heart's door. That's the spirit of Christ. He's in our midst right now.

He's asking you to let Him in. Let Him in your life; invite Him in. You can do that right now, through prayer. You can talk to the Lord. He's listening.

Would you pray with me? ‘Dear Lord Jesus, I'm a sinner. I've been going my own way, but I want to go Your way. I want to follow You. Will You forgive me of my sins?

I believe You died for me on the cross, that You were raised from the grave and that You live today. Will You come in and live in me, forgive me of my sins and open up this new and living way for me to come to the Father? I want to be right with God through Jesus. I'm praying that right now, believing, I want You to be Lord and Savior of my life. If you're praying that, He'll save you right now. He'll make you a child of God.

You can draw near, with confidence, to the Father. Others are here and you're a believer. You've received the truth. You have knowledge of the gospel. You know who you are,

but you have to admit you've been shrinking back. You haven’t been holding fast.

You've lost your confidence. You just confess it right now. It makes you feel like you're not worthy, but Jesus is the One who is worthy and in Him, He's done all the work.

Just say, ‘Jesus, thank You for forgiving me. I draw near, right now, to the Father. I pray You would cleanse me afresh. I want to recommit my life to You right now, Father. I want to live in such a way that everyone knows that Jesus is my greatest possession.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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1. Recognize the cost of not drawing near.

2. Recall your confidence of a better and abiding possession.

3. Resolve to persevere by faith for your promised reward.

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