Sermons

FILTER BY:

← back to list

Oct 22, 2023

Hebrews: Hopeful Wanderer

Passage: Hebrews 3:7-19

Speaker: Brian Land

Series: Hebrews: Fulfilled in Christ

Category: Grace Brevard

Keywords: hope, rescue, wilderness, desert

We are all so "prone to wander" - even after we see God's beautiful rescue over and over, when we hit hard times we get blind to the hope; blinded by the pain. In the midst of this we are called to 1) open up our eyes, seeing past the deceitfulness of sin, and 2) exhort/encourage by reminding one another of the Truth of God's goodness and power when we ourselves find it hard to believe.

Hebrews 3:7-19

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.’”

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.”

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.

 

Sermon Discussion Questions

  • The references here are to the Israelites wandering around desert after being freed from Egyptian Slavery. Summarize the basics of what happened.
  • Do you remember why they were complaining? And what God did about it?
  • These current believers are going through a really tough time (we don’t know the specifics). Why does the author relate them to the Israelites?
  • What are some words that stick out to you in the passage about the “rebellion”?
  • When and Why have you complained/grumbled to God?
    • What are you hoping to accomplish with complaining?
      • (Next week’s passage is all about “rest” so save that discussion for later)
    • What do our complaints say about ourselves and about God?
  • How is our complaining actually “rebellion”?
  • How is complaining a combination of circumstances, belief and forgetfulness?
  • Why/How is it that the “solution” is “exhorting” (also defined as “encouraging”)
  • How is “exhorting” actually one believer believing on behalf of the other?