Hebrews 13:16

Our desire to please God

All right, let us open in prayer. Father, you are steadfast as you are true. You are as good as you are powerful. Be with us as we go through your word and Lord, that we would be attentive to it, put to bed the distractions of the day and help us to put you first. Lord, let everything of me be forgotten and everything of you be remembered. In Jesus name, amen. Good evening. As you're finding Hebrews 13, 16 in your Bible, let's review where we have been. We heard from both of the Josh's and Daniel Hyler about hospitality, love for strangers in our midst. In our last two weeks, we've been in second Corinthians nine on giving, and we've learned that God is not so concerned with the amount as with our hearts. God desires our heart. Last week, Caleb reminded us that our giving is a joyful outpouring of who God is and what he has done for us. Tonight, as we conclude our section on giving, we will further see that our giving aligns our hands with our heart and in practical and spiritual worship. And as Keith encouraged recently, helps us bend our hearts toward God. So let us read our text. Hebrews 13, 16.

Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

So as we begin, let us look at the context. A few weeks ago, Ben started a deep dive into the book of Hebrews It's worthy of going back to listen to that. Tonight, we should be reminded that the author is not writing to a group of secure believers in their faith. However, he has just finished reminding them of the rich blessing to which they belong. Having transferred from the old covenant under the consuming fire of Mount Sinai and the law to the new covenant, under the cleansing fire of Mount Zion and God's grace. Believers in Christ are to fully break with the old animal sacrifice system, which covered sin, to come under Christ's sacrifice, which removes sin. This final chapter of Hebrews, as Daniel shared previously, ends the book with a long list of exhortations to the believer on how to let brotherly love continue. Therefore, consider this theme in tonight's message. Our desire to please God must come at a personal cost of our time and our resources. Our desire to please God must come at a personal cost of our time and our resources. Let's consider this evening's exhortation from Hebrews under three headings, what, why, and how. So three simple points. What, why, and how. I've heard advice many times that you should not tell people what to do if you're not gonna tell them why they should do it. Then how can be expressed by your example. We imitate Christ, who's the perfect example. So first for the what. What should my giving consist of? In the context of tonight's scripture, the focus of our giving should consist of not neglecting to do good and sharing what we have. Not neglecting to do good, share what we have. So first, not neglecting to do good. With this exhortation, do not neglect to do good, we're continuing a pattern in this chapter of let, remember, and do not neglect. encouraging active ongoing sanctification. I encourage reading Hebrews at least 12 and 13 later on. If our theology comes out our fingertips, our doctrine should be evident in our calendar and in our bank statements. So what is doing good? I believe this is what scripture calls works. We don't have time tonight to fully develop that we are saved for good works, not by our works. But we know that God has prepared for us works in advance. We can receive all the instruction we need in scripture, in prayer, fellowship with other believers. Another way, and you guys stole my thunder a little bit, Another way you can see the works that we should commit our time and talents to is in our church covenant, specifically the third point.

We'll be good stewards of our time and resources. We will fulfill our call to serve the body with our gifts.

So a question I ask myself often is, am I doing the things I know I should be doing? Ours is an active faith. The idea that I would know the right thing to do and sin by failing to do it out of laziness or fear perks my conscience at least once a day. So this leads to the second part of what? Share what you have. Sharing what you have develops the imperative further and narrows the scope of the good we are to be doing. What do you have? The obvious resources most of us are blessed with in this culture is our time and our money. Again, I wish I was more generous in both. So what must I think of myself and my fellow image bearers that I wouldn't even spare some change for a young lady at the stoplight on the way home Sunday? With that said, I think the bulk of the text exhorts us to focus our resources on fellow citizens of the kingdom of heaven and the expanding of God's kingdom. But if you're not a believer here tonight, consider the common grace of the God who made you. Think of the personal fulfillment being generous gives you, the way you admire generosity in others, And even in your spirit when you have jealousy for seeing others receive gifts that you feel they don't deserve. None of us deserve God's ultimate gift. And our loving Heavenly Father gave the ultimate gift by sending his son to pay the penalty for our sins. Please don't leave tonight without asking someone what that once for all gift means for your eternal soul. Believers, a cautious reminder. The sins of omission, neglecting to do good and not sharing what we have may cause us to miss a chance to please God and in such to imitate Christ. However, we can celebrate our dependence on God to please God because his most pleasing sacrifice of all was Christ. Having considered the what, we now turn our attention to the why of doing good through giving. It brings us to our second point, why? The book of Hebrews as a whole, and this verse in particular, parallels the Old Testament sacrificial system and priestly order of which we are all now a part. We are priesthood of believers. As such, we offer a physical sacrifice by losing something as a stand-in for the spiritual sacrifice of our devotion to God. We are to offer our best to God, not in order to justify ourselves before him, but because he is worthy. Under the new covenant, we no longer sacrifice to atone for sin. We sacrifice or offer up that to which we ascribe value because he is of infinitely much more value. What do we do when we struggle? When we struggle to sacrifice, we must simply remember that all we have comes from God and belongs to him. Romans 11.36,