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Welcome back to our study of Hebrews, chapter 3, we're in day 4 of our look
through this chapter. We're going to look at verses 12 and 13 today. It gives us
one other way that we can see faithfulness empowered in our lives.

In fact, it's one of the most important ways and one of the most often ignored
ways that faithfulness is seen in our lives. See to it, brothers, that none of
you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God, but
encourage one another daily, as long as it is called today, so that none of you
may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. That last verse, Hebrews 3.

13, is one of my favorite verses in all the book of Hebrews. In places that I've
taught, midweek, churches I've pastored, sometimes we've done something I call
Hebrews 3. 13-ing.

That just means encouraging, encouraging each other, encouraging each other
daily, just giving people while going through a worship service a sheet of paper
and saying, "Write a word of encouragement," because that word of encouragement
can change a life. And there's a sixth truth about faithfulness in these verses.
The truth is faithfulness is supported by others.

You don't do faithfulness alone, it's supported by others. As we've walked
through this chapter, we've seen that faithfulness is a matter of your mind,
your will, your heart. It's a matter of your mind, you fix your thoughts on
Jesus.

It's a matter of your will, you choose to follow him. It's a matter of your
heart, you turn your heart to him, not a stubborn heart, but a willing heart.
And here we see that it's also a matter of your relationships.

Faithfulness is a matter of your mind, your will, your heart, and your
relationships. You are not meant, you are not made to be faithful to God all by
yourself. So he says to it, "See to it that none of you has a sinful,
unbelieving heart.

" He's saying, "We're in this all together. " A heart that turns away from the
living God. That's the Greek word that becomes our word, apostasy.

Make sure nobody falls away, turns away from loving God. We're in this together.
As you look at these verses, there's two ways of thinking that can turn things
upside down for how we're living out this life of faithfulness.

They're very clear in these verses. First way of thinking is, it's not your
problem, it's our problem. And the second way of thinking is, it takes
encouragement to soften our hearts towards God.

First way of thinking is, it's not your problem, it's our problem. See to it
that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart. In the church, a sinful,
unbelieving heart is our problem.

It's not the person's problem. It's our problem. We talked earlier about eternal
security and our security before God.

The truth of the matter is, living out a life of faithfulness, living out a life
of security before God, it's a daily battle. Because the Christian life is a
battle. And it's a very interesting paradox to me that by entering into a life
of security, you go to a battlefield.

When you become a Christian, you come into the security of God's arms. And you'd
think, well, that's a place of rest. That's a place of comfort.

No. It's a battlefield. Now, the fact that it's a battle doesn't mean you'll
lose the battle.

In fact, we're guaranteed that Jesus will be victorious in this battle. But it's
still a battle. It's a battle towards victory, but it's still a battle.

And here's the point I want to make here. It's not your problem, it's our
problem. It is a battle that we fight together, not alone.

You wouldn't take on any significant battle on a battlefield all by yourself.
Here I am, the whole army. No, it takes all of us together.

And so throughout the New Testament, we see these one another's of fellowship,
these one another's that grow us. We're to love one another, to be devoted to
one another, to live in harmony with one another, to accept one another, to
serve one another, to put up with one another. I love that in Ephesians 4, too.

We're to be kind and compassionate to one another, to teach and admonish one
another, to encourage one another, to offer hospitality to one another. Again
and again and again, these one another's of fellowship tell us how to live out
the life that God has for us. And any time I look at somebody's problem, and I
think that's their problem, I've missed the point of the New Testament.

It's our problem. It's our problem. How do we deal with the problem?

We deal with the problem first and foremost through encouragement. That's our
greatest weapon on this battlefield as we walk through life together,
encouragement. This verse, verse 13, tells us that it takes encouragement to
soften our hearts towards God.

That's the second major truth in these two verses. It takes encouragement to
soften our hearts towards God. Encouragement changes the direction of our heart.

And so it changes the direction of our lives. Because of that, what you need to
do, what I need to do throughout this day is constantly look for people to
encourage. As Hebrews says, encourage one another day after day as long as it is
still called today.

Is today today? Well, then encourage somebody. As long as it's called today, you
better be encouraging somebody.

If you meet up with a day that's not today, then stop encouraging, but that's
never going to happen. Encourage today, every day. God's telling us here that we
all need encouragement to live out a life of faith, to be faithful.

It's a universal need. When you feel like you're not being encouraged, what do
you do? It's a universal need.

Maybe you feel like, well, no one's encouraging me right now. When you feel like
you're not being noticed, what do you do? You notice someone else.

When you feel like you're not being encouraged, what do you do? You look for
someone to encourage. Because the very fact that you feel like you're not being
encouraged, that means there's some other people who probably feel like they're
not being encouraged.

And you can have a pity party and think about how you're not being encouraged,
or you can realize, well, I'm supposed to encourage somebody else today. This
verse doesn't say sit back and wait for other people to encourage you day after
day. This verse says you go and encourage other people day after day.

It's amazing how your decision to encourage someone else will not only help
them, it will also refocus your life on that which is truly important. And by
the way, as an added benefit, if you make a habit of encouraging others, you'll
find that people begin to encourage you more often. We always reap what we sow.

Now, encourage one another day after day. As soon as you see these words,
encourage one another, we tend to think, well, say kind things to people. Way to
go.

Good job. Keep hanging in there. And we think that's encouragement.

And that can be encouraging, obviously. But there's more depth here than that.
This word encourage, it has the idea behind it to beg, to err, to appeal, to
exhort.

What this is saying, encourage each other daily, what this is saying is fight
for others' faith. Fight for others' faith. Don't let that person get a hard
heart.

Encourage them. Don't let them get caught up in the deceitfulness of sin.
Encourage them.

Encourage one another every day so we don't drift away from God. That's what
this is saying. That's the power of a simple word of encouragement.

So the question behind this is, who do I need to encourage today? Now, let me be
clear. Not who do I need to evaluate today, but who do I need to encourage
today?

It's easy to evaluate. It's harder to encourage. It's easy to think, well,
they're going the wrong direction.

Look at that. It's easy to think you're going the wrong direction, no doubt
about it. But it's much more difficult to say, this is the direction you need to
go.

Because you've got to take some time. You've got to take some energy. You've got
to get out of your life a little bit and get into their life.

There's a huge difference between thinking, oh, you're on the wrong track, or
even saying you're on the wrong track, and saying, here's the right track. Come
on, let's walk it together, because I've been on the wrong track before. Believe
me, I know what that's all about.

I'm willing to help. Let's do it together. So let me encourage you, if you're a
follower of Jesus Christ, if you've asked Him into your life, you have, because
of His love today, the greatest resource imaginable.

You may look at your life and think, I'm not as talented as other people, or you
may see great talent in your life. You may think, I don't have as many resources
financially as other people, or you may be overflowing the financial resources.
Whatever position of life you find yourself in, let me encourage you to realize
Jesus loves you.

He loves you today as much as He ever will love you, and that love is the
greatest abundance you can ever experience. You may see it clearly as I talk
about it, and it may be somewhat of a mystery to you, but I've got to tell you,
it is there, it is there to be drawn upon. His love is there to be relied upon.

You can be strengthened by that love, you can rest in that love, and whatever
somebody else has said about you, He loves you. Whatever circumstances you're
facing, He loves you. Whatever sense of inadequacy you might have inside, He
loves you.

You rest in that love today, and as you rest in that love today, instead of
being drawn into trying to solve it yourself, or heal yourself, or feel better
about yourself through the deceitfulness of sin, you can rest in His love. There
is joy there, and comfort there, and peace there, and strength there, and life
there that you can't find anywhere else. That's where you go.

Encourage each other day after day, as long as it's called today. Let's pray
together. Jesus, thank You for encouraging us.

Thank You for encouraging us with the strength of Your Word and the power of
Your Word to us, with Your presence in our daily lives, through Your Spirit.
Thank You for encouraging us with Your love. I pray today that whether or not we
feel encouraged, You give us the faith to encourage somebody else.

Because there are people around us, we're going to run into them today, who need
encouragement, because we all need encouragement. Show us who to encourage, show
us how to encourage, give us the opportunity to encourage, and whatever response
we get, help us to keep encouraging, because You've commanded us to encourage.
We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.

Tomorrow we're going to look together at the power of faithfulness in your daily
life.