November 14, 2021 ~ Twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost ~Sermon & Zoom Worship Video Link

Video Link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/V1ajcr1GKN87RjpnqCGNiI-_ty6UzctmAZRDxeDTDp0-UHU7S73aUgp-O_rrTnC-.lj9y5Iq5CPRyRN5B

                                                                                                11/14/21—Highland—Meute

“Provoke One Another”

Psalm 16; Hebrews 10: 11-14, 19-25

Pearl: Holding each other accountable “to love and good deeds.”

Function: To promote the common calling of Jesus’ disciples to incite each other to living out in practical ways loving-kindness and good works.

When we speak of “provoking” others we usually think about saying or doing things which tend to influence an angry response. When we say someone was “provoked” we usually mean they became angry.

1. The writer of the biblical book Hebrews chose that very word “provoke” to kind of flip the idea around and suggest that Christ followers should “provoke” each other to “love and good deeds.”
   1. I hope the sermon title did not give you the wrong idea.
   1. Did you think I was going to say that we should make each other mad?
2. This is about “coaching” each other. The concept of coaching is popular today. Even in ministry people offer to coach others. As a church Highland is being offered coaching as we strategically plan and seek to live into God’s calling for us at this time.
   1. In my Hampton church several of us played basketball at lunch on Fridays. I did not play a lot of basketball as a kid so a guy named Ron coached me a lot.
      1. He basically tried to “incite” me to play harder and better.
      1. He would often holler at me when I had the ball. But you know what? It energized me! I responded. He lit me up with his screaming my name. It did tick me off a little. But honestly, he got more out of me.
   1. “Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds” (Hebrews 10: 24).
      1. In other words, by what method can we incite each other to loving-kindness and good deeds?
      1. This biblical Greek word translates “sharply incite.”
      1. Another word is “spur” one another. Spurs are seen as cruel ways to get horses to respond.
         1. But that image of doing something or saying something to motivate each other is appropriate.
3. I suppose there are good ways and bad ways to motivate each other. When it comes to motivating each other to love and good deeds, we are of course, looking for the best ways to do it!

Followers of Jesus are called to hold each other accountable to love and good works.

This entire ethic, this calling for disciples of Jesus derives straight from the very gift of Christ’s life and God’s love. We pass along what we inherit.

1. This explains a lot, actually. Many of the good qualities that we pass along to younger generations in our families were things that were passed along to us. Conversely, it is the same with the not-so-good things.
2. But when it comes to what God did for us in Jesus Christ we have deep spiritual resources to live on and to love off of, which we in turn live out in practical ways.
   1. Hebrews spells out repeatedly through the book and in great detail how Christ Jesus did what could not be done before.
      1. Priests had to repeatedly, day in and day out, perform exercises in order to manifest spiritual results.
      1. Christ became the great High Priest who through the gift of his life achieved all that was needed spiritually ever after.
         1. That is an incredible statement, isn’t it?
         1. In banking terms Christ Jesus did once and for all, making a deposit once and for all, into an account which will never be depleted. God, in Christ, has done something that the church lives off and ever will continue to live off forever.
         1. That is the significance of what Jesus did in his life, in his death, and in his resurrection.
3. So the church, you and I, have this deep, deep spiritual reserve provided for us. This is a deep, deep spiritual reserve of love and goodness.
   1. We live off of this reserve. We pass along to others from this reserve.
   1. It is our calling to live out of it and to pass it along.
      1. Thus the directive to “consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds.”
      1. John Wesley’s most famous quote goes as follows: “Do all the good you can, in all the ways you can, to all the souls you can, in every place you can, at all the times you can, with all the zeal you can, as long as ever you can.”
      1. Wesley knew the nature of the reserve of goodness that exists for disciples of Jesus Christ.
         1. And I can think of some United Methodists who well live out this “Wesleyan” maxim. I am blown away by some of the Methodist churches and their many ministries of good works.
         1. Maybe our United Methodist sisters and brothers are particularly good at provoking one another to love and good works.

In our Highland stewardship season we are being provoked to “go and do good.”

1. It is a reminder for us to recommit to a fundamental task of Christ’s disciples.
2. You were all given a twenty dollar bill with the charge to “go and do good works.” Some of you are receiving your $20 today, if you were not here last week. These funds come from mission funds of our church. So they are seriously meant to be given for the sake of goodness from the well of Christ.
   1. I have the feeling that you are all taking it very seriously. Something happens to us when we are given an amount of money out of nowhere and called to “do well with it.” It gets our attention, doesn’t it?
   1. You feel a sense of accountability for it.
   1. And we are asking for testimonials of what you did with your $20 so you are motivated to take it seriously and do as challenged. I’ve already heard some stories of the good things you have done.
   1. Isn’t that interesting?! Twenty dollars is generous but it is only twenty dollars.
      1. But in many and various ways our twenty dollars add up and are doing a lot of good. Many good causes are being supported.
      1. In a way this exercise is priming the pump of more goodness that we can do.
      1. You may become even more generous as you enjoy fulfilling this challenge of the Stewardship Commission.
3. Frankly, we should always feel so challenged and so compelled with a burden to love and do good because of the incalculable gifts given to us in Christ Jesus.
   1. The Stewardship Commission gave you twenty dollars.
   1. Your Lord continually gives you:
      1. Forgiveness
      1. Grace
      1. Mercy
      1. Security
      1. New life
      1. A sense of rightness
      1. Identity
      1. Belonging
      1. Understanding
      1. Acceptance
         1. …and resources
         1. …and gifts
         1. …and talents to share!
   1. So much is provided in Christ Jesus our Lord. We have so much loving-kindness and goodness that our most fundamental ethic and way of life is to pass along love and good works from this deep, deep reserve.
      1. What do we sing?
         1. “They’ll know we are Christian by our love.”

The Highland Presbyterian Church Stewardship Commission is calling us to account for love and good deeds. I am standing before you today calling you to account to live out love and to do good works. God is calling you and me to account to live out loving-kindness and to do good works. It is a fundamental aspect of who we are as followers of Jesus.

1. This world needs goodness as much as it ever did…all the time!
2. There is abundant cynicism about the state of things and over the increase of evil in the world.
   1. Hebrews exhorts Christ followers to persevere in the call to love and good deeds.
      1. Chapter 12, verses 1-2 read: “…since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him he endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.”
3. We are in a life race; we are on a journey all our days, and we have a coach who is cheering us, admonishing us, and calling us to love and good deeds.
   1. When you tire, when you are weary, do not waiver from sharing love and doing good deeds.
   1. Keep coming back to that fundamental ethic! It energizes you!
4. “Do all the good you can, in all the ways you can, to all the souls you can, in every place you can, at all the times you can, with all the zeal you can, as long as ever you can.”