Hold Fast to Promise

All of us have experienced promises, and all of us have experienced the failure of promises.  Many times, it may be others who have promised, but sometimes it is our own failure to live up to our expectations or the expectations given to us by others.  This automatically leads to disappointment and frustration.  It is easy for us to lose faith and exist as if everyone has let us down.  Our entitlement enhances this within our hearts and souls.  It causes us to have unrealistic expectations that can be self-focused.  The rise in depression, despair, and even anger in our world is partly due to the sense that our expectations for relationships, our society, and even for our lives have not been met.  It even impacts our relationship with God.  All of us struggle if we feel that God has let us down.  Some people refer to this as a “dark night of the soul.” The writer of Hebrews is trying to help believers negotiate this darkness.  This week we turn to Hebrews 6:11-20 in our series Hold Fast.  This is a difficult chapter.  He has encouraged them to hold fast to confidence and hope, but how?  The sermon for this week is Hold Fast to Promise.  God has made a promise, and he has sworn an oath to keep it.  It is for every believer, every circumstance, every hardship, and every disappointment.  If we are willing to believe this promise that was sealed with the blood of Jesus Christ, then we will find greater strength than we could ever imagine.  These words don’t demand more of us, but they point us to the power of having faith in God’s promise and how to hold fast to this encouragement for our lives.  We pray that you will sense this strength as you confront the darkness in your heart and life and that the joy of courage and hope will drive away the shadows of doubt and despair as you read Hebrews 6:11-20.

Hebrews 6:11-20: We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, so that what you hope for may be fully realized. ¹² We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised. ¹³ When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, ¹⁴ saying, “I will surely bless you and give you many descendants.” ¹⁵ And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised. ¹⁶ People swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all argument. ¹⁷ Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. ¹⁸ God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged. ¹⁹ We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, ²⁰ where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.  (NIV)