HEBREWS 6:1-3
So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding. Surely we don’t need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from evil deeds and placing our faith in God. 2 You don’t need further instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And so, God willing, we will move forward to further understanding.
The writer of Hebrews lays out for us that the most "basic teachings" about Christ involve the "fundamental importance of REPENTING from evil deeds and placing faith in God." That is where our faith journey begins... and then rapidly we move on thinking we are BEYOND that discipline...
I love college football in the fall and it reminds me of something you often hear a head coach say after halftime when his team is getting their tails kicked... the sports reporter puts the microphone up to his mouth to ask...
"Coach, what went wrong the first half that you need to improve on to get back in the game?"
To which you almost always hear something like this...
"WE AREN'T DOING WHAT WE ARE SUPPOSED TO DO... WE TOLD OUR GUYS THAT THEY NEED TO GET BACK TO THE FUNDAMENTALS!"
Fundamentals in football are things like good tackling, angle of pursuit, protecting the ball, sustaining your blocks, going til the whistle, and so on... the kind of stuff you learn in pop warner ball... WHEN YOU ARE 8 YEARS OLD! And yet it is those same lessons learned as a child that Terry, Howie, and Jimmie talk about on Sundays 40, 50, 60, 70 years later... the same exact fundamental disciplines of football.
There are fundamentals in the Christian faith too that are so vital to our continued pursuit of Christ... things like...
- Reading the Bible on our own
- Spending time in silence, alone, with God... talking and LISTENING
- Reflection on our behaviors, thoughts, attitudes, and words
- Humility in all situations
- AND as the author of Hebrews reminds us... REPENTANCE
It's amazing to me how effective Satan is at trapping us in becoming busy and distracted so much so that we begin to neglect the FUNDAMENTALS of our walk with Christ... and we get lazy...
That's when the enemy attacks with repeated sin... once we have neglected to practice the most necessary building blocks of our faith.
We are deceiving ourselves if we think that to "move forward to further understanding" means we no longer have to practice the elementary elements of our faith... without those as our constant foundation we will only grow to become self-righteous, indignant, and proud. God shows us through Hebrews that in order to progress forward in our faith IT REQUIRES A CONSISTENT COMMITMENT TO DISCIPLINES... such as repentance...
For those that participated this last Sunday and chose to cleanse themselves of a foothold that the world has in them...
- RETURN TO YOUR FIRST PRACTICES when you came to know Jesus
- RETURN TO THE PASSIONS that initially caused your affection for your Savior to grow
- RETURN TO GOD'S WORD with intentionality
- RETURN TO YOUR DESIRE TO SURRENDER to Jesus
- AND WHEN YOU DO, YOU WILL DISCOVER VICTORY fueled by the Holy Spirit!!
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