Free
Devotionals
and Poetry Journal
Keys to
Worship
A Personal Devotional by Debbie Hall
Last Call
Read Hebrews 13:18-25 PRAY!
Introduction Recap of Hebrews
I am so excited about the effectiveness of having a new member’s class, and the higher retention rate it has brought us this past year, it made me think of a story Mike Wiggs passed along to me…
Three pastors were having
lunch in a diner.
One said, "You know, since summer started I've been having trouble with bats in
my loft and attic at church. I’ve tried everything--noise, spray, cats--nothing
seems to scare them away."
Another said, "Me too.
I've got hundreds living in my belfry and in the attic. I've even had the place
fumigated, and they won't go away."
The third said, "Well boys- I have the answer- I baptized all mine, and made
them members of the church. Haven't seen one back since!"
Hebrews 1-12 Our Great
Savior and Our Great Salvation helps us make it through even Our Great Struggles
Hebrews 13 Love and honor
Love those you know; love those you don’t know
Honor your marriages; Honor your God given leaders
Here we are at the end, the author’s last call to his readers-
What do you suppose is the last thing he is going to ask them to do?
PRAY! The first thing is the last thing!
“Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.” I Timothy 2:1-2
Exposition
V. 18-19 The call to pray
The author specifically asks his friends to pray for him:
Pray for your friend to live honorably despite his own struggle
Verse 19 tells us that he wants to be restored to them- Presumably he at one time had ministered among them- And now he wants to see them again- but he can’t
Maybe he had encountered persecution like they were experiencing- Maybe he was sick
But he urges them to pray that he can get back to them sooner
Verse 18 tells us that what he is asking them to do, he himself has done-
He has persevered amidst suffering
He says, “I have a good conscience, and in everything I have determined to live honorably!”
Your translation may say “desire” here- it’s simply not a strong enough word to translate what the author is saying!
He is not saying “I hope I can make it during these hard times”
He is saying, “The issue is settled for me- I am 100 % committed to living honorably, finishing well!”
Let me ask you a question: is it 100% settled for you?
He knows anyone can fall, so he asks for prayer
Oh to be able to say like the author, “I have a clean conscience because I don’t take short cuts in following the Lord!”
Refer back to Singles Retreat:
Pastoral observation: People that take short cuts eventually pay for it!
A certain amount of loneliness has to be lived through- it may as well be on the right side of obedience
Oh the crying need of the hour is for more Christians to finish well
Let Me
Get Home Before Dark
by Robertson McQuilkin
President Emeritus of Columbia International University
It's sundown, Lord.
The shadows of my life stretch back into the dimness of the years long spent.
I fear not death, for that grim foe betrays himself at last, thrusting me
forever into life:
Life with You, unsoiled and free. But I do fear.
I fear the Dark Spectre may come too soon - or do I mean, too late?
That I should end before I finish or finish, but not well.
That I should stain Your honor, shame Your name, grieve Your loving heart.
Few, they tell me, finish well . . . Lord, let me get home before dark.
The darkness of a spirit grown mean and small, fruit shriveled on the vine,
bitter to the taste of my companions, burden to be borne by those brave few who
love me still.
No, Lord. Let the fruit grow lush and sweet, A joy to all who taste;
Spirit-sign of God at work, stronger, fuller, brighter at the end.
Lord, let me get home before dark.
The darkness of tattered gifts, rust-locked, half-spent or ill-spent,
A life that once was used of God now set aside.
Grief for glories gone or fretting for a task God never gave.
Mourning in the hollow chambers of memory,
Gazing on the faded banners of victories long gone.
Cannot I run well unto the end? Lord, let me get home before dark.
The outer me decays - I do not fret or ask reprieve.
The ebbing strength but weans me from mother earth and grows me up for heaven.
I do not cling to shadows cast by immortality.
I do not patch the scaffold lent to build the real, eternal me.
I do not clutch about me my cocoon, vainly struggling to hold hostage a free
spirit pressing to be born.
But
will I reach the gate in lingering pain, body distorted, grotesque?
Or will it be a mind wandering untethered among light phantasies or grim
terrors?
Of Your grace, Father, I humbly ask. . .Let me get home before dark.
I hope you desire nothing more than to finish well- I sure do!
Another part of this is that the author with integrity was telling them- before I have preached any of this stuff to you, I have been making every effort to live by faith in these areas myself
I so appreciate that!
Because when I am studying to preach every week I study first to find out what God is saying to me, and then I preach it to myself, wrestling with its implications in my own life, before I ever preach it to others
That is so key for all of us to hear- Because a nasty tendency in churches is to stop listening to preaching with an eye toward applying it in your own life
Instead, you listen and say, “Boy, do I know somebody who needs to hear that!”
Now it’s one thing to hear something that touches you and want to pass it along to a loved one- it’s another thing to come Sunday after Sunday and miss what God has for you to hear and apply!
I love the author of Hebrews! He is basically saying, “be assured I pray for you to apply these things to your life- and please pray for me as I continue to apply them to my own life!”
One more comment before we move on: his call to pray there is a plural command- not you pray, but you all pray! We need each other!
In Acts 13 prayer together by the leaders in Antioch was called ministering to the Lord
When you gather with other believers to pray, you are ministering to the Lord
Jesus said, could you not keep watch an hour?
Wednesday nights- 30 minutes! You can do it before youth group, before choir, before Bible study- it really makes a difference!
It would be especially nice to have you come this coming Wednesday as prayer meeting will focus on Revival next week
Continue to do it in your S. S. classes and as you minister together- but the advantage of Wednesday night is it brings the generations together!
V. 20 The reasons we can pray!
We can pray with contentment because we know the God of peace
Now Paul used the expression the God of peace at least 5 times in his letters
That means the author of
Hebrews may have been Paul or had been around Paul- or maybe Paul had been
around him!
Comment on verses 23-25
The author knew Timothy, who was no longer in prison
He sent greeting to those from Italy- so maybe he was writing to Italy- and giving them a hello from their buds!
I don’t know, but we do know that He knew the God of peace!
And when you have peace with God you can pray with contentment- you are no longer alone in the world like a rat trying to get out of a maze, frantically looking for the way out to the right or to the left
Instead, you look up, and you know that God is there to guide you- the maze doesn’t have a top on it!
We can pray with power because of Jesus’ resurrection
“What is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of his mighty power which he worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead…” - Eph. 1:19-20
When a Christian prays for something in the will of God in Jesus’ name, he or she is accessing the same power that raised Jesus from the dead
We can pray with confidence because we have a Great Shepherd
Jesus the Great Shepherd of the sheep! Shepherd = Pastor
Let’s apply that to other passages:
“The Lord is my Pastor, I shall not want.” Ps. 23:1
“I am the Good Pastor. The Good Pastor gives His life for the sheep. But a hireling, he who is not the Pastor, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them.” John 10:11-12
“I am the Good Pastor; and I know My sheep, and am known by my own.” John 10:14
“When the Chief Pastor appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away.”
I Peter 5:4
Here he calls Jesus the Great Shepherd!
That shouldn’t surprise us- the author has been talking about how great Jesus is throughout the entire book!
He told us that Jesus is greater than the angels!
He told us that Jesus is greater than Adam and sons!
He told us that Jesus is greater than Moses!
He told us that Jesus has a greater priesthood!
He told us that Jesus was the perfect sacrifice!
Jesus is the greatest!
Every once in a while somebody comes along who thinks their the greatest- like Mohammed Ali
Tell airplane story: “Superman don’t need no seatbelt”
“Superman don’t need no plane either- buckle up”
We can pray as the blood-washed children of an everlasting covenant!
Ours is an everlasting covenant-That means it will last forever!
The old covenant was incomplete until Jesus came and completed His work!
Now those who have become born again Christians have a God of peace, resurrection power, a Great Shepherd, forgiveness for sins by the blood of Christ- and they have these things everlastingly!
All because they have been washed in the blood of Jesus!
V. 21 The author’s prayer for us: completeness!
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” -Ephesians 2:10
Words on OFFENSE, like on the Singles Retreat!
GROW UP Acronym-Godliness Ruling Over Worldliness Under Pressure
Life as a book illustration! Start a new chapter by His grace!