Sermon
Sermon Outline
ME
How many of you remember learning your ABC’s? Or at least you know at some point you learned them.
This is one of the first things kids are taught in school. In fact, many of them come to school knowing them these days.
You started with ABCD and that was a really big deal.
Every ounce of brain power you had was committed to learning a song you can now hum from the deepest parts of your brain.
You learned your letters, then you learned their sounds.
Now let's imagine you wrapped up all your learning at that point.
What if those letters never became words, sentences, and paragraphs?
What if you graduated high school with a profound understanding of the ABC’s song and without the ability to read a book?
You would lack a necessary foundation for the next steps of life.
Sure, you learned one thing, but the whole foundation wouldn’t be there.
The fact is we never graduated from the alphabet; we built on it.
At every level of learning, what you learned before becomes the foundation that supports what comes next.
That’s what maturity really is.
Maturity is the state in which the current level can support the next level.
Kindergarten prepares you for 1st grade, and then 1st grade prepares you for 2nd.
There are no shortcuts.
And there are certain things in our faith that work the same way.
Transition
For all of us, there are foundational principles of faith we build upon no matter who we are.
WE
Today we begin a 6-week journey through what the writer of Hebrews calls foundations of faith.
One thing I have noticed in life, and in the faith, that concerns me is familiarity is not the same as maturity.
Being able to say, “I’ve heard that before,” isn’t the same as being able to say, “this changed my life.”
And sometimes, if we’re honest, we confuse boredom with mastery.
The writer of Hebrews is speaking to people that are like most of us.
They’ve been following Jesus for some time, and they seem to have plateaued in their discipleship growth.
Plateaus happen naturally.
Sometimes they happen because you need to rest and look back.
Sometimes they happen because we drift.
Hebrews says,
“But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.” Hebrews 5:14 ESV
Notice that maturity isn’t measured by time.
It comes from training.
It’s the ability to discern what is right and then live accordingly.
This year we are celebrating 50 years of God’s faithfulness.
If we are to begin the next 50 and be ready to build upon what God has given us, it’s a worthy pursuit to make sure our foundation is rock solid.
Just like grade school, there are no shortcuts. So today we are signed up to train.
And if God wants to build something greater upon us, then we want to make sure the foundation can support what He wants to build. Amen?!
Let’s pray.
GOD
What is the first foundation of faith in Hebrews 6? Repentance from dead works.
“Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works” Hebrews 6:1A ESV
The key here is to realize we are not the original readers of Hebrews. We have not sat under their teaching, and so today is in fact not the second time we have laid this foundation.
In fact, today is a pivotal day because today we lay the foundations of faith so that we can build upon.
At the most basic level, a life of following Jesus begins with repentance.
Repentance is a turning away from one thing to another.
Transition
This means the first question is… What are we turning away from?
Repentance From Dead Works
What are dead works?
I believe most of us would agree that repenting from sin is necessary and required to begin a relationship with Jesus.
It’s one of the hallmarks of humility in the salvation prayer.
“Forgive me of my sins.”
It takes a serious act of humility to admit that for the first time and to mean it.
But dead works are not just things we would put in the category of evil or sinful.
When we look at the context of this passage, we find dead works are simply works devoid of the life which has its source in God.
Works that, when judged by God, will fail to be approved and rewarded.
To be clear, dead works are not necessarily bad deeds.
Why would a foundation of faith include repentance from dead works if they aren’t sins?
Just because it isn’t sinful doesn’t mean that it is helpful.
If something doesn’t produce eternal fruit, and we know we have a limited number of days, why would we allow it to take up the time God has called us to spend in partnership with Him?
“So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” Psalm 90:12 KJV
“So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. 16 Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. 17 Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do.” Ephesians 5:15-17 NLT
The reality is that every day we are given is a day that we are accountable for.
Other translations will say, useless works.
Transition
If we are called to repent from dead works, then what are we called to?
Repentance To Good Works
If repentance is turning away from dead works, then where are we turning to?
We are turning to the living God.
Hebrews gives us the answer a few chapters later.
“How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.” Hebrews 9:14 ESV
Notice the direction of the gospel.
Christ cleanses us from dead works.
Christ frees us to serve the living God.
This matters because dead works are not only evil deeds. They are also all the ways we try to create life apart from God.
Trying to prove our worth.
Trying to earn God’s acceptance.
Trying to satisfy our soul with success, approval, comfort, achievement, or control.
The word of God says,
“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 ESV
For every single person in this room and ever born, God created you for good.
He created you so that your life could bear His image.
He created you so that the days of your life could be alive with His calling and purpose.
Hear what I’m about to say.
We are not saved by good works. We are saved for good works.
Good works are not the root of salvation; they are the fruit.
And you and I have been created to pursue a life of good works.
Transition
Before we leave today, I want you and I to be equipped to pursue these good works.
Let’s take a moment and look at three stumbling blocks I believe we naturally trip on.
YOU
Remembering these are often not blatantly obvious sins; they’re things we’re doing looking for life apart from God.
We repent of the dead work of:
- People’s approval
If people exhaust you, if people make you nervous, if the idea of having to tell someone about your week makes you feel uncomfortable, it might be because you’re looking for their approval.
You can care deeply for people without living enslaved to their opinion.
“Obviously, I’m not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ’s servant.” Galatians 1:10 NLT
In Christ, you do not need people to approve you in order to serve them.
In fact, because you are secure in Christ, you are free to love people without needing anything back.
Transition
We can stop trying to win others' approval to feel fulfilled, and we can stop…
- Numbing What God Wants To Heal
There are many things we do to cope with life that aren’t sinful, but they aren’t helpful.
Scrolling our phone, streaming entire shows in one sitting, eating, shopping, overworking, gossiping, to name a few.
These things become dead works when we use them to avoid bringing our pain to God.
This may be man's way, but it is not God’s.
There is no divine broom to sweep things under the rug.
It’s either under the blood of Christ, or it is on us.
Look at what the word of God says.
“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” Psalm 147:3 ESV
God will take the most vulnerable aspects of our lives and heal them, but He can’t if we keep looking for relief in dead works.
Transition
We get to walk away from living for the approval of others, numbing what only God can heal, and…
- Looking to God’s Gifts for What Only God Can Give
This may be one of the most subtle dead works: asking a gift from God to carry a weight only God can carry.
Marriage is a gift. Work is a calling. Parenting is a gift and a responsibility. But none of these are our source of life. They are places where we live out the life God has given us.
Our marriages become strained when we try to get from our spouse what only God can give us: identity, security, peace, and fulfillment.
Our jobs become idols when we offer sacrifice after sacrifice—our time, our family, our health, in hopes that achievement will finally make us feel valuable.
Our parenting becomes unhealthy when we ask our children to fulfill dreams we never fulfilled or when their choices determine whether we feel like we have succeeded.
These are good gifts. But good gifts make terrible gods.
When we ask created things to do what only our Creator can do, they will eventually disappoint us, not because they are bad, but because they were never meant to be our source.
Jesus is our source.
And when Christ is our source, we are free to receive marriage as a gift, work as a calling, and children as people entrusted to our care, not as the things that give us life.
Transition
This week I want you to ask yourself a question:
What good work has God called me to?
WE
So today, Hebrews calls us to repent from dead works, not simply from obvious sin, but from every attempt to find life apart from the living God.
I want to close with a picture of this from John 12.
The story goes Jesus is at dinner, and Mary takes a jar of very expensive perfume and pours it on Jesus’ feet. The Bible says the house was filled with the fragrance.
This perfume was incredibly valuable, worth nearly a year’s wages. And Judas immediately says, “What a waste.”
But Jesus says, “Leave her alone.”
Mary had something valuable in her hands. But she did not ask that gift to give her life. She used it to worship the One who had given her life.
That is the invitation for us today.
Your marriage is a gift. Your work is a gift. Your children are a gift. Your time, ability, influence, and resources are gifts.
But none of those gifts can be your source. Jesus is your source.
When Jesus is our source, we can hold every gift with open hands. We can receive it with gratitude, use it with purpose, and offer it back to Him in worship.
So this week, ask the Lord: “What good work have You prepared for me to walk in?”
We do not work to earn life. We work because Christ has given us life.
Dead works try to get life from what we do. Good works flow from the life God has already given us.
Let’s pray.