Pay Attention to the Son. Respond to the Word.

Last Sunday we finished up the first of ten mini-series in our year-long study of Hebrews in our worship gatherings. “Jesus is the Better Revelation” took us through Hebrews 1 & 2 and also to John 1 and Colossians 1.

Now, it may partially be because those passages are some of my favorites in the whole Bible, but we have surely been blessed by our Teaching Team’s bold proclamation of God’s Word in this series (View Hebrews Messages). The calls to know who Jesus is, what He came to do, and what our response to Him is are foundational, life-changing truths. They have served us well by feeding the sheep in this flock we call Tri-Cities Baptist Church. The apostle Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 5:17, “Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.” Paul, Daniel, and Mike – thank you!

I love and serve with these men; I know their hearts and their desires for our church, along with the rest of our elders. They don’t want my applause. They don’t even want mere agreement with what they’re teaching.

The shepherd’s desire is that the teaching of God’s Word brings conviction of sin, love for others, worship of and abiding trust in Jesus, and the resolve to make disciples. What a shepherd really wants is for you to respond to the Word of God.

There have been many ways for you to respond to God’s Word in the last month. Perhaps there are specific next steps you’ve been taking through the preaching and your own personal study of Hebrews. One specific Big Idea that has caught my attention is that Jesus is worthy of our greatest attention. Paul challenged us the last couple of weeks from Hebrews 2:1 to pay attention to the Son (to tie or anchor yourself to Jesus) and warned us not to drift away from the revelation of Jesus.

“Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.” – Hebrews 2:1

A few diagnostic questions Paul posed include:

• Does your life truly reflect that Jesus is superior?
• Does your life demonstrate that Jesus is worthy?
• Does Jesus have your heart or does he get your leftovers?
• Who gets our greatest devotion?
• Is Jesus getting our greatest attention or are we drifting to other things?

My reflection on these questions and the underlying truths have centered around two groups of people – me and others.

1. I’ve been asking myself if Jesus is getting my first and best, if he’s at the center of my life. Are there things competing for my attention?
2. I have also been asking God to give me the boldness to ask others similar questions and then help them take appropriate next steps: Does your current pursuit reflect that Jesus is superior? Do you think you belong to God just because you’re around the things of God? If you claim to believe that Jesus is superior to anything else, do your actions reveal that? Who in my life can I serve best by challenging them to consider their relationship with and pursuit of Jesus?
   

We should both hold up a mirror to our own lives and love others enough to warn them of the dangers of leaving Jesus on the periphery of our lives rather than placing him at the center. Sometimes those observations and conversations lead to two different conclusions that John 15 also helps us out with:

1. We do belong to Jesus, and we need to repent and realign our hearts and lives back to faithfulness in our abiding relationship with Him and allow the Father to prune us.
2. Our examination reveals we’re not genuine Jesus followers that are not truly connected to the true Vine so we need to totally surrender our lives to Him.

In any of those cases, whether examining ourselves or speaking into the life of another, and whether we or they are already a genuine Christ follower or not, the call to action is the same: Pay attention to the Son – surrender daily to Him by faith and repent of not giving Him preeminence in your life.

So, brothers and sisters, the Word of God always demands a response. If you need help in walking in obedience to God, ask someone for help. Don’t let the commands and warnings in Scripture pass you by, allowing yourself to drift further and further away from the Son.

Looking Ahead…

From this Sunday through the week of March 12, our theme is “Jesus is the Better Rest.” In addition to the messages being centered around that theme, our reading plan takes us through the Old Testament books of Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and Joshua. It has often been said that this section is where good intentions and reading plans go to die. While there are some themes, customs, cultural practices, and laws that can be foreign to us, there is great treasure to be mined and applied in these books. These books will definitely help us understand the depth of the truth in the next few messages, beginning with this Sunday that Jesus is superior to Moses. So keep reading and studying – it’s worth it!

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