Needless Worry
Dr.Diana Brevan


Hebr 1:1 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by [his] Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; Who being the brightness of [his] glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.
Hebr 2:1 Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let [them] slip. For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward; How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard [him]; God also bearing [them] witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?
Hebr 4:15-5:3 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as [we are, yet] without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things [pertaining] to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins: Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity. And by reason hereof he ought, as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins.
________________________________________

The Book of Hebrews begins by telling us that when God sent word to the world concerning the great plan of salvation, that was eternally planned for mankind, He chose to relay that message not by prophets or even mighty angels, but by HIS OWN SON.
• And the book of Hebrews builds up and begins talking about how we receive that message.
• We read about how we are supposed to, as the Bible says, "Give the more earnest heed" to these things, considering the glorious means by which He gave us this message.
• And I discovered that the entire key to making it to Heaven and to not failing along the way, or drifting away from the journey, is to simply give very close heed to the words.
Put together the two stresses in this book and see that paying earnest heed to the word and having confidence go hand in hand.
• In fact the first makes the second possible.
• If I told you to pay strict attention to my words, and have boldness, then you would correctly assume that I implied that knowing what I was saying would give you confidence, for my words would give you reason to have confidence.
What Hebrews is trying to tell us is that if we can pay special attention, earnest heed, to the words Jesus gave to us, we will make it to Heaven, and any trial we may go through down below.
Hebrews 2 also brings in the idea that salvation was first spoken by Jesus, Himself, and then confirmed to us all by the very ones who personally heard Him teach.
• Not only that, but God bore them, and let all the world know they preached the truth by granting them signs, wonders, miracles and gifts of the Spirit.
God always did that when He spoke a new word to the world.
• When Moses gave them the Ten Commandments, signs and wonders occurred on Mt. Sinai.
THE POINT
Then we read of statements like...

Hebr 3:6-7 But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;
Hebr 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
Hebr 6:11-12 And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end: That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
Realize the point this is making.
• There is a place of confidence that we enter into that makes us christians who KNOW we are saved.
• There is a boldness that comes upon us that makes us people who go before God, Himself, any time they are in need.
The unbelief that characterized Israel when they came to Canaan under Moses' time, is never experienced by the ones who KNOW THAT THEY ARE IN HIS WILL.
• The sad thing about the Hebrews in Moses' time who doubted they could enter Canaan was that they had the will of God on their side to enter.
• They actually were ready!
• But they did not believe it!
• What a tragedy!
• They were not trying to do something that would move God to stop them and say, "Just who do you think you are? Where do you get off wanting to go into Canaan?"
• Not at all.
• God's blessing was on them to enter Canaan.
• He WANTED them to go into this wonderful land.
And Hebrews is comparing that situation to ours today.
• We tend to be so negative in our thinking sometimes that we think about ourselves as individuals who want to go to Heaven as though God would say to us, "Just who do YOU think YOU are? Where do YOU get off thinking you can come to me any time you want to come to me? Where do YOU get off thinking you are so confidently on your way to Heaven and that you don't have to sweat and worry whether you are good enough to enter?"
• Wonderfully enough, God is actually saying we are ready to come to Him, and He wants us to be confident that we are going to Heaven.
ALL of Israel was READY to go into Canaan.
• This great and almost fantastic opportunity was theirs.
• But they looked at themselves in far more inferior manner than what they actually were.
• God had them ready to enter into Canaan and a thought and concept spread like a disease through them that God was not on their side and God would not defeat their enemies for them and God did not want them to enter the Land.
• They knew God existed.
• Of course they knew!
• They physically saw the Red Sea open up!
• They literally saw with their own eyes a towering pillar of fire by night and cloud by day!
• They saw water come out of rock!
• So it was not a problem of whether they believed God existed or not.
• It was a problem of whether they were right with Him and ready to go into their goals.
This is amazing!
• With Christians wanting to go to Heaven today, Hebrews tells us, is the same situation.
• It is not whether we believe in God or not.
• But the REAL problem is thinking, "I wonder if I am ready to go to Heaven." And "I cannot put a finger on it, but I feel that something in me makes God look at me lowly and I am not quite up to par to get all that God can offer."
• Or... if you are not a Christian, "Being one of those Christians, that the Bible talks about, is so hard to be and so far beyond what I am capable ot living, that I have little hope I could ever go to Heaven."
People have not changed when it comes to God.
• As it was in Israel, people doubting that God was there to take them, so it is today.
• You would think that the Bible is filled with words like, "Who do you think you are trying to be so holy and so confident that everything is fine and you can go and obtain any promise of mine you want" by looking at some people and how they LACK CONFIDENCE IN THEIR WALK WITH GOD.
• But lo and behold... You see the opposite.
• You see the Bible saying in entire Books, like Hebrews, that the real situation is that we are worthy to get anything we need from God, and we should have all the confidence in the world that we are going to go to Heaven... no doubt about it!
• What the thing that hinders us is, is that we do not believe we are so well off, but we tend to always look to the negative, which in this case is wrong, and think we are up against too many odds and will most likely fail.
• We think the reason that we struggle is because God is not on OUR side.
• We think all is NOT WELL between us and God.
• So we think that we might as well not even show our faces to Him when we need something.
NO.
• There is the sinful activities that we cannot be indulging into.
• Pay strict attention to this point!
• If you are sinning purposely then this message is not for you.
• You need to repent.
• But if you are sincerely wanting to do God's will and do not purposely sin, this is your key!
• If you feel inferior spiritually, the Bible is telling you that you have not paid enough attention to its message!
• It is saying that when Jesus spoke, we did not give enough EARNEST HEED TO HEAR HIM and TO HEAR WHAT HE SAID that we have taken a totally incorrect view of ourselves upon us.
• Hebrews said that if any of you that are not dishonest and not purposely sinning, not caring what any God might think, who truly love God and make an effort regularly to hear the Word of God, like you have this morning, are feeling you are coming short of great things in God, it is because YOU DID NOT HEAR WHAT JESUS AND THE APOSTLES SAID CAREFULLY ENOUGH
Had you heard the truth carefully enough, you would be filled with confidence!
• You would approach the throne of God with BOLDNESS.
• Any time you were in need, you would KNOW that God is right there waiting to bless you!
• Any time you receive a lie from the devil that YOU CANNOT KNOW WHETHER YOU ARE SAVED OR NOT, you could laugh it off and say, "I KNOW I AM SAVED."
Satan gives us feelings also.
• In fact, he gives as many feelings to us and into our souls as he does words.
• Any time the devil put it into you to feel like you might be one of the ones who will miss the rapture and not make it into heaven, and make you feel that YOU CANNOT REALLY KNOW you are ready, you can confidently throw off that lie and feeling and KNOW that the Bible says YOU CAN KNOW.
• KNOW that Hebrews teaches that we are supposed to think confidently and COME BOLDLY to God when we need to.
Hebrews says the entire reason we hesitate is because we DID NOT GET WHAT THE NEW TESTAMENT SAID!

Hebr 6:11-12 And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end: That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
Hebrews said that we need to LISTEN CLOSELY to the Word, because it will make anybody come to a place of FULL ASSURANCE, CONFIDENCE and BOLDNESS... (look at the words used in this book! to describe the way any of us SHOULD feel about our Christianity!) that we finally quit fooling around with worry and usefully spend our time PROGRESSING because we are not HINDERED if we KNOW THE REAL SITUATION!!
When we DO make mistakes and sin, we still get it all wrong!
• We think, "Oh no! I did it. Goodbye, glory of God. Goodbye, journey to Heaven. I'm surely going to hell now!"
• When the truth is...
1Joh 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
We do not read of this offer as if God said that ONLY TWO TIMES that we sin, no matter how much we simply made mistakes, and did not mean to do them, can we be given forgiveness -- beyond that is too much for God to forgive.
• We do not read of a limit.
• We do not read of so many number of times we can be forgiven, even of the same thing, after which He will not forgive.
• One man said it like this! YOU CANNOT FALL BEYOND HIS LOVE.
• We read...
1Joh 2:1-2 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for [the sins of] the whole world.
"Gospel" means GOOD NEWS.
• We took the GOOD out of GOOD NEWS.
Where has this distorted Gospel come from?
• Sinners think, "Please, do not ask me to give my life to God and be a Christian, I want to enjoy life while I can."
• Where did such horrendously insane concepts come from?
• A God who loves us beyond what we can imagine, is a God who removes all joy from life and makes us miserable in this world????
• My Bible says that what we can have today IS JOY UNSPEAKABLE and full of glory... AND THE HALF HAS NEVER YET BEEN TOLD.
• If what we have is joy that is so great it cannot be spoken about, since there are no words created to describe the EXTREME degree of joy, and what has been said IS NOT EVEN THE HALF, then how much joy is really there?
You say, "Look at Sister Stick-in-the-mud. I do not see much joy there."
• No, because our sister has the common problem, that you are plagued with. And that is, not having listened carefully to Jesus' words enough to get the confidence that He says is available to any sincere person who really wants God, that they glow in BOLDNESS, CONFIDENCE and FULL ASSURANCE.
Notice how we will get this confidence:
• Give earnest heed to the things we heard of Jesus and the apostles.
• NOT... pay close attention to how you feel.
• NOT... pay close attention to what people think of you.
• NOT... count how many supernatural experiences you had.
• NO!!!!
• PAY CLOSE HEED TO THE WORD OF GOD.
Hebrews 4 told us there is a sword that stands in the way to the Rest.
• Like in the Garden, it is there to check out who has real faith or not.
• But this is a two-edged sword.
• One edge does cut at the sin in the hypocrite who does not possess the faith.
• But another edge is there, too.
• And THAT edge cuts the soul and spirit apart and finds a hurt alongside of a desire to really love God and make it into Heaven to be with Him for eternity.
• And the sword reveals this to the HIGH PRIEST.
We read at the start about the quality human high priests have to intercede to God for people.
• We read about their COMPASSION and GENTLENESS.
• They themselves are human and know what it is to be weak and make mistakes.
• And the HIGH PRIEST, JESUS CHRIST, that we deal with has the same compassion, because He has the same qualities.
• He was incarnate in the flesh as we are in the flesh.
• He was susceptible to temptations as we are.
• He did not sin, but He knows what its like to be tempted.
• So when He sees the hurt deep inside as the sword of His word cuts our spirits and souls open, to look for faith, Suddenly He is filled with compassion.
• That deep love goes to work.
• And He begins to intercede.
• OH, HOW WE MUST TRUST HIM!
• Oh, if we only knew the reality!
• OH, if I can get you to see this truth!
• THE SWORD HAS TWO EDGES.
• IT HAS TWO SIDES TO IT.
• IT CUTS TWO WAYS.
• It removes the hypocrite, but the other side of it ALSO OPENS UP THE HURTS FOR THE HIGH PRIEST TO SEE and minister healing and cleansing.
• HE KNOWS WE MADE A MISTAKE.
• HE KNOWS WE TRULY LOVE HIM.
AND HE IS TRYING TO HELP US UNDERSTAND WE CAN HAVE CONFIDENCE.
• We do not have to feel so low.
• We do not have to wonder if we are saved.
• IF we would only read the WORD some more.
• IF we would only listen closely and pay close, very close, attention to the truth.... we would be filled with confidence.
• We would be filled with assurance.
• We would be filled with BOLDNESS TO ENTER IN!
We need to get used to finding out the reality of our situations as Christians by reading about it in the Bible.
• And we need to get used to standing on that word alone.
• He promised here that if we will give more earnest heed to things preached, we will be filled with all assurance and confidence.
• We'll never wonder if He is there for US or not.
• We'll never think the false notion that nobody can know for sure whether they are ready or not.
• WE WILL KNOW BETTER THAN THAT!
Dr.Diana Brevan