Hebrews 3:1-6
The famous pagan prophet, Mick Jagger, often lamented loudly; "Can't get no
satisfaction!"
No truer statement has ever been uttered!
I thought I had arrived at the top of that unattainable summit once, in 1975, but I was
wrong.
Then, in 1979, I was sure I had finally grasped the goal, but again, it slipped right
through my fingers!
Oh, she was amazing, no doubt!
But then in a slight reefer-induced fog, I turned in front of a girl in a VW, and that
wonderful new-car shine was gone in an instant!
Satisfaction is a funny thing!
It's illusive! Why is that!?
Satisfaction is illusive because we usually try to find it in our jobs, our homes, our cars,
or through experiences.
But all of these things are temporary!
So our satisfaction is also temporary!
CS Lewis wrote that when we find within ourselves desires which cannot be satisfied by
anything this world has to offer, it would be wise to consider the probability that we were
created for another world!
In Hebrews 3:1 we read;
"Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and
High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, 2 who was faithful to Him who appointed
Him, as Moses also was faithful in all His house. 3 For this One has been counted
worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who built the house has more honor
than the house. 4 For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is
God. 5 And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of
those things which would be spoken afterward, 6 but Christ as a Son over His own
house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope
firm to the end."
Well, today I would like to focus on two things.
The first thing is that we have a call from Heaven!
It is a call for Heaven, by Heaven, and TO Heaven!
Nothing in this world can completely satisfy you!
Neither success nor riches, nor romance!
There are many who have pursued peace and joy and satisfaction through financial
success, but ultimately WITHOUT success in that pursuit!
Because success can't provide peace and joy!
The more success, money, and stuff you have, the more you want!
That's why the Bible tells us in
1 Timothy 6:8 to be content in whatever state we find ourselves!
Ephesians 4:28 says:
"Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what
is good, that he may have something to give him who has need."
If you are working primarily for money, then money is what you are worshipping!
Others look for satisfaction in a relationship.
Which, ironically, murders many marriages before they have a chance to grow and
develop!
Murders marriages!? Yes!
You see, when you are in a relationship primarily to take, eventually you bleed it dry!
I see it all the time!
Two imperfect people, each focused on what they need and want; each focused on
BEING satisfied by the other person!
The result of that is TWO dissatisfied and frustrated people!
The solution is to answer that Heavenly Call!
What do I mean?...
Jesus said that if we will put HIS agenda at the head of our list, our needs will be taken
care of!
What does that look like? It looks like Him!
It looks like someone who is always choosing to give!
Their number one priority isn't their pension, or 401-k! Or the next new toy... Or their
own comfort!
It looks like someone whose priorities are established based upon a goal of building the
Kingdom of God, not their own wealth!
And it looks like someone who chooses to love sacrificially, instead of feeding on other
people emotionally!
Going back to the marriage thing; two takers destroy a relationship, but two GIVERS
insure that both are are continually receiving and being built up!
Nothing is ever built up by TAKING!
Every single one of us has received a Heavenly call!
The degree to which you choose to partake of that call is the degree to which your life
will be joyful and fruitful!
"Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and
High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus,"
That's the key! Consider Jesus! Not yourself!
Pastor Chuck Smith... Servant...
I see so many Christians settling for so much less than God wants to give them,
all because they have been half-hearted in their response to His Heavenly call!
They put Jesus on hold while they continue pursuing temporal goals & desires!
Christian! He promises that the temporal stuff will be added, as you focus on eternal
priorities!
Recently my son was talking about the fact that he didn't really enjoy the company of
most of the Christian kids he had met on campus.
We challenged him on that!
Maybe he's there for them! And not the other way around!
If Samson had only learned that lesson how would HIS life have been different!?
Listen, you can have stronger relationships and much more productive lives, if you grab
onto this Truth!
Answer the HEAVENLY call!
Partake fully in THAT call, and put the call of the FLESH on hold!
Secondly,
only Jesus CAN bring you to fulfillment and satisfaction!
Look again at Hebrews chapter 3...
"Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and
High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, 2 who was faithful to Him who appointed
Him, as Moses also was faithful in all His house. 3 For this One has been counted
worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who built the house has more honor
than the house. 4 For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is
God. 5 And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of
those things which would be spoken afterward, 6 but Christ as a Son over His own
house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope
firm to the end."
The Jewish people had Moses up on a high pedestal!
They still view him as the ultimate example to follow!
But the Bible gives us a great analogy!
If a building is beautiful and deserving of glory, how much honor is due to the One who
designed and constructed it!?
You are being built by Christ, if you hold fast!
In other words, if you are partaking of that Heavenly call and cooperating with the Chief
Builder, He is hard at work building you into a glorious home for His Spirit!
Ephesians 2:10 says that you are His workmanship!
And in verse 19 He goes on to say:
"Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the
saints and members of the household of God, 20 having been built on the foundation of
the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone, 21 in
whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 22
in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit."
Remember the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well, in John chapter 4?
Jesus was traveling from Judea back to Galilee, and the Bible says that He needed to
go through Samaria.
The reason He needed to go through Samaria was that The Father was sending Him to
rescue the people of Sychar!
The Bible says that He sat down by the well while all of His disciples went into the city to
buy food.
When they got back with the food He didn't eat anything!
While they were all focused on their physical needs and desires Jesus was focused
on eternal priorities!
The woman at the well was so focused on the physical water that when Jesus started
talking to her about her spiritual thirst she almost missed it!
The disciples were distracted, the Samaritan woman was distracted, and we are
often distracted!
Jesus wants to build US into a source of satisfaction for the hunger and thirst of a dying
world,
and often we are so busy on trivial pursuits that we can fly right past the blessings He
wants to give to us!
Listen to John 4:10:
"Jesus answered and said to her, “ If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says
to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you
living water.” 11 The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the
well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? 12 Are You greater than our
father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and
his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered and said to her, “ Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, 14
but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I
shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
Jesus said; "If you understood who I am, you would have turned your focus away from
the temporary, physical focus!"
And I would give you real satisfaction! Full, complete, limitless satisfaction!
Jesus wants to give you a satisfaction SO complete that it overflows and
becomes a source from which others can also find fulfillment!
And not just a temporary fix, but a permanent, eternal spring that will never run dry!
That happens when you make HIM the central focus of your life!
Spending time in communion with Him through prayer, the daily reading of His Word,
and telling others about His love!
Let me share with you the full quote from
C. S. Lewis in Mere Christianity, that I referred to earlier:
"...Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A
baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well,
there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire: well, there is such a thing as sex.
If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most
probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly
pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly
pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing.
If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or to be unthankful for,
these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else
of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage. I must keep alive in myself the
desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get
snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that
country and to help others to do the same.”
Jesus didn't ask that woman to stop drinking water, when He offered her more!
And He doesn't you to stop enjoying the short-term pleasures which He Himself
designed you to enjoy in this life!
He simply wants you to answer the Heavenly call and not be drawn off course by the
calls of earth!
If you have been born again by the indwelling work of the Holy Spirit then He is working
within you to make YOU a spring of Living Water here in Miami and Miami Beach!
Are you partaking of that Heavenly Calling!?
Are you holding fast to that confidence so that He can build you into His own house?
Questions:
Why is it that satisfaction seems so illusive?
What does this mean passage mean when it refers to our Heavenly Calling?
How does one partake of the Heavenly Calling?
How do we become sources of satisfaction for other people?