Strengthen the Weak, Pursue Peace

In one paragraph

This message, from Hebrews 12:12-17, walked through what it looks like to live in genuine Christian community, where people are going to sin against one another and will need both grace and honest effort to stay together. Pastor Mike traced the passage from its call to strengthen the weak all the way through the warning of Esau, who gave away something good for something momentary and could never...

Read together

1. Psalm 73:26 opening verse: 'My health may fail, my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart. He is mine forever.'
2. Hebrews 12:12-17 main passage for the sermon, read in full twice
3. Hebrews 12:7-11 preceding context on discipline, read as the 'therefore' setup for the main passage
4. Isaiah 35 source of 'encourage the exhausted and strengthen the feeble', referenced as background to Hebrews 12:12
5. Proverbs 3:11-12 quoted on not rejecting the Lord's discipline, tied to encouraging the exhausted and strengthening the feeble
6. Hebrews 12:2 correction of earlier sermon: 'for the joy set before him' reexamined, anti meaning 'instead of' or 'in place of'
7. Proverbs 4:26 source of 'watch the path of your feet', linked to 'make straight paths for your feet'
8. Psalm 34:14 quoted as source of 'seek peace and pursue it', linked to 'pursue peace with all men'
9. 1 Peter 3:11 picks up Psalm 34:14: 'he must turn away from evil and do good, he must seek peace and pursue it'
10. Matthew 5:9 referenced as Jesus saying in the Sermon on the Mount: 'blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of God'
11. Deuteronomy 29:18 approximate reference cited as background to 'root of bitterness springing up causes trouble'
12. Hebrews 4:1 quoted: 'therefore let us fear while a promise remains of entering his rest'
13. Hebrews 3:7-14 quoted at length: 'Today if you hear his voice do not harden your hearts', warning against falling away like those in the wilderness
14. Colossians 3:17 benediction: 'whatever you do in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God the Father through him'

Talk about it

1. Pastor Mike corrected something he had said earlier about why Jesus endured the cross, explaining that the phrase 'for the joy set before him' means Christ voluntarily gave up the joy of heaven rather than looking past the cross toward returning to it. How does understanding Jesus as someone who chose to leave something good, rather than simply endure something hard on the way to something better, change the way you think about following his example?
2. The sermon described how bitterness is like a weed in a cracked parking lot: you can drive around it for a while, but it spreads, forces things apart, and gets worse over time. Have you ever realized you were still holding on to an offense you thought you had dealt with? What made you recognize it?
3. Pastor Mike said that accessing God's grace for yourself is what makes it possible to extend grace to someone who has wronged you, comparing it to using roundup on a root of bitterness all the way down to the bottom. What does it actually look like, in a practical moment of conflict, to draw on God's grace before trying to forgive?
4. The passage warns against being like Esau, who gave up a lasting blessing for something that satisfied an immediate desire, and then could not go back and undo it. Where do you feel pressure right now to trade something of lasting value for something that would just relieve the moment?
5. Pastor Mike quoted John Ortberg: 'The greatest moment of your life is now, not because it is pleasant or happy or easy, but because this moment is the only moment you have got.' He applied that directly: if there is something you know you ought to do, a relationship to repair, a word to speak, do it today. What is one thing that came to mind when you heard that?