Hearts Strengthened By Grace (Hebrews Sermon 71)

Recently, I had the opportunity to show one of my favorite movies of all time to my two younger kids, and one of them thought she had seen it before. Chariots of Fire came out in 1981. I love that movie. Its about Eric Liddell, a Scottish missionary, who gave his life for the Lord, died in a Japanese internment camp in 1945. There’s a couple of moments in that movie that my logical, exegetical mind has trouble harmonizing. I think the movie is internally inconsistent. But that’s okay. There is no promise of inerrancy on movies, so that’s all right.

But there is Eric Liddell after running a race and he’s having a witnessing opportunity. He’s standing to a small crowd that’s gathered around the track where he won the race, and he’s witnessing to them, which he did frequently, that’s true. And as he’s sharing, he’s talking about the life of faith, and he says he wants to compare the life of faith to running in a race, which the Scripture does multiple times actually. He says, “It’s hard. It requires concentration of will, energy and soul,” he says. And then he asked this question, which is really very powerful and comes up again later in the movie when he’s winning the gold medal in the 400 meters, “Where then does the strength come from to see the race through to the end?” And then he says, “It comes from within.” And then he quotes the Scripture, “Jesus said, ‘Behold, the kingdom of God is within you.'”

Well, the first time I heard that, no big deal. I’m glad he’s saying “Jesus.” I’m just excited the name “Jesus” is in a film, especially a popular film. But I frankly like better a later moment in the movie that answers the question… I think a little bit differently. Remember the question, “Where then does the strength come from to see the race through to its end?” I think, if you remember that movie, the scene I’m talking about, very powerful. Before he runs in his 400-meter final, at Sunday, he has the opportunity to preach in a church of Scotland there in Paris. And he chooses as his text Isaiah chapter 40. And it’s very, very strong. “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, His understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary, and He increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

I think that’s a better answer to the question. The strength, the power to see the race through to the end does not come from within me, it comes from outside of me. It comes from the eternal God who never gets tired, who never grows weary, this infinite power source that’s available for us. And it enabled Eric Liddell to win the gold medal. He was a sprinter, and he had to extend out a greater distance in the 400 meters. It wasn’t his natural best race. His natural best race was the 100-meter, but he chose not to participate in that because it was on a Sunday and his convictions wouldn’t allow him to run on a Sunday.

The problem is the 400 is an eternity for a sprinter. And he was in the far outside lane, the eighth lane, and so he never saw another runner, which was good because that means he won the gold medal. But he was kind of running scared, and so he went out like a sprinter and ran hard, made the curve, and on the back stretch, he gave everything he had. Well, there’s still half a race to go. And you come around the curve and all he could do was just turn to God for every step. And he finished and set a British record in the 400-meter that stood for decades. And if you ask Eric Liddell, “Where did the strength come from to run that last 200 meters?” “It came from God.”

Well, in our text today, we have an answer to the question. After talking about false doctrine, which I mentioned in the last message, I want to get to this one phrase that’s been much on my mind. “It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace and not by ceremonial foods.” So, after an incredible 12-chapter journey in this epistle of grace, the author now, having given us the supremacy of Jesus Christ, how He’s superior to everything the Old Covenant had to offer in every way, the eternal Son of God, the radiance of God’s glory, the exact representation of His being, the one who sustains all things by His powerful word, this Jesus, this perfect mediator, has brought to us a New Covenant. A New Covenant He bought with His own blood, which He offered once for all time, never again to be repeated, this once for all sacrifice, of the Son of God.

And He, having provided purification for sins, He ascended into Heaven and now sits at the right hand of Almighty God. And there, He ministers on the basis of the finished work that He offered once for all. And so He has brought us a superior covenant. The superior mediator, Jesus Christ, has brought us a superior covenant, a covenant by which our sins are actually forgiven, by which we are actually transformed. He writes His laws on our minds and writes them on our hearts, and we’re given a whole new nature, the heart of stone taken out, a heart of flesh put in. And we are adopted as sons and daughters of the living God, and we will live with Him forever and ever on the basis of that New Covenant. Having given us that New Covenant, it then results in a superior life, which we’ve been looking at, the life of faith from Hebrews 11.

And celebrating that life of faith, and the author is giving us now, in chapter 13, many practicalities, specifics of the Christian life. And the way that the Christian life works is that God speaks words to us, He speaks promises, the promises of God, the promises of the Scripture such as in verse 5 of this chapter, “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.” That’s a promise. And then in verse 6, “So we say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?'” And again, in verse 8, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” These promises of God, such as, “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you,” are the basis of our faith, and God works faith in us, the receptor of these promises.

And so we can receive the truth of these promises, and then live accordingly by faith. And so by faith in this promise, such as, “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you,” we can, in verse 1, “Keep on loving each other as brothers.” By faith, we can do that. By faith, in the promise, we can love strangers and show them hospitality, in verse 2. By faith, in the promise of God, we can minister to those in prison and not forget them those that are afflicted, verse 3. By faith we can honor marriage and keep the marriage bed free from sexual defilement, in verse 4. By faith in this promise, we can keep our lives free from the love of money and be content with what we have. All of this, by faith in the promise of God.

And all of this flows the well spring of this pulsating strength for the Christian life, this is the dynamic, the Word of God taken in by faith, renewing and restoring our hearts, and enabling us to live again that life that’s glorifying to God, that’s the rhythm of the Christian life. That’s the foundation of the text we’re looking at today. Look at verse 9, “Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings.” He says that because it’s doctrine, it’s good teaching, right teaching, that’s going to be the avenue of grace to strengthen your heart. So, “Don’t be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace and not by ceremonial foods,” the NIV gives us, “which are of no value to those who eat them.”

I. What is the Heart?

For me, I’m thinking about this flock that I’m privileged to shepherd, I’m thinking about people in it. I’m thinking about people, I’ve met with, people I’ve talked with, situations I know. And I know that there is a need for strengthening among you people today. I know, I feel it. And if you’re honest, you feel it regularly, maybe daily, some of you feeling it hourly, “I need to be strengthened by God. I’m under attack, onslaughts going on, I feel weak, I don’t know that I can keep making it here. I need you to strengthen me.” And so, if we do nothing else today, just ministering strength to weak people who are then renewed in their strength is a good work. Amen? So that you people who have come today, that I also will be strengthened, enabled to resume this Christian race that’s set in front of us.

So, I want to take it very, very carefully and look at it and try to understand it. Let’s start with the word “heart.” It says it’s good for our hearts to be strengthened. So, what is the heart? The strength that this passage commands us, heart strength. Not physical strength. We’re not talking about physical strength here, although it results in some cases in physical exertions. But what is it? What is the heart? Well, the heart is the inner man, the inner nature, the inner person, the new self which is created to be like God. The key passage for me on the heart is Ephesians 3:16 and 17. There, Paul prays for the Ephesians, Christians, he says, “I pray that out of His [God’s] glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.”

That’s it. The focus of that prayer is on the inner person, the inner man, the soul, the heart. And he prays, there, the very thing related to this text here, that it may be strengthened by faith through the Spirit, by the power of the Spirit. Strengthen, that’s what he prays for. 3:19, “So that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” That means you’ve been strengthened now. Ephesians 3:19, you now have been strengthened, you are filled to the measure of all the fullness of God, that’s what you feel inside. That’s the heart, the inner man. Or in Romans 7:22, “For in my inner being I delight in God’s law.” That’s that new nature, that delights in the law of God.

So, the strength we need is the strength of the inner man, the heart, the new nature. The heart is the part of you that thinks, the part of you that feels, the part of you that decides, the part of you that feels, the part of you that trusts. That’s the heart biblically. The word “heart” is connected with all those verbs and others. It’s a dynamic inner part of you, your heart. And out of that heart, you do everything in your life. As it says in Proverbs 4:23, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the well spring of life, from it flow the springs of life.”

II. Why Does the Heart Need to be Strengthened?

All right, so that’s the heart. Why does it need to be strengthened? That, it needs to be strengthened you all feel acutely. I do. Why? Why does my heart need to be strengthened? Well, I’m going to give you three answers to that question. First is because you’re a creature, not the Creator. The big difference, in Isaiah 40, between the Creator and the creature is this issue of strength. Isaiah 40:28 “Do you not know, have you not heard? The Lord, the Creator of the ends of the Earth does not grow tired or weary.” You see that? He never gets tired. His arm is infinitely powerful. Whatever his arm is lifting right now, it’s not trembling or shaking, it’s not soon going to let up that weight. It’s just not the way he is. He is omnipotent. He has all power. He is infinite in his majesty. He is a great God, majestic, the Creator of the ends of the earth. And before him, the nations are as a drop from the bucket and dust on the scales. That’s the Creator, that’s not you.

Even the young men grow tired and weary. Even the youths stumble and fall. In the movie, they show one of the main figures, Aubrey Montague, who’s running the steeplechase, tripping and falling on the barrier, and going down on the ashes. It was an ash track, cinder track, and all muddy because of the water of the steeplechase, and he finishes, not last, but close to last. And he’s just the picture of dejection as he sits there in the rain while the scripture is being read. He’s a human being. He gets tired, he stumbles, he falls. And so God has ordained it that you need to be renewed and refreshed. He’s ordained it so that you don’t get arrogant and be independent and think you don’t need Him anymore. He has created you to need oxygen. He doesn’t need it. He’s created you need water. He doesn’t need that. You need sunlight. He doesn’t need that. You need food. Not as much as you eat, but you need food. He doesn’t need that. He doesn’t need anything coming from the outside in to keep Him existing. That’s because He’s the Creator. But he created a dependent universe, that depends on Him for everything, and that includes you.

So, the reason that you need to be renewed in your strength is God has designed it that way so that you do not get arrogant and be independent. “I am the vine,” said Jesus, “you are the branches.” And “apart from Me, you can do nothing.” He can do plenty of things apart from you.” That’s humbling, isn’t it? But it’s just the truth. He is the mighty God, and we are dependent. So, you need to be strengthened, the heart needs to be strengthened, because God has ordained it that way.

Secondly, the heart needs to be strengthened because the two infinite journeys that are in front of us are so immensely difficult. God has set great challenges before the church, not small ones. The two infinite journeys, in case you haven’t been here a lot, we talk about them here, this is how we organize the thinking of what we’re trying to do here in ministry. And so we are here for the glory of God. Over everything is the glory of God. How do we glorify God? By making progress in two infinite journeys. What are those two infinite journeys? The internal journey of sanctification of growth in Christ-likeness, of becoming more and more like Jesus. Jesus says in Matthew 5:48 that like your Heavenly Father, you must be perfect. That standard will stand over you the rest of your life. It’s relentless. He never accepts anything less than perfection, wherever you have come short of perfection, and you know it, you must confess it as sin. Well, that’s relentless. The New Testament is relentless. “Do everything without complaining or arguing.” It’s relentless. Single verse from an epistle, it’s just the way it is. That’s the internal journey.

The external journey, there are billions of people who aren’t Christians, who haven’t heard the Gospel or not within earshot of the Gospel, unread people groups, and that is a relentless upward call for us. God has set before the church immense tasks, not small ones. They’re far greater than we can do. As a matter of fact, these things are so difficult, the journey is so difficult that I contend you can’t make progress, a single step of progress, apart from His sovereign grace. You must have His grace at every moment. So, you need to be renewed, because just the journey is so hard. This is a hard race we’re running here. And it’s a long one, too. It’s a marathon we’re on.

And thirdly, you need to be… The heart needs to be strengthened, because it’s under constant assault from enemies. This isn’t a peace-time jog. This isn’t even an Olympic marathon. It’s harder than that. It’s harder than that. It lasts longer, it’s more arduous, and we’re under fire the whole time. I’ve likened it to an image that’s in my mind, World War I, no man’s land, with barbed wire on the left and the right, and it goes from the North Sea down to the southern part of Europe for hundreds of miles, and we’re called on to run between that and not get killed. We were under assault. The flaming arrows of the evil one are coming at us every day, and frankly, when we don’t lift up the shield of faith, and one of those flaming arrows gets through, it weakens you. Doesn’t it? Don’t you feel weak when you miss one of those and it gets through? It doesn’t kill you. It can’t kill you, much to his immense frustration. We can’t kill him, much to ours.

And so here we are, in this incredible battle with the devil, and he’s so clever and he’s fighting us every step of the way, and he’s concocting, crafting special temptations for us, studying our hearts, and coming after us in our weakest spots. And then there’s this ingenious world system that’s just set up to allure us and entice us. Talked about materialism a few weeks ago, it’s just set up to allure us and help us to cause us to love material possessions. It’s assaulting us in the lust area, just the world all the time. And then the worst of all, in my opinion, is the flesh, that enemy within, that part of me that opens the door for Satan and lets him into my life. What a wretched man I am. The very thing I hate, I do because I’m insane, the flesh. This is an arduous journey, friends. That’s why you need to be renewed. That’s why you need to be strengthened. Don’t marvel at it, don’t wonder why. Because you are a creature, and because you have these two infinite journeys, and because you’re under assault as you try to make progress, you will need regularly to be strengthened, rest of your life.

III. What Does it Mean to be Strengthened by Grace?

What does it mean then for the heart to be strengthened by grace? Well, the word “strengthen,” in many places, means to establish or confirm. But I think that a better use of the word here is in Colossians 2:6 and 7. “Therefore as you received Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him, established in the faith as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.” So, it’s an idea of resources flowing to your soul, to your heart, to strengthen it up in Christ so that you can make progress. It’s a spiritual energy, like you’ll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you’ll be my witnesses. Or think about Samson when a young lion leaped at him, remember, and the spirit of the Lord came upon him powerfully and he ripped that lion apart with his bare hands. Isn’t that awesome?

It’s a strength and energy that comes, that renews and re-establishes the heart that gives it energy for progress. Maybe a more poignant example is in 1 Samuel 30, where David comes back to find that his wives and the wives of his fellow soldiers had been… There had been a raid by the Amalekites and everything was gone. They’re all gone. And they thought they were dead, plundered, gone. And David sat down and wept, and they all wept for their wives and their children. And the men were talking of stoning David, you remember that? It’s his fault. There’s this little phrase that said, “But David found strength from the Lord his God.” That’s you, that’s me.

I don’t know what you’re going through. I know some of the things that you folks are going through. You need to do that. Whatever you’re going through, do that. Find strength in the Lord your God. Stop. Pray. David wrote a lot of psalms about this. “My soul finds strength in the Lord alone.” And so you just go. That’s what I think it means to be strengthened, to be renewed. I can keep going now, I got it, I’m back on the journey again, I’m not going to give up, I’m going to be renewed. I’m ready. I can keep going in this internal and external journey.

Well, what does it mean for the heart to be strengthened by grace? Well, grace is that commitment in the eternal mind of God to do you good, when you deserve eternal condemnation. It’s his commitment to do you good, and not just a little good, but to do you infinite good, to do you eternal good, to give you every blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, to be lavishly generous to you. It’s a commitment in the heart of God, that is pulsating commitment inside the soul, the heart, the being, the very center of the being of God, that’s what grace is. It’s a commitment in God. But grace comes to us through certain pipelines or avenues, what we call means of grace. So, it’s in God, those means themselves are displays of God’s grace, but they are pipelines or conduits, and grace is just this golden lighted liquid flowing from heaven down into your soul. But it comes along certain pipelines. The greatest and best of these is the Word of God. The ministry of the Word is a pipeline of grace.

I hope it’s happening for you right now, that as you hear these words, as you hear the Word of God, your heart gets stronger again for the journey. And this grace just flows in and does you good, and it gives you energy and strength as grace does. And there are different kinds of grace. It depends on the need. Whatever the need is, He gives you different kinds of grace. He gives You more grace, more and more grace. More grace. Do you need that? I need that, I need more grace. I’m not done with grace now. And so wherever I’m at, and I’m weak and I need to be strengthened… There’s different ways I could do this, but look at it in a time point of view. As I look back, I need covering grace. And as I look forward, I need what John Piper calls “Future Grace.”

So, looking back, what makes me feel weak is a good estimation of my own sinfulness and my failures and my weaknesses, and I just feel ashamed for those things. And I feel like I’ve missed opportunities, sins of omission, things I should have done, or things that God forbade and I did them. And I feel ashamed of that, and I look back and I’m just… I need grace for that. And so covering grace comes from Psalm 32 verse 1 and 2, “Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him and in his spirit is no deceit.” You know where that grace, the covering grace, it flows from what Nathan preached about so beautifully last week, the cross of Jesus Christ. It just flows from the blood of Jesus. The value, the infinite value, the precious blood of Jesus covers all your sins.

And so you are there, don’t deny in whose spirit is no deceit, you say, “I have sinned against you, oh, Lord. I have failed you. The very thing you commanded me to not do, I have done. And, Lord, I have failed you. You commanded me to do good to my neighbor, to share the Gospel, or to care for the poor and needy, or to do this or that with my family, and I have not. Oh, God, forgive me. Forgive me.” And as you’re confessing your sin by faith, and as you’re going again back in your heart to the cross, as Nathan preached… Thank you for that last week, it’s been ministering to me all week, thank you for that word, Nathan. It just strengthened me. But as we go back to the cross of Jesus Christ, you get strengthened again and you’re covered, 100% covered. And having done that, and having learned the lesson that you need to learn, don’t do that again, that kind of thing.

There’s nothing more to do with the past, friends. Forgetting what lies behind now, it’s time to get up and do the things that are ahead. But now we need a different kind of grace. It’s daunting, isn’t it? It’s like, “All right, I know I’m forgiven for that, but I still have that same weak nature. I know I’m still vulnerable in those areas. I know it. Oh, God, how do I know I’m not going to fall in that exact same way the next time temptation comes? I don’t even want to move, I’m paralyzed.” No, no, no, no. You know how you move? You move by faith in future grace. You move by saying, “Okay, I know that when I get up and I put one foot in front of the other, God will give me the grace I need to keep going. He’s going to give it to me.”

And I’m not going to keep adding day upon day upon day. Don’t do that. That’s Satan’s trap. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Amen? So, don’t stack them up and say, “Oh, the infinite journey is looking really infinite.” Well, really infinite. Forget it. You can’t say it, it’s infinite. It just is. It’s going to be in front of you the rest of your life, but don’t live it like that. You’ve got today to live, you don’t even know if you’ll have tomorrow. Let’s live today for the glory of God. And I know that as I get up, God will give me the grace I need to get through this sermon or get through anything I have to do today, He’ll give me the energy and the strength I need to serve Him. So, I’m not going to be overwhelmed, I will not be discouraged, I will not be dismayed, because He has promised me, “I will never leave you and I will never forsake you.”

What that is, is a promise to give you the grace you need to do the will of God, to do the good works he has for you to do. Is there going to be enough grace for the church to finish these two journeys? Yeah, there is. And it flows from the cross, it flows from Jesus. There’s enough grace. We’re going to finish. Amen? I wrestled for a long time with the word “infinite.” It’s not entirely true. We will finish. There’s a finish line. I guess it’s infinite, because it’s only an infinite source of grace will do it. Infinitude of God’s grace is sufficient for it. And we will finish.

IV. By Grace, Not by Food

All right. So, it’s good for our hearts to be strengthened. It’s good. Do you feel the goodness of it? It’s good food. Like Kevin said, “It’s just the pure milk of the word, it’s good to have your heart strengthened.” It’s good to have your heart strengthened by grace and not by food. Okay, now I’m going to meddle. I’m going to meddle a little bit, because there’s just probably too much consumption of comfort foods in this church, and they just don’t do much for you spiritually. They don’t. Now, I’ve already said, we’ve got to have physical food to keep living. You’ve got to. God created you that way. You can’t keep serving him without eating well. Eating nourishing foods. I’ll give you a clear picture of this from the Bible, from the case of Elijah. Do you remember how Elijah took on the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel and just an incredible triumph? And then he prays fervently, intensely prayed that it would rain. And it did rain, and the rain came. And then he hit stop his cloak and he runs ahead of a chariot, and all the way, and just… You’ve never had a day like that. And none of us have ever had a day like that. The energy output was immense.

And then Jezebel, Queen, finds out about what happened to her prophets, and she’s enraged. And she vows to make Elijah’s life like one of theirs by tomorrow. Well, he hears, and unlike him… Elijah, where was there ever any fear in him, but he was afraid of Jezebel. And so he ran for his life, it says right there in the text. “Elijah was afraid and ran for his life.” It’s right in the Bible. And so he’s out there in the desert, and he’s laying under a broom tree and he can barely move in the desert. And he starts to pray. It’s similar prayer to Jonah’s, but it’s different, it’s a different thing. He says, “Take my life now, because I’m not better than my ancestors.” I have nothing left to give. I’m done.”

And God sends him an angel with a biscuit and a jar of water. “You know what you need? You need a biscuit and a jar of water, and a good sleep.” And so he eats and drinks and falls asleep. And then the angel wakes him up again, and gives him another biscuit and another jar of water. And he says, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.” Yeah, we need to eat. I don’t know if I’m advocating biscuit and jar of water, but whatever it is that gives you physical strength, you need to do that. But the kind of strength the author has in mind here doesn’t come from food. It doesn’t come from food. As a matter of fact, there’s a verse in Corinthians that says, concerning food, “We are no worse off if we don’t eat and no better if we do,” which bothered me. That verse, I didn’t think, had the right parallelism. There should be an advocacy of food on one side and not food on the other. No. Both sides don’t advocate food. You’re not really helped if you eat, and you’re not hindered if you don’t, that’s what Paul says, both sides of it. Talk about meat sacrifice to idols there.

The strength the author has here doesn’t come from food, that’s what he’s saying. It comes from grace. Now, there’s all kinds of diets and convictions on diets, and different things you can do. There’s a low-cholesterol diet, and there’s the low-fat, low-sugar diet, and the gluten-free diet, and the Miami Beach Diet, and the Maker’s Diet, and the vegan diet which basically says if we just go back to the Garden of Eden and stop eating these animals, we’d be fine. We won’t have all these health problems. Or, the Maker’s Diet, that has similar mentality. I’m not advocating any of these. I think good nutrition is a helpful thing. I personally have never walked into a GNC store. I don’t know if any of you have. Health from a big jar that costs $86. I don’t know what they cost, but I think you could spend a lot of money in a vitamin store. I don’t know that it’s a bad thing, but what the author is saying is, the strength he has in mind does not come from eating anything, neither does it come from fasting. It’s not about the eating.

If you look at the context, it says, “Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace and not by food, ceremonial foods,” the NIV adds the word “ceremonial.” “…which are of no value to those who eat them. We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat.” The author is talking there about the Old Covenant legalists, the priests who never left the Old Covenant sacrificial system, they have unbelief all through their lives they should have known that the time for animal sacrifice was over. Instead they continued to minister at the tabernacle and they, because of their unbelief, have no right to eat at our table. Well, what is our table? What is it? It’s the table of grace spread by Jesus Christ. It’s a feast of grace. Jesus shed His blood on the cross so that we would have a feast, a river of grace. And we can, as Jesus said in John 6, feed on His flesh, eat His body and drink his blood spiritually to get renewed through that. The words he speaks to us is spirit and their life. That’s the table Jesus spreads.

V. Jesus Suffered to Spread a Banquet of Grace

Next week, I’m going to talk about where that table is. It’s outside the gate. It’s outside the camp. That’s where He spreads that grace. We’re going to talk about that next week, a very important message. I was going to combine it with this, but it’s just too important to combine it. We need strength because He’s inviting you to leave comfort, inviting you leave the city, and go out where He is. We’ll talk about that next week. But Jesus suffered to spread us a banquet of grace.

VI. How Can We Be Strengthened by Grace Every Day?

How then can we be strengthened by grace every day? Well, first, if you have never come to faith in Christ, and you’re here as a guest, the strength I’m advocating here is just the strength of life. The Bible says, that apart from Jesus, you are dead in your transgressions and sins while you live. You’re alive enough to come here, but not spiritually alive until perhaps this moment. So, hear then the Gospel of Jesus Christ. God sent his son into the world, who shed his blood for sinners like you and me. We have violated the laws of God, but God is willing to forgive if you just repent of your sins and turn in faith to Jesus, all of your sins will be forgiven. And then you’ll be alive, born again by the power of the Spirit.” Just put your trust in him. You don’t need to move, you just need to trust. Put your trust in Him.

And if you have already trusted in Christ, now you’re wondering, “How can my ever-weakening, constantly weakening heart be strengthened by grace? How does that work?” Well, first of all, desire it. I would just simply say it all starts with desiring to be strengthened. Acknowledge, “I am weak right now. I feel my weakness. I feel it in my susceptibility to temptation. I feel it in my discouragement and the fact that the two infinite journeys look like I can’t make a single step in either one. Overwhelming. I feel weak.” Start there. And then bring that weakness to back to God in prayer. Paul said in 2 Corinthians, “When I am weak,” what does he say, “then I’m strong.” Why? Because the weakness caused us to go back to the source of our strength and say, “I can’t do this.” When you’re strong, you’re weak. Say, “I don’t need Jesus. I got this one, Lord. I’m good at that, I can do that.” He said don’t think like that. So, when you’re week you’re strong. So, yearn for strengthening.

Then understand the imagery that Jesus, by his death on the cross, has opened for you a doorway, an access way into the throne room of grace. It says in Hebrews 4, “Let us draw near to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need.” The time of need is when you are a weak. That’s all the time, friends. You’re always weak. Always. You are the bruised reed and the smoldering wick. And the amazing thing is God can take weak people like us and make, as He says in Revelation, a pillar of us in the house of his God. We can be made strong by grace. Isn’t that awesome? We, who are bruised reeds, can be made pillars in the house of the living God. So, go through that doorway that is Jesus. And you know who you’ll find there? You’ll find the God of Isaiah 40, the one who sits in throne above the circle of the earth. And you’ll find Him there ready to be gracious to you, to give you infinite strength.

Look back for covering grace. Be honest about your sins and ask for forgiveness, confess those things to God. Look ahead for future grace, that God’s going to give you what you need to get through your trials. Get your hearts ready for your specific trials, and ask him for specific help. If you’re having trouble forgiving someone of their sins against you, then say, “God, I’m feeling very weak as a forgiver. I’m feeling weak. Would you please enable me to forgive so and so? I’m probably going to see him today, I feel a hardness developing in my heart toward that person, will you please enable me to forgive them?”

Or when it comes to witnessing, you just say, “Lord, I’m not much of a witness. I hardly ever say anything that takes any courage for Jesus. I want to be a witness, I want to come outside the gate and bear the approach. I want to be where you are, but I’m just so weak. I’m afraid of what people will think. Will you please strengthen me? Please give me a witnessing opportunity so easy even I could do it?” There’s a good prayer. Pray that one and see what God does with it. It’s like, “Fine, now we’re honest.” He’ll give you one. One that… Just toss a little toss and you might hit it out of the park. Ask for that little toss. Just, “God help me. Help me in finances. We’re struggling financially, we’re struggling with anxiety. We’re struggling to find a job or to make ends meet. We’re struggling. Please help me, I’m weak in this area, would you strengthen me?” Struggling with weight, food… My God… I’m acting like my God is my stomach, too much on the comfort foods. “Would you please help me to be disciplined in what I eat? And give the extra money I’ve been spending to give it away on missions or to the relief of the poor? God, make me strong. Please strengthen me, and make me a different person.”

And then when you’ve been strengthened, Hebrews, the Book of Hebrew says to strengthen your brothers and sisters. Care about each other, look around, find some other weak people. And the strength, encouragement, you’ve received from God, use it with someone else. It says in Hebrews 12, “Therefore, strengthen your [and each other’s] feeble arms and weak knees. Make level paths for your [each other’s] feet, so that the lame may not be disabled but rather healed.” I know I’m adding the “each other,” but that’s definitely the mentality the author has. He’s thinking corporately about all of them together. Strengthen one another. Close with me in prayer.

These are only preliminary, unedited outlines and may differ from Andy’s final message.

Introduction:  Various Displays of Strength

The Summer Olympics are about to start… on display before us will be astonishing displays of strength. The Olympic motto is Citius, Altius, Fortius: “Swifter, higher, stronger.” Every four years, men and women from all over the world gather in some city to try to live up to that motto—to run faster, to jump higher, and to lift stronger than anyone ever has before. These athletes have made extraordinary sacrifices, putting everything in their lives on hold to win the coveted Olympic Gold Medal. They will be testing the limits of their own physical, mental, and emotional endurance… they will dig deep for strength that they weren’t sure they had… and the champions will be seen to be the strongest in the world

Back in the first century, they had those same kinds of athletic contests as well… there were the Isthmian Games named after the Isthmus of Corinth, in addition to the Olympic games and the Pythian Games… runners and wrestlers and chariot racers and boxers would come to compete for the victor’s crown, a wreath of olive branches

The apostle Paul likened the Christian life to a race run by athletes:

1 Corinthians 9:24-25 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.

Paul then described the kind of strength it takes to finish this race:

1 Corinthians 9:26-27 Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. 27 No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize

He uses the same ideas in 2 Timothy 2:

2 Timothy 2:5 Similarly, if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not receive the victor’s crown unless he competes according to the rules.

The author to the Hebrews also likens the Christian journey to a race that takes great endurance:

This is the STRENGTH we need to finish the Christian life…

Not physical strength, like that of the weight-lifters or long-jumpers or rowers or archers who will walk away from London with gold medals

Neither is it the natural strength of will and mind and emotion commonly called the “heart of a champion”… for that type of strength

Frankly, the kind of strength we are talking is a SPIRITUAL ENERGY that surges into our hearts and enables us to be renewed in the Christian pilgrimage, and it comes only by the grace of God mediated to us by faith in the work of Christ. Isaiah described it well:

Isaiah 40:28-31 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. 29 He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. 30 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; 31 but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not faint

My purpose this morning is to use Hebrews 13:9-12 to point you to this STRENGTH OF HEART that you MUST HAVE to take even another step in the Christian life. I want to describe the heart that is the focus of this strength. I want to show how the heart cannot be strengthened by FOOD but only by grace. I want you to understand what this means… I want you to YEARN for this strengthening, and to expect it, to wait upon the Lord for it daily

Context:

After twelve marvelous chapters of doctrine describing how a Superior Mediator (Jesus Christ) brought a Superior Covenant (the New Covenant) resulting in a Superior Life (the life of faith), the author is now getting very practical in the Christian life

He sets before his hearers a simple promise from God:

Hebrews 13:5  “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”

And

Hebrews 13:6  So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?”

And again:

Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

This is the central purpose of the Book of Hebrews and the key to our salvation: God speaks a PROMISE (Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you) and then gives us the faith to receive this promise. Our faith feeds on this promise, this word from God and we are strengthened.

Thus

BY FAITH IN THIS PROMISE… we can Keep on loving each other as brothers (vs. 1)

BY FAITH IN THIS PROMISE… we can Love strangers and show them hospitality (vs. 2)

BY FAITH IN THIS PROMISE… we can Minister to those in prison and not forget them (vs. 3)

BY FAITH IN THIS PROMISE… we can Honor marriage and keep the marriage bed pure sexually (vs. 4)

BY FAITH IN THIS PROMISE… we can Keep our lives free from the love of money and be content with what we have (vs. 5)

The Christian life flows from this wellspring: the promises of God, received by faith, giving us strength to do these hard things

Now, we focus on the ongoing strengthening of the heart that underlies all of this

Hebrews 13:9 Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by ceremonial foods, which are of no value to those who eat them.

I.   What is the Heart?

A.  The Strength This Passage Commends is HEART Strength… Not Physical Strength

B.  What is the “Heart”

1.  The “inner man”, the “inner nature”, the new self created to be like God

2.  Key passage: Ephesians 3:16-19

Ephesians 3:16-17 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

Ephesians 3:19 that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

3.  So also Romans 7

Romans 7:22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law

4.  So, the strength we need is the strength of the INNER MAN…

C.  The Heart is…

1.  The part of you that thinks… that reasons… that loves… the believes… that chooses… that feels

2.  It is from the heart that you live your lives on earth… the heart navigates everything

Proverbs 4:23 Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.

II.   Why Does it Need to be Strengthened?

A.  The Way is Long and Arduous

Hebrews 12:1 …let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

1.  The road we are travelling is an infinite journey

2.  It continues every moment that we are alive in this world

3.  It is the journey of the Christian life… and the race of holiness and sanctification

4.  it is a marathon race that requires constant power and strength to make even a single step of progress

B.  The Heart is Under Constant Assault

1.  The world is alluring the heart constantly… pulling it by the “lust of the eyes, of the flesh and of pride” to abandon Christ

2.  Satan and his demons are crafting the most ingenious set of temptations

3.  It takes IMMENSE STRENGTH to stand firm in the day of testing, to bear up under the assault of temptations

C.  The Heart Needs to be STRENGTHENED DAILY… D.

III.   What Does it Mean to be Strengthened by Grace?

A.  The Word “Strengthen” = Establish or Confirm

Mark 16:20 Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.

[So, “confirm” here means to prove His word to be true]

Romans 15:8 For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God’s truth, to confirm the promises made to the patriarchs

[Again, the idea is that Christ’s ministry among the Jews CONFIRMED or PROVED the promises to have been true]

1 Corinthians 1:4-7 I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, 5 that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge– 6 even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you– 7 so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift

[The idea here is that, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Corinthian believers, complete with the gifts of the Spirit, had the effect of CONFIRMING Paul’s testimony about Christ; he came in weakness, fear and much trembling, and preaching the simple message of Christ crucified—that testimony was CONFIRMED AMONG THEM by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, including the gifts of tongues, prophecy, healings, and other things that gave clear evidence that the gospel of Jesus Christ was TRUE and powerful from God]

1 Corinthians 1:7-8 as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 8 who will sustain [confirm] you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ

[Paul uses the exact same word here two verses later; the same God who confirmed the WORD to be true will CONFIRM YOU to be true to the end as well; just as the gospel was vindicated as truth by the Holy Spirit, so you also will be proven to be true disciples to the end. This happens by an ongoing INFLUX OF SPIRITUAL POWER by the Holy Spirit]

Colossians 2:6-7 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

[Here the word is used in the sense of BUTTRESSED and STRENGTHENED in the faith by ongoing ministry of the word of God; “just as you were taught”… as “the faith” is taught in an ongoing sense, the Colossian believers are made stronger and stronger]

1. Summary: to have our hearts “strengthened” means to have them buttressed day by day by the power of the Holy Spirit, receiving ongoing spiritual nourishment through the word of God and the gifts of the Spirit, so that we are CONFIRMED/VINDICATED as true disciples of Jesus Christ

B.  What Does it Mean to Be Strengthened BY GRACE??

1.  Grace is the commitment of God to save us to the uttermost

2.  It flows by various avenues, channels of grace

3.  Every day we need two types of grace

a.  Looking to the Past: Covering Grace

b.  Looking to the Future: Strengthening Grace… or “Future Grace”

4.  Covering Grace:

a.  We are daily mindful of our failures and weaknesses

b.  They are the things that SAP OUR STRENGTH the most

c.  As we begin a day, our consciences may begin accusing us of our sins

d.  We remember our failures, our weaknesses, our limited gifts and abilities

e.  We look back at missed opportunities and we feel defiled and weak and powerless and hardly desire to get up and begin another day

f.  We need COVERING GRACE:

Psalm 32:1-2 Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. 2 Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit.

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

C.  Future Grace: Confidence that the Power of the Lord Will Be Sufficient for the Trials We Will Face That Day

1.  We look ahead at the day… or beyond it to the road ahead and it seems so daunting

2.  How do we know that we will have the strength to meet the challenges??

3.  We must have FAITH IN FUTURE GRACE… grace that God WILL GIVE US when we need it

Hebrews 13:5 because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”

Exodus 3:11-12 But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” 12 And God said, “I will be with you.”

IV.   By Grace, Not by Food

Hebrews 13:9 It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by ceremonial foods, which are of no value to those who eat them.

A.  The Author Contrasts Grace with Food!!

1.  The idea is simple

2.  We are weak… we need strength… in order to renew your strength you need to look after your body

3.  Get a good night sleep, and have some nourishment

1 Kings 19:3-8 Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, 4 ¶ while he himself went a day’s journey into the desert. He came to a broom tree, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, LORD,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” 5 Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep. All at once an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.” 6 He looked around, and there by his head was a cake of bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again. 7 The angel of the LORD came back a second time and touched him and said, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.” 8 So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.

B.  Two Types of Food Regimens in the World for Strengthening

1.  Physical (dietary)

a.  Low cholesterol

b.  Low fat low sugar

c.  Gluten-free

d.  Vegan: “all the health troubles came when we starting eating animals! In the Garden of Eden, all they ate were fruits and vegetables; if we could just get back to that perfect diet, our problems would be solved!! No more listlessness, no more energy problems, etc.”

e.  Vitamin supplements… GNC (General Nutrition Center)

2.  Spiritual

a.  Fasting

b.  Religious diets based on spiritual convictions

C.  Context: Ceremonial Foods Associated with the Sacrificial System

Hebrews 13:9-10 Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by ceremonial foods, which are of no value to those who eat them. 10 We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat.

1.  Some kind of false teaching related to ceremonial foods

a.  The Greek just speaks of FOODS… NIV adds “ceremonial” though the word is not there

b.  BUT the concept IS there; vs. 9 speaks of a pattern of eating that people “walk in”, but which never benefitted them

c.  Those strict rules about eating were of NO SPIRITUAL VALUE to them

2.  In the OT sacrificial system, the worshipers were usually free to eat from the flesh of animals they had offered to God

3.  So the author speaks of eating from an altar in verse 10!

4.  The home base for these ideas were Jewish legalistic dietary requirements, which called some foods clean and other foods unclean

5.  Jesus declared all foods clean, and the eating of FOOD does not strengthen your INNER MAN, your HEART

6.  The statement that such a strict religious commitment to eating these foods and not those foods are of NO SPIRITUAL VALUE to those who walked in those ways is similar to the dismissal of asceticism by the apostle Paul in Colossians 2:

Colossians 2:21 “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”

Colossians 2:23 Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.

D.  Food Cannot Strengthen the Inner Man

1.  The strength we need for the spiritual journey has nothing to do with food

2.  In fact, sometimes food can get in the way of it

3.  Take the morning quiet time: You may be tempted to say “I don’t have time to get my heart right with the Lord, to feed on His grace through the word, prayer, and worship…” But then you make time for BREAKFAST or for your morning cup of coffee because you need the energy; or maybe you resort to a “Five-Hour Energy” drink

4.  Food cannot help you run the Christian race with endurance; it cannot help you withstand the day of temptation! It cannot help you be a witness at work, or trust God for your cancer, or solve the problems of a troubled marriage, or simply enable you to walk another day with Jesus, filled with the Spirit and doing the good works he has ordained for you to do!

5.  Your heart needs to be STRENGTHENED BY GRACE, NOT BY FOODS

V.   Jesus Suffered to Spread a Banquet of Grace

Hebrews 13:10-12 We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat. 11 The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. 12 And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood.

A.  The Altar of Grace

1.  The animal sacrificial system was OBSOLETE, made so by the death of Jesus on the cross

2.  There were still priests and Levites carrying on this obsolete system, thinking that eating these sacrificial meats was somehow helping them spiritually

3.  They were acting in RANK UNBELIEF concerning the promises and purposes of God

4.  “We have an altar”… we = we Christians; the altar is the altar of grace by which our hearts are strengthened

B.  The Day of Atonement

1.  I said a moment ago that the worshipers USUALLY were allowed to eat from the flesh of the animals they offered in sacrifice

2.  BUT the Day of Atonement had a major exception

3.  On that day, the Lord perfectly symbolized the death of Christ on the cross for our sinis

4.  One bull and two goats were selected

a.  The bull was sacrificed for the sins of the priest… he had to offer sacrifice for his own sins

b.  One of the goats was sacrificed for the sins of the people

c.  The other goat—called the scapegoat—was led out into the wilderness where he was let go as a symbol of the perfect forgiveness of sins Christ would work

d.  Some of the blood of the sacrificed bull and goat, however, were carried into the Most Holy Place and sprinkled on the mercy seat on the Ark of the Covenant

e.  Then: the flesh of the bull and goat were carried OUTSIDE THE CAMP to be burned there… they were NOT EATEN

C.  Christ Fulfilled this Picture Perfectly

Hebrews 13:12-13 And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. 13 Let us, then, go to him outside the camp

D.  Christ Spread a Banquet of Grace for Us to Feast Upon Every Day

1.  It is good for our hearts to be strengthened BY GRACE day after day, and not by food

2.  Christ crucified and risen gives us the ongoing fountain of grace that we will need for strength upon strength upon strength for the Christian race

VI.   How Can We Be Strengthened by Grace Every Day?

A.  Non-Christians: Come to Christ to Begin with

B.  Christians: Desire to Have Your Heart Strengthened

1.  The text says

It is GOOD for our hearts to be strengthened by grace…

2.  So if I were to ask you, “Are you strong spiritually?” you would probably have a sense of your sinfulness and weakness and answer “No…” But the better question is, “Do you WANT to be strong spiritually?”

3.  It all starts with WANTING TO BE STRONG

4.  When we are weak spiritually, we are vulnerable to Satan’s vicious attacks; we are listless, weak in worship; weak in service, self-focused, unable to fight off temptations

5.  We should yearn to get stronger and stronger by grace in the Christian life

6.  So… start with desire

C.  Next: Come to Christ Daily for Grace

Hebrews 4:15-16 we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are– yet was without sin. 16 Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need

D.  Seek Christ for the Two Types of Grace

1.  Looking backward: COVERING GRACE

2.  Looking forward: FUTURE GRACE

E.  Get Your Hearts Ready Every Day for the Challenges of the Day

1.  Basic pattern of Quiet Times: daily time in the word and in prayer and in worship

2.  BUT so easy for it to become rote, dry discipline that is not ministering to your heart

F.  When You’re Weak, then You’re Strong

1.  The areas you feel strongest in are the areas you probably feel like you don’t need Christ… “Hey, Lord… I got this one; I can handle this one on my own!”

2.  The Apostle Paul understood the incredible danger of self-confidence, and came to realize how totally dependent on Jesus he was

3.  Therefore, whatever issue in his life that made him feel overwhelmed and totally over his head and drove him to Christ in complete dependence was his strongest part of the day

2 Corinthians 12:7-10 To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

4.  So, cultivate a different mentality about your weaknesses… use them as springboards for grace to flow into your lives… let your weaknesses drive you to Christ again and again in prayer

a.  Forgiveness: “Lord, I have a hard time forgiving this person for what he did to me… I’m going to see this person today. If you don’t help me, I will fail… I will be hard toward this person and unforgiving. Would you please help me to forgive and to love as you forgave me and love me?”

b.  Struggle with weight: “Lord, I confess to you that I love food too much. I don’t want to overeat, but I am in such a bad pattern right now that, unless you help me, I will eat too much today. I don’t want food to be my idol… please change my heart; please help me to find my significance and joy in you not in food.”

c.  Finances: “Lord, I struggle so much with materialism and with anxiety about money. I feel so weak in that area, Lord. Would you cure my heart of covetousness? Would you please help me to live for your glory and your purposes, and to find pleasure and satisfaction in you rather than in what money can buy? Help me not to be anxious about the future. Help me to live by faith in future grace when it comes to money.”

d.  Witnessing: “Lord, I feel so weak when it comes to witnessing. I haven’t invited anyone to church in over a year. I don’t want to go on outreaches, because I am afraid of what people will think of me. I don’t witness at work, because I am afraid of losing my job or the respect of my coworkers. I don’t want people to think of me as some Jesus weirdo… I know this whole way of thinking is wrong, Lord, but I can’t seem to conquer it. I am so weak!! Please change my heart and make me a witness for you.”

G.  Go from Strength to Strength

Psalm 84:5-7 Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage. 6 As they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools. 7 They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion.

H.  Strengthen Each Other

1.  We are supposed to be vehicles of grace and strength for each other

2.  This is a big part of the ENCOURAGEMENT ministry that Hebrews commands

Hebrews 12:12-13 Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. 13 “Make level paths for your feet,” so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.

3.  Know and be known so that we can strengthen each other by grace

1 Thessalonians 5:11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.