But exhort one another daily, as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.but exhort one another day by day, so long as it is called “today”, lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.but exhort one another day by day, so long as it is called To-day; lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin:
5 sermons cite this verse
… Would you read it with me? The Bible says in Hebrews 3.13. Let's read it. encourage each other every day while it is today. So it's a daily habit. It's something we do every day. Now, one small way that you can affirm is just through using terms of endearment. There's an affirmation in that. And there's a national survey that was done on the top 10 terms of endearment. I thought you might be interested in what these were in the U.S. Number one is honey. Number two is baby. Number three, sweetheart, dear, lover, darling, sugar, pumpkin, number nine, angel pie, number 10, beautiful. Now, not making the list were love puppy, wild thing, or Shondell's favorite for me, stud dumpling, was not on the list. So moving right along, what do you affirm? What can you affirm? Let me give you three things you can affirm in your spouse. Number one, you affirm their value. You know that the word appreciate, like where the house means to raise it in value as it appreciates? You can raise somebody else in value as you appreciate them. …
… So this is where I want to look at that sister passage just briefly. I'll read for you here Hebrews 3, verses 12 to 13. And I want you to hear the similarity with Hebrews 10, 24, and 25. This is Hebrews 3, 12 and 13. Look for the speaking grace on display here in Hebrews 3. He says, take care, brothers. Lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. That word exhort is the same word that we translate in courage in Hebrews chapter 10. I don't know why they're translated differently. That's okay. That word is often translated as encourage. The encouragement is with words or exhortation or helping somebody. But the help is a word help. That's what's linking these two passages together. So there's a power of words for Christian endurance and persistence in the Christian life. …
… encouragement is what should be happening from the pulpit we need encouragement to resist the delusion of sin. Hebrews 3.13, encourage one another daily as long as it's called today so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. How often do we need encouragement to fight sin? Daily. Encouragement is a core part of why the church gathers. Hebrews 10.24.25, classic verse, let us consider how we may spur one another on towards love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day approaching. That's just a very brief biblical survey that shows from the Old Testament to the New Testament, from the Psalms to the prophets to the Gospels, we see that the spirit of encouragement is a core part of the church. When someone is encouraged, it changes how we live. People who have an encouraged spirit, who feel built up, have significantly lower cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. They recover from stress better, have stronger immune systems, and respond better after surgeries. Having a spirit of encouragement within you actually changes your health. Now, sometimes when you think, oh gosh, this is a Christian sermon on encouragement, you can just think, oh gosh, the church is so full of cliche statements about encouragement, okay? And I want to start by telling you what encouragement is not, okay encouragement is not a general affirmation going up to someone who is not encouraged and …
… Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. All right. So note that language again of any. that there's a big group of healthy Christians in the church. There's some or any or a few that in any given season could fall through the cracks, struggling spiritually. Here, an evil, unbelieving heart is in some, and that leads them to fall away from the living God. It doesn't happen all in one moment. It's incremental. There may be some great fall that happens, but they were incremental. There were degrees leading up to it, day after day of slow hardening that could be interrupted by Christian relationships, by us being a means of grace in each other's lives. That's why there's this daily focus. It doesn't have to technically be today. …
… take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. So positively, we need one another to encourage and stir one another up. Negatively, we keep each other from being captured and hardened by temptation and sin, by being blinded by sin. So why do Christians from the early church to today, including right now, every time and place, why do we gather? In part, it's because we need to see and enjoy God, and we know how little we can see on our own. we want to take in and experience more of Jesus than we could ever see through just our own eyes Tim Keller writes quoting C.S. Lewis by praying with friends you will be able to hear and see facets of Jesus that you have not yet perceived that way this is Lewis the more we share the heavenly bread, that's Jesus, between us, the more we shall all have. …