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Christians Worship All the Time

Sermon discussion questions

1. How does Hebrews 13 help you to re-think what hospitality means? What can you do to do hospitality better?

2. What can people do to honor marriage and protect marriage?

3. Why is money such a key test for our faith? How is your heart doing in regard to your love for money? How can you begin to fight this idol?

Sermon Outline

Scripture: Hebrews 13:1-6

I. You worship God by loving your Christian family.

A. If you have faith in Jesus, one of the things that changes about you after you have faith is that you love other Christians. Verse 1 commands us, “Let brotherly love continue.” The word continue reminds us of the theme of perseverance in the book of Hebrews. We are to persevere in our love. It is love for each other in the church that is the distinguishing mark of the Christian. John 13:35: “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

B. How do I love my church family? What are some practical things I can do? One practical thing you can do is found in verse 2: do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers. By hospitality the author does not mean simply entertaining. It doesn’t mean inviting some of your friends from church over to your home for a meal. This hospitality is meeting the needs of people from your church who are outside of the people you know. Verse 2 says that these people are strangers to you right now. And these strangers have needs.

C. Another practical way that Christians were to love one another was by visiting them in prison. Verse 3 says, “Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.” In the first century, Christians were thrown in prison just for being Christians. Today, love means visiting any Christian who is suffering. The key word in verse 3 is remember. Don’t forget those who are suffering. Love them. Visit them. They are part of your body according to vs. 3. And when one part of your body hurts, you are to hurt with them. You are to weep with those who weep.

II. You worship God by living a holy life.

A. We Christians are to live holy lives when it comes to the topic of sex. Verse 4: “Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.” One way we honor marriage is by staying married and keeping our marriage vows. Matthew 19:5-6: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” And we honor marriage by avoiding adultery (vs. 4). And those who have sex outside of marriage are called sexually immoral. They will be judged if they do not repent by being kept out of God’s kingdom (see Galatians 5 and Ephesians 5 and 1 Corinthians 6 and Revelation 22).

B. We are also to live holy lives when it comes to the idol of money. First, notice what the problem is in verse 5. “Keep your life free from the love of money.” How do we fight our love for money? We fight greed with contentment. Verse 5 says we are to be content with what we have. We can be content because we know that God will provide for what we need every day. In the words of Philippians 4:19, “And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”

Application:
Love your Christian family this week. And repent where you need to repent and receive God’s grace.

Sources:
The letter to the Hebrews
Commentaries on Hebrews by Thomas Schreiner and Raymond Brown

Bible study by Michael Kruger