Hebrews 3:7-19

Top Ten Reasons People Walked Away

1. There Are Too Many Judgmental People

2. They Were Hurt at Church

3. The Service Is Too Loud

4. There Were Too Many False Teachings

5. The Church Split

6. Their Schedule Is Too Busy

7. They Stopped Attending During the Pandemic

8. The Church Became Too Legalistic

9. The Church Became Too Focused on Money

10. They Have Social Anxiety

REASON #1: THEY BEGAN TO QUESTION THE GOODNESS OF GOD

Hebrews 3:7-9 – “Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, ‘Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, 9 where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years.”

Psalm 95:8-11: Septuagint (LXX)

Psalm 95:8 (LXX) – “Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness.”

Psalm 95:8 (MT) – “Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness.”

Meribah & Massah: Exodus 17

Omnibenevolence: “The divine attribute by which God is perfectly, essentially, and exhaustively good, so that all God’s willing, acting, and relating are wholly consistent with his own morally perfect nature.”

Exodus 17:1-3 – “All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the LORD, and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, ‘Give us water to drink.’ And Moses said to them, ‘Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the LORD?’ 3 But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, ‘Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?’”

Exodus 17:4-7 – “So Moses cried to the LORD, ‘What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.’ 5 And the LORD said to Moses, ‘Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.’ And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the LORD by saying, ‘Is the LORD among us or not?’”

Hebrews 3:10-11 – “Therefore, I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ 11 As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’”

REASON #2: THEY BEGIN TO REJECT THEIR NEED FOR ACCOUNTABILITY

Hebrews 3:12 – “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.”

“Take care,” Gk. βλέπω (blepō), “to have the faculty of sight”

Hebrews 3:13 – “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.”

“Exhort,” Gk. παρακαλέω (parakaleō), lit. “to call alongside,” “imploring or persuading”

REASON #3: THEY NEVER TRULY BELIEVED

Hebrews 3:14-18 – “For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 15 As it is said, ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.’ 16 For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? 17 And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient?”

Hebrews 3:19 – “So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.”

TAKEAWAYS

1. Prioritize corporate worship

Psalm 95:1 – “Oh come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!”

Truth: It’s much more challenging to push away accountability when it comes from someone I regularly worship with.

2. Practice corporate gratitude

Psalm 95:2 – “Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving.”

3. Pursue those who have walked away

Jude 22-23 – “And have mercy on those who doubt; 23 save others by snatching them out of the fire.”