Pastor Steve led our devotional this morning with thoughts on: Solomon, sharing in Christ, and finishing well. How can we avoid the sins of Solomon, in turning away from God, and instead persevere? How can we finish well? See below for the notes from Pastor Steve’s devotional and Shoreline’s weekly prayer requests.

Our Purpose (Romans 15:30 paraphrased): I urge you brothers, by the Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in prayer to God the Father for the glory of the name of Jesus.

Solomon, sharing in Christ, and finishing well . . .

Hebrews 3:7-14
⁷Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, ⁸do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, ⁹where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. ¹⁰Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ ¹¹As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’ ” ¹²Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. ¹³But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. ¹⁴For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

What are some of our greatest threats in the battle to hold our original confidence to the end?

What are our most powerful weapons in the battle to hold our original confidence to the end?

What do you think is meant by “our original confidence?”

The gospel holds two ideas together at the same time:

Romans 7:24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

What happens if we hold to Rom 7:24 without Rom 8:1?

What happens if we hold to Rom 8:1 without Rom 7:24?

To hold these together we must fight against both self-condemnation and cheap grace.

Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship

Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate. (p. 47)

Let the Christian rest content with his worldliness … Let him be comforted and rest assured in his possession of grace-for grace alone does everything. Instead of following Christ, let the Christian enjoy the consolations of his grace! That is what we mean by cheap grace. (p. 47)

The only man who has the right to say that he is justified by grace alone is the man who has left all to follow Christ. (p. 55)

Hebrews 3:12-14
¹²Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. ¹³But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. ¹⁴For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

3 Observations from Piper:

1. Sin wages a constant battle to deceive and harden the hearts of professing Christians. If it succeeds, a person slips into unbelief and falls away from the living God.

2. The evidence and confirmation of whether we have any share in Christ is whether we hold our first confidence firm to the end. Hebrews sees two possibilities for professing Christians: either they hold fast their first confidence to the end and show that they have really become sharers in the life of Christ, or they become hardened by the deceitfulness of sin and fall away from God with a heart of unbelief and show that they did not have a share in Christ.

3. The means appointed by God to enable the saints to persevere to the end is daily exhortation from other saints. “Exhort one another every day as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”

Prayer Requests for our Campus:

1. Joyful, Spirit-filled, missionaries dwelling in unity, loving people as an expression of the gospel
2. Peasant Princess – This series is exposing idolatry in the hearts of many, young and old, single and married, and the number of people coming forward for prayer and/ or seeking counseling is going way up. The fruit is very encouraging. Pray for our pastors and prayer team that they would be filled with Holy Spirit and equipped to minister to those who seek their help. Pray for fruit in the lives of many at our campus through this series.
3. Praxis: Please pray that our Community Meal tonight is a fruitful place of Gospel Fellowship.
4. Pastor Kerry – Redemption Groups and counseling
5. Pastor Dick – Along with his wife Tami, getting settled and gaining traction in his new role overseeing marriage/ pre-marriage counseling.
6. Al and July Hielscher teaching “Pre-Marriage class”
7. Justin – Prep for class, fall administration, Amy pregnant, Amy MRI today for tumor on her spine.
8. Matt -Struggling with a flu, new baby, heavy fall schedule, volunteers needed
9. Mark Bergin – teaching class, elder candidate
10. Tim Quiring – Community Group re-vision toward mission
11. Tyler Powell – teaching a class, putting together new Sunday service prayer team, and entering into a busy season of Acts 29 boot camps
12. Steve – Class prep, focus, priorities, energy, health, wisdom and guidance from the Holy Spirit to connect the sermon back to the Gospel of Jesus Christ each Sunday.
13. Facility for the campus!!