Word of Salvation – Vol. 37 No. 32 – August 1992

 

Be Encouragement: God Remembers Your Work!

 

Sermon by Rev. P. Abetz on Hebrews 6:10

Reading: Revelation 2:1-7; Hebrews 5:11 - 6:12

 

Brothers and sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ,

Do you ever get that feeling of tiredness about your work in the church?

Do you sometimes think: What's the point anyway?  Nobody seems to notice what I am doing!  Nobody seems to care!

Perhaps you have served as an elder for 4 years, having served an extra year because of a shortage of elders and now you are wondering:
            What was the point?
            No one seems to appreciate the time, energy and effort that I put into it.

Or perhaps you lead a Bible Study and you are beginning to think:
            They just take it for granted that I am here every week
                        to open up and to set things up.

Or perhaps you are a Sunday School teacher and perhaps thoughts like this go through your mind:
            Because I do a good job teaching Sunday School,
            people assume that it comes easily for me.
            They do not know the times when I have stayed up late
              to make sure that everything was well prepared for my lesson.
            Or the times we could not go out on a Saturday afternoon,
              because I needed to prepare my lesson.
            I really wonder whether it is worth all the effort I put into it.

Or perhaps you are a conscientious session member.  But after hearing a complaint from someone via the grapevine, that so and so thinks that you should have visited them more often, you begin to think:
            I am foolish giving so much time for the work of the church.
            It's about time I spent more time for myself, doing things I want to do!
            After all no one appreciates the sacrifices of time, and energy,
            and the times I had to pass up overtime
            because I wanted to do the right thing as an elder.
            But no one notices anyway.  So I am not going to bother any more.

Do these examples in a way express some of your inner feelings?

Perhaps you have never verbalised such thoughts, but most people who have invested a great deal in a ministry of one kind or another have gone through a period of wondering whether anyone ever notices what you are doing.

Whenever people make significant sacrifices, these kinds of thoughts can come, especially if they do not receive any public recognition for their sacrifice.

The trauma of many Vietnam veterans has been that they went through so much suffering, and mental anguish in Vietnam – the fear, the tension, seeing their mates killed and maimed – when they came home no one seemed to give them recognition for the work they had done.  The media pretended they did not exist.  Politicians on the whole did the same.

And so the Vietnam veterans were burdened with the thoughts: doesn't anyone care and appreciate the sacrifices we made?

If ever you are tempted to think that no one notices your work for the Lord, let your heart and mind drink in the words of Heb.6:10.

God is not unjust; He will not forget your work and the love you have shown Him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.

1.  God does not forget

It may seem strange that the writer of Hebrews has to remind us again of the fact that God does not forget.

Of course we know that God knows all things.

Any Sunday School child can tell you that God does not forget.  But while we know this truth, it is much harder to actually live by that truth.  Our loving heavenly Father is well aware of our weakness in this regard.  It is for this very reason that He has, in His grace, given us plenty of reassurance in His word that He does indeed not forget.

In Revelation 2:2 in writing to the Christians in Ephesus, the angel says: I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance.  But the problem was that they had fallen from their first love.  They were beginning to become cynical.  They were beginning to wonder whether it was all really worthwhile.  Their motivation was beginning to flag.

They should have known better, for the Scriptures repeatedly remind us that God does remember our deeds: In Acts 10:31 we read that the angel said to Cornelius, the gentile centurion: Your prayer has been heard and your alms have been remembered before God.'

in the Old Testament God even used the fact of his remembering the works of his people as a means to try and draw Israel back to God.

Listen to what Jeremiah said: 'Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem: I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me, and followed me through the desert through a land not sown.  Israel was holy to the Lord, the first fruits of his harvest.'

Similarly in Isaiah 49:14-16:

'Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne?  Though she may forget, I will not forget you!  See I have engraved you on the palms of my hands, your walls are ever before me.'

Despite the fact that we know that God does indeed remember our works, and even uses them as the basis of eternal rewards, our actions, and thoughts show that perhaps we are not so sure of this great truth.

Even a great person like Nehemiah went through a time of doubting whether God really had noticed how much he had tried to do for the Lord.

Nehemiah has to make some pretty tough decisions in the face of opposition from the leaders, and he must have been discouraged, for it seems he even doubted whether God appreciated the difficulties he went through for the sake of serving His God, for he pleads with God:

Remember me for this, O my God, and do not blot out what I have so faithfully done for the house of my God and its services. (Neh.13:14)

A man like Nehemiah should have known that God remembers.  Yet here he seeks a reassurance from God that He will indeed remember it.  Here is a wonderful dimension: Nehemiah did not pray that the people might remember.  That would have been nice too, but that was not the burden of his heart.

He wanted God to remember.  And brothers and sisters, our God does remember!  The reason that God does not forget is that, as our text makes clear:

2.  To help his people is to show God love

When we show God love, He will never forget.  For He delights in the expression of love from his people.  It is good to remember that God created us in Matthew 25:40.  Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.

And so as we engage in our various ministries in the church, let us remember that by serving our fellow believers, we are in fact serving our Lord Jesus.

Sometimes when I have become a little discouraged in terms of my own work of ministry, I found great encouragement in looking to the ministry of Jesus Christ: He came down into this world from being with His Father in heaven.  He did that for you and for me!

But now ask yourself: During that time, did we encourage him?

As He was about to go to the cross, did His disciples encourage him?  No!  Instead we read that Peter even rebuked Jesus for saying that he would die.  What happened as He went to the cross?  Again, there was no encouragement.  Everyone of His disciples deserted Him!  But that did not cause Jesus to be distracted from His mission.  He went on to accomplish the mission He set out to do for us.  So, if we endure a little suffering in our ministering to others in terms of not getting any encouragement, let us take heart from the example of our Lord, who went through unspeakable suffering in order to redeem us.

If we are going to be faithful servants of our Lord, then even if we do not get recognition for our service, nor encouragement, we need to hang in there, and remind ourselves of the fact that as we help the people of God, we are showing God love, and that He never forgets that.

And the marvellous thing is that as we increasingly realise that Jesus Christ is our all-sufficient Saviour, then we will realise that this in itself is all we need to have!  That alone should be sufficient encouragement!

Hence, we have no excuse for becoming lethargic in our service of the church of Jesus Christ, just because people are not as encouraging as they might be.

If we begin to feel lethargic because we feel we are not getting the encouragement we deserve or need, then we need to ask ourselves: Who am I serving?

The church is the body of our precious Lord Jesus!  It does not belong to any individual, but rather it belongs to Jesus Christ.

As we serve the church, we serve Jesus, the Lord of lords and King of kings!

We serve the one who died on the cross to redeem you and me!

And the wonderful thing which our text tells us, is that He does not forget the work we have done and continue to do for the church.

So far I have not said anything about the opening phrase of the text: God is not unjust.  So let us now look at...

3.  The implication of 'God is not unjust'

The fact that the writer to the Hebrews begins the sentence with this clause reminds us of the fact that God is not like men.  Men are by nature unjust.  Simply look around your own community, and you will see how unjust man is to his fellow man.  There is:
- perjury in courts
- stealing, abortion, murder
- people fleeced of their life savings by conmen.

That's what people are like.

But God is different.

He is perfectly just.

And it is precisely because He is perfectly just, that He does give recognition to those who have shown Him love through serving His people.

The implication then is simply this: If we, as the people of God, do not give recognition, and encouragement to those serving God's people, then we are guilty of injustice!

Do you understand this?  If you fail to remember the work of others - if you fail to encourage or give recognition to a person working for the Lord – then you are unjust.

Our text calls us to remember, to encourage people for the work they have done and continue to do.  We can do that by speaking a thoughtful word, a little thank you note, or some other appropriate means.

The message of our text is quite simple: If we fail to remember the work of others, then we are failing to reflect the justice of our God!

Conclusion

Brothers and sisters, this text should be a great encouragement to us all.  Firstly for those who have helped God's people and continue to help His people: Be encouraged because God does notice, and He does not forget!  God is delighted that you are showing Him love.

May that motivate you to continue to serve the people of God, even if others forget that you have and are serving them.

Secondly, our text calls all God's people to reflect the justice of God, by giving recognition to the ministries of their fellow believers.

May the Holy Spirit impress this verse upon our hearts, and so encourage us to render ever greater service to our Saviour and Lord.

AMEN