Hebrews 10: Persevere to Make Your Decisions with God

Introduction

Our lives are filled with decisions. Some are important, others far less so: which road to take to work, what time to get up, how to handle a given situation, who to talk to, what to eat at noon, whether the kids have everything they need. We pile up questions throughout the day and we find answers to keep moving forward.

In this message preached at the Assemblée de Dieu de Montpellier Richter, the question is simple: how do our decisions intersect with God's will? On some subjects, we gladly say that God can lead us. On others, more "down to earth", we think: in this area, I'm the one who decides. God's Word says something different.

The message starts from three verses in the Gospel of Matthew where the same expression keeps coming back: "that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet". It then pauses on a fundamental key, perseverance (Hebrews 10:35-36), before returning to Joseph and Mary to see how God guides their decisions, one step after another.

Outline of the message

1. What God has said comes to pass

Matthew 1:22: all this happened so that what the Lord had spoken through the prophet would be fulfilled.
Matthew 2:15: Joseph stayed in Egypt until the death of Herod, so that the word would be fulfilled: "Out of Egypt I called my son."
Matthew 2:23: he came and lived in Nazareth, so that what was spoken would be fulfilled: "He will be called a Nazarene."
Matthew writes mainly for Jews who had come to faith in Christ. He wants to show the link between the coming of Jesus, his ministry, his words and the promises of the Old Testament.
For our own lives, the preacher draws this from it: God has a plan, a project. What he has said, he does. But the way things fall into place depends both on God's decision and on ours. These are decisions that intersect and are weighed carefully.

2. The key: "you need endurance"

Hebrews 10:35-36: "Therefore don't throw away your boldness, which has a great reward. For you need endurance, so that, having done the will of God, you may receive the promise."
On one side, there is what God promises, through his Word, through prayer, in a personal relationship with him, or simply through an inner peace and conviction. On the other, there is the fulfillment. Between the two, there is an in-between: the time when God's will has to be carried out.
It is in this in-between that decisions are made, where what I think, what I see, what I imagine and what God wants to do intersect.
That very morning, in the car, the preacher asked his sons what it means to need perseverance. For the preacher, God is telling us here that it is unavoidable. To persevere is to be patient, to stand firm. It implies a form of waiting.
The word points to constancy. The day before, some brothers and sisters had visited the Tower of Constance. There you discover the story of a woman, a young bride, who was told she would be reunited with her husband if she denied Jesus Christ. She refused and stayed imprisoned for many long years. She carved into the stone: "Resist."
This is not passive perseverance. It is while I persevere that God gradually clarifies his will in my life and in my situation: "It happens to me, and it has happened to me so many times."

3. Perseverance produces victory in the trial

Romans 5:3-5: tribulation produces perseverance, perseverance produces victory in the trial, and that victory produces hope. And hope does not disappoint, because God's love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit.
What your trial must produce is not giving up or disappointment, but perseverance: staying constant, staying firm. And that constancy does not stop there, it gives birth to victory.
"How can I be victorious, Lord, in my trial?" The key given by Scripture: persevere in doing good, persevere in faithfulness to God.
Daniel did not budge when he was threatened with the lions' den. Yet he was thrown in, and those who lived through that moment must have thought it was over. The next day, the king calls him "servant of the living God" and asks whether the God he serves so faithfully was able to deliver him. God had delivered him.
Hebrews 6:11-12: imitate those who, through faith and perseverance, inherit the promises. If we reproduce the same attitude as those who went before us, we too will obtain the victory.

4. Joseph: a weighed decision, enlightened by God

Matthew 1:18-25. For Mary, the question did not arise: she calls herself the Lord's servant and accepts his will. The dilemma is on Joseph's side.
He had found in Mary the one with whom to build his life. The families had met, everything was going well, they were waiting for the wedding. Then Mary, back after six months at her cousin's, the mother of John the Baptist, is pregnant. "I challenge any young man engaged to be married" to hear his fiancée tell him that the child comes from the Holy Spirit.
Joseph is a good man. He does not want to disgrace her and plans to break the engagement quietly. This is not a decision made in haste: the text says he thought about it. His dreams are collapsing, what he had planned no longer matches anything.
Maybe that is your situation: "I did everything right, and yet everything is falling apart." Someone once confided to the preacher: "I did everything correctly, and yet I fell ill." But God is God. He has promised, and he knows what he wants to do.
It is while Joseph perseveres in his reflection that God comes to enlighten him. For Joseph, it was an angel in a dream. For you, it may be a word sent your way, a spiritual gift, a sermon, a word given at the right moment by a brother or sister, a circumstance that echoes your reflection.
"Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid": God puts his finger on fear. What rises first are our doubts, our fears, our worries. By persevering, we let God "smooth" the rough surface of our thoughts. If fear is what drives your decision, don't make it: let God calm things down first.

5. God vindicates, entrusts a responsibility and leaves us our part

God first vindicates Mary: she did not deceive Joseph, God himself is in control of the situation. The preacher opens a parenthesis for couples: even among Christians there can be disagreements, but if both stay in prayer and stay calm, the Lord is able to reconcile, for he is the God of reconciliation.
God then entrusts Joseph with a responsibility: he is the one who will give the child the name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.
Joseph did not know that he was concerned by the word of Isaiah 7:14: the virgin will conceive and bear a son, Immanuel. God has plans for us of peace and not of calamity. But when they start falling into place, we sometimes say: "Lord, I don't have the instruction manual."
If Joseph had decided quickly, under the pressure of emotion, anger or shame, he would certainly have missed it. Awake, he does what the angel commanded him and takes Mary home with him.
Verse 25 specifies that he did not know her until she had given birth to a son. God had not asked this of him. Joseph and Mary decide together to dedicate their marriage during that time. There are things God says, and others he does not say, but which flow from our thirst to live consecrated and obedient. That is our part.

6. When God upsets our plans

Matthew 2:13-15: "Arise and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt." Everything seemed settled, and now they have to leave. The journey to Egypt took several days on foot, with a young mother who had just given birth and a small child.
Joseph and Mary do not know that this is happening so that the word would be fulfilled: "Out of Egypt I called my son." Israel lived four centuries of slavery in Egypt. The Savior of humanity goes down the same road and is called out of it. The stakes go beyond what we understand.
God upsets their plans because the child is in danger. The preacher is convinced that God has protected us from many dangers, often without telling us. That job, that place, that young man or young woman you wanted to commit to: God closed the door, and you may have rebelled. He was probably keeping you from a danger you could not see.
After Herod's death, the angel tells Joseph to go back to the land of Israel. But the Lord does not pack the bags: it is up to Joseph to get up and tell Mary that it is time to go back.
Against a form of "mysticism" that always waits for a new word: when God says now, do it, even if it requires sacrifices and changes. The New Year's resolutions, we talk about them again on the 15th, then on the 31st, and in April we tell ourselves, very spiritually, that "it's not the time". A new start can begin whenever you want. What needs to change, it is up to you to decide.

7. Nazareth: common sense confirmed by God

Matthew 2:22-23: hearing that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, Joseph is afraid to go there. Warned by God in a dream, he withdraws to Galilee and settles in Nazareth.
The angel had only said "go to the land of Israel", without naming a town. Two things lead Joseph to Nazareth. First, a historical fact: Archelaus is the son of Herod, the man who had children killed at the birth of Jesus. So Joseph does not go back to Bethlehem, where he had set out from. Then, God comes to confirm that it is the right decision.
God may give you the broad outlines. That does not stop you from staying alert and saying: "Lord, show me the direction more precisely, and I will do my part."
"When you become a Christian, God does not cut out a piece of your brain. We are not lobotomized." Our intelligence still works: we submit what we do to God's will, and we also take the time to think with common sense.
This detail fulfills what God had said beforehand: he will be called a Nazarene. The preacher also sees in it an echo of the Nazirite vow of the Old Testament, being set apart for God. At the start, Joseph and Mary understood nothing, just like you and me. But because they persevered and stayed attentive, the Lord confirmed each step.

Key takeaways

God has a plan, and what he has said, he fulfills. Our decisions intersect with his.
Between the promise and its fulfillment, you need perseverance: an active constancy during which God clarifies his will.
Perseverance produces victory in the trial, and that victory produces hope.
Do not decide under the pressure of fear, anger or shame. Let God enlighten your reflection.
God has his part, you have yours: when he has spoken, it is up to you to stand up and act, with faith and common sense.

Personal application

In which decision are you right now in this in-between, between what God promised you and what you are waiting for?
Is your perseverance passive, or do you stay attentive to what God shows you while you wait?
Is there a decision you are making out of fear? What would happen if you first let God calm things down?
Think back to a door God closed in your life. Can you see it today as protection rather than a refusal?
What has God already asked you to do that you are still putting off? What is your part this week?

Verses cited

Frequently asked questions

What does Hebrews 10:36 mean, "you need endurance"?

Between God's promise and its fulfillment, there is an in-between: the time when God's will has to be carried out. The preacher sees in it an indispensable key. To persevere is to stay constant, to stand firm and not let go, with the certainty that the one who promised will fulfill his promise. This perseverance is active: it is during this time that God clarifies his will.

How did Joseph make his decision about Mary?

Joseph, a good man, did not want to disgrace Mary and planned to break the engagement quietly. He did not decide in haste: he was thinking it over. It was during this reflection that the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream to tell him not to be afraid. God enlightened his reflection, vindicated Mary and entrusted Joseph with a responsibility in his plan.

Should we wait for God to decide everything for us?

No. The preacher reminds us that God has his part and we have ours. When God had spoken, it was up to Joseph to pack his bags and leave. For the return from Egypt, God gives a general direction, then Joseph thinks with common sense about the danger represented by Archelaus, and God then confirms that he should go to Nazareth. "When you become a Christian, God does not cut out a piece of your brain."