All right, well, beautiful singing. So, I’ve not met you. My name is Aaron, and I’m the teaching pastor here at Red Village Church, and I’m glad you’re with us. There’s a lot of people that are sick right now, and so we’re glad that you’re well enough to be with us this morning.
So, if you have a Bible with you, if you’d open up to the Book of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 12. Our text of study is going to be verses 3 through 17. If you don’t have a Bible with you, there are Bibles kind of scattered throughout the pews. Our text of study is going to come on page 585 of those blue pew Bibles if you want to find your way there.
As you open your Bible, please keep them open. We do a style of preaching here called expository preaching. As we get to the heart of the sermon, all I’m going to do is just walk us through the text and do my best to try to explain it to us as a congregation so we might hear from God in His word.
So, Hebrews 12:3-17 is going to be our text of study, as mentioned. But this time here, I’m just going to read verse three, okay? So, follow along with me. Verse three, and then I’m going to pray, ask for God’s blessing on this time, and then we will get to work.
So, this is what the Word says: “Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against Himself, so you may not grow weary or faint-hearted.” Okay? So, that’s God’s word for us this morning. Would you please pray with me?
Lord, it is good to be here. Lord, thank you for bringing us together. Lord, I pray that in this time here You would bless the preaching of Your Word for Your glory and our good. Please help me to be a good communicator this morning. Help my words to be clear and truthful. Please help me to not fall into any type of error or even to just be a bad communicator. Help me to communicate well.
And Lord, I pray also for the congregation that through the power of Your Spirit, You give them ears to hear. Help them to lean into Your Word as we work through it this morning. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
So, Helen Lamel was born in England in 1863. Her father was actually a pastor. When Helen was 12, her family moved across the pond, actually to our beloved state of Wisconsin. In her early youth, her family started to recognize that Helen was a very gifted musician, particularly with singing. In time, she pursued her musical gifts and talents by becoming a traveling musician, where she put on concerts around the country.
As Helen grew into adulthood, her love for music never really waned. Even into her 40s, she moved to Germany just to continue to grow as a musician. It was there that she married, and she rose to the peak of her popularity. However, it was also during this time that tragedy hit her in a few devastating ways. First, she was struck with blindness. Then afterwards, she was hit with the abandonment of her husband, who left her. And then the third devastation was financial ruin.
However, it’s also during this time of great devastation that friends would come to Helen and ask her how she was doing. She would now famously respond with these words: “I am fine in the things that count,” which for Helen, the things that count spoke to her faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. She had Christ; Christ had her. In the end, that’s what mattered. That’s what counted.
Fast forward a few more years to 1918. Helen is now in her mid-50s, around 10 years or so walking through the devastation that she went through earlier with blindness, abandonment, and financial ruin. Helen came across a gospel tract written by a missionary named Lilias Trotter, who was a missionary in Africa. As Helen heard this tract read, her creative and musical juices were really stoked, particularly by this one line of the tract which says this: “So then turn your eyes upon Him, look full into His face, and you’ll find the things of earth will acquire a strange new dimness.”
This line grabbed the heart of Helen. It led her to write a very popular hymn that you can still find today in, I think, basically every hymn book. Let me read you the words of this hymn. There are three verses, and I’ll read you the chorus.
The first verse is this: “O soul, are you weary and troubled? No light in the darkness you see? There’s light for a look at the Savior, a life more abundant and free.”
Verse 2: “Through death into life everlasting He passed, and we will follow Him there. Us our sin no more have dominion, for more than conquerors we are.”
Third verse: “His word shall not fail you, He promised. Believe Him and all will be well. Then go to a world that is dying, His perfect salvation to tell.”
Then the chorus: “Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full into