May 4th, 2025
River of Faith Topical Sunday
Spiritually Dull
Hebrews 6
Pastor Ray-Ann Dela Fuente
May 4, 2025
Memory Verse:
"Then you will not become spiritually dull and indifferent. Instead, you will follow the example of those who are going to inherit God's promises because of their faith and endurance."
Hebrews 6:12 NLT
Introduction:
Welcome to the River of Faith! Today is another great day another great opportunity to be taught by the Word of God and to be challenged with our faith? How many of you like a challenge? It seems like many people today create popularity by creating challenges online or on social media. It's fun and entertaining. What if the challenge is about our our faith? What if God challenges you to grow stronger, deeper, and mature in your faith?
Spiritual dullness or indifference is one of the biggest hindrances of why many Christians have a hard time growing in their faith. It's a roller coaster ride of being so fervent for God and being completely cold and disinterested right after. Many of these moments are because of unconfessed personal sins, lack of genuine obedience, and being emotionally driven not spiritually driven.
Main Pointers:
“So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding. Surely we don’t need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from evil deeds and placing our faith in God. You don’t need further instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And so, God willing, we will move forward to further understanding. For it is impossible to bring back to repentance those who were once enlightened—those who have experienced the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the power of the age to come— and who then turn away from God. It is impossible to bring such people back to repentance; by rejecting the Son of God, they themselves are nailing him to the cross once again and holding him up to public shame. When the ground soaks up the falling rain and
bears a good crop for the farmer, it has God’s blessing. But if a field bears thorns and thistles, it is useless. The farmer will soon condemn that field and burn it.”
Hebrews 6:1-8 NLT
1. A clear sign of spiritual immaturity is redundancy.
A. Obviously this verse is used predominantly by many who believes that salvation can be
lost, and I would not deny that but I would like for us to focus more on the problem that the author of Hebrews is addressing.
B. That problem is the problem of immaturity. The author of Hebrews emphasized on two things. A true believer must "move forward" to further understanding of Christ and must stop going "over and over" again about the basic teachings of Christ.
C. “Dear brothers and sisters, when I was with you I couldn’t talk to you as I would to spiritual people. I had to talk as though you belonged to this world or as though you were infants in Christ. I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren’t ready for anything stronger. And you still aren’t ready, for you are still controlled by your sinful nature. You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. Doesn’t that prove you are controlled by your sinful nature? Aren’t you living like people of the world?”
1 Corinthians 3:1-3 NLT
2. A genuine maturing faith is an active on-going obedience to the will of God.
“Dear friends, even though we are talking this way, we really don’t believe it applies to you. We are confident that you are meant for better things, things that come with salvation. For God is not unjust. He will not forget how hard you have worked for him and how you have shown your love to him by caring for other believers, as you still do. Our great desire is that you will keep on loving others as long as life lasts, in order to make certain that what you hope for will come true.”
Hebrews 6:9-11 NLT
A. After a very straightforward warning the author of Hebrews re-affirmed his audience of the authenticity of their faith. He reminded them that God does not forget their genuine demonstration of their love and obedience for Him.
B. The warning did not apply to them because their faith is confirmed by their actions, love, and obedience to the Lord. In other words, God does not forget when we are faithful to Him.
3. Satan loves when we are spiritually dull.
“Then you will not become spiritually dull and indifferent. Instead, you will follow the example of those who are going to inherit God’s promises because of their faith and
endurance.”
Hebrews 6:12 NLT
A. The illustration that the author of Hebrews used here was brilliant. For something to be dull that means that it was once very sharp.
B. This means that we must always remember the warmth and closeness of God's presence in our lives. Again, God does not drift away from us but we drift away from Him because of our sins.
C. “But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first! Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. If you don’t repent, I will come and remove your lamp stand from my its place among the churches.”
Revelation 2:4-5 NLT
Conclusion:
Yes there will be a lot of ups and downs even in our walk with God. What is important is we
understand that our faith is not based on what we feel or what we wanted to experience but it is founded on the solid rock of Jesus Christ. We have the confidence that God is the author and finisher of our faith. In good times and in bad even when we sometimes don't feel His presence. We must persevere because of our knowledge of who our God is, is not on what we wanted to feel or what we do not see.
Spiritually Dull
Hebrews 6
Pastor Ray-Ann Dela Fuente
May 4, 2025
Memory Verse:
"Then you will not become spiritually dull and indifferent. Instead, you will follow the example of those who are going to inherit God's promises because of their faith and endurance."
Hebrews 6:12 NLT
Introduction:
Welcome to the River of Faith! Today is another great day another great opportunity to be taught by the Word of God and to be challenged with our faith? How many of you like a challenge? It seems like many people today create popularity by creating challenges online or on social media. It's fun and entertaining. What if the challenge is about our our faith? What if God challenges you to grow stronger, deeper, and mature in your faith?
Spiritual dullness or indifference is one of the biggest hindrances of why many Christians have a hard time growing in their faith. It's a roller coaster ride of being so fervent for God and being completely cold and disinterested right after. Many of these moments are because of unconfessed personal sins, lack of genuine obedience, and being emotionally driven not spiritually driven.
Main Pointers:
“So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding. Surely we don’t need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from evil deeds and placing our faith in God. You don’t need further instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And so, God willing, we will move forward to further understanding. For it is impossible to bring back to repentance those who were once enlightened—those who have experienced the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the power of the age to come— and who then turn away from God. It is impossible to bring such people back to repentance; by rejecting the Son of God, they themselves are nailing him to the cross once again and holding him up to public shame. When the ground soaks up the falling rain and
bears a good crop for the farmer, it has God’s blessing. But if a field bears thorns and thistles, it is useless. The farmer will soon condemn that field and burn it.”
Hebrews 6:1-8 NLT
1. A clear sign of spiritual immaturity is redundancy.
A. Obviously this verse is used predominantly by many who believes that salvation can be
lost, and I would not deny that but I would like for us to focus more on the problem that the author of Hebrews is addressing.
B. That problem is the problem of immaturity. The author of Hebrews emphasized on two things. A true believer must "move forward" to further understanding of Christ and must stop going "over and over" again about the basic teachings of Christ.
C. “Dear brothers and sisters, when I was with you I couldn’t talk to you as I would to spiritual people. I had to talk as though you belonged to this world or as though you were infants in Christ. I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren’t ready for anything stronger. And you still aren’t ready, for you are still controlled by your sinful nature. You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. Doesn’t that prove you are controlled by your sinful nature? Aren’t you living like people of the world?”
1 Corinthians 3:1-3 NLT
2. A genuine maturing faith is an active on-going obedience to the will of God.
“Dear friends, even though we are talking this way, we really don’t believe it applies to you. We are confident that you are meant for better things, things that come with salvation. For God is not unjust. He will not forget how hard you have worked for him and how you have shown your love to him by caring for other believers, as you still do. Our great desire is that you will keep on loving others as long as life lasts, in order to make certain that what you hope for will come true.”
Hebrews 6:9-11 NLT
A. After a very straightforward warning the author of Hebrews re-affirmed his audience of the authenticity of their faith. He reminded them that God does not forget their genuine demonstration of their love and obedience for Him.
B. The warning did not apply to them because their faith is confirmed by their actions, love, and obedience to the Lord. In other words, God does not forget when we are faithful to Him.
3. Satan loves when we are spiritually dull.
“Then you will not become spiritually dull and indifferent. Instead, you will follow the example of those who are going to inherit God’s promises because of their faith and
endurance.”
Hebrews 6:12 NLT
A. The illustration that the author of Hebrews used here was brilliant. For something to be dull that means that it was once very sharp.
B. This means that we must always remember the warmth and closeness of God's presence in our lives. Again, God does not drift away from us but we drift away from Him because of our sins.
C. “But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first! Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. If you don’t repent, I will come and remove your lamp stand from my its place among the churches.”
Revelation 2:4-5 NLT
Conclusion:
Yes there will be a lot of ups and downs even in our walk with God. What is important is we
understand that our faith is not based on what we feel or what we wanted to experience but it is founded on the solid rock of Jesus Christ. We have the confidence that God is the author and finisher of our faith. In good times and in bad even when we sometimes don't feel His presence. We must persevere because of our knowledge of who our God is, is not on what we wanted to feel or what we do not see.
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