The Former Days — Pastor Chris Oswald · Providence Community Church

What's in this sermon

The shape of the argument

18 units across exposition, application, illustration, theological claim, and conclusion. The pastor's argument is built from these moving parts.

Doctrinal loci· 8 surfaced

Sanctification · 12 Providence / Sovereignty · 4 Ecclesiology · 2 Pastoral Theology · 2 Eschatology · 1 Ethics / Moral Theology · 1 Hamartiology · 1 Pneumatology · 1

Bible citations· 10

Illustrations· 2

Moses' Call to Remember historical example · unit #9 — Moses' repeated call to Israel to 'remember' their deliverance and wilderness journey serves as a biblical precedent for the Hebrews' call to recall the former days. The illustration establishes a canonical pattern of remembrance as a means of sustaining faith.
Including Children in Faith's Journey personal story · unit #14 — The pastor's family decision to move for the church plant serves as a concrete example of including children in trials. The story demonstrates how witnessing parental faith in action during uncertainty shapes children's own experience of God's provision.

Theological claims· 8

The author of Hebrews was a pastor deeply concerned with his congregation's endurance and determined to keep them from shrinking back and being destroyed. unit #4
Christian faith is most clearly seen and proven in times of difficulty and struggle, not in times of ease. unit #6
The author of Hebrews considered the local congregation's own history of faith important and worth remembering alongside the great heroes of faith in chapter 11. unit #8
The past is an essential resource for understanding the present and preparing for the future, contrary to modern chronological snobbery that dismisses anything before our time as inferior. unit #10
Trials should be viewed as opportunities to glorify God and demonstrate faith, not as challenges to be avoided. unit #11
Trials, though naturally viewed as terrible events, are occasions to see God's provision of grace and mercy and to build character. unit #12
Parents should intentionally include their children in difficult circumstances so they can witness and remember how God proves Himself faithful in trials. unit #13
Christians in the West are beginning to experience the same kind of public reproach and affliction the Hebrew Christians faced, and this should not surprise us given Romans 1's teaching on God's judgment. unit #16

Quotations· 1

"chronological snobbery" — C.S. Lewis (unit #10)

Read it

Full transcript

17,037 characters 18 units ~19 min reading time

0 · The introduction establishes audience rapport through a poll about 'the good old days' and sets up a contrast between nostalgic personal memories and the passage's actual call to remember something very different

Open up your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 10. I'm going to take a little bit of a break from Luke this morning. And while you're doing that, I just want to take a little poll. Who here is old enough this morning to remember the good old days? Anybody? Anybody remember the good old days? Well, actually, everybody should be raising their hand. We're all old enough to remember some kind of good old days. I'd be willing to bet that if I asked you to just share what that would be, we'd get an immense variety of stories about the good old days. One of the things that comes to my mind, the good old days for me, is high school. During my teen years, I lived in the beach communities of Southern California. All the buddies I hung out with, we were all into cars, Camaros, Mustangs, the '60s versions of all of those classic muscle cars. We would spend a lot of time working on our cars on the weekends and the evenings, trying to make them go faster, sound tougher, and we would do a lot of street racing. And the weekend nights, Friday night, Saturday night, we would spend cruising on Beach Boulevard and Pacific Coast Highway through Huntington Beach and Newport Beach. Those are my old hangouts. Those were the good old days. The time when I was courting my wife, when I was getting to know Pam, those were the good old days as well, as we would spend time together just walking and talking, going out to dinner, going to movies, just talking and praying. Just remember those times fondly. Those were the good old days. I remember when our family was young, the kids were young. It's always exciting to see, to watch the children as they realize something new, and they just— the world is just so amazing to them, and they're just learning and learning and learning. When I was young, they were young, we could go out and do a lot of things. It was just fun, and those were the good old days.

1 · The pastor pivots from the opening nostalgic frame to clarify that the passage's call to 'remember the former days' is fundamentally different from sentimental nostalgia—it's about remembering suffering, not comfort

But from this passage— sorry, but the term 'the good old days' is simply a cliché that we use to typically refer to a period of time in our lives that we consider better than the current time. And we consider— and what we consider to be better or worse is almost entirely purely subjective. It's a form of nostalgic romanticism for many of us. So while recalling the good old days is not exactly what the author in our passage today in Hebrews has in mind, he is asking them to remember a period of time in their past.

2 · The full reading of the primary text establishes the passage's content: a call to remember past suffering, maintain confidence, endure, and not shrink back

Follow along now. As I read from Hebrews chapter 10, beginning in verse 32: But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised. For yet a little while, and the Coming One will come and will not delay. But my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

3 · The opening prayer asks for the Spirit's work to soften hearts and open the congregation to the word, and frames the sermon's focus: remembering God's sustaining grace in past affliction

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your word and for this gentle reminder to remember the past, not the good old days past, but times when you were with us in struggle and affliction. Affliction and persecution, and how in the midst of those we've seen your grace and your mercy towards us, how you sustained us through it. Lord, I thank you for your word, and we ask that by your Spirit you would come and speak to each one of us this morning. Lord, we need to have our hearts softened and open to your word, and that's done through the power of your Spirit. In Jesus' name, amen.

4 · This unit establishes the pastoral character of the Hebrews author—someone intimately familiar with the congregation's history and struggles, urgently concerned with their perseverance

So one benefit of reading our Bible, in particular a book this morning, is that you get to know the author in many ways as you read through a passage or even entire book or the entire Bible. You gain insights into the way he thinks about his relationship with God, how he thinks about his relationship with those he's writing to. As you read the letter of Hebrews, There's an even greater sense of discovery since we don't know who the author of Hebrews is. He's the great mystery man of the New Testament. And from this passage, though, it's clear, I believe, that this man was a pastor. He's turning his attention in this passage to the care and the concern of this Hebrew congregation. It's pretty clear he was intimately familiar with them. He was familiar with their struggles. He was familiar with the threats to their faith. He knew the events that made up their history. He also knew that he was single-mindedly and tenacious, I believe, in this passage in helping them prepare for the future. He didn't want them to shrink back and be destroyed. He understood that whatever might happen to them, this mattered above all else.

5 · The pastor expounds the text's opening command—'recall the former days'—and clarifies that this is not nostalgic reminiscence but a call to remember past suffering and endurance

So the writer begins this passage and tells the church to recall the past. Specifically, he says recall the former days. But this isn't a call to remember the good old days as I described them as I began here, or as we typically want to think of them. He's not drawing their attention to the days when being a Christian was easy, when faith came easily. Just the opposite, actually. He's telling them to recall the former days when they endured a hard struggle with sufferings.

6 · The pastor asserts that trials are the moments when Christian faith is most visibly demonstrated

It's in the midst of difficult times that we as Christians And that our faith is really truly seen clearly. The highlight reel, the ESPN highlight reel of our lives should include, and lives of our faith should include times of difficulty, of struggle, and challenges.

7 · The pastor unfolds the historical situation of the Hebrew Christians: conversion led directly to suffering, imprisonment, and guilt-by-association for standing with the persecuted

The writer tells the church to recall the former days when after being enlightened you endured a hard struggle with sufferings. So apparently in the former days after they had become Christians, It appears that they also began to suffer. And that's what becoming a Christian meant for the early church. It's what it means today still for many, many people around the world. Come to Christ, experience suffering. The two go hand in hand often. Apparently these Christians as well thought things, they said things, or they did things that probably weren't politically correct at the time. And some of them, as a result, were arrested, we're told. Still others found themselves in trouble simply because they stood by those who had been arrested.

8 · The pastor contextualizes the passage within Hebrews' broader structure: while chapter 11 recounts canonical faith heroes, chapter 10 focuses on the local congregation's own history of faith

The writer of Hebrews loves to include many examples of faith for us throughout the book. Chapter 11, if you just would read that, it's the great story, the great history of faith, God's people throughout history and the examples of faith that they've shown throughout that. But here in these last verses of chapter 10, the author is bringing back this local congregation to their specific history and their specific examples of faith. The Hebrew, the writer of Hebrews thought that history was important and he wanted to remind this congregation of that history.

9 · Moses' repeated call to Israel to 'remember' their deliverance and wilderness journey serves as a biblical precedent for the Hebrews' call to recall the former days

Moses did the same thing with the Israelites throughout the book of Deuteronomy. He wrote, 'Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt.' And he wrote that phrase many, many times throughout the book of Deuteronomy. 'Remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all of Egypt. Remember the whole way the Lord your God has led you these 40 years in the wilderness.' Remember, remember. That was a constant theme from Moses to the Israelites. Don't forget what God has done for you. I want you to remember.

10 · The pastor diagnoses a modern tendency to dismiss the past as irrelevant ('chronological snobbery') and contrasts it with the Hebrews author's conviction that remembering the past is essential for understanding the present and preparing for the future

Recent generations often put little stock in history though. It's easy for any generation to become so self-centered that we don't really care about anyone but ourselves. Even as Christians, we allow our thinking to be shaped by secular ideas of progress and to conclude that anything that happened before our time is somehow inferior or not important. C.S. Lewis labeled this phenomenon— he calls it chronological snobbery. But the writer of Hebrews thought the past was important. It was an important resource to this congregation in understanding the present and in preparing for the future.

11 · The first of three key verbs—'recall'—is introduced, and the pastor asserts that trials reveal the substance of faith by stripping away comfort

He begins with a word that is one of three verbs that shape this passage, and that word is remember or recall. Recall the former days, he says. After you were enlightened, you suffered, endured a hard struggle with suffering. You want to find out what your faith is really made of? Then strip away all that's comfortable, all that's familiar, all that's helpful in your life. We should view trials as opportunities to glorify God. They're not challenges to be avoided. They're to be anticipated and looked forward to for a Christian. They're opportunities for us to demonstrate our faith and to see God's promises lived out in our lives. We should see them as positive challenges for us.

12 · The pastor acknowledges the natural human response to unexpected suffering but reframes trials as occasions to see God's provision and as character-building moments

This tells us something then about how we should approach trials. When something happens that we didn't expect, when our circumstances suddenly change, when a great problem arises, our first instinct is to do— to think that something terrible has happened to us. And in a way, that's somewhat understandable. When we find ourselves facing a severe illness, perhaps cancer, when we unexpectedly lose a job, Maybe the death of a loved one or a broken relationship with a spouse or with a child. It's understandable that we might feel tempted to think that something terrible has happened. We certainly don't look forward to events like these in our lives. But this passage reminds us that these are occasions that help us to rise up and to see God's provision of grace and mercy in those difficult times. It's character building in a lot of ways.

13 · The pastor applies the principle of remembering to parenting: parents should intentionally include children in trials so they can witness God's faithfulness

Many memories, many of our memories will be times of difficulty when, and we see how God proved Himself to us. There are things our children remember from, these are things also that our children should remember and will remember from our childhood. And as parents, I would encourage you to include your children in the difficult things of your life. Let them see how God is proving Himself to you and to them. Let them in and observe how you place your trust in Christ in the midst of difficulties. It's good for them to see that. It's good for them to experience it. And it's going to help define and shape their own faith.

14 · The pastor's family decision to move for the church plant serves as a concrete example of including children in trials

I remember probably 15 years ago now when Pam and I were praying about leaving California and moving to Kansas City to be a part of this church plant. It was a difficult situation for us to to ponder and consider, to leave everything that we had grown up with, leave our families behind. And it didn't affect just Pam and I, it was going to affect our 3 children as well. So early on in that process, we took the kids, and they weren't that old back then. Nathan was probably 3 or 4, Alicia was 8, Jamin was 10. We took them aside and brought them into that process, let them know that we felt that God might be leading us to leave California, to leave Pasadena, to leave their friends, to leave their home, and set out on a journey that we didn't really know how it was going to end. But we felt God was calling us. We brought them into that. We prayed with them. We talked with them. We let them share their, their concerns, their fears. And they could see that it wasn't just God moving mom and dad, it was God moving an entire family. For the sake of the gospel. Didn't make it easier for them, but they got to experience for themselves how God provided for them as we came here and settled and began a new life in Kansas City.

15 · The pastor returns to the text to show the author's method: reminding the congregation of their past endurance to demonstrate the sufficiency of God's grace

And whenever we face real trouble, we need to mine out the treasures that are there for us for the future, which is just exactly what this author is doing. He wants his readers to remember what Christians can do through faith. What they had been able to do in an earlier trial and how sufficient God's grace had been for them in the past. He said, 'You endured, you endured a hard struggle with suffering.' He said, 'You had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and abiding one.' He's reminding them of what they had gone through and how they'd seen God provide for them.

16 · The pastor catalogs contemporary examples of Christian persecution in America (bakeries, photographers, pastors, moms, Christian schools) and roots them in Romans 1's description of debased minds

So notice the kinds of things that He carried them through by the power that they received through simple faith in Him. There was a hard struggle that was characterized by suffering. They suffered public reproach. They suffered affliction. Their property was plundered. And it says they did that and they accepted that joyfully. Suffering, though, isn't something that we always look forward to. I certainly don't. But what was it, though, that we as Christians fear about suffering? Well, I fear that in the midst of suffering and struggle and trials that maybe God has abandoned me. I fear that God will not give me the strength to make it through. I fear that I might give in and that my faith will fail me. But it's in times of difficulty that we can learn of God's sustaining grace for us. In past times of difficulty, these Christians had learned of God's sustaining grace. And the author's reminding them of that. Having faced a hard struggle, in verse 32, the author tells them, 'You endured.' This is their faith in action, and it's a history lesson for these Hebrews. Speaking of their confiscated property, he says, 'You yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.' This was Paul's perspective as well when he wrote in Romans 8:18, he says, 'I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us. In their earlier trial, the recipients of the letter had been subjected to reproach and affliction, we're told. It's the very kind of thing that I think Christians in the West are beginning to experience, and I think will continue to experience at probably an ever-increasing pace. Our culture is quickly becoming less and less Christian in its ethics and in its morals. It's getting further and further away at a rapidly increasing pace. The recent decision by the Supreme Court to legalize gay marriage seems to have really opened up a floodgate. A year ago, how many of us really spent time figuring out which restroom the men should go into and which restroom the women should go to? It's not something that we spent time thinking about, and it seemed to be common sense to us. But today, you're weird, you're insensitive, You're racist if you think that men should use the men's room and women should use the women's room. We've all heard the story of the troubles of Christian-owned bakeries, photographers, and other businesses because they refused to provide services for gay weddings. In Georgia, a bi-vocational pastor who was a doctor for the Department of Public Health lost his job for preaching biblically about homosexuality, about marriage. About world religions, about science, and about creation. There was a group of moms up in Wisconsin recently that were harassed and threatened and intimidated simply because they were providing lunch for students at a park a few blocks away from a public school. And the kids had the freedom to come and go to this park. And while they were there, if any students did come, it was well known that they would receive a lunch and they would receive some kind of gospel message. And these ladies that were doing this were threatened, they were harassed, and they were intimidated because they wanted to provide a lunch and present the Gospel message to a group of students. Just this week I read about an attempt in California to force Christian schools to accept any and all students. Mostly Christian universities out there are being— there's a law working its way through the California legislature and it's just about to pass. It's passed the Senate, it's just about to pass the House, and the governor out there will sign it. Basically says that you can no longer allow students or require them to sign a confession of faith. You have to accept any and all comers. You can't force kids to go to chapel services. And as a matter of fact, if any student that comes into your school is offended by anything said at a chapel service, If they're offended by a prayer, if they're offended by a teaching of a Bible class, they are now allowed to sue that school for discrimination. But we shouldn't be surprised by all of this that's taking place. If you are, I encourage you to go back and read Romans chapter 1. There Paul tells us all that God has turned people over to because they failed to honor Him. Instead, it says, 'becoming fools, exchanging the glory of the immortal God for the images of man, birds, animals, and creeping things.' And one of the things that God gave them up to, we're told, is to a debased mind. To do what ought not to be done. So we shouldn't be surprised when we see the results of debased minds at work.

17 · A brief transition introducing an extended John Piper quotation diagnosing the American church's unbiblical mindset

And considering this passage in Hebrews, John Piper wrote this:

Where this fits

Recent preaching context

The three sermons immediately preceding this one in the preaching schedule.

Not enough data yet — this preacher has fewer than three prior sermons in the corpus.

Take it further

Discuss · apply · pray

Small groups

6 discussion questions

Ready-to-print leader brief with cross-references and landing-zone application. PDF available.

Daily readings

5-day reading plan

Mon–Fri scripture readings drawn from this sermon's citations.

Prayer

Weekly prayer prompt

A prayer drawn from this sermon's theological frame.

Family table

Sunday-evening conversation card

One prompt for the table; works for kids and adults alike.

Couples

Three questions over coffee

For married members — works as a midweek check-in or a longer date conversation.

Memorize

Hebrews 10:32-39

A verse from this sermon's primary text to commit to memory.

Where this was preached

About the church

Providence Community Church

Lenexa, KS
Sundays · 10:00 AM
About us · What we believe

Plan a visit →

Crawler & AI-search policy · view robots.txt and llms.txt

This sermon page is intentionally optimized for search engines and AI assistants. We've opted into being crawled by both. The crawler-config files at the domain root:

/robots.txt

User-agent: *
Allow: /

User-agent: GPTBot
Allow: /

User-agent: ClaudeBot
Allow: /

User-agent: Google-Extended
Allow: /

User-agent: PerplexityBot
Allow: /

Sitemap: https://sermonsteward.com/sitemap.xml

/llms.txt

# Providence Community Church

A church preaching expository sermons through the books of the Bible.

## Sermons
- [The Former Days (Hebrews 10:32-39)](/ProvidenceLenexa/sermons/the-former-days)

## About
- [About the church](/about)
- [Plan a visit](/visit)

The page itself ships with Schema.org Article + Church markup (with real geo coordinates), Open Graph + Twitter cards for share previews, and a canonical URL. Transcripts are server-rendered HTML — no JS dependency for the readable body.