Introduction:
Angelology 101
What Makes Jesus Greater Than Angels?
(Hebrews 1:4-14)
- Jesus' Relationship to the Father. (Heb 1:4-5)
- Jesus receives Worship from angels. (Heb 1:6)
- Jesus is God . (Heb 1:7-12)
Seven Proofs that Jesus is God:
- Jesus is called "God" by God the Father. (Heb 1:8a)
- Jesus is the forever King . (Heb 1:8b)
- Jesus is perfect in Righteousness . (Heb 1:9)
- Jesus Created everything. (Heb 1:10)
- Jesus will Burn it all down. (Heb 1:11-12a)
- Jesus is Unchanging . (Heb 1:12b)
- Jesus is Eternal . (Heb 1:12c)
- Jesus' Job title. (Heb 1:13-14)
2 Kings 18:4 - He [Hezekiah] removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah. And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan).
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:48-00:49
Hebrews 1.
00:50-01:00
Last week's message was just really a preview of the rest of the book of Hebrews, because really it tells you everything you need to know about Jesus.
01:01-01:03
That He is the ultimate prophet.
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He is the High Priest.
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He is the Eternal King.
01:07-01:10
And He is God Himself.
01:12-01:20
And the rest of the book of Hebrews that Pastor Taylor and I are going to be going through these next several months is really just unpacking all of that.
01:21-01:31
To show us why Jesus Christ is worthy of our allegiance, why He's worthy of our trust regardless of any trial that we go through.
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So I want you to bow your heads with me please.
01:34-01:38
And we're going to pray as we approach God's Word.
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I pray that your hearts would be open to receiving what God wants to speak to you through His Word.
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And I ask that you would please pray for me to be faithful to accurately communicate the Word of God.
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Let's pray.
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Father in Heaven, we take Your Word very seriously.
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We just ask right now, amidst all the possible distractions that You could tune our hearts and our minds in, it is you want to say to us through this portion of your word.
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We pray in Jesus' name, all of God's people said, amen.
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Hebrews chapter one, are you there?
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Today, we are going to talk about angels.
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It's an interesting subject because for a lot of us, We don't really think about angels at all.
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Right?
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It's sort of in our minds this kind of secondary thing in the Bible we don't understand, so we kind of shelve it, right?
02:54-03:00
And for others, there's a lot of superstition that surrounds angels.
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A lot of myths that have come in.
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We're going to talk about that in a few moments.
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And some people, honestly, are overly fascinated with angels.
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And I've shared with you before, unfortunately for me, a lot of my views on such things came from music that I listened to growing up.
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And you know, there are a lot of songs about angels.
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Are there not?
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I mean, this time of year, you can turn on your TV And you see the commercial with the poor dogs, you know, log chain to the tire, and the song that played, you know the song, right?
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Sarah McLachlan, sing it with me if you know it.
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♪ In the arms of an angel ♪ Nobody.
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Just gonna leave me up here.
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Thanks for that.
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I see Rich violently nodding like, "Yes, we're gonna leave you up there." Well, I thought it'd be fun to do a little sing-along.
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From the songs about angels.
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You wanna do a sing-along this morning?
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Sure you do.
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You know the Black Crowes song, right?
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♪ Yeah, she talks to angels ♪ ♪ Says they all Nobody knows that song.
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Says they all know her name ♪ heard that song? This is gonna be fun. How about U2? Have you ever heard of the band U2? Remember the song? "Angel, angel of..." Yes, thank you Jane Auer! "Angel of Harlem..." Where have you people been?
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You don't know this song?
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Oh, did you hear that?
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Somebody Jesus juked me, like we only listen to Christian music, Pastor Jeff.
05:07-05:10
My whole life, I've never heard a secular song.
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Well, listen, this is the introduction that I wrote down and this is the one we're going with.
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What about Aerosmith?
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Surely you've heard this song.
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Surely you've heard, ♪ Baby, you're my angel ♪ Come on.
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(audience laughing)
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No?
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Come and save me tonight ♪ All right, I got a bunch more, but I think I'm just gonna move on.
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(audience laughing)
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No, there is one more.
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Come on, you have to know this one.
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You have to know Juice Newton.
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Do you know Juice Newton?
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Just call me angel of the morning, angel ♪ Come on!
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Yes!
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Yes!
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I'm going to go ahead and mark this one down as a success.
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You knew that one, but you didn't know Aerosmith.
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So I'm preparing all week to preach a message about angels, I was studying and my wife Erin, she goes, "I don't know why you're spending so much time reading and studying." She goes, "Just observe.
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You've been living with an angel for more than 20 years." That gets a response.
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Well, today's passage is this.
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Jesus is greater than angels.
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And look, I know my audience.
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This isn't going to be a hard sell.
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Right?
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But really, we have to understand the audience that the Hebrew writer was addressing to understand why right out the gate, he goes into talking about angels.
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But before we do that, we need to understand So on your outline, this is angelology 101.
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Yes, angelology is a word.
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I think it's a really lame word, but it's a word that described the study of angels.
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So how much do you know about angels?
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Judging from your knowledge of angels appearing in pop music, I'm guessing none.
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So, and I'm not talking about the myths, right?
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What are some myths that surround angels?
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Go ahead and shout them out.
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What are some myths that surround angels?
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Okay, so they get the halo and they're constantly playing the harp.
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What else?
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Okay, how about the naked babies with the wings?
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That's how angels are often depicted.
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What else do we know from mythology?
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What's that?
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Oh yeah, it's a female in a white robe, right?
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And I guess that's sort of the image with all these cheesy songs that talk about angels.
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That's the image.
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It's a female in a white robe.
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What else?
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Here's a big one.
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Even in the church, there's the myth that when we die, we turn into angels.
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And that's not true.
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Let's talk about what the Bible actually says.
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All right?
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So this is "Angeology 101." There's a little Sunday school class.
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So if you're timing the sermon, this little chunk doesn't count towards sermon time.
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All right?
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So what are angels?
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What are angels?
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Angels are powerful supernatural spirits that serve God.
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Created sometime before the earth was created.
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They don't procreate or age, and there's no new ones being made.
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Now, biblically, angels are a higher creation than man, but they minister to man.
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And we studied this when we went through the book of Revelation, but Lucifer, an exalted angel, rebelled against God, along with a third of the angels, and we call them demons.
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Some of these demons, because of their sin, are imprisoned in a place called the abyss.
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We talked about that, Jude 6, Luke 8, among many other places in Scripture, there's this prison that's called the abyss where some demons are imprisoned and they will be freed in the end as God brings judgment according to Revelation 9.
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But there are still demons active in the world today, often trying to derail Christians in their walk with Christ according to Ephesians 6.
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Now, angels are often invisible to unaided human vision.
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2 Kings 6 But angels can appear in a form that God chooses, often looking like a man.
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Genesis 18, Genesis 19, Mark 16, Acts 1, etc.
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Angels never appear as female.
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They're not sexual beings the way God created man and woman to be.
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But when they appear, they always look like men.
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So, how many types of angels does the Bible name?
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How many types are there?
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I brought a guess.
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How many types?
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There are four types.
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You're like, "I was just about to say that." There are four types.
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There's what we would call the ordinary angels.
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They don't have any special designation other than they are angels.
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There are cherubim, there are seraphim, and there are archangels.
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And they are innumerable.
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So who are the three angels that are named in the Bible?
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Do you know?
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Shout them out if you know.
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Who are the three angels that are actually named?
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Got that one right out.
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Good on you.
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Yeah, Lucifer, the aforementioned Lucifer, there's Gabriel and there's Michael.
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Those are the three that are named.
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So what do angels do?
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What do they do?
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Well, they do a lot of things.
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First of all, they worship, according to Isaiah 6 and Revelation 5.
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Angels guard gates.
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An angel was guarding the gate to the Garden of Eden, and angels guard the gates of heaven, the Bible tells us.
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Angels wage war, Revelation 12.
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Angels rule nations, Daniel chapter 10.
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Angels execute judgment, Genesis 19, Matthew 13.
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And angels ultimately will bind Satan.
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But what's especially relevant to us is how angels minister to man.
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Like, well, how do they do that?
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How do angels minister to man?
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Well, I think in general terms you could say that angels are part of God's providence.
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That God carries out His will, oftentimes, through angels.
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In fact, the Bible says sometimes God uses angels to answer prayer, according to Daniel 9.
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Like, well, specifically, what do they do for us?
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Well, here's a few things. Again, this list is not exhaustive.
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If you are really interested, if you're like, "Man, I really want to know about angels." I have this book I read this week, it's just called "Angels, Systematic Bible Doctrines." You can have that. I'll leave it right there.
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If you want to know more, that's a quick read, but it tells you everything the Bible says about angels.
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But here's some things. What do angels do?
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They are present in the church.
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Ephesians chapter 3.
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They protect.
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Psalm 34.
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They lead sinners to gospel workers according to Acts chapter 8 and Acts chapter 10.
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Angels rejoice when a sinner turns to Christ and repents.
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Luke chapter 15.
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Angels escort deceased believers to heaven.
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Luke chapter 16.
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Angels will gather God's elect in the end.
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Matthew 24.
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will separate the saved from the unsaved, Matthew 13. And even now, we entertain angels unaware, according to Hebrews chapter 13. Now while you're studying angels, I do go to insert this. Often times in the Old Testament, you'll hear or read of "the angel of the Lord." Now, when you see that, I believe that is a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus Christ.
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You see that Genesis 16, Genesis 22, Judges 6, Judges 13.
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I don't believe that that's a regular angel in those cases.
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I believe that that's actually Jesus.
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The reason I believe that is because He accepted worship.
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He accepted sacrifice.
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And worshiping angels was forbidden the people that encountered THE angel of the Lord, very specific, THE angel of the Lord, they called Him Lord.
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But when you study the life of Jesus, it's amazing how His whole life involved angels.
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That's why, for me, it's hard to sort of dismiss angels as this non -important thing to consider.
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I mean, just think of the life of Jesus.
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how much angels were involved in everything in his life.
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They predicted his birth, Matthew 1, Luke 1.
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They protected him as a baby, Matthew 2.
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They ministered to Jesus after his temptation, Matthew 4.
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And in Gethsemane, Luke 22, angels announced the resurrection of Jesus.
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That's in all the Gospels.
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Angels were there at the ascension of Jesus, Acts chapter 1.
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And angels will be with Him at His second coming.
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Matthew 25, 2 Thessalonians 1.
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And this is a big one here, because this is going to take us right into our text, after what is probably the longest sermon introduction ever.
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But angels gave the law.
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Somehow God used the angels to mediate His law.
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That's in Acts 7, and that's in Hebrews 2.
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And because of that, and all that they do in the Old Testament, and because of all of the myths and weird beliefs that developed about angels, they became objects of worship for the Jews.
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You see, we probably don't give angels enough attention or thought, but many of these Jews in this passage gave them way too much, and actually worshipped angels.
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So the Hebrew writer here, in exalting Jesus, kicks off by showing that if Jesus is a mediator of a better covenant, then He has to be superior to who mediated the first covenant.
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So this is the sermon today.
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Jesus is better than angels.
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And he proves it from seven Old Testament passages.
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So in your outline, what makes Jesus greater than angels?
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Number one, Jesus' relationship to the Father.
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And here he's quoting Psalm 2 and 2 Samuel 7.
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But picking up where we left off last week, he says, speaking of Jesus, "Having become as much superior to angels as the name He has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
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For to which of the angels did God ever say, 'You are My Son, today I have begotten you.' Or again, 'I will be to Him a Father, and he shall be to me a son." You know, when I was a kid, walking home from school, I would walk past this bank.
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It was the Citizens Bank, the blue Citizens Bank.
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I think it's next to here now.
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But oftentimes when I would walk home from school, I'd just walk right into the bank.
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I'd walk right by the tellers, into the offices, and I'd go into the bank manager's office, and I'd sit down.
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I'd take a handful of candy from his desk.
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I'd sit and talk to him for a while.
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Then I'd get up and leave.
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Out the back door.
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You know, nobody else could do that.
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Nobody else could get away with that.
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Just walking right in.
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You know how I was able to do that?
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Because I was a son.
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You see, I had a special position that other people didn't have.
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And you see, that's the point of the Hebrew writer here.
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Angels are messengers and angels are servants, but Jesus is the Son.
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And yes, Christians are called sons of God.
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Angels, biblically, are also called sons of God, because we were created, but we are not the begotten Son of God.
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You see, Jesus has a relationship to God the Father They are unlike any angel could ever have.
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Now look, if you have kids, you get it.
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If you have kids, you get it.
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Sure you love other kids.
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Sure you do.
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But parents, you will never love any kid the way you love your own kid.
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You just don't.
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And angels are excellent creatures, but Jesus is greater by virtue relationship with the Father.
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So what makes Jesus greater than angels?
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Number two, Jesus receives worship from angels.
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Here he's quoting Psalm 97, look at verse 6.
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He says, "And again, when He brings the firstborn into the world, He says, 'Let all God's angels worship Him.'" Firstborn is a title of position.
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A lot of cults have tried to hijack this.
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Look, it says here that Jesus was the first created.
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That's not what firstborn means.
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It's a title.
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Now, often times in a family, the child born first had the position of firstborn, but not always.
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The word just means having the highest position of prominence.
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I think it says, "Let all God's angels worship Him." That's how it works with worship, isn't it?
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Worship is always directed at one deemed greater than the one who is doing the worshiping.
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So, the point is pretty clear, right?
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Jesus must be greater than angels Angels are called to worship Jesus.
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It's a sin to worship anyone or anything other than God.
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But here, these angels are commanded to worship Jesus, so, Jesus must be greater than angels.
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I love this.
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Because in verse 6 it says, "Again," when He brings the firstborn into the world, that word "again" is huge.
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You see, when I read this, maybe like you, I always thought, He's making this point, so He was like, "Again, I'm telling you something else.
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Again, I'm building my argument." But that's really not what He means by the word "again" here.
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Because the sentence should be structured this way, when God again brings His firstborn into the world.
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See what he's talking about?
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He's talking about the second coming of Jesus Christ.
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When He again brings His firstborn into the world.
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Here's the point.
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The Bible tells us that angels are marveling at what God is doing.
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They're watching what God is doing.
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man, transforming people, this whole thing of redemption.
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The Bible says angels are watching this, just marveling at what God is doing.
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And they're just like worshiping God.
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Look at what he's doing.
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And that's what the Hebrew writer here is saying, that at the second coming of Jesus Christ, when he comes in power to judge and to ultimately bring the fulfillment of his promise, the angels are going to be blown away again.
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And they're going to have this whole new reason to worship him.
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They're just going to be like, "Whoa, we thought we knew everything about worshiping God, but There's a whole new reason to worship Jesus Christ.
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That's what he's saying.
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Jesus receives worship from angels, so He has to be greater than angels.
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Number three, what makes Jesus greater than angels?
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Here's one.
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How about "Jesus is God." Here he's quoting Psalm 104, Psalm 45, Psalm 102.
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Jesus is God.
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Look at verse 7.
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of the angels, he says, he makes his angels winds, and his ministers a flame of fire.
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Angels are called, they're described as winds. Why winds? Well, winds are invisible, they're fast and they're powerful. That describes an angel. They're also described as fire.
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biblically is usually associated with judgment and angels are heavily involved in judgment. God uses them as we discussed to carry out judgment. So winds and flames. He's like that's how you would describe an angel. But to describe the Son you would have to say He is God. Look at verse 8. He says, "But of the "The Son," He says.
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Now look, this is what God the Father is saying about God the Son.
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He says, "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.
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The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of Your kingdom." That's the overwhelming testimony of Scripture.
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That Jesus Christ is God who became a man.
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That's the whole celebration this time of year.
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And just here in this little tiny chunk, these few verses, I'm going to show you quickly seven proofs that Jesus is God.
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Alright, seven proofs that Jesus is God.
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Letter A. Jesus is called God, by God the Father.
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Do you see that?
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It says, "But of the Son, He says, 'Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.'" God the Father calls God the Son, God.
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I love this verse.
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Because when Jehovah's Witnesses come after me, this is the verse that I take them to.
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It happened a couple of years ago.
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I had some Jehovah's Witnesses come to my house, and I said, "Well, we're going to have slightly different beliefs.
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I believe that Jesus is God." And they're like, "Well, the Bible doesn't say that He's God." I'm like, "Well, actually," I said, "In Hebrews 1.8, God the Father calls God the Son God.
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So if God the Father calls God the Son God, what do you think I should call Him?" And they said, "Have a nice day." I'll go with what the Father calls Him.
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The Father calls Him God.
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I'll call Him God.
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Letter B, what...
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In 7 Proofs of Jesus is God, Letter B, Jesus is the forever King.
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You see that?
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Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.
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Who else but God can rightly be called the one who is King forever?
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No one.
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No one.
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The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.
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Jesus is God.
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Letter C, third reason, third proof rather, that Jesus is God, is Jesus is perfect in righteousness.
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Look at verse nine.
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It says, "You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness.
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Therefore, your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions." Do you realize what Jesus loves and hates motivates what happens in the universe?
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There's no angel that can say that.
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In the incarnation of Jesus Christ, specifically His crucifixion, We clearly see the motives behind God's actions.
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Jesus is perfect in righteousness.
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Fourth proof, letter D.
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How about this one?
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Jesus created everything.
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Look at verse 10.
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He's just piling it on.
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Jesus is God, Jesus is God, Jesus is God.
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Verse 10, he says, "And you, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands." You know, Scripture is crystal on this.
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From the very first verse in the Bible, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
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And then we read the New Testament, the New Testament gives us more revelation, specifically Jesus Christ is the Creator of everything.
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That makes Him God.
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Next reason.
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Next proof. Fifth proof. Jesus is God.
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Letter E. Jesus will burn it all down.
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He'll burn it all down. Look at verses 11 through the first part of verse 12.
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It says, they - talking about the earth and the heavens - He says, "They will perish, but you remain.
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They will all wear out like a garment, like a robe.
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You will roll them up like a garment.
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They will be changed.
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Jesus will burn it all down.
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He was there in the beginning to create the world.
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We saw that in verse 2 last week.
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And Jesus is going to be there to end it.
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2 Peter 3 says He is going to burn it up.
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It's like an old shirt.
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Right?
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This is the time of year that men are especially excited.
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You know, those undergarments that you've been hanging on to all year, they're on the final stages of leprosy.
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You're getting new ones next week.
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And what are we going to do with the old ones?
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Roll them up and throw them into fire.
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The Bible says, that's the terminology that Jesus is going to do with the heavens and the earth.
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He's just going to roll it up, into the fire.
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Done.
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He's going to burn it all down.
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Who else could you ascribe that activity to other than God?
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Jesus is God.
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You're like, I'm still not convinced.
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Alright?
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Here's a sixth proof that Jesus is God.
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Letter F, He's unchanging.
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Jesus is unchanging.
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Look at the end of verse 12.
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It says, actually near the end, it says, "But you are the same." You are the same.
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Only God is unchanging.
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God revealed himself as the "I am." You realize that to Moses, God says that his name is "I am," not "I was." Like God was like, "Oh Moses, you should have seen me in high school.
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I was awesome." No, he didn't reveal himself as the "I was." God didn't reveal himself as the "I will be." Like guess what, Jesus?
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I'm doing keto.
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I'm training.
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I'm going to be something someday.
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I will be.
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God's the I am.
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He never changes.
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Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
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There is no shadow of turning with Him.
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Jesus is unchanging.
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Again, it's a concept that's uniquely ascribed to God.
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And here it's ascribed to Jesus, which means Jesus must be God.
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And then finally, Jesus is eternal.
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Jesus is eternal.
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Look at the end of verse 12.
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He says, "And your years will have no end." All of these things, this whole list, all of these things are true about Jesus, and they always will be.
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It's not going to expire.
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He's not in a term limit.
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All these things are always going to be true about Jesus, because Jesus is God.
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So what makes Jesus better than angels?
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Number four, Jesus' job title.
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Here he's quoting Psalm 110, look at verses 13 and 14.
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He says, "Now which of the angels has he ever said, "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet." Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?
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So you see the question on the front end here.
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Verse 13, "To which of the angels has God ever said, 'Sit at my right hand'?" What's the answer?
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What's the answer?
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None.
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God's never said that to an angel.
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Why? Because that position belongs to Jesus.
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So Jesus is also greater when you compare their ultimate destinies and job detail, comparing Jesus and the angels.
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Angels are and always will be servants of God for the sake of man.
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That's who they will always be.
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But, everything is going to be subject to Jesus, because He is the eternal, triumphant, resting His feet on His enemies, King of kings.
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So, that's the message that the Hebrew writer comes out the gate with.
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Jesus is greater than angels.
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And obviously it was a message that this church needed to hear.
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And frankly, it's a message that this church needs to hear.
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And you're like, "Well, maybe you kind of lost me there, Pastor Jeff.
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I just don't understand why you think we need to hear this, because I don't think anybody here is worshipping angels.
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So what are you talking about?
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You're like, "I don't worship angels, Pastor Jeff." And my response is, "You probably don't." But, even in the church, we can be guilty of the same type of sin, and that's worshipping something other than Jesus.
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Now, when we think of idolatry, what do we think of?
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Well, immediately we think of like, you know, the statues and things like that, some of the, you know, pagan things and, and worshipping the hunk of rock or whatever.
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And then we're like, you know, no, idolatry is really a heart issue, right?
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It's it's, and you're like, yeah, yeah, it's, it's worshipping bad things.
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That's what idolatry is.
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It's worshipping bad things, right?
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It's like when, like you talked about, when we went through that series on addiction, that addiction is a worship disorder.
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Addiction is idolatry.
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It is drugs and gambling and pornography.
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And we think of these bad things when we think of idolatry.
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And that is all true.
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But like these Hebrews, church listen, as people we have this tendency to elevate and and worship even good things.
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Even things that come from Jesus, like angels, instead of Jesus himself.
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In other words, we have this tendency to worship the gifts rather than the gift giver.
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The things God's given instead of God himself.
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We are just as guilty of that, church.
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We are just as guilty.
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You know, one of the most, I guess, telling verses of the Old Testament that speak to this is 2 Kings 18.4.
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Talking about Hezekiah's reforms.
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Look at this verse.
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It says, "He (Hezekiah) removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah." It says, "And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made.
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For until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it.
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It was called Nehushtan." Do you see what went on there?
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You know, flashback, rewind, go back to the wandering through the wilderness.
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Remember, Israel persistently sinning, and as an act of judgment at one point, God sent these fiery serpents that were biting the Israelites and they were dying.
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And as an act of grace, God told Moses to put this bronze serpent on a pole so that when somebody was bitten by one of these snakes, they were to look towards this serpent and they would be saved.
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And actually Jesus talked about that being a picture of Him.
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When He's lifted up and people look to Him, it was kind of a preview of Jesus, so to speak.
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So, God designed and gave this thing to Moses to teach the Israelites to put their eyes on God.
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And what did Israel start doing?
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They were worshipping the thing.
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Do you see that?
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They were worshipping the thing that God gave, not the God who gave it.
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We start ascribing power and significance to the thing, instead of to the One who gave it.
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They took something from God and began to worship it.
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A good thing can become a bad thing when we make it the main thing.
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You're like, "Does that really happen in churches?" Oh, oh yes.
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Oh yes it does.
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I come from a fellowship of churches where some people had this exalted view of baptism.
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Baptism was the thing that saved you.
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And I have seen pastors and church leaders at each other's throats over baptism.
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This church baptizes. We believe in baptism.
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Yes, it's an outward demonstration of what Christ has done inwardly, but for so many it has been elevated to this position of exaltation of, "Unless you're baptized, you can't be saved." It's Nahushtin.
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Something that God gave, elevated to a place it shouldn't be.
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Church, we can be so guilty of that.
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You know another thing in the church where we get guilty?
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Just in case I didn't offend anybody yet.
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Here's one.
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How about type of music?
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I have a pastor friend who he was part of this church that had this yearly tradition at Christmas.
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I'm not making this up.
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You're going to think I am, but I'm not.
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This church had this yearly tradition at a Christmas.
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sang Feliz Navidad. You know that song? Feliz Navidad. You know it's like half in Spanish, half in English. You know the song I'm talking about? It's horrible. It is a horrible song. But the church, they sang that every year. And one year the pastor was like, "I think that song is kind of, I think it's kind of taking too much of a prominence in our fellowship. But this year we're not going to sing it." It was like he was suggesting throwing the Bible out.
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People were like, "You can't do that!" And there were people, my friend told me, there were people literally in tears.
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Like crying over this.
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"I can't believe we're not going to sing this song!" "We should have all these others down in here!" Like, "Really? That song?" Elevating things that shouldn't be elevated.
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In other churches, it's the pastor.
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Celebrity pastor.
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Celebrity pastor.
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You exalt some man to a position that only Jesus should have.
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Gag.
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That's what we do in the church.
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But you know, even in our personal lives, we have this tendency to take things from God.
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Gifts from God.
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You make them idols.
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They become nehushtan.
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Money.
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Your job.
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Another person.
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Your kids.
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Sex.
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Entertainment.
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None of these things are bad.
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In fact, all of these things biblically are given to us as gifts by God for us to enjoy.
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according to 1 Timothy 6.17.
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You see, the problem is when we, like these Hebrews, take something that God gave and put them in a position that they were never intended to have.
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This is hard, because I feel like right now the sermon is just starting, and you're like, I feel like it's wrapping up.
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I just want to say this.
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We have to watch that the object of our worship is the person of Jesus Christ, not something that He's given us.
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So how do I know?
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How do I know that something has become an idol in my life?
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Boy, I could do a whole sermon series on this, but for today's purposes, just give me a couple minutes here.
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How do I know if something has become an idol?
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Because look, it's not like I'm bowing the knee to something or burning incense to it.
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So how do I know that something in my life has become an idol?
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I just want you to ask yourself four questions.
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Alright?
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This is between you and the Lord.
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Alright?
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Nothing legalistic here.
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This is between you and the Lord.
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I'm going to sort this out.
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First question is what has my mind?
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What has my mind?
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What consumes my thoughts?
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Where does my mind go when I'm not thinking about anything like work detail or something specific I'm focused on at the moment?
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Where does my mind naturally drift?
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What consumes my thoughts?
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That's the first question.
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The second question is what has my time?
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What has my time?
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I'm just staggered by people that call themselves followers of Christ, that have no time for church, they have no time for small group, they have no time for serving, they don't have any time for that, but they have time for sports, they have time for Netflix, they have time for all According to Jesus, by the way, Jesus said where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
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You're like, "I'm just not sure where my heart is, Pastor Jeff." I would say, "Show me your checkbook.
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I'll show you where your heart is." Because Jesus said where your treasure is, that's where your heart is.
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So what has my mind, what has my time, what has my money?
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The last question is what has my joy?
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What do I pursue to make me happy?
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Here's the thing, again, this is between you and the Lord.
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You've got to sort this out.
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Here's the thing, if you're asking yourself these four questions and it seems like the same answer is coming up repeatedly, there's a good chance that that thing might be an idol in your life.
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And you have to ask yourself, am I looking for something to provide There's something for me that only Jesus can provide.
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And the message for this church is the same message that the Hebrew writer gave this church.
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Listen, there is nothing in Jesus' league.
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Nothing.
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As our worship team comes forward, I just want you to bow your heads.
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I just want you to bow your heads, and I just want to ask you with your heads bowed, This is just introspection time.
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This is coming before the Lord time.
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This is letting His Word and His Spirit examine our hearts time.
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I just want to ask you, is there something that you want more than Jesus?
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And if that's the case, there's always a lot of work that needs done.
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But today, I just simply want us to confess that.
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Today, I just want it to be It's a matter of confession.
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Alright?
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As we went through those questions, was there something that came up in your mind that you're like, "Yeah, you know what?
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This is becoming an idol in my life!" It'll do you a little good to tell me, but it'll do you a lot of good to confess this to the Lord.
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And if that's you, I just want to encourage you to pray something like this.
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God, I know that You have given me things to enjoy.
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But God, I have been pursuing things, or people, rather than pursuing You.
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Father, I need the power of Your Spirit and Your Word to renew my mind.
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I want to allow Jesus Christ His rightful place as the only one in my life Receiving true worship.
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Father, I pray for this church today, as we consider the superiority of Jesus Christ, even over these awesome creations that You made called angels.
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I pray, Father, that You would give us the grace and the faith to go into full Hezekiah mode this afternoon.
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Maybe there are some bad things that have become idols in our lives that we need to tear down, but maybe there are some things that came from you that we have turned into an idol like that bronze serpent.
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Father, let us tear these idols down so Christ can have His place As King and Lord in our lives, we pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Hebrews 1:4-14
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
What was something you learned about angels that you never knew? Anything come as a surprise to you?
What are some things that have become idols in the church? How do we address it when we see the church exalting something other than Jesus?
How do you know the difference between “enjoying a good thing from God” and “this thing has become an idol in my life”?
Breakout
Is there anything in your life that you’ve wrestled with the question “Is this an idol?” What is it?