Introduction:
Psalm 110:4 - The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind, "“"You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek."
Why Are You Able to Draw Near to God Through Jesus? (Hebrews 7:11-28):
- Because you have the right Priest . (Heb 7:11-19)
- Because you have God's Oath . (Heb 7:20-22)
- Because you have Jesus making Intercession for you. (Heb 7:23-25)
- Because all the Work is done. (Heb 7:26-28)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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01:01-01:03
Hebrews chapter seven.
01:04-01:11
Here at Harvest Bible Chapel, we are committed to expository preaching.
01:11-01:17
And it means going through the word of God and letting the word of God speak for itself.
01:17-01:23
Okay, we don't spend our time through the week trying to make up what we think you wanna hear.
01:25-01:29
We just want to do nothing more than represent the word of God.
01:29-01:34
And this section that we're in right now is advanced stuff.
01:35-01:38
He gave you a heads up on that back in chapter five.
01:39-01:45
We're getting into some very technical and very deep, profound truths.
01:48-01:50
We're gonna do it again today because we are going where the text takes us.
01:52-01:56
And you might think, well, what is the deal with all this Melchizedek stuff?
01:58-02:03
Well, that's why the title of this whole sermon series is "Why Jesus," right?
02:04-02:06
You realize there have been lots of people who have died on crosses.
02:07-02:09
That was a common form of execution.
02:11-02:23
But today we are remembering and we are getting into some deep doctrine and discussion and worship and prayer over one man in particular who died on a cross.
02:23-02:28
You're like, "Well, what's the big deal with him?" Well, that's what we're finding out here in Hebrews.
02:28-02:29
Why Jesus?
02:32-02:34
Why his death and his resurrection mean everything.
02:35-02:36
Who he is and what he's done.
02:37-02:43
So this doctrine is so vitally important to our understanding of our Lord.
02:44-02:52
So to that end, I'd like you to just bow your heads and please pray for me to clearly represent God's word.
02:53-03:00
I will pray for you to have a heart open to receive this as the Word of God.
03:00-03:00
Let's pray.
03:05-03:08
Father in heaven, and I guess in our theme of thank you, I wanna thank you for your Word.
03:09-03:13
And I wanna thank you personally that I don't have to try to make up something to tell these people.
03:14-03:19
You have commanded us to communicate what you have already communicated.
03:21-03:23
And your word is glorious.
03:23-03:32
And Father, you don't need me to sugarcoat it or water it down or apologize for it or dress it up, make it more appealing.
03:32-03:35
You have just called us to represent it.
03:36-03:42
And Father, you've promised to do the work through your word.
03:43-03:47
So again, I thank you ahead of time for what you're going to do.
03:50-03:52
Through this message, we pray in Jesus' name.
03:53-03:56
All of God's people said, amen.
03:59-04:01
We get the whiteboard out again.
04:03-04:04
Are there like visual people here?
04:05-04:06
Is this helpful?
04:06-04:07
It helps me.
04:09-04:12
Even if I'm the only one that helps, you know, maybe it's worth it then.
04:13-04:23
But just a quick review, because as we're going through the text, he's going even deeper in this doctrine and this theology regarding Melchizedek.
04:24-04:29
But just as a quick review, last week we went back to the time of Abraham, right?
04:29-04:35
And before he was Abraham, he was known as, yeah, Abram.
04:36-04:37
Which one do we wanna use today?
04:39-04:40
You don't care, okay, I don't need it.
04:42-04:43
We'll go with Abraham.
04:44-04:48
All right, and Father Abraham had many sons.
04:49-04:51
Many sons of Father Abraham.
04:52-05:00
The one of promise was named, I don't have time for that right now.
05:00-05:01
All right.
05:03-05:06
Okay, this is the one we're mainly concerned about today.
05:06-05:15
All right, Isaac and Isaac, he had a son named, What was the one in particular that we're thinking of?
05:15-05:17
I know you had Jacob, yeah.
05:19-05:21
Yeah, Esau's for another sermon.
05:21-05:48
All right, so Jacob, and then Jacob wrestled with God, right, and he had a name change, Israel, and that helps us remember Jacob had many sons, and which we know as the 12 tribes of Israel, but one in particular that is pertinent to our discussion regarding Melchizedek is one of Jacob's sons was Levi, right?
05:49-05:51
Not famous for his genes, that's another Levi.
05:51-06:00
This Levi, you see under the Mosaic covenant, you had to be a Levite in order to be a priest.
06:00-06:02
That's just the way it was.
06:02-06:05
Oh, and by the way, the first high priest, what was his name?
06:06-06:07
Aaron, right?
06:07-06:10
Aaron, that was the first high priest.
06:12-06:16
I have to differentiate, my wife's name is Aaron, that's a different Aaron here.
06:16-06:26
But the first high priest was Aaron, all right?
06:26-06:29
So we're just gonna say he was the first high priest.
06:29-06:33
All right, so, I'm gonna put him in parentheses there.
06:34-06:44
So Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Jacob had many sons, 12 tribes of Israel, Levi, that's where the priest came from.
06:44-06:49
We're just gonna put some priests under here for our visual.
06:49-06:52
Okay, so the priest, now this is gonna be a very crude drawing here.
06:53-07:02
Okay, not to scale exactly, but like under the old covenant where these priests ministered was the temple, okay?
07:02-07:07
in the temple had courts, right?
07:07-07:15
So these were the courts, but in the temple there was the holy place, and then there was the holy of holies.
07:15-07:20
And this is just a preview, 'cause we're gonna be talking a lot about this down the road here.
07:21-07:22
We're gonna say holy of holies.
07:23-07:34
Okay, and under the old covenant, in the temple, the holy place and the holy of holies was divided by this really thick veil.
07:35-07:39
And in the Holy of Holies was the Ark of the Covenant.
07:39-07:43
And the top of the Ark of the Covenant, that's called the mercy seat.
07:44-07:48
And that is where the unique presence of God dwelt.
07:48-07:55
So we had this picture in the Old Testament that this is where God's unique presence was.
07:55-08:06
And the high priest could only go behind the curtain, Leviticus 16, once a year on the day of atonement to offer sacrifice on behalf of the nation.
08:07-08:09
Oh, okay, there's something else we talked about too.
08:09-08:14
How about Abraham had a contemporary named Melchizedek.
08:15-08:16
Remember his story?
08:16-08:21
Abraham just got done slaughtering the kings.
08:21-08:25
And on the way back, he met this guy named Melchizedek.
08:30-08:32
Melchizedek, did I spell that right, Darla?
08:32-08:41
Okay, so he met this Melchizedek, and Abraham gave him a tithe of the spoils.
08:42-08:52
And that was one of the big lessons from last week was because Abraham paid him a tithe, that means like his whole family kind of did because they were still like on the way, right?
08:52-09:03
And Melchizedek was a really big deal he was not only a priest, but he was also a, he was a king.
09:04-09:07
All right, that's why Melchizedek is a big deal.
09:11-09:27
Because you get to a Psalm 110 verse four, speaking of the Messiah, the Messiah is said to be a priest in the order of Melchizedek, not the order of Levi, in the order of Melchizedek, which is priest and king.
09:28-09:32
So that was basically last week's message.
09:32-09:38
Jesus Christ, the Messiah would be part of Melchizedek's priesthood.
09:39-09:41
All right, now we're all caught up.
09:41-09:53
And I wanna share with you today, in this bag, I have the thing that I hate the most on this planet.
09:55-09:55
True.
10:01-10:05
I've shared with you before, the thing on this planet that I love the most would be my wife.
10:07-10:08
And if you're like, well, what is it that you hate the most?
10:08-10:09
It's right here.
10:10-10:11
Would you like to see it?
10:17-10:19
This is Owen's clock radio.
10:20-10:20
[LAUGHTER]
10:26-10:34
He only plays, like, pop top 40 on it at maximum volume all the time.
10:37-10:41
So tell me, how do you think the speaker is on this thing?
10:44-10:49
I have hearing problems anyways, but when this thing is blasting at maximum volume.
10:49-10:51
This is the only thing that I can hear.
10:51-10:54
And it can be on the other end of the house, right?
10:55-11:01
But it's got this really, just this horrible tinny speaker sound.
11:02-11:06
It just sounds so hollow and it's so loud and it like shakes my brain.
11:07-11:14
So like when I'm home, all I hear is like, ♪ Don't go chasing waterfalls
11:16-11:18
(congregation laughing)
11:22-11:24
And I like that song.
11:27-11:28
But not out of this.
11:33-11:37
Well, I think this was the bag it came in actually.
11:38-11:41
Because Erin bought this for Owen at Aldi's for $6.
11:43-11:44
I think she overspent.
11:45-11:45
(congregation laughing)
11:50-11:55
I love my son so much, and it disturbs me how much he loves this thing.
11:55-11:56
(congregation laughing)
11:56-12:00
But it is on so loud all the time.
12:02-12:06
And Erin, who's much smarter than me, says I have a solution.
12:07-12:10
So she went and she bought Owen a new radio.
12:11-12:12
I know, it's nice.
12:14-12:15
It's got a great sound.
12:15-12:18
And it's much too big for me to put in the oldies bag.
12:18-12:20
And it sounds so good.
12:22-12:26
And, Owen doesn't like that one.
12:30-12:39
Instead, he's still playing this one at maximum volume all the time.
12:39-12:40
(sighs)
12:46-12:49
And someday that too will be thrown into the lake of fire.
12:50-12:50
(congregation laughing)
12:52-12:54
You're like, what's your point with all this?
12:54-12:55
What's your point?
12:56-13:00
I'm sure some of you are ahead of me, but Owen's like the rest of us.
13:02-13:07
That it's hard to give up the old.
13:09-13:12
even when something new and better has come, right?
13:13-13:28
He has this old, janky, $6 Aldi's radio, and we got him a nice new one, and he does not want to give up the old, even though the new and better has come.
13:31-13:38
And as we look at the book of Hebrews, you see, for these Jews, their whole lives.
13:40-13:43
The Mosaic covenant was the thing, right?
13:44-13:45
It was ordained by God.
13:46-13:46
This is my culture.
13:47-13:48
This is my religion.
13:48-13:50
This is who we are as a Jewish people.
13:54-13:58
And we get to the message of the New Testament that says that's over now.
13:59-14:01
Because there's a new covenant.
14:02-14:08
because we have a new and better priest that has come in this order.
14:13-14:15
And changing your mind can be so hard.
14:17-14:23
And that's really why we have this section here in Hebrews, because this is a radical change.
14:24-14:31
They go from living under the old covenant with the priests and the temple and all of this to say, no, no, no, new priest has come.
14:34-14:35
That's a hard sell, people.
14:37-14:43
And it's a lot like, and I know some of you will totally get this parallel, it's a lot like Roman Catholicism.
14:44-14:52
In this area, I have talked to so many Catholics that they've been in that system for decades.
14:53-15:12
And then they come to understand what the Bible says, and it's just so hard to just be like, okay, done with Catholicism, It's just so hard to change all of a sudden because this has been part of my life and belief and understanding and culture and family my whole life.
15:12-15:27
And I've dealt with like 80 year Catholics that are like, I see what the Bible says, but it's so hard to, it's just so hard to change your mind when something else is all you've ever known.
15:29-15:31
Something else is all you've ever believed.
15:32-15:50
You see in this section of Hebrews, spoiler alert, he's saying, look, this new priesthood thing, it wasn't like God had this idea one morning, like God woke up and he was like, oh, I got an idea, since this ain't working, we're gonna change a little.
15:51-15:55
The point in this section is he's saying this was always part of God's plan.
15:56-16:10
God had this new priesthood and this new covenant planned even while this one, even before this one, but even while this one was happening, God always had this one in mind, right?
16:11-16:19
And key verse here again, Psalm 110, verse four, such a little verse in the Old Testament, but one of the most important verses.
16:22-16:25
"The Lord has sworn," this is speaking of the Messiah.
16:26-16:29
This is God speaking of the Messiah.
16:29-16:32
It says, "The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind.
16:33-16:48
You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek." God never intended this to be forever.
16:48-16:50
He never intended that.
16:51-16:58
He always intended the Levitical priesthood to be replaced by Melchizedek's priesthood.
16:59-17:04
Again, how can you show them that it's changed?
17:05-17:12
How can you convince somebody that the new and better has come and it's time to set this one aside?
17:13-17:20
Well, what he does in this section is show that this system was imperfect.
17:22-17:24
Again, by design, it was.
17:24-17:37
It was always meant to be replaced because, catch this, the reason this was imperfect was this couldn't bring us to God.
17:39-17:40
That's the thing.
17:42-17:46
The Levitical priesthood, the Mosaic covenant, it could not bring us to God.
17:46-17:48
You're gonna see that twice in this section.
17:48-17:51
Just note this, verse 19 and verse 25.
17:52-17:53
(congregation laughing)
17:56-17:59
Talks about drawing near to God.
17:59-18:01
That was something not possible under the old covenant.
18:09-18:29
And you know, I think, I think speaking a message like this to a church like this can be sort of like rolling a boulder uphill in a lot of ways, because we're kind of used to the concept of drawing near to God.
18:30-18:34
And I think because we're so used to it, I think we kind of take it for granted, right?
18:35-18:44
I mean, we can stop and pray and have audience with God fully at any time.
18:46-18:48
No sin to hinder us.
18:48-18:50
No wall, no veil.
18:51-18:53
We can boldly come before the throne of grace.
18:57-19:01
And can we just stop for a second and recognize what an audacious concept that is?
19:03-19:19
That the God of the universe who created all of this, who dwells on high, and who is holy, and beyond compare with anyone and anything that you know, That God cares so much about you that He wants you to draw near to Him.
19:20-19:23
He wants you to come and talk to Him.
19:24-19:26
That is an audacious concept.
19:27-19:29
Why would He give a rip about me?
19:32-19:39
He loves me with an everlasting love, and He wants us to draw near.
19:41-19:45
So it's an audacious concept, Drawing near to God.
19:46-19:51
That's what we're looking at in the text after what could be the fourth longest introduction in the history of sermons.
19:53-19:55
Why are you able, I have the other three by the way.
19:56-19:59
Why are you able to draw near to God through Jesus?
19:59-20:06
That's this section like, okay, I can come near to God because of this Messiah in the order of Melchizedek.
20:07-20:08
Why is that possible?
20:12-20:15
Well, here it is, number one, because you have the right priest.
20:17-20:17
That's why.
20:19-20:20
All right, you ready?
20:21-20:22
We're gonna do some theology.
20:26-20:26
Look at verse 11.
20:27-20:54
It says, "Now if perfection had been attainable "through the Levitical priesthood, "for under it the people received the law, "what further need would there have been "for another priest to arise "after the order of Melchizedek, "rather than the one named after the order of Aaron." So you see, in light of Psalm 110, verse four, he asks a rhetorical question.
20:58-21:07
Basically he's saying this, "Look, if the Messiah was promised "to belong to a different priesthood, "then the Levitical priesthood, including Aaron, "must be imperfect.
21:08-21:12
"Otherwise it wouldn't need to change, right?" That's pretty, it's pretty logical, right?
21:13-21:20
In other words, if this was doing everything that God wanted for man, God never would have promised this, right?
21:23-21:24
That's his reasoning.
21:26-21:42
Excuse me, verse 12 says, "For when there is a change in the priesthood, "there is necessarily a change in the law as well." Understand the Greek word for change literally means one in place of another.
21:42-21:46
In other words, Jesus and the new covenant isn't an add-on.
21:47-21:53
Like we have all this and now Jesus has come and let's just sort of tack Jesus onto this.
21:54-21:56
It means literally to replace.
21:59-22:01
There's a whole new law, so to speak.
22:02-22:15
Verse 13 says, "For the one of whom these things are spoken," that's Jesus, Messiah, belong to another tribe from which no one has ever served at the altar.
22:17-22:19
Which tribe serves at the altar again?
22:20-22:21
Levi, right?
22:24-22:33
Look at verse 14, he says, "For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah." And in connection with that tribe, Moses said nothing about priests.
22:35-22:40
So you see the Messiah, Jesus Christ in the flesh was not from Levi.
22:41-22:42
He was from the tribe of Judah.
22:43-22:49
And Genesis 49 prophesied that the Messiah would be from the tribe of Judah.
22:51-22:53
All right, he goes on, look at verse 15.
22:55-23:14
He says, "This becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek, who has become a priest, not on the basis of legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life.
23:17-23:19
What he's saying here is this, just simply this.
23:20-23:27
The Levitical priesthood only had physical requirements.
23:29-23:35
You see, to be a Levitical priest, There was no spiritual requirement necessary.
23:36-23:44
There was no like spiritual test, leadership test, some kind of like personality assessment.
23:45-23:53
There was really only one requirement to be a priest under the old covenant, and that was you had to be a Levite.
23:55-24:01
There were also, even if you were a Levite, there were physical blemishes that could disqualify you.
24:01-24:09
I read this week, there were like 142 physical blemishes that even if you were a Levite, they would disqualify you.
24:09-24:13
Just write down Leviticus 21, some of them are listed there.
24:15-24:28
But his point here is to be a priest under the old covenant, only physical requirement, but Jesus was appointed priest, not because of his pedigree, but because of his power.
24:30-24:36
He says, you know, like Melchizedek, Jesus Christ the Messiah, he didn't meet physical requirements to be priest.
24:38-24:42
His was entirely through power.
24:45-24:46
Look at verses 18 and 19.
24:48-24:53
It says, "For on one hand," did we read verse 17?
24:53-24:55
We're gonna read it again, just in case I miss it.
24:55-25:02
"For it is witnessed of him, you are a priest forever, "after the order of Melchizedek." Again, that's Psalm 110, verse four.
25:02-25:14
Verse 18, "For on the one hand, "a former commandment is set aside "because of its weakness and uselessness, "for the law made nothing perfect.
25:16-25:29
"But on the other hand, a better hope is introduced "through which we," here it is, "draw near to God." He's saying the law made nothing perfect.
25:30-25:34
And you're like, well, then why did God institute the law if it didn't make you perfect?
25:35-25:40
Because God's intention was always to save us through the death of his son.
25:41-25:43
If we can be saved through this, we don't need Jesus, do we?
25:45-25:47
This was to show us our need.
25:48-25:55
This was to show us why the Messiah sacrificed himself and rose from the dead, why he is high priest and lamb.
25:55-25:58
This was to teach us, but this was never meant to save anybody.
25:59-26:09
Oh, and by the way, you couldn't be saved by keeping the law anyways, because you can't keep the law.
26:11-26:17
So hypothetically, if this could save you, none of us would be saved.
26:21-26:41
Like if I said, let's just boil this down to like the most kind of basic elementary terminology to say these things, that if somebody says to you, "How do I get to heaven?" What is the usual secular answer to that?
26:42-26:44
You have to be a good person, right?
26:45-26:46
Isn't that what people say?
26:47-26:49
You have to be a good person, that's how you go to heaven.
26:50-26:51
Oh, there's a problem.
26:53-26:54
None of us are good.
26:58-27:02
And the law, even with the sacrifices, could not make you right before God.
27:02-27:06
You're like, "Well, how do you know that?" Because of this veil.
27:07-27:08
That's how I know that.
27:09-27:15
Because you see, under the law, God was separated from the people.
27:15-27:22
The law couldn't get you into the holy of holies, because we always had sin that needed atone for.
27:26-28:01
And his point here is since the Levitical priesthood could not get you into the Holy of Holies, which is where God actually wants you, but your sin keeps you there, and this doesn't take care of that, God says, "No, we're setting that aside because this is the plan to get you here." The Messiah brings you into the presence of God. That's Because when he died, the Bible tells us that the veil and the temple tore, showing us that through Jesus Christ, we can truly draw near to God.
28:03-28:05
So you're like, well, how do I get here?
28:05-28:06
How do I get into the Holy of Holies?
28:06-28:07
How do I draw near to God?
28:09-28:11
His first point is, you gotta have the right priest.
28:13-28:15
The one after the order of Melchizedek, right?
28:16-28:18
Number two, why are you able to draw near to God through Jesus?
28:19-28:21
Number two, because you have God's oath.
28:22-28:23
Because you have God's oath.
28:25-28:26
Look at verse 20.
28:29-28:32
He says, "And it was not without an oath.
28:33-28:39
For those who formerly became priests were made such without an oath.
28:40-28:52
But this one, the Messiah, was made a priest with an oath The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind.
28:53-28:55
You are a priest forever.
28:56-29:01
This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant.
29:05-29:12
Sum that up, he's saying the new covenant is better because Jesus was made priest by God's oath.
29:16-29:22
He's saying, look, God never made a promise that their priesthood would last forever.
29:23-29:25
He never said that, God never made that promise.
29:25-29:36
He goes, but God did make a promise to the Messiah that this priesthood would be forever in the order of Melchizedek.
29:37-29:42
That's why Psalm 110, verse four is such a significant and weighty verse in the Bible.
29:46-29:50
You know, Pastor Taylor talked about this a few weeks ago of God taking an oath.
29:51-29:54
And just a quick review about that.
29:54-29:56
You know, it's pretty significant when God takes an oath.
29:57-29:58
You know why that's pretty significant?
29:59-30:01
Because God doesn't have to, right?
30:03-30:05
First of all, he's God, he can do whatever he wants.
30:05-30:10
And second of all, isn't the word of God, isn't God's word just good in any case?
30:11-30:19
Do you only believe God if he says, "I swear, promise, pinky swear that I'm gonna do this." Like you don't believe God unless he says that?
30:20-30:22
Like that's foolishness, isn't it?
30:24-30:26
God takes an oath, he does it for us.
30:28-30:36
It stresses the importance of the promise, but another thing is it gives us confidence that God says something and we're like, really?
30:36-30:40
And God's like, yes, take this to the bank.
30:40-30:42
I'm making an oath to the Messiah.
30:43-30:47
You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.
30:49-30:51
Like, oh God, you sound serious.
30:52-30:53
He is.
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And you see that's comforting because when it comes to our salvation, church, your salvation is based on God's integrity.
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That's why trusting and believing his word is so important.
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that God stands by what He says.
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Like I can stand before you today and I can say to you confidently, I know that I'm saved.
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And I know as soon as I say that, there's somebody that's sitting there going, oh, that's awfully arrogant.
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Yes, it would be arrogant if that had anything to do with me.
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But you see, it doesn't.
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I can say that I know that I'm saved not because of what I've done.
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I know that I'm saved because of what Jesus Christ has done on my behalf.
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And listen, your salvation is based on taking God and his word.
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God says, if you believe in my son and receive him, you will be saved.
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I believe in Jesus Christ and received him, therefore I'm what I'm saved.
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That's based on God's word, not mine, right?
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And see, that's where my confidence comes.
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It's just taking God at his word.
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You know, it's like Aaron and I met with the Roths who just joined the church today.
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Everybody say hi, Roths.
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I said I was gonna put you on the spot.
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I told you that in the membership interview.
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You believe me.
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But anyways, they wanted to talk about the church and we just wanted to get to know them a little bit.
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But I said, hey, let's meet at four while our kids are in youth group, we'll meet at four.
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And Jason said, "I'll bring coffee." And guess what happened at four o'clock on Sunday?
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He showed up here, took the kids to youth group, and he had coffee.
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Now, what made them show up?
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Just me saying, "I'll be there." And they believed me, right?
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They're like, "Well, how do you know they believed you?" Because they brought coffee for all of us.
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I mean, if they didn't really believe us, they had four coffees to drink, right?
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But like, you see my point?
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That's what faith is.
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Faith is hearing and believing and acting upon it because you believe it.
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They heard, I said, I'm gonna be here at four, and they showed up with the coffee showing that they acted on what they believed was true.
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And that, at the very base level, is how faith works.
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But you see, I'm nothing.
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And who knows if I would have been in an accident or gotten sick or somebody in my family needed me and I had to bail at the last minute and I wasn't able to keep my word.
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But you see, God isn't so restricted.
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When God makes a promise, He keeps His word.
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And God made you a promise.
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God says, if you believe in Jesus Christ, this priest after the order of Melchizedek, you will be saved.
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And your salvation is based on God's integrity.
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Do you really believe Him?
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You're like, "Well, how do I know this is not gonna change?" Because it says, "The Lord has sworn." Like, "Well, I hear what you're saying, Pastor Jeff, he's a priest forever, God swore that, but what if God changes his mind?" What does the verse say?
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"The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind." How much more clear can God make it?
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I can draw near to God because he promised I can through Jesus Christ.
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My salvation is based on his integrity, not mine.
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You see?
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So that is how I'm able to draw near to God through Jesus.
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Not by my works, but by trusting his.
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All right, number three.
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Where are you able to draw near to God through Jesus?
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Well, you gotta have the right priest, right?
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You have that, and you have God's oath.
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Number three is because you have Jesus making intercession for you.
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I could spend about six weeks just on this little chunk right here.
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Don't worry, I'm not going to, but wow.
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He says the former priests were many in number because they were prevented by death from continuing in office.
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But he holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever.
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Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him.
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Oh, there it is again.
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Draw near to God through him.
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Look, since he always lives to make intercession for them.
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The Levitical priesthood could not save to the uttermost.
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Why?
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Just simply, they died.
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I read this week, there were like 83 high priests from Aaron until 70 AD.
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None of them stuck around forever.
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They all died, but Jesus Christ continues forever.
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He'll never be succeeded by another.
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But I love this, it says, "He is able to save to the uttermost." Let's just think about that concept for a second.
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saved to the uttermost.
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That means in regards to salvation, Jesus takes us as far as salvation can possibly go.
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And that is awesome.
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I was gonna say, I can't even tell you how awesome that is, but I'm gonna take a swing at it.
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Like his salvation kept us from hell, right?
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And if you stop and really consider we deserve is to experience God's wrath for our sin for all of eternity.
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That's what we deserve.
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And he delivered us from that.
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That's awesome.
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But even that's not as far as he went.
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He didn't just remove us from hell, he took us to heaven.
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Saved us from the worst to give us the absolute best because he saves to the uttermost.
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You see, in Christ, we are pronounced not guilty.
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And boy, that should be a load off your mind, right?
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When we consider how wickedly sinful we are, I'm the worst sinner that I know by far, and you are too.
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But when you consider how horrible your sin is, and because of Jesus Christ, God says, Okay, you know what?
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You're not guilty of your sin.
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That's awesome.
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But you realize he doesn't stop there.
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He not only takes our guilt away, but he gives us the righteousness of himself.
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That when God sees us in Christ, he sees us as righteous as he is because of Jesus.
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What is the second Corinthians 521?
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So that we might become the righteousness of God.
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to the uttermost, to the uttermost.
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The Bible says in Christ, we are no longer enemies of God.
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Wow.
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That we were enemies of God.
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God says, you know what?
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We're not enemies anymore.
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That would have been enough for God to be like, okay, we're not enemies.
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Go your way, I'll go my way.
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Like, I'm so glad he's not mad at me.
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But he goes to the uttermost.
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So he not only says you're not enemy, what does he do?
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He adopts us as his children because he saves to the uttermost.
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He takes us as far as salvation can go.
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And you know, I was thinking this week, to the uttermost, you know, what is his salvation lacking?
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I was thinking, boy, if I could, If God had a suggestion box, what would I possibly add to what he's accomplished in Christ?
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What do you think?
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Go ahead and shout it out.
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This is audience participation time.
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What would you add to what Jesus Christ has accomplished to make it better?
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Can you think of anything, anything at all?
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Come on, clean slate, anything at all that would make it better?
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Anything at all?
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It sounds like you came up with the same thing that I did.
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I couldn't think of a thing.
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I couldn't think of one thing to make salvation better.
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And that's what this means when it says, He saves us to the uttermost.
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As far as salvation can go, He takes us there.
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And I thought, you know, why?
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And if you're sitting here listening to this and you haven't received Christ, and you're here for whatever reason, your family dragged you, or you're appeasing your wife, or whatever, I would just ask you, why wouldn't you receive him?
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What have you found in your life that has brought you joy and peace and blessing?
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And I have to ask you, who or what has promised you more than Jesus?
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So how does he save to the uttermost?
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How does he do that?
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Well, he tells us right here, it's because he always lives to make intercession.
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He always lives to make intercession.
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In other words, Jesus is praying for you, and I guarantee he never lies about that.
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Like, Jesus, I'm really struggling right now, and he's like, I'll pray for you, and then he forgets, that doesn't happen.
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It doesn't happen.
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Do you see that?
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It says, the end of what, verse 25, "Since he always lives to make intercession for them." Jesus is literally beside the Father, always speaking on your behalf.
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Can you wrap your brain around that?
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Jesus is always beside his Father and he's on your side and he's making intercession for you.
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And you know, the Bible says what Revelation 12, that Satan is the accuser of the brethren.
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And we learned some things from Job, don't we?
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That Satan, he's an accuser.
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You see this picture?
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That Satan goes before God and Satan's like, she's no good.
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God, I don't know why you waste your time with her 'cause she's rotten.
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And look at her, look at her track record.
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And the Bible says Jesus is making intercession.
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He's right there going, yeah, I died for her.
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She believes my promise.
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And God, according to your word, she's a child.
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She's your daughter.
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And I pronounced her righteous because she believed in me.
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Jesus is making intercession for you.
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And I gotta tell you, if you have Jesus doing that, you can be sure that you can draw near to God.
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And then finally, because all the work is done.
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Why are you able to draw near to God through Jesus?
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Because all the work is done.
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And I'm just gonna go through this quickly because we are going to be saying a whole lot about this over the coming weeks, especially over Good Friday, Resurrection Sunday.
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Look at verses 26 through 28.
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It says, "For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens.
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He has no need like those high priests," Levitical ones, "to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins, And then for those of the people, since he did this once for all, when he offered up himself.
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For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a son who has been made perfect forever.
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See that reasoning?
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He goes, the oath, the promise to Melchizedek, Psalm 110 verse four, that came after the law, right?
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And here's the thing, because all the work is done, he just sums it up here, he puts a bow on this doctrine, and he's like, look, Jesus Christ is perfect in person, he's perfect in his work, he's perfect in his appointment as high priest.
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He's not like Aaron, he's not like the Levitical priest, Jesus Christ was inherently perfect.
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So he didn't need to sacrifice for himself like the Levitical priests had to.
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Also, he didn't have to repeat his.
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And again, we're gonna be spending several weeks just on this concept, but you're gonna wanna underline it in your Bible for now.
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This is just a taste.
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Once for all.
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Once for all, that's gonna be our theme over Easter.
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once for all.
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Do you realize the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is eternally contemporary?
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It's eternally contemporary.
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Meaning it's always significant.
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And don't misunderstand me.
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The sacrifice of Jesus happened at a point in time, yes, but it is relevant and effective and powerful at the same time all the time.
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Like that old hymn about the blood never loses its power, right?
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The same power that saved the Apostle Paul can save somebody who gives their life to Jesus today.
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Same gospel, same blood, same power, eternally contemporary, never needs repeated.
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So much more down the road on this.
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But here's what I want to tell you today.
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When it comes to having direct access to God, the ability to draw near to God, to get into the holy of holies before God, there's nothing else that needs to be done.
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Because Jesus Christ truly did it all when He sacrificed Himself.
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So that was the real introduction.
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Here's the real sermon.
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Why are we so hesitant to pray?
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You know, I talk to Christians even until today that worry that God is mad at me.
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You know, God must really be ashamed of me.
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You know, it's hard to pray because sometimes I start to pray and I realize God's probably disappointed in me.
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Didn't have a great week.
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Didn't have a great month.
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And in fact, all of 2022 wasn't great for me.
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And God must be so embarrassed.
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And when I get before him to pray, God's probably just got his hands on his hips, like, "Oh, the nerve of you coming to me to pray." Like, that's how we feel.
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You know what, I gotta work and sort of earn my way.
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And maybe if I perform better, God's going to be happy.
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or if I do the right religious acts, I'll have good standing with him.
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That mindset undermines everything that God's word says about Jesus Christ and all that he's done.
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And that's his point here, through Jesus, we draw near to God.
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And the question I wanna leave you with today is just simply this.
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Are you taking him up on his invitation to come near?
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Are you taking him up on that?
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Because here's a great opportunity for you.
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Wednesday night, right here, 6 p.m., we're going to be praying.
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Do you believe that prayer works?
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Do you believe that we can draw near to God and we have access to God's presence through Jesus Christ?
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Do you believe that?
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Do you believe that God hears our prayers and he moves when we pray?
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Do you believe that?
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Great.
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I'll see you at six on Wednesday.
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All right, let's pray now.
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As our worship team comes forward, Father in heaven, I don't know what to say.
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I guess I'm just kind of hung up on the saved of the uttermost thing that I realized that I don't deserve anything.
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And even if you said I'm not guilty and kept me from going to hell, I should be eternally grateful for that.
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But you have done so much more.
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You have saved us to the uttermost through the death of your son, through him sacrificing himself, we can actually come into your presence.
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Why, oh why do we not take advantage of that invitation?
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But Father, I pray that as we really try to wrap our hearts and minds around this theology, this isn't just a head knowledge.
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Father, this is so we can understand.
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We can confidently come before you because it's not based on who we are It's not based on what we've done, it's based on who Jesus is, it's based on what He's done, so we can draw near to you.
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So Father, we come before you at your invitation and through your provision.
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We come and we thank you for saving us to the uttermost.
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We pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Hebrews 7:11-28
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
What exactly does it mean to “draw near to God” (Heb 7:19, 25)? Why wasn’t this possible under the Mosaic (Old) Covenant? How does Jesus make this a reality?
Jesus always lives to make intercession (Heb 7:25). Explain, in your own words, what that means.
Breakout
Pray for one another.