Why Jesus? Because He is King and Priest – Both!

Introduction:

Genesis 14:17-20

Psalm 110:4 - The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind, "“"You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek."

How Is Melchizedek's Priesthood > Levitical Priesthood? (Hebrews 7:1-10):

1. Levitical priesthood was for Israel / Melchizedek's priesthood was for Everyone . (Heb 7:1-2a)

   1 John 2:2 - He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

   John 1:29 - The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!..."

2. Levitical priests could never be King / Melchizedek was Priest and King . (Heb 7:2b)
3. Levitical priesthood was Hereditary / Melchizedek's priesthood was Personal . (Heb 7:3a)
4. Levitical priesthood was Limited in Time / Melchizedek's priesthood never Expired . (Heb 7:3b)
5. The levitical priesthood Paid Tithes to Melchizedek. (Heb 7:4-10)

   Luke 6:46 - Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord,' and not do what I tell you?

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

• Audio Transcript

  01:01-01:04

  Hebrews chapter seven in your Bibles, if you would open up there, please.

  01:04-01:09

  And if you're new around here, you might be asking, what kind of a church is this?

  01:09-01:12

  Well, we are a church that sits on four pillars.

  01:13-01:15

  We proclaim the authority of God's word without apology.

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  We believe firmly in the power of prayer.

  01:19-01:24

  We lift high the name of Jesus in worship, and we share the good news of Jesus with boldness.

  01:24-01:25

  That's who we are.

  01:26-01:35

  And right now is the first pillar part of that, proclaiming the authority of God's word without apology.

  01:36-01:44

  So whether it's me or Pastor Taylor or Rich or whoever stands up here to deliver the message, we have one goal and there's one standard.

  01:44-01:48

  It is to represent the word of God to you.

  01:48-01:51

  Every church has their thing, this is our thing, all right?

  01:51-01:53

  So there's no compromise on that.

  01:53-01:55

  We want to represent God's word faithfully to you.

  01:56-02:04

  So to that end, I'm going to ask if you would please pray for me, and I will pray for you, and then we're gonna go at it hard today, all right?

  02:05-02:05

  Let's pray.

  02:08-02:10

  Father, we believe in the power of your word, that's why we're here.

  02:11-02:19

  That's why we worship and pray and evangelize and send people on mission trips, and that's why.

  02:21-02:23

  We find our authority in your word.

  02:25-02:27

  So Father, let your word be our authority today.

  02:30-02:31

  We pray in Jesus' name.

  02:32-02:35

  And all of God's people said, Amen.

  02:37-02:41

  I would like you to please stand for the reading of God's word.

  02:42-02:45

  Maybe that's something we need to do more often at our church, but grab your Bible.

  02:45-02:49

  We're going to look at Hebrews chapter seven, and we're gonna read the first 10 verses.

  02:50-02:55

  But out of respect for the word of God, Let's stand as we read this.

  02:57-03:12

  Hebrews 7, it says, "For this Melchizedek, "King of Salem, priest of the most high God, "met Abraham, returning from the slaughter of the kings, "and blessed him.

  03:13-03:17

  "And to him, Abraham apportioned "a tenth part of everything.

  03:18-03:21

  "He is first, by translation of his name, King of righteousness.

  03:23-03:25

  And then he is also king of Salem.

  03:26-03:27

  That is king of peace.

  03:28-03:36

  He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the son of God.

  03:36-03:38

  He continues a priest forever.

  03:41-03:46

  See how great this man was, to whom Abraham the patriarch gave a 10th of the spoils.

  03:47-03:57

  And those descendants of Levi, "who received the priestly office "have a commandment in the law "to take tithes from the people," that is, from their brothers.

  03:58-04:01

  Though these also are descended from Abraham.

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  But this man who does not have his descent from them received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises.

  04:14-04:20

  It is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior.

  04:22-04:30

  In one case, tithes are received by mortal men, but in the other case, by one of whom it is testified that he lives.

  04:30-04:46

  One might even say that Levi himself, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, for he was still in the loins of his ancestor when Melchizedek met him.

  04:46-05:08

  You may be seated. Look, this is really advanced stuff. And because I care about you, I'm going to give you a couple options here.

  05:09-05:12

  So I'm going to give you the short version first.

  05:14-05:18

  And then if you want the longer version, you can stick around for that.

  05:18-05:19

  All right, but here's the thing.

  05:22-05:25

  Let's talk about Old Testament history because obviously that's what he's doing here, right?

  05:25-05:27

  He's going back to the Old Testament.

  05:27-05:28

  So quick review.

  05:30-05:32

  We're gonna try to have this on the screens, right?

  05:32-05:37

  So we're going back to the time of Abraham.

  05:39-05:46

  Or, and before he was Abraham, He was known as Abram, right?

  05:47-05:48

  So that's gonna come up.

  05:48-05:48

  We're gonna see that today.

  05:48-05:50

  Same guy, God changed his name.

  05:51-05:55

  Okay, so Abraham was promised a child and what was that son's name?

  05:56-05:58

  Shout it out if you know it, I didn't study this part.

  05:59-06:00

  Isaac, right.

  06:02-06:05

  Okay, so Abraham had Isaac, right?

  06:05-06:09

  And then Isaac had Jacob, right?

  06:10-06:16

  Now, just like Abram, God changed Jacob's name to Israel.

  06:17-06:19

  And Jacob had some sons, right?

  06:19-06:25

  He had 12 sons and they became known as the 12 tribes of Israel, right?

  06:25-06:31

  So Jacob had all these sons here, you know, like Simeon and, you know, Naphtali and Dan.

  06:32-06:42

  But one in particular that we need to focus on today that came up in this passage is Levi, right?

  06:43-06:53

  He's famous for his blue jeans, but also what you know Levi for is from Levi came the priests.

  06:54-06:55

  What letter is that?

  06:55-06:58

  Okay, we're gonna get through this together.

  07:01-07:12

  So under Mosaic law, the law that God gave Moses, only the Levites were allowed to be priests, right?

  07:12-07:14

  It was, that was just how it was.

  07:15-07:19

  If you were gonna be a priest under old covenant Israel, you had to be a Levite.

  07:20-07:29

  But in this passage we're looking at in Hebrews, he met a man, Abraham met a man named Melchizedek.

  07:35-07:41

  I'm not gonna ask you to raise your hands, but I'm sure for, I just took off part of that Z and I sure didn't wanna do that.

  07:41-07:42

  I'm gonna try this again.

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  We're gonna erase that from the record.

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  Like Bob Ross up here having happy accidents.

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  Milk his deck.

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  All right, we're gonna try this again.

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  All right, there we go.

  07:59-08:03

  So the Hebrew writer here is taking us back to the times of Abraham.

  08:04-08:12

  before the priests of the Levites, all the way back to Abraham, he met a man named Melchizedek.

  08:12-08:18

  And he tells us in this passage that Melchizedek was a couple of things.

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  He was priest and he was also a king.

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  Okay, so I promised you, here's the short version.

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  Here's what this passage is about.

  08:35-08:36

  (pages flipping)

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  The priesthood of Melchizedek is greater than the priesthood of the Levites.

  08:49-09:00

  And we know that because Abraham or Abram paid tithes, a tithe rather, paid a tithe to Melchizedek and Melchizedek blessed Abraham.

  09:00-09:09

  So we know that this order of priesthood necessarily has to be superior to this order of priesthood.

  09:10-09:15

  And Jesus Christ, the Messiah, is of this order of priesthood.

  09:17-09:18

  All right?

  09:20-09:21

  That's the short version.

  09:23-09:28

  And if you would like to go, you may, no judgment.

  09:31-09:44

  However, if you would like a little deeper explanation as to why this even matters, because it does, it really matters, then I encourage you to stick around.

  09:44-09:52

  This is gonna, a lot of this is gonna seem like a Sunday school class today, but that's where we're going here, that we represent the text, right?

  09:54-09:58

  We're going in this series through Hebrews called, Why Jesus?

  10:00-10:00

  Why Jesus?

  10:03-10:10

  Why are we up here worshiping him and in our seats, worshiping the name of Jesus Christ?

  10:11-10:11

  Why Jesus?

  10:12-10:14

  Why is he the content of all of our sermons?

  10:14-10:16

  Why do we have communion together?

  10:17-10:18

  Why do we send people on mission trips?

  10:21-10:23

  Hebrews explains why Jesus is such a big deal.

  10:26-10:30

  And we've seen so far in our journey through Hebrews that Jesus is God's last word.

  10:30-10:31

  Jesus is God himself.

  10:32-10:33

  We've seen he's greater than the angels.

  10:33-10:34

  He's greater than Moses.

  10:35-10:36

  He's greater than Joshua.

  10:36-10:38

  And he says, come to him today.

  10:38-10:41

  Do not harden your heart.

  10:43-10:49

  Like the people on the verge of the promised land, didn't have the faith, he says, don't don't harden your heart, you've got to come to Jesus today.

  10:51-10:59

  But then in chapter five, verses 10 and 11, the Hebrew writer mentions Melchizedek.

  11:01-11:09

  And he says, "I got a lot to tell you about Melchizedek." He goes, "But you couldn't handle it." He says, "You're dull of hearing.

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  You wouldn't understand what I'm saying." So he makes this pause, and that was the last few sermons.

  11:15-11:25

  And in this pause, he again says, "Come to Jesus before it's too late." And as Pastor Taylor preached last week, like, look, we have security in the promise of God, right?

  11:26-11:28

  This is a sure thing, so come to him.

  11:30-11:34

  And when we get to chapter seven, you see what he's doing is he's saying, okay, enough with the pause.

  11:34-11:40

  Now let's get back to this Melchizedek stuff that I sort of broke the ice with earlier.

  11:42-11:44

  And like, okay, what's the point?

  11:45-11:48

  Like I said, some of you maybe have never even heard that name before.

  11:48-11:51

  Like what's the big deal of Melchizedek?

  11:53-12:03

  And I've shared with you before, some of these passages in Hebrews might be lost on us contextually because we're not Jewish.

  12:04-12:07

  But you see for the Jews, this was a huge deal.

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  This was part of their national identity.

  12:10-12:17

  We had the law and part of the law was having these priests that were mediators that offered sin on our behalf.

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  and made things right between us and God.

  12:20-12:22

  That was a huge deal to them.

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  So for Jesus Christ to come along, to be the only mediator, the only high priest, this would have been a like, this would have just shattered everything that they understood, everything they grew up with, everything they knew about their history.

  12:42-12:51

  The Hebrew writer says the Levitical priesthood under Mosaic law was inferior to Melchizedek.

  12:51-12:57

  Jesus as high priest is greater than all of the Levitical priests because he's of this order.

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  Absolutely mind blowing to the Jews.

  13:01-13:02

  All right.

  13:05-13:08

  So that's probably the third longest introduction ever.

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  So let's get to Hebrews chapter seven, verse one.

  13:13-13:14

  Can somebody grab my water?

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  I think I left it back by my seat.

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  Jillian, could you grab it back there?

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  So she handed it to me and like in knucklehead, I left it back there.

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  And don't throw it.

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  She was gonna throw it and I know she would have hit it, but hey, thanks, bud.

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  Thanks, Jilly.

  13:29-13:32

  All right, Hebrews chapter seven, verse one.

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  All right, we're gonna break this down.

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  We're gonna get through this together.

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  You with me?

  13:36-13:37

  All right, all right.

  13:38-13:40

  'Cause this is mind blowing stuff.

  13:40-13:46

  You gotta stay tuned in because I guess I'm kind of a nerd for this stuff, admittedly, but this is mind blowing stuff here.

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  And just track with me because your mind is going to explode too.

  13:51-13:51

  All right?

  13:52-13:53

  So let's break this down.

  13:53-14:10

  Verse one says, "For this Melchizedek, King of Salem, "priest of the Most High God, met Abraham returning "from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him." Okay, so he's obviously talking about a contemporary of Abraham.

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  We're going back to those days And these days in particular are Genesis 14.

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  And something you have to understand about these days, it might seem kind of weird to us, but every little area or city had its own king.

  14:25-14:36

  I know it sounds weird, but like imagine in our day, if there was like a king of Zillianopole and a king of Blonocks and Mike Wolsky, the king of Zillianopole, he's pointing to himself back there.

  14:36-14:38

  I would vote for you if that was the thing.

  14:38-14:46

  But like, you know, a king of McKee's Rocks, every little area has its own king, right?

  14:46-15:03

  So there was a man, a king, named, and I can never pronounce his name spot on, so I'm just gonna say it confidently and you're gonna go, "Oh, that sounds right." Shadolamir, we'll call him Chad.

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  Oh, come on, you don't think people called him King Chad?

  15:09-15:10

  At least behind his back.

  15:10-15:17

  Okay, so there was this King Shadolammer and he got these other kings and they went like conquering other areas, right?

  15:17-15:23

  And they would take captives and they would take spoils, but they made a huge mistake.

  15:24-15:27

  One of the captives they took was named Lot.

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  And do you know who Lot is?

  15:30-15:31

  Abraham's nephew.

  15:31-15:53

  So Abraham found out that his nephew was taken captive by this group of kings and he rolled up his sleeves and he's like, "All right, it is time for a royal beat down." And he gathered some allies and they made this surprise attack by night and slaughtered the kings, Hebrews tells us.

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  And he took back the captives and the spoil and he went home.

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  And that takes us to Genesis 14.

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  It's gonna be on the screen.

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  So that takes us to this passage.

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  It says, "After his," Abram, Abraham, "After his return from the defeat of King Chad, and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the valley of Sheba," that is the king's valley, "and Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine.

  16:27-16:29

  He was priest of God most high.

  16:30-16:44

  And he blessed him and said, "Blessed be Abram by God most high, possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be God most high, who has delivered your enemies into your hand." And Abram gave him a 10th of everything.

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  So Melchizedek brought out the bread and the wine, he blessed Abraham, Abraham gave Melchizedek a 10th of the spoils, and that is all that is said about Melchizedek in Genesis.

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  And it's astounding to me that for the Hebrew writer, it's like such, this guy is such a big deal.

  17:07-17:12

  Like, "Oh, I'm gonna tell you about my kids and some of you can't hear, but I'm gonna tell you now." And he's got such a big deal.

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  And he shows up for three verses in Genesis.

  17:20-17:24

  But he shows up in just one more verse in the Old Testament.

  17:25-17:28

  And this verse is so astronomically significant.

  17:30-17:32

  This is a game changer verse.

  17:32-17:34

  It's Psalm 110, verse four.

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  It says, "The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind." Sounds like Pastor Taylor's sermon last week, right?

  17:41-17:45

  "The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind." He's speaking of the Messiah.

  17:46-17:50

  You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

  17:52-17:55

  Just that one verse, name shows up, no explanation.

  17:55-17:58

  And then we get to Hebrews seven.

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  and we learn the significance of Melchizedek.

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  And what we're getting into here is typology.

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  You see, the Old Testament was filled with these pictures and images of what the Messiah would be like, what he would do.

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  And they would describe the Messiah in such a way that sort of when the Messiah showed up, we were able to recognize him.

  18:20-18:24

  Oh, God sort of painted the picture of what you would be like in the Old Testament.

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  And then when Jesus came, it was like, that's him, That's him.

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  So that's typology, right?

  18:28-18:38

  Like an example is, you remember like in the book of Numbers, Israel sinned again in their travels and the fiery serpents sent from God were biting them and killing them.

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  And God told Moses to make this bronze serpent, put it on a pole.

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  And when it's lifted up, when people get bit, they look to the bronze serpent and they're saved.

  18:48-19:01

  Well, then you get to John chapter three and Jesus said, just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, he says, "So the Son of Man will be lifted up." And see that bronze serpent was a picture of Jesus.

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  Lifted up, people look to, people are saved.

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  I see when Jesus was lifted up, he was lifted up on a cross.

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  He died on that cross to take away your sin.

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  And you see, if you turn to Jesus Christ, if you look to him, you'll be saved for much more than a snake bite, you'll be saved from the bite of sin, which is an eternal death.

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  And Jesus said, when he's lifted up, people are going to look to him and be saved.

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  It's a type, it's a picture.

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  And see Melchizedek was a type, a very important person in the Old Testament that was a picture of Jesus, pertaining to Jesus as priest.

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  So we read verses one through 10.

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  What's the point?

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  Here's the point.

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  Melchizedek's priesthood was superior to the Levitical priesthood in every way.

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  And Jesus Christ, the Messiah, as promised, Psalm 110, verse four, is a priest in the order of Melchizedek.

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  So since Christ is in this order, which is greater than this order, then Jesus is once again superior.

  20:20-20:33

  And he's telling these Jews, "It's okay to turn from the old covenant to the new covenant in the blood of Christ because he's in this different priesthood." Is everybody with me so far?

  20:33-20:34

  Because I can start over.

  20:40-20:50

  And you're all like, "No, this is crystal." So breaking it down very quickly, how is Melchizedek's priesthood greater than the Levitical priesthood.

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  Number one, on your outline, the Levitical priesthood was for Israel.

  20:57-20:59

  Melchizedek's priesthood was for everyone.

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  Look again, we're gonna go through this quickly.

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  It says, "For this Melchizedek, King of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham, returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him.

  21:11-21:21

  And to him, Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything." See Melchizedek was not a Levitical priest because they didn't even exist yet.

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  The Bible says he was a priest of most high God.

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  That's El Elyon.

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  That's not the covenant name of God.

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  That's the power name of God.

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  What's the point?

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  Well, the point is Levitical priests, they were really for covenant Israel.

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  Melchizedek's priesthood was not so limited.

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  And the Hebrew writer's point is Jesus is a priest after the order of Melchizedek, meaning that Jesus is the Messiah, not just for Israel.

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  Jesus is the Messiah for who?

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  The whole world, right?

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  And that checks out in the New Testament, doesn't it?

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  Doesn't that check out 1 John 2, 2?

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  He's a propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the Saite church.

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  whole world, right?

  22:15-22:16

  You don't believe me, John 1 29.

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  Remember what John the Baptist said when he saw Jesus?

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  He said, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the," what?

  22:24-22:25

  The world, right?

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  And that's the Hebrew writer's point.

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  He's not like just a priest for Israel.

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  He's a priest for the whole world, right?

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  Number two, the Levitical priest could never be king.

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  Melchizedek was priest and king.

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  Look at the second part of verse two.

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  It says, "He is first by translation of his name, King of righteousness.

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  And then he is also King of Salem, that is King of peace." See in Israel, if you were a Levitical priest, you absolutely could not be King.

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  You couldn't, you were not allowed to be King.

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  And Melchizedek, as a Hebrew writer reminds us, he was priest, yes, but he was also at the same time, he was King.

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  He was king of Salem.

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  And that place Salem later added onto its name and became known as Jerusalem.

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  Right?

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  So his royalty is a picture of Jesus.

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  Just the very fact that Melchizedek is priest and king points to the Messiah who would be priest and king.

  23:43-23:45

  Even the names have significance.

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  Melchizedek's very name means King of Righteousness, and there is no higher King of Righteousness than the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

  23:54-24:01

  And Melchizedek was King of Salem, which in Hebrew, Salem, Shalom, means what?

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  Peace, right?

  24:04-24:07

  So he was King of Peace, king of righteousness and peace.

  24:09-24:14

  I don't know if there are two better words that we could use to describe the lordship of Jesus Christ.

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  He is the king of righteousness and peace, pictured in Melchizedek.

  24:18-24:22

  Number three, Levitical priesthood was hereditary.

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  Melchizedek's priesthood was personal.

  24:26-24:26

  Look at verse three.

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  It says, the first part of verse three, it says, "He is without father or mother or genealogy." As I said, for the Levitical priesthood, there was really one main criteria.

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  Remember a couple of weeks ago, we were joking about requirements to get a job.

  24:43-24:51

  Well, if you're going to be a priest in Old Testament Israel, there was one thing that absolutely without question had to be on your application.

  24:51-24:52

  You had to be a Levite.

  24:54-24:55

  No question.

  24:56-25:07

  And Melchizedek's priesthood had nothing to do with his family line because he points out here, We don't even know Melchizedek's genealogy.

  25:08-25:09

  We have no idea.

  25:11-25:15

  In other words, he didn't get the job because he was in the right family.

  25:17-25:44

  And you see, that's what the Hebrew writer here is saying, is like, look, my Jewish friends, if there was a priestly line that was different than the Levitical line and came before the Levitical line, is it possible that there's a different priestly line that comes after this?

  25:46-25:53

  Obviously there is, because God promised that the Messiah would be a high priest in the order of Melchizedek.

  25:57-26:01

  Right now there's somebody sitting here going, I should have left after the short version.

  26:03-26:04

  But you made it this far.

  26:05-26:06

  We're gonna get through this together.

  26:09-26:10

  I love this stuff.

  26:10-26:11

  This is so fascinating to me.

  26:12-26:13

  Number four, write this down.

  26:13-26:15

  Levitical priesthood was limited in time.

  26:16-26:19

  Melchizedek's priesthood never expired.

  26:19-26:21

  Look at the second part of verse three.

  26:21-26:30

  It says, "Having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God, He continues a priest forever." Listen, you got to understand this.

  26:30-26:32

  Just look up here.

  26:33-26:36

  He's not saying that Melchizedek was eternal.

  26:38-26:39

  He's not saying that.

  26:40-26:44

  He's not saying that Melchizedek never died.

  26:45-26:46

  He's not saying that.

  26:46-26:50

  What he's saying is, we have no record of it.

  26:52-27:05

  He's saying this, look, from a literary standpoint, or shall we say on the page, Melchizedek appears eternal.

  27:07-27:20

  From a literary standpoint on the page, Melchizedek appears as if he's always alive because we don't have any recorded beginning or ending.

  27:20-27:24

  We don't know where or when he was born or what his parents' names were.

  27:24-27:30

  And we don't know where or when or how he died, right?

  27:30-27:32

  Where did you come from?

  27:33-27:34

  Where did you go?

  27:35-27:37

  Where did you come from?

  27:39-27:41

  Cotton-eyed Mel Kisadak.

  27:47-27:59

  You see, he's saying, look, On the page, he doesn't have a beginning or end, but you know, that's a perfect picture of Jesus who literally, literally had no beginning or end because Jesus is eternal.

  28:01-28:07

  You see the Levitical priests, they could only serve from ages 25 to 50, right?

  28:07-28:14

  But Melchizedek with no record of his birth, no record of his death, on the page, he's serving forever, right?

  28:16-28:22

  So number five, the Levitical priesthood paid tithes to Melchizedek.

  28:22-28:25

  How's Melchizedek's priesthood greater than the Levitical priesthood?

  28:26-28:28

  Why is this greater than this?

  28:28-28:35

  It's because he's saying, this paid tithes to this.

  28:37-28:37

  That's huge.

  28:39-28:40

  Look at verses four through 10 again.

  28:43-29:02

  It says, so verse four, "See how great this man was to whom Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth of the spoils." Like Melchizedek must've been awesome if father Abraham, like Jew number one, paid a tithe to this man, this king.

  29:03-29:16

  He says, "And those descendants of Levi who received the priestly office have a commandment in the law to take tithes from the people, that is from their brothers, though these also are descended from Abraham.

  29:17-29:23

  Okay, so these priests took tithes from other Jews is what he's reminding us of.

  29:23-29:25

  And here's the point that he's making.

  29:25-29:52

  He says, verse six, "But this man," Melchizedek, "who does not have his descent from them," meaning he wasn't a Levite, "received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises." And he's, I love verse seven, he goes, "It is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior." He's like, everybody knows that, right?

  29:53-29:54

  Everybody knows that.

  29:55-29:58

  When a blessing is given, the superior blesses the inferior.

  29:59-30:00

  And which way did the blessing go?

  30:00-30:01

  It went this way.

  30:01-30:06

  So he's like, remember that is, this guy's obviously superior if he is blessing him.

  30:07-30:07

  Right?

  30:08-30:39

  So, verse eight, "In one case, tithes are received by mortal men, the Levites, but the other case, by one of whom it is testified that he lives, Mr. Alive Forever on the page, Melchizedek." I love this, verse nine, he says, "One might even say that Levi himself, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, for he was still in the loins of his ancestor Melchizedek met him.

  30:42-30:45

  So he's saying Melchizedek must have been great if Abraham tied to him.

  30:46-30:48

  And he says, Melchizedek so great.

  30:49-30:51

  Like how great was he?

  30:51-30:53

  He goes, think about it this way.

  30:54-31:01

  Even the Levites tied to Melchizedek because the Levites eventually came from Abraham.

  31:05-31:06

  You see what he's saying?

  31:07-31:14

  He goes, "I'll tell you how great Melchizedek is." He says, "You know, these guys get tithes, right?

  31:14-31:21

  These guys receive tithes." He's like, "These guys, they actually paid tithes to him.

  31:21-31:39

  That's how great he is." Like, "Well, no, no, no, they came much later, you said." Well, his point is, since Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek, he said, "It's like Isaac and Jacob and Jacob's kids, including Levi and all the priests.

  31:39-31:49

  It's like they all paid tithes to Melchizedek because they were still in Abraham's loins at the time Abraham paid the tithe.

  31:50-31:51

  You understand that?

  31:53-31:56

  Abraham acknowledged Melchizedek's greatness with the tithe.

  31:56-32:02

  Therefore, he's saying his great grandson, Levi did.

  32:02-32:06

  So, great grandson, right?

  32:07-32:09

  Son, grandson, great-grandson.

  32:10-32:13

  And then these would be like greats, greats, and great, great, greats.

  32:13-32:19

  And for those of you that are keeping an accurate record of this, right?

  32:21-32:30

  He's like, they're all paying tithes through Abraham because they were still yet to be born, still in his loins.

  32:32-32:35

  So to explain this for the Jews would have been like,

  32:37-32:37

  (blows air)

  32:39-32:40

  Wow.

  32:43-32:53

  I mean, the Jews had such a deep understanding of the Old Testament and Israel's culture and Israel's history so much more than we do.

  32:56-32:58

  But there's a huge piece here for us.

  33:02-33:06

  And this is what I want you to chew on.

  33:06-33:15

  You know, some people, when we think of Jesus Christ, there are some people that think of Jesus as the King.

  33:19-33:52

  You know, and I sort of think of like, like some of our Roman Catholic friends, quite honestly, maybe some people that we know that don't go to church, they have this idea that Jesus is this exalted, transcendent, in charge, and there's a fear there and a reverence there that honestly, I think we've lost in the church to a large degree.

  33:53-33:58

  But some people think of Jesus as the King, right?

  33:59-34:07

  He's up there and he's powerful and he's transcendent and it's, oh, it's terrifying to think that someday to die and stand before him.

  34:10-34:11

  But then there's other people.

  34:13-34:21

  And I think this is most people in churches like this, that they think of Jesus as the priest.

  34:22-34:23

  And who's the priest?

  34:23-34:25

  The priest is somebody that deals with sin, right?

  34:25-34:27

  In other words, a savior.

  34:28-34:30

  So what's a good symbol for a priest?

  34:32-34:37

  You know, all right, we'll do like an, How about we'll draw like an altar, like an Old Testament altar, right?

  34:39-34:40

  And that'll be our symbol for priest.

  34:41-34:43

  If you don't like it, you didn't shout out anything better.

  34:46-34:48

  So this is the Old Testament altar.

  34:48-34:54

  We got the horns up here and it's made out of bricks.

  34:55-34:57

  So we'll do one of these deals here.

  34:58-35:00

  This is our older symbolizing priest.

  35:00-35:03

  Some people only think of Jesus as the priest.

  35:05-35:07

  Like Jesus takes away my sin.

  35:09-35:11

  Jesus is my ticket to heaven.

  35:13-35:14

  Jesus is my friend.

  35:15-35:17

  Jesus understands when I mess up.

  35:18-35:20

  Jesus, he's my buddy.

  35:25-35:32

  And I wanna ask you this morning, On these two, where do you lean?

  35:35-35:40

  'Cause most people lean hard one direction or the other.

  35:40-35:42

  He's my king or he's my priest.

  35:46-35:57

  And you see, with all that the Hebrew writer is saying in this passage, here's the thing that I think we need to catch.

  35:58-36:06

  is yes, we have this God who is transcendent and sovereign.

  36:08-36:16

  And at the same time, we have this priest who loves and is merciful and is gracious.

  36:17-36:18

  And what do we have right here?

  36:20-36:26

  You see, this is what the Hebrew writer is telling us.

  36:28-36:29

  that this is where you find Jesus.

  36:32-36:37

  In the order of Melchizedek, he's the king.

  36:40-36:44

  And also in the order of Melchizedek, he's a priest.

  36:45-36:47

  He's one who makes us right with God.

  36:53-36:54

  What's the point?

  36:54-36:55

  What's the impact here?

  36:57-36:58

  You know, here it is.

  36:59-37:03

  We spend a lot of messages begging people to come to Christ.

  37:04-37:07

  Do not harden your heart like they did in the wilderness, on the edge of the promised land, refused.

  37:10-37:14

  And then remember Hebrews 6, it is impossible to renew to repentance.

  37:14-37:20

  Somebody that gets to the edge and walks away, they've tasted and they've seen and they've been part of it and then they walk away.

  37:24-37:28

  And the question I'd like to present to you is this, why wouldn't somebody receive Jesus?

  37:31-37:33

  Why wouldn't somebody receive Jesus?

  37:34-37:51

  I mean, the promise of eternal life, the promise of his constant abiding presence, the fellowship of some amazing people, the promise to someday make all things new, why wouldn't somebody receive Jesus Christ?

  37:53-37:56

  I mean, after all, this thing sounds great here, the priest thing.

  37:59-38:05

  I recognize in my life that I need that because I'm a fallen sinner by nature.

  38:05-38:08

  I recognize so easily that I need that.

  38:10-38:11

  Here it is, church.

  38:11-38:17

  I think one of the reasons that people can sit in church and not receive Jesus is 'cause we're all about this.

  38:18-38:19

  You guys see over there?

  38:21-38:21

  All right.

  38:22-38:24

  We send poor Russ to India and he came and look at a whiteboard?

  38:24-38:25

  What's the matter with you people?

  38:27-38:36

  We're so sold on Jesus being this, but we're a lot slower to recognize that we need this.

  38:38-38:44

  Because when it comes to the king thing, you see, that's when we start getting, ah, nobody tells me what to do.

  38:44-38:46

  I don't like somebody telling me how to live my life.

  38:46-38:48

  I don't like somebody telling me how to spend money.

  38:48-38:50

  I don't like somebody telling me...

  38:54-39:00

  The bottom line is people want Jesus on their terms, not on his terms.

  39:01-39:03

  And I want to tell you today that that's not an option.

  39:06-39:13

  In pastoral ministry, one of my favorite things to do is weddings.

  39:16-39:25

  And when I'm talking about weddings, I'm talking about people in the church that are believers, love the Lord, love each other, people that I know.

  39:26-39:29

  When it's that scenario, I love doing weddings.

  39:29-39:32

  For me, it's a big party, you get to spend time.

  39:32-39:33

  Right, remember that, Taylor?

  39:33-39:35

  I did your wedding and Murphy's are here.

  39:35-39:36

  You know, Big James, I did his wedding too.

  39:36-39:39

  I felt like a little kid with him and Kaylee 'cause they're so tall.

  39:39-39:53

  I was like, "Yeah, my little nephew married him." But anyways, I love those weddings, to spend that time with them and get to know them and hear their story, and just the huge celebration of these people that I love coming together and making covenant.

  39:53-39:56

  And that's one of my favorite things that I get to do.

  39:57-40:00

  And do you know what one of my least favorite things to do in ministry?

  40:02-40:06

  Is weddings for people that I don't know.

  40:07-40:22

  Because a lot of times as a pastor, I get roped into that, whether it's like family of friends, or friends of family, or somebody that found me online, or like at our old church, they were just driving by, they liked the architecture of the church.

  40:22-40:24

  I wanna get married here 'cause it's pretty, will you marry us?

  40:26-40:28

  And I hate those weddings.

  40:30-40:31

  I just do.

  40:34-40:35

  And I'm gonna tell you why.

  40:38-40:56

  Because in those weddings, what typically happens as they come because they want me to legally marry them, but they're not interested really in what God said about it.

  40:58-41:05

  'Cause I do a seven session pre-marital counseling thing with them where we talk, we talk, right, Kaylee, we go through this stuff.

  41:05-41:08

  We talk about what does God say about all of this?

  41:08-41:09

  What does God say is the role of a husband?

  41:09-41:12

  What does God say is the role of a wife?

  41:12-41:13

  You know, and we walk through all that.

  41:14-41:16

  conflict resolution and communication.

  41:16-41:20

  And we go through all that intimacy and finances.

  41:20-41:22

  And we cover all of these things.

  41:25-41:30

  So many times I get people that are like, "Look, can you just do the wedding?

  41:30-41:33

  "But do we have to have so many scriptures in our wedding?

  41:35-41:39

  "And do we really have to do "all that premarital counseling stuff?

  41:40-41:50

  "And can your wedding sermon, can you keep it short?" And I'm like, "We've never met, have we?" Can I keep it short?

  41:53-41:53

  Good one.

  41:55-42:00

  But they're like, "Look, could you just pronounce this "and bounce this?

  42:00-42:14

  "Do we have to go through all of this, "all of the scripture stuff?" And you know, my answer is, I'm like, I can't do that.

  42:15-42:15

  Why?

  42:18-42:19

  Because of who I am.

  42:21-42:30

  Like, look, there's not agent of the state authority to sign marriage licenses, Jeffrey S. Miller.

  42:30-42:33

  And then over here, you have Pastor Jeff.

  42:33-42:35

  Oh, you don't recognize me without my Bible, sorry.

  42:35-42:37

  Over here, you have Pastor Jeff.

  42:38-42:40

  and like they're two separate entities.

  42:40-42:46

  And they're like, "We just want this guy." And I'm like, "But that's not an option because I'm not one or the other.

  42:47-42:50

  I can't subdivide myself to please you.

  42:51-42:52

  And you can't do that either.

  42:53-42:54

  And do you know who else isn't gonna do that?

  42:56-42:58

  Jesus isn't going to do that either.

  42:59-43:03

  Oh, you wanna, do you want a savior, but not a Lord?

  43:03-43:10

  You wanna go to heaven, but you don't want the God of the universe who died for you to be the authority in your life?

  43:10-43:11

  Okay, I'll just be that guy.

  43:12-43:13

  Will Jesus do that?

  43:14-43:17

  No, Jesus does not subdivide.

  43:19-43:23

  And that's the point, church, that we need to catch here.

  43:24-43:30

  But this is very complicated stuff, but our big takeaway needs to be, he's King and priest both.

  43:32-43:33

  He's not just one or the other.

  43:38-43:46

  And I need to ask you, you know, I imagine we're all sold on the priest thing, but I just need to ask you as we close, is Jesus your King?

  43:54-43:58

  And in evaluating that, I just need to ask you, is there any area of your life where he's not the King?

  43:59-44:06

  Is there any area of your life that you have sort of tried to keep out from under his authority.

  44:10-44:11

  Like finances.

  44:13-44:18

  Jesus said, "Where your treasure is, "there your heart will be also." The Bible says you should give a first fruits to God.

  44:18-44:22

  You should be like, you know, Abraham paying the tithe to Melchizedek.

  44:23-44:25

  We should give God first and best.

  44:25-44:38

  And if you're like, "Yeah, I'm not really on board with God telling me "how to spend my money." "Eh, it's God's money." And you trying to keep that separate from the authority of God tells me that he's not your king in that area.

  44:41-44:42

  Or sexually.

  44:45-44:52

  The Bible tells us that God created that intimate relationship for a man and a woman in a covenant relationship as husband and wife.

  44:53-44:54

  That's why he created that.

  44:55-45:01

  Like, "Eh, I don't really think that, you know, "the Bible should tell me who I'm allowed to be with they're not allowed to be with.

  45:01-45:02

  Okay, then he's not your king.

  45:04-45:07

  And you're not taking him for who he is, right?

  45:07-45:11

  Bible says we need to forgive those who sin against us.

  45:11-45:12

  They come back, repent.

  45:12-45:14

  Jesus says you must forgive them.

  45:14-45:17

  And if there's somebody in your life that you're like, I will never forgive that person.

  45:18-45:19

  Then you know what that tells me?

  45:19-45:21

  That tells me he's not your king.

  45:27-45:44

  If there's any area in your life where you know Jesus is commanding you and you refuse to do what he says and instead insist on doing it your way, Jesus would say to you the same thing he said in Luke 6:46.

  45:46-45:48

  When he says, "Why do you call me Lord, Lord?

  45:51-45:56

  "And not do what I tell you." I'd like you to bow your heads with me, please.

  45:56-45:58

  as the worship team makes their way forward.

  45:59-46:13

  And I wanna commend you for diligently going through a very complicated section of Scripture.

  46:17-46:49

  But as we have our heads bowed, I just wanna challenge you to pray Father, please show me any area of my life, whether it's finances or sexually or my relationships with others or the way I speak to people or the way I speak about people or any area of my life where I have not submitted to the kingship of Jesus Christ.

  46:50-46:51

  Father, show me that.

  46:56-47:08

  And you need to pray, Father, I see in your word that Jesus Christ is my high priest, and at the same time, he is my king, because he is in the order of Melchizedek.

  47:08-47:15

  And I'm not going to try to receive Jesus for just what I want him to be, I want to receive him for who he is.

  47:16-47:18

  And according to your word, this is who he is.

  47:18-47:20

  He is my priest and he is my king.

  47:26-47:28

  Father, I pray that you would be glorified in our lives.

  47:28-47:38

  Father, in my life and the lives of my brothers and sisters in Christ that are sitting here, that are watching this stream, that are gonna be listening to this later.

  47:38-47:40

  Father, we love you.

  47:42-48:00

  And Father, I pray that you would give us the faith trust you that we would follow Jesus Christ as King. Yes, He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, but He is also the King who sits at your right hand and who reigns forevermore.

  48:03-48:10

  Father, may Jesus Christ be our priest and King. We pray in His glorious name.

  48:11-48:11

  Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read Hebrews 7:1-10

1. What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
   

2. Explain, in your own words, the overall point of this passage. Why would this have been such a huge revelation for the Jews who received this message?
   

3. Why do some people believe in Jesus as their Savior, but not as their King? How do we sometimes justify “subdividing Jesus”, and thereby trying to take Him on our terms instead of His?

Breakout
Pray for one another. Is there any area in your life where Jesus is not King?

Why Jesus? Because He is Our Anchor

Introduction:

Why Should I Trust the Lord? (Hebrews 6:13-20):

1. Because His character is Unquestionable . (Heb 6:13-15)

   Hebrews 6:13-15

   Genesis 15:5 - "Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them…So shall your offspring be."

   Genesis 15:6 - And he (Abraham) believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

2. Because His promises are Definitive . (Heb 6:16-18)

   Hebrews 6:16-18

   Numbers 23:19 - God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man that He should change His mind.

3. Because His Son is Steady Anchor . (Heb 6:19-20)

   John 14:6 - "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

• Audio Transcript

  01:01-01:34

  All right, so you can open up to Hebrews chapter 6 verses 13 through 20 Hebrews chapter 6 verses 13 through 20 and I was told before I came up here that some of these bulletins may not be exactly fully correct So if you have the bullets that's not correct. You'll win a prize on your way out I'm not sure what it is, but now you really don't sorry. But anyway, why I should trust the Lord That's what it should be So if you don't have that there are some blank ones back there on the table, or you can scratch it out, pay attention, and fill it out as need be, all right?

  01:35-01:40

  All right, so I want you to raise your hand if you ever went to sleep-away summer camp as a kid.

  01:41-01:42

  Not as many as I was expecting.

  01:43-01:45

  Who never went to summer camp?

  01:45-01:48

  All right, you are my people, awesome.

  01:49-01:53

  It was a family tradition for us to go to Seneca Hills Bible Camp.

  01:53-01:56

  My brother went there, my sister went there.

  01:56-02:00

  I refused to go for several reasons.

  02:00-02:05

  First of all, it's maybe hard for you to believe 'cause I'm standing up here preaching a message.

  02:05-02:08

  I was a very shy and introverted kid.

  02:08-02:10

  I didn't really like talking to new people.

  02:11-02:12

  Those are two of the reasons.

  02:13-02:16

  But do you want to know the number one reason why I didn't want to go to camp?

  02:17-02:20

  I was afraid my parents were gonna leave me there.

  02:22-02:22

  (audience laughing)

  02:22-02:25

  I was afraid they'd be like, "Oh yeah, Taylor's not here.

  02:25-02:26

  It's pretty nice.

  02:27-02:28

  You should stay there.

  02:28-02:29

  That'd be fantastic.

  02:30-02:33

  All the parents in the room are like, why would you ever, ever think that?

  02:33-02:37

  I have no idea, but it even extends into other activities in my life.

  02:38-02:46

  Like VBS, in school, my mom will tell you she had to come right on time or a few minutes early or it would be a problem.

  02:46-02:48

  I would be really upset.

  02:48-02:51

  I remember one time at VBS, I went to my counselor, I'm like, can I call my mom?

  02:52-02:54

  Can I call my mom and make sure she's gonna pick me up?

  02:55-02:58

  My parents gave me no reason to doubt them.

  02:59-03:01

  They never once left me in a parking lot.

  03:02-03:05

  They never once left me on the side of the road to fend for myself.

  03:07-03:11

  But for some reason, I had a hard time trusting they would come through for me.

  03:12-03:15

  I had a hard time believing that they would pick me up.

  03:17-03:23

  You may laugh at me and my craziness as a child, but we all do the same thing with God, don't we?

  03:24-03:27

  We all struggle with trusting the Lord.

  03:27-03:34

  We all wrestle with believing that he knows what he is doing and he will always keep his promises to us.

  03:35-03:43

  We all have trust issues when it comes to God, even though he has proved himself faithful to us time and time again.

  03:44-03:58

  This morning, we're gonna study Hebrews chapter six, verses 13 through 20, and unpack three reasons why we should have a rock solid confidence the Lord, why we should trust in His many promises to us.

  03:59-04:02

  So I want you to answer this really important question.

  04:02-04:03

  It's very simple.

  04:04-04:05

  Why should I trust the Lord?

  04:07-04:09

  Why should I trust the Lord?

  04:10-04:13

  Number one, because His character is unquestionable.

  04:14-04:18

  Because His character is unquestionable.

  04:20-04:23

  Let's read verses 13 through 15 together.

  04:24-04:34

  For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, surely I will bless you and multiply you.

  04:34-04:39

  And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise.

  04:41-04:49

  The author of Hebrews points us back to the example of Abraham and God making a covenant with Abraham in the book of Genesis.

  04:49-04:54

  To fully understand this passage, we kind of have to recap the life of Abraham.

  04:55-04:57

  When we first meet this man, he's named Abram.

  04:58-05:00

  He's 75 years old and he lives in a place called Ur.

  05:01-05:10

  Eventually, God changes his name to Abraham to show that this man's identity, his purpose, has been radically transformed, radically altered.

  05:11-05:14

  From now on, we'll just refer to him as Abraham to keep things simple.

  05:16-05:26

  So in Genesis 12, the Lord first appears to Abraham tells him to leave behind all that he knows and step into a future that will be shown to him.

  05:27-05:30

  And God offers a fourfold promise to Abraham.

  05:31-05:41

  He offers him a family line, a land for his descendants to possess, a great name, and blessing that will impact the entire world.

  05:42-05:44

  It's a pretty awesome promise, right?

  05:44-05:45

  It sounds fantastic.

  05:46-05:49

  But what's the problem with this promise from a human perspective.

  05:51-05:53

  Abraham and his wife are not spring chickens.

  05:55-05:59

  Actually, later on in Hebrews, Abraham is described as good as dead.

  06:00-06:02

  Imagine putting that on a birthday cake for somebody.

  06:05-06:08

  On top of that, his wife Sarah is unable to have children.

  06:10-06:16

  So the idea that she will have a son that will carry on this family line seems slim to none.

  06:17-06:19

  Abraham still listens to God.

  06:19-06:21

  He obeys and he leaves behind everything that he knows.

  06:23-06:25

  But later on, Genesis 15, Abraham is struggling.

  06:25-06:28

  He is wrestling with trusting in the Lord.

  06:28-06:32

  He goes to the Lord and says, God, I know you've promised me a son.

  06:32-06:33

  I know you've promised me a family line.

  06:34-06:36

  I'm having a hard time trusting you.

  06:36-06:38

  How is this going to happen?

  06:40-06:46

  The Lord says, Abraham, look toward heaven and number the stars if you're able to number them.

  06:47-06:50

  so shall your offspring be.

  06:52-06:53

  This next verse is really important.

  06:54-07:00

  And Abraham believed the Lord and he counted to him as righteousness.

  07:01-07:10

  In that moment, even though Abraham still isn't seeing the evidence, he's not seeing the promise, he has faith.

  07:10-07:14

  He wholeheartedly believes that God will provide a son.

  07:15-07:18

  It's not the next day, it's not the next year.

  07:18-07:23

  Abraham had to wait 25 years for this child of promise to come.

  07:25-07:29

  He had faith, even though it looked impossible from a human perspective.

  07:30-07:39

  At this point, in Genesis 15, Abraham has to take the Lord on faith and believe that one day his faith will become sight.

  07:40-07:54

  So after this declaration of faith, God brings a deep sleep upon Abraham and he makes a covenant, an unbreakable agreement with Abraham to prove that these promises will come to pass.

  07:55-08:00

  You know, in 2023, we finalized deals by signing contracts or shaking hands.

  08:01-08:03

  That's not how it happened back in Abraham's day.

  08:03-08:07

  It was a much grosser process.

  08:08-08:19

  Two parties entering into a covenant in Abraham's day would cut an animal apart, they would take the pieces, and walk through the pieces to show that they would keep their part of the covenant.

  08:20-08:28

  And by walking through those pieces, you're saying, let what happened to these animals happen to me if I don't keep my part of the covenant.

  08:30-08:32

  Is anybody else glad that we don't do that anymore?

  08:33-08:44

  Imagine doing that at the car dealership as you're closing on a Honda Civic, or in the Howard Hanna parking lot, closing on your dream house, okay honey, let's walk through the animal pieces.

  08:45-08:47

  I'm so glad we don't have to do that anymore.

  08:50-09:00

  But in Genesis 15, God has Abraham cut animals in half, placed the halves across from each other, but he doesn't have Abraham walk through the pieces.

  09:00-10:11

  As I said, he puts a deep sleep upon Abraham, and God alone, in the form of a fiery torch a smoking oven passes through the pieces. Why did God do that? Why did God exclude Abraham? Because the keeping of this promise of this covenant depended fully upon God and not on Abraham at all. This was an unconditional covenant that the Lord fully took upon himself to carry out. In a sense, God made a covenant with himself. This covenant didn't depend upon Abraham's imperfect performance and faithfulness, instead it depended upon God's perfect faithfulness and performance. God owed himself the fulfillment of these promises. You know this makes sense when you think about it. Who can God possibly trust more than himself? Easiest question you'll be asked all day and the answer is, you can do better than that? The answer is no one. God could trust no one more than himself.

  10:13-11:04

  As I mentioned earlier, God finally kept this promise. A miracle son is born, Isaac after 25 years of waiting. Years go by and as of 22, something unexpected happens. God tells Abraham, "I want you to sacrifice your one and only son." Put yourself in Abraham's shoes. What that must have felt like. I imagine him just being like, "God, what do you mean? What are you talking about? This is the child you promised me. Why? How could this possibly fit into your plans?" But Abraham obeys and just as he's about to sacrifice his son, the angel of the Lord stops him and points to a ram that will be sacrificed as a stand-in for Isaac.

  11:05-11:09

  And the Lord reaffirms his promises to Abraham in that moment.

  11:11-11:16

  And we hear that he swears an oath that he will keep these promises.

  11:17-11:20

  And the author of Hebrews speaks to this in verse 13.

  11:20-11:28

  He says this, "For when God made a promise to Abraham, "since he had no one greater by whom to swear, He swore by Himself.

  11:31-11:36

  When someone made an oath in the ancient world, they would swear by something or someone greater than themselves.

  11:37-11:41

  In the New Testament, people would often swear by the altar in the temple or by the high priest.

  11:42-11:46

  But who could God possibly swear to that is greater than Himself?

  11:47-11:51

  Again, another easy question with a very easy answer, no one.

  11:52-12:01

  This covenant and this oath shine a spotlight on the absolute trustworthiness and credibility of our God.

  12:02-12:07

  His character, his integrity are unquestionable, then disputable.

  12:09-12:12

  Who in this room would say that they like to work ahead on stuff?

  12:14-12:18

  All right, the other end of the spectrum, who's a big procrastinator and you wait to the last possible second?

  12:19-12:21

  I don't understand the second group at all.

  12:21-12:22

  I don't know how you live your lives.

  12:22-12:29

  I don't know how you go every single day being like, "Yeah, I'll do it eventually." I remember in college, almost all of my friends were like you.

  12:30-12:31

  They loved to procrastinate.

  12:31-12:32

  They would study at the last second.

  12:33-12:38

  I had one friend crank out a 10-page research paper in the 45 minutes before the class that was due.

  12:39-12:41

  I wouldn't believe it if I didn't see it.

  12:41-12:48

  I watched him with mouth agape, just like, "Are you kidding me?" Now, he got a C on the paper, but hey, that's pretty good for 45 minutes of work, right?

  12:49-12:51

  I couldn't live that way.

  12:51-12:56

  Living that way, thinking about it, made my skin crawl with anxiety.

  12:57-13:02

  So instead, in college, I developed a weekly schedule that I would follow.

  13:02-13:06

  And because of this schedule, I never once stayed up past 11 p.m. doing homework.

  13:07-13:09

  I never once pulled an all-nighter.

  13:10-13:15

  As many people have told me, I don't think you really went to college then if you never pulled an all-nighter.

  13:16-13:30

  But I remember one particular class in my sophomore year, There was a public speaking class, and this class was notoriously difficult, and the professor relished the fact that her class was really, really hard, and that her tests were impossible.

  13:31-13:39

  People told me, "Taylor, if you want to do well "on these tests, you really have to study." So I listened, I poured over my notes for hours and hours and hours.

  13:39-13:42

  I take the test, get it back the next week, and I got an A on the test.

  13:43-13:56

  I was really excited, but then the professor says, "Taylor, I want to talk to you after class." And then she proceeds to ask me one of the most offensive questions I've ever been asked in my entire life.

  13:57-13:57

  Are you ready?

  13:59-14:05

  She said, "Taylor, you are the only student "who got an A on this test in the entire class.

  14:05-14:10

  "You cheated, didn't you?" It felt like she had punched me in the face.

  14:10-14:11

  I couldn't believe it.

  14:12-14:17

  I tried defending myself, but she kept digging in her heels and she said, "Taylor, I know what you did.

  14:17-14:25

  "I can't prove it, but I'm gonna be watching you "for the rest of the semester." I walked out of that classroom in a daze.

  14:26-14:31

  I went back to my apartment and I told my friend, Seth, about this experience, and he was very angry.

  14:32-14:44

  Said, "We're going to her office right now." I was like, "This probably isn't a good idea, but okay." So I follow him, and I didn't really know until after that he already had problems with his professor, So he was like ready for battle.

  14:44-14:51

  We get to her office, and he kind of like lays into her about accusing me of cheating with no evidence whatsoever.

  14:52-14:54

  And there's one thing that he said that I'll never forget.

  14:55-15:02

  He said, if you really knew Taylor, you would know how ridiculous it is to think that he would cheat on this test.

  15:04-15:06

  This intent interrogation actually worked.

  15:07-15:11

  She apologized to me, and she backed away from her claims.

  15:12-15:26

  I walked away from this experience feeling both vindicated, but also greatly encouraged that my friend had such a high view of my integrity that the possibility of me cheating never once entered into his mind.

  15:28-15:38

  You know, in a much greater way, as believers, we should have such a high view of our God that his character, his integrity, should never, ever be in question.

  15:41-15:47

  The possibility of him saying one thing, but meaning another, is 0%.

  15:48-15:52

  The possibility of him not having our best interest at heart is zero.

  15:53-15:59

  He is perfect in every single way imaginable, and his track record is flawless.

  16:00-16:06

  Yes, he doesn't always do things the way that you want him to, but that's good, 'cause he always does what is right.

  16:06-16:09

  He always does what is best.

  16:11-16:16

  But it's so easy to get off track and assume the worst about God.

  16:17-16:20

  It's so easy to blame Him for all of our problems.

  16:22-16:34

  But in those moments when we do that, we're taking our eyes off the God of the Bible, and we're focusing on a God of our own understanding who bears no resemblance to the one who actually sits on the throne.

  16:35-16:40

  This is why we cannot allow our emotions and feelings to dictate what we think and believe.

  16:40-16:54

  This is why we must always preach the truth to ourselves daily about who God really is, instead of just listening to that complaint track that often plays in our head over and over and over again.

  16:56-17:07

  When you're tempted to think that God doesn't care about you or what you're going through, dig into passages of the Word that speak to the unbreakable, unconditional love of God.

  17:07-17:15

  When you doubt the goodness of God, Instead of running away from him, run to him and praise him for all the things he has done in your life.

  17:16-17:24

  Continually go through his list of attributes, holy, righteous, loving, all-knowing, all-powerful, gracious, generous.

  17:26-17:27

  On and on the list goes.

  17:28-17:31

  There is no one greater than our God.

  17:32-17:35

  There is no one more trustworthy than our God.

  17:35-17:41

  There is no one whose character and integrity unquestionable besides our God.

  17:44-17:45

  So why should I trust the Lord?

  17:45-17:49

  Number two, because his promises are definitive.

  17:50-17:53

  Because his promises are definitive.

  17:56-17:58

  Let's continue on verses 16 through 18.

  18:00-18:05

  "For people swear by something greater than themselves in all their disputes that oath is final for confirmation.

  18:06-18:14

  So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise, the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath.

  18:15-18:26

  So that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.

  18:28-18:35

  You know, as I said earlier, oaths were extremely common in the ancient world, and they were meant to be taken extremely seriously.

  18:35-18:40

  Once you made an oath, you were expected to follow through on what you promised.

  18:41-18:45

  Sadly, oaths existed because as human beings, we're not known for our honesty, are we?

  18:46-18:50

  Deception comes very naturally to all of us.

  18:50-18:52

  And it's easy to tell white lies.

  18:52-18:53

  It's easy to stretch the truth.

  18:56-19:03

  It's easy to say one thing that's not true so you can get someone off your back, or it makes other people think more highly of you.

  19:04-19:08

  It's easy to go back on your word and make excuses for why you can't follow through.

  19:10-19:15

  Sometimes we break our word intentionally and sometimes we break our word unintentionally.

  19:15-19:20

  We can make hasty commitments that we don't really fully think through and count the costs.

  19:20-19:23

  We don't think if we actually have the time and the bandwidth to follow through.

  19:25-19:25

  But guess what?

  19:26-19:32

  While this is true of human beings and very often of you and I, this is not true of God whatsoever.

  19:34-19:36

  I love the bluntness of Numbers 23 19.

  19:37-19:42

  God is not a man that he should lie or a son of man that he should change his mind.

  19:43-19:47

  Simply put, God is not like us at all.

  19:47-19:50

  He does not share our faults and our failures.

  19:51-19:56

  The author of Hebrews makes it abundantly clear, it is impossible for God to lie.

  19:57-20:00

  It's not just that he will not lie, he cannot lie.

  20:01-20:07

  It's not just that he will keep his promises to us, he must keep his promises to us.

  20:07-20:10

  God cannot violate his own holiness.

  20:12-20:22

  As I studied this passage this week, I was continually blown away by the reality that God made an oath to Abraham even though he didn't have to.

  20:23-20:25

  We should take God at his word.

  20:26-20:27

  We should take what he says on face value.

  20:30-20:36

  As I studied this passage, warranties for cars, appliances, and other electronics came to my mind.

  20:36-20:38

  You know, why are warranties offered?

  20:39-20:43

  Because companies do not have 100% confidence in their products.

  20:44-20:47

  They offer you a worst case scenario option.

  20:47-20:53

  But very often, if you read the fine print, these warranties are geared towards the company and not the consumer.

  20:55-21:01

  I don't know about you, but very often, the built-in warranty for a product expires, and that's the time when the product's like, you know what, I'm done.

  21:01-21:03

  It just quits and just ruins my entire day.

  21:04-21:08

  Who else gets a steady stream of extended car warranty calls?

  21:09-21:11

  Anybody else besides me being tortured by these people?

  21:12-21:13

  You know what's the worst part about it?

  21:13-21:14

  Let me just rant for a second.

  21:15-21:20

  It used to be they would have like an area code from somewhere outside the state, but no.

  21:20-21:23

  Now they have 412 and 724 area codes.

  21:23-21:26

  As a pastor, I'm like, oh, well, this might be someone in the church.

  21:27-21:30

  And it's like, hello, we'd like to talk to you about your extended car warranty.

  21:31-21:32

  It's like, ah, end.

  21:33-21:36

  Every single time I get so angry about it, I rant over.

  21:37-21:38

  It feels good to talk about that.

  21:39-21:48

  You know, typically I don't even bother with the add-on warranties for a TV or a toaster or a microwave 'cause they're often more trouble than they're worth.

  21:50-22:00

  But with this oath the Lord offers Abraham, he gives him a 100% trustworthy warranty that will not expire, go bad, or disappoint.

  22:01-22:05

  But again, why did God do this if he didn't have to?

  22:06-22:07

  Let's read our passage again.

  22:08-22:10

  The author of Hebrews clearly tells us why.

  22:11-22:31

  So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs the promise, the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, that's the promise and the oath, in which it is impossible for God to lie, We who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.

  22:32-22:35

  So why did God swear an oath to Abraham?

  22:37-22:43

  He did it to stoop down to his level, to meet him where he is at and accommodate his weak faith.

  22:44-22:53

  God knew how hard it was for Abraham to trust in him, so he gave him a greater sense of security with this oath.

  22:55-23:00

  And we're told that he made this oath to encourage the heirs of the promise after Abraham.

  23:01-23:15

  If you are a follower of Christ, then you are an heir of the promise made to Abraham, because we'll talk about in a few minutes, Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham to bless the entire world through his family line.

  23:16-23:20

  This oath should be a comfort and encouragement to us.

  23:23-23:25

  God knows how weak we are.

  23:26-23:28

  God knows how hard it is for us to trust him.

  23:30-23:35

  God knows how hard it is for us to live by faith and not by sight every single day.

  23:36-23:40

  No one knows how weak, needy, frustrated, and confused you are like God does.

  23:42-23:45

  As you've been learning a lot over the past month, God gets us.

  23:45-23:48

  He knows you better than you know yourself.

  23:49-23:58

  He knows that you need something solid and substantial to grab a hold of when you're going through a difficult season, when you're going through the storms of life.

  23:59-24:12

  This is why He has gifted us with His word so that we can study about the promises He has kept in the past, about the promises He is fulfilling right now, and the promises down the road that He will fulfill in the future.

  24:13-24:14

  This is why we have a church family.

  24:15-24:23

  So just sitting on our own, letting our fears and doubts take over, we can have brothers and sisters encouraging us, speaking the truth into our lives.

  24:23-24:32

  This is why we have the Holy Spirit, who has been sent to live within us as our comforter, our teacher, and our guide who points us to these promises every single day.

  24:34-24:42

  God is so gracious in offering us helpful reminders to grab a hold of, because he knows how forgetful and ignorant we all are.

  24:44-24:50

  We must constantly choose to set our hearts and our minds upon the promises of God.

  24:51-24:56

  Because as the author of Hebrews tells us, these are a refuge in times of trouble.

  24:57-25:00

  Let me just list off some of the promises of God that we see in his word.

  25:01-25:10

  In John 6, 47, Jesus promises that those who place their faith and trust in him alone for salvation will have eternal life.

  25:11-25:20

  In Romans 8, 28, we are promised that all those who love God and are called according to his purposes All things will work out for good for them.

  25:21-25:28

  In Romans 8, 38 through 39, we are promised that nothing will separate us from the love of God and Christ Jesus, our Lord.

  25:28-25:39

  In Philippians 1, 6, we are promised that God will finish the work that he began in us at the moment of salvation, and he will take us across the finish line of this life and into heaven.

  25:40-25:43

  God doesn't have any unfinished or abandoned projects lying around.

  25:43-25:45

  He always finishes what he starts.

  25:46-25:50

  In Ephesians 2.10, we are promised that God has a purpose for our lives.

  25:50-25:54

  There are good works He has prepared for us to carry out.

  25:56-26:07

  And I'll steal Pastor Jeff's favorite promise from Revelation chapter 21, in which we're promised, that things will not always be as they are now, that Jesus will make all things new.

  26:09-26:11

  These promises are definitive.

  26:12-26:14

  These promises are a set guarantee.

  26:15-26:19

  Keep your eyes fixed on these things at all times and never let go.

  26:20-26:23

  Never let go of the hope set before you.

  26:24-26:27

  Finally, why should I trust the Lord?

  26:28-26:29

  Because his son is a steady anchor.

  26:30-26:33

  Because his son is a steady anchor.

  26:36-26:38

  Let's wrap up with verses 19 through 20.

  26:40-26:55

  We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, A hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

  26:57-27:02

  So the author of Hebrews expands upon the hope he was talking about in verse 18.

  27:02-27:07

  He says this hope is rooted in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

  27:07-27:10

  Ultimately, our hope is found in Him and Him alone.

  27:12-27:21

  As I said a few minutes ago, Jesus is the final fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham to bless the whole world through his family line.

  27:23-27:28

  Isn't this a random coincidence that Jesus was born to a Jewish woman over 2,000 years ago?

  27:28-27:34

  To fulfill the promise, Jesus had to come through the line of David, through the line of Abraham.

  27:35-27:44

  Through his life, death, resurrection, and ascension, Jesus has secured a salvation that is available to anyone and everyone who turns to Him.

  27:45-27:54

  It doesn't matter what race, nationality, or family you come from, the blessing of eternal life and salvation is available to all.

  27:57-27:57

  How is this possible?

  27:59-28:14

  We're told in the passage we just read, and we're told that we have a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

  28:16-28:19

  We've talked a lot about Jesus being our high priest over the past month.

  28:20-28:30

  As a quick refresher, once a year on the Day of Atonement, the high priest would enter into the Holy of Holies to make a sacrifice for his sin, as well as the sins of the people of Israel.

  28:30-28:33

  He would pass through the veil to go through the Holy of Holies.

  28:33-28:43

  and this curtain, this veil, represented the fact that we are separated from a holy and perfect God because of our sin.

  28:44-28:49

  The Israelites needed a mediator, a go-between, to enter into the Holy of Holies on their behalf.

  28:51-28:51

  But guess what?

  28:52-29:06

  As Jesus died on the cross, the curtain in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom to represent the awesome, amazing reality that access to God is now available through his son and high priest.

  29:08-29:14

  Through his sacrifice, Jesus entered into the inner place, into the heavenly holy of holies as our forerunner.

  29:16-29:16

  What does that mean?

  29:16-29:17

  I'm not talking about the vehicle.

  29:19-29:20

  What is a forerunner?

  29:21-29:24

  A forerunner is someone who goes on up ahead and prepares a way.

  29:25-29:31

  A forerunner is a trailblazer who breaks new ground so that others can follow in their footsteps.

  29:32-29:38

  Jesus paved the way for those who believe in him to have a personal relationship with the Father.

  29:38-29:44

  Jesus paved the way for you to enjoy the presence of a loving God, both now and forever.

  29:44-29:46

  You don't need to go through a religious ritual.

  29:46-29:49

  You don't need to go through me or Pastor Jeff to talk to God.

  29:50-29:58

  All you need to do is follow in the footsteps of your Savior, your high priest, and your forerunner who made a way for you.

  30:01-30:06

  As Jesus said in John 14 6, "I am the way, the truth, and the life.

  30:07-30:13

  No one comes to the Father except through me." What an awesome hope we have in Jesus.

  30:14-30:15

  He is our everything.

  30:16-30:19

  And without Him, we have nothing, and we're going nowhere.

  30:21-30:28

  And the author of Hebrews says that this hope in Jesus is a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul.

  30:30-30:32

  Does anybody else besides me need that today?

  30:33-30:36

  A sure and steadfast anchor of the soul.

  30:37-30:40

  Do you need someone who is steadfast and loyal?

  30:41-30:45

  Do you need an anchor that will help you not to drift away?

  30:47-30:48

  Look no further than Jesus Christ.

  30:49-30:52

  Everything and everyone will let you down besides him.

  30:54-30:56

  Who or what are you looking to as your anchor right now?

  30:58-30:58

  Is it your job?

  31:00-31:02

  I hate to break it to you, but you could be fired tomorrow.

  31:04-31:06

  You're looking to money and success.

  31:06-31:07

  That is a bottomless pit.

  31:07-31:08

  You'll never have enough.

  31:08-31:09

  You'll never achieve enough.

  31:10-31:13

  The opinion of others, I can tell you that's not a good idea.

  31:14-31:19

  That is a up and down, left and right, crazy roller coaster that will change day by day.

  31:19-31:20

  But you know who never changes?

  31:21-31:21

  Jesus Christ.

  31:24-31:26

  All of the things I just mentioned are not anchors.

  31:27-31:30

  They are unsteady rafts that will sink in the storms of this life.

  31:31-31:35

  Only Jesus provides eternal security and stability.

  31:35-31:38

  Only Jesus is a rock solid anchor for your soul.

  31:39-31:42

  Your eternal position in his kingdom can never be stolen from you.

  31:43-31:45

  Your identity in him can never be stripped away from you.

  31:45-31:49

  Your purpose in Him can never, ever be thwarted.

  31:52-31:56

  Will you please bow your heads, close your eyes, and then I can come forward.

  31:59-32:02

  I want you to spend some time with the Lord.

  32:04-32:09

  And honestly ask yourself, in what areas of my life am I having a hard time trusting the Lord?

  32:11-32:20

  Maybe you're having a hard time trusting Him with your finances, maybe it's with your family, things are really rough right now, and you have a hard time believing that God knows what he is doing.

  32:21-32:24

  Maybe you're struggling with believing that God really cares about you.

  32:26-32:36

  Go to him right now and ask him to restore your hope in his unquestionable character, his definitive promises, and the steady anchor that is his son.

  32:37-32:40

  Lay your doubts, your worries, and your anxieties before him.

  32:40-32:43

  cast your burdens on him, because he alone can carry them.

  32:47-32:58

  Father, we come to you and we thank you that your character is unquestionable, that your promises are definitive, and your son is a steady anchor for our souls at all times.

  32:59-33:05

  Lord, forgive us for the many ways we doubt you, for the many ways we run away from you when we should run towards you.

  33:07-33:12

  Lord, there are many issues, struggles, worries, anxieties in this room today.

  33:13-33:14

  I don't know all of them, but you do.

  33:16-33:19

  I pray that we would all lay them down at the foot of the cross.

  33:22-33:31

  We would believe that you truly care about us, that you truly know what you're doing, that you will always keep your word to us, Lord, that you alone are trustworthy at all times.

  33:35-33:51

  we lift up this week to you we pray that we would go throughout this week not ridden with anxiety and fear but filled with hope and confidence in you we thank you in advance what you are to be doing our lives this week Lord in Jesus name amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read Hebrews 6:13-20

1. What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
   

2. Recap the life of Abraham and discuss how his example should impact our lives and our faith.
   

3. What characteristics or qualities of God do you need to constantly remind yourself of in this current season of life?
   

4. What promises of God do you have a hard time believing in sometimes? How can you strengthen your confidence in these promises and fight against doubt?
   

5. How is Jesus a steady anchor for our souls?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

Why Jesus? The Point of No Return

Introduction:

The Call to Maturity (Hebrews 6:1-12):

1. Maturity means Moving On from the Basics . (Heb 6:1-8)
2. Maturity means Loving God . (Heb 6:9-10)
3. Maturity means Imitating the Faithful . (Heb 6:11-12)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

• Audio Transcript

  01:01-01:34

  Let's bow our heads and I'm going to ask if you would please pray for me to faithfully communicate God's Word. I will pray for you to receive God's Word as Alex prayed. Fertile soil, right? That's where the seed of God's word grows. Let's pray. Father, this is your word.

  01:41-01:54

  Nobody's here to hear from me. We're all here to hear from you. So let your word Be true.

  01:57-02:01

  We know God, we know you always do what you set out to do when your Word is proclaimed.

  02:01-02:03

  We just want to be faithful to proclaim it.

  02:05-02:07

  Thank you ahead of time for what you're going to do.

  02:11-02:13

  We praise you in Jesus' name.

  02:14-02:20

  And all of God's people said, "Amen." Open up your Bibles with me please to Hebrews chapter 6.

  02:23-02:24

  Hebrews chapter 6.

  02:27-02:38

  For many years I was involved in prison ministry, and we would basically show up and they'd put us in this little room and they would invite whoever wanted to come to church.

  02:39-02:49

  And Mark can tell you, there were seasons where we'd get a lot of people that would come and then we'd go in seasons that it would be otherwise, right?

  02:49-02:55

  And I remember one season in particular, for several weeks, there was one person that came.

  02:57-03:01

  And he was a very young man, and his name was Klaus.

  03:02-03:04

  Didn't know his last name, didn't know why he was there.

  03:04-03:10

  But I know he was at Bible study every week for a season.

  03:12-03:16

  And I remember the one time he came, he asked me this question.

  03:18-03:58

  He said, "If I keep putting off coming to Jesus, will there come a day that it's too late for me in this life?" In other words, can I put Jesus off to the point, he asked, that I could lose my opportunity here on the earth?" And I told him, "Yes, you can." And I took him to this passage that we're going to be looking at today.

  04:00-04:12

  Well, the next week I went in, I show up, they take me back to the room and they called for, um, they called for church as they called it, or Bible study.

  04:12-04:19

  And, um, I waited a couple of new guys came and I said, Hey, where's, where's class?

  04:22-04:31

  And the one man said he got out last week and I said, the punk, he was, he told me, come and see me when he got out.

  04:31-04:34

  And we, you know, get him involved in some discipleship and things.

  04:34-04:35

  And the man put his head down.

  04:35-04:44

  And he goes, he the day he got out, he overdosed and he died.

  04:50-04:56

  He. He brought a very serious question.

  05:01-05:02

  We're going to look at today.

  05:04-05:06

  What happens to me if I keep putting off coming to Jesus?

  05:10-05:12

  And I get to throw that question in your lap.

  05:13-05:18

  We started it last week and the text flows, the message flows.

  05:19-05:24

  But I get to ask you, are you a churchgoer or are you a real follower of Jesus?

  05:26-05:27

  Because there's a difference.

  05:30-05:31

  Are you a churchgoer?

  05:32-05:35

  You see, this is exactly who the Hebrew writer has been addressing.

  05:36-05:40

  People who are churchgoers, but they've never personally received Christ.

  05:41-05:42

  They're not opposed to the message.

  05:44-05:46

  And they even like the church scene.

  05:46-05:53

  They like coming to church and they like the church people, but they've never personally received Jesus Christ.

  05:55-05:56

  They're not born again.

  05:59-06:05

  You see, the people he's addressing here are the exact same people He was addressing in chapters three and four.

  06:05-06:07

  You remember that account?

  06:07-06:27

  He says, "Don't be like the Israelites "who came all the way up to the edge of the promised land "and they were about to enter in "and God's like, 'Go get 'em!' "And they were like, 'Nah.' "They were scared and they backed away." And God says, "They will never enter my rest "because they don't believe me." He's talking to the same people.

  06:28-06:32

  And last week we saw that active faith brings maturity.

  06:33-06:41

  And the Hebrew writer says, "Some of you have no maturity because you don't have real faith." He says, "You've heard the gospel so many times.

  06:41-06:42

  You should be teaching.

  06:45-06:46

  You should be discerning.

  06:48-06:56

  Your faith should be showing up in the way that you live your life." He says, "But you got none of these." Many of you.

  07:00-07:03

  How many times do you have to hear the gospel before you'll receive it?

  07:05-07:06

  How many times?

  07:08-07:12

  And we said that last week and we'll say it again this week because it's the same audience.

  07:13-07:18

  We would be so naive to think that there aren't such people in this church or watching this stream.

  07:18-07:19

  We would be so naive.

  07:20-07:21

  How many Christians are you?

  07:21-07:29

  A hundred percent, not in any church except the church in heaven, is that a hundred percent born again believers in Jesus Christ.

  07:30-07:33

  And every church, you're going to have people that are church goers.

  07:34-07:39

  But aren't true born again believers in Jesus, there are some sitting here today.

  07:41-07:47

  And to you, I have to ask, how many more times do you have to hear the gospel before you'll receive it?

  07:50-08:00

  And I have to tell you, as I told this young man in prison, if you keep rejecting the gospel, the day is going to come in your life that you are unable to receive it.

  08:01-08:03

  You cannot receive it.

  08:06-08:10

  You'll reach the point of no return.

  08:14-08:16

  Some of you need to mature.

  08:20-08:21

  And you need to do it now.

  08:22-08:27

  Like, "Well, how do I do that?" Well, He doesn't leave you hanging.

  08:28-08:36

  He goes on to explain, "This is how. This is how." You need to receive Jesus Christ, and He shows us what this looks like.

  08:36-08:43

  So, on your outline, if you're taking notes, which we always encourage, This is just the call to maturity.

  08:44-08:48

  Okay? This is the call to the churchgoers who know the basics.

  08:49-08:59

  Jesus died on the cross, and okay, you believe the Bible is the Word of God, and you know some of the basics, but it's time to come to Christ.

  09:00-09:01

  It's time to grow up.

  09:03-09:05

  It's time to move from churchgoer to born again.

  09:05-09:07

  The call to maturity, number one.

  09:07-09:09

  Maturity means moving on from the basics.

  09:13-09:16

  Look at the first couple of verses in chapter 6.

  09:18-09:52

  It says, "Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment, stop there." Who was Hebrews written to?

  09:55-09:58

  Who was Hebrews written to? Hebrews.

  10:02-10:03

  You're like, "You're trying to trick me." No.

  10:04-10:07

  I'm not trying to trick you, I'm just trying to get you to read.

  10:08-10:32

  Hebrews was written to Jews, and he was saying, "Jews, you need to go beyond the ABCs of what the Old Testament teaches about." He goes, "The elementary doctrine of Christ." He wasn't speaking about Jesus specifically as a person, he's talking about Old Testament doctrines regarding the person of the Messiah.

  10:32-10:37

  And we know Jesus is the Messiah, but he's talking about the one on one Messiah teachings.

  10:38-10:48

  And what he's saying is you need to move on from these elementary teachings about Messiah and embrace Jesus Christ because he is the Messiah.

  10:48-10:58

  And he came and how foolish it would be to hold on to these pictures of the Messiah instead of embracing the real thing.

  11:00-11:01

  You understand what that means?

  11:01-11:02

  It's like this.

  11:05-11:10

  I got an illustration that I got to explain for our younger crowd here.

  11:10-11:24

  But when I was in college many years ago, many, many years ago, younger people, there was no social media, okay?

  11:25-11:28

  And there were no smartphones, all right?

  11:32-11:42

  So I went to school in Ohio, and Aaron, who was not my wife at the time, went to school in Indiana, IUP, Indiana, Pennsylvania.

  11:43-11:55

  So when we would communicate with each other, again, this is where I have to explain things to the whippersnappers among us, we would actually, it sounds so archaic, but we would actually get paper and write.

  11:57-11:59

  We wrote letters to each other.

  12:01-12:03

  And you're like, why didn't you just talk on the phone?

  12:03-12:06

  Because at that time it was like $5 a minute, long distance.

  12:06-12:07

  Remember those days?

  12:09-12:11

  So we would write each other letters.

  12:12-12:24

  And again, without social media and without smartphones and things like that, there were times that Aaron and I would, we'd write each other these letters and we'd send a little photograph.

  12:24-12:25

  This is a photograph.

  12:26-12:31

  See this, you're like, you're like, how's that digital image not on your phone?

  12:32-12:34

  It's on paper, and I'm kidding, all right.

  12:35-12:47

  But we would send each other like photographs as a way of like, oh, you know, and I look at this now and I'm like, boy, Aaron hasn't changed very much.

  12:49-12:50

  I don't know what happened to me, but.

  12:53-12:54

  But here's the point.

  12:54-12:58

  This is what we did back in those days, right?

  12:58-12:59

  Because we were far away.

  13:00-13:10

  And I remember just holding onto these pictures and how much these pictures meant to me of Erin.

  13:12-13:14

  And I married that girl.

  13:16-13:29

  And how foolish would it be of me today to be sitting at home and she's sitting on the other end of the couch, and I'm sitting here just like still wrapped up in this picture.

  13:31-13:33

  Like, oh, isn't she just so beautiful?

  13:33-13:38

  And, oh, I just love this picture so much.

  13:38-13:49

  And you would come and you'd say, dude, why are you so wrapped up in this little piece of paper when you have the real person is sitting on the couch with you?

  13:49-13:50

  Wouldn't that be foolish?

  13:51-13:53

  And you see, that's what's happening here in Hebrews.

  13:54-13:58

  The Old Testament was like the photograph of the Messiah.

  13:58-13:59

  Here's what he's going to look like.

  13:59-14:00

  Here's what he's going to do.

  14:01-14:02

  Here's what he's going to be like.

  14:02-14:09

  And then Jesus shows up and does all that the Messiah was going to do in his first advent.

  14:09-14:12

  And so many of the Jews were still holding onto the picture.

  14:13-14:14

  He goes, you've got to move on from this.

  14:15-14:19

  This was awesome, but you've got to move on from it because the real has come.

  14:22-14:24

  That's why this is, I'm gonna go through this very quickly.

  14:24-14:28

  He's, this list here is all basic Old Testament stuff.

  14:28-14:30

  He goes, first of all, he says, you gotta leave.

  14:31-14:32

  That means move on.

  14:33-14:34

  This is Old Covenant stuff.

  14:34-14:35

  You're moving on.

  14:35-14:36

  You gotta move on to the New Covenant, right?

  14:36-14:37

  Jesus has come.

  14:37-14:39

  And then all these things, real quick.

  14:39-14:42

  He says the elementary doctrine of Christ, the Old Testament teachings about Messiah.

  14:43-14:44

  He talks about repentance.

  14:46-14:48

  That's being sorry for your sin.

  14:48-14:49

  That's part of the message.

  14:49-14:50

  That's not all the message.

  14:50-14:54

  You got to turn from your sin, yes, but you got to turn to Jesus.

  14:54-14:57

  He talks about faith.

  14:58-14:59

  Notice a tour God.

  15:01-15:02

  Not in God.

  15:04-15:08

  That's the guy that says, oh, I believe in God, we're going to talk about that in a second.

  15:09-15:11

  I believe in God, Austin, that's a great start.

  15:12-15:13

  But that's only a start.

  15:14-15:22

  He talks about washings laying on of hands, those are Jewish rituals, Cleansing on the outside, pictured the cleansing on the inside that Jesus gives.

  15:25-15:27

  And then resurrection, eternal judgment.

  15:28-15:35

  Again, merely believing that these things are real isn't enough because Jesus came and gave us the full revelation.

  15:36-15:40

  He says, you've got to move on from these ABC's.

  15:40-15:43

  And then verse three, he says, and this we will do if God permits.

  15:44-15:46

  He says, look, you've got the basics down.

  15:47-15:51

  You understand the basics now come all the way to faith in Jesus Christ.

  15:54-15:56

  Again, Jews don't hold on to the old covenant.

  15:56-15:58

  There's a principle for us.

  15:59-16:04

  Here, church, you got to let go of this elementary stuff.

  16:06-16:07

  Like, what do you mean?

  16:09-16:12

  Again, this is for people who say things like this, oh, I believe in God.

  16:14-16:15

  I hear that all the time.

  16:15-16:30

  You meet somebody, they find out I'm a pastor, and, "Oh, I believe in God." Like, "Thanks for letting me know that up front." Or people say, "Oh, I believe there's a heaven." Okay, good for you.

  16:31-16:36

  "I try to be a good person." Again, "I like coming to church.

  16:37-16:38

  These people seem friendly.

  16:38-16:39

  I like this.

  16:40-16:44

  I like the music." Awesome.

  16:45-16:50

  All those are good things, but they're not complete things.

  16:53-16:55

  Do you believe in Jesus Christ?

  16:56-16:58

  Have you received him personally?

  16:58-17:00

  Are you a church goer?

  17:00-17:02

  Are you a real follower of Jesus?

  17:03-17:06

  You have to make a personal decision to receive him.

  17:06-17:07

  And maturity means moving on.

  17:08-17:10

  It means growing up in your faith.

  17:10-17:11

  Now look at verse four.

  17:13-17:41

  And he says, "For it is impossible in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift and have shared in the Holy Spirit and have tasted the goodness of the Word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away to restore them again to repentance.

  17:47-17:56

  This is one of the most serious warnings that the Bible gives, and it's directed at churchgoers.

  18:00-18:06

  He's saying you can have a form of Christianity that isn't being a true Christian.

  18:11-18:13

  You know, we've got Easter coming up and.

  18:16-18:23

  Regardless of your feelings regarding some of the secular things that surround the holidays, I think there's one thing that we can all agree on.

  18:25-19:01

  Something that we all share a dislike, and that is, have you ever Have you ever gotten one of those chocolate Easter bunnies in the box with the cellophane window in the front? You know the ones I'm talking about with the little yellow candy eyes? You know what I'm talking about? I remember as a kid I'd get these things. First of all, if it says chocolate flavored, this thing tasted like dirt. I'm talking about milk chocolate, right? Like a real man. But you This isn't up for debate.

  19:06-19:14

  But did you ever get one of those, ladies and gentlemen, and you pull it out of the box, and you always start at the ears, right?

  19:15-19:16

  That's the American way.

  19:19-19:25

  But have you ever taken a big bite of that chocolate bunny and it was hollow?

  19:27-19:28

  You know what I'm talking about?

  19:30-19:31

  The disappointment.

  19:34-19:37

  I mean, there were so many Easter's as a kid, I was crushed.

  19:38-19:43

  'Cause you think this is gonna be like a big fat Hershey bar, right?

  19:43-19:48

  Like, oh, this thing's gonna last me like, well, like 15 minutes at least.

  19:48-19:51

  You take that first bite and it just like crumbles.

  19:53-19:59

  And you see, that's his point here, There's a lot of Christians like that, that you look really good on the outside.

  20:00-20:01

  The box looks good.

  20:01-20:03

  You see it in the little cellophane brook.

  20:03-20:05

  You see the the bunny in the box.

  20:07-20:11

  It looks great on the outside, but there's nothing going on on the inside.

  20:13-20:15

  That's exactly what he's talking about here.

  20:15-20:18

  Are you a churchgoer or are you a follower of Jesus?

  20:20-20:21

  That's what he's saying here.

  20:21-20:23

  You've been exposed to the real thing.

  20:23-20:27

  You're around what God is doing, but you are not a part of what God is doing.

  20:29-20:31

  Again, looking at this list quickly.

  20:34-20:40

  See, some people think he's describing a Christian here, and it's obvious to me that he's not.

  20:41-20:44

  He's talking about those of you who have been enlightened. What does that mean?

  20:45-20:46

  It just means taught.

  20:46-20:49

  It means you understand something by hearing it or reading it.

  20:49-20:52

  And there's some of you, you know what the message is.

  20:52-20:53

  Jesus died on the cross.

  20:54-20:56

  Jesus resurrected from the dead.

  20:56-20:58

  He bore the penalty for my sin.

  20:58-21:00

  He rose to give me eternal life.

  21:00-21:02

  You know what the message is.

  21:04-21:06

  And then he says, you tasted the heavenly gift.

  21:08-21:09

  Tasted.

  21:11-21:14

  There's a big difference between tasting something and consuming something, isn't there?

  21:17-21:23

  If I brought a donut in and said, here, you can you can lick a little bit of it, but you can't eat it.

  21:24-21:27

  You'll know very quickly there's a difference between tasting something and consuming something.

  21:29-21:30

  That's what he's saying.

  21:31-21:36

  He says you're you're getting a taste of the heavenly gift because you're around people that are worshiping.

  21:38-21:42

  Same thing he says, shared in the Holy Spirit, not possessing the Holy Spirit.

  21:42-22:01

  You're just blessed enough to be around people who are filled with the Holy Spirit And you get all the overflow blessing of that because those people that are filled with the Holy Spirit are loving and gracious and kind and forgiving and and and he goes, you get to share and what the Holy Spirit is doing because you're around people that have the Holy Spirit.

  22:02-22:05

  And he says, tasted the powers of the age to come.

  22:08-22:09

  We've seen that in this church.

  22:12-22:13

  God's power at work.

  22:13-22:16

  We've seen people healed spiritually, emotionally, physically.

  22:17-22:18

  Marriage is healed.

  22:18-22:21

  We've seen in this church so many prayers answered.

  22:21-22:27

  We've seen so many lives completely transformed by the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

  22:29-22:34

  And Hebrew writer here is saying, look, you have been in the eye of God's hurricane.

  22:35-22:44

  You see him at work all around you and you know what's happening all around you is the work but it's not happening to you.

  22:46-22:48

  And here's the sobering warning here.

  22:49-22:54

  He says - do you see this in your Bible?

  22:55-22:59

  Verse 4 and verse 6.

  23:00-23:11

  He says when somebody experiences all of this, and then they fall away.

  23:13-23:18

  He says, it is impossible to restore them to repentance.

  23:21-23:22

  Impossible, the Bible says.

  23:23-23:24

  Well, why is that?

  23:27-23:30

  Well, one reason is there's no more revelation to be received.

  23:32-23:32

  That's a reason.

  23:34-23:35

  You can't be saved.

  23:35-23:36

  You can't be.

  23:38-23:39

  You know, it's like this picture.

  23:40-23:46

  Imagine, imagine you've never done cliff diving before, but you want to try it.

  23:47-23:49

  You thought it looked like fun.

  23:49-23:59

  So you take a day and you hike for hours up this mountain where there's the greatest cliff diving spot in the world.

  23:59-24:03

  And you you climb up this mountain and you get to the spot.

  24:04-24:05

  And like, OK, it's your turn.

  24:09-24:12

  And you say, you know what, I can't do it.

  24:12-24:16

  And you turn and walk away and you spend hours walking back down the mountain.

  24:16-24:22

  Let me ask you, what are the chances you're ever going to be on this edge again to take another crack at it?

  24:23-24:25

  See, this is what he's talking about spiritually.

  24:25-24:28

  He's talking about people that have gotten to the edge.

  24:28-24:31

  They know the gospel. They see what Christ is doing.

  24:31-24:34

  They know what the response is and they get right to the edge.

  24:34-24:36

  And Jesus says, jump. And it's like I'm.

  24:40-24:42

  He says, you're never going to get that person back to the edge.

  24:43-24:48

  He says, it's impossible to restore such a person to repentance.

  24:50-24:56

  Impossible. You know what you need to do and you turn back.

  24:57-25:01

  And I have to ask you, for those of you that are like, well, I don't think that's right.

  25:01-25:03

  I don't think that's right.

  25:04-25:06

  My question is, well, what else could God have done?

  25:09-25:10

  What else could God have done?

  25:10-25:12

  He sent his son to die for you.

  25:15-25:20

  And then he goes on to explain what that means, the death of Jesus, that's the gospel.

  25:23-25:26

  He made the call to action clear, which is receiving Jesus Christ.

  25:27-25:29

  And you refuse to do that.

  25:30-25:31

  What else is God supposed to do?

  25:37-25:41

  That's why he says it's impossible to restore such a person.

  25:43-25:46

  You get to the edge and you fall away, you're never going to get back to the edge.

  25:51-25:54

  Look at verse six again. Second part.

  25:56-26:05

  Says it's impossible to restore them again to repentance, look, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.

  26:06-26:08

  Wow. Do you realize what that's saying?

  26:09-26:13

  It's saying the person that understands the gospel and understands who Jesus is and what he's done.

  26:14-26:19

  And and you you get all that intellectually and you're like, I'm not going to receive him.

  26:19-26:44

  He says, "What you're doing is you're standing with the people that accused Jesus Christ." While He was on the cross, the people that are like, "He deserves it! He deserves to die! He's no Savior!" The Hebrew writer says, "You're standing with them, because you've evaluated who Jesus is, and you decided that He is not your Savior." He says, "You're holding Him up to contempt." Wow.

  26:46-26:51

  If you do this, if you know all of the information and walk away.

  26:54-26:55

  You'll never be saved.

  26:58-27:02

  God does not have a plan B, you know that God doesn't have a plan B.

  27:03-27:06

  God's not like, here's my son that I sent to die for you.

  27:06-27:08

  And you're like, I will not receive him.

  27:08-27:14

  And God's like, well, let's see what other means of salvation we have laying around back here, because he obviously doesn't want my son.

  27:14-27:15

  There is no plan B.

  27:19-27:26

  That's why Pastor Taylor preached a few weeks ago, chapter two, verse three, same question.

  27:26-27:29

  How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?

  27:30-27:31

  Again, what's your plan?

  27:34-27:41

  What's your plan when you stand before God someday as a sinner by birth and by choice?

  27:41-27:54

  And Jesus came to take that away, and to pronounce you not guilty, and make you a child of God, and you said no, and now you have to stand before that holy God, after refusing His gift.

  27:55-27:56

  What's your plan?

  28:00-28:05

  If you're not going with God's plan, I'd be curious what yours is.

  28:06-28:09

  He gives an illustration to drive the point home.

  28:09-28:11

  Look at verses 7 and 8.

  28:14-28:26

  He says, "For the land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God.

  28:27-28:37

  But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned." That's a pretty obvious illustration, isn't it?

  28:39-28:40

  It's just this, your fruit reveals where you are.

  28:41-28:42

  That's all he's saying.

  28:42-28:49

  The rain is the gospel and people who respond are useful, they're fruitful, meaning God is using you for His kingdom.

  28:49-28:52

  But the people who do not respond produce nothing good.

  28:53-28:57

  Thorns and thistles, their end is being burned, talking ultimately about hell.

  29:00-29:09

  I have to take this place to remind you that your works do not save you, but your works do reveal whether or not you are saved.

  29:12-29:23

  That's why Jesus said in Matthew 7, 20, "You know a tree by its fruit." What's your life producing for God?

  29:24-29:25

  That's what He's asking here.

  29:25-29:26

  What's your life producing?

  29:28-29:31

  It can be useful and blessed today if you come to Christ.

  29:34-29:52

  His warning here is if you have come to the edge and you know, you know the gospel and you know what you're supposed to do and you walk away from Jesus, he says you'll never get to this place again.

  29:57-29:57

  The call to maturity.

  29:59-30:02

  Number two, maturity means loving God.

  30:04-30:06

  Okay, first of all, you've got to move on from the basics.

  30:12-30:27

  Right now, I'm sure even for those of you that have received Christ, those of you who are born again believers, you're probably feeling a little queasy.

  30:29-30:33

  So, the Holy Spirit anticipated that.

  30:34-30:36

  'Cause look at verse nine.

  30:37-30:49

  He says, "Though we speak in this way, "yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things, "things that belong to salvation." Notice there's a change in pronouns.

  30:49-30:57

  He was addressing those who fallen away, those who, now he says you.

  30:57-31:00

  And you see there's an obvious shift here in the text, right?

  31:00-31:02

  You see that he's addressing true believers.

  31:03-31:05

  He's saying, don't you get caught up in this?

  31:05-31:07

  Those of you that are like, I've received Christ.

  31:08-31:09

  Am I in danger?

  31:09-31:12

  He says, I feel sure I'm persuaded.

  31:18-31:20

  Of better things, things that belong to salvation.

  31:23-31:26

  And look, it's obvious to me, church.

  31:26-31:34

  it's obvious to me that there are many people in this church that are true born again followers of Jesus.

  31:37-31:38

  It's obvious to me.

  31:40-31:43

  But more important than me knowing, look at verse 10.

  31:44-31:57

  It says, "For God is not unjust, "so as to overlook your work "and the love that you have shown for his name "in serving the saints as you still do." more important than me knowing is God knows.

  32:01-32:02

  What's the evidence?

  32:04-32:05

  What's the evidence?

  32:05-32:06

  It's right here in verse 10.

  32:06-32:07

  You need to underline it.

  32:08-32:10

  The love that you have shown for his name.

  32:12-32:19

  The evidence of maturity is loving God.

  32:21-32:23

  God knows those who sincerely love him.

  32:24-32:25

  That's it. That's the mark.

  32:27-32:28

  That's all that matters.

  32:29-32:29

  That's maturity.

  32:31-32:33

  The question ultimately lands on this.

  32:33-32:34

  Do you love God?

  32:39-32:40

  Because he knows who does.

  32:41-32:45

  And you're like, well, that's all well and good, Pastor Jeff, that's all God knows, but is there any evidence for us?

  32:46-32:47

  Absolutely. He says it right there.

  32:47-32:51

  He says, "The love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints as you still do.

  32:52-32:54

  Love for God results in serving others.

  32:56-32:58

  And hear me, 'cause I know there's a bunch of people that need to hear this.

  33:00-33:07

  But if you serve people because of people, you're gonna burn out real quick because people stink.

  33:08-33:09

  People are disappointing.

  33:12-33:13

  People are disheartening.

  33:15-33:16

  People are sinful.

  33:18-33:25

  Even great people, even great Christians, do stupid, sinful, immature things sometimes.

  33:26-33:27

  Can I get an amen?

  33:28-33:29

  Okay, it didn't need to be that loud.

  33:32-33:34

  That deserved like, amen, I kind of see what you're saying.

  33:35-33:36

  Some of you were like really behind that.

  33:37-33:37

  Amen!

  33:39-33:40

  Like, it's true though.

  33:41-33:44

  If you serve people because of people, you're not gonna last very long.

  33:46-34:29

  You see, you need to serve people love God. Remember John 21? Remember when we went through the gospel of John, John 21, Jesus on the beach with some of the disciples, and remember Jesus said to Peter, "Do you love me?" And Peter was like, "You know that I do." And remember what Jesus told him? "Feed Notice Jesus didn't say, "Peter, hey Peter, do you love people?" Peter's like, "Lord, you know I love people." "Well then feed them." That's not what he said.

  34:29-34:34

  He said, "Do you love me?" And if you love me, you see, you're going to serve people.

  34:35-34:42

  And if you let love for God motivate your ministry, you're going to have a long, blessed, and fruitful ministry.

  34:47-34:50

  He means loving God with a love that moves you to serve his people.

  34:50-34:51

  And then finally.

  34:53-34:56

  OK, so he addresses the unsaved, right?

  34:56-35:01

  Number one, he addresses the unsaved like you all need to grow up because you're going to get to the point of no return.

  35:01-35:04

  He addresses the saved like, hey, this ain't for all y'all.

  35:08-35:11

  You're mature because you love God that shows up in the way you serve people.

  35:13-35:14

  Now he shifts one more time.

  35:14-35:16

  He goes, Now I'm addressing everybody.

  35:16-35:19

  I'm addressing the whole church here.

  35:19-35:21

  Maturity means imitating the faithful.

  35:23-35:32

  Look at verse 11, he says, and we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end.

  35:34-35:38

  Each one of you, OK, so this is like blanket admonishment.

  35:38-35:40

  He goes, Listen, church, pursue Christ.

  35:41-35:44

  You're like, I've been a born again believer for the last 20 years.

  35:44-35:46

  Awesome. Pursue Christ.

  35:46-35:48

  Like, well, I'm still kind of on the edge.

  35:48-35:54

  I don't know what the pursue Christ like I've been going through a rough season in my life right now.

  35:54-35:55

  And I pursue Christ.

  35:56-36:00

  I'm telling all of you, go after Jesus with earnestness.

  36:01-36:02

  Stop playing around.

  36:02-36:03

  It's not a game.

  36:03-36:04

  It's not for show.

  36:05-36:07

  Get real in your walk with God.

  36:09-36:11

  All of you go after it.

  36:12-36:15

  And then verse 12, he says, so that you may not be sluggish.

  36:17-36:21

  But imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

  36:23-36:32

  Sluggish. Sluggish, I always think the same thing when I hear that word sluggish, we had pancakes yesterday.

  36:34-36:36

  I associate the word sluggish with pancakes.

  36:37-36:39

  Anybody else? Just me.

  36:39-36:40

  Awesome.

  36:44-36:47

  Interesting, in the Greek it has nothing to do with pancakes.

  36:48-36:54

  It's actually, remember last week when we talked about the dull of hearing?

  36:55-36:58

  You know, the people that were immature because they were dull of hearing?

  36:59-37:01

  Sluggish and dull of hearing, it's the same Greek word.

  37:02-37:03

  It's the exact same word.

  37:08-37:13

  What he's saying here is, look, all y'all church, I don't want you acting like churchgoers.

  37:14-37:16

  I want you to be real.

  37:17-37:21

  And here's a here's a great place to go find somebody.

  37:23-37:29

  That is sincerely following Jesus Christ and imitate their faith.

  37:31-37:39

  Imitate the mature Jesus followers, and I would commend that to you, church, look to the godly examples in the church.

  37:41-37:50

  Look to people in this church that have an obvious real faith and follow them, imitate them.

  37:52-38:04

  And as I was preparing this, there was one person that came to mind immediately when I read this in the context of this church and it's Rich Brunk.

  38:05-38:07

  I don't even think, he's probably teaching today, isn't he?

  38:07-38:10

  Okay, don't tell him I said this, all right?

  38:12-38:14

  His name immediately came to mind.

  38:14-38:18

  Look at how faith and patience manifests in that man's life.

  38:19-38:20

  Look at his marriage.

  38:22-38:24

  Look at his parenting.

  38:25-38:34

  Look at him as an elder in this church, as a small group leader, as a prayer leader, and teaching the kids leader right now.

  38:36-38:38

  Look at the faith that he has.

  38:39-38:41

  That's what the Hebrew writer here is saying.

  38:42-38:52

  He goes, "Be imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises." Attach yourself to someone like that.

  38:54-38:55

  Go to their small group.

  38:58-39:02

  Let them model for you what following Jesus looks like.

  39:04-39:05

  Maturity means imitating the faithful.

  39:08-39:10

  Are you a churchgoer or a real follower of Jesus?

  39:14-39:17

  He says here there are promises to inherit.

  39:19-39:24

  God has so much for his people now and for eternity.

  39:28-39:36

  And churchgoer, if you turn back, you will forfeit everything that God has for you.

  39:40-39:42

  And you're never going to get another opportunity.

  39:44-39:46

  He says it's impossible.

  39:48-39:59

  And when you preach a message like this, you always have several people looking at this going, Oh my goodness, have I done that?

  40:00-40:03

  Have I gone to the point of no return?

  40:04-40:07

  Have I come to the edge and walked away?

  40:08-40:09

  Have I done that?

  40:10-40:13

  Have I hardened my heart to the point that I'm not gonna receive Jesus?

  40:13-40:16

  Am I the guy that he's talking about here?

  40:20-40:22

  This is wonderful news.

  40:23-40:24

  If you care.

  40:26-40:28

  That's a good sign that you haven't.

  40:30-40:35

  Because you see people that have done this, they don't care.

  40:36-40:37

  They're unfazed.

  40:37-41:01

  They can hear a message like this and be like, "Yeah, I was kind of fired up about Jesus once upon a time too, but not really my thing anymore." But I just want to challenge you, church, if there's anything in you at all, and you're at the edge, and the spirit is moving, today has to be the day.

  41:05-41:07

  Because you're never going to get here again.

  41:09-41:11

  You'll never again get this close to the edge.

  41:16-41:20

  You know, Klaus, what happened to him?

  41:23-41:23

  Where is he now?

  41:26-41:30

  You know, obviously I've thought about that young man a lot.

  41:35-41:36

  Did he come to Jesus?

  41:40-41:44

  And he just got out and became a victim of his own bad choices?

  41:47-41:53

  Did he walk away from the edge as he asked me if it was possible to do?

  41:57-41:57

  I don't know.

  42:03-42:09

  And I wonder if there was something else I could have said or did or...

  42:09-42:09

  But it's too late.

  42:11-42:12

  It's too late for him.

  42:14-42:15

  His choice has been made.

  42:15-42:20

  But you see, if you're hearing this, it's not too late for you.

  42:23-42:27

  Like you to bow your heads as the worship team comes back.

  42:32-42:33

  I'd just like you to bow your heads.

  42:38-42:46

  I'm sure there are some people right now, in exposure to God's Word, are feeling great conviction.

  42:48-42:49

  Like, "Yeah, you know what? I've been a churchgoer.

  42:51-42:53

  I don't have a spiritual life at all.

  42:56-42:57

  I haven't been born again.

  42:59-43:06

  I just like going to church." I can't give you a more serious warning than this one.

  43:12-43:16

  The father, as we bow ourselves before you today.

  43:19-43:23

  Once again, we see in your word, you, you love us so much that even those of us that.

  43:26-43:36

  have turned this into a game, or have been content with deluding ourselves of being in a place where we are not, You still pursue us.

  43:39-43:45

  You still warn us of the eventual fruit of our choices.

  43:46-44:02

  Father, I pray again, as we do so often, that Your Holy Spirit would Just grab the heart of the person who has been a church goer, but not a born again believer.

  44:02-44:15

  Father, I pray the Holy Spirit would grab that person and slam them down and not give them a minute's rest until they come to that place where they receive the gift of Christ.

  44:15-44:25

  If they stop being a church goer and they accept your invitation to become a child of God.

  44:29-44:32

  Father, just now I pray that you would equip our small group leaders.

  44:33-44:36

  There's going to be some heavy conversations this week.

  44:36-44:42

  I pray that you would equip our elders as there are going to be some heavy conversations about these matters.

  44:44-44:49

  Father, let there be a harvest of righteousness to the praise of your glory.

  44:53-44:56

  We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read Hebrews 6:1-12

1. What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
   

2. Why is it impossible (Heb 6:4-6) to bring someone back to repentance if they experience the blessings of the Gospel and then fall away?
   

3. Why does your service to others in the church have to be motivated by your love for God (Heb 6:10)?
   

4. Who is a Christ-follower that you’ve observed that is worth imitating (Heb 6:12)? What about their faith do you find inspiring?

Breakout
Pray for one another for an earnest pursuit of following Jesus!

Why Jesus? Because He Makes Us Mature

Introduction:

Three Signs You Aren't Mature (Hebrews 5:11-14):

1. You can't Teach . (Heb 5:12-13)
2. You have no Discernment . (Heb 5:14)
3. You aren't Applying God's Word. (Heb 5:14)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

• Audio Transcript

  01:01-01:12

  Hebrews chapter five, we're gonna be picking up in verse 11, but we're going to pause and I'm going to ask if you would please pray for me to be faithful to communicate God's word.

  01:14-01:21

  And I will pray for you to open up your heart to receive it for what it is, the word of God.

  01:22-01:23

  This is serious business to God.

  01:25-01:26

  Should be serious business to us.

  01:27-01:28

  Let's pray.

  01:31-01:32

  Father, this is your Word.

  01:35-01:42

  There's not a person here or a person watching the stream that cares what I have to say.

  01:44-01:45

  We're here because of what you have to say.

  01:47-01:53

  And we want to be faithful, Father, to handle your Word, to preach your Word, and to receive your Word.

  01:57-02:00

  in a life-changing way that you work with your word.

  02:02-02:25

  Father, we open our hearts before you and ask, Father, that you would speak truth into our lives, even if it hurts, even if it's stretching us to maybe think differently about you and your word than we've grown up with or been accustomed to.

  02:26-02:31

  Father, what your word actually says, what you actually meant, Father, that's what we're going after here.

  02:35-02:37

  So Father, speak to us.

  02:38-02:40

  Through your word, we pray in Jesus' name.

  02:41-02:44

  And all of God's people said, amen.

  02:44-02:53

  Many, many years ago, Aaron and I had foster kids, and we had a five-year-old foster son who came to us.

  02:53-03:01

  He was severely abused, but he also had some very severe developmental delays.

  03:02-03:06

  And he could barely speak to us, speak at all or speak with us when he came.

  03:09-03:11

  We had him for a year and a half.

  03:13-03:21

  But when they first came to us, him and his sister, I remember the one time we were sitting in church, we were at North Street and they were passing communion.

  03:22-03:27

  And I had to wonder what that looked like to him.

  03:29-03:50

  This tray of little pieces of bread come by and then this other tray with these little cups of juice come by and I said, "No, no, that's not for you." I said, "I'll explain later what that means, "but that's not for you." So later I sat down with him and like I said, five years old, severe developmental delays.

  03:51-03:54

  How do you explain the Lord's Supper to somebody like that?

  03:55-03:56

  I took a swing at it.

  03:56-04:14

  I sat down with him and I said, well, you see, Jesus died on the cross and the bread and the juice sort of represent his sacrifice.

  04:17-04:19

  And we do that.

  04:19-04:25

  And when we take that as a church, I'm like, how do you explain this?

  04:26-04:32

  I said, this is for people that love Jesus, okay?

  04:32-04:36

  And we do this to remember what he did for us.

  04:36-04:38

  I'm like, that's kind of the best I can do here.

  04:40-04:42

  But I thought that maybe he got it.

  04:43-04:47

  Until the next Sunday at church, communion was being passed.

  04:47-05:17

  And as it came in front of him, he leaned up to me and he said, "Hey, I love Jesus, can I have a snack?" I'm like, I'm not sure how to explain this because you don't have the capacity to really understand what that means.

  05:19-05:21

  I could explain it, but you wouldn't get it.

  05:22-05:28

  Right? We're going through Hebrews, and last week he introduced a concept about Jesus.

  05:29-05:32

  Jesus is the High Priest.

  05:33-05:44

  He is a man, and he is appointed by God, and he offered a sacrifice, and He understands people.

  05:48-05:56

  And he says, "And Jesus is actually a high priest after the order of Melchizedek." And here he stops.

  05:56-06:03

  He pauses because he says, "I'm about to lose some of you.

  06:06-06:10

  I could explain it, but you wouldn't get it." That's what he's saying here.

  06:10-06:17

  Verse 11, "About this, this what?

  06:18-06:25

  Jesus, priesthood, Melchizedek, all that that means." He goes, "About this, we have much to say.

  06:26-06:35

  And it is hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing." Dull of hearing.

  06:35-06:46

  Hebrews is one of the most profound books in the Bible, Because you see, to really understand Hebrews, you have to have a pretty good understanding of the Old Testament.

  06:47-07:02

  Because Hebrews shows us Jesus' connection to the law, and Jesus' connection to the sacrifices, and Jesus' connection to creation, and Jesus' connection to the subject on the table, the priesthood.

  07:08-07:10

  But you see, we have a problem.

  07:12-07:14

  I could explain it, but you wouldn't get it.

  07:17-07:30

  Look, in this church, just like every other church on the planet, there are people that are saved.

  07:30-07:34

  There are people that are born again, relationship with Jesus Christ.

  07:34-07:37

  And there are people that are not saved.

  07:37-07:39

  They are church goers.

  07:43-07:52

  They like church and they like the people and they like getting involved in some level, but they've never truly received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

  07:55-08:02

  You know, you've heard the gospel and maybe you even understand the gospel, but you didn't respond to the gospel.

  08:04-08:07

  You're a churchgoer, not a born again believer in Christ.

  08:08-08:15

  You see, there was such people in the church that the Hebrew writer was writing to.

  08:16-08:19

  And as we echo the message, there's people like that in this church.

  08:23-08:30

  And you see, you can't understand spiritual truth without the Holy Spirit, according to 1 Corinthians 2:14.

  08:33-08:44

  And we're going to see the context in this passage, and then as we get into the context of the next passage as well, these messages are directed towards professing Christians.

  08:47-08:53

  For years, you're in the church, but you're not in the kingdom, and you're deceived.

  08:54-08:55

  You don't see a problem.

  08:56-08:57

  Like, what is he blathering about?

  08:57-08:58

  I'm here, aren't I?

  08:59-09:00

  I get involved, don't I?

  09:03-09:05

  This is who he's addressing, church goers.

  09:09-09:12

  And this is who we're addressing, the church goers here.

  09:13-09:13

  Now, please hear me.

  09:15-09:17

  I'm not condemning you, all right?

  09:18-09:19

  I'm not trying to shame you.

  09:22-09:28

  But as we preach the word of God as presented, this passage is a wake up call.

  09:28-09:29

  Did you see that?

  09:29-09:43

  He goes, "I got a lot of stuff I'd like to tell you, but some of you can't hear it." So this is a wake-up call, because with immaturity comes obliviousness.

  09:44-09:44

  Do you know that?

  09:47-09:55

  Immature people not only don't think that they're immature, but immature people think that they are mature.

  09:56-09:59

  And I'll be honest with you, These are the hardest messages to preach.

  10:00-10:08

  These just are, 'cause if I walked around the room and said, "Are you mature?" I guarantee you 100% of the people in here would say, "Yeah, I'm mature, I'm mature.

  10:08-10:09

  "I'm a mature believer.

  10:09-10:10

  "I'm mature, yeah, yeah.

  10:10-10:11

  "Are you saved?

  10:11-10:16

  "Yeah, I'm saved, I'm, yeah." That's hard to preach.

  10:18-10:31

  So today as we go through this passage, I just simply want you to ask yourself, "Could I be deceived into thinking that I'm a believer when I'm actually just a churchgoer.

  10:38-10:40

  And you're like, well, how can you tell?

  10:41-10:46

  How can you tell if you're just a churchgoer or if you're a born again believer?

  10:46-10:47

  How can you tell?

  10:47-10:48

  How can you tell?

  10:50-10:54

  Well, the Bible gives us some clear marks to identify.

  10:57-10:58

  if you are not mature.

  11:00-11:04

  So I just wanna ask you, can you be honest enough with yourself to take a real assessment?

  11:05-11:06

  Can you?

  11:10-11:12

  The Bible says your heart's deceitful above all things.

  11:15-11:17

  Can you take an honest assessment of yourself?

  11:17-11:21

  As we go through this, on your outline, I want you to jot a few things down here.

  11:22-11:24

  These are three signs you aren't mature, okay?

  11:25-11:29

  If you're like, "I'm a mature believer." Maybe you're not.

  11:29-11:30

  Like, how would I know?

  11:30-11:33

  Well, here's three signs you are not mature.

  11:35-11:37

  Number one, write this down, you can't teach.

  11:39-11:40

  You can't teach.

  11:40-11:43

  Look at verse 12 and 13.

  11:45-11:54

  Okay, remember he says, "I got a lot to tell you "about Jesus, priesthood, Melchizedek." He goes, "You're not gonna get it." because you're dull of hearing.

  11:57-11:57

  Look at verse 12.

  11:58-12:08

  "For though by this time you ought to be teachers, "you need someone to teach you again "the basic principles of the oracles of God.

  12:10-12:28

  "You need milk, not solid food, "for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled "in the word of righteousness since he is a child." So the first sign that you aren't mature is the inability to teach.

  12:29-12:34

  Now understand, he's not talking about, he's not addressing like a first timer here.

  12:34-12:39

  Somebody just came to church for the first time and he's not addressing a CEO Christian.

  12:39-12:41

  Do you know what a CEO Christian is?

  12:42-12:43

  Christmas and Easter only.

  12:44-12:46

  He's not addressing those people.

  12:47-12:53

  He's addressing people that have been going to church every week, every week, every week.

  12:53-12:59

  And they sit in the seat and they listen to the message, but they've never truly received Christ.

  13:00-13:00

  That's what he's saying.

  13:00-13:04

  He goes, you've been exposed to so much truth.

  13:04-13:07

  At this time, you should be teaching.

  13:09-13:13

  He said, instead of teaching, you know what you need?

  13:14-13:15

  You need the ABCs.

  13:17-13:19

  You need somebody to take you back to square one.

  13:20-13:25

  He says, it's like showing up to algebra class and you can't count to five.

  13:29-13:38

  And I just wanna ask you, church, individuals, and this is one of them self-test kind of things, but could you teach someone?

  13:40-13:40

  Could you?

  13:47-13:48

  Could you do it?

  13:54-14:01

  If you were asked to jump in and fill in for a small group leader, could you do that?

  14:03-14:04

  Would you have the ability to do that?

  14:09-14:15

  What if we needed you to fill in for Harvest Academy, teaching the third through fifth graders back there?

  14:16-14:18

  Hey, teacher no-shed, we need you to jump in and teach.

  14:18-14:19

  Could you do that?

  14:23-14:26

  What if a coworker said, "Hey, I hear you go to church.

  14:27-14:28

  "Can you explain the gospel to me?

  14:29-14:31

  "Like, what do you believe at that church?

  14:31-14:41

  "Could you do that?" What if you were asked to help lead a fisherman group or jump in ladies, maybe a Marine asked you to lead a session of mom to mom.

  14:42-14:44

  Would you be able to do that?

  14:44-14:45

  Could you jump in and help teach?

  14:49-14:51

  Again, I'm not condemning, this is reality, this is truth.

  14:53-15:00

  But some people sit in church for years and the sum total of your involvement is just attending.

  15:06-15:11

  But hear me, I'm not condemning because maybe you want to get involved.

  15:12-15:16

  Maybe you're sitting there going, I think he's talking about, maybe he doesn't understand.

  15:16-15:18

  I would love to, but I can't do it.

  15:19-15:20

  I couldn't teach a class.

  15:20-15:21

  I wouldn't know what to say.

  15:22-15:25

  I feel like there's no way that I could do this.

  15:28-15:36

  And I'm saying, according to God's word here, if you can't teach in any capacity, That's a danger sign.

  15:39-15:43

  You can't help anyone, you can't counsel, you can't disciple, you can't evangelize.

  15:43-15:46

  You only understand the very simplest doctrine.

  15:47-15:48

  Sunday school answer, right?

  15:48-15:49

  Jesus died on the cross.

  15:49-15:53

  You're like, that's as far as I understand doctrine.

  15:54-15:57

  You're just a child that can only handle milk and it's a sign that you're not mature.

  16:00-16:01

  So that's the first sign, you can't teach.

  16:04-16:10

  The second sign, number two, write this down, the sign that you are not mature is you have no discernment.

  16:12-16:14

  Look at verse 14.

  16:17-16:32

  He says, "But solid food is for the mature, "for those who have their powers of discernment trained "by constant practice to distinguish good from evil." Solid food, what is that?

  16:33-16:34

  Those are the deeper doctrines.

  16:36-16:37

  It's for the mature, who's that?

  16:38-16:43

  Those are people who truly know and are growing in Jesus Christ.

  16:46-16:50

  You know what the difference is between adults and babies?

  16:52-16:57

  He tells you here, and it's something you know from experience, it's discernment, right?

  17:00-17:01

  Babies have no discernment.

  17:02-17:04

  they will stick anything in their mouth.

  17:04-17:08

  And I get to tell you, it is stinking adorable, right?

  17:11-17:20

  If I had one of our church babies up here with me on stage and he was sticking everything in his mouth, you'd be like, oh, oh, you'd be waving at yourself.

  17:20-17:28

  And not just because it's a thousand degrees in here, but you'd be like, that's adorable.

  17:28-17:29

  That's adorable.

  17:30-17:30

  Isn't it mock?

  17:30-17:31

  That's adorable.

  17:33-17:42

  But you know, if I stood up here sticking everything in my mouth, I (mumbles) that's not adorable.

  17:44-17:46

  That is not precious in the least.

  17:50-17:52

  And if you don't have discernment, you're not mature.

  17:52-17:57

  And it's a sign that you don't really know Jesus.

  17:59-18:00

  Like, well, what is discernment?

  18:00-18:01

  Well, he tells us right here.

  18:01-18:07

  I love when the Bible just like defines it right there in the passage we're discussing.

  18:08-18:10

  Discernment is distinguishing good from evil.

  18:12-18:12

  Do you see that?

  18:15-18:19

  Yes, yes, yes, yes, right and wrong, yes.

  18:21-18:25

  Discernment means you should be able to tell the ability or be able to have the ability.

  18:25-18:27

  Excuse me, can you tell I communicate for a living?

  18:27-18:28

  Let me start that over.

  18:28-18:40

  Discernment means that you should have the ability to be able to tell the difference between what's right and what's wrong, what's good and what's sinful.

  18:41-18:42

  Yes, that's true.

  18:42-18:57

  But as discernment grows, so does that refinement, that you should be growing in your Christian walk, if you're a Christian, as you're maturing, you should be growing to be able to tell the difference between what's good and what's better.

  18:58-19:05

  And as you continue to grow, you see, you're able to tell the difference between what's better and what's best.

  19:07-19:09

  Right, that is growing discernment.

  19:13-19:15

  You're like, well, what determines that?

  19:15-19:17

  What determines what's right and wrong?

  19:17-19:18

  What determines what's good and better?

  19:18-19:20

  What determines what's better and best?

  19:22-19:25

  It's the Holy Spirit working with the word of God in you.

  19:27-19:30

  That's how discernment grows, you see.

  19:37-19:41

  I want you to listen to me real close because this is so important.

  19:41-19:42

  This is like life or death important.

  19:43-19:52

  Okay, so reach over and lovingly punch the person next to you and say, "Pay attention." Okay, some of you, that was too hard.

  19:55-19:56

  This is very important.

  19:56-19:57

  I want you to hear me.

  20:00-20:05

  Discernment is being able to filter everything through the Word of God.

  20:07-20:08

  I'm gonna say that again.

  20:08-20:20

  Discernment is being able to filter everything through the Word of God, being able to spot unbiblical teaching.

  20:25-20:26

  Church, listen to me.

  20:26-20:37

  Some people think that anything labeled Christian is Christian, and it's not.

  20:41-20:50

  Some people think as long as this claims to represent God and His Word, then this This is good and it is not.

  20:52-20:55

  I got saved in '95.

  20:58-21:01

  I just remember as that young Christian, I was so excited.

  21:01-21:07

  I was so excited and I was reading my Bible and I'm like, I wanna know more, I wanna grow more, I want more.

  21:08-21:13

  And somehow I came across this catalog that had these Christian magazine subscriptions, right?

  21:13-21:15

  And I was, I'm like, oh, this will help.

  21:16-21:27

  And I read there was a description of this magazine that was like, "Read all about the work "that God is doing in the world today." And I was like, "We have a winner.

  21:28-21:32

  "This sounds great." So I bought a subscription to Charisma Magazine.

  21:35-21:38

  You're laughing because you know something that I didn't know then.

  21:43-21:49

  Well, like I said, this was in '95, And you remember what happened in '94?

  21:49-21:53

  How many, show of hands, how many people remember the Toronto Blessing?

  21:53-21:54

  Show of hands if you've ever heard.

  21:54-21:56

  Okay, a few of you have.

  21:56-21:57

  The Toronto Blessing.

  21:57-22:27

  Apparently there was this guest speaker giving his testimony at this church in Toronto, and there was this manifestation of the Holy Spirit, allegedly, that resulted in people having this uncontrollable laughter, and people were barking like dogs, and growling like lions, and some people experienced spiritual paralysis.

  22:27-22:28

  I don't even know what that is.

  22:35-22:39

  But there were so many articles in Charisma Magazine.

  22:39-22:42

  I was so excited to see what's God doing in the world today?

  22:42-22:45

  And it's like, well, God showed up at this church in Toronto.

  22:46-22:46

  (dog barking)

  22:49-22:54

  And I'm like, look, I don't know anything, but that just doesn't seem right to me.

  22:56-23:03

  So every month I get this magazine in the mail and it was my monthly reminder that I need to grow in discernment.

  23:08-23:21

  Not everything that calls itself Christian as Christian, immaturity is being blown away by every wind of doctrine because you have no discernment.

  23:22-23:28

  And as long as the speaker says that they're teaching the word of God, you're gonna believe it.

  23:28-23:31

  That is not discerning, okay?

  23:34-23:36

  And church, we gotta get on board with this.

  23:37-23:39

  Filtering everything through the word of God.

  23:42-23:44

  Like you have some examples?

  23:44-23:47

  I had to limit my examples.

  23:48-23:48

  Here's a couple.

  23:49-23:53

  Several years ago I was invited to a men's group that met down at Genarosta's.

  23:53-24:08

  It's like from a whole bunch of different churches, men getting together and there's worship and this guy's gonna preach and the place was packed to the rafters with just men, Bible in hand, and just packed out.

  24:09-24:31

  And the speaker, he gave this message somehow differentiating between the mind of Christ and the mind of God, as if the mind of Christ was just like the human physical fleshly brain in the body of the incarnation, but it wasn't the supernatural spiritual.

  24:32-24:35

  He had this whole thing in his sermon about that.

  24:35-24:41

  And he said, "The mind of Christ is only good for earthly things.

  24:41-24:56

  Jesus' mind could help you get to places in Israel, but that's not the mind of God." And I'm like, "What are you even saying?" I mean, I was... My skin was crawling that this guy was preaching this.

  25:00-25:01

  And that wasn't the worst part.

  25:03-25:05

  The worst part was I looked around the room.

  25:05-25:10

  I'm like, surely, surely we have other people ready to explode in here, right?

  25:10-25:15

  I looked around the room and every guy in there was sitting there taking notes and nodding.

  25:16-25:18

  Oh, oh, oh, yeah.

  25:19-25:21

  I'm like, what is going on?

  25:25-25:43

  It was so dangerous because I realized as ridiculous as this was, This guy could have been saying anything and all these men were gonna be like, "Oh, he's the preacher they brought in, so it must be from God." No discernment.

  25:46-25:46

  Embarrassing.

  25:51-25:58

  Many years ago, I attended, or her whole family, many years ago, attended one of the largest churches in the area.

  25:58-25:59

  I'm not going to say its name.

  26:02-26:05

  But it rhymes with, I'm just kidding.

  26:05-26:07

  (congregation laughing)

  26:09-26:12

  But we attended one of the largest churches in the area.

  26:16-26:18

  And this was the sermon.

  26:18-26:21

  The sermon was God answers yes to every prayer.

  26:22-26:27

  Every prayer that you make, God answers yes to every prayer.

  26:29-26:31

  And he's like, "And I know that doesn't gel "with some of your experiences.

  26:32-26:39

  "So what happens if you pray for something "and you don't get what you ask for?" Because God gives you everything you want, according to this guy.

  26:41-26:45

  He says, "What happens if you pray "you don't get what you want?" That's the parable of the sower.

  26:47-26:56

  Either your heart is hard, your heart is weedy, your heart is shallow, and that's why you don't get what you want.

  26:58-26:59

  Like, what are you even saying?

  27:00-27:13

  Do you realize in the parables that Jesus taught, there's not a parable that is explained in a deeper way than this one.

  27:13-27:17

  Jesus actually went back and explained what this parable meant.

  27:17-27:19

  How did you butcher that that bad?

  27:20-27:21

  How?

  27:21-27:23

  This guy's preaching this stuff.

  27:23-27:25

  And Aaron looked over at me.

  27:25-27:30

  You know, man, you know how you can tell everything your wife is thinking just by a look she gives you?

  27:30-27:31

  You know what I'm talking about, right?

  27:32-27:33

  Yeah, Dr. Andrew, you know what I'm talking about.

  27:35-27:40

  So I should have said, I just see him really nodding like, you two get each other.

  27:41-27:44

  But anyways, Aaron looked over at me and I knew that look.

  27:44-27:46

  It was, do you wanna get out of here?

  27:47-27:49

  And I'm like, you grab a kid, I'll grab a kid.

  27:50-27:54

  And we were like, stay fresh cheese bags, and we were gone.

  27:54-27:54

  (congregation laughing)

  27:55-28:06

  And it wasn't like, "Sir, would you like us to hold your seat for you?" Like, "No, I want you to burn that seat." Oh my goodness, I could go on and on and on.

  28:06-28:16

  Big conference out in Chicago, where the guy gets up and preaches about his soul being in prison and Jesus and the devil fighting over his soul.

  28:16-28:19

  And everybody just sitting around like, "Oh, this is so fascinating.

  28:20-28:44

  And wow, wow, what great spiritual insight." I'm like, "What are you even saying?" Nationally famous pastor, a few years ago giving a sermon about the crucifixion of Jesus, saying that God loves you so much he was willing to break his own law to save you.

  28:45-28:46

  That's blasphemy.

  28:48-28:53

  The glory of the cross is that Jesus fulfilled the law reconcile you to God.

  28:57-29:01

  As a pastor, I've got to tell you, I have grave concern for this church.

  29:03-29:17

  Because in our day, there is so much sewage being spewed at these so-called church conferences and some joker on YouTube and Bible studies, and I use that term loosely, Bible studies written.

  29:18-29:21

  And if you don't have discernment, you're gonna buy into anything.

  29:25-29:30

  It's my passion that you are so familiar with what the Bible actually says.

  29:31-29:40

  God's whole word as presented straightforwardly that as soon as you hear the nonsense, you immediately recognize it for what it is.

  29:41-29:42

  Like that isn't what the Bible says.

  29:46-29:53

  And his point here is this, If you're buying into what everyone's selling and you don't know how to recognize error, you have no discernment and you're not mature.

  29:57-29:58

  Three signs you aren't mature.

  29:58-29:59

  Number one, you can't teach.

  29:59-30:01

  Number two, you have no discernment.

  30:01-30:04

  Number three, you aren't applying God's word.

  30:06-30:07

  You see, look at verse 14 again.

  30:12-30:16

  It says, "But solid food is for the mature." That's the Christian, the born again believer.

  30:17-30:24

  For those who have their look at this powers of discernment trained by constant practice.

  30:26-30:27

  To distinguish good from evil.

  30:29-30:34

  Trained by constant practice, a believer in Christ is growing in their application of God's word.

  30:37-30:44

  If you hear the truth and don't believe the truth, therefore, you're not going to apply the truth, you're going to lose the truth.

  30:46-30:48

  That's what he's talking about here.

  30:48-30:50

  That's what he means when he says, you become dull of hearing.

  30:52-30:53

  How'd you get dull of hearing?

  30:54-30:55

  It's use it or lose it.

  30:55-30:57

  That's how truth works, use it or lose it.

  31:00-31:02

  By the way, call back.

  31:03-31:07

  That's what the parable of Matthew 13, Mark 4, the parable of the sower.

  31:11-31:12

  Jesus explained it.

  31:12-31:13

  The seed is the word of God.

  31:14-31:19

  And part of that parable, he says, "The seed fell on the hard ground." That's a hard heart.

  31:19-31:24

  "And a bird snatched it away." Jesus said that's Satan taking it away.

  31:24-31:26

  Same principle, use it or lose it.

  31:29-31:31

  You're not taking God's truth and applying it.

  31:32-31:37

  It's not being incorporated into your life the way that seed would be incorporated into the ground.

  31:37-31:42

  If it's just laying on top of a hard heart, Satan's gonna snatch it away, use it or lose it.

  31:42-31:46

  If you're not applying God's word, it's a sign you don't know him you're gonna get mature.

  31:50-31:52

  So how does discernment grow?

  31:53-31:56

  He tells you it's trained by constant practice.

  31:57-32:00

  Trained by constant practice, and we get this in every other area of life, right?

  32:04-32:06

  What does a professional athlete do to be his best?

  32:08-32:10

  Training and practice, right?

  32:11-32:14

  What does a professional musician do to be her very best?

  32:15-32:16

  Training and practice, right?

  32:17-32:19

  What does a Christian do to become more discerning?

  32:21-32:21

  Training and practice.

  32:22-32:27

  See, in all these cases, training and practice look very different, but it's still training and practice.

  32:31-32:32

  Faith is action.

  32:33-32:35

  We've been preaching this forever.

  32:35-32:41

  Faith isn't just knowing the gospel, and faith isn't just agreeing with the gospel.

  32:41-32:45

  Faith is living what you believe.

  32:45-32:47

  And maturity comes from active faith.

  32:48-32:51

  And true faith is constantly being practiced, constantly in training.

  32:54-32:56

  So brass tacks, here it is.

  32:56-33:19

  If you don't spend time in God's Word, yourself personally, if you're not spending time in private prayer, just you and God, if you're not sharing the gospel in your home, at work, If you don't give, you're not applying God's word and you aren't growing in your faith.

  33:20-33:22

  You're certainly not growing in discernment.

  33:24-33:25

  See, that's what he's talking about.

  33:25-33:26

  Look again at verse 13.

  33:26-33:30

  He says, "Unskilled in the word of righteousness." That's the same principle.

  33:30-33:32

  It's doctrine leading to conduct.

  33:33-33:35

  You live what you really believe.

  33:39-33:43

  You don't know it if you don't live it If you don't live it, you can't teach it.

  33:43-33:44

  I would say that the other way.

  33:46-33:48

  If you don't live it or teach it, you don't know it.

  33:51-33:53

  So don't be deceived into thinking that you do.

  33:54-33:55

  You're not mature.

  33:56-34:05

  And you're not ready for the solid food of deeper doctrine any more than one of these infants around here is ready for a T-bone steak.

  34:06-34:11

  You wouldn't know what to do with it, no matter how hard you try.

  34:15-34:24

  I'd like our worship team to come back up as we prepare to close, but as they do, I just wanna ask, is this for you?

  34:27-34:31

  Did you take an honest assessment of yourself?

  34:34-34:37

  Could you teach someone if you needed to?

  34:39-34:45

  Can you really tell the difference between good and evil, right and wrong, good and better?

  34:45-34:46

  Can you do that?

  34:51-34:53

  How serious are you taking your faith?

  34:56-35:01

  And if you feel the sting right now, I got great news for you.

  35:02-35:04

  Today can be a new day for you.

  35:07-35:08

  Like, what do we do?

  35:08-35:09

  What do we do?

  35:11-35:13

  You just gotta get honest with God about it.

  35:14-35:15

  That's where it has to start.

  35:17-35:18

  You're not fooling God.

  35:26-35:27

  I'm gonna give you that opportunity now.

  35:28-35:29

  I'd like you to bow your heads.

  35:34-35:47

  And maybe right now there are some of you that are saying, you know, God, your word has shown me that maybe I'm not where I thought I was.

  35:50-36:01

  Maybe there's somebody here now saying, you know, I'm not content with being on the outside looking in, worming a seat.

  36:03-36:04

  I wanna be involved.

  36:06-36:08

  and what God is doing.

  36:14-36:16

  I want to receive Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.

  36:18-36:22

  I want to get real with you God, and real in my walk with Christ.

  36:23-36:24

  I want to grow and mature.

  36:29-36:30

  God only you can make that happen.

  36:32-36:34

  So I'm crying out and asking that you do.

  36:40-36:52

  Father in heaven, I thank you for passages in your Word like this that just stop and give us a reality check.

  36:54-36:59

  And these passages certainly aren't comfortable to preach, and I'm sure they're not comfortable to hear.

  37:02-37:10

  It would be so much worse, God, if you just let us bounce through life, deceiving ourselves into thinking that we're something that we're not.

  37:12-37:16

  So you've given us just this very clear understanding from your word.

  37:19-37:26

  Father, I know that salvation is your business, sanctification is your business, drawing people to yourself is your business.

  37:27-37:32

  So God, I just lift up this church to you, people watching this stream, you know where their hearts are, God.

  37:32-37:54

  I don't, but if there's somebody here who honestly has been a church goer and not a true born again disciple of Christ, Father, I pray that you would bring a kind of conviction on them that would keep them from sleeping until they get on their face and do business with you.

  37:55-37:59

  And allow Jesus Christ his rightful place on the throne of their lives.

  38:01-38:03

  We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read Hebrews 5:11-14

1. What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
   

2. How can you convince an immature person that they are immature?
   

3. How do we know that these “immature” people being addressed in this passage are merely “church-goers”, not born again believers? What does the text say that leads to this interpretation? (Note: this will become more clear as we get into the very next passage!)
   

4. Why do you think that discernment is so lacking in the church? How can HBC (you) foster an environment of discernment?

Breakout
Pray for the immature in our church to truly get serious about their walk with Christ.

Why Jesus? Because He is Our High Priest

Job Qualifications of the High Priest Jesus Christ

Introduction:

Job Qualifications of the High Priest (Hebrews 5:1-4):

1. Must be a Man . (Heb 5:1)
2. Must be Appointed by God . (Heb 5:1,4)
3. Must offer Sacrifices . (Heb 5:1,3)
4. Must Understand others. (Heb 5:2-3)

Jesus' Resume' Meets the Qualifications (Hebrews 5:5-10):

1. Jesus was fully Man . (Heb 5:1)
2. Jesus was Appointed By God . (Heb 5:5-6)
3. Jesus offered a Sacrifice . (Heb 5:9-10)
4. Jesus Understands you. (Heb 5:7-8)

   Matthew 26:39 - And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”

3 Things Jesus Understands, and Teaches Us, About Trials:

1. Sometimes Suffering is God's will.

   Philippians 3:10 - that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death...

2. Knowing God's will doesn't mean Doing God's will is easy.
3. God's will is all that Matters .

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

• Audio Transcript

  01:01-01:29

  Hebrews chapter 5, if you would bow your heads with me please for just a moment, and I would ask if you would please pray for me to be faithful to communicate God's Word, and I will pray for you to have a heart open to receive it. And yes, I am aware that that's not fair. I have a lot more people praying for me right now than you do for you, but that's just the way it goes. Let's pray.

  01:38-01:59

  Well, all of God's people said, "Amen." Last week, Pastor Taylor preached from the book of Hebrews, chapter 4 and verse 14, a concept was very suddenly introduced And that was the concept of high priest.

  02:02-02:08

  And in Hebrews chapters five through 10, it's actually the biggest chunk of the book of Hebrews.

  02:09-02:12

  This section is all about one thing.

  02:12-02:15

  Jesus is our high priest.

  02:16-02:24

  And with such a huge chunk, I guess the question is, why is this concept so important?

  02:24-02:27

  Jesus is our high priest.

  02:31-02:32

  Why does it matter?

  02:34-02:39

  Well, we're gonna talk about priest for a second.

  02:39-02:45

  When I say the word priest, what's the first thing that you think of?

  02:47-02:48

  Roman Catholicism, right?

  02:48-02:51

  I think in our culture, that's where our mind goes.

  02:51-03:02

  We think of the guy who wears all black and has the collar with the little white sticking out and he's in the confessional booth and he doesn't get married.

  03:03-03:08

  And that's typically what we think of when we hear the word priest.

  03:08-03:16

  But that's not really the way God designed the concept.

  03:17-03:24

  The concept of a priest and high priest, as we'll be talking about today, takes us back to the Old Testament.

  03:26-03:31

  Remember, after man had sinned, God became inaccessible.

  03:34-03:36

  Sin had separated man from God.

  03:36-03:45

  So by God's design, specifically under Mosaic law, a priest was to serve as a mediator between God and man.

  03:46-04:12

  says we're going to make a way that this relationship can get restored, but you need a mediator to stand in between. And that is the concept of a priest. The priest would offer a sacrifice on behalf of people to deal with people's sin. And specifically regarding the high priest in the Old Testament.

  04:13-04:22

  It's look, this is very hard for us to understand because most of us here are Gentiles living in 2023.

  04:22-04:28

  Well, I guess all of us are living in 2023, but most of us, that most of us phrase applies to the Gentile thing, right?

  04:29-04:33

  But like, what's the big deal?

  04:35-04:52

  Well, understand that for Israel, Their whole national history and identity was tied up in the temple, and the sacrifices, and the priests, and the high priest, and the day of atonement.

  04:53-04:54

  That was all they knew.

  04:56-05:03

  And now we get to the New Testament and the New Covenant, and the Old Testament priesthood is over.

  05:05-05:14

  Because really, the Old Testament, the priesthood was a picture of the one who was to come, Jesus Christ, the ultimate high priest.

  05:14-05:20

  And he tore the temple veil, which opened the way to God permanently.

  05:20-05:26

  And that's what Pastor Taylor talked about last week as we got to the end of chapter four.

  05:27-05:37

  So we need to try to understand, church, why the Jews in this day who would have received this letter would have been like, wait, wait, wait.

  05:38-05:42

  So there's no more high priest being appointed.

  05:43-05:45

  And then Jesus actually is the high priest.

  05:45-05:49

  He's the high priest now, and he's always going to be the high priest.

  05:49-05:53

  Like this is a radical new concept for Israel.

  05:55-05:56

  Like, how does that even work?

  05:57-06:03

  We always had the guy who, you know, day of atonement, Leviticus 16.

  06:03-06:08

  We always had that guy, and now it's Jesus, like permanently.

  06:09-06:10

  Like how does that work?

  06:12-06:17

  And the question is, well, what makes Jesus qualified to be the high priest, really?

  06:19-06:21

  How is Jesus qualified for the role?

  06:25-06:28

  Well, that's what the whole passage is about today.

  06:30-06:34

  How is Jesus qualified to be the high priest?

  06:34-06:47

  Because you understand if you take a job, if you apply for a job, the first question you need to ask yourself is this, "Am I qualified to do this job?" Would you apply for a job where you're not qualified?

  06:48-06:52

  You need to know up front, "Am I qualified to do the job?" Right?

  06:52-06:54

  You know, I have a few examples here.

  06:56-06:59

  Some of these really might get your attention in our economy.

  07:00-07:02

  Looking for a secondary income, need another job.

  07:05-07:12

  Here's some examples of some jobs that have some requirements that maybe you meet and maybe you don't.

  07:13-07:14

  But you might want to jot these down.

  07:16-07:16

  Here's a job.

  07:17-07:18

  It says, "Waitress needed.

  07:19-07:22

  Must be 18 years old with 20 years experience.

  07:30-07:32

  I've never been great at math.

  07:34-07:38

  I think that job might also require a time machine.

  07:40-07:41

  I like this next one.

  07:41-07:48

  It gives the list of requirements, you know, the work detail and age and all of those things.

  07:48-07:49

  But look at the bottom.

  07:50-07:50

  Good looking.

  07:53-07:58

  Could you imagine the poor guy that was looking through this, like, yes, yes, I got this, I got this.

  07:58-08:01

  And it was like, oh, I guess this job isn't for me.

  08:05-08:06

  It's kind of subjective, isn't it?

  08:08-08:08

  How about this one?

  08:08-08:09

  Here's a job.

  08:10-08:12

  Office admin data entry.

  08:12-08:14

  First one says, perfect attitude.

  08:15-08:16

  Well, there goes half of you right there.

  08:18-08:20

  And then a second one, no simply off.

  08:21-08:23

  I'm not quite sure what that means.

  08:24-08:28

  But the third requirement says no off day to attend funeral.

  08:32-08:33

  But I'm like, what if it's mine?

  08:38-08:43

  The next one says no off day to go help any friends or family member if they accident.

  08:48-08:51

  Like, don't tell me about your car wreck, I'm at work.

  08:52-08:54

  All right, so there's some job requirements.

  08:54-08:55

  How about this next one?

  08:58-09:00

  This one, this could be my favorite one.

  09:01-09:10

  It says, you will complete various applied research projects for data analysis, strong critical thinking skills and some program experiencing as a plus.

  09:10-09:12

  Knowledge of machine learning techniques as a bonus.

  09:13-09:14

  Now look at this, it says note.

  09:15-09:16

  Can you see that?

  09:16-09:17

  I bet you can, your eyes are better than mine.

  09:18-09:19

  I'm gonna read it in case you can't.

  09:19-09:37

  In the red box, it says, "Note, "this is a reverse financed internship, "so you will pay $15 an hour to work here." And right now there's somebody like, that sounds like a good deal.

  09:38-09:40

  Like you're gonna pay to work?

  09:40-09:42

  Isn't that called charity?

  09:44-09:45

  So job requirements.

  09:45-09:51

  And this last one, I read this probably three times thinking this can't be real, this can't be real.

  09:52-09:53

  I hope it's real.

  09:55-09:55

  I hope it's real.

  09:56-09:56

  Look at this one.

  09:56-10:04

  It says, I am quite sure most of you have seen the rather large green dragon that has been flying over Northeast Oklahoma City for the better part of a week.

  10:05-10:21

  I'm looking for someone to lure said dragon away from Oklahoma City to a more rural area, force said dragon to land in rural area "Play said dragon in whatever way you see fit." "No pay, dragon slaying is its own reward.

  10:21-10:26

  "Please note I am not talking about the red dragon "that frequents the area from time to time.

  10:26-10:28

  "He and I have an agreement."

  10:28-10:29

  (audience laughing)

  10:37-10:40

  Dragon slaying is its own reward, ladies and gentlemen.

  10:42-10:47

  Well, there's a lot more, we'll stop there.

  10:47-10:48

  But those are fun.

  10:49-11:05

  But that's, the point is this, that's the whole point of this passage we're looking at today is the role of high priest carried very specific qualifications with it, not dragon slaying, other qualifications with it.

  11:08-11:15

  And you gotta have a mediator to get to God, You gotta have a high priest and Jesus Christ is qualified.

  11:15-11:21

  He meets all of the qualifications to be that high priest, all right?

  11:22-11:26

  So on your outline, job qualifications of the high priest.

  11:27-11:29

  First four verses of chapter five.

  11:29-11:42

  It says, "For every high priest chosen from among men "is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, "to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.

  11:45-11:50

  "He can deal gently with the ignorant and the wayward "since he himself is beset with weakness.

  11:51-11:57

  "Because of this, he is obligated to offer sacrifice "for his own sins, just as he does for those of the people.

  11:58-12:17

  "And no one takes this honor for himself, "but only when called by God, just as Aaron was." All right, so very quickly, going through those verses, He kind of lays out, hey, he's like, by the way, remember there were job requirements to be the high priest in the Old Testament.

  12:17-12:19

  Here they are, first of all, number one, must be a man.

  12:20-12:21

  Right, why?

  12:21-12:23

  He had to represent men.

  12:24-12:30

  So he had to be a man, not an angel, not an animal, had to be a man, a human being man.

  12:31-12:33

  That was requirement number one.

  12:36-12:38

  Number two, must be appointed by God.

  12:39-12:40

  Do you see that?

  12:40-12:41

  Verses one and four.

  12:42-12:45

  You know, back in the Old Testament, man could not appoint priests, okay?

  12:45-12:47

  It wasn't like, "Hey, you seem nice.

  12:48-12:50

  You seem very priestly.

  12:50-12:52

  Would you like to be priest?" It didn't work that way.

  12:53-12:54

  God appointed priests.

  12:54-13:09

  Exodus 28, one says, "Then bring near to you Aaron and your brother," this is God speaking to Moses, "and his sons with him from among the people of Israel." Here it is, "to serve me as priests." God appointed the priest, the high priest, right?

  13:10-13:14

  Aaron and Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.

  13:15-13:18

  So the high priest must be appointed by God.

  13:19-13:21

  All right, number three, must offer sacrifices.

  13:23-13:24

  We saw that here in these verses.

  13:24-13:39

  Sin separates man from God, but in His grace, God allowed a substitute, an animal sacrifice that would atone for sin, but it had to be offered through a mediator, and that's where the priest came in.

  13:41-13:52

  And in the Old Testament, the high priest, yes, a mediator, but yes, also a sinner himself, had to sacrifice for himself, then sacrifice for others, as he points out here.

  13:53-13:59

  Last requirement he mentions, is must understand others.

  14:00-14:01

  You see that?

  14:01-14:04

  Look at that again in verse two.

  14:05-14:17

  It says, "He can deal gently with the ignorant and the wayward since he himself is beset with weakness." Deal gently with others.

  14:17-14:22

  I just wanna pause here for a second because I think there's something for us here at church.

  14:25-14:32

  Only when you understand your own weakness Will you deal gently with others?

  14:38-14:40

  That was a really good spot for an amen.

  14:43-14:43

  Too late.

  14:49-14:50

  We'll call Toronto.

  14:50-14:51

  Okay, they counted.

  14:52-14:52

  All right.

  14:54-14:55

  We'll give you another run at that.

  14:56-15:01

  Only when you understand your own weakness Will you deal gently with others?

  15:06-15:09

  Church can be a very judgy place when we lose sight of this.

  15:12-15:17

  Now, listen, we are commanded to call out sinful action.

  15:19-15:19

  Absolutely.

  15:21-15:26

  When a brother or sister is in sin, we are commanded to call that out, to deal with it.

  15:27-15:40

  But when we forget that we ourselves are weak people, so often we step into condemnation territory.

  15:42-15:47

  We start to judge people, not their actions, and there's a difference.

  15:49-15:55

  That's why the high priest gives us an example here that we need to deal gently.

  15:56-15:58

  deal gently.

  15:58-15:59

  It's an interesting word.

  16:01-16:06

  It has to do with not going to either end of the extreme spectrum.

  16:06-16:09

  It's like kind of being in the middle, dealing gently.

  16:09-16:11

  What does it mean to deal gently?

  16:11-16:17

  It's this, when somebody's in sin, first of all, we don't emotionally overreact, right?

  16:17-16:21

  Like somebody comes to you and they're like, hey, I gotta talk to you, I'm stuck in this sin.

  16:21-16:23

  And you're like, you did what?

  16:24-16:25

  What is the matter with you?

  16:26-16:43

  Not that, but then there's the other end of the spectrum where the person comes to you and they're like, "My marriage is falling apart." And you're like, "Oh, that's a shame." Good luck with that.

  16:44-16:47

  It's just like apathy, like, "Not my problem.

  16:48-16:52

  "Go your way." See, deal gently is in the middle of that.

  16:52-16:54

  Like, I care.

  16:57-16:58

  and I'm gonna help you.

  16:59-17:04

  It's putting your arm around the person saying, hey, this doesn't honor the Lord, let's get to a better place.

  17:05-17:07

  I get it, listen, we all struggle with something.

  17:07-17:10

  Every single one of us struggles with something.

  17:11-17:15

  So let's pray and let's get to work on this, all right?

  17:18-17:19

  So those are the qualifications.

  17:22-17:39

  And then very simple passage, he lays out in verses one through four, the qualifications of the high priest and verses five through 10, he's like, let's take a look at Jesus' resume because he meets every qualification needed to be our great high priest.

  17:42-17:43

  Let's look at verses five through 10.

  17:45-17:57

  So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by Him, who said to Him, "You are my Son.

  17:59-18:18

  Today I have begotten You." As he says also in another place, "You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek." In the days of His flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death.

  18:19-18:21

  And he was heard because of his reverence.

  18:22-18:26

  Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.

  18:28-18:40

  And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

  18:42-18:43

  You see that?

  18:43-18:45

  Jesus' resume, he meets the qualifications.

  18:45-18:49

  All right, on your outline, letter A, Jesus was fully man.

  18:49-18:50

  Remember that was a requirement.

  18:51-18:54

  High priest has to be a man, Jesus fully man.

  18:55-19:00

  That's why the incarnation wasn't just a good idea, it was an absolute necessity.

  19:00-19:03

  Jesus Christ had to be a man to represent men.

  19:03-19:10

  He quotes Psalm 2, which speaks to the unique relationship that Jesus had with God the Father.

  19:10-19:13

  Jesus is the only begotten son.

  19:13-19:18

  Yes, God, yes, fully in the flesh, but absolutely unique.

  19:18-19:22

  There was never anybody, nor will there ever be anybody on the earth like Jesus.

  19:23-19:25

  Perfectly God in the flesh.

  19:27-19:28

  Jesus was fully man, letter B.

  19:28-19:29

  Jesus was appointed by God.

  19:30-19:30

  Do you see that?

  19:30-19:32

  Verse five, appointed by God.

  19:32-19:46

  Verse six, he quotes Psalm 110, verse four, speaking to a unique role, that Jesus Christ is a priest, but in the order of Melchizedek.

  19:47-19:50

  And I know some of you are like, who, what?

  19:53-19:54

  What's Melchizedek?

  19:54-20:00

  Well, you see, the Jewish priesthood came through the tribe of Levi, right?

  20:00-20:02

  Aaron, the Levites.

  20:03-20:08

  You're like, well, wait, wait, Jesus in the flesh wasn't a Levite.

  20:09-20:12

  Jesus was from the tribe of Judah.

  20:13-20:40

  So how can somebody from the tribe of Judah priest, if the Levites were priests, because God had a better plan. There is a superior priesthood and it was after the order of Melchizedek. He's somebody that you meet in Genesis chapter 14. We'll talk about him later. The point here is Jesus was appointed by God.

  20:42-20:45

  C, Jesus' resume, Jesus offered a sacrifice.

  20:50-20:54

  You realize when Jesus was on the cross, he was fulfilling a couple of roles.

  20:58-21:01

  He was the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

  21:01-21:08

  He was the sacrifice, but at the same time, he was the high priest offering the sacrifice of himself.

  21:10-21:13

  So he says, you know, high priest has to offer sacrifices.

  21:14-21:19

  Check, Jesus offered a sacrifice himself.

  21:22-21:23

  Interesting, and look at verse nine.

  21:23-21:28

  It says, "I'm being made perfect." I know some of you, you probably, that probably caught your attention.

  21:28-21:30

  Like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

  21:31-21:33

  I thought Jesus was already perfect.

  21:33-21:35

  How was he, how was he made perfect?

  21:38-21:41

  Well, he's not talking about his nature.

  21:41-21:42

  He's not talking about that.

  21:42-21:48

  Like Jesus was like lesser and over time, he got better and he improved.

  21:48-21:50

  He's not talking about that at all.

  21:53-21:54

  What's the passage about?

  21:55-21:58

  Talking about Jesus being qualified to be the high priest.

  21:59-22:00

  That's what he's talking about.

  22:01-22:08

  In order for Jesus to become qualified to be the perfect high priest, he had to offer a sacrifice.

  22:09-22:11

  And that was how that happened.

  22:11-22:23

  That was how that experience of the incarnation and the sacrifice had to be on his resume in order to perfectly fulfill the qualifications of being a high priest.

  22:26-22:31

  And I love this, it says also in verse nine, he became the source of eternal salvation.

  22:33-22:40

  Eternal salvation, you need to underline that because that's a huge concept, especially for the Jews who would have been reading this.

  22:41-22:49

  Because you see under the Old Testament, when an animal was sacrificed, atonement was given.

  22:51-22:55

  But Jesus Christ offers total forgiveness, eternal salvation.

  22:58-22:59

  I've shared this with you before.

  22:59-23:11

  Some of you know what I'm gonna say, with the difference between the Old Testament sacrifices and the sacrifice Jesus made, if you think of it in terms of finance, it's the difference between a credit card and cash.

  23:13-23:19

  In the Old Testament, when an animal sacrifice was offered, it was like the credit card.

  23:19-23:22

  Payment was covered, right?

  23:22-23:24

  You guys realize that, right?

  23:24-23:26

  Quick financial lesson for you.

  23:26-23:29

  When you use a credit card, you're not actually paying for something in that moment.

  23:31-23:32

  You're going into debt.

  23:32-23:36

  What the credit card does is it covers the payment for you.

  23:39-23:44

  But spoiler alert, you get a bill later that says you still gotta pay that.

  23:45-23:48

  All that credit card did was temporarily cover that.

  23:49-23:51

  That's kind of like the Old Testament sacrifices.

  23:51-23:58

  Sin was covered, they were never taken away because they had to keep offering sacrifice, offering sacrifice over and over and over.

  23:58-24:02

  But then when Jesus Christ came, how did John the Baptist refer to him?

  24:02-24:12

  He goes, "There is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." Jesus didn't just cover sin, he took it away.

  24:14-24:15

  You see the difference?

  24:16-24:18

  Using our financial analogy, Jesus is cash.

  24:19-24:22

  He totally paid the debt.

  24:23-24:29

  And there's no bill coming later that says, hey, you still owe something, it's paid.

  24:30-24:31

  Jesus paid the debt.

  24:32-24:36

  Eternal salvation, no more needs to be done.

  24:38-24:38

  Right?

  24:39-24:41

  Jesus' resume meets the qualifications.

  24:42-24:43

  Oh, there's one more thing.

  24:45-24:47

  The last one is this.

  24:50-24:51

  Jesus understands you.

  24:59-25:05

  This is a valid question we're going to talk about here for a few minutes, because it absolutely needs to be discussed.

  25:09-25:17

  How could Jesus not sin, yet still identify with sinners at the same time?

  25:19-25:21

  We've been talking about this through Hebrews, right?

  25:22-25:25

  Jesus understands us, he's merciful, he understands us.

  25:25-25:28

  And I'm sure there's somebody that's like, yeah, does he really though?

  25:29-25:30

  I mean, does he really?

  25:31-25:33

  I mean, God in the flesh, does he understand?

  25:33-25:35

  Does he really understand?

  25:40-25:43

  And the answer is he absolutely does.

  25:44-25:50

  And I want us to just take a couple of moments and revisit a couple of verses here.

  25:51-25:52

  I want you to look at them very closely.

  25:53-25:54

  Look at verses seven and eight.

  25:56-25:57

  Does he really understand?

  25:59-26:00

  Yeah, he does.

  26:00-26:16

  Look, "In the days of his flesh," the incarnation, it says, look at this, "Jesus offered up prayers and supplications "with loud cries and tears "to him who was able to save him from death.

  26:17-26:19

  "And he was heard because of his reverence.

  26:20-26:34

  "Although he was a son," look at this, "he learned obedience through what he suffered." Here's the thing.

  26:36-26:49

  I think sometimes you can look at verses like that and think that the Hebrew writer speaking in general terms, that during Jesus' life, he was like Isaiah said, a man of sorrow acquainted with grief.

  26:49-26:54

  And he's speaking like, just sort of like a general commentary about the life of Jesus.

  26:54-26:56

  But I don't think that's what's happening here at all.

  26:57-27:03

  I think he's speaking about one specific event in the life of Jesus.

  27:06-27:07

  The Garden of Gethsemane.

  27:09-27:10

  You can read about it.

  27:10-27:12

  We're not gonna turn there now.

  27:12-27:16

  Matthew 26, 36, Luke 22, 39.

  27:17-27:20

  It's a very unique event in the life of Jesus.

  27:20-27:23

  There's nothing else like this in the life of Jesus.

  27:25-27:40

  In his distress, Jesus asked his disciples to go pray with him right before his arrest, his trial, his crucifixion.

  27:41-27:44

  That was all like next on the agenda.

  27:44-27:46

  And Jesus says, "We gotta pray.

  27:50-28:00

  "We gotta go pray, man." And the Bible tells us that Jesus prayed the exact same thing three times.

  28:02-28:06

  And this is it, Matthew 26, 39.

  28:07-28:08

  This is what he prayed.

  28:09-28:13

  The Bible says going a little farther than where his disciples were.

  28:13-28:21

  He fell on his face and he prayed, my father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.

  28:21-28:24

  It's the cup of suffering, the cup of God's wrath.

  28:24-28:28

  That's what that means, the cup, it personifies the wrath of God.

  28:30-28:32

  My father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.

  28:33-28:40

  Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.

  28:44-28:49

  So you see the Hebrew writer, he's been saying it, Jesus understands you, Jesus understands you.

  28:49-28:52

  And here he's saying, let's talk about one event from the life of Jesus.

  28:55-29:03

  This one specific event shows you that even in your hardest days, even in your worst trials, Jesus understands you.

  29:06-29:09

  And in this one event, Jesus teaches us some things that got him through.

  29:11-29:12

  and we'll get you through to.

  29:14-29:16

  So that was all the introduction, here's the sermon.

  29:18-29:21

  Three things, some of you laugh as if I'm kidding.

  29:24-29:25

  Means we have some visitors here.

  29:28-29:33

  Three things Jesus understands and teaches us about trials.

  29:34-29:43

  Right, from the event, from the Garden of Gethsemane, Here's some things that Jesus understands and teaches us about trials.

  29:48-29:50

  This is something we all need to hear.

  29:55-30:00

  Number one, under this, sometimes suffering is God's will.

  30:04-30:10

  This is a hard pill to swallow because this certainly doesn't wash with the health and wealth crowd.

  30:14-30:15

  But this is reality.

  30:18-30:22

  Sometimes it is God's will that you suffer.

  30:24-30:25

  That's just the way it is.

  30:27-30:29

  There's no getting around it.

  30:32-30:33

  There's no choose your own adventure.

  30:34-30:37

  Sometimes God says, no, it's my will that you go through a period of suffering.

  30:39-30:42

  So like in the Garden of Gethsemane, why was Jesus struggling so hard?

  30:43-30:49

  Well, 2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us, when Jesus was on the cross, he became sin for us.

  30:49-30:53

  God was pouring out his wrath on Jesus for my sin.

  30:54-31:00

  Jesus took my sin and your sin on himself and literally experienced all of the pain of hell.

  31:01-31:08

  Literally experienced what it means to be forsaken by God He was bearing the wrath of God.

  31:08-31:10

  Jesus knew that was just ahead.

  31:12-31:15

  I'm about to suffer for the sins of the world.

  31:20-31:22

  That's why he was agonizing over prayer.

  31:23-31:27

  And church, listen, Jesus did that so that you won't have to.

  31:28-31:35

  But even for you, sometimes God's will for your life leads you through suffering.

  31:37-31:39

  And I gotta tell you, I wish it wasn't so.

  31:42-31:51

  I wish I could get up here and just tell you my opinion about things or what I think about things and, "Oh, I just, you know, God wants you to have a happy life.

  31:52-32:01

  And God never wants you to ever struggle or ever suffer." And that's just not true.

  32:03-32:07

  it's God's will that you suffer.

  32:11-32:14

  I wish I could take it all away from you.

  32:15-32:22

  You know, I know what many of you struggle with, and I wish that I had the ability to just take that away.

  32:23-32:27

  Like this trial that you're going through right now, it's over, done, go on your way.

  32:35-32:43

  But part of God making you who He wants you to be means that you're going to have to fight some battles.

  32:48-32:50

  Maybe for some of you it's your marriage.

  32:51-32:53

  Maybe for some of you it's in your parenting.

  32:56-32:58

  Maybe you have some adult kids that are just sideways.

  33:00-33:01

  You can't figure that out.

  33:02-33:04

  Maybe for some of you it's a health issue.

  33:06-33:07

  Like is this ever gonna end?

  33:12-33:14

  Maybe for some of you it's ministry struggles.

  33:16-33:22

  Sometimes suffering is God's will for your life because a servant's not greater than his master, according to Jesus.

  33:25-33:32

  I just look at the life of Jesus and think, if his ministry included suffering, why am I exempt?

  33:35-33:36

  Why are you exempt?

  33:38-33:46

  You know, Paul says in Philippians 3.10, "That I may know him and the power of his resurrection." Stop right there.

  33:46-33:50

  If he's like, I just wanna know Jesus and the power of resurrection.

  33:51-33:57

  And if I was like, all right, church, show of hands, who this morning wants to know the power of the resurrection of Jesus.

  33:57-34:04

  We'd all be like, yes, I wanna know what that's like to raise from the dead in power and in victory over my enemies.

  34:04-34:06

  And we all want that.

  34:08-34:09

  You know what the rest of the verse says?

  34:12-34:16

  He says, and may share his sufferings becoming like him in his death.

  34:17-34:22

  Like, all right, who wants to share in the sufferings of Jesus this morning?

  34:23-34:24

  (whistles)

  34:27-34:29

  Like, nobody's signing up for that.

  34:30-34:31

  But look, it's a package deal.

  34:33-34:38

  You don't know the power of the resurrection unless you experience the fellowship of a suffering.

  34:43-34:45

  Sometimes suffering is God's will.

  34:48-34:49

  You're like, well, I don't like that.

  34:49-34:50

  But you don't have to like it.

  34:51-34:52

  It's reality, it's truth.

  34:55-34:59

  And that leads us to number two, knowing God's will doesn't mean doing God's will is easy.

  35:00-35:03

  Here's something Jesus taught us in the Garden of Gethsemane.

  35:05-35:10

  Sometimes knowing God's will doesn't mean doing God's will is easy.

  35:10-35:14

  Do you know Luke 22, 44 tells us that Jesus sweat drops of blood.

  35:16-35:21

  He was in such agony when he was praying.

  35:23-35:25

  that he was sweating drops of blood.

  35:30-35:36

  You know, sometimes, a lot of times, I hear people say things like this.

  35:42-35:53

  They have to make some decision in their life or whatever, and they say, "I know this is God's will "because I have a piece about it." Have you ever heard somebody say that?

  35:54-35:56

  Have you ever said that yourself?

  35:57-36:00

  I know this is God's will because I have a peace about it.

  36:01-36:03

  I just want to challenge you on that.

  36:06-36:09

  Having peace about something is not always the thing.

  36:13-36:17

  Because in the garden of Gethsemane, did Jesus know that he was doing God's will?

  36:19-36:20

  100%.

  36:20-36:22

  Did Jesus have peace about it?

  36:24-36:29

  He agonized in prayer and tears and blood.

  36:34-36:38

  Knowing something is God's will doesn't take the emotion out of it.

  36:39-36:40

  We're not robots.

  36:41-36:45

  Sometimes doing God's will is agonizing.

  36:46-36:48

  And it's good to know that going in, right?

  36:49-36:49

  I wish I had.

  36:52-36:56

  I was thinking about my own life and testimony as I was working through this.

  36:59-37:11

  And I remember when I was called into ministry back in '95, and I wish I could tell you that God called me into ministry and I was just like, "All right, God, let's do this.

  37:12-37:17

  "Shucks, if that's what you want, "I present myself to you as your servant." I wish I could say that.

  37:19-37:21

  But that wasn't my testimony.

  37:22-37:28

  God very clearly called me into ministry and I was like, um, no.

  37:32-37:33

  Thanks, but no.

  37:34-37:36

  Not interested for a lot of reasons.

  37:36-37:38

  And I gave God all the reasons why this isn't gonna work.

  37:39-37:39

  Not a good idea.

  37:40-37:40

  Sorry, God.

  37:41-37:42

  Please check the number and dial again.

  37:43-37:45

  But this is not me.

  37:46-37:48

  I'm like, I'm not, and I fought it for so long.

  37:48-37:49

  I'm like, I do not wanna do this.

  37:50-37:51

  I do not wanna do this.

  37:51-37:53

  And it is hard to kick against the goads.

  37:53-37:57

  But here's the point, it was God's will for my life, but it was agonizing.

  37:57-38:03

  So finally, finally, I said, all right, God, I'll go into ministry.

  38:03-38:04

  All right, all right, I will do it.

  38:05-38:07

  I'm like, but I will never plan a church.

  38:09-38:11

  That's like my one condition.

  38:11-38:15

  Church planning is stupid and I will not do it.

  38:16-38:16

  (audience laughing)

  38:17-38:19

  And I'm sure our Lord was like, "Oh, you're adorable.

  38:20-38:21

  (audience laughing)

  38:22-38:30

  "Look at you telling me what you think we should do." Agonized.

  38:32-38:37

  And I can just tell you from my life that knowing God's will hasn't always been easy.

  38:41-38:44

  And I have to ask myself, why is that?

  38:44-38:48

  'Cause I'm thinking, look, if God wants me to do something, shouldn't he make it easy for me?

  38:52-38:53

  Well, look at the verse again.

  38:53-39:14

  It says that, verse eight, it says, "Jesus learned obedience through what he suffered." "Jesus learned how to obey when obeying was painful." "Jesus learned how it feels to hang on when bailing would be easier.

  39:16-39:22

  Jesus feels because he learned by experience because his experience was suffering.

  39:25-39:31

  And again, categorize this under things I wish weren't true, but suffering is the world's greatest teacher.

  39:33-39:34

  True or false?

  39:35-39:36

  Suffering is the world's greatest teacher.

  39:37-39:37

  True.

  39:38-39:39

  Suffering is the world's greatest teacher.

  39:39-39:40

  You suffer, you learn.

  39:41-39:42

  You suffer, you learn.

  39:42-39:43

  You suffer, you learn.

  39:43-39:45

  That's been my experience as well, right?

  39:46-39:54

  I remember when I was a little boy, real little, my sister, out of the goodness of her heart, made me a sandwich, and I took a big bite because I was so hungry.

  39:54-39:58

  Immediately ran to the bathroom, violently sick.

  39:59-40:00

  What did you do?

  40:00-40:09

  And she goes, "I just put a little mayonnaise "on the chicken," and I was like, it was horrific, it was a scene that I dare not describe in public.

  40:11-40:13

  I suffered and I learned, that's why I don't touch mayonnaise.

  40:14-40:17

  And you shouldn't either, that's not from the Lord, that's just from me.

  40:19-40:23

  But the point is this, you suffer, you learn, that's why I won't touch it.

  40:24-40:25

  I won't touch it.

  40:26-40:30

  When we go to the store and my wife's like, you know, grab some mayonnaise, I make the kids do it.

  40:31-40:32

  I'm like, I'm not touching that.

  40:35-40:39

  I mean, to be fair, if I have gloves on, I'll put the gloves on and pick it up with that.

  40:39-40:42

  But even then, it's like as far as my arms will get away from my face.

  40:43-40:44

  But the point is you suffer, you learn.

  40:45-40:47

  You suffer, you learn, you suffer, you learn.

  40:47-40:52

  You suffer, you learn, your wife says, your wife says to you, man, do I look fat in this?

  40:54-40:57

  You give the wrong answer, you suffer, you learn.

  41:03-41:11

  But to be serious though, you know, when you and I think back on our lives, I think the biggest lessons we learn came from a painful experience, haven't they?

  41:12-41:13

  You suffer, you learn.

  41:15-41:23

  And you too are going to learn obedience through your suffering, because God is conforming you into the image of his son.

  41:25-41:25

  Romans 8, 29.

  41:28-41:28

  All right.

  41:30-41:33

  Three things Jesus understand and teaches us about trials.

  41:33-41:36

  Number one, sometimes suffering is God's will.

  41:37-41:39

  Number two, knowing God's will doesn't mean doing God's will is easy.

  41:40-41:46

  And then number three, here's something Jesus taught us.

  41:46-41:48

  God's will is all that matters.

  41:49-41:53

  God's will is all that matters.

  41:57-42:04

  Jesus said, "Not as I will, but as you will." Yes, church, how many sermons have we had about prayer here?

  42:04-42:07

  like so many sermons about prayer.

  42:08-42:17

  And we've talked about praying specifically, and praying urgently, and praying expectantly, but ultimately, as our Lord teaches us, we pray according to God's will.

  42:18-42:19

  Ultimately, that's where we land.

  42:20-42:29

  I had the privilege of teaching Harvest Academy a couple weeks ago when Justin was preaching, and that was part of the lesson I taught the kids.

  42:29-42:31

  I said, "Listen, kids, God's not Santa Claus.

  42:32-42:34

  Like, give me your list so I can get you what you want.

  42:35-42:36

  God isn't a vending machine.

  42:36-42:39

  Just put the money in and push the right buttons and he'll give you what you want.

  42:39-42:40

  God's not a genie.

  42:41-42:42

  Rub the lamp, get your wishes.

  42:42-42:44

  I said, kids, do you know how the Bible describes God?

  42:45-42:45

  He's a father.

  42:47-42:51

  And that should shape the way that we pray.

  42:52-42:53

  He's a father.

  42:55-43:03

  And if the perfect son of God prayed thus, not my will but your will, What does that say about how we should pray church?

  43:05-43:18

  Look at verse seven again, it says, "Jesus offered up prayers and supplications "with loud cries and tears to him "who was able to save him from death." Do you see that, from death?

  43:24-43:33

  And I'll be honest with you, when I first read that, I'm like, "Eh." Jesus prayed that the Father would save him from death.

  43:33-43:36

  I'd be like, "Hmm." But he didn't.

  43:37-43:39

  God did save him from death.

  43:39-43:41

  He led him right to death.

  43:43-43:45

  Well, that just shows my ignorance.

  43:45-43:45

  I had to do a little studying.

  43:48-43:52

  The word from here in the Greek literally means out from within.

  43:54-44:01

  He was praying literally, "God, once I get in death, I want, "Please, please, please, I want you to get me out." What's that sound like?

  44:02-44:02

  What's he talking about?

  44:02-44:03

  He's talking about the resurrection.

  44:05-44:06

  Jesus was praying for the resurrection.

  44:07-44:08

  You're leading me to death.

  44:08-44:11

  Please pull me out of death when I'm in.

  44:13-44:15

  God, I know it's your will that I die, and I trust you.

  44:16-44:17

  I trust you to raise me.

  44:17-44:19

  I trust you to bring me out of death.

  44:20-44:22

  There's something for us there, church.

  44:24-44:26

  We say, "God, I committed myself to you.

  44:26-44:27

  "God, I trust you.

  44:27-44:35

  "God, I'm following you no matter where you take me." But God, ultimately my plans don't mean anything.

  44:36-44:40

  Your plans and your will means everything.

  44:43-44:44

  God help us land there.

  44:46-44:48

  So if our worship team would come forward.

  44:53-44:55

  That's this passage.

  44:57-44:58

  Jesus is qualified.

  45:01-45:04

  By the way, he has the job.

  45:06-45:10

  And what I mean is Jesus doesn't need to apply to be your high priest.

  45:11-45:16

  You need to embrace that he is the high priest.

  45:18-45:24

  And you need to be comforted in knowing that no matter what trials you're suffering, he understands.

  45:25-45:28

  and he shows us how to trust our Heavenly Father through it.

  45:29-45:31

  Thank you to bow your heads with me, please.

  45:39-45:44

  As our heads are bowed, I would just ask us, church, who here needs a change of perspective today?

  45:46-46:00

  That sometimes we look at the suffering we're going through as this invader in our lives, this unwanted, unwelcomed, unplanned, shouldn't be here guest that has barged into our home.

  46:01-46:12

  When the reality is sometimes it's the very thing that God's bringing into your life to conform you into the image of his son.

  46:18-46:20

  Jesus showed us that we're gonna suffer.

  46:23-46:32

  But can we suffer in a way that glorifies Your name, that trusts You, that rests in Your sovereignty, that knows that You have a plan?

  46:41-46:44

  Father, I pray today for my brothers and sisters here.

  46:51-47:06

  And Father, admittedly for us Gentiles a couple thousand years after this was written, this This is a hard concept for us to truly understand the gravity and the magnitude and the heaviness of this.

  47:09-47:24

  I pray, Father, your Spirit teach us through your word why we so desperately need a high priest and how Jesus demonstrated that he is the perfect high priest.

  47:27-47:30

  Father, give us a fresh perspective on our trials.

  47:35-47:40

  That whatever is going on in our lives, Father, give us the faith, give us the strength.

  47:41-47:51

  Father, give us the hope that only your Spirit can give that we all land on this place where we say, not my will be done, but your will be done.

  47:57-48:02

  And though it might seem hard now to say thank you, Father, we thank you ahead of time.

  48:05-48:13

  By faith, Father, we want to thank you for whatever it is you're accomplishing through these things that you're allowing into our lives.

  48:14-48:16

  We pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read Hebrews 5:1-10

1. What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
   

2. Why was it important for the Jews to understand that Jesus qualifies to be the High Priest? Why is it important for our church to understand?
   

3. Why is suffering sometimes God’s will for His people? How did Jesus serve as an example on how to pray when we suffer? See Matthew 26:39.
   

4. What does it mean that Jesus “learned obedience through what He suffered” (v8)? How does suffering teach us obedience towards God?

Breakout
Pray for one another.