MISSION WOODS CHURCH
Worship, Sunday, July 14, 2024
      • Bible Trivia
        Loading...
      • Bible Trivia
        Loading...
      • Bible Trivia
        Loading...
      • Bible Trivia
        Loading...
  • The Steadfast Love
  • You Are My All In All
  • Be Still And Know
  • Blessed Assurance

      • Hebrews 10.19-21NIV2011

      • Hebrews 10.22-23NIV2011

      • Hebrews 10.24-26NIV2011

      • Hebrews 10.27-28NIV2011

      • Hebrews 10.29-30NIV2011

      • Hebrews 10.31-33NIV2011

      • Hebrews 10.34-36NIV2011

      • Hebrews 10.37-39NIV2011

  • So, I think just about every pastor’s week’s worth of study and planning and writing went out the window last night with the attempted assassination of former President Trump. I’m sure many like me had to return to their computers and edit or perhaps entirely rewrite the sermon they’d planned to give. “Violence has no place in politics.”
    We live are living in a divisive time in our country. I have praised you for this before and I will do it again, I’m so proud of this congregation that despite our differences we continue to love one another, serve one another and our community, and praise God together. I seek to be focused on God’s Word in my preaching, and not guided by social issues of the day. Yet, God’s Word always applies to our lives.
    So in all honesty, I too returned to my planned message and reworked it significantly. And yet…as I read and re-read this passage from the Epistle to the Hebrews it still speaks to today.
    We begin our reading with yet another level in the logic of the author of this letter to the Hebrews. THEREFORE…
    Hebrews 10:19–22 (ESV)
    Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus,
    by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh,
    and since we have a great priest over the house of God,
    let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
    Let’s look at verse 22-25 a little closer because they are imperatives, and calls to action:
    Hebrews 10:22 (ESV)
    let us DRAW NEAR with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
    How are we to “draw near?”
    Hebrews 10:22 (ESV)
    let us DRAW NEAR with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
    with a true heart
    in full assurance of faith
    with our hearts sprinkled clean
    our bodies washed
    As we draw near these statements are statements of our status. Not what we hope to be, these are facts and the reason we can draw near.
    Our next imperative comes in the next verse:
    Hebrews 10:23 (ESV)
    Let us HOLD FAST the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.
    Hold on.
    You say you have faith, hold on. Don’t waver.
    Life is hard, hold on.
    My coffee mug this morning had a message to me, it said:
    Life isn’t easy. Life isn’t perfect. Life is good.
    God’s promises hold.
    Then we get to our third imperative:
    Hebrews 10:24 (ESV)
    And let us CONSIDER HOW to stir up one another to love and good works,
    Consider how to do what?
    Hebrews 10:24 (ESV)
    And let us CONSIDER HOW to stir up one another to LOVE and GOOD WORKS,
    stir up one another to love and good works. The NIV reads this ways: Heb 10:24
    Hebrews 10:24 NIV
    And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds,
    How do we do that? He gives us the imperative LOVE, do good work, and then tells us how.
    Hebrews 10:25 (ESV)
    not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
    If there is anything that COVID shutdowns did that in my view harmed people the most it was the fact that people weren’t together. We lost that habit of meeting together. I know people today that still have anxiety about going out and being in a group of people.
    Folks, it’s in groups that we can be encouraged. Encouragement doesn’t just come from words:
    it comes from eye contact
    it comes from the gentle hand on a shoulder, a hand shake, touch.
    it comes from just physically being together.
    Of course it comes from praying together, working together, studying together, serving together…
    All of that really takes being together.
    The next verse…Heb 10:26
    Hebrews 10:26 ESV
    For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,
    Do you hear that?
    Folks, this is what we need to hear. We need to get off of our high horses, thinking that we’re somehow better, innocent, sinless, and seriously examine ourselves, our motives and honestly examine ourselves before God.
    It’s not the guns. It’s OUR hearts. Before getting upset at that statement, please hear me out.
    When thinking of the way brothers and sisters in Christ dialogue when it comes to politics, one Bible verse often comes to my mind: John 11:35
    John 11:35 ESV
    Jesus wept.
    Granted Jesus wept over the news of the death of his friend, but in so many ways our hearts are dying. They’re turning to stone. There’s no love for those with whom we disagree, or oppose our views politically (social media posts attest to this).
    There is anger, but not love.
    There is enmity, but not love.
    Yet we profess our faith on Sunday morning and curse our adversaries the rest of the week.
    The author of Hebrews has continually lifted up the standard of Jesus. He’s reminded us again and again of the failures of the Law, but the absolute success of Jesus.
    Church, as I said before, I brag on you a lot. You all love one another and we are a rare breed in any denomination and any congregation balanced 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 of conservative, middle, and liberal politically and theologically. I love that. And in these times of such divisiveness, that’s our call to mission.
    Okay, this is where I’ve clearly abandoned my previous planned sermon.
    As we’ve studied the epistle to the Hebrews I’ve repeatedly been pushed back to the Sermon on the Mount recorded in Matthew chapters 5-7. In chapter 5, vs. 44
    Matthew 5:44 ESV
    But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
    That’s Jesus’ imperative to us. LOVE your enemies! Is there anything harder? Yes, praying for those who persecute you. Lord, you raise the bar SO high!
    Earlier in that chapter Jesus said, Mt 5:21-22
    Matthew 5:21–22 ESV
    “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.
    This is so challenging for EVERY one of us! It brings out the reality of what our insults, gibes, minimizing, humiliating, shaming, etc. do within our hearts. You are murdering them in your heart. It hardens your heart.
    When you insult someone in your own heart you are lowering them, demeaning them, making them lower than you. You are devaluing them as an image bearer of the Creator that they are. You are murdering their value in your own heart. And as we know when we put another down it is often to lift ourselves up. In this case, you’re not only taking the place of God as judge,
    but as Creator
    as you make that person less than you as the Creator’s image bearer…
    In your heart you make them less than the humans God created them to be. That would make them something else in the creation that God gave us stewardship over, to care for. How’s that goin’? Are you caring? Are you caring for them in that moment? We both know the answer is a resounding “no!”
    You’re not just demeaning their value, murdering them in your heart, but you’re also not living up to the command of stewardship over the creation!
    Church, we’ve got to do better. We have got to do better. We’ve got to call out hate when we see it, and the first person we need to take aim at is the person in the mirror. I seem to keep bouncing to these verses each week as we reflect on this Epistle, Mat 7:1-5
    Matthew 7:1–5 ESV
    “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.
    What we see here is not an invitation to look at others, but to look at oneself.
    The author of Hebrews says in today’s text:
    Heb 10:22
    Hebrews 10:22 (ESV)
    Let us draw near…
    Hebrews 10:23 (ESV)
    Let us hold fast…
    Hebrews 10:24 (ESV)
    And let us consider how to stir up one another…
    Our reaction to others is to be one of encouragement, building up, loving, praying for.
    Oh, but it’s so much easier and less painful to point out the speck in my brothers or sisters eye, especially those “wrong” opinions, ideas, political views, etc…
    The brother of Jesus, gives us so much to learn from in his letter to the church. In James we read:
    James 1:19–20 ESV
    Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
    Are you listening?
    Are you examining yourself?
    Are you seeking to produce the righteousness of God within you?
    Let’s commit today to doing better. Let’s commit today to

    DRAW NEAR

    Hebrews 10:22 “let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”

    HOLD FAST

    Hebrews 10:23 “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.”

    STIR UP

    Hebrews 10:24 “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,”
    That’s our call, that’s our mission.
    As I close, I want to add one last thought. As we continue to seek to draw closer to God, as one draws closer and another draws closer, because they are both drawing closer to the same God it brings them closer together. I speak about this in marriage counseling that as the two of them draw closer to God, God will draw them closer to one another.
    Hebrews 10:22 (ESV)
    let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith,…
    AMEN!
    ​
    ​

      • Hebrews 10:24NIV2011

      • Hebrews 10:26NIV2011

      • John 11:35NIV2011

      • Matthew 5:44NIV2011

      • Matthew 5:21–22NIV2011

      • Matthew 7:1–5NIV2011

      • James 1:19–20NIV2011

  • His Strength Is Perfect
  • He's Got The Whole World

      • Hebrews 13.20-21NIV2011

      • Bible Trivia
        Loading...
MISSION WOODS CHURCH
info@missionwoodschurch.org
(253) 922-5555
http://www.missionwoodschurch.org
27 members • 4 followers