Horizon City Church Sermons

https://youtu.be/7BidbU8u6NY?si=TSpl9LO7GZ8cr11s   Additional Resources: Article: Is there a Difference between Pastors and Elders (Denny Burk) Article: The Manly Work of Pastors (Jonathan Parnell) Video: Male Pastors Only?… But What About Deborah??? And What Can the Women Do in Ministry? (Kenny Ortiz) [25:49] Video: Q&A: All Things Related to Women Pastors (1 Timothy) [1:01:33]

https://youtu.be/eUukXTHwp5o?si=9FewfDSTXiLktxJ1   Additional Resources: Video: Q&A: All Things Related to Women Pastors (1 Timothy) [1:01:33] Video: What Did Paul Mean by ‘I Do Not Permit a Woman to Teach?’ | DA Carson and Tim Keller [6:16] Video: D.A. Carson on 1 Timothy 2 “Authority” [4:48] Article: Are Women More Easily Deceived Than Men? (Jared Compton) Article: What Exactly Does 1 Timothy 2:12 Teach? (Robert Yarbrough)

https://youtu.be/a5wud-U0cf8?si=xQ10bd2v6vYKt1uZ   Additional Resources: Article: Can Women Braid their Hair? (1 Tim 2:9) Article: A Translation Conundrum (1 Tim 2:9) Video: Man and Woman by God’s Design [52:45]

https://youtu.be/OXbeCQNQGsw?si=bzYsocHqGgrL9Awo   Additional Resources: Article: Prayers Well Aimed (by John Sartelle) Article: Does “All” Ever Mean “All” in Scripture? (by Tom Hicks) Article: The One for All: 7 Reasons Why 1 Timothy 2 Teaches Definite Atonement (and 3 Reasons Why It Matters) (by David Schrock)  

https://youtu.be/DdSn6vSHjtk?si=LFeJEYAq10EaxpRz

In the sermon, Pastor Kenny begins by discussing the recent assassination of conservative political activist and apologist Charlie Kirk. Kenny also briefly mentions a few other recent tragic events in American society. When we think about these tragic horrific events, we often wonder, “What is it that God wants to do? How are we to respond?” When hardship hits and senseless tragedies overwhelm us, there are many things that we could do (and many things that we probably should do), but before we do any else, our first response ought to be to pray. Our initial and primary response to tragedies and evil actions ought to be to increase both the quantity and quality of our prayers. Herein Kenny examines the first few verses of 1 Timothy, where Paul commands us to pray for all types of people, especially those persons who hold power and influence. Kenny also examines two dozen other passages of Scripture, all pointing us toward this reality: God wants us to pray, all the time, but when tragedy strikes, we ought to pray even more!

https://youtu.be/c5t6QdUmHTA?si=ms9KIXmgbLp5jzXa  

  Introduction: Summer in the Psalms We have come to the beginning of our journey in the book of Psalms. We will probably be in and out of Psalms for the next several summers. The Psalms are unique in scripture, and when I first became a Christian, I didn’t understand the Psalms. I didn’t have a category for them. I remember being in high school in 1998, and there was a song that came out called ‘Iris’ by the Goo Goo Dolls. I was a junior in high school at this time, and I remember listening to this song. This song caused an unbelievable, powerful thing inside of me because there had been these emotions and sentiments that I had been feeling for several years. Then I heard this song, Iris, and it put to words things I had been feeling for years that I never knew how to articulate. ‘I don’t want the world to see me, because I don’t think that they’d understand.” I remember I was talking to one of the youth leaders at our church, and I was telling her about how I love this song because it resonates with my soul. This guy feels what I feel, I’m not alone in the world in feeling these emotions. Someone else gets me and is singing about it, and I can sing about it in my bedroom, yelling at the top of my lungs, singing this song. The youth leader at my church said to me, You know, that’s what the Psalms do for us. That part of scripture that God has put right in the middle of the Bible. They put words to things that many of us are feeling that we’re unable to articulate. The Holy Spirit has given us this gift of the Psalms that put words to reflections, meditations, prayers, and laments. They’re put down so that you can read them and know you’re not alone. Not long after, I came across a music artist by the name of Shane Bernard. He would later team up with another guy named Shane, and they would become the band we know today as Shane and Shane. But Shane Bernard was sort of an unknown artist in the late 90s, and one of his early albums was called Psalms. In that album, he put to music a dozen or so psalms. I remember listening to that in my bedroom by myself on a CD. I remember him singing from Psalm 103. The Lord is gracious, he’s slow to anger. He is rich in love. He is good to us. I remember reading or listening to these songs and thinking, wow, what a gift that God has given us, the Psalms, to put to words the things that are inside of us that he wants us to articulate. The Psalms are incredibly valuable, and it took me several years to really appreciate the Psalms and understand them. But the more I spent time in the Psalms, as I grew in my late teen years and in my 20s, it began to shape me. The Psalms have shaped how I pray. It gave me vocabulary that I didn’t have before. The Psalms taught me how to sing to God. I remember listening to some old hymns and recognizing some of the language in hymns. Oh, that was borrowed from these Psalms. The Psalms also taught me how to grieve and to cry. The Psalms are a powerful gift from God to us that are immensely helpful to us in so many ways, and therefore, they are worthy of our study. They’re worthy of our attention. This morning, if you’re not familiar with the Psalms, I want to give you a quick overview of the entire book of Psalms. Then we’re going to hone in on Psalm Chapter One. Specifically, I want to give you a tool on how to read the Psalms. I want to give you some basic, tangible things to do when you’re reading the Psalms that will make it much more helpful to you. We’re going to look at Psalm 1, and I’m going to model how we can examine the passage. Before we do that, let’s ask God for his help one more time. God, would you help us understand the Psalms? God, thank you for this gift. May it profoundly shape how we live, how we pray, how we sing, how we cry, and how we see you. Would you help us now? Would you be pleased to glorify yourself through Psalm Chapter One? I ask in Christ’s name. Amen.   Overview of Psalms If you don’t know this, the Psalms are not one book. It’s not one writing. It’s a collection of writings. There are one hundred and fifty different writings. Seventy-five of them are written by a man we call King David. Some of them were written early in his life, before he became king, some were written during his reign, and some were written immediately after he was ousted from being the king. David wrote about half of the Psalms. These Psalms were written over about a thousand years. So the earliest Psalm was probably written somewhere around 1500 BC. The last Psalm was written somewhere around 500 BC. These Psalms were written through human beings by the Spirit of God. Soon after the last Psalm was written, they were compiled together by Jewish leadership and prophets in the nation of Israel, after they came out of exile. So the Jewish people had been in exile as slaves in Babylon. Then, after 70 years, God rescues them, and they come back into the promised land. While they are there, around 500 B.C., they compile these Psalms. They organize them not chronologically, but thematically. The Psalms are not in order. Psalm 1 was not the first one written. Psalm 150 is probably not the last one that was written, although Bible scholars argue over that. But the first one written was probably either Psalm 29 or Psalm 90. When the Psalms are collected, they’re put together by themes in five different books. Book one, all of those Psalms, they all fit a particular theme. Book two fits a theme. The five books of Psalms all have their five different themes, and they tell a story. At the beginning of each of the five books, the Psalm that was placed there lays the foundation for the rest of the Psalms that are in that book. Traditionally, this collection of 150 distinct writings has been known as the ‘Psalter’. That’s the traditional word for the book of Psalms. We don’t use that word much in our contemporary Christian circles, but the Book of Psalms was traditionally called the Psalter. It was organized in five books thematically, not chronologically. That’s the overall structure. Two other important things to know about the Book of Psalms, the Psalter, are that all of the Psalms are poems. They are written in ancient Hebrew poetic style. Since it’s poetry, it uses a bunch of different poetic literary mechanisms. That’s important because that helps us interpret the Psalms a little bit better. It’s not just straightforward prose, it’s not just history, although there are elements of history, but there’s poetic commentary on history. The history is told in a poetic fashion using metaphors and imagery. It’s important to understand that when you’re reading the Psalms, it’s not the same as reading the book of Hebrews. It’s drastically different style demands a different type of hermeneutic, a different approach. The last thing I’ll give you this morning is that all of the Psalms are songs. They were put to music. There’s a rhythm, there’s a cadence, because they’re meant to be sung. The Jewish people, all throughout their history and especially after they came out of Babylon and came back into the promised land, would have used the Psalms as their hymnbook. The early Christians did this too. When we look back at early church records, the bulk of the singing of the early church in the first, second, and third centuries was the Psalms. Certain psalms were especially popular. In the region of Antioch (the modern day northern part of Israel, Syria, and Jordan), the churches in that region, for about 200 years, sang Psalm 63 at the beginning of their worship gathering every single Sunday. They looked at Psalm 63 as so valuable, all of the churches in that region would sing that same Psalm at the beginning of the worship service every single week for about 250 years. They valued it that much. Throughout church history, the early church and in the Middle Medieval era, Psalms were the primary way Christians worshiped God in music. Hymns came on the scene in the early Middle Ages. You start seeing some hymns appear in the middle part of the Medieval era. There are some hymns, but it’s predominantly Psalms. Up until the Reformation era, hymns made significant inroads into music. For the first 1500 years of the church, it was mostly Psalms. From the 1500s up until the mid-1800s, there is about a 300-year period where there’s a slow progression when Psalms are getting less popular in church services and hymns are becoming a little more popular. There’s this trade off. By the time you get to the mid-1800s, hymns dominate singing in churches. By the time we get to the late 1800s, especially. From the late 1800s up until about the 1970s, what we call hymns today really dominated music singing. In the 1970s, 1980s, we began to see a shift toward what we now would call contemporary worship music. Although hymns still have a place, they’re still around. We like to do hymns here. Contemporary worship music has dominated over the last 40, 50 years or so. But Psalms dominated church history. Now I’m not advocating that we go back to that necessarily, although there probably could be a good argument to be made for that. I’m not saying that we should do that. I’m just giving you history. The Psalms were extremely important to Christians for a really long time. It’s a part of our Christian heritage to care deeply about the Psalms. I think it’s a heritage we ought to wholeheartedly embrace. Make the Psalms a big part of your life. The best Bible reading plans are the ones that include Psalms daily. There are Bible reading plans that will have you read a little bit from this book, and then cap off your reading for the day with a Psalm or two. Those would be the ones I would commend to you. So that’s the overview and introduction to the book of Psalms.   How to Read the Psalms The next thing I want to highlight is that there are two different ways to read the Psalms. There are two different approaches. There’s more than just two, but we will focus on two of the main approaches. Yo

  Introduction: We Have All We Need We have come now to the end of the book of Hebrews. There’s a particular sentiment on display in the last few verses in the benediction. It reminds me of something. Have you ever been working on a task and in the middle of it you realize you don’t have everything you need for the task? Like you’re working on some home project and you decide that you’re going to randomly tear down a wall. You decide at 11pm because you’re bored, you decide you’re tearing down this wall. Your mind’s going crazy. You decide you gotta do something crazy. The Home Depot’s closed. You can’t go get the thing you need. Or you’re maybe you’re in the middle of cooking a meal. You’re in the middle of the meal and you’ve prepared, and then you realize, I don’t have the thing I need. I don’t have the paprika or the cumin or whatever it is. You’re realize that I’m out of that. The writer of Hebrews is in essence going to remind us that in the Christian life, when we are walking through this life and doing that which God has called us to do, that will never happen. We will never have a moment when we are in the middle of a task and we say to ourselves, I don’t have the thing I need. The writer of Hebrews is saying, God has ensured that that’s never going to take place. This morning, I want to give a thorough recap of the book of Hebrews. We’re going to remind ourselves of what we have seen over the last several months. Then, after the recap, we’re going to look at the last few words. It’s a prayer. It’s a benediction. The writer of Hebrews said, I’ve taught you a bunch of stuff. Now let me offer a brief prayer to God on your behalf. But remember, the Spirit of God is writing this through the writer of Hebrews. So it’s the Spirit of God praying a prayer that God the Father will hear and God the Father will listen to what the Spirit of God has lifted up. So this prayer that’s being offered by the writer of Hebrews on your behalf is guaranteed to come to fruition. It’s a prayer that will definitely be answered by God on our behalf, designed to encourage us. So we will do a recap of Hebrews. We’ll look at the last few verses and then, my hope is for you to hear God’s word and be encouraged that God is continually shepherding you through whatever season of life you’re in. Ensuring that you are equipped for what God has for you. There will never be a moment in your life where God has called you to a task where you won’t quite have that thing you need. The writer of Hebrews has prayed that we would be equipped and God will answer that prayer. So let’s pray one more time and we’ll do a quick recap before we get to Hebrews 13. Lord, we thank you. As we recap Hebrews and look at the last few verses, may we be encouraged by these words. Help us understand them. May they shape how we view you, how we live our lives. May that be true for all of us. In Christ’s name. Amen.   Recap of Hebrews: Jesus Is Better The writer of Hebrews has given us one central theme. Jesus is better. That’s it. That’s his point. The writer of Hebrews is writing this letter. It’s actually a sermon that’s been transcribed and is being sent to a local group of believers. He has caught wind of the fact that there are people in this church that have abandoned the faith. These are mostly Hellenistic Jews. They are ethnic Jews by nature, but they’re Greek speaking. They’ve embraced a lot of Greek culture, they’ve become Christians. They’re living somewhere in southern Italy, and they are a part of the Christian faith. Some of them begin to abandon the Christian faith and they go back to Judaism. The writer of Hebrews is catching wind of this, and so he preaches this sermon and he writes it down and he sends it to them. He wants them to know that whatever you go to, if you abandon Jesus to go to something else, that thing is less than Jesus. Whatever you compare Jesus to, Jesus is better than that. Look unto Jesus. Keep believing in Jesus. The entire sentiment, the heart behind this entire letter is to give them reasons to believe that Jesus is better so that they will not be tempted to stop believing in Jesus. In the opening two chapters, he starts by highlighting who Jesus is. He starts by reminding us that Jesus is the one that was in glory, who then stepped off his throne of glory and became a human being. He did what needed to be done to make purification of sin. We see in Hebrews chapter one, We are sinful. We need to be purified. We could not purify ourselves. So Jesus came to do that which needed to be done so that our sins could be purified. Talk about inconveniencing yourself. The God of the universe became a human baby, dependent on a teenage mother, subjecting himself to all the pains and ills of this world. He dies a brutal death on a cross where the wrath of God is placed on him so that all who would believe on him, his death would count for them. So if you believe on him, the wrath of God that should be for you has been placed on him. The wrath of God that was for me was placed on him. Then he raises from the dead and he triumphantly goes right back into heaven. God the Father, as we see in Hebrews chapter one, says, come sit at my right hand. The writer of Hebrews is saying, you guys think angels are great. He never said to any of the angels, come sit at my right hand. The only person God has ever said that to is his son Jesus. Because Jesus is better. The main point of the early section of Hebrews chapter one is that Jesus is better. As we go through Hebrews chapter one, into chapter two, he begins to tell us, there are a lot of great humans that have lived, but there’s no human that has ever done what Jesus did. No human was capable of doing what Jesus accomplished. He tells us that Jesus became lower than the angels for a little while. Back in October, I used this illustration of a pyramid. If you can imagine a pyramid, it’s got multiple levels. You have God at the top, the Trinity, God the father, Spirit, and you’ve got the angels. They’re the second level of authority. Then the third level of authority, the pecking order, is humans. Then fourth is the beast. That’s what we see throughout the course of the New Testament. Jesus is the top and we are below the angels. Jesus then comes down that pyramid, becomes a human being, goes to the third pecking order. God became subject lower than the angels for a period of time, became one of us, so that he could then rescue us and bring us up. The writer of Hebrews tells us in Hebrews 2 that we are below the angels. But there’s a process that we are going through where one day we will actually go above the angels. We are currently third in the pecking order, but we’re on the way up because Jesus identified with us. No human’s ever been able to do that. Jesus is better. He’s the greatest human to have ever lived. Then as we go through from chapters 3 to 9, he’s making one major point over and over again. He’s using multiple illustrations and examples from the Old Testament to make the point. He’s using all of these people that these Jewish people would have revered. He’s says, remember Moses, he was great, but Jesus was better. Moses led you into a wilderness and nothing more. Jesus is going to lead you into the presence of God forever. Jesus is better than Moses. Jesus is better than Abraham. Abraham’s great. Father of many nations. He started the first covenant that we see and it’s been unfolding ever since on our behalf. But Jesus establishes a newer covenant, a better covenant, and accomplishes way more on our behalf than Abraham could ever have accomplished. Jesus is better than Abraham. He travels into chapter 4 and 5 and he begins to tell us that Jesus is better than the Old Testament priest. The Old Testament priests, they did a lot of stuff for the Old Testament saints, but Jesus is better than them because he offers a better sacrifice. They offered bulls and goats as we see in Hebrews 9, but Jesus offered himself. Jesus is better. Jesus establishes and mediates a better covenant than what the Old Testament priests could establish and mediate. They established a covenant that allowed one person one day a year to enter in the presence of God. Jesus establishes a covenant that all of God’s people can enter in the presence of God forever. He’s way better. The writer of Hebrews says, remember. Remember the Old Testament priest. Jesus is not even like them. He’s actually like Melchizedek. No beginning and no end. He’s not like those priests. Jesus is way better. He’s way better and establishes a way better covenant. If you abandon Jesus, whatever you go to is less than Jesus. So don’t do that. Stick with Jesus. Look to Jesus. Consider Jesus. Pay extra attention about the things you’ve learned about Jesus. Keep trusting in Jesus. Don’t stop believing in Jesus. That’s the first 9 chapters of Hebrews.   Themes of Hebrews As you travel through these chapters, there’s some themes that pop up. One of the themes that pops up is the fact that those who love God genuinely will want to obey God. If you disobey God, you’re not going to heaven, not because you’ve lost your salvation, but because you actually never were saved genuinely in the first place. That is what we looked at in Hebrews chapter 6. So if you hear God commanding you to do things and inside of you, you don’t want to obey, it’s because you’re not genuinely headed toward heaven. You’re actually on trajectory to hell. That should scare us a bit. In Hebrews 5, verse 9, he says “Jesus became the source of eternal salvation for those who obey.” As we travel through the chapters, we don’t see that the expectation is perfection. In fact, it’s very clear the writer of Hebrews expects that we will still sin. But is there a trajectory in your life toward obedience? That’s the question. Are you living your life in such a way where you want to obey God, where there seems to be a sense of growth? I’m obeying more today than I did a year ago, an

  Introduction: Why Trust the Bible? It is a delight to be with you this morning. I am always delighted to be with the Lord’s people on the Lord’s day. I am here with most of my family, my wife, Bridget, and our seven youngest children are with me. We bring you greetings from Grace Baptist Church in Cape Coral, Florida, where we have recently relocated and become members. We spent almost the last decade in Lusaka in Zambia. We went there to help start the African Christian University. We’re supposed to be there for three to five years, but ended up being there almost 10. But we are back now and excited about the opportunity to help start the Founders Seminary in Cape Coral. Pray for us as we get started. Our first semester starts on August 11th. I have the privilege of serving as the president of the new seminary, and it is a weighty responsibility, but an exciting one. So please keep us in mind, keep us in your prayers. Today, I have a very specific message to give you, and that is why we choose to believe the Bible. That’s something that I’ve been talking about, preaching about, writing about for a very, very long time. It’s something that has really come to the forefront in the broader culture at large. I don’t know if you know the name Wes Huff, but Wes Huff is an apologist. He’s a Canadian PhD student specializing in New Testament textual criticism. A while back, Wes got a call from a friend who was doing a podcast, and it was a last-minute thing where Wes was asked to come on and have a discussion, have a debate with another guy who was not famous, but he was well known in the biblical skepticism field. He is a guy who talks about all these conspiracy theories and how there are Egyptian myths and ancient texts, and all these conspiracy theories about the Bible. So Wes agreed to go on his podcast, and it was really bad. The biblical skeptic was utterly exposed as the fraud that he is. He goes all around the world talking to people about these things that supposedly undermine the authority of scripture. He said he was talking about this one example, this Sinai Bible that doesn’t even have the resurrection. So Wes Huff pulls that book off of his bookshelf. Again, Wes Huff, PhD student, is studying textual criticism. He asks if the guy was talking about Codex Sinaiticus, and it was. Wes opens in the original written language and shows that what he says is not there is actually there. The guy’s like, okay, I’ll take your word for it. It’s a couple of hours of moments like these. So much so that eventually Joe Rogan invites Wes Huff to come on the Joe Rogan show. Because the original podcast went viral. It was so embarrassing, and Joe Rogan was talking about how embarrassing it was. Joe Rogan, a well-known atheist, spends hours with West Huff talking about the Bible and textual criticism and all this sort of stuff. Wes brought different things with him to show and give to Joe. Joe Rogan is going to church now, communicating with Wes Huff regularly about the Bible. Now he’s been on other podcasts to talk about this because of the phone call that he answered and was ready for. Essentially, he answered the question that we’re addressing here today. I’m not saying that everybody needs to be a PhD-level textual critic. That’s not what we’re going to be doing here today. Today, I just want to help you be able to answer what I believe is the most important question for any Christian to answer. Let that sink in for a minute. Now, as I say that, some of you are sitting there thinking, well, I don’t know if that’s the most important question. Fine. Some of you are thinking, I think the most important question would be, Who is Jesus? My most important question would be, What must I do to be saved? Or the most important question, fill in the blank, whatever it is that you say is the most important question. Let me ask you another question. Why do you believe what you believe about that? The answer is because it’s in the Bible. Which means the more important question is, why do you believe the Bible? Because whatever else it is you think is an important question, your reason for it is going to be scriptural. So, at the end of the day, the most important question for you to be able to answer is, why do you believe the Bible?   Insufficient Answers to the Question As we think about that, there are a couple of very popular answers to the question. One popular answer to the question, unfortunately, is, That’s how I was raised. I was raised in the church. I was raised as a Christian. I was raised, and I’ve always believed in the Bible. That’s how I was raised. That’s an insufficient answer to the question. The older you get, the more you’ll understand how insufficient that is. Because the older you get, the more you’ll be confronted with things that you were raised to believe that weren’t true. There are so many wives’ tales and other things that you were raised to believe that weren’t true. So that’s an insufficient answer. Another answer that people often give is, I tried it and it worked for me. A very popular answer, especially today. Where experience is everything. I tried it and it worked for me. It changed my life. It’s only slightly better, but not sufficient. How many people in this world have tried things other than the Bible and had their lives changed? Many, many, many people. One story I love is the story of a young man who lived in the Boston area. His father was killed with his sister, and this young man got into all kinds of trouble. Eventually, he ended up in Harlem, New York. He was a gangster, a hustler, and was arrested, went to prison. He became a drug addict and a drug dealer. So he’s in prison, and in prison he meets some people who begin to tell him about this Messiah. He doesn’t want to have anything to do with it until one night, in his cell, he is visited by the Messiah. He goes and talks to the people who’ve been trying to tell him about this. And his life has changed, utterly transformed. He becomes a model prisoner. He gets out early, he continues to live a transformed life, and personally opens dozens of houses of worship. He tried this Messiah and it worked for him. His name is Malcolm X. His messiah was the honorable Elijah Muhammad. He’s the founder of the cultic group the Nation of Islam. So if we’re satisfied with, ‘I tried it and it worked for me’, even Malcolm X eventually came to realize that Elijah Muhammad was not the Messiah, that he was completely wrong. He shouted it from the rooftops, and eventually, the Nation of Islam assassinated him. So the fact that you try something and your life is changed because you tried it doesn’t make it true. So we gotta have a better answer.   Sufficiently Answering the Question I’m going to give you an answer, and I’ll spend the rest of our time teaching you this answer from a passage of scripture. Some of you may already know this answer. Somebody asks why you choose to read the Bible. Instead of saying, that’s how I was raised, or I tried it and it works for me, I prefer to answer, I choose to believe the Bible because it’s a reliable collection of historical documents written by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses. They report supernatural events that took place in fulfillment of specific prophecies and claim that their writings are divine rather than human in origin. We are going to go through this step by step, and more importantly, we’ll go through it line by line, verse by verse. Because it’s not necessarily my answer. This is just my succinct communication of Peter’s answer in 2 Peter, chapter 1. I’m just abbreviating and consolidating Peter’s answer. Second Peter, chapter one, beginning verse 16. And there we read: “For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was born to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God and as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” This is our answer. By the way, it’s very important at the outset to say this, we don’t give this answer because it’s some sort of spiritual judo move that will make any and everybody submit and say Now I believe. That is not the way that this works. What’s interesting is, we talked about Wes Huff and his encounter, and while there are some people like Rogan who are now exploring more and going to church and talking a lot more about these things, and we hope will come to faith, the guy whom he obliterated, he’s even more entrenched. In fact, he came at two o’clock in the morning with a cease and desist order after that podcast, demanding that the guy whose podcast it was not publish. He did not want the world to see him. He did not say, You know what, I was wrong. The facts are on your side. He didn’t. Because at the end of the day, look at verse 19 again: “We have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.” That’s what it takes for people to believe, for the day to dawn and the morning star to rise in their hearts, for Christ to make them alive. So I don’t give you this answer because somehow it’s the magic bullet that will make any and everyone believe there is no such thing. I give you this answer because it is incumbent upon us to know what we believ

https://youtu.be/iOS6kby7rP4?si=Hz00yhGJMvgSEy2Q   Introduction: Importance of Doctrine We’ve come to a section in the Book of Hebrews where the writer is primarily focusing on application. In the New Testament letters, the writer will typically start with significant doctrine. Up front, there’s doctrine and theology. Then, after they’ve given us a doctrine of theology, they will move into a moment of application, saying, Here’s what I want you to do with this doctrine in theology. That’s what the writer of Hebrews is now doing. For the first 11 chapters, he provided us with a substantial amount of doctrine and theology. He told us a lot about who Jesus is, where Jesus came from, what he came to earth to do, and what he accomplished. He talks about Jesus being the image of the perfect God. That Jesus is better than angels, that Jesus establishes a New Covenant, and that Jesus mediates a better covenant with a better sacrifice than those of the Old Covenant. That Jesus is continually our great High Priest interceding for us. He’s given us a lot of doctrine. He’s explained to us what faith is and why it matters. Now he moves into chapters 12 and 13, and he begins to tell us, What do you do with this doctrine of theology that I’ve now given you? The Book of Hebrews is a transcribed sermon, and I think it serves as a model for how we ought to preach in our present age. We live in a culture in the United States where it is very normal for sermons to be primarily practical or application-oriented. You go to church and you hear, Here are three steps to do this. It’s often absent of theology and doctrine. When you look through the New Testament letters, they spend a lot of time teaching doctrine and theology. We see the book of Galatians has six chapters. The first five are doctrine and theology, and one chapter is application. We see here in Hebrews, 11 chapters chock-full of doctrine and theology, and two chapters of practical application. The most balanced letter is Ephesians. Three chapters of doctrine, three chapters of application. But most of the New Testament authors spend more time teaching doctrine and theology than they do practical application, which I think is a model for how we ought to teach in our services. Tragically, across the Western world, in modern evangelicalism, we spend very little time teaching doctrine and theology. We wonder why our churches are kind of a mess. People ask, Why do you spend so much energy teaching doctrine, because that’s what the New Testament author said. We want to be like them. So this is valuable in our conversations as believers; we should spend lots of time talking about doctrine and theology. As parents, we should be spending lots of time teaching our kids doctrine and theology. Now, certainly, we should not stop there. Those of us who are in the Reformed world sometimes we can stop with doctrine and theology, and then we forget to do the application part. So both are important. The writer of Hebrews has now moved into chapters 12 and 13, where he is spending significant time giving us very practical exhortations. In the first few verses of chapter 12, he gives us some exhortations. The one that I spent the most time talking about last week was he tells us to get rid of sin and to get rid of any hindrances that may distract us from Jesus, even if those things are not sinful. Get rid of sin. Sin is bad. It distracts, it causes harm, it dishonors Jesus. Get rid of sin. But in addition to that, there are lists of things in your life that are not necessarily sinful at all, but you should get rid of them because they potentially are a distraction between you and Jesus. The immature Christian asks this question, Is it sinful? It’s not that I can do it. The mature Christian or the maturing Christian asks a different question, a better question, not Is it sinful? But rather, will this thing help me run after Jesus better? If the answer is no, then you should consider eliminating it from your life. We talked extensively about that last week. That was the first exhortation in the first few verses of Hebrews, chapter 12. Then he’s going to give us significant, more practical applications as he goes through chapters 12 and 13. But before he gets to more exhortations, he has this moment here where he pauses and talks about discipline. He says, get rid of sin and get rid of things that may distract you, even if they’re not sinful. By the way, this is going to take some discipline to do well. If you refuse to engage in it, if you refuse to get rid of sin and to get rid of things that are distractions, God will discipline you because he loves you and he wants to make you better. That’s what he does; he begins to focus on it. So the sentiment that we see from him here in the middle part of chapter 12 is, in essence, to embrace God’s discipline. He doesn’t explicitly say that. That is the implied application. In the middle part of chapter 12, he’s going to talk about the fact that God disciplines us. This is a good thing, and we should like it. We should say, God, bring it on, because he disciplines those whom he loves. If God is not disciplining you, you should question whether or not you are genuinely his. That’s what the writer of Hebrews implies here. So this morning I want to talk a little bit about God’s discipline of us. I want to talk a little bit about how God disciplines us. Then I want to focus on one particular way he disciplines us. Primarily by the way in which we judge and correct one another. First, let’s pray one more time. God, as we look at a few verses from Hebrews chapter 12, would you help us understand it? Would you cause this to change our hearts, to transform us? May we embrace your discipline. May you discipline us as needed and make us more like Jesus. I pray, would you do that? Would you do that in me? Would you do that in us? I pray. Amen.   Understanding God’s Discipline Hebrews chapter 12, verse 5. The writer of Hebrews says: “Have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?” There’s an exhortation that was given to you. There were some words given to you, some challenges. The reason they were given to you is because you are sons. You are children of God. Then he says this: “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord.” Don’t take it lightly that God wants to discipline you. It’s a serious thing. It’s sacred. We should make much of this. We should be excited about this. This is a good thing. I am a dad to a four-year-old. I have disciplined this child for quite some time now on a regular basis. I can assure you, she doesn’t like it when she’s being disciplined. But the writer of Hebrews would have me say, When your good Father disciplines you, you should be excited about that. In First Corinthians 11:32, the apostle Paul says this about God discipling us: “God disciplines us so that we may not be condemned along with the world.” That’s a remarkable statement. There are a bunch of people in the world who are going to be condemned. They’re going to face the wrath of God one day. It will be a tragic, heartbreaking moment, heart-wrenching. God says, some of you believe in me, and I’m going to continually discipline you so that you don’t end up in that category. When God disciplines us and causes us not to be in the category of people that are going to face his condemnation, that’s a good thing. Praise God. It is a gift to be disciplined. Then he alludes to this here in this chapter. Good fathers discipline their children. A father who refuses to discipline his children is not a good father. I want to say that to the kids in the room. When Mommy or Daddy disciplines you, they put you in a timeout, give you a lecture, or may spank you. That’s a good thing. That’s a good thing because they love you. We have various forms of discipline in our home. Verbal warnings, time-outs, and there may be moments where there needs to be a firm, physical spanking. We call them pow-pows in our house. Lettie does not like pow-pows, I can assure you. But it’s good for her to get pow pows. It’s good for God to give us pow-pows when we sin. It’s good for God to introduce pain into our lives, to get our attention, for us to know that that behavior is unacceptable. When God gives you a pow-pow, you should say, Thank you, Daddy. Thank you. Hebrews, chapter 12, verse 9. He says, We had earthly fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them. We’re thankful for them. Shall we not be much more subject to the Father? We recognize what a good dad does. How much more should we respect it when God does it? Side notes to the dads in the room. Discipline should be something that you are primarily involved in. It is very common, I’ve noticed, in American society for moms to carry the weight of disciplining the children. That is inappropriate. Dads, you should be thoroughly involved in that process. You should be leading the way. A good dad should be involved. Do not just advocate that or delegate that to your wife. That’s unfair to her. It doesn’t mean that Mama never disciplines children. But if Mama does all the discipline, that’s unfair to her. That’s way too emotionally exhausting. Dads, you should be involved in that process.   Consequences of our Actions Now, there are many ways in which God disciplines us. I’m going to mention a few of them. First, God will often allow us to experience the consequences of our own actions. He will say, You’ve made this bad, foolish choice. I’m going to orchestrate the events of your life to ensure you suffer the consequences of this thing. I sometimes have to do this with my kids. It’s hard. I want to protect them sometimes. My kid is doing something dumb, and there’s going to be a consequence of that. If you pull the dog’s tail or the dog’s ear, the dog might scratch you, hit you, pound you with his paw, and he might nip at you. I want to protect you from that. But it might actually be good for you to get a little nip from

Introduction: Overview of Hebrews 11 Those who are regularly with us know we’ve been traveling through the Book of Hebrews over the last several months. Just a few more Sundays and then we’ll be in the Psalms for the summer. We are excited for the summer. My wife is pregnant, and we’re expecting our third child in July. Very excited about that. I’ve lined up a few guest preachers for the summer. I’m excited to come and share from the Psalms throughout the summer. I’ve said this before: The Book of Hebrews is, in essence, a transcribed sermon. The writer of Hebrews at some point preached this sermon, wrote it down, and then sent it to this church that was significantly being persecuted. A church that was predominantly composed of Hellenistic Jews or ethnic Jews who spoke Greek and were part of Greek culture, likely located in modern-day Italy. He writes this sermon, this letter, and he sends it to them as a means of encouraging them to stick with the faith. His goal is that he doesn’t want any of them to abandon Jesus ever. He wants every person who’s a part of the church to stick with Jesus and love him all the days of their life. He knows the best way to do that is to make sure they know how great Jesus is. They need to know that Jesus is better than anything else they could compare him to. Jesus is better than whatever you think he is. If you have a high view of Jesus, that’s great, but he’s even better than that. If you have a low view of Jesus, that’s an error. He is significantly greater than that. But whatever you think of Jesus, he’s better than that. That’s been the overarching theme of the Book of Hebrews. Jesus is better than the angels. He’s better than Moses. He’s the best brother that’s ever been. He’s the greatest human that’s ever been. He’s a great high priest, greater than the high priest of the Old Testament. He establishes a covenant greater than the covenant that they mediated. He does it with a sacrifice greater than the sacrifices that they provided. Because Jesus is better. That’s his overarching goal. I want you to be convinced that Jesus is better. That anything you consider going to, anything you think about leaving Jesus for, just know whatever that thing is, it’s not as good as Jesus. Jesus is better. Then he gets to Hebrews chapter 11. In that chapter, as we’ve seen the last few weeks, he begins to highlight all of these great people from the Old Testament who lived like they believed that God is better than anything else they could think of. He mentions these various people, and he’s writing to these Christians who were ethnic Jews who had become Christians. As Jews, they would have loved the Old Testament. They would have esteemed the Old Testament. He begins to highlight some of their heroes. He explicitly mentions 16 different names and then alludes to at least 10 other people throughout the chapter. He says, see all these great people in the Old Testament, Abel and Enoch and Abraham and Noah and Isaac and Moses and David and the Prophets. They demonstrated great faith, and they stuck with God. Do you know why? Because they know that Jesus is better. That’s the overarching message of Hebrews chapter 11. His exhortation to them is, continue to live your life demonstrating faith in Jesus, just like your heroes demonstrated faith in God in the Old Testament. By the way, we know more about God than they did. God has revealed more of himself. We know more of who God is today than even they did. So if they lived out in faith, how much more should we live out in faith? That’s, in essence, the message of the first 11 chapters of the book of Hebrews. Then we come to Hebrews chapter 12. We will see in Hebrews chapter 12, in the opening few words, that he gives us three exhortations. Number one, he’s going to tell us to get rid of sin. Number two, he’s going to tell us to get rid of anything that could weigh you down, even if it’s not sinful. Number three, he will say, add things to your life that will remind you of who Jesus is. Those are the exhortations from the early verses of Hebrews chapter 12. Get rid of sin, get rid of anything that will weigh you down to distract you, even if it’s not sinful. Then thirdly, he will say, add some things to your life that will help you remember Jesus. So we’re going to look at Hebrews chapter 12. We’ll see these observations. But before we do that, let’s pray one more time. Father in heaven, thank you for your word. Help us understand it, speak to us through it, shape us through it. Help us to know how to apply this to our lives. For your glory. Amen.   A Cloud of Witnesses So Hebrews chapter 12, verse 1, says this: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses” When I was in high school, my pastor would always say this: Whenever you see the word therefore in the Bible, you should stop and ask yourself, what’s the therefore there for? Here, the word ‘therefore’ connects everything he has previously said. For the first 11 chapters, Jesus is better. Keep your faith in Jesus. Therefore, I want you to do some stuff. So he’s given them a bunch of great information, revelation of who Jesus is, and now he’s going to say, because that is true, therefore, do some stuff. Here’s the stuff he wants us to do. First, he mentions this great cloud of witnesses. Because we know there’s a great cloud of witnesses, we should do some things. Now, let me pause for a second. I’ve heard people talk about this throughout my Christian life. People talk about this great cloud of witnesses like it’s a bunch of people in heaven together in a crowd, watching us and cheering us on. I heard a Christian leader once explain it like we are track stars running around the track. This great cloud of witnesses, they’re in the stands cheering us on. That’s not at all what the writer of Hebrews is saying here. He’s saying we have this great cloud of witnesses. The word witness there is like a witness in a trial, like a court of law. We have a crew of witnesses. Who is he alluding to? Well, the people he just mentioned in Hebrews 11. The 26 people that are mentioned or alluded to in Hebrews 11, who put faith in God and saw God do some amazing things through them. It’s like he’s calling these people from the Old Testament up to the witness stand. The writer of Hebrews is like the prosecuting attorney. He’s making a case, and he’s calling people from the Old Testament to the witness stand. He’s saying, Noah, come to the witness stand and testify to these people what it means to have faith in God. Noah gets on the stand and says, I trusted in God and my entire family survived a global flood. He calls Abraham to the stand. The writer of Hebrew says, Tell us, Abraham, testify to us. Abraham says, I trusted God, and my wife and I are old, but he told us we would have a child. I don’t know if you know this about old people, but we don’t usually have children. But you know what? We had a child. In fact, I became the father of many nations. The writer of Hebrews then brings Moses and the Israelites to the stand. They say we witnessed miracles in Egypt. We witnessed the judgment and wrath of God on the Egyptians who refused to repent. We trusted God, and we saw him miraculously rescue us from Egyptian tyranny. We watched God part the Red Sea and cross us over into the wilderness. Then God brought us Joshua and the next generation. We went into the promised land, and we watched the walls of Jericho fall down. God handed us, on a silver platter, this land we now call Israel. Over and over again throughout chapter 11, the writer of Hebrews is calling people to the witness stand. Come to the witness stand and tell these Christians about what it means to have faith in God. These witnesses talk about the miracles of God, the mercy of God, how they took over kingdoms and defeated armies, and they shut the mouths of lions, and even a few of them raised people from the dead. They testify and they present evidence that should lead us to only one verdict. There’s only one reasonable, rational verdict that we can come to when we hear the testimony of the saints of old. That is, Jesus is better. Keep believing in Jesus. The Old Testament saints believed in the Messiah. They didn’t know his name would be Jesus, but they knew that God promised a Messiah, and they looked forward to the day that he would come. They believed in God, and they saw God do Great things. So the writer of Hebrews is saying, Jesus is better. Look at all these witnesses. It’s a great cloud, such a great cloud of witnesses testifying to you that faith in Jesus is worth it.   Get Rid of Sin Because that is true, here’s the first exhortation he gives us. In the middle part of Hebrews, Chapter 12, verse 1, he first alludes to the great cloud of witnesses. Then he says this: “Let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” He says, Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which clings closely. Another English translation renders it this way: “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.” There’s a keyword there. The word is ‘And’. He wants us to throw off everything that hinders ‘and’ the sin that easily entangles. The sin that clings closely. The word ‘and’ there in the Greek means ‘And’. The word ‘And’ makes it clear that two distinct things are going on here. If I say to you, Kenny and Malaina. (Malaina is my wife.) Kenny and Malaina went to Jimmy John’s. How many people went to Jimmy John’s? It’s two. If I say to you the Eagles and the Chiefs played in the Super Bowl, how many teams played in the Super Bowl? There are two. There are two distinctive things here. He’s saying, listen, get rid of everything that hinders and get rid of the sin. The sin is the obvious one: get rid of sin.   Get Rid of Things that Weigh You Down But also, there are these other things. There’s this category of things over here

https://youtu.be/wspauPqXrVY Introduction: 4 Minute Mile Well, last week I unintentionally lied to you. It was unintentional, I promise it was. As you were here, I told you we were going to just do two sermons from Hebrews 11. But as I was preparing and studying this week, I just thought to myself, we have got to have a third. There’s too much here. So, next week, Lord willing, we’ll be back in Hebrews 11. Then we’ll move on to Hebrews 12 after that. Last week, we talked a little bit about Abraham and how he was looking forward to a city to come, a city that has foundations, and how that was profound in his life. This morning I want to look at one other character that is mentioned here in Hebrews. He would be quite sacred to the Jewish people in the first century when this letter was written. We’re going to look quite a bit at Moses. I plan to examine Moses, and then next week, we’ll look at the whole chapter, and we’ll move on. The Book of Hebrews is, in essence, a transcribed sermon. The writer of Hebrews has preached this sermon. It’s been transcribed, and then it was sent to this church that was under fire. This church was predominantly ethnic Jews living somewhere in the Roman Empire. All of these Jewish people had become Christians. In this church that he’s writing to, there are three categories of people. Some people have been faithful to the gospel, and they’re joyful; they love Jesus. They’ve been faithful, and they’re excited and they’re sticking with the faith. That seems to be a minority when we’re reading this letter. But that group exists in this church. There’s also a second group of people who’ve been faithful to the gospel. They’ve not wandered away from the Christian faith, but they’re growing in their apathy. They’re considering whether or not they should stick with Jesus or go back to Judaism. They’re wandering in this moment. Then there’s this third group of people who were a part of the church that have now abandoned the faith altogether, and they’ve left. The writer of Hebrews is talking mostly to those who are apathetic, which seems to be the bulk of the church. He’s telling them, those that have wandered away from the faith, don’t be like those people. Stick with Jesus. He’s reminding them, as we’ve already seen in this letter, of some of the moments in their lives where they’ve already been faithful to God. He’s saying, stick with that. Don’t go away from doing what you’ve been doing. Stay faithful. Then he comes to Hebrews chapter 11, where he begins to highlight all of these people in Israel’s history. He is telling them to remember these people who had great faith, do what they did, and live life in light of the faithfulness of God. He’s highlighting all of these people in Hebrews 11. There are 16 different people either directly mentioned or alluded to in Hebrews 11. In essence, he’s saying, remember these people. Remember the faith they demonstrated. I want you to demonstrate this kind of faith. You’ve already been doing it. Keep on doing it. The writer of Hebrews seems to know that if he lifts up examples of great faith, then the people will know they can do it. Not because of them, but because of the grace of God. If the grace of God is at work in those people, and they could demonstrate faith, then we know because the grace of God is at work in us, then we too can live out faith. There’s something about the human experience where once we’ve seen someone else do something, we too can do it. We believe. Let me give you an example. In the sport of track and field, which expanded significantly in the late 1800s, early 1900s, track and field exploded on the scene as a very popular sport amongst Americans. For several decades, people have been running, and they’re getting stronger and faster. At some point in the 1950s, people thought humans had reached their pinnacle. This is the fastest they’re ever going to be. There was an argument amongst scientists, nutritionists, and biologists in the mid-20th century that it would be impossible for a human to ever run a mile in less than four minutes. It would be physically impossible. They had already reached the fastest humans will ever get, and they were getting close to four minutes, but they would never break the four-minute mark. Well, there’s a doctor by the name of Roger Bannister. He was convinced that the argument was not true, that humans potentially could break the four-minute barrier. He began to train and train and train. He used all the science that was available, but he still couldn’t break it. People were telling him, It’s not possible. But eventually, Roger Bannister broke the four-minute barrier, running a mile in 3 minutes and 59 seconds. It was global news all over the world, newspapers covered it. This feat seemed physically impossible. The very next year, two more people broke the four-minute barrier. The next year, four more people broke the barrier. Within five years, more than 200 people would break the four-minute barrier. Today, if you run a mile in four minutes, by Olympic standards, that’s pretty slow. Many years ago, when I was In High School, I ran a mile in 4 minutes and 51 seconds. It was the fastest in my high school, the fastest in the city of Philadelphia for that year. Then I went to State, and got blown away by everyone who was there because 4:51 was pretty slow. Two high school students were close to breaking the four-minute mile mark. This is in the year 2000, many decades after Roger Bannister. The writer of Hebrews seems to understand. If you lift an example of someone who’s done it, we as humans then think, I could do that. Roger Banister is not necessarily doing this with the power and grace of God at work in him. So, how much more as believers can we say, God worked in them, and they were able to do that with God’s help. Then that’s an example for me to emulate. It’s an example for me to look to and seek to follow after. The writer of Hebrews is saying, You remember these people in Hebrews 11, those who believed in God, you too believe in God. So you too can demonstrate faith the way they demonstrated faith. As he goes through this chapter, he’s highlighting all of these different people in the Old Testament, and he spends significant time on two characters, two whom he gives the most attention to. Abraham and Moses, which is not by accident, because these are the two characters that would have been most respected by Jewish people in the first century. So he’s writing to a predominantly ethnic Jewish audience, and they would have respected and revered Abraham and Moses. So he has spent a significant time talking about Abraham and Moses. He says, Remember the faith that Moses demonstrated. At the end of chapter 10, and into chapter 11, he begins to allude to the fact that the faith that you have shown is like the faith that Moses showed. Now, this would have been a huge deal to a Jewish person in the first century. You’re saying, I’ve done something similar to what Moses did. That’s remarkable. This would have been an unbelievable compliment to them. But remember, it’s not you. It’s Christ in you and through you. It is not faith in yourself that causes you to accomplish these things. It’s faith in Christ and his power through you. He’s saying, that’s how Moses did what he did, and that’s how you can stay and live the Christian life well. What Moses did is what we ought to do. So this morning, I want to take time to examine what the three main things the writer of Hebrews highlights about Moses. Number one is that he made a bold and deliberate decision. Number two, we see that Moses embraced the cost of that decision. Then, third, we’ll see that Moses valued Christ above all. We’re going to look at these three things in Hebrews chapter 11. But first, let’s ask God for his help one more time. God, we thank you for the examples that are laid out for us in Hebrews 11. I pray that we would be both challenged and convicted this morning, inspired and exhorted this morning. Lord, as we look at these verses, help us to understand them, and Spirit, help us to understand how to apply the truth we see here to our own lives. I pray for your glory, I ask these things. Amen.   Moses Made a Bold, Deliberate Decision Number one, Moses made a bold, deliberate decision. If you have your Bibles, look at Hebrews chapter 11, verse 24. It says this: “By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.” Now, many of you may be familiar with the story of Moses. If you’re not, here is a brief, quick recap. Moses is an Israelite. The Israelites have been enslaved in Egypt for several centuries. Moses is born into slavery. When he is young, there is an oracle that comes to Pharaoh that says there’s going to be a savior who rises up to rescue God’s people from Egyptian slavery. Pharaoh hears and says, You’re telling me that there’s an oracle that there’s going to be a savior born that takes my slaves away. So he is going to deal with this. Pharaoh says this baby has been born, and we don’t know who he is. So Pharaoh says all of the baby boys under age 2 are to be slaughtered. Across Egypt, Israelite boys are being killed. We don’t know how many, but probably into the thousands. Every baby boy under age 2 was killed by Pharaoh. Moses is one of these baby boys. He’s a young baby. At this time, his mother, seeking to protect him, takes baby Moses and then through this crafty plan, ends up introducing the baby to Pharaoh’s daughter. Through what seems to be this crazy, unplanned process that unfolds. Pharaoh’s daughter gets hold of Moses and determines she’s gonna raise Moses as her own. She takes Moses into Pharaoh’s court, into Pharaoh’s home. Moses is then raised amongst the wealthiest, most well-educated, and most powerful people in the world. When he gets to the age of 40, he comes out and declares that he doesn’t identify with Pharaoh’s family, but he knows that he is a Hebrew, he’s an

https://youtu.be/S0KGQNv00CA?si=uhGnvIiI-gugE9s2   Introduction: Hebrews, Augustine, and The City My name is Kenny. I have the privilege of serving as pastor at Horizon City. Those of you who’ve been with us for a while, you know we’ve been traveling through the book of Hebrews, which is structurally a transcribed sermon. In essence, the writer preached a sermon at some point, transcribed it, and then sent it to this small church that was under fire. This church, predominantly ethnic Jews who had become Christians, but some of them were now considering abandoning the Christian faith and going back to Judaism. He is writing this letter to implore them not to abandon the Christian faith. As we’ve been traveling through the first 10 chapters of Hebrews, we’ve seen various exhortations and insights from the writer of Hebrews. Now we’ve come to chapter 11, which is one of my favorite chapters in the book. My plan is, next Sunday, God willing, for us to exposit the entire chapter, to go through all of chapter 11. But today’s message will feel a little bit different than normal because I want to just hone in on one particular phrase. One particular concept that has sort of been alluded to a little bit already in Hebrews, but now takes center stage. It will be examined and highlighted again later in the book. I want to focus on one phrase that comes from Hebrews 11, chapter 10. It’s speaking of Abraham, and it says that: “He was looking forward to a city that has foundations.” Now, if you’re not familiar with Hebrews, chapter 11, it is sometimes referred to as ‘The hall of Faith.’ It’s highlighting all these people from the Old Testament. The writer of Hebrews is going through the list of people in the Old Testament who demonstrated great faith, and he’s highlighting these people, and saying, here’s the thing this person did which demonstrates genuine faith. It is interesting, though, when you know the backstory of all the people labeled or mentioned in Hebrews 11. A lot of them made some good choices, but a lot of them also made some really poor choices. The resumes of the people mentioned in Hebrews 11 are jam-packed with warts. I take great comfort in that, to know that my resume is checkered and sometimes ugly. My background is not pristine. Yet because of God’s work in my life, I, too, can demonstrate genuine faith. What an inspiration this chapter is to me and ought to be to us. So he’s going through Hebrews 11, and he’s mentioning these people in the Old Testament. He’s mentioning something each of them did to demonstrate genuine faith. When he gets to Abraham, he mentions something interesting. He mentions that Abraham was looking forward to a city with foundations, a city not built by human hands, but a city built by God. This is an interesting descriptor for him to hone in on because he could have said all sorts of things about Abraham. Abraham lived a pretty full life. He did a lot of things, made a lot of decisions, good and bad. He’s got a pretty stellar resume in some ways. So, of all the things that he could have said about Abraham to highlight him, I find it interesting that the thing above all that the writer of Hebrews feels the need to highlight is that Abraham was looking forward to a city. This city must have been a really big deal to Abraham. It must have shaped how he lived his life. Abraham’s not alone in that. More than 2400 years later, after Abraham, there would be a Christian pastor in Africa by the name of Augustine. Augustine was a pastor in North Africa. He lived in the late three hundreds and early four hundreds. Augustine is probably the most brilliant and most influential Christian theologian in Christian history. Augustine’s influence goes beyond just Christians. He has a profound influence even on unbelieving people. He engages in theology, but also philosophy. In fact, in the wake of World War II, in the 1940s and 1950s, lots of nations were debating this idea of ‘just war’. What does it mean to commit a war crime? Some people were arguing that it’s a war. You can do whatever you want. Others argued no, look at the atrocities committed during World War II, there needed to be limitations. So there is this moment in the mid-1900s called the Geneva Convention. A bunch of political leaders from around the globe debated how far is too far in war. They brought in data and literature from all sorts of writings. One of the philosophers that they quoted at the Geneva Convention was Augustine. 1500 years after he lived, a bunch of politicians are using Augustine’s work, along with others, to help them understand how far is too far in modern warfare. It’s a pretty big deal that this Christian pastor in Africa in the year 400 is writing things that are influencing the Geneva Convention in the 1900s. That gives you a little insight into who Augustine was. Augustine wrote a bunch of books, essays, tracts, and papers. A bunch of his sermons have been transcribed, but his greatest work is a book called The City of God. It took him almost two decades to write. In The City of God, Augustine spends a significant amount of time talking about this great city to come. Augustine says, Remember the big, great city that Abraham was looking forward to? Augustine spends a significant amount of time writing about that future city. His work, The City of God, would go on to be one of the most influential works in Christian history. In the book, he talks a lot about the idea of the City of God and the City of Man. There are these two cities, and everyone on planet Earth is a citizen of one of those two cities. We’re all born into the City of Man. Through faith in Jesus, we can then be transferred from the City of Man into the City of God. But everyone is a citizen of one of these two cities. In this age, in this world, these two cities we live in, intermingled, is how Augustine says it. If you are a genuine believer, if you put faith in Christ, you are a citizen of the City of God. If you don’t believe in the one true God, or if your faith is not genuine in Jesus, then you are a member of the City of Man. You are not a member of the City of God. But Augustine articulates quite vividly that there will come a moment in the future where Jesus comes back and he initiates a great divide, where the citizens of the City of God will be separated from the citizens of the City of Man. The citizens of the City of Man will be condemned and cast out. Then Jesus is going to radically renovate the world in which we live. This earth, it’s going to be way, way bigger, way better than it is now. The citizens of the City of God will remain in this new, radically renovated earth, and Jesus will live amongst us forever. That’s in essence the trajectory of the Christian faith. Those of us who love Jesus will remain on this planet in this new paradise that Jesus creates for us. Augustine wrote significantly about this. So, full disclosure, I am greatly influenced by Augustine. In this morning’s message, I’m going to lean a lot on Augustine’s work. Why did Augustine feel the need to write so much about this? Why is Abraham looking forward to this city? Why does the writer of Hebrews, of all the things he can mention about Abraham, why is this the thing that he feels the need to hold up? The city we’re looking forward to is probably a really big deal. We should think about it often. So this morning, I plan to give you four descriptions of that future city. I’m going to give you four observations from Scripture, and then I want to give you two practical applications. But first, let’s ask God for help. Father in heaven, we thank you for your word, the Bible, this sacred text that is without error, that accurately depicts the life of Abraham and tells us about that great future city. Thank you for teachers like Augustine and other pastors throughout Christian history who have helped us to understand some of these concepts. And now, Lord, as we examine a few verses from Scripture this morning, I pray we would think about that future city, and it would shape how we live our lives. Would you be pleased to use the reality of the future city, the one that Abraham looked forward to? May that reality shape how we live in this world. And may we leave this place this morning more convinced of the future city and more passionate about looking forward to it than when we walked in. I pray these things in the matchless name of Jesus. Amen.   Observations From the Text Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 10, speaking of Abraham: “For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”   The city that Abraham was looking forward to goes by several different names. It can be confusing because it’s described in different ways. In Hebrews chapter 12, the writer of Hebrews gives multiple names to this city. The writer of Hebrews, speaking about the Jewish people, implies that they missed out on entering into this city because they were disobedient. But then he says this in verse 22, speaking to the Christians, “But you have come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.” So in one verse, he uses three different descriptors, three different phrases to describe this future city that Abraham’s looking forward to. He says, it’s Mount Zion. It’s the city of the living God. It’s the heavenly Jerusalem. Those are the three descriptors. The word Zion he’s picking up on from the Old Testament. The word Zion is used dozens of times throughout the Old Testament, primarily by Isaiah and Jeremiah. In their prophecies, they use the word Zion, or sometimes the city of Zion, house of Zion, or Mount Zion. They’re always referring to the same thing. They’re saying that there’s this moment in the future where all of God’s people from all generations will gather. That gathering is called Zion. He’s saying to them, you Christians, you are the ones who have now come to the entryway of this city, of this great gathering, t

https://youtu.be/zrskQkvlSXI?si=n9flo9-ph5kUfzxc Introduction: Higher Expectations It is a very unpleasant experience to be called into the teacher’s office after you hand in an assignment that you know wasn’t your best work. The teacher sits you down and looks at you, and says, This work isn’t like you. This isn’t the normal quality you usually submit. You normally do work much better than this. Your expected performance is much higher. It’s not a great feeling. If we are being honest, it feels like getting punched in the gut. Especially when you know it’s true. You know that the work that you submitted wasn’t as good, that you hadn’t put in the full effort. You phoned it in on this one, maybe out of discouragement or out of tiredness. The author of Hebrews, like a master teacher or coach, is doing the same thing for his audience. In our passage this morning, Hebrews 10:19-39, the author of Hebrews, like a good mentor or a good teacher, is coaching his readers to continue on in their former diligence, not to be content with this kind of work. He does this by first pointing out the ample resources available to them to draw on to aid them in their work. Then he warns them of the consequences of falling back in their faith. Finally, he’s going to encourage them, reminding them of their potential. They were successful in the past, and he is so confident that they will persevere until the end.   Make Use of Your Gifts We read beginning in Hebrews 10, verse 19: “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 high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.” In the letter to the Hebrews, there is this beautiful sermon about faithfulness to Jesus and all the blessings and riches that the believer stands to gain that he has through Christ. This better covenant has been discussed over the past nine chapters, and now, at this point in chapter 10, the hope is that the Christian would make use of all these gifts and blessings. Full access to God has been granted through the sacrifice of Jesus. We have an amazing High Priest, better than we could imagine. So the reader is urged to make use of these great privileges. May you draw near to God with that full assurance of faith he’s giving you, because you have been sprinkled clean, you have been washed, you have been purified through Jesus. Draw near and hold fast to your confession. You’ve been given these resources, so you should use them. Why is studying your Bible exciting? Because it’s going to recount to you the love and care that God has for you. Why is reading theology worthwhile? Because it’s talking about the faithfulness of our God. Hold fast to the confession of your hope, because the One who made it is faithful both to you and to all of his promises. It should be obvious what should be done. If we have these blessings, then we should take every opportunity to draw on them, to recall them, to meditate on them. If I have the Torchy’s Tacos gold card and I get free queso every time I show up to Torchy’s, why would I go to Torchy’s and not get free queso? As silly as that analogy is, that’s what’s going on here in Hebrews. He’s saying, you’ve been given these awesome blessings. You’ve got these gifts, you have these tools. Make use of them, use them. Don’t go to Torchy’s and not get free queso. Draw near to God. Hold fast to the sure hope that you have in Jesus.   Consider Ways to Stir Up Love Now, as we move on, in verse 24, it says: “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day is drawing near.” Christians should take time to consider the way they can stir up other Christians to love, demonstrating that love through good works. Stir up is usually more of a negative word, used to agitate a crowd, but here it’s used positively. In the same passion, with the same fiery fervor, you might start a protest over something, do that. But do that for believers to love Jesus more. Stir them up. Fan the flames. Encourage the new believer to draw near to God’s word and to grow in prayer. Show others how valuable this Christian community is. Warm the heart of the suffering brother who may be going through a spiritually dry season. Call out and keep accountable others whose love may be diminished from the gloom of sin. These are just some of the ways. There are many others that you could stir up Christians to love and good works. The word I want to focus on here for a minute is consider. The challenge here is not only to go about stirring up others to love Jesus and obey him, but to think about ways to do this in advance of meeting those brothers and sisters on a Sunday morning. Plan out before Sunday morning gets here, ways that you can minister to others during the Sunday gathering. So when Thursday, Friday, and Saturday roll around in your busy week, take some time to plan for church, to prep for how you might encourage, uplift, or challenge others to follow Jesus. Don’t leave the stirring up of others to improvisation. All of us do this planning naturally for other things. I don’t think anyone here would invite someone over for dinner and not plan out a single detail until that person walked in the door. No, you make a plan for them coming over. All of us do this naturally and innately. We invite someone over, and we naturally start to think of what we need to do for them. We need to clean the house, we need to get it ready. We need to cook the roast, we need to go to the grocery store. We need to make a list so that when we go to the grocery store, we don’t forget something. In the same way, you should plan in advance. Consider ways to stir up others in the church. Give thought to the advanced planning of how you might encourage, equip, bless, admonish, and correct the fellow members of the church on Sunday morning. You can’t stir up others if you’re not around others. It’s obvious, but it needs to be said. So Hebrews reminds you not to neglect meeting together as the church, and it puts more urgency on doing so since the race is almost finished. The day of the Lord is near. For those of you who may have been in church for a long time, you’ve probably heard these verses before, and they’ve probably been in the context of exhorting you not to neglect meeting together. Don’t skip church because it’s bad for you. That you need the church, that’s the way you grow, and you miss out on so many benefits and equipping for yourself if you skip church. So make it a regular habit. Don’t be absent because you’re leaving behind growth for yourself, and it’s not good for your soul. I want to reiterate that it is all true, but I want us to look at this text from another angle this morning. Don’t neglect meeting together because there are others in the church who need you. There are other people on Sunday morning who need your particular encouragement. They need your help. They need your presence. You have been gifted. The scriptures tell us you’ve been gifted with special gifts and talents and abilities, encouragements, even just special words. These are given to you by God for the purpose of ministering to others in the church. You’re not gifted for your own upliftment, for your own spiritual growth, for your own edification. You have been gifted uniquely by God so others will benefit. When you neglect meeting together, when you make a habit of doing so, you’re robbing, removing, holding back those gifts that are needed by other people in the church. Don’t neglect meeting together because other people may need you. You’re necessary. It’s good, it’s important that you took the time to be here. Prioritize the church gathering, yes, because it’s good for you. But make sure that the church is a priority because we need you here. We need you with us. I need you stirring up love and good works in my heart.   A Warning from the Writer of Hebrews Now, the great teacher and coach, the author of Hebrews, is going to move into a very stark warning. He’s reminded us of the resources we have, the abilities that we have, and the community needed to help each other along the way. Now he’s going to give us a warning of what happens if we continue to go down the road of poor-quality work. What will happen if we embrace a pattern of neglecting the church, neglecting the gifts that Jesus has given us? What if we freely draw back, and instead we become apathetic and stagnant in our faith? What’s going to happen if you follow that path? Maybe that’s what the audience of Hebrews is starting to walk down. So we read in verse 26 this warning: “For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, ‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay.’ And again, ‘The Lord will judge his people.’ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” This is a strong, harsh warning to the believers that a judgment awaits those who fall away. What happens if they continue to hand in subpar work? What happens if they become lax? 
If they start to treat the gifts that God