Having A Priest Better Than You – Part 3 (Hebrews 8:1-6)
Having A Priest Better Than You – Part 3 (Hebrews 8:1-6)
God’s Messages 💌
Today…….I am asking all my prayer warriors to say a prayer that may help others. So many people are hurting right now. Many are struggling with finances and need jobs. Some are facing foreclosure and don’t even know how they are going to make it from week to week.. Many are lonely. . Many are heartbroken. . Many are facing sickness and health is fading. . Some are dealing with difficult family members. Many have lost HOPE.. Tonight, let us put our prayers and faith together decree and declare breakthrough over our families. Financial miracles WILL take place. Jobs WILL be found. Our Bodies WILL be made whole & sickness WILL flee. Marriages and relationships WILL be restored. Family members WILL find Jesus. Heartbreaks WILL be healed. JOY WILL be restored and HOPE WILL be found. In Jesus Name. Amen!!!!!! Keep God First…….
Grabbing your bibles to Hebrews chapter 8.
Uh, we cracked open the first, uh, 6 verses of chapter 8 last time together.
and we are considering this challenge of having a priest better than yourself.
It’s very important as we made a point last time together.
Uh, it’s throughout human history that man had sought after and has achieved no matter what level of development or age that man has either created or established or has had or enjoyed the relationship of either knowing god or fabricating god’s uh, because man has a religious
need within him, and it’s in within you. And you cannot deny it. It’s there.
You can talk about it all you want.
and say it doesn’t exist, but the fact is it is true.
And what you wanna make sure that you have as a As a follower of Christ, anyway, is that you have Jesus as your great high priest, that you have Christ as your 1 and only.
How’s that? and having a priest that’s better than you ought to be your goal in life.
And I know that, uh, many of
you come on Wednesday nights from other churches, which I’m very grateful for It’s very honoring that you would take your midweek and come to this service, even though you attend other churches.
And I just wanna put this challenge out to you to make sure that you have a priest that is better than you.
And, Hebrew chapter 8 verse 1 says, for this is the main point of the things we’re saying.
We have such a high priest who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle which the lord erected and not man.
Okay? You catching on, a priest that is better than you, He’s not of this world, and his tabernacle is not of this world.
Verse 3. For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices.
Therefore, it is necessary that this one we’re speaking about Jesus also have something to offer.
For if he, Christ, were on earth, he would not be a priest since there are priests plural who offer the gifts according to the law, who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things.
Notice the priority of this now.
As Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle for he said that as god said, I believe it was Christ who said, to Moses, see that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.
When god was with Moses on Mount Sinai, god gave him the blueprints to the Tabernacle.
You will read that in the book of Exodus.
But now he, that’s Christ, has obtained a more excellent ministry in as much as he is also mediator of a better covenant, of which is which was established on better promises.
So inside, you and I engineered within you and I is the the functioning of being a spiritual creature.
You are a spiritual individual.
If you’re an atheist or not, doesn’t matter.
You are a spiritual individual. God made you that way, and it’s evidenced
in the way that we live, how we think, the things that we, um, even battle with, Uh,
for example, uh, I I trust you do not battle with the existence of god.
Now I enjoy that, but there was a time maybe in our lives when we battled regarding the existence of god because we didn’t know that.
And we didn’t want him to find out about our lives.
We didn’t want our god to know or this got to know or some god to know what we were really doing maybe in the dark or whatever.
And so we try to argue out of our minds the existence of god, but that that is a rough way to live.
It’s a hard way to live. And I think this is kinda fun.
I don’t know if you’ll enjoy it. I enjoyed it today, putting these final notes together on this.
But as as I look at you right now and as you look at
me right now, Uh, you’re looking at at 1 third
of who I really am.
I’m looking at 1 third of who you are.
You ever think about that? And I’m gonna prove it to you in a moment.
Two thirds of who you are
as a human being is not visible. She said, what in the world are you talking about?
I knew you had asked. So when I say that two thirds of you is not visible and only one third of you is visible, I think you’re catching on that the 1 third of who you are is the physical structure of your body, your bio,
machine, your human machine is your body. It is literally an organic machine.
It’s got joints, and it’s got nuts and bolts, and it’s got connectors, and then it’s got a rhythm, and it’s got movement, and it’s got shape and it’s got all these things, but it’s a biological machine.
It’s a biomachine. It’s biotechnical. It’s organic. It’s from this world. It’s your body.
But the 2 thirds is not.
1st, thessalonians chapter 5 verse 23 begins by saying, now may the god of peace himself sanctify you completely.
That’s the whole of you, and may your whole spirit, soul, and body There’s the whole of you.
Right now, I can only see your body.
I can’t see your soul, and I can’t see your spirit.
Be preserved, blameless, at the coming of our lord, Jesus Christ, and he who calls you is faithful, who will also do it.
The redemption of Jesus Christ, you and I are only experiencing part of it.
There’s a day coming when it will happen in totality.
But right now, you and I operate in a way where we focus much on the 1 third and not so much on the 2 third And then things happen in life that shake up the 1 third, right, earthquake, fire, health issue challenge.
And all of a sudden, you’d you’d dive deep to see what’s on the inside of you when the crisis hits.
Where do you go when the waves hit?
And you dive down, and you better find 2 thirds of you very much alive, very much of you anchored to Christ.
And, um, the Bible’s very clear that god is at work sanctifying you, body, soul, and spirit.
You you are a trichotomy created in the image of god.
Jeremiah chapter 17 verse 10,
I’m gonna be, uh, kind
of bringing this up in kind of a clumsy way, but Jeremiah 1710 says, I, the lord, search the heart.
He’s not talking about cardiovascular research here, friends. He’s talking about the deep seated part of your emotions.
So he says I search the heart, I test the mind.
The heart and the mind are 2 different things.
even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings, by the way, before somebody does something, it’s in his heart and its mind before it’s ever done.
Right? Verse 11. As a partridge that broods but does not hatch so is he who gets riches, but not by right.
It will leave him in the midst of his days and at his end, he will be a fool.
A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary.
The point is what you think, what you purse pro pursue is what defines your life’s purpose in living and how things end.
In other words, what is invisible is somehow someday coming out physical.
It’s on the inside now, but who are you?
And god says, I know the mind and I know your heart. Psalm 139 verse 23.
The psalmist says, search me o god and know my heart. Try me and know my anxieties.
Verse 24
says, and see
if there’s any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.
He’s talking about his heart, his mind, his soul, not his body, Be awakened to that right now.
Be aware of that. 1st Chronicles 28 verse 9 says, as for you my son, Solomon, know that god, the god of your father, and serve him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind.
for the lord searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts.
If you seek him, He will be found by you.
But if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever. Body, soul, spirit.
One more before we dive into this, Job chapter 16 verse 21, Jobe said, I need someone to mediate between god and me as a person mediates between friends.
Jobe was in his trouble, and he’s asking for help.
I need somebody to talk to god on my behalf.
By the way, I said it the other day, but I wanna remind you of it.
Um, don’t think that the book of Genesis is the oldest book in the Bible.
The book of Job is the oldest book in the Bible. oldest book in the Bible, some
of the oldest writing in, uh, known to man, the book of Job. Verse 22, goes on there.
For soon, I must go down that road from which I will never return 17 verse 1.
My spirit is crushed and my life is nearly snuffed out. The grave is ready to receive me.
Job didn’t have a he didn’t have a Bible.
Jobe didn’t have any understanding other than what god had been given him directly. And Job predates Moses.
And you think about this for a moment as and Job is crying out.
I need somebody to talk to god to represent me. I I wanna cry out to a mediator.
I need one. That would be a priest, my friend.
That’s what a priest stood us for, is to mediate your situation before god.
Listen, do you have that? And do you have that with absolute assurance?
Do you know this? And, listen, we can say, watch my fingers.
We can say, as Christians, it’s Jesus. It’s Jesus. but in times of trouble, is it really Jesus?
Where does the 2 thirds of you go?
You can be in church with the 1 third And the 2 thirds of you would be a thousand miles away if you think about it.
This is serious stuff.
what we saw last time that having a high priest better than you means this in verses 1 and 2 is that, uh, is having a better covenant.
Jesus brings us
a better covenant and we saw it
this way. In verse 1, we saw that it’s Jesus Christ is that he’s the better covenant.
He’s the author of it. He’s the bringer gifter. He’s the provider of it.
We saw also last time that Jesus Christ is the better architect, and it’s at this point that we began to leave off, and we ended where in verse 2, it says that he’s a minister of the sanctuary and of the tabernacle, which the lord erected and not man, And we ended here at this challenge of Matthew chapter 16.
Uh, and just bring us to your your remembrance. when Jesus took the disciples to testify, and remember what
he said, who do
you say that I am? Because everybody was shouting. Do you remember that church from last week?
They were all shouting great as Diana or great as Zeus, and they were going through their worship.
And Jesus is, but who do you say that I am?
And remember, Peter, under the influence of god the father confesses and says thou art the Christ, the son of the living god.
In that confession, it’s an automatic you’re the Christ, the son of the living god.
That would make Jesus to Peter his ultimate priest.
It’s not a priest on earth, even though they’re called priests.
I’m ordained But you’re I listen, I’m not your priest.
There is no priest on earth that can do priestly things for you that can set you right apart from Jesus.
You’re priesthood, listen, with all due respect.
I know you’ve gone through the school, and you’ve gone 4, 6, 8 years, disciplined difficulty, hard stuff.
And and and now you’ve and you’re you’ve been ordained, and you’re a priest But listen, according to the Bible, a priest needs the great priest.
We all need the great high priest Jesus Christ.
And if we look to an earthly priest, we’ve got trouble because nothing can be done about that.
The architect of our salvation is none other than Jesus Christ, and he’s the one that not only as architect built, so to speak, the building, the gates of hell shall not prevail against my church.
Who made that promise? Jesus made that promise. How’s he gonna do it? By the power of his own mind.
How does that work? Because he shed his blood in the cross for our sins. Well, how are we forgiven?
Through atonement, Christ paid the sacrifice for our sins, and he rose again from the dead for our justification.
And then the Bible tells us now that we have a priest that is ascended on high into heaven, that we are to go directly to him.
And by the way, I don’t care what order you might be as a priest.
You know what I just said.
It’s true. You’re just not telling anybody. It’s not good it’s not good
for your priestly business, but it’s true. Priest need a priest. So where do they go?
Well, I hope so. I hope to go to Jesus because that’s where you’re supposed to go.
Amen. So church, it’s now versus 34 for tonight.
and this is where we’ll take it on and then end with it as well.
Having high priest better than you is one having a better conclusion. I’m big on this.
How do how does the relationship between your priest and you bring you to the best conclusion possible?
And again, I speak tonight, and I don’t mean to upset anybody, but I wanna be direct with the truth.
Please, it’s all about truth.
And sometimes the truth can cut, but like a surgeon scalpel, it can cut to excise the poison or to take out the cancer.
and let the word
of god do the cutting tonight. And it is this.
that the priesthood of Jesus Christ is all built and designed with a conclusion.
And that conclusion is not based on some ritualistic performance or procedure.
regarding perhaps your departure from this world. Do you understand this, everybody?
The Bible says to be absent from the body is to be present. To be present with the lord.
There are traditions that are built by priesthoods. They all they have differing things, but know this.
What’s the conclusion? Well, we don’t have a conclusion until the priest arrives. Who says?
Well, we need to have a some somebody needs to make a pronouncement. Who says that?
Where’s that as where’s this in the Bible?
You need to know that if you’re trusting Jesus Christ as your lord and savior, the moment you stop breathing or you die, As a believer, you’re immediately escorted in the presence of the lord Jesus Christ based upon his promises, not any actions of any man on earth.
It’s Christ alone. And this shakes us up.
We want a religion that we can touch and feel, and we can have this connection where, uh, I feel better.
I went and I unloaded on this guy, all of my concerns or whatever it might be, or I did these things, and I got my I got my happy face on my booklet.
And, listen, do you you do understand, right? That’s like putting a Band Aid on a hemorrhage.
It doesn’t work. It makes you feel better for a moment.
And you’re thinking, well, I’ll just take care of it again next week. That’s called Antinomianism.
And I’m not even gonna tell you what that means. I could, but I won’t.
You gotta look it up. If you care enough, you look it up.
If you’re thinking right now that you’re gonna confess your sins for next week on a certain time and place, you are an anti Nomianist and you better find out what the Bible says about that.
The truth of the Christian life is to walk in a constant awareness that the high priest lives not only in heaven above on his throne, but by the holy spirit in your heart, in the eternal now at all times.
walking along with you, leading you and guiding you in the right now moments of life.
Why would you settle for something any less than that when Christ wants to dwell within in you, and he’s got a better conclusion.
For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices.
Listen, I don’t mean to be rude, but every high priest, this is on earth, is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices.
Who
does the appointing? Think of it. You see
where I’m going? I’m talking about hierarchy here.
If you’ve got a priest that’s gonna take care of your entrance into heaven, how did that priest get that power?
Who gave it
to him? You see where this goes?
You follow the trail, and it goes back to the making up of a plan and have an idea that you’re not finding in the Bible.
It’s not in the Bible.
Therefore, it is necessary.
The Bible here says that this one speaking of Christ is awesome. also have something to offer.
So what does this mean? Well, when there was an earthly priesthood that got allowed to be a symbol in a type, the priest would walk into the temple, into the sacrifice, or I should say, into the holy
of holies with blood from an animal. He had to go he couldn’t go in there without blood.
And by the way, before he went in there, he had to he had to ask god to forgive him of his own sins before he could walk in there and offer up an offering on
behalf of the people. Okay?
So what god does, he announces in the old testament and in the new that all of that stuff was just a symbol and a type of that better thing that was to come.
and that’s Jesus Christ. Listen. Verse 3 teaches us that the better covenant has the better offering.
It’s the better offering. It’s Jesus.
What is this verse is asking if priests took in blood from an animal, to cover over your sins, didn’t take your sin away, then regarding this one we’re speaking about Christ, what offering did he make?
What is it that he brought In other words, what was in his hands?
And that’s a great question.
You can pick whatever religion you’re involved in. What are you listen. Listen. My listen.
My Muslim friends. Listen. My Jewish friends. Listen.
What are you doing right now about your sins?
Because you have to have blood to atone for your sins.
So if you’re Jewish, you say, I have good works for now.
We have no temple God understands it’s my good works.
Moses wouldn’t punch you for saying that.
If you’re a Muslim, then it’s animal blood or your own blood.
Gosh, at least they’re at least the Muslim is looking for an innocent life to cover their sins, to think that good works can cover your sins as an unseen thought.
Because the moment you start, you say, okay, from here on out, I’m gonna do good works. Okay.
That’s fine. We’ll all we’ll all appreciate it, but here’s the problem.
What are you gonna do about your past stuff? Well, I’m gonna I’m gonna start good now.
How can good come out of bad when you’re talking about these things?
Because when you and I wake up to our need of god, do you know what we wake up to?
Our need of god? Amen. We don’t wake up and say, mama, I have look.
Oh, I’m just gonna turn over a whole new leaf. And it’s it’s New Year’s midnight.
And this is my resolution. You don’t do that.
You I mean, you do that, but it doesn’t last longer than a few hours. Yeah.
And you know it’s true. So the question is, what are you gonna do about your sins?
Your lustful thoughts, your ang your angry temper or your selfishness, or I don’t know, whatever it is.
Who’s your priest? Where is he? What conclusion does this priest that you bow your need to.
What what’s the conclusion of his priesthood?
Where does he get you, or where do they, or where does it get you?
These are the questions that we need to ask.
Thank god the Bible gives us the answers.
By the way, that word necessary, verse 3, regarding this priest, um, therefore, it is necessary that this one, the Christ Jesus, it is also have something to offer.
Look at this incredible definition. a more necessary. Jesus is more necessary.
Jesus is better than what was, needful or needed by pressing. Watch how this goes. It develops by pressing.
What does that mean to press tightly together?
or to bond 2 or more together, to bond god to man and man to god, to adhere the redeemer.
I love this, to the redeemed.
Bond. Remember super glue? Remember that stuff came out? That stuff was dangerous.
At first, when super glue came out, we thought we thought about playing with it. We played with it.
And then they had to put a bind like lock and key for a while because kids were gluing their mouth shut and stuff and fingers together.
Do you remember that in school? Did you go to
the same school I went to?
It is awesome that the priesthood of Jesus Christ He’s bonded to us.
He’s the redeemer. We’re the ones he’s redeeming, and he’s saying, I’m bonded to you.
The minister I give to you and offer you, I’m bonded to you, which means what?
Which means now that we’re bonded, nothing’s gonna separate us. is listen.
With what I just said, is that consistent in the Bible?
Is that consistency there that what god has saved He’s gonna save all the way through? Absolutely.
Nothing shall separate us from the love of god, which is in Christ Jesus. That’s what the Bible says.
We are bonded. It is necessary. You couldn’t be bonded to any earthly priest.
There’s nothing that he could do to preach such a power.
But because of who Christ is, that power resides within him, he is the I am, the all becoming one, the the one that is exactly what you need.
He’s the better offering.
The Bible says in Philippians 27. Philippians chapter 2 verse 7, I’m going to give you these 2 passages.
Philippians 27 through 11, you can write it down, and then X Four verse 12.
I would just keep reading them.
Uh, but he made himself of no reputation.
taking the form of a bond servant, a slave, talking about Jesus, and coming in the likeness of men or mankind, and being found in appearance as a man.
Isn’t that awesome language?
You guys get excited about I get excited about that. That’s, like, awesome. Because god’s not a human.
He became a human to save us. I like that. He humbled himself to become like us.
He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
Therefore, God has highly exalted him and given him a name, which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every nation bow, of those in heaven and those on earth and those under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is lord to the glory of god, the father.
Verse 11 is critical. If you cannot say from your tongue, from your lips right now tonight and mean it that that’s effectual that Jesus Christ is lord to the glory
of god, the father, then you’re you are lost the Bible would say that you’re lost.
See, when people I’ve I’ve heard people say, you know, Jesus is lord or whatever, but the life that they don’t live it, I I too have seen people like that.
Their their life confirms
their confession. If their life doesn’t back up what they’re saying, that’s called hypocrisy.
No. We’re all
hypocrites. But there’s blatant hypocrisy where you call Jesus lord, but you’re the one that directs your life.
You call them lord, but you’re the one that, really, you you do what you wanted.
You’re the lord, really. But at the right time, you you call them lord. that Jesus is lord.
So when g when we say Jesus is lord,
from that moment on, we better live like it.
Right? Jesus is not fire insurance. You buy that for your house.
He’s the lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Lord is his title. Jesus is his name, and Christ is his mission, Messiah.
x412, nor is there salvation in any other. Isn’t that so narrow, right? Absolutely.
so narrow, and I love it.
For there’s no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
Wow. That’s my priest. I hope he’s your priest.
I hope your priest is way better than you.
And I’m so grateful my priest is way better than me. Good.
And I hope we share that same priest, and I hope it’s Jesus Christ.
The second consideration is in verse 4 that there’s a better covenant, and it has a better location.
Oh my goodness.
I I don’t I don’t have much time to to speak on this, but quickly in the wilderness of is of of of, uh, but we would say today, Saudi Arabia, the the northern part of Egypt.
And then when they crossed over into, what is today, Saudi Arabia? the southern portion.
Uh, you’re talking about the priesthood
the coming together for me.
You’ve got Moses, you’ve got the arc of the covenant, you’ve got the tabernacle, the wilderness, which is kind of cool.
I should have done more homework on this optically for you.
When the children of Israel left Egypt, and they were divided up in their tribes.
Are you guys awake? Yes. Yes.
When they were divided
up in their tribes, you know, the Bible goes to great lengths to tell you how many thousands of people were in each tribe.
And there’s 12 tribes. And it’s spectacular because whenever you lay out How many from this group?
This group goes west, and you count them out.
This group goes east, and it gives the tribe this tribe this tribe this tribe to the east.
This tribe to the north or tribes to the north, and these tribes to the south.
You see? From the center of the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle is what house the Arkana covenant.
and around it was a bit fence with poles, animal skin, tapestries, beautiful, but it was a tent.
had a holy place, brazen altar, incense to be burned, table of showbread, holy of holies.
And the Bible says that when the glory of god began to move, everybody had to break up camp and follow the glory of god.
In the book of numbers, it tells you that people would look to see if god was moving, if the glory of god over the tabernacle was moving, And if it was not moving, they
would stay put. And it said sometimes it would be a a few days. Sometimes it would be weeks.
I love it. Every day, you had to take a look to see which way god was going.
Isn’t that what we’re supposed to do? How do we do that?
Isn’t it amazing that when you open up your Bible on any particular day, you read this thing and you’re going, and it’s almost like, that he led you right to that portion of scripture just for that day’s challenges.
He’s still doing it. His glory is still leading. but it’s better than it was before.
Way better. See, Jack, what could be better than that?
To see this incredible manifestation in the wilderness, And the the the display of the tribes, if we got in a helicopter and looked down from the top, it was a perfect shape of a cross.
And the top of the cross, when they moved, and then when they pitched their tent, the top was always pointing towards Jerusalem.
Isn’t it amazing? What a coincidence?
It’s cool as all that was.
It was not anything to what was coming. The location matters.
The Old Testament offerings covered your sins.
the new testament offering takes away your sense. Yeah. Yeah. Location is everything.
And so wanna read you this for a moment.
You you you you need to hear this. You need to prepare yourself.
I guess, but before I read that, I should say this. I wrote this down to myself.
All of us love a good view. Don’t you love a good view?
I don’t on me. It doesn’t matter what it is.
I want a good view.
Are you, like, you, like, you, Troy? Why would why do you wanna sit in the back?
Look. I mean, it’s like, wait.
I can’t even see who’s on stage? Wait. What is that?
you want a good view.
When you go to the theater,
you want a good view. When you go to a a orchestra or to a a play, you want a good you want a good view.
When you look. You go on a vacation.
You wanna get the best view you possibly can.
What’s the view? Lisa Lisa does all that stuff.
you know, the, you know, the heavy lifting, and I’m in I’m on the side.
What’s but but what’s the view?
Well, that there’s a it’s you can see some of the water.
What does that mean? What does that mean?
I have to sit on the
I have to. He said, no. Me it’s so funny. People see.
No. Not me, Pastor. I want the aisle seat in case I have to get out.
Okay. Like we’re gonna survive. Right? You knock yourself out there, champ.
I’m just gonna lay in here on the window and just watch the whole thing unfold.
But I gotta have
the window seat. And, I am so serious about this many times in flights.
My neck gets all messed up because I keep looking out the window.
Location matters because from the location is a better view.
The Bible tells us here And here’s what the warning is. I’ve I’ve literally on my notes.
If you’re following me from the notes online, it’s page
7. It says, read this warning label.
The following verses may cause dizziness, increased heart rate, general uneasiness, and possible fits of anger for having been misled
Hebrews chapter 10 verse
1112. Every priest stands ministering daily here on earth, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices which can never take away sins.
But this man, capital m, Jesus, after he had offered 1 sacrifice, by the way, that’s exclusion.
1 one sacrifice. Jesus, listen, palpitations coming up, heart attack nearing, it means Jesus suffered once, never to suffer again.
His body was offered up once and for all, never again. He never suffered again.
We do not crucify him again. We do not put in through pain again.
There are listen, around the world, there are crucifixes.
and some still have Jesus hanging on it. That’s blasphemous. He’s not on the cross.
He’s not suffering anymore. He’ll never suffer again. He suffered once and for all.
The high prince was enough
when your god dine for the sins of man.
But this man after he had, uh, offered 1 sacrifice for sins forever, sat down.
at the right hand of god. What a view?
What a when you’re in the front row, you can sit down.
k? And have a perfect view.
Think about it. You can sit down from the vantage point. You can rest. Why?
Perfect view. Kristen, as we wrap this up, do you have a perfect view
of what Jesus has done for you?
Do you understand? that he and he alone is your salvation, that he and he alone can guarantee you entrance into heaven.
Nobody else Don’t show up. Don’t listen.
Don’t play with this stuff and then die and and and stand there and say, uh, well, I went to I was I I went to Wizzie Knights at Calvary,
The angels are gonna say,
what are you talking about? You can’t drop names My mom my mom I’m sure my mom’s here back in there somewhere.
Ask my mom if I
no. Not gonna happen. Well, my grandfather was a great preacher.
Well, I hope he was saved. And if he was, he’s in heaven. Hey. Listen. Seriously.
It’s because you preach the Bible. Doesn’t mean you’re saved.
You gotta be born again?
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Think of that. Are you I’m doing everything I can
to get you to feel a little sense of dizziness. little heart rate going, why?
Because you’ll be thinking. Wait a minute. That priest told me I was forgiven.
Not good.
On what basis did he tell you you were forgiven?
What basis on what basis are you forgiven?
I can tell you right now, on the basis of the cross, I’m forgiven. Yeah. Yeah.
No priest on earth goes to the cross for you. they can’t.
And even if they did, it’d be a waste of time. And then we end right here.
The better covenant has the better benefits I don’t know about you, but benefits are really great.
I’ll get paid $3 an hour if there’s great benefits. benefits.
Since they’re at citizen verse 4, since there are there are since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law, this verse completely separates Jesus Christ from that practice.
Jesus doesn’t offer gifts according to the law. Jesus offered himself once according to the gospel of grace.
The law points your need out.
Once you wake up to the workings of the law pointing out your need, your response is I need Christ.
I need grace. I need god’s grace because I just woke up to the fact that, boy, am I in trouble?
And god says, yes,
you are. However, I’ve got the Evendel for you, the gospel, the good news. What’s the good news?
The good news is if you bring me all your junk, give me all your sin.
Think about it. bring it to me. See, immediately, our human nature is, nope. Pull back.
Pull back. Where wait. Where are you pulling back to? Where are you going? This is our human nature.
When your little kid gets busted, notice they try to hide The fact, you know, they shaved all the hair off of
the the little doll or whatever it is. The You know what I’m saying?
But they have you noticed that they hide it? No. No. No. No. Come out with it.
Don’t hide it. What did Adam and Eve do? Did they bring it forward?
You know, do you realize you guys tonight that if Adam and Eve would have said
God, we did this.
I mean, she started it, but but we did we did this. Do you know listen.
Do you know what what do you know about the nature of god?
if if they would have went forward, the nature of god says
he would have forgiven them. Amen.
But because they tried to bury it, because they tried to hide it, because they took the works of religion, which was to sew leaves together and cover up them themselves, themselves sin now.
They knew they were sinners. So what they do? We know we’re sinners.
What should we do? Let’s hide it.
And when god says, Adam, where are you? Okay.
Look. Don’t you? The god of the Bible knew exactly where Adam was.
What is he saying? Do you remember when Jesus said to Judith Judith?
Is it with the kiss that you betrayed the son of man?
Jesus was basically saying to Judith. Judith. Are you sure you wanna follow through with this?
How many times has god said to us?
Mike, where are you? Susie, where are you?
You know, name the name, your name. Jack, where are you?
And what he wants is for us to say, I’m right here,
I’m so sorry. I should never have done that. And when you’ve confessed,
When you say the same word about the sin that god says about it, he forgives you.
Amen. When you when you point to people,
And blame, you wind up being here in the 21st century.
like we are today. God would have totally forgiven them.
Wouldn’t have been, I mean, well, I mean, god knows what he’s doing, but it’s just like, wow.
But, you know, we’re just like that. No, man.
That that Adam, he blew it. Oh, listen. Don’t get so high and mighty.
you would have done the same thing, apparently. The benefits is this.
Get yourself a high priest with the best benefits possible.
and they belong to Jesus, my friend. Let’s stand. Let’s stand.
I’m gonna read you this portion of scripture.
You’re not gonna get better than this.
Yeah. I don’t understand.
I don’t you you we don’t understand the grief, the pain, the heartache, the sorrow.
God never told us to understand it. God told us to believe him, to trust him.
I don’t understand when I meet people who have taken drugs, all their lives, drunks, womanizers, or have lived whatever the lifestyle they lived.
I mean, they’re 45, and they look like they’re
70.
They’re they’re just a child of the world and they’re every mile is on their face because, you know, this world’s mean, and it eats people up.
And the except Christ and their life is renewed and made new and they’re a brand new person.
And and they come into the office and they announced that they’ve got terminal cancer.
Just just when you think, man, this person is what?
What a witness? This person’s got
a ministry galore. God takes them home. Who who can figure this out?
How is it that you and I know people that have been wicked wicked people.
They’ve lived such long lives. Some of them very prosperous lives and they’re terrible people.
And you have been a Christ follower, and you’ve tried to dot all the I’s and cross the t’s, and you just scrape by, or you you get kicked around in life like a tin can.
I don’t understand it. He never asked me to understand it. He asked me to trust him.
Yeah. Well, I’ve got a thing to say to god and I.
We understand your emotion, but when you see him, You’ll have a change of mind.
Revelation 21
starting at verse 10, and then we’ll sing this song.
So he took me in the spirit. John says to a great and high mountain.
He had he’s seen a vision of heaven, everybody.
And he showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, not the one on earth, descending out of heaven from god.
It’s shown with the glory of god and sparkled like a precious stone, like Jasper as clear as crystal.
The city wall was broad and high, with 12 gates are watched by 12 angels, and the names of the 12 tribes of Israel were written on the gates.
There were 3 gates on each side, east, north, south, and west.
and the wall of the city had 12 foundation stones.
And on them, were written the names of the 12 apostles of the lamb.
The angel who talked to me held in his hand a gold measuring stick to measure the city.
its gates and its wall.
When he measured it, he found it was a square as wide as it was long In fact, its length and its width, height were each 1400
miles. Then he measured the walls and found them to be 216 feet thick according to the human standard used by the angel.
That’s the that’s this distance. This from your fingertip to your baby thinker, span of your hand.
The wall was made of Jasper, and the city was pure uh, was pure gold.
As clear as glass, verse 19, and the wall of the city was built on foundation stones inlaid with 12 precious stones.
The first was Jasper, the second sapphire, the 3rd agate the 4th Emerald, the 5th Onyx, the 6th Carnillion, the 7th crystal light.
the 8th barrel, the 9th topaz, the 10th crystal far farce whatever that word is. Chris of ours.
Chris of ours. The 11th, Jason, the 12th amethyst, 1st 21. The 12 gates were made of pearls.
I mean, is this bling enough for you? Each gate from a single pearl
And the main street was pure gold. It’s clear as glass.
I saw no temple in the city, for the lord god almighty, and the lamb are its temple.
And this city was has no need of sun or moon.
for the glory of god illuminates the city, and the lamb is its life.
I hope I hope tonight that that lamb is your priest.
I hope you’re with us
to walk around. That’s just the city. That’s not heaven. That’s just the city.
4 1000 141400
Square miles in each. Can you imagine?
Father, we praise you tonight.
Such descriptions to excite us as children you have told us these things to get excited.
It’s like sitting in a little kid down and telling them what the journey is gonna be like.
We’re gonna see this. We’re gonna see that. We’re gonna see the other thing. Get them all excited.
I can’t wait to get in the car, can’t wait to leave, can’t wait to jump in.
father god, we pray that tonight.
You’d work that work in our hearts that we can’t wait to jump in.
We can’t wait to get going with you, god.
We can’t wait to leave the things and the heartbreak and the hurt of this world and enter into your presence.
That day’s coming. The 2 thirds of us can’t wait for that. Yes. This 1 third,
it needs to happen really soon.
Lord, we need to be changed in a moment in a twinkling of an eye Until then,
may we take your word more seriously than ever, may we walk this life praising you and rejoicing in you.
And god, I pray that you’d spoil these people here tonight.
with your kindness, gentleness, your love, your grace, your mercy.
And we give it all to you. God, we pray, watch over this church. Keep it.
keep us god. Keep us father from missing anything you wanna do. Keep us from success. Keep us from evil.
keep us father god from misstep, keep us from scandal, keep us from whatever the enemy would mean for harm.
cause us to walk in a way that pleases you.
Body, soul, and spirit, and all god’s people said, Amen. God bless you all.