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This morning, if you would turn with me into your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 10, verses 19 through 25.
This morning, we are not part of a series, kind of a one-off.
We'll be essentially helicoptering in or, you know, parachuting into a short passage out of the book of Hebrews.
Let's take a look at it and remind ourselves about the greatness of Jesus and how that thing that drives us, that moves us, that motivates us, that changes us, that Jesus draws us to each other.
And so this, just as a short reminder, the book of Hebrews is written, unknown author, written to Jewish converts.
It's essentially sermonic.
It's a sermon written so that people are encouraged in order to persevere, to be faithful to Christ in all the things that go on in their lives, whether good, bad or ugly, that they would remain faithful to Jesus.
And they would see the greatness of Jesus above everything else, no matter what they see, no matter what they face, no matter what they're tempted to do, they would see Jesus as greater.
But this morning, before we get started with our sermon, I'm going to ask you guys a question.
How do you handle critique?
How do you handle criticism?
If you're like me, yeah, I grit my teeth almost immediately.
I tense up a little bit.
Thank you for that.
It's so helpful.
How about this?
It's a necessity.
Oftentimes, I need people to tell me if I'm doing something wrong.
There's a saying that I had with my friends that friends tell each other when they have spinach in their teeth, enemies let it ride.
You know, like if you've got a hot date and your friend is going on a hot date and they have spinach in your teeth, you want to help them because you love them.
You're your friend.
But that's like, hey, dude, something's wrong.
And so any sort of critique or criticism, often we just get tense and we don't like it and we hate it and we don't want anybody to tell us what we're doing wrong.
We don't like it.
We just don't.
What about encouragement?
How many of us have ever felt awkward when someone has said, hey, man, you did a great job?
Oh, that feeling of someone else seeing something good that you've done.
For a lot of us, it's really helpful and good.
But a lot of us feels really awkward at times.
I don't know how to I don't know how to receive a compliment often.
What about how do you handle helping someone?
How do you approach them?
How do you go to them?
What about receiving help?
How do you ask for help?
Have you ever considered these things?
Right.
The idea is that there's this necessity for someone outside of ourselves to help us, for us to help someone else.
Right.
And as we look at this passage today, as we try and remember who we are and what we're here for and what we're called to do.
I want us to think about what we are called to do as we serve one another, as we love one another, because we belong to something bigger.
Right.
The title of my sermon is A Family of Faith.
We belong.
And I've said it several times already in our worship service.
We belong to a family.
We belong to something bigger, a community.
The church is something more than us just doing this Christian life by ourselves.
And so we belong to something bigger.
So let's pause there as you think about, think about the way you hear people speaking into your lives.
Let's hear from the word of God so that we might think rightly about it.
Let's, if you, in your Bibles, we're going to read Hebrews chapter 10, verses 19 to 25.
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 in 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.
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as the habit of some, but encouraging one another.
And all the more, as you see the day drawing near.
This is God's word.
Let's pray.
Father, would you help us to see your word rightly?
Help us to be changed and transformed and made more like Christ, to be sanctified, Lord.
Would we find ourselves more and more in love with you, more and more changed by your word?
Father, we thank you for all that you have done.
We thank you that this is a reminder, that this is a summary of the good news of the gospel.
And we pray that we would see it that way today.
We love you and we pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
All right, this morning, I want us to take a moment and see that we are a family of faith.
And immediately, if you read in chapter 10, right here in verse 19, I don't know if you've got a pew Bible.
It says, therefore, brothers, and then there's a note.
And if you look down and you have magnifying glass or you can see this, it says, or brothers and sisters.
Right, there's this Greek word that tells us that this is not just to the men of the church, the Hebrew men.
This is to God's people, all of God's people.
It's a reminder, in many ways, of us, the reality of family within the church.
A lot of us don't want to think this way.
I understand.
A lot of us come from families with brokenness, with hurt, with baggage.
And no one, we don't want to think about this as a family affair.
We don't want to think about this.
But in reality, even though there are hard and bad things that happen in families, there are tough realities to being in a family.
There is good, bad, and ugly.
Even though that's true, it doesn't mean we should throw it away.
It means that it should help change us when we look at it and we see it in the Bible.
When we see it in the scriptures, it's language of tenderness and care and love that we need, that we need to be reminded of too.
And so we need to be reminded that this is not just something that we've come to attend on Sunday morning from 930 to 1045, maybe 1030 today since the youth pastor's preaching.
You know, it's not something that we've, it's not just something we attend.
It's not something that we just do.
It's something we belong to because we belong to the God of the universe.
And so this is something that has to help change us.
And it doesn't just change us.
It changes our posture.
It changes how we relate to one another, right?
It doesn't just change us in kind of practical ways.
But even though we know families are complicated, even when we know families are broken, even when we know the goal of this communication is to influence us, influence me, influence the reader, the original audience to remember that we belong to each other.
That there's this family element to following Jesus, to being a part of it.
And look, we all have different family issues, but we want to focus on the ideals in this moment, right?
In an ideal world, though we know of everything that goes on, a family is a place of love, care, nurture, unity, beauty.
It's a good and wonderful place.
A family as it's meant to be is this amazing place where mothers and fathers love each other.
Children are raised in beautiful to become these adult, perfect, great versions of themselves.
Though some of us here struggle with that, including myself.
We're called to be a family of faith.
And immediately as we read this passage, we see this reality that we're called to be family.
It's not the only time in the Bible this is mentioned.
So this is why we can trust it.
We can trust this kind of language is because it's not in isolation.
Right.
The Apostle Paul talks about adoption as sons.
The Apostle Paul tells us that we have a spirit given to us that we cry out, Abba, Father.
We have this reality that God is our father.
And then if you go back further into the Old Testament, you see this language from Jeremiah where the prophet's talking about the God of the universe.
He says, for I'm a father to Israel.
Isaiah says, O Lord, thou art our father.
Throughout the Old Testament, even, there's this language of God as our father in this familial language.
And so we are called to remember that.
I am.
I don't.
I'm a human being.
I view things much more transactional than I should.
I don't look often enough at people and say, oh, this is like my family.
I often look at, is this something someone can give me or get me or what do I have to give to someone to get what I need?
And don't even ask about the sins of a pastor where you're like much more looking at the church in a transactional way than you could ever imagine.
The struggle against that is real.
And yet, as we pause today, we must remember that we belong to one another in a family.
The family of God.
And that family has definitive characteristics.
It has beautiful characteristics.
It's not a family that's just kind of randomly made up.
It's hopefully as a church, we're a family that's been changed by Christ.
A family that's been made new.
See, in this passage in Hebrews, the writer, who we don't know, right?
There's lots of assumptions, lots of things we can think about it.
Lots of ways that we can point, but we don't know.
He says this.
He said,
Let us draw near, in verse 22,
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.
There is a previous state that we were in.
We have been washed.
We have been cleansed.
We have been changed.
We are no longer the people we were.
We now belong.
We are cleansed and made right by the work of Jesus, by the blood of Jesus, by the cross and his resurrection.
We're a family that's marked by change and transformation by the power of the gospel.
And we have to remember that we're all changed by Jesus.
That those of us who are part of God's people is that we are cleansed and made holy by Jesus himself.
Not something we've done.
Not something we can do.
Not something we can work to achieve.
We can't level up as a Christian.
We can't make this our next goal for next year.
Is that I'll just be a better, just a better Christian than the person next to me.
I'll just, I'll keep, our goal is that we would worship the Lord because we, he is the one who's changed us.
And this identifies us.
This gives us an identifying marker.
One of the things that we talk about in our youth ministry, when I hire summer interns, when I hire full-time staff,
is, I don't, I don't try and put a biblical spin on it, but it's true in a sense, in a lot of ways,
there are scripture that remind us of this, is that we have to remember that we are all on the same team.
As one of the things.
So, so when I make you mad, when I, which I inevitably do because I'm a sinner.
And also, I just know my personality and know who I am.
I'm very aware, I think.
The reality is I would, as I make you mad, remember that we're on the same team.
And I try and remind all of our staff and all of our people that work with us.
Hey, we all serve the same Jesus.
We all belong to the same family.
We belong to the same people.
We've all been changed by Jesus.
And this is the, one of the markers of this family we belong to.
And, and, and the beauty of this is, is that it's not something that we've done, right?
We haven't done this.
I haven't made this happen, right?
Because the Bible talks about how the, how people don't have this ability innately.
We don't just make ourselves good and make ourselves right and make ourselves holy.
Right?
People are sinful since.
Genesis.
Jeremiah talks about how our hearts are deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
The Apostle Paul reminds us that in Romans chapter three, that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
So something must have happened to change us.
Something must have transformed us.
Something has made us new creations in Christ.
And it was Jesus.
This, this whole portion of, of chapter 10 of Hebrews is, is, is we kind of end it in the later verses of chapters, verses 24 and 25.
With like exhortation to do, to love one another, to care for one another.
So to live as that family.
But he doesn't leave the summary of, he doesn't leave the, this exhortation with no reminder of the beauty of the gospel.
He's reminding us that we've been made clean.
He's been reminding us that we, he's, he's taking his whole argument for the first nine plus chapters of Hebrews and saying, here's a little summary of what I've already said.
Remember Jesus, our great high priest.
Remember you've been cleansed by Jesus.
Remember how good he is.
Remember, cling to this goodness, this truth, so that you might love one another as Christ has loved us.
And so we're a family of changed people.
Not because of us, but because, as 2 Corinthians 5 verse 21 puts it,
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us.
So that in him, we might become the righteousness of God.
And it's because of Jesus, this is why this is such a wild passage.
Like this is a, this is truly a wild passage.
Like, and again, like this, I don't know how engineers talk about certain things because it's an engine,
but I know how like pastors talk about the Bible.
Like this is wild.
And y'all are like, it's a Bible passage.
But the reality of what this means, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus,
something that we could not do, we could not enter the holy places.
Only the priest, the great, the high priest could do it.
By a new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is through his flesh,
that his death achieved for us.
His flesh, meaning that his death allows us this, this access to the God of the universe.
And since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near.
We get to draw near to the God of the universe.
As God's people, we've been changed.
And that change allows us access to God.
It's a transformation that will trump anything we try and achieve this next year.
As you wake up tomorrow and you look at your list of things you're going to do,
there is no change greater than what Christ has done for his people.
By giving them access to the very God of the universe.
And so we're a family that's been changed,
but we have to place our confidence in things.
There are lots of things that we can place our confidence in.
You know, we live in a world full of great things.
Money, power, our reputation.
I can put my confidence in anything in the world that I really want to.
I can create my own little space where I'm living in with confidence.
I could put it in my reputation of just being a pastor.
But our confidence in what we do and how we live in this world,
whether we are interacting with Christians or not,
our confidence must be in Jesus and his sacrifice.
I'm confident because he's the high priest over the house of God.
See, he's been given a title that I could never achieve.
And I can be confident in him.
I can trust him because of what he has done.
I can tell you that I would not walk into a lawyer's office and be confident in asking them to fix a sickness.
And in the same way, I wouldn't walk into a doctor's office and be confident in their ability to handle my lawsuit.
And in the same way, I wouldn't walk into an accountant's office and say,
do you know how to translate Spanish really well?
Okay.
Like there are people who have these expertise and these titles and these realities.
And what we see with Jesus is we can place all of our confidence in our interactions with one another as a family,
good, bad, or ugly,
because he is the great high priest.
Not me.
Not something I've done.
But because of him.
And not only that,
we can see a little bit of his character as well.
Though we know Jesus as the son of God,
the lamb who was slain,
the king of kings,
lord of lords,
the high priest of the new covenant,
the one who changes people.
We can remember
that he is faithful.
He is faithful to his people.
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope.
Let us hold fast to what we have spoken as truth,
that Jesus is Lord.
Without wavering for he who promised this,
his work,
he is faithful.
If we were to sit here
and I could list a million times where I have failed.
I'm sure all of us could,
to some degree,
sit here and just,
if we just wrote notes today and just said,
these are the times that I have failed.
But then we sat down and we wrote down,
how has Jesus failed?
We couldn't.
Jesus,
the perfect son of God.
Jesus,
without sin.
Jesus,
the one
who we can put our confidence in.
Not just because
we see it in his sinless life,
but because we see it
by the power of his resurrection.
His death
changes us.
And his resurrection
is a reminder of the confidence we have
in the life eternal.
And so we are,
we're seeing that,
that we're a family,
right?
We're a family.
We're defined by certain things.
We're changed.
We're,
we're,
we're changed by Christ.
We're confident in Christ.
Christ.
But there's a reason for our confidence.
And,
and it's pretty much an overlapping point
to some degree
when you're trying to remember this,
that we're confident in Christ,
but we're anchored by Christ.
And the reason why I want to do this,
because there's just,
again,
this moment where you,
when you study things
and you read,
and,
and I want to point out in verse two,
verse 20 of chapter 10,
it says,
I'll read the whole thing for just a second.
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 us
through the curtain,
that Jesus has given us
a new and living way,
the access to God,
ways to be in relationship
and connection
and contact with him.
This new and living way
is translated differently.
Right?
We,
we see it
here in our English versions
as,
as new and living,
and we can kind of talk through that,
but
it means
permanent.
A permanent way.
It's an open way
that is never closed
to his people.
It's an ongoing,
never ending access
to the God
of the universe.
And if you just say,
oh,
it's a,
you know,
it's a living plant.
We understand
that the plant will die
one day.
And if we just kind of
use our regular
kind of way
of talking about
the word living,
it's,
it's alive.
but the emphasis
of these words
in the Greek
are meant
to remind us
that it's this
never ending.
You cannot stop.
When you are in Christ,
you have this
ongoing forever access
to the Father,
access to God
in a way that we had
never had before.
And the great high priest
who has gone before us
has made this possible.
Jesus has opened this door
and allowed us in
and you forever
have access.
You have forever
VIP access
to the God
of the universe.
And there is no end
to it in sight.
Because one day
when we do
leave this world,
when we pass away,
we still
have access.
And so this is
a great anchor to us
is that it's
ongoing forever
and never ends.
This Jesus
who is faithful
has given us
this great anchor
and it's a reminder
even if you,
I use this word
simply because
in chapter 6
of Hebrews,
he talks about Jesus
and this promise
of Jesus being
the anchor to our soul.
And this idea
that Jesus is greater
than anything,
everything that you
can imagine,
whatever religion,
idol,
or whatever you
could place,
he is still greater.
And so Jesus
anchors us,
he holds us,
he allows us
this opportunity
that never ends.
And it's
more than just living,
it's eternal.
And so as people,
as a family of God
that we're called
to one another,
we're meant
to be connected
to one another.
We're meant
to be
more than just
passers-by
in this room.
So we've been
changed by Christ,
we've been
anchored to Christ,
we're called
to point each other
to Christ.
And I want us
to go back
to this idea
of family
and the ideal
that we're trying
to hope for.
And listen,
I often
fail
miserably.
I know
my nature
to a degree
or at least
I'm willing
to admit
this part
of my nature.
I really
want to be
right in an
argument.
I love it.
I just do.
I think a lot
of us do.
If not all
of us.
We really,
when we're
in a disagreement
or in,
whether it's
deeply sinful
or just
trying to
remind someone
that,
you know,
someone played
this character
in a movie
and you're
like,
I remember
the actor
was that,
you just
want to be
right.
Whatever it
is,
you love
it.
And we
are called
to point
each other
to Christ
and it
is rooted
in this
idea of
family,
right?
In verses
24 and
25,
let us
consider how
to stir
up one
another
to love
and good
works,
not neglecting
to meet
together as
the habit
of some,
but encouraging
one another
and all the
more as you
see the day
drawing near,
the day
of Jesus'
return.
And so we
have an end
date for
this relationship,
this thing we're
supposed to do
together as
God's people.
When Jesus
returns,
and so until
then,
so we've got
this,
because we
don't know,
we've got
this vision
for this day
that we don't
yet know.
That we're
called to
meet together,
to encourage
one another,
to point one
another to
Christ.
But I
often want
to do
that so
I can
tell you,
it's not
about pointing
you to
Christ,
it's about
telling you
where you're
wrong,
where I've
caught you,
ha ha,
I got you,
you're wrong,
because I like
being right
more than
anything.
But what the
writer of Hebrews
is trying to
tell us is that
our posture
as a family
of God is
one that is
called to
encourage and
love and
care for
one another.
That we're
called to
lean in
towards one
another.
What do we
do with all
this great
information that
we've been
given about
Jesus, that
he is our
savior, that
he has
cleansed us,
that he has
made us
holy, that
he has
brought us
out of
darkness into
light, out
of death into
life.
What are we
supposed to
do with all
this good
information and
it's supposed
to draw us
to one
another?
It's supposed
to bring
us
together.
Christianity
is not a
lone ranger
game.
The things
we do, this
is not about
just you and
Jesus.
Yes, there
is this
individual
relationship
between you
and the
Lord, but
there is
this community
that you
are called
to.
And it
is a
delightfully
weird and
awesome,
amazing, and
broken community
that we are
called to.
we are
called to
each other.
And I
love that
we as a
church are
committed to
things like
grace groups
and the
things that
small groups
and in the
youth ministry
we have
them and
our adults
have them
and we're
called to
connect with
one another
and be a
part of
each other's
lives.
But we're
called to
do so in
order that we
might honor
the one
who's
called us.
We're
called to
each other
to love.
We're called
to each other
in order that
we might love
each other
well.
And listen,
there are
hard things
that have
to be said
at times.
There are
hard words
that have
to be
spoken.
Hard,
not meaning
just mean
but difficult
and loving.
Consider how
to stir
one another
to love
and good
works.
not
neglecting
to meet
together
that we
are called
to stir
one another
up to
honor the
Lord.
Why?
Because this
Jesus has
made us new
because this
Jesus has
transformed us
because this
Jesus has
brought us
into life
with him.
And so we
do this until
he returns.
We're
called
to offer
faithful
scripture
led
sanctifying
care
for one
another.
And
oftentimes
because of
this,
this is why
I ask
this question
when you
like
criticism,
like we
often
interpret
someone
walking with
us in our
lives,
walking with
us with
the sins
that we
struggle with,
walking with
us in the
hardships,
the brokenness,
the hurt,
the pain.
we don't
want to
receive,
we just,
oh,
it's your
just,
why are you
being so
critical?
Why are you
telling me
what to do
with my
life?
We get
this place
where we
get more
defensive.
And so
there's kind of
two sides of the
coin.
It's not just
that we
need to be
people who
receive
sanctification
and the love
of our
brothers and
sisters in
Christ.
It's not that
we just
receive that well.
That's true,
but we also
need to give
it well.
Because there's
also this call
for us to
love one
another well.
Love and
good,
to stir one
another up to
love and good
works,
encouraging one
another.
Our hearts
have to be
transformed by
Jesus in order
that we might
pour out into
other people.
We cannot do
this by
ourselves.
I'm not led
to walk with
someone in
their life
lovingly,
with care,
on my own.
This is why
we have to
be a family
rooted in
the gospel.
We have to
be a family
rooted in
change that's
done by
Christ,
because if
we aren't,
what we will
be are people
who just like
to give really
good advice
about what it
looks like to
be holy.
It might look
like, oh,
this looks
good.
You do that.
But when our
hearts are
transformed,
when we've
been made
new by Jesus,
we are able
to interact
with people,
interact with
our brothers and
sisters in
Christ in a
way that looks
at them with
care and
compassion and
humility,
humility, so
that we might
love them
well and
point them to
Jesus.
We have this
great Savior,
and so we are
motivated and
moved to love
one another by
the love that
he has poured
out on us.
Jesus has
given us a
living way,
a way that we
might know
life and life
eternally.
love one
and we are
called to walk
with one
another and
love one
another and
point them to
that way.
I know a lot
of us,
including myself,
have had
seasons of
struggle and
loneliness,
times where we
felt alone and
isolated,
unloved,
hurt,
uncared for.
someone pointed
out to me
this couple
of lines from
the Harry
Potter movies,
which,
sorry,
there's a
wonderful,
one of my
favorite things
is that there's
this article you
can find online,
if you go
Google Jesus
and Christianity
and Harry
Potter,
there's an
article where
she,
J.K.
Rowling's
interviewed about
the themes of
her books and
how the boy who
lived and the
resurrection and
all these things
of redemption
and evil being
defeated,
all these things
are pointed out
and she has a
background,
having grown up
in church,
I'm not saying
I support
everything she
does,
I just want to
make sure I
draw a line
right there real
quick,
but there's a
line in the
movie where
Harry is
interacting with
Luna Lovegood,
listen,
it would take
me another
half hour to
try to explain
who these
characters are,
thank you,
yes,
but there's
just this
beauty of what
she's saying to
Harry,
Luna says,
we believe you
by the way,
she's talking
about how the
main evil
character is
back,
we believe you
by the way
that he who
must not be
named is
back and you
fought him and
the ministry and
the prophet are
conspiring against
you and
Dumbledore,
and so this is
Harry interacting
with someone who
believes him that
the main bad guy
is back,
thanks,
seems you're about
the only ones
that do,
and then Luna
says,
I don't think
that's true,
but I suppose
that's how he,
Voldemort,
he wants you to
feel,
what do you
mean?
Says Harry,
well if I were
Voldemort,
I'd want you
to feel cut
off from
everyone else
because if
you're just
alone,
you're not as
much of a
threat.
If I were
you know who,
if I were
the devil,
if I were
the world,
if I were
sin,
I'd want you
to feel cut
off from
everyone else
because if
you're alone,
you're not as
much of a
threat.
But
you are
not alone.
Christ has
called you
as his
people
to himself,
but he has
called you
to a body
of people
who delight
in the Lord
Jesus
and delight
to walk
together in
this life
in order
that we
might know
Jesus
and point
each other
to the
Christ,
to point
each other
to him,
the one
who changes
us,
the one
who is our
anchor,
the one
whom we
can trust.
Let's pray.
Father,
we're grateful
for this
time,
this morning
to be
together.
May we
remember,
Lord,
that you
are faithful
to us,
you are
good to
us,
you care
for us,
you have
us in
mind even
now as
you,
Jesus,
as you
sit on the
right hand
of God
the Father,
you are
advocating
even now
for us.
Father,
help us to
remember that
we are not
alone,
that we
have Jesus,
that we
have the
Holy Spirit
and he
has given
us his
people so
that we
might be
together,
be a
community,
that is
called to
you,
that is
worshiping
you and
will be
with you
both now
and forever.
I pray
this in
Jesus'
name.
Amen.
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