And You Were Expecting?

Jesus’ blood frees us to be what God created us to be in the first place

Our text this morning is Hebrews 9:12-22 so go ahead and start looking that up.

My goal today is to level set and remove some false guilt from the church body.

We have been told things over the years that need to be reset - so that’s what we’re going to try to do today.

So the Facebook algorithm has my number.

It knows I dearly love to see a happy ending.

So it feeds me a regular diet of America’s Got Talent and Britain's Got Talent.

I know they are reality TV and reality TV is staged and I don’t know how much is staged and how much isn’t

But I don’t care - for a moment I get to see the little guy catch the break of a lifetime.

The other day Sydnie Christmas’ 2024 audition came up on my timeline.

She sang “Tomorrow” from Annie but it was a version I had never heard in my life

And she was phenomenal.

The audition began with us finding out that “Tomorrow” is Simon Cowell’s least favorite song in the world.

And here Sydnie is with that as her audition song.

It would be worth your while to look it up on Youtube - it is truly amazing.

One of the judges gave her the golden buzzer so you know it was special.

But what made it very special to me was it was a happy ending.

Here is this 28 year old girl dressed pretty fumpy standing on this big stage.

One of the judges asked her what she did and she said she worked the front end at a gym.

“Is that what you want to do?” the judge asked.

“Nooooo” was reply.

“What do you want to do?”

“Sing” she said.

So Sydnie Christmas sang and a couple of minutes the world stopped as she took a ketchup and mustard song and elevated it to a feast for our ears.

When she finished, for a split second there was silence, then the room erupted.

And Sydnie got her happy ending.

I love happy endings.

But the reason I’m telling you the story, is because of something that Simon said after the golden buzzer was pressed

And the gold confetti fell and the lights went gold and all of that.

She was about to walk off the stage and Simon stopped her.

He told her, “It’s tough to get that break for something that you really love.”

I heard truth ring out in his words.

Listening to the Bible, what I hear the Lord saying to us is what we really love more than anything else is to have peace and contentment in our souls that only He can bring.

The only way we can have it, is to follow Jesus.

We Baptists love to quote Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

And of course it’s true and we all know it and we all feel it in our souls.

Sin is the root of every problem we have in life. Period. Full Stop.

But Romans 3:23 has a Romans 3:24 - Romans 3:23–24 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,”

The Lord tells us, quite plainly in fact, that until we deny our ability to make all of our hopes and dreams and needs and hurts and desires come true

And we place all of our hopes and dreams and needs and hurts and desires all in on Jesus and only in Jesus

Then, and only then, can our heavenly Father make us into the person He created us to be when He dreamed us up before the foundation of the world.

Everything good you want in life, revolves around Jesus.

But, as Simon said, “It IS tough to get that break for something that you really love.”

And it’s not because the man is holding you down.

No, it’s because we keep getting in our own way.

Kids, your three words today are Jesus, God and Serve.

Hear now the Word of the Lord from Hebrews 9:12-22

Hebrews 9:12–22 ESV

he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you.” And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

This is the Word of the Lord

Thanks be to God

Let us pray.

Dear Heavenly Father,

Your Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul to write, that is was for freedom that Christ set us free.

Father, please reveal that freedom to your children today.

We want to follow you unencumbered by anything that holds us back.

Father please, set us free.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Hebrews 9:11 ESV

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come…

Last week the Pastor worked hard to get the Hebrews that were worried they had done the wrong thing by following Jesus

He worked hard to get them to remember all of the old things

He looked back with them, not in a derisive way

But with wonder and gratitude

The tabernacle in the desert and the temple in Jerusalem

And all of the ritual they had to do - all of it was beautiful and had a very real and necessary purpose.

But in verse 10, he brought them back to reality.

Hebrews 9:10 “[They] deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation.”

In a few words he says, they were good until…well, they weren’t.

Did you catch that

They were good until the time of reformation.

They were good until the time came for a change.

For a real change.

“But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come…”

Have come means they are already here - they are already available.

But there is a question that a hurting or hungry or wondering person would ask:

“Where are the good things?”

Life all around us is crazy - I’ve rarely watched the news in the last few weeks because everything is crazy.

They felt everything was crazy all around them too.

“What ARE the good things?”

Look down at verses 12 & 13, Hebrews 9:12–13 “he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh,”

Jesus entered once for all…

Never again will they see bloody priests and blood soaked altars

Never again will they stand there while a priest takes a wand and sprinkles blood over the congregation.

Never again will they go home with blood droplets on their clothes and on their skins

There is no need for that - ever again.

Once for all time - securing an eternal redemption.

Back in the day, they had to ask, “Am I OK?”

Then they’d have to remember when they last sacrifice

They’d have to remember their sins and all they had to do to be OK in God’s eyes.

And then they’d have to do something.

We need only remember what God did.

The eternal God the Father, through the eternal Holy Spirit, sent the eternal Son of God who has existed eternally without blemish

To be the final, once for all sacrifice

He entered once for all.

Now listen to this because this is very important.

Jesus sacrificed Himself on the cross and was raised on the third day and ascended into the heavenly temple

Sitting at the very right hand of God in order to

Hebrews 9:14 ESV

…purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

Now, if we believe those words, then something will be different with us.

Remember what we’ve said belief is over and over and over again

Belief is intellectual knowledge that results in physical action.

In other words, if you believe something, that belief is manifested in action in our lives.

Do you live your life in a way that reflects what the Pastor said

That Jesus did what He did to “purify our consciences from dead works to serve the living God.

What are dead works?

Anything we do to make ourselves ok

To prove to anyone, ourselves included, that I am an ok person

That the feelings I have in the dark of the night after a really hard and trying day aren’t true

I’ve done good things, I really am OK.

Those are dead works.

They might be good works, necessary works, altruistic works

But they are dead works.

They don’t make us ok with God.

Only one thing makes us ok with God - and that’s putting every hope and dream on Jesus.

If we are following Jesus, we don’t have to do things to make ourselves feel better

But because we are following Jesus, we will do things to “serve the living God.”

There is a theme hiding in here.

We are changed from a receiver to a server

In the old way, we had to do things to receive God’s grace

In the new way, we have received that grace

Because everyday the fountain of grace continues to pour out on us because of Jesus.

In verse 15, the Pastor say, “so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance…”

The word “called” there a perfect tense verb.

One and done

One call, that’s all.

Not called again and again.

Those who were called once - for eternity.

And those called are changed from receiver to server - He purified our consciences

We don’t have to do work to make ourselves OK in God’s eyes

He made us Ok with God, to the result that we would serve the living God.

Not could serve, but would serve.

So let’s go down the road a bit.

Can anyone ever make enough money?

Most everyone I know spends up to their income.

Well, if I just made another $50,000 a year, I could live comfortably

No you couldn’t because you’d spend another $50,000 a year

Or, if you didn’t spend it, you’d stash it

And once it’s squirreled away, when your money man sends you a statement

You’d look at it and say, “We need another $50,000.”

We can never receive enough.

Watch a kid at a birthday party

Give them 20 presents and then go to Walmart and what happens?

Mama, can I have…..

We can never receive enough.

That works in church too.

I’ve pastored churches for 24 years of my life.

In college and out of seminary I pastored 4 churches in 12 years

And since being the interim here, I’ve been here almost 12 years.

I can honestly say without a heap of exaggeration that in that 24 years, there is hardly a month goes by that someone doesn’t say to me

Pastor, so and so said they are going to look for another church because no one ever speaks to them.

Pastor, you just walked right by them and didn’t say a word

Austin didn’t, Hannah didn’t,

The people in the sanctuary didn’t

No one spoke

They say that the church is the most unfriendly place they have ever been.

I’ve worn a lot of guilt over that and so have you.

Invariably, we hear that and we say, “we need to do something.”

And in some criticism there is a grain of truth.

Our elders are working right now on our Elder Care program.

Each Elder will be assigned a number of families that they will be ministering to

And the biggest thing they will do is to seek out their folks at church.

It’s not the old Deacon Family Ministry Plan.

Don’t expect cards, flowers, and home visits each month.

If you are an attending member, you’ll have someone seeking you out here

And someone you can seek out for care.

We’ll tell you more about it as we get the plan rolling.

So, we recognize there is a little truth to the criticism and we’re addressing it.

By the way, every church has the same issue.

I’ve pastored five churches, it was said of all five.

But here’s where I want to challenge us.

Hebrews 9:14 says “how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.”

The Pastor here said “serve the living God.”

Go from a receiver to a server.

Listen, if you pop in here every Sunday, you sit in the same place and you pop out immediately after the service

What were you expecting?

The world rotates around Jesus, not you.

Your world at church consists of the 8 maybe 10 people that sit around you

And different people might sit around you ever week

How many of them do you introduce yourself to?

“Pastor, no one reached out to them, and their feelings are hurt so bad…”

I’m sorry, but they were saved from dead works to serve the living God

What is their responsibility here?

What group did they join?

Where did they try to serve?

You don’t know somebody by just shaking their hand and saying, “Hi, I’m Randy Darnell.”

But when you work beside them…

I watched a week ago people working beside people at VBS that they didn’t know before

But now they do.

I watched a young lady who loves to cook get introduced to our hospitality team and now she had 10 new fans.

And by the way, she makes killer bourbon peach jam.

I’ve checked the group attendance on folks before who people tell me that they are leaving

And guess what I found - they hardly ever came to Sunday School, Student Worship, Student Groups.

Brother and sisters, we are to love one another

But loving one another does not mean that we are to be endless givers to those who want to be nothing but endless receivers

Peter says, in 1 Peter 4:10

1 Peter 4:10 ESV

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace:

You know how we are.

If we sing your favorite song twice, you’ll want it four times.

If I preach a sermon that makes you feel good once, you’ll want me to preach that same kind of sermon a dozen times.

If someone calls you 5 times, you’ll want 10

That’s our flesh craving for something to tell us we are OK.

That we are important because inside we don’t feel important.

But we don’t need that because we know we are OK

Because Jesus made us OK, once and for all

And we will never NOT be ok.

We are saved so that we can know Jesus, love Jesus, glorify Jesus by serving Jesus and enjoy Jesus forever.

And that is on us.

No one can do that for you.

You must follow Jesus.

We will each stand before Jesus in eternity to have our works tested.

There won’t be any, “they didn’t speak to me.”

Jesus will not say, “yep, that church wasn’t the friendliest I had”

Jesus WILL say, “what did you do for your brothers and your sisters.”

“How were you my hands and feet?”

“Why didn’t you do what you plainly knew I wanted you to do?”

That’s what will happen when we look back.

If our whole goal is to make sure we feel OK.

I’m pretty sure that in these words in Hebrews Jesus is saying to us

I’ve made you OK

As you serve me, day by day you are going to start to realize just how ok you are.

When your focus is on Jesus and not on you, you’ll be amazed at how good you’ll feel.

Now is the time to repent

To turn from the habits or feelings you might have let yourself slip into

Today would be a great day for you to realize, these people are just like me

You need them just like they need you.

Repent from your selfishness really, and turn to Jesus.

And if you have never followed Jesus, what in the world are you waiting on?

Are you expecting a written invitation in the sky?

Do you realize, your written invitation was hanging on a cross

Was laid in a tomb, was raised on the third day and ascended into heaven.

What bigger sign are you waiting on?

I’m going to be standing right down here.

If you want to talk about Jesus, come on down.

Let us pray.