Frightening

It takes discipline to follow Jesus

Maybe this has never happened to you and if it hasn’t, you need to thank the Lord that it hasn’t ever happened to you.

There are times that I have extremely vivid nightmares.

I don’t know why and it’s not very often

But every now and again, I will have a nightmare that jars me awake.

And the problem is, the fear that I felt in the dream, stays with me when I’m awake.

Every done that - you wake up terrified?

So terrified in fact, that you don’t want to move.

It’s like I’m afraid that whatever demon was after me in the dream has jumped into my reality.

It’s irrational - I know - but the terror is real therefore my mind thinks, the danger is still real.

And that’s where discipline comes in.

As terrified as I am by that dream, I force myself to get up and walk to the bathroom.

I’ll turn on the light and get some water.

And I’ll remind myself that nothing can separate me from the Love of God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:39)

That “No weapon formed against [me] shall succeed.” (Isaiah 54:17)

As I stand there staring in the mirror, my heart rate will slow down

My breathing will return to normal and once again, I can lay down and go to sleep.

In the book of Hebrews, the Pastor has been confronting for some time now the simple reality of his congregation’s life

Sometimes it’s frightening to follow Jesus.

Life is less frightening when you have a rule for everything.

But when the rules are Love God and Love each other

What does that look like?

How do I know I’m doing it right?

And - the biggy, if following Jesus is what I’m supposed to do, how come things don’t seem to be getting any better?

Our temptation is pretty simple and common:

This scares me - let me find something that doesn’t scare me so much.

In their case, the old way of worshipping God didn’t cause them problems.

Surely, what we were doing was good enough for God.

This is the end of the second major section of Hebrews and the Pastor finishes it with a resounding no.

There is no way of worshipping God better than following Jesus as scary and as hard as that might be.

Our text is Hebrews 10:1-18.

While you are looking for it, let me say this to our kids.

It’s hard to be a kid.

Everyone is asking you what you want to be when you grow up

And really, all you want to be is a kid.

But one day you’ll have to choose and you guys are smart and your parents will do whatever they have to do to help you succeed.

You are going to be tempted by careers that promise you money and fun and all kinds of things.

But I want to encourage you to pray a lot about what you want to be when you grow up

Because the Lord has a plan for your life

And sometimes, choosing to follow Jesus is a different path than folks think you should take

And it’s frightening.

But I promise, when it is all said and done, you will never regret following Jesus.

Your three words to help you listen on your worship guide are Jesus, Good and Know.

If everyone has found our text, hear now the Word of the Lord from Hebrews 10:1-18

Hebrews 10:1–18 ESV

For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’ ” When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second. And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,” then he adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.

This is the Word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Let’s pray:

Father,

In Your Word today, you say that the Holy Spirit bears witness to us

Please Lord, give us ears to hear the still, small voice so that we would be roaring lions for your truth.

Please be our confidence and our strength.

In Jesus’ name, Amen

We should learn from the past but not live in it

Hebrews 10:1 “For since the law has but a shadow of the good things…

The pastor has spent a long time showing the Hebrews why what they had is inferior to what they have.

I know his whole point is that everything they’d seen up to this point was good

And served it’s purpose

But nothing they knew, as good as it all was, could compare to Jesus.

And we’ve talked about that a bunch in the last few weeks

But some words the Pastor used landed a little differently this time.

He said, “For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come…

I’m certain that he’s thinking about the forgiveness of sins and our growing in holiness and the cleansing of our consciences

I mean, he said all of that again in the passage we read.

But, good things to come…

We have a very unique advantage over the Hebrews.

They lived sometimes before 70 AD.

Not all of the New Testament had even been written yet.

In fact, the New Testament canon as we have it today wasn’t recognized until the late 300’s.

I don’t know what letters of Paul’s that might have been circulated then

But I know for sure, they didn’t have John’s Revelation.

So when the Pastor said “a shadow of good things to come,” that’s where my mind went.

It went to the Revelation.

See, here’s the deal, we should learn from the past, but not live in it.

If we are going to remain faithful to the end

If we are going to be “more than conquerors”

We’ve got to be looking forward to something.

Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary is located on the original campus of Wake Forest University.

Wake Forest moved to Winston-Salem, North Carolina and the seminary took over the campus.

But while it was Wake Forest, a student named Arnold Palmer lives there.

Part of the tour of the campus was to the two pine trees where they say Arnold tied a sheet between them every day.

And every day he’d take his clubs and a bucket of balls and he’d drive those balls into the sheet.

Every day.

He didn’t get the satisfaction of seeing the ball flying down a fairway.

Bend over.

Place the ball on a tee.

Stand up.

Swing.

Hit the sheet.

Bend over.

Place a ball on a tee.

Stand up.

Swing

Hit the sheet.

Bend over… and he did it over and over and over every day.

For the entire time he was at that campus.

What kept him going?

“the good things to come.”

He was working towards the end.

In 2 Corinthians 10:5

2 Corinthians 10:5 ESV

We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,

You hear that right, “take every thought captive to obey Christ.”

That’s discipline.

That’s making a conscious, deliberate decision to do one thing and not another.

The argument of, “I can’t help myself” is a self-delusion.

Yes you can.

You can help yourself.

It’s hard and it takes a lot of practice

And it requires us to think of the good things to come.

My goal isn’t to win a championship or like Arnold Palmer to be known as the best in the world.

My goal is to get to the place where life is exactly as God designed it to be.

Revelation 21 tells me about that place.

Hebrews tells me how Jesus is superior and how Jesus changes us and makes us holy.

Revelation 21 tells us what the championship looks like.

Never again will I feel like no one is hearing my prayers.

There will come a day when I will see Jesus face to face.

I’ll call His name and I won’t be locked in a queue to see him.

He will be with me, and you, and us, face to face.

Every sadness and pain that we feel

The distress of getting old or hearing of young children being killed

Of losing parents and grandparents and kids

Of losing pets

Everything that hinders our peace and contentment will be gone.

If you go to Revelation 22, Jesus tells us that “No longer will there be anything accursed…”

Do you remember the Genesis story?

When Adam and Eve sinned, God told Adam, “cursed is the ground because of you;

“in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life

“thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;

“and you shall eat the plants of the field.

Genesis 3:19 ESV

By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

Gardeners, can you imagine a garden without weeds?

Can you imagine how red your tomatoes will be, how yellow your squash, how green your green beans?

Do I believe there will be gardens in the new heaven and the new earth?

That’s how God designed it in the beginning, what do you think?

But the show stopper is “for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

That’s the curse - you shall die and your body will disappear from the face of the earth.

I know some folks feel invisible right now.

Whatever situation in your life makes you feel like you don’t matter.

But with Jesus, that’s gone.

1 John 3:2 ESV

Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.

We will not be cursed.

We will be eternal because Jesus is our big brother.

We now come from Jesus’ Blood line.

We will never be forgotten because all of Jesus’ people live forever as a giant, perfectly, truly happy, not the least bit dysfunctional family.

Now, I’ve heard the saying

He is so heavenly minded he is of no earthly good

The writer to the Hebrews isn’t telling us to live our lives with our heads in the clouds.

He’s encouraging us to keep our eyes focused on the championship.

The cliche’s can trip off our tongues - “If you always do what you’ve always done you’ll always get what you’ve always got.”

“Your system is perfectly designed to give you the results you are getting.”

“You don’t win championships by living an undisciplined life.”

However, following Jesus to the championship is frightening.

Honestly - you don’t know what’s coming next.

I was one year from reaching retirement age at AT&T when I was called to Pastor here.

365 days.

I planned to work beyond that.

My goal was to reach 62 and then take a package.

How did that work out for me?

I hope many of you can look back and see the twists and turns of a life guided by Jesus just like I do.

Another cliche’, “Whenever God hears we have a plan, He says, “Watch this.””

With so much uncertainty, I could be like the Hebrews, why not cling to something that I know at least feels right?

Because those things are only a shadow of the good things to come and

There are some things we can be certain of.

We can be certain that

God has dealt with our baggage once and for all

Known or unknown, we all have it.

Look at verse 14 Hebrews 10:14 “For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.”

Jesus’ death, burial, resurrection and ascension has perfected - has completed me.

“Those who are being sanctified” is us - we are being made holy.

“I don’t feel like I’m being made holy

“I certainly don’t act like I’m being made holy.”

But you are.

Remember, feelings lie and Jesus doesn’t.

When we follow Jesus, we give Jesus the total permission to do an extreme makeover of us.

And that’s what He does - whether you think you see it or not, just watch long enough and you’ll see it.

We can also be certain that

God speaks to us

Not like some of the Youtube preacher freaks say, but like the Bible says.

Through the Word

Through the still small voice.

Look at verse 15 Hebrews 10:15 “And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying,”

The Holy Spirit bears witness to whom?

To us - and we are a part of that us.

We can be certain that God speaks to each of us

We can also be certain that

God will show us how to live our lives

Verse 16 Hebrews 10:16 ““This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,””

Remember that he’s quoted this scripture from Jeremiah before so its obviously important to him and one of the reasons I think is this:

I imagine all of us have heard this verse: Psalm 37:4

Psalm 37:4 ESV

Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Some folks tend to pervert that to mean that whatever I want, the Lord will deliver

Kind of like Santa Claus - but that’s wrong.

If the Lord puts His laws in our hearts and His laws in our minds

Then the desires of our heart will change and we’ll see interesting things happen.

I’ve heard the testimony of multiple people who have been very successful in their field

But it wasn’t Godly work.

So when Jesus saved them, over a period of time they started not liking what they were doing anymore

Until they quit and moved into something else.

In fact, I’d be very concerned if I could continue in a practice that I know is not Godly.

Yes, I know Christians will still sin, but the Pastor is going to really blow us away in a couple of weeks about if someone continues in sin once they know the truth.

It really can’t happen, not because we are working so hard to change

But because God promises to change our hearts and minds.

And this leads us to the final thing we can be certain of:

God will remember our sins no more

There is not much worse than being reminded of something you were embarrassed and ashamed of from 20 years ago.

The Lord isn’t going to do that to you.

You might dredge it up one day when you want to feel badly

But the Lord won’t.

Romans 8:1 “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

Like Stanley Jones and I used to say, “If it sounds like condemnation, it can’t be Jesus.”

The Lord has forgiven us and truly wiped our sins from His memory.

He will never speak of those things again with us.

So here’s the deal.

The Pastor has told us the truth.

The old way was just a shadow of the new way.

The new way is, well do you remember the hymn Blessed Assurance?

(sing it with me) Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine

Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine

Heir of salvation, purchase of God

Born of His Spirit, Washed in His blood.

This is my story, this is my song

Praising my Savior all the day long

This is my story, this is my song,

Praising my Savior all the day long.

The next two verses say:

Perfect submission, perfect delight,

Visions of rapture now burst on my sight;

Angels descending, bring from above

Echoes of mercy, whispers of love.

Perfect submission, all is at rest,

I in my Savior am happy and blest;

Watching and waiting, looking above,

Filled with His goodness, lost in His love

Looking back at what has been will make you sad

But it was only a shadow of the good things to come.

We feel loss when we look backwards.

But disciplining our minds to look to the championship

That will bring us Blessed Assurance.

Brothers and sisters,

Our cry should be Philippians 3:13-14

Philippians 3:13–14 ESV

Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

We press on.

We will not be denied.

One day we’ll stand with Jesus in the great cloud of witnesses we’re about to hear about in chapter 11.

We’ll be there cheering on the saints.

And dear friend,

I commend to you Jesus Christ.

Born of a virgin.

Lived a perfect life.

Died on a cross and was buried in a grave

Where he stayed until the third day.

Then by the power of God Almighty, Jesus was raised to new life

He ascended to the right hand of God the Father

Where He sits until the day of His return.

That’s coming - sure as rain.

Please follow Jesus.

Take the most courageous step you have ever taken, and give your life to Jesus.

It will be hard.

It will be frightening.

But you will never, ever regret it.

You will never be the same, and that is so good.

We’re going to pray and sing.

I’ll be down front if you want to talk about Jesus.

Let us pray.