Hebrews 8:7-13

Hebrews chapter 8.

Hebrews 8 · chapter mention

We have emerged from chapter 7.

I know we suffered long through chapter 7.

Y'all are faithful.

Now, we're going to spend two weeks in chapter 8, and we're going to kind of cover this in waves.

So we're going to do verses 1 through 6 this morning, and then we're going to build off of that next week.

Knowing, having known 1 through 6, we're going to look at the new covenant next week.

Alright?

We've been covering this material about the high priest.

And we've got another week to consider this a bit more.

And we are going to now begin to look at this from a heavenly perspective.

But before we do that, what I want you to do is I want you to look in your Bibles at Matthew chapter 6.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

Matthew chapter 6, 9 through 10.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

Do you know what Matthew 6, 9 through 10 is?

The Lord's Prayer.

That's right.

Matthew 6, 9.

Some of you don't even need to turn there because you know this scripture so well.

Therefore, you should pray like this Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, or your name be honored as holy, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Are you familiar with that passage?

You've prayed that before, right?

All you good Catholics, you know that one, right?

Yeah, that's right.

But even if you're not Catholic, you know this is the Lord's prayer.

But do you see he's saying that something is going on in heaven and he wants it to be done on earth?

Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

If you got the church's email, I asked you to consider this one question.

It's how much of what you're doing now is gonna continue on when you go to heaven.

You're gonna die.

At some point, you're gonna die.

If you believe in the rapture, the rapture is gonna happen possibly, and that'll affect just a small portion of Christians that happen to be alive at that time.

But everybody's gonna die, right?

You're gonna die, and that's gonna interrupt your physical existence on earth here, and then heaven's gonna happen.

And the question I want you to consider is what is your eternal existence gonna look like?

Now we call that heaven.

We call that heaven.

But we, I think, oftentimes have this faulty idea about heaven as it's in the clouds, and you know, there's little angels fluttering around with harps.

No, I want you to think, what does it mean when Jesus says, pray that God's will would be done on earth as it is in heaven?

What does it mean?

What does that mean?

Here's the thing.

We oftentimes think about heaven as something that awaits us in the future.

In fact, Colossians talks about the hope laid up for us in heaven.

We all have this future anticipation of heaven.

But at the same time, this morning, what we're gonna talk about is heaven now.

Can you say that with me?

Heaven now.

Heaven now.

Because there is a reality about heaven right this minute.

Right this very minute.

In fact, the Bible is oftentimes written in such a way where heaven and earth overlap.

If you grew up in a Catholic church, they called that the sacraments.

You know what I'm saying?

Did you come from that saying where the sacraments, right?

That was the idea that heaven and earth overlap.

Now, as a Protestant, I think that the Catholic Church took that a little bit too far.

But the idea is that heaven comes to earth.

Heaven comes to earth.

Now, when Jesus came to earth, he came from heaven, right?

He's the eternal son that has always existed.

And so what's being talked about here in this, now just imagine for a second that you were looking at a map of somewhere where you were gonna go on vacation.

And you kind of looked at Google Maps and maybe even did the street view, and you pretended, like, oh, okay, this is what it's gonna look like when we drive up to the hotel.

You could look at it, maybe you could look at a couple of reviews on TripO TripAdvisor or some Google reviews of the location, but that's nothing like actually being there.

That's nothing actually like talking with somebody who has been there, who's been to that place.

And what the pastor here in Hebrews is saying is that you and I have a high priest in heaven now.

Can you say that?

Heaven now?

Heaven now.

The high priest is our high priest is they're in heaven now, and he's translating that over to our earthly experience.

So listen, you may feel, especially if you're so faithful to be here every Sunday, and you get a gold star.

And I'm so proud of you and so thankful for you.

But you may feel like we've been talking about the high priest forever.

We've been covering this over and over again, and I know I feel like that too.

I'm with you, but there's something new about verses one through six that I want you to see this morning, and it's this theme of heaven.

It's this theme of heaven.

Now, before we read verses one through six, I want to give you a quick recap.

There are some of you that have not been with us every week for the last six weeks, and so let me take you back to Hebrews 6, 18 through 20.

This is the context, okay?

Fly over high view context.

We have fled for refuge.

Uh, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to seize the hope set before us.

We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm, secure.

It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain.

Jesus has entered there on our behalf.

Okay, so we're starting to talk about Jesus as our high priest.

He's gone behind the curtain, he's gone there on our behalf as a forerunner, because he has become a high priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.

Okay, so we covered that.

Now I put that in front of you because these themes from a whole chapter earlier are gonna come back up.

Because here in this this picture, we have this idea of um the inner sanctuary.

It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain.

This is the where the anchor of our soul resides, is literally in this inner sanctuary.

Where is this?

Well, he's not really filled in that blank, or he's not given the answer to that question until this morning when we're gonna talk about it in Hebrews chapter 8.

Hebrews 8 · chapter mention

So here's Jesus entering as a forerunner.

What does a forerunner do?

He goes before you and I.

He goes before us, he's the forerunner, he's become the high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

Now, this closed out, and then we spent four weeks, including last week, talking about Jesus as our high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

So we fled for refuge that we might have strong encouragement to seize the hope set before us.

It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain.

Jesus has entered there on our be our behalf because he's become a high priest according to Melchizedek.

Now, let me summarize seven for you.

Let's talk about Melchizedek.

First of all, he's a king and priest.

He has no genealogy in John.

Danny, did you read John Genesis 14 yet?

Yes.

Okay, good.

And you read, he doesn't have a genealogy, right?

No genealogy, which is symbolic of the fact that he has an eternal life.

Right?

He's received tithes from Abraham, which should indicate to the Jewish reader that he has greater authority than the Levitical priest.

So Melchizedek established a valid other order, right?

Before Abraham comes along, or before Aaron and his priesthood family comes along, we have this priesthood, the order of Melchizedek.

And they changed, so there's a change of priesthood equals a change of law that established the priesthood.

Remember, they're indelibly linked.

You don't get a new priesthood without a new law.

We can't change one and not change the other.

The law of covenant was changed because it was weak and could make no one perfect.

In other words, Moses' law could not bring anyone close to God.

I know we're going fast, but track with me here.

Okay, now we're getting closer to what we covered last week.

A new law or covenant accompanies the new high priest.

That high priest is eternal, and he has the ability to draw, or the, or he has the ability and makes it possible, gives us the ability to draw near to God.

Jesus is able to save completely because he ever lives to intercede for us or for them.

Okay.

This is where, this is one of the key verses we looked at last week, for this is the kind of high priest we need.

Okay?

Do you see that?

Now you're all caught up.

You didn't even need to come to church the last four weeks.

We covered it all.

There it is.

Okay?

Now, let's read Hebrews 8, 1 through 6.

Now, the main point of what is being said is this we have this kind of high priest who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens.

There it is, in the heavens.

A minister of the sanctuary and the true tabernacle that was set up by the Lord and not man.

For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices.

Therefore it was necessary for this priest also to have something to offer.

Now, if he were on earth, he wouldn't be a priest, since there are those offering the gifts prescribed by the law.

These serve as a copy and a shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was warned when he was about to complete the tabernacle.

For God said, Be careful, Moses, that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.

But Jesus has now obtained a superior ministry.

And to that degree, he is the mediator of a better covenant, which has been established on better promises.

All right, we're gonna try to learn from this.

We're gonna let the Holy Spirit speak to us through this text.

But let's talk to the Holy Spirit right now.

Let's give him permission to speak to us and give us understanding of this text.

Lord, we just offer ourselves to you.

Lord, we want to understand how this text is going to instruct us in righteousness, how it's gonna correct us, how it's gonna give us wisdom.

We yield our minds and our hearts to you, and we pray that you would teach us.

Teach us about how heaven right now is translated over to us by you as the high priest.

We give you this time and we pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

All right, so we have these six verses, and I want to give you a bit of an outline on these six verses.

First of all, verses one and two are a summary of what we actually have as followers of Jesus, and we will look at that.

Verse three is a principle about priests.

Verse four and five is a case study proving this new high priest must be a non be non-earthly and instead ministering in the heavenly tabernacle.

And then verse six maps all of this onto Jesus.

Do you see that?

One of the ways that this pastor likes to write is he loves to bounce between principle and Jesus, principle and Jesus.

And sometimes he does these case studies.

And so this is another one of those settings where he says, here's how the principle, here's in principle, here's how priesthood works.

In principle, the the uh greater blesses the lesser.

Remember?

He gives you the principle and then he applies it to the scenario, right?

He gives you the principle, he gives you a case study.

So we have that kind of logic in our text this morning.

Let's look at these first two verses.

He says this.

Now, the main point, thank you.

Well, get to give us the main point.

Like, what are you trying to get at, right?

The main point of what is being said is this.

We have this kind of high priest who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens.

The pastor described in verse 26 before this, he said, This is the kind of priest that we need.

This is the kind of high priest that we need.

Remember, he said he's holy, he's innocent, he's separated from sinners, he's exalted in the heavens.

This is what we need.

And now, in this verse, four verses later, he says, This, we have this kind of high priest.

So it just ties a bow on it beautifully.

You and I, brothers and sisters, we have the ideal priest.

Now I know you didn't wake up this morning thinking, like, I wish I had the ideal priest, because we live in the West in America, and nobody thinks like that, right?

I understand that.

We've got to jump cultures here and jump kind of religious systems to relate it to us.

But he's saying that this high priest, this high priest is not just an old testament concept, but he's in heaven right now, operating on our behalf.

And so it's not God's fault, it's not God's fault that um he's using language that we can't relate to.

It's that we need to catch up and put ourselves over into the framework, into the um map ourselves into the reality that's being described here.

So in verse one, he says that this high priest sat down at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens.

Thank you, Danny.

I'm so glad you came.

It's exactly the resurrection.

That's in my notes right here.

He was raised from the dead, and then he, what do we call it?

What's the theological term?

After the resurrection, we have this thing that starts with an A.

It's the ascension, right?

Jesus ascended up into heaven.

That's what he's talking about.

Now, before he taught, he so he talks about how Jesus is sitting at the right hand of the throne, but then he also says this he says that he is a minister of the sanctuary and the true tabernacle that was set up by the Lord and not man.

Now, is this just some historical reference to what Jesus did 2,000 years ago, or is this the modus operandi today for you and I?

It is today.

This is the reality for you and for me.

So, yeah, what is he talking about?

Back in Hebrews chapter 1, Hebrews chapter 1, verse 3, we have the exact same language.

Hebrews 1 · chapter mention Hebrews 1:3

This is the very beginning of this book.

After making purification for sins.

When did that happen, Danny?

On the cross, right?

Jesus died on the cross, he purified us from our sins by dying on the cross.

He sat down at the right hand of the majesty.

Isn't that the same language?

It's the exact same language, right?

So this is something, it's important to this pastor.

Now remember, remember when you're reading Hebrews that we're reading like we're reading a spiritual guide almost from a coach.

Somebody that's wanting not to just inform you and I, but exercise us in our spirituality.

Sometimes he's using language where it's just like, hey, you need to wake up.

You need to wake up and pay attention because you're in a dangerous place spiritually that you might drift away.

At other times, he's like, hey, you need to um you need to enter into the rest that was made possible for you, right?

So this spiritual coach, this pastor who is so vested in these Hebrews' spiritual life, he wants them to have this image of Jesus sitting down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

This is a real place right now.

We can't see it, but it is all uh it is as real as you and I are.

Why?

Why is this important to this pastor?

Where is he getting this from?

Well, remember, probably this pastor is doing his devotions.

You know, when you get up every morning and you read your Bible, some section out of the Bible, and you're reading through it.

This pastor did the same thing, just like you.

And he's reading through Psalm 110.

And here's what it says: This is the declaration of the Lord to my Lord.

This is big because Jesus quotes this.

In fact, he uses this as trivia with the Pharisees.

Like, Jesus totally uses this phrase right here to trip up the Pharisees.

Like, who's who's my Lord?

Who's the the Lord is my Lord?

Like, is that David's Lord?

Jesus uses this to say that the Messiah that would come is has a greater significance than David, in essence, pointing to the deity of Christ.

But here's what was said sit at where?

My right hand.

It's the same thing until I make your enemies your footstool.

Doesn't that fill in the it fills it in a bit more, right?

Because we see over in Hebrews it's sit at the right hand of the majesty on high.

But here, the um writer of Psalm 110, probably David, is saying, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies my your footstool.

Listen, listen, this is what's so cool.

Like, I want to jump out of my skin.

It's so exciting.

In 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 15 talks about how the Father entrusts authority to Jesus, and there's a process of history that's unfolding while all things are being put under his feet.

So when Jesus went to the cross, died on the cross, and was raised, that's the beginning of the victory.

It's the beginning of the end.

Do you remember how they say D-Day is the beginning of the end of World War II?

It didn't end World War II, but that's when things shifted.

When Jesus went to the cross and rose from the dead, everything began to shift in terms of Satan's destructive path for humanity.

Satan was overruled at the cross.

It says he was put to open shame, but the battles continue to play out, and there is this process of enemies being put under the footstool of Jesus, right?

Jesus is given greater and greater authority.

And what is the final enemy that is going to be overruled?

That's right, death.

Death is the final enemy that is going to be subjected under the feet of Jesus.

Look at Mark 16, 19.

End of the book.

So the Lord Jesus, after speaking to them, was taken up into heaven.

What?

It's the same.

Can you believe it?

It's the same thing.

He sat down at the right hand of God.

Isn't that cool?

The Bible says the same thing about Jesus.

It's on the same page, right?

It's not contradicting itself, it's painting for us the same picture.

And Jesus is there, seated at the right hand of God.

There is this victory that is unfolding as Jesus sits there in his throne.

So it's an image, it's an image of Jesus as king.

Now, do you remember about Melchizedek that he was a priest and a he was a priest and a what?

A king.

That's right.

Jesus is a priest and a king after the order of Melchizedek.

Now we've been harping on and emphasizing his priesthood, and we will continue to do that.

But the phrase here is that Jesus is not only a priest ministering in the tabernacle, but there's also a there's an aspect of Jesus sitting in royalty next to God's the Father.

Throne.

Alright.

Verse 2.

Verse 2 says this.

He's not just sitting there at the right hand, but he's a minister of the sanctuary and the true tabernacle that was set up by the Lord and not man.

Trivia question.

You ready for this?

What tabernacle and sanctuary was set up by man?

The temple.

That's right.

Which one though?

The one in Jerusalem, okay.

Even before that, what other ones were?

Because tabernacle is tent.

This is not, this doesn't say temple, although that is right.

Your answer is right.

That's more of the sanctuary.

The tabernacle, we go all the way back to the tent that Moses and the Levitical priests would set up.

Remember that one?

That was the one that was set up by man.

Now the Lord gave instructions about it, but it was set up by man.

But Jesus, it says, it says that Jesus is a minister of the sanctuary in the tabernacle, not in the one that was set up by man, not in the one that was in Jerusalem, not in the one that was carried by the Levitical priests through the wilderness.

No, Jesus is serving and ministering as a high priest somewhere else.

We better go on further to find out where, right?

Verse 3 is going to give us our hypothetical.

Before we talk about where it is, look at verse 3.

Here's this is our principle about high priests.

Every high priest, now, and you know this, right?

Because you're all expert on high priests now.

Every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices.

That is the principle, right?

No high priest was appointed to sit around and veg out and watch Netflix, right?

No.

High priests have a job, and their job is to offer gifts and sacrifices.

They're appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices, and they're offering it on behalf of themselves and you.

Their full-time job is to care and try to care for you spiritually to get you close to God.

The problem was that the law didn't cover it, it didn't do it good enough.

So here's our principle, and then we're gonna have a causation.

Therefore, it was necessary for this priest, the one that was talked about in verses 1 and 2, it was necessary for this priest also to have something to offer.

Okay, because we know the the principle is all priests they have to offer something.

So this one that we're talking about, he also needs to have something to offer.

Imagine a diplomat or an ambassador who represents their country and works on the behalf of its citizens.

Every priest has a job to offer sacrifices and offerings, right?

Gifts.

Priests do stuff on behalf of the people they represent.

Priests do stuff on behalf of the people they represent.

We're gonna concentrate on this idea when we get to nine.

This word here, offer, is gonna be repeated over and over and over again at the end of chapter nine.

So just be ready.

We're not gonna, you know, hammer it this morning.

But it is this principle here that he's laying out.

He's he's setting the stage.

The direction that this um pastor wants to go is he wants to talk about covenant before he talks about offering.

Okay, but but the way that the pastor writes these things is he it's like your junk drawer at home, right?

Now, I have a very organized wife who has an amazing junk drawer that I've never, it's amazing.

But most people don't have a junk drawer like I get to have.

Most people have a junk drawer that is like a disaster zone, and it's everything that you don't want in your pockets, right?

And what you have to do every decade or so is you dump out the junk drawer and you put stuff into piles, right?

Well, Hebrews is kind of written with these like all these little ideas, and they're all over and they're spread out through all over the book, right?

And as we're going along, we're kind of picking up and building our theological understanding.

Now, I think that this pastor writes strategically, that he isn't a disaster of a drunk drawer.

Okay, but and and so, and I I don't fully understand it, but I would commend to you as you meditate on Hebrews, ask the question why he rides about this principle here, but he doesn't come back to it until chapter nine.

I I don't know, but I believe that the Holy Spirit's strategic and that he's at work in this way.

Let's go on to verses four and five.

Verses four and five says this.

Now, if he were on earth, he wouldn't be a priest, since there are those offering the gifts prescribed by the law.

So we have case study.

Remember, there's the case study, four and five.

These serve as a copy and a shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was warned when he was about to complete the tabernacle.

God said, Be careful that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown to you on the mountain.

Okay, we're running out of time.

So let me just quickly, quickly just explain what's going on here.

The law prescribes how earthly offering is to take place.

Jesus' priesthood was not congruent with that earthly priesthood.

He didn't fit the mold, so he couldn't offer gifts prescribed by the law.

In other words, yeah, if Jesus were on earth, he couldn't be a priest because he didn't meet the qualifications of Moses' law.

He wasn't born a Levite.

He couldn't offer the offering that he he gave, it was not um, it wasn't according to the law, and it wasn't in the temple in Jerusalem.

What yeah, the law was the commandments, exactly.

The old covenant.

That's right.

But the so the law said this is how worship has to happen for the Jews, but do you see this?

This is really important.

If you're learning to read the Bible, this is really important because the old this is what he's saying here is that when God talked to Moses and he told Moses to build the tabernacle, he said, make sure that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown on the mountain.

So Moses, follow along, track with me here, okay?

Moses is out with the children of Israel in the wilderness.

He goes up onto Mount Sinai.

God's talking with him from the uh smoking cloud, right?

And it's a crazy scene.

And God's telling Moses how to set up the Levitical priesthood.

But God gives Moses a window, an ability to see what the temple looks like, the sanctuary, what it looks like in heaven, he says, you need to make it according to the pattern that was shown to you in the mountain.

So Moses is there in the mountain, he gets this vision of this is what it's what it is in heaven.

We need to replicate that on earth.

So when they build this tabernacle, there is a foreshadowing of the heavenly sanctuary that Jesus is the high priest in.

Do you see that?

So we have principle, then we have case study with um and kind of flushing it out, showing that Moses, even with what he made, is just a copy of what is going on in heaven.

It's kind of like, you know, you wished all your life to see the Statue of Liberty.

And you get to Vegas, and there's the Statue of Liberty, and you're like, there it is, right?

And then somebody taps you on the shoulder and goes, actually, that is really just a copy of the real one that's back in New York City, right?

I think they have the Eiffel Tower there too.

Just don't tell anybody it's not the real one.

You got to go to Paris.

Or maybe it's like the example of a photograph or a painting of a landscape, but it's nothing like the real thing, right?

It's nothing like the being there.

Do you ever get that have that problem where like you want to you have this amazing sunset and you try to take a picture of it on your phone and it's just like so flat and it just doesn't do it justice?

Yeah.

That's that's what this tabernacle was like that the Levites made.

It wasn't it wasn't faulty in that it was it was um a bad picture, but it was just a picture, it was just a copy of the real thing in heaven.

So wrapping things up, verse six Jesus has now obtained a superior ministry, and to that degree, he is the mediator of a better covenant, which has been established on better promises.

Do you see a repeated word throughout here?

A repeated concept: superior, better covenant, better promises.

That's Hebrews for us.

That's this pastor trying to say to these this Jewish audience, you're falling short of the grandeur of what you've been called to, that Jesus is awesome and you're settling for the copy.

It's like you are waiting and waiting.

You ever watch those videos of like the parents that are away in the military and they've been gone for months and months, and then they surprise their kids?

And like, I mean, who can watch those and not cry, right?

Well, imagine you're the kid, and like you know your dad's about to come around the corner and you see his shadow and you just start kissing and hugging the shadow, right?

No, you want to go and hug your dad, right?

That's what you want.

But these Jewish followers of Jesus, they were all caught up in the shadow.

And they were still living in kind of with affections for the earthly system.

And this pastor's like, no, right now, Jesus, your high priest, is in heaven.

He's interceding on your behalf.

Like he is there right now ministering and offering gifts and sacrifices himself on your behalf.

He's praying for you, he can save you to the uttermost.

Stop settling for the copy and recognize that right this minute, Jesus is has obtained a superior ministry.

Ministry here, this goes back to this idea of offering, and then here we have him mediating, mediating or standing in between.

He's the ambassador for heaven on behalf of heaven to us as our high priest.

He's mediating this better covenant that's based on better promises.

That is that's the image here that this pastor wants.

And I think that we um that we often fail to take into account that right this very minute, God's will is being done in heaven.

And when we are called to pray like Jesus, we're praying, Father, do your will on earth as it is in heaven.

Right this very minute, heaven is happening, right?

We've lost loved ones that are in heaven, they're present with the Lord, and everything is good.

God's design is happening perfectly in heaven.

God's will is occurring in heaven, and as we are here living in our physical bodies, we are um we are basically living in these between two worlds.

Our our life, our physical body represents this tension that people who are not followers of Jesus fail to recognize.

I was I was listening um recently, I love listening to different podcasts, and I was I can't remember which one it was, but I was I was listening to it was all about goal setting and maximizing you know your life and and pursuing happiness and a lot of like the American things that we um we value.

And this was all about kind of productivity and how to do your life well so that you can really be just living a meaningful life.

And it was a beautiful idea about how to you know you know not be materialistic and love the people around you.

But the interesting that's thing that struck me is that the people having this conversation don't believe in eternity.

Everything that they're doing is how do I have a meaningful existence, assuming that when I die, my existence ceases.

And if that is your perspective, the way you engineer your life is radically different from somebody that sees death as an interruption in an existence that is eternal, and knowing that the better things exist in our eternal existence, it completely changes the mathematic equation.

And so you have a people like a mother Teresa who are willing to suffer greatly and to suffer amongst the poor because she knows she will live eternally and have eternal rewards.

How often is Jesus calling his followers away from such an earthly existence or a parenthetical existence and saying, no, we will live eternally.

It's such a mistake to be caught up in the here and now.

Over and over again, Jesus is um pulling potential followers, he's pulling on them and jostling their conception of reality and saying, listen, because we have heaven, we can do life now differently.

And what the pastor here in Hebrews is saying is that you and I right now have a high priest in heaven who is has a full-time job vested in our spiritual vitality, who is mediating a better covenant, who is praying for you and I, who is totally invested in your nearness to God.

Every sin that you sinned this past week, he has atoned for on the cross.

Every sinful attitude and word and thought that you will do this next week, he is paid for on the cross.

I mean, he is totally committed to your spiritual vitality and mind.

In a world that is oftentimes prioritizing the temporal and the superficial, it is essential for us to consider the eternal.

Our culture is filled with imitations and distractions that can draw us away from the reality of Jesus' superior ministry in heaven.

Jesus prayed in John 17.

Father, I don't pray that you'll take him out of this world, that you'll keep him.

You have a reason for living in your body and existing now until you or your life is interrupted by your death.

It is not by mistake, it is not an oversight by God the Father.

You are strategically still here, loved by God, occupying your space with the relationships that you have, with the possessions that you have, called to stewardship, called to live well until you're called to live forever.

And Jesus is your high priest and my high priest mediating the covenant that supplies everything we need for that existence.

Amen?

Amen.

Let's let's pray together.

Lord, we thank you for these truths.

Thank you for right now being our high priest in heaven.

In heaven right now.

Lord, would you let heaven cross over earth in our life?

Lord, we want to see heaven in Baltimore.

Before we pray that, church isn't over yet, so we don't get to pray that yet.

But right now we get to pray that heaven would cross over in our own hearts and in our own minds.

We give you full permission.

We give you full permission to accomplish your will in our life.

Lord, would you overcome the objections, the fears, the concerns, and the questions that we have when we think about relinquishing control to you.

Help us to let go more and more and to trust you.

Help us to do life with you as our high priest.

Let heaven and earth cross over in our life and let your will be done.

And we pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.