The Book of Hebrews: Week 2

All right, all right, now, I want you guys to know.

That I actually pay attention to.

How much of my time you eat into whenever you

guys are greeting each other. And I take it back

as so no, I love you guys, love each other.

And we want to be a church that encourages people.

Lets them know that we're so glad that you're here,

and today is your first day.

We would just want you to know it's our honor and.

Privilege to serve you, to worship with you today. Earlier

this week, I got to go and hang out with

our fourth through eighth graders at camp for a couple

of days.

And let me tell you something we have. I'm not kidding.

And I did use ministry for many years. We have

a real special group at our church. These kids are polite,

they're wonderful, they love to worship. They're so connected. And

let me tell you, God it has got his hand

on that group. And it was so cool to see

about ninety some teenagers and adults and just all on.

And let me tell you something, our adults who go

and hang out with fourth through eighth graders, can we

give them a hand? I was there for a couple

of days, I was only in the sun for forty

five minutes and I got burned, and my freckles are

still mad at me today, and so I could still

fill it. But anyways, just we've got a great group

of kids. I also want to encourage you as we

begin the Hebrews series. If you've not grabbed a hold

of your Hebrew's Bible study booklet or journal, please grab

a hold that we do have a few left, and

let me tell you something about Hebrews before we get

into it. Growing up, I've been in a church for

forty seven years. I've never heard Hebrews preached all the

way through. After studying it, I found out why. Okay,

it is tough, it is high theology. But I will

say this that while I was studying, and I was right,

you know, the Lord just pushed this into my soul

that my job is not to entertain you. My job

is to be faithful to God's word and ask you

to adjust your life to His word and for the

glory and praise of God. Your job when you come

in to church is to have your mind and your

heart ready to receive. As we're preaching through something you

might say I already knew that, or you might be

saying this, God, what do you want me to do

as a result of hearing this? Let God shape your

heart all the way through this series this summer. This

is some of the greatest, the highest theology of our

Jesus Christ in the whole Bible. You should walk away

this summer just being even more amazed than you ever

have been at our Savior, Jesus Christ.

So I'm excited about jumping in today.

We are going to do the first two chapters and

a couple verses into the third. So let's pray, and

let's dig into God's word. God, we give you pray today.

We thank you for the opportunity to study your word,

to dive into your word, to spend some time just

hanging out. And so God, I prayed now, Father, that

your holy Spirit will.

Convict us, speak to us, and shape us. In Jesus name,

we pray. Amen.

Now, there is a haunting story that is tucked into

the final days of Jerusalem.

It feels like a movie.

Scene, okay, and it sets Hebrews up almost perfectly.

Let me set the stage for you.

We got King Zedekiah and he's the ruler over Jerusalem

during this last days the King of Judah.

And here's what's going on.

We have the Babylonians, the greatest empire in the world,

and they have surrounded Jerusalem, and as a result, the

people are starving. The people are scared, that people are trembling.

They don't know what to do, and it just seems

like their life is going to be destroyed at any moment.

So you have the politicians, the nobles, and they're trying

to keep everybody's morale up. I say, it's gonna be okay,

it's gonna be okay.

Just stick in there, sticking there, We're gonna win this.

It's gonna be all right.

Enter the second main character, the prophet Jeremiah, who, by

the way, the Lord has spoken to and the Lord

has told Jeremiah to go out into the city and

warn everybody of what's gonna happen. So Jeremiah goes out

to the city and he says, hey, listen, not, here's

what the Lord has said. If we do not surrender,

they're gonna tear down the walls. They're gonna light our

city on fire, and we are all gonna be destroyed. Well,

the politicians and the nobles are like, what are you doing.

You're gonna destroy everybody's morale. And so what do they

do to grab a hold of Jeremiah?

The prophet take up to an empty well or a cistern,

and they throw him in there.

And there he is in the darkness.

You can imagine the prophet sinking into the mud, and

they leave him there to die. Interestingly, kings that Akiah

actually believes that Jeremiah is legit.

So he goes and he rescues Jeremiah.

And here's the sad thing about this whole story is

that kings Thatekiah was informed.

He believed Jeremiah.

He trusted that that was God's word, but he was

scared of the people's reaction to him if he's surrendered.

He was afraid he'd be humiliating.

He was afraid he might lose the throne, and so

he kept living in this ignorance even though he knew

the truth. We see a scene towards the end of

the saga where he actually goes and meets with Jeremiah

and he says, Jeremiah, I know the Lord spoken to you.

Can you just tell me what the Lord has said?

Here's what Jeremiah told him. Jeremiah told him, the Lord

has said, if you surrender, your life will be spared

and the city will live. If you refuse, the city

will burn. Now, this morning could not have been any clear.

But Edekiah was trapped by fear, fear of humiliations, fear

the people, and so he disobeyed God's warning.

Is and this is what followed.

Shortly after that, the Babylonians broke down the walls. They

came in, and they torched the city, killed many people.

But Zedekiah and his family snuck out the back door

of the city and they're running and I think they

pretty much.

Have gotten away. But in the desert close to Jericho.

The Babylonians finally catch up with him. They take Zedekiah

and they have him before his sons and his daughters

and his family, and then they sacrifice and kill his

whole family in front of him, and then they pluck

his eyeballs out, so that the last thing he ever

saw in his life was the consequence of his disobedience

to the Lord, after failing to heed many many warnings.

Now why start our series out in Hebrews here? Well,

because the Book of Hebrews is full of warnings. Okay,

the audience of Hebrews, they have been freed by Christ,

They've been changed by Christ. Jesus has done it work,

and then they have the Holy Spirit. But then they're

living in Rome, the Roman Empire, and they're getting persecuted,

they're losing their jobs, they're losing their homes, and things

get well, things have gotten really rough. And so a

few of them say, you know what, Judaism is not

an illegal religion. Let's just go back to Judaism, back

to the law, back to the rituals, back to the

sacrificial system, and they will leave us alone. And Hebrews,

the author is basically shouting to them.

Throughout Hebrews, he keeps.

Warning don't turn back, don't drift away, don't hearten your hearts,

and don't walk away from the greater thing God has revealed.

Talking about Jesus. See in anyways, the book of Hebrews is.

The prophet Jeremiah standing before this audience, and he's saying,

please listen to God before it's too late. And the

call of Hebrews is simply this, Why go back when

Jesus is clearly greater?

Why go path.

Why turn away when Jesus is greater? And so we

have this question hanging over the Hebrews. It's the same

question hungover is that Akias story, but it also hangs

over our story. And here's a question I'm going to

ask every single one.

Of you today.

What will you choose to do when God has clearly

spoken to you? When God has told you to lay

aside that sin. God has told you to lay aside

that attribute your life that is is not doing any good,

or that habit or that attitude, or God has asked

you to embrace His grace and stop trusting in your

own words. What are you going to do when God

has called you to do something but you're refusing to

What will you do when God has clearly spoken to you?

That's the question that hangs over the Hebrews, and that's

the question that hangs over us his followers today. So

here's what we're gonna do. Let's begin a journey.

Let me tell you what.

I'm gonna do today. Okay, I got two sections.

The first section is I'm gonna go to the opening

verses of chapter one and we're just gonna walk through those, Okay,

and then we're gonna shift for the last few moments,

because for about the next thirty four verses it's basically

the same message repeated over and over again, but targeting

different characters.

And then we'll end there today. But let me go

ahead and.

Start here Hebrews, Chapter one, Verse one. It says, now,

pay attention to this, because there's a lot of good stuff.

Here.

Says in the past, God spoke to our ancestors through

the prophets and many times in various ways.

So we're gonna talk about those various ways here in

a moment, but in these last days.

And if you're wondering what the last days are, that's

from the time Jesus came until Jesus comes back.

So we are in the last days.

He has spoken to us by his son, whom he

appointed air of all things, and to whom also he.

Made the universe.

Pay attention to his next two phrases.

The sun is the radiance of God's glory and the

exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his

powerful word. And after he has provided purification and he

became the final sacrifice for sins, now he has sat

down at the right hand of the majesty in Heaven. Okay,

So just imagine, imagine the writer of Hebrews in some

dark room and a little candle light going on. He's

got the parchment in front of him, the quill in

his hand, and he's thinking to himself, Okay, go easy

on these people. Don't tell them that you think they're

crazy for wanting to go back to a sacrificial system

after they had Jesus. Don't tell them you think they're

insane to want to go back to the law when

they've been freed. Okay, be nice, be nice, be nice.

Lay out your case.

And so we see in these first few verses he

tries to lay out a case in a very gentle

way to point them to the supremacy of Jesus Christ.

And so he generally goes through the Gospel. Let's look

at it. He says, in the past, God spoke to

our ancestors through the prophets at many times in a

various ways. So he's like, Okay, we have the Law,

we have the prophets. God used the sacrificial system as

a teacher. It taught us about the consequences of our sins.

But now we have Jesus a better teacher.

And then he goes on, but in these last days

he has spoken to us by his son, whom.

He appointed heir of all things.

So the very first thing you want to let everybody

know is like, hey, Jesus is God's son. Jesus now

speaks for God. In other words, Jesus is the authority now,

not the lawgivers, not the priests, not the prophets. And

just in case you're wondering why I'm saying that Jesus

is the ultimate authority, let me give you a.

Few reasons why.

And the author goes on to say, first of all,

it was through Jesus that the universe was made.

And then the.

Sun is the radiance of God's glory and the exact

representation of His being, sustaining all things by his powerful words.

So the very first.

Thing he says is is Jesus created the universe. So

Jesus in every way is equal to God. Okay, Jesus

does not just point to God. He is God, and

he leans heavily into the divinity of Christ. Check out

the phrase there. Okay, he is the radiance of God's glory.

In the Hebrew.

Language translated into the Greek. We see this phrase here,

and this phrase here gives us this picture in the

Greek language of God standing before a mirror. But when

God looks into the mirror, he sees his son Jesus,

and vice versa. When Jesus looks into this mirror, he

sees God the Father. So he says that, you know,

he is the radiance of God's glory. Then he goes

on to talk about how he's only the radiance of

God's glory, but.

He is the exact representation of God.

Now this is very fascinating because this exact representation of God.

It comes from the Greek language where.

They talk about having a coin, a coin that has

this this.

Perfect imprint of an image.

And so you got to imagine the person taking this

ink printer and stamping it onto the coin into silver

or or into gold, and the coin, if it has

the resemblance of the original one.

It's probably not authentic.

If it kind of looks like the original one, it's

not authentic. But what he's saying is that Jesus is

the exact representation of God. When you see God, you

see Jesus. When you see Jesus, you see God. And

so what he's saying is that God is perfectly revealed,

the same character, the same nature, the same essence, in

other words, the same DNA. Again, Jesus is not someone

who merely points to God.

He is God. He's God made visible and the author.

Now that he's established that Jesus is God, he gets

to his main point.

And here's his main point.

After he talking about Jesus had provided purification for our sins,

he set down at the right hand of the Majesty

in heaven.

And so we have this whole.

System of Judaism that is based on the laws, but

also the sacrificial system.

And we talked about this before.

What what happened every year is that you would have

to go bring a perfect animal of no blemish, no spot.

Maybe you would buy it, maybe you would raise it,

and you would bring it to the temple. You would

give it to the priest, and then the priest would

lean in on the head of that animal, and it

was to symbolize the transference of your sins onto the

sin of the animal, and then they would sing a

song of worship. And after this symbolic transferring of sins,

they would then sacrifice the animal. And this was to

remind everybody every single year, your sins have consequences sin,

you know, forgiveness of sin only happens through the shedding

of blood. And so what the author of Hebrews is

saying that Jesus is this exact representation of God, and

he came to earth and he took on you know that,

you know, from the divinity of God. He took on

the appearance of a man, and Jesus became fully man,

full of God, and he lived a perfect sinless life.

He went to the cross, and Jesus was the one sacrifice,

one for all time.

We no longer need anymore sacrifices.

And so he says, Jesus.

Has done away of the old system, the inferior system,

that we don't need any longer. Now, here's what the

point he's trying to make here, we are made righteous

before God through the life, the death, and the resurrection

of Jesus. Jesus life because he lived a holy, sinless life,

but then also through death and resurrection, because he overcame

the curse.

Of death by raising from the grad.

And so basically what he's saying is, because of all

these things, Jesus now says to God's right hand.

And so here's the big question.

Because Jesus was a perfect sacrifice, because Jesus is God,

because Jesus, you know, purified us from all sins and

offered us grace, why would we ever.

Go back to that old system where we gotta follow

the law.

Why settle for something inferior when Jesus is clearly superior.

I have a confession to make.

I absolutely love these homesteading videos. Does anybody watch homesteading videos?

Anybody?

No, You're all normal, okay, good, But these homesteading videos.

I will watch these for hours. I love them.

I love watching someone spend the whole day chopping up

a few pieces of wood, making a fire, killing an

animal just to have dinner.

I love it.

I love watching somebody make their own candles.

I love watching someone spend a whole day just building

a partial shelter so they could sleep there that night

and still be cold. I love watching this stuff. But sometimes,

after watching someone do all these things for six hours,

I will think.

In my head, you do know there's Kroger's right.

Or as I'm sitting there with a blanket over my

lap and door dash on my phone, I'm like you

do know it doesn't have to be this tough, right,

that there's an easier, easier way. But sometimes I wonder

why would you throw away all the modern technology we

have for something that we no longer need. Those things

are inferior to the superior things we have to For instance,

we don't need a horse and buddy buggy anymore white

because we've got cars. We don't need to cut wood

and make a fire. Because we have furnaces in our house.

We don't need to take our clothes down to the

the creek or the creek depending on where you're from,

to wash them, okay, because we have washers or depend

on where you're from, warshers and dryers. We don't need

those things because we have things that are superior now,

So why would we go back to the inferior things?

And I want you to imagine it like this. Say

next week, one of you in this room, you show

up to church on the back of a horse, and

I walk up to you and say why are you

riding a horse? And you said, well, I think the

SUVs are overrated, so I sold my cars.

All right.

I'd probably giggle, take a picture of you and post

it online. Now if you did the same thing, but

it was the middle of January in Indiana where it's

thirty degrees out and the winds blowing sideways, and.

You showed up on a horse and said, I sold

my suv.

It's overrated. I would go to Pastor Bruce, our pastoral

care pastor, and I would say, you need to meet

with them very soon.

Something's going on.

I don't know if they're okay. And then as everybody

comes in from the cold weather outside of me warm up,

we start to worship. If about halfway through the service,

a couple ushers come to me and say, he's out there,

you know, chopping up sticks, and he's but a little shelter.

He says, no, he's fine. He doesn't need to come

in and warm up. He's going to warm up in

our parking lot. I would then say to our security team,

do not take your eyes off him the whole time

he's here. And then after service we have a church

luncheon together. It's warm, food's been cooked, and so we

go out of this room and we go to the gym,

we go to the haverstick, we go to the gathering place.

But then I'm looking around for this person, and I

see them twenty feet up in a tree with their

own handmade spear looking for a squirrel.

I would not go to Pastor Bruce.

I would not go to our security team.

I would call an ambul.

Because clearly this person's crazy.

That's what the author of Hebrews is.

Saying, is like, you have seen, you know what Jesus

has done. He's giving you the Holy Spirit. He fulfilled

the law. We don't need the sacrificial system anymore. We

don't need the law. We have grace, we have mercy,

we have been freed from our sins. We have Jesus Christ,

and he sits on the throne. He is the one

who's been with God since the beginning, and he's the

one who's gonna alter us through till the end, and

he's providing an eternal life for us. Why would we

go back to something so inferior when we have Christ,

who is so superior?

Why go back? And that's what the author of Hebrews

is shouting.

He's saying from the top of his lungs. He's saying,

why return a sacrifice is when Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice.

Why go back to.

The priest when Jesus is the great high priest?

Why go back to the law when Jesus fulfill it?

Now, before we judge the audience of Hebrews so quickly,

I think we need to ask ourselves the same question today,

and maybe even a harder question today.

Haven't we done the same thing spiritually?

You know, it's easy to read Hebrews and think, why

would you go to anything else.

When Jesus is better? But how many of us in

this room Jesus has freed us? Jesus has forgiven us.

Jesus has changed our life.

We've been impacted by his grace, We've been impacted by

his mercy, and Jesus teaches.

Us here's a better life.

But then what do we do.

Jesus has taught us that in our conversations where to

lift people up, encourage people, speak life in the people.

But we've esched all the way back into gossip and slander.

He has given us the Holy spirit, freed us from pornography, but.

Yet we etch back into.

The websites, the pictures, the fantasies that leave us incredibly empty.

Jesus freedoms that gave us victory over our anger.

But now again we're allowing it to control our lives,

control our family. We were once freed from jealousy, the

spirit of criticism, We've been freed from those things.

Jesus changed us.

But then, somehow, some way, we drift back into these

old sins.

And that's so I would ask.

You today, why would you go back when Jesus has

offered us something better?

And that's the question of Hebrews today.

Why go back when Jesus has offered us something incredibly

more wonderful. And so here's what the the writer of

Hebrews is thinking. He's thinking, all right, if I could

just get people to realize how amazing Christ is, how

awesome Christ is, how Christ is the one who created everything,

how Christ.

Is equal to God. If I could just get people

to understand that.

They won't want to go back to their old life.

That's why the Book of Hebrews.

Does not start out with rules, It does not start

out with behavioral modification. It does not start out with

a list of commands.

No, it begins with Jesus.

And the author keeps bringing the point up about Jesus,

and it exalted Jesus.

Higher and higher and higher. All throughout this book hoping

that if we.

Can just see.

How awesome Jesus is, that we'll never want to go

back for old life, our old ways.

And so here's what I'm gonna do.

Now, I'm gonna switch for the next few moments, and

I'm gonna take you through the next thirty four verses.

And here's what the author does. The author says, let

me tell you some things that Jesus is greater than

that had an awful lot to do with Judaism. So

he continues to exalt Jesus over and over again, wanting

to understand Jesus is greater.

So the first thing he says is just Jesus greater

than angels. Now, that's odd.

We're not really an angel worship around here. That's not

our thing, it says.

So he became as much superior to the angels. That's

a name he has inherited, its superiord of theirs. Why

start of angels? What we gotta understand that high view

of angels? Back then, angels they worship God around his throne.

The angels were the messengers of God. Angels were the

one who brought the Law of Moses, they believed, so

they have a high view of angels, and.

So Hebrews is saying that Jesus isn't just another man.

No, Jesus is the message, it says.

And again, when he brings the first born into the world,

he says, let all the angels worship him. Did you

catch that the angels are not equal to Jesus.

They worship Jesus. Okay, the angels serve around the throne.

Jesus sits on the throne. Angels carry messages. Jesus is

the message. That's why going back makes no sense. Why

return to the servants when we can have a relationship

with the son. And on top of saying that Jesus

is greater than the angels, the author goes on to

talk about how now God speaks to Jesus.

Now, here's what I need to do for the next

couple moments.

I'm gonna talk to you about something that I found

very fascinating. And you have to understand the theology of Hebrews.

It's saying that in the last days God has spoken

through Jesus. There will be no revelation after Jesus. There

will be no.

Gospel after Jesus.

Jesus is the final say so, Okay, there's not going

to be new revelations.

Okay, now pay attention to this. Someone's playing to you.

Why this is important? Okay.

It says in the past God spoke to our ancestors

through the prophets at many times and in various ways.

And one of the most popular ways that God spoke

to his people was through angels back.

In the day.

But says in the last days.

So the last days are from time of Jesus until

the end of time. He has spoken through his son,

So his son is the finality. The last revelation is Christ.

We don't need another gospel.

All right. Now, let's look back through history.

There are two major false religions that have affected the

world in significant ways. The first one Joseph Smith. Joseph

Smith claimed that an angel Moron I, came and gave

him a new God gospel, a new revelation of Jesus.

So he started Mormonism. Okay, the Church of Jesus Christ

in Latter day Saints, that denomination has shared a false gospel.

They have won millions of people to Christ and today

they are still traveling all over the world knocking on

doors trying to convert people to this false gospel, and

on top of it being a false gospel, it's incredibly

oppressive to women. Again, this was brought by an angel

who is no longer a needed messenger. Jesus has the

final message. Now let's look at another false religion. Mohammed

claims that he went into the caves and he had

things revealed to him over and over and over again

by the angel gabrielle Those messages given to him by

Gabriel became the Koran. Koran became the book that informed

the religion of Islaw. And now we have another great

false religion that has, you know, basically split the world

in half, caused many many wars, and the oppression of

women is incredible in this ministry, in this false religion.

Neither one of those should have ever existed if they

would have paid attition to God's word here and that says, hey,

Jesus is the final word. There is no more revelation

after Jesus. So Hebrews is basically saying that Jesus is

not merely just another messenger.

He is a final revelation.

We're not waiting on another message beyond Christ.

God now speaks through Jesus. We don't need the angels anymore.

Jesus is the message he brings to.

Message number two, he says that Jesus is greater than

King David or any other earthly king.

Now, for the Jewish people, this is big because David

was the greatest.

King and the Messiah was supposed to go come through

the line. And so he's trying to help them understand

it that Jesus is not just another king like David.

Jesus is the eternal quing.

What does it say here, says but.

The of the Son.

He says, your throne, o God is forever and ever.

The scepter of uprightness is a skepter of your kingdom.

Here's what he's trying to get everybody to understand. David

had the throne for a season. Jesus has a throne forever.

David was flaw he was sinful, he felt.

Jesus rules perfectly and eternally.

And a writer wants everybody to understand Jesus is not

just another earthly leader, He's an eternal king. The third

thing he says is Jesus is greater than Satan and death.

The thing about the greatest fear of humanity is death.

Satan has wilded.

That like a weapon in this culture. Here is how

Satan wills that weapon. He says, to everybody, you live

only once, go enjoy your life. Why would you come

to church, Why would you follow rules? Why why would

you not just go out and do whatever your heart desires.

You live once?

And so this death that hangs over our head is

a weapon that Satan uses. But a Christian who knows

their theology knows that this life is just the first

part of our life. That heaven is so much better

and so much greater. And so this tool, that weapon

has that Satan has, well, Christ has crushed it. Let's

look at this, Since therefore the children share in flesh

and blood, he himself, Jesus, likewise partook of the same

things that through death he might destroy the one who

has power over her death, that is the devil and

deliver all those who, through fear of death, were subject

to life long slavery. And basically, what he's saying here

is that do the death of Christ. He crushed it,

and itemy's greatest. Satan no longer has a final word

over a believer. Death does not win, fear does not win,

Hell does not win. Jesus wins fourth lee today the

last one.

Jesus is greater than Moses.

Now this would have been absolutely shocking to a Jewish audience.

You have to understand, Moses is the most revered figure

in Judaism. He brought them the law. He's seen God

face the face. He stood before.

Pharaoh and said, let my people go.

I mean, he is the number one guy in the religion,

and so Jesus is exalted over him. Not because Moses

is a bad guy, but basically the author wants everyone

to understand Moses's role versus jesus role. It goes on

to say this, Now, Moses was faithful in all God's

house as a servant.

He wants everybody understand here's his role.

He was a servant.

To testify to the things that were to be spoken later.

But Christ is faithful over God's house as a son.

Well, who's the house?

We are his house if we indeed, if we hold

faster our confidence and are boasting in our hope.

Did you catch the difference here?

Moses is a servant in the house. Jesus is the

son over the house. Moses pointed us the freedom, but

Jesus is freedom.

Moses is part of a story. Jesus is the story.

Amen.

And again the writer asks, how can we go backwards?

How can we go backwards from Jesus? And so to

close today, he gives us this.

Final warning in the opening chapters.

Therefore, we must pay close, closer attention to what we've heard,

lest we drift away from it. This phrase in Hebrew

drift away. It gives the image of a boat that

has been tied up, but somehow it's become unmourned, and

maybe the rope came untangled. But it gives us image

of people talking and not noticing that the boat is

just floating out into the harbor. And it gives us

image of how we can drift away from Christ. See,

you're not gonna wake up tomorrow and say, you know what,

I'm gonna blow my life up.

You're not gonna wake up tomorrow and say I'm gonna

destroy my marriage.

You're not gonna wake up tomorrow and be like, I'm

gonna throw away my faith.

No, here's what happens.

We neglect our spiritual walk a little bit. We start

watching things we should not watch. We start having conversations

we should not have we start looking at things and

just a little by little by little by little by

little by little, and then all of a sudden, one

day we realize we have drifted far away from Jesus. See,

we do not accidentally drift towards Jesus. We have to

intentionally drift towards Jesus has to be intentional, and we

must anchor ourself to him. Now, I'm going to share

this last story today, and to be honest, I've had

such a hard time sharing it this weekend, especially last service.

There was a lot of younger kids in here, and

I struggled with this story because it's embarrassing to me.

And I told the Lord I didn't want to share

this story. But again I just said, all right, Lord,

I'm your servant. My life's not mine, and so just

grace as I tell this story. It was about a

couple weeks before I got married, and me and a

few guys we went down to Florida and one night

they decided to go out to the club.

I'm not a club guy.

I don't dance, I don't know okay, So I stayed

back and I decided I looked around, like we've been

pretty messy I'm gonna clean this place up. So I

opened up this little closet and there is a vacuum.

On top of that vacuum is a bowling bag. Bowling

balls don't go on top of backs, you know. So

I grab a hold of it and it's really light,

but I it has something in it. So I sit

down and I unzip it and I reach in and

I pull out some pretty illicit tapes. And when I

came to Christ, Jesus gave me victory over this. But

when I put those tapes back in my hand, I

can feel.

My body shutter.

And I and I felt like, oh my gosh, like

I was overwhelmed.

I couldn't think for a second.

My blood pressure went up, and then I started to

have this thought, no one will ever know. This is

my one shot. They're all gone. I can watch this,

no one will know. And I sit there and I

struggled with Christ for a while. Then finally I got

up and I put the tape into the player. I

hit play, and before the video could pop up, I

quickly hit ejecked and I grab ahold of video. And

I can still remember to this day where that TV was,

where the couch was where the stairs was all this stuff.

And I still remember to this to day saying to myself,

I don't want to go back.

I don't want to go back.

And that's the message of Hebrews. Why would you go

back when you've been freed by Jesus? Because let me

tell you something right now, Satan has.

A bowling bag for every single one of you.

And one of the reasons I was able to grab

that out back because I had not drifted as far

away from Satan or from Christ. I was walking closely

by Christ. But then even though I was overwhelmed by

that temptation, I was still walking closely with Christ. But

if I had been drifting away, that would have been

the day that I went back. So the question today

is this for all of us. Is there something that

Christ has freed you from that you are attempted to

go back to or you're flirting with going back to.

So here's what we're gonna do.

I'm gonna take some time to pray today, and I'm

gonna ask you to ask the Holy Spirit to first

check in your heart and ask the Lord Lord, am

I drifting?

Is there anything in me that's.

Maybe slipping away? In our relationship. Number two. Maybe you've

picked up some old sin in your life. I want

you to lay it down today, ask for forgiveness, receive

grace and mercy, and fully commit yourself back to Christ.

Or you will receive grace and mercy.

Can we just take some time now and let's go

before the Lord and have a conversation.