Hebrews: Enjoy Your Forgiveness

Good morning, glad you're here.

My name is Russ Masterson.

Whether you're here in the sanctuary with us or you're live on stream, we love that we are together, and we love that we get to say every single week together that we are more broken than originally thought, but we are more loved by God than we would dare to dream.

That is such good news to us that we constantly need to hear.

So we went through the prodigal son for three weeks, and then beginning this week, we will uh head into our journey through the book of Hebrews, which will probably take us a couple of months.

We're not gonna hit every single verse, but we will uh jump around through the book of Hebrews.

Uh, the book of Hebrews, in short, is a book of Christology.

So that's a big word to say uh that this book is about helping us to see and understand who Jesus is.

So a couple of weeks ago, maybe you saw it in the news, there was a country singer, his name's Kane Brown.

I think he sings the song, uh, I think it's Homecoming.

Is that right?

Is anybody familiar with country music?

So he's kind of a new hotshot country music singer.

He's made a lot of money off this song.

And so he bought a new 30-acre property in Tennessee.

Him and some friends, they go out on this 30-acre property with some ATVs and they head out for like a 30-minute, let's explore the land.

The 30 minutes uh it stretches into three hours, three hours gets into seven hours because his property backs up to 3,000 acres, and sure enough, he's lost on his own land.

And GPS wasn't working for them, and they're out, and they kept circling around, they kept coming up on these kind of impassable cliffs for their ATVs, and then it started getting dark, and then the temperature started dropping down to like the 40s, and they're getting nervous, and then one of the ladies had asthma, and her asthma starts acting up because she's so nervous, and so eventually they call the police.

So he calls the police to be rescued from his own land, right?

I mean, that's a comical story.

Like a PR person couldn't even create a better PR move for him in his career because it was all over the news.

And I laughed at it, right?

Like, I mean, we have some like really great judgment on something like that.

Uh, but it's such a perfect illustration of how much we need to be rescued.

Much less can you imagine the being the policeman, right?

Like you're in your police car, it's dinner time, you're comfortable, you're warm, it's getting dark, and then you get the phone call that you have to go rescue a guy, um, not just any guy, but like, you know, a hotshot new country music singer who just bought a 30-acre property and he's lost on his own property.

And of course, the police do what the police do.

They mark their location and they walk in and they get these people and they rescue them.

Right?

What a beautiful picture for us to begin this image and our study through the book of Hebrews.

Because, excuse me, the book of Hebrews gives us, my voice isn't gonna go in and out this morning, by the way, so just bear with me.

It gives us the loving nature and the redemptive action of God, of who God is for us.

That doesn't stay in his police car, like doesn't stay at a distance, but comes into our mess, as ridiculous as it is to get lost on our own land, um, but enters that, that God doesn't stay at a distance, but enters your frustrated world.

And when I say your frustrated world, I'm I mean that specifically.

Uh that's that's a that's a concrete statement.

That's not abstract, meaning he he actually does enter the frustration that you have today.

Uh whether that's the loneliness you feel because you're still live streaming and you haven't come into any sort of like gathering of people in months and months and months, or the finances haven't worked out, or the relationship's still really difficult, and virtual learning is not what you thought it would be, much less virtual parenting upon learning, or virtual teaching, or your work, or any of that, right?

Like it like it's specific, this God entering our worlds.

And this is the image for us, and it's such good news because we're not perfect, we're very much like Cain Brown, and we very much get lost, and we very much need God to be entering our frustration and our mess.

This is what Hebrews gives us this Christology to understand who God is, because so often we're not even quite sure who God is, and so we need to be reminded.

So, Hebrews chapter 1, verse 1.

Hebrews 1:1

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.

So, point number one is this God is not indifferent to you.

God engages your heart.

God's not indifferent to you, God engages your heart.

And I use that word heart on purpose because life would almost feel a little surfacey or abstract at that point, because God actually engages the core of who you are.

Verse 1 uses this term long ago.

It's referring back to all the Old Testament prophets we have in the Old Testament where God is speaking through these Old Testament prophets so that we might know about God.

And then verse 2 says, But in these last days, the Hebrews writes saying, something changed.

It's different than long ago in these last days, and last days in the New Testament's always referring to when Jesus came, the incarnation of the Christ and the person of Jesus till today and into the future.

That's the last days.

God's spoken to us in Jesus.

That's why we don't need another prophet, because he is the definitive word from God about God.

About 10 years ago, uh Christy was out at her parents' house with her parents and her brother's family, and Christy was already a little irritated with her brother.

Her brother was already a little irritated with her, right?

Like just siblings, right?

Just being siblings.

And so when Christy walked through the garage and he said something and she didn't like that, and then she said something and he didn't like that, and before long, it didn't take long for two adults to revert back to being like teenagers fighting over the hallway bathroom.

Like that happened pretty quickly, and then they were just jawing at each other, they were ripping it into each other, they were really going at it.

Eventually they walked away, but they didn't walk away before her father, before her dad heard it.

So Christy gets home because she's telling me play by play what happened and who said what, and she said what.

Her phone rings.

It's her dad.

And her dad says, uh, I heard y'all's argument, I don't want to hear anything about it, but you will be in my conference room at my office in the morning at 10 a.m.

Yes, sir.

Her dad calls her brother.

I heard the argument, I don't want to hear anything about it, but you will be in the conference room at my office at 10 a.m.

in the morning.

Yes, sir.

So they get there and her dad's there, and her and her brother.

And her dad says, Hey, y'all were going at it.

We're gonna resolve this.

This is what family does.

We'll sit here until it's resolved.

And her dad sat there and they worked it out.

Now, what would have been easy is just to ignore it, right?

Like for her father to just ignore it.

That would have been really, really easy.

I mean, that's most of the time what most of us do.

But her dad did a gospel thing here, right?

And the gospel thing was to enter the mess, enter the frustration, move toward the difficulty, enter the frustration of his children.

See, it's incredibly easy for us to wonder what God is like.

That's a natural position that we are in, to wonder what's God like, and what does he think of me, and how could he think, how could he think, you know, anything of loving and kindness toward me because of who I am, or my mess or my mess-ups?

It's easy to think that God's on top of the mountain, kind of looking down in a distant location, demanding us to get up the hill.

Rather than what the gospel story is of the scriptures and the arc of the scriptures and the incarnation of the Christ who is preeminent from the very beginning, not a new idea, this Jesus Christ, preeminent from the beginning, the one who created through Christ, the world was created, is upheld, and then enters this world in the incarnation of Jesus the Christ.

And in him we know that God's not at the top of the mountain demanding us to come up, but God actually comes to the bottom of the mountain where we are and where we live.

Hebrews 1, verse 3, first part of verse 3.

Hebrews 1:3

He is the radiance, this is talking about Jesus, he is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the power, by the word of his power.

So, point number two is this we can know what God is like because we have the Christ in the person of Jesus.

And I word it that way on purpose, because remember, the Christ was from the beginning of time, and when we talk about Jesus the Christ, we're talking about the incarnation of the Christ.

So the Christ is this person of God from the very beginning.

And then in Jesus Christ, we have the incarnation of the person of God for us to understand who God is.

The very imprint.

This verse 3 says the radiance of the glory of God.

That's to say, Jesus is the reflected brightness shining forth of God's opinion and judgment and majesty for us to know.

So we don't have to constantly wonder, or we don't, you know, maybe look at nature to see how wonderful and majestic and uh incredible God is, and it's all, you know, it's incredible until that tornado comes, and you're like, well, I don't quite know what God's like.

I mean, we really need, we really need Jesus.

This summer we went to the beach, and uh one day in particular, we were sitting, Christian and I were in our chairs, and we were on the Atlantic Ocean.

So, you know, you have that really wide beach and it's flat, it's hard packed, so people are riding bikes and walking, you know, a whole lot along that beach.

And so the girls were boogie boarding and playing in the waves, and Christian and I are sitting in our chairs, and this mom and daughter walk down the beach in front of us, and you know, you love to figure out, like, we at least we do, we do the people watching, and we like try to figure out who all the relationships are.

You know, so at first, like the people in front of us, like a family, you're like, okay, that's the mom and the dad, that's the son because that son looks like the dad, but then that daughter, oh, that's not a daughter because she's too uncomfortable, like she didn't look comfortable, she looks really kind of awkward and uncomfortable.

So it must be, oh, it's the son's like girlfriend who came on vacation with him, and you know, you kind of like figure all that out.

So this mom and this daughter walked down, and they, I mean, the daughter was the spitting image of the mother.

I mean, the hair, eyes, cheekbones, jawline, lips, I mean, her her shoulders, her hips, her legs, I mean, everything.

And we, you know, we just looked at it, they look exactly the like, except the mom maybe has a few more wrinkles.

And they go back and they come back by about 10 minutes later and they're and they're walking away, and we walk, watch them walk, and like literally the way that their shoulders moved and their hips moved and their legs, I mean, they were stride for stride.

Their gait was exactly the same.

Now, imagine you have never met the mom, but you meet the young lady.

Say you meet this young lady at Chili's, because you're hanging at Chili's, and you meet her, and say you ask a very odd question, and you say, What's your mother like?

What's she look like?

What's she like?

That would be a really strange question, don't ask that, but say you did.

The girl could say, I look and move exactly like my mother.

If you want to see her, you can just look at me.

This is this idea, verse three, this imprint of God the Father.

If you want to know what God is like, you don't have to get caught up in abstractness.

But God made it concrete for us in the person of Jesus.

We can just learn about the person of Jesus to know about what God thinks about us and what God is like.

Hebrews 1, second part of verse 3 into verse 4.

After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

So, point number three is this the word of forgiveness and delight to you has already been spoken by God in Jesus.

Here's where I think this intersects your life, because if you're like me, you every once in a while say something that's just completely moronic, right?

I can remember one time at the job I had before this job, and it was at a big church, and it was probably 15 years ago.

I was I was young, and you know, just you know, I just talked too much, probably.

And I was in the hallways early in the morning, it was about 10 o'clock, and I'd been there for you know an hour or an hour and a half or so, and so it's about 10 o'clock, and I'm in the hallway, I think I was going to make pick up some copies or something, and in walked my boss's boss, like the boss, like the senior pastor, very respected man, and in he walks, it's about 10 or 10:30, and I say, he says, Good morning, and I say, Good morning, it's about time.

And you're and then as soon as I said it, like that's not funny.

That's not funny to say to your boss, he didn't laugh.

You know, I laughed, I kind of chuckled.

He did not laugh.

All he did was look at me like I was a complete moron and say, Brother, I have been awake many hours.

And he kept walking, that's all he said.

And he just wanted it back.

It's been 15 years.

I still want that comment back, right?

And that's a pretty innocent comment.

It's like it's not even that bad, much less like something you say that actually hurts somebody, right?

And we have those where you say it and you're like, oh man, like why'd I say that?

Or much less like shameful things that we don't even mention.

We would never mention them.

And this is where this actually takes traction for us.

Because we actually do need a word of forgiveness and delight toward us that's not conditioned upon who we are, what we've done.

And there's all these everyday realities that you're probably coming more in touch with.

Like realities is you just can't fix everything.

You're just not always perfect, you can't handle everything correctly.

You can't quite keep it all together.

Like, you know, you should have like a great prayer life, but you don't really have a great prayer prayer life.

Like, you know you should be kind from your heart outward all the time.

You're not really kind from your heart outward all the time.

And this is where we really need a word of forgiveness that we can trust in.

And it's easy to wonder like, is this talk that's like forgiveness for people who are put together?

Or is it really for me?

Like, is it really for me when I'm not put together?

A couple questions sort of like for contemplation this week.

These would sort of be like daily belief and practice questions.

Uh, these are questions that I can ask myself very often.

Uh, number one is this when you mess up, do you get stuck in your inability?

Like in your mess up, you get like kind of paralyzed in that, or do you turn your gaze upon Jesus once again?

And that's not to say shame on you, that's to say more grace on you, that you can repent quicker.

Number two, when you consider faith, do you begin with a list of what you should do?

Or do you grow more grateful for all God has given to you in Jesus?

Like, what's the starting point there?

Because it should start with oh, how sufficient Jesus is for us, the exact imprint, the word of forgiveness and delight to you.

That's the beginning point by which everything else should flow.

Last week one of my girls came in the house and uh they had been playing with neighbors and and they were painting, building and painting a Barbie dream house out of cardboard, and so great, beautiful Barbie dream house out of cardboard using real paint, and one of them came in and had to paint on her shorts, and so we had the good dad speech about paint clothes and real clothes, and you don't paint in real clothes, you paint and paint clothes.

There's two different categories of clothing because I needed to now clean this pair of shorts, and so first I'm I'm shouting it out like the little spray, and I'm shouting and rinsing and shouting and rinsing, right?

And then you do the oxy, the little scrub thing, and then finally I moved on to this.

Anybody have this?

Fells Naphtha.

Is anybody using this?

It's a it's amazing.

I mean, it's it's it has existed since 1894.

I mean, you know, you know it's a good product when it looks like this.

This is not not a great design.

It looks like this, and I don't think it's changed most over the years, and it's existed for stain removing purposes since 1894.

And so I broke this out, I just wetted the corner of it and just scrubbed it on there, and within like a minute, the stain's completely gone.

Completely gone.

And the shorts had nothing to do with it in this situation, right?

The shorts were the passive agent here.

The stain remover is the active agent.

This is good news for us, another image for us to grab hold of because we always want to bring something to the equation of our forgiveness.

And this is actually what limits our ability to enjoy our forgiveness.

Because we're trying to add to it or bring something to it, trying to create a condition by which uh all of a sudden we feel like it's merited.

But our burden is actually the qualification.

The thing that we actually bring into it is is the fact that we're messed up, that we are the passive agent.

And the beginning of Hebrews, we're gonna have to learn all sorts of stuff in Hebrews, but the first four verses is all about Jesus, is who we look to to know about God, and He is sufficient for the purification of our sins, which means for us, we don't have to keep self-sacrificing, we don't have to keep making religious sacrifices all the time, we don't have to guilt ourselves like for the rest of the day because we said something or did something earlier in the day.

We don't have to guilt ourselves for two weeks because of a mess up.

We get to, in the sufficient forgiveness of Jesus, we get to repent quicker and be delighted in and delight in God more and move on, and we don't have to scoreboard our goods and our bads.

That stain is perpetually gone.

About 12 years ago, is I think that's about I was working it backward in the math this morning in my head, when I finally learned that phrase, enjoy your forgiveness.

For so long of my Christian life, it was believe in your forgiveness, receive forgiveness.

I'd never heard that phrase to enjoy your forgiveness.

So not just believe, but actually enjoy it.

And that doesn't mean to enjoy it like I get to go do whatever I want.

It means I get to rest in the fact that even though I am imperfect, I get to ongoingly walk with God and his complete delight of me.

And guilt and shame have no word.

Have no word over you.

The word spoken to you is Jesus.

Forgiveness and delight to you, not as you should be, but as you are, because none of us are as we should be.

So, my brothers and sisters, may you not only receive God's forgiveness, but may you enjoy God's forgiveness.

I'm gonna lead our communion from here because I need this mic, and then I'll walk around the table to receive the elements.

Let's pray together.

God, thank you for your grace and your mercy to us.

I thank you that we not only get to believe in your forgiveness, we get to enjoy it.

Help us receive the final word that was spoken into history.

You yourself at the bottom of the mountain, walking with us, that you purify us of all of our sin.

What a gift.

May we know it more, grow deeper more into it, may it shape the very core of who we are, that our lives may honor you.