A Better Confidence - August 2, 2026

It is my privilege to invite you to today's sermon podcast. I have made the

Apostle Paul's prayer request my own.

When he states in Ephesians 6, 19, pray also for me, that whenever I open my

mouth, the words may be given to me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel.

May today's sermon come alive to you and aid you in your understanding of God's plan for your life.

I need to ask you a question as we start. Have you ever been somewhere?

And in that exact moment, right when you were there, you kind of had this question

flash through your mind, am I really allowed to be here?

Am I supposed to be right here? Maybe it was standing at a door and on the door

are painted the words authorized personnel only.

And you were told to go to this door, but you're just not sure if you should

open it because of what is on the side.

Maybe you're at some place and someone told you, yeah, just go in.

But you see all these warning signs, you know, something about trespassers and

violations or being shot or something like that.

And you're a little worried about going in there. I remember as a kid,

my dad worked for a Boise Water Corporation.

And once in a while in the summer, he would take me to go read water meters with him.

And usually he would take me when we went to interesting places.

Otherwise, I'd get bored.

And this one time we went to Gowan Field. And at that time, boy,

I thought I was going to go on the Air Force.

I thought I was going to fly fighter jets. And so I was all jazzed about going to Gowan Field.

And we were just going to read water meters around the barracks.

But man, I could see the planes take off and land. And so we went there and,

I was a little paranoid because there were all these warning signs.

I bet Eldon worked there during the time that I was there reading water meters.

I don't even know Eldon at the time, but I'm sure I would have been afraid, frightened.

The armaments that were there and Eldon's imposing stature as well.

But sometimes we kind of get like that. We go to a place and we're just like,

sure, are we supposed to be here or not? And, you know, sometimes maybe that

was your experience coming into a church for the very first time.

If you didn't grow up in church, you weren't used to the lingo or the customs

or everything that we do.

It might feel a little intimidating to those coming to the church the first

time. And I know I say this sometimes when we have a big event,

that some of you are here today, and it's a miracle because the church did not

collapse upon you as you walked through the door.

Maybe that was you at one time. You thought that would happen.

You know, when we think about this idea of access, we think about this idea

of confidence and being where you're supposed to be.

Maybe many of us, spiritually at least, feel like we are standing at the door

wanting to go in, but really feeling that we're too unworthy to take that first step.

And if that's the case for you today, no matter how you're feeling in life,

where you feel that you're supposed to be, I want you to know as we read this

text today that Jesus opens the door to you.

Jesus has opened the door to you.

And so what we should do is just boldly step on through.

If Christ has opened the door and said, come on in, then that should be our bold step to take.

This morning, we're going to read Hebrews chapter 10, verses 19 through 25.

Hebrews 10:19–25

And I just invite you to stand if you're willing and able, and let's read the Word of God together.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the most

high place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way open for us,

through the curtain that is His body,

and since we have a great high priest over the house of God,

let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that

faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to.

Let's pray. Father, I thank you so much for your word. Lord,

thank you for the power within it. Lord, thank you for, Lord,

the nourishment that it brings our soul and our spirit today.

God, as we read this today, we just pray that you would help us to apply the

principles of it, Lord, to live by it, and God, really, to take what we need

from it today. It's in Jesus' name that we ask this.

Amen. Thank you. You can be seated.

You know, Hebrews 10 tells us that because Jesus has opened the door for us

into the very presence of God, the door is no longer closed. It's wide open.

The curtain has been opened, if you will. The Old Testament veil that was.

Stopped us from going to the very holy place of God where only the priest could

go. It has been open to us.

The sacrifice has been made in Jesus.

The priest is in place, and we have access to God.

The invitation is not to stay back, authorized personnel only.

That is not the invitation. The invitation today is to come and to draw near.

And so I want to pose to you the question, the answer today.

The question is, what should our response be to the open door?

And I want to give you several reasons as why you should walk on through there

and walk through boldly and walk through quickly.

First this morning, what I want you to notice in the scripture is the word therefore.

The good old preachers will say, whenever you see the word therefore,

you need to say why it's therefore.

Confusing? Yeah, but all the preachers say it. And so I said it again today.

Why does it say therefore?

Well, that just means look back at everything that has happened before.

Think back to the months that I've been preaching to you about the message in Hebrews.

All this has led up to this grand conclusion of this mini-sermon within the

book. I say mini-sermon, it's not really too many because we've been on it for several months.

But think about what has already been said. Since Jesus has transformed,

excuse me, has removed our sin,

we've been talking about Jesus gave up his life to remove our sin,

things that we could not atone for by killing animals innocently through a religious ritual.

Jesus removed our sin by his sacrifice. We said last week, Jesus has finished the work.

On the cross, he said, it is finished. It is paid in full, your debt to sin.

Because Jesus has done that, the word therefore is therefore.

Since Jesus has cleansed us within to the very depth of our soul is the reason

this word therefore is therefore.

And since no more sacrifice for sin is needed, therefore, we can do what the Scripture says.

As it says, brothers and sisters, since we have this confidence to enter the

most high place by the blood of Jesus, it says, by a new and living way,

open for us through the curtain, that is, Christ's body.

And since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near.

Because of all these reasons, God's removed every barrier out of our way so

we could draw near to him.

It's interesting when you think about the concept of his body being the curtain that separated us.

The holy place from the most holy place. And I want to explore that just a minute with you.

The curtain in, or the veil, if we want to use the proper terminology from the

old King James, from that version, it was ornate.

It was incredible. You read back in Exodus how it was constructed,

and some theologians and scientists would say that it was constructed so well that

one truck pulling one end and one truck pulling the other end going opposite

directions could not tear that apart.

Some think that it was four inches thick, woven, incredibly woven together.

That's how incredibly made this was.

And it also shows you the barrier that was in the way to protect that which

was holy from encountering the unholy.

However, we know that when Jesus Christ gave up his physical body,

his humanity, when he died on the cross, when he said, it is finished,

and when he was done and he died, that that same veil ripped from top to bottom in two.

Christ's body, his humanity, his coming on our behalf,

living as we live as human beings, encountering what we encounter as human beings,

but then giving up his life to save all of us as our sacrifice,

it ripped that veil in two.

So the holy was no longer separated from the unholy because Jesus was now the

bridge between a holy God and an unholy man, unholy people and a holy God.

Jesus did that for us. Isn't that powerful? Isn't that awesome?

It's astounding, man. It just blows your mind that the therefore is because Jesus did that for us.

Jesus did all that so that we could do what was instructed in verse 22,

to draw near to God with full assurance.

Hey, the way is open.

The only authorized personnel door is wide open and you've got an invitation to go in.

I always chuckle when we go to visit a football stadium in another city or a

NASCAR track or something really popular, and my kids are with me.

Because I'll go, I'll open those unauthorized entry doors just to see if I can get in.

I'll try to get into the stadium because I want to be there and just kind of

see what I can see, right?

I'll go to the NASCAR track, and short of hopping the fence,

I won't do that. But if a gate's open, I'll go through and I'll check things out.

That horrifies my children, my adult children, even.

They're like I was visiting Gowan Field. They're petrified in awe.

But I'm like, oh, it's just a sign on a door. Let's see what happens.

You know, the worst thing is I could end up in jail and get bailed out,

I guess. But I'm not the only one with the spirit of not rebellion,

of curiosity to check things out.

There's a guy online. He goes and he checks out football stadiums,

college football stadiums all over the country.

He's come to BSU. He's gone to Albertson Stadium. He went over to ISU and explored

there. But I kind of like watching that because that's exciting.

It says we draw near to God with full assurance now because the door is open.

The sign's gone. It's all open for us to have access to God,

the God of the universe, the holy God, the creator of all.

And when it says to draw near to God, there's an urgency implied.

It's like, come on, what are you waiting for? Now is the time.

Come on in. Hurry up.

Now, not like some of you all, when the church gets started and there's music

playing, you're just kind of waltzing into the sanctuary. That's okay, by the way.

There's some important conversations that happens outside there.

But you know what? Now is the time. Don't wait. Don't delay.

There's an urgency. Draw near to God now.

It says with full assurance.

As you look to the scripture, full assurance means...

That we have confidence to enter. I don't know about you, but I hope you have

confidence to come before God.

What we read earlier as we opened our service was to boldly approach the throne of grace.

We can boldly come reverently even, but we come before God because he's opened the door for us.

But there's an approach that we take. As the scripture said,

again, in verse 22, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the

full assurance that faith brings.

What is our approach? What is the way that we approach the King of kings,

the Lord of lords, the Holy God Almighty?

Well, with a true heart, a sincere heart. And what is our heart? It's our motivation.

So we got to come to God with the right motivation, with a sincere,

a loving motivation. We come to God. And what is that motivation?

It is, God, I want your will, not mine to be done.

That's what Jesus said before the cross as he is struggling with,

do I go through with this or not?

I don't think there was ever that doubt, even though the struggle was there,

knowing what he would face.

And that was Jesus' prayer in the garden. Not my will, Father, but yours be done.

And we approach God, we come to him with that sincere heart. God knows our hearts.

He knows when you came to worship today, if you came truly to connect with God,

or you came for some other reason.

Maybe you came for another reason, but now that you're here,

there's been a repentance in your heart, a change of heart, a change of mind,

and you're here just to worship God,

to get something from His Word that you can use all week long,

or at least until tomorrow when you open up your morning devotional book,

your Bible, and when you pray again.

We come to God with the right motivation, with a sincere heart,

and with full assurance. That means we have full assurance that we trust without hesitation.

That when God speaks to your heart today and tells you to do something,

that you take that step of faith.

That without hesitation, you say, God, I don't know how I'm going to do it,

but I'm going to trust you.

And you take those small steps of faith and saying, God, I will do what you've

called me to do. That's full assurance.

Not doubting, not saying, God, I don't know if I can trust you here,

so you want me there, but I'm going to stay one foot over here.

And you stretch as far as you can, but you've never let go of what God wants

you to let go of in that step.

See, we've got to have that full assurance when we come to God.

When we step through the open door that God has given us.

Why can we do that? Why can we come with a sincere heart, with a heart of full assurance?

Well, we can do that because the Scripture says two things. It says because we've been justified.

We've been sprinkled with the blood of Christ. Folks, our sin has been cleansed

because of what Jesus has done for us.

When we come to him, we've been justified to God the Father because of what Christ has done.

Done. It's not in our own works. It's not in our own righteousness.

The Bible calls that filthy rags. But we claim what Christ has done when we've

stepped through that open door.

We said, Jesus, you have done this.

We're justified by what Jesus has done, but also says we've been washed.

We've been regenerated. We've been born again, cleansed of the filth in our life.

Our sin is gone, but the filth too, because of what Jesus has done.

Remember Jesus was talking to a guy named Nicodemus at nighttime.

And Jesus said, you must be born again. And Nicodemus was like, say what?

What do you mean I've got to be born again? How can I go once again into my

mother's womb and be born again?

Jesus said, not born of flesh, but born of spirit.

It's that regeneration that takes place. As it says here, this washing of water.

It's not talking about baptism per se, but it's what baptism represents,

what happens in the heart of a person in the new birth, when they become born

again, when they're a new creation.

And so we've been justified. We've been regenerated. That's why we can go before the throne of grace.

That's why we can step through the open door that Jesus has opened for us,

that free access to God. Isn't that great?

That's incredible. The second thing and what our response should be is not only

drawing near with full assurance, but we need to do what verse 23 says,

and that is hold fast to hope without wavering.

Again, verse 23, let us hold unswervingly.

To the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.

Unwavering profession is what this is talking about.

That means never stopping to voice your faith, to profess your trust in Christ,

no matter what is happening around you.

And folks, we go through a lot in life, some more than others negatively.

Some of you and your testimonies are amazing on why you're still even in a church,

in the midst of everything that's happened to you, life.

Some of you have reason, I would say, to be angry with God because of some of

the things that have happened.

But yet, even in the midst of those, and even with that testimony,

you still proclaim Christ is Lord, that Jesus is your Savior.

Why is that? Well, because you have this profession that you are with Christ

no matter what, that Christ is with you no matter what happens.

Right now, some of our neighbors, some of our friends, some of our family need

to hear that profession of faith.

They need to hear that no matter what's going on in your life,

you're still trusting God. You're still trusting Jesus.

When we think about what the Scripture says, you're holding fast,

holding on without wavering,

because you have the joyful and confident expectation of eternal life,

eternal salvation in Jesus.

Remember what the Scripture says here, God will do what he has promised.

What has God promised you? I can tell you 100% with 100% certainty that he'll do that.

He will do it for you. We hold fast. Well, does that mean life never gets rocky?

That life never gets bumpy? No.

Have you ever been in an airplane and never had turbulence in all your years

of flying? Maybe that's the reason some Some of you don't fly.

You see those nightmare videos on YouTube of all of a sudden the plane going

along and then dropping, not to the ground, but dropping enough that the stewardess

and the cart and everything hits the roof and comes back down.

That's a little frightening.

Man, you have turbulence on an airplane, but we still board and we go somewhere again.

And maybe when you're having that turbulence, you grab the seat.

Like that's really going to help you if you're 30,000 feet in the air and the

wind is bouncing you around.

You're still wavering, but yet you're still solid, holding on to something.

You're trusting in the airframe of the airplane that's been built.

You're trusting in the skill of the pilot to get you through this turbulence.

You still are knocked around maybe a little bit, but Lord willing,

you still have a safe landing.

We're to hold unswervingly to the faith that we have, to the trust that we have

in Christ, to the hope that we have that what God said is going to come true,

That that person that you love and are praying for because they don't know Jesus,

you're holding out hope because you know that they will be saved.

You know that they will give their life to God through Jesus.

Some of you are praying through an illness. You're praying through difficult circumstance.

And are you holding on hope, onto hope without swerving, without wavering?

Are you holding fast that God is going to see you through that,

that God is going to answer that request?

That's what we're called to do. That's what we can do because Christ has opened

the door for us. We can draw near.

We can hold fast to the hope that we have without wavering.

And third this morning, we can encourage one another to love and to faithfulness.

You see kind of the progression of the scripture? It's saying, hey, you, draw near.

Hey, you, come through the door that Jesus has opened and come through it boldly.

And as you're coming on, hold fast to the hope, to the promises that God has

made you, that are found in his word, that God has made personal to you.

Now, come through together. Come on. And now as you're coming through together,

he says to encourage one another.

Encourage means just what it says, to give courage to someone else.

Someone else needs to see your faith lived out because they know you,

they know what you've been through, and they're trying to figure out how to

get through something like that themselves.

And so they need the good word of encouragement that you might bring to them at the right time.

Scripture says, again, we look to verse 24 and 25, and let us consider how we

may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.

To spur one another, I think the King James, New King James says, to stir up.

Means to keep on considering. You keep on, it's a present action of mutual consideration

of encouraging each other. It's not just a one-time thing.

Oh yeah, I encouraged him once to do that.

Well, that's great, but did you keep it up?

When we read the word spur on or stir up, this is a positive use of that because

usually this word in the Greek phrasing especially is is meant for someone that's

stirring up a riot, an instigator.

You don't have anyone in your life that likes to stir the pot, do you?

I won't name names, but there might be a few here, or maybe they're not here

today because they're up camping somewhere.

But there's a few that like just to stir things up, watch a little conflict

get started and sit back and giggle, laugh at it.

It's kind of the same idea here, but what we're supposed to stir up is this love in one another.

We're supposed to annoy people enough to get them to do good deeds.

We're supposed to annoy people so much that they get sick of us here and say,

hey, why don't you come to my Sunday school? Hey, why don't you teach my Sunday

school class? Hey, why don't you come and serve as an usher?

Hey, why don't you come to this men's breakfast, this work that we're doing?

Hey, why don't you do this?

We're just always offered opportunities and encouraging them to come along,

come and do these good things.

In a sense, we're stirring up a love riot in people, right?

We're stirring up that they can be better.

We're stirring up within them that they could do more for the kingdom.

It's this idea of encouraging them in this, but it's also a reminder that we

have a responsibility to one another.

We're not just in this alone. I mean, the scripture calls us a body.

What good or what kind of body would it be if it was just a mouth?

That's no body. or just a thumb, or a hand, a leg.

That's not a complete body. We need one another. Many more pictures.

What kind of building would it be if it was just one rock, right?

Hey, let's go to church. All right, where are we at? It's right here,

and it's just a rock right there.

That's no kind of church.

Church is made up, as the Scripture said, of many members. just as a body has many parts to it.

A church building has many stones, many different ways of it being constructed.

We have a responsibility to do these things.

What are some practical things? Well, it says we have a responsibility to gather

together, to meet together and not become lazy in not meeting together.

I mean, how can I encourage you if I have no contact with you, right?

How can I annoy you to love and good deeds if you're not around for me to annoy you? I can't.

We've got to meet together in a corporate setting like this of worship in our

small groups and just coming by and just running into each other out.

I mean, I've had church before in the middle of Ridley's up in McCall,

down here at Walmart, at Albertsons, at Idaho Pizza Company.

It only takes two or three that are gathered together where the Spirit of Christ is with us.

You know, we've got to not give up meeting together.

As the scripture says, as some are in the habit of doing, some of these Hebrew

Christians had stopped gathering with other believers altogether.

And so the author of Hebrews here says, hey, I want to give you this warning.

Don't give up meeting together.

You need each other. You're important to one another. Therefore,

exhort or encourage one another.

And why do we do this? because of what this last phrase in the scripture passage said today.

All the more as you see the day, capital D, the day approaching.

Folks, Christ is coming. It's a reminder that Jesus is returning.

And so there's an urgency to this. Don't miss out.

Don't miss out on the opportunity to encourage each other to do what is right, to do what is good.

And in an increasingly unchristian or post-Christian or pagan,

whatever you want to call it, culture, we've got to be able to encourage one

another so we know we're doing the right thing.

In a place where all the moral lines have been blurred, we need to have the

same kind of vision that we're true to the Word of God and staying in alignment with God's Word.

And we need each other to help to make sure we're still on track.

We've got to encourage one another to love and to faithfulness,

to say, hey, brother, keep going. Hey, sister, hang in there.

Keep going in the way God wants you to go.

And the challenge, I think, is clear for all of us this morning.

As we step through that open door, God is nudging you. But what's he nudging you to do?

Is he nudging you to draw near?

For some of you, is he nudging you to hold fast, just to hang on?

As the old song says, hold on for one more day.

Some of you could sing it better, but you get the idea that,

is that what you're supposed to do is to hang on tight for one more day?

Or are you supposed to encourage someone?

Is that what God wants you to do today?

See, my encouragement to you this morning is simple, and that's just to step

boldly through the open door. Step through it.

Hey don't go out of it don't go back through unless you're right at the threshold

and you're pulling someone else through that needs to be where you're at,

well you pull as many people as you can through that open door you share with

them the invitation that the door's open you can come in everything has been

moved aside any barriers so

i want to give you some practical steps on how you can do that this week.

Whatever God is calling to you right now in this moment, maybe one of them is,

you need to stop standing far off.

You need to get closer to God.

You need to know that God honors each step of faith that you take.

Maybe the day you're here and you're just like, well, my faith is kind of messed

up. I don't even know what I believe.

Well, you've taken a step this morning by coming here.

Into this sanctuary. Some of you have taken a step of faith by tuning in to

us online and you're checking out what goes on at Mountain View Church. That's a step of faith.

Some of you took the bold step this morning to go to Sunday school.

Some are going to take a bold step this week and come to our midweek Bible studies and life groups.

I mean, stop standing far off when you know the opportunity is wide open to

you. What are you waiting for?

A second way that you can make this concrete this week is just practice drawing near.

Practice drawing near to God. Open the Bible.

Open a devotional book that's based on the Scripture, that includes Scripture in it, and do that daily.

Begin to develop that personal worship habit, worshiping God on your own every day of the week.

Get into the scripture, intentional, unhindered time with God.

It works wonders on your soul, does amazing things for you.

Maybe you just need some encouragement. Turn on the Christian radio station,

pop in a CD or put up your playlist on the Bluetooth.

Play that music that helps you get close to God in the time where you can't read anything.

But draw near, practice drawing near to God. The third this morning,

this is more of an inward focus here, and that is identify where you waver.

Where are you kind of on shaky ground with the Lord?

Identify that and then seek out people to encourage you.

Seek out ways to overcome that in the scripture, to help you get more on solid

footing so your faith doesn't falter when hard times hit or when deep questions

that you can't answer are asked of you.

Fourth this morning, just ask, who can I encourage? And then act on it. How do I encourage them?

Look around you. Here this morning, there's plenty of people that need encouragement. All of us do.

In your life outside this building, who needs to be encouraged?

Now, I'm not just saying, slapping him on the back and say, buck up,

brother. Have a good day.

But I'm saying getting to know these people. Remember what we said?

One of the things we said was, you got to kind of be annoying.

To be annoying, you got to kind of study a person. Annoying in a good way.

Annoy them with love, right?

Know what they like.

Know what their love language is. Know what their strengths are, their giftedness.

Encourage them in that.

Encourage them to do what's right, to do what's good. Just bless them.

And so my step that I would love for you to take this week, if you're willing

and able, is just simply this. Every morning this week, read Hebrews 10,

19 through 25. If you don't have a daily devotional, here's an easy one for you.

Open up to the passage I just read this morning.

Read that every day. And then write down every day one concrete action you are

going to take to step boldly into the presence of God.

Maybe that day you know, you heard your neighbor is very discouraged.

Their wife is sick and they're just down in the dumps because they don't know

if she's going to survive.

Maybe you need to go to that neighbor and encourage them in some way.

Maybe it's for yourself and you've been kind of struggling in this one area

of your faith and maybe you say, okay, I'm going to identify what that is and I'm going to solve it.

I'm going to ask the Lord to help me here. I'm going to call my Sunday school

teacher. I'm going to say, hey, man, I'm having this difficulty. Can you help me here?

I'm going to call my brother that I went to men's breakfast with,

my sister that went to the women's breakfast, and I'm just going to say,

hey, I need you to hold me accountable here. I need you to pray for me.

But do that every day this week. One concrete step to step boldly through that

door that God has opened for you.

But why does it matter? Why do you want me to do this, pastor, in other words?

It matters to you because when you take time to step into God's presence,

it cultivates something deep within you,

a deeper peace that lightens your heart, deeper love that transforms your character

and who you are and how you view other people.

It positively transforms your interactions with others.

That's why I want you to do that. That's why I want you to draw near, step through that door.

This week, as you confront those feelings of unworthiness, remember we said

some of us are standing at the door, not sure if we're worthy to go in.

Hey, if the door is open to you, you're worthy. Jesus says, come.

Remember this, Jesus has swung the door wide open.

So step through and discover the peace that he has waiting for you in his presence.

Would you do that this week? Don't delay. There's an urgency about it. Jesus is coming soon.

This morning, as we partake together of the Lord's Supper, it is this message

that we take today, to come to this open door.

In a minute, as the ushers come and as they distribute these elements.

This is what the open door, how the open door was made possible for us.

The body of Christ that was broken for us.

Remember, the veil was torn in two, was ripped in two, so that unholy people

could now have access to a holy God and in themselves be made holy in that process

of coming to Him and drawing near.

Because of the blood of Christ, we read in the Scripture today,

that we've been sprinkled with the blood of Christ. We have been justified.

Justified. Not what we've done, but because of what Jesus has done.

So as we take the Lord's Supper together today, and I got to tell you,

this is a powerful moment.

A powerful moment, not just as remembrance, but as power right here and right now today.

So as the ushers are coming, let me pray over the elements. We'll distribute

them, and I just want to encourage you to draw near to God at this moment.

I want to thank you for joining today's sermon podcast. You can find a copy

of today's sermon as well as other sermons and the sermon outline from today

on our church's website,

www.mvcnaz.org.

It is my prayer also that you will seek out a church home that recognizes the authority of the Bible.