Better Way In - July 12, 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 feel kind of sneaky coming out from behind the pirate ship all the time.

Should have had the ushers dress up as the pirates. No, no, that's a bad idea.

Hey, let me change subject quickly. Two years ago, I had the great privilege

of being with my wife and going to Guatemala. I shared a little bit about that

when I first came to this church.

One of the first things that we did was we visited this grand,

beautiful cathedral in the heart of Guatemala City.

And going there with all the ornate beauty of this place was incredible,

but really, in a sense, it made me feel a little separate from God in that place.

Let me explain just a little bit.

We had taken a lot of different pictures and things of the outside,

and the outside, you could tell it was an old cathedral.

It was made of this stone, and it didn't look too beautiful from the outside,

but you could tell there was something special about this building.

And so then you walk in, and when you walk in, just this, the beauty just,

man, if it ever would glow, you could see the glow because the marble was just

beautiful. The granite was shiny.

And every place that we went, there were these little statues of Jesus hanging on a cross.

Other pictures were on the wall with these different saints.

And it was just an incredible sight to behold the construction of this.

When you walked into the sanctuary part, it just lifted your gaze upward,

just because the architecture of the building.

I mean, it was fantastic. It was beautiful.

This Metropolitan Cathedral in Guatemala City.

And the reason we went there first, it was intentional by our hosts that were hosting us there,

because he wanted to show us something in the midst of all this beauty and all

this iconography that was there, and all these people bowing down to worship—,

He wanted to show us that these people were seeking something real.

They were seeking a living God, but yet they had no assurance.

They had no guarantee that what they found was going to stick.

And that's what kind of broke my heart as we left, and we debriefed this a little

bit, was these people are giving their all.

They're giving money. There was all these little containers everywhere.

You could put money in to this saint. You could put money into the beloved Mary,

and you could give to Guadalupe. I mean, there was all kinds of this going on there.

But yet there wasn't the spirit that I feel when I come to this church on Sunday

morning, or when we gather together in every church I've been a part of.

There is a difference there.

Now, I've been in some nice-looking churches, nothing as ornate as that cathedral.

However, it seemed like the beauty and the majesty in this great,

huge, and very, very old building, I might add—.

It did not help to connect the Almighty God with the lowly person,

going one way or the other.

And I might ask us today, what is stopping you from stepping fully into God's presence?

Is there something that's getting in the way?

You see, just as the cathedral's beauty there in Guatemala City masked the barriers

between people and God, You see, there were mediators they had to go through.

There were certain sections that were roped off you couldn't easily go to.

I mean, there were all these places you could go to, but you couldn't go to

a lot of them without going to somebody first.

You see, with all the mediators, with all the rituals, with all the rites,

the barriers from God were there, but it's no different than way back in the Old Testament.

You see, the Israelites, they had a beautiful tabernacle.

But that beautiful tabernacle that was later made into the temple,

it acted more as a barrier of people getting to God than an open door welcoming them in.

As a matter of fact, as we read Hebrews this morning, Hebrews 9,

Hebrews 9:1–14

verses 1 through 14, remember the book of Hebrews was written to Hebrew Christians.

These people loved religious beauty.

They loved the traditions of Judaism, but they failed to realize that it's only

Christ that truly opens the way completely and freely to God.

It's only Jesus that removed the barriers.

So this morning, as we read these verses, verses 1 through 14 of Hebrews chapter

Hebrews 9 · chapter mention

9, listen to the beauty of this first tabernacle.

Now, the first covenant had regulations for worship and also an earthly sanctuary.

A tabernacle was set up. In its first room were the lampstand and a table with its consecrated bread.

This was called the holy place.

Behind the second curtain was a room called the most holy place,

which had the golden altar of incense and gold-covered ark of the covenant.

This ark contained the gold jar of manna, Aaron's staff that had budded,

and the stone tablets of the covenant.

Above the ark were the cherubim of the glory, overshadowing the atonement cover,

but we cannot discuss these things in detail now.

In verse six, it says, when everything had been arranged like this,

the priests entered regularly into the outer room to carry on their ministry.

But only the high priest entered the inner room, and that only once a year and

never without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins of the people

the people had committed in ignorance.

The Holy Spirit was showing by this that the way into the most holy place had

not yet been disclosed as long as the first tabernacle was still functioning.

This is an illustration for the present time, indicating that the gifts and

sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper.

They are only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings,

external regulations applying until the time of the new order.

But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here,

he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with

human hands, that is to say, is not part of this creation.

He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves, but he entered the

most holy place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.

The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who

are ceremonially unclean.

Sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean.

How much more then will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit

offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our conscience from the act that

lead to death, so that we may serve the living God.

Father, would you bless your word today to our lives. God, we pray,

Lord, that your Word does not go out useless, but it impacts us.

Lord, it changes us, and Father, it transforms us into people that we need to be.

Lord, may we hear your Spirit today in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you for honoring God's Word.

First thing I want to talk to you about this morning as we talk about a better

way in is this, and that is, first of all, the beautiful barrier.

As we read through this and it described the different things within the tabernacle,

which would later be included into the temple, it's astounding some of the works that were made.

We're told that this beauty in the Scripture was only an illustration. It was only a shadow.

Now, you remember when your kids were little, your grandkids,

maybe you're still little, and you did shadow puppets, and maybe you did a little

shadow play with a flashlight or a lantern.

We did this sometimes when we went camping. As kids, we'd make up stupid little

shows with dinosaur hands and crazy things, whatever. We could make butterflies,

killer butterflies, and that kind of thing, in the light of our lantern.

Though we made a butterfly with our hands, that really wasn't a butterfly, right?

A real butterfly would only be represented by the shadow that was cast.

The scripture says here is that this beauty of this tabernacle was only a shadow

of the heavenly tabernacle, the heavenly sanctuary, if I could say it like that.

It's only a shadow or a copy, an illustration of that.

So even in its beauty, and we know it was beautiful, back in Exodus 25, it gave instructions

for how this was to be made in the book of Exodus, how the furniture was to

be composed, and it was made of gold, and it was beautiful, it was costly,

and all the furniture and everything within was built from what people gave to it.

And so there's no doubt that it was Israel's pride, not just because the beauty

of it, but because it's where God reached down and touched the people of Israel.

The point on earth, wherever that tabernacle was taken, was the point where

God was going to meet humanity.

A beautiful, a beautiful illustration of that.

But it was still just a shadow, a copy pointing to the true heavenly dwelling

place, pointing to where God really dwelt.

They're only shadows. And you think about this, we got some pretty neat things

around this church. We might not have anything made of gold.

The pews, I don't think, are made of gold unless it's wood-covered gold,

because it's not really shining.

I see a little loaf of bread by Melanie, that's shiny, but it's made out of aluminum foil.

We have all these different things that are set up. We have all these different

ways that we do things, even if they do include a pirate ship.

We have all these different motions that we go through, order of service,

and we've got these traditions even in our own church,

and all those things are great, but they're only shadows if they really don't

point us and lead us to God.

You see, our worship today, we sang several great songs. Those songs are only

shadows if it doesn't lead us to pour out our heart in worship of God.

The prayers that we prayed around this altar and throughout the congregation,

they're only shadows, only illustrations.

If we're not truly pouring out our heart to God in worship and trusting that

God's going to answer the prayers that we said, that we gave out.

A sanctuary like this is only a shadow. It's only a copy if we don't truly expect to meet God here.

Did you come with that expectation today that God was going to speak to you today personally?

Now, maybe you're kind of like the lady who drug her husband to church and said,

God, I need you to speak to him today.

We've had a crazy week and I really need you to talk to him.

And she did that for decades.

Finally, as the preacher was giving the message and her husband wasn't there,

The Lord gave her kind of the spotlight.

All these messages have been for you, but you've been so focused on somebody

else, you've missed the point of what I'm trying to say to you.

So ladies, don't think it's all about your husband. Husbands,

don't think it's all about your wives.

Single people, don't worry about any of that because you don't have a husband or wife right now.

All right. So it's all focused. What do you expect to hear from God today?

You see, when people would go to the temple, this beautiful barrier,

They expected something from God, though they might not always come away with what they expected.

You see, the message of the temple was pretty clear. The message of the Judaic

system was pretty clear. You can't come in.

How would that have felt if you got to church today and Romy was standing back

at these double doors with their arms crossed and said, you can't come in?

Of course, it's Romy, so we're going to respect her and we're not going to come

in, right? Right. But can you imagine?

You got up early, you got dressed, you're coming in, and then you're barred

from coming to the place where you're going to experience God?

Boy, that must have been something incredible. But you see, the Gentiles,

those non-Jewish people, they were kept out of the tabernacle by threat of death.

Can you imagine? Romy standing at the doors, maybe even out under the carport,

checking your Nazarene credentials.

If you're not Nazarene, you're coming in. If you come in and you're not a Nazarene,

you're dead. We've got security forces on hand, by the way.

I mean, can you imagine that? You're coming to connect with God,

though you may not be of the brand Nazarene.

You're kept out. Well, the Gentiles had that happening. They couldn't come in.

They were kept out. Stay away. Stay out there, you Gentiles.

And even the ordinary Israelites could only go to the gate of the court.

Ordinary Israelites, ordinary churchgoers, let's say, they could only go to the outer courts,

up to the gate, to bring their sacrifices that they were coming so that their

sins could be atoned for, so they could make up for something they did, something they said.

They'd bring those animals, but they weren't allowed in.

As a matter of fact, you go into the next level that was described in our scripture

passage today, only the priests or the Levites could go into the court.

They could even go so far, but they couldn't go any farther.

Those men that were born into the Levitical tradition because of their lineage, going back to Levi.

They served in this role, served the nation of Israel, served the people of

Israel, but they could only do so much.

Matter of fact, it was only the high priest, once a year with elaborate preparation,

only then could a man go into the Holy of Holies, the place where humanity and God met.

It's an astounding thing, but the message is clear. You can't come in.

Stay away. You see, the tabernacle was beautiful, but it said you can't come in.

But we know today in Christ, the door is open.

When you come, Romy's going to open the door if the greeters aren't there.

If you can't get in, she's going to make sure you could get into this sanctuary.

Why? Because we want people to know that when they come to Christ, there's an open door.

An open door ready and waiting for them. So let me ask you this question.

Where do you feel locked out?

Near religion, but not near to God.

Maybe you're here this morning and you kind of feel like that.

You're near religious practice.

Everything we do, it's quote-unquote religious. We do it regularly.

We do it every Sunday in a similar pattern.

Where do you feel locked out even today. Like we're saying, don't come in, stay away.

You see, sometimes we hit barriers like that.

Personally, maybe nobody else knows the barriers. Maybe when you came in,

you came in with a guilt load of shame.

Last Sunday, you said, yeah, God, I'm going to serve you no matter what.

And then by the time Sunday night hit, you had already messed up.

And you've been carrying the guilt of that mess up all week.

And it's the guilt of that mess up that's just compounded. And now you're here

today with this load of guilt. You don't know what to do with it.

That's a barrier that's keeping you from God. See, that guilt leads to shame.

We begin to think bad about ourselves. We begin to believe lies that other people

tell, that God really doesn't love us, that we're worthless.

What are we doing in the church anyway?

Some of you here today with a background. You've got a history.

And that history, as you think about it, it comes back and it tries to haunt you.

For some, that history might be a record of being hurt by a pastor,

being hurt by church people. And it's hard to let go of that.

And I say with deep humility, as a pastor, sometimes I hurt people without even knowing.

And when I don't have a conversation to help fix things up, we don't have that understanding.

But there's people here with hurt, people here with a deep sense of unworthiness. There's a barrier.

Name that. Get it out in the open and let's deal with it. See,

the barrier showed the problem.

But it's the day of atonement shows us that only blood could open up a way forward.

But this way was going to be a temporary way.

It wasn't the long-term fix.

You see, the annual reset for the nation of Israel, for the people of Israel,

for God's people, was the day of atonement.

That's when everyone hit the reset button. Bing! And then they started over fresh.

All their sins had been taken and been rolled forward. and they didn't have

to worry about it quite again.

Well, Israel's covenant relationship depended upon this thing they call sacrifice.

Sin broke fellowship with God, and as a result came the slaughter of innocent

animals to push their sin, to recover their sin, to push it forward until the next year.

And we know as New Testament believers, they kept pushing the sin forward until

Jesus came once and for all, and we'll get to that in a minute.

But the Day of atonement was the annual feast and annual fast,

I should say, when the whole nation mourned sin, when the whole nation sought forgiveness.

Leviticus 16.33, the high priest goes in, not without blood,

but he makes atonement in the sanctuary, the tabernacle, the altar,

the priests, and all the people. I mean, it was bloody.

It was to remind people the ugliness of sin.

These innocent animals having to die and everything having to be covered in

a certain way, even the priest himself, so that this atonement could happen, this taking care of sin.

The system said this, your sin is deeper than you think, and you need more mercy

than you know. Man, have you ever felt like that?

Well, it's just a little white lie that all of a sudden explodes,

and it's bigger than you can ever imagine.

And the little tiny sin you thought you had control of is just, boom, it's out there.

It's ugly. When I was a kid, I told people that my dad was in a movie.

We lived in Idaho. We're not anywhere near Hollywood. Now, my dad had known

some people that went on to become famous people, but I said he was in this

movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

It was just a little white lie. And I had this little tiny trading card.

And the kids, of course, what do kids say? Oh, yeah, well, prove it.

I said, I'll prove it. And I took my little trading card. And I said,

if you squint, you can see them right here in this crowd of a hundred people. Yeah.

Real credible, right? No. Well, guess what happened when my dad shows up?

I ain't in no movie. What are you talking about? What kind of lies are you telling your friends?

This little tiny lie just explodes.

So at that point, I needed more mercy than I thought I ever needed.

Now my name would be liar amongst my friends. Don't trust him. Don't trust his word.

But that happens with sin. It takes us farther than we want to go.

It costs us more than we're willing to pay.

In fact, it costs us so much that we can't pay for it.

See, that's why we need to Christ.

The old rituals pointed to the heavenly tabernacle where Christ now serves.

The high priests offered blood. They would offer blood for themselves before

they could go into the Holy of holies, and then they would offer it in there.

But yet, you have to understand this, they had bells on their garments,

and he had a rope tied around himself.

So if he went into the most holy place, the holy of holies, and,

if he didn't do something right, and he was struck dead, and they didn't hear

them little bells tingling anymore, they would drag that dude's body out because

he obviously did something incorrect in this way.

So even if you were in the position of high priest, you could still mess up

and it would cost you your life while you're trying to atone for the sins of everyone.

So we're talking, there was a lot of fear around religion.

There was a lot of fear when it came to the temple, when it came to the tabernacle.

You see, the scripture says, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission

of sin. There is no forgiveness.

World War II, there's a story of a German boy who was wounded in one of the

many battles that went on.

And he was taken by people in service of Great Britain.

And they took him to this makeshift hospital. And while he was there,

he needed a blood transfusion. He was losing blood so fast.

But this German boy, having grown up under the Nazi occupation with all the

ideology and all of the Aryan kind of philosophy,

he refused to have a blood transfusion from the only one that was available.

With the same blood type, this Jewish kid.

He refused because of his refusing. Of course, his parents weren't around.

That little boy died because he refused the blood even of a Jew that could have saved him.

Ladies and gentlemen, we're in the same spot as that German boy.

If we don't accept the blood of Christ, not as a transfusion,

but as our sacrifice, as the only one whose blood can wipe away our sins.

Without blood, there is no remission. There is no forgiveness of sin.

What do we default to a lot of times? When it comes to sin, And we try to make

up for it on our own, don't we?

I said, well, I failed in this time, but next time I'm going to do better.

And next time, God, I blew the offering this week on cheeseburgers.

I know you said to give a tithe, but man, it was Friday, Friday,

and I had to get burgers to go with the fries.

And it was free fry Friday. So I had to get a lot of burgers to go with all

the free fries they were giving away.

Maybe you're like that, and you're like, well, God, I'll double it next time.

But then next time it comes around, and it's free ice cream day,

and then you're going to blow your tithe on free ice cream.

I just don't mean to pick on the tithe. That's an easy one to pick on.

But you get the idea. You promise God something. You don't follow through,

and then you try to make it up.

And you get stuck in this cycle, and the shame and the guilt just keeps piling

on, believer or non-believer.

We keep trying to fix sin with our rituals, with our own effort,

with denial, instead of trusting Christ's blood that it was sufficient to forgive our sins.

Folks, you are not saved by better performance. You're not.

It's only Christ's sacrifice that opens up the way for you to be forgiven.

A lot of those people I told you about that were in that cathedral in Guatemala.

They were crying. They were weeping. They had beads. They were praying.

And in all their prayers, still not certain if this ritual would make them right with God.

But yet they were so hungry to be right with God. They were so close to the

truth, but they didn't have it yet.

And Christians, we can get in that same way too. We can think that,

boy, if I just dress nicer, if I just come to every single service that the

church has, if I say the right things, if I pray the right way,

if I do this, this, and this, then I'm going to be okay with God.

And yet there's still that insecurity. If we haven't trusted Christ,

that his blood is sufficient to cover our sin.

Are you trusting him today in that?

See, Hebrews doesn't leave us with this yearly reset at our annual meeting.

You don't have to come to the annual meeting every time to get a reset on your sins. Praise the Lord.

But what are we left with? Hebrews points to this once and for all sacrifice,

that gives permanent access and inward cleansing.

Folks, it's taken care of once and for all. Your sin, my sin,

the sin of your neighbor who doesn't yet know Christ, has been taken care of once and for all.

They just got to accept that free gift. And Christians, we have to accept that

we've been forgiven as well.

And I tell you this because it's what the enemy uses against you.

As soon as you just start getting on this high with God, you're doing everything right.

Man, your engine is running on eight cylinders perfectly, and you're just doing everything for God.

And all of a sudden, you hear this little, not a small still voice,

but an ugly voice that says, you ain't worthy of that.

Remember what you did at such and such a date way back when?

Remember when you failed God?

Remember when you did this and it blew up in your face?

The enemy likes to come to us when we're right there with God, but don't listen to him.

If you've asked for forgiveness, if Jesus has forgiven you, then that is in the past.

That's history. Don't let that come back.

Got to tell you, Hebrews shows us a better way in Jesus.

We're not left with the old system. You didn't bring a bunch of lambs and bulls

and goats today for me to sacrifice up here in this pirate ship.

Why? There's a different way of doing things now. That's the old way.

That was a copy of what has already been accomplished for us in heaven.

And we think about this.

We have the greater tabernacle, that is, God with us, Emmanuel.

Jesus brings a greater and more perfect tabernacle, as the Scripture said in

verse 11, not made with human hands, not of this creation.

It's a better sanctuary that one day we'll all worship in together in person,

all of us that believe in Christ, a heavenly sanctuary.

Jesus' body is the true meeting place between God in humanity,

because God put on flesh in Jesus.

And it's at that meeting point where we don't go to a tabernacle,

hey, you don't even come to church to see God, because God is everywhere.

Wherever Jesus is, that's where you meet God.

John 14.9, Jesus said this, whoever has seen me has seen the Father.

In that passage that Melanie read earlier today, if you've seen Jesus,

you've seen the Father. He and the Father are one.

If you want to know what God's like, don't stop and just look at our building.

Don't just go through some kind of ritual, but you got to look to Jesus.

Look in the scripture. How did Jesus live? What was his attitude like?

How did he treat other people?

That's God in the flesh, that's how God wants us to live at that meeting point

between heaven and earth.

You see, Jesus brought us something better, the better sacrifice,

which is the cleansing of our conscience.

In animal blood, it could make people outwardly clean.

They were sprinkled with ashes, sprinkled with blood. Then they could go and

do some other things that maybe they weren't allowed to without that.

Maybe they had touched a dead body and you're not supposed to touch dead bodies.

And so then they had to go to the priest and they had to have a ritual done

to make them ceremonially clean again.

It could cleanse them that way.

But the scripture makes the point, if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes

of heifers can cleanse one that way, spiritually speaking, how much more can

Jesus, whose blood was cleansed?

For us. How much more better is it because it can cleanse our conscience?

Because we can receive forgiveness. It's through the eternal spirit of Jesus, the Holy Spirit.

Jesus offered himself to God without blemish.

That means with no spot, with no sin. That's why when we have communion,

we use grape juice that's not wine.

It's not fermented. Fermentation was kind of an illustration that was given of sin in something.

The sin in a person's blood.

Jesus had no sin. There was none in his blood.

And as Hebrews 9, 13 and 14 says, he did this to cleanse your conscience from

dead works to serve the living God. What is dead works?

It means all that stuff in the Old Testament people had to do to be right with God.

All those sacrifices that had to be made to make them right with God. Those are dead works.

You're freed up from that now because the one sacrifice, Jesus,

he gave himself to God, fully clean, without spot, without blemish,

with no sin, living a righteous life.

He laid down his life willingly for you and for me so all that could be covered

and taken care of. Praise be to God.

Our consciences are clean. Hey, you may have been a sinner at one time.

As a matter of fact, every single one of us are, because the Bible says,

for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

Every one of us. But guess what?

Every one of us can be forgiven as well and cleansed by the blood of Jesus.

Not just a select group of people. One time in history, we're going to be the

only ones that were right with God.

In Jesus, the door has been thrown wide open and a big invitation given,

all whosoever will may come.

Now, I know what you're saying. Well, there's things I still remember, sinful things.

I got stuff from my childhood that I did as a kid that the enemy still likes to use against me.

You see, why is that? Well, sin stains the soul.

You ever had a blood stain in one of your nice shirts. You know,

maybe you picked a scab or a mosquito got you and you itched it and you didn't

know and it just bled through. And it's your favorite shirt, man.

And you used Shout, you used OxiClean, you used everything you could think of,

but you can't get that stupid blood stain out.

That's what sin likes to do to our soul. It likes to stain it.

But we've got to remember that even though sin stains the soul,

Christ's blood can truly cleanse it.

It can wipe it away. It can lava you clean, as the old commercial said.

Anyone still use lava soap? No, I guess not.

I love that stuff with that pumice in it. I digress.

You can't really serve God freely if your conscience is still clogged up with dead works.

If you really want to be freed up to serve God, you got to get rid of those

things that you think keep you right with God and just trust God.

Now, I'm not saying skip church, don't give an offering, all that stuff.

That's not what I'm talking about. Remember what I said earlier?

All of those things, all these things that we do, we do them because it's real.

It's not a copy or a shadow. We do this because this is how we're worshiping God.

When you give your offering, if that's just a shadow, then don't do it.

If your heart's not in it, but if your heart's in it, then give as God wants you to give.

Give of your time. If God's called you to go help teach the class,

help with VBS, whatever, come to a workday.

Come to this or come to that.

Come together and worship and sing from your heart to the Lord.

When you're doing it with the right motivation, it's not one of these dead works

that we're talking about.

Dead works happen when you're doing something and your heart's not in it and

there's no motivation, you're just doing it to save face or to,

you know, keep grandma or mom off your back because you'd never come to church.

I mean, let's get real, that happens.

Our consciences can be cleared so we can truly serve God from a pure motivation.

So stop trying to feel clean enough through ceremonies you go through,

through penance, or through promising God stuff that you never follow up on.

Just rest in Jesus' finished work.

Trust that what Jesus did for you is sufficient. It's enough.

And receive that cleansed conscience, that living and serving heart that he wants to put within you.

If Christ has opened the way, if Christ has cleansed your heart,

the call is simple. Receive him.

Say, Jesus, come into my life. Let me step into the life you want me to live.

And then just start serving the living God however he wants you to serve him.

In our beautiful traditions and our spaces, I said this before,

if they don't draw us closer to God, we might need to think,

well, what do we need to let go of? That's a barrier between me and God.

It might be good. It might be something wonderful. But what is it we need to

let go of so we can truly connect with God?

Hey, pastors aren't immune from this.

There's pastors that get so caught up in the work of ministry and do it well,

but yet they lose sight of it.

And I'm not just saying they lose the fun of it because ministry is a lot of

work, but it's a lot of fun too, but they get so bogged down and so burnt out.

They're just going through the motions time after time, and they lose sight,

of really what it means to serve God with a clear conscience and to serve the

living God with a freed up heart.

The question is, how do I enter the new covenant? Well, the answer is to receive,

Jesus Christ and his finished work.

In John 1, 12, the scripture says, to all who received him, that is Jesus,

to him he gave the right to become the children of God.

Have you received Jesus this morning? Christian, have you fully received Jesus this morning?

Do you have your conscience cleared? And are you looking for places all the

time where you can serve God with how he's made you?

I'm not saying he's calling you to be a pastor, but if he is,

you ought to listen to that.

Maybe he's calling you to something else. As I've said before,

maybe just calling you across the street or across the yard to go talk to your

neighbor, to get to know them.

The blood of Jesus does more than remove guilt. It frees us up. It claims us.

And we have the opportunity to live by serving him and serve others.

Righteous living, generous living, and faithful obedience all flow from this

idea of having been cleansed by the blood of Christ, cleansed from dead works,

and cleansed to serve somebody else.

It's a cliché, but we've been saved to serve.

And are we serving? Who are we serving? And how are we serving?

I'll leave you with this this morning, this next step.

I want you to set aside 15 minutes. 15 minutes this week, you could do it.

Write down the barriers that you feel are keeping you from God.

Hey, it might be something sinful or it might be something really,

really good. Whatever's stopping you from really connecting with God,

I want you to write that down.

Then I want you to pray for God to help you overcome those barriers because

Jesus has removed everything what are we setting up between us and God that

we need to remove don't just pray about it.

God will bring you help from his word study the word God will bring you Christian

brothers and sisters friends to come alongside and if you're honest with them

and say hey you know this is really stopping me from connecting with God and I need to,

I need to have a reset here with the Lord.

So friends, I want to tell you, be open to someone coming to you like that.

Maybe you need to go to someone like that and say, hey, this is stopping me

from really connecting with God. I don't know what to do about it.

Just try that this week. You know, we began by asking, what's holding you back?

Now let's step forward together through Christ's open door. Can we do that.

Let's be freed up, folks. Freed up to serve. Freed up to love God.

Freed up with our hands to bring others to Christ.

And let's be ready to embrace the life of purpose that He gives us.

Would you stand with me? And as you stand, I'll invite the praise team to come

up. And as they're coming, let's pray together.

Father, thank you so much for your word today. God, thank you for the attention

of all the people here, Lord, and the time we've had.

God, I just pray in these moments that are left, that you just help to search our hearts.

Lord, maybe we don't need to wait 15 minutes or take 15 minutes.

Maybe we already know we could do it in two.

Lord, help us as best and as much as in our power to remove,

Lord, remove those distractions that keep us from you.

Remove those practices, Lord, remove those dead works that keep us from truly

connecting with you. And Lord, free us up to do that.

Free us up to be the brother and sister that someone in this congregation needs.

Lord, free us up to be the one who loves our neighbor truly,

not just enough to share Jesus with, Lord, but to show us well.

Lord, in all these things, we just seek your guidance. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

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 outlined 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.