Fixing Our Eyes On Jesus | Hebrews 1:2B - 4 (Myles Holmes)

Hello and welcome to the Redemption Church Podcast.

We're a church in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada that exists to glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission and the spirit of the Great Commandment.

Thanks for joining us today.

Thank you, Jeremy.

I know your applause are not to praise anything I've done, but to praise everything that the Lord has done at Redemption Newmarket, and I want to let you know that I'm applauding the Lord too.

It was, I think, just over four weeks ago that I sat in front of my pastor's desk and he told me about the opportunity.

And when I picked myself up off the floor in just shock at what the potentially the Lord was doing, my first thought was just that I love this church.

I do.

And I can say that about every church, but I want you to know that Redemption Newmarket has a really special place in my own heart.

And that's because my mom goes here.

And about five years ago, uh we were looking for a church for my mom, and I wanted my mom to experience some of the things that I and my wife and my family had experienced at Redemption Durham, where there was a church that was passionate about God's glory, passionate about Jesus' commission to go and make disciples of all the earth.

And in that context, my wife and I were growing like crazy.

And it was like I just had this amazing meal, and I wanted my mom to taste that same meal.

I got an email from her about five years ago.

I just recently checked, actually, in the title, it said, I love my church.

And since that day, I've especially had a love for Redemption New Market, all the work that God has been doing here.

I'm so grateful for your elders, for Dave Grant, and for Dave Locke, and for the ways that they have just even faithfully shepherded me and led me over these last few weeks and through the process.

I'm especially thankful for Pastor Mike.

I just think it's so rare to have a shepherd who cares so much for the sheep, bearing such a great weight of suffering, to continue to endure in that suffering and care for you.

And so you need to know I love your past, I love your church, I love this church, I love your elders, I love your pastor.

I think this message is significant.

It's significant because it's not the first time I've ever preached here, but it's the first time I'm preaching here since being called to be your lead pastor.

This is a first message in many ways, and firsts we understand are important.

In the business world, they say you never get a second chance at first impressions.

And I want you to know I'm not here to make any impressions, and while I do hope that none of you go to the elders right after the service and tell them you're never coming back again, that's not my goal.

In romance, they glamorize love at first sight.

And if I think we're, I think if we're going after looks here, it's not gonna be great for us.

I think this verse is important because firsts are foundational.

Firsts, in many ways, are the things that the second, the third, the hundredth, the thousandth rest upon.

And as I think about this message, I really think about foundation.

And as I think about this church, one thing I know is that the foundation of this church, since it was planted seven years ago, has been the only firm foundation there is, the only solid rock upon which you can build a church, and it's Jesus Christ.

For seven years as a church, it has been your mission.

It's right in your statement to glorify God, to fix your eyes on Jesus Christ, to gather Sunday after Sunday in small group ministry, in kids' ministry, in youth ministry, in every ministry of the church, to fix the eyes of your heart on Jesus Christ.

This is the only foundation of a church that can truly last.

It's the only foundation that can support a church.

And there are many churches that will try to build on other foundations, but they're just sinking sand.

You can't build a church on a pastor with charisma, you can't build a church on a seeker-sensitive model of ministry, you can't build a church on a great worship team, you can't build a church on a welcoming church community.

All these things are great things, but there's one firm foundation upon which the church can stand, and it is Jesus Christ.

And so I know that for the life of this church, your mission has been to week after week fix your eyes on him.

And I understand that going forward, if this church will be a church that brings glory to Jesus, if our lives will be lives that bring glory to God, we must fix our eyes on Jesus.

This is the church that we need to be.

This is the life that we need to live.

A life of constantly, day after day, minute after minute, fixing our eyes on Jesus Christ.

And so the message this morning, it's simple.

It's simple.

I simply want to spend this time together this morning, fixing our eyes on Jesus together.

And one thing that I've been made aware of as I've considered the call to be your pastor is that the role of the pastor is really to be a worship leader, is to lead the worship of the church.

And I feel that call especially this morning as we look to Jesus together.

I want you to know that I really have one application here, and it's that you would see Jesus and worship.

That the worship would not end with the singing, but throughout this whole message, as we open up God's word and as his glory shines brightly from the word, as our eyes are fixed on Jesus Christ, your heart would be overflowing, overwhelming with a love and worship and adoration for Jesus.

If you have your Bibles, and I hope that you do, you can open to Hebrews chapter 1.

Hebrews 1 · chapter mention

We mean verses, the second half of verse 2 to verse 4 this morning.

And the church of Hebrews was a church that needed this reminder that in a world where there's temptations to fix your eyes on so many other things, there's temptations to found your life on so many other things, they needed this reminder to look to Jesus.

And so the writer of Hebrews starts his really sermon in Hebrews by saying this in chapter 1, verse 1.

He said, 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.

And then in these next verses that we're going to study this morning, what the writer of Hebrews does is start to expose the glory of Jesus.

And it's a glory that if we look in his text this morning, we'll see shining brightly from Jesus that we need to fix our eyes on.

And so the first thing I want you to see in this text is that we need to fix our eyes on the wonder of his role.

We need to fix our eyes on the wonder of the role of Jesus.

Look what it says in the second half of verse 2.

Speaking of his son, speaking of Jesus, it says, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.

The question here for us is, what right does Jesus have for our attention?

What role does Jesus play that makes him a firm foundation?

What role does Jesus play that makes it right for us as human beings to live to look at him?

We're asking, what role does Jesus play?

It's a reality as human beings that we, the regard that we give to someone, the attention that we pay to someone often boils down to what role they play in society or what role they play in the world.

And I know this to be true because I get the uh the great privilege of working at a church.

One of the greatest things about working at a church is when you meet people, you you say hello to them, and you know, there's what's your name on miles, and then they ask you what you do.

And you get to see people kind of squirm around in awkwardness when you say, Oh, I'm a pastor and I work at a church.

And immediately they kind of look at you and they're trying to look for a way out of the conversation and they're saying, Oh, did my phone ring?

Uh, I gotta go.

Uh, sorry.

And they don't want to give any attention to you.

I just enjoy this because of the role that you play.

Many of us would have a lot of trouble even focusing any more on the worship service or on the message if an athlete, like maybe a Toronto Maple Leaf, were to come in.

Some of us would want to cheer loudly, those of us who are on the right side, and others of us who are on the wrong side would maybe want to stand up and boo.

Because this person plays as an athlete, or maybe a celebrity were to walk in, or maybe a politician, and because of the role this person plays, we would pay regard to them, we would want to pay attention to them, we might want to even sit in front of them and listen to them.

What the writer of Hebrew wants us to understand is that when we understand Jesus' role in the Trinity, our hearts are filled with wonder.

Our hearts are filled with praise when we understand all that Jesus has done and all that Jesus is.

And so it's required that we understand who Jesus is.

It's required that we understand the role that he plays.

This is what happened in the heart of John the Baptist.

It's the exact same thing that needs to happen in each of our hearts.

See, when John the Baptist came to understand that Jesus was the Messiah, what happened?

Well, his life was inflamed with this passion for Jesus Christ, so much so that he said, I'm not even worthy to untie the shoes of Jesus.

His heart was filled with this worship because he understood the role that Jesus played.

And when no one else understood who Jesus was, here was John the Baptist with a life filled with praise for Jesus.

And so we asked this question: what's his role?

Well, look at the text with me in chapter 1, verse 2.

First thing we know about his role is that he was appointed the heir of all things.

Jesus' role under the Father is to be the appointed heir.

Now we understand what it means to be an heir.

We understand what it means to have an inheritance, because many of us have wills.

And we know that the process of making a will is deciding who will get what things from you, who will receive what from you.

And so you write a will and you say, oh, well, this person, they're gonna get the Chesterfield, and this person's gonna get my car, and your kids are waiting diligently to hear who's gonna get the most important thing: the money, the house.

We know what it means to write a will, and what God the Father is saying is that he has made Jesus an heir.

Now, what is Jesus an heir of?

Do you see it in the text here?

It says, He appointed him the heir of all things.

Now, I did some study in the Greek because that's a pretty extensive list of things.

And in the Greek, do you know what it means?

That Jesus is the heir of all things?

It means he's the heir of all things, of everything.

Jesus is set to receive everything from the Father.

So let's just take a moment and work out this theology in our life.

Let's ask this question: who what is Jesus the heir of?

Well, if he's the heir of all things, that just means that Jesus is the heir of everything material.

Everything material Jesus will receive.

That's why one theologian said these words there's not a square inch in the whole of domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry mine.

And you say, wait, wait, wait.

Jesus is the heir of all things material because if you look on the ownership of my car, it says my name, and I'm pretty confident I just paid off my mortgage, and I have a house, and it's in my ownership.

And what Jesus is reminding us here is that in reality, when we think of our eternal eternity, we really own nothing.

What can you bring to the grave that's material?

The reality is that we all bring the same thing, nothing.

Jesus is the one who will inherit everything material.

The psalmist says that God owns the thousand cattle on the hill.

And we add that he owns the hill as well.

Jesus owns everything that's material.

Not only does he own everything that's material, Jesus owns everything that is spiritual.

This is why Paul says in the first chapter of Ephesians, he says, in him, Jesus Christ, we have every spiritual blessing.

Later in verse 7, it says that in the grace of the grace of Jesus Christ has been lavished over us.

This is the good news that Jesus owns every spiritual blessing, and he is so willing at any point, even this morning, to overflow those blessings to you.

He owns everything spiritual.

I wonder how many of us in here want the spiritual blessing of joy.

They need to be reminded by the Holy Spirit right now that that can only be found in Christ, who is the heir of all things.

I wonder how many of us lack peace and long in a world that is filled with trouble and turmoil.

We long for a foundation of peace, and you need to hear that Christ, who is the heir of all things, is the only one who can give you peace.

How many of us want patience, self-control?

All of these spiritual blessings are in Christ, but it does not stop with everything.

Material, it does not stop with everything.

Spiritual, see the reality is that every heart and every knee one day will bow before Jesus.

He will inherit the worship of all people.

We understand that.

And then he came for the allegiance of his children's heart.

He came to call those who would be safe for eternity to follow him.

And in Philippians, we're told that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue will one day confess that he is Lord.

See, Jesus will inherit the worship of all people.

This is the role Jesus plays.

He will inherit all things.

And the question that we ask is, why?

Why will Jesus inherit all things?

Well, look at the text again in verse 2.

It says, Through whom also he created the world.

Jesus will inherit all things because in John 1.3 it says, there is nothing in the world without which Jesus, which was made without the power of Jesus.

Jesus' word was the power that when God said in Genesis 1, let there be light, it was his word that made that happen.

Jesus Himself.

The overwhelming we impression we get here as we look to Jesus is where else can we turn?

That's what you should be filling your heart right now, is this dependency on Jesus, this understanding that there is nowhere else to turn, to fill your life.

There's no other firm foundation.

This is the only place that we can turn to.

This is true for your life.

This is true as a church, that there is no other place to look to that we might be filled with joy, with peace, with satisfaction.

It can only come from Jesus Christ.

And yet many of us treat joy in the world as though it's a gas station.

Like you can just find joy on any corner of any world.

And in these days, as long as you're willing to take out a small, actually pretty large loan, you can fill up your car on gas.

And we treat the world like that.

We treat the world like, oh, well, if I want, I can find satisfaction in money.

If I want, I can be filled up in relationships.

If I want, I could be have fine joy and sexual pleasure.

And Jesus is here to remind us that there is only one place you can truly be filled.

It is when you look to Him.

Isn't it true that we've experienced this?

Everything we look to in the world, it's empty.

There's only one place to go, it's Jesus Christ.

So we fix our eyes on him.

We fill our hearts with the wonder of his role.

But the second thing I want you to see in Hebrews chapter 1 is that we fix our eyes on the witness of his actions.

Hebrews 1 · chapter mention

We fix our eyes on the wonder of his role.

The next thing the writer of Hebrews wants us to understand is that we fix our eyes on the witness of his action.

Now, what the writer of Hebrews wants to point our attention to is not just what Jesus has done, but it's very important that we understand also what Jesus is doing.

This is really important for us to hear the Sunday after Easter.

Easter is such a great celebration of all that Jesus has done in his death and its resurrection.

And it's right that the most important time of the year is the year that we come to celebrate the freedom that we have from the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

But do you know that Jesus' work doesn't stop there?

Jesus is working in this very minute.

Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father and he is working.

And the foundation that Easter gives us in celebrating the death and resurrection of Christ gives us a foundation to celebrate the fact that Jesus is working even today.

What's the work that Jesus is doing?

Well, we see three things in the third verse.

The first is that he's radiating the glory of God.

Do you see this in verse 3?

He says he's the radiance of the glory of God.

What does it mean for something to be radiating?

What does it mean for Jesus to be the radiance?

Well, the picture is of a bright light that's shining its rays of light into the darkness.

It's like the morning dawn that breaks over the horizon and all of the darkness disappears, and by the light of the sun now you can see.

What the writer of Hebrews is saying is that by Jesus we see something.

And the question is, what do we see?

Oh, look at the text.

He says he's the radiance of the glory.

In Jesus we see a glory.

Now, glory is something that we can scientifically understand.

We could break down the definition of glory, but I think that glory is really something that we experience and understand by experience much more than we can understand just by breaking down the meaning of the word.

We all understand glory because we're glory seekers.

Let me ask you this question.

Why is it that you can't get your teenage boy to tell you anything about school?

But the moment you bring up Minecraft, you can get him talking about the most useless, massive building that they made in this pretend world, but they'll tell you all day about this thing that they built in Minecraft.

Because as humans, our nature is that we are glory seekers.

We cannot cannot help but be drawn to the things that we find great.

We love great things.

This is why when you go to an amazing restaurant, what do you need to do?

You gotta tell somebody.

In fact, recently I came upon a new hobby, and the hobby is making lattes, but particularly, one thing I love about making lattes is you don't just make a latte, you make a latte with art in it.

Maybe you can do a heart, maybe you can do a tool-up.

And every time I do this, I have this overwhelming need like this is amazing, this is great.

I gotta show someone.

But the problem is I don't have Instagram, and if you don't have Instagram, when you have useless pictures of things you want to share with people, you don't have anywhere to share it.

That's the kind of thing you usually put on Instagram.

And so I find myself having to go to my wife and say, Look at this thing! And she goes, Oh, cool.

That's not enough for me.

So I start texting my friends, hey, you gotta see this latte, you gotta see this latte, and they're and they say, What is this?

In fact, yesterday I had my brother and his fiance over, and my wife gave him a little prep talk, which is really embarrassing to me.

But he said, He's like a little child when it comes to these lattes.

You really gotta oversell these lattes because he wants to share how great these things are.

So when I came in, I felt like a little child when my brother was like, Ooh, look at how great this latte is.

And so I decided I'm done.

I'm done with a hobby, I'm giving up, I'm quitting.

But we have this need to share the things that we find great because naturally we're just glory seekers.

We're seeking a glory.

And what we're being told in the scriptures here is that Jesus is radiating a glory.

But my question is, is what is that glory?

And look at what it is.

It says he is the radiance of the glory of God.

Jesus, every minute of every day for all of eternity, has been shining brightly the greatness, the splendor, the delight, the worthiness of God the Father.

This is his role.

For him to radiate the glory of God means he radiates the greatest glory that there is.

It's the glory that's greater than any other glory.

It's the greatness that's greater than any other greatness because it's the greatness that was there before time began.

And it's the greatness of the highest being that there is.

When you look to Jesus, you see the greatest glory that is available to us.

That means to choose, to spend your life looking to Jesus.

That means you're choosing to delight in the greatest of all glories.

It's like looking at a menu and choosing the most expensive thing because you know that's going to satisfy you, and that's the Christian life.

You constantly go to Jesus because you understand that Jesus is the one who can give you the most delight and satisfaction.

We know that our hearts are filled with praise every time we look to Him, and yet it's possible as Christians, it's possible that our life doesn't display this belief that we believe Jesus to be the most glorious person there is.

It's possible to live a Christian life and not display the belief that Jesus is the greatest pursuit that there is.

And I know this is possible because it's a pursuit, it's a life that I had lived.

I was saved in the early 2000s, and it wasn't until 2009 that I became truly convinced that there is no greater pursuit.

And I kind of had this internal belief.

I don't think I ever would have wasted it, but I think it's an internal belief that many Christians have.

And the belief was this, that Jesus is good and it's right to follow him, but man, it would be great to pursue some of the pleasures of the world.

Like if I could just have unlimited luxury without the guilt of following God, that would be amazing.

If I could just do whatever I wanted with my time and didn't have to attend worship on Sunday mornings and didn't feel guilty.

About serving the church, well, that would just be I would have so much joy then.

And as Christians, we can really start to believe in seasons of our life that there is more joy in the world than there is in Jesus.

In 2009, I picked up a book and I consider this moment a lot like a second salvation in my life.

Now, before you leave the church because of bad theology, I just want you to know I believe once saved, always saved.

But I say that to say that when I read this book, it was God had delivered me from a false belief that was really harming my life.

And the book was desiring God.

As I picked up this book and flipped each page, I learned more and more that the greatest delight that you can find in this world is to delight in the glory of God.

To look to Jesus Christ, who is constantly radiating the glory of God.

And everything changed in my life when I started to understand that.

When I started to understand that the pursuits of pleasure in the world, they're empty pursuits, they're fleeting pleasures.

They're vanity, but the pursuit of God.

Looking to Jesus Christ fills you with joy because he's the greatest glory there is.

This is what Jesus is doing.

He's radiating the glory of God.

But the writer of Hebrews continues with these two things.

He says he's the exact imprint of his nature.

This is who Jesus is.

Like a stamp, when you use a stamp, puts on the paper the thing that is on the stamp, so Jesus, when you look at him, you see the Father.

This is why in John 14, Philip said to Jesus, He said, Lord, show us the Father, and it's enough for us.

As to say, like, Jesus, if you just show us the Father, we'll follow you.

That's all we want to see.

And look at how Jesus responds to Philip.

He says, Have I not been with you so long?

And you still do not know me, Philip?

Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.

He says to Philip, how can you say, show us the Father?

Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?

What Jesus says is that he came to represent, to show us the Father.

And many of us, this needs to be a rebuke for us, because some of us kind of have this idea that God the Father, he's like kind of this crusty curmudgeon.

He's just always angry.

When we think about the Father, we think about the fact that maybe he's wrathful or that he hates our sin or he's always disappointed with us.

We think the Father's up in heaven, he's always got his arms crossed.

How could you do that again?

But we're so thankful for Jesus because there's Jesus, and Jesus is the intercessor.

Jesus is constantly pleading on our behalf.

I know they screwed up, God.

But just let them let this one pass.

And you need to know that that's horrible theology because Jesus' heart displays the Father's heart.

It's not like Jesus comes to this earth and starts casting out demons and healing the sick and resurrecting the dead, and God's like, ah man, I wish he wasn't down there doing that.

It's not like God, Jesus is saving lives today by the preaching of his gospel, bringing many into his kingdom, maturing many even in this church.

See, God the Father is pleased by all that Jesus is doing because God the Father is the one who sent Jesus to represent his heart for us.

This is what Jesus does.

He's the exact imprint of the nature of God, of the love that God has for those who follow him.

The last thing we see here that Jesus is doing, the last action of Jesus that we witness is that he is, you see this in the text in verse 3, he upholds the universe by the word of his power.

He upholds the universe by the word of his power.

What does that mean?

Take a moment to think about what that means, that Jesus upholds the universe by the word of his power.

That means that nothing happens apart from Jesus' sustaining word.

There's not a piece of dust that can fall in this room, apart from Jesus' affirmation.

There's not a breath that you can take apart from Jesus' stamp of approval, because he upholds the universe by the word of his power.

There's not a single time that you've gone to sleep, and the whole night your heart has been beating, keeping you alive, and every beat has the divine stamp of approval from Jesus the Christ, who upholds the universe, sustains all things.

His upholding power hasn't ceased for a minute in your life.

And Christian, can you just look back for a moment and praise God that every step of the way, even when Jesus felt so far from you, he was upholding you by the word of his power.

His upholding power has never ceased to work in our lives.

This needs to be a word to the anxious, to those who feel like they're drowning, to those who feel like their feet can find no firm foundation in this world, to those who have no clue what the future will bring and are worried about what might happen to them.

You need to hear this: that Jesus upholds you.

That nothing can happen apart from the divine hand of Jesus, who by the word of his power upholds the universe every second, every millisecond.

Nothing happens outside of his control.

This is the power of Jesus.

Listen, at this point in the message, as we fix our eyes on Jesus, is your heart being filled with praise for him?

Don't allow yourself to sit in front of this text that so clearly displays the glory of God.

And just be apathetic.

Don't allow your heart just to or your mind to wander off to other distractions.

You are in front, in this moment, you are in front of the greatest glory there is.

It's the glory of the Son who came to display the heart of the Father and radiate the greatest glory that was ever known and ever will be.

And if your heart right now, if your heart's kind of doing this, well, it's time to rebuke it.

That's not okay.

It's not okay to be so satisfied in such lesser things when the glory of God is screaming from the pages of Scripture, calling you to find delight in Him.

We should have a holy regret anytime our hearts are fixed on something else.

Anytime our eyes are fixed on any other thing other than Jesus because of the wonder of his role, because of the witness of his actions.

And third thing I want you to see is that in this text, we fix our eyes on the working of his salvation.

Would you look in your Bible with me at verse 3, the second half there?

It says, After making purifications for sin, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.

Look what Jesus accomplished on the cross.

It says he made purification for sins.

What the writer of Hebrews is telling us is that sin stained our soul with such a corruption that it could not be washed out.

And the stain was hideous to the Father.

This is like when you're eating and you get a food on your shirt and you're like, oh, that's definitely gonna wash out.

And what happens?

You wash it, it doesn't come out.

So what do you do?

You go you go on Google.

And you say, How do you get this stain out?

And Google always solves every problem, and so it says, well, you gotta use Tide, or you gotta use some toothpaste, or maybe some, am I finding the same articles as you guys?

Some vinegar, some hairspray.

That's how you get the stain out.

You gotta use these things.

And so you try it.

It never works, does it?

No matter how much elbow power you put in this thing, you just cannot get the stain out.

The only way that you can deal with this piece of clothing now is to just throw it in the garbage and you're angry because every time you get a stain on a piece of clothing, it's the week after you bought it.

It's frustrating.

How much more frustrating is it that sin had stained our soul for eternity?

And the only thing that was fit in the sinfulness of our condition was for us to be cast out of the presence of the Father for all of eternity.

This is the good news that Jesus came with a mission, and Jesus' mission was your cleansing.

Jesus' mission was purity.

That's why the writer of Hebrews says, after making purifications for sin.

This is the work that Jesus accomplished.

So that if you turn to Jesus, if you place your faith in him, if you believe, if you repent of your sins and believe in him, immediately in that moment, you know what the Bible says?

It says, So though though your skin, your sins were like scarlet, now you are washed white like snow.

The stain that could not be removed, the moment that you turn to Jesus Christ, even in this moment now, is eternally removed by the effective cleansing power of Jesus' death and resurrection.

But I want you to understand that the working of his salvation doesn't end there.

And so look what it says.

Having made purifications for sins, what did Jesus do?

He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.

See, Jesus is suffering on the cross, it leads to glory.

The cross that Jesus bore led to a crown that he would wear, will wear for all of eternity.

We've just celebrated Easter, and for all of eternity, because of what we celebrate in Easter, we will celebrate the reign of Jesus Christ.

Jesus not only saves us, he reigns in power at this very moment, sitting at the right hand of the Father, the place of power.

I praise Jesus that in my life, Jesus didn't just have the power to save, he was reigning and working to save.

I needed Jesus' power because I didn't grow up on a path in which I ever heard anything about Jesus Christ.

In fact, the only thing I knew about Jesus Christ was that sometimes when people were angry, they would say his name really loudly.

But if beyond that moment you were to like sit down with me and say, Hey, do you know who Jesus is?

I would have said to you, I just have no idea.

I didn't grow up in a home where we learned about Jesus Christ.

I didn't grow up in a home where religion was talked about in any way.

But I praise Jesus that he not only saves, he reigns.

And so God was working in my life to bring me from that path that was a hellbound path, to a path where I would be confronted time and time again with Jesus Christ.

And it happened first in my mom.

When I was in grade two, I was, it would later be diagnosed, about four years later, be diagnosed with a separation anxiety disorder.

And it would come from my parents being separated.

And this horrible thing that had happened in my life had shaken me up and changed me for the worse.

So that I was diagnosed with this disorder.

Now, as I look back on this, I don't really think it was disorder, but I think this circumstance, it was as though it like shook my life, and out of my heart came overflowing sin.

Out of my heart in that circumstance came the sin of anxiety.

I hated life.

I hated doing anything.

I despised life itself.

At times I would threaten at such a young age to drown myself in the pond.

And anything that stood in front of my kingdom, anything that stood in the way of my reign, I would get angry about.

My life, it was characterized by this anxiety, this overwhelming, unable to do anything in life, anxiety.

And that anxiety was expressed in anger.

I was mad at anybody who stood in my way.

I had no hope for salvation.

I didn't know the gospel.

But Jesus reigned in that moment.

And over the period of about a year, he would work in my mom's life first.

You know the first thing Jesus did?

I was going to all this therapy, family therapy, play therapy, group therapy, therapy therapy, every kind of therapy you can think of.

In one of these group therapy homes, my mom was filling out paperwork, and God can work in such amazing ways as she was filling out this paperwork.

She got to a box, and all the box said was religion.

My mom at this point, she was so beyond herself, and she just thought, I wonder if there's something that the church can offer me.

And the thought really ended there.

But we lived in subsidy housing, and so we would have neighbors come in and come out, as my mom took care of me and my two brothers, and one of the neighbors that came was a Christian, and this Christian came and asked my mom, Hey, do you know of a church that I could go to?

And again, we didn't know anything about church, but my mom said, Hey, if you go to church, I want to come with you.

It's just so happened that one of these churches that my mom went to, again, Jesus reigning and working to save his children.

One of my churches that my mom went to, there was a missionary couple there.

And it just so happened on that Sunday that they went, these people met, and they started a Bible study with my mom.

And they asked my mom, How do you know that you're gonna be in heaven?

And she gave a works righteousness answer and they explained the gospel to her.

And in that moment, my mom believed and was saved.

Meanwhile, I didn't care anything about this.

It was not even on the radar.

I didn't care what was happening in my mom's life, but there was one thing I cared about.

And I wasn't very good at it, but I really cared about skateboarding.

And there was a church in the area, actually, it was just in King City, and they had, I don't know why they did this.

In fact, I don't think anybody ever used it beyond me.

But they had built a skateboard park.

And they had spent way too much money on it.

But Jesus was reigning.

And he had a purpose with that skateboard park.

And so I told my mom, if we go to the church with a skateboard park, I'm gonna come with you.

And so she did what any mom would do.

She brought her son to the church with the skateboard park.

And there I met some believers.

And eventually I'd sit down with that same missionary and my youth pastor, who had become one of the most influential men in my life.

He'd really become a father figure to me.

And because Jesus not only has the power to save, because Jesus sits at the right hand and is working his power day to day, Jesus in that moment, he saved my soul.

He ripped my feet off of a path that was hellbound, put me on the path so that I could know him, believe in him, and receive eternal life in him.

And in that moment, my life was changed.

I would never deal with the same anxiety again.

I would never have anger.

It was miraculous.

And it was the type of miracle that can only happen when Jesus, by his cleansing power, purifies a soul of its sin.

If you're saved, you need to understand that this is the work that Jesus had done for you.

He reigns and he has purified your soul by the work of his cross and resurrection.

If you don't know Christ, I wonder how this moment right now might be a moment that Jesus is orchestrating for you.

It's not by mistake that you're here.

It's not by mistake that this whole message is about the glory of Jesus Christ and fixing your eyes on him and the hope, and not only the hope, but the joy that you can have in him.

I wonder if this might be a moment that Jesus is orchestrating events to call you to him, to believe in him, to repent of your sins, and to find the cleansing that can only come at the cross.

Last thing I want you to see, and this is really in closing, is that we fix our eyes on the worthiness of his name.

Look what it says in verse 4.

After all of this, after we've understood the role of Jesus, after we've understood the actions that Jesus is taking, after we understand the salvation that Jesus has worked in those who believe, we understand this.

He says, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

Church, there's no other name.

There's no other firm foundation.

There's no other thing that is worthy of our praise.

There's nothing.

It is Jesus Christ alone.

I told you at the beginning of this message that there is really one application, and that application was to worship.

I think it's fitting as we've seen the wonder and the witness and the working of Jesus, that we take this time to respond and express with our hearts that we believe that Jesus is worthy.

And one of the ways that we do that is in song, and so I'm going to invite the worship team up.

But I want you to know that this time that we take to respond to God's word, it's very intentional.

And I want you to press into the intention of this, that this isn't just a song that we sing.

This isn't just a time for us to get up and do the thing that we do at church.

This is a time for you to respond to the word of God and to declare with your voice and ultimately declare with your heart that you believe there's no other name that is worthy.

It is Christ's name alone, that the name He has inherited is more excellent than any other name, that the glory that he possesses is more excellent than any other glory.

Would you stand with me?

I'm going to pray for us.

And then let's declare this truth together.

Father, we thank you for Jesus Christ.

And Lord, we pray that it would be our life effort, individually and as a church, to look to Him.

And there to receive the joy that can only come from a life that is founded on Jesus Christ and His glory alone.

God, I thank you so much for this church.

God, I love the work that you have done in this church to make and multiply disciples.

God, we're excited about the future.

God, we're excited about all that you have accomplished.

As the elders, and Pastor Mike have been so faithful to point our eyes week after week to you.

God, you've accomplished so much.

And God, you will be so faithful to continue to accomplish so long as the foundation is your son.

And so, God, we take this time to respond, Lord, as a church, declare this, Lord, that we believe this truth.

There is no name more worthy, there is no name more beautiful, there is no name more powerful than the name of Jesus Christ.

God, we praise and worship you for all that you have done in your Son and all that you are doing even now in this moment through your Son.

God, we praise you.

Amen.