What's the Point? | Ps. Nate Capshaw

Welcome to the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

Thank you so much for listening today.

We hope it encourages you and inspires you.

Here's today's message.

If this is your first time here, uh so thankful that you're here this morning.

If I haven't had the chance to meet you, my name is Nate.

Not popping it, but I'll take it.

So glad that you're here this morning.

Uh, like I said, if I haven't had the chance to meet you, I'd love to do so today.

Uh after the service, I'll be in the courtyard.

Would love to shake your hand and uh hear a little bit about your story and how you uh came to find Celebration Church.

Uh, would also love to see if there's anything that uh we can do for you as a church, see if there's anything that, any ministry we can connect you with, uh, or if you have something that needs to be prayed over, would love to pray with you as well.

If you're with us online, uh I want to extend a special welcome to you as well.

Thank you so much for taking some time out to be with us.

Uh however, if you are in the Orlando area, I just want to invite you to come to one of our services.

Come to either our 9 a.m.

or 10 30 a.m.

service.

Uh, we'd love to have you here in the building.

Uh I am so thankful for this house.

Anyone else thankful for Celebration Church Orlando?

I'm so thankful.

Yes.

I I definitely know, don't know what I would do without the Lord, and I definitely don't know what I would do without uh this house, without this church.

I'm so grateful to be here uh each and every week with you.

Uh I was also just kind of reflecting on uh the past few years of ministry here uh with Pastor Keith and Pastor Megan and some things that that they have uh lived their lives that have taught me uh what it means to follow Jesus.

And one of the things that I came back to was Pastor Keith and Pastor Megan, they trust God until it hurts, and then they trust God some more.

You have people that lead this church that are always recalibrating and recentering back to Jesus.

They're always keeping their eyes on him, and they are the epitome of what it means to be faith-filled.

So we're so thankful for you guys.

Can you guys honor your pastors and thank you for them?

I also, before we kind of jump into what we're gonna be talking about today, I want to reiterate what Pastor Keith mentioned with celebration at the park.

And this is such a unique opportunity for us.

It's not just uh an event for the sake of an event.

Uh there is some meaning and there is some weight behind what we're doing here.

Uh very briefly, I'll share a story with you.

I uh about 2014 it was when Celebration Church Orlando was first launched here in the city.

Uh, there was a group of people who went out to uh an event similar to what we're gonna be doing, not exactly the same, but kind of the same attitude behind what we're gonna be doing on the 26th of March.

And uh I happened to be where this group of people was and had a conversation, and because of that uh interaction with them, I ended up walking through the doors of this church.

And because of walking through the doors of this church, um, I my relationship with God was re-established and reignited, and uh I am forever changed because of that, and I stand here before you today, and I want to share that story with you because I want to let you know that you have no idea, just the power of a simple invite of what that can do in somebody's life.

And I'm not necessarily saying that that always means a vocational ministry, absolutely not.

What I'm saying is life transformation.

What I'm saying is the ability to engage God and to begin to live your life God's way.

So I want to challenge you not to just be thinking about if you're going to invite someone to celebration at the park.

I want to challenge you to be praying about who it is you're gonna invite to celebration at the park.

Sound good?

Awesome.

We are in our second week of our greater than series where we're looking at the book of Hebrews.

And uh kind of the way that I thought about this series when we were first tossing around the idea of doing this uh was, you know, it's kind of answering the question, what's the big deal about Jesus, right?

We we as Christians are hopefully centering our lives around him, and we come in here, you know, every Sunday because of Jesus, but but but why?

What's the core uh at who Jesus is and what he means to us?

And last week Pastor Keith introduced this idea and some attributes of Jesus and saying that Jesus is greater, hence the name of our series, Greater Than.

And some things that Pastor Keith shared with us is Jesus is greater than tradition, he's greater than religion, and he's greater than culture.

Uh, if you missed it, I I want to encourage you to go back and listen to it on the podcast or perhaps watch on YouTube because uh everything that we're talking about kind of builds off uh one another.

Uh and so I also want to go ahead and plant the seed to uh put a pin in next Sunday because what I'm talking about today is very closely tied to what we're gonna be uh discovering next Sunday as well.

You know what?

As a matter of fact, just go ahead and like block out every Sunday and just be in the house of the Lord every Sunday.

I think that's a good idea.

So Pastor Key's pumped about that.

Today uh we're gonna be looking at the priesthood of Jesus.

The priesthood of Jesus.

And for those of you who may have come from uh more traditional backgrounds and you got a little bit of a shudder when I said priest, I need everybody to relax, to calm down, and to and to take a deep breath.

We're gonna be consulting God's word for what this actually means.

Hebrews chapter 7 is our text for today.

Hebrews 7 · chapter mention

Hebrews 7, we're gonna be uh beginning in verse number 23.

If you don't have a Bible, we have one for you.

We'd love to gift you one, uh, and you can find that out at the Cairn Connect tent on your way out today.

If you're unsure where Hebrews is uh in the Bible, there is no shame in looking at uh the table of contents at the front and finding that page number.

So feel free to do that.

Hebrews chapter 7, verse number 23.

Hebrews 7 · chapter mention

There were many priests under the old system, for death prevented them from remaining in office.

But because Jesus lives forever, his priesthood lasts forever.

Therefore, he is able once and forever to save those who come to God through him.

He lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf.

It sounds like the author's trying to get our attention here.

He is the kind of high priest we need because he is holy and blameless, unstained by sin.

He has been set apart from sinners and has been given the highest place of honor in heaven.

Unlike those other priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices every day.

They did this for their own sins first, and then for the sins of the people, but Jesus did this once for all, when he offered himself as the sacrifice for the people's sins.

The law appointed high priests who were limited by human weakness.

But after the law was given, God appointed his son with an oath, and his son has been made the perfect high priest forever.

This morning we are going to uh examine the question what's the point?

What is the point?

Will you bow your heads in prayer with me?

Uh Heavenly Father, we are just so thankful for the ability to gather today, God.

We thank you for this community.

We thank you for everyone who's walked in these doors, and that uh before the foundation of the world was set, you knew them and you knew their story, and you knew that they would be here today.

And Lord, we thank you for your word.

God, we thank you that uh your word uh reveals to us a glimpse of who you are and how we should carry out our lives, God.

Lord, I pray that your your spirit would be with us, it would be uh speaking to us and revealing to us what it is you have for us today, and that we would leave here forever changed.

It's in Jesus' name and everybody said.

Amen.

Human beings are inquisitive uh by nature, aren't we?

Not long after we learn how to communicate verbally, our speech develops into phrases, which then goes to coherent sentences, and without warning, those sentences soon become questions.

All of our parents couldn't wait for us to begin our next line of interrogation.

A bombardment of curiosity.

Hours of time spent answering the deep existential questions of our day.

Questions like, are we there yet?

Is it my birthday tomorrow?

Why is ice cream cold?

Or how about why do mom and dad get to stay up and I have to go to bed?

In the mind of a child, these questions demand undivided attention and precise, clear-cut answers.

But as we progress and mature, uh so do our questions.

Our inquiries develop and we launch our investigations into the more significant and philosophical questions of life, with one of those being the undisputed frontrunner.

What is the meaning of life?

A brief search through the annals of YouTube reveals thousands upon thousands of videos supplying endless interpretations and perspectives to this age-old question.

Google renders about 10,360,000,000 results to the question, with every philosopher, guru, entrepreneur, and podcast host giving their take.

Some suggest that the answer is happiness, a pursuit of happiness.

Some derive their sense of meaning from perpetual self-improvement.

One author claims that, quote, enjoying the passage of time is the meaning of life.

And others conclude that there just is no answer.

A recent study by the American Pew Research Center set out to find how the average 21st century Westerner would answer this.

When asking Americans the open-ended question, what makes them feel meaningful, fulfilled, or satisfied?

60% of those, 16% of those polled mentioned health or well-being.

20% said spirituality and faith.

And 34% said their career.

A second survey was administered with close-ended or forced choice questions where Americans were asked where they derived the most meaning in life.

And again, 34% pointed to their job or their career.

44% said listening to music.

And 45% selected caring for their pets.

How cute.

However, in both surveys, about 20 to 30 percent points higher, there's a category that eclipses the rest.

70% of the Americans conveyed said that their sense of meaning is found in family.

In the closed-ended question survey, spending time with friends came in at 47%.

So what's the point?

The point is this.

I believe that these survey results are indicative of the innate and eternal longing for relationships.

And though perhaps not explicitly mentioned in the Bible in a singular phrase by God, a full reading and understanding of the biblical narrative reveals to us that the meaning of life is an unhindered, uninterrupted, authentic, and everlasting create uh relationship with the Almighty God.

Anything else is trivial.

It's futile, and it will not bring ultimate fulfillment that your soul longs for.

At some point this week, I want you to do this exercise, okay?

I want you to start at a place in your life and I want you to start to strip things away, okay?

All right, let's say I lose my job.

Well, then I got my savings that I can kind of fall back on.

Okay, well, let's say that runs dry.

Okay, I've got some retirement saved up that'll get me through, okay, and that's gone.

Well, I could sell the house, I could live off that, and if for whatever reason I'm still at this place, I I've got my family and my friends, and you just get to this point of wondering, what does it all mean?

None of these things that I just listed are bad.

They all serve a purpose, but they do not give life meaning.

Only a realization of God and who he who he is can appease your innermost desire for meaning.

And if you've ever read the story of Job in the Old Testament, you get to the end of the story and Job's lost everything.

He finally throws his hands up and he says, Enough! I get it now.

I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes.

Okay, guys, we've done it.

We've unlocked a secret to life.

We did it.

Nate, how do I do this?

How do I have an unhindered, uninterrupted, authentic, and everlasting relationship with God?

You can't.

What do you mean?

What do you mean I can't?

So you're saying that we have the key to existence, and yet we're unable to access the very source of meaning that we're searching for?

That's correct.

You are unable to gain access to the soul and singular meaning for existence, which is a relationship with the Creator of God.

But the good news is there is someone greater than who has done it for you.

Verse number 24 of the text we just read, but because Jesus lives forever, his priesthood lasts forever.

Therefore, he is able, once and forever, to save those who come to God through him.

He lives forever to what?

To intercede with God on our behalf.

In the ancient world, priesthood played a significant role in appeasing this innate desire to connect with the divine.

Ancient peoples built temples and places of worship, spaces of meeting where they could pay homage to their gods.

These priests were tasked with the upkeep of these spaces, and they were charged with mediating between us and the divine.

Although perhaps unfamiliar to our time, priesthood was common to the people in Mesopotamia, ancient Egypt, Palestine, and the like.

Upon examination of the Old Testament scriptures, we find God implementing the office of the priest.

One of the primary functions of the priest was to go before God and present sacrifices on behalf of the people.

Now, we're going to talk a little bit more about this topic next week, but the sacrificial system was set up to not just appease an ever fickle and erratic God, okay?

The sacrifice was a symbolic practice that was meant to purify and refine spaces and people so that when those spaces and people interact with an all-powerful and perfect God, they would be able to withstand.

Let me try and illustrate it this way.

So if I were to ask you, is the sun good or bad?

You would most likely answer, well, the sun's a good thing, it sustains life, and when I say the sun, I mean the big fireball in the sky.

It's good for us, it sustains life, it helps things grow, right?

Now, it this illustration kind of breaks down at a certain point, but I hope you get the idea.

What happens if you get too close to the sun?

You quite literally become toast.

Now, this is what it means to enter the presence of God.

God is so holy, so powerful, and blameless that the only way an unholy and blemished person is to enter his presence is through the sacrifice offered by the priest.

Now, it's not because God woke up on the wrong side of the bed, okay?

It's not walking around eggshells around God.

It's not poking the proverbial bear, so to speak.

It's because our fragility and imperfection is unable to withstand the heat.

Without some sort of protection, if we get too close, we will burn up.

Are you tracking with me, Church?

Okay.

The book of Hebrews goes on to tell us that this office of the priesthood is not sustainable.

Why?

Because they're flawed human beings.

The fact that God would even permit them to perform these rituals and hold this office in the first place blows my mind.

It's an incredible testament to the grace and to the mercy of God that he would go extreme, extreme lengths just to have relationship with his people.

I have a hard time delegating administrative responsibilities on a Monday because I'm afraid that someone may do it wrong.

But God commissions a bunch of frail and faulty humans to go before him and perform these duties.

Are you serious?

We've got this idea that the God of the Old Testament is the old grumpy guy that's always angry.

And then Jesus, our knight in shining armor, comes in to be the superstar across the street.

Which I'm sure he did.

God is God.

He is who he is, he is who he was and who he will be, and the Father and the Son are one.

Do they have different roles?

Sure.

But this isn't the good cop-bad cop routine.

And guess what?

We're people.

We're messed up.

We're flawed.

But there is one who is greater than.

Hebrews 7 said that Jesus had to come because the old system had to go.

The reason Jesus had to live a faultless and blameless life is because he was to be our perfect high priest.

Jesus lived every millisecond of his existence in total surrender and obedience to the Father.

Hebrews 7 says that he is set apart from everyone else.

It says that the law appointed high priests who are limited by human existence and weakness, but God appointed his son, his holy son, to be the perfect priest forever.

So what's the point?

Hebrews chapter 8.

Hebrews 8 · chapter mention

Here is the main point.

We have a high priest who sat down in the place of honor beside the throne of the majestic God in heaven.

There, he ministers in the heavenly tabernacle, the true place of worship that was built by the Lord and not by human hands.

The point is our priest is not confined to spaces and places here on earth.

The point is our perfect priest transcends time and space.

The point is that God's presence is not isolated to a tabernacle or a temple or a place made by human hands.

The point is that Jesus was the last sacrifice to ever be offered by a priest, a priest greater than the rest.

The perfect priest, the eternal priest.

The point is that when Jesus breathed his last breath, the curtain of the temple sanctuary was torn from top to bottom, signifying that there is no longer any separation between God and man.

And we can have an unhindered, uninterrupted, authentic, and everlasting relationship with the everlasting Almighty God.

That, my friends, is the point.

To my brothers and sisters who are suffering right now, right now, to those who are perhaps mourning loss of loved ones or enduring immobilizing depression or debilitated by disease, to those battling the temptations of sin, to you who have lost hope.

And you hear me talk, and you hear me say that the meaning of life is found in a relationship with God through Jesus.

And right now that answer just doesn't do much for you.

It doesn't suffice.

It doesn't bring the loved one back.

It doesn't heal or magically rid your mind of anxious thoughts or instantaneously overcome the temptation in your life.

I get it.

I've been there.

I've been in the moments of my life where someone telling me that God is with me just doesn't bring the comfort I need.

I want you to hear these words from Hebrews chapter 4.

Hebrews 4 · chapter mention

And they aren't on the screen, so I need you to pay very close attention.

In the message version, it says this.

Now that we know what we have, Jesus, the great high priest, with ready access to God, let's not let it slip through our fingers.

We don't have a priest who is out of touch with reality.

He's been through weakness and testing, experienced it all, all but sin.

So let's walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give.

Take the mercy, accept the help.

And I can only think that the reason that they eventually surrendered and said that I'm not going to do it is because of the presence of God.

Whatever circumstance, and I know them all that they were facing, God's presence was the ultimate thing that made them surrender and said, I'm running to him.

And now that person is living for him.

If you're in here under the sound of my voice, and those are thoughts that you're having, do not leave here today without letting someone pray for you and intercede on your behalf.

Jesus is with you.

He gets it.

He walked in our shoes.

He understands every trial and trouble.

He's seen the devastating effects of sin on our world.

He was tempted and tried.

Hold fast to him.

Come boldly to him for grace and mercy, and you have access to that.

So my brothers and sisters who may not be experiencing such things.

Life is good.

You're at church every Sunday.

You got your Bible reading plan, you're on a serving team, you're in your group.

I want to let you know that proximity does not equate to access.

There are plenty of people, even priests, who are in proximity to God, to the things of God, but they were not living their lives in relationship with Him, not allowing themselves to be transformed by Him.

I don't say that to scare you.

I don't say that to make you second guess your salvation.

I say that because I love you and we all need self-evaluations from time to time.

Keep reading your Bible.

Keep serving.

Keep showing up at church, attending your group.

Keep learning from the teaching and the preaching that takes place here every single Sunday.

But remember that your access to God is not dependent on any of those things.

Your maturity is, but not your access to God.

Because that access is a direct result of our great high priest, Jesus.

You know, Jesus offers us something that no other priest could offer.

If the church was banned from society today, if all the teachings and preachings were removed from the internet, if Christianity as we knew it was disassembled, Jesus would be just as powerful.

And there would be no impediment to the advancement of his kingdom because he ascended into heaven as the transcendent high priest.

And he sent his spirit to live within us.

We are now the tabernacle.

We are now the temple.

We are the space where God's presence can rest.

A space not built with human hands.

A space formed by the Creator God.

And now every person who is an obedient follower of Christ has direct access and empowerment because of that spirit.

And you are now a priest in your workplace.

You're a priest in your classroom, your living room, squad car, tractor trailer.

A life lived for anything that the world offers is a life that will ultimately end in death.

But our great high priest Jesus lived a sinless life, died an undeserving death, and was raised from that death, ascended into his kingdom, not built by human hands, so that you and I can find meaning.

An unhindered, uninterrupted, authentic, and everlasting relationship with God.

That, my friends, is the point.

Will you bow your heads in prayer with me?

If you're listening today, if you're listening on the podcast later, if you can hear these words and you know that you don't have a relationship with God, you have lost meaning, you don't understand it.

Please don't leave here today without talking to somebody about that.

Please don't leave here today if you're online without texting us at the church so that we can reach out and talk to you about what it means to have this relationship.

Father, we thank you for your goodness.

Lord, we thank you that you sent your son so that we can know what it means to live and live an abundant life.

Lord, we're so grateful for your goodness in this church.

We ask that you would be among us this week.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Church, we're not done yet.

We're gonna worship God here for a few moments.

So please let's stand to our feet and let's continue declaring the name of Jesus.

Thanks again for listening.

We hope you enjoyed today's message.

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We hope you join us next time.