Looks Like Kingdom // Pastor Bobby

Alrighty. Wow.

I'm excited about this morning because there's so many things that we

need to realize.

I mean,

it's September 1.

It's Labor Day weekend.

There's a pigpicking going on.

And we begin the last chapter of the Book of Hebrews this morning.

We've been in Hebrews since January.

Actually, we've been in Hebrews since last October.

We did a little survey of Hebrews,

which made me realize that we needed to spend more time in Hebrews.

So we jumped into Hebrews in January and have kind of taken it apart

piece by piece.

And chapter 13 is kind of the fun chapter because it's in chapter 13 that

the writer of Hebrews and God by inspiration is saying,

all right,

now this is what it looks like.

Okay, now when he says this is what it looks like,

what he's saying,

this is what you look like.

Or at least this is what you're supposed to look like.

All right,

so we're going to take three Sundays to deal with just chapter 13,

because in summation,

God is really pointing out to us sort of the goal of understanding

everything that is in the book of Hebrews.

So I'm going to read verses one to 14.

It's a long passage,

but pretty simple.

So here we go.

13 114.

Let brotherly love continue.

Don't neglect to show hospitality,

for by doing this,

some have welcomed angels as guests without knowing it.

Remember those in prison as though you were in prison with them,

and the mistreated,

as though you yourself were suffering bodily.

Marriage is to be honored by all in the marriage bed kept undefiled

because God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.

Keep your life free from the love of money.

Be satisfied with what you have,

for he himself has said,

I'll never leave you or abandon you.

Therefore, we may boldly say,

the Lord is my helper.

I will not be afraid.

What can man do to me?

Remember your leaders who have spoken God's word to you as you carefully

observe the outcome of their lives,

attempt and imitate their faith.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday,

today, and forever.

Don't be led astray by various kinds of strange teachings,

for it is good for the heart to be established by grace and not by food

regulations, since those who observe them have not benefited.

We have an altar from which those who worship at the tabernacle do not

have a right to eat.

For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the most holy

place by the high priest as a sin offering are burned outside the camp.

Therefore, Jesus also suffered outside the gate so that he might sanctify

the people by his own blood.

Let us then go to him outside the camp,

bearing his disgrace.

For we do not have an enduring,

for we do not have an enduring city here.

Instead, we seek the one to come.

All right,

let's pray.

God, we thank you for your word.

And thank you,

God, that you have spoken.

Thank you,

God, that you teach us by your word,

your written word,

your living word.

God, we thank you that you have given for us the priority of our lives.

God, let us hear from you this morning,

and then,

God, let us surrender.

Help us to obey,

and we pray it in Jesus name.

Amen.

Last week in this hour,

I didn't do it the next 3 hours,

but in this hour last week,

my brain went over that way,

and I got lost in the story of Esau.

If you were here last Sunday,

you remember that Esau was the oldest,

Jacob was the youngest,

Esau was the hunter.

Right? Esau was the one who went out and killed game and probably had a

barbecue in his backyard.

Jacob, on the other hand,

hung out with mom,

learned how to cook,

had great recipes,

like the red lentil soup or stew or.

I called it beef stew last week,

and Esau came in from the hunt and hadn't killed anything.

So he begged Jacob for some of that stew.

Jacob said,

well, fine,

here's some stew.

But in exchange for the stew,

I want your birthright.

And Jacob,

I mean,

Esau was like,

well, what good is a birthright?

If I'm dead,

I'm starving to death.

Right? So he wanted to stew,

and so they traded off.

And so the whole message of that in the text from last week in chapter

twelve was just simply,

you know what?

When we prioritize the things of this world over the things of God,

because the blessing,

the birthright that Isaac was going to offer to his sons was actually the

blessing of the promise of God that goes all the way back to the covenant

of Abraham.

Well, that's what today's about.

I just wanted to go back and cover that.

Guess what?

I don't have to do that the next 3 hours,

because by the time I got to 925,

I knew what I was talking about.

But today,

this is the story of sort of summation,

and it's the reminder of everything that we've seen before.

And I've been over it with you guys.

Twelve chapters.

Actually, ten and a half chapters.

God points out everything he's done from creation to kingdom,

all right?

And he points it all out that he has spoken.

He has spoken in the past through the prophets and through the angels,

but now he has spoken through Jesus.

And so in these last days,

he speaks through Jesus.

Jesus is the son,

the son of God.

He is the heir of all things.

You see,

he is the exact expression of the essence of God.

He is the radiance of God's glory.

He is the king of Kingsley.

He is the highest priests.

You see,

the old testament points all to Jesus.

Jesus is the creator of all things.

He is the sustainer of all God's creation.

You see,

he is the highest priest.

And the whole Old Testament system points to Jesus.

And so everything about ten and a half chapters of Hebrews point us to

Jesus. And then the end of chapter ten and chapter eleven kind of focuses

on those who have believed and have trusted,

and they're not great people.

Some of them are tragedies,

but they had faith in God and they lived out their faith.

And so we're told in verse in chapter twelve that ours is supposed to be

a life of faith,

trusting what God has said,

trusting what God has done,

trusting the provision of God for our salvation.

And so we get to chapter 13 with this great reminder,

let brotherly love continue.

And I'm like,

okay, so here you go.

We know the two great commands that are reiterated by Jesus from

deuteronomy is that we're supposed to love God.

Love God with all your heart,

soul, mind,

strength. Love your neighbor as yourself.

I love asking people,

this is one of my favorite questions.

What's the most important thing in your life?

Well, you know,

we go through the list,

right?

Oh, you know,

my family.

And then I always want to ask,

do you act like it?

Right? Well,

what's the most important thing in your life?

Well, God is.

Well, do you act like it?

Are your choices?

Is your behavior,

is your attitude that God is the number one love of your life?

Is it reflected in your life?

I mean,

do people see that in the.

You see,

that's the big question.

I'm not talking about a legalistic,

you know,

kind of.

But I tell you from this pulpit all the time,

I don't like to give you lists,

because if I give you lists,

here's what happens.

People say,

well, Pastor Bobby said,

if I did this and this and this and this,

I'm good.

Guess what?

I can't see your heart.

I don't know the motivation behind why you do the what,

but the truth is,

if it's not about our love for God and our behavior being subsequent to

that love for God,

then we're wasting our time,

folks, okay?

Loving God and acting like it is the core of who we are.

Let brotherly love continue.

That's the love.

Your neighbor.

You know what the brotherly love thing is?

That's love within the body.

Why does God want us to love each other more than we love anybody else

outside the body?

Because Jesus said they will know.

You are my disciples if you love each other.

And the body of Christ is all in each other's face all the time.

Y'all notice that?

Let brotherly love continue.

All right,

so here's what's happening,

y'all. We get a list today?

I've told you,

I'm not giving you a list.

But.

But if God gives us a list,

we'll pay attention to it.

Let brotherly love continue.

Right? Don't neglect to show hospitality.

You know what we call hospitality here at the gathering?

Coffee and cheez its.

The hospitality team right outside the door there,

making sure you got goldfish on some Sundays.

Right? But what is this talking about?

This talks about being welcoming,

letting others see your love.

And what was it we were told in John?

Is that how can we say we love God if we can't love our brothers?

And if we're not loving our brothers,

then are we not not loving God?

You see what I mean?

So the whole point of this thing is that our love for God is expressed in

our love for each other and hospitality.

And then they throw this in.

You know,

I've heard this since I was a kid.

For by doing this,

some have welcomed angels as guests without knowing it,

right? And then I go,

I know everybody I talked to this week.

It ain't none of them angels.

I am sure of it.

But you know what this is?

This is a reference back to Abraham sitting in the door of his tent and

the angels and Jesus showing up and him knowing he didn't know until

later who they were.

You see?

And that's sort of the picture and kind of the idea here is that our

behavior, our approach,

is supposed to be one of God's love now,

not like a checkbox.

Like, this is the legalism or the phariseeism of.

Okay, I've done all those things.

What more can I do to inherit the kingdom of God?

The rich man asked,

right? And that's not what it is like,

all right?

I want to make sure that I'm being nice to strangers because one of them

might have hidden wings,

you know,

like. Excuse me.

No, it's just an expression of God's love that.

Yeah, might there be angels in our midst?

Yeah, that's quite possible,

but I'm not looking for them because every time I see angels in the

Bible, it says,

fear not because they are fearsome creatures.

Okay? Remember those in prison as though you were in prison.

Now, what's the idea?

You know,

somebody gets locked up,

you avoid them.

You know,

it's like Peter at the confession,

right?

Jesus is inside getting beat,

and he doesn't want to.

He doesn't want to get beat.

So. So he says,

no, I don't know him.

You know,

folks go into prison,

we're like,

ah, I don't have anything to do with them.

Cause they did wrong,

and I don't want to get included in their wrong kind of thing.

What he's saying is,

he says,

look, you remember those folks that are in prison as if you were in

prison yourself.

Remember the mistreated.

As though you yourselves were suffering bodily.

So see,

here's the list.

Brotherly love,

hospitality. Remember those in prison.

Remember the mistreated.

Here you go.

Next one.

Ready? Marriage is to be honored by all.

Marriage is to be honored.

Why God uses it over and over and over again throughout his word as the

example of what it means to be married to goddess.

This idea of the bride and the bridegroom,

that picture of the fact that the picture of wholeness and oneness that

we see when God says,

you know,

let the two shall become one,

a whole.

You see,

marriage is to be honored.

Man. Our culture,

and particularly the american society,

is trying to pitch it out the window like it doesn't matter.

Let's call anything marriage.

I'm sorry.

That kind of poked you a little bit.

Forgive me.

Cause the Bible says you have to.

The marriage bed kept undefiled.

Now we're on number five.

Marriage bed kept undefiled because God will judge the sexually immoral

and adulterers.

Now, see,

I know we got kids in the room,

so I'm gonna walk real carefully here.

But look what it's saying there,

all right?

We live in a society that exalts everything ungodly when it comes to

human relationship between men and women or anything else these days.

And this says right here,

God's going to judge it.

Now, it's Bible.

So I'm going to say this.

I love having folks sit in my office and I say,

you know what?

Any kind of,

let's say,

intimate relationship between whatever,

outside of marriage that honors God is one of two things.

It's either fornication or adultery,

sexual immorality.

It's right there.

I can't avoid it.

Cause it's number six five in the list.

God's giving us a list of behavior,

choices, actions that identify us as kingdom people,

people who belong to God.

Okay, now,

this isn't a checklist.

I'm not.

Look, somebody left me a pen.

Probably me.

But it's not like we go,

okay, I did that.

I did that.

I did that.

I did that.

Remember what I said a minute ago?

And then we go to Jesus and say,

what more can I do?

No, it's not like that.

What it is is that if we love God,

if we're truly in love with God,

heart, soul,

mind and strength,

then this is what is produced.

This is what shows up in our lives if we love God,

okay? This is how we behave.

If we love God.

Therefore, you can take the negative side of that and say,

if I'm not behaving this way,

then the truth of the matter is,

I don't love God.

Isn't that tough?

Oh, that's harsh.

I'm glad we're at the end of Hebrews,

aren't you?

Keep your life free from the love of money.

Doesn't say,

keep your life free from money.

I know some rich folks,

right? But it does say,

don't let money be the rule of your life.

When couples sit down in front of my desk to talk about things,

I go,

you know what the two most common reported problems in marriage are?

Those two.

The relationship between husband and wife and money.

Two most commonly reported problems.

And you know what I tell them?

Communication is the conduit that solves most of those problems.

But what happens is we kind of stake our ground,

build our castle and defend it.

Careful. Keep your life free from the love of money.

Be satisfied with what you have.

For he himself has said,

I will never leave you or abandon you.

You know what that's saying?

Be satisfied with Jesus.

If you got Jesus,

that's all you need.

You don't need any more than that.

So then he goes unsafe.

Therefore, we may boldly say,

the Lord is my helper.

I will not be afraid.

What can man do to me?

See, the idea is that God is the one who quote in proverbs three,

directs our steps.

Right. But I want you to know something.

There's a word we use out there that it has created a great deal of

theological, I'll just say discourse.

It's really an argument,

but it's discourse.

That's the combination word.

Free will.

But let me ask you a question.

Do we have a responsibility to God?

A couple weeks ago,

I preached on the father's expectation.

What does the father have a right to expect from us?

I think there's a list here.

I got him numbered and circled in my text this morning.

Brotherly love.

God expect brotherly love from us?

Sure he does.

Does God expect us to show hospitality?

Sure he does.

Does God expect us to remember those in prison,

to remember the mistreated,

to keep marriage honored,

to keep the marriage bed undefiled?

Right. Does God expect us to be free from the love of money,

to be satisfied with what we have in life?

You see,

what happens is we make gods of these other things.

Instead of worshiping God.

We make gods of the relationships.

We make gods of the possessions.

We make gods of the pursuit of those things.

And then he says again,

remember your leaders who have spoken God's word to you.

When we get later in this,

there's another one that says,

obey your leaders.

But I think this precedes it for a reason.

What this is actually saying is,

watch your leaders as you carefully observe the outcome of their lives.

Imitate their faith.

This kind of follows,

and this is probably another one of those references that lead people to

believe. Paul is actually the writer of the book of Hebrews.

And if he is,

fine. But what he's saying right here is like what Paul said.

Imitate me as I imitate Jesus,

right?

So we remember the bracelets,

right? The what would Jesus do?

Bracelet. And I love that somebody said,

what did Jesus do?

Right?

Look back at what he did and do that.

That's what God wants of us.

Jesus is the same yesterday,

today, and forever.

So those who have followed the Christ,

the anointed one of God,

the promises of the messiah,

even in the Old Testament,

the by face that we saw in chapter,

you know,

this idea of following Christ in our lives and living it out,

wow, man,

I looked at this thing for the last few weeks as I was trying to put it

all together,

and I'm like,

man, I hate lists.

The expectation of perfection,

right? I mean,

if we take this list seriously,

then God expects us to be perfect.

Well, he did say,

be holy as I am holy.

And then he said,

because you can't.

Here's grace.

But he didn't mean for us to use it as an excuse,

folks. Verse nine.

Number eight.

Verse nine.

It's number eight in the list.

Don't be led astray by various kinds of strange teachings,

for it is good for the heart to be established by grace and not by food.

Regulations, for those who observe them have not benefited.

Right now,

this is where he's contrasting the message of the Hebrew,

the letter to the Hebrews,

to a hebrew audience who get all bound up by whether they eat bacon or

not. You know,

that's my joke.

Somebody yesterday said,

yesterday or Friday,

somebody said something said,

oh yeah,

that's got bacon in it.

You'll enjoy it.

That tells me that I mentioned bacon too much from the pulpit.

But you see my point,

point is you can get bound up in the little checkbox legalism of faith or

call it religion really,

because religion,

remember, is man's attempt to get to God.

Our faith in Christianity is that God came to us and provided a way for

us to go to God.

He takes us through the heavens into heaven,

which is the dwelling place of God.

So when I look at this thing and don't get caught up in all this checkbox

kind of faith,

because that's not faith at all.

If you get into checkbox obedience,

you're basing your faith on what you've done,

not what God's done.

And yet we have a responsibility to live out our faith.

See, there's kind of,

I like to tell folks,

you see,

it's just the same penny.

There's a heads and a tails,

okay? Because God has done so much,

we owe him in a way,

and that's a harsh word to use,

but, but the way I've worded it in the past is Jesus gave his life for me.

Now I can give my life to him and live it out.

That's what I can do.

I can do that.

We have an altar from which those who worship at the tabernacle do not

have a right to eat.

Remember, this goes back to the whole picture of Christ on the altar.

Christ, the highest of high priests,

brought his own blood to the altar to bring about our salvation,

to redeem us,

to buy us back from death and sin.

This is the altar we worship at.

And then he reflects back to the bodies of those animals whose blood is

brought into the most holy place by the high priest as a sin offering or

burned outside the camp.

So why?

Why?

All right,

so one of the commentators I was listening to this week makes this

distinction between the idea that the blood stayed in the tabernacle at

the altar but the animal was taken outside and burned.

Okay, so what are we supposed to be connected to?

There's a picture that I see oftentimes that has,

you know,

the cross and Jesus still on the cross.

He's not there.

He was buried and he rose.

But the idea is that the city or outside,

inside the gate represents a religiosity kind of thing.

We go to Jesus because that's what it says next he says,

therefore, Jesus also suffered outside the gate so that he might sanctify

the people by his own blood.

So we are to be more connected to the blood of Christ,

which has accomplished our salvation and redemption and nothing,

the sin that we leave behind.

So you want to see the list of expectations?

I'm going to go down in a minute,

because 13,

verse 13 says,

let us then go to him outside the camp bearing his disgrace,

for we do not have an enduring city here.

Instead, we seek the one to come.

So we have a responsibility to God.

It's not works.

Faith, it's not works.

Religion, it's not works.

Sort of checkbox.

Okay? As long as I wear the right clothes,

as long as I sit in the same place,

as long as I walk down,

as long as I get in that pool or as long as I check the boxes,

I'm good.

Remember, it's about a heart thing.

Where is God looking at you,

right?

Well, what is it that God sees in me?

Does he see that I love him?

Does he see that I prioritize,

honor, and respect the things that he prioritizes,

honors, and respects?

Right. I look at these things and I go,

all right,

these are kingdom characteristics.

Do you look like kingdom?

Do I look like kingdom?

Here you go.

I'm in trouble in here.

Because it says,

remember your leaders who have spoken God's word to you as you carefully

observe the outcome of their lives,

imitate their faith.

Folks, that's that double responsibility,

that as a pastor,

I better do what I preach.

But I think that's one of the reasons why across the body of Christ that

a lot of people don't mention that they're Christ followers,

that they love Jesus because they're afraid somebody's going to go,

oh, I saw what you did.

I heard what you said.

And you claim to be a Christian,

you know,

but this is the challenge for us,

is we're supposed to look like Christ.

We're supposed to be imitating the faith of those who are.

Are doing it.

Well, I know I've got some godly mentors in my life,

some godly fellas and women and mamas in church.

Okay? Can I call it that?

Mamas in the church that have mamaed me ever since I left home,

man, every place I've ever been,

I got mamas,

you know,

but I look at that and I go,

okay, God help me.

Love the way they loved me.

God help me.

Love those around me the way that you've loved me.

And then finally,

this is the.

I'm gonna go back through the list,

but this is the last of the text.

Go to Jesus.

So it says,

let us then go to him outside the camp,

bearing his disgrace.

Folks, we follow Jesus,

who was convicted and executed.

And I laugh when I remember the preacher who said,

why do we expect life to be perfect in Christ when the one we followed

was murdered?

Right? We face a society that hates us.

We face a culture that doesn't want to hear from us and certainly doesn't

want to see us.

See, Jesus went through the heavens,

the veil into heaven,

the presence of God,

and he did it to take us there.

And it's not the pie in the sky,

in the sweet by and by,

it's that we get to be in the presence of God.

Now, don't miss the opportunity.

If you don't know Jesus,

you need Jesus,

because that's the point of Hebrews,

and he is the object of our faith.

Brotherly love,

hospitality. Remember those in prison.

Remember those suffering,

the mistreated.

Marriage. Marriage bed.

Don't love money.

Remember your leaders.

Don't be led astray by weird teachings.

Right, let's see,

that's eight and nine.

Go to Jesus.

Run to Jesus.

There's God's list.

Hebrews, chapter 13.

Hebrews 13 · chapter mention

And we're not even finished yet.

Okay, but it all starts with Jesus.

Pray with me.

Father, thank you for today,

and thank you for all that you intend to do.

Pray, God,

that you'd watch over us and care for us.

But God,

help us to pay attention.

Help us to pay attention to you.

God, help us to pay attention to those that you put in our lives that are

paying attention to you.

God, help us to live the faith,

God, that you have given to us and given for us to have.

And God,

let our lives be a reflection of our love for you.

God, let people see our love for you as we love them,

particularly within the body of Christ.

Thank you,

God, that your love is what started it all.

So we thank you for it.

In Jesus name,

amen.