A Better Mountain - September 13, 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.

Is there anyone here besides me who gets frustrated by wrong directions?

I'm not the only one. I'm glad to hear that.

There's a story of a family. They decided on this Saturday, they were going

on a hike, and they were taking the whole family with them.

Yay.

You see, they had small children, they had medium-sized children, and they had pre-teens.

So they all piled into their mini SUV. They packed everything and they pulled

up their Apple directions and said, Siri, take us here to this trailhead because

we want to take this beautiful hike that we've heard about.

This beautiful hike that our friends have been bragging about.

There's great opportunities for pictures for the whole family there. And so they went.

Little did they know, there were two different, very similar sounding names

to the trail heads that they were going to.

So they got to this trail head and they said, yes, here we go.

They packed the backpacks, put one kid on their back and that lasted for a little

bit. And then the kid got down and walked. And as they walked on,

they soon discovered that this was not going to be a family friendly trail.

Perhaps you've been on those kind of trails before. You're walking along,

and before you know it, the nice trail gets awfully close to a dead drop.

No pun intended, because if you were to fall, that would be the end.

And so a mama's heart began to palpitate very quickly. The dad was sweating a little bit.

And as they continued on just a little bit more, and they finally got to a place

where there was a little curve, they noticed that the trail almost went straight up.

Mom and dad looked at one another and they said, we are on the wrong trail.

This cannot be the right mountain that we're going to. Well,

they finally backtracked and when they got back to the car, they looked on their

phone because they had signal again and the car.

The directions were off by one name of that little trail, they decided,

well, we still have time in the day, so let's go on to the other trailhead.

And they did. They had a beautiful, easy, not life-threatening hike the other way.

I don't know if you've ever experienced that before. I was never brave enough

to take all my kids to a hike like that unless we were already camping.

But sometimes it may feel in life like we're hiking the wrong trail to the wrong mountain.

And when we look at Hebrews chapter 12 today, it gives us that idea as well.

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

It speaks to a similar idea, spiritually speaking.

You see, there's a couple different mountains we're going to talk about today,

but only one of them is the better mountain.

See, sometimes as believers in Jesus Christ, we can find ourselves trusting

Jesus for salvation, but still trying to relate to God as if we're standing

on an old mountain that we'll talk about today, Mount Sinai,

when God has called us not to go to Mount Sinai, but to go to Mount Zion.

If those words are unfamiliar to you, let me break it down for you in a minute.

After we read the scripture today from Hebrews chapter 12, starting in verse

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

14 and going to verse 24, just 10 verses today.

Hear the word of the Lord this morning. Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy.

Without holiness, no one will see the Lord.

See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root

grows up to cause trouble and defile many.

See to it that no one is sexually immoral or is godless like Esau,

who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son.

Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit his blessing, he was rejected.

Even though he sought the blessing with tears, he could not change what he had done.

You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with

fire, to darkness, gloom, and storm,

to a trumpet blast or such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged

that no further word would be spoken to them because they could not bear what was commanded.

Even if an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death.

The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, I am trembling with fear.

But you have come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God,

the heavenly Jerusalem.

You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly,

to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven.

You have come to God, the judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made

perfect, to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood

that speaks a better word.

Than the blood of Abel. Father, bless your word today. God, may we get your

message today straight to our hearts. Lord, may we respond to that.

We ask this very humbly in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Thank you. You can be seated. Two prominent mountains that are mentioned in

this passage, and if you're not so familiar with the two of them,

let me give you the crash course really quickly.

First of all, there's Mount Sinai. Both of these mountains we're going to talk

about are very significant in Scripture.

They're very significant to us as believers in Christ, and really to the whole

story of God as it's outlined in the Bible.

When we think about Mount Sinai, this is the place where Moses received the Ten Commandments.

It was upon Mount Sinai that God gave these tablets directly to Moses, not once, but twice.

We know that this is a powerful mountain. Now, I know modern day there's some

discrepancy as, is it in Saudi Arabia or is it on the Sinai Peninsula?

Where exactly is it? That's not what we're addressing today.

But just to know that Mount Sinai was a very holy and sacred place.

We have contrasted this mountain of Zion. And I know around here,

we hear Zion's National Bank.

Some group has taken Zion to mean something different, maybe.

But we know it's very popular.

But here in the scripture, as we're talking about it, Zion originally is one

of those hills that Jerusalem was built upon.

So when you think about Mount Zion, you can think about Jerusalem in modern day Israel.

When you think about Zion, it's first of all, we see in the scripture where

David captured a Jebusite fortress.

Now you can look that up, grab your Bible dictionary and go for it in the Old

Testament, because that's where this kind of starts.

Right there, and upon David's act capturing this fortress and other things that

happened, the city of David was established there on Mount Zion.

You've heard that name before, I'm sure. We know that later on,

it's on Mount Zion that when the Ark of the Covenant is captured,

it's brought back and it's brought to Mount Zion.

Now, the Ark of the Covenant, not Noah's Ark, not a boat, but the Ark of the Covenant, the box,

that contained the Ten Commandments that were from Mount Sinai,

that contained Aaron's rod which budded, that contained a jar of manna that

was placed in there, that signified the presence of God,

with the lid on top ornately gilded to look like angels.

When we think about the Ark of the.

Wherever it was, was a sacred place, and so it was brought to Mount Zion, and that was sacred.

Later on, Mount Zion was expanded to include Mount Moriah, which is a whole

other mountain we're not talking about today.

And when Solomon built his beautiful temple, and the Ark of the Covenant was

moved there, that became a sacred place, and that was included as part of Mount Zion.

And both of these passages, excuse me, both these mountains that are in this

passage we're talking about.

We know that they are spiritually significant, not just to the Hebrews,

who are the first readers and hearers of this letter, but to us today,

because it represents something in our life.

When we think about it, there's four things I'm going to share with you today,

and I just want us to look at why one of them is the better mountain and not the other one.

And so let's start with the first one, because it's Mount Sinai that shows us a problem.

When we look again at verses 18 through 21, we can see something scary.

I mean, Halloween is coming pretty soon. Scary movies will be on TV and the

classics and the jump scares and all that kind of thing. But there was nothing

more terrifying than the scene, I think, that unfolded at Mount Sinai.

When you hear how it's described, take this in for a moment.

The scene is one of fire, a raging fire.

Unfortunately, in this neck of the woods of our beautiful country,

we know what wildfire looks like, and it can be scary at times.

It could be destructive at times. But here there was a fire.

We're talking about darkness.

We're talking about a storm that was just raging. We're talking about a trumpet

blast. Who blew that horn?

But there was a trumpet blast. There was a voice so terrifying that the people

begged not to hear it again, not to hear what was commanded.

You know what was commanded?

Hey, if any living thing touches this mountain, they're to be stoned,

they're to be killed, they're to be put to death.

Scary. Even Moses, okay, the guy who got the Ten Commandments from the Lord, even he was terrified.

I mean, this is the kind of scene that was unfolding, this scene of a holy God.

Touching a place where unholy people dwelt.

Now you're like, wait a minute, Mike, those were God's people.

Yeah, they were, but guess what?

They needed the Ten Commandments because they weren't following what God wanted

them to do. So there was a reason why they were there.

See, Sinai, the mountain itself, the place itself was not evil,

and the law was not the problem, those Ten Commandments that were given.

But Sinai revealed something true. It ripped back the curtain to show us that

God is holy and that sin is serious.

Too many times we just see sin just talked about so flippantly.

That's just common. It's just ordinary. Everybody does it.

And we see God brought down to that as well. But we've got to remember that

God is holy, that there exists no sin within God.

See, Sinai made something else clear, and that is distance.

He told his people that to keep their distance, boundaries were set up so that

people would not go near to the mountain. They were set around the mountain.

The message was unmistakable. Sinful people cannot just walk casually into the presence of God. Hey.

This time, they could not do that. It was a place reserved for a holy God.

So we've got to be cautious. We've got to be careful.

God is holy. His presence is sacred.

See, Sinai is the place where we learn that God is not manageable.

We can't contain the raging holy fire that God is.

God is not just casual, and God is not created in our image.

God is altogether separate from who we are. Sinai confronts the illusion that

we can fix ourselves, that we can impress God, and that we can earn our way into his presence.

The account at Sinai says, uh-uh, that's not going to happen.

See, what the law that was given can do, and we've talked about this before,

Or it can expose the disease, but it cannot heal it.

It could show us that we're guilty, but it cannot remove that guilt.

It can show us we're wrong and sinful, but the law itself cannot make atonement for us.

You know, some Christians, maybe some of you here today, you're kind of living

with that Sinai mindset.

God is so distant, I can never know him.

God is probably very disappointed in me because I know about my sin.

I know about my thoughts. I know about my behaviors. Some of you might be thinking,

well, I got to clean myself up before I approach this God, because after all,

Pastor Mike just said God is holy. There is no sin in his presence.

Some of you might be thinking, well, if I fall again, God's finally finished with me.

Boom, lightning comes down, and that's history. I'm history. That's it.

Some might think here this morning, I just got to work harder so God will accept me.

That's a Sinai mindset, because if we have that, often we fail to believe and

to believe in what Christ has accomplished for his people.

So Christian, if you have that in your mind today, that's not where God wants you to stay.

As a matter of fact, Mount Sinai is not where Jesus leaves his people.

Mount Sinai is important because we have to realize what sin does for us is

separate us from a holy God.

That sin is serious and sin must be taken care of. But it's something we can't

take care of on ourself. We need to trust a Savior.

And that's where Jesus comes in.

Jesus doesn't want to leave us terrified in fear before a holy God because of our sin.

Jesus wants to take us to a better mountain. And so that's what the scripture

says next when you look at verse 22.

But you have come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God.

Zion announces the gift.

Jesus, we have come near. Man, can you see this contrast?

Don't come near Mount Sinai. Moses did not want his people to die.

He set up boundaries. Do not cross this line.

But in Jesus, he says, come on, come on, come near.

The scripture says, we have come near through Jesus. Notice the tense.

It doesn't say, one day, if you perform at your best.

Then you're going to earn your right to come to Zion. That's not what the Scripture says.

It says, you have come. It's the present reality of every single believer in

Jesus Christ who has trusted Jesus to forgive their sin.

If Jesus has taken care of your sin, you're welcome to come.

Come on, draw closer. Through Christ, we are already included in the worshiping

of heavenly a people of God.

I mean, think about it. We hear the illusion. We hear what happens in Scripture.

When one comes to Christ, it's like there's a party in heaven,

right? The angels rejoicing. Well, guess what? We get to join in that party.

Woo-hoo! When someone comes to faith in Christ, their sins are forgiven.

They're made whole and made pure.

Well, we get to party with the angels.

I don't know if that's a West Coast kind of party or not, but I do know it's

pretty awesome because as we read through the Scripture, we see how Zion is

described, not just as a mountain in Jerusalem,

but when we take it figuratively and we expand that out, Zion is something eternal.

It's the city of the living God. Yeah, that's where Jesus is.

That's where God is. It's the heavenly Jerusalem.

It says there are uncountable or innumerable angels there gathering together with festivity.

And they're there, they're partying, they're happy, they're worshiping.

It is the assembly of the firstborn.

All of those, not just firstborns like birth order, if that was true, yes, I'm still in.

But it's the assembly of all those who Jesus, the firstborn among the brethren.

He's saying, come on, y'all, you're part of this. The spirit of the righteous made perfect.

It's the dwelling place of God himself.

You're invited to come and be part of that, not to stay away terrified, fearful.

But once you've settled that account with God through Jesus, you're welcome to come.

Come on, your debt's been paid. Not just has your debt been paid,

but you've been given a status as family, the firstborn.

This section here of our scripture today, it's not just a lonely mountain of warning as Sinai was.

It's a gathered people. It's a heavenly celebration.

Your part in Christ of a family with their names recorded in heaven.

And we sang this morning that incredible song, the Revelation song.

Just gives me chills every time I sing that song. To imagine the angels around

the throne of God saying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.

You're welcomed into that.

Getting chills now, even though I'm preaching and thinking about this.

It's powerful that you're welcome to come to the better mountain, Mount Zion.

But it can only happen through Christ.

You see, as believers in Jesus, we belong here at Mount Zion.

Sinai says, keep your distance, stay back. Zion says you belong here because

Jesus brought you. Amen?

VIP access, baby.

Only in Jesus. Sinai is the mountain of separation, the separation of the holy from the unholy.

But Zion is the mountain of welcome because that which was unholy has been made

holy by what Jesus Christ has done.

That should blow your mind. Every single sinner in here, myself included,

knowing what Jesus has done to take an unholy person.

To take them in their life, to declare them as holy before the Father,

while He works on them, continues to work on them and in them, is powerful.

See, Hebrews doesn't put down that God is still the judge of all. Guess what? He is.

It doesn't poo-poo that notion.

It doesn't mean that God has lowered His standards so that we could come,

that God is somehow less holy or less just.

It just means that the judge has provided a mediator who has taken care of our case once and for all.

We don't come to Zion because God lowered his standard. We come because Jesus

fulfilled what we could not fulfill.

Jesus carried what we could not carry, and Jesus opened the access to what we

could not access on our own.

That is why in Christ, the confidence of every single one of a believer is not

self-confidence, but it's Christ confidence.

So are you confident in Jesus today?

Are you trusting in him today and what he's done for you?

We have confidence in Christ because of my third point here today.

And what the text brings out is that Jesus speaks the better word in verse 24.

At the center of Zion is not our effort, our record, our religious commitment.

At the center of it is Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant,

of a new deal, the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood

of Abel, as the scripture says.

See, Abel's blood was shed by Cain, and that demanded justice and condemnation.

Now, some weeks ago, I got Cain and Abel mixed up, and I somehow brought someone

else in, so let me correct the record, if I may.

We look back at Cain and Abel, the first children of Adam and Eve, the brothers there.

We know that Cain was not the hunter, all right? That was Nimrod for the record here.

But we know that Cain was a farmer.

We know that Abel was a shepherd. And we know that they both brought offerings to God.

God accepted Abel's offer because Abel gave the best, his first fruit.

He gave the best of his flocks to the Lord.

We know that Cain just maybe brought his leftovers to God.

After everything else, well, what do I got laying around? I got to bring an

offering. And so he brought that.

And we know that there was bitterness in the heart of Cain, so much so that

he struck and killed his brother Abel, straight out murdered him,

the first murder recorded in the Bible.

Because of Abel's blood that was spilled out, the image is that it cried out

for justice, cried out to condemn Cain.

But that's not where we leave it, because we know that Jesus also spilled his blood.

Jesus' blood speaks not for revenge. Jesus' blood speaks not like Abel's for

justice, for attention to the sin, attention to the one who had done the wrong.

But Jesus' blood speaks a better word.

Jesus' blood speaks that sin does matter, that justice does matter.

But we also see that Jesus bore sin's judgment himself and opened the way for

sinners to be forgiven, to be

reconciled. That means brought back together with God and to be made new.

Now, I know forgiveness is difficult. Reconciliation seems impossible in some situations,

but there's no more difficult or seemingly impossible situation than people

that were separated from God, that were in need of a Savior,

that could do nothing to make peace with God. But Jesus' blood did that.

You see, Jesus' blood that was shed, it fulfills justice and it brings forgiveness to us.

The blood of Jesus says this, your sin is real, but grace is greater.

You are guilty, but Christ has borne your guilt.

You are far away, but you have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

You were God's enemy, but now you can be reconciled to God.

You do not have to earn your place. You receive your place through Christ.

Jesus' blood speaks mercy because Jesus took the final judgment that you deserved.

Jesus bore your punishment on the cross. Jesus died in your place.

So I want you to understand this. Mercy is not cheap.

Grace is very costly. Mercy and grace that was shown to you and to me,

it cost Jesus, the Son of God, his life.

And so it's something that we don't take lightly.

But we have this encouragement. We began our worship service with this in Romans 8.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,

for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.

In other words, Jesus has brought you from Mount Sinai and the judgment that

was due there, and he's taken you full on to the presence of God in Mount Zion.

There's no more condemnation if you are in Christ Jesus. Are you in Christ Jesus today?

You are set free. So what do you do with that freedom?

Well, we reverse a little bit in our passage, go back to the beginning in verse 14 of Hebrews 12.

And what we do with this freedom is we live like you belong at Mount Zion.

You live like you're a local. Those of you that have moved from California recently,

you know what I'm talking about.

You no longer live as a californian now you are an idahoan and i hope you've

already changed your license plates.

The first thing they said when we moved to mccall mike change your license plate,

yes sir i get it i still had my old idaho license plate but they weren't legal to put back on.

We've got to start living like we belong in Mount Zion, like we belong in the

presence of God, like we're locals.

And again, when you look through verse 14 all the way down through 17,

it gives us four ways to live like you're living at Mount Zion.

The first one is to pursue peace.

People who know that they've been reconciled to God become people who pursue

reconciliation with others. You want peace.

You want there to be that peace in your relationships here, with your family,

with your friends, at work, in your neighborhood, because you've received a

great gift of salvation from God that you didn't deserve.

Zion people do not fuel division. They don't hold grudges. They don't make conflict their identity.

They take peace seriously because they belong to the prince of peace.

So ask yourself this question this morning. Is there someone I need to pursue?

Not win an argument with, but is there someone that you need to make peace with?

As a person of peace, following the prince of peace, do all you can to live at peace.

A second thing it says is to pursue holiness, chase after holiness.

Now, understand what holiness is. It's not anxious rule-keeping designed to make God love us.

But what holiness is, it's the Spirit-empowered response to.

Of how he's working within you already, of the people God already loves.

I would reference here for further study, go read up on the fruit of the Spirit,

because that's what holiness is all about.

As you're living with God, as you're in God's presence, as you're living out

what it means to be the person that God has created you to be,

there's going to be more love in your life.

There's going to be more peace in your life, though it might not seem like it all the time.

It might be raging on the outside in the world, but you will be at peace because,

you are there with God and the Spirit is working within you.

Love, there's going to be lots more joy in your life. That happiness,

that's not just circumstantial or momentary, but that sense of joy,

of happiness that lasts long.

There's going to be that patience in your life. I mean, we could go down through

all the fruit and see that we are pursuing holiness when that shows up in our

life. God is working on us.

We don't pursue holiness to get into the family. We don't wear a tie.

We don't dress up on Sunday. We don't say the right Christian words so that

we're accepted by a holy God.

God already accepts us through Jesus.

Holiness is not the price of belonging. Holiness, again, it's the fruit of belonging.

And so are you letting the Holy Spirit work in you, move you along in your life?

All right, the third way that we live like we belong in Zion is we've got to

pull up bitterness roots early, those roots of bitterness.

I'm talking the Cain and Abel kind of roots of bitterness.

Bitterness, it never stays contained to just one little area of your life toward one person.

It starts as a private wound, but it grows into a root, like a tap root that's

way down there, that affects your marriage.

It affects your friendships. It affects your families. It affects your church.

And it can infect whole communities.

Now, there's some goat heads, puncture vines, in my alleyway.

I've worked all summer to keep them stinking things out.

But I went out after the nice cool temperatures we had and things had taken

over my side of the alley and them boogers were way down there,

and they just they just were a little bit down there their tap roots were long,

how long of that little thing been in there growing putting down its root just

to pop up on a nice cool day and then just bloom,

I think we got them all I'll tell Noah to go out there and walk barefoot and

make sure we got them all. He won't do that.

You know, when kids grow up, they learn how not to do some things.

It's funny while you watch it, though. All right, I'm in trouble now.

You see, we can't let bitterness go deep into our hearts.

Someone may have said something wrong to you one Sunday. Now,

every time you think about that person, you just can't get out of your mind what they said to you.

It may have hurt you. To them, it may not have hurt. They don't even know about

it. They don't know that it hurts you or that they said anything wrong.

But if we don't take care of that right away, that root grows,

and pretty soon we have hatred toward that person, especially if we don't go

to them and say, hey, you know, when you said this, it made me feel like this,

and that really hurt my feelings.

The general response will be, oh man, I'm so sorry.

Here's what was going on in my life that day, and I should never have said that.

There's a chance for reconciliation if we will go to people that have said something that has hurt us.

But when we don't, we give the devil a foothold to work and to try to stir up

dissension amongst his church to try to put that bitterness in your heart.

Hey, I love it when people come to church because they come and we get to meet them.

We get to know about them. They're here for a while, but sometimes they just

kind of trickle out and you don't see them again.

And sometimes it's because a little root of bitterness has gotten in there and

there wasn't reconciliation by something.

Now, there's good reasons why people go, good reasons why people come.

But we've got to make sure, and that's why I'm hammering this point today,

pull up bitterness early before those tap roots set down and begin to rule our

lives and ruin our lives.

Here's what Zion people do.

They take their pain to Jesus before it becomes a poison toward other people.

Is there something today you need to lay at the foot of Jesus, at the feet of Jesus,

to say, God, I've been stewing over this far too long And I just need you to

take it I need there to be peace in my life again,

What disappointment What offense What unresolved hurt Have you allowed to take

root in your heart That you know today.

Let God weed that out. Let God get rid of that. You see, the final point this

morning, as we live like people of Zion, is this, the fourth way.

Guard your inheritance.

This references Jacob and Esau. Esau traded something because he was hungry,

something that was lasting and would have an effect down to the generations.

Because he wanted that bowl of stew, because he was hungry, he exchanged it by Jacob, the deceiver.

He exchanged his future blessing because of his present appetite.

In essence, forget all of my future kids and grandkids and so on down the line.

I'm hungry and I want that stew right now.

Yes, you can have my birthright here. Consider it yours.

We make similar trade-offs whenever we sacrifice faithfulness,

integrity, purity, family, health, spiritual life for temporary relief temporary

comfort temporary approval or temporary pleasure,

so we can't put esau down too much because we've kind of done the same things

i think in our life at times we've sold out for something that's here and now

in temporary rather than looking down the road as to what is eternal.

Zion people remember what god has given us in christ is too valuable may I even say too sacred,

to exchange for something that will not last.

Boy, we've got to guard that inheritance. What you have, you didn't earn. It's been given to you.

And it's something amazing, something incredible, something that you can even experience now.

It's not like the headlines going around now, a bunch of baby boomers saying

that they are spending their kids' inheritance now.

I kind of look at that and laugh and say, my parents already spent my inheritance a long time ago.

We have nothing to fear when our inheritance rests in heaven with God, with Jesus.

So in conclusion this morning, I just want to say, stay on the better mountain.

Dwell on the better mountain.

The question is not how hard have I worked to earn my way up the mountain,

but which mountain am I living from?

Am I living from Mount Sinai? The mountain that said, stay back,

do not approach, prove yourself.

You're defined by your failure. Hide from God. Try harder so that you will really belong.

Am I trying to dwell there? That doesn't sound like a very fun place to be.

Or am I dwelling in Mount Zion with the reality that says, come near through Jesus.

Receive what Christ has done. You are welcomed by grace.

Draw near to God. You belong in Christ. Now live as he is.

You've come to a better mountain. The cool thing about it, you didn't have to

hike here. Jesus has brought you here.

No sweat of the brow, no scary cliffs to fall over.

No, Jesus has brought you to Zion. If you've trusted him, you've come because

Jesus is the mediator of a new covenant, a better covenant.

His blood speaks a better word.

And so I want to offer you this invitation today.

Some of us here, we have trusted Christ, but we're still living like God is

waiting to push us away or that God is waiting to punish us.

We pray cautiously. We worship nervously.

We carry guilt that Jesus has already carried for us.

I don't know why we keep taking it back, but today I want you to hear again

the words of Jesus, you can come near. Lay down that guilt.

Lay down that performance. Lay down the heavy weight that you're carrying,

because Jesus is already carrying it.

I've got to tell you, I believe that some of us.

We've treated grace as something that's just casual. We've held on to bitterness.

We've compromised with sin. We've traded sometimes our eternal inheritance for

temporary satisfaction.

Zion, when you're there, it's not permission just to drift away from God.

Zion's an invitation to live as God's redeemed people. And that's what I call you to today.

Live as those that have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.

Who've been bought back from sin and all that garbage.

Come out of that fearful distance. Come into joyful presence of God.

Come near to God through Jesus.

And so ask yourself this week, here's a little action point for you.

Am I relating to God as if I'm still at Sinai, trying to earn,

trying to hide, trying to prove myself?

What would it look like right now to live from Zion, to receive from Jesus a

better word of forgiveness and welcome?

Have you received Christ's forgiveness?

Have you asked him to forgive your sin? And as you go through this week,

write down one area of your life where you're living in fear,

you're living in condemnation.

And next to that, write down one of these promises, one of these blessings from living in Zion.

Man, maybe it's this from verse 22. You've come to thousands upon thousands

of angels and joyful assembly.

You're not over here having a pity party.

Poor me. Done it again.

That same sin just keeps coming. Poor me. Why can't I get over it?

Do you want to dwell there? Or do you want to party with the angels?

They'll say, glory, hallelujah, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.

I mean, where do we want to live?

So think of your life. What's one area you're struggling with?

Maybe it's a sin from the past and the guilt is just eating you up because you've

never given that guilt to Jesus. You can't go back and change what happened.

But maybe you can ask God to heal you by giving him over that guilt that you

don't need to carry in Jesus.

Jesus has forgiven you, he's forgiven you. That's gone.

Sometimes we live with the consequences that we've got to take care of.

Consequences don't always go away, but guess what? Jesus can help heal us from that stuff.

After you've written it down, you've looked at Hebrews 12, 22 through 24,

maybe just pray this simple prayer.

Lord, I'm not at Sinai anymore. Through Jesus, I have come to Zion.

I receive your forgiveness and am welcome today.

Maybe you're here this morning. You don't have a relationship with Jesus.

You've never asked him to take care of your sin. You're still living at Zion

because you know you're a sinner.

You know you have violated the Ten Commandments. You've either lied.

I mean, you go down the whole Ten Commandments. All of us have broken those,

this guy up here included.

Scripture says that all of us sin. None of us is righteous.

For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We've fallen short of what God expects.

If you're here today and you're like that, you're still at Zion,

still in your judgment for your sins, come to Jesus.

Pray a prayer like this. Ask Jesus to forgive you of your sin.

Have that godly contrition, that sorrow for sin in your heart.

I've blown it. Jesus will forgive you, but you've got to mean it with your heart.

You've got to confess it with your mouth.

Good thing that we have a Savior who will forgive, who will save us.

And so this morning, stop camping out at Sinai and live truly at Zion.

Your life will be blessed as a result.

Let's pray today. God, thank you for the opportunity to worship.

Lord, I know the hour is getting long and there's still some great missions

things we're going to support out there. But Lord, in this very moment,

would you speak to our hearts?

God, I pray that in this moment, would you let us know, are we living in Zion?

Are we living at Sinai still?

Lord, help us to know that we don't have to dwell at Sinai.

We don't have to dwell in the judgment and the condemnation.

But Jesus has opened the door and made a way for us to come quickly to Zion.

Lord, to dwell on the heavenly mountain, in the heavenly city.

To live as you want us to live now and to empower us to do so through your Holy Spirit.

And so, Lord, if there's someone here this morning that's never accepted Christ as their Savior,

I pray, Lord, that they would again pray this prayer, this prayer that we pray

together, God, that they would ask Jesus to come into their life,

that they would confess their sins, that they would confess you as Savior.

And, Lord, may they too know that they are welcomed in to that great city of Zion.

And Lord, for those in our congregation today who are struggling with sin,

I pray, God, that they realize they don't have to struggle with that anymore.

They can give that up, and God, they can begin to live through your Spirit,

partying with the angels, God, in Zion, being in the presence of God as holy people.

Father, be with us this morning as we close out our time together.

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 outline from today

on our church's website,

www.mvcnaz.org.

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