Sunday Morning Service 8:30 AM - Confidence in Christ ~ Hebrews 10:19-25 ~ Pastor Ryan Nichols

your Bibles to the book of Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. Where we stopped last week in chapter 10 ended the theological instruction. If you will, of the book of Hebrews and kind of from here on out, it gets very practical in nature. But as he has done, the writer to the Hebrews, as the writer to the Hebrews has done, oftentimes when he gives them instruction, he closes it sort of with a warning before he moves on. And that's

kind of what he does in this last half of chapter 10 is he gives a warning and really an exhortation. And so what I have entitled for the next two weeks to study is confidence in Christ, an exhortation and a warning. Because he has just spent so much time, not only in the last couple of chapters, but really in the entire book of Hebrews up to this point in time, instructing us on who Jesus is. We said that we gave the overarching theme of the book of Hebrews, but we see Jesus. And that's exactly what the writer to the Hebrews has done is he has presented Jesus

Christ to us in all of his glory and all of his majesty and all of his power and all of the grace that he gives to us in the finished work of Jesus Christ. And that's exactly what he has done. And so we have a whole chapter in the book of Hebrews that is so much better than the angelic realm, that is so much better than the law, that is so much better than Moses, that is better than the high priesthood of Aaron, that is better than the ministry of the Levitical priesthood. And he has presented the finished work of Jesus Christ with him seated at the right hand of the Father. And

so with everything that he has presented to us, he now calls us to be confident in who we are in Christ. And that confidence carries with it both an exhortation and a warning. An exhortation to stand boldly in the confidence that we have in Christ and a warning against falling away from the confidence that we have in Jesus. And so what we will look at in verses 19 through 25 is the exhortation. Starting off in verse 19, it says this,

Let us draw near with a sincere heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assumptions. And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assumptions.

As is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near. And so as he gives us this exhortation, there's two things he's going to tell us about. He's going to tell us about confidence and then the exhortation. And as he speaks to us about confidence, there's two things he's going to tell us about the confidence that we can have or where our confidence comes from. Number one, he's going to tell us our confidence comes from

our access. Number two, he's going to tell us where our confidence comes from our access. going to tell us that our confidence comes from Christ's advocacy. And so we start off with the access that we have that gives us confidence in Christ. He says, therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus Christ. Now, I think it's

important that he starts off with the word therefore, because therefore is always a linking word. And it links us not only to everything that he just talked about, as we've said already in the ministry of Christ, but ultimately everything that he's brought us to the point of in the book of Hebrews up to this point in time. Therefore, in light of who Jesus is, in light of what Jesus has done, and in light of how much greater Jesus is than all of the Levitical law and priesthood, therefore, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus Christ. It's interesting the way that he words this, because he says, since we have confidence.

That indicates something to us. That means that this is a fact, not something that is to be obtained. It's not so that you can have confidence. It's since we have confidence. That word's an important word. It means boldness and full freedom. It is a complete distinction to that of the Old Testament high priesthood and to that of the Old Testament believer in God. Because remember, the Old Testament follower of God,

the Old Testament follower of the law, did not have confidence. To enter the holy place. As a matter of fact, they had anything but confidence to enter the holy place. They were warned not to come near. They were warned not to draw near because the presence of God would ultimately evaporate them. If you don't believe me, ask a guy by the name of Uzzah. You see, back in the Old Testament, the children of Israel had carried the Ark of the

Covenant into battle one fateful day. And because they were trusting in the Ark and not truly the presence of God, not only were they defeated in battle, but ultimately, they were defeated in battle one fateful day. And because they were trusting in the Ark and not truly the presence of God, ultimately, the Ark of the Covenant was captured. Well, eventually, the Ark was returned to Israel, but not to Jerusalem, not to the place where the temple was. And so, after David had ultimately

brought victory to the nation, it was time to return the Ark of the Covenant to where it belonged. Only they didn't follow the law and what the law said. The law said that they were supposed to put these poles through the rings in the Ark of the Covenant, and it was to be carried on the poles because no one was to touch the Ark. Instead, what they did is they put it on the Ark of the Covenant. And so, they were supposed to put these poles through the rings in the Ark of

of the Covenant. And so, they were supposed to put these poles through the rings in the Ark of and the oxen were pulling it. And as the oxen were pulling the Ark of the Covenant, the representation of the presence of God amongst the people, the oxen stumbled and the cart began to rock, and a man by the name ofいうseve put out his hand to steady the Ark of the Covenant, and immediately he was struck dead. Why? Because there was no confidence to enter into the holy

place for an Old Testament follower of God, because sin had not been dealt with. it had only been covered for another year therefore in complete distinction to an old testament understanding of god who was far off from the people he says since we have confidence since we have boldness and full of freedom we can enter the holy place since we have this boldness to enter the holy place and how do we do so he tells us he tells us first of all that it is by the blood of jesus what what allows us the confidence that we have in order to enter into the holy place is it because i'm such a good person absolutely not that's proven over and over again by the actions thoughts and deeds that i have in my life is it because i have something

special to offer to god absolutely not after all anything that i have to offer to god was first gifted to me by god is it because of my pedigree because of my upbringing because of who my family is absolutely not because god is you you respecter of persons. So why can I have this confidence to enter into the holy place? Because of the blood of Jesus. Because Jesus has granted us life through his blood. You see, the high priest

would enter once a year, not only with a blood sacrifice for himself, but with a blood sacrifice for the nation of Israel. And that gave him a lack of confidence to enter into the holy place so that he could sprinkle it onto the mercy seat. But you and I are very different. You and I are very different from that because we have the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross that grants to us confidence because it grants to us life in order to enter into the holy place.

It's fascinating to take a look at what blood does for the life of a human being. It's interesting to know the more science studies, the more they realize that when in the Old Testament it says the life is in the blood, that that's actually one of the truest statements you can imagine. Because not only do we have the blood of Jesus, but we have the blood of Jesus Christ. Not only does the blood carry nutrients, it carries oxygen, it actually carries healing ability with it. I just read an article this week. As an athlete and one who is very injury

prone, I've always used the method, perhaps you've heard this before, when you sprain an ankle or you injure yourself, your doctor or your nurse or somebody will say, you just need to follow the RICE method. Rest, ice, compression, elevation. Now, do you know that they are now saying that that's actually not the best method for every injury? And here's why. The best thing that you can do for an injury is to start to move it. And the reason

why it's so important to move is because lack of movement creates lack of blood flow, which prevents healing. Actually, the greatest thing that you can do is begin a process of movement because movement will increase blood flow because they know that as the blood flows to the injured area of your body, there is actually life and healing in that. If you don't believe me, ask someone else. Ask someone who has a knee replacement surgery and ask how long it takes for someone, for a physical therapist to come in and begin to work with them. I will tell you it's almost the same

day. And the reason why is because movement provides healing because movement increases blood flow and blood flow brings healing. Isn't it interesting that God has written into the code of our body that the life would flow through the blood? Why? Because he wanted us to know that the blood of Jesus Christ would ultimately bring life to us. If you have an area of your heart in your life that needs healing, you must apply the flow of the blood of Jesus.

Because that is what gives us confidence to enter into the holy place. Amen? And so, so he says we have this confidence to enter into the holy place, first of all, by the blood of Jesus. The second thing he tells us in verse 20 is this confidence comes by a new and a living life. That word new is a very interesting word because that new, that word new carries with it the idea

of fresh or a freshness. But really in the Greek, what that word new can ultimately be stated as is freshly slain. Isn't that fascinating? That's the word that the writer to the Hebrews chose to use when he talked about the way that enters, that allows us to enter into the presence of God through a freshly slain yet living life. Now, that tells us something about the sacrifice of Jesus. Even though it took place 2,000 years ago,

its work is as fresh as it was the day that it happened. That work is always fresh in our life. And yet that work is a living work because Jesus is not a sacrifice on a cross. Jesus is a living Savior who ever lives to make intercession for us. You see, he has given us confidence, first of all, by the blood of Jesus, second of all, by the sacrifice of Jesus, and then by the

life of Jesus. Notice what it says next, which he inaugurated for us through the veil that is his flesh, which he inaugurated for us through the veil that is his flesh. It's interesting because Jesus is not only our entrance into the veil, but he is the veil himself that was torn for us. It feels like an, it feels like an, odd thing. Was Jesus the veil that prevented us from knowing God? No, he is our entrance into the

holy place. And yet in the same way that the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, Jesus's body was torn for us so that we could enter into the holy place by a new and a living way inaugurated through the veil of his flesh. Brothers and sisters, we can have confidence. The second thing he tells us about this confidence is not only do we have access, but we have advocacy. Notice what it says in verse 21. And since we have a great priest over the house of

God, literally that could be translated a great high priest over the house of God. Remember we talked about the ministry of the high priest a few weeks ago. It might have even been two or three months ago. So I'm sure your brain doesn't totally remember that. But it's a great high priest over the house of God. Remember all that. So let me walk through this again. The ministry of the high

priest was, was twofold. Number one, the high priest represented God to the people. He was that representation of God to the people because he was the one who, who, uh, who would show them and teach them and, and lead them into the holiness of God. He was the one who represented God to the people. But, but in this instance, and in this context, as it says that Jesus is our high priest,

he also represented the people to God. He represented the people to God. And it's interesting when you look at the garments of the high priest, there's two things that I would like to point out to you. First of all, there were two precious jewels that were on the shoulders of his garment. And on each of those two precious jewels, there was something inscribed on each of those was written on one side, six

tribes of the nation of Israel on the other side, the other six tribes of the nation of Israel. And that was representative of something that was representative of the people of God. And that was representative of the fact that the high priest bore the burden of the nation of Israel before God. And so, so when he went into that most holy place, it's like he was carrying the nation with him because he was the representative of the people to God. And so as he went into that holy

place, it was with the burden of the nation upon him. But there was a second thing that he had on him. He had a, a breastplate on him that had 12 precious stones all over it. And on each of those was written a name of the tribe of the nation of Israel. So that all 12 tribes were represented on the breastplate of what the high priest wore into the most holy place. Why? Because not only

did he bear them on his shoulders, but he held them close to his heart. And he carried the nation into the holy place, thus vicariously making the sacrifice for the entire nation. And yet we, have a great high priest who did not just carry the names of the 12 tribes of the nation of Israel, but he bore the sin of the world upon his shoulder. He bore all of that in the holy place for us. And

not only did he go into the holy place with the names of the 12 tribes of the nation of Israel close to his heart, he went into the holy place with your name engraved upon his heart. And now you really begin to understand. Why that not only late and young Jesus, like Christ used to read in the New Testament in the land of Jerusalem, but when the text lâops became better and better and just before he was born, he borrowed into the holy land of Israel that the house of Moses. Now when he was born on the third birthday day of his father, he had the house of Moses owned by the church for his own money to get twenty cents of the Ruperi culture. It came as much as

one language of Jesus, He said to his children. And he hadn't posited the house in a public开 would say the best thing that you can do when you are accused before the father is embrace the accusation and find your confidence in the advocacy of christ because your defense lawyer says just say guilty i've got you covered from here because we have this advocacy before the father and that advocacy gives us great confidence you see no one can harm the believer in jesus christ you can't take our treasure because our treasure is in heaven you can't take my life because my life is hidden with god in christ you can't take my friends and family because jesus sticks closer than a brother i have great confidence that there's nothing that you can take from me

because everything that i need is found in christ and so i have this access to god and i have this advocacy before the father therefore there's something that we need to do as a matter of fact there's three things that we would need to do there's three let us that's so dangerous word to use right now, isn't it? I should have named this title, three better heads of lettuce, right? Three non-dangerous heads of lettuce. There are three things that he's going to say, let us do in light of the confidence that we have in Christ. And I'm just going to tell you right

now, as I move on, if you're lacking that confidence in Christ, it's time for you to start praying, Lord, show me the access and show me the advocacy that I can have before you. Because it's one thing for me to say it to you. It's one thing for this to be written to you, but it's a whole other thing for the Holy Spirit to make it real in your heart and in your life. It's a whole other thing for the Holy Spirit to write this truth on your heart to where it's now nothing, not something that anyone can take away from you. You see, I can speak with passion

because the Holy Spirit's written on my heart. It's not just because I studied it, not just because I read some Greek words and looked up the meanings to them, but because the Holy Spirit has made me confident in who I am in Christ. And that confidence brings me, great passion into my life. And if you don't have those two things, then it's either A, time to surrender your life to Jesus, or B, time for you to pray that God would give you that confidence in him. And in light of the confidence that he has, there's three things he's going to

tell us to do. Number one, he says, let us draw near. Let us draw near. I want you to notice what it says in verse 22. Let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled cleanly. From an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. He says, let us draw near. That phrase, draw near, means to approach or to go right into the presence. You see, knowing that we

have bold, confident access to the Father is not the same as accessing that bold confidence to the Father, right? You still have to live that out every single day. Can you imagine, if you will, so I saw some pictures of some people that went and saw Forrest Frank this weekend. Oh man, that would have been a great concert. I'd love that, right? It'd been so much fun to go see him. We couldn't afford the

tickets, and so we didn't end up going. But we saw, we looked, we tried. But can you imagine, somebody gives me these tickets. They're like, not only are there tickets to go see Forrest Frank, but there's actually backstage passes for you to go hang out with him ahead of time. And they give me these tickets, and I go, wow, I have access. And I have confidence in my access

because this ticket is legit. It's real. And yet, I have these tickets, and I walk around with them, and I walk around for the rest of my life with these tickets. And I never took advantage of them because I never actually went to the concert. But every day I tell everybody, look at this confidence, look at this access that I have. That would be the dumbest thing in the world, right?

Brothers and sisters, you're holding tickets, and you're not going. We're holding tickets to someone who is so much greater, and yet we're not going in. He says, since we have this confidence, and since we have this access, and since we have this advocacy, let us draw near. Let us go right into the presence. Brothers and sisters, this is our daily activity of life. Our daily activity should be to enter into the presence of God.

Ryan, you don't understand my schedule. I don't have time to really just, sit down and for an hour or two pray and go into the presence of God. Then you don't understand the access that you have. The access that you have is not locational in nature. The access that you have does not mean that you have to say, dear God, and go into prayer. The access that you have is daily.

That means that whatever you're doing, you can access the presence of God in that moment. Do you know that? Do you know that every moment of your life, you have access directly to the throne room of God? Because you don't have to go into the presence of God. You don't have to go into the presence of God. That's the place that we should live, not just the place that we visit. As I've

said before, you should wake up in the morning and say, dear God, and you should go to bed at night and say, amen. And all day should be spent accessing the presence of God. I loved when I was a groundskeeper. And part of the reason why I loved when I was a groundskeeper is because when you're on the mower, people can't talk to you and you can sing as loud as you want. No one hears. Testify, right?

Testify. I love that because to me, my time on the mower taught me something. There is no such thing as non-sacred work. I can have my entire life be sacred in the way that I handle it if I decide that everywhere I go is my sanctuary. If I decide that everywhere I go, I'm already in the presence of God. Therefore, I should access the boldness that I have to get into that presence of God

and make every day a part of that in my life. I shared with you that when, when I worked construction the very, the summer before I moved down here, seven days a week around a lot of filthy language all the time. And, and it's the most I've struggled in my entire walk with Jesus with letting words out of my mouth that Jesus doesn't like. And I realized something. I realized I needed to turn my workplace into a sanctuary.

And so this is what I did. I worked off the side of the building for about two weeks. I had to take all the siding off of this entire school. And so, so every day I'm on a lift wearing a harness and a harness. And I decided what I was going to do is I was going to either listen to Bible teaching or I was going to listen to praise music. And I didn't care who was working with me. If they were upset,

they were going to have to deal with it. And nobody ever gave me a hard time for it, but that's what I did. And so Sunday morning when I was working, I turned on some Bible teaching and then I'd turn on some worship after that. And I turned the side of the building into my sanctuary because I realized if I didn't make my every day, my sanctuary, then I was going to have a hard time. And so I decided what I was going to do is I was going to

going to end up stumbling into the mire of the people that were around me. You can do that no matter where you are, no matter what your workplace is, no matter what you're doing. You can turn wherever you are into your sanctuary because going boldly to the presence of God is not locational in nature. It's everywhere because the holy place is where you access who God is. It's where you

access that communion that you have with the Lord. And so whatever you're doing, you can have communion with Jesus. I'm not saying you shouldn't have a prayer time. I absolutely think that you should. I'm saying that your prayer time shouldn't end when you leave your house in the morning. He says, let us, let us draw near. Let us, let us approach. Let us go right into the presence

of God, no matter the circumstances that we're living in. But he tells us how we're to do it. Number one, we're to have a sincere heart, a sincere heart. That word sincere means true or genuine, real, not counterfeit. True or genuine, real, not counterfeit. You know what that means? Jesus wants the reality of who you are. Jesus wants the authenticity of who you are. You know what the biggest problem we have as Christians is? We have a tendency to be

hypocrites. Now, I hear this all the time. You know, Ryan, I don't want to go to church. It's full of hypocrites, and I like to say, I don't want to go to church. I don't want to go to church. I don't want to go to church. I don't want to go to church. I don't want to go to church. I don't want to go to church. I don't want to go to church. I don't want to go to church. I don't want to go to church. I don't want to go to church.

I don't want to go to church. I don't want to go to church. I don't want to go to church. I don't want to go to church. I don't want to go to church. I don't want to go to church. I don't want to go to church. I don't want to go to church. I don't want to go to church. I don't want to go to church. I don't want to go to church. I don't want to go to church.

well, there's always room for one more. You should join us. Because that's what we all are, right? We're all a bunch of hypocrites. I've shared this before. It's an old joke, so please bear with me. But really, church should just be called Hypocrites Anonymous. We'll just call it HA, right? That's what we are. Because we're all just recovering hypocrites. That's why Jesus is like, approach with a true heart.

Jesus wants you to bring the reality of who you are. Jesus wants you to bring the realness of everything going on in your life. He just wants all of your heart, and He can deal with everything else beyond that. He can start changing all of the other things. But He wants a real heart that wants to communicate with Him. When I take couples that I'm working with through premarital counseling,

we come to the part of communication, and I say, okay, communication has three parts to it. You may know this already. Communication has three. It has three parts. There's content. That's what you say. There's tone. That's how you say it. And there's nonverbal. That's what you're doing while you're saying it, right? And what you find is your content is worth about 7%.

Your tone and your nonverbal are worth a whole lot more than that, right? You know what that means? That means that what you say is not nearly as important as how you say it. And the example that they use in my old school Before You Say I Do book that's from about 1985 is if your husband turns on a television show. And, of course, now we know that that's not the biggest distractor of couples.

What's the biggest distractor of couples? Go ahead and shout it out. It's your phone, right? Because every couple wants to have a conversation like this while they're scrolling their phone. And we've all been in a conversation with someone like that. Someone's probably been in a conversation with you like that. And you know what that tells the person in that moment?

It tells them what you have to say is not nearly as important as what their phone has to say. Now, let's apply that to our relationship with Jesus Christ. I saw this thing. I follow this guy named Tim Wildsmith, and he does all these Bible reviews, and he makes these funny things. And it said, how many times have you been distracted by your phone while you're reading your Bible?

And all I could think was, well, right now is one of them. You know? But how many of us do that with Jesus? Like, we're thinking about it. We're thinking about a million other things in the world. We're not really giving Him our heart. We're not really giving Him our attention. And we wonder why Jesus doesn't speak to us. Why don't I ever hear from Jesus? Same reason you don't ever hear from LeBron James.

You're not really talking to Him, right? I mean, at some point in time, you go, why don't I hear from LeBron James? Well, I don't ever call him. Well, same reason you're not hearing from Jesus. Maybe it's because you don't have the focus that you need. That's why he says, draw near, first of all, with a sincere... Sincere heart. Interestingly enough, in Matthew 5, verse 8,

Jesus, in giving the Sermon on the Mount, gives His beatitudes. He says, blessed are the pure in heart. That word pure means undivided. Blessed are the undivided in heart, for they shall see God. That's the idea of a sincere heart. The second thing He tells us that we need to do when we draw near to the Lord is we need to draw near in full assurance of faith.

In full assurance of faith. In other words, come boldly knowing that Jesus is the only way. Be fully assured of what you believe. Now, before we get too worked up on this, we go, oh, great. You mean I have to have enough faith to draw near to Jesus? I was just reading Mark this week. And in the Gospel of Mark, it's the story of the man who asks Jesus to heal his daughter.

Jesus looks at him and says, anything is possible to him who believes. Here's this man who is drawing near with full assurance of faith. He looks at him and says, He looks at him and says, He looks at him and says, He looks at Jesus and he says, I believe. Could you help my unbelief? And sometimes that is full assurance of faith. Lord, I believe, but help my unbelief.

And as we draw near, we go, Lord, there's still doubt in my mind, but I'm going to do the best I can to draw near to you. That's full assurance of faith. Because you know that even that, God can answer in your life. But the third thing He tells us that we need to draw near to God is a heart that is sprinkled clean and a body that is washed. Washed from impurity.

A heart that is sprinkled clean and a body that is washed from impurity. It's interesting because He uses Levitical language here. You see, when someone was to become a priest, there were two things that were done for them. First of all, a sacrifice was made and literally they were sprinkled with the blood of the sacrifice, thus cleansing their sin. But the second thing that would happen

is they would be stripped down and they would be washed clean. And then they were fit to be someone who would go into the temple to minister for God. And so He applies that Levitical language now to us who would draw near to the holy place to worship God. First of all, our hearts need to be sprinkled clean from an impure conscience. That's the work of the blood of Jesus Christ.

It was done once for all, but there is still the aspect of when something comes between me and the Lord, I confess it to Him and the blood of Jesus Christ continually cleanses me from sin. But the second thing is that we are to be washed clean. Well, what does it mean to be washed clean? Well, I think there's twofold to that. First of all, I do think that this speaks

somewhat of baptism. I think baptism is a necessary step of obedience to take in the life of a believer. Because as we're told, and I believe it's 1 Peter, that baptism is an anti-type of Christ. And so it presents to us a perfect picture that Jesus fulfills for us because it's the outward, expression of an inward change that's taken place. And so it's the washing clean of the body.

But you know, we're told that there's something else that washes us and that is the word of God. In the book of Ephesians, we are told that we are to be washed with the water of the word. Therefore, if I am to draw near to God, not only do I deal with aspects of sin in my life, but there's a washing of God's word that is necessary if I am to continue to approach God. And so he tells us, first of all, in life, in light of the access and the advocacy that gives us confidence before the Father, number one, let us draw near.

Number two, he tells us, let us hold fast. Verse 23, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful. Let us hold fast. That phrase, hold fast means to seize and to hold tightly, to keep in firm possession or to retain a firm grip. I will once again give you a little bit of an illustration from my days as a wrestler.

Now, I don't understand anything about the way they do overtime now in wrestling because I've been out of it for too long. I went to a wrestling match a couple of years ago and I was like, I don't understand what's going on in overtime right now. A couple of the guys I wrestled with were like, we don't either, but let's tell you what we do know. You know, the way it used to work is if you made it into overtime in a wrestling match, you had a one minute period where the first person that got the takedown, they were the winner.

If there was still no winner by the end of that, then you went into sudden death and that was 30 seconds. And you had 30 seconds to do one of two things. They'd flip a coin. There's top position and bottom position. Bottom position wants to get out. Top position wants to hold them down. You had 30 seconds to do one of two things. You had 30 seconds to get out

and if you got out, you won. But if you held them down for 30 seconds, you were the winner. And so we used to practice these 30 second starts when we were in high school and coach would have us get into groups of two and so he'd blow the whistle and there's one thing that you had to do. You just had to hold on. 30 seconds. It didn't matter if all you held on to was an ankle.

As long as you held on, you won the match. And that's what I think of when I think of what he says here with hold fast your confidence. Confession. Retain a firm grip. Sometimes you are retaining a firm grip like a champion and nothing can get away from you. Sometimes you're just holding an ankle. Sometimes you're just holding on to anything that your hands can get

because you've got to just hold on. And that's what he's telling these Hebrew believers. That's what he's telling these Jewish believers who were facing the temptation of letting go because the persecution was too great. The temptation was too great. The pressure was too great. And it seemed easier. It seemed easier to just give up and leave it all behind. It seemed easier to just give up

and walk back to the law or walk back to the world because after all, following Jesus is hard sometimes. He says, but I want you to listen to something. You have great access to the Father. You have an advocate who is before the Father advocating for you every single day. Hold on tight. Retain a firm grip. On what? On your confession of faith. Again, sometimes you hold on to that firm grip

like a champion. Sometimes everything is great. Life is cruising smooth and you're holding on with all of the theology that you've heard in the world and everything is great. And somebody says, how are you doing? And you're like too blessed to be stressed, right? But then there's the other 364 days of the year where the only thing that you can do and the only thing sometimes that you have to hold on to

is, well, I know Jesus still loves me. And I'm being serious. Sometimes that's what you have to do to hold on to that confession of faith. You just have to keep holding on even though everything in the world tells you to let go. He says, maintain that grip on who you are in Christ. But then he tells us why or how we can do that because he who promised, is faithful.

He who promised is faithful. That word faithful means reliable, trustworthy, or faithful to his word. Reliable, trustworthy, and faithful to his word. Why do we continue to hold on tight, retain a firm grip on our confession of faith? Because Jesus has never failed anyone yet. There was a song that, before Jars of Clay really went crazy and started getting super liberal and all their stuff,

they had this great song on probably an album that was leading that way, but it was a great song and it was just a simple little chorus. Jesus' blood has never failed me yet. This one thing I know, he loves me so. And there is something about singing that phrase over and over again that's a real faith builder in your life. When you start going, you know, Jesus' blood really has never failed me yet.

He says, you should hold on because Jesus is holding on to you. Continue to hold on to him because he's still got his grip on you. Because he who promised is faithful. He who promised is trustworthy to his word. Now, how do you continue to do that? I like to take statements like that and put shoe leather on them and make them walk. Well, I wrote down a couple of things that you need to do.

If you're going to hold on to the faithfulness of God in your confession of faith, the first thing that I think that you need to do is you need to read the stories of those who have gone before. You need to read the stories of those who have gone before. Sometimes that starts simply by reading your Bible. That's what all of Hebrews 11 is about, which we'll get to in a couple of weeks, three weeks.

Hebrews 11 is all about the stories of faith. And those are faith builders. They help you to hold on because you go, that guy went through the same stuff I'm going through. And Jesus didn't fail him. And he held on and did beautiful things in spite of his failures. I'm going to keep moving forward. But don't just stop with the Bible. Obviously, you know me.

I think this is the greatest thing in the world you can read. But there are wonderful stories of Christians that have gone before, Christian biographies, that I think that you should start reading. Start reading the stories of great men and women of God throughout history. Pick up a book by Corrie ten Boom about what she went through. In the Holocaust. Pick up a book about George Mueller.

Pick up a book about John Bunyan. Pick up a story of Charles Spurgeon and how he came to faith. Pick up some of these stories because as you read them, they're faith builders because you read and you're like, oh my gosh, look at what they went through. Look at what they had take place in their life. And God held them in his grip. Therefore, they held on to him because he who promised is faithful.

Second thing that I think that you need to do is you need to have conversations with each other. See, that's part of fellowship. We'll get to this in just a moment when he says, don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together. You need to talk to each other and share your stories of faith. That's why small groups are clutch for what we do in our lives. Because when you get together with a group of about five to ten people

and you can share your stories with each other in a manner in which you can really get in depth because you have the freedom to share things that have really gone on in your life, it's a faith builder for you. Because as you hear their story of what they went through, it builds the faith for what you're going through in the moment. When dad was going through cancer stuff, it was amazing for him to be able to talk to other people that had been through it before because they were able to share things with him. And now we are able to share things with other people that are going through the same battle because we've walked through it.

You see, those stories of faith are what help you maintain a firm grip on your confession of faith. But the third thing that I think that you need to do is you should spend time writing down your own stories. When you go through something and God brings you through it, you don't need to write a whole book about it, but you might write a paragraph about it because it's amazing what happens when you look back on some things that God has done and you're like, look at what he got me through. Look at how far he brought me.

And I'm still alive. I'm still here to tell the story. And since I'm still here to tell the story, I think God's probably going to keep doing his work in me because if he didn't fail me then, well, why is he going to fail me now? And so he says, not only are you to draw near with a sincere heart, but you are to hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering.

Why? Because he who promised is faithful. Therefore, build that faith muscle in your life. Not only are we to draw near, not only are we to hold fast, but number three, he says, and let us consider one another. Let us consider one another. Notice what it says in verse 24. And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some,

but encouraging one another and all the more, as you see the day drawing near. He says, and consider one another. The Amplified Bible translates this, consider one another thoughtfully. And I love this because it reminds us that when we show up to church on a Sunday morning, we're not the only ones sitting in this church on a Sunday morning, are we? You got a whole group of people sitting around you.

You ever considered each other? You ever considered one another? You know, I've shared this before, but every now and then, you ought to sit somewhere else in the sanctuary. You'll meet a whole new group of people. Now, the only problem is if all of you go sit over here next week and all of you go sit over here next week, that still won't, okay? So observe a little and go, I've never talked to those people over there.

I'm going to go sit with them. I've never talked to those people over there. I'm going to go sit with them. That's considering one another thoughtfully. But it's more than that. Considering one another thoughtfully means that when we show up, we are available. Availability does not just mean physically available, but it means spiritually and emotionally available

to the people that are around you. It means being willing to hear out the things going on and the people around you and to be willing to share the things that are going on with you. See, that's being available for each other. Too many times we show up to church and I'm like, well, I'm going to sit here, I'm going to sing these songs, I'm going to hear what the ball is going to say, what the guy has to say, and then I'm running out of here, right?

Got to get to the Sizzler first or wherever, but got to get to Pizza Ranch first. La Fiesta fills up fast. Whatever it is, that's what we tend to do, right? And we're not really available. No, you don't understand, I was there. No, but you weren't there. There were still people around you and you don't even know their names still. Well, if only we had a direct, oh, wait.

You know, I mean, there's still people that you don't know their names. And I had people say, well, you know, if we'd put up this directory that has people's pictures and names in it, then I think I would know everybody in the church. And we put out this directory and I don't know if that's true. Because we're not always available for each other. He says, therefore, let us consider one another thoughtfully

to do what? So that we can stimulate one another to love and to good deeds. That word stimulate means to stir up and to provoke. To provoke. Now listen, we're all good at provoking each other, right? But we're not talking about rage bait here, okay? That's not the provoking we're talking about. We're talking about stimulating each other to do good deeds. Encouraging each other to do good deeds.

I loved what Drew said last week when he came up and did announcements. I've been telling these guys that are coming up to do announcements, I want you guys to start doing this, even though I did it this morning. He's coming second service. I said, I want you guys to get up and do this because, A, I want people to meet who the leadership is. Not just here at the church, but also so that people know

you're available. And that's what he said. He said, listen, I want you to know, if you got something going on, we're available to help. If you need prayer, we're available for prayer. But listen, that goes beyond the church leadership. That's where it starts, but it finishes with all of you. Notice it doesn't say stir up the pastor to love and to good deeds.

It doesn't say stir up the elders to love and good deeds. It says to stir up one another to love and good deeds. That means that the work of the ministry is not relegated to the pastor and the elders. The work of the ministry is relegated to the body of Christ. And that work of the ministry is something that takes place starting on a Sunday morning and hopefully carrying through the rest of the week

to where you're continuing to check in on each other and to call each other and to pray for each other because that's stirring one another up to love and to good deeds. And then he goes on to say, not forsaking. Let me make sure I quote this correctly. Not forsaking our own assembling together as is the habit of some. I don't say it enough, but I'm so glad you all are here.

I'm so glad that everybody's here this morning because while we have this wonderful ability to watch online and I appreciated it while we were on vacation because I could be driving down the road, which is where I was. We were in Mississippi when I was listening to Jared teach two or three weeks ago. And it's wonderful that we can do that, but that should be the exception, not the rule. Because as wonderful as it is to be able to listen to your pastor online, that's not church.

That's a podcast. Church is us. Church is not the building. Church is the people that fill the building. When you all leave, this is a building. When you're here, it's the church. And we are not to forsake the assembling together of the brethren. Because it is so important. Why do we assemble? David Guzik wrote a handful of things down and I copied them because I thought they were really good.

Number one, we assemble to receive from God. Hopefully as we gather together, we are all receiving from the Lord together collectively. Not only do we gather to receive from God, but we gather to give to God. To give to God our hearts, our worship, our praise, our best. But not only do we gather to receive from God and to give to God, we gather to encourage each other through shared faith.

We gather to encourage each other through shared faith. And can I say that that encouragement both comes in the positive and the negative. It's positive in that we say, hey, keep going. And it's negative when we say, hey, what are you doing? I think that that word was for you. I think that that word was for you. Maybe the word was for both of us. Whatever it is,

but there's that mutual encouragement that we have for each other. We gather to bless one another. To bless one another not only with our presence, because believe it or not, your presence is a blessing to the people around you. But we gather to bless one another, hopefully with a word of encouragement, a prayer, some fellowship. And then last of all, we gather to work together.

You see, we all as the body of Christ are called to make disciples. I hope that as you show up here on a Sunday morning, you are encouraged to not only be more of a disciple, but then to go and make other disciples. That's why we gather together as the body. And he says, do not forsake the assembly together of the brethren as some have done. What was going on with these Hebrew believers?

They were withdrawing. They were isolating themselves. And as they were isolating themselves, it was creating potential for falling away. Which is what he's going to warn us about in a couple of weeks. And so he says, let us not forsake the assembling together. Instead, what we are to do is we are to encourage one another as we see the day drawn near. That word encourage is the word exhort,

which means to call to one side. And I love this because that's what the body is supposed to do for each other. We're to call each other to the side and say, hey, how can I pray for you today? How can I be here for you? How can I pray for you today? Because I want to be a part of your life and I want to be a part of your story and I want to be encouragement to you.

How can I do that in your life? And we do these things as we see the day drawn near. The days keep getting more evil. The world keeps getting more difficult. But the gospel of Jesus Christ never changes. And we as the body continue to grow into what God has called for us to be. Amen. Let us draw near. Let us hold fast and let us consider one another because we have great access and advocacy with the Father.

Amen. Let's all stand. And if you'd bow with me. Father, we come before you. And Lord, I thank you for the time that we've had in your word this morning. Lord, I thank you that your word is always good to our souls. And so, Lord, I pray that you would be with us as we go out from here. Lord, I pray that we would take the truth that we have learned here and not just let it be another Sunday morning message

that we've heard. But Lord, may it be something that changes the fabric of who we are. Lord, that we would rest in our confidence and that we would move forward and draw near to you. Lord, I lift up those that are about to take off on a trip down to Guatemala. And we pray your blessing over them. Lord, we pray against the spiritual attack of the enemy. And we pray for a movement of your Holy Spirit.

And Lord, I pray that as they do that work that you would move as you see fit. Father, be with us as we go out from here. In Jesus' name, amen. Be blessed. Lord God, as we leave here today, I just pray, as Pastor Ryan mentioned a minute ago, that we would just not let this message sit. But Lord God, that we would meditate on it, Lord God. Let it be the meditation of our heart.

Let it change our lives. Let it permeate our lives, Lord. And change every part of us. Lord God, into who you want us to be. We love you, Lord. We praise you in Jesus' name, amen. You guys have a wonderful week. Love you.