"Run the Race" Pt 3 - Hebrews 12:18-29 - Ryan Nichols - Sunday Morning Service 10:30 AM

Read verse 9 with me. Save, O Lord, may the King answer us in the day we call. And Father, we come before you and I thank you that, Lord, we can trust in the name of the Lord our God. And so, Father, as we spend time in your word this morning, I ask that you would begin the work that needs to be done in every heart, Lord. And bring comfort where we need comfort, conviction where we need conviction, Lord.

And bring instruction so that we know which way to walk. So, Father, bless us this morning, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. If you would open up in your Bibles to the book of Hebrews, chapter 12. Hebrews, chapter 12. Today, we come to the last of our series, Running the Race. And we started a couple of weeks ago in chapter 12. And the first thing that we said is that we needed to run the race with endurance.

And to run with endurance, there were certain things that we needed to lay aside and to keep our eyes focused on the author and the finisher of our faith. Last week, we said that we needed to run with purpose. That running with purpose meant we needed to embrace discipline. We needed to pursue peace. We needed to strengthen the hands that hang down. And that we needed to see to it that we took care of our own lives that no immorality or ungodliness creep in.

Well, today, we look at running with discernment. Running with discernment. So, starting in verse 18 of chapter 12, it says this. For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched, to a blazing fire, and to darkness, and gloom, and a whirlwind, and to the blast of a trumpet, and the sound of words, which sound was such that those who heard begged that no further words be spoken to them.

For they could not bear the command, if even a beast touches the mountain, it will be stoned. And so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I am full of fear and trembling.

For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from him who warns from heaven. And his voice shook the earth then, but now he has promised saying, yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven. This expression, yet once more, denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.

And so as we look at this section of running with discernment, there's two things he's going to tell us. Number one, we need to discern the reality. Number two, we need to discern the warning. So starting in verse 18, he talks about discerning this reality. And what he's going to do now is he's going to compare Mount Sinai with Mount Zion. I'll remind us again of why he wrote the book, because there are Jewish believers that are wanting to go back to the law.

There are Jewish believers who want to go back to an old covenant system. And as he is telling them to run this race, the race of faith, he reminds them of the reality that there is in the heavenly realities of Christ. Don't go back to the shadow of the law. And so in doing so, he compares Mount Sinai with Mount Zion. The first thing he starts off is with Mount Sinai.

He says, for you have not come to a mountain that can be touched. In other words, this is not a physical realm that we're looking at right now. And he talks to them now in the next few verses about what took place in Exodus chapter 19, verses 10 through 25. As a matter of fact, in the margin of your Bible, you might write Exodus 19, verses 10 through 25, because this is what he describes now.

So to set the historical picture for what he's about to describe and then apply to us,

And so on the third day, God comes down in this cloud and in a flame of fire. And the fire almost consumes the mountain. And then from the cloud, God speaks the law to the children of Israel. And they respond by saying, wow, that's really powerful. Moses, you go talk to God. We'll wait here. So this is what he's describing here right now. He says, for you have not come to a mountain that can be touched, some physical place.

And then he describes it to a blazing fire and to darkness and gloom and whirlwind. I always wonder what it was like to be the children of Israel who had been being led by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. But when they reached the edge of Mount Sinai, all of a sudden this dark cloud descends upon the place and a fire is seen. And you just see this massive glory and there's thunderings and lightnings as it's described in Exodus chapter 19.

And there was a powerful force, God himself, that was descending upon the mountain. And so they see this incredibly terrifying scene in front of them. It says, and, verse 19, to the blast of a trumpet and the sound of the words, which sound was such that those who heard begged that no further word be spoken to them. They blew the trumpet and as the sound of the trumpet grew greater and greater, all of a sudden the sound of the trumpet ended and they heard a voice from heaven.

It came from the cloud and the mighty thundering voice of God declared the law of God to the people. And the law that God declared to the people was the very holiness of God itself given to them in the Ten Commandments. And they were told, do this and live. If not, you will die. And so as God spoke the Ten Commandments to the entire nation of Israel, their first reaction was not to be drawn near into an intimate personal relationship

with this God that was speaking to them from the cloud. Instead what they did is they shrunk back and they felt this separation from God, a lack of boldness, if you will. And they said, Moses, you go close to God, you tell us what he said, because we feel a distance from this God who is incredibly terrifying because he is so holy in his nature. He said, you have not come to that kind of a mountain.

And then it goes on to say, for, verse 20, they could not bear the command that if even a beast touches the mountain, it will be stoned. We need to understand something. God said, put a fence around all of Mount Sinai where my glory will descend because anyone who touches the mountain that has not been invited up by me will die the moment that he touches it. Listen, even the animals. Why?

Because the holiness of God is so other than man that we cannot come into the holiness of God in our sinful state, otherwise we will be consumed by him. There's one last statement that's made. It says, and so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I am full of fear and trembling. Why does he describe this scene to us? Well, for two reasons. Number one, he wanted to create in them the understanding that this Old Covenant shadow

that they wanted to go back to, this Old Covenant living that they wanted to go back to, what they wanted to return to ultimately meant separation from God. Because that's what the law did. The law showed the holiness of God, and it never brought man close to God because man was always separate from God because of man's sinfulness. And so this, he says, you want to go back to this Old Covenant, this Mount Sinai?

Why? Because we didn't come to this kind of mountain that creates separation from God. The second reason why he tells them this is because he reminds them that this old shadow that they wanted to return to meant a lack of boldness in their walk with God, a lack of boldness to be able to come directly into the throne of God. And so as he presents this to them, he says, you have not come to this Old Covenant sort of a type of learning that you think you want to go back to.

Instead, but now, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. He says instead what you have done is you have come to Mount Zion. You have come to God himself. And what he's going to do now is he's going to give us seven reasons why Mount Zion is far superior, why the reality of Mount Zion is far superior to the shadow of Mount Sinai.

Number one is he says because it is the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. Mount Sinai was the place where the law was given. This heavenly Jerusalem is where relationship with God is had. He says this is the city of the living God, the place where you get to meet with God. This is what you have approached is the reality of a heavenly Jerusalem.

Number two, he says you have come to a myriad of angels. It's interesting to see the different places throughout Scripture where angels are these ministering spirits, particularly before the throne room of God. If you've read Ezekiel, and I think in our daily reading, it's been a couple weeks back now, but we were in Ezekiel. And in Ezekiel, it presents for us this throne room of God.

And surrounding the very throne and the throne room of God are these angels, these ministering spirits that are there. If you jump into the book of Revelation, the first chapter as John is caught up into heaven, or excuse me, the second chapter as John is caught up into heaven, and he sees visions, and he's in the throne room of God, and you see these ministering spirits all around these angels, these myriads of angels all around the throne room of God. But it's interesting because even Jesus in his humanity when he was tempted, he was tempted those three times by the devil, and after he ultimately stood strong on the truth of what God's Word had to say, it says that Satan departed from him.

And if you remember correctly, it says that angels came and they ministered to him. He says, we have come to this heavenly Jerusalem, this heavenly city where there's myriads of angels and ministering spirits. He describes it a third way. He says, and you have come to the general assembly, the church of the firstborn. The general assembly, the church of the firstborn.

It's interesting because the word assembly there in the Greek is the word ekklesia, which is where we get our word church from. Church literally means assembly. So if you read this literally, what it would say is the general church, the church of the firstborn. Now, he words it that way for a particular reason because we've all come to the general assembly, the general ekklesia gathering, assembly of the body of Christ, but specifically we've come to the church of the firstborn.

Why does he say that? Well, I think there's two reasons. First of all, because Jesus is the firstborn from among the dead, right? Like that's how he is described throughout the New Testament that he is the firstborn from among the dead because he was the first to have a resurrected body that you and I will then take part in someday when we go home to be with him.

But not only is he the firstborn from among the dead and it's his church that we are a part of, but you are ultimately the firstborn as well. You see, again, our culture doesn't take firstborn quite as seriously as they did in the culture of the ancient East. Our culture just says, well, that's great. You're the oldest. You probably told everybody else what to do.

In that culture, it meant that you got double portions of everything. You had all of the authority and the rights and it meant your rights were greater than anyone else in the family because you had the rights of the firstborn son. And so the idea is that you and I now have these rights as firstborn. As a matter of fact, we are told that we have an inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled waiting for us because we are the firstborn.

We hold that position as firstborn sons of God. But there's one other thing he says. He says, the general assembly, the church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven. Who are enrolled in heaven. Now, I bet a good number of you, not all of you, some folks homeschooled. Maybe you have your own enrollment paper on your homeschool form. You should. You should make them take school pictures and everything.

Just go through the whole nine yards with them. But a lot of you went at the beginning of this school year and either went online or you went to school and you enrolled your kids. And so now everybody knows your child is enrolled in this school because their name is written down and this is where they belong. They belong in this school. Well, that's the same idea that's given to us here.

You, as a believer in Jesus Christ, have been enrolled in heaven. Do you know how you've been enrolled in heaven? Well, let me tell you a handful of ways that you've been enrolled in heaven. First of all, we're told that there is something called the Lamb's Book of Life. And everyone who has put their faith in Jesus Christ, their name has been written in the Book of Life.

And so your name is enrolled in heaven. You're a heavenly citizen because of that. But it's interesting, if you go back and you look, and we've talked about this before, if you go back and you look at the garment of the high priest, there's two main things I want to point out to you about the garments of the high priest. The first is the breastplate that he wore that had all of the colorful stones all over it.

And on each of the stones was written one of the names of the tribes, of the children of Israel. We're reminded that that high priest held the nation of Israel close to his heart. But we are reminded that our high priest holds us close to his heart. And then he wore these scapulas on his shoulders. And on the scapulas there was a stone on each side. And on one stone was written six of the tribes of the nation of Israel.

And on the other stone was written six of the tribes of the nation of Israel, indicating that the high priest bore the nation on his shoulders. Well, our high priest bears us upon his shoulders because we are enrolled in heaven. But, you know, there's a third thing that we see in Scripture, and I love this, because we are told that we have been inscribed upon his palms. And that's who we are.

We are written on the palms of Jesus. We belong to him. And so we have been enrolled in heaven. And I point that out, brothers and sisters, because I want you to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that your heavenly citizenship is secure and that that's who you are, a citizen of heaven, enrolled in heaven. And you are not just a human being. You are not just someone who attends the church of Calvary Chapel.

You are enrolled in heaven. I've shared this story before, but back when I was in Bible college, there was a conference center on there as well, and there was a men's conference that weekend. And one of the guys that came and spoke at that men's conference, which I was not able to attend, but one of the guys that came and spoke was this guy named Romaine. Now, if you don't know anything about the history of Calvary Chapel, Chuck had a right-hand man named Romaine.

His name was something really funky. None of us ever really knew for sure what his first name was, but he only went by Romaine, and he was an old drill sergeant. He was just a little bit shorter than me. Hard to believe, I know. But he was a stocky little guy who was just, he was intense. He was an old drill sergeant. A group of us guys were hanging out that Friday evening that this men's conference was going on,

and he happened to be walking by, and he looked at us, and he said, Are you boys a part of this men's conference as well? And I looked at him, and I said, No, sir. We're just Bible college students. And he took his little finger out, and he said, You listen to me. And I did because I was scared. And he said, You listen to me. If you're born again, you are a child of God, and you are a citizen of the kingdom of heaven.

You are not just a Bible college student. I don't ever want to hear that come out of your mouth again. And I was like, Yes, sir. But you know, I think that we need to be reminded of that sometimes. Listen, don't start thinking too highly of yourself, but also have the confidence that we can have as believers in Jesus Christ that my name is written in heaven,

that I am enrolled in heaven, and that that's the citizenship that I really have because with that comes confidence and boldness. He says that you are part of the general assembly, the church of the firstborn. We have come to God who is the judge of all, who has, first of all, judged all of our sins as he put them on Jesus at the cross, but will one day judge the world. We have come to the spirits of the righteous who have been made perfect.

And one of my favorite ones, verse 24, it's a Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant. It's a Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant. I want to remind you of something. When we come to Mount Zion, when we come to the heavenly realities, we're not coming to a philosophy. We're not coming to a system of teaching. We're not coming to a religion. We are coming to Jesus

because behind the philosophy, behind the teaching, behind the religion is a person, and his name is Jesus Christ, and he is the one mediator between God and man. He is the way, and he is the truth, and he is the life, and it's one of the most beautiful things in the world that we have this mediator who stands in the gap for us,

to Jesus, the mediator of a better covenant, and yes, He is the only way. And then the last thing it says, it says, and we have come to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel. The sprinkled blood that speaks better than the blood of Abel. Sprinkled blood, of course, is the blood sacrifice to Jesus Christ made for us on the cross, it's so much better than the sacrifice that Abel made.

You say, Ryan, why do I care about that? The very first sacrifice that a human being made that's recorded in written history is Abel. And his sacrifice was accepted by God because it was a sacrifice of faith. But as much as his sacrifice was accepted by God because it was a sacrifice of faith, we are reminded that his sacrifice was still insufficient because more sacrifices had to be made.

It covered his sins for the time being, but it did not do away with his sins. And so what it says here is the sacrifice, the sprinkled blood that we come to as believers in Jesus Christ is the sprinkled blood of Jesus Christ that doesn't just cover sins for another year, that doesn't just cover sins until the next time we mess up, it does away with sin in our life, past, present, and future. That's why it's so much better of a covenant because it's so much better of a sacrifice. He's summing up everything he's taught us in Hebrews.

Why do we care about this? Well, I think that there's two reasons. Number one, the reality of the new covenant means nearness. Remember everything that we just said about the old covenant? The old covenant that said, don't come near, otherwise you'll be killed. The old covenant where they said, don't speak to us anymore because we don't want to hear those words because they scare us.

The old covenant that was the sound of a trumpet that pushed people away. The old covenant that had all of the fear and the trembling that caused separation. Well, the very opposite is true of the new covenant because it creates a nearness. We are actually told that we are brought near by the blood of Jesus Christ. You who were far off, we're told in the book of Ephesians, have now been drawn near by

the blood of Jesus Christ. And now there is a closeness, a nearness, and the more that you learn about who Jesus is and the more that you learn about the sacrifice that he's made for us, the more you are drawn in because the more you're like, I want to know more about this Savior who has given his life for me. That's why the relentless pursuit that I have in my life is of the knowledge of the God who sought to know me. The knowledge of the God who sought me out of a lost world and said, I want Him to be one of my kids.

And now I will continue pursuing the one who has already pursued me. And there's a nearness that's brought about by this reality. And not only is there a nearness that's brought about by this reality, but there is a boldness that's brought about by this reality. And the boldness that we have is that we can go directly into the presence of God because of the new covenant that's been made with us, that I can go directly to the throne room of God to seek mercy and grace to help me in my time of need.

And this reality, the reality of the fact that I'm part of a better church, that I'm part of a better reality, that I'm part of a better mediator, that the sacrifice is so much better, gives me great boldness in my life. And He gives me boldness in two ways. Number one, it gives me boldness in my relationship with Jesus Christ because I don't live in fear that one day I'm going to do the wrong thing and He's going to smoosh me with His thumb because He said, that's it, you're done. No, I live in the boldness of just like my girls do with me, knowing that it doesn't matter what time of day or night it is or how sleepy my father is, I'm going to go and talk to him.

If you've got teenage kids, when do they love to start talking to you? 11.30 at night. And you're like, oh, this feels like the right time to go to bed. Girls, I'm ready to go to bed. Let's talk about everything going on in my life. And you're like, all right. And they've got the boldness to do that. You know why they've got the boldness to do that? Because they're my daughters and nothing's going to change that.

So they come to me boldly when I'm ready to go to bed and tell me everything going on in their lives. You see, that's the boldness that we have now with Jesus Christ. But not only does this new reality give us a boldness in that relationship, but brothers and sisters, this reality gives you a boldness in the way that you live out your faith. This reality gives you a boldness in the way that you present this faith to the people that are around you.

Well, Ryan, what if they think I'm an idiot? I have news for you. They're going to. Live it out anyway. Because this boldness that you have allows you to stand on the truth no matter what anybody else is saying around you, no matter how anybody else feels around you, no matter what the opinions of the people are around you. And as you boldly stand on the truth, eventually they're going to respect that.

Because there is a boldness that you have that they don't. And eventually they're going to say, I want to know where this boldness comes from. Because it certainly isn't because of how good you are at anything. This reality gives us boldness in our lives. So number one, we need to discern the reality. Number two, we need to discern the warning. He says in verse 25, see to it that you do not refuse him who is speaking.

For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from him who warns us from heaven. We need to understand with all of the boldness and all of the confidence that we can have in Christ, we must also pay attention to the warnings that are given to us in scripture. This is now I believe the fourth time he warns, and it's the last time he warns in the book of Hebrews that you must pay attention to the warnings that God gives. And the greatest warning that he gives is if you turn away and try to find your salvation in something else.

If you turn away and try to find your salvation in a system of law, if you turn away and try to find your salvation in a system of works, if you turn away and try to find your salvation any other place besides Christ, listen, you're treading on dangerous ground. Because if in the old covenant there was punishment that went along with failing to heed the warnings, how much more when we are given heavenly warnings do we need to pay attention to those things? And if we start thinking that there's anything besides Jesus that is our path to salvation, then we are treading on dangerous ground. I told first service, I watched a clip of a lady pastor the other day, about two weeks

ago now, and she was reinterpreting what Jesus said when he said, I am the way, the truth and the life. She goes, you know, we've really been looking at this wrong all the time for years. We have used this to make Christianity this exclusive thing to say that there's only one way to God. But that's not what it actually says. What it actually says is, Jesus is the path that we follow to live a good life, not exclusively

saying that he is the only way to salvation. So here's the thing. That's not true. Because everything in the Greek, she tried to bring out this Greek word and say, oh, it actually means path. And it's a pathway. It means the pathway of love. The pathway of goodness. And as long as you do those things, you're going to be saved. And if you look it up, that's not actually true.

What Jesus says there, and how we've been interpreting it all these years, shockingly is correct. That Jesus is the way, that Jesus is the truth, and Jesus is the life, and no one comes to the Father except through him. That's why the moment you fail to heed that warning and start thinking that there's something else out there that can save you, you're treading on dangerous ground. Because he says the warnings are very clear.

And if the warnings of the old covenant given on earth had punishment that went along with them, then how do we think that the heavenly warnings that are given to us won't also result in punishment? And brothers and sisters, and those of you that are not brothers and sisters, I want you to hear me really closely on this. I want you to hear me really clearly on this. There is one way to salvation, and that's to come to Jesus.

And if there's anyone in here this morning that has not come to Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you've played the church game, you've done the church thing, you know some of the right Christian-y things to say, but you've never really surrendered your life to Jesus and you think, well, I'm just going to be a pretty good person and hope for the best, I promise you, there is no hope. You have got to turn your life to Jesus. You have got to put full faith in Him and fully surrender your life to Him because that is the only way that you will have hope in your life. That is the only way that you have hope for salvation.

So he says, see to it that you don't refuse Him who is speaking, for if those did not escape when they refused Him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven. The second thing it says is, and His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised saying, yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heaven. This expression, yet once more, denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, the created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. He says, and His voice shook the earth then.

It's amazing to look at some of the earthquakes in Scripture. I can think of three of them in particular. One, of course, was with the giving of the law when He spoke from heaven and the earth shook because the glory of God came down. The earth shook then. You go into the book of Revelation, which ultimately is what He is talking about in this next part, because in the tribulation time there is going to be a shaking of everything

and the only things that will remain are the eternal things. All of the things of this earth will go away and that ultimate earthquake that takes place in the book of Revelation. But you know there is one other place that there is a really powerful earthquake in the Bible. That powerful earthquake took place when Jesus said, it is finished. The foundations of the temple shook.

The veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. It was a powerful moment when God spoke that. But you know there was actually one other time and that is when Jesus was raised from the dead. We are told that when the women were on their way to the tomb that there was an earthquake. What caused the earthquake? Some say it was the rolling away of the stone.

Maybe. I think it was when God said, be alive and the physical body of Jesus was resurrected and that power was unleashed and there was an earthquake. You see, God's voice shakes the earth. It shook the earth then and then we see this quote, I believe it is from the book of Habakkuk. It says, yet once more will I shake not only the earth but also the heavens.

And the yet once more is the removing of all created things which is why I think that that speaking of the earthquake that will take place in the book of Revelation that will ultimately shake the earth. It speaks of the end times. Because there is coming a time when God will shake this earth and He will then replace it with a new heaven and a new earth. Because all of the things of this earth will fade away and God will build something brand new.

God will do something brand new. But you know, there is another aspect of shaking. If I may bring this into a little bit of a personal application in our lives, that God has a tendency to do in us, doesn't He? Perhaps some of you know exactly what I am talking about, that God allows certain things into your life as He speaks into our lives. He allows certain things that bring a shaking into our life.

And it tends to shake loose all of the things of this earth that need to go away and leaves behind it only the really important eternal things in our lives. Sometimes God uses financial difficulties to do that in our lives. And all of a sudden our finances get shaken. And now I've got nothing left to hold on to except Jesus. Because all of my finances just got destroyed or my home or whatever it was.

Everything's taken away from me. And now I've got the one thing that I can hold on to and that's Jesus. And He says, good. Let's go from there. Now that I've got your eyes focused on the most important thing, let's go from there. Sometimes that shaking is an illness. Perhaps a diagnosis that you didn't think was coming. And it shakes the very foundation of who you are, the very core of who you are.

And pretty soon all of the temporary things go by the wayside and your heart and your mind get focused on what's really true and what's really eternal. That's why one of the greatest things we're told in the book of Ecclesiastes is He says, it's better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of dancing. Because the living will take note and be purified. You see, sometimes those illnesses shake us to our core and they make us go, you know, the things I thought were important aren't that important.

What's actually important are the two most important relationships in my life. The one that I have with my Creator and the one that I have with the people around me. That's why there's, that's why in a hospital nobody really cares about all of the things. They care about people, right? Perhaps the shaking is a broken relationship. A broken relationship that you thought was so strong and now that relationship has been

damaged. And now you find yourself going, what am I going to do now? I've got nothing else to hold on to except Jesus. And God uses those things in our lives. And I wish He didn't have to, but God's so good at shaking our lives so that all of the created temporary things of this earth grow strangely dim in our sight and we hold on with both hands to the eternal reality that we have because we have discerned the warning

that God has given to us through the shaking that's taken place in our lives and we get right back where we need to be, which is fully focused on our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, which is looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. I see this taking place in the world right now. I think what we're watching happen in the world right now is a shaking unlike anything that we've ever seen before and I think it is preparing for the fact that Jesus is coming soon. And He is wanting His church especially to get their eyes off of the stupid things of this world, to get our eyes off of the temporary things of this world and get our heart and our mind and our eyes focused back on a kingdom mentality.

It doesn't matter what your building looks like. It doesn't matter how great your programs are. If you're not giving people Jesus, then you're not doing your job and He's going to shake everything that will keep us from doing that. I was telling First Service, does it feel like, those of you that are my age and maybe a little bit older, does it feel like there was a time in our life where there was a catastrophic event once every, like, what, maybe five, ten years, right?

And then other than that, you just sort of went back to life being normal. Now there's a catastrophic event, like, at least every six months. I feel like every time I get up to preach, I'm like, well, it's been kind of tough here lately and I'm tired of saying that. But the world is just off right now. Why is the world off right now? Because God is shaking everything and we as the church have got to pay attention because

we've got to be the ones who can discern Jesus is coming soon and be about the business of the kingdom. To discern that God is shaking all of the things that are going on in the world around us so that we can be about the business of the kingdom. You can either be like, oh man, gas is four dollars, however much it is a gallon right now. I can't imagine what it's like to live in California.

Thank you, Jesus, for Kansas. I can't imagine what it's like in California. It's like twelve dollars a gallon. I don't know, but anyway, it's really expensive there.

Because all of your retirement account is in your gas tank. Put your hope in Jesus. You see, that's how we look at the things going on in the world where God is shaking things. And instead of living like it's the end of the world and we're freaked out about it, we live like it's the end of the world and we walk boldly in it. Make sense? He says, His voice shook the earth then, and it's going to shake it again and remove all

of the things that are temporary, so that only those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, verse 28, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe for our God is a consuming fire. Therefore, since we have this warning, since there's the shaking coming, and since we have a kingdom that we're looking forward to that cannot be shaken, I want us to know this. There's one of two kingdoms you can invest most of your time and energy into.

There's the kingdom of this world. I'm not saying we shouldn't be good stewards of our finances, that we shouldn't be good stewards of the things that God has given to us. I think that's incredibly important. I love that they're doing this crown financial thing, because as believers, our lives should reflect wisdom in the way that we live. Okay, I don't want you to misunderstand me here, but where are you putting your treasure?

Are you putting your treasure in a shakable kingdom, or are you putting your treasure in an unshakable kingdom? Jesus told His disciples in the Sermon on the Mount, He said, hey, listen, don't lay up your treasure on earth, where moth and rust can corrupt, where thieves can break in and steal. Don't invest all of your energy, efforts, finances into a kingdom that will be shaken. Instead, invest everything into a heavenly kingdom.

He said, instead, lay up your treasures in heaven, where neither moth and rust can corrupt and where thieves cannot break in and steal. Why? Because that's where your heart will be also. And I want your heart to be in an unshakable kingdom. He says, therefore, we have this, since we have this unshakable kingdom, let us show gratitude by which we may offer to God an acceptable sacrifice.

Let us show gratitude. Now, it's interesting, because depending on the translation you're reading, this is translated in two very different ways. If you're reading the New King James, it says something along the lines of, let us live according to grace or let us live with grace. That's how that's translated. But here in the New American Standard, it's translated, let us live with gratitude.

So I want to take both of those things. Listen, there's a reason why it's translated that way, because that word apparently is somewhat interchangeable. So let's look at both of them. What does it mean to live with grace? Well, I want to tell you, I have, over the past two or three weeks, you know, have given some messages about endurance and standing strong.

And if we're not careful, we'll take messages like that, and we will turn it into, I'm going to try harder. I'm going to pull myself up by my bootstraps, and I'm just going to gut it out, and I'm just going to keep trying and keep working. And that works for about a week, maybe two if you're really, really committed. But eventually you get worn out with that, right?

Oh, I'm trying, I'm stressing, I'm striving, and I'm enduring, and then you kind of get tired of it. That's because sometimes we fail to live by grace. Sometimes we forget that the fuel in our tank is actually the grace of God. The fuel in our tank, the energy that we work according to, is according to the grace of God. Because it is the grace of God that teaches us, it's the grace of God that empowers us,

and it's the grace of God that changes us. And so I would encourage you, as you are living and running this race for this unshakeable kingdom, do so according to the power of the grace of God. After all, as it says in the book of Titus, the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we can live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age. And so we ask God, we seek that grace, Lord, give me the grace that I need to be able to do what you called me to do.

Empower me with your grace. And so he says, since we have this unshakeable kingdom, let us live with grace. But then we look at the way the New American Standard translates it, let us live with gratitude. And I think that's also important as well, because there is power in a life of gratitude. Let me tell you what I mean. I've been going to talk to some kids over at the college, and with two different groups

I talked about anxiety. And we need to understand something about the culture that we live in right now. And this isn't just young people, this is everybody. We are a culture that struggles with anxiety. And listen, there's a really good reason why we're a culture that struggles with anxiety. We were not meant to bear the burden of a continuous 24-hour news cycle, knowing what

goes on in every corner of the world at any point in time in any day. Not only can we access that by watching TV, not only can we access that by reading articles, but we also have this handy feature on our phones where it will actually send us the scary news article to our home screen and alert us and say, scary things are going on in the world, you should read me now and be more freaked out. And then you add in there, like, these kids especially are thinking, what am I going to do with my life? And did I eat the wrong Froot Loops or the wrong Doritos that have all of the things in them that are going to make me unhealthy and now I'm going to grow a fourth arm or something like that?

I don't know. And all of this anxiety that people have. And I go and talk to these groups of kids, and say, okay, vulnerable moment, who here battles anxiety? I think I've only had two kids out of about 50 that have not put their hand up, and they probably just weren't being honest. And they all put their hand up. So I talk to them about, well, listen, I understand your world.

I know what it means to have anxiety. I've been there. So let me tell you what God did in me. He said there's four practical steps. I'll say these slower because after first service, a couple of people came back to me and said, you talk too fast. What were those? Four practical steps for overcoming anxiety. There's nothing, there's nothing, no rocket science in this, okay?

Number one, you have to identify the problem. What are you worried about? Sometimes that's one of the hardest things that you come across, is trying to get down to the nitty gritty of what am I actually stressed about? Because it adds all these other things in, but there was something at the core of it. So get down to the core. What is the problem? Number two, you have to then take that problem and give it to God.

You can do that through prayer. One morning this summer, I had just so much weighing on me because of things going on in some people's lives, that I just had to come into my office and I had to sit down and while I was talking to God, I just had to write it all down. I legit filled up a page of things that I was stressing about. And I said, that's yours, Lord.

You got to take that. And honestly, I'm not making this up, as soon as I was done writing it all out and handing it to God and saying, Lord, you got to take this, I felt this peace wash over me. Number two, you got to give it to God. Number three, you got to start believing what God says. And remember that faith is not a feeling, faith is a decision. Faith is a decision.

Lord, I'm going to choose to believe what you say today, not what my fear says today. But there's a fourth thing that I've learned, and that's that you have to practice gratitude. You have to practice gratitude. You know, science is finally catching up with the Bible. Science is finally catching up with what the Bible said thousands of years ago, and that's

that gratitude changes the way that you think. That if you practice gratitude daily, that it will actually rewire your thinking process. And what do I mean by that? Well, I think it means a couple of different things. Number one, you should just start making sure that at some point in time in your day, you are thanking God for everything in your life. Good, bad, and otherwise.

Lord, I thank you that I have to go through this struggle, because I know you're going to teach me things. Lord, thank you for my family. Thank you for my wife and how amazing she is. Thank you for my oldest daughter and the life that she has in her, and that she kicks my rear end out of the house to go to the gym with her all the time, and so I'm enjoying that now.

Lord, thank you for my youngest daughter, who is one of the funniest, most creative human beings I've ever been around in my life. And you just start thanking God for everything that you've got, because it rewires the way that your brain thinks. Do you know that negative thinking, and listen, I don't get too much into positive confession. I'm not trying to go there with you.

This is just biblical reality. The more that you think about what's going bad in your life, it will affect the way that you think, and it will become where you start thinking everything is bad in your life. Because you're now in this mentality. The adverse is true as well. The more thankful you are about things in your life, the better things look. All of a sudden, everything looks a little bit better.

Look at what I've got going for me. The other thing I encourage people to do is to keep a gratitude journal, right? That's super cheesy. Let me tell you about this CrossFitter whose name is Noah, and I can't think of his last name. Noah, who won the CrossFit Games five years ago, and Noah won the CrossFit Games while keeping a gratitude journal, because it kept his head bright while he was competing in

the CrossFit Games. Meaning that he is the most fit man in the world, or at least he was a few years ago. It's not a cheesy or non-manly thing to do. Listen, the Bible teaches us that it's important to do. Not only that, do you know what else science is teaching us? Science is teaching us that gratitude actually has an impact on your physical health. That if you practice gratitude in your life, it can improve aspects of your physical health,

because all of a sudden your mentality is changing, and so you feel better, so you get more active in your life, and all of a sudden now your health is getting better. So I encourage people to keep a gratitude journal. I sat in a prayer meeting about three or four weeks ago, and one of the guys who was leading the prayer meeting said, okay, I'm going to make everybody do something that we all hate doing, but we tell everybody else to do. He said, I want you to, for the next three minutes, write down everything in your life that you're thankful for.

Just write it down. And at first you're kind of like, but then you just start writing. And he goes, get detailed. Don't just say, I'm thankful that I have a good life. Why do you have a good life? Thank God for it. And pretty soon, you're not filling up an entire page full of things, and that's exactly what he said. Do you find that it was hard to start, but once you got going, you filled up the entire

page, and we were all like, uh-huh. Listen, guys, there's no rocket science to it. But he says, if we've been given a kingdom that is unshakable, let us show gratitude, because it changes the way that you think. Then he goes on from there to say, by which the gratitude, the grace, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe. What is the acceptable service that we offer to God?

Well, it's the very praise of our lips. We are told elsewhere, and I think we get to it in Hebrews 13, we are told elsewhere that we are to offer to God the sacrifice of praise, that we are to offer to God the sacrifice of praise. As we live with the reality of who we are in the new covenant, and as we heed the warnings that are given to us and understand the unshakable kingdom that we have, we are to offer to God the sacrifice of praise. And listen, sometimes praise isn't a sacrifice, right?

When everything is going great, we can praise God from the tops of the mountains, because oh my gosh, my life is awesome. But when it's not, and we have to come into church, and we have to offer to God the sacrifice of praise, it really is a sacrifice, because nothing in my life is going right, nothing is happy, and I'm still going to choose to praise God anyway. That is the sacrifice of praise. But you know, there's something even more about praise than just what comes forth from our lips, and it's the way that you live your life.

Did you know that your entire life, the way that you conduct yourself, can be an aspect of praise and worship to God? It can be the way that you live. I live unto the Lord, so everything that I do as a bondservant of Jesus Christ is actually praised unto Him. And that brings us to the last thing that he says, for our God is a consuming fire. Our God is a consuming fire.

Again, you might write Deuteronomy 4, verse 24 in the margin of your Bible, because that's where that statement comes from, that our God is a consuming fire. What does he mean by that? If we were to go back into the old covenant, you would find that there was a type of sacrifice that they were to offer. The type of sacrifice that they were to offer was called a consecration offering, or oftentimes referred to as a whole burnt offering.

Most of the offerings that they would offer, a portion of the meat might go to the priest, the hide would be burned outside of the camp, a portion of the meat might go to the sacrificer as a fellowship offering to the Lord, but the consecration offering looked different. The whole burnt offering was different. It's exactly what it sounds like. You offered the entire animal to the Lord, and so you would slay the animal, take the blood, sprinkle it on the altar, and then you would place the entire animal on top of the altar, and the entire thing would be consumed by fire.

Why? Because it was a picture of total consecration to the Lord. Lord, I am committing all of me to you vicariously through this sacrifice. It's interesting because when we jump into Romans chapter 12, verse 1, he says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. That's the idea of what we now do because our God is a consuming fire.

That means that God wants to consume every portion of your life, every part of who you are. C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity says, it's interesting because many of us want to come to God to deal with some bad habit that we don't like. Lord, I don't like this, so I'm going to come to you. I want you to deal with this, and in the process, God is relentless and won't let us go until

he consumes every part of who we are. Because that's ultimately what God wants. God does not just want your Sunday mornings, although that's a great start. God does not just want your Sunday morning and your Wednesday night, again, another great start. God wants every portion of who you are because it's ultimately what's best, and it ultimately brings great joy because it restores the purpose that God intended for you, whole consecration

to the Lord. God is a consuming fire, and in that, you find the great paradox of love. To have found God and to still be searching for him is truly the soul's paradox of love because we find that we, as we get consumed by God, we begin to pursue the one who spent our entire life pursuing us, who spent his entire life pursuing us. We pursue the one who pursued us, and brothers and sisters, I tell you this because again in the Western culture church, we want partial Christianity.

We tend to want partial consecration to the Lord. Lord, I want you to have all of the parts of my life except the ones that I still enjoy. Lord, I want you to have all the parts of my life except those secret sins that I don't let anybody else know about. And God says, I won't be content until I have it all, but neither will you. There won't be true joy until I have it all because I am a consuming fire, and if I may

be so bold as to say some of you lack joy in your walk with Jesus Christ because you've taken yourself off the altar and you don't want the consuming fire to have every part of you, and so you are torn between two worlds, the world of being committed to God because you know it's true and the world of being committed to your flesh because the part of you that's earthly still likes it, and as long as you waver between two opinions, you will never have joy in your life. Commit yourself fully to Him. Amen? Let's all stand.

And if you'd bow with me. Lord, we come before you this morning, and God, I thank you for what your word has to say to us, but more than anything, Lord, I thank you that, that you warn us, that you challenge us, that you don't let us live half-heartedly for you, but you seek to get a hold of our hearts. So, Lord, I want to lift up the heart of every person that's here this morning, and Lord, I feel like there's probably at least one who, who is living halfway on the altar, Lord, who is living halfway committed to you, and Lord, they need that total consecration in their life, Lord. They need to become someone whose life is fully consumed with you, and so, Lord, I just

want to pray for that person, those people, and God, I just ask that you would move in them, Lord. You know who they are. They know who they are, so I just ask, God, that you would move in their hearts and in their lives. Father, be with us as we go out from this place this morning.

hallelujah, hallelujah. Oh, come on my soul, don't you get shy on me, lift up your song, because you got a lion inside of those lungs. Get up and praise the Lord. Oh, come on my soul, don't you get shy on me, lift up your song, because you got a lion inside of those lungs. Get up and praise the Lord. Oh, come on my soul, don't you get shy on me, lift up your song, because you got a lion inside of those lungs.

Get up and praise the Lord.

hallelujah, hallelujah, and I know it's not much, I'm nothing else but for a king, except for a heart singing hallelujah, hallelujah. Lord God, we come before you, Lord, with just hearts of gratitude. We give you thanks, we give you praise for who you are and for just how much you love us, Lord God. Lord, we just, we give you praise. We ask that as we leave here today,

that you just continue to work and move in our lives, Lord. as you see fit. We love you, Lord. We praise you, Jesus.