Sunday Morning Service 8:30AM-Jesus: BetterThan Moses - Hebrews 3:1-6 - Pastor Ryan Nichols

We'll shout your praise, our hearts will cry, these bones will sing praise.

Well, good morning, church family. It's good to see you guys. I'm really glad you're here. I want to invite you to stand with us. We'll pray and we'll get started.

Father, we come before you this morning. We just thank you for allowing us to be here, Lord God. We thank you for another day. We thank you for who you are, for how much you love us, Lord God, and for what you've done for us. We ask your blessing now upon this time, upon the worship and upon the word as it goes out, Lord God. Lord, may you be glorified this morning.

Lord, may your Holy Spirit move mightily, Lord. We ask these things and pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.

It's making all things new. Your blood speaks a better word.

Have a seat if you like.

Mercy came.

It is your love. Shame. Buried my burden. In fields of grace. You call me out. Lifting me up. How great is your love. Father, we give you praise this morning for truly how great you are and for how great your love is, Lord. Father, we thank you again for this time that we can come together to worship you, Lord, and we just praise your holy name. Thousands and generations.

Worship. Sing the song of ages to the name and all who've gone before us and all who will be the song of ages to the name is the highest. Your name is the greatest. Your name is above all powers and positions. Your name stands.

Get free of his name.

Just stand with me for the last one. I see the stars. I hear the rolling thunder. My power throughout the universe to say, sing it out and sing my soul, my savior, God to and hear the birds sing sweetly. Deeply in the trees went out in grandeur and hear the gentle sent him to die. I can take it to take away my I shall come with shout of acclamation and take me what

joy shall fill my heart. Then I shall bow. And humble adoration and there sings my we just sing that this morning, Lord, and just utter awe of how great you truly are. You are the God of all the universe. You're the creator of all the universe. Lord, we don't have to look very far to find evidence of you or of your of who you are. We don't have to look very far.

To find evidence of how much. You truly love us, Lord. And so we just use this time now to return praise to you and tell you how truly great you are and majestic you are. And Father, now, as Pastor Ryan comes and just ask that you'd be with him or speak mightily through him, Lord, and give us a soft and receptive heart to receive that word this morning. We love you.

We praise you in your precious name. Amen. Let's have some fellowship. Good night. Good morning. If you could begin to locate your seats. Grab a bulletin. We'll get ready to go over some announcements.

Welcome to Calvary Chapel. I'm glad that you joined us this morning. I'm a handful of things to take note of. As always, what's going on on the left hand side? Make sure that you're plugged in. And in the middle section of your bulletin, the biggest thing I need to point out to you is our March Madness event that's coming up. And so what I'm actually going to do is I'm going to have Jana come up.

And make an announcement about that, because I think we have some details. True ish details. Ish Good morning, everybody. Yes, this is our third annual March Madness. It will be Saturday, March twenty first from five to eight down at the rec center. We enter. It's the back gym. So we enter on the east side. This is this year. We are all the donations will go towards the Guatemala missions trip and the God said go ministry down there.

If you've been here very long, you may have seen Jeff and Esther. They came three years ago, I think, and he shared about their ministry down there. They go out and and actually a dozen of us will have the opportunity to go down, get the date right here. July twenty eighth. If you're interested in going with us, they have a ministry in Guatemala where they go to the most uttermost, uttermost parts of the earth, taking care of kids and their parents.

In Clint in a clinic that they've set up and they, um, have, I don't know, been doing this for many years and they've they've really got it, uh, they do it well. They minister to the parents this year. When we go down, we're going to be going to a village basically doing kind of a VBS the first day we go and then the second day we'll be going back into their homes, kind of getting a little more hands on, look at where they live and how we can help them. And, um, pray with them and then we invite them in the afternoon to see the Jesus movie in Spanish and where they come and they'll get a bag of food.

If they come to watch the movie, they'll get a good sized amount of food. So it's really a draw and they've seen a lot of people come to the Lord through their ministry and we had the opportunity to go down two years ago and we had a really, really good time just helping them. And since then they've got their medical clinic up and running and their medical clinic is going to. Um, hopefully help fund the whole outreach that they do.

And in there, if anybody is interested in full time missionary work, they really could use some more help. So, um, anyway, that's that's kind of what this goes to support. So, um, as far as March Madness, it's a good time. Um, we start with a chili feed, a chili cook off. And so, uh, there's a sign up sheet in the lobby this morning. If you're interested in bringing a crock pot full of your favorite chili.

And, uh, I want to help with that. It's, uh, we had a good time. Of course, your dollars, uh, your dollars vote to see who wins the chili contest. So a lot of husbands really kind of help their wives out there, but, uh, uh, good time with that. And then so dessert is included, drinks are included and, uh, the sign up sheet is out there. It is important that you sign up.

So we have enough tables for all the crock pots full of chili. And then there's a sign up sheet for crackers and cheese and, you know, all kinds of. Um, there's also sign up out there for help if you want to help, um, in other ways, just check out that list, but, um, so it is a good time of games, um, besides our men playing, uh, an actual game of basketball. And, and then we have breaks within the quarter quarter breaks.

We play other games for all ages, starting with, I don't know if they, I sent a video late last night, but I don't know. There we go. Starting with the toddler or the. Baby crawl. Uh, that's a lot of fun. Um, so I don't know how many babies we have that crawl anymore. I was just in the nursery with 12 babies last week, but most, most of them were on our, on their feet already.

So we decided we will also do a toddler. Toddle will be the second heat of that. So, um, and then we have games for the elementary kids. One thing that we're going to add this year, this should be fun. Um, had a little meeting and we want to get the elementary and junior high. And. And high school age kids involved more if we can. So somebody suggested we have a silent auction for, um, artwork that the kids can do.

So if your child is artistic in any way, or, or they, there will also be baked goods. If they like to get in the kitchen and bake, we'll have some tables set up with their stuff. Their, their, uh, artwork will sell. Uh, one of the ladies said she's been to auctions like this and she has three different pieces of artwork from some different kids in her office.

And so that seemed like a fun thing to do. So we're going to try that. So all kinds of ways to get involved. You will, Ross is going to hand these out the door since I didn't get here early enough to get them in your bulletins. Uh, just as a reminder, stick this on your fridge and we hope you'll come and have a good time. Um, but there will be games for all ages.

If you want to play in the men's basketball game and we need a lot of you because you know, we're all out of shape and we need to play in small increments. Um, Joe Palmer. See Joe Palmer about that. He's actually going to make second service announcements this morning. If you were around for that. Thank you. All right. Very good. Pretty exciting stuff. It is a really good time.

I don't play basketball, but I watch and I officiate and things like that. So those are the things that are going on. If you would make sure that your mobile device is silenced for our responsive reading this morning, we are going to be in Psalm 52 Psalm 52. Look at the new American standard. If you need a copy, there should be. One in a row around you as you are turning to Psalm 52.

If you are able, please stand in the honor of the reading of God's word. All right. I will read the odd verses. If you will follow along with Pastor Allen and the even versus for the choir director, a masculine of David. When do egg, the Edomite came and told Saul and said to him, David has come to the house of a Himalaya. Why do you boast in evil? Oh, mighty man, the loving kindness of God endures all day long.

Your tongue devises. Destruction like a sharp razor. Oh, worker of deceit. You love evil more than good falsehood more than speaking what is right. Say law. You love all words that devour. Oh, deceitful tongue. But God will break you down forever. He will snatch you up and tear you away from your tent and uproot you from the land of the living. Say law. The righteous will see and feature and will laugh at him.

Say behold, the man who would not make God his refuge. But trust me. He trusted in the abundance of his riches and was strong in his evil desire. But as for me, I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the loving kindness of God forever and ever. And read verse nine with me. I will give you thanks forever because you have done it. And I will wait on your name for it is good in the presence of your godly ones.

And so, Father, we do find our hope in you today. And so, Father, as we take time to look more clearly. At who you are. As we take time to consider the work of Jesus. I just ask that you would move by the power of your Holy Spirit. Not only through your word. Through the words that I speak, Lord. But in the hearts of each person that's gathered here today. In Jesus' name.

Amen. You may be seated. If you would open up in your Bibles. To the book of Hebrews. Chapter three.

Hebrews chapter three. Well, today we look at a new part of Jesus being better. We, of course, saw that Jesus is better than the angelic realm. And today we will look at Jesus being so much better than Moses. And as we begin this, I think it's important for us to understand just a little bit of background on who Moses is. Because we as Western culture Gentiles will probably not fully grasp just how much the Jewish culture sort of idolized, if you will, for lack of better terms, Moses.

Because they viewed him as actually greater than the angels. And just a step under God. And so because of the place that he occupied in the Old Testament, there's five reasons why they really looked at Moses this way. And five things that are really kind of cool about who Moses was. But it's important to keep him in the proper context. But I want to paint for you the picture of why the Jewish people viewed him as they did.

And why it was important that the writer to the Hebrews point out that Jesus is so much better. The first thing I'll tell you about Moses is that he was chosen by God. He was chosen by God. If you remember, he was chosen by God. If you remember from the very beginning of the book of Exodus, Pharaoh had sought to kill all of the newborn babies, especially the newborn baby boys.

And Moses' mother wanted to hide him, so she hid him as long as she could. And then finally had to part ways with him. And so she built a little ark, if you will, for him. And put him in the river and prayed for God to take care of him. And, of course, God miraculously cared for Moses because Pharaoh's daughter actually discovered Moses. And Moses was floating there in the Nile River.

And as she discovered him, Moses' sister happened to be off in the bulrushes and said, Would you like me to go find a nurse for you for this child? And she said, Yes, please do. And so, of course, Moses' sister went and got Moses' mother who was able to care for Moses that entire time and really care for him. So he was chosen by God and really protected by God in so many ways.

And so that miraculous protection of Moses made him well known among the Jewish community. But not only was he chosen by God, but he was Israel's deliverer. Remember, the children of Israel had cried out there in Egypt as they had found themselves in a place of slavery for hundreds of years. And as they found themselves in this place of slavery, they cried out to the Lord for help.

And we're told that God saw and God heard and God prepared to deliver. And that man's name was Moses. He was miraculously chosen by God there at that burning bush moment where he turned aside to see the Lord. And as he turned aside to see the Lord, God gave him the command to go and tell Pharaoh to let the people go. And, of course, there was those miraculous things that were done through the hands of Moses and Aaron.

And ultimately, he was known as Israel's deliverer. And really, the entire Old Testament continues to look back at that moment, at that deliverance of Israel from the land of Egypt. It was the salvation moment for the nation of Israel in the Old Testament. And Moses is who was attached to that. But not only did he have a miraculous beginning as being chosen by God, not only was he their deliverer, but he was their prophet.

Really, he was the first mouthpiece of God to the nation of Israel who heard directly from the Lord and then gave it to the people. Remember, he's the one that went up on the mountain to get the law. He's the one who would sit at the tabernacle, at the edge of the tabernacle or at the edge of the camp there to hear from the Lord and make judgment upon what God wanted. He was the prophet for the nation of Israel.

But also, he was the lawgiver because he was the one who heard that law directly from God, had the law written twice by God on those stone tablets, and he brought it down to the people. So he was their lawgiver. But not only that, he was the historian. The books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy were all penned by Moses. He was the historian for the nation of Israel.

And so he's the one who kept track of not only the law but the entire history for the nation. And so also— All of Israel looked at Moses as the greatest man that ever lived and the, if you will, savior of the Old Testament. And because of that, there was almost this improper view that they had of Moses. This improper view that they had that put Moses on this level that he was never intended to be on, this pedestal that he was never intended to be on.

And so as they're facing the persecution and as they're being tempted to go back to the law, tempted to go back to the Mosaic law, he reminds these people— He reminds these believers that Moses was just a man. Jesus is who you need to have your focus on. And so he's going to tell them two things. He's going to tell them to consider Jesus. And he's going to tell them that Jesus is worthy of more glory than Moses.

And so we start in verse 1 of chapter 3. And it says this, Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and the high priest of our confession. He was faithful to him who appointed him. As Moses was in all of his house. For he has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses. But just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house.

For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. Now Moses was faithful in all his house as a servant for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later. But Christ was faithful as a son over his house. Yeah. Whose house we are if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end. And so the first thing he tells them to do is he tells them, consider Jesus.

The writers of the Hebrews here starts off as he's often going to do and say, Therefore, which calls our attention to everything that was given to us in chapter 1. Therefore, in light of who Jesus is in chapters 1 and 2. In light of who Jesus is in his divinity. In light. Jesus of who Jesus is in his humanity in light of the fact that Jesus is so much greater than the angelic realm.

Therefore, holy brethren and partakers of a heavenly calling. Those two phrases are very important because again, they take our minds back to chapter 1. He is reminding them of who they are in Christ. Because again, if you are being tempted because of persecution to be pulled away from the faith that you claim. Then it's good to be reminded. Of who you are within that faith.

And so he refers to them as two things. He refers to them first of all as holy brethren. And that takes our mind back to Hebrews chapter 2 verse 11. Look back probably one column over at verse 11. It says for both he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one father. For which reason he is not ashamed to call them brethren. He reminds them of who they are.

Therefore, you who Jesus was willing to call his brethren. You set apart. You set apart people who are called the brethren of Jesus Christ. But not only does he remind them that they are the brethren of Jesus. But he also reminds them that they are partakers of the heavenly calling. Jump back up to verse 10. It says for it was fitting for him for whom are all things and through whom are all things.

In bringing many sons to glory. That's the heavenly calling. The heavenly calling is the reminder that we have a calling beyond this. This earth that calling is a glorification. Remember, there's a three tenses of salvation. You have been saved. That's justification. You are being saved. That's sanctification and you will be saved someday. That's glorification.

That's the heavenly calling. That's you being called home to the Lord. And so he says you you holy brethren who have a great calling of glorification on your life. He tells them to do something. He says consider Jesus. The word consider means to. To attentively and thoughtfully consider it means to fix one's eyes and mind upon the idea is to to look and to learn and to understand it's interesting because now in as many chapters this is the second time he has said look at Jesus remember in the last chapter he said but we see Jesus this time he says consider Jesus and he's going to continue to do this exact same thing.

Why because the cure for our ales always comes in the person and work of Jesus Christ the the cure that we need in our lives is to keep putting our focus back on Jesus not only the the focus but but the consideration that that Jesus would become the thing that we fix our eyes and our mind upon that he would be the one that we would continue to fix our hope and our learning level upon why started asking myself a question. I hope you do too. What does it look like? To consider Jesus.

What does it look like to be someone who who lives with this consideration this focus of both heart and mind upon Jesus? What does it look like to look upon him? What does it look like to learn from him and to consider him? I think it requires two things in our lives two things that are very hard for us in our culture today. Number one requires focus. We are an unfocused culture.

Can we just all agree with that? We are probably the most distracted culture in the world because everything in the world is constantly. Calling for our attention usually all at the same time, right? Like I'm always amazed at the term multitasking because I don't care who you are. None of us are good at it. No one's good at multitasking. Instead what we do is we just get confused and we never know what we're doing ever walked into a room and gone.

Why did I come in here again? I used to work for a guy that he would walk into the room and say, why did I come in here? I'm like, I don't know. He's like, it's your job to know why I'm in this room right now. And it's because there's so much going on, right? And it's so easy to get distracted. And what Jesus really desires from us is focus. And you know what the excuse that we always use is?

I can't focus. I've got too many things going on. Then that's probably your problem. You probably have too many things going on. Remember the story of Mary and Martha? Remember Jesus came over for dinner and he's chilling in the living room with Lazarus and he's in there with Mary and they're hanging out. And Lazarus and Mary are chilling and talking to Jesus.

And what's Martha? Listen, nothing wrong with the fact that Martha was making dinner, right? Problem was Martha wasn't focused on the right thing. Martha's running around and doing all the things. She's making sure the turtlets are cleaned and she's making sure that the napkins are folded the way that they're supposed to be. And she's making sure that all of the dinner glasses match and she's doing all of these different things.

And she looks at her sister Mary and her sister Mary is just sitting there chilling with Jesus. And she's like, Jesus, could you tell Mary to help? And Jesus looks at Martha and goes, hey. Chill out, lady. Everything's good. Life's good. Mary's chosen the better thing. And I'm not going to take that from her. Listen, we live in a world that exalts Martha today.

And there's nothing wrong with being a servant. You should be a servant. But there's also nothing wrong with stopping sometimes. I'm amazed at the way we glorify our busyness. Like we almost boast in the fact, well, you know, this weekend I never stopped once. Instead, I went to 17 ballgames and I went to 12. I went to 12 dance recitals and then I remodeled my kitchen and then I painted my neighbor's house.

And then I slept for 30 minutes and then I got up and started it all over again. And we're like, look at me. Look at how productive I am. And the rest of us are just going, dude, that just sounds awful. Right? This was terrible. And we glorify this busyness. And what it does is it prevents focus. And I think that's actually a tool of the enemy. The enemy wants you to be so busy.

That you can't focus on the most needful thing. And that's Jesus. And every now and then we have to make some hard choices. You have to say, if that's too much, then that's too much. We got to quit being available all the time. We really do. One of the hardest things for me to do is to put my phone down and not be available for a little while. Because then I feel guilty about it.

And in the midst of it, I'm like, but maybe if I don't spend this time with Jesus right now, I can't really be available for anybody else. Considering Jesus, first of all, requires our focus. The second thing that considering Jesus requires, and it's very similar, is our time. See, the greatest commodity that we have in this culture is not money. The greatest commodity that we have in this culture is time.

Because listen, it's the one thing that once it's spent, you can never make it back. You can never make that time back. How do you spend your time? I know it's very similar to focus. It's really hard to separate the two, but the two work hand in hand. How do you spend your time? Have you ever viewed it like a budget? Have you ever viewed it like, okay, I'm going to budget out my time today.

And I'm going to say, this is what I'm going to spend time for. I have a question for you. If you were to really look at the time that you spend, what do you spend the most time doing? I actually challenge people to do this sometimes. You should just sometimes write down the amount of time you spend doing things. Including, listen, write down your screen time.

Right, and part of that's my Bible time. Is it? Write down your screen time and all the different things that you do. And figure out where you're wasting your time. There was a time in mine and my wife's lives where we were not using our money very wisely. And so we just decided for a month we were just going to sit down and write how we spent all of our money.

Okay, let's just write all this down. And we went, ooh, okay. So we see where we need to change some things. Listen, if it's important enough to do that with our money, isn't it even more important to do that with our time? And yet we use our time like it's a commodity that we're just going to keep making more of. And I'm here to tell you right now, if you're going to consider Jesus,

then you need to consider your time. Because you need to figure out where you're budgeting those things. He says, Therefore, holy brethren and partakers of the heavenly calling, consider, give attentive thought, fix your eyes and your mind upon Jesus. Yes. He goes on to tell us two things about Jesus. He is both the apostle and the high priest of our confession.

This is the only time in scripture where Jesus is referred to as an apostle. It's at least the only time in Hebrews, but I'm almost 100% positive. It's the only time in scripture where Jesus is referred to as an apostle. The word apostle is an interesting word. It means a messenger or an ambassador. That's what an apostle is. Of course, there's the apostolic authority that the original 12 had,

but in a smaller sense, in a lesser sense, in a less authoritative sense, we're kind of like apostles as well. But the first apostle is Jesus because he was the ambassador. He was the messenger of God to the people, right? Because he represents God to man. That's what he is as the apostle, as an ambassador. Remember what we were told in John chapter one, no one has seen God at any time, but the only begotten of the father,

revealed him to us, explained him to us. He was the ambassador of God to man. So if we want to know what God would do in a given situation, we look at how Jesus lived in those gospel accounts, how Jesus taught, how Jesus expressed himself. And that's how we know who God is. Consider Jesus because he is the apostle of our confession. He is the one who represents God to us.

But not only is he the apostle, of our confession, but he is the high priest of our confession. But of course the high priest was the mediator between God and man. He represented man to God. He represented man to God because he would be the one that would bring the sacrifice of man to God. He would be the one who would intercede on behalf of man to God. He is the apostle representing God to man.

And he is the high priest representing man to God. He is our link. If you remember when Jesus met Philip, in whom is no, one of the, one of the disciples, he said, before, before Peter called you, I saw you sitting under the tree. He said, Oh my gosh, that's so amazing. You must really be the son of God. And he said, Oh, if you think that's important, if you think that's special, you haven't seen anything yet.

Wait until you see the angels of God, ascending and descending upon the son of man, representing the fact that Jesus would always be the link between earth, heaven, and heaven. Therefore, Holy brethren partakers of the calling consider Jesus, the apostle and the high priest of our confession, who was faithful in all of his house, or it was faithful to him who appointed him as Moses was in all of his house. It's important that we understand something. And that's that in no way, shape or form does the writer to the Hebrews degrade Moses.

He, he doesn't make Moses seem like he was a bad guy. He doesn't make Moses seem like he was some, uh, some sucker that lived back in the day. He absolutely gives him the respect that he deserves, but he puts them also back in his proper place of still being a creation of God. And here's where he makes the segue between Jesus and Moses. He does consider Jesus who was faithful to him,

who appointed him as Moses was in all of his house. And then he begins to explain how he was worthy of more glory than Moses. Those, what it says in verse three for he has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses. I don't get overly creative with my points. Have you ever noticed that he was, he's been counted more worthy of glory than Moses by just so much as the

builder of the house has more honor than the house for every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God house being spoken of here is of course the nation, of Israel into an even greater degree the household of faith. Moses was a part of the household. Therefore, Jesus has the builder of the household has greater honor than the household itself. One of the commentators that I read went through some of the major builders of, of the past hundred or so years, one of them being Frank Lloyd, right?

And apparently he wanted to make sure everybody knew that he was the builder of the house because it was really important to him to know that he got all of his honor and all of the glory for the amazing work that he did because he wanted to know, one of the people to know that he was both the architect and the builder of this great house that was seen. That's why every house that was, was built and designed by Frank Lloyd Wright is known as a Frank Lloyd Wright house, right? Because he was worthy of more honor than the house itself. Well, if the house, the household of faith that we live in is glorious and it is, that is not the builder worthy of even more glory is not the architect of our faith.

It's not the builder worthy of even more glory. It's not the architect of our faith. It's not the architect of our faith. It's not the builder of our faith is not the finisher of our faith, worthy of more glory than those who are a part of the house. Moses, of course, being one of them. And so he says he is worthy of more honor than Moses. He says, for every house is built by someone,

but the builder of all things is God. This is again, another beautiful statement of the deity of Jesus Christ, because if Jesus is the one that built the house and God is the builder of all things, then Jesus himself is God. And so, it says now Moses verse five was faithful in all his house as a servant for a testimony of those things, which were to be spoken later to put Moses in his proper context, to put Moses in his proper place. We are reminded that Moses was a servant.

Now, the word that's used for servant here is the only time it's used in the new Testament. And it is greater than what we usually think of as a servant. It is the highest term for a servant. That could be used in the Greek culture at that point in time. And so it's an important word that's used. And he is referred to as a faithful servant because again, the writer to the Hebrews doesn't in any way want to denigrate Moses because it

was a fantastic man that lived. Honestly, when we look back on the books of Exodus, Leviticus numbers in Deuteronomy, you realize what a faithful servant Moses was one mistake, one major mistake that Moses made that, that sometimes we look at, and we go to just don't hit the rock twice, right? Like God told you to speak to the rock, speak to the rock. Listen, have you ever had people complain to you over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again, eventually you want to hit something, right?

And Moses made one mistake. Dude hung out with all those people the entire time. When I was teaching Bible over at our city, Christian Academy, we went through the book of numbers and, and, and one of the things that I would have them do is I would have these scripture summary sheets and what they would have to do is, is they would have to put a title for the chapter. I let them get as creative as they wanted to be, as long as it was appropriate and my, I'm pretty broad on that.

So, um, and then they had to give a summary of it, uh, a key verse to it, and then a personal application of it. And one of my favorite things was the different titles that people would give to, to the chapters. It was always kind of fun what kids would come up with. And, and I, you know, put a little smiley face next to the really creative ones. And, and one of them wrote in the book of numbers,

the people complain dot, dot, dot, dot, dot. And it went all the way across. The page until all the way at the end, it says again. And I was like, I bet that's how Moses felt. Sometimes that dude is just doing his job and the people are complaining again. And he's like, look, I didn't come up with manna. That was a God thing. I'm not the one who took us out to this wilderness.

That's a God thing. I'm not the one who didn't give you anything else. That's a God thing. You're out here because you people wouldn't believe and you're blaming me for it. It doesn't do any of that. It's like, I just endured the whole time. He endured. The complaint is a matter of fact, when God was like, I'm just going to wipe them out. Okay, let's just start over again with Mo and he seems like a good dude.

I really liked what is the work he's doing here. I'll start over again with you, Moses. I'll make an entirely new nation just out of you. And Moses was like, God, I know you don't mean that. I think God was testing Moses in that moment to see if he had truly had the heart of the shepherd. And Moses came through with shining colors. Moses was like, God, you want to do that?

Lord, forgive this people over and over again. He was faithful to a level that I don't know that we can always appreciate, but listen, he was a faithful servant. He was a faithful servant. And can I just, if I may add a little personal application here, that's all we all can be is just faithful servants. You named the person that you look up to the most on this side of eternity on

planet earth and all they are as a servant. And I think we have to remember that. Because in the culture that we live in today, where we have created a cult of personality out of pastors, a lot of times where we have created a cult of personality out of God's servants, whether they be worship leaders, whether they be pastors, whatever it is, and then all of a sudden they fall, which by the way, we've seen happen a lot here lately. And we're reminded of one thing.

These are not God. These are men. I think it was John course. And I heard say at our, our best, we are men, but we are men at best. And it's important that we remember that about ourselves. And it's important that we remember that about the people that God chooses to use, because we can't ever put anybody on a pedestal where they never belong. We can't put anybody in a place where God never intended them to be.

We must simply view them as a faithful servant. And listen, I think this section about Moses has to be one of the greatest compliments to who Moses was. As the leader of the nation of Israel that one could ever receive, because the writer to the Hebrews, uh, memorializes for all time that Moses was a faithful servant in the house of God. That's all I want to be able to be.

It's a faithful servant in the house of God. That should be all you should want to be is a faithful servant in the house of God. And he says, now, Moses was faithful in all of his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later. He was a faithful servant for a testimony of things that were to come. What does that mean? It means Moses always knew that he was a placeholder that pointed people to the

right direction, right? Remember what we talked about? Moses was Moses was the law giver. Well, what was the purpose of the law? The entire purpose of the law was to point people to Jesus. It did it in two ways. Number one, the law pointed people to Jesus because it revealed the holiness of God and the unholiness of man. You see, you don't know that you need a savior until you first are shown that you are a

center. That's the importance of what the law does in our lives. That's why scripture says that the law is for the proud, because when we are living in sin, we are living in pride. Therefore, the law says you are living in pride. Let me break your pride with the knowledge of the holiness. Of God. I'm reminded I'm working on something for a for a conference right now.

That out of Isaiah chapter six, you remember Isaiah chapter six, fantastic chapter of the Bible. It says in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and lifted up and the train of his robe filled the temple with glory and the angels were around him and they were singing praises and the foundations of the temple were shaken at the praises that the angels were singing and the, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple to the point. Where it was like smoke that filled the temple. And as he saw that great sight, do you know what Isaiah said?

Woe is me. I am undone. I am lost. That word means I am destroyed because I am a man of unclean lips. What did Moses do to point people to the coming savior? Well, the first thing that he did is he gave them the law that causes all of us to see God. See God and all of his glory and us in all of our shame. But the second thing that he did is that he foretold the coming of Jesus.

You might write the margin of your Bible, Deuteronomy chapter 18 verse 15. Matter of fact, just go there with me real quick. Deuteronomy 18.

If you hit numbers like I did, you went too far.

It says this. Let me get a drink while you guys finish. I hear pages still.

Deuteronomy 18 15 says this. The Lord's your God. We'll raise up for you a prophet like me from among you from your countrymen. You shall listen to him. This is according to all that you asked of the Lord, your God and horrible on the day of the assembly saying, let me not hear the voice of the Lord. My God, let me not see his great fire anymore. I will die.

The Lord said to me, they have spoken. Well, I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you and I will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak to them all that I command him. That was Moses's prophecy of the coming of Jesus. That was why when Jesus came along, everybody said, are you the prophet that Mo or when John the Baptist came along, they said, are you the prophet that Moses spoke about?

Are you the prophet that we're looking for? And he goes, no, I'm just here to point you to the prophet. I am here to point you to the one. That's why in Hebrews it says, now Moses was faithful in all his house as a servant for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later. Now go with me one more place in scripture. Go to John chapter five. I know you didn't know you're coming from.

I have Olympics this morning, but here we are killing it. John chapter five. And I want you to look at verse 46.

And for the sake of context, let's start in verse 44. It says, how can you believe when you receive glory from one another? Jesus is speaking to the religious leaders, defending his witness. How can you believe when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God? Do not think that I will accuse you before the father.

The one who accuses you is, Moses in whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me for he wrote about me. You see the glory of Moses is that he pointed people to Jesus. It was seen in Deuteronomy. It was confirmed in John. And of course, witness to us right here in the book of Hebrews chapter three, Moses was a faithful servant.

Go back to Hebrews chapter three now. And I want you, to look at verse six. Moses was a faithful servant of the things that would be spoken of later. But Christ was a faith, was faithful as a son over his house. Christ was faithful as a son over his house. We have to understand the difference between being a son and a servant. A servant lives in the house and lives to serve the people in the house.

A son has all of the rights of the house. He has all of the rights of the family within the house. And remember, we already established, we already established the fact that sonship when spoken of in the book of Hebrews means equality with God. And that's who he was. That's who he is. He is faithful as a son in the house. He is faithful as the one who has all of the authority and all of the rights in the house.

In the same way that the angels were ministering spirits unto Jesus, Moses was a servant to Jesus. Both in the things that he did and the things that he declared. And so Jesus, it's so much better than Moses, but now he gives us an exhortation that we're going to end with in chapter six. And we're going to camp out on this for just a little bit because it's really important.

He says, but Christ was faithful as a son over his house, whose house we are. If we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end, if we hold fast, fast our confidence, let me first of all, tell you what he is not saying here. He is not saying that your salvation is something that you must work to maintain. It's important that we understand that because he is speaking to believers right now who are finding themselves being tempted to fall away from the faith because of the persecution that they are facing.

And he is not telling them that they have to work to maintain their salvation because that is, that is, that is, it's not something that you must work to maintain. He is not saying that you must work to maintain. It's not saying that you must work to maintain. It's not saying that you must work to maintain. It would violate everything else. He's going to talk about,

about the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses us from all of our sin and gives us access to the father. So if he's not saying that salvation is something that's earned or something that has worked to maintain, what is he telling them? Because he says, if we hold fast our confidence, if we hold fast our confidence, the word hold fast means to maintain the course. It would, it would, was also used in the book of acts about a ship staying on its course in spite of a storm that's the idea of the word to hold faster to maintain the course in spite of the difficulty he says what i want you to do is hold fast maintain the course of what of your confidence interestingly enough that word confidence means freedom of speech it's kind of a fun phraser maintain

the course of the freedom of speech that you have in your declaration of faith why does he tell them this he tells them this because everything was pulling them away from their confidence everything around them at this point in time was rocking their confidence in who they were in christ and it was rocking their confidence in the confession that they had made and so so as they're being pulled away from this because of the difficulties around them he wants to tell them keep the confidence that you have don't lose it hold fast to it maintain the course don't let go of it because everything is wanting to tell you to let go can i just tell you life hasn't changed a lot since then what they were dealing

with was persecution what we deal with is all of the hardships of life and all of the hardships of life cause us to want to let go sometimes because we go is it even worth it is it even worth it life is hard i think it's important that we understand that i have people come to me sometimes and they say so is following jesus really just always hard now there's lots of joy in it but it is hard but listen life is hard when you don't follow jesus choose your heart right but like life is just hard that's all there is to it because we live in a fallen world and we live in a fallen world and we live in a fallen world and we live in a fallen world full of a lot of fallen things full of a lot of difficulties that are all around us all the time

and as we live in this fallen world sometimes our confidence can be shaken i've had a good number of these things happen in the last 10 years of my life i don't know i don't know what it is but over the last six months i have just really pondered the last 10 years where i feel like i've pushed down a lot of things that i've had to deal with because i just had to keep going and it's almost like they're all kind of coming up again right now and again this is just a really candid moment with your pastor and and so as i've kind of looked at him i'm like man some of those have almost kind of shaken my confidence just a little bit and i don't think i realized it in the moment because all i knew to do

is just keep going i just i sort of manned up and went back to being a pastor and now i'm like there's some heavy stuff that we've been through as a church in the last 10 years there's some heavy stuff i've been through in my life in the last 10 years and quite frankly there's been a few times where i've kind of gone lord i don't get this one or this is a hard one but i don't i don't know what to do with this right now and it's easy for your confidence to be shaken but if i've learned anything over the last 10 years of my life is that the only place i have to go back to is jesus because because whatever changes in the world that we live in whatever difficulties we go through in the world that we live in

it's it's still just he's the only thing that doesn't change he's the only steady i look at the cross section of this last week okay i'm just gonna i'm gonna walk you through the last week of my life okay so so friday i get the call is it friday yeah friday night i get back from a basketball game not two nights ago friday but a week ago friday i get back from a basketball game i get the call about doc passing away i'm like oh man that's hard that hurt right like i love that dude i miss his incredibly loud voice and and um and then i get a call about my great aunt passing away and i get the call to do that that funeral and and and then i get the call to do that

and then um monday i'm just dealing with all of the things oh you know and then sunday i hear i get the call about april's dad and that was really hard because i've walked that family through a lot of things and and it's just hard to deal with that and then as i'm dealing with all of those things like my one place of release is the gym right like that's what i do i go to the gym and i run or i lift and that's kind of how i deal with it and then in the middle of that i get injured and i passed out and i hit my melon and and i got to go to the er and i'm not gonna lie monday i was just kind of like now what i don't know what to do now i got no release i can't go run

i can just sit here and god was like there's always me and i was like i know that but i use running to talk to you and just going through this week it was the week from you from the netherlands right like it was it was the week from you know where and now the whole time i'm just going forward i don't get it i don't get any of the things that happened this week i don't understand why you've allowed these things this week and quite frankly sometimes these things will mess with you a little bit but i had to come back to the exact same place i've come to listen over the last 10 years of my life and just going but i just got to give it to the lord i just got to give it to god by faith and trust that he's going to take care of all of the other things i was

talking to somebody the other day that was battling some anxiety and i've always battled anxiety it's kind of who i am it's a nickels thing you wouldn't understand um i said you have to learn to give those things to god by faith and it's part of what i've learned over the last 20 years of my life so do you have to learn to give those things to god by faith they said what's that mean i said well let me tell you a little story about 15 nope because i wasn't married yet about 22 years ago there was a ladies retreat i was still living in the basement of my parents house up in kansas city at this point in time my mom had gone on a women's retreat with a bunch of

ladies and a bunch of us guys do what guys do when ladies leave and we got together and we played a until two in the morning and um and the next morning was early service dad led worship and and i ran sound and and um lack of sleep creates anxiety i don't know if you realize that or not but it does and um we both were talking i said man i feel really anxious this morning he said yeah me too i said well what do you do when you feel that way he goes i gave it to jesus and i said so do you feel better now and he goes not yet i give it to jesus by faith the feelings take care of themselves i know that that's in god's hands now and i was like okay those words have rung true in my mind for the last 20 some years of my life and

i've had to learn what it looks like to give those things to jesus by faith and that's what i've had to do this week and that's what i had to do these last 10 years is i give them to jesus why because i'm holding fast to my faith i'm holding fast to my confidence if he's never let me down yet he's probably not going to start today if he's never let anyone down over the course of history he's probably not going to start with me if every story and every promise is a yes and amen from god i don't think i'm going to be the exception to that so i hold fast to my confidence and so you get up you dust yourself off and you go again knowing that god is ultimately in control see that's what he's telling these believers

is he says i can't make it easy right now i can't make it to where you won't go through hardship right now but i can tell you this there's only one place you can go and that's jesus no one else offers peace no one else offers hope no one else offers you an option everything else offers you slavery so why don't you go with jesus who gives you freedom no matter how hard it is he says if we hold fast to our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end what's the boast of our hope well it's jesus that's what we boast in we boast in the hope that we have in jesus and that's what i keep telling people over and over again well listen you just got to trust in jesus i know i

probably sound like a broken record but listen i only have one song to sing and that's because that's what i've learned from jesus it's what he's written on my heart and all i can tell you is you just got to keep trusting jesus because he's the only place that you can run to and you can either hold tight to him or you can let go and have no hope at all have no boast at all have no rejoicing at all but from someone who's been through a lot of ups and downs i can tell you hold fast maintain your course and your confidence in jesus because he is the one thing that will never change and he is the one person that will never let you down amen let's all stand

and you bow with me father we come before you now and lord i thank you that you have blessed us with another day lord i don't think we always consider what a blessing it is that you woke us up today you gave us another opportunity to see your faithfulness you gave us another opportunity to see your goodness you gave us another day to consider jesus and so father i pray that you would continue to put our focus back on him i pray that you would continue to give us the heart and mind that wants to learn from him who wants to consider him and lord that you would help us to hold fast to stay strong and to find our joy in you so father be with each person that's here this morning i know that each person that came in here

they brought something in with them lord they brought a fear they brought an anxiety they brought maybe a little bit of guilt or shame they they brought the anxiety they brought the fear that unknown of tomorrow that's weighing on their hearts and lord what you want to do is take that and give them your peace and so lord i pray that they would be able to do that as we sing this last song that they would be able to let go of the things that they brought in and consider you so lord do your work we pray in jesus name amen be blessed we just thank you for another day we thank you for who you are we thank you for how great you are you're greater than any of the angels lord you're greater than creation

lord god and we just uh we just thank you that you think about us that you love us as much as you do lord god ask your blessing upon each and every one of us as we leave here today you guys have a wonderful week god bless you guys