May 22, 2025 • 28 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to this edition of PowerPoint with Jack Graham. A
little later in the program, we'll tell you how you
can get a copy of a devotional on fifty two
questions every believer should answer. But first, here's the message,
the Great Divide.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Take your Bibles and turn to Hebrews Chapter four. Hebrews
Chapter four, verses fourteen through sixteen, three of the most
important verses in all of the Bible. This is the
core of the Christian faith. The message is called the
Great Divide. We know in our nation there is a
political divide, economic divide, so much division that creates so
(00:46):
much chaos and separation hate in our land. And of
course that divide reaches to the ends of the earth,
division between nations. But the greatest divide is the divide
between Holy God and sinful humanity. What are we to
do about this seemingly impossible situation, that God, who is
(01:12):
great and holy and mighty and powerful, could somehow connect
with us, that we could somehow relate to him verse fourteen.
Since then we have a great high priest who has
passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God. Let
(01:35):
us hold fast our confession, for we do not have
a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses,
but one who in every respect has been tempted as
we are, yet without sin. Let us, then, with confidence,
(01:55):
draw near to the throne of Grace, that we may
receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
The great divide between God and man Hebrews, of course,
is all about how God solved this problem, and how
(02:19):
God has come to us in the person of Jesus Christ,
who is our superior and superlative Savior, our sovereign Lord,
and given us access to him. He is described here
in this passage as the Great High Priest. Now, most
(02:41):
of us don't relate to this passage of scripture, as
important as it may be, because we don't have maybe
a basic understanding of the role and the function of
the priest and the Old Testament. We know of priest
and our generation and our day in various churches. But
this high and holy Priest, our Lord Jesus Christ, is
reflective of the priest of the Old Testament. And the
(03:04):
role of the priest, of course is to represent God
to man and to represent man to God. That's what
a priest does. In Latin, the word for priest is pontifects,
which actually means bridge builder, a builder of bridges, pontiffects.
(03:28):
This is the role and the responsibility of the priest
to help connect God and man. That was the role
of the Old Testament priest. As the priest would go
in to the Holy Place, the holiest place of all,
the inner sanctum, and there on one day of the year,
(03:49):
praying that he would not die in that he was
in the presence of Holy God, would make sacrifices for sin.
He would never sit in that place, but would walk
in that place with holy fear, knowing that he was
representing man and sinful humanity there in the holy presence
of God. So the priest in effect is a mediator.
(04:14):
The priest is an intercessor, a powerful presence in God's
holy place. That's the role of the priest. And here
we are told that Jesus is the perfect priest. He
is the great High and Holy Priest. And with that said,
(04:40):
he does two things. Primarily, he intercedes for us, that is,
he prays with us and for us, and he invites
us into his presence. That's the takeaway. Our Great High
priest intercedes for us, and he invites us into the
very presence of God. He is the ultimate prayer warrior.
(05:07):
He is your ultimate prayer partner. This passage tells us
that Jesus ascended into the heavens, past our atmosphere, through
stellar space, and into the heaven of heavens, into the
very holy place, the throne of God, the presence of God,
(05:32):
all mighty. Jesus ascends there in great glory. Because he
is coequal and co eternal with the Father, they are one.
Make much of the ascension of Jesus. When he elevated
into the presence of the Throne of God, the disciples
(05:55):
saw it with their own eyes, and the Angel announce
the promise of Christ's return and commissioned them to get
about the business of Christ. Those disciples, no doubt, were
often comforted, encouraged, strengthened as they were facing persecution and
problems and difficulties. They could never forget seeing Jesus ascend
(06:17):
into heaven with the promise that he was with them
low I'm with you always even to the end of
the age, and the promise of his return. So the
ascension of Jesus is often forgotten among believers. We remember
the incarnation. We think of the crucifixion, the resurrection, the
(06:39):
glorification of Christ when he comes again. But oh, the
ascension of Christ and the intercession of Christ today. Because
this is of great encouragement. Now remember the purpose of
Hebrews is to exhort us, encourage us equip us to
keep going in the Christian life and never turn back.
(07:01):
To develop a strong and vital, viril muscular faith, because
we will face difficulties in life and trials and all
the rest, and therefore we need to get stronger and stronger,
and we need to know that our faith is strong.
So there is an exhortation. In fact, there are two
exhortations in this passage. If you prefer the word encouragement,
(07:22):
take that one. Two encouragements. The first thing that we're
told that we are to do in view of this
is that the bottom of verse fourteen, it says, let
us hold fast our confession. So the first exhortation encouragement
is this, hold on to your faith. Jesus is prophet,
(07:51):
priest and key. As prophet, he came announcing the Kingdom
of God and gave his life, and that signifies as prophet,
the completed work of Christ. His current work as priest
is a continuing work. In other words, it goes on
(08:13):
day and nights, and then there's the coming work of Christ.
And the ascension reminds us that the same way the
Angel said that you've seen him go, Christ is coming again,
visibly and victoriously. Jesus is coming again. So do you
see this. We have the completed work of Christ in
(08:35):
the ascension. It is finished. We have the continuing work
of Christ as he ascended into the heavens to intercede
for us, to pray for us. And then we have
this promise work, this coming work, in which Jesus is
coming again. So, having said that, now stay with me.
(08:55):
He is prophet, he is priest, he is king as prophet,
he gave us salvation. The work is done, accomplished. When
Jesus died and rose again, the plan of salvation has
been now delivered. And then the continuing work of Christ
is that process of sanctification. Christ is praying with us
(09:19):
and partnering with us now as our priest in heaven,
and he is sanctifying us. You know what the word
sanctification means. It means to be made holy. So the
goal of the Christian life is to become more and
more like Jesus. And the continuing work of Christ as
our priest, is that we are being prayed for and
(09:42):
cared for, and we also to be elevated into His
presence as we as we become more and more like him.
So that's salvation justification. There, that's the prophet, and then
the priest Jesus is praying for us and with us.
That the process of sanctification. And then there's this coming
(10:03):
work of Christ that I mentioned that is signified in
the ascension of Christ, and that speaks of the day
of glorification, because we will be like him and we
will see him as he is. He is our priest,
he is our pontifects. There is one mediator, Paul said
(10:24):
to Timothy between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.
Could I just say, as I noted earlier in Hebrews,
that he is the man Christ, Jesus, our man in heaven.
He still bears his scars, He still bears though in
a glorified body, arisen body. He is still man. He
(10:48):
is the one who came to earth and is now
in heaven and That's very important because if you want
to identify with God. For God to bridge the great divide,
that takes not only the son of God, but the
son of Man, the Lord Jesus Christ. And what happened
in Christ is he took the hand of Holy God
(11:09):
with one hand and the hand of sinful humanity, men
and women, and he brought us together in Christ at
the Cross. That's the act of reconciliation, when the Great divide,
the big gap between God and mankind was covered by
the grace of God. This is the faith that I'm
(11:33):
talking about that the writer is talking about. Hold on
to this faith.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the message
the Great Divide. When you ask big questions of God,
you can trust he'll give you answers that grow your
faith and deepen your intimacy with Him. In his devotional
The Jesus Code, os Hawkins helps you uncover bold truths
as you search for answers to life's biggest questions. We
(12:00):
want to send you a copy of this powerful resource
as thanks for your gift of ten dollars or more so,
request your copy of the Jesus Code when you call
and give today. Call one eight hundred seven ninety five
four six two seven. That's one eight hundred seven ninety
five four six two seven. You can also text the
word code to five nine seven eight nine. Don't let
(12:23):
stress rob you of peace. It is possible to break
the destructive grip of stress on your life and enjoy
the peace and abundance God desires for you. That's what
doctor Graham helps you do in his booklet Breaking Free
from Stress. We'll send you a digital download of Breaking
Free from Stress when you sign up for email updates
from PowerPoint Today. Just go to PowerPoint dot org slash
(12:45):
stress and sign up today. Now let's get back to
today's message, the Great divide.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
But we are then to confess our faith, to hold
on to the confession of our faith. He's talking about
our testimony. We are to continue to testify, to confess,
to profess that we are believers in Christ, and we're
(13:14):
to hold fast and firm to this. Another time in scripture,
the apostle Paul put it like this. He said, lay
hold of eternal life that is reached forward. He said,
I leave the past behind, and I press on to
the mark for the prize of the high calling of
(13:36):
God in Jesus Christ. We're running a race and we're
seizing a prist. So the idea of holding firm is
stretching out there in our faith and trusting God and
strengthening our faith in Him, lay hold of eternal life,
pursue him, press on. And the way that we do
(13:57):
that in great part is by publicly professing our faith,
by continually confessing Jesus Christ. Jesus said, if you don't
confess me before men, I will not confess you before
the Father in heaven. So one way that you confess
(14:21):
this faith is by your public testimony of receiving Christ.
Another way, of course, is baptism. That's why we are baptized.
It is a great confession of our faith, and every
believer should be baptized because of your profession of faith
in Jesus Christ. Another way that we confess our faith
(14:42):
is by faithfully worshiping Jesus Christ. Do you know when
you drive out your driveway or you leave your apartment
complex and you come here to church to worship Christ
on Sunday or Saturday night, If that's your case, you
are giving a testimony to everyone in your community of
(15:03):
your firm hope. In Jesus Christ, of your confession that
you are a follower of Jesus Christ. That's why later
on in Hebrews we told don't forsake the assembling of
yourselves together. Don't give up on that, because remember, we're
moving forward, we're maturing in One of the ways that
(15:25):
we hold faster our confession. I truly believe this is
that we openly publicly identify ourselves with God's Church and
in the community as followers of Jesus. There is a
promise here verse fifteen. Look at it again, For we
do not have a high priest who is unable to
(15:45):
sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect
has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Though
our priest is pure and a perfect priest, he identifies
with us in that he sympathizes and suffers with us,
(16:06):
a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. Here we're told
that he was actually tempted in all points, just as
we are tempted. Though he never sinned, he was tempted physically, emotionally, psychologically, spiritually.
(16:27):
All sin could come under the cover, as described in
the scripture as the lust of the flesh, the lust
of the eye, and the pride of life. Even when
Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, those three came in
to play in this big cage fight in the wilderness
with the devil. The lust of the flesh turned the
(16:48):
stones into bread. The lust of the eye, bow down
and I'll give you all the kingdoms of this world.
The pride of life circumvents the cross. Follow me. These
were the temptations of Christ in the wilderness, and he
was tempted. Therefore, like we are tempted. There is no tests,
(17:12):
no temptation that we experienced, but that Jesus knew in
his humanity. You say, well, okay, but he was the
son of God, and he was God, and he was pure,
and he was perfect. And I'm not. I'm sinful, and
temptation is more powerful to me than it was to Jesus.
(17:34):
Let me quote from C. S. Lewis in Mere Christianity.
He writes, A silly idea is current that good people
do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie.
Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong
it is. After all, you find out the strength of
(17:58):
the German army by fighting against that, not by giving in.
You find out the strength of the wind by trying
to walk against it, not by lying down. A man
who gives into temptation after five minutes simply does not
know what it would have been like an hour later.
That is why bad people, in one sense, know very
(18:19):
little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life. How
by giving in, giving in to temptation, you see that Christ,
because he was the only man who never yielded to temptation,
is also the only man who knows to the full
what temptation means fast powerful. So don't say, oh, Jesus
(18:46):
was God and his temptations weren't all that real, are
all that powerful? He was tempted more than you are tempted.
And yet and ye, yet without sin. So he said,
(19:07):
what does that mean? As our priest, he understands us.
He was wholly separate from sin, And yet he knows
the thrust of temptation, and he understands it. He knows
what you're going through, he knows how difficult it is.
(19:31):
And if you will come to him for strength, he
will empower you once again to overcome sin in your
life and say no and no to temptation instead of
yes and yes. Our High Priest prays for us. He's
the ultimate prayer partner. He closes the gap. Sometimes when
(19:52):
we pray, we wonder to my prayers even get beyond
the ceiling we heard, and we wonder, God, can you
heal this this brokenness in my heart? We grieve and
we wonder, God, are you out there somewhere? God? Do
you care for me? We are struggling in some way,
We are suffering in some way, and some days we doubt.
(20:13):
We wonder, God, how am I going to get through this?
Hold on to your faith in the one who is
praying for you. If you knew that Jesus was praying
for you right now, don't you think you could face
anything in your life? He is It's a creep promise
(20:38):
from God that he's calling your name at the Throne
of grace. Incredible, He says, I understand you. He sympathizes
with us. Sometimes when people are hurting, we'll say to them, oh,
(21:01):
I understand. Probably not. You don't understand what somebody is
going through, But let me tell you somebody who does.
That's Jesus. But that's a promise from God and then
he says one final thing. He says, dare to draw near?
(21:21):
Do you see that there in the last sentence of
verse sixteen. Let us. Then there's some questions I'm going
to answer real quickly, for you ask yourself, who let us?
Because we are believers and followers of Jesus Christ. Let
us who know Him, who believe and have received him.
(21:44):
Let us with confidence? How are we to approach God's
throne of grace? How are we to connect with God?
With confidence? That means openness. It's even translated boldness, not brashness,
(22:06):
not irreverence, but with confidence and assurance. Those of us
who are believers and followers of Jesus, we can confidently,
fearlessly come into the presence of all Mighty God. We
(22:27):
are invited there. And that's a confidence that beats any
so called self esteem that is so often promoted today.
You know, everybody wants to talk about self esteem. I
esteem myself, blah blah blah blah. We're not told in
(22:52):
the Bible to esteem ourselves. It is not my self
love that makes me feel better about myself. It is
God's love. It is the love of Jesus Christ. So
quit running around trying to love yourself. Our identity in
(23:12):
Christ is our reality. So our affirmation, our acceptance, our
approval is in the fact that we can draw near
with confidence into the throne room of God. You're of vip.
How are we to come there? Let us come with
(23:36):
boldness and grace. Where are we to go the throne
of grace? We're coming to the throne of grace. And remember,
he is prophet, he is priest, he is King, who
sits on that throne as well. When when are we
to go there? We come to the throne of grace
in hour of need, and there we receive at the
throne of grace, want mercy and grace. Mercy is when
(24:01):
God doesn't give us what we deserve. We deserve judgment,
but He gives us mercy at his throne of Grace.
And so I come to that throne of grace and
mercy for pardon and for provision what I need. And
the mercy of God shows the heart of God. The
(24:23):
grace of God shows us the hand of God that
gives us everything that we need, gives us what we
do not deserve. So who can come there? Believers in Christ?
How are we to go there? With boldness and confidence
and what do we receive there, mercy and grace.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the message
the Great Divide and the devotional to Jesus Code. Os
Hawkins invites you to ask fifty two thought provoking questions
found in the Bible that will help you experience Jesus
in deeper, more authentic ways than ever before. As you
dive into these questions, you'll discover that everything we need
(25:10):
can be found in a deepening relationship with Jesus Christ.
We want to help you uncover bold truths in the
search for answers to life's biggest questions by sending you
the Jesus Code as our thanks for your gift of
ten dollars or more to help proclaim God's unchanging word
through PowerPoint. So call now to request your copy of
the Jesus Code. Call one eight hundred seven ninety five
(25:34):
four six two seven. That's one eight hundred seven ninety
five four six two seven. You can also text the
word code to five nine seven eight nine, and don't
forget to visit Jack Graham dot org, where you can
shop our East store, give a gift online, or sign
up for doctor Graham's free daily email devotional. Our website
(25:56):
again is Jack Graham dot org, and also be sure
to sign up for doctor Graham's podcast Bible in a
Year pastor what is your PowerPoint for Today?
Speaker 2 (26:08):
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(26:30):
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(26:51):
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If you haven't yet given to PowerPoint, would you consider
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Speaker 1 (27:14):
And that is today's PowerPoint. Remember when you give a
gift of ten dollars or more to PowerPoint, we'll send
you OS Hawkins devotional the Jesus Code as our thanks.
Call one eight hundred seven ninety five four six two seven.
That's one eight hundred seven ninety five four six two seven.
You can also text the word code to five nine
(27:37):
seven eight nine and join us again next time as
Doctor Graham brings a message about the results, rewards, and
responsibilities that go along with your salvation. That's next time
on PowerPoint with Jack Graham. PowerPoint with Jack Graham is
sponsored by PowerPoint Ministry.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Say
Welcome to this edition of PowerPoint with Jack Graham. A
little later in the program, we'll tell you how you
can get a copy of a devotional on fifty two
questions every believer should answer. But first, here's the message,
the Great Divide.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Take your Bibles and turn to Hebrews Chapter four. Hebrews
Chapter four, verses fourteen through sixteen, three of the most
important verses in all of the Bible. This is the
core of the Christian faith. The message is called the
Great Divide. We know in our nation there is a
political divide, economic divide, so much division that creates so
(00:46):
much chaos and separation hate in our land. And of
course that divide reaches to the ends of the earth,
division between nations. But the greatest divide is the divide
between Holy God and sinful humanity. What are we to
do about this seemingly impossible situation, that God, who is
(01:12):
great and holy and mighty and powerful, could somehow connect
with us, that we could somehow relate to him verse fourteen.
Since then we have a great high priest who has
passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God. Let
(01:35):
us hold fast our confession, for we do not have
a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses,
but one who in every respect has been tempted as
we are, yet without sin. Let us, then, with confidence,
(01:55):
draw near to the throne of Grace, that we may
receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
The great divide between God and man Hebrews, of course,
is all about how God solved this problem, and how
(02:19):
God has come to us in the person of Jesus Christ,
who is our superior and superlative Savior, our sovereign Lord,
and given us access to him. He is described here
in this passage as the Great High Priest. Now, most
(02:41):
of us don't relate to this passage of scripture, as
important as it may be, because we don't have maybe
a basic understanding of the role and the function of
the priest and the Old Testament. We know of priest
and our generation and our day in various churches. But
this high and holy Priest, our Lord Jesus Christ, is
reflective of the priest of the Old Testament. And the
(03:04):
role of the priest, of course is to represent God
to man and to represent man to God. That's what
a priest does. In Latin, the word for priest is pontifects,
which actually means bridge builder, a builder of bridges, pontiffects.
(03:28):
This is the role and the responsibility of the priest
to help connect God and man. That was the role
of the Old Testament priest. As the priest would go
in to the Holy Place, the holiest place of all,
the inner sanctum, and there on one day of the year,
(03:49):
praying that he would not die in that he was
in the presence of Holy God, would make sacrifices for sin.
He would never sit in that place, but would walk
in that place with holy fear, knowing that he was
representing man and sinful humanity there in the holy presence
of God. So the priest in effect is a mediator.
(04:14):
The priest is an intercessor, a powerful presence in God's
holy place. That's the role of the priest. And here
we are told that Jesus is the perfect priest. He
is the great High and Holy Priest. And with that said,
(04:40):
he does two things. Primarily, he intercedes for us, that is,
he prays with us and for us, and he invites
us into his presence. That's the takeaway. Our Great High
priest intercedes for us, and he invites us into the
very presence of God. He is the ultimate prayer warrior.
(05:07):
He is your ultimate prayer partner. This passage tells us
that Jesus ascended into the heavens, past our atmosphere, through
stellar space, and into the heaven of heavens, into the
very holy place, the throne of God, the presence of God,
(05:32):
all mighty. Jesus ascends there in great glory. Because he
is coequal and co eternal with the Father, they are one.
Make much of the ascension of Jesus. When he elevated
into the presence of the Throne of God, the disciples
(05:55):
saw it with their own eyes, and the Angel announce
the promise of Christ's return and commissioned them to get
about the business of Christ. Those disciples, no doubt, were
often comforted, encouraged, strengthened as they were facing persecution and
problems and difficulties. They could never forget seeing Jesus ascend
(06:17):
into heaven with the promise that he was with them
low I'm with you always even to the end of
the age, and the promise of his return. So the
ascension of Jesus is often forgotten among believers. We remember
the incarnation. We think of the crucifixion, the resurrection, the
(06:39):
glorification of Christ when he comes again. But oh, the
ascension of Christ and the intercession of Christ today. Because
this is of great encouragement. Now remember the purpose of
Hebrews is to exhort us, encourage us equip us to
keep going in the Christian life and never turn back.
(07:01):
To develop a strong and vital, viril muscular faith, because
we will face difficulties in life and trials and all
the rest, and therefore we need to get stronger and stronger,
and we need to know that our faith is strong.
So there is an exhortation. In fact, there are two
exhortations in this passage. If you prefer the word encouragement,
(07:22):
take that one. Two encouragements. The first thing that we're
told that we are to do in view of this
is that the bottom of verse fourteen, it says, let
us hold fast our confession. So the first exhortation encouragement
is this, hold on to your faith. Jesus is prophet,
(07:51):
priest and key. As prophet, he came announcing the Kingdom
of God and gave his life, and that signifies as prophet,
the completed work of Christ. His current work as priest
is a continuing work. In other words, it goes on
(08:13):
day and nights, and then there's the coming work of Christ.
And the ascension reminds us that the same way the
Angel said that you've seen him go, Christ is coming again,
visibly and victoriously. Jesus is coming again. So do you
see this. We have the completed work of Christ in
(08:35):
the ascension. It is finished. We have the continuing work
of Christ as he ascended into the heavens to intercede
for us, to pray for us. And then we have
this promise work, this coming work, in which Jesus is
coming again. So, having said that, now stay with me.
(08:55):
He is prophet, he is priest, he is king as prophet,
he gave us salvation. The work is done, accomplished. When
Jesus died and rose again, the plan of salvation has
been now delivered. And then the continuing work of Christ
is that process of sanctification. Christ is praying with us
(09:19):
and partnering with us now as our priest in heaven,
and he is sanctifying us. You know what the word
sanctification means. It means to be made holy. So the
goal of the Christian life is to become more and
more like Jesus. And the continuing work of Christ as
our priest, is that we are being prayed for and
(09:42):
cared for, and we also to be elevated into His
presence as we as we become more and more like him.
So that's salvation justification. There, that's the prophet, and then
the priest Jesus is praying for us and with us.
That the process of sanctification. And then there's this coming
(10:03):
work of Christ that I mentioned that is signified in
the ascension of Christ, and that speaks of the day
of glorification, because we will be like him and we
will see him as he is. He is our priest,
he is our pontifects. There is one mediator, Paul said
(10:24):
to Timothy between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.
Could I just say, as I noted earlier in Hebrews,
that he is the man Christ, Jesus, our man in heaven.
He still bears his scars, He still bears though in
a glorified body, arisen body. He is still man. He
(10:48):
is the one who came to earth and is now
in heaven and That's very important because if you want
to identify with God. For God to bridge the great divide,
that takes not only the son of God, but the
son of Man, the Lord Jesus Christ. And what happened
in Christ is he took the hand of Holy God
(11:09):
with one hand and the hand of sinful humanity, men
and women, and he brought us together in Christ at
the Cross. That's the act of reconciliation, when the Great divide,
the big gap between God and mankind was covered by
the grace of God. This is the faith that I'm
(11:33):
talking about that the writer is talking about. Hold on
to this faith.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the message
the Great Divide. When you ask big questions of God,
you can trust he'll give you answers that grow your
faith and deepen your intimacy with Him. In his devotional
The Jesus Code, os Hawkins helps you uncover bold truths
as you search for answers to life's biggest questions. We
(12:00):
want to send you a copy of this powerful resource
as thanks for your gift of ten dollars or more so,
request your copy of the Jesus Code when you call
and give today. Call one eight hundred seven ninety five
four six two seven. That's one eight hundred seven ninety
five four six two seven. You can also text the
word code to five nine seven eight nine. Don't let
(12:23):
stress rob you of peace. It is possible to break
the destructive grip of stress on your life and enjoy
the peace and abundance God desires for you. That's what
doctor Graham helps you do in his booklet Breaking Free
from Stress. We'll send you a digital download of Breaking
Free from Stress when you sign up for email updates
from PowerPoint Today. Just go to PowerPoint dot org slash
(12:45):
stress and sign up today. Now let's get back to
today's message, the Great divide.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
But we are then to confess our faith, to hold
on to the confession of our faith. He's talking about
our testimony. We are to continue to testify, to confess,
to profess that we are believers in Christ, and we're
(13:14):
to hold fast and firm to this. Another time in scripture,
the apostle Paul put it like this. He said, lay
hold of eternal life that is reached forward. He said,
I leave the past behind, and I press on to
the mark for the prize of the high calling of
(13:36):
God in Jesus Christ. We're running a race and we're
seizing a prist. So the idea of holding firm is
stretching out there in our faith and trusting God and
strengthening our faith in Him, lay hold of eternal life,
pursue him, press on. And the way that we do
(13:57):
that in great part is by publicly professing our faith,
by continually confessing Jesus Christ. Jesus said, if you don't
confess me before men, I will not confess you before
the Father in heaven. So one way that you confess
(14:21):
this faith is by your public testimony of receiving Christ.
Another way, of course, is baptism. That's why we are baptized.
It is a great confession of our faith, and every
believer should be baptized because of your profession of faith
in Jesus Christ. Another way that we confess our faith
(14:42):
is by faithfully worshiping Jesus Christ. Do you know when
you drive out your driveway or you leave your apartment
complex and you come here to church to worship Christ
on Sunday or Saturday night, If that's your case, you
are giving a testimony to everyone in your community of
(15:03):
your firm hope. In Jesus Christ, of your confession that
you are a follower of Jesus Christ. That's why later
on in Hebrews we told don't forsake the assembling of
yourselves together. Don't give up on that, because remember, we're
moving forward, we're maturing in One of the ways that
(15:25):
we hold faster our confession. I truly believe this is
that we openly publicly identify ourselves with God's Church and
in the community as followers of Jesus. There is a
promise here verse fifteen. Look at it again, For we
do not have a high priest who is unable to
(15:45):
sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect
has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Though
our priest is pure and a perfect priest, he identifies
with us in that he sympathizes and suffers with us,
(16:06):
a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. Here we're told
that he was actually tempted in all points, just as
we are tempted. Though he never sinned, he was tempted physically, emotionally, psychologically, spiritually.
(16:27):
All sin could come under the cover, as described in
the scripture as the lust of the flesh, the lust
of the eye, and the pride of life. Even when
Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, those three came in
to play in this big cage fight in the wilderness
with the devil. The lust of the flesh turned the
(16:48):
stones into bread. The lust of the eye, bow down
and I'll give you all the kingdoms of this world.
The pride of life circumvents the cross. Follow me. These
were the temptations of Christ in the wilderness, and he
was tempted. Therefore, like we are tempted. There is no tests,
(17:12):
no temptation that we experienced, but that Jesus knew in
his humanity. You say, well, okay, but he was the
son of God, and he was God, and he was pure,
and he was perfect. And I'm not. I'm sinful, and
temptation is more powerful to me than it was to Jesus.
(17:34):
Let me quote from C. S. Lewis in Mere Christianity.
He writes, A silly idea is current that good people
do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie.
Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong
it is. After all, you find out the strength of
(17:58):
the German army by fighting against that, not by giving in.
You find out the strength of the wind by trying
to walk against it, not by lying down. A man
who gives into temptation after five minutes simply does not
know what it would have been like an hour later.
That is why bad people, in one sense, know very
(18:19):
little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life. How
by giving in, giving in to temptation, you see that Christ,
because he was the only man who never yielded to temptation,
is also the only man who knows to the full
what temptation means fast powerful. So don't say, oh, Jesus
(18:46):
was God and his temptations weren't all that real, are
all that powerful? He was tempted more than you are tempted.
And yet and ye, yet without sin. So he said,
(19:07):
what does that mean? As our priest, he understands us.
He was wholly separate from sin, And yet he knows
the thrust of temptation, and he understands it. He knows
what you're going through, he knows how difficult it is.
(19:31):
And if you will come to him for strength, he
will empower you once again to overcome sin in your
life and say no and no to temptation instead of
yes and yes. Our High Priest prays for us. He's
the ultimate prayer partner. He closes the gap. Sometimes when
(19:52):
we pray, we wonder to my prayers even get beyond
the ceiling we heard, and we wonder, God, can you
heal this this brokenness in my heart? We grieve and
we wonder, God, are you out there somewhere? God? Do
you care for me? We are struggling in some way,
We are suffering in some way, and some days we doubt.
(20:13):
We wonder, God, how am I going to get through this?
Hold on to your faith in the one who is
praying for you. If you knew that Jesus was praying
for you right now, don't you think you could face
anything in your life? He is It's a creep promise
(20:38):
from God that he's calling your name at the Throne
of grace. Incredible, He says, I understand you. He sympathizes
with us. Sometimes when people are hurting, we'll say to them, oh,
(21:01):
I understand. Probably not. You don't understand what somebody is
going through, But let me tell you somebody who does.
That's Jesus. But that's a promise from God and then
he says one final thing. He says, dare to draw near?
(21:21):
Do you see that there in the last sentence of
verse sixteen. Let us. Then there's some questions I'm going
to answer real quickly, for you ask yourself, who let us?
Because we are believers and followers of Jesus Christ. Let
us who know Him, who believe and have received him.
(21:44):
Let us with confidence? How are we to approach God's
throne of grace? How are we to connect with God?
With confidence? That means openness. It's even translated boldness, not brashness,
(22:06):
not irreverence, but with confidence and assurance. Those of us
who are believers and followers of Jesus, we can confidently,
fearlessly come into the presence of all Mighty God. We
(22:27):
are invited there. And that's a confidence that beats any
so called self esteem that is so often promoted today.
You know, everybody wants to talk about self esteem. I
esteem myself, blah blah blah blah. We're not told in
(22:52):
the Bible to esteem ourselves. It is not my self
love that makes me feel better about myself. It is
God's love. It is the love of Jesus Christ. So
quit running around trying to love yourself. Our identity in
(23:12):
Christ is our reality. So our affirmation, our acceptance, our
approval is in the fact that we can draw near
with confidence into the throne room of God. You're of vip.
How are we to come there? Let us come with
(23:36):
boldness and grace. Where are we to go the throne
of grace? We're coming to the throne of grace. And remember,
he is prophet, he is priest, he is King, who
sits on that throne as well. When when are we
to go there? We come to the throne of grace
in hour of need, and there we receive at the
throne of grace, want mercy and grace. Mercy is when
(24:01):
God doesn't give us what we deserve. We deserve judgment,
but He gives us mercy at his throne of Grace.
And so I come to that throne of grace and
mercy for pardon and for provision what I need. And
the mercy of God shows the heart of God. The
(24:23):
grace of God shows us the hand of God that
gives us everything that we need, gives us what we
do not deserve. So who can come there? Believers in Christ?
How are we to go there? With boldness and confidence
and what do we receive there, mercy and grace.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the message
the Great Divide and the devotional to Jesus Code. Os
Hawkins invites you to ask fifty two thought provoking questions
found in the Bible that will help you experience Jesus
in deeper, more authentic ways than ever before. As you
dive into these questions, you'll discover that everything we need
(25:10):
can be found in a deepening relationship with Jesus Christ.
We want to help you uncover bold truths in the
search for answers to life's biggest questions by sending you
the Jesus Code as our thanks for your gift of
ten dollars or more to help proclaim God's unchanging word
through PowerPoint. So call now to request your copy of
the Jesus Code. Call one eight hundred seven ninety five
(25:34):
four six two seven. That's one eight hundred seven ninety
five four six two seven. You can also text the
word code to five nine seven eight nine, and don't
forget to visit Jack Graham dot org, where you can
shop our East store, give a gift online, or sign
up for doctor Graham's free daily email devotional. Our website
(25:56):
again is Jack Graham dot org, and also be sure
to sign up for doctor Graham's podcast Bible in a
Year pastor what is your PowerPoint for Today?
Speaker 2 (26:08):
I want you to know how grateful I am for
you and your support of PowerPoint, your prayers and certainly
we need your prayers that the Gospel would go forward
and the Word of God would communicate with this generation
through radio is such a great medium. And then for
your financial support, I want you to know that what
you give, we invest right back into the mission of
(26:30):
Christ through PowerPoint, and your gift enables us to share
the word of God and the testimony of Jesus with
the world, and I promise you lives are being changed.
We hear from people every single day. I meet people
everywhere I go whose lives have been dramatically and powerfully
changed by Jesus Christ through the preaching and teaching of
(26:51):
God's Word through PowerPoint. So thank you. If you're a
regular giver, if you're a partner with us and giving
to PowerPoint, thank you, and thank you so very much.
If you haven't yet given to PowerPoint, would you consider
doing that for the first time. Please consider your gift
today and we will invest it back in the work
and the witness of Jesus around the world.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
And that is today's PowerPoint. Remember when you give a
gift of ten dollars or more to PowerPoint, we'll send
you OS Hawkins devotional the Jesus Code as our thanks.
Call one eight hundred seven ninety five four six two seven.
That's one eight hundred seven ninety five four six two seven.
You can also text the word code to five nine
(27:37):
seven eight nine and join us again next time as
Doctor Graham brings a message about the results, rewards, and
responsibilities that go along with your salvation. That's next time
on PowerPoint with Jack Graham. PowerPoint with Jack Graham is
sponsored by PowerPoint Ministry.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
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