March 2, 2025 • 35 mins
Pastoral Resident Kenny Dyches' sermon, based on Hebrews 3:1-6, explores how Jesus grants believers freedom, family, and a future. He uses the analogy of freediving to illustrate how fear can pull us downward, much like gravity, leading to isolation, enslavement, and hopelessness. However, just as a freediver must hold onto a lifeline, we must hold fast to Jesus, who has freed us from fear and death. Pastor Kenny emphasizes that knowing the truth of the gospel is not enough—we must apply it to our lives, allowing it to transform our daily experiences and bring us into the freedom Jesus offers.
He also stresses the communal aspect of faith, illustrating how believers are called to persevere together, much like mangrove trees that root themselves firmly and create an environment where others can flourish. Jesus is not only our high priest and mediator but also our leader, guiding us toward our eternal future. Pastor Kenny calls the congregation to fix their eyes on Jesus, embracing the freedom he offers, engaging deeply in the family of faith, and trusting in the future he has secured. He concludes with the reminder that, like the prodigal son, we are always welcomed back by the Father, who lovingly invites us to experience the fullness of life with him.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hello everyone.
This is Pastor Damien.
You're listening to SermonAudio from New City, orlando.
At New City, we believe all ofus need all of Jesus for all of
life.
For more resources, visit ourwebsite at newcityorlandocom.
Thanks for listening.
By your Spirit's power, give useyes to see his glory.
(00:24):
Through Christ, we pray AmenFrom Hebrews 3, verses 1 through
6.
Therefore, holy brothers, youwho share in a heavenly calling,
consider Jesus the apostle andhigh priest of our confession,
who was faithful to him?
Who appointed him?
Just as Moses who was faithfulto him.
(00:48):
Who appointed him?
Just as Moses, who was faithfulto all God's house.
For Jesus has been countedworthy of more glory than Moses,
as much more glory as thebuilder of a house has more
honor than the house itself, forevery house is built by someone
, but the builder of all thingsis God.
Now, moses was faithful in allGod's house as a servant to
testify to the things that wereto be spoken later.
(01:10):
But Christ is faithful overGod's house as a son, and we are
his house, if indeed we holdfast our confidence and our
boasting and hope.
This is God's word.
Thanks be to God.
Please be seated.
This is God's word.
Thanks be to.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
God, please be seated .
The hardest part is over for me, coming up here with my whole
family, all three kids, onetrying to like, grab my mic and
get down, the whole time worriedI might drop somebody's baby.
The hardest part is over, butso grateful to God that I get to
participate in that way.
(01:44):
I want you guys to imagine youjump from a boat into the sea
with nothing but a swimsuit,maybe a wetsuit, and fins.
You have a team of people inthe boat and one trusted person
in the water ready to help youif you need it, and you will
need it.
However, they aren't comingwith you.
Where you're going, you take adeep breath and start swimming
(02:07):
down, down and down,occasionally pulling yourself by
a rope anchored to the seafloor hundreds of feet below.
As you glide and fin downward,all of your movements are
intentional in order to maximizespeed and minimize energy and
drag.
You're slowly running out ofair, but you keep plunging down.
Eventually, the pressureoutside increases so that your
(02:30):
buoyancy decreases and, insteadof naturally floating when you
stop, gravity propels youdownward toward the seafloor.
Now you keep a hand on the line, keeping you from becoming
hopelessly lost.
Fear momentarily grips yourheart, but you remember your
training, push past the mentalbarrier and keep going.
You finally get to the bottom,but your lungs are screaming.
(02:52):
Yet returning to the surfacetoo fast could cause potentially
deadly decompression sickness.
As you finally near the surface, you actually begin to black
out your lungs screaming for air.
Luckily, your spotter knowsyour limits and has been timing
you and was already looking foryou to pull you up to the
surface.
His hands and others grab youand somehow bring you back, you
(03:14):
awake, to their anxious butfriendly faces that are grateful
to see you.
What I just described is theterrifying sport of freediving,
in which a diver will swimhundreds of feet down without
the use of breathing equipment.
One of the fascinating thingsabout freediving is that, as
buoyancy decreases and pressureincreases, you actually begin to
(03:36):
move faster downward.
You'll notice that if you'reswimming in a pool or in the
ocean and you pause, you eitherstay floating there or you'll
float to the surface, but youactually begin to move faster in
what they call a freefalltowards the ocean floor.
It is terrifying.
I don't know how people do this.
So, while most of us will neverbecome freedivers, we have all
(03:59):
experienced times in our liveswhen moving forward feels like
plummeting downward underpressure and into darkness.
In moments, like any free diver, fear grips us.
Fear is an indicator of thelies pulling us down In our
lives.
Fear acts like gravity does ona free diver, pulling us
downward towards a free fallinto darkness.
(04:20):
Fear pulls us away from freedom, family and future, and towards
enslavement, isolation andhopelessness.
However a smart freediver, theyhold on to their drop line.
They depend on a team of peoplewho are ready to help them when
they need it and they focus onwhere they are going.
(04:52):
Likewise, we must hold fast toJesus, what he's done for us,
and actively.
Last week, ben gave us a summaryof Hebrews, a three-word
summary, that Jesus is overeverything.
He talked about the four-foldstory God made it all, we lost
it all.
Jesus paid it all and we got itall.
And this week we're taking whatwe learned in Hebrews 2 and
(05:15):
seeing it applied and theimplications of it in Hebrews,
chapter 3.
So my first point today is thatJesus gives you freedom.
Let's go ahead and look at thepassage.
It's chapter 3, verse 1 ofHebrews and really we're just
going to look at the first word,chapter 3, verse 1.
Therefore, holy brothers,therefore invites us, the author
(05:41):
is inviting us to look back onwhat we just learned about the
gospel in chapter 2 and thendraw out its implications for
chapter 3.
And so, like a free diver,gravity pulls us down and fear
bubbles up.
We need to remember what weknow and apply it.
And so how does fear show up?
Well, in chapter 2, verse 15,we see that fear enslaves us.
(06:01):
It says in 2.15, and Jesusdelivered all those who, through
fear of death, were subject tolifelong slavery.
So when you're overwhelmed, inpain or scared in this life, how
do you respond?
Is it anxiety that bubbles up?
Do you tend to retreat from God, community and others?
(06:24):
Do you become depressed andworry about the future?
Do you tend to retreat from God, community and others?
Do you become depressed andworry about the future?
Do you work hard to make surethat everything will turn out
right and okay?
Whatever our response is,oftentimes it's unintentional.
We're enslaved to the fear andto the anxiety that just drives
us a certain direction and torespond a certain way.
John Mayer, the well-known bluesguitarist and vocalist, has a
(06:46):
song called Gravity.
Gravity, john Mayer says, isworking against me.
Gravity wants to bring me down.
The song resonates with so manybecause fear and the lies it
indicates is common to the wholehuman experience.
Fear pulls us down mentally,emotionally and spiritually into
(07:06):
slavery, to lies and to Satan,and so we all want freedom from
fear.
We want freedom from and to thelife that God has for us.
Freedom from fear and to thelife that God has for us.
But what does that look like?
Earlier this year, I went on aretreat with a couple guys and I
think it was the St John'sRiver.
(07:27):
I don't really swim in Floridalakes and rivers.
There's alligators, there'ssnakes, there's amoebas.
It's a scary place.
I have a swimming pool.
I go to the beach, you know,I'd rather take sharks over
those things and you can see inthe water.
Anyway, however, we werekayaking in the river and we
(07:48):
came to an island, and on theisland it had this big tree that
overhung over the river andthere's a rope swing and one of
my friends, he, decides to climbup to the top and jump off of
the tree, and I watched him doit and I was like, wow, that
just looks so freeing.
And so I climbed up to the topof the tree and I looked down.
It's like 15 or 20 feet in thewater.
Of course I can't see anythingin the water.
Could be a gator with his mouthopen, could be amoebas ready to
enter into my ear and get intomy brain, who knows.
(08:09):
But as I stood there, I wasrooted to that tree by fear.
Fear really kept hold of mylegs.
I mean look down and thinkabout all the things that could
happen.
And then I just had thisthought you know, like God has
me, he's holding me in his hands.
I want to experience thefreedom that my friend felt when
he jumped into the river.
So I jumped and it wasexhilarating.
(08:31):
It was fun, it was enjoyable.
It was freezing cold when I hitthe water, but it was fun.
And now I'm not saying that youshould just go and jump into
lakes and rivers wherever youwant because Jesus is your God,
wherever you want because Jesusis your God.
But that sensation of thatfreedom from fear, that jumping,
(08:51):
that risk-taking into freedom,is what I was trying to pull out
of that we have freedom fromshame when we fail, freedom to
ask for help when we need it.
Freedom from lies that tell usthat we're not good enough.
Freedom to risks towards things, the good things that God has
for us.
That is the freedom we want, weall want to feel.
(09:15):
So the therefore in verse 1 ishow we get from fear to freedom.
So this word is inviting to lookback, as I mentioned, to give
instruction about what we dowith these truths.
And so we know these truths inchapter 2.
We know what Jesus has done forus, that he's delivered us from
the fear of death and lifelongslavery, that he is sanctifying
us, that he's a merciful andfaithful high priest, and so why
do we need to apply them?
(09:35):
Isn't it enough just to knowand decide to follow Jesus?
John Owen takes mention of this, therefore, and he says John
Owen takes mention of this,therefore, and he says His
gospel truths are medicina,anime, physic for the sin-sick
soul.
Now he says of what use is it toget a store of medicines and
cordials and never to take them?
No more is it to collect, atany price or rate, sermons,
(09:58):
doctrines, instructions, if weapply them, not that we may have
their efficacy in us and properwork toward us.
He goes on talking about theIsraelites in Egypt.
He said and precious, but whenthey laid it up by them, it bred
(10:24):
worms and stank.
When God scatters truths amongmen, if they gather them to eat
and they are bred from heavenangels food.
But if they do not only do it,only to lay them by them in
their books or in the notions oftheir mind, they will breed the
worms of pride and hypocrisyand make them an offensive savor
unto God.
So Owen says it's not onlyuseless if we learn the truths
(10:48):
of the gospel and fail to applythem, but it actually even does
worse it breeds hypocrisy, ithardens our hearts, it makes us
feel like we know the Lord whentruly we aren't experiencing the
freedom and the life that hehas for us.
The author of the book of Jamesknows this well.
He says in chapter 1, verse 22,be doers of the word and not
(11:09):
hearers only deceivingyourselves.
For if anyone is a hearer ofthe word and not a doer, he is
like a man who looks intently athis natural face in a mirror,
for he looks at himself and goesaway at once and forgets what
he was like.
But the one who looks into theperfect law, the law of liberty,
and perseveres being no hearerwho forgets but a doer who acts,
(11:30):
he will be blessed in his doingso.
We don't want to just go to thedoctor to fill a prescription
and never use it.
We don't want to buy all thefood for a feast and never eat
it.
We want to listen and hear theword and experience it in our
lives so that we can experienceGod's blessing and generosity to
(11:52):
us in the midst of it.
And so he says, moving on inchapter 3, verse 1,.
And so he says, moving on inchapter 3, verse 1, that
consider Jesus is an invitationto how we apply these truths.
That word consider means tonotice, to observe, to
(12:15):
contemplate, to think carefully.
I wonder what it is that youand that we notice and observe.
What do we contemplate on?
What are we always thinkingabout in our minds?
In Exodus 33, 8, that same wordis used, but in the Hebrew.
It's the Hebrew-aligned word.
And what's happening is that allof Israel in that moment is
(12:37):
watching Moses to go into thetent to meet with the Lord,
where the Lord would speak tohim face to face.
All of God's people would watchMoses go into the tent because
they knew that God was theremeeting with him.
They knew that he wasinterceding for him, they knew
that he was receivinginstruction for the Lord and
they would just stand outsideand worship the Lord as he was
there, so attentive they were towhat God was doing through
(12:58):
their mediator, moses.
And so the author, who iscomparing Jesus to Moses, was
very well aware of thatconnection, and so he too is
inviting us to attentively watchJesus, who, he says in chapter
6, enters into the inner placebehind the curtain.
A forerunner on our behalf.
Place behind the curtain.
A forerunner on our behalf,hughes, in his commentary, says
(13:20):
consider expresses attention andcontinuous observation and
regard, and is applied in desire, concentration, discipline and
time, and I would add, thoseneed to be done all together.
As we together watch Jesus, weare invited into what he's doing
.
A brilliant mathematician,norbert Wiener, shows us this.
(13:42):
When he was walking across thecampus of MIT, he was so
absorbed in thought that when astudent greeted him, he failed
to respond.
Sometimes I become so absorbedin thought that I fail to
respond when my wife or mychildren talk to me, and I
always regret that.
But this MIT professorcontinues.
But after a few steps he turnedand said, looking at the
(14:04):
student pardon me, could youtell me which way I came from?
The student pointed andanswered that way, sir.
He said thanks, now I know thatI've had lunch.
This is extreme, to be sure.
Right, most of us rememberwhether or not we've eaten lunch
, although sometimes we forget.
But no one's thoughts can besaid to be fixed without
concentration.
So hard was he focusing on whathe was thinking about that
(14:27):
everything else fell to thewayside.
No one will ever learn anythingabout the subject being
considered without that focusand concentration.
Isaac Newton said the key to hisunderstanding was I keep it
before me.
Concentration, of course,requires discipline, like an
athlete.
Hebrews chapter 12 says.
Therefore, since we have sogreat a cloud of witnesses
(14:48):
surrounding us, let us lay asideevery encumbrance and the sin
which so easily entangles us andlet us run with endurance the
race that is set before us,fixing our eyes on Jesus, the
author and perfecter of ourfaith.
So we see here that the writerof Hebrews is inviting us to be
attentive together to Jesus.
We need to fix our eyes on theperson of Jesus, who is our
(15:11):
merciful and faithful highpriest.
I spoke with a friend in ourcongregation through text.
I asked him a few questions tosee how he experiences Jesus in
day-to-day life.
I spoke with a friend in ourcongregation through text.
I asked him a few questions tosee how he experiences Jesus in
day-to-day life.
I spoke with a few people andone of them said when I am not
experiencing Jesus, it's becauseI prioritize my list of tasks
and feel overwhelmed when Ican't accomplish them in my
(15:32):
timeline.
It's when something goes wrongand I lose my ability to control
a situation.
It's when I see or experiencesomething ugly in the world and
take on cynicism.
It's when I think I look bad inothers' eyes.
Basically, it's when I've lostsight of the redemptive hope
Jesus offers me and hold tootightly to my plans and
expectations.
In those times I isolate myselfand try to handle that burden
(15:56):
alone.
So we see that fear and thebrokenness in the world.
They pull us away from Jesus,away from the freedom that he
offers us and this gravity.
It's the inertia of our fleshto naturally fall in that
direction.
But on the contrary, he says,for me, experiencing Jesus means
I have to start my dayremembering who he is.
(16:17):
My faith in an unseen God hasto be rooted in what I know.
And he goes on.
Just like when I listen andrespond to a friend or my wife,
I believe I am drawn closer toJesus in meditating on his words
and when I take action on them.
It's the.
Therefore, it's when we lookback at what we know about who
Jesus is and when we look up tohim in the present, in prayer,
(16:39):
and we look forward in obeyinghis words to us in all that we
do in our lives, that enables usto experience the freedom that
he has for us day in and day out.
My second point is not only doeshe offer us freedom, but he
gives us a family.
We don't go alone in thisjourney.
So notice our preacher isn'tgiving us instructions for
(17:01):
individuals, for self-bettermentthis isn't a self-help book but
he's giving instruction to afamily for their collective
perseverance in faith.
So he says holy brothers whoshare in a heavenly calling.
He talks about our confession.
He says we are his house if wehold fast.
Later, in chapter 3, he saysthat we are called to exhort one
(17:24):
another to avoid a hardenedheart so that we may share in
Christ.
And chapter 4, he says thosewho fall because of unbelief do
so because they were not unitedin faith with those who listened
.
So we see all of these termsare familial, collective and
committed.
His point is that we succeedand fail in this journey
(17:45):
together.
I'll say that again we succeedor fail in this journey together
.
That plural form of share,metochoi, occurs in chapter 314,
sharers in Christ and 6-4,sharers in the Holy Spirit, as a
technical term for those whohave responded to God's call for
salvation.
This isn't a collection ofindividuals, but a community
(18:09):
called into the presence of Godto enjoy privileged access to
him.
We are together, those who arebeing led to enjoy the glory of
God's presence.
However, I'm sure we all haveexperienced this we often
retreat when we feel sad anddejected, fearful, anxious,
exhausted and defeated.
We might retreat from God, wemight retreat from others, yet
(18:31):
this is to have medicine and notto use it.
This is to eat and store uprather than to consume, for our
benefit Rather than helpful.
To the contrary, knowing theblessings of God and communing
with him and community with thebody and failing to make use of
them leads to a hardened heart,because we are commanded to love
God with all of our hearts,souls and strength, and
commanded to love one another,as Christ has loved us, but our
(18:54):
flesh naturally pulls us awayfrom that.
I know that when I've had areally hard day, my temptation
is to go straight to ESPN right,it's to go.
Straight to Netflix, it's to gostraight to the box of cheese
that's in our cupboard, which wedon't have anymore.
Because that's what I do, right?
My flesh naturally wants topull me towards sin.
Fear pulls me towards idols.
It pulls me towards lies thatthese things will satisfy.
(19:16):
You don't need to go to yourbrothers in Christ.
You don't need to go to yourbrothers in Christ.
You don't need to tell themabout the sin that happened
today.
That's hard, that's vulnerable,that's difficult, it's awkward.
And yet there is where Jesusinvites us to persevere in faith
together, in John 13, jesus,who is about to endure betrayal,
suffering and death.
He stops to wash the disciples'feet.
(19:36):
He commands them to do the same, giving them the command to
love one another as he has lovedthem.
If you know these things, hesays, blessed are you if you do
them.
When we are going through fear,suffering, pain, exhaustion you
name it.
It's tempting to pull away.
It's awkward, vulnerable anddifficult to share that with
others.
That's true.
That's completelyunderstandable.
(19:58):
Even Peter himself felt reallyawkward about Jesus washing his
feet, so vulnerable was that actof being loved by Jesus.
And yet Jesus commands us tolove others as he has loved us.
We've talked about, I think,redwoods from up front before,
but mangrove trees is what Iwant to talk about today.
For the true Floridians herewho know what mangrove trees are
, mangrove trees are really coolbecause they get.
(20:21):
Those are those trees you seeon the coastline that are like,
have those like spider-likeroots that go into the ground.
And so mangrove trees what theydo is they root themselves
appropriately just right alongthe beach line and as they do
that, the waves hit them, butthey're so elevated above the
waves that they don't get pushedover.
And as they do that, theyactually persevere together.
Because these trees, what theydo is they, because they root in
(20:44):
the soil, they keep the soilthere and they allow other
plants to be planted as well, soother mangroves will begin to
be planted and to grow.
And then, on top of that, theycreate these ecosystems for all
of the animals that are there toflourish, so other plants and
animals can begin to live therein the shelter of these mangrove
trees that are keeping the sandand the soil from being washed
(21:04):
out to sea, and they're even adefense against the winds of
storms that will come onto thebeach.
And so, mangroves, theypersevere together, they are
rooted appropriately and theycreate ecosystems for one
another.
And so we are called to bemangrove trees.
We are called to root in Jesusappropriately, right, and to do
that together.
And as we are rooted together,we actually encourage the
(21:27):
flourishing of one another andof everything in our lives.
And as we live out thatcommunity together, we see
mangroves that will cover thewhole coastline.
We'll see communities flourishright.
We'll see people flourisharound us and through us and in
us as we live out that together.
In the Wager, a book I'm readingby David Graham, basically what
(21:48):
he does is he likes to writehistorical fiction and actually
history.
So he'll go through and he'llcapture the account of like
hundreds of people who'vewritten journals about their
time as a sailor, and then he'llpull all of those together and
he'll create a story from whatactually happened.
And so at this point there'sthis man who climbs up to the
top of the crane's roost lookingover the ship, and he's looking
(22:10):
down at the ship from thecrow's nest and he says each
man's life depended upon theperformance of others.
They were akin to cells in ahuman body.
A single malignant one coulddestroy them all.
Now I'm not saying that if youdon't do your job, that the
whole community is going to fallapart and everyone's going to
die a terrible death in the sea,but rather like the members of
(22:33):
a ship who all perform uniquefunctions right.
We are all gifted with giftsfrom the Holy Spirit.
We're all empowered in theSpirit to benefit the body of
Christ.
We're all invited to partake ofthat family and community
together.
And as we do that together, weare truly blessed by God through
relationship in one another togo to where he is calling us all
(22:53):
the better, and that's what heis inviting us into in giving us
family.
So what does this look like?
Well, when we're going throughsomething, it's tempting to pull
away, but we need to lean intocommunity.
This not only provides youopportunities to experience the
mercy and grace of God throughthe family he's given you, but
also bless others as they get tobless you and now have context
(23:14):
to do the same.
And then, when someone else isgoing through something maybe
you don't fully know what it is,but you can tell they're having
a hard day it's easy to just belike, ah, it'd be really
awkward to ask to pray for them,or ah, they might just want to
be left alone.
But I know when I'mexperiencing those things, even
if I do want to be left alone,when someone actually does come
up to me and ask me how I'mdoing, ask me if they can pray
(23:35):
for me, I always experience thelove intended in the midst of it
, and so I think it's alwaysbetter to ask than to not to.
And we often fail to do thisbecause we do not embrace and
apply God's promises and as wedo, our hearts harden.
We don't have a team to supportus, like a free diver, and if
we don't have that team, when weblack out, we won't make it.
(23:57):
I spoke with a friend in ourcongregation about this as well,
and he said without somefriends in my life, I truly
don't think I would be here orstill be believing.
Community has helped me becausethere were times where I had no
idea what God was saying, oreven if he cared, and I think
God spoke directly to me throughour brothers and sisters.
(24:19):
They were my lifeline, and soare we partaking of the family
of faith?
Are we partaking of theblessings that God has for us in
community?
Jesus invites us to step out infaith into that, even when it's
awkward and difficult.
So Jesus gives us freedom,family, but he also gives us a
(24:40):
future.
Jesus is our faithful apostleand high priest, it says in
verse 1.
Faithful to him, in verse 2,who appointed him, just as Moses
also was faithful in all God'shouse.
For Jesus has been countedworthy of more glory than Moses,
as much more glory as thebuilder of a house has more
honor than the house itself.
(25:00):
Glory as the builder of a househas more honor than the house
itself.
Jesus is leading us andinterceding for us, such that
when we hold on to him we arecertain of where we are going.
That word, apostle apostolonthis word and the older Greek
and later is actually a navalexpedition and its commander.
Its root means a ship ready fordeparture, a delegate, envoy
(25:26):
and messenger.
I don't know if this is thesense the author has in mind,
but later on he will talk abouthow the promises we have in
Jesus are an anchor to our soul.
So I choose to believe he is.
But Jesus, in essence, is ournaval commander, bringing back
that imagery with the wager on aship.
Jesus was sent by the Father toclaim a people for himself, but
he also sends us in the samemission.
He's with us like a captain ona ship.
(25:47):
He's always with us.
He says in Matthew 28.
And in Mark 6, right in theGospels, we see Jesus' disciples
on a boat.
We see at one point they're ona boat with Jesus and Jesus is
just napping right and this hugestorm comes and as it does,
they run to Jesus and say Jesus,what are you doing?
Do you not care that we aredying?
And Jesus says you have littlefaith.
(26:09):
And what does he do?
He calms the storm completely.
He rebukes the storm and it'sall calm.
And they say who is this man?
And then later on, right, jesusis walking on the water as
they're trying to not drown in astorm.
And Jesus invites Peter to walkon the water towards him.
And Peter does.
And it's only when he starts tolook around at the storm and
(26:34):
gets distracted and takes hiseyes off of Jesus that he begins
to sink.
And Jesus says oh, you oflittle faith.
See, jesus is our navalcommander.
He is always with his church.
He is ready to walk us upon thewaters, he's ready to stop the
storm.
He is in that, with us.
He is our leader and he invitesus to look to him as his leader
because he can do all thingsand we can do all things as we
(26:55):
look to Jesus Christ.
But Jesus is also our highpriest.
Moses interceded for God'speople and he turned back God's
wrath.
He's held up his staff andincurred God's favor.
He went into the tent and upthe mountain and mediated the
covenant and God's will.
But Jesus turned back God'swrath forever.
He forever intercedes for us.
(27:15):
He sent the Spirit in ourhearts to make known his will.
Jesus is the faithful mediator,mankind's sin bearer In mercy.
He's the one who emotionallygathers up our needs to himself
and then, in mercy, he doessomething about them.
He knows what it is to be man,and that makes him a merciful
high priest.
He is faithful in his role asmankind's sin bearer and now
(27:38):
also in representing us to theFather.
See, there was a cloud of sinbetween us and God, forever
alienating us from him, and nowalso in representing us to the
Father.
See, there was a cloud of sinbetween us and God, forever
alienating us from him, and nonecould penetrate it.
But Jesus came to earth as theonly one who could take on both
God and man in his nature andpenetrate that cloud of sin that
he might forever be a mediatoron our behalf.
(27:59):
And so the author here givessome context about Moses.
He says Jesus is worth of moreglory than Moses.
We see Moses is divinely chosen.
As we look at the Exodus story,he experiences God in the
burning bush.
He's the incomparable deliverer.
He separates the oceans.
He makes the river to turn toblood.
(28:20):
He's the greatest prophet.
He's the lawgiver who goes upon the mountain.
He's the great historian whowrote the first five books of
the Bible, the Pentateuch.
He's known as meek and of goodcharacter.
It says in Numbers 12.
Ultimately, he's Israel's greatapostle and high priest.
He even functions like a priestwhen he sprinkles blood and
he's second only to Adam inintimacy with God.
Moses is the goat greatest ofall time, and the Jews of that
(28:44):
time?
That's what they were thinking.
This guy is the goat, nobodycan surpass him, and so in the
back of their minds they'reprobably not fully connecting
the fact that Jesus is greaterthan Moses in all of these
things, so great was Moses intheir mind.
It's kind of like those whowill not accept LeBron as the
king because they think MichaelJordan is the greatest of all
time Shots fired.
(29:05):
But think who is the goat youadmire, is it LeBron James,
michael Jordan, caitlin Clark,tom Brady, michael Phelps,
simone Biles?
These are all people who arelike, incredible in their sport.
They're people who we watch, ifonly because of the greatness
of who they are right.
So, lauren and I, we beganwatching the WNBA and the NCAA
(29:25):
women, not because I had ahistory of watching these things
, but we just heard CaitlinClark's name and she was not
only beating records for thewomen, but the men as well.
And so now, all of a sudden,I'm like buying WNBA pass and
I'm watching.
Like every game that CaitlinClark is in and people all over
the United States are showing upto the games.
Every stadium that she's in isselling out.
(29:45):
Why?
Because she's the GOAT, becauseshe draws our attention.
Likewise, there are people inour vocations, people in our
neighborhood, people we knowthat we look up to.
If it's in your profession,right, it's somebody who you're
buying their book, you'relistening to their podcast.
You want to follow them and belike them and listen to
everything that they have to say.
You want to follow their lead.
(30:06):
Who are those people that youtake notice of, whose lead you
follow, that inspire you?
Our author is essentiallysaying Jesus is not only the
goat, he actually ended theargument forever.
There's none after him.
Literally, the sport juststopped because no one can top
him.
No more books are written inhis field.
He just wrote everything thatcan be written.
He solved the equation.
(30:26):
What is more, you can not onlylearn from him, but you're
actually empowered to be likehim in your calling.
Therefore, he says payattention to him, watch him.
He is your captain and yourmedic.
He will lead you and intercedefor you.
Pay attention, because thealternative is that you are not
(30:51):
in line with the one whodetermines your very purpose and
future.
Jesus offers us a future.
If you look to Jesus as yourcaptain, if you come to him as
your priest, he is leading youhome.
Paul says in Philippians 1.6,and I am sure of this that he
who began a, and what is thatday of completion?
What is the home that he isleading to you?
Is it a good home?
Revelations 21 says that Godwill dwell with man and they
(31:15):
will be his people and Godhimself will be with them as
their God.
He will wipe away every tear,and death shall be no more.
Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore,
for the former things havepassed away, the fear that is in
our lives will be no more.
Gravity will no longer beworking against me.
That is where Christ is leadingus.
(31:37):
That is what he invites us toexperience even here and now, in
Jesus' freedom, future andfamily.
And so, as we look back atchapter two, we see that man was
created to reign over creationas steward crowned in glory and
honor an intimate relationshipwith God.
But man became enslaved.
(31:58):
We became enslaved to the devilthrough fear of the power of
death.
But man became enslaved.
We became enslaved to the devilthrough fear of the power of
death.
Serving the devil in sin.
Therefore, a holy and just Godmeans that we need death and
life apart from him.
And yet God desired to bringthem to glory.
He desires to bring you toglory, and so he condescended to
become man, suffer, taste deathand have the wrath of God pour
(32:19):
out on him for your sake, sothat we might be sanctified,
made holy in him.
And now he is our merciful andfaithful high priest.
He will accomplish his work aswe hold fast to him, unto our
holiness and union with God andone another.
And the good news is this isn'tjust one time so that we can
look forward to this in heaven.
Every time we come to Godtogether here, every time you
(32:40):
pray, every time you worship him, every time you're praying with
him at work or with him withyour family, jesus sanctifies
those moments as we come to himin Jesus.
He hears your prayers.
He will always hear yourprayers.
He loves your worship.
He will always love yourworship.
Have you sinned this week?
Come to Jesus, be sanctified inhim, and God sees you, he hears
(33:02):
you.
He's offering you freedom,family and future.
Finally, jesus tells the storyof the prodigal son and in that
story, the son.
He wants a version of freedom,right, he takes his inheritance
and he goes to the world and heseeks all that the world has to
offer and it falls short and hefinds himself alone and dejected
(33:26):
, isolated, with no future insight.
And he says I know my father, Icould at least come back and be
a servant in his house.
So he applies what he knows.
He goes back.
Little does he know his fatheris waiting for him, probably
sitting on the porch, lookingfor him every day.
And as he's coming home, hisdad sees him from afar and runs
to meet him.
The son is just thinking overin his mind, like what do I need
(33:48):
to say to him?
How can I be accepted back inhis house?
Will he accept me, right?
And as he looks up, he probablysees his father just run up and
embrace him, with a huge hugsmacking into him.
He throws his coat over him, heputs a ring on his finger.
He says welcome home, son.
He throws him a feast.
He's a son in his householdagain.
This is what Jesus, because ofwho Jesus is and what he's done
(34:08):
for us.
This is our relationship withthe Father.
It doesn't matter where you'vebeen, what you're doing.
He always invites us to comeand receive freedom from this in
our lives, to be welcomed backinto the family of God and to
know that our future is with himalways.
Let's pray, heavenly Father, Ithank you.
I thank you that you are withus.
(34:30):
I thank you for your son, jesusChrist, our faithful mediator,
our merciful high priest.
I thank you that we can come toyou now and that you hear our
prayers.
I thank you for all that you'redoing in our lives.
We trust, oh Lord, that youhear our prayers.
I thank you for all that you'redoing in our lives.
We trust, oh Lord, that youhear our prayers.
We trust that you have wipedaway our sin when we come to you
, we trust that you have afuture for us.
We trust that you have a familyfor us, here and now and one
(34:51):
day fully in heaven.
Help us to experience all thatyou have for us today and this
week and our whole lives.
Amen.
Hello everyone.
This is Pastor Damien.
You're listening to SermonAudio from New City, orlando.
At New City, we believe all ofus need all of Jesus for all of
life.
For more resources, visit ourwebsite at newcityorlandocom.
Thanks for listening.
By your Spirit's power, give useyes to see his glory.
(00:24):
Through Christ, we pray AmenFrom Hebrews 3, verses 1 through
6.
Therefore, holy brothers, youwho share in a heavenly calling,
consider Jesus the apostle andhigh priest of our confession,
who was faithful to him?
Who appointed him?
Just as Moses who was faithfulto him.
(00:48):
Who appointed him?
Just as Moses, who was faithfulto all God's house.
For Jesus has been countedworthy of more glory than Moses,
as much more glory as thebuilder of a house has more
honor than the house itself, forevery house is built by someone
, but the builder of all thingsis God.
Now, moses was faithful in allGod's house as a servant to
testify to the things that wereto be spoken later.
(01:10):
But Christ is faithful overGod's house as a son, and we are
his house, if indeed we holdfast our confidence and our
boasting and hope.
This is God's word.
Thanks be to God.
Please be seated.
This is God's word.
Thanks be to.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
God, please be seated .
The hardest part is over for me, coming up here with my whole
family, all three kids, onetrying to like, grab my mic and
get down, the whole time worriedI might drop somebody's baby.
The hardest part is over, butso grateful to God that I get to
participate in that way.
(01:44):
I want you guys to imagine youjump from a boat into the sea
with nothing but a swimsuit,maybe a wetsuit, and fins.
You have a team of people inthe boat and one trusted person
in the water ready to help youif you need it, and you will
need it.
However, they aren't comingwith you.
Where you're going, you take adeep breath and start swimming
(02:07):
down, down and down,occasionally pulling yourself by
a rope anchored to the seafloor hundreds of feet below.
As you glide and fin downward,all of your movements are
intentional in order to maximizespeed and minimize energy and
drag.
You're slowly running out ofair, but you keep plunging down.
Eventually, the pressureoutside increases so that your
(02:30):
buoyancy decreases and, insteadof naturally floating when you
stop, gravity propels youdownward toward the seafloor.
Now you keep a hand on the line, keeping you from becoming
hopelessly lost.
Fear momentarily grips yourheart, but you remember your
training, push past the mentalbarrier and keep going.
You finally get to the bottom,but your lungs are screaming.
(02:52):
Yet returning to the surfacetoo fast could cause potentially
deadly decompression sickness.
As you finally near the surface, you actually begin to black
out your lungs screaming for air.
Luckily, your spotter knowsyour limits and has been timing
you and was already looking foryou to pull you up to the
surface.
His hands and others grab youand somehow bring you back, you
(03:14):
awake, to their anxious butfriendly faces that are grateful
to see you.
What I just described is theterrifying sport of freediving,
in which a diver will swimhundreds of feet down without
the use of breathing equipment.
One of the fascinating thingsabout freediving is that, as
buoyancy decreases and pressureincreases, you actually begin to
(03:36):
move faster downward.
You'll notice that if you'reswimming in a pool or in the
ocean and you pause, you eitherstay floating there or you'll
float to the surface, but youactually begin to move faster in
what they call a freefalltowards the ocean floor.
It is terrifying.
I don't know how people do this.
So, while most of us will neverbecome freedivers, we have all
(03:59):
experienced times in our liveswhen moving forward feels like
plummeting downward underpressure and into darkness.
In moments, like any free diver, fear grips us.
Fear is an indicator of thelies pulling us down In our
lives.
Fear acts like gravity does ona free diver, pulling us
downward towards a free fallinto darkness.
(04:20):
Fear pulls us away from freedom, family and future, and towards
enslavement, isolation andhopelessness.
However a smart freediver, theyhold on to their drop line.
They depend on a team of peoplewho are ready to help them when
they need it and they focus onwhere they are going.
(04:52):
Likewise, we must hold fast toJesus, what he's done for us,
and actively.
Last week, ben gave us a summaryof Hebrews, a three-word
summary, that Jesus is overeverything.
He talked about the four-foldstory God made it all, we lost
it all.
Jesus paid it all and we got itall.
And this week we're taking whatwe learned in Hebrews 2 and
(05:15):
seeing it applied and theimplications of it in Hebrews,
chapter 3.
So my first point today is thatJesus gives you freedom.
Let's go ahead and look at thepassage.
It's chapter 3, verse 1 ofHebrews and really we're just
going to look at the first word,chapter 3, verse 1.
Therefore, holy brothers,therefore invites us, the author
(05:41):
is inviting us to look back onwhat we just learned about the
gospel in chapter 2 and thendraw out its implications for
chapter 3.
And so, like a free diver,gravity pulls us down and fear
bubbles up.
We need to remember what weknow and apply it.
And so how does fear show up?
Well, in chapter 2, verse 15,we see that fear enslaves us.
(06:01):
It says in 2.15, and Jesusdelivered all those who, through
fear of death, were subject tolifelong slavery.
So when you're overwhelmed, inpain or scared in this life, how
do you respond?
Is it anxiety that bubbles up?
Do you tend to retreat from God, community and others?
(06:24):
Do you become depressed andworry about the future?
Do you tend to retreat from God, community and others?
Do you become depressed andworry about the future?
Do you work hard to make surethat everything will turn out
right and okay?
Whatever our response is,oftentimes it's unintentional.
We're enslaved to the fear andto the anxiety that just drives
us a certain direction and torespond a certain way.
John Mayer, the well-known bluesguitarist and vocalist, has a
(06:46):
song called Gravity.
Gravity, john Mayer says, isworking against me.
Gravity wants to bring me down.
The song resonates with so manybecause fear and the lies it
indicates is common to the wholehuman experience.
Fear pulls us down mentally,emotionally and spiritually into
(07:06):
slavery, to lies and to Satan,and so we all want freedom from
fear.
We want freedom from and to thelife that God has for us.
Freedom from fear and to thelife that God has for us.
But what does that look like?
Earlier this year, I went on aretreat with a couple guys and I
think it was the St John'sRiver.
(07:27):
I don't really swim in Floridalakes and rivers.
There's alligators, there'ssnakes, there's amoebas.
It's a scary place.
I have a swimming pool.
I go to the beach, you know,I'd rather take sharks over
those things and you can see inthe water.
Anyway, however, we werekayaking in the river and we
(07:48):
came to an island, and on theisland it had this big tree that
overhung over the river andthere's a rope swing and one of
my friends, he, decides to climbup to the top and jump off of
the tree, and I watched him doit and I was like, wow, that
just looks so freeing.
And so I climbed up to the topof the tree and I looked down.
It's like 15 or 20 feet in thewater.
Of course I can't see anythingin the water.
Could be a gator with his mouthopen, could be amoebas ready to
enter into my ear and get intomy brain, who knows.
(08:09):
But as I stood there, I wasrooted to that tree by fear.
Fear really kept hold of mylegs.
I mean look down and thinkabout all the things that could
happen.
And then I just had thisthought you know, like God has
me, he's holding me in his hands.
I want to experience thefreedom that my friend felt when
he jumped into the river.
So I jumped and it wasexhilarating.
(08:31):
It was fun, it was enjoyable.
It was freezing cold when I hitthe water, but it was fun.
And now I'm not saying that youshould just go and jump into
lakes and rivers wherever youwant because Jesus is your God,
wherever you want because Jesusis your God.
But that sensation of thatfreedom from fear, that jumping,
(08:51):
that risk-taking into freedom,is what I was trying to pull out
of that we have freedom fromshame when we fail, freedom to
ask for help when we need it.
Freedom from lies that tell usthat we're not good enough.
Freedom to risks towards things, the good things that God has
for us.
That is the freedom we want, weall want to feel.
(09:15):
So the therefore in verse 1 ishow we get from fear to freedom.
So this word is inviting to lookback, as I mentioned, to give
instruction about what we dowith these truths.
And so we know these truths inchapter 2.
We know what Jesus has done forus, that he's delivered us from
the fear of death and lifelongslavery, that he is sanctifying
us, that he's a merciful andfaithful high priest, and so why
do we need to apply them?
(09:35):
Isn't it enough just to knowand decide to follow Jesus?
John Owen takes mention of this, therefore, and he says John
Owen takes mention of this,therefore, and he says His
gospel truths are medicina,anime, physic for the sin-sick
soul.
Now he says of what use is it toget a store of medicines and
cordials and never to take them?
No more is it to collect, atany price or rate, sermons,
(09:58):
doctrines, instructions, if weapply them, not that we may have
their efficacy in us and properwork toward us.
He goes on talking about theIsraelites in Egypt.
He said and precious, but whenthey laid it up by them, it bred
(10:24):
worms and stank.
When God scatters truths amongmen, if they gather them to eat
and they are bred from heavenangels food.
But if they do not only do it,only to lay them by them in
their books or in the notions oftheir mind, they will breed the
worms of pride and hypocrisyand make them an offensive savor
unto God.
So Owen says it's not onlyuseless if we learn the truths
(10:48):
of the gospel and fail to applythem, but it actually even does
worse it breeds hypocrisy, ithardens our hearts, it makes us
feel like we know the Lord whentruly we aren't experiencing the
freedom and the life that hehas for us.
The author of the book of Jamesknows this well.
He says in chapter 1, verse 22,be doers of the word and not
(11:09):
hearers only deceivingyourselves.
For if anyone is a hearer ofthe word and not a doer, he is
like a man who looks intently athis natural face in a mirror,
for he looks at himself and goesaway at once and forgets what
he was like.
But the one who looks into theperfect law, the law of liberty,
and perseveres being no hearerwho forgets but a doer who acts,
(11:30):
he will be blessed in his doingso.
We don't want to just go to thedoctor to fill a prescription
and never use it.
We don't want to buy all thefood for a feast and never eat
it.
We want to listen and hear theword and experience it in our
lives so that we can experienceGod's blessing and generosity to
(11:52):
us in the midst of it.
And so he says, moving on inchapter 3, verse 1,.
And so he says, moving on inchapter 3, verse 1, that
consider Jesus is an invitationto how we apply these truths.
That word consider means tonotice, to observe, to
(12:15):
contemplate, to think carefully.
I wonder what it is that youand that we notice and observe.
What do we contemplate on?
What are we always thinkingabout in our minds?
In Exodus 33, 8, that same wordis used, but in the Hebrew.
It's the Hebrew-aligned word.
And what's happening is that allof Israel in that moment is
(12:37):
watching Moses to go into thetent to meet with the Lord,
where the Lord would speak tohim face to face.
All of God's people would watchMoses go into the tent because
they knew that God was theremeeting with him.
They knew that he wasinterceding for him, they knew
that he was receivinginstruction for the Lord and
they would just stand outsideand worship the Lord as he was
there, so attentive they were towhat God was doing through
(12:58):
their mediator, moses.
And so the author, who iscomparing Jesus to Moses, was
very well aware of thatconnection, and so he too is
inviting us to attentively watchJesus, who, he says in chapter
6, enters into the inner placebehind the curtain.
A forerunner on our behalf.
Place behind the curtain.
A forerunner on our behalf,hughes, in his commentary, says
(13:20):
consider expresses attention andcontinuous observation and
regard, and is applied in desire, concentration, discipline and
time, and I would add, thoseneed to be done all together.
As we together watch Jesus, weare invited into what he's doing
.
A brilliant mathematician,norbert Wiener, shows us this.
(13:42):
When he was walking across thecampus of MIT, he was so
absorbed in thought that when astudent greeted him, he failed
to respond.
Sometimes I become so absorbedin thought that I fail to
respond when my wife or mychildren talk to me, and I
always regret that.
But this MIT professorcontinues.
But after a few steps he turnedand said, looking at the
(14:04):
student pardon me, could youtell me which way I came from?
The student pointed andanswered that way, sir.
He said thanks, now I know thatI've had lunch.
This is extreme, to be sure.
Right, most of us rememberwhether or not we've eaten lunch
, although sometimes we forget.
But no one's thoughts can besaid to be fixed without
concentration.
So hard was he focusing on whathe was thinking about that
(14:27):
everything else fell to thewayside.
No one will ever learn anythingabout the subject being
considered without that focusand concentration.
Isaac Newton said the key to hisunderstanding was I keep it
before me.
Concentration, of course,requires discipline, like an
athlete.
Hebrews chapter 12 says.
Therefore, since we have sogreat a cloud of witnesses
(14:48):
surrounding us, let us lay asideevery encumbrance and the sin
which so easily entangles us andlet us run with endurance the
race that is set before us,fixing our eyes on Jesus, the
author and perfecter of ourfaith.
So we see here that the writerof Hebrews is inviting us to be
attentive together to Jesus.
We need to fix our eyes on theperson of Jesus, who is our
(15:11):
merciful and faithful highpriest.
I spoke with a friend in ourcongregation through text.
I asked him a few questions tosee how he experiences Jesus in
day-to-day life.
I spoke with a friend in ourcongregation through text.
I asked him a few questions tosee how he experiences Jesus in
day-to-day life.
I spoke with a few people andone of them said when I am not
experiencing Jesus, it's becauseI prioritize my list of tasks
and feel overwhelmed when Ican't accomplish them in my
(15:32):
timeline.
It's when something goes wrongand I lose my ability to control
a situation.
It's when I see or experiencesomething ugly in the world and
take on cynicism.
It's when I think I look bad inothers' eyes.
Basically, it's when I've lostsight of the redemptive hope
Jesus offers me and hold tootightly to my plans and
expectations.
In those times I isolate myselfand try to handle that burden
(15:56):
alone.
So we see that fear and thebrokenness in the world.
They pull us away from Jesus,away from the freedom that he
offers us and this gravity.
It's the inertia of our fleshto naturally fall in that
direction.
But on the contrary, he says,for me, experiencing Jesus means
I have to start my dayremembering who he is.
(16:17):
My faith in an unseen God hasto be rooted in what I know.
And he goes on.
Just like when I listen andrespond to a friend or my wife,
I believe I am drawn closer toJesus in meditating on his words
and when I take action on them.
It's the.
Therefore, it's when we lookback at what we know about who
Jesus is and when we look up tohim in the present, in prayer,
(16:39):
and we look forward in obeyinghis words to us in all that we
do in our lives, that enables usto experience the freedom that
he has for us day in and day out.
My second point is not only doeshe offer us freedom, but he
gives us a family.
We don't go alone in thisjourney.
So notice our preacher isn'tgiving us instructions for
(17:01):
individuals, for self-bettermentthis isn't a self-help book but
he's giving instruction to afamily for their collective
perseverance in faith.
So he says holy brothers whoshare in a heavenly calling.
He talks about our confession.
He says we are his house if wehold fast.
Later, in chapter 3, he saysthat we are called to exhort one
(17:24):
another to avoid a hardenedheart so that we may share in
Christ.
And chapter 4, he says thosewho fall because of unbelief do
so because they were not unitedin faith with those who listened
.
So we see all of these termsare familial, collective and
committed.
His point is that we succeedand fail in this journey
(17:45):
together.
I'll say that again we succeedor fail in this journey together
.
That plural form of share,metochoi, occurs in chapter 314,
sharers in Christ and 6-4,sharers in the Holy Spirit, as a
technical term for those whohave responded to God's call for
salvation.
This isn't a collection ofindividuals, but a community
(18:09):
called into the presence of Godto enjoy privileged access to
him.
We are together, those who arebeing led to enjoy the glory of
God's presence.
However, I'm sure we all haveexperienced this we often
retreat when we feel sad anddejected, fearful, anxious,
exhausted and defeated.
We might retreat from God, wemight retreat from others, yet
(18:31):
this is to have medicine and notto use it.
This is to eat and store uprather than to consume, for our
benefit Rather than helpful.
To the contrary, knowing theblessings of God and communing
with him and community with thebody and failing to make use of
them leads to a hardened heart,because we are commanded to love
God with all of our hearts,souls and strength, and
commanded to love one another,as Christ has loved us, but our
(18:54):
flesh naturally pulls us awayfrom that.
I know that when I've had areally hard day, my temptation
is to go straight to ESPN right,it's to go.
Straight to Netflix, it's to gostraight to the box of cheese
that's in our cupboard, which wedon't have anymore.
Because that's what I do, right?
My flesh naturally wants topull me towards sin.
Fear pulls me towards idols.
It pulls me towards lies thatthese things will satisfy.
(19:16):
You don't need to go to yourbrothers in Christ.
You don't need to go to yourbrothers in Christ.
You don't need to tell themabout the sin that happened
today.
That's hard, that's vulnerable,that's difficult, it's awkward.
And yet there is where Jesusinvites us to persevere in faith
together, in John 13, jesus,who is about to endure betrayal,
suffering and death.
He stops to wash the disciples'feet.
(19:36):
He commands them to do the same, giving them the command to
love one another as he has lovedthem.
If you know these things, hesays, blessed are you if you do
them.
When we are going through fear,suffering, pain, exhaustion you
name it.
It's tempting to pull away.
It's awkward, vulnerable anddifficult to share that with
others.
That's true.
That's completelyunderstandable.
(19:58):
Even Peter himself felt reallyawkward about Jesus washing his
feet, so vulnerable was that actof being loved by Jesus.
And yet Jesus commands us tolove others as he has loved us.
We've talked about, I think,redwoods from up front before,
but mangrove trees is what Iwant to talk about today.
For the true Floridians herewho know what mangrove trees are
, mangrove trees are really coolbecause they get.
(20:21):
Those are those trees you seeon the coastline that are like,
have those like spider-likeroots that go into the ground.
And so mangrove trees what theydo is they root themselves
appropriately just right alongthe beach line and as they do
that, the waves hit them, butthey're so elevated above the
waves that they don't get pushedover.
And as they do that, theyactually persevere together.
Because these trees, what theydo is they, because they root in
(20:44):
the soil, they keep the soilthere and they allow other
plants to be planted as well, soother mangroves will begin to
be planted and to grow.
And then, on top of that, theycreate these ecosystems for all
of the animals that are there toflourish, so other plants and
animals can begin to live therein the shelter of these mangrove
trees that are keeping the sandand the soil from being washed
(21:04):
out to sea, and they're even adefense against the winds of
storms that will come onto thebeach.
And so, mangroves, theypersevere together, they are
rooted appropriately and theycreate ecosystems for one
another.
And so we are called to bemangrove trees.
We are called to root in Jesusappropriately, right, and to do
that together.
And as we are rooted together,we actually encourage the
(21:27):
flourishing of one another andof everything in our lives.
And as we live out thatcommunity together, we see
mangroves that will cover thewhole coastline.
We'll see communities flourishright.
We'll see people flourisharound us and through us and in
us as we live out that together.
In the Wager, a book I'm readingby David Graham, basically what
(21:48):
he does is he likes to writehistorical fiction and actually
history.
So he'll go through and he'llcapture the account of like
hundreds of people who'vewritten journals about their
time as a sailor, and then he'llpull all of those together and
he'll create a story from whatactually happened.
And so at this point there'sthis man who climbs up to the
top of the crane's roost lookingover the ship, and he's looking
(22:10):
down at the ship from thecrow's nest and he says each
man's life depended upon theperformance of others.
They were akin to cells in ahuman body.
A single malignant one coulddestroy them all.
Now I'm not saying that if youdon't do your job, that the
whole community is going to fallapart and everyone's going to
die a terrible death in the sea,but rather like the members of
(22:33):
a ship who all perform uniquefunctions right.
We are all gifted with giftsfrom the Holy Spirit.
We're all empowered in theSpirit to benefit the body of
Christ.
We're all invited to partake ofthat family and community
together.
And as we do that together, weare truly blessed by God through
relationship in one another togo to where he is calling us all
(22:53):
the better, and that's what heis inviting us into in giving us
family.
So what does this look like?
Well, when we're going throughsomething, it's tempting to pull
away, but we need to lean intocommunity.
This not only provides youopportunities to experience the
mercy and grace of God throughthe family he's given you, but
also bless others as they get tobless you and now have context
(23:14):
to do the same.
And then, when someone else isgoing through something maybe
you don't fully know what it is,but you can tell they're having
a hard day it's easy to just belike, ah, it'd be really
awkward to ask to pray for them,or ah, they might just want to
be left alone.
But I know when I'mexperiencing those things, even
if I do want to be left alone,when someone actually does come
up to me and ask me how I'mdoing, ask me if they can pray
(23:35):
for me, I always experience thelove intended in the midst of it
, and so I think it's alwaysbetter to ask than to not to.
And we often fail to do thisbecause we do not embrace and
apply God's promises and as wedo, our hearts harden.
We don't have a team to supportus, like a free diver, and if
we don't have that team, when weblack out, we won't make it.
(23:57):
I spoke with a friend in ourcongregation about this as well,
and he said without somefriends in my life, I truly
don't think I would be here orstill be believing.
Community has helped me becausethere were times where I had no
idea what God was saying, oreven if he cared, and I think
God spoke directly to me throughour brothers and sisters.
(24:19):
They were my lifeline, and soare we partaking of the family
of faith?
Are we partaking of theblessings that God has for us in
community?
Jesus invites us to step out infaith into that, even when it's
awkward and difficult.
So Jesus gives us freedom,family, but he also gives us a
(24:40):
future.
Jesus is our faithful apostleand high priest, it says in
verse 1.
Faithful to him, in verse 2,who appointed him, just as Moses
also was faithful in all God'shouse.
For Jesus has been countedworthy of more glory than Moses,
as much more glory as thebuilder of a house has more
honor than the house itself.
(25:00):
Glory as the builder of a househas more honor than the house
itself.
Jesus is leading us andinterceding for us, such that
when we hold on to him we arecertain of where we are going.
That word, apostle apostolonthis word and the older Greek
and later is actually a navalexpedition and its commander.
Its root means a ship ready fordeparture, a delegate, envoy
(25:26):
and messenger.
I don't know if this is thesense the author has in mind,
but later on he will talk abouthow the promises we have in
Jesus are an anchor to our soul.
So I choose to believe he is.
But Jesus, in essence, is ournaval commander, bringing back
that imagery with the wager on aship.
Jesus was sent by the Father toclaim a people for himself, but
he also sends us in the samemission.
He's with us like a captain ona ship.
(25:47):
He's always with us.
He says in Matthew 28.
And in Mark 6, right in theGospels, we see Jesus' disciples
on a boat.
We see at one point they're ona boat with Jesus and Jesus is
just napping right and this hugestorm comes and as it does,
they run to Jesus and say Jesus,what are you doing?
Do you not care that we aredying?
And Jesus says you have littlefaith.
(26:09):
And what does he do?
He calms the storm completely.
He rebukes the storm and it'sall calm.
And they say who is this man?
And then later on, right, jesusis walking on the water as
they're trying to not drown in astorm.
And Jesus invites Peter to walkon the water towards him.
And Peter does.
And it's only when he starts tolook around at the storm and
(26:34):
gets distracted and takes hiseyes off of Jesus that he begins
to sink.
And Jesus says oh, you oflittle faith.
See, jesus is our navalcommander.
He is always with his church.
He is ready to walk us upon thewaters, he's ready to stop the
storm.
He is in that, with us.
He is our leader and he invitesus to look to him as his leader
because he can do all thingsand we can do all things as we
(26:55):
look to Jesus Christ.
But Jesus is also our highpriest.
Moses interceded for God'speople and he turned back God's
wrath.
He's held up his staff andincurred God's favor.
He went into the tent and upthe mountain and mediated the
covenant and God's will.
But Jesus turned back God'swrath forever.
He forever intercedes for us.
(27:15):
He sent the Spirit in ourhearts to make known his will.
Jesus is the faithful mediator,mankind's sin bearer In mercy.
He's the one who emotionallygathers up our needs to himself
and then, in mercy, he doessomething about them.
He knows what it is to be man,and that makes him a merciful
high priest.
He is faithful in his role asmankind's sin bearer and now
(27:38):
also in representing us to theFather.
See, there was a cloud of sinbetween us and God, forever
alienating us from him, and nowalso in representing us to the
Father.
See, there was a cloud of sinbetween us and God, forever
alienating us from him, and nonecould penetrate it.
But Jesus came to earth as theonly one who could take on both
God and man in his nature andpenetrate that cloud of sin that
he might forever be a mediatoron our behalf.
(27:59):
And so the author here givessome context about Moses.
He says Jesus is worth of moreglory than Moses.
We see Moses is divinely chosen.
As we look at the Exodus story,he experiences God in the
burning bush.
He's the incomparable deliverer.
He separates the oceans.
He makes the river to turn toblood.
(28:20):
He's the greatest prophet.
He's the lawgiver who goes upon the mountain.
He's the great historian whowrote the first five books of
the Bible, the Pentateuch.
He's known as meek and of goodcharacter.
It says in Numbers 12.
Ultimately, he's Israel's greatapostle and high priest.
He even functions like a priestwhen he sprinkles blood and
he's second only to Adam inintimacy with God.
Moses is the goat greatest ofall time, and the Jews of that
(28:44):
time?
That's what they were thinking.
This guy is the goat, nobodycan surpass him, and so in the
back of their minds they'reprobably not fully connecting
the fact that Jesus is greaterthan Moses in all of these
things, so great was Moses intheir mind.
It's kind of like those whowill not accept LeBron as the
king because they think MichaelJordan is the greatest of all
time Shots fired.
(29:05):
But think who is the goat youadmire, is it LeBron James,
michael Jordan, caitlin Clark,tom Brady, michael Phelps,
simone Biles?
These are all people who arelike, incredible in their sport.
They're people who we watch, ifonly because of the greatness
of who they are right.
So, lauren and I, we beganwatching the WNBA and the NCAA
(29:25):
women, not because I had ahistory of watching these things
, but we just heard CaitlinClark's name and she was not
only beating records for thewomen, but the men as well.
And so now, all of a sudden,I'm like buying WNBA pass and
I'm watching.
Like every game that CaitlinClark is in and people all over
the United States are showing upto the games.
Every stadium that she's in isselling out.
(29:45):
Why?
Because she's the GOAT, becauseshe draws our attention.
Likewise, there are people inour vocations, people in our
neighborhood, people we knowthat we look up to.
If it's in your profession,right, it's somebody who you're
buying their book, you'relistening to their podcast.
You want to follow them and belike them and listen to
everything that they have to say.
You want to follow their lead.
(30:06):
Who are those people that youtake notice of, whose lead you
follow, that inspire you?
Our author is essentiallysaying Jesus is not only the
goat, he actually ended theargument forever.
There's none after him.
Literally, the sport juststopped because no one can top
him.
No more books are written inhis field.
He just wrote everything thatcan be written.
He solved the equation.
(30:26):
What is more, you can not onlylearn from him, but you're
actually empowered to be likehim in your calling.
Therefore, he says payattention to him, watch him.
He is your captain and yourmedic.
He will lead you and intercedefor you.
Pay attention, because thealternative is that you are not
(30:51):
in line with the one whodetermines your very purpose and
future.
Jesus offers us a future.
If you look to Jesus as yourcaptain, if you come to him as
your priest, he is leading youhome.
Paul says in Philippians 1.6,and I am sure of this that he
who began a, and what is thatday of completion?
What is the home that he isleading to you?
Is it a good home?
Revelations 21 says that Godwill dwell with man and they
(31:15):
will be his people and Godhimself will be with them as
their God.
He will wipe away every tear,and death shall be no more.
Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore,
for the former things havepassed away, the fear that is in
our lives will be no more.
Gravity will no longer beworking against me.
That is where Christ is leadingus.
(31:37):
That is what he invites us toexperience even here and now, in
Jesus' freedom, future andfamily.
And so, as we look back atchapter two, we see that man was
created to reign over creationas steward crowned in glory and
honor an intimate relationshipwith God.
But man became enslaved.
(31:58):
We became enslaved to the devilthrough fear of the power of
death.
But man became enslaved.
We became enslaved to the devilthrough fear of the power of
death.
Serving the devil in sin.
Therefore, a holy and just Godmeans that we need death and
life apart from him.
And yet God desired to bringthem to glory.
He desires to bring you toglory, and so he condescended to
become man, suffer, taste deathand have the wrath of God pour
(32:19):
out on him for your sake, sothat we might be sanctified,
made holy in him.
And now he is our merciful andfaithful high priest.
He will accomplish his work aswe hold fast to him, unto our
holiness and union with God andone another.
And the good news is this isn'tjust one time so that we can
look forward to this in heaven.
Every time we come to Godtogether here, every time you
(32:40):
pray, every time you worship him, every time you're praying with
him at work or with him withyour family, jesus sanctifies
those moments as we come to himin Jesus.
He hears your prayers.
He will always hear yourprayers.
He loves your worship.
He will always love yourworship.
Have you sinned this week?
Come to Jesus, be sanctified inhim, and God sees you, he hears
(33:02):
you.
He's offering you freedom,family and future.
Finally, jesus tells the storyof the prodigal son and in that
story, the son.
He wants a version of freedom,right, he takes his inheritance
and he goes to the world and heseeks all that the world has to
offer and it falls short and hefinds himself alone and dejected
(33:26):
, isolated, with no future insight.
And he says I know my father, Icould at least come back and be
a servant in his house.
So he applies what he knows.
He goes back.
Little does he know his fatheris waiting for him, probably
sitting on the porch, lookingfor him every day.
And as he's coming home, hisdad sees him from afar and runs
to meet him.
The son is just thinking overin his mind, like what do I need
(33:48):
to say to him?
How can I be accepted back inhis house?
Will he accept me, right?
And as he looks up, he probablysees his father just run up and
embrace him, with a huge hugsmacking into him.
He throws his coat over him, heputs a ring on his finger.
He says welcome home, son.
He throws him a feast.
He's a son in his householdagain.
This is what Jesus, because ofwho Jesus is and what he's done
(34:08):
for us.
This is our relationship withthe Father.
It doesn't matter where you'vebeen, what you're doing.
He always invites us to comeand receive freedom from this in
our lives, to be welcomed backinto the family of God and to
know that our future is with himalways.
Let's pray, heavenly Father, Ithank you.
I thank you that you are withus.
(34:30):
I thank you for your son, jesusChrist, our faithful mediator,
our merciful high priest.
I thank you that we can come toyou now and that you hear our
prayers.
I thank you for all that you'redoing in our lives.
We trust, oh Lord, that youhear our prayers.
I thank you for all that you'redoing in our lives.
We trust, oh Lord, that youhear our prayers.
We trust that you have wipedaway our sin when we come to you
, we trust that you have afuture for us.
We trust that you have a familyfor us, here and now and one
(34:51):
day fully in heaven.
Help us to experience all thatyou have for us today and this
week and our whole lives.
Amen.
Popular Podcasts
Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club
Welcome to Bookmarked by Reese’s Book Club — the podcast where great stories, bold women, and irresistible conversations collide! Hosted by award-winning journalist Danielle Robay, each week new episodes balance thoughtful literary insight with the fervor of buzzy book trends, pop culture and more. Bookmarked brings together celebrities, tastemakers, influencers and authors from Reese's Book Club and beyond to share stories that transcend the page. Pull up a chair. You’re not just listening — you’re part of the conversation.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com