Episode Transcript
[00:00:17] Well, good morning. Like you said, my name is Eric. I am from Pillar Church in East Fort Worth. If you know where Dunbar High School is, that's kind of the area we're at. 2019.
[00:00:31] Some of you came from Paradox, so you kind of know when we were launched out in 2019, and we're still here.
[00:00:40] I'm also. I worked with many church planters in the years, but we have always told them that the first five years are very, very important. And we just hit our five years, and so we've gotten over that hump. So I feel like. I feel like God has been gracious to us at Pillar for five years or four and a half years. We rented out elementary school right across from Dunbar called Walton elementary, and then recently purchased a building in September. October, September. And we moved in in November. So that has been one of those things where every Sunday I walk in and I have this gratefulness, this heart to worship and praise God. And it's just for the gift. It really feels like a gift, right? It's not just something that I say, man, this is something, you know, I got or whatever. That's cool. No, it's one of those things that you see a young kid at Christmas and they get something that is really, really special and they just go crazy. And that's how I feel every Sunday. And it hasn't moved. We've been there since November, and I still feel that way every Sunday. Our prayer, just like you guys, y'all pray in the morning at 9:00. We pray at 9:00. And I find myself just thanking God again for the building.
[00:02:16] Sometimes I last. I can just remember last Sunday, I was thanking him for the stained glass. We still have stained glass like you guys. And I was just worshiping for the stained glass. And I was like, we have light in the building. We're not in a elementary school where there's no lights coming in in the auditorium. And I was just like, God, this is so awesome to have light coming in. And it's so big, the ceilings are high. And it causes me to worship. It causes me to look to God. And so, guys, I am so humbled and so thankful to be with you this morning. I don't think I'm gonna be long, but I am gonna be in Hebrews. If you have a Bible, I'm gonna be in Hebrews, chapter 10. And we're going to just look at verses 19 through 22.
[00:03:09] As you probably have already kind of gotten a good, strong introduction from Pastor Brad and Taylor about what Hebrews is. But I just wanna do my best to kinda, you know, catch us up to this verse in particular.
[00:03:28] Hebrews is a book that is basically written, it seems, what it seems like to a Jewish people. And the reason we think this is because if you don't know the first five books of the Old Testament, this is gonna be a hard book to follow. He's talking about Moses. He's talking about Abraham and Isaac. He's talking in Hebrews. He's talking about this weird priest and this sacrificial system. And all these things are just very Jewish, very. You know, the Jewish people would understand.
[00:04:01] And so he knows that they understand. You know, the story of where Moses is, is in the desert, walking them through to the promised land. And the sacrificial system that was set up.
[00:04:21] And I wish I had the picture, but I'm gonna do my best. But the picture of the tabernacle, this, you know, not a super large building, but a building that they could pack up and keep going, right? A building big enough to have two rooms, okay?
[00:04:42] The first room would be called the holy place. And then there was a curtain, right? And then the next portion of that tabernacle, a temple, would be the most holy place.
[00:04:56] And then the outer part of that area would be the gate.
[00:05:03] This is where anybody could enter that, the holy place. And the most holy place was only assigned to the priests, those who would intercede for those who were coming to confess sin or to make sacrifice. And they were only the only ones that were able to go into that. This is super important for this text because Jesus is described as the veil, the. That was separating the holy place and the most holy place. And so we see in Hebrews that this consistent theme of Jesus is now the better, the better of Moses, the better of the law, the sacrificial system, the angels better than the angels. And it's just this superiority that that is pointed out. And you guys pointed it out when we were singing our song today, right? Even in our liturgy at the beginning, our call to worship, every answer was Jesus. The superiority of Jesus is consistently in Hebrews, just getting pointed out that Jesus is superior to the angels, superior to the sacrificial system, superior to the law.
[00:06:29] And what's going on here is that he is pointing them or he is encouraging them to endure.
[00:06:38] From what I hear from Brad, it sounds like that is kind of the theme that y'all are pressing in in this book of Hebrews that he's asked me to continue. But this idea of endurance and it's remarkable for me as a believer. Like, you know, I became a believer in high school, and I don't know how many years that was, but I'm 45 now, so that should tell you a little bit. But consistently, like, more and more throughout my life, what I'm seeing in my faith is that most of Christianity is endurance. It's not this place that you're trying to get to. To you, like, oh, now I got it. Now I'm there. No, most of what Christianity is, is enduring. Enduring through. Whether it be suffering from outside circumstances or maybe suffering because of my own sin, I endure through those moments. I'm not waiting on that. I'm not waiting on my anxiety to leave. I deal with anxiety. I deal with some little small bouts of depression at times, but I'm not waiting on those things to leave, to be like, oh, now I can walk in Christ. No, no, no. It is enduring in those times. It is enduring when I lose a job or when I see my kids going off the wrong way. It is enduring through those processes. Not saying, hey, because I am walking steadfastly with the Lord. All these things are good. No, it is enduring through those things. And what we see, we see God glorified in those things. We see God glorified not the way we think he needs to be glorified. Right. We think he needs to be glorified. By all of my success in life, I successfully started a business.
[00:08:34] My business is profitable. My church is growing.
[00:08:40] We made our bills this week. We think that is the primary way God is glorified.
[00:08:47] And what I'm seeing in these years, God's primary way of glorifying himself is through our endurance, through our. Through. I mean, the whole book of First Peter is. You know, we went through it a year ago. The whole book of First Peter is this idea that in the midst of this terrible government that is separating families and destroying and killing families, he's saying to continue to walk in righteousness and holiness, to press on, to double down. All right? He's saying in the midst of an ungodly spouse, to continue to love her or him throughout this time, in the midst of a boss that is doing terrible things, that is not fair. He's saying to respect them. A government that has nothing good for Christians in this. And he's saying what to do in those times to endure.
[00:09:52] But what do we do? We make Christianity not about endurance. We make it about the outcome. We make it about the end part of the goal. And it's actually Just the process. It is in the midst of my suffering. It is in the midst. Even this week, I can. I. You know, this week I had a hard week. Bunch of stuff going on.
[00:10:18] My wife called randomly. I was working and.
[00:10:23] Does your wife or husband do this? Like, I'm on the phone and I'm thinking. I'm talking normally, right? I'm thinking everything is good in my voice. But she stops talking and she says, what's wrong? And I'm like, what? What do you mean? And I was. And I was. I was gasping for breath, and she felt it. I don't know how I thought everything was normal, but I was asking.
[00:10:48] I was looking for my next breath.
[00:10:51] If you ever dealt with anxiety, you're kind of looking. You're like, where is that next breath gonna come from? And it's weird. And I said, well, I am probably having an anxiety attack right now. And she said, oh.
[00:11:06] So she starts praying for me. She starts speaking truth in her prayers. I start hearing these things, and I start to sense that God is calming me down and pointing me to good theology, good truth, right?
[00:11:23] And I find myself calming down now, regardless if it would have went away in that moment. But what did I see? I saw in that moment God's hand, God's love through my wife. I saw God's faithfulness in calming me and putting me in the right mindset. And so in all of this, guys, I just find myself consistently. And I see it in Scripture, guys, it could be one thing. If this wasn't in Scripture, then I would be like, I'm not sure about this theory or my life or whatever. I'm not sure. But it's in Scripture. Like, it points me constantly to Eric, continue to live your life to honor and glorify God, no matter what.
[00:12:14] Let's look. Ephesians. No, I'm sorry, not Ephesians. Hebrews. Hebrews, chapter 10.
[00:12:22] I'll read it again.
[00:12:25] Hebrews, chapter 10, verse 19. It says, therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have boldness to enter the sanctuary through the blood of Jesus, verse 20. He has inaugurated for us a new and living way through the curtain that is through his flesh.
[00:12:45] And since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water. Amen. Amen.
[00:13:06] Have y'all seen Last Holiday? Queen Latifah and LL Cool J? No, it's kind of a Christmas movie or whatever. If you haven't seen it. I encourage you to see it. I encourage you. It has become our favorite Christmas movie. We usually watch, like, Home Alone and Elf and it's another one. But anyway, I don't usually watch Elf, but I kind of stay up long enough to watch Home Alone. But Last Holiday, I am locked in, and the kids say anything. I'm like, be quiet. The movie.
[00:13:44] You know, get off your phone. Watch the movie.
[00:13:47] There's so many good things in Last Holiday that just. I mean, it draws me back to it every year during Christmas. But there's a part in Last Holiday that I think about that I was thinking about this week in preparation for this, and it was.
[00:14:04] Raise your hands if you've seen it. Cause I'm, like, talking to four people right here. Okay. All right, all right. Here we go. All right. Anyway. Well, I'll just describe it. So what's her name? Georgia. Right, Georgia. Georgia is Queen Latifah in the movie. And she finds out that she only has a few weeks to live.
[00:14:25] It's a comedy. It's like a. I don't know, romantic comedy. I don't know. Anyway, so in this movie, she finds out she has only a few weeks to live.
[00:14:38] So she says, I'm going to do everything I've wanted to do, right? Like, okay, I only have a few weeks to live. And she goes. But she gets to a. She's at this fancy restaurant where this popular cook or chef is there. And there's another guy there who is a wealthy businessman. He has everything. He has the money, he has the popularity, he has the credentials. He has everything. And they're both. Georgia, this single woman that lives in the hood. And you have this wealthy man that has all the credentials and all the clout and all that. You have these two people in the same room in the same restaurant. And so one of the people in the table, the wealthy guy, says, hey, can you, like, ask the chef to come out to say hello? That's kind of what chefs do, right? The fancy ones do. And, you know, he lifts his shoulder and is like, oh, yeah, sure, sure. He's like, hey, tell Chef Pierre to come see us. And so he's really confident because of who he is, right? He knows that the chef will come out, right? He spends a lot of money. And you got Georgia over here by herself, and she orders the entire menu because she has withdrawn her whole retirement. Everything, all her stocks, all her bonds. And she is. So she has plenty money to blow on everything. She only has two weeks to live. Right.
[00:16:13] And so you have these two people and then. But whose table did the chef goes to? Goes to Georgia's table, right? This single woman who, you know, from the hood, doesn't have any money. Why? Because she ordered from freely. She ordered with no substitution. Does anybody know about this? No substitution. Didn't say, hey, take the cauliflower out, take the chicken up, everything. And you got this guy looking like, why is he not at my table?
[00:16:48] What was he appealing to? He was appealing to his credentials, his ability, his money, his clout, his fame, his work. All of his work. He was appealing to that. That this is the reason he's gonna come to my table. It wasn't on. It wasn't on. It had anything to do with the chef.
[00:17:12] Guys. I think the reason that we come and our prayers are so weak and so ungodly. I'll say ungodly. My prayers have been ungodly. I'll say ungodly.
[00:17:28] I have found myself not coming with confidence and boldness, as the scripture says. Why did he come with. Why does it say. It says in verse 19, therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have boldness to enter the sanctuary through the blood of Jesus, why, we're coming on our own merit.
[00:17:48] So in our heads, on the days or the weeks or the months, we're treating our wife really, really well. We're like, oh, I can pray today. I'm gonna pray today. I'm gonna pray boldly today with confidence.
[00:18:04] Long, eloquent prayers and devotion time. And we're just encouraged.
[00:18:11] But on those days, hadn't been a great week.
[00:18:15] Just kind of reacted to my kids in the wrong way, kind of. Kind of snapped at him a little bit, had, you know, forgot about. Didn't buy Christmas gifts for my wife or the one that she wanted. I'd just been failing in every area this week, this month, this year.
[00:18:36] I'm a little timid, right? I'm like, oh, God, you know, just do your best, God, with me. God, I'm gonna go out here. I'm gonna go to work. God, I'll just do that. God, I'll just go to work. God, just help me.
[00:18:56] Why are they two different ways? Why are we coming in our prayers two different ways? Because we think it has something to do with our works, has something to do with how well I've done.
[00:19:10] Guys, in your most painful moment, in your moment of. Of shame and regret, God is as present in that moment for you, in that moment as in your best weeks that you call your best weeks.
[00:19:29] Why not? Because of You. We say this a lot. We talk about this a lot. But in action and in reality, we don't live this out.
[00:19:39] I was thinking about this verse before I came up here.
[00:19:43] It was two verses, one in Ephesians, that talks about, we are his workmanship. We are his work, work, bar created. To do what? To do good works. Right.
[00:19:54] Another scripture says, let your light shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
[00:20:03] There's one more I was thinking about, but my point in that is that.
[00:20:09] Oh, I know what it was. It's in Acts. I read it this week and I was just like, I never caught this until this week.
[00:20:19] Excuse me while I'll find says I'll paraphrase it so I don't keep y'all waiting.
[00:20:34] You've heard this text before. He told them to wait, right? In Acts. He told them to wait. He told them to wait. Why? Because the promised Holy Spirit will come. And this is the part that I never connected in Acts to be witnesses. I never in the same sentence that he said, wait on the Holy Spirit. It was the reason was so that you would be witnesses.
[00:21:04] Guys, our prayers. We don't pray boldly and confident. We pray ungodly prayers sometimes because we think this is about us.
[00:21:16] We think that God didn't. We don't realize that God created us to be his witnesses.
[00:21:25] And so when we go into prayer, there should be an extreme confidence and boldness in us before we start our day, before we start our parenting, before we start our work, before we start anything. Why? Because this is why. He created us to be his witnesses.
[00:21:47] We are his work of art. We are to let our light shine. So when we pray and we pray godly prayers, our prayers are confident. Not because of our merit, but because, oh, this is who he created me to be.
[00:22:04] I'm going to walk into righteousness and holiness today. Thank you, God, that you are going to strengthen me to walk in impurity and in love and in mercy and grace to my fallen man. Thank you, God, that you're going to keep me focused on my work today. Why? So you would be glorified? You see where the boldness is, but where does boldness and confidence do?
[00:22:33] Does it point to you? It doesn't. You think it does? You think you're comparing that cockiness of that pro basketball player and that pro football player.
[00:22:46] You're taking that cockiness and you're thinking that that is what confidence is. No, no, no. Confidence exudes itself. Like in Georgia in Last holiday, Queen Latifah, right? It exudes itself because there's a freedom in your prayers, there's a freedom in your life that knows that my works, my.
[00:23:11] But what I do honors and glorifies God because I am doing it for God. And when I come to God in prayer, in my most heinous moments of my life and I say, God forgive me, use me right now, Use me to glorify yourself.
[00:23:35] Use me to honor your in the way I love and live and do my work today.
[00:23:44] We can be bold, we can be gold. Because this is what God wants.
[00:23:50] God wants to be glorified through you. He wants to be honored in your family.
[00:23:56] He wants you to raise your daughter, your son, in a God fearing way. So why not pray in confidence and boldness?
[00:24:07] This is what he wants for you. Verse 20 says, he has inaugurated for us a new and living way through the curtain. That is through.
[00:24:19] Guys, we talked about the temple at the beginning of this and that curtain that separated, right? You had the holy place, you had a curtain and then you had the most holy place. Those were the presence of God. And the priest, the priest only went there one time a year. And they went in there with fear and trembling.
[00:24:41] So. So a point that I think is important for this just whole thinking through this text is the fact that sin, right, Romans 6:23, for the wages of sin is what? Death.
[00:24:55] That's an important concept to think of. We have a holy God and in his presence there cannot have sin. And what does sin require? I just said it. 623 says death.
[00:25:10] So these people, these families would bring these animals through the gate, right through the gate. And in the sanctuary we'd be in front of them and they would say, can I go in there? And the priests would be like, nah, you can't go in there unless you want to die, right?
[00:25:30] So instead they would take and sacrifice the animal.
[00:25:35] And not only would the animal need to be sacrificed for them, the animal needed to be sacrificed for the priest.
[00:25:43] And this is what's so amazing about Hebrews, is that God or the writer of Hebrews shows Jesus not only as our priest, but as our Savior.
[00:25:58] There was priests before that would go in, would have to cleanse themselves before they could make sacrifices for you. Jesus goes right in to the sanctuary, right into the holy of the holies, and he is the sacrifice.
[00:26:16] So when it says through Jesus or when you say in Jesus name, right, we say that sometimes, right? When we say that, we're saying through the curtain, right to God, through Jesus, not based on our merit, not based on what we've done this week or what we've accomplished or what neighborhood we're from, how much money we have. It is through Jesus. He calls himself in the scripture. He calls himself the curtain that was torn. Why? Because he was the one that was crushed. He was the one that was killed. He was the one that was torn his body and was battered and marred for our sins. We go through.
[00:27:08] We're about to do it here in a second with the communion, but we go through the body that was broken for us, the blood that was shed for us.
[00:27:18] When we pray, we pray with confidence and boldness because it is truly through Jesus.
[00:27:29] He even says, it's through my body. We don't hear that very much, but he's painting this picture of what he's done for us. And he's made this way for us.
[00:27:40] He has inaugurated verse 20. He has inaugurated for us a new and living way through the curtain that is through his flesh.
[00:27:50] Man, that's gonna help with communion today, right? When we think about that, when we lift up that bread, that's gonna really help us to understand what through his flesh means.
[00:28:03] It is only through that that we stand here as sinners that are deserving of death but will live. Because it is through Jesus that we're here. Verse 21 says, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God. Again, I just said it. But not only is he our priest, he's our sacrifice.
[00:28:29] You ever go somewhere and your confidence is super high, and you know, you go into this. You know, this restaurant, let's just say a restaurant. Or maybe you go into a game and you know somebody at the gate.
[00:28:45] You know somebody in the penthouse or in the box. And you know, you got your boys with you, you got your families with you, you got people with you. And you know it ain't gonna be no problem that the ticket's there. Cause you know somebody.
[00:29:02] Guys, we know somebody.
[00:29:05] We know somebody. When we go before God in prayer, we know somebody.
[00:29:15] Man, I seen my nephew that lives with us. You know, we go to these high school basketball games and stuff like that. And he comes and he walks ahead us, and he walks straight through the gate. He doesn't say anything. He just keeps going. Just so much confidence.
[00:29:31] I'm thinking maybe that's where my confidence should be when I come to the Lord.
[00:29:40] Because I know somebody, my priest.
[00:29:46] He is my high priest.
[00:29:49] There was two level of priests. There was the priest, the normal priest that would sacrifice the animal for you, for your sins. But it was a high priest. Only the high priest was able to go where? To the holy of holies, which was behind that curtain.
[00:30:09] It says, and since verse 21, it says, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near. Oh, I think this is the biggest thing. This is the biggest piece. Let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith. With our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience in our bodies washed in pure water. Let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance. Guys, we don't draw near because we're not living like Georgia in Last Holiday. We don't have this sense of cash it all out. I got two weeks. Cash it all out.
[00:30:55] Go. Where am I going?
[00:30:59] She goes to the casino. She's. I mean, she's winning money. And guess what, people in Last Holiday, people are starting to be drawn to her because of what? Her confidence, because of her freedom, her willingness to fail.
[00:31:19] We think when we pray to God, we think God is either answering our prayer or being faithful in our prayers.
[00:31:31] By the outcome of what happens based on our prayer, we're thinking, okay, God, I'm praying for more finances this year.
[00:31:43] Up my finances.
[00:31:46] God doesn't up my finances.
[00:31:50] And we think that's where our faith and where God is glorified. He's actually glorified in our confidence in coming for more finances.
[00:32:04] We're waiting on something in the future, and God is like, no, I wanted you to come boldly.
[00:32:10] That's why suffering in the Bible is not something that is called to be run from. It is something to be endured.
[00:32:20] Not only endure, but endured. And y'all about to see in the next two or three verses, endure it in community.
[00:32:27] I'm not gonna preach that, but endure it in community. You'll probably hear that next week.
[00:32:35] Don't forsake. So throughout.
[00:32:40] Throughout this, we are to boldly and confidently come to God.
[00:32:46] We are to draw near to him.
[00:32:49] Drawing near. If we are missing this as believers, we're missing Christianity.
[00:32:56] If we're looking for the outcome to be the thing that we're waiting on, Honestly, I don't know. This is just opinion. This is straight opinion. I feel like that's why we're seeing a lot of abandonment of the faith. Because they thought it was what the outcome. They didn't realize that they were entering the sanctuary, they were entering the holy of holies. They didn't realize that that was the gift.
[00:33:23] They didn't realize that that was. They were waiting on God to heal the cancer. They were waiting on God to fix their business and to make all their dreams come true. They didn't realize the gift that they were. They knew. They knew the high priest, and they can enter into that sanctuary and be with him.
[00:33:48] If we're missing that in Christianity, we're missing Christianity. If we're missing what it means to draw near to him, we're missing it.
[00:33:58] When you begin to pray and you pray with confidence and you pray with boldness, you are receiving the gift of your prayer in that moment.
[00:34:08] Why? Because you are in the holy of holies.
[00:34:13] Think about that for a moment. No, no, no, no. Really Think about that for a moment.
[00:34:19] You're in the presence of God.
[00:34:24] The veil has been torn in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. I think in all three of them, it's. It talks about when he was killed, when he had breathed his last breath. What did the temple curtain do? It tore from what top to bottom, the representation of. Now the sanctuary has been opened to me and you through Jesus.
[00:34:51] There is the gift. When we say draw near. When the scripture says to draw near, don't look for something outside of that. That is the gift.
[00:35:01] That is the beautiful part of Christianity. That I can draw near to him. You can take a breath in this moment right now. This is a real moment, guys, in this next moment, and draw near to him in your next moment.
[00:35:18] And you can do it with confidence and boldness because he wants to use you.
[00:35:24] He wants to be close to you. He wants to be glorified and honored through your life.
[00:35:30] But what do we do?
[00:35:33] We kind of. I compare us sometimes to the prodigal son's brother. Y'all know the prodigal son's brother. So the prodigal son, he leaves his dad's house, right? He takes all the wealth, right? And he squanders his wealth, does everything imaginable wrong to his father. And you got the older son, I think is the older son you got. The other son stays at home, right? So he's good boy. He's good. He's working, taking care of things. Well, the prodigal son squanders his wealth and ends up having to come home. And he's thinking to himself, man, my father's not gonna accept me back. And he comes home and. And it's actually the exact opposite. He actually puts a ring on his finger, shoes on his feet, and he says, let's have a party. My son who was lost has now been found. But what about this other son who never left who never left.
[00:36:34] He's kind of upset. Wouldn't you be upset? I never left. But this is us in prayer. Listen to what he says here.
[00:36:45] I apologize, guys. I'm not finding my scriptures really fast. Let me see. Where am I? Prodigal son, verse 31 of. I didn't even put the. Is it Luke? I'm thinking. All right.
[00:37:00] My son, the Father said, you are always with me. Y'all listening?
[00:37:07] My son, the Father said, you are always with me. Cause he's mad. Cause he said, why didn't you throw me a party?
[00:37:14] I've been here working this whole time.
[00:37:17] You didn't invite my friends over. You didn't do this.
[00:37:20] His father says, my son, you're always with me and everything I have is yours.
[00:37:29] But we had to celebrate and be glad because the brother of yours was dead and is alive again. He was lost and now is found.
[00:37:37] Listen to this. The Father says, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. You know what we're doing?
[00:37:46] We're not asking because we're worried. We're worried that that is too big and too much.
[00:37:55] He's like, everything I have is yours. You've been here. Ask.
[00:38:01] Have you ever considered that about the older brother?
[00:38:05] God's response? And I was like, oh, man, I'm the older brother.
[00:38:11] I go to church every Sunday. I pay my tithes. I treat my wife right.
[00:38:18] I'm doing all these good things. And he's saying, eric, have you prayed confidently and boldly for my name to be glorified in all you do lately? Have you done that lately? Have you asked for big and great things for my name lately?
[00:38:36] Let's not be like the prodigal son's brother.
[00:38:40] Let us go. Understand? I have always been with you. He said, you've been here. Ask. And ask with boldness.
[00:38:53] Let us hope. I'm sorry. Let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith. With our hearts sprinkled.
[00:39:03] What does it mean With a true heart.
[00:39:08] A true heart.
[00:39:12] There is something to say about coming on Sunday mornings. I promise you there's something good about that. There is. There's something good about singing songs loudly so other people hear. That's encouraging.
[00:39:25] But the true heart, those who worship me in spirit and in truth. Right? The true heart is the one that receives the reward. The heart that says, no matter what happens, no matter what this person thinks about me or she thinks about me or whatever happened yesterday or today, I am gonna come to you in this moment, and I'm gonna Draw near to you with a true heart, a heart that is really after God. I'm talking about the thing. This is the piece that I want y'all to hear. I'm talking about that thing that nobody else can see. Y'all know that thing, that thing that nobody else can see but Jesus.
[00:40:07] My example is the widow's mite, right? The two pennies. The rich people throw in their coins, and they throw in all their money, and it's like a lot of money. They have a lot of popularity, a lot of status, a lot of businesses, and they're throwing in money. And this widow throws in two copper coins. Two pennies, right? And what does Jesus say? This poor widow has put in more key word more than all of these other people.
[00:40:43] More.
[00:40:44] What's more? What are you talking about? The thing that nobody else can see.
[00:40:51] More faith, more dependence, more love, more passion, more desire, more transparency.
[00:41:03] All the stuff that God calls true worshipers that you say, you come to him, you come to be him in prayer with a true heart. I'm talking about the thing that nobody else can see. If they see, that's good too. But you don't care if they see it, because it is the thing that counts. It is the thing that he says is more the thing that he's like, okay, boop. Okay, store that in heaven. Boop. Oop. Store that in heaven. A heart to worship me.
[00:41:35] Came to church with a desire and a broken and contrite heart. Today, that's mine. I'm talking about the thing that nobody else can see. When you hear the word true here. When you hear, let us draw near with a true heart.
[00:41:52] Doesn't matter how high you raise your hands or how low or how much you put your face to the ground. A true heart. I'm talking about in the midst of a conversation, you say, God, I give you this conversation because it's not going good right now. A true heart. Draw near to him in that hard conversation. Draw near to him in that battle between husband and wife. Draw near to him in that moment of you just responding to your daughter or son in a bad way. Draw near to him during those moments where you like, oh, wow, I need you right now.
[00:42:36] The thing that nobody else can see.
[00:42:39] Nobody else. And you probably don't even. You couldn't see. I've been praying. I've been praying as I've been talking to you guys.
[00:42:47] The thing that nobody else can see, right?
[00:42:51] A true heart, a worship. The worship that he requires and he's looking for is those who will worship me in spirit and in truth.
[00:43:04] Not the stuff that looks good, sounds good, and is pretty, and the crowds are coming. No, no, no. My true worshipers will worship me in spirit and in truth.
[00:43:21] And this says that let us draw near to him in truth, because you cannot draw near to him in falsehood.
[00:43:29] And my last point, all of this.
[00:43:33] We live our lives with the full confidence and boldness that Jesus is our Savior and we come to him with confidence.
[00:43:45] I don't think as pastors, myself included, talk about this enough.
[00:43:53] It is found in obedience to him. When we find our most prized life, it is in obedience. The last part of that scripture says, talks about the water.
[00:44:07] The blood cleanses us. So positionally what? We're righteous. We're the righteousness of God. Positionally. What does it say? We are children of God. That's our position and that does not change.
[00:44:20] But our everyday moment to moment our living.
[00:44:25] We are to wash.
[00:44:27] We are to wash with the word of God. We are to wash ourselves with coming on Sundays and fellowshipping with believers. We are to wash ourselves with the truth of God's word. We are to wash ourselves with love and good works.
[00:44:45] We are to live lives that are not addicted to. To things that will hurt our families.
[00:44:54] We are to fight against those things. Not because they're gonna give us access to God with boldness. No, no, no. Because our highest life is found in holiness and righteousness. That's where our highest life, everyday living is found.
[00:45:12] Not in perfection, but in a desire to honor God with everything I do, to live in holiness and righteousness. Because the reason I even make this my last point, and I'll say this, is because I think we've gotten to a point where we say we're pressed so hard that we are going through Jesus that we don't understand. We find Jesus in obedience.
[00:45:39] Oh, it's through Jesus. Don't worry about it, Eric. Just. You got it. No, no, no. I find Jesus in walking in obedience.
[00:45:48] I draw near to him when I walk in holiness and righteous. When I fight sin, when I live for him in all I do. Let's pray.
[00:46:11] Sa.
