Episode Transcript
[00:00:18] All right, I want to start us with a quote. If you've been around Redemption Hill for any amount of time, you've probably heard me quote this, but I think it's worthy to be quoted again. It's from probably my favorite book outside of the Bible, the Silver Chair, which is within the Chronicles of Narnia series. If you're unfamiliar with that series, it's a great series. I would encourage it. Some of the kids are nodding to that. That's awesome. It's a great series. So here's a quote. I'm gonna put it up on the screen. And this quote is from a character named Puddleglum who C.S. lewis, the author of the book, wrote. His inspiration for this character was his gardener who said he'll. Who he said was an eternal pessimist. And so he's the kind of guy who you'd walk outside and be like, man, it's beautiful outside. And he'd say something like, yeah, it's pretty, but we can probably expect rain kind of a thing, like always finding a way to kind of turn the positive into the negative. This is who this character is based off of. And in this particular scene, Paraguam as well as two kids are stuck in a place called the Underworld. And if you know anything about the Chronicles of Narnia, it's an analogy and it's an allegory. I'm sorry, it's an allegory.
[00:01:26] And Aslan represents. He's the Jesus like figure in the book. He's a lion.
[00:01:31] Narnia is in representation of the new heavens and new Earth. And the underworld is kind of a representation of where we are today, living in this fallen, this beautiful but broken world that you and I inhabit today. And so they're stuck in the underworld. And the antagonist, the witch, comes in and begins to have a conversation, trying to keep Puddleglam and these two kids in the underworld. And this is what's referred to as Puddleglum's speech. Okay. So I want to highlight really, like, one sentence from it, but I'm going to read the whole thing to you.
[00:02:05] This is what Puddleglum says to the witch. He says one word, ma', am, he said, coming back from the fire, limping because of the pain. He had stomped out the fire with his bare feet. One word. All you've been saying is, quite right, I shouldn't wonder.
[00:02:20] So she's trying to convince them that Narnia does not exist, that there's no reason to live for Narnia, because it doesn't really Exist. All that exists is what they can see.
[00:02:31] He says. I'm a chap who always liked to know the worst and then put the best face I can on it. So I won't deny any of what you said.
[00:02:39] But there's one more thing to be said. Even so.
[00:02:42] Suppose we have only dreamed or made up all those things.
[00:02:47] Trees and grass and sun and moon and stars. And Aslan himself.
[00:02:53] Suppose we have.
[00:02:55] Then all I can say is that in that case the made up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones.
[00:03:03] Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world.
[00:03:08] Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one.
[00:03:11] And that's a funny thing when you come to think of it.
[00:03:14] We are just babies making up a game, if you're right.
[00:03:19] But four babies playing a game can make a play world which licks your real world hollow.
[00:03:25] That's why I'm going to stand by the play world.
[00:03:28] I'm on Aslan's side, even if there isn't any Aslan to lead it.
[00:03:32] I'm going to live as a Narnian, as like a Narnian, as I can. Even if there isn't any Narnia.
[00:03:39] And that final quote is the one that I really want to lock in on because I think it fits in with verse 14.
[00:03:45] Here's what verse 14 says.
[00:03:48] For we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.
[00:03:55] I think that statement, not just in light of this chunk of passage that we're reading today, but in light of the whole Book of Hebrews, is kind of like the glue that holds it all together.
[00:04:08] For we have no lasting city meaning this.
[00:04:13] The city, the world that you and I inhabit today, is no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.
[00:04:27] Meaning, for a follower of Jesus, the best is ahead.
[00:04:32] Not right now.
[00:04:35] And I'll tell you what that doesn't mean.
[00:04:37] That doesn't mean that right now isn't important.
[00:04:41] That doesn't mean that we're called by God to be isolationists or to be monks or separatists or any of these, like, distance ourselves from the culture and have nothing to do with the culture, because the culture's going to hell. And so let's just kind of sit back and let's kind of watch it burn. Kind of think that's not.
[00:05:00] That's not what we're talking about. But if you look at the history of the Church and in the history of the world, I would argue that the men and women who were of most earthly Good were the people who were the most heavenly minded.
[00:05:14] They were the people who actually thought most consciously and consistently about the city to come.
[00:05:20] They knew that they had no lasting city.
[00:05:23] They knew that the things of this earth, the things of this world were, were passing away before their eyes like a mist.
[00:05:31] So they're important.
[00:05:33] But the state of this present world was not final. They had a better city, an unshakable kingdom that was to come. And that's how they live their life. Whether it was William Wilberforce who helped abolish, abolish the slave trade in England, or Martin Luther whom God used to usher in the Reformation, or Diedrich Bonhoeffer who was a German who spoke out and fought against the evils of Nazism, or Elizabeth Elliot who took the gospel to the indigenous tribe that killed her husband so that now many of those people became Christians.
[00:06:13] These were the most heavenly minded people in the world.
[00:06:18] They were people whom God used to turn the world upside down, as he said of the disciples in the first century.
[00:06:25] And they were the most heavenly minded people.
[00:06:28] They were people who by the grace of God had learned over the course of their life not to fall in love with the things of this world, but as the Apostle Paul says, to count all as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus.
[00:06:47] I believe that the Holy Spirit, through the author is saying in this text and as we close out this book, this amazing book, Hebrews, that we're to be a heavenly minded people, that we're to be a heavenly minded people, not a people who just hold most dearly and love most intimately the things of this world, but who are a heavenly minded people. And because we're a heavenly minded people, we can love the people and the things of this world rightly that we can actually serve more ferociously and more courageously and more joyfully because we have no lasting city here.
[00:07:25] We live for the city that is to come.
[00:07:28] Does all this make sense? So this is where we're going today. That we are to be by the grace of God and by the person and power of the Holy Spirit. If you're a Christian, a heavenly minded people. So I really just want to answer a couple of questions through the text and we'll kind of hop around the passage a little bit and then I think at the end it's all going to come together. Okay, so verse 14 is our glue. Here's what verse 14 says again. For we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.
[00:07:58] So the first question I want to consider with you is this. And I really. I want to encourage you to really listen.
[00:08:05] How have we become. Or how do we become citizens of this heavenly city?
[00:08:11] So if we have no lasting city here, but the promise is that we have a city, there is a city to come.
[00:08:18] So you're here this morning. Whether you're a Christian or not, whether you believe in Jesus or you don't believe in Jesus, whatever the case is, it is true that there is a city to come.
[00:08:30] And so how do you become a citizen of it?
[00:08:34] Or how have you become a citizen of it if you are a Christian?
[00:08:43] The question of how a person becomes a citizen of heaven is the most important question in the world.
[00:08:50] It's a more important question than who you're gonna marry if you're single. It's a more important question than whether or not you're gonna have kids. It's a more important question than what's gonna happen to those kids when they grow up.
[00:09:00] It's a more important question than what day you're gonna die, how you're gonna die.
[00:09:06] It's a more important question than any of them.
[00:09:08] It is the question, how do you become a citizen of this city?
[00:09:15] How have you become a citizen of this city?
[00:09:21] He says in verses 11 and 12 that we have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So these verses 11 and 12 are a quote from the Old Testament book of Leviticus, chapter 16, verses 6 through 10, which talk about what was referred to as the day of atonement. Okay, the day of atonement. And what the Israelites were to do on the day of atonement was to the priest who served as the earthly priest chosen by God. Aaron was to take one bull for himself and his family and two goats for the people of God. So one sacrifice was for him and his family through the shedding of blood is forgiveness of sins. Why did God establish it that way? Because he's good.
[00:10:16] And because the wages of sin is death.
[00:10:22] That's what sin deserves, is death.
[00:10:25] And it is that way because God is good.
[00:10:28] Because he hates evil.
[00:10:30] He hates oppression. He hates when the people made in his image hurt themselves.
[00:10:36] He hates it because he's love and because he's good. And so he establishes a sacrificial system in the Old Testament that through the shedding of the blood of an animal would come the forgiveness of the sins of his people. Because he's gracious, right? Isn't that amazing about God? He's not just a good judge in that he judges sin rightly, but he's gracious. He didn't have to provide a means of forgiveness for his people, but he did that because he's love.
[00:11:04] God loves it when his people are forgiven through his grace.
[00:11:10] He delights in that. And so he provides the sacrificial system in the Old Testament. The problem that you and I face, friends, and again, I don't know where you are in your walk with Jesus, but is that we, most, even those of us who have been around the church for a long time when it comes to ourself. Okay, we'll just do a little bit of introspection here.
[00:11:32] Move my stuff over to the side so I can just talk to you for a moment.
[00:11:36] We do a little bit of introspection. I think we can honestly and confidently say that most of us in the room hold a pretty low view of sin, okay? And maybe we don't hold a low view of sin toward the culture. Cause we know it's bad. But maybe we hold a low view of sin in our own heart.
[00:11:53] Okay? Like, we're like, I'm not that bad, right? Like, I mean, there are people out there doing worse things than I'm doing. And you know, they're doing. And you know, I'm not.
[00:12:02] Not really that bad.
[00:12:05] Ligonier Ministries, whom I'm a big fan of, did a 2025 state of theology survey where they interviewed a whole lot of people from across the United States, across denominational lines, to kind of get a gauge on where Americans were by and large in regards to biblical literacy. Okay? And here's one of the statistics.
[00:12:27] 64% of American evangelicals, that's those who profess to be followers of Jesus. 64% of American evangelicals believe all people are born innocent.
[00:12:40] Think about that for a moment, and maybe you're here and you're like, yeah, I kind of agree with that too.
[00:12:46] But that's significantly more than half of people who profess faith in Jesus, who say they believe in the Bible, say that were born innocent. And friends, that is in direct contradiction to the clear teaching of Scripture.
[00:13:00] David says, in sin did my mother conceive me?
[00:13:07] So from the womb to the tomb, we are sinners.
[00:13:12] That's the clear teaching of the Bible. Paul says in Romans 3 that no one is righteous. No, not one.
[00:13:19] Not a single person.
[00:13:22] Not Mother Teresa, not Billy Graham. Not a single person is righteous.
[00:13:28] He goes as far as to say in Ephesians 2 that apart from Christ, apart from the grace of God, you and I are dead in our sins.
[00:13:38] Meaning that we don't need to be taught how to live a good life. We need to be brought back to life.
[00:13:44] And so my point in belaboring this is to say that if you and I believe that we have a little problem consisting of little sin, then we'll never be able to fully comprehend and enjoy the greatness of the Savior.
[00:14:01] If we believe that we have a little problem, then inevitably we'll believe that that little problem requires a little solution. Namely this. Be a better person.
[00:14:12] Try a little bit harder, do a little bit better, pray a little bit more, read a little bit more, get. Come to church more, give whatever the case is, be a better person.
[00:14:22] Little problem, little solution.
[00:14:25] And let me tell you what that results in, friends. No. Assurance.
[00:14:30] You'll never enjoy assurance in really knowing the depth of God's love for you if you don't understand that your problem and mine is eternally radical.
[00:14:43] I mean, there is nothing you can do.
[00:14:46] Nothing I can do. It is. It couldn't be more radical than this reality. You and I are sinners and God is holy, and there's nothing we can do about it.
[00:15:03] And so what does God do?
[00:15:06] How do we become citizens of this kingdom, of this city that is to come? Well, in the Old Testament, he gives us an animal sacrificial system that in and of itself is just an amazing act of grace. People always talk about, well, the God of the Old Testament is this, and the God of the New Testament is this. It's the same God, okay? Jesus, as he says in the text, he's the same yesterday, today and forever. The God of the Old Testament is the God of the New Testament. Not two different gods, same God.
[00:15:34] Very, very important to believe that.
[00:15:38] So God provides a sacrificial system in the Old Testament.
[00:15:42] What does he do? What has he done? Well, over 2,000 years ago, he did the most amazing thing that you could ever. That you and I could ever imagine.
[00:15:49] He came himself.
[00:15:51] And so verse 12 says this.
[00:15:54] So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify or to consecrate the people through what his own blood.
[00:16:11] God says, it's not enough for me to provide animal sacrifices for you through the means of an earthly priest. I'm going to come and do it for you.
[00:16:20] So God in love sends his only begotten Son to live the most perfect, beautiful holy life you could ever imagine in perfect obedience. To the will of God. For God so loved the world that he gave the most precious thing imaginable, his only begotten Son.
[00:16:43] Fully God, fully man.
[00:16:47] He gave his Son. Why?
[00:16:50] Well, so that he could suffer outside the gate.
[00:16:54] That's outside the gate of Jerusalem, which is where criminals and the worst of the worst were executed. Outside the gate. You're not worthy to die inside the gate. We're going to send you outside the gate.
[00:17:07] Jesus died for blasphemy because he claimed himself to be God.
[00:17:14] And so he suffers.
[00:17:18] He suffers outside the gate. Why?
[00:17:21] In order to. To sanctify his people through his own blood.
[00:17:29] Not the blood of an animal, a bull, a goat.
[00:17:34] The blood of God himself is what sanctifies you and I. It's what sets us apart from the world. That's what that word sanctify means. Sanctify can mean you and I become more like Jesus over the course of our lifetime.
[00:17:51] But oftentimes, in the New Testament, the word sanctify is used as a final thing, like something that has happened. He's already sanctified you.
[00:18:00] He's already consecrated you to himself. He's already made you holy. He's already made you blameless. He's already made you righteous. You are eternally forgiven if you're in Christ, never to be condemned. Or Romans 8:1 says, he's already done this. He did this. How? Through his own blood.
[00:18:22] And so if you'll recognize and embrace the reality that our problem is eternally radical, then you'll begin to grow by the grace of God into this amazing sense of assurance by which the cross becomes ever bigger to you and you begin to recognize, like, yeah, my problem is radical, but what God did for me through Jesus is even more so.
[00:18:46] It's really good news. Don't be a part of the 64%. That's really bad theology.
[00:18:54] He has sanctified you. He's already sanctified you through his own blood. That's how much God loves you.
[00:19:03] Like, the depth of God's. The depth of the.
[00:19:06] Wow.
[00:19:08] Stuttering. Okay.
[00:19:10] We talk often about how it isn't true that the Father loves you because of Jesus. Right?
[00:19:16] We think that way sometimes. Like, Jesus is like the peacemaker between us and the Father. The Father's pretty put out by us. He's pretty annoyed by us. Jesus is the nice one. And so he's like, please, Father, like him, promise. They're not as bad as you think they are. But that's also antithetical to what the Bible teaches. Why did Jesus come Because the Father loves you like the Father sent his Son for you to live in your place. I mean, I was. As I was praying all the way here this morning, I was just thinking about sometimes verbiage that's used, that's like, we're worthy of God's love. People will say that sometimes. So they'll say a variation of that, like, worthy of God. And I'm just like.
[00:19:55] On the surface, that seems like a thing I want to believe, you know, like, I'm worthy of God's love. I'm, you know, whatever.
[00:20:03] But it's not good news.
[00:20:05] Good news is not that you're worthy of the Father's love. Good news is Jesus is worthy of the Father's love.
[00:20:14] Jesus is worthy of the Father's love. And he lived in your place.
[00:20:18] He died in your place. He rose in your place so that your victory is not on your own back. You get to ride on the curtails of Jesus.
[00:20:28] He suffered outside the gate to sanctify his people, to consecrate his people.
[00:20:36] And he did it through his own blood.
[00:20:39] So how do you and I inherit this city that is to come?
[00:20:43] Jesus.
[00:20:45] Only Jesus.
[00:20:47] Faith in Jesus.
[00:20:50] The word faith in the New Testament just means trust.
[00:20:55] It isn't a blind belief.
[00:20:57] It's, I trust Jesus and what he accomplished on your behalf. That's how you inherit the city. That's how you become a citizen of the city.
[00:21:08] And so the second question then is, what is the author in these texts?
[00:21:14] How does he instruct us to live as we wait for this coming city?
[00:21:20] In other words, to use the quote from the beginning, what does it look like to live as a Narnian?
[00:21:25] Okay, so if we're to adhere to Puddleglam's speech here and say, you know what, Like, I'm not angry, by the way. Some people think I sound angry when I get. All right, so you know what? Like, hey, I'm going to live like a Narnian even if there isn't a Narnia. There is, by the way.
[00:21:42] But if the world is going to preach this message to me that all that exists is what I can see and what I can feel and what I can taste and smell, et cetera. If that's all there is, then this is terrible.
[00:21:57] And so I would rather live for the city that is to come.
[00:22:01] I'm gonna live like a Narnian, even if there isn't a Narnia. How does the Bible say you and I are to do that?
[00:22:07] Like, what does it look like to wait for the coming of the Lord Jesus.
[00:22:11] He's coming again.
[00:22:13] We don't know when he's going to come, but every day that we live, we're one day closer to his return or our departure from this life into the next.
[00:22:23] Okay, so how do we live? One pastor, I think it was Vodi Bauckham that said this. He said that the pastor's primary job is to prepare the people of God to die.
[00:22:35] That's a big part of what we do.
[00:22:38] I was telling the guys back there that I spoke with a young church planter about a year ago, which is a weird place for me to be in. But he was like, man, he was asking all these logistical questions, which is totally normal for a church planner to do. How do we raise money, how do we develop a team? How do we do all these things?
[00:22:51] And so I ended up walking him into the sanctuary just to kind of show him around. And when I did that, hey, this is a funeral home, by the way, if you didn't know that funeral home leases this building as well. And so walked into the sanctuary and there was a body with an open casket here. And it was kind of an awkward moment between he and I. I was like, well, here we are, man.
[00:23:10] But it led into a really, I think, fruitful conversation around, hey man, you're not called to be a CEO as a pastor, like, and we'll talk about that in just a moment.
[00:23:23] In part, you're called to prepare people to die.
[00:23:29] So what does that look like?
[00:23:31] As we live on this side of eternity, heavenly minded people, we have no lasting city, so we live for the city that is to come. What does it look like? Well, the text gives us several things that I think will be helpful. Let's look at verse 13 first. Okay.
[00:23:49] Verse 13 says, Therefore, let us go to him.
[00:23:53] Let's go to Jesus outside the camp and bear the reproach that he endured.
[00:24:00] So the first point is this. What does it look like to live as an Arnian, to live as a heavenly minded person on this side of heaven? Number one is to follow Jesus into suffering.
[00:24:11] To follow Jesus into suffering. Let me explain what this means. This doesn't mean that you and I are to live our lives looking for suffering. Does that make sense?
[00:24:21] So it's not like going out and finding suffering is going to make you a better Christian.
[00:24:26] But it is to say this, if you and I follow Jesus and if we become serious about obeying his word, I mean, like, we start taking the Bible like seriously, like, this is true, this is the Word of God.
[00:24:40] And we start asking the spirit of God to help us live like that. It's going to come with suffering, it's going to come with pushback potentially. It could come with some alignment from people that you love that are in your life.
[00:24:59] Like, it could come with heart. It will come with hardship of some kind.
[00:25:04] I mean, I was struck this weekend.
[00:25:07] I Woke up at 2:30 in the morning a couple of nights ago because I couldn't stop coughing. So I woke up and what I should have done is woken up and prayed. But I was just like, man, I'm just gonna. I just decided to doom scroll for a moment, which is a bad idea anytime, but especially at 2:30am and, and I come across an article that says this. 30 Christians beheaded in Mozambique.
[00:25:30] And I was like, oh my gosh.
[00:25:32] Like Cindy and I used to take trips to South Africa for missions. Cindy's been to Mozambique. I've been to South Africa. We know and love literal pastors who live there now. Okay.
[00:25:44] And I was just like, oh my gosh, it's just crazy. And it forced me to think about this question, like, what does Jesus mean to me?
[00:25:54] So I don't know that this is the case, but I do know. You know, there are lots of stories that we read about that are happening overseas. Mozambique, Nigeria, all sorts of places where Christians are given a choice.
[00:26:09] Denounce Jesus and live or we'll kill you.
[00:26:14] And they choose death.
[00:26:18] What does Jesus mean to you?
[00:26:22] What does he mean to me?
[00:26:26] Is he your treasure?
[00:26:30] I mean, can you. And I say, with the apostle Paul, I count everything as loss, everything.
[00:26:38] Because the value of knowing him and following him is of surpassing value.
[00:26:47] What does Jesus mean to you?
[00:26:50] Because the call of the text is to follow Jesus outside the gate.
[00:26:55] Well, what happened to him outside the gate? He suffered.
[00:27:00] He suffered and he died outside the gate.
[00:27:04] So we're to follow him outside the gate bearing his reproach.
[00:27:09] Here's the good news, though, about suffering. And again, we talk about this a lot, but it's worthy to be repeated constantly. Okay, here's the good news about suffering. Jesus is with you in it and with me in it. He says, I'll never leave you or forsake you. And I think those texts find their potency in the context of suffering.
[00:27:28] It's fine to know that Jesus is with me when life is good. That's great.
[00:27:32] But what about when it isn't?
[00:27:34] Well, that's when you really need to know that Jesus is with you. And I promise you, because I've spent Lots of time in hospitals with some of you.
[00:27:43] That sometimes in the darkest moments in life, I mean the darkest moments you could ever imagine, the presence of God is palpable.
[00:27:53] And it is what not only gets us through, but gives us an otherworldly joy that makes no sense to the world.
[00:28:04] So we don't need to hear, life is easy.
[00:28:08] Go out and make it easy. That's not good news.
[00:28:11] Good news is when you follow Jesus and I follow Jesus, and we follow him outside the gate and we bear his reproach. He's with us in it. That's good news.
[00:28:22] Why we have no lasting city.
[00:28:26] The present form of this world is passing away along with its sufferings.
[00:28:30] There will be no crying, no tears, no pain in the city that is to come.
[00:28:36] And so we're to follow Jesus into suffering. That's the first means by which we are to live as those.
[00:28:45] Live with a heavenly mindedness. Live like Narnians, Follow Jesus into suffering. Jesus is worth it. He's always worth it.
[00:28:55] No matter what comes our way, Jesus is worth it.
[00:28:59] And so we ought to pray. This isn't in my notes, but we ought to pray that the Holy Spirit would increase our affections for Jesus, our desire for him, our longing for him. Not just his benefits, but him in such a way that if and when persecution comes our way, have the strength to say, no, I'm not going to turn away from him.
[00:29:23] Do whatever you want to my body. I'm not going to turn away from him.
[00:29:27] That will set you and I free.
[00:29:30] Like that will set us free from lesser fears.
[00:29:33] You understand that if you and I don't fear death, what else would you fear?
[00:29:41] So that's the first point, is to follow Jesus into suffering. The next is in verse 15. Look at verse 15.
[00:29:49] Verse 15 says, through him, that's through Jesus.
[00:29:52] Let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God that is the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.
[00:30:01] So if the first means by which you and I are to live as Narnians, live as citizens of the city that is to come, is to follow Jesus into suffering. The second is that we are to worship Jesus with our mouth.
[00:30:15] Okay, so maybe some of you have heard the saying attributed. I think it's attributed to Francis of Assisi, but I don't know that he's the one who said this.
[00:30:22] Preach the Gospel, and when necessary, use words. Is also not true.
[00:30:28] Okay. You and I are called to proclaim with our lips, Jesus, be a kind person. Yes.
[00:30:37] Be a respectable and honorable person. Yes. We'll get to that in just a moment.
[00:30:42] But you can't do it and think that that is sufficient in and of itself.
[00:30:47] We're to worship Jesus with our mouth. And what's the fuel behind this? I think it's in that first phrase, through him, that's through Jesus.
[00:30:59] When we think about worshiping God as being through Jesus, I think it changes the entire perspective of how we think about worshiping God. And here's how, through Jesus that you and I are made sons and daughters of God.
[00:31:14] So when we worship God, we worship him as loving, gracious, heavenly Father. And that just that ought to fuel delight in our worship, that ought to motivate us into joyful obedience is being reminded that God is your father, God loves you through Jesus.
[00:31:33] And so he's saying, he doesn't just say, let us continually offer up sacrifice of praise to God. He says, do it through him.
[00:31:43] Through faith in Jesus, you're made into a son of God, Jesus. It's like Jesus wants to belabor the point throughout the Sermon on the Mount that God is your father, through him. He uses that phrase 12 times.
[00:31:56] Something about our Father, your father, is reinforcing the truth that I think will lead to a life of joyful verbal proclamation of God, which is through Jesus. We are citizens of heaven and children of God.
[00:32:11] So he says, do it through through him.
[00:32:14] The second thing. So worship Jesus with your mouth. The third point is to worship Jesus through your actions.
[00:32:24] So we worship Jesus through our mouth. That's verse 15.
[00:32:27] We worship Jesus through our actions is verse 16. He says, do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
[00:32:40] Now he's addressing what many people believe. And I believe this was a house church situated in Rome that was being tempted to leave Jesus to go back to the law. And so he's giving them practical instructions on how they're to live. So when he says do good and share what you have, he's not primarily talking about the way you and I interact with non Christians outside of the church. He's talking about the way that you and I treat one another.
[00:33:07] That doesn't mean you're not to do good to people outside the church. You are. Doesn't mean you're not to be generous with people outside the church. You are.
[00:33:15] But he's talking about how we treat one another.
[00:33:18] Do good to one another, be generous with one another.
[00:33:25] Francis Schaeffer, one of my favorite authors, says that Christian love is the final apologetic.
[00:33:33] I mean, when people come in on a Sunday and I hear this often, and it just. It fills me with a lot of joy to be here with you.
[00:33:43] It's not infrequent that I hear that people are like, man, the way you guys treat one another is just really encouraging.
[00:33:49] Like, that ought to always be more and more and more.
[00:33:55] One of the reasons we do communion every week, we believe the Lord commanded it. Secondly is because communion gives you six days to be bitter with somebody before you have to reconcile or you shouldn't come to the table.
[00:34:09] You should not take communion all the while having a bitter heart toward a Christian.
[00:34:14] You should not do that. Paul warns against that.
[00:34:20] So we have six days.
[00:34:21] And what a grace that is. Do you want to live in bitterness, resentment, unforgiveness? You don't want to live that way. That's poisonous.
[00:34:31] And so he says, hey, friends, do good to one another. Another way to frame that statement is to do kindness.
[00:34:40] Okay? Kindness.
[00:34:43] Kindness and niceness are not the same thing.
[00:34:47] Okay? So nice is not a fruit of the spirit.
[00:34:50] Kindnesses, okay? Oftentimes what I think.
[00:34:57] What oftentimes fuels niceness, and I'm just going to examine my own heart here. What fuels niceness is a fear of man.
[00:35:05] What fuels kindness is the fear of God.
[00:35:09] So if I'm fearing the Lord, then I can have a confrontational conversation with a brother or sister. But I'm going to do so in a kind way.
[00:35:19] I'm not going to berate, I'm not going to yell. I'm not going to say ugly things. I'm going to speak kindly, though I'm disagreeing with my brother or sister. That's how we ought to do, conflict with one another.
[00:35:30] What nice is going to do is it's going to keep you quiet.
[00:35:34] All the while you harbor bitterness.
[00:35:36] And you're going to come into Sunday and you're going to smile and you're going to hug and you're going to do all these things.
[00:35:41] All the while. This poison just.
[00:35:45] It just sits in you.
[00:35:46] It's eating your soul alive.
[00:35:50] Christ has freed you from that, friends.
[00:35:54] And so he tells us, do kindness and share with one another what you have.
[00:36:01] This ought to be the way our Sunday morning looks. It ought to be the way our community groups look, that we pray all the time that those who are not yet Christians would come into these spaces and would taste a little bit of heaven from them.
[00:36:14] Like, gosh, the message. Don't know if I fully agree with the message, but the way you guys love one another is crazy. Amen.
[00:36:22] Keep coming around and keep Hearing the message.
[00:36:25] So we're to testify to the Lord through our words and through our actions.
[00:36:32] And then the final part, and I. It's 11:07.
[00:36:37] Just going to stick around for a little bit, though, because this is important.
[00:36:41] The final part is that we are to worship Jesus in the church. Okay? And specifically this pertains to leadership in the church. So I'm going to read verse 7 to 9, and then verse 17 says, Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God, consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
[00:37:04] Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods which have not benefited those devoted to them. Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account.
[00:37:24] Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.
[00:37:32] All right.
[00:37:34] So strange for a pastor to preach a text about obeying your pastors, but here we are.
[00:37:41] Okay, let me empathize. First, I became a Christian at age 21. I started working in the church not long after that. Not a good idea. Started working in the church, getting more leadership responsibilities, preaching opportunities. And hey, I will say this to those of you in the room who have been hurt by leadership, whether it's me or somebody else in leadership, man, I get it.
[00:38:04] I've been yelled at by a pastor.
[00:38:06] I've been berated behind closed doors, behind a pastor.
[00:38:10] Like, there's not a single one of us in the room, probably, who hasn't in some way been negatively affected through the sinfulness of a leader in the church.
[00:38:21] Some more extreme than others.
[00:38:23] It doesn't justify it. It doesn't make it right.
[00:38:27] But here's what I think we have to recognize. Then I'll say a few things about pastors.
[00:38:32] We have to recognize that we live in a culture of autonomy.
[00:38:37] Extreme autonomy, radical autonomy, radical expressive individualism.
[00:38:43] We do not like authority of any kind.
[00:38:48] Here's the problem with anarchy, though.
[00:38:50] Okay, what's the problem with. Well, I'm not going to open it up for you. Here's the problem with anarchy. Okay?
[00:38:56] The problem with anarchy is this anarchy will always lead to dictatorship. You know how.
[00:39:04] Because people want a strong man.
[00:39:07] And when the people want a strong man, a strong man will oblige.
[00:39:14] And you may not like that strongman.
[00:39:18] So why does the bi. Why does God give leaders to the church?
[00:39:23] Well, that's A great question.
[00:39:25] He gives leaders to the church because he loves his people and he desires their good and he desires their joy. And so he appoints men, and then he gives them this amazing list of character qualifications.
[00:39:42] And he says, these men have to fit that.
[00:39:46] Now, here's the reality. And you know this.
[00:39:49] None of us do that perfectly.
[00:39:53] I listened to a podcast the other day where a guy. It was a super popular podcaster, like.
[00:40:00] But the guy he was interviewing was just berating the church. He's a Christian. And he wasn't just berating the church. He's berating pastors.
[00:40:08] And he said this random statistic showed no receipts, okay? But here's what he said. Over 50% of pastors are in this for the money.
[00:40:19] Let me tell you something. I don't know a single one of them, and I know lots of them in the city of Fort Worth.
[00:40:26] They love Jesus.
[00:40:28] They love the people of God. They love the Bible. They want to see lost people saved. We might disagree on how to see those things happen, but these are good men.
[00:40:39] They're not perfect men. I'm not.
[00:40:42] My family can attest to that.
[00:40:45] But they're not in it for money.
[00:40:48] They're not in it for fame or platform or power. Like, so I say these things to say, like, don't believe that stuff.
[00:40:56] Believe all things.
[00:41:00] God gave pastors to churches for your joy.
[00:41:06] He gave pastors to churches for your good.
[00:41:10] That's why he gave you pastors. Now, these pastors are, according to 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, to be humble men, teachable, willing to listen.
[00:41:21] They're to be whole men, meaning that their life in public and their life at home, that gap ought to be being bridged again. It's not going to be perfect, I promise you.
[00:41:33] But that gap ought to. We ought to desire for that gap to bridge.
[00:41:38] We ought to be honorable men, and we ought to teach sound doctrine. He's telling the church. He's saying, don't go after strange teachings about foods.
[00:41:50] He says, you need to be strengthened by grace. And whose responsibility is it given by God to preach grace? It's the pastors of the church.
[00:42:01] Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever isn't so much a statement about who Jesus is as God man. Though that is true. It's a statement about doctrine.
[00:42:11] The message of Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
[00:42:15] The word of God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And God, in his grace, has appointed deeply flawed, imperfect men filled with the Holy Spirit to preach that word to you for your joy.
[00:42:33] The Pastor's authority lies in the word of God.
[00:42:37] We're not little walking authorities who can tell you anything. We want to tell you no matter what. And you have to obey. That's not what it's saying.
[00:42:45] Our authority is in this book.
[00:42:49] And in these moments of preaching as we're opening up this book, it's your job to examine what we're preaching and to go to the Word yourself and study and do these things. And if we say anything that's in contradiction with this word, to lovingly bring that to us. We want that.
[00:43:02] I want it, Matt wants it. Taylor wants it. Sean wants it. We want that. We want to have those conversations.
[00:43:09] And so. But the call is to imitate the faith of, though it's imperfect, imitate the faith of obey and respect your under shepherds, because God has given us to you for your joy.
[00:43:26] And so he says, let them do this with joy and not with groaning. Pastoral ministry is challenging.
[00:43:35] It's wonderful.
[00:43:36] It's excruciatingly painful.
[00:43:41] Gosh, you can feel sometimes like, yeah, I'm willing to give up my time and my family for the sake of spending time with the people of the church.
[00:43:51] And then you make one wrong comment or you say one wrong thing and they leave.
[00:43:56] That happens sometimes.
[00:43:58] That's part of it.
[00:44:01] That's just me being vulnerable. It doesn't mean that I'm right in the way that I think or feel about those things.
[00:44:06] That's part of it. But it's hard.
[00:44:08] And so what can church members do to make it a joy and pray for us?
[00:44:16] Ask us how we're doing, Give us the benefit of a doubt if we say or do something that you don't like or doesn't make sense to you. Like, rather than just believing the worst in that moment, choose to believe all things and then have a conversation with us.
[00:44:33] Man, Brad, when you said this, when you did this, it really hurt.
[00:44:38] Have that conversation with me, with us.
[00:44:43] But we're not called to be CEOs, we're not called to be leadership gurus, okay?
[00:44:49] We're called to be under shepherds.
[00:44:53] We ourselves need grace.
[00:44:55] We ourselves need Jesus just as much as you do.
[00:45:00] But we are given, pastors are given for your joy. And he says that.
[00:45:06] Here's the big reason as to why he says, let them do. Let us do this work with joy and not with crumbling is because we're going to have to give an account.
[00:45:18] So just like a shepherd would way back in the day, where like, a shepherd has to. He doesn't just Care for the sheep. He leads the sheep forward, okay? As he leads the sheep forward. When he gets to his destination, he's got to give an account for every one of those sheep.
[00:45:31] If he's missing a sheep, he's got to give an account for the sheep.
[00:45:34] If a sheep is wounded, he's got to give an account for the wounded sheep.
[00:45:39] If a wolf has come in and snagged some of the sheep, then he's got to give an account for that.
[00:45:45] It's a weighty, wonderful thing. And we would covet your prayers says, let them do this with joy and not with groaning. And then the final thing, okay? And this is again, this is how you can do this, man. Just pray for us.
[00:46:04] Paul says in verses 18 and 19, pray for us. I just said Paul. I don't think Paul wrote Hebrews. The author of Hebrews. The author of Hebrews says this, and he's relating himself to the leaders of the church.
[00:46:18] So he's talking about them, too. He's not just talking about himself. He says, pray for us, himself and the leaders of the house church. Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience, desiring to act honorably in all things.
[00:46:37] I urge you, the more earnestly to do this in order that I may be restored to you the sooner so, friends, beloved, would you pray for your pastors?
[00:46:51] We too are sheep.
[00:46:53] We too have our own insecurities, our own sin, our own suffering.
[00:46:58] Would you pray for us?
[00:47:01] Would you pray for our joy in Jesus, that we would shepherd joyfully, not finding our identity in the work, but finding our identity in Jesus?
[00:47:10] Would you pray for our families, pray for our spouse, pray for our kids, pray for their salvation, pray for our marriages, pray for our contentment, pray that we would fear the Lord and not you, and that in so doing we'd love you.
[00:47:30] Pray for our humility, pray that we'd have wisdom to navigate and lead forward in this crazy cultural moment and how to do it with truth and grace?
[00:47:42] Pray for us.
[00:47:44] That's all we ask. And I know you do it. I told Josh, I'm just going to call you out. Josh told me last week. He said, man, we pray for you every night. And I was like, gosh, I can't tell you how many times, like, if the Lord were to unveil my eyes and I could see spiritual realities happening around me that I know were there, I could probably count to hundreds of times that I felt like I was close to despair where I just felt lifted out of that despair. And I have no doubt that God used the prayers of his people to do that.
[00:48:15] So, friends, we pray for you. We love you.
[00:48:19] There are few joys in life more amazing than being a pastor. And specifically being a pastor at Redemption Hill.
[00:48:27] We love it. Like, we have a lot of fun doing it.
[00:48:31] So we pray for you. We love you. We're here. Pray for us.
[00:48:35] We, too, are sheep.
[00:48:40] How do we live as Narnians? Follow Jesus into suffering. Worship Jesus with your mouth. Worship Jesus with your actions. And worship Jesus in the church.
[00:48:50] Pray for your leaders. We'll continue to pray for you. Love you.
[00:48:54] I'm going to pray.
