Paul
Hosana
Your Grace Is Enough
Jesus, Your Love Has No Bounds
Jesus I Owe Everything To You
I Receive
Jon
Between Egypt And The Promised Land
Government is killing Christians
Hebrews 1 God is speaking through Jesus
Not only is He superior to the universe, but also to the angels
Chapter 2 He is crowned with glory and honor
He is our High Priest
Didn’t lose His humanity
Nothing we experience, He hasn’t gone through
First 6 verses – superior to Moses
He is the builder of the house of God
Hebrews 3:7-19
Quotes Psalm 95
Jesus pulled us out of slavery
In this in-between time in our faith
Need to be a part of a community
Christianity is not a lome ranger religion
Coming into a new community
How do we do life together?
How does exhortation apply?
The tendancy of the human heart to harden
Painting a picture of wilderness
Dry desolate desert, not mountain/forest playground
Even Jesus went to the wilderness
Jesus had to learn how to build reliance on God
Psalm 95 represented Sabbath to the Jewish Christian
Entering into rest as they enter Sabbath on a weeky basis
Wilderness should not be settling down place
Not just physically but spiritually
God sends Moses their savior who brings them a whole new way of life
New plague every week, faith is going to be “hopping”
Pillar of fire, through the Red Sea
They celebrate
They go into the wilderness excited to tackle life in God’s Name
And He disappears
Mission trip cycle #1
We’re going to Uganda! Woohoo
We see God doing great things and then we realize how hard the work and the hunger and the thirst
Cycle #2 grumbling and complaining
Today if your hear His voice, do not harden your hearts
Exodus 17
Gather before Moses and complain
God isn’t meeting our expectations so it’s your [Moses’] fault
Does He take pleasure in our suffering?
Blame shift
It can’t be my fault that I’m unhappy (or the devil’s?)
Moses replies: Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test God?
Nobody likes to question God, to commit treason by betraying your trust in Him
Don’t drift from the faith so I’m going to show you what happens when you drift
People (present) as losing possessions and family members
God’s not meeting me timetable
Is He really involved in my daily life?
Don’t let your hearts grow hard
Children of Israel didn’t get into the promised land because they didn’t trust Him
They gave up trusting God
This person is bringing misery into my life
A hard heart demands things from God
When’s it going to be my turn?
What about me?
Most of our lives are going to be spent in the wilderness
If you look at history you see a common thing to spend life in the wilderness
Validating or discouraging, don’t end up like these people, don’t harden your hearts
While you’re living in this place, don’t put roots into it
We put a great deal of value on safety and comfort – we pray to it all the time
All of these things we sink our hearts in can make us happy – but what about the deepest needs of the human heart?
Relationships, friends, family, money, success – these things are not designed to fill the human heart
Doesn’t matter how many people warn you that nothing is up there – we have to learn it for ourselves
Every family passes away
Every body, every face is breaking down
Nothing on this earth is everlasting
Christianity is about joining a family
We’ve got all kinds of people in this family
A job is a great and tremendous blessing, but it can’t define you
’38 Special?
I was given this and now it’s taken away – what do I do with my faith?
Don’t sink your roots into these things
I need to be me, you need to be you, we need to be we
We begin to romanticize the past – slavery of sin wasn’t so bad
Wilderness experiences will far outweigh any other experience
Talk to those who have gone before you and they will agree
It’s hard to beleve in God when we think He’s not doing what we expect Him to do
Then when people start to do what we don’t think they should, our hearts flip out
Where do you run to?
The tendancy is to harden, become indifferent and demand
Isolation from the community
When you’re isolated the last thing you want to do is sing a bunch of songs about how good Jesus is
We aren’t any better than the Israelites
We’ve got the whole story and we still re-enact it in 3-D
You’re going to get cynical and pull away
The church can’t hurt you – people can
Don’t lump that into the building or the institution
This community is trying to live life together, trying to figure it all out
Hebrews 4:14-16
14 Therefore since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession.
15 For we do not have a high priest incapable of sympathizing with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way just as we are, yet without sin.
16 Therefore let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace whenever we need help.
The writer seems schizophrenic
There’s only one road, only one mediator – Jesus Christ
If you come to Him, you will receive mercy and grace
Do not harden your hearts, exhort, exhort || incredible amount of grace and mercy
Hebrews 2:13 exhort as long as it is today
Encourage one another daily
Make sure to wrap it in grace
Proverbs 1:5, 12:15, 11:14, 15:22, 10:24-25