Message 4 - Jesus Greater Than Idols (Hebrews: Greater Than)

hiyee you guys look good hey hebrews chapter 3 you guys have your Bibles Hebrews chapter 3 it's towards the back of your Bible it actually might be easier to start in Revelation which is the last book in your Bible so starting from your right and going left and that the third or fourth or fifth book I haven't counted is the book of Hebrews the book of Hebrews it's kind of it's more or less a court case we don't know exactly who wrote the book of Hebrews because the author doesn't pen himself into the script that he wrote but we do know that 2nd Timothy tells us that all Scripture is god-breathed and useful for teaching rebuking correcting and training in righteousness which means we know that the author behind the author is God himself so who actually put pen to paper in a human hand it doesn't matter too much but here's what we do know the author of Hebrews was kind of presenting a court case to us as people you see he's writing to a group of Jews now Jews predominantly speaking when the message of Jesus was pronounced to them took one of three routes gate number one people kind of accepted it they were the Jews accepted it and they became Christians kind of overnight but there was a great persecution that happened because if if you were a Jew that became a Christian your Jewish relatives and Jewish friends kind of look down on you okay so there was kind of this this tendency to be a Christian internally but externally to keep doing all the old Jewish rituals so the old Jewish rituals we talked about that in the Old Testament there's 613 Levitical laws there's also the Ten Commandments which weren't nullified but there's all these do's and don'ts in the Jewish system not because we have to do a certain number of things to be saved it was God kind of showing us very clear that we can't do us on our own there's 613 laws not because God expects those people of that time to live up to them but to help them see how vastly short they fall in their need for a savior so in doing so some Jews after Christ came in the picture went well can't we keep doing all those old rituals - I can't we keep sacrificing things that can't wait keeping God's going like why that was all a shadow of what's to come that was all a whisper of what is now present why would you keep doing those old things the second group of people that accepted the gospel were once you accepted it intellectually but start changing their lifestyle they got it they passed the test if you gave him a scantron they'd fill in the right bubbles but their life wasn't any different they were still doing their old practices their old way of doing things the way that they spoke to one another way they did marriage nothing really changed so it was a head thing but it never made that 12 or 14 inch journey down to the heart where it charts changing your lifestyle the third group just rejected completely the author of Hebrews has writing to all three of these people presenting a court case of why Jesus is the only way Jesus the only culpable cogent tangible understandable reasonable way to Sapir s'en to submit your life to everything else Falls vastly short atheism Falls vastly short the Old Testament prophets that they used to worship they all fall vastly short Jesus is the only way so with that context we break open chapter three of Hebrews and it says this therefore stop okay I know you're thinking this exam take an hour and a half with you every word but we have to ask the question what is the therefore therefore okay this is how you do correct exegesis in Scripture when it says it word like that it's not like how we say so in American like so therefore means it wants you to remember something and remember Jesus did not write these big numbers and small numbers in your text okay so he ever Bible and you see chapter 3 Jesus wasn't writing or the pen the penmanship of Hebrews didn't go 3 1 3 2 that wasn't the mazarites came in they put those little numbers in there so we could find it easier but that wasn't originally there so the author doesn't want us to think that these are all separate sermons so chapter 3 is not standalone it's part of a letter right imagine if I intercepted one of your letters and took this little part of it and I went wow this is all they were concerned about wow they are really one-track minded know I'd have to read the whole thing if you bust the open Cinderella and you just took one part of it you'd be like this girl is selfish just do your chores just do just do your chores you can go to the ball that's good parenting if you read the beginning and find out what it is and the fairy godmother and the oppression and the evil stepsisters and you go oh so she was kind of enslaved but without that you knock you know the context so what's the therefore therefore is this in Chapter two Chris and Larry have been doing a great job of kind of pulling out this court case of who Jesus is in just chapter 2 it talks about in verse 4 the signs and wonders and the miracles that this God has done in Jesus Christ in verse 9 it talks about that he's crowned with glory and honor in verse 10 it says that he's the pioneer of salvation he's the captain of our faith through what he suffered in verse 11 it says he makes people holy in in verse 11 it also says he's made as part of the same family so this is the joy we have as Christians and this is what Hebrews two is pushing out Jesus came to die and save us he is the greater king he is the greater salvation he has the greater mercy and the greater judgment in a stronger wrath and the more poignant omnipotence and the more poignant omnipresence he is all things all things are under him nothing was named without him therefore verse chapter three therefore holy brothers and sisters who share in the same heavenly calling in other words Christians fix your thoughts on Jesus now what we must remember about Scripture is whenever it gives us a command like that two things one it means it's unnatural for us to do it by ourselves and that we are also capable of doing so whenever Scripture gives a command it assumes two things one it's not natural to do that naturally and two we are capable of doing so it says that when we became Christians God gave us a spirit of not of fear and timidity but of power love and self-control which means not of our own accord but every command scripture gives us means that he's also given us His Holy Spirit inside in order for us to carry out that task so when it says fix your eyes on Jesus what we must know is our natural position is to not fix our eyes on Jesus but he's also giving us the power to do so now when you're writing to a Jewish audience why write fix your eyes on Jesus now for us we kind of go well that seems pretty nonsensical right like why would you write that of course if we're reading the Bible of course we're gonna fix our eyes on Jesus remember the context a Hebrew audience was extremely concerned with the Old Testament law this is of do's and don'ts wouldn't wouldn't it be easier don't you think for a lot of people in America if following Christ was actually a list of do's and don'ts it was spelled out easily you know like every week you need to give $13 towards this charity than $15 towards that one and make sure you don't swear more than 6 times in a week and this is how you are saved right it would be easy we would go oh wow this is systematic this is this is beautiful but there's no room for grace there if it were what you did there'd be no room for grace there'd be no room for God to make up the middle ground there'd be no gray area it will be what we call Pelagianism by getting to God which is the opposite of the gospel message that God got to me so the Jews now they're told to fix their eyes on Jesus and we're gonna find out who they tended to fix their eyes on continuing whom we acknowledge as our apostle that means ambassador and high priest he was faithful to the one who appointed him just as here is the comparative text right here Moses Moses was faithful in all of God's house Jesus had been found worthy of the greater honor than Moses just as the builder of a house has greater honor than a house itself every house is built by someone but God is the builder of everything Moses was faithful as a servant in all God's house bearing witness to what would be spoken by God in the future but Christ is the faithful his faithful faithful as the son okay so I heard that dichotomy verse 5 Moses was a faithful servant but Jesus was the faithful son the quartet Christ continues why would you really why would you honor and serve a faithful servant when God's own son is preeminent over him why would you why would you be so fixated on the house when the Builder is the one responsible for it why would you fix it on the law instead of the lawgiver why would you fix it fix it on the sacrificial system where other than the ultimate sacrifice why not Jesus doesn't make sense this is what this is what the writer trying to say given these two side-by-side it doesn't make sense to choose anything but Jesus continuing but crisis faithful as a son over and we are his house if little contingent phrase if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and hope in which we glory so here's this little change now look Moses the Jews tripped up on Moses you and I really don't that much do we a lot of us aren't sitting here going you're telling me that Jesus is greater than Moses we don't really have a Moses complex here it's not all of us walking around going so you think in a fight Jesus would actually beat Moses like we don't we don't think that Moses is kind of this afterthought let me read you something the understanding of the trip up of Moses he was esteemed above any other Jew who ever lived he had a place that was utterly and absolutely unique in the mind of a Jew he spoke with God face to face he was a man who saw the glory of God he was God's man but beyond that the greatest thing in the mind of a Jew was the law and Moses was the one who gave the law and Moses had brought not only the ten commandments but all the Pentateuch the first five books the Bible which lay out all the Levitical laws so if Jews love the law and Moses gave the law if so facto the Jews loved Moses continuing it says this it was Moses through whom God worked it was Moses who led the children of Israel out of Egypt it was Moses who led them through the wilderness it was Moses who instructed them from the mouth of God it was Moses Moses Moses the whole Levitical system the whole Levitical economy was initiated through Moses it was Moses who gave the plans for the tabernacle the Ark of the Covenant and everything that went with it and so to the Jews Moses is the great Moshe and there is none like him we don't trip we don't have no problem we're like wow that's neat how many of you just learned something new about Moses I did I'm like Oh neat the Jews would have known every single part of this they delighted in the law of Moses every year they read through all of Moses books called the Pentateuch and on the last day of it they have a celebration and here's what it sounds like hi in Potok in the beginning he's a Jewish rabbi and he wrote this I remember the night in the second week of October when we danced with the Torah scrolls in our little synagogue he was the night of Simchat Torah the festival that celebrates the completion of the annual cycle of Torah readings the little synagogue was crowded and tumultuous with joy I remember the white-bearded toreador dancing with one of the heavy scrolls the Torres the is their Bible the first five books written by Moses as if he had miraculously shed his years my father and uncle danced for what seemed to me to be an indeterminable length of time circling around one another with their Torah scrolls advancing upon one another backing off and singing and we danced - I gave my Torah scroll to somebody else then stood around watching and dancing it grew warm inside that small room I went to the crowd to the back porch and felt the cool air on my face I could feel the porch vibrating - the dancing inside the synagogue it was a clean night filled the Stars the noise the singing and dancing came clearly through the open window an old cycle ending a new one beginning for tomorrow Moses would die in the scriptures but then the next day we would start Genesis over again the noise inside the synagogue poured out into the night undulating swelling receding and thinning and growing inside the joy of dancing with the taurah the word of moses holding it close to you the words of God to Moses I wondered if Gentiles ever danced with their Bible this way this is the delight we you have to dig into a Hebrew brain to understand any of the Hebrew context to understand that this was next to idolatry for them he's not ironic the Word of God almost became an idol to them because it was through the person of Moses so the writer is setting up this very clear distinction of whom Moses is and who Jesus is we don't need to go like knee-deep into the Moses thing I think because again not a lot of us are sitting in that place of going wow this is this is weird I always thought Moses was the great Savior but they did now what God's gonna do through the writer of Hebrews is he's now going to present another character in the story called the Holy Spirit when Jesus leaves Jesus who is greater than Moses says Jesus is speaking says I'm gonna send someone who is greater than me now he doesn't mean greater in position greater in stature he means greater in personhood which means the Holy Spirit doesn't have a physical form it can be in all of us at the same time so Jesus is going to send to us his Holy Spirit and when you become a Christian when you accept Christ's work on the cross and you accept God as Lord of your life you get a gift it's like that's like an infomercial but wait there's more you get the holy spirit which means God now lives inside of me and so verse 7 continues so as the Holy Spirit says now the writer of Hebrews is presenting to a Jewish audience who had no familiarity with the Holy Spirit about this new thing you get when you become a Christian today if you hear his voice do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion during the time of testing in the wilderness where your ancestor tested and tried me though for forty years they saw what I did this is why I was angry with that generation I said their hearts are always going astray and they have not known my ways so I declare an oath in my anger that they shall never enter my rest now if you're not familiar with the Old Testament story the Jews became enslaved in Egypt because they kept rebelling against God then it says God speaking he says I have heard the cry of my people in Egypt so I'm sending a deliverer named Moses and Moses through ten plagues set from God is able to redeem Israel and Pharaoh who is so sick of all the garbage that this Hebrew God is bringing says get out Moses let my people go Pharaoh's like didn't leave okay stop with the plague stop with the Frog stop with the gnats stop with the Flies quit killing our firstborn children and finally Pharaoh says leave so the Israelites leave under the command of Moses and he takes them out trip Mount Sinai where God goes finally I'm with you and you're with me and now God's got a new plan I need to teach them to not be slaves anymore which sounds counterintuitive right we think well aren't we just born knowing how to be free well the Israelites weren't so they get freed from this polytheistic society of Egypt where they're celebrating raw and all these other gods of hamlets and all these other words that I can't pronounce and so they've gotten a society living next from the Egyptians that practice sexuality freely and it wasn't about faithfulness to your spouse it was all about pleasing the gods and and the Egyptian belief was that we all existed because two gods copulated and then we all became like their offspring but it was an accident and now we're supposed to give them forced labor and we build them great things and we're all supposed to just sit here and build things for the gods and sexuality pleases gods and they like temple prostitutes this is all a great way of doing things and the Hebrews live side by side with the Egyptians and there's a little bit of a bleed over as the Hebrews left Egypt they went out into the desert to get the 10 commitments from God and God's going sweet now it's time for me to teach you how to be my people Moses come up here come on up to the top of the mountain I'm gonna give you my Ten Commandments to teach you how to be free I'm gonna teach you how to live with me a theocracy I govern you listen it's gonna be good and Moses gets up there the Ten Commandments he comes back down and the bleed-over of the Egyptians has fully permeated the Hebrew camp when he gets down there's drunken orgies taking place they're worshiping a golden calf they've set up something physical and worshiped it because this God thing doesn't make a lot of sense to them this freedom thing is more difficult than the slavery thing it turns out and God goes well it took me ten plagues to get the Israelites out of Egypt but it's now going to take me forty years to get the Egypt out of the Israelites so for 40 years he brings them around wandering in the desert slowly but surely through hurt and pain and suffering and brokenness they finally submit and go turns out we might not know what's best for us and they submit their lives to God as he brings them into the Promised Land modern-day Jerusalem then known as Canaan that's the place where they call it's calling it rest verse 12 see to it brothers and sisters that none of you has a sinful unbelieving heart that turns away from the Living God why put that line right after the testing in the wilderness well continuing it says this but encourage one another daily as long as it is called today so that none of you may be hardened by sins deceitfulness we have come to share in Christ if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end just as it has been said today if you hear his voice do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion who were they you heard and rebelled were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt now what that writers doing is he's again setting these things up beside each other look you guys think it was so great that Moses was here but let me ask you a question when Israel rebelled against God who was in charge Moses so how great of a leader was he when God told Moses to speak to Iraq and Moses struck it and threw his anger a whole generation of people wasn't allowed to go into the Promised Land of Canaan who was in charge Moses wasn't that Moses he was your lawgiver he was off but wasn't he also the biggest problem how could he also be your Redeemer and cost you 40 years how can those two things be congruent and with whom he was angry for forty years was it not with those who sinned whose bodies perished in the wilderness verse eighteen and to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not those who disobeyed for we see that they were not able to enter because of their unbelief so we get this warning from Hebrews chapter three saying stay strong in the faith don't fall into unbelief and the first part is of understanding all that which it says in the text is don't give him the deceitfulness next we want to camp today you see we don't fall into the deceitfulness of worshiping something other than God except I think the most prominent idol an idol is a God that's not really God it's called an idol we call idolatry to worship them that's not truly God I think the most poignant idolatry in the American church is God now you're like this guys hi listen what I mean by that is not true God but what I call like build-a-bear God like build-a-bear Jesus right you go to build-a-bear workshop you're like I like this I want this heart I want him to say this thing he's gonna wear this hat he's gonna be this color he's gonna look this way he's gonna and this is God and then you put him on your throne every week and then you go and you're like wait what are you worshiping this is mine and someone else goes that's not what God like you're like shhh Shh that's not what yours is like mine doesn't believe in hell what is your no mine that's not the word in mine's Bible that that whole chapters missing in my Bible just it's not there it's build-a-bear God what we're gonna find is the same deceitfulness that took place in the camp of Israel is the same deceitfulness that takes place modern-day America so I got the first four things a history of God from 1500 BC to today here are these four things that I think really give us a precipice a place or a foundation to jump off and jump into full-on idolatry it's these simple understandings that lead to deceitfulness down the road we have to understand these things first when it comes to God here's what we believe a God is useful the first one God is useful this is what we think this is what the Israelites thought right remember that old song holy holy holy Lord God Almighty God in three persons Blessed Trinity no one grew up Lutheran now hey hey hey or Catholic or anything if that song was like that was the jam back in the day and that's that's how we're supposed to sing it holy set apart different greater than my thoughts and imagination so you are God holy holy holy but we like this we like to sing useful useful useful make my bank account job Oh fix all my children let the Chargers win right and it's like the Chargers win he's just God okay if they can't there's no fixing that and that's become kind of the way that we've seen things and when the Israelites thought this about themselves they said free us from Egypt take it take out the Egyptians feed us take us back to Egypt then now give us a king now let us take pagan wives give us favorable conditions win this battle for us useful useful useful and God's going look you don't understand I'm not useful I am Lord now in the middle of that love and that understanding of who I am and that submission to me will your life change yes in submission in prayer will your heart change will it soften and move yes but I did not come that you would have health wealth and wellness if you thought that was the case your build-a-bear Jesus is going to frustrate the heck out of you number two that God is like other gods then the age lights think this well if we build a calf like the Egyptian gods like and if we participate in drunken orgies like the other gods like won't he be pleased that doesn't work there's not a transition there's not a trade over but Christians we do this all the time how many of us practice dharmic religion when we're talking about God sometimes we go well listen what you need to understand is what goes around comes around as it says in second hesitations chapter three that's not a Bible verse but we say this to one another well if things are going remember the day is darkest right before the dawn I think that was from Batman I'm not quite I don't think that's from the Bible but he's like other gods right we like that we go goes around comes around justice is great let's talk about that a little bit more well the very understanding of that is to dis it's completely not acknowledge the fact that Jesus was perfect and was crucified what do you mean what goes around comes around how did that work from God didn't work very well he was perfect never sinned gave freely fed five thousand people one time and then they spit on him stripped him naked tortured him and crucified him well what goes around comes around what do you say he's not like other gods his ways are not our ways as a 55 nor his thoughts our thoughts he yields to culture you ever had this person maybe your growth could say this well that's archaic the things in the Bible are outdated it's time to revise it when God called us to be hearers of the word he didn't intend for us to pick up a pencil and an eraser and be editors of it be hearers and doers of the word and we're like I can do you one better I'll fix this and then it becomes your word and build-a-bear God again that's called idolatry when you worship God incorrectly or worship the wrong understanding of God that is idolatry just because it has the name of God doesn't make it God it's the character of God that makes it God you can call him Yahweh you can call him father you can call him God you can call it we'll call them whatever you want if it is proper character that's what's important is he the carpenter God man from the first century AD that saved this on a cross is he the great and powerful omnipotent creator of the universe is he greater than my thoughts and greater than my ways is this salvation and work on the cross efficacious to take away the sin of everyone who's ever lived if they submit and call them what you will but not the other way around you can't call them what you will and have a bad character of him and not think you're practicing idolatry if your God doesn't believe in hell you don't have the Christian God if your God doesn't believe in sin it's not a Christian God it's idolatry you've made up a new one build-a-bear Jesus okay maybe to be helpful if that's we believe go to build-a-bear workshop and build one and give him all these attributes just so you can understand the only way we know Jesus is through the text through the scriptures of God and number four he's not who he thought he would be he's not who he thought he would be these are the most these are the simplest ways that God himself has become an idol for us a proper view of God rips away idolatry but a wrong view of God participates in idolatry and don't think just because you come to North Coast Church that if your understanding of God is bass-ackwards from these scriptures it's still idolatry it's still wrong so what's the danger having a wrong God now we've set that up what's the big problem is that really that big of an issue two things the wrong view of God welcomes deception I made a little flowchart here because I don't have a lot of friends here it is Romans seven says this that we've got these sinful desires inside of us everyone does okay so if you're like I don't have sinful desires okay wake up yes you do Paul V great apostle says there's stuff in Romans seven he says there's stuff that I want to do but I don't normally do that there's also stuff I don't want to do I keep doing that why just you know this frustration right I vowed so many times to knock that off but I keep doing it and I've told myself I'm gonna start doing that I haven't done it yet why he ends the section Romans seven by saying who can asking me from this body of death the answer is Jesus so in our Christian walk we've got kind of two ways of living if we understand God correctly we're pursuing his word and it's the ultimate authority then what happens in sinful desires is the Spirit allows correction it's the very next thing right next to it the spirit corrects it John 16 verse 8 for His Spirit lives inside of us and it helps us to give us understanding it illuminates Scripture for us it's kind of this kerb that we run up against sometimes I go oh that was not okay the other way is we choose deception we are deceived whether we deceive ourselves it's from the father of lies the great deceiver all the way back from Genesis chapter 3 where Eve believed the lie and Adam participated in as well deception 1st John 1 verse 8 if we claim to be without sin first John 1:8 says we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us if we claim to be without sin and that's what we do in deception right very few of us in modern-day American church participate in sin and we're not really deceived by anything other than the justification of that sin right we watch someone's youtube channel or there's one pastor who kind of tickles our fancy we're like I like that that's nice and so we justify it that's called that's called open deception we've willingly deceived ourselves when you choose deception over the spirits correction it leads to sin sin when fully grown is called idolatry and idolatry leads to death not just death in this planet but in eternal death apart from God that's what James 1 verse 14 to 15 says it says we all sin when in our evil desires we give in to them and then we sin sin when fully grown gives birth to death so what we have to do is we have to try to figure out a way to make sure that we're not choosing deception because deceptions that leads somewhere good now if I'm walking in the spirit daily and the spirit is correcting me do I still sin yes but what you must know is that when we are practicing an understanding of God that is correct I don't sin Christopher Hill sieved I sin blatantly and willingly knowing what's right this is more embarrassing I think than being deceived because I go no I know what's right no I know what patience looks like I choose not to and then the spirit stirs I mean it corrects that or my community of believers around me corrects that normally Chris Brown has to correct that never do that again sorry Christmas all right and this is what it means to walk in the spirit not to be perfect but it means that war even as it's presented in the skin this text right here in Hebrews chapter three there's this war between my flesh and my spirit there's just battle constantly raging the only time I'm going to be freed from it is when I can shed my mortal coil in death then what's dead is shed off and then my soul which is what makes me me is perfected in Christ and I get to it no longer be inhibited by my body now I get a new body and I'm found new in Christ but until I die I don't ever get a walk around ago you know I haven't sinned for three days it's been great that's not a thing in fact it says if you claim to be without sin you've deceived yourself and the truth is not in US and then deception builds idols the next step after deception is idols in the vacuum of the missing King idols grow in the vacuum of the missing God becomes a petri dish for idols your heart in Christ is a worship factory of the Almighty your heart without Christ is an idol factory it just churns them out like there's no tomorrow let's worship this let's worship that let's worship money let's worship sex let's worship success let's worship Fame let's worship popularity let's worship worship worship your heart was made to worship your soul was made to worship put the wrong thing on the throne it's called idolatry the correct thing on the throne and your whole life changes for the better I don't mean you get health wealth and wellness but life became begins to make more sense for he is the only one whose presence is big enough to fill your throne everything else seems kind of pitiless doesn't it you're like you're not doing a very good job of being King because that throne was built simply for the presence of God and for nothing else now when it says don't be deceived that next section below that I want to give you some examples in scripture some example in Scripture of where the text tells us before it says anything else listen do not be deceived okay what the reason we really have to lean in on those is because no one writes something like that in Scripture unless we would be prominent or we can't be predisposed to do that thing like why would you write that why would you ever say don't be deceived if no one was ever deceived okay it's like when I go to Sea World and you've got like we watched blackfish last night which is a great documentary on orca whales I learned more than I need to know so but there's like this glass and you sit there and you watch Shamu or whatever the big whales name is anymore and you watch it it's like going around the tank and I member from a young age going just let me get in just for a minute let me get in well guess what's plastered all over the glass don't get in the tank if I didn't have a natural assumption and a natural wanting to get in the tank would they ever put a sign up right like on the edge of volcanoes if there's like lava spewing out does it ever go don't jump in no because everything inside me goes will dirt of course I'm not going to jump in but that Orca might be fun right that seems that seems that seems great that is a large I'm it's called a killer whale but it can't write let's jump in let's practice let's enjoy its presence that's enjoy its company that's where the sign is there just like Scripture when the sign says do not be deceived we can't go in there just words we have to go okay so I need help on this one because by nature when you ask someone are you being deceived what do they almost always say no no no why because they're deceived that's like that's like that's the word that's what the word means so where in scripture can we lean in so we don't fall into the same thing the Jews did where can we find these things that we're not aware of the first thing first Corinthians 15 verse 33 says this do not be deceived the text says bad company corrupts good character do not be deceived bad company corrupts good character if when I said that you went well sometimes what you must know is that first line was talking to you do not be deceived there's no caveat there's no conditional phrase sometimes every once in a while it says do not be deceive bad company corrupts good character now when it says company I think it's really referring to who has influence in your life who do you choose to spend your time with in such a way that they begin to influence who you are like if you're in Albertsons you can't go la Luna don't don't talk to me I don't care how your day was lady at the bank just give me the deposit I don't care what that's not how it works but someone says there's between who we walk with who we stand with and who we sit with when it comes to those who are pouring into our marriages who are talking into our parenting who are influenced in the way we perceive ourselves is it pushing us towards Christ this crazy this crazy idea from a book that was put out a few years ago after years and years of study was this you are the medium you are the mean or the average of the five people closest to you in almost every category the question isn't are you comfortable with the fact that you're becoming the average of the five people closest to you I think the real question is are you aware that you are currently the average of the five people closest to you in almost every category of your life spiritually speaking are you comfortable that you're the average of the five people closest to you relationally speaking in kindness in truth are you comfortable being the average or do we have to look at our situation and go there's something they need to change now some of us we've married into a situation where you don't get the change in which case you're called to be a light to them and in our other categories we meet and interact with people be a light to them don't ostracize yourself don't become kind of a hermit or a monk but when you sit in circles and do life with people are they going to push you towards Christ or are you this beacon of hope for a whole group of people because what you need to understand what scripture tells us is that whole notion of well I'm going to go in this pit and I'm gonna rescue everyone after a week you're gonna go this pits nice like I I don't know what I was thinking that whole light up there the pits great look we're doing the pit pits full of mud but it's fun okay do not be deceived bad company corrupts good character parents we have to look at who our kids are hanging out with I get to work with your students 16 17 18 year-olds here on the Vista campus if there was something that I could wave a magic wand and you said well I want my kid to change I would go with and change who they hang out with I can't give I can't I can't preach a sermon good enough to change it it's the Holy Spirit's job and that's gonna be influenced predominantly when it comes to walking in Christ with who they hang out with so we can't keep buying while I'm this great light to all my other friends that don't want anything to do with Jesus are they your acquaintances or when you say friends do you mean influencing because scripture is counterintuitive to our natural way of living it's like when you choose to become a Christian you stand on top of a chair and you're trying to pull other people up the odds are not good you're gonna accomplish that task the momentum pulls them pulls you down not them up we got to be aware of this bad company corrupts good character and if you just got angry that I said that remember the first line of that verse do not be misled do not be deceived it happens number two Galatians 6 verse seven says God cannot be mocked God cannot be mocked do not be deceived God cannot be mocked which tells us that sometimes we think that he can write but hears we must understand about a mocker or a bully if we were able to see into the heart of a mocker or a bully past what they were saying and into what their soul was screaming about themselves do you think we'd be offended by them I don't think so I think we would feel very sorry for them God cannot be mocked he doesn't sit on the verbage that is thrown at him and go that must be how they feel he looks past what we see and into the heart of people and so he goes look if you're mocking me there's a bit of fear there why else would you mock something would you just write it off but a mocker is going out of their way because there's a fear of what is there right God goes look I'm not mocked by that you can't come into church and make fun of me because I know what you're thinking deep down and if everyone else were exposed to how small you feel they wouldn't be mad at you either they wouldn't be mocked by you they would feel sorry for you do not be deceived God cannot be mocked number three righteousness is the key to heaven 1st Corinthians 6 verse 9 do not be deceived do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God which tells us we're deceived in this well if I'm good enough well if I go to church enough well if I do this enough well if I don't swear enough if I do like you that's what's gonna get us their righteousness alone what is righteous this mean it's a big stained-glass word that means to be right with God it means based on God's view of us were perfect the only way we become perfect is we have to have perfection imputed on us that's a big fancy word that means put on us it means we needs Christ's perfection to be put on me I'm never gonna stop sinning I don't have that propensity I don't have those resources to stop sinning what I do have is I have Christ's perfection covering me so that when God the Father looks at me he sees perfection because I accepted his work on the cross and I'm living in his lordship this is what we righteousness is the key so get rid of every bit of you that says well I come to church enough that the transactional work at the end of time I'm gonna see him face to face and I'm gonna go I trade in three hundred and seventy consecutive weeks of church in order to go to heaven he's gonna go righteousness alone so how do we start over do we have an anti deception checklist maybe you've been hearing this and you go wow I thought all three of those things were true well I was deceived by all three of those things it's okay welcome to North Coast church we don't none of us have this figured out including me like well you're preaching it I'm preaching to a mirror in the back you're just listening in welcome to my service I wrote for myself you're welcome here we don't have it figured out but we can set up different plumb lines and understandings to prevent us from falling back into the deception the first one of those is this your your new favorite question in your growth group don't become annoying with this but use it a lot in your relationships and everyone who thinks that they know something about God asks a simple question our revelation of who God is comes directly from what the Bible alone only the Bible nothing else no one on our planet no one on our planet can say enough or scream enough to change one jot or tittle of any part of this book not one word they can't add to it no it has the leather-bound doesn't have like room at the beginning and the end for more pages Jesus is the final revelation so with a question we need to ask and become very familiar with asking to not be deceived is where is that found in Scripture where is that fun in Scripture some girls compose well I don't think well I think that when God says this what he really means is you go well I understand that's how you feel what does scripture say well I I don't know what scripture says but well then who cares like who cares what you think what you should care about theology should be a very simple T bar graph on one side it should be things said by the creator of the universe on the other side things said by people who never created a universe this side of the chart does not matter it's a moot point some new points like a cow's opinion it just doesn't matter and on this side we should lean in and go oh that's what I care about I'm gonna build my life around that what does scripture say about that where's that find in scripture 2nd Timothy 3:16 we talked about before every bit of Scripture is useful for teaching rebuking correcting and training in righteousness correcting through love number 2 ask ourselves this question is that teaching natural is that teaching appeasing and you go okay so if it's natural appeasing it's good mmm the opposite if every difficult part of Scripture we try to justify so it's a little more we've actually missed it because this wouldn't need to be thousands of pages long if it were the way that we live naturally the Bible would just be one big phrase that said keep doing what you're doing you'll find Jesus just live your life you'll know what's best all the time we have chapters built on love we have chapters built on marriage we have chapters built on parenting we have chapters built on theology because it goes against our natural state as Galatians 5 says Galatians 5 says this the Spirit wants what is contrary to the flesh and our flesh wants what's contrary to the spirit so if we simply ask ourselves in every scenario well what do I think God would want for me that's not helpful like outside of abuse and infidelity for us ask the question well I think maybe God wanted me to get a divorce where's that find in Scripture is that teaching natural and appeasing well yeah it's simpler well then it's probably not biblical ooh it hurts but we must understand there would be no reason to put a sign on the tank if we didn't want to jump in number three do I have blind spots the question that we need to ask the person we need to ask this question to is not ourselves because by nature you are unaware of this that's why it's called a blind spot otherwise we called a spots that you're highly aware of it's a blind spot in the text that says this in Hebrews chapter 3 but encourage one another daily as long as it is called today we think encouraging always means like go get them yay be a Christian when that's what it means to encourage encouraged me there's constant spurning towards Christ too and it's not to encourage you to be pop psychology version of yourself yeah I'm better yeah I'm taller yeah I'm cute that's not encouragement when you're small group walks in or your growth group walks in and you go nice shoes check encourage someone today great no encouragement means how does your presence in their life make them more like Christ that is your new paradigm to know whether or not you're encouraging do I push someone towards Christ which means our blind spot sometimes we can act towards one another to be revealing of our blind spots through love make sure the relationship is there else are gonna be offensive to everyone you ever meet but if it's there to go hey guy I'm not sure if you saw this but let me help you with this lastly am i surrounding myself with followers of Jesus Hebrews 10 24 and 25 let us consider how we can spur one another towards love and good deeds not forgetting to meet with one another as some are in the habit of doing but instead gathering all the more as the day draws near here's what this means for us look our hearts guys were just we just are idle factories we just make them we can't even help it we just pop them out every day if we're not constantly reminding ourselves of who God is we might not trip up on Moses but we do trip up on false gods will you trip up on a bad theology of God we trip up on money and success and sex and relationships and every single bit of what this world has to offer we envelop it and we ingest it and we eat it and we love it and if we're not careful that we can have that little flow chart we can jump the spirits leading in our life and we can jump into deception every time and then we just start listening to people who appease us and we consider ourselves Christians but we couldn't be farther away from Christ the danger of the modern church is the church is a very safe place to hide from Jesus which seems counterintuitive it seems backwards but if we're in church and we're in growth group it's very rare that we ask one another how's your walk with Christ going did you know this is true about Scripture we need to be a people here at North Coast Church that are we gonna sin yes and it sounds so bad but when we sin may it be because that sin in that brokenness inside of us and the great deceiver has tempted us to a point where we go I'm given in this time and then we walk back in the spirit and we correct it and we were forgiven and God loves us and doesn't change how much he loves us but the worst thing we could be is a group of people who are constantly walking in sin and high-fiving one another in our deception going sounds good to you sounds good to me may we always be a church where we don't come and just go you know what let's not talk about hard things let's focus on health wealth and money and all these other things and let's not talk about anything difficult but if we want to be more like Christ practice that big word sanctification becoming holy as he is holy as the Jews had to get rid of this great mo che the law and focus on the law giver so we must get rid of all of the idols we have and understand that every great and good gift comes from the Father of lights Meir focus as a church be on him and may we not be deceived let's pray God we thank you for your goodness we thank you for your mercy may we lean in in parts of our life where we might be being deceived that the idol factor of our heart can become a worship factory of you in every pray Amen as always one of the things I love about if if we commit to being a church that's open honest vulnerable about our pains hurts frustrations about God then you can participate in my sanctification I can participate in yours I get to be a part of making you more like Christ and you get to look at my blind spots and help me become more like Christ and if we can commit to being that then we're going to be a church that's flourishing and bringing other people to know Christ as well we love you guys thanks for having North Coast be your home we'll see you next week

Channel: North Coast Church

Views: 1,995

Rating: 4.8518519 out of 5

Keywords: larry osborne, hebrews sermon, Hebrews Bible Study, north coast, sermons 2018, Hebrews, book of hebrews sermon, Hebrews study, pastor chris brown, north coast church, hebrews sermons series, jesus, jesus christ, jesus is an idol

Id: kjslRCuo1SU

Length: 48min 1sec (2881 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 28 2018