Speaker 1: Hi and welcome to the FBC Eldorado Sermon Podcast.
Speaker 1: We hope God will use this week's message to both inspire and challenge you as you seek to walk closer with the Lord.
Speaker 1: Now join me as we listen into this week's sermon.
Speaker 1: Alright, like I said, my name is Craig Bonsol.
Speaker 1: I've been asked to introduce Brandon Trussell, our guest speaker today.
Speaker 1: Brandon has been a part of First Baptist Church for 12 years now.
Speaker 1: He was active in our church, as he or he is still active in our church as working with the youth and continues to serve in our congregation.
Speaker 1: Brandon graduated from West Alt Baptist with a degree in science and Christian studies.
Speaker 1: He continued his Christian studies at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Speaker 1: Over the years, brandon has served in First Baptist Youth Ministry as a student intern and interim student pastor.
Speaker 1: He has ministered in our 252 ministry for over seven years now.
Speaker 1: Personally, brandon has served a special role in our family's lives as he's been a big part of our girls' spiritual growth.
Speaker 1: Amanda and I have worked over at 252 for several years up until the last few months, and we've worked with Brandon Whether it's at 252 on Wednesday nights or on the soccer field.
Speaker 1: We've watched him grow from a young college intern to someone who stepped up unbelievably well as our interim student pastor.
Speaker 1: Now he's stepping up to serve, filling in in the pulpit on Sunday morning.
Speaker 1: I'm very proud of Brandon.
Speaker 1: He's kind of a quiet guy.
Speaker 1: A lot of you may not know Brandon, but I can tell you that, if you don't, we're very lucky to have Brandon Trussell at First Baptist El Dorado.
Speaker 1: What's up, brandon?
Speaker 2: Good morning.
Speaker 2: I am excited and grateful for the opportunity to be up here and speak this morning and share a little bit from God's word about what he's put on my heart.
Speaker 2: As Craig said, I've been a part of this church for a while now.
Speaker 2: I know we're very grateful to have the opportunity to have these great leaders from the convention across the state come and preach and lead.
Speaker 2: I think it's cool for me, growing up in this church, being a part of this church, to get up and share with you this morning.
Speaker 2: I think it's a unique opportunity.
Speaker 2: Like I said, I'm very gracious and excited to do it.
Speaker 2: As we start, I just want to lay out maybe the roadmap of where we're going to go this morning, just so that I'm very clear about what we're talking about.
Speaker 2: My hope this morning is that, as we look at this passage, we can encounter and engage with the presence of God in a new way.
Speaker 2: That's our goal, that's our purpose.
Speaker 2: There's two main goals that I want us to take away this morning.
Speaker 2: One is to explore the relational presence of God throughout Scripture.
Speaker 2: To do that, we're going to use the passage Hebrews 10-19-25.
Speaker 2: That's just going to be a guide, a roadmap for us to see how the presence of God develops throughout Scripture.
Speaker 2: I want to explore that Two.
Speaker 2: I want us to consider steps that we can take in our own lives to fully experience the presence of God.
Speaker 2: Before we really dive into this passage.
Speaker 2: Continue turning there.
Speaker 2: I got to share with you about a video that I saw this week.
Speaker 2: Essentially the video, it was a TikTok, or a short video of this young lady vlogging or recording her experience buying the new Stanley Cup.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you all saw the Stanley Cup Starbucks collab released, but it was all the rage.
Speaker 2: Essentially, it's just a cup with a handle and you put a straw on it.
Speaker 2: I know it doesn't sound like a big deal, but people are going crazy over it.
Speaker 2: In this video it displayed how many people were lined up early, camping out overnight outside of targets and Starbucks, just to get a chance to buy this cup.
Speaker 2: It made me think about other moments in life, in human history, when people have lined up, camped out to try to buy something or to get into something.
Speaker 2: I thought about Black Friday before COVID, really, when people would camp outside Walmarts and Best Buy and all these places.
Speaker 2: Now it's online, but back in the day people would wait for hours and hours just to get a good deal.
Speaker 2: I also thought about people lining up outside of Balm Stadium to buy Arkansas regional baseball tickets.
Speaker 2: Right, you see the lines that go on for miles and miles, and sometimes it happens for basketball games as well.
Speaker 2: But I just thought about these crowds and these lines.
Speaker 2: You know, even online people will wait in queues for hours refreshing the page for concert tickets or for shoes, different things like that I thought about back when I was a kid, growing up, how people would wait outside of GameStop to buy a video game at midnight when it come out.
Speaker 2: I don't know if any of you all ever did that, but I thought of all of these things that we can think of in our society that people have gone crazy for, waited in line for hours and hours and crowds of people, and we'll circle back to this idea.
Speaker 2: But I just wanted to kind of set the stage of this mentality of waiting in line and waiting and going crazy for something, and so I just want to start by reading Hebrews, chapter 10, verses 19 through 25, if we can throw that up on the screen.
Speaker 2: Says therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way open for us, through the curtain that is his body.
Speaker 2: And since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings.
Speaker 2: Having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water, let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
Speaker 2: And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day approaching.
Speaker 2: And so, like I said, we're gonna use especially particularly these first two or three or four verses to kind of see how the presence of God and develop throughout scripture and how people get to experience that.
Speaker 2: And to start we need to go back to the garden and this is not something that's mentioned here but to set the stage back in the Garden of Eden when God created Adam and Eve.
Speaker 2: Right, there's not a lot of verses that describe the time between creation and the fall.
Speaker 2: It kind of jumps pretty quickly from God created Adam and Eve to Adam and Eve sin.
Speaker 2: But from the few verses that we have there, the idea that we get is that God had a very deep and personal relationship with Adam and Eve.
Speaker 2: He walked with them in the garden, talked to them, and we know this because when they did sin, when they did mess up, god went looking for them and they heard him and hid from him.
Speaker 2: So they knew what his voice sounded like, they knew that he would come and talk to them, and so there's this very intimate relationship that's described.
Speaker 2: But when that sin occurs, right, god has to separate himself from Adam and Eve.
Speaker 2: Notice, I say that God has to separate himself because that's an act of mercy that God did that Because that sin that they brought into the world, that they corrupted humanity and all of creation, when it enters the presence of God, the holy, perfect presence of God, it gets destroyed.
Speaker 2: And so God desires this deep, personal relationship with his creation, but because of sin he had to make that separation.
Speaker 2: And then the rest of the story, the rest of the story of scripture, is about God restoring that relationship.
Speaker 2: Okay, and so then we kind of see what this passage starts to address.
Speaker 2: So I'm gonna read verses 19 through 22 again.
Speaker 2: So it says therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way open for us, through the curtain that is his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.
Speaker 2: And so in this passage we see the writer make some very intentional references to Old Testament imagery, to the practice of the Israelites.
Speaker 2: You know he uses words like the most holy place, the curtain, a great priest, having our bodies washed.
Speaker 2: These are all references to the rituals that the Israelites would practice in order to experience the presence of God.
Speaker 2: Because, as time through scripture goes on, god desires this relationship, but there's this problem of sin, so he has to take special precautions.
Speaker 2: And so, as the nation of Israel develops, god decides hey, I wanna be closer to my people, I'm not satisfied with the relationship that we have right now.
Speaker 2: And so God instructs the Israelites to create the temple, create the tabernacle, and he combines his presence into the most holy place.
Speaker 2: It is like the inner room of the temple that no one could go.
Speaker 2: And so God's presence was closer to the people, it was living among the people, but it was still confined.
Speaker 2: They still couldn't directly experience it right.
Speaker 2: And so, in order to experience God's presence, the Israelites had to go through these rituals and these cleansing practices and these sacrifices in order to cover the sin that was on them, so that they would not be destroyed by God's presence.
Speaker 2: And even still, with God's presence, there are only one person, once a year, got to actually experience the fullness of God's presence.
Speaker 2: That was the high priest on the day of Atonement.
Speaker 2: And so there was still this very limited sense of God's presence in the lives of his people.
Speaker 2: And that was clearly not the relationship that existed in the garden, nor was it what God wanted, but it was a temporary solution until the problem of sin could be permanently dealt with.
Speaker 2: Okay, notice also in these verses, though, that as the author of Hebrews is talking about these practices, he's interpreting them in a different way.
Speaker 2: He's viewing them not in the light of all of those practices, but he's viewing them with a new light, with new information of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2: Right, because he says we have confidence to enter the most holy place.
Speaker 2: If you had told that to an Israelite back before Jesus, they'd have been like you're crazy, you're gonna die.
Speaker 2: And they would have been right.
Speaker 2: But because of Jesus, these practices have changed, and so the author of Hebrews has his new information and God's relationship with his people has changed.
Speaker 2: And it all changed when Jesus sacrificed his position in heaven to come to earth.
Speaker 2: We just are coming off the backs of Christmas.
Speaker 2: We're familiar with that story about Jesus abandoning his authority and power that he had in heaven to come be God in the flesh on earth.
Speaker 2: And this reality of Jesus coming to earth made his presence way more personal, way more intimate with his people.
Speaker 2: Right, he lived among them, he taught them, he healed them, he served them up close and personal.
Speaker 2: But God's presence was still confined.
Speaker 2: Right, it was still only existing within Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2: Right, when Jesus went to bed at night and no one was around, people weren't experiencing the presence of God.
Speaker 2: Right, when we went off by himself, the presence of God was not there.
Speaker 2: And so, in order for people to more deeply experience God's presence, a greater sacrifice had to be made the final sacrifice right Jesus humiliated, tortured and killed on the cross.
Speaker 2: This was the moment when, through that sacrifice, the curse of sin was broken and the presence of God was unleashed into the world.
Speaker 2: And we see that in Matthew, chapter 27, verses 15 and 51, it says and when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.
Speaker 2: At that moment the curtain was torn and two, from top to bottom, the earth shook, the rock split.
Speaker 2: And just to point out, I think it's a really cool how, in the verses describing the sacrifice of Christ, it describes the curtain and the temple being split, the doing away with these old division between God's presence and his people.
Speaker 2: But notice back in verse 19 of Hebrews, chapter 10, where it says we have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way open for us through the curtain that is his body it describes.
Speaker 2: Now not only is the curtain torn, but the pathway to enter the most holy place to experience the presence of God is Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2: I think that gives a new meaning to when Jesus says I am the way, the truth and the life right.
Speaker 2: But as I think about through these stories of the Israelites and of people living and walking with Jesus.
Speaker 2: I think about the crowds that gathered, the lines that form.
Speaker 2: I think about the Israelites marching through the Red Sea.
Speaker 2: I think about the Israelites gathering around the temple, around the tabernacle, on the day of Atonement, waiting for the high priest to go enter the inner place.
Speaker 2: I think about Jesus on earth, the crowds of people that followed him around, going to him for healing, to listen to him speak.
Speaker 2: On these crowds and these lines that gathered to experience the presence of God.
Speaker 2: That brings us to the end of this ation for full opening of theiedo.
Speaker 2: Friend olmazmo.
Speaker 2: When Jesus died and when this final sacrifice was made, the presence of God was no longer confined to this innermost holy place in the temple.
Speaker 2: It was no longer confined to just Jesus Christ, but it was unleashed into the whole world.
Speaker 2: And the author of Hebrews Sorry, we need to be clear About this presence of Christ after it being unleashed into the world, that that it's not simply a New freedom to enter into God's presence.
Speaker 2: Right, this is not Telling the Israelites hey, now that the sacrifice has been made, you can now go into the most holy place.
Speaker 2: This presence of God is not confined to a location.
Speaker 2: It's not confined to the temple.
Speaker 2: It's not confined, jesus, it's not confined to a church building.
Speaker 2: Right, his presence is not limited to physical locations, and we see this in Paul talks about it in 1st Corinthians, chapter 6, verse 19.
Speaker 2: He says Our body is the temple.
Speaker 2: The presence of God in the form of the Holy Spirit is living within us.
Speaker 2: Okay, we're not having to go somewhere, we're not allowed access to somewhere, but now the presence of God is living within us, and I think that's an important distinction.
Speaker 2: And so this radical truth that that the presence of God is now Living within each of us, it has to redefine our approach to our faith, right, no longer are we like the Israelites, who rely on ritual practices to make ourselves right with God Just so that we can experience his present.
Speaker 2: No longer are we like the crowds that follow Jesus, seeking healing, seeking teaching, hoping to witness the presence of God in human form.
Speaker 2: That's not where we're at now.
Speaker 2: We are the church.
Speaker 2: Each of us are the dwelling place of the presence of God, working in partnership with that presence, with the Holy Spirit, to impact the world around us.
Speaker 2: So, so everything has completely changed, and We'll say quick note here that we see at the end of Hebrews, there still is a looking towards a day when that relationship will be fully restored.
Speaker 2: Right, he closes this passage by saying Not giving up meeting together a summer in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day approaching.
Speaker 2: And so still, we're in this story.
Speaker 2: Right, the story of God is still being written even today, and so we're still looking for when Jesus comes back and completely restores this relationship.
Speaker 2: But, but I have to tell you, I think sometimes we we look back on the stories in scripture and we think, man, it would have been cool to like be Moses and Experience the presence of God on Mount Sinai.
Speaker 2: Or it would have been cool to be the people who got to experience Jesus, heal people and teach people, and, yes, those things would have been cool.
Speaker 2: But I think we have to recognize the unique opportunity that we have as Christians living After the sacrifice of Christ, that the opportunity we have to experience the presence of God is Nothing like those people had, and I guarantee they would trade places with us in a heartbeat to have the presence of God living within us.
Speaker 2: And so we are the church.
Speaker 2: Okay, there's no longer a need for us to gather and wait around the temple to experience the presence of God.
Speaker 2: There's no need to look for this guy named Jesus to experience the presence of God.
Speaker 2: The presence of God is within each of us.
Speaker 2: And so, to kind of finish up the rest of this passage, here the author gives some very practical encouragements for the church, for people today, how to practice our faith, and I don't think we need to spend a ton of time talking about practices of the faith.
Speaker 2: Many of us have been raised and know, maybe too well, what all those things are how to read our Bible is, how to pray, how to go to church all these things that that this author addresses here, how to hold fast to our faith, how to do good deeds and encourage one another.
Speaker 2: These are all things that we've been taught and that we know, but I, what I do want to take a moment to do is to address how we should practice these things, because I think the way that we practice each of these things drastically impacts the benefits that we experience from the presence of God.
Speaker 2: I think that we can do all of those things and still miss out on experience the presence of God.
Speaker 2: And so, because I think oftentimes we practice our faith based on the belief that Reading the Bible, praying, going to church and serving others is the way that we experience the presence of God, that's how we do it and I think it's close.
Speaker 2: But.
Speaker 2: But I would challenge that by saying that the purpose of those actions and those habits and those disciplines is not To experience the presence of God through those things, but to put ourselves in the proper position to experience the presence of God.
Speaker 2: You know, when we read God's word, we gain an understanding about who he is and who we are and what he wants for our lives.
Speaker 2: When we worship, we humble ourselves before him and praise him and exalt him to the proper place.
Speaker 2: When we pray, we acknowledge our need for him, we foster a conversation and relationship with him.
Speaker 2: When we meet together with each other, we gain accountability in our lives, and so all of these things are good and have a purpose.
Speaker 2: But I would say the way that we experience the presence of God is by the Holy Spirit moving and working in our lives.
Speaker 2: And you may say, okay, well, that's the same thing, you just said the same thing, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 2: But I would respond to that by saying that the way that we approach these matters drastically changes the depth at which we experience the presence of God through those practices.
Speaker 2: And so I think, as we practice our faith, it's imperative that we expect to encounter the Holy Spirit, that we approach God's word, that we approach meeting together, that we approach worship, that we approach prayer with the expectation that the Holy Spirit will be there and will engage with us.
Speaker 2: And then I think we have to actually engage in the Holy Spirit in those things, in those moments, in those practices, and I think then we have to be responsible and diligent to respond to what the Holy Spirit says.
Speaker 2: And so I think, when we consider our lives and our faith, the disciplines that we've built up and the habits that we form, that we know are true, that we know are good from God's word, that the author of Hebrews says here that we should do.
Speaker 2: But I want us to be careful not to miss out on the opportunity to experience the presence of God through those things.
Speaker 2: Because if we lack a desire to meet with God, if we lack a desire to experience His presence through the Holy Spirit, then those practices, those disciplines, they become empty rituals.
Speaker 2: We become just like Israelites who were working for our faith, or we get tired of those things.
Speaker 2: We don't feel an effect and so we forget about them, and then we just go to God in prayer when we need something, like the people who follow Jesus in the New Testament.
Speaker 2: They were looking for healing or teaching, but the kind of relationship with God that Scripture preaches and teaches us is that it's deeper.
Speaker 2: It's truly a relationship, and so I just want us to be careful, and I want us to be diligent, that, as we engage in our Christian walks, we would understand how the presence of God has developed throughout Scripture, so that we understand the opportunity that we have as believers today, to see Him work in our own lives, not just as a distant God, but as one who is present in our own hearts, in our own lives.
Speaker 2: And so, as we finish up, I want us to take just a moment to have some introspection, and maybe this is easier for you if you close your eyes.
Speaker 2: Feel free to do that.
Speaker 2: But I just want us to consider our lives, consider our walks with the Lord, and I want you to think about and these are just examples here, but I want you to think about the last time that you read your Bible and a light bulb went off.
Speaker 2: Not just that you understood the words that were being said, that were being written, but that you truly understood God's Word in a new way, in a way that moved you and convicted you.
Speaker 2: Think about the last time that you worshiped with everything that was inside of you so you know it's corporally, or on your own, in your car, in a quiet room, whatever that may be Like.
Speaker 2: When was the last time that you worshiped with everything that was within you?
Speaker 2: When was the last time that you prayed and felt the overwhelming peace of God?
Speaker 2: Think about a moment in worship or in prayer or in God's Word where you were moved to tears by what you were reading or what God was speaking to you.
Speaker 2: When was the last time in your life that God called you to do something and you followed through?
Speaker 2: I want to be careful here.
Speaker 2: I want you to feel like if maybe you can't remember or the answer is never that your walk with the Lord is not good enough or non-existent, like that's not what I'm saying at all.
Speaker 2: But what I want you to consider is maybe there's something more, maybe there's a deeper relationship that God wants for me A walk with His presence, to experience Him fully, not just to practice these things, but to truly know Him and experience the Holy Spirit moving through those things.
Speaker 2: And so, as we consider our lives, as we practice of our faith, think about hey, when I read my Bible in the mornings, when I go to Him in prayer, when I come to worship, when I worship on my own, am I expecting the Holy Spirit to be there?
Speaker 2: Am I expecting God to show up and move and work in those moments?
Speaker 2: Am I actively engaging in that relationship and that back and forth with the Holy Spirit?
Speaker 2: And then, am I responding to what he says in those moments by going out and living my life for Him?
Speaker 2: Because, like I said earlier, because we have the Holy Spirit living us, living within us, we are working in partnership with God to impact the world around us.
Speaker 2: So that's the ultimate goal to reach our world for the glory of God.
Speaker 2: And so, if this is something that may feel a little new to you, or maybe something you haven't done in a while, I just want to give you one very simple, practical application that you can try Next time you you go to read your Bible or you worship or you're coming to church or whatever it may be.
Speaker 2: Just pray, god.
Speaker 2: I expect you to show up in this moment.
Speaker 2: I need you to meet with me now.
Speaker 2: Let's pray or worship, whatever it is.
Speaker 2: Ask God to be involved in those moments of your faith and in those practices in your life, and I believe that if your faith will do that, he will show up and you will see him work.
Speaker 2: Craig mentioned that many of you guys may know me as a quiet person, and I think that it's pretty accurate.
Speaker 2: Especially like when I first moved here, I was probably the shyest, quietest person that many people had met, and so, obviously, for me to be standing up here talking to you now, something had to happen right, and I remember all the way back when I was still in high school, there was a moment of conviction in my life where, without even any opportunity to do it, I felt like I needed to just say yes to whatever God wanted me to do, and I got this feeling that if I ever had the opportunity to speak, I needed to say yes, and so, not long after that, I was presented with the opportunity to speak in church, like on the stage for a.
Speaker 2: It was like a I don't remember what it was called.
Speaker 2: Some of y'all remember the champion Sunday or the meet the cats Sunday, whatever it was called, where we'd have all the sports teams and coaches come to church and they wanted me because I was a part of the church to share like a short testimony.
Speaker 2: And so for me back then, that was a huge deal.
Speaker 2: That was not something that I was looking forward to, but because I had expected and engaged with the Holy Spirit in my life, I knew that I had to say yes, and so I responded faithfully to that.
Speaker 2: And years later, here I am now on a Sunday morning delivering God's word to the church.
Speaker 2: And so for many of us, no matter where we're at in our life, don't ever think, oh, it's too late, oh, I want to continue living my life, practicing my faith how I've always done it.
Speaker 2: There's nothing more for me.
Speaker 2: I would challenge you to give the Holy Spirit a chance to work in your life, to pray that simple prayer God, come, meet with me.
Speaker 2: What do you have for me today?
Speaker 2: Because I think, if you're faithful to, to expect that, to engage with him and to respond to him, you never know where your life might end up.
Speaker 2: And so with that, I'm gonna pray for us and we'll close out.
Speaker 2: Dear Lord, I don't think we really have the words to express our gratitude for the opportunities that we have to experience your presence in such a deep and intimate way.
Speaker 2: I think oftentimes we read God's word and we take for granted the uniqueness of the opportunity we have as followers of Christ, living after the sacrifice of Christ, and so I pray that as we live our lives, as we practice our faith, we would take advantage of the opportunity to experience the Holy Spirit, move and work in our life.
Speaker 2: I pray in this moment, right now, that you would come and move and work in our hearts, god.
Speaker 2: We expect you to show up, and so I pray that, as you show up and as you move and work in our hearts and in our lives, that we would be faithful to engage and listen and then respond to to who you are and what you've called us to do, and maybe we always remember the sacrifice of Christ that allows us to experience your presence in this way.
Speaker 2: In your name, I pray amen.