SPEAKER_00: This podcast is a ministry of Grant Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grant Parkway, visit Grantparkway.org.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, one of the ways that we give you glory is by waiting.
SPEAKER_01: We're not waiting to be rescued from something.
SPEAKER_01: We're waiting for the culmination, for the fulfillment, for the fullness of time.
SPEAKER_01: And for a lot of people, time is emptying out, but for the believer, time is filling up.
SPEAKER_01: And when the fullness of time has come, you're going to come again.
SPEAKER_01: So we are standing here this morning in the deliberate tension of Advent between your first coming and your second coming.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, we're people of hope, and we wait not as punishment, but as preparation.
SPEAKER_01: So waiting is an act of worship for us.
SPEAKER_01: And so let what we hear today from your word inform and shape our posture and our praise as people.
SPEAKER_01: And so we wait here with our hands lifted high because we believe in a God who's coming to get us.
SPEAKER_01: And so we long for that.
SPEAKER_01: But in the meantime, we don't drift.
SPEAKER_01: We're people of certainty.
SPEAKER_01: So, Lord, speak to us about this hope that is ours because of the gospel, because of the sufficiency of Jesus and his work on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: God, infuse us with a greater understanding of the hope that is ours.
SPEAKER_01: So that when we go out in the world this week, Lord, we'll have a we'll always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is within us.
SPEAKER_01: Give us understanding and words for this hope that you put in us because of the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: We pray now.
SPEAKER_01: We desire this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: And so give it to us as our Father, and we your children, we pray.
SPEAKER_01: And all God's people said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: You can have a seat.
SPEAKER_01: If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open it up to Hebrews chapter 6.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, I want to talk to you.
SPEAKER_01: If you're our guest, some of you may have come in after the beginning of our service.
SPEAKER_01: This is the first Sunday of Advent.
SPEAKER_01: And Advent is just a word that means coming or the arrival.
SPEAKER_01: And so each of our Sundays are structured leading up to our Christmas Eve service where this all culminates.
SPEAKER_01: Uh each of our services is structured just to kind of give us a deeper and fuller understanding.
SPEAKER_01: If you're our guest today, you need to understand that our services aren't supposed to, we don't, we don't plan our services to be sensational or to be this experience where you come and we got the roquettes up here, or we got like some famous person, as if there's anybody more famous than Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: But sometimes the church falls in love with famous people, or hey, so-and-so's gonna be here.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and here's why it's because we want to equip you to to to be who the Bible says you are and to do what the Bible says you can do so that you're the experience.
SPEAKER_01: So that somebody works in a cubicle besides you and they get the a whiff of the fragrant aroma of King Jesus, and they kind of go, hey, can we have lunch?
SPEAKER_01: Uh can I buy you lunch?
SPEAKER_01: Because I just want to understand something about your life that I really want.
SPEAKER_01: That's what our services are designed around.
SPEAKER_01: We want you to be the experience.
SPEAKER_01: We don't want to be the experience.
SPEAKER_01: And so today is the first Sunday of Advent, and our theme is hope.
SPEAKER_01: And so uh I get to I get this privilege.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the privilege of pastoring people instead of flitting around the country from church to church, just being in one place and being there for a long time, is you get to preach systematically.
SPEAKER_01: And what I mean by that is that last week I said some things and and we read a passage in Hebrews chapter 6, and it's like it was grave and then it was refreshing and kind of encouraging, and and and and and and I get to pick up where we left off last week, and I want to talk to you about the foundation of Advent hope.
SPEAKER_01: Because when the Bible talks about us being people of hope, it's not this willy-nilly, we kind of hope that Jesus is right, and just in case we're gonna cover all our bases.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: We are all in on Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: That's we we don't have a plan B.
SPEAKER_01: And there is no plan B.
SPEAKER_01: And so when I say the foundation of Advent hope, I want that, I don't want you to hear that as thin and pallid and wispy.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to hear that is solid and meaty and real.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: I'll start reading in verse 11, which by the way, I prayed this for every one of you uh this past week.
SPEAKER_01: Uh verse 11 of Hebrews chapter 6 says this.
SPEAKER_01: He says, and we desire that each one of you to show the same earnestness, to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
SPEAKER_01: You can't have faith without being patient, okay?
SPEAKER_01: But you say, Well, what what what do you mean you prayed this for me?
SPEAKER_01: I prayed verse 11 for our church, and two things.
SPEAKER_01: He says, We desire each of you to show the same earnestness.
SPEAKER_01: That's the first thing I pray.
SPEAKER_01: That you would show this earnestness, that you wouldn't get to be 65 and just kick it into neutral and coast and just kind of uh hang out with your grandkids and get a lap dog and then wait for Jesus to come and kind of go, Well, I don't read the Bible anymore because I know all the stories.
SPEAKER_01: That that that's that's sluggishness.
SPEAKER_01: That's you're putting on yourself on a trajectory to be sluggish and the last 10, 15, 20 years of your life to be the most spiritually inconsequential of your entire life.
SPEAKER_01: And beloved, that's not what the gospel's about.
SPEAKER_01: And the second thing I prayed is he says there in verse 11, for you to have full assurance of hope, which translates literally the most certain confidence.
SPEAKER_01: So, what do you mean the full assurance of hope?
SPEAKER_01: Uh, this is morbid, and if you're our guest today, just bear with me, okay?
SPEAKER_01: The rest of you, you know what to expect.
SPEAKER_01: When I say to have the full assurance of hope, that sounds kind of like that.
SPEAKER_01: That's just that that sounds like the tooth fairy.
SPEAKER_01: To have the full assurance of hope.
SPEAKER_01: You're like, okay, thank you.
SPEAKER_01: This is what I mean.
SPEAKER_01: I want to come visit you in the hospital when you're dying.
SPEAKER_01: And you weigh 80 pounds because cancer has emaciated your body.
SPEAKER_01: And everybody that comes to see you is like, aren't you so mad?
SPEAKER_01: And blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: I want to come see you.
SPEAKER_01: And I hope it's not anytime soon.
SPEAKER_01: Or I hope that all of you die old and full of years, like the Bible says of Job.
SPEAKER_01: You're like 98 and you weigh 80 pounds.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to walk into your hospital room and just look at you and start maybe read some scripture and start praying.
SPEAKER_01: And I want you to interrupt me.
SPEAKER_01: And I want you to just kind of look at me.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to grab me by the neck even and go, shut your mouth.
SPEAKER_01: And then I want you to stand up in your hospital bed and rip your hospital gown open and start singing a cappella.
SPEAKER_01: My hope is built on nothing less.
SPEAKER_01: And they start marching in place than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: And the alarms start going off, beep, beep, beep, beep, and the nurses come running down the hall.
SPEAKER_01: I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but holy lean on Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Join me, people.
SPEAKER_01: And then the nurses start singing, and I'm standing there.
SPEAKER_01: And you get to that end on Christ a solid rock.
SPEAKER_01: I stand.
SPEAKER_01: All other ground is sinking sand.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to collapse and die right there.
SPEAKER_01: And the nurses look at me and go, whoa, whoa, what did you do?
SPEAKER_01: I preach the gospel to that crazy old man every Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: And he didn't finish sluggish.
SPEAKER_01: He finished well with this full assurance of hope.
SPEAKER_01: So, where we left off last week, I get to begin this week talking about the foundation of Advent hope because this is not some, well, I hope this is true.
SPEAKER_01: Like, I'm not sure.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: We are so sure that the Bible says this is like an anchor for our soul.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: And we desire to each of you to show the same earnestness, to have a full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 13, where we get at it this morning, for when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, Surely I will bless you and multiply you.
SPEAKER_01: And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise.
SPEAKER_01: For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes, an oath is final for confirmation.
SPEAKER_01: So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.
SPEAKER_01: We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain where Jesus is gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchazadeh.
SPEAKER_01: The foundation of Advent hope is basically four things.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, it is the promise of God.
SPEAKER_01: It is the promise of God.
SPEAKER_01: Here is how how easily entertained your pastor is.
SPEAKER_01: Because I'm 50 now, and there's a banality and superficiality to our culture that I don't find a whole lot of it even interesting.
SPEAKER_01: Like I tried to watch TV this week, and it's just really hard for me.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not like I'm really spiritual.
SPEAKER_01: No, I like football because God wants men to like football, right, men?
SPEAKER_01: I like that.
SPEAKER_01: And so, but I just try to watch like normal stuff, and I'm just like, really?
SPEAKER_01: Is this what we've come to in America?
SPEAKER_01: This is, oh wow.
SPEAKER_01: I I could be reading a book or something.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna sit here, ah, and so, but here's how easily entertained I am when I talk about the promise of God.
SPEAKER_01: It's the first eight words of verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: For when God made a promise to Abraham.
SPEAKER_01: And I spent a whole day just meditating on that and like, God, why would you make a promise to Abraham?
SPEAKER_01: What?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, who is Abraham that you would and do you have to promise?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, why do I and I just I just sat with that.
SPEAKER_01: And the answer became apparent pretty quickly.
SPEAKER_01: God just said, hey, my invitation that courses all through the Bible is this believe me.
SPEAKER_01: Believe me.
SPEAKER_01: If you've never read the Bible, when you pick it up, whether it's page one or page 987, on every page, God is saying the same thing.
SPEAKER_01: Would you please believe me?
SPEAKER_01: Would you just please take me at my word and build your life on?
SPEAKER_01: So much so that when Jesus comes in the New Testament, he says, Hey, hey, whoever hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a man who builds his house on the rock.
SPEAKER_01: And the storms come and they beat against the house and it stands up.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, Hey, this is what it looks like to believe me.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't mean you're perfect, it means you're sturdy.
SPEAKER_01: You're men who don't abandon your wife and kids.
SPEAKER_01: You're men who, when you lose your job, you look at your wife and kids at dinner and kind of say, Hey, I don't know what's gonna happen, but God does, and we're the people of God.
SPEAKER_01: So let's eat pancakes for supper.
SPEAKER_01: And your kids are like, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: They go to sleep with a fork in their hand because they believe there's more to come.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean, believe me?
SPEAKER_01: That's what God's been about all through the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: You say, Well, that's easy, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_01: Let me summarize the entire Old Testament in four minutes.
SPEAKER_01: You got that in you today?
SPEAKER_01: You can go to lunch and say, How is church?
SPEAKER_01: Our pastor summarized the entire Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, I break it in three little sections.
SPEAKER_01: First section, Genesis 1 to 11.
SPEAKER_01: Genesis 1 and 2, God creates everything, he speaks it into existence.
SPEAKER_01: There was nothing, there was just nothingness.
SPEAKER_01: The Spirit of God was hovering over nothingness, and the Spirit of God over nothingness means something's about to happen up in Hera.
SPEAKER_01: And so God makes everything.
SPEAKER_01: He makes Adam.
SPEAKER_01: He says, It's not good that man should be alone.
SPEAKER_01: I'll make a helper suitable for him.
SPEAKER_01: He makes him fall asleep.
SPEAKER_01: He wakes up from a nap.
SPEAKER_01: There's a naked woman there.
SPEAKER_01: Adam gets up and says, Oh, Mellor, take more naps.
SPEAKER_01: Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_01: I love this.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you guys should go home today and take a nap.
SPEAKER_01: Tell your wife, hey, remember that part that the preacher said?
SPEAKER_01: I think that was a word from God for us.
SPEAKER_01: That was a rhema right there.
SPEAKER_01: But he wakes up and God says, Hey, remember, remember, tell believe, God says, Hey, you're free to eat of any tree in the garden, but of this one tree.
SPEAKER_01: You shall not eat, because when you eat that, you're gonna die.
SPEAKER_01: What happened?
SPEAKER_01: They didn't believe God.
SPEAKER_01: And so, chapter three, they ate, they believed the lie of the serpent, so they ate, and then all of a sudden, culture begins to disintegrate in chapters four to six, and then God says, You know what?
SPEAKER_01: I'm even sorry I made man.
SPEAKER_01: This place is so wicked.
SPEAKER_01: So, what does he do?
SPEAKER_01: He hits the reset button with a man named Noah.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you believe in human nature, then you've got to follow the logic here because if you have a righteous man, which Noah the Bible says was righteous.
SPEAKER_01: Did you know that?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: And so he starts over with a righteous man and his family, the only people that survived the flood, and he says, Hey, okay, now we got a righteous man.
SPEAKER_01: They saw, hey, don't jerk with God, because God will just pull the world over and whip everybody right here.
SPEAKER_01: And so they get, they they survived the flood, they get off, and guess what?
SPEAKER_01: The world gets re uh earth gets repopulated in the ensuing chapters, and it gets so bad they get to chapter 10.
SPEAKER_01: That happens in chapter 11.
SPEAKER_01: They said, You know what?
SPEAKER_01: We got a lot of people.
SPEAKER_01: We gotta be, uh make a name for ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna build this big tower into the heavens called the Tower of Babel.
SPEAKER_01: And God looked down and said, This is not good.
SPEAKER_01: Because if these people start off on this, they're gonna compete with me.
SPEAKER_01: They're not gonna trust me, they're not gonna believe me, they're gonna trust in themselves and their technology and their work ethic, and this is not gonna be good for them.
SPEAKER_01: And so God comes down, confuses their languages, and scatters them all over the face of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: And so God sets into motion on this big canvas where he can paint an even bigger picture called redemption.
SPEAKER_01: And darkness begins to creep in on them.
SPEAKER_01: And then and then you get this man named Abraham in chapter 12.
SPEAKER_01: God has a failed start, and then a restart with Noah, and then, hey, I'm gonna start with Abraham.
SPEAKER_01: And so he says to Abraham, hey, I'll bless you.
SPEAKER_01: He makes a promise to Abraham.
SPEAKER_01: He makes his promise and says, I'll bless you, and through you all the nations of the world will be blessed.
SPEAKER_01: One of his descendants is a man named Jacob.
SPEAKER_01: And Jacob, under Jacob, they he who later becomes Israel, they experience prosperity.
SPEAKER_01: They end up to this few historical events that Hollywood's making a movie about.
SPEAKER_01: So if you don't understand the Exodus, just wait for the movie.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sure it'll be just like the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_01: Please don't go see the movie and then call me and go, hey, why didn't the Bible like that?
SPEAKER_01: Because the Bible's true and that's a lie.
SPEAKER_01: End of story.
SPEAKER_01: Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_01: And so the people flourish, but they fall through these historical events.
SPEAKER_01: They end up slaves in Egypt by their slaves.
SPEAKER_01: They populate, they just become more and more and more, and then God gives them the law and the land and says, Hey, I want you to display my character to the nations.
SPEAKER_01: But they couldn't do it.
SPEAKER_01: They said, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: We need some politicians to rule over us, so they enter a period of what's called the period of the judges.
SPEAKER_01: And so, by the way, you're not created to be ruled over by politicians.
SPEAKER_01: And so that that didn't go well.
SPEAKER_01: So darkness comes and they're like, Okay, well, this isn't working out.
SPEAKER_01: You know what?
SPEAKER_01: They looked around and they said, We need a king.
SPEAKER_01: And God says, You got me.
SPEAKER_01: And they said, No, we need a king.
SPEAKER_01: All these other people got kings, we need a king.
SPEAKER_01: And pretty soon it's so dark, they're like, Whoa, what in the world?
SPEAKER_01: And so they get a king, they get a guy named Saul.
SPEAKER_01: That did not go well.
SPEAKER_01: They get a guy named David, that goes really well.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, the people of God being ruled by the man of God and the word of God is the way God set it up.
SPEAKER_01: But even that man was flawed.
SPEAKER_01: So his son Solomon comes on the scene and he builds this big, big church, this big temple, and it's it's it's it's incredible.
SPEAKER_01: And yet his heart got turned away because of his immorality.
SPEAKER_01: And then he has a son that comes on the throne later called Rehoboam.
SPEAKER_01: Rehoboam uh tolerated idolatry on a scale unlike his father before him, because what one generation allows in moderation, the next one will excuse in excess.
SPEAKER_01: And so under Rehoboam, the kingdom, the people of God gets divided into the north and south, and north, God raises up the Assyrians and it sack the north.
SPEAKER_01: And then by a century later, the south gets sent into captivity in Babylon.
SPEAKER_01: And now it's pitch black and they can't see their hand in front of their face, and they're just kind of like, whoa.
SPEAKER_01: But if you'll notice in this room right now, when it gets dark, it's kind of like uh oh.
SPEAKER_01: But the longer you sit in the dark, your eyes adjust, don't they?
SPEAKER_01: And you begin to be like, okay, I can see enough to feel comfortable.
SPEAKER_01: And what they don't see is that this is not the way God created them to live, and so they come back from exile because God keeps his promise.
SPEAKER_01: The psalmist says it in the 126th Psalm verse 1 when the Lord brought back the captive Sazion.
SPEAKER_01: We were like men who dreamed, our mouths were filled with laughter.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because we we we we we had given up hope that God would keep his promise, and God's going, Hello, believe me.
SPEAKER_01: And so they come back and they rebuild the temple and they rebuild the wall around Jerusalem with men like Nehemiah and Zerubbabel.
SPEAKER_01: There's a name, no one's naming their children, unfortunately.
SPEAKER_01: And God, by the way, because God always has a plan.
SPEAKER_01: Because way back in the garden, God had a plan.
SPEAKER_01: Because in Exodus 34, when God self-discloses to Moses when he's getting the Ten Commandments, and God announces Himself, the Lord, the Lord, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving sin and iniquity and thousands upon thousands, but who will by no means clear the guilty.
SPEAKER_01: And God just kind of subtly and yet provocatively invites us to think about how you're gonna solve that problem.
SPEAKER_01: You you're you're you're you're you you forgive the sin and iniquity of thousands, but yet you don't clear the guilty.
SPEAKER_01: How are you gonna forgive and not let the guilty get off?
SPEAKER_01: Somebody's gonna have to die in the guilty's place is what God is saying.
SPEAKER_01: And there's a mediator woven all through the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: Way back in Isaiah chapter 9, 700 years before Jesus comes, Isaiah chapter 9, verse 2, it says, The people that dwelt in deep darkness, upon them a light has shone.
SPEAKER_01: And one of the things that you'll realize this morning is you don't need a whole lot of light.
SPEAKER_01: To punch a hole in the darkness.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, it can be just a little baby born of a virgin.
SPEAKER_01: Because before Isaiah says all that, the wonderful counselor, he says this the people dwelling in deep darkness have seen a great light.
SPEAKER_01: The land of deep darkness, the land of deep darkness, upon them a light has shone.
SPEAKER_01: And so God says, all along, even though I'm gonna discipline you, I'm merciful.
SPEAKER_01: Just would you believe me?
SPEAKER_01: Would you just be willing to believe me?
SPEAKER_01: So the first foundational part that we uh that we kind of bank our hope of Advent on is number one, it's the promise of God, and God made a promise to Abraham.
SPEAKER_01: And so the all of a sudden light begins to break through, and people begin to see and understand because the Old Testament ends, there's 400 years of darkness for the New Testament, it comes on the scene.
SPEAKER_01: And the second source of our foundation of our hope during Advent is number one, the promise of God, number two, the nature of God.
SPEAKER_01: The nature of God.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to look far in the Bible or look far in the book of Hebrews, because he says right there in verse 13, he says, For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, Surely I will bless you and multiply you.
SPEAKER_01: Now think for just a minute, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Uh are you with me?
SPEAKER_01: Did you nod off in the dark?
SPEAKER_01: If you're visiting today, we don't always turn the lights out.
SPEAKER_01: We just did that for you today as a special feature.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no, no, no, here's the thing you say.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean, the nature of God?
SPEAKER_01: That sounds so nerdy that you're kind of like, Are you are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_01: No, here's what he the Bible says, hey, since God, because he he wanted to ground this in something certain, he said, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: I remember as a kid playing football.
SPEAKER_01: I drove by there when I went back home for Thanksgiving on Thursday.
SPEAKER_01: Drove right by David Hawkins' house.
SPEAKER_01: His family still lives there, big empty lot.
SPEAKER_01: His brother Paul, who was like that tall, I got married and kids, and and we used to play football in that corner lot.
SPEAKER_01: And always the argument was about, you know, you went out of bounds, where's the touch sign, where's the inline, this, that, and the other.
SPEAKER_01: And there would be a big thing.
SPEAKER_01: The way we settled it, David Hawkins would look at you and he goes, You swear on your mother's heart?
SPEAKER_01: What?
SPEAKER_01: You talking about my mama now, we gotta fight.
SPEAKER_01: And now what he was saying was, Do you swear by something greater than yourself?
SPEAKER_01: I have an Italian friend who used to say, You swear on your mother's eyes.
SPEAKER_01: Leave my mom's eyes out of this.
SPEAKER_01: That's creepy, okay?
SPEAKER_01: But they were saying, by the way, no one ever said, You swear on your dad's heart.
SPEAKER_01: Because I'm like, I'll throw him under the bus in a heartbeat.
SPEAKER_01: But when they said you swear on your mother's heart, it's like, oh, now we're done and got serious up in here.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says that's what God does.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he means when he says, Hey, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, Surely I will bless you.
SPEAKER_01: Now, before you get to bless you, he he you want to understand the nature of God?
SPEAKER_01: It's two words.
SPEAKER_01: Surely I.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not I'm not into tattoos.
SPEAKER_01: I don't I'm not like against tattoos if you got a tattoo.
SPEAKER_01: I don't care.
SPEAKER_01: I I could care less.
SPEAKER_01: Uh but but but you ought to get a pen around the back of your hand.
SPEAKER_01: Surely I, dot, dot, dot, and put it in quotation marks and go to work tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01: People go, what is that?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm I'm 54, and so I'm I'm too old to get a tattoo.
SPEAKER_01: But I just want to remind myself of the consistent nature of God.
SPEAKER_01: Surely I.
SPEAKER_01: Because see, if I is a reference to God, what what word do you put before I, which is God?
SPEAKER_01: What word do you put before God that's as consistent as God is?
SPEAKER_01: You can't say, well, maybe I.
SPEAKER_01: That's not God.
SPEAKER_01: Or if you will, then I.
SPEAKER_01: No, he swore by himself.
SPEAKER_01: When he made a covenant with Abraham, he told Abraham, Hey, you just take a nap.
SPEAKER_01: I got this.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want this depending on anybody as uncertain or as unstable as you.
SPEAKER_01: So that may offend you, but if it does, think about this and ask yourself what you're capable of.
SPEAKER_01: Because one thing about going back to my hometown, it reminded me of what I was capable of.
SPEAKER_01: I would drive by places and I would remember things that we did there, and I was going, eh, yeah, this is kind of depressing.
SPEAKER_01: But the Bible, God says I can find no one greater than myself to swear by.
SPEAKER_01: So I swore by myself, saying, Surely I will bless you.
SPEAKER_01: Surely.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you ever get bored and you want to do something interesting, just do a word search or a word study on surely.
SPEAKER_01: Just the word surely.
SPEAKER_01: S-U-R-E-L-Y.
SPEAKER_01: Not like when I was a little kid and they would read the 23rd Psalm, which by the way has the line there, surely goodness and mercy.
SPEAKER_01: I thought there was a woman in the Bible named Shirley Goodness.
SPEAKER_01: I remember just thinking, I just didn't because when I went to, I probably went to church 15 times between the time I was born and the time I was 18.
SPEAKER_01: And the 15 times I went, they never talked about the goodness of God.
SPEAKER_01: It was always about this God who was out to get you, and you were a bunch of screw-ups, and man, when he finds you, he's gonna lay the wood to you.
SPEAKER_01: I remember walking out thinking, well, that'll last me for a while.
SPEAKER_01: I thought I was screwed up, and I went to church today, and the preacher confirmed it.
SPEAKER_01: Yet the God of the Bible says, Surely I Isaiah 53, 6, he says, Surely he has borne our transgressions and our sins.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 23, 6, surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.
SPEAKER_01: Revelation chapter 22, he says, Surely I am coming again soon.
SPEAKER_01: See, when that that certain word called surely is used, something just as certain is used right beside it.
SPEAKER_01: And so when God says in in Hebrews chapter, surely, the certain reality that follows that is God.
SPEAKER_01: Surely I will bless you.
SPEAKER_01: See, your your your your hope is not rooted in something that may or may not come through.
SPEAKER_01: So you got to be ready to finish the deal.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: It's as certain as the nature of God.
SPEAKER_01: The third part of this foundation is the consistency of God.
SPEAKER_01: I want to start reading in verse 17.
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible says this.
SPEAKER_01: He says, so when God desired to show or show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.
SPEAKER_01: Now, when I say the consistency of God, I don't want that to be like that's bigger than me.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: It's just little phrases in those two or three verses like more convincingly.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: He says, so when God desired to show more convincingly.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, I want to go beyond what I showed Abraham and I want to show you more convincingly.
SPEAKER_01: Ask yourself this morning, what else do you need to see, hear, taste, touch, experience before you're convinced?
SPEAKER_01: Because God says, I'm I'm I'm committed to to showing you more convincingly.
SPEAKER_01: And then he says, to the heirs of his promise.
SPEAKER_01: You should ask yourself, who is that?
SPEAKER_01: Who is that?
SPEAKER_01: Is that like Abraham and his kids?
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, you, if you're here in this room today and you're a Christian, that's you.
SPEAKER_01: You say, How do you know?
SPEAKER_01: Because I worked at day camp when I was 19.
SPEAKER_01: And those little curtain climbing little rug rats that would always come over.
SPEAKER_01: Mr.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I want to be in your group.
SPEAKER_01: I got 36 of you.
SPEAKER_01: I can't take any more.
SPEAKER_01: Other counselors had five or six, and I was like, Hello, hello, amen.
SPEAKER_01: All the kids want to be in your group because you're lame, that's why.
SPEAKER_01: I might have gotten disciplined, I don't know, for telling all the kids, take your shirts off, let's go in the cafeteria shirtless, because we're Greek gods.
SPEAKER_01: And I might have taken a sharpie and wrote on their chest, Neil's Greek gods.
SPEAKER_01: And I might have turned them around and wrote on their back, try not to stare.
SPEAKER_01: And marched them in the cafeteria shirtless.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so they were five or six years old.
SPEAKER_01: So what?
SPEAKER_01: You could do that when you're five or six.
SPEAKER_01: I kept my shirt on.
SPEAKER_01: It's inappropriate when you're fifty.
SPEAKER_01: But when you're five or six, and I just walked in and went.
SPEAKER_01: 26 of them that day.
SPEAKER_01: And somebody said, We have a dress code.
SPEAKER_01: This is a health code violation.
SPEAKER_01: Health code is submissive to God's truth.
SPEAKER_01: Don't be touching my boys here.
SPEAKER_01: Because we got to get our grub on up in here.
SPEAKER_01: And they were like, Mr.
SPEAKER_01: Neal, do we have to put our shirts on?
SPEAKER_01: Never.
SPEAKER_01: The next morning, about 6:15, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom on my door.
SPEAKER_01: Camp director wants to see you in his office.
SPEAKER_01: And I just went down there and just bent over and took my whooping.
SPEAKER_01: He said, You want to tell me what that little stunt was yesterday in the cafeteria?
SPEAKER_01: I heard you marked some boys in the cafeteria and they ate shirtless.
SPEAKER_01: And to quote Shakespeare, I had waited too far in the blood to turn back now.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01: I marked those boys with a black Sharpie and wrote on them.
SPEAKER_01: Actually, it was a marksalot and I wrote on them.
SPEAKER_01: Can I ask you why before I dole out the discipline?
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: Because when they're 80, I want them to believe what they've hear and hear this week.
SPEAKER_01: We got to do something bigger than sing Father Abraham 16 times a day.
SPEAKER_01: Father Abraham had many sons, and many sons had five, and then I am one of them.
SPEAKER_01: See there, you were there too.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: So when the Bible says, hey, more convincingly to the heirs of his promise, hey, you've been singing it since you were little.
SPEAKER_01: So are you.
SPEAKER_01: You are the heirs of the promise.
SPEAKER_01: You get to inherit the fruit of what God promised Abraham.
SPEAKER_01: And he doesn't stop there.
SPEAKER_01: There's another phrase, the unchangeable character of his purpose.
SPEAKER_01: He's never moved off blessing you.
SPEAKER_01: So when you get your Christmas bonus this year, or you get that your stock dividend pays here at the end of the year, you just don't feel bad, like, oh man, we got too much money.
SPEAKER_01: I feel guilty.
SPEAKER_01: Feeling guilty is overrated.
SPEAKER_01: You should just walk home and drop it on the kitchen table in front of your wife and go, surely I.
SPEAKER_01: And not as a reference to yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Some of y'all are like, oh, we don't get to say that.
SPEAKER_01: No, don't take your shirt off and write on your shelf with a marshal lot and then come in.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: Just with tears in your eyes, just go, surely I.
SPEAKER_01: Surely I.
SPEAKER_01: See, honey, he just continues to bless us.
SPEAKER_01: You have times this past year.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever noticed?
SPEAKER_01: You can have nothing.
SPEAKER_01: My family has always struggled financially.
SPEAKER_01: And so we went back to East Texas to see them for Thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_01: They had two turkeys and a ham and food galore.
SPEAKER_01: And I just made a little note to myself.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, we need to remember between the Thanksgivings that somehow God always provides what we need.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because it's the unchangeable character of his purpose.
SPEAKER_01: What God began by saying, Would somebody please just believe me?
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to make you some religious fundamentalist nut job that no one wants to be around.
SPEAKER_01: I want to make you a fragrant aroma of Christ to those who are perishing.
SPEAKER_01: I want to make you the city set on the hill.
SPEAKER_01: I want to make you the woman that everyone in finance kind of says, I don't know what Jane's doing, but something's wacky about that chick.
SPEAKER_01: That's the unchangeable character of his purpose.
SPEAKER_01: Fourth phrase I want to point out is this he says, but he refers to these two unchangeable things.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Oh, by the way, so when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of his promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath.
SPEAKER_01: So that by two unchangeable things, you should read that in the Bible and go, what's these two unchangeable things?
SPEAKER_01: It's the promise that he made and the oath by which he confirmed the promise.
SPEAKER_01: It's unchangeable.
SPEAKER_01: No one's going to change that.
SPEAKER_01: And finally, the Bible says it's impossible for God to lie.
SPEAKER_01: It's impossible.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're 19 and you're lonely and you want to have a boyfriend, not just a boyfriend, but a godly man.
SPEAKER_01: If you're 19, you've realized by now that there's more, just because you go to church doesn't mean you're a godly man.
SPEAKER_01: And you're just like, could there be anybody that just kind of wants to be a spiritual leader and just have a relationship that's not built around the same thing as everybody else?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_01: You got to get a hold of what God says and then remind yourself it's impossible for God to lie.
SPEAKER_01: It's impossible for God to lie.
SPEAKER_01: This, beloved, is where the strong encouragement comes from.
SPEAKER_01: And then finally, the foundation of Advent hope is the hope of God.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 19, you still with me?
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 19.
SPEAKER_01: This is what he says.
SPEAKER_01: After he has this great long thing where he kind of spells it out, he says in verse 19, we have this.
SPEAKER_01: We have this.
SPEAKER_01: We have these things.
SPEAKER_01: These not just phrases, these truths.
SPEAKER_01: We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor for the soul.
SPEAKER_01: A hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain where Jesus is gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
SPEAKER_01: The order of Melchizedek is a reference to this appearance of Christ in Genesis 14, where he has bread and wine.
SPEAKER_01: It's kind of God kind of saying, hey, right here, here's a little indicator of what is to come.
SPEAKER_01: Here's another appearance of the mediator.
SPEAKER_01: But anyway, he says, hey, this hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain where Jesus is gone.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I want to close with today.
SPEAKER_01: This hope has entered into the inner place behind the curtain where Jesus is gone.
SPEAKER_01: What's it talking about?
SPEAKER_01: In the tabernacle, when the people of God were on the move in the wilderness, and in the temple, there was a place that was referred to as the Holy of Holies.
SPEAKER_01: It's where the Ark of the Covenant was.
SPEAKER_01: It's where God's presence kind of dwelt, and no one went in there.
SPEAKER_01: But once a year the high priest went in.
SPEAKER_01: And when he went in on that one high and holy day, he had a rope tied around his ankle just in case when he got in the presence of God, he had unconfessed sin in his life, and God would strike him dead, and they would just drag him out.
SPEAKER_01: They wouldn't go in there.
SPEAKER_01: They were like, hey, I'm not going to try that.
SPEAKER_01: And the priest would go in with bells on his robe.
SPEAKER_01: And as long as they heard the bells ringing, they're like, okay, he's still alive.
SPEAKER_01: It was somber and serious.
SPEAKER_01: And it evoked the sense of deep, reverential awe and almost dread.
SPEAKER_01: Because in there behind the curtain was the holy of holies.
SPEAKER_01: That's where God dwells, and you don't jerk with God's presence.
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible says, Jesus has gone.
SPEAKER_01: Hear it again.
SPEAKER_01: We have this as a sure, steadfast anchor, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain where Jesus is gone.
SPEAKER_01: And then he says this, as a forerunner on our behalf.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean Jesus is kind of gone?
SPEAKER_01: Can I confess my sin to you this morning?
SPEAKER_01: You want to hear your preacher's sin?
SPEAKER_01: Sure you do.
SPEAKER_01: There's a morbid man.
SPEAKER_01: Here's my sin.
SPEAKER_01: Driving to my family on Thanksgiving Day, I got stopped by the police.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes.
SPEAKER_01: I was doing 65 and a 50.
SPEAKER_01: I missed a turn.
SPEAKER_01: I was driving along, and I was kind of like, this doesn't look familiar.
SPEAKER_01: And I rounded this, and I didn't realize I was in a town.
SPEAKER_01: And right when I hit the brakes, I saw what made me hit the brakes, I saw somebody swerve out of that lane into the middle lane real fast.
SPEAKER_01: And I hit the brakes, looked up, and it was a cop, and I was like, well, I'm busted.
SPEAKER_01: And so I just kind of put the blinker on, turned over.
SPEAKER_01: I saw them whip around, past all the other cars, pulled her up behind me.
SPEAKER_01: I was pulling over, turned the lights on, I was like, I was already pulling over.
SPEAKER_01: Are you kidding?
SPEAKER_01: Got out, and my wife's like, Well, what are you gonna do?
SPEAKER_01: Our oldest have been asleep the whole time.
SPEAKER_01: From the time we pulled out of our driveway at like 5 50 in the morning.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, she wakes up and there's a cop standing in our window.
SPEAKER_01: She said, What's going on?
SPEAKER_01: Your mom's got drugs.
SPEAKER_01: We're all going to jail.
SPEAKER_01: Lay down.
SPEAKER_01: And the cop says, Do you have any idea how fast you were going?
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Clearly too fast.
SPEAKER_01: And I handed her my license, and she goes, You were doing 65 in a 50.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, I'm gonna leg stand on.
SPEAKER_01: And she said, Sugarland, Texas, you traveling today?
SPEAKER_01: I said, Yeah, we're going for Thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_01: She goes, Oh, so you're not from here?
SPEAKER_01: I said, No, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not from here.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know the speed limit, but clearly I was going too fast.
SPEAKER_01: And she, I said, But I hit my brakes, and she said, You hit your brakes when you saw me.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, Oh, you're gonna go there, huh?
SPEAKER_01: All right, I see how this is gonna go.
SPEAKER_01: And then at that time she said, Do you have your insurance?
SPEAKER_01: And I looked at my wife, and my wife opens up the thing, and she's like, uh, uh, we have 17 insurance cards.
SPEAKER_01: All of them are expired.
SPEAKER_01: It was Thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_01: So I just thought, my, I said, Hey, my wife, she she drinks a lot and she forgets stuff.
SPEAKER_01: Told her seven times when I gave her the new thing that Bob Rosica sent me, my insurance guy, put this in your glove box, and clearly she didn't.
SPEAKER_01: She's a bad woman.
SPEAKER_01: And she went, All right, stay right here.
SPEAKER_01: I can I I I can run it, and and I don't I don't actually need the card, but the law says you've got to present the card.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm like, you can run it.
SPEAKER_01: She goes, Yeah, I can tell if you've got insurance.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, big brother is watching.
SPEAKER_01: If you can run it, why do we need the card?
SPEAKER_01: Why is the man trying to keep me down here?
SPEAKER_01: She goes, I'll probably give you a warning.
SPEAKER_01: And at that point, my wife just snapped.
SPEAKER_01: She's like, What?
SPEAKER_01: A warning.
SPEAKER_01: I've gotten like 17 warnings.
SPEAKER_01: I never get a ticket.
SPEAKER_01: Now y'all like, you're gonna get one this week.
SPEAKER_01: Keep your karma nonsense to yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Because I just tell the truth.
SPEAKER_01: When they say you were doing 65 of the 50, I'm like, man, that's horrible.
SPEAKER_01: My wife is like, you, you, you, because my wife gets stopped, she gets a ticket.
SPEAKER_01: Lady comes back and she goes, Yeah, you got insurance.
SPEAKER_01: You need to go and get that card and keep it on.
SPEAKER_01: The law says you got to present it.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, All right, well, thank you very much.
SPEAKER_01: She goes, Have a happy Thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_01: Put my seatbelt back on, drove out there, put my blinker on.
SPEAKER_01: You ever notice you always use your blinker when you pull away from the cop?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Here's why.
SPEAKER_01: Because you slow down when you see the cop.
SPEAKER_01: You put your blinker on, you got your hands in ten and two when you see the cop.
SPEAKER_01: Rest of the time you're driving with your knee, pouring a cup of coffee, checking your email.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, what's going on, buddy?
SPEAKER_01: Got one foot up on the dash over there?
SPEAKER_01: Hey, baby, take my buck knife and shave that bunion right there while we're driving.
SPEAKER_01: What?
SPEAKER_01: Why did I tell you that?
SPEAKER_01: Shh, look at me.
SPEAKER_01: Stop laughing.
SPEAKER_01: This is church.
SPEAKER_01: You should walk out of here today and feel worse than when you came in.
SPEAKER_01: It's in the Bible somewhere.
SPEAKER_01: That's how you demonstrate you really mean it.
SPEAKER_01: Look at me.
SPEAKER_01: Why do I tell you all that?
SPEAKER_01: Because you relate to Jesus the way you relate, I relate to the cop.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't, I when I saw her, I hit the brakes.
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible says that Jesus has gone behind the curtain.
SPEAKER_01: And you're going to stand one day in the presence of that God.
SPEAKER_01: You're going to be in a place you can't go now.
SPEAKER_01: Now we're we're he he he he abides with us.
SPEAKER_01: He lives in us.
SPEAKER_01: That's a whole nother sermon.
SPEAKER_01: But but he says, hey, I went before you.
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible says this, as a forerunner.
SPEAKER_01: As a forerunner, as somebody kind of going scouting out so you won't be afraid of what's to come, so you won't get there and be like, oh, uh, uh, I hit the brakes when I saw you.
SPEAKER_01: That first marriage, you know, that wasn't my fault.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we both kind of, you know what's perfect, and blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: And he's just gonna smile and go, I have no idea what you're talking about.
SPEAKER_01: Because Micah says that he has thrown our sins into the sea and he remembers them no more.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: The the hope of God is Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: The hope of God.
SPEAKER_01: See, the hope of God's people is geez, he's gone where we couldn't go, and he's done what we couldn't do on our behalf, so that we won't have to live in fear, like like we're gonna have, we're gonna go stand before the the big policeman in the sky.
SPEAKER_01: No, you're gonna you're gonna stand before your your priest who is in the water of Melchizedek.
SPEAKER_01: Well, what does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says he ever lives to make intercession for you.
SPEAKER_01: You're not gonna stand there and he's gonna say, You have any idea how many sins you committed in your life?
SPEAKER_01: Well, uh, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: 642 million?
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: Uh he's just gonna smile and go, me neither.
SPEAKER_01: That's why he went in there behind the curtain where you and I can't go.
SPEAKER_01: And he did what you and I could never do.
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
SPEAKER_01: You can be people of hope in this world and in the one to come.
SPEAKER_01: That's the foundation of Advent.
SPEAKER_01: Stand to your feet and we speak a blessing over you.
SPEAKER_01: Hold your hands out.
SPEAKER_01: Your God is the God of cloud and sunshine, pillar and fire, people in presence.
SPEAKER_01: He came to be with you because he's for you.
SPEAKER_01: He cannot have his mind changed about you.
SPEAKER_01: Were he to forget you, he would have to forget his right hand.
SPEAKER_01: He's inscribed you upon his palms, and he sent a child born of a virgin to make it all possible.
SPEAKER_01: Depart now and live as if you believe this in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Bless you, you're dismissed.