WEBVTT 00:00:00.800 --> 00:00:08.320 This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God. 00:00:08.480 --> 00:00:13.359 For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org. 00:00:14.240 --> 00:00:16.559 We like Peter have gotten our eyes off of you. 00:00:16.640 --> 00:00:23.920 We got out of the boat with great intentions, and then we got our eyes off of you and got them on ourselves or our surroundings, and we sank. 00:00:24.160 --> 00:00:27.920 And so we're here today to confess that all of the ground is sinking sand. 00:00:28.239 --> 00:00:32.640 Seems like a very appropriate song for the past couple of days that we've had. 00:00:34.240 --> 00:00:39.920 When the rains come down, then we all, it's revealed what we trust in. 00:00:40.640 --> 00:01:00.880 And so we confess today, we begin our day communally together around the communion table, saying that we're tired of trusting in less wild lovers and insufficient ideas and things that don't hold water and lose their worth when the water begins to rise. 00:01:01.119 --> 00:01:09.120 So, Holy Spirit, lead us into the truth today about ourselves, about you, and about the church with a capital C. 00:01:09.359 --> 00:01:11.519 What does it mean to be the people of God? 00:01:11.760 --> 00:01:16.640 Once we were not a people, but now we're the people of God, which is why we do the things we do. 00:01:16.879 --> 00:01:20.879 It's also why we do the things we don't do, the things we don't do. 00:01:21.439 --> 00:01:24.079 Help us to get our head around that today in Jesus' name. 00:01:24.239 --> 00:01:26.239 And everyone said, Amen. 00:01:26.319 --> 00:01:27.040 You can have a seat. 00:01:27.120 --> 00:01:30.480 If you've got a Bible, I want you to open it and take it and open it up to Hebrews chapter 3. 00:01:30.719 --> 00:01:31.599 Hebrews chapter 3. 00:01:31.680 --> 00:01:36.640 If you're a guest today, uh we are observing communion, which is the entire service here at Grand Parkway. 00:01:36.719 --> 00:01:38.079 And so I'm going to give a brief homily. 00:01:38.319 --> 00:01:40.400 Homily is a big word for a short sermon. 00:01:40.480 --> 00:01:43.200 And everyone said, So let me begin with this. 00:01:43.359 --> 00:01:47.519 I told somebody over here, I said to my friend Al, today you're going to find out who the beer drinkers are. 00:01:47.680 --> 00:01:50.000 And everybody on that side kind of turned to look like, what? 00:01:50.079 --> 00:01:50.480 What? 00:01:51.280 --> 00:01:53.760 My mystiology professor in seminary, Dr. 00:01:53.840 --> 00:02:00.000 Bud Frey, told he was a missionary in Kenya for like 38 years, 39 years, something like that. 00:02:00.159 --> 00:02:06.959 And um he said that one day they had heavy rains, and the villagers sent word, they said, Hey, we don't want to go down the little mud trails from my slip and fall. 00:02:07.120 --> 00:02:08.000 We're gonna cancel church. 00:02:08.159 --> 00:02:09.599 And so they canceled church that night. 00:02:09.680 --> 00:02:11.840 And so he said, Hey, I wanted to help the people. 00:02:11.919 --> 00:02:14.159 Uh and so I went down to the river to see if I could help anybody across. 00:02:14.240 --> 00:02:16.639 Usually it was knee deep, it was up to about your chest. 00:02:16.719 --> 00:02:22.479 And he said, Well I was standing there by the river, a man walking across the river had a five-gallon pot of homemade beer on his head. 00:02:22.719 --> 00:02:24.879 Water was up to his neck, and he looked at Dr. 00:02:24.960 --> 00:02:30.879 Frey and said, See, missy, the water too high for the church goers, but not too high for the beer drinkers. 00:02:32.319 --> 00:02:35.120 So today we find out who the beer drinkers are. 00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:41.360 Some of you are nervous in ways you don't need to be right now. 00:02:42.879 --> 00:02:50.560 Anyway, uh, I thought since we're in the book of Exodus, that I would take the communion homily from uh about the people that we're reading about in Exodus. 00:02:50.719 --> 00:02:53.280 This is Hebrews chapter 3, starting in verse 7. 00:02:53.439 --> 00:02:56.719 I want to talk to you briefly about entering into the rest of God. 00:02:56.960 --> 00:03:02.319 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. 00:03:02.479 --> 00:03:09.680 On the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for 40 years. 00:03:09.919 --> 00:03:15.120 Therefore, I was provoked with that generation and said, They always go astray in their heart. 00:03:15.360 --> 00:03:16.879 They have not known my ways. 00:03:17.039 --> 00:03:21.039 As I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. 00:03:21.199 --> 00:03:31.039 Take care, brothers, lest there be any uh excuse me, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 00:03:31.199 --> 00:03:37.599 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 00:03:37.759 --> 00:03:43.759 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:49.039 As it is said, today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. 00:03:49.280 --> 00:03:51.759 For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? 00:03:51.919 --> 00:03:54.800 Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? 00:03:55.280 --> 00:03:59.360 And was it and with whom was he provoked for forty years? 00:03:59.599 --> 00:04:03.439 Was it not with those who sinned whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 00:04:03.680 --> 00:04:08.879 And whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? 00:04:09.199 --> 00:04:14.159 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief. 00:04:14.960 --> 00:04:24.879 Now, when Jesus on the night he was betrayed, and by the way, what we're going to do this morning took place originally in the context of betrayal. 00:04:25.519 --> 00:04:33.680 So the next time you're betrayed by your appetites, by your friends, by your company or whatever, you're in a very Christ-like position. 00:04:33.839 --> 00:04:39.920 But on the night he was betrayed, Jesus took bread, and when he broke it, he gave thanks and he says, This is my body offered for you. 00:04:40.079 --> 00:04:41.519 Do this in remembrance of me. 00:04:41.600 --> 00:04:45.839 And after that, he took the cup and he held it up and he said, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. 00:04:46.079 --> 00:04:49.839 As often as you do this, do this in remembrance of me. 00:04:50.079 --> 00:04:56.160 Later on in the book of 1st and 2nd Corinthians, Paul gives different instructions to the church at Corinth and to the church universally. 00:04:56.240 --> 00:04:57.040 That'd be us. 00:04:57.199 --> 00:05:01.920 And in one of those passages in chapter 11, he gives instructions about here's how you do this. 00:05:02.079 --> 00:05:06.639 And he says, Hey, when you do this, one of the things you do, he says, let a person examine themselves. 00:05:06.879 --> 00:05:08.319 Let examine ourselves. 00:05:08.560 --> 00:05:12.480 That doesn't mean set yourself to this morbid, introspective self-hatred. 00:05:12.639 --> 00:05:16.079 That means examine yourself so that you don't receive the elements. 00:05:16.319 --> 00:05:19.680 You don't remember the body and the blood of Christ in an unworthy manner. 00:05:20.240 --> 00:05:24.319 To receive it in an unworthy manner doesn't mean, well, I don't deserve it. 00:05:24.399 --> 00:05:25.279 None of us deserve it. 00:05:25.360 --> 00:05:25.759 Amen. 00:05:26.240 --> 00:05:29.199 But but it means you calibrate your head around what you're going to do. 00:05:29.360 --> 00:05:37.759 See, we enter in, what what what the writer of Hebrews talks about in chapter three, we enter into the rest of God because of the body and blood of Jesus. 00:05:37.920 --> 00:05:42.879 But I want to go back to early on, he said something that I think it's easy for us to miss. 00:05:43.040 --> 00:05:50.319 He says in verse 10, therefore I was provoked with that generation and said, they always go astray in their heart. 00:05:50.720 --> 00:05:54.720 Before you go astray in your life, you go astray in your heart. 00:05:54.959 --> 00:06:04.079 And so I want us to spend some time examining ourselves before we come to the communion table this morning around four questions that come out of Hebrews chapter 3. 00:06:04.160 --> 00:06:05.600 And the first one, they'll come up on the screen. 00:06:05.680 --> 00:06:09.680 The first one is simply this: Is there any part of your heart that's not believing the gospel? 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:13.759 Is there any part of your heart that's not believing the gospel? 00:06:14.720 --> 00:06:21.519 Second question I want you to think about this morning is: are there any sinful appetites that need to be made to surrender to the truths of the gospel? 00:06:21.759 --> 00:06:27.199 Are there any sinful appetites that need to be made to surrender to the truths of the gospel? 00:06:27.439 --> 00:06:30.639 Sin, and when we sin, it is really an act of unbelief. 00:06:30.959 --> 00:06:35.839 We're not believing something about the good news of Christianity, of the gospel. 00:06:36.079 --> 00:06:41.199 And so when we say, are there any sinful appetites that need to be made to surrender to the truths of the gospel? 00:06:41.519 --> 00:06:42.959 Be honest with yourself. 00:06:43.680 --> 00:06:47.519 Probably the greatest compliment I get is phone calls I get from some of you. 00:06:47.680 --> 00:06:50.319 Sometimes it's early in the morning, like 6.15. 00:06:50.480 --> 00:06:54.079 And sometimes it's early in the morning, like 2.12 in the morning. 00:06:55.040 --> 00:06:58.160 And it's one of you saying, I'm not in a good way. 00:06:59.279 --> 00:07:04.079 And I always say, back into the phone, back into my cell phone, where are you? 00:07:04.560 --> 00:07:07.199 I'll come to where you are, stay where you are. 00:07:07.439 --> 00:07:15.040 And it's always, usually when I get there, it's a person that's kicking themselves, you know, I gave in to my addiction or I did things I shouldn't have done, blah, blah, blah. 00:07:15.680 --> 00:07:24.319 And one of the questions that I always ask, not right out of the bat, but later on in the conversation, maybe after the second cup of coffee, is this sinful appetite? 00:07:24.480 --> 00:07:27.600 How does this, how do you surrender this to the truth of the gospel? 00:07:27.839 --> 00:07:32.800 And one guy looked at me when I said that, and he went, If I knew that, you think I'd be talking to you right now? 00:07:34.720 --> 00:07:38.079 See, sometimes you guys are much better than we are at this. 00:07:38.319 --> 00:07:42.240 And what that man was saying was, I just need you to be here right now and help me. 00:07:42.480 --> 00:07:48.319 Third question I want you to think about is simply this: Is there any area of your heart that has been hardened by the deceitfulness of sin? 00:07:49.120 --> 00:07:51.360 How does sin harden our heart? 00:07:51.600 --> 00:07:56.480 Well, because it's deceitful in nature and it tells us one thing and delivers another. 00:07:56.879 --> 00:07:58.399 Sin is always deceitful. 00:07:58.480 --> 00:08:02.959 It's never, the ROI on sin is never what you need it to be. 00:08:03.279 --> 00:08:05.759 The return on investment, it's deceitful. 00:08:05.920 --> 00:08:14.079 And our hearts get hardened because we just think, well, I mean, I've been this way, I've done this since I was 14 years old, or I've been. 00:08:14.639 --> 00:08:18.240 And the gospel comes in and says, it doesn't have to be that way. 00:08:18.480 --> 00:08:23.519 So let's think today and ask ourselves, is there any area of our heart that's been hardened by the deceitfulness of sin? 00:08:23.680 --> 00:08:28.800 And finally, let's ask ourselves, are you as spiritually confident now as when you began? 00:08:29.199 --> 00:08:40.720 And that comes from the latter part of the passage when he says in verse 14, for we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 00:08:41.440 --> 00:08:45.120 If we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 00:08:45.360 --> 00:08:47.679 See, we've come to be in Christ. 00:08:47.840 --> 00:08:53.600 I want to just uh point out it's it's not just a little distinction, it's a huge reality. 00:08:53.759 --> 00:08:56.720 He says, for we have come to share in Christ. 00:08:57.360 --> 00:08:59.120 We've come to share in Christ. 00:08:59.200 --> 00:09:03.279 It's being a Christian is not something I decided to do when I was 18. 00:09:03.600 --> 00:09:05.919 Uh my heart was regenerated. 00:09:06.000 --> 00:09:11.200 And the way I knew that was because I was able to repent and place my faith in Christ. 00:09:11.279 --> 00:09:14.799 And when that happened, the Bible says that I was grafted in. 00:09:14.879 --> 00:09:16.159 I was put in Christ. 00:09:16.320 --> 00:09:20.399 It's not that there was something external that I was trying to make fit into my life. 00:09:20.559 --> 00:09:22.480 I was brought into a whole new reality. 00:09:22.720 --> 00:09:26.080 I was set down in Christ, in the kingdom, in the church. 00:09:26.159 --> 00:09:28.159 I became a part of all of these things. 00:09:28.320 --> 00:09:32.000 And the church helps me to live out the gospel. 00:09:32.240 --> 00:09:38.960 The church, that'd be you all, helps me to conform my life to the teachings of Jesus. 00:09:39.120 --> 00:09:44.639 The church helps me to think about my life in terms of the kingdom, grounds my life in something bigger. 00:09:44.720 --> 00:09:48.639 So when I'm tempted to believe the lie that says it doesn't matter. 00:09:49.039 --> 00:09:50.559 Nobody has to know. 00:09:51.519 --> 00:09:56.639 The bigness of what you're a part of is a cleansing ethic if you let it be. 00:09:56.879 --> 00:10:00.639 And so just ask yourself, am I spiritually confident now is when I began? 00:10:00.720 --> 00:10:06.080 Because here's what happens: the older you get, the longer you go to church, the harder it is to move the needle. 00:10:06.879 --> 00:10:08.720 You know what I mean when I say move the needle? 00:10:08.960 --> 00:10:11.039 You come and you're just kind of like, eh. 00:10:11.600 --> 00:10:14.799 You look at your wife and go, where do you want to go to lunch? 00:10:15.120 --> 00:10:18.480 And you begin to evaluate things based on what was it worth the effort? 00:10:18.720 --> 00:10:20.720 Well, I drove 25 minutes. 00:10:23.840 --> 00:10:28.720 And see, really, it's not what takes place in this room, it's what takes place in here. 00:10:30.240 --> 00:10:31.919 That's really bothering you. 00:10:32.240 --> 00:10:36.000 And so, are you as spiritually confident now as when you began? 00:10:36.399 --> 00:10:40.720 The writer of Hebrews just uses two little words, your original confidence. 00:10:41.679 --> 00:10:47.120 The hardest thing to do, and I'm not saying be as eager and zealous, I'm not talking about zeal. 00:10:47.360 --> 00:10:50.399 I'm talking about a confident certainty. 00:10:51.360 --> 00:10:53.360 That's what the Bible calls us to. 00:10:54.320 --> 00:10:58.960 And so I want us to do what the Bible instructs us to do. 00:10:59.279 --> 00:11:05.279 And he says, hey, let's examine ourselves so we don't receive the elements in an unworthy manner. 00:11:05.519 --> 00:11:07.679 And so what we like to do here is just take some time. 00:11:07.759 --> 00:11:11.279 I'm gonna voice a prayer, and then Clyde's gonna come and sing something over us. 00:11:11.519 --> 00:11:18.960 And then after that, I'll come and lead us in a corporate confession, and then we'll open up and we'll celebrate and receive communion this morning together. 00:11:19.120 --> 00:11:19.440 Okay? 00:11:20.080 --> 00:11:21.759 Let me voice a prayer. 00:11:24.080 --> 00:11:27.440 Father, thanks for the purifying simplicity of the gospel. 00:11:27.919 --> 00:11:37.120 Whether it's in Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John or Hebrews, or Philemon, or 1 Thessalonians, uh it's it's all the good news. 00:11:37.679 --> 00:11:42.559 And the good news today is that you've reminded us that we first go astray in our heart. 00:11:42.799 --> 00:11:51.600 And so we've come today to take account of our heart, to think about the body and the blood of Jesus that was shed for us. 00:11:53.519 --> 00:11:57.840 And to ask ourselves in my heart, where am I not believing the gospel? 00:12:00.559 --> 00:12:13.440 To subdue my sinful appetites through mortification or confession or whatever's necessary, to take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ. 00:12:16.320 --> 00:12:21.679 We've come today, Lord, to look at our heart and say, is there any part of this that's been hardened by the deceitfulness of sin? 00:12:26.000 --> 00:12:28.960 Lord, don't let us confuse confidence with zeal. 00:12:31.679 --> 00:12:35.120 Because sometimes when we're young, zeal makes fools of us all. 00:12:36.000 --> 00:12:39.600 But confidence has a way of sustaining us over the long haul. 00:12:40.159 --> 00:12:43.919 Confidence is when we throw the towel in and you throw it back. 00:12:44.480 --> 00:12:46.000 And you don't yell at us. 00:12:46.240 --> 00:12:47.840 You just kind of smile. 00:12:48.240 --> 00:12:52.080 And we know in that one little moment, okay, I can do this. 00:12:52.480 --> 00:12:56.559 Not I can do this in and of my own power, but I get it. 00:12:56.720 --> 00:12:58.320 I don't I don't need anything else. 00:12:58.480 --> 00:12:59.440 I get it. 00:13:00.559 --> 00:13:06.559 And so this morning, Lord, I want to pray for those that are jaded and cynical and are tired. 00:13:09.840 --> 00:13:13.679 And I pray, Lord, you'll just take them back to their original confidence. 00:13:15.200 --> 00:13:18.320 Holy Spirit, search us as we search ourselves. 00:13:18.639 --> 00:13:23.279 See if there be any hurtful way in us and lead us in the everlasting way. 00:13:24.480 --> 00:13:30.159 We think, we reflect, we listen, and we prepare in Jesus' name. 00:13:30.480 --> 00:13:31.120 Amen. 00:13:35.039 --> 00:13:40.240 Jesus said to his disciples, I no longer call you servants, but I call you friends. 00:13:41.039 --> 00:13:48.559 And this is before he died, because he knew that in dying he was going to earn the right to change what he called them. 00:13:48.799 --> 00:13:52.799 And so as a result of that, we need to all change what we call ourselves. 00:13:54.399 --> 00:13:58.320 If you believe the gospel, you can't just call yourself a sinner anymore. 00:13:59.120 --> 00:14:04.960 You're saints, you're the redeemed of God, you're the people through whom God tells his story. 00:14:06.080 --> 00:14:08.799 I asked little Grace Golson, I said, Who's your best friend? 00:14:08.879 --> 00:14:10.320 And she said, Jesus. 00:14:10.639 --> 00:14:14.879 And I told all the old people down here, shame on all of you for having a different answer. 00:14:18.320 --> 00:14:20.799 He changed what he called you. 00:14:21.759 --> 00:14:25.440 So if you believe the gospel, you have to change what you call yourself. 00:14:27.200 --> 00:14:35.039 Because to continue to call yourselves the same things you've always called yourselves is an offense to the cross. 00:14:36.399 --> 00:14:38.799 Hey, do I believe all this? 00:14:40.080 --> 00:14:42.879 Because if you do, then it changes what you call yourself. 00:14:42.960 --> 00:14:46.000 And some of you, you call yourself noble things like servants. 00:14:46.159 --> 00:14:47.440 I'm just a servant. 00:14:47.840 --> 00:14:51.840 Jesus said, I no longer call you servants, but I call you friends. 00:14:54.879 --> 00:15:00.639 One of those you control what it looks like, and one of those he controls what it looks like. 00:15:00.960 --> 00:15:03.919 So even in our humility, there's so much pride. 00:15:04.159 --> 00:15:05.600 I'm just a servant. 00:15:06.080 --> 00:15:07.919 Oh, you need to be in control. 00:15:09.519 --> 00:15:12.000 Jesus says, No, you're my friends. 00:15:12.480 --> 00:15:13.200 Oh, great. 00:15:13.440 --> 00:15:14.960 What does that mean? 00:15:17.519 --> 00:15:22.399 Maybe today the biggest takeaway you have is that you walk out and you change what you call yourself. 00:15:25.600 --> 00:15:28.159 So take a moment and look around the room. 00:15:29.279 --> 00:15:31.919 See people you know and people you don't know. 00:15:32.240 --> 00:15:38.240 Because in just a moment I'm gonna speak a blessing over you, and then I'm gonna ask you just to practice being the church. 00:15:40.240 --> 00:15:43.039 There are things that only the church does. 00:15:46.399 --> 00:15:49.519 And so I want you to just practice being the church to each other. 00:15:50.639 --> 00:15:51.840 What does that look like? 00:15:52.080 --> 00:15:53.679 You're smarter than that. 00:15:56.720 --> 00:15:58.159 Hold your hands out. 00:16:02.879 --> 00:16:07.600 For those who are far off, you're closer than you think. 00:16:08.639 --> 00:16:12.960 For those who are close, you're more loved than you can imagine. 00:16:13.679 --> 00:16:16.159 Depart now, you heal the friends of God. 00:16:16.879 --> 00:16:20.159 And live who Jesus knows you to be. 00:16:20.399 --> 00:16:22.879 In the name of the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 00:16:23.120 --> 00:16:23.440 Amen. 00:16:23.679 --> 00:16:24.639 Bless you, dismiss.