https://youtu.be/mx-NMpAcFoA?si=BWkyMztF3NeUC4CM

 

 

Introduction: Expository Preaching

This morning, we have come to the middle section of Hebrews chapter 10. Similar to what we saw last week in Hebrews 9 is jam-packed with all sorts of doctrinal lessons and implications. Lots of theology is being taught. Like I said last week, Hebrews chapter 9 and into chapter 10, this section of Scripture is like a giant squid with hundreds of tentacles and arms reaching into every theological topic, debate, and subgenre of theological study. It is nearly impossible to discuss any topic of theology without having some need or obligation to consult this particular passage of Scripture. Yet again, rather than giving you 10 or 12 sermons from this passage, which we easily could, we will do just one.

Quick side note on my philosophy of preaching and what we’re hoping to cultivate here at Horizon City. We are committed to expository preaching. We’re going through books of the Bible over several weeks or months and looking verse by verse, passage by passage. We believe in expository preaching. But there are different flavors of expository preaching out there. So people say they’re expository. That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re all the same. There are different philosophies, different approaches, and there are some that are not necessarily bad; they’re just different.

Then there are some that I would say are not so good. There are various categories in that way. The particular flavor that I have when it comes to expository preaching is, in layman’s terms, what we would call the one-point sermon. One main point, then any subpoints or sub-ideas, are simply reinforcing or expounding upon that one point. The philosophy is simply that people only remember one thing. By the time you leave, you’ve forgotten most of what I said. The reality is you’re not going to remember most things.

Some preachers take the approach that they’re going to give you a lot of different points, and they just hope you remember one or two, and everyone’s going to remember a different one. Kind of like the adage, you throw enough stuff at the wall, eventually something will stick. That’s the philosophy. I don’t think that’s necessarily bad or wrong. It’s just different than my approach. My approach is I want to give you a one-point sermon, and I want to drill it over and over and over again.

The hope is that you remember the one thing that we want to drill home. When we’re doing expository preaching, the hope is that the one point of the sermon matches the one point of the passage that the original author intended. So when the writer of Hebrews is writing these verses in the middle part of chapter 10, he has a particular point in mind. The hope would be that my one-point sermon matches the one point that he was making in the middle part of Hebrews, chapter 10.

If he is making a point and I am making a different point, then I’m not accurately representing what the writer of Hebrews was seeking to articulate. I think I’ve seen that in sermons. I’ve probably been guilty of it at times in my life. Where you take a passage of scripture and you manipulate it. You use the scripture as an excuse to say what you want to say rather than accurately representing what the original author intended to say. So the goal is not, What am I getting out of this? The goal is, What did the writer of Hebrews intend to communicate to his audience? We want our sermons to be in line with that.

That’s our overarching goal. In addition to that, when it comes to our philosophy of preaching, we also want our sermons to then take that one point that the author made, and we want to connect it to Christ in one way or another. We want to go, how does this one point from this passage shed light on Jesus? What does this one point give us that we didn’t know before about the person and work of Christ?

One way we do this is to have communion every single week. In sermon prep, I’m always asking myself the question, What is in this text that gives me yet another reason to remember Jesus in communion? So it’s a one-point sermon that should match the one point of the text. Then I want to ask, how does this one point shed light on the person or work of Christ?

What I’ve just described to you is what theologians refer to as the redemptive historical expository approach to preaching. There are other variants, there are other philosophies. You can categorize most preachers into different categories. This is our philosophy. So that’s the primary focus. Redemptive historical. That’s the primary flavor of our preaching here.

However, there are times when we will deviate from that because we think there’s some good reason to. This morning happens to be one of those times. We don’t want this to be normal. It’s not a normative practice to deviate from the redemptive historical approach. But we do want to do this occasionally. We do this occasionally for one of two reasons. Usually, when you’re going through a book of the Bible, like Hebrews, sometimes you’ll cover passages of scripture, and it’s the same theme being hit over and over again.

So if you take this approach to preaching, what inevitably happens is you’ll have three or four or five sermons in a row. They kind of feel like they’re saying the same thing over and over again. Sometimes that’s good. Sometimes we need to hear the same thing over and over again. That’s valuable. But there are other times when we feel it’s helpful to do something slightly different.

So the main point of this text in Hebrews, chapter 10, is that Jesus is better than priests. Jesus made a sacrifice better than the sacrifices that the priests in the Old Testament made. That’s the main point of the text. Well, we’ve already covered that pretty thoroughly. We’ve preached several sermons on that theme, and we could preach it again from a slightly different angle, and that could be helpful.

There are times to do that, but then there are moments where we think, are there secondary points in the text? So maybe it’s not the main point, but is there a second-place point or a third-place point in the text that we haven’t covered. In this text, there is a secondary theme being covered. Again, we don’t want to just make up something. We want to still get it from the text.

 

Secondary Theme: Sanctification

We look at the middle part of chapter 10, and we see there’s a main theme, and there’s a second and third secondary themes. They’re still important. They’re just not the primary point of the text. So we want to kind of pull away. So this morning we’re going to look at what I think is a secondary theme in the text. If you read the text, that’s not the first thing that stuck out to me. That’s the reason why I want you to know, here’s the thought there.

But it’s clearly there. I’m not just going to get up and make something up and pretend it’s in the text when it’s not there. So we look through the text. There are three or four different things in this text, and of those three or four, we can’t cover all of them on a Sunday morning.

So let’s pick one that we think would be most helpful to us in this particular moment. What I’d like to do this morning for us is to look at sanctification. Sanctification, this process of being sanctified. Sanctification refers to the process of becoming more holy, the process of being cleansed by God. So in this text, he makes this primary point, but then throughout the text, he alludes to the work that God is doing in us to make us more holy.
I want to lean in on that this morning. The process of sanctification is the process of us growing in our faith divine, developing in Christian maturity, in essence, becoming more like Jesus. That’s the sanctification. This morning, my goal is to look through this text and to ask the question, How can we grow in our faith?

How can we become better Christians? More importantly, how can we become more like Jesus? The first answer I’m going to give you is going to feel a little bit discouraging because Manessa is going to tell you that you actually can’t, that you’re incapable of it. But then I’m going to tell you how you can. That’s our plan. How can we grow in our faith? You can’t. But here’s how you can. That’s our plan for this morning. Let’s ask for God’s help.

Lord, as we look at this text, would you help us understand? May we walk out of this place more like Jesus and more committed to growing our Christ likeness. Would you do that for all of us, myself included? Amen.

 

Jesus Becomes Human

Hebrews, chapter 10, verse 5. The writer of Hebrews is quoting from the Old Testament. He says this:

“Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.”

This is interesting because the writer of Hebrews says, Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said this. But you can’t find any of these words anywhere in the New Testament.
There’s no record in the Gospels anywhere of Jesus saying these words. The writer of Hebrews says, when Jesus came into the world, he said these things, but he never actually said these things. So what are you talking about?

Well, he is quoting from the Old Testament. This is Psalm 40, written right around 1000 BC, and the writer of Hebrews is saying, Remember that psalm that King David wrote in a thousand B.C.? You thought that was just David writing, but those were the words of Christ that would be fulfilled through Jesus when he came onto the scene. He said, There’s much more to Psalm 40 than you realize. He equates the words of Christ with the words of Psalm 40. He is saying, Psalm 40 is Jesus speaking, not just King David speaking.

He equates the Old Testament with God speaking. Therefore, to disobey the Old Testament, to disobey God’s word, is to disobey God. To disobey the words of God is to disobey God himself. These are the words of God. Every Sunday, when we have someone read Scripture before the sermon, we have them say, ‘These are the words of God.’

I want to remind you that you’re not just hearing random words on a piece of paper. You’re hearing the words of God. I’ve heard people say, Wouldn’t it be great to hear God’s voice? Yeah, read the Bible. That’s the voice of God. People say, I want to hear the audible voice of God. Well, read the Bible out loud. You can hear the audible voice of God any moment, anytime.

So the writer of Hebrews is saying, Remember when King David wrote Psalm 40 a thousand years ago? That was Christ speaking. I’m going to read the writer of Hebrews’ quote again. But rather than imagining King David saying this, or the writer of Hebrews saying this, imagine this is Jesus speaking. Jesus says this,

“Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me.”

Jesus is speaking to his father. Father, you don’t take pleasure in a bunch of goats being killed. You don’t take pleasure in burnt offerings. But you’ve prepared a body for me. Jesus speaking to his father, you are preparing a body for me to step into to do that which you take pleasure in. He doesn’t take pleasure in goats dying. He takes pleasure in the Son of God dying because that leads to the redemption of God’s people. Then he says this in Hebrews, chapter 10, verse 7. Again, it says, Jesus speaking:

“Behold, I have come to do your will, oh God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.”

Jesus, 1000 years before he becomes a human, says to his father, You are preparing a body for me, and I am excited to go to earth to take that body on to do your will, oh father. As it’s been written in the scroll of the Book, Jesus is saying, God, my father, is preparing a body for me that I’m going to step into so that I will fulfill that which the Old Testament has been talking about for generations and generations and generations.

There’s a lot packed into a very short section here in Hebrews chapter 10. Jesus is telling his father, I’m going to go and do what you have called me to do. We get the same sentiment from Jesus in John chapter 6. Jesus is speaking to a group of Jewish people, and he says to them:

“I have come not to do my own will, but to do the will of the One who sent me.”

Not to do my own will, but to do the will of my Father. The writer of Hebrews is quoting from Psalm 40 and leveraging that in this passage to make the point that Jesus is willing to do what the Father has commissioned him to do, to provide a sufficient sacrifice that will deal with sin permanently. Not like the sacrifices of the Old Testament, which had minimal value temporarily, but to offer a sacrifice that will have maximum value permanently.

Jesus was sacrificing the body that the Father prepared for him, which was prophesied about in the scroll hundreds of years before Jesus showed up on the scene. We see this unbelievable relationship between God the Father and God the Son. There’s this plan.

You guys know I’m a big football fan. I think about before a big play, let’s say in a Super Bowl, before Jalen Hurts throws a 46-yard touchdown pass to seal the game. There are these big moments in the middle of a game where the team has a huddle, and they go, here’s what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna do this, we’re gonna do this, and it’s gonna accomplish this. If anyone in that huddle is not on the same page, not committed to the plan, it goes awry.

The Father and the Son, they’ve gotten in the huddle, said, Here’s what we’re gonna do. Father says, we’re gonna prepare a body for you, we’re gonna send you. The Son says, I’m on the same page. I’m not here to do my own thing. I’m here to do what we have agreed to do. The Father says, Holy Spirit, you’re gonna glorify the Son. The Son says, I’m gonna glorify you, Father. The Father says, I’m gonna gather a group of people and I’m gonna give them to you as a gift, my son. They’re gonna glorify you. You see this unbelievable, beautiful team at work, deploying this incredible redemptive work on our behalf.

The writer of Hebrews is alluding to all of this. He knows that there are people in his audience who are considering abandoning Christianity. He’s thinking to himself, do you not understand what has happened on your behalf? Did you not know the playbook? You are considering abandoning Jesus, the one who did this for you. Why would you ever think about leaving him?

Then he finishes this last section here in verse 9. It says this,

“He does away with the first in order to establish the second.”

Jesus comes, and he fulfills what was promised in the Old Testament. He says, the Old Covenant, the first one, it’s come to an end. We’re doing away with that one. It’s been fulfilled.
Now there is a second covenant being established, a better covenant being sealed and inaugurated. A second, better covenant for you.

 

The Process of Sanctification

There’s this prophecy being alluded to in this text. It’s not explicit, but there’s this prophecy being alluded to. Then it becomes explicit a few verses later. What is this prophecy? Look at Hebrews 10:14. The writer of Hebrews says this, speaking of Jesus:

“For a single offering, he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.”

So Jesus perfected, past tense, those who are being sanctified, present tense. So there’s this sense of Jesus did something that’s been done in the past, it’s complete to a particular group of people. Who is that group of people? It is those who are in the present tense, being sanctified, being cleansed, being made holy. Jesus did something remarkable in the past that cannot be undone. It’s permanent, it’s done, for a group of people who, in the present tense, are being sanctified, cleansed, being made holy. That’s those of us who believe in Jesus.

You’ve been perfected, so in some sense, your salvation is set. But then, you’re still in the process of being sanctified, of being cleansed. The apostle Paul alludes to this in Romans, chapter 8. He talks about the fact that we are all being conformed to the image of Jesus. Imagine if someone could take every moment of your life and put it up on screen. Instantly, you’re thinking, that would be embarrassing. If Jesus were in your shoes, living the life you’re living, and put on a screen, how would he live that life? Then you compare the two.
Here’s how you’re living your life. Here’s how Jesus would live your life.

For those of us who are believers in Jesus, there are probably some things that match. Praise God. There are some things that I’m doing that Jesus would do. We’re happy about that. But, there’s a whole lot in this movie of how I’m living my life that doesn’t match the way Jesus would do things. There’s a long list, a lot of scenes of the movie that are not quite like Jesus.

What Paul is saying in Romans 8 and what the writer of Hebrews is saying here in chapter 10 is that we are all going through a process where God is changing us. So as that movie unfolds, it matches the Jesus movie a little bit more each day. Today, I will behave a little bit more like Jesus than I did yesterday. By God’s grace, tomorrow I will behave a little bit more like Jesus than I do today. There’s this process I’m going through of being conformed to the image of Jesus.

You get the sentiment that God has promised. He’s doing it both here in Hebrews 10 and Romans 8. The Greek tenses they’re all passive. So it’s not something you do to conform yourself to the image of Jesus. It’s something being done to you. You’re not sanctifying yourself. You can’t do that. You are being sanctified by the power and grace of God. It’s passive. He is doing it to you. God has promised that he will do in you what only he can do to ensure that you are molded to be like Jesus.

That is your final destination. You have been predestined, Romans 8 says, to be conformed to the image of the Son. That’s what God has promised. It will happen. If you are a believer in Jesus, you will be completely conformed to the image of Jesus. You are being sanctified. He will continually do in you what needs to be done to ensure that it will come to fruition. He wants us to be more obedient to his moral law, and he is working in us to do that.

Another quick side note, in our exhortation the next few weeks, we’re going to cover the Ten Commandments. Remember, we talked about this a couple of weeks ago, that the moral law is the inherent right or wrong. That’s the big picture. That’s who God is and how he wants us to behave. This is the moral law. Then God gives us a very brief summary of the moral law. We call that the Ten Commandments or the Decalogue.

The decalogue is given to us, these 10 statements that summarize the entire moral law. Then God goes to the Jewish people, to the Israelites in the Old Testament. He says, I’m going to give you this old covenant that’s got over 600 additional laws to help them follow the 10. So God says, I want you to follow the moral law. But the moral law you don’t fully understand. So let me just give you 10. You’re still struggling with those 10 because they’re too vague. So let me give you more specific rules, 600 of them, to help you figure out the 10.

Let me give you a silly example. This week, my three-year-old daughter and I were spending time in the kitchen, and my daughter tasted the milk that I had just poured for her. She says, yuck. She throws it out in the sink. I said, Baby girl, what was that all about? Why did you do that? She said, I didn’t like that milk. It was warm. I was pretty sure it wasn’t warm; I had just taken it out of the refrigerator. So I said it was not warm. She said, No, I didn’t like that one. I want a different one. I want almy milk. (Almy milk instead of almond.) I said, No, almond milk is for Dada. You drink the regular milk. She said, Fine. I said, baby girl, I want you to know we’ve talked about this before.

We don’t waste things in our house. God has given us gifts and resources. We don’t want to waste it. God has given us this milk, we don’t waste it. Remember when we talked about that, about how we want to be good stewards, we want to take care of the things that God has given us. She goes, I remember. So, I gave her another rule to help her fulfill the principle. Anything we pour into her cup, she drinks it.

That’s not a choice. See, because there’s a grander principle that I want her to live by. But she’s not getting it because she’s immature. She’s three. So it’s coming upon me to then give her a more specific rule that helps her fulfill the principle. Similarly, God does this with Israel. He’s like, I want you to follow the moral law, but you guys are too immature. You’re not getting it.

So I’m going to give you the Old Covenant with 600 very specific rules. If you follow these rules, that’ll help you fulfill the moral law. But the goal is not to follow these 600 rules. The goal is for you to fulfill the principle. When Leti is 33 years old, she should not have to follow the rule of drinking whatever her dad pours for her. That won’t be a good rule. There’s going to be a point where she reaches maturity and she no longer needs the rule because she will hopefully understand the principle.

Similarly, God says to Israel, I’m going to give you some rules. But these rules, they’re only temporary. He gives these rules in about 1400 BC when they come out of Egypt, before they go into the promised land. He says, I’m going to give you these rules from now until the Messiah comes. But when the Messiah comes, these rules, all bets are off. These rules are temporary for you because you’re too immature to understand the moral law. So I’m giving you some rules. That’s what he does with Israel.

But right in the middle of this moment, while they’re living out these 600 rules, he gives them a promise. About 800 years after the law, right around 600 BC (the law is given in 1400 BC), there’s a guy named Jeremiah who shows up on the scene. The Israelites have been living for 800 years at that point under the Old Covenant Law. God says through Jeremiah to the people of God, there’s going to come a moment when you don’t need these laws anymore.

I want you to know there’s going to come a moment where I’m going to do something inside of you where the rules will no longer be needed. The writer of Hebrews leverages that promise here in Hebrews 10. So he’s talking about how we’re being sanctified. He alludes to back in the day when Jeremiah prophesied and God spoke to us through Jeremiah that there would come a day when we don’t need the rules anymore. The writer of Hebrews is saying that the moment has come now through Jesus. He says this in Hebrews 10, verse 16.

“This is the covenant I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my laws on their hearts and write them on their minds.”

He’s saying God has a moral law that you can’t see. Since you were immature, God gave you a bunch of rules. There’s going to come a moment where the moral law is written on the inside of your hearts, where I put it inside your mind. God is going to do something supernatural in you that will cause you to not need rules because you’re going to have him. The writer of Hebrews is saying that it’s come now because of Jesus. Do you know who the people are that he’s going to do that for? It’s the ones that are being sanctified by Jesus.

If you’re a first-century Jewish Christian, like this audience, they’re Jews by ethnicity and nationality, but they’ve become Christians. They’re part of a local church. They’re reading this letter. They’re going, wait a minute. That promise from Jeremiah we thought was for all of the Jewish people, but you’re telling me it’s actually for Christians.

When he said that God would do this in Israel, you’re saying he didn’t mean physical Israel, that he meant a spiritual form of Israel. Hebrews is saying that the promise wasn’t for Jews, it was for those who would believe on Jesus, for those who are being sanctified by Jesus. That’s what he’s promised. The writer of Hebrews is saying, all those promises that God made hundreds of years ago to do a great work in people, do you know the people he’s talking to? People who believe on Jesus.

So if you are a believer in Jesus here today, God has promised to you that he will do what needs to be done in you to ensure that you will become like Jesus. It’s a long explanation. I know that the passage can be a little bit convoluted.

How Can I Be Sanctified?

There are two questions I want to ask this morning. First, how will you be sanctified, and what can you do? What’s your part? How can you ensure sanctification? The answer is you can’t do anything. It’s not on you. Spiritual growth is a work of the Spirit. We’ve already seen this in Hebrews chapter 6. The writer of Hebrews was talking about milk and meat. Remember, a couple of months ago we talked about this? He’s saying, you guys are drinking milk, but you should be eating meat. Basically, you’re immature Christians. You should grow up in your faith. But then he says this to them in Hebrews chapter 6, verse 3, Hebrews 6:3.

“And this we will do. If God permits.”

We’ll grow in our faith. We’ll graduate from milk to meat. We’ll grow up in our faith only if God permits. Hebrews 6:3. He implies that if God doesn’t permit for you to grow in your faith, you’re not going to grow in your faith. It’s a work of the Spirit. Philippians 1:6. The Apostle Paul says this:

“I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion.”

He does not say, I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will give you the opportunity to bring to completion that which he started. That’s not what it says. It doesn’t say, he who began a good work with you now leaves it up to you to figure it out and finish it. That’s not what he says. He who began the good work is the one who will bring it to completion.
He’s the one who started to work in you. He is the one who’s going to finish the work in you. Spiritual growth in you is a work of the Spirit.

That is important to remember for two reasons. One, it cultivates incredible humility.
That’s why we sing that song. All of my boast is in Jesus. If I grow in my faith, anytime someone tells me, Kenny, you’ve progressed or you’ve gotten better, you’ve grown in your faith, or you’ve learned something, you did it. I can take no credit for it. All of my boast is in him and him alone. Knowing that it’s based on his work and not yours gives you a guarantee and assurance that it’s going to happen. Because if it were based on you, it wouldn’t go.

So there’s going to come a day where I know for sure I’m going to look like Jesus, or I’m going to behave like Jesus, and be like Jesus. I know that 20 years from now I will be more like Jesus than I am today. Not because of me, because he promised it. I can take great pleasure in that. Knowing that he does it cultivates humility in us.

What Can I Do To Work On My Faith?

So the first question we asked this morning was, How can you grow in your faith? The answer is, you can’t. It’s not on you. There’s nothing you can do. It’s a work of the Spirit. Then the next question is, What can I do to work on my faith? The answer is, you can do it by looking to Jesus. People ask all the time, What can I do to grow in my faith? I want to become a better Christian. I want to develop, I want to mature. That’s a great question.

Here’s how to do it. The most often used metaphor for spiritual growth in the bible refers to trees or plants with the idea of fruit. Several years ago, I lived in Ocoee with some guys. Five single dudes in a house. We called ourselves the Men of the Misty. We lived on Misty Meadow Road. We had robes with embroidered nicknames. It was classic. So we lived in the house together and we had a tree in our backyard which was supposedly an orange tree.

I say supposedly because it was not very healthy-looking. But it did one day eventually bring some oranges. They were the grossest-looking oranges you’ve ever seen in your life. We tasted one and it was awful. But it did produce a few oranges once every few years.

Imagine you have this orange tree, and someone said, This is an orange tree. Now, imagine if one day someone said to you, Make that tree grow fruit. I can’t do that. It’s a natural phenomenon that God created. We can’t force it. The tree doesn’t wake up and produce fruit like that. You can’t force a tree to grow fruit. But you can create an environment where the tree will be healthy. Healthy trees will naturally produce quality fruit. So you cannot produce spiritual growth in your life. Spiritual growth is a work of the spirit.

However, you can put yourself in environments where you are more likely to see health in your life, spiritually, and emotionally. Which will then allow the Spirit to do what only he can do in your life. Make sure that you put yourself in environments that are conducive to growth. That will lead to growth. In Galatians, chapter 5, the apostle Paul talks about the fruit of the Spirit. When the Spirit of God is at work, the Spirit brings forth fruit. It’s the Spirit’s work. In Galatians 5, he says,

“The fruits of the Spirit are love, peace, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”

If you’re lacking in any of these things, it’s because the Spirit of God hasn’t brought these things to you. You ought to prayerfully, humbly put yourself in environments where the Spirit of God can do the work in you that you cannot do. Oftentimes, this is how we do it. We are lacking in self-control. We think, here are three steps on how to have better self-control. Here’s a book, 13 Steps to Be a More Self-Controlled Person, this week. That’s work. That’s energy you’re putting forth. It may seem okay for a little while, but ultimately it fails. Lasting fruit can only come from the work of the Spirit.

If you go to the About Us page on our website, you will find a section where I talk about our core values. I want to read it to you. This is my ministry philosophy. Speaking of our church,

“We want to see people grow and mature in their spirituality and faith, but we cannot manufacture spiritual growth. Spiritual growth is wrought by the Spirit of God. However, we have observed that the Spirit of God most often and most intensely grows and matures people whenever they are confronted with the goodness and beauty of Jesus Christ. Therefore, we shall seek to confront people with Christ’s goodness and beauty as often as possible.”

That’s our ministry philosophy. How do you grow? You can’t. Put yourself in environments that are conducive to growth. What are those environments? Environments where you’re being reminded of the goodness and beauty of Christ. So here’s a simple answer. Someone says, How do I grow my faith? My answer is simply something like, put yourself in situations where you can be reminded regularly of how good and beautiful Jesus is. The Spirit of God will grow you.

You can’t manufacture spiritual growth, but we can put ourselves in environments where we will be smacked in the face daily with the beauty of Jesus. So my exhortation to you is to put yourself in the types of environments where the Spirit of God tends to grow people. You know, where he doesn’t tend to grow people? When they’re in a dark room by themselves, looking at inappropriate images on the Internet. That’s not an environment where people typically grow.

Here’s an environment where people don’t typically grow. Where they’re spending lots of energy, figuring out how to evade their taxes. That’s not an environment where people tend to grow. Here’s an environment where people tend not to grow: when they’re lazy and never read their Bibles. That’s not an environment where people tend to grow. Here’s another environment where people don’t tend to grow. When they’re consuming a bunch of trashy media.

There are certain environments more conducive to growth than others. So my exhortation to you from the writer of Hebrews is, you are the people being sanctified. So here’s what you ought to do. Put yourself in the places where you’re going to be sanctified. Put yourself in a position to be consistently reminded of the goodness and beauty of Christ.

Practical Applications

Let me give you a few quick, practical applications.

1. Weekly Church Attendance

You know where you don’t get smacked in the face with the goodness of Jesus? In your bed, sleeping in. This doesn’t happen there. The current stats are that only 40% of American evangelicals attend church weekly. 60% of people who claim to be followers of Jesus do not gather with Christians every single week. It’s heartbreaking to me. The current stats are about once every three or four weeks. That’s the norm.

We have that here. We have a crew of people who would call themselves members. I was in a community Facebook group, and someone posted recently looking for a church. People started posting in the comments. I read some of the comments, and one was, You should go to Horizon City. It’s a great church. You would think that would feel like a compliment. But then I saw the person’s name and I thought to myself, I think I see you once every six weeks.

I thought to myself, I was excited that they would commend our church, and that person seems to think they are a part of this church family. But I’m pretty sure most of the people who show up here don’t know you. I thought to myself, I think that person thinks that’s okay. So I sent the person a private message and gently encouraged them. Hey, thank you for commending the church. Let’s talk about this.

This is also why we do weekly communion. First, because I believe the New Testament commands it, but also because it’s an opportunity to be confronted with the beauty and goodness of Christ every single week. Week after week, to have his grace bestowed upon us. This is why we’re committed to expository preaching. Our entire liturgy is crafted to smack you in the face with the goodness of Jesus. That’s our goal.

Even the songs we select. There are certain good songs that we would not sing here because I don’t think they smack you in the face with the goodness of Jesus. There are some good Christian songs, but the beauty of Christ is not explicitly on display. So I’d rather not sing those songs. The scripture verses, our liturgy, everything that we do from start to finish, is designed in some way or another to remind you of some element of the goodness of Christ. That’s our whole goal. You can’t get that online.

When you walk in this door and you’re greeted warmly by someone who loves Jesus, you’re reminded of the goodness of Christ. When you sit and you chat with someone, I’m reminded of the goodness of Christ. I can’t do that at home in an online setting. YouTube makes for a really poor church.

2. Embrace Expository Teaching

Our sermons are online. You can find them on YouTube, you can find them on our website, and you can now find them on Spotify. If you’d like, just Google Horizon City Church sermons. You can go to our website. Click the sermons button. They’re on our website, they’re on YouTube, they’re on Spotify. We’re working on getting them on Apple podcasts so you can go back and listen to them throughout the course of the week.

Listen, I’m a political junkie. But you know you’re not gonna be reminded of the goodness of Jesus while you’re listening to Ben Shapiro or while you’re watching Fox News or while you listen to NPR. Fox News is not gonna remind you of the beauty of Jesus. Let’s turn that off occasionally, and let’s put something on that’s gonna remind you of the goodness and beauty of Jesus. Let’s turn off the podcast, turn off the Gary Vee or the Alex Hormozi, and let’s listen to something that’s gonna remind us of the beauty of Jesus. I listen to sports talk radio. You know, I’m not gonna be reminded of the goodness of Jesus listening to Eagles fans rant on the radio. So you know what I should do? I should turn that off occasionally and maybe turn something on that’s gonna remind me of the beauty of Jesus.

3. Make Christian Friendships a High Priority in Your Life

Make it a high priority to be around believers regularly because the more you’re around people who believe in the goodness of Christ, the more likely it is you will be reminded of the goodness of Christ.

4. Consider Your Music and Media Consumption

Media and music have more power than we think. I highly encourage you to put some music in your life that will remind you of the goodness and beauty of Christ. If you want a good starting point, you can go to our website. Go to the About Us page, scroll down to the very bottom. We have a section called Our music. There are two buttons on there, Apple and Spotify. Every song we’ve ever done is on that list.

Maybe listen to those songs on a regular basis, and hopefully, the Lord will use that music to inspire you and to remind you of the goodness and beauty of Christ. How about Bible reading? Family devotions? Personal prayer times? How often are you doing those things if you’re not doing those things on a regular basis?

If I’m frustrated that my home is not a place where the Goodness of Christ is on display. Well, then it’s on me to do something about that. These are ways in which we can put ourselves in environments that are more conducive to growth, find ways to be reminded of the goodness and beauty of Jesus.

 

Conclusion: Life is Like a Tree

My last thought for this morning is this. I want to quote from the great theologian and philosopher Forrest Gump. Forrest Gump quotes his mom with a great maxim. He once said, Life is like a box of chocolates, You never know what you’re going to get. In some sense, that’s accurate. But I think in one major sense, Forrest was wrong. Forrest’s mama was wrong. I think we should think about life as a tree. Life is like a tree.

You always know what you’re going to get. If you have an orange tree, you’re going to get oranges. If you have an apple tree, you’re going to get apples. If you have a life where the goodness and beauty of Christ is not constantly invading, then you’re not going to have great spiritual growth. But life is like a tree.

If you invest in the goodness and beauty of Christ, you will bring forth fruit born of the goodness and beauty of Christ. If you say you’re an orange tree but you produce apples, that’s problematic. You are not what you claim to be. Similarly, if you claim to be a follower of Christ but you produce fruit that does not remind people of Christ, you are not what you claim to be.

In that case, I would encourage you to repent before God, confess your sin to him, and beg him for his mercy. We can grow in our faith. We have been perfected by Jesus. We are being sanctified by Jesus, and we will graduate to be what Jesus called us to be. If G