Becoming A More Confident Person Series

[Part 3 of 5 in the series, "Finding Calm in the Chaos"]

We’re in our Christmas series “Finding Calm in the Chaos.”

I was reading John Baker’s personal testimony the other day and he said something that caught my attention that goes right along with our series.

Baker is the founder of "Celebrate Recovery" at Saddleback Church with Rick Warren. As a Christ follower that struggles with alcoholism Baker tells how drinking was messing up his life and his marriage.

As one of the steps to his recovery he consciously chose to commit all of his life and will to Christ’s care and control. And then he made the statement that caught my attention: “If we don’t surrender to Christ, we will surrender to chaos!” (Celebrate Recovery Leader’s Guide, page 16)

That relates directly to the Hebrew letter in the New Testament, which was written for the Jewish converts to Christianity during the First Century.

They were having a rough time living for Christ because of persecution. They considered turning back because their lives were chaotic so they mistakenly concluded that if they stopped following Jesus and went back to the Jewish religion their lives might become more calm. They thought that if they surrendered to their doubts and fears instead of continuing to surrender to Christ, then they could conquer their chaos.

The truth is, turning back to their old religion would have been a tragic mistake because no religion has anything that even comes close to comparing to God’s “in person” message through His Son Jesus! That’s why Christmas is such a big deal! God became man so that He could communicate directly with human beings through His Son Jesus!

God’s message to the Hebrew Christians of the First Century was all about Jesus! The theme of Hebrews is our theme for this Christmas series and should be our theme year round, “Keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from start to finish.” Hebrews 12:2a (NLT)

That’s exactly what our current series, “Finding Calm in the Chaos,” is about. It’s what the letter to the Hebrews is about – “If we don’t surrender to Christ, we will surrender to chaos!”

In chapters one and two the writer spoke of how the story of Christmas is God’s greatest communication to us. God coming to us "in person" is better than His prior messages by prophets and angels.

We also saw last week that God’s message to us through Jesus is a better than the Old Testament priesthood because He understands our temptations since He faced AND conquered all of them. No human priest could do that!

Jesus is better than the prophets are, He’s better than the angels are, and He’s better than the Old Testament priesthood. And today, in the third chapter of Hebrews, we see that Jesus is better than Moses is. Follow along with me in Hebrews chapter three.

1 And so, dear brothers and sisters who belong to God and are partners with those called to heaven, think carefully about this Jesus whom we declare to be God’s messenger and High Priest. 2 For he was faithful to God, who appointed him, just as Moses served faithfully when he was entrusted with God’s entire house.

3 But Jesus deserves far more glory than Moses, just as a person who builds a house deserves more praise than the house itself. 4 For every house has a builder, but the one who built everything is God. 5 Moses was certainly faithful in God’s house as a servant. His work was an illustration of the truths God would reveal later. 6 But Christ, as the Son, is in charge of God’s entire house. And we are God’s house, if we keep our courage and remain confident in our hope in Christ.

7 That is why the Holy Spirit says, “Today when you hear his voice, 8 don’t harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled, when they tested me in the wilderness. 9 There your ancestors tested and tried my patience, even though they saw my miracles for forty years. 10 So I was angry with them, and I said, ‘Their hearts always turn away from me. They refuse to do what I tell them.’ 11 So in my anger I took an oath: ‘They will never enter my place of rest.’” (Psalm 95-11)

12 Be careful then, dear brothers and sisters. Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God. 13 You must warn each other every day, while it is still “today,” so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God. 14 For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed, we will share in all that belongs to Christ. 15 Remember what it says: “Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled.” (Psalm 95:7-8)