"Let Us Draw Near"

“Let Us Draw Near”

Hebrews 10:19-26

HEB 10:19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching. 26 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left…

INTRODUCTION

• As we make commitments for God to do something in us inward, upward and outward, we need to take some things in consideration as we draw near to Him.

• Today, we will share in what we call the Lord’s Supper

• I believe there are some questions we need to ask ourselves as we approach the table of the Lord this morning:

I. “Am I CLEANSED?” {vs 22}

“…let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.”

• I am not just referring to receiving a pardon from the penalty of our sin this morning…I want to go a little deeper than that

RESIDUE ILLUSTRATION---smoke damage from a fireplace

• God wants to take away some of the residue that comes from our sin…our guilty conscience

• The blood of Jesus not only saves your soul…it also cleanses your conscience! Some of you thought you had to deal with that the rest of your life!

• It could very well be this morning, that some of us need to forgive ourselves instead of God forgiving us

II. “Am I COMMITTED?” {vs 23}

“…Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.”

• The language that the author of Hebrews uses here is really interesting…it literally means to do so without wavering

The Message Bible puts it this way, “Heb 10:23 Let’s keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going. He always keeps his word.”

• What does it take to waiver from our faith in the Lord?

The wrong circumstance

The right image/person

A certain promotion

• We are reminded of the example that we have in Jesus…talk about unwaivering faith!!!

III. “Is there a COMRADERY?” {vs 24, 25}

“…And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching..."

• Did you know that we are all in this together? We are expected to encourage each other spiritually

• Let me ask an honest question this morning…are you a spiritual encouragement to the people whom you are around

• There is no in-between. You are either an encouragement or a discouragement

The article "What Good Is a Tree?" in Reader’s Digest explained that when the roots of trees touch, there is a substance present that reduces competition.

In fact, this unknown fungus helps link roots of different trees--even of dissimilar species.

A whole forest may be linked together.

If one tree has access to water, another to nutrients, and a third to sunlight, the trees have the means to share with one another.

Like trees in a forest, Christians in the church need and support one another....

• Look again at verse 26…this verse, I believe, speaks more to us than making sure we have perfect attendance in church. I think we need to guard against isolating ourselves from the rest of the body

There is a story about a man who had missed church for a number of weeks. The preacher had often called him and asked where he was, but the man kept putting the preacher off.

Finally, one day, the preacher stopped by for a visit on a cold winter day.

The man was sitting in front of his fireplace and welcomed the preacher and tried to engage him in conversation. However, the minister didn’t say much. He just walked over to the fireplace, pulled one of the logs away from the flame - and then went and sat down. They sat there in silence for the longest time, watching the fire. And as they watched, the log that sat off by itself, the fire on it began to smolder and then it went out.