Hebrews 10 | Crossroads Daily

Hey, I'm Chuck, I'm Kirsten, I'm Caleb, I'm Chris, thanks for being with us today. We're talking about Hebrews chapter 10, and there's so many good things in all of these. Um, but I was thinking about this, you know, there's like a drumbeat, right? If you've been reading these verses, these chapters of Hebrews, it's like a drumbeat. The drumbeat is like, there was a broken, imperfect, not permanent way to make us right with God. It was through the sacrificial system. It was never meant to be the final plan. The final plan was Jesus. And so all of the frustration, all of the repetition was meant to bring us to a place where we're so grateful that Jesus actually did in one act of dying on the cross, being the final sacrifice, being our forever priest, all the things we've been talking about. He's made us right with God. And now we have the confidence to draw near. And I was thinking about this song that I love that we sing, um, uh, I know it was the blood and there's a verse in it or a hook in it. I guess it would be the refrain. I don't know, whatever part of the song where it says it's never been about performance or perfection or striving for acceptance. Let me tell you, it's only by the blood. And I love that. And I want to make an amendment on those lyrics because it used to be about performance and perfection and striving for acceptance for thousands of years. That's what it was for God's people. And they knew that they couldn't reach it. And I think there's something about that that we can't miss, that there's a real consequence for my sin. And if it wasn't for Jesus, it would still be about performance and perfection and striving for acceptance. And I would never reach it. And the only finality I would have in my life is be permanently separated from God. That is why the Bible says the wages of sin are death. We need to sit in the weight of that. Yeah, full stop. And in fact, if we don't sit in the weight of that, Jesus's news will never be good news. If you don't think you need it, it's never good news. And so as I think about that, I love that in chapter 10, it reminds us we can draw near.

We can draw near. And in fact, in chapter 10, it also tells us we're to remind each other of that. That's part of the reason we have community is to remind each other of that. So here's a question to kind of kick off our time. What does it mean for you or what does it look like for you right now in your real life to draw near on a regular and consistent way to God? That makes me think of a quote that I heard once that this guy was saying, if you have like only theoretical sin, you only have a theoretical Savior. That doesn't mean like go out and sin to make your Savior better. Obviously, Paul would be way, way against that. He says that explicitly. But the way that I can draw near to God is like just being honest with where, like I don't have to whitewash it to God. I mean, he knows anyway. Why would I try to do that? But I do try to do that. Try to lessen like, oh, it wasn't that. It was really just a little this or whatever. No, man, like I'm trying to be really honest about with God in prayer and with other trusted people. Like this is where I messed up. And that real sin has a real Savior. It just makes God's gift through Jesus, like all the more vibrant. Yeah, that's so good. That's so good. There was an interview with a son of a former president of the United States, and they asked him what his relationship was like with his father, the president. And he said, despite knowing the most powerful man in the world his entire life, he never really knew him. And that's like, I feel like thinking about drawing near to God. It's like putting myself in a position to know God's character so that, Caleb, like you're saying, it's like I'm very aware of my sin, like that there's the standard I'm falling short of and great news, like good news. The only way that good news can exist if there's bad news before that. And so there's good news that God has embraced me and he's ready and he's welcoming me. And if I butchered this scripture, please correct me if this is not even in the Bible. But I feel like we talked about one point that there's maybe in Judges, there was some grandfather who was like, I need to sacrifice my granddaughter so that God will do something. Does that ring a bell?

Does anyone know what I'm talking about? Yeah, there's a guy in Judges who says if he's like leading a military campaign, if God gives me this victory, I will give back to him whatever comes out of my house first. What a dumb thing to say because he had one kid. What do you think is going to come out of the house? Like, I don't know. Anyway, his daughter ends up coming out of the house. Yeah. Right. And he's like, well, I guess I got to kill you now. And we had talked about like to that, you get to a point like that when you just forget the character of God. Like he probably honestly thought this is what God wants. Like I need to ask this person out of my life. And that is what happens when we forget the character of God. Then we miss up like what he actually wants from us. And then we think, oh, well, he wants the sacrifice. Like he wants all these things. He's like, no, no, that's like this was to show you, like you said, yeah, you can't do it. That's right. You can't do this on your own. And but I. when I forget the character of God, then I'm like, okay, I gotta do this by myself. I gotta do this on my own. And it's only when I put myself in a position to see that truth every day that I'm like, oh, I'm really bad and here's how God stepped in. Yeah, yeah. I'll make a confession. I don't practice communion enough for what my soul needs. And that's not a statement on any church I've ever been a part of. That is me realizing there's two things

that were instituted for the church to do regularly. One is baptism and one is communion. And I need to be finding ways to participate in communion more frequently because there's something tangible about that remembering that Jesus broke his body for me and that he shed his blood for me. That is the foundation that I can, I never graduate from that. You never graduate from, oh, guess what? It was the broken body of Jesus. It was the blood of Jesus. So just my confession is I'm really wrestling with what does that mean? I've had seasons where I've done weekly communion with my family and we're not doing that right now. I don't know if it's like, hey, I need to reinstitute that. I don't know if it's like show up to somebody's church who does it. I don't know what it means. I just know that I am wrestling with that in a real way right now because drawing near for me, I'm at my best. I'm healthiest when I am approaching God from a posture of deep gratitude. That's what I know. And I know that anything else just gets icky, right? Entitlement, and I have approached God from a deep place of entitlement many times. Not healthy, not good.

Fear, not a healthy place. I mean, respect, yes, but fear, not a healthy place. Trying to placate or perform for God, like pretending, like not good. So I just think there's something about communion that I'm really wrestling with. I'm like, God, what are you calling me to there? Because I want to be reminded. I want to be reminded more frequently of the sacrifice of Jesus for me. Yeah, you mentioned both the practices that we as believers are called to do. Communion and baptism in scripture, both are to be led from a place of repentance. And that leads into a place of remembrance and gratitude. All the way back to when you started this with like sitting in the heaviness of sin, like before we can remember what Jesus did for us, before I can remember, like whenever I see someone get baptized, like the weight of that decision and what they're being cleansed of, it is why Jesus had to die for me, which was my sin that cost him his life and the price was death. And I know for me, I really struggle with like, like what is sin in my life? Like I'm not outrightly like doing the things that are cardinal sins or whatever. And I know it's all equal.

And I love this verse that is in this chapter. And it says, let us consider how to stir one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as in the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near. I think like through our stirring, I don't know. I feel like my sin is most evident when I see someone hurt. I'm like, oh shoot. Like I just sinned. Like I see the pain in this person's eyes that I caused through my anger, through my slip up of just like not showing the fruits of the spirit. And like, if I'm gonna truly do what this says, which is stir one another up in good works and meet together, like that communion element, like what a good way to do that. Just like start with a place of repentance and remembering and like just reflecting on how good God is. And out of that will flow love and good works. And I don't know, that also convicted me to meet with people more in my home and share communion with them. Pretty sure that's what happens in this time, probably. Yeah, the early church, you mean? Absolutely. Yeah, that's what they were doing. We're called to draw in, right? To draw near. We're also called to go out, right? And to maybe live outside of our comfort zone.

So I wonder where in your journey right now are you feeling a call to step more boldly out, to not play it safe? Where's that showing up for you? I think that like being willing to be interrupted in my life is something that I know God wants more out of me, where I like to think of like, okay, God, here's what you have for my day. I'm gonna go do those things. And then that's, you know, I served you really well. But like Jesus' day, it's like he would come down from the mountaintop of praying. And then every 10 seconds, someone's like, hey, can we talk real quick? Sometimes he said no. Like he was like, no, I don't have time for this right now, but like he was interruptible. And I think I just have this pride in me that's like, no, my schedule is important and I'm doing godly things. So like, I can't be bothered by X, Y, and Z. And that's not how Jesus lived. And that's not living freely because then I'm just constrained. Like the idol is my schedule. And if I nail this perfectly, then I won today. And it's like, no, that's, Jesus was never about that. That's a good reminder.

He was interruptible. I wanna wrestle with scripture more in groups of people who want to do that. Like I wanna start a small group. I am starting a small group with young women who are newer to scripture, just to have fresh eyes and like dig into things with them and ask the questions. And it's kind of like what we do here, but with people that have no understanding of what's going on here. And so I'm really excited for that. Yeah. Hey, and just by the way, just an encouragement. That's what the early church did. They were, I mean, literally, they were delivering scrolls to them. So no one had time to like study it, and commentary on it before they sat down. Like somebody was like, hey, we got a letter from Paul. Let's read it. What does he mean when he says, like that's what the early church did. So way to go. That's so wild. Way to go. Imagine getting a letter right now and just being like, everyone, let's read this. What do we do with this? So man, so hey, I mean, maybe that's the invitation

for you today is just to wrestle. There's a lot in Hebrews, period. And certainly in Hebrews 10 to wrestle with, hey, sit with it. Invite a friend to wrestle with you. If you have someone who's on a similar journey of faith, that would be a great follow-up. So, hey, we'll see you tomorrow for our next conversation on Hebrews 11.