The Nature of Christ - Hebrews 1:1-4 - Jesus Is Better

Hebrews is a crash course in Christianity, and I think one of the things that is good for us to remember is that it is a kind of summary for us, and this is good for us, okay? Because we are a crash course generation. I don't know if you guys have ever thought about this, but YouTube has sort of done this to us, all right?

We are, man, the ones that want to sum it up. I don't want to see the movie. I want to see the recap on YouTube. I don't want to see the book. I don't have to read the whole thing.

I just want to get the recap on YouTube. I think about it like this. How many guys in here at our campuses today can think about, you know, you feel like you don't need the actual course that takes like 100 hours and a bachelor's degree because you watched a guy named Daryl fix his truck on YouTube. Is that not right? You know, I mean, is that right or what?

It's like, man, we kind of feel like I saw it, and I kind of got the one-minute version. We want it to get summed up. Well, I'm not judging that, okay? There's good in that, and there's certainly bad in that.

I'm not making a judgment on that today. What I will say is that because we are that type of generation, the book of Hebrews is really, really good, all right? Because the book of Hebrews is that book that says, hey, if you need it to get summed up in a few chapters, if you need a crash course, this is a great book to dive into that you might understand what Christianity at its very core is all about. And this is sort of the big idea, okay? If I was thinking about big idea for series first, and then I was going to think about big idea for sermon here in just a minute, all right?

Big idea for series would be this. Jesus is worth holding onto until the very, very end. That He is worth it for us to grab onto, to empty whatever is in our hands and to grab onto Him and to hold onto Him all the way until the very end.

And the book of Hebrews gives us just this really, really big picture. This is good for us if you are, well, new or if you've been around for a long time. Let's just take the ones that might be new. All right, I know at our campuses all across the triad this weekend there's going to be people that are brand new because you came to the Tanger Center, you came to Christmas service, somebody invited you and, man, you ended up at one of our campuses this weekend.

This is a really good idea for you in terms of a crash course. Jesus is better because you might be struggling right now with some of these questions of, is there more? Man, is there more to life?

God, do you have more for me? Maybe you're looking for a change in your life, and that's why you showed up at one of our campuses here this weekend. And if that's where you are, you probably already know this, but guys, the calendar does not have the power to change you. All right, it's a new year, but it's the same you.

You know how I know? Because this happens every year. Every single one of the, every single one of the treadmills at the gym was totally filled this week, right? And the whole gluten-free aisle is gone at the grocery store, right? But give it about a month, right?

Why? Because there's nothing in the calendar changing that has the power to change you. But Christ has the power to change you, and if you're thinking that way today and you're like, man, I'm interested in Christianity, you've come at a great time.

This is one of the best times that you could come because we're going to be diving into the crash course. But even though we want to speak to the newer folks at Mercy Hill and every time there's a service, there's new people here, the reality is that most people that come to a church like Mercy Hill, man, you identify with Christ and you follow in Christ, and you might be thinking to yourself, why do I need a crash course in Christianity? Again, because you're like, I've been a believer for 30 years.

I'm going to tell you why. Because when we go back over the fundamental and foundational truths of our faith, you know what it does? It creates a heart in us that just falls in love with God all over again.

And this is why that is so important, okay? I had a seminary professor one time. I'm going to give you an example. I had a seminary professor one time that came into the class, and here's what he said. He wanted everybody in the class to raise their hand if they truly felt like it was impossible that they would ever walk away from their marriage or their marriage would fail.

Now, that's kind of an odd thing right now, but follow me, okay? He said, I want you to raise your hand if you ever think that could ever happen. If you think that could never happen to you, that you're immune to that, then raise your hand. About half the class raised their hand. Now what he did after that was kind of scold all of them, and he said, man, how could you not see that our hearts are deceitfully wicked, that sin is crouching at the door, that any of us is capable of anything, right?

And that we need to constantly be on guard. Don't think of yourself so highly. The irony of this illustration I'm giving is that that particular seminary professor failed out of ministry because of moral failure a few years after that. Now, why do I bring that up?

He was getting at something. There is a heart that says that could never be me. How many of us right now at our campuses, don't raise your hand, okay? But how many of us at our campuses right now might think to yourself, I could never walk away from the faith. What we think is that could never be me.

You think in five years I could never be the person that fell out of church, that marriage fell apart, that never, that could never be me. And if that is what we are thinking today, we really need the crash course. We really need the wake up call.

You know why? Because in the book of Hebrews, there's a lot of people that walked away from the faith. And I don't say that to scare us.

And I don't say that, I know some of us are kind of like, well, what do you mean? Well, listen, Hebrews 3.13 says this, exhort one another every day so long it is called today that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin for we have come to share in Christ if indeed we hold our original confidence firm till the end. You know why you need a crash course in Christianity even if you've been a believer for 30 years? And I've been a believer for 32 years, okay? Why do I need it as much as anybody else? Because I need the gospel today as much as I ever have. I need to fall in love with God again and again, actively.

Why? Because it is our perseverance that reveals whether we were ever saved or not. I'm not getting into this, are you saying you lose your salvation and all that kind of stuff?

No. If saved, always saved. But the fruit of that is our perseverance. And if that makes us a little bit nervous about like, wait a minute, falling away and I was saved and all that, if it makes us a little bit nervous, I think that's the point of Hebrews a little bit. That instead of worrying about that question, let's fall in love with God again and again and again.

And we do that not by mustering up feelings for Him, but by seeing what He has done in our life. And so that's what we're going to be diving into over the course of the next really 12 weeks, all right? And here's what we're going to do this weekend.

Seeing Jesus rightly stirs our heart for Him. Here's what I want to do day one. For 12 weeks, we're going to be going over about six chapters in the book of Hebrews, okay? So we're not even going to get through the whole thing.

Actually, the second half of this series is slated for summer 2024, okay? So we got a lot to get through. But for these first 12 weeks, what we're going to be diving into all flows from us seeing Jesus rightly in week one. And man, Hebrews chapter one gives us such a beautiful picture of our Savior, a beautiful picture of Jesus Christ. Really the book of Hebrews, y'all, is like this, okay? I want to show this graphic to you. I put this graphic on Instagram this week, and if it surprised you that I have an Instagram account, no one is more shocked than me, okay?

I'll be honest with you. But the idea of this thing, you know, this is kind of the whole, it's the whole book mapped out, and it's kind of a cool thing, Bible Project. But you see on the top of the box, it says chapter one, one through three.

Now all I wanted you guys to see in this really quickly is this concept. This book, it goes like this if you were to map it out. Hebrews chapter one, verses one through three, I'm going to argue verses four. Okay, you guys can take that down.

Y'all can take that down. Verse four, I'm going to say it goes through verse four. Hey, but then it goes chapter one, one through three, one through four, and then everything else.

It's kind of like the Bible, like Genesis one through three, and then everything else, you know? That's how it is in the book of Hebrews a little bit. And so what happens in the first three or four verses? The first three or four verses give us an unparalleled picture of Jesus Christ. And if we can catch that unparalleled picture in the Scripture of Christ, then what's going to happen hopefully is, yes, we're going to have that moment where we fall in love with Him again, and we're on our way to seeing that He truly is better than anything that has come before or anything that will come since.

Let's read this together. Hebrews chapter one, long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom He also created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature. And He upholds the universe by the word of His power. After making purification for sin, He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much superior to the angels as the name He inherited is more excellent than theirs.

Now here's what I want to do with our time this weekend. I just want to walk all the way through really the first three or four verses here, and we're just going to kind of take them slow. And I want to just call out the things that we see about Jesus. He is the Son. He is the heir. He is the radiance. He is the exact imprint. He is not only the sovereign, but He is the Savior.

He is the purifier, not just the powerful one. Okay, we're going to just kind of talk about all that. And then we're going to take communion, and that's going to be our time, okay?

All right, so here we go. Verse one again, long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son. Y'all, the first thing that we see here is that God has spoken.

If there has ever been a more worldview-shattering, kind of, you know, or stand-under-your-feet-shifting comment, of course, we don't read it that way because we've been in churches and we've heard this a lot. But the concept that God has spoken into the world, man, that is something to behold, and it really is something that changes everything. Now, how has He done it? Well, He has done it by His Son. There's another way to think about this that comes from another portion of Scripture in the Gospel of John, but you could say it like this. Y'all, Jesus is the Word of God. He is the final Word of God.

Did you notice how we move from very general all the way down to specific? You see the contrast, long ago, verses now, many ways, one way. Our Father's the patriarch versus us. But then He says this, He has spoken to us in this final Word by His Son. Now, what does it mean that God would speak to us by His Son?

Well, what does it mean, what does it not mean? Because I think when we start talking about God speaking to us, what comes into our mind is sort of, you know, we start wondering, like, well, I, you know, I don't know about you, I want God to speak to me, but what we're thinking is I want Him to tell me what job to take. I want Him to tell me if I should go this way or that way.

What should I do with my kids in this activity or that activity? Or, you know, maybe a college student is thinking I want to know what grad school I should pick. That's the way we start thinking about God speaking to us. I want to really try to reframe that. Does God speak in that way? There may be believers that in their lifetime He speaks to them in that way about certain things.

There could be visions, there could be dreams. I'm not telling God what He can and can't do. He can speak however He wants to. But what we have seen here is this concept that He has spoken finally and ultimately.

That's why we make the point. The generalities in all these many ways until the one. And in the one, He has spoken in His greatest way because He has spoken to us by His Son, by the very Word, by a member of the Trinity Himself coming and taking on flesh. Now what is the Bible? You know what the Bible is? The Bible is the account of all of these ways that have funneled down into this specific way.

The Bible is this account of God's moving in the world over thousands of years. But then what we end up seeing is that what is your New Testament? It's the witnesses to the Word, the Son of God, and the things that He did and spoke about. And that's what it is. It's an interpretation of what Jesus came and taught and talked about with a few kind of apocalyptic, you know, the book of Revelation sort of sprinkled in. But that is really what it is. It's this testimony. It's the recording of this final word of what God has spoken through His Son. This is different than, God, I want you to tell me where I should go to college or whatever, OK?

This is totally different. The Bible is a specific revelation of which there is no equal, right? And it's a wonderful thing that we have it. You know, the Bible is this beautiful book that has been taken and put together over a long time under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

That we would see God's movements in the world and that we would hear His final Word and seeing His Son very, very clearly. And it's the way that we know God. Listen, if you want to know God, you have to listen to His Word.

And His Word is in the Scripture. This is how we get to know Him. I don't know about you, there's a lot of people that I see and I would say that I know, but I wouldn't say I really know them. Meaning, like, man, you go to the gym, you walk by, you see the same people every time you go to the gym, right? You go at the same time.

Maybe there is your kids go to school and it's like, man, you're in the drop-off line or pick-up line. You're like, oh, I see that family, I see that family. You wouldn't say you know someone unless you had heard their voice, unless you have heard them speak, unless you have interchanged words with them.

You would never say that you know that person. If we want to know God, we get to know Him in His final Word, which is the Son of God. And the interpretation, the teaching, what He did, what He taught, and we see that recorded in our Bible. I've already mentioned this, but you know the Bible is put together over thousands of years inspired by the Holy Spirit. We can trust our modern translations.

We go back, there are fragments and there are manuscripts that go back all that much time that we can kind of compare to and we know that the translations that we have are very accurate. The New Testament was written by witnesses and close companions. That's true of the book of Hebrews as well. The book of Hebrews, the author of Hebrews, a little up in the air.

There's different people that have different opinions about it, but it is very clear that he was super acquainted with the people that were very close to Jesus Christ. And we have this account of Christ in the flesh and the words that He has spoken. This is what the Bible is. And the Bible tells us that it's from God Himself. Listen to 1 Timothy 3.16, all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for proof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. Now, this is what the Bible claims of itself. This is what it says.

Now, here's what's funny. I think a lot of analytical type people, of which I am one, would say, well, how can you trust something because it says something about itself? Doesn't that feel a little circular? And the answer is, it does feel a little circular, good point of argument, unless you're actually talking about a divine book. Because if you're talking about a divine book, what else are you supposed to appeal to other than yourself?

You understand what I'm saying? That is not to say that there aren't other great evidences for why we believe the Bible. I mean, the Bible has proven itself over a long period of time to be extremely historically reliable.

You can find the writings of guys like Josh McDowell or Lee Strobel or whatever to dive into those things. I mean, archeology and all this stuff, man, it really corroborates a lot of what the Bible says. You can think about the movement of Christianity itself. It kind of speaks for itself. I mean, when you got an obscure rabbi who was a carpenter with no political power and no money and no violence and a group of people that are basically tax collectors and fishermen and prostitutes, and they have been turning the world upside down for the last 2,000 years, you know, in terms of movement.

They can't stop, won't stop and just keeps rolling. There's an apologetic in that. That means an argument for the faith. There's an apologetic in the truth of the scripture in that. But I would say, although there are, listen, I love apologetics. I have a degree in apologetics. The arguments for the faith are many and they're good. But the point is this. At some point, we come down to looking at what the Bible claims about itself and we have to decide whether we believe it or not. At some point, that's what it comes down to, where we look in and somebody says, well, give me your reasons.

Give me your reasons. Okay, let's talk about history. Let's talk about archeology. Let's talk about the movement.

I can talk about all this stuff. But in the end, at some point, you have to say, if a divine book is going to claim to be a divine book, what else is it going to appeal to? And I either am going to believe that or I'm not. Now, if you, listen, if you are a believer, you have obviously thrown your lot in and you have said, man, I trust it. I believe it. I think it's divinely inspired.

Okay. What's the plan for 2023 in terms of Bible intake because we have already established, we believe that God has spoken, which is the most worldview shattering position you could ever take, that God has spoken into the world. You know, if you read three or four chapters a day, you get through the whole Bible in a year, if you knew that. Now, I don't, listen, I don't go through the whole Bible in a year, but I do that in terms of the diet.

Three or four chapters a day, absolutely. I like to camp out on different places and maybe you like to do that. Maybe you don't.

Maybe you have some other different way that you do it. Not legalistic about it. Man, go for it. Okay. But are you going to take in the Word of God? Are you going to help others take in the Word of God?

You know, quick application here. Our college students, y'all, they're going to come back. What do you think they struggle with so much on their campus, the truth of the Bible?

You know, the truth of the Word of God. Maybe you have an interest in mentoring them or opening your home to one of their groups. You guys can check this out. And if you're interested in serving, you can get right on our website or you can even clip that little — man, I don't know what you call those things. Okay, clip that thing and put it in your phone and it'll take you somewhere like magic, okay?

So, it'll do that. All right. Hey, but listen, maybe you're not a believer. You came to Tanger, you were inspired, you're a believer. Man, what I'm claiming is that the Bible says about itself and that we believe it with all of our heart that the Bible is the Word of God. It is a recording of God's movement in the world that culminates in the Son. It culminates in showing us Jesus Christ. If that's you, here's what I'll tell you.

Man, you ought to think about just following those breadcrumbs a little bit this year and see where that takes you. All right, see if God is calling you and beckoning you. It's going to take Him putting faith in your heart for you to believe what we're talking about here this weekend, but you can put yourself in a position to continue to read and to take steps and to be around the community to hear the Word of God taught. The Son of God, this is the final Word. Now, here's what it says about Jesus. Let's take a look at Jesus here, okay? Verse 2, whom He appointed the heir of all things through whom also He created the world.

He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature and He upholds the universe by the Word of His power. Now, here's what I want to do for just a few minutes in this sermon, okay? I want to talk about the awe-inspiring part of Jesus and the adoration-inspiring part of Jesus, okay? Because we see both in this passage. There are things in this passage that should just make us stand in awe, that we want to worship God, that we want to see Him as sovereign, but there are other things that make us adore Him because He shows us His love for us and how much He is for us.

Well, what did it say here? It says first that He is the heir of all things. I want to piggyback on the fact that we've already called Him the Son.

I am going to do a little bit of just, hey, we talked about this a lot over the last month, okay? Who is Jesus? Member of the Trinity. God is three in one. We've talked about, you know, one person, two natures, you know, born of Mary but not born of man, conceived of the Holy Spirit, God in the flesh. God becomes flesh. Jesus Christ takes on flesh. He becomes the God-man in order that man can have a bridge back to God. We've done a lot of this work.

This is who He is. But specifically, in this passage, we get a glimpse of what it means to be the Son, practically, and that is that He is the heir. Now, why is that important?

Because in Judaism and where these people were living, and certainly the book of Hebrews was written for an audience that understood a lot about Judaism and may have come out of that tradition, of course, called Hebrews, right? That what you see is that an heir is really the one that is over all things of the estate. They are the one that is totally in control. And that's what we see of Jesus here. What did it say? That He not only is an agent of creation but that He upholds it by the word of His power. What does it mean that Jesus is the heir? One theologian, Abraham Kuipers, said it like this. He said that there is not one square inch of the universe to which God has declared, that God has not declared this is mine.

Well, I would say it like this. There is also not one square inch of the universe that God the Father has not given to Jesus. He is over it all. Now, one day, 1 Corinthians 15 tells us that He will complete His works. Jesus will complete what He is doing in terms of bringing in the kingdom, and He will hand the kingdom back over to God the Father. And we see that in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. But what we see here in this text is that in this age, when we say King Jesus, that's what we mean.

I mean, He is the heir. He is the one that is over all. He is the agent in creation. He is the Word who is moved in creation. And now He upholds it by the word of His power. What that means is that one active thought of Jesus Christ and everything in creation would come flying apart. We, our very bodies, are held together. Everything is held together by the word of His power. And it is all His. That's why, I don't know if you remember this, why it's a little bit funny when Satan brings Jesus up on the top of, and he looks out in his temptation, and he says, hey, all these kingdoms will be yours.

What do you mean they'll be mine? You mean? You know what I'm saying? It's like the Chronicles of Narnia. When Edmund, you know, the White Witch says to Edmund, I'll make you a prince of Narnia. He was already a king. You know, he didn't know it.

But you know, you're not going to give Jesus the kingdoms. It is already His. If it is, it is His. It is all His. And it is all upheld by the word of His power.

The Bible tells us He was active in creation. He is spoken. He has the authority. And He is upholding it even as we speak. See, I told you there's an awe-inspiring and an adoration-inspiring, right? The awe-inspiring part is here.

It's when we start to understand who He is and what He has done and how contingent we are on Him. Elizabeth Elliot had a really good quote about this that she summed up kind of the point, and she actually references this scripture. I thought I would read it to you. Here's what she said.

She said, think about this. If the distance between the earth and the sun, which is 92 million miles, was the thickness of one sheet of paper, then the distance from the earth to the nearest star would be the equivalent of a stack of paper 70 feet high. Not only that, but think about the diameter, diameter of our galaxy. The diameter of our galaxy would be a stack of paper 310 miles high. And our galaxy is one speck. And he jumps James Hubble, you know, people in here, you know, or James Webb people in here, right? You've been following all the different. Our, our, our universe, you know, our galaxy is a speck.

It's a dust in the terms of how many galaxies there are. And she's trying to get us to kind of think about and just get our mind around this God and all this. Now here's what she said. If this is a person, meaning Jesus Christ, who holds all of that together by the word of his power, is that the kind of person that you ask into your life to be your assistant? Because that's what many of us are doing. I'm here because God, I need you to help me through this little health thing that I got going on. I'm here because God, I need you to help me with my kids.

They're not acting the right way. God, can you throw me a bone at work? I'm just trying to do the right.

I'm going to come, I'm going to be apart. And I'm trying to get you to just sort of get me through as if God is our assistant. Now our reaction to this is not to ask him to assist us. Our reaction to this is to fall down at his feet and say, command me.

What it ought to be, right? He is the Lord. He is the one who is over. Now we're going to talk about savior in a minute, but he is also sovereign that is here. He is so integrally connected. He is God. This is what is so good.

Look what it says. He is the radiance of the glory of God, the exact imprint of his nature. Don't you understand that the rider is grasping for the closest possible connection that you can make so that we understand he's just trying to get us to see that Jesus is the son of God and yet he is a member of the Trinity.

He is the radiance of his glory. I mean, think about it. Think about the interconnectedness here. You don't have a ray of sunlight without the sun itself.

It would be nonsensical to say, well, you take away the sun, but you have the ray. This is kind of the idea. I mean, of course, any illustration you start to use jumps into heresy pretty quick.

You just got to understand the language and what he's talking about metaphorically here. Think about the imprint. An imprint is this idea. You have a ring, a signet ring that you imprint with wax, right, on a piece of like a letter or parchment or something like that. Or think about a mold that is stamping money, for example. It's like, man, you don't have the picture without the mold, but without the mold there is no picture.

It's almost nonsensical to try to think about separating them even though they are distinct. This is kind of what he's getting at here. He's trying to say, I think this, that our natural human analogy for a son, this is what we would normally say. We'd say like, yeah, he's the radiance of the glory of God. He's the imprint of his nature. We would want to look at it humanly speaking and we would want to say, like I would say of my kids, you know, they look like us.

You know, like AP, my oldest son, people look at him and they're like, man, there's no telling who your parents are, right? Like we look at you, we look at Anna like, man, we could kind of see both of them in you, but here's the deal. If Anna and I were both gone, he would still be here and he would still look the way that he does, but you can't take away ray from sun or sun from ray, right? Radiance of the glory.

There is an interconnectedness here that is almost very hard for us to even talk about because as we start to try to liken it, we get into dangerous waters. The Trinity is this concept of God three in one and the son of God is being put forth here as the one that it's all about. It is all for him and we're seeing him here. He is the air. He is the radiance of the glory of God. He is the imprint of his nature. When we see him, we are seeing God. It's a beautiful thing, but you know what?

Here's the deal. When we start thinking about this in terms of sovereignty, the Bible almost always does this. It starts pushing us also to see the love of God and the savior and the saving aspect of God.

And that's what he gets into here. Look, after making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. Now, this is where I want to just kind of slow down for one minute and say, hey, many faiths talk about a sovereign God.

Okay, many faiths do. Where Christianity really begins to become unique in its faith is as we begin to talk about the one who made purification for sin himself. That he wasn't just savior, it wasn't just sovereign, but he was also savior. You know, many faiths talk about a God who is high and lofty. This is talking about a God who is willing to come and get bloody and go to a cross to save us for our sins. And when we begin to see that, this is the key, okay?

This is really a lot of the whole book of Hebrews. What's the whole point? Hold on. Man, persevere. There's persecution.

There's trials. This world is messed up. Don't let go of Jesus.

We're only going to do that if we think that he's worth it. We're only going to change and begin to walk in the ways that he has called us to walk rather than our own rebellion if we believe that he is worth it. And this is where Christianity really divides from other world religions. Christianity's core message is not be afraid and obey. Christianity's core message is be loved and be changed.

Experience a love that you dare not — I mean, more love than you ever dared hope at simultaneously being more sinful than you could have ever imagined. How do we get there? But when we get there, it begins to warm our heart. It begins to make us want to lean in.

And this is what he's talking about here. He made purification for sin and then he sat down. He didn't have to get back up. I mean, he sits down. This concept of sitting down, the concept of that is it is finished. You may be here today or maybe here at one of our campuses thinking, man, I've got to get back in church because I've got to do a bunch of stuff to get back on God's good side or in his good graces. And you need to hear the gospel today.

Man, the gospel is that Jesus has already done everything necessary for your salvation and he has sat down. In our sin, you and I are separated from God. We deserve hell fire. We deserve damnation. And we don't think about it that way, y'all, but when you really start to think about the wickedness in our own hearts, our pride, our greed, the things that we've thought about each other, the things that we've done that nobody else knows, man, God sees it all.

This is what we deserve is to be separated from him. But Jesus Christ comes to us. He comes, the God-man comes and he takes on flesh and he goes to the cross for us and he takes the penalty of our sin and the wrath of God is poured out upon him in order that you and I by faith can be reborn into his family. This is the gospel message and it is overwhelming. The message today in Hebrews, the first three verses, first four verses I've argued today, you got to catch this because everything else, he's better than angels, he's better than the old covenant, he's better than this, he's been taking us to a better promised land. All this stuff doesn't make sense if we're not overwhelmed by Jesus himself. We've just got to sit for a minute and be overwhelmed by him, his sovereignty and the fact that he has saved us. Man, I hope you didn't just coast into the end of last year spiritually. I hope you're not coasting now, but if you are, maybe this will give us a chance to just sit for a minute and wake up, you know, and remember what God has done for us, that we have a future. We're not destined for hell. We have a purpose in this life. He has a relationship with us that was dynamic and interacts with us daily through his word.

These are great blessings that Jesus Christ secured for us. Are you overwhelmed by that? I'm going to tell you a story about a guy I know who was. His name was Junior Morris, okay? And I know Junior because my dad used to play a lot of music with Junior and Junior was the most quintessential North Florida redneck I have ever met in my life, okay? Whenever I was around Junior, the only thing between him and the world was a set of overalls and that's not a joke, okay?

I mean, every time. He was the best harmonica player you have ever heard in your life, but he didn't have any teeth, which helps, okay? And that's true.

It's absolute true. He called it a mouth harp, okay? And I mean, he was just the man. He cried every time they played Amazing Grace. He would cry every time they began to talk about the grace of God.

You know why? Because Junior was a gunner in World War II and he remembers sitting up on top of that hill and mowing down Germans until he said, the barrel of my gun would melt. I'm not getting into — in his mind, okay, I can't have done the killing that I've done in my life and go to heaven. That was the way he saw it. Until one day, he went to a revival service, Dirt Floor, no doubt, and he heard this Gospel message that I am talking about right now that has been alive and moving for 2,000 years in churches like Mercy Hill that do big band campuses and Dirt Floor revivals in North Florida in the 60s and 70s. All the way back to Jesus, walking on the face of the earth.

It's the same message. The grace of God, not your works. And it's an overwhelming truth.

The Sovereign who holds it all together by the word of His power. He also came and met me in my weakness. This is the Gospel message. So, this is what I want to call us to do this weekend at all of our campuses, a conclusion more than anything else. See Jesus and be moved to worship Him today.

See Him and be moved. Man, let us not start the year with let's do X, Y, and Z, okay? Because that's what many of us are doing right now. I'm doing it to, I have 1,000 goals for the year and probably way too many that, you know, I should trim them down, okay? And maybe you're that way too. You're writing stuff out.

You got sticky notes and all that kind of stuff. What we need to do right now, first weekend of Mercy Hill for the year, is not think about what all we're going to do for the year and let's think about why for a minute. Now, why?

Why are we going after the things that we're going to go after? And we're going to do it because Jesus is better. He is worth it. He is worth our all. He is worth our adoration. And so, let us conclude our service in terms of this. Let us go into a time of just unbridled worship of Him. And we're going to do that through communion.

I just want to set that up and then I'm going to get out of the way, alright? So, here's the deal. What is communion? Communion is a physical representation of that Gospel message that I just talked about.

It is the bread and the juice. Well, what does that represent? It represents the broken body of a Savior on the cross and it represents His blood that flowed. It represents the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and then went to the cross for us.

This is what it represents, the purification made for our sin. Now, let me talk to you. If you're not a believer, then I'll talk to a believer and I'll be done, okay? If you're not a Christian, and we say it different ways. If you're like, man, I've never stepped over that line.

Good person, trying to be moral, I've never stepped all the way over. Okay, that's where you're at, alright. Then listen, here's what I want to tell you to do. If you're not ready to do that today, then when we pass these elements out, just let them go right by you, okay? That's a big theology term, that's called fencing the table.

Here's all that it means. We don't want to put you in a situation where you feel weird about proclaiming something that is not true of you, okay? We don't want to do that. We're all about authenticity, okay?

Nobody judges that. I mean, honestly, if we want to go all the way down that road, hey, if you're a believer in the house, if you're a believer at one of our campuses and you are absolutely in unrepentant sin and you have settled in your heart that you will not repent of that sin before the, you know, before the communion plate comes by, you ought to maybe let it pass too, if you've already decided that in your heart. But for the unbeliever, the one who's not a Christian, and for the believer that needs to repent, man, today can be a day where you take that step. If you're not a Christian and you want to take communion with us today because you really are like, man, God has been drawing me, I've been here for a while, I've heard this, I've got friends here, I don't know what your story is, admit, believe, and confess. Admit that you're a sinner, believe that Jesus has done everything necessary to save you today as evidenced in this communion plate, and then, you know, commit your life, confess Him as the Lord of your life.

Follow Him. And then, you come to the table with joy. Believer, let me say this, I mentioned a minute ago, man, did you coast to the end of 22? Is the fire lit right now?

I don't know if it is or not. Man, let us use the elements. This is what the church has done for 2,000 years since Jesus walked the face of the earth. This has been used to light that fire and rekindle in the life of a believer. Can we just have a moment here where we stand in awe and adoration of Christ? Where we repent of the sin that the Holy Spirit is bringing to our remembrance?

That's one of the things the Spirit does, He convicts us, alright? We repent of that sin, alright? Man, will we declare our faith in Him? And will we take the table, take the cup and the bread together today with joy?

I pray that we will. Let me pray, and then we're going to have our teams come out, lead us in some music, lead us in a time of communion, it's going to be a meaningful time. Father, we come before You, and Lord, we're grateful, God, for the blessings of 22.

We're looking forward to 23. God, we want to start at all of our locations today. We want to start by putting all this before You and just saying, God, everything that we're going after, all the stuff that we want to do, all of the things that come with the New Year, God, we want to start first by declaring our love, our awe, our adoration over You. We see that picture of the Son who upholds everything by the word of His power and we stand in awe. We see the picture of the One who has made purification for our sin and we fall at His feet in adoration. Lord, I pray at all of our campuses this will be a very deep and meaningful time. Spirit, I pray You would be moving. In Christ's name, amen.