Genesis Church - Sermons

We long for a happy life—one which fills and satisfies. Yet, a fulfilling life is actually difficult to find. The author of Hebrews shares some simple but profound pathways toward contentment and joy for those who have discovered the superiority of Jesus and believe in Him.

All of these will run counter to the culture, yet they are the way to the joy of knowing and experiencing Jesus. So, we are to love one another, care for strangers and those in prison, build strong marriages and protect our sexuality, and keep our lives free from the love of money.

Furthermore, Hebrews wants us to see the character described here as marks of authenticity for our faith and the very keys to forming the beautiful community that displays Jesus to the world. When we do this, we will find the promises of Psalm 118:6-7 to be true—that the Lord is on our side and He is our helper.

Sometimes it’s easy to doubt a change in direction. Falling back to what is comfortable is a real thing, even if it’s clear that the new direction is better. Our passage today in Hebrews deals with this reality. The author will show us two pictures, depicting the old covenant and the new covenant side by side. We’ll see how much better the new covenant in the blood of Jesus is than the old covenant in the law; a contrast intended to encourage us to rest in the work of Jesus and stay the course running after Him.

This passage also comes with a warning to not refuse when The Lord speaks of the gospel. Rather than reject the gospel and receive judgment for our sins, He calls us to receive the gift of salvation by grace through faith in the work of Jesus. The Lord also promises that there will be a day when He will shake the earth and the heavens such that all that can be shaken will be removed, and only that which The Lord deems worthy will remain. Faith in Christ leads to joy and a citizenship in that unshakable Kingdom, dwelling in the presence of The Lord forever.

It’s so easy to get off course, lost in the woods, and worn out. As the author of Hebrews has reminded us, the life of faith is a race, and our role is to keep running with our focus on Jesus and our path is the journey of becoming more like Him day by day.

The path is incredibly difficult at times. So today’s text from Hebrews gives us two warnings for the journey. First, we can get worn out and just want to quit. Our arms are exhausted and numb, our knees hurt and we feel like we can’t go on. So, Hebrews reminds us that we need to press into the power of the Gospel and get support from our faith family and keep running. This is the path to wholeness, to healing.

Second, the journey has a lot of side paths we can take so we need to keep our eyes on Jesus. These side paths end in brokenness, hardened hearts, and dead ends. We get in trouble on the race when we look down at our own feet or start gazing in other directions.

Let’s keep our eyes on Jesus and keep on going!

We are so glad you have chosen to worship with us today as we remember the most important day in all of history. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

Today we will consider the words written by the author of Hebrews about Jesus, “Consider Him who endured from sinners such hostility.” The cross was the epitome of evil and sin poured out against the sinless Son of God. He didn’t have to do it. Nobody went to a cross willingly except this one man. Yet, the author of Hebrews reminds us that He, for the joy set before Him, endured the cross while despising the shame. The cross brought shame, but Jesus knew there was a joy that would explode in His resurrection and that joy He now shares with us.

This is the promise of Easter—the promise that the joy of the Lord will be our strength. Our Easter message today will look at the joy of Jesus from the cross and show you how this joy can be yours.

I saw a video recently with a father disciplining his son for the disrespectful way the boy spoke to his mother. But the caption on the video scolded the father for being harsh with his son, although the dad never struck the boy and his tone was completely appropriate for the moment. We live in a culture that tends to reject parental discipline for children. Sadly, this coincides with the complete loss of trust in authorities in our culture. Yet, good daddies lovingly train and discipline their children, because without instruction, training, and correction children will shipwreck their lives.

People like the idea of God being a loving Father as long as that love does not involve discipline. But the author of Hebrews reminds us that God loves us, and as a Father, His discipline is good for us, for our joy, and will produce a fruitful life. By doing so he gives us a chance to change the paradigm we use to understand our struggles, suffering, and persecution.

For believers in Jesus, whatever comes, we can know that our Father is shaping our lives through it for His glory and our good.

The first few verses of Hebrews Chapter 12 tell us the Christian life is a race… or, more appropriately, a lifelong marathon. After spending all of Chapter 11 giving his readers (both first century Jewish Christians and us today) a remarkable list of Old Testament faith hall-of-famers for our encouragement, the author lets us know how we can run this often-difficult race. In three short verses, he gives us the keys to running this race of living the Christian life successfully.

And the best part is, the outcome is not dependent on our performance! To win this race all we have to do is… keep running! Today’s passage will show us how we can do just that!

Our journey through the Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11 jumps forward 400 years to the story of Moses and the Exodus—God’s rescue of His people from slavery. Moses is rescued by the faith of his parents, and by faith Moses became the leader who led them out of Egypt. By faith the people went through the Red Sea on dry ground. By faith the walls of Jericho fell, and by faith a non-Hebrew prostitute named Rahab was rescued.

The author then drops the names of several other important Old Testament people while making reference to others. Left to themselves, each of these people would have shipwrecked their lives; yet out of brokenness, failure, and pain, they believe, and God tells a better story through their lives. Some experienced great blessings and victories. But we can’t miss this—others were sawed in two, flogged, mocked, and persecuted brutally. Yet, they lived as strangers and exiles in this land, looking forward to the promised Messiah and the hope for a better world.

They all looked forward to the day we live in, the time after the coming of Jesus, the cross, and the resurrection, longing to live in our day. Their lives are an invitation for us to believe, to hold on to Jesus and trust in Him every day of our lives.

We continue to journey through the Hebrews 11 Hall of Faith with the stories of the Patriarchs. Every Jewish reader would have been familiar with these stories and, furthermore, would be able to trace both their ancestral roots and the foundation of their faith back to Abraham, Sara, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. Their story begins in a world without any real hope, yet into the darkness, God calls a man, and from that man, forms a family that will become a people and eventually a Kingdom. The Patriarch’s story begins with God’s call of Abraham to leave the city of his ancestry, Ur of the Chaldees, which at the time was the most prestigious city on earth. God does not give him a road map, He just calls Abraham to trust Him. Abraham believes and it begins the story of God’s covenant with His people which includes a myriad of promises, and bunches of miracles.

Hebrews reminds us that everything these ancients received was given by the promise-making God and received by faith alone. We need their example to remind us that God is only pleased in our faith—that our faith puts us in the place to be recipients of God’s grace, which is the fountain from which He gives us all of His promises.

Some call Hebrews 11 the Faith Hall of Fame, but the truth and point of this section of Hebrews is that there is only one True Hero. The Bible tells one grand story about this great Hero. Yet, in His grace, this God has included people in the story.

Every person we will meet in Hebrews 11 has unbelievable flaws and failures, yet, they trusted the character of God and held on to the promises He made. Therefore, by their faith, each one experienced the grace, presence, and blessings of God. These people are included in the grand story by faith, and as a result God tells a better story through their lives than the one they would have told on their own.

We will take a journey through the lives of those who are listed in this chapter, telling their stories as reminders of God’s redemption narrative and the work He does in and through the lives of those who believe. The first three characters we will examine are Abel, Enoch, and Noah.

Having faith is a popular idea in our culture. Come on—Ted Lasso told us to “Believe”. But what is faith, and faith in what?

Chapter 11 has often been referred to as the Hall of Fame of faith, kind of a who’s who from the Old Testament. The chapter begins with a definition of faith and explanation of the nature of faith in the Gospel. This is coupled with a reminder that without faith, it is impossible to please God. Or, put positively, we are made right with God and stay right with God by faith alone.

This is not blind faith in some mysterious deity; rather, Biblical faith is a faith that knows the truth of God and believes the promises of God. The key is to realize that it is the object of our faith and not the strength of our faith that ultimately matters.

The faith that keeps us firm is assurance and conviction of the things promised but not yet seen. And we will see that every “hero” from the Old Testament story is justified and blessed solely based on their faith in Jesus.