We find ourselves facing pressures and differing kinds of threats in our age, and these pressures come from numerous directions. There are pressures and threats from the culture around us, from the church nearby, and from our own soul. These pressures unearth the temptation to 1) retreat to safety, avoiding the threat, or 2) run toward the threat, attempting to eliminate it. What really blows our minds and what saves us is that our Savior neither avoided the threat nor fought against it, but for "the joy that was set before Him endured the cross." While the people all around Him were striving for the kingdoms of the age, He was at work securing the Eternal Kingdom.

The first century Jewish Christians were tempted to find the easy path to get out of the threats swirling around them. Proverbially speaking, their were slipping. Our passage this week will call us to find our footing, not in religion nor in safety, but in the firm foundation that arises from believing God to be who He says He is. In believing God, we receive from Him words of commendation or approval, we receive from Him confidence in the unseen, we receive from Him enduring righteousness, and we experience aspects of what makes us whole, which pleases Him. May God help us to be established on an enduring foundation for this life as we are tied to His eternal kingdom.

Sunday Songs

Each week we'll include a list of songs we plan to sing during our time of corporate worship. We hope this helps you prepare for our Sunday gatherings.

Praise His Name (Psalm 148)

By Faith

How Great Thou Art

O Church Arise

In this week's passage, we encounter another strong warning. Under divine inspiration, the author of Hebrews urges his audience to remain in the simplicity and singularity of faith in Jesus for the preserving of their souls. As we have seen throughout, there was at that time, and still is today, a very natural and enticing temptation to let go of the "Christ alone," the "Jesus paid it all," and the "once for all sacrifice" message of the New Testament. There is gravitational pull from within and a forceful compulsion from without to take matters back into our own hands for the safekeeping of our souls, through our religious efforts to manage and atone for our own sins. We even can succomb to a fear that if we do not, then we will in the end not be saved.

On the contrary, today's passage enjoins us to beware of that deception and to realize that the actual danger we ought to fear is the danger of minimizing the finished work of Christ, the danger of "sinning willfully" against, not the Law, but the Gospel (v. 26). Through this text, God gives us a very strong warning about "trampling underfoot the Son of God" and "regarding as unclean the blood of the covenant by which we were sanctified" (v. 29). It can only, and will only, result in destruction due to the fierce opposition of God. There are dire consequences for "insulting the Spirit of grace" (v. 29). Thankfully, on the other hand, there is the assurance of the full "preservation" of the souls who have "faith" in Jesus alone (v. 39). He is with us and for us; He gets us and He's got us. We are safe with Him forever.

Sunday Songs

Each week we'll include a list of songs we plan to sing during our time of corporate worship. We hope this helps you prepare for our Sunday gatherings.

His Forever

Jesus, Your Mercy

In Christ Alone

Not in Me

This week we continue our study of Hebrews considering the "once for all" sacrifice of Jesus. Unlike the Old Testament animal sacrifices which had to be offered over and over, and which could not fully take care of our sin problem, Jesus’ offering happened only one time and addressed our sin problem completely. His provision was infinite, lacking nothing at all. It provided fully for our atonement, for our forgiveness, for our cleansing, and for our sanctification. We are set apart for God, not by any of our sacrifices for Him, but by His sacrifice for us. It is all a gift of His marvelous mercy and grace.

Like the original audience of Hebrews, we can be tempted to depart from the simplicity and singularity of faith in Jesus, thinking that somehow we can—through our own efforts or sacrifices—provide for our sense of satisfaction, security, and significance in this world. The author of Hebrews is pleading with us, and God through him is pleading with us, to resist that temptation and to continue trusting in the One has provided everything we need "once for all." Join us as we celebrate all that our Savior has done for us!

Sunday Songs

Each week we'll include a list of songs we plan to sing during our time of corporate worship. We hope this helps you prepare for our Sunday gatherings.

All My Boast Is in Jesus

Come Behold the Wondrous Mystery

His Robes for Mine

Love of God

There is an experiential difference between the general presence of God, the special, spiritual presence of God, and the full, face-to-face glory of God’s physical presence. Through the ages, God has been present among all of mankind, for He is omnipresent (or everywhere present). The whole world is full of His glory (Isaiah 6:3). In various ways, God had provided HIs special presence or appearance (in the Garden, in the burning bush, in the cloud and fire of the tabernacle, and of most spectacular note, in the person of Jesus Christ). God's spiritual presence continues to this day, as Jesus promised He would send another comforter (John 14). Jesus' physical presence has entered into the presence of His Father at the end of the ages to put away sin.

We continue to enjoy the general presence of God, like the rest of mankind. We observe His handiwork. We are never away from His presence (Psalm 139:7-10). We also continue to enjoy His special, spiritual presence in our lives, the Holy Spirit comforting us, reminding us, bearing witness to Jesus, bearing witness to God’s Fatherly care of us, and His provision of “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:22–23).

But, what we are longing for, what our hearts are clamoring for, is the face-to-face enjoyment of our salvation. We look forward to being free from temptations and trials, weariness and weakness. Jesus will appear again, not to address our sin, for that is complete, but to bring us to the full experience of our salvation. Here and now, we face the temptation to find ease and rest on our own, but He has secured that rest and will bring us to its full enjoyment. Weary traveler, you won’t be weary long… someday soon we’re going to make it home, and our Savior is the One to do it!

Sunday Songs

Each week we'll include a list of songs we plan to sing during our time of corporate worship. We hope this helps you prepare for our Sunday gatherings.

Creation Sings the Father's Song

I Will Wait for You (Psalm 130)

Ancient of Days

Come to Jesus (Rest in Him)

Toward the end of this week's passage, there is an ominous statement: "it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment" (Hebrews 9:27). As the author implores his audience to stick with simplicity and singularity of faith in Jesus, he reminds them of the truth that there is a final analysis coming, where all of us will see what God has always seen. We will finally see ourselves and our lives in light of the absolute truth. His judgment will be known to us. However real that feels, or doesn't feel, it is coming. As if on an unstoppable conveyor belt, we are all moving toward that day of reckoning.

In light of that coming day, the author of Hebrews helps his readers then, and us today, to understand that our only hope for preparation for that day is trust in Jesus alone. As the Old Covenant demonstrated, sin deserved death, and forgiveness does not come without it; without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. Every person will either die, paying the penalty for their own sin, or will die having had that penalty paid by Jesus. Because of Him alone, we can have the awesome privilege of dying a forgiven sinner, of facing judgment safely and securely because of the covering of God. To know this standing, to be assured of this future reality now in the present is to have freedom. Only divine forgiveness can grant us the soul level freedom we so desperately need. As Paul says in Ephesians 1:7, "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace." Join us as we rejoice in the confidence that our Savior has provided!

Sunday Songs

Each week we'll include a list of songs we plan to sing during our time of corporate worship. We hope this helps you prepare for our Sunday gatherings.

And Can It Be?

I Will Wait for You (Psalm 130)

The Power of the Cross

How Deep the Father's Love for Us

It Was Finished Upon That Cross

As we reminisce on our lives, we tend to focus nostalgically on all the good aspects of our experiences, sometimes forgetting the difficulties or limitations that we have known. The author of Hebrews, having established the importance of a new kind of priest whose ministry is based upon a new kind of covenant or law, ensures that we recall some of the glories of the former tabernacle. There was reason for these Christians to remember the former tabernacle fondly. As we recall these former glories, we are reminded of God’s good gifts of light, fellowship, and the opportunity to communicate with Him. We are reminded of His law, His provision of leadership and nourishment. We remember the overlooking, guarding cherubim, and the amazing mercy of atonement. It was all beautiful and kind.

But we also must remember its limitations. It can cleanse the body, but could not cleanse the conscience. Cleansing of conscience would come at “the time of reformation” (Hebrews 9:10). That reformation came in the person of Jesus Christ, who made His offering in a better tabernacle, a heavenly one. The sacrifice He brought was “once for all” and resulted in securing “an eternal redemption” (v. 12). While the old covenant made provision for the sanctifying of the flesh (v. 13), Jesus’ sacrifice provides a purification of our conscience (v. 14; 10:1-4, 19-23). No one else and nothing else can bring about this forever cleansing of our conscience before an all knowing God. Let’s join together and worship our conscience-cleansing, Great High Priest!

Sunday Songs

Each week we'll include a list of songs we plan to sing during our time of corporate worship. We hope this helps you prepare for our Sunday gatherings.

All Creatures of Our God and King

How Great Thou Art

Glorious and Mighty

Only a Holy God

Continuing his appeal to his readers to resist the temptation to return to the Old Covenant, with its inferior priests, the author of Hebrews expounds further upon Jesus' Great High Priesthood. Not only is Jesus alone a royal priest, and an immortal priest, and a sinless priest, He alone is the sinless sacrifice, and He alone brings His sacrificial blood into the heavenlies where it is poured out before God the Father as an everlasting provision of atonement, an eternal reminder that His people's sins are fully and finally forgiven. It is His blood of the New Covenant, within which people have the deepest sense of security and within which people know God in the most clear and intimate way, because their sins are fully forgiven. Quoting the New Covenant prophecy of Jeremiah 31, Hebrews 8, verses 11-12, say, "AND THEY SHALL NOT TEACH EVERYONE HIS FELLOW CITIZEN, AND EVERYONE HIS BROTHER, SAYING, 'KNOW THE LORD,' FOR ALL WILL KNOW ME, FROM THE LEAST TO THE GREATEST OF THEM. FOR I WILL BE MERCIFUL TO THEIR INIQUITIES, AND I WILL REMEMBER THEIR SINS NO MORE." Join us as we celebrate the finished work of our Great High Priest!

Sunday Songs

Each week we'll include a list of songs we plan to sing during our time of corporate worship. We hope this helps you prepare for our Sunday gatherings.

The Solid Rock

Now Why This Fear?

There Is a Fountain

Before the Throne of God Above

Most of us like movies that have a good conclusion. We like it when the right people win, the evil people lose, and when the guy and the girl end up together. We like it when everyone is healed and happy and successful. If you knew the ending before the story unfolded, some of the drama would be removed and the effect minimized. In this life, the most important outcome has already been declared, yet we are living in the twists and turns. It can be a really slow burn. You may be dealing with health crises, financial burdens, job dissatisfaction, or relationships that always seem like they are on the verge of collapse.

This Sunday, as we continue to consider the High Priesthood of Jesus, we want to be encouraged by His ministry in our lives. It is the ultimate ministry for three reasons:

1. It has already been accomplished (vv. 1, 6, 12)
2. It is a heavenly ministry rather than a shadow (vv. 1-5)
3. It is established on the best promises (vv. 6-13).

Our focus will be on the nature of Jesus taking His seat in the heavenly places because He finished the work, and has been established in His seat of authority, caring for us in the midst of the daily grind. His presence at "the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven" ensures the believer's future with Him, and reminds us that He is advocating for us now. Let us rejoice that we have such a High Priest!

Sunday Songs

Each week we'll include a list of songs we plan to sing during our time of corporate worship. We hope this helps you prepare for our Sunday gatherings.

Let the Earth Resound

Always Forgiven

Grace Greater Than Our Sin

Jesus, Thank You

Under the pressure of mounting persecution, the Hebrew Christians were being tempted to return to the Old Covenant of Judaism for a sense of escape, safety, and security. Part of that temptation was to consider the Levitical priesthood to be still of value in offering them human mediators and purifiers. From these esteemed and dignified men, they reasoned that they could perhaps gain assurance of God's favor and protection.

Over and over throughout Hebrews, including here in chapter 7, the author appeals to them to not make that mistake, but to stick with Jesus Christ and Him alone as their Great High Priest from now on. He highlights the folly and futility of the human approach. The priests of the Old Covenant were severely limited and incapable of providing ultimate and complete purification and security. Meanwhile, Jesus Himself is upheld as the Perfect Priest, the mediator and representative who is Himself perfect and complete in every way and who is able save His people perfectly and completely without any liabilities or limitations. He is "able to save to the uttermost (to perfection/completion) those who come to God through Him." (v. 25)

Come gather with us as we worship our perfect Priest!

Sunday Songs

Each week we'll include a list of songs we plan to sing during our time of corporate worship. We hope this helps you prepare for our Sunday gatherings.

I Will Glory in My Redeemer

Is He Worthy?

Jesus Paid It All

Come Unto Jesus

Our lives are filled with so many twists and turns. So much is out of our control, yet we keep trying to find ways to work our plan, to keep our timelines and goals on track, and to feel a sense of progression. When our plans are moving in accordance with our goals, we feel accomplishment. When we feel off course, we struggle and strive wondering what is wrong.

Our God is never in a panic, and He is never trying to figure out how to redirect. God is the beginning and the end, and He flawlessly works His plans. He providentially incorporates fine details into the course of human affairs to bring about the perfect redemption He intends.

As we think through Hebrews 7 this Sunday, we will marvel over God’s meticulous provision of a Superior Priesthood that is not limited by an inferior covenant or law that could never make us perfect (Hebrews 7:18-19), but instead brought in a "better hope … through which we draw near to God." This priesthood is eternal and final, resulting in absolute salvation (“save to the uttermost” [Hebrews 7:22, 24-25, 27]).

So, while we continue to be tempted to control our lives, we are reminded again that our God is working through all of the twists and turns to bring forth good. May He help us to find comfort and rest in His good ways.

Sunday Songs

Each week we'll include a list of songs we plan to sing during our time of corporate worship. We hope this helps you prepare for our Sunday gatherings.

It Is Well with My Soul

Goodness of God

From Everlasting (Psalm 90)

O Lord, My Rock and My Redeemer