Motivated by All that Christ has Done for Us

Sermon Transcript

Well, after all the special events and celebratory things that we’ve done in December, and at the end of the year, I hope one of the satisfying things about getting back into the normal schedule here in January is returning to our familiar book in the book of Hebrews. And if you have your Bibles, I’d love for you to turn to what I hope is a well-worn section of your New Testament. We’ve been in it now for 40 weeks, and we’ve been looking at all that the writer of Hebrews has been telling us about the comparisons between the Old Covenant and the New. And as he’s done that, he’s really underscored one of the primary themes in all of the Bible.

Without ever using the word, he has presented for us a fantastic picture of what it means to be reconciled to God, that the barrier of sin had made it impossible for us as imperfect people to relate to this perfect God. And yet Christ had come, better than any of the systems or ceremonies of the old covenant. And he had come to take care of the problem, to remove the barrier. And against the backdrop of the temple and the tabernacle, he says that barrier between us and the presence of God has been removed. Not just symbolically, it’s been removed in a very real way, a judicial way from heaven’s perspective. And now we have the right to enter into a real and a personal relationship with God.

And that’s a bunch of church-ese and ecclesiastical vocabulary that, for most of us, we just yawn our way through. Relationship with God. Yeah, I’ve heard that. I know that. I’ve got one. But in reality, if you ponder that phrase for a moment, it’s a bit of a curiosity. It can be a bit absurd to a person who comes and skeptically looks at what you’re saying, that you as a person sitting here today in the 21st century in America, you’re going to have some kind of personal relationship with this spirit being that’s invisible, that exists in some other dimension we call heaven, and you’re going to have a relationship with this person? That’s seemingly absurd.

Well, it’s a bunch like the absurdity it must have been had someone come up after time travel and talked to somebody 100 years ago and said, consider this comparison, that you had met someone this week in a chat room on your computer. Now think of what that would do to someone 100 years ago. You met them where? Well, it was on the computer. In a room? What kind of room? Well, it wasn’t really a room. You met them? How can you meet someone in your computer? Well, you know, it’s kind of an online relationship. Well, what kind of relationship can you… Where is this person? Well, I don’t know, hundreds of thousands of miles away. Well, I have a… Actually, I’ve really been into it, going to have a budding cyber romance, actually, that’s going on. You’re emotionally connected to someone who you’ve never met personally, you’ve never been in the same room with, through some electronic bits in a computer. Yeah, I actually have.

Can you imagine telling someone that? That you have some kind of feelings for someone, some kind of real heartfelt intertwining of two hearts, and you’re geographically removed? They’d think that would be absurd, you having relationships in cyberspace. They’d think there’s a little extra space in your head because they don’t think that you can have a genuine close relationship with someone who’s geographically distant. They don’t think that you can somehow be emotionally connected with someone that you’re not physically in the same proximity with. And yet that’s exactly what we’re saying about our relationship with God.

And indeed, it is very real, so much so that divorce lawyers say that one third of all divorces today are taking place, and one of the elements of controversy is some kind of online relationship. People are having genuine, real relationship with people they’ve never even physically met, and that happens, as we know, all the time. In the headlines, some of us have seen it firsthand, and we know what that’s all about.

In reality, though, I hope I wouldn’t have to explain to you that you can have a very real and personal relationship with the creator of the world that you’ve never seen, that’s invisible, that lives in another dimension called heaven. I assume that doesn’t take a lot of persuasion because, as Psalm 100 says, we have this innate sense that if he is our creator and he is our God, then we are his people. We are, as he poetically says in Psalm 103, the sheep of his pasture, and we have this innate draw to relate to the person that made us.

And philosophers and theologians have been saying this for centuries. Pascal, for instance, says that we have in our hearts this God-shaped abyss, he calls it. Some people credit him with the phrase God-shaped vacuum, but the word he really used was this huge abyss, this hole. He says nothing finite can fill it, only that which is infinite. Or as Augustine so memorably said, that God has created us for himself and our hearts are restless until we find rest in thee. Remember that phrase? Or how about C.S. Lewis in his book Mere Christianity, and he says it so well, “I find in myself,” Lewis says, “a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy. And the most probable explanation is that I have been made for something that’s not of this world.”

And most of us resonate with that. And for all the airtime we give the atheists, there are in America now, all the polls would agree, only less than one half of 1% of Americans that would get up and say, there is no God. Most of us innately know it. As John Calvin says, we have a sense of divinity. And that sense of divinity draws us in some way to recognize and to seek this relationship with our creator. And so it is that we will desire it. We will know it. We will inherently feel it. And in reality, the Bible says because of Christ, we can have it.

And the problem is, unless we have one and develop it, our lives, our hearts will be a mess until we give it due attention. Oh, it may be that your life looks okay on the outside, but your heart will be a mess, as Augustine said, until you find the connection with your creator and really cultivate that relationship the way the book of Hebrews is about to unpack.

And I say that because in verse number 19 of Hebrews chapter 10, if you have it open, he’s turning a corner. That “therefore” that begins verse number 19 is a huge mark of demarcation between this great section of doctrinal comparisons. And now from here to the end of the book, he’s going to describe what it means to relate closely with the living God. With all the doctrine in place, a lot like the Pauline epistles, the writer of Hebrews says, now it’s time for us to make sure that we’re putting this to work in our lives and that you and I are cultivating a real and genuine relationship with God.

The backdrop, the tabernacle, the temple, the analogy, it’s spatial, that we can have, as we often say about human relationships, a closer relationship with God. Look at how he describes it, beginning in verse number 19, when he says, “Brothers, therefore, since we have confidence to enter the most holy place”—and that was the inner sanctum of the Old Testament worship structure, this place where symbolically the presence of God dwelt—“we can get in with God by,” and here he explains it, “the blood of Jesus,” which we’d had chapters explaining what that was all about, “by the new and living way opened up for us through the curtain.” And there was a curtain that hung between the holy of holies and the holy place. But it’s not the curtain he’s referring to. He’s talking to the clefting of the body of Christ. All this mixing of analogies here. Verse 21, “and since we have this great high priest over the house of God,” a discussion which began in chapter 2, now we have the one verb, the main verb of our entire paragraph. Verse number 22, underscore: “Let us draw near to God.”

If we have all that, we are in with God. We have a relationship with God through Christ. Now here’s the onus that we have. Let’s draw near to him. Let’s get closer to him. Let’s better this relationship that we have with God. And do it with a sincere heart, verse 22. And make sure these things are in place, that you have a full assurance of faith. That you’ve had your hearts sprinkled to cleanse you from a guilty conscience. That you’ve had your bodies washed with pure water. And ultimately, he sums up, let us hold unswervingly to this hope that we professed because he who promised is faithful.

Can you see how this paragraph and this sentence give us this sense of everything we’ve talked about in the book? And everything from this point on will unpack what it means to draw close to God. For the next five weeks, with the rest of chapter 10, all we want to do is talk about what are the elements, the components, the keys to me having a closer relationship with the living God. How do I draw near to him? What does that mean? How do I get close to God?

Now, with all this preparatory verbiage, with all this that we have in verses 19 and 20 and 21 and 22 that talk about the foundation of it, I suppose we should take our cues from the content here and step back and say, okay, before we talk about what it is to better our relationship, he’s gone to a lot of effort to talk about how we have a relationship. Let’s spend some time doing that.

1. Make Sure You Have One

So number one on your outline, if you found your worksheet in the worship packet, pull it out and jot this down. Number one, you and I, before we better our relationship with God, we better, number one, make sure we have one. I mean, let’s just make sure we have one.

And remember this: in the book of Hebrews, so much of the book of Hebrews has been an effort to say you can go to church, you can have some kind of ecclesiastical church experience, and never really be connected with God. So this review, I think, is important for us, again, to at least throw up our hand and say, let’s pause for a minute and make sure that if I think I have a relationship with God, I have it the way that he’s explaining it here. Make sure that I have a relationship with God that is founded on and is defined by the things that are listed here.

Take a look at them, verse number 19. He says, “Since we have confidence to enter the most holy place,” if we’re in with God, here’s the things that it will be based on. Number one, it’ll be by the blood of Jesus. It’ll be by a new and living way opened up for us through the curtain that is his body. Since we have a great high priest over the house of God—and these are all the things we’ve explained in the book of Hebrews already—Christ has done the work for us. He lived a life as our high priest, our representative. He’s gone as the sacrifice and died in our place. He did the work.

Let’s just summarize it this way. Letter A under number one, a relationship with God, based on those phrases, we need to understand this: it is something that is based on the work of Christ. Just jot that down. A relationship with God, letter A, is based on the work of Christ.

And that may be like, oh, a big yawner. I’ve heard that. Great. But do you know how many people will gather in churches and all kinds of places of worship this weekend that will think that the relationship they have with God is based on what they do, not on what Christ has done? And that’s a critical distinction. And I know we talk about it all the time, but it is the essence of what it means to be a part of a group of people that hail the Bible as the chief authority that allows us to understand salvation is something based not on my work and not on my effort, but on the work of Christ. And that’s a huge distinction. It’s what the Protestant Reformation was all about. The gospel is based on the fact that I can be right with God on the work of another and not on the work of myself.

How many people will say to you, I’ve said it a million times, if you ask them, “Are you going to go to heaven when you die?” what do they say? “I hope so. I’m hoping. I’m trying.” See, as soon as you give that answer, you reveal that you think that your entrance into the most holy place is based on your work. And the Bible clearly says it’s not. It’s based on his work. Any relationship with God will be because of Christ.

Now, I know you know this verse, but jot down the reference. John chapter 14, do you remember this text? Verse number 6, Jesus says to the disciples, “I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life, and no one will come to the Father except through me.” It’s the only way. It’s the only way. And chapter 6 was all about these people—we entitled the series Almost a Christian—who sat around in churches just like this one, listening to the preaching of the gospel based on Jesus Christ, and they thought they were saved, but they weren’t because they thought it was about their own efforts. They thought it was about themselves, and it really was about trusting in someone else’s work.

And how many people think they have a relationship with God because their lives are bettered by a bunch of sermons, their lives are enhanced by a bunch of moral good relationships with other Christians, and they’re like people sitting there tossing out IMs and emails to God. They’re going nowhere. They’re not attached. They’re not connected at all, but they’re having a cathartic experience kind of expressing themselves to God and looking around and learning from these other people. But in reality, their laptop is not connected at all. There’s no connection. It happens all the time.

And so we need to clarify what a relationship with God is. How do I connect with God? How do I establish this relationship? It begins with this, knowing that it’s not about your work, it’s about his. And Jesus wanted to make that crystal clear by making sure everyone knew it by providentially designing that his death would be between two criminals, one of which would say at the last moments of his life, “I trust in you. You are the Son of God. I believe in you.” He puts his confidence in Christ, and Jesus looks at him and says, “Today you’ll be with me in paradise.” You’ve got it.

How does that work, that a guy that lived his life for debauchery and crime and thievery on that… how can he be right before God? It’s that internal struggle we have when we hear about that guy in prison who’s had this terrible life as a murderer or a rapist, and then he gets Jesus in prison, and all of a sudden we go, oh, that’s just baloney. Now, some of it is, I understand, they’re trying to work their parole or whatever it is. But some of those people, if they genuinely, like the thief on the cross, put their trust in Christ, the Bible says, see, that’s it. Salvation is not based on your work or your morals. It’s based on what God has done for you.

How do we enter the most holy place? By our good works? Is that what it says? No, it’s just the opposite. It’s by the sacrifice of Christ, verses 19 and 20. It’s by the life of Jesus, verse 21. Were you here for the Christmas Eve service? I mean, that was the important summary of the gospel. He lived in my place. He died in my place. That work, if it’s applied to me, and Mike Fabarez and Jesus Christ can exchange resumes on this earth at some point, even if it’s the last moment, which I don’t recommend because you never know when that might be, you can exchange resumes with God and all of a sudden now you have access into a relationship with God. It’s based on his work that he’s done, not on your work.

And that will distinguish churches throughout the country and around the world this morning, because people all over the place are hoping they do enough good work to get in with God. That’s not the gospel. You know that, right? That’s Christianity 101. You’ve been there. You got that all figured out.

Number two, letter B. Not only is it that a relationship with God is based on the work of Christ. Take a look at what it says in verse number 22. I’m to draw near to God with a sincere heart. Now he’s going to list some things that are in place in my life. The first one is “in full assurance of,” here’s a key biblical word, what is it? Faith. Okay? I know this, that the Christian life, the relationship with God that ushers me into a possibility of relating to my creator, is not only based on the work of Christ. It is, letter B, inaugurated by this thing called faith.

But let’s use this word, because faith is so often misdefined in the modern era. Let’s just use this word. It’s inaugurated by trusting Christ. That’s what pistis, the Greek word, means. Pisteuō, the verb, it means to trust. I’m placing my confidence in someone else. So there are two components to this. I can enter into a relationship with God if, number one, Christ does the work for me, and secondly, I put my trust in what Christ has done. And those two elements are distinct throughout the Scripture, and sometimes we miss it. It’s not just that Christ has done something for me. He now calls me to trust in what he’s done for me. Those are two separate elements, and that gives me access to God.

Let me show you a great verse that you’ve probably read over a hundred times and never stopped to see these components. It’s found in Ephesians chapter 3. Turn to Ephesians chapter 3 and look at these components laid side by side in this great text that Paul is writing to the Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 3. We read this—I mean, I have such a familiar New Testament book, the book of Ephesians—and look at both of these elements right here side by side. Ephesians 3, are you there? Drop down to verse number 12. Ephesians 3:12. Two components. “In him,” that’s the first component. Verse 12, who’s that pronoun referring to? Look up at verse 11. Christ Jesus our Lord, right? “In him,” in Christ Jesus our Lord, “and,” here it comes, “through faith in him.” Do you see the two components? In him and through faith in him, “we may approach God with freedom and confidence.” Isn’t that a great statement? What a great summary of the gospel.

It’s in him, his work that he’s accomplished for us, and in faith in him. There are a lot of people that mentally assent to the facts of the gospel. They believe, and by that they mean they affirm the indicative facts that Jesus lived and died for them, but they do not trust in him. And that’s what the word faith means. And you’ve got to not only affirm the facts and say, “I understand that Jesus lived and died for me.” I now have to trust in him. That if I’m going to have a relationship with a holy God as an imperfect person, I’ve got to trust in him. That’s the transaction. How do I enter into the holy place? How do I get this relationship with God? I better put my trust in him. I better come into his presence with a full assurance of trust or faith. And that’s a distinctive element. Can’t do it on my own, and I’ve got to inaugurate the relationship by trusting in him.

Thirdly, back to Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. Now there’s two components to letter C here. And let’s realize they’re rich in symbolism and analogy. But I’m to draw near to God with a sincere heart and full assurance of faith. Here’s some things that should already be in place. They’re in the perfect tense, as you see here in the middle of verse 22. Having, here’s some things that are in place, our hearts sprinkled—which was an Old Testament symbol, the hyssop branch in the blood of the Passover lamb and it’s sprinkled on the people in Moses’ day and it’s put on the doorposts. You know the picture—sprinkled. What does that do? To cleanse us from a guilty conscience. And having our bodies washed with pure water.

There are two things listed there. And the first one is a bit subjective, and the second one is a bit more objective. But the first one is that I’ve had my conscience cleansed from this guilt that I felt when I was excluded from this relationship with God. And when I enter into it now, all of a sudden I have this relief. The guilt goes away. And then there’s this statement—we’ll unpack it here in a minute—that our bodies were washed with pure water. Let’s summarize it this way, then we’ll explain it. Letter C. Our relationship with God is not only based on what Christ has done. It’s not only inaugurated by my faith or trust. Number three, it is something that is evidenced by two things: by relief and by obedience. We’ll tie those together. By relief and obedience.

Relief from what? Relief from the feeling that I’m not acceptable to be relating to a holy God. The feeling that I can’t have a relationship with a holy God. It’s why, as many have said, even though we have an inherent understanding of God, as Romans 1 says, we have God’s law written in our hearts in a faint way through the conscience of men, as Romans 2 says, and seeing the attributes of God, there is this sense that I can’t approach it. And we start to distort the picture of God, and we suppress the picture of God because of our lives of sin. And because of our guilt, unfortunately, we often go down the wrong paths in this innate and inherent feeling and sense of God.

So what’s the problem? Well, I have sin. I have a guilty conscience, and it will probably lead me away from God. But when I come to Christ and I enter into a relationship with Christ, this guilt is taken away. Jot this down, if you would, a cross-reference. And we’ve looked at it before, Psalm 32. And man, it’s important. So let’s look at it. Once you jot it down, let’s turn to Psalm 32. Psalm 32. You remember David here. He is… he’s tweaked in his conscience because he’s done a really, really bad thing. Not only has he stared through the window at this bathing beauty across the street named Bathsheba, he’s gone after her, called her in, he’s had a sexual relationship with her, he’s got her pregnant. He tried to cover it up by bringing Uriah, her husband, back from the battlefield. He wouldn’t have sex with his wife because he was a dedicated soldier and he wasn’t going to do that. Unfortunately he couldn’t cover it up, so he tells the commander to send him into the front lines and retreat, and oops, don’t tell Uriah. And actually what he does is has him murdered, has him killed.

So he’s a murderer and an adulterer, and he’s covering it up like most people try to do. They cover it, see? And he has this guilt that he’s carrying around, that he cannot face God, he cannot be in a relationship with God, he’s carrying that guilt. And look at how he describes it in Psalm 32. Are you there? Look at verse number 3. “When I kept silent,” when I was covering it up, “my bones, they were wasting away through my groaning all day long. Day and night your hand was heavy upon me,” he says of God. “It was like you’re pressing down on me. My strength, it was sapped as in the heat of summer.” Verse 5, but he says, “Then I acknowledged my sin to you and I didn’t cover up my iniquity. I said, ‘I’ll confess my transgressions to Yahweh.’” He’s going to now come clean. He’s going to tell God, you’re right. I sinned. I’m wrong. That’s what confession’s all about. And look what the Bible says. “You forgave”—now this is an important phrase—“the guilt of my sin.”

You had that heavy load like in Pilgrim’s Progress. Remember that old classic story? And it was like that burden I carried. But then when I stepped into this relationship with God, how does it happen? By knowing that Christ has done the work for me and placing my faith in what he’s done for me, then it was like that guilt was removed, see? Now, if we’ve gotten into a relationship with God, all of us should be able to come up to the microphone and say, you know what? I’ve experienced that. And I know it’s subjective, but I can say that I have an evidence of a relationship with God because that sense of unworthiness, that sense of a barrier, it was removed when I confessed my sin to God in a repentant heart, trusting in Christ. And now as I stand before God, I feel that sense of the burden removed. The guilt of my sin was removed.

Okay? I know you’re not very expressive, but you can nod with me with your eyeballs here a little bit. Yeah, I’ve experienced that. I know that, Mike. Just squint a little bit. Yeah. I know that feeling. If you know that feeling, that’s evidence of a relationship that you have with the living God. Because he takes away the guilt of your sin. You enter in, as Paul said in Ephesians 3, with confidence. You approach him now with confidence. Why? Because the guilt is removed.

Secondly, back in Hebrews chapter 10, it says in that same verse, in verse number 22, we’ve also had our bodies washed with pure water. Okay? Now that is a clear double entendre. And a lot of us go quickly to thinking about the thing that is symbolic in the New Testament of people coming to Christ, the picture of baptism. And though I think that’s clearly the second part of the entendre here, the real point of this is something that is throughout the Scriptures, the picture of the Holy Spirit washing us clean. And that’s where you get the word pure. Because I’ve been to Israel; there’s no pure water over there. You’re not going to get washed in any baptismal tank or river or anything in pure water.
The picture of water is even throughout the New Testament. Paul writes to Titus and he talks about the washing of the Holy Spirit and he analogizes that with the picture of water. Jesus, in his discussion with Nicodemus in John 3, talks about the fact we have to be born of water. There’s something about that rich symbolism that even goes back to the Old Testament Levitical ablutions and washings that is clearly speaking of something that God does to our hearts. He washes us with pure water.

Now that’s a picture, but it couldn’t have been avoided in the minds of the first century churchgoer that it also brought them back to the day that they stepped up and were obedient to the call of Christ. Not only to say, “I’ll follow him”—that’s the making of disciples—but the baptizing of the following, right? Of the followers. That was something that was going on all over the place. And when you have an analogy or a phrase like that, “having our bodies washed with pure water,” the double entendre is: I’ve had my sins washed away by God, by the Holy Spirit, but I’ve also remembered toweling off after being in the river and having the pastor dunk me in a pool of water or a river of water. I remember that.

And why I think that’s so significant here is that’s more of the objective evidence of a relationship with God. And that is simply an act of obedience. As a matter of fact, baptism is the first act of obedience. We’re supposed to go and make disciples, and then they’re supposed to do what Christ said, which was to be baptized in water.

Does baptism save you? No. Does feeling relief from our guilt save us? No. These are just evidences of being a forgiven person who stands in the presence of God. And so it is that these people said, you know what, I remember that. Not only was I washed by God and made clean in my heart, I remember toweling off after a baptism service that I was a part of, which proves that I’m willing to not just listen to Christ and trust him for salvation, but that trust, that faith, as Paul wrote in Romans chapter 1, is a faith that brings about obedience. It is—here’s how Paul said it—the obedience that comes from faith. And it starts for every Christian in the New Testament by not only trusting Christ, but being baptized.

Some of you are starting to feel guilty, feel the cloud of guilt starting to get on your shoulders, getting a little heavy right now. That’s because some of you have never been baptized. Does baptism save you? If you’ve been in this church long enough and you’ve heard me talk about it, that’s a trick question. And you should stop and say, “Well, yes and no.” And then your follow-up question should be, “Which one?”

Because the baptism of Christ placing me into him and into this relationship with him—that’s baptizō. That’s what the Greek word means: being placed into Christ. Yeah, that saves me. But the symbol, the external expression of that reality of being baptized into water, no, that doesn’t save me. It’s an evidence of my salvation. It is an act of obedience and shows that Christ is now my Lord and my King and I do what he says.

So the question for you and I is, have we been baptized after we’ve placed our trust in Christ? And if you’re feeling guilt about that, here’s the great—this is the good guy that I am—I’m going to solve all that for you right now, okay? Because I planned a baptismal service for those of you that have never been baptized after placing your trust in Christ. For February the 11th. See? And you shouldn’t be embarrassed to write that down because you’re going to be obedient to get baptized. So just, you can jot it down or remember it, right? February, double toothpicks, 11.

We’re going to go down—and because we got this church, we acquired a church which doesn’t have a baptismal—so we’re going to go back to the UTSD, as we call it affectionately, the Saddleback Valley Christian School. And we got an agreement with them, and we got our great big plastic blow-up pool, right? Which has a heater in it. I know, February 11th, polar bear baptism—what is this? It’s okay. Thick towels we’ll have there. Wow, these nice changing booths.

What I want you to do is, if you look at this and say, I have a relationship with God, but that letter C thing—well, I felt the forgiveness of my sin, but I’ve never been obedient in baptism—we’re going to solve it. And the first step for you is when you’re done with this message, I want you to walk through those four doors. I want you to go to the table that George Agawa will be sitting at. He’ll have a stack of books about what baptism is all about. The subtitle is so appropriate. It’s called The First Act of Obedience. That’s what it is. It’s an act of obedience.

It may not be the first for you because you put it off. But I want you to get on our list. I want you to read the book. I want you to tell George, I’m there. I’m a part of this. It’s going to happen after our third service on February 11th. So we’ll have our Saturday services. We’ll have our two morning services. And then in mid-afternoon, I think at 3 o’clock, we’re going to go down under the sycamore tree. We’re going to wear our coats and pray for warm Southern California weather. And then we’re going to baptize everybody who needs to be obedient to this command, okay?

So, okay, you can rest easy and check this one off because God wants us all to respond obediently to Christ’s command to be baptized, okay? You know who you are. And I can see by the looks on your face who you are also. So, as I can see the top of your head, as you’re looking at your notes, make sure you have a relationship with God.

Before we, in the next five weeks, talk about bettering our relationship with God, let’s make sure we have one. Let’s make sure you don’t think it’s about your work. No, it’s about Christ. Make sure that it’s not a mental assent about Christ’s work. It’s a trusting in what Christ has done. And then make sure that you can look at the evidence in your life and say, yeah—not only have I felt the freedom from guilt, I’ve had not only my heart washed by the Holy Spirit, you know what? I’ve walked through the whole process, the symbolic process of baptism, okay?

If you got the relationship with God, now we’re going to work on improving it.

Now the main verb in this text is found there in verse number 22. This is really what the text is all about, this one phrase: “let us draw near to God with a sincere heart,” okay? Now the rest of the whole book of Hebrews is going to try to unpack that concept. What does that mean? What does that look like? What does it mean to be close to God, to draw near to God? Okay, but that’s what we’re talking about.

Now remember, that’s a spatial analogy. You can’t get any closer to God spatially than you are right now, okay? That’s an analogy. What I’m talking about—and that’s a spatial analogy—we use it today about being close to our wife or being close to a friend. It’s really not about physical proximity. It’s about real emotional closeness. It’s about relational and personal connectedness. Okay? So the concept here is about my relationship. If I’m in a relationship with God, making it better.

2. Let Us Always Seek to Better It

So let’s just jot it down that way. Number two on your outline. Let’s just say it this way: let us always seek to better it.

And if you’re leaning back going, smoking your Christian cigar, going, “I got it wired. You know, I’ve been in it for years. I know more than everybody else. I teach Sunday school.” Look again at this text and realize it begins in the sentence in verse number 19 by him saying “brothers” and moving from second-person pronouns to first-person plural pronouns. And that should be a little convicting.

The writer of the book, the guy who’s out there elaborating on deep themes of theology like Melchizedek, he now says “brothers,” and then look at verse number 22. I wish I could unpack the Greek grammar of this—the way it’s done, it’s so powerful. It’s “let us all draw near to God.” I need to. You need to. We need to. Let’s all get closer to God.

And so don’t think—and that’s why the word always is in this point—that somehow because you’ve reached some level of maturity that you don’t need to. There’s room for improvement in your life. There’s room for improvement in my life. The depth and richness of a relationship with God always has room for progress.

As a matter of fact, the Apostle Paul—arguably the most mature Christian we’ve ever read about, used to pen half of the New Testament—what does he say about his own Christian experience in Philippians chapter 3? “Oh, I haven’t attained it yet. I’m not there. I haven’t become perfect.” I mean, here’s a guy who’s just showing the virtues of the Christian life in mega-big, large quantities, and he says this: I’m just pressing on. I’m moving ahead. I got to forget what’s behind and I got to go forward.

See, if there’s room for progress in Paul’s life, if the writer of Hebrews says, “Brothers, let us all do this. I need to do it. You need to do it,” then I think all of us need to say, you know what? In this new year, 2007, there is room for growth in my relationship with God. I can be closer to him.

And again, that’s a spatial word. I can have a better relationship, a more intimate relationship, a more personal relationship with God than I’ve ever had—even if I feel like I’ve attained to some level that makes me a little bit more knowledgeable or godly than the person I’m sitting next to. Congratulations, you’re more godly than the person you’re sitting next to. Great. Let us, though, press on, as Paul said, to really move into a deeper level of intimacy with God.

I tell you, that is the goal and should be the goal. You want to talk about a New Year’s message? That should be the goal for all of us. And Bobby did a great job last week really prepping us for that. Let’s just seek to be with him. Let’s want to sit in his presence, as that Hebrew word said. That was a great, great text. And for us, we need to do the same. We need to say, I’m committed to that.

Now here’s the problem I have. He drops this exhortation in verse 22 and then really doesn’t give us much other than verse 23 in this paragraph to explain what that looks like. He’s going to take the next few chapters—the bottom of chapter 10, chapter 11, chapter 12, and chapter 13—to explain it all to us.

And since I’m not that good to be able to preach the whole rest of the book in one message or one point, bear with me and give me a little latitude to go to a place where in six consecutive verses we have, in a nice compact way, a great list of things that are going to be unpacked throughout the rest of the book of Hebrews.

And I found this great passage that pulls this all together and in six consecutive verses gives us a great summary of the kinds of things that need to be in place to better our relationship with God—all of which will be explained in one way or another in the rest of the book of Hebrews.

And we’ll find that over there in Psalm 73.

So turn with me, if you’d give me that latitude this morning, to the book of Psalms and turn to Psalm 73. It’s a Psalm of Asaph. And he goes through all these mental contortions about his struggles and his difficulties, and he gets to the last part of this Psalm.

And if you drop down to the bottom, I’ll just give you the theme of it. It’s found in verse number 28. Psalm 73, verse 28. And again, I use this text because it’s a spatial analogy. It’s exactly what we’re talking about here in Hebrews chapter 10, verse 22.

And he says, “But as for me”—listen to his resolve—“it is good to be near God.” I just want to be near him.

And what does that mean? He wants to be physically closer to him? No, no, no. He’s talking about a relationship that’s more deep. It’s more intimate. It’s more personal. He draws closer to him.

“As for me, it is good to be near God.” That’s the theme of the text.

But let’s go back up six verses and start in verse 23. And just quickly here, without getting writer’s cramp, very simple phrases. I know there’s a lot of pointy fingers there—six pointy fingers—six simple phrases that summarize what it means.

What are the keys to getting close to God? And this will summarize the rest of the book of Hebrews.

Are you with me?

A. Be Mindful of His Presence

Verse 23. Psalm 73:23. Asaph says, “Yet I am always with you”—this is highly poetic language—“and you hold me by my right hand.”

A couple concepts there. “Yet I am always with you,” this continuum of, you know, I’m in your presence. And it’s like you hold me by my right hand. Of course he’s not walking around like this all day. This is all poetic about, in his mind, he is aware of God’s awareness of him. His mind is directed to God.

Okay, let’s put it this way. Pointy finger, letter A, number one: we need to be mindful of his presence.

You cannot better your relationship with God unless you, in your brain, are thinking about God’s presence. If you are not aware of his awareness of you—if you do not think about a person—you cannot get closer to the person. If you are not aware of that person’s awareness of you, you will not enrich your relationship with that person.

You have to be thinking about the fact that you and God are walking this path together like he is holding your hand. Do you see that? Real simple.

Let us be mindful of his presence.

Are you aware of his presence every day? Do you think about it five times? If you started to think about it ten times, and then by June thought about it twenty times, and then by October thought about it forty-five times a day, I guarantee you by the time we get to 2008, see, you’re going to have a better and deeper, more intimate relationship with God.

So we need to start the new year going, yeah, I got to think about this more. I’ve got to remember that God is with me.

And isn’t that how he leaves us? Isn’t that how Jesus told the disciples in Matthew 20? What’s the last thing after the Great Commission? What’s the last tagline? “Lo, I am with you always.” Don’t forget that. I’m with you all the time.

What does God say repeatedly in the Bible? “I will never leave you. I will never forsake you.”

God is trying to make it clear. Think of me. Think of me and think about how I’m thinking of you. No relationship can get improved without that.

God says he’s thinking about every hair follicle on my head. There’s not one hair that I lose—and I’m losing them at a rapid rate—that he doesn’t say, “Oh, there goes another one.” See? Poor Mike.

He’s thinking of me, and I need to be thinking about him thinking of me. And if we don’t think together like that, we’ll never improve our relationship.

You should better your relationship with God. And in summary form, let’s at least start with this: we need to be mindful of his presence.

B. Be Deferential to His Counsel

Verse 24, letter B.

“You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.”

Let’s think that one through.

You guide me. I got my hand on his hand. I’m thinking of him. And now as I’m walking down this path, I’m starting to go down this exit. And then I think about God and I think, you know what? His counsel is not to go there. His counsel is to go here.

So I start to defer to his counsel, and I make decisions in my day based on what God says, based on what God’s preferences are.

Okay, let’s put it this way. I not only, letter A, need to be mindful of his presence. Letter B, I need to be deferential to his counsel.

And if you want to put your ear up against the clouds and start to listen—“God, what is your counsel?”—God’s going to point you back to the place where he’s recorded his counsel. And his counsel is recorded in that book that’s on your lap.

That’s where God has spoken.

Here is God’s Word. As J. Vernon McGee’s old bumper music says, “What more can he say than to you he has said?” You got a book in your lap.

And that needs to be a part of your New Year’s resolution: to get that book into your life, because it’s full of his counsel for your daily life.

So I need to be committed continually to thinking through: I’m holding his hand, I’m thinking about him being mindful of me, I’m mindful of his presence. And when it comes to my daily decisions, I got to start thinking, what would God want me to do here? What is his counsel about this?

That means I got to get into the Word of God. I need to think about God. I need to get into the Word of God. I need to bring that to bear on decisions of my life. I need to defer to his counsel.

Are you reading through the Bible with us? I know Pete gets up here and says it, and you go, “Oh, I’m behind already.” Just don’t worry about that. Can you just take the schedule? It’s on the back. Flip over your worksheets. There in that little box—just today—do today’s reading, okay?

Let’s just start there. And every day, let’s just get into that.

At the basic level, just read through the Bible with us and look for God’s counsel for your life as you find it in the pages of Scripture.

“You guide me by your counsel, and afterward you will receive me into glory.”
Verse 25, letter C. “Whom have I in heaven but you?” Now this is highly poetic. “And earth has nothing I desire besides you.” Here all of a sudden he has this sense that I’m thinking of you, I’m guided by you, and when it really comes down to it, when I think about being with you—see, man, that’s a good thing. Matter of fact, I desire that more than other things. And when I have an option here between being tantalized and satisfied by the things of the world, I realize it’s really not as good as being satisfied and finding joy in my presence with you, in my relationship with you.

Let’s put it this way. This may sound a bit crass or hedonistic, but let’s put it down. Letter C: let us be desirous of his blessings. And the blessings I’m talking about is relating to him—the kind of thing that I have when I say, you know what, I just want to be with God.

And again, if that sounds crass or selfish, just recognize that’s the kind of hedonism that we want. As John Piper says on the reading list on the back—I think I listed that book; I think I listed two by Piper this week—one of them is Desiring God: Confessions of a Christian Hedonist or something like that. Great book if you haven’t read it. Because it all comes down to that.

The one thing I should desire, as C.S. Lewis said, the one thing that is the ultimate fulfillment of all these other little desires in my life is for me to connect relationally with my creator.

And if I could just learn and cultivate that desire this year and say, I want to find the joy and fulfillment that comes by deepening my relationship with God. And some of us don’t even try to cultivate that. We’re so busy with all the glitz and the flash of the world that we’re sucking all that in. And God says, can you put all that aside for a little bit? Can you warm up to a little bit of the desire of verse 25 to where you can start to say time with me is really better than time with these other things?

And I think the older we get as people, we start to recognize that because we start to see how plastic and how cheap a lot of the things in the world are, right? We start to recognize it really doesn’t fulfill anyway. The only thing that is really fulfilling is for me to find that joy in God’s presence, okay? And there’s nothing wrong with that kind of hedonism. That’s the kind of pursuit that we want.

As a matter of fact, keep your finger here and turn back with me to Psalm—don’t lose Psalm 73 because we’re going to get back to it—but Psalm 16. Thank you. Forgot the reference. Psalm 16.

In Psalm 16, a great text, verse number 11, okay? Which, again, don’t think this is so crass, because isn’t that the kind of thing that drives you to deepen a relationship with a human being? Think about it. I mean, think about that. You want to be with that person because there’s something joyful or fulfilling or satisfying about being with that person, right? I want to spend more time with him. Why? Because it’s good. I feel good. It’s satisfying when I spend time with them. See, that’s the kind of desire we need to cultivate.

Take a look at this great phrase in Psalm 16, verse 11. “You’ve made known to me the path of life.” It’s much like letter B in Psalm 73:24, guiding me with your counsel. I’m walking on your path. It’s great. “And you fill me with the joy of your presence with eternal pleasures at your right hand.”

See, there’s a key verse for the Christian hedonist. There’s the idea of saying, man, I really want to desire that more. And the more I taste that, the more I experience that, the less these other things on earth, you know, are in terms of fulfillment for me.

And there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s like the old hymn—the last hymn my grandfather ever sang, the last day he was alive. See, “the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.” Remember that old hymn? What a great… and you know, the more we experience and deepen that relationship with God this year, the more we’ll recognize the other things just really aren’t worth putting a whole lot of effort into.

D. Let Us Be Dependent on His Help

Letter D, number four. Back to Psalm 73. Psalm 73, verse number 26. It says, “My flesh and my heart may fail.” Okay, now that may sound dramatic like a guy on cardiac arrest at Mission Hospital. That’s not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about something less than that. We’re talking about the times when the psalmist says, oh, my heart—oh, it aches. It hurts. I’m bummed out. I’m depressed.

But look at this. When I feel that way, God—look at the resolve—he’s the strength of my heart, and he is my portion forever. He’s the satisfaction. He’s what I need. See, I love that phrase. It’s great. The concept that, you know, when I have a need, when I’m hurting, when I’m struggling, you know, I’m going to look to God, and he’s going to be the answer to that. He’s going to fulfill that.

Letter D, let’s put it down this way. We need—not only to be mindful of his presence, deferential to his counsel, desirous of his blessings—number four: let us be dependent on his help.

And again, if that sounds, wow, why should I—you know, we want a more equal relationship here. You don’t have an equal relationship with God. God is perfect. You are not. You will have needs and struggles. He will not, see? And so what we need to do is recognize that his role in this relationship is to be a helper.

And I know we’ve demeaned that word in our society, but you’ve got to realize that that is such an important word that God applies to himself. The same Hebrew word that we sniff at in the beginning of the creation story when Eve is called a helper to Adam—God takes that word and he says, that’s what I am to you. I am going to be, man and woman, your helper. I’m going to be the one that is going to come alongside of you and support you and give you help because you’re a needy person.

And the bottom line is, when it comes down to New Testament truths, what does Jesus say? He calls the Spirit that’s going to live in our lives the parakletos, the helper. He’s going to come alongside and shore me up. And that’s God’s role.

And here’s the problem. When he offers that and he’s qualified for that and we don’t take him up on that, that’s not good. That won’t help our relationship. To fulfill the roles in our relationship is to say, God, this year I’m going to depend on you and seek your help more than I’ve ever sought it before.

I’m going to be mindful of your presence. I’m going to be deferential to your counsel. I’m going to seek you and want to be with you and be desirous of your blessings. And I’m going to be dependent on your help. Those things will improve your relationship with God.

E. Let Us Be Fearful of His Absence

Next verse, 27, letter E, number five. “Those who are far from you”—now look at this radical change. We’re just talking about how great it is to be with God, and God is a great helper. Now all of a sudden we get this from left field. “Well, those that are far from you, man, that’s not good.” You can see him shudder, right? He just has this chill.

“Those that are far from you, man, they perish, and you’re going to destroy all those who are unfaithful to you.” And those people walking away from you, those people that don’t want you, those people that are turning their backs on you—man, that’s bad. And he has this time of going—you can see that there.

See, the text here—and I think it’s helpful in any good relationship to invert it every now and then—and it makes us thankful and grateful and it enriches our relationship when we can be… this may be a bit of an overstatement, but jot it down.

Number five, letter E: let us be fearful of his absence. And that’s helpful in so many ways. Let us be fearful of his absence.

Not that I can lose my standing with Christ if I’m adopted into his family and a genuine Christian, okay? We’re not talking about that. I’m talking about, I want to contrast my relationship with God with those that don’t have one.

Does that ever make you shudder? It ought to. I mean, you know what that ought to do too? It ought to make you cling to Christ a little closer. That ought to make you reach out for God and want to bring him closer into your life. It should make you want to draw closer into the presence of… it ought to make you want to draw near to God.

Why? Because you’re looking at people that don’t have this relationship. You’re looking at people that turn their backs on this wonderful privilege and opportunity to relate to their creator in order to drive you to say, I want more of this.

We ought to be fearful of his absence. Not that we’re going to lose our standing with God, but in contrast, I think I’m so grateful for standing here in the presence of God. I’ll cherish that relationship when I consider what it would be like to be without it.

And the implications, by the way, for evangelism are huge. And if you don’t have a good relationship with God, you may look at what Pete got up here and said, “Well, let’s do evangelism together,” and you go, “Oh wow, that sounds scary. I don’t want to do that.”

You know, our Thursday night evangelism class ought to be packed because if people have a good relationship with God, they shudder when they think about the non-Christians that live around this building. They shudder when they think, what is it going to be like for those people that do not relate to God? They will incur the wrath of God.

Man, I want to do something about that. You ought to be desirous of trying to share your faith because you experience that sense of intimacy with God and you shudder at what it would be to be on the other side of the street.

I hope you come. Some of you are on the bubble about evangelism class on Thursday night. Please come to that class. One of the most important things you can do is get geared up and equipped to share your faith with other people.

F. Let Us Be Proud of His Accomplishments

A, B, C, D, E, F—number six, verse 28.

“But as for me”—this is the whole theme of the verse, of the paragraph—“it is good to be near to God. I want to be near to God. I’ve made the Sovereign Lord, Yahweh, my refuge.” That’s a summary.

Now one last line. It’s not a throwaway line. He puts this right here and he says, listen: “I will tell of all your deeds.” After all of that and pondering the greatness of God and what it would be like to be without him, he says, man, I’m going to boast about you.

Let’s put it down this way. Last one, letter F, number six: let us be proud of his accomplishments.

And again, if that doesn’t relate to the evangelism class, I mean, let us be willing to say, I want to talk about God. God is great. God has done great things. He’s done great things for me. He sent his Son to reconcile the world. I am ready to talk about God. I’m not going to be ashamed of that.

The inversion is to be ashamed of it. And what does Paul say? Romans chapter 1. “I’m not ashamed of the gospel. It’s the power of God to save people.” I’m going to stand up and talk about God.

And again, you can kind of see where you’re at in your intimacy with God by how much fear wells up in you when it comes to standing up and saying something about our great God. And you need to measure that. And you need to say, by the end of 2007, I’d sure like to have a whole lot less fear and shame about my relationship with God than I have right now.

I mean, think about when Paul says to Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 1, he says, don’t be ashamed—not only of God and the gospel—he says, don’t be ashamed of me, his prisoner, his servant.

And I think, too, it will be: am I ashamed of church? Am I ashamed of Christians? Am I ashamed of my pastor? Well, that one may happen. Am I ashamed of great Christian leaders and friends and mentors and preachers? Am I ashamed of that? Am I ashamed of God?

See, don’t be. You need to be proud. We need to stand up and say, God has done great things. And I’m ready to talk about it.

Now look at that list. Just go through it. You’ve jotted it down:

Be mindful of his presence.
Deferential to his counsel.
Desirous of his blessings.
Dependent on his help.
Fearful of his absence.
Proud of his accomplishments.

Could you not apply that list to any relationship? And if you did all that, would it not be a better relationship?

If you practice that list right there—and this is not a marriage seminar—but think about any relationship you have. If you said, I’m going to think about the person more. I’m going to defer more to what they say and their preferences. I’m going to be desirous of being with them and the blessings that come from being with them. I’m going to depend more on their help. I’m going to be fearful if I’m not with them. I’m going to be proud of what they do.

Do you think that would enhance any relationship you have?

Same thing with God. God is not an equation. He’s a person. And these are the things that Asaph says, man, that’s what it’s about—to be near to God. And the rest of the book of Hebrews is going to unpack this whole theme, okay?

But there’s one more thing to underscore in our passage that we went by quickly. Let’s go over there to Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10, and look at what we’ve left. Which, by the way, we’ve tried to summarize also verse 23. It’s the holding unswervingly, without ashamedness, without any equivocation to the hope we profess, because he who is promised is faithful.

What hope? The hope of his presence, the hope of his counsel, the hope of his blessing, the hope of his help, the hope of his accomplishments and continued accomplishments in my life and in the world—because he who has promised is faithful.

Okay, great. We’ve really covered the whole text. What did we miss?

“Well, I don’t think we missed anything, Mike.”

We did—verses 19 and 20. We went by this real quick, and because we’re all inoculated churchgoers, we really didn’t catch this. It is the motive in this text for the main verb in verse number 22.

I’m to draw near to God since, verse 19, I have this confidence by the blood of Christ, by a new and living way open through the curtain that is his body.

And we look at it and go, yeah, we know all that. But that is supposed to conjure up some kind of motivation in my heart.

And I think we need to recognize that you and I will be motivated to do this when we consider the poignancy of those two words: verse number 19, the blood of Christ; verse number 20, the body of Christ that was rent like the curtain in the temple.

Right?

Mark 15—remember what happened when he breathed his last? What does the Bible say? God performs this little miracle in the temple. He takes the curtain between the holy place and the holy of holies and he tears it apart and he rips it.

And the Bible says as Christ is being pummeled and executed on a Roman execution rack, when he breathes his last, here this entrance into the temple is rent. It’s torn. It’s opened up. It’s cleft.

And the Bible says, just like Christ was murdered on this Roman execution rack as the Lamb of God, he’s opened up the way through that high cost. He’s opened up the way for us to have access to God.

And I’m telling you, if you’re sitting back—well, that’s a lot of work. That’s a lot of purposeful work. That’s a lot of adding to my schedule this year to do all that stuff to draw near to God. And you might say, why?

Here’s why.

3. Remember What It Cost

Because the cost was so high.

Number three, let’s just put it that way: when it comes to bettering my relationship with God, I want to remember what it cost.

This wasn’t cheap. The gospel isn’t cheap. You didn’t get access to God through God just kind of laying down a few bucks to buy your salvation. As Peter said, you weren’t redeemed by things like silver and gold. I mean, I guess that would be impressive, but that’s nothing. You were redeemed, Peter said, by the precious blood of Christ.

And I know that we’ve missed the point so much in this regard.

Because I know you parents are so protective of your kids, right? You don’t want them to see violence in the movies or the TV. You would as much want them to see the hanging of Saddam Hussein as you would want to stick needles in their eyes. You don’t want to do that, right?

And yet we come to church and we see our kids come out of Sunday school and they’re coloring pictures of the crucifixion of the Son of God. “Oh, that’s nice, honey. You really drew in the lines really well. That was great.”

We’re talking about the execution of a person that did nothing wrong. We’re talking about the gory pummeling of Roman fists into the face of the perfect Lamb of God.

And we go, “Oh, that’s nice, honey.”

What are we talking about? What are you talking about?

This was something that was so dramatic. It was so tragic. We ought to pause every time we think about it. That’s why you don’t even see crosses around here for us. One reason is I don’t want us to become immune to it. It’s not a logo for us. It was something on which they hung the Christ. It was the thing that led to his death and his suffering. It was the high cost of our forgiveness.

Both my boys, they play in Little League. And you know, I’d like them to work hard at it. I’d like them to practice. I’d like them to do well and all that. But I’d like them to do well about this much.

And you know why? Because I didn’t pay much for them to get in it.

The cost to get into Little League is relatively cheap. You know, cost of a glove. I don’t know, I had a hand-me-down for one and the other one we got on sale at Big Five for 19 bucks. Not a big deal. Bats are fairly cheap, at least the ones I buy my kids. Balls—you know, I get them on sale. Not a big deal.

Okay, do I want them to practice after school? Yeah, I guess if you want to, right? Oh yeah, that’d be good. Do well if you want to, see?

Problem is, my fourth grader came home and he wanted to join the orchestra. He said, “Oh, I’ll join the orchestra, man.”

So okay, well, I got to go find a violin. Look online, right? I’m thinking I can buy one at Walmart.com or something, right?

Then I get the sheet from the music teacher at school. You know, that stuff’s junk. It’s like trying to bow on a piece of wood that you cut off the tree in your backyard. No—you got to buy him a good one. Got to rent one if you have to.

So I go out to try and rent one, right? You know what these things cost? Astronomically expensive, right? And they’re not even my size, so I couldn’t play it if I wanted to pick it up. These are little things for kids. Out-of-control expensive.

“Well, this is what you really need if you want them to really learn it.”

So Dad’s forking over big dollars. Now I’m bringing this thing home like this, you know.

“Hey son, here’s your violin.”

And I’m picturing him dragging it to school, you know. And I think, oh.

Now Dad has laid out a lot more dollars for the violin and orchestra than he did for the baseball team.

And you know what I’m thinking when it comes to the orchestra?

You better practice that thing, kid. You better work hard at it. You better think about it. You better do a lot to make this thing happen.

I got a whole different perspective about the investment I want from my kid because of the cost involved.

Are you seeing where this illustration is going?

Can you imagine now if something my kid wanted to join cost the blood and life of his sibling? Can you imagine what kind of investment I would expect from him?

If it cost the life of his sister, and now he wants to join this, but to join it I’d have to give up the life of his sister, and now I’m going to see him going, “Take it or leave it, I don’t know if I want to practice today.”

What are you talking about?

This cost the body and blood of your sister. You better make this your top priority.

Why is it that I should draw near to God with a sincere heart? Verse 22.

Why?

Because I can’t even get into this relationship without the spilling and executed blood of Christ and the rent and torn body of the Savior.

I can’t have a relationship with God without that.

How much should this be the priority for us in the new year?

It ought to be our singular focus because it took everything for God to remove the barrier so that the curtain would be put out of the way so that I could come and step into the presence of God.

This is not just a neat little privilege and “boy, wouldn’t it be great for you to have a better life by kind of getting in tune with God?”

No. It’s not like that.

It’s like this ought to be our passionate singular focus in the new year.

Why?

Because it cost everything. It is such a high price.

Our salvation is not cheap.

Oh, it may be free to us—the free gift of salvation. Why? Because it’s not based on my work. But it certainly isn’t cheap, as Bonhoeffer said.

It would be the most precious thing about us.

In our lives, I recognize that you have a lot of competing interests. But realize this: everything from fulfillment at work, good marriage, good parenting relationships, good extracurricular activities, fulfilling hobbies—whatever it might be for you—see, I’m telling you, all those fulfillments are pale reflections.

As every thoughtful Christian has said and some have articulately written, they’re simply pale reflections of the kind of fulfillment and gratification that comes in knowing and relating to the living God.

We are in a world of imperfection laden with sin.

God says, I am the perfect one. Please draw near to me.

Because as you do—with the high cost of Christ attached to it—you’ll recognize there is nothing more gratifying, fulfilling, or meaningful.

It is the most important thing we can do.

Let’s not just make this some kind of hobby for the new year.

Let us make this our passion and our calling.

Let’s pray together.

God, please help us. This new year, as we look at all the competing things we want to do and like to improve our income, we’d like to improve our bodies, we’d like to improve our health and all these other things—God, help us to recognize there’s nothing more important in the new year than for us to improve our relationship with you.

And God, that means that we need to give it some attention. We need to make it our priority.

I pray, God, for these folks that are here that every week are presented—because of the hardworking leaders that they have—with so many opportunities. I look at the small groups. I look at the discipleship programs. I look at the things that we’ve got going on to help increase and enhance the relationship of these folks: women’s Bible study, men’s Bible studies, youth programs.

And God, I pray that we wouldn’t see it as just some nice cafeteria and we walk through it and man, this might taste good and I don’t know, I might like that.

God, help us to recognize what a tremendous opportunity we have to utilize these tools as simply equipment for us to connect with the very reason that we were created—to know you, to relate to you.

As Augustine said so well, our hearts are going to be a mess. They’re going to be restless until they find that connection, that teleos, that satisfaction in a relationship with you.

So let us find it, God, in increasing measure this year.

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.