this morning, we find ourselves wrapping up our series entitled christian atheist and a christian atheist is someone who says they believe in God, but they live like he doesn't exist, and I think at certain points I believe everyone in the room has found themselves in a situation where they say that God is real and they acknowledge God. But then in a certain area, in one aspect, or in one situation, you find yourself, or maybe I find myself questioning God or saying, okay God, you're there, but I'm gonna handle this one, or I'm gonna handle it. And so we say, we believe in God, but at times we live like he doesn't exist. And so each week over this past month, we've been talking through different barriers that keep people from living out what they say they believe. So we've taken a look at when you say you believe in God, but but you don't know him or that when you say you believe in God, but but you pursue happiness at all costs, or but what about when you think that God isn't fair? Last week we talked about how sometimes we don't always share our faith and this morning, we're gonna take a look at the difficult topic of when you say you believe in God, but you don't love the church, because there are many people in our culture today that have become disengaged with the idea of church. Maybe some of you sitting in this room this morning have become disenchanted or disengaged with church. Now, usually that stems from a particular situation or relationship that you've had. So maybe you've been hurt in your past, Maybe you've seen hurts of others in a church setting or religious setting, maybe you've found yourself just too busy or really just the church isn't relevant to your life today, but the truth is is that if church is merely an accessory, then you don't really view church as necessary. And when we treat church as an accessory to our daily life and our outfit of like, you know, I'll go when I can, but I don't need it or I'll connect with God in other ways we end up missing out. See church a lot of times it's kind of like if you think of a campfire and you remove one log from the campfire, the question is which is gonna burn out first and in every case it's going to be that isolated log the isolating because there is power when the people of God gathered and this isn't just in a church setting. This isn't a general sense because we crave and long for community. That's why in prisons and in jail. One of the worst punishments you can have is that you can be what isolated from everyone else. And so the church is really so much more than just a place to attend or a place to talk about. In fact, I would define church this way and if you were on our launch team that helped start the church, we, we walked through this, we did a study through of what it means to be a church before we launched this last summer. And so you might remember this definition. But otherwise I want to encourage you to write this down that I would define church as a movement with a message on a mission for God's majesty. Church is not just a place to attend, but it's really a place to belong. It's an identity, it's who you are. It's a family. The bible describes it as a body and so there's unity and there's connection but not necessarily uniformity. We definitely don't look all the same, but together we can be connected. So the church is a movement because it's ongoing. God promises to build his church And that throughout the past 2000 years there have been different cultures that have tried to wipe out Christianity. And what's crazy is the more christians are persecuted, the more it actually spreads because it's really answering the promises of God. It's a movement, it's it's transformational, it is truth, grace and love wrapped up in one and it completely transformed who someone is and who the community is and brings revival across the board. So it's a movement, but it's not just the movement of nothing, it's a movement of a message. And that message is that jesus christ died on a cross for your sins and for mine and while man could not reach up to God God reached down to man and through that took all of our sins and paid the penalty on the cross. So that when he rose again on the third day, we can actually receive forgiveness of our sins. We can receive eternal life tomorrow, an abundant life today and we can receive this purpose, this joy, this peace that is beyond understanding and we have direct access to him that comes through jesus christ and jesus christ alone. You know, the early church didn't have a building, they didn't even have the new testament yet because it was happening right then. But what they had was a message and that message was that the resurrected jesus christ bring salvation and that all can come to him and receive his grace and forgiveness. So this movement with a message of hope and grace and forgiveness and eternal life then spurs us on to a mission to go to all the nations of the world, to go and make disciples, to love the Lord, our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and then to love others as jesus has loved us. So to be a part of the church is to live on mission. It's not just something to attend, but it is a mission to live out. And then ultimately, it's for God's majesty because it's for his glory and not our own being a part of church is so much bigger than just a nice accessory to wear occasionally. Mhm. It's something to be belong to to believe in. It's someone to become and it's God's kingdom to build and and if you are with our launch team before and we talked about, okay, what are our values? And we broke it down into what we call the Mission Grove creed. And creeds have been used throughout history to really share the identity of of belief in the identity of who we're gonna be in the D. N. A. And so we shared last year at this time the Mission Grove creed. But I want to share this again because many of you that are in this room, we weren't even here at that time. And so if you want to know what does it mean to be a part of mission growth church. It is this is that in our house everyone belongs that we are all made in God's image, which makes us family. This means that you can come as you are with no expectations and judgments and that it's okay to be okay in our house. We believe in the person, the power and the purpose of jesus. His word is our message. His life is our method and his people are our mission. That here at Mission Grove we are unapologetically a jesus church here in our house we are becoming men and women of Godly character. We're not perfect but we're growing and that we will continually strive for better for we know that we have a long way to go, but that we're willing to take that next step of faith and in our house, we are building God's kingdom and not our own. We have been called to someone greater than ourselves and therefore we pray boldly. We share openly, we gather often, we worship freely and we serve repeatedly and this is Mission Grove Church. So welcome home. Now, where does this come from? Where does this passion, this identity? The idea of a movement come from. It comes from the truth of scripture in the bible, from many passages, but we're going to take a look today from one of them that inspires this identity of what it means to be A Christian, what does it mean to be a part of a church family? And it comes from hebrews chapter 10 If you have your bibles, I want you to open their, if you don't own a bible. We actually have some nice SV versions that our guests um services table, that it's just our gift to you. So if you do not own a bible, I want to encourage you to stop by our guest services table so that we can gift you won today. And otherwise, we also have these verses that are gonna be on the screen. Now, before I jump into this passage, a little background here is that the author of hebrews was riding to a primarily jewish audience. And so in jewish tradition and culture, there is this series of sacrifices that were made and they would go to the temple and and the temple had been destroyed and then rebuilt. And that this was actually written before 70 A. D. Because our commentators say that because in 70 A. D. The temple was actually destroyed. And so there's no mention of that in here. And so there was still a regular practice of of sacrifice on behalf of sins. And then they would have a priest and a great high priest that would go into what's seen as the holy of holies once once a year and offer a sacrifice on behalf of the people. But it was such an intense place they had to go through so much cleansing beforehand that the what was shared was that actually the high priest would go in with a rope tied around his ankle because if the priest himself was not right with God, he could be struck dead. But how do you pull out someone that struck dead in a place that only the person that died can go. And so literally they would tie a rope to the guys ankle and so he would go into present and that if they didn't hear from him for a little while they could give a little tug just in case. And so this is how intense the situation is, but what happens is that when jesus died on the cross on good friday and actually the veil or the curtain that was 40 ft high was torn into symbolizing that no longer do we need priests or people to go to to God on our behalf, because jesus was our great priest, the great high priest, and because his death, his one sacrifice, we now have direct access to God at any point that we can come directly to him and Jesus is seen as our mediator or the high priest. And so this incredible picture. And so the author of Hebrews writes how jesus is better, He's better than angels, he's better than creation, he's better than moses, he's better than the high priest whose name was Mark is a deck. And so he was better than these guys. And so his sacrifice was better. And so he gives this great passage here and he's writing about the sacrifice of jesus. And so We're gonna go into it here in um starting in verse 19, Starting in verse 19, therefore, brothers, Since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain that is through his flesh, it is new, and it is living because jesus didn't stay dead, that jesus rose again. And so we now have this person meeting on our behalf, he says. And since we have a great high priest over the house of God and we're gonna go into this next phase in just a minute, but I want to pass here because and I highlighted the word sense because the author doesn't, right if if we have a high priest, if we have a great sacrifice, he says no, since because we have a high priest, because Jesus died for our sins, because Jesus tore the veil, tore the curtain and we have direct access to God, because we can approach his throne in confidence and it's gonna go on. But I want to pause there and ask this question that because of jesus, you have the motivation to do all things through him and so I want you to write this down, because if you're facing an issue right now, if you're battling something right now, the fact that Jesus died for your sins and that Jesus is for you, and that the holy spirit could live inside of you, then what is impossible, In fact, Philippians 4 13, it says I can do all things through him, who gives me strength a lot of times, that's quoted um for athletes, before they go into the game, like, yeah, we'll go in and it's not out of context there, you can use it there, but what he's talking about when the author said, I can do all things, he says, I know what it means to be high, I know what it means to go low. And so every situation I can face, because jesus is with me, and so whatever situation you're battling right now, whatever, maybe it's an addiction, maybe it is a worry, maybe it is a concern, maybe it's circumstances whatever, or maybe it's a relationship, whatever it is, I want you to write it in that blank right now, because because of jesus, because he tore that veil, we can do all things because of jesus, your marriage can be restored because of jesus, you can conquer that addiction because of jesus, you can be a witness in your workplace because of jesus, you can make a difference. Mhm and maybe maybe you're struggling with something and you don't think it's that big. Well my thing is not that big, whatever it is, I want to encourage you with two thoughts first that whatever you're struggling with is exactly what Jesus died for, so you might think it's small, but God does not think it's small. And secondly, even if you do think that it is small, it's not, well it's not big, maybe it's a series of small choices that are keeping you from something big, maybe if you could let go of what's holding you back, a little worry, a little sin, a little issue, a little bitterness, if you could let go of something that you're facing, maybe God has something huge in store for you, ready to bless you, ready to challenge you, ready to to make a difference in this community when you let go of that small thing, so that he has something big that can come into your life because of jesus, I can and only you can fill in that blank because of jesus. I can get up and fight another day because of jesus. I can raise my Children to be men and women of God because of jesus. I can go in and give it my best at my workplace and make a difference because of jesus. I can fight this health battle and persevere another day, whatever it is, because you have jesus on your side, you can face that challenge with purpose, on purpose and with the joy in the Lord that cannot be explained outside of scripture. And here we see this just since we have a great high priest, since we have this Mhm. Before we go into this next passage, I want to tell you that these next couple of verses are awesome. In fact I would call this a salad passage these next verses, These next verses here, starting at verse 22 is what I would call an incredible biblical salad and the reason I would say that. Okay, And uh and so I brought, I brought some up here is because what I'm about to read to you is I want you to remember and to think about all the incredible lettuce that is founded in this next scripture. Okay, you don't know what I'm talking about. So let me read and you're gonna grown but you're gonna remember it. Okay, starting in verse 22. Since we have this great high priest, verse 22. Let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith. With our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful. Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some but encouraging one another and all that is all the more as you see the day drawing near now, some of you are just getting that. And if you haven't got it yet, it's okay, Your neighbor can whisper it to you. But because because jesus is so great, it gives us these commands saying let us do this, let us do this. And it gives us this picture of what does it mean to you that I'm not gonna preach the whole time with this. So does anyone want to make a salad afterwards, I can toss it to him. That's good. I'm sure it's still healthy, Right? Just watch it. Um So here's the thing is that when when God calls us together and and he says let us do it. And so it's not like this demeaning come down, you have to do this. How dare you! It says no because we have a great priest because we have been forgiven. Let us draw near. Let us hold fast. Let us stir one another up. And so there's this passionate plea. And if you're taking notes, I want you to write this down. Because here's ultimately what it means is that communion with God leads to confidence in life and community with others. When you have communion with God direct access connection with him, you gain confidence in life in community with others. And I say confidence in life because it's not confidence in your own ability. But when you have the power that both created the world and then overcame death, what what are you gonna face? That's gonna top that when you have the power that rose jesus from the dead, living inside of you and a promise that he will be there for you, then what issue can you not face? And so when you have closeness with your heavenly father, when you have closeness with God, since jesus, because of jesus, we can have confidence in this life and then we can have community with each other And he breaks that down in three ways. Number one, he says, let us draw near to faith. Let us draw near to faith. We sang this morning about where the spirit of the Lord is, There is freedom. That's a direct quote out of 2nd Corinthians chapter three Galatians 5 1 actually says for Freedom's Sake Christ died to set us free when you have jesus, you can draw near to faith because there is complete freedom because you feel secure, you feel significant. But Satan comes in and tries to twist things. He always wants you to focus on the negative right? For example, um when you think back, if you've ever heard of the story, you have Adam and Eve in the garden, God created the world, it was perfect, but in the world there is also free will, this ability to choose love. But if you can choose love, you can choose otherwise. And so what what did God say in the garden see? Most people tend to think that God said don't eat from this tree, but you know what the first thing he said was since you are free to eat of any tree but not this one, but our mind naturally goes to the one thing we can't have right because that's satan, that's what satan does is he tries to focus on what you don't have instead of appreciating and understanding the freedom of what you do have. And so we tend to focus on the difficulties. And so when you come to God, when you come to jesus, when you draw near to the assurance of faith with a clean heart, you have the freedom to choose. And so my mind has actually made a huge switch recently when it comes to battling temptation, see the word temptation is always associated with something negative isn't it? When you hear the word tempted, it's always followed and something else. And if we don't want to get serious about intense, like darker sense, just think about it in terms of um, food, right? If you're trying to eat healthy, I came back from summer vacation, I'm like, okay, I'm gonna get together this time. Anyone with me on that? Like, like, okay, all right in the fall and now I'm gonna get healthy. Um, has anyone ever been tempted by kehl? No, Right. No one's been tempted. Oh man, I see those baby carrots just tempted because our mind thinks that way, we always think of a negative or think of something we don't have but understand this for a second. A temptation is when something is put in front of you, it's actually a choice and we always focus on what we can't do, right? It's like, if I tell you right now, and I say, okay, whatever you do, do not picture a purple elephant. Do not think of a purple elephant. Do not think, do not do not think of a purple elephant, whatever you do. The last thing on your mind right now should be a purple elephant. What are you thinking of right now? Okay. Some guys can actually wipe things out and not think anything at all. But um, most of it here because we tend to focus on what we can't have, right, A temptation, It's like, don't think of this, don't think of this, don't you think of this, Don't sin, don't sin, don't sin. But here's here's the switch for me. It says in Galatians 5 16 that if you walk in the spirit, you will not gratify the desires of your flesh, meaning that just as there is a choice to sin, there's actually a choice to bless every temptation comes with the option of blessing. And so what if we switched it? What if we took the freedom of God? What if we took the freedom of the assurance of his faith and said, when you are tempted, you actually have the opportunity to choose what is right. And that if you've been battling addiction, if you've been battling something and you are tempted, temptation is not the same thing as sin. And so if you are tempted and you choose what is right, celebrate that in the power of the spirit, you can choose differently if you don't have God in your life, you will not choose differently. You can only go at it by yourself for so long that at the end of the day you will drift this summer we took vacation and my son was boogie boarding and he made, he made friends on the beach. And so he was boogie boarding with his new friends and said okay just stay where you can see me. And he was boogieing his heart out and the water was freezing and I'm glad he found friends. so I didn't have to get in the water with him just being transparent, right? And so they go and he's boogieing in there and I look up and I don't see him like and I'm like where is he? And all of a sudden I see him like way over that way. Why? Because the tide, there's always a natural drift right? There's a natural drift. If you do nothing, it will naturally drift away in the same way you if you if you don't choose to actively pursue God there will be a natural drift. But what if the next time you face temptation you did not go, oh here we go again. But you thought to yourself this is an opportunity to choose what is right, this is an opportunity to choose. So you draw close to faith with the clean and pure alright, here's here's a way to think of it is that it's less about destination and it's more about direction. So I remember going to the airport uh and in different times maybe with a friend most recently when my mom moved here from um from Ohio and like if you've done there, you've gone and you've seen a loved one at the airport, maybe you got flowers and what are you doing? You're standing at the gate and you're like right, you're like looking right and you're there and and they might be a long way off but what's the feeling in your heart when you see that person and you know that they're coming close right now picture the opposite, what if my back was turned and the persons walking down and they're coming and your loved one is coming and they walk and you're like, oh hey, what's up? How do you think that interaction is going to be, This is what the Pharisees did with jesus, See they were really close. If you had the truth of scripture right here, they could touch jesus, they could hear directly from him, they were seeing miracles but spiritually and in their heart they were facing the wrong direction. Whereas you saw like tax collectors, the samaritan woman, the disciples, they might have been a long way off, they might have been really far off, but off in the distance they see jesus and say jesus, I'm coming and some of you in this room might be really far off from jesus, but I want to encourage you, but if you face him and you just take a step towards him, he's going to honor that and he says to draw near because it's less about the destination and it's more about your direction and if you are close to jesus or you grew up in church and you're just not feeling it. Or maybe you've jumped back into an old lifestyle, I want to encourage you just to simply turn back and you might be, you might have drifted a long ways away, but if you turn back, God's gonna honor that as you draw close to him Because when you draw close to faith you can do incredible things were in hebrews chapter 12 and we don't have time to fully jump into it. But you know the single greatest chapter on acts of faith in the Bible hebrews 11. So the very next chapter after he says draw close to faith and let me give you a bunch of examples of people who did that because of jesus. Let us draw near to faith. But secondly, let us hold fast to hope. Let us hold fast to hope we can hold fast because he who is faithful for he who promised us as faithful. I watched an incredible documentary, I encourage you to watch it. It's although if you're terrified of heights you you'll sweat like I did. I was literally sweating when I watched this movie of a guy who free climbed the El capitan and Yosemite Park. Like it's this intense and like free climb, no ropes, thousands of feet up the mountain. I was literally watching it sweating like they made the movie so I knew he makes it but even still, I'm just like I mean jumping from one part just hanging on at times and just like barely at like centimeters millimeters to hang on now some of us are trying to approach life this way and we're trying to go through life and climb up on our own when the truth is is that God has given us an anchor, God has given us a rope that we can hang onto. And so it says hold fast to hope because we have a secured rope, a secured line from the top because our anchor isn't down in on earth, our anchor is up in heaven. And so we can hang on to that because we know that he is faithful. And so I want to ask you the question is that what are you holding onto right now? Because if it's anything but jesus there's a chance it's going to slip through your fingers through one of the windy days last week we took out a little kite and uh you know my kids were excited, it broke in like two minutes because it was from the dollar store, but those were great two minutes. Um and we had this kite and my son was was was holding it and trying to run like look at me dad and then because of the string, it just went right through his hands and just started tumbling down the road and and she was like, oh no! And so here's the thing is that a lot of times I think in life we looked at that child like a child chasing after a kite because we're hanging onto something and it's very thin and it can easily break and we find ourselves chasing after something that's not secured, but because of jesus because we have direct access, we can come to him and draw near to faith and hold fast, hang on because we know that he is faithful and that anchor that rope will never break. And lastly, it says because of jesus. Let us stir up to love. Let us stir up to love. This picture of stirring is also the same word for provoke and other instances could actually be used in a negative sense, like you provoke someone into this. But what he's saying here is provoke each other into outdoing each other and love, Jesus said in John 13 verse 34 and 35 love one another as I have loved you, and this is how the world will know. It's not based on our angry rants on social media, it's not based on our judgments of the world, but the world will know that we are followers of jesus when we have unity and community inside of each other, based on how we love each other. Draw near to faith, hold fast to hope, stir up to love. These concepts are found throughout scripture. In fact, in first Corinthians 13 13, it says So now faith, hope and love abide, but the greatest of these is love when you love others with action when you outdo each other in humility and acts of service. It demonstrates that you already have faith and hope. It's the expression of love and this writer says, we can come to him that ultimately communion with God gives us confidence in life, but it also gives us a community with each other, and then he ends the chapter verse 39 it says this, he says, but we are not those who shrink back and are destroyed, but those who have faith and preserve our souls. That is a movement. I want to be a part of that. This idea of not shrinking back, but fighting temptation, fighting, persevering difficulties, drawing close to faith, holding fast to hope, stirring each other up and love to be a part of a movement with the message of the resurrection of jesus on a mission to show God's love to the world for his glory and our own that is the church, and that is something that it's not an accessory to wear once a month or once a quarter, but a family be a part of that we engage together. This is what it means to be church. And as the band comes up, I want to encourage you here, we're gonna go into a time of actually experiencing communion with God. If this is your first time here or you're not sure if you believe this whole Christianity thing yet, I want to let you know it's okay to let the plate pass by you and I'm just glad that you're here. But if you believe that jesus died on the cross for your sins, then what we're gonna do is we're gonna pass the plate, the cubs are stacked together, so it's just you pick up one, there's the bread underneath the juice there. I want to take, take, take this, pass it down. And I want you just to reflect because before jesus came there was this veil, there was this curtain and there was separation from him. But because of jesus, we have direct access and through that direct access. I want you to give whatever it is that you're struggling with right now. Whatever worry you have whatever battle you have whatever circumstance you're facing, I want you to give that to him because he died for that so that we could live for him so that we can have competence and that we can ultimately have community. So I'm gonna pray, we're gonna take the elements, we're gonna hang onto those and in just a moment we're gonna take them together. Let's pray dear heavenly Father, I pray that if there's somebody here who has not accepted you, I pray that they would receive you as Lord and savior today. God, thank you for dying for our sins and rising again so that we could be a part of this church, the family, God may we just have confidence in this life. I mean, we have community with each other because we, it starts with focusing in on having communion with you, We love you God and right now we ask that you would let us draw near to faith. Let us hold fast to hope and let us stir up to love this morning because you first loved us. It's in your son's name. We pray. Amen.