Do Not Throw Away Your Confidence

In one paragraph

This message was a review of the entire book of Hebrews leading up to the closing verses of chapter 10. Pastor Ray walked through the cumulative case the book makes that Jesus is better than everything that came before him, then landed on the encouragement and warning those final verses hold for anyone willing to read them honestly. The book of Hebrews, Pastor Ray argued, is best understood as a...

Read together

1. Hebrews 10:32-39 main passage for the sermon, read and expounded throughout
2. Hebrews 1:1-4 the exordium, God speaking through his Son who made purification of sins and sat at the right hand of majesty
3. Hebrews 2:1-3 first warning, pay closer attention lest we drift, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation
4. Hebrews 3:1 consider the apostle and high priest of our confession, Jesus
5. Hebrews 3:7-11 Psalm quoted by the Holy Spirit, today if you hear his voice do not harden your hearts as in the wilderness
6. Hebrews 4:1 let us fear if anyone should seem to fall short of entering that rest
7. Hebrews 4:16 draw near with confidence to the throne of grace
8. Hebrews 5:11-12 you have become dull of hearing, need milk not solid food
9. Hebrews 6:4-6 those once enlightened who fall away, impossible to renew to repentance, crucifying the Son of God again
10. Hebrews 8:1 the main point, we have such a high priest seated at the right hand of the throne of majesty
11. Hebrews 10:19-25 let us draw near, hold fast, consider how to stir one another up to love and good deeds
12. Hebrews 10:26-31 warning about sinning willfully after receiving knowledge of the truth, terrifying expectation of judgment
13. Hebrews 10:31 it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God
14. Hebrews 10:36-38 you have need of endurance, quote from Habakkuk, my righteous one shall live by faith
15. Hebrews 11:1 opening verse for next week, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, conviction of things not seen
16. Ephesians 2:8-10 salvation by grace through faith not works, but created for good works God prepared beforehand
17. Habakkuk 2:3-4 quoted in Hebrews 10:37-38, the vision will not delay, the righteous shall live by faith
18. 1 Peter 5:10 benediction, may the God of all grace perfect, establish, strengthen and settle you

Talk about it

1. Pastor Ray described the writer of Hebrews making the case that Jesus is 'better than' everything that came before him, including angels, Moses, the priests, and the old covenant sacrifices. Which of those comparisons means the most to you personally, and why?
2. Pastor Ray used the image of copying an answer off someone else's test paper to talk about professing Christ versus truly knowing him for yourself. What does it look like in practice to 'carefully consider Jesus' on your own rather than just borrowing someone else's faith?
3. The first-century believers were told they had 'accepted joyfully the seizure of your property' because of their faith. What does that kind of joyful acceptance of loss tell us about what they believed, and where do you see or struggle to see that same attitude in your own life?
4. Pastor Ray drew comfort from the idea that until a believer has done everything God has for them to do on this earth, they will not step into eternity, and that we are God's 'poema,' his workmanship created for good works. How does thinking of your life that way change how you approach an ordinary week?
5. The sermon closed on verse 39: 'We are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.' Pastor Ray said you can write that answer on your own paper and not shrink back, but only under God's power and not your own. What does depending on God's power rather than your own actually look like when the burden feels heavy?