Well, as we come to Hebrews chapter five, Hebrews chapter five, verses one through 10, thank you, Lindley, for reading that. As Lindley was reading that, you might have been thinking, what the heck is she reading? Like, it's actually a really hard portion of scripture to understand. You know, like, who's Melchizedek? Where does Melchizedek come from? Like, who, according to the order of Melchizedek, or, you know, maybe even some of the wording, it just feels like, who is this priest who's appointed by men, and then quoting Psalms, and you are my son, today I begotten you, and, you know, you might just read that, you think, uh, That's the kind of pastor scripture I'm just going to skim over. And what I would say to you is if you do that, you'll never grow very deep in the Christian faith. Like, it actually takes work and it takes effort to grow more deeply. Last night, my grandson Jack was sitting here on the front row, and he's being held by his mom. He's like five weeks old now. And he's on a pretty regular routine of drinking milk. I tried to give him a piece of my steak at a party on Thursday night, and he just wouldn't have it. I can't figure it out, but nonetheless, he's not ready for it. And that's normal, right? We expect that. I see a mom to be in this room right now, like you expect that baby's not gonna come out, you know, eating In-N-Out hamburgers, although hopefully it won't be long. But there's gotta be a time, right? That if that baby's gonna grow up and be nourished on the milk, that eventually they move to solid food. In fact, it's interesting, but that's next week's passage. Look at verse 11. What I'm saying is this, is if we're going to get to that place of maturity, we've got to put in the work to try to digest more solid food. Like, we have to think more deeply. But instead, a lot of times what we do, if we come to church and it's a hard passage, like, oh, it's difficult to understand. I'm just gonna wait and ask Jesus when I see him. Well, then I pray you see him soon so you can get an answer to your question. Look further down, it's interesting, but in Hebrews chapter 5 at the very end there, it says, verse 14, but solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment, trained by constant practice to distinguish between good and evil. The words constant practice there, it's kind of like an Olympian. It's like an Olympic athlete that's training consistently for their big event. And he's going, if they're going to get the gold medal, that's going to take tremendous discipline. I just don't know that we are really, honestly, all that disciplined in our society when it comes to actually thinking and reading and studying, and particularly when it comes to the Word of God. We love passages like, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. Jesus says, all of you who are weary and heavy laden, come to me and I will give you rest for your souls. And we tend to gravitate toward those wonderful passages. And these sections of Hebrews, we tend to just kind of go, ah, that's hard. And what I'm asking you to do, not only today, but actually about the next probably eight weeks, because Hebrews chapter five through chapter 10 almost entirely deals with this idea of Jesus being this high priest. We started with it last week, and what does this mean that he's our great high priest? And it's going to require a lot of thought. It's going to require going back and reading some in your Old Testament. I'm going to make references to that kind of each week. I did it last week. I'll do it this week. We'll make it bite size. I'll cut up the steak, right? And I'll give you some ketchup to dip it in, whatever. Ah, you guys are so snobby. I put ketchup on my tacos too, by the way. Mom, you taught me this. It's your fault. Wow, there's just no love here. All right. This is a rough crowd. You guys need some solid food. Well, Here's what I'm gonna paint for you a picture today from our passage, and it's powerful, but you are gonna have to think, and that's what I think I'm trying to prepare you for. Hebrews is a thinking person's book. It's not easy to understand, and yet, it's also, while we can't imagine little baby Jack eating a steak, it's also not a pleasant sight to think of a 52-year-old man sucking off of a baby's bottle either. And spiritually, a lot of times, that's what happens. More on that next week. But if we're going to be growing Christians and not stagnant ones, it's not gonna come as a result of a casual approach to God's word. 22 years ago, I had the privilege of kind of stepping into this place, and the church always wore suits. you remember that, like if you were here, always wore suits. And so for the first five years, I wore a suit. And I've told you guys before, I didn't own a suit at that time. I had to go to Goodwill, and I found five suits at Goodwill. And I've told you before about our dear Billy Graves, who a lot of you will remember, a wonderful woman of God, who one day stopped me in the lobby, and she just said, you know, Pastor Chris, did you know I used to be a seamstress? I go, oh, that's so weird, I didn't know that. But I have some suits that need to be taken in. She goes, yeah, I know, be at my house at one o'clock on Wednesday. That was her point. Like, you look awful. And so I just wore those suits. And then remember, you guys remember this, Marva? Like in the summers, we would have summer dress. And I don't even know if anybody noticed, but I just kind of, one year, I just never said summer dress is over. So we're still on summer dress from 2004. And praise the Lord for it. Now, if you wear a suit to church, you're really welcome to do that. But there really is not in the Bible a dress code for church, other than the dress code of modesty. We know that that's a principle in scripture, right? But there's not a dress code for the New Testament church. But in the Old Covenant, the priests had a dress code. Like, he had to wear certain clothes. And this is going to be important in our passage today, because the context is this, and maybe you remember this, but last week we talked about how we approach the throne of grace, God's throne, with boldness and confidence, because Jesus has opened the way. Remember the temple veil being torn in two, and now we can come into God's presence, holy, pure, and not fear this mighty, marvelous, holy God? Like, we can actually, we can pray and talk to him. because of what Jesus has done. And then it says Jesus is that curtain. You know, it's interesting, you know that curtain? Woven into that curtain that was 60 feet tall were the cherubs. Those were the holy angels, right? So there was this artistic rendition of these holy angels. And the idea was, is that this is a holy place and only the high priest can enter it once a year on the day of atonement. But what's crazy is, do you remember Back in Genesis, when Adam and Eve sinned and they're kicked out of the garden, who did God post at the garden to say, the cherubs? You can't come in this place. Here's the point. Why would God then say, hey, weave images of the cherubs on the curtain going into the holy of holies? Why? Because he's going, you can't come in here. You see the significance of Jesus has made the way, like, and now he's going, come in here, come to the throne of grace. All of you, everyone. Well, the priest, when he would go into that place, had to wear a certain outfit. In fact, I have a picture for you here, and that's what the priest would look like. You can see the turban on his head. It would say, Holy to the Lord, across the top. But my favorite part of his clothing that he was required to wear to enter into the presence of the Lord were the 12 stones that were on his breastplate. And on the 12 stones were the 12 tribes of Israel, their names engraved in those stones. And the picture, if you look it with me at Exodus chapter 28, verse 29, is that he was bringing the children of Israel before the Lord. Listen to what it says. Whenever Aaron enters the holy place, he will bear the names of the sons of Israel over his heart as a continuing memorial before the Lord. Or as the ESV says, to bring them to regular remembrance before the Lord. So what he was doing, the high priest, is he was bringing, symbolically on his chest, the people to God. That's what Jesus does. He is our high priest who brings us to God. Listen to 1 Peter 3, verse 18. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God. I'll be honest with you, this might be the most important, best gospel verse in the whole Bible. I know John 3, 16's awesome, but listen to those words, that he might bring us to God. being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit. That is why Jesus came. He is our great High Priest, as it says in Hebrews chapter 4, verse 14. The words High Priest, you might recognize this phrase. You've probably heard this before, but it comes from the Latin High Priest. In Latin, it's Pontifex Maximus, right? That's actually how they refer to the Pope. I don't think the Pope is the great high priest who brings people to God. Jesus is the great high priest who brings us to God. But the name Maximus just means great or highest, the highest of high priests. And the word pontifics from the Latin, it comes from the word pons and fascio. Pons means bridge, fascio means to build, literally a bridge builder. So the great high priest is a bridge builder. He bridges the gap, the chasm. Have you ever been to the Grand Canyon, right? And you're like, ah, how can you get across that? Evel Knievel tried, right? You know, whatever. But some of you guys are like, who's Evel Knievel? Google it. So the chasm is bridged by our great high priest, Jesus. That's why he came. So that was stated really last week that Jesus is this great high priest. He's the bridger of the breach between us and God, that there is separation. We can't come into his presence because he's holy and we're not. Jesus comes to make that possible so we can enter the throne of grace with boldness and confidence. I mean, that's all good news. But if you're listening to this and you're in living in this time and you're a Jewish believer, in other words, you have a Hebrew background, the book of Hebrews, some of this is just not adding up for you. And what God is explaining to them through the inspiration of the scriptures, through the Holy Spirit, he's explaining to them how Jesus is their great high priest. Because there's a couple problems for them in that. One is, I think they're really missing being able to go to the priest. Like they're like, how do we approach God then? Like that's just not, like okay, we've always gone to the priest and he represents us to God, now where do we go? And he's going, you go to Jesus, he's your high priest. Your name's on his chest, he's bearing your name before the Father. But then the other problem is like, but Jesus was from the tribe of Judah. And you're supposed to be from Levi, from the line of Aaron. How does Jesus qualify as the high priest? He's going to explain those really important truths, and he's gonna do that over several chapters. Maybe you're somebody that's come out of Roman Catholicism, perhaps, and you are used to going to the priest to confess your sins, and some of that's still hard, like, ah, because there's a part of that, like I can go see a person, I can go talk to that person. Maybe you could relate to even these folks. It's different. They weren't Catholics, they were Jewish, but maybe you can just go, oh, you know this, but my mom was a nun. It wasn't easy. Like, okay, we don't go to the priest anymore? How does this work? That's where these passages of scripture are just so important for all of us, so we can even help people. Like, maybe it was a genuine struggle for them. Like, what do we do with that? I don't think we should criticize them. We should explain it, teach them. Like, oh, okay, I get it now. That's what he's trying to do. He's trying to minister to these people. And so what we see is the qualification of a priest, and that's really what he's establishing now. He states the fact that you can go to your great high priest Jesus and enter the throne of God. But now what he's going to do is he's going to backpedal a little bit, backfill, and he's going to say, here's two qualifications and how Jesus meets them. The first one is this, is that the high priest had to be human. And secondly, the high priest had to be God's man. So he had to be a man and he had to be God's man. He had to be chosen. You couldn't choose yourself. And he's gonna show how Jesus is both of those. So look at verse one. For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God. Remember that? Bringing them to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. So the priest is the one that people would bring their offering, the animal's offering to the priest and he would slaughter it and offer that to the Lord. That was their job. But I love verse two. What you're getting here is, is that the priest, because he was a man and not an angel or an animal or some, because he was a human being, he could relate to the human beings who were coming to him. He too, he's like, he knew weakness. He knew human weakness, and so he understands the weakness of man. So he's going, so speaking of this high priest, he's going, had to be a man because they have to be able to relate to people. This last week, summer softballs today, and I am gonna barbecue hot dogs out there. You're welcome to come from five to 6.30. Bring your own chips, but I'll have the hot dogs. Last week, we were playing, I was on a team, my son Ryan was playing in the outfield, and his buddy Robbie was at the plate. I was pitching, Ryan had already seen Robbie hit two home runs that day, which is remarkable. Nobody else is hitting home runs, just this little 18-year-old skinny kid who apparently should be on the Dodgers. He's doing better than Bellinger right now, let me tell you that, but that's not hard to do. So Robbie, Ryan just backs up way back to the fence, and Robbie hits it, and it's going, and it's going. I'm like, oh, he just hit his third home run. But Ryan's like, no, you did not. No, you didn't. And Ryan gets into this crazy, and I just know my son, he is going to catch that ball. He's running as fast as he can, and just as it approaches the fence, he jumps into the air, not paying any attention to the fact that there's a chain link fence that he's about to encounter. and he leaps in the air, catches the ball, falls, I mean, literally smashes into the fence and falls to the ground. And my son, Ryan, too, he gets right back up. He never stays down, he's staying down. Now, my son-in-law, James, was out there next to Ryan, and the first thing he does, he takes Ryan's glove off of his hand with the ball in it, and he holds it up in the air. In fact, it's interesting, because any of the ladies that have asked about Ryan, who were there, like, is Ryan okay? Yeah. And all the men have said, well, at least he caught the ball. It's all that matters. Did you catch it? He caught it. It's actually, even this morning, he's got a really nice bruise on his hip, he's got one on his knee, and he cut open his head. So when he stood up, blood was coming down, and I'm like, okay. I was trying to, I was on the pitcher's mound, so I just started walking that way. If you were there, you saw me do that, like, why isn't he running? You don't do that when your son's 21. You run out there like, oh, sonny, are you okay? He's gonna feel like a little boy. So I was like, that's cool, that's cool. Hey, son, how you doing? I'm bleeding from the head, Dad. Yeah, you are. Let's kinda just mosey off here. So we went home, we super glued it. That was a great idea, but what we didn't think about is the person holding it together, that the glue would get on their fingers and be attached to his hair. And then to get it off, so we had to get scissors in between, so then we spent the next easily five to 10 minutes cutting his hair off so the person could remove their, and then came off with clumps of hair on their fingers. If you cut your head open, I wouldn't come and ask me for any help, any medical attention. Have you ever seen it in the major leagues when baseball players do that? When they go catch a ball, they run into the wall, they smash into the wall. Have you ever seen the video of the guy that smashed through the fence? Like the fence gave way, he literally came out on the other side. But it always looks so painful. I've never done that before. I don't really know what that's like entirely. But Ryan will never look at those videos the same way ever again. Because he's gonna go, oh I know what that's like. When you're not paying attention and you just run as fast as you can into a wall and boom. The reason Jesus had to be a man is so that he would know exactly what it's like to live your life. That's why he can be our high priest. If Jesus, if the incarnation doesn't happen, Jesus could not be our great high priest. Jesus is God, very God. He came to this earth, became a baby so that he could relate to us. One of God's requirements of Jesus is that he had to be a human being so that he could relate to our weakness. Verse three, because of this, he is obligated to offer sacrifices for his own sins, just as he does for those of the people. This is a distinction between Jesus and the high priest. This is why he's the great high priest. We saw it last week in verse 15. He was tempted, but he was without sin. So all of the human high priests, all of those from the line of Aaron, they all had sinned, and they always had to offer sacrifice for their own sins, and they had to offer sacrifice over and over and over again. Another distinction, Jesus didn't offer a sacrifice for sins. He offered himself as the sacrifice for sins, which because he's the infinite God of the universe, that has an infinite effect for all who believe. And so he died once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous. All of those animals that were sacrificed were a shadow, they were a picture of Jesus who was coming and would fulfill all of those requirements. But indeed, Jesus was a man. Notice that phrase in there, I just love this, that he's able to deal gently with the ignorant and the wayward. Do you know that's how Jesus deals with us? Are you glad that Jesus deals gently with us, ignorant and wayward people? I'm so glad he's not harsh with us. Now, the high priest was supposed to, you know, the idea would be, he's like, ah, you understand how hard it is to live this life, like, be gracious with people. But I'm not so sure we're always so gracious with people, even in the church. I think we start to kind of get arrogant, we start to think, well, I have my life figured out, and so we say phrases like this, I can't believe he would do that. You should not say that. Because when you say that, what you're saying is, I would never do that. And oh yes, you're very capable of doing that, and so am I, whatever that is. None of us, none of us are incapable of doing even the worst of sins. But for the grace of God, there go I. So we don't tolerate sin in the church, but we graciously and gently deal with it. That's what it says in Galatians chapter six. That's the point. I like what Warren Wiersbe says, he said this, And so these priests would come, and they should receive people with sympathy, they would offer sacrifices for them. But there was that deficiency that Jesus would have to come and ultimately fulfill that. But then we're gonna jump ahead for a second to verse seven, because he continues with this idea that Jesus has to be a man. The word becomes flesh. Look at verse seven. In these days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death. And he was heard because of his reverence. Now, what is one of the proofs that Jesus really was fully human? You see, because some people like, even theologically, it's in air, but some people said, well, Jesus was like the person, Jesus was like a ghost or a phantom. You know, my mom almost named me Casper. The friendly ghost. I appreciate you going with Christian, I really do. And Christian III appreciates it too, because if you'd be Casper III, that would just be awful. Jesus wasn't a ghost, wasn't a phantom. There were some people theologically during that time that believed he was this real man and that this phantom of Jesus came on him and then before the cross left. And no, Jesus was the God-man, hypostatic union, fully God, fully man. And what's one of the proofs of that? This is what I want you to catch. He prayed to his father in great agony. He was agonizing, he was pleading with him. When you read this, is there a certain place in Jesus's life that comes to mind? I think Gethsemane is probably the clearest, also from the cross, when he's crying out there. But Gethsemane, when he's sweating drops of blood, it's found in Luke chapter 22, verses 41 to 45. It's interesting too, it says he was crying out to the Father, and he just says, Father, save me from this hour of death, but not my will, but your will be done. And the Father sends angels to strengthen him and minister to him in response to the cries of his son, because he had prayed with reverence. Or as the King James says, with his piety, or he was devoutly submissive, that's another way to say it, like, Father, not my will, but your will be done. My question to you is this, is did the father answer the son's prayer? Because it says he heard his prayer. Did he hear his prayer? But he still died. What do you mean he heard his prayer? He did not save him from death, he saved him out of death. And because he saved him out of death, he can save us out of death. as well. Sam Storms has said this, Jesus prayed for deliverance before death that he might not enter into it. The father delivered Jesus out of death that he might not be held by it. Jesus prayed that he might be spared death on Good Friday. The father answered by delivering him out of death on Easter Sunday. See, sometimes you guys, you're gonna pray about things in life and you're gonna cry out, and by the way, can I just tell you, we need to give each other permission to cry out. Like, you're not lacking faith because you're, just literally agonizing before the Father. Come before His throne with boldness and confidence. I don't come accusing God. God never is guilty of wrongdoing, ever. But it's okay to say, Father, this is crushing me. It reminds me of Hannah in 1 Samuel 1. Do you remember Hannah in 1 Samuel 1? She was crying out so much that they thought she was drunk. What was Hannah's concern? She wanted so desperately a baby. I know there's ladies in this congregation who just cried out to the Lord. And can I just tell you something? When you come in faith, He hears you. It might not be the answer that you want just the way you want it, but He hears you and He will answer perfectly according to His will for His glory and for your good. My dad was more expressive in worship than many of us are in this church, including myself. I grew up in a church a lot like this one. And you know, my dad was just more expressive. So even during those times in the late 80s, 90s, you know, the church that I went to, the school I went to, you did not ever raise your hands in church. That was just like, ooh, charismatic, crazy, you know what I mean? You would just be accused of that. You guys are looking at me like, what? I can't, it's okay, we were believers, it's okay, just hang in there with me. Some of you are shaking your heads, you know. So my dad visits my Christian school chapel one day, and he comes in, and he's like, I'm like, hey dad, hey, you know, I always sit in the back, and my dad never sat in the back. My dad sat where Don Wilkes sits, every week, no matter what, that side of the church, in that seat. In fact, when he came here, he switched over to here, because Don Wilkes had already taken his spot, but he sat there instead. And my dad comes out, and I'm like, hey dad, I sit in the back. You know, I sit in the bleachers in the back. We met in the gym, like, okay. And he just went up to his second row, that seat. Hey dad, you know at our school, we don't really like raise hands, you know, whatever. You know, it's just kind of, we just don't do that. Hear me do that anytime, you know. Second song. He's like, oh yeah, I understand. I won't embarrass you. My dad was teaching me a lesson. I'd come in the door of my house sometimes, my dad would be in his bedroom, singing his absolute heart out in his bedroom, worshiping the Lord, just like, just in there, just, man, having worship times. And by the way, my dad was worse than me at singing. Like, it was awful. I'm like, what exactly is he saying? But I know God loves a joyful noise, but he was making it. I think that's how Jesus worshipped. I think that's how Jesus prayed. I understand that we want order, and I get all that, but my dad, he would let loose at home, and he would cry out to the Lord, and he was unashamed to do that. And I think sometimes we're too quick. to think that it's not very spiritual to cry out. Let's look at these words again. Jesus prayed prayers of supplication with loud cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death. And he was heard because of his reverence. Yes, he was heard. Listen to what Robert Murray McShane says. God will either give you what you ask or something far better. What did Jesus give the Son? He saved him out of death. He brought the resurrection. What was it that was far better? It's verse 9. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him. So everybody who will believe in Christ, who will believe what the Father says about the Son, We'll be saved. Now what does this mean? And here's really the point of this. Jesus says, Father, save me from this hour, but your will be done, not my will be done. God saves him out of death, and you know what ends up happening? Because he's saved out of death, now all of us will be gathered forever in the presence of Jesus, thanking him for being obedient in that moment, for dying on the cross for our sins, and this was a better way. Have you ever thought about this before? That it's possible. that maybe the reason the Lord hasn't answered your prayers the way you asked them is because he has a better way that will bring eternal fruit? What does this mean, though, in verse eight? Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. Does that mean that Jesus was once disobedient and because his parents took the parenting class at Grace Chapel, now he's obedient? No, Jesus was never disobedient. In fact, we read that last week. He was without sin. What does it mean that he learned obedience? In verse nine there, what does it mean that he was being made perfect? John Piper's helpful in this. He says this, this does not mean that he was once disobedient and then became obedient. It means that Jesus moved from untested obedience into suffering, and then through suffering into tested and proven obedience. And this proving himself obedient through suffering was being perfected. Here's the point. Jesus had never experienced before he became a man what it meant to be tempted, what it meant to say no to sin, and what qualified him to be the spotless lamb is that he said no to sin, and therefore, he was tested in his obedience. Therefore, he was made perfect, if you will, the perfect sacrifice, the perfect substitute. so that all who believe in him can be saved. Listen to what Sam Storm says, he says this, that's how he was perfected. It wasn't that he was imperfect before, but now he is a worthy substitute. Sacrifice for sins. Listen to John chapter 6 verse 29. This is the work of God, Jesus said, that you believe in him who he has sent. What does it say there in verse 9? If we obey him, we will be saved. What is the obedience? What is the work of God? To trust in Christ as your Savior. So what we see is this, is God is not aloof. The high priest came in the flesh. The incarnation was not an option. It was an absolute necessity. And it was imperative that if Jesus was going to save men, he had to be a man. That was one of the requirements of a high priest. Secondly, he had to be God's man. We see that in verses four through six. Look at verse four. And no one takes this honor for himself, but only when God, called by God, just as Aaron was. So from the very beginning of the priesthood, the Aaronic priesthood, the priests not only were to minister for God, but it was only by divine appointment. That's what it says in Exodus chapter 28. Like it's Aaron and his sons, like from the tribe of Levi. You can't just make yourself a high priest. You can't say, oh, I want to be a high priest. You have to be called to do that. God chooses them. Jesus was chosen by the Father before the foundation of the world that he would be this great high priest. The Father chose him. So he's reminding them, remember that the priest had to be chosen. Do you guys remember Korah? What is that, like in Numbers chapter 16? He was like, who do you think you are, Aaron? You're the only people that can be the high priest. No, no, people have God too. We can just be, and do you remember what happens? The ground opens up and swallows him. He's saying, no, you've got to be chosen. And he's saying, Jesus has been chosen. And he shows that by quoting two Old Testament passages. Look at verse five. So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, this is the father to the son, you are my son, today I have begotten you. So Jesus already in existence, pre-existent, he says, now you come, this day you've become my son. The Father chose him. He says, you are now going to be the great high priest. I have begotten you. It doesn't mean Jesus ever began. It means at a moment he went as the second person in Trinity and became a human being under the selection, divine choice of God. Verse 6. And he says also in another place, Quoting from Psalm 110, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Now when you read that, you're like, okay, now I'm really confused. Well, so were they. They knew the Old Testament Scriptures. And they knew, as I mentioned earlier, that Jesus was from the tribe of Judah. He wasn't from the tribe of Levi. He wasn't a descendant of Aaron. So, you're saying he's the high priest. How can that be? And he draws their attention back to the book of Genesis. And in the book of Genesis, we encounter this man, Melchizedek. And he is, before Aaron, before the priesthood of Aaron ever got established, he lived before Moses. The law hadn't been given yet. And Abraham gave his offering to this man, Melchizedek, who's called the king of Salem, the king of Jerusalem. So he's a king, and it says, and he's the priest of God. So he could bring people to God. And what we're going to discover in Hebrews chapter seven, and we're not going to be able to get there yet, but we're going to get there. What we're going to discover is this Jesus comes from this line of Melchizedek, and it's an eternal priesthood. Aaron died. The other priests died. Jesus will never die. That's why it says you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. So he's speaking to these believers who would know Genesis chapter 14, and he's going, yeah, I know he's not from the line of Aaron, but he's from the line of Melchizedek. And that would be like, ah, that makes sense. There's a priest that came before that priesthood of Aaron. Now Jesus, here it is, I want you to catch this. Now Jesus, like Melchizedek, is both a king and a priest. The priest never sat on the throne. Jesus, from his throne, brings our names before the Father. There, in this passage, is really no application These are propositional truths, not really a lot of practical application given within the passage. And those are harder passages to preach. It's just easier. Like next week's sermon's easier. Drink milk, not solid food. You know, like you can go places with that when you come to application as a pastor. So I was praying and asking the Lord, Lord, What a great passage, that Jesus is our great high priest, that he was a man, fully man, so he sympathizes with us. He was the man chosen by you, according to this order of Melchizedek. Like, okay, this is so rich, it's so good. And the idea that the priest would wear the names of the people, bring us to God, I get all of that. And so I was like, Lord, what do you want me to conclude with? What application could I make? And that's not to presume that maybe there's not already an application to your own life that the Holy Spirit's made. So, it could be you've already written down your application, praise the Lord. For me, I'm going back to the old children's show Barney. And I remember there's an episode on Barney because that was popular when my kids were little, the purple dinosaur. And there's an episode where Barney was teaching the kids what to do if you're ever in a fire. And you know how this goes, you don't have to go to Barney for this, but it was stop, drop, and roll. And so the first, I don't know why that came to my mind. I'm just gonna take it from the Holy Spirit. I don't know, I haven't seen Barney in a long time. The first thing that comes to my mind with this passage is this is something we need to all stop doing. We need to stop bringing sacrifices to God for our sins. because Jesus died once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring us to God. I've already read that passage. We do it, though. We do it by beating ourselves up. We do it by wallowing in guilt and in shame. We do it by saying, okay, I was really naughty over here. Now I gotta do all of these really good things. That does not please God. You're not under a spirit of condemnation. If you're in Christ, you're free. No condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. We come and confess our sins to him, he's faithful and just. We go to our great high priest, like he's so generous, he's so kind, he is so gentle with the ignorant and the wayward. Secondly, we need to drop. And this is what I mean by that. We need to fall to our knees like Jesus did in the garden of Gethsemane and cry out to God, knowing that he hears us, that he cares. We need to pour out our hearts to God and enter into his presence with boldness and confidence. We need to cast our anxiety on him because he cares for us. You guys, we need to drop to our knees because Jesus is our high priest. And the third thing, is roll. This is what I mean by that. You guys remember Todd Beamer? He was the guy that I consider him just a great hero. I consider him a great American hero. There was one of those planes on 9-11 that were headed either to the White House or the Capitol. And Todd Beamer was on the back of that plane. And some of the last words, he was on a phone call, but some of the last words that were ever heard him saying is, let's roll. And all's we know is that plane crashed in Pennsylvania and didn't make it to that destination. That was courageous. That was a man who knew his mission. And I really do feel like we need to be a people who roll because Jesus is our high priest. Like we need to get busy just doing God's work. We need to be faithful to what God has called us to do that and do that with great courage. Why? Because Jesus is our great high priest. He has made the way for us to enter into his presence. He wants us to come find mercy and grace to help us in our time of need. He was dependent on the Father. We are dependent on God. But we do have God. Like so often we're living our lives, our Christian life too, like somehow like we don't know him, like we don't have him. And all I'm trying to say is we need to live like the people that we are in Christ. So we need to stop accusing ourselves. We need to drop to our knees and cry out to God, and we need to roll. We need to get busy doing God's work confidently because Jesus is our high priest. Let me pray. Father, thank you for your word. These are difficult things to understand, and probably we haven't all gotten all of it, but I pray that all of us have gotten more of it. And Lord, I pray that as we better understand Jesus as our high priest, that he was a man, fully, who is sinless and offered himself as our perfect sacrifice for sin. But Lord, he was your man. And Lord, if we're gonna come to you, we're gonna have to go through your man that you've chosen. And there might be some people in this room that don't even like that, but Lord, it's your choice. And we're glad that you chose Jesus, and we choose him today too, to surrender to him, to submit to him. Lord, bless your people now as we worship in song, as we close this service. I pray that you would even work powerfully in this room right now, and in the homes, in Jesus' name, amen.