So as you guys know, we've been in chapter 4 for maybe about a month or so, and chapter 4 basically is leading us in conclusion to the previous chapters of Hebrews where he was warning about not drifting. We spent a good time in our retreat talking about drifting and how we ought to be anchored in Christ, and so the warning for that has led to chapter 4 where we have the 4 let us statements to move.

That if we have been drifting in any way, he says first of all, he says in verse 1, let us fear while a promise remains of entering his rest and any one of you may seem to have come short of it. So first call is if you have caught yourself, if you find yourself beginning to drift internally, possibly externally, and you hear the word of God, he says today if you hear a voice do not harden your heart, he says first and foremost to fear.

Because he who fears God really in the end will have nothing else to fear. In other words, when he's calling to fear, if you see yourself drifting, he says to take reverence, take seriously that this is not just something frivolous, that the consequence of continuing to drift, that if your heart has become hardened and it's been months and years and maybe even longer than that, that if you catch yourself having to have drifted or drifted so far away that when you close your eyes you have no presence of God in your life, that you don't know what it's like to be in his presence because it's been so long.

You don't know what it's like to worship God because it's been so long. You've been just singing and mouthing words but you haven't worshipped God in a long time. If that is the case, he says fear. There should be fear. If we genuinely believe that Christ is our salvation and we have drifted away from him, there ought to be fear.

There ought to be reverence. Let us fear. And then he says if you have found yourself to have drifted and there is a sense of seriousness that this needs to be corrected, he says in verse 11, let us be diligent. It is not enough just to have conviction. You know what, those messages of yours are true and I feel bad.

Repentance isn't simply feeling bad about something. Repentance isn't just learning things and say, "Well, I ought to be here but I'm here but thank God for God's grace." He says, "No, if you have found yourself drifting from God," he says, "let us fear and if you fear let us be diligent to enter this rest." What applications are we making?

What changes are taking place that we are actively, diligently seeking to get back on track? Let us be diligent to enter that rest. And then verse 14, if that is the case and if you, maybe some of you have not drifted, maybe you've been walking right for a while or maybe some of you guys are getting back on track and if that's the case, he says, "Let us hold fast since our great high priest has passed through the heavens." Let us hold fast.

Let us hold on to this tightly so that this does not happen again. Because our natural tendency to neglect our faith, once our bills are paid, once the emergency is taken care of, once our family is okay and we have a paycheck coming in and we're healthy, once everything is back to safety, we have a tendency to just drift.

Because all you have to do to drift is to do nothing. All you have to do to drift is not actively seek what's wrong. Just passively to do nothing and you will just drift because this is where we live. And so therefore, he says, if you recognize that and you fear and you are committed to be diligent in seeking this rest, he says to hold fast so that you do not drift.

The fourth and final "let us" statement is really where all of this is leading us to. The whole purpose of our salvation is really summarized in what he says in the fourth statement in verse 16. "Let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." Our whole point of our salvation is so that we can be reconciled to this holy God.

And so an individual who says that he has a relationship with God but never draws near to God is missing the whole point of salvation. Because the whole point of salvation is to break down the barrier between us and this holy God. And that's what the cross was for.

So an individual who talks about God's love, who talks about church and talks about his faith and yet never draws near to God is like buying a nice car and never driving it. Purchasing a nice comfortable home up in the hills and never living in it. It contradicts the very purpose of our salvation.

And so verse 16 is the summary not only of what he is saying in chapter 1, 2, 3, and 4, it's really a summary of Christian living period. The whole point of our salvation is to get us back into union with this God. Because it is in this union we find life.

It is in this union that we find rest. But you have to understand that this command to draw near, how that would have sounded to a first century Jew. Because to us, when you say draw near, it's like yes, we need to draw near. I feel bad that we don't do that, but I need to draw near to God because the gates have been opened.

But you have to understand a first century Jew, to draw near to God, what that would have sounded like to a first century Jew. Because in every instance where a Jew in his natural state met God, it meant death. Everything about the Old Testament law told people to stay away.

They didn't tell them to come. In Exodus 19, 20-24, Moses said to the Lord, "The people cannot come to the Mount of Sinai, for you warned us, saying, 'Set bounds about the mountains and consecrate it.' Then the Lord said to him, 'Go down and come up again, and you and Aaron with you.

But do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the Lord, or he will break forth upon them.'" When he says he will break forth upon them, that's another way of saying that God's going to bring judgment and they're going to die. He says, "You come, because I have some things I need to share with you, but the priests and everybody else, if they break through and come up this mountain, they're going to die." So imagine that.

God didn't say, "Come up to them. I am here. Come up." He actually says, "I am here, so stay away." Exodus 20, verse 19, "Then they said to Moses, 'Speak to us yourself, and we will listen. But let not God speak to us, or we will die.'" The Israelites got their message.

And so not only would they not go up to the mountain, even hearing the voice of God, they were scared. Think about today, how we want to hear God, where is God, how come God's not speaking to us? To a Jew, he says, "Don't let him speak to us, because if that God, that holy God speaks to us, we will die.

So we need a mediator. Moses, you go speak to him, and you tell us what he is saying, but we cannot. I can't even listen to him. I'm afraid." Numbers chapter 17, 12 through 13, after setting up the tabernacle, and the whole purpose of the tabernacle is designed so that the sacrificial systems can be made, and then they would come and draw near to God.

But the Israelites knew who God was and is. This is what they say. Numbers 17, 12 to 13, "Then the sons of Israel spoke to Moses, saying, 'Behold, we perish. We are dying, and we are all dying. Everyone who comes near to the tabernacle of the Lord must die.

Are we to perish completely?'" They were deathly afraid of the tabernacle, because they knew that that's where the presence of God was going to dwell. And he was right in the middle of the camp, and even though the whole purpose of the tabernacle was to teach them that the sacrifice is going to wash them of their blood, so that they may have fellowship with God, the presence of God scared them.

If we come to the tabernacle, we will die. And again, in Leviticus 16, verse 2, this instruction was given to Aaron, the high priest, representative of all the priests. He says, "And the Lord said to Moses, 'Tell your brother Aaron that he shall not enter at any time into the holy place inside the veil, before the mercy seat which is on the ark, or he will die, for I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat.'" The high priest was given very specific instruction that when he comes to the Holy of Holies once a year, that if he doesn't come when I prescribe him to come, if he doesn't come and cleanse himself before he comes, and then even if he does come, that if he doesn't do his duty and then hurry up and leave, he says he will die.

Over and over again, they are warned not to come. So imagine that to a first century Jew, to hear, "Draw near to God with confidence." It won't sound the same the way we would hear it today. Of course, I feel guilty. We should be going to him. Where is God?

How come he's not speaking to us? There's a reason why in Jewish tradition, why they asked the high priest to wear a bell. Because they wanted to check if he went in there, if he's going to come out safe. So if he went in there and he didn't come out in time, they were afraid he died.

So they were hearing for his bell, or he's still alive. The reason why they started doing that is because other priests prior to him probably died. They didn't just start that practice out of nowhere. They probably started that practice because they came in just like Aaron's two sons, Nadab and Abihu.

The first sacrifice that was made by the two first priests, they died because they didn't follow God's direction. They offered up strange fire and the punishment was capital punishment. They died. So this history of Israel's history about God's presence in the midst of Israel scared them. We can't draw near to God.

Moses, you speak to him and you talk to us. You call us to come to the tabernacle, but when we come to the tabernacle, we die. The high priest, you call him to come in and make sacrifice. When he comes, he dies. So for a first entry to here, therefore draw near to God.

I guarantee you it wasn't flippant. It was not a flippant response. It's a yes, we go in. My guess is they probably were asking, how? How can we just go in like that? What if we die? My guess is that's probably what they were asking. Part of the reason why there's this elaborate explanation about the atonement of Christ is to give them security.

Is to let them know you're covered. You can draw near now because of what Christ has done. I want to look at four things that it says about drawing near in this text. One, it says we can draw near to God because the throne is the throne of grace.

That's why it says come near to the throne of grace. Now we already talked about how the throne that he's talking about, he's talking about the mercy seat. That in the Holy of Holies, you have the Ark of the Covenant, and you had the wings of the cherubim, and the high priest would go in on the day of atonement.

After he's cleansed himself and purified himself, he would go there and sprinkle the blood on the curtains and all the articles, representing that the sins of the nation is covered. His own sin is covered, and God would speak to him at that mercy seat. The scripture says that when Christ came and he made his sacrifice and was resurrected, he sat on that throne.

That was Christ's throne all this time. Where God was going to come and meet the nation of Israel, meet God's people, it was at that throne, his mercy seat. So all this time, everything that Israelites did was to prepare for Christ to come and sit on his throne. And that's the throne he's referring to when he says to come to the throne of grace.

But the first thing to recognize about this is first and foremost, it is a throne. It is a throne. When we think about a throne, we typically think about the king who rules. He is sovereign. If you are at a monarchy, none of us lived under a monarchy, or I'm just assuming, so we don't know what it's like to live in a monarchy.

But we've studied history. A monarch basically means that he is completely sovereign. He makes the law. There is no check and balance. So if the monarch says, if the king says, "I don't like the way you're dressed," put him in jail. That's it. There is no judicial system. There is no Congress to check him.

If the king says it, it's law. So if the king says, "I need to talk to you," your immediate response isn't, "Yes!" If I go, king must have something to give me. The first thing that we probably would think is, "Oh my gosh, if I go in there, and what if he's ticked off?

What did I do? Did I say something? Did I do something? Did I not obey the law? Like, what happened? Why is the king calling me?" We don't automatically think a gift is waiting when the king calls you. Our generation has learned about the cross on this side of the covenant almost exclusively to the point that we don't understand the God of the Old Testament, the God of righteousness and God of holiness.

And so when we think about coming to Christ, we automatically think of coming to this great grandfather or grandfather who just has candy in his pocket all the time. We just automatically assume this grace. Even Christ, when we think about Christ, we always talk about him as the humble servant who's on his knees and washing the disciples' feet, and that's the Christ that we see, which is all true because that's the image that he left us.

But in Philippians chapter 2, 9 through 11, it says, "For this reason," because he did that, "God highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." He says because he humbled himself, what happened?

He was exalted. He is exalted. He is sitting on his throne. And every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. In fact, in Romans chapter 10, 9, it says that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

If you know Jesus as a Savior but not as your Lord, it is not the Lord of the Bible. It is not the God of the Bible that you have met. You met the version of him that is preached in our generation, but that is not the God of the Bible.

When he says, "If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord," he's not just talking about a title. He's not talking about the Beatles who became lords. They got the title Lord in England because their songs were so great and that they brought some honor to England, and as a result of that, they were crowned as lords.

It's just a title of honor. This is identity here. It's not talking about a title. We just call him Lord out of respect. It's who he is. So when he says that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, you're confessing his Lordship in your life, that he is my sovereign, he is my king, he is the one I submit to, he's the one I honor, he's the one I follow, he's the one I obey.

So first and foremost, we need to understand, he says, to draw near to the throne, to the throne of grace. We don't automatically assume. If we understood all that the first century Jew understood about who God was, the natural question that we wouldn't have been asking is, "Why is God so severe?" He would have been asking, "Why is God so gracious?" He who does not know Christ as Lord does not know Christ at all.

But that's the mystery. Why would that God be gracious? Why would the throne of God, a holy, righteous God, the same God who in his anger destroyed nations, the flood... You know, in our day and story, the flood has become a nice Sunday school VBS story. Flood is the killing of the world.

Flood gave us a glimpse of what may come at the end. Not may come, what is going to come at the end. It's just a glimpse of God's wrath. That's what it looks like when God is angered and he carries out his anger. That's the same God that is calling us to come to him.

The same God who wiped out Jericho completely. The same God who opened up the ground and swallowed up the grumblers. It's that same God who brought plague upon nations because they angered him. It's the same God that brought upon judgment upon nation upon nation because they would not listen to him.

It is that same God that the nation of Israel was terrified just looking at the tabernacle. It didn't cause warm feelings in their heart. "Oh, God is among us." It caused terror. That God that we couldn't go up to the mountain is here. It is that God. He says, "Come, draw near to that throne of grace." It is that throne that became grace in Christ.

All the time. That mercy seat was preparing for Christ's rule. That was his seat all the time. That's where God was going to come and meet the nation of Israel. And that's where we come to meet God. It is at his throne of grace. He says, number two, we can draw near to God because Jesus sympathizes with our weakness.

The word sympathy basically means to come alongside. To have same passion. He sympathizes because he stepped in our shoes. He became one of us. You ever have a situation where you have a hard time understanding somebody but once you step in their shoes, you say, "Oh, I get it." I've done probably every poor paying minimum wage job that you can possibly think of.

Just to pay bills. And so I have compassion for every time I drive through McDonald's and I see the workers. When it's young kids, I still respect them. That's a lot of work. But when I see adults in there, simply because they were born in a different country and they're working their tail off for minimum wage.

How many of you work that hard? Like Monday through Friday? My guess is nobody here. God blessed us. These guys are working their 40 hours a week, working their tail off. Their legs are tired at the end of the day and they do all of this for minimum wage for most of them.

Every time I drive through there, I respect this person. I respect him. Because I know how tiring this is. Years ago, and I think I shared with some of you or I think I've shared in the past years that in the beginning of my relationship with Esther, that we really thought that we were going to be going into homeless ministry.

And so the more I got into it, the more it started to dawn on me that if I'm going to really do homeless ministry and our goal was to set up a shelter and disciple them and help them off the street, I need to really know what it's like being homeless.

So I had this crazy idea, I'm going to go out on the street. And so I spent three days and two nights. And it may sound crazy, but I already had made some friends, a couple of friends that we would come out every Tuesday and then I would meet them sometimes on Saturday and I was meeting up with them, trying to share the gospel and discipling this one particular guy.

And so I felt comfortable enough that if I hung out with him, that I would be okay. So I asked him, "Hey, I'm planning to come out here." I'm trying to say, obviously he thought I was crazy. I said, "It's only for a few days." So I went out and again, I journaled during that period.

And so I went back and as I was thinking about this, I went back to try to read the journal that I wrote of my experience of being out there. And it brought back a lot of memories. I just wanted to read you a small clip or a blip of what I wrote in my journal.

The life of homeless is monotonous. The biggest problem is not food or shelter, but it's the feeling of hopelessness and emptiness. The Santa Ana Civic Center would not open up for homeless until 6 p.m. each day so that we just spent the day walking around just killing time. I felt like a little kid again.

I had no worries or problems to deal with, at least for the moment. These two guys were no longer just homeless people to me that I hung around with. They began to become true friends. This made me happy and sad at the same time. I knew I would go back to my comfortable home in a day while these guys would stay out here permanently.

When I asked, "What's the hardest thing about being homeless?" They said that they just didn't matter in this world. If they died, no one would miss them. That short period, even though it was just a couple of days, completely transformed my paradigm because they weren't just homeless people. They were just people that just didn't have shelter.

As I was going back and reading this, there are some names that I put there that I completely forgot because it's been a couple of decades since I thought about them. This one particular guy, I remember his name was Angel. We became good friends. We spent so much time together.

He was the guy who protected me while I was out there for a few days. To be honest, I completely forgot until I was reading that. It brought back so many memories. Angel was a guy who was a drug addict. He went to jail. While he was in jail, he met Christ.

By the time he came out, his family basically disowned him. He had nowhere to go. That's why he was out in the street. He was a perfectly sane guy. He was able to work. He was a healthy young guy. It's just him going to jail and coming back just ruined his life.

He was out in the street. He met the Lord, but the temptation came in. He was really struggling. He wanted to get right with God, but then the temptation of crack at that time was so strong that he was going back and forth, back and forth. I remember we tried so hard to get him off the street and get him into a shelter.

I remember spending about a year and a half with this guy. All these memories started coming back, just wondering where he is, what's going on. What really stuck with me during that period was we naturally think when we think of homeless people that we need to give them shelter.

They don't have food, so we need to give them food. They don't have a job, so let's help them get a job. But I realized that being out there, I realized that that wasn't their problem because each of the day I was there, they knew exactly where to go to get food.

Tuesday you come here, Wednesday morning you go there, so if you need a shower, you go down the street and this Catholic church has this door open. If on Thursday you need to go get some clothes, you can go down to this street and they have clothes. There's food that they can eat, at least one meal.

Some days there's like three or four of them, like churches come and compete with each other to do homeless ministry. So it wasn't food. My natural thought is, okay, let's get them off the street and get them into a hotel or motel. So we tried doing that and I realized that that wasn't a big deal to them.

In my mind, why wouldn't you want that? It's free. We're going to take care of all your bills and then get you back on the street. But I realized something happened in their life that got them there to begin with. And in California, it's not that hard because the weather is pretty nice.

We deliberately go camping anyway. You know what I mean? We sleep outside. So it's not uncomfortable. There's maybe about a month out of the year that it's maybe too cold and then a few times out of the year it rains. So whenever it rains, it gets too cold and the church down the street opens up their gym and we get to sleep there.

And so I got to sleep there one day because it happened to be cold and rainy. And so outside of those few times, it's actually comfortable sleeping outside, at least the weather-wise. Think about how hard we work to put away money to retire so you don't have to work.

The homeless people found a quick way to get there. And I'm not talking about people who have mental issues. I'm talking about people who just kind of learn to be out there. And I realized what I thought they needed wasn't what they needed. The primary problem with homelessness is not homelessness.

It's hopelessness. And that problem isn't any different with people who have homes. It's the same. I would have never understood that until I stepped into their shoes, even if it was just for a couple days. God stepped into our shoes. He became an infant and lived his whole life simply so that he could sympathize with our weakness.

The word "weakness" just literally means "sickness." That he understands our sickness. He wasn't a woman. He wasn't a grandpa. He wasn't married. But when he says he sympathized, he has compassion, he knows what it's like to live and to be raised in a sinful world with all the temptations.

So he knows and recognizes our weakness, and that's why he's able to come to rescue us. Because he knows exactly what our struggle is. He knows exactly what our weaknesses are. You know, to me, the strangest scene in the gospel is when Jesus is crying out to the Father before he goes to the cross.

And he's anxious. God, the Son of God, he's anxious and he's crying out to God. Is there another way? He's the one who told his disciples this is why he came. It was prophesied from the beginning, all the way from Genesis, that this is what he was going to do.

He deliberately stirred up the leaders so that he would get caught. And even when Peter was going to fight him, he told him to put his sword away because he volunteered to go to the cross. Yet at the Garden of Gethsemane, he cried out, "God, is there another way?" Just like any other human being about to face the biggest torture the next day, biggest humiliation, the greatest pain that he's ever experienced, physically and spiritually, to be separated from Father.

Just like any other human being, he cried out, "Is there another way?" He was tempted, yet did not sin. Not my will, but your will be done. That's what he did. And as a result of that, he says, he can sympathize with our weaknesses. He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God.

That's the mystery. That's the mystery that causes worship. See, somebody who kind of hears that and is like, "Oh, he did that for me. Let's just go in." That person is not worshiping because the difference between a man and woman who worships is a person who comes to the cross and recognizes that this mystery is beyond my comprehension, is beyond me.

And so for the rest of his life, he is seeking to understand, "Why would you do this for me? Why would you do this for me?" And it is that mystery, it is that pursuit that causes you to worship in spirit and in truth. But an individual who says, "Oh, yeah, he's gracious.

Let's just go." You're coming physically. You're doing the right things, but you know you're not worshiping because there is no awe in your heart. It is this mystery, it is this cross that he tells us to come that creates awe. Why would he do this? It's the foundation of our worship.

It is the foundation of our fellowship. It is the foundation of our pursuit. It is the foundation of our worship. Draw near to God to the throne of confidence. Number three, draw near to God, he says, with confidence. I mean, think about that. To tell a first-century Jew to draw near.

In and of itself, are you trying to kill me? Do you remember what happened to Aaron's children? Do you remember what happened to Israel? Remember what happened to all these people who entered the tabernacle without proper cleansing to draw near to God? Are you crazy? The first-century Jew, just that alone, draw near to God.

But then he says, "Draw near to God with confidence." Are you kidding? I mean, like I said, in our generation, we've been presented this God like a grandfather who always has candy, is never angry, and he just kind of just lets you go. And so when we say, "Draw near to God," yes, and we have this image of just jumping into grandpa's lap, telling his story.

Now, we're not saying that God is not merciful. We're not saying that God is not gracious. But if we don't understand his holiness and his righteousness, then even grace you don't fully understand. Draw near with confidence. Hebrews 10, 19-22, "Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he inaugurated for us through the veil that is his flesh, and since we have great priests over the house of God, let us draw near with sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water." To be able to enter the throne of grace with confidence, you have to believe.

Because only those who genuinely believe, who have been covered by the blood of Christ, can even enter, can even imagine that we can somehow have access to this God. Sin, unconfessed sin is what causes timidness to come to Christ. Unconfessed sins is what causes timidness to speak of Christ.

Unconfessed sin causes us to be timid in our fellowship with others, and unconfessed sin is the cause of our weakness. But those who have been covered by the blood of Christ, we have confidence. We have confidence. We have confidence because the only person that ultimately matters, the one who created the universe, he's on my side.

So automatically you have confidence. But sin causes timidness. Compromise causes timidness. Part of the reason why so few people go out and evangelize and share their faith is because of their sin. It's not because they don't know how to say something. It's not because they don't have the words, that they're not smart.

It's because of sin. Sin makes us timid. Sin makes us timid in our worship. Sin makes us timid in our fellowship because we're afraid to be open and honest. But those who draw near to the throne of God, through the grace of God, who have been covered by the blood of Christ, automatically there's boldness.

There's boldness. Because it doesn't matter if the whole world is against me because God said it's okay. It doesn't matter what the rest of the world thinks because God said it's okay. Then all of a sudden our confidence comes. Not because of people, not because of adoration, not because of our accomplishments, because of God.

Draw near with confidence. Fourth and finally, we need to draw near because that's where we will find help in time of need. Where do you run to when you need help? You know what I see the difference between a nominal Christian and a Christian? And let me distinguish, okay?

Nominal Christian is not a Christian. So some of you might be bothered by that. And if you are bothered by it, challenge me. And when I say challenge me, I'm not saying let's go wrestle, right? When I say challenge me, it's like read the scripture yourself. Open up the Bible.

See if nominal Christians are Christians. So challenge me. I use the term nominal Christian because we've created this term for people who are in the church who are not following Christ. We've created this term for people who are in the church and not worshiping God. We've created this term to describe people who've been raised in the church, who are at the church, who attend the church, but clearly Christ is not their Lord.

So what do we call them? Well, they're not non-Christians because they're in the church. Well we can't call them Christian because this is what Christian looks like. So we've created this nominal Christian as nominal Christian. There's like a third category. There is no third category. Nominal Christians are not Christians.

Again, if that bothers you, challenge me. Read the scripture for yourself. Don't quote me some pastor. Don't refer me to a book. Go to the Bible yourself. Now having said that, the difference between a nominal Christian and a Christian is the access that we have to this God. See a nominal Christian is always looking for help from other people with God.

I need people. Their first instinct is to go to people. I need counseling. I need small group. I need church. I need this. I need leaders. I need older brother. I need older sister. So you're always looking for people to help you with God. But if you know God and you have access to God, and God says, "Come to me." He is our source, not the people.

God helps us with people. People don't help us with God. He's our ultimate source. He's the one who helps us. That's the difference. If you know Christ, for Isaiah 55, 6-7, "Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts.

And let him return to the Lord and he will have compassion on him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon." Do you seek God? Do you seek people? Do you know God? Do you know people? Which is it? If you have access to the God of the universe, why would he not be your first that you go to?

Before you cry out for people's love, before you cry out for community, cry out to God first. He's the one who created all things. He's the one who knows all things. He's the only one who can actually do anything about anything. Other human beings can make promises with the best of attentions, but eventually, if your faith is founded upon the kindness and grace and love of other people, it will eventually crumble because there are people just like you, just like me.

They are weak just like me, just like you. That's why he says, "Draw near to him because that's where we will find help in time of need." Matthew 7 and 8, "Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened to you.

For everyone who asks, receive. And he who seeks finds and to him who knocks it will be opened." You do not have because you did not ask. And you do not ask, right? You ask but you do not get because what you're asking for has nothing to do with him.

Come, seek him first. And let me conclude with this. First Peter 5, 6 through 7, "Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God and he may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on him because he cares for you." Let me ask you, when was the last time that you really realized that he loves you?

He's not just some god sitting on a throne. He's not just some sovereign though he is. When was the last time that you knew that he loves you? My guess is if you can't think of a time, that your heart probably has hardened already. That God has become a figurehead to you.

That God is somebody that you need to appease. That somebody that you need to appease so that he can answer your prayers or make you healthy or get a job. Because you see him as a figurehead but you don't have a personal relationship with him. But those of you who know him, those of you who taste the goodness of God, where the eyes, our eyes have been opened to the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for rest, not just the rest of our lives, for rest of eternity, we're going to be looking at that cross and asking why did you do this for me?

Why did you do this for me? And that hungering and thirsting for righteousness that can only be found in Christ is going to cause you to go to him for rest of eternity. I don't think any of us, once we get to heaven, is going to face in any other direction than toward the throne of Christ.

That's what I think. It's like going to an NBA championship game and then having your seat turned around and talking to everybody else. I don't think it's going to happen. Everybody's going to be fixated on the throne of Christ. My prayer is not to wait to get to heaven.

To recognize what it is that we have in Christ and fear lest we drift. Be diligent, hold fast, and draw near to the throne of grace.