Please remain standing. We'll read from our passage for the day. It'll be out of hebrews four, verse 14. It says this. Since then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the son of God.

Let us hold fast our confession, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect, has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then, with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Please take your seats.

God in heaven, we thank you for this morning. We ask you now to give us eyes to see and ears to hear what you have for us in your word. I pray every thought, every word, every idea that's taught now is from your mind, from your heart, from your word to your people. Pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

The Christmas season is a season that is known to be a season of joy. It's a season that for us christians, we get to remember the joys of our savior being born of a virgin. We get to celebrate that. We get to sing songs about that. It's a season where we get to feast with our family and our friends, and we get to enjoy the time together.

It's also a season where we get to experience the energy and just some of the celebration of the season, whether it's at work, whether it's at a school party, whether it's at a friend's. All the excitement of the season comes with this Christmas time, and it's a joyous time now with that season, there also comes with it some personal baggage. For some of us, sometimes not all baggage is bad baggage, but it's things that we have to deal with when we come to seasons like this. For some of us, we're part of the energy of having a home full of kids, and there's just the energy of having children during Christmas time. And that's a season of energy.

For some of us, we have a season of change where the dynamics in our home have changed. Dynamics in our family have changed. The season doesn't feel like it used to feel then. For some of us, it's a season of loss. This year, we may have lost a Parent, a friend, someone.

That's key to our life that we come to this time of year and we think about the weight of not having them with us. Then for some of us, it's a season of regret. There's things that you have done that make this time a hard time of year to be joyful. So I name all these emotions and realities of our lives, and I bring them right here to this morning to tell you this. Our elders have selected the book of hebrews in this passage today to center you on what matters most, so that whatever season you're in, you'll look to Christ.

And in this season, this season is about Christ. And so we want to center you on Christ this morning. And the way we're going to do that, the way I'm going to do that this morning, the way our author is going to do that this morning, is through two encouragements to your heart. Two encouragements to your heart from this passage. ThE FIrst encouragement is to hold fast to the profession of faith that you've been given by God.

Hold fast to that profession of faith that you made. The second one is to receive the good gifts that God, the giver, has given to you with confidence. First, we want you to hold fast to the faith that you professed in God, and then receive the good gifts the giver of life has given you with confidence. So first, let's hold fast. Look at our passage here, verse 14.

It says, since then we have a great high priest who passed through the heavens, JEsus, the son of God. Let us hold fast our confession, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect, has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

The believers that we find in this book, the Book of Hebrews, we have an author who writes to a group of people, the group of people who are receiving this letter. They seem to be PeoPle who are very familiar with jewish tradition. They seem to be PeoPle who had a time in their life where they were on fire for God, a time in life where they were faithful to God. But now they find themselves in a different type of season, where the pressure of being a Christian or being a follower of God has started to mount up, and they're beginning to struggle. They're beginning to feel the weight, beginning to feel the burdens.

If you would turn with me to chapter ten, actually, I'm just going to read it to you, just to kind of give you an idea of what they're going through. The people in this community that this author is writing to, it says this. The author writes, he says, but recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, after you received the light, remember those days. You endured a hard struggle with sufferings. Sometimes you were even publicly exposed to reproach.

You were exposed to afflictions. Sometimes you were a partner with those who were so treated, for you had compassion on those in prison. You joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew. You knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one in Christ. Therefore, I say to you, do not throw away your confidence, which is a great reward.

You see, this letter is written to a people who were all in. In their faith. They had a day where they made a decision to follow the Lord. They had a day where they were suffering for Christ. They had a day where they were on fire for the Lord.

They had a day where they were willing to have someone take their home from them and joyfully receive that burden. They had a day where they associated with people who were suffering for their faith, willingly, publicly afflicted.

They were the people that used to hold on to their faith. But now, some of them have wandered. Some of them have started to give up. Some of them are struggling. And that's why this author is writing to these people.

He tells them a few things. He says, first of all, Christ is the final prophet that God has spoken about. And he's delivered through Christ the fulfillment of all of what God needs us to know. And then this author also says that this Christ, he's greater than Moses because Moses brought the people out of slavery into the promised land. But this Christ brings all people out of slavery to sin into the new heavens and new earth through faith in him.

ThiS ChrIsT is the high priest. He's not like the priests of ISrael who have to walk into a temple and offer sacrifices. He's the kind of priest who passes through the heavens, who sits next to God, the father on the throne, and looks at his father and says, I pray for these people. I offer prayers for them, offer myself as a sacrifice for them, because I am their high priest. I am their final high priest.

I am the perfect high priest, and I'm here to do this for you. This is what he prays in the heavens. So the author has done all these things through this book, and now we find ourselves where he's talking about what it means to call God ChrIst. This high priest.

Well, a couple things. We just named it. He's this high priest. So what does this mean? Well, first of all, this high priest, who is he?

He's ChrIst. And he is someone who sympathizes with our needs. He sympathizes with our weaknesses. He knows where we're weak. He knows when we sleep.

He knows when we wAke. But he's not SAnta Claus.

He knows us more than a mythological character of the season. He knows our every thought, our every intention, our every failure, our every sin, our every mistake, our every dream. He sympathizes and knows us. But mostly this passage is saying he sympathizes with our weaknesses around our sin. You see, Jesus.

He knows what it looks like to walk the razor thin edge of being righteous and being tempted as a man and as God. He knew what it was like to almost want to murmur when his brother, not brother, but when his cousin was killed, John the Baptist, he wanted to murmur. I'm sure he knew what it was like to be tempted by Satan. When Satan says, just bow to me and all these things will be yours. He knew what it was like to want to slip into Self Pity when his favorite disciples couldn't stay up to pray with him.

He knew what it was like to have lust. Not to have lust, but to be tempted for lust. When Mary would bow herself low and take down her hair and anoint his feet with oil in this intimate moment, he knew what it was like to be tempted to lie to protect his life. He knew what it was like to be tempted to gloat when being accused by people that couldn't answer questions that he could answer. He was tempted in every way that we are.

Yet without sin. Do you realize that if he sinned one time, you'd have no hope? You'd have no hope. I'd have no hope. This group that's being written, this letter, would have no hope if he sinned one time.

None of us have hope. You're in a bad season now. It'll never get better. You're getting older, and you're about to die. That's the end for you.

If you blew up your business, you're really a failure.

You dishonored your family name. You have no honor. Every failure you've ever done has no hope. There's no redemption for you, ever.

He did not sin. And because he did not sin, he's the great high priest. He's the one who can pass through the heavens and look God in his face, God the father in his face, and say, I pray for them. I sacrifice myself for them. I do these things for them, to give them life.

Because me, I died. I paid the price. I paid the penalty for their sins.

The book of proverbs says this very powerful passage here about prayers to God. It says in proverbs 29 nine, if one turns away his ear from God's instruction, even his prayers are an abomination. Do you see, friends, even your prayers are an abomination to God if you do not follow his ways. But through Christ, our prayers are heard. We have no hope if he sinned, but because he did not sin, we have hope.

We hold fast to this confession. We hold fast to this reality. And so how do we firmly hold fast to this? That's the question. Well, we hold fast because we want to think about the things I just shared.

This is how you hold fast to it. You remember what he's done and who he is. You remember his faithfulness in your life. All of you have had by the grace of God. You can remember God's faithfulness in your life.

By the grace of God. You could remember his hand in your life. I can remember his hand in my life. Let's tell you a quick story. I got married, and I would say disproportionately or abnormally selfish.

So as soon as I got married to my wife, I wasn't quite ready to give up all of my own single things. I wanted to give her 90% of me, but I want to hold on to ten. I want to hold on to those 05:00 p.m. Workout sessions after. After work.

I want to hold on to a few of those times with the guys during the. During the month. I want to hold on to a few of my secret things that are just about me, and I really don't want to hear anything else about it. And so one month goes by, two months goes by. Three months goes by.

I'm hearing the same things about what you're doing. Four months goes by. Five months goes by. And finally the heat is starting to build in my marriage. And then one weekend, my wife goes away for a friend event with a friend of hers, and I was having too much fun to pick up the phone that weekend.

And so when she came home, and so when she came home, it was almost like God decided to speak through my wife, because she came home and she said, I want to move home.

You don't listen, and you don't care.

He spoke through her, and I heard what she said. And the truth is, I didn't listen, and I didn't care. But for the first time ever in my marriage, I listened and I cared. And it was like God grabbed me by the collar, and he took me one room over into my office, down to my knees, and I asked God to help remove this mountain from my heart, to give me a listening heart to my wife, to remove the self centeredness from my heart and my life. And it was like a miracle.

Months, days, years, God just keeps working, kept working in that prayer to where the desires that I didn't even have for my marriage, God gave them to me. The Bible says, delight yourself in the Lord and he will give the desires of your heart. Commit your way to him, trust in him, and he will act. So on that day when my sinfulness that I was holding on to was pushed in my face by my wife, I was able to, by the grace of God, by his spirit alone, turn from these things and then pray different prayers. I'd never prayed before.

And he began to change my life and give me desires. I never had to be a better husband than I ever could imagine. I'm not saying I'm perfect, but I never could have been faithful the way that God has called me to be faithful without him. I hold on to that prayer of that moment. I hold on to that story of redemption when I think about holding fast to my faith.

How about you? How has God turned things around for you? How has God shown you hope in your life? How has God shown you that he matters? How has he done that?

This is my encouragement to you, to you today. Hold fast to your profession of faith. This is how you do that. Now, from that place, we must see what's said next in this passage. It says this.

In this passage back to our Hebrews four passage, it says this, let us then, with confidence, draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. So we must draw near to the throne. Now, for this context, the people who were receiving this letter, they're very familiar with thrones. We're not as familiar with thrones as they are. But if you can imagine there's a king on the throne and you have to approach that throne.

Now, for these people, and I would imagine for many people, approaching the throne can come with some real concerns. And for a lot of people, especially if you're thinking about God and approaching the throne, you know, you know, you know that the only thing you deserve before the throne of God, if your faith is not in God, is judgment. That's what you know. And if you don't know that, that's the truth. If you approach God without faith in his son, all you receive is judgment.

And so when these people look to the throne, they can't come with confidence, because that's all they see. They know that they've not followed the instructions of the king. And so if they're going to stand in front of him. He's going to go, what are you doing here? You're guilty.

They know that they were given an assignment by the king, but they haven't done it. They know when they approach the king, he's going to say, you've dishonored my name. These are all the things that people could have. And I would say even a problem that might hold people back from approaching the throne, and that problem that people have in approaching the throne is at least fourfold as far as responding to that problem. The problem is people don't feel like they can confidently approach the throne.

And so what do people do with it? That lack of confidence? Because they know judgment's there.

First thing I think people do is they deny. They deny their need for the throne. They deny their need for the grace. They deny their need for the mercy. And so they just don't approach the throne because they just don't need it.

Second thing they do is they drown. They know they have a throne they should be approaching, but instead, they drown their lives in all the desires of this life, to numb out the conscience towards right and wrong, towards good and evil that God has given. Another thing people do when they just aren't ready to approach the throne is they go into a state of paralysis. I should do this, but I want to do this, and I should do this, but I think this, and I just don't really know. Making sense of their lives without God.

But there's a fourth way that this author is encouraging people to approach the throne, and they are to approach the throne with confidence. And how could you approach the throne with confidence? Because the man on the throne, better yet, the person on the throne is not a man. The person on the throne is Jesus. You see, if it was just a man, all of your failures would be held against you forever.

But if it's Jesus who it is, all of your failures and all of your sins and all of your struggles can be forgiven by the person on the throne. So now we get to draw near to this throne.

We get to hold fast to who Christ is, what he said, what he's done, and we get to draw near to this throne. We get to receive mercy. See, mercy is the withholding of the wrath you deserve. Grace is giving you the merit you did not earn or the favor you did not earn. See, both of these gifts are at the throne for you.

Both these gifts are at the throne. For me. Both these gifts are at the throne for us. Through Christ, he's there offering mercy, offering grace in our time of need. It is him.

So when we think about the seasons we face and all the things that might come with different seasons and even Christmas season, we must remember the kind of people that received this gift from the past. We must remember Amary and how she received the gift. She didn't go, no, Lord, that's not my job. I just can't do that. I'm not good enough for that.

And she received it with humility, and she moved forward and did what God called her to do. We think about Joseph. Joseph received that job, that assignment, to go be by Mary's side in faith.

We think about the shepherds even reading and thinking about this, this season. They saw the angels and they moved with awe and wonder and praise. You see, we receive from God and we move with him. This is the prayer. This is the life we have.

And so with that reception of the grace, I want to encourage you now to hold fast to the faith that you profess. Even now, brothers and sisters, whatever seed, whatever you're going through in your life right now, it's easy to fall into murmuring, complaining, struggling in a way that doesn't honor God. But there's also a way to have needs, have weaknesses, have struggles, and then bring them to God and to his people and be healed, be encouraged, be loved. This is who we are at this church. Every single one of you here today, we know your name, we've got your back.

We want to encourage you forward, to press on, and to hold fast to the faith that Christ has given you in Christ, with Christ, through Christ. And then we want to encourage you to receive all the good gifts, even as we did the baptism this morning, my beautiful daughter Rowan gets to receive the good things of God. We all get to receive this. And so in that reception, I want to ask you to bow your heads, and I'm going to read the way that Mary received the good news, and I'm going to pray for us today. So if you would bow your heads with me and just listen to the words I read right now.

As I read the words of Mary receiving the good news of the baby that would come to her, here's what she says in her prayer, her exaltation moment. She says these words, my soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on, all generations will call me blessed. For he who is mighty has done great things for me. And his name is holy, and his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.

He has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy as he spoke to our fathers and to Abraham, into his offspring forever.

Let's pray. God in heaven, we thank you. We thank you. We thank you. It is you.

It is you. You are the one who we profess as Lord. You are the one we profess as savior. You are the one we profess as God. You are the one we profess as high priest, great high priest.

Lord, we ask you to help us now to hold fast to our faith in good times and bad times, whatever we face, even with joy. Because in your example, it was the joy set before you that you endured the cross. Help us to have the same heart, the same mind. And then, Lord, with that, we ask you to help us to have confidence that you are the one who offers mercy. To have confidence that you are the one who offers grace, that we can draw near to you.

As Mary, as all the prophets have come before us, all the apostles and all the believers, all the years that have come before us. Now, this year is yours. This day is yours. Our lives are yours. This church is yours.

We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.