Centered Confidence - Hebrews 9:23-28 - August 16, 2026 - David Doster

David Doster opens with a striking illustration of a young billionaire who lost $30 billion in a single day when investors lost confidence in him, using it to frame a broader cultural crisis of confidence — in government, academia, media, and even the church. Against that backdrop, he turns to Hebrews 9:23-28 and asks a pointed question: what if, instead of being shaped by the noise of the world, we grounded our confidence in what God has revealed in his Word? The answer, he argues, is a cross-centered confidence — one rooted not in résumés, philosophies, or institutions, but in the person and work of Jesus Christ, our perfect and glorious High Priest.

Working through the text, Doster draws out the contrast between the earthly copies — the tabernacle, the repeated sacrifices, the yearly Day of Atonement — and the heavenly reality to which they all pointed. Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with hands. He entered heaven itself, appearing in the very presence of God on our behalf, offering not the blood of goats and calves but his own blood, securing an eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:12). Unlike the Old Testament high priest who returned year after year, Christ appeared "once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself" (Hebrews 9:26). That finality — that completeness — is the bedrock of our confidence.

Doster closes by pressing into the final two verses, where the writer of Hebrews draws a parallel between the appointed reality of human death and judgment and the promised return of Christ. Just as death is certain, so is his coming again — "not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him" (Hebrews 9:28). Drawing on the example of Stephen's martyrdom, the singing of Psalm 118 on the night of Christ's betrayal, and the pastoral reality of shame, fear, and distrust that many carry, Doster calls the congregation to a waiting that is active, hopeful, and eager — because the One we are waiting for has already done everything necessary to bring us home.

Abby's going to read our text this morning. Thank you, Abby. Hebrews 9:23, 28.

"Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has entered not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him." - Hebrews 9:23-28

Abby, thank you. And thank you too, for all the ways that you serve, even working back there with the sound with your dad and others, and so many other things as well.

Let's pray. Lord, as I listened to Jay pray earlier, so good to just pause and remember. Consider all the many, many, many ways that you have blessed us. Some are just right there and for of our nose, Lord, but also too, you give blessings and work grace, sometimes in ways that perhaps we had not anticipated. Sometimes, Lord, you even work in and through very difficult things, even excruciating type realities.

And so, Lord, in that it's not that your grace is not present. In fact, we're learning that your grace is with us. Your presence is with us even at times, Lord, sustaining the next beat of our heart and next breath, and a capacity to trust you as we walk through sometimes very difficult places. We give thanks here today before your throne, individually and collectively, that you, Lord, walk with us.

You were there even before eternity passed. And you continue as you have stepped into time and history and space and as you remind us even this morning, this is not the ultimate reality, Lord, this material existence, but in calling us to yourself, you've called us to a future and a hope. And now, Lord, in your word, you're saying to us again, even this morning, to wait, to trust, to believe you for all that you are and all that you are and will accomplish. So, Lord, open up our hearts as only you were able to do, help us to see, hear, and then allow you by your spirit to etch these words in an even greater way upon our hearts, our minds, our spirits and with that Lord, an enablement to walk in faithfulness. As we move into this new week with a growing confidence, with a rising confidence as we see realized through what you have accomplished even at the cross and your shed blood for it's in Jesus name we pray.

Amen. So this morning, even as we move into the text, we want to consider, we want to sink our teeth into the reality of what you see there even in the title is a cross centered confidence which necessarily calls us to live contrary or distinctive from this culture. And it's been true throughout human history. So as you think about confidence, I came across an account just a little over a week ago. Imagine being 24, maybe 25 years old and you're worth 45, almost said million.

I'm talking $45 billion. A young man by the name of Leopold Shannonbrenner from Germany, came to the United States at the ripe old age of 15 to Columbia University, one of the finest in, in America, at least that's what they would tell us, an Ivy League school. And graduated at the age of 19 and then found himself in leadership not long thereafter out in the whole Silicon Valley area in, near in Northern California. In that time he was immersed. Y' all have heard of it as called AI and GBT2 all the way up to GBT4.

Yes, you can smile and chuckle that I'm even saying those those words. So you're worth that. And I couldn't even count that many zeros, but I know that $45 billion is a ton of money. Now consider this. On your wedding day, supposedly one of your greatest days, you wake up worth $45 billion.

But within a span of hours, because investors and others have lost confidence, by the time your wedding occurs, you've lost $30 billion. This young man, evidently gifted in incredible ways to talk and using all of the high tech language that comes emerges out of Silicon Valley, had a way to speak into the to futuristic type opportunities and convince folks, even highly educated people, of what was trending and what was developing. And with that, in his use of words, created a kind of confidence to invest in the ventures that he was proposing. Some suggested he's almost like kind of a modern day Nostradamus, except some people begin to realize some things and once the momentum continued, he lost confidence and they lost confidence in him. Despite all of that, even creating something called effective altruism, he created a false artificial kind of confidence.

I think of October 29, 1929, when the stock Market fell even that was like 14 billion less even than this young man today. You may remember, I remember living in Chicago in October, on a Tuesday in 1987 when the Market tanked. So this morning, even as we think of this subject of confidence, many have suggested that we're in a. What. What's described as a crisis of confidence that virtually every institution such as academia or government or Hollywood or media, and yes, for many, even the church.

I've been reading Brad Edwards book on the reason for the church, and here's a statement of assessment. It's actually on the back of the book, so you don't even have to read the whole book. But he said

"over 40 million Americans have de churched in the last 25 years. And many Christians have been raised to believe that the most spiritual thing that they can do is follow God by following right out of the church. Meanwhile, society has only grown more polarized and divided, all while hitting record levels of loneliness, stress and anxiety."

Not a coincidence. So when we think of that, we could allow that just to consume us. But what if we were to step back? What if we were to actually consider the transcendent truth of the Scripture? What if we were to actually believe and ground our confidence in what God reveals in his Word?

And that was the basis, that was the foundation, that was the way that we saw reality around us. Not because of social media or talking heads or the bombardment of information. What if to give perspective and to help us see again as God sees, we even went back to, to the early church. We, we look there into Jerusalem and we, we see, as it says in Acts 1:8, that

"what power shall come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the world." - Acts 1:8

That's what many, even if it was a remnant, even if it was the minority, they believed in the reality and the power of the gospel. And, and that's what they began to carry. They were preaching the gospel to themselves, as Rick challenged us last week. They were the ones that were taking it into the Marketplace. They were the ones that, even as it crept up in and through that Greco Roman culture, Hebrew culture, because the gospel in and of itself is powerful. Isn't that what Paul says in Romans chapter one, verse 16?

So we're not to be ashamed, not to carry it around in our back pocket like we're reluctant to let it manifest itself in us and through us. It's never been ultimately about, and we've said this before about a building. We could look at the finest of cathedrals, whether it's Chartres or Notre Dame or St Peter's Basilica or Westminster Abbey or St Paul's National Cathedral in Washington. They're incredible facilities of stone and metal and glass and even the woodwork, but they cannot contain the one in whom we've been worshiping and seek to live for. Even as we leave here this week, it's not about a person who wears religious vestments or wears casual clothing.

It's not about political holdings or financial wealth or prestigious degrees. It's not about what you have on your resume. It's not about your genealogy. Those are all maybe important elements of your life. It's not about particular philosophies or ideologies, empty deceit or human traditions.

Even as it says in Colossians 2, 8, to not be deceived. Paul came to terms with that even though he had an incredible resume. And at the end, after he enumerates the things that are on that resume, he says, you know what compared to knowing Christ?

Slack waste. Wow. So none of these are what can ultimately give us confidence. In fact, you think of the believers and appreciated how Jay tied the whole together last week, reaching back into the Old Testament and how it's that belief and trusting what God has revealed throughout the history of his people. But even as we are here today, we need to be reminded, we need to be encouraged, we need to be strengthened to realize that our confidence, our confidence to live this life is what rooted and grounded in the One who is our perfect, our glorious high priest, whose name is Jesus.

And when I think even over the life of our young church, 25 years is what. It's a blink of an eye. And so meeting in homes, in junior high schools and high schools and restaurants and offices, it never was about a building. And even today, though, we give thanks for this building that the Lord has been gracious to provide. And whenever I think of it, I have to think of Mike and our building team and all their labors, all their labors to help oversee that process.

The Lord was so gracious to us. But what we want to do this morning is when we look at the whole of Scripture, we could see it like a wide angle lens and we have enumerated, because Hebrews has what? Enumerated, driven home, pounded, nailed again and again, that the old was preparing us for the new, that the old, the copies, the foreshadowings, the forerunnings were pointing us to the One who is our hope and our strength and our confidence. And so it's interesting, even when we. We think and now as we've made our way into chapter nine all along we've seen the superiority of Christ over all that has come before and that even now wrapped around what his completed.

As we've been singing this morning. Thank you. Singing about the completed absolute work of Christ's atoning sacrifice, we join with all of our brothers in the past as well as the present who seek to live out with a cross centered confidence that inevitably will lead them to live cross culturally in our day. Clint, would you just put that comment up there? In other words, our confidence is a cross centered confidence as we cling to the cross covered with the cleansing and redeeming blood of Jesus and living with an eagerness to see him at the finish line.

How as you hear those words and digest those, how is that gripping, shaping, molding, how you see where you are in the journey here, Just a sampling. Our three words this morning are cross, blood and confidence. Not surprising, in fact what what I'm offering here and what was provided for us is the continuation of everything that has come before. And we're actually not done. We'll work our way up into chapter 10, verse 18.

But this, this reality of blood and sacrifice and completion in Christ is the undergirding is what gives us foundation to have confidence in this life. Here by the blood of Jesus,

"looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him before him endured the cross despising the shame and is seated at the right endure the cross despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of." - Hebrews 12:2

There is Romans chapter 8, verse 1.

"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit, Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done with the law we can by the flesh could not bring of death. So that by the grace of. By the grace of God might test of God might test death for everyone." - Romans 8:1-3

How long had he been above the angels? Virtually forever until he humbled himself and stepped down and put on flesh.

Now when we think about this whole notion as we make our way now, the, the lens narrows here in chapter nine into chapter ten. And just consider this, this the whole reality of blood in the Scriptures. Some 447 times we read of the blood that is mentioned in the Scriptures. 346 times in the Old Testament, 163 times in the Torah. 88 times, not surprisingly in the book of Leviticus.

The importance of blood Even as we now move into the New Testament, the highest concentration is in Hebrews 21 times. And guess which chapter in Hebrews has the greatest number of references to blood. Chapter nine. Over half of the references to blood are there. This realistic redemptive work of Christ on our behalf.

So as we come to that, let's open up and look at verses first of all, verses 23 and 24, under the heading of heavenly sacrifices. It says there, thus, which kind of. Is another way of saying, therefore, light of what. What's come before? And what we realize in.

In a very real sense is there's this logical progression that reveals the unfolding of God's plans and purposes. He builds on this whole idea of this, the greatness of Christ's sacrifice by taking us, what, from the earthly material realm, the tabernacle, the temple, and now we turn the corner and he's moving us, what, as was mentioned earlier, into the heavenly realm. The preacher is shifting this, the tone, the focus, moving the means from the purification that had happened in the Old Testament, again with a multitude of sacrifices, including that day of atonement there in Leviticus, chapter 16. And now making the entrance into the heavenly sanctuary there in verse 23, about midway through, it says, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. Verse 24.

For Christ has entered into the holy places, is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which is the copies of the true things, but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God. In the presence of God on our behalf. So I want you to just slow down for a second. You can also see this referenced earlier in Hebrews, chapter 8, verse 5. It says,

"they serve a copy and a shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God saying, see that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain." - Hebrews 8:5

That's a direct reference all the way back to Exodus, chapter 25, verse 40. Last week, as Jay was making his way through that portion, he referenced the shedding of blood. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. So from chapter 9, verse 13 through chapter 10, verse 18, the focus is showing how what Christ has done supersedes all the sacrifices that have come before.

The word to supersede means to displace, to replace. And so as we see that now, Christ is ushering us into this heavenly realm. Back in verse 12 there, it said simply this. It said,

"he entered once for all. There's your. Your earlier reference into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by the means of his blood, thus securing an eternal redemption." - Hebrews 9:12

And in doing that, what he's establishing here is that this is an actual historical event. This is something that truly has happened. Years ago, when we lived in Little Rock, a dear friend who was a medical doctor, he'd come out of a Jewish background when he ended up coming to embrace Jesus as the Messiah. His father, who was a powerful Jewish individual in an international organization called B' Nai Brith, called over to Memphis and asked for some of the high powered rabbis to come meet with Charlie there in Little Rock.

As they sat down, Charlie had a smile on his face because what his confidence was now in the Lord Jesus Christ and as he interacted with them, and they even in some ways suggested the fact that this wasn't even a historical event, Charlie looked him dead in the eye and said, if you're not here to have a serious conversation about the truth at hand, you can leave. Because he. And even though they were reluctant to acknowledge it, understood that Jesus Christ actually did leave live. There is documentation obviously permeating the scriptures, but also too from that period of history. And we know Josephus and Tacitus and other historians of the day, but we're reminded again of our confidence and in doing this, Clint, if you would put up Acts 7:48, you'll recall the first martyr, what in the.

In church history with Stephen, we can go back and get some background on him in Acts chapter six. And it talks about him in some ways, like others describe, like Meshach and Shadrach and others, kind of an extraordinary spirit, a sense of God's mighty presence, even willing to come and serve in the early church. He gives this incredible speech sharing the truth about Christ. And even as he makes his way, he can probably see even on the faces, you know, face says a lot. A face says a lot.

And he looks and he sees the religious authorities. And he knows in one sense it's only a matter of moments before what are they going to do. They're going to reach over, they're going to take him out, they're going to grab hold of stones and see his confidence. He says,

"yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, as the prophet says." - Acts 7:48

Yet the rest in that he describes that it's not in the temple or the tabernacle. Stephen's confidence has grown, grown fully. And then when you look at the very end. I'm going to share these last couple of verses. This is from Acts chapter 7, 59 to 60. And it says,

"and they were stoning Stephen. And he called out, lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And falling to his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, lord, do not hold the sin against them. And when he had said this, he fell asleep." - Acts 7:59-60

Stephen gives us this powerful example of the early church and for us even today, of one who lived with a cross centered confidence, realizing the reality of the cross, the blood added to that, obviously the resurrection and the ascension. Here in this uses the term copy. This is a different word from the one that he used in, in verse 23, but it's a shadow. It's not ultimately the real thing, but it's pointing ahead. Notice it says now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. He is boldly declaring right now this continuous work of Christ as our sole mediator. Not saints, not Mary, not icons, not priests, not another human being.

We have a sole mediator, and his name is Jesus. To get perspective, MacArthur offers this, what could be referred to as soteriological ministry that's accomplished the three tenses that are here and I just put in parenthesis there. When we think of soteriology, it just means the doctrinal study of salvation, the how, why, and from what we're saved ministry. And here he gives these three when we think of what Jesus has done for us, first, his first advent was to save us from what, the penalty of sin. The second, his present intercessory ministry.

We read that in what Hebrews chapter seven in heaven to save us from the power of sin who battled with sin this week. And thirdly, his second advent is to deliver us from the presence of sin. So the reality of what Christ has done for us has a past, a present and an incredible future. We'll look even more at that here in just a moment. When you read that word presence, the idea here is it focuses literally on face.

Revelation chapter 22, verse 4 says,

"and they will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads." - Revelation 22:4

Now think about it. Just the other day as I was reading through this, what came to mind? I don't see him as much anymore. But you remember, especially when the military was significantly deployed and you would see these images where folks would fly, the military people would come back home and they'd.

Sometimes they would surprise their family at their homes or restaurants or different places or maybe, and perhaps you've been there, someone that you, you know and love has traveled and been gone for a while. Maybe it's the military, maybe it's in missions, maybe it's whatever it might be, or maybe you're the one, and you make your way in and through the crowd, and you're not looking down at people's feet or clothing or anything else. What is it you want to see? It's the face. And you've been there, whether you were the one returning or looking for the one who was returning.

And remember, when you see that face, when you've not seen that face for a while, what stirs up in your heart, this overwhelming sense of gratitude. And as we think of the realities of what's being described here, to move from the material and looking forward to seeing ultimately the face of our Lord. All those other images are just representations, but they cannot even fully manage or encompass that reality. Wow. Here it carries the sense of faith, carries with it more of a personal connotation.

It suggests a communication, a connection. And here Christ has entered heaven, what to bring the accomplishing work of his sacrifice before God on our behalf. In the last verses, verses 25 through 28, it's already been emphasized, but the notion that this sacrifice is once and for all. In these last verses, the preacher here further makes distinction between Christ and his sacrifice and all that has come before, particularly that which was offered in Leviticus. When we think of the unfolding of these events, Galatians, chapter 4, verse 4 says it well.

When it talks about the incarnation of Christ, it says,

"in the fullness of time, the fullness of time, God sent forth his Son, born of a virgin." - Galatians 4:4

And when it says in the fullness of time, it's pointing to the sovereign rule and reign and orchestration of God's purposes, even his redemptive plan that's being unfurled. When you read in John's Gospel, distinct from the Synoptic gospels, it uses that term hour multiple times. That's a theme of John's Gospel. It's not necessarily pointing to a time on the clock, but it speaks to actually his glorification, including his sacrifice on the cross and the glory that was manifested both through that as well as his resurrection and ascension.

George Guthre in his commentary, speaks to this whole notion of his once and for all. He says,

"consequently, he has appeared Jesus once and for all to do away with sin completely by sacrificing Himself in death. His sacrifice, because, because of its superior quality, is able to reach back to the time of creation and forward to the time of consummation of the ages, fully cleansing the people of God. The Messiah's first appearance, therefore Marks the beginning of the Messianic age. The End of the ages, in which he affects redemption for God's people."

It's just so powerful, the way that he says it. Again, he came what it says.

"Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly as the High Priest. Just you let that sink in. To the High Priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages." - Hebrews 9:25-26

So in this, this single verse, it provides this comprehensive description that Christ's atoning work reaches all the way back, going back to creation. Then his appearance, his manifestation, his incarnation, actually took place in history.

The fact that he didn't do it multiple times but once shows its finality that he completed it. And the span of time from the beginning to the consummation shows us just the comprehensiveness of his capacity to put away sin, your sin and my sin. When we come to these last two verses here, 27 and 28, it further augments the hope that we have the confidence that we have in Christ.

"And just as it is appointed for man or woman to die once and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for Him." - Hebrews 9:27-28

Our life on this earth has a span. And right now the God of heaven knows the span of our days.

Can we have confidence that he, as sovereign, as good and true and loving, that his plan is good for us and that it is best? It says then, that he is what laid up, stored up. There's no. No purgatory. There's no reincarnation.

Every single person will experience the reality of death. And then comes judgment. In fact, what this does is the writer puts us here is to drive us back and reinforce why we trust in what Christ has done alone already on the cross and with his shed blood, and that that indeed was the perfect sacrifice that cannot be added to in any way whatsoever. Consequently, our faith in Christ transports us to what solid ground where he would grow us in our confidence, whatever it is that we may face in this life today or tomorrow. And when we look at that last verse and take this along with all that has come before in Hebrews, and particularly in chapter nine, can we ask and answer the question affirmatively, that to have trusted in Christ, to have walked with him, to have persevered in faith, that it was worth the wait.

Are you here today, even as we were singing, even as you think of Things that you've been through in recent days, maybe certain realities that are difficult and challenging in the moment, maybe there are things, unknowns, uncertainties about the horizon and that stirs your grips as well. Waiting and we've. We've said this before, but waiting is not just something that sort of added on to the side of the Christian faith. Waiting and how we wait actually strikes to the core. You think about it, kids that are going out, they're heading off to college.

Your daughter just moved to Louisville, big city, far from home. There are things you won't good for your children. You want them to walk with the Lord. You want them to connect with the body. Where does that drive us?

Where does that drive us? So waiting and the practice of waiting is something that's been a part of the reality of God's people for a long, long time. We've been. Hebrews takes us back to the old and brings us to the realities of what we have in Christ again and again and again. When we think of waiting.

One of the great texts that I want to encourage you with as well as challenges goes back to what's known as the Great Hallel in the book of Psalms, it kind of stretches from Psalm 113 to Psalm 118. And that was those hymns there were sung in around the time of the Passover.

Now, fast forward. Read what in Matthew, chapter, let's see, 26:30 and Mark chapter 14, verse 26. As you think of those. Now we're getting to the end of Christ's life, aren't we? Things slow down.

We're stepping into the glorification of Christ, as John says. And all the things. The prophecies. The prophecies have been building to these realities both in the material and the spiritual realm. As we come into those final hours of Christ's life and we know that we had communion a few weeks ago and we share those special truths as he's sharing the meal on the night he was betrayed.

And then just before they go out and where are they headed? They're headed to Gethsemane. And I remember going to Spain. And Chris and Beth tell us about how those olive orchards are so thick that they would provide context where you could step in and you could find private places, which obviously Jesus did. The Mount of Olivet.

But what did they do? Shortly before they left the upper room, it says they sang a hymn.

Now, again, you can say that and go on down the road, or you can realize that Jesus sang and the other sang a hymn and he's in this context, knowing he's serving these folks that are what going to all abandon him. He knows that one of them who's been with him for three years is actually going to portray him. But he persists. We read a little bit later, actually, in the garden, how intense was the reality of. Of what he was anticipating, what he was waiting for.

Luke tells us that what he sweated, what drops of blood, those tiny little caliper capillaries. You can give me the spelling later. But here's the reality. The intensity is so vigorous.

It's that waiting room when your loved one. And more, it's the reports that your loved one is deployed into a combat area and you have to wait. You or waiting. I always. Not always, but most of the time.

I'll check the NCAA track results. Don't tell Carrie and Angela, but to see how did. How did KJ do? But here Jesus is going toward Gethsemane, given all those realities, and he sings, in fact, as one fellow put it, he had to go to Gethsemane to wait on the betrayer and those who would come to kill him. Are you waiting on hard things?

Maybe. Maybe you are. Most of the scholarship suggest that this is what they say. And this is. Comes from the end of the Great Hallel.

Psalm 118. Beginning. Beginning in verse 21. You can look on or your device, whatever, dear, open up a Bible. But it just says,

"I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing. It is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Save us, we pray, O Lord. O Lord, we pray. Give us success. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. We bless you from the house of the Lord. The Lord is God, and he has made us his light to shine upon us. Bind the festival sacrifices with cords up to the horns of the altar. Jesus is headed to the horns. And then the last two verses. Excuse me. You are my God and I will give thanks to you. You are my God and I will extol you. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. Good. For his steadfast love endures forever." - Psalm 118:21-29

Can you imagine that they were singing that in anticipation of the waiting? And so when we think of the reality of is it worth the wait? We have one who waited in ways that stretch beyond us to make a way as we look forward.

As it says there, what at the end of Hebrews, verse 28. Let me get back over there.

"So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time. He's coming back, y'. All. Jesus is coming back. Many will. Let's see. So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him." - Hebrews 9:28

The inference, maybe more than an inference, is what? How eagerly are we in our waiting?

I appreciate your heart, what you. What you shared, Gwen. He's. He has got you. He's got you and he's got Dennis.

So I want us to think just practically for a moment. These may apply to you, they may not. But here's some things, because that which could counter, and this is not exhaustive, but some things that maybe you came in with this morning or you have people in your lives, important relationships, friendships, other things who are struggling. And so here are just some counter perspectives. One is, I don't want to trust anyone or anything other than myself.

What are we just saying moments ago, all I have is Christ. What was our spiritual condition before we came to Christ? Essentially trusting in ourselves. We, or however we, whatever terms we could make life. Folks struggling in this area, obviously there's painful difficulties.

So how do we enter in? Whether it's confronting that, ourselves, the issue of trust, and turning that over to Christ or those around us, how do we come in with grace and truth? Secondly, kind of connected to the first is I must protect myself. So that's why folks can be controlling and lash out and keep people away because of those hurts that still persist. A third is I am angry.

I even. I loathe myself and consequently others as well, and even the church, because maybe there have been painful experiences with those as well. And then one more again, there are many others that could fill in the blank. But I. I am ashamed.

Somehow the reality of certain sins or whatever seemed to cast such a darkness, and then with that, consequently, the fear of being exposed. A good friend of mine shared this with me, this quote from James K.A. smith, kind of of a artistic flavoring, but he says this

"shame teaches me to look at my past and see something hideous that makes me regret my existence. In grace, God looks at my past and sees the sketch of a work of art that he wants to finish painting and show the world. In the hands of such an artist, all my weaknesses are openings for strength, the proverbial cracks that let the light in. Even my sins and struggles hold the possibility for compassion and sympathy. Only Such a God could make even my vices the soil of which he could grow virtue."

In other words, the power of the gospel is able to reach into the most difficult hurtful places and begin to bring his light to bear his forgiveness, to bear his hope to bear. Folks, we have one who is there before the foundations of the earth. We have one who walks with us each and every day.

We have one who will be there as we come to the finish line. We have one who sings even in the face of harsh realities of pain and suffering. He is with us. He will not leave us. He will hold us fast.

Lord, we give thanks this morning for the full and complete accomplishing work of your atoning grace. Lord, even as we've seen in these verses working our way through Hebrews, but especially chapter chapter nine and then to move into chapter 10, what you've done before and what you're doing now, and even as we look ahead, I pray God for my brothers and sisters and for myself that you would grow your confidence to trust in you daily. Whatever it is we may face in the journey, we look forward and grow our eagerness to trust you in Jesus name, Amen.