What a marvelous truth: God speaks.

We open the Bible and the first thing we read is God speaking the universe into existence. The capstone of this act is God breathing into Adam a living soul. Voice is a function of breath. It would not be error to say God spoke life into Adam.

In Exodus, God speaks from the top of Mt. Sinai. The Hebrews recoil in terror. They beg Moses to get the message from God and relay it to them. They believe the same breath that brought life to Adam will destroy them if they are forced to bear it any longer. It is ironic that the Voice that tenderly attracted Adam and Eve “in the cool of the day,” is now repulsive to their descendants. I do not think this represents a change in the voice of God, rather it is an indication of just how thoroughly human ears have been corrupted by sin.

Yet, God speaks. He spoke through prophets. He spoke through signs and natural events. He spoke by blessing and by withdrawing His blessing. He even showed us through the prophet Elijah, that He can speak to us in “the still, small voice” within us.

Finally, God speaks to us through His Son. There will never be a better message, nor will there come a more perfect messenger. If we will not hear His message, there is no other message that can save us. While Jesus walked among us preaching and teaching, he would often conclude his point by stating, “He who has ears, let him hear.” This had nothing with physical ability. Jesus often opened up the ears of those who were deaf by birth or disease. Jesus never opened the ears of those deaf by choice.

God is still speaking. The question is: Will we listen?

Those of us who have been born Gentiles and have lived in cultures that are informed by Christian ideals and assumptions will find it difficult to understand the incredible magnitude of the words being put forward by the writer of the Sermon to the Hebrews.

No Old Testament writer would ever refer to any ancient hero as “being the brightness of His glory.” There no figures in the Old Testament that any Jew would call “the express image of His person.” Such a thought would be considered blasphemy. Words like this, spoken about another human, could get you killed.

Yet, the Hebrews writer begins his sermon with words reserved for God alone. He gets right to the point. This man Jesus is the incarnate God; the God-man. He uses words that no Jew would ever speak about another, not about Abraham, nor any of the prophets, not even Moses.

The declaration of Jesus as Christ is the continental divide in all spiritual thought. There is no middle position. There is no compromise. You must come down on one side or the other. The Jewish-Christian congregation of Hebrews faced a stark choice. If they don’t recant their faith in Christ, they will be put out of the Temple. They will no longer be allowed to participate in the rituals, and ceremonies that they have known from childhood. Moreover, they will be shunned by family and friends. If they choose to recant, they loose their salvation.

We face a similar choice.

The choice we face is not whether we will return to Judaism. I can’t return to something I have never been.

The writer of Hebrews demonstrates that the laws, worship forms and ceremonies of the Old Testament are fulfilled in Christ. The book of Hebrews is an argument to forsake tradition. However, it is not an argument to forsake tradition in favor of something more contemporary, it is an argument to forsake tradition in favor of orthodoxy.

This is the exact choice the church faces today.

In doing this this, we are announcing to the world, “we are out of bullets.” Our tank is empty. The world understands this, we don’t.

2000 years ago a preacher was deeply concerned about his congregation. They were a group of Jewish believers who were coming under increasing pressure to leave their newfound faith in Christ and return to their old ways. They were holding on, but their resolve was weakening. The preacher crafted a sermon to help point his congregation in the right direction. He begins the sermon by reminding his congregation, “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son,” (Hebrews 1:1-2 NKJV). The message is still relevant. The Son is the ultimate messenger with the ultimate message.

The writer of Hebrews brings his reader face-to-face with the exalted Christ. The Son is fully able to meet every need of the Church and her people. “Christ is the answer,” is often thrown as pat advice by folks who don’t know what to say. But, the truth is Christ is the answer, the only answer. What the church needs is not to run after the next fad, but to run back to Christ.

But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6 NKJV)

Return to Me, and I will return to you,” Says the LORD of hosts. (Malachi 3:7 NKJV)

One day a crisis erupted. The company’s prosperity was in great danger. “We need to do something,” said the new CEO. So he arranged for the people to dig. And dig they did. Soon there was a large hole, hundreds and hundreds of acres, but not very deep. People could easily step into and out of the hole. “Keep digging,” encouraged the CEO. “This hole will make us even more prosperous.” The hole began to get deeper.

New CEO’s came and went. The digging never stopped. Some of the people began to ask, “This hole is getting too deep. “I care about this,” said the CEO, “The best solution is keep digging.”

The hole is now very, very deep, but the CEO said, Keep digging. Soon the hole was so deep, the diggers had difficulty seeing the sky. “Don’t worry,” said the CEO, “we’ll grow ourselves out of the hole. Just keep digging.”

The people complained, “If we don’t stop digging, we will soon be in so deep we will never get out.” “Nonsense,” replied the CEO, “The only way to get out is to keep digging. Here is more of what you need to dig. It’s shovel ready.”

Over fifty years ago there was a short, fat man. He was the CEO of another company. He looked like a grampa but spoke like a dragon. He waved his finger in the air and said, “We will bury you!” The people of Sea to Shining Sea looked him in the eye and said, “No sir, we will bury ourselves.”

Keep digging.

I want to do a series of sermons from the book of Hebrews. I began last year researching and preparing this. I want it to be excellent. The working plan is for twenty sermons. Ten this Fall, a break, ten in the Spring. The working title for the series was “Apps for Living.” I thought it was clever. The idea was the truths found in Hebrews would provide helps for everyday life, kind of like the apps found on smart phones.

I began writing in earnest last June. Nothing was working. I kept thinking that if I pressed on, it would come together. I have several rudimentary outlines, pages and pages of notes, but nothing I would want to preach. This series is slated to start Sunday. This is a crisis.

It’s not writer’s block. Writing has come really easy for me the last several weeks.

I wanted to give people little tools for living. You see my folly don’t you? Apps are things we manipulate. We are in control. When you open the Book of Hebrews you run smack into the exalted Christ, the God-Man, the very Creator of all there is. He will not be reduced to an icon on a screen. He is not controlled. Instead, He invites us to surrender to Him; to place ourselves in His mighty hand.

I think a lot of what describes Christianity in this present age is well-intentioned folks trying to develop “Apps for Living.”

Right now, I have no sermon for Sunday. I will preach from Hebrews. How many sermons, I don’t know. I will develop them week to week. It will be an adventure.

Hebrews was written to folks who were finding it increasingly difficult to remain faithful to Christ. There is a lot in this book that applies to today. What I want to experience; what I want the congregation to experience is a genuine connection to Christ who is the ultimate answer to all our needs.

I am a minister. By God’s sovereign will, and through His amazing grace, God’s plan of redemption has been entrusted into my hands.

You might be thinking, “that’s good for you, Joe.” I’m not talking about me, I’m talking about you. If you trust Jesus for salvation, then you are a minister. The Bible says so.

Jesus did not leave the work of redemption to professional clergy. Instead, Jesus trained disciples. They watched Him. They worked alongside Him. When He was finished, they were a small army committed to live and die for His gospel. They were ordinary, unremarkable folks. In one century this small band of believers grew in number to over a million. They did this without any power either political or religious. They had no mass communications. Their travel methods were rudimentary. They changed history.

You and I share the same call. The highest call, I believe, is the call to God. The Father calls every one of us to Himself. When we respond to this call then we receive direction to a specific work. “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers.” Ephesians 4:11

You can live out the ministry God has given you in every area of your life. In your home, at your job, in your social gatherings God will use you to bring hope, love, and spiritual healing to others. This should be as natural as breathing. It is who we are.

Repeat this to yourself. Say the words and see the Lord making Himself manifest in you. See God touching other people through your life. Go ahead, say it, “I am a minister. By God’s sovereign will, and through His amazing grace, God’s plan of redemption has been entrusted into my hands.”

What is worship? Have you ever asked yourself that question? Often people equate worship with a particular form or ritual. I once spoke to a man who told me that the reason why he began attending his present church is that he looked in the door while a service was in progress and saw people with both hands in the air. In this gentleman’s estimation, two hands in the air was “real worship.” It seems that real worship can be affected in a variety of ways according to the cultural understandings of the worshipers. With so many different worship styles, what then is “real worship?”

The subject of “real worship” came up in a conversation that Jesus had with an adulterous Samaritan woman. (See John chapter 4) After perceiving Jesus to be a “prophet” the woman points out that the Jewish people – Jesus was Jewish – worshiped in Jerusalembut that the Samaritans worshiped in their home area of Samaria. The woman’s statement also implied the different understandings of God and His word which existed between the Jews and the Samaritans.  Jesus teaches her (and us) that it is not this place or that place – not in where we worship, but in what’s going on in us when we worship. Worship may be expressed in forms and rituals, but those forms must be expressions of our actual relationship with God. Worship is the total giving of ourselves to God. Worship is love of God expressed in obedience. The forms of worship are simply expressions of that relationship.

As we live day-to-day in obedience to and love of God, we live out worship in spirit and in truth.

That response struck me. Of the hundreds of people whom I have greeted or returned greetings in the past six months, this man’s response stands out. I can still see the contours of his face, the shape of his body, his slightly uneven gait. I can still hear his whispery, scratchy voice.

This man’s response both blessed and challenged me. It encouraged me to see a man who programmed his life to reflect gratitude. I know nothing about his immediate circumstances. Looking at him, I would guess his lot is like most of ours: a mixed bag, some good – some bad. But, I’m also challenged. Too often I stumble through my day thinking only of what is going wrong. I fail to even try to think of the many blessings which are mine. So many, that it would be impossible to count them. Some I have had for so long I now believe I own them. I take them for granted.

When people ask, “How are you,” our response is usually a terse “fine” (regardless of how we actually feel). Other responses can range from “OK” to “I’m here.” A few of us have learned to say, “blessed” (I like that one, too). My typical response is “well,” as in “healthy.”

I woke up this morning. The sun is shining. I enjoyed two cups of coffee and a muffin that was given to me. I have a wonderful wife, two fine sons and a daughter-in-law. Today, two friends from my past connected with me, via Facebook. I had encouraging messages from two other Facebook friends. I prayed, and read the scriptures. I could go on, but I think you get the picture.

I am grateful.

Romans 12:1 (NKJV)

Bumper stickers proclaiming “God is my co-pilot” were the rage about twenty years ago. They were so popular that one can still see such statements on bumper stickers and front car plates. To some of us Christians, “co-pilot” simply was not good enough. After all, we are not going to be outdone – we are not going to be “out holied” – by our brethren. So we came up with what we thought was the even better bumper sticker: “God is my pilot.” After all, we were not going to confer subservient co-pilot status on the Almighty, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. It is well that we don’t stick the Lord in the right hand seat taking orders from us, but might I suggest that the God as pilot analogy is also incorrect.

If our lives be compared to an airship, then it is clear that God has left the flying to us. We have a free will and we can seek to guide the plane of our lives to places we might want it to go. Flying is an activity in which there are many hazards. Failure to discern and respond to the hazards of flying usually results in catastrophe. Many of these hazards are out of the line of sight for the pilot. The plane is flying so fast that by the time a pilot sees a hazard, it may be too late to avoid it. Fortunately, the pilot is not alone. On the ground there is a network of professionals who assist the pilot in safely guiding his/her plane to its destination. These professionals have all of the latest information in regards to the hazards of flying. They know about the weather, they know the height and location of any mountains or tall buildings, they know the location, altitude and direction of the other planes in proximity to the pilot. An airline pilot once told me that he can put his plane down “on the numbers” in a dense fog simply by listening to and obeying the voice in his headset.

In life, there are also many hazards, yet God has promised that He will land us safely in His kingdom if we will simply listen to His voice. The Christian has something even more wonderful than the diligent professional men and women who keep our air traffic moving safely. We have the Supreme Wisdom of Almighty God. We will land safely on Heaven’s shore if we will simply listen to and obey the voice in the headset.