Sermon Preview

This Sunday I'm preaching on Assurance. The curse of a worship planning committee is that the theme is often decided before the text. You have a sermon in mind and so you search in vain for a text to say what you want it to say. This is probably one of the most prevelant ways that scripture gets misread. But my worship director knows that once the text is chosen, I'm at liberty to say what the text says even if it means straying from the theme of the service. She's a good worship director.

The text is perfect: Hebrews 10:19-25. It's about coming into the most holy place with boldness because of the priesthood of Christ. The tie between assurance and priesthood baffled me initially, but as I thought about it, I realized that assurance is a matter of purification. Lack of assurance comes from the fear associated with entering the most holy place without the proper ceremonial rituals. The fear is that in the face of God's holiness, our sin will be reason for God to destroy us. You can't have assurance unless you can know, like Aaraon the High Priest, that the atoning blood has been shed and the sacrifice made so that you can enter into God's presence and come out unscathed. Assurance for us is based on the atoning intercession of the High Priest, Christ. As the curtain seperating world and holy is destroyed, we are ushered into God's presence without fear because we are no longer liable for our sin. Therefore, we can enter the most holy place, the presence of God, with boldness and gratitude.

And yet, so many of us go through life aware of grace but somehow not convinced of it. My message is this: God is sure about you. God wants you to be sure about him.

We'll see how it goes.