Dig Deep

Gathered - Dig Deep

Week 3

Pastor Mandy Barkhaus

There was a time when everyone used to quote this science fact that if you walk in the rain, you will get just as wet if you run. So, back in 2003, I know some of you weren't born yet, uh, but the Myth MythBusters tested it on their very first season. Now, if you don't know what the MythBusters is, it it's a show. It ran for over a decade on the Discovery Channel and there was these two guys, Adam Savage and Jamie Heinaman, and they would take a fact that everyone thought was true and then test it. They would blow things up. They would create contraptions. They would drop cars from cranes all to see if a myth was busted or confirmed.

So, in one of their very first episodes, they tested the idea that if you walk in the rain instead of run, you'll get just as wet. They timed it. They measured it. They came back with the verdict. Sorry folks, running won't help. You are doomed to being drenched. And for years, people quoted this like it was the gospel truth. Some of us just strolled through the rain, like there's no point in running because the science guys told us that we would get just as wet if we walked. Uh, one of my sisters, she used to say it all of the time as we were running through the rain and she was like, "Why would we do that?" Right?

So almost a decade later in 2010, they tested it again. And this time they got a different answer. And so running after all does in fact keep you drier, which means for almost 10 years we were walking through storms for no reason. Now, my son spent a lot of time with my sister, his his aunt, and I was with him yesterday, and I said, "Hey, Lex, uh, you remember, you know how Aunt Carrie always used to say that if you, you know, walked and he's like, "Oh, yeah." And I'm like, "It's not true." And he's like, "What?" Right? And then I thought, "That's exactly how it can be with our understanding of the Bible.

Sometimes we hear something maybe once, maybe a lot of times from a pastor in a sermon or from a teacher in a class or from a Sunday school lesson and we just take it as fact. We carry that truth with us for years sometimes without ever digging deeper. But if we keep learning, if we keep growing, if we keep coming back to scripture, we will often find that our understanding of the scripture gets refined. Take the Dead Sea Scrolls for example. I think I have a picture here of uh me. Picture here. Do I have a picture? Yes. Okay. Okay. Here's a picture of me. This is at at Kumran. And Kuman behind me there is a cave. And this is where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. And they were found in a cave around 19 uh 1950.

And hundreds of ancient manuscripts were were found, including some of the oldest copies of the Hebrew scripture that we've ever found. older by like a thousand years than the the manuscripts that we had for previous. Now, these manuscripts were found just 75 years ago. That's not a whole long time ago. So, in this cave, 14,000 fragments of the scroll were found. Now, I also took a picture of an informational sign that was near the cave, and I actually didn't read it until when I was doing this. I'm like, I think I have a picture of a sign. And so, here's what part of this sign says. It says, scholars believe that a Roman soldier who entered the cave in 68 CE tore the scrolls intentionally, and that later ravages by animals and climate inflicted further damage. So, 14,000 pieces were found, damaged pieces.

So imagine putting a puzzle together, right? I put thousand-piece puzzles together sometimes. That's a lot. But imagine 14,000-piece puzzle that's slightly damaged that was never intended to go back together. And they pieced these this these 14,000 pieces together to get 530 different scrolls. But that's not the most amazing part of it all. When they compared the scrolls that they found to what we already had, they confirmed just how accurately the Bible had been preserved over centuries of time. But they also gave us new insight into the ancient world. They gave us new insight in in insights into the language and the culture that shaped scripture and gave us a better understanding of how to interpret scripture.

The Bible didn't just fall out of the sky leatherbound with gold edges on the side in the King James version as some people may believe. It was written instead o over a uh 1,500 years dozens of different authors uh different languages various regions around uh around. So over time through prayerful debate and conversation they decided out of all of these books they had from that time they decided which books would be canonized and which books were not. So the books in the canon are now what we recognize as scripture and that happened finalized somewhere in the 4th century. Now there are other books and manuscripts that from this same period that did not get included in the canon or our our Bible. Some of the books were once recognized in the canon and then later removed. So there are books out there that you can read, letters out there that you can read from this time. There's the epistle of uh of Barnabas, the Acts of Paul, the Gospel of Peter, right? There's other books out there that we can read to understand our faith. Our faith didn't come from a single moment of here it is, right? It it came from a long process of God working through people and God still works through us today as we study scripture.

So if mythbusters can teach us anything, it's that sometimes things need to be retested. And if the Dead Sea Scrolls can teach us anything, it's that God's word can stand against the test. And it can sometimes reveal to us more than we saw the first time. That's why we don't just walk through life and say, "Oh, I read the Bible once. I'm good." Right? We keep on running back to it, because every time we do, God shows up and brings us something new. So, one of our values here at Horizons is we are growing together. Together uh actually means being together. We are showing up for worship. We're sitting next to each other. We are sharing life. We're reading scripture together. We're letting God work in our hearts together.

Now, this idea of growing together, one of our values, this is not new, right? This is not something Horizon's just decided to to bring into faith. This is something that has been part of the foundation of our faith history for a long time. The baseline is the same. Jesus is God and Savior. That that's not going to change. But we gather to remember that truth because sometimes we go through life and we forget. But and we gather to cheer each other on and to encourage one another and to keep learning and growing and becoming more like Jesus.

So we're going to turn to the book of Hebrews today and it was written by maybe by Paul but probably not by Paul. Um, most scholars just say that the author is unknown. But the premise of the book of Hebrews is that Jesus is the revelation of God's love. Jesus is supreme over covenants. Jesus is supreme over Old Testament figures. Jesus is supreme over institutions. That's the premise of the book. and also to keep that in mind when you're going through hardship. So, the author begins with the foundation. We begin at uh Hebrews chapter 10 starting at verse 19. Here's the foundation. Brothers and sisters, we have confidence that we can enter the Holy of Holies by means of Jesus's blood through a new and living way that he opened up for us through the curtain, which is his body. And we have a great high priest over God's house. So, here's the foundation.

Now, if you don't know, the Holy of Holies was a place in the tabernacle, the place where they went to worship God. And in the Holy of Holies, uh, is where God's presence was believed to dwell, right? That's where you could be near near God. It was separated. The Holy of Holies was separated from the rest of the temple and tabernacle by a heavy curtain. Only the high priest could go go into the holy of holies and even then they could only go once a year on behalf of everyone for atonement for people's sins. So now Jesus because of Jesus everything has changed. Jesus's own body became the curtain. His sacrifice opened up the way for all of us to enter into God's presence. No more separation, no more sacrificing animals, no more waiting on someone else on our behalf to go in front of God. We now have direct access to God because of Jesus. That's the foundation.

So the question is, okay, now that we have the foundation, now what? Well, the writer of Hebrews doesn't just stop with the theology. He actually gives us an invitation. So, uh, starting again with verse 22. Therefore, let's draw near with a genuine heart, with a certainty that our faith gives us, since our hearts are sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies are washed with pure water. Let's hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering because the one who made the promises is reliable. And let us consider each other for the purpose of sparking love and good deeds.

So what does it mean when the author says draw near? Well, that phrase again is actually takes us back to the temple in the tabernacle. This is temple language. It's the same word when used uh when the people would draw near to the temple to worship God. Now the author is saying because of Jesus we can draw near to God anytime anywhere we can draw near to God. So how do we do it? Well the author names four things that we should do that we should keep in mind that we should have when we gather. First of all the author says we need to have a genuine heart. Not pretending, not just going through the motions, uh but coming to God authentically. Second thing, a certainty of faith, the assurance that Jesus, Jesus's sacrifice really opened the way for us. Like we need to be certain that Jesus's sacrifice was really for us, like all of us.

The third thing we gather together with hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience. Now this image here is an illustration of justification. We go to God and we are justified through our faith not by anything that we've done but because of God's grace. And we are forgiven and we are set free from the guilt that we carry. And then the fourth thing is that our bodies are washed with pure water. Now the author could have been referring to the cleansing rituals that we read about in the Old Testament or and/or about baptism that outward sign that we belong to Christ. So in other words, drawing near to God isn't about perfection. It's about assurance and forgiveness and belonging together.

So when we draw near together as the body of Christ, as the church, something happens. And the scripture says that when we when this happens, we move toward love and spurring each other on to to good deeds. We move toward living out our lives loving God and loving our neighbor. So, how exactly do we do this? Well, let's go back to verse 25. Don't stop meeting together with other believers, which some people have gotten into the habit of doing. Instead, encourage each other, especially as you see the day drawing near. You know the phrase, you've heard the phrase, maybe you've even said the phrase, "Well, I just got out of the habit of going to church." Right? We heard this a lot after COVID. I just got out of the habit of going to church. But when the Bible talks about getting out of the habit, they are not talking about a pandemic. They are not talking about laziness. They're not talking about a busy schedule or or maybe not getting along with somebody in the church. They are talking about persecution.

That is what these people were dealing with. It was literally safer to stay at home alone and worship God rather than risk it to be together with people. But even then, the author is saying, I know meeting could cost you, maybe even your life. The scripture says, don't give up meeting together. Why? because that's how important it is that we gather together. That is why uh we we need each each other. Every single one of us, we need each other. And maybe you come to to worship or you come to your group and maybe you are encouraged when you come, but also you encourage others just by being here. When we gather together and we see a room full of people that are here for the same purpose, that is encouraging. Imagine walking into this room and there's four people here. It wouldn't be the same. We encourage each other. Now, whether it's in worship or in small groups or just showing up, no matter uh you matter. You matter more than you think you might.

So, in the last few weeks, we've talking about we've been talking about these reclassification of our groups. We've renamed our groups here at Horizons. And we've renamed our groups here at Horizons for a couple reasons. First of all, it helps us, right, new people that are are here or just people who've been here for a long time. It helps us understand the purpose of gathering together, but and also they align with our values. And so we have table groups. We talked about those last week and grow groups and spirit groups and impact teams. Now some of your groups that you are you belong to um were formally known as life groups and now you're deciding what you want your group to be a grow group or a table group or a spirit group.

But today I want to talk about grow groups because we value growing together. We have um some upcoming grow groups that you can sign up for now. Um there's a sheet on your uh some of the seats. There's also go on our website and click on groups like this is important to to look at. Um now you'll notice under the grow groups there's a lot of different uh different groups on there. Three of them have the word disciple in them. And it's like is that too much disciple in offerings? Uh disciplehip means following Jesus, learning from Jesus, and becoming more like Jesus in our actions, in our words and thoughts. Like if we're not gathering together to talk about being a disciple, we're probably not being very good disciples.

Now, these three different disciple groups that that are meeting, uh, disciplehip incubator is going to be led by Pastor A, uh, Pastor Ashley and Patty Muk, and they're going to be talking about like the basics of like what is a disciple of Jesus and how do we become like that? Uh, disciples path. Uh, that's what I'm going to be leading on Sunday nights. We're going to be talking about our our membership vows, prayers, presence, gifts, service, witness, and how we can use those things to become a better disciple of Jesus. Um, Pastor Pastor John is going to be leading disciplehip Bible study that's taking you through the the New Testament. So, right, if it's been a while or you've never read the New Testament and you really want to study the New Testament, join that that group.

We also have a prayer group and a support group and a college age group and we're trying to start a retiree group. So, there are other options for you to look at. Now, here's something I want to be honest with you about. Um, I've been here at Horizons for a little over three years now, and I've heard over the last three years quite a few times in surveys, um, in face-to-face conversations that we here at Horizons need more adult disciplehip opportunities. Um, and yet over the la last few years that we have offered some classes to help us grow closer to Jesus, we've had only a handful of people sign up for these.

And so, here this year, we are we have a big offering of classes. We we have a lot of different options, different times of the weeks and and different things. And I'm going to encourage you to really consider signing up for a way to grow, for a way to be more like Jesus. Now, I do want to note that I get it that there are certain times in our life, uh, sometimes physical limitations or sometimes we just have small kids and like there are things in our life or we're caring for aging parents. Like I get that there are times in our life where we have really good reasons to kind of step away. Two things with that. First of all, we hope uh with our disciplehip impact team, we hope to be able to offer some other opportunities to grow, some resources and and things that maybe go along with our sermon series. So, watch for those things. Some people have really good excuses, but some people don't. And so, I would love to see these classes filled filled with people wanting to know how to be more like Jesus.

So maybe the question for for us today isn't do I believe in Jesus because many of us here will say yes of course I believe in Jesus but maybe today the question is am I still running back to Jesus? Am I actually digging deeper or am I still just walking along in the rain thinking it doesn't matter? So, we need people in our lives that will challenge us in the way that we think about scripture. We need people in our lives that will cheer us on and encourage us and and we we we want to grow stronger in our faith. And gathering together and growing together will help us do that. I still need it. I don't have all of the answers. I still need to gather with people and hear other people's perspective of scripture.

Just last week, Sunday, Chris Ber came up on stage to um uh invite people to give. And at the 10:45 service, uh, Chris Burgerer kind of called me out about something in my in my sermon. And he was kind of joking, right? I was like, "Haha." Sitting there, you know, yeah, that was funny. But then after the service after the service, he came to find me and he's like, "I want to know more about the context of that of that scripture." And you know what? I didn't have the answer for him. I said, "I don't know what the context of that piece of the scripture I is." And we talked about it though and it opened up a conversation where we like, "Well, what do you think?" Like, "What do you think?" Well, maybe it's this and maybe it's this and and it gave us an opportunity where we might go deeper into scripture. We might understand together scripture a little bit more.

So the writer of he the book of Hebrews says don't give up meeting together but encourage one another. We got to keep showing up. We have to keep bringing questions. We have to keep leaning on each other with when when faith gets difficult and heavy. We have to keep celebrating and reminding each other to celebrate when God does show up in our lives. So, here's the invitation. Don't just walk through the rain, but run back to scripture. Run toward community and gathering together. Run toward uh the kind of conversations that that and relationships that will sharpen your faith. Because when we grow together, we don't just get smarter, we get stronger. And a stronger church is a brighter light in the world. Let's be that bright light in our world.

Let's pray.