Pastor Marshall Ochs | January 22, 2023
In this message, Pastor Marshall teaches from Hebrews 4. This chapter continues the author’s appeal from Psalm 95 to respond to God with worship rather than hardness of heart. This invitation is available each day that is called today. How we respond to this invitation determines where we spend eternity. Those who trust Jesus will enter rest, but those who harden their heart will enter judgment. This creates a tension that must be resolved, and the author relieves the tension with an invitation to pursue Jesus.
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In Psalm 95, we are invited to worship our God today! Every moment of every day is a “today” moment. We can choose to worship God or harden our hearts to Him. Pray and ask the Lord to reveal any area of your heart that has become hardened to His voice.
If we harden our hearts to God, we cannot enter into His rest. This rest is not a temporal rest (like taking a nap.) This is an eternal rest which is the assurance of eternal life in Heaven when we die because of our believing faith in Christ Jesus. How confident are you that you have eternal rest as your inheritance? If you are not confident of this, please reach out to someone on our staff to help you find out how to have this assurance.
Hebrews 4:1 tells us that we should fear. This fear is not a debilitating fear, but rather a healthy awareness of who God is. This is the kind of fear that motivates us to be spiritually prepared for whatever comes our way. Do you have a reverential fear of God?
The writer of Hebrews is exhorting us to not just hear the good news of Christ, but to truly listen, believe and obey. We cannot listen and cling to the things of this world and ignore what God’s word teaches us. We either trust in Jesus and listen to His teachings or we harden our hearts and enter into His judgement. It’s one or the other – you can’t have both.
Hebrews is pleading with us to run to Jesus and confess freely. He already knows your every desire and thoughts, and He desires to transform you into His likeness. Take comfort in knowing that you have a God who loves you, wants relationship with you and to give you the inheritance of His eternal rest.