- 7 hours ago
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:01Ten signs Jesus isn't enough for you, even though He is.
00:07You've stopped being amazed by Him.
00:10Your time with Jesus feels more like a check-in than a relationship.
00:15What used to move you spiritually doesn't anymore, and you aren't sure why.
00:22You trust Jesus with eternity, but not with today.
00:27Your spiritual life is getting busier, but not deeper.
00:33You're more focused on what Jesus hasn't done for you than what He already did.
00:40Your walk with Jesus feels like it's stuck on repeat.
00:45Minor stress feels like a full-blown crisis.
00:50You don't expect Jesus to do anything big in your life.
00:55You're no longer living like Jesus could return at any time.
01:01Stop living like He's not enough.
01:05He is.
01:07Jesus is enough.
01:12Coming up today on Turning Point.
01:14I'm out of Egypt.
01:16Praise God.
01:18I'm on the road.
01:19That's encouraging.
01:20I see the goal.
01:22I know where I'm headed.
01:23But it's about this journey and the fact that God wants to give me rest.
01:30Deep roots, strong branches, abundant leaves.
01:34This is the flourishing life God designed for you.
01:37A life firmly planted, growing strong, and unshakable through any storm.
01:42In his new book, Five Psalms for a Flourishing Life, Dr. David Jeremiah invites you to step out of a
01:48faith that feels like just getting by and into an active, growing faith rooted in the unchanging truth of God's
01:55Word.
01:55In this powerful study, Dr. Jeremiah explores five key psalms that have nourished God's people for generations.
02:02Psalms with the power to revive your soul and transform the places in your life that feel dry, barren, or
02:08stuck into meaningful growth in God.
02:11These aren't self-help strategies or positive thinking techniques.
02:14They are time-tested truths that have sustained God's people through millennia of both triumph and trial, teaching us how
02:21to sink our roots deep into eternal resources while bearing fruit that blesses the world around us.
02:27Dr. David Jeremiah will send you five psalms for a flourishing life in appreciation when you give a gift of
02:33any amount in support of this program.
02:34Or for your gift of $75 or more, request three books, one to keep and two to share.
02:40Five psalms for a flourishing life, new from Dr. Jeremiah.
02:44Contact Turning Point Ministries today.
02:54In the story of the Exodus and the people who are traveling from Egypt to the Promised Land,
03:02in that story from the Old Testament that is referenced here in the fourth chapter of the book of Hebrews,
03:08Hebrews, are the people who are taking that journey, are they representative of believers in Jesus Christ?
03:16Or are they people who are trying to find their way to Jesus Christ and have not yet discovered him?
03:26And that's a crucial question because it determines how you look at this whole book.
03:30And I want to try to help us understand the answer to that question today by going back to the
03:36story
03:36and setting the Exodus in its context in the story itself from the Old Testament.
03:43After nine terrible plagues had been visited upon the Egyptian nation,
03:49and you remember the story,
03:52Pharaoh still would not let the people go.
03:55And Moses kept going before Pharaoh and saying on behalf of God,
04:00let my people go.
04:01And Pharaoh keeps hardening his heart.
04:03And then he would say yes, and then he would change his mind.
04:06And through all those nine plagues,
04:08there had been no way that the people of Israel were going to be allowed to leave Exodus.
04:14And then something happened that turned the tide.
04:17We read about it in Exodus chapter 12, and these are the words,
04:20And it came to pass at midnight that the Lord struck all of the firstborn in the land of Egypt,
04:27from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on the throne,
04:32to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon,
04:37and the firstborn of livestock.
04:39So Pharaoh rose in the night, he and his servants,
04:44and all the Egyptians.
04:45And there was a great cry in Egypt,
04:48for there was not a house in Egypt where there was not one dead.
04:55God's patience with Pharaoh had come to an end.
04:59And that night, judgment came to the nation of Egypt.
05:07But what about the people of Israel?
05:09They were living there too.
05:11And they had sons.
05:13They had livestock.
05:15What happened to them?
05:17Once again, let me read to you from the book of Exodus.
05:20After instructing Moses and Aaron before this event had happened,
05:24concerning the sacrifice of a lamb for the observance of the Passover feast,
05:29God added these instructions.
05:31Listen carefully.
05:33And you should tell your people to take some of the blood of the lamb
05:36and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses
05:41where they are eating it.
05:44And I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night
05:48and will strike all the firstborn of the land of Egypt.
05:52Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are.
05:57And when I see the blood, I will pass over you and the plague shall not be on you to
06:06destroy you
06:07when I execute judgment for I am the Lord.
06:13When the plague was visited upon the people of Egypt and the blood of the lamb was applied to the
06:20houses of the Israelites,
06:22the firstborn of the Egyptians were slain and the firstborn of the Israelites were saved.
06:29It was through the blood of the lamb that Israel was set free from her bondage.
06:39And that blood was on the lentil and on the doorposts.
06:47I know we don't do action choruses at Shadow Mountain, but do this with me.
06:51The blood was on the lentil and on the doorposts, the prefiguring of the cross of Jesus Christ.
07:05And now here in Hebrews, we are introduced to this nation
07:09as they are making their journey from Egypt to the promised land.
07:15So let me ask you the question now.
07:17Are the people who came out of Egypt, do they represent people who are trying to find salvation in God
07:24or do they represent people who have already found it?
07:27That's pretty clear, isn't it?
07:29The people coming out of Egypt are people who have already been saved from the judgment
07:34because of the blood of the lamb.
07:38And now we are given the story of their journey through the wilderness.
07:43I have labored to tell you this story because without this background,
07:48I am constantly wondering in my own mind,
07:51who are these pilgrims and what are they doing and where are they going?
07:55And the rest of the chapter is about our journey.
07:59It's a picture of a journey that you and I are on as we go through the wilderness.
08:05And the wilderness is a picture of the world.
08:07How many of you know this world is a wilderness?
08:10Anybody got that picture yet?
08:12We're wandering through the wilderness, aren't we?
08:16And Hebrews 11, 13 refers to these people who are wandering through the wilderness
08:21as pilgrims and strangers on this earth.
08:24And 1 Peter 2, 11 says,
08:26Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims.
08:29That's what we are.
08:30We used to sing this old spiritual when I was growing up.
08:33This world is not my home.
08:34I'm just a passing through.
08:37And that's true.
08:37We are not citizens of this earth.
08:40Our citizenship is in heaven.
08:41But after we came out of the Egypt of our sin and we're on this road through the wilderness,
08:49there are some interesting experiences that we face.
08:53And I want us to understand Hebrews chapter 4 in what I believe it was written to help us understand
08:59that we face the same challenges in our spiritual life
09:03and they correspond to some of the challenges the Israelites faced in their journey from Egypt to the promised land.
09:13And just as faith was needed to bring us into salvation in the first place,
09:18faith is needed to bring us into God's best for our lives as well.
09:24So as we look at these verses, first of all, in the first three verses of Hebrews 4,
09:29we're going to see some experiences on the road to the promised land.
09:33The first is an experience of fear.
09:36It says in verse 1,
09:37Therefore, since a promise remains of entering into his rest,
09:42let us fear, lest any of you seem to have come short of it.
09:47Now at first, this exhortation to be afraid sounds like a disconnect
09:50because isn't it true that in the Bible there are 365 fear nots,
09:55one for every day of the year?
09:56That's what I've been told.
09:57And doesn't Paul write to young Timothy and say to Timothy,
10:00For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and of a sound mind.
10:05And didn't he write to the Romans and say,
10:07For you did not receive the spirit of bondage, again the fear.
10:11But here we are in Hebrews chapter 4 and we're told that we're to fear.
10:16And of course the answers to the questions I've asked are yes, yes, and yes.
10:20Those are all true.
10:21We are told in the Scripture we're not to be men and women of fear.
10:24But here is a different kind of fear that we are to engage in as followers of Christ.
10:31The Bible says in Psalm 111, verse 10,
10:34The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
10:39And Hebrews 12, 28 says,
10:41Let us have grace by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and fear.
10:50Now the fear that is mentioned in Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 1 is not the terror of God
10:57or the fear that God is going to strike us with judgment
11:00or that we're going to lose our salvation.
11:03It is not that kind of fear.
11:05It's a healthy awe and respect for the nature of God and who he is
11:10and what he has designed for us as his followers.
11:14The ancient Israelites left Egypt with the blessing of God
11:19but they lost their sense of who they were in the wilderness
11:22and by the time they got to the border of Palestine
11:25they were so filled with unbelief that they couldn't enter in to God's best for them.
11:31And the writer of Hebrews says if we're not careful as Christians
11:35we can become believers in Christ, come out of the Egypt of our sin
11:40and into our wilderness and along the way
11:42we can lose our quest for God's best.
11:48So yes, there's a price to going on to the best that God has for us
11:52but there's a price for not doing it
11:54and the writer says you need to fear that.
11:57You need to fear that it even seems to be happening to you.
12:00Don't you ever stop your journey before you get to where God wants you to go.
12:05The first experience is one of fear
12:07then the second one is the experience of failure.
12:11Hebrews 4 2 says for indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them
12:18but the word did not profit them
12:20not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.
12:23Now first of all let me explain to you that the word gospel here
12:26is a word that's very familiar to all of us
12:29and when we say the word gospel we usually mean
12:31the preaching of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
12:34That's the gospel.
12:35But the word gospel can be used in other ways
12:38because the word gospel is simply a word that means the good news.
12:42That's all it means.
12:44And so the writer of Hebrews is using the word gospel here
12:47to describe what happened to the Israelites
12:50when the two spies came back out of Kadesh Barnea
12:53and they had some good news.
12:56What was their good news?
12:57They'd been over and spied out the promised land
12:59and they said we walked through this land
13:01and it's a land that flows with milk and honey
13:04and the pomegranates are great
13:06and the figs are great
13:07and it's just an incredible,
13:08everything God said about this land is true.
13:11Now oh by the way there's some giants over there.
13:15But we are well able to take care of it
13:18and we read about this in Numbers 14
13:20and they spoke to all the congregation
13:21of the children of Israel saying
13:23the land we pass through to spy out
13:25is an exceedingly good land
13:27and if the Lord delights in us
13:28then he will bring us into this land
13:31and give it to us a land
13:32which flows with milk and honey.
13:35That was the gospel.
13:38Caleb and Joshua came back from Canaan
13:41and they preached the gospel to the Israelites.
13:47And the Bible says this gospel was of no value to them
13:51because it was not mixed with faith
13:54by those who heard it.
13:57The experience of fear
13:59and the experience of failure
14:00and then notice in verse 3
14:02the third experience in this wilderness journey
14:04is one of faith.
14:06For we who have believed
14:07do enter into God's rest, God's best.
14:12Faith is the critical issue
14:14and it's proven by this quotation.
14:17This was God's plan for his people.
14:20What was God's plan for the people of Israel?
14:22His plan wasn't just to get them out of Egypt
14:24and then they were on their own.
14:26That's kind of how we sometimes think about our faith,
14:28isn't it?
14:29God saved me.
14:30Now it's up to me to figure out what to do.
14:33No.
14:33God's plan for you never ended
14:35when you came forward in a service
14:37and gave your heart to Christ
14:38or you prayed in a small group.
14:40That was just the beginning.
14:42That wasn't the end.
14:44And so many of us,
14:45we come to Christ and we think,
14:47oh, thank God I'm not going to hell.
14:49It's over, man.
14:49I'm ready now.
14:52No, that's just the beginning.
14:54God was never in his plan for the Israelites
14:57satisfied with getting them out of Egypt.
15:00He wanted to get them into Canaan.
15:04But between Egypt and Canaan,
15:06they fell victim to some of the same things
15:09that get us.
15:10Isn't that true?
15:11If you remember the story,
15:12they became grumblers and complainers.
15:14They wanted to stone Moses.
15:17Then they wanted to stone Joshua and Caleb.
15:19And they murmured against Moses.
15:21And remember, Moses went to God one day
15:23and he said,
15:24God, what am I going to do with all these people?
15:28They were miserable followers of their leader.
15:32And the result was they missed out on God's best.
15:37Do you see the example here?
15:39God never was satisfied with getting them out of Egypt.
15:42He wanted to get them into Canaan.
15:44And God isn't satisfied with us just becoming Christians.
15:47That's important because that means
15:49we're going to spend eternity with him.
15:51But how many of you know
15:52he cares about the journey we're on right now?
15:56I mean, most of the Bible is about that journey.
15:59It's not about starting or ending.
16:01It's about the wilderness and where we are.
16:04And I have to believe that some of you came to church today
16:07and you're kind of lost in the wilderness.
16:09You started out with God, man.
16:11You were doing good.
16:12And you were so happy to be out of Egypt.
16:15Out of Egypt.
16:18And now you're in the wilderness
16:19and you know there's more that God has for you.
16:22That his best for your life is out there,
16:25just like the promised land was out there for the Israelites.
16:28And you haven't entered in.
16:30You haven't entered into that promise
16:33because of fear or failure and the lack of faith.
16:38The experience is on the road to the promised land.
16:41I have to hasten, secondly, to give you some examples
16:44of the rest of the promised land.
16:46Rest is in quotations.
16:48First of all, there's an example of creation rest
16:51in verses 4 and 5.
16:52Notice it says,
17:06Did you know that God always wanted us to have rest?
17:10He always wanted us to have a Sabbath kind of life
17:14that was at peace with God in what we do.
17:17He wants us to enter into that.
17:19That's what it means, this creation rest
17:22that speaks of the Sabbath.
17:24And then there's a Canaan rest in verse 6 and 7.
17:26Therefore, it remains that some must enter it
17:30and those to whom it was first preached
17:32did not enter because of disobedience.
17:35And again, he designates a certain day saying in David,
17:38Today, after such a long time as has been said,
17:42Today, if you will hear his voice,
17:43do not harden your hearts.
17:46Listen, here's what he's saying here.
17:49Israel didn't get what God had for them
17:51in the promised land, so it was still there.
17:54Just as in the Old Testament,
17:55the rest that was meant for Israel
17:57was never experienced by them
17:58and was never experienced through Joshua,
18:01was never experienced through David,
18:02was never experienced through Solomon.
18:04What he's wanting to help us understand is,
18:07it's all still there,
18:08and it's there for us if we want it.
18:10And all we have to do is enter into it
18:13and desire that what God planned for us
18:16as his people is available to us,
18:20but you don't get it by osmosis.
18:24I want to remind you again that it says in verse 11
18:28that we are to be diligent to enter in.
18:32We're to be diligent.
18:34Now, that sounds like doublespeak.
18:36Be diligent to have rest.
18:40No, but here it does make sense.
18:42This disconnect is important.
18:44If we're to know God's best for our lives,
18:47there are certain things we are responsible for
18:51to enter into it.
18:52We don't enter into it in order to achieve it ourselves.
18:57We enter into the discipline
18:59that allows God to give it to us.
19:03When Jesus was hanging on the cross
19:05at the end of the salvation experience,
19:08he said,
19:09it is finished, and it was.
19:10Our salvation is fully done, complete.
19:12But that's just Egypt.
19:14You see, we're out of Egypt now.
19:16We're on the road,
19:17and God says that on this road,
19:19he has something special for us.
19:20He's got something for you and for me
19:23that represents far more than most of us
19:26would ever comprehend.
19:27We need to labor.
19:28We need to be diligent to enter in.
19:32Now, that brings us to the end of this passage,
19:34and I've summarized here a little bit,
19:35but here's the key thing
19:37that I think we don't want to go home without.
19:40Most of us here today, Egypt is behind us.
19:43We understand that.
19:44We've been under the blood.
19:45That's the cross.
19:47So, we're out of Egypt.
19:48Thank God for that.
19:49We're on our way to heaven.
19:51So, how do we know how we're doing
19:53on the way to God's best?
19:56Here are two verses that we know pretty well,
19:59but they really are here in this context
20:02to help us get an answer to the question.
20:05Here are the examinations of the requirements
20:09of the promised land.
20:10Notice verse 12.
20:29How do we know if we're entering into God's best for our lives?
20:32Well, according to the writer of Hebrews,
20:34there are two sources to which we may appeal.
20:36One of them is the Word of God
20:38and the other is the God of the Word.
20:40If we appeal our case to these two witnesses,
20:43we will discover how we're doing.
20:45The first of our two witnesses is the Word of God,
20:48and the Word of God cuts through
20:50all of our pretences, doesn't it?
20:52Have you ever been reading the Word of God
20:53and actually get mad at the Bible?
20:55Have you ever done that?
20:57I find that happens to me kind of often
20:59because when I read the Bible,
21:01it tells me about myself.
21:04In fact, James chapter 1 and verses 23 to 25 says,
21:08For if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer,
21:11now listen to this,
21:12he's like a man observing his natural face in a mirror,
21:16for he observes himself and he goes away
21:18and immediately forgets what kind of man he is.
21:21But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty,
21:24you look into this mirror and continues in it,
21:27you will not be a forgetful hearer,
21:29you will be a doer of the work
21:31and you will be blessed in what you do.
21:33What is this verse saying to us?
21:35This verse is saying,
21:36I'm out of Egypt.
21:37I'm saved, thank God.
21:40I'm on my way to God's best for me,
21:42but sometimes I'm not sure about my motives.
21:44I'm not sure about what I'm doing in my life.
21:47I'm not sure if I'm heading toward God's best.
21:50I'm not sure if I've been caught up in the pressure
21:52that the world puts on me to be like them
21:54and maybe even to wish I had some of the things
21:56I had back in Egypt like the Israelites.
21:58I'm not sure about myself.
22:00How can I be sure of where I am on this journey?
22:02This is God's GPS.
22:05You want to know where you are?
22:07Read this book.
22:08And when you read this book,
22:09you will know where you are.
22:11And it says this book is so powerful
22:13that it cuts through all the spin stuff we do.
22:17It'll cut through all the stuff we try to do
22:18to impress other people.
22:19And if you stay in this book and follow it,
22:22it will help you know where you are
22:25on the road to God's best for your life.
22:28But then there's one last thought,
22:30and that's in verse 13.
22:31This is not the Word of God.
22:33This is the God of the Word.
22:35Listen to these words.
22:36And there is no creature hidden from his sight,
22:40but all things are naked and open
22:43to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
22:46Did you know there is someone up there
22:50who's responsible for getting us out of Egypt?
22:54And he's looking down on us as we take this journey
22:57through the wilderness to his best.
23:01He knows everything about us.
23:03He's not a respecter of people.
23:06Nothing is hidden from his sight.
23:08Everything about us is naked and open to his eyes.
23:12And then it says, and by the way,
23:14he's the only one that matters
23:15because he's the one to whom we give an account.
23:19So, this is kind of a sobering reminder to us.
23:23And I go back to the beginning of my talk this morning
23:26that sometimes we as Christians,
23:28we sort of get a complacent satisfaction about,
23:32hey, I'm saved.
23:34I go to church.
23:35I'm giving God the minimum.
23:38I'm okay.
23:39I may not be at the top of his list,
23:41but I'm in.
23:42Thank God I'm in.
23:44And the writer of Hebrews says,
23:46you ought to fear that attitude.
23:47You ought to fear it,
23:48that it would even possibly be true of your life,
23:51that you would be satisfied with anything
23:53except God's best for you.
23:56You know, one of the challenges we all have in our lives
23:59is our willingness to settle for limited objectives,
24:02to settle for things that are far less than,
24:05I want to tell you that there are many of us here in this room.
24:07God has such an incredible plan for your life,
24:10but you know why you don't enter in?
24:11The Bible says we don't enter in because of unbelief,
24:14because we don't trust him.
24:15Here's the thing I've never understood.
24:17I will trust God for eternity.
24:19I will trust him forever.
24:20I've given him my life.
24:22He's given me eternal life.
24:23I'm going to spend eternity with him.
24:24Remember what we said before?
24:26The real problem is trusting him with next week, right?
24:30Next week on my journey.
24:32Next week on this road.
24:33And I just want to challenge you today
24:35as followers of Christ,
24:38and I know I'm a little energized about this
24:40because it's been such a challenge to my own life.
24:44I do not want to miss out on anything God has for me.
24:50I'm out of Egypt.
24:51Praise God.
24:53I'm on the road.
24:54That's encouraging.
24:56I see the goal.
24:57I know where I'm headed.
24:58But it's about this journey
25:00and the fact that God wants to give me rest.
25:04I know that's about peace and tranquility
25:06and harmonious involvement,
25:09but it's far more than that.
25:10I've put in my notes,
25:11God's rest is God's best.
25:15God wants you to have his best in your life.
25:18And I want to challenge you today.
25:20Don't you dare be satisfied with anything less.
25:30Thank you for watching Turning Point.
25:32Dr. Jeremiah would like to offer you
25:34five psalms for a flourishing life.
25:36In his new book,
25:38Dr. Jeremiah invites you to step out of a faith
25:40that feels like just getting by
25:42and into an active, growing faith
25:44rooted in the unchanging truth of God's Word.
25:47In this powerful study,
25:48Dr. Jeremiah explores five key psalms
25:51that will help you experience life
25:53as God intended to the fullest.
25:55Dr. Jeremiah will send you
25:57five psalms for a flourishing life
25:59in appreciation
26:00when you give a gift of any amount
26:01in support of this program.
26:03Or for your gift of $75 or more,
26:06request three books,
26:07one to keep and two to share.
26:09Thank you for your support.
26:11Request five psalms for a flourishing life
26:14new from Dr. Jeremiah
26:15when you contact Turning Point Ministries today.
26:21Thank you for joining us today
26:22as Dr. Jeremiah shared
26:24how Jesus is enough for everything we need.
26:27To help you start or deepen
26:29your relationship with Christ,
26:30Dr. Jeremiah would like to send you two resources.
26:34The first is a booklet called
26:35Your Greatest Turning Point,
26:37which will help you begin
26:38your relationship with Christ.
26:40And the second is our monthly devotional magazine,
26:43Turning Points,
26:44to give you encouragement and inspiration
26:46throughout the year.
26:47These resources are yours completely free.
26:50when you contact Turning Point Ministries today.
26:55David Jeremiah and Turning Point
26:57are making a global impact
26:58for the kingdom of God,
26:59but we can't do it alone.
27:01That's where Bible Strong Partners come in.
27:04Bible Strong Partners form
27:05the foundation of Turning Point,
27:07allowing Dr. Jeremiah
27:08to reach the world with the gospel
27:09and enabling you to share
27:11in the eternal impact of the ministry.
27:13In return, we want to support your faith
27:15with special and exclusive resources.
27:17To become a Bible Strong Partner,
27:20go to davidjeremiah.org
27:21slash Bible Strong today.
27:25Next time on Turning Point.
27:28He's your high priest
27:30as if you were the only one
27:31who had a high priest.
27:33He's yours.
27:35He's not just ours as a church.
27:37He's yours.
27:39He's mine.
27:39He belongs to us.
27:41He wants us to take ownership of him
27:43in his role as our high priest.
27:46Thank you for being with us today.
27:48Join Dr. Jeremiah next time for his message.
27:52Christ is all you need.
27:55Here on Turning Point.
28:00Dr. David Jeremiah is delivering
28:02the unchanging Word of God every month
28:03to more than half a million homes
28:05through Turning Point's magazine and devotional.
28:08Request your first issue now
28:09to read inspirational, in-depth articles
28:11and quick, clear, and creative devotionals
28:14from Dr. Jeremiah each month
28:15that will encourage, challenge,
28:17and strengthen your walk with the Lord.
28:19Request your first three issues
28:20of Turning Point's completely free
28:21or give a gift of any amount
28:23to receive an annual subscription.
28:25Contact Turning Point today.
Comments