Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Let Us, Part 3: Come Boldly to The Throne

Episode Date: October 23, 2016

The incredible happens when we embrace the things God has Let Us do. Want to know how? Dive into a special mini-series with Pastor Craig—you’ll only find it online, in the Life.Church App, or on the Life.Church podcast. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We are Life Church, one church meeting in multiple locations and reaching around the world with the help of church online. If you have any questions, you'd like to learn more about us as a church, you can always check us out online simply by going to life. Or you can stay connected throughout the week and everywhere you go with the all-new Life Church app. Coming up today, we conclude our mini series called Let Us, as Pastor Craig helps us understand that we're not only adopted by God, but we have the authority to enter the throne of God. It's great to have you with us for another week on the Life Church podcast. My name is Craig Rochelle. I'm the pastor of Life Church.

And if you're new with us, what you'll normally hear is you'll normally hear the weekend messages that are rebroadcast, but we're actually not allowed to do that for a three-week window. And so what I've been doing is sharing with you just from my own personal devotional time some thoughts that I was meditating on as I was reading through the book of Hebrews. I was in Hebrews chapter four, and I noticed that the writer three different times. used the same kind of introductory invitation when he said let us do this. Week number one, we talked about let us do our best to enter God's special rest. Last week we looked at the invitation when the writer to the Hebrew said, let us hold firmly to what we believe. Today I

want to look at the third one, and that's from Hebrews chapter 4, verse 15 and 16, and this is what the text says. This high priest understands our week. weaknesses. He faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. Verse 16, here's the let us. The author says, so let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. Then we will receive his mercy and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. I love this. Let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. We'll find mercy and find grace to help us when we need it. it most. I love the descriptive words that we can come boldly, we can come confidently. Whenever I read that, I always think of a story of when I was a kid and my dad was the assistant manager at J.C. Penny's

store. And there was this door that said employees only. And I was like a little kid, six, seven, eight years old. And I would walk up to that door and I'd go into the employees only door and go into the back stock room. Like I own the place. The reason is, because my dad was in charge. I could come boldly into that room. And we have this invitation to come before the very throne room of God with the same sense of confidence, like our heavenly dad says we can be here, and so we enter boldly.

The author of the Hebrews, to the Hebrews, is actually building this strong case all the way through Hebrews 4. He essentially is saying this, because of the goodness of God through his son Jesus, we can boldly, confidently, without reservation, approach God in his very throne room. And I was trying to figure out how to illustrate this, and I don't want this to come across wrong. I hope you know my heart, but I give you this example.

Sometimes some people from our church, maybe from a different state or whatever, when they meet me, they get a little bit nervous. And I understand this because the first time I met my pastor years ago, I was like freaked out. Just, you know, the office of the pastor, I had so much respect for him. And so I got a little bit nervous. And it's always interesting to me, like, you know, I'm like, I'm just a regular guy. I mean, why would you be nervous? But here's what is kind of the point of this illustration is my kids never ever get nervous around me. Okay?

My kids, they run up, they jump into my laugh. They'll tell me that I need to take a shower because I stink or whatever. I mean, there's no reservation and no fear with my children. Why? Because I'm their dad. I'm their daddy. And this is how we can see God that, yes, we have a reverent and a holy fear of who he is. But at the same time, he's our heavenly daddy.

He's our Abba. and we can approach them with the same confidence that any child would approach their earthly loving father, we can go before our heavenly father in that same way. Someone asked my youngest daughter one time, they said, what's it like to be around Pastor Craig all the time? What's it like to be around Pastor Craig? And Joyce said, he may be your pastor, but he's my daddy. I love that.

And that's how we can look at God. He's our heavenly father. Now, so here's a thought. Because of what Jesus did, we're dying. opted into his family. Because of what he did for us, we were his children. He is our father. He is our Abba father. He's our heavenly daddy. So why do we come before him? What do we do when we come before his throne of grace? Two big thoughts. First of all, we're going to pray. And the second thing is we're going to enjoy his presence. We have the ability to pray and petition our God

and we can enjoy his presence. Let's talk about prayer for a minute. Years ago, I talked about this principle that what we pray about reflects what we believe about God. Think about that. What we pray about reflects what we believe about God. If we pray for big things, we believe we have a big God. If we don't pray much at all, we really don't believe God is actively involved. What we pray about reflects what we believe about God. Here's a question somebody posed one time that really got my attention. They asked this question, what if everything that we prayed for last week, God said yes to and answered this week. What if everything that we prayed for, what would be different in the world? If God answered every prayer you prayed for last week,

what would be different in this world? And a good question would be, what would be different outside your world? In other words, you know, you might have prayed for your family, your situation, your test. What would be different in the world. What we pray about reflects what we believe about God. I'll be honest, for years, I've worried about a lot of different things. I agonized, but I rarely prayed. Here's what I can do. I can take whatever is a burden to me. I can take it before God. I can cast my cares upon God because he cares for me. I can take my burdens to God. I can petition him with my request. I have access to the heavenly throne room. I can go to my heavenly daddy who loves to give good gifts to his children who ask him.

I can come boldly before the throne of grace and pray to my Heavenly Father. Then I also need to recognize that I can be literally in His presence. Think about this, that if you're a follower of Jesus, we have access to the very presence of God. So in His presence, we don't just petition Him, we don't just talk to Him, but we enjoy His presence and we listen to Him. Even though we have access to Him, we never take it for granted. We never treat it lightly. What are we doing? We're going to his throne. He is the king of kings. He is the Lord of Lords. He is at the same time, our Heavenly Father, and yet he is the reigning, ruling, righteous Supreme

King of the universe. And we live in that tension. He is the God of all, the Supreme Judge, and yet we have a relationship with him. And so we come in with that intimacy and yet that reverence all at the same time. He's our father. He's a friend. He's a shepherd. He's a redeemer. He's a righteous king, he's the judge and the ruler of all. So, what do we do in his presence? Well, I love the end of verse 16 that tells us this. In his presence, there we will receive his mercy and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. Another version says we will find grace in our greatest time of need. I love, what do we get? Mercy and grace. Mercy and grace. Psalm 23 tells us grace and mercy will follow us all the days of our lives. So, are you in a tough spot right now?

Are you in a bind? Are you facing challenges? Do you need help? Guess what? Go boldly before God's throne. Why? You're his child. You're not just the child of the boss at J.C. Pennies. You're a child of the king of kings and the Lord of Lord. You're a king's kid. And when you go before his throne, you will find grace and mercy in your time of need. So Father, today, we thank you that we have access to go before your throne, even now. God, I ask that you would move on behalf of those who need your power, that we would experience your true presence, not just praying, but listening to what you would say to us. God, we thank you that in your presence, we will find help in our time of need.

We pray this worshiping you in Jesus. To find out what your next steps could be in your relationship with Christ, all you have to do is go to life.church slash next. and Teddy Campbell live just outside LA, and with the help of the U-Version Bible app developed by Life Church, they've been able to renew their mind and their marriage. I am Tina Campbell, better known to many people that might be familiar as one half of the gospel group, Mary Mary. I am a drummer by a profession.

I did the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, American Idol. I tour with Christina Aguilera, Brittany Spears, Backstreet Boys, 98 degrees. We went on to put out about seven albums and won a few Grammys and won a few American Music Awards and all of that kind of stuff. We also have a reality show called The Merry Mary Mary Show on We TV. We have been blessed to have a platform where we can share Jesus with many people who would otherwise not be interested. So my relationship with my wife took a term when the overwhelming demands on our life was professional and personal. I became aware of indiscretions in my marriage and I thought I was going to lose it. It was just our personal struggle at first and then it ended up being on TV because it was our reality.

You know, the devil's playing in my head all these tormenting thoughts you know good for your kids. Now you can't even sing the gospel because you don't even believe in it and God doesn't love you. And every night was a night of torment. Every day was a day of sadness. I didn't know this person that I had become. I screwed up as a man. And so in my search of trying to be a better man, a better husband, everything pointed to Jesus. I told God, if you won't let me die, show me how to live.

No residue, no remnants of what happened to me. And so I started reading the Bible. So I opened up the word. I didn't just find silence for the devil, silence to the noise and torment. I found life in every aspect of my existence. And all of a sudden, I saw a point. plan that was exactly what I needed. And that changed my life.

So I spend every day of my life on my View Version Bible app every day. I had my phone and I could open up the Word of God and I could find answers and solution and knowledge and understanding. I lived on that app. Everything together now. Music, write songs together, produce records together, put books out together, everything we do together. I'd like to think that this app saved my life. life. It made the things of God easier for me to, to take in and to understand.

Well, people are going to come up to you in heaven and say, thank you for being a part of that church that launched one of the most, one of the most powerful communication tools ever made. As a church, it's our mission and our passion to lead people to become fully devoted followers of Christ. It's that statement that drives everything we do here as a church because we believe whoever finds God truly finds life.