Stop Trying to Save Yourself

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION

“I’ve tried to hate myself,

Thinking that’s how things will change,

But it never helps, piling up the blame.

Fighting fire with fire, hurt with more hurt,

Breaking my own heart makes everything worse.”

~“Kind to Myself” by Tenth Avenue North

“That is that which I seek for, even to be rid of this heavy burden; but get it off myself, I cannot; nor is there any man in our country that can take it off my shoulders; therefore am I going this way, as I told you, that I may be rid of my burden.”

“I went but a little further, and I saw one, as I thought in my mind, hang bleeding upon the tree; and the very sight of him made my burden fall off my back, (for I groaned under a very heavy burden,) but then it fell down from off me.”

~The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan

“The only way that the disciplines strengthen the Christian life is when we view them as bread, not barter. They are not trading chips to exchange for God’s grace but, rather, divine manna, providing the nutrition by which our love for Christ thrives. As we meditate upon the lavishness of grace across Scripture, commune with our God in prayer, and experience many dimensions of his mercy among his people, we grow in our understanding of his love. As a consequence, our love for him grows, displacing lesser loves that attack us even as they attract us.”

~Unlimited Grace by Bryan Chapell

SERMON PASSAGE

Hebrews 10:1-18 (ESV)

1 For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. 2 Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? 3 But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. 4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

5 Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said,

“Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired,

  but a body have you prepared for me;

6 in burnt offerings and sin offerings

  you have taken no pleasure.

7 Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God,

  as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’”

8 When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), 9 then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second. 10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

11 And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

15 And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying,

16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them

   after those days, declares the Lord:

   I will put my laws on their hearts,

   and write them on their minds,”

17 then he adds,

   “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”

18 Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.