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No, my name is Corey Murphy, as he mentioned. My beautiful wife, Abby, over here is holding our new daughter, Marjorie Jael. That is our third child, and Lord willing, it might be our last, because I don't think we have any room for any more. Welcome to the 11 o'clock service here in Claremore. If you haven't heard, Fred Starkweather is sitting right over there. He preached in the 9 o'clock this morning. Did an incredible job. Yeah, give him a hand. I cannot encourage you enough to go back and listen to what Fred had to say. I mean, it was just such a good, encouraging word, really talking about the light of Christ and what we have obtained in Christ. It was just fantastic. I'm really thankful, as Fred was standing up here talking, I just became overwhelmingly thankful for the generation that has gone before me. A generation that is in this house that is so willing to pour their life. And to my generation, and to help us live life, because I need wisdom. I need help. I've already made a lot of mistakes, and there's probably a lot more to come. But I need the wisdom in his body, and I'm just so thankful that this house so freely shares and freely gives. There's so many of you that have poured into my life, and so just really grateful that this morning. My message this morning is titled, Stand in Christ Alone. I figured I'd just stay right with the theme. It's Stand in Christ Alone. Stand in Christ Alone. Stand in Christ Alone. of scripture in Hebrews chapter two. We're going to walk through verses one through nine. And I really, my heart this morning is I just want to talk about the centrality of Christ. And I'm talking to a group of seasoned believers here, and you guys know this, but I'm being convicted of my own life of this reality that the cross includes me, but it is not about me. And it started a few months ago. I was standing in a church service. It was not here at DLC. And I was standing in a church service and this really popular song that you've probably heard before came on. It's called Above All. And it was made popular by a man by the name of Michael W. Smith. And there's a line in that song that says, like a rose trampled on the ground, you took the fall and thought of me above all. And as I was standing in that service, now I want to preface this. I understand that we have to talk about the things that Christ has obtained for us. We have to talk about the victory that we've obtained in Christ. We have to talk about the reality that Christ did die for me. I believe that's crucial to our identity being hidden in Christ. But in that moment, the Lord began to convict my heart of my worldview of the gospel, because it was in that moment that I caught a glimpse of just how selfish I had been with the gospel. It was in that moment again that I realized that my life and what he had has given me had become the object of my worship, that I was not alone. I was not alone. I was not alone. I was not alone. I was not alone. I was not alone. I was not alone. I was not alone. I was not alone. I was not alone. I was not alone. I was not alone. I was not gazing upon the son, but I was gazing upon the things that the son has given me. And I was brought back to the truth of this reality that I am a witness to the gospel, but I am not the why in the high priestly prayer in John 17. Jesus says, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son that your son may glorify you since you have given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life that they know. Know you. And hear me. I'm not saying that the father doesn't love us. I'm not saying that love was not a motivation of Jesus going to the cross. I mean, John 3 16 says for God so loved the world that he sent his only son. But the question that comes into my own heart is who is at the center of that story? When I talk about the gospel, do I subconsciously insert Corey into the center of why Christ died? Am I? Eulogizing the saver savior, or am I exalting myself as the pinnacle of why he died? Now, the gospel in Jesus dying on the cross does include him loving his creation. That's that's deeper than any ocean and wider than any chasm. And like, we have to talk about the love of God, but God's motivator behind his love is not simply us, but it is his own glory. I believe that God's main purpose in all things is his glory. All throughout scripture, he is constantly pointing back to himself as the only one with all power and all authority, and that he is the only one worthy of praise. Whether that is Gideon slaying the Midianites with only 300 men, whether he's hardening Pharaoh's heart in Egypt, whether he's pouring out his wrath on Sodom and Gomorrah, all of it, the giant narrative of scripture is God pointing to himself as the only one worthy of praise. And the only one with all power and authority. Fred talked about this passage of scripture this morning, but when Paul meets the Lord on the road to Damascus, Saul immediately falls to his knees. He says, who are you, Lord? And Glenn has taught many times that he, Saul encountered two things in that moment that he, he encountered God's glory and he encountered his authority. And in that very moment, it was not about Saul. It was about Christ. It was about Jesus. And he was Jesus, even in the conversion of Saul, pointing back to himself, that while he rescued a created human being, he was also pointing back to himself. In Job, which is one of my favorite books in all of scripture, the Lord offers Job up to Satan and everything that Job holds dear to his heart is taken away. If you haven't read the book of Job, one, I encourage you to do so. But in the the book of Job, his children died. His wife is telling Job, hey, curse God and die. His friends are giving him some less than wise advice. And then Job begins to question God saying things like this. I go forward, but God is not there. And backward, but I do not perceive him. Job makes this claim that he's a righteous man and God is being unjust with him. And God answers out of a whirlwind in Job chapter 38. And he says, where were you when I laid the foundations of the world? Have you commanded the morning since your days began and caused the dawn to know its place? Is it by your understanding that the hawk soars and spread its wings? Shall a fault finder contend with the almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it. What was God doing? It's not that God didn't hear Job or he didn't care about what he was going. But what God was doing is he was showing him just how great he was. He was pointing back to himself as the only one worthy of all glory and praise. The only one with all power. And you see this all through scripture. All of scripture being one giant narrative of God revealing his glory to his creation. That the Bible includes men, but it is not the only one. It is not the only one. It is not about men. It is about God himself. And that's hard from a human perspective to understand because as humans, self-exaltation is usually a way of getting, not giving. It's usually a way of taking or using people, not serving them. But it's not that way with God because God is the one being in the universe for whom self-exaltation is a form of love. I need you to just stay. Stay with me because in his own exaltation and glory, God knows that he is the only being whose worth and beauty can fully satisfy the human soul. That there is a deep longing on the inside of every human being that there is nothing that can fill it other than the worth and beauty of God himself. John Piper wrote a book called, Providence. And there's a quote out of this book. It's one of my favorite quotes. It says, when God makes his praise, the goal of his providence, he is pursuing our full and lasting pleasure. That is love. So God pointing back to himself in all things is not God being prideful or arrogant, but it is him pointing us to the only thing that can truly satisfy us. And this truth applies directly to God choosing, us before the foundation of the world in love. It doesn't mean that, that love isn't a motivation of his choosing, but ultimately it's for his glory. And God calling for his own glory is the ultimate expression of his love. He revealed himself to me calling for his own honor and glory, knowing that it was the only thing that could satisfy me. There is no cure for the orphan heart other than the one who created, everything who created it all. Then to fully satisfy the human soul with his own glory. God died for me because, because he loved me, but I am not the pinnacle or the focal point of why he died. The pinnacle or focal point of why he died as his own glory. And that's the lens that I want to walk through this passage of scripture with this morning. So if you have your Bibles, turn with me to Hebrews chapter two, and I'm going to start in verses one through four. Teddy was, gracious. I think these are going to be on the screen. I was late to turn my slides in, but they're right there. Fantastic. We're going to go verses one through four. I'm reading out of the English standard version. It says, therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution. You can make a sermon out of that. How shall we escape? If we, neglect such a great salvation, it was declared at first by the Lord. And it was attested to us by those who heard while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy spirit distributed according to his will. All of you are aware. I'm sure that the book of Hebrews is being written to a Jewish audience that is under great persecution. And they have this temptation to return to Judaism, in light of this persecution that they're facing. And they're, they're wanting to return to traditional Judaism and abandon Christ. And, uh, this entire book is written to reveal that Christ is the ultimate and superior fulfillment of the old covenant. And the author is explaining this better covenant that we now live in through Christ. And in chapter one, God, the author is talking about the glory of Jesus. He's talking about the supremacy, of the son, that he is the one whom angels worship, that his throne is forever, that he laid the foundations of the earth. And the author's first warning comes in this book comes in this passage. And he's telling this audience, and I believe it's for us today as well. Don't neglect the salvation that you've been given, but the warning for us today. And in America, I do not believe is the same warning that was being given to the Hebrew Christians, the Jewish Christians, the Jewish people, the Jewish people, the Jewish people, the Jewish people, because of this massive persecution. Now, as Glenn shared before the service, I'm thankful that we live in a country where men and women go and they, they give their life for, for our liberty, liberty, for our freedom, that we're able to gather on a Sunday morning with no fear, that we're able to gather and worship our creator with no fear. That's great. So that's not our temptation. Corey's temptation is to place Corey, at the center of the gospel story. Because if we're honest, I believe that there's times that we, we have loved Christ for our sake and not for his, and we've used him for the benefits rather than seeing him as the benefit. I could go through story after story of times in my life where the Lord has convicted my own heart, where the things that he's given me have become what I've worshiped rather than Christ himself. You know, the old saying, like you can miss, the forest for the trees. I believe that you can miss the forest for the trees, but I also believe that you can miss the tree for the forest, that we can get lost in all of the incredible things. And they are incredible. All of the incredible things that God gives us, that's the forest, but he's the tree. And I never want to lose sight of the tree. And chapter two kicks off with saying we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. And I can't think of a better thing. I can't think of a better thing. I can't think of a better thing. I can't think of a better thing for us to hear because I'm not standing up here saying that anyone, including myself, hopefully, is going to just outright deny Christ. It's going to outright, I'm not going to, hopefully by the Lord's grace, just outright make the gospel about me, but it's a slow drift. You think about it in the context of drifting in the ocean. Imagine you're on a boat that's anchored where you are. It's not moving. You put a life jacket on and you jump out of the boat and you just lay back and relax. Close your eyes. You're not going to feel yourself slowly drifting away from the boat. But in 30 minutes, when you open your eyes and you can't see the boat anymore, you don't notice the drifting. You notice the distance. This slow drift, it can be becoming so focused on stewarding the things that God gives me that I forget that he's the one who gives me the grace to steward it in the first place. I'm not teaching against stewardship. I believe it's biblical. I believe it's holy. I believe it's good, but I always want to keep in mind who gives me the grace to do it in the first place. I want to behold Jesus himself that when I talk to my four-year-old son about Jesus Christ, am I just telling him about all of the good things that Jesus does for us and all of the good gifts that he gives us? Or am I exalting the savior himself for who he is? The foundation that I want my children to stand on is that God himself is the one who gives me the grace to do it in the first place. I believe it's biblical. I believe it's holy. I believe it's good. I believe it's worthy of our worship, even if he never does another thing for us, because he's already done enough. That we don't lay our lives down for the rewards and the benefits that he will give me. I lay my life down because he's worthy of it. That if I praise him for any other reason than praising him for who he is, I'm missing the point. Chapter two, verses five through nine. It says, It has been testified somewhere, what is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man that you care for him? You have made him for a little while lower than the angels. You have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet. Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him, but we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus. Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone. I believe that one of the main causes of drifting that the author talked about in the beginning of this chapter is laid out very clearly here. Because the author quotes Psalm chapter eight, and he starts with this sobering question. What is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man that you care for him? Seeing God through the proper lens, allows me to see myself through the proper lens. There's a teaching that is becoming more and more popular that says Jesus died for you because you were worth it, or even you were so valuable that God gave up everything to get you back. But Romans five tells me something very contrary to those statements, because Romans five declares that while I was still a sinner, Christ died for me. The love of God is not made, is not magnified by me being good enough to die, the love of God is magnified when he dies for those who are unloving, unlovely. The cross doesn't reveal our worth. It reveals God's mercy and grace towards us. Grace is getting what you don't deserve. If we were worthy to die for, that is not grace. That is simply getting a payment. Deuteronomy seven, seven through eight says, the Lord did not set his love on you, nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the other peoples. For the, you were the fewest of the fewest of all peoples, but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath, which he swore to your forefathers, the Lord brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. God redeeming us is not because of anything that is great within us, but it is because he is faithful and he keeps his promises. Dallas, you can go ahead and come up. In Ephesians one, Paul writes that him predestining us to adoption is for what? It's to the praise of his glorious grace. Now, hear me, that doesn't mean that I want you to have low self-esteem and think nothing of yourself and just kind of get down in the dumps. Like, that's not what I'm saying. That's not what I'm communicating. I just don't want you to misplace where your value comes from. I'm not up here saying that you have no value. I'm saying your value doesn't come inherently from you. I'm not up here saying that you have no value. I'm saying your value doesn't come from within you. My worth doesn't come before the cross. It comes after it. I carry no intrinsic value other than Christ died for me and now I have value. And I believe that that's what verse nine is saying because the challenge out of verse nine, he says, but we see him. And that's my challenge for us this morning. Church, do we see him? Where are my eyes focused? In this passage the beauty is that the answer to following into a self-centered view of the gospel is not shame and condemnation. It's sight. Like, if I were up here and I was pointing back to myself for all things, you probably wouldn't like me very much. You wouldn't want to hang out with me. That's why I didn't have any friends in high school. That was supposed to be a joke. When we see the true worth of God himself, when we see his glory, he's worthy of every single thing in our lives. And he doesn't owe us. He doesn't owe us anything. But because he's lovely, because he's good, because he's gracious, because he's merciful, he set his affection on us. Not because Corey was so great that he had to have him, but just because God said he's mine and nobody else can have him. Church, I want to behold him. I don't want my life to be marked by living for the benefits that Christ can give me. Now, I'm thankful for the benefits, but I want to live my life marked by my life. Beholding him and living for his glory and his glory alone. I want him to be exalted for the first time in my life. I think I'm probably in a place where I could say if I died today and nobody remembered my name, I would be okay. Because this is not about Corey getting his name remembered. This is about the kingdom of God being expanded through his church, that I'm a part of the greatest thing going. That his church, his body in the earth, that I get to play a part, whatever part that may be, I get to play a part in seeing the kingdom of God expand into the earth. That it's like leaven, that leaven's the whole lump, that I get to watch people give their life to Christ and grow in discipleship and lean on the Lord in the hard times and look at him when it feels like their life is falling apart and know it's going to be. Okay. Well, I want, I want to leave you with this because I definitely don't want to, I don't want to feel like, I don't want you to feel like I'm trying to tell you that you're worthless, but I want you to see that God pointing back to himself doesn't make us worthless and left without value. But God pointing back to himself is the only satisfaction for our soul that is real and lasting. I just want to pray over us this morning. Father, I thank you for your word. I thank you for your truth. I thank you for each and every person in this room that is your creation, your son, your daughter, and Lord, we thank you for your glory.
