Stedfast

Hello precious Beloved family!

What an amazing day to be alive and experiencing the Kingdom of Heaven as it continues to manifest here on earth and especially in our midst as we gather each week in Sunday services, koinonia after service, Grace Groups, and the many other ways we connect. It impacts my heart in a way that I cannot properly express with the limitations of mere adjectives. I pray (and expect) greater and greater things to shower down in your lives every single day.

I want to convey a few truths from just one single passage today… I know, y’all are thinking, “just one verse, pastor Steve???” The reality is that I have spent hours meditating on this chapter and today, as I was thinking and praying for you, this one particular verse just kept resonating in me. So, I want to share a few things that Holy Spirit is highlighting for us all to embrace and grow in.

Hebrews 3:14
For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end

It would be an exciting journey for me to lay out succinctly all the deep context of what was happening all around this passage, but I honestly cannot type it all in the way that would do it justice. And I REALLY, REALLY want you to dive into the scriptures for yourself in this place and you can devoid all of the richness of what was being spoken in these first four chapters of Hebrews. Here is some language depth to help you come with me in the magnificence of what Holy Spirit is speaking to us:

• Made means: to transition from one place or realm to another
• Partakers: change due to sharing, i.e. from being an “active partaker with”
• Christ: the Anointed One AND His active anointing
• Beginning: properly, from the beginning (temporal sense), i.e. “the initial (starting) point”; (figuratively) what comes first and therefore is chief (foremost), i.e. has the priority because ahead of the rest (“preeminent”)
• Confidence: from hypó, “under,” and hístēmi, “to stand” – properly, (to possess) standing under a guaranteed agreement (“title-deed”); (figuratively) “title” to a promise or property, i.e. a legitimate claim (because it literally is, “under a legal-standing”) – entitling someone to what is guaranteed under the particular agreement, assurance and steadiness
• Stedfast: solid (sure) enough to walk on; hence, firm, unshakable; (figuratively) absolutely dependable, giving guaranteed support (security, surety)

So here is a way we could string all this together and amplify what is being declared:

We have been transitioned from one place or realm (the broken natural world) to another (Kingdom of Heaven) by the changes (transformation) due to actively sharing in Christ (the Anointed One and His Anointing), if (our choice) we hold the origins of our confidence (the almost-too-good-to-be-true news of the Gospel) in all assurance and steadiness (confidently) all the way to the very end (overcomers who overcome).

All of this, “great and precious promise,” is possible if we do not let our hearts become hardened by the deceitfulness of sin (the nature or identity of missing the mark) that the enemy attempts by bringing unbelief through stress, lies, or circumstances. All of the craziness, confusion, and pressure that is being multiplied to us, who are courageous enough to believe in the high truths of the Finished Work of the Cross and THE Great Awakening. I have been saddened by the number of people, “believers,” who have been dropping like flies under the turmoil of the past year and a half.

Confidence, assurance, and expected victory all the way to the very end are characteristics in believers today in this messed up time. But, we are not under the power, authority, or influence of this world and it’s system of brokenness, deceit, and temporality! We are going to be RADICAL believers like Joshua and Caleb who rejected the evil “news report” of the other ten spies and chose rather to trust in the promise and power of their God! Whooooo!

I LOVE being the pastor of a radical bunch of authentic believers who are not dissuaded by the nonsense of fake news and fear mongers who try to tyrannize and enslave the masses. We will be the ones who stay confidently strong until the very end and see the victory that our Good Father has promised belongs to us.

Anybody with me?!?! I can hear your, “amen!”

I love y’all greatly!
Steve