Tim Forand

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Sunday Morning Service

Jeremy Richards

Copalis Community Church

06 September 2026

Bible References

• Hebrews 4:11-14

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Bring you rest. Joshua could not give them rest. These things are not able to give us rest. But there remains a rest for the people of God in chapter four, verse nine. Just because those things don't give your soul rest does not mean that rest is not an option.

It is an availability. It is just not. Through those methods, you will never be good enough. Through the law. You will never be physically in such a secure spot that it will give you rest.

There is a rest for the people of God. The rest looks like in verse 10 we talked about last week. The rest looks like entering into God's work, partaking of his works is what gives us rest. It says in verse 10, for he has entered his rest, has himself also ceased from his works, as God did from his. God ceased from that work of creation and entered into that work that he delighted in his interaction with people.

He delighted in the sons of men that gave him joy. It was not work. It was not inaction. It was difficult at times, but it was rest. Okay, so let's start.

In verse 11. 11 it says, we finished on this last week. It says, let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest lest anyone fall, according to the same example of disobedience. So we see here, to enter that rest of which we are still told is available, an individual must be diligent. Individuals who are not diligent do not enter the rest.

There is a diligence required to enter the rest. It is not a state of inactivity. Inactive people, lazy people, miss the open door of rest. Those who don't respond to that call of entering his rest miss it. It is actually an action of disobedience, not doing anything.

God calls us to be diligent to enter the door that he opens into his rest. Waiting, inactiveness. To enter in is not a spiritual sign, a good spiritual sign. It is actually disobedience. Sometimes we wait.

We say, no, I'm not going to enter in because the time's not right. I'm not going to enter in because I don't feel like it. I'm not going to enter in because my emotions don't line up with it. To Jesus, to the Holy Spirit, that's disobedience. He requires diligence.

It says, I went by the field of the lazy man and the man devoid of understanding. And there it was, a stone wall. It was all overgrown with thorns. Its surface was covered with nettles. Its stone wall was broken down.

When I looked on it, I received instruction.

A little sleep, a little slumber. A little folding of the hands to rest. So shall your poverty come on you like an arm man and your kneed like a prowler. So sometimes we think rest is inactivity. No, inactivity is laziness.

We are called to enter in diligently. It is a command, get up and enter in before the door shuts. We don't want to be included in that group who stood there and like, do we have a few days to think about this? The Lord said, go up, take the land, enter into the promised land. And you're like, can we take a vote on this first?

Can I get a few days to think about this? I need to wash my clothes. There's some things I want to accomplish first. I really wanted to see some sights. I need to go grocery shopping or something.

Can I just get a few minutes? That door shut. And he said, Moses, take them back into the wilderness until every one of them of their bodies falls in the desert. There is no time to waste. It's not a time to wait on your feelings.

It is a command. There is a diligence required. Enter into his rest. And we're being called to be diligent about this. Okay, so we're going to look in verse 12.

For the word of God is living and powerful, sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow. And is a discerner of the thoughts, intents and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from his sight. But all things are naked and open to the eyes of him to Whom we must give an account. Here we are.

This open door into rest is an opportunity without a doubt. There is no question that there is a promise of beauty that is extended to those who would join Jesus in the feast that he has prepared. But there is also repercussions for not obeying and entering in. It is not just as if he calls us to enter in and then everyone gets to do what they want. No, there is consequences.

And here we're saying we're going to be looking at a sword. A sword. This sword is said to be a two edged sword piercing to the division of soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. There is a necessity of entering in because of this sword that we're talking about now. We like to think that the word of God is a sword.

We're to take our sword. Of course, in Ephesians, talking about the armor of God, it Says, take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. And we like to think that that is this book. And I think in some ways that is true. But the word we are told is Jesus.

He is the Word. And as I look about it, we're going to look at this sword just for a minute in a couple places in Revelations. And I want you, if possible, to gain a bit of a value of the person of Jesus Christ here. That yes, he was an individual who really loved people, but he also is an individual described as the King of Kings. And in chapter 19, verse 11 it says, Now I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse.

And he who sat on him was called faithful and true. And in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire and on his head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with, with a robe dipped in blood.

His name is called the Word of God. And the armies of heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed him on a white horse. Now out of his mouth goes a sharp sword and with it he should strike the nations and he himself will rule them. With a rod of iron he himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of the Almighty God. And he has on his robe and on his thigh a name written King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

I would just like to stop and just say there has never been and will never be an individual like Jesus Christ. If you cannot devise a man made scale that would somehow equate the life of Jesus Christ with anyone else. There is no list that there ever could be a second name listed beside his. No one even comes close. You could take all the names of all the great men and stack them side by side and still they don't deserve to be on the same list as Jesus Christ.

You might think I'm lying, but I would just like you to tell me. Is there anything anyone else has ever done which anywhere approaches that work of Jesus which he accomplished for the people that he loved?

He has a sword and it comes out of his mouth. And with that sword he accomplishes something. He divides. And to be on one side of the division is eternal life. It is that great white throne of judgment picture in which Jesus is sitting on his throne and he takes the nation and he judges them one for another.

On his left hand he puts the goats, and on his right hand the sheep. He divides them one for another and. And that division is exactingly sharp. We went to Israel this year and then into Syria. And the Golan Heights of course, was a part of Syria some years back.

And now Israel controls that area. And on the Israel side, the grass was long and the cattle just grazed like you would see anywhere here. No one next to them or by them, just the cattle grazing. But as soon as you got to Syria, the grass was just like this long. And there were goats of sheep, and there were flocks of sheep and goats mixed together.

And there would be a shepherd or a shepherdess with that flock walking through the town, eating every available little stem of grass. And to you and to me, you know, you would look upon that flock and you'd think maybe are they all the same? They're crazy looking goats and sheep. They're not our little, you know, nice perfect looking breeds of sheep and goats. They seem like they almost mix together.

And how do you separate them? Well, to the shepherd who knows them by name, it's no problem at all to separate the sheep from the goat. And in a similar way, this sword, the sword of Jesus divides. It is a slicing sharp razor blade of discernment. I'm going to read just the one more picture of Jesus Christ of which John fell at his face like a de.

In chapter one.

It says in chapter one, verse ten, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day. And I heard behind me a loud voice as of a trumpet saying, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last. And what you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches. And then the name of the churches in verse 12. Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me.

And having turned I saw seven golden lampstand. And in the midst of the seven lampstands, one like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to his feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. His head and his hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes like a flame of fire. His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace. And his voice as the sound of many waters he had on.

In his right hand seven stars. Out of his mouth went a sharp two edged sword, and his countenance was like the sun, shining in its strength. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. The only reason you and I don't fall on our feet as dead people right now is because we can't see them. Our eyes are clouded.

There's something blocking our perception of what is reality that enables us to stand upright as people proud and haughty in our disobedience toward him. But if he showed through the door, there would not be one person standing. The only reason we continue is because we can't see him clearly. Like a person speeding down the road going 70 miles an hour thinking he is unmovable until the lights come on and all of a sudden he's like, oh, I guess I do need to slow down. The only reason we're going fast is because our picture of Christ is not what it should be.

Our view. We're like blind people. We're going to go back to Hebrews. This sword of the Lord comes out of the mouth of one with authority and he uses it back to chapter four of Hebrews. The Word of God is living and powerful.

Now, I am definitely not saying that the Bible is not a mirror into the souls of men to give us discernment and wisdom. I'm not trying to deny the benefit that it gives to people or to say that in some ways we should ignore it. That is not my emphasis. What I am trying to say is, is that the Lord himself employs a sword out of his mouth to accomplish something. That this heavenly Lord of lords and King of king exercises his authority in one way to accomplish his purposes.

It says what he does with this sword is to divide. It says this two edged sword is capable of piercing even to the division of soul and spirit. It has a sharp enough blade that it can peel back layers in the inside between soul and spirit. It penetrates to joints and marrow. But the goal of it is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

You see, you and I are like a room full of sheep and goats. We walk through society in a big crowd and we look and we're like, there goes the flock. And you and I would probably have a difficulty in distinguishing the thoughts and intents of people's hearts. We would probably be bewildered if you and I had to make a list and separate teams here. We're going to have the goats on the left and the teams on the right.

Obi's going to pick first and he's going to pick goats. And I'm. Or sheep on the right and I'm going to pick goats on the left. There's probably. The truth is we would be confused.

We would get shoats and sheep and geeps and you know, we'd get all mixed up not knowing the difference. But this sword of the Lord penetrates and divides perfectly every time because it can see the thoughts and intents of the heart. Now you and I really don't want to be judged about the thoughts and intents of the heart, do we? Some of us put on our nice clothes. I only wear deodorant on Sundays because of you.

I don't care about everyone else I work with. Right. But I want to impress you. I want you to think, hey, this is a nice guy. He wears tears come up.

I want to be judged whether I wear deodorant, not about my heart, not about the thoughts. I want to be judged whether I put on clean pants once a week, not about what goes through my mind.

I wouldn't be here if that's what we were talking about.

I don't think I'm the only one.

Some of us would much more likely be judged according to how much resources we have, how many animals or children we have. Some of us would much rather be judged with anything but what's in our heart. But it's exactly the sword of the Lord that penetrates so deeply that it doesn't care about the clothes you're wearing today. Doesn't matter whether you smell nice or not. It's looking only at one spot in an individual of which it is the only capable and worthy judge.

The human heart. No one else can judge there. No one has the resources to penetrate there and make a wise decision. Only he has a sure sword sharp enough to be able to penetrate that personal area without destroying every individual in the process.

When we kill animals, it is such a gruesome thing. The cows, sinews and flesh and muscles are astonishingly complex and beautiful. We come in even with the sharpest blade, and all we do is cut and hurt and rip apart beautiful life. I'm not saying that I'm a vegan or a vegetarian. I value meat.

But what it does, even the sharpest blade we possess can only destroy. But Jesus comes in with a blade that is so severely sharp, it can divide even to the human heart and not kill the person in the process.

He leaves an individual absolutely stripped of all the paraphernalia we bring onto ourselves in the course of our life. Who are you as a person? How would you describe yourself?

Women talk about certain things, right? A woman meets another woman and they shake hands and they say, how are you? And then what do they women talk about?

How do they describe themselves after. After you kind of get through the introduction. Okay, now let me talk about myself, please. What do they say?

Okay, let's start again. Men meet each other and they get to, you know, past the thing. Hi, how are you? What's the name. Nice weather.

Now, please, let me talk about myself. What do they say? Where do I work?

Right? What we've done, right? Well, Jesus looks on us and he strips all that away. He cuts it off. So amazingly clean.

It's not a part of us anymore. We can't say, hey, look, and I got a good job. It's cut off. He slices it off a person until they stand there naked with only the quivering, guilty soul that they possess. The only real part of their nature is their soul, guilty and shameful.

Adam and Eve standing there in their nakedness with nothing to hide them except fig leaves. The sword of the Lord cuts them off and they stand there naked and vulnerable. You and I, if we would see things spiritually are no different. You will not be able to hide.

He's not impressed with the things that you've done. The amount of children you've had, your lifestyle, the way you eat, how much you weigh, how many friends you have, how you smell. He's just not impressed. His sword is so sharp. It cleaves that off of a person and leaves a person vulnerable.

That may feel to you to be a kind of a scary process. But we're going to Finish. In verse 14, it says, Seeing. Then we have a great high priest who passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God. Let us hold fast our confession.

Because we're naked, because he only looks at our heart. We're to view Jesus in a perspective that is different. Because we can't hide, because we can't cover our sin and our shame, because we are totally naked as result of the sword of God. We should look carefully at Jesus because he is a great high priest. He is an individual who takes the needs of the people and presents those needs before the Almighty.

He is an individual who takes the sufferings and difficulties that people experience that are native to them. And he is able to represent us before the Father. This is what the rest of Hebrews is about.

We need someone to bring us into rest. And we have a great high priest who is willing to do it. To Finish off verse 14, it says, this great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God. There was an obstacle in you and I's relationship with the Father. There was a barrier in place in which we could not enter that rest.

Morality couldn't do it for us. Physical location couldn't do it for us. It took someone to pass through for us.

Because of this, because he passed through, it was as if his cross became a pathway that was lifted up between heaven and earth, which broke a barrier by which no other means could cross. He became the means. It says the angels ascended and descended upon the Son of God. He became the stairs, if you remember Jacob's ladder, he became the ladder by which individuals could find entrance. He passed through the heavens because he is this person which in all my experience, and if I could say that he is that person that says, let us hold fast when you gripped him.

Be like Jacob, who would not let go, who hold on to him and said, no, I want that blessing. I'm not going to be left here. I want the blessing. You and I are being called to be diligent, to hold fast. And it is my hope today that as you consider the message of Hebrews, the message of Jesus Christ bringing us in, that you would relinquish your feelings, that you'd relinquish the delays and say, if he is the individual that he says to be, if he is inviting me to come in, it is my duty as an individual to obey and to come in and say yes, Lord, that is not a religious decision.

It is not a decision where you join or have to do something. It is a relationship where you indicate your responsibility to follow an authority that you place over your life. I am extraordinarily glad, as an individual of 18 years old, that I relinquish that authority to someone who knew more than me. And now I can only say, thank youk, Lord, for taking me, just a confused young man and walking with me. So though I'm still a confused adult, at least I know where he's taking me.

Amen. We're going to close there. My encouragement again. If you know Christ is calling you, say yes, Lord. Be diligent.

That door is open only so long, lest we fall according to the same example of disobedience. Let's pray, and then we're going to take communion together. Father, we do come to you, thanking you for Jesus. No one loved our soul like Jesus so much that he was willing to take that sword sharper than a razor, Lord, to cut off the things that we trust in and leave us exposed, Lord, that he might take us, Lord, into a rest that we've never even known. Lord, we thank you.

For Jesus, in your name we pray. Amen.