Kenny Hibbard

Tonight we will host the Butler High School varsity football team for the last time of the season.  If they win tonight, they will play next Saturday in the State Championship at N.C.  State’s Stadium in Raleigh.  Butler is ranked number one in the state and is in the top 10 in the nation! That is really a great honor for a group of good kids.

Tonight they will play Independence High School in a fierce rivalry game for the privilege of going to the play the winner of the East division of the state.  This is the most anticipated game of the year and will probably be the largest crowd for a high school game in the entire state. However……before all that goes down at 7:30 pm…..the team will come here for their dinner. We have been feeding them their pregame meal, since game one back in August.  Our team of dedicated volunteers has helped us make a positive impact on this team and the boys individually.

It is great to know that these boys from a public school will volunteer to join me upstairs in the smaller auditorium for a time of biblical devotion, challenge  and inspiration.  My favorite part is when all 60 of these young men gather in a circle locking arms and then we pray. I sometimes will lead the prayer or many times will ask one of the players to do so.  It is still a few hours before the game……but the sense of team and a the tight bond that can be sensed in this situation is evident.  As  a matter of fact, one of the players from the team they beat last week was quoted in the paper…saying something like this: “The players on the Butler Team seem to have a special bond. It is like they are playing with their brothers that they really care about.”

I like to think that a small part of that bond comes from the fact that these players “choose” to spend 20 minutes each Friday before the game in a focused prayer and spiritual devotion time.  As you know, this type of ministry is a passion of mine…..I love it. I love the fact that we have a church building and volunteers that serve our local schools in such creative way!

To all the volunteers that have made this Season a huge success……thanks!

Don’t forget to use your tickets to invite a friend this Sunday!  It will be a great way to officially start the Christmas Season!

Hebrews 10

¹ The old system under the law of Moses was only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good things themselves. The sacrifices under that system were repeated again and again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship. ² If they could have provided perfect cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped, for the worshipers would have been purified once for all time, and their feelings of guilt would have disappeared.

³ But instead, those sacrifices actually reminded them of their sins year after year. ⁴ For it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. ⁵ That is why, when Christ came into the world, he said to God,

“You did not want animal sacrifices or sin offerings.
But you have given me a body to offer.
⁶ You were not pleased with burnt offerings
or other offerings for sin.
⁷ Then I said, ‘Look, I have come to do your will, O God—
as is written about me in the Scriptures.’”

⁸ First, Christ said, “You did not want animal sacrifices or sin offerings or burnt offerings or other offerings for sin, nor were you pleased with them” (though they are required by the law of Moses). ⁹ Then he said, “Look, I have come to do your will.” He cancels the first covenant in order to put the second into effect. ¹⁰ For God’s will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time.

¹¹ Under the old covenant, the priest stands and ministers before the altar day after day, offering the same sacrifices again and again, which can never take away sins. ¹² But our High Priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then he sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand. ¹³ There he waits until his enemies are humbled and made a footstool under his feet. ¹⁴ For by that one offering he forever made perfect those who are being made holy.

¹⁵ And the Holy Spirit also testifies that this is so. For he says,

¹⁶ “This is the new covenant I will make
with my people on that day, says the Lord:
I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them on their minds.”

¹⁷ Then he says,

“I will never again remember
their sins and lawless deeds.”

¹⁸ And when sins have been forgiven, there is no need to offer any more sacrifices.

¹⁹ And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. ²⁰ By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. ²¹ And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, ²² let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.

²³ Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. ²⁴ Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. ²⁵ And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.

²⁶ Dear friends, if we deliberately continue sinning after we have received knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice that will cover these sins. ²⁷ There is only the terrible expectation of God’s judgment and the raging fire that will consume his enemies. ²⁸ For anyone who refused to obey the law of Moses was put to death without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. ²⁹ Just think how much worse the punishment will be for those who have trampled on the Son of God, and have treated the blood of the covenant, which made us holy, as if it were common and unholy, and have insulted and disdained the Holy Spirit who brings God’s mercy to us. ³⁰ For we know the one who said,

“I will take revenge.
I will pay them back.”

He also said,

“The Lord will judge his own people.”

³¹ It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

³² Think back on those early days when you first learned about Christ.^[j] Remember how you remained faithful even though it meant terrible suffering. ³³ Sometimes you were exposed to public ridicule and were beaten, and sometimes you helped others who were suffering the same things. ³⁴ You suffered along with those who were thrown into jail, and when all you owned was taken from you, you accepted it with joy. You knew there were better things waiting for you that will last forever.

³⁵ So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings you! ³⁶ Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised.

³⁷ “For in just a little while,
the Coming One will come and not delay.
³⁸ And my righteous ones will live by faith.
But I will take no pleasure in anyone who turns away.”

³⁹ But we are not like those who turn away from God to their own destruction. We are the faithful ones, whose souls will be saved.