Thinking through some of the most iconic sports movies of all time, Rocky is on the list, probably my favorite was Rocky 4 when Rocky avenges Apollo’s death by defeating Ivan Drago in Russia on Christmas Day; or Rudy, the unathletic try-hard whose dream was to play football for Notre Dame, and overcame all the odds to get on the field at the end of his senior year.  How about Seabiscuit? The undersized horse that just kept winning, or Miracle, the story of the 1980 US Hockey team that defeated the highly favored Russian team; or The Karate Kid – “Danielson, Karate no here (fist). Karate no here (mind). Karate here (heart)

What do all these movies have in common? The stories are all about athletes who had an inner motor. They were not the most talented, but there was something driving them on the inside, an inner gear that kicked in when it seemed like all hope was lost. Rocky was constantly getting a beatdown, but kept coming back, Rudy got abused in practice every day, but kept showing up. Seabiscuit just needed to get eye to eye with another horse, and everything would change, Daniel Laruso was on one leg after Johnny swept the leg, but mustered up the inner fortitude to stand on his one good leg and use the Crane technique to kick Johnny in the face and win the All-Valley tournament.

Gatorade capitalized on this idea in the early 2000s with their marketing slogan “Is It In You?” When you need it most, when the chips are down, when you need that kick, that last minute drive, that game winning shot, do you have what it takes inside?

Spiritually speaking, the author is reminding the original hearers in first part of Hebrews 9, the answer to that question is a big fat emphatic NO, not without Jesus. They were gravitating back to an old system of thinking and living that always ended the same way: FAILURE. In the Old covenant, they were externally motivated by systems: the system of the law, and a system of blood sacrifice when you failed to live up to it. However, the New Covenant represented the inner working of the Spirit of Jesus, taking the external and moving internal. And, here is the ultimate point today: You were born without the ability to keep the law, or really even a deep inner desire. All the external motivation could not keep you on the straight and narrow. Something had to shift INSIDE, and the gut-check question of the day is this: Is it in you?

Hebrews 9:1-10

V1 – Here is something common about both the Old and New Covenant – Both are organized around the worship of God – again, God is uncreated and unchanging. In Revelation 1:8, God states clearly that he is the beginning and end of all things, he “was, is and is to come.” We talked a couple of weeks ago about the tabernacle, and that it was merely an earthly symbol, or the author used the term “shadow” of what worship was supposed to look like in Heaven.

V2-5 – He describes the tabernacle here as a tent with two rooms, both were holy places, but one was the most holy place, or what we have referred to as the Holy of holies, and inside the innermost holy place was the golden ark of the covenant, housing a jar of manna (God’s provision), the rod of Aaron (God’s power) and the Ten Commandments (God’s law). The author then says something curious: “We cannot discuss these things in detail now” – Why? Because we will see that he doesn’t want to get fixated on the FORM of the former worship, because he wants to focus on the SUBSTANCE.

V6 - Remember, this was a portable worship environment, much like we used to have in the school . They would travel for a while, ad when they stopped and set up camp, the tabernacle would be the center of all religious activity, and the priests were BUSY, because people were constantly showing up at the tabernacle to confess and make sacrifice for their sin, constant unworthiness, complete inability to keep the law. Think about the 10 Commandments, these were the most basic rules for living. As Moses came down from the mountain to deliver these very basic rules, like “Don’t worship graven images…”, what were the people doing? Literally worshiping a graven image! God gave the law basically to show his people that they were unable to keep it, so he provided a system of blood sacrifice for them to get forgiveness for their consistent failure to keep it together. What a life, right? To feel like you have no real ability to keep yourself from breaking the ordinances and regulations, so you are constantly having to say I’m sorry, make your sacrifice, and go away completely UNCHANGED, knowing you would be back.

This is a picture of every life apart from Jesus. Maybe you sense it in your own life this morning, a deep sense of shame because you keep confessing the same things over and over with no real tangible results. If you feel this way, you come by it honestly – Hebrews 7:19 – the law made NOTHING PERFECT.

V7 - Once a year, on the Day of Atonement, the high priest would enter the Holy of holies, taking the blood of a bull to pay for his sin, then would take a pair of goats, kill one and use the blood to sacrifice for the people, then would lay hands on the other goat, confessing the sins of the people of Israel. The goat would then be led into the wilderness, ceremonially carrying the sins of the people, never to return. So, once a year, your sins would be ceremonially forgiven, but your heart remained UNCHANGED. In fact, you began to worship the ceremony rather than what it symbolized, worshiping the FORM rather than the SUBSTANCE (Psalm51:17). God is looking past the sacrifice and to the heart (Amos 5:21-24).

What does that look like today? Maybe you have that one song that helps you really get your WORSHIP GROOVE on, only Mavrick City does it for me. Maybe you only respect scripture if it’s broken down by John MacArthur, or if someone drops a Spurgeon quote on you. It's easy to get caught up in worshipping the FORM rather than the SUBSTANCE. If you have to be sitting in the perfect place with the perfect lighting, or get the perfect parking spot, then your motivation is external, not internal. Jesus said himself in Matthew 15:8, quoting Isaiah 29:13 – “They honor me with their lips but their hearts are far from me.” True worship is a matter of the INTERNAL motivation of the heart.

V8 – Heart transformation only takes place through the HOLY SPIRIT. The author says clearly here that as long as the veil was in-tact, the old way of thinking, the annual confession, there was no personal access to the presence and power of God. It took the cross, the perfect sacrifice for all sin for all time, to tear down the external construct of confession without heart transformation and create a new pathway to internal regeneration, where the New Tabernacle is constructed in the heart of everyone who says yes to Jesus. It is the promises of Proverbs 3:1-4 and Ezekiel 36:26-27. The Spirit writes the law on your heart  (Matthew 5:17).

V9-10 – Gavin uses the phrase often, “Confession doesn’t fix a problem; confession reveals a problem.” Confession can lead to healing as it is telling the truth. However, confession must be followed by repentance. Repentance can only come through the work of the Holy Spirit in us, transforming us. The Old covenant way of gifts and sacrificial blood didn’t clear anyone’s conscience. It didn’t’ change their mind or heart. In fact, it was simply a reminder day after day, year after year that there was a problem. Since Genesis 3, the world was infected with a disease called sin that destined us for eternal separation from God.  The Day of Atonement was an annual reminder that you couldn’t fix yourself. But the last part of verse 10 says it: EXTERNAL REGULATIONS APPLYING UNTIL THE TIME OF THE NEW ORDER.

All of the rituals and regulations in the Old Testament were a placeholder for Jesus, who would completely and perfectly fulfill and complete the law, die a sinless death on our behalf, conquer sin and death through the resurrection, go away, so the Holy Spirit could come and UNIVERSALLY indwell everyone who says yes to Jesus.

Looking back at great sports movies, what do we love about them? We love when the underdog wins – why? Because we are ALL UNDERDOGS – I am the ultimate try-hard, and my heart and determination and internal motor will outperform people way more physically gifted than me. But Spiritually speaking, I can fall into the same category: trying to look the part, trying to outwork everyone around me, striving, trying to earn God’s favor, but confessing the same things over and over without moving to the next step of repentance.

The Holy Spirit is the internal motor that makes it possible to keep the law and become like Jesus. He is the one that develops the fruit (Galatians 5:22-23). If you try to exhibit the fruit and fail over and over, it could be that you’re living under an old way of thinking. The question becomes, “Is it in you?” or even better, “Is HE in you?” The Spirit of Jesus is the antidote for a life of striving, posturing, futility, and the evidence of his presence if the fruit that naturally flows out of you.