North Houston Baptist Church

The author of Hebrews highlights Christ's incarnation, showing that God prepared a body for Him to perfectly obey and offer Himself as the ultimate sacrifice, bringing forgiveness, sanctification, and lasting joy. In this sermon, we reflect on the wonder of the incarnation, God's plan fulfilled from Genesis to the cross, and the hope and sanctification it secures for all united to Christ.

Believers are called to remember the leaders who spoke God's word and to consider the outcome of their lives. This strengthens the heart and guards against being led astray, for Jesus Christ is unchanging. In this sermon, we consider three admonitions that aid believers in holding fast to the faith once for all delivered to the saints.

Being rich is not a sin, but the desire for wealth and the love of money can plunge people into ruin and draw the heart away from Christ as their greatest treasure. The believer is called to keep the heart free from this love and to be content. In this sermon, we see that true contentment comes from trusting Christ's promise to never leave or forsake His people.

Not all are called to marriage, but all are called to honor it in a world that increasingly celebrates the desires of the flesh. God's Word reveals the great importance of esteeming marriage as His good and honorable design and of keeping the marriage bed undefiled. In this sermon, we consider what this requires in all aspects of life and are warned of God's certain judgment against the sexually immoral and adulterous.

As the author of Hebrews begins his closing exhortations, he calls believers to let brotherly love continue. Three specific applications, each accompanied by a motivating consideration, are given to show how this command is lived out. In this sermon, we see how love for Christ is expressed in practical devotion to His body, remembering that to serve and care for God's people is to serve Christ Himself.

Having reminded his readers of the warning not to refuse the one God who spoke to them at Sinai, the author reveals how God will once again shake heaven and earth to remove what is temporary and establish an unshakable kingdom in Christ. In this sermon, we consider how recipients of this kingdom respond with gratitude and offer God acceptable worship marked by reverence and awe.

In a broken world marked by sin and injustice, the apostle Paul highlights how a life of faith that is pleasing to God is one that looks toward Jesus Christ and actively expresses itself for the good of the saints. Paul thanks God for Philemon's faith and love, prays that the contribution flowing from that faith would be made effective by God's power, and grounds this prayer in Philemon's past fruitfulness. In this sermon, we see that living by faith often requires obedience in difficult situations, while acknowledging that every good work in us comes from Christ and is for His glory.

God's appearance on Mount Sinai and the giving of the law heightened the people's awareness of His holiness and their own sinfulness, producing fear and distance from His presence. Under the new covenant, however, believers are invited to approach the mountain of God by faith through Christ, the mediator of a better covenant. In this sermon, we consider how the sprinkled blood of Jesus speaks a better word than Abel's blood for all who are united to Christ.

The author of Hebrews, after affirming the loving discipline of God toward His children, calls believers to strive after holiness. This holiness is not the perfect righteousness of Christ already imputed to us, but the ongoing, progressive sanctification that becomes evident in daily life. Such holiness is pursued intentionally and expressed both personally and within the covenant community. In this sermon, we consider three ways a child of God may pursue this holiness.

There is a holiness without which no one will see the Lord—not a meritorious or salvific holiness, for salvation rests in Christ alone, but an experiential holiness that necessarily flows from true faith. The truly converted believer will therefore strive after this holiness, knowing it does not come by accident. In this sermon, we consider the necessity for God's children to earnestly pursue such holiness.

The author of Hebrews highlights several key aspects of God's discipline: it is a mark of His love, confirms our status as His true children, and surpasses any discipline from earthly fathers. In this sermon we focus on a fourth characteristic, that God's discipline is ultimately for our good and leads us into a greater experience of true righteousness and holiness.

When a person encounters the discipline of the Lord, they may be tempted to dismiss it, despise it, or grow dispirited by it. However, the child of God must endure in times of suffering because God's discipline is a means of sanctification, training in godliness, and ultimately for our good. In this sermon, we consider the encouragements to commit ourselves to humbly submit to God's discipline through His Word and providence.

In our call to endure, we are to look to Christ, the author and finisher of our faith. Yet the author of Hebrews strengthens this call with a surprising exhortation: he directs us to remember God's discipline in our lives. In this sermon, we consider how recalling our identity as sons and recognizing God's discipline as a mark of His fatherly love helps us endure. We also reflect on what God's discipline entails and the ways in which He disciplines His children.

The Christian life is likened to a race—not merely because it has a beginning and an end, but because it demands ongoing dedication and endurance from those who believe and long for the fulfillment of God's promised word. In this sermon, we reflect on how we are enabled to run this race with perseverance by fixing our eyes on Christ.

In Hebrews 11, the author presents 16 examples of individuals who looked to Christ by faith. They confidently and patiently hoped in God's promises, even though they did not receive them in their lifetime. These saints endured, believing that their promises all culminated in the greater promise of Christ. In this sermon, we reflect on how those who came before us were not made perfect apart from us and how we, like them, wait by faith for the fullness of the better promises that are fulfilled in Christ.

In the previous sermon, we saw how God, by faith, empowers His people to accomplish both ordinary and extraordinary works for His glory. Yet, Hebrews 11:35b–38 reminds us that faith does not always lead to earthly triumph but often to suffering and persecution. In this sermon, we consider how true faith shapes the endurance and hope of those who suffer for righteousness' sake, clinging to Christ to the very end.

True faith does not always produce extraordinary acts, nor is their absence solely due to a lack of faith; rather, genuine faith expresses itself in obedience, even when the outcome is unseen. In this sermon, we consider how God uses weak and failing vessels who possess true, saving, and persevering faith to accomplish His purposes, whether great and ordinary.

As God's people began to take possession of the promised land, they faced the mighty city of Jericho. In this event, we see both victory over the enemy and the deliverance of a sinful woman. In this sermon, we consider how faith serves as the instrument of victory and deliverance for the Christian, secured by union with Christ.

Under the Old Covenant, the Israelites annually commemorated their deliverance from Egypt through the Passover feast. It was a powerful reminder that their salvation came solely through the blood of the lamb as God's righteous judgment fell on Egypt. In this sermon we consider how faith, then and now, looks to Christ, trusting fully in His redemptive death and applying His redemption in our lives.

Though Moses could have enjoyed the passing pleasures of the palace, it was by faith that he chose to suffer with the people of God. In this sermon, we consider how faith leads the believer to make spiritual choices that defy worldly logic and preference.