Sunday Morning Service 8:30 AM - "Final Exhortations" ~ Hebrews 13:15-25 ~ Pastor Ryan Nichols

All right, so help her out, it's going to be a great way to get the Word of God in some hands of some kids. So those are the things that are going on. If you would make sure that your mobile device is silenced. For our responsive reading this morning, we are going to be in Psalm 124, Psalm 124. Look at the New American Standard for the responsive reading. If you need a copy, there should be one in a row around you, and as you are turning to

Psalm 124, if you are able, please stand in the honor of the reading of God's Word. I will read the odd verses if you will follow along with Pastor Jared and the even verses. Psalm 24, a song of a sense of David. Had it not been the Lord who was on our side, let Israel now say, Had it not been the Lord

The snare is broken, and we have escaped. Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. And Father, we do praise you for being the help that we can always rely on. So Father, I pray that as we seek you this morning, first of all, as we sought you through song and then through prayer, now through your Word, I just ask that you would minister to our hearts by the power of your Holy Spirit, in Jesus' name, amen.

You may be seated. If you would, open up in your Bibles to the book of Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews chapter 13. Well, today we will finish up the book of Hebrews. It's been a long journey, but it's been a fun journey. Talked to another pastor the other day, he said, where are you at right now? I said, well, I'm just finishing up Hebrews. Man, it's been good, but I'll tell you what, it's been a lot of work.

So it's been enjoyable to go through, but we do finish that up today. And of course, this last chapter, we've just simply entitled final exhortations. And we've looked at several exhortations that he's made to us. We said that there were four all together, and so we looked at the first three last week. He exhorted us about love, that brotherly love would continue in our lives.

He exhorted us about our character, that we would have godly character and our morality in the way we approach not only marriage, but our morality, but also godly character in the way that we approach our finances. And then he talked to us about spiritual well-being and having that focus on the eternal realities and not the temporary things of the law. Well, today we come to the last of the exhortations, which is an exhortation to godly sacrifice. And so we pick up in verse 15 of chapter 13, and it says this, through him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God.

That is the fruit of the lips that gives thanks to his name. And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give and account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable to you. Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a good conscience desiring to conduct ourselves

honorably in all things. And I urge you all the more to do this, so that I may be restored to you the sooner. Four ultimate sacrifices that he talks to us about, godly sacrifices. Remember, he had told them that they were no longer old covenant saints, they were offering the Old Testament sacrifices, and yet, as believers, that doesn't negate any aspect of sacrifice in our lives.

It's just our sacrifices look different than they did in the Old Testament, because the sacrifice of Jesus fulfilled all of those, and so our lives now are lived sacrificially in a much different sort of way. And so there's four sacrifices that he tells us that we make. The first is the sacrifice of praise. The sacrifice of praise. It says in verse 15, through him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise

to God that is the fruit of lips that gives thanks to his name. The first thing I took note of there is the frequency in which we are to offer this sacrifice. Perhaps you took note of the adverb that was used there as well, that word is continually. Let us then continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to the Lord. It denotes the idea that it's not something that has a starting and a stopping point in

our life, it's something that ultimately is to absorb our life, it's something that ultimately is to characterize who we are as believers in Jesus Christ. He calls it something that we are to do continually, he calls it the sacrifice of praise to our God. Now, usually we term the first 30 minutes that we spend here at church as worship time. As a matter of fact, I even told you we're going to have a night of worship in a couple of Wednesdays.

Many of you on your phones or whatever device you listen to music on, you may have a category entitled worship music. We use that term to speak of what's actually being talked about here, which is praise. Worship is ultimately the lifestyle that we live. We're currently worshiping God right now as well through the study of his word. You can worship God through prayer, you can worship God through service, but the specific

thing he talks about here is worshiping God through song, which we refer to as praise. And he calls it the praise of our lips, that ultimately these are the things that come out of our mouth, and he calls it a sacrifice of praise. Now, let's put all of this together really quickly because praise is a wonderful thing, and yet sometimes we don't feel like praising, do we? We've talked about this a few times.

Sometimes everything is going great in our lives and we are overwhelmed with the sense of the goodness of who God is. We're overwhelmed with the graciousness and things that characterize who God is, but there's lots of times when life is just heavy, when we don't have that happiness on the inside of us. Perhaps we still have the joy of the Holy Spirit, but we're just not always very happy, perhaps even a little downcast about the things that are going on in our lives. And when everything is going great, when everything is going wonderful, it's still a sacrifice of praise, although a much easier sacrifice to offer.

It's when things are going the most difficult in our lives that it's truly a sacrifice of praise. And I point that out because that's who we are as human beings. We tend to be really fickle. We tend to do what we feel like in the moment, and when everything is going great and we feel the emotions flowing, we put our hands up, or maybe just on the inside your hands are like this, or whatever they are, and you're pouring out your praise to the Lord.

But can I tell you that one of the most important times to start praising God is when things are going the worst, is when things in your life are the hardest, because at that point in time, that sacrifice of praise is truly your heart being poured out to the Lord, but also something that ultimately changes the perspective in our lives. If you'll notice in many of the Psalms, the psalmist, especially David, will start off the Psalm in a very difficult sort of a situation, and he describes his frustration, he describes his discouragement, but then he will always make a shift, and the shift that he will make is beginning to then praise God for who God is. Praising God for his character, praising God for his nature, and by the time the Psalm

is done, you're like, what was he bothered about in the beginning of the Psalm again? Because praise has changed his entire perspective, and so one of the encouragements that we have is to live this continual life of praise, this continual aspect of the praise of our lips, and I would encourage you and challenge you to keep those things going in your mind, to make that the consistent aspect of who you are as a human being. You know, one of the problems that we have in the world today is the world wants to capture our attention with everything. The world wants to capture our attention with its entertainment, with its issues, with its lusts, with all of the things that the world has to offer, and one of the best ways

to combat that is to challenge our minds to constantly be praising the Lord. Have you ever noticed how easily songs get stuck in your head, good or bad? I won't sing any songs right now that are going to cause you to sing a 90s song for the rest of the afternoon, or some other song that you may know, because I've done that before, and people are like, thanks, now I'm singing this all day long, but it's amazing how songs can get stuck in our heads. What if you replaced all of those old songs with things that are really good in your life, with songs that praise the Lord?

As a matter of fact, hold on, I'm going to look back at Psalm 124, because my ADD brain got distracted, which is why I almost missed my cue coming in, and I've got to remind myself of what it was. Had it not been the Lord who was on our side, let Israel now say, had it not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose up against us, they would have swallowed us alive. You know why I struggled with there? Because the song that we used to sing went through my head.

If the Lord had not been on our side, all our enemies would have swallowed us alive. That was running through my mind while I'm trying to read the psalm, and so I couldn't multitask very well for just a minute, so it was my cue, and I was like, oh shoot, that's my cue. That's actually my part that I have to read. But if we allow that to get, to be what's caught in our head, it's amazing how we'll overcome actually a lot of struggles in our lives.

My old pastor up in Johnson County, Rick Jardine, who is home with Jesus now, talked about the fact that when he first got saved, he'd come from a very rough background, and that bad language was something that he really struggled with a lot. I'm not sharing something he just shared with me personally. He shared this from the pulpit all the time, and he said this is how he overcame coarse language in his life, is every time that he would start to have that well up, he would start praising God in song. And so he started memorizing all these worship songs so that when he got angry, the worship song would be what would come out, and not some other foul sort of language to come out of his mouth.

Why? Because he started offering to God a sacrifice of praise. And then he goes on to say this. He goes on to say that it is the fruit of the lips, let me read it to make sure I get it worded correctly here, it's the fruit of the lips that give thanks to his name. That's what this sacrifice of praise is, it's the fruit of the lips that give thanks to his name.

That word to give thanks is interesting in the Hebrew there, because it can literally mean to confess, to confess, or to agree with. In other words, this is the fruit of the lips of those who confess the name of Jesus. In other words, the thing that should characterize what comes out of the mouth of the believer of Jesus Christ who claims his name, who confesses the name of Jesus in his life, is the praise of God, the sacrifice of praise, because it is to be the fruit of the lips of those who confess Jesus. And I do have a question for you, I think it's an important question.

What's the fruit of your lips? What's the fruit of the things that come out of your mouth the most? Because I would tell you, he tells us how to have a godly sacrifice, and that's to make sure that the fruit of our lips is a sacrifice of praise, that we thankfully acknowledge and glorify his name. Number one, let us offer to God a sacrifice of praise. Number two, the second sacrifice is that we do good, that we do good.

Notice what it says in verse 16, and do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased to do good. The first phrase that's used there is that we not neglect. Literally what he says there is do not keep forgetting. You ever forget to do good for people? We live in a world that forgets to do good right now, because we're always focused on

what's next in our lives. We're always focused on getting where we need to go.

All of us as human beings have a tendency to say, I'll help them later, I'll help someone next time. Which is why he says don't keep forgetting to do good, because the world of ancient Rome was not a whole lot different than the world of the United States of America today in that we can easily forget to do good to those people that are around us, because we get caught up in our own worlds, and we get caught up in our own schedules, and we get caught up in our own lives, and we think I'm the only one that has things going on. Quite frankly, if we would look past the end of our nose and look at the world around us, we would begin to discover a world of people in need. And you know what you find oftentimes?

When you begin to do good to people in need, your own problems begin to diminish in nature. Have you ever noticed that? The issues you deal with in your life begin to diminish in nature, because you find yourself going, well, gosh, they've got this going on. Maybe what I'm going through is not nearly as big of a deal. However, you find that once you begin to reach out and help others, God begins to provide

other people in your life that come alongside for you. He says, don't forget to do good, because God is pleased with these kind of sacrifices. You might write a verse in the margin of your Bible, it's 1 John 3, verse 18. 1 John 3, verse 18 says this, let us not love in word or in tongue, but let us love in deed and in truth. Let us not simply love in word or in tongue, but let us love in deed and in truth.

It's one thing to tell someone you love them, right? What does James say? You can't look at your brother and say, be warm and be filled, knowing that you have the ability to help them, and then walk away and do nothing about it, right? That's not a good way to live your life. And so don't just love in word or in tongue. Those are easy things to say to people.

Let's show people that we love them by the things that we do. Interestingly enough, he says, do good and sharing. Do not neglect doing good, verse 16, and in sharing. The Amplified Bible translates that word sharing like this, contribute to the needy as an expression of fellowship. Contribute to the needy as an expression of fellowship. Now, can I just be honest about something and say that I feel like this is something

that our church does very, very well. I don't tell you that to puff you up. I tell you that because I'm blessed by it. Anytime we... Like, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that what's going to happen is you guys are going

I'm just saying, continue on with what God has been doing in you. You don't always realize this, but I think I've shared this with you before. You know, when you all give money to the church, the first 35 percent, maybe it's 37 percent, somewhere in that range, goes directly into what we call a firstfruits account. Some churches call it a benevolence account.

It goes into a firstfruits account. In other words, it can only be used for outrage. And we try to reach out to as many different things as we can. And one of the things that we do is we help through this organization called Angels in the Attic. And let's say somebody gets kind of down on their luck, they don't know how to pay their bill this month, and they're going to get shut off.

And so they'll go to Angels in the Attic and they'll fill out this thing called a community aid network form. And then I'll get an email from one of the wonderful ladies over at Angels in the Attic and it'll say, can you help out? And because you all are as generous as you are, I'm able to help, honestly, a lot. As a matter of fact, Calvary Chapel of Ark City, you don't always know this, Calvary Chapel of Ark City has an amazing reputation in this town for being people who give.

Like, genuinely, people come to me all the time and they say, thank you so much that your church gives. And you all don't even always realize that happens because you all are just faithfully giving to the Lord. You all are just faithfully not neglecting to do good and share with others. And then I get to take that abundance and share it with all of the people in the community.

And it's such a wonderful thing. Soon we're going to have a missionary come and share with us, I think next week, although I've got to touch base and make sure that that's going to happen. And he goes and puts on pastors conferences in the Middle East. I can't tell you the countries he has them in because I'm not allowed to tell you the

I'm allowed to tell you the country he does these things in And because of it we were able to sponsor an incredible number of pastors To go to this pastor's conference in a place where I can't even imagine what it's like to minister. So, thank you Thank you for not neglecting to do good and to share because god is pleased with those sacrifices but don't stop keep doing what god has called for you to do because We need that witness in communities like this We need that witness at a time when sometimes the church is viewed for more more viewed for what we are against than what we are for So continue to do good because god is pleased with those sacrifices the the third thing that he says is Follow your leaders

Verse 17 obey your leaders and submit to them For they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account Let them do this with joy and not with grief for this would be Unprofitable for you interestingly enough for the second time in this chapter. He talks about respecting leaders respecting spiritual leaders in our lives he says to Obey and submit to them. The idea is to recognize the authority that's over you To recognize the authority that's over you and the reason why is because they keep watch over your souls You know pastors elders bible study leaders It's a it's a dangerous job we have because we have a job that Has eternal implications to it

And we'll give account for how well we do that and we'll give account for all of the people that god puts in our care I'll give an account as a shepherd For all of the people that i've cared for and how well i've done it whether or not i've done it as god wants for me To do and so he says you as people just Simply obey and respect simply follow Now this has become a real issue in the world today And the real issue that we've got is that many leaders take this to a place. It was never intended to be Matter of fact, I was just listening to a guy teach this last week And he talked about some harmful things that he had happened in his life very early on In his walk with the lord and and he said it took him a long time to deal with it

Matter of fact a friend of his wrote a book about similar things. It was called when narcissism comes to church I've not read this book yet, but he described it and I thought man. This is unfortunately what's taken place I'm, not sure how many of you and I have not watched this yet I've only read the reviews on it. I'm, not sure how many of you have watched the Documentary on netflix something about a pastor's wife it when when you watch those things you think to yourself My gosh, why do people go back to church?

Knowing that people like that exist knowing that narcissistic people like that exist who Who only want to build their following and not point people to jesus you just go. Oh lord help us all First of all lord help us all because at the end of the day, we're all just people Every I don't care if it's me or any other pastor you ever see At the end of the day, we're all just people people that make mistakes sometimes But when we refuse to admit those mistakes When we refuse to acknowledge those mistakes, that's when it really becomes a problem When we are not willing to be held accountable to those things Matter of fact, let me read to you a couple of quotes The first one was from an unknown author. It says

Don't follow a leader that points you to himself Follow a leader that points you to jesus And I do hope that that's the one thing that I do My goal in life is to point people to jesus And then chuck smith said this A teacher should teach us to submit to god and not himself Because at the end of the day the role of every spiritual leader is singular The role of every spiritual leader is to bring you into closer communion with the savior who loves you enough to give his life for you my my job Is to point you to the one Who loves you more than I could ever imagine That's the job of any spiritual leader is to point people to the one who saved their souls We don't always do it. Perfect But we do try our best He says respect them

He says so that they can do their job with joy and not with grief Number four He says pray for us verse 18 Pray for us for we are sure that we have a good conscience desiring to conduct ourselves honorably in all things And I urge you all the more to do this So that I may be restored to you the sooner He says pray for us I always think it's interesting. I'm not sure who the writer of the book of hebrews is none of us really are because he's left Anonymous I there's some thoughts that people have but but I find it interesting that this writer to the hebrews who Is it clearly an incredibly intelligent human being clearly a very spiritual human being is still saying pray for us

I don't always think that we hold the power of prayer to the level that it should be held And so recently a friend of mine shared a story with me and and as he shared the story I went and looked it up and and and found a little article on it And this article is called 39 giants There's a missionary to africa his name was david livingstone after years of ministry work deep in africa Livingstone's team faced a grave danger The tribal chief sent a message They would be attacked that night And killed all of them We know this moment in detail because livingstone kept very good diaries That night he wrote a desperate prayer Lord, we've labored so faithfully Please please protect us. Please help They waited Nothing happened

A couple of years later the very chief who had threatened him became a follower of christ and the entire village followed Later david asked why didn't you kill us that night? And the chief replied we came But as we approached the camp, we saw 39 giant warriors standing around it. We counted them They were not of this world sometime later David shared his story back home in scotland And as he spoke the church secretary approached him and asked Do you remember the exact date that it happened? And of course he did And she opened the church prayer journal and she pointed to the entry for that day 39 people were gathered praying for him Brothers and sisters I know it feels like Oh, well, i'll just pray for you. I wish there was more that I could do

Listen, I don't want you to do any more than that That's the greatest thing you can do I've shared this with every one of my fca groups I said who are going to be the 39 giants that stand around this school? Who are going to be the 39 giants that stand up in the middle of this campus? And I have a question for you who are going to be the 39 giants that stand up in the middle of this church Not right now who stand up in the middle of this church? To pray for god's protection to pray for god's work to pray for god to move pray for us What November the 4th i'm telling you this right now november the 4th wednesday night november the 4th. We will have fields of faith

at ark city high school Who will be the 39 giants who will start now? Walking around that track every week and praying for that field. Who who are they going to be? Because here the writer to the hebrews an incredibly intelligent incredibly spiritual man Stood and said I need you to pray for us And right now a really short guy who's not all that smart and probably not nearly as spiritual as he should be is standing here saying Who's going to pray for us?

Because the work of the ministry is not done by a man who stands up in front of a group of people and talks The work of the ministry is done by the people who stand behind him Praying that god would move because the power is not found in the spoken word The power is not found in the delivery the power is found through the holy spirit moving through prayer and so he says He says pray for us And what is his prayer request? He says we're sure that we have a good conscience, but we're desiring Our to conduct ourselves honorably in all things He says pray for us that we can live a life that is honorable to god Live a life that that we can live a life where our conscience can continue to be clean Not only in conduct

But also in the fact that they have given every ounce of themselves to the giving out of the gospel of jesus christ So that like paul said at the end of the book of acts when he's talking to the ephesian elders He says my hands are clean from the blood of all men Because I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of god Pray for us Listen, there are pastors all over this community There are pastors all over this world Who need prayed for? Because they need to know it's okay to make a strong stand on the things that are right To make a strong stand on the word of god, even though it's incredibly unpopular Even though people may not like the the message that's being given and they need the strength of god to be able to stand up and say

I know what's true and I will stand on what is true Even if it makes me unpopular in my church and everywhere else around me pray for the leaders Of parachurch organizations who are supporting the ministry of the church Pray for each other Be the giants in each other's lives that we would live lives that are worthy of the gospel That we would live lives that are conducted honorably in all things That that the moving of the holy spirit would not just be something that happens on one night But that it would carry fruit throughout the rest of our lives and even into eternity Pray for us Because that's ultimately the sacrifice that god is looking for from us And so he gives us these four sacrifices I dumbed them down to this

The sacrifices that god desires are the sacrifice of the lips the sacrifice of our lives the sacrifice of our will And the sacrifice of our heart Lips is the sacrifice of praise our lives are doing good Our will is submitting to authority and our hearts is prayer The sacrifices that god is looking for from us Well now in verse 20 he begins the benediction As a matter of fact many of your bibles may have this title the benediction it says this Now the god of peace Who brought up from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep? Through the blood of the eternal covenant Even jesus our lord Equip you in every good thing to do his will Working in us that which is pleasing in his sight Through jesus christ to whom be glory forever and ever amen

But I urge you brethren But I urge you brethren Bear with this word of exhortation For i've written to you briefly Take notice that our brother timothy has been released With whom if he comes soon I will see you Greet all of your leaders and all the saints those from italy greet you grace Be with you all The benediction is down to two things in my mind the blessing and the urging The blessing is very interesting because the the writers Or the writer to the hebrews has just said pray for us But he can't hold back. He decides he's going to pray for them And this is his prayer He says now the god of peace He's addressing this god who is the god who is able to give peace to our lives that word peace means inner tranquility Inner tranquility

But he prays to the god of peace because he is not only The author of peace because god is the author of peace But he's also the giver of peace Many of these believers at this point in time because of the persecution that they were facing Weren't experiencing very much peace in their lives As a matter of fact their lives were facing a great deal of turmoil Their lives were facing a great deal of angst Probably a great deal of fear as well and In unsure the direction that they were going to go Both spiritually and otherwise and perhaps you can relate to the way that these believers felt perhaps your life has been filled with a certain Amount of turmoil or maybe a certain amount of angst

Maybe a certain amount of you're not really sure what tomorrow is going to hold for you And and as you think about it, there's not a lot of peace in your life And it's really good to remember that the god that we pray to the god that we serve the god that we worship is the the god of peace The god of peace because he is the author of peace The god of peace because he is the giver of peace He says now The god of peace and he describes him one other way Who brought up from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep Through the blood of the eternal covenant Even jesus our lord This god of peace is also the god who brought up our good shepherd from the dead. He is the god who Raises the dead and even more than that. He's the god who resurrects the dead

because there's a difference between being brought back to life and Being given a brand new body And as he prays to this god of peace He reminds them that he is the god who gives brand new life Not only to all those who call upon him on this side of eternity But all of those who have called upon him on this side of eternity He gives brand new life on the other side of eternity as well Because he is the god who brought up the good shepherd From the dead through the blood of the eternal covenant Even jesus christ our lord and if you remember jesus is referred to as the first fruits Of those who had been raised from the dead Therefore As paul tells us in the book of ephesians the power of god That raised christ jesus from the dead is alive in you

the power of god that raised christ jesus from the dead is coursing through your veins because of the fact that That same god is the god who dwells inside of you Again as a group of people who probably felt weak and helpless as to the things that they were approaching It was a good reminder that the god who raised the dead who is the author of life and the author and giver of peace Is the one who he was praying to and his prayer request is one simple thing That he may equip you verse 21 in every good thing to do his will Working in us that which is pleasing in his sight through jesus christ to whom be the glory forever and ever To equip you that phrase Equip means to strengthen To make you complete And perfect as you want

To make you complete and perfect as you want in other words the god of peace Who raised up the good shepherd from the dead? May he give you everything that you need to live as you ought to live That means that there is no aspect of strength that you will be missing in your life there is no aspect of equipping that you will be missing in your life because he is able to Give you everything that you need it sort of ties together everything that he's talked about in this entire book because he gives you the righteousness that you need to Soothe your aching soul. He gives you the grace that you need to continue to live on this side of eternity in a fallen world

He gives you the full armor of god to protect you against the wiles of the devil including the helmet of salvation the breastplate of righteousness the the shield of or the yeah, the the shield of faith the The belt of truth and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of god He's equipped you for everything that you need and and not only has he done that but he's also giving you the holy spirit Not only as the seal Of who you are as a believer in jesus christ But the holy spirit that leads you into all truth and the holy spirit that comes along Sides you to live and dwells inside of you to give you strength. He says now may the god of peace who brought up the great shepherd from the dead the

Great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant Equip you in every good thing and what does he equip us for? To do his will To do his will to do what he's called for us to do in our lives To do the things that he has given for us to do to not only live as he has called for us to live But to serve as he has called for us to serve to do his will in our life Working in us That which is pleasing In his sight through jesus christ to whom be the glory forever and ever He works in us everything That is pleasing. He is the god who works in us both to will And to do according to his good pleasure, and how does he do it? He does it through jesus christ And so he gives us this blessing But then he gives the urging

He says but I urge you brethren Bear with this word of exhortation for I have written to you briefly He says bear with this word of exhortation now Remember, this has not just been an instructional book on old covenant versus new covenant There has been four or five very strong warnings That has caused a little bit of angst in some of you because you've come and talked to me about it It's caused a little bit of angst in me because i've been the one teaching it But he's given very strong warnings and what he's saying is I know the words that I have spoken to you are strong words I know the words have carried a great deal of weight with him. He says so bear with this word of exhortation That word to bear with means to listen and patiently permit

To listen and to patiently permit in other words Let this exhortation do what it has intended to do and can I give you the same word here right now? Bear with the exhortations of the word of god It's so easy to to breeze through a difficult section in scripture Have you ever done this before you read something that's a little bit hard? It kind of hurts your feelings a little bit and you go. Oh, i'm just gonna skip past that no Bear with it Permit that to do what it needs to do in your life because sometimes Sometimes you have to endure If not welcome a certain amount of uncomfortable Feelings I have to be careful with my words I'm, just going to say it like it is. Okay. Sometimes you have to welcome if not

endure a certain amount of pain from god Because he's teaching you something And sometimes we want to shun it we want to push it away lord. That's hard stuff, I don't want to hear that." And God says, okay, but I'm going to come back around again, because I've got to deal with this in your life. And so we say, Lord, let's push that away. Jonah is a great picture of this, right? You all know the story of Jonah. Jonah gets told,

Jonah, I want you to go to the Ninevites. I want you to warn them about the coming judgment. The Ninevites were one of the most evil people that lived at that point in time, one of the most cruel people that lived at that point in time, and a dreaded enemy, not only of the world, but especially of the Jewish people. And he says, I want you to go talk to the Ninevites. Well, because Jonah hated them, because he hated that culture of people,

he didn't go. What did he do? He got into a boat and went the exact opposite direction. He probably thought, dodge that bullet, right? Dodge that exhortation from God. God was so serious about Jonah catching the idea that he made an entire fish just to swallow Jonah and have him live in the belly. And then when Jonah came to his senses, the fish vomited him

up on the water. And Jonah goes in and he preaches to the people and everybody gets saved. Everybody repents. And you know how Jonah felt about it? Angry. He hadn't caught the exhortation yet. So he goes and he sits and he pouts. Did God leave him alone? No. What did God do? God caused this giant plant to grow that shaded him. And he went, ah, the shade of this plant.

And then the plant died. And Jonah goes, why'd you let the plant die? He said, don't you understand that you're more upset about the death of a plant than you are the death of an entire nation of people? Why did God keep coming to him with this exhortation? Because he needed to learn something in his soul and God won't leave us alone until we learn it. So sometimes we have to,

we have to permit the word of God to do what it needs to do in our lives because it's really important. And so he says, I urge you, brethren, bear, bear with this word of exhortation for I've written, I've written to you briefly. And here's what I always want to know when they say I've written to you briefly, what would a long letter have been like? My gosh, let me hear another year.

He says, take notice that our brother Timothy has been released with whom if he comes soon, I will see you. We don't really know the situation surrounding that other than Timothy seemed to find himself with all of the great men of God and he was with them through thick and thin. And so whoever Timothy was with at this point in time was probably going to be coming to these Hebrew believers, perhaps even to bring this letter itself. And he said, he said, man, check out Timothy when he comes to you. Hopefully I'll be with him. This is one of the

things that makes some people wonder if Paul wrote this because Paul and Timothy seemed to be inseparable people. Although Luke is a really good consideration too, because those three traveled together quite a bit. Then he goes on to say this, greet all of your leaders and all of the saints. Those from Italy greet you. I'm always struck with statements like that. And these

benedictions, because it's a reminder that, that these are real people writing real letters to other real people. This isn't just some intellectual work that some guy wrote that's going to sit on a shelf somewhere. This was a real letter written to a real group of people. And then he closes grace be with you all. David Guzik in his commentary says this, grace is a fitting end for a

book that documents the passing of the old covenant of law and the instituting of the new covenant of grace. It's interesting because remember how we started this book, God, who in diverse times and in various ways spoke to us through the prophets in the old Testament in these last days has spoken to us through his son. He started off by telling us Jesus is the ultimate revelation of Jesus. And after he gave us all of this revelation of Jesus throughout the entire book of Hebrews, he closes with the very nature of Jesus, which is his grace. He says, grace

be with you all. Amen. Well, this morning is communion Sunday. And as we get ready to approach communion Sunday, I always like to explain kind of what's going on. So if I could invite the worship team to come on up and join me.

As always inside of each of these trays, it's a couple of cups. The bottom cup has the cracker and the top cup has the juice in it. As we always say in and of themselves, they're pretty, pretty mundane things. They don't really mean a whole lot. It's what they represent that has so much power to it. Because on that last night of the feast, Jesus took the bread that they ate and he broke it and he said, take and eat. This is my body,

which has been broken for you. As often as you do this, do this in remembrance of me. So as we partake of the bread, we are reminded of the physical sacrifice that Jesus made for us, the beatings that he endured, the fact that he, as we're told in first Peter, endured in his own body on the tree, all of the sin of humanity. And so as we partake of that bread, we are reminded of that body of Jesus Christ that was was broken for us. As it says in Isaiah, wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities

and chastisement of our peace was laid upon him and by his stripes we are healed. So we're reminded of that great sacrifice that Jesus made. And of course, the cup reminds us of the blood of Jesus Christ. On that last night of the feast, there were several cups that are passed in the Passover festival. The very last cup is called the cup of redemption. And of course, spoke of the blood of the lamb that was smeared on the door

that the angel of death would have seen and would have passed over because they saw the blood. Therefore, the house was protected by the blood of the lamb. So as he took this last cup, the cup of redemption, thinking about that blood of the lamb that was shed to set the nation of Israel free from temporary bondage to Egypt, he said, this is the blood of the new covenant in my blood. He was reminded of the blood of the lamb himself who would not just satisfy the temporary, the temporary bondage of the world. It was set us free from the eternal bondage of sin.

He said, take a drink. So as we take this cup, we're reminded that the life is in the blood, but the blood of Jesus Christ is what gives to us life. And so we're told that as we partake, we are to do so in a worthy manner. Of course, as I always say, that means three things. Number one, that you understand what we're doing, which is why I take the time to explain it because we need to make sure that everybody

understands that this is not just some average thing that we do. This is a family celebration. Number two, that means that you need to make sure that you are a part of the family. If you're not a part of the family of God, then I would just pass the tray right on past because this meal isn't for you. However, you can become a part of the family of God by simply putting your

faith in Jesus, confessing your sin and accepting the sacrifice that he's made for you. You could do it while they sing this last song. Of course, the third way that we partake in a worthy manner is to make sure that there's nothing that has separated fellowship between us and God, whether that be an office you have with some other brother or sister, or whether it be something that's between you and Jesus. So as we sing this last song, I would encourage you to do the business that needs to be done between you and the Lord, whether that's acknowledging the depth of the sacrifice that Jesus made for you, or we're clearing out some things that are between you and the father

that need to get dealt with so that we can all partake together. So the worship team is going to sing one last song. The ushers are going to come down and hand out the elements as you receive your elements, please stand and we'll partake together.

Oh, praise the one who paid my debt And raised this life up from the dead Oh, praise the one who paid my debt And raised this life up from the dead Oh, praise the one who paid my debt And raised this life up from the dead Jesus

brand new, to wash us white as snow. And so, Lord, I just thank you for your sacrifice that you made, that you shed your blood for us, and that you have granted us a way to be made new in you. Father, I thank you for the blood of Jesus. And so, Lord, keep us ever mindful of this sacrifice. Lord, knowing that this sacrifice is not only what gives us, Lord, communion with you, but

it's what gives us communion with each other. I thank you for the bond of Jesus. And so, Father, we just thank you and we praise you. In Jesus' name. Amen. Let's partake.

And if you'd bow with me one last time. Father, I thank you for your word. I thank you that it's so good to our souls. And so, Father, I pray that you would take that word and sink it down deep into us. Lord, I pray that we would marinate in it, and Lord, that we would bear with the exhortation, or that we would bear with whatever it is that you want to do in our hearts and lives.

And so, Father, do your work in us, we pray. In Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.