Sunday Morning Service 10:30 AM - "Final Exhortations" Hebrews 13:1-14 ~ Pastor Ryan Nichols

So thanks to everybody here at Calvary who participates, a lot of people are going to hear the word of God. Each box they know touches a minimum of seven and as many as 10 additional people with the gospel message. OK, think of that a little shoe box. We pack it with a gift. It's not about the gift, right? It's about the message that this gift represents. So a lot of people will get to know Jesus through this box.

And along with that, I have an introductory video for those of you who don't know about OCC, and we'll listen to that now.

Jesus loves you. Love, Georgia. Every box needs to be prayed over. That the children will know the gospel. In Jesus' name. These boxes go to some of the most difficult places in the world. They go by sea, truck, tractor, camels. This shoe box will take the gospel to every corner of the world. Operation Christmas Child is in the Amazon jungle of Peru. Through that simple shoe box, the gospel can have such an impact.

Teaching them the love of Jesus. It means life for their families. Hope for the future of their community. After receiving a shoe box, children are invited to a 12-lesson discipleship program, The Greatest Journey. Because of discipleship classes, these children will be agents of change in their communities.

Because of The Greatest Journey class, I have accepted God as my personal savior. We learn how to know God, to share the gospel with others. Now my sisters, my dad, my mom, all attend church with me. Thank you for what you have done for me. Thank you for what you have done for me. This is our mission. It is not the gift box. It's about Jesus. Jesus has come to give them light, and it is our prayer that this glorious light of the gospel will flow among the nation.

The spirit of the Lord is doing it again. We are spreading the gospel to the ends of the world. We want every child to hear the gospel. In Jesus' name. In Jesus' name.

Isn't this amazing? It's so important that these children hear that Christ came to this earth for them. Keep packing these boxes and continue to pray for these children. We couldn't do this without you. God bless you.

If they pack a box for you, it doesn't come in a package like this. It comes with no information. It's a brown box, they said. That box goes to places where you're not supposed to give out the gospel. They couldn't talk a whole lot about that, but they are going into places that are sensitive, if you will. It's not just USA now. It's now in USA, Canada, UK, and Australia.

Those are the big centers for the world where these boxes are being collected and going out. It's really growing. Millions and millions of people will get the gospel because of this. There is going to be a packing party, and I'll let Joe talk about that. Good morning. I just wanted you guys to mark your calendars Saturday, November 7th. The time and exact location is to be determined, but please mark your calendars Saturday, November 7th.

We're going to do a shoebox packing party as a church family, and all ages are welcome. Just like the Lego box on the front, it says ages 0 to 99. That applies here. If there's anybody over 99, I'm sure that you'd fit right in also. We have all of the supplies that you need to make a quality shoebox. All you need to bring is yourself, your family, and if you are able, a donation to help cover some of the shipping costs,

the material costs that goes into providing the gospel material that goes with the boxes. Also, we learned at the leadership conference this year that that additional donation also covers translating this material into new languages, sometimes languages that haven't ever had a written language before. They're getting into places where there is no written language. Everything is just spoken, and Operation Christmas Child is coming in, translating their language into something that they can write down the Bible and the gospel message into.

That is incredible. This is for all ages, but really, I think a key thing here is that this is a great opportunity for families to disciple your children, to walk alongside them in sharing the gospel. We don't have a lot of these opportunities every year, so I hope that you guys can take advantage of it, and hopefully I don't get in trouble for this. Men, I'm going to call you out, because in years past, there have been a lot of ladies showing up here with their little kids.

I am thrilled that you guys are coming, but I want to see you men showing up with your families, teaching your kids how to pray, and teaching your kids that sharing the gospel is really important. Like what Phil was telling us, each one of these shoeboxes touches at least seven people with a gospel message. I hope we'll see you there. We had lots of supplies left over last year, even though we packed 500 boxes, so we need arms and feet and hands and feet to put these boxes together.

Thank you, guys. If you have any questions, come see myself or Jana or Joe and Danielle afterwards. Thank you. Thank you, guys. I'd like to remind you all to silence your phones, if you haven't already, or your other electronic devices, and I'll go ahead and pray, and we'll get started. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for what you're doing here and what you're doing around the world.

God, we thank you for the people that you've brought in here. God, I pray for Ryan as well, as he speaks, that your word goes forth out of him, and that you would bless every word. God, we just thank you for who you are and what you do. In Jesus' name, amen. Good morning. For our responsive reading this morning, we are going to be in Psalm 57. Psalm 57. For the responsive reading, we'll be using the New American Standard.

If you need a copy, there should be one in a row around you. And as you are turning to Psalm 57, 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 in the even verses. Psalm 57. For the choir director, set to Al-Tashef, a midstom of David, when he fled from Saul in the cave.

Be gracious to me, O God, be gracious to me, for my soul takes refuge in you. And in the shadow of your wings, I will take refuge until you come to me.

Even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let your glory be above all the earth. They have prepared a net for my steps. My soul is bowed down. They dug a pit before me. They themselves have fallen into the midst of it. Selah. My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast.

So, Father, we do sing your praises this morning. And, Father, as we take time now to worship you through the study of your word, I ask that you would move in our hearts by the power of your Holy Spirit. Father, I pray that only the words of you would come forth, that all the things of me would stay in the shadows. So, Lord, bless us as we study now, in Jesus' name.

Amen. You may be seated. And if you would open up in your Bibles to the book of Hebrews, chapter 13. Well, this morning we begin to wind down the book of Hebrews. As we come to this last chapter, I've simply entitled it Final Exhortations. It will take us a couple of weeks to get through it. But as we look at this chapter, he's going to give us four exhortations

and then a benediction. He's going to talk to us. And it's okay. We'll go through these one by one. So, if you don't write them all down in the moment, that's okay. He's going to exhort us about love. He's going to exhort us about character. He's going to exhort us about spiritual well-being. And he's going to exhort us about godly sacrifices. And so, let's take the first of these as he exhorts us about love.

Notice what it says, chapter 13, verse 1. Let the love of the brethren continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it. Remember the prisoners as though in prison with them and those who are ill treated since you yourselves also are in the body. He talks to us about this aspect of love. Now, as we've talked about before, there's multiple words in the Greek for love.

Typically, we would think that what he would use here is that strongest word for love in the Greek language, agape, which speaks of sacrificial love. Ironically, he does not use that word here. The word that he uses is actually best described by the translation here of New American Standard, let brotherly love continue. He uses that Greek word phileo, which speaks of a brotherly love for each other.

And you probably are asking yourself, why would you use the less strong word for love? Well, because he wants to point out the importance of brotherly love within the body of Christ. You see, we all as the church together make up this body of Christ. We are lots of members that ultimately make up one body. The other night we had a worship night with a group of kids, and I did the same

thing with them at the end of it that I oftentimes do with you all when we have communion together. I tell you, just look around each other for a minute. All these kids kind of looked around each other, and I said, what you have to realize is that all the people that you're looking at right now, these are your family, right? And sometimes we forget that. Sometimes we forget that we are all the family of God, that everybody sitting in

second service here right now, you are all a part of the family of God. But all of you that are a part of second service are also the same family with the people that came to first service. We've kind of reached a point where there's people that go to church here that don't know other people go to church here. I have people tell me all the time, I ran into this person at the store.

I didn't know they went to church here. I'm like, yeah, they're a first service person. You're a second service person. But we're still all family, right? God, but you know what it extends outside of just the walls of Calvary Chapel of Ark City You see if we were to we were to go to every other church in this town That is a true Bible believing Bible teaching church that believes Jesus is the only way

We would say they also are our brothers and sisters in Christ And and if we were to extend into churches throughout the rest of the world we would say those are all brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ And so as he exhorts them a group of believers who was going through difficult times He reminds them to let brotherly love continue amongst you in the midst of you even if you don't agree with each other Because that's the biggest problem that we have when showing brotherly love in the church, right? Is that is that there's people we don't always agree with oh, you don't understand. They worship differently than me Oh, they have a different view of the the gifts of the Holy Spirit that I have they have a different eschatology

That's in times they've been given in times view than I have they they have a different view on giving than I have and so we can't get along with them and and quite frankly we've reached a point in the church where we are oftentimes more known for what we Disagree on than what we agree on we are oftentimes known more for what divides us than what unites us Which is why he tells us let brotherly love Continue let that be a continuing act in your life And he tells us two ways two practical ways that we can go about it The first one that he says is don't neglect hospitality those who he says do not neglect to show hospitality to Strangers for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it

That idea of the word hospitality there carries with the idea of graciousness Warmth and compassion to the people around you that you show in very practical sort of ways and and he says don't neglect to show hospitality to strangers It's interesting because in his day They had to remind them to show hospitality to strangers and and I think sometimes in the Western culture church We have to be reminded to show hospitality to the people that we know Right like something happened to us a few years ago when the pandemic hit and we all got separated We we all get very content in our own worlds and we all started kind of Withdrawing and separating from each other and we and we stopped the business of just being in each other's lives and in showing

Hospitality to one another having each other over for dinner If we're out for coffee or all the things that need to take place And so he says show that generous warmth that compassion that hospitality Towards strangers if not at least towards one another That aspect of hospitality is one of the greatest signs of love brotherly love that we have You see there's nothing quite like inviting someone into your home Because when you invite someone into your home all of your walls begin to come down, right? because all of a sudden they see that that your world's not perfect either that that sometimes your kids throw fits and and Sometimes people spill things in your house

And and maybe your house isn't always perfectly clean and in in pretty soon when you're eating together One of you gets a little something on your shirt. Excuse me. I got a little something on me I just call that a daily meal for myself But all of a sudden all your walls are down right in that hospitality that love not only flows because you just Offered a meal to someone but but all of a sudden walls that at one point in time existed between you and someone else are No longer there. He says don't neglect to show hospitality to strangers And of course he says because some have entertained angels Unaware, of course one specific story. He's talking about in Scripture is with Abraham

Abraham had three strangers show up to his home there in the book of Genesis and and he invited them in and what he didn't Realize is that one of them was an Old Testament appearance of Jesus and two of them were actually Angelic beings who showed up at his house. He goes he goes. Hey entertain strangers show hospitality to strangers You don't know that one of them might not be an angel. Here's what I want you to be careful of I don't think you should think every single stranger that you come across is an angel Okay, I've heard people do this before they're like I think I ran into five angels this week I'm like you probably didn't probably they're just from somewhere else and you've never met them before and they were very very nice human beings

But it is something kind of interesting to think about that that who knows that you wouldn't maybe entertain an angel And then he gives us one other way that we can show practical brotherly love to each other He says remember the prisoners Verse three. He says remember the prisoners as though in Person with them and those who are ill-treated since you yourselves are in the body Remember this is being written because persecution is beginning throughout the church As a matter of fact many of the what we call general epistles Hebrews James first and second Peter many of them involve the aspect of persecution because that's what was taking place in the church at that Point in time some had been being in prison for their faith

Some believe that this verse indicates that Paul is actually the writer of this because he oftentimes had been in prison for his faith He said I want you to remember the prisoners as though with them I actually prefer the Old King James translation here because I think it carries the weight of the statement It says remember those who are in prison as if you are chained with them And I love that idea of that aspect is it's as if I am with them in those chains And we forget that this aspect of the persecuted church is not just something that took place in the first century The persecuted church is something that very much exists today It's something that very much exists today as a matter of fact

I would encourage you if you if you go out these doors before you exit the front door There's a bulletin board on your left hand side and you'll go by and there's some magazines hanging in there I don't just hang them there for decorations. Although did you make very nice decorations? I don't just hang them there for decorations I want you to take those magazines two in particular that I want you to take copies of or One is is the voice of the martyrs and I get a publication from them every month And the voice of the martyrs literally tells you the stories of your brothers and sisters of your family Throughout the world who are in prison in chains and being persecuted for their faith

And the reason why they're telling you those stories is not just to spread another aspect of news But so that you will live your life as if you are in chained with them as if you are in prison with them Because there's something about that that makes you realize I can actually be in prayer for those who are in prison today On my knees interceding on their behalf so that that can be the strength and the grace that they need in their lives Unfortunately, we in the Western culture church are just all too content with the freedoms that we have Claiming that we've been persecuted because we can't paint a Bible verse on a parking spot And we forget that there's an entire

Generation of Christians that are imprisoned that are in chained and in Nigeria being put to death for their faith He says remember them as if you were with them He goes on to tell us why? He says and middle of verse 3 those who are ill-treated Since you yourselves are also in the body What does he mean by that? Well, it means if one part of the body hurts every part of the body hurts it if you go home today And and you decide a Sunday afternoons a great time to not watch the Chiefs game instead It's a great time to do a project and you start working on a project you take a hammer and you hit your thumb anybody ever done that I do this a lot of hit the wrong nail and

And so it's a you hit your thumb right small part of the body and yet your entire body is affected by it Right because it hurts and if one part of your body hurts the entire Body hurts and unfortunately we have Neglected the parts of the body that are hurting in the world right now and we have decided that doesn't affect me because I don't live there that doesn't affect me because I don't experience that and what he's saying is it should affect you because it's a part of the body of Christ and if it affects the body of Christ then it affects you so show love like it affects you by Remembering them in your prayers and so the first thing that he exhorts us about is love Let brotherly love Continue in your life

The second thing that he exhorts us about is he exhorts us about character Notice what says in verse 4 Says marriage is to be held in honor among all and the marriage bed is to be undefiled for fornicators and adulterers God will judge Make sure that your character is free from the love of money Being content with what you have for he himself has said I will never desert you nor will I forsake you So that we confidently say the Lord is my help my helper. I will not be afraid what can man do to me? He tells us about two aspects of our character The first has to do with marriage or if we will morality the second has to do with finances We'll take them in order. He says marriage is to be held in high regard

Marriage is to be held in high regard and if there's a great statement for the culture today It's this is that we should hold marriage in high regard Why does he tell us this well for three reasons number one? Because marriage is directly from God. It was the very first institution that God gave to us a foundational institution as a matter of fact The first thing that God said or the first thing that was not good as far as what God created was that man was alone Everything else that God created said it is good. It is good. It is good until he created man, and he said ah, it's not good

It's not good that man should be alone He said cuz cuz I'm gonna so I'm gonna make him a helper that is comparable to him now I always like to ask young couples a question when I'm doing premarital counseling I always start off with the guys because I like watching men squirm I say if I ask you what that word helper means, what do you think it means and they sort of go? And They usually give a pretty good a pretty good answer to me I don't think I've had anyone that got the side eye from their soon-to-be bride as to how they Answered that word helper and I asked why it's the same thing, but but we sometimes forget Just how powerful that word is you see oftentimes when we think of the word helper We think of somebody that holds my tools for me, right?

I go they're gonna hand me the things that I need that's not what that word helper means There were helpers used elsewhere in Hebrew Scripture that same Hebrew word If you were to delve into the Psalms, you would find that it says I lift my eyes up to the hills Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord the maker of heaven and earth same Hebrew word in other words. That word is very powerful Why did God give Adam Eve because he needed someone who would be the greatest strength and support of his life He needed someone who would be there in the hard days and and someone to help be that rock for him It would be someone who would come alongside him to build the foundation of society

And so when God gave us marriage, it is a strong foundational Institute that we would build society upon So number one, it's a gift from God number two. It would be a foundation for culture How do people how do kids learn what love and commitment is supposed to look like? Well, they look at their parents marriage How do they how do they learn what it looks like to be respectful of authority? Well, they look at their parents marriage. And so it would be a foundation for society

But the third reason why it's important that it be held in high regard is is it's a picture of Christ in the church You see Christ loved the church so much that he gave himself for her and the church responds with wholehearted commitment to the Lord And so he says hold marriage and high regard The problem we're having a culture today is that marriage is under attack first of all The institution of marriage is under attack and the institution of marriage is under attack because it's being first of all redefined We have redefined marriage to mean something that it's not we have redefined marriage to be any two It doesn't matter they want to come together in commitment to each other But that is not the definition of marriage

The definition of marriage is one man and one woman for life If you don't believe me and think this is some sort of an Old Testament idea I'll remind you of what Jesus said when Jesus was presented with the idea of what what is allowable when it comes to divorce Jesus said well, what did God give us from the beginning in the beginning? he created the male and female and for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his Wife and the two shall become one flesh and what God has joined together Let no one ever dare to separate and so it's first of all being redefined from what the Bible Originally said that it was supposed to be but second of all, it's just being held. It's not that important anymore

Recently within the past few years. They said, you know divorce rates have gone down That seems like a really good thing until you learn that so of marriage rates People are just deciding marriage isn't really worth it after all oftentimes. There's tax benefits or or or or social benefits that Financial social benefits that people can get if you just remain unmarried And so marriage is no longer held in this high regard anymore after all, isn't it? Just a man-made institution that that that's overly provincial and and really we're not made to be monogamous like that Anyway, right statements that you hear from the world And so oftentimes it's just not held in high regard at all

But the last reason why it's important that we hold marriage in high regard is that marriages are under attack. Listen through Nicolette Too many marriages today are being neglected They're being neglected by the ones in the marriage Because what we have to realize about the marriage relationship is that it requires work. It requires commitment It requires a person to pour their life into it You see there are two really important relationships that you have in your life The one that you have with your Savior and the one that you have with your spouse Those are the two most important relationships that you have If those two relationships are right

The rest of your life really is going to start operating as it's supposed to if those two relationships are not right You're gonna find issues in a whole lot of other places within your life And so through neglect marriage is oftentimes not held in high regard And so husbands, I want you I want to tell you something You need to invest in the relationship that you have with your wife You need to invest in her by leading her by spending time in scripture with her by by Spending time in scripture with her by by Covering her with the word of God and with prayer you need to invest in spending time with her Wives you need to invest in your husband You need to invest in them by being there for them by by loving them by showing them tenderness and compassion

We need to invest in marriages because strong marriages create strong families and strong families create strong churches And strong churches create strong cultures It makes you kind of wonder what's happened to our culture Probably it's because we don't have strong churches. We don't have strong marriages So we don't have strong families and it always will affect the culture He says marriage is to be held in high regard The second thing that he says about this is that the bed is to be undefiled The bed is to be undefiled. Listen. God has a plan for sex Okay, sex is intended to be one man one woman in the confines of marriage for life And God has intended that for not only Reproduction pleasure but also intimacy so that those two can become one

Because that is the entire idea of what God has intended and far too often marriage is either age or sex is either a Treated as this pleasurable thing that we get to have with anybody or b it says well the church is really opposed to it No, the church is not opposed to it. God is not opposed to it. God created it, but he created it with boundaries He created it with with purpose and the purpose is not to a to try to fill as much lust as you possibly can It's to be intimately joined to one person for the rest of your life That is the intent and the purpose And it always takes place within the marriage relationship, which is why he says the bed Is to be undefiled and he goes on to describe it further and say fornicators and adulterers God will judge

There are two different words there in the greek Someone who is a fornicator is someone who has sex without the commitment of marriage. That's sex without the commitment of marriage And again, the issue we're having in the culture right now is that everybody wants to have sex without the commitment of marriage This is why we have an abortion problem today this is why women want reproductive rights today because they want to be able to enjoy all of the Benefits of a relationship without any of the consequences of commitment either to marriage or to a child And listen fellas you're to blame here, too Because it takes two And so we've got to understand that this is something that god's going to judge. He's going to deal with it

The word adulterer is someone who is not faithful in the marriage And god is going to deal with both of those and listen a lack of faithfulness does not just begin with an act It begins with thought in the eyes It begins with the emotions Men, you need to protect your eyes women. You need to protect your emotions Because those are in general the two places where the marriage bed gets defiled And he says and god will judge now If you have found yourself fallen in sin in some aspect in this way I want to present to you the truth of the gospel of jesus christ Failure is why jesus came? Failures in this area is why jesus came to die for sinners because he wants Restoration in your life. The enemy wants you to hide in shadows right now

If you had this struggle if you've had these failures in your life He wants you to hide in the shadows and what he's telling you right now is there is no freedom You're always going to live in this guilt and you're always going to live in this shame That's the enemy telling you that what jesus says is bring it into the light and let my blood cover the sin Let the blood of the sacrifice of jesus cover the sin And if that's you this morning, I want you to know that there's forgiveness There is healing and there's restoration when you bring that sin to the light of jesus christ And you allow him to bring restoration into your life If you refuse to repent of the sin, the warning is really stark there God will judge

And so he says the marriage bed is to be undefiled so he talks to us about character He said hey, listen your character in your marriage needs to be purity But the second aspect of character that he talks about is he talks about the character of how we handle things financially He says make sure that your character verse 5 is free from the love of money Being content with what you have for he himself has said I will never desert you nor will I forsake you So that we confidently say the lord is my helper. I will not be afraid He deals with the aspect of contentment with finances. He says keep yourself free from the love of money That means shun greed and be financially ethical

Shun greed and be financially ethical and he tells us how to do that be content with what you have that word content literally means satisfied be satisfied With what you have again, I always bring this up. I feel like our economy is built on a lack of satisfaction It's built on a lack of contentment because you always need more And the question that we all ask is how do you become someone who is content with what you have? How do you reach a place of contentment because i'll remind you contentment is not a state of things Contentment is a condition of your heart. You can you can have uh, Nothing and be content and you can have everything in lack contentment because it has everything to do with the condition of your heart.

Well, in the margin of your Bible, I want you to write a little verse. Philippians 4, verses 11 through 13. Philippians 4, 11 through 13. Because Paul the apostle has this to say about contentment. He says, I have learned, and I think that's a really important word. I have learned in whatever state I am to be content. I know how to be filled and how to be abased.

I know to have plenty and to live in want. I know how to be in the cold and to be in the warm. I know how to be filled and I know how to be hungry. He said, and this is the secret that I've learned. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. You see, that verse is all about contentment. We can learn contentment as we seek the strength of Christ in our most dire of circumstances.

And say, Lord, I find that there's a lack of contentment in my life, and all I want is more. David Goose, again, his commentary said a millionaire was interviewed. He gave the name and I forgot the name. A millionaire was interviewed in a famous magazine, and he said, how much would it take for you to be content? And he said, one million more. And that's just kind of the state of life, right?

This is who we are. We don't care what we have, we care what we don't have. How do we reach that? You keep coming to the Lord and saying, Lord, I struggle with contentment. I struggle with this in my life. And Lord, I need you to create that contentment inside of me. I need you to give me a heart that is satisfied with the things that I have in my life so that I can live both financially ethical

and at peace in my life. And as we do so, we are reminded that God will never leave us hungry. God will never leave us without what we need, which is why he goes on from here to say, for he himself has said, middle of verse five, I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you. That word forsake is a great word. It means relax the hold on. He says, I will never leave you

and I will never relax my hold on you. In other words, you will always be in my hand. How can we trust God for all of our financial needs? Well, he's the God who will never leave us. He is the God who will never forsake us, the God who will never let us go. The reading of this verse in the Greek is very interesting. In the Greek, it literally says, for he himself has said, and the statement is on record,

I will not, I will not cease to sustain and uphold you. I will not, I will not, I will not let you down. You think he means that? You think he really is trying to get across the point that God will never let go of you? Ryan, I struggle so much to give all of my things to God and to trust him with them completely. I hear this over and over again. Ryan, I'm afraid that if I trust God with all of my stuff,

he's going to take it all away. The moment that I say, God, all my things are yours here, he's going to take it all away. Well, the question is, do you believe that he'll never forsake you or do you not believe he'll never forsake you? What if that happens? And this is what I always tell people. Okay, so what if it happens? What if he takes away all of your things?

Can you be content with God? Can you be content with the fact that God will never leave you nor forsake you? David in the Psalms said, I was young and now I'm old and I have never seen the people of God begging for bread. You either trust him or you don't. So stop using the what ifs and start giving God your everything and saying, Lord, you be in control of my life.

He says, that's so that we can say confidently, the Lord is my helper. I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? And so he's talked to us about love. Let brotherly love continue. He's talked to us about character, have strong character in your morality and in your finances. And the last thing he's going to do is he's going to talk to us about spiritual wellbeing.

He says in verse seven, remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you and considering the result of their, and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith. He says, remember those who led you, those who gave you the word, the idea of remembering there's to respect them. He said, have respect for those who have led you and who have ultimately taught you the word of God. Have respect for your spiritual leaders.

Now he tells them this because what do we all struggle with? We all struggle to follow someone. We all struggle to submit to any kind of authority. It's one of the biggest problems that we have in life. You know why? Because it started with the fall. What did Eve want to be? Just like God. Therefore, one of the greatest struggles that we have is to struggle with authority,

particularly spiritual authority. And so he says, remember and respect those leaders who led you and who taught you the word of God. I was talking to a group of young men the other day, giving them some leadership principles. And I said, listen, the number one principle you have to learn about leadership is if you're going to be a leader, you have to first learn to be led.

If you're going to be a leader, you have to first learn to be led. Because if you cannot learn to be led, you can never lead other people because all of your pride will be involved. All of you will be in the middle of it and you will not rely upon God. Think about it. Moses thought he was prepped and ready to lead the people of God when he saw that they were being abused by the Egyptians.

And so he led in the way that he thought was right, which was to kill one of the guards. And God said, nope, you've got to learn to be led. Why don't we go into the wilderness and we're going to spend 40 years and you're going to learn to be led by me for the next 40 years. And then you can come back and lead the people. David was crowned king as a boy. And yet it took him 16 years

of running for his life in the wilderness, learning to be led by God in order to be able to lead God's people. And so if you're going to lead, you need to first learn to be led. I tell people, everybody should have two different people in their lives. Everybody should have a Paul in their life and everybody should have a Timothy in their life. This is not a new thing with me.

This is a scriptural principle. Number one, you need a Paul. You need a spiritual mentor in your life, a leader. You need someone that you are leading. I have to have it, everybody does. Because you need someone who is mentoring you, someone who is giving you wisdom beyond yourself, who sees the blind spots in your life and who is leading you. The second person that everybody needs in their life

is everybody needs a Timothy. You should be discipling someone. Oh, Ryan, I'm not really that kind of a guy. Yes, you are, you're a Christian. If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, everybody is to be making disciples. I don't care if it's just your kid. You need to be discipling someone because we are all called to make disciples of Jesus Christ. And so find those two people in your life

and you will begin to understand leadership principles, which says, remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you. But then he says this, and this is an important caveat, considering the results of their conduct imitate their faith. See, there's another problem that we have in church culture today. The problem that we have in church culture today is that there's a lot of abusive spiritual leadership in churches.

It continues to get revealed. It continues to get brought out. And sometimes it's very destructive to people's faith. And what they'll tell you is, listen, you just have to follow me. Do what I say to do because I am the authority in your life. No, you have to watch their conduct too. And if somebody's conduct does not line up with scripture, does not line up with what a leader of God

or a man or woman of God is supposed to be, then you don't need to imitate their faith because their faith is not pure faith. And so he says, respect those leaders. The second thing he tells us about our spiritual wellbeing is this. Verse eight, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. It's an interestingly tucked in verse. And I'm gonna explain why it's here in just a moment,

because it almost doesn't seem to fit in the context of everything that he's saying. But can I say we could build an entire sermon off of this? I won't, it's okay. But we could just build a whole sermon off of this verse right here, because everything in the world around us is shifting and changing. It seems like circumstances always change, people always change, the world is always changing,

but there's one thing that never changes, and his name is Jesus. And you can count on the fact that he is the same yesterday, today, and forever. I listened to a young man give his testimony at one point in time, it's been about two years back, and I'd come speak to one of my groups and he said, what brought me to Jesus is that everything else in my life let me down. He said, my family let me down, my sport let me down, I let myself down.

And I learned that there was only one person in my life that was never gonna let me down because he never changes, and his name is Jesus. And I knew I could follow him because he was never gonna let me down. And that testimony has just really stuck in my head, because it's the testimony that so many of us have. The longer we've walked with the Lord, the more we realize everything else in this life is kind of disposable, except Jesus.

He's the one thing that will never let you down. He then goes on to say, and don't be carried away by various strange teachings. Now, why in the middle there does he tuck in this verse that says Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever? Well, because he just said, respect your leaders, and who's the ultimate example of the leader that we have? It's Jesus Christ.

And all of the leaders may change, some of their faith may not be good, some of their conduct may not match up with his, but Jesus is still the same yesterday, today, and forever. Even if all of the other spiritual leaders let you down, Jesus never will, but also don't be carried away by various and strange teachings, because Jesus is the same yesterday, and today, and forever. If somebody says, I have a new teaching for you, turn around and walk the other way, because no, they don't. It's not from Jesus, because all of the things that we know about Jesus are right here, and we can know that.

We can rest in that, because Jesus doesn't change his character and nature always remains the same. And so he says, don't fall into all of this strange teaching. The word strange means foreign to Christianity from pagan religions. It's amazing the things that we can fall into. It's amazing the different type of teaching that's out there. And I just tell people,

if you keep the simplicity of scripture and Jesus, you're always gonna be okay. Keep that simplicity. He says, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods through which those who were so occupied were not benefited. He said, it's good for the heart to be strengthened by grace. It's good for us to be continually strengthened by that unmerited favor of God,

to be strengthened by God's grace in our lives. And as we continue to learn about that grace, it continues to strengthen us. And as I oftentimes tell you, we're told in scripture that it will take all of eternity for God to describe and explain his grace to us. So let's learn as much as we can now to be strengthened by it. He says, it's good for you to be strengthened by grace

and not to be caught up in religious rituals, which is what he means when he says, not by foods through which those who were so occupied were not benefited. Those are religious rituals that he's talking about. Why? Because we are no longer bound by religious rituals, which is what he goes on to say here in speaking of our spiritual wellbeing. Verse 10, for we have an altar

from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. What's the altar that they had? The altar that they had was the altar where they brought animal sacrifices that had to be offered over and over again. We have a better altar, which is none other than Jesus Christ and his cross, through which the old covenant had nothing to do with. He says, for the bodies of those animals

whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin are burned outside the camp. Therefore, Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people through his own blood suffered outside the gate. So let us go out to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. As he talks about this altar, he says, under the old covenant, when a sacrifice for sin was made, they would offer the portion that belonged to God on the altar, everything else they would gather up and they would take outside of the camp and they would burn it.

Jesus was sacrificed outside of the camp, or if you will, outside of the city walls of Jerusalem. Therefore, let us go to Jesus outside of the camp. Well, what does he mean by that? Well, the camp that he's talking about there is the camp of man's dead religion. And he said, it's time to go to Jesus outside of the camp of man's dead religion. Outside of the camp of our own good works,

outside of the camp of man's made up ideas of who God is, outside of all of that and go to find Jesus. You see, what you'll find is when you begin to approach Jesus, you have to leave behind everything of your own righteousness. You have to leave behind everything of all the things you're supposed to do. And you just have to seek Jesus because that's where he's found.

He goes on from there to say in verse 14, for here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come. Good spiritual wellbeing. Well, I want to close up this morning with three thoughts and ultimately three questions that I think will kind of bring a little clarity and hopefully a little bit of thought to everything that we've talked about here this morning. Number one, are you living out brotherly love in your walk?

Are you living out that brotherly love as he talked about it here in your walk with Jesus Christ? Does the body of Christ that's around you know that you love them? Is it shown in your actions and in your deeds? Because I'm here to tell you right now, the more that brotherly love is shown, the stronger the body of Christ becomes. Number two, are you cultivating godly character

both morally and financially? Are you cultivating godly character both in morality and in contentment? Because ultimately that's what God desires for us is that we would cultivate that godly character. What are you doing to shun evil? What are you doing to learn to be content in the things of God? And then number three, is your heart being established in grace?

Is your heart being established in grace? Are you caught up with rituals or are you continuing to dive into the grace, the unmerited favor of God and what he has for you? And so brothers and sisters, I pray that as you consider these exhortations, God's spirit continues to do his work in your heart and in your life. Amen? Let's all stand.

And if you'd bow with me. Father, we come before you. And Lord, I lift up this gathered body of Christ that's here this morning. Lord, I thank you that you brought us together to hear your word. Lord, I thank you that your word is a lamp into our feet and a light into our path. And I ask that you would do the work that needs to be done in each person's heart here this morning.

Father, I pray that as we take time to consider that your Holy Spirit would move in our hearts and in our lives. Father, draw us near to you. Make us more like you. Father, continue to grow us as you see fit. We just thank you and praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed. ♪ How deep the Father's love for us ♪ ♪ How vast beyond all measure ♪ ♪ That he should give his only Son ♪

♪ How deep the Father's love for us ♪ ♪ How vast beyond all measure ♪ ♪ To make a wretch his treasure ♪ ♪ How great the pain of searing loss ♪ ♪ The Father turns his face away ♪ ♪ His wounds are for the chosen one ♪ ♪ He made his sons to glory ♪ ♪ Behold the man upon a cross ♪ ♪ My sin upon his shoulders ♪ ♪ How ashamed I hear my mocking voice ♪ ♪ All out among the scoffers ♪ ♪ It was my sin that held him there ♪ ♪ Until it was accomplished ♪ ♪ His dying breath has drawn me wide ♪ ♪ I know that it is finished ♪ ♪ I will not boast in anything ♪ ♪ No gifts, no power, no wisdom ♪ ♪ But I will boast in Jesus Christ ♪ ♪ From his death and resurrection ♪ ♪ Why should I gain from his reward? ♪ ♪ I cannot give an answer ♪

♪ But this I know with all my heart ♪ ♪ His wounds have paid my ransom ♪ ♪ Why should I gain from his reward? ♪ ♪ I cannot give an answer ♪ ♪ But this I know with all my heart ♪ ♪ His wounds have paid my ransom ♪ ♪ ♪ How deep the Father's love ♪ And Father God, I just thank you for how deep your love is for us, for how much you love us, Lord God. And if there's anybody here today that has never experienced that kind of love, I pray that today would be the day. I pray that today would be the day of salvation, Lord. And as we leave here today, I just pray that your Holy Spirit go with us, bless each

and every one of us. We love you. We praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.