Please be seated. I'm so used to hearing, we come now brethren to the preaching of the word. And I was going to get up and say that. And we are here at the preaching of the Word. Let's turn in our Bibles to Hebrews chapter 13. And my text this morning will be verses 10 through 14. I'm going to read beginning in verse 9. I'm going to do just a very brief review. after that, but let's begin by reading our passage this morning. Hebrews chapter 13, verses 9 through 14, pardon me. Hebrews chapter 13, verses 9 through 14. The author says, do not be led astray by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them. We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat, for the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore, let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. Amen. The author's purpose here in this passage is that the author is telling his audience that they must turn away from their old forms of worship But if they do that, if they turn their back on the old forms of worship, they will very likely be cast out of their families and communities. They will be despised. And so the author tells them by analogy that to be despised by their family and former friends on behalf of Christ is one of the acts of worship in which they must engage. In other words, they must leave what is popular and go out to Christ who is despised in order to worship Christ properly. We too, today, must be ready to go out to Christ. The result of this passage is that we must go out of whatever is popular, whatever our family is involved in, whatever cultural traditions we are a part of, anything that is against Christ, We must go out of it, and we must go out of it to Christ. It will be unpopular. We will suffer losses, and it will not be pleasant. We very well may suffer many or all of the things that Christ suffered, yet in going out and suffering the things that we must, we will safely come to Christ. Let's pray before we dive into these words. Lord, help us with this passage today. It is a hard and difficult passage. So illuminate our minds to help us understand the word. Teach us out of your word this morning. And more importantly, let the word penetrate down into our hearts, as I prayed earlier, and turn us away from our sin and strengthen us to do all that we see here in Scripture. Let us go out of here today willing to bear the cost of following Christ. Help us to help one another to bear those burdens as our fellow church members, our fellow believers encounter difficulties as they bear the reproach of Christ. Help us to be an aid to them. Lord, strengthen us and do all your will through us. Give us zeal for your word, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. So let me start with a bit of a review. It will not be a long review, but I wanna just take a minute to ground our passage here in the broader context of Hebrews. Because the author is doing here in chapter 13 is telling his audience what they ought to do to worship the true and the living God, their great God, Jehovah, now that they have become followers of Christ. Recall that this was the ultimate instruction of the book of Hebrews. Kind of the pinnacle, as we've gone through Hebrews, is reached, not kind of, it is the pinnacle of the book of Hebrews. In chapter 12, verse 28 and 29, if you'll come with me right to that text, just a little bit back, a page or so, Chapter 12, verses 28 through 29, where the author says, therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus, let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. This is the ultimate point of the book. Let me repeat what he says. Let us offer to God acceptable worship. Well, the question they would ask is, how do we do that? They have been worshiping God their whole lives as Jewish converts to Christ, and now he's telling them, that worship's no longer acceptable. You must worship God in the way that he demands, in the way that he declares is acceptable now. And that's really what chapter 13 is. Chapter 13 is a series of commands that the audience can follow that will allow them to begin engaging in acceptable worship of God. They're not to go back to the Old Testament sacrifices, its ceremonies, its feasts. They're not to go back to law keeping to prove their righteousness. Instead, by faith in Christ, they are now to do all these commands in chapter 13. This is not an exhaustive list of commands either. The New Testament has other things it has to say about what is acceptable worship. These commands do not substitute having faith in Christ. They're to have faith in Christ and then to do these things in chapter 13 to engage in acceptable worship. And in this passage, verses 10 through 14, we're looking at just one of these commands. To worship Christ rightly, we must find a way, like the audience, to leave what is against Christ, in terms of worship, and go to Him outside of the camp. So to understand this, we need to understand what these verses 10 through 14 meant to the original audience. And I think to do that, we need to go back one verse, verse nine, and start there. Let me read verse nine again, where he says, the author says to his audience, do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it's good for the heart to be strengthened by grace and not by foods. which have not benefited those devoted to them. Here the author warns his audience not to be led astray by strange teachings. And he's drawing a parallel between these strange teachings and foods that he mentions in verse nine. And he points out to his audience that these strange teachings that involve food they're of no benefit. This is similar to Paul's teaching elsewhere in the New Testament, in Romans, First Corinthians, and especially in the book of Colossians, where Paul says that the kind of teaching that the author of Hebrews is warning his audience about, not only is it of no benefit, Paul says in Colossians, it looks like it might be wise. It looks like it might be teaching with practical benefit, but actually what it does is it leads you away from Christ to the worship of idols. That's the same kind of teaching that the author of Hebrews is talking about in verse nine. It's some kind of teaching that involves the ceremonial or religious use of food. Now come with me to verse 10, because the author is going to draw an analogy for his audience based on that principle that we just saw in verse nine that Pastor Jeff preached about last week, that ceremonial foods and religious rituals involving food are of no spiritual benefit. This is what he says in verse 10. We have, meaning himself and his audience, we have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. In this verse, he's saying two things. One, we, the author and his audience, have an altar. We'll need to look at that. What is that altar? And then a different group, those who serve the tent, they have no right to eat from this altar. Well, what is this altar? The altar he's referring to in verse 10 is the altar he's mentioned a number of times in the book of Hebrews. It's the altar that's in the heavenly places, where Christ entered in and offered his own blood, his very own blood. He offered himself as a perfect sacrifice on behalf of the author and the audience. Indeed, he offers himself on behalf of all the elect. The authors talked about this several times, as I said. Here's one example from Hebrews chapter nine, verses 11 to 14. I'm gonna read this for you. Hebrews chapter nine, 11 to 14. He said, back in chapter nine, but when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent, A tent not made with hands that is not of this creation. So in contrast to the Old Testament tabernacle, that temple in Jerusalem, in contrast to that, a perfect heavenly tent with its own altar, he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if by the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, in other words, what's in the creation, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, how much more will that purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God, amen? Amen, thank God for that. Christ brought his own blood to a heavenly altar to fulfill the Old Testament system of sacrifices, to complete them once and for all. And this is the altar that the author says he and his audience have. This is the altar that he's talking about in verse 10. So then who are those who serve the tent? In contrast, those that serve the tent are those Jewish priests and all worshipers who have rejected Christ, now that he's come, rejected the Messiah they were looking forward to, and still think they are benefiting from the sacrifices that are made of animals. These are the same ones who in verse nine think they are benefiting from foods and have fallen into strange teachings. He says of these people, the people in verse nine that serve the tent, the earthly tent, that they have no right to eat of the altar that he and his audience have a right to eat of. Well, what is he talking about? Is he saying a lot in just these two little verses? Again, he's referring specifically to this Old Testament system of sacrifices. And probably as Pastor Jeff said last week, the specific example in verse nine that the author is thinking about is probably a warped and distorted version of the sacrifices in the Old Testament, but whatever situation he's talking about, whether they're warped or they're as close to what was described in the Old Testament as possible, the author has shown us that they're already fulfilled, that they're already complete, that they are no longer needed. They should not be conducted any longer, and in fact, soon they're gonna pass away. They're no longer gonna be available. to the people of God. And what is interesting here is the contrast that the author draws. In the Old Testament sacrifices, generally, an animal was brought for sacrifice, person would get an animal, they'd go to the place for the sacrifice, they would either purchase that animal or they'd raise it themselves, and they would bring it to the tabernacle or they'd bring it to the temple in Jerusalem, and the animal would be killed right there in a ritual. And its blood was taken. and sprinkled inside the temple or the tabernacle on the altar. I know this is a little bit gory, but this is the text we're dealing with. So bear with me, if you will. And then, out of that animal, some very choice cuts of meat were taken, and those were burned up on the altar, burned up to ash. But what we often don't realize is some additional cuts of meat were taken that were given to the priest, Some were given to the offerer, in other words, the person who brought the animal. If you think about all the people coming, it's a lot of animals, it's a lot of meat. And so they would have a feast and they would consume, the priests and the people worshiping, they would consume these cuts of meat that were left in a feast. And there were many of these feasts. Every new moon, so once a month, they would have a feast. There's all kinds of occasions where you could come and bring an animal and have this ceremonial feast. And that's what he's alluding to in verse 11. These feasts have become ceremonies. They've become part of the religious worship of the Jews. And look at verse 11 with me, if you will. And he describes this here, for the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin. The blood is taken, the meats are taken. What's left, he says, is burned outside the camp. I don't know if you've ever thought about or participated in slaughtering an animal, but there are things that are left over that aren't real useful. hides, horns, hooves, the inward parts that are not edible. What they would do is they would take these items, and they would take them outside of the tent, or the city of Jerusalem where the temple was, into where they had a trash pit. and they would burn these things up. They were considered ceremonially unclean, which meant the person who touched and handled them was now also unclean and could no longer participate in the worship that was going on, couldn't go back and participate in the feast, unless they took the time to go through the rituals to become ceremonially clean again. So to go outside the camp with the refuse of the animal, the animal is brought for sacrifice, and it's a nice animal. It's not a lame animal. It's not an animal with spots or deformities. It's one of the best animals. And up in the city, they are worshiping God, and they're having a feast, and they're enjoying the choice cuts of beef and lamb. And those people who are outside the camp They have a job to do. They have to burn away what's left for hours and hours, and they can't participate in that ceremonial worship until they're cleansed to do so. So here in verse 12, the analogy that the author wants to make, come with me to the next verse in verse 12. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Jesus was led out of Jerusalem and he was crucified outside the camp. We just read in Hebrews chapter nine that one of the things Jesus did was he entered into that heavenly temple, burying himself, burying his blood as a holy sacrifice into that greater heavenly place of worship. But before he could do that, he had to suffer. this ultimate uncleanness. Do you see the analogy? He had to be taken outside the camp. He had to be hung on a cross. So here it is in verse 13 and 14. Therefore, whenever you see a therefore in scripture, you gotta be ready. Let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. How can they worship Jehovah acceptably as they were commanded to in chapter 12? Now that the Messiah has come, one of the things they must do is go outside of the camp and bear that same reproach that Jesus endured. Now, he's not saying specifically that they have to do some ceremony where they repeat what Jesus did, right? There are some cultures, for example, in the Philippines, where they practice that. They have themselves crucified and then taken down. That's not what he means. Not literally. But he means they must leave behind, once and for all, this Old Testament sacrificial system and its ceremonies and its feasts These were once good things, but now that Christ has come, now that their Messiah has come, they are no longer good things. They are things that lead them away from Christ. They are now things that lead them into idolatry. And likewise, he gives a second example in verse 14. Did you notice it there? He gives Abraham's example. Let me read verse 14 again. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. Abraham left his home, if you remember the Old Testament story, he left his city, he leaves his home, his family, his country, and he wanders the promised land, the land that's to be given to him. living in tents, never in his life arriving at what was promised to him. Why did he do it? Well, if you remember, the author of Hebrews told us he was looking forward to something better. Something better. He was seeing that something better out there was the promised Messiah, Jesus, outside the camp. By going out of the camp, by leaving the earthly city, Just like Abraham did, the audience can go to Jesus. In fact, it's the only way they can go to Jesus. So the principle here is that the audience must bear whatever cost is imposed on them and leave the Old Testament ceremonies and religious feasts in order to go to Jesus. If they want to worship, God rightly, if they want to worship Christ as the author has convinced them to do in Hebrews chapter 12, they can no longer go back to that old religion. They can no longer waver back and forth. Let me remind you again of what he said in chapter 12, verses 28 and 29. Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. That's that new kingdom. That's that new city. And thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and in awe, for our God is a consuming fire. They must, to give God acceptable worship in our passage today, they must bear the cost, leave those old ceremonies, and take on the reproach of Christ. Well, what is this reproach of Christ? Jesus talked about it. He, in fact, predicted this sort of humiliation. Excuse me for a second. Pardon me. Here's an example from a New Testament parable that Jesus taught in the parable of the wicked vinedressers. If you're familiar with that parable, Jesus tells a story about a man who creates a vineyard where he's gonna grow wine grapes, and he hires some tenants to manage it for him. And when the time comes, he goes off into a far country to get some of those grapes. He sends his servants. And the wicked vinedressers, what do they do? They beat them. kicked them out. He sends more servants. They're beaten, he kicked out, and they're kicked out. And finally he says, I'll send my only son an heir. Surely they'll listen to him if I send him. Jesus says in Matthew 21, 39, they took him and they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. That's the reproach of Christ. They threw him out. He had to go out, and they murdered him, thinking somehow they would inherit the vineyard. At His crucifixion, look at John 19, 17. John chapter 19, verses 17 and also verse 20. They took Jesus and He went out bearing His own cross to the place called the place of a skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. There they crucified Him and with Him two others, one on either side and Jesus between them. And Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, Jesus of Nazareth. The king of the Jews. That was to mock him, a supposed king. Crucified between two thieves in a place that's gotta be terrible. If it's called the place of the skull, it can't be a good place, right? It's gotta be a terrible place. Now think about how hard this is gonna be for the author's audience to do. One, they have to break with their families, friends, and communities who are still in the old religion. They have to break with them over the issue of Jesus. They will be despised by the people that they love. They will be cursed, and they'll accused of being traitors. Think how hard that is. Think about, they have to leave religious practices that they grew up in, that they thought were the right and good, proper worship of Jehovah. That one's a hard one, isn't it? The audience would be filled with doubt and concern for their spiritual well-being, and especially that of their loved ones. And I submit to you, in fact, it would be impossible for them to do this if it weren't for the power of the Holy Spirit given to them through Christ. To see that now this is the right thing that they must do. Think how hard that is. I'm saying it's impossible to do in our flesh. And here's another thing we don't often think about. They would suffer the loss of the very good things that come out of these old sacrifices. Rich feasts, it's not every day you got to have these choice cuts of meat from these animals in the ancient world. The social aspect of going up into Jerusalem, gathering with the people of God, gathering with the priests, can you imagine when it was a holy time, how the priests would teach about the coming Messiah, how they would fellowship together? They would have this rich, sumptuous feast, and now they've gotta give all that up as well. Did anyone else do this in Scripture? Well, let's go back to the scene of the cross. You know probably this story of a man named Simon the Cyrene, Matthew 27, 32. As they went out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name, and they compelled this man to carry the cross of Jesus. Simon goes out with Jesus, bearing the cross, bearing the reproach of Christ. Stephen, the early deacon and martyr, after preaching a sermon. If you don't think sermons have consequences, read Acts chapter 7. After preaching a sermon, he has a vision of Christ coming in the clouds to be enthroned in heaven. at his ascension, the very things that the author of Hebrews is talking about, Christ going into the heavens, offering the sacrifice, sitting down at the right hand of God. Stephen has a vision of that. And what do they do? Acts 7, 58, his audience. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. Stephen quite literally fulfills the words of the author of Hebrews here in 10 through 14. He is taken out of the city, and because they don't wanna become unclean by touching him, they throw stones at him to kill him. Stephen paid a heavy cost, did he not? Even in the book of Hebrews, of Moses, the author says, Hebrews 11, 26, Moses considered the approach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt. Did you hear that? Moses considered this reproach of Christ to be greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt. Moses, as you know, adopted by the daughter of Pharaoh, potentially could end up with the whole kingdom somehow. But he turns his back on that and joins his people, an abused slave race, because the author of Hebrews tells us he's looking forward to a greater kingdom. He turns his back on all that wealth, and he goes out bearing the reproach of Christ. Indeed, in Hebrews 11, the author recounted, excuse me, many in the Old Testament who suffered the reproach of Christ. Finally, I wanna plug our series on 1 Peter, where 1 Peter is writing to a different audience. This is an audience of Christian, if you remember, who were surprised that the Messiah had come, they had braced him, and now they were suffering for it. Sound familiar to what we're talking about here? Peter says, hey, don't you remember the prophets in the Old Testament? Every single one of them were abused in Jerusalem. Some of them were killed. Jesus was killed. You should have expected this suffering. He says in 1 Peter 4, 14, if you are insulted for the name of Christ, hear this, if you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed. You're blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. Being reviled outside of the camp is a powerful mark of God's blessing and presence in your life. So what do we do? How do we apply this principle today? We're not likely to be participating in some Jewish ritual feast, right? Although, I say that, but there is a very troublesome trend among Christians to that end. I don't know if you've heard about this. I know I've brought this up before, but there's this Passover cedar meal, which is nothing like the actual Passover meal of Christ's time, by the way. And many Christians are going in a type of religious tourism and participating in these meals. Maybe you've done of it, done this before. But don't do that. That's going back to these ceremonies. Catholicism is another example, full of rituals modeled on the Old Testament system. Sometimes through family and friends, we can be induced to go and participate in those ceremonies. Sometimes we have an influx now of Eastern mysticism, especially coming through yoga. And some people are stumbling into those kinds of ceremonies. not just talking about the exercise practice of yoga, but it's very closely intertwined with Eastern mysticism. So if you are doing any of those things, if you are participating in any sort of foreign religion, strange teaching, obviously the teaching of this text is to stop it, to stop it. So if you're a believer, just like Abraham was called to leave his homeland for the promised land, we too must leave whatever community, group, relationship we're in that is an unbelieving community, that is against Christ. Here are those details. I'm gonna get to some examples in a little bit. But any unbelieving community that is opposed to Christ, that's causing us to stumble into sin, we must leave that community and go to Christ bearing his reproach. So just like the Jewish Christians in the book of Hebrews who are gonna be ostracized and rejected, we too are gonna be ostracized and rejected, you know what that means, ostracized? It means to be cast out, hated, cursed, mocked, rejected. We will have to leave what is popular to this world and go to the things that the world hates and despises. That means we'll lose family and friends. I know people, we have members of our congregation that have lost family. for embracing Christ. We have members of our congregation who have lived these things that I'm talking about. We will lose jobs. We will lose earthly inheritances and birthrights. We will leave what is pleasing and seemingly right and popular in this world. But in doing so, we're going to Jesus. Well, I promised you some examples, so what are they? Well, first, the very first thing is any of us who claim to be a believer in Christ, we must be baptized and we must be a member of a local church. Baptism is a public profession of our faith in Christ. So if we think we can be a believer and not come forward and be baptized, we're doing like these Jewish Christians. We're staying in that old religious system. We must come forward and make a public statement that we identify and associate and are in communion with Christ, and we do that through baptism in water. We also become a member of a local church. You can't do many of these things in chapter 13 unless you're a member of a local church. You can't do them at home by yourself. So you must be a member of a local church, you must participate in the weekly worship of Christ, and that will give you opportunities to fulfill these commands we see in chapter 13. Second, as a believer, you must evaluate all your relationships in the communities you are involved in. Family, work, school. Some of you have both work and school at the same time. Clubs, friendships, groupings, social organizations, all of them must be evaluated in the light of our faith in Christ. If any of these things cause you to continue to live sinfully, hear me, if any of them cause you to continue to live sinfully, then you must come out of them, believer, no matter the cost to you. If any of these things are an alternative to Christ, you must come out of them and go to Christ. What do I mean by that? Well, let's take the example of work, okay? I'm not saying leave your job because you don't like your boss, and he's a jerk, and you don't like your job, right? That's not the issue here. Do you see that? You might even work for an employer who You know, a big company, I work for a big, big, big, big company, huge company, and they have all kinds of sinful initiatives, right? But they don't demand that I participate in any of them. In fact, they tell me that I specifically don't because of my Christian belief. I'm allowed to be a Christian at work. I'm allowed to openly practice my faith. and where there's a conflict, so far they've said, hey, you don't need to participate in that. I can condemn, and I regularly do, by the way, the activities that they participate in that are sinful, but I'm not caused to participate in them. And I work for an accounting firm, so I don't have to leave that job because they're not an alternative to Christ. But let me take another kind of more extreme example. What if I worked at an abortion clinic? That's a company whose sole job is to kill innocent children. There's no way I can work for them, even if they said, hey, you be a Christian over here, because I'm so tarnished by what they do, right, in killing children, that I can't have any association with them. Now, if you disagree with me that you can't associate with accounting, we can have that discussion later. But I hope you see the difference in that example there. Let me give you another example, family. Believe me, I know it is hard to leave a job. I know people in this congregation who have made this stand. I've been forced to do this, to leave a job. over matters of integrity and faith in Christ. So I'm not trying to present this as a trivial thing. I am trying to be faithful here to what the text is saying. Let me give you, I think, an even harder example is family. Again, I'm not saying that if you are from a family of unbelievers, and you've been a believer, that you can adopt a kind of smug attitude and look down your nose at them. and cast them off because you're a Christian. That is not what I'm saying. In fact, scripture says, has examples of how we're to deal with an unbelieving family or spouse if we become believers. But if you become a believer and your family rejects you as a result, come out from among them. Bear that reproach. Don't be tempted to waffle on your faith in Christ. abandon the church to go back, and does not hate his own father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brothers, and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. That's pretty extreme, isn't it? Those are hard words, hate. You list every kind of family relation you can have. He says, whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you desiring to build a tower does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, this man began to build, and was not able to finish. His warning there is to be prepared to endure the suffering that is coming as a believer. If you take a job, if you get married, if you have a child, if you form a friendship, if you join a club, you must be prepared to forsake that relationship if it leads you away. from Christ. I'm not here to say this is a simple and easy thing. This is a hard, hard thing to do. It's very costly. You must be prepared to go out of the camp and bear the reproach of Christ. And my fourth final point here It comes from John Calvin. He has a sober warning for believers about this idea of being prepared. He warns that if we've been prone to be slothful or lazy in the times that we're not suffering this reproach of Christ, then we won't be prepared when the time comes for us to suffer. In other words, he means if we are slothful or lazy in making use of what he coined the term of the means of grace, prayer, the word preached and taught, baptism, and the Lord's Supper. If we lack zeal, if we stop being diligent about praying, coming and hearing the word preached, taking the Lord's Supper, if we say we're believers and we don't come forward to have baptism, He says we won't be prepared. That's how we become prepared when the time of suffering comes upon us. So right now, if you're not suffering the reproach of Christ in your life right now, you must be diligent and not lazy in using the means of grace in order to be prepared because that time, if you're a believer, that time is coming for you one way or the other. If you're an unbeliever, and I'm almost done, if you're an unbeliever, hear me today, you are still at that feast of the unbelievers. You are still serving at the altar of unrighteousness. And there's absolutely no reason for you to leave unless Christ comes and calls on you to leave. You say, wait a minute, I don't go to church. I don't worship some idol, I'm not a, a Mormon or a Catholic or going to some other thing. I just, you know, I stay home, I stay out of trouble. You're still worshiping an idol. You're still practicing a religion. You're still in bondage to that idol, and you cannot get yourself out of it. All you can do is appeal to Christ for salvation before it is too late. Appeal to him by repenting of your sins and receiving forgiveness in Christ's name. Our confession in the Orthodox Catechism today had a very good answer in regard to that, of how you can do that. And I appeal for you, if you're an unbeliever, if you never confessed Christ and you've never come forward to receive baptism, do so before it is too late. So in conclusion, The author's purpose in this passage was to tell his audience that they must turn their back on the old forms of worship. And if they turn their back on these old forms of worship, they're gonna bear a cost. They're gonna be cast out of their families. They're gonna be cast out of their community. They're gonna be despised. And so the author tells them, by analogy, to be despised by their family and former friends on behalf of Christ is an act of acceptable worship in which they must engage. They must leave what seemed right, what was right in the past, what seems popular, and go out to Christ, who is despised, in order to worship Christ properly. Today, you must be ready to go to Christ. If you're in some popular activity, that seems right, that is setting you at odds with Christ, that is against Christ, that's causing you to remain in sin, whether it's a cultural tradition, whether it's something you're doing with family, whether it's your job, whether it's your friends, come out of it. Go out of it, turn your back on it for Christ's sake. Go to him and endure the snarky little comments, the bad posts on Facebook, the TikTok video they're gonna make about you that's gonna be embarrassing, the thanksgivings that you're no longer invited to. Endure the tears and grief of lost loved ones, the hardship of not having income, whatever it is. You may suffer worse. You may suffer the things that Christ suffered in his body, affliction, punishment, even death. And if you're not suffering the reproach of Christ now,