It comes from Psalm 22. Psalm 22. You probably recognize this psalm as the psalm that Jesus quoted when he was hanging on the cross, being rejected by men and even rejected by God as he took upon our sins. upon himself on the cross, receiving God's wrath against them in our stead. And the reason why I chose this one is because in verse 22 you will see, I will tell of your name to my brothers in the midst of the congregation, I will praise you. Meaning, Jesus sings with us in the midst of the congregation. He loves us. You see his brotherly love exemplified even in the midst of the congregation right there. He's willing to condescend even in the in the midst of a sinful assembly, as we are. And that is a wonderful blessing. We'll talk about that in the sermon today. Hear God's word from Psalm 22. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? Oh my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest. Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. In you our fathers trusted. They trusted and you delivered them. To you they cried and were rescued. In you they trusted and were not put to shame. But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people. All who see me mock me. They make mouths at me. They wag their heads. He trusts in the Lord. Let him deliver him. Let him rescue him, for he delights in him. Yet you are he who took me from my mother's womb. You made me trust you at my mother's breasts. On you was I cast from my birth, and from my mother's womb you have been my God. Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help. Many bulls encompass me, strong bulls of Bashan surround me. They open wide their mouths at me, like a ravening and roaring lion. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joints. My heart is like wax, it is melted within my breast. My strength is dried up like a pot shard, and my tongue sticks to my jaws. You lay me in the dust of the earth. For dogs encompass me, a company of evildoers encircles me. They have pierced my hands and feet. I can count all my bones. They stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. But you, O Lord, do not be far off. O you, my help, come quickly to my aid. Deliver my soul from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog. Save me from the mouth of the lion. You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen. I will tell of your name among my brothers. In the midst of the congregation, I will sing your praise. You who fear the Lord, praise him. All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel, for he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but he has heard when he cried to him. From you comes my praise in the great congregation. My vows I will perform before those who fear him. The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied. Those who seek him shall praise the Lord. May your hearts live forever. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord. And all the families of the nations shall worship before you. For kingship belongs to the Lord Yahweh. And he rules over the nations. All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, even the one who could not keep himself alive. Posterity shall serve him. It shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation. They shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn that he has done it. This is the Lord's word. As we have Very good. Well, if you would turn in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 13. So last week in Hebrews 13, we're gonna specifically look at verses one through six, but again, just for the sake of context and enjoying God's word, we're gonna read again through verse 21. hear God's Word this morning. Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you are also in the body. Let marriage be held in honor among you all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. Keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have, for he has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. So we can confidently say, the Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me? Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God, consider the outcome of their way of life, imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be led away 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 burnt 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. Through him, therefore, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to him. Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience, desiring to act honorably in all things. I urge you, the more earnestly, to do this in order that I may be restored to you the sooner. Now may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, May He equip you with everything good that you may do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. This is God's word for us this morning. So today is our last of three sermons in Hebrews 13, as we have been going through Hebrews 13 in the last three weeks here. And we've approached this chapter in an unusual way. Usually what I do is I just go verse by verse by verse, starting in maybe verse one and ending at the end of the chapter or at the end of the book. But we've kind of jumped around, haven't we? The first week we looked at maybe the middle section and then last week we looked kind of at various other verses. And the reason is because the chapter itself seems to jump around from one topic to the next without much organization, doesn't it? I've mentioned a number of times that the style of writing here is what we see that what many of us might do when we're journaling. We're just kind of free writing, trying to just get our thoughts on the paper. And as the author of Hebrews is probably getting to the end of his very precious scrolls, precious writing material, and he needs to get a few last things out, he's just trying to cram those things in there as he's writing and there's not as much organization. And so how do we get the most out of a chapter like this? What I have done for us in our study in this chapter is organize this chapter into themes that sort of build off of one another and that makes sense of one another. There's a reason why we looked at verses 10 through 16 first, and then the verses on leadership in the church second. All of those verses pertain to God's work to equip us. God equips us with Jesus, verses 10 through 16, and with pastors, verse 7, 17, you might even say 20 and 21 as we looked at last week. He equips us, that comes first. Then we can find freedom and joy in the practical instructions on Christian love and service. Grace comes first, then obedience. God's grace, Jesus comes first, and then you might say Christian ethics, how we live that out. And you see that all over the Bible, don't you? If you're familiar with the structure of Ephesians, or many other New Testament chapters, a lot of it, Ephesians one through three, theology, what God has done for you, chapters, the rest of Ephesians. Therefore, this is what you live in light of that. And so we looked at verses 10 through 16 first. And I mean, in many ways, verses 10 through 16 is summarizing what the whole book of Hebrews has been about. Jesus' sacrifice and how that sacrifice frees us to offer up our sacrifices of praise to God in everything that we do. And so It is in that blood, in that grace, that we are therefore able to consider ethics. Verse one, let brotherly love continue. Verse two, show hospitality to strangers. Verse four, let the marriage bed be held in honor. Don't love money, verse five. Why? Why should we live that way? Because of grace, because you're free to, brothers and sisters. So, let's just immerse ourselves in that grace real quick. As we, I mean, what we're gonna do today is we're gonna be looking, again, this is the third last week, we're gonna be looking at those verses one through six, the Christian ethics. And so, let's immerse ourselves in that grace just for the sake of context so that we are kind of having swum in that a little bit from what we've been talking about the last couple of weeks before we get to this brotherly love that we're gonna talk about today. So, two weeks ago, verses 12 through 15 generally, we saw that Jesus, verse 12, Jesus suffered to sanctify the people, you and me, through his blood. He sanctified us, and then that takes us straight to worship, verse 15. He sanctified us, verse 15, therefore through him let us continually offer up sacrifices of praise to God. He sanctifies us so that we would be acceptable through His blood. And therefore, we might also offer our worship in everything that we do, whether we are at home with the kids, whether we are at work at the bank, or whether we are here on Sunday morning worshiping together. He sanctifies us and our worship so that we can have that assurance that He is pleased with us in everything. Without that blood, we are totally rejected by God, aren't we? You are positionally a sinner in Adam. You're born in your sin, dead to God. And as you are in that situation, you positionally are rejected to God, and therefore, of course, everything that you do, even if it appears to be good, is rejected by God. It's done with false motives. It's done with impure hands, imperfect motivations, and the list of offenses goes on before God. We need the cleansing blood. So verse 12 reassures us that Jesus suffered under the wrath that we deserved and thus he sanctified us so that we would be accepted. And as we consider brotherly love today, remember how verse 15 illustrates the centrality of this for us. This command is that we would, this is a command that we're to live under. We are to offer up our sacrifices of praise to God continually as we had talked about. Continually, this work of praise is never ending for the Christian. All of the other commands in this chapter about brotherly love or even just gathering together for worship, it's all subservient. This is continual worship. This is a lifestyle. In fact, verse 16, you'll see that we should do good and share for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. Do you see that? So, Offer up a sacrifice of praise to God and then the next verse, do good and share for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. So any sacrifices that you offer up to God are sacrifices of praise. Because as I had said in my prayer earlier, the sin offering has been offered and accepted. All we have left to do as Christians is to offer up sacrifices of praise. Again, it reminds me of 1 Corinthians 15, 58, that drives this home in a very succinct way. Be steadfast and immovable. Always abounding in whose work? The Lord's work. Committing everything that you do to the Lord. And then the promise there, knowing that in the Lord, through his blood, your labor is not in vain. If you get done with a day of work and you look back and say, that was so unproductive. I actually like backstepped about three days in my work today, or the kids were so fussy today. I mean, how can God accept this? I was angry with my coworker or something along those lines. Will God accept it? Did you commit it to the Lord? Did you do it unto the Lord through faith, not in the goodness of your work, but in the goodness of Christ and his sacrifice? Be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. Do you see how this, this theology, this grace is just, this is the building blocks for the Christian ethics. You need to know this before you start talking about brotherly love. Otherwise, you're gonna have no foundation, brothers and sisters. That's why we looked at these verses first. And of course, last week we considered what verse seven and 17 remind us about. Last week we considered how God equips us with these things. He reminds us about this grace through the ministry of pastors and elders. And so that's another way that God has equipped us so that we would keep these things at the front of our minds all the time. That's leadership, isn't it? Steering you to Christ, His freedom and promises so that you might have strength and joy in His grace. That's my desire for you, brothers and sisters. So with all of this in mind, let's narrow into the subject matter for today. How do we love one another? How does Jesus help us here? What does brotherly love look like practically in light of all this? I have a very simple outline for us today as we're gonna consider these things. First, we're gonna consider what brotherly love requires. What does it require, practically? What does it require? And then secondly, we're gonna consider what brotherly love accomplishes. What does it require? What does it accomplish? And again, that's mostly gonna be all in verses one through six today, as we're gonna be closing up Hebrews 13. So what does it require? What does brotherly love require? What does the Christian ethic require, especially in the church? At face value, you'll look at the passage in verses one through six and you'll see references to hospitality, remembering those who are mistreated and thrown into prison for the gospel. It involves keeping the marriage bed pure, not being greedy with money. But just so we really understand what brotherly love is referring to here, let brotherly love continue, verse one. it would be good to recognize that we are talking about the love of the brethren, Christian brothers and sisters here. Love those who are in prison as though in prison with them since you are in the body. This isn't generically remember everyone who's in prison, who's suffering in prison. We're talking about brothers in Christ here. That's who we're talking about. The body there is obviously talking about the Christian family. Go to those who have been suffering for the sake of the gospel, encourage them. And the same is true with reference to the hospitality passage. It's likely that hospitality there is referring to being hospitable to traveling Christians. There were a lot of itinerant ministers. I mean, Paul was an itinerant minister. He needed a place to stay, didn't he, when he would go from town to town? And the church was called to be hospitable toward them. I haven't seen any evidence in the New Testament and any New Testament commands that we are required to be hospitable to just the random person on the streets who don't love Jesus. All the references to hospitality, especially the commands in the New Testament that I can see, is referring to hospitality toward one another. That's not to say you shouldn't allow an unbeliever in your home, but I think you get what I'm saying here. Just to illustrate this point, The Apostle Paul, I mean, again, he didn't stay in hotels in his journey. He stayed in homes. In fact, he says to the church in Galatians, in Galatians 4, verse 13, he says, you know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first. First time I met you, it was a bodily ailment. I must have been traveling through town or something like that, and I got sick. I needed a place to stay. I was in Galatia at the time. And that's when I first preached the gospel to you. And then he says this. So a sick minister, he comes into town, possibly contagious, do you receive him in your home? Right now with our COVID culture, the world would say absolutely not. But Paul says, you did not despise me, but you received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus himself. Jesus reminds us, Jesus himself reminds us that to serve the body is to serve him personally. Matthew 25, verse 40, it says, truly I say to you, you did it, you did it to one of, as you did it to one of the least of my brothers, you also did it to me. You see that? You did it to me, he says. To love and be hospitable to Christ's people is to be loved and hospitable to Christ himself. It's an astounding reality that we must receive and obey with faith in this word. This testifies that this is an act of worship. You serve and worship Christ by serving the brothers. Do you see that? That's what this is. The Christian camp that Ann and I met at, they had a motto that was on all their name tags. And it said, very simple but catchy phrase, serving Christ by serving you. I've always loved that. And it was always just kind of said in a kind of a silly way, like serving Christ by serving you. But it was heartfelt. And I've always really appreciated that. And it was just a quick little model that really defined the camp as all of the staff had this Godward focus in their ministry. I'm serving Christ first as I'm serving you. As I'm receiving you, I'm receiving God. And therefore, this is all a sacrifice of praise to God. It would be wonderful if we would adopt that as a little motto in our church here, wouldn't it? Serving Christ by serving you. Now, just at this point, all I'm really trying to show is that this is a command not to philanthropy, a general love toward all humanity. This is a command in Hebrews 13 calling for Philadelphia, a love toward the brethren. You might say it's a call to love and serve God by loving and serving his brothers and sisters that God has given you. So don't let yourself miss this. Brotherly love requires just that. I mean, just really hear this. Brotherly love, what does brotherly love require? As we're trying to figure out, what does it require? It requires a focused, attentive love toward the brethren. And it's sad to say, but that is a piercing command in our culture today, isn't it? Many people have been hurt in the church. Many Christians are ashamed to be associated with Christians. Christians ashamed to be associated with Christians. The brethren in the church. The church is full of hypocrites and sinners. I don't need that in my life. I'm better off simply to practice my faith on my own. I hear a lot of people say. Yes, the brethren of God are full of sin and messiness. We literally get together and confess our sin together, don't we? Let it all on the table, here it is. And sadly, a lot of times we harbor it too. But the church can be a messy place. But you know something? It was no messier, it was no different than when Jesus came down to save us, was it? The hypocrisy didn't stop him. It actually moved him to sacrifice and love, forgiveness and peace, didn't it? He loves the brethren. He sacrificed for them, despite the messiness. I'm reminded of that passage earlier in Hebrews when we are told that Jesus became a man and was not ashamed to call them brothers. You could turn to Hebrews 2 if you want to look at this. Hebrews 2 starting around verse 10, verse 11. It says that he was not ashamed to call them brothers. He became God eternity, the Son of God, eternity, equal in power and glory with God forever. Was not ashamed to call us sinful people, brothers and sisters. He wasn't ashamed. meaning he might as well have been ashamed given how sinful and miserable we are under the curse. Yet he wasn't. He was proud and zealous to call him brothers. If you look at the next verse in Hebrews 2, verse 11, it even goes so far that Jesus came praising his heavenly father in the midst of the assembly of God's people saying, I will tell of your name to my brothers in the midst of the congregation, I will sing your praise. Jesus committed himself to God's people and worshiping God in their assembly, even with all the messiness of God's people. He actually went to us messy people, our messy churches. And even today it says, he says that he meets us when two or more are gathered. There I am, right? Jesus says this and he loves the brethren. And instead of running away from the mess and the sin and hypocrisy, he instead sacrificed himself for it. So here it is, brotherly love requires love. It's very simple, but it's so hard, isn't it? Sacrifice, humility, even as you see sin on your brother's shoulder. But notice what else brotherly love requires in this passage. Let's brotherly love continue. Continue. Brotherly love requires a certain constancy, a steadfastness, a diligence that you need to work on. Brotherly love is not always easy, especially when you are constantly forgiving the same person over and over and over again for the same offenses, husbands and wives. I have to keep forgiving them. Let it continue. Yet Jesus says that we should forgive our brothers 77 times seven. Do you remember what Paul says about this? Forgive as God in Christ forgave you. That's the standard for forgiveness that we are supposed to adopt as we associate with the brethren. God's forgiveness for you. Now, think about God's forgiveness toward you. Think about it, right? all of your sin, the things that you know, that only you know perhaps, all of those mental sins, he knows, he forgives. And not just think about that, but just think about who he is. He's God, holy, undefiled. That's the standard that we're supposed to extend toward one another. Forgive one another as God in Christ forgave you. You might say, the same way, through Christ. God has forgiven you through Christ. Who am I to withhold forgiveness? So brotherly love requires constancy. And this is hard. It can be scary. You might be afraid that you'll lose the battle or the person might get an upper hand on you or justice simply won't be served. And we're not talking about that at this point right now, are we? Right now we're talking about you, what's going on in your heart, aren't we? And what sort of emotions you are harboring or feelings you're projecting on another Christian. When the Corinthian church was struggling with brotherly love, Paul reminds them in 1 Corinthians 13 verse four, he says, love is patient, love is kind. Again, remember this is all about what's going on in your heart toward that brother. It's patient. It's kind. It does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things. It believes all things. It hopes all things. It endures all things. We often read that in weddings, don't we? It's beautiful, poetic. And I'm not necessarily opposed to reading it in weddings. But what is this originally intended for? It's intended to pierce a church that's divided. It's intended to be piercing words to a church that is not loving this way. Or perhaps encouraging to a church who is working toward this end. Brotherly love. Love that hopes all things, endures all things, that believes all things. In other words, not assuming the worst. Isn't that hard? Don't assume the worst of one another. It's easy to go there, isn't it? Someone says something insensitive and you might think, I see what he's trying to do there. He did that, I see what he did. I see that. Someone says something insensitive or perhaps you say, I just know that lady has hidden motives. We don't go there. We don't go there unless it's very obvious, provable, perhaps. And then we might even take it to them and just gently confess. Like, hey, what's going on here? Is something, do we need to, do we need to deal with some sin here? Gently. We assume the best or we ask the person about it because we want brotherly love to continue as we hope all things and endure all things. And brothers and sisters, it is hard to assume the best. It really is. And it's possible that they might get an upper hand on you. It is possible that they'll take advantage of you. But check your heart first. Brotherly love requires love. It requires humility. It requires constancy. Yet brotherly love in the church also requires you to get uncomfortable, as you would invite people into your homes, even strangers whom you don't know. You see the command there to be hospitable in verse two? The Greek word for hospitality is actually a combination of two words in the Greek. It combines the word love, phileo, and stranger, nexia. Phileo, nexia. So you have philanthropy, the general love of humanity, which this passage is not dealing with. You have Philadelphia, the love of the brethren, which this passage is dealing with. And then perhaps a subcategory of Philadelphia is we are loving one another, we are to have philinexia. There's a new word for you. Love of stranger, and specifically that word is regularly used with reference to hospitality, in your home. Does that make you feel a little bit uncomfortable? Some of us have a gift towards this and we love it, being hospitable. But there really is a certain vulnerability and openness that can easily cause unrest when we think about hospitality. Hospitality is exercising brotherly love not on Sunday mornings or in the coffee shop on a Wednesday afternoon get-together. It's brotherly love in the most intimate place of your life where everything is exposed, in your home. Think of the exposure, your family life, your smells, your possessions, the mess that could categorize you as a careless person or perhaps the pristine home that marks you as an OCD person. I imagine many of you have experienced this as people are coming over. Is this too clean? Or is it too dirty? How do I get these anxieties? And it's all on the table. These are the anxieties that we experience. We're supposed to exercise this brotherly love of hospitality. Then you bring in the thought of strangers coming into your home. Itinerant ministers or other We don't get many opportunities today with hotels and cars and all that kind of stuff to exercise hospitality towards strangers. But there's certain anxieties there that we've got to deal with. And we'll get there in a moment. One more thing, real quick. Brotherly love does not simply call us to forsake, does not simply call us to be hospitable and to be humble in those things that we've talked about. It also requires us to forsake the desires of our flesh in this world. Look at verses 4 and 5. Verse 4 says, In other words, don't pursue the worldly desires of promiscuity or money and possessions and that kind of worldliness. Don't do it. What does adultery do to brotherly love? It destroys it. What does loving money and worldly things do to brotherly love? Destroys it. The alternative to greediness and this kind of worldliness, of course, is contentment. Contentment. Contentment with your wife, your family, your finances and possessions. What does that do for brotherly love? It fosters it in beautiful, beautiful ways. Contentment is a really a rare gem that produces such incredible fruits in the Christian life and in the church, isn't it? If we were all just content, it'd be a beautiful thing. Godliness with contentment is great gain, Paul says. The godly person who is content cannot lose. They're godly. They're godly. They have godly desires, godly ambitions. Godliness with contentment is great gain. Why? Because as you are godly and content, you are godly as you love God, His fruit of the Spirit, His forgiveness, the things that He gives you. He gives you. Those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. As you receive that promise, you can say, okay, I don't need that thing that I don't have. It's a godly desire. It's good for brotherly love. So all this to say, brotherly love requires a love toward the messy, sinful brothers of God and sisters, the very Christians who may have hurt you personally even. Brotherly love also requires humility, long-suffering, constancy as you work at this. It requires you to get uncomfortable and invite people into your homes, even strangers whom you may not know. And it requires you to forsake the world for contentment in God and his people. And this, of course, might make brotherly love seem impossible. Perhaps some of you are like, when are you gonna get to grace, Vader? There's a lot of requirements here and I'm feeling a little bit bogged down. Seems impossible to really fulfill this. There's one more requirement to brotherly love and it's at the bottom of all this. It supports everything that I've just said. Brotherly love requires faith in God's promises. Without faith in God's rock solid promises, you're not doing this stuff, especially joyfully as God would have you. Consider how all of these commands conclude in grace in these first six verses of Hebrews 13. Let bodily love continue, show hospitality, remember those in prison as though in prison with them, forsake the passions of sex and money, be content with what you have. Here's the promise, for he has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. Do you hear that? Do you have anxieties about assuming the best of someone in the church, loving them? I'm gonna assume the best here. I'm not sure, but I'm just gonna assume the best. Let brotherly love continue. You might take advantage of me here. Where are you gonna get strength to do that? God's on my side. He will never leave me or forsake me. It's helpful in marriage too. And just in case if we miss how that promise is supposed to land on us, Hebrews actually tells us how this promise is supposed to land on us by quoting Psalm 118, verse six in the next verse. Verse five, the promise, I will never leave you or forsake you, then in verse six, quoting Psalm 118, therefore, we can confidently say in that promise, the Lord is my helper. I will not fear what can man do to me. You see that? The Lord will never leave me or forsake me. Therefore, I can confidently say, the Lord is my helper, I will not fear. What can man do to me? What can he do? That's the words of faith speaking right there. If you think about it logically, I can think of a lot of things that man can do to you, can't you? You can do a lot of things. I mean, the author of Hebrews literally just said, remember those in prison who have been mistreated. The Lord will not forsake you. What can man do to me? He just said that in verse three. By faith we are called to believe God's words when he says to his people, I will never leave you or forsake you. So we can confidently say he is our helper. What can he do to me? Beat me, judge me based on my home, take advantage of me when I assume the best and forgive him? The Lord of the universe is on my side in Christ. Notice the word confidence in that verse. Because God has spoken in this promise, we can therefore confidently say, I will not fear. In other words, you believe that promise with confidence, and therefore you are able to rest in it and not fear. You're able to joyfully and freely, through Christ and through God's love and care for you, commit yourself to all these things, even when it's really hard. It's faith, confident faith. Here's an illustration that gets at this nicely. When you make a promise to a child that you will throw a football with him after your day of work, that child can do one of two things. Either he's not really going to listen to what you said, I'm going to play football with you after work, and he's going to get filled with anxiety. He's excited about playing football, but he's not listening to the word confidently. So he's going to say, hey, dad, when are we going to play football? When are we going to play football? I'm excited. Can we play football yet? No, Johnny. I said after work, but you listened to me. Can you please just listen? Calm your soul a little bit here. Did you hear that anxiety there? The other thing you could do is hear that word, trust in his father's word and say, Daddy, I cannot wait to play football after work. You see how that's honoring rather than dishonoring to the Father's Word? And it's good for the child's soul, teaching him patience. You might even say love, joy, peace, patience, kindness. It's good for you to trust him. I cannot wait. God, I cannot wait for you to show up. and prove that you are on my side as I trust in this promise that you will never leave me or forsake me, as I forgive that person, or as I assume the best, or as I invite those people into my home, despite all my anxieties. Just rest in those promises. Receive them, listen to them, study them, memorize them. They will help you. How do you respond to God's promises? That's a good question. This is where one minister says that we are called to let brotherly love continue through the power of faith in God's unshakable promises. If we would only pray to God that by his spirit he would instill a rock-solid confidence in those promises. I think the brotherly love in this church, it would take strides forward. I've already experienced it. I'm not saying it's not there, but anyways. Psalm 34, 10, those who lack, those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. Psalm 73, God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. These are blood brought promises in Christ accomplished work. as Hebrews has shown us. Receive those promises and rest and go love one another. So trusting in God's blood-bought promises is where we will find strength to love patiently, to endure all things, to bear all things, to show hospitality, be content, forgive the brethren as you were called to forgive. It requires all these things. And underneath all this, of course, is what does brotherly love require ultimately? Faith in God's promises. Now, that's what brotherly love requires. What does it accomplish now? What's the point of all this? What's the fruit that we're gonna see out of all this? God gave us one another, the church family, for a reason. Now, let me give you a couple of those reasons from Hebrews, but also from another few places in the Bible. First, brotherly love gives us camaraderie and accountability in the faith. That really is the most pressing reason for brotherly love in Hebrews. We need each other. Hebrews was written to a hurting, persecuted church. Of course, again, verse 3, there are people in prison. Remember them. They need your help and love. But then also, Hebrews was written to a very tempted church. The temptation for these early Christians to return to Judaism was real. There are hints of that all over Hebrews. We need to know that Christ is better than the Jewish system. We need to remind ourselves of that. We need to remind ourselves that Christ is better than anything that this world has to offer. We need that camaraderie. You see that right away in the beginning of the letter of Hebrews, chapter three, verse one. It says, therefore, holy brethren, there's the brotherhood, you who share in this heavenly calling, consider Jesus. Together, consider him. Consider that he is better than Judaism. Or verses 12 and 13, again in chapter three, gets more explicit. Did you hear that? What does this accomplish? Soft hearts. Take care, see to it that your brother is safe, not getting hardened by sin, but resting and trusting in the gospel. Many of us regard, I mean, this is just so ironic, isn't it? Like, a lot of people think that the church is a place where they get hardened because of how messed up the church can be. I've heard many people say, I just go to church and I just get hardened, because there's so much hypocrisy there. Yet here we see the exact opposite should happen. Your heart should get soft. See to it that none of you have an unbelieving heart, but that your heart would not be hardened, that it would stay soft in the gospel. Then later in chapter 10, verses 23 and 24, we see more camaraderie in the gospel where Hebrews says very much the same thing. He says that we are called to consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as the habit of some, but encouraging to one another. We're to stir up one another in love and good works. How do you do that, brothers and sisters? Remind your brother of the gospel. You don't need to be paralyzed by fear. You don't need to be paralyzed by these things. You've been forgiven, received the gospel, experienced the freedom of Christ and love. You don't need to be paralyzed by these anxieties. So, the brotherhood accomplishes accountability and camaraderie in the gospel. Yet another important matter that it accomplishes is the great work of prayer. You see that at the end of Hebrews chapter 13, as we are in these very last instructions here. Pray for us, verse 18, you see that? The author of Hebrews is saying, pray for us, that we would be able to continue our work in the ministry. He's asking for prayer. We are called to pray for one another, brothers and sisters. The great privilege, this is one of the greatest privileges that we have in the gospel, is to lift ourselves and our fellow Christians up to God in prayer. It really is a great comfort to know that your brothers and sisters are praying for you, isn't it? I love what Charles Spurgeon says on this. He says that when you are being prayed for, you are doubly loved. He says, earnest intercession or prayer will be sure to bring love with it. I do not believe you can hate a man for whom you are habitually praying for. If you dislike any brother, Christian, pray for him doubly, not only for his sake, but also for your own, that you may be cured of prejudice and saved from an unkind feeling. You're doubly loved. You're being loved by that person and you're being loved by God as that person is bringing you to God in prayer. It's a wonderful blessing. And it will do good things for your soul, especially if you're having a hard time with someone in the church. Pray for him. One more thing that brotherly love accomplishes real quick here. It accomplishes an easement of our miseries in this life. We are called to be hospitable to those who need a place to live. If you're not being hospitable to someone passing by, then they either have to spend money and get a hotel or they have to sleep in their car. Or if it's hospitality to someone in the community, your fellowship might ease their miseries of loneliness or worry. The Christians were called in our passage to remember those in prison, those who were mistreated. And I don't think we're supposed to just remember them necessarily in prayer, but I mean, do everything you can to ease their miseries. Go to their families. There was recently some pastors up in Canada who were thrown into prison for holding services on Sunday. And I heard reports on social media that the wife who was left behind with a number of kids was receiving all kinds of meals, all kinds of letters from across the United States and Canada. I mean, if I was thrown into prison and my wife was receiving that kind of love, praise God. I know that the Lord is providing. What can man do to us? So. Brotherly love accomplishes a much needed camaraderie in the gospel and accountability. It accomplishes prayer and through brotherly love we ease one another's burdens from the miseries of this life. And just real quick, one more thing that it accomplishes, it accomplishes a picture of the gospel, brothers and sisters. This is one of the things that I love most about brotherly love, about hospitality. You are providing a picture of the gospel, all the blessings, as you are forgiving one another as God in Christ has forgiven you, exercising that forgiving, constant brotherly love to one another. What are you saying to your brother? What are you reminding them of? God's forgiveness. When you bring them into your home and give them a lavish meal, what are you showing them? The love of Christ. Maybe even a small little picture. of that great banquet that we will have in eternity. Hospitality, forgiveness, anything that you might do in love toward the brethren, it is a picture of the gospel and all the blessings that come with it. So we are the hands and feet of Christ, are we not? So that concludes our study through Hebrews 13. And I pray that this would all move you to serve God in the freedom of the gospel. You are free to love one another because God first loved you and he accepts your love of the brethren as a sacrifice of praise through the merit of Christ's blood. And even as you do not love perfectly, your brotherly love and service is accepted. So go, brothers and sisters, love the brethren that he has sanctified by trusting in those rock-solid promises and find strength in those promises rather than in yourself. Let's say a prayer. Father, we thank you so much that you have indeed given us these freedoms, that you have given us not only the blood of Christ that frees us to do all these things as an act of worship, but Father, that you have even given us all the promises that you will never leave us or forsake us as we commit ourselves to these things that can be so hard. And therefore, we can confidently say the Lord is our helper. we do not need to fear. Father, instill these things deeply within our hearts with a true, confident faith so that we may not be anxious, but be bold. Amen.