Well, good morning and welcome to our second service. On Sunday mornings we have two services, the first of which is the Bible prophecy update that we do weekly. And then now second service is the sermon. It's a verse by verse study through the Word of God. We're currently in the book of Hebrews. We're actually almost done with the book of Hebrews. And today our text is going to be chapter 13, beginning in verse eight, and Lord willing, we'll make it to verse 16. So I'll ask those that are here, if you're able, if you would please stand for the reading of God's Word. If not, where you're seated is fine. You can follow along. The writer of Hebrews is, by the Holy Spirit writing, to these Hebrew Christians and says, verse 8, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. That's a mic drop right there. Do not, verse 9, be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by eating ceremonial foods, which is of no benefit to those who do so. We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat. The high priest, verse 11, carries the blood of animals into the most holy place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. Hang on, I know this is interesting. And, verse 12, so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through His own blood. let us then go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. For here, verse 14, we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come through Jesus. Therefore, Let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that openly profess His name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others. For with such sacrifices, God is pleased.' Wow. Let's pray. If you would please join with me. We'll ask God's understanding on this portion that we have before us today. Loving Heavenly Father, we're so grateful to You for Your Word and this, Your church, this place that we have, that we can come to and put aside all the busyness and stresses of our lives. And just focus our attention on You and Your Word and what You have for us here in Your Word. Lord, this is here for a reason, and You want to show us what that reason is. You want to speak into our lives, in and through this text that we have before us today. That's why we're here, Lord. We want to hear You speak, and we don't want our minds to wander. We want to give You our undivided, undistracted attention. so that when You do speak into our lives, we not only hear but take heed to Your Word. So please Lord, will You do that for us? Will You speak? Your servants are listening. We love You so much. In Jesus' name, Amen and Amen. You can be seated. Thank you. So I want to talk with you today about the dangers of strange teachings and how to first discern them so as to then reject them. And the reason being is, is that the text before us today, the writer of Hebrews is exhorting the believers to very specifically not be carried away by what he calls are these strange teachings, all kinds of strange teachings, which would infer that there were all kinds of strange teachings at this time. And He's warning them, and cautioning them, and exhorting them, and even encouraging them concerning this. Don't get carried away by these. They are strange to the Gospel. They are strange to the Word of God. And in so doing, what He does, and I hope you'll bear with me, because I want to approach the teaching of this text a little bit differently, such that I want to pose questions from within the text. Three questions that I think all of us would do well to ask and answer, myself included by the way, concerning anything that differs from sound doctrine. These differing, strange teachings. How do you know that they're not compatible with the Word of God? Is there a way to discern that and know that so that you have nothing to do with them and worse yet are not carried away by them? So the first question is in verses 8 and 9 and it's this, does it carry me away from grace? Here the writer begins by saying that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. In other words, I know this is deeply profound. This means that Jesus does not change. Again, like I said, I know that's deeply profound. He's the same. He doesn't change. You'll forgive my attempt to wax poetic when I say this, but if it's different and makes Jesus change, it's strange. I told you to bear with me. If it makes Jesus change, it's strange. Because Jesus doesn't change. Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. He does not change. And aren't you glad by the way? Could you imagine if He changed? You know how we say of people, you've changed. What do you mean? Well, you've really changed. Good change? No, you've really changed. Well, that's not good. I don't want to change that way. I want to change in a good way. Well, the thing is that Jesus does not change. Jesus is perfect. You're not going to change perfect. So now here's the problem. We've got Jesus who is the same yesterday, today and forever. And He doesn't change. But then there's this over here. And it seems to be a little strange because in order for that to be true, it would need to make Jesus change and not be the same. Doubtless you've heard the saying if it's new, it's not true. And if it's true, it's not new. I didn't botch that, did I? I mean the way you're looking at me, I'm thinking I'm having doubts right now. But if it's true, it's not new. And if it's new, it's not true. So here comes someone and they've got some new insight. Be very careful. In fact, Run from them new. What do you mean new? Always new, never seen before insight into the deep understanding of the Word of God. And they say it just like that. I mean, excuse me, Verse 8 in my Bible of Hebrews 13 says Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. There's a uniformity. There's no changing. James, which by the way is the next book, says there's no shifting of shadows. In other words, God is a shifty. He's not, you know, wishy washy and back and forth. And you know, no, God never changes. He's the same. He's the same God that He was yesterday, as the same God that He is today. And by the way, He'll be that same God tomorrow too. You don't have to worry about anything. He's not, He's not changing. And he doesn't change his mind either. Could you imagine how weird would that be if God changed his mind? You know, you're praying and God's like, oh, I never saw it like that. Okay, you got a good point there. No, now I'm really messed up, because now he's changing. No, he doesn't change. If it makes Jesus change, it becomes strange to the gospel. And the way to know that it is strange to the gospel is because it's not the gospel of grace. Notice where the writer of Hebrews says that we are of grace. It's all of grace, not ceremonial rituals and laws and rules and do's and don'ts. That's not grace. And that's not Jesus. That's strange. That's strange. That's different. It's incompatible with who Jesus is. and is incompatible with the Word of God. You will know without any doubt, with a surety, an assurance, no question, that it is not the Lord if it moves you away from grace, which was the problem for these Hebrew Christians. the temptation, the pull to go back to Judaism, back to the ceremonial rituals. Go back to the tabernacle and the temple and the altar and all of these do's and don'ts. That's what the law is. The law says do, do, do. And grace says, done, done, done. That's grace. If anybody presents anything to you at any time that moves you away from that, no, get out. Get thee behind Me, Satan, as Jesus said to Peter. Man, that must have really hurt Peter, because it was just right after Jesus told him, wow, blessed are you Simon Barjona, for, you know, the Lord has revealed this to you. And he just got done being told that, you know, you're going to be the rock. And Peter's like all that, you know. And then all of a sudden, a few verses later, he's saying to the same Peter, by the way, get thee behind me Satan. Whoa, what happened? Well, somebody comes to me and tries to pull me into legalism. I'm going to be that blunt, because that's not Jesus. That's strange, because Jesus doesn't change. It's grace. It's all of grace. It's all of grace. It's the grace of God. Here's a second question of verses 10 through 14. Does it carry me away from death to self? Now, please stay with me because verses 10 through 14, the writer specific to what they were dealing with at that time concerning the ceremonial rituals and the altars. And he has to refocus them and redirect them, even correct them and get them away from this notion that they had to go to the temple and go to the altar. And what he's saying to them is, no, we follow a rejected Savior. The Savior we follow does not have an altar in the temple in the city. The Savior we follow has a cross outside the city. And that's the problem. Because that means that in order for me to follow Jesus, I have to pick up my cross and I need to die to myself if I want to be His disciple. And by the way, it's every day, because it says daily. You know what daily means, right? Every day. and everything within me fights against that. Death to self. No, I'm all about preservation of self. Death to self. Hey preacher, I can go down the street and there's this other preacher over here, big church by the way. He doesn't talk nearly as long as you do either. And he's going to tell me I don't have to do that. God loves me. It's all good. Let's just all have a big group hug. He's not preaching the Gospel. He's not preaching the Word. You can't get away from this. Sadly, in today's world, especially today with everything that's going on, you'd be hard pressed find a church where the whole counsel of God, the whole Word of God is taught. Because when you teach the Bible like this, you can't skip over passages like this. Oh, please don't look at me like, wow, pastor, you're amazing. No, I'm not. God knows, God knows the truth. If I could, I would. Are you kidding me right now? If I taught the word topically, I would not talk about this. Are you kidding me? Hebrews 13, altar, sacrifice, outside the city, shame, disgrace, bore the shame, the disgrace, die to self, pick up your cross. I would much rather have a huge Colosseum and tell people all over the world that you don't have to die to self. You can have your best life now. Love yourself. Oh no, I wish I was being facetious, but I'm not. I actually remember this many years ago now. I remember a teaching where the pastor said something along the lines of, you know, one of the reasons why it's so hard to love others the way you love yourself, as Jesus commanded, is because you just maybe don't love yourself enough. In what world is that even remotely possible? I don't love myself enough? What? I love myself too much. I think about myself all the time. And so do you. So don't look at me all spiritual. You walk by a storefront with the window and it's got the reflection. What are you doing? Come on, let's be honest. You know, back in the day when you get Okay, you young people just bear with me. There was a time not so long ago, in a land far, far away, when you would actually have to get your photos developed I know it's very strange. Talk about strange, right? And you would have to take the film. And you know, Costco, you could go to Costco and they would have one hour. And so you go do your shopping, you take your film in and they would print out your pictures. You couldn't wait to see how they turned out. That's strange, yeah? Wait a minute, give me a moment. I just, I'm having a flashback right now. I'll be back with you in a moment. Wow. And what's the first, you couldn't wait. In fact, you'd show up early. We're not done yet Alma. Thank you for your patience. We're like, you know, I want to see my pictures. So they finally bring out the envelope, you know, and they ring you up. And you didn't even wait to pay. You're opening that thing up. You're looking through the pictures and You know which ones the good pictures are? Come on, the ones you look good in. Okay, so let's bring it to the modern day technology. We take them now with our market, I mean phones. surveillance devices, you know, that track our every move. And everything we say, by the way, they listen to everything you say. So, you need Jesus. You never know. Wouldn't that be something? We get to heaven and somebody from the NSA comes up and goes, you know, you, when you did that, I was listening and I got saved. Like, praise the Lord. It worked. You never know. So let's bring it into modern day. Is this too much? I'm, you know, bear with me. But you bring it into modern day and you take the picture on your phone and you take 35 of them and you only pick out the ones that, I mean, they look great. You don't. So delete. Can we talk? Okay, so you find one. Then what do you do? Oh, I guess they have, I don't do this. God knows my heart. If you do this, God loves you and God forgives you. But they have filters and they have apps that make you look like what you don't really look like. And you can tell too, by the way. You know, I look at my face and I think there ain't no app. I don't care. Photoshop, forget it. Try to try to use Photoshop. Photoshop goes, no. And so no, nothing you can do. You just need your glorified body, which is fine because I'm getting a new body and a new face too. And hair, by the way, on this one. So, so what's your point pastor? Do you have a point here? Yeah, I do. anything or anyone who presents to you this notion of self, it's strange. Get away, run away before you get carried away. Because everything in our sin nature, our flesh craves this. The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. My flesh loves it. Oh, my flesh hates Bible verses that talk about dying to self. You better not deny me. I'll make you pay for it. I'll make you start experiencing pain. And oh, try to fast. We talked about fasting, by the way, on Thursday night. And your stomach, you're denying yourself. You're humbling yourself when you fast. And your stomach's like, what are you doing? I didn't say you could fast. And I'm going to let you know of my displeasure the stomach growling and the hunger pains. And I mean the twinge, which is actually a good thing, because every time that hunger pain and that stomach growl happens, it's a reminder. Oh yeah, Lord, I'm denying myself. I'm dying to myself. Here's the thing. You want to live, you have to die. It's the paradox of the Christian faith. And the sooner we're okay with that paradox, the better. The way up is the way down. You want to live, you have to die. When a pastor does not teach death to self, they are robbing God's people of the abundant life that Jesus came to give them. They are not experiencing the resurrected life because they've not died to themselves. You know how it is that you know you've made a good decision when your only regret is that you didn't make it sooner? Well, how many times in my own life, I'll just speak for myself, where my only regret has been that I didn't deny myself sooner. Because here's the problem. You will never satiate self. Self is insatiable. You're like the woman at the well, as am I. You drink from this water to satisfy self, you will thirst again. It's just a matter of time. In fact, I would argue actually, that it will not only not satisfy, it will leave you emptier than you were before. The most fulfilled Christian is the Christian who has denied themselves, died to themselves, picked up their cross and followed Jesus. That is the Christian that is the fulfilled Christian. That is the Christian that is the joy filled Christian. They're dead to self. I hope this doesn't sound crass and I please, I don't mean to be rude. But dead men don't flinch. You're dead. I'm sorry if that sounds morbid, but isn't it true that Evidence of one not dying to themself is when self is hurt, self is offended. Well, dead people don't get offended. Are we okay? I mean, I want to make sure I'm... This is what... How about this one? dead men don't get their feelings hurt. I mean, I can take this as far down the road as you want, but I think you could probably do it by the Holy Spirit yourself in your own life. Take that down the road as far as the Holy Spirit will take you. Dead men don't do this. Dead men don't do that. You don't flinch. You know when the Apostle Paul in Acts 20 says, nothing moves me. And here was a guy that, I mean, nothing moves you? After everything you went through. I just got done reading what you wrote to the Corinthians, Paul. Nothing moves you? Yeah, I already died. It doesn't faze me. I'm already dead to self. So I'm not, I'm not sensitive. Again, I mean, I don't mean to be rude, but it's the truth. Right? I've died to self. I've died to my rights to self. And by the way, well, I did ask the Lord, so I guess I better I better do it. It's actually heartbreaking because I'm watching this play out 1000 times a day in our world today. It's like there's this fighting for our rights. and you have no right. And I'm going to stand up for my rights. Hmm. Okay. Um, does that mean we don't fight? Not at all. In fact, if anything, it should strengthen the resolve of our fight. But it needs to be the right fight. What are we fighting for? We're fighting for our own rights. That's self. That's not the fight. That's not the good fight of faith. If I'm dead to self, the only fight that I'm going to fight is the fight of faith because of Jesus Christ. It's like you have no right to do that to Me. Really? I am stunned. It's breathtaking really. And I would encourage you in your own time in God's Word to revisit the account of when Jesus is on trial. He opened not His mouth. And I mean the frustration and the irritation and the agitation of, why don't you, you're not going to defend yourself? You're not going to fight for yourself? And then finally, when Jesus does say something, He says, you know, My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My disciples would be all over this thing. They would fight, fight, fight. But that's not the fight. I was thinking about Peter this last week. I think about Peter all the time. I love that guy. Can't wait to meet him. I just, You've got to hand it to the guy. Here they come to arrest Jesus. Now keep in mind that Peter, James and John just got rebuked by Jesus because they couldn't stay awake and pray. And Jesus is perspiring His own blood, knowing what awaits Him. on the cross, even going as far as asking the Father, Father, if it be Your will, let this cup of suffering pass from Me. Nevertheless, not My will, but Thy will be done. Then he comes back and they're sleeping. Of course, not the first time with Peter. I think Peter had a sleeping disorder, actually, because you find him sleeping a lot. That's conjecture. It's not anything based on any text. But so he comes back and he rebukes them. And he says, you guys, you couldn't even just stay awake for an hour and pray. So now they're awake. And so now all of a sudden here comes the Roman guard and And they're there to arrest Jesus. And isn't it interesting, by the way, that Judas had to kiss Him to identify Him. Meaning that, like Isaiah says, we just talked about this, there was nothing about Jesus that stood out. Nothing about His outward appearance that we should desire Him. I mean, he was not taller than everybody else. He was not, you know, he didn't have a... I know this might really ruin some of your images of Jesus, but he didn't have like a halo around him, and you know, a glow about him, and oh, you know. No, he just looked like, well, I'm sorry, he probably looked a lot like me, Middle Eastern, you know. And not blue eyes and blonde hair. Sorry. So they come to arrest him. What does Peter do? Takes out his sword. And again, you've got to hand it to him. Kind of like, oh my dead body. And he takes his sword and he cuts off Malchus's ear. And Jesus, okay, first of all, He heals the ear, which I'm pretty sure we're going to see Malchus in heaven. If I'm that, if I'm Malchus and that happens, I'm getting saved. This is the safe here. Did you just see what, dude, you cut my ear off and he just put it back on and healed me. I'm getting saved. I think Malchus will be in heaven. Again, just conjecture on my part. I'm going somewhere with this and it's deeply profound. So stay with me. What does he say to Peter? Peter, what are you doing? You're trying to fight a spiritual battle with fleshly weapons. This is a spiritual battle, not a... And by the way, what was the motivating factor for Peter? How dare you do that? That's my Savior. itself. And Jesus says, this is Peter. No, no. Paul would write to the Corinthians, our weaponry is not carnal. We're fighting a spiritual battle with carnal weaponry. We're fighting a spiritual battle in the energy of our own flesh. And by the way, It should be noted that this is exactly what satan wants. He wants to take us out of the arena of the spiritual and into the arena of the carnal, because now he's got us on his turf. And if he can get us into the arena of the carnal, it's game over. When we stay in the arena of the spiritual, it's game over for him. You know, when Jesus was tempted by the devil, he did not defeat satan in his divinity. He defeated satan in his humanity. How? With the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Scripture, Scripture. James says, and again, I, man, can't wait to, actually I should be careful. I said that about Hebrews. Can't wait to go through Hebrews. Man, I am bussed up after teaching through Hebrews. And I'm sure you are too. I mean, this book has beat me up in a good way. And just so you know, if Hebrews beat you up, James is going to finish the job. I mean, you talk about beating you up. Wow. But James talks about this. I mean, what causes fights and wars amongst you? Self, self, pride. You haven't died to self. You know, people who have died to themselves are not argumentative. Have you noticed this? And by the way, doesn't it take two to argue? I know it takes two to tango. It takes two to argue too, right? You ever tried to argue with somebody and fight with somebody that's already dead to themselves? It's kind of like, come on, fight back. No, I'm dead. Dead men don't fight. I've already died to myself. And then they kind of take your temperature and they'll say things just to get something to come out of you. And you know what I'm talking about, right? Oh man, they want to get you in the flesh. Listen, I don't need any help. I can do a very good job by myself. Thank you very much. I don't need anyone's help getting into the flesh. The flesh is right there at the ready. Here's the takeaway and we'll move on to the last one. Any teaching that dismisses or neglects the truth of death to self is strange to the gospel. Pick up your cross. Get it over with, man. Die to yourself. I want to die with dignity. Nah, just, it's death. Just die. Just die. That's the old man. And quit trying to bring him back to life again. No, he's dead. Die to yourself and you'll live. Whole will you live. Now that's living, as we say. Here's the third one. And lastly, in verses 15 and 16, does it carry me away from continual praise? Now, if you were to ask me what I thought was one of the best litmus tests, if I can say it that way, in this regard, what the writer says here would have to be it. Namely, that of whether or not it draws me closer to the Lord, in praise of the Lord. Or instead, does it distance me from the Lord? That is a telltale sign. It is a litmus test that has served me so well over the years. That's the gauge and it's across the board in every arena of life. Does that form of recreation, that hobby, that friendship, that relationship, that entertainment. You fill in the blanks. Does it blank draw me closer to the Lord, in praise of the Lord? Or does it instead distance me from the Lord? If it distances me from the Lord, it's strange. Get away. run away before it carries you away from the Lord. That's the litmus test. Example, someone comes to you with this belief, doctrine if you prefer. And they say, you know, If you're really saved, then it will be evidenced by such and thus. Wait, really? When you prayed and came to Christ, how do you know you're truly saved? Wait, I'm not saved now? I thought I was saved. I thought I had the Holy Spirit indwelling me. Because when I came to Christ, He gave me the Holy Spirit to seal me for the day of redemption. That's what my Bible says. And now you're telling me that, oh, I didn't quite do it right. You had to do it on a Tuesday when it was partly cloudy, windward Malchus showers. You know, and you had to be wearing red and purple polka dot shoelaces and No, that's kind of strange. And not only is that strange, but what you've just done is you have just driven a wedge in between me and Jesus. And now all of a sudden you've brought doubt, you've planted this seed of doubt in my mind. And It's carried me away, distanced me from the Lord. Okay, how about this? You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. Right? And whom the Son has set free is free indeed. Okay, hang on to that one. Now let's add another one. John says, the commands of the Lord are not burdensome. James, we talked about this in the update. Again, can't wait, sort of. He says the wisdom that comes from above is first pure and then peaceable and gentle and easy to be entreated, reasonable full of mercy and good fruits without hypocrisy or partiality, bearing fruit unto righteousness. That's the, again, litmus test by which you'll know if it's the wisdom from the Lord or the wisdom from the world. Does it, does this template, this grid, does it align? Does it match up? Is it compatible with? So if the commands of the Lord are not burdensome and then, and the truth will set me free, then wouldn't it stand to be, to reason that if the truth will set me free, a lie will burden me down. Let me say the same thing in a different way. If somebody comes to me and lays a heavy trip on me, And it has this effect of distancing me from the Lord, my praise of the Lord, and the good things that I do that are pleasing to the Lord, as the writer of Hebrews notes. If it carries me away from that, that's it. It's not the truth, because the truth frees me. The lie will burden me. And the commands of the Lord are not burdensome. They're easy to be entreated. They're reasonable. So if somebody comes to me and says, well, you need to and are required to do, and you can fill in the blank. with whatever you want. Oh, you have to speak in tongues. You have to keep the Sabbath holy. You have to be water baptized. I mean, I can go down another list if you want, but you've got your own list, right? When I was a new believer, I couldn't put the Bible down. I mean, I just read it from cover to cover. It took me six months. I had one of those good news Bibles. I had to go buy one. I didn't have one. Remember the Good News Bible? I mean, it was a limited vocabulary. Even that was a stretch for me. I had killed so many brain cells, not proud of it. But anyway, so I got me one of those Good News Bibles. And I started in Genesis. I probably shouldn't have done that. I, you know, they say start in the book of John, for good reason, by the way. Because when I got into the Leviticus and all the, you know, Levitical requirements and restrictions. And then the animal sacrifices. I was a blank slate, keep in mind. And I'm reading about all these animals. I'm like, every time I sin, I've got to sacrifice an animal. That's a lot of livestock. I don't want to do that. And then I got to the New Testament. And then Jesus is the sacrifice once and for all. I'm like, oh, perfect. Thank you, Jesus. I don't have to. You're the Lamb of God. I was going to go out and get a lamb. I don't need a lamb. You're the Lamb of God. Is that weird? Whatever. So I couldn't put it down. So here I am. It's in the summer. I'm at the park. I'm reading my Bible. Sunny day, just, I mean, everything was Jesus this, Jesus that. And then up walks this guy. And he says, I see that you're reading your Bible. I mean, listen, I hadn't killed that many brains. So I'm looking at this guy like, duh. But anyway, and then he proceeded to, it was a set up for what he was about to say, because he laid a heavy trip on me. He says, have you ever been baptized with the Holy Spirit as evidenced by the speaking in tongues? Okay, now I had not got to that part yet. I'm like tongues? I have one. What? And I'll tell you, it messed me up and took me down. All of a sudden. I mean, it was just kind of like, talk about popping the balloon and bursting the bubble. And I mean, it just, as we say, take the wind out of your sails. I was just deflated and defeated. And I'm like, oh. So I went back to my apartment. and tried to, you know, speak in tongues. I was like, fill me up with the Holy Spirit. Honda, Honda, Honda, Honda. That seemed to be, and he told me, he said, just try it. It'll start coming. And so I did. And oh my goodness. I remember just praying very innocently and Lord, I thought I was saved and I guess I need to be more saved because I'm not as saved as this guy who apparently is more saved than I am because he got the Holy Spirit and I didn't. And he speaks in tongues and I don't. So what's up with that? And you know, I used to, this was the, this is 1982. I was five, so don't do the math. Anyway, 1982. And at that time, that song, Majesty. You remember that song? Oh my goodness. I had a 1979 Volkswagen Rabbit, brown. We called it Stay Around Brown was the color. And I had one, again, you young people, it was a cassette tape player. It's a plastic cartridge with, anyway. So I got that tape and I would play it full blast. And you know, it stop lights my hands off the steering wheel. Just, you know, majesty worship is. And then after this guy was through with me, it wasn't, It was more like majesty. Can I say that? One last thought and we'll close. Psalm 1611, I think, I could be wrong. in your presence is fullness of joy. Oh wait, it's not 1611. He inhabits the praises of his people. You're familiar with that song, right? Did you catch that? He inhabits the praises of his people. Now, don't you think that the enemy is, first of all, the enemy knows Scripture better than we do. And if he can disrupt our praising of the Lord, because He knows that the Lord will inhabit the praises of His people. You don't think He's going to try to do that? Because see, if He can sever that, it's just like with our prayer life. That's another topic for another time. We actually talked about praying and fasting on Thursday night. Why prayers don't go unanswered. But He knows, that's the power source. You know how it is when you, especially on a midweek Bible study on Thursday nights. For those of you that come to our midweek Bible study, you know how it is on Thursday afternoons. when you get home from work, you've had one of those days, which seems to be like every day now. And you're like, man, I am just so tired. And then you eat, which you shouldn't do. And you're like, you know, and then a drowsiness just, I mean, sets in. You're like, man, I'm just, I'm too tired. I don't want to go. You know, for me, I have to, because I'm teaching the Bible study. So I have to be here. But You know, there are just times where you just don't feel like it. You're really tired. And then you get here and you start praising Him. And oh my goodness, I'm so glad I came. I mean, you know why that is, right? I mean, that's why the enemy wanted to keep you from coming. Because if he can sever the praising and praying connection and power source, because he knows that God inhabits the praises of his people, he's going to do everything he can to get you to not do that. And you get here and you start praising the Lord and I have asthma. Please don't do that. You know what I'm talking about. I'm almost done. I should probably end the sermon when it's over. But he knows that. And that's why it is, by the way, that when you set your foot to pray, all hell breaks loose, quite literally. Everything starts happening. Because satan knows that if he can keep you from praying and praising the Lord, He's got you. Because He knows that's the power source. Once you start praising the Lord. Okay, one last thing. Think this through with me. And we've talked about this before. Sometimes when you don't feel like it, that's the time that you need to put on worship music and sing out loud to the Lord. Yeah, but that's the last thing I feel like. Exactly. Do it and the feelings will follow. Because if there's one thing Satan does not like and cannot stand, it's worship of Jesus. And by the way, the worship songs, make sure they're songs that worship Jesus. I know that should be a firm grasp of the obvious, but it's actually not. some of the worship music today, you'd be hard pressed to... Wait, what? Who's that to? That's strange. Who are you singing to? Which God? Which God? Wait, wait, wait. That song, those words, I don't think that's in here. I don't think that's in here. He doesn't want to hear the name of Jesus. So even when you say God, the demons are like cool with that. But when you say Jesus, they run, which is what you want them to do. Resist the devil and he will flee. I hope this has been of some help to you. Why don't you stand? We'll have the worship team come up. We're almost done with this book, you know. It's going to be a little bit bittersweet, isn't it? To finish Hebrews. That's all right. James will come in to save the day. So no need to fear, James will be right here. Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank You so much for Your Word. And yeah, Maybe a little bit of a hard word, but a good word for sure. Lord, thank You for spiritual discernment. Thank You for giving us the Holy Spirit and the discernment of spirits, the gift of the discernment of spirits, to be able to discern those things which are not of You. Lord, I thank You for Your Word. It's not that we get into Your Word, Your Word gets into us. And when it does, it has this much needed effect in our lives. And that's what we're praying You'll do now as we end this time together in Your Word. Lord, You need to now by the Holy Spirit, take it to the next level so that we're not numbered amongst those of whom it is said by James again, They're just merely hearers of the Word, but not doers of the Word. We want to be doers of the Word. Thank You Lord, in Jesus' name, Amen.