Brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place, so that's right, you're supposed to do that. Are you good? That's doing what it's supposed to? All right. Let me start over. Same song, second verse, a little bit louder, a little bit worse. All right, Hebrews 10, 19. Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he inaugurated for us through the veil that is his flesh, And since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart and full assurance of faith. Having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. For he who has promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another in all the more as you see the day drawing near. Let's have a word of prayer as we begin this morning. Father, we thank you so much for the opportunity to be able to gather together. to be able to worship together. We thank you for the opportunity to be able to sing praises to you. We thank you for Christ and what he's done for us. And we, especially this morning, are thankful as we look at this text in the book of Hebrews for the reminder of the great high priest that we have in Jesus Christ, the access that we have and the relationship that we have. So Father, we thank you for that. Thank you for The encouragement from your word this morning, I pray that you would help us, you would enable us, you would allow us to apply the truths of your word to our hearts and to our lives. We pray these things in your son's name. Amen. I don't know how some of you are, but I'm not always the most confident person in the world. I mean, sometimes you put on the air of confidence because that's what you're supposed to do. But in reality, you're not actually confident within yourself. For instance, if you ever have an opportunity to see somebody that you think you've met before, but you're really not sure you've met them before. And maybe you kind of remember their name, but you're really not sure you remember their name. And so then you don't know what to say to them. And sometimes it can get weird. And so you want to just hi and shake their hands. You don't want to say nice to meet you if you've already met them. But if you've already met them, you should try to remember their name. But you may not remember their name, so you don't want to say some other name. That's a challenge for some of us, especially those of us that are engaged in meeting a lot of people and engaging with a lot of people. Our confidence level when it comes to meeting people can be a little bit diminished. Sometimes, though, we have false confidence. Sometimes we have confidence in ourselves when we really should not have confidence in ourselves. When I was 20 years old, I was a junior at Bob Jones University. I was studying in the pastoral studies program, and I was taking what was called themes class. It was really doctrines for preacher boys. a deeper level doctrine class and my wife now currently was my girlfriend at the time, Kimberly, and she took the class with me to prove that she was smarter than me probably. But she took the class with me and it was in March, sometime in March, and I had gotten sick and had a sinus infection and I had vowed in my freshman year I'd gotten sick and I had to go to the hospital that was at the university and I vowed never again. Didn't matter how sick I was, I would never again go to the hospital at the university. And so I was sick, I had a sinus infection, I was not feeling well, I was really out of it, and I didn't have any access to any medicine. I happened to open the drawer in our room, in our dorm room, and my roommate had some Benadryl. Well, I'm not really the smartest guy in the world, and I didn't think about the fact that Benadryl would actually make you more drowsy. And so I thought, well, Benadryl's gonna help with whatever I got going on, or at least it can't hurt, right? And so I took two Benadryl, and I went off to my hour and a half long doctrines class. At about 45 minutes into this class, the teacher was talking about the virgin birth. And my brain was somewhere else, my head was somewhere else, my whole body was somewhere else, but I was physically there. But all he could talk about was the virgin birth, and it began to be like fingernails on a chalkboard to me. That's all he was saying, the virgin birth, the virgin birth. And I'm like, just shut up and talk about something else. I was really not in a good place. And so finally, I was not one to ask questions. I just typically didn't raise my hand. I didn't typically talk that much in class, but I raised my hand on this day because, you know what, that was the day I should probably shine. And so I raised my hand and Dr. Snyder stopped the class and he said, Dave, I said, Dr. Snyder, what is so important about the virgin birth? Aren't we all born virgins? And he looked at me He looked at me, kind of like how you guys are, like, what? And so I put my hand back up and my wife, who at the time was my girlfriend, she elbowed me and she's like, shut up. Please shut up. And I looked at her and I said, no, this, this is very important. And so I repeated the question to the teacher. He didn't know what to do. He rapped on the desk and he goes, you must be talking about cows. Let's move on. I was so confused. I'm like, nobody was talking about cows. You were talking about the virgin birth and going on incessantly. And I'm confident you shouldn't be doing that. So sometimes we exude confidence when in reality, we probably should just take a backseat. When we look at Hebrews chapter 10 this morning, the author of Hebrews is going to talk about this issue of confidence, but not in the confident way of a kid who's 20 years old, who's got a sinus infection, who has taken Benadryl, who's trying to talk to his teacher about the importance of the virgin birth. The confidence that the author of Hebrews is going to be talking about is this confidence that we have because of Jesus Christ. This is what he's going to refer to. Martin Luther said this, he said, so sure and certain that the believer would stake his life on it a thousand times. The confidence that we have in Jesus Christ, Luther says you could, if you were a betting person, you could stake your life on this a thousand times. So there's two main things that we want to look at this morning. First of all, we want to look at the basis of our confidence. Where does our confidence come from? Because it cannot come from us, right? I mean, I have like, you know, troubles now when I go back and sit into a doctrines class and I'm like, man, do not screw this up again, Dave. You cannot ask that kind of question again. I had to go back later to my teacher and convince him that I really do believe the virgin birth is important. I really do believe it's essential. Ironically, I've never been invited back to speak at Bob Jones ever, nor do I plan to ever be, because there's probably a file somewhere that says this guy is a heretic. But the fact of the matter is, our basis of our confidence is coming from what Christ has done. There's two things that the author says here with regards to our confidence. He says, therefore, brethren, since we have confidence, to do what? to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way which he inaugurated for us through the veil that is his flesh. The first confidence that we have, the first basis of our confidence is that we have the confidence to enter the holy place. You think about this reality that the author of Hebrews is talking about. Remember, he's come out of chapter nine and he's been discussing and talking about all the old process of the sacrifice and all the old process of the temple and all that they had to do. And here he comes and he says, listen, you have confidence, not based upon yourself, but you have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus Christ, the blood of Jesus Christ, which has removed our guilt, the blood of Jesus Christ, which has cleansed us from our sin, the ability now to enter into the holy place. So it's possible, this confidence to enter the holy place is possible through his blood, but it's also possible through his flesh. He says there in verse 20, by a new and living way, which he inaugurated for us through the veil, that is his flesh. Well, what is this new and living way? This new and living way is the new covenant. There's this new process, this new action that we have, this new dispensation. And so the author of Hebrew says, we have confidence to enter the holy place. Why? Because of what Jesus Christ has done for us. of our confidence to enter the holy place is through the blood and through the flesh, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, this presence of Christ, this holy place that the author is talking about. That's why the author reminds us in Hebrews 9, verse 24, for Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God and on our behalf. There's also freedom to enter his presence at any time. The author here is saying, we have confidence then to enter the holy place by, first of all, the blood of Jesus, second of all, by his flesh. We have this confidence to enter the holy place. We have confidence to enter the presence of Christ at any time. You think about that. I mean, you think about the reality that because of what Christ has done, we have the opportunity to enter the presence of God. That is significant. Remember, if you're an Israelite, if you're a Jew who's grown up and come through this process of sacrifice knowing that the only person who could go into the Holy of Holies was the high priest and he could only do that once a year and they would wrap a cord around him so that if in fact he did have sin that he hadn't quite atoned for, they could pull him out because he had died. And the author says this is now eradicated. And we have the great high priest Jesus Christ, we have the basis of being able to engage in this process. Not only do we have the confidence to enter the holy place, we have the confidence that we have a great high priest, verse 21. And since we have a great priest over the house of God, not only do we have confidence to enter into the presence of Christ, but we have a great high priest who is Jesus Christ. In the last chapter of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 9, verses 11 through 15, It reminds us of this, but when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands, that is not of this creation, 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 eternal redemption. For if 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, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Verse 15, therefore, he is the mediator of the new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promise eternal inheritance. since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant." The author of Hebrews is reminding us Christ has made the sacrifice. He made it once for all. This is the whole communication of the book of Hebrews that priests offered daily sacrifices and offered sacrifices perpetually. for years. Think about the number of sacrifices that were made over the number of years. And the author of Hebrews says, Christ sacrificed once for all and he's seated at the right hand of the throne of God. It's done, it's finished. And that confidence of the great high priest that we have the ability to enter into the holy place is the basis of our confidence. So now the question is, how do we demonstrate the confidence that we have? Since we are no longer worried, since we are no longer consumed with all of the things that went into the sacrifice, we're no longer consumed with all of the process of the sacrifice, we're no longer consumed with whether or not the atonement was good enough. The author of Hebrews says there's some things that we can actually focus our attention on. Can you imagine, I don't know, as you've read the Old Testament, have you ever thought to yourself, can you imagine being a Jew? Can you imagine being an Israelite who had to, I mean, who had to go through all of the things? I mean, some of you read, you read your Bible every year and you come to Deuteronomy, you come to Leviticus, you come to those passages where you're like, wow, there's a lot of stuff that they had to do. And Jesus Christ, once for all, has eradicated it and said, I am the sacrifice. I am the one who has made the atonement. It is sufficient. It was the propitiation, as Romans reminds us. It appeased the wrath of God. It was a satisfactory substitutionary atonement on our behalf that satisfied the wrath of God. And he's seated at the right hand of the throne of God, and it is complete. So now what do we do? Well, we don't have to spend our time worried about, did we sacrifice the right way? Did we sacrifice enough? Did we do all these things? Oh my word, I had a thought last night. What am I supposed to do? How do I make myself right? The author of Hebrews says, well, this is all taken care of. The basis of our confidence is rooted in the work of Jesus Christ. It is rooted in the fact that we have the confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus and by his flesh. And since we have a great high priest, the second confidence that we have, now we need to demonstrate, okay, what does it look like living confidently as a believer? because we don't have to worry about those things. We don't have to be engaged in those things. So what do we do? Well, there's three things that the author of Hebrews tells us then that we must do. Starting in verse 22, let us draw near with a sincere heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. The first thing that we must do as a demonstration of the confidence that we have in Jesus Christ is we must draw near to him, must draw near to Christ. So as a believer, as I'm sitting here saying, okay, the basis of my confidence is the work of Jesus Christ, it's his finished work on the cross, it's his finished satisfactory atonement that he's made, what should be my natural response? What should be the first thing that I'm gonna do? And the author of Hebrews is reminding us that the thing that we need to be doing is let us draw near to him. Why? Because we come with full assurance. come boldly before the throne of grace. We draw near to a relationship with Christ. That's why the author says here in verse 22, let us draw near. How? With a sincere heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. In full assurance of faith. You could change that phrase to be the word confidently. Let us draw near confidently, with full confidence. I am not afraid to draw near in a relationship with Jesus Christ. I am not afraid to come to him and to share my burdens with him as the great high priest. I am not afraid to enter the throne of grace. I'm not afraid to enter the presence of God. That fear is gone. So the author says here, we draw near in full assurance of faith with a true heart, with a purified heart, with a heart that has been renewed. If you have never placed your faith and trust in Christ, you should be fearful of the reality of God. But if we have placed our faith and trust in Christ, we draw near to him. as a good and loving God who cares for us, who enables us to be able to do what he's called us to do. So the author here says we draw near. How do we draw near? We draw near in full assurance of faith. We draw near with a true heart. Why do we do that? What's the basis of us being able to do that? Well, our hearts have been sprinkled clean from an evil conscience, the internal work of salvation that has occurred. My body has been cleansed. I've been purified with my heart being sprinkled clean from an evil conscience. and my body has been washed pure with water, the work of the Holy Spirit in salvation." The author tells us, listen, you've been regenerated. God has declared you justified. You've entered this process of sanctification and we await the day of glorification when we enter heaven's gates, we enter the presence of Christ, but we have been justified, declared fully righteous by Jesus Christ. So the demonstration of that justification is we gladly, confidently, joyfully come into his presence. But there's a second thing that we do. Not only do we draw near, but verse 23, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. So not only do we draw near, come close in a relationship with Christ, the confidence that we have of the work of Christ on the cross, the shedding of his blood, the ability to enter into the holy places because of the great high priest, not only are we drawing near in a relationship with him, but we are holding fast the profession of our faith, the profession of our hope. That's an amazing thing to think about. Hold fast means to retain, to hold onto with confidence, with security. The confession of our hope. 1 Peter 1, verses 3 through 5 says this, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. The author of Hebrews says we hold fast to this. This is something that we hold securely to. Some of you are heavily invested in 401ks and you've seen some of that stuff whittle through your fingers. Just read the report of the guy who lost what? $14 billion over the last week. I don't know his name or he's part of some cryptocurrency thing. Well, that's like sand running through our fingers. The author of Hebrews here says we hold fast to this confession of our hope, which is not something that is going to slip through our fingers. Look what he says in verse four of 1 Peter 1, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, and what? Kept in heaven for you. I am not holding onto Christ like some guy clinging onto a rope over a cliff. Christ is holding firmly onto me. And yet I hold fast to that. I allow myself to be part of that. I engage in that relationship. That is what I am clinging to, not my own confidence. The author says here, let us hold fast the confession of our hope. How? Without wavering, means to hold it steady, hold it without doubting, hold it with confidence, hold it with a secure mind. There are some of you who maybe struggle with the reality of your salvation, or the reality of your hope in Christ, the reality of your faith. And the author here is saying, listen, if you understand what Christ has done for you, and you've placed your faith and trust in Christ, there is a confident expectation that you should have. Because of the passage in 1 Peter 1, because of the passages here in Hebrews, we hold it without wavering, confident. in our security in Jesus Christ. You shouldn't have to doubt and worry and be anxious about your salvation and about the hope and about the faith that you have in Christ. Why? The author says here, because he who has promised is faithful. Why can we hold this faith with confidence? Well, because God has given us a promise and God is faithful to his promises. A.W. Pink said this, but why should we not place implicit confidence in God and rely upon his word of promise? Is anything too hard for the Lord? Has his word of promise ever failed? Then let us not entertain any unbelieving suspicions of his future care of us. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but not so his promises. We live in a world that is always changing, aren't we? I mean, we just came through this last week of elections, and I hate politics. I'm not really interested in politics. Some of you may be. I don't know. Your life may go like a roller coaster, depending upon what you see on the news or what you read about. Our lives are ever-changing. We never know from one day to the next what's going to happen and what's the next big thing to take place. We're reminded here, as A.W. Pink reminds us, let us not entertain any unbelieving suspicions of his future care. Why? Heaven and earth shall pass away, but not one of his promises. That's what the author is saying here. For he who promised is what? He is faithful to do it. Ephesians 1, verses 13 through 14, a very similar passage to what we just read in 1 Peter 1. Paul says in Ephesians chapter 1 verses 13 through 14, in him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him. What happened when you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ? Paul says you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is what? The guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory. I was driving somewhere recently. I don't remember what city I was in, but I passed an old Kmart. I didn't know they were still around. I actually don't think that was around. It was just, it had all the signage up though from Kmart been forever since I've seen a Kmart. Yeah. I remember, I remember when I was a kid, there was a big thing and maybe, maybe some of you are like, well, David, that's been going on for a while. But when I was a kid, there was this thing called layaway, right? You know, you, you didn't have the money. You didn't have credit. So you can go to Walmart or Kmart or whoever had the program and you can put down like it was pay-as-you-go but you had to wait until you paid it all off but lay away I want you to hold this product I'm gonna give you 20 bucks I'm gonna come back maybe in another two weeks I'm gonna give you another 20 bucks and hopefully I'm gonna be able to get enough money to get that product. In some sense, there's this idea of being laid away here, saying, in other words, we have this that has taken place for us. And Paul says, listen, what is the guarantee of our inheritance? He says the Holy Spirit is the guarantee of our inheritance. So let us hold fast to the confession of hope that we have. But then he gives us a final, thing that we are to do. Not only are we to draw near, not only are we to hold fast, but then thirdly, verse 24, and let us consider. Let us consider. Well, what does it mean to consider? Well, the Greek word that is used here has the idea to think, to observe, to consider closely. It's the idea of intentionality. There's an intentionality. So the first one is our own personal relationship with Christ. We draw near to him. because of the confidence that we have, and because of the confidence that we have, we're holding fast, we're holding securely in our confession of hope, but now we're doing some other things, because that's all taken care of. I don't have to worry about the sacrifices anymore. I don't have to worry about my future. My future is secured. It's all taken care of. It's signed, sealed, and delivered. The Holy Spirit is my guarantee. So now what do I do with all my time I've got? I don't have to worry about anything. I don't have to be fearful of anything. I don't have to stress about anything. So what did I do? What should I spend my time doing? This is the application into everyday life of what we spend our time doing. Let us consider, let us think intentionally about this to do two things. First of all, how to stimulate one another. I love the word here in the New American, the word stimulate, ESV uses the word to stir up. I think that King James will use the word to provoke. I don't know if that's the right word because I think about a negative context when I think about provoking somebody. Stirring up seems a little interesting to me as well, but I really like the word stimulate. Let us think about intentionality. How do I stimulate someone else? What am I stimulating them to do? to first of all, love and good works. So what is my job? I'm a believer. I have placed my faith and trust in Jesus Christ. I have confidence of what Christ has done for me. I can enter the holy places because I have a great high priest. And because of Jesus Christ and the fact that I can enter the holy places, I have a great high priest. I'm going to draw near to God. I'm going to enter those places. I'm going to have a relationship with him and it's all going to be good. And I'm going to hold securely, hold fast to the confession of my hope. So everything is all locked in. I don't have to stress about sacrifices. I don't have to stress about my future. I don't have to stress about whether or not I can confidently and boldly enter the throne of grace. So what do I do with all my time? Well, I think about how do I stimulate other people to do what? To love and do good works. My time as a believer is to be invested into the lives of other people. To do what with them? To say, how can I help you? How can I encourage you? How can I engage you in the process of doing what God desires in showing this love and having this love, agape is the word that is used here, in demonstrating this love in good works. So I should be stimulating other people to love and to good works. Love precipitates the good works. That's why Galatians 6 10 Paul says, so then as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone and especially to those who are of the household of faith. There are some people who say, well, you know, as a Christian, we should really only do good things for other Christians. That's not actually true. Like that violates Galatians 6. Galatians 6.10 says, listen, we are to do good to the community that is around us. If we hold ourselves up within the four walls of this building and say, we don't care about blessing this community, we're missing the point of Galatians 6.10. But we cannot bless the community with love and good works to the exclusion of our own body, the household of faith. So there's a balance there. There are some Christians who say, well, you know, we should only really be focused right here. Well, that's not what Galatians says. Galatians says, I love the fact that as you guys think about benevolence and think about the need for benevolence, your thought is how can we be a blessing to those who are around us? How can we be a blessing to this elementary school? How can we be a blessing to the families that live around this community? How can we be an encouragement to them? How can we help them? How can we be a blessing to them? But not only are we supposed to consider how to stir one another up or how to stimulate one another, but we are to think about and consider how do we encourage one another? He says in verse 24, and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another. And all the more as you see the day drawing near. So the author of Hebrews is reminding us, you need to be intentional in thinking about how can you encourage one another. How do we encourage one another? Well, in my mind, if I were writing this text of Scripture, I could say, well, maybe I should give a list of ways that we could encourage one another. You know, we could write them a note, we could do this, we could do that, we could do all these different things. Well, what does the author of Hebrews say here in this text? Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good works, not forsaking our own assembling together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another And all the more as you see the day drawing near. What is the object of encouraging one another? How do we encourage one another? What does the author of Hebrews say? How do we encourage one another? We encourage one another by assembling together. That's the object. You must encourage one another. How do we do that? We do that by assembling together. So you think about this. Is this encouraging? That's the right answer. Good job. Yes, this is encouraging. Is it always encouraging? I mean, I'm 45 and a half, I think, somewhere in there. I have literally been in church since I was born. Sunday school, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. I've done the whole gamut. I'm just telling you, in 45 and a half years, it has not always been encouraging to show up to church. Can I be honest? Sometimes it's like, it's just, it's what we do. We go to church. And sometimes if we're not careful, we fall into that habit. I don't want to go. I don't really get much out of it, but it's what we do. Okay. We go to church, like check it a box. It's a to-do list. Buy groceries, you know, pay the bills, go to church. If we're not careful, we can make what is to be considered the source of encouraging the believers. The author here is arguing that the way we encourage one another is by assembling together. We can make the most encouraging thing for the believers in our world today. We can make the most encouraging thing the most drudgery, because it becomes legalistic. it becomes an obligation, it becomes a duty. I'm not gonna stand here and say, I've always been excited to be in church. It's not true. The reality is when we don't look at this, the assembling of ourselves together as the primary source of encouragement, then we will be tempted to fall into a legalistic obligatory mindset when it comes to church and the assembling of ourselves together. The author says here, not forsaking our assembling together, our own assembling together, as is the habit of some. It's interesting that in August 4th, 2022, so just a couple months ago, Barna released the latest study, which showed this, only 61% of people are attending the same church they were attending prior to COVID. 39% are either attending multiple churches, or they're not attending church at all. Why are they attending multiple churches? Well, there's no accountability. I go here, I go there, I go here. I'm kind of a member. It's kind of the way I feel like I do with my ministry now. I was in a church in Kansas City last week. I'll be in a church in Greenville the week after this. I'll be in a church in, you know. There's ministries that call us to do that, but the fact of the matter is there are people who have forsaken the assembling of their selves together. I am not going to stand here and tell you that the only church you could ever attend or should ever attend is Whitefield Community Bible Church. That would not be true. It's a good church. It's a great church that God is using, but it may not be the right church. So we can't sit here and say, you know what, if you're not attending this church, you're just a heathen person. That is not true. Whitefield is not the only church that is promoting the cause of Jesus Christ and advancing the kingdom. The fact of the matter is, if you are, as a habit, forsaking the assembling of yourselves together, you are missing out on what the author here says is the way to encourage people as you see the day drawing near. In fact, as you see the day drawing near, you should be doing it more and more and more. There should be a longing and an increasing hunger in all of us as believers to say, I want to gather with other believers. because that's where I'm encouraged. That's where I'm satisfied. That is where I find hope. That is where I find the camaraderie and the fellowship and all that comes together in being a body of believers. So we encourage one another, how? By not neglecting to meet together, not deserting or abandoning. That's the Greek word for neglect. Don't abandon other believers. But instead of abandoning them, seek to meet together more and more as you see the day approaching. Listen, we're a day closer today than we were yesterday. It's by natural default. So what should that mean? Today, we should have more of a desire and more intentionality in gathering with believers than we did yesterday. That's what the author is telling us. Do it more and more as you see the day approaching. All the more as you see the day drawing near. The question we have to ask, since all of the sacrifices have been taken care of, as all of these things have been done, and I have confidence to enter into this relationship with Christ, I have confidence to enter the holy places, and I can draw near to Him, and I can hold fast the confession of my hope, all of that is secured. What do I do with my time and energy? I don't have to spend time trying to find a sacrifice. I don't have to spend time trying to bring a bull, or a goat, or turtle dove, or whatever it was I was gonna sacrifice. Now I can invest my time seeking ways to stimulate other people to say, how can we be showing the love of Jesus Christ to other people? How can we be doing the good deeds that God has called us to do? And how can we gather together as believers? A.W. Choser said this, we have full confidence in Jesus Christ. Our confidence rises as the character of God becomes greater and more trustworthy to our spiritual comprehension. God's character and God's trustworthiness is secured outside of us. But Tozer is saying, as you grow in your knowledge and understanding of God's trustworthiness and God's character, your confidence will rise. The one with whom we deal is the one who embodies faithfulness and truth, the one who cannot lie. So we as believers have all the confidence in the world because of what Christ has done. Our future is secure. No questions asked. We are justified, sanctified, glorified. It's all secure for us. So what do we do? We don't have to stress about things. We don't have to have doubts and worries and fears and all that stuff. What do we do? Let's invest ourselves in encouraging one another to love and good works and let's stimulate ourselves, stimulate one another to not neglect, abandon the assembling of ourselves as believers. In fact, as the day draws near, let's do that more and more to encourage one another in the body of Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for today. We thank you for your word. Father, we pray that you would help us to see the value of the body of Christ, the encouragement, the edification, the fellowship. Father, help us not to be legalistic about assembling together, but help us with joy. to fellowship, to encourage, to edify, to worship with one another more and more as we see the day drawing near. We thank you for all that you've done for us. We pray these things in your son's name, amen. At this time, we're gonna see if we can get the kids back up here and we're gonna sing. Johnny, do we have it?