So if you attended the parenting seminar some months back at Southwest Baptist Church, then you'd be familiar with Pastor Rick. But if not, I just want to introduce him to you. So we have been going to Southwest for a number of years because they've been kind of a headquarters for ACBC training. And they were putting on a parenting seminar, and so many of us went there, and Pastor Rick was the speaker. He had written a parenting book, which, by the way, Jill Richardson said is her favorite parenting book she's ever read. So I don't know if you heard that, but it's pretty high commendation. So we're at his parenting conference, and if you write books, you'll look at books a little differently. Probably like Dave Zumstein might look at welds differently than I would, or Jim would look at farms differently than I would. And so I got Rick's book on my hands, and I went to Amazon to look for it there, and I couldn't find it. And I went up to Rick, and I introduced myself, and I said, hey, we don't know each other. It's been great to have so many of our families be blessed by the ministry of this church, but I couldn't find your book on Amazon. And so why is that? Because more people could have access to it. He said, well, I never got it there. And I said, well, if you'd like, we'd get together, and I could try to help you put that on Amazon sometime. And so he took me up on that offer. And so Rick came up here and we spent a morning together. And it ended up being a much better morning than I was anticipating because it wasn't just talking to him about how to get a book on Amazon. I thought he took a real interest in me and my ministry and seemed to develop a friendship with him. That's continued through some other conversations. And so when Hudson was born, I asked him if he would be interested in coming to preach for one of the Sundays, because we had one of the Sundays covered, but not the other ones. And so I was very thankful that Rick agreed to that. And so we'll be blessed to hear from him today. So he pastored 34 years. at Southwest and has retired. I guess if you want to call it that, it doesn't sound like much of a retirement. It sounds as busy as he was before. And so we're super thankful he's still serving the Lord's kingdom. And I'm very excited about being on his preaching today. And I believe you're going to see more from Rick in the future. I don't have any expectation to not reach out to him. I mean, should I have something going on in my life, he'd be one of the first people I think of reaching out to for counsel and encouragement. So thank you for coming this morning, brother. Go ahead and give Rick a nice William Christian Church welcome. Well, actually, I don't tell people anything. I tell them I'm redeployed, because I'm still doing pretty much everything I did as a pastor. I just don't get paid anymore. But that's OK, because I also don't have any pressure anymore. So it's really great. I can take a nap anytime I want, which is really nice, really nice. You know, it's a joy for Diane and me to be here with you today at Woodland Christian Church. It's a great church. And you guys are really, really blessed. Not to have me speaking today, but you're really blessed to have Pastor Scott speaking every Sunday. I've gotten to know him, and I'll tell you, just a fine man of God you have here. Pastor Nathan, I'm starting to know him, another fine man of God. Andrew and Jay, a couple of your elders. Boy, you've got good leadership here, and that is a great, great blessing. Well, the sermon I have today to give you is a little different than what I usually do. I usually take a section of scripture and just work through it verse by verse, and I am going to do that, but I want to do something else as well. You know that old saying, give a man a fish and you feed him for a day? Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. Well, I want to teach you a little fishing today. When I read the Bible, I've been reading the Bible every day for probably 50 years now. When I read the Bible, there's 12 things I look for. And one of those things is context. What is the context? And I want to show you how understanding the context of what you're reading is so helpful and helps you fish for deeper insight. So let me just give you a real, Short here, illustration. When I raise my hand like this, what am I doing? What am I saying? What does it mean? It just depends on the context. If I'm at an auction, I'm making a bid. If I'm at a restaurant, I'm calling for the server. If I'm at some churches, I might be worshiping God. Unless you're the pastor and you're at the end of the service, then I might be giving the blessing. If I'm a policeman out on the street and you're driving, I'm saying, stop. If I see you out in the sidewalk, I'm saying, hi. If I'm in a classroom, I'm asking a question, right? So the context means everything. Understanding context really helps you understand what you're reading in the Bible, in God's word. Now, there are two kinds of context. So let's go to that next slide. And you'll see there's two kinds of context. There's the literary context and the cultural, or some people call it the historical context. So the literary context is simply what verses, what the Bible says before the section you're reading, and what the Bible says after the section you're reading. So let me just give you an example. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus has this mysterious little couple of verses. He says, the eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is that darkness? What's that about? Was he talking about eyes and body filled of light or darkness? What does he mean by that? Well, you look at the context. The verses before and the verse after are about money. Here's the context. It says, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. If your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is that darkness? No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will cling to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. So you see, the whole context is about money. So guess what the whole thing about the eyes is about? If your eyes, if your perspective on money, if the way you look at money is the right way, if it's not your God, If it's something you use generously, if you're not greedy, your body is full of light, Jesus says. But if you're a greedy person, if you just want money, if you love money, if that's your God, then your whole body is full of darkness. So it's the literary context that helps us understand what Jesus means. Now, there's another kind of context, too, and that's the cultural context, or historical context, as some would say. And that context is just whatever is going on at that time in that culture. It might be the geography, it might be the weather, it might be the political system, economic system, the values of the people, all those things. So I'll give you an example here. There's a verse in Matthew chapter 2. It's verse 3, where the Magi, the wise men, come to Jerusalem, remember? And they say, where is he who has been born king of the Jews? And then it says in verse three, Herod was disturbed and all Jerusalem with him. And when I read that, I thought, okay, I understand why Herod was disturbed. He was the king and now someone is born king? And Herod, by the way, wasn't born king. He wasn't a legitimate king. He wasn't from the line of David. And somebody now has been born. I can understand why he was disturbed by that. But why was all Jerusalem disturbed? Hadn't the Jews been waiting for hundreds of years for their Messiah to be born? Hadn't they been waiting for a king from the line of David? Why aren't they jumping up and down in joy and going down to Bethlehem to see the Savior? And then one day I was reading about the cultural background. I was reading about Herod. Turns out that Herod was, he was crazy. I mean, he was so possessive of the throne that he would do anything to get rid of any competitors. In fact, he even killed some of his own family members because he was afraid that they might take over his kingship. So if Herod's disturbed, all Jerusalem is going to be disturbed because you don't know what he's going to do next. And sure enough, what did he do? Killed all the babies in Bethlehem, right? No wonder Herod was disturbed and all Jerusalem with him. When you know the cultural or historical context, it helps you understand the text better. So this morning, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna go to Hebrews chapter 13, and I'm gonna go verse by verse through a section of it. Here, I don't know how far I'll get exactly in the time I have, but I'll go through part of Hebrews 13. And what we're gonna see here is a whole series of commands. It's going to say, do this, don't do this, do this, don't do this, do this, do it this way, etc. Lots of commands. And when you understand the context of those commands, the literary and historical context, it will help us go a lot deeper into the text. And it will also help us understand how it applies better to us. So, first the cultural context of Hebrews. This is written to Jewish believers, or at least to Jews. Some of them maybe were moving in the right direction, maybe they weren't quite in the kingdom yet, but they were going toward Christ, and many of them were already clearly in the kingdom of God. What happens when you're in a culture like that in the first century, and you're going against your culture? Everyone else is going to the temple. They're doing animal sacrifices. They're depending on that. And now you're saying, well, wait a second. I don't need that. I'm going to follow Jesus. There's pushback, right? There's pushback. And so they were being persecuted. In fact, the persecution was intense. That was the cultural background. They were going through intense persecution. And the author of Hebrews is concerned that they're going to turn back. They're going to turn away from Jesus because the pressure is so great. You see that in the literary context. Let's go to the next slide and look at what it says in Hebrews chapter 10. It says, but remember the former days when after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings. They had endured great sufferings, partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated For you showed sympathy to the prisoners." Now, the prisoners are those Jewish believers who landed in prison because of their faith. You showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property. Some of them were losing all that they had, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one. This wasn't easy for these people to follow Christ in that culture. Now, the next chapter, as you know, is chapter 11. And you know chapter 11 of Hebrews, right? The faith chapter. So the author of Hebrews gives a whole bunch of examples of people who were faithful, regardless of the situation they were in. Starting with Abel, who died because he was faithful to God. Remember, he was killed by his brother Cain. And ending with a whole bunch of people who suffered for their faith. And then you get to chapter 12, go to the next slide. And again, talks about this persecution. For consider Jesus, him, who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. What happens when you just, you're going through persecution over and over and over and over again? It's easy to grow weary and lose heart. So he's encouraging them, he's encouraging them, stay focused on Jesus. And it goes on and talks about discipline, to endure hardship is discipline. The Lord is treating you as a son for which of us, you know, we all had fathers who disciplined us. So he talks about their hardship and how God will use that in their lives. He's trying to encourage them. So now we come to chapter 13, and that's the one we're going to look at today. And you might say, well, you know, this whole Context of persecution, that's sort of left behind and now he's got a bunch of commands or directives, do this, don't do this, do this, don't do this. But he hasn't left the persecution text behind at all. In fact, even in this chapter, we are gonna see it. Go to the next slide. Here's just a few verses from this chapter that we're gonna look at. And you notice how the persecution keeps coming up again. Verse three, remember the prisoners. Okay, those are believers who are in prison for their faith. As though in prison with them, and those who are ill-treated because of their faith. Since you yourselves also in the body. And then verse six, it comes up again. So that we confidently say, the Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What will man do to me? I don't need to be afraid of this persecution. And then it comes up again in verse 12. Therefore Jesus also that he might sanctify the people through his own blood suffered outside the gate. So let us go out to him outside the camp bearing his reproach. Just as Christ was reproached, we are gonna be reproached if we're gonna follow Christ in this culture. Now as you understand that context, it's right there in the background of all the commands he gives here in chapter 13. You can see how it's applicable to your life today. You know, in 2 Timothy 3, verse 12, there's a promise. Have you ever seen those Bible promise books? You know, all those encouraging promises? I have never seen this promise in any Bible promise book. It goes like this. Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. You ever seen that promise before? Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Now you might ask, well, wait a second, I want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus, and I'm not really being persecuted. You got to look at the context, the literary context, the very next verse. Let me give you the context. Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted while evildoers and imposters will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. You see, when you live in a culture that's going from bad to worse, where people are deceiving and being deceived, and you want to live a godly life, then guess what's going to happen? There's going to be persecution. So what kind of culture do we live in? We've lived in a culture that has had a solid Judeo-Christian biblical foundation for lots of years. And so following Christ, we haven't been persecuted, at least not much. But that's changing very quickly, isn't it? That's changing very quickly. More and more you see our culture going from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived, which means those who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. That means you and me. You and I will be. So I ask you this, are you ready? Are you ready to go through persecution? Are you prepared? Have you thought about it? The commands of Hebrews 13 can help us, because they're written to people going through persecution. And when we see what the author of Hebrews says to them to help them, we can also, by obeying those commands, be helped and prepared for what's gonna happen here. So let me pray, and then we're gonna just dive right into Hebrews 13. Father, I thank you so much for these precious words. The best part of this sermon is your word, not mine. And I pray that my brothers and sisters in Christ who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus and therefore will be persecuted someday, I pray, Lord, that they will get wisdom and insight from this section of your word. I pray you will speak to them, that your Holy Spirit will teach them and help them. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Let's go to the next slide. Let's jive right in. The first verse, let love of the brethren continue. Now that seems like a pretty simple command. Let love of the brethren continue. But let's look at each of these words. First of all, love. What is love? You know, I have not found a definition of love anywhere in the Bible. Now, you can read about the characteristics of love in 1 Corinthians 13, right? Love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy, does not boast, is not proud, is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not easily angered, keeps no record of wrongs. I can find characteristics of love, but what is love itself? God is love, so how does God, what does that mean? I've come up with a definition that I think is consistent with what the Bible teaches. Go to the next slide. You might want to write this down, because I've used this many times, especially with marriage counseling, to say, hey, listen, this is what you need to be doing to each other in a marriage, OK? Love is desiring and doing what is best for others, regardless of the personal cost. For God so loved the world, he gave his only son. It cost him something, didn't it? Or Ephesians 5, Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. He gave himself, he sacrificed because he wanted to do what was best for us. So we can have a relationship with God. That's what love is. Now, what is the biggest impediment to obeying that? What is it that gets in the way of loving others like that? it's our self-centeredness, isn't it? Instead of being willing to sacrifice for others, we want others to sacrifice for us so we get what we want to get when we want to get it, right? And that's why every single day I spend at least a little bit of time, maybe it's only a minute or something, but I spend a little bit of time looking at my heart and saying, Lord, search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my anxious thoughts, Psalm 139. I look at my heart, I see some of those things, and I say, God, I can't change me, but you can change me. Lord, change me. I want to be changed. I want to love like you do. The greatest command is, right, love God and love your neighbor as yourself. And so I need God to change that self-centeredness in my heart. Go back to the next, or go to the next slide, I should say. Let love of the brethren continue. Let's look at the word brethren here. What kind of love is this? It's brotherly love. It's brotherly love. Now what did that mean back in the culture of the day? Let's look at the context, the cultural context. What did that mean back then? We live in a society that is very individualistic. Even families in our culture tend to be kind of loose. Not so dedicated to each other as you would in a culture back then. where the people were fiercely loyal to each other in the family. Fiercely loyal to each other, not just the father-mother children either, but grandparents and uncles and aunts and second cousins. I mean, if you're related at all, there's a fierce loyalty in that culture. So brotherly love is a love that there's a loyalty that goes beyond what we oftentimes think. I was studying the Bible one day with a guy from another culture, a culture in Asia that was very much tight, tight, families were really tight, really tight. And we came to Mark chapter one where Jesus is calling his disciples, James and John, remember that? He says, you know, follow me. And it says, James and John were in the boat with their father and the hired servants. And they left and followed Jesus. And I was just about to say to this guy, hey, you know, he wasn't even a Christian, so I was just trying to show him what commitment to Christ meant. I said, look at how James and John left that fishing business to follow Jesus. It says, their father in the boat with the hired servants. They had a middle class, at least, fishing business going on. stayed in that business and made a lot of money, or at least made pretty good money, and they gave that up to follow Jesus. But before I could say that to him, this is what he said to me. That can't happen. I said, what? He said, that can't happen. Sons would never leave their father and follow someone else. You know, in his culture, that can't happen, you don't do that. There's such fierce loyalty in the family like that. And when I heard him say that, I thought, you know, I think he's right. My study Bible even had notes about how James and John had left their fishing business and the profits and everything to follow, you know, it was a money thing because it was probably written by some American like us that just, you know, money is a big thing in our culture. But probably the culture of the Bible was a lot like my friend that I was studying the Bible with. where the family is so close, you don't do that. And that shows how committed to Jesus they were, that they were willing to leave their father in the boat with the hired servants and follow him. So let love of the brother and that kind of love continue. By the way, when Jesus looks around at his servants in Mark chapter three, remember his mother and brothers come to, take charge of him, because they think he's out of his mind, because he doesn't even have time to eat. All these disciples are around him all the time. And Jesus is sitting there with his disciples around him, and the disciples say, hey, your mother and brother are outside calling for you. And Jesus said, who are my mother and my brothers? And then he answered his own question. Whoever does the will of God is my brother sister and mother. God has made us believers a family, and we should have the kind of love that's talking about right here, a fierce loyalty to each other. What better place to practice that command than right here in this church? And what a better time to do it than right now, before persecution comes to us. You see, the word continue is interesting too. Why does it say, let brotherly, let love of the brethren continue? Why doesn't it just say, love each other? Love each other's brothers. Why, what is the point of the word continue? Well, when you're in a situation where there's suffering, it's easy to turn into yourself, isn't it? Kind of circle the wagons. I got to take care of my own family. I don't have time to take care of those other brothers and sisters in the church or, you know, others, right? Every man for himself, you know, I got to take care of myself. My possessions are being taken away. I said, remember chapter 10? No, no, you got to let love of the brethren continue. And this is a place to practice it, and this is a time to practice it. Let's go on to the next slide, verse two. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it. Ah, this love that it's talking about in verse one, it's so practical, isn't it? Showing hospitality, like Pastor Scott said, tonight, you know, you're not having your evening service, so you can have others over. You can show hospitality. Hospitality is very practical, sharing your resources with others. Now, the strangers that are being talked about here are probably not the guys sitting on the side of the road with the signs, you know, anything helps, God bless you, that kind of thing. This would be traveling evangelists, traveling pastors, apostles, If you look at 2nd and 3rd John, the author there, John, talks about that. He says to his friend Gaius, he says, you know, you are blessed. You're doing well, what you're doing for the saints, even though they're strangers to you. He was hosting them. And 2nd and 3rd John both talk about these traveling people, Christians, that we should be hospitable to, like the missionaries that spoke this morning. in the same school hour. Now, it's really easy on this verse to get focused on the second half of the verse, because it's kind of weird, you know? For by this, some have entertained angels without knowing it. Have you ever thought that when you invite someone into your home, they could be an angel? Hey, listen, if you invite Diane and me over to your home tonight for dinner, do you think you might be entertaining angels? This is a democratic society, right? So let's vote. How many of you think if you invited Diane and me over for dinner, you'd be entertaining angels in disguise? Raise your hand. Oh, man, I feel really hurt here. No, you would not be entertaining angels. You'd be entertaining better than angels. Does that sound kind of arrogant? Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 25? Whatever you do to the least of these, my brethren, you're doing to me. You invite a brother and sister over, you show hospitality, you're doing it for Jesus. You're doing it to Jesus. What better place to practice this command than right here in the body of Christ? And what better time than now when we are not being persecuted, so when we are, we'll continue to share practically our resources with each other, even when it gets tough to do. Let's go on to verse 3. Next slide. Remember the prisoners as though in prison with them, and those who are ill-treated, since you yourselves also are in the body. So again, love is other-centered. You're caring for these people in prison. And again, the cultural context in those days, a lot of times prisoners were not cared for by the system. If the prisoner needs food to eat, their family members or friends needed to bring it to them, oftentimes. Not always, but oftentimes that was the case. And we're to remember these people. They're suffering for the faith. And like it says at the end there, since you yourselves also are in the body, you know, it could happen to you too. So now is the time to help them because it could happen to you too. Second Timothy, oh, I should say this. In their culture, again, the cultural context, they had a culture of honor and shame. A prisoner, by definition, was shamed. And if you go and help that prisoner, then you are gonna share in his shame. Are you willing to do that? Are you willing to desire and do what's best for someone else regardless of the personal cost? Definition of love that I gave you. 2 Timothy 1, 1-16, Paul says, may the Lord have mercy on the household of Anesiphorus. For he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains. But when he was in Rome, he searched hard for me until he found me. So here's a guy who loved Paul enough to go and identify with him, even though Paul was a prisoner, and take on some of his shame. Now, remember, what does it mean to remember in the Bible? It's not just calling to mind, it's doing something about it. What can you do? You can pray for the person, you can visit them, provide for them, as I mentioned, the cultural context. How do we do that today? Do any of you know Christians who are in prison for their faith? Maybe you know some Christians that are struggling because of their faith, maybe. Maybe they've lost their job or something, that's a possibility. One thing that I do is pray. Every day I pray for Christians in other countries like North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Nigeria, even Mexico, especially southern Mexico. Christians are suffering because of their faith. By the way, today is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church, and there are going to be thousands of churches around the world praying for persecuted Christians. You might think about that, too. Someday we are going to want the people in China and Iran and Saudi Arabia and North Korea to be praying for us when we are persecuted. Now is our time to pray for them. Let's go on to the next slide. Marriage is to be held in honor among all. And the marriage bed is to be undefiled. For fornicators and adulterers, God will judge. To honor marriage means to prize it highly. It's of exceptional value. Now let me ask you a question. It says marriage is to be honored, held in honor among all. So in our society, is marriage honored? I don't think so. It's being redefined. It's being ignored, people just live together, not even married. I mean, no, it's not being honored in our culture. And part of honoring marriage is sexual purity. Is sexual purity honored in our nation? No. A lot of people would say, look at this verse, they say, oh, that's old-fashioned. That's outdated. That's first-century prudishness. Well, that just shows a huge amount of ignorance in them because in the first century, they were not prudish. They were just as sexually immoral as our culture is today. And it says, God will judge those who are sexually immoral. Now look, I think that many of us here have to repent on this. Maybe you haven't done the two sexual sins that are mentioned up there, maybe you have. But it's very easy to be tempted and to fall into temptation in other ways, in what we look at, how we think, what we desire, the emotional attachments sometimes we make with others that we shouldn't be making, our feelings. You know, it says in James chapter three, we all stumble in many ways. We all stumble in many ways, do you believe that? So that's why we need to repent. That's why we need Jesus. Because we all stumble in many ways. Therefore, we need Jesus. And we need Jesus in this area right here. In the way do we really honor our marriages as we should? And sexually, where are we at there? How often do we sin there? How often do we stumble there? You know, before pointing fingers at others, I think we have to look at ourselves here. And if you need to repent, then repent. And enjoy God's forgiveness. Psalm 32, I love that psalm. It says, blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him, and in whose spirit there's no deceit. When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away. because of my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me. My strength was drained as in this fever heat of summer. I acknowledged my sin to you. My iniquity I did not hide, and I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. There you go. We all need to repent. And maybe in this very issue, on this very issue, we need to. But part of repentance is action, too. It's not just prayer. And we really need to think about this. In a culture that's sexualized like ours, the temptations are all over, we need to guard ourselves. We need to put up some barriers around ourselves or do something When I first became a pastor, it wasn't right away, but maybe a couple years after I became a pastor, I really wanted to honor my marriage. And so I decided to put up some guardrails to help me not be tempted in this area. And one of the things I decided was I'm not going to do any long-term counseling with a woman by myself. I'll have my wife there or another godly woman. I'm not gonna drive in a car or be alone with another woman in a house or something. I was tested about three months after I made that commitment. This woman comes into my office and she's just crying and crying and crying. She says, pastor, can you help me? I said, sure, how can I help, how can I help? And she says, my husband was just arrested. Can you come down to the police station with me and help us? And I said, yeah, I'll do that. And then she said, I'm so emotional, I don't think I can drive. Will you drive me down to the police station and help us? And if there's ever a time to make an exception on a rule like that, maybe this was the right time. But I just said to the Lord, I'm not going to. be alone with a woman in a car who's not related to me. So I said to her, I said, well, I have this commitment with God that I won't drive alone in a car with a woman not related to me. So I'll tell you what, you drive down to the police station, I'll drive right behind you, and we'll get there and I'll try to help you guys. So that's what we did, we got down to the police station. It's probably like six months, maybe even a year later, That same woman comes to my office at church and she says, Pastor, do you remember when I came in here crying and you told me about that commitment you had to God? And I said, yes. And I had no idea what she was going to say next. And she said, oh, I respect you so much for that commitment. If my husband had made the same commitment He might not be in prison today." And I thought, wow, okay, none of you have to have the same commitments I have, but we all need certain guardrails around our marriage, around our lives, because the temptations are all around us, aren't they? The temptations are all around us, and we need to take that seriously. Now, what does this How does the context of suffering that they were going through at that time, how does that help us understand this verse? Well, maybe it doesn't. I'm not gonna stretch my point I'm trying to make to cover everything, but maybe it does. Because when persecution comes, when hard times come, if you have a good relationship with a spouse, that can be so supportive. It could be so helpful. But if your situation is like many Americans today, many American marriages, where there's tension and fighting and arguing and dissatisfaction, that's going to make it tough for you when persecution comes. Now look, every marriage goes through hard times. Mine does, yours does. Every marriage goes through hard times of tension, but do something about it. Do something, get help. You got great ACBC counseling, biblical counseling at this church. Get help from Pastor Nathan, get help from Pastor Scott or others. Get help. We need to have strong marriages when we go into persecution to have that support. Let's go on to the next verse, verses five and six. Make sure that your character is free from the love of money. being content with what you have, for he himself has said, I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you, so that we confidently say, the Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid, what will man do to me? Our faith is so practical, think about it. It's not just something we do in the sanctuary, it's something we live out in the business world. Verse five up there, right? It's something, it's lived out in the marriage bed, verse four. It's lived out in the prison cell, verse three. It's lived out at the kitchen table, verse two. It's practical faith. Money and sex oftentimes go together. The verse before was about sex and marriage and adultery and fornication, and then this verse is about money. Have you ever noticed how the Bible oftentimes connects the two? The seventh commandment of the Ten Commandments, thou shalt not commit adultery. Commandment eight, do not steal. Sex and money. These are two areas where the temptations can be really strong, testing our commitment to God. When persecution comes to us, having the right attitude towards money is gonna be absolutely essential. Absolutely essential. Remember in the book of Revelation, when the Antichrist comes, it says that those who don't take the mark of the beast will not be able to buy or sell. Can you imagine that, if you can't buy or sell, if you're cut out of the economic system completely? I think there's an inverse relationship between our love for God and our love for money. The more you love God, the less you'll love money. The more you love money, the less you'll love God. And the more you love money, the more vulnerable you'll be when persecution comes. So keep your life free. Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have. Let's go on to the next slide, verses 7 and 8. Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you? and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The Bible oftentimes teaches by example. The book of Hebrews teaches by example. Hebrews chapter 11, that whole list of people of faith that is there to teach us by example. Leadership is important, especially in hard times. You know, it's not enough for many people to be told what to do. You gotta see it lived out. And that's why you got Hebrews chapter 11, where you can see one after another who lived out their faith. And that's why you have leaders in this church. So you can see how Pastor Scott lives out his faith. You can see how Pastor Nathan lives out his faith. You can see how Jake and Andrew, your elders, live out their faith. And it's important that they do live it out for you to see, and especially when hard times come. Now, it sounds like he's talking about past leaders here who spoke the word of God to them originally. Maybe they're not even alive anymore. That's possible, but we don't know for sure. But what I do know for sure is God gives us examples in the church today. And the examples you have are the leaders here in this church. You know, let me just talk to you leaders. I'm gonna talk to you four men that I just mentioned, okay? Scott and Nathan and Andrew and Jake. It says in 1 Peter, it says in 1 Peter, where Peter is writing to churches that were suffering, he says to the elders, to the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder, a witness of Christ's sufferings, and one who also will share in the glory to be revealed. Shepherd the flock of God, which has been given to you to shepherd. Shepherd the flock of God. Serving as overseers, not because you must, but because you're willing. Not greedy for money, but eager to serve. Not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being an example to the flock. There it is. being an example to the flock. It's so important that you leaders do that. And it's important for us as a congregation to look at those leaders, to consider the result of their conduct and to imitate their faith. And if you say, well, you know, they're way up here and I'm way down here. No, that's not gonna fly because next verse says, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. And you have Christ as much as they have Christ. And you can follow their example. Let's go to the next slide, verses nine and 10. Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings. Notice the plural there, teachings. There's all kinds of strange teachings out there, aren't there? All kinds of weird stuff out there, especially around the Portland area, right? For it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, through which those who were so occupied were not benefited. We have an altar from which those who serve at the tabernacle have no right to eat. They eat of the animal sacrifices, but we feed on Jesus, right? We feed on His grace. You know, the communion service we had today, perfect, perfect understanding of this verse. We have an altar from which those who serve at the tabernacle have no right to eat, but we can We can eat that grace. We can take in the grace of Jesus. That's what we need. That's what we need. You know, probably if you think of the cultural context again of these people, they were probably being told, they're Jews, right? They're probably being told, if you don't go back to those animal sacrifices, if you don't go back to the temple and do those things that the Jewish people did in the temple, then you don't have any reconciliation with God. You have no forgiveness of your sins. Can you imagine being told that when all your life you depended on those animal sacrifices, you depended on the priesthood, you depended on the cult of the temple? Wow. And he's saying right here, the author of Hebrews, no, no, don't worry about that. We've got something better. We've got something better than what they have at the temple. Don't stray from the gospel of Jesus Christ. Don't stray from his grace. You know, if you wanna follow Jesus, you gotta leave certain things, right? It's just the way it is. If you wanna follow Jesus, you have to go a different way than the world. You have to leave certain things. So don't worry about what they're doing over there in the temple. You follow Jesus. And as we're gonna see in the next section, in fact, let's go there right now. The last verses I wanna look at today. It says, for the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin are burned outside the camp. Therefore Jesus also that he might sanctify the people through his own blood suffered outside the gate. So let us go out to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come." If you read through the whole book of Hebrews, it's a little bit shocking when you get to this part right here. Because the direction in Hebrews is always going in. We are told to enter the Holy of Holies. We're told to enter God's rest. We're told to approach the throne of grace. We're told to draw near to God, and then you get to the end, it says, go the other way, go out. All these other commands, especially in the first few chapters, go in, go in, enter, draw near, and then at the end, go out. Go out, outside the camp, because that's where Jesus is. He's not in that culture there. You know, the stuff that was going on in the temple. No, you gotta go the opposite direction. Even though it means bearing his reproach, as it says right there. We don't have a lasting city here. Verse 14, for we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come. There's something so much better for us. So go out to him, even though it means going against your culture. and experiencing the pushback that you will inevitably experience. There's so much more we can look at in this chapter, but let me just say this. If you look at the context here, the suffering, the persecution they were going through, the pushback from their culture that they were going through, it helps you get deeper into why these commands are important. Not only for them, but for us. Because someday it will be our turn to go through persecution. Are you ready for it? See, now is the time to practice these commands. Now is the time, verse 1, to learn to love each other as brothers. Now is the time, verse 2, to learn hospitality, to entertain strangers. Now is the time, verse 3, to care for those who are suffering right now, even if they're in Iran or North Korea. Now's the time right now to build your marriage strong so you'll have that close support when persecution comes. Now's the time to learn contentment and the right attitude towards money, verses 5 and 6. Now's the time to follow your leader's model, verses 7 through 8. Now's the time not to be swept away by false teachings, but to hold tightly to the grace of Jesus Christ. And now's the time to share in Christ's rejection from the culture, because it's going to just ramp up as time goes on. I want us to be ready. Are you ready? Let's pray. Father, I know what you said in your word. that everyone who desires to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. These people we're reading about today, they were already going through it. People in North Korea today are already going through it. Christians in Saudi Arabia are already going through it. Iran and China, they're already going through it. And someday it'll be our turn. And I pray that you'll have us ready for that time. I pray that we will start practicing these commands like we should so we will be ready. Now is the time for us to practice, and this is the place to do it, right here in the church. Thank you for this church. I pray your blessing on this church. Thank you that they're being faithful to your word. Thank you that they're preaching your word. And I pray, Lord, that each person here will be blessed by your Holy Spirit. going deeper and deeper into the truths of your word and the grace that's in Jesus Christ. And I pray this in his name, amen.