Hebrews 3 verse 2 says this, wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house. For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath filled the house hath more honor in the house. For every house is built by some man, but he that built all things is God. And Moses verily was faithful in all his house as a servant for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after, but Christ as a son over his own house, whose house we are, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm until the end." There are two main headings I see. in this passage. And what they are is, number one, we're going to look at the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus as compared to Moses. You clearly see that there. The faithfulness of the Lord Jesus as compared to Moses. And then secondly, in verse six, we're going to look at the faithfulness of God's people in light of the faithfulness of the Lord. So I'd like to look at those two things. I think it's particularly applicable to our lives because I think there's a great inconsistency that's in our natural makeup. And I think it affects our Christianity. I think all of us, to one degree or another, this type of inconsistency that we may be fervent for the Lord at one time and diligently attending to the things of His will, And then at another time, we may not be. And we kind of slip away to a degree. And then we come back, and there's this type of inconsistency, and it almost seems to be the spirit of our age, a spirit of inconsistency. And even worse, there's many in our culture that will say one thing but do something else, which should not be amongst believers. And really, a thing like that should only be expected, though, from the unbeliever, that God forbid, as Christians, that we should live in that way. However, the sound reality is that inconsistency or unfaithfulness in the Christian life has become more the norm rather than the exception. And today I don't necessarily want to focus on the problem. Because I believe these verses were written for the edification of the saints. And we're going to focus more on the solution than the problem. But I do want to bring the problem to your attention. Because I know in my life, I struggle with it at times. I struggle with inconsistency and unfaithfulness. And I believe the writer here is encouraging us to understand how to be consistent in our fervency and in our attendance to what God would have us to do. And I believe there's two reasons for this problem of inconsistency. Quickly, the first dealing more with those who are only professing believers. And it has more to do with a passivity towards the things of God and which causes an inconsistency and a careless attitude. And that's very concerning to me, when someone can be inconsistent and just be careless towards it. I don't believe the spirit of God. I think as a believer you can live that way, maybe, for a period of time. But I'd be very cautious of that. But then you have the other side of things, where a person may be truly converted, or are truly converted, and see their inconsistency and has a deep conflict and trying to deal with it. And no matter which side of the aisle you are on today, I think we can all say that we need more consistent or more faithfulness in our fervency towards God, in our fellowship with Him, in our love and service towards others, and in our ability, through the work of God in our hearts, to trust God in every aspect of our lives. So as we keep these things in mind, let's start in verse two and keep our two headings in mind as we look at these verses. And the two headings are the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ as compared to Moses and the faithfulness of God's people in light of the Lord's faithfulness. So let's start with that first one. The faithfulness of the Lord is compared to Moses. And again, you can split this into two parts, where you see the outward obedience of Moses is compared to Christ in this passage. And you also see that the nature or who he is in his being, the Lord Jesus as a son and Moses as a servant, as you see in verses five and six, which is a contrasted difference. So, verse 1 tells us to consider Christ Jesus. In the beginning of verse 2, the Holy Spirit tells us who was faithful to Him that appointed Him. That He was faithful to Him that appointed Him. Have you noticed your unfaithfulness? That's because we tend to look to ourselves. My friend, we are by very nature unfaithful. The scripture says, let God be true and every man a liar. But I did not come here this morning simply to tell you of the problem, but I want to this morning proclaim the answer. I'm asking you today to consider the faithfulness of our precious Lord and Savior. Hebrews chapter 10 verse 23 says, let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering For He is faithful that promised. He is faithful. Do you see your own unfaithfulness or lack of consistency? Well, look to Christ and see that He is faithful. Hebrews 2.2 says that, as we just read, it says that He is faithful to Him that appointed Him. He is faithful to Him that appointed Him. Jesus Christ is faithful to His Father's will. and his father's plan. The Lord Jesus was perfectly obedient to his father's will in his earthly ministry and earthly mission. Just like we read in our Bible memory verse where it says, For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Jesus Christ is faithful as also Moses was faithful in all his house. You see that in verse two. That's what it says. It says who is faithful to him that appointed him as also Moses was faithful in all of his house. This word house refers to family. Moses was faithful to God because of God's sovereign will, and we're going to see that in a few minutes. Therefore, he was faithful to God's people. He was faithful to God's people. And we will see the same thing with the Lord Jesus. Those who are faithful to God are faithful to God's people. We cannot say we are being faithful to God and neglect His people. Hebrews 11.24 says, By faith Moses when he was come to years refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Moses was faithful in that he forsook Egypt. He forsook the riches and pleasures of Egypt. Why? Because he esteemed reproach of Christ's greater riches in the treasures in Egypt. He forsook his royalty, being considered the grandson of Pharaoh. Moses left the glories in Egypt. But Christ, and this is what you see, you see the analogy is that Moses, and I believe there's four of these parallel characteristics between Moses and Christ. There's probably more. I'm sure you can draw up many more. But there's four main ones. And the first one is that Moses forsook Egypt. He was in the royal family, even though he was an adopted son. He forsook that. He forsook Egypt. And you see, though, that Christ, the Lord Jesus, what did he do? He came down from heaven. He left heaven. He left heaven. how much greater is our Lord Jesus amongst the greatest of prophets to leave all the glories and praise of heaven for the people of God in Deuteronomy chapter 18 verse 15 which we actually just read in Acts chapter 3 in Acts chapter 3 that that's actually a quotation from Deuteronomy 18 15 that says, and this is Moses speaking, the Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me, Moses says, unto him shall you hearken also you see in Acts 7.37 Stephen quotes that verse also and in Deuteronomy chapter 34 verse 10 the scripture says that there arose not a prophet in Israel like unto Moses whom the Lord knew face to face." Which is another characteristic that you see in Moses, that you see that is unique in the Lord. So first, Moses forsook Egypt. Second, he has this relationship to God that is unique. Moses has this unique relationship to God. Deuteronomy 34.10 says there is never a prophet like Moses. Moses spoke to God face-to-face in that verse in Deuteronomy 34, 10. And Jesus Christ, we see the parallel characteristic in Christ, but how much more do we see it in Christ? For in John 10, 30, Jesus says, I and my Father are one. The Lord Jesus in his earthly ministry had been had already been in an eternal union with his Father. And Jesus prayed in John 17 that we, being his brothers and sisters, would be brought into that same union, or that we would experience being in union with Christ. So really, these parallels that you see between Moses and Christ, Moses is the picture, or the shadow, or the type of what the real thing is. And then you see that Christ is the real thing. And you see that at the end of verse 5 in Hebrews 3. It says, And Moses verily was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after. And the third parallel characteristic that we see in the Bible between Moses and Jesus is that Moses was used by God to be the great deliverer of God's people from their bondage in Egypt, and the Lord Jesus for a far greater purpose, but similar in the way that His purpose was to set free God's people from the bondage of sin. And the writer is trying to help us see how much greater Is it what Christ has done for us, that He is our Deliverer? Yes, Moses was used to deliver the people out of Egypt, which was, in the Jews' mind, in the Hebrews' mind, the greatest thing. The Passover was their greatest celebration, because they were set free from 450 years of bondage in Egypt. and Moses was used to deliver them. But how much greater is what Christ has done and really the greatness of the deliverance from Egypt of the children of Israel is made to look small in comparison with the deliverance that we have in Jesus Christ. For Jesus Christ has paid for all the sins of his people If we really knew what that meant, joy would just continually overwhelm us. What a deliverance we have from the penalty of sin in Christ. In Psalm 103.12, the Bible says, As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. It's interesting because if you go north and you continually go north, you'll end up going south eventually. But if you go east, you'll never be going west. And if you go west, you'll never be going east. They never meet. The two never meet. And in this verse in Psalms, it says that our sins are as far as the east is from the west. Yes, Moses was used to deliver the people of Israel out of Egypt. But how much greater is the deliverance that we experience in Christ, the deliverance of our sins, that we could never be identified with our sin. That's shocking to me. That me, before God, as God views me, He will never identify me with my sin. But He identifies me in Christ, and to be perfectly holy in Christ. That's shocking to me. It doesn't even... you've got to think about that to really even grasp it. and the awesomeness of it, and you can just think about that all the time and never fully grasp it. And that's what we ought to be thinking on, is what Christ has done for us and how much greater it is than what Moses had done for the people of Israel. As great as what Moses did do, what Christ has done far exceeds it. I mean, it exceeds it by, you can't even measure it. the length of how much greater it is and that's what the writer of Hebrews is explaining here in this chapter because these Hebrews greatly respect Moses and they greatly respect the Passover and what God did to deliver them out of Egypt but the writer is showing them that that was just a picture that was just a type of what was to come the type of Christ and his deliverance that is far greater that our sins would be as far as from the east as from the west. Micah says that they're buried in the bottom of the sea, that our sins are buried in the deepest part of the sea. It's amazing. And the fourth, though, as we move forward, I'd like to look at the fourth parallel characteristic that I see between Moses and the Lord. And like I said, I'm sure you can come up with many more. But I think these are the four main ones that we've gone over. And Moses, for the first 20 chapters of Exodus, was called to govern Israel. One man governed a whole nation. And it's just interesting in Isaiah chapter 9 verse 6 we read, For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor. the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, and of the increase of His government and peace, there shall be no end." Another interesting parallel we see between Moses and the Lord Jesus is that Moses governed the whole nation. Moses governed the whole nation for the first twenty chapters of the book of Exodus, and the Lord Jesus, though He governs His people forever. He will be King of kings and Lord of lords forever. The government of His kingdom is upon His shoulder. That is Him. He is the sole leader of it, you could say. He is governing His people. Again, we see the difference between these characteristics, between Moses and Jesus, is that Moses is the type, or shadow, And Jesus is the real thing. Where Moses' ministry was temporal. Moses' ministry was temporal. But the Lord Jesus is eternal. The Lord Jesus' kingdom will go on forever and ever. And we see this distinctive clearly stated in the following verses in the book of Hebrews. And really what the What the writer is doing here, and this is a very common thing in the New Testament, it's a very common way to argue, is that he's showing the greater, we've already seen this in the book of Hebrews, but he's showing the greater to prove the lesser. So if the prophets are the greatest among men, and Moses is the greatest of prophets, and Christ is far greater than Moses, then we see that Christ is greater than all men. And greater, not just like we've been over before, in a way of one man being better than another man, but in his very nature, as we want to look at. So Moses was faithful in his obedience to God, but how much greater is the Lord Jesus' obedience to his Father's will? For even Moses questioned His calling at the beginning of His ministry, and even Moses disobeyed God, as we see. But the Lord never disobeyed. The Lord never disobeyed. He was completely obedient, never questioned His call. Or His ministry and His call was actually much greater than Moses. The Lord Jesus was called to die. He was called to suffer. And He never questioned it. But here in these verses, let's go back to verse 3. In our passage here it says, But this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch that he who hath built the house hath more honor than the house. He has more honor than the house. And what we see here is that the he's comparing the house to the builder. Now in verse 2 we see that Jesus Christ is greater than Moses, but now in these verses we see how much greater. And let's consider that in this first analogy used in verse 3 and 4 between the house and the builder of the house. How much greater is the builder of the house than the house itself? The first thing that comes to my mind is that the builder can exist without the house, but the house cannot exist without the builder. Not only can the house not exist without the builder as a general structure, but the builder also designs and constructs each particular part of the house. Therefore, how much more glory is the Lord Jesus worthy of than Moses? This is the question that the writer poses when he uses this analogy between the house and the builder. How can the house really take any glory? The house was simply constructed by another. The house itself can't really take any glory without pointing to the builder. For the house would be nothing, or it would not even exist. Except it were, for by the builder, this point showing the deity of Jesus Christ he being greater than Moses and that he created Moses and preordained Moses to the work that he would do for God's purpose John 5 46 says for had you believed Moses you would have believed me for he wrote of me and that's the Lord speaking showing that Jesus existed before Moses and that he created Moses as we read in Hebrews 3, 4. For Moses in verse 5 of this chapter 3, Moses in verse 5 is a servant, but Jesus Christ a son. A son having the exact image or nature as the father or of the same family by nature. but a servant is not of the same family. Jesus Christ greater than Moses in his creative work and in his eternal nature. Oh, what a Savior! Who is like unto our Lord, the Lord Jesus, for even the greatest of man can't even be compared to the awesomeness of the Lord Jesus. He is the eternally begotten of the Father, equal in nature, existence, and power to God. Praise His name. He is worthy of all our worship and adoration, so much so that when we don't worship Him and give Him the praise that is due to His name, we are sinning. For look who He is. He is faithful. He is God. Look to Him. Look to Christ. And you'll have more consistency in your life. You'll be faithful. You'll be steadfast, as we're going to get into in verse 6, which I would like to look at. Look at verse 6. It says, But Christ is a Son over His own house. Look at the second part. This is what I want to look at in our second heading. It says here, whose house are we if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end. The second heading is the steadfastness of God's people that are characterized by the steadfastness of Christ But God's people are characterized by a steadfastness, by a continuance, a continual holding on to Christ. It's a primary characteristic of God's people. However, it is not necessarily a steadfastness without wavering, but it is a steadfastness of a continuance. For we see, even in the New Testament, men of God can waver. I think of Peter when Paul rebuked him in Galatians chapter 2. I believe that was a form of wavering because Peter came there to where the Gentiles were and he wavered. And Paul had to rebuke him. And you see that in other places also through the scripture and even in the New Testament. So I don't think this steadfastness is necessarily without occasional wavering or without some kind of variance within it for we still have our flesh and we see it in the in in in certain men in Proverbs chapter 24 16 it says for a just man fall seven times and rises up again so to hold fast means to to to cling to and But before I get into that, I also think of Peter, too, again. And the reason why Peter kept coming back to the Lord, even though, you can read, he denied the Lord in the Gospels, and then he went fishing. He said, let's go fishing, and all the other apostles followed him. And then in Galatians 2, you see the apostle Paul rebukes him. But why did Peter keep coming back to the Lord? Do you know why Peter kept coming back to the Lord? Because in John chapter 6, I believe it's John 6, or is it Matthew 6? John 6. Jesus said to the apostles, will you too leave me? Everybody forsakes him. Thousands and thousands of people forsake the Lord in John chapter 6. Because he starts preaching things that are hard to be heard. They wanted all the fluff and everything. They wanted all the healings and the free food they were getting. But when Jesus preached the hard message in John 6, everybody forsook him. Everybody left and said, this is too hard. We can't hear this. And Jesus said to the apostles, will you too leave? Will you too forsake me? And what did Peter say? Where else are we going to go? We don't have anywhere else to go. Peter has to go back to the Lord, because he has nowhere else to go. He's come to the end of himself. He's come to the end of trusting anything else. He says, where else are we going to go? So this steadfast continuance, I think, is seen in Peter, particularly, because he doesn't have anywhere to go. And I don't think it means, necessarily, that we will never waver, because I think we're given to that in our flesh. But when we do, We won't have anywhere else to go. We'll say, Lord, we have to go back to you. Where else are we going to go? You have the words of eternal life, like Peter said. So the steadfastness of the believer is not necessarily measured by the consistency in and of itself, but it's more measured by our Do we still have something to fall back on? Or is everything Christ? Have we already relinquished our life and said, Christ is my all, and everything is in Him and for Him? And then we have nothing else. I have nothing else to go back to. I must go to Christ. And it's a steadfast continuance, as it also speaks in Romans 2, verse 8, a patient continuance. to hold fast. We could use the word picture here of those people. I don't know if they still do this, but I've seen this when I was a kid, and this is the picture that came into my mind when I read the definition of this word. It's people that tie themselves to palm trees during a hurricane. But this is a picture of saying, I don't care what happens in my life. No matter how bad it appears, I am holding on to Christ. I am holding on to Christ, and I'm here to tell you that the Christian life is not an easy life. There's a big misperception today that if you get saved and you're a Christian, everything's going to be good, everything's going to be happy, and I think people get deceived because they believe that, and then something bad happens in their life as a Christian. They say, well, I don't really believe anymore because I thought everything was supposed to be good. But the Lord tells Paul in Acts chapter 9, Cornelius actually tells Paul, the first promise he gives him, he says, I must show Paul what great things he must suffer for my name's sake. As believers, there's going to be great suffering, but praise the Lord. We can cling to Christ. We can look to Him and know that He has our best interest. I will not let go of him, and even though at times I may lose my way that is on the course, but at the end, we keep coming back to the path. It reminds me of Pilgrim's Progress, and Pilgrim, when he strays from the way, but he keeps coming back to the path. God is faithful, and he keeps coming back to the path, and he has his eye on the prize, he has his eye on the prize. And I believe that's another, we're going to get into that in a few minutes, that's another key component in staying steadfast, is what is your hope in? What are you hoping in? Are you hoping in health? That you would get healed? Are you hoping in having better relationships? Are you hoping in, or is your eyes on the prize, like Paul had his eyes on the prize of the mark of the eye calling? which is Jesus Christ, and to be like Him. But as we look at this, we see this, we hold fast to confidence, it says in verse 5. And it reminds me, as the Apostle says in Romans 8, 38 and 39, for I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." And it reminds me of what we read in Psalm 139 today. When we meditate and think that God had me in His mind before time existed, that God has set His love upon me, It's just, it's incredible. It gives me this great confidence that I can trust God. It doesn't matter. Things will come and go. My health will come and go. My money or wealth will come and go. People who you deeply love, and sometimes this can be the most difficult thing, people who you deeply love will separate from you. And that's very hard as believers, but But we can trust God through it. And we're not going to lose our love for other people because that happens to us. I see that happen to many believers. Or even professing that they get hurt by somebody and then they lose that love for other believers. We can't do that. For look at Christ. Everyone forsook Him and He did not lose His love for us. And He loved us before eternity and set His love upon us. And I am persuaded that nothing will separate me from the love of God. And that's the confidence that we have. And that's not based on me. It's based on Christ and His faithfulness. It's based on God and His faithfulness to us. God's love towards me is not based on me. I did nothing to get it. But He set His love upon us, if we have trusted Him. And therefore, it's not based on me. We can have sure confidence in God, in His love, as the Apostle also prayed for them in Ephesians chapter 3. He prayed for the Ephesians, that they would know that love and grow in that love, and be continuing steadfast in God's love, and knowing that mercy, like David said also, that mercy will pursue me all the days of my life. The mercy and faithfulness of God. And we have this confidence. But I think there's another side to that too. There's another side to that. I think we can lose our steadfastness and confidence in God because we put confidence in other things. But in Romans chapter 10, verse 4, it says, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. He's the end of the law. He's the end of our trying. Have you lost total confidence in yourself? Your ability to perform? Your ability to believe? Your ability to love others? If you haven't, you will go back to it. You'll go back to your own ability and be greatly disappointed and eventually fall away. But my friends, those who know Jesus Christ, have nowhere to turn but to Him, as we've already stated. If I still think that I can do it, then what am I going to do? I'm going to fall back on myself. But I know, I have no confidence, like the Apostle said, I have no confidence in my flesh, and have full confidence in God. But if you have confidence in your flesh, It will hinder you in your steadfastness and in your consistency with God. Because, my friends, all I have to do is wake up in the morning and guess what? I trust myself. I mean, you don't have to try to do that. It's naturally in us. We'll go back to self. We'll go back to our own performance. Back to what I can do. But when we've lost that confidence and we say, I have no confidence in my flesh and all my confidence is in Christ, we will hold steadfastly to him. And it's like, it's like I already said, when everyone forsook Jesus, Peter had no plan B. He had to go back to Christ. And when you are fully persuaded by Jesus's love, that there is nothing And even at those times we may go astray, we must come back to the One who loves us. This is a key point. Even when we go astray, we must come back to the One who loves us and gave Himself for us. Who is going to love me like Jesus, like I've already mentioned today? Which one of you or who on this earth is going to die for me? Who is going to forgive me? after I've wronged somebody so wrong. Can you imagine how we've wronged the Lord? I mean, we've wronged other people. But we haven't wronged anybody as much as we have the Lord, yet He forgives us time after time after time. Who's going to do that? I have nowhere else to go. My confidence is in Him. My confidence is in Him. My friend, no one on earth will do these things for you, but Jesus will. and there is nothing you can do to get it that is freely provided by Christ. Hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm till the end. It says in verse 6, what is this hope firm unto the end that he is speaking of? For many of us we may look around and see very little hope. We may see very little hope in this world. And that's very true. We see war. We see earthquakes. We see famines. We see poverty. We see sickness. What is the hope he's talking about here? Go to 1 Thessalonians. I know we've talked about this before, but I can't help it. I want to talk about it again. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. Because this is the hope. 1 Thessalonians 4 16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God. And the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another with these words. And I know there's different eschatological views on those verses, but that's not my point today. My point today is that we shall ever be with the Lord. In a twinkling of an eye, whether it's in our death or whether it's in our meeting the Lord in the clouds, we will meet Him. And we will be with Him forever and ever. This is the hope. This is what we encourage each other in. Someone says, oh, I'm having a tough time. This and this is going on in my life. And they're a believer. I think we can deal with those things. But we have to first tell them, Luke, your hope. This is the hope that we have. I can't promise you that this situation is going to get better. It could get worse. It could get ten times worse. I can't give you that hope. that your sickness is going to get better, that your relationships are going to change, that you're going to get a better job, or whatever it is. I can't promise you that, but I can promise you this, that if your faith is in Christ, you'll be with Him forever in glory and share in His riches and His inheritance forever and ever and ever. I can tell you that, and that is the Christian hope, and that's what we encourage each other in. We hold fast to this hope, that this hope, that Christ is our reward, and being with Him is our reward forever and ever. That is the hope that we hold firm unto. And if we're holding to that hope, we will have hope until the end. For this is the Christian hope. I am not primarily thankful. I am not primarily thankful because God woke me up this morning. Although I am thankful for that to a certain degree. But a Christian is primarily thankful for the fact that he will spend eternity with our Lord Jesus and be with Him forever. This is a great hope. This is a real hope. Many have hope in the wrong place. and don't experience genuine Christian joy because their hope is in getting rich, not being sick, having a better life, fixing all their problems, a better job, whatever it is. But we ought to say, like the Apostle Paul said, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. We hope for the next life And the next life becomes the now life. If we're hoping in the next life, that life becomes now. We're living in eternity now. We're fellowshipping with Christ. We're meditating with Him, on Him. And we're learning of Him. And we're looking forward to that day more and more. With more and more of an earnest expectation of being with Christ and to live and actually reign with Christ. It says that we'll reign with Him. That's incredible to me. Just to be with Him would be more than enough, but yet He shares in His inheritance with us eternally, and we reign with Christ, those that suffer with Christ, in 1 Timothy chapter 3. And that is the great Christian hope Is this your hope today? My friends, this is the hope that will keep you till the end. The hope in our great Savior. The hope in what He has done for us. Not what we can do for Him. And in the hope of His great love. If you feel like you are inconsistent and unfaithful in your fervency for God, Don't look within and say, I don't have. Well, maybe you should if that's what you're doing. Maybe you should look within and come to the end of yourself and say, I have no confidence in my flesh, but all my confidence is in Christ. For consider him, as it says in verse one of chapter three of Hebrews, consider Jesus Christ, the apostle and high priest of our profession. And I know we say that often, but it's mentioned often in Hebrews, because it's the power, it's where we're going to find the consistency in our lives, in our Christian lives. If there's inconsistency in our Christian lives, there's one of two things we're doing. We're not putting confidence in the love of God, or our hope is in something else other than being with Christ. I'm telling you right now, if your hope and confidence is in God's love, knowing what He has provided for us. And your hope is in being with Christ. You will persevere to the end. You will be steadfast to the end. Because that is the work of the Spirit in our hearts, and we rejoice. We just want to jump up and down and say, praise the Lord, for He has provided all things for us. And my hope is in Him. And hey, whether I'm sick, whether I'm healthy, whether I'm a base, whether I'm lifted up, or whatever it is, we say, praise be to His name. Because my hope is in Him, and in being with Christ forever, and being in Christ in fellowship with God forever. And boy, to know that love. Boy, I want to meditate on that Psalm 139. Wow, talking about just how God knows us so intricately and yet loves us so deeply and has planned like every part of my life that I might live for Him. It's just very, very humbling and I just want to think on that and know His love and have a full hope in being with Him and those who do that. will persevere to the end. They will have a full confidence and have a consistency in our fervency for God. And I think we all struggle with that. But if you look to Christ and see His love, and know like the Apostle said in Romans 8, like we read, I am persuaded that nothing will separate me from God's love. Who can lay anything to my charge? Nobody but Christ has done it all for me. And if that's our confidence, we will hold fast to the end. He is faithful. So let's pray. Dear Father, I thank You for Your Word. I thank You for Your Spirit. I thank You, Father, for Your precious Son. I thank You, Father, for Your sovereign will, God, that You have chosen to reveal Yourself through Your Son And then through your Son in us, it's very humbling, God. We thank you and praise you. I pray, God, that our hope would not be in temporal things, God. Please deliver us. I believe we all have some hope in some temporal thing to one degree or another. Lord, I pray it would not be so, but that our hope would be in you and in your coming kingdom, God. And this would cause us to live in a way that is diligent God in a way that is preparing ourselves. Lord, I pray, please work it in our hearts that we would know the love of God, the depth, the breadth, and the height of the love of God. And I pray for those that are here that have never known that love, that have never known you, Lord Jesus, please move God in their hearts. I pray, God, and please help us to help each other in these things. to be pointing to Christ and His faithfulness, that we might be faithful in Him. I pray in Christ's name, Amen.