All right, well, beautiful singing. I love that song. So I’ve not met you. My name is Aaron and I’m the preaching pastor here and glad that you’re with us today. I was glad that the snow stayed away and that the roads are well enough for all of us to be here today. So if you have a Bible with you, which I hope you do, if you open up to the Book of Hebrews to Hebrews chapter 13, the theatre of textual study, verses 20 through 25. If you don’t have a Bible with you, fear not. There are Bibles scattered throughout on the pews and it’s on page 586 of those blue pew Bibles. So if you would open up your Bible there and just keep them open. So we’re going to be working through the text throughout the day and it’s just good for us to see God’s word as we work through sermons. So Hebrews 13, 20, 25. So let me read the sacred text and then I’ll pray and we’ll get to work. So the Bible says, now, may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with every good thing that you may do his will working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. I appeal to you, brothers, bear with my word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly. You should know that our brother Timothy has been released, with whom I shall see you if he comes soon. Greet all your leaders and all the saints. Those who come from Italy, send your greeting. Grace be with you all. Amen. So let’s pray. God, thank you for this time, Lord. I pray that you bless the preaching of your word. Please, God, use this in ways just to encourage our hearts. Pray so in Jesus name, amen. So this morning we began our final sermon in our study of Hebrews, which I mentioned last week was a study we actually started last April with some breaks in between. And as we come to this last sermon, I want to circle back to something actually mentioned in the first sermon study which relates to the authorship of the Letter of Hebrews. Now, this discussion on who the author of this letter is has been something that’s been really questioned from the beginning of the New Testament Church. And there’s been a question on just who it was that wrote this incredible letter. But at this point, this ongoing question really can’t be answered with any kind of certainty. Like even by the third century, scholars are starting to throw their hands in the air, not having confidence they’ll answer the question on who wrote Hebrews. 3rd century church Father named Origen wrote a famous letter and in this letter he said this about Hebrews, who wrote the Epistle is known to God alone. So there is and has been a lot of intrigue and mystery and uncertainty when it comes to the authorship or throughout church history, many different names have been suggested as the author. For some, perhaps it was Paul. There’s certainly aspects of this letter that feels like Paul, including some aspects of our passage today as our text today includes a benediction and a final greeting which are traits that were common to some of Paul’s letters. However, that being said, there’s several other things in Hebrews that not quite feel like Paul. Unlike other letters, Paul or there’s nowhere addresses Paul himself as a letter which he did many other letters so many doubt because he didn’t address himself, it probably wasn’t him. Some have wondered because at times it does feel like Paul, other times it doesn’t feel like Paul that maybe Paul hired almost like a secretary who wrote the letter with Paul’s help. Certainly possible. Though if Paul did that, it does seem likely he would have made mention of his involvement in the letter. Others in church history have wondered if there’s a man named Apollos who was famous in the New Testament for being an elegant speaker, a very popular preacher. And some I wonder if it was Apollos because of how eloquent the book of Hebrews is and how this letter at some points feels like like a sermon. Others have wonders. Maybe is Luke who wrote the Gospel of Luke in the Book of Acts if they wrote this letter. Others wonder if it’s a man named Clement was the author. Perhaps it’s Priscilla Aquila who are a famous influential couple in the early church wrote it. So I mentioned the first sermon. There’s a lot of different names that have suggested the author of Hebrew. Let me just give you one more. The name Barnabas. A church father named Tertullian who lived like 1:55 to 2:20 A.D. suggested that Barnabas was the author of Hebrews. And the reason why I share this to you again as we come to this last sermon in Hebrews. This is how this letter ends. This is actually one of the reasons why Tertullian and others throughout history have suggested Barnabas as the author. Okay, now when it comes to Barnabas, we do know a little bit about him. In the book of Acts, where We see he was an early leader in the church. He was with Paul as the first Christian missionary. And we see he was an incredibly encouraging guy. And the reason why we come that he was encouraging encourager simply by the nickname given to him by the early church, the son of encouragement. So this morning as we finish off this series, we come to an incredibly encouraging passage. A final passage I do hope encourages you. I hope it encourages you so much that you actually know how to encourage others with encouragement. One of the more important things that we can do together as a church. This is a great way for us to show brotherly love that we talked about last week. For some, because of how this letter ends, they think it’s Barnabas because it’s so encouraging. Now, before we get to our passage, there’s one more reminder of the context of our text and why this encouraging end would have been so helpful to the first original readers of Hebrews. So by now you know this letter is written to early Christians who are facing greater and greater persecution, a greater persecution that they’re needing to endure through for their faith in Jesus Christ. So throughout the letter we read that help them endure. The author gave many different strategies to help them in this area to persevere, to hold fast. And as he communicated all these different level levels. In the end, the reader or the writer is helping his readers to set their eyes on Jesus, to remember who Jesus is, remember all that he endured for them in his death and resurrection, with hopes as he set their eyes on Christ, that they would endure in their faith by being steady, steadfast, where they endure all the way to the end, to the eternal promise that awaits all those who have faith in Jesus Christ. And today as we close, we come to one of strategies that the authors use throughout the letter to help these readers to endure, which is, which is encouragement. So this morning, if you’re struggling to endure whatever it is that you’re enduring, I hope that this sermon here is encouragement to you, that it puts some wind in your weary spirit sales to help you to continue to move forward in the faith. Okay, so without an introduction, look back at me one last time in this study in our text where we see this benediction followed by a final greeting. As mentioned earlier, this benediction and final greetings are one of the reasons why some think Paul wrote this letter. This is something he did pretty commonly in his letters. So for the first time, for the start, let’s just work through verses 20 through 21, which is the benediction. With the benediction basically being Like a prayer of blessing that the author is praying over his readers. Okay, let’s just start with the first lines. Verse 20, if you want to take your eyes there. So verse 20 says this. Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the eternal covenant. And let’s just hit pause there. Just work through this first verse. Let’s do so by just looking and receiving at some of the encouragement that is there. So there’s several things I actually wrote down to just in this first verse this week that it’s so encouraged by. So first. First encouragement you see in the text is just the encouragement of prayer, the encouragement of this prayer of blessing that the author is praying over his readers. Now, there’s a lot of things that we can and should be doing for each other as a church, particularly those who are weary and discouraged, like we should be doing things to help them. And on top of the list of things we should be doing is to pray, is to pray to the God of peace, to ask God to bring about his peace, a peace that surpasses our understanding in whatever difficult and challenging situation that we may be facing. Peace, whether it be challenges or difficulties coming from the outside, which was true of the first readers, as those on the outside were persecuting them for their faith or perhaps paying for the God of peace, that would help us with the challenges from the inside, which I think also is true of the first readers. You can just tell by the context of Hebrews that the first readers were battling things like doubt and insecurity and anxiety and discouragement, depression, disappointment, worry, fear. As much as we should be willing to find practical ways to help those who are in difficult, challenging situations, which was our text last week, the best thing we can do is to pray for them. Is to pray to the God of peace Church. Just say it again, right? There’s a lot of things that I hope that we’re doing for each other, but may prayer be at the top? How encouraging is it when you know people are praying for you? Second, encouragement in the text, which is encouraging that we serve a God of peace. Peace, it’s an enslaved peace, is not something that’s easily found. In fact, even this week, how many of us in this room can testify, you just had a very peaceful week? No concerns, no anxieties, no disappointment. Really, everything went great this week. In contrast, harmless. As we look back at the week where we’ve dealt on all types of different troubles or fears, where throughout the week we can Just feel anxiety building up in the pit of our stomach. We’re in this fight against anxiety or worry or fear that has left us weary. This weary fight we had to fight yet again this week. It’s not to minimize any of our troubles or any of our fears. The encouragement that we have in our text today is that God is a God of peace, fullness of peace, perfect peace, which in the text, the word peace, this is shalom, which in the scripture is more than just like a quietness from like trouble in our hearts. But this peace, the shalom, is like fullness of happiness, fullness of blessedness for his people. That is who God is. He is a God of peace, a God who is the giver of peace. Peace even in the storm. Peace that is greater than all of our worries, all of our fears, all of our anxieties, all of our doubts. Peace that will be fully ours. We enter into the promised heaven as that becomes a reality which leads to the next encouragement text. Third encouragement is encouragement found in the message of Jesus Christ, the Gospel, which is the message by which we have peace with God, the message by which eternal life, eternal peace is found through the gospel. In the text we see this message of Jesus Christ, the message of the Gospel, this encouraging word with the little yet such important phrase, we see the very one who God brought again from the dead message of the gospel. It’s a message where we find peace. Because the Lord Jesus Christ died for sinners on a cross to bear the judgment of our sin on himself, with sin not only being the great separator between man and holy God, but actually more than that. Sin is like a wedge that puts man at enmity and strife with holy God that does not allow for mankind to have peace with God on her own. Sin actually puts us at war against God. Sin is rebellion against God, his design for our life. Yet in the message of the gospel, Jesus Christ came. He bore the wrath of God that burns over sin, so that through his death and in our benediction, through his raising from the dead on the third day, by faith, faith in Christ, we now have peace with God. New Testament Remember that one time you were separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and stranger to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ, for He himself is our peace. Friends, is there anything more encouraging than that reminder that through the Lord Jesus Christ, God is not our judge, he’s not the one that we stand at enmity and strife against. Rather, because Christ died, because God brought him back from the dead. By faith we have peace with God. When this peace we have with God, this is not just like a piece of like neutrality, like spiritual Switzerland, but the peace we have is a peace that now allows us to come to God as our good, kind, loving heavenly Father, the one who gives peace where his peace is sufficient for every less than ideal situation we find ourselves in. Friends, this morning as we close off this sermon series, be encouraged by the message of the gospel. Be encouraged by all that is yours through Christ Jesus, including the forgiveness of sin, including the right standing with God as Christ’s righteousness is calling it, as your righteousness. Be encouraged that God is your heavenly Father. Be encouraged by the promise of eternal life that is to come. Be encouraged by the peace that Christ has given to us so that your hearts are not troubled and afraid. By the way, this morning, if you do not have faith in Christ, peace with God today I invite you to believe in Christ. To believe indeed he died for you and rose again on your behalf. Fourth encouragement, you see in this first verse is encouragement the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who died and crucified, that he is the great shepherd of the sheep, which in our society, our culture, shepherds are not a vocation that we see. By the time of the letter of Hebrews, shepherds were common. In fact, you actually read a lot about shepherds, the imagery of shepherds. All throughout the Bible, there’s like famous figures like Moses, David, were shepherds. Leaders are often referred to as shepherds of people. In fact, the word pastor in the New Testament comes from a Latin word that basically means shepherd. Famously in Psalm 23, God is referred to our shepherd, right? The Lord is my shepherd. We don’t have time to walk through all that a shepherd does. Most famously, shepherds, they guide and they protect their sheep, which is Psalm 23 is a guiding so the sheep are not in want a guiding to the green grass, peaceful still waters, ultimately guiding to a feast where there’ll be an overflow of blessing. Psalm 23, the Lord is a shepherd, provides protection through the rod and through the staff, which is not only meant to guide the sheep, but the rod and the staff are also used by the shepherd to protect the sheep, to fight off predators, provide the sheep with security and comfort even as they walk through the valley of the shadow of death. Because the shepherd is present, the sheep will fear no evil. And for us this morning, friends, is this not so encouraging for us to consider do we have a great shepherd? And all the ups, all the downs of life, all the trials, all the tribulations that we are facing or might face someday, all the big, difficult, complex decisions before us. The Lord is there as the great shepherd of the sheep, where he will shepherd us through everything. We’re in everything. Our Lord is there to guide us, protect us. Even in the valley of the shadow of death. He is there even when we fear everything closing in around us. We have a great shepherd. Not just a great shepherd. Jesus even tells in his word that he’s the good shepherd, where he’s good in all that he does, where he is so good. Our great shepherd even laid down his life for his sheep. Once again, not to minimize whatever you’re facing, but friend, please be encouraged if you’re in Christ Jesus, if you have faith in Him. Whatever challenges, whatever trials, whatever tribulations that you’re facing, you don’t face them alone. You have a great shepherd who is actively guiding you and protecting you. Even if and when we enter to the valley of shadow of death, he’s with us. And even in death, he will continue to shepherd us as he shepherd us into eternal life, the life that all we will know is his peace and blessing and joy. Friends, you have a great shepherd who is actively shepherding you even this morning, even in this moment. Be encouraged by that which actually leads to the fifth encouragement in the verse for those who have faith in Jesus Christ. You are eternally loved by God, which really is the longing of all our hearts. We want to be loved and friends through Jesus Christ. You are loved by God eternally, which his love is really the only love that will satisfy all of our longings. We see this truth of God’s eternal love for his people in the little phrase in verse 20, the phrase by the blood of the eternal covenant, my friends, the blood, the blood of Jesus Christ. That’s how we know that we are loved by God. New Testament in this is love not that we have loved God, but He has loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation of our sins in the New Testament. But God shows His love to us, that while we are still sinners, Christ died for us. The blood of Christ, the blood of the eternal covenant, Hebrews tells us, is a blood that speaks a better word, because the blood of the eternal covenant speaks a word that declares that God loves His people. This love following the eternal covenant, this is love that will always be on his people, meaning God does not like love. His people. One day, but perhaps not the next. Or love fully one day, but maybe a little less the next. Rather, this love is eternal and this love is actually based nothing to do with us. Rather, this love is secured in Christ and what he has done for us that according to his eternal plan, he has chosen to love us because he is the One who is loving because of this love of God that is eternally on his people through this eternal covenant. Now, our hearts brimming with incredible encouragement, we can cry out with the New Testament, what shall separate us from the love of Christ? So, tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, a sword, as it’s written for your sake, we’re being killed all day long. We regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that there is neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor nor things present, nor things that come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all the creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Friend, this morning, if you are in Christ Jesus, please know, please be encouraged. You are loved by God with a love that satisfies every longing of your heart. And within that, please be encouraged that this love of God through Jesus Christ is a love that will always be on you. There is nothing that can break God’s eternal covenant. This eternal covenant was written and sealed with the blood of Christ. So for us that’s just verse 20 and all the encouragement there. But hold on, there’s more encouragement to come. So let’s keep going in this benediction, verse 21. Because God is a God of peace who sent Christ to bring forth his gospel message, this great message of love. This message is love that he shepherds his people in with an eternal covenant. His people can be encouraged to know that through the power of His Holy Spirit, well also his sister, sealed in our hearts in the text, God is equipping us with every good thing where we have all that we need that we may do his will. There’s nothing lacking for us on this end. Through Christ, through His Holy Spirit, through His living and active Word, we have all things. It is sufficient for us to do his will, which is the will in our text that is working within us, the that which is pleasing in his sight, which I trust is encouragement to you as well, if you are in Christ Jesus. Not only does God at work in your life to equip you with every good thing, good things reflect the heart of God that produce the fruit of the Spirit. But within that, he is equipping you to live a life in ways that’s pleasing to him, to please him, in ways, as the benediction ends, just sang, by bringing glory forever and ever to Jesus Christ. Amen. What an incredible encouragement that is. The eternal Son of God, the second member of the blessed Trinity, the crucified and risen Jesus Christ, is bringing glory to himself forever and ever. How? Through his people, including you. Which, by the way, also satisfies the longing of your heart, right? This longing to have meaning and purpose. Friends, this morning, if you’re in Christ Jesus, please feel this encouragement. Be humbled by this, be encouraged by this. God is using you, your life, to bring glory to Jesus Christ. He’s using all the ups, all the downs, all the ideal providences, all the frowning providences, all being used by God. None of it’s being wasted to glorify Christ. A few weeks back, my family and I watched the old movie Groundhog’s Day. Remember that one where the main character relives, like, the same day over and over and over again, which for us, we can feel some of that same monotony as we go through life. Perhaps every day kind of feels the same. We go through life kind of like wondering, like, what’s the point? What’s the purpose of this life? Is this actually making a difference? Does our life even matter, my friends, in our text? Yeah, it makes a difference. It matters. Yeah. Your life, as insignificant at times it can feel, is being used by Christ to say it again, to bring eternal glory to Himself, to declare his surpassing worth. I mean, what could be of greater value and purpose than that? So, friend, this morning, please be encouraged. You matter. Your life matters. As monotonous, perhaps boring and ornate as your life might feel, Christ will bring glory to Himself forever. So the final bit, introduction to the text, one of great encouragement. As we keep going the text, we get to the final few verses, which we see a final greeting which is agreeing. That also had to be really encouraging to the first readers. Let’s work through that. Starting verse 22, verse 22, we see the author wrote, I appeal to you, or I urge you, brothers, or brothers and sisters. With the phrase brothers here is not indication of relation by like ancestral blood, but relation by the blood of Christ, which is a blood that not only brings his people to himself, but also to each other. So all who are in Christ Jesus are family. So in text, his author is giving his family of faith one last appeal, right? Brothers and sisters. Brothers and sisters in Christ we see the appeal is to bear with his word of exhortation. And so this final exhortation is word to bear, the word of exhortation. I think the author of Hebrews is acknowledging to his readers that there certainly were hard things in this letter, hard things for them to hear. You know, so many encouraging things throughout Hebrews. Not everything, as we know, was encouraging, particularly the many warnings that filled this letter. And the consequences of walking away from the faith, I’m sure for them, perhaps even for some of us here, were hard to hear. So the text, the author acknowledged that this letter at various points was hard to read, even though in verse 22, he wrote that this letter, this word of exhortation, was actually just a brief letter written to them. Which, by the way, the writer saying this is a brief letter, I think should actually make us chuckle a little bit here. The reason why Hebrew is actually one of the longer books in the New Testament. So in comparison to other letters in the New Testament, it’s actually not brief. Now let’s circle back to the introduction. Even though we don’t know for certain who the author is, I think we feel confident he’s a preacher. And the reason why we feel confident, preachers always have more to say and they always implied that their sermons are brief. So whoever wrote this letter, right, clearly a preacher. Verse 23. After appealing to them to bear with his exhortations, the author went back to some more encouragement as he wanted his readers to know that our brother Timothy, once again brother in the faith, Timothy has been released. And this here is assuming released from, like, prison because of his faith, which, by the way, is also one of the reasons why some think Paul is the author, this real strong relationship, like a mentor, mentee relationship with Timothy, when you actually read about in first and second Timothy, as Paul wrote to him. So in this passage, in this final greeting, the author hoped that Timothy being released from prison would encourage his readers, along with the potential of Timothy and the author coming to visit them soon. See that in the text we read how the author is hoping that Timothy would come to him and then from there the two of them would make their way to visit this church, knowing that physically being with them is a great way to encourage, which certainly the author is hoping to do, to come to physically be with them, to physically provide comfort and care, to physically give them words of encouragement to hear with their own ears, which, you know, is so important, so powerful. In fact, this week I was talking to some of my friends who are pastors, and we just Talked about like the ministry of presence, just like physically, emotionally, relationally, being present, that often goes a very long way in helping encourage others. Finally, where your letter ends, read the author, instruct his readers or tell his readers to send his greetings to all the leaders. Send his greetings to all the saints. They say hi from him to everyone who made up the church, from the least to the greatest. He wanted them to know that he was greeting them. And as he sends his greeting, he also tells his first readers that those who come from Italy all send their greeting as well. This phrase, those who come from Italy, could be an indicator of where this letter was written. Italy, maybe, maybe like Rome. Or it can mean that Italian Christians have relocated to different parts of the world, maybe maybe as missionaries, and they’re all sending their greetings from wherever it was this letter is being written from for us was important to see. I saw the author. All those from Italy were sending their greeting, doing so in ways that they were remembering this group of struggling, hurting, discouraged Christians. And this year, this is actually a little bit of like practicing what the author was preaching in the previous text. Remember the previous text. The author encourages readers to remember those who are imprisoned for their faith, to remember those who are being mistreated for their faith. So at the end of this letter, the author, those who come from Italy were doing just that for the first readers. They were remembering them as they greeted them and church. Let’s not underestimate just how helpful and powerful that can be for others, particularly those who are struggling to be remembered. Don’t underestimate how like a card in the mail or maybe a check in text message or just like an intentional come say hi to someone at church or other little touches like that, where we remember, where we acknowledge others so others know they haven’t been forgotten. Let’s not underestimate how far that can go, just how encouraging that can be. By the way, that’s actually one of the hopes that we have for us as a church. The church pillar connect. They’re all moving about each other’s lives, where we’re connecting with each other, remembering each other, even in like small, simple ways. So, you know, that’s like why we had karaoke night last night. That’s why we’re having a church potluck tonight, which I hope you can be at. There’s a great ways for us to connect, maybe particularly connect with those you don’t always get opportunity to connect with on a regular basis to help us to remember one another. Finally, looking back, one Last time, the last phrase of this book, which is another prayer, prayed over them. Verse 25, Grace be with all of you on this last little verse here, this last little prayer, last little phrase. This is not like a throwaway here where the author said all he needed to say. So he’s trying to find like something to kind of wrap it up. And so how about grace be with you? Rather this little phrase, grace be with you. This is the author concluding by pointing his readers to their hope, to the hope that we have as God’s people. The grace of God, which we learned last week, is a grace that strengthens us, a grace that encourages us, a grace that even when we are weak, God makes us strong, that even in our weakness, when we’re struggling to endure, his grace is sufficient. Now, as I close this sermon, close the sermon series, I want to do so by giving you a handful of thoughts here. First two, actually, I think will be on the projector and the rest of them won’t be. So the first two relate specific to our text today, and then the last ones just be maybe some summary hopes for us as we conclude this series. So first, let’s just start with the text today. So I have two things for you, two takeaways. So first, be encouraged, please, please be encouraged. Be encouraged by this benediction in verses 20 through 21. I know we all know there are many things in this life that are discouraging. But this morning, dig back in the text, hear from God’s Word and find encouragement. Be encouraged that your God is a God of peace where he’s leading his people on a pilgrimage into his eternal peace. Be encouraged by your crucified and risen Savior, being encouraged by what Jesus Christ has done for you, the eternal covenant that he’s called you into, this covenant of love. Be encouraged that the work that God started in your life the moment you first believed in Christ is the work that he is continuing in your life. So through his word, through the power of the Holy Spirit, he’s equipping you with every good thing to do as well friend this morning, please be encouraged. So the second thing, be an encouragement to others, which is one of the things that God actually equips his people for us to be able to do to encourage others. Now, some are uniquely gifted to encourage. Barnabas certainly seemed to be gifted in that way. But really, all of us, we can encourage others. That’s the model just we see the author gives in the final greeting. We can do this. He was encouraging and that he was aware of the hard things his readers were experiencing, even aware, self aware of how hard the letter was at times. We don’t need to have the gift of encouragement to be aware of others. Likewise, we don’t need the gift of encouragement, the desire to be around others, to be physically present, to serve others, which was the author’s hope that him and Timothy could do to just be present. We can do that. The author’s encouraging as he prayed for others, as he pointed others to the grace of God. Friends, we can do that as well. And by the way, on this note, Kate and I are trying to help get a group maybe we’re willing to receive prayer requests that might come from the church just to be praying for each other, maybe more specifically. So if that interests you, you can talk to Kate and myself friends, in the morning. This morning their text first receive encouragement following the benediction and from there as you receive it being encouragement that’s modeled in the final greeting. This leads to the final thoughts I have for us as we wrap up the series. That’s because working on this sermon I just wrote the question to myself what would be some like good takeaways for us from the study? The study that we’ve been in since April. It’s a long time and while I had a good number of things, I just tried to boil it down to four categories. Categories that you’ll be familiar to familiar to you, that I just want to briefly apply appeal to us with so first so we finished off the study May our hearts be gripped to worship Jesus Christ, that we worship him with all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our mind, all of our strength. That we worship him by pouring out our life as an offering, knowing that the Lord Jesus Christ, he’s the definitive word by which God has spoken. That Jesus Christ is the one who’s superior to all things. That Jesus Christ is the one that all the scripture is pointing us to. That Jesus Christ is the great high priest who is able to sympathize with us in all of our weakness, yet without sin, and also is able to help us in our times of need. May we worship Jesus Christ, knowing that that is where we find rest for our souls, eternal rest. Knowing that through him, through his shed blood, we have that eternal covenant with God. We’re in this covenant, we know God where he knows us as his people. We’re in this covenant, our sins are all forgiven where they’re cast as far as the east is from the west. May we worship him in ways that we draw near with a True heart and full assurance. Because the one that we worship, the Lord Jesus Christ, he is the sure, the steady anchor of our soul, the very one who lives to make intercession for us, meaning as encouraging, it is to be prayed for by others, perhaps others in the church. How much more encouraging. The one that we worship, the Lord Jesus Christ, is interceding for us. Friends, worship the Lord Jesus Christ in ways that you’re laying aside every weight, every sin, they’re not worth it. Don’t worship them. Worship Jesus. Because as you worship Jesus, the one you’re looking to is the author, the perfecter of our faith, the very one. For the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame because he rose again, is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God, where from there he is actively shepherding us in our lives. Friends, worship Jesus Christ in ways that you lift up your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees by understanding that your God, he is a consuming fire. This morning, friends, by faith, I hope this fire consumes us in such a way that all of our life, all of it as an act of worship, where all of our life we’re declaring his supremacy, where all of our life, we’re not like, shrinking back in our faith. Rather, as we live a life of worship, we’re standing firm, firm, holding fast our profession. Second, as we finish off this study of Hebrews, I hope we’re even more committed, even more passionate to connect as a church. Most famously in this call to connect in Hebrews is in chapter 10, which says this and let us consider how to stir one another up to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as a habit of some, but encouraging each other, encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near. But those words are not the only words in Hebrews that encourages us to connect, that point us to connect. And really throughout this entire letter, we see the call to connect, the call to endure, stand fast together, to persevere together. And we see this so many times, how this letter says something along the lines of let us or we. All these plural, helps us see how important it is for us to connect, even if it might cause us to suffer to connect, which I think was true for the first readers. For us, may we connect with each other in ways we’re showing each other brotherly love. May we connect with each other. We’re striving to live at peace with one another. May we connect with one another. We’re seeking to share whatever it is that we have with one another. May we connect in ways that we bless and encourage one another. Friends, we cannot read the book of Hebrews without seeing how important it is for us to connect and to continue to connect from the least to the greatest, that we all might endure to the end so that all of us will see the Lord and obtain the grace of God. Third, as I finish off this study of Hebrews, I hope even more than ever before, we are committed to grow as a church, to not be like spiritual infants who drink milk, but we’re setting hearts to grow in ways that we’re eating spiritual meat that’s making us stronger, so strong that we’re actually becoming like teachers who come alongside others, who help others to grow, which really is the hope that myself, other leaders of our church has, that we grow in this way, that more and more of us are involved in ways in each other’s lives, that we’re like teaching and discipling one another. We are coming alongside others who are like younger in the faith to help them to grow in their faith. Which by the way, on this note, this is why we’re always looking for more small group leaders with the hopes that our small groups are multiplying as new leaders are being raised up, sent out to teach new small groups to help others to grow, to grow in the knowledge of God, to grow in the discipline of God, to grow in ways that our faith are strengthened by the grace of God. Last one. So we finished the study. I hope even more, even more, we’re committed to go as a church, to go to the world around us with the message of Jesus Christ and to boldly and confidently and urgently speak the better word, the better word found in the blood of Christ. To go outside of our little camp here to tell our friends, our family members, our neighbors, our co workers, and whoever else might come along our path who do not know Jesus Christ, to go to them, to speak the better word of who Jesus is and what he has done, with the great hope, the great prayer, that they’ll be brought into the eternal covenant where they will join us in our faith, join us in the worship of Jesus Christ, that they might further and deeper connect with us in ways that we can help them grow, that they might come alongside of us as we continue to go. Friends, this morning as we finish off this book, I do hope it puts winds in our sails for us to go and to continue to go with the message of Christ until our Lord returns or calls us home, you know, for us, no, we don’t know the author, the human author of Hebrews, but we do know the divine author. We know that the Lord in His grace has given us this incredible letter. This letter is included in the canon of Scripture. So through this letter many things will be done in our hearts, including that we be encouraged, encouraged to stand firm and to be the people that God would have us to be. Which starts by worshiping Christ. It continues by going and connecting with each other, which continues by growing in our faith in ways that we go in our faith. Church May God give us the grace to be faithful to these calls and to seek to stand firm, to persevere and endure all the way to the end until we enter the eternal home with Christ where forever and ever our hearts will be filled with his encouragement. Revelation May the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with every good that you may do his will working in us that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to be glory forever and ever. Amen. Let’s pray. Lord, I do pray that you would encourage our hearts this morning, especially those who may have walked in here just feeling weary. Lord, through your word, through your preached word, through the power of your spirit, I pray that you encourage my brothers and sisters. Lord, thank you for the Book of Hebrews. What a sweet gift that you have given to us. Lord, please bless Red Village Church. And Lord, please continue to shepherd and guide us. Pray so in Jesus name, Amen.