All right, well, beautiful scene. So welcome to Red Village. I’ve not met you. I’m Aaron and I’m the preaching pastor here and glad that you’re with us today. So if you have a Bible with you, which I hope you do, you can open up to the Book of Hebrews. Today’s texture study is going to be Hebrews 13:1 19. If you don’t have a Bible with you, fear not. There are pew Bibles scattered throughout. It’s on page 586. And as you open your Bible, please keep them open. So today what we do here, we just kind of go verse by verse to walk through this passage. And so throughout the sermon, all I’m going to do is just kind of refer us back to the Scripture. So I want you to keep your eyes in God’s word throughout this time. So right here I’m just going to read verses 18 and 19. As mentioned, we’re going to do verses 1 through 19 for this sermon. So maybe verses 18 and 19 and then I’ll pray and then we’ll get to work. So what the Bible says says, pray for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience, desiring to act honorably in all things. Urge you the more earnestly to do this in order that it might be restored to you the sooner. So that’s God’s word for us this morning. Would you please pray with me? God, thank you for this time. Thank you for bringing us together to sit under your word. God, please help me to be a good communicator. Help me to speak clearly and truthfully. Please help the listeners to listen well and pray. Whatever truth that is spoken from this pulpit would land in their hearts and bear fruit. Pray so in Jesus name, amen. So this morning as we gather together, we come to the second to last sermon in our series through the New Testament book of Book of Hebrews, which Rob kind of mentioned during the prayer time. This is a series that we started a while back, actually was last April, which did include a break last summer. We went through the Book of James. So we’ve been in Hebrews for quite a while now. And as we come to the second to last sermon in this sermon series, I trust that by now we have at least a pretty good idea of the overarching hope of this book, which is the hope that the readers are Hebrew or would persevere, that they would endure, that they would stand firm in their faith even in the midst of mounting persecution that they were facing. So in the course of our Study, of course, the last several months we come to many different tools or ways. The author of Hebrews has helped his readers towards that end of standing firm in the faith, often pointing how Jesus is better superior than all things. I gave to his readers. The hermeneutic or like the interpretive skill to know how to read the Old Testament and ways for us to better see Jesus, how the Old Testament is always there to point us to Him. The author of Hebrews gives some great encouragement also some real warnings also meant to help us to stand firm. There’s Old Testament characters given in the book of Hebrews, characters who stood firm in their faith, meant to help inspire us to also stand firm in our faith. Often throughout Hebrews, the author speaks about the message of the Gospel, the promise of eternal life to those who believe in Jesus Christ. And this message of the Gospel is really the message of what Christ has done in his death and resurrection, so that through Christ, through faith in him, we can be made right with God. It’s come by faith, faith alone in Jesus Christ, where his righteousness is counted as our righteousness. That’s the message of the Gospel that we are to stand firm on. So really, throughout this book, in many different ways, the author has given his readers all these different helps, right? To help us to. To stand firm, to help us to look to Jesus, who is the author, the perfecter of our faith, the one who for the joy set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, but is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God for all eternity. Now, today, as we come to the second to last sermon in this series, this theme, this hope that the author had of helping his readers to stand firm continues to be before us. But this time it may be a little bit more practical ways. We’re going to see a whole list of practical areas of our life that we are to live in, walk in to help us to stand firm. Perhaps this is even maybe a litmus test for us this morning to see if indeed we are standing firm in the faith. Now, before we get to the passage, there’s a couple things I do want to mention to you up front. First, I wanted you to know that I did have a debate in my mind on how to break up this section in Hebrews. So as I work through our passage today, you’ll see it’s filled with multiple different practical things we are to set our hearts on as Christians. And the debate that I had was if we should go through these, like a little bit more slowly over multiple Sermons, we slow down, maybe look at each of these practical realities a little more closely, what it looks like to stand firm in that practical reality, or. Or just to give them to you all at once. And while faithful sermons, I think can be done either way, what I decided to do is actually to give everything all at once. And I decided to do this way because I think that’s how the author presents this section in Scripture, just throwing multiple things at us at once. I think he did so just so we can feel the weight of all different things God gives us to help us on this end, to help us to stand firm. So we’ll get back to this at the end. But as hard as it might be to stand firm, God has given us so so many things to help us to do. So all these things we see in His Word, he gives the power of the Spirit to help us to apply God’s Word. So this morning, just know up front we’re going to cover a lot. But as we cover a lot, please feel the weight of all that God has given to us. And I hope that that weight encourages you. Second, I do want to mention that this text, the assumption behind it is that the readers are Christians, those who have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who believe in his death and resurrection from the dead. So this list of all these practical things we’re go through, this is not like a checkoff list. And how do you make or become like right with God? Or if you do these things, then you’ll become a Christian. As mentioned, one can only be made right with God by putting your faith, your trust, your belief in Jesus Christ, by turning from sin and turning to him, by calling upon his name, by believing in your heart who Jesus is as revealed in Scripture and believing what he has done for us, particularly what he has done in his death on the cross, to take on the punishment of sin and his resurrection from the dead. So this list we go over today, this is not a list or a to do that after crossing them off, then, like, you’re right with God or you’re accepted by God and somehow you earn eternal life. Say it again. It’s only through faith in Jesus Christ. So this morning, if you’re not a Christian, we’re glad that you’re here and we’d love to actually talk to you more on what it looks like to put your faith in Jesus Christ. Okay, our text today, this is written for Christians to help us to live out our faith in ways that we are standing firm. Okay? So that is those things in Mind, please look back with the text starting in verse one. We’re just going to be walking through verses one through 19. So verse one. So we read this. We are to let brotherly love continue. This is speaking of love that we have between Christians, brothers and sisters in Christ, who are united to Christ by faith, but also united to each other in love. And this brotherly love for one another, this is actually one of the most important things that we are to do as we live out our faith, to love each other and to love each other, even in times when it’s hard and challenging to do. Friends, this is a very real practical way by which we are to stand firm. It’s by loving one another. However, as much as this is part of our faith, if you’ve been part of church life for any period of time, you know this is not always easy. Practically, it’s not always easy to love one another. What’s easy, maybe natural, is to fight and divide. And if I can be kind of frank with you, in my years of church life, winter, what we’re currently in right now, this often puts the most strain on us in our call to love one another. We’re in winter. We can maybe be a little bit more moody, a little bit more down, a little more discouraged, maybe a little bit more quick to fight and divide, maybe a little less willing to embrace this call here in verse one. But if we’re going to be a church standing firm in our faith, firm on the message of Christ, firm in ways that we’re persevering, enduring, this is what we must do practically. We must love one another, love one another in ways that reflect how Christ has loved us as he gave Himself up for us as he died in our place. In this text, not only is the author calling the readers to brotherly love, but we see actually to continue on in that love, meaning that the love that we have for one another is not just like this one time act or just like to love when things are going like really well. Maybe during times of the calendar, perhaps it’s easier to love because we’re less moody and discouraged. But our call to love is not just in those times, but this call to love is an ongoing act, one that we must continue to do, to continue to show brotherly love, even when we don’t feel like it, even when it might be really hard for us to do, even in all the ups, all the downs of life, we are to love one another. Friends, without brotherly love, we cannot stand firm in our faith. It’s A necessary ingredient. Verse 2. Not only to love one another, those who are in the faith, we also are to love other people who are outside the faith, perhaps even those who we don’t even know. Verse 2 tells us to not neglect showing hospitality to strangers with exercising hospitality is actually one of the real practical ways where we can show love. The text don’t neglect showing hospitality to strangers, for thereby by showing hospitality, some has even entertained strangers, unaware. This is a reference to a story in the book of Genesis. Genesis, I’ll let you look at it later. This is 18 and 19 of Genesis, where Abraham was showing hospitality towards strangers who proved to be angels. And for us, as we stand firm, a very practical way we do that is by being on the lookout where we’re eager to show hospitality even to strangers, even to those maybe we barely know, perhaps maybe like a neighbor who we’ve yet to meet, we’re intentionally seeking to meet them in ways that we can show hospitality to them. By the way, in Scripture, hospitality this time period not only included a meal, but in ancient culture, this also would often include like a night, a place to stay the night. So in this culture there wasn’t like Airbnbs to rent or hotels to go to. So strangers or travelers, they’re really dependent upon others to host them, to let them in. And we know this. It takes a lot to host people, to serve others, especially strangers. Yet friends, that’s our call. If we’re going to stand firm, we stand firm by being a servant, a generous servant who displays generosity through acts of hospitality. Verse 3. We stand firm by remembering those who are in prison. I think this specifically refers to Christians who are arrested for their faith, which chapter 10, verse 30 talks about. We are to remember them as though we were in prison with them. We’re to remember those who are being mistreated as if we were the ones being mistreated. And we are to do this, since we are all part of the body, which further speaks to the unity that we have, the brotherly love we have for one another. When one suffers, we all suffer. Friends, when we stand firm, it stops being about you and it becomes about us, where we serve others as others serve you, as you care about others as others care about you. We’re intentionally getting into the lives of other people, especially those who are going through hard, challenging things. Hard things are having to endure, like being thrown in prison, so we might come alongside of them to care for them, to encourage them, however we can, which means we can’t be so focused on ourselves and whatever is before us, which is natural for us to do. We know this. We love to think about ourselves. But friends, to stand firm means we’ll think about others sitting in, particularly others who may be suffering, to find practical ways to come alongside them. Verse 4 of our text, to stand firm means that our marriage will be marriages will be held in honor among all. Whereas we honor our marriages. We’ll make sure that our marriage bread is not undefiled, for God will judge as sexually immoral and adulterous for the marriage bed to be undefiled, to get the sex to be defiled. It’s any type of sex outside of that of a husband and a wife, where both parties are being honored and cherished Friends, all other types of sex outside of mutual giving of a husband and wife, defiles sex, defiles the marriage bed. By the way, based on statistics, for those of us here who perhaps are really struggling to stand firm in the faith right now, based on statistics, a high percentage, this might be the area that’s causing you a lot of issues right now, why you’re wobbling instead of standing firm. This can come from some type of sexual abuse. Maybe it even takes place in marriage, maybe some type of immorality that you’re indulging in. Perhaps like pornography has a real grip on your life right now. Or. Or maybe it is you just kind of let your mind run with lustful thoughts while trying to fight and flee against temptation. All these things, they have a way of defiling the marriage bed. Friend, if that’s you this morning, let me just invite you to confess that sin and to take it to Jesus to find healing, forgiveness. Aggressively seek to put away your sin and let others in the church into your life to help you to stand firm in this area. So I know that confessing sin, maybe particular sexual sin, that’s a hard and humbly thing to do, maybe even an embarrassing thing to do. Friends, it’s so much better to be humbled in ways that you’re getting help and healing so you could better stand firm rather than being prideful to hold on church with brotherly love. Let us help each other. Let us come alongside each other in all areas, including this one. Keep going. Verse five, which I be another area. Statistically I think a lot of can struggle with another area that I think maybe is a little hard embarrassing to talk about. Which by the way, this is you. I also want to invite you confess this as sin if it has a grip on you. Let others help you with this. Verse 5 the text we see the area of money where we read that we are to keep our life free from the love of money, which also can be hard for us to do. It can be easy to love money, put our hope in money, our security in money, in ways that we become obsessed by it, always thinking about it, my friend, Scripture tells us that when we love money, that’s actually at the root of all kinds of evil. Evil that does not help us stand firm, but evil that just tears us down. In the text, one of the great ways that we stay free from the love of money, he sees by being content with whatever you have, whatever it might be, which also is one of the great keys to the happiness of life, is being content. The reason why we can be content with what we have is we see in the text. For he has said in Deuteronomy 31, I will never leave you nor forsake you. Meaning, when we are in Christ, we have all who God is. And because of the promise of God, we will always have all of who God is. He will never leave us, he will never forsake us. So we can be content knowing if we have the Lord, all of him, all the Lord Jesus Christ. Friends, what more could we ever need? What are we missing that money could purchase? If we have the Lord? Verse 6, because we have God, we can say with confidence by standing for him, the Lord is my help. I will not fear. What can man do to me? Which is a quote from the book of Psalms, Psalm 56, which reminds us, not all, only how easy is it fall into the love of money, but also fall in the traps of, like, the fear of man. We’re so worried about others, what they might do to us that we just live in fear, always thinking about others. It can consume us the way the love of money also can consume us, which also adds a real challenge to us and our call to stand firm. We’re more concerned about what others think than what the Lord thinks. Friends, it does not help us stand firm. By the way, I do think that the love of money and the fear of man often hand in hand, is when we’re so overly concerned by what others might think of us. Just kind of leads us to be obsessed about, like, worldly possessions or some type of attempt to, like, impress other people with things that maybe money can buy. So we get so focused on others afraid of others, and in doing so, forget what the text tells us, that the Lord is the one who is our helper. Friends, the love of money, the fear of man, forgetting that the Lord is our helper, forgetting that he is the One who will never leave us, forsake us. These all war against our call to stand firm, which is like practically must continue to set our sight on the Lord and what he has done for us through Jesus Christ so we could be content in him, so we would fear him, so we’d find our help in him and him alone. Verse 7 Another means that is meant to help us stand firm is we are to remember our leaders, those who spoke the word of God to us. We’re to consider the outcome of their way and this year specifically is pointing to leaders who live the faithful life, who engage in faithful ministry, but now who have died, who have gone on. And we are to remember these former leaders in ways that maybe we remembered the Old Testament saints we looked at. Hebrews 11. Those who have gone before us as we consider their outcome in life, as we remember their legacy is standing firm. So now these former leaders, we’ll do the same. We’re to remember them so they might inspire us to also stand firm. Which practically is why I love reading biographies of leaders who have gone before us. They can be so helpful to remember their lives, to help me in my life. By the way, this remembering leaders should be humbling and sobering to those who are currently in leadership, myself included. Our current ministries should be such that the end of our life that our ministries actually continue to be used by the Lord where hopefully we’re leaving a legacy for others. To remember. To remember our teaching, to remember example, to remember the outcome of our faith even after we’re gone, to help others stand firm in their faith. Verse 8 It’s one of the most famous verses in the book of Hebrews. Verse 8 tells us Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. This is here not only to be a great comfort and a great encouragement to us in the ever changing world that we live in. Christ our Lord does not change. This is why he is the sure and steady anchor of our soul, the one we can count on. In the context of this passage, Jesus Christ being the same yesterday, today and forever is not only there to give us comfort, encouragement, but this great truth is there to help us to discern how helpful truthful leaders and teachers are who speak God’s word. They’re there to practically help us to discern, teaching, discern if what they teach are teaching the unchangeable truths of our God. Verse 9 that’s why he tells us, do not be led astray by diverse strange teachings which are teachings that greatly Affect our ability to stand firm as false teachings. False teachers can get us tossed to and fro. So as mentioned, practically a great tool for discernment for us as false teachers. Often they claim they have some type of new insight, new perspective on our Lord his gospel, where false teachers can basically claim that everyone else throughout history has gotten it wrong, but somehow they’ve gotten it right. You know, there’s an old adage, if it’s new, it probably ain’t true. And I think that’s very helpful to help us to discern, particularly when it comes to the Lord Jesus Christ. So we find teachers who teach under the banner of Christianity but always seem to like have like a new twist, some new thoughts that like no one else has ever come up with. Friends, we need to be very discerning of them. If we entertain false teachers, we can find ourselves so twisted around that we will not stand firm. Keep going to the text and the way we can discern false teachers and really how we stand firm, the text is to have a good heart and be strengthened by the grace of God for false teachers and even really in our own hearts, when it comes to God’s grace, there are two sides of the ditch we often fall on. One side of the ditch is all self effort. Where we’re trying to earn God’s favor, there’s some type of self righteous effort. But then the other side of the ditch, God’s grace is like so cheap to the point it doesn’t really matter what we do or don’t do on this side of the ditch, Grace is almost like a license to sin, an excuse to not stand firm. But friends, if we’re going to stand firm in our faith, we see in the text our hearts must be strengthened by the grace of God found in Jesus Christ, which is a grace that not only forgives us when we sin, but also grace that grows us, sanctifies us to help keep us from sin. Text because of the grace of God, in the end they can only strengthen us. We see that we’re not strengthened by food, which is the author pointing to the side of the dish that his readers perhaps falling into the side of. This is trying to cheapen grace by putting like the focus on as they’re trying to use food, their diet as a means of self righteousness, which our text tells us have not benefited those devoted to this. Now this here, this dedication to food, this is a reference back to some ceremonial practices found in the Old Testament in the Old Covenant, which we talked about a lot in Book of Hebrews, where the people of God were giving instructions on things to eat and not eat, which would actually be an indicator of God’s favor on them. What would happen? Like, they would flip it and they would try to use food, what they would eat or not eat, as a way to, like, acquire favor. And this ceremony, practice revolving diet. This is like a legalism meant to prove to God and others, like, how they could stand firm on their own, as if they didn’t need the grace of God to strengthen them, which in the text just does not work. Friends, it is the grace of God that strengthens us to stand, not our own strength, not for us. We might not use food as a legalism like they did in the time of Hebrews, to prove our own strength, but if we’re honest, we can use a host of other different things, too many to mention. We’re trying to keep some type of law, some type of moral standards, like to prove our worth in ways. We’re filling up our pride, perhaps judging or thumbing our nose at others who we deem as less superior because they’re not keeping the law in ways that we do. Friends, if we go that route, not only do you diminish the grace of God that our text tells us, strengthen us, friends, we lose so much ability to stand firm. Keep going, verse 10 to keep pressing, exposing this illegalism that greatly hinders our ability to stand firm. We read that we have an altar which is speaking to the altar that Christ laid himself down on, on the cross, which those who serve the tent, meaning the priests, have no right to eat. This having no right to eat by the priest might be a little confusing to us. So it’s also speaking about the old covenant. Those trying to make themselves righteous apart from Christ, righteous through the law, righteous through their own effort. In the text, for those bodies of those animals that were sacrificed, whose blood was brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin, which are sacrifices that priests were allowed to eat. We see in the text all those Old Testament sacrifices are all burned up outside the camp. But now in the better covenant that Christ brings, the better, the true sacrifice, his altar, where he laid down his life once and for all for us, this new, better altar, the one we stand firm on. So as Jesus also suffered on the altar where he died, he suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood, which here, this is just further stressing. It is not ceremonial law. It’s not the Old Testament sacrificial system. The Old Testament altar, by which we set our hearts towards those things will not sanctify the people of God. Rather, we have a heart set on the blood of Jesus Christ, the very one who died outside the camp as Jesus died on the cross outside the city gates of Jerusalem, which is the physical location of the cross, this physical location of Christ being crucified outside the gate, the camp. So this is a place reserved for all the ceremonial unclean things. But for Jesus, spotless, sinless Jesus, he went outside the camp so he might become unclean for us to take on all of our uncleanliness, all of our sin, so that by shedding his blood on his altar, by grace through faith, then we could become clean friends. That’s the message of the gospel, what Christ has done, that’s the message that we must stand firm on. It’s not self effort, it’s not self righteousness. Rather, we stand firm on what Christ has done for us outside the camp by becoming unclean for us. The text, because Jesus went outside the camp, if you’re going to stand firm on his message, verse 13 practically, therefore, let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. That’s part of standing firm in our faith, is to go where Christ went, even if it means being rejected by society itself, redeemed, uncleaned. We go outside the camp, we go to him, even if society gives us reproach for doing so. That’s how we stand firm. By the way, just kind of on this note, this also means that we are also willing to go those who society deems as unclean as well that we go to Christ, we go to others outside the camp in ways that we love others with the message of the Gospel that the hope that we have, that they’ll find grace as well for going to stand firm, we must go out standing inside the camp. Verse 14. Keep going. For here, for those who are in Christ Jesus, we have no lasting city. We’re putting all of our hope where we’re trying to build some type of earthly utopia. Rather, for those who are in Christ Jesus, those who are standing firm in Christ, we seek the city that is to come, the eternal city where Christ rules and reigns. That’s ultimately we’re sending our hope towards to the promise of eternal life in heaven. That’s where we stand firm. That’s where our hope is found. Doesn’t mean that we don’t do good in this life for the glory of Christ, we do good to others, even societal good. Which verse 16 is going to Talk about. We’ll get to that in just a second here. But friends, our hope is not in this life. It’s not in some type of earthly kingdom that will not last. Rather, hope. The hope that we stand firm on is the city that is to come, the city where our Lord Jesus Christ is the eternal city of God, where the fullness of God will dwell with his people. Verse 15. As we stand firm in our faith through him, meaning through the Lord Jesus Christ, then let us continue to offer up a sacrifice of praise to our God, which our text tells us that is the lip, the fruit of lips that are filled with words that acknowledge his name. Friends, in Scripture we are to let no corrupt, crude talk come from our lips. Crude, corrupt talk does not help us to stand firm. Rather, crude, corrupt talk not only tears others down, but it tears down ourselves as well. It will not allow us to stand firm. Rather, for us, that which comes from our lips are words that are good for edifying that for building up words that acknowledge the name of our Lord Church. The words that come from our lips in the text are words to be sacrifices of praise. By the way, once again, most likely, I would assume here’s probably at or near the top for many of us in our struggle to stand firm in our faith. Friends, how often do are the words that proceed from your lips words that are maybe tearing down rather than sacrifices of praise that build up? Keep going. Verse 16. We also stand firm in our faith by not neglecting to do good. Rather, we are to share what we have with others who might need it, which could be related to money. So rather than loving money, we share it. But the good we are to share could also refer to things like our time, our talents, our gifting, so practically for the glory of God, for the good of others, really for our own joy to help us to stand firm. Friends, we are to be eager, willing to share that which we have, knowing that doing good to others, it pleases our God. You know, for me, in the years of pastoral ministry, I think pretty often those who are struggling to stand firm their faith pretty often are those who are least willing to share what they have with others. The Book of Ephesians speaking towards Christians, those who have come to faith in Jesus Christ. So it says we are workmanship, or his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared for us beforehand. One that we should walk in. Keep going. The text, verse 17 circles back to leaders, but this time not to remember leaders who have passed on, but this time to remember and to look to our present leaders. We’re seeing a text we are to obey our leaders, submit to our leaders. Now, this here is not like a blind obedience or a blind submission. If so, then we’d be led astray by diverse and strange teachings, which verse nine cautions us to falling into rather, this obeying, this submitting to leaders, speaking to leaders who are like currently speaking God’s word to us in ways that are in line with right doctrine, I think particularly right doctrine concerning Jesus Christ and the grace of God. Within that this obeying, submitting to leaders are those who give us an example worth imitating, those who meet the requirements to be a leader as laid out in the New Testament. The text we are to obey and submit to our leaders, to follow to our leaders. We see the reason why is that God has given to his people leaders. And this is specifically talking to local church settings for leaders to watch over souls, meaning we are to submit and obey to leaders so that leaders can help you stand firm as they watch over you, as they watch over your soul, doing so in ways our text tells us that in the end they will have to give an account for you, which, by the way, that’s very humbling to me. I’m sure the other leaders here as well, and the role they’ve entrusted to us to lead here at Red Village, to know that we have to watch over your soul and give an account. That’s humbling, and I hope that’s humbling to you as well to think about. Someday the leadership will give an account for your soul in the text. Because leaders watch over souls because they have to give an account for souls. The encouragement then in the passage is to let leaders lead with joy, not groaning. There’s really numerous things on both sides. Let you think about these on your own. Find the positive. Followers can do things to help leaders lead with joy, to lead with encouragement, to lead with confidence. But then on the negative, followers can do things that make leaders groaning. To not want to lead, to not want to care for those under or care for those under them, to not really want to give and account for their soul, which in the text doing things that make leaders groan, so we see, is of no advantage to you, Meaning when we’re not good followers does not help leaders be good leaders. And that’s not good for anyone, for the leader or for the follower. The leader is groaning, he might not be as diligent to watch over your soul. Now, just a couple quick thoughts on this. First, let me just mention the inverse is also true. Here, in fact, I think actually more often true, if leaders are not leading in ways that align with the truths of Scripture, where they’re living a godly life in Christ Jesus. If leaders are not doing that, it makes the followers grow. So scriptures are clear. Leaders are to lead to help with the joy of their followers, meaning leaders and followers, they really need each other’s help in this. So for followers knowing, it’s not easy to be a leader, but for leaders to remember, it’s also not easy to be a follower. I think particularly having like this brotherly love in all things, this is a real practical way right here. Wherever side are we on, whether a leader or a follower side, to love each other in this way. Second, let me just also mention this is talking about the local church here, leaders within a local church setting. So this is one of the many reasons why I hope everyone’s involved and invested in a local church. For local church leaders, local church pastors to watch over your soul. That’s part of God’s design to help you stand firm. By the way, this is actually one of the reasons why I’ve kind of continued to caution us with things like social media or blogs or podcasts, which have a way of kind of bringing us in. We almost look to like others that we’re listening to or reading, whatever. Others who don’t know you, you don’t know them. As if they are the ones watching over your soul. They’re not. In fact, someone recently I had a conversation, someone talking about a preacher multiple states over. He just adores. And though he’s not part of any church right now, he just listens to his online preacher as if that’s enough, friends. That’s not good. That’s not God’s design for his people. We’re to be invested in local settings where local pastors are helping watch over your soul. No, no doubt every so often we might be able to find helpful things online. Sometimes online teachers can be helpful. There’s no doubt on that. But they’re not watching over your soul. So be careful practically to stand firm, be invested in the local church, have a local pastor over you. Okay, keep going. Finally, the end of our text. Verses 18 and 19 we’ll finish today. We read this from the author. The author says, pray for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience desiring to act honorably in all things. And I urge you the more earnestly to do this in order that I may restore to you sooner. Which is no real clues. And what’s preventing the author from being with his readers all we know that the author was away from his readers and wanted to be near them. So he asked for prayer towards that end that they might be reunited. Reunited soon. Okay, now just a couple quick thoughts here in these last two verses as it relates to standing firm. First, friends, don’t underestimate the power of prayer and how God is at work through prayer. And here we are, we get to the end of the letter of Hebrews, all these incredible things related to Hebrews and what do we see? We see the author ask for prayer, prayer for himself. That’s a real part of standing firm. It’s not just bowing our knee, but asking others to bow the knee for us on our behalf, including asking others to pray whatever embarrassing areas of your life that you’re struggling with. So the second thing, standing firm, if we’re going to do that, it requires humility. I think we see the humility in the author here in this prayer request. This humility and this desire to come to them. You know, nowhere in this passage in verses 18:19 is he like sugar coating things. He’s not trying to like present things more favorably than what they were. What’s true the situation. Rather, he’s humble about the situation he was in, humble about his urgency. He wanted to come to him or come to them, but he couldn’t. He’s humble about his dependency upon the Lord to work in ways that allow for that to happen. This is very humble, very honest request. This leads to the third thing I want to quick intervention. Standing firm is just being honest. The text author not only had this honest prayer request, but we see that he, others are with him, that they had this clear conscience because their ministry to these early Christians, it was just an honest ministry, had integrity tied to it, where he had a clear conscience so he could like sleep at night. He wasn’t worried about some type of like lie being exposed or some false hope or false reality. That presenting like being exposed and not being true, his conscience before God, before them, it was, it was clear. The reason why he had a clear conscience is he desired to act honorably in all things. Nothing shady, nothing questionable, nothing to be embarrassed by if others found out. Rather, he was honorable in all things, big things, small things. And friends, may that be true of us as well? If we’re going to stand firm in our faith, we must live a life in ways that produces a clean conscience by acting honorably, friends stand firm by being honorable. That’s where we’re going to end our text. This Morning. The second to last sermon in this study. As I close quickly, just give you one encouragement, which is really is the hope of the letter, the hope of all things that we covered throughout the weeks of our study of Hebrews, hope of all the practical things that we studied today, which is simply this I’ve said many times. I’m going to say it again. Red Village Church Stand firm. Do so in ways embracing all that God has given to us to help us to stand firm in our faith, including all these practical things. We just went through church. Stand firm no matter what it is you’re currently going through or someday will go through. Stand firm by knowing, believing, understanding, receiving the many weighty things that God has given to us in His Word, so that through the power of the Spirit, we would actually be able to stand firm all the way to the end. And may we stand firm trusting that in the end, Christ is the one who promises to us that he will never leave us, he will never forsake us. He is the one who promises that he is the one who will help us in our times of need. But we see Scripture. Not only does he promise to help us, but he also promises to keep us. This morning, please feel the weight of all that God has given to us towards that end. As you feel the weight, please embrace it. Pray. Lord, thank you for this text. Thank you for all the many, many, many things they’ve given to your people to help us to stand firm. Lord, we are. We are weak, we’re frail. Often we fail to stand firm in ways that we should, ways that we want. So God, please forgive us. I do pray that this morning you would just give us a lot of hope, a lot of encouragement, all the various practical things that we can do to stand firm in our faith. Lord, I do pray that your grace today would strengthen us. Pray, son. Jesus name Amen.