WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:56.789 Welcome to Madison church to our online audience. My name is Steven faith lead pastor at Madison church. We begin today our final part of a 30 part series through Hebrews. We're gonna begin today I want to talk to about my friend Jason. We moved to Madison, Wisconsin in 2014. How many of you and if you're watching online lesson with a gyro, how many of you have moved to Madison since 2014? Like, almost almost everyone, if you're online, let us know if you move. So a lot of you are new. And Madison, just like we were we moved to Madison, I would imagine a lot of you came for a job for school, where we came to start this church and part of what led us here to Madison to quick version as it was a young city. It was a growing city. And we felt like there was a specific type of church, God was calling us to start, when you go to church planting trainings to which I've been a coach at have coached other church planters. 00:00:57.000 --> 00:02:04.109 Oftentimes, the focus is getting systems going in place and getting a large enough crowd on on week one, so that you can grow the church and be one of the fastest growing or one of the largest churches in your area. And that, by far has been like a measure of success. And I'm not here to diss that I want to talk about why we were different. Because when we came to Madison, that wasn't our goal. If it happened, that would have been cool, I guess. But we weren't going to do the things to do that. Rather, we wanted to be a church with what we call now micro locations, we didn't have that vernacular. Even eight years ago, we were just we were talking about being a multi site, small church. And now micro locations is more along the lines of the idea of what we're doing. It speaks to an intentionality of not necessarily trying to attract a large crowd, but rather trying to have a healthy, quality type of community. And so that's why we do this and 2019 We were psyched, because we had a Westside location going, we had started an online location. And now we were, we had started downtown, off a Jennifer Street. 00:01:59.760 --> 00:02:26.789 And and we were pumped about that, because we're starting to see the micro locations go and and when we started the downtown location, we had have like five people there. And we thought this was great, because two or three of them were going to any sort of faith community weren't engaged at all. And we were like this while we start micro locations for two or three folks, and, and eventually they grow. And on the west side, we saw that and you do have one person at a time and all of that to say that's the quick version. 00:02:27.270 --> 00:02:33.360 All of that to say I met Jason when we first moved here, and Jason was taking another job. 00:02:30.569 --> 00:02:43.469 And I didn't know that I just knew he was a church planter. We met we talked I thought Jason was a great guy, we were just going to hang out and this was gonna be this is gonna be fun. 00:02:39.120 --> 00:04:13.710 Well, it turned out that Jason had just gotten a new job at the largest church in Wisconsin, we're talking almost 10,000 people a weekend. And so then I thought, well, Jason is not going to want to hang out with me, because one, what's in it for him, I'm gonna let's just be honest here. Let's be realistic, what is in it for him. And when you pass our church that large, you may not know but you start to get somewhat of a celebrity status within the church. And when you have 10,000 people then there's a lot of people who want to have coffee with you. Drink with you, have you over to their house, complained to you about how loud the music was, or the laser lights or whatever you have. But Jason is still kept texting, we still kept hanging out. And I always thought that was weird. I'll be honest, I actually got to share this at his at his wedding last week, I always thought it was weird that Jason kept returning my text messages and phone calls. And you know, Jason is a good friend. He believed in me when I didn't believe in me, he saw worth in me when I questioned my worth. He saw my abilities even when I couldn't see my own. And he believed in what we were doing. And he he would often say something like, you know, in Madison, a lot of church planters come in, and a lot of church planters leave. But if you can commit to what you're doing really think lives are going to change. And we have seen lives change, right? We've, we've baptized people here every year, since coming here. That's not a stat that a lot of churches anywhere can talk about, let alone and Madison one of the most post Christian cities and we brag about that because we love saying we love seeing people. No matter where you're out on your walk. We just love saying people find Jesus. 00:04:09.719 --> 00:04:39.720 And we love people finding Jesus because we love them finding life in Jesus and finding healing of the past and finding purpose for the future. And baptism is kind of that first step in which they say yes, this is I want to go public with this. Now some people been baptized as kids everyone's journey is different. It doesn't always work that needle and I found Jesus not going to be baptized. Sometimes you find Jesus years ago, that was my story. I found Jesus and it was years before I decided to get baptized, but we've done that. 00:04:35.910 --> 00:05:11.879 Others one time I was meeting with Jason to work out a staff issue. We had another pastor early on and we were having issues just over and over and over again with this other person. I just didn't know what to do. I mean, I had gotten coaching from everywhere I I tried everything and it just seemed like the situation was getting worse but I didn't want to fire her because when you're in a small church and you have two pastors and one pastor fires the other one rarely ever goes well, rarely ever goes well. And so I was trying to avoid that at all costs. And I remember meeting with Jason, I'm pouring my heart out. He had a staff of like 100 people then here I am talking about our part time. 00:05:12.149 --> 00:05:52.170 Other pastor, but he still met with me. And I remember he said, You seem stressed out. Like yeah, good call their chief real observer. And he says, no, like, physically, you're tired. And so yeah, because all of her was about six months old. We didn't have a C in the apartment. And why don't you have AC and like, I don't know, man. Well, because we're in Wisconsin, like, how many apartments did you look at that you could afford? That had AC already in it? And we just took the one that was just like, you know, the cheapest? And he said, Well, we have we just put in like Central Air in our house. And we've got three barely used air conditioners. Do you want one? So yeah, that y'all shocked. I was just like, here's the guy pastoring a huge church, makes a ton of money. 00:05:49.019 --> 00:06:21.420 And now he's just like, Hey, you want let's drive to my house Milwaukee, I'll give you an air conditioner. So we jump in his car, we're driving or in the car. The meeting continues. I'm asking him for advice on what to do. He's letting me know what to do. We get to his house, he throws an air conditioner. In the car, we drove back to my car we put the air conditioner in the car meeting was over, went home situation with the other password never worked out. So thanks for nothing, Jason, if you're watching or listening to this, but for the air conditioner, that was great. Our son started sleeping better. But that stuck out to me, it stuck out to me because I thought this would be like this would be the kind of story that you would read about in the New Testament. 00:06:21.839 --> 00:06:33.209 I thought and not me necessarily. This was Jason, where you're talking with just another Christian and what do you do you hear need? He's tired? Why is he tired? Because his son is staying up all night. 00:06:30.240 --> 00:07:04.709 Because he's high he needs an air conditioner doesn't have an air conditioner. I have an air conditioner, I have an air conditioner not using. And a lot of us might think well keep the air conditioners just in case, right? I mean, that would be something that you might think like, well, we'll keep the air conditioners because we're at the central air goes out we need a backup. But Jason didn't think like that. He was like, here's someone I could meet this need immediately. He could have easily written me $100 or 200 or$300 Check and money wasn't going to be necessarily issue there. But it was that he had a way to meet my needs. Now. Years go by Jason and I are buddies. 00:07:01.259 --> 00:07:57.329 And Jason resigned from his position in a letter stating that he has had a moral failure, and that he can't be the pastor anymore. And so he quits. And he's on the front page of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, like the next day, they're talking about the pastor of the big church, was unfaithful to his wife, and he's gone now. And all sorts of stories are being written at about that point. So Jason kind of goes he checked himself into a rehab center for addiction and and I keep texting Jason throughout this. And I wanted to let him know that I still believe in you, even if you don't believe in you. And I still see worth in you, even if you don't see worth and you and I still believe in your abilities, even if you don't think you have any right now and but I was also wanting to give him space. And so I gave him space. And we both continue to talk at some point where he was at his recovery about 18 months. 00:07:54.839 --> 00:08:37.980 And it might have even been two years and and we were just going into the pandemic, but it was an opportunity Madison church was able to offer him his first job in ministry back since resigning and we gave him his first chance back and I said okay, here's the deal, we're gonna hire you, we're gonna pay you, but your very first Sunday at Madison church when you speak, you got to talk about it, man. Because we've seen so many megachurch pastors who grow these big churches, and they're popular and they're well loved. And they have moral failures. It's not uncommon. You don't have to be in touch with Christian sob culture to know that we've had a lot of messed up, people. And all people are messed up. But we've had a lot of them who are pastors and they lead big churches, and it's very public. 00:08:35.639 --> 00:08:56.399 And I said, and then they just kind of disappear. And then they come back at some point, you don't know what happened. So now with natural with you, Jason, if you're going to come back and Madison church, and I know there's only gonna be a dozen people in the room, but we're gonna film it. And we want you to talk about your story. So his first message ever is still to this day, our most watched YouTube video ever. So because other people did they watch it. 00:08:56.399 --> 00:09:02.940 They wanted to know what's this guy have to say for himself the first time he's making an appearance, and Jason owned it. 00:09:02.940 --> 00:09:15.000 And then Jason helped us he helped us restructure our leadership team. Whereas in the past, I was very hands on and very micromanaging and wanting to make sure things were done in a specific way, my way. Jason said, You gotta quit doing that. 00:09:15.059 --> 00:09:47.669 I mean, there's a reason you're hitting the ceiling. It's because you are the ceiling, you're the bottleneck. And it just it continued. To help that way. Now, I share this story, Jason and I are still friends, we still help each other, we still believe each other because this is what the author of Hebrews wants within the greater community. We've been in a series going through the entire letter of the Hebrews. And we've been talking throughout this side that when you look to the left, you look to the right, if you're watching online, you don't know who's in the room, but you know, there's more or less a dozen of us. And that would have been the size of the church that the letter of he was the author of he was writing to. 00:09:48.299 --> 00:10:10.830 They're saying we want you to kind of have that friendship with one another though. I'll give you the AC because I have it. I'm not using it and you could use it. They want you to have the friendship. And what's your friend Matt? says up and you're saying, You know what, I know you messed up, you did some hurtful things and not that I agree with those things or am endorsing you doing those things, but it's, I'm your friend. And that is the example. 00:10:07.049 --> 00:10:27.929 And that's what the author of Hebrews throughout this entire right writing has tried to push us through. So to recap briefly, in the first part, the first four chapters finding our faith, the author's writing to a Jewish audience who said, Maybe we messed up, maybe Jesus isn't God, look at all this new stuff. 00:10:24.539 --> 00:10:59.100 I mean, we followed all of these rules for so long. These tangible things that we could point to taste and feel these rules. And now we're told that those don't really matter anymore. We're told that they're obsolete. The author of Hebrews continues in a series that we call losing my religion, to explain why so No, Jesus didn't start a new religion. As a matter of fact, the author is arguing in another way, that if you go back to that you're starting a different religion. 00:10:55.169 --> 00:11:13.049 Because this Old Testament faith was always pointing toward Jesus. So if you have Old Testament faith, without Jesus, that is the new religion. This religion, this faith, and Jesus has always been spoken about. 00:11:13.049 --> 00:12:31.679 And then we get into the final part of living like never before, the author wasn't just saying, Hey, let me feel logically enlightened news. So you could pass some tests someday, there's no tests on them pretty sure. But he says, Let me or he or she says, Now, here's why that matters. Want perseverance, life's gonna be tough. It's gonna be tougher for some of you than others. That's just the reality of life. So it's just going to be tougher for some of you than others. But you're going to persevere, how are you going to persevere? Look to the left, look for the right, have a good friend, have someone that you're in community with someone that you can go to good times, bad times, when you're having a bad time, go to someone who can help you, when you're having a good time, find someone you can help, the author warns, if you don't do that, there's a real chance that when bad stuff starts to happen, you start to drift. When you start to drift, and you start to drift, there's a chance that you can be like other people in this community who are just left, they just given up altogether. They didn't go to a different church, they didn't go to a different faith community, they just loved what they were doing, and went back to what they knew and what they know. And we know that that's easy. It's so easy to just quit what we're doing a go back to what we know, we do this all the time, in our lives, or relationships with our money, whatever it is, if it didn't work out, okay, fine, I tried something new. But we're gonna go back to what I was doing and was sort of working. And the author says, Don't do that. 00:12:28.559 --> 00:13:00.210 Because that is a faith without Jesus, that is a faith without God. And we get into kind of last week, what we talked about, which was like, the final kind of getting to the end here to mountains, Mount Sinai, Mount Zion, and one mountain represents God being separated from us, and all the ritual and religion we had to do to connect with them. But this other mountain, which is intangible, by the way, because you can look up Mount Sinai on a map right now, and find its real place. 00:12:56.519 --> 00:13:03.330 But there's other mountain Mount Zion that you can't see with your eyes. You can't google it. 00:13:04.679 --> 00:13:08.309 It's just not physically there. 00:13:04.679 --> 00:13:34.559 And the author asked, What are you Which mountain are you going to worship at? Are you gonna go back in the past, to all your ritual and religion? To the stuff you can see touch and feel? You're gonna go back there and remind you that that was separation from God? Are you going to worship a Mount Zion, where it's intangible, but it's about the God who was moving today and tomorrow and into the future? It wasn't to say that all that stuff didn't matter. 00:13:34.559 --> 00:14:22.350 The Mount Sinai didn't matter but as the show it as a step in the direction of Mount Zion. And all of that points as to where we are today and the big finale of Hebrews. Last week, we talked about worship a lot. We talked about holiness and I'll holiness in our society often means something that like I don't do, I don't play poker, I don't gamble. I don't drink, I don't smoke. And that's a misconception of what biblical holiness is, because biblical holiness goes all the way back to the Old Testament. The reason there were self sacrificing animals wasn't that they were all sudden, perfect. You didn't sacrifice a bowl and all sudden, stop sinning, stop doing wrong things, but rather is to continue to put yourself to say, I'm going to set myself apart. 00:14:18.090 --> 00:14:25.830 See, God is holy, because God has set apart God isn't like us. 00:14:22.350 --> 00:15:25.889 God doesn't make mistakes. God doesn't sin. God doesn't hurt people. But we do. But what Jesus was able to do was to make you holy, when you make the choice when you find Jesus you follow Jesus some of that stuff we talked about at the beginning when you do that you are now set apart not because you earned it because remember, you couldn't turn it that was the author of Hebrews big point you can't turn it no matter how many sacrifices you make. You can't earn it but Jesus has set you apart. And now the author is gonna say so act like it. Your holy so act like it, we flip it around. I want to be holy, so I got to act like it. No, no, no. That's wrong, that's wrong, you're listening online, it's wrong. I am holy, I am set apart not because of what I've done, but because of what Jesus said. And because of that, I want to act like it. So the author, and chapter 13, verses one through six writes, keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters. Don't forget to show hospitality to strangers. 00:15:22.350 --> 00:15:37.620 For some who have done this, have entertained angels without realizing it. Remember those in prison, as if you were there yourself. Remember also those being mistreated, as if you felt their pain in your own bodies. 00:15:38.190 --> 00:15:55.529 give honor to marriage and remain faithful to one another in marriage, God will surely judge people who are immoral, and those who commit adultery, don't love money, but be satisfied with what you have for Goddess that I will never fail you. I will never abandon you. 00:15:51.480 --> 00:16:25.860 So we can say with confidence, The Lord is my helper. So I will have no fear. What can mere people do to me? So as people who have found Jesus and as people who are holy, and so we're going to act, like the author of Hebrews says, continue to love one another. We know the great commandment to love God, and to love people and the author saying, because you're set apart, because your holy, that is something that you will do. And let me point out that not everyone is easy to love. 00:16:21.690 --> 00:17:22.529 Not everyone is your favorite person, we don't get the option to love those who are easy. And then we're just going to pass off those who are two other Christians. That's not the option. God doesn't let us group think this is okay. You like them? So you love them? And you don't. So don't you worry about it, we are all called to love those all around us were to show hospitality. And in a Biblical sense, this is kind of cool, because hotels or inns back in the day, were very expensive, you just didn't often stay at them if you didn't absolutely have to. Because even after you pay, there was a chance that you're gonna get robbed or something bad was going to happen. And so hospitality was opening up your home and serving someone for free. Yeah, we know we could charge you because the end charges you but we're not going to, and you're going to be safe here. And so for us today, part of what being holy means is being hospitable. Do we open up our homes for other people without expecting anything back. 00:17:23.579 --> 00:17:41.430 And our homes a safe place for people are refuge for them, or to care for those in prison. And part of what we have done in Madison church as a community is partner with Nehemiah to help people who are incarcerated now, and who get out not reoffend. 00:17:41.490 --> 00:18:08.490 That is part of our way of saying we're gonna do systemic work, and reshaping how justice is done. We may not be able to control the laws in this country, we can't control what people do when they are out there. Sometimes when they break laws or when they don't, or however that might work. Or we're saying that we're going to help, we're going to be there with you. In biblical times, if you were in jail or prison, you relied on people bringing you your food. As not like today. 00:18:08.490 --> 00:18:15.210 We're like the prisons, they have to feed you right. That's what we got to feed you. You're there. Roman Empire didn't care. 00:18:15.390 --> 00:18:16.859 Oh, you're in jail. That's thanks. 00:18:17.009 --> 00:18:20.069 Yeah, hold someone brings you lunch. And you did too, right? 00:18:20.099 --> 00:18:39.150 There were no telephones, you just really hoped that someone in your family remembered that you needed breakfast today. And you really hope that they weren't sick. And so when the author is saying care for those in prison, I mean, this is, this is intense. This is an every day act of caring for someone, and it's not even your family. 00:18:36.359 --> 00:19:34.980 Right? That's what the author of Hebrews is talking to a church community, not saying bring it to your brother who you love, and you have to bring it to your mom or your son. They're saying the person that you were sitting next to who's now in jail, maybe it was for their face, because that could have happened? Yeah, go bring them lunch, bring them what they need to do. The author says, Honor God in your marriage. And I think sometimes when we're married, and those of you who are and those of you who aren't, I'll make this real brief. But we can honor God in our marriage by how we treat our spouse, is what the author is saying how we treat our spouse can be God honoring, or God dishonouring. And so whether your spouse is here with you today, or they're not, whether your spouse agrees with you or not, or whether your spouse, whatever the situation of your marriage is. We're told regardless, the burden is on you. To honor God, in your marriage, the burden is on you. 00:19:31.440 --> 00:20:00.960 And oftentimes, we teach a marriage course or I lead a marriage course about every year every other year. And one of the first things we say is we're going to do this the next seven weeks or like, you're not allowed to blame your spouse or anything, like the next seven weeks is about you taking responsibility. So when we talk about communication, don't be like You're so bad at communicating because like that's the first thing you we want to do right when we're, you're so right, no, no. What can you take responsibility for? 00:19:57.569 --> 00:20:34.230 And so this is is an extension of that philosophy. If you're married in the room, the responsibility is on you to honor God in your marriage. What if my spouse does, okay? Well, I'm telling them to if if you're a spouse, and you're listening, your responsibility is to honor God in the marriage, but you don't get off just because they don't. So we honor God in our marriage. The author says Be content with our financial situations, when they're talking about the love of money, here, we're talking about having access, and everything else. So all of these things that we want, you know, the yachts, the private jets, the self driving cars, whatever those might be. 00:20:30.900 --> 00:21:09.089 The author saying, Be content with what you have, God has given you more than enough, more than enough to get through. So the author's warning us as the Bible, actually, in the New Testament, and Jesus, the Bible, the New Testament, Jesus, they talk about money and finances more than any other subject more than any other subject, well, about 1/3 of the Bible, either directly or indirectly has to do with finances. So even the author of Hebrews brings it up to say, hey, look, this is going to be a stumbling block for every person who lives in any society. It's not just those who live in a capitalistic society, any society you live in, money is going to be an issue. Why? 00:21:06.660 --> 00:21:59.789 Well, because money is kind of a security, isn't it? Kind of a security. And what happens, we we, we believe a lie that if I have more money, whether that's in the bank, or an assets, whatever it is, or if I don't have a lot of money, I have a lot of debt. And I get stressed about that. We tend to put our faith and trust in finances, what the author of Hebrews is saying, as someone who's holy, and someone who acts holy, your trust isn't in money. Even if you have all the money in the world, your book trust shouldn't be in that even if you have no money in the world, you're trusted and being at sometimes by default, because you have no money, you just got to trust in God, and you're like, Oh, I got no money. So I guess by default, I'm going to trust in God. Now the author is saying no matter your financial situation, you place your trust in God. So when we're talking about being holy, when we're talking about acting holy, we're talking about loving people, we're talking about showing hospitality, we're talking about caring for those in prison. We're talking about honoring God in our marriages. 00:21:57.059 --> 00:22:37.440 And we're talking about being content in our financial situations, no matter what they are. Let me point out that we talked about worship a lot. Last week, we said worship was way more than music. All of these are acts of worship. loving people is an act of worship, being a good steward when we give back and we talked about money and giving back. That's an act of worship. When we show hospitality, that's an act of generosity, and worship. All of these things are what we're called to. Now the author of Hebrews leaves that there says, Here's your application. And now they're going to go into a longer passage I'm going to read here starting with verse seven. 00:22:33.420 --> 00:22:51.599 Remember your leaders who taught you the Word of God, think of all the good that has come from their lives and follow the example of their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. So do not be attracted by strange new ideas. 00:22:47.309 --> 00:23:02.970 Your strength comes from God's grace, not from rules about food, which don't help those who follow them, we have an altar from which the priest and the tabernacle have no right to eat. 00:22:59.130 --> 00:24:50.099 Under the old system, the high priests brought the blood of animals into the holy place as a sacrifice for sin. And the bodies of the animals were burned outside the camp, talking about the past, this is what has happened. So also Jesus suffered and died outside the city gates, to make his people Holi by means of His own blood. So let us go out to him outside the camp, and bear the disgrace He bore. For this world is not our permanent home, we are looking forward to a home yet to come. Therefore, let us offer through Jesus of continual sacrifice of praise to God, this is worship, proclaiming our allegiance to his name, and don't forget to do good, and to share with those in need. These are the sacrifices, these are the acts of worship that please God. They go on to say, obey your spiritual leaders and do what they say they're workers to watch over your souls, and they are accountable to God. Give them reason to do this with joy and not with sorrow. That would certainly not be for your benefit. Pray for us for our conscience is clear. And we want to live honorably in everything we do, and especially pray that I will be able to come back and to see you soon. So, a couple quick notes. That author says, Remember the leaders who taught you the Word of God. And so this morning, I want to point your attention to them to think about those people who when you first started following Jesus or asking questions about Jesus or asking questions about God, who was a person who invested in you? Who was that person who came alongside you answered, your questions bought you coffee, you lamented about things that you're maybe now embarrassed to admit that you were meant to? Who was that person? The author of Hebrews is comparing them now to the people we talked about in Hebrews 11. 00:24:47.609 --> 00:25:12.180 All of those people have great faith, Abraham and Moses, this is the people who came alongside you. They're just like those people who had faith. They did something because of their faith. And God did something as well and you are living testimony of that. The author says we're not bound by old covenant forms of worship, we don't need to come together and sacrifice a bowl as an act of worship and cleansing ourselves. 00:25:08.759 --> 00:26:07.589 But rather, when we sing praises when we speak praises when we do good works. Those are the acts of worship that God wants most from us. And then the author says, work with Christian leadership. And I think that in our society, that's a little difficult, it's it's, and if you're watching or listening online, and we're one of many churches that check it out, that's great. We're happy for that. But in our society, it's hard to work within Christian leadership, because when Christian leadership makes us mad, we tend to just go to a different church because you have 500 options within driving distance. So because of our present state, in our society, with all the churches we have, and I'm not, there's nothing wrong with that. But I'm saying, the author of Hebrews is saying, hey, at first, if there's a problem, work with the Christian leadership, whether that's the pastors, the elders, work with them before you get mad and just walk away, the author also says, you know, help your pastor. You know, give them the reason to do their job with joy and Nazzaro. 00:26:08.190 --> 00:26:12.450 Some of you need to hear that again. I'm just kidding. 00:26:13.500 --> 00:26:37.500 Application for today, faith must exist between Sundays. So my question How are you honoring God in your marriage? And if that's too hard of a question, how are you dishonouring God in your marriage? Maybe that'll help you find a way that you can honor God? What is the step that you can take this week in between Sundays? To be more generous? With your finances? 00:26:37.500 --> 00:27:23.009 What is the step you could take to be more hospitable? Who do you need to invite over for dinner? Who do you need to show love to this week? Is it a boss, a co worker, someone who works for you Who do you need to show love to remember you are holy, so act like it. Faith exists, and community. Faith exists in communities. So we look to the left and we look to the right church isn't just something we go to on for an hour on Sunday, check it off are less but rather the people around you we are a community. And going back to the beginning of talking about the micro locations of Madison church. That is why we do what we do and why it is so different. We exist to connect with God and each other. And we believe that micro locations are the best way to do that. Because it keeps the community at the forefront of everything we do. 00:27:19.259 --> 00:27:29.039 The people around you will know you love you know your name, learn your name, be able to help you. They'll pick you up from work when your car breaks down. 00:27:29.190 --> 00:27:36.240 They'll buy you coffee. They'll share life with you. There'll be the shoulder that you can cry on someone you can laugh with. 00:27:37.230 --> 00:28:52.109 Faith is active and on going let us not forget that faith is active and not going if all you had to do was say a prayer one time 20 years ago and just write out the storm. The author of Hebrews would not have written this letter, but so much about what they have written about persevering and having faith every day and choosing Jesus every day. Now, I thought, how can we end this message? And I thought, the best way to end this message is to end with the words the final words of Hebrews. Now may the God of peace, who brought up from the dead, our Lord Jesus, the Great Shepherd of the sheep, and ratified an eternal covenant with His blood. May he equip you with all you need for doing His will man he produced in you through the power of Jesus Christ, every good thing that is pleasing to Him. All Glory to Him forever and ever. Amen. I urge your brothers and sisters to pay attention to what I've written in this brief expectation. I want you to know that our brother Timothy has been released from jail if he comes here soon I will bring him with me to see you. Greet all your leaders and all the believers there. The believers from Italy send you their greetings. By God's grace be with you 00:28:52.109 --> 00:28:52.380 all