The Believer's Buffet

Good morning.

You can open up your Bibles to the Book of Hebrews and the last chapter.

This is going to be the last message in my series on Hebrews. And before I embark on what I have today, I'm just going to give you a little quick review of some of the highlights that we've talked about. This is the 11th message, and it's taken a little over three years to get through the book. I looked back and I started February of 2023, and this is May of 2026.

And I've really enjoyed looking at this book. You could do a lot more digging if you wanted to. There's a lot of treasures in Hebrews, and I've tried to sort of keep things moving, so I didn't spend a lifetime in here.

So some of the things that just stood out to me as I thought back over the study. In chapter one, we learned that God talked to us, talked to His people in many ways over the years, but in the last days, He's spoken to us through His Son, who is the exact image of who He is. So if you want to know what God looks like, take a good look at Jesus, because Jesus said that, "You're asking to see the Father? Haven't you seen Me?

That's who I am."

And one of the main themes of Hebrews is that Christ is superior. He's superior because He's God. We find that in the first chapter. And in that first message, I went into the beginning of chapter two, where we're warned to be careful that we might drift away. And I talked about how if you're going to take a long trip, and I think I used the example of going to the moon, and they just did that again, amazingly enough. And you don't aim at where the moon is now. You have to aim at where the moon will be in four days.

And a slight error in a trajectory that spans 250-some thousand miles can make you thousands of miles off. And so as we think about the direction of our lives, we need to keep on. If they start to get off, they make a course correction. They burn their rocket engines for so many seconds, and that corrects the course. And sometimes we need to say, "Whoa, we're not on the right track anymore. We're going to miss, and so we're going to correct our course." And that's important. And then we learned in the next message about Christ, humanity, and the fact that in all things, He was made like His brother. And can you imagine? He's calling us brethren, and He's experienced everything that we've experienced, and so then He can give us aid.

And that was chapter two. In chapter three, we learned that Christ was superior to Moses, the lawgiver.

And then we were challenged in chapter three and four. We were challenged to hear God's voice today, because if we rebel like the children of Israel did, we're not going to be able to enter into His rest. And I think all of us want to enter into rest. That's a big deal.

There's a lot of commotion, but we want to be able to have rest and peace. And then in chapter five, we learned about Christ being superior to Aaron and the Levitical priesthood. And I think we saw that in more than one chapter.

Chapter six, we learned that we need to grow up. Got to keep growing. Don't keep drinking milk. Eat some meat. Chapter seven, we learned about Melchizedek and how Christ is a priest in the order of Melchizedek. And Melchizedek, if you remember, he didn't have a father. He didn't have a mother.

We don't know how old he is. It doesn't seem like he has a beginning. And I think probably it's a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ, because I don't know who else could fit that description. And God made an oath and said, "Jesus is a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek."

Chapter eight, we learned about the New Covenant. And the New Covenant is amazing because the Old Covenant, as we know, was chiseled onto two tablets of stone, and they put it in an ark where nobody could even see it to preserve it.

And I think that was a symbol of what was to come, that it was going to be in your heart where you couldn't actually see it. But the New Covenant changes that, and it stamps God's covenant in our heart. And this is the covenant: I will put their laws in their minds and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they will be my people. That's a tremendous covenant.

And in chapter nine—no, I should have written some of these down—but in chapter nine, we learned about sacrifices and how Christ, actually, when He died, He took His blood up into heaven and made sacrifice on the heavenly altar for us.

And then in chapter ten, we learned that because of all of these things that Jesus has done, because of His sacrifice, because of the New Covenant, we can enter boldly into God's presence.

And that's sort of, in a way, the high point of this book: the opportunity to walk right in and be at home in God's presence, have access to Him, have a relationship with Him, be able to make our request known. And then we were also encouraged in that passage not to forsake the assembling of ourselves. We need to be together, and together we need to enter into the holy place. And that was something that I remember sort of being a new idea. It's not enough just for me to go by myself every morning, but I need to get together with all of you and go in together, and so much the more as we see the day approaching.

Chapter 11, the faith chapter, and just the testimony of all of these people who have come before us, who have acted in faith and done some incredible things, some things that the rest of the world thought was absolutely insane.

And we'll talk just a little bit more about chapter 11 in this message. And then chapter 12 was the last message, and we were reminded that there's a cloud of witnesses out there cheering us on and encouraging us to be faithful. And the only way to finish the race—we talked about running a race and how you have to train for the race and develop enough endurance to get to the end—that's what the training part is for. And we talked about chastening, how God trains us and gives us, as we get, discipline of being able to run the race. All these athletes disciplined themselves, and they ran and they ran and they ran and they ran.

And we talked about Roger Bannister and how he was the first person to run a mile in less than four minutes and how he ran a race with the second guy who got the mile in less than four minutes and the challenge that they had, who was going to win the race.

And then we talked about how the Christian race is more like a marathon, where while there's some glory to being first, there's a lot of recognition for just finishing. And we were reminded that if we refuse God, who speaks, we're not going to escape. In the old law, when they got to Sinai and God spoke to them, He held them accountable for what they heard, and He's going to do that for us too.

And so now this is Hebrews chapter 13, and this is an interesting chapter because all of the rest of the chapters had one direction that they went, and they tied into the chapter before, and this one does, but it's just not quite as obvious.

And so it was a little bit hard for me to know how to organize my thoughts, and we're going to jump around a little bit. And the title is The Believer's Buffet, and we'll talk about how that breaks down a little bit. But I'm going to read the first four verses of Hebrews chapter 13. Let brotherly love continue.

Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing, some have unwittingly entertained angels. Remember the prisoners as if chained with them, those who are mistreated, since you yourselves are in the body also. Marriage is honorable among all and the bed undefiled, but fornicators and adulterers, God will judge.

And so the first thing he talks about is let brotherly love continue. And the Greek word for brotherly love is, of course, Philadelphia. And I think about that every time I think about the city, the largest city in our state, and I feel sad that it seems that so often that city is not an example of brotherly love.

And this word's used several other places in the New Testament, and one of the places is in Romans 12:10, where he says, "Be devoted to one another with mutual love, showing eagerness in honoring one another." And I like that. I think that's a description of how brotherly love works. In addition to being devoted, it's being eager to honor each other. Does that come naturally? Doesn't usually come naturally, does it?

And people, if you get somebody to speak that has credentials, they make a great big deal about talking about what university they went to and how many degrees they have.

And we try to get ourselves up, but are we eager to honor each other? Eager.

And I think if I take too long, you'll become more eager, but probably when we're done here, you'll all be eager for Sunday dinner. And no one will have to try to persuade you to go home and eat your Sunday dinner, at least if you're healthy.

And that's how we should be about honoring each other. We should look for opportunities to put somebody up. We talked a little bit about humility this morning in our discussion, our Sunday school discussion.

And I think finally, if you take humility to the place where it needs to be, we're not thinking about us at all. And so when we're being humble, we're not trying to get up to the top by being humble.

We're just thinking about everybody else, and we're not thinking about us anymore. And that's where I would like to get to be in my life, where you matter and I don't matter very much at all.

And I think if we're eager to honor each other, that's a good sign we care about each other. And brotherly love is imperative in the church. It's not optional. Jesus says, "This is the litmus test of genuine faith. Men are going to know that you're my disciples by how you love each other." Is it easy? No.

It's supernatural, isn't it? When we really have love for the brothers, it's not what Wesley's flesh naturally does, but as part of the new birth, it can become natural. And that's what we're after this morning. Doesn't happen by accident. There's some people that are pretty caring naturally, but it doesn't come. Love of the brothers and sisters doesn't happen by accident. It's going to be something intentional that we do. And I was thinking about something that Lynn Martin wrote. He said, "Love in the brotherhood has the greatest appeal to the world for Christ."

And then he wrote in the same letter, "I confess that this was almost a new concept to me when I realized that love between brethren is an absolute necessity. Not only is it necessary for our testimony to the world, but it is also necessary for our personal salvation."

Absolute necessity. I think we need to get our minds around that. It's very true. And then he goes on in this passage and talks about hospitality. Don't forget to entertain strangers.

And hospitality is a cordial and generous reception of or disposition towards guests, an instance of cordial and generous treatment of guests, the act or practice of one who is hospitable, reception and entertainment of strangers or guests without reward or with kind and generous liberality, and so forth. That's the dictionary definition, actually.

At least that's the one that WordNick came up with. And I think that probably this is an application of brotherly love.

And we're not always going to be entertaining brothers and sisters if we entertain strangers, but there's a lot of other Christians that I don't know. Sometimes you might entertain an angel. That would be special, wouldn't it? Abraham wasn't sure, I don't think, who the three men were when he saw them out in the distance. He figured it out pretty quickly. But I think even before they got there, he was determined to be hospitable, and he entertained some pretty special guests.

And then he also talks about the prisoners. Remember, the prisoners like you're chained up right beside them. I don't do very good with that. I don't know anyone personally that's in prison for their faith, especially. But there are Christians around the world that are in chains.

And I think maybe that goes along with the brotherly love as well. And then he throws a verse in about marriage. And I told you that some of these things seem random. But again, I think that they can sort of tie into this concept of brotherly love.

And here's what he says about marriage. If you want to honor your marriage, you need to maintain integrity in your marriage. And it's very important to God that you do that, and he doesn't have any tolerance for anything else.

No tolerance. He says God's going to judge the people who don't maintain integrity in their marriage.

No excuses on this one, folks.

And now I'm going to read the next section here. I'm going to read verses five and six and then verse eight. Let your conduct be without covetousness. Be content with such things as you have. For he himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you," so that we may boldly say, "The Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me?" And verse eight, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever."

And I titled the first section. I didn't read my titles.

Well, this is about relationships. And so we talked about brotherly love and hospitality and marriage. And now this is a section I've titled Immutable. And if you have something that's immutable, it means you can't change it. That's the way it is.

And there's a great interest in making computers, the main operating system, immutable. You can't get in there and change anything. And the reason they like that is because it's very secure. You can't compromise that.

I find it very interesting that some of the strongest assurances of God's presence being with us comes in the context of money and contentment. We're pretty quick to say, "I'm never going to leave." God says, "I'm not going to leave you or forsake you." And I think you can apply that promise anywhere you want to. But in the context, it's specifically about whether you love money and whether you're willing to be content with what you have.

The Net Bible says, "Your conduct must be free from the love of money, and you must be content with what you have, for he has said, 'I will never leave you, and I will never abandon you.'" And I like the thought of not being abandoned.

That's a pretty strong word if you abandon something. I've worked on a few vehicles in my career as a mechanic that I would like to abandon, and I've recommended people abandon a few more because they weren't worth fixing, and you haul them out to the junkyard and let them sit out there. You can go back to Hostetters, and you can see a lot of abandoned vehicles.

Nobody cares about them anymore, really, except for Jeremy. He wants to crush them eventually and get his money out of them. But I really like how the Amplified Bible renders this verse, these passages, and I'm going to read that to you now. It says, "Let your character or moral disposition be free from love of money, including greed, avarice, lust, and craving for earthly possessions, and be satisfied with your present circumstances and with what you have. For God himself has said, 'I will not in any way fail you, nor give you up, nor leave you without support.' I will not. I will not. I will not in any degree leave you helpless, nor forsake you, nor let you down.

Relax my hold on you. Assuredly not.' So we take comfort and are encouraged and confidently and boldly say, 'The Lord is my helper. I will not be seized with alarm. I will not fear or dread or be terrified. What can man do to me?'" And when I was studying, I realized I've heard that verse read out of the Amplified many times.

They revised the Amplified Bible in 2015, and they took out the "I will not, I will not, I will not." I guess they thought that was redundant. Pretty much reads the same, with the exception of those three phrases.

So you better get the 1986 edition if you want to read it that way. And of course, it's very familiar, and we've all heard that the Greek has that triple negative in it. Make it as strong as you possibly can write it down.

And I was thinking about that back in an earlier chapter, and I can't remember which one it is now. It talks about how God swore an oath by himself because he wanted to more abundantly guarantee to the children of promise that by two things in which it's impossible for God to lie, he was going to keep his word. And this is another instance where God is going out of his way, over and above, to give us the assurance that he means what he says.

And you can take God at his word on this one.

He himself has said it.

And I think the reason that he uses it in this context about money is that that's an area where we're really, really tempted to be covetous, to not be happy with what we have, and to worry that we're not going to have enough and that we're going to be somehow high and dry.

But I don't think that's the only place where we need to find contentment. It can be easy to be discontent about our health, about the path that our life has taken. Sometimes some of us have experienced loss in the last year. There's a temptation to get better about that and say, "Well, God, why?" And I think as long as we're doing the as long as we can't come to a place of contentment and somehow acceptance of where we are, I don't know if God can always be with us. If we're trying to I don't know, especially with the money thing, you can do a lot of things to try to remedy that yourself.

And of course, the other thing with money is it doesn't matter how much you have. If your heart is set on it, you're always going to want more. And that's why we have men that are worth hundreds of billions of dollars.

They could spend the money as fast as they could between now and the time that they die. And how do you get rid of it all?

Be content with what you have. And God says, "I will never, ever, ever leave you."

And of course, that's a quote. The "I will never leave you nor forsake you" is a quote from Deuteronomy 31:6, where Moses is telling Joshua, "Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or tremble before them, for the Lord your God is the one who is going with you. He will not fail you or abandon you." And then God told Joshua that himself again in Joshua 1:5, "No one will be able to resist you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not abandon you or leave you alone."

And I think in many ways that's probably our greatest fear, that somehow we will be alone.

We're going to be abandoned. We're going to be like that car that I talked about out in the junkyard with weeds growing up through the floorboards. Abandoned. Not good for anything.

But this morning, we don't have to be afraid of that because God has promised to be with us. And in Isaiah 43:2 and verses one and two, "But now thus says the Lord who created you, O Jacob, and he who formed you, O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name. You are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flames scorch you."

And there again, he's saying, no matter what the circumstances you're facing, I'm going to be with you. I'm not going to abandon you. I know who you're I know your name. I know what's happening to you.

And then in Romans 37:39, he says, "Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Jesus Christ our Lord."

And again, we see that no matter what we come up against, we can't none of that can separate us from God's love.

And then one of the ways that we can be sure that God will not forsake us is the fact that Jesus does not change. And it just struck me as I was studying for this how important that is.

I think that's one of the first verses I learned as a little child. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. It's short. It's memorable. And it has a huge impact on us.

Humans thrive when there's predictability. And if you're a parent with small children, you know that you mess up the routine and things start to go sideways pretty quick. And big people are like that too. I do the best when I get up in the morning and I go to work and I eat lunch, and you just do those things over and over again, and you make this routine, and you just keep coming back to it. And humans are designed that way. You can do other things, but we find that on the weekends it's much more stressful because we're out of our routine.

We're not quite sure what we're going to do. What are we going to do today?

And so gold is valuable because it doesn't change. And you ever think about that? That's one of the reasons why gold is so valuable, because it always you can do all kinds of things to it. You can heat it. You throw it in the fire. It comes out pure gold than what it was when it went in, because the gold comes out of everything else, and you can't hardly destroy it. It's just the same, and it's valuable because of that. There's other elements that don't have that kind of permanence. You think about some of them, iron.

It seems pretty solid when it's new, doesn't it? But it changes. It changes from iron to iron oxide, and we call that rust. And after a while, that big, thick iron beam that looks so permanent has broken in half because it changed.

Well, Jesus is not going to ever turn from iron to iron oxide because he stays the same forever. Yesterday is eternity past. Today is eternity right now, and tomorrow is eternity future. And when you think about eternity, you can't even describe it in those terms, really, because eternity doesn't have a linear timeline.

Jesus is immutable, and because of that, his promises don't change. He makes a promise like the one we just studied. It's not going to ever change. Do you know how valuable that is to us? If we were always guessing, well, is he going to honor his promise today?

Is today is it still good today? Sometimes if you do business with people who don't always pay their bills, you ask those questions. Is the check good today? Better get it to the bank quick because it might not be good tomorrow.

No, that's not what Jesus is like. He gives his word, and it's good forever.

That also means that his mercy is permanent. Do you know how valuable that is? If we had to worry that in a thousand years Jesus' mercy would expire, that wouldn't give us any confidence.

You would not know. Is tomorrow the day when God's mercy, when Jesus isn't going to have mercy on us anymore? Is that going to be tomorrow? No. If he's extended mercy to you, you don't have to worry about it anymore. It's good.

Jesus' redemption, it's eternal. He redeems you today, and tomorrow you'll be redeemed, and in a thousand years it'll still be good.

And because Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, it means his doctrine and his teaching is consistent. He doesn't say one thing.

Today and tomorrow, it's going to be something different. You ever work with somebody like that? The way they want you to do it today, you do that same thing tomorrow, and it's the wrong thing to do. You should have done it this way.

No, that's not how Jesus is. And we don't have to try to figure out or guess what the right way to do it is today because it's the same as it was yesterday. And a lot of people say, well, no, the Old Testament doesn't match up with the New Testament, but it does.

It does. There's a way to I think there's a way to reconcile all of those differences. I can't explain them all to you, but I think it can be that I think I don't think there's a difference in the way that God's character worked through both. People try to throw that up at you. I know that, but it's the same.

So take comfort in that, that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Now we're going to shift gears just a little bit, and we're going to talk a little bit about respect and leadership. I'm going to read verses seven, verse nine, and verse 17. Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct.

Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines, for it is good that the heart be established by grace, not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them. And now 17, obey those who rule over you and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you.

He is saying he's admonishing us to remember the ones who have spoken the word of God to us and think about their example. Hopefully, when we have somebody who teaches, they're teaching out of a life that backs up what they have to say.

If we have people up here that aren't doing that, we have problems. And so he's saying, consider the outcome of their conduct. Think about how they live, because you need to live that way too, whose faith follow. And then he talks about getting carried away, we'll say, with strange teaching.

And that comes right after the verse where he talks about Jesus being the same. And I think that it applies to this. Don't get sidetracked by some new doctrine that's come up. New doctrines are dangerous because Jesus is the same. He's always been the same. He said the same thing over and over again through all the Bible.

It's God's grace that gives us strength, not some ritual that we follow. He makes that point in this verse as well. And then in verse 17, did you realize that your church leaders are going to have to give an account of your actions in the church? Listen to what they say so that they can give a good report. We heard some admonition by a leader today.

Pay attention to that.

Let's act in a way in the church where they can give a report about us and our relationship with the church with joy, with a smile on their face. Because if they have to give a bad report, they're going to give it with grief, and it's not going to be profitable for you, it says.

And I think that if church leaders are humble and they're not trying to grab power for themselves, that it shouldn't be too hard to hear what they have to say. If you've got somebody that's they're in the position of leadership and it's all for them, they're going to push their agenda, and maybe they're somehow going to profit by this financially, then no, it's very difficult to submit to somebody like that.

But when you have someone who is watching for your soul, they have a responsibility to watch. Brother Harvey and Brother Wendell have a responsibility to watch for every over every soul that's here, and they're going to give this account.

Let's do our part so that it can be a good accounting.

And now I want to talk about sacrifices. I don't know what else to title this section. This section was difficult, and I don't think I really understand it very well. Well, we'll read verse 9 to 16. I read nine already, but I'll read it again. Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines, for it is good that the heart be established by grace, not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them. We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat, for the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned outside the camp.

Therefore, Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come.

Therefore, by him, let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.

Jesus was sacrificed at an altar that was superior to the Levitical one, and I think that's one reason why he says that we have an altar from those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. The priests were allowed a portion of most of the sacrifices. That was how they got their food under the Old Covenant. But the sin offering, they were not allowed to eat the sin offering after they were done with the pieces that they offered there in the tabernacle. They took the rest of it outside the camp, and they made a fire out there, and they burned it.

It was a sin offering.

Now, Jesus made the whole sacrifice outside the camp. I mean, you think about where the cross was. It wasn't in the temple. The cross was outside the city, I think.

I think one of the reasons I don't know. I did some study on this, and I still don't feel like I really understand it very well, but someone suggested that one of the reasons that he suffered outside the camp was so that the Gentiles could be included in this sacrifice. It wasn't in the temple where they had no right to be. It was out there where everyone could see it happening. Anyone who wanted to be there could observe it. I don't know. That sounds plausible to me. We'll go with that for this morning.

And he sanctified the people with his own blood, and he suffered outside the gate. And we're encouraged to go out there and identify with him and share in his reproach, his abuse, as the Net Bible talks about it. They translate the word reproach that's used for reproach. They're abuse. And I think we can probably identify with that word better: abuse.

And this makes a statement that you're willing to seek the eternal. He says, "We don't have a continuing city, but we seek the one to come." And over here in chapter 11, it says in verse 13, "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, were assured of them, embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly, if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to come to return. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country.

Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them."

And I had to think about that passage in relation to this one. You know, they did. The people who were mentioned there were before that were Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham. Noah spent a hundred and some years building this ark on dry ground with no water around, and people thought he was crazy. But that wasn't being crazy. It was a clear declaration of the fact that he could see the eternal, and he had the faith and the determination to go through with what he knew God wanted him to do. And the same thing with Abraham. He left his family. He traveled. He didn't know where he was going. He got out there. God promised him a son, and it didn't happen right away.

And he made this statement with how he lived his life, that he was looking for something eternal. And when we go out, we go out of the city and we share in Christ the abuse that Christ had. We don't get a lot of abuse here, but I think it's out there. It makes a statement that you're seeking something eternal. When you identify with Christ and his suffering in whatever way that is in your life, you're making a statement. Have you made such a statement this morning with your life? I challenge you. Have you gone outside the camp and identified with Jesus? It should be unquestionable that your allegiance is outside the camp. If you are a Christian here this morning, there should be no doubt in anyone's mind where your allegiance is.

Is it with the world inside the city, or are you seeking one to come? It hasn't come yet, friends. It has not come. We need to go out there and take up our cross beside Jesus and suffer abuse if we need to. The decisions that you make, people should know. Your coworkers should know where your allegiance is.

And then he talks about the sacrifices that we should give.

And he gives two. Let's offer the sacrifice of praise to God. And how do we do that? By giving thanks in his name, because he's made everything that we have possible. Let's not get over that. Let's not get over the fact that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and that he's promised to never, never, never leave us or abandon us. Let's keep giving him thanks.

Give him thanks every day. That's a sacrifice that most of the time isn't real hard to give. Sometimes, though, a sacrifice of praise can be very difficult because things happen that we don't feel are very praiseworthy in our lives.

He doesn't give us the break, does he? He says, "Let us continually offer." And I think that probably there's always a way to find something to praise God for. And then he admonishes us not to forget to do good and to share.

And that's something that, you know, people can see both of these. If you're going around in your day and you're giving the sacrifice of praise continually, people can tell that you're being thankful and that you're praising God for what he's doing in your life. And he says, "Don't forget to do good." And I find that that comes pretty close to home.

It's sort of easy to, "I don't know, do it tomorrow." Or he says, "Don't forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices, God is well pleased." If you want God to be well pleased with you this morning, find some way to share and to do good because he likes that a lot.

And that's a big challenge for me personally. I keep getting challenged to be more generous, which probably means that I haven't been generous enough yet.

I want to grow in that area. All right. And now we're going to sort of wrap it up here. He has some personal

items that he talks about in verses 18 and 19. The writer of Hebrews says, "Pray for us, for we are confident that we have a good conscience in all things, desiring to live honorably. But I especially urge you to do this, that I may be restored to you the sooner." And we don't know who the writer was for sure.

That's quite a testimony, though. He was confident that he and the people with him, and maybe the people he was writing to, I'm not quite sure who gets included in the we, have a good conscience in all things, desiring to live honorably.

That's a good place to be. It really is.

So pray for each other that that would be the case.

And then in 22 and 25, he has some more personal, some more personal things. He says, "And I appeal to you, brethren, bear with the word of exhortation, for I have written to you in a few words." So the 11 messages that I rang out of this book, and you could get more, and the 13 chapters, he says, "That's a few words." Must have had a lot to say. It would have been very interesting to talk to this man and hear what else he had to say.

Know that our brother Timothy has been set free, with whom I shall see you if he comes shortly. Greet all those who rule over you and all the saints. Those from Italy greet you. Grace be with you all. Amen.

And then I read this out of order, but then he gives a benediction. I like benedictions. I'm personally, that's something I like. I miss. I know some people don't think this is very. I don't know what they think, but some churches, they give a benediction at the closing every Sunday. I like that. I do like that.

And I'm going to read that benediction for you, and I have a couple more comments to make then. He says, "Now may the God of peace, who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do his will, working in you what is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever.

Amen." What a way to end this book with a prayer that the God of peace, the God that raised Jesus from the dead, the great shepherd of the sheep that used his blood to make this everlasting covenant with us, that he would make us complete.

I like being complete. That thought is very attractive to me. I think it is to everybody. And God can do that. He can make us complete in every good work to do his will. What a wonderful place to be.

I don't know about you this morning, but probably the biggest desire that I have is that I would be well pleasing in God's sight. And that, as Paul ended one of the other books that he wrote, that I would be able to hear the words, "Well done." I think all of us really want to hear that. And this benediction is just a wonderful prayer for us. God would make us complete in every good work to do his will.

God's given us all the tools that we need to do what he wants us to do. Don't ever lose sight of that. And so to wrap up the study of Hebrews, I guess the things that I take away, besides the ones that I already talked about, is that this new covenant of God writing his laws into my heart is just incredible. And I want him to get out his chisel and make them very permanent there.

That God, that Jesus has given us the opportunity to boldly come into God's presence. We can go right there. We can make our request right to him. We don't need to go through a priest or anyone else. We can go right into God's presence and have a relationship with him.

And the other thing is that Jesus, by becoming a man and taking on humanity, he experienced the whole range of human experience just like we do. He did it without sin. And as I've said many times in this study, he took away all of our excuses. We can't go back and say to God, "You have no idea how hard it is, the job that you've given us to do," because he knows he lived it. He did it. He was victorious.

Don't ever think that, that what God has given us is too hard.

And that wraps up the study. Does anyone have any comments that they would like to make yet?