11, sorry, Hebrews chapter 1. And again I want to read just the first couple verses before we jump into the text. Hebrews chapter 1, verses 1 and 2. God after He spoke long ago to the fathers and the prophets in many portions and in many ways. In these last days has spoken to us in His Son whom He appointed heir of all things through whom also He made the world.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father we want to thank you again for the privilege to be able to come and worship you. We pray Father God that your grace would truly be sufficient for us. May your name be honored and glorified through our time, our singing, our giving, teaching of your word, the fellowship of your saints.

We pray Father God that our distracted hearts Lord may be focused on you. Those who are discouraged may find encouragement in Christ. And those who need perseverance Lord God that we would find it through the strength and sanctification of the Holy Spirit. May this time be honoring and lifting to you in Jesus name we pray, amen.

So as you guys know last week or the week before that we were out in India and our brothers and sisters came and they did a great job sharing and gave you a highlight of what happened. And again you probably heard and we asked you to pray that I was part of the India team and then you know I think the most common question that I got when I came back was how was Paris?

Right? So the whole time I was in Paris you know I can't tell you what Paris was like but I can tell you what kind of hotels they have because I was basically stuck in a hotel for two days and then as soon as I got my visa I was out.

So other than my time from the airport to the hotel and back I know nothing else. But that was my experience. But just to kind of give you a recap of a brief recap of what happened was here the visa says 07-01-2019. So obviously we read that as July 1st and then my ticketing agent also read that July 1st and then went to the airport the Delta airline read that as July 1st and then went through custom they read that as July 1st and then so all throughout this side of the world they read that as July 1st until I got to Paris and got through the first screen and they read that as July 1st and then right before I got on the plane they said no this is not July 1st this is January 7th.

And then they said what are you talking about I got through half the world you know and they were okay with it and they said no if we send you to India now they're going to send you right back so it's better for you to find out here than out in India.

So I was kicked off the airplane grabbed all my bags and went to the ticket counter at Delta or Air France was the flight that we're taking from there and then that and then one of the managers there looked at my visa and she said why did they kick you off.

This is July 1st. So she was actually trying to get me back on the airplane and then her supervisor eventually came in who works out in India and she said no the guy on the plane he did the right thing because in India it's read the other way. It's actually January 7th.

So I ended up having to stay. So I was there for about a day and a half about two days trying to figure that out and I got my visa and then I was able to get back in and join the team. And you know it was a valuable lesson hopefully you know I'll never make that mistake again I've double checked but to think that this half of the world you know read that date one way and then as soon as I got to that you know you have to understand the context right without that without understanding the context of how they read those numbers you're gonna get stuck in Paris right.

Now why am I telling you the story I mean that's basically what happened in Paris but you know we're jumping into the book of Hebrews and Hebrews is one of those books that if you don't understand the context you're gonna end up getting stuck in Paris basically right. This is one of those books where so much is it's almost like a part two of book of Leviticus and so one of the main reasons why I chose the book of Hebrews is because we just got finished studying the book of Leviticus and so much of it made sense if you connected to what Christ was doing.

So what's happening in the book of Hebrews is Leviticus points to the Christ that is coming. Hebrews points to Christ who came and points us back to Leviticus of what happened. So the best time to study the book of Hebrews would be now right after we studied the book of Leviticus while it is still fresh in our mind while your perspective from the Leviticus is still you know fresh and we just studied it and so much of it is going to make so much more sense now that we study it in light of certain things that we wrestled with in the book of Leviticus.

But it's the only reason why we're studying the book of Leviticus. If it was simply to connect the dots from the Old Testament to the New Testament then we would be wasting our time. You can just read a book and read a commentary and says this is how Jesus fulfilled this and this is what Jesus did.

Oh that's interesting. But the ultimate goal of the book of Hebrews is not to simply connect the dots with the Old and the New Testament. It is important much of what we're going to study is going to be doing that. But there is a greater purpose. There is a reason beyond just theological knowledge of who Jesus is.

This letter was written around 65 to 69 AD. Anybody know what was happening? Something very significant was happening during this period particularly for Christians. Anybody know? Persecution of Christians under Nero got ramped up in AD 65. So we're not talking about any like normal persecution like you know talk about going to India and you know we say that the Indian pastors and the Christians they are getting persecuted and it is getting bad.

You know in the persecution meter I remember the first year we went in it was on it was like number 33 or 34 and last year was number 11 and then it went up a notch this year it was number 10. And now they're the the Hindu radicals are targeting even missionaries.

They're trying to eradicate missionaries out of the country and so even foreigners are not completely safe in that country. But as bad as that is compared to what was happening to these Christians at this particular time. In fact most commentators believe that the recipients of this letter were Christians, Jewish Christians in Rome.

Those of you who are with us in the study of the book of Rome, the book of Romans ends in chapter 16 with a list of Christians who are in Rome. So the book of Hebrews is actually written to a lot of those people that Paul mentions at the end of chapter 16 in Romans.

But the context in which these Christians are in, these Jewish Christians are in, they went through the first round of persecution and they passed with flying colors. You know when Paul was in prison the first time, remember he writes Philippians and he says because of his chains most of the brothers were beginning to preach the gospel with boldness.

It didn't squash the church at all, it actually caused them to reproduce. But in AD 65 through 69 during this period the persecution is so intense it actually begins to test their faith and those who are nominal and even those who had genuine faith were starting to compromise and drift back to the Judaistic way of life.

In Hebrews chapter 10, 32-34 this is how they are described. "Remember the former days when after being enlightened you endured a great conflict of sufferings, partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulation and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated. For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one." So these Christians, the first generation Christians here, he said they were persecuted, they were dragged into prison, their possessions were confiscated and he said they did all of this joyfully, the first generation.

This letter is written to probably the second generation Christians in this area but the persecution has become much more intense. We're not just talking about the threat of imprisonment, we're not just talking about taking of their possession, we're literally talking about people being crucified for following Jesus Christ. So when Jesus said to his disciples, "If you want to follow me, take up your cross and follow me." The way we contextualize it is, "Well what does the cross mean to me?

What do I need to sacrifice? I need to be more bold and share my faith. I need to be more generous and those are the crosses that I need to bear." So we symbolize it in application. The recipients of this letter, the cross wasn't symbolic, it was literal. When Jesus said, "You have to pick up your cross," it was literally some of these men and women were being crucified for their faith, burned at the stake, being torn apart by lions.

And as a result of that, some of these people who are bold in the lesser persecution were beginning to drift back because all they needed to do to avoid this persecution is not to reject Christ but to simply keep their mouth shut. And that's why over and over again, the author of this letter doesn't talk about rejecting Christ.

He doesn't talk about abandoning your faith. He talks about drifting. He talks about neglecting. Even for us, even though it's comfortable for us as Christians living in Orange County, wherever it is that we live, if you're anywhere in the United States, obviously the idea of persecution, really in comparison to what we see around the world, it doesn't exist.

We get made fun of, we can't say Christmas in certain areas, that's not persecution. It's just annoying. But the way that we can avoid even that is just keep our mouth shut. Just go to church, have great friends, participate in small groups, maybe even go to short-term missions, and be good.

Be a good Christian. See, persecution even in India, they can easily avoid it if they stay in their village, meet with a bunch of Christians in their home, sharing their lives together. But the reason why persecution is coming is because they're trying to proselytize. They're taking the light into the darkness.

And as a result, the darkness is pushing back. What was happening to these Jewish Christians was they were simply beginning to embrace their old Judaistic life. They were, you know, because the Jews got along with the Romans fine as long as they kept their religion and they just practiced what they believed, they just kind of allowed them to exist.

They didn't want them to make trouble. So if they drifted back and they kind of embraced some of Christianity and some of the legalism or Judaistic way of life, they would have just blended right in. But their problem was they were trying to proselytize. Apostle Paul and all the apostles, their primary work was to make disciples of all the nations.

And so the warning that the author of the book of Hebrews constantly gives is, "Do not apostatize." He doesn't say, "Do not reject Christ." He says, "Do not drift from what God has given you." Hebrews chapter 2, 1, "For this reason, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard so that we do not drift away from it." He uses that language over and over again, drifting.

You ever get in a tube, you know, and just sat and relaxed and during the weather and just kind of close your eyes for a couple minutes and you open your eyes all of a sudden you find you're two, three hundred yards away from the shore, right? You don't want to do that in the ocean.

You might, you know, you might die if you do that, right? But if you're sitting in a tube you never drift to safety. You notice that? You don't get on a tube and then you close your eyes for a few minutes, next thing you know you're in your bedroom.

Like that never happens. You close your eyes, you drift far away into danger. And that's the image that he gives. That they weren't anchored in Christ. They were just kind of neglecting their salvation and they began to drift back into their old way of thinking and back into their old way of life.

He says, "Pay very close attention." In Hebrews 2, 3, "How will we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?" He says, "There's consequences for not paying attention and allowing ourselves simply to drift." If you have small children and you've ever been at the pool, you know, I think with the exception of Isaiah, all three of our children were in the pool and they fell in with their face down and it shocked us.

Obviously, if you have small children, that ever happened to you. Anytime you're near the pool, you're on high alert, right? Because they don't make any noise. You don't hear them say, "Oh my gosh!" You don't hear nothing. They just kind of slip in. They just sit there quietly and the next thing you know they drown.

You can have a conversation with somebody with your kid in your peripheral and just two minute conversation. You turn around, they're floating upside down in the pool. So anybody who has small children at home, you know that. When you're on the pool, your eye has to be on them 24/7 because it's just that quick.

Because the consequence of not paying attention is your kid might drown. So if you're a single person and you're not used to being around children, if you ever get a chance to take the kids to the pool, know that. So you have to be high alert all the time.

The imagery that's given in the book of Hebrews to these Christians is that you've taken your eye off of your salvation and now you're starting to drift. And because of this drifting, you don't ever drift toward God. Nobody ever just like, "Oh I'm saved." And you just kind of relax and you wake up on fire for God.

It just doesn't happen. You typically drift away from God. Drift toward the things of God. Not a single one of us drifted toward God and got saved. It was a supernatural act, interference of God to break us and move us to a direction contrary to the world. So when he uses the imagery of drifting and neglecting, it's simply doing nothing.

Just allowing ourselves to be, just go with the flow. That's why he says over and over again, Hebrews chapter 3, 7, "Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, and when they provoked me, as in the day of the trial in wilderness." He says over and over again, "Today." Now is the day of salvation.

"Today if you hear his heart, do not harden your heart." You know, when you hear the Word of God, and if you're convicted in any way, if the Word of God makes any sense to you, we may have the temptation to think, "Right now is not a good time.

I just got my job, just had a kid, just bought a house." And you say, "Well, you know, maybe next year I can take my faith more seriously." There's two problems with that. One, you may not be here tomorrow. You may not be here tomorrow. Most likely we will be.

Most of us, at least tomorrow. In ten years, who knows, right? But that's not the biggest problem. Because tomorrow you may not be here, but the odds are, you know, say, "Okay, my chances are good that I will be here." But the other part of that equation is, tomorrow your heart may be so hardened that the Word of God makes no sense.

If you harden your heart, when God convicts you and you say, "Hey, tomorrow," your heart will become that much harder. It's kind of like clay and you leave it out and you don't use it to mold what you intended. Next thing you know, you have a clay that you can't mold anymore.

And what you don't realize, you and I don't realize, is when God convicts us, it is the grace of God that brings us to repentance. And when we resist the grace of God to bring us to repentance, you may wake up tomorrow and no longer have a desire to repent.

And that's a typical thing that happens when somebody postpones obedience. They wake up three weeks later, three years later, and all of a sudden, no desire. It's just not there. They become so numb, not realizing that you've drifted far from God. And that's why He repeatedly says, "Today, if you hear His voice, if God is being gracious to you today, if God is bringing you to obedience today, do not postpone it till tomorrow." So there is a sense of urgency, not simply to connect the dots between Christ, the Old Testament, and the New Testament, but there's a reason why these dots are connected.

It's to bring us to obedience, to repentance. Hebrews chapter 3, verse 12, "Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God." To fall away, to neglect, to drift, simply by what? Doing nothing. You become hearers and not doers.

Whenever we hear about the Word of God, we feel convicted, we have warm feelings about encouragement, we look forward to go to heaven, but that's it. And we begin to drift and our heart becomes hardened. So when our hearts become hardened toward the things of God, toward our own salvation, Hebrews chapter 13, "Do not neglect to show hospitality to poor strangers." Do not, verse 16, "Do not neglect doing good and sharing." Because if we neglect our salvation, the natural response is to neglect the application of that salvation.

So he says, "Do not neglect hospitality." Do not neglect good works. So the reason why I chose Hebrews, obviously, is because we just finished Leviticus, and so we're trying to connect the dots, and it'll make a lot more sense to you. But the real reason behind that is, and the more significant reason is, this is usually where most Christians will land.

You go through your faith, you get baptized, you remember when you first got saved and how excited you were, and then after two, three, four, five years, disappointment with yourself, disappointment with life, disappointment maybe with church and friends, and then you just kind of learn to exist. And when we get to that point where our heart is no longer excited for the things of God, and after a while you just accept that as being normal, and you begin to drift.

Now, drift doesn't mean that you physically leave the church. You've never apostatized, you've never said, "I don't believe in God." You still make the same confession, but in your worship, in your heart for God, in your love for Christ, you have drifted so far away, you can't even see where you were.

That's usually the struggle of most Christians, whether we are here or abroad. So what the author of Hebrew addresses is relevant to every single one of us, including myself. That we don't neglect our salvation, that we do not drift. Because the consequence of this drifting is not simply just feeling bad or not having passionate worship.

He says in Hebrews chapter 6, 4-8, "For in the case of those who have once been enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God, and then the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, and since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame." A lot of people read this passage and they get confused.

Is this talking about Christians who lose their salvation? Now, again, we said you have to understand in the context, in the context of the New Testament and Old Testament, because you didn't choose salvation, you can't lose salvation. Then what does he mean here? That if you've tasted the goodness of God and the Holy Spirit, and then you fall away, there is no other repentance.

Again, even in the context of the book of Hebrews, that wouldn't fit. He's talking about people who confess their faith. He's talking about people who probably were baptized. Maybe even leaders in the church at one point. People who went to short-term mission, maybe Sunday school teachers, worship leaders, leaders at one point.

And they don't persevere in their faith, and they begin to put their hope in something else outside of Christ. He said there is no other way of salvation but Christ. So if you drift from Christ, there is no repentance. That's what he means. Verse 7, "For the ground that drinks the rain, which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is tilled, receives a blessing from God." In other words, here's the same rain that falls on the ground, but this ground comes up and it bears fruit and the Lord blesses it.

But the second ground, but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed and it ends up being burned. Both soils receive the same blessing. One turns into fruit, the other one turns into thorns and thistles, bitterness and anger. How many of you know people who've been in church at one point, was excited about their faith, and then they're no longer walking with God?

We've all experienced the same disappointments. We've all experienced the struggles, and yet one produced fruit, the other one produced bitterness and thorns and thistles. He says the consequence of not persevering and just drifting from your faith, there is no other repentance, there is no other salvation. So the moment we no longer cling to Christ, we are lost.

So he's not simply saying, "Hey, if you want to have an easy life, make sure that you cling to Christ. If you want to have greater fellowship, make sure you cling to Christ." He says our salvation hinges upon our connection to Christ, past, present and future. And just like John says in 1st John, "They left us because they were never of us." They drifted from us because they never belonged to us to begin with.

Perseverance of the saints is not an option, because the scripture clearly says. One of the evidences, one of the biggest evidences of a Christian who's been a Christian for a long period of time, that he perseveres through the trials. That's why in Hebrews chapter 12, he says to fix your eyes upon Jesus.

He is the author and the finisher, the perfecter of our faith. If we got in the habit of celebrating his justification and just coasting through our sanctification, and kind of fixed our eyes upon Christ when we first met him, and then just started to drift along and neglecting our salvation, that passage is relevant.

That warning is for you. Do not neglect such great salvation. So over and over again, he's the perfecter and the finisher. He's the author and the perfecter of our faith, beginning, present and future. And that's exactly what he's going to do in the book of Hebrews. He's going to fix our eyes upon Christ.

So if you notice your program, the title of the book of Hebrews is "Jesus is better than..." because that's a central message of the book of Hebrews. Whatever is distracting you to think that that's better than Jesus, if Super Bowl is better than Jesus, then you're going to drift toward that.

If money is better than Jesus, it may not happen today, but you're just going to drift. You're not going to make a decision, I'm going to worship money. You're not going to do that. You're just going to drift toward that. If your family is your primary idol, you're not going to say, I'm going to worship my kids.

You're just going to drift toward that. By neglecting your salvation, you're going to drift toward what we naturally end up drifting toward. So the theme and the primary teaching in the book of Hebrews is Jesus is better than... So chapter 1, he begins by saying Jesus is better than the angels.

In the Old Testament Jewish mind, there's nothing higher than the angels. It's God and then the angels. So he starts out from the very beginning with a bang. He doesn't start out and say, Jesus is better than your mom, he's better than your grandfather. He starts from the top.

He's greater than the angels. And then he kind of goes down the list. Chapter 3, Jesus is better than Moses, the greatest leader in Israel's history. And then chapter 4, it says Jesus is better than Joshua. Because these people were constantly living, thinking like, man if we had another Joshua to deliver us from the Roman grasp.

He says, Jesus is better than Joshua. And then Hebrews chapter 5 and on, he says, Jesus is better than Aaron and his priesthood. And so that's where he begins to connect us to the book of Leviticus and all the sacrificial system. Because he's better than Aaron, he comes in the order of the priesthood of Melchizedek.

His priesthood is better, his sacrifice is better, his covenant is better, and his salvation is better, and his rest is better. And so his whole theme of the book of Hebrews is Jesus is better. And so the goal of our study in the book of Hebrews is for you who believe, those who have ears to hear and eyes to see, to be reminded again, who is Jesus to you?

I know what they say, I know what the pastors say, I know what the leaders say, but who do you say I am? Is Jesus really better? Is he really better than your family? Is he really better than your hope? Is he really better than your job? Is he better than your wife or your husband?

Better than your children? Is he better? That's the argument and that's the premise of the book of Hebrews. But the goal is not simply to ask the question, is he better? Because we can say, yes he's better. But that's not where the author of Hebrews leaves us. Because we confess that every single time we come to church on Sunday.

We sing songs. And every single one of these songs says, it's a confession, Jesus is better. He's better than the lily of the valleys. Right? He's better. We sing it all the time, it's our confession. But the goal of Hebrews is not simply to get us to confess. Over and over again we'll see the word therefore.

Remember? In interpretation when you see therefore, you have to ask, what is the therefore, therefore? Why is that there? Because therefore connects us to what he's been saying. So every time he would tell us about Jesus being better, he says, therefore you ought to do this. Chapter 4 verse 1, therefore let us fear while a promise remains of entering his rest.

You know that idea of fearing in the New Testament? For whatever the reason, we have erased that vocabulary in the New Testament. And it almost sounds like heresy when somebody says, we need to fear. Because it sounds strange. But if you've read your Bible from Genesis to Revelation, one of the primary things that God tells his people is to fear him.

In fact, the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon says, the chief end of man is to fear God and obey his commandment. The apostle Paul says, live out your salvation with fear and trembling. So we've somehow made, we took it, taken one verse where it says, love casts out fear. So anything that causes any kind of fear is heresy.

Completely unbiblical. Look at scripture all over the Bible. It tells us to fear God because fear is necessary. You know, we've equated fear just universally all being negative. Without fear, you get fired, you get hurt, you die. Fear of getting hurt causes us to stay away from danger. If you don't fear pain, you don't fear getting hurt or losing your limbs, I mean, there are a lot of things we could do.

If you don't fear losing your job, a job that you loved and prayed for, and you go, I don't care if I lose my job, then you're going to lose your job. You're probably not going to be a good worker. Fear of being a bad parent causes you to examine the way you parent your kids.

Fear of being a bad husband or bad wife causes you to look at your life and make sure that we're doing and saying what is right. So there's a healthy fear. There is a bad fear, and that's what he was talking about when he says, love casts out fear.

In other words, if you are assured with the love of God, then it casts out the fear of judgment. But fear in and of itself, fear of the Lord in particular, is necessary. He says, "Therefore, fear while a promise remains entering his rest." If you've seen yourself drift and you've been neglecting your faith for periods of time, it should be fear that you feel, not comfort and encouragement, because that fear is what will bring you to Christ.

It is that fear that will cause you to repent. Chapter 4, verse 11, "Therefore, let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall through following the same example of disobedience." Let us be diligent. For whatever the reason, we're diligent in our justification, and then we're passive in our sanctification.

It's legalism if we try too hard. Absolutely contrary to what we see in Scripture. He said, "Let us be diligent." Paul himself says, "I buffet my body, making my slave, lest possibly after I have preached to others that I may be disqualified." Paul says, not Paul, the author of Hebrews, says, "Let us be diligent that we do not neglect and drift." Chapter 4, verse 14, "Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, Son of God, let us hold fast our confession." You know what was interesting?

The word for "hold fast" here means to own it. Okay? And what does it mean in our culture when we say to own something? Don't just do it, own it. What does that mean? Don't just play football, own it. Meaning to dominate, to conquer, to be the best, give all you have, own it.

That's the word here, to possess it. Not simply to hold on to it loosely, not simply to confess it, but make that your primary objective in life. Make the gospel, loving the gospel, preaching the gospel, bringing non-Christians to Christ, encouraging other Christians to persevere, to hold fast to this confession.

Chapter 4, verse 16, "Let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." Let us draw near, because the whole point of salvation is that the access to God that was blocked because of our sins were made clear by the blood of Christ.

That's salvation. Now we have access, so we talk about adoption. Why is the talk of adoption so good? Why does it give us warm feelings? Just simply because you have the title? No, because to be adopted means everything that belonged to Him is yours. God is yours now. You can enter the inner sanctuary without somebody saying stop.

I'm going to my father's room. I can go into my dad's room, because that's my dad's room. But it would make absolutely no sense if you have front row seats to the Super Bowl today, and you've been telling all your friends that you have, you have free tickets, and then what's the next question they're going to ask you?

What are you doing here? You really have tickets to Super Bowl? Those are 20, 30, 40 thousand dollar tickets. You're going around telling everybody that you have access? You can get front row seats to the best show in town today? What are you doing here? I don't think you have it.

No one's going to believe you have it, because it doesn't make sense for somebody who says that they have it, not to go. The whole point of our salvation is to have access to God. So if you have this access to God, He says let us draw near to the throne of grace with confidence, because that's the goal, that's the point of salvation.

Chapter 6 verse 1, therefore leaving the elementary teachings about Christ, let us press on to maturity. Don't accept the fact that you've been stagnant for a long period of time. Stop making excuses and press on toward the goal. Let us draw near with sincere hearts. Chapter 10 verse 23, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.

10 24, let us consider how to stimulate one another on toward loving good deeds. If this is so significant, not only for ourselves, but for the brothers and sisters. How do we stimulate them, encourage them? Chapter 12 verse 1, therefore since we have so great a crowd of witnesses around us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles.

Don't accept the compromises in your life that has caused you to drift away from God. Whatever has entangled you, he says lay it aside. And then 12 verse 1, let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. It's not enough that you started the race, but to continue the race.

Verse 28, let us show gratitude by which we may offer to God an acceptable service. Chapter 13 verse 3, let us go out to him, outside the camp bearing his reproach. If what Christ has done, if Jesus truly is better than everything else in our lives, then let's go where he is.

Let's go after him. You know, people travel to uncomfortable places, enduring intense heat, eating food they don't like, being surrounded by people that they don't like, all for the purpose of making money. People will pack their bags, go to foreign countries, endure awkward situations for years in the hope that they're going to make it big.

They're going to make money. Because that's where their hope is. That's where their passion is. And so they go there. But if Jesus is better than that, if Jesus is better than all that that we confess, shouldn't we also follow him outside the camp? Whether that takes us to China, whether that takes us to Japan, whether that takes us to India, whether that takes us to your co-workers or your neighbors, wherever it is that God has placed you.

If Jesus is better, let's go outside the camp. And then verse 15, through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, to be worshippers who will worship him in spirit and in truth. See, this is the ultimate goal of the book of Hebrews. It's not simply to connect the dots and say, "Oh, I know Leviticus now, and I know the Old Testament and New Testament, and I know all this theological things that I can tell you." But therefore, let us go, let us fear, let us be diligent, let us draw near, let us consider how to stimulate one another, let us persevere, let us go outside the camp.

So my hope is that through the book of, study of the book of Hebrews, that we would be able to confess with our mouth and with our lives that Jesus is better. Because if Jesus is not better, whatever is better than Jesus will cause you to drift toward that.

Before we open up the communion table, I want to sing this song together. So I'm going to ask the praise team to come up. You guys probably all know this song, but I want to sing this together because this is pretty much the theme of the book of Hebrews.

"I'd rather have Jesus than silver or gold." I want to sing this as often as I can to remind you that this is really the point of the book of Hebrews and why we're studying this. "I'd rather have Jesus than silver or gold." And let me stop right there.

Okay. Don't worry. I'm not going to give another sermon. "I'd rather have Jesus than silver or gold. I'd rather be his than have riches untold. I'd rather have Jesus than houses or lands. I'd rather be led by his nail pierced hand." I pray that the study of the book of Hebrews would cause us to confess this and mean this with all our heart.

That these aren't just words that we sing. These aren't some doctrinal statements that we say, "Oh, we adhere to." But this is actually a confession of our mouth and our lives. Let's sing this song together. "I'd rather have Jesus."