Good morning, everybody. Well, it's a blessing to be able to sing those powerful words and to give our Lord just some worship together. For those of you who are joining us for the very first time, I want to welcome you warmly. After the service is done, please do visit right outside.

There's a welcome table, and our welcome team members would love to greet you, answer some questions that you may have, and I'll tell you just more about our church. So please, again, after the service is done, please stop by. So as you guys are well aware, pertaining to what's happening at church, there are things that have been postponed definitively, and then there are a lot of things that are tentative.

And so I'll be going over some of those things. Importantly, for today's service, as we continue to just practice the things that are recommended, whether it be the distance, the washing of hands, there are sanitizer bottles right at the entrance. Today, for offering time, we're going to be having two ways that you could be doing your offering.

So the first is to submit your offering via the online format, and we have various ways that you can do that. And the second is to come up to the front at the end of the service when the service is done. We have two boxes at the front for those of you who have prepared your checks.

So again, up on the screen, there are the account information for both Venmo, that's also the Chase QuickPay there. And so again, please refer to those things, okay? Importantly, for midweek Bible study, our Wednesday meeting that we normally have is going to be moved online. And so likewise for the home groups, the recording will happen on Tuesday.

So I'm going to be recording the actual Bible study with various questions and preparing a handout that will be distributed online. And then the groups and small groups can choose to meet together if possible, even in pairs if possible. But the whole idea is just to continue the efforts to make sure we're going through Scripture together, discussing together our reflections, and just our reflections of application as well.

So please just put forth your best effort to, whether it be to discuss, again, in a much smaller pocket or whatnot, to again move our Bible study on to the online, okay? Coming up next Saturday, we're going to be doing a spring cleaning. We're very grateful for all of you guys who showed up yesterday to sanitize the church, all the door handles, the switches, they were all wiped down with Lysol and our cleaning solution.

But we're going to be doing a cleaning next Saturday, and that's going to be held, and we're going to do a second round of that. In terms of the other events, for example, there is supposed to be a baptism info session at the end of the month. That's going to be postponed.

Likewise, unfortunately, the gospel night that was scheduled for April 4th, that is also being postponed until further notice. So please continue to stay up to speed on our various announcements and sites so that you can know what events are happening. At this time, Pastor Peter Kim will come to deliver us the word.

All right, good morning. Let me pray for us before we begin. Heavenly Father, we pray, especially in these special times for wisdom and guidance. Lord, we need to hear your wisdom, your guidance, your Holy Spirit to lead us in our thinking, in our feelings, in our lives and decision making, especially now.

So we pray, Father, that you would help us to cut through the clutter in our lives and to focus our hearts and minds on you and you alone. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. We are very aware that there are probably more churches closed today than are open. And I know a handful of churches that are having services today, but most of the churches that I'm aware of have already made a decision to close.

I want to give you some background information because there's a lot of talk, a lot of stuff going on online just to kind of let you know our thinking process and what pattern that we're following. And there is a possibility, again, because this is progressing pretty quickly, that we may make a decision, again, to not have the service next Sunday.

So it's week to week. So please stay online and check your emails as often as you can. If you can put up that... Okay. So if you don't have Facebook, for whatever the reason, I ask you to get it. But if you do, I mean, obviously if you don't have it, we have emails and smoke snacks.

It's different stuff that we can use to communicate with you. But those of you who do have Facebook, you probably saw this already. And this is the reasoning behind what we're doing. If you look at it, the first stage, and again, let me tell you where this is from.

This is from a missionary doctor who was actually very intimately involved with the SARS outbreak. And he was in Beijing. And so he was in the context of not only dealing with the information and the spread of SARS, but which was at that time, which was a lot more deadly than what's going on right now.

At least if you did get it. But to apply that in the church, like how we ought to respond to that. And so he made this chart. And I thought this was, of all the things that I saw, this was the most helpful. The first stage was there's no cases in my community, which is not where we are.

We passed that several weeks ago. The second stage is there are cases in my community, but cases are all imported from another area or contracts, again, imported from other. Which means that somebody from the outside who had it came into the community, which was the case until recently. The third is there are one or more cases that do not have contacts to a known case, multiple generations of transmissions.

Meaning that somebody who contracted it was independent of somebody that came, or at least they can't directly connect it. And there's multiple layers of generations that they gave it to somebody, and then they gave it to somebody else, and there's generations of this. The first case that they found of somebody that they can't trace from outside was found Thursday.

So meaning that according to this chart, we're at not green, not yellow, but the beginning of the red. According to all the facts, most likely this is going to grow exponentially within the next days or weeks. So we're not naive to think that this is not going to happen, but we are at stage three.

And so we have moved from stage three in caution to stage four, which is what we're doing right now. We are asking people to take precautions, the Bible studies that, again, you know, that we're going to try to go online as much as possible and distance ourselves, sanitize everything, giving instructions.

We're doing everything that we can. And then if by chance that this does progress, we need to go to stage five, which is basically shut down everything, everything's going online, right? We will give that information as soon as we feel the need to do that. The question is, why didn't we just completely go online to begin with?

Why didn't we go from stage one to stage five just out of precaution? Because there are more things to consider than just our safety. According to Orange County Health, not what's going on in Wuhan and Italy and even San Francisco, but according to Orange County Health Organization, they say that our risk at this time today is pretty low.

The number of people who have contracted it versus the number of people who live in Orange County is one to 500,000. Obviously, that number is going to grow. So we need to be careful that we are not panicking, that we highly value the gathering of the people, that we are not just reacting to the information that we are hearing.

And we are not naive to think that, "Oh, this is nothing. It's like a common flu and that we're kind of treating it like it's nothing." That is not the case. The leaders are in communication as often as we can, multiple times during the day, every information that we get, every article that is sent to us, we read it thoroughly and we are examining carefully, how do we balance between the high call of the gathering of the believers with what's going on around us?

Again, as it progresses, we will let you know. But those of you who are sitting in these seats, these seats are interlocked for a reason. When our church was being built, the fire department came and one of the requirements were that the aisles needed to be a certain size, a distance, and every seat in the sanctuary had to have a certain distance to an exit that goes directly outside.

So they had all these rules that we had to follow. And I was able to understand all of that except for the interlocking of the chairs. I said, "If there's an emergency, wouldn't it be easier if the chairs didn't interlock and we're able to immediately move it and then everybody can run?" And he said, "That's exactly the reason why they need to interlock because according to their experience, when fire breaks out, people panic.

And when they panic, they don't act irrationally. So they end up jumping over chairs. They're not going to get in a neat line and then march their way outside. So they're going to be pushing themselves and trying to get over the chairs. And in that process, what ends up happening is all the chairs that fall down and it blocks the entrances and more people die from the stampede than they do from the fire itself." That's natural human behavior.

And so we're trying to be careful that we are not reacting to all the information that we are hearing. According to what we have heard, that we are still... It is still a low risk that's most likely going to move to a higher risk. If you go to Costco, it is still open.

The City Hall is still open. Most of the restaurants are still open. And so Disneyland just closed. From what I heard yesterday, it closed. So slowly we are getting there, but we didn't want to make a... We didn't want to overreact and go from level two to level five because we wanted to make sure that we highly value what it is that you and I are doing.

So we made it an option to have the families with small children in order to thin out the crowd and in order to protect the most vulnerable in our church, even though the risk for them is probably lower. For that purpose, we wanted to thin it out. The government said no gatherings of 250 or more.

So we're trying to honor that by thinning the group out. And we're going to do our best to sanitize, keep our distance, not have food. All the stuff that we can go online, we will go online. All the stuff that we can't even do that, we will cancel for the time being.

We don't know how long this is going to take. It might take a month. It might take two months. But my guess is in about a month, we will be much worse off than we are today. So our concern is if we go too quickly to the end part, we're going to be at that point from possibly two months, three months, four months and on.

And so we want to be careful that we are taking proper steps, that we are not reacting to what's going on around us. There is tremendous pressure on all of us in the leadership to follow the herd and go. But we want to make sure that we are communicating properly.

I want to start off by looking at this text in Mark chapter 4, 35 to 41. I'm going to be giving an overview of the book of Hebrews. And I told you that we're at chapter 7. We're going to be talking about Melchizedek. But I'm not sure if I'm going to be getting to the Melchizedek next week.

And the reason why is because there are many people at home with their children having service together. And my guess is they have no idea who Melchizedek is. Unless you've done a fantastic job and they want to know the intricacies of the Trinity and Melchizedek right away. But my guess is most of your children will not be.

So because we want to be sensitive to the families that are home watching the videos together that hopefully our services will be, you know, like it'll be relevant to them as well. So we want to be sensitive to that. No guarantee we could still be jumping into Melchizedek. But again, we might just wait a few more weeks and we'll see how things go.

Mark chapter 4, 35. This is the scene where the disciples and Jesus are on the Sea of Galilee and Jesus is so fatigued and tired that he falls asleep on this boat. And while he is on the boat, a tremendous storm comes and they freak out. But I want to go over the text with you.

It's verse 35. "On that day when evening came, he said to them, 'Let us go over to the other side.' Leaving the crowd, they took him along with them in a boat just as he was and other boats were with him. And there arose a fierce gale of wind and the waves were breaking over the boat so much so that the boat was already filling up." Let me stop right there.

Before we jump to conclusion that these disciples are weak and that they were fearful, you have to realize that this is happening at the Sea of Galilee. Sea of Galilee is where Paul, John, Andrew, you know, those four brothers, this is their hometown. They are professional fishermen. And at that time, professional fishermen usually were inherited.

Their job was usually inherited by their parents, probably maybe their grandparents. I don't know how many generations it goes. But these guys are lifelong fishermen. And this Sea of Galilee is where they did most of their work. So the fact that the storm came in and that they were afraid because the water was coming into the boat, it is understandable that they are freaking out.

Because if anybody would know if this storm was going to lead to death or not, it would have been them. So the fact that they were freaking out and they were scared, and they looked to Jesus who happens to be sleeping at the end, at the stern. And stern is basically at the end of the boat.

And most likely in a small boat, that's where the rudder was. The boat traditionally at that time, they said it's about probably about 30 feet and about 7 1/2 feet wide. So it wasn't a huge boat, just enough to fit the disciples and Jesus. And Jesus in the midst of the storm is sitting back there and he's sleeping.

And they're freaking out and they go to Jesus, "Jesus, how can you do this?" Again, verse 38, "Jesus himself was in the stern, asleep in the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, 'Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?'" Now they are saying this for two reasons.

One, because Jesus is their leader. So they're asking their leader, "How can you be sleeping while we might die?" But the other reason is Jesus is at the stern. He may have been in control of the rudder. "What are you doing? We're about to die." But when Jesus wakes up from this, I mean, there isn't a meeting, there isn't like a teaching.

He just gets up and he says, "Hush," verse 39. He rebuked the wind and he said to the sea, "Hush, be still." And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm. So there was no work being done. All Jesus did was, "Done." Instantaneously gone. Instead of apologizing to the disciples, "Oh, I was so tired." I mean, imagine how tired Jesus was that in the midst of a storm that may cause him to drown and everybody else is freaking out and Jesus is tired.

That's how human he was. That's what his ministry looked like. And we get a glimpse into his humanity. But instead of apologizing, he turns the table around and he says, "Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?" Now again, humanly speaking, who wouldn't be afraid? I mean, these are professional fishermen in the Sea of Galilee, in their own boat.

They know what they can handle, what they cannot handle. Really, this was a danger that they needed to deal with. But instead, Jesus says, "Why are you afraid?" Verse 41 says, "They became very much afraid and said to one another, 'Who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey him?'" See, what we see here and the reason why he turns it around and says to them and rebukes them, "Why were you afraid?

Do you not have faith?" What he was asking was, "Do you not recognize who is at the rudder?" The problem was not the storm. The problem was not them. The problem was not the boat. This was no ordinary storm. This was no ordinary leader sitting at the rudder. So what they were questioning and what he was asking was, "In the midst of all of this, do you not know who I am?" That's what he was asking.

The difference between this storm, the difference between this danger is that Jesus was in control. And that's why he turned the tables and he rebuked them. Now, when we're living in a time of peace, we can imagine, but the world is freaking out right now. I mean, there's all kinds of news.

I mean, obviously, we have two very extreme responses and less and less people are responding on one end. We have one end that if we change anything, we're foolish. And I think less and less people feel that way. But we have a growing number of people that think that we're in the midst of Armageddon.

That if we don't stockpile seven years of toilet paper, that you don't get enough Purell for the rest of your life, that you're never going to survive. We have that end. We have to be careful that in the midst, especially in the midst of turmoil, that we don't react like the rest of the world.

Because our greatest fear should not be catching this disease. Our greatest fear should not be if you caught it, that you're going to die from it. If you notice that when Jesus wakes up and he calms the storm, the tremendous fear that they had of this storm turned into fear of who?

Of Christ. Fear of God. And the Bible says that beginning of wisdom is fear of the Lord. Beginning of wisdom. We want to be wise. We want to be careful. We don't want to be naive. We want to take what's happening around the world. And we want to be wise in making sure that the fear of the Lord is the foundation upon which we are building and which we are making decisions.

The book of Hebrews is written to a group of people who are in dire situation. It was written around 65 to 69 AD. Some of you guys who know Roman history know that the Christian persecution happened right around that time. All those things that you see on movies where Christians are taken to Colosseum and tigers, I mean lions are tearing them apart.

This happened during that period, 65 to 69 AD. If you were with us in the study of the book of Romans, you know that Paul was captured in Jerusalem in AD 59. He was in Jerusalem for two years and then he was taken to Rome as a prisoner between AD 61 to AD 63.

Meaning for that period of time, the Romans were the ones who were guarding Paul. Do you remember that? Paul came into Jerusalem to preach the gospel and the Jews were so angered they wanted to stone him to death. It was the Roman guards that came in to protect him.

And under their protection, he was under house arrest and his friends were able to come. He was writing letters and he was preaching the gospel. So if you remember, as he was writing the book of Philippians, he says, "This has turned out for the spreading of the gospel." Other people are more emboldened because of his chains.

But that was between AD 59 to AD 63. What these believers are experiencing now was much different. In fact, when the persecution initially came, they were very strong, just like in the book of Philippians. They were more emboldened to preach the gospel because the Romans were actually protecting them.

By the time Paul writes 2 Timothy, the atmosphere has changed. The Nero's persecution had become intense. And that's the background behind the writing of the book of Hebrews. In fact, Tacitus, if you can put up the next section, Tacitus, who is a Roman official, and he's one of the most revered Roman historians, who was not a Christian.

He was a contemporary of the emperor Nero, and he was writing his observation of what was going on with the Christians. And this gives us insight as to the intensity of the persecution that these Roman Christians were experiencing at this time. He says, "Yet no human effort, no princely largesse, nor offerings of the gods could make that infamous rumor disappear that Nero had somehow ordered the fire." It was a big fire that broke out in Rome, and in order to escape blame, he said that the Christians did it.

And so Tacitus already was suspecting that maybe Nero did it himself. Therefore, in order to abolish that rumor, Nero falsely accused and executed with the most exquisite punishment those people called Christians, who were infamous for their abominations. The originator of the name, Christ, was executed as a criminal by procurator Pontius Pilate during the reign of Tiberius.

And though repressed, this destructive superstition erupted again, not only through Judea, which was the origin of this evil, but also through the city of Rome, to which all that is horrible and shameful floods together and is celebrated. In other words, Tacitus is already saying that if any horrible things are going to happen, it would happen in Rome because they have a reputation for this.

Therefore, first, those were seized who admitted their faith. Let me stop right there. He's describing the persecution, and he said the first group of people were people who are openly sharing their faith. That's usually how persecution begins. If you stay quiet, stay in your house, and you're not outside doing God's work, there is no need for persecution.

So the first group of people were most likely missionaries who were outside sharing their faith. And he says they were the ones who were first seized, and then using the information they provided, a vast multitude were convicted. So right now, all the missionaries out in China who's been there for five to ten years, they're the ones who are in greatest danger, and they are being protected because once they get in and they get interrogated, they're concerned that they're going to end up finding other people that are connected to them.

So that's exactly how persecution works. That's what's going on in China and different parts of the world. And he says the first intense persecution happened the same way. It was through the people who are openly admitting their faith, they used the information they provided, and they went after the people who were connected to them.

Not so much for the crime of burning the city, but for hatred of human race. And perishing, they were additionally made into sports. Their persecution was made an entertainment to the Romans. They were killed by dogs by having the hides of beasts attached to them, or they were nailed to crosses or set aflame.

When the daylight passed away, they were used as nighttime lamps. Let me stop right there. They made the persecution an entertainment for the Roman citizens. They would crucify them, allow dogs and beasts to tear them apart, and people would pay money to come and see this. And then when they were crucified, they would set them aflame, and not only did they die because of this, Nero decided that he was going to light his garden with these people who are burning.

This is how ridiculous. This is the background behind the letter of the book of Hebrews. And when the daylight passed away, they were used as nighttime lamps. Nero gave his own gardens for his spectacle and performed a circus game in the habit of charioteer mixing with the plebs or driving about the race course.

Even though they were clearly guilty and merited being made the most recent example of consequences of crime, people began to pity these sufferers. Part of the reason why revival broke out in the first century is because the sentiment toward the Christians began to change because the Romans were so cruel to the Christians.

Because they were consumed not for public good, but on account of the fierceness of one man. Again, it's an indictment against Nero. That gives us a background behind what was historically being observed by even other Romans. That's the background behind the book of Hebrews. So when he tells them, the author of Hebrews tells them, "Do not neglect gathering together," that was the background.

Now our present circumstance is not the same, and I'm not making that connection because the churches are not shutting down for that reason. It's for safety reasons, making sure that the virus does not spread. But we want to make sure that whatever decision that we make, that we place the high value of gathering together for those who are able to come.

That we want to make sure that when it is necessary, which it seems like we are headed toward that direction, that when that decision is made, that there is no confusion, the high priority of what we are doing, because even the government has the warning that they gave was 250 people or more, that is not essential.

And we consider the gathering of the believers essential, that the closing of Disneyland should not equate to what we are doing. Again, we are headed there, and maybe as early as this week, we may have to do so because we want to abide by the government and what is happening around us.

But we don't want to panic. We don't want to knock over chairs. We don't want people to go to supermarkets and buy stuff that the elderly is in need of. We want to make sure that we are being prayerful, that we are anchored in Christ, that at the end of all of this, whether it's two months, three months, or five months from now, that our values are going to stay intact.

It was written, this letter was written, and he says, the letter itself describes them, Hebrews chapter 10, 32, "But remember the former days when after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of suffering, partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, and partly by becoming shares with those who were so treated.

For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property." If this was written by Paul, he may be referring to them coming and visiting Paul, giving him stuff, giving gifts. Even if it wasn't written by Paul, Paul says that this group was a very good group.

They were committed Christians. But when the heat got turned up, they began to run. So he is reminding them, the whole letter is reminding them, in the midst of this intense situation to make sure that you are anchored in Christ. We need to be anchored in Christ in every situation, whether it is in peace, whether it's in turmoil, but especially in times when we are surrounded by people who are in dire need of security, that we do not act like the world, that our security doesn't come from having a stockpile of Purell in our garage, that if we just keep the distance from everybody, if we just don't get the coronavirus, we are safe.

That is not our safety. That is not our hope. That is not our peace. We need to do everything that we should do as good citizens, as good neighbors, to love the people around us, to submit to the authority. But our greatest hope is always in Christ. If there's any time where that needs to be emphasized, it is now.

Are we anchored in Christ as a church? Are we anchored in Christ in our homes? Are we anchored in Christ individually? Are we anchored in Christ in our friendship? Are we anchored in Christ in the way we treat our neighbors? While it is our natural instinct to be concerned over ourselves and our children, is the anchoring of Christ causing us to act differently than the world?

The author constantly encourages us all throughout the book of Hebrews to not to drift, to be anchored in Christ. Hebrews chapter 2, verse 1. For this reason, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard. Why do we need to pay much closer attention? Because of what was going on.

Because of the persecution. Because of the threat of death. You were paying attention, but now you must pay much closer attention. Christ was always important to us. He was always our foundation. The gospel was always precious, but much more now. He says much more now, pay much closer attention to what you have heard so that we do not drift away from it.

How is the gospel that we profess? How are the values that we profess, the heaven that we talk about that we're going to go to that we're eagerly waiting for? How does all of that information that we profess, how does it affect the way that we make decisions? The way we treat our neighbors, what we do in the midst of all of this.

Hebrews chapter 2, 3. How will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? You know what he means by neglect? Neglect can happen in two ways. One, simply by doing nothing. Just sit on the boat and let the current take the boat wherever it goes. But another way that we end up drifting is by making small compromises.

In this particular situation, just, "Is that really that important? Do we really need to do that? What about this?" And we have a tendency to rationalize disobedience if we're not careful. And so when he says, "Make sure that we are not neglecting, that compromising and justification isn't happening in our mind for the purpose of our own protection." Hebrews chapter 3, 12.

"Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God." Over and over again, he says, "Do not neglect, do not neglect, do not neglect, do not let it yourself drift." So we need to be anchored in Christ.

Being anchored in Christ doesn't mean that you have to show up at church. Don't get me wrong. I think it's a great opportunity, especially for those of you families who are at home with your children, to share the gospel with your kids, to talk about the worship, talk about the songs.

It's a great opportunity to establish that if that wasn't there. Talk about Melchizedek. Disciple your children. It's a great opportunity. But it's Christ at the center of all of this. When we tend to neglect our salvation and we allow ourselves to drift, the first place where that shows is the way that we treat our neighbors.

That's why he says in Hebrews 13.2, "Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers. For by this some have entertained angels without knowing it." And again, Hebrews 13.16, "And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased." Remember, remember what he said about this church previously, how they endured great conflict that even made public spectacles.

They showed sympathy, visited prisoners. They did all of this at one point. But they're telling them, "Don't neglect it now while this persecution is going on. While our natural inclination is to be in our shell, me and my family only." And that's why he's telling them in that context, "Do not neglect to show hospitality towards strangers." The most vulnerable people in our society right now are the elderly.

Because if you look at the chart of people who contracted and who are getting seriously ill, and possibly even dying, the chart goes from almost negligible to young people to very dangerous to old people, people who are 70 and older in our society. People who are 70 and older in our society don't usually use internet.

I know some people in their 50s, right? But people in their 70s, 80s usually don't know, so they don't know what's going on. They're hearing it through the grapevine or through television. And we are hearing more and more stories of the elderly who are showing up to supermarkets with nothing.

They can't find toilet paper. They can't find just daily necessities. To love our neighbors shouldn't just be to isolate ourselves. Obviously, we need to be wise. We need to do what we need to do to take care of our families, make sure that this doesn't spread. But loving our neighbors in the context of struggle shouldn't just be protecting our families.

It's a great opportunity to practice this agape love. While everybody else is running from danger, God may be calling the church to run to danger in certain contexts to see who are in need. Those of you who have 70 years of toilet paper, I encourage you to give up some.

See if these senior homes that are around us are running out. If you have enough Purell to last until Jesus comes, look around you. Maybe there are neighbors who don't have any. If you have more food than you can handle, that if this virus goes for another 10 years, you're safe, then maybe you can look around and see if there are some people who don't have access to this, that this is the perfect time to use the resources that we have to share the love of Christ with them.

That's what he is saying, that in the context of all of this, do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers. Do not neglect to doing good and sharing. Do not neglect the very core of our identity, be put in the back burner because we are concerned about our own safety.

This is the time to really glorify Christ. We're talking about the agape love, right? The end result of all of this, in fact, chapter 13 ends with, if you believe this and you practice faith and you look upon Christ who is the often perfecter of our faith, chapter 13 ends with, "Therefore, practice this agape love." If there's any time where that needs to come to the forefront of our lives, it is now.

You know, we've been working hard. We have our outreach team who's been working hard to set up the gospel night, and I know that many are disappointed because they've been praying, they've been preparing, they've been going out in the streets. As much as we have been preparing to share the gospel, and Easter is coming up, and timing, humanly speaking, may be really bad because Easter typically is the most attended Sunday service and the gospel is being preached.

Many people come to Christ as a result of all of this. But know that as much as we have been preparing to bring the gospel to the world, God has been preparing behind the scene from the moment Adam and Eve fell. That even in this, God may be doing something to prepare the preaching of the gospel.

We have a greater platform than we would have ever had if all we did was just gather together. We have a greater platform to preach the gospel. We have a greater platform to show the glory of God. We have a greater platform to demonstrate what agape love looks like in the context where everybody else is bunkering down in their shelters.

Let us not neglect showing hospitality and doing good to those around us. The broad outline of the book of Hebrews, he begins by saying in chapter one, "Jesus is better than the angels." And the point of that is, therefore, pay attention to him. Right now we're online, and I'm online almost daily, hourly, looking at the news, making sure, and we're online chatting with the leaders.

How do we practice this? What do we do? We need to communicate. But in the midst of all of this, the point of why it begins by saying, "Jesus is greater than the angels," he says, "Therefore, you must pay close attention to him." First and foremost, that we need to be careful that in the midst of all these information that's being disseminated through all these social medias, are we founded in the word of God first?

Is the paradigm in which we look at the world and how we make decisions, is that what we have founded upon the gospel that you and I profess? So first and foremost, are we paying attention to Christ before we pay attention to the media and whatever it is that we're paying attention to?

So that whatever we do in response to the information that we're getting, we're founded upon the paradigm that is created by Christ. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may be able to test the perfect will of God.

Use the word of God first and foremost before anything else. Second of all, chapter three, "Jesus is greater than Moses." Moses was the greatest leader. In times like this, our natural instinct is to look to leaders for guidance. What is President Trump saying? What is the governor saying? In fact, what is the church leader saying?

And we have been bombarded with emails and texts and social medias. What are we doing? What's happening? And it's understandable because our natural instinct is to look to leadership. Moses was their greatest leader, but he reminds them, as great as Moses was, he was just a servant. Jesus was the son.

And the point of all of this is, if you're going to look for any leader, don't look for a higher hand. Because higher hand, when the wolves come, they pack up and they leave because they have to protect themselves. But the good shepherd, Christ Jesus, he lays down his life for his sheep.

So if there's anybody that we're going to look to, we're going to look to Christ first. That he's in our boat. He's the one who's in charge. And the moment that we forget that is when panic happens, when the chairs get knocked over. Thirdly, chapter four, "He is greater than Joshua." Chapter four leads us into Joshua because Joshua's the one who led them into rest.

The true rest is found in Christ. If Joshua was able to lead them into rest, that would have been it. But he says, "No, all of that was pointing to the true rest that Jesus comes, that Jesus is going to take us into." And he says, "So therefore, let us fear that we do not enter this, that we fall short of entering this rest." In other words, look to Christ as our rest.

Our comfort is not found in maybe some of you guys were diligent and went to the market way ahead of time and you have plenty of toilet paper, plenty of Purell. You got enough food if Armageddon happens, right? That is not our rest. We're not waiting for President Trump to say, "Everything is good." If he says it's good, is it good?

If our local leaders say, "You know what? There's no danger. Now go out, live like the way that everybody else is living." Is it good? Where do we truly find our rest? Christ is our rest. "Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden." Are you burdened? Are you scared?

Are you looking for leadership? Are you looking for guidance? "Come to me," he says, "all you who are weary and heavy laden." And he says, "I will give you rest. My peace I give unto you." And this is a peace that the world does not know. Is this the peace that we have in Christ?

And then finally, chapter 5 through 7, the true mediator, that's where Melchizedek comes in. And we started in chapter 5, and then he takes a break in chapter 6, says, "He's our true mediator, but if Christ is not your mediator and you begin to drift away to the world, there is no other salvation." And he reminds us that, how important this is, and then he moves on to chapter 7, which we will be jumping into at some point.

That's a broad outline. And then chapter 8, 9, and 10 leads us into the covenant, the new covenant versus the old covenant. And then he leads us to chapter 11, that this is the examples of these men who had genuine faith in God, and this is what their life looked like, which leads us to chapter 12 and 13.

"Therefore, fix your eyes upon Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith." And the greatest application of that, chapter 13, is this agape love. But the point of all of this is not simply to get our minds to think about Jesus, because that's just a beginning point. The reason why we need to think about Jesus is so that thinking about Jesus, that we would apply what it means to be anchored in Christ.

And that's exactly... There is more "let us" statements in the book of Hebrews than any other book, because the point of this isn't simply Christology. That if you know who Jesus is compared to angels and Moses and the prophets and Melchizedek, and you got that all down, but that's where it ends, you missed the whole point, because the whole point of the book of Hebrews is, "Therefore." If you know who that Jesus is, our anchor, if you know that Jesus is our hope, he's our peace, he's our leader, he's the one that we need to pay attention to, then let us, "Therefore." So, I want to highlight a few of these as I wrap up.

In chapter 4, verse 1, "Therefore, let us fear while promise remains of entering his rest." The first thing that he tells us, the beginning of wisdom. Right now, we are all praying for wisdom. The world is praying for... Even non-Christians are praying and hoping for wisdom. What should we do?

When should we shut down? When should we open? What is okay to do? What is not okay to do? Everybody is seeking wisdom. The Bible says the beginning of wisdom is what? Fear of the Lord. And so, we want to be prayerful as leadership, that whatever decision is being made, that it is first founded upon our reverence for him.

That we are anchored in Christ. And we're asking the church to do the same. Whether you are having worship at home, whether you are having worship here, wherever you are, our first and foremost is to check our own hearts. Is the fear of the Lord driving us? In Matthew 10, 28-31, "Do not fear those who kill the body, but are unable to kill the soul.

But rather, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a cent, and yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father? But the very hairs of your head are all numbered." Let me stop right there.

He says to fear the Lord. But the reason why we ought to fear the Lord is because he loves us. The reason why that needs to be the foundation upon which we stand is because all other men are fleeing for safety. Just like we are. But the only one who can actually protect us, the only one who knows what's coming tomorrow, the only one who knows where it's going, only God knows.

And that sovereign God that we fear, he counts every hair on our head. So do you not fear? You are more valuable than the sparrows. And that's why we need to, especially at this time, ask ourselves, is the fear of the Lord in which I stand today? Or is it the fear of this virus?

Our greatest fear should not be catching this virus. Our greatest fear is if we catch this virus, that am I going to die? That shouldn't be our greatest fear, even though it's our natural human response. Our greatest fear is to be separated from God. Our greatest fear is that our loved ones would pass without knowing him.

Our greatest fear is not death. Because ultimately death is a release from this broken body, that we may be with the Lord. To be absent in the flesh is to be with the Lord. Is the fear of the Lord foundation upon which we are doing and making all decisions?

Hebrews chapter 4, 14, "Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession." Let us not passively allow this to happen and just kind of hunker down until this passes over. Let us hold fast.

Let us practice our faith in confidence and in courage. This is a great opportunity to magnify Christ. My prayer is that revival will break out because of this, because of the way the Christians are responding to this. Hebrews 10, 24, "And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds." To consider carefully, to think and calculate.

A couple weeks ago we talked about that. We talked about this text, to consider how to provoke one another. You know, a couple weeks ago this was around, but now I think that our emotional state is a lot more fertile to receive this word. This agape love. Consider carefully not just your family, not just are you safe, but the people around us, especially the elderly who are confused.

Maybe next time you go to the supermarket, watch for people who couldn't get what they needed to get. Do you have too many? Maybe you have neighbors who are not connected to the internet. Maybe there's an elderly person. Maybe there's an elderly home filled with dozens. Maybe possibly hundreds of elderly who do not have the ability to run to the supermarket and go get food if they wanted to.

To consider carefully how to stimulate, provoke one another on toward loving good deeds, not forsaking our own assembly together as is a habit of some. Remember the context. Again, this is not the same context because we're not under persecution. There's no sin in going online. We're doing everything. In fact, many are doing this so that it doesn't spread faster than it needs to.

So, it's not the exact same situation, but the principle behind it is to place a high value on the gathering of believers. When it is time, when it is the wisest thing to do, we will make that decision. But we don't want to knock over the chairs in that process.

We don't want to panic. We want to respond to what's going on, and we want to make sure that whether we are out or whether we are home, we are responding and not reacting. But meanwhile, let's be careful. Let's be careful to realize that what we have been given.

We've been praying for people to come to Christ. The ground is more fertile now. We're praying for opportunities to share the gospel. People are more open now. We're praying for opportunities to show agape love. More opportunities have been created now. Let's stay sober and redeem the opportunity that God has given us and not react like the rest of the world.

Hebrews 12, "Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and sin which so easily entangles." There are certain things that we have to put down, our temporary Bible study going online, meeting together, fellowship, the gospel night, all of this at some point will be picked back up when this passes.

But there are also things that we cannot do right now that maybe we should put down and not pick up. What are some of these encumbrances? So when these things happen, it forces us to examine what we value, what is important, what is not important. Anything that is not essential has been shut down.

Some of these things probably should not be picked up. What are these things that we need to carefully consider? Verse 13, chapter 13, verse 3, "So let us go out to him outside the camp bearing his reproach." Since Jesus was crucified outside the camp, meaning that's where anybody who was shunned by the society, that they will be taken outside the camp to be stoned.

If you were a leper, you were sent outside the camp. So when he says, "Let us go outside the camp with Christ," he means, "Let's leave behind the comforts of this world. Let's leave behind wanting to be accepted. Follow Christ outside the camp." That we are aliens and strangers just passing through.

That maybe this virus is a reminder to us that all who are united with Christ is united with Christ already outside the camp. So maybe this is a good opportunity for us to reflect and examine our lives and to join him willfully outside. And then finally, chapter 13, verse 15, "Through him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God." Remember the context that this is written.

People are afraid of death. Some of them may have seen their friends crucified. Maybe their brother, their child, their mother, their uncle, grandparents. They may have already seen them in the Colosseum being torn apart by wild animals. He's talking to that group. He's talking to people who may have even smelled the flesh of their own loved ones burning because of the cruelty of Nero.

That's who he's speaking to. In the midst of that, "Through him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God." Because even in that, God is on his throne. There is a kind of worship that we give to God in time of peace, and even then it is sweet.

Even then it is necessary. But sometimes there are circumstances in our lives, whether it is private or whether it is public, whether it is small or whether it is large, there are certain periods of our life where the worship of our Savior becomes that much sweeter. Our greatest witness to the world is to declare the glory of God in the midst of this darkness, because the light shines much brighter when the world does not see light.

So let us not neglect the opportunity that God has given us and be anchored in Christ. So just as an, again, just we're asking you that things are rapidly changing, and the Orange County Health Offices are telling us that at least as of now it is still low, and that may change overnight, you know, with more testing that are coming.

So we are not being naive, and we are being pressed on both sides. We have, "Don't ever close your door," and those people are slowly dissipating, and then more and more of, "We should have closed it three months ago," you know, and we are under tremendous pressure, and the easiest thing that we could do is just shut it, you know, and go online, which we may end up doing even as early as this week.

We want to make sure that whatever we do, that we are not reacting, that we are responding, and we are responding carefully, wisely, prayerfully, firmly anchored in Christ. So that is our request for you, to do the same. Watch, listen, pray, and I hope that the message this morning, a reminder of the overview of the book of Hebrews, will serve as a foundation upon everything that we do going forward.

Let me pray for us, and then I'm going to ask you guys to take some time to pray, and as we said, we're not going to have an official offering time for the sake of sanitation, so that when you are done, when the service is over, if you are planning to physically bring the offering, then it will be in those two houses, okay?

That's prepared in the front, okay? Then please do that after the service. All right, let's pray.