All right, we are finally at the end of the book of Hebrews. So today is the last sermon. We've been on it actually exactly three years. We started three years ago, March 10th. So we're actually almost exactly three years it took us to go through Hebrews. And there was a stretch, I think in the middle when we were, because of the pandemic, we went through the IM statements of Christ.

But outside of that, I'm almost reluctant to leave. You know, like one of the benefits of teaching through the Bible is that I benefit from it. You know, I remember in the beginning of ministry, you know, when I was a youth pastor and I was a college and EM pastor, I was just preaching just kind of topically, what does the church need?

And I would choose and I would preach like that for three, four, five years. And at the end of it, I don't, I didn't feel like I knew the Bible any more than I did after five, six years of it, because it's just, I just knew the topic of discipleship about prayer, about evangelism.

And so there's like 15, 16 different topics and you give different versions of that. But then I remember very specifically, I decided to just preach just verse by verse, starting from John and then Philippians. And then I would just make it through the New Testament. But I remember specifically after finishing Philippians, it's like, oh, I, even though I went, I was an undergrad Bible major and I went to seminary, I learned more from studying to teach it that way than I did in all the years that I was in seminary.

And then, so, you know, the benefit ultimately, I get the first benefit because I'm able to dig through the scripture and examine it better than before. So Hebrews, I've gone through several times, but I feel like I've probably gleaned more than you did from the study. So I'm almost reluctant to leave it, but I do have other passages that I do want to go into.

I'm still not sure exactly where, but I'll let you know as we get closer. After today, we're going to probably take about a month of various different topics that we want to cover. And after Easter, I'll jump into the new area of what we're going to study. But I want to read with you as we wrap up the study, just to kind of give a, again, an overview.

And it'll be very similar to the introduction that I gave three years ago. Hebrews 10, 32 to 34, it says, "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 sharers with those who were so treated.

For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully a seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one." Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we pray that your word would convict us, lead us, transform us into the very thing that you desire us to be.

We thank you, Father, for your living word that judges the thoughts and intentions of our hearts, gives us great encouragement. And we pray, Father God, that as we wrap up the study in the book of Hebrews, that all that we have learned, Lord God, would transform us, build us up, that we may be sanctified according to the purpose and will of your son.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Now, last week we had our salt and pepper, more salt than pepper fellowship. And so I think we were expecting maybe about 30 people in the church. To our surprise, we actually have close to 70, over 50 at our church. We had about 56, 57, and then we had at least a dozen who were in that category but wasn't able to come.

And so to our surprise, we actually have a lot more people than we thought that are over 50. We're just scattered, so we normally don't see. Typically when people come to our church, it's like, "Yeah, it's all college students." That's what people tend to see. But when we had that fellowship, even I was surprised that we have that many people at our church that are over 50.

One of the interesting thing was, because we have older people at church, that our testimonies and our background is very diverse. We have people who've lived in different continents. They were playing one of the games of what's unique that are at our table. And we had actually two cancer survivors at our table, so we thought that would be unique enough.

And then when we presented it, we found that we had three other cancer survivors. And so the stories that were coming out of the different tables, these are from all walks of life, all different backgrounds. One of the benefits of getting older is you have the ability to be able to see.

When you're younger, there's certain things that seem so important, just seems trivial now as we get older. When we're young, we're so consumed with what other people think of us. And the older we get, we just don't care. It's not that we don't care at all, but it's just not as important as it was when it was younger.

And then as we get older, there are certain things that become a lot more important, like our family, our health, things that have more value long-term. That's one of the benefits of getting older. But one of the things that we have to be careful as we get older is that the things that we started with sometimes becomes just routine.

And that specifically happens with our faith. We start out with a bank. Just like the recipients of this letter, he says, "Remember." Remember because they forgot. That's why he's telling them to remember. Remember your former days. Remember when you first met Christ, how exciting church was, how exciting fellowship was, singing new songs, studying the Bible.

Every part of your faith is like, "Wow, this is a privilege." But for some reason, as time passes by, everything about our faith becomes a mandate, like, "I have to do this," and, "I don't want to do this," and fellowship becomes a burden because you've been burned in the past.

And if we're not careful, we can just go through the motion. And you do that for a while. After a while, just like the Bible says, you have a form of godliness, but there is no power. You've just become a very religious Christian, but there's no power. You don't see any fruit.

No one has ever come to Christ because of your sharing. Everybody says, "Oh, you go to church. You're a very religious person," but there's no power behind that because it's just a formality. There's no real inner change, inner joy that's happening. In fact, Jesus warns about this in the parable of the seeds.

In Matthew 13, 19-22, Jesus says, "When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart." This is the one in whom seed was sown besides the road. Those are people who are typically not in the church.

They hear the word, "I don't understand," or "I don't believe it," and they don't make it the way into the church. These are people who we're trying to invite to our services, to get to hear the gospel. They may be our coworkers or family members, but the word of God has no effect on them.

The second seed, it says in verse 20, "The one whom seed was sown on the rocky places," this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. There seems to be immediate response, yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary when affliction or persecution arises because of the word.

Immediately he falls away. You probably know of some people who at one point in their life were excited for God, but as soon as they began to realize the consequence of following Christ, as long as they only saw the benefit, it was fine, but as soon as their faith started to get tested, they started drifting away and they disappeared.

So I'm sure every one of us knows somebody in our life that came and was excited for a period and they disappeared. But those people are not in the church either because eventually they leave. It's the third group that we constantly struggle with. It says in verse 22, "And the one on whom the seed was sown among the thorns," this is the man who hears the word and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of the world choke the word and it becomes unfruitful.

Now the third soil are people who are still in the church. Third soil are people who don't pack up their bags and leave. It says it looks like they're bearing fruit. In every way they may act like a Christian, but it says the word of God is being choked in their life because of the worries of this world and deceitfulness of riches.

And so on Sunday they are pursuing Christ, but Monday through Saturday they're pursuing the world. So only time where there's any conversations about Christ, it happens at church or it happens at Bible study. But it doesn't happen in any other context because the word of God is being choked in their life.

And that's the concern that we have in our generation. I think that the authors of Hebrew, the author of Hebrew is addressing that particular issue because these people are not specifically shaking their hands at God and say, "You know what? I'm going to be apostate. I'm going to walk away from God.

I don't believe this anymore." He's not addressing those people. He's not addressing people who have physically left the church. He's not addressing people who have made it very clear where that line is. He's addressing people who are in the church and is trying to have the benefit of the both worlds.

"How can I retain my salvation and still pursue the world?" That's what he's addressing because these people are starting to gradually drift back into their old life. There is no specific doctrine that they were guilty of rejecting. They're just drifting back into their old life. In fact, that's the language that's repeated over and over again.

In Hebrew chapter 2-1, "For this reason, we must pay much closer attention to what we have here so that we do not drift away from it." And I mentioned this over and over again. Drifting is something that happens when you do nothing. You get on a boat, say you want to drift, what do you do?

You don't need to paddle. Just get in there and just sit. Enjoy life. Look at the sunset. Play with the water. Go fishing. You just start drifting. If you're not anchored, if you're not deliberately anchored because you're concerned about drifting, you're going to just drift. And that's why he says to pay much close attention to the things that you have heard.

I know you guys are distracted by that bird. I want to read a passage for you. In Psalm, I think it's chapter 50, where it says, "The birds and all the creatures are mine." So that's God's creature also. And he found this home, so he wanted to join us for worship.

So let him chirp, and we'll pretend like we're out in the woods, enjoying God's creation. Actually, he's been here all week. He's got to be hungry. Yeah. Anyway, let's get back to the word, all right? I'm more distracted than you are. So we do not drift away, right? And that's the temptation that all of us are in.

You start out with a bang, and then every year that goes by, we just slowly drift, and then we wake up one day not recognizing even our own selves. That person I was when I was in my 20s or 30s is, I'm just not the same person. And that didn't happen overnight.

It's just years and years of just neglecting and allowing this thing to keep drifting, and then saying, "You know what? That's just, it just happens. That's what happens." And then so we have this attitude of, "Yeah, that happens. And in college, yeah, that's where all the passion is, with college students or younger." But nobody in their 30s does that.

Nobody in their 40s or 50s does that. And so we kind of think that passionate pursuit of Christ is something you do when you're young. But when you're old, you just kind of sit through, and we just make it to the end. And that's what he's warning us about, not drifting.

Hebrews 2.3 is, "How will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?" I mean, think about it. Think about what we sing, what we study. God who created the universe, the universe, for whatever the reason, had pity on us, and sent his only begotten Son, in order that we can have eternity with him, that we can call him our Abba Father.

So the hope that we have in the gospel is one day when all this passes, which is 100% guaranteed, Christian or non-Christian, when this passes, that we will have eternity with him in full glory. That's the promise of the gospel. And to profess that, sing about that, memorize that, read about it, and then to simply neglect it.

Just let it be. You know, work. You're not like doing crazy things. You're just doing what everybody else in this world does. Going to work, paying your bills, raising children. And then in the meanwhile, just living like the rest of the world, we're just neglecting. We're not passionately pursuing anymore.

That's something that was in the past. And that's what he's addressing. Not to neglect. Hebrews chapter 3, verse 7, it says, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart as when they provoked me, as in the day of the trial in the wilderness." Today. In other words, it's the kindness of God that leads you to salvation, leads you to repentance.

It's not God's knocking on the door and saying, "Oh, not today." And then, "Okay, then I will knock tomorrow. If not tomorrow, then the next day I'll knock next day." He said, "No, today it's the kindness of God. If the word of God comes and convicts you and you say not today, and most people who at least profess to believe God never says no to God, they just say not now." Now is not the time to get too serious.

Now is not the time to really devote my time because I just got a new job. I just got married. I just had kids. I'm trying to get into this career. I have all these things. Not now. I will. Okay. So we think that we're obeying, but it says, "If you do not obey today," he said, "you deliberately harden your heart." So the next time that maybe there's a knocking on the door, you don't even hear the knocking anymore because your hearts have become so hardened, you don't feel anything anymore.

It's just a lot of information getting into your head, but it's never enough to move you because our hearts have become hardened. So when you are here, hearing the word of God week after week after week, when you're participating in Bible study and you're not responding to that every week, your heart is becoming harder and harder and harder.

And that's what he's trying to address, not to neglect our salvation. Hebrews chapter 13, 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." I mean, that sounds pretty harsh for just being lukewarm, just neglecting.

An evil and unbelieving heart. I mean, from our perspective, it just seems like, "Well, that just happens. We just dribbled. We need to work harder." But from God's perspective, he says, "It's unbelief and it's evil." I mean, think of it from his perspective. He gave his only begotten son.

What's the greatest gift that you've ever given anybody? I mean, think about if, whatever that may be, if you gave that to somebody and they just kind of received it, it's like, "Oh, thanks," and they just kind of threw it on the couch. They didn't realize the gift that you've given.

They don't realize the sacrifice that you made so that they can have that. And it's like, "Okay, thanks," they just threw it on the couch. It's an unbelieving, evil heart to profess this and then live your life like you don't even believe it. You profess it with your mouth, but by your life, it demonstrates your unbelief.

So from God's perspective, I mean, it makes perfect sense that he would say this. Perseverance of the saints is one of the greatest indicators of genuine faith. Do we persevere? You know, everybody has, again, even the three soils that are mentioned, there's some response. One they hear it and it's, "Okay, I don't want this." Or the second one, they hear it and they have immediate response, but they don't persevere.

And the third one, they seem like they're bearing fruit, but then as soon as the worries and concerns and you start coveting what other people have, all of a sudden, those concerns start to choke it away. And then there's certain parts of the Bible that you don't want to hear because you've hearted your heart toward that.

And he says, "Ultimately, God will test through various trials, through various stages in life, that is Jesus really better than that." You know, Hebrews chapter 6, 4 through 8, you know, a lot of people read this passage and misunderstand because they read it just in this context, but read what it says.

Hebrews chapter 4, it says, chapter 6, verse 4 through 8, it says, "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 the powers of the age to come." I mean, a lot of people read this passage and say, "Well, this must be a Christian who loses his salvation." Because it sounds like a Christian.

Let me make this very clear. A genuine Christian can never lose his salvation. The reason why, first of all, because you didn't earn it, so you can't lose it. God gave it to us sovereignly. Then what does he mean here if that's the case? Look at verse 6. "And then have fallen away.

It is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucified to themselves the Son of God and put him to open shame." What does it mean? Does this mean if he's referring to a Christian who loses his salvation, does this mean that God gives you one chance and you had that chance?

And because you've fallen away, that God will not accept your repentance? Is that what this passage means? If this means a Christian loses his salvation, once you backslide, you're done. Actually that's not what this means. The clear explanation is in 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 also tilled, receives a blessing from God.

But if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned." So what he's referring to are people who are in the church, have benefited from the Word, where the Holy Spirit is working within the church. He has the Word, so in every way he's been exposed to everything that a genuine believer needs to be saved, and yet he bears no fruit.

He's an individual who willfully rejects the things of God. Willfully. So he's not talking about somebody who wants to follow Christ and he didn't do well and he backslid for a period that he can't repent. Clearly that contradicts everything that we know in the Bible. What he's referring to are individuals who are in the church.

The third soil people who've been in the church, who are going through the motion, have the form of godliness, but there's no power. Who've received every blessing that you could. You're around Christians, you're around the Word of God, you're around missions, fellowship, and then you choose to pursue after the world.

There's no other repentance because the only way of repentance is Christ, and so by your action you reject Christ. You receive Christ with your mouth, but by your life you pursue the world. That's what he means by that. And that's why he spends the whole book of Hebrews reminding them that Jesus is better than everything that you're tempted by.

And so that's the question that we need to be asking ourselves. Is Jesus really better? Because you can love the church without loving Jesus. You can love other Christians without loving Jesus. You can love the leadership without loving Jesus. You can do missions without loving Jesus. You can become a pastor without loving Jesus.

As crazy as that sounds. You can be a missionary without loving Jesus. He says the remedy for a Christian adulterous life is to have the best marriage that he can have. You know, what prevents me, and I think every single one of us, is capable of adultery because we're all tempted.

But what prevents us, what's the greatest guarantee that prevents someone from adultery is to have the best marriage that he can have. To love your wife. To love your husband. So that everything else, everybody else looks like rubbish. At least on the surface. And I don't think there's any secret.

I think the best decision I've ever made in my life, outside of following Christ, is marrying Esther. I mean, it wasn't like perfect from the beginning. I mean, God allowed us to go through stuff and we were able to be where we're at now. I don't get tempted with that.

Again, I'm supposed to knock on wood on this, right? Because I can't imagine anybody better than her. I can't imagine that. So why would I forsake that? Would I have the gift that God has given me through my wife to play around because of the temporary temptation? And that's why he's going back.

He said, "Maybe you've forgotten what you have in Christ. Maybe you've forgotten your first love. You've forgotten what it was like when you first met Christ. You forgot who he is." And that's why he spends the whole letter going over Jesus. It's not simply to, "I want to make sure that you understand all Christology.

That if somebody asks you about the new covenant and somebody asks you about the Melchizedek that you can say, 'I can answer these questions.'" No, every part of what he's been saying is to remind them of the preciousness of Christ. So that whatever it is tempting them out of that is that, "Do you really think that the angels are better than Jesus?

Jesus is the creator. Angels are just created. Do you really think that Moses is better? Moses was a servant. Jesus is the son of God. Do you really, you're tempted because you think that somehow that if you purchased land and had a nice house and you have enough money in the bank account that that's where you're going to find rest?

Jesus is the true rest. The labor to find rest in Christ. You're drifting back to your old system under Aaron. Christ is the fulfillment of all. The only reason why God even put up with Aaron is because Aaron served the purpose of pointing to Christ. I mean, if it was up to, if it was, Aaron should not have lived.

If you know anything about Aaron, Aaron should have been wiped out a long time ago. Only reason God even put up with Aaron is because he was being used to prepare for the coming of Christ. And you're tempted to go back to that system? See, only reason why genuine believers get tempted into this world is because we've taken our eyes off of Christ.

We've forgotten our first love. Do you remember when you first met Christ? I know some of you, your salvation wasn't like, wow, my eyes are open and I love Jesus. Some of you, it's gradual. Whether you got bonked over the head or whether it had gradual understanding, you know early on what your Christian life was like.

God grabbed you by the throat and forced you to come to church. You know, when young Christians come to church, I always love the questions that they ask. Can I, am I allowed to sit up in the front? Can I come to Bible study? Because they're just so excited about their faith because they met Christ and it changed everything.

And then you talk to Christians who've been walking for 30, 40, 50 years like, is that mandatory? Do I have to do that? What happens if I don't? The difference between the first and the latter is their affection for Christ. It's because their first love is still there. And so everything becomes a privilege.

Your worship is just something that happens. It's not something that you do because you came on Sunday. Everything hinges upon Christ. When we recognize the beauty of Christ, the love of Christ, the gentle beckoning of Christ, the enduring patience of Christ, the sustaining power of Christ, the immutable nature of Christ, how can you not but to fall in love?

Because just like Paul says, in view of the surpassing knowledge of knowing Jesus Christ, everything became rubbish. Our struggle is we're trying to make the world be rubbish without Christ. It's just not going to happen. Because Satan is beautiful. Satan is not described as ugly in the Bible. He's an angel, just a fallen angel.

The only difference between a devil and an angel is his moral nature. The external beauty, usually when we picture an angel from God, is beautiful with white wings, attractive, you know, glow, and then a demon is hunched over with fangs. That's not how the Bible describes him. The angel in his outer beauty is beautiful.

So the angel in his temptation is also beautiful. Only in comparison to Christ, it becomes rubbish. So the moment we take our eyes off of Christ and our affection is not in Christ, then of course you're going to give into temptation. Who doesn't want to live comfortably? When you get on an airplane and they offer you the first class seat, do you say, "No, no, no, give it to the next person." Is that you?

Weirdo. Of course we want to be comfortable. You want to eat nice stuff. You want to have nice things. By our nature we want that. And there's not necessarily like, "Oh, if you want to be a good Christian, you always have to take the bad seat and live hard." I'm not saying that either.

But when that becomes our primary pursuit and you're willing to sacrifice an active, passionate pursuit of Christ in order to have that, then that has become your idol. You're taking your eyes off of Christ because you think somehow there's rest there. You think somehow there's more life there. When every time you come to church you profess it is not.

Whatever you are willing to compromise to have, that's your idol. That's your idol. That's your pursuit. That's your passion. It doesn't matter what you say. It doesn't matter what you profess. Because our actions always say more than what we say. That's why he says, "Knowing the surpassing knowledge of knowing Christ, that He's more beautiful than anything that we can be tempted by this world," he says, "let us," chapter four, verse one, "therefore let us fear while a promise remains of entering His rest." You know, fear typically we think it's negative.

But fear is not always negative, right? Fear prevents us from walking into danger. If you see a dark alley and you know there's drug activity going on with gang violence, you don't walk in there. It's like, "I have no fear." No, that's dumb. You know what I mean? You don't buy a house near biohazardous thing in the ground because you're afraid that that's going to somehow harm you.

So fear is good because it causes you to take things seriously. There's weightiness. So when it comes to the things of God, and we are nonchalant about it, we're very fearful that we're not going to be able to pay our bills. We're very fearful, but if I do things, my friends are going to reject us.

We're very fearful, but if we don't save up enough, that we're not going to have enough money for retirement. So because of this fear, it causes us to change our behavior, our values. But of all the things, all the good fears, the greatest and the most beneficial fear is to fear the Lord and see the weightiness of what it is that we are dealing with.

You're not just hearing empty words. I'm not just giving you philosophy where you can take it or leave it. This is the Word of God that is warning us, encouraging us, and challenging us. So he says, "Let us fear while a promise remains." Verse 11, "Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest." Let us be diligent.

Be active. Right? Apply the things that we learn. You know, in the sports arena, there's usually, let's say you're playing basketball, there's usually about 20 experts in that stadium. 20. They're experts because they're playing. They're sweating. They're getting cut. They're getting injured. They're fighting with every ounce of energy they have.

Even as they're injured, they go back. Or the coaches were maneuvering every knowledge that they've had in basketball in order to win this competition. And then we have about 40,000 experts from analysis. They're experts because they've watched a lot of basketball. They watched so much basketball that every decision that the coaches made is like, "Ah, it's so dumb.

Shouldn't do that." LeBron shouldn't dunk with his right hand. He should be dunking with his left hand. You shouldn't be taking shots from out there. And so we have 40,000 people who are experts from analysis. We shouldn't be experts of the gospel because we read, because we exposited a text.

We should become experts of the gospel because we labored and strived to share the gospel, because we were on our knees begging for their souls with the cuts and bruises that come along in the context of doing ministry. If we're not careful, we can be a church filled with people who become experts in all these fields from analysis because we read someone else's testimony.

We read what someone else did, but it's not from personal experience. We're all armchair experts if we're not careful. If Christ truly is what we profess that he is, he says, "Let us be diligent to enter that rest." Verse 14, chapter 4, "Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, Son of God, let us hold fast our confession." Hold fast.

To proactively hold on. Apostle Paul, I think, explains it the best in Philippians 3, 12 through 15. This is an apostle who probably preached the gospel to more people and has suffered more than any other person at this time. Sitting in prison, possibly awaiting his death, and this is what he says, "Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus." I press on.

Sitting in prison? You think there's an opportunity, it's like I'm relaxing, I'm taking it easy because I'm in prison. But he says, "I press on." Verse 13, "Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." He's sitting in prison and he's writing this letter because he's concerned about the Christians who are outside the church.

If you've never studied the book of Philippians, you would never know that this is a man sitting in prison. Because when you think of Philippians, you think of rejoice always. It's an epistle where he's rejoicing, he's thankful, he's praying constantly. But he's sitting in prison, possibly awaiting his death, writing this letter.

And he says, "I have not laid hold of it yet. I press on. I strain." Which is, again, one of the temptations when we get older is we think that passion and diligent pursuit is for the youth. Yeah, yeah, 20s. And we always get excited when young people come to faith.

It's like, "Yeah, yeah, they're so excited." That's what happens in your 20s. Yeah, of course. When was the last time you met somebody in their 60s, passionate for their faith? Because we have a tendency to kind of take the back seat as we get older, as if we've already retired.

We haven't retired at work yet, but we've retired spiritually. We just kind of let the young guys do the work. You know what's interesting is I hear that kind of sentiment earlier and earlier. I hear that from sometimes... I don't know why, it's getting early. I hear 25-year-olds saying, "Oh, man, my back." And I look at the 19-year-olds, "When I was your age." And then you know there's going to be a 30-year-old, it's like, "Oh, you young punk.

25, wait till you get 30. When you're 30, it's over." And then you know there's going to be a guy in his late 30s, it's like, "What, at 30, you infant? You think you're old?" And then the 40-years-old are going to step in, it's like, "30? You wait till you get 40, you can't see anymore." And for whatever the reason, we hit that retirement early.

And we think this passionate pursuit of Christ is something that you do when you're young, and then you just kind of retire at 25, 30, 40, 50, 60. You know, I have all my roommates back in college, they're all 10, 11 years older than me, so they're in their mid-60s now.

And so last time I went to have lunch with them, you know, they're missionaries in different countries and pastors, and you know, and I sit down and I'm very curious because they're hitting their mid-60s, like, "What's your plan? What are you going to do? Are you going to retire?" Thinking that I'm going to get some pointers, like, "What's coming?

What's the next stage of my life?" And every single one of them, it's like, they have plans for their 70s. So I just shut my mouth. I couldn't even ask, right? They have plans. "What, 70s? You have plans for your 70s?" If it was labor, if it was just work, yeah.

I mean, you've done it, if you have enough retirement saved, then that's it. But when is retirement spiritually? When is the retirement age spiritually? There shouldn't be any. Because the seriousness of what He has called us to does not end at 30 or 50 or 80 until He comes or we go to Him.

He says, "Let us diligently hold fast." And then verse 16, "Let us draw near with the 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 to the throne of grace. You know, I'm very encouraged that so many of our families are trying to adopt, who've already adopted and adopting, in the process of adopting.

And even the embryo adoption is happening now, so we're encouraged to see that. But what if you adopted a child and that child is living in your home, benefiting from everything that you've done, but they always keep you at an arm's length? They will only hold your hand if you grab their hand, but they never come and sit on your lap.

They always kind of see you at a distance. Now, you're all, your biological children are jumping on you, but that child is always sitting in the back just watching them, you know, because I'm adopted. How would you feel as a parent? You know, when we're told in the Bible, "Let us draw near to the throne of grace," this is not just a legal presentation.

Now the barrier is gone. Now you're able to come. There's reason why he adopted us as his children. He didn't just say, "I forgive you and you're no longer going to be judged," and then he remains the king, which he is. There's a reason why he says, "Abba, Father, Daddy," because he has adopted us.

Just like if you were to adopt a child, you want that child to embrace you and love you and to see you as their dad or their mom. So this invitation to draw near to him is our Abba, Father, telling his children to come. That's why I sent my only son, so you can also be co-heirs with Christ.

You're not a second citizen in the kingdom of God. You're my child. So when he invites us to come into the throne of grace, it is not a legal invitation that you have now the ticket to enter. It's a loving father who wants to commune with his son, with his daughter.

Come to the throne of grace with confidence. If you need help, come. Come I'll give you help because you're my child. Let us draw near to the throne of grace with confidence. Chapter 6, verse 1, "Therefore, leaving the elementary teaching about Christ, let us press on to maturity." We have not come to full maturity yet.

Philippians 1, 6, "He who began a good work anew will carry it on to completion, unto the day of Christ. Our pursuit of him to maturity does not end at 30, 50, 80, until the day of Christ." Chapter 10, 24, "And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds." To as I am pursuing Christ, help other people as well.

Tell other people, encourage them, stimulate. 12, 1, "Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles." What's hindering us? What has captivated your heart that is preventing you from running this race passionately?

What anxiousness, what fear, what concern is causing you to run this race with hindrance? 12, 1, "Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, this marathon." You know, whenever you see a marathon, the largest number of people is in the beginning, right? And sometimes they come in groups, right?

Maybe some of you have done that. You get together with a bunch of your friends, and say, "Yeah, we're going to run this race." By the time they're halfway through, they're not together, right? By the halfway through, some of them are going to quit, have already quit. And then you could see who's going to quit by the time they're halfway through.

And by the time they're at the end of the race, nobody comes in holding hands. They come in one by one. Some of them already dropped out. Some of them are fatigued. Some of them are way behind. But the crowd is always largest in the beginning. And the finish line always comes one by one.

We should not be satisfied that we started the race. Paul says, "Run to win, to finish this race, to make sure that we commit and we get to the end, and not just be satisfied that we have the number we've registered, but to run to win." We're not there yet.

We're still living in darkness. Don't wait until deathbed to be concerned about your loved ones. Don't wait until you get an emergency call and then say, "Shoot, I only have a few days." Run to win. Run with sense of urgency. Run with fear, knowing that there are serious consequences.

Run as if we really believe what we're seeing and we're professing. Run to win. 12, 28, "Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude." Let us be thankful for all that God has given us. And then chapter 13, verse 3, "So let us go out to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach." Outside the camp.

One of the frustrations for many Christians is they want to try to meet Christ inside the camp. They want to be inside the camp, accepted by the world, have what the world offers, and have Jesus too. And that's where the frustration lies. We want to enjoy all that the world has to offer inside the camp, wondering why it's so difficult to connect with Christ when Christ keeps telling us, "Come outside the camp." Christ is not in the camp.

He's outside the camp. We need to drop out of our rat race. It doesn't mean that you can't have a job. It doesn't mean that you shouldn't take care of your children. All these things are what good Christians do. But if that's our primary pursuit and you're trying to fight and connect with Christ inside the camp, he made it very clear, you cannot serve mammon and God at the same time.

So the invitation is, if Christ truly is better than anything that tempts us, he says, "Come outside the camp." Join him where he went. The greatest commandment in the scripture is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And I remember early on as a Christian, this was such a stumbling block to me because I liked Jesus.

I mean, there's nobody or nothing like Jesus. I obey Jesus. I worship Jesus. But I'm not sure if I could say I love Jesus. Because I would compare, because what I know of love is at that time I loved my mom and dad. I loved my family. And I had some friends that I love.

Do I love Jesus that way? You know, the way I think about this is, you know, those of you who love your mom or love your wife, and I hope you love your wife and your husband, right? Soon as somebody says something or sounds like they're going to say something about them, you get offended.

They don't even have to say it. You think they're going to say it, then you get offended. Your son is, and you cringe. Like, what are you going to say about my son? Or your mom, right? I saw your mom at the supermarket. She didn't dress nicely. You cringe because you love them.

You don't want to hear it. How do you react when people blaspheme our God? When they drag his name through the mud, saying that maybe he had a child out of wedlock and married Mary? That he was a liar? That he just fooled a lot of people? Do you just hear that as just information?

I think if we love Jesus, it would bother us more. If we really love Jesus. Because our natural tendency is whatever we love, we want to share. You find that, I know the best boba shops. I'm not even a boba drinker. I know the best boba shops in Irvine.

You know why? Because you tell me. You put it on your Facebook. I don't care. I'm not a boba eater, but I know. I know which movies are the best movies. Because you share it. I know if I take a vacation, where I should go. Because you share it.

Because whatever you love, you end up sharing. Because you want other people to love what you love. If you're a Dodgers fan, you are a Dodgers apologist. You want everybody to be a Dodgers fan. Why aren't you a Dodgers fan? Because we have a tendency to share. And because we want other people to love what we love.

You see, loving Christ is the backbone of everything that we do. If you don't love Christ, you can't worship. If you don't love Christ, you're just regurgitating information when you're sharing the gospel. If you don't love Christ, you're just singing songs. If you don't love Christ, you're just studying words.

If you don't love Christ, you're just building friendships. You're not partnering. You're not fellowshipping. That's why he says the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Because until you have love for Christ, until Christ becomes more precious than anything else, we may love the church without Christ.

We may love missions without Christ. We may love teaching without Christ. We may love theology without Christ. But at the end, it means nothing if we don't love Christ. So in conclusion, as we wrap up this letter, it doesn't matter whether our church is 1,000 or 10,000. A church of 10 that loves Christ with all their hearts has more power than 10,000 people just nonchalantly coming in and out of church.

I pray that that would be you and I. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your constant grace and provision you give us. We are truly unworthy of all that you've given. Lord, you know how easily we stray. We get so tempted with trivial things that we know it's trivial, and yet when we're tempted, we give in.

I pray, Father God, that you would help us remember the height from which we had fallen to repent and redo the things that we did at first so that above everything that we are pursuing, that the love of Christ would take center stage. We praise you. We thank you.

Give us strength, Lord God, to persevere, to be anchored in Christ and Christ alone. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.