In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.

The book of Hebrews is written to a small church in the Greco-Roman world

who is considering giving up on Jesus and giving up on church

because persecution and rejection has gotten so hard.

The theme of the book of Hebrews, now remember, they're Jewish believers.

So they're getting rejected by their former Jewish brethren and by the empire that they live in.

Massive threats of persecution, massive fear, loss of income, loss of friendships.

And the theme of Hebrews is persevere because Jesus is worth it. And in 2025, if there's one thing God is saying to ACC over and

over and over again, it is persevere because Jesus is worth it. Stay in the fight. Stay in church.

Stay with God's people. Because this covenant that you're invited into based on the blood of Jesus

is better than any other option you have to give your life to and every other covenant that came before.

And now, last week, we finished the 12th chapter of Hebrews, which is this epic grand finale,

fireworks going off, like literally it ends with our God is a consuming fire.

So let us be thankful and worship him with reverence and all. It seems like it's the very

end of this culminating. You need to persevere because God is a consuming fire and it is the fear of

the Lord and the love of God shown in Christ Jesus that causes me to bow my life in gratitude

before him and say, I'm in and I'm not going anywhere.

Except the letter doesn't end.

It keeps going.

And in chapter 13, there's command after command after command.

It's kind of a final instruction for what does it look like to walk as a believer in Jesus

who is persevering in his or her faith. And I want to give

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