So last Sunday, we launched into the sermon series that we'll define much of 2025 for our church.

We're walking through the New Testament letter to the Hebrews.

And this is a unique book of the Bible because we don't know who wrote it.

Not only do we not know who wrote it, we don't know the exact church that it was written to.

We know a little bit about that church.

It was a small house church somewhere in Italy.

And we know that the author is pastorally motivated to preach perseverance in a time of suffering

and rejection to a small church. This group of believers, they were Hebrew believers. What does that

mean? That means they had Jewish roots. So the fact that they were in Italy means they were being

persecuted by the Roman Empire that they lived in because they claim Caesar is Lord. When you claim Jesus is

Lord, you're going to be rejected economically, sometimes physically, sometimes murdered in the

Coliseum as a show in front of everybody else. So you got massive persecution happening from the Romans,

but you also have rejection happening from the Romans, but you also have

rejection happening from their own friends and family. The Jews, for the most part, have rejected that

Jesus is the Messiah. So you got your own friends and family who don't want anything to do with you.

You got the greater country and nation around you doesn't want anything to do with you. And you're

just a small house church. And at that point, this group of believers is wondering, okay, I still believe in Jesus, but is this even worth it? You ever

gotten to that place as a Jesus follower where you're like, it's not that I don't believe this stuff?

It's that I'm wondering whether or not it's worth this, whatever this is. This thing that's in front

of me, this decision that looms over me, this suffering that seems inevitable.

And the writer of Hebrews is going, it is more than worth it because of the covenant that has been given to you in Jesus.

And Hebrews is a reminder to persevere in gratitude, not persevere in effort, but that you must, as a a believer persevere in your gratefulness for what

...