Well, we are in the final month of our Hebrews series. I told you guys this was going to be a nine-month

journey through the book of Hebrews in 2025. What month is September? The ninth month. So we're going

all the way till the last Sunday in September. That'll be the real finale.

On September, I believe it's the 28th.

But today, in a lot of ways, is what I would call the grand finale.

Because the writer of Hebrews ends his argument with this flurry of commands and powerful pictures before he gives what's better known as like an epilogue

and some final instructions in chapter 13. So what we're going to read today is the writer

of Hebrews final charge for a church that wants to give up to persevere in gratitude.

Now look up here if you've heard it every week or look up here if this is your

first time. Hebrews is a different type of book of the Bible in that we don't know who wrote it. We

don't know all the circumstances that went into this book being put together. But we do know

there's this group of Jewish Christians somewhere in the Roman Empire, probably in Italy,

who are being persecuted by their former Jewish brethren who

consider them to be heretics and moving on to a new religion and definitely being persecuted by

the Romans all around them. And so the level of rejection and difficulty from the outside

is now leading to compromise on the inside. And they're going, listen, I still

believe in Jesus, but I don't know if being a part of this church is worth it anymore.

I still believe this stuff, theoretically, but I don't know if it's worth it to sacrifice,

to be associated with the people of God, and to continue to step forward in this movement. So I'm going to kind of,

I'm going to kind of fall back and disappear. And the writer of Hebrews is going, no, you will

persevere in your gratitude. You will not go back to the way life was before because the covenant you

have because of the blood of Jesus is so much better than any other option you can give your life to.

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