I received a mission news update in the mail this past week and on the back was a picture

of a man named Lazzaro Rojas standing over a widow who crouched down in the village of Kakato Peru.

And he was talking to her and the little caption beside the picture said that he was comforting the

widow and helping her place her trust in Christ. Comfort comforting the widow.

Now here in verse 25, by the way, if you have a Bible, I think it would help if you went ahead

and opened it to Hebrew's 10 now because the verse numbers are not in the hymnal and I'm going to be pointing you to first numbers.

That's part of my philosophy of preaching. I want you to look at the very phrases from which I get my ideas.

So I'll tell you to look at the first half of 25 or the second half of 25.

And that's because I don't want you to take my word anything, but rather judged by the written word of God.

So if you have a Bible, open it, if you keep looking at the hymnal fine, you'll make out as you poke around in there where these verses are.

But here in verse 25 now, it says encouraging one another, I'm using the RSV, encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

That word encouraging can be translated comforting.

So what that Lazaro Rojas was doing to this widow there in Peru is what this verse says.

He was trying to help her keep safe in Christ after the loss of her husband.

I'm going to talk about him a moment.

He was encouraging, he was comforting, he was

using his mouth as a thousand of life to feed and heal and protect her from unbelief.

Now probably the reason here at the end of verse 25 that it says and all the more as the day draws near

in other words encourage one another and do it more and more

increase the intensity and frequency of your encouragement as the day

of Christ, the day of judgment, the end of the world comes.

The reason probably that we are to increase the frequency and the urgency of our mutual

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