Don‘t Give Up - Jesus can be Trusted Part 1

0 (2s): Every Sunday, every, every family Sunday here at harvest streets, we like to do one of the songs that the kids have been doing and their own worship services. And so this is one of them. And if the kids, if you're a kid in here and you know, the, you know, the hand motions, just do them anyways, take a long minutes. 1 (22s): you have rescued being she read out. Jesus says to cross the D gray, like you have one we understand that play last meeting face to face. 1 (1m 41s): I am yours. Jesus, you are 2 (4m 33s): Psalm 95. One says, come let us sing for joy to the Lord. Let us shout aloud to the rock of our salvation. 1 (4m 49s): we live for you. 1 (9m 37s): Jesus, the name Jesus with you and . 3 (14m 39s): Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord God. We're honored to be here to worship you, to turn our attention and offer a words of praise and Thanksgiving and adoration. Thank you, God that you hear our words of praise and adoration and Thanksgiving, you hear then Lord, and you're honored by those Lord. I thank you that we can honor you in this way. And I pray that our lives 24 7 would do that same thing that we would just long to honor you long to serve you long to give you first place in our lives or die. 3 (15m 27s): God help us never give up. God help us to stand strong. We feel like we're growing weary. Lord, God help us to remember promises. When we feel like help is distance and there's no answers in sight, Lord God, I pray God that you would spark our hearts and our minds and our spirits with your truth, Lord God that you would remind us of truth in Jesus name God, that we would believe it. And we build our life upon it would say yes and amen to your promises, Lord God. Yes. And amen to your goodness. Lord yesterday mentioned your provision, Lord God, that we would say yes and amen to all of the good things. 3 (16m 14s): And, and we would say yes and amen to the correction that you bring to our lives. Lord God, God, when we're convicted of sin and of Rikers has God that we would say yes and amen to that, God that we would just allow you to be Lord and leader God that we would indeed allow you to be in charge of our lives. You are the Lord and you're the king. You're eternal and you're forever and you're good. And you're just, God, help us see you. Believe you. And to trust you, we pray. Thank you, Lord. We need you. We need you to speak to us. God, everybody's in a slightly different place today. Some are rejoicing over the good things that are going on in their lives. 3 (16m 56s): Think about Cathy, Sally. Who's here after fighting COVID and being in the hospital or grief. We rejoice. Lord God, others are going through hard stuff. I think my little Scarlet, who's a couple of weeks old and in the hospital, dealing with sepsis and fighting for her life. And Lord, we just pray for her and for every person that she ever since we pray for healing and grace and help Lord God and encouragement in life. And Lord, we pray for those who are in need relationally and financially and spiritually. We pray that you'd bless and wash over. We pray for our shut-ins for those who are ill and in homes who are not able to be here, we bless them. Lord God, we bless them in Jesus name. 3 (17m 37s): We pray for those who are watching online and who are wanting to be here, but for reasons are not here and cannot be here. We just pray blessing upon them. Lord God, within everybody within earshot, Lord God, that's pour out your grace. Lord God, your truth, your revelation, your help. God, we, we need you more. God help us to build our lives on that truth of who you are, the truth of who we are in you. Jesus, and help us to stand firm in that Lord God and never give up. Never give up toward God, help us to never give up. We pray. Thank you for your goodness. We stand firm in you, Lord God, we stand firm in you. 3 (18m 17s): We love you. We bless you in Jesus name in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Amen. You can be seated. Thank you very much. So as we get ready, look at the guns on this girl, by the way, she's just got, this is not a light podium. It's not light anyway. So it's a, she just handles it. She takes care of it. Thank you for the pastor. Appreciation the recognition, the gifts, the love that that you've communicated to us. There, there are so many people besides the pastors who are constantly working behind the scenes, there are about a dozen other staffers who are working faithfully behind the scenes. 3 (19m 6s): We're, we're S we're so grateful for our elders who serve are the parishioners, takes hundreds of people to do what we do each and every week to serve and to be a part of all of the small groups and the stuff that we do on Sunday morning and the mid week stuff it takes literally, I think we've counted up. It tastes like a couple hundred people just to get the job done. And so we're so grateful. You've noticed Tim and Amanda up here, we've never really publicly said, Hey, they're on the team. And they're a part of what we're doing. But Amanda who brought the podium here and Tim who was helping to lead worship this morning, they're on the team and the staff team. We're so grateful, Julie, Spillers new to the team. 3 (19m 46s): Good stand Julie Spiller. There she is. Julie's, Julie's actually been a part of the church almost since the beginning 18 plus years. And she was, she's just always done bookkeeping and HR stuff. And so when we were in need of a new HR bookkeeper person, cause Ron has been doing that. And then when Dave retired, we needed to put Ron into more pastoral duties. And so we called Julie and said, Hey, Julie, you want to come join our team? And she said, yes. So we got her. And so we're grateful. And so God continues to add to our team. And so we're so grateful for that. We're looking at Hebrews one today and we're going to spend the next few months in Hebrews kind of studying through Hebrews. 3 (20m 31s): And I've titled the message don't give up. Jesus can be trusted. So the author of Hebrews and we don't know who the author is, it could be Barnabas, Apollos, Paul. It could be Dr. Luke. We don't really know. And it's not really that important because all of the Bible is ghost written by the holy spirit. And so we know that the holy spirit has written. What we're reading about is studying in Hebrew. So we can trust that through the inspiration of the holy spirit, God worked through somebody to write to this audience. And we're not even totally sure who the audience is. 3 (21m 11s): Other than from reading through the text. It seems like the author is writing to Jewish people who converted to Christianity. So Jewish Christians, messianic Jews, people who decided to believe the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so we see that they're writers writing to these people. Why is he writing to them? He's writing to them. It appears to encourage them because as you can imagine, as they transitioned from Judaism to Christianity, they probably endured some harsh criticism from family, from the culture, from the people in their Jewish community. 3 (21m 57s): But they saw something in Jesus where they realize that in Christ God was in their mitts, that he came in the form of a child born of a Virgin in the incarnation. He took on human flesh, lived, preached, taught, and died and was resurrected for our sins so that we might be called sons and daughters of the living. God, that message, that gospel message resonated with these people. And they adopted this faith in Christ Jesus. 3 (22m 37s): And so the author of Hebrews is writing. Hey, don't, don't give up. Have you ever wanted to give up in life? I I'll tell you a story about this. This goes back a number of years ago, I was running a lot and I decided I wanted to run a marathon, never run a marathon before I had run half marathons, five Ks, 10 Ks, all kinds of other races, but I'd never run a full marathon. So I was training for months for the event. I think it was the Ventura marathon that I was going to be participating in. So you train for, you have to train, at least typically you train three, four or five months to get prepared for something like that. And so I've been prepping for months. 3 (23m 18s): I've been running for years, but I've been prepping buds. And the preparation is you're, you're running long, long distances and just kinda getting your body conditioned. Well, my schedule changed and I was going to need to fly out of, I think I flew out of the country and wasn't going to be able to run the marathon and then get on the plane the next day and fly out of the country. Just wasn't gonna make sense to sit on a 14 hour flight after running a marathon. And so, so I decided to cancel the marathon, but I called my son Curtis, and I said, Hey, Curtis, I want to still run my own private marathon. I've been practicing and training and I don't want to have to go to waste. So I said, would you ride your bike? And just kind of be my support person, you know, giving me water and electrolytes and food and whatever I need for the run. 3 (23m 60s): And would you just help me to get this done? So we agreed and we set a date and I started running an Oceana and I run up, run up to San Louis. And on the way back from San Louis, I I've been eating and drinking a lot. So I needed to stop to go to the restroom. So I stopped at Avalon hot Springs there, and I decided I wanted to use their bathroom. And so I go to the bathroom and then, so I'm 18 miles into it. And then I start to try to run again and I get so cramped up. I can't hardly move. And so I keep trying to run, but I'm not able to run. My legs are, they've got a mind of their own. They're just, they're tweaking and freaking out. And I, you know, I put my body through a good amount of abuse and they're letting that they're not liking it, right. 3 (24m 43s): My legs are not liking and my whole body's just kind of resisting it. So I decided the only way to finish this race is actually this run is actually just a walk for the next eight miles. And so I walked the next eight miles back to Oceana where I had started and Curtis is next to me and we're just talking and, and just enjoying the eight mile walk, but I wanted to give up by, I, you know, I wanted to give up and there's been many times in my life where I've wanted to quit, wanted to give up, wanting to throw in the towel, but by God's grace in his mercy, he's shown me the path forward and been able to move forward. 3 (25m 24s): And so it's just been an incredible journey as a follower of Lord Jesus Christ. Well, last night I was invited to this banquet. Coastal Christian school celebrated their fifth year anniversary last night. Can you met 50 years? I can't believe since 1971. I know most of you weren't even born at that time, but that was a joke 50 years though, of ministry. So as they shared stories about their 50 year history, I was resonating a lot with what they were saying. So going back 50 years to 1971, they started this school and students started to show up, but things were at lean and they were in a rented campus. 3 (26m 7s): And then two rented campuses to how's their students and Pam quake and share this story. Last night, Pam quake has been like an administrator to school for decades. She's finally retired now, but she shared the story, how one particular paid period in the month, they weren't going to be able to make payroll. And so she said to the head of school, the principal, Hey, we're we, we don't have enough in the coffers to make payroll. And the principal being a man of faith said, no, don't worry. It will come. And just within a couple of days before payroll, somebody walked in with a very generous donation, a very generous donation that covered all the payroll and then some but things were still lean. And so the board of the school decided, Hey, let's cut everybody's salary by 10%. 3 (26m 50s): And that's pretty significant cut, but everybody believes so much in the school and nobody complained. Nobody quit. Everybody just kept right about their business, doing what God had called them to do. Teaching discipling young people in their academic pursuits. And over the years, things began to change for them. 40 plus years ago in their 50 year journey, somebody gave him 27 acres out on Oak park road and it took them over like 42 years before they could build on it. So for 40 plus years, they've been praying that God would give them the capacity, the ability the funds to build. 3 (27m 30s): And finally, so I had kids, all four of my kids go through CCS. And so we were praying for this building project for 14 years. And then my youngest graduates after my other three, graduated from high school, my youngest Leslie graduates. And then the very next year they get on the campus. So for 14 years, we're praying and believing that God's going to bring the camp. And then it was after my kids had gone that they got into the campus. So we're like, ah, we missed it, but we've been able to celebrate with them and be a part of the process. And so that was all part of their initial, just get on the campus deal and they've got modulars and that sort of thing, but, but phase one in their real construction there they've been raising money for it's a $13 million improvement that they, that they want to make. 3 (28m 16s): But the good news is that God has been faithful and they brought in $9 million up to last night. And then they got a $2 million matching fund that said, the donor said, Hey, if you can raise 2 million, I'll give you a $2 million for dollar. You know, you raised a million, I gave you a million, but if you raise 2 million, I'll give you 2 million. So last night I just got a text message this morning from the board chair. They S they raise almost a million dollars last night. So that will be matched to two millions and other at 11 million. And they still need just a couple of million to get started or to get their project going. But I just think about all of the faithfulness of God and all of the challenges along the way. 3 (29m 1s): And I was as Pam or Stan or anybody who was up there talking about the history I began to think about and reminisce about our almost 19 year history as a church here at Harvard harvest church. There's so many parallels where there've been plenty of times where we've been so lean. We weren't sure if we were going to be able to make payroll. And at times we'd have to wait for payroll an extra week or whatever, and, and God would provide. And then we started meeting out at Lopez high school for, and we were there for a couple of years, but we knew we wanted to move into the village of Rick, Randy. And so a lot of you have heard this story, but a lot of you haven't. So I'll just kind of recap a bit of our 19 year, almost 19 years of history. 3 (29m 42s): So we decide we had like 60 people in the church at the time. And, but we knew we wanted to have a greater impact in the community. And so we began to pray specifically. In fact, I think it was Wanda Hildreth. One has been gone home to be with the Lord, but she felt specifically that we should be in the village and we all resonated with that. And so we began to pray. We said, yeah, we agree with that. We want to get into the village. And so we began to pray that God would open up an opportunity for us in the village. Now the village is smaller. There's not a lot of church building opportunities here in this small little space, but this building became available. And I I'll be honest with you. I've I've been living here since fifth grade, and I've never noticed this church building up to that point, but I'm driving through the village. 3 (30m 26s): I'm clueless just telling me I'm closed. All right. But I'm driving through and I see this big four foot by eight foot sign that says for lease. I pull over and I come in and I meet Amanda Lambert for the first time. Never met her before she never met me before. I said, Hey, Amanda, we're, we've got a small church, 60 people we're trying to move into the village. Would you lease your space to us? And on the spot, she said, yes. She said, yeah, this place needs to be a church. She had other people who wanted to move in a yoga shop, wanted to move in attorney's group, wanted to move in, but she said it needs to be a church again. So on a handshake in that moment, she didn't know me. I didn't know her. We moved forward with that project. And so we got some estimations, what would it cost to make this place a church again? 3 (31m 8s): Because it was an interior decorating business and interior designers business. And that's what Amanda did. She was an interior designer. So we get some estimates and I'm told by contractors and architects that it's going to be about $35,000. So not a lot of money, 35,000 to renovate the space. And so we're like, okay, there's always overages in construction. So let's raise $50,000. So I go to the church, 60 people, I say, let's raise $50,000 for this renovation. So we can move into the village and have a greater impact in the community. So we ended up raising $55,000. So we have 55,000 that we'd raised. Plus we had about 30,000 in the coffers at the time. So we have 85,000. 3 (31m 48s): So we're ready to go. So we're, we start the project. And one thing runs into another leads to another. And we open up the foundation, the floor, the wood sub floor, and the whole building is sitting in the dirt on this backside over here, we ended up having to redo we floors. And we had to, the city was concerned that the building would slide down the hill. It hadn't moved in over a hundred years, but the city, he was concerned that they would slide down the hill. So we had to pour four foot by four foot by four foot, big concrete pads down there and tie helical anchors. 3 (32m 28s): He'll call anchors are these big screwed in anchors and connect it to the building in four different places. So the building went and move, and then we had to put in fire sprinklers and sound equipment, all kinds of stuff and thing leads to another. And it's not 35,000. It's not 50,000. It's not 85,000. It's an excess of a hundred thousand dollars. And so at one point we're like dead in the water because we're completely out of money. We're just out of money. And people begin to ask the city calls pastors in the community parishioners, Hey, when are we getting moving with our project? And I finally just had to say, Hey, we're out of money. So many overages we couldn't foresee. 3 (33m 8s): And so we're just waiting. We're just waiting for the Lord to provide. So we waited and I can't remember if it was a few weeks or a month or whatever it was, but over time in just a short amount of time, God gave us the rest of the money so that we could finish the project and move in. So we, we were so excited to rehab this old 1887 building. And we were so excited about that. We, 10 years later, we decided to buy an 1865 building. So we, you think we would have learned our lesson, but we're, you know, 10 years passes. It's like childbirth, I guess you kind of forget all the pain, right? And so you do it again. And so we buy this house, this old bed and breakfast next door, it built in 1865, older than the sanctuary in worse condition than the sanctuary. 3 (33m 55s): But we're thinking we can go in there. In fact, we had a Workday after we bought it, 60 or 70 people show up and we're having cleaned up the outside. We're cleaning up everything in the inside. We're thinking we're going to slap a little paint on this thing, like lipstick on a pig and it's going to be good to go, right? No such thing. We got into this thing. We ended up having to take it all the way down to the studs, replaced all of the electrical, the plumbing we replaced. We renovated both the bathrooms, put in new cabinets, new floors throughout. We ended up eventually putting on a new roof on the place. And so we spent in excess of a hundred thousand dollars there. 3 (34m 35s): So every time we turn around we're into these projects in these old buildings that we kind of have the impression that God has got us here in this, in the village to do two things, to renovate old buildings and to renovate people, to renovate people. They go hand in hand, we all need renovation, right? Old buildings need renovation old and young people. We need renovation. God's been working on me for a long time. I know he's not even close to being done cause I'm, I still need lots of work, but the renovation continues. So then all of these other buildings that we've been working on over the years, we, we, same thing. We get into the parsonage and there's all kinds of stuff that needed to get done there, cabinets and plumbing and bathrooms and all kinds of stuff. 3 (35m 16s): And we just continued on renovating old buildings. And then we get this great idea to rent this space. 1 0 2 west branch. That was it's a 70 year old building as well. So it is 70 year old building as well. So it's not quite as old as some of these other buildings, but it's an equally bad shape we discovered. So we think in the beginning, it's going to take 125,000 bucks to renovate this thing. Why do you guys, we bought all this sound equipment that we've been using outside. And in my naive thinking, I think we can take all of that sound equipment, move it inside, but I'm not a tech engineer. So I have no idea what I'm actually talking about. And so they tell me no, it's we can't actually use that equipment. We need different equipment and it's going to cost $150,000. 3 (36m 1s): Okay. So there goes that a hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars budget. So then we say, okay, it's going to be double that then. So we think it's going to be $250,000, but then we run into sewer line issues. The sewer line was completely eroded corroded. It was sitting in the dirt. There was actually no sewer line on the bottom. All of the sewage was running into just into the dirt. So we have to saw cut in the building eight 40 or 50 feet just to get the old system out and put in a new system. And then we realized we need to add an a second handicap accessible bathroom. We need to put it in fire sprinklers. We're thinking with the walls, we can just paint them. 3 (36m 43s): And they're all good, but they're in such bad shape. The dry Waller said, you know, we can float it and make it smooth and make it look good. But we're going to spend so much time doing that. You might as well just rip out the old stuff and put in new stuff. So now we're like ripping out all the dry wall and we're down to bare studs and, and we need to insulate the ceiling. We did. I mentioned fire sprinklers. We needed to do all that. Every we realize every door, every exterior door is bad. Every the exterior, the windows are bad. So we're realizing that we're into this money pit and we're spending all kinds of money. And so last week, or maybe 10 days ago, I asked the bookkeeper, asked where's Julia, she's still there. 3 (37m 23s): Her size. Julia said, how much money have we spent so far? She's like about 300, $8,000. Oh, holy cow. I said, are you kidding me? And I might, I got to figure out how much it's going to cost to finish it. So I go to all the contractors and I say, okay, guys, help me out. What's it going to cost? Because everybody pretty much is doing time and material because you can't bid an old job, the building like that. So they go in, they're like, we're not sure what we're dealing with. So we'll do time and material. And they've been gracious. A lot of guys have discounted their, their hourly rate and they've helped us with material and that sort of thing. But we still are in this thing over $300,000. So I compile a list of everything from painting, plumbing, electrical flooring, all of the above doors, windows, all of that kind of stuff. 3 (38m 11s): And we realized we still need $200,000 to finish the project. My half a million dollars. This isn't, this is a lot of money, but I got with yellers this week and I said, Hey guys, this is the, this is the scenario. This is the dilemma. And they said, well, this is nothing new. Like, like this, this is par for the course with old buildings, every old building that we've ever renovated just takes a lot of money. And so I said, okay, well, what do you want to do? And they said, well, we talked about some things. And, and, but then as, as I was sitting at CCS as banquet last night, it occurred to me. 3 (38m 51s): I needed to just full disclosure, just bring this to the people and say, Lord, your will be done. So this is what I'm asking you to do. This is what I'm asking you to do two things I need to do. I need you to be praying and participating in two ways. Number one, we still do not have a building permit for that building. We're waiting out of one little hurdle. They sit in that, the city said, do all the work that you want to do, that you can do without shedding everything you want without closing it all up because we need to inspect it. So I said, okay, so we did $300,000 work without closing anything up. And, and, and we're about ready for inspections on electrical and plumbing and that sort of thing. But there's a question about the air flow in the building. 3 (39m 33s): And, and we upgraded the HVAC system. There used to be 3, 2, 3, 10 units on the roof, and we put 2, 5, 10 units on the roof to crease capacity and air flow and that sort of thing. So that's the final hurdle. So we've submitted to the planning department, our planned for that, and we think we've got it through, but we haven't received a permit yet. So pray, pray that God helps us over that hurdle so that we can get a building permit because our plan is to begin to call for inspections on all of the roughed in plumbing and electrical, so that we can begin to insulate the walls and dry wall the walls and get all the finished, done, and finished out the bathrooms and that sort of thing. 3 (40m 13s): But, but it's going to take another $200,000 to finish it. So I'm asking that you pray again, you guys have been so incredibly generous with your prayer and with your participation in this project. So many people have given labor at no charge have helped with cleanup days and helped with all kinds of stuff. But as it goes, we're still short $200,000. So I talked to the elders, they said, Hey, this is what we do know. We know that God led us into it. We know that he will lead us through it. He will provide for us. 3 (40m 53s): We know that it was the right decision for our church to be in that space. It allows us the expansion that we need for our kids and for our adults. And so we know that God's in it. We just need to kind of navigate together to figure out how to finish the project and get in the building. Our goal is to get in by Christmas, December 24th. So just over what's today, 24th, that's good timing. So in two months, that's what we got. We got two months to kind of wrap this thing up. And so we're asking you that you would pray and ask the Lord if he would have you to participate by giving extra to the building program. Now, I never want people to give, unless they feel the joy of the Lord around their giving. 3 (41m 39s): We've never been heavy pressure about giving and that sort of thing. I don't want you to feel compelled to give because of guilt or anything like that. But if you pray and you sense, the Lord says give, and that's what we would ask you to do and, and do it quickly because we're, we need to get the same time. So, so initially when I realized we were in this predicament, I called the elders and I said, Hey guys, we have to set the, the kind of the standard here. So I'm asking each of the elders to give sacrificially to this program. And every elder stepped up and gave sacrificially to it. And so now that the elders have led by being generous and by trusting the Lord and by giving, I'm asking the congregation to do the same thing. 3 (42m 27s): So as you pray, God will lead as you listen, God will provide. And by God's grace and his good plan, we'll hopefully be in by December 24th. So with that, what I'm going to do is have us all stand and pray. We've got 10 minutes left in the service. So we're going to get through the first point of Hebrews chapter one today, first, a five-point message, but it's just service kind of lended itself to this. Can we get this microphone on Todd? And then I'm going to pray. And then if you feel led to pray, I want you to come out and pray into the microphone so that everybody else who's on different parts of the campus can agree with us. 3 (43m 7s): And so Lord, we want to pray and we want to declare a God that you are Jehovah Gyra. You are our provider. We've, we've seen that for 18 plus years. You have always provided for us for all of our operational expenses, for our contributions to missions and ministry outside of harvest church. As we've sent missionaries all over the globe, Lord God, you've always been faithful to provide for that kind of stuff. With the purchase of buildings and renovations of buildings, you've always been faithful, but we always run into the same issue where we're in a building. That's just old Lord. So we just pray God that you would show yourself faithful. Once again, we will continue to ask and seek and knock and ask and just trust God that you're going to respond with provision for this space. 3 (43m 56s): So we pray your will be done. We pray for favor with the building, the planning department, Lord, that they would give us the stamp of approval and give us a building permit so that we can continue to move forward. We pray that that would happen quickly. Lord, I don't know if December 24th is my idea or, or your idea, but Lord, I know that this building is, is your idea. So whatever the timing is, Lord God. We want to get in there and, and get the, get, get going with that building. So help us with that. We pray. Jesus. Thank you. If anybody else wants to come up and just pray, the microphone is ready to go. 3 (44m 39s): Thank you. You do. But we want everybody to be able to hear you though. Yeah. Here, can you talk into that? There we go. There we are. 4 (45m 9s): Yeah, he always does. 3 (45m 19s): Nice Joanne. You're awesome. Awesome. Thank you, Lord. Thank you. Yeah, there, there are creative ways to give, obviously to come up here and come on up. Obviously money is good, but we can also take stocks and we've had people donate stock and property and that sort of thing. So that's always an option as well. Here we come and help you. All right, Gary, 5 (45m 47s): That's great Father. We know that the book of Hebrews tells us that without faith, it is impossible to please you backyard. And we know father that you always honor faith. There's not a time in the Bible and the lives of the people there that you didn't honor, their faith. You came through in ways that they didn't even imagine. And God you're still the same today, yesterday and forever. We thank you father that you as Steve Perry or Hova, Gyra, God who provides, we pray father, that you would fill us all with faith that we would trust you, that we would give as you inspire us to give. 5 (46m 45s): And that blessings would flow Lord among your people, because we know we cannot give you. There's no way you always do more for us than we do for you. And we just commit this building into your hands and all those who are laboring on it, keep them safe, keep them strong and just have your way Lord in Jesus name. 3 (47m 9s): Amen. Thank you. Thank you. All right. You may be seated. Let's continue on. We'll get to a little bit of a steady and Hebrews. Thanks for listening. Thanks for praying. Thanks for believing God with us. We're not giving up title of the message don't give up. Jesus can be trusted. As we said, the writer to of this letter to the Hebrews is to encourage people. People who have converted to Christianity, but who are feeling a poll back to Judaism, to their old way of thinking. And they're being ostracized. Some of them by their families and they're being criticized and they're being persecuted by zealous people who don't understand their decision. 3 (47m 52s): So in Hebrews 10 verses 32 through 36, the writer encourages the people he says, think back. Think back on those early days, when you first learned about Christ, remember how you remain faithful, even though it meant terrible suffering. Sometimes you were exposed to public ridicule and were beaten. And sometimes you helped others who were suffering. The same thing. You suffered along with those who are thrown into jail. And when all you owned was taken from you, you accepted it with joy. You knew there were better things awaiting for you that will last forever. The scripture says, so do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. 3 (48m 36s): Remember the great reward. It brings you verse 36 patients in Durance is what you need now so that you will continue to do God's will then you will receive all that he has promised. So don't give up. Jesus can be trusted. Let's jump into Hebrews chapter one, verse one, it says long ago, God spoke many times. And in many ways to our ancestors, through the prophets. So God spoke his promises and his covenant to the Hebrew people. There's an intimacy about God, of the God, of the universe, speaking revelation and truth to humble people. 3 (49m 21s): God spoke. He spoke his promises and his covenant to the Hebrew people. God made a covenant with the Hebrew people. They would be his people and he would be their God. There's an intimacy that God is calling us into in the old Testament. And especially in the new Testament, God communicated his law so that his people and all people would know his standard. And that's where we get the 10 commandments. You must not have any other God, but me. The Lord declared, you must not make for yourself an idol of any kind. You must not misuse the name of the Lord. Your God. 3 (50m 1s): Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it, holy honor, your father and mother, you must not murder. He must not commit adultery. You must not steal. You must not bear false witness against your neighbor and you must not covets the law of God. If we could just keep the law, we would be faultless. How many of try that? Lailey the Bible says that if we keep the whole law, but stumble, and one little part of the law, we're guilty of breaking the whole thing. So why was the law given to us? If we could never be expected to follow it letter by letter Galatians three 19 answers that question. 3 (50m 44s): It says this Galatians three 19. Why then was the law given? It was given alongside the promise to show people their sins. This is the purpose of the giving of the law. It was given to show people their sins given alongside the promise, who is Christ the Lord. But the law was designed to last only until the coming of the child who was promised. We're talking about Jesus in the incarnation. God gave his law through angels, to Moses who was the mediator between God and the people. And now God is speaking, not through Moses as a mediator, but he's speaking through the Lord, Jesus Christ, Hebrews one two says, and now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his son, capital S son, God promised everything to the son as an inheritance and through the sun, he created the universe. 3 (51m 41s): And so we're beginning to get a glimpse about who this son is. Jesus, the Lord coming in the form of the incarnation, living, teaching, dying resurrecting. But before all of that, he's been eternal. He's been eternally present in the universe. And before the universe has been eternally present, period, he's eternal. And that will beginning and know in and John one, one, it says in the beginning, the word already existed. The word was with God. And the word was God, verse two. He existed in the beginning with God and God created everything through him. And nothing was created except through him. 3 (52m 24s): Don't give up, Jesus can be trusted. Number one, in your notes, Jesus can be trusted because he is God, he can be trusted because he is God. And so we know all of the attributes of God that he is our provider, our healer, our soon coming king, that he is the one who stands with us. He's a friend who's closer than a brother. He's the one who recognized our desperate need for salvation. And in the incarnation, he offered himself to come as a living, sacrifice a substitutionary sacrifice on the cross so that our sins might be blotted out and forgiven. He decided to take the wrath of God upon himself because the Bible says the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. 3 (53m 12s): So sometimes we're tempted to give up or tempted to give in, but God is saying, don't give up. You can trust me to help you to navigate life. Maybe you're in a difficult place in a relationship and God is telling you don't give up. Maybe you're feeling attempted to drift from your faith. Your first love as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And Jesus would say, don't give up, don't lose heart. Continue to press in. Continue to believe me. You, Jesus can be trusted because he is God. It says in verse three, the sun radiates God's own glory and expresses the very character of God. 3 (53m 53s): We know a lot about the character of God, just by reading the scripture about God we read in the old and the new Testament that God is just, and that he is good, that he is faithful, that he is reliable. That we, he is dependable that when his people trust him, he always, always comes through. I think about other people in the wilderness, as they travel to the promised land, they, they get desperate because they don't have any water and they get desperate because they don't have any food in God. It comes through and provides water. And Nana, he provides for them as they traveled through the wilderness, preparing them for the promised land, where they tested were always tested. 3 (54m 35s): There got to a point in the wilderness where they're like, Moses, did you bring us out here to die? We've got no food. We've got no water. What are we going to do? And Moses continues to turn the people to the Lord. Remember his faithfulness. He delivered you out of your old life. He delivered you out of Egypt with a plan and a purpose to deliver you into the promised land. Is, are there challenges along the way? Oh man, there are challenges along the way. I've had three or four conversations this morning. And what I thought were going to be lighthearted. Conversations turned out to be very difficult conversations with people, just going through very, very hard things. 3 (55m 16s): We look around and we think everybody's doing fine, but not everybody's doing fine. I'm thankful for the days in which we are doing fine, but there's always days in which we struggle. We struggle to believe God. We struggled to put our faith in him and to trust him. But every time we turn our attention back to him, he reminds us and reassures us. I've had to do a lot of prayer walks lately because I've been anxious about this building down the road. And every time I do, I'll go out and walk and I'll say, Hey babe, I'll tell Jolene I got to go pray. And I'll just go on a walk and pray. 3 (55m 56s): And I'll come back in about an hour, hour and a half later. And I'm just refreshing my soul because I'm reminded of God's faithfulness. I'm reminded that we've been here before and that God will get us through it again, because he always does that. I'm reminded that my attention and my focus needs to be not on the problem, but on the solution who is Christ the Lord. And so as I open up the scripture and remind myself about the faithfulness of God, and as I pray, press in and talk to the Lord here in minds, me by his spirit of his goodness. So don't give up, we're not going to give up moving forward. We got good stuff in store for us as God leads and guides and directs us. 3 (56m 36s): And we're confident that God's going to give, give us what we need for that building. And then beyond is there's more beyond, as we continue to be salt and light in this community with that, let's go ahead and stand up and we'll finish the next four points to this message here. When I get back to it, we're going to take communion. How many received your elements? Yeah, go ahead and stand up. And if you need elements, raise your hand and we will get elements to you, Jim, if you could make sure that people will get some elements, just keep your hand up in gym. We'll get elements to you. We're going to take communion. Why? Because communion reminds us, the Bible says do this as often as you do in remembrance of me. 3 (57m 20s): So we take communion because it reminds us of God's faithfulness on the cross. We take communion because it refreshes our soul because in doing so we say, thank you Lord, for forgiving my sins. Thank you Lord, for staying by my side. And for, and for walking this course of life with me first Corinthians 1123 is our passage that we typically read. It says this. So everybody has elements now, okay. These are our COVID elements. And so they're all sealed and ready to go. So make sure you know how to peel off the top layer to get to the wafer. And then the bottom layer to get to the juice. Here we go. 3 (58m 1s): First Corinthians 1123 for I pass on to you. What I received from the Lord himself on the night when he was betrayed the Lord, Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and said, this is my body, which is given for you. Do this to remember me. Let's take the bread. Oh, thank you, Lord. 3 (58m 40s): Thank you for the reminder, Lord, we need the reminder. Don't we Lord. We need it. Lord. Thank you that you remind us. And as often as we take communion, we're, we're reminded. And so we thank you and thank you for your sacrifice for me, for us, for your church. We love you, Lord. We're so grateful. Verse 25 says in the same way, he took the cup of wine. After supper saying this cup is the new covenant between God and his people and agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this to remember me. As often as you drink it for every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the death until he comes again. 3 (59m 24s): So let's take the juice. Oh thank you, Lord. I got them refreshed to my soul. When I take communion, refresh us, Lord refresh us in our soul. And our spirit Lord in our lives got refresh us with that truth of your grace. God, if any, any of us have been struggling with sin, Lord, I pray that you would refresh us with your, your plan to forgive us and to set us free and then do that good work. We pray, Lord God, do that. 3 (1h 0m 6s): Good work. Thank you for your patience with us, your kindness toward us. It's unfathomable your goodness in your patients. We don't fully comprehend, but we're thankful. We're thankful. Lord, if there's anyone here, who's never accepted the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ. If you're here and you recognize that you need your sins. Forgiven sins are just another words for mistakes faults, the breaking of the commandments. Falling short. If you're here and you know, in your soul and your life that you've fallen short and you've never accepted the grace message of the Lord, Jesus Christ. 3 (1h 0m 48s): You can simply accept him. Now. Bible says, if you confess with your mouth, that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart, that God has raised him from the dead. You shall be saved. Confessing that Jesus is. Lord is a simple declaration, a powerful declaration, a profound declaration that says I no longer want to lead my own life. I want you to lead my life. I recognize you as Lord, as king as God. And I say, I submit to you. I give my life to you. I believe that you were born and you lived and you died. And you resurrected from the grave, conquering, sin and death, giving us the victory over those things. 3 (1h 1m 36s): You took my place receiving my penalty. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, the Lord. And so, as you recognize your need for Jesus and you and welcome him into your life, you're welcoming him into your life to be your Lord and your leader, your king, and the one who washes away all of your sin and adopts you into his family. So if that's you go ahead and do that in the quietness of your own heart. Maybe you're here today and you just need to reaffirm your commitment to follow Jesus. That's why communion is so important. We do this and often as often as we do in remembrance so that we might refresh ourselves in the Lord. 3 (1h 2m 16s): So Lord, we refresh ourselves in you. As we, as we, this final worship song, we just say, Lord, thank you. We love you. Your will be done with our lives in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Let's worship. 1 (1h 2m 33s): the way the was a close look at the space between I used to be. I had no standing next to the there wasn't holding back the C should I have a need? 1 (1h 3m 28s): How I've been set free. There is a cross. The best dad for being there is another C E .