Consider Jesus

My majesty, let all the earth rejoice. All the earth rejoice. He wraps himself in light. His darkness tries to hide. He trembles at his voice. He trembles at his voice. How great is our God. Sing with me. How great is our God. Oh, see how great, how great is our God. And age to age He stands. And time is in His hands. Beginning and the end. Beginning and the end. The God hath been one. Father, Spirit, Son. The Lion and the Lamb. The Lion and the Lamb. How great is our God. Sing with me. How great is our God. Oh, see how great, how great is our God. How great is our God. Sing with me. How great is our God. Oh, see how great, how great is our God. Name above all names. Worthy of all praise.

My heart will sing how great is our God. Name above all names. Worthy of all praise. My heart will sing how great is our God. How great is our God. Sing with me how great is our God. All will see how great, how great is our God. How great, how great is our God.

He's coming on the clouds, where kings and kingdoms will bow down. Every chain will break, as broken hearts declare His praise. Who can stop the Lord Almighty? Our God is the Lion, the Lion of Judah. He's roaring with power and fighting our battles. Every knee will bow before Him. Our God is the Lamb, the Lamb that was slain. For the sins of the world, His blood breaks the chains. Every knee will bow before the Lion and the Lamb. Every knee will bow before Him. Open up the gates, make way before the King of kings. The God who comes to save, is here to set the captives free. Who can stop the Lord Almighty? Our God is the Lion, the Lion of Judah. He's roaring with power and fighting our battles. Every knee will bow before Him.

Our God is the Lamb, the Lamb that was slain. For the sins of the world, His blood breaks the chains. Every knee will bow before the Lion and the Lamb. Every knee will bow before Him. Who can stop the Lord Almighty? Who can stop the Lord Almighty? Who can stop the Lord Almighty? Who can stop the Lord? Our God is the Lion, the Lion of Judah. He's roaring with power and fighting our battles. Every knee will bow before Him. Our God is the Lamb, the Lamb that was slain. For the sins of the world, His blood breaks the chains. Every knee will bow before the Lion and the Lamb. Every knee will bow before Him. Amen. Amen. Amen.

It's all good. As we prepare to gather together around the table, we're going to sing Glorious Day. One day when heaven was filled with his praises, one day when sin was as black as could be, Jesus came forth to be born of a virgin, dwelt among men. My example is he. The Word became flesh and the light shined among us, his glory revealed. Living, he loved me. Dying, he saved me. Buried, he cared me. My sins far away. Rising, he justified. Freely forever. One day he's coming, O glorious day. O glorious day. One day they led him up Calvary's mountain. One day they nailed him to die on a tree. Rappering anguish, despised and rejected. Bearing our sins, my Redeemer is he. Hands that healed nations, stretched out on a tree. Took the nails for me. Living he loved me. Dying he saved me. Buried he carried.

My sins far away. Rising he justified. Freely forever. One day he's coming. Oh, glorious day. Oh, glorious day. Oh, glorious day. One day the grave could conceal him no longer. One day the stone rolled away from the door. Then he arose over death he had conquered. Now is ascended. My Lord evermore. Death could not hold him. The grave could not keep him from rising again. Living, He loved me. Dying, He saved me. Buried, He carried my sins far away. Rising, He justified freely forever. My Lord evermore. Death could not hold him. The grave could not keep him from rising again. Living, He loved me. Dying, He saved me. Buried, He carried my sins far away. Rising, He justified freely forever. One day He's coming. Oh, glorious day. Oh, glorious day. Glorious day. One day the trumpet, Brussels, for He's coming. One day the skies will come.

The skies with His glories will shine. Wonderful day my beloved one bringing. My Savior Jesus is mine. Living He loved me. Dying He saved me. Buried He carried my sins far away. Rising He justified me. Freely forever. One day He's coming. Oh glorious day. Oh glorious day. Oh glorious day. Oh glorious day. Oh glorious day.

And His death, and His sacrifice on our behalf. And as I was reading these verses and thinking about, when we were kids, one of the people that we had in our lives. One of the most exciting things for us was when all our cousins would come and visit with us. And one of the great things about the house we lived in at that time is the people before us, they didn't have the kind of trees to build a tree house, so they had sunk some posts into the ground, and we called it the fort. And it looked like this little watchtower sitting next to our house on a hill, and we could see the road we lived on in each direction to the hills. And so when we knew that our cousins were on the way, and they were coming, after a while, because it was a couple hour drive, we would go up there, borrow dad's binoculars, and we would sit in the fort looking each way, watching excitedly for the car to come and see if that was finally them. And when it looked like it was, we'd run down and we'd wait by the driveway, just so excited for the arrival of our cousins and friends.

chapter 9, and in this text, it calls us to both look backward to what Jesus has done, and look forward to what he will do in the future. And verse 28 says this, "So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him." It calls to mind the fact that Jesus, through his sacrifice on the cross, has saved us from our sins. But there's a second part, just as we just sang, that he is one day coming back, and the writer of Hebrews says, not to deal with sin, because he's already done that, that's taken care of, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. And the words that grab me in that are the eagerly waiting for him. For Christians, the return of Jesus is not fearful or terrifying, because our sins have already been taken care of. He's already dealt with our sin, and he is coming to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

This morning, we look in two directions, one to the cross, where Jesus was offered to bear the sins of many, but we also look forward to the time when he will return to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. Let's pray. Father in heaven, I thank you for Jesus, and I thank you for grace. I thank you for the cross. I thank you for the promise of return. And transformation and restoration. And so we ask that as we partake of this meal, you would help us to see that in you, through your son, our sins are forgiven, and that there is hope. That Jesus is returning. And so we ask this morning that you would encourage our hearts, that you would strengthen our resolve. For us to see the good news is not just what has been done, but what is promised in the future. So be with us as we partake of this bread and this cup. We ask that you bless it. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

If you would partake of the bread with me as Jesus shared with his disciples, calling them to do this, and us in remembrance of it. The new covenant in Jesus' blood as we remember him. And as often as we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim Jesus until he comes again. We're going to be in Hebrews, the third chapter, just one short verse. We're going to skip around just a little bit around those as well. Just a note, I made the mistake of changing some of the slides right before we started. So some of the Scripture on the screen is really small, but you can follow along. There's a handout in the bulletin, and also in your Bibles as well. So I'm going to pray, and then we will jump right into this this morning. Father in heaven, refocus our hearts on you. Help us as we see

and seek to remember and to be restored that you would direct us to Jesus, that we would not be those in Hebrews chapter 2 who drift, that we would be those who fix our eyes on Jesus. So I ask that you would teach us this morning. I encourage us. Help us to see your goodness. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So we have, as a family, done a lot of driving this week. And I think probably like most of us, I kind of think of myself as a pretty good driver. In fact, if we were all asked to critique our own driving, right, we'd all say, yeah, yeah, I'm a pretty good driver. The problem is how others critique our driving. And so as we were driving, one of the places we had to go was right into the middle of downtown Washington, D.C. to get to National Children's Hospital. And there was a lot happening in

the last part of the drive. And the problem that I had was not with the traffic. I don't mind. I might yell a little bit, but it's okay. I might get a little frustrated that people aren't using the merge lane to accelerate to highway speed before they get on. But that's really my problem, not so much theirs. I might get frustrated. I didn't have a problem with the traffic. Didn't really have a problem with the directions. The issue for me, and it turns out as I was thinking about this, it's been an issue for a lot of my life. is that most of my life, all 43 years of it, I have been habitually trained to look for traffic signals up and in the center of the intersection. So for most of my life, that's where they have been. And as we come into DC and we're taking the back roads to the children's hospital, all of a sudden, every traffic signal is not up front and center, but on every corner on a post here or on a post here.

We primarily looking here, all of a sudden doesn't see any stop lights or green lights or yellow lights because I'm not looking to the side. And it was difficult. In fact, Rachel said, "Did you know that you just ran a red light?" I was like, "Absolutely not. Did not know." And to make things worse, right, they got a bus parked in front of this one, so you got to look to the left side where you're not used to looking. And then the GPS, which I remember reading a long time ago, there was a guy who said, "Man, everybody wants smarter cars and wants all these safety features." And the car is telling me to buckle my seatbelt. I would prefer if it told me there was a state trooper hiding behind that tree over there. So now the GPS will do that in your car. And so it's like red light camera and 50 feet, you know, speed camera and a half a mile. So in addition to trying to spot lights where I'm not used to looking for them, right, you're also a little worried that I'm going to go through the

red light with the traffic camera. This is where we find ourselves sometimes where we live. Not necessarily in a car where we're not seeing the traffic lights, but in our lives. And we're moving forward and we're not quite sure where it is that we are supposed to be looking. Maybe the issue is that we've always looked in one direction and it's hard to change and look where we need to go because we've always done it that way. Maybe it's not that we don't know where we need to go. We just don't know how to get there. Or maybe we're struggling or we're distracted or we're hurting. Maybe we're hearing all of these warnings that surround us. We don't go there. Don't do that. Watch out for that. Or maybe it's not really a problem because there was one moment on Tuesday where all of a sudden all the lights were green and I could see them and there was no traffic and there was no bicycles and there was no people on stupid little schools.

scooters driving in front of me. And I was just like, yes, I can go. Until Rachel goes, yeah, you drove right past where you were supposed to go, right? Because the success of a wide open road had just intoxicated me. And that may be the issue, right? It may not be an issue with not looking because we're struggling. It may be an issue with not looking because things are going really, really well. is that in all the urgent business, the distractions, the struggles, the success, that we would look to Jesus. And it's a very simple text. It just says this, "Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus the apostle and high priest of our confession." And I want us to sort of look at the glorious foundation that is found in this text.

Another way of saying this is that this text this morning, and the truth that is contained therein is not wobbly. I don't know if you've ever tried to do ladder things without a ladder. At least in my case, it always ends up being some kind of amalgamation of chairs, step stool, and sometimes a folding table. And you get there and you're trying to do ladder things without a ladder, and it always is wobbly. It can get really sketchy really quickly. The same is true in our world. There are a lot of things that might seem like a good idea. They might seem like a firm foundation, but when we start to build on them, we find that it gets really sketchy really fast. And the foundation of this text, and in fact all of the book of Hebrews, is the glorious reality of Jesus, specifically his identity, who he is, and his actions, what he has done.

In fact, the whole argument is that Jesus is better than anything you could ever put your hope in. And these verses are built upon a firm foundation. Let me just give you two examples of this foundation from the previous chapters. In Hebrews chapter 1, beginning in verse 1, it says, "Long ago, in many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days has spoken to us." His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom He created the world. He is the radiance of His glory and the exact imprint of His nature, and He upholds the universe by the word of His power. And after making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become much superior to the angels, as the name that He has inherited is more excellent than theirs."

So just a couple of foundational truths that support our text this morning. First of all, is that God speaks. That we don't have to be uncertain. We don't have to try to figure it out. It's not like a game where we're trying to guess a combination, and we try it one way. They say, "Well, you have one answer, right?" And we switch it around, and we go, "No answer." So you put it back the way it was, and you begin to try to find out what you've missed and in what order everything is. The first glorious truth that underlies our foundation is that God speaks. The second glorious truth that is underneath this foundation is that God has spoken to us. He starts by saying, "God's spoken," in some translations will say, "in many portions and in many ways, but in these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son."

We don't simply overhear. It's not just them or them, but He has said something to us and for us. Then our situations are successful. And this is earth shatteringly wonderful that God has spoken to us through His Son. And don't miss this. It says that God has spoken. It's not that we are trying to get God to speak because He's already done. Yes, He's already done it. And the question is not what has God said, but how will I respond to what He has said. And then the third glorious truth is this. How has God spoken? It's the identity of the messenger. He has spoken through His Son. And if you look at all of these characteristics, whom is the heir of all things, through whom He created the world, He is the radiance of the glory of God,

the exact imprint of His nature. He upholds the universe by the word of His power. But then also what He has done, He has made purification for sins, and He has sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. That's who has spoken to us. And then it kind of ends in a strange way. It says, "He has a better name than the angels." And we might say, "Why does that matter?" The short answer to this is that Jesus is greater than every and any heavenly force. The slightly longer answer is that we are people who constantly seek to compare. Right? We want the best. We want something better than what we have. And oftentimes we don't get something new because the old wears out, but rather because we want the perceived advantages of the new thing.

And what the author of Hebrews is doing is saying to us that there is nothing that can compare to the goodness and the greatness of Jesus. Anything or anyone that you can compare Jesus to. The whole argument of the book is that Jesus is better. Angels, Moses, in our text this morning, there's better promises. He serves as a better priest in a better temple, offering a better sacrifice on a better mountain. And it's not just about communication or identity, but it's about what Jesus has done. Since, therefore, the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things. That through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham.

The Son speaks, and because the children, that's us, are made of flesh and blood, he likewise partook of the same things, that he comes close, and that he saves. The one thing that is certain in our life, the one thing we fear, the one thing we spend so much time and energy and money to try to avoid death. As it says here, we were subject to lifelong slavery until Jesus comes and defeats death. The author is giving us a firm foundation for what happens next. That God speaks through His Son. He says, "See His power. See His majesty. See how powerful and all majestic Jesus is." And then He comes close to save you. And in Hebrews 3:1, all of this is summarized in this word, "Therefore." Because of who Jesus is, and because of what He has done, He has something to say to us.

And in fact, everything in this text centers around two words, and in fact, the longer context as well. It's just simply this: "Consider Jesus." You say, "What does that mean, to consider Jesus?" It has to do with our focus and how we are looking to Jesus. And first of all, I want you to understand, before we dive into what it means to consider Jesus, we need to understand that this text is addressed to us. He says, "Therefore, because of all of these things, these glorious foundations that God has spoken, He has spoken through His Son, His Son has come to save us. Therefore, because of that, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling." There is both comfort and correction found in these first words. There is comfort in that we're reminded we are not alone.

When He says, "Holy brothers," and we might say, "Well, I'm not a brother. I might have a brother, but I'm not a brother." The word here means just from the same womb, and depending on the context can mean a biological brother, or it can be used to refer to somebody who is a member of the same group, someone who belongs to the same group. And it's frequently used to refer to all of those who are part of the church. This is how the church is frequently addressed, as members of the same group. You've been born in the same way, born again through the blood of Christ. And so in part he begins with a comfort, that you are not alone. And this journey that you are on, this heavenly calling, you do not walk by yourself,

but you have somebody who is with you, and that is God's people. But it's also a correction. You see, we are immediately reminded that this is for us. It's easy for me to, and probably many of us, to look at everybody who surrounds us and go, "You know what? You all need Jesus." Right? It's really easy for us to point fingers and say, "You need Jesus. You need Jesus." And as my grandma used to say when I was little, so when you're pointing your finger at someone, maybe you've heard this, right? Three fingers are pointing back at you, so I would get around it by just doing like the knife hand at my siblings. It's easy for us to look at the Word of God and apply it to somebody else, and to say, "This is for you. That's for you. I've got it figured out." But notice what the writer of Hebrew does.

He says, "Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling." He says, "I'm speaking to you." They might need Jesus, but so do you. Three things I want to point you to regarding considering Jesus, first of all. Considering Jesus, first of all, is intentional. Let me go back to our driving in D.C. trip earlier this week. Traffic signals in the wrong place. I kind of mentioned it's something that I've always struggled with. I think it was like 19 or 20. Some friends and I from college, we came back to Vermont from Missouri to hang out, and they could see where I was from. And one of the things we decided to do, because in those days you could, we decided to drive up to Montreal. And so there was a friend who went to church with us, and I said, "Hey, you want to go up to Montreal?"

He says, "Yeah, I'll drive. You guys just follow me." And we're driving down this street in the middle of Montreal, and my roommates in the car go, "Hey, did you see that that light was turning red?" And once again, I'm like, "What light?" Right? Because they're all over on the corner, instead of on top, where normal people put them. My response was, "Well, first of all, if they wanted me to stop, put them where I can see them. Secondly, I've got to keep up with this guy who's driving in front of me." And so what happened was because I was so unfocused on everything, but not getting lost by following our friend. Right? I missed some of the things that were happening around me. I hadn't intentionally paid attention to what surrounded me. If there is not an intentional decision to focus on Jesus, it will not happen. Right? If we do not intentionally say,

"This is my focus." What's going to happen is we're going to be so focused on something else, whether it's busy-ness, or the emergencies of life, or the difficulties, or the successes, that it's just going to sort of go by the wayside if we're not intentionally looking to Jesus. One of the ways that we intentionally look to Jesus is through the community of His people. In Hebrews chapter 10, it says this, "Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful." It says you need to hold fast to your hope. He says this, "Then let us consider how to stir one another up to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together is the habit of some, but encouraging one another all the more as you see the day drawing near." And oftentimes this verse is used as a bat to talk about going to church.

This is the famous go to church verse, but I don't think it's about that. It's about our need to have brothers and sisters in Christ who walk with us. As we hold fast to our confession of hope, we need those around us who come near us, who stir us up, encourage us, and help us through the difficulties of life. It's so easy to look somewhere else without help to get us directed back to where we need to go. And so one of the places in which we intentionally focus on Jesus is in the community of believers. So first of all, our considering Jesus must be intentional. Secondly, it must be continual. Remember the audience of this verse is Christians, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling. He's talking to Christians, which means you and I need to hear this.

And it's not the only place this kind of thing is said, not just in Hebrews, but in the Bible. For example, in Hebrews 2:1, it says, "We must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it." Or in Hebrews 12:1, "Since, therefore, we're surrounded by this great cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely. Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." You might say, "Well, why am I to fix my eyes on Jesus, to look to Jesus?" It's because we need that encouragement. Here's why the writer of Hebrews says we need to look to Jesus.

Verse 3, "Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you do not grow weary and faint-hearted." Our fixing our eyes on Jesus has to be more than a one-time thing. Imagine today, in the evening, we're sitting down. The evening, the kids come in and go, "We're hungry. When's dinner?" And I go, "Well, you know what? You had dinner on Saturday. I don't feel like there is any need for us to do dinner again on Sunday." And our kids would think, first of all, they'd think I'm joking, right? Because they'd be like, "Oh, Dad, you're so funny. Ha ha." They never say that I'm funny, by the way. They just groan and roll their eyes. But if I said to them, "You ate dinner yesterday. You don't need to eat dinner today."

They're going to say, "Dad, you have to eat dinner every single day." And there is sometimes this idea among us as Christians. That yes, I fixed my eyes on Jesus when I became a Christian. Now I can kind of take it from here. And there is this idea among us that growing in Christ is a little bit like growing up as a human being. When I'm little I need help, but now that I'm grown up I can do it all by myself. I need Jesus to get me saved, but now I can walk on my own two feet. And the Bible is very clear about this. One of the great summaries of the Gospel in 1 Corinthians 15:1 says, "Now I would remind you, brothers, of the Gospel that I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand."

It's not written to those who are outside the church. He's saying to the church your focus and consideration on the Gospel of Jesus must be ongoing. Right? That's why we sing. It's why we study the Word. It's why we pray together. It's why we gather around the table. Third, it's because not only is our focus on Jesus intentional, but it must be ongoing. Third, our consideration of Jesus must not be superficial. Think about how we use the word considerate. Generally, for us, it means think about, right? Have you considered what you want to do for dinner? Have you thought about your ideas or plans for dinner? In Greek, the word consider is a compound word, which means it's just a couple of words put together. And it's a combination of the word for down and the word for think.

And essentially it means to think about something from the very top to the very bottom, not just a cursory glance. When the author of Hebrews says to consider Jesus, it's not simply saying, "Oh, yep, there's Jesus. Yep, I know about Jesus." But rather to examine who He is and what He has done. It's like the difference between maybe there's an open house for somebody selling their house in your neighborhood. And so you want to sneak into the open house so you can laugh at their design choices. And then the difference between actually looking for a house to move into and to live in, right? How much more closely do you examine something that you're planning to live in rather than just being nosy about your neighbors, right? One is sort of cursory. The other is much more specific.

In fact, we buy houses, we hire people to inspect them, to make sure that there's not any problems. The picture here in Hebrews 3:1, "Therefore, because of this foundation, you who are Christians, brothers, holy, who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus." Not in a cursory manner, not in a one-time way, not unintentionally, but rather in a focused manner. Now look at what he says. What should I consider about Jesus? There's a lot to consider about Jesus. In the end of Luke's Gospel, Luke records Jesus twice. The followers saying, "Everything that's written about me in the law and the prophets and in the Psalms, all of that Old Testament material, he says, is about me." All of those things. The end of John's Gospel, he says, "If I was to write everything down, there wouldn't be room for all of the books."

We consider the birth, and the life, and the teaching, and the miracles, and the cross, and the resurrection. Promises of his return. What are we called to consider about Jesus? Is it all of it? Well, in one sense, yes, we want to learn and grow more deeply into all of who Jesus is, but the writer of Hebrews has something specific in mind. He says what? The apostle and high priest of our confession. Confession is our declaration of belief. He says, "Well, how do I get to that place? How do I get to that confession?" I think there's two things we need. First of all is we need somebody to come to us. Let's go back to dinner time in our house, and the food is ready. Generally, we send somebody, one of the kids who happens to be around, to gather the other children.

Go tell everybody dinner is ready. And I've often thought, "What would happen if maybe we just sat down, after dinner is ready, we just went ahead and ate, right, in peace, without complaining about green beans, without anything being spilled, without any of these difficulties?" What would happen? I can tell you what would happen. A few hours later, children are going to come in, and they go, "Why didn't you tell us that dinner was ready?" And so what we do before we eat dinner, we send an apostle. The word apostle just means somebody who is sent with a mission to announce that dinner is ready. When we hear that Jesus is the apostle of our confession, He is the one who announces to us, the one who was sent to you with a message of hope. He is Emmanuel, which means God with us.

And He comes to bring light to the darkness, to those who are crushed, and who are broken, and who are proud and who are self-sufficient. Jesus comes to announce. But we don't just need somebody to announce, right? Because most of us, I think, if we're honest, we can figure out that we're not doing very well on our own. We need somebody to deal with our brokenness before God, right? Just hearing isn't helpful, right? Because sometimes before dinner, when we send our apostle to announce that dinner is ready, right? Somebody's been playing with the hose. Somebody's been in the mud or in the pile of leaves, right? And they can hear the call to dinner, but they are certainly not ready to come to dinner. In Hebrews chapter 5, you find at the beginning and outline through this chapter some qualifications for what a priest is and what he does.

The first qualification is that you have to be chosen, right? You don't get to choose yourself. You don't get to show up and say, "Guess what? I'm a priest. You have to be chosen." He'll use the example of Aaron's priesthood, that he has to be chosen from among the people. And he said, "There's a new and a better priest chosen by God. Today you are my son." But part of the call of the priest is to be part of the people. Because it's hard to help and have compassion on people that you cannot relate to. And so the priest doesn't just have to be chosen, but he has to come from among those with whom he lives. So he can know their struggles and know their hurts and know their difficulties, to know their joys.

But also the priest needs to be able to stand between the people of God and deal with their sins. So here's Jesus. He's not just the announcer of good news. Not just the announcer, but he's the one who brings us. He's the high priest, the one from whom the prophet spoke, the one who is chosen from among the people, the one who knows our struggles and hurts just as the children were made up of flesh and blood. So he partook of the same things, but also he stands and offers a sacrifice for sins, not for bulls and goats, but he offers himself. You see, the point being is that Jesus does not just come with a message. He comes to save. The author of Hebrews says, "Therefore, because of these glorious foundations, holy brothers who share in a heavenly calling,

you who are not alone, you're in the midst of the church among God's people, but also this message is for you." He says, "Consider Jesus not only once, not flippantly, not superficially, but look deeply at Jesus, the one who calls you, but the one who also brings you home." Hebrews 2:1 has this picture, "Therefore, me must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it." The picture here is pretty remarkable. I don't know if you've ever been in the scenario where you have water, you have wind, and you have inflatable children's toys at the beach. Back this summer we were at Lake Ianna just for a couple days camping, and we picked up some cheap beach balls at the Dollar General, and the wind's blowing and the beach ball is floating out. We're swimming as fast as we can to try to catch the beach ball,

and it's no use because you're swimming and you're trying to grasp the beach ball, and every time you grab it, it goes further away. The picture here is that those who are not rooted and grounded in the salvation of Jesus Christ, there is this drifting distance that comes that seems almost insurmountable. The picture that we're called to as Christians is not one of fear, but rather of fix your eyes on Jesus. He is your hope, He is your strength, He is your comfort, and He will anchor you firmly. He's the one who announces to you, but He is the one who saves you. So as the writer of Hebrews says this morning to us, "Therefore, holy brothers, you who share a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession." Father in heaven, turn our eyes to Jesus,

in our joys and in our sorrows and our failures and successes, in the midst of distractions, many of which are self-inflicted. May you help us to see you. Help us to see that you are our only hope and our only strength and our only peace. It's in your son's name we pray. Amen. We're going to stand and we are going to sing, "I Set My Hope." I set my hope on Jesus. When the questions come and doubts remain. I set my hope on Jesus. When the questions come and doubts remain. I set my hope on Jesus. When the questions come and doubts remain. I set my hope on Jesus. For the deepest wounds that time won't heal. There's a joy that runs still deeper. There's a truth that's more than all I feel. I set my hope on Jesus.

I set my hope on Jesus. I set my hope on Jesus. My rock, my only trust. Who set his heart upon me first. I set my hope on Jesus. Though I falter in this war with sin, I set my hope on Jesus. When I feel the fight and sink within, I set my hope on Jesus. Though the shame would drown me in its sea, and I drain the wave of justice. I will cast my life on Calvary. I set my hope on Jesus. I set my hope on Jesus. My God, my only trust, who set his heart upon me first. I set my hope on Jesus.

Though the world call me to leave my Lord, I set my hope on Jesus. Though it offer all its vain rewards, I set my hope on Jesus. Though this heart of mine is prone to stray, give me grace enough to finish 'til I worship on that final day. I set my hope on Jesus. I set my hope on Jesus. I rock my only trust. You set his heart upon me first. I set my hope on Jesus. I set my hope on Jesus. My rock my only trust. You set his heart upon me first. I set my hope on Jesus. I set my hope on Jesus. We are so thankful that you are here with us this morning. We'll be back, hopefully, this Wednesday night for Wednesday night Bible study as we wrap up the book of Colossians.

Also, this Sunday was one of our monthly children's churches. We do those on the second and fourth Sunday. Also, coming up on November 20th, which is a Wednesday night, we'd like to have a Thanksgiving dinner. We'll provide the turkey. We invite you to come and join us for a meal. Bring a side, bring a friend. We'll have a good time. And we're also planning on the 27th, that's Thanksgiving Eve, to have a time of worship that evening, the night before Thanksgiving. I'm going to go ahead and pray, and then I'm going to read and close us with the 147th Psalm, and then we'll sing the doxology. Father in heaven, thank you for allowing us to be here. Thank you for your people and for your word. Thank you for all that you have done for us

and all that we trust you to do in the future. It's in your son's name we pray. Amen. And in the end, in the middle of the 147th Psalm, we started our service with this. In the middle, it talks about all those things that we can trust in and how God either is the one who provides them or he is greater than those things. And so it says this, "But the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love." Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise him all creatures here below. Praise him above ye heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Father, Son, Holy Ghost.