Hebrews

So here's 13.

I'm beginning at 1st 7. Remember your leaders who spoke the word of god team. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever. Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings.

It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by eating ceremonial foods, which is of no benefit to those who do so. We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat. The high priest carries the blood of animals into the most holy place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. Let us then go to him outside the camp bearing the disgrace he bore.

For here, we do not have an enduring enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. Through Jesus therefore, let us continually offer to god a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others. For with such sacrifices, god is pleased. Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account.

Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden for that would be of no benefit to you. Pray for us. We are sure that we have a clear conscience and desire to live honorably in every way. I particularly urge you to pray so that I may be restored to you soon. Now may the god of peace who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead or lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, equipped you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him through Jesus Christ to whom we glory forever and ever amen.

Brothers and sisters, I urge you to bear with my word of exhortation. For in fact, I have written to you quite briefly. I want you to know that our brother Timothy has been released. If he arrives soon, I will come with him to see you. Create all your leaders and all the lord's people.

Those from Italy send you their greetings. Gracely with you all. Father help us now. Please, again, help us. We need your help to hear.

We need your help in everything. And we wanna hear your word, and we need your help in that in Jesus' name. Oh, ma'am. Now we're finishing. This is our at the end of our series in Hebrews, and the writer closes this letter with some lovely, you know, sentences.

And it it's been a remarkable letter, but in these closing sentences, he's not He's not actually bringing in anything new. There's no introduction of any new thoughts here. He's basically gathered together in these wonderful words, a whole summary. He's shown us that, Jesus is the great high priest. Jesus sacrifice is sufficient.

We don't need any anything else to bring us to god. He talks about the eternal covenant, the resurrection is certain that, god's people can persevere. And because of all of those truths, he brings it all together. Because we know at least something of those truths in our life, we can have the thing that the world so desperately longs for. Peace.

We can know a peace, not a fragile peace, that's just based on circumstances, you know, everything's going well and therefore we have peace. Not just a peace where you have where you're sitting on the on the beach in the sun with an ice cream. It's a completely understandable piece, that, isn't it? But something much, much deeper the deep, settled peace that comes to of knowing it is well with your soul. And it is well with your soul, not because of anything you've done.

But because Christ has conquered sin, conquered death, conquered the grave, and because of that, we could draw near to god, and it's a throne, not of judgment, but of grace. Come with me to 2 scenes. Very recent scenes. 2 scenes. 1st 1, 1st scene is in a care home.

There's a wife. She sits beside her husband holding his hand. He's deeper sleep, deeply unconscious. His breathing is heavy. Everyone in the room knows that, he's not got long left in this world.

The wife gathers as many staff as she can into this little room. And the passage is read from the Bible. Revelation 21, a passage all about the new creation that we've been singing about. And in those words, of Revelation 21 of these. God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

There will be no more death, no more mourning, or crying, or pain. The room is full of emotion. There's sadness, there's tears, but there's something else that it's difficult to explain unless you've experienced it. In the face of death, there's peace. There's peace.

Not because death is easy, it isn't. Not because grief disappears, but because the 1 who's going to breathe his last is sure of a place in the new creation. Here's the 2nd scene I want you to come to. It's a family home this time, not a care home. Well, there's care there, but it's a family home.

There's a 94 year old man. He's nearing the end of his life. He hasn't got long left. He's deeply asleep, deeply unconscious. He's breathing heavily.

His wife of 71 years is sitting, holding his hand. She and her daughter are lovingly sharing stories about him. They laugh. In the face of death. They laugh.

They tell wonderful stories about this man's Christian life and the habit he had of praying 3 times a day. And even in his old age, at night, he'd fall asleep. And I guess his teeth would fall out, and then he would wake himself up and then he'd carry on praying, and there's laughter about this man, and there are precious memories being told about this man, but mostly in the face of death. There's peace. Now you know who I'm talking about?

We've been praying for them. We've already announced it. It's the going home of our dear brother, Paul Brown, and the going home of our dear brother Les White. By the way, did you notice Jesus is not prejudice. He takes brown and he takes white.

Their families still grieve. They will be missed greatly there will be a huge hole in the lives of their loved ones. Christians are not asked to ignore sorrow, but they don't grieve without hope. They don't grieve without hope. It's just very special.

They genuinely believe that the risen Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, came and safely took the brothers to the flock. And that's the kind of peace that Hebrews ends with. Thank you, Les, for going last week because it made this sermon a lot easier. This is not a theoretical piece. It's not a sentimental piece.

I'm not being sentimental here. This is a real piece. This is a sort of piece that comes for the Christian in the face of death. Remember? That's the piece.

It can face death without despair. The sort of peace that really only Jesus can give. Now in this passage that we've got right at the end of Hebrews, the writer talks about prayer, and then he prays. He talks about prayer, and then he prays, or he asks for prayer. And I want to say the prayer and peace go together very often in the Bible.

They really are sort of together. Paul writes this to the Philippians in the Bible. He says, do not be anxious about anything But in everything, by prayer, and petition, present your requests to god, and listen, the peace of god. The peace of god will god your hearts. And your minds in Christ Jesus.

The peace of god will guard you. Present, prayer, pray. And as you pray, this peace of god that he says passes all understanding. It's very hard to understand. It's not, licking an ice cream on a beach.

That's a very understandable piece. But here's a piece in the face of death. Here's a piece in the face of grief. Here's a piece that passes all understanding. It's gonna guard your hearts and minds as you come and as you pray.

Prairie doesn't remove every storm. But it anchors us in the 1 who rules the storms. So the writer closes, and he calls us. Oh, wait. I think what is amazing is he actually calls this letter a brief letter.

I mean, 13 chapters. Who's had a letter this long? It's quite amazing, isn't it? But there's 1 final picture of the Christian life, and he asks us to pray for him And he then prays for god's people. And in all of this, he reminds us to rest in the peace of god.

So here's the 1st point, a prayer, a pastor knows that he needs prayer. He's been talking about leaders and what a good leader is. And we've done talks on that, so we're not going over that ground. But look what he says in verses 18 and 19, pray for us. We are sure that we have a clear conscience and desire to live honorably in every way.

I particularly urge you to pray so that I may be restored to you soon. It actually seems that he's in prison, by the way. That's that sort of seems to make sense that he's praying for this restoration. But I love these words. It's 3 simple words, pray for us.

After 13 chapters of breathtaking theology, if you wanna put it that way. 13 chapter, explaining who Christ is. 13 chapters taking really the whole old testament and saying that book is about Jesus, and he proves it very clearly. After many encouragement, some incredibly strong warnings and exhortations and teachings, after 13 chapters of that, there's this beautiful, humble line saying pray for us. That's wonderfully humble, isn't it?

See, the greatest teachers and preachers and leaders are not people that need prayer least. They're people that know they need prayer most. Pay for us. It's interesting being a a Christian minister because loads of people ask you to pray for them. And as as if we have some sort of special, you know, right when you can pray for yourself, I I have actually said to people.

I had actually had a bloke say, will you pray for me? And I said, no. Pray for yourself. And, then felt really bad as a minister. But there we go.

I I actually said that several times. You pray for yourself, because they were seeing me as if I had a conduit towards God, and as if I was something special. But, you know, pray for those of us that minister. Pray for us. Prayed for us.

Pray that we won't be false teachers, pray that we'll be humble, pray that our consciences will be honorable. Look what he says in verse 18. We are sure that we have a clear conscience. And desire to live honorably in every way. He wants to have a clear conscience.

He wants to live honorably, and that is to have Jesus Christ in his heart the same yesterday today and forever. Verse 8 is the central verse. The mark of a faithful ministry is not that we're perfect, not that people don't make mistakes, ministers make mistakes, but they're honest about that. They're not covering up. We're sinners.

We're failures. It's not all about the gifts that a minister has. It's not all about being an influencer. There's far too much of this going on in the Christian world. You have to be an influencer now.

You're not a pastor anymore. You're an influencer. You have to have thousands of followers to show what a mighty influencer you are. It's not a ministry that we set up in our name. You know?

It's a clear conscience. I wanna follow Jesus. With all my failures, I wanna follow Jesus. Look at verse 22, brothers and sisters, I urge you to bear with my word of exhortation. For it in, for, in fact, I have written to you quite briefly.

It's a he he considers his sermon, a pretty brief sermon. Very briefly. My sermons are always brief. Very short. Very brief.

And he's written but he's he's calling us to to listen to his word. And it's done with a good conscience. There's challenges. There's rebukes. As I say, there's the strongest warnings in the new testament that you can get, but it's done out of love.

It's done out of a good conscience. It's done out of sincere heart. And he's saying, look, okay. Look, there are things I've said, but love always warns. Good love always warns and always corrects.

You know, a parent that doesn't correct their children doesn't love them. It's ridiculous. A doctor that doesn't say, well, are you doing this wrong or you need some correction here? He's not a good doctor. And a teacher that doesn't say no.

I mean, it seems to me that you're not even allowed to say incorrect. I think that some teachers now can't use a red mark. You used to get red pen just right across the whole thing. You're not allowed to use a red pen with a cross anymore. What is nonsense that is?

You've got it wrong. You are wrong. And and you need to learn that you're wrong. And you don't have to quite say it like that, but you're wrong. Yeah?

And you'll never get anything right unless you realize that you're wrong. That's love. That's proper teaching. That's that's what a doctor does. That's what parents do.

But after saying all of that, after all his exhortations, he says, pray for us. That should shape the culture of our church. Prey for those in ministry, Sunday school, youth work, women's work, whatever it is they're doing. Prey. It's not a platitude.

It's not an emoji that you just put on something. It's prayer. It's not the least you can do. It's important. In prayer, we're believing the theology of this book of Hebrews.

We're bringing another believer to the throne of grace that they may find help. We're placing a person's need before the sovereign god. It's the best thing we can do. Pray. So come on those sun those, Wednesday meetings and learn about praying.

Let's pray. No ministry flourishes without prayer. No church remains healthy without prayer. It doesn't matter how big it is. Doesn't matter how popular.

It doesn't matter how good the sermons are. It won't flourish without prayer. And the writer knows that that if anything lasting is going to happen, out of all his exhortation, out of all his faithful teaching of the theology of the lord Jesus Christ, unless They put those truths into practice by prayer, nothing will happen. We have to draw near to god. The Christian life is not self sufficient.

It's not people sufficient. It's not, well, we've got great leaders sufficient. It's totally and utterly dependent on god. That's what the Christian life is. Now, I I thought, well, what does the word prayer mean?

I mean, we use the word a lot, don't we? So I thought I better look it up. And I looked it up and went to Greek scholars, and Greek scholars say the word prayers is a compound word. It's 2 words that come together to mean 1. So it has 2 parts.

1st part, it's just is quite interesting. Prayer is towards an exchange. Towards exchange. That's the 1st part. The 2nd part is to wish or to desire.

So it's towards exchange to desire, and this is what a Greek expert says, because it was originally written in Greek, the new testament, to exchange wishes or desires. To interact with the lord by switching human wishes desires for god's wishes as he imparts faith. So prayer and faith go together. You know you have faith if you're praying. Because you don't have faith in yourself.

You have faith in god. But you see what he's saying? Praying is exchanging our will. For God, not my will, but yours be done. That's what prayer is.

We're bringing people to god, and he's saying, bring me to god as a minister. Bring us to god as a minister that we may exchange our will for god's will, and therefore we'll be faithful. Les White, As I said, prayed 3 times a day, every day. He prayed, and he prayed for the Ministry of this Church. He prayed for me, and Tom, Rorry, and others every day.

We need someone to fill in that gap. He's gonna do that now. He's gonna do that. Pray for us. Spurging the great spurgeon with a massive church in, in Victorian Day's Metropolitan Tabernacle.

When he preached in this great auditorium, there was a room underneath full of 500 of the saints. Christians praying for him. He was asked the question. What's the secret to your success? He didn't really like words like success.

But, you know, why does why are you so populist if my people pray. My people pray. Pray for us. You gonna be a Leswife at the end of your life when you're breathing heavily and you've got a few hours left. Will someone hold your hand and say, Oh, he prayed for you every day.

Praise for a 2nd point then, the god who gives peace. Look at verses 20 and 21. Now may the god of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant, brought back from the dead, our lord Jesus. That great shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him through Jesus Christ to whom he glory forever and ever amen? So the writer now lifts he asks for prayer for himself.

Now he lifts our eyes to god, but he lifts our eyes to god by allowing us to hear his prayer for them, for us, for for these people. Now this is often called the doxology, which just means glory. It's glory. It's splendor. And really, this is a beautifully glorious, rich, beautiful declaration, of god.

And he finishes this letter with this amazing declaration, and he declares that god is the god of peace. And if we're to have peace in this world, we have to be in god. Because god is the root of all peace. He's the root of it. You don't don't just muck around the edges.

Don't just deal with the the issues that stop bringing you peace. Go to the core of where peace is. And the Bible was constantly describing god as the god of peace. He originates peace. So we often think, well, if I can get rid of the conflict in my life, I'll have peace.

No. You need to go to core of peace, or if I can if I have no arguments with whoever it is I'm arguing with, or no wars, or or there are no bad news in my life, or even the anxiety. We we deal with the symptoms. We need to go to the core. Peace, god.

The and the Bible's picture of peace is much bigger than ours. The old testament word for peace is shalom, and it means wholeness, it means completeness. It means that which is broken, brought back together. The new Chester word is exactly the same. I'm reading.

It means to join tie together for the whole. And god is doing that. God is about that work. He's about peace. He's restoring.

That which is broken. He will store this world to a new creation. He's restoring broken lives, broken relationships. He restores broken hearts. And 1 day, he's promised that he'll come again and he will restore all things.

All things will be new and of peace. Peace is what most people in this world desire, isn't it? I I I was just interested. You can do an experiment if if ever you ever you watch the tele with adverts or any advert, really. The amount of times you could have peace of mind.

It's just all over the place, isn't it? Peace of mind. You know everything they advertise. Eat this cake and have peace of mind. Yeah?

And it's just ridiculous. Go on holiday with chewy, and you can know peace of mind. What are you talking about? Everything. Because of my age, you get these adverts that come up on your on your your thing on your social media.

It's all all about it's all about funerals. It gets to an age where you suddenly get all these adverts about pure cremation, you know, and you can have peace of mind. What? You know, it's amazing. You you don't have to worry about your loved ones, you know, spending money I don't care about that.

I'm dead. You know, that's their problem. They should be thinking of me anyway. You know, that sort of stuff, but peace of mind, it's constantly. And then, and that we live in this world very often that that people are so anxious, but they they don't really know where that comes from, but it really is a lack of peace.

Trauma specialists say that during crisis, people take the full weight of the crisis and the pain that they go through, and their whole body is focused so much on survival. They don't realize the tension and the anxiety that they've got. But when those exhausted people finally you know, come to a safe place. They suddenly realized the weight that was on them. It's like carrying a burden, a weight on your back.

You know, people train like that when they run. They put big backpacks on, and they run. And so that when they take it off, they feel light. Imagine you've been brought up in a war zone. And that's all you've ever lived through.

Always tense. Always waiting for the next bomb, but you don't know any other way of life. So you think that's what life is like, and then peace comes. Suddenly totally different, isn't it? And many people's lives, it's like the jaws theme music is constantly in the background.

But you get used to hearing it. Dundling. Dundling. Dundling. And your anxiety is up, but you don't realize it.

And then when the music stops, you suddenly realize what peace really is like. It's an awful thing to live without peace in this world. To be at war with yourself, to be at war with your neighbor, with your world, with another nation. And to be at war with God. There's that anxiety.

That draws music. It's hard to put it away. They wonder so many are suffering anxiety. Well, the message of Hebrews is that the god man Jesus is our peace. He will deal with your sins sorted.

He will sort your death out. He can lead you into a better place. And we pray as Christians, that those truths would get deep into our very soul, that we would have a wholeness in the soul, that we would have a shalom, our eye reading, that we would have the god at peace. He's the 1 who reconciles us to god. And once we know that big reconciliation, then we can sort out all the other difficulties and anxieties in our life.

Christian Peace, not positive thinking, pull yourself together. It's not wishful optimism. It's knowing that our greatest problem with god is sorted. And you can draw near to god. You have shallon.

You have wholeness with god. And that's what the book of Hebrews is about. Look how he puts it in this lot of these last verses though. Look at verse 20. Now may the god of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep.

Now these these words, they absolutely take us to the heart of the Christian message. This is why you can have peace. It's talking about the resurrection of that's not an accident. We're told that god brought the lord Jesus Christ back from the dead because his death had paid the price for your sin. Jesus had done a work.

He completed it. It's dealt with. All your sin, past present future is sorted. The wages of sin is death. And if those wages have been paid, death, there's no longer need for those wages to carry on because they've been paid.

So Jesus rose from the dead. Jesus paid it. Hebrews tells us without the shedding of blood. There's no forgiveness of sin. Well, there has been shedding of blood.

So there is forgiveness of sin. And now there's this new covenant, a new agreement between god's the father and the lord Jesus Christ, an eternal covenant, he says. It's eternal. There's an eternal agreement between god and what Jesus has done. It's eternal.

No more death, no more sin, no more judgment, an eternal covenant. Everything in this life wears out. Our bodies get weak. They wear out, but god's covenant does not have an expiry date. It's eternal.

It's eternal. The eternal covenant. It's sealed, not by ink, but by blood, he says. And the empty tomb is god's declaration that Christ's sacrifice has been accepted. Soon has been dealt with.

Death has been defeated. And the good news is and that's an eternal covenant. The good news is, and it gets better and better, that because Jesus has bought that eternal covenant, he's the great shepherd that invites sheep to come into the blessing of that covenant. So that's my 3rd point. The great shepherd of the sheep, verse 20.

Now may the god of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our lord Jesus. That great shepherd of the sheep. When Jesus was talking to his disciples in John's gospel, he called himself the good shepherd that lays his life down for the sheep. And he's done that. He's laid his life down for the sheep.

And because he's laid his life down for the sheep, and that price has been paid for death and sin, He's risen again. Now he's the great shepherd of resurrection life for the sheep. The covenant is between god the father and god the son, but he's the shepherd with sheep. So the eternal covenant, the eternal agreement is on us because of him, because we're in him. And he's gone from being a good shepherd to being a great shepherd.

The great shepherd has returned for his sheep. And he's paid the price for his sheep, and he knows everyone by name. And he seeks out the wandering, and he protects the weak and feeds the hungry. And he's already walked through death himself, and that changes everything. The shepherd who leads us has already traveled the road that we most fear.

When Paul Brown and Les White took their final breaths, they didn't walk into the unknown by themselves. The good shepherd who laid down his life for the sheep is the great shepherd who is resurrected, came, came to them. Their shepherd met them right at the right moment. He met them. The same shepherd who conquered the grave lead them safely home.

And that's why Christians have peace in the face of death. It's not because they're brave. This is not because they think they've done good. It's because of Jesus. Les was led away by the good shepherd.

Do you know what? Him him, that Jean and Heather were playing? It's what hit him, Jean and Heather were playing as the good shepherd came for our brother, led. When peace, like a river, attendeth my soul, when sorrows like sea billows roll, Whatever my lot, there has taught me to say. It is well.

It is well. With my soul. It is well. With my soul. It is well.

It is well with my soul. My sin, oh, the bliss of that glorious thought. My sin not in part, but the whole is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more. Praise the lord. Praise the Lord o my soul.

It is well. With my soul. It is well. It is well with my soul. Great Shepherd.

It sorted that out. My 4th point. Maybe the last. And there might be another 1, but we'll see. God equipses his people.

He takes his people, but when he leaves us here, he equips us. Look at verse 20 again. Now may the god of peace who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead, our lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep equip you, see his prayer, equip you with everything good for doing his will. And may he work in us what is pleasing to him? Through Jesus Christ to whom be glory forever and ever.

It's all about Jesus, all about his glory. But do you see the word equipped there? Now the word equipped there is the word that they used for a fisherman mending his nets, or a doctor setting a bone. That's what the word equip means. Or or a builder repairing a damaged wall, or a sailor preparing a ship for a long journey.

I like that 1. To quip for a long journey, or soldiers fitting out for an army before a battle. Now the picture here is not that that god sort of hands things over to us. So he saved us, and then it's you get on with the job and start laboring away. The picture is that god is equipping us.

He's actually repairing us. Remember he's making us whole? That's what Shalonde means. That's what Iraani means. He's stitching us together.

He's he's equipping us to do god's will to what what is that? To be like the lord Jesus Christ. He's equipping us and making us into this wonderful thing. He's restoring us and fitting us out and mending our bones. And god will equip you.

Paul talks about you, Christian being the workmanship of god. Isn't that extraordinary? God's working on us, knitting us together. And you think, well, why, but why am I going through this? He's working on you.

He's polishing you up. He's equipping you. He's repairing your bone. He's, you know, sewing the net. He's damaging the wall.

He's repairing the damaged walls. He's setting you for the journey. He's equipping you for battle. Every acts that god is working in you. He's working in you.

That you would do his will, that you would be about the purpose that you were for, which is to do his will, which is to do right, which is to follow Christ. He's equipping you. The god that created galaxies, the god that created universes, the god that raised Jesus from the dead, the god that governs history is working in ordinary people like you and me, and we are his workmanship. He's equipping us to do his will. Now, this is where a lot of people start getting all worked up.

Watch god's will for my life. Is is this man god's will for my life? Is this woman god's will? Is this job god's forget those things. Don't worry about those little things.

The will of god is to do the right thing, is to follow Christ. Jean and, Heather were, were telling story after story. We've gotta get these down. On a podcast. Jean was just there sitting after Les had gone, just telling story, after story of the brilliant, the adventures of Jean and Les.

That would be a great pod series. But do you know what? The thing about them is They're just pretty ordinary people. Really ordinary, actually. They were just ordinary people, but they wanted to follow Christ.

And they felt that they should go over to Africa. And then they're led to do 1 thing, then the next. And here's a bloke. He really didn't have any degrees or anything like that. He was pretty good at electrics, and he'd done some electrics.

You wanna hear a list of the things that Les did in his life. You know, he built a lake. He built a hydro thing. It's extraordinary. He built houses.

He never knew how to do that. But he followed god in his life, which was to do the right thing in serving Jesus. And then when he did that, it led to that, to that, to a rich adventure. All you've got to do? Ordinary person.

Is not worry so much about what job you have, but be godly in that job, be like Jesus in that job, and see what happens. I've nearly finished this book and seen an extraordinary book and very moving, Alexia Navalny. He was in opposition to Putin, and Putin had him killed. You you may know. Roughly the story.

He he he he he probably had Novachok, 3 or 4 times, including his wife in trying to kill him. And then in the end, he was killed in prison, in Siberia. And it's an amazing story, and he's an amazing man. But the big thing that comes out, from him well, there's there's loads of things, actually. 1 of the big things is that he smiles all the time.

Even when he has to go through an absolute nonsense trial that is totally made up. He's very firm. He'll say to the judge, why do you look at the table? Why do you not look me in the face? Why are you always looking at the table?

What is up with you? We need people that look people in the face, not the table. And, of course, Putin's got the biggest table in the world, hasn't he? So why are you looking at the table? You know, is there something wrong with your conscience?

He's he's a bold bloke? But he always is smiling, and yet he goes through horrors, horrors, horrors, horrors. But do you know what he says? When I'm in solitary confinement, 3 and a half years in solitary confinement, When I'm in solitary confinement, it's my job. This is my job.

It's my job, so I have to put up with it. Everybody has boring stuff in their job. He says, The verse that inspires him is blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they'll be filled. He hungers for righteousness. Now he's doing it in a political way.

But he hungers for righteousness. He's against, abuse and put in particularly, and lies. And he he puts up with it because he says, It's my job. And I'll be filled. I love that about him.

Sometimes we win, don't we? We complain so easily. We're here to bring righteousness to live for price in every situation. And when you do that, the adventure begins. I'm reminded of a another biography, a rep read by a Russian called I her name's Ireini Ravi Shynchkaya, probably said it badly, Irene Raven Skyan.

She wrote a a biography called, brilliant, well done. It, she wrote a biography called Grey is the color of hope. Grey is the color of hope. She was in a Siberiaian prison for being a poet and saying things that the regime didn't like. And she said she had such a belief in god that it changed everything.

She had this peace of god in a Siberian prison. She said, I live like a queen. I never open a door. There's always 2 guards opening the door for me. She said, I I never cook.

They always bring food. I don't do any washing up. They wash up for me. I'm like a queen. Where when I go to the toilet, there's a whole load of guards opening the door for me.

They clean the bucket out. That's hope. That's peace. That's trust that god can turn gray into the color of hope. He will equip you brothers and sisters.

Go for truth. Go for truth. Go for Christ. Stand for him. And standing for him might mean that you get in prison.

Standing for him might mean that you lose your job. Standing for him might bring some great oppositions for to you. But nevertheless you have peace with god and god will sort out your future. And at the end of your life, we'll be able to say that was a fruitful life if you follow god. Follow god.

He'll equip you. So he ends verse 22, brothers and sisters, I urge you to bear with my word of exhortation. For, in fact, I have written to you quite briefly. I want you to know that our brother Timothy has been released If you arrive soon, I will come with him to see you. Looks like he's still in prison.

Timothy has been released. Greek to all other leaders and all god's people. Those from Italy send you their greetings. Grace, be with you or. Beautiful, isn't it?

That's Hebrews. Let's pray. Heavenly father. Thank you. Further that you are the god of peace.

You are the god of wholeness and completeness. You are the god who restores that which is broken. And we praise you for that great shepherd Jesus who is the same yesterday today and forever. We thank you and we praise you King Jesus that you walk through death yourself. That you yourself have conquered the grave and you have given us the hope of eternal life.

We thank you for that offer of peace in the gospel that we all so deeply need It is our our our greatest problem, our sin, and we thank you that we have that offer for it to be completely dealt with. We thank you that your death has has paid for all of our sin and our brokenness before you. And we pray lord that we would be a praying people. We pray that our, the culture of our church would be marked by prayer that we would pray for our leaders and we would be faithful like those brothers who have gone before us in exchanging our will for yours that we would hunger and thirst for righteousness and we thank you for that promise that you will equip us. We pray that you will for everything with everything good for doing your will.

We pray that we would be the people you would have us to be that we would, boldly live for Christ, stand for truth, whatever the cost. And we pray that your grace would be with us in Jesus' name, amen.