Excellence In Christian Living

One of the questions that often arises when studying through the Scriptures is, "How do we apply this? What do we do in our lives to make this a part of our daily life?"

Let's open to Hebrews chapter 13 as we consider this together. You should take out your Bibles and open them with me to the book of Hebrews. If you don't have a Bible, you can raise your hand, and one of our ushers will bring you one. We are in the last chapter of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 13. Open near the end of your Bible; from the book of Revelation, turn left to the book of Hebrews.

In Hebrews chapter 13, we have the closing exhortations of the letter, beginning in verse 1. Hebrews 13:1 states, "Let brotherly love continue. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by doing so some have unwittingly entertained angels. Remember the prisoners as if chained with them, those who are mistreated, since you yourselves are in the body."

Also, "Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge." Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." So we may boldly say, "The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?"

Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the word of God to you. Whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines, for it is good that the heart be established by grace, not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them.

We have an altar from which those who serve in the tabernacle have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned outside the camp. Therefore, Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate.

Therefore, let us go forth to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach. For we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come.

Therefore, by Him, let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. Obey those who rule over you and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls as those who must give an account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you.

Father, as we come before Your word, I pray that You, by Your word and by the working of Your Spirit, would continue to transform us by the renewing of our minds. Make us more like You. The Scriptures say that You are the Potter and we are the clay. Lord, would You mold us and make us into what You want us to be? May the time we spend together in worshiping You in song and in Your word on a Sunday morning have an impact and effect in our lives from Monday through the next week. Lord God, do a work in us. Transform us, we ask this in Jesus' name. And all those that agreed said, "Amen." You can be seated.

Like many of the letters of the New Testament, Hebrews closes with a series of exhortations, admonitions, and instructions to followers of Jesus on how they are to live. There is not really a logical flow to these final 500 words or so here in Hebrews, but they are admonitions for Christian excellence, for excellence in Christian living.

How shall we, who are followers of Jesus—if you are a follower of Jesus today—live? What should be the conduct of our lives? What should we be committed to on a day-to-day basis as followers of Jesus, as Christians? The old question of "How shall we then live?" quickly brings us to this point: point number one on your outline. The sermon guide is in your bulletin.

Our faith in Jesus should change our lives for the better. This is a simple point, but it is very important.

When a person puts their trust in Jesus, what begins in their heart starts to move through their life and conduct. It alters the way we think, act, talk, and respond to people. Our faith in Jesus changes us. By the mere fact that you've put your trust in Jesus, a transformation has begun to take place. When you put your faith in Jesus, the Scriptures say that God dwells in you by His Holy Spirit. We are the Temple of the Holy Spirit, and when God moves in, He begins to transform and change us from the inside out.

This transformation is evident. The Scriptures say in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, "If any man is in Christ, they are a new creation. All the old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." The evidence of this change is seen not only by you but also by others. They begin to notice that you are not the same after you put your trust in Jesus. It is an amazing transformation that God begins to do in us.

While God is sovereignly working in us, transforming us by His grace and power to make us better and more like the kind of people He wants us to be, He still has a work for us to do. There is a part that we play in this process. I think that Paul's words in Philippians chapter 2 make this point very clearly. Paul says in Philippians 2:12, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to do His good pleasure."

God is working in you to desire and do those things that please Him. As we put our trust in Him, God gives us new desires to do things that are pleasing to Him. However, we need to take steps of faith to move in that direction and cause those things to be worked out in our lives. Working out your salvation takes energy and effort. We are partnered with God in this walk of faith. He is working in us to desire and do His good pleasure, and we have to work that out, making it a part of our lives.

Unfortunately, many Christians fall into one of two danger zones in the Christian life.

The first danger zone is thinking that God is going to do everything while I have to do nothing. I put my faith in Jesus, so I just kick back, believing He will move in and take care of everything, and that I will be perfect and not sin anymore. If you thought that, it quickly becomes clear that this is not the case.

The second danger zone that sometimes Christians fall into is thinking that God is going to do nothing and that I have to do everything. Neither one of these is true. God is not going to do everything while you do nothing, and He is not going to do nothing while you do everything. There is a sweet spot, a place somewhere in the middle, where God is working in us to will and to do His good pleasure, and we are walking this out.

We have to take steps of faith to walk by faith and to walk in the Spirit. There are exhortations in the New Testament that say to walk in the Spirit, and you will not fulfill the desires of your flesh. We have to deny certain aspects of our old life and our old desires and seek to walk after God. The fact is that steps of faith almost always require us to move out of our comfort zone. They lead us toward things that are not our default or natural tendencies and require effort. Steps of faith generally move in opposition to our old nature, which the Scriptures call our flesh.

Timothy here is going to exhort us to go further and farther in our faith, to take steps of faith, and to work out our Christianity. Having believed that Jesus is better, the whole premise of this letter is that Jesus is better than all the other ways, the other philosophies, and the other religious practices we could pursue. The way of Jesus is better. Having proven that point over and over again, he asks how we should live and how we should walk this out.

His first exhortation is found in verse 1, where he says, "Let brotherly love continue. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by doing so some have unwittingly entertained angels. Remember the prisoners as if chained with them, those who are mistreated, since you yourselves are in the body." Timothy here says to keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters.

How should we then live? We should love one another as brothers and sisters. Why is it that we need to be reminded of this? Why is it that so often we tend to be the most unkind?

Unloving behavior often emerges towards those closest to us. The term "brothers and sisters" refers to our fellow believers, and we are called to keep on loving with brotherly kindness. Yet, it is often those who are closest to us within the body of Christ that we can tend to be unloving and unkind towards. The old saying is true: familiarity breeds contempt. Sometimes, the closer we are to people, the more we may think they will overlook our failures and forgive our unkindness. As a result, we are more apt to be unkind to those closest to us, devouring and consuming them with our actions, words, and attitudes.

This tendency reflects our fallen sinful nature, which remains present whether we have been walking with Jesus for fifty years, five years, or even five minutes. This nature must be put to death. Jesus, on numerous occasions, admonished His disciples to deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow Him. The life of Christ is characterized by the denial of the old nature and its crucifixion. There are times when we must do this repeatedly throughout the day because we are prone to viciousness. In our fallen nature, we can be unkind to others.

This leads us to the second point: love others in word and deed. How many of you have noticed that it is often easier to love in word than in deed? You don’t have to raise your hand; I assume that is probably true for most of us. However, we are exhorted in the Scriptures to love one another in both word and deed. But what does that look like?

One of the things mentioned is to let brotherly love continue and not to forget to entertain strangers. What does it mean to entertain strangers? It involves hospitality and sharing with others the things that you have. This is what it means to entertain strangers. While I typically do not delve into the Greek language in which this was originally written, it is sometimes important. The phrase "entertain strangers" is derived from a compound Greek word. This compound word is made up of "philos," which means to love with brotherly love.

Xenos, which means to love strangers and foreigners, refers to people who are not like us. We all acknowledge that it's easier to love people who are like us—those who look like us, talk like us, act like us, and even smell like us. It's simply easier to love people who are just like we are. Yet, here we are given this scripture that exhorts us to love with brotherly love and to do so by being hospitable to people who are not like us.

I think this is a really appropriate and important exhortation for us living right now in our day and age here in the United States of America. There is a lot of animosity in our country right now between different groups of people, and the Scriptures urge us to love one another, even those who are not like us. I believe it is absolutely demonic; there is a demonic push in this world to cause us to be angry towards others or to be xenophobic or racist. It's just pure and simply demonic. Sadly, it is also something that aligns with our fallen sinful nature. In our fallen sinful nature, we are ethnocentric; we prefer people who are like us. You can look at every culture in the world, and that's just the way it is—pure and simple.

However, Christ calls us to something different. He calls us to love with brotherly love and to love those people not just in word but in deed. We are to love people in deed who are not like us and to reach across those ethnic boundaries. We need to be reminded to be hospitable, to share with others, and to display our love in very practical ways. This is why, at our church, we encourage you to be a part of connect groups, to step out of your comfort zone, and to invite people into your home—both those who are in the church and also neighbors, co-workers, and friends who may not know Jesus.

We are called to invite them in, to share what we have with others, and to show the love of Christ in very practical and demonstrable ways. We need to be those who not only preach or proclaim the gospel but also display the love of Jesus Christ through the gospel to others in our culture. We must reach out and be hospitable. The scripture gives a very interesting and amazing possibility in doing this: "Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by doing so some have unwittingly entertained angels."

Entertaining angels—what does that mean? What he is clearly saying here is that some people, without realizing it, are being loving and hospitable to a stranger in their life. That stranger is actually a messenger of God, an angelic being. It looks just like you and talks like you. Is that even possible? Did that really happen?

There are a number of occasions in the Bible where this actually did happen. In Genesis chapter 18, three individuals met with Abraham, the father of our faith. When they came to his house, he welcomed them in and was hospitable to them. He fed them and took care of them. It turns out that at least two of those individuals were angels. One of them, many believe, was actually Jesus before His incarnation. Abraham, unaware of this, ministered to and entertained angels unawares.

In the very next chapter, Genesis chapter 19, the story is told of Abraham's nephew Lot. These two angels went to visit him in the place where he lived, and he welcomed them in and took care of them. There are a number of other places in the Old Testament where we find that God sent messengers, angelic beings who looked just like human beings. At that point, they manifested themselves that way, and these people entertained them and were hospitable to them.

If you needed it, there’s another added benefit to entertaining strangers: you just might, without realizing it until you get to heaven, be entertaining an angel. You might say, "I don't know if that's possible." Well, the Bible says it is. Perhaps some of you have had interactions or meetings in your life where, after the fact, you walked away wondering, "Who was that person? I wonder if that was a messenger sent from God."

He goes on to say, "Remember the prisoners as if chained with them, those who are mistreated, since you yourself are in the body also." Our love for other people, our brotherly kindness towards others, is not only to be extended to strangers but also to those who are mistreated—those who are prisoners, apparently for their faith in God and for their fellowship in the gospel. They are mistreated because they are believers, and so he says here that we are to love with...

Brotherly kindness calls us to love individuals, remembering those who are going through difficult times. What does it mean to remember those as if chained with them, since you yourselves are in the body? He is calling us to empathize with those who are mistreated and to demonstrate our love for others by identifying with their struggles.

I think we can all agree that living here in San Diego, California, we are phenomenally blessed. We have such an amazing abundance that it is almost laughable. Even if you are relatively less fortunate than others in Southern California, we still have it better than most people in the rest of the world. We are incredibly blessed, which means we know very little of going without. In fact, we often get upset when minor inconveniences affect us. We have even come to the point where we hashtag our complaints as "first world problems."

Consider the things that irritate and upset us: when it’s not Amazon Prime time and we have to wait an extra day for something we ordered, or when we go to the Starbucks drive-through and there are more than three cars ahead of us. We feel persecuted when a website doesn’t load in under three seconds, or when our favorite flavor isn’t available at Yogurtland. These are the kinds of things that frustrate us in the world we live in.

Because of this, it is hard for us to identify with people who are mistreated. It is difficult to empathize with those who are struggling because of their faith in Christ or their circumstances in this world. How can we empathize with people in such situations? One spiritual discipline that we can engage in, which has been a significant part of Christianity for many years but may not be as prevalent in our lives, is fasting.

Most of us don’t even like the word "fasting." It doesn’t sound appealing; it sounds painful, and it is meant to be. There is an aspect of fasting that involves afflicting your soul, and since we live in a place of abundance, this practice can help us connect with those who go without.

With such overabundance, if we're going to empathize with people who are maybe not as well-off or those who are mistreated for their faith, it might mean that we need to make a decision to go without. For centuries, within the Christian tradition, there has been a practice that many Christians observe, although you don't often see it in evangelical churches. Many Christians, once a year during the time leading up to Easter, observe what's called Lent.

Maybe you came from a Christian tradition where Lent was a very important part of the liturgical year. What is Lent? It is the forty days from Ash Wednesday until Easter Sunday, during which people would give up something. They set it aside and say, "I'm going to afflict myself by this fast to identify and associate with the sufferings of Jesus." It may not be a bad practice. No, it's not going to make you more spiritual, but it will make you more in tune with the Spirit. It will make you more empathetic to the person who is mistreated when you choose to set something aside that you might otherwise indulge in.

Now, maybe at this point, you're thinking, "Right, I'll do that. I'm going to fast for kale for a whole year." That's not what I'm talking about. That's not fasting from something that would actually be a denial of the body. This is a very practical way to identify with the sufferings of those mistreated, and it's also an expression of love. Our empathy towards other people is an expression of love, and here it's one of the exhortations that he gives to us.

Well, the passage continues. In Hebrews 13:4, it states, "Marriage is honorable among all, and the marriage bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge."

Point number three: Love your spouse by honoring your covenant. If you're married today, this is a very important exhortation for you. If you're not married and you're looking forward to someday being married, this is something you need to hold near and dear to your heart. Honor or love your spouse by honoring your covenant. Sadly, we need to be reminded of this. We do not do this by default. We need to lift up and honor our spouse, their needs, and their desires more than our own. I don't know about you, but it was marriage that actually informed me in a great way that I am...

Incredibly selfish. Don't say a word. I looked that way, and everybody else looked that way. I thought I was pretty good at this whole self-denial thing before I got married, and then I realized I'm actually a really selfish person. In fact, we all are, if we're honest. When you get married, you see it even more than before you were married.

But we're called to love our spouse and to honor the covenant of marriage. We need to be reminded of this because, in our carnal nature, we are selfish, and that part of us needs to be crucified. One of the reasons that God gave you a spouse was to crucify your flesh. He is purifying you; He is purifying us to make us better. It doesn't feel like that in the moment, but God is doing that.

Now, unfortunately, when we read that "marriage is honorable among all," that's just not true in 21st-century America. That may have been true for a very long time, but the words "marriage is honorable among all" are just not true now. Especially in the last 15 years, we see less and less that marriage is honorable. In fact, there have been a whole bunch of articles that have come out in the last couple of years saying that marriage is on the decline in America. More and more younger people are saying, "I'm not going to get married. I'm not interested in that whole thing." There are more and more people cohabitating and just saying, "I don't need marriage. I don't need any of that sort of thing."

But if marriage is going to ever be honored, it needs to be honored first and foremost among the church. People need to see that Christians honor the covenant and institution of marriage in their faithfulness, love, and fidelity. All of it needs to be evidenced in the church. We honor the institution of marriage because we are named by the one who created marriage. He made it. We call ourselves Christians—Christ, God—He created marriage. Therefore, if our Lord created marriage, we need to honor the covenant of marriage.

It needs to be seen in us by our kids, by our neighbors, by our family members, and by our friends that we honor our spouses, love our spouses, and uphold the covenant of marriage. We also need to understand that God, the creator of marriage, the one who instituted this institution, gets to say what's right and wrong in marriage. Therefore, He is also the judge of those who dishonor marriage.

Look at what it says: "Marriage is honorable among all, and the marriage bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge." We live in a culture that says sexual immorality and adultery are okay. I read an article last year that suggested an adulterous affair might help your marriage. What on earth is that? That's called carnality; that's called wickedness and sin. People say you can't speak negatively against those who commit sexual immorality or adultery. Listen, the Bible says those will be judged.

Now, if that's a part of your past, understand that God forgives and He is gracious, but it should never be a part of your future. It can be a part of your past; it can be a part of your testimony, but not your future. We need to be those who, by God's grace, honor this institution called marriage because God will judge fornicators. That is sexually immoral behavior, which encompasses all kinds of sexual promiscuity and wickedness, including adultery, which is very clear.

We should hold marriage in high regard, especially as our culture no longer does. It should be evident in us that we honor this institution, seeking to love our spouses faithfully and being faithful to them.

Then, he goes on to say in Hebrews chapter 13, verse 5: "Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have." For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." So we may boldly say, "The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?"

Again, it's amazing how out of step with 21st-century culture these exhortations are. We are called to love others, even strangers, with brotherly kindness. We should empathize with those who are mistreated, love our spouses, and honor the covenant we have with them.

And then this one right here: point number four—do not love money. Another way of saying it is, do not covet, which is very clearly stated here. "Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content." As followers of Jesus, seeking to be faithful to Him, we must strive to live our lives in a manner that is satisfied with what we have.

I'll be the first to admit that it is not easy to live our lives satisfied with the things that we have. Three thousand five hundred years ago, the great lawgiver Moses stood before God's people, the children of Israel, and he spoke to them the commandments—the Ten Commandments that God had put on stone. The tenth commandment was, "Thou shalt not covet."

To explain what he meant by that, he said, "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife. You shall not covet his male servant, his female servant, his ox, his donkey, his Tesla, or whatever. You shall not covet anything that is your neighbor's."

What does it mean to covet? It means to have a deep longing and sensuous desire for what other people have and to long for it. Now, look around. We live in the United States of America, where we practically manufacture covetousness. The entire marketing and consumeristic culture we live in is really a part of us. It is geared to infect you with covetousness on a daily basis. It is designed to induce you to long for new things. That is what marketing is all about; it is there to make you want something.

It's all around us all the time, and even though we have so much—and we do have so much—we want so much more. We always want the newest, fastest, best, coolest whatever thing there is. The problem is that I get the newest, fastest, best whatever, and the next day, a newer, faster, better one comes out. This call to live a satisfied life is unbelievably challenging in the environment we live in right now.

However, there is a great word for us given by the Apostle Paul in Philippians chapter 4. Turn to the left from Hebrews; I want you to actually see this with me. If you are in the book of Hebrews, you don't have to turn very far. You'll find a little book called Philippians. If you hit Galatians or Ephesians, you went too far.

Philippians chapter 4. Now, one of the verses, the last verse that we'll look at, is a verse that some of you have committed to memory and love. But the context of this verse is really, really important.

Look at Philippians chapter 4, verse 11. Paul says, "Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am to be content." He emphasizes that he has learned to be content in every situation, even in California. He continues, "I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things, I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need."

Then, he states, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." How many of you have heard verse 13 before? The context is so important because Paul is talking about learning to be content and satisfied with what we have. This is a hard lesson to learn.

It strikes me as interesting that in verse 12, Paul says, "I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little." I think you would agree that it is harder to be content when you're full than when you're empty.

This is one of the comments I hear most often from friends when we take people on short-term mission trips. If we go to Mexico, the Philippines, or Africa, and as we're coming back and doing a debrief, almost inevitably, they will say, "I'm just so amazed. They have so very little, and they seem so satisfied and happy." It is indeed harder to be content when you have much than when you have little. When we have so much, it becomes challenging for us to be content.

I am grateful that Paul says, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." God, we need Your help to be content with what we have and to be satisfied with our possessions.

In another one of Paul's letters, we will be going into 1 Timothy, starting on September 10th. Paul says in the end of 1 Timothy, chapter 6, verse 6, "Now godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into this world, and we certainly cannot carry anything out. Having food and clothing, with these we shall be content." However, those who desire to be rich, those who deeply desire much goods, covet those things.

Who covet things fall into temptation and a snare, and many foolish, harmful lusts and desires drown men in destruction and perdition. I think you'd agree we live in a culture that's drowning in a desire for more, yet it's filled with so much waste.

In 1 Timothy, chapter 6, verse 10, a verse that even many people who have never read the Bible know, it states, "For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil." Some, having strayed from the faith in their greediness, have pierced themselves through with many sorrows. God, please help us to be content with the things that we have. Living in a world filled with abundance, we experience daily blessings; there is hardly a day that we have to really go without anything. God, help us to be content and satisfied. I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

In Hebrews, chapter 13, verse 7, it says, "Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the Word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct." If we skip down to verse 17, we see a connection. It states, "Obey those who rule over you and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls as those who must give an account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you."

Honestly, it's sometimes difficult for me to teach passages like this because it almost seems self-serving as a pastor, one who preaches the Word. It feels self-serving to say, "Obey those who are ruling over you and be submissive to them." However, it's what the Scripture says.

So, what's the point being taught here? Point number five: love your leaders by following their faith. It is really important to realize that the submission, which is a word that our flesh often hates, and obedience that is exhorted here in verse 17, is essential.

Rule over you; be submissive to them. The submission and obedience exhorted in verse 17 is not a mindless submission without precondition. You do not simply follow everything a leader says because they are a leader. That is not what is being taught here. We need to consider the conditions and stipulations set in place for this submission and obedience.

I think these conditions are given to us in verse 7. It states, "Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the Word of God, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct." There are two preconditions in verse 7 that are really important.

Number one, these individuals are those who speak the Word of God. They are the kind of leaders you should follow, emulate, and be submissive to. I give you total permission to leave this church and give up on it if we stop speaking forth the Word of God. If we are not teaching God's Word, you should not submit to a leader who does not preach God's Word.

However, if that person is speaking forth God's Word, notice that in verse 7 it says they have spoken forth the Word of God, whose faith you should follow, considering the outcome of their conduct. If their conduct and way of life align with the Word of God, then they are worthy of your following, obedience, and submission.

But if those leaders or teachers are not speaking God's Word, or if they are speaking God's Word but their lives do not align with the message they preach, then this does not apply. If they do align, he says to obey those who rule over you and be submissive. Why? Because they watch out for your soul as those who must give an account.

Recognize that the leaders who lead well are given a stewardship by God over your life as a follower of Jesus. Those leaders—myself, Pastor Mark, Pastor Jason, and the elders of this church—will stand before God and answer for how we lead. That is a challenging reality I have wrestled with many times, just as I have wrestled with James's exhortation: "Let not many of you become teachers, because you shall receive a stricter judgment." There is a judgment; there is an accountability that leaders will have before God. If a leader does not preach the Word of God or does not follow the Word that they preach, they will be held accountable.

We will answer to God for that. He says to let them do this work of leading with joy and not with grief. Do this so that their work will be a joy and not a burden. I can tell you with a great smile on my face that it is a joy to serve this church; it is a blessing, not a grief.

He goes on to say in Hebrews chapter 13, verse 8, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever." Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines, for it is good for the heart to be established by grace and not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them. We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin are outside the camp. Therefore, Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate.

Therefore, let us go forth to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach. What is Timothy saying again? He is speaking to Christians who left Judaism, the Old Covenant, the temple, the tabernacle, the sacrifices, and the priesthood. They left that to follow Jesus. He says, "Listen, under the Old Covenant, there was a temple, there was a tabernacle, there were sacrifices, and there were certain kinds of ceremonial meals that you would partake of. But that's not what you're a part of anymore. You left that; you've gone outside the camp to Jesus, and He offered the one sacrifice to deal with your sins."

So let's go outside the camp, bearing His reproach, even if it means that you're going to suffer because you're a follower of Jesus. Let's go outside the camp, following Him and bearing His reproach, for we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come. We are leaving that old kingdom and moving towards Jesus because He is the King of a better kingdom.

Therefore, in verse 15, by Him, by Jesus, let us who follow Jesus continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name. But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices, God is well pleased. The Jewish followers of Jesus left the temple; they left that sacrificial system. Jesus died on the cross as a sacrifice for their sins, and now they are following Jesus. There would be a question in their minds: Are there any further sacrifices? For many Christians, they know there is no more sacrifice. You're right; there is no more.

Sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary, but here the author of the Book of Hebrews states that there is a sacrifice that Christians, having put their faith in Jesus, can offer. Point number six on your outline is to love God by offering acceptable sacrifices.

What is an acceptable sacrifice for a Christian to offer? We don't need to deal with the problem of our sin by sacrifice anymore. Jesus paid it all; to Him I owe. But are there other sacrifices and offerings that we make to God?

Look at verses 15 and 16: "Therefore, by Jesus, let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God." What is that? It is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name. This means verbally giving thanks to God and continually praising Him. This is a sacrifice, but it's not the only one.

Verse 16 continues, "But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices, God is well pleased." What sacrifices are we talking about? Number one is giving praise to God's name. Number two is doing good. What does that mean? It means being kind to others.

How many of you recognize that sometimes it is a sacrifice to be kind to others? It can be hard. Yet, the author emphasizes that this is a sacrifice that is pleasing to God. We are called to be kind to others and to share with them.

For those of you interested in Greek words, the word "share" there is "Koinonia," which means to have fellowship with one another and to be in common with one another. Acts chapter 2 talks about how all the Christians had everything in common; they shared with one another as each person had need.

God sees that as an acceptable sacrifice when you take what is yours and sacrifice it to give to someone else to take care of them and meet their needs. God says, "I am well pleased with that." When you are kind and when you give thanks to Him, in the very act of sharing with others and being kind, it is an acknowledgment of praise to God. What I have is not mine; He has given it to me, and so I can freely give to you.

Kennedy says, "Pray for us." Verse 18 continues with this thought.

We are confident that we have a good conscience in all things, desiring to live honorably. This is what it looks like to live honorably: to love others in word and deed, to love your spouse by honoring the covenant that you have in marriage, to not love money, to love the leaders that you have and to follow their faith, and to love God by offering acceptable sacrifices.

He said we want to live honorably, but I especially urge you to do this: that I may be restored to you too soon. Now may the God of peace, who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen.

So God is working, and He has called you to work out this salvation for His glory. Amen. Would you stand with me as we close in prayer? God, would You help us? I need help just as much as any other person to be selfless, to be content, to be kind, and to love others in word and deed.

But God, our faith in You should alter our lives for the better. Change us in such a way that we shine brightly, so that people would see our good works and glorify You, our Father in heaven. Would You enable us by Your Spirit? Would You strengthen us to do these things this week, to live honorably before You, to live with excellence as Your kids, for Your glory and for our greatest good?

We praise You, Jesus. We thank You for Your power at work in us by Your Spirit. It's in Your name we pray. We thank You for the work that You did for our salvation, which is a finished work. On the cross, You said, "It is finished." It's paid in full.

The sacrifice, Lord, is what we offer to You. Would You show us ways this week that we can present offerings acceptable to You? Not for our sins, but just for our praise and worship. Show us how we can be pleasing to You in our sacrifices and bring joy.

I've been working through this with our church. I believe You have allowed us to experience Your grace. Would You show us ways that we can demonstrate our gratitude to You today as we go about our lives?

Now may the God of peace, who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you this week that which is well-pleasing in His sight, through the glory of Jesus Christ.