Thank you, Pam. Would you take your Bibles, please, and turn to Hebrews chapter 12. You're approaching the end of our study in Hebrews. Study we began back on March 9th of this year and have been in and will be in until the very last Sunday of this year. Sometimes I know after you've been in a sermon series or a Bible study for a long time, you kind of forget why you started the thing and how you got to where you are and you may be saying enough already of Hebrews. So let me just refresh your memory. This major epistle, in fact one of the longest and the New Testament, was written with a specific purpose in mind and that was to encourage the saints in Rome who were undergoing or beginning to undergo persecution by the emperor Nero. So it's an epistle that speaks to the great need of our time since both in the global south, especially in the Muslim and the Communist world, the church is being persecuted more than ever before and as we see the hostility towards the Christian church rise in Europe and in America, this becomes the more timely and more applicable epistle it seems with each passing day. It's a epistle that presents Jesus Christ as superior to everything. These people were in danger of perhaps not renouncing Jesus Christ but at least falling away from Him, of distancing themselves from Jesus Christ because it would be safer to do so. It would save their lives. The author of Hebrews whom we don't know, who I think is Paul, wrote to them about Jesus Christ and his supremacy. He compares him in the first four chapters to Moses and says that he is a superior prophet to Moses. He compares him to Aaron in the priesthood in chapters 5 through 10 and says that he is a supreme priest and ends in this final section in chapter 10, verse 19 through the end, where Jesus Christ is a sovereign king who has an unshakable kingdom, a lasting city, a city built without human hands, whose architect and builder is God and who is gathering the people for himself into the assembly of the firstborn in the earth, in the church and in heaven, in his kingdom. He has in those three offices, a prophets priest and king, given us three new things, the author of Hebrews says, he's given us a new confession as the prophet, the gospel prophet of the new era. Therefore, holy brothers, you share in the heavenly calling, consider Jesus the apostle in the high priest of our confession. Since then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens. Jesus, the son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. That confession, of course, is the good news of the gospel. He's also given us a new covenant. That's emphasized several times in the middle section, the major section of this epistle. In chapter 8, the author says, in speaking of a new covenant, he that is Christ makes the first covenant obsolete. And he has given us a new community because they're suffering persecution. The author of this epistle says, let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking ourselves together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near. He comes to this last section, chapters 11, 12, and 13, and he talks about what is known in the Christian church as the three theological virtues. Now these three abide faith, hope and love and the greatest of these as love, called the theological virtues by Thomas Aquinas, scholastic theologian of the Middle Ages who said they are theological virtues because they begin with God and they refract back to him. Faith in God and hope in God and love towards God. Now these three abide faith, hope and love and the greatest of these as love. They are central to the Christian life, the Christian virtue. Paul would write to the Thessalonians, we give thanks to God always for all of you constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before God and our Father, your work of faith, your labor of love and the steadfast. Hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. He mentions faith and hope and love. Paul does in almost all of his epistles. It's one of the reasons I think that this is appalling the epistle. And in chapters 11, 12, and 13, this author gives a functional definition of faith and hope and love. What is faith? Faith is the assurance of things. Hope for the conviction of things not seen. Faith is in short looking for the city of God. He says all of these great men and women died in faith because they were looking beyond themselves for a city whose architect and builder is God. Hope he says is longing for the unshakable kingdom. He would say in chapter 12 when he describes what hope is. And therefore let us be grateful to receive a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship and reverence and all for our God as a consuming fire. Let's long for he says, be grateful for this unshakable kingdom. That's what hope is. Hope is longing for something in the future. It's the hope of something in the future, the exciting anticipation of something in the future that keeps you going through difficulty today. And finally in chapter 13, he's obviously talking about love because he begins with these words, let the love of the brothers continue. And he says that this love is living in the enduring community, which is the church. He says, for here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. So there's a definition of faith. It's looking for the city of God. It's living life today with our eyes fixed on what the ultimate goal is. Hope is longing for the enduring community. Longing for something that is larger than life, and greater than self, and lasting forever, something that is an unshakable kingdom, which keeps you going through difficult times like persecution in Rome or the difficulties we face in the 21st century here in America. And love is loving the brothers and the enduring community of the church, let the love of the brothers continue. So we've spent 15 weeks looking at faith, all these great people who were by name, were by inference, great people of faith, by faith that little phrase is mentioned 19 times in that chapter. And we learned that this is what faith is faith is believing in the creation like Adam and Eve. It's worshiping God correctly like Abel, seeking to please God like Enac, having a reverence for God like Noah, looking for the city of God like Abraham, clinging to God's promises like Sarah, believing in the resurrection like Isaac and his father, Abraham, preparing for the future like Isaac, blessing our children like Jacob, planning beyond our death like Joseph. It means following God into danger like Moses, be willing to do ridiculous things for the Lord if he asks us like Joshua, leaving everything for God, receiving encouragement from the people of the stained glass, the great women and men who were heroes and heroines in the faith like these saints in Rome, and finally it is fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfect of faith as we are asked to do today. That leads us to chapter 12 where he says this, therefore since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance of the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus. Literally it reads in the Greek, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author or founder and perfector of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and to see the right hand of the throne of God. Having finished in chapter 11 a great and thorough exposition on faith he now turns to the central doctrine of the Christian life, the central virtue of hope. Now these three things abide faith, hope and love. Faith is the forgotten virtue in the three is overshadowed by faith, especially among evangelicals who emphasize justification by faith. And it is not as glamorous as love which is emphasized by Roman Catholics, but it is the virtue that holds the center ground. He would write in chapter 6 this author of Hebrews, for God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and your love that you have shown for his name and serving the saints as you still do. And we desire that each of you show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end so that you may not be sluggish but imitate as those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Theologian Amal Bruner said, faith has to do with the basis, the ground on which we stand. Hope is reaching out for something yet to come and love is merely just being there and caring for the moment. Faith and hope and love are essential to the Christian life and yet they are being attacked more it seems in our culture than ever before. Our faith is being assaulted daily in this age of scientific unbelief and rejection of any kind of absolute. Love is being undermined by the moral, the relational and the familial meltdown of an age of lawlessness but Jesus said that and because lawlessness will increase the love of many will grow cold. And hope is being poisoned by the cynicism, the disappointments, the pessimism and disillusionment of postmodernity. Postmodernity came with all these wonderful promises of freedom and of human fulfillment of potential in ourselves. They've all come to naught and they've left a generation, a younger generation, America full of cynicism and pessimism and discouragement. Because postmodernity's daughter is nihilism, the hope or the belief in nothing. Why is hope so crucial? Because according to chapter 12, I want you to listen to this or this whole chapter won't make any sense. Hope is the power of sanctification and without sanctification we don't go to heaven. So our ultimate hope is the hope of heaven. If you don't believe me, look at chapter 12 for a moment and look over in verse 14. Chapter 12 verse 14 where he says this, strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Paul would write in another place, may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may have bound in hope. This God of hope is the God of holiness. This holiness depends upon hope for its vision of what we can and will become by God's grace. Paul said this in another pistol, I am confident of this very thing. That he who began a good work in you will continue to bring it to completion until the day that Jesus returns. That is the hope of holiness that leads to the hope of heaven. It is our confidence in our future glory rooted in our present hope. The hope that God has begun some good work in us and will continue to perfect it. The verb literally means to bring to maturity what has been born. Hope enables us to live for what we will someday become in spite of what we are today. I want to repeat that. Hope enables you and me to live for what we will someday become in spite of what we are today. That is the problem of our age. This is how hope thinks and speaks. Hope says I am addicted to pornography and I can't break that so I am just going to live with it because grace will cover me anyway. Hope says I have homosexual and same-sex tendency urges and therefore I must be a homosexual. There is nothing I can do to fight against it and so I am just going to be a homosexual and rely on grace anyway. Hopelessness is what some man says when he looks across the desk at you and says pastor I know that I shouldn't leave my wife but I am going to because our marriage is hopeless. See what these people are saying is I cannot really have any confidence in what I will become. I can only see what I am today. And what I am today is what I will always be and that is the pessimism, the cynicism, the discouragement of our modern age speaking. That is why when the media wants to argue about something, whether it is same-sex marriage or accepting this kind of lifestyle or approving of that sort of thing, it is never effective to say but we could be different. They don't accept that. It is only what we are today that counts. What we are today according to the world is what we will be forever and Jesus says not so. Not so. Just as we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, these men and women who live by faith and hope and love, so we are surrounded by these three pillars of hope, the hope of holiness which is the hope of heaven, which is the hope of our sinless perfection, the hope of being everything we ever wanted to be. And can only be in Jesus Christ. And that is what the author of Hebrews begins to speak about here tonight. In this chapter he is going to tell us four things and four little paragraphs. He is going to tell us why some people grow and hold us and hope and why others don't. He is going to tell us number one that if we are willing to do hard things, hope will grow and holiness will mature. If we are willing to do hard things, two, if we will respond and submit to God's fatherly discipline, we will grow and holiness and we will grow and hope. Three, if we appropriate grace and act upon it, if we put grace to work, we will grow and holiness and we will grow and hope and finally, if we remain in the church as a foretaste of heaven, we will grow and holiness and we will grow and hope. This is not spiritual rocket science. If we won't do what is hard, if we grow weary and become faint-hearted, if we resent when God speaks into our lives and disciplines us, if we just talk about grace and never really act upon it, if we have a low view of the church and we don't really use the means of grace, then why would we expect that we could ever be different? Why would we ever hope that we could be like Christ someday? But those who are willing to do hard things, willing to submit to God's discipline, willing to act upon grace, grace that's a gift to enable us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Those who remain in the church and cling to the means of grace, they have every reason to be confident that he who began a good work and then will bring it to glorious completion in the day of Christ Jesus. So that is the whole thrust of this chapter and he begins by saying that hope is willing to do hard things. I hope this isn't just preacher hyperbole because I mean it sincerely. I think if I had to preach four messages to young people today, if I was going to die in four weeks and they said you got these young people for Sundays, when he wanted to tell them I'd take him to chapter 12 of Hebrews, I talk about doing hard things, accepting God's discipline, appropriating grace properly and staying in the church until they get to heaven. That's what I tell him because I believe that we build up their hope, build up their holiness and prepare them for eternal life and overcome all the pessimism and all the discouragement and all the negativity in our postmodern culture today. So let's look at this first facet of growing in hope and holiness doing hard things. Once again, these first four verses, therefore since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin with clings so closely, let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the founder and perfect of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured this cross, despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself so that you may not grow weary or faint-hearted in your struggle against sin. You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. He tells us two very important things, they're simple things but they're profound things. First he says, we look to Jesus Christ for endurance and we look to Jesus Christ for encouragement. If there's two things we need today, it's endurance, the power not to quit and encouragement, the hope that things will be better. There is some overlap in this chapter. These first two verses at least are a conclusion to chapter 11. This great cloud of witnesses ends in Jesus Christ, the last great hero of the faith whom we fix our eyes upon who is the founder and perfect of our faith. But it's also a bridge passage that introduces us to the theme of hope and holiness in heaven. It's a call for a hopeful struggle against sin rooted in Christ, let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. All these saints who went before us, all these people in the stained glass, all these people in chapter 11 were known for their great accomplishments, not because they were extremely spiritual people. Not because they were especially consistent people, look at Abraham and Sarah or that they were really nice people. Jacob was a jerk or that they were respectful and upright people, one was a prostitute. No, they all did what they did because of one thing, endurance. They lived long, they fought hard, they did not give up. As one man said, they wore down sin before sin wore them out. They simply wouldn't quit because they were full of the grace of God and they had this faith in Jesus Christ even though they knew not his name. We are therefore a great cloud of witnesses that proved that we can endure. Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. There are two realities here, here they are, reality number one. We are encumbered by and entangled by pet sins. Let us also lay aside every weight, the New American Standard calls it an encumberance. And sin which clings so closely that NASB says which entangles us, weighed down and tripped up by our pet sins. That's reality number one. We are sinful and it can be at times debilitating. Reality number two is we are all involved in a marathon race toward heaven. Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. This Christian life is not a wind sprint. It is not a dash. It is not even a relay. It is a marathon. Peter O'Brien says the prolonged nature of the race is indicated by the present tense of the verb run and the mention of the infantic phrase with endurance. This noun and cognate verb endure draws our attention to the key motive of perseverance or endurance throughout the paragraph. This race is not a sprint but a long distance race requiring a resolute determination to finish well. It is not about beating somebody else. It is not a time sprint. It is just about getting to the finish line. And there is a race that is set before us. A course that is marked out by the master of the race God Himself that assures us that if we stay on course we will get to the finish line and we will win the prize. This word race is the word agon which means a struggle or a contest or a fight. It is verb is agonidzo mine for where we get the word agonize or agony. It is an agonizing endurance that we are called to. You picture here as the author Hebrew does these Greco-Roman marathon runners who would strip down sometimes even naked so that none of their clothes would entangle them or trip them up and they had no excess weight and they would run with endurance staying on the course so that they were not disqualified. We had time denying we don't. It is another reason I think Paul wrote this epistle. We could read all the different places where Paul said he runs as a race not aimlessly but with endurance less he beat us qualified. He says many times when he is talking about me he says I hope that I have not run in vain. He talks about enduring and finishing. He says an athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. Paul who had this picture of the Christian life as a long endurance cross-country marathon. We run this race with our eyes on the prize fixing our eyes on Jesus Christ. We are not really sure what the author of this epistle means by that. It could mean that Jesus Christ in this marathon is at the head of the pack. He is the paste center as long as we keep him in sight will finish when he finishes or it could mean more than likely. That Jesus Christ is already finished his marathon and isn't heaven and we are pushing forward to what Paul called the upward call of God in Christ Jesus as Jesus Christ is the prize and reward. I think that as this author talks about Jesus Christ he gives us four transferable concepts that are motivational to us and should be an encouragement to us. First one and that is for the joy that lies in the future. Jesus Christ too for the joy set before him, the joy of heaven and his own exaltation. As the Psalmist said you have loved the righteousness and hated wickedness therefore God your God has exalted you with the oil of joy above your fellow companions. Jesus Christ pushed through all that he had to push through because of the joy of his own glory in heaven. Second is the exhortation to endure painful things. He endured the cross. Jesus Christ is the only time, this is a fascinating point of fact, the only time in the New Testament where the word endure and cross are used together. Jesus Christ endured not in a passive acceptance but in a positive action of pushing through the pain of the cross to get to the goal that was set before him. Thirdly, there is an exhortation to ignore the shame that the world wants to throw at us. Jesus Christ endured the cross despising the shame. The little verb caught off from it does not mean to hate something. We say we despise something. Well that's not what the Greeks meant by the word despise. They meant to dismiss as nothing. Jesus Christ thought this is no big deal. This shame that you want to put on me, this embarrassment that's meant to discredit and disown and to humiliate me is nothing. I brush it aside as a mere annoyance to get to the upward call of God in this glory. And fourthly, to recognize our reward, that he is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. After his cross came to crown, he has the name that is above every name and Jesus Christ says that we who endure to the end will be saved and we will sit with crowns on thrones around him. This is an encouragement for glory to replace shame, for the crown to replace the cross, honor to replace humiliation, pleasure to replace pain. What I has not seen, dear has not heard, what has not entered the mind of men, all that God has prepared for those who love him. In this passage, Jesus is called the founder and the perfector of faith. That's really not the best translation. R.K. Goss means pioneer. Anteliotase means completer. He is the pioneer, he's the first one who says, I will walk by faith, watch me. And I will live within you in the Holy Spirit and bring your faith to completion, which is glory. And if you fix your eyes on me, you will not lose hope. So we look to Jesus Christ for endurance and we look to Jesus Christ for encouragement. Verse 3, consider him, consider Christ, who endured from sinners such hostility against himself so that you may not grow weary or faint-hearted. Some translations say so that you may not grow weary or lose hope. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. Now he says we're considered Jesus Christ, who endured from sinners such hostility against himself. He was betrayed by his friends, deserted by all his followers, arrested, tried, abused, flagged, crowned with thorns, nailed across, spit on, ridiculed, cursed, and pierced through. Why? Why? To deliver our souls from the sin of unbelief and hopelessness and hell? And he says consider this, the little verb in Greek means to think upon deeply or often. Think about this often, think about this deeply, think about this prayerfully. Why? Because it will encourage you. It will be your encouragement that in the struggles of the Christian life, the one who endured all these things for your sake lives inside of you. You know, when we suffer for the faith, it does something to us psychologically it really does. It tends to be the thing that beats us back and beats us down. But here in this little paragraph, we are reminded of five facts. They've got to be true for us because they're true of Jesus Christ and we are Christians, little Christ, we follow Him. Fact number one, God loves you even though you struggle and suffer because He loves Christ in the midst of His suffering. Fact number two, there is nothing wrong with you, when men treat you with contempt because of your faith, for they treated Jesus Christ the same way and there is nothing wrong with the Son of God. Fact number three, your suffering has great and glorious purpose in life just as the cross of Christ had a great purpose for us. Fact number four, our difficulties in life are part of the process. God uses to prepare us for heaven because He uses the same process in preparing His Son for glory. He brews chapter two, verse 10, it was fitting that He, for whom and by whom all things exist and bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. Fact number five, you can emerge victorious through these painful or deals because Jesus did and Jesus lives in you. I think maybe one of the reasons we get discouraged in life, folks, is because we do not spend enough time meditating upon Jesus Christ. I'm not talking about meditating upon Bible verses. I'm not talking about meditating upon chapters. I'm talking about meditating on the person and work of Jesus Christ. And as little commentary on Hebrews Raymond Brown does a marvelous job describing how we might do that. In the course of the race, the eyes of every Christian athlete must be directed firmly and continually on the Lord Jesus Himself. The word used here translated looking indicates the action of one who, aware of a rival attraction, deliberately looks away and ignores those other things and focuses on one thing, that which is in front of Him. This run of us keep his eyes fixed on Jesus, not only at the first moment of the race but constantly during the whole struggle knowing that Christ is always near and inside. Then with superb theological skill, our author turns to a vivid description, the one to whom we must look. We must look away to Jesus, the compassionate man, the human Jesus, has known our experience of trial and fiery adversity. Moreover, we must direct our gaze to Jesus, the victorious pioneer. He has led all the people of God for earliest times along the path of faith, believers are required to fix their tension on Jesus, the only perfector. He brings the faith of the former saints and our faith to triumphant completion. Those who wish to run in the race with perseverance must look also to Jesus, the devoted servant. He came into the world, this letter reminds us to do God's will. Christmas was also looked to Jesus, the effective priest, for he has seated in the heavens, and moreover, Christians must, believers must turn their eyes to Jesus, the enthroned Lord. He is at the throne of God at his right hand in power. Finally, Christians must look away to Jesus, the patient sufferer. They must consider Him less, they become exhausted. They might be mocked and assaulted, scourged and forsaken, handed over to informers in prison, falsely accused and even killed. But so was he. In the last few days of his life, especially, he had suffered all this and more, they must consider Him and His endurance in the face of such bitter hostility, less they become exhausted in this marathon race of life. They must consider one more thing. I want you to look at verse 4. In your struggle against sin, therefore we know that this chapter is about holiness. In your struggle against sin, you must reach this holiness without which no one will see the Lord. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. He is making an obvious comparison to all these people in chapter 11. The majority of them who died in faith many through martyrdom. They suffered mockings and floggings and even chains in imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawed in half, they were killed with a sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute afflicted, mistreated, wandering about in deserts and mountains and in dens and caves. They were men of whom the world was not worthy. He is obviously talking about their fellow Christians and their time in our time who were suffering persecution of people back in chapter 10. Recall the forward days when after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, sometimes being partners with those so treated for you had compassion on those in prison. And you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. These people have already suffered persecution, so are their loved ones and friends, so have many of our brothers and sisters in the world. And he makes an illusion that Jesus Christ, he resisted sin to the point of shedding of his blood. Christ died for sins, once for all the just for the unjust in order that he might bring us to God. He said, this is not yet. Key little word, not yet happened to you. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood, implying that that may happen. Not yet, but maybe someday. The author of this letter seems to tell us something strange, something counterintuitive for Americans. This may be the hardest thing in Hebrews to accept. That doing hard things for Jesus Christ actually helps us grow in hope which causes us to grow in holiness. We live in a culture that is committed to things being easy and fun and agreeable. But when we do hard things for Jesus Christ, we actually do grow in our holiness and we grow in our hope. If you need proof of that, let's just compare our faith and our hope and our love with our brothers and sisters in Nigeria being butchered by Boko Haram. Or the little children in Iraq who rather than deny Christ were beheaded by ISIS and die joyfully, children. Or the saints in North Korea who are imprisoned and tortured by Kim Jong. Or all our Chinese brothers and sisters who live daily in underground churches with the threat of the communist Chinese regime always coming down on them with a heavy hand. And millions, literally millions, perhaps a billion Christians around the rest of the world who are living for Jesus Christ is much more difficult than here and often more dangerous. And ask yourself this question, do they have more joy and hope, more faith than love than we do? And the answer is yes, they do. Herein lies the problem. We are called to a lifelong struggle against sin and toward holiness, but ours is a culture and a generation of society that never does hard things. Our convenience, our comfort, our contentment war against the process of holiness and therefore unbeknownst to us chip away at the foundation of our hope. This is why folks, we have this great debate in the church today about grace and the law, about justification and sanctification, about holiness and happiness. It's not a theological debate. I can attest you as the moderator of our General Assembly and a conference speaker at these things several times at GA. Our men do not disagree with the Westminster Confession of Faith about justification, adoption, and sanctification. We are in 100% agreement with the Confession of Faith. Where we disagree is on the issue of hope. Young people are hopeless. The old men have hope. And so when sometimes the old men tell the young men, you need to work hard to salvation with fear and trembling. You need to try hard. You need to press into that. They'll say you're legalist. You're a moralist. You're law-oriented. Where's the grace? Well, let's look at the grace. It's over in chapter 12. We'll be there in two weeks. Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees and make straight paths for your feet so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. We strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord see to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God and that no root of bitterness bring up and cause trouble and buy it many become defiled. There was a great root of bitterness in our culture. And in our church today, a bitterness born out of hopelessness because it's born out of the conviction that we could. We could never be different than what we are. And hope says not true. I am confident of this very thing that he who justified you and began a good work in you by planting in you the Holy Spirit, the fountain of grace. We will continue to perfect your holiness, your faith, your love, your hope until the day that he comes back and takes you to heaven and you are all you ever wanted to be and all God ever made you to be. I am confident that word can mean in the Greek. I can boast about this very thing. Some will say, preacher, this is a discouraging message, this is a hard thing. Maybe we need a new preacher. Maybe you do. But before you send me an email, just ask yourself a question. Are we a people of confidence, joy, hope, and endurance? And I rest my case on your answer, and I give you this encouragement. If you fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of your faith, I am confident of this very thing that you will get to where God wants you to be. And I give you this promise you can do all things through Christ who strengthen you. Amen? Let's pray. Father, we would want to be different. We do want to be holy, and we want to be happy. We want both. And in this little chapter, we're going to learn that that's exactly what you want for us. A holiness without which no one will see you and an happiness that helps us to endure with this unshakable, glorious kingdom in mind, happy over what you have in store for us. Things which I has not seen and near has not heard, which have not entered the heart of man, all that you have prepared for those who love you. Those who have their faith in Jesus Christ, those who love him and are loved by him who are filled with the spirit and grace, who have hope into the enduring and the salvation of their souls to the very end. Give us this hope, and help us today to begin to try to do hard things. As Paul said, to work out our salvation with fear and tremble because you, God, are already at work in us, put to will and to work for your good pleasure and our joy. We ask that as we plow into these things with endurance and look not fixing our eyes, not on our sins and our troubles, but on Jesus Christ, you would fill us with hope in believing so that the God of all hope will fill us with hope that we might endure with joy and contentment and confidence to the very end. But we are more than conquerors who Christ who loves us and the spirit who lives in us, the spirit of hope, the spirit of holiness, the spirit of Christ in us, the hope of glory. And we ask this now for our good and for your pleasure, for we ask it in Jesus name. Amen.