Nobody likes being excluded, there is a deep human need to belong and be appreciated. To be included though, to enter into belonging somewhere, we have to leave somewhere else. Exclusion is necessary for proper inclusion. A husband leaves his father and mother and becomes one flesh with his wife. He forsakes all other women, leaves them so that he can be devoted to his wife. Remember, when the world excludes us for the sake of Jesus, we aren’t just leaving the world, we’re being included in the Kingdom.

We’re all looking for ways to cope in the days of pandemic, isolation, economic pressure, anxiety and loss. There’s no shortage of those selling their own formulas for overcoming these challenges, many of them centre on “inner strength”. If we have inner strength we will weather these storms and prosper - but is that true, and what is inner strength. Is it unshakeable self-belief and prioritisation of our selves which will elevate us above the struggles of this world? The Scripture shows us a different way, a powerful way that carries us through trouble - and takes others with us. True Inner strength does not come from us, and is not focused on us, yet it has the power to give us hope, purpose, victory and peace.

The author is concluding chapter 12 with a crescendo. He’s telling the Hebrews to listen to the words of our Lord Jesus because our world and earthly things will be shaken until there is nothing left! He’s calling his audience to focus on a new, unshakable Kingdom. And that’s how we end Hebrews 12 today. It’s the last warning from the book… There is a final chapter, chapter 13, which is an epilogue of the book, so today we cover the book’s last warning.

If you’ve ever struggled to picture God, or battled to comprehend how He loves you, then here is an image of Him. Jesus called the little children to come to Him, He picked them up, embraced them and loved them. He blessed them and prayed over them. He was indignant with anyone who tried to prevent them from coming to Him. Jesus tells us that if we have seen Him, we’ve seen the Father. No wonder parents brought their children to Jesus, they wanted the best for their children. They wanted Jesus to bless them. The best gift that they and any parent can give to their child is to give them to Jesus, and then to do everything they can to help them to know and love Him. Everything else we can give them will fade away, but a relationship with God is forever.

How can we take care of our mental health in times of crisis? The Christians who first heard the letter to the Hebrews were struggling with that and were being tempted to choose the Old Covenant of Moses over the New Covenant secured by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus the Son of God. The Old Covenant was fading fast and even the Temple was about to be destroyed. We are in a similar position. We are tempted to choose a Covenant with the world, which is fading fast, over the same New Covenant of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Old Covenant may have be more tangible, but through it God was less accessible. The world is the same. The New Covenant may not be realised with by our senses right now, but it is every bit as real, and makes God completely accessible to all who believe, now and forever. This is the foundation for the Christian’s mental health and fortitude.

Endurance athletes know all about “hitting the wall”. It’s a dangerous (but avoidable) state of exhaustion which can mean the end of the race or worse. Hebrews 12:12-17 warns believers about spiritual exhaustion and how to avoid or overcome this. God loves and disciplines His children to keep them from harm. The worst possible harm we can experience is to drift away from Him and miss out on the free gift of eternal life and a restored relationship with Him. God warns the people of the early Hebrew Church that they are showing signs of getting tired and falling away from Him forever. He encourages them, and shows them that they can get through these tough times by trust, obedience and perseverance.

Life can be hard. We are all dealing with suffering of some kind and sometimes it gets too much. The Christians to whom the letter of Hebrews was first written were having a hard time. It was getting too much and they were tempted to give up their faith to try and take the pain away. But giving up our faith to get rid of the pain is like holding our breath hoping it will make running easier. Everyone suffers, whether we have faith in Christ or not - but only those who trust in Christ Jesus have a guaranteed purpose to suffering, and the assurance that He suffers with us as He uses everything for His good purpose, and ours.

An endurance race is a beautiful battle of mind, body and will and to finish it takes endurance. That’s how we arrive at Hebrews 12 this morning. As we’ve learnt, the Christians the author is addressing are Jews and they are struggling in their journey. He’s comparing the Christian Journey to an endurance race. They have just joined the race and there are great difficulties. The author is telling them, hold on a sec guys… This is not a 100-meter sprint, hold on… There is more to the race than what you can see in front of and around you. This is a long race and it takes endurance.

Do you ever wonder if Christianity is too hard? Do you ever feel like quitting? Maybe it’s all a little confusing at times? Maybe you struggle to come to terms with the life and lot God has dealt you. Sometimes we feel like the standard, our goals, are just too high. That no matter how hard we try, sometimes we just feel like we’re losing. In this week’s passage, we see the author of Hebrews highlight the heroes of faith, to inspire the Jews he’s writing to, to keep pushing. He uses the heroes to highlight that according to our worldly understanding, there are winners and losers as a result of faith. But when we look at things from God’s perspective there are no winners or losers in faith. When we respond to God’s faithfulness with faith, God sees all of us as heroes, regardless of the outcomes and circumstances we find ourselves in.

Faiths grows in times of crisis, but it doesn’t just grow in individuals but also in those who witness the words and actions of the faithful. In our current difficult times we have probably often thought about our need for more faith. What we see in Hebrews 11 is not only the faith of individuals, but also how faith travels and grows from one generation to the next and from one community to another. What if we stopped asking “how can I have more faith” and started thinking about how we can strengthen and encourage each other as God gives us faith and adds to it as we exercise it.

Let go and let God. How many times have you heard, or thought about these words. When things are tough we notice advice and teachings, some are true, but many are not. It can be hard to tell the difference when teachings look or sound right and only deviate slightly. Letting go and letting God is almost right, but to bring balance and keep it from leading us astray we need to add “get going”.

Today, we see the author of Hebrews addressing the Jews who are having a hard time believing. They heard the word of God and they witnessed the life of Jesus second hand. They knew in their hearts that what they heard was true. But because of the suffering and persecution they were facing, they could not come to grips with it. They saw God’s works, His plan and His salvation from afar, but they could not believe it. The author is imploring the Jews to believe as Joshua did.

The book of Hebrews teaches us to live through difficult times in a way that pleases God and grows us and those around us. As we struggle through extraordinary circumstances we can learn how to do the same. The solution is to live by faith and not to “shrink back” (cower). Living by faith rather than fear is something that many Old Testament Saints were commended for. The eleventh chapter of Hebrews begins by showing us five people who pleased God by faith and gives us five ways to fight fear and find purpose.

How do you survive a pandemic? The book of Hebrews was written to Jewish Christians to teach and encourage them to survive intense suffering by living by faith rather than sight. Living by faith pleases God and grows us and the people we love. But what is the faith that pleases God? There are multitudes of counterfeit versions of faith even in our churches. We need to understand what genuine faith is and what it is not, so that we can discern beliefs and practices that draw us away from God - and avoid them. Living by true faith gives meaning and purpose to our suffering and glorifies God.

The letter to the Hebrew Christians is structured around five exhortations. These exhortations are encouraging warnings written to Jewish Christians who were tempted to abandon their faith in Jesus Christ and return to their old religious traditions. The tenth chapter ends with the fourth exhortation of the letter, don’t deliberately disobey God’s Word. The previous warnings are expose failures that lead to this destructive rebellion. This warning urges us to hold onto our faith in Jesus as the perfect sacrifice for our sin. The author gives three reasons: avoid the wrath of God, don’t waste all your precious previous suffering and finally remember that He is returning soon to deliver us. Delivery day could be at any time. Perhaps you know the excitement of waiting for a delivery, anything from a gift or online purchase to a precious infant birth? Remember that the delivery day we’re being reminded of is far more precious and infinitely more worth waiting for.

When the author of Hebrews wrote his letter, there were recipients of his message that considered themselves Christians. They worshipped with Christians, ate with them and fellowshipped with them. Yet when they were away from the Christian community and back in their Jewish communities, they continued in the Jewish ritualistic customs. They were closed Christians! This is what the book of Hebrews refers to as moral apostasy. Apostasy is the act of renouncing one’s faith and turning away from God.

On Fathers day we get to think about our fathers and about how we are glorifying God through our role as fathers. We also get to think about how our relationship is with our Heavenly Father, and think about His love for us. Hebrews 10:19-25 gives a summary of the content we’ve covered in the last couple of chapters and comes just before one of Hebrews’ several warnings. It also sums up Christian doctrine in three words, faith hope and love. We can journey through our relationship with our earthy father, our Heavenly Father and the purpose for which He created us in this short and powerful passage.

There’s so much talk about vaccines. What would the perfect Vaccine look like, according to medical thinking it should be safe, ethical and effective. Hebrews 10 shows how Jesus sacrifice for our sin was not just a remedy for sin (in that it takes away the punishment of sin) but also a vaccine which changes us and makes us less and less likely to sin. His perfect sacrifice changes us from rebels to worshippers.

The Old Testament sacrificial system was a reminder to people about their sin, and way for those who had faith in God to be saved from the eternal consequences of their sin. The sacrifices were offered repeatedly year after year and were done in obedience to God, but they were not God’s ultimate plan. Like a broken dishwasher can conceal the dirty dishes inside, but not clean them - the old system was not able to heal and clean the conscience, take away the sin and empower the faithful to obey God. Jesus cam to offer Himself in obedience to God, and provided the pure and perfect sacrifice that could do everything that the old system was pointing to, but unable to accomplish.