Scripture referenced 21 passages
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
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Hebrews 13:1-8 reviewed as recap of previous week's sermon
1 Let brotherly love continue.
2 Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, for in doing so, some have entertained angels without knowing it.
3 Remember those who are in bonds, as bound with them; and those who are ill-treated, since you are also in the body.
4 Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the bed be undefiled: but God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.
5 Be free from the love of money, content with such things as you have, for he has said, “I will in no way leave you, neither will I in any way forsake you.”
6 So that with good courage we say, “The Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me?”
7 Remember your leaders, men who spoke to you the word of God, and considering the results of their conduct, imitate their faith.
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
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Keep this verse
Hebrews 13:9-16
main passage for this sermon
9 Don’t be carried away by various and strange teachings, for it is good that the heart be established by grace, not by food, through which those who were so occupied were not benefited.
10 We have an altar from which those who serve the holy tabernacle have no right to eat.
11 For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin, are burned outside of the camp.
12 Therefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people through his own blood, suffered outside of the gate.
13 Let us therefore go out to him outside of the camp, bearing his reproach.
14 For we don’t have here an enduring city, but we seek that which is to come.
15 Through him, then, let us offer up a sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of lips which proclaim allegiance to his name.
16 But don’t forget to be doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
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Matthew 24:4-5
warning against being misled by false Christs
4 Jesus answered them, “Be careful that no one leads you astray.
5 For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will lead many astray.
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Acts 20
Paul warns Ephesian elders that savage wolves will come and distort the truth
1 After the uproar had ceased, Paul sent for the disciples, took leave of them, and departed to go into Macedonia.
2 When he had gone through those parts, and had encouraged them with many words, he came into Greece.
3 When he had spent three months there, and a plot was made against him by Jews as he was about to set sail for Syria, he determined to return through Macedonia.
4 These accompanied him as far as Asia: Sopater of Beroea; Aristarchus and Secundus of the Thessalonians; Gaius of Derbe; Timothy; and Tychicus and Trophimus of Asia.
5 But these had gone ahead, and were waiting for us at Troas.
6 We sailed away from Philippi after the days of Unleavened Bread, and came to them at Troas in five days, where we stayed seven days.
7 On the first day of the week, when the disciples were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and continued his speech until midnight.
8 There were many lights in the upper room where we were gathered together.
9 A certain young man named Eutychus sat in the window, weighed down with deep sleep. As Paul spoke still longer, being weighed down by his sleep, he fell down from the third floor, and was taken up dead.
10 Paul went down, and fell upon him, and embracing him said, “Don’t be troubled, for his life is in him.”
11 When he had gone up, and had broken bread, and eaten, and had talked with them a long while, even until break of day, he departed.
12 They brought the boy in alive, and were greatly comforted.
13 But we, going ahead to the ship, set sail for Assos, intending to take Paul aboard there; for he had so arranged, intending himself to go by land.
14 When he met us at Assos, we took him aboard, and came to Mitylene.
15 Sailing from there, we came the following day opposite Chios. The next day we touched at Samos and stayed at Trogyllium, and the day after we came to Miletus.
16 For Paul had determined to sail past Ephesus, that he might not have to spend time in Asia; for he was hastening, if it were possible for him, to be in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost.
17 From Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called to himself the elders of the assembly.
18 When they had come to him, he said to them, “You yourselves know, from the first day that I set foot in Asia, how I was with you all the time,
19 serving the Lord with all humility, with many tears, and with trials which happened to me by the plots of the Jews;
20 how I didn’t shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, teaching you publicly and from house to house,
21 testifying both to Jews and to Greeks repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus.
22 Now, behold, I go bound by the Spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there;
23 except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions wait for me.
24 But these things don’t count; nor do I hold my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to fully testify to the Good News of the grace of God.
25 “Now, behold, I know that you all, among whom I went about preaching God’s Kingdom, will see my face no more.
26 Therefore I testify to you today that I am clean from the blood of all men,
27 for I didn’t shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.
28 Take heed, therefore, to yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the assembly of the Lord and God which he purchased with his own blood.
29 For I know that after my departure, vicious wolves will enter in among you, not sparing the flock.
30 Men will arise from among your own selves, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.
31 Therefore watch, remembering that for a period of three years I didn’t cease to admonish everyone night and day with tears.
32 Now, brothers, I entrust you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build up, and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.
33 I coveted no one’s silver, or gold, or clothing.
34 You yourselves know that these hands served my necessities, and those who were with me.
35 In all things I gave you an example, that so laboring you ought to help the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”
36 When he had spoken these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all.
37 They all wept a lot, and fell on Paul’s neck and kissed him,
38 sorrowing most of all because of the word which he had spoken, that they should see his face no more. And they accompanied him to the ship.
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Romans 16
urging believers to watch those who cause dissensions contrary to sound teaching
1 I commend to you Phoebe, our sister, who is a servant of the assembly that is at Cenchreae,
2 that you receive her in the Lord, in a way worthy of the saints, and that you assist her in whatever matter she may need from you, for she herself also has been a helper of many, and of my own self.
3 Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus,
4 who for my life, laid down their own necks; to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the assemblies of the Gentiles.
5 Greet the assembly that is in their house. Greet Epaenetus, my beloved, who is the first fruits of Achaia to Christ.
6 Greet Mary, who labored much for us.
7 Greet Andronicus and Junia, my relatives and my fellow prisoners, who are notable among the apostles, who were also in Christ before me.
8 Greet Amplias, my beloved in the Lord.
9 Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and Stachys, my beloved.
10 Greet Apelles, the approved in Christ. Greet those who are of the household of Aristobulus.
11 Greet Herodion, my kinsman. Greet them of the household of Narcissus, who are in the Lord.
12 Greet Tryphaena and Tryphosa, who labor in the Lord. Greet Persis, the beloved, who labored much in the Lord.
13 Greet Rufus, the chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine.
14 Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers who are with them.
15 Greet Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them.
16 Greet one another with a holy kiss. The assemblies of Christ greet you.
17 Now I beg you, brothers, look out for those who are causing the divisions and occasions of stumbling, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and turn away from them.
18 For those who are such don’t serve our Lord, Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by their smooth and flattering speech, they deceive the hearts of the innocent.
19 For your obedience has become known to all. I rejoice therefore over you. But I desire to have you wise in that which is good, but innocent in that which is evil.
20 And the God of peace will quickly crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
21 Timothy, my fellow worker, greets you, as do Lucius, Jason, and Sosipater, my relatives.
22 I, Tertius, who write the letter, greet you in the Lord.
23 Gaius, my host and host of the whole assembly, greets you. Erastus, the treasurer of the city, greets you, as does Quartus, the brother.
24 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all! Amen.
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2 Corinthians 11
warning about false apostles disguising themselves as servants of righteousness
1 I wish that you would bear with me in a little foolishness, but indeed you do bear with me.
2 For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy. For I married you to one husband, that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ.
3 But I am afraid that somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve in his craftiness, so your minds might be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
4 For if he who comes preaches another Jesus, whom we did not preach, or if you receive a different spirit, which you did not receive, or a different “good news”, which you did not accept, you put up with that well enough.
5 For I reckon that I am not at all behind the very best apostles.
6 But though I am unskilled in speech, yet I am not unskilled in knowledge. No, in every way we have been revealed to you in all things.
7 Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself that you might be exalted, because I preached to you God’s Good News free of charge?
8 I robbed other assemblies, taking wages from them that I might serve you.
9 When I was present with you and was in need, I wasn’t a burden on anyone, for the brothers, when they came from Macedonia, supplied the measure of my need. In everything I kept myself from being burdensome to you, and I will continue to do so.
10 As the truth of Christ is in me, no one will stop me from this boasting in the regions of Achaia.
11 Why? Because I don’t love you? God knows.
12 But what I do, that I will do, that I may cut off occasion from them that desire an occasion, that in which they boast, they may be found even as we.
13 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as Christ’s apostles.
14 And no wonder, for even Satan masquerades as an angel of light.
15 It is no great thing therefore if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.
16 I say again, let no one think me foolish. But if so, yet receive me as foolish, that I also may boast a little.
17 That which I speak, I don’t speak according to the Lord, but as in foolishness, in this confidence of boasting.
18 Seeing that many boast after the flesh, I will also boast.
19 For you bear with the foolish gladly, being wise.
20 For you bear with a man, if he brings you into bondage, if he devours you, if he takes you captive, if he exalts himself, if he strikes you on the face.
21 I speak by way of disparagement, as though we had been weak. Yet in whatever way anyone is bold (I speak in foolishness), I am bold also.
22 Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the offspring of Abraham? So am I.
23 Are they servants of Christ? (I speak as one beside himself) I am more so; in labors more abundantly, in prisons more abundantly, in stripes above measure, in deaths often.
24 Five times from the Jews I received forty stripes minus one.
25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I suffered shipwreck. I have been a night and a day in the deep.
26 I have been in travels often, perils of rivers, perils of robbers, perils from my countrymen, perils from the Gentiles, perils in the city, perils in the wilderness, perils in the sea, perils among false brothers;
27 in labor and travail, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, and in cold and nakedness.
28 Besides those things that are outside, there is that which presses on me daily: anxiety for all the assemblies.
29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is caused to stumble, and I don’t burn with indignation?
30 If I must boast, I will boast of the things that concern my weakness.
31 The God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, he who is blessed forever more, knows that I don’t lie.
32 In Damascus the governor under King Aretas guarded the Damascenes’ city, desiring to arrest me.
33 Through a window I was let down in a basket by the wall, and escaped his hands.
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Galatians 1
Paul's astonishment at desertion for a different gospel and his curse on any who preach it
1 Paul, an apostle (not from men, nor through man, but through Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead),
2 and all the brothers who are with me, to the assemblies of Galatia:
3 Grace to you and peace from God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ,
4 who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us out of this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father—
5 to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
6 I marvel that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different “good news”;
7 and there isn’t another “good news.” Only there are some who trouble you, and want to pervert the Good News of Christ.
8 But even though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you any “good news” other than that which we preached to you, let him be cursed.
9 As we have said before, so I now say again: if any man preaches to you any “good news” other than that which you received, let him be cursed.
10 For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? For if I were still pleasing men, I wouldn’t be a servant of Christ.
11 But I make known to you, brothers, concerning the Good News which was preached by me, that it is not according to man.
12 For neither did I receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came to me through revelation of Jesus Christ.
13 For you have heard of my way of living in time past in the Jews’ religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the assembly of God, and ravaged it.
14 I advanced in the Jews’ religion beyond many of my own age among my countrymen, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers.
15 But when it was the good pleasure of God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me through his grace,
16 to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I didn’t immediately confer with flesh and blood,
17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia. Then I returned to Damascus.
18 Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Peter, and stayed with him fifteen days.
19 But of the other apostles I saw no one, except James, the Lord’s brother.
20 Now about the things which I write to you, behold, before God, I’m not lying.
21 Then I came to the regions of Syria and Cilicia.
22 I was still unknown by face to the assemblies of Judea which were in Christ,
23 but they only heard: “He who once persecuted us now preaches the faith that he once tried to destroy.”
24 And they glorified God in me.
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Ephesians 4
warning against being tossed by every wind of doctrine and deceitful scheming
1 I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to walk worthily of the calling with which you were called,
2 with all lowliness and humility, with patience, bearing with one another in love;
3 being eager to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
4 There is one body, and one Spirit, even as you also were called in one hope of your calling;
5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6 one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in us all.
7 But to each one of us was the grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
8 Therefore he says, “When he ascended on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men.”
9 Now this, “He ascended”, what is it but that he also first descended into the lower parts of the earth?
10 He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.
11 He gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, shepherds and teachers;
12 for the perfecting of the saints, to the work of serving, to the building up of the body of Christ;
13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a full grown man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;
14 that we may no longer be children, tossed back and forth and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error;
15 but speaking truth in love, we may grow up in all things into him, who is the head, Christ;
16 from whom all the body, being fitted and knit together through that which every joint supplies, according to the working in measure of each individual part, makes the body increase to the building up of itself in love.
17 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind,
18 being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their hearts;
19 who having become callous gave themselves up to lust, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
20 But you did not learn Christ that way;
21 if indeed you heard him, and were taught in him, even as truth is in Jesus:
22 that you put away, as concerning your former way of life, the old man, that grows corrupt after the lusts of deceit;
23 and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind,
24 and put on the new man, who in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of truth.
25 Therefore putting away falsehood, speak truth each one with his neighbor. For we are members of one another.
26 “Be angry, and don’t sin.” Don’t let the sun go down on your wrath,
27 and don’t give place to the devil.
28 Let him who stole steal no more; but rather let him labor, producing with his hands something that is good, that he may have something to give to him who has need.
29 Let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth, but only what is good for building others up as the need may be, that it may give grace to those who hear.
30 Don’t grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
31 Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, outcry, and slander, be put away from you, with all malice.
32 And be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving each other, just as God also in Christ forgave you.
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Colossians 2
warning against being taken captive through philosophy and empty deception
1 For I desire to have you know how greatly I struggle for you, and for those at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh;
2 that their hearts may be comforted, they being knit together in love, and gaining all riches of the full assurance of understanding, that they may know the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ,
3 in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden.
4 Now this I say that no one may delude you with persuasiveness of speech.
5 For though I am absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, rejoicing and seeing your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.
6 As therefore you received Christ Jesus, the Lord, walk in him,
7 rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, even as you were taught, abounding in it in thanksgiving.
8 Be careful that you don’t let anyone rob you through his philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the elements of the world, and not after Christ.
9 For in him all the fullness of the Deity dwells bodily,
10 and in him you are made full, who is the head of all principality and power;
11 in whom you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ;
12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
13 You were dead through your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh. He made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,
14 wiping out the handwriting in ordinances which was against us; and he has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross;
15 having stripped the principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.
16 Let no one therefore judge you in eating, or in drinking, or with respect to a feast day or a new moon or a Sabbath day,
17 which are a shadow of the things to come; but the body is Christ’s.
18 Let no one rob you of your prize by a voluntary humility and worshiping of the angels, dwelling in the things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,
19 and not holding firmly to the Head, from whom all the body, being supplied and knit together through the joints and ligaments, grows with God’s growth.
20 If you died with Christ from the elements of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to ordinances,
21 “Don’t handle, nor taste, nor touch”
22 (all of which perish with use), according to the precepts and doctrines of men?
23 Which things indeed appear like wisdom in self-imposed worship, and humility, and severity to the body; but aren’t of any value against the indulgence of the flesh.
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2 Thessalonians 2
warning not to be shaken by reports that the day of the Lord has already come
1 Now, brothers, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together to him, we ask you
2 not to be quickly shaken in your mind, and not be troubled, either by spirit, or by word, or by letter as if from us, saying that the day of Christ has already come.
3 Let no one deceive you in any way. For it will not be, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of destruction,
4 he who opposes and exalts himself against all that is called God or that is worshiped; so that he sits as God in the temple of God, setting himself up as God.
5 Don’t you remember that, when I was still with you, I told you these things?
6 Now you know what is restraining him, to the end that he may be revealed in his own season.
7 For the mystery of lawlessness already works. Only there is one who restrains now, until he is taken out of the way.
8 Then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will kill with the breath of his mouth, and destroy by the manifestation of his coming;
9 even he whose coming is according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
10 and with all deception of wickedness for those who are being lost, because they didn’t receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11 Because of this, God sends them a working of error, that they should believe a lie;
12 that they all might be judged who didn’t believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
13 But we are bound to always give thanks to God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because God chose you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief in the truth;
14 to which he called you through our Good News, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
15 So then, brothers, stand firm, and hold the traditions which you were taught by us, whether by word, or by letter.
16 Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace,
17 comfort your hearts and establish you in every good work and word.
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1 Timothy 4:1-3
the Spirit warns of those falling away to doctrines of demons forbidding marriage and foods
1 But the Spirit says expressly that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons,
2 through the hypocrisy of men who speak lies, branded in their own conscience as with a hot iron;
3 forbidding marriage and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.
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1 Timothy 6:3-5
warning about those advocating different doctrine for personal gain
3 If anyone teaches a different doctrine, and doesn’t consent to sound words, the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness,
4 he is conceited, knowing nothing, but obsessed with arguments, disputes, and word battles, from which come envy, strife, insulting, evil suspicions,
5 constant friction of people of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. Withdraw yourself from such.
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1 Timothy 6:20
Timothy told to guard what was entrusted and avoid worldly chatter
20 Timothy, guard that which is committed to you, turning away from the empty chatter and oppositions of what is falsely called knowledge;
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1 John 4:1
exhortation to test the spirits because many false prophets have gone out
1 Beloved, don’t believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
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Jude 3
appeal to contend earnestly for the faith once for all handed down to the saints
3 Beloved, while I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I was constrained to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.
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Jude 4
warning about ungodly persons turning grace into licentiousness
4 For there are certain men who crept in secretly, even those who were long ago written about for this condemnation: ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into indecency, and denying our only Master, God, and Lord, Jesus Christ.
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Jude 12
false teachers described as hidden reefs in the love feast
12 These are hidden rocky reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you, shepherds who without fear feed themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;
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Hebrews 13:11
bodies of animals burned outside the camp as sin offerings pointing to Christ
11 For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin, are burned outside of the camp.
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Hebrews 11:8-10
Abraham by faith obeyed and looked for the city whose architect and builder is God
8 By faith, Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out to the place which he was to receive for an inheritance. He went out, not knowing where he went.
9 By faith, he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a land not his own, dwelling in tents, with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise.
10 For he looked for the city which has the foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
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Psalm 50
God says He does not need bulls or goats but desires a sacrifice of thanksgiving
1 The Mighty One, God, Yahweh, speaks, and calls the earth from sunrise to sunset.
2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines out.
3 Our God comes, and does not keep silent. A fire devours before him. It is very stormy around him.
4 He calls to the heavens above, to the earth, that he may judge his people:
5 “Gather my saints together to me, those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”
6 The heavens shall declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge. Selah.
7 “Hear, my people, and I will speak; Israel, and I will testify against you. I am God, your God.
8 I don’t rebuke you for your sacrifices. Your burnt offerings are continually before me.
9 I have no need for a bull from your stall, nor male goats from your pens.
10 For every animal of the forest is mine, and the livestock on a thousand hills.
11 I know all the birds of the mountains. The wild animals of the field are mine.
12 If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it.
13 Will I eat the meat of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?
14 Offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving. Pay your vows to the Most High.
15 Call on me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”
16 But to the wicked God says, “What right do you have to declare my statutes, that you have taken my covenant on your lips,
17 since you hate instruction, and throw my words behind you?
18 When you saw a thief, you consented with him, and have participated with adulterers.
19 “You give your mouth to evil. Your tongue frames deceit.
20 You sit and speak against your brother. You slander your own mother’s son.
21 You have done these things, and I kept silent. You thought that I was just like you. I will rebuke you, and accuse you in front of your eyes.
22 “Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you into pieces, and there be no one to deliver.
23 Whoever offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifies me, and prepares his way so that I will show God’s salvation to him.”
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Colossians 2:6-7
closing exhortation to walk in Christ, rooted and built up in Him, abounding in thanksgiving
6 As therefore you received Christ Jesus, the Lord, walk in him,
7 rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, even as you were taught, abounding in it in thanksgiving.
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Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Pastor Ray walked through the closing section of Hebrews 13, covering verses 9 through 16, and then led the congregation in the Lord's Supper. The sermon pressed on a single tension: the pull toward varied and strange teachings versus the stability of grace as the center of Christian life. Before the message began, the congregation watched a video from a member who had been detained at passport control while traveling to Israel, a follow-up to prayer the church had offered for her the week before.
What was said
The session opened with a quick recap of Hebrews 13:1-8 from the previous week, covering love of the brethren, hospitality to strangers, care for prisoners, the honor of marriage, freedom from the love of money, and the charge to imitate those who have faithfully spoken the word of God. The anchor of that section was the statement that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and Pastor Ray described that line as a hinge between what had come before and what the letter says next.
The heart of the message was the warning not to be carried away by "varied and strange teachings." Pastor Ray broke down the Greek behind that phrase, noting that "varied" carries the sense of many colors or many stripes, and "strange" points to something alien, novel, or foreign to the gospel. He read through a string of similar warnings from across the New Testament, including passages from Matthew, Acts, Romans, both letters to the Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians, Thessalonians, both letters to Timothy, First John, and Jude, making the point that this caution appears in nearly every book of the New Testament.
He noted that for the original recipients of Hebrews, the temptation was to retreat from Christ back into the religious Judaism that offered some protection from persecution. For the congregation today, the shape of that temptation may look different, but the danger is the same: drifting away from the gospel toward something that feels safer or newer.
The alternative the letter offers is grace. "It is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace," Pastor Ray read, and he pressed on that. Human effort and religious systems of practice, represented in the text by the reference to foods, will not benefit those who are occupied with them. God's grace, he said, must be the central thing, both in how people understand their own salvation and in how they treat one another.
The sermon then moved to the image of Jesus suffering outside the gate, connected to the Old Testament practice of burning the sin offering outside the camp rather than letting the priests eat from it. Pastor Ray also pointed to the account of Moses pitching his own tent outside the camp after Israel's sin at Sinai, noting that everyone who sought the Lord went out to that tent. The call in Hebrews is to follow Jesus outside the camp, bearing reproach, rather than staying inside whatever religious or social safety feels comfortable.
The closing movement brought the sermon back to where Hebrews 13 began, with practical instruction: continually offer a sacrifice of praise, give thanks to God's name even through difficulty, do good, and share with one another. Pastor Ray read from Psalm 50, where God says He does not need the flesh of bulls or the blood of goats, but calls His people to offer thanksgiving and to call on Him in the day of trouble. The service then moved directly into the Lord's Supper, with Pastor Ray reading the words of institution and the elders distributing the bread and cup.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- Pastor Ray read through a long list of New Testament warnings about false and varied teachings, from Matthew through Jude. Why do you think the writers of Scripture felt the need to repeat that warning so many times, and what does that tell us about how seriously we should take it?
- Pastor Ray said that the temptation for the original recipients of Hebrews was to drift back into religious Judaism to avoid persecution, and that our temptation today may look different but pulls in the same direction. What are some of the ways you see people today quietly stepping back from clearly following Christ to avoid standing out?
and 3 more questions in the guide
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