1 00:00:05,925 --> 00:00:09,087 Brethren, a lot of times when we begin to soften up, 2 00:00:09,087 --> 00:00:10,855 it's not a good thing. 3 00:00:10,855 --> 00:00:12,694 You don't want to soften up on what's 4 00:00:12,694 --> 00:00:15,825 really right, really good. 5 00:00:15,825 --> 00:00:19,161 Brethren, we need to be 6 00:00:19,161 --> 00:00:21,176 abandoned for Christ. 7 00:00:21,176 --> 00:00:24,024 We need to be Jesus freaks - all our life. 8 00:00:24,024 --> 00:00:25,649 Not just when we're first converted. 9 00:00:25,649 --> 00:00:26,789 We need to be radicals. 10 00:00:26,789 --> 00:00:28,457 We need to do radical things. 11 00:00:28,457 --> 00:00:30,452 We need to apply the Word of God 12 00:00:30,452 --> 00:00:32,076 in a radical way. 13 00:00:32,076 --> 00:00:33,860 Not just when we were first born again, 14 00:00:33,860 --> 00:00:35,360 but all the way through. 15 00:00:35,360 --> 00:00:37,574 We need to mature. We need to grow. 16 00:00:37,574 --> 00:00:39,659 You can just understand what happened 17 00:00:39,659 --> 00:00:41,248 to these Hebrews, right? 18 00:00:41,248 --> 00:00:43,741 They suffered. They were weary. 19 00:00:43,741 --> 00:00:47,564 They were worn out. They were tired. 20 00:00:47,564 --> 00:00:49,078 They had been through the trials, 21 00:00:49,078 --> 00:00:50,844 they had been through the snares, 22 00:00:50,844 --> 00:00:56,020 they had been through the dangers. 23 00:00:56,020 --> 00:00:58,455 And in their weariness they weren't ready 24 00:00:58,455 --> 00:00:59,845 to be as exact as they were. 25 00:00:59,845 --> 00:01:01,529 Isn't that where it happens? 26 00:01:01,529 --> 00:01:02,808 We go through the trials, 27 00:01:02,808 --> 00:01:06,263 we get beat up by the trials we're made to go through. 28 00:01:06,263 --> 00:01:08,939 They came through much tribulation. 29 00:01:08,939 --> 00:01:10,577 That's what we saw in Revelation. 30 00:01:10,577 --> 00:01:12,072 These are the ones that came 31 00:01:12,072 --> 00:01:13,395 through the tribulation. 32 00:01:13,395 --> 00:01:15,889 Well, I don't know what your eschatology 33 00:01:15,889 --> 00:01:16,633 is all about, 34 00:01:16,633 --> 00:01:18,040 but brethren, we're told 35 00:01:18,040 --> 00:01:19,823 through much tribulation, we all come. 36 00:01:19,823 --> 00:01:21,966 That is the tribulation I believe that's speaking to, 37 00:01:21,966 --> 00:01:24,922 not some concocted thing of 38 00:01:24,922 --> 00:01:27,602 premillenial dispensationalism. 39 00:01:27,602 --> 00:01:31,380 This is the tribulation that God has called 40 00:01:31,380 --> 00:01:34,000 all of His people to come through. 41 00:01:34,000 --> 00:01:35,050 And you know what? 42 00:01:35,050 --> 00:01:36,620 We go through that tribulation. 43 00:01:36,620 --> 00:01:39,256 We come through all the dangers, toils and snares. 44 00:01:39,256 --> 00:01:40,487 We come through the trials, 45 00:01:40,487 --> 00:01:42,847 and the fact is, we can get worn out. 46 00:01:42,847 --> 00:01:44,559 And we're ready to lay down, 47 00:01:44,559 --> 00:01:47,505 not be so exact, not be so precise. 48 00:01:47,505 --> 00:01:49,373 But the writer of Hebrews is saying, 49 00:01:49,373 --> 00:01:50,603 Onward, Hebrews! 50 00:01:50,603 --> 00:01:53,105 And onward, Grace Community Church brethren. 51 00:01:53,105 --> 00:01:54,956 Onward, we need to press in, 52 00:01:54,956 --> 00:01:56,274 we need to press through, 53 00:01:56,274 --> 00:01:57,577 we need to go on. 54 00:01:57,577 --> 00:02:00,428 Brethren, be exact. 55 00:02:00,428 --> 00:02:02,579 Be precise. 56 00:02:02,579 --> 00:02:04,204 So what if you seem strange to your family 57 00:02:04,204 --> 00:02:05,695 or to others or even to other Christians. 58 00:02:05,695 --> 00:02:07,662 A lot of times it's other professing Christians 59 00:02:07,662 --> 00:02:09,922 that are the greatest ridiculers 60 00:02:09,922 --> 00:02:12,480 and the biggest wet blanket when there's 61 00:02:12,480 --> 00:02:14,729 somebody who really wants to give their life 62 00:02:14,729 --> 00:02:16,969 for serving Christ. 63 00:02:16,969 --> 00:02:18,373 Brethren, do you see what the writer of Hebrews 64 00:02:18,373 --> 00:02:19,589 is calling us on to? 65 00:02:19,589 --> 00:02:20,754 Maturity. 66 00:02:20,754 --> 00:02:22,870 Pressing onward, pressing upward. 67 00:02:22,870 --> 00:02:25,124 And it's down that path, brethren, 68 00:02:25,124 --> 00:02:28,129 that when we get to Melchizedek, 69 00:02:28,129 --> 00:02:31,793 that kind of resolved, resolute life 70 00:02:31,793 --> 00:02:33,646 where I am going to do what is right; 71 00:02:33,646 --> 00:02:36,783 I am going to conform my life, 72 00:02:36,783 --> 00:02:38,772 not to the world, 73 00:02:38,772 --> 00:02:40,280 but to the Word of Righteousness, 74 00:02:40,280 --> 00:02:41,806 to the standard found in here. 75 00:02:41,806 --> 00:02:43,479 I'm going to strive to figure out what 76 00:02:43,479 --> 00:02:44,752 is pleasing to the Lord, 77 00:02:44,752 --> 00:02:46,474 and I'm going to be exact. 78 00:02:46,474 --> 00:02:47,711 And I'm going to back to it. 79 00:02:47,711 --> 00:02:49,843 And if I got dull and sloppy 80 00:02:49,843 --> 00:02:51,504 and thick-skulled in my life, 81 00:02:51,504 --> 00:02:53,562 if I began to stray, I'm coming back. 82 00:02:53,562 --> 00:02:56,484 Repentence is not a one-time thing, brethren. 83 00:02:56,484 --> 00:02:57,852 We need to come back. 84 00:02:57,852 --> 00:02:59,443 You need to be on that track 85 00:02:59,443 --> 00:03:00,825 of preciseness. 86 00:03:00,825 --> 00:03:02,018 Precise to this Word. 87 00:03:02,018 --> 00:03:05,455 You need to read it and hear. 88 00:03:05,455 --> 00:03:07,616 Don't be like I was with the stewardesses. 89 00:03:07,616 --> 00:03:09,559 You need to come back where this is the Word of God. 90 00:03:09,559 --> 00:03:11,887 This is not some paltry word of a stewardess 91 00:03:11,887 --> 00:03:14,029 that doesn't matter. 92 00:03:14,029 --> 00:03:15,492 You are in an airplane that is 93 00:03:15,492 --> 00:03:16,632 going to go down. 94 00:03:16,632 --> 00:03:19,216 There is a wrath of God coming, brethren, 95 00:03:19,216 --> 00:03:21,428 and the seatbelt of this Word is 96 00:03:21,428 --> 00:03:22,720 all imperative. 97 00:03:22,720 --> 00:03:24,588 And you need to stay fresh 98 00:03:24,588 --> 00:03:25,972 on how to keep it buckled, 99 00:03:25,972 --> 00:03:29,546 and how to not let it get unbuckled. 100 00:03:29,546 --> 00:03:32,935 Folks, this is life and death. 101 00:03:32,935 --> 00:03:35,222 And if you just write yourself off right in the beginning 102 00:03:35,222 --> 00:03:38,100 as well, you know, apostacy is for these other people 103 00:03:38,100 --> 00:03:39,419 and it could never happen to me. 104 00:03:39,419 --> 00:03:40,541 Brethren, it's happened to people 105 00:03:40,541 --> 00:03:42,740 right out of our own midst. 106 00:03:42,740 --> 00:03:44,864 And it's a reality. 107 00:03:44,864 --> 00:03:46,258 And if you want to stay good and true 108 00:03:46,258 --> 00:03:48,742 to the end, this is something, it is your soul. 109 00:03:48,742 --> 00:03:51,542 Matt Haney's brother just passed off into eternity. 110 00:03:51,542 --> 00:03:52,969 What? About 30 years old. 111 00:03:52,969 --> 00:03:55,122 A life wasted. 112 00:03:55,122 --> 00:03:59,206 Brethren, that is a shame. 113 00:03:59,206 --> 00:04:00,521 But you know what would be 114 00:04:00,521 --> 00:04:02,063 an even greater shame? 115 00:04:02,063 --> 00:04:04,549 Is if he sat in this church every week 116 00:04:04,549 --> 00:04:07,592 and he actually owned a Bible and read it. 117 00:04:07,592 --> 00:04:09,199 And he became so dull of hearing 118 00:04:09,199 --> 00:04:11,634 that in the end, he lost his soul. 119 00:04:11,634 --> 00:04:13,768 That's even more tragic, brethren. 120 00:04:13,768 --> 00:04:15,498 Coming so close. 121 00:04:15,498 --> 00:04:16,828 Jesus said to one man, 122 00:04:16,828 --> 00:04:18,913 "you are close to the kingdom." 123 00:04:18,913 --> 00:04:22,426 Coming so close and missing it. 124 00:04:22,426 --> 00:04:24,634 You don't want to do that. 125 00:04:24,634 --> 00:04:26,482 This needs to be your food. 126 00:04:26,482 --> 00:04:28,411 We live not by bread alone. 127 00:04:28,411 --> 00:04:29,746 Brethren, be in this Word. 128 00:04:29,746 --> 00:04:32,017 Pray to God for help to see it, 129 00:04:32,017 --> 00:04:34,076 to understand it, to apply it, 130 00:04:34,076 --> 00:04:35,277 to live it. 131 00:04:35,277 --> 00:04:36,378 Be exact. 132 00:04:36,378 --> 00:04:37,326 Be a fanatic. 133 00:04:37,326 --> 00:04:38,584 Be a radical. 134 00:04:38,584 --> 00:04:41,358 To God's Word. 135 00:04:41,358 --> 00:04:43,113 This is not something that you want to 136 00:04:43,113 --> 00:04:45,134 slow the pace in. 137 00:04:45,134 --> 00:04:47,041 You've got to persevere to the end 138 00:04:47,041 --> 00:04:49,070 if you wwould be saved, brethren. 139 00:04:49,070 --> 00:04:52,116 Press on. 140 00:04:52,116 --> 00:04:54,755 Renew your commitment to this Word. 141 00:04:54,755 --> 00:04:57,270 God help us, brethren.