WORSHIP TIMES:

Grace Worship - Sunday at 8:30am and 10:30am
NEXT COMBINED SERVICE SUNDAY, January 19th at 10:30am
Children's Sunday School - 10:30am (3yrs to 5th grade) 
Child Care - 10:30am (Birth to 2 years) 
Adult Sunday School - 10am Room 103 - resumes 1/12/20
Worship on Wednesday - 11:00am   
Vietnamese Bible Study/ Worship - 10am Room 207
Spanish Christian Worship - 2pm Room 207                       

The book of Hebrews is classified in our Bibles as one of the letters of the New Testament. This grouping, however, is more due to tradition than the actual format of this document. In truth, the book of Hebrews lacks all the characteristic marks of an ancient letter. The writer fails to identify himself and does not designate to whom he is writing. The customary greeting and opening prayer or expression of thanksgiving that we see repeated in the letters of Paul and Peter are not present either.
 
In the absence of all these typical features, many modern scholars have suggested we ought to read the book of Hebrews more as a sermon and less like a letter. Doing so enables us to receive what is being offered more intimately and personally. We are not reading someone else’s mail and looking from afar into the life of a community distant from our own. We are being addressed along with those who first heard this message. The preacher is as present with us in our time as he was in the day of those who first heard this sermon.
 
This perspective shift really comes home as we turn to a new section of this message, which is labeled as chapter 4 in our Bibles. In the first two and a half chapters, the preacher exhorted us to recognize how Jesus is greater than anyone else – any human prophet, any heavenly angel, and even, better than Moses. Chapter 3 rounds out with a strong exhortation not to give up our confidence in Christ and to hold onto to Jesus firmly to the end.
 
We are admonished to learn from the lessons of the past, specifically from the cautionary tale of our ancestors in the faith. Newly freed from Egyptian slavery and having passed through the waters of the Red Sea to salvation, the first generation of the Exodus shockingly perished in the wilderness. Why? Because of their stubborn unwillingness to believe and to trust in God’s ability to provide for them, to deliver them to the Promised Land – despite all they had witnessed and experienced.
 
Specifically, we are told they missed entering into God’s rest. As the preacher continues and we dive into chapter four of this book on Sunday, we are going to hear “the promise of entering his rest still stands.” The availability of God’s rest to us will be the singular focus of the passage.
 
What exactly is this “rest”?  When is it to be had? And how are we to find and enter into it? These are the questions the preacher will be answering. Together we will listen and hopefully learn from this encouraging word spoken to a group of Christians not all that unlike us, a pilgrim people of God who, although well-grounded in the faith, have become weary and are being tempted into giving up altogether. 
 
Like them, we too live in a world where there is often “no rest for the weary.” Too many of us believe we have to work and work and work and cannot afford to rest. For too many of us, being drained, tired, and spent is our default posture. Too many of us find ourselves so worn out and exhausted all the time that we are starting to believe we can’t go on even though we know we must keep going. Now more than ever, we need to hear and receive, one of God’s greatest promises, His welcome word of REST. Come and be encouraged that by the grace of God, relief is within our grasp – from all the pressures and the burdens of this life. Come and discover how to release whatever it is you are carrying, and to let yourselves be carried by the rest we have in Christ.   
 
Grace to you!
Pastor Chris