The Book of Hebrews 3:1-6 Aspects of a Stewardship

Good morning. If you felt like you're having a deja vu experience, wait a minute, didn't somebody read that passage last week? You're right. We did read it last week. One of the things we'll do here is briefly go through and review what we touched on last week in this passage. From last Sunday, the slides go like this, and we've got some of them repeated in your handout as well.

Verse 1 puts our focus on the position of Christ that is, a position in Christ rather, and who Christ is, and that's the beginning part. We addressed that largely last week. Verses 2 through the very first part of 6, we call it 6a, has us comparing and contrasting Moses with Christ, and we'll be looking at that more today. It presents that Christ is of more glory than Moses, and we'll look at why.

Next here, we'll have verse 6 ends by bringing us back to the personal and the church body relevance. What does that mean to you and me? And some of those things we pointed out last week, confidence and hope, were things that the passage points out. Holding fast, firm until the end. And finally, it talked about, it says, we will examine the nature of the if in verse 6. We did, in fact, do that last week. And then why are we looking at it today, and then again another Sunday after today? Why would you do that?

The passage is rich with truths, and we want to make sure that we gather them all out. It's a pivotal passage for a number of reasons. We in the church body need the truths that are in here, for all the rich things that are there. We're invited in this passage to see who Christ is and to consider Him.

And one of the points we made last week, this word consider doesn't mean you put it on the list and kind of think about it and decide whether or not you're actually going to pick one. It is in fact an invitation to an aha moment. It's consider, behold, let it sink in and go, aha, now I get it. That's the word consider. That's what that means.

We see that that total grace that we've been placed in is of greater glory and is also essential. Total grace. Not grace and a little bit of law. Total grace. And we find in here permanent confidence and hope. Not an I hope so hope. Not confidence that wavers. Permanent confidence and hope. The confidence and hope that are in this passage is absolute certainty. Now, people in this world will typically tell you nothing is for sure, right? Except maybe death and taxes. And even that, some people are disputing. But this is absolute certainty.

Absolute confidence and hope. Because our hope is not in ourselves, but our hope is in God, who is the one who has revealed absolute truth. He is a trustworthy God. Furthermore, We have a certain and absolutely fixed and unshakable hope in Christ the Lord.

It's not, I hope this or that will happen. I hope this is the outcome. But it is continued and certain hopefulness because it is the Lord we're talking about and not something that we try to make happen. This is not an I hope so kind of hope. It's a hopefulness grounded on total certainty. It's something this world doesn't understand.

Today, however, we're going to be changing the focus as we look at this passage, because we're going to be shifting to verse 2 into the very first part of verse 6. And so the personalities in this passage are simple. God, Moses, and Christ. Those three.

And then the other thing to keep in mind, knowing that the believers who are receiving this letter, this letter to the Hebrews, were leaning back towards the old temple sacrificial system. They were thinking, you know, that was something I could understand. I mean, you can see the sacrifices, smells a little bit, kind of like a barbecue, I guess. But you can see the sacrifice. You can see the smoke. I can go through the motions, and I can see it and smell it, touch it, taste it, and everything is real and certain. And I know that.

And all this faith in Jesus, I don't know about that. So they were tempted to slide back into that. So the author shows them that while Moses was in fact faithful in his house, that's a truth he lays out there, Moses was faithful for over 40 years, with a few exceptions we'll take a look at. Christ was faithful in his house, and he is worthy of greater glory for several reasons, as he'll point out.

So we're going to shift our focus to the middle part here. This is a most important passage about the most important stewardships. And we want to be sure here that we keep the main thing the main thing. God has managed all of human history with certain things in mind. Now, you might think human history is just one big series of accidents, one after another, right? But, God is doing things in human history all the way along. God has managed all of human history with specific things in mind. And believe it or not, history is going somewhere.

First thing, God's eternal purpose is to declare and share and reveal His glory. God's eternal purpose is to declare and share and reveal His glory so that He might be glorified. It's about God's glory. And what's the amazing thing is that He intentionally reveals that with us, and even more amazing, He shares that glory with us.

And not just for a time, but for eternity. So that's the first thing. God is doing everything to declare and share and reveal His glory so that He might be glorified. That's from the past, that's on into the future. That's God's eternal purpose. Next, all of human history is being managed by God Himself to the ends that, and that's plural, all things work together for good.

That's Romans 8.28 and 29. Now let's talk about that for a minute. All things work together for good, and it's God who pulls that off. Does that mean all things are good? Nuh-uh. There are some things that are just lousy and worse. Some things are just plain awful. But that's not what it's saying. It's not saying we have to call these awful things good. We can call awful things awful. What it says is God's going to work all things for the good. And what's the good? that you and I as believers are being conformed to the image of Christ. That's the good.

All kinds of things will happen in our lives, and some of them will be short, brief things, and some of them will be enduring pains. All kinds of things are going to happen. But the good that comes out of it, even out of those things that you'd look at and say, now that was awful. Maybe it still is awful. But all things work together for good.

God is managing all of history that all things work together for the good that you and I as believers are being conformed to the image of the Son. Unbelievers don't see and understand that, but we can. They can look at things and just get bitter and look at things and get angry. They can see tragedy and finally get to a point of even just apathy. They throw up their hands. I don't care because I can't. I can't stand it anymore.

But all things work together for believers that were being conformed to the image of Christ. All things in history are going to this end. Everything on this planet will be summed up in Christ. Believe it or not, no matter how crazy it looks like the world is, no matter how nuts things get, loony things happen, terrible things happen, All things are being managed to this end. Everything is being summed up in Christ. If you worry about the last election, if you're worried about the next one, don't worry. Everything's going to be summed up in Christ.

It's going to happen. God's managing everything to that end. But I've got to caution you. Before that happens, it's going to look a whole lot worse. It's going to look a whole lot worse before this happens. But in the end, everything will be summed up in Christ. Now, we have a question here. We use this word stewardship. We're going to continue to use it. What's a stewardship besides being a steward on a ship? Right? What's a stewardship?

We've got to talk about that. People oftentimes in a church context will think stewardship and what falls into place as they start thinking about, well, that's your management of money. And that's what a lot of Christians will fall into, and in fact that's true, but there's a lot more to it than that. A stewardship is the entrusting of something and or someone or even whole groups of people to another for management or safekeeping. That's a stewardship, entrusting something to someone.

So for example, when Nancy and I would watch Abby, we're being entrusted with Abby for that time. And for management and safekeeping and maybe not clean. But anyway, that would be an example of a brief stewardship. Babysitting, in that instance, would be a stewardship.

There's all sorts of examples and we'll look to those. There are a number of ways that this word stewardship is used in the world today. In the environment, for example, it could be said that we have a stewardship over the earth. We are handing off however we've taken care of the earth and passing it on to the subsequent generations. In the realm of economics, the word stewardship is used. Health, we could say that I have a stewardship over my body. Oh boy, I got something. Anyway. property. Somebody entrusts something to you to manage or take care of, or even information.

Here's some information, treat it with care, etc. There are a great many stewardships in the Bible from one end to the other, and we just want to kind of scan through an assortment of those to kind of get the idea across. Here is Adam. He has been given this beautiful garden, the Garden of Eden. And God essentially grants to Adam a stewardship in the garden.

And God says, you know, you can eat of all these different things, only eat this, take care of this. You know, here you can name all the animals, you know, whatever name you pick, that's what it is. And so, but just don't eat of that tree over there. That's all you got to do. Don't eat that one.

So there's a stewardship. He is entrusted with the garden according to certain principles. Even when Eve was created and presented to him, he was in fact entrusted with Eve. He had a responsibility for Eve in addition to Eden. That was a stewardship. He didn't do so well with it, but nonetheless, that's a stewardship.

Here is Noah. God comes to Noah and says, look Noah, We got to have you build this ark and it's got to be this big and it's got to have these kind of dimensions and different floor levels in it and you got to take the animals in it and that's a stewardship. God entrusted certain things to Noah and even when Noah and his family got off the ark and the animals got off the ark, God entrusted additional things to Noah. Here is an example on a smaller scale.

Here is Joseph, son of Jacob, who was managing, given a stewardship over Potiphar's house. It didn't end up so good, but he was given a stewardship over Potiphar's house. After a time in jail, he was then restored to second in command in Egypt and given what? A stewardship. He was entrusted with then great authority in Egypt. That's a stewardship.

Here's another example. Here's Moses whose job is, can you imagine, okay, now that you're 80 years old, I've got a project for you, God says. I've got a project for you. I want you to take these people who've been slaves and know nothing of anything else but Egypt and making bricks. Bricks out of mud and straw, and I want you to take those people and I want you to lead them up to this land that neither you nor they have ever seen. You ready to do that?

So the next 40 years, after he's 80 years old, he goes and leads them out. And what does he do in the stewardship? He starts off by giving them the law, and he ends as they're ready to enter the land, but he doesn't get to. But he had a stewardship. He was entrusted with taking these people, from Egypt into the promised land, or at least up to the edge of it, and giving him the law. That was his stewardship. David, as king, had a stewardship.

He was entrusted with certain things among the people of Israel. This is Jeremiah, and it has scribe Baruch. All of the authors of scripture were entrusted with something, weren't they? They were entrusted with writing down and revealing things that were God's revelation preserved even for our benefit. So all the authors of Scripture were entrusted. They had a stewardship with Scripture.

Here is the apostles when Christ is about to leave them. They've got lots of questions and soon Christ leaves them and they still have lots of questions. But what had he done? He says, you shall be my witnesses. He entrusted the message to them. They had a stewardship. Here is the Apostle Paul, Acts chapter 20, meeting with the elders from Ephesus. And what was he doing?

He says, I will see you now today for the last time. I'm going to leave you, and I am entrusting this eldership to you. I'm going to give you my last words. It's now yours. You're entrusted. And then finally, the Apostle John as he writes the book of Revelation. Here he is on the Isle of Patmos. He, at that point in time, is commissioned and trusted with writing the contents of the book of Revelation.

So this is a stewardship. So from beginning to end, we see stewardships in the Bible. In fact, there are a great many more we haven't even touched upon, but this will give you a sampling. There are numbers of ways in which stewardship is used today, and there are a great many stewardships in the Bible from one end to the other. Some of them were small. Some of them were small. Each of us has a number of stewardships, and we're going to talk about that. People are things that have been entrusted to us.

And one of the things we're going to talk about, even if you're a really, really old guy, you still have stewardships. Matter of fact, the way it's been put is if you've got a pulse, you've got a purpose. So we're going to talk about that, but later. So you have to hang on for that.

All right, so here we are in Hebrews 3, 1 through 6. And what we're going to do is take this middle section, 2 through the beginning of 6, and we're going to take the middle part of the sandwich, so to speak, and take a look at that and focus on that for the rest of our time. You have this slide here, and what we've done is to take that 2, 1 through 6 and make one addition. And one of the things we've done is to identify some of the pronouns and other things that might not be obvious, just so we understand the passage clearly. So you have a slide like this on page one, let's go through it.

He, that is Christ, was faithful to him, the father, who appointed him, Christ, as Moses also was in his house. For he, Christ, has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses by just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house itself. For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Now Moses was faithful in all his house, that is, Israel, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which are to be spoken later. But Christ was faithful as a son over his house, the church, whose house we are.

The church being the body from Acts 2 until the rapture, the time when the Lord calls his church home. So now, with that as an introduction to what these pronouns and various things refer to, one of the things that this passage does, it points out, although we said there's lots of stewardship in the Bible, lots of things for which people have been entrusted, These two are some of the more important stewardships on the planet, and they're ones that we want to get real clear. Moses was entrusted with a house and people of Israel as God's servant for the last 40 years of his life. How would you like to get a project starting at age 80? Now you're going to carry this on and lead people who are cantankerous with inadequate resources all the way up to the promised land that you've never seen, and they haven't either.

Moses was just a man. He was just a man, unlike Christ. His active service ended when he died. That's important. His active service ended when he died. He's gone. He essentially handed it off to Joshua, who in turn handed it off to others. But when Moses left, he was gone. His active service ended at his death.

Christ was and is the builder of the house that is known as the church, the body of Christ. God entrusted the people of the church to Christ, who was a son. Notice the difference. Here's Moses, a servant, but Christ, a son, the son. The church began after Christ ascended, and his carrying out of his ministry to the church didn't start until after he left planet earth. Opposite of Moses. Moses had his commission while he was here. Christ is the one entrusted with the church and he does it how?

All after he's left. Yeah. He does it all after he's left. Let's take a look at the stewardship, kind of zeroing in on verses 3 and 4 here. For he, Christ, has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, but just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house. Now if you noticed, wait a minute, he's got glory and honor.

Why is he making those somewhat comparable? What we find is glory and honor are used as synonyms and are often paired together, as we say glory and honor frequently in the Bible. So that's why you see first reference to glory and then to honor. It's because the two words were often used interchangeably or together.

But the next thing is God is the builder of all things. Christ as the Son is deity, the builder of the house that is the church, the body of Christ. That's us. That's us. Notice in Matthew 16, 18, and you have this on page two of your handout, I also say to you that you are Peter, speaking to Peter, the disciple, then to be the apostle. And upon this rock, by the way, Peter is a small rock, meaning his name, this rock is a massive rock, kind of like the Rockies, it's a massive rock, okay?

And the gates of Hades, I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. Who's building the church? Christ is building the church. That's a very important thing. We'll take a look at that in a bit. I will build my church as Christ's statement, and He does so after He is ascended.

In 1 Peter, here's the guy that Christ spoke to and said those words to, 1 Peter 2, 4, and 5, and coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also as living stones, You also as living stones, who's a living stone?

You, also, right? You're a living stone, okay? Are being built up as a spiritual house. Who's doing the building? Christ, okay? You're being built up as a spiritual house, you living stones, you, right? And Christ is doing the building, because he said he would.

And Peter's writing about it, because he knows. for a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices. Remember what the Hebrews were tempted to do? Go back to the physical sacrifices, because I can understand that. I can pay for it. It's a little expensive, but I can pay for it. I can see the priest doing it and get offered up. It all fits the senses. But no, spiritual sacrifices are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Now, let's talk about the word faithful, which shows up in this passage here. First Corinthians 4, 1 and 2, the Apostle Paul writes to the church at Corinth, and they've got issues. Boy, have they got issues. But one of the things he wants to get across to them, he says, let a man, and by the way, let doesn't mean allow anywhere in the New Testament, especially from Axon.

It really means a man must. So let a man meaning a man must consider us as servants of Christ and stewards, here's this word stewards again, of the mysteries of God moreover it is required of stewards that one be found faithful just like we see there in Hebrews 3, 1-6 both Moses and Christ are faithful Moses the servant, notice he's a servant was faithful, though imperfect, as God's steward in Israel. He was over Israel and among them. He was entrusted with this huge task, taking them from Egypt, giving them the law, getting them, by the way, the sea by parting it, right? And getting them up to the edge of the promised land.

He was faithful, but was he perfect? No, he wasn't. As a matter of fact, the reason he didn't lead them into the promised land was because he was imperfect. He blew it. He blew it at the waters of Meribah. God gave him specific directions about how it was to get water out of the rock. And instead he starts whacking the rock and cursing these people. And God says, that isn't what I told you to do. So he doesn't get to go into the promised land, he only gets to look into it.

Christ the Son, not just a servant, but the Son, was perfectly faithful, unlike Moses, as the builder of all, builder of all things. God's the builder of all things. Is Christ a deity? Yes. One of the three persons of the Trinity. the builder of the church. I will build my church. So Christ is the builder of everything and specifically of the church. That includes you and me.

Now, aspects of a stewardship. Now I've got this so that you've got one side of the slide here with some words and then there's a blank area. That's on purpose. These are aspects of a stewardship which is helpful for you to know because you've got several of them. Helpful for you to know because you've got several of them. One, the person doing the entrusting, the one handing out stewardships, if you will, is God himself. Secondly, the one who is entrusted.

In this passage, it's Moses and Christ are the ones who are entrusted with a stewardship. God gives the stewardship, it does the entrusting, and the one who receives the stewardship and is entrusted is the steward. Moses and Christ are the stewards in this passage. Next, the title of the one who is entrusted. Moses is called a servant, Christ is called a son. Moses is a servant, Christ is a son. Next, the character of the one entrusted. Both Moses and Christ get called faithful. Faithful. Next, the work of the one entrusted. And we could, in fact, put more to this and we'll keep it brief.

Moses was a prophet. He also acted as a judge. And I put dot dot dot there because there are other things that you could say that Moses did. When he, for example, put the serpent up So that people could look upon the serpent and be cured of the illness that they had and be healed from it That was going beyond simply prophet and judge. So there are other things and that's why we put the dot dot dot Christ was Savior builder and as we've seen earlier in the book of Hebrews high priest and We could add others to those a shepherd right other work of the one entrusted and In the next slide here, you have this. The arrangement or assigning of entrusting.

Now, when did that happen? With Moses, it happened at the burning bush. It happened at the burning bush. Here's this bush. It's burning. It doesn't burn up. It just keeps burning. And God speaks out of the burning bush and gives him an assignment. Now, Moses is admittedly reluctant. Okay? But I don't... You're going. You know? I can't speak. Aaron. Okay? Who will I say has sent me? I am!

So God gives them an assignment, they're out of the burning bush, that's where he gets it. Christ got his assignment for coming as he did when? He got his assignment before God said, let there be light. Before God said, let there be light, his assignment was given to him back then. God didn't create everything and then say, oh, heaven, these people need a Savior. What a surprise! God didn't do that. Instead, in eternity past, there was already the agreement that Christ would come and die for the sins of you and me.

As a matter of fact, Revelation 13.8, He was slain from before the foundation of the world. So Moses was surprised by a burning bush and he got an assignment out of it. Christ knew long before there was let there be light that this assignment was coming up.

The principles of entrusting. Now one of the things we pointed out that we use the word principles. That's nothing to do with that guy down at the school. This is a different kind of principle. This principle is either a fundamental truth or the way things work or both. That's what we mean by this.

The way things work under Moses is law. 613 laws in the law of Moses, 365 of them that say don't do this and don't do that. Lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of laws. Got them all memorized? Not me neither. Okay. Principle of law is the principle that Moses was entrusted with, and that's why very early in his time, once he got out of Egypt very early in his time, the law was revealed and set forth.

Because that's the principle that he's going to operate with with Israel for all the rest of their days. Now, with Christ, it's grace. We'll talk more about grace as the reigning principle in a minute. With Christ, it's grace, pure grace, nothing but grace. So help you God.

The objective of the one entrusted. Now, where are you headed with this? With Moses, it's give the law, take him to the land. That's your objective. Did he do it? Yep. He's faithful. With Christ, do we have the law and the land as the objective? No. Grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

If you're a believer, what's Christ's objective in you? to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, 2 Peter 3.18. That's what God is aiming for, to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. The domain that is entrusted with Moses is the people of Israel in the land of Israel. For us in the church, Christ has made it so that the church is the domain and it doesn't have a geography here on planet earth.

Where are you blessed with every spiritual blessing? In the heavenly places. Where is your citizenship? In the heavenly places. Where are we to set our minds on things above? We have, as we saw earlier in this very same passage, we have a heavenly calling. It's all about heaven and not about Israel. It's an entirely different thing. The domain that we've been placed in, and the domain that Christ has been entrusted with, is a heavenly church. Moses was entrusted with an earthly Israel.

And finally, the call of those in the domain, Moses said, live by the law. And by the way, if you don't live by the law, you're going to die by it, right? So that's the way the law works. Live by the law. Are you and I called to live by the law? No. Are you and I called to live by any laws? I'm talking not about the law of the land here, but the law spiritually speaking. Are we to live by any laws spiritually speaking?

Zip. None. Nada. Entirely by grace. We live by His life. Now, application. Principles. Remember we said principle is either a fundamental truth or the way things work or both. This is the way things work. Things work according to law or they work according to grace. So here's the application. Stewardships can have principles of stewardship. That is, the way things work. The reigning principle of the people of Israel was law.

You got 613 of them. You better memorize them. You better get them down. Because if you don't, you just might die. You just might die. You'd be forced to study rocks up close, real close, a little too close. Moses was the one who delivered that law, and he was faithful to it. He did it, all 613. The reigning principle in the church is grace.

This is Romans 5.21. Christ was the one who separated us from the principle of law. And Christ was the one who delivered grace. He delivered grace.

We have died to the law, Romans 7, 4-6, Galatians 2.19. We've died in relationship to the law, Romans 7, 4-6, in order to be joined to Christ under grace, the reigning principle.

John 1.17 puts it this way, For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. Just as succinct as that.

You want law? That's Moses. You've got to see him. Grace? That's Jesus Christ, and you need to go see him. That is why Paul can write in Romans 8, There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. It takes law to condemn. If you want condemnation, I just can't help you. You'll have to go somewhere else. Next application.

Christ is the builder and not us. Christ was and is the builder of the church. And unlike Moses, he still continues as the builder of the church until the day he comes to take us home. Christ builds the church and how does he do it? He leaves. Yeah, he leaves. How does He do it? Christ inside.

It's not our place to do things for Christ. As a matter of fact, there's even songs about this. Do it for Jesus, right? This is kind of a pep talk about do something for Jesus. You can't do anything for Jesus. That wasn't His intent. It's my place and our place to have Him do things in and through us. He's the builder. In and through us. I haven't got anything delegated to me. Nothing. And neither do you. There is a song that goes this way. Only when life shall soon be past, only what's done for Christ will last. Nice song, but it's wrong. Only what's done by Christ will last. Huge difference. It's Christ in you.

Galatians 2.20, it's no longer I, and I'll expand the translation, it's no longer I who do the living, but Christ does the living in me.

And the life that I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me. It's no longer I who do the living. And how did God assure that it would no longer be me doing the living? He killed me. I have been crucified with Christ. It's the best thing He could have done. It's not my job to be living this life. And I can't live for Christ and God doesn't want it. It's Christ's life in me. That's what's going to do it.

Jesus inside. On purpose. It's exactly what God had in mind. We have Jesus inside for Him to do it, for Him to build us individually and as a church body. We are also placed in Christ, in His death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seeding, but the first thing He does is crucify us. Why? To get us out of the way so that it's no longer I who do the living, but Christ who does the living in me. Christ in me, me in Christ, and that's on purpose. It's no accident at all.

Now, the application, again, is your stewardships. There are a great many stewardships of different kinds and of varying degrees of significance in the Bible. A fair number of them that apply to us here now. All of you, I would dare say, have probably several stewardships of different kinds. We have stewardships of varying degrees and durations of significance. An example, members of this church body, we are entrusted with the lives of one another, given, entrusted with, spiritual gifts to be lived out among each of us. We're entrusted with those things, and we have in those things a stewardship with each other. Next, a spouse. You're entrusted with a spouse. Just going all the way back to, here's Adam, Eve was brought to Him. He was entrusted with a spouse. You're entrusted with a spouse according to a grace principle. Furthermore, if you are a parent, you have been entrusted with your children. You don't own them. Eventually you'll find that out if you haven't figured that out yet. You've been entrusted with your children. God entrusts them into your hands.

One of the moments that was a pivotal moment for our second son, Ed, and he wrote me about this about a year or so ago. He says one night he got up and he was going to the bathroom and he kind of peeked into mom and dad's room. I don't know why he does that. Anyway, peeks into mom and dad's room and he looks in there and there's dad praying. His dad praying. He says, I remember that.

He says, because you were giving back to God the kids that God had given you. And that was a pivotal moment for him. So as a parent, as a parent, we're entrusted with our kids. We're entrusted with our kids. And so this is a very important stewardship. And it also, like all stewardships, there's a period of time when things start to change. It's different now. How about grandparents? Here in my situation, I've gotten a little bit older. Oh boy. Here I am a grandparent of eight now. And so the stewardship has changed from what it was when I was a parent.

But Nancy and I will pray together daily for each one of our adult children, for each of their spouses. We'll pray for our grandkids. We will even pray for our grandkids' future spouses. Why? What is that? It is part of what we see now as the stewardship that we have once as a parent and now as a grandparent. So we pray for them. Why? We've been entrusted with it. This is a very important stewardship. And that's something about stewardships. They frequently will change over time. What it is that we're entrusted with and what we need to see as our stewardships will often change and do. And that's something for us to look at. In all of these things, we are not under the stewardship that Moses put in place. We're not under principle of law. We're under principle of grace as a parent, as a grandparent. Gracious principle. Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you that as we see these truths here, you have truths that extend from eternity past. to eternity future for us, but we also see truths here that apply to how we live out life. And boy, is it our job to try really hard to be a good Christian, or do we let you do it? And clearly the answer is, you went and did something very extreme, and you had us crucified with Christ. So it would be apparent that Christ's very life is what is to be lived out in us and among us. And we thank you for that. You will build your church. You will build everyone in the church. Until that day when we see you face to face, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.