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Again, good morning. Please turn in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 3. Hebrews chapter 3. I know what the Holy Spirit is saying to you, and I know what will become of you if you do not listen. Sound pretty bold. Hebrews chapter 3, beginning in verse 7. Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as when they provoked me, as in the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tried me by testing me, and saw my works for forty years.

Therefore, I was angry with this generation, and said they always go astray in their heart, and they did not know my ways. As I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.

So we know what the Holy Spirit is saying. It's not to be a mystery. Remember last week, We looked at the first six verses of chapter three. We have an incredible calling, all of us. You here, you have been called from heaven. You've been called to pay attention to Jesus.

You have been called to follow one greater than Moses. And you have been called to be part of God's household. What an incredible calling. How should you respond? How should I respond to this incredible calling? I think Psalm 95, as we read earlier, describes the deep gratitude and joy that should characterize our response to this high calling from heaven.

Psalm 95, verse 1 reads this, O come, let us sing for joy to the Lord. Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving. Let us shout joyfully to him with psalms. For the Lord is a great God and a great king above all gods, in whose hands are the depths of the earth, the peaks of the mountain are his also, the sea is his, for it is he who made it, and his hands formed the dry land.

Come, let us worship and bow down and kneel before the Lord our Maker, for he is our God, and we are the People of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. This is the response that God was looking for in that generation of Israelites that came out of Egypt during the Exodus.

How should they have responded? Well, they should have thanked God. There should have been joy in their step and joy in their heart and joy in their conversation about the great God who delivered them from all the gods of Egypt and had been providing for them, who in whose hands the depths of the earth, he made that very clear that he owns it all.

And so the response that God was looking for in response to this great calling, calling this generation out of Egypt to be his people, to be the sheep of his pasture, was one of worship, gratitude, thanksgiving, and bowing down and welcoming his rule over their lives. They didn't.

And Psalm 95 also provides, it goes on to provide an emphatic warning with the desire or with these dire consequences for those who neglect the heavenly call. An emphatic warning with dire consequences for those who neglect the high calling. So it is a word to us today. Do not neglect this high calling.

Look back at verse 7. Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says. So be sure this morning, before we go any further, be sure that you know it is the Holy Spirit who is speaking to us today. And it is said, therefore, just as the Holy Spirit is saying, it's not what the Holy Spirit said, but what the Holy Spirit is saying.

It's a present continual action. Therefore, just as he is saying. So there are several important implications that you need to notice. First of all, the Holy Spirit is a person. He speaks. The Holy Spirit is not an it, not a force. The Holy Spirit is a person. He.

Second, the Holy Spirit is speaking. He speaks. He is speaking. Third, he is speaking through that which was written long ago. He speaks through. Through his word. Think about it. Psalm 95, an ancient text written probably somewhere around 1,000 years before the time of Christ. 1,000 years before the preacher of Hebrews is using this text to speak to a modern audience, sometime around 65, 66 AD.

He was speaking to a modern audience through an ancient text with no diminishment of power, no diminishment of the person speaking. The Holy Spirit, he is speaking. So when you pick up your Bibles, you are interacting with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit breathed words. You are being addressed by the Most High.

And this is why you should never take your Bible studies lightly. Never take His Word lightly. You will be accountable. You will be held accountable to how you read your Bible and the way you approach the Bible because you're being addressed by the Most High. And he knows how to speak.

Don't get fancy with His word. Let his plain meaning ring through. He knows how to communicate. Come before him in the posture of kneeling, the posture of a disciple, to let him speak. You will be held accountable to how you read your Bible. But this is why you shouldn't take your Bible times lightly.

This is why we center our whole corporate existence together up here at a manual around biblical truth. What a privilege. Aren't you thankful that the God of the universe wants to speak to you? Think about it. He wants to talk to you. Yes, you. Yes, him. And yes, you.

You've got to get that in your head. You're being addressed by the Most High God. All the exhortations to read and to study and to meditate upon Scripture are invitations to engage in conversation with your Creator. We speak to Him through prayer. He speaks to us through the words of Scripture and how they apply and bring to bear upon our own lives.

Now, these are the words are Spirit-breathed. Inspiration of Scripture, the doctrine we describe this incredible phenomenon. Question. What was the Holy Spirit saying to the Hebrews sometime in that winter of 65, 66 AD? And what is he saying here today? You know what he's saying? It's on the screen.

Do not stubbornize your heart. I know, bad English, poor English, but good theology. And very clear in what he's communicating here. Just because English didn't come up with a word that really captured it, it's clear what it means. Do not stubbornize your heart. Look back at verse 7.

Just as the Holy Spirit says, Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. Word for harden is the idea of stiffen, like the neck of a donkey that won't come. That's the idea. Stiffened neck. It's where the whole idea of a hardened heart, it's that resistance.

Don't have a stubborn heart. Don't let your heart become stubborn. Don't make your heart stubborn. And so I took a little English liberties, come up with a new word. No, it's not in the dictionary. Do not stubbornize your heart. Stubbornize is the process of putting your heart in a state of stubbornness and growing stubbornness.

And it very much communicates the impact of what the Holy Spirit is saying here. You see, the Holy Spirit wants us to learn a lesson right off the page of human history as it was recorded in Psalm 95. And it's a chapter in human history that deals with Israel's unfaithfulness in the wilderness and the dreadful consequences that followed.

Learn from this page in history. Learn from those who hardened their hearts and the consequences that they faced as a result. See, Israel, this generation in the wilderness, they show. us what a stubborn heart does. They show us how to gauge the stubbornness of our own heart. And they show us why the Holy Spirit tells us, do not stubbornize your heart.

Because the results are catastrophic. And so that's what I want to look at this morning is four results of a stubborn heart so that you will not stubbornize your own heart. First of all, do not stubbornize your heart because a stubborn heart exasperates God. It exasperates God. Look back at verse 8.

Do not harden your hearts as when they provoked me in the day of trial in the wilderness. As when they provoked me in the day of trial in the wilderness. Provoked. It's actually not a verb. Some translations get it better. This expression, they provoked, that sounds like a verb, but it's not.

It's a noun. I like the King James, the provocation, like in the provocation in the wilderness. The ESV says rebellion. They get the noun. The revolt, the exasperation. Do not harden your hearts as in the exasperation or in the provocation or in the revolt that took place in the wilderness.

It was a point in time, in the day, you see that, in the day, a point in time when Israel provoked God to anger. And that's the page in history that we need to learn from. A day of trial. Look at verse 8. As in the day of trial.

It was a day of testing. It was a day when Israel tested God. Now be sure, as you're reading the narrative, you know that God was testing Israel. God was testing Israel, and this is very clear in Deuteronomy 8. He was testing them to bring about their good.

Listen to what Deuteronomy 8:15 says and following. He led you, speaking, God led you, the generation, through the great and terrible wilderness with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground, where there was no water. He brought water for you out of the rock of flint. In the wilderness, he fed you manna, which your fathers did not.

Know that, here's the purpose for all that, that he might humble you and that he might test you to do good for you in the end. Otherwise, if he didn't take you through all these testings, if he didn't humble you, otherwise, you may say in your heart, My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.

Well, God is saying, Look, Israel, you're going to go into the land, you're going to come across all this wealth. And you know what? There's a danger that you may lift up your heart and say, It's all because of me that this came about. And God knew that in order for Israel to occupy the land, they had to learn humility, they had to learn dependence because it was God giving them the land.

It wasn't for their righteousness, it wasn't for their strength, but God was giving them. Same is true with us: God tests people for their own good, he will send about situations to reveal who we are and our need for him. He's still doing this today. God needs to humble his people because the proud do not remain with him.

And if he were to give, if he, some of you are not blessed and not taking a lot of territory, because it's. If he gave you great success, you would boast in your own flesh and say, Look at what I have done. You would rob him of his glory, take it all for yourself.

And that's why he has to humble us. Listen, there's nothing more humbling than walking through this life, is there? If you're really sensitive to what's going on and really honest about who you are and the situations we face, this life has a humbling character to it. If you don't believe me, wait till they put your carcass in an earthen grave.

Nothing more picture than of our humility than death. Or just the fact that you had to sleep before to get here. I mean, just think about that. You had to sleep. Why do you need sleep? Well, we're humble. We're dependent. All strength isn't in us. So God will send situations in your life that will reveal who you are and your need of Him.

I like what A.W. Pink said about life's trials. Listen to this. A crisis neither makes nor mars a man. But it does manifest him. While all is smooth sailing, we appear to be getting along nicely. But are we? Are our minds stayed upon the Lord, or are we instead complacently resting in his temporal mercies?

When the storm breaks, it is not so much that we fail under it as that our lack of daily walking in dependency upon him is made evident. Circumstances do not change us, but they do expose us. Paul rejoiced in the Lord when circumstances were congenial. Yes, and he also sang praises to him when his back was bleeding in the Philippian dungeon.

The fact is that if we sing only when circumstances are pleasing to us, then our singing is worth nothing. And there is grave reason to doubt whether we are rejoicing in the Lord at all. Well, are you failing life's tests? How can you tell? Well, those who fail God's tests are the ones who turn around and test God.

Do you put God on trial? Do you come to a difficult circumstance, and then your reaction is to blame God, call in. To question God's integrity or his ability, is that you? If so, you are failing under the test. Because that's what happened to Israel. When difficult circumstances faced Israel, Israel turned around and put God on trial.

They didn't say, God, you're right. Forgive us. God, we don't trust in you like we should. God, we don't. Instead, what do they do? They sit in judgment of God. What kind of a God are you that would bring us out here into this wilderness to die? God, what kind of a God are you that would allow this situation to come into my life?

They put God to the test. They cross-examined God instead of obeying Him. This is a day in the wilderness. This is a day of trial. Look back at verse 8: in the wilderness, the desert. We know this is the time when Israel had come out of Egypt. We'll look more at that specific day in just a moment.

The question I want you to see, or something I want you to see is that a persistently stubborn heart exasperates God. Second result of a stubborn heart is that it puts God to the test. Not only does it exasperate God, but it exasperates God by putting him to the test.

Look back at verse 9: where your fathers tried me by testing me and saw my works for 40 years. This is the certain incident, where, where this took place. And when you're reading Psalm 95, it connects it with the place of Meribah. They were tried by testing. Where your fathers tried me by testing.

They put God to the test. They examined his integrity. Literally, this is saying they tried God by putting him on trial. They cross-examined him. Is this a legitimate God or not? Or are the gods in Egypt better? Or do we need to make our own God? They repeatedly cross-examined, called into question the integrity of God, the wisdom of God, and the goodness of God.

Exodus 17 tells us what happened there. I'll just read you portions of Exodus 17, beginning. In verse 1, then all of the congregation of the sons journeyed by stages from the wilderness of Sin according to the command of the Lord and camped at Rifidium. And there was no water for the people to drink.

Therefore, the people quarreled with Moses, said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said to them, Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord? But the people thirsted there for water, and they grumbled against Moses and said, Why now have you brought us up from Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock?

They're testing God by saying, God, you have sent us a deliverer, but you're really not a deliverer, Moses. You're a murderer. This whole thing has been employed to get us out of Egypt and to kill us and our children out here by thirst. You're not a Savior. You're a murderer.

They're speaking against Moses, and Moses is saying, Why are you testing the Lord like this? And so then God told Moses in verse 6 of Exodus 17, Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, and the people may drink.

Moses did so in the sight of the elders. He named the place Masa and Meribah because of the quarrel of the sons of Israel. And get this, because they tested the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us or not? That's what the heart of this thing came down to.

Is the Lord among us or not? Do you believe the gospel? Do you frequently doubt if God is with you? Two questions I want you to think about. Do you really believe the gospel? Number two, do you frequently doubt if God is with you? If your answer is yes to both of those questions, something's really off, isn't it?

Is the Lord God with us or not? Is the gospel true or not? Do you really believe the gospel? Because the gospel is very emphatic. If you really believe the gospel, you know that somebody who was forsaken promised to never forsake you. He knew what it was like to be forsaken.

Speaking of Christ on the cross, and he is never going to forsake his people. Do you believe that? Well, the cause of grumbling. What is the cause of grumbling? Do you grumble against God? Do you call into question God's goodness? What causes that? Well, Israel grumbled because they were more preoccupied with their circumstances than who God was and where God had promised to take them.

Is that you? You see, we start grumbling because we get more preoccupied with our circumstances and the reality of who God is and what God has promised to do and what God is doing and where God has promised to take us. And then life gets us down because we get so preoccupied with our circumstances.

Same thing happened to Israel. Look, Israel is a window into the soul of man, you and I. What they dealt with, we deal with. They were walking by sight and not by faith. And their circumstances revealed their grumbling voice. So the circumstances brought about the grumbling in their voice, and the grumbling voice revealed their unbelieving heart.

What does your grumbling voice say about you? It goes back to an unbelieving heart. You really don't believe. If you're characterized by persistent grumbling, don't stubbornize your heart. Come out of that stubbornizing. Look at, look at, and they did this for 40 years. This wasn't just a one-off situation.

Yes, it happened at Meribah. Yes, it happened in other places, but it wasn't just a one-off situation. It was a characteristic of their whole existence in the wilderness. They were a people marked by an evil and unbelieving heart from the time they left the Red Sea to the time they get to Canaan 40 years later.

They tested God and they often thought about going back to Egypt. Listen to what Deuteronomy 9:7 says. Remember, do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day that you left the land of Egypt until you arrived at this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord.

And remember, Deuteronomy is written right 40 years after they'd come out of Egypt, right before they're going into the land. And here's Moses saying, Look, from the time you left all the way to here, you have been rebellious against the Lord. You have hardened your heart. There's a pattern.

Of stubbornizing your heart. And so, what the Holy Spirit is saying to the Hebrews of Paul's time and to us today is to learn from Israel's disobedience. Do not be like them. Soften your heart. Kneel before the Lord God, our Maker. Do not harden your heart. So a stubborn heart exasperates God, puts God to the test, and third, will always lead you astray.

Another result of a stubborn heart and why you shouldn't stubbornize your heart. It will always lead you astray. Look at verse 10. Therefore, I was angry with this generation and said, They always go astray in their heart, and they did not know my ways. They always, unceasingly, constantly go astray.

Therefore, look what he said, verse 10, therefore, as a result of their continual disposition to put God on trial instead of humbly coming under him, God says, I was angry with this generation. The word there, I was angry, I became disgusted, I became enraged, angry. The God who is slow to anger and never acts out of...

Uncontrolled anger. He acts because he's angry. It's not outside the bounds. He's not sinfully angry. But he had had enough. They were a people who should have been thankful for what God had done. They should have been celebrating how he had provided. They should have been looking forward to what he had promised.

Instead, they kept putting him to the test, griping and complaining all the way. And not just like I'm loathing these circumstances. I'm loathing the God who brought us into these circumstances, who isn't quickly bringing about circumstances that I want or I demand. And that's where their heart goes astray.

I was angry with this generation. They always continually going astray. Continual action. Go astray. To go astray. It's a passive. It's interesting. It's a passive. It's not like they're actively, I'm going to go astray. Something is leading them astray. Something has gripped their heart. They're erring in their heart.

They're going in a direction of error, and something is happening in their heart. That's pulling them into rebellion and obstinacy instead of kneeling and obeying. They are, I'll tell you what's happened to them. They're coming to a conclusion in their heart. They somehow are arriving at the conclusion, at the conclusion that sin and rebellion pay better than obedience and faith.

Sin and rebellion pay better than obedience and faith. And if that's you, if you're walking in habitual sin, if you're going down a sinful pattern of life, guess what? Somewhere along the way, your heart has come to the conclusion that sin and rebellion pay a lot better than obedience and faith.

And that's what God is saying. Don't stubbornize your heart. This is what an erring heart looks like. And it turns people away from God's ways. Remember, Pilgrim's Progress. Kids, you're okay, we're going to. We're getting ready for another round of pilgrim's progress. Looking forward to it in May.

We're going to have some pilgrim days. We're going to study pilgrim, Christian. Well, there's a Dialogue that Christian and hopeful have while they're getting to know each other along the way. You remember there at the Vanity Fair, Hopeful comes up and meets Christian, where faithful dies, and Christian gets a new friend, and his name is Hopeful.

And as they're walking along, they're getting to know each other. And Christian says, Did you know a certain man named Temporary in your parts of the land? He was once a man of religion there. Hopeful says, Oh, know him, yes, he dwelt in the town called Graceless. Yeah, I knew him.

And he dwelt next door to turn back. Turnback. Christian said, Right. He not only dwelt next door, he dwelt under the same roof as turnback. So temporary and turnback are living under the same roof, roof. I want to say roof. They're eating baby roofs. That's what they're doing under that roof.

I believe Christian goes on, well, that man was much awakened once, speaking of turnback. He had some sight of his sins, and he was coming out of his sin and turning, starting to turn to. The gospel and embrace the truth. And he even told me, says Christian, that he was resolved to go on a pilgrimage with us, just like we are doing now.

But then all of a sudden, he grew acquainted with an individual named Save Self. And then he became a stranger to me. You see, turn back was showing progress, coming out. Wanted to go walk with pilgrim. But then he met this individual named Save Self, and it turned his heart back.

You see, a heart that wants to save itself instead of looking to God will cause you to turn back from the way of God. You see, when you come into difficult circumstances, you're to look to God for His salvation. Circumstances are to humble you, to cause you to cry out.

But if you resort to saving yourself outside of God's help, you will go astray. One of the first turnbacks we encounter in Scripture is Lot's wife. Well, being led out of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the destruction that was coming upon those cities and the plain. In Genesis 19:26, we read about Lot's wife.

But his wife from behind him looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. Turn back. In fact, Jesus held her up as an example and told his disciples, Remember Lot's wife. Don't be a turnback. Those who turn to their own ways do not know, nor can they ever learn the way that God blesses.

Look back at the text. They always go astray in their heart, and they did not know my ways. If you're constantly led astray by your heart, you will not know his ways, nor can you ever learn his ways. That is why you should not stubbornize your heart, but soften it.

The Exodus generation should have been on a path to knowing God's ways, but instead they are on a path of greater hardness to them and greater ignorance of them because they were letting their hearts be stubbornized. Don't stubbornize your heart. Stubborn heart exasperates God, puts God to the test, will always lead you astray, and finally will never enter God's rest.

Look back at verse 11. As I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. That Exodus generation continued to provoke God to anger by grumbling against Him to the point of exasperation, to the point where God would make an oath in His anger. Boy, you don't want God dealing with you in His anger.

You want Him to deal with you according to His loving kindness. So don't provoke Him, don't persistently stay stubborn. Repent of that, come out of that stubbornness and come under Him and say, I will kneel, help me, forgive me. Look at what He says: I swore. Literally, I took an oath.

As I swore in my wrath, I made an irrevocable promise in my anger against them. This isn't an uncontrolled anger. This is very calculated. The God who is slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness has a limit. God had had enough with this generation. And God condemned the generation to die in the wilderness, and there would never be a chance to reverse it.

He swore, he took an oath and assured it. It wasn't going to be reversed. When did this happen? Well, the event happened at Kadesh Barnea, not too long after they came out of the out of Egypt. They came to this place called Kadesh Barnea. It's recorded in Numbers 13 and 14.

You know the story well, when the 12 spies were sent out to look over the land that God was giving them and to bring back a report. Let me read you a portion of this in Numbers 13, 31. But the men who had gone up with him said, We are not able to go up against the people, for they are too strong for us.

Ten of the spies come back. They're too strong for us. So they gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report. And this is what they said. The land is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw are men of great size.

There also we saw the Nephilium. And we became like grasshoppers in our own sight. And so we were in their sight. You know, to be a grasshopper in your own sight is a problem. A pretty good thing. That's what God was trying to accomplish. Yeah, you need to see your weakness, your incapacity, and in your weakness and incapacity, that should drive you to the one who is capable, to the God who does have an answer and the ability.

Instead, it put them to flight, and they turned away from him. Even though Joshua and Joshua and Caleb were encouraging Israel, look, let's go in, let's obey, let's go in, we can take possession. The nation listened to the bad report. And in Numbers 14:1, this is what we read.

Then all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried that night. All the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, Would that we had died in the land of Egypt, or we had died in the wilderness. Why is the Lord bringing us into this land to fall by the sword?

Our wives and our little ones will become plunder. Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt? So they said to one another, Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt. A nation of turnbacks, the leading men. These are the ones 20 years and older.

They're turnbacks. Let's go back to Egypt. God wants to kill us. Listen to this. Why is the Lord bringing us into the land to kill us by the sword? Boy, talk about sitting. That's very exasperating. When God wanted them gone, he could have just dropped the water on them and Pharaoh's army and just be done with it.

What an irrational way of thinking. That's what sin does. It makes you irrational. But this is what an erring heart looks like. It trusts self-assessment over God's assessment. It's tricked into believing that disobedience pays better than obedience, and it turns back from the living God. Listen to God's sworn punishment upon such people as these.

In Numbers 14:22, he then says this: Surely all the men who have seen my glory and my signs, which I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have put me to the test these ten times, and have not listened to my voice, shall by no means see the land which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who spurned me see it.

And he goes on to say in verse 28, Say to Them, as I live, says the Lord, here's the oath, your corpse, corpses will fall in the wilderness, even all your numbered men, according to your complete number from 20 years old and upward, who have grumbled against me.

Surely you shall not come into the land which I swore to settle you, except Caleb and Joshua. Speaks of the rest. They shall not enter my rest. A lot more is going to be said about this, and we'll explore the rest future messages. But in this context, a place of rest.

Rest refers to a place of rest. And in this context, in Numbers 14, in Psalm 95, it is the rest spoken of is the physical land of Canaan. That is the rest. And as I said, much more is going to be said about rest in Hebrews. But for now, it's important to recognize that a greater rest is promised to us today than what was promised to the Exodus generation.

There is a much greater punishment. Than dying in the desert. If you refuse the heavenly call, there is a much greater punishment than what they experienced. They merely died in the desert and were buried in the desert. The writer of Hebrews is really strengthening his whole case of why you should not turn away from the gospel.

Do not keep provoking. If you hear his voice today, do not keep provoking God to anger by grumbling and complaining against him. Abandon that. That is a deceitful heart that is stubbornizing you. And the loss is catastrophic. And the preacher of Hebrews is saying to those Jews in this whole Hebrew network that is thinking about going back to Judaism, he's saying, Don't be a turnback.

You've heard the gospel. Going back to Judaism is like going back to Egypt. Don't go back. You've heard the gospel. Everything is heightened. It's heightened for them. It's heightened for us today. Listen to his thinking here. Now, you've got to see what he's doing. Listen, a stubborn heart, it exasperates God.

It puts God to the test. It will always lead you astray. And you will never. God's rest. His thinking goes something like this. This development of thought. God has spoken through somebody much greater than Moses. Heightened. You need to listen better. He has provided a much greater salvation than just moving from the delta of the Nile to another piece of real estate on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean.

This is more than just a geographical salvation or change or something. It's deliverance of sin. Jesus has spoken. The deliverance is one of deliverance from sin. Do not harden your heart, or you will suffer a much greater catastrophe than being died, than dying and being buried outside in the desert somewhere.

The greater catastrophe is hell. A much greater rest is at stake, heaven. The stakes are higher in every category, so pay attention to Jesus. Don't stubbornize your heart. Don't let it grow hard to him in any way, but soften your heart. Come and kneel before the Lord God, our Maker.

He took up on flesh, walked among us. The loss is everything. Therefore, verse. Verse 12, take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil and an unbelieving heart. I'm going to speak on this verse more next week. But you can see that's the emphasis here.

Take care. Don't stubbornize your heart. Don't let there be an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. Do not be a turnback. Remember Lot's wife. You have a heavenly calling. And some of you need to take that calling seriously. Some of you need to come out of the darkness that you're in and say yes to Christ.

Listen, the way in which we're called to walk through this life is the way of faith. Life is inevitably going to be filled with challenging circumstances, difficulties, trials, temptations, many things, many other kinds of testings are going to come against us. We're going to have to walk through them.

And your temptation is going to be to put God on trial. Beware of that voice that raises up within your own heart. What kind of a God would bring about this in my life? No, those circumstances are to do the opposite. They're to drive. us to him, there to humble us.

Do not harden your heart. Soften it. Humble yourself. I don't know what you're going through, but the Lord knows what you're going through. Let the Holy Spirit communicate to you. Trust in God. He wants to put your heart at rest and give you a reason to rejoice in Him.

Let's bow. Heavenly Father, we indeed thank you for the great salvation that we heard about in the gospel. Thank you, Father. We know that one greater than Moses has come. We know that a greater sacrifice was offered. We know the testimony of a resurrection, proof greater than anything else that you have accepted that offering on our behalf.

Father, we thank you that he is King of kings and Lord of lords and reigns. Man is now at your right hand, man in the flesh, your right hand. Father, we thank you for the incredible grace that's been extended to us here today. Father, help us to respond.

Help us to not harden our hearts, but to soften our hearts before you, whatever that looks like and in any way. And every one of us, Father, help us to soften and respond. Kneel before you in a way that would please you. Bring that about, Holy Spirit, in our lives, we pray.

In Jesus' name.