The recipe for endurance is one part remembering, one part expectation, one part faith. After a impassioned warning the Author of Hebrews shows his tender expectation for God's people.

Jesus, Paul, Peter all indicated in their teachings that the last days would include a falling away of some from the faith. Apostasy suggests the possibility that you might turn from a faith you once professed or from the fellowship of believers in which you were received and accepted as a follower of Christ. The warning against this sin is signaled in the church. It takes place most fully where the gospel was once fully proclaimed. We must be on guard against the spirit of apostasy, identify it when it appears in our lives, and flee from it as from the certainty of wrath.

Because of our great salvation God offers us three applications- Towards Him let us worship. Towards ourselves, let us endure. Towards other believers let us gather.

The author of Hebrews bundles up all he has said of the Judaic ritual system and refers to it as an illustration or a symbol- as a parable. Then he tells us what this parable cannot do and what only Christ can.

Here is confidence for the believer. The Triune God has brought to you His Salvation and in that Salvation He has put you in His last will and testament. And you cannot be robbed of your inheritance.

A re-sermon guided by the writings of Andrew Murray using the encounter on the road to Emmaus as a illustration of the four stages in a Christians knowing of Jesus Christ. ----One of the remarkable things we discover in the post resurrection life of Jesus Christ as He appeared to people in the 40 days before He ascended into heaven is that He was able to be with people and yet they did not always recognize Him- they didn-t know Him. This unique feature of the resurrected Christ remains for us even today. He can be with us and among us and yet we fail to recognize Him and to know Him. It is possible to preach Christ, study the doctrines of Christ, and to even have Christ utterly available and present before us and with us and remarkably with in us and to still not know Him and enjoy Him - to fail to recognize His presence. ----Like those on the road we can be with Him and not truly realize it. But this is not how their story ended nor does it need to be the end of ours either.

You stop yourself from falling into sin when you determine that you will not pronounce the faithless thought. You fall at the point of your pronouncements. You rise when you discover God's Gospel truth and raise it over your test of faith and declare it. This is wonderfully illustrated in the story of Psalms 73 and the visit that the Psalmist, when perplexed, went into the sanctuary of God.

Psalm begins with its conclusion- Praise for the goodness of God. This first thought is connected to the last thought of the Psalm and where the Psalmist determines to praise God or declare His works. So you see the Psalmist state of mind at the time he writes is that of praise and the determination to praise the goodness of God. This is where he has come. Not where he has been. He has been in a mighty bout with temptation. Out of that temptation this song rises. I want to point out the title. How to almost fall. This is not a cautionary message. It is truly focused on helping the person who is on the edge of falling or buckling under temptation. And the reason for the title is that I am not this morning going to offer you the highest and grandest strategy for addressing temptation. I am not going to offer you some glorious stand that you can take that causes you to fly above opposition and temptation. I will do that next week. But this week am going to suggest to you the bare minimum point at which you can begin to regain your balance to stand against the press to give up and in to the temptations you may face.

God has worked in your life. You have a story of His a wonderful salvation He brought to you. With it He brought to you expectations of great things to come. You felt secure to trust all things to Him. But now those expectations have been crushed and it has crushed your spirit. The more you remember what God once did the more you lament what is not being done now. What do you do when expectations crash-

As considered last week -----The Christians deep relationship with God is inexplicable. But the mystery unfolds in as a love relationship. Yet this week we ask what is it that triggers such love- The answer is clear. The one who is forgiven much loves much. Realizing forgiveness from God is the gateway into a loving relationship with God.