Here is our text in the New International Version:

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The Book of Hebrews is probably the most focused book of scripture. We are not completely sure who wrote it because it does not bear the name of the author, but we know why and to whom it was written. It was written to those born Jews and not just every Jew, but those who had become Christians and had believed in Jesus Christ, repented of their sins, baptized in His name, and received the gift of the Holy Ghost. And it was not just written to Holy Ghost-filled, believing Jews, but ones who had had the Holy Ghost for some time and who were not new converts. These were people who had received the Holy Ghost on the Day of Pentecost or soon after and who had survived the great persecution that followed in Acts chapters 3-8. These people had been willing to give up their land and homes to the confiscation of the government for what they believed. They had been ridiculed and, in our text the writer said, "fought a great fight of afflictions." They had endured through soldiers coming into their homes and trying to scare them from living for God. They had been willing to leave their hometowns and families for the sake of Christ.

These were people who had been taught by the likes of Peter and Paul and Timothy, some of the greatest preachers that ever lived. Many of them had been alive and remembered Jesus' ministry and miracles. Many of them had heard the sermon on the mount and had the instruction of God in Flesh. Perhaps they were at the crucifixion and had personally viewed the empty tomb. Some of them were there with the disciples when Jesus ascended into heaven and disappeared into the clouds even as He promised to come back again! I, personally, would have loved to walked in the shoes of these people to whom the book of Hebrews was written. They were stalwart and strong Christians who had seen the things that we have only read about and endured the persecution of which most of us have only heard. When the book of Hebrews was written it has been thirty-five years since the ascension of Christ and these faithful, Jewish Christians have seen some of the greatest stories in the Bible including Peter and John's healing of the lame man outside the temple, the deaths of the deceivers Ananias and Sapphira, Peter's miraculous release from prison, Philip's great revival in Samaria, Cornelius and his household receiving the Holy Ghost, Saul/Paul's conversion on the road to Damscus, and the explosion of churches and converts across Greece and Asia as a result of Paul's missionary journeys.

If anyone had ever experienced the miraculous and powerful hand of God, it was these Christians, and yet we find that the book of Hebrews is an urgent, solemn appeal for them not to turn their back on Jesus Christ! It is written to keep them from walking out of the Apostolic church and returning to worshipping under the laws of Moses! I don't know about you, but when I realize what these people had seen, I am amazed that the book of Hebrews had to even be written! It goes to show you that our walk with God cannot be based upon miracles and signs and wonders. It can not even be based upon emotions or what God did for us in the past. It must be based upon the Word of God or we will grow discouraged no matter what we have seen happen! God is a God of the present and the future! We will not last long living on the blessings from the past!

The severe persecution from the Romans did not sway these people, so Satan had bided his time and introduced a much more subtle trap and snare. What caused these great devout Jewish Christians who had been serving since the time of Christ to sway in faith? Not bodily threats; it was religious pressure. The Sanhedrin, the Jewish spiritual court had declared that the temple was off limits for any believer in Christ. Up to this point, the Christians had been able to meet in homes for services and also attend the temple in Jerusalem and participate in the solemn worship there as well. We know this because the scriptures say that the disciples were continually in the temple preaching or worshipping or doing miracles. For thirty-five years or so, the Jewish Christians could be Jesus-name believing tongue-talkers and yet still have all of the rights to the innercourt of the temple that the other Jewish people had. But now, the Jewish leaders had declared that any believer in Jesus Christ was worse than a Gentile and could not even approach the outer court of the temple! That is even the hated Gentiles and Samaritans could enter into the outer court, but Jesus Name people could not even come upon the temple grounds! And so what persecution by force could not do, the subtle trap of loneliness began to accomplish. For these Christians to continue in the faith of the Messiah, they would have to be cut off from their people and their way of life and become an outsider to their society. And the place where they had grown up worshipping God, the beautiful temple, would forever be inaccessible! They would lose the security of familiar worship and familiar friends around them. The devil was causing them to stumble by making them focus on what they had to give up to live for Jesus Christ and placing the thought in their minds "is it really worth it?" Thirty-five years they had been faithful unto God by focusing on what God was doing for them, but now just a brief moment of looking at the lifestyle that they had to give up had brought them to a place where they were in danger of losing out with God! And to top it off, they had believed that Jesus would come back sooner than He had and so many were growing impatient in waiting on His promises!

I know that we are neither Jewish nor have personally witnessed the actual miracles and teachings of Christ, but the book of Hebrews is still applicable to us today! I'm preaching to some Christians today, that you have received the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and seen God do great works within your life! You have fought a great "fight of affliction" in being here today and have not let the ridicule and persecution of others to sway you! You are maturing in God and are getting a much better understanding of the scriptures due to the teaching and preaching of the Word in your life. But there is a grievous trap of Satan that has been set to snatch you away from the loving care of God! Satan is pointing out in your mind that you are quite different from the rest of society. You are changing things that were perhaps family traditions and that are comfortably ingrained within your life! And the danger has come from a change of focus of what God is doing in your life to looking at what you have left behind! It's the same trap that Eve fell for in the beginning. As she was standing in the garden of Eden that was full of every possible fruit and tree that you could ever want, the devil got her to focus on the one that was forbidden. Standing among the thousands of blessings from God, the devil got her to think continually about the one thing that she could not do. And eventually she succumbed to temptation and spent the rest of her life wishing for the garden that she had in the first place!

Why do so many people not develop and grow in their relationship with God? Because they have fallen for the simple trap of allowing Satan to focus their attention on the "cannots" of God. And it is simply human nature to get focused on the negative so much that we forget the benefits of a command! "Hey Eve, look around! If you will get your attention off of the one forbidden tree, you will find that the benefits of living according to God's way far exceed the forbidden!" The "cans" and "get tos" of living for God greatly exceed the "cannots!" If you think living for God is boring, then you need to get your eyes off of the "cannots" and onto the "cans." We serve and exciting and living God! I haven't stopped dancing, I've just changed partners! I haven't stopped drinking, I've just changed wines! I haven't stopped partying, I've just changed clubs! I haven't stopped living, I've just changed life expectancies to an eternal one! I haven't become boring, I've just changed what I get excited over! Jesus, Himself, said it like this:

You really have not started living until you have given everything in order to get closer to Jesus Christ! I'm not talking about a religion, because religion is, by definition, boring. I'm talking about a day to day relationship with Jesus Christ, the living God of the universe! I'm talking about seeing the hand of God working in your life on a daily basis! I'm talking about the knowledge that God has forgiven every sin and also washed them away in the waters of baptism! I'm talking about knowing that whatever tomorrow holds, we serve the One who holds tomorrow! I'm talking about when the doctors say "we can't help," a God that says "here, I am!" What could this world possibly have to offer in return for it's way of life? Temporary highs and empty thrills? Give me Jesus Christ!

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And so it is to these circumstances that the writer of Hebrews, anointed by the Holy Ghost, picks up his pen and begins to write. Before the letter is through, something that has been said must inspire these Christians to change their focus point or an entire generation will have been lost! And so with that in mind, the Holy Ghost used two key words and one key idea to knock off the unbelief in their minds. The first key word in the book of Hebrews is "better," the second key word is "great." The prevailing idea is "looking forward." These hurting and confused Christians are reminded of three things: Better, great, and forward! In praying and fasting for this message this week, these three ideas became imprinted in my mind. I don't know what trick or confusing thought that the enemy tried to bring into your life this past week to cause your faith to crumble, but today, we need to push past whatever lies and "cannots" that Satan would bring and focus on what the Spirit of God is saying! It is saying "better, great, and forward!" Whether or not you realize it, what you allow yourself to dwell upon dictates whether or not you live in faith or doubt! The scriptures command us to think on what is good and pure and just and of good report! Whatever you allow yourself to dwell upon today determines how you will be acting tomorrow. Eve thought about the fruit long before she ever reached out and ate it! Satan knows that if he can get you to focus and dwell upon and talk about continually the negatives of your situation today, that you'll never live by faith tomorrow! So before you leave today, you need to change your mode of thinking! If you want a miracle tomorrow, then you need to change to thinking faith and trust in God today! "How do I do it preacher?" By the words of God: "better, greater, and forward!"

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The word "better" is used in the book of Hebrews 13 times. Every time it is used in a positive way, which makes this by far the frequent positive use of the word in scripture. If we do away with the repeats, we get basically 9 scriptures that show how that Jesus Christ is better:

Hebrews 1:14 -- Jesus is better than the angels

Hebrews 7:19 -- Jesus brings better hope

Hebrews 7:22 -- Jesus has brought a better testament or "will" or covenant

Hebrews 8:6 -- our text; Jesus has better promises.

Hebrews 9:23 -- Jesus brought better sacrifices

Hebrews 10:34 -- serving Jesus brings "better substance" or better possessions

Hebrews 11:16 -- those who are faithful to Him will go to a "better country"

Hebrews 11:34 -- those who were killed for His name sake will get a "better resurrection"

Hebrews 11:40 -- Jesus has provided us today with a "better thing" than those in the Old Testament

I realize that the writer was dealing with how that serving Jesus Christ was better than the law of Moses and the temple in Jerusalem. But can I say that Jesus Christ is simply the best?! You do not have to qualify it in any way. You do not have to have a "than" as in He's "better than . . ." Anything you can put in the blank, Jesus Christ is better than it!

What that means to you and I is that we need to realize that serving Jesus Christ is better than serving anything else! If you were to walk out on Jesus Christ, were would you go: back to the world? Jesus Christ is better than anything the world has to offer! The god of this world is a fallen angel, but Jesus Christ is better than the angels because He is God in Flesh who came to personally die so that you could be set free from sin! The hope of this world is that you might accumulate a lot of things and miss the major storms and hopefully have a somewhat rewarding life before you die! But Jesus brings a greater hope that you do not have to live by chance or wondering if you will end up with everything positive! You can walk day by day with the King of Kings and allow the one who knows all things to guide your very future! As long as I am in the perfect will of God, it doesn't matter what the future looks like, I have a blessed hope! When you serve the world, your "will" in the spirit isn't too great. The wages of sin are death and you can be assured that you will, in the end, experience pain in almost every area of your life! But the testament that Jesus Christ brings is a better will! No matter what happens in your life, you can be assured that in the end you will reap healing and good when you are living for God!

Jesus has far better promises than this world has to offer. It offers you a temporary high and a temporary quenching of your thirst, but Jesus said that the water of His Spirit will cause you to never thirst again! The Holy Ghost is a wine that instead of producing sickness and a bad hangover, produces promises in your life! The world's promises are always double edged and usually do not live up to their hype, but when Jesus makes a promise, you can bet that it will be ever bit as good as He said it was and more! He is able to do above and beyond ALL that we can ask or think!

Not that you will not have to make sacrifices in living for God; you will. But they are far better sacrifices than the ones that the world of sin requires. Rather than a sacrifice of your family, morals, or integrity, Jesus asks for a sacrifice of faithfulness, praise, and life! Sin will cost you more than you wanted to pay, take you farther than you wanted to go, and keep you longer than you wanted to stay! Jesus will give you far more than you can ever give Him, take you farther than you ever dreamed of going, and let you live for eternity! It is a much better sacrifice!

Serving Jesus gives you "better possessions." He said "seek ye first the kingdom of God" and houses and land and clothing would be added unto you! The world makes you earn those things at the expense of a relationship with God, but God said "if you will put me first, then I'll also bless you with those things!" Therefore they are better possessions because you can have things and have a relationship with God at the same time! You can have many things and still be saved! Jesus said "what does it profit a man if he gain the whole world and yet lose his own soul?" With Jesus, you can have your cake and eat it too!

With Jesus, we are going to a "better country." I can have the satisfaction that in heaven, my reward will be worth anything that I had to endure upon this earth! This world is not my home, and therefore the stress of this world does not have to control me! If everything ends in failure here, then I know that I will still end a success in glory! We are going to a "better country!" There will be no tears, no crying, no sadness, and no pain! What a country!

Those who die in Christ Jesus will have a "better resurrection." The scriptures teach us that everyone will be resurrected at the White Throne Judgment in order to be tried before God! Even if you go to hell, you will have a glorified body and be resurrected from the grave. But those who die in Christ Jesus with this precious Holy Ghost, don't have to wait for that terrible white throne judgment to get their resurrection! They have a "better resurrection!" Jesus Christ will come back and the trumpet will sound and those who are ready will be caught up to meet Him in the air and go to a great marriage supper in heaven! That's a much better resurrection than the second one!

And so I can agree with the writer in Hebrews when he uses "better" for the final time and says that we get a "better thing." Over all and any way that you look at it, Jesus Christ is just a better thing than anything the world has to offer! Don't let the devil sell you a lie: Jesus Christ is far better! BETTER!

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The other keyword in the book of Hebrews is "Great." The next step to changing the way that you are viewing your situation is to remind yourself that everything that God has given is "GREAT!" There are seven things in the book of Hebrews that are listed as being great and I will quickly remind you of them:

Hebrews 2:3 -- we have a great salvation!

And it is a great salvation that a holy and perfect God would give His very life so that we an unperfect and unholy people could live forever and be saved from the awful fate of sin! How Great is our salvation!

Hebrews 4:14 -- we have a great High Priest, Jesus Christ. The next verse goes on to explain why He is so great:

When we got to our God, He is not someone who does not know what it was like to live upon earth and to be tempted like we are, but He is someone who has been there! That is why He is so forgiving and so loving and so caring!

Hebrews 9:11 -- It is a great tabernacle; a great church. And this is a great church. We have imperfect people but a great church. The scriptures say:

Don't ever let the fact that there are imperfect people here fool you into thinking that there is something wrong with the church! There is nothing wrong with the church, in fact there is everything right with the church! Thank God that this is a house of mercy where people can come and grow and change and allow the Holy Ghost to work on their lives and make them better! If we ever make it so that you have to be perfect to come to church, then we have missed the whole point of church and have just excluded ourselves as members!

Hebrews 10:32 -- a great fight of afflictions. The Apostles had a revelation that we need to get today. The scriptures say that they "rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus!" They could rejoice during a trial! And yet, if we have a bad day, most Christians do not rejoice at all and may not even come to church! Jesus said:

Jesus said "rejoice, because you know that you will be blessed by God in a way that outshines the pain!" In other words, God will always outperform the devil in our lives! If you are being persecuted, then that means that God is going to bless you that much more! This one is tied in to the next "great" in Hebrews, which is found three verses later in our text:

Hebrews 10:35 -- a great recompense; a great reward!

You see if you really get a revelation of how much better living for God is than living for Satan and how much greater He is than anything else, then you can rejoice in trials and persecutions! When you have a revelation that God can save us from anything and that He specialized in taking ALL THINGS and making them "work together for the good," then you can dance during a trial and sing during a low time! Because you know that everything is going to be alright!

In II Samuel chapter 10, we find the army of Israel in a bad situation and severely outnumbered. The Ammonites had hired thousands of Syrians to help them fight against God's people. The general Joab looks over at his second-in-command, Abishai and says:

Be of good courage and "let us play the men for our people!" Joab said it in the plural so we don't easily catch the meaning of what he was saying. He was saying "act like a man, Abishai!" "Others are watching us and I know that it seems a bad situation but act like a man and act like everything is alright and let the Lord do what He wants to do!"

Before it was over, Joab, Abishai, and the Israeli army had whipped the thousands of Syrians and caused them to run for their lives and God had given them a great victory! Why? Because two men were willing to "play the men for the people" despite adverse circumstances! How many times has God wanted to give us great victory and great blessings in a time of trial or valley and yet we missed out because as soon as we realized we were in a bad situation, we begin to look at our inadequacies and our shortcomings and our hurts and we focused on them so much that the people around us also lost faith!?! It's time that we as Christians get it in our mind that it's a "great fight of afflictions!" I can rejoice in the day of war and trouble because I know that God can deliver me! Even when I am afraid and not sure how God is going to do it, let's play the men for the people around us and let God have a chance to work! He is a great God! He is a great God!

I must quickly cover the last two greats:

Hebrews 12:1 -- we have a great cloud of witnesses.

There are many other men and women who have made it living for God! If God kept and saved Peter and Daniel and Jacob and Paul then He can certainly take care of you and I! Do you really need any assurance that God is real and can change lives and work miracles in hopeless situations? Open this Bible, and you will find so many witnesses that they can only be described as a "great cloud." And God is no respector of persons! If He did it for them, then He will do it for you!

Hebrews 13:20 -- Jesus Christ is the "Great Shepherd of the Sheep!"

He knows how to lead us and take care of us:

All of these promises are true today! What a great shepherd that we have! He knows how to take care of us in every situation!

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And so maybe you stand today at a crossroad in God. Maybe some doubt has entered your mind this week. I urge you to hear the call of the book of Hebrews today: Better, Great, and Forward! Jesus Christ is better than anything that this world has to offer! We have greater promises than we can even imagine! And we must not look back but look forward to the new places that God is taking us! Jeremiah gave this sad commentary on the Israeli people:

That's not the direction that I am going to choose to go! I want to go forward in God! Get your eyes off of the cannots of God and get them forward to the blessings that you have yet to receive! Remember that He is a great God and better than anything else that this world has to offer, so let's go forward with Him!