Bible Study: March 3, 2021

Some review questions. I intended to send those out back while we were going up to Cincinnati. That didn't happen. I intended to send them out Sunday, got caught up in other things, and so I didn't get them out too late. So I know you haven't had time to review all of those. I hope you will take the time to look through those, though. I hope they're a good review of what we've talked about so far in the book of Hebrews. There's so much in the book of Hebrews that we don't want to lose sight of the things that we've learned here in the last couple of days. I think it's been a couple of months since we've been talking about this book. It strikes me even more the closer we get to Passover, what a good study it has been to learn about Jesus Christ and to maybe see him in an even more enhanced view and appreciation for what he has done for us and what God does for us as we see in the book of Hebrews. So as you have those questions, if you have some tonight that you want to talk about, we can certainly talk about some of those. I do have an answer, Kay. I'm not going to send that out for a while yet. I'll let you go through the book and go back through your memory of the things we talked about. I think it's a good review to be able to do that. So we'll just leave it for that. The last time we were together, I mentioned that if anyone had any booklets—or any booklets, I'm looking at a screen over here—if you had any questions that you wanted to ask about the book of Hebrews, you could send them in or questions about anything. So I've gotten just a few. A few aren't about the book of Hebrews, but I said any question that anyone has is always an opportunity to discuss those in the Bible study. So one of the questions that came in—Joe, before I start, is there anything anyone wanted to ask before we get started on anything? Anything that's come to mind as you've been looking through those questions? Anything you think we might not have covered well that you'd like to discuss a little more? Okay. Well, let me address one of the questions that came in that has nothing to do with the book of Hebrews, but it's a good question. And there may be some out there who have wondered about it that may not be able to explain. You know, part of what we learn as we go through the church is to be able to explain verses as people might bring them up to us. And someone says, ask the question about 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 29. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 29. We know 1 Corinthians 15 is the resurrection chapter. And verses 28 and 29 are interesting verses to look at here. 28 says, When all things are made subject to him, then the Son himself will also be subject to him who put all things under him that God may be all in all. And then verse 29 says, Otherwise, what will they do who are baptized for the dead if the dead don't rise at all? Why then are they baptized for the dead? And they were asking the question was, what is the Bible talking about? What is talking about baptism for the dead? Why would Paul be talking about that at that point? Does anyone want to address that verse? Any discussion on it? Anything that you've heard over the years that you might want to share about that verse and how you would explain it if someone asked you what that meant?

Maybe some italics are missing, Brother Shaby. Okay. To help with clarification, especially in verse 29. Yep. There's some italics. There's some Greek words, one Greek word in particular that we can look at in verse 29 that the church has drawn attention to in that verse to maybe shed some light on. Anyone know what that word might be? That's there in that? Well, if we look at the word for, right? In verse 29 it says, otherwise what will they do who are baptized for the dead if the dead don't rise at all? Why then are they baptized for the dead?

And so the word for that's translated for there happens to be the Greek word, hooper, h-u-p-e-r. If you look up hooper in the concordance, it can say for as in the reason. Sometimes it's translated beyond. And it's a tricky translation no matter what word you put in there, whether it's for the reason of or on account of dead or beyond the dead. But the gist of the verse, when you find a verse like that and pull one verse out, you have to look at the context that we're in.

We all know that 1 Corinthians 15 is talking about the resurrection. Paul is talking about death. Apparently there are some in resurrection that didn't believe in the resurrection in Corinth. Back up in verse 19, leading down into these verses later on in the 20s, he makes the comment, if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.

So he's making the point, if this is all there is, if we were created just to live our physical lives for 67 to 80, 100 years, whatever it is that God allows us to live, what's the point? What's the point? If there's nothing beyond this life, then why go through it? He comes down there in the next verses and he talks about Jesus Christ who sets the pattern for us. He lived the physical life. He died. He was resurrected.

He now sits at God's right hand. He has eternal life. He is our eternal high priest, we've talked about in Hebrews. And so the pattern is set for what mankind in the course of his life would be. When we get beyond, you know, the verses in the 20s and 30s later on in the 40s and 50s of 1st Corinthians 15, it talks about how there's a spirit, there's a physical body and a spiritual body. And the physical comes first. We, if we live according to God's will, we've repented, we've baptized, we have his Holy Spirit, we continue to live and follow him until death, we would have the spirit life, the internal life that he would give us.

And so the whole context of the chapter is showing that there is life beyond this physical life. The hope is in the resurrection and God has created us for a purpose other than the short physical life spans that we have here in these bodies. So as we come down to verse 29, as he's talking about that, you know, he comes down and says otherwise, what will they what will they do, you know, who are baptized beyond the dead or, or for a purpose beyond death.

If the dead don't rise at all, if there is no resurrection, what's the purpose of baptism? Why are we going through it? What, you know, forget it. If there is no, if there is no life beyond this physical life, why be baptized? Why would God say, you know, be baptized? So that's that's where where he that's where it is. Now, some of the newer some sometimes you got to look at the context, but then sometimes some of the newer translations when something is trickily worded like that and it just doesn't make sense the way it is.

You go back to the Greek, you look and see what the Greek words mean and what they can be used and how they're used in other places in the Bible. And then when you do that, you look at strong, you'll see how the same word who per is used in Philippians and some other places and, and, and it gives a different context and just the word for, you know, for God word God's word translation. I'll share a screen here with you that that shows how one of the more recent translations.

Mr. Shave translates this verse verse it says, However, however people are baptized because the dead will come back to life. What will they do if the dead can't come back to life. Why do they people get baptized as if they can come back to life. So what Paul is doing there in that versus is perhaps countering some beliefs that are there in Corinth that there is no resurrection. He's, he's talking about baptism and the importance of it in the context of of eternal life. If we believe God if we believe Jesus Christ, you know, it is says in Acts 238 repent and be baptized, we must be baptized in order, you know, to to to begin the process of working toward eternal life as we walk with God and are led by His Holy Spirit. So in verse 29 there he's addressing perhaps a couple of things in Corinth, proving to them that they need to be baptized for eternal life. The reason we're baptized is because there is eternal life. Otherwise, why mess with it? And perhaps some of the places will indicate that that there were people in Corinth, however, whatever their beliefs were that perhaps in the afterlife, they thought they could do something in order to make amends for the way people live their lives in in the time we have to it for people who didn't do what they were supposed to do during this life there. This afternoon someone pointed out to me I learned something I had no idea that the Mormons today believe this they believe you can be baptized for the dead and alter their afterlife experience if you're baptized for them. I had no idea had no idea the Mormons or anyone today believe that but I'll be looking that up a little bit more to see how they explain life after death. Is that yeah any comments? Is that is that clear? Maybe someone's got a better way of bringing that all together? The only word that I ever heard, Mr. Shavey, that was used in previous sermons were regarding the dead. Instead of four, they would say regarding the dead.

That's kind of what that one translation they kind of used it doesn't. That's a good way to do that. I've heard also that it also could refer to the word being beyond and it not just refers to the dead but being beyond death itself. So baptized for what lies beyond death, which is the resurrection itself.

So when you're baptized, you're baptized beyond for what's going to be after death, which would be the resurrection because we all know that the dead are dead. You know, you don't get baptized for the dead, but for beyond what death is, which would be the resurrection. So I've heard that as an explanation as well.

Okay. Here's one translation from one who our God permit enable among us. It says verse 29. Otherwise, what shall they do who have been baptized for the resurrection of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why then are they baptized for the resurrection of the dead? And then verse 30 says, why are we always in danger?

Thanks.

Again, if you if you keep that, you know what we've talked about it. Otherwise, it doesn't fit into the chapter at all in a chapter that he's proving the resurrection.

I don't know. I don't know if the person who asked this is on here. If that's clear to them or not. But if not, we can talk about it more. Or if there's any other discussion now. I didn't want to make a point. Yeah. Yeah. Some people in Corinth at that time, they were baptized because their friends and relatives had died before they were baptized. And so they think that that would be okay with them. But Paul did not condone this. Paul did not condone that. Right. Yeah, Paul did not do that for others. So what you're saying, sometimes we would very much like to do things for our relatives, right? And for our children. And yet the Bible makes it clear back in Ezekiel 14, as much as we would like to do things for our children, they have to come to that decision themselves. We can't turn salvation for someone else. Each person has to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling. What Viggo says is there are some who do practice that perception, and they use this verse incorrectly. Yep. I think that's why it came up probably in somewhere in the past. Someone has heard that and has practiced still in the world today, which was a surprise to me. I didn't expect that. Although I do remember, as I mentioned it this afternoon, when you probably heard me say several times before my parents came to the church, we were Catholic. After we came to the church, we would go to the funerals with my dad's side of the family, which were the ones who were the devout Catholic. My uncle died when we were 16, and I was 16 or 17 when he died. And I just remember that you could go up and light a candle, put some quarters or money in the candles, and that was supposed to move him from purgatory or limbo, closer and closer to heaven. And I remember just thinking how strange that was as I was sitting there and watching relative after relative. Of course, we didn't do it. We sat there, but every other relative was going up and lighting a candle and dropping money in there, thinking that they were helping him. And that would encourage God to forgive more of his sins so he would get to heaven quicker and whatever. But it is interesting what people think about. But I always remember how strange that seemed to be, what people believe about death and what a comfort it is to know what the truth is that God makes plain in the Bible. Years ago, I toured a Mormon temple before it was opened, and they were explaining, yes, they baptized records. That's why the Mormons are so interested in the genealogical investigations. They want to trace everybody that's ever lived and baptized them. Interesting. That caused a big problem with some of the other churches because they're going back to the 1500s, the 1200s, and they're baptizing people's ancestors, and some of the churches do not want that, and it's caused a big problem. Yeah, they're getting in trouble for Mormon. Wow.

Hmm. That is... I had no idea that that has completely escaped me. Wow. But I guess if you believe that, that's what would be one of the missions you would have. You go back and make sure every every relative is baptized somehow. Okay. Yeah, Mr. Shavey. Yes, sir. Just kind of a different perspective on this. Whenever I read it, I often think about how Paul, when he was in Athens, how he quoted the Greek philosophers to them, right? So they would understand. He says, I became all things to all people. And he would often use illustrations from the culture that he was talking to to exemplify his point. And I sit here and look at this and think, you know, I don't see it as kind of a doctrine or anything. He's teaching more that the whole context of the passage is the resurrection of the dead. And he's trying to help them understand the resurrection. And it's almost like he's saying, using an example, they would understand as a practice, maybe in that area, say, hey, what are you even doing this for if there's no resurrection of the dead? It's kind of the way I look at it and read it there. But it's just a different perspective.

No, I agree with you. He's making the point. I think also, this James, that the Sadducees do not believe in the resurrection, right? Correct. I think the Sadducees. Yeah, it was right. Yeah. Somebody said, sad, you see. Sad, you see. If and only this life.

Okay, anything else on that verse or any other verses? Okay, let me move on to another comment that was made. And I thought about it, and I responded to the person who asked, but I thought I'd bring it up tonight because I think it's an interesting and interesting things.

Sometimes, as I give sermons, I will turn to a scripture, and I'll make a comment that this is a memory verse, a memory scripture for everyone. And I guess for me, it's a memory scripture because it's nice to have certain scriptures in the Bible as soon as you hear a chapter, you know, book chapter verse, you know what it says. Or if you're looking for a verse that explains something, you know, we're exactly in the Bible to turn to it.

And over the years, and I guess as I was growing up, and even as Debbie and I were younger in the church, we would have memory scriptures that we would work on together. Sometimes the church would have some memory scriptures that it would work on so that everyone was learning and being able to just turn to certain scriptures that would help explain things that people might ask to you because it's very nice if you could ask the question, and you can turn right to the scripture rather than fumbling around and trying to find it.

Now today, today we have Google so we could take our phones out, put a few words in and tell it give us a viable verse and it pops right up. Years ago, you weren't able to do that. But I think, you know, and that's why I say that it might be, you know, but I think the concept of memory scriptures is something we've gotten away from in the church and probably because of a reliance on Google and just the, you know, how easy it is to find anything that we want.

It strikes me that as the Jews and the people of God in, you know, centuries and millennia before us, if they were going to know the scriptures and have them handy, they pretty much had to memorize them. So if they wanted to go back in their memories and, you know, where does the Bible say that? Well, that's there in Isaiah 6 verse 20 and they would know exactly what the context was. You can see in the New Testament when Jesus Christ would use the Old Testament or the other authors in the New Testament, those scriptures just rolled off of their tongues when they were writing the books.

So I know that in the book of Hebrews, there are, you know, what I would classify as a number of memory scriptures, if you will, things that we want to hang on to, things that when we have a thought or someone makes a comment or we find ourselves involved in something, a scripture that we can go back to that can provide some kind of foundation or direction.

So I thought maybe it would be kind of fun to take a few minutes and think back over the book of Hebrews and some of those scriptures that have struck you as we've talked about this the last two or three months that maybe you will now look at as a scripture that you will always, that you'll remember in your life.

So why don't we take just a few minutes and if you want to share, you know, something that you've learned in Hebrews or a verse that that you now will remember, and there's some that are very common that we would use. I think Hebrews is kind of full of them. So why don't we take a few minutes to do that and then I'll take this in a different direction maybe so. Well, Mr. Shavey, one of the a couple of the verses that really stand out to me are Hebrews 4 verses 15 and 16, where it kind of sums up where we says, you know, we don't have a high priest who can't sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted yet without sin.

And then verse 16 where it says, Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. That to me, it's very encouraging to be told by God that I can come boldly to the throne because of what Jesus Christ has done and because of God's plan of salvation.

And he's there as my great high priest that I can boldly go before God and ask for that help and ask him, like, God, you said this in your word and you told me to claim these promises. It's just such an amazing thing to me that here, the great God of the universe, you know, actually gives me that ability and that privilege and the blessing to be able to come before God and be able to pray to him with Jesus Christ at his right hand.

And it's just just an amazing thing. So those are two of the verses. There's a bunch of them, but those are two of them that really stick out to me. I think those are very encouraging. And when we remember who were coming before and the fact that Jesus Christ had opened that opportunity, that veil that split into that we can go into God's throne room, that is amazing. That God loves us that much that he would open up the way for us to have direct contact with him and he would take this incredible interest in us that he has.

You mentioned the word boldly. Anyone remember kind of what that word boldly meant when we talked about it when we were in those verses when we come boldly before God's throne? Remember the word boldly means that we could be very blunted forthright with God. Not that we would go in there and, you know, boldly as an arrogantly face him, but that we can tell him anything.

We can be very open and very honest and very forthright with him. We can admit, you know, we don't know what we're doing in this situation. We can admit that we need, you know, more faith, more understanding, that we can ask him things. We don't have to hide anything from him.

We can just be very, very open with him. And that's one of the beauties. God already knows us better than we know ourselves. And so we don't have to have any, we don't have to put any pretenses or any errors when we go before God. We can just be who we are and humbly before him. Talk to him. Okay. Any other verses? Mr. Shaby. Yes, sir. I've always liked chapter six versus one, two, three. You know, we're talks about the fundamental basic doctrines. And I was in a discussion with a lady, my dental hygienist, and she's in some kind of a Christian church.

And I mentioned the laying on of hands and oh, I'm not going to do any of that stuff. What's right there? The doctrine of laying on of hands.

You know, they, they, it's amazing to me when you have an outline like it is right there, how they ignore it and can't see it. People don't. They just, they just, they just don't want to hear it. And that's what happens. Yeah, that's a very good, those are very good verses to the elementary principles of Christ. Of course, he goes, says, you know, from there go on to perfection. That's what the rest of our lives, what the rest of our lives are about.

Anyone else? There's a couple of them that I know if you think about it or flip through Hebrews. There's some I know that you're, you're thinking of there. So, about any of Hebrews 11. Yeah, Bob?

I don't know. Can we hear you, Bob?

I don't know if you can hear me.

Can, can anyone hear me? Anyone here, Bob?

No. Okay.

I know probably the verse you're thinking of. Go ahead. Anyone else?

Well, there's a couple of them in Hebrews 11, right? That we would, there's a very good definition of faith there in Hebrews 11 verse 1. People ask you what, you know, what faith is. The Bible defines it in verse 1. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

That's a few verses later. What does it say about faith?

That's...

I think maybe I've...

We're hearing you now.

Here we go. Okay. Okay.

Go ahead, Bob.

Oh, yes. Okay, Bob. Yes.

All right. So the new memory verse for me is Hebrews 10.25.

And it's not forsaking yourself in the assembly. And the reason for that is because we are all shut in now.

The more I would appreciate that verse, because we are now scattered, so to speak, and we're being prevented from meeting, not by force of circumstance.

And that just struck me this weekend. We're corresponding with our brethren in California.

Over there, they still are mandated 25% capacity, not meeting at all. So we are very fortunate here. And when I heard that, it reminded me of Hebrews 10.25.

All the more that we need to gather, because you're trying to make an excuse now for this pandemic to shut us in and control us to be here.

So the more I appreciate the verse.

Yeah, I think that's one of the things that COVID has taught us, to appreciate the opportunity to assemble together.

We probably had taken that for granted for decades.

And we live in a time where that's going to be a precious freedom that we have, and maybe a fleeting freedom as time goes on.

We'll see how things go, but it is important, and God even highlights that in verse 25, which has struck me over the last year.

Even so much more, or so much more, the more as you see the day approaching, how important that is for all of us to take the opportunities to be together.

Hebrews 13, 5, and 6 talks about God. He will never leave us. He'll always help us.

Yep. He will never leave us or forsake us. Very encouraging. Sometimes if we feel alone, we can remember that verse and know that God is right there.

It's not Him who leaves. I often say it's us who leaves Him. So we know that He's right there with us the whole time. Anything else? Go ahead.

Yeah, I've always thought about the very end when you were talking about Hebrews 11.

By the beginning, it has that really great definition of faith.

The end of the chapter always stood out for me where it transitions into chapter 12, where it says, because it gives all these extraordinary examples of people and what they've gone through and extraordinary figures.

Then it concludes with not having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.

Whenever you realize the body of people in that list, and then it comes out and says, they're not going to be made perfect apart from you. That's just profound.

Then it always remembers going into that next little verse in chapter 12, where it talks about, therefore, let us lay aside every weight and run the race.

I heard a while back when that was expounded, when it talks about lay aside every weight, this was in the Greek society where they had the Olympics, where they ran races, and they literally ran them in the nude.

There was no weight whenever they ran the race. They didn't even wear clothes.

So it just stood out vividly to me how expressively that was.

The opportunity you're included with all of these incredible people in chapter 11, they're waiting on you.

Run the race to win it. That just always stood out for me, that little section there.

It is a very encouraging section. That's why God does it.

He lists those men and women and then puts us right in the cast with them.

We can do the same thing and accomplish the same thing they did in life if we yield ourselves to Him the way that they did.

Mr. Shaby, Hebrews 2.17 also just kind of sticks with you because he had to be made like us, like his brethren, that he might be merciful and faithful High Priest.

In fact, that was basically one of your questions in there. Jesus Christ was made perfect through suffering.

Jesus was made fully able for the task of being the captain of our salvation.

Through his suffering, he actually identified himself with man, with us. I think that's important to all of us.

I think that's one of the things in the book of Hebrews that I came to understand more fully.

We always know that God is perfect, Jesus Christ is perfect. He was always perfect.

But where it talks about He was made perfect through sufferings.

It's hard, but my mind has been contemplating that. God calls us and He expects us to grow.

At the end of 1 Peter, it tells us to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.

We know where we've come from. We are weak and base and worthless human beings.

With God's Spirit, we come to understand our calling and He develops character in us.

We understand growth in us. But I've been thinking about that perfect through sufferings.

Jesus Christ is going to sound like I'm minimizing Him and not at all, I'm glorifying Him.

Jesus Christ is different today than He was before the world was created.

He's grown. He was perfect before then. He created heaven and earth, physical man.

He's lived as a human being. He lived that perfectly. He sacrificed Himself. He's bringing many sons to glory.

He's been perfect all the way through. But look how He's grown in the experiences He's had, even in the process of God's plan.

He did become the perfect high priest for us through the physical life that He led.

Before that, He couldn't be the mediator and the intercessor for us that He could be.

Mr. Shaby, a long time ago, at one of the feasts in St. Pete, there was a minister that gave a sermon that I can remember his name.

But the main point of the sermon was, God and us always have to be becoming more.

And when you look at the life of Jesus Christ, that's exactly what He was doing.

Even now, when He returns, He's going to have a new name. He's always becoming more.

I've thought about that a lot. That's what we've got to be doing.

We can't be what we are. Who wants that? We've got to become more.

And through eternity, we'll be doing the same thing. We will continually be growing in different ways than we do today as we overcome self.

But there will never be a time when we're just static and we're done. God is never done.

And when it says in the Bible, He's always working, He's always growing. There's always new experiences, and all those new experiences increase who we are.

It's kind of exciting and awesome when you think about it that God is not asking us to do anything that God, the Father, and Jesus Christ are doing.

This is Candice. I really like this discussion because from what I'm hearing, it just brings us to remind us that He is love.

And because He is love, He went through all of the experiences for us. He left Himself, came to be a man.

And then when we look at the Father, when we look at 1 John 3, verses 1-3, it says, Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called His children.

And we don't know what we will be, but we know we'll be like Him when we see Him.

And when we sit and we cogitate on all of that, we have to, as Mr. Johnson said, we have to become more. And that's how we purify ourselves.

So for me, when I read that, wow, this Holy Spirit being loves me, I'm His child, and I could come before Him boldly.

It makes you just want to just be so humble, walk justly before Him.

So there are so many scriptures that I like, but I really like John.

Yeah, and I also like Colossians 3, verse 1-3 says, Our Savior was risen, and He's at the right hand of His Father.

So we need to settle with things above. And what really makes me tremble? For you are dead, and your life is hidden.

What does that say to us? We just have to be so humbled and just be so thankful every day.

And we have to live a life to please Him, because right now we are dead. We shouldn't be sinning because a dead person cannot sin.

That verse speaks volume, and I don't think we take the time to really contemplate on what that verse really means. We are dead, and our life is hidden. So I think every day, if each of us, when we wake up, we could think of Colossians 3, verse 3.

We are going to remember all the petty stuff, and we don't want to forgive, and someone said this, and someone did us that. We will forget all of that, because we are dead, and we should live a life, newness of life now.

There are verses that, you know, some verses that we all will look at, other verses that will touch us all individually, too, based on, you know, based on maybe some of our weaknesses, some of the strengths, the things that just make us draw closer to God.

I think there's, you know, in the book of Hebrews, in addition to, in addition to, you know, memory verses and things that can inspire us, you know, there's some warnings that are there in Hebrews, too.

You know, anyone can think of maybe a few of the things. Remember, we've talked about how the Hebrews were 20 or 30 years into their Christian lives, away from the Jewish lives, and the book of Hebrews reminded them to go back, to go back, you know, and remember the first things, as it talks about in Revelation 2 with the Church at Ephesus.

Yeah, I think we should remember out of Hebrews about drifting away and always watching ourselves. Well, you know, where are we? Are we still tied? Are we still tied to God? Or do we, as the time goes on, drift further and further away from Him and more and more toward the world, you know, as we look at that analogy of floating out to sea again and drifting away from Him?

It talks about, you know, don't neglect the salvation that God has offered us. Hebrews 12, we talked about it last time we were together, is one that has always stuck with me because every single one of us, you know, can get to the point where we could get down on someone, right?

Someone says a crossword to us and, you know, kind of sticks in our minds. Something could be even so minor. And we have to let things build up. And, you know, Hebrews warns us, don't let bitterness develop between you. You have to go back. You have to talk it out with each other. God wants us to be one and to reconcile, forgive, and all those things we talk about around this time.

But they're year-round traits that we have to pay attention to. And it always struck me, it always struck me that God says, you know, by this, by this bitterness, many become defiled. And I've always looked at that many and thought that we just cannot let that happen to us. We cannot, as God's people or between us, ever allow that to happen. So as we go through the book of Hebrews and you think about some of those things, it might not even be bad to jot down some of those things and keep them in your mind as, you know, as we examine ourselves between now and Passover time, but really for every, every day of our lives and as we march, we march forward.

Any other scriptures out there that people want to talk about? Mr. Sherry? Yes. My love scripture here in Hebrews is Hebrews 13 verse 1 and 2. Let brotherly love continue. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels. Here we are in college to practice hospitality, you know, because who knows, we might be helping one of God's messengers, you know.

That's right. God's going to see. One of the things that he's very interested in is how hospitable are we when you read through the Bible? That's very, that's very prominent. And other things we've gotten away from a little bit here in the last several years. So. OK, this afternoon we were talking about these memory scriptures and we talked about maybe even doing something, you know, churchwide and maybe coming up with some memory scriptures and and going back to some of picking out some scriptures.

Maybe we begin in the book of Hebrews and one one scripture a week memorizing some of those things and using our minds, you know, the way the people of old did with the Bible and putting some of these things into our mind and not just relying on our iPads, tablets and and and and Google and Esaur and other Bible programs. Well, what do you think about that? If we came up with some scriptures, you know, we do that with our youth sometime and youth lessons and give them memory, memory scriptures.

When you think about doing doing one a week that we do as a church together. Not that we would have you line up each time, although maybe we could, right? We could just say, remember this week. I'm kidding. Great idea. Great idea. Let's do it. Let's go for it. Tell the greeter what the memory verse is that way. So. OK, but you know what? We might try that, you know, certainly not going to be anything that's required, but we might try that. And maybe in the Friday morning letters, you'll you'll see a memory verse suggested for this week.

And I would I would take I would take suggestions from anyone on on key verses that we might that we might want to commit to memory so that when we hear here, first Peter four seventeen Ecclesiastes nine ten, you know, Hebrews eleven six to fifteen, you know, that we would be or twelve fifteen, we might be able to just that's exactly what that that says. I think that's that's that would not be a bad thing for us to do so.

OK. Mr. Shavey James, yes. Yeah, just kind of a, you know, you're mentioning the memory first. I don't think some spokesmen's clubs used to do. They would have like a word of the week or for the club and men would try to work that word in somewhere whenever they were doing their table topics or whether they were doing whatever the case might be.

They would try to work that word in and it's appropriate usage or something. That'd be a fun little add in if we were having a memory verse in our conversations. Just see if you can work that memory verse into your conversation at Savva services. It's just a fun little thing to do.

Absolutely. That's not a bad idea. That's not a bad idea. It has us all thinking of the same same biblical concept that week. Very good. Mr. Shavey, do you remember those cards that we had a few years back where they were indexed? They had doctrinal cards and everything with the scriptures on there. I do remember those ABC. In fact, I pulled them out. I put them in one of the drawers behind me over here.

I found ours today. But yeah, we had those scripture and memory cards that the Ambassador Bible College sold years ago. Yeah. They're nice. Yep. We might discuss this afternoon. We might look and see if there's any of those available that we, if anyone wanted them. But we can come up with our own list as well. Okay, anything else on that? I've got a couple other points that someone has mentioned to me regarding some of the things we talked about last time on the Book of Hebrews.

I thought I would bring up, and I think they might be good discussion topics as well. Last time, you know, we went through Hebrews 12, and especially in verses 5 through 12 there, talks about chastening. The chastening that God puts us through. And we talked about that being the Greek word, haihedia. We talked about that being the rigorous training program that the youth of Greece were put through so that they could become ideal members of society.

It was a body-minded, soul experience, a rigorous program that the young men went through back there, but a position to build wealth for life so that they were a well-rounded citizen that was exemplary in society. And the person mentioned to me that we have some modern-day examples of that as well. We might not have the Greeks anymore that put people through that program, but we do have programs that we're familiar with that would be tantamount to that.

One would be the Green Berets. I think people have heard of the Green Berets, correct? Maybe even more so now we think of the Navy Seals. Navy Seals have been in the news quite a bit over the last few years. And when you look at those training programs, it's the people that are—and I was going to look this up, and I didn't—if you become a Navy Seal, I don't know if it's something you volunteer for to go into that program, or if your commander or someone sees something in a Navy recruit or whatever and says, you know, well, let's put him in the Navy Seals program. But as that program develops, it's a rigorous program where the person has tried and tried and tried and tried to see where it is that he no longer can progress further in there. And it's the very small number who are able to progress from the time they begin that program and hit all the rigorous trials, tests, and exercises that they need to go through to become a Navy Seal. So along the way, many, I suppose, drop out or are told they, you know, they don't live up to the ideal or the standards of Navy Seals.

And it does strike me as I think about that that that's the program like God has put us into. We know we certainly weren't the ideal members of society. He didn't call us tall, you know, tells us in 1 Corinthians 1, he didn't choose the, you know, the high and mighty of the world. He chose the weak and base things. But through opening our minds, through our choosing to follow God, being baptized and being led by His Spirit, as we go through our lives, God does try us and He does test us. And those trials and tests can become increasingly difficult as we go through life, as we build the character to trust in God and rely on God and not rely on self or the world or the things to the point where at the end of our lives, or when Jesus Christ returns, whatever, you know, whatever comes first, we would endure to the end. Many of those seals, I guess, you know, would somewhere in the program say, it's just too hard. It's just too hard. I can't do it. And we all know, people that we've known that have started, you know, have been baptized and have left, you know, have left the church. It's just too hard. They just didn't really want to come out of the world. It was easier to go back into the way they were before. You know, as it talks about a few times here in Hebrews that we don't want to do that. But it strikes me that that's not a bad analogy in the world we have today because God is developing us to become first fruits. That we, again, when we stop and contemplate what God has called us to, that He has called us to be first fruits and to be there, you know, with Jesus Christ for eternity. Assisting Him and helping Him in everything that God has Him to do. So mind-boggling, calling. So He puts us through this program to see that we are fit and that we will become like Jesus Christ. So that going forward, you know, going forward, He knows exactly what He can count on us. So I thought I'd throw that out there. It just maybe is, I thought it was a very good comment that came from one of us as an analogy. So, you know, that's a difficult, can be for some people, a difficult series of scriptures when you read the word chastening over and over and over in Hebrews 12. But remember that every time we read the word chastening, probably every time if I go back, you'll see that God is there and He reminds us that who He loves, He chases. It's because He wants us there for eternity with Him. And we have to become who He wants us to become in order for that to be what our future holds. Can you review questions number 43? I didn't understand exactly if you wanted, if you worded it correctly. It says chastening in Hebrews is not connected with. And you gave those examples and then you're all of the above or none of the above. Is it connected with or is it not connected? It's not connected with. chastening in Hebrews is not connected with none of the above, all of the above, or any one of those six that are there above it. So I'll let you contemplate that one. I've got an answer key and I've got an answer key that has some explanations in it. And then I wouldn't mind as you do those. Some of those that we would have questions on, write down some scriptures, write down some things so we can come back to some of those questions and discuss them. Some are pretty straightforward. Others, I hope, will make you think a little bit.

Hi, Mr. Shavey. Yes, sir. Yes, just another tip about your comment on the Navy SEALs. Yes. My coworker is a retired Navy SEAL. He's a sniper. And I work closely with him and Chris is sustained. And he tells me it's very easy to quit the Navy SEALs. There's a bell in the middle of the building and all you need to do is ring it and then you're done. So it struck me like, yeah, it's very easy to quit.

So in Christian life, it's very easy to quit. But God helps us to go forth. It's difficult, narrow is the gate. And so that was just a very striking example when you mentioned about the Navy SEALs. And my friend Chris says, yeah, it's very easy to quit. But nobody goes closer to the bell. Even if they're dying, they will not go and ring the bell.

That's how you know it. We have to have the same attitude. You know, that's what Paul says, right? What's going to separate us from God? Will it be tribulation? What will it be? And the answer has to be nothing, no matter what comes in our way. We keep going forward because we have the goal that God has set for us in mind. OK, the other thing that was brought up to me we've been talking about, you know, through this through Hebrews and we talked about God the Father, you know, in our in our our sermons as well is the importance of the of the role of Father.

And I think last time I was mentioning how much God the Father loves us and how he is. The role of what? The role of what? The Father. F-A-T-H-E-R. Yeah, and, you know, even even last week in the sermon, I mentioned, you know, a couple of verses that kind of just that have kind of struck me in the last few weeks that God the Father loves Jesus Christ. We we know how much God the Father loves Jesus Christ. You know, we don't know. We can imagine we can't grasp how much God the Father loves Jesus Christ.

But it says the Bible tells us in with John 15, 12 and 17, 23 that he loves us just as much as he loves Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ loves us just as much as he loves the Father. That's an enormous amount of love. That's an enormous amount of attention and interest that God has in you and me and everyone that he has called and everyone that that is yielding to him and working with him as he as he grows us into who he wants us to be.

We should never, never forget that when we feel discouraged and when we feel, you know, that we can't we can't rely on him. We always have to remember he's there and he is doing exactly what he needs to exactly what we need him to to get us ready ready for the kingdom. But we know that we have a loving Father. We've been you know, we know that about God. But the person, you know, the person that mentioned to that called said, you know, at the same time, some of us, you know, have had good fathers, good physical fathers as we've grown up, but others have had what you might term not so good fathers.

And it's very difficult, very difficult if we had a father who was a very poor example in our lives to transfer the trust to God the Father because the father figures in our life, the fathers that we have, we would have to undo some of the feelings that we have about how they treated us as fathers in order to be able to trust God the Father. I don't know if I'm making myself clear. And I thought it was a very, very good point because, you know, you have met people through the years, as I have, and you can see the effect of a bad childhood on someone's adult life. You know, I make the comments sometimes that psychiatrist offices are full of people who have had people that have parents that have mistreated them along the way.

And as Christians, and this person, and I won't mention her name, but I won't mention your name, even though she said I could, but if you want to know who it is, I'll let you know later. As Christians, what she learned in her life was that she had to go back and forgive her father for the way he treated her and the things he did in her life before she could really begin to walk with God and trust in him.

And as she spoke, and as she gave me some of those examples, it really did strike me, it was probably conjuring up some verses in your mind as we talk about this. But what I thought about when she was talking about is a verse in Psalm 51, David's Prayer of Repentance, where he says that he was formed in iniquity. And those three words always struck me, formed in iniquity, you know, and I thought we were formed in iniquity.

And as we go back and look at our lives, that our childhood, we were. Whether we grew up in the church or not, there are things that we developed in childhood, whether it's things that we allowed ourselves to get involved in, what our friends influenced us with, what our parents did not right or did right. There are some things that we carry with us through life.

And God is very God is our Father really wants us to be able to overcome. And sometimes you have to go back into go back into your life and ask him why am you know why, why am I this way? Why is this a problem? Why do I think this way? Why am I constantly struggling with this? And it goes back to sometimes things that we've dealt with in our childhood. You know, even even for people who have grown up in the church. And God is very He wants us to understand one of the keys to overcoming in some cases is going back and finding out what is the genesis of that sin?

What was built into your character at some point? And God does God will God will open your mind to remember the things that happened that they sometimes you can say, you know, that's exactly what happened back then. And now I can deal with it. I can forgive and I can undo some of the mental things that I allowed myself to do or someone else planted in my mind or reaction to this or whatever the thought process is. But I thought it was a very astute thing. And we shouldn't discount, you know, as we follow God, you know, we have to look at Him and learn to trust Him completely.

And sometimes that means we have to undo some of the concepts that we have of physical fathers in order to do that. And some forgiveness along the way can help a lot in that process. Now, I'm going to leave it at there and someone wants to discuss it further. But I thought it was a good point. And I said I would bring it up because I think it is a good point that that she brought up. So, Mr. Shady, this is James.

Yeah, James. It's amazing that you brought that up because I've been having some really dilemmas lately and I won't go into it in any depth. But what you said is really hit home to me. I did not have a great, to be honest, a great childhood growing up, neither from my father nor my mother. And, you know, I've dealt with issues for years and years and years and years, you know. And do you think that sometimes, you know, it's like, you know, the king of Israel, he was he was depressed sometimes and David would play a harp for him.

And that would relieve his depression sometimes. Do you think that sometimes that we that we can't see the forest for the trees and that we should maybe seek counsel, you know, to do that forgiveness? You know, that's that's easy to say. But personally, myself, I don't think I've ever let go of those things. And it's been with me. I've been dealing with those issues for a long, long time. So I guess what I'm saying, to be frank, can you is it is it okay to go out of the church for some help or counsel in that instance, or is it not?

I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I think anytime that we can talk, the Bible talks about counseling, right? And it talks about opening up to one another. I've never been to a therapist, so I don't know what they do. But I am learning the value of being able to talk about things. We can certainly talk to God about it, bear our souls to Him and ask Him to help us.

But there is a reason the Bible says confess your sins to one another. It doesn't mean like to the whole whole group at one time, but to talk to one another. There are people who understand exactly what you're saying and that we've been through things that we can help each other along the way.

No one should ever look down on anyone if someone begins to open up to them. And we can tell if someone's interested or can identify with some of the things we're saying as well. So, James, I think as with outside therapists, that's part of what they do, as I understand, in talking to some people, is they help you go back and unlock some of those things in life that you can deal with.

Now, they're going to have other things that you can do if you choose to do that. Take that to God. Take that to God unless you lead you through it. You use the tool to open up the door. I believe always first. God comes first in my life. But the Bible does give you the wisdom and the counsel. Yes. I don't have an issue with that. Certainly, there may be some that you want to talk to in the church about that.

If you're more comfortable with going outside, that's fine, too. Just remember, let God lead it, and not use some of their tactics and the things that they will lead you into. Just help them. Let them help you unlock some of those things that may be a key to your behavior or what you're feeling. That's right. Thank you. Mr. Shavey. Yes. May I add a caveat to that? Absolutely. My career as a home builder, I dealt with a lot of doctors.

And they're just people, and they've got a lot of problems. And the ones in the mind business usually have more problems than anybody else. So, you've got to be cautious who you're dealing with out there. Some of these people will harm you psychologically. So, just be careful. Yeah, I agree with that. Just, you know, listen, and if they help you unlock some of those things, it's great. But don't fall into the trap of you need this medicine and that medicine. What we need is God. What we need is God. He can heal anything.

He can lead us to forgiveness. And that's where some of the heartfelt detailed prayer comes into when we pray to God. When we can ask Him, what is it? Help me to overcome this. What is it? How do I undo this? You know, this has been a part of my behavior or my reaction or whatever it is. And I've been here since the time I was very, very young.

How do I undo it? God can undo all those things. He's got the tools. He's got the tools when we trust in Him and yield to Him and let Him lead us to resolve all those problems and build us into the blameless, spiritually mature people that He wants us to do. And it's not just physical illnesses He is interested in healing us from. It's the emotional and mental issues that we have as well. Right. And I think when things like emotions and those kinds of situations start interfering with your relationship with God, then it's time to grab what I like to say is grab the bull by the horns and take some action.

This is the time of year. The Bible says we examine ourselves year-round, but God did designate this time before Passover as a period of examination for us. It's always been interesting to me over the years I've been in the church how some things come to light during this time leading up to Passover. Don't ignore it. Don't sweep it under the carpet. Deal with it. Confront it. Certainly we don't overcome sins that have been defined so easily besets us in Hebrews 12.

We don't overcome that in one day or one month or anything. It's a lifetime of overcoming. But don't, if God brings something to your mind and you see something in yourself that needs to be overcome, don't lose track of it. Keep working on it and keep it in front of you and keep asking God to help you overcome it even when we get past Passover. Don't do it just until Passover. Keep working on it. It's our life that God is looking at and eternal life that He is looking at how we handle these things and keep our focus on it.

I hope I didn't take everybody off the scope of things, but thank you very much. That hit home to me when you were talking about that. I think that was God working with everyone. Okay. Anything else on that? One last comment on that, too. For those of us who have children at home, if you do, again, the whole concept of father, how important it is to pattern your life so that you are setting a really very good example for your children. The importance of doing things the way God says in the Bible, following the principles of it, doing things the way God the Father does so when our children grow up, it's an easy transfer, if I can use that word, of their love and loyalty to following their physical father right into God the Father the later.

So it's important for us as fathers to be setting that example. Now we can see the example of fatherhood when we look and see how God the Father deals with us. Pastor Shavey. What do you think of Hebrews 10 verse 31? For our God as a consuming... 31, okay?

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, right? We, you know, as much as God loves us, we also have to remember that fear and reverence that we have from Him. I was going to get here in a few minutes into Hebrews 12 where it talks about...reminds us again how terrified of God the Israelites were when they saw His power at the base of Mount Sinai. God holds life and death, our life and death, in His hands. He wants to give us life. He wants to give us life, but if we don't do it His way, death. And it will be a fearful thing. But the Bible talks about Matthew and Matthew about the weeping and gnashing of teeth. And it's a very real thing. So, is that what you were getting at, Jody? Yes. Okay. Yeah, we can't forget the fear of God. Jesus Christ, you know, it talks about Him in Isaiah 9 and Isaiah 11. It talks about He has the Spirit of God. He has the same Spirit of power, love, and a sound mind that God gives us. And it says specifically there, He has the Spirit of the fear of God. Even Jesus Christ, who was God, had the fear of God in Him. The saying that we must...the same thing that we must have. So... Okay, well, we have a little bit of time. Let's go to Hebrews 12. I'm not going to spend a lot of time. What we will do is, you know, as we've gone through the book of Hebrews, and we have learned, you know, I hope so much about Jesus Christ, the way the book is written, the encouragement to us to remember that God...the calling that God has given us is better. You know, He's...the Bible says better superior. I think someone mentioned last time we were on the Bible study might be a better way of putting it. New covenant is superior than the Old Covenant. Jesus Christ is superior than the earthly...to the earthly high crease. You know, superior to Moses and the people, you know, the Jews who would look to Moses as preeminent. And as we learn all those things, remember the admonitions of Hebrews, because the book of Hebrews is there to encourage us to turn back to God and to follow Him, and to never forget our calling and to give Him in our heart, mind, and soul. He reminds us, don't drift, don't neglect, don't become dull of hearing, don't become heart-hearted. You know, it's very difficult, you know, when we find someone who hardens their heart and they just won't listen. And any time you find yourself thinking, I'm not, I'm just not going to listen to that. Boy, stop and think about what, how many times, you know, Christ said, don't become dull of hearing, don't have a hard heart. Listen, you know, listen, because God will get our attention, but sometimes we can harden our hearts and people can leave, and it's a very sad thing to see.

Very sad thing to see. But we were here in Hebrews 12, and the last time we had a Bible study, we talked about Esau, and that's where we, that's where we ended the last time. And of course, the lesson of Esau for us is Esau just didn't count as important to his birthright. You know, he was willing to sell it for a bowl of soup.

Yes, he was very hungry. Yes, he might have thought he was so hungry, he was going to die, but he didn't count that birthright important enough to hold on to it, and he was willing to sell it for a physical thing. And the lesson for us is, God has given you and me a birthright. He sees us as firstborn. He's given us an opportunity to be first fruits, that no matter what comes our way, we would never let go of that. We won't, we won't make the same mistake Esau did that we would be willing to sell it out to find the comfort of the world or follow family member or follow our own beliefs or whatever. We would keep that lesson. When it was time for Esau to get the blessing, God said he's not fit. He didn't count that birthright important enough. You know, he was willing to give it all up. And so the blessing passed to Jacob instead. We don't want any of us to become like Esau. Remember what God has given us. The verses that follow this, you know, are just really encouraging. And I think tonight we'll just finish with talking about what God has done for us as he calls us into, and the next week we'll pick it up and get into chapter 13, which is a lot of, as Everdeen mentioned to us earlier, a lot of Christian living principles sitting here in chapter 13, as God encourages us with what our calling is. And draws again to our attention the magnitude of what he's done for us. In verse 18, he reminds us, he says, you know, you, every time you say you, put your own name in that, right? You. You and I, we have not come to the mountain that may be touched and the burned with fire and the blackness and darkness and tempest and the sound of the trumpet and the voice of words so that those who heard it begged that the words should not be spoken to them anymore.

You and I, we can't even imagine what it'd be like to be at the mountain, at the base of Mount Sinai when the Israelites saw the power of God. They were in awe and they were terrified of him. As we go on in verse 20, it says, they couldn't endure what was commanded. And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it will be stoned or shot with an arrow. God loves us with so much that we can't even imagine how much he loves us. But there is a distinction between God and us. And we are to fear him with the right kind of fear, not terrified of him, but the right kind of fear that should, as it reminds us in Exodus 20, that should keep us from sin.

That's what the fear of God helps us to do. Focus on him and desire to not to not displease him, but always to please him and to make the decisions as we have that fear and that love for him to please him in what we do. So terrifying, verse 21, it says that even Moses said, I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.

Moses said it. We all have to come to the realization of how powerful God is. You know, later on, before we get into chapter 13, we'll talk about how God is going to shake heaven and earth. All the world will see just how powerful God is. And you and I will be among those who see that power. But we will understand it. And we, if we live our lives in accordance with him and grow during that time, we too will be stunned when we see that power.

But the world will be shaken, it says down here, verses 26 and 27. We will see it just like the people of Israel saw it back then. But encouragingly, he says to you and me, you, that you and me, you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels. You know, what God has brought us into defies the imagination. There's nothing that you and I have ever done that would warrant God saying, I've got to have him, other than God, for some reason, looked down and said, I want him and I want her and I'm going to open their minds. And he's brought us to something that we can't even imagine, you know. Now we know that the purpose of mankind is not to become an angel, as many people in the world believe. We talked about that in Hebrews. But God has created mankind to be a new, if you will, or a different kind of a spirit being. Not a spirit being that's up there now. Jesus Christ is the forerunner. He's the one who went before us. We will be like Jesus Christ, it tells us in verse 3. That's what we are in preparation for. And if we have that hope, it tells us in 1 John 3, we will work toward the perfection, toward the blamelessness, toward the spiritual maturity that God has called us to. So he says, this is what you've been called to. You've been called to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.

And we read about in Revelation 21 and 22 that God will bring down when this world is done, the physical world and the purpose for it. So the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the General Assembly and Church of the firstborn. That's you and me. That's the Church that God has called us into. That's the ecclesia. That's what he called us and he put us in his body so that we learn from him in the manner that he describes through the Bible. How he teaches us, how he grows us, how he wants us to become one with each other, just as he and Jesus Christ are one. That's the method. That's the process through which he perfects us. In this General Assembly, the Church of the firstborn, the firstborn and all the blessings that inure to the firstborn. You know, you read in the Old Testament just how important being the firstborn is. You know, we don't have that so much in our day and age anymore, but to God, the firstborn, the firstborn is a tremendous position to be in. And Hebrews reminds us of that and Revelation 20 reminds us of that too when it says the first resurrection is a better resurrection. A few questions to get the right help. Just so you know, this call may be recorded. Is there someone? Okay. Okay. Someone have a question or? Okay. With customer service and save an average of five. Okay, someone's got their mic on. That's not needed. Just with a link to download our app. Okay. Okay, so he's called us to the General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn, who are registered in heaven. You know, God today, you know, we've learned and we know God sees you and me as children of God. He already sees us as his sons and daughters. We're there. In his mind, we will be born. That's the plan that he has that we will be born and spirit beings into his kingdom. Our names are already there. They're already written in the Book of Life. The sad truth, though, is that they can be erased from the tree of from the Book of Life. Won't be God, you know, won't be his decision. Well, ultimately, it's his decision. He's the judge. But his will is that our names, as we're registered in heaven, they're going to stay there right through eternity, right through the time that we're born as spirit beings. But it's you and me. It's you and me that can can put that in jeopardy by the choices that we make. Do we progress? Are we progressing in the life that we're that we've been called to? Are we allowing the Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us? Are we loving God more and more each year with all our heart, all our mind, all our soul? Are we learning to rely on him and trust in him and let go of the things that that hold us back from from being that? You know, we're registered in heaven. But as we've learned in a couple of chapters here in Hebrews and other places in the Bible as well, our names can be erased from the book of life. But it'll be you and me who make that decision. God will only take us out if our actions don't match our words. Our words, right?

Again, it's like you got to be doers of the word and not hearers only and not be able to just say the words. You've got to do the words and what we do and what we show God in our actions is what he's looking to. So you've been called to the General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect. That's what defines the rest of our lives as God takes us through the process of making us spiritually mature, getting us ready for what we will do for the rest of eternity, you know, under his care and under his leadership. To Jesus, the mediator of the New Covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.

Everything that God has called us to. This is a marvelous time to be alive. It's a marvelous time to be able to look and see the plan of God and to look ahead even in the times we live in now and see the plan of God coming to fruition more and more. Those things opening up, you know, in our lives and we can see prophecy and prophetic times as they've been described beginning to develop among us. That should be in one way an eye-opener, should be a motivator, should be very encouraging, inspiring us to us as well to draw closer to God, draw nearer to him, and really begin, really begin living the life that he has wanted us to live and putting aside. You know, those weights, those weights and the things that Mr. Ginn was talking about earlier that are mentioned in Hebrews 12. Putting those aside and walking closely behind him. I want to finish here with the first sentence of verse 25. It's one of those warnings in Hebrews. A very encouraging and a very inspiring book that should motivate us to grow closer to God and to really pay attention to what we're doing. It says in verse 25, See that you don't refuse him who speaks. See that you don't refuse him who speaks. You know, God speaks to us in many ways. You know, with our thought all come into our mind as we're preparing for Passover, you may hear something, you may read something in the Bible, you may hear something on a Bible study, you may hear a conduct that someone makes, you may hear something in a sermon. Your spouse or a friend may say something to you. You may be approached by someone who's attempting reconciliation or to put a relationship back together. Or it may just be God's spirit that opens our minds to see something. Don't refuse him. Don't say not me. Examine. Examine where our attitudes are. Examine where our loyalty is. And don't cut God out of your life and don't become dull-hearted or hard of hearing the way Jesus Christ warns us not to be. So let me end there for tonight, and we'll pick it up with the rest of verse chapter 12 here, which brings us really to the end of the physical world.

And then in chapter 13, he gives us some really encouraging things. This is what we need to do as we continue to walk with God until the time of Jesus Christ's return. So any other discussion? Any comments? Anything at all? Okay. Tim, Brenda. Tim, Brenda. I could leave the mic on if you guys wanted to, you know, talk a while for that. That would be okay. We can do this. I don't always have to cut it off. So I'll leave that up to you guys. I'm going to leave it. I need a cake. Do what? Joe was saying to Brenda he needs a cake. No, he doesn't. Believe it or not, I've got a cake mix out on the island. I'll be on the next frame. Okay. I think Pastor Shaver, for sure, I know God's hand was in what happened to me three weeks ago.