Welcome back to our studies
on the book of Hebrews, James
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let's develop a
little more the key themes
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that we see in
the book of Hebrews.
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The main overarching themes,
we've noticed, are, first of all
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the book of Hebrews has a
relational theme, so let's
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just flush that
out a little bit more.
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What is it that we see
in the book of Hebrews that
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would speak to us
in relational language?
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Well relationship jumps right
out at me Ty, in the very first
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verse God says "at sundry
times and in divers manners
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He spoke unto us in
time past unto the fathers
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by the prophets. " What I am
seeing here is that immediately
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we see that God
wants to speak to us,
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God wants to talk to
us, He's a communicator,
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And relationship is
all about communication.
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Lack of
relationship is all about the
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failure of communication,
break down of communication.
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So God says, here in verse
1 of Hebrews, chapter 1 has
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always wanted to speak
to us, He has always been
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speaking to us, He's
always been communicating to us.
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Now in these last days He
sent His son to communicate
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to us, that is, to me,
the essences of a relationship
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is that communication.
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Jesus, in John 15:15,
highlighted this when He said,
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"No longer do I call you my
servants, because the servant
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does not know what his master
is doing, but I have called you
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my friends because everything
that I hear from My Father,
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I make known to you. "
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That's a communication
statement, Jesus says I came
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all the way from heaven to
earth on a communication venture
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I'm here to communicate with
you directly from the Father
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to you, everything He tells me,
everything that I understand,
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I'm going to bring to you
because I want to draw you
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into something more
than servant hood, I want to
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draw you into a friendship
with Myself and with My Father.
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And this is meaningful because
even from the very beginning
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the inception of sin, we
find ourselves as human beings,
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pulling away from God and not
communicating with Him, we had
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this relationship, it says
there in Genesis, in the cool
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of the day God came into the
garden, He was looking for us,
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we were hiding from Him in fear.
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He's was communicating to us,
we weren't communicating to Him.
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I even, in personal relationship
Ty, with my wife, I find that
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when we get into an argument,
disagreement, or something like
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this, I find myself
shutting down, I find myself
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and it's a male thing perhaps,
but I find myself claming
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up, the silent, you know, mode.
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And my wife is the one that
pursues, my wife is the one who
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wants to open up, she
wants to communicate with me.
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And this is what we see God
doing in the book of Hebrews.
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He's opening up
this communication.
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And He is speaking in
this language, let me just move
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through a few verses here.
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Through out the book He
is speaking in this language
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that I think is very relational.
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For example, Hebrews 2, "Pay
attention to Me, don't let Me
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slip, don't let me
drift away, don't neglect me,"
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Hebrews 3, "Consider me, don't
depart or turn away from me,"
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Hebrews 4, "Labor with me, hold
fast to me, come boldly to me,"
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Hebrew 6 "move on with
me, be diligent toward me. "
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Hebrews 7, "Come to
me, I live for you. "
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Hebrews 8, "I'm
yours your mine, know me. "
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Hebrews 10, "draw near to me,
hold fast to me, consider me,
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don't forsake me,
fellowship even more with me. "
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Hebrews 12, "Run with me,
look to me, consider me. "
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Hebrews 13, "I will never leave
you, I will never forsake you. "
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"I'll be there to help you. "
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All of this is
relational terminology,
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relationship language, and it's
so emphatic coming from Paul.
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It's so different, but it makes
sense because Paul was changed,
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when he encountered
Christ pursuing him.
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He sees that as the key to
helping the Hebrews, the Hebrew
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mindset, of being changed
from this doctrinal emphases
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of belief to this
relational experience.
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Excellent, isn't it? that in the
book of Hebrews we see that God
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initiates the relationship
with human beings, with us.
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And He gets as intimate
as you can possibly get.
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This intimacy really reaches
it's climax in one of the main
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points of Hebrews, and
that is the incarnation.
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I mean you can't get any closer,
you can't get any more intimate
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than God has gotten with us,
in the person of Jesus Christ.
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He doesn't stay in the heavens.
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Distant, far away,
shouting messages to us.
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But according to
the book of Hebrews,
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God came up close and personal.
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He actually entered
human history in the flesh.
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Jesus is One who become
a member of the human race.
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So He, I love one version James,
that I know it is a paraphrase,
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but it really is accurate
to the Hebrew language in John
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Chapter 1 were it says,
"The Word became flesh and dwelt
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among us," the Greek says,
He tabernacled among us and
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one version translate says,
God moved into the neighborhood.
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In other words, God came very
close and intimate, He wants
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enter a relationship with us.
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Christianity and the
spirituality that the Bible in
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the book of Hebrews call us
to isn't merely an intellectual
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gathering of
academic information.
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God is a person, He is
a personal being and He is
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initiating a relationship
with us through the Word of God
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and through Jesus Christ.
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Absolutely, in fact if you look
at this Ty, and I really love
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the book of Hebrews in this
context, because the book of
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Hebrews, if it is talking about
relationship then it's talking
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in this
relational language of love.
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And when you are talking
about that in Hebrews 2, you are
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talking about Christ becoming
one with the human family,
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you are talking a
physical connection.
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My wife and I have been really
blessed in our own marriage,
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by understanding there are
different languages of love.
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I know when I first married
my wife, Rise, I told her
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I said now I am going to make
sure you know that I love you,
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because I am going to vacuum
the home and I'm going to clean
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the bathrooms, I'm
going to do things for you.
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And that is speaking
in a language of service,
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acts of service.
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There are these five
love languages, and that love
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language, though it was
mine and is mine, I love to come
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home to a clean house,
I love to come home where
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everything's in order,
there's dinner on the table,
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everything's just set up.
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That's you love me, my
wife loves me, but that was not
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my wife's love language.
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No indeed not, so I'm knocking
myself out just cleaning and
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doing all these acts of
service, and she could feel
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insecure and neglected.
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Yeah, I know Rise,
she wants to be touched.
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Yes, that is one
of her love language.
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Her number one love
language is quality time.
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Just spending time with me,
just sit down on the couch and
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talk to me spend quality time.
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Which is big in the book of
Hebrews, especially in Chapter 4
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In Hebrews, God is inviting
us into a relationship with Him
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that is based on actually
spending quality time together.
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And it is so hard for me, Okay!
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I have a hard time with quality
time, I'm struggling with
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quality time, because
it's not my natural thing.
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But for God, what's interesting
is that I may have a certain
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love language, my
wife may have another one.
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God speaks them all.
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And it is right here
in the book of Hebrews.
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Hebrews Chapter 2, you touched
on it, the physical connection.
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You know God has become
one with the human race.
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Physically connected to us
forever, that's physical Okay?
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Hebrews Chapter 5 you
touched on that, quality time.
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God wants to spend
quality time with us.
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consistently, continually.
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Then there are three more
love languages, acts of service.
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Hebrews 3 talks
about this acts of service.
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God has built us a
home, He has built us a house.
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Not to mention the sacrifice
of Christ which is both gift
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and acts of service.
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Yes both of those and that is
right here in Hebrews Chapter 1.
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This gift of God's
love, given to us in the
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person of God the Son.
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And then you have,
what I think is powerful
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in Hebrews Chapter 11.
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You have the fifth love language
is words of affirmation.
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Words, positive words.
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You know when you look
at Hebrews 11, and you count
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the history of God's
people, you know that those guys
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all through their past,
cause we see it in the Bible,
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those guys weren't perfect.
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They made their mistakes.
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They had their failures.
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And you look at that and
it helps us, it encourages us
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because we are humans and we
make our, we have our failures.
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We make mistakes or
what ever, you know.
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We realize that those guys were,
had their moments, it encourages
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us, but when you
get to Hebrews 11,
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and you recount the history
of God's people, you know you
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don't find anything there
of a negative, there's nothing
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mentioned about the
fact that Abraham and Sara
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laughed and doubted God.
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Or Noah got drunk.
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Or Moses killed an Egyptian.
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Or David, there's
none that is there.
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From God's perspective
the whole history is positive,
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He's affirming,
affirming, affirming
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this is the way I see it.
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You know how
difficult that is in a marriage?
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With your wife,
with your children?
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It's faith language.
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It's language that is calculated
to instill confidence and to
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cause the person you are
communicating with, to rise
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to the level of your confidence
and your trust and so you
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read through the Old Testament
and then you come to Hebrews
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Chapter 11 and
think are we talking about
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the same people here?
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Because these individuals in
Hebrews Chapter 11 are spoken
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of in such glowing terms as if
they have never made a mistake.
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God is allowing, by His own
free choice, His love to cover a
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multitude of
sins in these people.
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Some of them were real rascals.
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And when God confronted
them, I mean I remember when God
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in the Old Testament, you
know, Abraham and Sara, Sara
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Abraham's lying that Sara's
his wife because he is afraid
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and then Abraham and Sara are
told they are going to have a
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child and Sara laughs.
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And God comes to her and
confronts her and says, Sara
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your laughing and she
says, NO I wasn't laughing.
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So she lied.
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She lies right to... Ah
and she scared and God is real.
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You find God to be a real
person who can deal with our
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imperfections, who can handle
who we are, understands the
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revelation of our weakness,
and yet works through that and
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from His perspective sees
this in a whole different light.
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Now this relational theme in
the book of Hebrews is brought
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out over and over again.
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But another way I noticed
it James, is with a frequent
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usage of the word enter.
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Yeah, well in Hebrews Chapter 4,
for example, enter into My rest.
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And then at the end of Hebrews
Chapter 4, come or enter boldly
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the throne of grace.
00:10:07.47\00:10:09.34
Which then comes out again
in Chapter 6 verses 19 and 20.
00:10:09.37\00:10:13.39
Were the most
spectacular invitation is given.
00:10:13.42\00:10:16.30
That we are to enter
boldly behind the veil to the
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Presence behind the veil.
00:10:21.18\00:10:22.69
To immediate,
intimate contact with God.
00:10:22.73\00:10:26.12
And then we come to Chapter
10, of the book of Hebrews and
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verse 22, we're admonished,
draw near to Me, God is inviting
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us, telling us come
straight to Me, come near to Me.
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In Chapter 12 verses
18-29, what a great climax
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to the book of Hebrews.
00:10:41.46\00:10:42.59
Because Paul says, we have not
come to this mountain that was
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burning with fire and trembling,
but rather we have come, and
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then he has a series of
statements that are made
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indicating where we
come from to, we come to God
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through Jesus Christ.
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We come to an
innumerable company of angels,
00:10:59.83\00:11:03.76
we come to the new city
of God the New Jerusalem,
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and finally we come
to the Presence of God
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who he informs us is a God
of consuming fire, but somehow
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through the book of Hebrews
we have now been made home,
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made at home in the presence
of God who is a consuming fire.
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Let's not forget Hebrews 13 and
verse 6, "I will never leave you
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nor forsake you," actually
that's a Hebrews Chapter 13
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Verse 5, I'll never
leave you or forsake you.
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People have gone
through separation, divorce,
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and all of this.
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And yet God says I'm
going to stick with you.
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That's
relationship there I'm sure.
00:11:35.26\00:11:36.33
Yeah that's amazing, it's
amazing as we move through this
00:11:36.36\00:11:38.85
and we see that
the God of heaven,
00:11:38.88\00:11:42.33
The Creator of all things.
00:11:42.36\00:11:44.77
I mean, we can't imagine
any more lofty great thoughts.
00:11:44.80\00:11:49.72
But this very God, through
the person of Jesus Christ,
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has come to us and
invited us into an intimate
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relationship with Himself.
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And that's the beginning of our
launch into the book of Hebrews.
00:11:58.87\00:12:01.97
And we thank you so
much for joining us.
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