Hold Fast

 | Michael Blue guides the discussion into Hebrews 6 with Dan Schilling. They dig into and how our thinking leads to a transformed life...a life where you & I Thrive!

Transcript

Dan Schilling: 0:07

Hey, welcome to the FeedSheep podcast where we help you hear God's voice, follow his lead and thrive as a disciple. I'm Dan Schilling. And I'll be one of your guides. Now let's get into today's topic. Hey, welcome to FeedSheep podcast. Thanks for joining us today, Michael. So good to see you.

Michael Blue: 0:22

Great seeing Dan. Good to be back.

Dan Schilling: 0:25

It's good to be together again. So today, we're gonna jump right in. I know, there's some things that God has been speaking to your heart around this passage, but I just wanted to throw something at you real quick. Because the context of the verse that we're going to use today was reminded me of a story. And it was a story about a husband and wife and they were arguing about, you know, who needed to get up in the morning and take care of the coffee, making the coffee and he said, What's your job, honey? Because you know, you're the wife, you take care of the things here at home? She says, No, she's actually it's your responsibility, because the Bible says something. I was like, What do you mean, the Bible says, so she goes, Yeah, see, we're gonna look at its Hebrews. So wow, joke. Sorry, sorry. Your kids aren't

Michael Blue: 1:07

even here for that one.

Dan Schilling: 1:09

Bad dad jokes, right? Yeah. So today, we're gonna look at some passages here, and Hebrews six. And so tee us up what what's what's on your heart? And these passage here in Hebrews six?

Michael Blue: 1:22

Yeah. So you know, the the tagline, if you will, that we've been we've been using for FeedSheep podcast is the here following thrive. And so we've talked about how this is a lifestyle that one kind of follows after the other I have to hear in order to follow and I'm have to follow in order to thrive. And so there's kind of a progression, although, once we start doing this, they all get muddled. I'm always hearing I'm always learning to follow. And hopefully, I'm thriving in different areas in different different parts. And so as I've been preparing to preach this coming Sunday, on this passage, Hebrews 613, to 20, we're going to take a little extra cut of it here, but it just came to me of a big part of thriving comes in having confidence in first of all, who we are, but most importantly, whose we are. And so I think that's what this passage tells us is that we can have confidence and thrive in life, ultimately, because of of who's we are. And so we're going to look at that, and, and Hebrews 613 to 20. But before we get to 13, why don't you start us off and read verses 11 and 12. So we can kind of set the passage in its context. Yeah, absolutely.

Dan Schilling: 2:29

Well, two things want to do. One, I'll pray for us. And just for those for joining us, we've been really engaging in a lot of this here, like Matt will talk about help you hear God's voice, follow his lead, thrive as a disciple, we had a couple of great series, if you haven't caught them yet. The B then do just been impacted by that myself continued to be processing through what it means to abide and remain in Him. So let me pray for us and ask the Lord, just come and be with us. Father, thank you, for today ask, even now, Holy Spirit, you'd come and just illuminate our eyes to see, see the things you want us to see to hear your voice. Without all the noise, without all the busyness without all the distractions, all the things in life that tried to kill us and destroy us. Enemy he was trying to keep us from having that clarity of your voice. And so today, we quiet ourselves before you and asked you to speak. So come have your way. Have your way in us. Help us to hear to follow to thrive today. Thank you for this time from Michael and just prayed speak through him and us together now in Jesus name.

Michael Blue: 3:42

Amen. All right, good. Thanks. So

Dan Schilling: 3:45

yeah, and I want to just the kind of the context of of this. Hebrews six, as we were just discussing briefly before is these these passages are the writer of Hebrews is saying it's time to move on right time to move from just the elementary, so to say, teachings of the faith to start moving to the next level. So I want to give folks that as a context. And then we can pick up then here starting in verse 11. And says here, and we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patient inherit the promises.

Michael Blue: 4:34

It's good. Yeah. So like you said, this, this is a passage of were really the few verses right before it are some of the more controversial passages, one of the more controversial passages in Scripture, and what I mean by that is that it's a place where we argue and there's some pretty big kind of tenants of different views of salvation that that come into play here. But the big thing is to Marking, it seems like you know, there's some indication of somebody who either had faith at one point or was around faith at one point, and then walks away. And it says they're unable to kind of come back because they would be crucifying once again him and holding him up to contempt. So, you know, we're not going to spend much time in that passage, because it's all over the map in terms of what to believe. But the important thing about that passage is that it calls us into this next step. And so he's warning a group of people to not do these things, not fall away, not hold Christ up to contempt. But he's calling them now to he's exhorting them and this part we're going to look at, of how we are to live. And so he moves from this warning into exploitation. And so we're gonna really focus on the exploitation and he says, you know, at the end, don't be sluggish. calls back to earlier in the past in this book, and I think, chapter 511, where he talks about being dull, it's the same word of sluggish or being dull and our faith, and that's, you know, those are things that we, we want to run away from in our faith. And when we become dull, become hard of hearing, we become set in our ways, and, and that leads to kind of spiritual apathy, and then ultimately, us falling away. So then instead of being sluggish, he calls us to faith and patience. And then he moves into this example of Abraham that we're going to really look at today. So I'll ask you to keep going and verses 13 and 14, absolutely, and 15.

Dan Schilling: 6:33

Yes, and for when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by Himself, saying, Surely I will bless you and multiply you. And thus Abraham having patiently waited, obtain the promise.

Michael Blue: 6:51

Yeah, so. So Abraham, if you know his story of his life, right, he had a lot of promises from God. And so you may say, well, which which promises this and it's specifically quoting Genesis 22. Genesis 22, is when God reaffirmed his covenant with Abraham, after Abraham puts Isaac ties him up, lifts a knife, and God says, hold your hand I have I have a sacrifice for you Don't lay a hand on the boy. And so the promise actually comes in Genesis 22. And I don't know if you have that one. You do have that one up as well. But if you want to want to read that one to us, 16 to 18.

Dan Schilling: 7:28

Yeah, great. So this is Genesis 22, starting picking up in 16 end, in said, by myself, I have sworn declares the Lord, because you have done this, and not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you. And I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of the heavens, and as the sand that is on the seashore, and your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice. So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beersheba, and Abraham lived in Beersheba.

Michael Blue: 8:10

Good. Yeah, so kind of walking through the story. And I'll quit talking on that this became more of a dialogue in a second, I promise. You enjoy that part of it. But this is kind of setting the stage I think, for what we want to talk about. And so from, you know, we don't know exactly the timeline, we get a couple ages of Abraham throughout the story. But at this point, we don't exactly have an age, we, we can guess, because Isaac was old enough to carry the wood. So, you know, he had to be of some age that could bear the weight of the wood. So probably a teenager is what a lot of people think or so from the very first call of Abraham to this point where he receives this, it's probably between 35 and 40 or 45 years, okay, that's a pretty decent chunk of time. I'm 45 years old. So that's, that's a lifetime I've had and some may say, I'm halfway through my life. So half of my life, yes. But it says that through this time, Abraham was was patiently waiting for the promise. And so if we look at just real briefly, this, this time period from age 75, to 100, which was the time that Abraham was first told to leave, and go to Canaan, and when Isaac was born, that was that was a 25 year period. And so it's it gets this Hey, Abraham move, I'm gonna bless you. I'm gonna bless all the world throughout you. And we have this this time period that goes by and then he finally gets this this final promise some 35 or 40 years later, but in between, I just want us to see this because I think it's important and encouraging us. Abraham begins in obedience and he flees to Canaan. Right? Or he goes to cane moves his family there, but not long after there's a famine and so he flees to Egypt, looking to the Pharaoh to help him right And then he goes and he defends some helpless people and he wins a war, and brings these people back makes an offering a tithe to Melchizedek, which is, which is all over this book of Hebrews as well. And so that, you know, there's kind of a high point in Abraham's life. And then we, we see God coming back to Abraham saying, I'm gonna bless you. And he's like, look, I don't get it. I don't have an heir, how in the world are you going to bless me? So he questions God to His face multiple times here and following this promise, which is, again, reiterated he decides, and Sarah decides, you know what, God's not coming through on this. I'm going to do this on my own. And so Sarah gives them Hagar, and he has a son Ishmael. During this. God doesn't just strike him wanes as well. But a good try with somebody else. He comes back again, he says, I'm about to bless you. He's 99 years old at this point. Abraham laughs at God. Right? Then he sends people, and then he entertains them, he feeds them, He cares for them. And then his wife laughs at this promise that's given and she's nearly 90 years old. And so in between this time, I want to say you're gonna have this son. So Abraham gives Sarah away to Abimelech or Hamelech, one of those, again, right? This is a second time Abraham has given his wife away, in order to save his own skin. He has given back by the grace of God, she doesn't isn't touched by this man. And then they have Isaac and the fulfillment seems to happen. And then we have this scene where God says, All right, I've given you Isaac, now go sacrifice your son. And this is the time he obeys, pretty much immediately. And so that is this life, if you will, of patiently waiting. Faithfulness, is what it looks like. It's and it's not very clean, is it?

Dan Schilling: 11:48

Yes. Well, Mike, I just think about this, you know, we talked about we talked about kind of thinking around well, what's this, what we really want to focus on on this episode about holding fast and patient faith? And I think for myself, when I think about man, 25 years, like I get, I can barely wait 25 minutes, waiting in line, you know, resume in a restaurant, like, oh, my gosh, this is crazy. Um, what am I doing? Wait here 25 minutes. So to wait, realistically, 25 years on a promise? I mean, let's just to be real, right? I mean, like, giving up hope? Like, did I really hear from God? And I think, you know, as we process through this journey, that we're inviting folks to be on here with us of hearing following and thriving. I mean, sometimes those promises, and the fulfillment can be significantly time apart. It's hard to hold on, it's hard to hold on to a promise. When it's been like, Okay, God, like I was hoping it was gonna be like, in 25 minutes, like, Hold on, don't give up yet.

Michael Blue: 12:59

So well, and not only that, it's a promise that's based on their physical ability to do something it seems like right, it's a promise that you're going to have this multitude of children. And here you have an 80 or 100 year old man and a 90 year old woman, right? I mean, you can see you hit 75, you're like, Okay, I'm not sure how this is gonna work on the head. 8595. And also, it's 100. Like, this is ridiculous, like, this is not going to happen. How have you seen I guess, if you think about this kind of patient waiting, we're everything all of a sudden seems impossible, right? You get to a point where you're like, God, I don't know that you can come through this terrible say, but you kind of get to this point of laughing at God saying, God, this is this promises is past like you missed your window. Yeah. Have you ever been had today?

Dan Schilling: 13:51

You mean, how many times did they have? Yeah, the, the reality is I say, a lot of my life exists in this because there's so many aspects, where even recently, I felt like God was even challenging me like, well, what's changed? Like, changed with what like with our deal? Like what deal like the, like the deal we made like you seek first the Kingdom, you trust me to take care of everything? And I'll, I'll take care of you. But I'm looking down at my bank accounts. And yeah, but like, Yeah, but what's changed? I mean, I told you, I would take you know, you seek first the Kingdom, I'll take care of everything. It's like, well, obviously, it's not you got and I think Abraham could say the same thing, right, like, Well, I gotta get going on this. And so let's get Hagar into the story and see if I can make this happen because I got it. This was a promised by God. And we got to get it done. And so I'm raised my hand is more guilty than I care to admit, almost daily of how many times I'm forgetting. This promise are things that I believe God has put on our heart that He spoke to us. Over the years, but I'm already over into another. I'm not willing to keep my hands to the plow in the field that he's given me, I'm already willing to move the plow over some other field and try something else. Because it doesn't seem like this is working. And I think that's what Abraham's done. But then God is going to, is we're going to see here, you know, reward him for his willingness, not the perfect like you said a little video. It wasn't it was good at all perfect, but his willingness to continue to do what he was asked to do, right? Yeah. And

Michael Blue: 15:29

what's what I liked the story and bringing out kind of the detail of Abraham story is that scripture here, the writer of Hebrews says, Thus, Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. Now don't impress you, but I don't read this statement. I don't read the story of a man and think, Man, that's a patient guy. It's a guy who's whose patient I mean, now, he waited a long time. I can certainly give him that. And at the end, you know, you could see his faith coming, coming out and and all that, but so I think it's encouraging to say, This isn't like you said, perfectly waiting. And I may stumble along the way I may get frustrated along the way. I may question God along the way may laugh along the way.

Dan Schilling: 16:12

I think he's okay with one.

Michael Blue: 16:13

I think so too. Yeah.

Dan Schilling: 16:15

He's not like, what, how dare you? You're like you said, You did what with Hagar, you're out of here. I'll start with somebody else. And I think so many of us live under false pretense, in a way, right? I mean, we think that God's up there ready to smash us or we're reflecting back and say, Yeah, but I didn't. I miss got here. I miss got here. I miss got, here's like, it's okay. His mercies are new every day. He's willing to have kids. All right, come on back. Let's, I want you to walk with me. I want you to hear my voice. I want you to get back and following so you can thrive and this is what he wanted for Abraham. Right? He wanted to see Abraham thrive because he was going to fulfill His Word, His promises his oath, as we're going to talk about here.

Michael Blue: 16:53

Yeah. And because this wasn't a dependent covenant, this wasn't a law, do this. And I will bless you this was, I am going to make you into a great nation. Yes, Abraham, it doesn't matter. What you do. For me, it's like I have said, so let's look at look at kind of what where that certain becomes here, and starting back and 16 through 20.

Dan Schilling: 17:17

Yeah, let's pick up there for people who swear by something greater than themselves, and all their disputes and oath is final for confirmation. So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise, the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath. So that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. Keep going to make it more, you have to mark down too. And so 19 Pick up a 19 year says, we have this as a sure steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever, and the order of Melchizedek.

Michael Blue: 18:20

Yeah. So this is this is actually pretty I think we can miss this pretty quickly, because God did something pretty remarkable here after he had promised Abraham over and over and he fulfilled the promise with Isaac and all this. He went the step further, and he actually swore by Himself. Right? Yeah, he made he made an oath. He didn't need to make an oath. His word is true for God to not fulfill his promises, he would have to cease being God. Yes. Right. So God's promises certain there's nothing more than he needs to offer. And there's nothing that says higher that he can he can survive it. He does this because he, again, he meets us in a place where he sees that we may question his way to do it. And we may laugh, because we don't understand we may think that it's it's beyond your capability says, Look, I'm going to show you not just by promised, but I'm going to swear an oath, something that that you would do, to show that this is a certainty kind of these ever changing, unchanging promises. And I think this is one of the greatest sources of comfort that we should have as followers of Jesus, that it's this simple truth that all of God's promises

Dan Schilling: 19:27

will be fulfilled. Yes, amen. Yes and Amen. Right. If they say yes and amen.

Michael Blue: 19:33

Yes, and we won't, we won't talk a ton about it here. But this this goes to characteristic of God that we, you know, you may or may not have heard this run or you probably have done but listening the immutability of God. Right. immutability of God is the unchangeable nature of God. Meaning, you know, God's nature, his character, and his purpose cannot change. And so the way to understand this is that that if they could change if God could get better if God could get more loving. If God could get more of something it would mean he's not perfect right now. Right. And if he becomes less loving, it means he's no longer holds that characteristic like he does. So God can't actually love us more. But he can't love us less he, he can't hate sin more than he does. But he will not Lovcen less than he does. And so we have this idea when you think about the millat immutability, if something can change, it means it can get either better, or it can get worse, it can get bigger, can get smaller, more or less, and God can't get more, he can't get less and any of these things, and so he's complete. And as attributes in the end, they cannot change. And so that means if God declares a purpose to happen, there's nothing that can change it. And that's a pretty settling thing. John Piper said this, about he said, God can no more live and he can stop being God. And so I think that's, that's what we see see here of God being a god of promises, and we see him fulfilling His promises and ways that we can imagine. And it's way, way more abundantly than you could ever imagine. This little group, this little outcast, family wandering in a land away from their family, their ancestors in Canaan, it says, Yeah, you're going to be more than the stars are in the sky, within the seas on the shore.

Dan Schilling: 21:24

Yeah, well, I think this is such a great some time for just just stop for a moment, each of us and say, you know, that's something to give thanks to God for, right because there's a lot of things in our life that are not consistent. Even the relationships around us Eve, I heard a guy say this this week, he said, you know, that He lives, He lives on earth, he used the word impress beside live to, you know, to bless those who are going to be in the two are in the front row of my funeral. Like, you know, I'm really a my, my desire is to faithfully love serve care, you know, be engaged with them, primarily in my life, you know, care for their, their spiritual needs, and not if sometimes we get so distracted in ministry that we're focused on the people who are not even in the, you know, at our funeral, and then don't care. Yeah, missing the people that are going to be the most important. And you say, Okay, so what's that have to do with I think, you know, the consistency of God is the same yesterday, today and forever. But many of us, our friendships guy told me recently said, like, three things, three classes of friends, friends that are for a reason, friends for a season and friends that are forever. That's good. I thought that was very good, too, is it but there's people in our life, you know, for a reason got brings them in, there's people there for just a season, and there's some that are just, they're gonna be there forever. And, and again, you say, what, how's this tie? Well, I think that is, even those folks, you know that those relationships can be severed things can be inconsistent family breaks it, I mean, all these things that happen in life. But what God wants us to know is he is the same. Like, he's never more or less loving. He's never more or less caring about our daily needs, and our provision, he's never any more or less desiring to have fellowship and intimacy with Him. Right, same same day in day out, his mercies are new every day, same day in day out, regardless of how stupid I was all the things I might have done yesterday, that hurt all those people in the front row, it'll be in the front row of my funeral, that I have an opportunity for redemption and to be turned, and to get aligned today, to his purposes, his goals, to hear his voice to follow him and thrive on this journey.

Michael Blue: 23:48

And ultimately, that, you know, we think of sometimes, you know, I kind of talk to people and you've wrestled with this idea of the immutability of God, or the impossibility of God and, like, Well, does that make him unclear, like, so he's not moved by certain things. And he's kind of just consistent, almost cold, uncaring. And it's actually the opposite. Like he can't be more loving. He can't be more caring about it. But it also means that he's not vacillating up and down. I mean, like, Oh, I'm really mad now. Oh, I'm really happy. Now God is the same. And there's a great comfort in that. And I think that's what the next metaphor that we get in here where he says that we have the sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into a place behind the curtain. So we have this this metaphor of, of an anchor being placed behind the veil, which is the Holy of Holies. Right? That was the place that only the high priests could go and only on the Day of Atonement only once a year. Yes. Is this Jesus, though he runs in there before us, anchors us into that into the presence of God and we have access every single day. And so you have this this metaphor talk about kind of this vacillation of the world So you think of the sea and it's, you know, restless, it's unstable, it's dangerous, it can be calm, and then it can be rough the next day, it can destroy a boat, and it can take a boat safely to passage. But and so our lives right where these little boats if you will, if you think about it on the sea tossed to and fro about based on kind of whatever the sea is doing that day, kind of driven by its winds tossed by its waves, fighting against currents longing for the safety and serenity of port of Harbor. And so the author here says, this anchor, the thing that keeps you safe, the thing that keeps you from being shipwrecked, it doesn't necessarily pull you out of the waves. But it takes the waves from being dangerous to not being dangerous, just something that you're, you know, kind of rocking along with maybe getting seasick with but you are secure, there's no more danger to you, because that anchor is placed in a spot that you can't see. Right. Usually anchors are places that you can't see. And it's, it's taken into this place. And that keeps us safe. And so then we can find rest, we can find rest for our souls, I love this, there's one more metaphor and then I'll pass back to you. But the idea of a foreigner says Jesus has gone as a former runner on our behalf, that's actually the term for Runner was used for what when, when a big boat came in, and it was really rocky seas rough seas, they couldn't make it in into harbor. Okay, right, because it was too dangerous the rocks, they'd get crushed against the rocks, and so they would have to stay out in the sea. And that's, that's dangerous. So they would send a small boat with the anchor in it. And the people would take this small boat into the harbor. And they would anchor it, and the safety of the harbor. Right. And so you have these, this picture of this small boat, passing in Florida, and the ships gonna follow right as soon as the seas calm down and whatnot. But at that point, they're safe, right? They're no longer in this dangerous spot. They don't have to go between the rocks, and they're anchored steadily in there because of their four runner that went ahead of them and anchored the boat. And it's just a beautiful picture of what Jesus did for us becoming our high priest forever, right? There's no longer this line with Levi and Aaron, that a priest dies. And you have to have another high priest, a priest dies, you have to have another high priest. I've had this eternal priest forever that's behind the veil, already there by his own blood. And so that is the thing that allows us to patiently wait, holding fast to this truth of the promise, that will not change. And that's how we hold on to the promises of God and find this thriving in the midst of kind of the turmoil and topsy turvy.

Dan Schilling: 27:38

Yeah, that's so good. There's a couple of things that come to mind. One is the passage in James, James one. And he's talking about there and James about being tossed to and fro Annie. He says, you know, this is just read it, you know, says that when you ask this is for when you're asking for wisdom, because God wants to give to you know, be sure that your faith isn't God alone don't waver for a person divided, divided, loyalty is unsettled as a wave on the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they're unstable and everything they do. And I think for myself, personally, that verse in some ways, I hate to say it typifies a lot of my life. Yeah, like, I can get up feeling like oh, man is so good. God's got a great day. And then one bad thing happens like, like, it's a train wreck, you know, like, in a minute, like, the ship is already banging off the rocks taking in water. And I'm already like, geez, what, God, how can you do this? And so how much of my life God has been trying to help me not be a double minded man. So I'm not unstable, is he's stable. He's the same, like we just said, he's not changing all the time. But what he's wanting for us is to gain that heart of wisdom, which is from him, like, I've got this. I'm going to take care of you. You that's already been settled. Right. And I think for many of us, that hasn't been settled in our mind, but it has been settled in his race a Good Good Father. He's not thinking I don't know. Michael made me mad yesterday. I'm not going to no provision for him tomorrow, no bread. He's gonna figure it out for himself. I'm gonna starve him. He'll learn I'll teach him he'll you know like know that again, we have a false pretense or you know that we think who God is or what he's like, because of certain images or or relationships in our life that conditioned us to think well, this is obviously how God is. Right? See, and think he's not, he's not he's not unstable. He doesn't wake up with a with a bad hair day and make I'm gonna just, I'm so mad today. I'm gonna, I'm gonna show you and so that's, I guess one of the first thing I just want to encourage you today if you're listening that, that the day was always gonna try to to kill you steal you try to keep you from the promises about of who he is. And he doesn't want you to thrive. He doesn't want you to hear his voice he, he's a loving Father who today if you want, like this, if you need wisdom, ask God he will gladly give it to you. He desiring to have you to sit and listen to him and not be tossed around, like the waves of the sea. The other thing is, you're talking about the foreigner, I think about John the Baptist, again, when it's talked about that he was that foreigner of Christ, right, he was prophesied to come and prepare the way get the people's hearts ready for and we'll have a look at this in a future episode. And Luke three, when it talks about John the Baptist says it's a great teaching, because he's, I think back to our previous life to about finances, he lays out some very clear things on on some financial things that I believe each one of those in the preparation for Jesus and for our hearts. And we'll look at that in a in a future episode. But the last thing I want to say and then we'll just start, I know you want to wrap up here with some action steps and final thoughts from you is that, as you shared, I mean, really the the goal of what God's wanting for us in that veil, and we can look at that, you know, that the veil was torn, and this curtain that he's referring to is that veil and that it when it was torn when Jesus was crucified, and that veil then torn. I know some scholars believe this thing was a like a 60 by 30, with like four inches thick. I mean, like literally nothing I pull this apart, like, and so it was the hand of God that tore this thing apart now saying, I desire for you now to come in, to enter in like what it says here in the verse we just read, you know, enter into that place behind the curtain, right, that place of intimacy he's desiring to draw us in, and to have us with him in that place. But there's only one way that happens. And it's through the blood of Jesus through the cross that was, you know, on our behalf, that allows us now to come and be in his presence so that we can hear and follow and thrive.

Michael Blue: 32:06

Yeah, yeah, that's really good. Because it doesn't say it's that we might have a strong encouragement to hold fast. I mean, that's what this is, this is Abraham's life, all of these things Jesus going into for and these are encouragement to us to cling to this, right, the idea of fleeing for refuge is the idea of the sanctuary cities in the Old Testament, right? You have these six cities where if you accidentally killed your neighbor, you could flee to for refuge until Judgment was laid to bear on you. But there was a place of safety that you would run to, right, maybe even having someone chasing you behind. Because it was a place of that you could hold on to and be safe. And that's ultimately what he said. So Abraham went all over the place and his life, but he was safe, and he rested. And so it requires us though, to be clinging to hold fast to that hope. And that's, I think, where the following really comes in, in the follow up. So if we think about action steps that comes out, I would encourage you as you think about God, as you engage with God, I love journaling. I know people don't love to journal, but I think it's a discipline practice that everybody can benefit from. It's not what you think like Dear Diary, today, I had three cups of coffee than that. I mean, it's really it's just it's an it's a way to, to interact with goddess way I think about it, I don't I rarely look back at my old journals, but the writing and interacting is important. So I would encourage you to record the promises of God for us, as Christians, when you see him in Scripture, write them down, write down the promises of God, because every single one of them will be fulfilled, because that is consistent with God's character, and record the promises that you feel like God's giving you individually as well. So that you can go back and celebrate as opposed to just passing along from and these things are things we hold fast to. And then I would continue the practice of resting in the assurance of God's inability to do anything other than his purpose. Right? So kind of rest in the truth of the fact that He will fulfill every single promise. And then ultimately, we think about holding fast to the hope of our anchors and our anchors. Jesus. He's our four runner, he's, he's there. So we claim to I mean, these are these are metaphors, these are images of me, not just like, passively looking at when I'm in trouble this is grabbing on to like I'm in, you know, thrown overboard and see, and I can't swim very well. I'm going to clean to a lifejacket. And you're not ripping that thing out of my hands. Yeah, and that's the picture we have not of, well, I'll grab it. You know, as soon as I go under, and you know, it gets blown away by the wind and the waves all of a sudden I go under and I don't know where I am to cling to Jesus, and that's active that is running to him in good times and bad times and claiming so those are kind of the three action steps I would encourage us to move into any Anything else to add to that in?

Dan Schilling: 35:02

Yeah, just one last thing here as we prepare to finish up for today. And you know, Michael, one of the long term objectives for me of doing these podcasts isn't just to have a podcast. And so I just want to say this here now is that one of the long term things is really that we get folks into communities. One of our goals in these are called point a group's point A is a term that means those who follow Jesus as their guide and keeper, their sheep that are following the good shepherd. And one of the tools that we want to use is actually called a lamb journal. So back to your point of journaling. And again, it's not about a diary, but that Lam journal is where you record what you're learning how you apply it, how that truth was multiplied in your life, and then what was becoming with the goal, that what you use that journal or four is a legacy gift to those who follow behind you. So to your children, to your grandchildren, to your great grandpa to those Lord willing, that, you know, continue to come behind it that they see just like the Hebrews 11, you know, we can talk about that another time, too. But these, that hall of faith, these are stories that were recorded of real life, people who heard God's voice who followed his lead, who thrived. But what better story to hear than those in your own family, of how your great dad, Granddad Michael, and what he did and how he heard God's voice, and he followed and that you have that heritage or that legacy of faith. And so that's really one of the things that we want to see happen for you, as you're listening today in this journey, that you would stay with us keep going, this is a project we're going to continue to be working towards in the future. But that's really one of the goals is getting folks into that place of being in fellowship with others who desire to hear and follow and thrive, but that we also start to record those things for encouragement for those coming behind us. It's good, and those who are with us on the journey to so that's right. Excellent.

Michael Blue: 37:06

We're going to close us in prayer.

Dan Schilling: 37:07

Yeah, why don't a Father thank you again, for today, and just the opportunity to be in your presence together. And so today, we were asking that you would be the anchor for us today. You already are. I mean, we were able to ask something that you already are, but that we would, that we would hold true to that, that you are the same yesterday, today and forever, that we can trust you that you're worthy of trust, the promises that you give us are yes and amen because of who you are not because who we are. And so today, just help us to walk in those promises, ones that are specific to us, but also ones that you've just given to all of us in the faith that you're going to provide that you're going to take care of us that you're always going to be with us you don't leave us or forsake us and that we can come to you that are weary and heavy laden, that you'll give us rest and so help us today to enter that place of rest. So we love you. Thanks for this time. Together with Michael, just pray that this word that goes for today would bear much fruit and bring glory and honor to you alone of you. thank you in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Thanks for joining the FeedSheep podcast. We'll see you again next time. God bless you