Hey, everybody. Welcome back to another edition of the daily Bible podcast. Merry Christmas folks. You did it. But you know what this is? I didn't say this is the first one. I just said, you know what? Tomorrow is, tomorrow's Christmas Eve. You know what? Today is. It's Christmas Eve, Eve. No, it's Christmas Adam, because Adam was made first. Adam came before. So Merry Christmas, Adam, everybody. Oh, whatever you're going to do with that. Huh. See. All right. So one of your favorite Christmas gifts that you've ever gotten. What'd you say. I mean, it's just whatever comes to mind, because I know that's a hard question to answer. First thing that comes to mind. I got the GI Joe, I got this like storm tank thing when I was. A kid and, and I loved it. It had missiles that fired off of it. And it was just, it was simple. We were talking about this earlier. Um, it was just plastic, but it, man, it brought me so much joy. I thought it was the coolest thing. It was like the battle tank or something like that. Yeah, that was one that just, I remember my eyes lighting up when I got that. That was super cool. I could see young pastor PJ lighting up with. What I was called. That's called you bastard, BJ. That's really funny. I could see you destroying stuff with your, your toys. For sure. Yeah, well, I was an only child too, so that makes sense. Yeah. Wait. Yeah, I would say mine was Michael Jackson. I got, I got Michael Jackson, Chris, Michael. Yeah. He was there in the. Uh, I got a double CD. It was Michael Jackson's history album. In fact, I'm going to look it up while we're talking. Cause I want to know what year it came out. But I got that. And I guess I liked him at that point. I'm pretty sure. That's why my mom bought me that double seat. Okay. But I got that in addition to a stereo system. So I hooked it up and I was. Digging on Michael Jackson. DGU or did you not know every move to thriller? No, I did not. Okay. Really like my day before the internet, where you could watch something, incessantly had to wait till something came on the TV. And then hit the VCR record button. Right. Do you remember doing this with your stereo? I would take a blank cassette tape. Until my song came on on the radio and record that. I mean, those are the days, man. I just said good old day. I didn't have enough patients to do that. I used to rip CDs all the time when that hap came out. Became a thing where you on Limewire, where you doing those things. I mean, you were a bit too. The music you were stealing music. I acted as a child, but now in my older days, I no longer act like or think like a child. Um, Yeah, no, I'm I didn't do that. I was talking to Steve yang the other day though. And he was telling me that when he first started in, in doing some film, And stuff because he went and went to school to be a film major at one point. Uh, that his editing, they had to VCR. Recorders. And they had a VCR tape in one and a VCR tape and the other, and they had to edit by hitting record and letting it play and then hitting stop and then fast forwarding to where they want to do the record. And. Yeah. It's too much. I would've given up. Well, yeah. So what year did that CD come out? You're looking at it. 95, 19 95, I guess I was double digit ages by okay. Yeah. I was younger, but yeah, that's about right. How's fifth grade. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, you young whippersnapper. Um, yeah, get off my lawn and the such, Hey, let's jump into God's word though. Good idea. Let's do that. Hebrews 11 through 13 chapter 11, you may have heard it referred to as the hall of faith. Uh, we know what the hall of fame is, and you can go to the hall of fame, rock and roll hall of fame, football hall of fame, baseball hall of fame in any, and you'll see people that are honored in there for their accomplishments on the field. Well, chapter 11 is referred to as the hall of faith, because that's what it's about. It's a, it's honoring individuals in scripture and old Testament saints, specifically for their faith in their acts of faith. And so you'll read through it and you'll recognize names that are the heavy hitters. It starts off with Abel. Abel has such a small place in scripture and yet. Uh, he is mentioned, here is somebody who is somebody of faith. You've got EasyKnock, you've got Noah, Abraham, you can read through, and it really is rehearsing so much of the old Testament story. And he's going through and talking about all of these things and, and he begins, and maybe we should have started with this by defining faith as the assurance of things hoped for. And the conviction of things not seen. And that's really the thrust of chapter 11, because remember. He's writing to a group of, of people tempted to go back to Judaism. Attempted to go back to the old Kevin. So he's highlighting a bunch of people who were part of the old covenant part of the old, old system. And he's saying they had a conviction of things, hoped for things not seen. And that's where we get to the end of chapter 11, which is so important because it says in verse 39, after listing all of these people, all their impressive accomplishments, he says, And these though commended through their faith did not receive what was promised since God had provided something better for us. That apart from us, they should not be made. Perfect. That's amazing. He's basically saying, Hey. Apart from us, they should not be made. Perfect. What's something better that God had provided for us for the Hebrew. Christians that. The author was writing to the answer is Jesus. All of these people, their faith was anticipating. It was looking forward to Jesus, not understanding what, what it is that they were fully trusting in or putting their faith in. We get to see him know him, understand him, believe in him, all of those things. And so now we look back. And we see that, uh, that, that Christ is the fulfillment of these things. They were anticipating that. And so they're commended for their faith. But again, though, the author saying, we've got something better in Jesus here. And I think that the things that you see when you read chapter 11 is the centrality of faith in the life of the Christian. That's I mean, not just the Christian, obviously these are all old Testament saints, but for us, especially for those who can hang our hope on Jesus Christ. Faith is everything. It has everything, everything that we do, it's gotta be from faith. It's about it's because of our faith in him that we respond the way that we do. Uh, I like the way that he says it here. We're seeing what's not there. We can see, we have a hope that's grounded. Uh, on what Jesus has done, but we can't taste it, smell it, see it in terms of our tangible experience, but we can by the eyes of faith and that's exactly what you should be doing this particular year or even the next year. Did you think about your relationship with God? Is what you're doing increasing and encouraging your faith. And if not, probably should get rid of that. Yeah. Yeah. One little apologetic note here. Look at verse three, it says by faith, we understand the university was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was made out of the things. Was not made rather out of the things that are visible. Okay. Th let's not discount. This, that the writer of Hebrews has just testified to the doctrine of the creation ex Nilo, that his creation from nothing that God spoke things into existence. That's important for us too. To notice, as we think back to the Genesis Genesis account of creation, he's affirming the veracity of that and the validity of that there. At the beginning of chapter 11. Chapter 12. Then he builds on this idea and he opens up by talking about a cloud of witnesses. Now these witnesses are not watching you and I run the race impressed with us. These witnesses or rather the people from the, the hall of faith and others that have gone before us that have finished their own race in are encouraging us to say, Hey, you can do it. Keep looking forward, look to Jesus. And so these witnesses are there not to cheer us on and saying, look how good you're good. You guys are doing. But they're there to say, Hey. keep going. Look at Jesus. Jesus is where your, your affection needs to be. And that's what he says. We need to look to him, the founder and perfecter of our faith. And he's the one that, that we need to lock eyes on and, and run after and persevere in our race. There is it possible that the witnesses is actually both directions? In other words, we just, we just saw chapter 11 and we're, we're witnessing their lives. They witnessed to us. But isn't it possible given the context here that they're also witnessing us run the race? Not that their attention is all on us. I agree with that, but he uses the analogy here. Let us run with endurance, the race that is set before us. So he automatically kind of imports this idea of competing we're in a race or running, or, you know, we're pushing forward and there's witnesses in the crowd who are cheering on, so to speak. Uh, is, is, is it possible that whoever the preacher is of Hebrews is intending to communicate both ant. Yeah, except I would qualify that only in the fact that it's like the, the we're running a marathon and the people that are watching us run are other people that have run the marathon they've run the same course. Right. So it's not as though they're sitting there going, oh man, I could never do what they're doing. I'm sure. We were asked by their accomplishments. They have seats there. They're going, Hey, we did what you guys are doing. And the way we did it is keeping our eyes here. So you guys keep going. Good job. Keep going, focus on Jesus. Right. And I guess my thought is, I wonder if people who have gone before us saints, And are able to see what we're doing down here. I know. Maybe a wonder that and say, well, is my great aunt who is a Christian or my, you know, my uncle who was a pastor, is he watching me run the race? Yeah. It could be, I guess. Yeah, I guess that's my thought here. I wonder if there's a, if this is hinting at that we know in the book of revelation, the martyrs are saying, what are you going to avenge us? So clearly they're seeing something, right. I think there's some credence to say. You might be being watched. Yeah, in a good way. Yeah. Being in courage to perhaps. I've got that song. Somebody's watching you. I always be that. Yeah. He's watching me. Yep. That's the one. Yeah. I got no privacy. All right. The rest of chapter 12, he goes on. Then in the next section, he says, as you're running this race, Uh, there's going to be seasons of discipline in your life. In other words, God's hand of discipline is going to enter into your life. And he says, that's, that's not actually a bad thing. That's a good thing because it's a sign of his love for you as a father. And he goes on, he says, what father is there that does not discipline his child, but a father disciplines, the child whom he loves. And he says, look, our earthly fathers are going to have done that in perfectly. And yet they did it because they love us. God does it perfectly. And he does it for our godliness that we may share in his holiness. And so though discipline feels painful and is not pleasant. It's not something that we, we love at the same time. We love the fact of what it does in our life as Christians. And that is that it allows us to grow in our righteousness. It bears more fruit of righteousness and Christlikeness. So keep going is what he's saying here. As the race gets hard and sometimes you experienced the hand of God's discipline in your life. Don't give up, don't go rude. Don't drop out. Keep pressing on. This is a good thing in your life. Uh, we're striving after that target, which is Jesus. And then also the, the kingdom of Christ. And that is the, uh, where that he goes in the remainder of chapter 12. They're reminding us again of the covenant verse 24 Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant into the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. Well, what, where does the blood of Abel cry out the blood of Abel cries out for vengeance justice, specifically the blood of Christ cries out for forgiveness. And so we get. Uh, the, the blood of Christ and that's. That's better in that sense. And so we want to continue to be faithful, to stay the course. And this is what he's encouraging us to do in chapter 12 is don't drop out, keep running the race with endurance that set before you again, writing to a group of people, looking over the shoulder at Judaism, going at well, they're not suffering. They're not being persecuted the way we are. Maybe we need to go back that way. The other saying, don't go back. Stay the course. Yeah. In verse 18. And the following verses before verse 25 here, I just wanna point out to your attention because it doesn't mention it by name, but I think it's a really cool analogy. He says you haven't come to what, uh, what may be touched a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a Tempest. And the side of a trumpet and a voice who's words made the hearers, beg that no further messages be spoken to them. He's talking about Israel's experience on Mount Sinai. As God delivered the law. And he said, he's saying, you're not coming to Mount Sinai. You're coming to Mount Zion. The old covenant versus the new covenant is another way that he describes or defines or illustrates the differences between the old and the new and how much better the new is because it's built on the unshakeable foundation of Christ. Yeah. Yeah. Chapter 13 then gets into the nuts and bolts of a life that pleases God. Now this is what the life looks like practically speaking, and he's addressing some specific things that were going on there. It appears. He talks about marriage here. That seems a little bit out of left field. Not that it's it's wrong. What he says is exactly right. But it seems like, okay, maybe now he's dealing with some housekeeping issues with the people that he was writing directly to some things that he was aware of saying, if you want to live this life that pleases God and endure, here's a couple things to focus in on. He talks about as leaders in these, he says consider, uh, the, the people that share the gospel with you consider that the people historically, that you've read about imitate their way of life, their faith. Uh, because the Jesus, they served at the same Jesus that you serve today. And then he talks about the leaders today, your, your leaders, your pastors, he says in verse 17 to obey them and to submit to them for they are keeping watch over your souls. As those will have to give an account. And that's something that's, that's sobering for pastor, rod, and myself to think about, man, we're going to have to give an account for the souls of the people that are in, in our church and how we cared for, for y'all. But then he says to y'all he says, let them do this with joy and not with groaning, because that would be a no advantage to you. And let me just say church, you guys do this well, we love what we get to do. We love shepherding the flock here, but this is a charge to the church to say, Hey. Make sure you're making your pastor's job, a joy in shepherding and caring for your soul. Uh, because you, I mean, this is pretty much just straight logic, right? You'd rather have a pastor that loves doing what he gets to do and shepherding you than one that is, is bemoaning the fact in, in. Grumpy and annoyed with the fact that, and yeah, maybe he's got his own heart issues he's got to work with, but church. You guys do this? Well, I would just say Excel still more on that. Yeah. One of the things that I see and it really always provokes me. I think we, as a culture are especially vulnerable to this. He says, keep your life free from love of money. Be content with what you have for, he has said gotta set to you. I will never leave you nor forsake you. And so, uh, one of the challenges is funny, sneaks it in there. It's almost like an afterthought in some ways, but he's just kind of rapid fire bullets here and there. I think this one is especially important for us who live in America. Who have so much, we gotta be careful not to let money become our, our idol, our. So be careful with that. Um, that's something especially true for affluent areas. Like the one that we live in guard your heart against the love of money. There's danger. There don't want to fall into that trap. I would agree. I would agree from here. We've got the benediction, the, the sing goodbye signing off. Then ends. Um, with the greeting, the final greeting, uh, to the people that he's writing to as well, by the way, we didn't mention this, but just in case you're unawares. Um, we don't know who wrote this letter. Uh there's. There's no internal evidence of it whatsoever. And the extra for yourself, buddy. Okay. Fine, pastor. Ron knows. So you can ask him that I'm not telling anybody though. Just letting you know. I know, but you don't know, you don't know. There's no internal evidence anywhere in it. Um, and the external evidence is, is scant. And in not really in agreement, there's not one consensus that exists out there. Some people suggest that it was Luke because the Hebrews and tents, and that's why some people argue that it's not Paul, but sometimes people argue it is Paul because the doctrine is Pauline. We, we don't know what the end of the day who wrote this. There's there's strong arguments against, I think every. Potential person put forward it, but we know that it was held as authoritative the church. From early on, began to circulate this letter and said, this is part of the authoritative word of God. And that's why we have it in our Bible. So don't let the fact that we don't know who wrote it. Discourage you or cause you to question anything in it. Um, this was recognized from the very earliest stages that this is God's word and authoritative. And so we read it, we learn from it, we apply it and that's what we want to do. Amen. To that. Hey, let's pray. And then we'll be done with this episode. Got thanks for your word. We want to do just that. We want to read it. We want to understand it. We want to apply it. And we thank you for the book of Hebrews in the richness that's contained in its pages. Um, got so many good truth about Christ and him being better. Uh, than anything this world can offer us. And we may not find ourselves tempted to return to Judaism, but maybe we are, are attempted not to be as bold with our faith as we ought to be. Maybe we're attempted to tone down our Christianity in this world so that we might be accepted by more people and not have to. Uh, be singled out or embarrassed for our faith. God, I pray that a letter like this, a book like this book. Of Hebrews, which challenge us and strengthen our faith in Christ so that we truly would be those that run with endurance, the race that's set before us. And so we pray that that would be true of our church until you come back for us or call us home to be with you. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Can you bring your Bible student again tomorrow for another edition of the daily Bible podcast. See you then. Bye.