Exploring My Strange Bible - Book of Hebrews Part 4 - The Anchor of your Soul

Episode Date: December 27, 2017

This section is based off of Chapter 6 of the Letters to the Hebrews. It's the pastor's meditation on the nature of God’s covenant promises. What does it mean for people to live as if God really meant what he said when he made his covenant promises to bless all of the nations through Abraham? Why is this such a big deal? Why do promises that God made to somebody thousands of years ago matter to us? We explore these questions in this episode.

Tim Mackey, Jr. utterly amazing and worth following with everything that you have. On this podcast, I'm putting together the last 10 years worth of lectures and sermons where I've been exploring the strange and wonderful story of the Bible and how it invites us into the mission of Jesus and the journey of faith. And I hope this can be helpful for you too. I also help start this thing called The Bible Project. We make animated videos and podcasts about all kinds of topics in Bible and theology. You can find those resources at thebibleproject.com. With all that said, let's dive into the episode for this week. All right. Well, this is going to be part four of a series we're doing through the New Testament Letter to the Hebrews. These were lectures and teachings I gave many years ago when I served as

a pastor at Door of Hope Church. And this teaching is based off of chapter six of the Letter to the Hebrews, actually the second half of chapter six. It's the pastor's meditation on the nature of God's covenant promises and what it means for God's people to live as if God really meant what he said when he made his covenant promises to bless all of the nations through Abraham. So why is that such a big deal? Why do promises that God made to somebody thousands of years ago, why do they matter to you and to me as followers of Jesus here today? And the author of the letter to the Hebrews is convinced that actually the only reason for any hope in this world that you and I have is because of those promises God made to Abraham. Those promises are what the pastor calls the anchor of our souls.

That phrase, if you've ever heard that phrase, Hebrews chapter 6 is where that phrase comes from. And it describes the nature of God's covenant promises, what they are to us. They're an anchor for our very lives. So why is that? What does that even mean? Why is the story of Abraham important in this whole connection? That's what we're going to explore here in this teaching.

So let's dive in. Hebrews chapter 6. Here we go. So let's start in chapter 6, verse 9. He says, even though we have been speaking in this way, in other words, warning and challenging and confronting, he says, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things, things that belong to salvation, for God is not unjust, so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you are still doing. And we desire that each one of you show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but rather imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. So he feels

hopeful. He's optimistic. And he draws attention to their actions, right? These actions that have been going on in the past, but also in the present. And he's really encouraging, right? He's saying, if I look at what's happening in your lives, some of them are drifting. But he says, some of you are showing real faith and diligence and work and love in serving God's people. What's he talking about here? Because not everyone's doing this. Because he says we desire that every one of you begin to act in this way. But not everyone is.

What's he talking about? What are these actions, this love and this faith that some of the people in the church have been showing? And he actually talks about this later in the letter. And it's actually going to be important for us to know what he's talking about as he kind of unlocks and we walk through the rest of the passage here. He mentions again later in the letter the kind of works and love that have characterized the people in the church community. He talks about it in chapter 10. I'll just throw it up here on the screen. We'll read it. He says, recall those earlier days when after you had been enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings,

sometimes being publicly exposed to abuse and persecution, and sometimes you were partners with those who were so treated. For you had compassion on those who were in prison, in prison for their faith in Jesus, and you cheerfully accepted the plundering of your possessions, knowing that you yourselves possessed something better and more lasting. So do not, therefore, abandon your confidence. It brings great reward. For you need endurance so that when you have done the will of God, you can inherit what was promised. You see, it's very similar to what he's saying right here. These past acts, and what is this love and service towards the saints?

This was a time of persecution and hardship that the church went through. People were imprisoned for their faith. And so they went and served those who were in prison. They identified with followers of Jesus who were being persecuted and so on. He said, this is evidence that there are things of salvation going on in you. Keep pursuing those things. in you. Keep pursuing those things. Because suffering and persecution has a way of sifting, sifting through a church community. It tests people's real commitment, whether they're actually following Jesus or not, whether their hearts have truly been transformed by the gospel. And so he

says, we want every one of you to experience that assurance, that heart transformation that's demonstrated by these kinds of actions right here. So he's encouraging them. He's encouraging them. And suffering, that's the theme here. Suffering has a way of testing our endurance. And so it raises the big question here of what is it that's going to maintain someone's commitment, the long term, like the long haul of a whole of someone's life, through testing, through storms, through difficult choices, what's going to sustain a commitment to following Jesus when it's difficult and when it's hard? And so he says right here in chapter 6, verse 12, he says,

he says, you won't make it. You will not make it unless you cultivate the virtues of what? Faith and patience, he says. Faith and patience. Trust and patience. This is the only thing that will get you through the long haul, trust and patience. And this is pretty intuitive. I mean, if you just think about it, and this is kind of the main theme he's going to explore here, because he's going to say that your commitment to Jesus can only be as strong, it can only be as deep as your level of trust in him. What's going to motivate you or me, right, to actually make difficult choices to follow Jesus, even when I don't want to? What's going to motivate that commitment? A deep level of trust, he says, and patience.

Trust that Jesus is right and that even though I want to do this right now, I'm actually going to follow Jesus instead. That requires a deep level of trust that Jesus is actually right and not my instincts, that Jesus is right and not what my culture is pressing me to do. It's trust and patience that Jesus really knows what he's doing. Your commitment can only be as deep as your trust. And so many of us, if we lack or if we notice that we lack commitment to Jesus, I think the author wants us to move towards a deeper issue of trust.

Is it because I don't actually trust and believe in the promises given to me in Jesus? And that's the only thing that's going to help me last the long haul. And so this is really a very practical question that he wants to bring us into here tonight. Do we trust? Do we trust? Because it's the only thing that's going to sustain long-term commitment. And this isn't true just spiritually or whatever. This is true just in life and life in general. And this isn't true just spiritually or whatever. This is true just in life and life in general. One of my good friends in college, actually he was a friend that I met at Skate Church.

And he was my first roommate. So kind of when I moved out from my parents and so did he. And we ended up going to school together. And his name was Carson. He was one of my good friends through college. And Carson was a really intense person. He was a weekend warrior kind of guy, except he was a weekend warrior every day. And so I would go to bed and like, you know, try to pray and read my Bible and fall asleep while doing it or whatever. And he would fall asleep like reading books on how to ice climb and mountain climb and stuff like this. And so he was

just this crazy weekend warrior, God, super athletic. And so, and he would take me rock climbing, though only when he didn't have anyone else to rock climb with, I was going to say. So he was really avid at it. He was really, really talented and good at it. So we had all these buddies that we'd go rock climbing with. But when you call those people and none of them were available, then he would say, hey, Tim, you know, you're going to go rock climbing with me today. And I had this real love-hate relationship with rock climbing. This has, sorry, this will tie in, trust me. Just go with me here.

So I had this love-hate relationship because I think it's very inspiring and it's amazing to watch and so on. And then I get to the foot of the 100-foot rock wall, you know what I mean? And, like, I want to go home immediately. So that's, so he took me on this adventure one day where it was out past Sandy somewhere. And instead of the trail going to the foot of the big rock wall, you were going through this trail in the forest. And then all of a sudden you come to this huge cliff. And you have to actually set up your ropes and your anchors at the top and then rappel down. And then you climb your way back out. So if you go down, you have to make it back out.

And so he was kind of setting up everything. And if you've ever been there, you know, there's places where there's popular rock climbing. There are anchors drilled into the rock and so on. So he's setting up his rope. And so he's like, okay. He showed me. I had bladed with him before and rappelled down things. So this was the tallest one for sure.

And I wanted to go home badly. And so I said, you know, here's what you do. Remember how to do it? Okay, yeah, I think so. And then he just hops off. Oh, there's he go. Yeah. And, and I'd never been at the top watching the rope before. So this was a new experience. Whenever we'd start at the bottom going up, you know, he would lead and set up like all the anchors and the ropes, and then I would follow him, you know? And so, but here I am, I'm actually watching the rope that he's hanging by.

I don't know if you ever watched climbing rope before but it stretches it stretches a lot and you know that it stretches because uh the rope has color like patterns and weaves on it and so you can watch it go like this and so I'm watching him go down and the rope you know is in the anchor and so on the whole little system that he had and I'm just watching it stretch. And I'm just totally freaking out. So I'm like, Carson, the rope is stretching. The rope is stretching. Hang on to something. He was like, dude, Tim, he's like having a conversation with me as he descends. And he's just like, dude, the rope stretches or whatever. I was like, how much does it stretch? And he was like, well, it can actually take four times the weight of an average

climber and so on. He was like, and after it reaches that point of stretching, then it'll break. I was like, oh, I didn't want to know that, but there you go. So he goes, he's going down and then he gets down and it's all fine. And then comes my turn. And so I totally chickened out. I was really glad it was just he and I. And so I just stand there and I have to do all the self-talk and he has to talk me down because I'm watching the rope and I know what the rope is going to do if I put my weight over the edge. And so I have five minutes, I just stand there and then finally, finally, I inch my way over the edge of the cliff and I go down. But this was precisely this. This is an everyday example. We all have stories about this. My commitment to actually

going down the side of the cliff was directly connected to my level of trust in that rope. And did I trust it? Yeah, you know, eventually I did. But so this, what's happening here? It's the same thing with our commitment to Jesus. Your commitment to Jesus will be flimsy until you reach a place of trust where your trust can override your instincts in any given decision, in any given situation. And suffering and hardship have a way of bringing that out. And so that's the whole kind of matrix of issues and questions that the author wants to bring us on. At the end of the day, he wants us to take a long, hard look at our own hearts and our own level of trust and commitment to Jesus. Let's keep going, and we'll follow the trail here. He wants us to imitate those who have faith and patience to inherit the promises. Verse 13, he gives an example. And so he says,

for when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, which I always thought was kind of a funny phrase. It doesn't mean he stubbed his toe and cussed or something like that. Swore by himself. Did anyone else think that when they read the phrase? My mind goes there. Sorry. So he swore an oath by himself saying, quote, surely I will bless you and multiply you. And so Abraham, after patiently waiting, he obtained the promise. Okay. Now just stop and note a couple things here. Look at verse 14. That's a quotation from God's words to Abraham. If you have a footnote or look down in the margin, what chapter of Genesis does that come from there? Chapter 22. Chapter 20, 22. Now we might read just these three verses here, right? Just three sentences really about this little

story about Abraham. And it's a very nice, tidy, happy little story, isn't it? So God made a promise to Abraham, swore an oath. Here's the promise. Abraham waited, patiently waited, and he got what he was promised. Hooray! You know, happy story. That's great. So there's way, way more going on here. Remember the author? He's Jewish. His audience is Jewish. They grew up steeped in the scriptures. They know the stories about Abraham like the back of their hand. And the fact that he's quoting Genesis 22 should send off all kinds of flags and triggers in your mind. You're like, wow. Whoa. That's very profound, what he's saying.

What he's saying right here. So through faith and patience, Abraham inherited what was promised. faith, and patience, Abraham inherited what was promised. And so all this stuff that's in the back of his mind, the back of the reader's minds, we kind of have to redo that work here ourselves. So we're going to do a little Genesis 101 here. Yeah? You guys okay? How you doing? All right, Genesis 101. Now, if we were in a classroom, normally I'd bring out like my screen, or not a screen, but like a big whiteboard or something, but I don't have a whiteboard big enough that works for this kind of scenario. So can you tolerate corny PowerPoint drawings? Yeah. Okay, good. All right. So let's do the book of Genesis from 30,000 feet here and we'll see how Abraham fits in and what the author's doing here as he challenges our level of commitment

and trust. And so here's the book of Genesis kind of fits into two big parts. It begins with this magnificent opening, the story of the creator. He makes this wonderfully good world and he hands it over to the management, stewardship, the rulership of these divine image-bearing creatures called Adam, humanity. And what does humanity do with the place? So how long does the good part last? Like a page, it's a page, right? And then the bad stuff begins. So these humans, they overstep their bounds. There are dark powers at work, mysterious powers at work that deceive the humans into thinking that God's holding out on them, that they can become their own God. And so they seize the opportunity to define what is good and what is not good for themselves. They become self-deceived. Their relationships begin to split apart because of their selfishness and brokenness. And so Genesis

1 through 11 tells this story, this downward spiral of just broken humanity as a whole, just ruining God's good world and ruining other people made in God's image. That's how the book of Genesis begins. In chapter 12, the story takes a very important turn because in chapter 12 begins this new counter move. The humans make their move and fall into the pit of self-brokenness and selfishness and sin. And so God makes his counter move to broken humanity. And his counter move is to begin a story, begin a mission through whom somehow he's going to restore blessing and salvation to these broken, sinful humans. And so he inaugurates this great

plan by having a conversation with this random dude in Genesis chapter 12. And here's the conversation. This is kind of key here, track with the language. Now the Lord said to Abram, go from your country and from your kindred and from your father's house and go to this land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you. I will make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and the one who curses you. I will make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and the one who curses you. I will curse in you. All the families of the earth will be blessed. Now, just by word repetition alone, what's the main idea here? What does God want to do?

Bless. He wants to bless. Now, that just itself is a really powerful moment in the story of the book of Genesis. Humanity has made itself God's enemy. And how does God treat his enemies in the book of Genesis? He sets in motion a plan to bless them. That's what he does. It's very powerful. It's called grace. It's called grace if you're looking for the word to describe it. It's grace. It's exactly what people don't deserve. And so this guy, Abram, his name will get changed to Abram, Abraham. God's going to bless him. Why? Just because he likes people named Abram or something? Why does he want to bless this guy? There's a much larger vision at work here. Do you

see the last sentence? He's going to bless this guy by making him into a nation because somehow through this nation, through this family of Abraham, God's going to bring blessing to all nations. How? How is that going to happen? Well, you have to keep reading the story. It's not like any good story. You got to keep reading it to find out just how. It's going to involve Abram becoming a great nation, which means he and his wife need to have a lot of what? They have a lot of kids. So you're going to make a nation, have a lot of kids. How many do they have at this point in the story? Zero. And how old are they? They're old. They're like in their 70s. Yeah. And they've never been able to have kids. So right off the bat, like we're

thinking, this is a good, this is a good plan, God? Like what? Remember it's faith and patience. This is a good plan, God? Like what? Remember, it's faith and patience, the author of Hebrews says. Trust and patience. And so you read through the stories. The promise is made in chapter 12. The fulfillment, the first son of the promise born to Abram, whose name is then Abraham, isn't until chapter 21.

And that's right before chapter, math scholars? Yep, it's right before 22. Okay, right. So there you go. So 22. How long is the time gap between these two? The promise and its fulfillment in the birth of Isaac's birth. That's a very long time. Anybody, right? That's a long time, you know? 25 years. Abram had to cultivate the virtues of faith and trust and patience, and he actually wasn't very successful. There was actually a huge, huge, huge wrong turn taken right in the middle of those 25 years. It's in Genesis 16. And so Abraham and Sarah, they're totally tired and they think God's falling asleep at the wheel or that God is not going to follow through on his promises. And so they force God's hand.

They have a servant girl who works in the household, and Abraham's wife gets the good idea, yeah, why don't you go sleep with her? And let's make God give us a kid, right? And how does that turn out for them? You can go read the story. It turns out horribly for them. It splits the family apart, splits their marriage apart, because he lacked trust and he lacked patience. And it's spelled as ruin. And so this story of Abraham's faith and patience finally comes to its fruition 25 years later. Genesis 21, Abraham's given this promised son, Isaac. Genesis chapter 22, right after Isaac's born, what does God do? The author of Hebrews just assumes you know the story here. The chapter that the author of Hebrews quotes is what story? Of Abraham and what? Abraham and Isaac. It opens with these words right here.

After these things, God tested Abraham. He tested. It's tests that expose just how deep your trust and your commitment is. God tests Abraham. And he said to him, Abraham, and he said, here I am. He said, take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you. Now, how many of you are uncomfortable at this point? You're like, wait a minute, no. Can God say something like that? Sacrifice your son. So everywhere else in the Bible, God is not just opposed to the practice of child sacrifice. He says he hates it. It was practiced widely among the Canaanites that Israel went into their land to inherit. And so it is precisely why justice was brought on the Canaanite

nations, because they widely did this practice, right? Here, does God really mean this? But look at that first sentence here. What's happening here? Abraham is enduring what? This is a test. This is a test. Now here, it adds a whole other thing, because God is the one directly behind the test. And you're like, does God do this to people? And Genesis 22 says, yes.

There are times when God will test. He will bring tests that will expose how deep our commitment is. And you just have to sit with that. You just have to sit with that. There are times of suffering and of hardship. It does not mean God is behind every story of hardship, but it does mean that everything that comes across our paths does not surprise God. It can be turned into some element of the story of how he's shaping us to

become more like Jesus. Abraham's faith is being tested here. And so Abraham, he responds admirably. He's shown a lack of faith and patience before, right? The whole like Genesis 16 incident. And here he responds with obedience and deep trust. And you can go read the story. We'll come back to it in Hebrews chapter 11. He references this story again. And he goes and he knows, he says to his son, somehow God is going to provide a way out of this. But he walks forward. Talk about commitment, right? Commitment. Deep levels of trust. Abraham trusts that God can reverse death if necessary to fulfill his promises. And so by the end of the story, Abraham goes and at the last minute, God releases him from the test. Isaac is spared or whatever. And this by the end of the story, Abraham goes, and at the last minute, God releases him from the test.

Isaac is spared, whatever. And this is the promise that God then makes to Abraham because he showed this deep level of trust and commitment. And this is part of the words that the author of Hebrews quotes, right? Right here. It's this section, verses 15 and 16 of Genesis chapter 22. God says, by myself, I have done what? He says, what do I do? I swear, I have sworn by myself, he says, 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 heaven and as the sand that's on the seashore. Your offspring will possess the gates of their enemies. And in your offspring, all the nations of the earth will find blessing because you have obeyed my voice. Now, pay attention here. The promise in Genesis 12 was a promise. All family, I'll make you into a nation. I'll bless you. All nations will be blessed somehow through the family that comes from you. But Genesis, these words are not just a promise.

What are they? Exactly. That's exactly what they are. So that's baby talk for oath. He swore an oath, right? So this is an oath. God's swearing an oath right here. And this is very important for the author of Hebrews. He's going to lock onto this right here. Now, in the part that he quotes up in verse 14, he doesn't mention the oath. Again, he just assumes you know the whole story. He assumes you know the words right here. And then he dives back in. So let's start from the top again, verse 13. We had to do all that because we don't have the story in the back of our heads. So now we do, and now we can read this passage with a little more coherence. Verse 13, when God made a promise to Abraham, there was no one greater by him to swear.

So he swore by himself, saying, surely I will bless you and multiply you. And so Abraham, having patiently waited, waited through what? And so Abram, having patiently waited, waited through what? Waited through 25 years. Waited through deep storms and testing. He received what was promised. He received his son, the sign of the promise. Verse 16, he says,

Now people swear by something greater than themselves. And in all of their disputes, you know, an 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. And it's a little complex. It's kind of cool what he's saying here. So let's say, we don't really swear oaths a whole bunch, kind of like this way. But let's say I want to take you out for a cup of coffee, whatever.

And you're kind of like, really? Do you really want to? And I'm like, you bet I do. I make an oath or whatever. It's silly, but you get the point, whatever. And whatever oaths, we don't really use these anymore. I swear by all that is sweet on God's good earth, I will buy a cup of coffee or something like that. That's like an oath, right? And so you swear by something that's greater and more grand or more important

than you. And if I said that, you wouldn't want me to take you for a cup of coffee anymore. You'd think I was weird, but that's another matter altogether. And so the question is, what is greater than God that God can swear by? Nothing. So God swears by himself. Did you see that? God says, I swear by myself. Why did God do? He didn't have to do that. I mean, God's word is God's word. He could have just promised. Why did God swear an oath? And he says, to show the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose. Verse 18, 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. Two unchangeable things. And I think what he's talking about here, let's get the Genesis 22 back up on the screen here. I think he's talking about the promise of Genesis 12 and the oath of Genesis 22. But watch what he does

here. This is very subtle and this is very powerful. And this is where he sneaks back around and you thought he was talking about ancient history and Abraham, and then you realize he's talking about you. It's because he says it's because of the oath and the promise made to Abraham that who now has a refuge and strong encouragement to hold fast to God's promises? Who? Abraham? Who does he say? Who? Look in verse 18. It says, we. We. Because of God's promises to Abraham, we, you and me, have strong encouragement to hold on and to deepen our trust, which will, by nature, deepen our commitment. Because when you deepen your commitment, you, by nature, deepen your trust. It speaks of a deepened trust. We.

Now, what on earth do God's promises to Abraham have to do with me? Okay, look back up here. Who is going to be blessed because of what God is going to do through Abraham's family? What does it say right there? The nations. Who are the nations? People who 2,000 years later on the other side of the planet will still be telling this story. That's it, right? It's us. It's us. And the author of Hebrews sees

this promise to Abraham's pointing forward, like everything, all of these stories and figures in the Old Testament. We've seen this time after time, week after week. All of it he sees as signposts pointing forward to Jesus of Nazareth, who comes as Israel's Messiah of the family of Abraham. And he comes to address this huge problem that the book of Genesis raised. All of humanity lost in our own selfishness, in our own brokenness, in the brokenness of our hearts that causes us to act in ways that betray trust. And he says Jesus is the one to whom all of these promises, the plan that God set in motion to bless all nations, finds fulfillment in Israel's Messiah, in this Jesus who comes

to be the kind of human that no human could ever be. He, as our representative, absorbs into himself all of the mess and the pain and the sin and the guilt that we have all racked up, the huge debt that we've racked up, individually and corporately. He takes it into himself, takes it to the grave, and by God's passion and love for broken people like us, what God does for his enemies, he raises Jesus so that through faith, those who place their faith in him, he can offer grace and forgiveness and new life. This is the gospel, amen? No, that was really weak, amen.

This is the good news, right? Amen? So I'm pretty sure this is the reason why we're gathering. It's not, we're not gathering for anything else. You know what I'm saying? It's not a country club. So we come because of the good news about Jesus. And it's precisely this good news that the promises to Abraham were pointing towards. If God made good on his promises to Abraham, the preacher of Hebrews says, then he will make good on his promises to you. And what are his promises to you? Were God's promises to Abraham that he would like cruise through life on a bed of roses and that things would go great for him? You know what I mean? No. His promise was that God's salvation and redemption would be worked out despite the storms and the tests and the trials that Abraham faced. And so God's promises to Abraham are God's promises to you.

As we cling to Christ in faith, we're fleeing for refuge from our sin and brokenness to hold fast to the hope that found fulfillment in the death and the resurrection of Jesus. That's what he's saying here. And it's very powerful. Look at how he brings this to a closure here. Verse 19. He says, we have this, this hope, we have it as a sure and 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 in the order of Melchizedek. Now, some of us were totally tracking with, yes, the anchor for the soul, love that. And then what, curtain and high priest and Melchizedek? What's that all about? So we didn't resonate with that as much.

So that's okay. What he's doing is he's transitioning into the next three chapters. By the next month or so, we're going to camp out in these chapters that portray Jesus as this great mediator, this great high priest that mediates between sinful people, broken people, and God's justice and grace. But I just want to camp out. I want to finish on this image, verse 19. This is very powerful. Because remember, he says your commitment to Jesus

can only be as deep as your level of faith and trust. You won't last if you don't learn to cultivate the virtues of trust and patience as God's promises work themselves out in your life. And he says these promises that are made sure because of God's promise to Abraham. He uses this great metaphor, verse 19. It's a sure and steadfast what? It's anchor. It's an anchor.

The Greek word for anchor is anchor. So it's literally, it's a Greek word spelled with English letters. Anchor. Anchor. I don't know what picture you come into your minds when you think of anchors. And in ancient times, it was literally a pile of rocks that they would bind together with rope and then like dump off the side of the boat and then like work to pull it up. Big pile of rocks. But this is a very powerful metaphor here. Here's the reality. So we're hearing about God's promises. Here's the main idea, trust in God's promises.

Who's learning anything right now? You know what I mean? Like that's Sunday school. This is like, yeah, okay, trust in God's promises or whatever. But this is actually way deeper because trusting in God's promises is the foundation of trust and commitment in our relationship with Jesus. And so yes, we feel like this is very basic, but then we have this flimsy, wavering commitment to Jesus that betrays a flimsy, wavering trust. And it's actually very difficult. And our trust becomes flimsy and wavering for all kinds of different reasons.

And often it's that we feel like God has abandoned us, or that he's not listening to us, or that he's given us the short end of the stick, or whatever, that he hasn't come through for us. And so it just begs the larger question here, what is the anchor of God's promises? And just think about what the image of an anchor is. Does an anchor mean that you won't go through storms?

No. What's the point of an anchor? Because of storms, right? Because of storms. You need the anchor because of storms to put it down, and it's actually stronger than you. It's something bigger, more transcendent. It's stronger, and it's actually stronger than you. It's something bigger, more transcendent, it's stronger, and it keeps you fixed when the tests come your way. The promises of God are not for success and health and whatever, everything just works out for you. I mean, throughout history,

most people who follow Jesus experience much the opposite of those things, you know. The point of an anchor is not that life goes well for you. The point of an anchor is get ready. Get ready. You're going to need this because life is going to get hard, especially when you commit to following Jesus and you're swimming upstream. And so the sign of tests, like God with Abraham, is not a sign of God abandoning Abraham.

It's precisely a sign of God's commitment to working out his promise and his redemption in Abraham's life. And it's the same with us. Storms come, and they will test your commitment. How deep is your trust? And the brilliance of what he's saying here is your trust actually has to be in something way beyond yourself and your own commitment. It has to be anchored in God's commitment to you. And that's really what this comes down to. We have this hope and this trust of God's commitment to bless his enemies throughout history to fulfill his promises through the death and the resurrection

of Jesus. It's way bigger than any one of us. And it is the only thing, he says, the only thing that's going to keep us grounded in commitment to Jesus when the storms of life come. So this is a big room, you guys, and there are so many stories I know that we bring in. you guys. And there are so many stories I know that we bring in, right? Many of us are right in the thick of a test and a storm right now. Or many of us, maybe we've become jaded because we feel like God hasn't come through for us, but the reality is God never promised that life would go good. He promised to be our anchor. And so, you know, this is just, this has come to Jesus. That's why we gather around the gospel. And so we have this time every Sunday as we gather, we hear a challenge from the scriptures and then we

have time to let the spirit speak and just to impress this, burn this on your brain and on your heart. And so this is speaking to us in different ways. Some of us are in the midst of storms and we're weary, we're tired. You know, we're waiting 25 years like Abraham and we're wondering when God is going to show up and do what we feel like he said he was going to do. And so the encouragement is to trust and to wait. As sure as Jesus rose from the dead, he will fulfill his promise. Work out his grace in your life.

And there may be some of us here, we're just lacking in our commitment because we don't want to commit. We don't want to trust. And so this promise of God, it gets in your face and it says, what are you doing? Like, you can't sit on the fence forever. Are you going to respond to this act of God, this plan of God to move towards you, his commitment to you, his creator, this plan of God to move towards you, his commitment to you who is greater than your commitment to anything else. So this is the time that we have that remains to us to meditate on the gospel, to meditate on God's grace that's come to us. It's like an anchor, keeps us stable in the time of storm.

one. You guys, thank you for listening to Exploring My Strange Bible podcast. I hope this sets you out into your morning, day, or evening thinking higher and better thoughts, knowing that you are loved by your creator who has made certain promises to rescue and to save us despite ourselves. So there you go. What else do you need to go into your day? So thanks for listening. And we'll continue on in the letter to the Hebrews in future episodes. So thanks again.