 Hebrews chapter 6 beginning at verse 9, reading to verse 12, the writer writes, But beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you. Yes, things at a company salvation, though we speak in this manner. For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love, which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints and do minister. And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Now as we were together last time, we looked at verses 4 through 8. And that I shared with you is a passage that is greatly debated by wonderful scholars. And I gave you four basic ways to look at those few verses. I mentioned to you last time that there are some who believe that verses 4 through 8 is speaking of Christians who have rejected the Lord Jesus Christ. There are others who believe that those verses relate to backsliders, people who have not rejected Jesus completely. And then there's a third way of looking at that, and that is that these are professing Christians who were not truly saved. And then I finally concluded by saying that there are those who look at this in a hypothetical sense. And you can see that in the strength of the words that are used, especially when he said in verse 6, if they fall away. And so the way it's presented can be basically three out of the four ways I mentioned to you last time. You could basically look at it and there's merit to each one of those approaches to this. It's interesting though as we approach verse 9 how that the writer says, but beloved we are confident of better things concerning you. And so he's returning to them in a personal level here because he speaks of himself. He says we when he says we are confident of better things. He also is becoming personal because he refers to them as beloved, and that's a phrase that is used for believers. And he says we are confident of better things concerning you because this is personal. In other words, I don't believe he's saying this. I don't believe that you have apostatized. I don't believe that you have walked away from God. I believe that you are genuinely saved. And so that's what he's speaking about concerning them. And so he says we are confident of better things concerning you. Yes, things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this, in this way or in this manner. There are things that we believe about you that demonstrate that you truly are saved. There are works that accompany your salvation. That's what he's saying in verse 9 when he said things that accompany salvation. Things that accompany salvation speaks of the works that they have performed. He mentions that in verse verse 10 when he speaks of their work and their labor and their ministry. He says God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward his name in that you have ministered to the saints and do minister. So I believe he's saying that you are not walking away from God. I believe that you are strong in the things of God because there are evidences that you have a relationship with God and those evidences are the work that you're doing, the labor that you're doing, the ministry that you're doing. When he speaks of work, that word work is that which somebody undertakes to do. It's an enterprise. It's an undertaking. It could be even a job. When he speaks of your labor, your labor of love that speaks of the labor that is united with trouble and toil that is born out of a heart of love for people, and then he speaks of ministry. He says you have ministered. That means to be a servant or an attendant. It speaks to serve or to wait upon somebody. And the point he's making obviously is this. He's saying I believe that you are genuinely saved because you not only profess faith in Christ but you live a life that demonstrates that you have a relationship with him. Not only do you say you love Jesus Christ but you demonstrate that you do through the actions of your life. Your work and your profession of faith, your words are the same. They line up. And because I can look at the way that you live, I can know that you live for Jesus Christ. Now obviously Christians are called by God to serve God as well as to serve others. And so work and labor and ministry all evidence genuine salvation. In John in chapter 15 verse 13 Jesus said this. He said greater love has no one than this than to lay down one's life for his friends. Service is a very real way of laying down your life. You're laying down the things that are more pleasing to yourself for the sake of somebody else. And when you're serving somebody else you are laying down your priorities in order that you might be able to minister to somebody else's. And you're demonstrating love, love for God as well as that person when you are willing to do those things, when you're willing to serve in that way. So Christian faith is going to be demonstrated by behavior. It always is. In James chapter 2 verses 15 through 17 the writer James said suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him go I wish you well, keep warm and well fed, but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way faith by itself if it is not accompanied by action is dead. You're just talking in other words. If I see somebody that has a need that I can actually I can meet that need for them on their behalf and doing it as unto the Lord and doing it to minister to them then I'm demonstrating true love and true faith. John in 1st John chapter 3 verses 17 and 18 says something similar. He says if anyone has material possessions and sees a brother in need but has no pity on him how can the love of God be in him? Beloved let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. Let us not love with words in a philosophic sense because we can talk about the deep things of God and all in a philosophic way. Let us not speak that way and let us not be people who just use words. Let's be people who actually act out and do those things. You know one of the things that I think of in terms of a practical expression of faith that some of you may not realize the depth of it is the fact that during Thanksgiving you know next week you know not this upcoming week obviously but the following as the United States celebrates you know a Thanksgiving day there are going to be numerous individuals in your fellowship who don't have friends and don't have family to go in and fight with I mean to go and eat with they don't have that. You know I'm going to have God willing a house full of people you know my kids and and and my grandson and and even my wife it's going to be a wonderful time and and we have our Thanksgiving meals where we gather around and and a meal and and just enjoy ourselves at the table and all of us I think to some degree or other appreciate that especially if you have a Christian home especially if you have you know love of the Lord but sometimes we fail to realize that there are numerous people in this fellowship who really don't have that who don't have a mom or a dad to go and visit who don't have a brother or a sister or friends of that quality that they actually can can go and and have a meal with or prepare a meal for many of you know that but you may not know this many years ago when our church was was very young and I was young we used to have what we called the turkey bowl that was a football game and all the people would gather together a lot of us would gather together and we divided into two teams and we would play football and after the game we'd all go home to our our homes and and celebrate Thanksgiving and we did that for the first few years of this church's history then one day it just finally hit me there are numbers of people in this church who don't have this who don't have a home that is festive that don't have you know turkey or ham or anything like that and maybe we ought to do something about that and that's when we began ministering to families here in the church and I don't know if you know this or not but over the over the years we've had our Thanksgiving meals here and in other locations where we have fed people we've been doing it for many years and they're church family people it's not it's not that that people who are not members of this fellowship well I'm talking about people in this church and we see anywhere from over 200 to close to 300 people show up on Thanksgiving you may not realize that the people are are cooking turkeys all night long they're in the kitchen all night long making turkey after turkey after turkey making all of the the dressings in the and the potatoes and you name it and then there's a group of people who will show up and we fill the banquet hall with members of this fellowship several hundred to 300 people it's been going on like this every year and that is works that are being done by this fellowship people who are actually giving up their day that they have with their families to come and spend time with their church family to me that's a tremendous evidence of the love of Jesus Christ it really is and on Christmas we do similar things where we put together baskets and and and we give presents to a lot of the children in the church that all comes from the goodness of the heart of the members of this fellowship and you know God is not unjust to forget your works and your works that you do are actually evidences of your love that you have for God and for people when there was there those two terrible tragedies cataclysms you know the hurricanes and the tsunami that occurred last year you may not realize this but as a fellowship without us receiving an offering without me ever coming up and saying we need to have a special offering I simply said listen if you want to do something to help in these tragedies then give your gifts and we'll make sure they get to where they should go you gave over two hundred some thousand dollars over two hundred thousand something like two hundred and and six thousand dollars towards actually more than that towards ministering to people that's an act of generosity we didn't take any special offerings I simply mentioned there's a need and we saw a hundred and eight thousand dollars go out to minister to those who had been harmed by that tsunami and over a hundred thousand dollars that came in out of your heart that's works that demonstrate that God has done something in your life that's what the writer's talking about he's saying listen Christianity is something that changes a manner of living it causes people like us who really don't know very many people in Cambodia or Thailand or or perhaps in Mississippi or wherever we may not know people there but we certainly feel the pain that they have and we do something about it to the best of our ability that's what he's speaking about here when he's speaking about true faith and that's why he says in verse nine we are confident of better things concerning you we know that you're not apostatizing we know that you're walking faithfully with Jesus Christ you have those things that accompany salvation the things that accompany salvation your works your labor of love and the ministry that you have and by the way he's saying God understands and God knows and remembers the work that you're doing notice verse 10 he says God is not unjust that word unjust means deceitful or unfair God is not unfair to forget that word forget means to neglect or not care about God is not unfair he does not neglect your work of labor and love and all that you have shown God remembers your works and not only does he remember them God rewards them because that is the just thing for him to do God rewards your works now in Matthew in chapter six verses three and four Jesus speaking said this he said when you give to the needy do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing so that your giving may be in secret then your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you openly and so the work that you've done on behalf of the Lord is not forgotten God rewards you and so his great desire is for them to continue living in that way verse 11 he says we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end that you do not become sluggish but imitate those who's who through faith and patience inherit the promises and so the work that you're performing on behalf of other people should be matched by your concern for your own salvation keep on serving the Lord Jesus Christ don't return to the dead works of your former religious life continue working for the Lord continue serving him because that demonstrates that you have a zeal that demonstrate there's a reality to your faith so hang in there and continue on don't get tired of doing good things but understand that your father understands and remembers the things that you're doing and ultimately will reward you and you will be rewarded by the Lord he says we want you to have the full assurance of hope until the end we want you to know that you are saved to be fully convinced that the reality of God's presence is in your life and this is one of the ways that you'll know that because as you serve the Lord in obedience Jesus manifests himself to you and you have a sense of his presence in a special way when that happens and therefore in verse 12 don't become sluggish but imitate those who have faith and patience and inherit God's promises when he speaks about don't become sluggish don't become dull of hearing don't get to the point where you stop listening to the word of God as a matter of fact he says you need to imitate believers notice how he says that it's an interesting scripture to me verse 12 when he says imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises everyone of us in this room prayerfully ought to have at least somebody in your life who is not taking the place of Jesus Christ of course because every human being fails at some point but every one of us ought to have somebody that we look to in a certain way and say that's a great model of what it means to be a Christian you might find this interesting or perhaps you won't you don't care at all but one of the models that I have one of the people in my life that shows me what a genuine Christian is is my wife is my wife Marie because this woman has gentleness of spirit she has faithfulness she has a pure heart and and God God was very gracious to me by giving to me a great model to live with somebody who loves the Lord and has a simple faith and a purple life and just is a great model and and we all ought to have people that we look at and can say I appreciate the way they live God in Jesus name would you grant me to have that kind of love would you cause could you give to me that kind of friendliness that kind of openness that kind of warmth that kind of compassion and you know it could be very well a wife or husband it could be a dear friend somebody that you look at who's very diligent in the things of God I hope that you have somebody that you can look to and say this is a great example of somebody who loves the Lord Jesus Christ it's interesting how Paul and first Corinthians chapter 11 verse 1 said imitate me as I imitate Jesus you know I live alive in such a way that that I want you to use me as an example and all and so imitate me as I imitate Christ one of my favorite scriptures is found in Philippians chapter 4 verse 9 because their Paul says it this way and listen how he says it he said the things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me these things do and the God of peace shall be with you now what an interesting thing to say the things you learned received heard and saw in me I have been a living model an example to you and I want you to know that if you use these things that you have learned for me that you've seen the things that I've mentored you in the things that I've lived before you if you see these things and do these things God's peace will be with you you'll have fellowship with God what an incredible statement to make and so there ought to be people in our lives that we can look at and say you know what a tremendous example of godliness what an example to me and I desire to be like that when I grow up you know I sometimes I'll I'll look at my own pastor Chuck and I see him modeling certain things he's one of these guys who never gets worked up into a frenzy of any sort he doesn't get worried about anything he's just motors on you know and and I and I watch him carefully as a son in his in the faith he's my my father in the faith and I watch him because in a way a son wants to be like the dad anyway and so I watch him and I say oh lord you know Chuck has got tremendous patience he loves to pray he loves the word of God he adores his wife he's faithful to his church or these are the things that I would like for myself and so I encourage you to to do that and so he says don't become sluggish but imitate those who have faith and patience and all and they inherit the promises he goes on in verse 13 and he says for when God made a promise to Abraham because he could swear by no one greater he swore by himself saying surely blessing I will bless you and multiplying I will multiply you interesting huh if God were in court who would you swear by think about that for a minute do you solemnly swear to tell the whole truth nothing but the truth so help you you I mean that's kind of how that would go right so help you you yes I will there's no one greater you see when we go to court you swear by someone greater than yourself that's why they used to swear you in and that's why you would say they would say do you swear to tell the truth that's interest so help you God that's because you are swearing by someone greater than yourself but God doesn't have anyone greater than himself and therefore he makes promises that only he keeps he swears by himself because he is telling the truth in 2 Samuel chapter 7 verse 28 the scripture says now oh Lord God you are that God your words are true that's why in John 17 17 Jesus said sanctify them through your truth your word is truth and so here he's speaking to us concerning God's truthfulness and God's promises he says again verse 13 when God made a promise to Abraham because he could swear by no one greater he swore by himself and this is what he promised him surely blessing I will bless you and multiplying I will multiply you so he uses Abraham as an example if you take notes let me give you four things very quickly here four things concerning this promise because the promise that God gave basically had four elements when God was speaking to Abraham and you know the story of Abraham he's found in Genesis chapter 12 and when God was beginning to minister in the beginning to this man called Abraham God gave to him a promise that had four basic elements one in Genesis chapter 12 verse 3 he said that he would be a blessing on all people through descendants Genesis 12 3 says I will bless those who bless you whoever curses you I will curse and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you so he'd be a blessing on all people through his descendants second he would have a multitude of descendants because in Genesis 13 16 he said I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth so that if anyone could count the dust then your offspring could be counted so he'd have a multitude of descendants third he would give him land in Genesis 15 18 the Bible says that the Lord made a covenant with Abraham and said to your descendants I give this land and then finally fourth the promise included a redeemer because God said that he would provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering and so he received promise from God and notice in verse 14 how it says surely blessing I will bless you and multiplying I will multiply you now that's found in Genesis 22 Genesis 22 is one of those chapters in the Bible that when you read it for the first time can be a very touching touching chapter let me let me reiterate that chapter to you Abraham was 75 years old when God first appeared to him and God began to make promises to him part of the promises that God made to him was that he would have children well time passed and he didn't have any children and so he has a wife her name is Sarai you know the story Sarai says go into my hand maiden and she will bear children on my behalf because in doing so in essence we will fulfill your part of the agreement with God and she'll bear children and so he does he enters into this woman and she gives birth to a son and he assumes the son to be the promise that God was given well later on we're told by the apostle Paul that the son that was born to him was actually a work of the flesh and out of the spirit because he got ahead of the Lord now he has this son but God later on speaks to him and says listen Ishmael who was his son Ishmael is not the son that I'm going to bless through you're going to have a son through your wife Sarah now Abrams you know he's 99 years old it's kind of old and Hebrews later we'll see this in chapter 11 that he was as good as dead and meaning that it was pretty much physically impossible for that to take place especially when you consider his wife was 90 uh Sarah of course hears God speaking and laughs within herself and and God actually first speaks to Abram and asks why does Sarah laugh you know because he being the priest of the home and responsible for leading the wife is is talked to by the Lord and then and then Sarah says I didn't laugh and the Lord says oh but you did laugh I heard you laugh and I mean can you lie to God I mean it doesn't work that way and so he busts her and she indeed did laugh and he said listen you're going to have a child and the child is going to be named Isaac we all know that the word Isaac means laughter and so every time she calls on Isaac she'll remember the laughter of doubt that she had when God had made a promise to her and so Isaac begins to grow before the Lord and as he grows into young manhood Genesis 22 tells us this God speaks to Abram and says to him take your son your only son and when he says take your son your only son that's another way of saying take the son of your love the son of your heart the one that makes your heart race fast the one that you love so much he's your son of promise he's talking about Isaac and offer him up to me and so the Bible tells us that that Abram takes a couple of servants with him he takes his son Isaac and he goes to a place called Mount Moriah and as he goes to Mount Moriah with his son it's a three-day journey he arrives to the place that God had told him to go and as he gets to this particular place there he takes some wood and he takes some fire and he takes his son and his son Isaac as a young man many commentators believe that Isaac at that time was about 20 years old so he could very easily have overpowered a man of 120 years but he doesn't what Isaac does is he looks and he says father he says actually in the Hebrew is ab he says father I see the wood and and I see the things that accompany sacrifice but I don't see a lamb I don't see the offering and God speaking to Abram or through Abram to actually Abram speaking to Isaac says God will supply himself an offering and so off they go to the place that God had said and he stretches forth his hand and is about to kill his son when the Lord speaks to him and says to him now I know that you will not withhold anything from me I know that you are a man who is 100 dedicated to me now the writer of Hebrews we'll see this later on in chapter 11 says that Abram had faith he knew that God who had given to him a son when he was as good as dead could have brought that son back to him because he earlier had stated to the man who accompanied him we will return to you he said he had this knowledge that the Lord would not take from him the son part of what happened in that by the way is is Abram was being tested in one facet of whether or not the promise became more important to him than the one who gave the promise and so he demonstrated that the promiser was more important than the promise when he was willing to give the son a promise back to the promiser that's why God says to him now I know now I know your faith is real and I can trust you when all of this takes place God begins to give to him blessing and that's what it means when he's speaking there and he says in verse 13 again he swore by himself saying surely blessing I will bless you and multiplying I will multiply you because God is blessing him in his action now in Galatians chapter 3 verse 16 the Bible says to Abraham and his seed where the promise is made he says not and to seeds as of many but as of one and to your seed who is Christ and so the promise that God is making was to Abraham's seed that it's being fulfilled to us through Jesus Christ who is the sacrifice and so the point he's making is that surely as he kept his promise to Abraham he will keep his promise to us now in the passage God's promise includes many descendants and that blessing specifically comes through faith in Jesus Christ Romans chapter 4 verse 3 says what does the scripture say Abraham believed God it was credited to him as righteousness in in Romans 4 23 and 24 it says the word the words it was credited to him were written not for him alone but also for us to whom God will credit righteousness for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead and so the promises that have been made to us are made sure through Jesus Christ's resurrection so it says in verse 15 and so after he had patiently endured he obtained the promise for men indeed swear by the greater and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute thus God determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel confirmed it by an oath that by two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie we might have strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us and so when he speaks here in verse 15 he says after he had patiently and dirty obtained the promise he waited for many years until he finally received the promise that God gave to him that son whom he had stated he would have that promise was fulfilled when God in his timing determined to fulfill it now one of the things that we as Christians need to learn by way of application is God makes promises to us but he doesn't necessarily give us the the results of those promises or the fulfillment of those promises in our timetable there are numbers of people here who have been praying for friends who have yet to come to Christ and you've been praying for weeks months sometimes even years there are people who are praying for somebody that God might bring into their life God I I'm you know I'm wanting to get married and and I'd like to get married but you've been waiting for years I was talking to a guy just yesterday he's 45 years old and he's getting married for the first time at the age of 45 and I said are you sure you want to do that and he said yes I said an interesting thing man when you get married you know and I was teasing with him obviously I said but there's an interesting thing that happens when you get married I said you're going to find this out for yourself but every married man knows that and he said what is that I said when you stand there and you make your oath before God and you marry the woman an invisible chain is put on your nose and wherever she goes you will go he says you're kidding no and so Marie was off someplace else and I pretended like she was dragging me invisibly you know so I was teasing with him but he waited 45 years 45 years he should have waited a little longer but 45 years until he got married and you know he's been praying and seeking the Lord for a wife and a lot of people who get so anxious because they want this they'll read the scripture and the scripture says that God wants us to be blessed and and you say God in your word that then if I if I pursue after you you're going to give to me the desire of my heart the desire of my heart is to be married and then what we do is a very first person that comes into our life we want them because we claim them as the promise of God fulfilled and we make decisions sometimes based on our impatience rather than God's timing and we end up kind of getting ahead of the Lord's plan sometimes we can do that and we do that in a variety of ways one of the ways one of the things the Lord has taught me is that he is long suffering he is patient he endures and I ought to be too because I want to see the goodness of the Lord in his time as a parent you might have children that aren't doing well and and you're saying God in Jesus name I want them to walk with you sometimes that prayer is a very faith-filled prayer because that's what we greatly desire sometimes that prayer is tinged with a little self-interest and maybe a little selfishness because Lord if they're walking with you they won't be putting me through so much pain that I'm going through and sometimes the Lord has to sift those things out of us until it finally gets to the point where we simply say God save them save them it doesn't matter I've been going through this for so long I can live with it but Lord as I watch my child not doing well with you it breaks my heart your your prayer life actually becomes more pure because it becomes something that that has more of a sense of other centeredness to it and sometimes the element of time is is one of those elements that we need to learn experientially I find it interesting when I read the Bible that sometimes I will read a story of somebody who encountered Jesus Christ and you never see them again and you never know what went on to happen in their life you just see them encounter Jesus and then that's it have you ever thought for example the man of the Gadarenes I mean this is a guy who is terribly demon possessor as a there was a legion of demons within him and and he's seated at the feet of Jesus Christ in his right mind Jesus sends back back to his people to tell him what happened and you never see this guy again how about the woman of the well the woman of Samaria this is a woman who lived a life a lifetime of going through one man after another she wasn't you know she obviously had grown older in her life she wasn't a young girl she had had five husbands and was living with a sixth man that takes some time out of your life to do that so she probably was getting on in age and she has got an entire life that she has set apart to do certain things that Jesus interrupts by bringing her to faith in him and you never see her again you see God doing work in people's life you'll see Jesus Christ sometimes in one location and then he ends up in another location and everybody knows that if Jesus is in the south it took him it's a it's a you know took him several days to get to the location that he's at in the north and so you sometimes have a week or two weeks of walking time that is not even mentioned in Scripture there's always times and gaps of time and one of the things that I have discovered with the Lord is he does things and makes all things you know a blessing to us in his time and and I have to learn to to adjust to the timetable of the Lord and that's what happened with Abraham Abraham received from God a statement listen I'm gonna bless you in Genesis 12 he was 75 years old when God gave him that promise he says you're gonna have descendants at the age of 75 he did not have his son Isaac until he was 99 years old and sometimes in the life of Abraham years will transpire that aren't even mentioned in his life years went on and you'll see that years passed by and there's not a single mention of God speaking to him so much of his walk being one of faith was interrupted by years of time between God speaking to him and then God once again introducing something to him he's a model of faith because God doesn't always speak in the moment that we want him to but he trusted the Lord and he waited on him and in doing so God's promises were fulfilled he says to us in verse 17 God determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel confirmed it by an oath that by two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie we might have strong consolation who have fled for refuge the layhold of the hope that is set before us God wants to show the immutability of his word his unchangeableness he didn't need to take an oath but he wanted to demonstrate beyond doubt to Abraham that he would keep his promise so he made an oath he made a note that he guaranteed that's something that guarantees his promise the notice in verse 18 he says two immutable things these are two unchangeable things the two things that are unchangeable his promise which doesn't change as well as his oath and his promise and oath combined are intended to produce encouragement so God made a promise and that promise he will keep one of the promises he gives to us is that he'll save us one of the promises God made to us is that he would bring us to himself and hold us fast in Titus 1 2 the bible says the hope of eternal life which God who cannot lie promised long ages ago God promised it and God will fulfill it listen if you've come to faith in Jesus Christ God will hold fast to you you can trust him in that I don't live my life by my emotions I used to when I first got saved if I didn't feel saved I had a real crisis of faith because I was thinking man I don't feel saved today I can still remember when I was just a few days old in the Lord waking up one day and thinking I don't feel the same as I did the day I got saved maybe I'm not saved and I it was my first crisis of faith and I called my friend George Adams and I said George I got to ask you a question I don't feel saved today am I saved he said yeah you're saved if you gave your heart to Jesus Christ did you give your heart to Christ I said yeah but I don't feel saved you see what you have is you have a fact the fact is God loves you then you have faith in that fact that produces the feeling but if I go by the feeling then I'm backwards in all of this I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I have a relationship with God because I've taken him at his word and sometimes the feeling doesn't line up with the facts now when I got married you know we went off to our honeymoon and the next morning there I am a married man but I didn't feel married part of the reason is because I didn't know what married people feel like and I was still happy so I must not have been married but anyway I remember waking up and thinking am I married I don't feel married and I told Marie I don't feel married I don't know what feeling married is supposed to be like turns out as I've told you before I wasn't married because my brother never sent the license into the state of California and we received a letter from the state of California saying the license expired and you are not married basically is what it's saying and I told Marie I said baby we're not married I'm going out see you later you know she wasn't happy with that at all and we actually had to get a duplicate license and all of that sometimes your feelings though are be lying the fact the fact is that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life that's the fact and so if God sent his son and I trust him then I can take him at his word and his word does not change he's made his promise and he's made his oath and I can run to him for refuge now that's an interesting phrase in verse 18 it says who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us in the old testament there were six cities of refuge you see them in the book of numbers six cities of refuge throughout the nation of Israel in the north and the south if I accidentally was responsible for the death of your relative you might have an avenger of blood come after me and that avenger of blood if he caught up with me could kill me so what I did is I had a run and I ran to one of the cities of refuge I would go to the city of refuge and I would stay there because I was safe now what would happen though is I was safe until the high priest died when I run to Jesus Christ my high priest he never dies because he died once for sin and he ever lives now to make intercession so I don't have any fear of an avenger will say come in to take me out because the one who is responsible for my life by his life continues to always live and that's why I can run to him for refuge and safety he says in verse 19 this hope we have is an anchor of the soul both sure and steadfast and which enters the presence behind the veil where the forerunner has entered for us even Jesus having become high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek Jesus Christ he says is our anchor an anchor is steady it's secure it's steadfast it keeps you from drifting Jesus Christ remains strong and stable on our behalf he ensures a safety if there's a storm and you have that anchor you are secure in the storm and that's the point he's making he's saying Jesus Christ whoever lives for us remains in such a way that brings stability into our life that we can have security and a steadiness and we are steadfast in him because he is there for us and so he's saying I know that you have works that demonstrate that you have a relationship with God you are people that I know are following after him and you are people who understand promises even as Abraham believed God it was counted unto him as righteousness and because that is true you now have an anchor to your soul when the storms of life come I can remain steady and I do when something occurs that causes others to become disrupted I remain steady in the Lord one last thought then we're going to have communion together a few years ago we were at my in-laws house for Christmas and one of my brothers-in-law was eating we're eating dinner and he took a piece of steak and swallowed it but it got lodged in his throat and right in front of us he began to choke and as he was choking and his face became red and began to turn a light blue I remember I was sitting there and he was probably 10 feet from me he was directly in front of me and everybody around us it got extremely agitated you know and my one of my other brothers-in-law came from behind put his fist in his his chest you know below his chest and began to push and I sat there and as I sat there watching I didn't move I just sat there watching eventually they were able to dislodge the food he began to breathe and sat down and then later on I said to him you know you've been given a second chance but my son David who was there when this took place and my son Joseph who has EMT training both watched what was going on but my son David later on talking to me said this to me he said dad I watched you to see what you would do he said I wanted to see your reaction and the way that you sat there he said I could tell you were prepared to do something if they couldn't but at the same time he said I saw your steadiness and your waiting he said which brought me comfort and what I'm trying to say is in the midst of all the chaos you can have an anchor you're not moving you're not overreacting you're not panicking you're steady you're steady because somebody steadies your soul and in the storms of life you've got Jesus as the anchor there so when everything around you is exploding and people are wondering what's going on how come you're that way it's Christ so my father dies and there are people inside of the waiting room with us and the doctor walks in says to us I did the best that we can but he expired and we all go in and see my father's body we all come out and some family that is seated in the room with us finally approaches us and asks the question what are you what do you mean what are we what are you what do you mean we heard the announcement and we saw what you did you know what we did we bowed our heads and prayed when he came and said Frank Rosales is dead we bowed our heads and prayed the Lord gives and the Lord takes away blessed be the name of the Lord we knew where our father was his body was there but he was with Jesus Christ they saw that we didn't do that as some kind of show for people in an emergency room crisis situation we did that because we have a rock we have an anchor who keeps us steady it's Jesus that's what it is and in the midst of storms in the midst of pain in the midst of loss in the midst of all of that he keeps us strong by his promises that's how it works and that's all he's saying he said you know how God honored the faith of Abraham God honors yours too because Jesus is your anchor