Spiritual Growth and the Power of Unyielding Trust

Speaker 1: 0:06

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Pure Faith Podcast, a podcast where we discuss all things Bible. I am Michelle and this is my itchy brother, mitchell, who is Thanks, scratchy sister, get it Itchy and scratchy. That's what our cat things were. Well, pass away itchy, pass away. We still scratchy. Okay, anyhow, we ask that you like this video, subscribe to our YouTube channel and don't forget to hit the notification to be notified when new episodes are released. We did have an itchy and scratchy.

Speaker 2: 0:37

I was thinking of the Simpsons. That's a itchy and scratchy right.

Speaker 1: 0:40

I have no idea where they're from, but I just know that's what our cat things were, and people were always like oh my gosh itchy and scratchy. That's so funny. Okay, well, itchy got Okay itchy's no longer itchy itchy didn't understand what Main Street was, so unfortunately she's no longer with us. It I don't remember what it was. It was a long time ago.

Speaker 2: 1:03

No.

Speaker 1: 1:04

So how are things going?

Speaker 2: 1:07

Good.

Speaker 1: 1:08

Do you have any updates for us?

Speaker 2: 1:10

I don't know.

Speaker 1: 1:11

Like your cancer update. Do you have anything going on?

Speaker 2: 1:14

No.

Speaker 1: 1:15

Okay, life has come back full circle and everything's good to go.

Speaker 2: 1:20

Yeah, everything seems normal. I still don't know what's going on with my military career because of it, so that's up in the air.

Speaker 1: 1:31

That's to be determined. Yeah Well, with you not shaving your head, I just figured that you were done trying to grow this back, but it's not going to come back in the way you think it's going to. Whoops, you know what Daniel told me Daniel's gonna be bald. I just know he is because he loves his hair so much. He's gonna be bald. He told me that he had this. He's like it's just not growing in right here, right here. He's like if I'm gonna be bald, I have to at least have a good beard. I'm like okay, so you're living by Mitchell standards, Obviously. Oh, I know you can.

Speaker 2: 2:11

I know you can I used to be able to grow hair.

Speaker 1: 2:13

I know Poor Daniel. He's attached to his hair.

Speaker 2: 2:17

I was never attached to my hair.

Speaker 1: 2:18

Yeah, Daniel is Poor kid.

Speaker 2: 2:21

So it was easy to shave it off, but not for a while. You get lazy.

Speaker 1: 2:26

Obviously.

Speaker 2: 2:27

I'm just gonna, although I was sick last week and my hair actually hurt. Okay, has there been an?

Speaker 1: 2:35

episode yet where he hasn't said I was sick this week, or somebody was sick this week or we got sickness.

Speaker 2: 2:41

So, oh, my God Last week we were talking about how Paige and Zeke were sick.

Speaker 1: 2:49

Oh yes.

Speaker 2: 2:51

And I'm like I think I had it before.

Speaker 1: 2:52

Yes.

Speaker 2: 2:53

No that wasn't that I had something, but it wasn't that I got it after.

Speaker 1: 3:01

I heard. I heard Eli had it, so did Ephraim get it? Ephraim had it too.

Speaker 2: 3:04

Oh my yikes, but at least nobody had it Like it was Paige and Zeke. Technically it was Zeke and then it was Paige.

Speaker 1: 3:12

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 3:13

And then it was, I think.

Speaker 1: 3:16

Eli next.

Speaker 2: 3:16

It almost had to have been Eli next Because he was that long, then it was me, and then it was Ephraim.

Speaker 1: 3:23

Unbelievable.

Speaker 2: 3:24

So yeah, fun stuff.

Speaker 1: 3:27

Oh God, please keep my family healthy. Please do not unscath this mess. I'm coughing.

Speaker 2: 3:35

So yeah, as far as cancer that's healed up, fine, I don't have any issues with that.

Speaker 1: 3:42

Oh, that's good.

Speaker 2: 3:45

So now just hopefully in June, when my next scan is, they're not going to find anything. Okay, it doesn't go anywhere because it's not there. That sounds like a really good plan, and between now and then, I'm probably going to kick down the army.

Speaker 1: 4:03

Kicked out.

Speaker 2: 4:05

Medically discharged.

Speaker 1: 4:07

I see kicked out Medically discharged I was going to say but it's not like it's bad, no, it's like a blessing in disguise.

Speaker 2: 4:14

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 4:16

I mean, you could pretend that you still go away for a few days if you want to.

Speaker 2: 4:20

I've heard of stories of guys they retire or whatever.

Speaker 1: 4:27

And they don't tell me why.

Speaker 2: 4:29

And so every month they have a fishing trip. They go somewhere and go fishing, but they're at drill.

Speaker 1: 4:37

Oh my goodness. I get this. Oh shoot, it won't work for you guys, though your boys have figured it out. Well, no, you don't, but your boys have figured it out, and I can see one hiding in the vehicle when you're supposed to go with you, all right. So what are we doing?

Speaker 2: 4:58

Talking about the Bible.

Speaker 1: 4:59

Of course, it's a good thing to do when you're doing a Bible study podcast.

Speaker 2: 5:05

That's typically on the agenda.

Speaker 1: 5:10

Oh, I see you have notes for us.

Speaker 2: 5:11

I do.

Speaker 1: 5:12

All right, I had your iPad all day, so did you review anything?

Speaker 2: 5:16

before you came in here there may have been some review.

Speaker 1: 5:22

Oh my gosh, all he does is keep itching what You've been itching your hair, you itch your face, itch your nose. Yeah, it's going to be a long 24 minutes.

Speaker 2: 5:38

Well, at least I'm not like touching you. I'm not touching you. I'm not touching you, I'm an arm itches.

Speaker 1: 5:48

Oh my gosh, oh patience. I need patience. What dry skin Winter. You remember our last episode?

Speaker 2: 6:00

It was so cold last night.

Speaker 1: 6:01

It was so cold. I loved my car running the entire time we were here Because it was so cold. It hasn't ran. I was like, oh, I'll let it run, because it really was so cold and today it's raining, but I walked here.

Speaker 2: 6:15

It's like four or seven degrees outside the difference in a week. Okay, so we are still in Hebrews 11.

Speaker 1: 6:26

Yep.

Speaker 2: 6:27

We're going to be covering verses five and six next, which is about Enoch.

Speaker 1: 6:34

Enoch.

Speaker 2: 6:35

Yep. So hold on, let me get there. There we go. So I'm going to read verses five through six, and then we're going to do our normal thing.

Speaker 1: 6:43

Okay.

Speaker 2: 6:45

So, by faith, enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found because God had taken him. Now, before he was taken, he was commended as having pleased God, and without faith it is impossible to please him. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. So Enoch. So the first thing we'll cover is Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death and he was not found because God had taken him. So that's just a lot of words, for and it's just a fancy way of saying that Enoch did not suffer humanly death.

Speaker 1: 7:36

Okay.

Speaker 2: 7:38

He was taking straight to heaven. There's only been a few characters in the Bible that have had this happen to them. Part of the most famous one is Elijah. Mainly because Elijah wasn't by himself was Elijah and Elisha oh yeah, that is right.

Speaker 2: 8:03

And they were together. They crossed the river and Elisha was asking for, you know, double portion of Elijah's spirit and Elijah was like well, if you see me being taken up to heaven, then that means you receive that portion. And so then we have the story of Elijah being taken up in whirlwind up into heaven. So that's probably the most famous story. But as far as Enoch, we don't have a whole lot.

Speaker 2: 8:43

Enoch's story is very similar to Abel's, to where there's not a whole lot biblically there that we have to go off of. So there's going to be a lot of speculation involved. And when we get Enoch's story where we see Enoch referenced in Genesis 5, 21 through 24, and so I'm going to read that when Enoch had lived 65 years he followed in Methuselah. Enoch walked with God after he followed in Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters, methuselah's. All the days of Enoch were 365 years. Enoch walked with God and he was not, for God took him. So again, this is pretty much all we really have as far as biblically speaking that is referenced to Enoch, and the thing to look at is verse 24, that last verse, that last sentence Enoch walked with God and he was not, for God took him. So again, that's just another way of saying the same thing that was said in Hebrews.

Speaker 2: 9:57

To where Enoch walked with God in his life and then one minute was here and then the next minute he was not. So he was taken up into heaven because he did not suffer human death. But that's really the only thing we know. We don't know what Enoch did in his life to deserve or to be awarded that sort of reward, that sort of sort of I'm looking for, to just receive that type of generosity.

Speaker 2: 10:39

We don't know, because we don't have the stories of Enoch. Now there is a book of Enoch out there but it's not a part of our Bible. But a lot of people do use that as a historical book and it's used a lot of times for cross-referencing Some of the biblical accounts with the accounts that are in the book of Enoch. Most of the times when I see Enoch referenced or talked about is when we're talking about the Nephilim watchers, that type of stuff. That is where you will see Enoch referenced most often, because Enoch does talk about watchers and that type of stuff in his book or in the book of Enoch. But we don't have all of that in the Bible. So that's why a lot of people hear about Enoch or know Enoch is because of the book of Enoch. But if you're thinking of biblical speaking there's not a lot.

Speaker 2: 11:49

So let's go back to verse 5, which reads Now before he was taken, he was commended as having pleased God. So again we have this commendation, we have this special praise that we have been talking about, and we don't know why he received this commendation. We don't know the actions that he took in his life to receive that commendation. We just have to assume that he did good things, that he put his faith and trust in God because, well, the way he was taken up the heaven. I mean, like I said, you can count on one hand the number of people in the Bible that that actually happens to, and Enoch is one of them, even though we don't know anything about him, so we have to assume that he did great things, just like when we were talking about Abel last week. We have to assume that the offering that Abel brought to God was righteous, that he was doing the right thing.

Speaker 2: 13:03

We have to make those assumptions because it's not told to us yeah.

Speaker 2: 13:07

We don't know the actual story. But something I do find interesting is it is said in what we read that Enoch walked with God. So this phrase of walking with God, this is the translation that most of our English Bibles. I checked all the main English translations and they're all saying walked with God. But if you look at the Septuagint, which is a Greek translation of the original Hebrew, so they translated the original Hebrew into Greek that's where you have the Septuagint. Well, they translate it as pleased. So instead of walked with God, it's pleased God.

Speaker 2: 14:01

So I just find that interesting, because now here in the second part of verse 5, this is now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. So he would just take that Hebrew and translate it to the Greek. Then translate that Greek would be pleased God. And that's going to just kind of come into play a little bit as we get into verse 6. So let's go straight to verse 6. Yeah, we took a direct path right to it, and without faith it is impossible to please him. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. So without faith, it is impossible to please him. It is impossible to please God. So, like we were just talking about with Enoch, enoch walked with God. If you would look at that in a Greek translation, it would be Enoch was pleased, enoch pleased God.

Speaker 1: 15:09

Right.

Speaker 2: 15:10

Well, enoch wasn't the only one who was said to have walked with God. So some of the other Old Testament characters who are deliberately or specifically are said to have walked with God was Noah, and Genesis 6.9 is where it's recorded that Noah walked with God. Abraham is said three times I say this loosely three times it's said to walk before God, although the first time it's actually God calling Abram to walk before him. The second time is when Abram is like yes, I have Walked to God. Well, the first one was Genesis 17 one, so that is where God called Abram to walk before him. The second was Genesis 2440, and that is the one where Abram was like I have walked before God. And then the third one actually includes both Abraham and Isaac, and that one again is walk before God. So these characters who had been Enoch, noah, abraham and Isaac Are all specifically said it as walking before God.

Speaker 2: 16:43

Like I said, you could use that little Hebrew Greek trick and say that all they have all please God, but the thing is they're not the only ones mentioned Hebrews. There's a lot of other Old Testament characters mentioned in Hebrews and they all please God. Hmm even though may not say it correctly, right. They all please God, and that is what we're going to be covering in Hebrews. Why did all of these characters please God? What did they do in their lives To receive that commendation, that special praise from God? And it's the way they walked, by faith a.

Speaker 2: 17:26

Lot of them. A Lot of them were flawed, a lot of them sinned, a lot of them had Bad histories and it's recorded in the Bible that they they sinned, but yet they're still in Hebrews 11. They're still in that Hall of Record as being faithful people, and this is why we're going to cover these stories is so we can see how God used flawed people but yet, even though they were flawed, they were still full of faith and we want to highlight this faith, the way they were faithful, because we need to remember Not the actual definition of faith, but where does faith come from? Faith comes from learning learning about God, hearing God's word, taking what you learn and making that internal transition to decide to Take that knowledge and deem it to be true and trustworthy and put your trust and confidence in that word, in that knowledge, and then living your life according to that truth and confidence.

Speaker 2: 18:44

And that's what these characters do in Hebrews 11. So, even though they're flawed, they still walk by faith and Even though they may have hiccups in their path, they are still walking towards a future. And we kind of talked about this whenever we're going through my whole cancer thing. Like I wasn't scared about the cancer, I wasn't scared about you know, trusting in God, but you still have to hesitate and wonder about the fact that you don't know what the future is right.

Speaker 2: 19:22

You don't know what the outcomes going to be right. So You're blind when it comes to that. The future is unknown. So you don't. I Mean sure, if we all knew what the future is going to be and we knew things were gonna be fine at the end of the road, there would be no hesitation right. Then again there wouldn't be faith right. Because for faith, you have to believe without seeing. So this is all the stuff that we want to talk about.

Speaker 1: 19:50

Right and we can relate to these characters because you know we're not perfect. We're imperfect people, we are flawed people. So to hear these stories in Hebrew and to hear about these people, it helps us in our journey and our faith, our walk by faith, also because of the imperfections.

Speaker 2: 20:10

We also seen that whenever we went through Matthew 1, we went through the genealogy oh yeah, All the flawed people that make up the story or the genealogy of Jesus.

Speaker 1: 20:23

Right, yes.

Speaker 2: 20:24

I mean, there's so much.

Speaker 1: 20:27

Yes, I did enjoy that actually.

Speaker 2: 20:30

If you haven't heard that, we don't have that on YouTube. That is in our podcast. You can go back. It's very early on. I can link some of the early episodes in the show description so you can find those. And yes, we go through an in-depth breakdown of the genealogy of Jesus. We did the first three or four generations.

Speaker 1: 21:05

It's been so long.

Speaker 2: 21:06

And then we did the women of Matthew's genealogy, so Abraham Isaac, Jacob, and then I think we did the women.

Speaker 1: 21:16

Rahab.

Speaker 2: 21:20

I don't even remember anymore. I thought my head I know, but yes, we do highly recommend that. That was a lot of fun.

Speaker 1: 21:29

Yeah, I actually might have listened to it again.

Speaker 2: 21:32

Did you listen to it the first time?

Speaker 1: 21:33

Yeah, oh, okay, you made me that was early on.

Speaker 2: 21:36

Oh yeah.

Speaker 1: 21:39

I was like, well, how's he even listening to it, or not?

Speaker 2: 21:42

So then, I just assume he didn't.

Speaker 1: 21:44

Oh well, thanks. Thanks for my job so much easier.

Speaker 2: 21:49

I'm going to show them again.

Speaker 1: 21:51

Eight minutes.

Speaker 2: 21:53

So, yes, we're talking about these characters of the Bible, we're talking about the faith that they had. So I want to hit on this idea of faith a little bit harder and I'm going to read an excerpt from my ESV study Bible and this is the one published by Crossway and I seen this during my study and I thought it was very powerful.

Speaker 1: 22:21

Okay.

Speaker 2: 22:22

Yeah, I'd probably spend six hours talking just to get this kind of clarification, so I'm just going to read theirs. Six hours. Yeah, I talked in circles, remember, so I'm going to try to stick to my notes, that way I don't go down too many tangents.

Speaker 1: 22:40

No worries, my alarm's going off, regardless if you walk in circles or talk in circles.

Speaker 2: 22:45

I can walk in circles too, I know you can I have one kidney, so anyways, okay.

Speaker 2: 22:55

So by defining faith as assurance and conviction, the author indicates that biblical faith is not a vague hope grounded in imaginary wishful thinking. Instead, faith is a settled confidence that something in the future, something that is not yet seen but has been promised by God, will actually come to pass, because God will bring it about. Thus, biblical faith is not blind trust in the face of contrary evidence, not unknowable leap in the dark. Rather, biblical faith is a confident trust in the eternal God, who is all-powerful, infinitely wise, eternally trustworthy, the God who has revealed himself in his word and in the person of Jesus Christ, whose promises have proven true from generation to generation and who will never leave nor forsake his own. Such faith in the unseen realities of God is emphasized throughout chapters 11 and has provided confidence and assurance to all who receive Christ as their Lord and Savior. So I'm gonna break this down, because I thought I read this and I just like I don't even know why. We're trying to explain this, because Anybody who reads that right pretty powerful.

Speaker 2: 24:21

Yeah so I'm gonna read this again and kind of Help clarify some of it. So it says by defining faith as assurance and conviction. So this comes from verse one, hebrews 11, one. Now, faith is the assurance of things, hope for the conviction of things not seen. So that is where this assurance and conviction is coming from, is coming from.

Speaker 2: 24:45

So, by defining faith as assurance and conviction, the author indicates that biblical faith is not a vague hope grounded in imaginary wishful thinking, right? So this is just basically saying that this isn't a whimsical childhood fairy tale, right? This? Again, I don't want to get on tangents, okay. Instead, faith is a settled confidence. Settled confidence.

Speaker 2: 25:13

So this is something that you can rest in, something you can find peace in, something that you can, you know, cover yourself up like a warm blanket and just rest in it. So this settled confidence that something in the future right, the future is unknown, unseen. Yep, we kind of had that, that situation when, like, we're just talking about, whenever, faced with the whole cancer thing, don't know what that future is. But that something in the future, something that is not yet seen but has been promised by God, promised by God. Where do we find the promises made to us by God. That's in his word, in the Bible. The Bible will give us all the promises of God, and there's a lot of them, but again, don't go too much on a tangent. So something that is not yet seen but has been promised by God Will actually come to pass because God will bring it about. So now we need to trust in those promises of God, trust that God will fulfill those promises made to us in his written word that we know as the Bible.

Speaker 2: 26:29

So thus biblical faith is not blind trust in the face of contrary evidence. So if somebody is coming up to you and and attacking you, attacking your faith, using false theology to try to get you off your path, we don't have to just Close our eyes and blindly walk forward saying we trust in God. No, we have God's word. We can put our trust and confidence in God's word. That's what faith is. It is learning about God's word. It is hearing God's word and making that connection, that what God says is true and trustworthy. You put your confidence in that. So you don't have to follow blindly. You have the truth. That is what we need to rest on.

Speaker 2: 27:20

Sorry, there's a bit of tangent. Oh, where was I? Okay, so thus, biblical faith is not blind trust in the face of contrary evidence, not an unknowable leap in the dark. We don't have to leap in the dark because we have Jesus. Jesus is the light of the world. In Jesus, we don't have to worry about darkness. Darkness has no power over us. We will never walk in darkness as long as we live our lives in Jesus. Jesus is our life, mm-hmm. Rather, biblical faith is a confident trust, sorry. Rather, biblical faith is a confident trust in the eternal God, who is all-powerful, infinitely wise, eternally trustworthy, the God who has revealed himself in his word and in the person of Jesus Christ, whose promises have proven true from generation to generation and who will never leave nor forsake. His own God never changes. The God of the Old Testament is the same God that we have today right and when Time comes to an end.

Speaker 2: 28:32

At the end of time, god will be the same. The differences are how God communicates with us. So in the Old Testament God used. Well, way back in the Old Testament, god spoke directly to people. Then he went and it was transferred over and God spoke through prophets. So God spoke to prophets and prophets gave it God's message to the people.

Speaker 2: 28:59

Today we are in a new covenant. We have Jesus. Jesus is is Hold on, I got the actual words here Our high priest that's the word I was looking for. I can't think of those. Jesus is our high priest today. So we have a connection to God through Jesus. So we can approach God, the throne of God, throne of grace, through Jesus Christ. So we don't have prophets anymore that are taking God's word and giving it to us. We can go through Jesus and God will work in each one of our lives. And then at the end of time Well, that's when we're gonna have a new heaven and a new earth and at that time God and Jesus will be dwelling with us. We'll be living with God and Jesus. They will be the kings and they will be here with us.

Speaker 1: 29:55

So Smile like yeah, complete joy exactly so.

Speaker 2: 30:02

Such faith in the unseen realities of God is emphasized throughout chapter 11 and has provided Confidence and assurance to all who receive Christ as their Lord and Savior. So we have that confidence, we have that assurance. So I think we're out of time.

Speaker 1: 30:21

We are out of time.

Speaker 2: 30:23

Okay, and we'll stop there and We'll finish up the rest of chapter 6 next week sounds fantastic.

Speaker 1: 30:30

We thank you for joining us. Please leave a comment on this video or go to our contact page at purefaithlivingcom to send us a message and, as always, if you like what you hear, then we ask that you share the show with others so we all can work together and spreading the good news of Jesus Christ. Don't forget no, well, easy. Don't forget to subscribe and we will see you again next time.

Speaker 2: 30:53

Have a blessed day.