Speaker 1: 0:05

Hello, welcome to another episode of the Pure Faith Podcast, where we discuss all things Bible. Again, I'm Michelle, my brother Mitchell, and we are glad that you are joining us.

Speaker 2: 0:15

So this week, this is our third week where we're going to release our sermon series. So this one it kind of goes along the line of the last two that were released, where it kind of has some Hebrews 11 type stuff in it, but it's also pulling from other sermons and other stuff that we have covered in the past and it's about the word of God and the different types of word, how Jesus is the word, how we have the written word, the living word and the spoken word, and it kind of goes through all those and and how that word can help us to change and evolve over time and how we can use that to to just improve and grow deeper and closer in our relationship with Jesus. So we hope you enjoy this one as well. We're going to be doing things a little bit different because I've had some requests that change the way I do things, because no, you didn't say it, but I was asked if I could stand up and I was asked if I could use a microphone. So that's what I'm doing. So here I am up front so everybody can see me With your Etch-A-Sketch. With my Etch-A-Sketch I'm drawing pictures, I'm doodling, but today the message I am planning on bringing we'll see how things go is growing in the word, and this is going to be a little bit of a combination of a few other things that I've talked about in the past, the first one being the actual word of God.

Speaker 2: 2:02

And if you remember, whenever we talked about the Word of God, the Word of God came in three forms. You had the written Word of God, which is our Bibles. You have the spoken Word of God, which we typically see as a quote of God and Jesus in the Bible. So you can think you read letters. If you have the type of Bible where in the Gospels, it has the red letters, those are the words of Jesus. So we're talking about that type of spoken word. And then we have the living word of Jesus, which we're the living word of God, which is Jesus, and that could also combine in the Holy Spirit. So we're going to be talking about those, and so we're going to be talking about those. We're also going to be talking a little bit again about would move towards a goal, because God told them to go there, but they had no idea where they were going. They were just moving blindly because they were following the word of God, word of God.

Speaker 2: 3:29

But then we also talked about well, about Jesus, about how, when Jesus died on the cross, that veil that separated the holy place from the most holy place in the sanctuary. Do you remember that Whenever Jesus died, that veil was torn in two? Because it was representation, saying that we no longer have a barrier between us and God? But we do have Jesus standing between us. Jesus took that role of that veil and he's standing between us and God, not because we need what we do need. He's not there to block us from God. We are impure, we are sinful, we're human. We have so many shortcomings we can't even count them all. So we don't have. We can't just go to God because we're not pure enough to go to God. So that's why we need Jesus.

Speaker 2: 4:18

Jesus, the death of Jesus on the cross, the blood of Jesus, washed away our sins. So it's through Jesus that we can get access to God. So Jesus no longer becomes a barrier for us. He becomes an usher. He takes us, he cleanses us of our sins so that we are pure enough to go before the throne of grace. So it's only through God or it only through jesus that we have access to god, but it's also only through jesus that we have access to heaven. And we get that access through heaven through having a, through having faith with jesus or having faith in jesus. But how do we grow in faith? How do we get that faith that we need in Jesus in order to have access into heaven? Well, that all starts by having a relationship with Jesus. When you have a relationship with Jesus, then your faith will grow in Jesus.

Speaker 2: 5:23

So how do we have a relationship with Jesus? How does that start? What does that even look like? Because, let's remember, jesus isn't really just coming in the back door and talk to us face to face. It's not somebody that we can I mean, we communicate with him, but it's not like we would communicate with one another. We don't stand in front of each other and talk to each other face to face and have back and forth communication. There is back and forth communication, but it's a little more complicated than that. So how do we create a relationship with Jesus? Well, a relationship with Jesus starts with the same basis as any other relationship, just like our relationships here at church with our wives, with our, our spouses, with whoever. It still starts that same basic connection which is communication. So we, and that is the basis for any relationship. If you think about if you're married whenever you first met your spouse, or or any past relationship, or for those who don't have a relationship yet, then maybe listen up.

Speaker 1: 6:29

You might learn something or you might not, I don't know.

Speaker 2: 6:33

But the basis of any relationship is communication. I can't speak for any of you, but I can speak for my own experiences. That, for those that don't know, paige and I, whenever we first met, our first date was a blind date. We never met each other before that. But just because we never met each other, that doesn't mean we didn't communicate. We talked. We talked through text messages, we talked through phone calls, so there was communication.

Speaker 2: 7:02

So when you communicate back and forth, you start to learn the other person's personality. You start to figure out who they are and what they think and what they like and all these different aspects of their personality. But guess what, just because you learn one thing about somebody else's personality, you don't have to be like that's it, I'm done, I learned all I need to learn. We never need to talk again. Let's just get married and let's go. That's not how it works Exactly so you have to continue to go back and have that communication. Just because you learn something about somebody doesn't mean you can stop communicating. You have to keep the communication going. So you're constantly going back and forth and remember this is a two-way street. So not only are you learning their personality, but they're also learning yours. But once you start to learn that other person's personality and things continue to progress and you start to know enough about their personality, then you start to learn enough about their personality. Then you start to learn about their quirks, those little things that just kind of make them, yeah, who they are, it is what it is, but you start to learn those quirks. Guess what? Even you start to learn those little quirks and those little weird things they do. You're still going back to communication and you're still learning more about the personality. Everything is just continuing to grow. And then you get to a point where like, okay, I like this person's personality, I can live with the quirks that I know of so far, so maybe we should move forward. And that's when you get into the relationship aspects of it. But once again, once you start relationships not like, oh OK, we're in a relationship, that's it. And then you talk again let's just again, let's go get married, have kids and live the rest of our lives. No, that's not how it works. You still need to go back and I'm going to tell you which. We'll wait for the next part.

Speaker 2: 9:02

So you're continuing to communicate, you're growing, you're learning more about the personality, more quirks are still popping up every now and then. It seems like they're never ending and you're developing a stronger relationship. Well, if that relationship continues to grow and everything continues to grow you're happy with the way things are growing, both of you, obviously, because it's a two-way street then you develop love. Well, once that love starts, and and again once you fall in love, communication is still going to be there. Well, things are just going to continue to progress. Things don't just stop here, because, from love, well, then you're going to have marriage. And let me tell you, once you get married, that's when the quirks really start to come out. Just, I'm speaking to the choir here for most of us, but, yeah, that's when a lot of the quirks really start to show themselves. Um, but then, even then, after marriage, okay, well, what comes with marriage? In-laws, unfortunately, so.

Speaker 1: 10:14

Not today.

Speaker 2: 10:16

If you weren't, I wouldn't want to say it. You're like self-injury. But, kids, you know, life just continues to grow and I'm joking around, but that's the way it goes. It continues to grow. Your relationship continues to grow, your kids, just everything in your life will continue to grow and expand and include more people, and everything just keeps growing, because that's what a relationship is. But again, it's all centered on communication. Without communication, everything will stall out or even die. Communication is the heart of this entire thing.

Speaker 2: 10:59

But how do we develop that same kind of relationship with Jesus, same kind of relationship with Jesus? Well, like I said for our normal worldly relationships, it's based on communication. How do we communicate with Jesus? We communicate with Jesus through prayer. We talk to him. We tell him about our life, we tell him about all the things that scare us, about all the things that we desire. We tell Jesus everything. But again, jesus isn't going to verbally talk back to us, but Jesus still talks to us. Even though we may not audibly hear him, he still talks to us. Well, how does he talk to us? He talks to us through the word. And remember, this word is multifaceted it has the written word, the spoken word and the living word. For the sake of this next flowchart, we are going to be focusing more on the written and spoken word, and spoken word specifically as it is written in the Bible, but I'm going to be bringing the living word back into it at the end, because it is a huge part of all of this.

Speaker 2: 12:18

So the word, it's your Bible. You pray to God for all these things and, let's say, you're a new Christian and you don't know how to spend time in meditation, you don't know how to listen for God's answers, or you do and you're not getting anything. The first place you should go is the word, and I'm talking about the Bible. Go to the Bible. You read the Bible. You read wherever you felt led to read. That's part of it. You just start reading and the words will speak to you. The Lord will show you in multiple ways. He will get his message across to you through reading the word.

Speaker 2: 13:06

But not only that. It's not just about the communication aspect of it, but you read the Bible in order to gain knowledge on who Jesus is. You start reading about his parables. You read the words that he says. You read about the things that he did Not just with Jesus you can go back to the Old Testament and read about the things that God did and why these characters, like in Hebrews 11, why they had so much faith no-transcript, but it's just like a relationship Just because you learn oh, jesus was the son of God. Oh, I got it all figured out. Never have to read the Bible again. I'm good, going to live the rest of my life, happy, great.

Speaker 2: 13:54

No, that's not how it works. We need to. Okay, you learn that Jesus is the son of God. Well, what else was he? Who else was he Like? You just start to again, like, come and figure out his personality. Did he like to take long walks on the beach? Well, kind of, he took the long walk across a sea. So maybe did he like to spend time up in the mountains by himself? Well, yeah, he went up there to pray. So you start to learn more about his personality and who he was.

Speaker 2: 14:28

But the more you learn about who Jesus was, then you start to understand who Jesus is. And it's through that understanding, through that knowledge and understanding, again we're going back to the Word. We're still going back to the word to learn more. But you start to get a better picture of who Jesus is. You get to see those personality and those quirks that we would see in our own personal relationships here on earth. Well, once you start to learn more of that, that's when you start to develop the relationship aspect and build the relationship aspect between you and Jesus. But it's like everything else, just like the communication. If you stop communicating with God, with Jesus, then that relationship will stall out, it'll die. You need to continue to go back to the word, to continue to grow and develop and to gain more knowledge, to gain more understanding and to grow your relationship. Well, if all of that continues to grow, then it's going to continue on and that's how your faith will grow, because the more you know, the more you understand and the more your relationship grows, then your faith is going to grow right with it, because that's just again how it works. Like with a regular relationship, everything is going to continue to grow.

Speaker 2: 15:58

Now I've said that and again. Through all this, you're going back to the Word. Like I said before, the word isn't just the Bible. It's not just the words that Jesus and God speak in the Bible. The word is alive. The word is Jesus, it's the Holy Spirit. Well, when we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, when we accept that he went to the cross and died for our sins, and once we are baptized in the name of Jesus, we have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. The Spirit is in us right now. The Spirit is in us everywhere we go, everything we do. And guess what? The Spirit is in you when you are reading the Word.

Speaker 2: 16:46

So when you're reading the Word, say you've been praying about something and you're reading the Word, the Holy Spirit will change the way you see the words, the way you interpret the words. It'll change the meaning of the words. And next thing, you know things. Just the Bible. The bible, same passage may have read a thousand times, all of a sudden says something different. It no longer means the same thing. That has meant those first thousand times. Now, on this one thousand, and first time it's different. And from this point on it's going to be different, but it might only be different to a certain point, and then something else will change. And's going to be different, but it might only be different to a certain point, and then something else will change, and then it'll be different again. Because that's the holy spirit. You are growing in everything and as you grow bigger and bigger, then you are going to see more, seek more of that word. And so I'll tell you an example of this happening to me, and I know exactly when and where it happened.

Speaker 2: 17:52

I was sitting, probably right where Jenna is, and the pastor was up here preaching and he read a piece of scripture that, again, I've probably read who knows how many times, and it was about Adam and Eve in the garden. And I didn't pull up the actual scripture because I'm kind of going off cuff here, but it was basically about how Adam and Eve were, or God was in Eden and the river flowed out of Eden into the garden where Adam and Eve were, something like that. But the thing that caught me different that time was that the river flowed out of Eden into the garden. So Eden and the garden of Eden are separate. They're not the same thing. I've always looked at it that okay, this is the Garden of Eden, this is just one place. No, they're two separate places. God and his angels and Jesus they're in Eden. Adam and Eve are in the Garden of Eden. There's's difference. And it just hit me and I haven't taken the time to actually look into that, to dig into that, to figure out what's going on but the reason that hit me different, it's because this was not long after.

Speaker 2: 19:20

I spent a lot of time studying Michael Heiser and, and you know, studying angel, angelology and demonology and all this other stuff, and I read his book the Unseen Realm, and so this was shortly after that and so all that was kind of in the back of my mind. And then I heard that and I'm like, wait a minute, this is the kind of stuff that Michael Heiser talks about. This is it? Well, that scripture has never been the same since, and that's the way the word, whether it's the written word, the spoken word or even the living word, that's how it works in our lives. So we should never stop going back to the word, we should never stop going back to our Bible, because the Bible talks to us and it talks to us through the Holy Spirit, even in prayer.

Speaker 2: 20:07

Once your relationship grows to the point and I know I get this a lot I'll be praying. And if I'm in deep prayer, I will have a feeling and I'm like Lord, is that from you? Is that from where's that coming from? And then I'll pray on that feeling, that from where's that coming from? And then I'll pray on that feeling. And you know I don't normally jump into things full bore, so I'll give it time and I'll pray about that. And if it sticks around after time, I'm like I'm sure that came from god and that was him speaking to me.

Speaker 2: 20:39

I mean, I don't, like I said, I don't follow it without testing it, but that's how I feel the Lord will sometimes speak to me. That's not every time, that's not all the time. Sometimes I will speak to the word and scripture will change and speak to me differently. But that's what this is all about. It's all about growing in the word and understanding that the word is alive, that the word speaks to us differently. As we grow in our lives and as we grow in our relationship, our faith will grow and everything will just grow and expand and eventually you won't be able to contain it in yourself anymore and you'll start pouring out to others. And that's what we're called to do to go out and make disciples, baptizing people in the name of the Father and the Son, holy Spirit.

Speaker 1: 21:30

All right. Well, we hope you enjoyed that episode as well. Mitchell did a really good job. I think this is the one where you stood up and you actually changed your scenery a little bit as well.

Speaker 2: 21:40

I should have warned you before.

Speaker 1: 21:41

Yeah, and I should have too. But you know what? I really enjoyed that episode.

Speaker 2: 21:46

And hopefully you enjoyed the notes, because I plan on putting those in the actual video, so you should have seen those and so hopefully that can help.

Speaker 1: 21:55

Yeah, the slides. Yeah, I really enjoyed the slides with Mitchell's presentation this last time. I just felt like to bring those to your sermons. We can follow along a little bit better. So I think it was a great way to do it and we look forward to maybe the next one you doing kind of the same thing. Maybe, We'll see.

Speaker 2: 22:13

We'll talk about it next time.

Speaker 1: 22:15

Well, we really hope you enjoyed the episode. Again, like and subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you're listening on the podcast forum, we hope that you like what you're hearing. If you need anything or if you want to reach out to us for anything, feel free to do so, and if not, then we will see you again next time.

Speaker 2: 22:31

Have a great day everybody.