Hebrews 6:13-20

Transcript (Auto-generated)

This transcript has been automatically generated, and therefore may not be 100% accurate.

Certainty of God's promises.

When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, saying, I will surely bless you and give you many descendants. And so, after waiting patiently, Abraham received what he was promised. People swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all argument. Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged.

We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain where our forerunner Jesus has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever in the order of Melchizedek. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

So this is the formal bit. I published the bands of marriage between Joshua Roaf and Sarah Marie Pugh and also between Jack Haig and Eleanor Fields, both of this parish, all of this parish. And this is for the first time of asking if any of you know any reason in law why they may not marry each other, you are to declare it.

Great. In fact, why don't I pray for those couples as we go? Father, thank you so much for Joshua and Sarah. Thank you so much for Jack and Eleanor. Father, thank you for the gift of marriage.

Thank you that you're a God who's designed marriage to be a really good thing. The Bible starts and finishes with a marriage. I pray that these marriages would be full of love and joy and life. And I pray, Father, that they also may reflect something of your love for us. Amen.

Amen. While we will read those bands of marriage again next week and the week after, we're coming to the book of Hebrews. And if you cannot see the stuff up here at the front, then feel free to shuffle so that you can a little bit, especially if you are one of our younger ones, because we're coming to a part of God's word that I think is really, really important. And to help me out as we start, I'm going to need someone who is adventurous to help me, somebody who's the kind of person who might go to the other side of the world to serve people over there, someone who might do long sponsored walks. I don't know, maybe yesterday.

Oh, Sam. Hello. Thanks for volunteering. Do you come on up, Sam? That is brilliant.

Let me get you a microphone and let me switch it on. There we go. Sam, why don't I help you up onto here and into. There you go. Oh, that's great.

I should say we've risk assessed this. It is risky and that's ok, Sam. There you go. Let me give you that. Are you comfortable there?

Kind of. That's brilliant. Sam, we've got you up because you're an adventurer. I'm told that this is an adventuring boat. Sam, can you give us your best?

ARR. Brilliant. He's made for this, isn't he? That's brilliant. So Sam is here in his boat.

He is a well seasoned mariner. Sailor. That's the word I'm looking for. He is a well seasoned sailor. And at the moment.

How's life on the boat? It's pretty rocky. Pretty? Okay. That's great.

But do you know what? Life on the boat doesn't always stay pretty okay, does it? No. Sometimes things happen. Sometimes it gets wavy, doesn't it?

And it gets rocky and don't worry, risk assessment, I'm not going to rock you. That would be too bad. But sometimes water might come into the boat like this and it might get really quite splashy and it might get that. It's really very stormy. And I'm talking about sailing.

And I'm also not talking about sailing. You see, life is sometimes a bit like Sam in his boat. Life is sometimes smooth going, isn't it? But sometimes you're being tossed around, the waves are big and tall and things get really tricky. Maybe.

Maybe that's happened for you. Maybe you went to your transition day at school and it was a bit different and that was a bit scary. Maybe you're about to go to secondary and that's a bit different and scary. Maybe you've been doing big exams. Maybe your job has changed or a loved one's not there for you like they used to be.

Maybe actually, in all that you watch on the news, it feels like life is going up and down quite a lot at the moment. So, Sam, seasoned mariner that you are, what would you do if life was going up and down? Sorry? If the waves were coming up and down and it was getting stormy. An anchor on the floor.

You put an anchor on the floor. That's a great idea. Have you got an anchor? Yeah. Oh, I say, what a mighty fine anchor.

Look at that. You must have crafted that out of pure aluminium foil. That's brilliant. You put an anchor down, wouldn't you? Now, does it matter?

Where the anchor goes. Could the anchor just sort of sit on here? No. No. Okay.

Could the anchor kind of just sort of sit on the ground like that? No. It matters, doesn't it, that the anchor goes into something firm. Firm. Firm.

Brilliant. That's right. Now, if that's true, with a boat and the anchor needs to go somewhere strong, like a rock or under something, where in life would we put our anchor? Can anyone see somewhere that might be a good place for an anchor? Somewhere solid?

Ezra.

To God. Yeah. Brilliant. And where is God right now? Well, everywhere.

I know, but where is God, specially right now? Boom. Ezra, can I borrow you? Is that all right? Fantastic.

Do you want to go up into the pulpit there for me? The pulpit that says here, heaven. Okay. Our passage today talks about an anchor. Did he see it?

It's there towards the end of our passage. It says, verse 19. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters into the inner sanctuary behind the curtain. And we're going to see.

Hebrews does this a lot. We're going to see in two weeks time that what it's talking about here is going to heaven. So we've got an anchor that's up here in heaven. Now, who do you think that anchor might be? Who is in heaven?

Ezra has given us a bit of a help here. Somebody who went into heaven. Go on. Go on, Jesus. Yes.

Boom. Brilliant. I love it. I love it when a plan comes together. Now, you've got a big sign there.

Can you hold that up for me? This one just right here. Brilliant. So we've got Jesus here, represented by Ezra. Very close comparison.

In heaven, holding the anchor. It's good and it's firm. Now, Sam strong mariner that you are, you've got an anchor that's firm and you're in a storm. What's the next thing that you might worry about? What might you worry about?

Snapping the rope. The rope between the anchor that's firm and the boat. Do you know if this snaps? There's no use having an anchor, is there? In life, we've got an anchor that has entered into heaven, Jesus, and we've got a rope which is between us and his.

Why don't I just snap it? That's a great question, Joshua. Well, because if we snap this and we're no longer connected to the anchor, that would be terrible, wouldn't it? Here's my question. It's great that Jesus is in heaven, but what if our connection with him snaps?

Hmm. Let's see if there's any help in that? Just keep that a bit more taut for me, guys. You're doing a brilliant. I put my Bible down somewhere.

It's over here. Let's see what this passage says about that rope. It says this. That God has made a promise. Verse 17.

God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose clear in what he promised. And so he confirmed it with an oath. God's promises are the thing that hold, that we can trust is our connection with our anchor, Jesus in heaven. And it's not just God's promises, it's also an oath. An oath is a promise that comes with a condition.

I promise I'll do this. And I promise on account of this thing, I want to demonstrate a few oaths for us. So it would be great if you can turn your eyes to the screen. I want you to ask two questions as you're watching this. What are they promising?

And what are they promising it. It's a bit silly, but what are they promising, and what are they promising it by? And my helpers here can sit down and that's great. And do have a look at these videos.

I swear by almighty God that I shall tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God. No, I promise. It really happened. I crossed my heart and hope to die. Stick a needle in my.

No, ref. No. Penalty. It weren't a foul, ref. I swear it.

By my lucky goalkeeping gloves.

I understand that if I don't keep up my mortgage repayments, my home may be repossessed.

Lord, let me find him, that I may see him safe behind bars. I will never rest till then. This I swear. This I swear by the star.

Brilliant. Okay, so you've seen a few different people get into little groups.

Into little groups. What were the people promising? And what were they swearing by? Or what were they promising by? If you're in the middle here, you've got both Hannah Christmas and Rachel Tanner, who can definitely help you as you're thinking about that.

But in groups around, what were those people promising? And what were they promising by? Two minutes. Off you go. Have a chat.