Hebrews 13 | Living a Life That Honors God

What does Hebrews 13 teach about living a Christian life?
How does Hebrews 13:5-6 encourage trust in God?
What does it mean to offer sacrifices pleasing to God?

The final chapter of Hebrews offers a profound conclusion, tying together its major themes and practical instructions for living a Christian life. This episode focuses on how believers can live lives as sacrifices pleasing to God, emphasizing actions like hospitality, care for others, and contentment in God's provision. Highlighting the transformative nature of faith, the hosts explore how trusting deeply in God's plan can reshape priorities, moving beyond mere rule-following to wholehearted devotion that naturally flows into godly living. Verses 5 and 6 serve as a reminder of God’s faithfulness, urging listeners to resist fear and materialism by depending fully on Him.

Additionally, the episode delves into the importance of following faithful leaders, those rooted in Christ and His teachings, while warning against strange doctrines and legalism. By unpacking the rich metaphors in verses 10-14, the hosts clarify how Jesus, as the ultimate sacrifice, calls believers to leave behind worldly approval and pursue a heavenly kingdom. This culminates in an encouragement to remain steadfast in faith, focusing on Christ's eternal nature and the hope He offers amid trials.

Listeners are encouraged to think beyond checklists of spiritual obligations, instead embracing a lifestyle that reflects love for God. As the hosts discuss practical applications, they stress the joy and freedom found in prioritizing God’s will over worldly concerns. From financial worries to moral challenges, the discussion provides relatable insights for modern believers seeking to honor Christ authentically. With its hopeful conclusion, Hebrews 13 encourages perseverance and faith, leaving listeners inspired to live in alignment with God’s eternal kingdom.

The episode also highlights the unity of the body of Christ, urging believers to support one another, submit to godly leadership, and offer continual praise to God. As the hosts prepare to transition to the book of James, they challenge listeners to keep their eyes on Jesus, the unchanging Savior, and let their lives reflect His grace and truth.

#FaithInAction #ChristianLiving #GodIsFaithful #TrustGod #BibleStudyCommunity
#Hebrews13 #NewTestamentDaily #LivingSacrifice #DailyBibleJourney #VerseByVerse

Transcript

 Hebrews 13

Hebrews 13

[00:00:00] Hey everyone, welcome to God's Plan, Your Part, Year 2, where this year we're reading through and studying the entire New Testament one chapter at a time. Thanks again for joining us in discovering God's plan and your part in it. Today we have finally made it to the end of the book of Hebrews. If you've been listening to us day in and day out, you know what to do.

It has taken us quite a while to get here for only 13 chapters, but we're here. Uh, we've reached the end of the book of Hebrews. Um, this really is kind of a wrap up of the entire book. Obviously it's the last chapter. You can see that the, the, um, the letter is coming to an end. It's kind of like closing arguments and salutations.

Uh, but there is some meat here to be had. And so as we read over Hebrews 13, Jenny, I know some stuff jumped out to you because you said so as soon as we finished reading, uh, so what do you want to jump into Well, I'd kind of like to just mention this, or maybe ask this, verse 13, or excuse me, chapter 13 has the heading, now I know how much you hate the headings because it's not like, it's not, they're not inspired by God.

However, there's something [00:01:00] to it. Uh, it does say sacrifices pleasing to God. So, So, what would they be referring to in light of this chapter that seems like it's talking about like remembering God as your provider, remembering God as, um, the judge, like what is, what, I don't, I don't totally get how that ties in.

Um, I, I think what you could do is see how, uh, we are to live as sacrifices pleasing to God, which I think is, uh, in Romans. Yeah, Paul says that in Romans that we should live our lives as a living sacrifice to God. Is it Romans 12? I think We had a Bible podcast we should probably get the chapters right I think is a similar argument so because this these are pointed Essentially like commands or pointers to what it looks like to live a Christian life.

And so we are trying to live lives that honor Christ. And how do we do that? We show hospitality to strangers. We care for people in prison. Uh, we stray away. We keep [00:02:00] away from sexual immorality. Uh, we keep our lives free from the love of money. Like I'm literally just walking us through these, these first couple of verses.

But if you're somebody that resonates with like, just clear to dues and pointers, Uh, Hebrews 13 is going to give you those off the top of the chapter. It is, uh, Romans 12, by the way, by your, uh, bodies as living sacrifices, but that does tie in then more, um, like, what does that look like? Those things that are listed here.

Ones that definitely stuck out to me. Um, yeah. would be verse five, keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have for. He has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. We can confidently say this is verse six. The Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me?

Um, this specifically is talking about financial needs, like trusting your trusting in God for what he can provide for you financially. But I mean, I was like, Oh man, that definitely hits home. Uh, this is also specifically talking about Bible says, especially in the light of persecution. [00:03:00] Um, so I think that it definitely has like a deeper meaning, but it's still hit home with me in the same way.

Like God is still my provider. Um, and I don't want to ever put my faith or trust in something that's going to ultimately fall through and not matter in a hundred years anyway. Um, when God is the one who's going to provide for me and I shouldn't fear or live in fear of not having enough or not being able to do what I want to, or Whatever the world tells me I need or should do because God is the one that ultimately provides.

I'll tell you something that Really struck me recently. Um, it's, it's very easy for me to read these passages, uh, passages like this, like the, like the to dos essentially, and see check boxes, which is kind of cliche, like, like I know these are not check boxes. I know there's more to life than just making sure you hit every mark and somehow you get extra credit with Jesus.

I know that's not a thing. Um, one, one of the things I heard recently is that the challenge is not to focus so much on sin that, you know, which ones to ignore, The challenge is [00:04:00] actually to love God so much that you don't desire any of these things anyway. And I think I don't know that kind of comes in line with what we've talked about before too because it's that whole idea of like if you are within God's will.

Like, he's going to do the work in you regardless, which if the, if the work requires that you have, you know, 10, 000 to be able to help this person, God's going to provide that. Or if it's, you need to have, you know, X amount of people to help you with something, God's going to provide it. Whether you, Like, see it coming or not.

If it's in his will, it's gonna happen. If you're like me, like a personality like mine, I read this and I'm like, Okay, so I'm gonna honor God by, Okay, I'm gonna, I'm gonna share with somebody tomorrow, I'm gonna send a gift to a prison, I'm gonna stay away from sexual immorality, and I'm gonna make sure that I don't like money at all.

It's like, well, that's kind of exhausting. Uh, and, and, uh, Believe me, like, I think we should do these things, but I think when we are wholly and completely committed to Christ and we are living lives of [00:05:00] worship to Jesus, these things naturally pour out of that life and I don't know, depending on who you are, maybe, maybe that seems like common sense to you.

Um, when I heard that, I was like, whoa. I think reading and applying God's Word to your life is not going to lead you into more sin. I think it's going to draw you closer to God, which ultimately draws you further from the sin. So, I think you're right about that. It's not like a task to do list. It's an application.

And I think, like, if you're someone who is just open to God, Overwhelmed with a desire to please the Lord. Um, you're not going to end up falling into a love of money because you're going to know that God has given you everything that you could hope or desire and everything that you need. How about that?

Everything that you could possibly need. God is going to give you, um, because you are most fulfilled when you are most within God's will. And so. Anyway, I feel like I've talked quite a while about six verses, but it's pretty meaningful to me today. Yeah. So we also move into like [00:06:00] following that right away, uh, it's talking about remembering leaders, um, submitting to them.

Um, I guess that can be hard for some of us sometimes, but the second part of verse seven kind of stuck out when I was thinking of that, consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. So it's, I guess it's calling up, um, Strong men and women to be I don't know, for lack of a better word, just mentors, um, for us to imitate their faith.

So I think, keep, keep the context in mind. So the, the book of Hebrews was written to, um, believers in Jesus who had a Jewish culture and there was a lot of false teaching at this time. So most likely there was a lot of division within the body of believers about if you should. Um, eat certain foods or if you should celebrate certain, you know, feast days.

Uh, and it was at times fairly scandalous to say, no, we have complete freedom in Christ. Like all of these [00:07:00] things have been fulfilled in Christ. And so here where, where there is, um, like, like where you are commanded to obey your leaders. I think it's fair to say that he's commanding them to obey their Christian leaders, Who are committed to Christ.

Um, and today, like in today's world, um, just because somebody is over an organization doesn't mean that they're automatically the leader that you should fully commit and obey to. Please don't, please don't misconstrue what I'm saying. Uh, I'm all for honoring people. I'm all for, um, obeying people. It's just, sometimes we get into idolizing and sticking to what is.

What has always, I guess, and this might be a little tricky too, but what has always been, like, we do it this way because this is how it always has been. Um, but you can get into some goofy stuff there too. I think as you keep going, though, I did have some questions that I think relate to it. In verse 10, we have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat, um, for the bodies of the animals whose blood is brought into the holy [00:08:00] place.

Essentially, it's talking about, like, an offering that's been made, um, The high priest sacrifices for sins that are burned outside the camp. Why bring in this language? Is it simply because they're talking about like people are out like, Nope. So so you're picking up half of the metaphor. So the language here can be.

Kind of confusing like it's easy to get caught up on just like the actual English words, and how it's translated This is one of those lesser to greater arguments so the the author is saying hey I've spent the whole book identifying that the Old Covenant is the Old Covenant there is this new and greater Covenant So Jesus is greater in every possible way.

He's greater than Moses He's greater than the law. He's greater than the high priest. So what's being, what's being done here is that the author is showing us like the old way, right? The sacrifices are burned outside the camp and Jesus suffered outside the camp. And so the idea is that those who find their faith, those who find their assurance in the old covenant, [00:09:00] they do not have hope in the new covenant because they are rejecting Jesus forever.

The new covenant. So like the actual wording, they weren't technically allowed to eat what was burned outside the camp. Correct. Well, I mean, the thing I think you're actually, um, we have your, your issue or your question is verse 10. We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat.

And we have an altar. Those who serve the tent are those priests in the tent, right? And so what he's saying is the people who find their hope, the people who have their faith in that old covenant, who would look to the tent are putting their faith in the wrong place. Our hope is not in the tent. Our hope is in Jesus.

And so those people who hope in the old covenant are outside the new covenant, so they can't partake in what's here. So he is making this very clear distinction. That if people are calling you to the old covenant to serve the old covenant, you are not part of the new covenant. So the, the, the, the idea here is to, again, encourage Christian believing people of Jewish background to persevere in their faith in Christ and not [00:10:00] be drawn back by the Judaizers.

That's what the Bible calls them, uh, not be drawn back into this, uh, law driven faith that. It basically doesn't recognize Christ. And so, you know, we were talking about, um, honoring leaders and honoring the being, being obedient to those over you. The author is telling them like, be obedient to your Christian leaders who are living Christian lifestyles and making Christian decisions who have gone before you and given you a Christian example, like, um, follow what they say because they have your best interest at heart.

And so you should follow them and hope in them because our hope is in Christ. Our hope is not in that old way, in that old tent. Then I guess verses 12 through 14 talk again about like the gate and where Jesus suffered, how we can go outside the gate, um, go to him outside the camp. And our Bible says that this is like a metaphor for leaving behind the love of the world and desiring, or excuse me, and a desire for its approval and embracing the reproach of Christ.

So I think that kind of ties into what was being said before too, because there are so many things that we can get [00:11:00] tied up in. Uh, if you look back at verse, uh, seven, or excuse me, not seven. Um, verse nine, do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, um, by, nor by foods for which they've benefited those devoted to them.

So like all these things that we can get so tied up in, it's like, Hey, just forget all that stuff. Go outside the camp, start this new, like within this new covenant. And, essentially, like, trusting God for what you need, you know what I'm saying? Like, it's not all tied up in all the old stuff, or even just like worldly things.

I don't know, that's what I'm taking from it. Our hope is in Christ. So, we, we are not striving to be part of a physical kingdom. We are part of a spiritual kingdom. Now, obviously, we want to bring those things together. spiritual ideas, those, those spiritual values to the lives we live here on earth. Um, but our, our hope is not in the world around us.

We just like, just like, uh, was laid out in Hebrews 11, like, just like Abraham was looking to a heavenly place, we are looking to a heavenly place. We ultimately are, [00:12:00] um, when, when our faith is in Christ, we will rule and reign with him. And we look forward to that time. And so our hope is not shaken by our day to day challenges, um, because God will provide for us.

In fact, it's spelled out here that the Lord is my helper. I will not fear what can man do to me. And so just like the author of Hebrews is landing on this note of hope and encouragement to persevere and look to Christ, we too can do that. Can land on a note of hope and encouragement and looking for faith in Christ, because when we have ultimate faith in Christ, we cannot be shaken because he cares for us and he looks out for us.

That would be the, your part for today. Ultimately find your hope and faith in Christ. Uh, I would challenge you just like I opened up the episode, like, Love him so much, follow him so well that you can't be distracted by all these other things that the world has to offer because your focus is being a godly man, being a godly woman, [00:13:00] honoring Christ with your life.

When you do that, you cannot be shaken because God is caring for you and you are trusting him. So we'll be back again tomorrow. We'll be starting the book of James. So we'll be there with James chapter one. We'll see you then. Hey, before we get into the reading, we want to tell you quickly about Logos Bible software.

It's very helpful to us as we prep for the podcast and we can offer it to you at a discounted rate. There's two links in our description. One will get you the Logos Fundamentals Pack for 50 bucks, which is a great price. The other one will get you a percentage off any package that you want. We use it often.

We think it'll be useful to you. And if you use that link, you'll be helping out the podcast. So go check that out. With that in mind, here's today's reading. Hebrews, Chapter 13 Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

Remember those in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. Let marriage be held in [00:14:00] honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. Keep your life free from the love of money, and be content with what you have, for He has said, I will never leave you, nor forsake you.

So we can confidently say, The Lord is my helper, I will not fear, what can man do to me? Amen. Remember, your leaders, those who spoke to you the Word of God, consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be led astray by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace.

not by foods which have not benefited those devoted to them. We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat, for the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his [00:15:00] own blood.

Therefore, let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. Through him, then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience, desiring to act honorably in all things.

I urge you the more earnestly to do this, in order that I may be restored to you the sooner. Now, may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working [00:16:00] in us that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever.

Amen. I appeal to you brothers, bear with my word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly. You should know that our brother Timothy has been released, with whom I shall see you if he comes soon. Greet all your leaders and all the saints. Those who come from Italy send you greetings. Grace be with all of you.

Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of God's Plan, Your Part. Don't forget, you can find us on just about every social media platform, and And YouTube, let us know what you thought of today's episode. And if you have any questions, go ahead and post them there. You can also reach out to us directly at God's plan.

Your part at gmail. com as always, if you don't have a Bible, or if you'd like to use the one that we use a reach out to us via email, and we'll be happy to send one to you, thanks again for listening. We'll see you again [00:17:00] tomorrow.