Unlocking the Bible's Hidden Narrative: A Journey Back to the Garden 🌿✨

Understanding the Bible and Sabbath Rest

Introduction The Bible is often seen as a collection of independent stories, but when viewed as a whole, it reveals a consistent narrative about God’s plan for humanity.

Key Points • Chris Franke, Senior Pastor of HFF Church, hosts the HHP Podcast, discussing topics about the Bible, church, and family. • In November, Chris and his family practiced a sabbatical for 30 days, extending their weekly Sabbath rest. This transformed their lives, emphasizing resting in God’s presence rather than continual work. • During the sabbatical, Chris received significant insights regarding the church's direction and began writing extensively as he felt inspired by God. • Two key themes emerged: the necessity of forgiveness and the mission of God leading up to Jesus Christ. • Chris discusses the Beatitudes found in Matthew 5 and Luke 6, contrasting them with cultural attitudes that celebrate pride and arrogance. • He emphasizes the values of humility, mercy, and righteousness as taught by Jesus, describing these as the characteristics that define a community aligned with God’s Kingdom.

Conclusion Jesus' teachings present an "upside-down" view of the Kingdom of God, where people matter and are treated with respect and kindness. For more resources or to visit the church, listeners are encouraged to engage with the community.

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Growing up, I used to think of the Bible as just independent stories at an independent time.
Yet when we look at the Bible as an entire narrative in a cyclical fashion, we don't get so caught up in the linear moments,
but we start to see the plan of God was always different from ours.
It was an entire narrative with one goal for us to get back to the garden.

(00:29):
Welcome to the HHP Podcast. My name is Chris Franke and I am the Senior Pastor of HFF Church in Oklahoma City.
Join me and others from around the country as we talk all things Bible, church, and family.
We may be right, we may be heretical, but that's for you to decide.
Drop a like, a share, a comment, subscribe, and let's get to it.

(00:51):
So in the month of November, my family took 30 days to practice what is called a sabbatical.
We do that as a larger extension of our weekly Sabbath rest that we do on every Saturday.
It's really transformed our lives.
After all, I don't believe that anywhere in the scripture God intended us to be human beings who led from an obligation to work,

(01:17):
but we were ones who led from a place of rest in His presence.
And during that time, we met with the Lord, we fasted, we prayed, we relaxed, we had fun.
We did all the things that a family does during that season.
But the Lord really, really spoke to my wife and I on the direction of the church.
We already knew that Brent was going to be doing the Sermon on the Mount series in February.

(01:42):
We just didn't know exactly where the Lord wanted us to go coming out of sabbatical.
And so as we went through that time, we got to a really cool place where the Lord started downloading and downloading and downloading.
And I think one morning I woke up at right around 4 a.m. in the morning and I wrote like 25 pages of notes without a book open,

(02:03):
without even the Bible, just the Lord was speaking to me in a time.
And I've been very honest, there's only been a couple of times in my life where the Lord has audibly spoken to me.
And this wasn't audible. This was definitely something where I just started typing in and I couldn't stop typing.
And in that moment, we had kind of two themes that started to come to light.

(02:27):
The necessity of the remission of sins. Every person needs a Savior.
And then what is the mission and how did God go about from pre Jesus conception time, really,
but just a little bit pre Jesus into John the Baptist, into the culture and all these things as Jesus was growing up,
preparing for the time that his father would release him on his mission.

(02:49):
And so here we are as a church sitting on the Sermon on the Mountain, the tour of the kingdom.
And we're listening to the opening words of the lawgiver, Jesus, Yeshua,
HaMashiach, Yeshua, the Christ, the sent one, the anointed one, who is speaking his Torah,
his teachings to any who had come to listen.

(03:13):
And so we see that in Matthew chapter five, three through twelve, and then we also see Luke six,
twenty through twenty six, that that there's what's called Beatitudes. Blessed are.
And before we get into exactly what the Lord says, I want to talk for just a second about what the Lord doesn't say.

(03:36):
Almost what would be the Beatitudes of our culture, especially in America.
So blessed are those who are prideful. You're supposed to take pride in what you do, take pride in your car,
take pride in your house, all these things. America's culture is is attempting to bless those who are prideful.
Blessed are those who move on. Blessed are those who are arrogant.

(04:01):
Blessed are those who lift and seek to lift themselves up as holy.
Blessed are those who sling a hammer at others. Blessed are the bitter hearts.
Blessed are the war mongers and blessed are those who persecute others for not being good enough.
None of that sounds cool. None of that sounds like I don't want any part of that whatsoever.

(04:29):
You can take that out. I'm OK. I don't want to be with the prideful.
I don't want to be with the self-righteous. I don't want to be with those who are slinging hammers.
I don't want to be with those who have a bitter heart. I don't want to be a part of those cultures or those environments.
And so that leads me back to the words of Jesus. Blessed are the poor in spirit.

(04:50):
Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are those who are meek.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
Blessed are the merciful. Blessed are the pure in heart. Blessed are the peacemakers.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness.

(05:15):
Those who are comforted by considering their loss as shortcomings and longings.
Those who are gentle and kind and patient and tolerant of those around them.
Those who are hungry for the equal justice of the Lord and the goodness of God.
Those who show mercy through kindness and forgiveness and being compassionate.
Those who will see God, not those who think they are God.

(05:40):
Those who will be called the children of God and those who will receive the kingdom of heaven.
That's a culture I want to be a part of. And that's what Jesus was calling.
Blessed are those. Those are the heart postures.
Those are the mind postures that we should have when approaching God's people, God, and the nations around us.

(06:03):
Our sister church at HFFDFW is actually also going through this Sermon on the Mountain right now.
And I love the title that they came up with, "The Upside Down Kingdom,"
because Jesus came to turn humanity's perversion of His character, nature, and teachings upside down.
The kingdom of God is at hand. And in that kingdom, people are not just a means to an end.

(06:27):
In that kingdom, people matter.
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