Hebrews And The Leadership Power Of Humility

An anonymous author writes one of the boldest openers in the New Testament, and that mystery becomes our first leadership lesson. If the Book of Hebrews can change lives without a name attached, what could happen in our workplaces, teams, and churches if we stopped chasing credit and started lifting others up?

We’re joined by Dr. Sarah Kennedy, a practicing sports medicine physician, who brings a rare mix of clinical leadership and deep hunger for Scripture. She shares her faith journey with honesty, including the cost of changing direction, the slow work of forming identity in Christ, and the practical challenge of representing Jesus in public when you wear a cross and people are watching. We also talk about what it means to serve without burning out, and how shifting from “working for myself” to “working for Him” can reshape your attitude, your care for people, and even your capacity.

Then we step into Hebrews 1: God spoke in many ways before, but now speaks through His Son. We connect that “foundation first” approach to leadership onboarding, culture, and vision casting, plus the often-missed need for real succession planning. We also dig into character, not as a slogan, but as a lifelong process of becoming more like Christ.

If you want Biblical leadership principles, practical takeaways, and a fresh reason to read Hebrews with new eyes, hit play. Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more leaders can find the show.

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Introduction

SPEAKER_03 0:28

Alrighty, welcome, welcome, welcome. What's up, Dr. P. How are you doing?

SPEAKER_02 0:34

I'm doing fantastic today. A lot better than I was. I had this sinus infection.

SPEAKER_03 0:40

He said he was gonna pay me $100 if he coughed when he was on the uh the thing. I think that's a good thing. Yeah, I got some money in my wallet. Well, I mean, hey, I know you're you're a good-looking man, you know, and everything. But I mean we definitely have increased the studio value today. I'm just telling you. We have somebody in here that we're not used to seeing. That's right. Elevator Kennedy.

SPEAKER_02 1:06

Yeah. So we're excited to have Dr. Kennedy with us.

SPEAKER_03 1:08

Kennedy Doctor? Yes. She's a medical doctor. Come on. I got two doctors here, right? Well, I appreciate it. I'm just gonna turn it over to them.

SPEAKER_02 1:20

So, uh, first of all, uh, thank you for those of you who are listening today to the Biblical Leadership Show. We always enjoy having you along with us, and we welcome all the new listeners today. And uh for those of you who are visiting for the or listening for the very first time, uh, we started this podcast about two and a half years ago. Um and what we do is we are going through every book in the Bible. We started with the book of Genesis, obviously. Uh, some books are shorter than others. Um, some we took for one week, some we've taken for six or seven weeks. Um, and as we go through the books, we talk about the leadership principles in every book. Uh today we're starting the book of Hebrews.

SPEAKER_04 2:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:07

Um, which before we even get to the book, we'll talk about a leadership principle right off the bat before we even open the chapter. And uh we're just glad to have Dr. Kennedy here to uh share that her passion with the with the scriptures. And uh she is a practicing physician. I've known Sarah for now, I don't know. Golly.

SPEAKER_01 2:29

Ten years?

SPEAKER_02 2:30

Maybe 10 years. Yeah. When he when he had hair?

SPEAKER_03 2:34

Not that. No, no.

SPEAKER_02 2:36

No. I lost my hair when I was like 30. Just check it. No, no. It's the same, it's the same baldness for the last at least 35 years. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:54

No hair could survive with the heat coming off the brain.

SPEAKER_02 2:59

Exactly right. I think for guys, hair is so overrated. It's just overrated. Right. You know? So I like I I tell people I I uh can brush my hair with a uh with a washcloth.

SPEAKER_03 3:10

We're good. That's good, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:12

Yeah, that's good. Yeah, it never gets out of place.

SPEAKER_03 3:14

I'd like to save on gel costs.

SPEAKER_02 3:15

You're not kidding. You're not kidding. And also on going to the barber. My goodness, yes. Save a lot of money. Anyway, welcome, Dr. Kennedy.

Dr Kennedy’s Career And Medicine

SPEAKER_01 3:25

Thank you so much for having me.

SPEAKER_02 3:27

We're excited that you're here. So maybe if you wouldn't mind, give us a little bit of background about you and your story um up to date. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:39

Sure. So grew up in Colorado, uh, hard charger, firstborn chemistry, biology, uh undergrad, and then I went into the Navy under scholarship, loved it. Um, from the Navy, I spent five years and talking about leadership. Uh, I can tell you I learned from the Navy chief, it was probably one of the best examples of a great leader, and I was very fortunate to work with quite a few. Uh, from there, I went to Texas at UT Southwestern. From there, San Diego for fellowship uh with sports medicine. From San Diego back to Texas in Fort Worth, and now I'm in Arlington, Texas, doing private practice.

SPEAKER_02 4:24

Oh fan.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

And your specialty is uh is non-operative ortho primary sports medicine.

SPEAKER_02 4:30

Sports medicine. So and you work with one of the schools in Arlington? Several schools. Several schools.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

We work with Lamar, uh Grand Prairie, Cedar Hill, and then several uh schools in Dallas too.

SPEAKER_02 4:43

Okay, so working with them, you evaluate the athletes or you go to the the sports events for a physician to be on site during those events?

SPEAKER_01 4:53

We do uh football season, we're on the sidelines, and then we take care of them in clinic, and sometimes we go to the training rooms and take care of them as well. Oh, fantastic.

SPEAKER_03 5:01

That's awesome. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:02

Yeah. Pretty great job. That's great. So patients want to get better. Yes. Yeah, I haven't known anybody that doesn't want to get better. But it's a lot of it's a choice that you make, right? It is for your own health.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

It is. Yes. You have to be a partner.

SPEAKER_02 5:16

Yeah, gotta be a partner. So, yeah. So thank you for being here and taking the time from your busy schedule to to do this today. We're so glad that you're here. And I know that you're very passionate about the scriptures. And uh, so

Faith Journey And Identity In Christ

SPEAKER_02 5:30

can you tell us a little bit about your faith journey?

SPEAKER_01 5:34

Oh, absolutely, and you were a huge part of that. So I was divorced in 2008, was it it was 2018, and uh what a lot of people don't realize, but I was actually in a same-sex marriage, and so at that point I was in and out of going to church. I was raised Catholic, but at that time really doing going to more of the United Methodist Church and then watching uh online your your um sermons and just loved you. And so I started going and um bought a Bible and I actually had a meeting with you. I set up a meeting, and it was funny because that day at work I was talking to my coworker and I said, I think this is gonna change my life. I don't know how, but I just get this feeling, and 100% it has. So uh with that moment, uh bought a Bible, just started reading from Genesis all through, took several years and had a lot of questions. At that point, I still was fine coming to grips saying, Oh, it's okay for me to be in a same-sex relationship. Um, God loves me, and you were wonderful because you held on to biblical truths and and you were solid and said, This is this is what I believe. Um and he said, But you I love you and you're welcome here, and so and I want to love on your son too. So I love that. And you gave me time and you gave me space, and I'm the kind of person that's like, I'm gonna figure this out myself. So and so uh I started learning Hebrew and then going through and trying to figure out, okay, what does this really say? And it took several years, and then coming to grips with everything, I said, okay, well, if uh it comes down to what Jesus says, and Jesus really does say it's between a man and a woman. And so it was a really sense of loss for me at that time because I that's what your identity is, that's what you're told, this is who you are, and then um coming to grips with, okay, no, my identity is in Christ. Uh that's the most important to me, most important thing to me. And so if um I am going to do that, then I'm just gonna be single. I'm gonna raise my son, try to give him uh teach him with biblical truths and go from there. And then um over time, I there's just so many miracles that have happened. It's crazies, but uh just delving in, just voracious appetite for learning the word and learning uh Jesus. And someday I want to become a theologian. Been praying about it. I just don't have time right now, but whatever I can do. Uh so but you've been a huge part of my family, and we love you so much. Uh, just a note for everybody listening. Uh, one time my son was young, he's probably three or four, having a hard time. And I texted Dr. Pose saying, Oh, can you can you help him? And so he FaceTimed my son to help him, and his eyes were red. And that day was the day I think it was your mom's funeral. So you took the time out when you were struggling to help my little boy, and it just meant the world. And so we love you so much.

SPEAKER_02 8:54

Well, your family's been very special and and uh to me and Diana uh over the years, and uh we just value that. We just really value that. And then here was it two years ago, up in uh Garden of the Gods, we had a great uh day, didn't we?

SPEAKER_01 9:12

Oh my gosh. So one of the many miracles. Um I had worked with my current husband now for in fact I knew him before my son was born. Um, we are friends, uh, he's a good, solid, kind man. And um, I was always thinking, like, okay, if I was going to be in a relationship with somebody, uh, it would be him. And I I knew you can always tell when somebody has some feelings for you, but he was always respectful. He never would say or do anything. Um, and so I have a really good friend who's kind of a um, I think the term in Hebrew is a have ra, somebody that you study with that's kind of like your spiritual person. And so uh I was telling her, and um I said, you know, I just I don't have feelings, but I I just said oh I'm gonna take a leap. So, you know, I asked him out because that he wouldn't do that. Um, and it was fine, but it didn't have those feelings at and so then um I asked her to pray over me, and she I asked her three times, and she did. And the very next day, the crazy the feelings were there, like after years. And so when people say, Okay, you're born this way, that's who you are forever. No, you just gotta have faith, you gotta step out there and have faith, have uh good support system people to pray for you. It's possible. And now, yeah, Dr. Posey married us, yeah, it did.

SPEAKER_02 10:35

And that was that up in Colorado at the Garden of the Gods. What an amazing day that was, and celebration, and and just uh it was just a God honoring day. It really was. It was beautiful, so it was a privilege to be a part of that. And and uh one of the reasons uh that I wanted you on the show today is not just because of our friendship over the years, but because your passion for Christ and reading his word. And so we'll get into Hebrews here in just a minute, and um and that and I just thank you

Dad Jokes Then Hebrews Begins

SPEAKER_02 11:10

for taking the time to be here.

SPEAKER_03 11:11

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 11:12

Thank you. So before we get into that, we gotta have some dad jokes. I mean, we we gotta have some dad jokes. So we'll just throw a couple in and then we'll get into the book of Yeah, there we go. There we go. So um uh here's here's one. What do prisoners use to call each other? What do prisoners use to call each other?

SPEAKER_00 11:36

I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 11:36

You got me. Cell phones.

SPEAKER_04 11:42

I was going bars and cell phones.

SPEAKER_02 11:46

So why did the carpenter leave the lumber store? This is a construction question. So why the carpenter leave the lumber store? Because he got bored. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 12:05

Every once in a while, you know. Every once in a while. It's like not always. A lot of times it's yeah, but it's most of the time.

SPEAKER_02 12:16

Probably 99%. Okay, so last one for right now. What has more lives than a cat? Any clue? You got me. A frog. Because it croaks every night. Ah.

SPEAKER_03 12:39

Okay. I haven't downloaded, I keep saying I need to do the old gong show. Pulling off the stage, right? You know?

SPEAKER_02 12:47

I remember that show. He was removed from the studio. Yes. Not by his own free will. So let's get into the book

Who Wrote Hebrews And Credit

SPEAKER_02 12:55

of Hebrews. Um, so if you're not familiar, you might think, if you're not familiar with the Bible, that the book of Hebrews is in the Old Testament. But it's not, it's in the New Testament. Um, it's actually after the letters of Paul. So after all, we got, you know, Timothy, Titus, Philemon, then we come to the book of Hebrews before we get to James and Peter and John and Revelation. Um, and one of the things that I have been fascinated about since I began to study this book years ago was And I'm now fascinated because you told me before the show that I did not know that either. We do not know who wrote the book. Um, most other um books in the Bible, we have a pretty good uh understanding of who uh either wrote it or might have written it. Okay, and most scholars agree to those things. But in the book of Hebrews, there's been uh discussion on that for 2,000 years, who wrote the book of Hebrews, and for centuries it was thought that Paul wrote the book of Hebrews, but then here a couple hundred years ago, people started questioning that the authorship, uh, because um it is a it's a different type of letter uh than Paul wrote. Um obviously the person who wrote it, and we'll get into this more later, um had a thorough knowledge of the Old Testament. Thorough knowledge of Hebrews. Oh my gosh, they they knew so much about the Old Testament. Um but back then, that's all they had was the Old Testament. And um, but they really knew the scriptures, and the whole purpose of the book of Hebrews was to talk about how Christ is so superior to the sacrificial system, to the priesthood, the sacrifice, uh all of that. Um but I think there's a really good leadership principle right there about the authorship before we even get to the first word of the first chapter. And and uh for me, the leadership principle is this since we don't know the author of the book, um my my thought as far as leadership would be um it's amazing what can happen in a company, organization, or whatever, church, whatever, when the leader doesn't care who gets the credit. Um and we talked about this before the show that so many times that doesn't happen because the leader is either ins um um not secure or they're jealous or something, they gotta have the attention themselves.

SPEAKER_03 15:41

Right.

SPEAKER_02 15:41

Um and because they're maybe jealous about losing their job or something like that. But I think it's such a good thing. If we want to lead, we have to give credit to other people and lift them up. And when they do an excellent job, we need to be sure that they are uh you know acknowledged for that, that they get the credit for that, instead of us being selfish and taking all the credit. So I think right there is just a great leadership principle uh beef as we start. And uh I'll just let you all chime into that and have a lot of.

SPEAKER_03 16:16

Oh, this is great. See, that's why I'm telling you, you know, it's one of the bonus of this, I get a sermon every week.

SPEAKER_04 16:22

Amen.

SPEAKER_03 16:22

I mean, how much how awesome it is. It was like a deep down something behind the scene. Uh there's you can listen back to the past episodes, all those came together, but in my head, I'm like, I get to talk to Dr. Mosey because I really miss his sermons. I'm like, every week, I just get to a sermon. So uh yeah, and we we sort of talked about you and and your practice. So you sort of gave away sort of the the control

Faith At Work And Serving

SPEAKER_03 16:45

a little bit. Tell us a little bit about that. Yes, how how things work when you when you do that.

SPEAKER_01 16:49

So uh through this journey of being closer to Jesus, just realizing I am doing everything in my power for him and not for myself. And so days went from being just completely worn out and me being resentful to realizing I'm doing his work. And so my demographic of my patients had changed and I was having a hard time with that until the people were coming in and saying, You've changed my life. God bless you, God is working through you. Like, oh, okay, I'm listening. I'm listening now. And so when I changed that and I was working for him, but not human masters, uh, it really changed my whole attitude uh with how that went. And then over the last year or so, I wanted to start going to mass every morning. Like, I don't even know if I can do that. How do I do that? Because it's not till 8:30 in the morning. But I came up with a plan. I presented it to my superiors and I said, Can I do this? And they said, Well, okay, you still have to make your numbers. Well, thank God my numbers doubled with doing that. And so it helped like financially, it helped um also with the patients. So we've ended up being able to see more people, more quality, help people, but then also I'm being able to be refreshed with him. Um and being a pastor or being a physician, it's hard because people are always wanting and always needing help, and it can really drain you. And so when I was trying to fulfill myself, uh, I was just coming up empty and becoming upset and all of that. But when I can give to them knowing through the Holy Spirit, and then replenish myself through Jesus, it's it's changed everything.

SPEAKER_03 18:48

Mm-hmm. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 18:50

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 18:50

You know, it's it's nice to get the affirmations and and to have people sort of see it. Yes, and uh give you that positive feedback.

SPEAKER_01 18:58

And I'm not afraid to talk about Jesus. I have my cross on, and and if something goes right, I'll say, Thank him, praise God. And so it doesn't matter like what patient I'm seeing, I'm not afraid, I'm not afraid to use Jesus' name. And so many people, I think, in society today are afraid because they're like, Oh, it's taboo, you're not supposed to like he did it, I'm not gonna be afraid, and it's okay.

SPEAKER_03 19:22

Yeah, it's all right, it's okay.

SPEAKER_01 19:23

And when people see that you're emboldened that you you're not afraid, then they become more grateful, like, you're right, go Jesus.

SPEAKER_03 19:32

Right? Yeah, yeah, and it's it's a process, and and uh good for you. And congratulations. I'll give you a little thing. So on on Hebrews, Dr. P. Um you we're gonna break this down probably over three weeks. Yeah, probably at least probably the first four. We we might get through one. We don't we get a different MO, you know, sometimes. Uh, but yeah, sort of let's let's start out where you know the where um the author, the unknown author, um sort of takes us, and and where do we we start out in Hebrews and and how does

Hebrews 1 Foundation For Better

SPEAKER_03 20:05

it you know matter into the bigger picture?

SPEAKER_02 20:08

Well, so one of the things from the very first sentence, and I'll just read the first um I'll read the first two sentences. Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom he also created the world. Now, we're just gonna stop right there. Um because what he's what the author is doing, he's he's setting the stage, like the foundation, like you're building a house, you've got to have a solid foundation. And he said, Okay, all of those things in the past were good for them, right? The prophets, the the scriptures, all of that, okay, were good. But now God has revealed something better, okay? So um so as we go through the the book, you know, like the first couple of chapters, Jesus is better than the angels in the Torah, and then he's greater than Moses, then he's greater than the priests in Melchizedek. So he just continues to build that um argument. Um, and so this would be my encouragement to our listeners. If you're not familiar with the book of Hebrews and you've never read it, and you just or you read it and it doesn't make sense to you, I would say go read the first five books of the Old Testament. Now it might be hard to get through the book of Leviticus or Numbers because it can drag out, right? But but do that and then go back and read the book of Hebrews because it'll make so much more sense if you have that Old Testament foundation, or as the Jews would say, the Torah. have the knowledge of that you might not have to understand everything but you can understand you can see where he's laying that foundation um about the angels about the Torah um about Moses about all of those people and things that God used back then to direct and mold his people into a holy nation um and and the author is saying hey the what would what happened here in our lifetime is better than all of that okay and and so let's just stop right there before we even go to verse three and just talk about the leadership principles um and and I would say this when you have a new hire okay and someone in our family just started a fantastic job with a worldwide organization I won't say who and what they're doing but it just phenomenal so the onboarding process is like two months part of that is learning the history of the company and and I think when when we onboard someone we need they need to know the history the foundation like the old we need to know that but they also need to know why what we're doing now is better than what happened in the past. So we need to lay a foundation of our history but we also need to give them a projection of why we're doing what the vision is right now why it's better than what we did in the past. And and so once they have that and it might take a while to onboard them and get familiar with all that but once they do that then I think they're more likely to embrace the vision of what they're doing and they can see that they're a part of a bigger something than just sitting at their desk at their computer all day. And so I think part of the role of a of a CEO or a leader or boss whatever is to help the employees the team whatever um know a little history and know where we're going now. Now you could be the manager of a softball team I mean it's softball season now. It's always softball season but you know you could be a softball and say hey you know the last couple of years this is our record but this year we want to do this better you know um and and and focus their attention on not just the past and the glory days of the past but the future and why what we're doing now is better. And I think you have better buy-in when that happens um and I think that's what the author of Hebrews is trying to do he's trying to get the people to buy in to say oh maybe I need to relook at this Jesus person because if he's better than Moses show me how if he's better than the prophets show me how and so the whole the whole book of Hebrews is about showing how Jesus is superior to everything that happened in the past. Right. So Dr. Kennedy I can see you just wanted to jump well just jump in the

Teaching Leaders Succession And Clarity

SPEAKER_02 25:00

right there.

SPEAKER_01 25:01

And and we welcome that so one of the things uh what I was reading is that it sounds like the book of Hebrews wasn't necessarily a letter because the composition of it was different and it may have been more of almost a sermon and the author was because his Greek was so good was like a teacher of teachers. And so as a leader he's getting into the history like you're talking about but this is the person who's teaching other leaders to spread the word and in that beginning portion the word for many parts that was taught to the prophets so um it the Greek word can mean fragments. So each of these prophets was just given just a little fragment of what um God wanted them to know at that time because they weren't prepared to know everything. And so the prophets were given little parts in many different ways but Jesus was the whole picture the whole picture and the way and so I just wanted to add in that part I thought was uh pretty great.

SPEAKER_02 26:16

Yeah and so just go back to what you just said about two minutes ago about this being the teacher of teachers. So he um or she you know we don't know probably a he but we just don't know um uh is is uh potentially teaching so that other people who teach have the truth so when the second generation is teaching the third generation they're communicating the exact same thing and just think about the leadership principle about that I mean we've talked about this many times on our podcast that part of a leader's job is to train not just the next generation but to train them well enough so that they can train the next generation and there's no loss of quality right exactly and um so we talked about succession plans and all this kind of stuff and and Tim travels around the country teaching on leadership and can you just reiterate what we've said before about how many companies don't even think about succession plans.

SPEAKER_03 27:21

No no not at all I mean the two things I always ask all the companies everybody in my seminars for one I said do you know your vision or mission statement out of 50 people in a room maybe one person raises a hand. I've had people raise the hand go I should know I helped write it but I don't even know it right so um and then this next thing is like do you have a succession plan in place and and over and over people are like no we've talked about it quite a bit and that's where it usually ends. They talk about it people it becomes the buzzword you know in the HR community and all this stuff we need to have a succession plan but nobody takes the time of saying it or if they do do a succession plan they have a name in place but they haven't told them what they're supposed to be doing in the next five 10 15 years to onboard to become a leader and all that stuff. It's just oh yeah we've got four people in line to be the the head of this committee or the sales manager but you know well so what are you doing ongoing to teach them like well you know we put their name there that's that's good enough right so you know it just doesn't happen that much in corporate I mean there's a lot of companies out there embracing it but there it's it's it's more not than it is.

SPEAKER_01 28:32

It would seem like the company would fall apart if you're not and so you get that's when the father that created the company it's flourishing and then it gets passed on to the kids and the kids haven't been properly taught and then it just falls apart.

SPEAKER_02 28:44

That's the way it works a lot of times and a lot of strategy because you have some really good businesses that don't make it to the second generation. They have a great idea they have a great product great vision but they've never trained the next generation to do that. And um so for people back in that first century when this was written the fact that the author wrote this down it wasn't just a verbal communication it was written down so that the people who were being taught eventually could have a copy so they could make sure that what they were teaching aligned with what they were taught. And and that is so important you can't just say something you need to communicate it in another way. I know a lot of people now use their phones and all that kind of stuff um which is fine but there's got to be something you learn so much more not just by listening but by reading it and and comprehension is so much better. And then you're able to communicate instead of just oh yeah I heard this a year ago I I don't really remember oh but if you have the document that says this is what we're teaching, you know, this is why then you can pass on the quality to the next group and that's just so important.

SPEAKER_03 30:04

Yeah and I think one of the things because he describes and like you just mentioned but you know reading there he describes Jesus as the heir of all things the one through whom God made the universe the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being I mean that's not a small statement right that that holds a lot of power to put that in writing and to do that and then he goes on you know Jesus' son he's the supreme he is greater than all you know and those are strong statements coming out of a book.

SPEAKER_02 30:33

That's exactly right and and so you think about that um so he is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature and so think about that people would understand those words because every king had a signet ring and they would press it into wax for their documents and the wax was an exact duplicate of the ring and so he's saying he's the exact duplicate of the father okay there's no like secondary he's not a generation away he he wasn't created like the angels he is God and so he just lays out from the very first paragraph the superiority of Christ

Character Formation And Representation

SPEAKER_02 31:20

and then he uses the rest of the book to talk about why that is on all different topics.

SPEAKER_03 31:28

And it's just brilliantly written and just brilliant. You just cost me money. It just cost me money okay because I forgot that I've always wanted one of those rings. That was my thing I was going to have one of those custom made and my gosh I got to put that back in place right I I mean I I've I thought for years I'm like oh I gotta have one of those rings you know because I I used to have like a a little thing I used to do that with hot wax for our wedding imitation stuff way back when I'm like this is cool. I need a ring like back in the day I'm not just be tapping the ring. So now you cost me money I guess I'll make a ring you know I don't know if it's good or bad but I still want a ring. That's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01 32:07

And I think the actual word is for that what you were describing is character. Yeah yeah which is so great. You know one of the things I loved about your sermons was that you'd always bring in like the the Greek and the Hebrew so it's kind of fun to say oh that that's where we get that that word from so it's it's the character is the exact image of God. And uh so as a leader if you're teaching them how to have good character or be like them or if we're talking about Jesus we're we're imitating Christ we're being his uh we're trying to be his character uh uh it's just little insights like that that I think make it so rich.

SPEAKER_02 32:46

So let's go down that rabbit hole for just a minute talking about character. So for a person who becomes a Christian at whatever age okay they accept Christ as their savior they receive the forgiveness and the gift of eternal life that literally and that's what justification is all about is that we are now in a different status with Christ but just because we're a different status it doesn't change our character. Our character needs to be refined over and over so so that's what sanctification is all about is that we grow more into that image of Christ and that's a lifelong process. Some people think it can happen in a day. No it's it's it just can it it's a lifelong thing and and God's not finished with that until we take our last breath. And so part of the the role of a leader is not just to train them in um in the job requirements is to also focus on their character because they're representing a company just think about a salesperson who knows the product really well but their character is horrible then their sales their sales record is going to be horrible right um but if you have uh the character you have integrity people know that when they walk when you walk in the door so many sales calls now are over Zoom or whatever but you can sense it and so you've got to really focus on character building not just information sharing. And I think that's what the the the book of Hebrews is saying hey this is the this is the the model that we should strive for in our Christian walk is that we should work being more like Christ and live a life like he lived. Absolutely no matter what our profession is no matter what our profession is we can have a Christ like character. It's like the medical field they always say the front desk represents you as the physician and and absolutely absolutely and so as a leader uh if you're the practice manager or the physician you want to make sure you have people that are representing you acting your image so yeah absolutely yeah and so just here last month uh my wife and I went to a national park we won't say which one we love national parks we've been to 53 out of the 63 national parks and we just love doing that but this one that we went to last month was probably the worst experience of all of them because of the way we were treated. Oh no the park is beautiful yeah all right but the people made the experience not that great and and so you remember that because it's like well the beauty of the park should not be overshadowed by the lock of hospitality by the staff but it certainly was for us and um and so it was like wow do we want to go back there maybe not and and that just puts a bad taste in your mouth um and and that happens with companies uh of any size organizations of any size um and so I think a good leader focuses on character building not just information sharing yeah that's awesome I think um adding to that when you when they talk about Christianity or Christians and there's so many Christians that are not very Christ like I can tell you through a day I have to be on guard if I am representing if I'm wearing a cross and I'm representing Jesus it doesn't matter how bad of a day I can't I can't be a jerk because they'll see that cross and they'll associate Christianity with me being a jerk.

SPEAKER_01 36:47

So you have to take on his character when you're representing him.

SPEAKER_03 36:51

Yes I totally agree 100% and uh and I tell you in the years that I've known you you you do exactly that I haven't seen it yet as long as I've known I mean I've still been watching but I've still stand up person as long as long as I've known you've got 35 minutes you've known exactly right hey one thing uh you know in my research um that came up Hebrews one they talked about you know the the author talked about a considerable time showing that Jesus is greater than angels and uh I thought that was very interesting and I I sort of went how is that but then I saw the sort of the the way that they were going that you know and and I want you to talk on this but you know that uh as great as angels are

Angels Jesus And God’s Face Toward Us

SPEAKER_03 37:40

Jesus is greater because angels are servants but Jesus is the Son angels worship but Jesus is worshipped angels are messengers but Jesus is the message I thought that was very powerful that's very powerful and the other thing is angels are created beings.

SPEAKER_02 37:57

Yes Jesus is eternal and uh but what you said is just uh fascinating and true. Yeah but that really was powerful to me you know the way that very powerful and if we go through this which we will over the coming weeks um we'll talk about how Jesus is superior to the Torah okay uh he's superior to Moses he's superior to the priests especially Melchizedek now Melchizedek is a fascinating person in the old and new testament and and the writer of Hebrews uh takes advantage of that particular story uh in the old testament and really shows how Jesus is superior to even that person um and so it's gonna be fun to get through this book and it is gonna be but doc's got her finger on something over there I think she has I'm always looking I was just saying I was like she has a thought she's like maybe I want to get this one in before Dr.

SPEAKER_01 39:00

Posey gets start talking dad jokes here a little bit he's priming up you know I can see him Jones and for dad jokes over there so well I guess uh one of the things that I was reading so they believe that when Moses uh was given the tablets it was the information was given to him via angels and so angels were bridges um to bridge between God and man and Jesus we can now with Jesus we can go we're face to face with God so and we can go directly to him there's no there's no bridge as where the angels were in the past and I think that's also one of the things that um they were trying to point out in Hebrews and I thought that was lovely.

SPEAKER_02 39:50

Yeah so let's just talk about what you just said tie it back to the Old Testament the book of Numbers chapter six because we have one of the greatest blessings in the Bible in Numbers chapter six and I'm just gonna read it um and so this is what and many of you might have heard this we said this every week in the youth group as we finished our youth group growing up as teenagers we said this we said this verse every week to close our meeting and um it says the Lord bless you and keep you the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you the Lord show his face to you and give you peace so think about that the people that we don't agree with don't like can't get along with we normally don't want to have them see our face or see their face but here's the thing about one of the amazing things about Jesus no matter who we are no matter what we've done his face is always towards us always because he loves us right where we are just the way we are he doesn't want us to stay where we are he wants us to move to be more like him but his face never turns away from us and and so because his desire is for us to be more like him right and uh that's not a selfish thing it's more of a godly thing I want them to be a I want you to be a holy person. Doesn't mean you're sinless doesn't mean you don't make mistakes but you have a life that's God honoring in everything your thoughts your actions your words your deeds and and so when when the writer of Hebrews begins the uh the book in this very first paragraph he's laying the foundation it's not just about Jesus is that better than this and better than he's laying the foundation for the goal of the Christian life to be more like Christ um so that when Jesus if Jesus was wearing a signet ring and he put his stamp on us then it would be the truth. I mean we would be more like him and so he lays all of that out so that we think oh that's what my life's supposed to be about it's supposed to be honoring him and be more like Christ like and so so that's where we're gonna be going over the next couple weeks and I'm excited it's uh it's a fascinating book ever since I started studying it years ago and uh

Closing Jokes Takeaways And Farewell

SPEAKER_02 42:25

looking forward to it so oh now Dr. Kennedy you have a dad joke for us or a joke I have one joke you have one joke I'm limited I have one good joke well you only have 2500 less than that doctor posting so what do you call a fish with no eyes a fish with no eyes I don't know she's probably gonna get the good one I was sitting there going I know that I know I may have gotten that from Ghostbusters okay here we go it works you know I was gonna tell a joke about dogs but it was just a little far fetched oh okay here here's one um where does an electric cord go to shop oh I got it the outlet mall the outlet mall so speaking of that I drove up from Waco this morning and I was in Houston last night and drove up had breakfast with a friend in Waco and then drove up here and for those of you who are in the Dallas Forth area you might remember the Hillsboro outlet mall it is dust now there is one building left one street part of the street That they're gonna tear down.

SPEAKER_03 44:01

They're working on it.

SPEAKER_02 44:02

It's just empty. I mean, it's just around right now. And they they used to take busloads of people.

SPEAKER_03 44:10

Busloads.

SPEAKER_02 44:11

It was just empty dirt. Oh my goodness. It was crazy. I I was shocked to see that. It's like that used to be the place. Yep. And now that you go down there and go to Bucky's, I guess. I I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 44:23

Well, that's not too bad of a thing to do, right? No, that's not true. You always gotta hit the Hillsborough and go to the Buckeys, and then you go to West, go to the Clotchy place, right? You know, you know, make a day of it.

SPEAKER_02 44:34

Okay, here's maybe my last one. Maybe I have one more. Which month of the year do people sleep the least? Now you might know this, Doc, because you deal with that all the time. What what month of the year do people sleep the least?

SPEAKER_01 44:52

Well, I'm coming at it from like a rational point of view, so it's probably not the right answer. We'll say it. I would say July or August because there's more sunlight, so you're out and about more.

SPEAKER_03 45:03

But again, that's very rational. So rational. You gotta think of something like March because you're marching, you're doing exercise, you know.

SPEAKER_02 45:12

February. Because there's less days. Just saying. Okay, one last one. Unless Tim, you gotta jump in here. No, no, no. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 45:28

This is all you and Doc Tim.

SPEAKER_02 45:29

What did the big chimney?

SPEAKER_03 45:31

I got two docs in here, right? I mean, I can't tell any damn jokes.

SPEAKER_02 45:35

Okay, last one. What did the big chimney say to the little chimney? You're too young to smoke.

SPEAKER_01 45:46

Oh. I was getting there.

SPEAKER_03 45:49

Yeah, I was in there going, uh, I'm gonna go many different directions.

unknown 45:53

All right.

SPEAKER_03 45:54

All right, guys.

SPEAKER_02 45:55

Thank you, Dr. Kennedy. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. This is great. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 46:00

Can we have her back so we can have her back? Yeah. I'm just saying. So I mean, we've got faces for radios. Yeah, we do.

SPEAKER_02 46:08

I've been told that many times. Many, many times.

SPEAKER_03 46:12

All right, guys. Check us out, Biblical Leadership Show.com. Thank you for uh hanging out with us today. Send us prayer requests, anything that you have. We'd love to hear from you. And uh other than that, do you any final last words, Doc?

SPEAKER_01 46:26

No, I appreciate you. God bless you both.

SPEAKER_03 46:28

All right, well, thank you very much. Dr. P, take us out.

SPEAKER_02 46:32

Well, share our podcast with someone that you know. And uh thank you for joining us and make it a great day. Make it a great day. Thanks, K.