Hebrews 11:8-16 Hoping through the circumstances

Transcription

1 Hebrews 11:8-16 Hoping through the circumstances The reality of the world One of the most famous stories of the last 500 years is about King Duncan of Scotland. Actually, its not so much about him as it is about a brave Scottish general who is told by three witches that he will become the King of Scotland. He then murders the king and takes his throne. That General and the name of this play is Macbeth. It s the story of what happens physically and psychologically to those who seek power for its own sake. It s a tragedy. There is a line in this play that has been famous for 410 years. In it McDuff and Malcomlm bemoan the fate of Scotland with Macbeth on the throne: Each new morn new widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows strike heaven on the face. Perhaps you aren t quite as cultured as I pretend to be and you prefer Mel Brooks. His line is equally famous: Life Stinks. We all feel this, don t we? We understand how life sometimes beats us down. The people the author of Hebrews is writing to understand this too. Their lives stink. They are desperately trying to cling to Jesus but almost certainly wondering whether that is really a good idea. After all, life stinks. And nothing seems to be getting better. And they knew the stories of old, the stories of the heroes of the faith where God came through for his people. They knew about Abraham and Moses and David and how God rescued them and cared for them. Why wasn t he now? The same question we sometimes ask. And the author of Hebrews wants to remind them of the reality Is there an anchor for our soul? Will he hold on? Hebrews 11:8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. 11 By faith Abraham, even though he was past age and Sarah herself was barren was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise. 12 And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.

2 13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. 14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. Look the author says, you aren t remembering the stories correctly. It wasn t always easy for David or Moses or Abraham. They struggled. But here is what you must notice. The first two words of verse 8 By faith. They weren t superheroes and God didn t always just pull them right through. They had to have faith in the midst of some crazy circumstances. He had to get up and go somewhere and God didn t tell him where He had to trust that a son was coming, even though he was too old He didn t receive what was promised for a long stinking time. There are a few principles I want to show you today if you are wondering how to make it. 1. Don t trust circumstances. This is probably not going to be mind blowing to you. You have probably lived long enough to know that circumstances are not always kind. Look at Abraham We know that God sent him out to a place he did not know where he was going. It took a long time for him to know where he was going. Years. Lots of years. He wandered. His father died while they wandered. Now I don t know everything Abraham was thinking, but the story seems to imply that the directions and the end location didn t matter much to him. He didn t need to know. He understood that you can t trust circumstances. Abraham knew that it s not what happens to you in life that matters, it s what you bring to life. What you bring to the circumstances. It s not the events of life that make or break you. Everyone knows this I don t think you have to be a Christian to recognize this. You don t need Hebrews 11 to understand this. The Bible is just stating what you know already. Abraham knew that he couldn t only do things that seemed practical He knew he couldn t only do things that rationally would end up for his good. He knew that if he based his life on circumstances, the circumstances would bite him in the butt. They always do. Ignoring this makes life unbearable

3 Most of us know this, but live like we don t. We say, My success depends on what I possess, what happens to me, the events in my life, the circumstances. Things will work out well if I have this career, get into this school, score this spouse then life will be good. And because it s all about the circumstances, we spend much of our life in fear. Anxious. We strain to see the future. We hedge our bets. We are afraid to commit. We don t want to agree to anything, because we want to know where we are going. I won t go unless I know how it will end. And then our life already sucks. Because we live in this perpetual state of concern. Because you know what we all know, circumstances will bite us in the butt. They do, they always do. Abraham realized, it s not the circumstances that matter. They will probably not be great. It s how I respond when God says Go. Are you wondering if this Christianity thing will work? My guess is there are people here who are wondering about Christianity. Hopefully your friend invited you and you figure, since you are here anyway, you should think about it. You aren t arrogant enough to just write it off. You do think it s a tad arrogant of Christians to say it s TRUE in a capital T sense. Maybe you will give it a chance. But what you want to know is whether this Christianity thing will work for you. Will it help me? Will it help me get the things I need? Will it help me get the inner strength I need? Will it help me get to my goals? Will it bring me to a new position where God will answer my prayers? Will it work? And here is the answer: nope! It can t work for you if you come to it like that, because that is not what Christianity is. If you come asking, will it change my circumstances, will it help me gain control over my circumstances, will it work it will never work You have to ask, Is it true? Is he there? Is it real? You need to be honest and ask is this truth. Because if he is there and its true and he is real, it doesn t matter whether it is practical, whether it works for you. It doesn t matter whether it makes you happy, or all your prayers get answered, or you score the Disney princess wife. It doesn t matter. You have to come and you have to follow, because it s true.

4 What about Jesus? Do you think Jesus had a great life? Probably not. It was short and tortured. But all of you think, if you think he was real at all, that he was great. There was Jesus candidating to be president. People are rallying here and there but his enemies get him arrested on a trumped up charged, they torture him and then kill him. Right before he dies, he asks God to save him. He doesn t think he can bear it. It s one request and Jesus had served him well. And God the Father declines. Jesus life didn t go well. That s not what made him great. He was great because he said, not my will, but yours be done. He faced his not great life with integrity and courage and obedience. In that, he mastered life and death. Friends, get your mind off the circumstances. I guarantee you younger families that someday soon you will realize that the circumstances are not going to be the way you hoped. And if you spend all your time trying to master the circumstances, you won t spend the time cultivating the kind of heart that Abraham and Jesus had. Don t trust circumstances. If I just have kids. Friends you might lose a kid. Eventually they will leave for sure If I just had money. Friends the market may crash. Eventually you wont have what you need for something you want. Don t trust circumstances. But that is not enough. We all know that. Everything I just said was just to remind you. But all this does is turn you into a Stoic. You know Stoicism: Life stinks and worrying and crying about it won t change anything, so I will just suck it up. I won t let it get to me. But Stoics don t become great men or women. Your heart is hidden, your hope is in nothing. And all you become is cynical. 2. Go forward in hope We are made for something more. We are made to go. To travel in hope, even not knowing fully where we are going. But we do have a hope. We do know where we are going. We are going with God. We don t know where we are going in this world, but we know our ultimate destination. Abraham was looking ahead. He wasn t thinking about the country he left. That s what the Israelites were doing when wandering in the wilderness. Lets just go back to Egypt. But Abraham, and all the greats of the past, were longing for a better country. A heavenly one. A city with foundations.

5 Looking for heaven Christians know that their heavenly citizenship empowers them for earthly citizenship. Yeah, heaven. I don t want to define this much here, I want to save that for a couple of weeks from now, but its home. I know, heaven. Christians and their heaven. You focus on heaven, your pie in the sky and you are pointless here. It s just an opiate anyway, so Marx says. But Hebrews 11 says otherwise. It says look at Abraham. This is a man who did the right thing because he was focused on something else. Where do you get the strength to speak out against injustice in the government or abuse in the family or dishonesty at work? Where do you get the strength to hold on when circumstances beat you up? How will you stand up when you lose over and over again, because that is what happens when you stand up for justice or choose compassion or be crazy generous or show compassion to people others wont. If you have billions in the bank and someone steals a hundred from you, you might be hurt and notice the injustice but its not going to set you back much. This world is not built to bear the freight of a persons whole life Abraham says, I will not treat this country, I will not treat my family, I will not treat my culture, I will not treat my ethnicity, I will not treat my money, I will not treat my success, I will not treat my career, I will not put the pressure on them that would come to them if I say, This is my life. This is my identity. This is my whole wad. City parks are wonderful. They re wonderful if you visit them, but when people start to try to live in them, they get crappy. Why? Because they re not built to bear the freight of a person s whole life. Have you noticed that? If people start to live in them, they get pretty wretched. Abraham knew it s the same thing with this life. He says, You know what? As long as I understand this life as a park, a beautiful park, a place, I can enjoy it, but it isn t home. Money is great. Marriage is great. Children are great. Work is great. Politics is great. Culture is great. It s not home. If I try to make this bear the whole freight of all of my life, I ll ruin it. I will not. I ll look ahead to my true country. Someone stole the hundred from me, but it s not my gold. He is faithful 3. Hope in the right thing person. The final principle goes a step further. And we have already started down that path. It s not merely not trusting in circumstances, it s not merely moving forward in hope, its putting that hope in someone.

6 Look at verse 11. By faith Abraham, even though he was past age and Sarah herself was barren was enabled to become a father Why? Because he considered him faithful who had made the promise. Faith in faith? He wasn t hoping in hope. He didn t have faith in faith. So many people count sincerity as faith. It doesn t matter what you believe in, it just matters that you really believe. But that is not the faith of the Bible. Its never about faith in faith. Its about faith in HIM. Abraham didn t look at his faith. He was looking through his faith. If your windshield is a mess but you can see the windshield that is not good enough. You have to see through the windshield. Otherwise you wont get where you are going. This is about grasping the faithfulness of God. Is love all you need? You know those great poets of the 60s who said, all you need is love. And everyone knew that it was better to live in poverty in a treehouse or on a lawn if you just had love. It was the love generation. They knew something. Love is an anchor for our soul. And they are mostly right. If you are with someone you love, circumstances can be conquered. When the waves come, your anchor holds. The problem is that the anchor isn t always strong enough. Every anchor will let you down if the wind is big enough. If you put your hope in your partner, you are in trouble. Because I guarantee you they will let you down. But, remember chapter 6 of Hebrews. God confirms with an oath swearing by himself because there was no one greater. He confirmed it with an oath so that we who have fled to take hold of the hope might be greatly encouraged, and we have this as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. He will go on to explain that this is Jesus who is a great high priest. I could say it like this. The anchor for your soul is love. But it s not the love you might first imagine. It s the love of God. How does Abraham see through the windshield? How does he have faith? He knows the one who is faithful. What about when you can t remain faithful? Yes, sure, Abraham doubted. He didn t trust God always. He even doubted himself. He knew he couldn t be faithful. I think that might be why God walks through the animals alone. God knows you wont be faithful. And he says, even when you are not faithful, I will be an anchor. I will hold on. I will keep loving. I will love you through your shame and your hurt, and your discouragement.

7 God says, by walking through those animals, I will suffer if I let you go. I will be cut off, if I stop loving. I will make this relationship work at all costs. Even when you fail, I will be faithful I know every one of you needs to hear this. And most of you know what it cost him. As his son hung on that cross, God lost him. God said, I know the world sucks. Yes McDuff is correct. Yes Mel Brooks is right. And there will be a million reasons for you to lose faith and lose hope. A million reasons for you to stop moving forward and become cynical and stoic and hopeless. That s when Jesus doesn t lose hope and moves forward. That is how God has proved himself faithful. When you are wondering whether this will all turn out, remember the anchor for your soul. Remember the one who suffered humiliation and death for you. Remember the one who has been faithful to Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham and hundreds and thousands more throughout history. We look to something greater. We look to being in God s presence full time. We remember that he is faithful and you haven t done anything that will keep him away. Will you come to him again. Full of faith? Throw yourself at him and rest in him. Even with all your doubts? Response: Will you do that right now? Will you respond to him? Will you silently cry out or offer praise or meditate on the cross and what he did for you? Will you respond by praising him? Song Another way we respond is through action. Coming closer to the people of God and reaching out to others. Announcements And we respond by supporting this church Giving Never once. Redman (couldn t fit any better) How great is your faithfulness (Redman) Forever Tomlin