TGP: We Wait as Strangers

Intro Option 1: Hindered Race

Line up students side by side behind a starting line.

Have them all hold onto a rope at the same time.

They must race to the end of the room and back.

And.... go!

Holding onto rope = hindered running

Difficult to run without moving arms

Sin is similar

Slows us down

Hinders from running the race

Power through Jesus to...

Lay down sin

Run with endurance

Main Point: Knowing this world isn’t our true home changes how we wait for eternity.

We live as strangers here

Hebrews 11:13–16 ESV

13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

Hebrews 11: Heroes of Faith, or Hall of Faith

Q. Who is the author of Hebrews?

We don’t know!

Context: persecution

Encouragement through reminder

Ancestors (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, etc) clung to this truth: This world isn’t our home.

They were outsiders.

Q. Have you ever felt like an outsider? Describe what it was like.

School, etc.

This is difficult, but God calls us to it

Q. Why does God call us to live as strangers, exiles, and foreigners here?

Shifted citizenship = shifted desires

Making the most of our time

Main Point: Knowing this world isn’t our true home changes how we wait for eternity.

We live as strangers here

We run with endurance

Hebrews 11:39–12:2 ESV

39 And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, 40 since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect. 1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Witnesses = Heroes of Faith

Running the race well

Context: Stadium runners running virtually naked

Looking while running

Q. What does it mean to have spiritual endurance, and how do we gain it?

“Working out”

Q. How can sin-and even good things-hinder us as we run the “race”?

Starting strong and losing steam

Looking to the side

Sin slows us down

Main Point: Knowing this world isn’t our true home changes how we wait for eternity.

We live as strangers here

We run with endurance

We endure discipline

Hebrews 12:7–11 ESV

7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Discipline

Heroes of Faith endured discipline

God’s discipline is for our good

“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to arouse a deaf world.”

-C.S. Lewis

Q. Why do we avoid discipline?

Points out what we’ve done wrong

Consequences

Q. Why does God discipline us? What might it say about Him if He didn’t?

Parents want better, God wants best

Being more like Jesus

Discipline as evidence for belonging

Christ Connection:

Jesus endured physical pain on the cross. He endured death and took our punishment on His shoulders. And when we fix our eyes on Him, “the pioneer and perfecter of our faith,” we can also endure (Heb. 12:2). We can run with endurance knowing Christ has already claimed victory over sin and death.

The Bottom Line: Wait for eternity by living as a stranger, running with endurance, and enduring discipline.