Hebrews 11: Jesus is the better destination

Intro

Have you ever had a moment where someone told you, you just need to have a little faith? Or maybe you’ve been in a situation where you couldn’t see what was coming next and the only option you had was to have faith.

These instances are much easier said than done. We talk about faith and having and keeping faith, but to actually walk in faith, that can be a different story alltogether.

Faith is a great word because it automatically does something to us. Whenever we talk about faith we automatically ask a question.

Faith in what?

Faith prompts a question. Faith is not its own substance, it is something that connects your trust to something more trustworthy.

Faith forces us to locate our source of hope

Faith demands some kind of answer

So when we confess as a church that we have faith, we have to answer our own question,

Faith in what?

The church for 2000 years has been answering that question. We have a bold faith in the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 11:1 ESV

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Our faith (faith in what) rests on His resurrection and on His promises. Our hope settles on His words and activity in the world.

Because of that, any mention of faith on our end means we are dependent on something else. And that is the right place to be.

This week we are going to be looking at one of the most known chapters in not only the book of Hebrews but all of the NT. It takes the whole of Scripture and reviews it for us through the lens of faith.

Here’s what we understand about faith. Faith is not just something we agree to or we nod our heads to in agreement. Faith is confidence in something.

The word assurance here speaks of the foundational parts of our lives. There are things in our lives that we hold to the core of who we are. That we feel like no matter what else changes, these things won’t, these areas are the strong parts of who we are.

Scripture says that faith is the strong part, the foundation of what it is we hope for. Faith recognizes that there is a God continually at work. Faith is the ability to poke your head up out of whatever it is you are dealing with and anticipate a better home.

Notice in our descriptions of faith this is Not necessarily about a better outcome, or a better solution.

Faith isn’t about fixing what’s broken, its about remaking everything. This is why those named in Heb 11 aren’t known for thier ability to get out of a sticky situation. They are known for holding onto better things.

We are told that Faith is not about appropriate evidence, it is not about getting everything lined up and perfect and right.  Faith is about the right destination, am I moving toward the right end? Am I lined up and moving toward what has been promised, not what is right in front of me. faith is always asking the question, Ami moving in tr right direction, not, what is happening right in front of me?

Faith is about anticipation, not expectation.

Expectation rises and falls on what we think is best. When things are going great, faith is easy because our expectations are being met.

But what happens when those expectations cannot be or are not being met? How easy is faith then?

What is faith like when you have brought expectations of what you wanted life to be, or your job to be or your spouse to be or your kids to be, and it is not?

Faith is not about changing your expectations, it is about anticipating God’s work, looking forward to what He is doing and will ultimately do.

We can take any singular story in the names given in Hebrews 11.

Look at Abraham

Hebrews 11:8–10 ESV

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.

We find his story beginning in Gen 12. God shows up in his life and tells him to leave what he knows and what he is comfortable with. to leave your

“kindred and your father’s house” to go to a land that God will show him. Abram left what he knew, all his expectations for something more, what we see as the “land of promise, looking to a better city, “whose designer and builder is God.”

Abram was where he knew. He knew his neighbors, his family lived there. He knew all of the local shops and shop owners. He had memories tied to every road, and path. He was completely local. abrahams expectations were entirely lined up

And then God called him to go where He would tell him to go. And that God would make him into a great nation.

Abram let go of his expection of what he knew to take hold of God’s anticipation of what He would do.

Have you ever had to let go of your expectation? A place you know and loved, a place you called home? A place where you could walk the streets and wave to people you knew well? That all of a sudden you had to let go of? What felt like expectations ripped from you? Abram walked through the same, and the one thing that sustained him, was the anticipation in what God was doing.

Now Sarah

Sarah had known nothing but disappointment after disappointment. She couldn’t concieve a child in a culture that tied child rearing to honor. She spent her entire life barren. Her expectations were low. In fact probably her expectations had rotted over the years. She likely did what was even more dangerous than expectations, she simply resigned.

Have you ever just given up? Resigned to your situation. You have waited and waited and waited. A lifetime of expectation that seems to hang rotting on the vine?

Sarah’s story is a lifetime of waiting but one that doesn’t end in resignation.

Hebrews 11:11–12 ESV

By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.

It was Sarah’s faith in a God who delivers on His promises that brought incredible fruit from impossible means. This chapter reminds us it is worthwhile clinging to God in faith because He is eternally doing incredible things from impossible means.

That is why their expectations can be left unmet. Because their faith is not in what can be solved temporarily, but is in anticipation of what God is doing through us eternally.

Hebrews 11:13–16 ESV

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. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 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.

Have things fallen apart? There is still a better country.

Have things not worked out like you have hoped? There is a better homeland.

That doesn’t mean that we don’t weep and mourn for what we have missed, or don’t grieve our losses. What it means is that our weeping and our mourning is not the end of things. Our griefs are not dead ends. In Christ weeping lasts for the night.

We are reminded there is not just a home God is preparing for us, not just a building, but an entire homeland, entire cities. Ones that we long for. That we hope for. All of our expectations will ultimately fail because we long for a better homeland.

Where is your source of hope this morning? What are you anticipating?

It matters deeply that we hang onto faith even if it feels like our expectations are rotting on the vine, not only because ultimately we will find ourselves further up and farther in into our homeland through Christ but that what we anticipate also determines what we love.

Even as you make your way through the expectations of the world, we can hold onto the greater country that is Christ. He is the better destination

To anticipate Gods’ work in Christ and faith in His work means we are responding to the very longing in our heart for a better home. A better homeland. I do this kind of comparison when I travel now. We have been here in NE for 8 years and in many ways this is home for us. It is our roots and where we have raised our kids.

So when we travel everything I experience is compared to how I live in NE. We drove 20 hours to Wisconsin a couple weeks ago and I compared every driver I experienced in PA and OH and WI to how I experience driving in NE (speed up, keep going, they would never let them get away with that. But mostly speed up speed up speed up!).

Wherever I travel I have two countries in mind. The one that I am in and the one that I prefer.

When you travel away from your homeland you end up keeping your homeland in mind. You always have 2 countries in mind

That is what faith is like. WE have two countries in mind. We are in one now but are always comparing it to the other country, the homeland our faith holds onto. Because we anticipate God’s working in our lives and that these are reminders of our homeland, we compare, contrast one country to another and then we act.

 We live, not based off the country we are in but based off the country we long for.

The hard. Part is Expectation in the world demands that we love the world. Our expectations are temporary and they are fragile. They break quickly and often. And when we live for them we are often just frantically repairing. We can’t look up and out. We have no room for anyone else because we are always attending to what we expect.

This is why we are called to live by faith, to anticipate that God is working and that we are reflecting Our Home in Him while He does. There is no fragility in anticipating a better homeland. And God calls us to act now in it, even when we can’t always see it, we know it, we hear about it, we long for it.

Faith reminds us that our life is more truly reflected in everything God is building for us. We live from that reality

Hebrews 11:32–40 ESV

And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets— who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.

We live in anticipation for what God will ultimately complete but we have to live in the now. With all our expectations and imperfections. When we live with one country in mind and another in view, we act as citizens of the country we long for. We represent what that country is like

If we anticipate God’s country we live for it. We act as though it was near.

“That apart from us they should not be made perfect”

God in His providence, invites us to take part in His work. When we act in faith, we act as citizens of His country. Loving the culture of His country, loving the values of His country. And we only know this country because Christ is the better destination. He is the One we look to and reflect in our life. He is our Home

And doing so no matter what we face here. We know a better country. We know a better King and Kingdom. As we anticipate Him in faith we love His country and what His country is about.

This week you will be challenged with 2 countries. The one that holds fragile expectations and the one that can actually sustain faith. At some point those two countries will seem to collide and clash. And you will have the opportunity to either repair fragile expectations and live out confident anticipation.