Faith Has Magic Eyes

Faith compels us to expect something better

I stream a lot of our television using a free service called Pluto.

We tend to watch programs that have little to no profanity, that have no nudity and where the good guy always wins.

Which means we watch a lot of reruns from the 60’s.

There is a commercial that runs on Pluto that looks like magic.

This spokeswoman comes on with a giant laundry basket just full of detergents, fabric softeners, I don’t know what all.

And she says you can replace all of that with a single detergent sheet.

It’s like those fabric softener sheets except it fully dissolves in your washer.

So, to prove how effective it is, she pours iodine in a picture of water and says, “Look what dipsy-doodle does to this iodine.”

Then she drops the sheet in and faster than you can save abracadabra, the iodine disappears.

It’s amazing.

It’s got to be better.

Let’s call in the next 10 minutes so we can get twice as much for the same price.

I suspect every one of us that has had a science class has seen this done.

One reason teachers do this magic trick is to show how fast chemical reactions can occur.

Pour some iodine in water, stir a little maybe, then drop in some vitamin C.

The iodine disappears.

I don’t know if there is vitamin C in those detergent sheets but her demonstration doesn’t mean they have a superior stain fighting formula.

It just means eating one may help you not catch a cold - if it’s vitamin C.

The entire premise of advertising is to prove something is better than what you have.

The people the book of Hebrews was written to are having a very hard time.

Judaism was a state approved religion.

Christianity was not.

Times were getting very hard for them and a lot of them were starting to look for better things than this Jesus stuff.

The pastor who wrote Hebrews is working hard to convince them that nothing is better than Jesus.

So keep the faith.

Our text today is Hebrews 11:13-16.

While you look that up, kids every week now you are listening for just one word - Jesus.

How many times does Pastor Randy say Jesus in a message?

If you’ll listen for that, you are going to hear a bunch of other things too

Because see, the Holy Spirit will speak to you, just like He does to your parents.

The neat thing about Jesus is, He wants us to know him.

Listen as best you can, Jesus wants you to hear Him.

If everyone has their Bibles open, please follow along as I read from the book of Hebrews.

Hear now the word of the Lord from Hebrews 11:13-16

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.

This is the Word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Let’s ask the Lord to help us hear Him:

Dear Father,

I thank you for the times this week that we looked up and you were there.

We know you were there all of the time but you know how we don’t look for you all of the time.

And it is wondrous when we do.

Lord, the evil one wants to draw us away from you

And we’ll let him if we don’t hear Your voice.

Please send your Holy Spirit to speak your love into our hearts.

We want to see Jesus.

Forgive me of my sins, for they are many.

Please don’t let anything stand between You and Your people,

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Faith gives us a different perspective

Listen to verse 13 again, Hebrews 11:13 “These all died in faith, not having received the things promised…”

So far he’s talked about Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham and Sarah - these all had faith…and

They all died.

They never received the things they were promised.

Think about Abraham.

God promised him his children would be like the stars in the sky.

He had one kid - died with one kid.

Doesn’t sound like God followed through.

Well wasn’t Isaac’s birth a bit of a miracle with Abraham and Sarah being so old?

Of course it was.

But have you ever noticed in your own life, God does something really cool.

How long does that high last?

Ten years later, do you still remember it?

Abraham had a real chance to be cynical, “God promised, but He didn’t deliver.”

But why didn’t Abraham become cynical.

Because Hebrews 11:13 “…but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.”

Faith gave Abraham a different perspective.

He saw that God’s promise was part of the plan God was working

And that Abraham was graced enough to be a part of.

Abraham knew it because God showed Abraham the end of the story.

Genesis 15:5 ESV

And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”

No way Sarah is going to have that many kids.

God had to be playing the long game.

And this caused Abraham to know - there’s more.

There’s way more than what see.

There’s way more than this world.

- Hebrews 11:13 “…and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.”

The more our faith grows, the more we realize we don’t belong here - we are different.

The word acknowledge means confess - and I like that better.

“Having confessed,”

Not simply saying “yep” but confessing - knowing in his heart and saying out loud, “I don’t belong here.”

This faithful confession is knowing that we don’t fit in with the rest of the world, no matter how hard we try.

We don’t think, breath or act like everyone else.

We are different.

I like the way the King James says this.

Titus 2:13–14 KJV 1900

Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

A peculiar people - I like that word.

We are different.

Odd

Unusual.

We believe in a dead man walking - that’s insanity - unless it’s true.

And 100 year old people having babies

And seas parting

And skies rolling back like a scroll.

Those things are not normal

And yet, we confess them all to be true.

We’ve got to know that people that think that way are different.

I know you’ve tried to go places you don’t belong

Some of us are doing that right now

You go someplace that looks “better” than where you are

And the whole time there, you have this nag in your soul

And maybe you stay so long that the nag gets real quiet.

But in the still dark of night, sometimes you hear that voice

You don’t belong here.

You see that word exile?

It’s also rendered sojourner.

A temporary resident.

I’m just passing through.

This is where being an American complicates things.

Many of us live in big, nice, comfortable houses.

And even those who don’t, compared to the rest of the world, we all live in mansions.

It’s hard to conceive of ourselves as temporary residents.

These little children think they will live with their parents forever.

But they won’t.

We think we will visit with our moms and dads forever.

But we won’t.

“This is going to be our forever house.”

No - no it’s not.

It is difficult for us to look way in the future because the present is so comfortable.

Be careful, beloved, all of this is fleeting.

We don’t own this.

Our inheritance is not here.

Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham and Sarah could all die happy

Because they had done their part

They had remained faithful to the vision to the end

They had set things up for their children.

And they knew, the Lord would take it from here.

Faith gives us a different perspective.

The people the Hebrews was written to had lost focus

Their pain was so deep and their fear so real, that they allowed it to hijack their thoughts.

What is happening to me is horrible and it will never end!

At least, that’s what they were thinking.

This stinks and I’ve got to get out of here.

And the Pastor keeps telling them, sure it’s hard, but what you are pursuing is better than anything else.

He uses the word “better” ten times.

Remember, if the teacher says it three times you can guarantee its on the test?

10 times.

10 times he says Jesus is better than - everything.

Hebrews 6:9 he talks about better things that belong to salvation.

7:19 Jesus is a better hope.

7:22 Jesus is a better covenant.

8:6 Jesus’ covenant is better because the promises are better.

9:23 Jesus is the better sacrifice

10:34 Jesus is the better possession

11:16 - Jesus brings us to a better country

11:35 Jesus brings a better life.

11:40 Jesus is better for us

12:24 Jesus is the better word.

Everything that entices you.

Everything that promises you relief from your pain

Everything that promises to deliver you or give you what you want

Jesus is better.

What is he telling them?

Keep your eyes on Jesus.

Don’t look away - don’t turn away

Don’t be distracted.

There is nothing better.

He says all of this and counters it with a warning:

Faith doesn’t look back

Back is a distraction.

Back is dangerous.

Look at verse 15 Hebrews 11:15 “If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return.”

Do you hear the warning?

If you want to walk away, the Lord is not going to stop you.

If you’ve tasted the goodness of God but the baubles and shiny lights are too big of a draw

He’ll let you go.

The faith the Pastor is teaching about doesn’t look back - it doesn’t consider going backwards

And they take great pains to make sure their friends and family don’t go back too.

In Genesis 24, Abraham is getting pretty long in the tooth.

Isaac his son needs a wife

Back then, marriages were arranged by the parents

You didn’t date - mom and dad just brought you someone and said, “Live happily ever after.”

Listen to this story:

Genesis 24:1–8 ESV

Now Abraham was old, well advanced in years. And the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things. And Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his household, who had charge of all that he had, “Put your hand under my thigh, that I may make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and God of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell, but will go to my country and to my kindred, and take a wife for my son Isaac.” The servant said to him, “Perhaps the woman may not be willing to follow me to this land. Must I then take your son back to the land from which you came?” Abraham said to him, “See to it that you do not take my son back there. The Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and from the land of my kindred, and who spoke to me and swore to me, ‘To your offspring I will give this land,’ he will send his angel before you, and you shall take a wife for my son from there. But if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will be free from this oath of mine; only you must not take my son back there.”

Did you hear it?

Twice Abraham says, “Do not take my son back there.”

Why?

Because he might like it there.

Because the girl might be incredibly beautiful.

She might be enticing and have sweet words.

And her family might be wealthy and can give them great things

Things that would make him stay.

But he can’t stay - because the promise doesn’t live there.

The promise is here.

I can’t put my boy in harms way.

Promise, you’ll never take him there.

Brothers and sisters, our pasts were where we lived in death.

Before we were Christ followers we were dead in our sins.

But Jesus died and was resurrected for our sins.

He called us and we followed and He gave us life.

What good thing can come from playing around in death?

All touching death can do is make you stink.

Don’t look back.

The evil one wants to entice you with a cleaned up version of your past.

You had so much fun.

It was so much easier.

But the Lord is saying, the promise doesn’t live there.

Don’t look back.

Instead, think about what the Lord is going to give you.

Faith gives us different desires

Now, let’s talk about this for a minute.

Every last one of us has had a moment where some unholy desire comes over us.

I don’t know about you, but I can promise you some of the things I once did were so much fun.

Wrong - but so much fun.

And sometimes life gets to be such that you daydream about those times.

And what does a wise Christian do about those?

They turn away and remember where our inheritance lives

God isn’t mad at us for memories.

He’s told us what to do about them.

He’s changed our desires.

He’s changed what we really want.

Hebrews 11:16 “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.”

There’s the word better again

A better country.

A better place than here.

This is hard.

There is so much to look for here

So many thing to want

So many things that promise to make us happy.

But there is a very real element in this faith that requires us to make a choice.

Abraham didn’t go back to his homeland to get Isaac a wife.

He didn’t let his son go either.

He made a choice to look forward to what was coming.

But listen, it’s not all on us.

“Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared for them a city.”

Remember back to verse 6, Hebrews 11:6 “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”

God rewards our faith with more faith.

He kept coming back to Abraham reminding him

And making it possible for him to keep believing.

He does the same thing for us.

But we have help by putting ourselves where we can see him.

We need to be with groups of people who are like us

Who can share stories of what God is doing for them

Who can receive strength from what others are doing

Who can be encouraged by brothers and sisters that love them.

Abraham set out to a place he did not know

But he took all of his people with him.

When Elijah went up on the mountain terrified because Jezebel said she was going to have him killed

God reminded him, you are not by yourself - there are 7,000 dedicated to me

Go get to work.

That’s why the Lord tells us to not forsake gathering ourselves together.

Why we can’t neglect reading the word, even if it’s only a single verse a day.

It’s why we can’t neglect our prayer life.

We need to be where God is

Because that’s where our reward lives.

Faith gives us a different perspective.

Faith doesn’t look back

And Faith gives us different desires.

Brothers and sisters,

Examine yourselves.

Can you see these things in yourselves?

Have you started noticing that you actually like to hear a sermon every now and again?

Do you know there is more to life than your bank account?

God is not ashamed to be called our God.

He has prepared for us a city more real than anything we’ve ever experienced.

Don’t give up.

Press on toward the prize of the upward call in Christ Jesus.

And dear friend,

Following Jesus is the only thing that makes sense.

There are only two paths to follow

One leads to everlasting life

The other to everlasting death

And the choice lays with you.

Jesus died and was raised so your sins could be forgiven

And you could live with Him forever.

But it is your choice whether you do or not.

Please make the right choice.

In a moment, we’ll pray and sing.

If you want to talk about Jesus, I’ll be down front.