Hebrews 11:8-17

Song following: Lead Me, Guide Me

Introduction:

The Survivor Tree reminds us not get stuck in the past.

The most-sacred symbol in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, is a tree: a sprawling, shade-bearing, 80-year-old American Elm. Tourists drive from miles around to see her. People pose for pictures beneath her. Arborists carefully protect her. She adorns posters and letterhead. Other trees grow larger, fuller—even greener. But not one is equally cherished. The city treasures the tree not because of her appearance, but her endurance.

She endured the Oklahoma City bombing.

Timothy McVeigh parked his death-laden truck only yards from her. His malice killed 168 people, wounded 850, destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, and buried the tree in rubble. No one expected it to survive. No one, in fact, gave any thought to the dusty, branch-stripped tree.

But then she began to bud.

Sprouts pressed through damaged bark; green leaves pushed away gray soot. Life resurrected from an acre of death. People noticed. The tree modeled the resilience the victims desired. So they gave the elm a name: The Survivor Tree.

Max Lucado, Facing Your Giants (W Publishing Group, 2006), p. 43-44

That is a tree with a story....Abraham had a story also....

We all have a story. And when our stories come together it can be most encouraging!

The Survivor Tree Reminds Us Not To Get Stuck In The Past

·   There are some parts of our story we love to talk about. (Sentimental) or (The Good Old Days)

• Love to talk about camping stories
• For Abraham the sentimental side of his story could have come when he started remembering how good it was when he was at home in the Chaldees. But we are told he did not become sentimental and return to his home land but followed the instructions of God.
• There are some parts of our story we just as soon not share. Shame can trap us in the past!
• Take Abraham as an example:
• We are told of his faith with Isaac...
• But what about Ishmael?
• When Sarah and Abraham had no children, Sarah told Abraham to sleep with Hagar, her Egyptian handmade. Ishmael was the result of Abraham and Sarah’s failure to trust.
• They decided God could use a little help!
• Thankfully Abraham didn’t get stuck in the past.

The Survivor Tree reminds us not to fear the future.

• Abraham had his own fear...of the future.

10 Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe. 11 As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “I know what a beautiful woman you are. 12 When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will let you live. 13 Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.”

The Survivor Tree reminded the people of Oklahoma City to continue to persevere!

• The tree modeled the resilience the victims desired. So they gave the elm a name: the Survivor Tree.
• The Survivor Tree reminds us to Serve the Lord in the Present
• Abraham, an ordinary person, with his own failures and his own fears yet made it into the Hall of Faith.
• Abraham’s story tells us that our stories need not be any different.
• Hebrews is a letter of encouragement to people who were wondering if it wouldn’t be easier to go back to their old Jewish practices of faith…sacrifices, circumcision.  The answer is a resounding “No!”
• A further reason for that is because of another tree-the cross of Jesus. It is the cross which clearly tells us/ that sin is ugly and we are in need of salvation. It is the cross which also clearly tells that death was not the victor. Rather it opened the door to life
• Jesus came to give us life, and free us from the fear of death and from the guilt of sin.

The key to Abraham’s life was the longing in his heart for a purpose for living...which he found fulfilled in God.

• And so his faith...Trust...
• Even to the point of being willing to offer up Isaac.

Can you imagine the conflict that must have raged between Abraham’s heart (this is my son, I love him. I cannot part with him! He’s God’s promise. This is craziness. ) and his mind which said (But I have him because God gave him to me. I was as good as dead. And yet there was Isaac! God did it. I must trust God this time!)

• And it is Abraham’s trust that wins out.
• He found his life fulfilled in God.
• BUT He didn’t live happily ever after!
• He didn’t receive everything from God,
• He didn’t see a nation formed.
• He didn’t see all the nations of the earth blessed as was promised to him.

But

• He saw God at work.
• He witnessed God’s protection.
• He saw God bringing life out of death.
• He also understood that God’s creation was a miracle....

So he HOPED...he looked for a city whose maker and builder was God.

• He also understood that he was an exile or alien on earth!
• There in lies the reason we feel like aliens and strangers in our world. Our world is so different than the kingdom that Jesus brought near. And knowing how Good God is, and knowing how well Jesus lived, makes us Long for a better place!

Conclusion:  Our Lives are lived in longing….

I lived for 5 years in the shadow of the Cascade Mountains east of Vancouver British Columbia. Whenever, I hear of British Columbia, whenever, I hear of Lynden, Washington a scant 12 miles from where we lived, the longing of my heart surfaces.

• I may live in Zeeland, Michigan, but my longing is for the mountains of the west.
• I may live in Zeeland, Michigan, but there is a longing for the Kingdom of God to be realized more and more in my life and yours. That I may more and more be willing to live in the present and put the fears of the future away, because God knows the future and he controls the future.
• I may live in Zeeland, Michigan, but there is a longing for the Kingdom of God to be realized more and more in my life and yours. That I may be more and more willing to live in the present! For God is God of the present! 

He said “I am!”  Not “I was!”

The sins of the past, the regrets of the past, the shame and stupidity of my own efforts to build God’s Kingdom, have been forgiven and forgotten, because God has said, "I will remember them no more." And they no longer need to control our lives. 

 

He said “I am!”  Not “I will be!”

The fear of the future does not need to intimidate us.  For God is always with us in the present.

He said “I am!”

The experience of life tells me God is good and loves me deeply. Yet all the sin, sorrow, and sickness of this world is overwhelming. The longing for the day when we will live in a marvelous relationship with God becomes more real. He would make the wars to cease and make the lion to lay down with the lamb. Then we would stop making weapons and start making ships to feed God’s children. That every person living would see God’s desire for us when he says: And it was very Good!” At the dawn of history.

God looked over everything he had made; it was so good, so very good! It was evening, it was morning— Day Six.

Abraham lived trusting God.  God was faithful! Day by Day he trusted in the promises that God revealed to him.  Day by Day he walked the path of faith. 

And even though he did not see all the promises fulfilled God prepared a city for them! And Abraham not only longed for that city, it became already in this life a part of who he was.  He was citizen of that city here! The immigration however, remained!  It is as if he welcomed it from a distance. 

He longed for the City!

 

We long for the City!

For the citizens of Oklahoma City it was an American Elm Tree that was a sacred symbol of life…for them it was a symbol of life in the midst of death and destruction…

For us it is yet another tree…the tree of life which is for the healing of the nations…..

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him.

Re 22:1-3 NIV

So let me encourage you in the way of faith. Let me encourage you to sense that longing that only God can satisfy. And to focus on living your life in faith and hope with God in the present.

 

Remember if we are going to keep the Creed of Jesus life and follow in his way then faith and hope are necessary to love!

“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

Mk 12:29-31 NIV