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Introduction
How bright is your future?
How bright is your future?
In the 90’s that phrase was used by the mobile phone provider Orange.
The future is bright, the future is orange.
We all live
The idea behind it was to point us to a future, where wireless communication was going to be king.
A world, you could say, we live in today.
The issue is, they didn’t look far enough ahead.
Where are they today?
What’s next?
This morning we’ll be looking into the future - a future far beyond where Orange wanted to take us.
And into a future that will last a lot longer than they did.
We’re in the middle of a series in , and we’ve been seeing what faith is.
We’re in the middle of a series in , and we’ve been seeing what faith is.
We saw in the opening verse of :
We saw in the opening verse of :
Last Sunday we saw that faith is in the unseen, but anchored in what God has said, knowing that He is trustworthy.
So, it’s not a leap in the dark.
It has grounding to it.
Last Sunday we saw that faith...
And having that faith is meant to encourage and spur the first hearers on.
And that was an encouragement to the original hearers of this letter.
Who were considering shrinking back, giving up, throwing in the towel on following Jesus.
And that is an encouragement to us.
To keep living, no matter what happens, trusting that God has promised a greater future, guaranteed in the death and resurrection of His Son, the Lord Jesus, on the cross.
Knowing that the best is yet to come.
So, this morning we’re picking up that idea again, and seeing what these verses, 8 - 22, have to teach us about faith.
We’ll see the stories of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph.
And in each and every case, we will see their faith looks forward, beyond the grave.
And that is what the author to the Hebrews wants his readers, then and now, to grasp.
Faith looks forward, beyond the grave.
1) Faith looks forward (v8-12)
So let’s take a look at the text, and see our first point, that faith that looks forward.
We started to see this idea last Sunday morning as we looked at the story of Noah, back in verse 7.
As Noah was told a flood would come, he looked forward and lived in light of it - building an ark.
And we were told that in that doing that, Noah, became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.
Noah became an heir.
Noah was an heir - so it looking forward.
I don’t know if any of you are heirs to anything.
Maybe you have a rich uncle that people supposedly have!
We all know though that an heir inherits, an heir gets something.
They inherit something of importance.
They look forward to the day when that inheritance is going to come.
Noah was an heir.
Noah lived in light of the future.
Noah’s faith looked forward.
Noah was an heir - so it looking forward.
We see the same thing said of Abraham in verses 8 - 12.
In verse 8 Abraham is spoken of as having an inheritance.
And in verse 9, he and his children are referred to as heirs.
So we have the same idea going on.
This passage flows directly on from where we were last week.
And we see the same in verses 8 - 12. Have a look at verse 8. Abraham is spoken of as having an inheritance.
Or in verse 9, he and his children are referred to as heirs.
So we have the same idea going on.
This passage flows directly on from where we were tlast week.
Abraham is spoken of as having an inheritance.
Or in verse 9, he and his children are referred to as heirs.
So we have the same idea going on.
This passage flows directly on from where we were tlast week.
So let’s take a look at this story.
As I said last week, I am convinced that the author has carefully handpicked these people, and the events mentioned, to make his point.
And because of that, we’re ask why these people, and what do they teach us?
So let’s take a look - verse 8:
There are our two little words - by faith.
Abraham had been living in the land of Ur.
That’s actually it’s name, not a mind blank!
From archaeology, we know a lot about Ur.
In fact, there’s a good exhibit in the British Museum if you ever get to visit it.
Ur was located in modern day Iraq, and in comparison to the world around it, it was pretty advanced.
The documents and jewellry that have been, and continue to be dug up show us that.
It was a very nice place to live.
As soon as God called him, he packed up
But, we learn from this verse, that the very moment that God called Abraham to leave it, he packed up, and got out.
When I moved from my hometown of Ramsgate to St Albans everyone congratulated me on moving up the location ladder.
St Albans had just featured on ‘location location location, and had been named 8th best place to live that year.
It looked like a great location choice.
But for Abraham, leaving Ur would have been like leaving a fully kitted mansion, and going to live in the local dump.
He left behind his family name.
The safety of his homeland - you may think that the streets aren’t safe today.
Well, the gangs back in Abraham’s time were far worse.
And if that wasn’t enough, outside of civilisation, the risk of catching something deadly went up massively.
So for Abraham here to ‘up-sticks’ and move out of town wasn’t a simple decision.
Take into account also what we’re told of Abraham’s knowledge of his destination, at the end of this verse.
He obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.
That’s faith in the unseen isn’t it?
Taking God at His Word, and trusting His commands are good.
Abraham received even less information than Noah was given about what was going to happen, and still he went.
We’re told that Abraham went and made his home in the promised land - known at the time as the land of Canaan - that’s what we’d know as the land of Israel.
But he didn’t settle down.
Did you notice how he lived?
Take a look again at verse 9.
The author makes a point of it, he draws our attention to it twice.
He says that Abraham lived like a stranger in a foreign country.
And that Abraham lived in tents.
Now, God had promised this land to him as an inheritance.
It was his.
The land-owner of the whole world had given this land to Abraham.
And Abraham lived in it like a stranger in a foreign country.
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