Pentecost 12 August 19, 2007

“Longing for a Better Country”

Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16

1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for. 3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

8 By faith, Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

11 By faith Abraham, even though he was past age – and Sarah herself was barren – was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise. 12 And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.

13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. 14 People who say such things show they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country – a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

The 65-year old man was in his hospital bed staring at the wall. He was in a crisis. He had never seen the car running the red light when he pulled out into the intersection 3 days before. When that car struck his car, it stripped him of his wife of 40 years. This man was in a terrible crisis. And what was the worst part? It wasn’t the loss of his car that bothered him all that much; it wasn’t the pain of his broken leg that bothered him either. It wasn’t even the lonely ache he felt as he thought about spending his retirement years without his wife by his side.

Do you know what the worst part of this man’s crisis was? The worst part of the crisis was in this man’s heart. In the secret chambers of his heart, this man wasn’t sure if he believed in God anymore. When the pastor came to give him a devotion, he smiled and thanked him for his words and his visit. But deep down, even though he couldn’t admit it to the pastor or to anyone else, he was struggling to believe if there was such a thing as a loving God, and if there was, why had all of this happened to him. He didn’t know what to do as he lay there, staring at the wall. So he prayed, “Lord Jesus, I do believe, help me overcome my doubts.”

Have you ever been where this man was? After a terrible loss or series of losses, you found yourself in a very difficult place, a place you thought would never happen to you, a place more painful than you could have imagined, a place you had prayed to avoid. But then, as if by some cruel joke…there you were in that terrible place, helpless and staring at the wall. You doubted whether God was good and doubted whether he was even there. It is hard to admit that we, as people of faith, are susceptible to such doubt…but we are.

What is God’s answer for this man? What is God’s answer for us? The Scriptures before us today have been preserved to give us the answer we need. God restores our faith in him and helps us to long for a better country. First of all, he does this by reminding us of what faith actually is. 1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

Let’s go back to that hospital room. What is it that has catapulted this man into severe doubt? It is that he has found himself in a place he never expected to be in. He had been living with a certain expectation firmly in place. During the many good times in life, he had subtly began to think, “If God loves me, I should always be able to see that in my life. I should always be able to see the “better country” he has promised.” Right now he couldn’t see it. Could you see God’s love in his circumstances? You’d be hard-pressed to come up with something.

We are the same way. When we are in the throes of suffering, any presuppositions or expectations we have been living by are exposed as well. When we can see what we think is the better country…that is, when we can see that we have plenty of money, when we can see our beautiful house, when we can see the family who loves us, when we can see we are in good health... during times like that we want to think we are so full of faith as we praise God and honor God. And we are to a degree. But what about when those things fall apart – and the things we see are not going well at all? What happens to our faith then, when the money is dried up, when the house is falling apart, when family relations are strained, when our health takes a turn for the worse? You always see baseball players pausing to point to the heavens after hitting a home run, but I’ve never seen one point to the heavens after striking out. We need the Lord to remind us what faith is. Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Faith is not seeing. Faith is being certain of something you do not see. Faith is trusting in God whether things are good or bad. Faith is trusting without touchable, testable proof.

So when we are conflicted because we believe God loves us but cannot see one bit of love with our eyes… when we are in that place that we doubt God’s presence because we are not getting what we want or what we think we need…it is then that we need to pray, “Lord Jesus, help me to trust you by reminding me that faith is being certain of your love even when I can’t see it. Lord Jesus, help me to trust you even though my personal expectations are not being met. Lord Jesus, help me to trust you by teaching me something new about you through this circumstance. Lord Jesus, I believe! Help me overcome my doubts.”

The Lord Jesus does help us to trust him. He keeps us in the dark on the details and leads us to get better at believing his promises without being able to see their fulfillment. In the next verses from Hebrews we will see that this is the way the Lord has always done it, ever since the fall into sin. Listen to verses 2 and 3. (read v.2-3)

The writer wisely reminds us that the ancient believers were commended for their faith – for believing in what they could not see. One promise that the ancients believed without having visible proof is that the universe was formed by God’s command. We aren’t the only generation that has struggled to believe in creation without visible proof – every generation has faced that issue. To think that God just spoke and there it was – that has sounded crazy to everyone from Cain until the present. But God said it, so we believe it…even though we haven’t seen it with our own eyes.

There are many examples of believers going on faith and not sight in Hebrews 11. That’s why it is called “the heroes of faith” chapter in the Bible. Today, I have chosen one of these heroes to make the point clear. Abraham, the great man of faith, had to believe in God’s promises in spite of what he saw, heard and experienced. We get started with verses 8-10. (read v.8-10)

Do you remember this story? God comes to Abraham and says, “Pack up your stuff and leave your family and friends to go to a place from which you will never return. Also, by the way, I won’t tell you where it is. Just head in this direction, put one foot in front of the other foot, and I’ll guide you as I see fit.” How would you react if your husband told you that before a move?

And how long did Abraham have to live in the dark about where he would put down his roots? Was it a week? A month? A year? Ten years? Twenty years? None of the above. He lived in the dark the rest of his life. He never had the comfort of living in a country he could call his own. He never had a permanent place to live. He spent the rest of his life in a strange land among foreign people in a temporary tent only because God told him to do so. But he wasn’t angry or frustrated about it; he was OK with that. He realized God had taught him to be able to say, “I’m but a stranger here…heaven is my home.” My promised land is the city whose foundation, architect and builder was God himself.

Abraham trusted God when he told him to move to a place he would only later find out about. Abraham trusted God’s way was the best when God asked Abraham to keep on moving around and never settle down. And those weren’t the only amazing promises Abraham believed on faith and not sight. Listen to the next two verses. (read v.11-12)

Abraham also had to cling to a promise that he and his wife would have a son of their own even though they were long past the age of childbearing. Abraham first heard that promise when he was 75 and his wife Sarah was 65. But the baby didn’t come until he was 100 and Sarah was 90. What did Abraham have to go on all those years when Sarah never was pregnant? It’s not like Sarah would get more fertile as she grew older. The one and only thing Abraham could cling to was God’s promise. And that was enough. And sure enough, against all odds and against all logic…God’s promise came true just as he had said it would. Even though he had zero descendants at age 99, he eventually had as many family members as the stars in the sky.

What is the best part about living by faith and not sight? Listen to verses 13-16. (read v.13-16)

You know that man in the hospital bed? He’s still there and he is sad, very sad. He is hurting and tears still roll down his cheeks as he thinks of his wife. He looks around the room and still there’s nothing that will give him comfort. But he’s thinking about his Savior now, and his promise that all of this will work out for good. He’s pondering Jesus and his promise that a better country is to come. One day he will join Jesus and his wife in his eternal mansion. He’s not afraid anymore, and he isn’t wondering if God loves him or not, and he isn’t angry with what God has allowed to happen to him. His situation hasn’t changed – but do you know what has changed? His heart. His heart now is filled with faith in the One who took on his flesh, who endured the cross for him, who conquered his lifetime’s worth of sinning and made him perfect in God’s eyes. He is now longing for a heavenly country, and that will allow him to be content on earth even as he suffers here, trusting that God will take him home at just the right time. As you ponder the promises of Jesus, you’ll be content as you suffer too. Amen.