Faith: Looking Forward - [Hebrews 11:13-16]

The Life of Russell Carter and the Hymn “Standing on the Promises”

There was a man named Russell Carter, and he was born in 1849. And I like Russell Carter's life because he was a man's man, and he was a man of the world in the sense that he did everything. He was an athlete, he was a professor, he taught at the military academy, classes like chemistry and natural science, civil engineering, mathematics.

He raised sheep, he was a doctor in medicine, and just a man with a fascinating life. Well, at 30 years old, he was diagnosed with a heart condition, and they didn't know if he would live. And so, the writer Connie Christensen said, quote, he knelt and made a promise that healing or no, his life was finally and forever consecrated to the service of the Lord.

And amazingly, the Lord healed him of that condition. He lived 49 more years. He had all kinds of other medical conditions, but lived another 49 years. And he's especially known for writing the hymn, Standing on the Promises of God.

You probably recognize some of the words. Standing on the promises of Christ my King, through eternal ages let his praises ring. Glory in the highest, I will shout and sing, standing on the promises of God.

Standing, standing, standing on the promises of God my Savior, standing, standing, I'm standing on the promises of God. And the hymnologist would say, it's written with a martial kind of style because of his military background, but better than all that is the truth contained, standing on the promises of God.

Trusting the Character of God in Hebrews

I'd like to ask you a couple of questions this morning. Number one, can you stand on the promises of God? Is he trustworthy? Should you stand on the promises of God knowing what you're going through and circumstances before you?

So why don't you take your Bibles this morning and turn to the book of Hebrews as we look at the character and nature of God, the object of our faith, and that he is worthy to be trusted no matter what.

While trials are very visible, he is invisible yet he can be trusted and he's faithful. And you can in fact stand on the promises of God. Now you know the book of Hebrews as you're turning there is a book about Christ's superiority.

Jesus has different offices. When you think about what he does, an office might be king, an office might be prophet, and he's both of those, of course. But specifically highlighting in this book, the book of Hebrews is Jesus is the high priest.

Not only does he make intercession for people, he prays for you, he's made an offering for you. That offering of course is his own life. And the writer wants everyone to know that Jesus can be praised and can be trusted.

Even at the very beginning, if I read the first few verses, it just starts off with the tenor of the entire book that is a tenor of extolling the Lord Jesus. Long ago at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets.

But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He, Jesus, this high priest, is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.

And he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

And so this entire book, this is kind of weird, I never do this when I'm preaching. Now, so they have to learn new things. I always like to watch Sinclair Ferguson because he does this, he does the elbow hold.

So now I'm doing the other elbow hold. One of my pet peeves in life is pastors that drink water from the pulpit. It looks just dumb and they never need it. Sorry, I need it. And then they're wiping their mouths and everything.

So today, crutches, pulpit, stool, I drink water. I repent. Now, we move to chapter 11 and he is wanting the readers and you to believe in this God, to keep faith in this God, to keep trusting in this God, and we all have to recognize and realize that when life brings troubles and trials, it's more difficult.

It's easy to believe the Lord and everything's going great, but when things are difficult, can you still trust this Lord? And so he is bringing a lot of Old Testament patriarchs to the front of the minds of these readers and listeners, and of course, you, so that you see, even though their lives were difficult, even though they were less than faithful, they still had the right object of their faith, the Lord Jesus, the high priest.

And that's chapter 11. As we know, it's called the great hall of faith, faith in the Lord Jesus. Let me just, for the purpose of review, read the first seven verses, Hebrews chapter 11, that will set the stage for our message today.

Hebrews 11 .1. Now, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it, the people of old receive their commendation. By faith, we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.

By faith, Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.

By faith, Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death. He was not found because God had taken him. Now, before he was taken, he was commended as having pleased God. 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.

By faith, Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear, constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this, he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

Every single one of these men, and of course women that we'll talk about today, Sarah, they were walking by faith. And this is the exhortation to all of us. And you think of Galatians chapter 2, verse 20, do you not?

The life I live now, I live by present tense faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave his life for me. That is a Christian life, walking by faith and not by sight. The just shall live by faith. And so he wants to engender that.

He wants you to keep going and keep believing. Remember at the end of chapter 10, what is the exhortation? Verse 38, but my righteous one shall live by faith. If he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.

And then even in chapter 12, at the beginning, the other side of the bookmark of Hebrews 11, therefore, since we're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, those men and women in chapter 11, let us also lay aside every weight and sin, which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

That is the race of faith, looking to the object of faith, Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

So today it's not an academic thing. Let's look at these characters. Yes, this is what they did. This is who they are. Isn't that wonderful? No, the message is for you because as they trusted in this high priest, and as they were walking by faith, God calls every one of you.

He calls me to do the very same thing, a life of faith. So our outline today in chapters, chapter 11, verses 8 through 16, picks up where we left off last time. And thank you, Pastor Steve, for filling in for me last week.

Faith Endures When the Future Is Unknown

Let me give you four words to help you assess every trial and every circumstance now and in the future. Faith in Jesus endures, even though the future looks, and these are the four words, unknown, unmanageable, unfulfilled, and unreal.

Four words that help us assess our circumstances, unknown, impossible, unfulfilled, and unreal. Can you trust in the Lord? Trust in other words, when the future looks bleak and you don't know what's going to happen, when you can't control your circumstances, when you have hopes and dreams that are unfulfilled in this life, and when you don't really know heaven is that real.

So let's just have a review for the first two, four, even those four words so that you can still trust the Lord, no matter what. Faith endures, even though number one, the future is unknown. Remember verses eight through 10?

By faith Abraham obeyed. He didn't know what the future would hold. Remember he was called out to go to a place that he was to receive an inheritance, and he went out not knowing where he was going. By faith, remember in the object, not blind faith, not faith in faith, not a subjective faith, but faith is shorthand, theological shorthand, for faith in the high priest revealed in chapters one through 10.

By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land. You want to know how foreign it was? You want to know how temporary it was? Living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.

For he was looking forward. He's walking by faith. He's by faith looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. Abraham did not know what the future held, but he knew the God of the future.

And this God, it says in verse 10, do you notice? He designs this ultimate city, this eternal city, this heavenly city that has foundations unlike a tent. He designs it and he builds it. That is God does.

He crafts it. He plans it like an architect and actually builds it. And without this God, we would have no hope of this eternal city, this eternal heaven. And Abraham was a man walking by faith. Everything about Abraham and his faith was not contingent on him or his faithfulness or what he did.

It was contingent on the God who revealed himself to Abraham. So simply, we learned last time that when your future is unknown, go with what you know. That is why you want to get that book, The Attributes of God by A .W. Pink.

Probably read it more than any other book in my life, 19 chapters on the attributes of God. It's free online, by the way, The Attributes of God. And you learn about God's attributes, his perfections, his characteristics.

Because what we do is we think about ourselves in trials and we try to think, well, what's going on here? There's all these unknowns and what will the doctor say and what will the future bring? So what I have to do is when I don't know something, I have to go with what I know.

When the unknown is before me, go with what I know. And that's why it is good to rehearse the nature and the attributes of God. And while I'm not faithful, while you're not faithful, God is faithful. He's dependable.

He's steadfast. He is worthy of trust. That's what Abraham did. It wasn't Abraham was so great, but he was trusting in the great one. And the writer wants to say, make sure you keep trusting too. The second word is unmanageable, or maybe we could say impossible.

Faith endures even though the future is unknown. Number two, when you can't manage the present. When you think the way forward is humanly impossible, verses 11 and 12. I don't know about you, but I like to think I'm in control of things.

I think I can manage life and circumstances come up. And now that I'm almost 60, I already want to say I'm 60, but I'm almost 60. I think to myself, I've seen that before and I know what to do. And I've been down that path before and I know how to manage these circumstances.

Well, there are some circumstances that the Lord puts us in that are not manageable, that we don't have any answers to. So how do we act? Do we say bad things about the Lord? Do we say, Lord, you're not good anymore?

I can't trust you. Who do you think you are? I knew you would do this to me. What's the response? Well, here the response with the unmanageable, impossible circumstances with Sarah was faith. She believed, look at verse 11.

By faith, Sarah herself received power to conceive. Remember how old she was, Grandma Sarah? Even when she was past the age, past the age of what? I mean, she'd been on AARP for 40 years. Do they even do anything as a company or just send out mass mailings?

I have no idea what they even do. She's past the age of childbearing. Her womb's dead. Since she considered Him faithful. Finally, there's somebody faithful in this chapter and it's not any of the people.

It's the Lord God, our triune God. She considered Him faithful who had promised. When God makes a promise, He keeps it. I remember raising kids. I tried to keep my word whenever I possibly could, but there's sometimes I just can't make a promise hold because I fail or something comes up.

Here this God promised. Sarah couldn't manage the circumstances. Impossible. Look at Abraham's body. Look at Sarah's body. It's impossible. But she believed because God said it was going to be true. She took Him at His word.

And if you weren't here a couple of weeks ago, it is a very interesting verse and has some problems in it for us as interpreters because it says, by faith, Sarah herself, Sarah being the subject. But then there's something here that's only used of a man.

That is, it's translated in the ESV, receive power to conceive. Literally, it's to conceive seed. No, it's not that at all. It's the father's part of the generative process, not the mother's laying down the seed.

And so she doesn't do that. The male does. But I think if we go with the interpretive translation of Greenlee, it all makes sense. By faith, Sarah herself also received the ability for the deposition of seed, even beyond her normal age, since she considered the one having promise to be faithful.

Can you imagine? Sterile Sarah. How would you like to have that for a nickname? And by the way, it says here, Sarah Stara. Sarah Stara. K-Sarah Stara. Whatever will be, will be. No, that doesn't make sense.

I'll stick to what I'm OK at. She was sterile. But she took God at his word, and she believed. And I think to myself, when I'm in some situation and I can't manage it, and I've been in many of those situations, I don't have the right resources.

And even if I had enough money, enough lawyers, enough counselors, enough friends, enough money, enough this, enough that, I cannot manage this. Then what do I say? One of the best things you can do is just to preach to yourself.

And I love, Paul has some good advice. What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, then who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies who is to condemn. Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, and indeed is interceding for us.

I can't manage my situation, but I do know the God who manages everything in his sovereign way. Oh, Father, you are sovereign. So I'm just going to have to make sure I keep remembering who that sovereign God is, the real manager.

I love Genesis 18. Now, Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah. It's kind of a nice way to put it. Well, it is, right? The way of women had ceased.

So Sarah laughed to herself saying, after I'm worn out and my Lord is old, shall I have pleasure? Shall I have a child? And the Lord said to Abraham, why did Sarah laugh and say, shall indeed I bear a son now that I'm old?

And then what's the next statement from the Lord, which is good for us when we have unmanageable circumstances? Is there anything too hard for the covenant-keeping Lord? No, that's good for us to say.

That'd be a good banner for you to write over your problems. Is anything too hard for the Lord? Is anything too hard for the Lord? Therefore, verse 12, from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven, that's quite a few, and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore, that's quite a few.

And then ultimately, not just physical descendants, but spiritual descendants, and I'm looking at a couple hundred of them right now. And Scripture, Galatians 3, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham saying, in you shall all the nations be blessed, so then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

Your father is Abraham if you believe in the Messiah. These struggling believers, children of Abraham, trusted in God no matter what the circumstances seemed to show. Well, that brings us to the third word.

Faith Endures When Hopes and Dreams Are Unfulfilled

First word was when the future looks impossible, or excuse me, when the future looks unknown, when the way forward or the present is unmanageable, and now we'll talk about the third word, unfulfilled, when there are unfulfilled dreams and hopes.

There's some specific thing that's unfulfilled here with the patriarchs, but you could think of this generally as well. In life, you have great dreams and plans, and when they don't come to fruition, how do you respond?

Verses 13 through 15. 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 an opportunity to return. This guy is a great preacher.

Whoever wrote Hebrews, maybe it's Paul, he is a great preacher. And so he's talking about all these folks, Enoch and Abel and Noah and Abraham and Sarah, and now he wants to make sure he grabs you in with this rhetorical device in verses 13 through 16, so you're drawn in.

He interrupts things, and you can tell even by looking, it's an interruption because you see verse 4, by faith. Verse 5, by faith. Verse 7, by faith. Verse 8, by faith. Verse 11, by faith. Verse 13, they all died according to faith or in faith.

So he switches things up so you'll pay attention. So you just kind of sit and reflect a little bit. I think that's one of the great losses of American Christianity is reflection and meditation and thinking.

And so he wants to tie into the modern readers with this little kind of interlude, and he wants to say that truth matters. Now, if you had to tell me, if you were having a quiz, what's the best way to understand Hebrews 11?

You might respond with, well, if you know how chapter 10 ends and chapter 12 begins, that's right. And if you also understand the end of chapter 11, you'll be set. Look at verses 39 and 40, and you will understand the rest of the chapter when you have this in mind.

Besides context, this is the key to understand Hebrews 11. Verse 39 and 40, and all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised. Since God had provided something better for, and he does the same thing here rhetorically, he ties it into the listener, he ties it into the reader back then and now for you, better for us that apart from us, they should not be made perfect.

God commends faith in the Lord Jesus. God commends faith in the high priest. And even though you don't get everything that's promised on this earth, you still trust in him because there's something better for you.

So back to chapter 11, verse 13, this pastor, he's been giving a pattern of the by faith, by faith, by faith, and then he has this little interlude here because he wants you to remember that even though you love it that Abraham believed, you love it that Sarah believed, what about you?

Are you believing? Are you trusting? These men and women did what we want to do. They believed. What's the opposite of faith? Maybe it's cynicism, maybe it's unbelief, maybe it's, I don't care what God said, it didn't work out for me.

No, we want persevering, saving faith in the right object. These men and women, by the way, were realist. You can say, well, they just had their eyes shut. They were all pie-in-the-sky people. That's not true.

They didn't receive all the promises. They were looking from afar. Verse 13 says that, does it not? Digging deeper into the verses, these all died in faith, not having received the things promised. I mean, it's so applicable for the readers of the day and us as well.

But having seen them and greeted them from afar, having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. Now, I don't know about you, but I like confessions and you have heard me talk about confessions quite a bit here.

We have our own London Baptist Confession as a statement of faith. Maybe you read the Heidelberg, maybe you read the Belgic Confession, maybe you don't like confessions. But here's a confession for every Christian.

Now, sadly, the ESV doesn't give us the translation that would make you think it's a confession. But here's what it says at the end of verse 13, and having confessed, that's the Greek word, that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

Hey, what's your confession, Christian that's struggling? I'm an exile and I'm a stranger. This is not my home. I have a confession. I have unfulfilled hopes and dreams and I am an exile. The sooner, dear Christian, that you grasp that there's a better life to come, that suffering isn't the end all, persecution isn't the end all, trials aren't the end all, you will be helped.

No wonder Peter writes, and he says, to those elect exiles of the dispersion. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh. No wonder the psalmist in Psalm 39 writes, I'm a sojourner with you.

Or Psalm 119, I'm a sojourner on the earth. We are heirs of salvation to the eternal heavens and yet we're refugees on earth. And I'm not trying to make a political statement. The church in California right across the street from our little place has a picture of Jesus and Mary and a baby and it says, refugees welcome.

Now, I'm not normally one for vandalism. I'm just kidding. Our best life is in now, friends. That's the point. You don't get everything on earth that you think you might want. I love 1 Peter 1. It's just good for my mind to be refreshed with scripture after I think about my own thoughts so often.

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the testing of the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, though that is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory. Abraham didn't get all the promises on earth realized.

Did he even see the countless number of his offspring? The answer is no. It's all about the timing of the Lord. He makes a promise, he will fulfill it. And if it's not on this earth, it's in heaven forever.

How about Moses? Wouldn't he be a good illustration of this very thing? Moses is promised to get to the promised land, or was he? He, an angel, he, an alien, he, a stranger on earth. He said, Lord, I will bow to the fact that the nation would possess the holy land, the promised land, the Canaan land, but I'll never make it.

Unfulfilled in his life, standing on top of Mount Nebo, dying. So we, as Christians, need to have that temporary confession that we are pilgrims, that we're aliens, that we're just passing through. I'm an alien, I'm a stranger.

This is not my home. There are unfulfilled expectations. Then what does it say in verse 14, as we continue, for people who speak thus, make it clear that they're seeking a homeland. What do you mean a homeland?

I thought it was the promised land was a homeland. No, the ultimate homeland. This sounds like Paul, does it not? But our citizenship is in heaven. And from it, we await the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body.

That's what we're waiting for. Seeking a homeland, what's the homeland? Israel as a nation, as a country, that's not the ultimate homeland. It's the greater homeland. The earthly dwelling, no, the eternal dwelling.

They weren't trusting in the earthly city. They were looking, hoping, desiring for that ultimate city. That is the heavenly city. Hebrews is teaching us that we ought to long for heaven. Verse 15, if they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they had an opportunity to return.

Could Abraham have gone back to Ur? Yeah. Could Abraham say, you know what, I think I'm gonna go back to the land where I came from? Yes. What about his son? He didn't even want his son to go back to the land.

Make sure when you go get a wife for Isaac, bring her back here. We're not gonna stay there. Make sure you do not take my son back there. Genesis 24. Don't go back is the point. You say, well, you know what, all these promises of God, they don't seem to be that fulfilled.

Shall I just go back? And now you can see how important it is for these recipients of this letter. I was trusting in Jesus. Things seemed to go well. Then everything broke up. Everything split up. Everything was a disaster.

Maybe I should go back. And when you look at the Bible, things don't go well for people that turn back. Right? Lot had a wife and she looked back. Reminds me of the days we'd sit around the dinner table and I'd just try to make up as many Bible stories as I could with counsel time kind of Iwana things.

And I just remember we're in Genesis. Lot's wife looks back. She turned to salt. I just poured salt in all the kids' hands and we were all like cattle with salt licks, licking the salt. She turns back.

Don't turn back. You can't go back. At the end of chapter 10, don't shrink back. You can't say, you know what? I had trusted my eternal soul to this eternal faithful God. And now I've got problems. I don't know if I can trust him anymore.

That's the whole point. You can't go back. When I see people that go back, that long to be back in the day, it doesn't reflect well on them. Remember when Moses brought the Israelites out of slavery, out of Egypt, and here was their response.

Numbers 11. Oh, that we had meat to eat. We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing. The cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the garlic and the onions. I could just go back. If I could just go back to before.

No, that's not what we wanna do. On the other hand, we see people like Peter and James and John. Luke 5, it says, they brought their boats to the land. They left everything and followed him. And then now number four, unreal.

Faith Endures Because Heaven Is a Better Country and a Prepared City

Faith endures even though unknown, unmanageable, unfulfilled and unreal. Okay, here's my point. Heaven is almost too good to be true. Heaven is too good to be true. Almost too good to be true. Is it even true?

Let's find out. What does the scripture say? It is so great. You're gonna think this is too good to be true. Verse 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 a city for them or he has prepared for them a city.

This part simple. Remember, heaven is a place and remember who's in heaven. That's what we're gonna talk about the rest of the message that heaven is a place and who makes heaven wonderful. So you can tell heaven's a place even if you look here, a better country, a heavenly one, right?

You can see that in verse 16, prepared a city. A better country, a heavenly one, he's prepared for them a city. Heaven is a place. It's more than a place, but it is a place. And so when you think of the Bible and what does it teach about heaven, the place, what does it say?

Now, before I get into this passage any further, I want you to realize that this passage helps me and should help you to navigate through crazy Christian television, crazy Christian preachers, small C Christians, people that talk about health and wealth and prosperity and all these things on earth.

That's not Christianity. This passage will teach us that there's something better. That's not now, but it's better. That blessings that are spiritual are better than material. And we see the world saying, oh, it's all your best life now and everything else, but it's crazy.

And I remember my old pastor used to say, if your best life is now, what does that mean for you eternally? It means you're gonna go to hell, but your best life isn't now. It's a wonderful life. Great things happen in life.

The common grace of God and God's grace toward his children, it's awesome. But this faith that is cultivated in this chapter is not a faith cultivated in easy street. It's not a faith cultivated in everything's going my way.

Yes, you should believe when everything goes your way, but this is a faith that's cultivated in difficult times. For them, it costs them their life, their property, their person. For some of these readers like Abraham and Noah, it costs them shame, it costs them ridicule.

This is a faith that's cultivated in the soil of trouble. I just want you to remember that when people come along and then they wanna say, why is your life so difficult? And you tell them you're trusting in Jesus, but then all of a sudden you don't have enough faith.

How sad that is. That's not what this passage is teaching. It's a place first. It's a city and it's a country. Did you know sometimes the Bible teaches that heaven is described by a house? That's kind of interesting.

Remember this, speaking of places, figures of heaven in the Bible, heavenly realm, house. Jesus said, in my house are many dwelling places. Or what's the King James say? Mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you, for I go to prepare a place for you.

If there's a dwelling place, there's this great place. I go to prepare a place for you. Our Lord Jesus said, heaven is more than just a person. It's a place. And why did he pick home? Why did he pick house?

Because it's the center of loving relationships and where we depend on one another mutually and we're provided for in their security. It's a house. Heaven is also spoken of as a place. Remember Jesus had Paul go up to heaven and Paul said that he was caught up into paradise.

It's a house. It's called paradise. It's also called a garden or a paradise garden. Today you shall be with me in paradise, Jesus said to the thief on the cross. But here it's called two things, a country, do you see, and a city.

While this is amazing, the Bible talks about heaven as a holy city, a heavenly city, a glorious city, a protected city, an accessible city. It's talking about a place. It's a city. And this is in the context of Hebrews where everything's better.

Jesus is better than angels. Melchizedek is better than Abraham. Jesus is a better hope. He's got a better covenant. He's got a better sacrifice. His blood's better than Abel's. And there's a better country, a better place to go.

That's why sometimes when I take trips to Israel, I hope you go with me next year. And people think they've made some kind of pilgrimage to the holy land of all holy lands. I love Israel. Don't get me wrong, but I'm looking for a better place.

I'm looking for a better city. That's what they were looking for too, a better country, a better city. Heaven is a place. One commentator said, it should be evident therefore that what they really looked to was a better country.

He's talking about Abraham and Isaac and these others. A heavenly one. This is the true reason why they showed no remorse at Abraham's leaving Mesopotamia. The eternal values involve the promises of God made them willing to regard their earthly experience as a pilgrimage and kept them from despair even when it is evident that death would overtake them before fulfillment came.

Longing for home. But the real part of heaven isn't the place, it's who's in heaven. And here, if I have one part that I've been looking forward to of my own sermon, it's this part here. Who's the who of heaven?

God is not ashamed, verse 16. Do you see it? To be called their God. Now let's just become really, what do people do when they sit on stools? Let's become authentic. Let's become authentic. I didn't need that one.

If you knew what I thought and did a lot of times, you'd be ashamed of me. Now, I hope you're proud that I'm your pastor. Maybe you say, oh, God's used me in your life and I'd be blessed for that. But I've done a lot of shameful things.

I still do. If I got to know you really well and I got to know those dark secrets, would you be ashamed for me to know them? I think you would. Yet, the Lord God Almighty knows everything that you've ever said or done.