By Faith, Abraham

Turn with me once again, please, to Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11.

We continue our series in the study of this tremendous epistle.

Looking at that chapter known as the chapter of faith, Hebrews chapter 11.

We will be beginning with verse 8. Hebrews chapter 11, beginning at verse 8.

And once again, before we open God's word, let us ask him to bless our time together.

Our gracious Heavenly Father, we need your spirit to come and to open our hearts, our minds, to give us strength, concentration.

Lord, protect us from distraction. Let us hear from your word this morning, so that you may be honored and glorified in all things.

We pray in Christ's name. Amen. We have been studying through the book of Hebrews.

When I have opportunity of speaking here, it has taken us quite some time, as is, of course, the tradition that we have amongst

Reformed Baptists. Any summary treatment of any book causes us all to be very nervous, and so it's good that we go very slowly through these texts.

We don't like change, and that's why what's going on in the world causes a lot of us much discomfort.

So, we are slowly working our way through the book of Hebrews, and slowly working our way through chapter 11.

We come now to the section that deals with Abraham, rivaled only in size in this chapter by the section that deals with Moses, which makes some level of sense.

And, of course, we know that there are three major religions in the world that are called the great

Abrahamic faiths. That is, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

What that means, of course, is that each of these faiths looked to Abraham as part of their story, or even the originator of their story.

Judaism, of course, would insist that unless you are physically related to Abraham, genealogically, genetically, shall we say, that you're not really of the faith of Abraham, unless, of course, you go through the process of proselytization into that faith.

We, as Christians, of course, believe that we are related to Abraham, first and foremost, by his faith.

That is the argument of Romans chapter 4, and we will have occasion to look at that as we try to answer some of the questions that are raised by this section in Hebrews chapter 11, but we insist that the proper relationship to Abraham is one of faith, that we need to have the faith of Abraham, as is also found in the gospel accounts as well.

Now, what you may not be aware of is that Muslims, likewise, see themselves as the true heirs of Abrahamic faith.

They believe that Abraham and his son Ishmael traveled down to modern -day

Mecca, and there established what is called the Kaaba, the locus of Islamic worship even to this day, and we see pictures of the

Kaaba in the Grand Mosque as people are circumambulating the Kaaba seven times, and, of course, when

Muslims pray, they pray toward the Kaaba, specifically toward the black stone in the corner of the

Kaaba, which they believe was placed there, and that Abraham and his son originally intended it to be a place of monotheistic worship, and that was only changed over time when idolatry came, and then

Muhammad came and got rid of that. And so you have three religions that look back to Abraham, and each one says that the other is, in essence, in error.

Judaism would say that our understanding is incorrect, and certainly the Islamic one is incorrect, and we would say that the

Jews have missed the spiritual faith aspect of Abraham, and, in fact, that the promise to Abraham was that his descendants would be as the sand of the sea, and that this blessing would be to all nations, and we see this fulfillment in the gospel, and, of course, both

Jews and Christians would say to our Muslim friends, there's just no evidence that Abraham did any of those things, certainly no evidence that Abraham founded or built the

Kaaba or anything like that at all. And so you have the Abrahamic faiths going back to this one man,

Abraham. Now, what we're seeing in the book of Hebrews, of course, is we've come to this chapter where you have exhortation to faithful continuing obedience.

Remember, once again, chapter 10 ended with that signal text.

We are not of those who draw back to destruction. So, once again, what's the whole focus of the book of Hebrews?

But it is a book seeking to encourage us in faith. Seeking to encourage us to press forward and be faithful.

And so we are looking at these men. We looked, for example, last time that we looked at this text, we looked at Noah.

We looked at Enoch and these early progenitors of the faith.

And we saw how they were faithful and how Noah, by his steadfast obedience to the calling of God, condemned the world, the world that mocked him, the world that refused to believe.

And now we encounter Abraham. And, of course, Abraham is mentioned many times in the

New Testament. And, in fact, the signal passage in Genesis 15 -6 where Abraham believes

God, Yahweh shows him the stars, the heavens, says your descendants will be like these in number.

And it is said that Abraham believed in Yahweh. It's the first time the word belief is even used in the

Bible in Genesis 15 -6. Now, we know that Abraham was not the first person to believe in God.

We know that Noah was a faithful man and Enoch was a faithful man. But the first time that the word appears in either the

Hebrew or Greek Septuagint is there in Genesis 15 -6. And it is reckoned to him as righteousness.

And, of course, this text quoted numerous times, particularly by the Apostle Paul in his discussion of how we become right before God.

And so Abraham is extremely important, but not just in that sense. We think of the fact that Abraham rejoiced to see the days of Jesus.

That according to John chapter 8. Well, what does that mean? And, of course, Abraham comes up over and over again in Jesus' disputes with the

Jews. And so a central figure. And so what can we learn about his faith?

And especially about the steadfastness of his faith, the obedience of his faith, and especially in regards to Abraham, we have brought out for us a theme that will really be picked up in this text.

And that is the concept of being a pilgrim, an exile, a stranger in the land. Which would be, of course, very important to these

Hebrew Christians who themselves have felt that they are exiles. They have been separated from their former community.

They are in a world that is hostile to them from every perspective. The pagan world is hostile toward them because of their monotheism, their belief in the cross and Jesus and so on and so forth.

The Jewish world is hostile toward them as well. And so this concept of exiles and pilgrims comes out as well.

So let's take a look at what this text says and start the rather daunting effort of working through what this says about Abraham.

Hebrews 11 .8 And builder is

God. By faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive even beyond the proper time of life since she considered him faithful who had promised.

Therefore there was born even of one man, and him as good as dead at that, as many descendants of the stars of heaven in number and innumerable as the sandwiches by the seashore.

All these died in faith without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own and indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went 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 a city for them.

By faith Abraham when he was tested offered up Isaac and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son.

It was he to whom it was said in Isaac your descendants shall be called. He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead from which he also received him back as they type.

Amen. So here is the section on Abraham. You notice that it is broken up into two sections.

The first section and then you have sort of a digression, an expansion, a discussion of how all of these people up to this point were strangers and exiles upon the earth and then it returns to Abraham and that signal passage in regards to his offering of Isaac and that is going to be a real challenge to handle that particular incident.

It is a section that I have wanted to preach upon for a long time and when you preach through a book verse by verse eventually you get forced to deal with whatever you were afraid of dealing with in the first place.

So we will take a look at that but obviously we will not be able to get all the way to that point in our studies today.

Beginning at verse 8 By faith Abraham when he was called obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive an inheritance and he went out not knowing where he was going.

Now I have mentioned as we began this text that we need to try to hear the aspects of faith that the writer is emphasizing to us and to try to avoid as best we can asking questions of the writer's presentation that he really isn't seeking to answer.

What do I mean by that? There are certain aspects of Abraham's faith that are highlighted that can give us encouragement that we didn't find in looking at Enoch that we didn't find in looking at Noah.

I mean when you think about the multifaceted thing that faith is it would be difficult to use any one individual outside of the faithfulness of Jesus Christ I would assume to try to illustrate all these things.

I mean for each one of us God places us in certain situations in our lives where he works in a certain way to conform us to the image of our

Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and that's not the same for every single individual certainly being conformed to the image of Christ is, yes but how that works in each one of our lives isn't always the same at all and even when we go through similar situations very often how we respond and the specific area of our life that God is working on will be different and so while we might gain insight from others who have gone through similar tragedies or difficulties, sickness, disease issues in the home or work or whatever it might be while we might find others who can come alongside and have similar experiences no matter how similar they are there's always differences too and so when we look at faith as illustrated by Abraham we need to try as best we can to look specifically at what is said about Abraham so we look at this first verse what is the element of faith that the writer is seeking to say to us this is the element of faith that you need to emulate this is what you need to take as encouragement and as I've already suggested it seems that one of the primary emphases in at least this first portion regarding the faith of Abraham is the fact that we as believers do not have a foothold in this world in the sense of a city with foundations in other words, this concept of being strangers, aliens living in tents you'll notice by faith he lived as an alien in the land of promises in a foreign land dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob and we think back at the story of Abraham and it does strike us as somewhat unusual how often the text emphasizes this we have

Abraham dwelling in tents now, he clearly was a fairly well -to -do man he has a pretty big household he has a lot of servants and yet he dwells in tents now certainly there were people who were just shepherds of sheep and things like that they had to be able to be mobile and to move where they could take their flocks a flock could devastate one particular area pretty quickly so certainly there would be some aspects of this but there were people who lived in the land who were well -to -do who would have servants who would take care of things like that but they would build a home and I would imagine

I've never done this, but I would imagine it's on par, more comfortable to live in a home than to live in a tent especially in a desert clime

I would imagine especially during thunderstorms and things like that I've only stayed in a tent a few times

I'm just not one of those guys I'm not Brother Callahan who's out there in the woods just living off the woods killing everything around and eating it building the tent out of the skin of the animal you shot that's just not really my thing which means if the zombie apocalypse ever happens

I'm toast fairly early on and Brother Callahan will be the last man standing there's no question about that but this is not my thing and so you would think that someone with all these servants you could sort of peel ten of them off to build you a nice place to stay to entertain people and things like that well

Abraham doesn't do this and even when Sarah dies he's got to go and he's got to find some he's got to buy a plot of land the term is he's an immigrant he's an alien, he's a stranger in the land even though the land is promised to him he remains a stranger in it and that is an interesting aspect that is then brought out for us later on that we need to recognize that there is an element of faith there is an element of obedience maybe even an element shall we say of endurance that must be ours in this world

Abraham first of all obeys the call that is given to him now he clearly was probably not a hurtin as far as finances went even where he wants but he was called to go out to a place which he was to receive her inheritance and he went out not knowing where he was going so here is an element of faith as well

Abraham is called to go to a place he'd never seen now at this point we could stop and start doing a lengthy section on calls to foreign missions and things like that and I think that would be perfectly appropriate if you're talking with someone who has been called to go to a place that they have never seen clearly we have experience with people who have said you know the

Lord just laid upon my heart a particular people group I saw something about them

I saw how they lived and I just couldn't get them out of my heart and out of my thoughts

I just had to be used of God I want to bring the gospel to these people and we think of probably the most famous martyr story in the past hundred years

Jim Elliott and what took place in that situation and how many of us have been greatly benefited by even considering the self -sacrificial nature of people like that and so I am in no way shape or form saying that that's not a proper element of this to see that is when

God calls you, you go and you do not question God and say well if you really want me to go then you're going to reveal to me everything

I'm going to need to know before I get there I need a lot of information that's how

I would be there's no question about that I get upset when people move my cheese and so the idea of just picking up and going is pretty foreign to me and it's easy for me to go well

I would need to work this out and need to work that out and all the rest of these things and if I had been

Abraham he never would have gotten out of Ur of the Chaldees because I would have been making so many excuses and taking so long getting around to doing it but Abraham obeys the call he goes out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance but he went out not knowing where he was going and so he has a call he has a direction this is where you're supposed to go

I know you've never been there before I know you don't know the way but there is something about faith that accepts that we are under the authority of the one who commands us we are under the authority of the one who commands us

God has a right to ask of us that which may not be comfortable to us there are a lot of definitions of faith running around in Christianity today most of which are focused upon our satisfying our desires fulfilling what we want for ourselves our own self made definition of who we are going to be but biblically this kind of faith the kind of faith that the writer of the

Hebrews is saying you need to have in seeing what's coming towards you, in recognizing that you're under constant pressure to go back to the old ways, in recognizing that you've seen people who have gone back in recognizing that things aren't going to be getting easier for you, one of the elements of faith that you must understand is that the one who has lordship over you has the right to command you to do as he says now that is an element of faith that is missing in a lot of modern day

Christianity I haven't gotten a chance to do it yet, I am going to do it,

I am just making a commitment to get it done but I read a letter to the church this week,

I haven't mentioned it to anybody, I've saved the bookmark, I'm going to be responding to it probably

I was thinking about doing it, in fact it struck me it's written by a young person, it's a letter by a young person, a letter from my generation to the church and it points out that we're losing 70 80 % of the next generation and the reason for this is because they have homosexual friends and the church is known as being anti -homosexual and therefore we're in danger of losing them and the church needs to get with it and as I read this particular letter and there's an attached video song with it and it's all meant to tug at the heart strings and things like that I was really struck once again,

I mean the letter even says in it, you know, if it comes down to my gay friends or discovering that the bible says that they're wrong, well

I'm going to take my friends, like well, you know, okay we know what kind of church you're saying you're going to be comfortable with but as I think on how many people respond to the commandments of God's word today,

I cannot help but think that this element of faith really needs to be emphasized as well in other words many people have been taught that you can have faith in God without being obedient to his commands in your life well

I believe in God really? what has he commanded you to do in life? you said you believe in God yeah,

I believe there's a God well you see, Christian faith means you believe he exists but it also means you will be obedient to him so what has he commanded you to do?

he has commands for me? or what's even worse well I really don't think that he's commanded me to do anything in fact, it seems that there are certain theologies out there that reverse the whole situation and say you can command

God. You can name it and claim it. Your words create the reality around you and all the rest of this foolishness that parades under the name of Christianity and there are even some who would accuse me for what

I've just said of being a legalist now those of you who know how many times

I have defended salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, would probably find it rather humorous that I would be accused of being a legalist but there are many people who think that if you emphasize the fact that God has the right to command you that he has commandments that we are to fulfill in life well, you must be a legalist no,

I'm just recognizing what the word of God says and that God is not silent as to how we are to live our lives in such a way as to bring honor and glory to Jesus Christ and to live our lives in such a way as to actually experience fulfillment and hope and what

God has designed us to be in our lives and when we ignore what he says to us when we ignore the revelation of his will in that area, we do so only to our own self -destruction and nothing else and so Abraham does not engage in an argument with God, he does not demand of God certain up -front information there is a submission in faith that is seemingly foreign to many people today now it makes perfect sense to Abraham, if this is my creator

I have no choice but to submit to him and it's certainly true that as we consider the later incident noted specifically by the writer in regards to the offering of Isaac a level of implicit trust in God is clearly present a level of that kind of trust that says

I cannot see past this point in time I must trust in your goodness there is that there,

I mean we know that you have Abraham exercising faith in the promises of God there are things that God says but sometimes how those promises are going to be fulfilled, we can't see and in the issue with Isaac and we're not going to get there yet but it's sort of hard not to see it coming, it's sort of like that big train coming through the tunnel in the issue of Isaac, the text itself brings up the tension and that is,

God had said it's through Isaac that the promises are going to be fulfilled through him you're going to have all these descendants and now he's saying offer him, offer him wow there's a tension there there is there are times when the only basis upon which we have to act is the assurance of the settled character of God himself and nothing else and only those who know him only those who have walked with him through the dark times only those who have impatient endurance experience, suffering and difficulty in life really build that kind of settled assurance in their hearts and we know those saints they're the saints that are not blown about by every little thing they're not troubled by every little thing that comes along, they're not always looking for some new ism or anything like that you know those mature saints, it's because they've walked with God, they've come to know who he is and if you're a young person in Christ if you've only known

Christ for a certain period of time, that should be your goal. Your goal should be to cultivate a character of patience and endurance and faith in God knowing his character so well that no matter what he calls you to do, no matter what he calls you to experience or to suffer you will be able to do so, you will be able to present to him a heart that trusts that he is only going to do what is best and that he gets to define what best is not you that's a hard calling we don't know anything about Abraham before this, we know he comes out of a land filled with idolatry we don't know when

God first started working in the heart of Abraham had he, even as a young person, caused

Abraham to doubt the polytheistic religions around him how had he brought a knowledge of the fact there's only one true

God to Abraham we simply are not told people can speculate, people have speculated, all sorts of stories have been told down through the centuries try to fill things in, but we're not told but what we are told is that when he was called,

Abraham obeyed he didn't argue he went out and he probably did so with his family and friends saying, why?

you're leaving the good land for a land you don't know all sorts of arguments were presented, but he went out not knowing where he was going, this was an act of faith and by faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise as in a foreign land dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise and so he remains patient he waits upon God even when he enters into the land, he does not say, okay, this is mine, and tries to push

God's timetable he leaves it in God's hands now we remember in regards to Isaac and Jacob we remember these are not perfect men we remember that Abraham for example, in regards to the marriage of Isaac, very concerned about going back to the old land and remember a little bit later on, it says in this text itself it says, you know, they're strangers and if they had wanted to go back to the old land, they could have but they were looking for a better city a heavenly city

I'm sure there were difficult times the incident with Lot, for example that probably crossed the mind man, you know, we had it a whole lot better back home let's go back but no instead he lived as an alien in the land of promise so here's someone who's been given a promise, it's all going to be yours but the fulfillment is still down the road and what's the immediate natural thing for you and I to do well if I've been given a promise it needs to be fulfilled right now oh how impatient many of us are,

I'm not going to say every single one, there are some very patient folks and I think that's one of the greatest gifts

God can give to somebody is just to make someone a patient individual we all have our limits though I remember once my dad has always been a patient person really has but I remember once as a kid the first time

I saw my dad lose his cool he had just finished fixing up this car

I mean he could, my dad can fix could in the past anyways fix anything, I mean we had a car once, the brake went out on it and it rolled down a hill and into a line of trees for most people that's it, it's scrap metal he dragged this thing back up, stuck it in this garage and three days in a row because he was a salesman, he needed this car to be able to travel around and do his selling three days, day and night

I remember the sounds coming from that garage and three days later out rolled a car, body work done engine work done, everything he did it all himself and he was mainly self taught at all that stuff, so he fixes this car up and I remember because I was sitting in the passenger seat this is in Pennsylvania so I was just a little kid and we're waiting at a light and this guy behind us decides he just cannot wait and so he tries to sneak around us and hits us well

I don't know if it had been a bad day I don't know what was going on the window is down next to me and all

I know is all of a sudden my dad is right here yelling out that window at that guy in a volume of voice

I had never heard before now he avoided any off color language but he let the guy know what he thought of his level of intelligence in the process and I was just, you know, my eyes were this big,

I just, you know, I thought that my dad had the patience of Job but everybody has that breaking point at some point in their life and patience especially on our city streets isn't it funny, you'll find out more about a person's true level of patience driving down the road with them much more than being at work with them or anything else what is it about the road that causes all of us our sanctification level to just collapse to an amazingly low level

I've not figured it out but I experience it myself and I've even done the calculations, okay,

I get stuck behind this person on I -17 coming down to church it means I'm going to sit here early, 30 seconds less than if I get around this person but I'm, what are you doing what is that,

I just I don't understand it, I don't know where it comes from but my, it does seem to happen patience why am

I impatient why do any of us experience impatience well we know we're not in charge we know there are things that are just completely outside of our control

I mean a thought crossed my mind this morning as I was getting to the car what would ever happen if this car wouldn't start and I'm supposed to be preaching this morning

I was supposed to be doing, I mean, I was sitting there going who would I get a call and all the rest of this kind of stuff, would

I get on my little scooter and try to get down here on my scooter I really wouldn't want to do that, I don't know I realize there are things that could happen and probably eventually someday will happen that could just throw throw all my plans right out the window and I don't like when my plans are changed

I don't like it but you see what

Abraham recognized is God had made the promise God had brought him into the land he was being obedient to God but God gets to set the timetable for the fulfillment and that's where we, we chafe at that we chafe at that especially in our modern day where everything has to be right now right now, right now

I'm that way most of us are that way in fact when you think about the inventions we've come up with, what are they all meant to do?

Save us time save us time I mean, what was it like before a microwave oven

I've used the illustration many times, it's a good illustration I think it would be good for many people to have to learn to use the jiffy pop the old kind, you know what

I mean that young people are going, what is he doing some of the older folks are going, oh yeah and we didn't have the nice smooth burners on the oven, we had the you know, the old coils, so you take that you take that thing, which do they even make them anymore?

oh man, I'm going to have to find one of those even though it might not work on my oven anymore because I've got one of those flat ones but you'd sit there and if you wanted to have popcorn you had to sit there and start popping and you got good at it after a while right when it stopped, because it went too far then everything at the bottom was all black and burned and stuff like that, but man then the steam starts coming out of it, remember the steam coming out of the thing, out of the aluminum foil and stuff but you know what, it took a while now, you know, you want some popcorn popcorn popcorn you come back, you know 90 seconds later, you got popcorn what was that all about?

absolutely no need for patience at all and boy, when I look at the younger generation and we've got to have everything right now and by the time

I'm 20, I need to own a house, and you need to pay for my college education, and pay for my give me, give me, give me, give me, give me

I go, I think you need Jiffy Pop, I really do every day this patience thing, this patience thing, there's something good about having to wait and realize you're not in control of everything and sometimes your desires don't get to be fulfilled exactly when you want them, and you see what people like Joseph, and Abraham and Isaac, what they learned is sometimes it doesn't even happen in this life sometimes there are promises

God gives that we can only see the fulfillment from afar and the question is, how many of us would be faithful to the promise of God in our lives, if it's just it's all the way down there but you see, all of us are called for that every believer there are promises that have been given to us, the now and the not yet, and we can only see them from afar instant gratification is not a

Christian virtue and one of the greatest problems we have is not embracing this element of endurance, of not demanding

God, it needs to be right now our prayers are so often, oh

Lord aren't you listening? haven't you heard me? yes, but you only started praying five minutes ago but what if it was five hours five days, five weeks five months what's the dividing line?

it's up to God how long was Joseph in prison? don't know! he remained faithful he had that kind of endurance in his faith so Abraham dwells in tents with Isaac and Jacob who are fellow heirs to the same promise so their faith is going to be noted later on, but a portion of it is right here and why did they stay in tents?

for he was looking for the city which has foundations whose architect and builder is

God and when you're looking for what God has promised you what the world will offer in its place this will never be enough don't get me wrong

I didn't say that the world won't offer you something in its place, the world will and when you settle for it it's always a cheap imitation it's never satisfying and we all know that everyone in this room who has had any experience in the

Christian life knows that every single time we try to shortcut

God's work of sanctification in our lives, take the easy route skip the hard work, skip the suffering go with the instant spirituality, grab what the world had to offer it didn't satisfy it can't satisfy it can't satisfy not for a true believer if it does satisfy that might tell you that you've got a real spiritual problem you might not be a real believer it is only that which comes from the will of God comes from the spirit of God that will satisfy the child of God because Abraham was looking for the city which has foundations whose architect and builder is

God he was looking for the fulfillment of God's promise and God had promised him something he could only see from afar, but his patient endurance and faithfulness well, made him one of the biggest names in all of human history everyone looks back to Abraham why?

because of his faith and only God can design and build that which will fulfill the heart of the true child of God it's only that city it's only that place to dwell you see, the amazing thing is yes, there is the heavenly fulfillment of that which we all see down the road, but there is a sense in which what this is saying is

God will provide you the perfect place for you to dwell if you will but believe him and that includes exhortations to these

Hebrews who are suffering, they've been cut off from their people, they're undergoing persecution these types of words have really been a great encouragement to those who experience persecution

I just read this morning, in fact about the fact that I wasn't aware of this, but Vietnam over the past half a decade has become a major violator of human rights and especially persecution of Christians and I read a story of a

Christian pastor who was just well, he was literally beaten to death slowly,

I mean we know from what happened during the Vietnam War that for some reason people in that nation just love inflicting pain and what was done to this man was amazing but he, by God's grace never abandoned his faith in Christ and he is a martyr he has lost his life for his faithfulness to Christ and we know that happens under the regime of the evil men of North Korea as well and you think about those people and they could foresee that city which

God had promised them, they could see it coming, but that doesn't mean that God did not provide for them even in those darkest hours and there's moments of great pain great solace even where they were

God has enlightened many a prison cell God has brought paradise to many a prison cell we don't see that until we're there, we can only trust, we don't seek that but if God calls us to go there the one thing that we can always remember is if we're called to go there, we're not the first ones who've been there and there have been many faithful men and women who've gone there before us and experienced

God's faithfulness in the midst of that place. That's a tremendous encouragement

He was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. No man nothing that men can make in this world can fulfill the desire that the

Spirit of God places into the heart of the true believer to have only that which God provides.

So I have to ask the question as we close this morning are you still looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is

God? Have you tried to put up your own ramshackle shack here upon this earth?

What I mean is are your passions, is your heart still set upon what

God calls you to or have you allowed your passions to be focused on other things?

And can you agree with me that when that happens those other things are never satisfying? You work and work and work to get them and once you get them, what happens to them?

They turn to dust. Corruption stolen from you.

Or even when you're sitting there in that big fat house that you've worked so hard to get and you realize, man we want that city which has foundations that only

God can lay whose architect and builder is God. We want what He has for our lives, not what this world would ever, ever offer to us.

Now are we going to continue this evening in Hebrews chapter 11? Sure are. We'll pick up with verse 11 and we'll ask ourselves the question who is verse 11 actually about?

It may seem obvious to you. It's not so obvious to many people. We'll talk about that and we will press on into especially the phrase that I don't know we'll get to tonight they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

What does that sound like to you? Does that sound good or bad? Do you embrace that? Does that challenge you?

Well by God's spirit we will allow God's word to minister to our hearts this evening.

Let's close the word of prayer. Indeed our gracious heavenly

Father we we recognize that so often in our lives we settle for things that should never satisfy us.

That is so easy for the world to drag our eyes down to the earth, down to the ground and that we need your spirit and your word to lift our eyes upward to truly embrace the promises you've given to us in Christ Jesus.

Forgive us for the many times even in this past week we have settled for the dust of this earth rather than the glories of heaven itself.

We ask that as you by your word have ministered to us this day that you would help us to remember that you would call us anew that you would strengthen our faith that we might be better servants of Jesus Christ.