Faith In Walking, In Waiting, On The Way Out

Today's Old Testament reading will be in Genesis 12 verses 1 through 9.

Now the Lord said to Abram, go from your country and your kindred in your father's house to the land that I will show you, and I will make you a great nation.

I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you

I will curse. In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

So Abram went as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy -five years old when he departed from Haran.

And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran.

And they set out to go to the land of Canaan. And when they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place of Setrum, to the oak of Morah.

At the time the Canaanites were in the land, the Lord appeared to Abram and said,

To your offspring I will give this land. So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

From there he moved to the hill country, to the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent.

With Bethel on the west, and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the

Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord. And Abram journeyed on, still going toward Negeb.

The New Testament reading is in Luke chapter seven, starting in verse one. After he had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered

Capernaum. Now a centurion had a servant who was sick, and at the point of death, who was highly valued by him.

When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent to him the elders of the Jews, asking him to come and to heal his servant.

And when they came to Jesus, they pleaded with him earnestly, saying, He is worthy to have you do this for him, for he loves our nation, and he is the one who built our synagogue.

And Jesus went with him. When he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends, saying to him,

Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. Therefore I did not presume to come to you, but say the word, and let my servant be healed.

For I too am a man set under authority, with the soldiers under me. And I say to one, go, and he goes, and to another, come, and he comes, and to my servant, do this, and he does it.

When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him. And turning to the crowd that followed him, he said,

I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith. Not even in Israel have

I found such faith. And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the servant well.

You may be seated. Take your

Bibles and turn with me this morning to Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11.

You follow as I read 1 through 22.

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

For by it the people of old received 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, and 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.

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance.

And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.

For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is

God. By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised.

Therefore, from one man did him, as good as dead, were born descendants, as many as the stars of heaven, and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.

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 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 for them a city. By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac.

And he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said,

Through Isaac shall your offspring be named. He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.

By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau. By faith

Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff.

By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones.

Let's pray. God, now open this text to us in a way that would challenge us, in a way that would comfort us, in a way that would cause us to truly exercise faith in your promises.

Father, we need that kind of faith, so help us, build it in us as we hear you speak in this text, and we'll thank you in Jesus' name.

Amen. Well, the pressure is on.

Your brother and wife have been sent to prison because they are followers of Jesus, and now you have their children.

How in the world are you going to care and provide for them? Today, you get the devastating news, and because you're a follower of Jesus, the court has decided that you have to forfeit all your property.

What do you need at that point? You know what you need? You need faith.

That's what our writer said to those who face this very same kind of persecution. In the uncertainty of life, you have to believe what

God has promised. You must take God at His word when He says that you have better and abiding possessions waiting for you, and with that kind of faith, you must endure.

Now, you recall that as we enter into chapter 11, this chapter of faith, it's written to you when pressure is on to abandon

Jesus. It's all about the faith we need so that we can endure in difficult times.

We saw last week that faith is simply taking God at His word, even if it seems impossible, even if what

He tells you, you've never seen. If God says it, you must believe it.

Our endurance then is fueled by the promises of God. It is built, as we believe in faith, the promises that God has made.

Endurance does not come by simply gritting your teeth. It isn't just sticking it out by your own willpower.

You endure because you believe what God has promised. Now, in this chapter, this whole chapter, we see that faith emboldens the saints of God, how faith produces endurance, and how others have walked the same path as us by faith.

Now, our pastoral writer shows us the kind of faith in our text this morning exhibited by Abraham and his heirs, the kind of faith that we have to emulate.

Now, we're not going to cover the whole thing. We're only going to go through verse 16 today. So let's look at verses 8 through 16 in our text.

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance, and he went out not knowing where he was going.

By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.

For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is

God. By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised.

Therefore, from one man and him as good as dead were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.

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 in exiles in 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 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 for them a city. Well, what does God tell us this morning?

Here's the first thing he says. You need faith in your walk. You need faith in your walk.

Here you have the opening chapter of Abraham's life. If you heard it this morning in 1

Corinthians 12, God had revealed himself to this pagan, this guy living in a pagan land and called him from his pagan idol worship to himself.

And then in calling him, promised him that he was going to inherit a land. But the thing is,

God told him he had to leave his homeland now without telling him where he was going. As you read the text in Genesis 12, you see that he had not told him where he was going, but he left, he obeyed

God. Abraham obeyed God's command to leave his homeland, even though he did not yet know where God was sending him.

And so Abraham, despite all the uncertainty of this, stepped out in faith.

He believed that God did have a place for him.

So as he begins his walk with God, as he begins his walk with God, he has to exercise faith.

Now God describes the faith that takes him at his word, even though you walk with uncertainty.

The readers of this letter faced incredible uncertainty. We saw it in chapter 10.

They received prison sentence. Now I want you to go back and live with them in that moment.

You're sent to prison. What are you thinking? Here's what you're thinking. Who will take care of the children?

Who's going to take care of our children? What awaits us in prison? Will we ever get out?

Right? You got to have faith in those uncertainties. Chapter 10 tells us that they were publicly ridiculed.

Now live in that moment with them. What's it like? You're publicly ridiculed.

All your neighbors now ridicule you for your faith in Christ. How are you going to handle that?

Are you going to lose your job? Maybe. Are your neighbors all going to turn against you now, all of them, and ignore you?

Ostracize you? Quite possibly. All that uncertainty.

The confiscation of your property. Where are we going to live? If we leave here, will we ever come back?

What can we do now? All of this uncertainty. You have to live by faith.

You face uncertainty as you walk life's path. Here's the widow that's overcome with sorrow.

She has lost her life companion, and all that sorrow doesn't even know what to do.

It's so overwhelming. This last week, one of the significant and influential men in my life died.

His name was Ray. I wrote to his wife, Mary Ann. It's funny.

It's hard for me to call them Ray and Mary Ann. They're still Mr. and Mrs. Wagner to me. I'm 67 years old, and I'm wondering how

I ought to address them. But they were significant in my life. I couldn't imagine what

Mary Ann was going through. I wrote her, and I said, I cannot help but think that your sorrow is great.

Losing your life companion after so many years together, years of joy and tears, victories and defeats, love and loss can be unbearable.

Mary Ann, because of the gospel, we have hope. I pray that you can grieve with hope in these days. Life in a broken world where death seems to reign can be nothing but difficult.

But because of Jesus' great work, we still have hope in the midst of the brokenness, and we can still smile in the tears because we believe that Jesus has purchased for us a future reality where tears no longer exist, pain no longer hinders, and death is a memory.

Now I would hope that she would be able to take those promises, and the grief and the sorrow that inevitably overwhelms you would not be so overwhelming.

And on the basis of what God says he's going to do, I can now live in the present if I believe those promises.

What about the uncertainty of life when you lose your job? I'll never forget the period of life.

It was Beck's, hardly anybody here remembers, it's history to most of you people, back in 1982.

Well, actually, it was 1983. And I lost my job, and Becca was just weeks away from having

Levi. And there were no jobs to be had in 1983. It was almost impossible to find a job.

And I'll never forget, we said, you know what? Here's what God said. Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and he'll add everything you need.

You don't have to worry. And you know what? God was faithful to his promise. He gave me two jobs.

I got a rotten job and worked at that for a week, and then he gave me a lot better job where I quit the first and got the second.

Right? What about the 17 -year -old who, because he's a follower of Christ, thinks now, he's ostracized.

He thinks he's never going to have any friends, right? I'm never going to have any friends. What does he need to know?

What does he need to believe? Where does he need to exercise his faith? He needs to remember what Jesus said. The thief comes to kill, steal, and destroy, but I've come that you may have life and have it to the full, even if that means that standing for me means you don't have any friends.

I'm still going to give you the best life you ever thought. Now notice in this verse as well that faith produces obedience.

It says that Abraham obeyed, and Abraham obeyed because he believed God. How do we know that he believed

God? Because he obeyed. He left his homeland, even though he had no idea where he was going as he started out.

Faith will always be certified by obedience. How do you know you believe when you obey?

I remember years ago, well, you know, God calls pastors to preach his word.

Does he not? In 2 Timothy, he says, you've got to preach the word in season and out of season, whether you feel like it or not.

Whether the circumstances are good or bad, he calls on his pastors to preach the word.

And I remember years ago being in Romania and going to speak at a meeting at a particular congregation.

And what's interesting about this church is during the communist era, they had asked permission to build the church, and the communist regime gave them permission to build this church, something very unusual, something almost unheard of.

So they were able to build this church, and so they did. They spent months and all their resources, and they built this church, and they were looking forward to the first Sunday when they were going to worship in that church.

And the communists came on Saturday night and bulldozed the place down, the night before they were to meet.

They met at the ruins, they worshiped together, and the pastor preached. Now, how could he preach in those kinds of circumstances?

The place that you've poured your heart and soul in has been bulldozed in a malicious way, and yet he preached.

How could he? Because he believed. He took God at his word. He obeyed God because he believed the promises of God in 2

Corinthians 4, verses 16 through 18. So we do not lose heart.

Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day for this light, momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison as we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen.

For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

He believed in those promises, and it resulted in his obedience. And so what does

God say? He says you need faith in the uncertainties of your walk. But not only that, he says you need faith in your waiting.

You need faith in your waiting. God revealed to Abraham the land of promise, and so Abraham arrived there, but guess what?

He did not take immediate possession of that land. That was promised to him. In fact, he never took possession of it.

And his son Isaac and grandson Jacob were also heirs of the same promise, and they never took possession of the land.

They all lived in the land promised to them, not as possessors, he says, but as foreigners living in tents like nomads as if they were passing through that land.

But they lived there in those tents. Why? They were waiting for the promise to be fulfilled.

They waited their entire lifetimes for it. How in the world did they keep going?

Why did they stay there waiting for that promise to be fulfilled? All of them living their entire life there, dying and not seeing that particular promise fulfilled.

Well, here's why. What does he tell us? He tells us in verse 10. Look at it. Abraham was looking forward to the city that has foundations whose designer and builder is

God. They anticipated something even greater than the promise of the land. They anticipated a city whose architect and builder is

God, a city whose foundations were unshakable, a city unlike the collapsible, movable dwellings that they had.

It would be a great unshakable dwelling because God had planned it and God would build it. They had been given some kind of revelation from God that said my promise will be fulfilled in a way that you never anticipated.

Canaan pointed to a greater reality and Abraham and his heirs were able to see something.

We're able to glimpse what we now see, what Jesus has given us in Revelation 21 and 22.

They were able to see that. That's what kept them going in the waiting for God to fulfill his promise.

They could live the way they did while they waited because they believed what

God had said to them. They took God at his word. They had not seen this.

They had not honestly seen all that that was gonna happen, but God had revealed to them in some way this was going to be the case.

And so they were able to wait and live in that land as foreigners because they knew, they believed that God would keep his promise.

And then there's Sarah, verse 11. What does it say about Sarah? It says that by faith

Sarah herself received power to conceive even when she was past the age since she considered

God faithful. How is it that this 90 year old woman, she was 90, I know, think about that for a moment.

90 years old and conceiving a baby. That's impossible.

It's impossible. Exactly, that's the point. It is impossible, but God said he'd do it.

And what is faith? It's the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

If God said it, it's going to happen. And even though she was 90, she conceived.

She believed what God had said. She considered God faithful. She believed that God would do what he said he would do.

She took God at his word. And he goes on to say, because Abraham and Sarah believed

God's promise, they were the originators of a vast nation. You go back to Genesis 15, and here's what you read.

Abraham essentially says to God, you know, you haven't given me an heir. And so Eleazar is going to be my heir.

Eleazar was the steward. He was the top guy in the administration. He's the guy that oversaw all the riches that Abraham had accumulated, all the things that go on.

And God said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I want you to come outside here and let's look at the sky.

And as they went outside, God said to Abraham, look toward heaven and number the stars if you are able to number them, so shall your offspring be.

Right? And what's the next sentence? And Abraham believed the

Lord. Abraham believed what God was saying. And he took God at his word.

But a baby was not born to him until about 25 years later when he was 100 years old.

And he was, as the writer says, as good as dead. I mean, let's face it.

It's hard to believe a woman of 90 can conceive. It's hard to believe a guy who's 100 years old could make that happen.

Right? He was as good as dead. Now look, these two never saw that numberless multitude of descendants.

They didn't see it. Abraham never saw that many of his descendants.

At the most, he saw two, his son and his grandson. That's the most he saw.

And yet they believed that God would do it. They believed that God would do it. They did not faint in their faith.

And so God is saying to you, so no matter how difficult the circumstances, you should not abandon

Jesus. And you can only endure if you believe the promises of God.

That's what will produce your endurance. And you, along with these Hebrew Christians who need to remember that God always fulfills his promises, even if it's in ways that you don't see, even if it's in ways that you cannot figure out, because God will often fulfill his promises in ways that you would never expect, just like Abraham and Sarah.

You know, God speaks to suffering believers in Romans 8, verses 31 and 32.

And this is what he says there. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, 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?

That's a promise of God. Do you believe it? You say, well, right now, I don't see how

God graciously gives us all things. I don't see that right now. Right?

Like the patriarchs and Sarah, you wait for God to fulfill that promise. You believe him while you wait.

He's gonna do it. I have a friend. Her name is Debbie.

A few months ago, I went up to Wisconsin for a funeral. It was a funeral of her husband.

She was part of our youth group. Our youth group was close. And we all keep track of where we are and what we're doing.

Deb lost her husband a couple months ago. This week, I found out she lost her brother.

He died, a year younger than me. Her husband, her brother, gone.

All within a couple months. She lost

Jim, and this week, her brother, John. What if she said to you, I've been waiting for God to do good, like he promised, but all

I have is heartache. What do you say? Maybe you've been there. Maybe you know it.

What do you do with that? You say, I believe what

God has said. Even though it's nothing but heartache now. God has promised me good.

And he's gonna fulfill it some way. I know it because he says it.

You need faith in your waiting. You know what else we find out in this text? You need faith on your way out.

Notice what it says. They all died in faith. They all died in faith.

All of these people, all, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, all of these died without ever seeing

God ultimately fulfill the promise of possession. But they did not die in cynical unbelief, did they?

They didn't die as cynics. They died in faith.

They died in faith. Now, they did not shut their eyes to reality. They did not pretend that all the promises had been fulfilled already.

They didn't pretend that. And yet, even though they didn't shut their eyes to that reality, their eyes were open to the promise that God had made of the future.

They saw the promises of the future and they welcomed them. They believed those promises.

They took God at his word concerning the future. Now, how do we know that they believed

God in that way? And our writer is really interested in how he tells us this. He says that they confessed or they acknowledged, they confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

They recognized that by saying that they knew they were not citizens of this earth, but that they belonged to another land.

But then they didn't go somewhere else and claim their residency, least of all the place where Abraham came from.

Abraham never returned to the land of his birth. In fact, he even instructed his servant when his servant went to get a wife for Isaac, he said very clearly to his, he said very clearly to that servant, you must not ever take

Isaac back there. We belong here. Jacob left and went to that land, but guess what he did?

He came back. They all did that. And so our writer says, if they called themselves strangers and exiles where they were, but refused to return to the old country, it must mean that they desired another country where they thought their citizenship was, a better one.

And like the readers of this epistle, they believe that God had a better possession and abiding one waiting for them.

They saw that God had promised them a heavenly country, an unshakable city. And because of that, they called themselves exiles and strangers, not so then they'd go back, but that they're exiles and strangers because they're looking for God to fulfill that promise that he had made them.

And so because they truly took God at his word, he is not ashamed, it says here, to claim them.

He's not ashamed to say, I am the God of these people. They believe me.

They count on the promise I made of an eternal city. Right? They're mine.

Now, on your way out, will you die a cynic or a believer?

On your way out, what's gonna be characteristic? You're gonna go out believing or you're gonna go out as a cynic and unbelief?

That's the question. It doesn't matter if you die the death of a martyr like some of these people were facing.

If it only means you die in your own bed, how are you going to die? Are you gonna die in faith?

You're gonna die as a cynic. Will you believe that God exists and that he rewards those who seek him?

Do you believe there's a heavenly city where tears no longer exist, where pain no longer hinders and death is a memory?

Do you really believe that? As you believed in your walking, as you believe in your waiting, you have to believe in your way out.

Now, some of you right now are saying, but I don't have the kind of faith that these folks had.

Seriously? You wanna make that argument? Listen, you need a faith even if it's a weak one.

You really say, I wanna have a faith, my faith isn't like theirs. Really?

Really? Think about it. Here's Abraham. God, since you haven't given me a son, Eleazar's gonna be my heir.

God says, no, that's not the way it's gonna work. Very next chapter, after God tells him, you're gonna have descendants like the stars of the sky, what does he tell him?

Or what does Abram do? Abram and Sarah say, well, God hasn't given us an heir, let's use

Hagar. Not a good plan. Not exactly out of faith, right?

When God told Abraham, this is in Genesis 17. When God told

Abraham that Sarah would be the mother of nations, you know what the text says?

Abraham fell on his face before God and he laughed, saying to himself, right.

A little bit of translation there, but that's what happened. He fell on his face before God and he said to himself, yeah, like that's gonna happen, all right?

But Abram grew in his faith so that the very last test, the sacrifice of his son, he was willing to do it.

What about Sarah? Sarah and her faith. You know what, at one point in Genesis 18, so the three visitors are there, remember the story, the three visitors are there, they're gonna go look over Sodom and Gomorrah and they stop at Abraham's test and one of them, who is the

Lord, says to Abraham, by this time next year, Sarah's gonna have a child.

Sarah's in the tent, they're outside. She hears this, you know what the text says? She laughed, she laughed.

By the way, you know what Isaac means? You know what the

English translation of Isaac is? It's laughter. You've got this kid who's gonna be a reminder to you of how you didn't believe

God, right? But eventually, somewhere along the line, she believed that God would be faithful to his promise and she conceived.

What about Isaac? He lied about his wife being his sister, just like his dad.

He faltered in his faith that God would protect him because God said in the covenant, those who dishonor you,

I will curse. You don't have to worry about someone getting killed because this is my wife.

God said, anybody who dishonors you, I'll kill them, right? He didn't believe that.

Yet he came to believe all of the promises of God. Jacob, you want a faith like Jacob?

Let's talk about years leaving the land and going to live in the old homeland, in the old country, right?

Spent years there, not to mention his whole life as a manipulator and a liar, right?

He manipulates and lies until finally, finally, he returns to the land and shows his faith in the promises of God.

Now, I'm telling you, he says, these are the people that God claims is his because they believe.

And you say, I wish I had a faith like them. My guess is you do have a faith like them. It is a faith that's growing.

It is a faith that is imperfect. But yet, you can grow in that faith.

Don't look at the Old Testament heroes and say, wow, they have really had it down. You know what? As we go through this chapter, you are going to be surprised at the people who are listed in this chapter as having faith that ought to give you hope, that ought to say to you, your faith may be weak, but it's faith.

It's faith. You ought to have hope. You ought to believe that a weak faith is still faith.

And you have to grow in that faith like all of these heroes did. They all grew in their faith.

So you see, God calls you to faith then. He expects you to take him at his word even when what he promises seems impossible or even when it appears he isn't following through on those promises.

You ought to believe. You need to believe. You know, at this time of the year, we celebrate the fact that God sent his son, the

Rescuer and the Messiah for his people. How long did they wait for that? Century after century after century after century after century.

And yet, what? God did what he said he was going to do.

He remained faithful. He did not neglect them. He did not forget. He remained faithful.

And you can count on the promises of God. You know how? He's given you the supreme guarantee of all his promises.

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?

You have the guarantee of the blood of Jesus that God will remain faithful to all his promises.

So remember, you need faith in your walking. You need faith in your waiting.

You need faith on your way out. You need to take God at his word. Father, thank you for the exposition of faith that you give us here.

We thank you that we have hope and we can have hope because you are a faithful God.

Because you are one who will never renege on his promises. And Lord, help us to believe your promises when everything says something to the contrary.

Father, we ask you build that faith in us. Help us to grow in our faith.

Father, this is another one of those things that's gonna distinguish us from the world around us.

We will always have hope because we believe you will take you at your word.