February 16, 2009

• Hebrews 11:8-16 by Pastor Don

  Pastor Don continued teaching on this passage.

  Hebrews 11:8-12 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; (10) for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child^c]’> embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.

  These people died in faith, having not received the promise.  Pastor Don pointed out that the crux of this is that we have an understanding of spiritual things, that there is life beyond this life, and it is so much greater than what we have here.  We cannot even imagine what God has for is if we are too bound by what is down here. Our perspective is that we are separate from this existence, so we don’t live our life down here as if it is the only thing there is, there is something beyond just this life down here.

  These people discerned this truth, and now that they have died, they did not receive the promise on earth, but that does not mean that they did not receive the promise. They died in faith. 

  When one of your children gets off on the wrong track, some want to state that God does not keep his promise, so you blame God and stop going to church.  But God never said that if you were righteous that your kids wouldn’t go through a period of knuckle headedness, or that they won’t get knocked up, locked up.  When these things happen to our children we may fall apart, but God still will keep His promise to us at the right time.

  God is forthright with us. In Genesis 17 God chooses not to hide the truth from Abraham.   He knew that Abraham would do the right thing.  The journey can be long.  Pastor Don said that when you are riding in a car with your father and the destination is unknown to you, often a child will say, “Are we there yet?”  They want to know, but even if they are not there yet they will not jump out of the car.

  Hebrews 11:13-16  These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them,^YouToMe