Pastor Tim Patoka Focused Living Properly Values Heavenly Treasure Commendable Faith Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16
9th Sunday After Pentecost August 7, 2022
1) Is Convinced of God’s Unseen Promises 2) Longs for Heaven’s Better Land If you are going to commend someone for something, what do you look for? Typically it’s something noteworthy they have done like completing a long, arduous task like getting a college education or completing a marathon. It can also be being the top in their field like being the champion or creating a work of art that people like me could only dream of. Maybe it’s by rising above the unique and challenging circumstances you have come from. But do you know where the Bible looks to commend someone? It’s their faith, their trust in what God has done and said. In Hebrews chapter 11, we find faith’s hall of fame where a number of believers are commended for their faith so as to encourage current believers to join their ranks through the same faith. While we’ll primarily just look at Abraham, he alone is enough to show us what commendable faith is – how it is convinced of God’s unseen promises and how it longs for heaven’s better land. This commendable faith is then what we can also have so that we may be counted alongside Abraham as inductees in faith’s hall of fame. 1) [Commendable Faith] Is Convinced of God’s Unseen Promises When people ask what faith is, I typically point to our opening verse, “Faith is being sure about what we hope for, being convinced about things we do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1) To be sure or convinced about something means to have 100% confidence in it, not a wishy-washy “I suppose” kind of confidence. Faith also hopes for things that we do not see, truths that we could not otherwise know. Abraham shows us what commendable faith looks like with the promises God gave him. There are three in particular. First, how the Promised Land of Israel would be his inheritance. Second, how Abraham’s descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the night sky and the sand on the seashore. And third, how Abraham would have a son of his own flesh and blood. Abraham saw these promises somewhat fulfilled by the time he died. He bought a plot of land where he buried his wife, Sarah. His immediate family could have numbered as high as 24 people, which is a respectable number. Isaac born to 1