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
Pastor Tim Patoka 9th Sunday After Pentecost Focused Living Properly Values Heavenly Treasure August 7, 2022 him and would continue the family line. Yet they were not completely fulfilled by the time Abraham died. Despite that, he still had a commendable faith that had 100% conviction in the unseen promises that God gave him. God has given you and me a different set of promises. How commendable is your faith in them? We heard one promise in our Gospel where God promised to provide for our every need. Thinking back in your life, have there been times when you wondered how God would provide? Thinking ahead, are you convinced that God will continue to provide for you in circumstances you don’t even know? From our First Reading, we saw the Lord demonstrate his promised way to give spiritual blessings like righteousness – it’s through faith, not our actions. Do you doubt that the eternal life and forgiven status you have simply through faith? Do you expect God to require something from you in return for its continued benefit? If the Holy Spirit were to have Hebrews chapter 11 written today, you and I would not expect to find ourselves listed alongside Abraham as having commendable faith. Our lack of commendable faith is not because of anything with God. For he is faithful in everything he has promised. Look to Abraham. The Promised Land was given as an inheritance when the Israelites came up out of Egypt. Abraham’s descendants became innumerable in two ways – 1) physically through the Jewish race and 2) spiritually through all who believe in God’s promises as Abraham did. God also provided Abraham his flesh and blood son Isaac even though he was as good as dead, that is, well past the age of having children. God also fulfills his promises to us. He has provided for our every need so that we are living, breathing, and soaking in God’s Word. And so he will for the time to come. God has given us every spiritual blessing through faith so that we are continually covered in Christ’s righteousness, holiness, and forgiveness. God secured our salvation by sending his Son Jesus to die on the cross in our place so that our sins could be paid for and done away with forever. God will keep his word for he is faithful everything he has promised. Unlike the stereotypical politician, our Lord is like that trusted, reliable friend of yours. What they say they’re going to do, they do. And what they don’t say, they don’t do. If this friend of yours were to promise you something a bit unusual, would you believe them? Probably! Because they have proven their reliability. Our God is even more reliable because he is perfectly faithful. As such, we can take him at his
2
Pastor Tim Patoka 9th Sunday After Pentecost Focused Living Properly Values Heavenly Treasure August 7, 2022 word and hold him to it for we have 100% conviction in his promises, even his unseen promises. 2) [Commendable Faith] Longs for Heaven’s Better Land As commendable faith surely trusts in God’s promises, so it also longs for God’s promises. The particular promise we’re looking at is how heaven’s better land that will be our eternal home. The way Hebrews describes heaven is as a city with foundations whose architect and builder is God. These foundations are contrasted with the tents that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lived in. Tents are, by nature, temporary dwellings. And they’re not great to live in for a long time or during extreme weather. If you had your choice, you’d choose to live in a city that has foundations to live in! Having God as the city’s architect and builder speaks to the personal value it has to us. Do you know how people get a sentimental attachment to a building if a loved one had a hand in designing or building it? Imagine what it would be like to have an entire city designed and built with you in mind. That’s what heaven’s like! And this city in a far better land that will be ours, a better land that we cannot help but long for. Those who long for heaven’s better land typically live as strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob did so their entire lives. They lived as strangers, out of step with their sinful circumstances and neighbors. They lived as pilgrims, on a long journey to somewhere far away. As strangers and pilgrims, they were content to live in tents on land that was not their own because they were longing for their home in heaven’s better land. In the same way, those who have commendable faith today also live as strangers and pilgrims on the earth for they too long for their home in heaven’s better lands. Which one better describes you – a stranger and pilgrim traveling to their longed-for home in heaven, or someone who has settled down because you’ve already arrived at your longed-for home? If you’ve been burned by life or don’t have too much to your name, maybe it’s easier to be that stranger and pilgrim. But if the Lord has blessed you with much or if you’re hoping to get as much as you can out of life, maybe it’s a struggle as your home is already here on earth. It’s fine to enjoy the earthly treasures that God has given us in a Godpleasing way. But we can go too far when we prioritize them over our heavenly treasure, to give up our description as strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Perhaps you’ll recognize it in yourself when you get up in arms when political results don’t
3
Pastor Tim Patoka 9th Sunday After Pentecost Focused Living Properly Values Heavenly Treasure August 7, 2022 go as you wished, lose sleep over earthly circumstances outside of your control, or blame God for not giving you a slice of heaven now. Though we may forget where our home should be, God hasn’t taken it away. In fact, he’s already prepared it for us and it’s far better than anything we could have here on earth. It’s a whole city with foundations that will never be torn up or fall down a sinkhole. Whether it has a highway system like Phoenix, small town feel like Tucson, or something else I can’t tell you. But I guarantee you that it’ll be great because it was designed and built with you in mind. And God is not ashamed to be called our God because of how he gives us heaven’s better land. It’s through faith in the one who lived, died, and rose for us – Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. And there’s nothing to be ashamed of in Jesus. With faith-filled hearts longing for heaven’s better land, we live as strangers and pilgrims on the earth. As strangers, we are out of step with our sinful circumstances and neighbors. As pilgrims, we’re on a long journey to our home in heaven. And we cannot help but show this in our lives. We take election results in stride knowing that there will be another one and eventually it won’t matter as we’ll be under God’s perfect, wise, and benevolent governance. We temper bad news with the promise that things will be wonderful when we reach heaven’s better land. We regularly schedule time with God and in his Word in our busy lives because where we’re going is more important than what we can enjoy now. We eagerly await the day when we finally see what we have long confessed – how heaven is my home. Concluding Encouragements When the Bible looks to commend someone, it looks to their faith in what God has done and said. Hebrews chapter 11 gives us a few of the inductees in faith’s hall of fame who had a commendable faith. As seen with Abraham, a commendable faith is convinced of God’s promises, even his unseen ones. Because God is faithful to his promises, we can take him at his world and hold him to it 100% of the time. Commendable faith also longs for our home in heaven’s better land. Because we have the guarantee of what God has unashamedly designed, built, and prepared for us, we contently live as strangers and pilgrims on the earth. May we strive to have this commendable faith that is convinced of God’s unseen promises and longs for heaven’s better land so that we could be listed alongside Abraham and the other inductees of faith’s hall of fame. Amen.
4