Abraham Goes Out

I. Introduction
A. New series
1. It is important that we learn how we are to live in this world.
2. It’s important that our expectations are set.
a. E.g. one of the most common problems in marriage has to do with expectations. If someone thinks marriage is going to be easy, they will be more prone to get discouraged: What’s wrong with us?
3. It’s important that we set our goals properly: What are we supposed to be doing here?
a. E.g. when you’re a student, going through school, it’s important that you understand that this isn’t life, this is preparation. The better you prepare, the better you will do in life.
4. And the Bible is filled with guidance about how to live in this world.
a. And this summer, we will look at 12 Bible stories (mostly OT) which teach us about how we should live in this present age.
5. Summer series: each sermon stands on its own.
B. Today, we’re going to talk about the story of Abraham.
1. I think this is the best place to begin because it is with the stories of Abraham and Moses in Hebrews 11 that the NT sends us in the direction we’re going this summer.
2. In future weeks we will talk about Moses, Noah, Joseph, David, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, Nehemiah, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.
C. Hebrews 11:8–16 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. 9 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. 10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. 11 By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. 12 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. 13 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 & exiles on the earth. 14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 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.
II. Abraham’s story
A. Abraham lived in Ur of the Chaldees. And, when he was 75 years old, God suddenly told him to leave, without telling him where He wanted him to go.
1. Gen.12:1-4 “The LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.” – Genesis 12:1–2
2. So, God promised a man with no children that He would make him a great people (as many as the dust of the earth, the sand of seashore, and the stars of sky – Gen.13:16; 22:17).
3. And God promised a man with no land that he would be given a vast amount of it, as far as the eye could see (“Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, 15 for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever.” – Genesis 13:14-15).
4. God promised him a great name, and much honor.
5. And Abraham obeyed. It sounded crazy. Abandoning everything he had, the entire structure of his life, his friends, his family, his support network, his livelihood, his home. He just left. He just accepted what God said and left.
B. But things didn’t work out as expected.
1. God did lead Abraham to the land of Canaan, but he never possessed the land, but lived in it as a visitor. “He went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob.” – Heb.11:8-9
a. As it says in Acts 7:5 “God gave Abraham no inheritance in Canaan, not even a foot’s length, but promised to give it to him as a possession and to his offspring after him.”
2. And God did finally give him a son, but even at the end of his life, he could count the number of his promised family on one hand – a far cry from a great multitude.
3. Even at the end of his life, he still hadn’t received what he’d been promised.
III. The deeper meaning
A. But Abraham came to understand that there was a greater meaning to his life than obtaining a piece of real estate, and having lots of descendants. Hebrews 11:10, 16 tell us that...
1. At some point he began looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer&builder is God. He died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them & greeted them only from afar, and having acknowledged that he was a stranger & exile on the earth. He was seeking a homeland in a better country, a heavenly one, for God had prepared a city for him.
2. He realized that God’s promises had a larger meaning than they seemed to have at first, not just a temporary, earthly meaning, but a cosmic, eternal meaning.
B. Now how did he know there was a larger meaning? How did he know to seek a heavenly city?
1. Well, he probably didn’t at first. But after some time it became clear to him. The things God had promised him weren’t being fulfilled in the way he had expected.
a. Instead of becoming owner of the land God had promised to give him, he continued as an immigrant and alien in it.
b. He was promised his children would be a great nation, but as time went on, no child came, not even one.
2. He assumed from God’s promise that by now he would be riding high: swimming in descendants and possessing vast amounts of land. But here he was just growing old and near death, not making much progress toward the goal.
3. He realized that God’s promises were too big for what his actual life on earth was like.
4. And, instead of doubting God’s promises, it began to dawn on him that God had something even bigger in mind that at first he thought. His attention was directed beyond Canaan, to a GREATER promised land, one built not by human hands but by the hands of God.
IV. And the author of Hebrews uses this story (and others) to teach us that there is more in the story of Abraham than just an instruction to one man to look for an earthly land. It actually teaches us how to think about this world and how to live our lives in this world.
A. And so what (according to Hebrews) does the story of Abraham teach us about living in this world?
1. It teaches us that behind God’s promise to Abraham is the promise of a better place, a promised land, a place God has prepared for His people.
2. Heb.11:16a tells us that Abraham “desired a better country, that is, a heavenly one.”
3. Hebrews calls it “the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem” (Heb.12:22ff.).
4. This is a foundational part of understanding the world from the perspective of Christ.
5. This world is not the ultimate place. This world is not our ultimate home.
6. There is another home God has called us to, another place.
7. Home has more to do with identity than it does with where your feet are.
a. Baseball players from around the world come to the USA to play in MLB.
b. Some make it their new home, some go back.
c. You can’t tell by watching them play. It’s something in their hearts.
8. Our feet are in this world, but where is our identity?
9. When our identity is wrapped up in here, in this world, our problem is not we ask for too much. The problem is that we’re satisfied with too little! We’re satisfied with this country instead of desiring a better, heavenly country.
10. Not so with Abraham. Heb.11:14 tells us that Abraham was “seeking a homeland.”
11. Are you content here, or are you after something which can’t be found here?
12. Are you comfortable here in this place, or do you long to be somewhere else? Do you have a certain Loved One, and you can’t be truly at home without Him?
13. One thing all true Christian believers have in common is that they’re looking to the land of promise.
14. Most people live in this world as if this world is all there is. How about you? Be honest.
15. I’m not asking if you believe this world is all there is. That’s a different question. That’s a theological question. I’m not asking a theological question.
16. I’m asking if you live in this world as if there is another, greater world which is your true home.
17. If so, then God is not ashamed to be called your God, for he has prepared for you a city.
18. However, if your faith in God has to do with this world only, if your faith has to do merely with your life right now: burdens and desires and goals and troubles, then you’re living an empty life.
19. 1Corinthians 15:19,14 “If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied... Then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.”
20. If all your hope is here, if all your hope is focused on your lifetime, if you’re just praying and trusting that your life here and now will be good, then you don’t have Christian hope.
21. Christ has told us that this is not our home, that there’s a better place for us, that He’s coming back and will recreate this world, removing human sin and sorrow.
22. People of faith have always known that our life, our identity, our hope, our joy are bound up in God’s promises regarding “a better country, that is, a heavenly one.”
23. All of us experience the harshness, the sadness, the uncertainly and insecurity of this world. But like Abraham we are “looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.”
24. Jesus Christ is preparing a glorious city for us. Revelation 21:2 calls it “the New Jerusalem.”
25. This world isn’t the ultimate place we were meant for! This is our boot camp, not our home.
26. The fact is, while you’re here on this earth you will never receive many of the things you long for. There will be injustice, there will be lost loved ones, there will be deteriorating health, there will be unfulfilled aspirations.
27. There are many preachers who are willing to lie to you for fame and fortune, and tell you that you can have it all on this earth. But they are blatantly contradicting what Jesus said over&over again.
28. I’m not saying that we live lives devoid of earthly joys. Not at all. But even our sweetest earthly pleasures and joys are but glimpses of, and foreshadowings of, our vastly superior, eternal home.
B. Another lesson we learn from the story of Abraham about how to live in this world is that when God calls us to Himself, He calls us to a whole new life. And it involves leaving the old life.
1. You can’t live in two places. You can’t live in your old place and in your new place.
2. That’s what we’d really like to do, but it doesn’t work.
3. In order to get to God’s city, one must be willing to leave this world behind — even those things which are most beloved and to which we are most attached.
4. You can pretend that your home is with God but really be living for this world. But you can’t actually be both.
5. You can even try to have faith, but it be in vain because that faith is for your life here on earth.
a. Faith is something you have or don’t have. Faith is not something you try. “I’m going to try believing in God and see if it works.” or “I’m going to go along with this and see if it works.”
b. In that case, your earthly life is still the ultimate thing and you’re using God to try to get what you want. But that’s not faith. Faith is based on what God says, not on what we want.
6. Becoming a follower of Christ may seem like giving up the known for the unknown, the tangible earthly things for the intangible heavenly things.
7. But isn’t that the way children often think about adulthood? Why would they give up their childhood fun for things like homework, and learning good manners, and developing skills which will be useful later on? But guess what? Adulthood actually comes. To a child, it seems intangible and theoretical and sort of irrelevant to life today. But it’s very real. And no matter how much a person resists it, adulthood comes.
8. And so it is with this world. This is our childhood. In a sense, this is not real life. This is not that time when we “go out in the real world.”
9. This is a time of preparation; this is a time of learning; this is a time of growing. This is a time of making mistakes and gaining wisdom.
10. But another life is coming. And when that comes, what may seem intangible now will be much more tangible than anything presently on earth (Heb.11:39).
11. Heb.11:6 the author of Hebrews described faith as believing that God exists and believing that He rewards those who seek Him.
a. It is not believing that He rewards those who seek Him primarily in earthly ways — that’s too small a reward. The reward He gives those who believe Him is far greater than anything this world can afford. In fact, it is far greater than we have the capacity to enjoy in our present state.
12. If we do have our home with Christ, we’re going to look a little weird to the people of the world.
a. Heb.11:13c tells us that Abraham “acknowledged that [he was a] stranger and exile on the earth.”
b. Ultimately we don’t belong here. We don’t fit in here.
c. Just as Abraham lived as a stranger & alien in Canaan, so we live in the world. It’s not our home.
C. Another thing the story of Abraham teaches us about how to live in this world is that it requires waiting.
1. Hebrews 11:13a tells us that Abraham “died in faith, not having received the things promised.”
2. Unless the Lord returns first, we too will come to the end of our lives without having received the happiness, the blessing, the reconciliation, the paradise, promised us.
3. What’s the point of believing in God’s promise if you never receive what is promised?
4. Ah, but we do receive it! We just don’t receive it before we die. For believers, death is not the end of our life!
5. And that’s what we’ve got to understand. God’s promises are ultimately about the world to come.
6. It may seem far away & way in the future – just like it seems to children that adulthood is far off.
7. Romans 8:24–25 Hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
8. This is what was so extraordinary with Abraham. He continued to believe God even though nothing God promised him seemed to be coming true.
9. Romans 4:18–21 In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” 19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. 20 No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.
10. This is how to live in this world. We walk by faith and not by sight. We trust God to fulfill His promises, even when nothing seems to be happening right now.
11. Yes, we are supposed to cultivate the earth in service of the Lord, we’re supposed to serve our fellow man, but if our tomorrow is not a part of our today, we will miss the glory and purpose of today.
12. Abraham had things to do. He had to set up tents and protect his family and find food to eat and decide where to go next.
13. But in the midst of it all, Abraham knew he was bound for a better place. And that’s how to live in this world.
14. We’re marching to Zion, beautiful, beautiful Zion! We’re marching upward to Zion, the beautiful city of God. Then let our songs abound, and every tear be dry. We’re marching through Immanuel’s ground, we’re marching through Immanuel’s ground, to fairer worlds on high, to fairer worlds on high.
15. We have one precious thing Abraham didn’t have. We know we’re marching through Immanuel’s land. We not only have Abraham to look to, but we have Jesus.
16. Jesus lived in this life on this earth. He worked and served and slept and wept, just like us.
17. And now He’s with us as we walk through this world which is His world.
18. He went through the waiting and the wailing and the appointments and the disappointments – even to the point of dying on the cross. But His path led to a better place – not just an ethereal existence floating around in heaven, but a new resurrected body, designed to live in a new resurrected world which He has gone to prepare for us. And when we go there to be with Him, we will finally be truly home.