Without Israel #8: A Better Tomorrow

Israel blessed the world with visionaries, looking for a better tomorrow. This message emphasizes the unwavering faith and endurance of biblical figures like Abraham and Moses, who remained steadfast in pursuit of God's promises despite facing hardships. Through their examples, it underscores the importance of trusting in God's plan even when circumstances seem challenging, and highlights the ultimate reward of eternal glory for those who remain faithful. Ultimately, the message encourages listeners to maintain their faith and perseverance, knowing that God's promises will be fulfilled in due time.

Transcript

Time for a little pop quiz here. Good morning. So, you know, I've I've talked over the years a lot about the four fundamental questions of life. Why are we here? Is the second one. That's the one we're going to be talking about this morning. So I was going to ask what the second one was, which is, you know, why are we here?
Why did God create me asking this question? Why am I here? We could ask a second. Our follow up question to that is, what is the best approach to life? What's the best approach to life? What are the best ways to be guided into the future of our life? Now, think about this for a second. We got got a couple of questions here.
In terms of the best approach for life, would you say the best approach for life is trying to make the best of today or is the best approach to life striving for a better tomorrow? I was I befriended a guy named Mark at our old church over on Sierra Way. Mark was a neighbor to the church There, and Mark was addicted to methamphetamine.
And I would continually talk to Mark. And one of the things I would say to him was that he didn't understand for quite a while, or as I would say to him, you know, Mark, you're spending tomorrow today. And he goes, What do you mean I'm spending tomorrow? Today? I'm saying you're eating up all of your tomorrows and what you're trying to gain for today, the pleasure you're trying to gain for today is ruining all your tomorrows.
And I think he finally understood that he was consuming his future prospects for trying to feel good today. And gratefully Mark got off the methamphetamine. And then he had another great challenge, which was that he was illiterate and then he became part of the literacy program at full time library. And the last I heard, he was, you know, touring around as a successful student of the literacy program and was encouraging other people.
And he got hired to, you know, encourage other people to join that. But the question is, you know, really illustrated by that is, are we trying to make the best of today or are we striving for a better tomorrow? What you're which is a better approach to life or another couple of questions might be, am I focusing in on what I want to do or am I focusing in who I want to become?
Another couple of questions that you can consider in terms of your approach to life. One of the things I've said over and over the years to young people that are interested in getting married and want to attract a mate is I'll say I'll ask them to imagine the kind of person they would want to marry. And so they imagine the type of person they want to marry.
And then I'll ask the follow up question Are you the type of person that would attract that kind of person to you? You know, are we becoming changed and transformed into the type of person that we would want to be in Christ? Are we focusing in on what we want to do? Are we focusing in on who we want to become?
Who are we becoming is going to have a greater impact on the quality of our lives then all of the fortuitous things that might happen to us materially. Now, of course, we're not going to strive to become better in Christ and seek the Spirit of the Lord to transform us from the inside out, seek the advantages that we have in Christ and the power we have in Christ to be transformed if we don't believe that there's a better future out there, if there isn't a meaningful future, what's the point of any of this?
What's the point of thinking about a better tomorrow if there is no better tomorrow? Or what's the point of becoming a better person if we're just living in a random world of chaos? Where do we go to gain confidence that there is such a thing as a better future out there that we can be sure of, that we can place our confidence in, that we can found our lives in?
Where does it come from? Where does that kind of hope in a better future come from to become more than just wishful thinking? Where can we have the certainty to know for sure that there is a better future out there for us? Well, as we continue in our series entitled What Would the World Be Like Without Israel, we're going to be looking today at how Israel blessed us and has blessed the nations with examples of men and women who, despite their circumstance, has stayed on course because they were certain of a better tomorrow.
They were certain that they would one day realize the promises that God had given them. We're blessed with these role models because they show us how to live in and through difficulty or staying on course to a better tomorrow. How does having a solid hope in the future change our present course of life? You know, you think about the settling of this country.
We say we're a country of pilgrims or we're a country of immigrants. Every person that decided to leave their country or their own homeland did it because they thought there was something better here for them than where they were leaving. They believed in a better future, a better tomorrow, and they knew that they were going to be going through great peril.
Just, you know, going over the ocean in a clipper ship would be enough to to be a dissuasion to a lot of people. But the idea of what am I going to do when I get there? How am I going to survive? What am I going to eat? All of these questions would have been questions that would deter most people.
But those who believe in a better tomorrow or in a better future move from where they were to where they ought to be. Think about it this way. You know, there would be no possibility for the migration that occurred into North America from Europe and other places if people weren't able to see beyond the horizon. You know, there was a time when people thought about the horizon and they thought they had a vision in their mind of this, as if I sail out there far enough, I'm going to go right over the edge.
But then came the concept that the world was round and that you could keep on sailing until you found another place. And men were driven with this idea that there must be this better place out there. And so they started sailing into the unknown, just in pursuit of a better place. Now, Israel was blessed with a far more certain hope and has blessed us with a far more certain hope.
And Israel has blessed us with visionaries that have no know for certain before they start out on their pilgrimage what the destination is going to be. Even though they may not have arrived at it in their very lifetimes. And we're blessed with these visionaries as an example, who look beyond the furthest horizon. And we're driven by faith in a future to realize this future of a better place of a promised tomorrow.
Now we're today we're going to be looking at Hebrews Chapter 11, and we're going to be picking out a few examples. We're not going to look at the whole chapter, but we're going to be looking at the example of Abraham and Moses and Hebrews Chapter 11, and we'll be looking at Hebrews Chapter 11, and Hebrews Chapter 11 is comprised of what you would call the Hall of Fame of faith.
It goes through a whole list of men and women who were faithful as they looked forward to a future hope, who went against all odds and in many cases went through great hardship to pursue this. The promises of God and the promise of a better tomorrow. And these examples to us are an encouragement for us to to frame our own lives, to emulate our own lives, to their example, to their example of how it is that when you're sure of a promise of God, how that affects each step you take in your life.
The message this morning is entitled A Better Tomorrow. And as I said, we'll be looking at Hebrews chapter one and two verses wanting to verses eight through 16 and verses 24 through 26. Let me let me pray for us this morning, Heavenly Father Lord, as we look at these examples and we pick out a couple out of the Great Hall of Fame of Faith, Lord, we pray, Father, that we would just have their eyes and their mindset and their certainty, the certainty that comes from believing and knowing that you cannot lie, that you do not ever tell us anything that is not true, and there's no way that you can be dissuaded from having your
will ultimately be done. Lord, We put our faith in your reliability and in your ability to bring to pass that which you have ordained. May we leave here today with the faith and the courage of men who are certain and women who are certain of their destiny. And you in Christ name we pray. Amen. So Hebrews Chapter 11 verses one and to and verses six through 16, eight through 16 and 24 through 26, beginning at verse one, it says, Now faith is the assurance of things.
Hope for the convictions, the conviction of things. Not saying Chew on that for a second. Faith Is that usually what you think of when you think of faith? Faith is the assurance, it is the evidence, it is the certainty of things, hope for the conviction of things not yet seen, things that haven't come to pass yet. And it is this kind of faith.
It says in verse two four By it, the people of old received commendation. Let's drop down to verse eight 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 to the same promise.
Four 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 since she considered him faithful, who had promised therefore from one man and him as good as dead, was born descendants, as many as the stars of the heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.
All these 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 that 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. And then moving forward, diverse 24 are talking of Moses here it says by faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God, then enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.
He considered reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. So what we have here, let's let's click back Diverse one again. What we have here is an example of what verse one says. Verse one says, Now faith is the assurance of things. Hope for the conviction of things not seen.
Our faith today is the actual present evidence of the truth of what we hope for and the future normally. Do you think of that? Is faith being irrefutable evidence of a future reality? Don't you sometimes think of faith as kind of like wishful thinking? Maybe here at talking about faith is a solid evidence that what you hope for is true.
And that will it will most certainly come to pass. And the reason why our faith is evidence and things hope for is because our faith is based on that. The one who is both able and reliable to bring his promises to pass our faith is not in just our wishful thinking. Our faith is actually in what God says will happen.
Our faith is based on a reliable source, the most reliable source concerning future promises. Let me try to illustrate it to you this way. Say you need to move and you're going through a list of ten of your friends that you want to ask to help you to move, and you set up that date when you want to move.
And you're you're you're you're thinking about the people that you've asked to move and you're wondering, will they actually show up? They all said they would show up, but will they show up? Well, whether they show up or not are based on two things. One, their ability it might be and to the reliability, it might be that they're very reliable, but one friend might be very reliable.
Well, but, you know, you know, the week before, when you asked that person, they had they had were coming down with the flu and they might be sick, that weekend when you're there. So they might not be able to, but they would be reliable if they were able to. Or maybe they have a history of of sciatic nerve problems or whatever.
And, you know, they're reliable. They'll show up if they can, but there's a chance that they won't be able to. Now, there's a second category of friends that you might have where there are strong is an ox. There's nothing going to break them down there. They never get sick, but something better might come along. And you know that if something better comes along, they're not showing up.
Then they're able, but they're not reliable. Now, the ones that you're certain will show up are the ones are pretty certain you'll show up are the ones that are both able and reliable. If you The point is, is that if you were 100% sure that a person's going to show up, you would be 100% sure that they're both able to show up and they're reliable to their word.
Now, of course. No. When is that? Is that certain? Because, you know, things could happen. A person could get an accident on the way over to your house, you know, and then become unable to help you. So, you know, you you might have a high degree of certainty, but you could never have absolute certainty in the promise of a human being.
But that's not true with God, because nothing could happen that would make him unable to fill his promises. And there's nothing about his character that would ever make him unreliable in the fulfilling of his promises. He is absolutely. You can your faith is look at what it says here. Faith is the assurance of things. Hope for. That's true when your faith is in what God has promised will come to pass.
Your faith is like evidence in a court of law. Your faith proves the certainty of what is going to be there. What's going to happen is going to happen because your faith is in the one who's 100% reliable and 100% able to fulfill what he says he's going to fulfill. Now, this is why Abraham and Moses, these two examples and the others in the Hall of Fame of faith had this kind of faith.
They went forward in an uncertain world, absolutely certain of God's fidelity and God's ability. They had solid faith, faith itself that was concrete, a foundation of certainty. Now, is that the kind of faith that keeps us able to go through every obstacle in our life? Do we have that same kind of total confidence in the promises of God for us and for our tomorrow?
The theme of this morning's message is this Israel blessed the world with visionaries looking for a better tomorrow. Israel blessed us with these examples of great men of faith who showed us what it's like to go forward in a world of uncertainty, walking each step in the certainty of God's promises. Let's take a look at verses ten and 26 again.
Speaking of Abraham in verse ten, it says this for he was looking forward to the city that has foundations whose designer and builder is God. So he was looking forward all of his life to the city. This promised city is even beyond the promised land. It's even beyond what he promised for Israel. He's looking forward to the very end of the age when when, when we will become citizens in a kingdom created by God himself.
And then verse 26, Look at what Moses is driven by. He considered the reproach as a Speaking of Moses, He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. He was looking ahead to his reward. Now, both men were playing what you could call the long game. They were basing their lives on their faith that the ultimate promises of God were true and the future that God had laid out is reliable.
They and the others in Hebrews 11 invested their whole life and faith in following God for the purposes of receiving the promises of God because they trusted God's ability and reliability. Now imagine for a second you were Abraham, and the Devil comes up to Abraham and starts whispering in his ear. You can imagine it, can't you? That what would what would the devil say to Abraham as Abraham sitting there in his tent?
What would the accuser likely whisper? Can you imagine it? Abraham, you're here in a strange land. You're living in a tent. You're a bunch of you're around a bunch of foreigners who you don't even know. Your wife is barren. Abraham, get a clue. God has led you out into this miserable place living in a tent because he just is a he for who knows what his motives are.
But you're a fool for believing him. Abraham. You really think you're going to be a nation that blesses all of the nations? You believe that Abraham Look, Abraham, the hermit living over in a cave has a better chance of becoming the father of a great nation. Think about it. Don't you believe in science? There's no way you can become a father of one, much less many.
Now, tell me if Abraham hadn't heard those kinds of things or something. Similar ideas of doubt that the evil men want to plant. But he always believed God's Word above everything else. He believed whatever God said was true. And what we're not going to talk about it today. But why was he tested with Isaac? You know, God's word is true despite the worst possible circumstance.
And, you know, there he was a nomad, having taken his people out of here and taking all of his family out in this trek, that would end up being generational for what? For the promise of God. Now, think about Moses for a second. You know, think about Moses after what must have gone through Moses, his mind, you know, after the great exploits of God and after they their deliverance from Egypt and after, you know, he'd been raised up to lead these people a job he didn't even want, think about what it would have been like for him when all of a sudden, Cora and others of the priestly class came to him and said, You're
just on an ego trip, Moses. You just want power to yourself. God can speak to all of us like He speaks to you. What right do you have to lead us or be a prince? In fact, I question your motives. Moses. I think you let us out here knowing that we would just perish out here. What kind of prospects do we have any way out here in this wilderness?
Wouldn't it have been better for us to be back in Egypt? You know who thinks who gave you the right to tell us what to do or lead us? You know, you can imagine Moses thinking, you know, he's got a point there, Lord, I didn't want this job anyway. You know, you call me to do this, and we're out here in the middle of the desert, and.
And there's no prospects of anything in the immediate future. That's for sure. Could have, he thought those thoughts leading the people to false hopes. Am I leading them to false hopes? Well, no, he didn't think that. He said, well, we'll find out who's the leader tomorrow. We'll get together and we'll let God choose. And of course, the story is that Cora and his family and those that were part of his rebellion were swallowed up by the earth.
I guess that would probably settle it that day. Moses believed God even in the midst of hard circumstances. You know, I remember back in 1992, my wife was pregnant with Robbie and she was diagnosed with a tumor on her brain next to Atari gland. And she wanted to wait until after Robbie was born before she had it operated on.
And so this tumor was growing in there, and it started affecting her vision because it was next to her optic nerve. And Robbie was born. He it was it was now time to have the operation. We were in the hospital. I had the good fortune of having a couple pastor friends in there praying with me, and my wife's one of my wife's near relatives came in and was totally anxious, came in just completely fearful.
And she met Marty on on the gurney as she was going into the operating room. And Marty, was it total peace. And she was really, really bothered by the fact that Marty wasn't more anxious. And she came out to the to the waiting room where we were, and she started talking about how my wife was in denial, how how she she she couldn't possibly realize the gravity of what was going on right now and be at peace.
Meanwhile, what was going on in Marty's mind was either God is real or he isn't. And I choose to believe that he's real and that he's reliable to his promises. Whatever happens to me, I'm in his care and I'll be all right whether I live or die or whether I recover or not, or whether my eyesight is gone or not, whether he blesses me or not, he is reliable and able to turn all good for those who love and are called.
According to his purposes. I choose to believe God's Word and believe that God is who He says He is. No matter what happens to me, my eternal care is completely guaranteed. Now God has promised all of us a better tomorrow. He has promised us the same promise that he gave to Abraham. In fact, we have the means by which to accomplish that promise now, through Christ, He has called us to put our faith in both His reliability and his ability to bring it to pass.
And he will never fail. Our faith in his veracity is itself evidence of the truth of our future, our place in glory, the certainty of our being citizens and the Kingdom of God and children of God. It has yet to be realized. But as they say, it's as good as done. Israel has given inspirational role models to us faith in action, faith that walks out the certainty of God's veracity.
Israel has given us these role models to gain so that we can gain perspective that even an amidst of circumstances that don't appear fortuitous, we can still trust God. We can be certain no matter what, as we look at our own circumstances, you know, and as we look at the declining and the morality in our nation, as we look at the violence that's increasing in the world, as we look at the increasing hatred and chaos and disunity in the world, it would be easier for us to have the whisper going to hear, what are you naive Christians thinking anyway?
You really think there's a better tomorrow? Can't you see the the the the decline in history? Can't you see where things are headed? Things are headed to chaos? Well, you pie in the sky, Christians thinking God is going to save you. You can hear the accuser's voice, can't you?
My answer is, no matter what current situation we find ourselves in, God is able and God is reliable. And he's proved it over and over and over again. Our faith is the evidence, the solid proof that a glorious tomorrow is yet to come and we'll be part of it. Hallelujah. Again, the theme this morning is Israel blessed the world with visionaries looking for a better tomorrow.
Point number one is those who have faith in a better tomorrow never turn back. Those who have faith in a better tomorrow never turn back. Let's take a look again at verses nine and ten. Looking at Abraham by faith. He went to live in the land of promise as a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob heirs with him of the same promise.
Four He is looking forward to the city that has foundations whose designer and builder is God. And let's take a look at verses 13 through 16. Here again, we're talking about Abraham. These all died. Abraham and his sons 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 the 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. So we see that Abraham, Sarah and the boys were in a continual pursuit of what they never really realized in their lifetime.
Much of what God had promised them has come to pass. But for them, you know, what were they at the time that they died? a handful of people. Yet their pursuit of a better tomorrow made them never turn back. They weren't going to turn back. They didn't want to go back to Heron because that's not what they wanted.
They wanted God's promise. They didn't want to settle with the mediocrity of this world and live out a few temporary years in a much more comfortable environment. They wanted God's promise. They wanted the promised glory that they were certain of. Now, much of that promise has been fulfilled. But for us today, and for the Jews also, the promise is still unfolding.
Now, critics could say, Why would you think Abraham was smart and and trust in God when it when half of what he promised has never come to pass? You know what is a promise of only half of it comes true. How how reliable is God if he doesn't bring the whole thing to pass? Well, when you think of that, I remember a prophecy in a physical.
A prophecy concerning the City of Tire. It's a really interesting prophecy because it's one that was all foretold in the future and it has all come to pass. But it came to pass over hundreds of years. The prophecy concerning tire in the Old Testament is equal. Chapter 26, if you want to look it up later, is a prophecy where God was disturbed by the pride of tire.
It was the crown of the Mediterranean. It was the trading hub. They were so full of themselves. And the thing that really got under God's skin was that when God disciplined his people, Israel, they delighted and exploited the weakness of Israel and went in and and took from Israel and and saw that as an advantage that they could take.
And it really bugged God. And he he said, you know what, tire because of your attitude and who you are and how you treated my people, I'm going to destroy you. And he says, I'm going to bring he name the king who had yet to come up against him. He's I'm going to bring the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar up against you, and he is going to completely destroy the city.
He's going to break it down every rock will every stone will be just demolished. There'll be nothing left standing. And then I'm going to sweep those stones and make the city of tire like a bare stone. And he says the nations of the world are going to come up against tire like the waves of the sea. And he said that tire would become a place that will never, ever be rebuilt, that it will become a place where fishermen will spread their nets.
Well, the first part of that prophecy came true. Nebuchadnezzar came and laid many years, siege against tire and ultimately destroyed tire and broke down the although the walls of the sea, all the houses, everything he just put into a big rubble of rock. So there was a big pile of rocks sitting there for hundreds of years. But the other parts of the prophecy hadn't come to pass.
They hadn't come to pass. The rocks hadn't been swept clean. It wasn't a place for fishermen spread their net. It was true at that time and continue to be true that it would never be rebuilt. But these other aspects of it, the nations of the world hadn't come against tire like the waves of the sea. None of that had come come to pass.
And if you were a critic of prophecy at the time, you could have said, you know, you know. So he got one out of four, Right? Okay. But you know what happened after that? Hundreds of years later, when Alexander the Great wanted to conquer or everything in the known world, he came to tire and the citizens of tire, those who survived the besiege of Nebuchadnezzar while Nebuchadnezzar was besieging the city, had relocated on an offshore island just off the shore of tire.
And Nebuchadnezzar saw those people out there on that island, I mean, not Nebuchadnezzar or Alexander saw those people out on that island. And he wanted to conquer everything. The reason there wasn't living any little island unconquered. The problem is Alexander didn't have a navy and the people of Tire had the best Navy in the world still intact on this little island.
So he couldn't get to them. You know, any ships that he had, they were easily defeated, but he wasn't given up easy. So he devised this plan to take all the rubble in the city of tire that would piled up from Nebuchadnezzar siege and make a causeway out to this island. You see on on the overhead here, you see the kind of the purple brown color line here that was the causeway that he wanted to build.
So he started to build this causeway. The problem was when he got close to the island, the Navy of tire would just go and wipe out his army, you know, just pot shots on them. They they couldn't continue the building because they were too vulnerable. So Alexander the Great solicited all the countries and their navies that he had already conquered.
And those navies came up and, you know, fought to a standstill with the tire navy as he continued the causeway, ended up building the causeway, going out and defeating the island. Today, if you go there because of the causeway being built, it's tilted in and you can see where the coastline now goes out to that to that island.
If you can see those little dotted lines there, if you go there today, the ancient city of tire has never been rebuilt. What's there today is a little fishing village where fishermen spread their nets. Every single aspect of that prophecy was fulfilled, but not immediately. It was fulfilled over time. Today, every single promise of God will be fulfilled, will be completed.
Are we going to have the insight to live in the certainty of God's Word as our examples of Abraham and Moses? Or are we going to live in the doubts of our shifting circumstances? Are we going to believe the trials and hardships around us? Are we going to believe the Word of God? Again, this morning's message the theme of this morning's message is Israel blessed the world with visionaries looking for a better tomorrow.
And point number one is those who have faith in a better tomorrow never turn back. And point number two is those who have faith in a better tomorrow willingly endure hardship. Let's take a look at versus 24 through 26. Speaking of Moses, here. Those who have faith in a better tomorrow willingly endure hardship by faith. Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.
He considered the reproach of Christ. Greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. Now Moses has some pretty wacky scales. Can you imagine having a scale in your hand and going, okay, what is a greater wealth? All of the treasures of Egypt that I have access to and that are available to me on one side of the scale and on the other side of the scale, you put suffering with the Hebrew people and somehow the suffering with the Hebrew people is of greater wealth than all the treasures of Egypt that I have access to.
Now, those are some weird scales. Not many people would weigh things the way Moses weighs things. Why was he able to weigh suffering with the Hebrew people, his people of greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt that he had full access to? What tipped the scales? It says here in this passage he was looking ahead. He was looking ahead to his what reward?
He believed God in his future promises. He was looking ahead to his reward. And when he saw his reward, the glory that was before him, the city that was being created for God's people, the kingdom of God. When he saw that, he goes, Man, the treasures of Egypt are petty compared to that. I'm investing my life where the real wealth is the glories of God and made the riches of the treasures of Egypt seem worthless to him, less than worthless.
It made it seem worthy of him to endure hardship in order to attain it. Over the years, I have been frustrated with people who, when hardship comes, say it must not be God's will for my life, because these barriers came in the way. Have you ever thought that? Or if you have ever heard that man, I'm sure glad Moses doesn't think that way.
I'm sure glad Abraham didn't think that way. I remember one time there was this this gal who worked over in the complex, you know, where the Ralphs supermarket is, and Mardy got to know her and we really liked her. She. She's just the sweetest gal, and she'd never been to church. I think she may have only been to church for weddings and funerals, but she had the sweetest disposition and the nicest little kid.
She was a single mom. And over time, you know, Marty had invited her to church several times, and she seemed interested in. Finally, one morning, she got up, got her kids ready, was headed to church and got pulled over by a policeman on the way to church. I don't know what she did, but she got pulled over by a policeman on the way to church and she reasoned to herself, I'm a I'm a.
It must be wrong for me to go to church or this must be a sign that I shouldn't go to church because this policeman pulled me over. You know, I thought the opposite, of course. I thought, man. But it isn't true that just when you face hardship, that it's a sign from God that you're not in his will.
If that were true, think of the decisions Mary and Joseph would have made every time they faced hardship. They would have turned away. Think of what Jesus would have done if that was true of his life. You know, what kind of choices would these two have made on their, you know, in all the hardship they faced to be faithful in raising up their son?
Or what if Jesus would have said, Father, this must not be your will, because I'm having a tough day. Isn't the idea here, Lord, that everything should go my way and I should be in a meadow listening to the birds. Look, the truth is, is that our condition right now is not a picnic on a nice day. It is a battlefield.
And a lot of times we Christians will think that life is supposed to be a picnic. And we'll lay out our picnic blankets and we'll have our little sandwiches out there in our potato salads. The birds will be chirping and everything, and all of a sudden a soldier will step right on top of your sandwich. Big boot right there.
And you're going watch. Something's wrong here. Now, what's wrong is you think that you're in a picnic instead of a battlefield? We're in a battlefield. And Paul talks about the battle of being a battle of faith. We're in a battle in a war to remain faithful to God despite whatever circumstances we're in. Sometimes positive circumstances are our biggest challenge.
Sometimes when things are going really well, it's the biggest challenge to our faith. Sometimes We're challenged by harder circumstances, but whatever our circumstances are, God is faithful and we need to keep our eyes on the prize. In fact, next week we'll be having a baptism. And every time you think of your own baptism, what did you do when you were baptized?
You identified first before you identified with the blessed, resurrected life of Jesus Christ. What do you identify first with dying to self, being crucified with Christ, modifying the old nature? None of that comes like with a whistle in a breeze. All of that entails a struggle. Baptism pictures. The struggle into a better life coming alive in Christ. It occurs as a result of having died with Christ.
The battle to surrender our self-will to God's will is in itself a hardship.
But the promise, like if we have if we have Moses, his scale, the promise so outweighs the the alternative that there's only one reasonable thing to do, and that's to become a dedicated follower of Jesus Christ. Again, this morning's message is Israel blessed the world with visionaries looking for a better tomorrow. And point number one is those who have faith in a better tomorrow never turn back.
And point number two is those who have faith in a better tomorrow willingly endure hardship. Let's take a look at verses 39 through 40. These are the final verses of Chapter 11. We haven't read them yet, but they're the final verses of this chapter that we've been reading out of. And these these verses say this and these those condemned commanded excuse me.
And these, though, commanded through their faith, referring to all the people that are listed there, all the Old Testament believers that are listed there, though they are commanded through their faith, did not receive what is promised. Since God has provided something better for us, they haven't gotten they never got fully what they provided were promised. God has given us something better.
He's made better promises to us than he even made to them. And then it goes that apart from us, they should not be made perfect. That apart from the promise that God has given us, they would not be made perfect. What is that talking about there? It's talking about the promise that we have in Christ to be transformed from sinners into saints, that we have been given a promise of a new kind of righteousness that they could didn't have access to.
We can, by faith, trust that Christ will take us from where we are to where we ought to be. We can give up on that idea or that struggle of trying to transform ourselves. We can't do it. But Christ promises the Spirit of Christ in us promises to change us from who we are to who we ought to be.
And it's a promise that was never made prior to the Crucified version of Jesus Christ, and it's a promise that has been made to us. And it is a promise that we see, and even in the Jewish prophecies, that one day will be applied to Israel as well, when they look upon him, whom they have perished, and they will mourn and repent and be forgiven, all of us can only have the ultimate promise of the better life the City of God fulfilled as we are ourselves transformed into citizens of God's kingdom through Christ.
Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, we come before you and we thank you That you have not only promised us a future of a better place, but you've promised us a future of becoming better people. And Lord, both these promises are completely reliant on you and unconditional based on your work and not ours. But we submit to you. We do surrender.
And we believe your promises are true. Help us walk in the counsel of our faith, true to your word, seeking to obey you and follow you to our best of our abilities as you change us from the inside out in Christ name, we pray. Amen.