Text: Hebrews 11:8–10
[8] 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. (ESV)
You are not going alone
Even though it may feel like it, you are not going alone.
Abraham and his family left everything they new. Though we are separated by centuries of time, they were real people with real families and real attachments.
They left what was familiar, safe, comfortable. No one does that without a reason. They did it because they believed the God whose voice they heard had something good planned.
Something better than what they would lose.
Going out is part of entrusting ourselves to God, putting ourselves into his hands. Abraham and his family, like yours today, didn’t know exactly where they were going.
When Jesus calls us to follow him he calls us by his words into a fog of an uncertain future…without a 10 year plan. There is an unsettledness that comes with his call to us.
With that unsettledness comes an outstretched hand that is firm and strong and confident. He knows what will happen along the way and he has everything you need to get you there safely…even if he doesn’t share all of the details.
If we could see him as he invites us to go somewhere unknown with him, we would see that his countenance is patient, gentle, and understanding. His eyes would communicate “I know where we are going.”
Jesus is not calling you to success as some define it.
Jesus is not calling you to the extraordinary as most define it.
Jesus is not promising the ease as we all would want.
Jesus is calling you to be with him where he is going. Jesus is calling you to be with him and to know him as you go with him
Even along this journey, relationship with Jesus is not a means to some end. It is his goal. It is your end. You go following Jesus because you know that it is there that you find deep fellowship with him. You know that your inheritance is not anything you could ever leave behind because your inheritance is the One leading you to you heart’s deepest desire.
You are Going as Foreigners
Abraham and his family were never full “at home”. They lived in tents. More common then than now, there was still a sense of being uprooted.
As they traveled further away from the home that they left, fewer and fewer people spoke their language. They became the outsiders. The ones with an “accent.”
There is a profoundly awkward feeling in being an outsider. You know what that feels like. You have done this before. Though English is spoken in both Arlington, Texas and Seattle, Washington, it is a different English. Using the same words to convey differing meanings. Its subtle, but in that subtlety there often not-so-subtle reminders that you are “foreign.”
The way of Jesus does not fit in any culture. Similarly, some of the same words are used in Jesus’ way of thinking as with the people we live around (“love” “purpose” “justice”) but the Source of those words determines their real meaning. Jesus expressed purity in love, but it was in a way that people didn’t want to recognize as love.
Jesus’s ways are always foreign to most people’s thinking.
Some cultures like parts of what he said, and despise other things.
Seattle culture and Texas culture are profoundly different, but a way they are alike: the gospel is offensive to our desire to treasure sin. Just in different ways. Ways you will only recognize if you choose not to be tourists.
I was stopped at the light at Emerson and whatever street that is that goes by Cafe Appassionato as I saw the “Show Me Seattle” van traveling from the Locks to the next highlight of Seattle. The covid-crowded people mover carried tourists who were content to know the picturesque parts of our city, but they weren’t really “seeing” Seattle. There were no stops for conversation with people who are eating lunch on the Village’s sidewalk tables. They didn’t stop to ask questions about why so many RV’s are parked within walking distance of Fred Meyer. They drove by quickly, never absorbing Seattle.
Don’t drive by relationships. Absorb the reason the Father has you in Texas again. Be willing to do there what you have done in Seattle, in Magnolia: be invested, seek the peace of those people who are your neighbors whether you chose them or not.
Go as learners of a new language. Go listening to people, what they mean and not just what they say. Go as prophets that speak the truth in love to a culture who may do religion, but may shun the God of the gospel.
The Jesus that is in you is full of grace and truth: follow his ways.
You won’t always be liked, but you will always be a gift to the people you serve
Love when you aren’t loved.
Seek to understand when others don’t want to understand you. Seek to know God’s heart and the heart of the people around you.
Love people like Jesus loves you so that they will know you are his follower…a child of a Father who sent his Son to bring those who call him their enemy might call out to him as loving Father.
Jesus lives in you, let him have his way through you.
You will be different, foreigners, but you will also be ambassadors of the true, and better country
You are going Knowing Your Home is Better
They lived in tents. Like we said before. Tents aren’t “home.” You have uprooted your lives before and, like that time, “home” is not a building, but people.
I would imagine that the place you are currently renting tis not what you are grieve leaving. It is the people you call “home.” People in this room with you now. A little girl (now a married woman) who has always been at least a short drive from you. Her husband who I know is a friend, a disk golf partner, and like a son to you.
And a church family who loves you dearly.
Part of what you call home will always be outside. In Arlington. In Seattle.
Leaving “home” is like losing a deep part of yourself. It hurts deeply. That makes me wonder how Abraham could do it. The text says that Abraham believed God’s promise to make him a home.
DeKalb isn’t “home.” Though I hope the people there constantly remind you of “home.”
You go because you have a promise. You have a God who means what he says and is preparing your fullest home.
“Home” is ahead of you.
There is a sense we are always away from home. Our most meaningful home is in a city God designs. It is times like these where Jesus’ words seem to stir up hope just a little bit more:
John 14:1–3: “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. [2] In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? [3] And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. (ESV)
He wants you to be at home. Now, he is patiently asking you to entrust yourself to what you cannot yet see.
Faith Isn’t Blind, But It Can’t See Everything
Faith isn’t trying to believe what isn’t really there. Faith is believing that God will keep his promises. Faith is trusting his heart (as expressed in his Word) even if his work is hidden from our eyes.
He is preparing home for you….and preparing you for “home.” Jesus was traded by his earthly father to build, create. In some greater way, even though you can’t see the mortar being laid under bricks or see the Table of Fellowship being crafted, he is longingly preparing a place for you.
Another thing faith is NOT: gritting your teeth and striving to keep your heart from failing.
Your heart will fail on the way. You will lose heart. Know this: you don’t have to be the strength of your heart:
Psalm 73:26: My flesh and my heart may fail but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (ESV)
Faith is trusting that God keeps his promises even if we do not keep ours. Faith is remembering in the dark moments that our God’s heart for you does not fail when our heart’s fail him.
He is more invested in relationship with us than we are. He is more invested in bringing you home to him than we ever could desire.
Go, knowing your home is ahead of you. More real than Seattle. More real than DeKalb.
He is drawing you into table fellowship with him…to a fellowship now, and for eternity…where there will be no loss…or fear of loss. No longing for home, because you will be fully home.
No loss. Only gain.
"I Thank My God Every time I Think of You”
I love you both. Dearly.
Your friendship and partnership in the gospel means more to me than I have ever told you. Through distance may change that, it is uneraseably written on my heart.
Your lives have made a deep impact on God’s kingdom in the lives of people around you. Your time living here has been Spirit empowers and gospel saturated. Jesus is known and loved more because you both invested your lives in people in our area.
I can grieve and be glad. As we send you out and tell you we will be with you as much as God allows us, these words come to mind. Days like these are most likely some of what Paul had in mind when he said that he could be “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing” (2 Corinthians 6:10)
Benediction
2 Thessalonians 1:11–12
[11] To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, [12] so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. (ESV)