Hebrews 11 and verse 8. We'll read from Hebrews 11 verse 8 through Hebrews 11 verse 16. Hebrews 11 verses 8 through 16. If you are following along in the Pew Bible, this is found on page 1382. 1,382 in the Pew Bible, Hebrews 11, eight through 16. When you found that in your copy of God's word, would you stand with me for the reading of God's word, Hebrews 11, eight through 16, the Pew Bible page 1,382. And this is what scripture says. By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise, as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. For he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one man and Him as good as dead were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude, innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore. These all died in faith. not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. Truly, if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. but now they desire a better. That is a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them. And this is the word of the Lord. Thank you. You may be seated. Perhaps like me, when you were growing up, He would sing the song, this world is not my home, I'm just a passing through. My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue. The angels beckon me from heaven's open door and I can't feel at home in this world anymore. That is a song of a sojourner. What does the word sojourn mean? Well, according to Webster's 1828 dictionary, sojourn means to dwell for a time, to dwell or live in a place as a temporary resident, or as a stranger, not considering the place his permanent habitation. Brothers and sisters, the life of faith is a life of sojourning. We dwell for a time as a temporary resident in this world. This really is the dominant theme that arises to us from this passage. Though in the New King James, the word sojourn, or any of its related, or the word sojourned is not used in this passage, it is really the theme. In fact, in the King James Version, you see the word sojourn at verse 9. Really, this theme in verses 8-16 is those who dwelled for a time, those who lived as temporary residents by faith. Abraham is the chief example in this section, but Sarah and also some of the other patriarchs are included in this. If the Christian life is a life of sojourning, and it is, how does that impact our lives? How do we live as sojourners in this world? If we are heavenly citizens living in this world, how do we live as sojourners? Well first, I think we see in this passage, by faith sojourners obey, trusting that God knows even when we do not. By faith sojourners obey, trusting that God knows even when we do not. Look with me there at verse 8. By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out not knowing where he was going. Consider the obedience of Abraham at this point. God says, leave this place. Okay, where am I going? I'll let you know when you get there. Leave this place. leave what you have here as far as your background, your history, uproot your family, leave everything you know, everything you're comfortable with in this area and go to a place and you won't know until you get there. You won't know where it is until you get there. I think about people today, more and more people are living and driving and navigating by means of various devices, whether it be their phone, whether it be some screen they have in their car. I hate to say it, I will say it though, it has not improved our driving. It's made us worse. People are now dependent upon these screens to tell them what to do, but they don't have the skills to know when to do it. Why do I constantly see U-turns at incredibly inopportune times? Driving down the road, all of a sudden, I see someone take a U-turn in front of oncoming traffic. Why are they doing that? Because the screen told me, make a U-turn. Make a U-turn. And so they make a U-turn. They don't think about there may be traffic coming. We live in this age now where we have all kinds of navigational aids to get us precisely to where we are going and sadly our skills are lagging because of it. Abraham had neither such navigational aids nor a destination to type into the navigational aid when he set out. He didn't know where he was going. Brothers and sisters, we may not know, but we can trust that God knows. We must get past the notion that we only obey when we completely understand every nuance, every element, every motivation, and every end of God's commands. He is God, and His will is to be obeyed. He is perfect and has a perfect plan and way. 2 Samuel 22 31, As for God, His way is perfect. The word of God is proven. He is a shield to all who trust in Him. Who are you and I to second guess God? When God commands, His word is proven. We must obey. Now I will admit that there are things, particularly in our contemporary culture, which are counter-cultural. God's Word says things that, to the thinking of this world, may not make sense. And we may not always understand why God has commanded certain things and prohibited certain things. But God is to be obeyed. He is God. How is it that we are to put our wisdom and our plans and our understanding up against God's? And yet so often that is what we do by default. God's Word says something, and yet we think we know better. God's Word commands honesty of us, but we think, well, we know that if we maybe are not completely honest at this point, we can have certain advantages to it. If we're not completely honest on those forms that we're all gonna have to fill out in a few months about tax returns, maybe we'll get a little bit more out of it. Friends, God's Word is proven. His way is perfect. Perhaps the area in our contemporary culture that is the most doubted and even second thought, if I could use that expression, is God's commands regarding sexual ethics. That sexual expression is reserved for the covenant relationship of a man and woman in marriage. And anywhere and everywhere else, it is wrong. It doesn't matter if you are committed to that person, if you are engaged to that person, until marriage, that is outside of God's perimeters. And yet more and more people, it seems, think that they know better than God. More and more people that forego marriage entirely to live together. I remember talking with someone who in many other ways was a very intelligent person, but he was trying to explain to me that the Christian way on this is all wrong. That really you have to get together with someone and live with them for a couple years before you know if that person is the one you want to marry. That's completely backwards. It is God's way and God's word that is perfect. In our thinking, it may not make sense, but we trust that God knows even when we don't. At the same time, brothers and sisters, not only does God know when we don't, we must remember that God's commands are for our good. When God spoke to Israel, He said that, now Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes, which I command you today for your good. God knows. And He knows what is best for us. By faith, sojourners obey, trusting that God knows even when we don't. But I think this passage has more to teach us about sojourning. By faith we wait, enduring the instability of earth, as we look to the stability of eternity. By faith we wait, by faith sojourners wait, enduring the instability of earth, as we look to the stability of eternity. Look with me at verses 9 and 10. By faith he dwelt, and that word in the King James, sojourned in the land of promise as in a foreign country. Notice this, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. For he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Abraham dwells in the land of promise, as in a foreign country. When he arrives at the land that God was bringing him to, this was the promised land. And even though it was the promised land, he dwelled there as a sojourner. So do we. We dwell on this earth. We believe the promise of our Savior, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. And yet we don't really inherit it now. We live as sojourners now. We dwell in the here and now, and we know, I think, the instability of life. That instability is seen in verse 9. By faith he dwells in tents. There's not a lot of stability in a tent. There's a sense in which this is true of our own bodies. Paul would speak about our bodies as an earthly tent, that when our earthly house is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. We look forward to that body which we will be given in that time which is to come, that resurrection body. But it's true of all manner of our life. Life is fleeting and temporary, not just our health, Not just our life itself, but the very elements of our life. Life, it's all fleeting and temporary. Only that treasure which is laid up in heaven will endure. Jesus would say, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. There is a fundamental instability to life under the sun. We live in tents without foundations. Health. Our health may be wonderful one day. We may think that we are the picture of perfect health. And then we go to the doctor and find that things are not nearly so good as we thought. That happened to a friend of mine just this past week. He went in for a routine checkup and the doctor said, you need to go to the hospital. He went to the hospital and he found that basically his kidneys were almost completely non-functional. Thankfully, he's doing better, but it's just a reminder that our very health can be taken from us in a moment. Our family. We may think that everything is so good and strong and stable and in a moment a family can be fractured. I've experienced that in my own life but I also know of others. I have a friend who is in ministry and he had a great relationship with his family, with his siblings. There came to be a huge fight over an inheritance. And it blindsided him. He never even expected that there would be any problem whatsoever. He thought there'd just be an amiable division of what was left. No. The family split up and went to war over it. Even our family itself, if not damaged relationally by some traumatic event, may be taken from us too. Possessions. There is a fundamental instability about our possessions, as Jesus mentioned. When we lay up treasures on earth, moth and rust can destroy. Thieves can break in and steal. We might have what we think is a fine collection of things and then one day the thief kicks in the door and away it goes, only to be sold in the black market and in pawn shops down the street. We might think that we have fine, whatever the case may be, only to find out there are holes, there are damages that have happened to it. Our very possessions have instability. our own personal capacities are not firm and completely stable. As I speak this, I think of someone who is now gone to be with the Lord, but a pastor here in Ontario, a man, even before he was saved and went into the ministry, he got a PhD, a very intelligent man, and then got seminary training and wrote books and preached for many years. Articulate, intelligent man, And then toward the end of his life, he was struck with dementia. And all of that ability to think and speak and remember gradually eroded. We might think about our own physical strength in terms of our capacities. Not only maybe our abilities to speak and think, but our own physical abilities. Those also are fleeting. We reach a certain point of health and then at that point things don't generally improve but decline. No matter what the Instagram fitness influencers may try to tell you. It doesn't quite work that way. I have this friend who is always telling me that age is just a number. Well, I tell her it's a bigger number as the time goes by, and there seems to be a corresponding decline in strength that comes along with it. I've reached the big 5-0, as you know. Thankfully, I am still in pretty good health. But I'm not in the same health and condition as I was when I was 30 or 25. There's a natural way of life. Read the ending of the book of Ecclesiastes to read the description of life as it declines at the end. Oh friends, there is an instability in this life. The instability of life was driven home to me in my youth, I remember. I had a friend named Brian. Still a friend, but my friend Brian, he received the sudden news that his father, who was a farmer, had passed away. Just a strange accident, a route that he had driven many times before. He's driving his tractor, he's turning into the lane, and he wasn't really watching. He'd done it so many times before, and he missed the turn by just a little bit. And the tractor dipped into the ditch and turned and flipped over onto him, killing him. That same friend, just a few years later, we were at an event, a school sledding time, and Someone came and gave him the very sad news that his brother had been in a car accident, his older brother had been in a car accident and killed instantly. And I remember just at that young age remembering that this fleeting nature of life, just in this, my one friend's family, not to mention others, This was reinforced, I think, in my youth in 1988. There was a guy in our school about to graduate. I was younger. Our school went K to 12. I think I was in eighth grade that year, and he was in 12th grade. Suddenly passed away. And then in 2001, one of my closest friends passed away suddenly as a blood clot went into his lungs. Friends, there's a fundamental instability to life under the sun. Now, this recognition of the instability of life could lead us to despair. Well, it's all going to be taken away. What does it all matter? It could lead us to some kind of a hedonistic view of life. Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die. It could, and has, led some to absolute madness, as they've pondered the futility of life. But as God's sojourners, we endure the instability of earth. How? By looking to the stability of eternity. Again, look at the passage with me. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise, as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. For he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Oh friends, lift up your heads from this fleeting life and look to that city. Look to eternity and wait in hope. By faith, sojourners wait, enduring the instability of earth, as we look to the stability of eternity. Though life is unstable and life is uncertain, there is a city with foundations. Life might be tent dwelling, but there's a city that's coming that has foundations. Tents don't have foundations. You pick them up, you move them around, there's a fundamental instability to tents. But the city, that city has foundations. And its builder and maker is God. Even the best homes, with their foundations in this life, do not have God as their maker. And some makers are better than others. Some makers try to cut corners. And they have the ruin of their home. Some build on bad foundations. And great is the ruin. But even the best foundations, even the best built in this life, eventually will come to decay and diminishment. Yet the city that is coming, that city will never decay. Its foundations will never be eroded. It will never be undermined. It will never fall into disrepair. Its builder and maker is God. And so, brothers and sisters, by faith we obey, as sojourners we obey, trusting that God knows even when we do not. By faith, sojourners, we as sojourners, wait, enduring the instability of earth as we look to the stability of eternity. I am seeing we're not going to make it through all my points today. You probably would rather have a three-point sermon this morning than a six-point anyways. So we'll save the final three for next week. But let's look to a third point this morning. So we have seen from this passage, by faith we as sojourners obey, trusting that God knows even when we do not. By faith we as sojourners wait. enduring the instability of earth as we look to the stability of eternity. Third, brothers and sisters, see, by faith, sojourners, we as sojourners, receive strength for God's purpose in our pilgrimage. By faith sojourners receive strength for God's purpose in our pilgrimage. Look at it with me in verses 11 and 12. By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed. And she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. Therefore, from one man, that's Abraham, and him as good as dead, not that he was actually on death's door, but the fact that he was past the age of being able to have children, therefore from him and him as good as dead were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude, innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore. I think that most of you know the story of Sarah. The promise of God that she would bear a child brings first the laughter of doubt. And then when she's called on it, I didn't laugh. No, but you did laugh. But that laughter of doubt is followed by the laughter of joy in the birth of Isaac. The author of Hebrews here gives us a glimpse at the time in between those two laughters. Between the laughter of doubt and the laughter of joy, by faith Sarah received strength to conceive and bear Isaac. She judged him faithful who had promised. There's a connection back with chapter 10 verse 23. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. Between that laughter of doubt and that laughter of joy, Sarah remembered and judged Him faithful who had promised." She remembered that God is faithful. She remembered that God keeps His promises. She judged Him faithful who had promised. And in that faith, she received strength to conceive. The strength was given so that the promises and purposes of God would be fulfilled through Abraham and Sarah. Apart from that strength, which is to say, had God not given her the strength to conceive, all of the descendants of Abraham, from the line of Isaac, all the way up to Jesus Himself, would never have been born. Yet she believed. And by faith she received strength. so that God's purposes might be fulfilled. God's promises would be fulfilled. Brothers and sisters, life as sojourners isn't easy. But we can trust God to give us the strength to accomplish His purposes, for us and through us. And we can trust that God has a purpose for our pilgrimage. Over and over again in this life, we will be confronted with our own weakness. And in being confronted with our weakness and the instability of earth, as we talked about a moment ago, we might wonder, what is the purpose of it? What I can say, that even though we may not understand every element of it, God has a purpose for His sojourners. None of us are here by accident. Not one of us is here by accident. Your birth was not an accident. Your life was not an accident. Where you find yourself today is not an accident. God has a purpose for you in your pilgrimage. And He will give you the strength that you need to fulfill the purpose that He has for you. Look to Him in faith. He will provide the strength you need to do His will. I remember years ago visiting a woman who was alone. She lived alone and she was dying of cancer. I remember speaking with her and asking her, how can I pray for you? She said, well, this is the prayer I pray for myself every day. She said, my prayer is, give me the grace to glorify you today. Give me the grace to glorify you today. What a prayer. As this woman looked ahead, her strength was diminishing, her health and even her very life was passing. This was her prayer. Give me enough strength to glorify You today. And that's precisely the kind of prayer that God loves to answer. Whether therefore you eat or drink, brothers and sisters, whatever you do, Do all to the glory of God. Now that is a tall order. We read that verse and we forget how big of a command that is. Doing everything to the glory of God. That's a tall order. But by faith we can obey and trust God to accomplish His great purposes through us. Brothers and sisters, our life as believers is a life of sojourning. We sojourn by faith. What does that mean? By faith sojourners obey, trusting that God knows even when we do not. By faith sojourners wait, enduring the instability of earth as we look to the stability of eternity. By faith sojourners receive strength for God's purposes in our pilgrimage. I think that some of you know the story of the conversion of the great English preacher, Charles Spurgeon. Spurgeon had grown up in a Christian home. He had heard the gospel from a young age. He knew the Bible well, but he was still unconverted. One day, he left home to go to church, and there was a bad snowstorm. And he ended up going to a primitive Methodist chapel instead of the church that he was intending to. And it was very sparsely attended. In fact, so sparsely attended that the person who was supposed to be speaking that day was not there, and someone was filling in. And the person that was filling in was not a particularly gifted speaker. He was kind of someone who randomly found himself thrust into that spot. The sort of thing that might happen if Brother Ryan is away and I get sick on a Sunday morning and all of a sudden one of the deacons is called to fill in at the last moment. Only this guy, it seemed, had almost no experience in speaking whatsoever. And what he did was he turned to the passage that spoke about looking to Christ, looking and living. And he did not much more than read the text and then read it again. And then eventually he looked out into the congregation and he saw someone he hadn't seen before. And he says directly to Spurgeon, young man, you look miserable. And then made a direct appeal to Spurgeon to look to Christ and live. And that was the means that God used to convert the preacher that God would then use in astonishing ways. Here's my point, brothers and sisters. God has a purpose for you that you may not even have a clue. As you walk by faith and obedience, He will use you. He will give you strength to accomplish His purpose. So here we are, 2026, Toronto, Ontario. That's where we live right now. And that's when we live. But we don't know when that calendar runs out for us. We also know We're not always gonna live here in Toronto, Ontario. We're sojourning. So as we sojourn in 2026 in Toronto, Ontario, let us sojourn by faith, looking to God, looking to eternity, seeking from Him that strength we need to glorify Him. I speak primarily today to those who are sojourners, to those who are not of this world, whose citizenship is in heaven. But perhaps there's someone here today who has never trusted Christ. Perhaps for you there is no abiding city, there is no city to which you look that has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. For you do not have God as your God, and you do not have Christ as your Savior. Today, recognize that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. You are a sinner by nature and by choice. And because of that, there is a punishment that is due to you for your rebellion against God. You deserve the punishment of eternity in hell apart from Him, for your sins against God are indeed infinite. But God is rich in mercy, and He has sent His Son to live and to die, perfectly fulfilling the law, going to the cross and paying the penalty, so that all who would turn from their sins to trust in Him would be saved, would be forgiven. would have the prospect of eternity that we have spoken of today, that city, which has foundations, it's builder and maker is God, can have that to look forward to, rather than only certain fearful judgment. Oh, today I urge you to turn from your sins, to trust in Christ. And, having trusted in Christ, to join us on that pilgrimage, in that sojourning, as we walk this road to that city that has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. May God give us the grace of