What are you living for? What is the focus of your life? What do you get up in the morning and think about? What are your dreams and aspirations? What do you hope to accomplish? There are many things that we long for, we hope for, we plan for, and many of them are very legitimate things to have. But the question is, what ultimately are you living for? What dominates in the decisions that you make? when you have to weigh up between two choices? What is it that causes you to fix on one rather than another? What are you living for? Now, if you're a Christian here this morning, I would hope that your answer would be something along the lines of, well, I'm living for Christ. And my great longing, my great desire, is to enter into his presence in his heavenly kingdom. I hope that after the readings that we've read this morning and the songs that we've sung, that at least for this particular moment in time, that would be at the forefront of any answer that you would give. But let me ask you another question. Does your life show it? Does your life demonstrate that you are living for Christ? Do the choices that you make prove that your ultimate longing is to be with Him, to dwell with Him in His heavenly city? when you get up in the morning, is that the hope of the decisions that you make through the day? Are they all geared towards preparing you for that ultimate destination that you long for? And along the way to honor and glorify the Savior who died for you. You say you're living for Christ. You say you're longing to be with him in eternity. Does your life show it? Is it visibly evident in the way that you live, in the things that you do, in the words that you speak, that this is the case? Now as we work our way through this book of Hebrews and as we've come to these verses in chapter 11 and verses 13 through 16, this is the lesson that we learn from the life of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Sarah. The writer calls our attention to the faith that they had, and he tells us, these, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, these who received the promises, these did not see them fulfilled. They were given the promises, they were told the promises, they were spoken the promises. but they didn't get those things that were promised. But, having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth, the 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 had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desired 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. Faith. These were men and women of faith. Faith, as we've observed, is a kind of sight that gives us an assurance, proves to us a reality that goes beyond what we can sense physically. without eyes and ears and touch and taste and smell. But it's just as sure, it's just as certain. You touch something, you know that it's real. You see something, you know that it's there. Well, faith does that for the person who has faith. The person who has faith in Jesus Christ He doesn't just know about Jesus Christ, but he is certain and sure that all that is spoken of Jesus is true, that all that Jesus did is true. Brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, you see, faith lays hold on that. Faith lays hold of the blood of Jesus that has gone into the heavenly sanctuary and has there been sprinkled. He has opened up for us a new, a living way through the curtain that is through His flesh. We have access into the very presence of God by Jesus Christ. Though our sins would have separated us from God, Jesus brings us near. We have a great priest over the house of God, so let us draw near. With a true heart, in full assurance of faith, faith sees Jesus seated in the heavenly place, with the nail marks in his hands and feet, and the spear mark in his side that speaks so eloquently of his sacrifice, and at a continual intercession before his Father on our behalf. Faith sees that. It sees it as really and truly as I can see you here this morning and you can see me. Faith does that. And these people, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, were people who had faith. They had spiritual sight. They heard the voice of God and it opened up to them a realm that most people around them couldn't see. And they lived on the basis of what faith taught them. They all died in faith, not having received the things promised, we're told. But they still had faith. And it was faith that looked beyond this life. to the life to come. You see, here's what faith focuses on. Faith focuses on the promises of God, which by their very nature are future. Faith looks to the future. That's what verse 13 and the first part of verse 14 make clear to us. Sorry, the first part of verse 13. These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar. Faith looks to the future. He, Abraham, and then his son and grandson, received a promise of a land. They lived in the land, but they only lived there as strangers. As we've already observed, they lived there in tents, sojourners, temporary residents. God hadn't yet given them the land, even though they were living in it. They were promised innumerable descendants. Well, that was never seen in their lives. Even for Jacob. You remember when he went on Joseph's call to live in Egypt during the period of famine? How many people went? 70. Well, that's hardly innumerable. That's hardly like the sands of the seashore. Mind you, having said that, when I grew up in Wales, there was about that much sand on the seashore. The rest of it were all rocks and stones and pebbles and boulders. But we see that here these men didn't receive the promise. They neither received the land, nor did they see any evidence that innumerable descendants would be theirs. But their expectation wasn't dead. They died in faith. because they saw something beyond the immediate physical fulfillment. Yes, those promises would be fulfilled. Certainly, God would eventually give the land of Canaan to the descendants of Abraham. And they would be great in number. But Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Sarah were looking beyond any of that. They were looking for something that would be theirs. Not something that simply would be the possession of their descendants. They were looking for the land that they would live in. A land that they would occupy. A land that they would roam about in as their own possession. wasn't simply something that one day someone of their offspring would eventually possess this land. No, they saw the promises and they greeted them from afar. They had a hope in a homeland that would be theirs beyond the grave, of a heavenly city We've already seen this alluded to in verse 10. For Abram was looking forward to the city that has foundations. He was in a tent. He was mobile. He was never in one place for long. He was a nomad. He was looking for a city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. They were looking for a heavenly city, a spiritual homeland. That was what they were yearning for. And they were looking beyond the physical descendants that would come from them. to something greater than that, something that would far more clearly fulfill the picture and the promises of descendants like the grains of sand on the seashore and like the stars of heaven. They were looking for spiritual descendants. Indeed, this is Paul's argument, isn't it, in Galatians. In chapter 3 and verse 29 he says, if you are Christ then you are Abraham's offspring, as according to promise. If you are Christ's, if you have faith in Christ like Abraham's faith in God, then you are Abraham's offspring, you are his true descendants. And these people are those then who are saved through the promised seed. Yes, the seed of Abraham, the seed of the woman, the one who would reverse the destruction of the fall of Eden and restore Eden's purity. And so in Galatians 3 in verse 16, The promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say and to offsprings, referring to many, but referring to one, and to your offspring, who is Christ. This was the promise that Abraham, by faith, saw. This was what he understood. We mustn't think that just because he lived so far back in time before any of the scriptures were written, that he was bound by the earthly and the physical. Hebrews blows away any kind of interpretation like that. Abraham had spiritual sight. Abraham knew that the promises that were made to him were far more significant than a physical fulfillment. And he anticipated these things, he longed for these things, he died not thinking God is a failure, but he died in faith, knowing that these promises would be his. He greets them. Some translations say he embraced them. for the emphasis, the import of this statement is that he made them his own, he took them, he possessed them. These promises were his and he held on to them. Even though they were far off in their fulfilment, they gripped him and he gripped them. And his whole life, His whole life was affected by the reality of what he saw a long way down the road, somewhere in the future, somewhere beyond the grave. And so, Paul writes to the church in Colossae, in Colossians, chapter 11. three in verses one and two, if then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth. Abraham lived his life for the promises of God beyond the grave. They possessed him. The choices that he made were based on those promises, were based on the longing to see those things fulfilled. They gripped him and he lived for them. Are you living for Christ? Does your life show it? If you have been raised with Christ, seek those things that are above. The things that Abraham sought, the heavenly city. The spiritual life that will be enduring in perfection, freed from sin and every trial and difficulty. Oh, how Abraham must have longed for those things in the difficulties of his circumstances. Faith looks to the future. Faith lays hold of the future. Faith lives for the future. But that leads me to my second point. Faith lives in the present. Our faith that lays hold of future promises, of a future reality, of future certainty, helps us to live appropriately now. It helps us to live today. This was true of Abraham. He acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. They knew that that was the case. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. What did Abraham do to demonstrate that this was the case? Well, in the first instance, we think of that passage that we read earlier from the book of Genesis in chapter 13. And there we have the story of the division between Abraham and Lot. The land couldn't accommodate them both, and so they part company. And the interesting thing is the way that Abraham does it. He's the senior person, he's the uncle, Lot's the nephew. He had every right to say, well, I'm going this way, I'm taking this land, see what's left. But he doesn't do that. Abraham said to Lot, is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself from me. If you take the left hand, then I will go to the right. Or if you take the right hand, then I will go to the left. And Lot lifted up his eyes. And remember, Abraham's seeing all of this as well. And he saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere, like the Garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt in the direction of Zohar. Salat chose for himself all the Jordan Valley. Abram could have done. By rights he could have done. As a senior person he could have done. As the man who was leading the expedition he could have done. But he didn't. Why didn't he? Well, for this very reason that is expressed for us by the writer of Hebrews. He was a stranger and an exile. It now mattered not to him. This was not his home. He was seeking a homeland elsewhere, not geographically elsewhere other than the Jordan Valley, so lush and fruitful. but he was seeking a land that would endure, a home that would be free from any kind of disturbance and difficulty. And Abraham told Lot, well, you choose where you want to go, it really doesn't matter at all to me, I'm happy to go anywhere at all. And then later on, After Lot's decision and his choice of dwelling place in that wicked city of Sodom, the place is overrun by foreign kings and Lot is taken into captivity. Abraham comes to his nephew's rescue, frees him, returns with the loot, And then, when he brings back all these possessions to the king of Sodom, the king says to Abraham that he can have these riches, and Abraham says, no. I would not take a thread, or a sandal strap, or anything that that is yours, lest you should say, I have made Abraham rich. I will take nothing. You see, his heart wasn't bound up with the riches that this world offers. By word and action, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob demonstrate an eternal perspective on life. That life isn't lived just for the present. But faith, you see, helps us to live in the present, in the midst of all of these choices, all of these temptations. Faith helps us to look to the future. Faith helps us to say no. Faith helps us to stand our ground, to put God first. You see, True faith affects the way that we live day by day. True faith is visible, as we've observed on Sunday evenings as Ian's taken us through James. Faith without works is dead. Faith that isn't visibly expressed in the way that we live our lives is dead. It's nothing. It's empty words. You say you have faith. I'll show you my faith, James says. And that's what Abraham did. He doesn't just speak about the promises of an eternal dwelling place, he lives for the eternal dwelling place. So Paul writes in his second letter to Timothy, in chapter two and verse four, No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. His argument is that the Christian is to live for God and not to be distracted by the world, and particularly the Christian minister is to be devoted to the service of Christ. how easy it is for us to be caught up in our lives, in the here and now, with all that it has to offer. And in the end, we have to ask ourselves, what am I living for? And as loudly as I may proclaim, I am living for Christ, I am longing for heaven, does my life show it? Do the choices that I make demonstrate it? Does the way that I live manifest the reality of faith, or does it reveal rather that faith is dead? that there is no true spiritual site that has greeted, embraced, laid hold of the promises, the longs for the spiritual reality and sees things in an eternal perspective. What is my life saying about my claim to faith? True faith lives in the present day, every day in the present day. And so Peter, in 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 11 says, Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles, like Abraham, a foreigner, an exile, abstain from the passions of the flesh. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable. Or as Paul, in that Colossians passage that we looked briefly at earlier, continuing in verse three of chapter three, you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory, therefore put to death what is earthly in you. Put on then, as God's chosen ones, that which is heavenly. You see, faith affects life. It affects the choices we make, but it affects the attitudes that we have. It affects the focus that we have. Are we living for comfort? Are we living for peace? Are we living for pleasure? Are we living for an easy life? Or are we living to glorify God? Are we living to be conformed to the image of Christ? Are we ready to go through the difficulties, the hardships, the pain of putting to death that which is earthly in us? Those natural instincts that would so easily drive us in our attitudes and choices and lifestyles, which need to be destroyed, annihilated from us and in their place, right attitudes, wise choices, humility and self-sacrificial service of others. This is what Abraham demonstrated. Lot, you choose. Take whatever you like. Take the best. Does our faith demonstrate that? Do we serve others in that self-sacrificial way? Because we know that our reward is not here, but our reward comes from our Father in heaven, and we may have to wait for it. Indeed, we will have to wait for it, just like Abraham did. Do you have faith that looks to the future? Do you have faith that enables you to live in the present? Well, there's a third thing that we need to observe concerning Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Sarah. Faith lets go of the past. See, in verses 15 and 16, If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, pause for a moment, what would they have thought? If they'd been thinking about that land from which they'd come out, what would they have been considering? Well, they were living in tents at the present time, in hardship and difficulty, on the move, and they would have thought of a solid home. They would have thought of civilized society. They would have considered a cultural capital that they had left behind. Their minds would have dwelt on all kinds of pleasures that had been theirs when they lived in Ur, that grand metropolis that offered so much. from which they'd been called out. If they had been thinking, those would have been their thoughts. But they weren't, you see. Faith enabled them to let go of the past. If they had been thinking of that land from which they'd gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. It wouldn't have been that difficult. It wasn't so far away that it was impossible for them to pack up their tents and journey back in that direction. They had made their way from there, they could just as easily have made their way back, but their heart wasn't there, you see. They didn't think about it, they didn't dwell upon it. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is a heavenly one. You see, faith in the promises of God, faith In his work for us, let's go of the past. Unlike Abram's nephew's wife, you remember how on that fateful day when God came to this world and saw the evil of Sodom and Gomorrah, and determined to destroy those cities. Not even five righteous were found there. Lot and his wife and his two daughters were quickly led away from that city. But Lot's wife looked back. She hankered after what she'd left behind. the things that she had accumulated in that home, those treasures. And she looked back with longing for those things. She was turned to a pillar of salt. Faith lets go, because faith realizes that all of those things are nothing at all. They are worthless. What is of value is ahead, not behind. What is of worth lies in the future, not in the past. So faith that is focused, looking to the future, faith that enables us to live in the presence, also enables us to let go of the past. As Jesus says, He who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is not worthy of me. Indeed, the writer of Hebrews has already expressed this thought in chapter 10 and verse 39. We, he says with some confidence, are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith. and preserve their souls. You see, here were a community of people, Jewish Christians, persecuted for their faith, who are tempted to return to Jewish ritual in order to worship God and to relinquish Christ and his way. And the writer of Hebrews is saying, don't turn back. Faith fixes its sights on the future. Faith lets go of the past. And so hardship must be endured in the strength that faith gives. Paul writes again in 2 Timothy 2, And verse three, we must share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. The way into the kingdom of heaven, Jesus says, is through much tribulation. There is no smooth, no easy road to the kingdom of God. But faith, you see, gives us such a sight, such a certainty of the promises of God that it enables us to live in the present and to let go of the past. Rather than dwelling on those things that we had, on the good life that we enjoyed, faith focuses on the future. Paul writes in his letter to the church in Philippi, Philippians chapter 3 and verses 13 and 14, brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind, there it is again, you see, forgetting what's behind, I strain forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Forget the past, look to the future, live in the present. We are waiting for a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. And those then who do this, those who have the true sight of faith, looking to the future, letting go of the past, living in the present, are owned by God. Here's what the writer of Hebrews says of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God. for he has prepared for them a city. He's not ashamed of them. How often in the scriptures do you read the phrase, the God of Abram, Isaac, and Jacob. The God of Abram, Isaac, and Jacob. Abram acknowledged God. Abram owned God as his God. Abram left everything behind. He left all the culture and comfort of Ur and followed God, not knowing where he was going. He honored God and God owned him. Jesus again says in John chapter 15 and in verse 15, no longer do I call you servants, For the servant does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends. For all that I have heard from my father, I have made known to you. Abraham was known as the friend of God. Remember, before he destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, God came to Abraham and told him what he was going to do. Not a servant, a friend. honoured and owned by God. What are you living for? What does your life say that you are living for? We are, if we are true Christians, if we have real faith in God, we are citizens of heaven. And from it we wait for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself, writes Paul. Are we living for Christ? Are we living for Christ's return? Are our affections, are our treasures in heaven or on earth? What are you living for? What does your life show that you're living for?