back to index2020-12-6 Living As Aliens and Strangers
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If you can turn your Bibles with me to Hebrews chapter 11, I'll be reading from verse 8 00:00:10.680 |
I'm going to jump back into the text that I started a few weeks ago. 00:00:28.440 |
By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive 00:00:32.840 |
for an inheritance, and he went out not knowing where he was going. 00:00:37.200 |
By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling 00:00:41.120 |
in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of same promise. 00:00:46.120 |
For he was looking for the city which has foundation, whose architect and builder is 00:00:51.040 |
By faith even Sarah herself received the ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of 00:00:55.840 |
life, since she considered him faithful who had promise. 00:00:59.900 |
Therefore there was born even of one man, and him as good as dead, as many descendants 00:01:05.440 |
as the stars of heaven in number, and in New Brumble as the sand which is by the seashore. 00:01:11.320 |
All these died in faith without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having 00:01:15.520 |
welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers in exiles 00:01:21.200 |
For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. 00:01:25.760 |
And indeed if they had been thinking of this country from which they went out, they would 00:01:31.840 |
But as it is, they desire a better country that is a heavenly one. 00:01:35.540 |
Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for 00:01:41.320 |
Christian loving Father, we ask that you would help us during this time to not only 00:01:48.040 |
to hear your word, but that you would illuminate us that we may understand and apply it in 00:01:57.160 |
Help us Lord God to truly love you with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. 00:02:01.600 |
That we would not worship you out of habit, but we would render our hearts and not just 00:02:07.800 |
So we pray that you would anoint this time for your namesake. 00:02:13.280 |
All right, so we're at part two of the section that we're looking at, and in the larger section 00:02:21.120 |
And so as we talked about before, just as a refresher, that chapter 11 is a transitional 00:02:26.260 |
chapter starting from chapter 1 through 10, talking about the supremacy of Christ and 00:02:38.100 |
Therefore, concerning all that crisis on who he is, that we ought to continue to live our 00:02:43.700 |
So chapter 11 is that transition where he says, "Obedience comes by faith." 00:02:50.700 |
It's not, "We believe so, it doesn't matter." 00:02:56.440 |
But he says, "No, obedience ultimately comes by faith." 00:03:00.200 |
And that's a theme of every single person that is mentioned here. 00:03:08.120 |
So every single person here in the book of Genesis, he says, "If they have become righteous, 00:03:13.960 |
Abraham, what God declared of him, he is righteous because of his faith." 00:03:20.100 |
And so last week we talked about his calling as he's one of the greatest examples of what 00:03:27.160 |
God called him out, it says in verse 8, "By faith, Abraham, when he was called, obeyed 00:03:33.520 |
And that was the first calling of every Christian. 00:03:37.040 |
You cannot follow Christ while maintaining a continued and same relationship that you 00:03:45.820 |
Because the very first step of meeting Christ is repenting from the life that we lived before 00:03:54.140 |
We don't add Christ to the life that we live. 00:03:58.300 |
We're pursuing the same things, love the same things, value the same things, and then we 00:04:04.740 |
Well, we didn't go to church and now we're going to church. 00:04:07.900 |
But nothing of our pursuit, nothing of our value has changed. 00:04:12.420 |
Hebrews chapter 13, 11, as Christ was crucified outside the camp, he calls every Christian 00:04:19.860 |
So again, our justification happens when we recognize that not just an act and not just 00:04:25.820 |
something that we did, but our totality of our life was in rebellion against God. 00:04:29.860 |
And so we repent and we turn and we begin to walk toward Christ. 00:04:36.500 |
And so we talked about that last week, how Abraham, in order for him to live by promise 00:04:41.660 |
to receive his inheritance, he first had to leave his home. 00:04:45.980 |
The second part we want to get to is also in this verse where it says, "They obeyed 00:04:50.700 |
by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance, and he went out not knowing 00:04:57.460 |
By faith he lives as an alien in the land of promise. 00:05:01.720 |
As in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same 00:05:07.420 |
Not only did he leave his home, the Bible says that living by faith means to live as 00:05:21.080 |
Every single Christian who's been called out of this world, we have not gotten home yet. 00:05:26.980 |
I think the best illustration of what our Christian life is like is like the Israelites 00:05:31.960 |
who are wandering in the desert for 40 years. 00:05:36.580 |
So even though they're wandering as free and became a nation, they haven't entered into 00:05:45.640 |
Every single Christian who's been called out of this world, we live in a period of sanctification. 00:05:53.100 |
We've seen a glimpse of it, but we're kind of wandering in the desert. 00:05:56.120 |
Again, that's why the theologians call this period here and not yet. 00:06:02.040 |
We have an idea through the church what his kingdom looks like, but the actual complete 00:06:06.780 |
deliverance is described when he comes in his glory, we will be also glorified with 00:06:12.640 |
So the life of Abraham is an example of what our Christian life ought to look like. 00:06:18.480 |
So first thing, again, that we said, which God calls him out of his comfort zone, and 00:06:27.640 |
He doesn't come out and say, "Well, he didn't make a trade-off between his hometown of Uruqqalidin, 00:06:33.760 |
and then he wandered and then packed his stuff and moved into the land of Canaan and then 00:06:38.700 |
The Bible says that he lived the rest of the life that he lived as aliens and strangers 00:06:48.760 |
That's exactly how our life is described in 1 Peter 2.11. 00:06:52.360 |
He says, "Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which 00:06:59.640 |
Peter writes that in 1 Peter because the persecution was ramping up. 00:07:04.800 |
I mean, they were always persecuted before that period, but 1 Peter is written around 00:07:09.960 |
60 to 65 AD, and that's when Nero started doing his crazy stuff where you see movies 00:07:15.400 |
where you have Christians being dragged into the Colosseum, torn apart by lions, and they're 00:07:25.080 |
This was written right as that was beginning to happen, and so they were beginning to feel 00:07:31.680 |
this pressure that some of them not only were having a hard time having their jobs, taking 00:07:36.320 |
care of their children, but literally being torn apart by animals. 00:07:44.200 |
If you trust in God and if you're faithful, he's going to show up and deliver you. 00:07:52.600 |
He doesn't tell them that they're not going to die. 00:07:54.840 |
He doesn't tell them that the life is going to be easy. 00:07:57.160 |
He reminds them, "If you feel like you don't fit in this world, it's because you don't." 00:08:04.400 |
And he actually reminds them, "If the world rejects you and they're constantly telling 00:08:09.160 |
you we don't want you among us, and some of them may simply not like you, some of them 00:08:15.000 |
may persecute you, and some of them may actually try to kill you. 00:08:20.400 |
When you face that, remember, you are an alien and stranger in this world." 00:08:30.040 |
"When I send you out and they don't know you, it's because they don't know me. 00:08:36.840 |
They crucified me, so they're going to try to crucify you." 00:08:39.280 |
And he warned them, "If you want to keep following me, you pick up your cross, deny yourself 00:08:50.760 |
And so Peter is repeating the words that he heard from his Savior, that you are an alien 00:08:57.640 |
Don't try so hard to fit in here because you don't fit in. 00:09:01.360 |
As long as you are a child of God, you will always be an alien and stranger while you're 00:09:06.400 |
You know what's really interesting is that those two words, aliens and stranger, in the 00:09:14.520 |
You probably heard the term oikos before, right? 00:09:21.120 |
So para oikos, para basically means to be alongside. 00:09:25.240 |
That that's not your home, you're alongside the home. 00:09:28.040 |
That's what an alien means, that you don't really have your home. 00:09:33.920 |
You live there and you have a place to stay, but that's not your home. 00:09:39.640 |
It doesn't mean that you're not living, you're there, but it's not your permanent home. 00:09:49.400 |
Para basically is the same word para alongside pidmas is the word for people. 00:09:55.180 |
So the word stranger means you are along with the people, but you don't really belong. 00:10:01.960 |
It's like somebody who kind of immigrated to another country and you don't speak the 00:10:07.080 |
You come from another land, but you immigrated and you're staying there for a period. 00:10:11.600 |
That's the word that is being used here, para oikos, para pidmas. 00:10:15.440 |
That you're living among the people, but you don't belong there. 00:10:18.800 |
You have a place to stay, but that's not your house. 00:10:22.200 |
And he is reminding them that when the world reminds you that you are an alien and stranger 00:10:29.280 |
and they treat you like you don't belong here, he reminds them it's because you do not. 00:10:36.400 |
But you know, it's easy to say here, but at the core of every single person in this room, 00:10:47.560 |
There's not a single person here that doesn't say, "I don't care where I belong." 00:10:51.760 |
No, everybody wants to belong because God created us that way. 00:10:55.760 |
When God created Adam, he said it wasn't good for him to be alone. 00:11:01.560 |
And so at the core of who we are, every single one of us want to belong. 00:11:09.780 |
You rarely see people rebelling by themselves. 00:11:12.000 |
Even the anarchists have to check with the other anarchists how they are going to be 00:11:16.440 |
anarchists together, because they belong in that group. 00:11:21.560 |
Now I realize that even at church, you know, I realize all these years of seeing people 00:11:27.040 |
come and go at the church, people will come to church because, not the only reason, but 00:11:31.800 |
people will come to church and look for a church where they'll hear the sermon or they'll 00:11:35.120 |
see the service or they like the worship and say, "I want to come visit that church." 00:11:39.440 |
And so it'll bring people to the church, but usually people will not stay until they feel 00:11:51.960 |
I found that through the years, right, the Sunday worship will attract people, but what 00:11:56.780 |
causes people to stay is if they feel like they belong. 00:12:06.360 |
In fact, you guys may remember, some of you, in fact, first service, I don't think I had 00:12:12.120 |
anybody know, but remember the sitcom Cheers? 00:12:14.880 |
Okay, I'm going to look in this direction to make sure I'm making connection, right? 00:12:19.680 |
So Cheers was a sitcom back in the '80s and it was basically kind of like The Office, 00:12:28.040 |
The whole sitcom was based upon what was happening at The Office. 00:12:31.800 |
Well, Cheers was a sitcom where everything was happening at this bar called The Cheers. 00:12:37.000 |
And it was just a bunch of friends that would get together and just talk nonsense. 00:12:40.600 |
It was just them hanging out, just goofing around. 00:12:51.080 |
Making your way in the world today takes everything you've got. 00:12:55.160 |
Taking a break from all your worries sure would help a lot. 00:13:00.360 |
Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name and they're always glad you came. 00:13:04.680 |
You want to be where you can see our troubles are all the same. 00:13:08.040 |
You want to be where everybody knows your name. 00:13:11.000 |
Now, this is about the sitcom, about this bar that people are hanging out with, but 00:13:15.600 |
I think that resonates with every single one of us. 00:13:22.160 |
This is every single human being wants to go where they feel like they belong. 00:13:30.280 |
Remember the next big sitcom that came around, Friends, right? 00:13:35.240 |
This is just a bunch of friends hanging around and no specific purpose. 00:13:40.040 |
It's just their interaction and what their life was like. 00:13:45.320 |
So no one told you life was going to be this way. 00:13:51.880 |
It's like you're always stuck in second gear when it hasn't been your day, your week, your 00:13:58.760 |
But I'll be there for you when the rain starts to pour. 00:14:01.760 |
I'll be there for you like I've been there before. 00:14:04.080 |
I'll be there for you 'cause you're there for me too. 00:14:07.960 |
You're still in bed at 10 and work began at 8. 00:14:13.600 |
Your mother warned you there'd be days like these, but she didn't tell you when the world 00:14:17.400 |
has brought you down to your knees that I'll be there for you when the rain starts to pour. 00:14:21.640 |
I'll be there for you like I've been there before. 00:14:24.520 |
I'll be there for you 'cause you're there for me too. 00:14:29.120 |
I'll bet you if you, you know, those of you who are thinking that you may not have articulated 00:14:34.440 |
this, but I'll bet you there's a longing in your heart that is expressed in these very 00:14:37.880 |
words because that's how God created us to long to belong. 00:14:44.560 |
And that's why this desire to belong, if we see that we belong to Christ and that causes 00:14:52.240 |
us to run to him, then you're going to bear fruit. 00:14:56.240 |
Our whole life is a journey to get to Christ and belong in Christ and constantly be reminded 00:15:07.640 |
But along with that temptation, that desire causes us to compromise, to belong where we 00:15:19.520 |
We believe things that we shouldn't believe all because we simply want to belong. 00:15:28.200 |
We want to belong so much that we compromise. 00:15:31.640 |
We do things, say things, jump through the hoops and not jump through the hoops all because 00:15:37.280 |
See, the life that is lived by faith is a life that is constantly wandering because 00:15:47.160 |
The trouble that you and I get into is that we want home to be here. 00:15:54.880 |
We want, you know, even at work, just wanting to belong because that's constantly resonated 00:16:05.160 |
You know, the problem is that once you belong somewhere and you feel like, "Oh, I feel 00:16:12.880 |
You know what the next stage is after you feel like you belong somewhere? 00:16:17.600 |
You know, if you don't belong anywhere, you're not competing with anybody because you're 00:16:27.280 |
But as soon as you feel like you belong, I'm part of it. 00:16:31.440 |
And then the next temptation is you start comparing. 00:16:39.680 |
Just like all the other ambitions you had before you belong, and you start comparing 00:16:44.240 |
And then the third thing that happens when you're comparing and you're competing, you 00:16:47.080 |
start collecting in order to fulfill that desire in our hearts. 00:16:54.000 |
So although that essential desire to want to belong is something that God has created 00:16:58.580 |
inside of us, just like the sexual impulses, in and of itself is not evil because God created 00:17:08.800 |
God gave it to mankind in order to procreate. 00:17:11.760 |
But it became perverted because you start expressing it in every other way outside of 00:17:21.000 |
But when we start to seek for that in places where God hasn't given us, where we don't 00:17:28.480 |
And we deceive ourselves that we think we're living in obedience when we're not. 00:17:32.640 |
See the first call of Abraham is to leave your home. 00:17:35.880 |
And then the second thing that he told him to do is walk by faith. 00:17:40.660 |
As aliens and strangers, Abraham, it says in verse 8, did not know where he was going. 00:17:46.780 |
He didn't jump from one home to another home. 00:17:49.040 |
He said the home is coming, but meanwhile, for a hundred years, he walked 00:17:59.280 |
You know, whenever we study somebody like Abraham, you know, it could encourage us from 00:18:05.440 |
You say, wow, that guy literally left everything. 00:18:10.000 |
But when you take a closer look at Abraham's life, he's not much different than us, right? 00:18:15.400 |
Right after he's called, promises made, he steps out in faith. 00:18:20.080 |
And then in Genesis chapter 12, verse 11, right after the promise is made, he's in the 00:18:25.440 |
land of Egypt and he's concerned, you know, because his wife is so beautiful, he's concerned 00:18:31.320 |
that this powerful nation is going to come, basically take her and then kill him. 00:18:35.280 |
So he said, well, tell her, tell them you're my sister. 00:18:41.600 |
Pharaoh comes and takes her to make her his concubine. 00:18:47.360 |
God's anger is burned because God's blessing is upon this family and God supernaturally 00:18:53.720 |
And you would think he's learned his lesson in Genesis chapter 20, same thing happens, 00:18:58.880 |
He's wandering and in danger and the king of Abimelech show up and he said, hey, you 00:19:12.800 |
She was a fantastic wife because both times she agreed and she did it, right? 00:19:18.400 |
I can't imagine people doing that now, right? 00:19:22.240 |
She did it, she did it, she followed and she went through the system and then God supernaturally 00:19:27.720 |
And even though he compromised in order to save his own neck, I mean, this is the man 00:19:37.800 |
In fact, if you look closer, it says that of Sarah, right? 00:19:44.760 |
Sarah basically did the same thing later on when God promises a child, you know, in Hebrews 00:19:53.320 |
chapter 11 verse 11, it says, "Faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive." 00:20:03.040 |
When God promised at her old age that she was going to have a child, Sarah's response 00:20:07.640 |
wasn't, oh, you know, I've been waiting, now, you know, I believe you. 00:20:21.520 |
And that's why God names the child Laughter, Isaac. 00:20:25.920 |
But here it says because of her faith, she received the ability to conceive. 00:20:34.640 |
Both Abraham and Sarah, their trajectory of life was obedience. 00:20:41.440 |
They were out wandering as strangers and aliens. 00:20:45.040 |
And yet, even though they believed in the big picture of who God is, the means in which 00:20:50.480 |
God was going to fulfill this, they had a hard time accepting, just like all of us. 00:20:57.200 |
We sit here every single day, every single time we're here, we sing praises of his greatness, 00:21:06.920 |
He was willing to give his only begotten son, his most precious thing, so that rebellious 00:21:14.000 |
And then what it says, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall 00:21:22.400 |
Even though we profess the big picture of what we believe in the grand scheme of things, 00:21:26.720 |
like we believe God, but when the rubber meets the road, we have the same problem as Abraham 00:21:36.280 |
If I do this, what if my business doesn't do well? 00:21:38.400 |
If I do this, what if I get rejected from my family? 00:21:50.080 |
Sometimes we look at these men and women of faith, and they're so far ahead of us, they're 00:21:55.320 |
to be admired from a distance, but not to be followed. 00:22:00.520 |
Sometimes we read the New Testament that way. 00:22:02.320 |
Apostle Paul, you know, "I've learned the secret of being content in every and all situations." 00:22:14.120 |
Oh, those are the reformers were specially gifted people, anointed by God. 00:22:19.720 |
But when you take a closer look at every one of these heroes, they were just normal people 00:22:30.360 |
And he calls us, and every single one of us is journeying through this desert, longing 00:22:38.720 |
But while we are journeying, we will experience being rejected, danger, sometimes doubts, 00:22:51.200 |
But in the midst of that, he constantly reminds us, there is something coming. 00:22:55.840 |
See, that's why the Bible describes the life of a Christian as somebody who walks by faith 00:23:05.280 |
Because somebody who is walking by sight, if God doesn't fulfill the promise immediately, 00:23:14.760 |
You know, in Genesis chapter 12, 1 to 3, and I'm just going to read starting from verse 00:23:18.160 |
2, or starting from verse 1, this is the promise that God made with Abraham. 00:23:23.720 |
"Now the Lord said to Abram, 'Go forth from your country and from your relatives and from 00:23:28.240 |
your father's house to the land which I will show you. 00:23:31.720 |
And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great. 00:23:38.400 |
And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. 00:23:42.440 |
And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.'" 00:23:45.280 |
Look at three things that he promises to Abraham in his descent. 00:23:51.240 |
You're going to leave your land and I'm going to take you to another land. 00:23:58.040 |
Did Abraham ever see this land during his life? 00:24:04.280 |
The only land that he ever possessed was a tiny little cave that he purchased in Canaan 00:24:10.540 |
So even though he left everything to follow God because of the promise of land, he never 00:24:18.040 |
For a hundred years he wandered around and never saw the land. 00:24:22.600 |
And then he says, "I will make you a great nation." 00:24:25.800 |
That your descendants are going to number the stars in the sand. 00:24:31.160 |
He made this promise when his wife was barren. 00:24:40.360 |
In fact, 400 years after he dies, all his descendants became slaves in Egypt. 00:24:52.620 |
He promised him to be a blessing, that he was going to bless them and through them going 00:24:59.880 |
Did he ever see his nation, the nation, going to be multiplied and people going to be blessed 00:25:12.240 |
He lived all his life as a wanderer, as a nomad, as aliens and strangers. 00:25:21.440 |
See, the Bible described for us why he was able to wander. 00:25:27.480 |
You would think that if God didn't fulfill the promise that he made, you know, after 00:25:31.760 |
a year or two years, three, I can wait, right? 00:25:37.320 |
If you put your money in this mutual fund, you know, five years, six years, ten years, 00:25:40.920 |
if it doesn't mature and you don't make money off of it, you're going to pull it out. 00:25:44.460 |
But we're willing to sacrifice and not touch that money because we think the payoff is 00:25:49.520 |
But how long will you keep it in there if the payoff never comes? 00:25:53.080 |
How many of you are going to put all that you have into an account that you can never 00:25:57.600 |
touch, will never mature, you'll never see, and then just be done with it? 00:26:10.120 |
All these people who left and was wandering, they never saw the promised land. 00:26:15.000 |
They lived by faith, but they also died by faith without receiving the promises. 00:26:24.320 |
And having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance and having confessed that 00:26:28.320 |
they were strangers and exiles on the earth, for those who say such things make it clear 00:26:32.840 |
that they are seeking a country of their own. 00:26:36.080 |
They're continuing to go forward even though they didn't receive it, but look what it says 00:26:41.760 |
And indeed, if they had been thinking of the country from which they had come from, they 00:26:50.160 |
At some point in their journey, they realized the prize wasn't the physical Canaan. 00:26:57.960 |
Because if that's what they thought, they could have easily returned. 00:27:01.040 |
They would have pulled their money out and reinvested somewhere else. 00:27:05.160 |
Maybe put it back in the bank, at least put it in the CD where it's safe. 00:27:10.780 |
But at some point in their journey, they realized that Canaan wasn't the promised land. 00:27:16.980 |
That they were seeking a city where the foundation is laid by God himself, not with dirt. 00:27:24.200 |
And that's why they were able to walk this journey and live all their lives as aliens 00:27:28.360 |
and strangers, leaving behind what was familiar to them. 00:27:36.520 |
You see, there's so many people who are Christians who came into the faith thinking, "I'm going 00:27:42.960 |
to follow Christ," and then have been waiting month after month, year after year, maybe 00:27:48.120 |
possibly decade after decade, waiting for a payoff. 00:27:53.480 |
But that payoff never came, at least not the way we imagined it. 00:28:01.040 |
Relationships with other human beings became hard. 00:28:10.800 |
And so every experience, every stage of life, we're waiting for some kind of payoff. 00:28:16.720 |
I picked up my cross, I did what you asked me to do. 00:28:21.940 |
And because payoff never came, and all we were, and all we are experiencing is rejection. 00:28:30.540 |
I was willing to be an alien and stranger in the beginning. 00:28:42.180 |
And so what did a lot of confessing Christians do? 00:28:59.080 |
He said, but Abraham and Sarah, they realized at some point in their journey that their 00:29:10.120 |
That the promised land that God promised them was future, and they longed for that, and 00:29:15.240 |
they kept on going, even though they never saw the physical promise happening in their 00:29:20.320 |
And that's why it says God is not ashamed to call them his children. 00:29:25.880 |
You know what's interesting with all the COVID that's going on? 00:29:30.400 |
All the COVID that's going on, you know, so many people are going camping and outdoor 00:29:35.160 |
And I don't know if you've ever looked into it recently, all the camping gear, the price 00:29:43.760 |
Before all this pandemic, you know, the portable toilets were being sold for like $30, $40. 00:29:47.880 |
Now it's like in the hundreds, $120, $130, because it's in high demand. 00:29:56.880 |
So it's become really popular to go camping and go off-road and all that stuff. 00:30:02.400 |
You know what's interesting is that people who have permanent homes fantasize about being 00:30:13.440 |
Going off-road, peeing on the side road, sleeping on the floor. 00:30:19.720 |
What would it be like to be homeless out in the woods for a while, right? 00:30:23.240 |
And then people who are nomadic, because you don't have a permanent home, you know, that's 00:30:28.200 |
We're going to settle down somewhere someday. 00:30:30.200 |
We're going to buy a house and we're going to be in this neighborhood. 00:30:36.720 |
And whether you have a permanent home, whether you're a nomadic just moving around, that 00:30:40.680 |
longing to want to be permanent, to be home, is inside of all of us. 00:30:46.680 |
But the danger is when we begin to think that somehow, somewhere, that if we get this, if 00:30:50.600 |
we buy a home, if we move, if we do this, that we're going to finally belong. 00:30:55.120 |
See, that's why Abraham and Sarah is an example for us as wanderers, simply because God promised. 00:31:07.200 |
Meaning that the payoff is coming, is not here. 00:31:12.720 |
You're going to have periods of time when you're going to experience great fellowship, 00:31:15.520 |
and there's going to be periods of time in your life when you're going to feel like you're 00:31:21.120 |
There's going to be periods when you're financially stable, and there's going to be periods when 00:31:24.640 |
you're begging God to help you feed your kids. 00:31:29.720 |
There's going to be periods when you're in full health, there's going to be periods when 00:31:37.320 |
But no matter what we experience here, we're all just wandering in the desert together. 00:31:46.240 |
But when Christ who is your life, when He comes, when He comes in glory, you will also 00:31:53.360 |
That's why the Bible speaks about the second coming of Christ as redeeming His children 00:32:02.960 |
You know Moses, Moses is somebody that I always look to for encouragement. 00:32:11.680 |
Not because of their great faith, but because, I don't know why, it may just be, but I find 00:32:18.280 |
more encouragement with whining and complaining of Apostle Paul. 00:32:24.560 |
He's wrote some great letters, you know Philippians, like rejoice always, and I get sent to rejoice, 00:32:30.640 |
And I read, you know, 2 Timothy, it's like don't be like these people. 00:32:34.880 |
They all abandoned me, they all went home, right? 00:32:40.080 |
And I said, oh man, Apostle Paul, and he died like that. 00:32:43.600 |
I look at Moses' life, I think he would have been perfectly content taking care of sheep 00:32:50.480 |
God calls him and said I want you to go talk to some, I want you to lead my people out 00:32:56.120 |
I stutter, I call my brother and then God actually is angry with him. 00:33:00.600 |
You think I'm calling you because I need you? 00:33:09.160 |
And while he goes, the Israelites are not thanking him. 00:33:13.040 |
You know, like when great things happen, it's like God is so good. 00:33:16.160 |
When bad things happen, this guy, you sent this guy. 00:33:21.840 |
And he's constantly turning around and I could tell, like you know, in the beginning, he's 00:33:31.560 |
Think about the reputation, you sent this out and if we all die in the desert, what 00:33:35.880 |
And he's begging God, you have to come with us. 00:33:41.280 |
I think he was trying to make a great leader, right? 00:33:45.560 |
But at the end of the 40-year journey that he didn't even want to go, after 40 years 00:33:50.640 |
of whining and complaining of the Israelites, right before they enter the promised land, 00:34:03.840 |
Like we're about to enter the promised land, you're going to do this again? 00:34:06.920 |
And he comes to God, whoa, what do you want me to do? 00:34:14.040 |
He goes and he takes his staff and he strikes the rock. 00:34:17.880 |
Water comes out, they drink it, they're happy. 00:34:22.980 |
You did not show me as holy, so you will not enter the promised land. 00:34:36.700 |
You twisted his arm and you made him go down this path and he's at the entrance and he 00:34:53.700 |
Because I went and exposited and I read sermons and all these people were like, from the text 00:35:15.420 |
And I remember reading that for the first time. 00:35:19.940 |
If he got in trouble, he couldn't enter the promised land because he didn't ... Whatever 00:35:34.620 |
All that drama and then you soak it up and then at the end of your life you can't go 00:35:44.500 |
But one of these days we're going to get to heaven and we'll probably, I don't know if 00:35:50.940 |
we're going to be able to see Moses face to face. 00:35:52.660 |
Maybe he'd be too close to the throne of God. 00:35:56.860 |
But if we do see Moses in heaven, I don't think Moses is going to say, I can't believe 00:36:13.740 |
For 40 years that's all I wanted to get into the promised land. 00:36:23.180 |
I don't think Moses is in heaven complaining about where he is. 00:36:30.900 |
If you look at it from God's sovereign perspective, God actually delivered Moses because Israelites 00:36:37.620 |
entered the promised land and you think Israelites were complaining and grumbling in the 40 years 00:36:47.540 |
As soon as they crossed the line, I mean, they started setting up altars and started 00:36:56.580 |
You know, all the things that we long for during this 40 years of wandering in the desert 00:37:02.860 |
Do you think any one of us will be in eternity and look at this, oh, man, how come my business 00:37:17.340 |
You think any one of us is going to be in eternity in the glory of Christ and going 00:37:24.140 |
to remember and regret anything that we grumble about here? 00:37:30.020 |
In fact, sometimes God allows us to experience that to remind us that we don't belong here, 00:37:38.180 |
that our treasure is not here, that this is not our home, that these are not my people. 00:37:44.780 |
One day, if we continue to persevere and walk in faith, that we will be where God called 00:37:52.660 |
In Philippians 3, 20 to 21, for our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait 00:37:58.500 |
for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humble state into 00:38:03.580 |
conformity with the body of his glory by the exertion of the power that he has even to 00:38:14.020 |
So again, as we meditate upon Abraham and Sarai, don't just remember the highlights. 00:38:22.060 |
Remember, they were people just like us, average people, normal people who believed in an awesome 00:38:29.140 |
God that we may leave behind what holds us back and live the rest of our lives as aliens 00:38:37.580 |
and strangers longing for the second coming of Christ.