This is why I trust in God pt 10 – Because of friends that have gone before me.

“All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. ¹⁴ People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. ¹⁵ If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. ¹⁶ Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.” (Hebrews 11 v 13-16)

All these people includes Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac and Jacob and so many more. The author is calling this community of believers to look back on those who have gone before them who persevered, who had faith, who trusted in God and who are now in a better place. So how can you turn back? That is the message. “If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return.” So how can you now think about returning to Judaism?

This morning I am thinking of my friends and family members that have died. They were my heroes of the faith. The anniversary of the call ‘home’ is today for one of them.

When they died:

• v13- They were carrying the promises of God in their hearts. They had vision. So how much more should I also carry those promises and believe God for what is ahead? They trusted till death so I must also.
• v13-They were honest about their reality. They understood their present. This was not pie in the sky when they die. This was a conviction of their reality. They were agitators of their world. Provokers of people. They would not be moulded into something that wasn’t of God. They would not waste time on time-wasters. They did not fit in certain circles. So how much more should I simply trust God and not man?
• v14-They carried eternity in their hearts. They preached it. Their worldview was from an eternal lasting perspective. So how much more should I turn my eyes on Jesus and not on the things of this world?
• v15-They did not turn back because ahead was always better. So how much more should I stop thinking about what is behind me?

And finally and most importantly ….

• V16-That’s what happened when they died and they then met God who was not ashamed of them and led them into all that He had prepared for them in heaven, the eternal city of God. So how much more should I live my life knowing this will be my experience also?

When they died they began to live.