Sure of Things Hoped for 1982

You know, I was thinking as we were singing the Psalm 126 and we were singing that antiphon, then said they among the heathen, the Lord has done great things for them. And that's really what we're going to be looking at today, thinking about. I'd like to begin by reading from the New International Version, Hebrews 11, first six verses, and then I'll switch to the other little thing here.

For those who are noting down these passages, it's Hebrews 11, one to six. Now, faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.

By faith, we understand that the universe was formed at God's command so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. By faith, Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith, he was commended as a righteous man when God spoke well of his offerings.

And by faith, he still speaks, even though he is dead. By faith, Enoch was taken from this life so that he did not experience death. He could not be found because God had taken him away.

For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. And without faith, it is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. Faith is being sure of what we hope for, certain of what we do not see.

If, as a congregation, we're going to be more than a Sunday morning spiritual Farmer Jack's, where we all come together and hopefully get some goodies to hold us for the week and then go our separate ways. If we're going to function as the body of Christ, here where we gather and out there where we are sent to live and work and serve, we have to have some vision of where we're heading as a body. A vision on which we all agree.

Some picture in our minds that we all share and accept as the goal of our journey as a flock. Every gift God gives us as a body of believers is given so that we can accomplish a purpose, fulfill a past, move toward a goal. And it's our responsibility to hold that goal clearly in our minds and press toward that goal together.

You can say that there are three basic goals among which we have to choose as a congregation. First, we could have as our goal to survive as a flock. Survival.

Times are bad. Life is dangerous. So let's not overextend ourselves.

Let's not take any chances. Let's pull our wagons around in a circle, set up camp and survive. Or we could choose as our goal to extend our own kingdom.

You know, we can have a good look at what's going on among us now and then calculate ways in which we can attract people who are going to buy into what we have here. And then structure our growth, program things so that the growth continues to increase. If we have five talents, why shouldn't we have 10? Why shouldn't we turn it into 15 or 20? We've got 350 people here.

Why shouldn't we double that to 700? But we have to be careful when we think along those lines. Every time we get into the numbers game and remember that what we build is going to be tested by fire. And if all we're building is another religious institution, then we're building with wood and hay and stubble.

And one day, everything we've built will go up in flames. Or we can choose as our goal to see and fit into God's kingdom. To get a clear view of what the kingdom of God is doing on the earth at this hour and then get into it with everything we have.

Reading from Titus chapter 2, verse 24, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity and to purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds. To purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds. Acts 15, 13.

After they finished speaking, James replied, Brethren, listen to me. Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for his name, a people for his name. The kingdom of God is God moving among the nations of the earth and pulling out, raising up, separating, purifying, bringing together a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds.

And finally, in this little stretch here from 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 9, But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who calls you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were no people, but now you are God's people. The kingdom of God is God calling out and bringing together and raising up a people who are utterly given over to him, who just yield their lives up to him, to his praise and to his service, to his obedience, to his will.

Jesus died on that cross, rose from the dead, went back to the Father, poured out the Holy Spirit in order to gather such a people. Now the question is, do we really see ourselves as such a people? No. Do we believe that we are numbered among the people worldwide that God is gathering together around his Son to be a sign of his kingdom's presence in this world, to be a signal of his imminent return? Faith is being sure of what we hope for, certain of what we do not see.

Our goal, the thing on which we're pinning our faith, is that we should be a people who begin to take on the nature of God and who manifest God's presence in this world, in the way we live, the things we do, not only what we say, a people who are so clear in their commitment to him, so radically given over to Jesus, that the world can at least somehow see that the hour is late. It's not just what's happening in the Middle East, or what's happening about earthquakes and this and that. You know, the most important, the most clear-cut sign of what's going on as far as God is concerned in the earth is that there's a people around someplace who manifest his presence.

And if somebody's searching for God, can't find those people, something's wrong. We're called to be such a people. And to have faith is to be sure that God is at work among even people like we are.

We know what our problems are. We know how messed up we are in our hearts. We know how many times we've stumbled.

To be sure of the thing we're hoping for, that God is changing us, making us different, transfiguring us into the nature of Jesus. Faith is being sure of what we hope for, certain of what we do not see. Specifically, faith is being sure that God is joining us into union with his son, a union which will totally, absolutely, wonderfully fulfill and transfigure our lives into his nature.

Union with Jesus, a life, a corporate life lived in his presence. From Revelation chapter one, verse 12. Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me.

And on turning, I saw seven golden lampstands. And in the midst of the lampstands, one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe, with a golden girl around his breast. His head and his hair were white, as white wool, white as snow.

His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze, refined as in a furnace. And his voice was like the sound of many waters.

In his right hand, he held seven stars. From his mouth issued a sharp two-edged sword. And his face was like the sun, shining in full strength.

Now, notice where the one with the flaming eyes is standing. He's standing among the candlesticks or the lampstands. He's standing among his churches, among his people.

Oh, the thing that transforms us, purifies us, makes us holy, inspires us with a love we don't have, is to be in the presence of Jesus. This life-giving, life-transforming Jesus. To be in his presence, somehow to behold his face.

Somehow to hear his word. To be there. What else is it that draws us together, holds us together in the midst of all our problems, lifts us up, heals us, renews us, changes us, brings us to repentance and refreshes us again with the presence of Jesus among us.

But his presence is apprehended only by faith. And his word is understood, even just heard, only by faith. Faith is being sure that he is among us and that he is speaking and that he is changing us.

Know this. Hang on to it. Trust it.

Live in it. I have drawn near to you, he says. Now I want you to draw near to me.

I want you to draw near to me with your heart. Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden. I'll give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you. Get under this yoke with me. Learn from me, for I am meek and lowly of heart, and you'll find rest for your soul.

Faith is being sure that God is raising us up as a people who are no longer afraid to spend themselves. Whom for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Then in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and buys the field.

From John chapter 12, verse 24. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit.

He who loves his life loses it. And he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me.

And where I am, there shall my servant be also. We go through our lives saving our strength, saving our strength, all the time saving our strength. What are we saving it for? The whole purpose of this life that God pours into us is so that we can pour it out, give it, spend it, yield it, lay it down.

What good is a grain of wheat sitting on a shelf or in a jar in a museum? But take that grain of wheat, drop it into the ground, let it die. And it produces life. Faith is to be sure that Jesus came forth from that tomb alive, burning with life so that he might reproduce that life in us.

And he had that life. He experienced that life and gave that life only because he was willing, first of all, to die, because he laid it down, went into that tomb. The only possible way Jesus has anything for us is because he gave it all up.

And he says to us, anyone who serves me, let him follow me. That where I am, there shall my servant be. So if I lay down my life, my servant lays down her life, his life.

If I bear fruit, my servant bears fruit. So now we renounce our continuous fear of overextending ourselves, spending ourselves, you know, getting burned out. Oh, I'm afraid I might get burned out if I try too hard.

If I don't get that extra half hour sleep, whatever it is, to deny that fear of spending ourselves. And now when we get up in the morning, we get up in the morning not to see how much we can acquire. We get up in the morning to spend, to give, to serve, to pour it out.

The more we pour out, the more he's going to pour in. And then the spirit of the living God begins to fill our sails like a mighty rushing wind. And now we begin to move like ships in full sail.

Finally, faith is to be sure that Jesus is sending us out into this city to bear fruit. John 15, 16. Somebody got on us about not giving enough clear-cut references so people don't know where these things are.

So I'll try to remember to do that. If I can remember them. I think it's John 15, 16.

You did not choose me. I chose you and ordained you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain. Faith is to believe, to know, to be sure that we're going to bear fruit, not wishing all the time that we could, knowing that we will.

We're going to go out into the streets and lanes of this city and bring the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind into the banquet table of God. We're going to go into the highways and hedges of suburbia and compel them into the banquet table of God. Now, faith is being sure of what we hope for, certain of what we do not see.

Our goal is beyond the reach of our natural eye. It's in the realm of spirit. It's in the realm of hope.

Now we see that goal and we begin to press toward it. And we begin to bring it down into the realm where we are by being sure that God is now at work through his son, transforming us into a people, his people, more effective, more righteous, more compassionate, more real, more true, more consistent than we could dare to ask or think. Today, as we eat our Lord's flesh and drink his blood, we are joining ourselves to him.

We are getting under the yoke with him, committing ourselves now to lay down our lives with him. And then we're going to go out that door or that door, and we're going to make disciples of all nations. Let's wait upon him in prayer.

We're asking Lord God again now that by the power of your spirit, by the help of your spirit, you would enable us to get our minds off our ourselves and our personal hangups and problems, and to see the goal toward which you're calling us to move, and to get hold of that, and to drive out of our minds everything that hinders that, and to take every thought into captivity to arriving at that place where the Lord Jesus himself stands and calls us. Pray that you'd help us to lay aside our stubbornness, our self-righteousness, our hardness with each other, Lord God, our laziness, our wallowing in our own self-pity, and our own feelings of our own lack of self-worth, all these things, and dump them on you, Lord God, and get moving in your will. Help us, Lord God, by the power of your spirit to begin to act now with our hearts first.

We ask it in Jesus' name.