Sermon Tone Analysis

Lets just take a few steps backward so that we might be able to see the bigger picture for a moment.

We just need to make sure that as we zoom in and examine this scripture that we don’t lose the context of the overall message.

“For he is faithful that promised” The belief in the faithfulness of the one who has promised is the very essence of faith.

If God is faithful then what He has said is trustworthy and true, what He has promised is as good as done.

It is therefore, on this truth that we have full assurance of faith so let us hold fast to our profession of our faith.

This is at the heart of the message of Hebrews.

The author is convincing his readers to stay with Jesus don’t go back to the Law and sacrifices but continue in the faith because he is faithful that promised.

This is why this book is so important for us today.

Sometimes we don’t yet see the promises of God fulfilled in our life the way that we thought we would.

In such times we must hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; for he is faithful that promised.

So how do we do that?

how do we hold fast to the promise when it appears that the promise is lost?

The elders of the faith may have some hidden wisdom for us that we can learn from.

So then lets look at the faith of Abraham.

He Obeyed During Obscurity

Story of going to the states

Abraham obeyed God even though they destination was unknown and the way was unclear and yet by faith he obeyed took his whole family and went.

Many of us came to Christ not knowing exactly what that entailed.

Most of us did not know the path it would take us on, and none of us fully know where it will take us.

He Trusted Through Uncertainty

After he had passed through the land of Canaan God said to Abraham I will give this land unto your seed.

And yet for his whole life Abraham was a sojourner.

To be a sojourner means to dwell in a place as a stranger.

Many of you know what it is like to be in a strange land as a foreigner.

I’ve lived in New Zealand for longer than I have lived in the States, about 23 years, I have New Zealand citizenship, a New Zealand born wife and 4 New Zealand born children and yet the minute I open my mouth and speak, to most people I’m a foreigner.

Abraham lived in the land of Canaan where God told him to go, and God had told him that this was his land for his children and yet he was a sojourner in a strange country and this was reinforced by the fact that he as well as Isaac and Jacob, dwelt in tents.

We all want to have a place we can call our own, put down roots and in Auckland it seems to be more and more difficult to achieve.

Abraham never had a place to call his own he dwelt in tents in a land that God had promised to him.

The only land that he ever bought was a little burial plot for him and his family.

Why is this important?

why did the writer of Hebrews include this?

Because of those two words at the beginning of the verse “by faith”

God had told Abraham to pack up and go to a country that He would show him.

He left everything behind their whole life probably a house maybe even status as some believe that he had some sort of prominent position in Ur.

And yet he gave all that up so that he could be a drifter in a strange country with no place to call his own.

Why.

Because God made him a promise and he believed God.

I’m sure that things didn’t play out like Abraham expected because things never do.

And I’m sure things took a lot longer to happen than he expected because things always do.

The Bible says that I’m righteous in Christ Jesus and yet I don’t feel righteous, the Bible says that I’m a child of God and yet sometime it doesn’t feel like I’m a child of God.

It says I’m a saint and yet most of the time I don’t feel like I’m a saint.

So just like Abraham sojourning in a land that God promised was his inheritance we too have been given promises that have not been fully realised.

So what do we do?

We do what Abraham did.

By faith he sojourned even though the promise seems far away because faith is the substance of things not seen.

What was it that Gave Abraham this stedfast faith and patience?

How did he manage to keep from becoming discourage?

He Focused On The Heavenly

Where we look is very important

Many are trying to go through life with one eye on Jesus and the other on the world.

We want to serve Christ but we also want the comforts and pleasures that this world has to offer.

It is this evil eye that will fill our whole body with darkness.

Abraham obeyed God despite the fact that his future was obscure.

He sojourned in tents in the land that God had given to him and trusted in the promises of God despite the uncertainty and appearance that he would not realise the promise.

He was able to do these things because he he believed that the one who had promised him was faithful.

and he set his eyes on something higher.

It’s easy to lose heart in this world for of darkness

We have need of patients that after we have done the will of God, we might receive the promise For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry

We may struggle to see our salvation now but we know that it is closer now than when we first believed.

Hold fast to this faith and have a single eye looking to the return of Christ for yet a little while and he that shall come will com and not tarry .