St. Luke’s Evangelical Lutheran Church -- Watertown, WI
Pastor Mark Gartner
Sermon for Pentecost 12 -- Aug. 23^rd and Aug 26^th 2001

Dear believers in the promises of God. Amen

Have any of you had the chance to watch the newest Tom Hanks film "Castaway." This film is the story of a man whose plane crashed into the ocean and how he survived by washing up on a deserted island. Most of the movie takes us through the many trials and tribulations that Tom Hank had to endure, such as making shoes, finding food drinking water and getting fire. As it turns out, Tom Hanks ended up on this island for years until he finally was able to make himself a small raft and was picked up by a boat. Although there were many times where the person in this movie wanted to give up, the majority of this movie shows Tom Hanks trying anything to keep himself alive so that he could return home. We could say that he persevered and he lived.

As we look at our lives on this earth, the picture of being lost on an island describes pretty well our lives on this earth. Our whole life on this earth is one long struggle against sin, death and the devil. These struggles are very real and very tough. It’s our trust in God and his Word that makes the difference. There are days where our faith seems real strong and there are days where our faith is weak and we would like to give up and say it is to hard to be a Christian. But as Christians we pray that God will daily strengthen our faith as we eagerly await the day that we get to leave this sin-stricken island called earth and return to our real home in heaven. The only thing to keep us looking forward is the faith that God has worked in our hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit. Today as we live on this earth we would ask:

Hebrews Chapter 11 is considered the great faith chapter of the Bible. The whole chapter is devoted to talking about the faith that God gave to some of the great heroes and some simple people of the Old Testament. And while he talks only about a few people from the Old Testament, we can quickly see that these words are meant to strengthen and commend the faith of Christians for all ages.

To understand what faith is, we need to have some sort of definition to work with. Faith is not something that makes us better than other people. Faith is not something, which we can go out and find by becoming spiritual. Faith is not blindly following something or someone. The writer helps us out as he writes, "Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." Our faith has something to hold on to even though we cannot visibly see it our touch it. Our faith holds onto all the things that God has promised us – from the sending of his Son to be our Savior to the promise that we will live forever with him in heaven.. Paul writes in 2 Cor. 5:7, "We live by faith, not by sight."

As hard as this may sound, it is something we do in our lives almost every day. For example: We trust that the food we buy from the stores has been inspected, even though we have never been there for the inspection. We trust that our cars have been put together correctly; every nut and bolt has been tightened, even though we have never seen the car put together. When we hop on an airplane and fly, we trust that the pilot has had proper training, even though we have never seen his pilot’s license or watched his training. In the same way we can trust the many promises of God as fact, because he has told us they are true in his holy Word, the Bible.

But let’s be honest, isn’t hard to trust some of the things God has told us? They sound so good and so great, but are they really ALL true? For this reason many people put their trust in other places than in God and his Word. It’s easy to put your trust in money, just take a look at how many people are lining up at convenience stores across the country, just for the 1 – 80,000,000 chance to win the large Powerball jackpot. Just look at the people who spend almost their every waking moment fretting and worrying about the Dow Jones and downward turn of the Stock Market. Just think about the people who work 60 – 70 and even 80 hours a week for what? To make sure they have enough money to buy the things they need and want.

It is this doubting in God that leads to many other problems, such as unnecessary worry and fear. Abraham is commended for his faith in trusting that God would bless him with descendants as numerous as the stars of the skies and the sands of the seashore, but do we remember Sarah’s reaction when the angel of the Lord spoke that first promise of a son being born? "Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?" (Genesis 18:12) I think that this might be the reaction that we give God often when he comes to us. God this can’t be true. God how can this really happen? God what is going to happen to me in the future. But God reminds us that our faith can be strong as we place our complete trust in our God who has done all things to help and lead us to our eternal home in heaven.

The closer we look at these words from the book of Hebrews the more we start to get a better glimpse of what kind of faith God wants us to have. But the writer of our text doesn’t stop there. He goes on to write words for us that also commend Christians for their faith, and he lets early Christian demonstrate this kind of faith as they put their faith into action. The text uses the life of Abraham to serve as an example for us. While we marvel at the trust and faith of Abraham, we also realize that God has blessed us with this same faith. I encourage you all to go home and read the rest of the 11^th Chapter of Hebrews to see how the faith that God has given to you is the same as those people of faith listed throughout Scripture. It is also interesting to see what words our text uses to show where all of these people got the power to do these great things. Look how many times we hear the phrase, "By faith?" (5 times to be exact) It is only by faith that we can lay our lives in the hands of God to accomplish such great things through us.

As we look at Abraham’s faith we see a man who was asked to leave his home country and travel far away to a land he had never been to. We see a man who lived in a land but really wanted to be in God’s heavenly place. We see a man who trusted in God’s promise to send him a son, even though he and his wife were years past childbearing. This is faith that we can certainly commend. It would have been very easy for Abraham to somewhere along the way to say, "God this is asking too much", or "God this time I don’t believe that this will happen." Now having faith doesn’t mean that we will never doubt or become worried. As long as we are on this earth and possess a sinful nature, we will never be 100% in our trust of God, but Abraham’s faith and our own faith is one in which we can see God’s guiding hand and forgivness for the times we falter.

Our family has always like to tent camp. We would pack up our stuff and find a campground close to the sights we wanted to visit. We would then pay our $10.00 or $15.00 dollars a night to rent the land and pay for the electricity, bathrooms and water where our tent would sit. Anyone who has ever tented knows that tents are not permanent by any stretch of the imagination. They basically serve to keep the water out (most of the time) and provide a place to sleep. They don’t have bathrooms. They don’t have sinks to wash the dishes. They don’t have stoves to cook your food. They don’t have air conditioners to keep you cool in the summer, but they serve a very good purpose. Anyone who has ever tent camped also knows that it is a nice feeling to get back to your real home where you have all the amenities of life. A place with running water, dishwaters and air conditioners.

In our text we see that picture of a tent. Abraham was living in the promised land, but only in a tent, . "By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God." He lived like a stranger in the land, because he longed to follow God to his eternal city. By faith Abraham knew that there was something far better than the things of this world. Abraham was living for the future. In fact Abraham and all the patriarchs considered themselves aliens and strangers in the land, "they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one."

As we look at our lives, we need to remember this very thought. Life on this earth with all of its treasures and frills is still not our real home. Heaven with all of its glory and eternal treasures is the home that we all long for. This doesn’t mean that we can’t enjoy the things of this earth, but we need to remember what God tells us as we live on this earth. Where does God fit into this picture? On our priority list, is God at the top or somewhere lower? Have all the things of this world led our faith to waver or lose sight of our real goal of eternal life in heaven?

While we are on this earth, we can’t see heaven or touch God, but we can look at heaven through faith, which God has given us, just as the people of the Old Testament also did. The people of the Old Testament "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." The people of the Old Testament were trusting in God’s promise to send a Savior, but they never got to see that Savior in person. They were still living in faith waiting for that promise to be fulfilled. They only got to see a glimpse of the coming Savior through the words and promises God gave them through the prophets. But guess what? That faith led them to their home in heaven.

In the same way, we are still living by faith in the year 2001. Although we have God’s Word recorded for us, we still look at God and our home in heaven from a distance. We have not reached or seen our eternal home in heaven. This will not happen until that day we are with God in heaven. We know it is ours, but we have to wait. But sin makes it so hard to wait. We are many times like a child waiting for his birthday. Weeks before their birthday they start the question, "How many more days to my birthday"? They are overly excited, but this kind of excitement isn’t bad. It is very difficult, but isn’t that kind of waiting worth it in the end. As we wait for heaven, may we have this kind of excitement. It shows that we are not seeking to live forever on this earth. Just as the people of the Old Testament realized they had something special waiting for them -- A place described as, "a better country – a heavenly one." One where the "architect and builder is God." Our home is not on this earth, but by faith we long for our eternal home in heaven.

As we look at all that is going on in this world and in our lives, we can pray with confidence that God will continue to strengthen our faith. God will continue to let our faith shine as we are eager to show our trust in our Lord and Savior. As we look at God’s promises, we realize that it is all God’s grace that works faith in our hearts, faith which reaches out and grabs onto all the promises that God has given to us. Thanks be to God for giving us this kind of faith! Amen.