God’s People Are a Waiting People

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John Onwuchekwa: Why don’t y’all turn to Hebrews chapter 11 and stand with me as well, too. As we read, Kevin was out here at the start, lamenting being the first one to speak, when everybody was fresh on Tuesday night after y’all have had a long day, so y’all gonna have to bear with me. Um, I’m gonna do like the rest of my brothers and completely disregard the amount of text that’s supposed to be on there. So I’m just gonna treat Hebrews 11, kind of like a loaf of bread that you buy from the store, right? People want to jump right into the meat, I’m going to spend the bulk of my time on the ends, that’s going to be a bulk of what you see. But I hope at the end of the time, you’ll feel well fed Hebrews chapter 11. Starting in verse one, we’ll go one through three, and then I’ll read 39 to 40. And it says this. Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for the proof of what is not seen, for by our ancestors, one God’s approval. By faith, we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen, was made from things that are not visible. Verse 13. These all died in faith, although they had not received the things that were promised. But they saw them from a distance greeted them and confessed that they were foreigners in temporary residence on Earth, verse 30. All these were approved through their faith, but they did not receive what was promised. Since God has provided something better for us, so that they would not be made perfect. Without us. Why don’t y’all pray with me? Or Father, we pray that you would speak to us through your word as you always do, give us ears to listen, and hearts to receive God. We are living in very cold, polarizing, frustrating times we pray that your word would warm us. It’s in Jesus name we pray, Amen. Why don’t y’all Take a seat?

John Onwuchekwa
sociologist Jean Kerr gives probably what is one of the best definitions of hope. And she puts it like this. She says, hope is the feeling that the feeling you have right now isn’t permanent. Hope is the feeling that the feeling you have right now isn’t permanent. We are creatures of hope there is nothing more obvious than the fact that you and I constantly want hope it’s obvious to everyone. Even rats years ago, they did this study where they tried to find out the effects of hope on people are creatures that undergo hardships. So what they did was this they took two groups of rats and they dropped them in two different buckets of water. What they did with the first group is they periodically would just lift them up and put them back down. With the next group, they just let them swim. The first group of rats swam for over 24 hours, the latter group drowned within the hour. Why? hope hope awakens of perseverance and patience inside of us right and it doesn’t just work on rats. You know this to be true. Your life is spent trying to find hope. You go to job interviews because of Hope you go on first dates because of hope you make fertility plans because of Hope you Daydream because of hope. Your whole life is spent trying to find hope. And most of your frustrations come because you haven’t found it or you found it and you just can’t hold on to it. Job Interview turns into a pink slip. You go on a first date but you don’t get called back for a second. Your fertility plans each month and in disappointment. Your daydreams become nightmares. And what you realize is this. tragedies don’t destroy people. tragedies don’t destroy communities. hopelessness does. Everybody gets hidden down. Everybody gets knocked down by life. hopelessness is his weight that bears down on you. That makes possible to get back up. It’s not just disappointed people that Riot, it’s hopeless people. It’s not just disappointed people that attempt suicide, it’s hopeless people. It’s not just disappointed people that find themselves in addiction. It’s not just disappointed people that lives to lives, when they don’t experience the freedom that comes from confessing their sin and experiencing forgiveness. It’s hopeless people. There are three words that are some of the most powerful words that can change the destiny of the most promising people in the most promising predicaments. And those three words or this, I give up. Or I gave up, think of how those words can change that trajectory. marriage was hard, and I gave up on my marriage. My faith was hard. I gave up on my faith. My kids were hard, I gave up on my kids. Although those three words are powerful to shape, a destiny, there is one word that if you add to that sentence is equally as powerful. Do you know what that word is? It’s not Jesus, sorry. grammatically, that really doesn’t work. That word. It’s almost it’s a different sentence,

John Onwuchekwa
where you can have the same problems the same predicaments. But you add in that one word, I almost gave up on my marriage. And it’s not a funeral, it turns into a testimony, I almost gave up on my faith, I almost gave up on my kids. That’s what we’re here for today, recovering the power of that word, almost. That’s why we’re here, right? We think that we’re here to figure out what to hope for. And that’s not true. That’s not all. It is true, that the only thing that’s worse than real pain in this world is false hope. It’s like waiting for a bus that isn’t coming. It is true, that Hebrews is going to spend its time outlining how Jesus is better. And he’s the only one worthy to carry our hope. But it’s false to think that identifying that Jesus is our hope is the end of the journey. That’s just the start. There’s another quote on hope that I want to give you that may help to bring all of this to light. Barbara Kingsolver says it like this. the very least that you can do in your life is figure out what to hope for. And the most that you can do in your life is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance, but live right in it. Under its roof, it’s not enough for you to identify hope, that hope has to uphold you that hope has to actualize into the word all most. So it can insert itself into whatever sentence you’re about to say what you say, I gave up. That’s what’s hard. That’s what’s hard for us, waiting on Jesus and waiting. Well, and waiting is a tough thing. There’s a lot of things in life that we do that we get better by practice. Waiting is not one of those things. You spend so much of your life, waiting. You’re going to spend six months of your life waiting at traffic lights, you’re going to spend eight months of your life, opening up junk mail. You’re going to spend a year of your life looking for last things, you’re going to spend six years of your life eating, you’re going to spend five years of your life waiting in line. And the only thing worse than watching a third grader get cut in line is watching a grown up get cut in line. We don’t get better by it. And it’s not just for trivial things. It’s for things that are terribly important. We live in a world where we’re forced to wait. earthly justice is destroyed. However you slice it, God’s perfect justice is delayed and waiting is so hard for the people of God, who are constantly told that God is in control. I know he’s in control, I hear he’s in control, I know we can do the impossible. But when I watch another video of somebody that looks like me, unjustly killed, it’s hard for me to embrace or live in the reality that God is in control, because it very much feels like God is in over his head. Waiting is hard. And the type of stress that comes at us, just taps into that thing in our heart, we have hearts, that in spite of the faithfulness of God are easily predisposed to mistrust god, it’s as easy as learning how to ride a bicycle downhill, it doesn’t take much. So here’s what I want to do as we come to this book.

John Onwuchekwa
I want us to understand that all the reservoirs of immorality that we find in our lives in our circumstances, they’re often filled by streams of impatient streams of not being able to wait on God to do what he’s going to do. Vengeance, God has been clear that he’s going to take it into his hands. And it’s impatience that leads us there. Seth, God says that he has things under control, and it’s impatience that leads us there. We want relief. And we want it right now, when God says wait to be patient. And so I want us to know, friends, brothers and sisters family, we’re going to have to wait, I just want us to wait. Well, so here’s what I’m gonna do. At the front end, you’re not gonna have to wait. For the main point of this sermon. My sermon in a sentence is this. God’s people may constantly be waiting. But God’s people must not be worrying. God’s people are waiters, we are not worried. My friend, Keith says, God does not give us a prescription where there is not a problem. Hebrews is a prescription for us. But it’s dealing with issues that are so common and so pervasive, that it’s an over the counter drug left there, because there’s so many people that needed we needed a church undergoing hardship, tempted to say, I give up on the only thing that is the sources they hope, and they’re provided this book, alright, thus far, Hebrews has provided us lots of warnings. Trying to keep us by showing us we have a greater hope, and warning us of what life looks like when we step outside of that hope. And it’s saying Jesus is better. Jesus is better. Hebrews chapter 11, is not as much of a warning with an N, as much as it is a warming with an M. We live in a cold world, Hebrews 11 is that fire? It’s just meant to be this warm vision that sustains us. It’s not going to prescribe a bunch of behaviors it’s going to give us a vision because our behaviors do not rise above our vision. So here’s what we’re gonna do. We’re going to start at the very first thing I want you to know is God’s people are awaiting people. God’s people are a waiting people. I met my wife’s grandmother before she went to go and be with the Lord. And the very first thing that she said to me when I met her was she said this one frayed granny doe and Wizner Louisiana said, john, whose people are you? Y’all, y’all know that phrase. It’s a phrase, which she says, Hey, I don’t care about what you do, what your aspirations are for life. I want to know where you come from, what stock you come from, because if I know what stock you come from, I can know what to expect from you. When you go to the doctor, you fill out your family history, because they say, hey, if you wanted to, if you want to know what to expect, when you get your dad’s age, I’ve got to know about your dad and his dad and his dad’s dad. Hebrews 11 is doing the same thing. It’s saying you and I’ve been adopted into a new family. And in order for you to know what to expect. You’ve got to know your history. You got to look back. God’s people are a waiting people. Verse one, it says this Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for the proof of what is not seen. Look for by it, our ancestors, one, God’s approval, verse 39, it’s gonna say this, look, all of these were approved through their faith, but they did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, so that they would not be made perfect. by us, God’s people are known for their faith, right, we jump into this chapter, and we want to go right into the middle of the loaf. But it’s actually those end pieces of the loaf that we throw away that give us the best picture of what this chapter is trying to say at the start. And at the end, as it talks about God and His people, it’s going to say, talk about faith. But the other word that seen at the start, and the end is approval,

John Onwuchekwa
that the outcome, that faith promises and guarantees, is not a particular change of our circumstances here. And now it is the approval of God, God’s people are known by their faith, the definition that he’s going to give a faith here is not an exhaustive one. There’s a lot more to faith than just what we see here. He’s going to talk about these essential ingredients to faith as it relates to our patients, and our hope, right? It’s like trying to bake a cake, you can bake a cake without milk, but milk is kind of essential. If it don’t have milk, then it’s a vegan cake. And I just want to let you all know that ain’t really Kate right? So what he’s gonna do his face. Yeah, there’s a whole lot more to faith. But this is essential to faith. And I want you to look at this verse three, he’s going to start on this list, and he’s gonna say this look, by faith, we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from the things that are visible, he starts here and says, look, God’s people are known by their faith. That’s how we gain the approval of God or faith in what Christ has done. We read this and we look at the Hall of faith. We’re gonna see that term by faith 18 times. But here’s something I do not want you to miss. As he talks about the greatest examples of faith in the Bible, the very first time that he’s going to use this word, phrase by faith, what’s the pronoun right after we, the very first time he talks about this faith, and he’s getting ready to talk about all these great people in the Bible, the very first person he includes, is you the reader. We are so quick to come to God’s word, looking for commendation, condemnation. Charles Spurgeon said that when he would read the Bible, it used to be that the words of warning and condemnation were written in bold and capital letters. And the promises in the words of consolation were missed, were written in lowercase letters. And then the Spirit of God filled him and he could see the promises of God screaming on the page, I do not know, if you’re drowning in discouragement, or despair. Or as you look at the totality of your life, you see the mixture of facelessness and faith and you’re ready to say I give up because I just don’t think I can measure up. What he’s saying is he lists all these folks here. He gives the abridged version of their life. And the only thing that he brings out is faith as the defining quality that gains in the approval of God and fame. He starts with you. If you’re drowning in despair, lift your head up for this last 23 minutes and 47 seconds and listen to this good news. Verse one, he talks about faith as the reality of what is hoped for the proof of what is not seen. Basically, what he’s saying is this, that this faith is saying this, I have something real that I do not have right now. He does not conflate reality. With tangibility. He Does not conflate reality with right now. He is saying faith is not just a subjective feeling that you have it is this objective reality and living by faith is your life is changed completely.

John Onwuchekwa
Yeah, it’s kind of like this. After college, I moved to Dallas for a few years. And so as I was driving back and forth from Denton to Dallas, I would listen to sports radio, Michael Irvin talked about one time where he signed a contract for $22 million. And they asked him, since it’s a guaranteed contract, how do you want to get paid, you can get paid as time goes on. Or you can get paid all of it up front right now. And so he said, all of it up front right now goes to the locker room. And as he walks in, on his chair, he sees this check. This one check that says to Michael Irvin, $22 million, signed by Jerry Jones. He picked up that check. And he said, I’m rich, was he I’ll tell you what you can’t do with a $22 million check. You can’t tear it up into enough pieces to Scrooge McDuck, dive into it and swim like he used to do. He had the check. But he didn’t actually leave that day with bags of money in his hand. He already had a promissory note, a promise, In a word, signed by somebody who was reliable. And he said, this is real, I’m rich, I have something real that I do not have right now. Christian friend, you’ve got a better in heritage signed by somebody that has greater riches. And faith says I have something real the approval of God that I do not have right now that I can’t see right now that I can’t Scrooge McDuck, dive in and swim in verse three, by faith, we understand that the universe was created by the word of God so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible. He highlights this phrase, yo, we know that the world was made by God’s word. God always gives us His word before he finishes his work. And if we have his word, we have something real that we don’t have. Right now God’s people are known by faith. And inherent in faith is this concept of waiting, you’re waiting.

John Onwuchekwa
So the encouragement that I have for you is to remember God’s people have always been awaiting people. Look back, check your family history. God promised Abraham a son. And do you know what he had to do? Wait, God promised Joseph that he would lead and rule and he had to wait for 13 years, God promised David that he would be king. And do you know what he had to do? Wait. If you want to figure out what God is doing, in your present situation, your present surroundings are actually the worst place to look. adversity and prosperity are both cliffnotes. They leave out key parts of the plot. So you don’t get the whole picture by looking at what God does right now. But I want you to know this God doesn’t change. So as we look backwards, Hebrews 11 is not just a greatest hits album that God laid out since God doesn’t change God’s past. faithfulness is not just a track record. It’s actually a future promise of what he’ll continue to do. You’ve got to be a historian. You’ve got to know the stories have to mean something, you have to get it so deep into your soul, that whenever you find yourself in the similar circumstances, you look back at the faithfulness of God and do not judge your present condition by your present circumstances. That’s the only way patients takes place. Parents, I want you to know that this works in your kids. Not even in real time but in your testimony, my mom is a mom who loved the law with all her heart. My mom has five kids now, one with the Lord. Well more than one with the Lord, because before my mom had those five kids, my mom had five miscarriages. And the doctor told her five times, this is never going to be your thing. But she was such a historian that she could call back to mind and said, Lord, I know my present. Conditions are not a determinant of what you think of me or what my future has to hold. You’ve got to be historians. But I do want you to know this as well. Waiting is not the same thing as complacency. It’s not just sitting back and waiting on God to do things. If you read through this hole of faith, one thing that you see is that it says by faith, but immediately it goes into some kind of action verb. By faith, they weren’t sacrificed. By faith they built, they offered, they received, they left, they chose they raised, it’s not complacency, but it’s a conviction that’s so deeply embedded, that it comes out of the hands. Suck. I tell my daughter, sweetheart, I’ve got cookies. And before her words, reach me, her hands do that’s faith.

John Onwuchekwa
visible, expected. God’s people are waiting people, your don’t imagine that you’re getting the short end of the stick. If you’re in a place right now, where you feel frustrated, that my surroundings do not reflect the situation that God told me about you are not getting the short end of the stick. You’re just in new employee orientation, right? This is just God saying no, this is what I do. My people wait, and they wait, well, and you may say, Well, john, that’s great truth. But how do I get there? I know that should be true of me. And I read about their faith, but I just don’t feel like I have it on the inside. How can they wait like that? And the reason why the people of God have been able to endure and to wait like that. It’s not just because they’re hindsight it but they’re farsighted. They look to the future. My daughter turned four years old last week, and I was teaching her how to ride a bike. She’s got a bike training wheels, and as she rides, she’s so concerned about her activity that she looks down, and she pedals right pedals really hard. The problem is, is she looks down and looks at what she does, she turns and veers and crashes. So I look at her and I’m like, Eva, look up, look up. She’s four years old, and it was 12 o’clock. So she looks straight up into the air. And I say, sweetheart, that’s equally as bad because you’re gonna crash and burn your corneas. And I’m like, Look, look ahead, look forward. First 13. These all died in faith, although they had not received the things that were promised. But they saw from a distance, greeted them, and confessed that they were foreigners and temporary residents on Earth. Now those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a homeland, if they were thinking about where they came from, they would have had an opportunity to return. But they now desire a better place a heavenly one. Look, therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. God’s people are future oriented, future focused people. They look forward to the promises and the power of God. They don’t look primarily at how well they think they can perform in the precarious situations or circumstances that they find themselves in. They look to what God has done in the past. And that fuels them to look at the future. Hear this, not through the lens of their ability. You look through the future, through the lens of your strength, and you’re constantly going to be driven to despair. It’s only as we look through the future look to the future through the lens of God’s greatness that we’re driven to hope. That’s the difference in between. When Joshua and Caleb and the rest of the 10, who saw the exact same thing, the same problems, and the 10 said, They’re big, they’re strong. We came in Joshua and Caleb said, I’m not looking at them. I’m looking at God, which enables me to look past them. They saw what other people didn’t. And so they live like other people couldn’t. It’s not that those of us who live by faith live like folks won’t. It’s not a matter of trying, it’s a matter of vision. They don’t see the same things that we see, as we look on. This is how we endure and looking forward. It’s the way that we embrace and endure in the present. There was a rapper, J. Cole, who came out with a album A few years ago, and it chronicled his journey from being a no name nobody to being signed on one of the biggest labels and he tells this story, where he says, Man, the day that I got signed, I got a text saying, we’re going to sign you, your life’s going to change. No sooner than he read that text, did he see police lights in his rearview mirror. He already knew he’d been driving with a suspended license for two years. So they got him out the car and he went to jail.

John Onwuchekwa
What he said was, that was the easiest night anybody could ever spend in jail. Because while he said, everybody else was lamenting the accommodations, I had a message in a text, I was awaiting what was on the other side of jail. So the car was a little more comfortable, the meal was a little more fulfilling, because I didn’t spend my time focusing on the accommodations. I looked through them and pass them to the future. Now you may say, john, that’s a good story. But once again, that’s another example of somebody who has a very real hope that they can experience in this lifetime. JOHN, I’ve got chronic illnesses, john, I’ve got things I live in the midst of injustice, and I don’t see there being an end. Let me give you another picture of people that lived by this faith forward thinking that enabled them to endure. Being in deep darkness doesn’t disqualify you from being able to see this truth. It’s often the people that are in the deepest darkness, that are the most well equipped to experience deep joy and durable hope, because they aren’t blinded by shallow substitutes. 40 years after the Great Awakening took place, here, a revival that swept across this land and liberated people from their spiritual chains. But left black and brown people chained in physical ones, 80 years before emancipation would take place. Jupiter Hamming stands in front of a group of people that are Christian, and chained. And he says these words. Now, my brethren, it seems to me that there are no people that ought to attend to the hope of happiness in another world, so much as we do. Most of us are cut off from comfort and happiness here in this world, and can expect nothing from it. Now saying that this is the case. Why should we not take care to be happy? after death? Why should we spend our whole lives in sinning against God, and be miserable in this world, and in the world to come? If we do this, we shall certainly be the greatest of fools. We should be slaves here, and slaves forever. We cannot plead so great temptations to neglect religion as others riches and honor which drowned the greater part of mankind who have the gospel in perdition can be of little or no temptation to us. He says to these People that are experiencing immense sorrow. This he says, As you look ahead, that sorrow, evil as it may be, is this freeing power to where you’re not compelled by the shallow substitutes that so many other people are drowned by.

John Onwuchekwa
But how does that take place? How do the people of God look forward? A key word that you’re going to see in all of the stories in verse 10, and 11. And verse 19, and 26, is this word, consider? They consider. They looked at where they were now. And they looked at the future. And they had to consider they had to make a calculation about the nature of reality. What is more real, my surroundings are God’s word, what do I trust more what I see or what God says. And as they made this consideration, it fueled them. Abraham, who hadn’t seen God raise anybody from the dead, saw God given life to his wife, in a womb that was dead, and considered that if God made the promise that he was going to bring the sea that was going to save the Earth, through His Son, that even if he had to obey, and slay his son, that God could raise his son from the dead, he considered what made surrender to God possible was the belief that God could do the impossible, he considered. That’s what gives us the ability to be patient, we have to consider our God. And the way that we do that your is we’ve got to slow down. we’re so busy with working and trying to produce change in the interim, we’re so busy with trying to make sure our situations or circumstances reflect our calling right now. And we don’t embrace the fact that God’s people have often been a waiting people. And we’re so quick to move. So we don’t pray. But when we pray, do you know what we do? We consider, we slow down, and we get into this exchange of words with God. And we are reminded about the nature of reality. When we slow down, we make time to sing, and we don’t just rehearse these truths in a cold way. But we sing and we engage our mind and our hearts to remind ourselves about what Jesus will do. In the future. When we slow down, we gather with the people of God. And as we gather with that group, we don’t just commiserate over the sorrow of the world, although that’s good, and it has its place. But the people of God remind us of the things that we forget. When we consider, we do this, we’re admitting that waiting is hard.

John Onwuchekwa
But we’re saying it’s worth it. When we slow down to consider, we read through this chapter, and we are floored by the faith that we see here. From when we slow down to consider.

John Onwuchekwa
We take the lessons that we’ve seen here, and we have something better than they had here because we have Jesus we consider how all of these stories uniquely point to Jesus. Jesus didn’t just learn from these stories. Jesus lived them. All of them, terminated on him. So able, his faith is talked about, and it’s talked about how he still speaks. And Jesus was the innocent brother that was slain. And while abels blood may cry for justice, Jesus blood Christ for mercy. Abraham waited for a son and then God told him to sacrifice his son, Isaac was waiting to see on what God would do and God was faithful and provided a substitute Got Isaac up off of that wood. And they experienced real relief here in this life. Jesus was up on the wood, and he said, I’m not going to come down.

John Onwuchekwa
Moses was fearful for his life as he was being pursued by the enemies of God. Waiting for what God’s gonna do on the bank of the Red Sea. And God says, Moses, wait and see the salvation of the Lord. The Red Sea was parted, they walked on dry ground, the enemies came through, and God closed up the waters and drowned his enemies got rid of the most powerful army of a nation that opposed God. In an instant, Jesus comes through and walks his people across the Red Sea, and he destroys the enemies, not by drowning a nation, but by throwing them life rafts and making us friends. Jesus didn’t just prove that patience was worth it, through his patients, through his forward looking, that enabled him to endure the cross of the present, even when he had ample time to push the eject button. He didn’t accept pilots offer, he didn’t accept angels to help him offer the cross, he didn’t bail in the garden. And through that patience, on the cross, in the to, ultimately to resurrection. He provided us life and show that all of God’s people, even him or waiting people, because he said, oh, there’s gonna be a meal at the end of the time. And I know everybody wants to get down right now. But he said, Listen, I’m gonna make sure that we all wait until y’all come. God’s people are waiting people. We wait by looking forward. And as I leave. I just want this vision to stick inside of us. We’re in Indianapolis. And last week, I went to school at Baylor last week, the Baylor men’s basketball team won the national championship. I was at home. I was at home. Alright, we got four people here. I was at home. And I was watching the game intently texting my friends, as I watch. There came a time when we took out one of our star players. And they started to make this run. And I was infuriated. I was in the group chat saying, I can’t believe that they did that things are gonna turn out bad. And my friend said, What are you talking about? He’s back in. And I realized there was a lag in my internet connection. As I went on, the lag started to get worse. So the announcers voice would come from the screen. I said any made the shot, and the guy would be dribbling. And he would shoot it. And the shot went in. And I realized, oh, there’s a lag in my connection. I was so anxious about really wanting us to win. That when I discovered there was a lag in my connection. I didn’t log on to fix it. I just let it stay there. Do you know why? Because I trusted the announcers voice. I didn’t think that he was going to lie. I know that his word proceeded, what would happen? So I let him speak. And I waited. I didn’t worry. I worshipped when he spoke not when I saw what took place. I want you to know because of the broken world that we live in your there is a lag in your internet connection. Your life is being brought to you by Comcast, right.

John Onwuchekwa
We’re going to have to wait. But we mustn’t worry. You can trust his word. He’s never let us down. And he never will. Let’s pray. Our Father I ask that you would give us the grace to be those that wait. Help us to trust your word. And to remain in circumstances where our common sense might cause us to leave. But we trust your words so much that we stay father. Help us to endure with people that we feel that we should just be done with. But because you call them your children, we wait help us to wait. Help us to trust you. Help us not to look at our surroundings, but help us to look through the lens of your power through them. And I pray that when we all dine at the table together, we would continue to do what we’re doing right now. And that’s worship you because of your faithfulness. It’s in Jesus name we pray, Amen.