OPEN: A preacher named Ray Stedman traveled across the country for a week of meetings. The only problem was, his baggage didn’t make it. He needed a couple of suits so he went down to the local thrift shop.
When he told the salesman, "I’d like to get a couple of suits," the man smiled, led him to a whole rack of them and said, "Good, we’ve got several. But you need to know they came from the local mortuary. They’ve all been cleaned and pressed, but they were used on stiffs. Not a thing wrong with ’em. I just didn’t want that to bother you."
Stedman said, "No, that’s fine." He tried a few of the suits on and finally bought two of them for about $25 dollars each.
When he got back to this his room, he began to get dressed for the evening’s meetings. As he put one on, he tried to put his hands in the pockets, but couldn’t. Both sides were all sewn up! The suits looked as if they had pockets, but they were just flaps on the coat. He thought about that for a second. “Of course! Dead people don’t carry stuff with ’em when they die.”
He later admitted: "I spent all week trying to stick my hands in my pockets. I had to hang my keys on my belt." Charles R. Swindoll, “Living Above The Level of Mediocrity”
APPLY: There’s an old song I love to sing – "This World Is Not My Home"
“This World Is Not My Home, I’m Just a Passing Thru
My Treasures Are Laid Up, Somewhere Beyond the Blue
The Angels Beckon Me From Heaven’s Open Door
And I Can’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore.”
That song was based on the Scripture we’re looking at today. The writer of Hebrews lists 4 of the greatest heroes of the Old Testament and then in vs.13 (look there with 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. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.”
This world was not their home.
They were strangers in this world
Aliens in this land
And their behavior was dictated by the fact that this world had no hold on them. Their treasure was banked someplace else because their eyes were fixed on a heavenly destination.
Or as Hebrews 11:16 says:
“… they were longing for a better country— a heavenly one.”
That’s an echo of what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount
"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:19-21
You see, their’s was the kind of mindset that impresses God.
Because of how they lived, Hebrews 11:16 says:
“… God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.”
I. So, what did these 4 men do - that was so impressive?
Answer: They invested in God
1st there was Abel
Scripture tells us that God asked for a sacrifice, and Genesis tell us:
“Cain (Abel’s bro.) brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD.” Gen. 4:3
But by contrast,
Abel “brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof.” Genesis 4:4
Do you remember what happened then?
Do you remember how God responded to Cain’s sacrifice?
That’s right, He rejected Cain’s offering, but He accepted Abel’s.
Now look at what Hebrews 11:4 says: “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.”
What’s that mean?
It means Abel invested in God when he offered up his sacrifice. His sacrifice was offered in faith because Abel believed that “God existed and that He was the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6
By contrast, Cain was just going thru the motions.
He was just being religious.
He wasn’t investing in God.
How do I know that?
Well … do you remember how Cain reacted when God rejected his sacrifice? (He was angry, bitter, sullen.)
I looked that passage in Genesis over pretty closely and I noticed that Cain didn’t even bother to ASK God why He didn’t like the sacrifice. Because he didn’t care. Cain wasn’t interested in investing in God… he was more focused on himself.
Next, there was Enoch.
We don’t know much about Enoch except Genesis 5:24 says that “Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.”
What happened?
Enoch invested his life in God – He WALKED with God.
God didn’t take anybody else away with Him because nobody else apparently wanted to spend that kind of time with God… but Enoch did.
Enoch invested his life in God because he “believed God existed and that He was the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”
Then Hebrews tells us about Noah.
Noah invested - not only his life but - his work schedule in God. He built an Ark.
Noah spent a major portion of his life working on a project he knew would please God.
He invested his time, his resources and his whole family in making it a success.
God didn’t select anybody else to work on this project because nobody else wanted to invest that kind of time in the things of God.
But Noah was willing to do the job because he “believed God existed and that He was the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”
Lastly, we have Abraham
Of all the men listed here Abraham’s investment was the most difficult.
He didn’t just invest in God by giving an offering, or walking with God, or building his work schedule around God. Abraham went much farther than that.
He gave up everything to follow God.
He left his home and his family. He walked away from everything that he’d once held dear so that he could obey the call of God. He literally became an alien and a stranger… a nomad wandering about the countryside. All because “…when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.” Hebrews 11:10
Abraham believed in God… and he obeyed God because he “believed God existed and that He was the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”
This world was not his home, he was just passing through.
He (and the others listed in Hebrews 11) realized they were aliens and strangers in this land. Their treasures were laid up somewhere beyond the blue.
II. Now… how does that apply to us?
It applies to us because these folks in Hebrews 11 were given to us as examples of how WE ought to live. They were all held up as being people of great faith because this world was not their home. They were in the habit of investing their lives, their jobs, and their families in a God who they knew existed and Who is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
In order to become like them we’ve got to learn to think like those who don’t belong to this world.
Now, that’s hard to do… even for the most committed Christians
ILLUS: Melvin Newland told about one church he’d heard about that had struck oil on its property. Instantly they called a congregational meeting & adopted 3 resolutions.
#1. They decided they would pump as much oil as they possibly could.
#2. They would distribute the oil money equally among the members.
#3. They would not accept any new members.
Now correct me if I’m wrong but does it seem to you that that church was a little out of whack?
If you’re like me you’re thinking to yourself – “what’s wrong with them people? Have they forgotten why the church exists?
Of course they had!
They forgot that this world was not their home, they were just a passing through
The problem for them was that they allowed the potential wealth of the oil field shackle them to this world. The lure of ready money made them desire to be citizens of THIS world, not citizens of the one to come. They weren’t aliens here, they weren’t strangers.
ILLUS: Jesus had a man approach him who had that very problem. Mark 10 tells about a young man who came to Jesus and asked him "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Luke 18:18
Jesus listed the commandments and the man responded to Jesus "’Teacher, all these I have kept since I was a boy.’ Jesus looked at him and loved him. ‘One thing you lack,’ he said. ‘Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’" Mark 10:20-21
Did the young man do that? Did He sell all that he had to give to the poor… No!
Why?
Mark 10:22 tells us “At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.”
The young man’s wealth SHACKLED him to this present world.
When Jesus asked this man to sell all that he had – give it to the poor and follow him, Jesus was giving the man the tools to break free of the power money had on him. Jesus was giving the man ability to break the chains that held him to this world.
Possessions and money have the most potential to chain us to this world - to rob us of our ability to be aliens and strangers in this world. And because of its power money can easily make individual Christians become like that church that sold the oil and kept all the money for themselves. Money made that forget why they existed and made them become self-absorbed. That church no longer invested in God, instead invested in only itself. It’s members focused only on their own needs… in their own wants. Not on God.
Money can do the same thing to us. It can cause us to forget why we (as Christians) exist. It can cause us to become self-absorbed and to become so tied to this present world that we invest only in ourselves.
That’s why the Bible teaches us the importance of our tithes and offerings.
Think about it - does God really need our tithes and offerings?
The God who owns cattle on a 1000 hills. Does He really require whatever I might give this week? No, of course not!
(pause…)
So why should the Bible stress this idea of giving to God so heavily?
Well, 2 reasons:
1st – My weekly offering gives me a way to invest in God. It gives me an opportunity to say that “I believe God exists and that He was the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”
Just as Abel, Enoch, Noah and Abraham invested in God because they believed He would take care of them, so also, when I put my offering in the plate, I am declaring that I believe God will take care of me too.
Closely tied to that is the 2nd reason: My offering on Sunday gives me a tool to remove the power money has on me.
You see, the only way money can chain me to this world - the only way money can rob me of my ability to be a alien and stranger here - is I become convinced that I can’t do without that portion of my paycheck.
Let’s face it, the only reason I wouldn’t put an offering in the plate on Sunday morning is because I have more faith in the power of money to give me security than I do in the power of God to do the very same thing.
Holding onto that offering chains me to this world…
… while giving it on Sunday chains me - by faith - to God.
Once that principle becomes ingrained into our lives this world cannot hold us.
The chains that would bind us, no longer have power over us.
ILLUS: Richard Wurmbrand was a preacher in the Soviet Union that suffered terribly for his faith. But in his book "Tortured for Christ," he wrote that -while he was imprisoned for his faith - he and his fellow Soviet believers did something that was totally unexpected.
"When we were given one slice of bread a week and dirty soap every day, we decided we would faithfully ’tithe’ even that. Every tenth week we took the slice of bread and gave it to the weaker brethren as our ’tithe’ to the Master."
Now, that’s unusual. This was their food… all the food they had.
Why did they make that decision?
They made that decision because they thought of themselves as aliens and strangers in this world
Their possessions had no hold upon them. In fact, they used those possessions as their basis for investing in God. They referred to their gift of bread as their “tithe” to the Master.
