CENTRAL TEXT: Hebrews 11:8-22
Heb. 11:8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. 11 By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. 12 Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.
Heb. 11:13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.
Heb. 11:17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, 18 of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 19 He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. 20 By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau. 21 By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff. 22 By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones.
CALL TO WORSHIP: Psalm 146:1-2, 5-6
LEADER: Praise the LORD!
Praise the LORD, O my soul!
ALL: I will praise the LORD as long as I live;
I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.
LEADER: Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD his God,
ALL: who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them,
who keeps faith forever;
PRAYER/SCRIPTURE READING/CONFESSION OF FAITH: Luke 9:23-25; 1 Peter 2:9-12
LEADER: And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. 25 For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?
LEADER: But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. 12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
The Word of the Lord
ALL: Thanks be to God
CONFESSION OF SIN:
LEADER: Let us confess our sin to the Lord.
ALL: From the beginning we have sought to make our own way, to think of ourselves more highly than we ought. And that leads us to seek places of refuge and security that are as flimsy as straw. Forgive us for trying to make a home apart from You, for thinking You are less than the Home we long for. And help us to believe You have come to make Your Home in us, until we know the Home you’ve made for us in Your Son.
ASSURANCE OF PARDON: Ephesians 2:13, 17-18
LEADER: But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ... And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.
ALL: Thanks be to God.
BENEDICTION: Revelation 21:1-5
LEADER: Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
Rev. 21:5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”
ALL: Thanks be to God!
RELATED SCRIPTURES
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
ILLUSTRATIONS
One of the first scenes in Andor season 2, episode 1, Andor makes a profound comment to a young woman now deciding to risk her efforts for a coalescing rebellion against the Empire. He says in making her choice, “she is coming home to herself.” I think it’s a very modern way of speaking of an inner sense of coherence and rightness that perhaps the notion of a better country, a heavenly city is an earlier (and theological) expression of
(Meanwhile, the most memorable speech of Andor comes from Luthen in detailing with bristling tongue all he has sacrificed for a hope to come)
JUN 22, 2025
QUOTES
The church does not exist to provide an ethos for democracy or capitalism or socialism. The church is not to be judged by how useful we are as a support for the American way of life, but by how faithful we are to the life of Jesus.”
The church is a colony, an island of one culture in the middle of another. The church is not called to be relevant or successful; it is called to be faithful.
the main political task of the church is the formation of people who see clearly the cost of discipleship and are willing to pay the price... The new Christian is engrafted into a family. Therefore, we cannot say to the pregnant fifteen-year old, “Abortion is a sin. It is your problem.” Rather, it is our problem. We ask ourselves what sort of church we would need to be to enable an ordinary person like her to be the sort of disciple Jesus calls her to be.”
- Stanley Hauerwas, Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony
...[obedience] flows from faith as water from a fountain.
- John Calvin
The first virtue–the whole of virtue–is to be a stranger to this world, and a sojourner, and to have nothing in common with things here, but to hang loose from them, as from things strange to us.
- Chrysostom
Vibrating with restraint, he went through in his mind all the things that were now dissolving in flame and combining together in a serpentine of gases and smoke, in a ballet of uncountable particles each behaving with a precision to which he could never even aspire: paintings; suits; books; metals and silver; things of ivory, leather, and silk; furniture of cherry and mahogany. The heat was such that even the porcelain might melt. He felt this heat, but did not move. Nor did he want to move even as all he had built and worked for over so many years vanished before him at great speed. For he had already left it behind, and his spirit had been unlocked, and his soul freed, in a gift that had come on the wind.
- Mark Helprin
The settled happiness and security which we all desire, God withholds from us by the very nature of the world: but joy, pleasure, and merriment, He has scattered broadcast. We are never safe, but we have plenty of fun, and some ecstasy. It is not hard to see why. The security we crave would teach us to rest our hearts in this world and oppose an obstacle to our return to God: a few moments of happy love, a landscape, a symphony, a merry meeting with our friends, a bath or a football match, have no such tendency. Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home.
- C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain
BOOKS / DOCS
