S27 || Trusting Promises You Can’t See || Hebrews 11:8-16 || Session 27

What if the most important steps you’ll ever take are the ones you take before you can see the destination? We continue in Hebrews chapter 11 and walk with Abraham and Sarah through long delays, fragile moments, and surprising mercy to learn how trust grows when sight fails. Abraham leaves home without a map and lives in tents, aiming his life toward a city with foundations that God himself designed. Sarah believes past biology and the tyranny of time, not because she felt strong, but because she judged the Promiser faithful. Their story exposes a deeper truth: faith does not deny reality; it reads reality through God’s reliability.

We talk about waiting as a crucible that clarifies what we actually trust. When outcomes stall, counterfeit foundations crumble. Hebrews calls us strangers and exiles, and that identity reshapes how we live—citizens of heaven serving as ambassadors on earth. That doesn’t mean retreat; it means presence with purpose. You can hold power more lightly, love people more deeply, and endure hardship with meaning when your horizon is the new Jerusalem, not the nearest shortcut. We also face the sobering possibility of looking back to “Ur,” back to familiar securities that cannot satisfy. Once you’ve tasted the better country, going back won’t make you whole.

If your faith feels uneven, you’re not alone. Abraham lied. Sarah laughed. Yet they kept walking, and God kept working. Their imperfect steps point us toward a faithful Builder who prepares a place and sustains a people. Let this conversation steady your footing: take the next obedient step, let waiting deepen your roots, and set your eyes on the city God is building. If this resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs courage today, and leave a review to help others find this message of hope.

Chapters

• 0:00 A Gift You Can’t See
• 0:46 Hebrews 11 And Trustworthy Evidence
• 1:45 Abraham Sets Out Without A Map
• 5:36 Living As Strangers And Seeking A City
• 8:57 Faith’s Foundation Versus Human Foundations
• 10:58 Waiting Twenty-Four Years For A Promise
• 13:35 Faith With Flaws: Doubt And Recovery
• 16:23 Citizens Of Heaven, Ambassadors On Earth
• 21:36 Don’t Look Back To Ur
• 27:24 Keep Moving Toward The Celestial City

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:17

If someone came up to you and said, I have a very special gift for you, and I don't have it here with me right now. If you just follow me for a while, then I'll get it for you. The question is, would you believe this person? How do we know whether they're telling the truth? Or maybe they're a liar or a thief that want us to follow them and they're going to do something bad to us. If they don't have the gift with them, how would we know whether or not they're telling the truth? In Hebrews 11, there's a list of people that believed God even though they couldn't see. And just like the man in our example, the question is: is this person trustworthy? Has this person been trustworthy in the past? The people in Hebrews 11 trusted God even though they couldn't see the reward. And the reason they trusted God is because God has proven himself to be trustworthy. Well, if you have your copy of the Bible, open it to Hebrews chapter 11. We're in a list of people that the writer of Hebrews is giving us that are examples of people that expressed faith, that trusted God. This chapter has been called the Hall of Faith because it has many great people from the Old Testament that exhibited faith in their actions. They trusted God, even though they couldn't see what he was promising. Steve, can you start at Hebrews 11, verse 8, and read down through verse 16, and we're going to find out about Abraham and his descendants.

SPEAKER_00: 1:53

By faith, Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance, and he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith, he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise, for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. By faith, even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore, there was born even of one man, and him as good as dead at that, as many descendants as the stars of heaven in number, and innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore. All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. And indeed, if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. 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 a city for them.

SPEAKER_01: 3:33

This follows Abraham, his wife Sarah, and some of his descendants, Isaac and Jacob. And if we notice this list in these stories that are from back in Genesis, none of these people saw the promises fulfilled within their lifetime, at least not immediately in their lifetime. In this passage, this whole chapter, verse one, faith is the conviction of what is not yet seen. Now it's still built on evidence, but it's the evidence of the person that is giving the promise. And since God has proven himself trustworthy, then we can trust God. We have evidence, even though we do not yet see it. Verse 7 had previously told us that Noah believed what he had. It uses the phrase not yet seen. And then in verse 13, quote, all these died in faith without receiving the promise. And down at the end of the chapter, verse 39, all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised. So remember, God had told Abraham back in Genesis to leave the land he was born in, the land of Ur. Here, verse 8 tells us that Abraham did not know where God was going to lead him. Abraham was told by God to leave your land and go where I will show you. Note that God told Abraham to travel, but did not speak to him again until after Abraham had already traveled into the promised land. Now he spoke again. Abraham, this is the land. When Abraham obeyed God in faith, then God spoke to him. So question, Steve. If God asked you to do something, but didn't show you where you would end up, what would you think? Would it be easy or hard to follow God in such a situation?

SPEAKER_00: 5:36

Isn't that a situation that all of us are in as believers? We've been given a promise of eternal life with God in heaven and also in a earthly kingdom, and then also a new heavens and a new earth. We're promised of a new Jerusalem where we're going to dwell. We're going to be with God. So those are all things that are in the future. Those are things that we have not seen yet, but yet we have placed our faith and trust in them. So we're in that same situation that he's talking about here with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the patriarchs, that we are believing faithfully that there's something beyond this world here, and that we're going to have immortal bodies, we're going to have glorified bodies. So really, there's little difference, I see, Glenn, between us and the faith that we have and the promises that we've been given, and the promises and the faith that Abraham were given, that they had, and trust in God. So isn't that the same situation that we're in, Glenn, as believers in our time? There's many things outstanding to us that we haven't seen, but we know that God is faithful in keeping his promises. And we are in the same vein, I think, as Abraham and the patriarchs, in that they're believing God is going to give them what he promised them, and we are doing the same thing. We're believing that God is going to give us the promises that he has given to us.

SPEAKER_01: 7:13

I think you're absolutely right. God asked them in those days to act on no more nor less than his promise, an act of faith. And he asks us to do the same thing. He's made some promises to us, and he asked us to act on that. I think whatever he asked us is not any more difficult than what he asked Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses and the patriarchs. Even what he asked them may have been more difficult, yet they did it. That's the point of Hebrews 11, or these examples were examples for us, because we are also asked to step out on faith. And it's not a blind leap of faith. It's based on the fact that God is trustworthy and we can depend on his word. It says here in these passages 8, 9, and 10, Abraham lived in tents as an itinerant traveler, but he trusted God to lead him to a city with a firm foundation. Abraham traveled for many years until God asked him to settle down. While he was doing that, Abraham's faith was not perfect. Yes, he believed God, but remember, he lied twice about his wife being Sarah because he was threatened by the Pharaoh and was worried that the Pharaoh may kill him to get his wife Sarah. So he lied and said, Well, this is just my sister. By the time we get here to Hebrews 11:10, by faith, Abraham went where God sent him. He was looking for the city of God, it says, the city with foundations. So remember, he's traveling as an itinerant, living in tents, but God had promised him there will come a place, a city with foundation. Abraham was looking for the city that God built, not a great city built by humans. Now, the city of God theme is picked up in Revelation chapter 21. It says the new Jerusalem will come from heaven and will have 12 foundations. And you're living in a tent, then you're just on top of the sand. You don't really have a foundation. But he was seeking, in a figurative sense, the foundation in a city that God would build. We should ask ourselves, what am I looking for? Am I looking for something that's shiny, that's built by mankind, or am I looking for something that's built by God? Abraham was promised a son by God, and he had to wait 24 years before Sarah had Isaac. It's a long time to wait. It's a long time to be wandering, looking for a permanent place with a permanent descendant. During those 24 years, Abraham did not know how or when God would fulfill his promise, but he believed God, says in Genesis 15. Abraham believed God and it was counted as righteousness. So, Steve, can we trust God even if we have to wait a long time before we see him fulfill his promise? Abraham had to wait 24 years and even longer before he really saw the descendants come to fruition. Can we trust God even if we have to wait a very long time?

SPEAKER_00: 10:38

There's also many of those promises that Abraham has not seen in his lifetime. They're still in the future. We believe that Abraham is actually going to see them because we believe in resurrection. That's part of what is going on here as the writer of Hebrews is recounting all of these stories of faith. That these different figures, there's much of what was promised to them that they didn't see in their lifetime. It's going to be the same thing with us, is that possibly we're not going to see things in our lifetime that come to fruition of promises that we have to us, but we're ultimately looking to that new Jerusalem, the city there. And Glenn, as we're reading through this, I get the picture, at least here with Abraham and with some of the others that we'll talk about as we go through, that there's more information that God gave to them than what we have recorded in Scripture, because it says there in verse 10, he was looking for the city which has foundations whose architect and builder is God. As you pointed out, that's not the earthly Jerusalem. We find out that this is a new Jerusalem that's in Revelation. And then Jesus also said when he was talking to the leadership, he said Abraham would rejoice to see him in that day there. And so I have this picture that God gave to Abraham and even Isaac and Jacob a full picture of things that were going on. Now that's not recorded in Scripture, but we have these little snippets of scripture that here that give us an indication that they knew far more what God was going to do than what we just have recorded in scripture that they were told.

SPEAKER_01: 12:36

I want to focus a little bit here on Abraham and Sarah because the story is quite interesting and it helps us in our faith. If you remember back in Genesis, Abraham did not have a son. God appeared to him and said, You're going to have one. Well, it took a while, again, 24 years. By the time that they had the son, Abraham was 99 or 100 years old, and Sarah was 90. They were well past childbearing years. That's why here in Hebrews 11:11 says this, quote, by faith, even Sarah herself received ability to conceive even beyond the proper time of life. A 90-year-old woman is normally not going to have a child. She was well beyond childbearing years. Why did she believe him? Well, it tells us in the last half of the verse, since she considered him faithful who had promised. She believed it because God was faithful, not because of anything in herself that had any strength. Her womb was dead. Next verse. Therefore, there was born even of one man, and him as good as dead at that, and that's Abraham, again, who was a hundred years old. It says he was as good as dead, as many descendants as the stars of heaven in number. Therefore, Sarah didn't have faith in her own body, but she had faith in the one who had made her body, the Lord. She didn't have faith in herself. Abraham didn't have strength in himself to sire a child, but God could work through their weakness. God had promised her a baby and she believed him. That gives me hope. And Steve, I trust it gives you hope. Further, though, if we remember the story of Abraham and Sarah, was their faith completely consistent, or did they sometimes show some seeds of doubt?

SPEAKER_00: 14:37

They definitely had seeds of doubt. One of those is whenever Sarah came to Abraham and said, I'm old, go ahead and take my handmaid and have a child through our handmaid so that we will have an inheritance be passed down. That was Ishmael. But God came back to them and told them, No, the seed of inheritance that's going to come from you and Sarah combined, that's the child of promise that you're going to have. But that was just one indication you gave a couple of other ones whenever they went outside the land into Egypt at one part. So we saw these different types of periods in their life as they're walking in faith, that they still had areas in their life where they faltered. And I think that shows that they're human beings. And that our life, whenever we have those periods that we falter, that God is there to help us recover from those, and that we have that forgiveness of sin that we can recover from those through Jesus Christ, and that we have even a better covenant than what was given to Moses and those in that time frame, the covenant of the law. So to me, it's all of these stories that give me encouragement. They were human beings with flaws. I'm a human being with flaw. And whenever I stumble, God is not going to hold that permanently against me. There's ways that I can be redeemed from it. There's ways that I can be brought back from it. There's ways that I can be forgiven of it. That is what gives me encouragement through all of these stories.

SPEAKER_01: 16:23

Abraham had these descendants, and they all died in faith, believing the promises would come true someday. The last half of verse 13, the descendants of Abraham, it says there, quote, confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth, unquote. This means they were expecting a kingdom, but it was a very different kind of kingdom. It was not the one they were seeing now. They were expecting God to bring about what God had promised, but in the meanwhile, they were strangers and aliens, exiles on the earth. Verse 13 is saying that the descendants of Abraham had faith in the promises of God, but realized some of them would not be fulfilled within their lifetime in a normal earthly kingdom. So, Steve, as a follower of Christ, do you ever feel like a stranger or an exile on the earth?

SPEAKER_00: 17:22

I do. And we see Paul over in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 19, he says, So then you, he's talking to the believers there in Ephesus, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and are of God's household. Well, what saints is he talking about? He's talking about these saints here. And we see the consistency of scripture, both Old Testament and the New Testament. Paul at another point tells us as believers that our citizenship isn't here on earth anymore, our citizenship is in heaven. So, yes, I feel very much like a stranger, an alien in this world that we live in that is mostly ungodly. The people who are not believers far outnumber the people who are believers. And there are a lot of ungodly things that are going on across this world. Many things that I really can't understand why people would do that, but they do. There's many wars that are going on, there's many conflicts that are going on, there's people that are accosting others in the street and on subways who are just minding their business. A lot of different types of evil and ungodly things that are going on. So very true that I feel like a stranger and alien many times as I walk through this world, but I'm looking forward to the next world that we're promised.

SPEAKER_01: 18:52

All people start out as a child of the world, but when Christ comes, he regenerates us and he changes us from the inside out. He changes our motivations. And the true Christian never feels at home in the world because he's given a different set of motivations. We as Christians have different desires and we long for a kingdom that's different than the one we see around us on earth. As a child of God, he has put different desires in us. And my friend, I would submit that if you're at home in the world, you really need to question your relationship with the Lord because the Bible clearly says over and over again that God has changed us and that we are strangers and aliens in this world. 1 John 3 1 says, quote, the world does not know us, unquote. 1 Peter 2 11 says we are aliens and strangers in this world. Philippians 3 20 says, quote, our citizenship is in heaven. 2 Corinthians 5 20 says We are ambassadors for Christ. An ambassador is somebody who is a citizen of one country, but is sent to another one as a representative. So as a Christian, we are ambassadors in this world. We are ambassadors of the kingdom of God. We are here on this world, but we are not of it. Our citizenship is in heaven. Our citizenship is under Jesus Christ and not of this world. All of the people in this list in Hebrews 11 were humans. They're fallible humans. They all made mistakes. They all had difficult and challenging circumstances in life, yet they all trusted God and they all looked and longed for him to fulfill his promises. They weren't at home here, just like you and I, my Christian friend, we don't feel at home here. Verse 13, speaking of Abraham's descendants, says, quote, all these died in faith without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance. From a distance, they saw God's promises fulfilled. The next verse, verse 14, anyone who admits their strangers and exiles in this world is admitting that they are seeking their own country, which is with God in heaven. These people anticipated the coming of this new kingdom, but they never really received it fully in their lifetimes. So the question for all of us is will you trust God even if you don't see the fulfillment in your lifetime? That's the question for us. And I think that's the main message here in Hebrews 11. If you don't see it yet in my lifetime, am I still going to trust God?

SPEAKER_00: 21:52

I really feel for people, Glenn, who are not believers, because what do they have forward to look to? Their life is really just spent here on earth with these problems that I mentioned a while ago, where we see that the chaos in the world is really getting worse. It's not getting better. So as they go through their life, what are they looking forward to? They're really just looking forward to the end of their life. And the best that they can hope for is there's nothing after that. There's no afterlife for them. That's the best that they can hope for. But what do we have as believers? We have looking forward to an afterlife with God, an afterlife with a glorified body, an afterlife here serving with Jesus in a messianic kingdom for a thousand years, and then after that, a new heavens and a new earth. And we've mentioned that before. Those are all grand things and greater things to look forward to than just watching a world and decay and a hope of nothing afterwards. So I do feel for people who are not believers, if you're not a believer today, would you consider Jesus? That's what Hebrews says multiple times. Consider Jesus, consider who he is, consider your life and where your life is going. And go with the promises that Jesus has given to us, that belief in him, he will give you eternal life. That he is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one comes to the Father but through him. He is the way to redemption. He is the way to eternal life. He is the way to better things. Consider Jesus. Give your life to Jesus. Believe and trust in him and what he has done and those promises that have been given to us.

SPEAKER_01: 23:49

I am now a follower of Jesus Christ. And as such, he has changed me from the inside out. I have different motivations than what this world expects and desires. My citizenship is in heaven, and frankly, I'm homesick. I'm longing to leave this world and go home back to my country. But the Lord has work for me to do here. So while I'm here, I will trust him and I will go about doing his business. Verse 15 in Hebrews 11 says, and indeed, if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. And of course, they're talking about when Abraham left the land of Ur. And I find this to be very sobering to the Christian. What this is saying here is that if Abraham had left the land of Ur, if he would have then changed his mind and desired to walk away from God and go back to his originally country, back to Ur, abandoning the promised land, God would have let them. And I find that to be quite sobering. The next verse, verse 16, but since they desired a better heavenly country, God has prepared a heavenly city for them. Admittance into God's family is voluntary. This verse seems to be saying that God would have let them go back if they wanted to. Anyone who is satisfied with the things of the world can go back if they want. However, born-again Christian will never be satisfied with what's in the world. There's really no way to go back and be happy again. There's no way the Christian can go back to the ways of the world and then be satisfied. Once you've tasted of the heavenly things, once you've smelled the heavenly incense and the heavenly aroma, you never want to go back. Remember what Jesus told the disciples the night before he died? He said, quote, In my father's house are many rooms. If that were not so, I would have told you. In John 14, 2. God has a place for us, and that place is not here on earth. He is faithful and we can trust him.

SPEAKER_00: 26:08

This verse here does show, I agree with you, Glenn, that Abraham and Isaac and Sarah and Jacob, the ones he's talking about here, had all committed to God because they weren't longing to go back to Ur. If they would, then, like you said, God would have allowed them to have gone back, but they weren't. It shows that they were committed to God and the promises that he had given to them and that their expectations have changed. Everything that you've been talking about, I agree with you. Our citizenship is in heaven as we've been told, and I long for that, even though I never been there. That's a strange way to put it that I my citizenship is in a place that I've never been to, yet it's my home country, and that's where I'm longing to go. The writer of Hebrews is giving this argument to these faithful believers in Judea, and he's telling them basically keep looking forward. Don't be looking back. The looking back for them was going back to all of the sacrifices of Judaism. And there's nothing back there anymore. There's one sacrifice that is sufficient for all, Jesus Christ, the propitiation, the satisfactory sacrifice. For us as believers here in this world, our going back would be going back to worldly ways. And the writer of Hebrews is encouraging us in that regard. Keep looking forward to our citizenship in heaven. Keep looking forward to the new Jerusalem. Keep looking forward to where we're headed, not looking back to the worldly ways once we once were. That just gives me so much more encouragement as well to know that Abraham was committed to God and was not looking to go back to Ur. I am the same way. I'm committed to God. I'm not looking to go back to worldly ways.

SPEAKER_01: 28:01

There was an old allegorical novel titled The Pilgrim's Progress, written by a man named John Bunyan. And in there, the traveler, the Christian, left the city of destruction and he was headed on a path towards the celestial city. And there was never any really going back. There's no way to return once you've started on the path to the celestial city. And that's what Hebrews 11 is trying to get us to realize is stay on the path, keep moving forward, keep your eyes towards the horizon because our redemption is there. We'll stop for today, but we're not through with Hebrews 11. Next time we'll get to the place where God asked Abraham to do a very drastic thing in sacrificing his son. We're going to answer questions on that, and it's going to be another lesson on faith.