Audio Sermons

Renewing Our Strength in the Lord:

Looking For Something Better

Life B-P Church Worship Service, 14^th September 2025

Text: Hebrews 11:13-16

• The heroes of faith in Hebrews 11:13-16 didn’t blend into the world around them - they lived as strangers and pilgrims. Their longing for something better shaped how they understood their place in the world and guided how they lived by faith in God’s promises.

1. Dying in Faith

• These ancient saints believed God’s promises through the lens of faith, welcoming and embracing what they had not yet fully received. They trusted in their future fulfilment (Hebrews 11:1; 2 Corinthians 4:18). Faith makes the future present and the invisible visible.
• The beauty of their testimonies is that they died “in faith.” As they lived by faith, so they died in faith – anchored in God’s promises. Faith is not given to help us escape death, but to face it with hope (Job 13:15; 2 Timothy 1:12).
• What sustained these faithful saints were the promises of a faithful God (2 Corinthians 1:20). When fulfilment was delayed, their confidence never wavered. True faith looks beyond the visible, the comfortable, the temporary; it reaches for something better (Hebrews 11:1,20; 1 Peter 1:8-9).

2. Living as Strangers and Pilgrims

• Abraham and his descendants lived in Canaan as strangers and pilgrims - they kept themselves separate from the Canaanites (Genesis 23:4).
• Living as Strangers: A stranger is a foreigner who is from somewhere else; he resides temporarily without citizenship or allegiance to the host society. As Christians we live in this world, but we do not belong to it (Acts 11:26; John 15:19).
• Journeying as Pilgrims: A pilgrim is a sojourner or traveller. Pilgrims don’t settle down; they journey onwards (Hebrews 11:9-10). This world is not our home - heaven is - we are just passing through (Philippians 3:20; John 17:16). Pilgrims keep their eyes on the destination; they avoid detours and distractions (Abraham vs Lot).
• Christians are called to live visibly different lives, marked by conviction not compromise (1 Peter 2:11-12). Our lives should reflect who we are and where we are going.
• Confessing ourselves as "strangers and pilgrims" on earth must challenge us to focus on our eternal home and loosen our grip on worldly things (Colossians 3:2; Matthew 6:19-21; Philippians 1:21).

3. Longing for Heaven

• These ancient saints weren’t just escaping the past; they were pursuing something better. Abraham had every opportunity to return to Ur of the Chaldees, but he never did. His faith pressed forward, not backward (Philippians 3:13-14). Faith makes a clean break with the old life.
• These saints yearned for something better. The better country is heaven: “a better country, that is, a heavenly one” (Hebrews 11:16; Philippians 1:23). Heaven was not a vague idea or a sentimental bonus. It was the destination that shaped their every decision. Faith changes how we live today because of what we believe about tomorrow. Heaven is not a myth; it is a prepared place for a prepared people (Revelation 21; John 14:2-3). Our longing for heaven is reflected in our worship here on earth!
• These ancient heroes of faith weren’t perfect but they honoured God by their faith, and God honoured them (Hebrews 11:6). When we live by faith, and long for God’s better promises, He delights to call us His own (Psalm 73:25–26).

Discussion Questions

1. How does the promise of a heavenly country help us to keep our faith, even when we don’t see our hopes fulfilled immediately?

2. In what ways do you feel like a “stranger” and “pilgrim” in this world? Where is the balance between being distinct from the world, and yet relating to the world enough to be a witness?

3. What does it mean (practically) to “seek those things which are above” (Colossians 3:1-4)? How can we develop a deeper desire for heaven?