Faith and Suffering: Embracing God's Promises

We are often tempted to forge God's signature on promises He never made, seeking assurance that if we do our part, God must respond in kind. This mindset is rooted in a misunderstanding of the covenants found in the Bible. The Old Covenant, made with ancient Israel, was a national contract with specific blessings and curses based on the nation's obedience. However, as followers of Christ, we are part of a New Covenant, one that promises eternal life and fellowship with God, not necessarily a life free from trials. [00:01:24]

We are all tempted to jump to conclusions about God based on our circumstances or really our ability or inability to interpret circumstances and to kind of try to line up our circumstances with the existence or the presence or the faithfulness of God, positive circumstances and negative our circumstances and other people's circumstances. I mean, your, your faith may have taken its biggest hit not because of something that happened to you, but because of something that happened to someone. [00:04:14]

The old covenant, the covenant between God and ancient Israel was not an arrangement or a contract or a covenant between God and individuals. This is so important. It was a covenant or contract between God and an entire nation, the nation of Israel. And when Israel's leaders and who set the direction, when Israel's leaders got it right, when they were faithful to God, when they kept his commands, God blessed the entire nation. [00:08:40]

But us new covenant people, I'll explain what I mean in a minute. Those of us who aren't part of that national contract between God and ancient Israel, those of us who actually accepted God's invitation to participate in the covenant that Jesus established, we don't look to circumstances to determine where we stand with God. Lemme say that again. We don't look to circumstances to determine where we stand with God. [00:11:19]

Jesus and the Apostle Paul, in particular, Jesus and the Apostle Paul in particular are very clear about the relationship between God's covenant with Israel and God's covenant with the human race through Jesus. Jesus made this so clear during this final Passover. We've looked at this passage many times, and if you grew up in church, this is, these are the verses that the preacher often used when they were serving communion. [00:14:00]

The author of Hebrews going back to Hebrews, the author of Hebrews, speaks directly to the issue of how new covenant people know that God is with us. He speaks directly to this issue because he knew he had many people in his Jewish audience. In fact, the reason it's called the book of Hebrews is because it was written to Jewish Christians and he knew he was talking to a group of people that were accustomed to looking at circumstances to determine if God was with him. [00:22:30]

Therefore, since now, he now he asks us to use our imagination. He says, now therefore, since we are all surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, he says, imagine somewhere in heaven are all these people I just listed who were faithful, faithful, faithful. Some of them submitted, all of them sinned, all of them were unfaithful at times, but they maintained their faith in God. [00:28:06]

He says, and let us run, run with perseverance. The race marked out for each of us. So let's talk about this. See, right now you might be in the se the section of the race. That's the downhill section. It's the easy section. It's the wrinkle-free section. Everybody's in school, everybody's dating somebody you like, you know, you got a bonus. Things are good. [00:29:51]

Peter, the apostle Paul, John who brought us, the story we talked about last week, would say to you, okay, before you panic, before you hit, eject, before you hit, I don't believe, I just want you to look at the promise God made Abraham. And I want you to imagine all the details that happened between Abraham throughout the story of Moses and the ancient Israelites in the Old Testament, all the way to Bethlehem. [00:32:35]

You just fix your eyes. Make sure you're looking in the right direction. He says, lemme just say it for you. The race marked out for you, regardless of what that race looks like, fixing, focusing your eyes, not on your circumstances, not on the person who hurt you, not on the doctors who just don't seem to cooperate and don't seem to care as much as you think they ought to care. Fixing your eyes on Jesus. [00:33:35]

And let us run with perseverance. The race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the leader and the completer, the author and the perfecter of our faith. He's the reason we can have confidence. The author's point is, fix your eyes on Jesus and not on your circumstances, not preacher talk. This is how you lean in and experience the power and the presence of God in the midst of circumstances you didn't choose. [00:35:55]

Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence. And why can you approach God's throne of grace with confidence? Don't miss this because what has he just told us? Because sitting next to your heavenly Father is the Son who endured such opposition and such pain. He knows, he feels that he felt it. And he's there seated by the Father interceding for you because he cares. [00:37:24]