Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Rev Mark Duer
Hebrews 11:1-16
August 10, 2025
Hebrews 11:1-3 “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.”
The topic of faith can be somewhat confusing in today’s world. Our culture often uses the word faith without supplying any context. The object of faith can be just about anything.
Some people might think that a strong faith will simply make things turn out their way.
It seems as though the current culture doesn't really care what we believe—just as long as we believe in something—just as long as that belief is sincere. It's as if our culture simply asks us to have faith in faith itself.
Today’s Epistle builds upon the foundation laid by the Holy Gospel from last Sunday.
Last week we heard our Lord tell us where our true riches lie—in heaven. In His parable the Lord said that those who have stored up treasures here on earth but are not rich toward God will be condemned as fools.
The Lord wants His hearers, and all people, to be rich toward Him. That is to say, our Lord wants us to bask in His riches—the gifts He offers through His Means of Grace.
When our Lord comes to us, He brings His riches (gifts) with Him to give to His people. Faith receives these gifts with thankfulness and praise.
Regarding earthly possessions and physical needs, the Lord tells us not to worry. He tells us that our heavenly Father provides for the needs of all His creation. In this example He tells how the Father takes care of the ravens, the lilies, and the grass, and but more importantly how He takes care of the pinnacle of His creation—mankind.
Luke 12:22-23 22Do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. 23For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.
Luke 12:29-31 29And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. 30For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.
He knows everything there is to know about us, He knows our needs, our wants, and our desires. He knows our innermost secrets, including those things we don't even want to tell ourselves, let alone others.
There are times when we take God’s gifts for granted, and we don’t fear, love, and trust in Him above all things.
Why should we come before God and confess our sins to Him? We have sinned against God in thought, word, and deed. In the light of our text, we sin by not trusting in God to provide for all of our needs.
We don't fear, love, and trust in God above all things; to provide all things for us. We want things on our terms, not when God deems it the best time to give these gifts to us.
We get impatient when we don't get the things for which we prayed. We might even think that God is not answering our prayers. But God does in fact answer our prayers.
God will answer our prayers or God will say, No, or, Not yet. We become impatient with God for not giving to us the answer we want, and we seek to take matters into our own hands, taking for ourselves what God has not given us to have.
In our Old Testament reading God promised Abraham offspring. God promised this old man an heir. There would be one coming from Abraham's loins who would be his heir and the father of more descendants than there were stars in the sky.
Abraham was old. Yet he believed the Lord. He trusted the Lord's promise. His wife, Sarah, was also well advanced in years. She had not yet borne any children.
Sarah became desperate and gave Abraham her maidservant Hagar. Abraham heard his wife's cries over the Lord's promise. Sarah thought that perhaps Abraham’s heir would come from Hagar's womb.
Abraham caved in, took Hagar as his wife, His second wife while still married to Sarah, and had a son with Hagar; Ishmael. At that time Abraham was 86 years old, but Ishmael was not the promised heir.
The Lord's promise was going to be fulfilled—but not for another 14 years, until Abraham would be 100 years old: Isaac, whom Sarah would bear at the young age of 90.
The Lord considered Abraham righteous; yet Abraham didn't fully trust in the Lord to provide an heir. In a moment of weakness, Abraham didn't trust God to provide for him. We who are by nature weak also lack trust in God's promises to provide for us.
If God declared Abraham righteous by faith, though the patriarch faltered, how can we who daily sin much and surely deserve nothing by punishment, expect God to provide for us? Remember the ravens.
Remember the lilies. Remember the grass. God provided for them, and He provides for us, just as He has promised in His holy Word—just as He tells us in our text.
Remember that God declared Abraham righteous. The writer to the Hebrews recalls the faith of others who were sinners, just as you and I are: Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and Sarah. Despite their shortcomings and their sinfulness, they still had faith in God, and His promises.
They believed in God, and He declared them righteous for the sake of the Messiah who was to come. God gave them His Holy Spirit, who worked in them saving faith in the long-promised Messiah, and God declared them righteous.
The Lord continues making His declarations of righteousness today. Your name has been written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Your names are written in the ink that is the blood of the Lamb, the long-promised Messiah who has come and taken upon Himself the sins of all mankind—past, present, and future—your sins and mine.
The blood that your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ shed on the cross for you! He wrote your name in heaven, in the book of life. He died on the cross so that your heavenly Father would declare you righteous for His sake.
In the third article of the Creed: What does this mean? “I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord, who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death.”
God gives us His Holy Spirit that we may believe His holy Word, and His Holy promises.
2 Peter 1:3-4 3His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises.
Faith trusts that the Lord will provide even when do don’t always know what is best for us. “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for.”
As disciples of Christ, we will have good days and bad days and times in our life when our faith will be tested. Our Christian life is a long-distance race, and we must stay on the path and finish the race.
Hebrews 12:1-2 “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.”
As we live each day in faith, let us show our faith through the works God gives us—helping our neighbor, and reaching out to bring others to grace to receive God’s precious gifts of life and salvation.
Our God is a gracious, merciful, loving, caring, and giving God, showering us with His good gifts and fulfilling his promises today and for all eternity. Amen.