Some time ago, I began blogging on our Sunday sermons to help myself review; today, I’m continuing that by covering our Nov. 15 sermon, on Hebrews 11:8-10, by Pastor Peter Kim. You can stream the recording of this service here.

As usual, I won’t summarize the sermon, but will focus on what I take away from it. Our text was Hebrews 11:8-10:

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;

In this sermon, the first of two on this passage, we heard how the first thing God did was to call Abraham out, to leave behind all that he had known. At some level, this illustrates the basis of our relationship with God – we’re called to turn away from our sin, and turn to Christ. We’re not called to add Christ to what we already have, but to turn away from it, or to turn it all over to God.

The world we live in is all about the rat race; about a competition, a striving to get more and better, a constant comparison with one another. That’s the pattern of this world, and it comes naturally to all of us.

Cultural Christianity doesn’t go far beyond this. It takes the same striving after the world, and just adds Christ to it; it seeks to have the world but also have hope and security in Christ at the same time. But James 4:4 tells us that friendship with the world is hostility towards God.

We were reminded of how Jesus taught his disciples that they would be persecuted. In America, we’ve mostly been free from persecution as Christians for quite some time, but P. Peter sees that changing in the relatively near future; we may soon face a time where we may lose jobs, friends, or other things which are important to us because of our faith. That’s exactly the situation the Hebrews were facing, and they were in some ways trying to find the middle ground where they could have both the world and Christ. But the author is reminding them that no, to have Christ they must give up all.

And not only must they – and we – give up all, but we need to see Christ is worth it. Compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ and being with him, everything else is rubbish.

That, indeed, was my main take away from the sermon; I need a constant, daily, moment-by-moment awareness that this is not my home and there is no real satisfaction to be found in the things of the world. Sometimes I may try and find satisfaction in aspects of my work, or my family, and while both work and family are good things that I can enjoy, I need to reject the idea that those will satisfy me, but instead to strive for more of Christ.